• Published 30th Mar 2012
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World of Ponycraft - Capn_Chryssalid



MLP meets World of Warcraft ... the MMO. Forget Worgen. Alliance has Ponies.

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Chapter Ten

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(10)
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My first memory, as I emerged from my shell, was not the face of my broodmother, but that of a small, juvenile pony, with ruby red eyes and two toned, light and dark purple hair. Years later, the fuzzy memories of that day would make more sense: the broken shards of my egg, cut into neat near-squares, the strange light that gently wrapped me in its glow, the sounds of voices and clomp-clomp cheering. I had not been hatched, alongside dozens of my brood brothers and sisters, in a sequestered cave or other deep, dark place. I was born in the glow of a unicorn's horn.

Her name was Night Sky.

- - -

"You guys will forgive me for living on clouds all my life, but... seriously, what on Celestia's good, green Equestria is that thing?"

Rainbow Dash's question aside, the six Ponyville mares were staring at a creature none of them had seen before. It was long and sinewy, like a segmented worm, but half of it reared up like a cobra as it moved. Strange mouthparts cleaned themselves as an eyeless head pecked at a rock, breaking away bits to eat. It didn't really conform to any known class of animal. It was, to put it simply, weird as all heck.

As was her tendency since getting the spell, Twilight tried to use some of her new magical repertoire to classify what she was seeing. "My identify spell says... that it's an 'Everfree Burrower.'"

"Ugh. Like a giant earthworm?" Rarity asked, her nose crinkling in distaste.

"We don't have anthin' like that under Ponyville, do we?" Applejack, not normally disturbed by down to earth grossness, also seemed rather put off by the huge, blind rockworm.

"I don't think we do." Twilight turned to their resident animal expert. "Fluttershy?"

The quiet pegasus druid was peering at the creature, clearly having never seen one before. Encountering a new form of animal life, some of her timidity appeared to recede in favor of curiosity. Without a word, she morphed into her druidic kitty form. Her friends had all seen the transformation and its results numerous times, but Twilight still found it strange to behold: but not because of the physical metamorphosis itself or because of the magic involved. Fluttershy's "kitty" form was lithe and vaguely leonid, with some rather formidable looking teeth and claws one wouldn't normally associate with Fluttershy of all ponies.

The druid entered stealth, vanishing before Twilight's eyes.

She was scouting ahead again, clearly. Fluttershy, despite being the jumpiest and most demure of their band, was also the only one who could stealth in any fashion. Ponies in general were ill suited for rogue-like activity, but Fluttershy in her cat form could turn invisible and stalk ahead with relative impunity. As long as she didn't get too close to another creature or run into something capable of seeing through her stealth, she was safe.

The cave they had been traveling through had wound around itself and then descended until it connected with a series of caverns and grottos. The only light to see by was provided by the cantrip-glow of Rarity and Twilight's horns. Condensation and groundwater dropped from the ceiling and along the walls. This curious annelid was the first sign of life they'd encountered so far.

Fluttershy stalked back to the group, dropping out of stealth and returning to her normal pony form. Lowing her head slightly, she glanced back at the grotto.

"I don't think... most of them are bad... as long as we don't scare them," she reported in a hushed voice. "But we should be careful. I saw a-" her voice dropped to a near whisper. "-a dead body."

"A cultpony?" Twilight asked. It must have been further to the back of the cavern.

Fluttershy looked down at her hooves. "I don't know... it was just... bones."

"Okay." Twilight decided, now comfortable in her role as party lead. "Stick together. No AOE. Let's just try and slip by without a fight."

Fortunately, the Everfree Burrowers seemed to be non aggressive, concerned more with eating rocks and digging holes than attacking ponies. The six mares still kept their distance from the critters, though, not wanting to press their luck. Twilight even managed to get a closer look at the odd beasts as they passed by one in single file, Rainbow Dash and Applejack ready to shoot forward and intervene if anything turned hostile and attacked.

Fluttershy took the lead, marking a few of the more hostile worms - "Maddened Burrowers" - in their path. She even used a druidic spell to hibernate two of them that were too close for comfort. It made for slow, cautious going as the group snuck through one grotto, down a curve and into another.

"You know, this would be a lot faster if we just..." Dash started to argue, but faltered at the plaintive look on Fluttershy's face. "...never mind."

No one else seemed to object to the pace set by the animal lover, though Rarity did squeak in discomfort as they passed through a slimy, lichen covered crack in the wall.

"This whole adventure has been simply ghastly," she declared, keeping her voice low. "When we get back home, I for one intend to spend a long day in the spa helping my body forget what it's been put through. You're all free to join me of course. Rainbow, when was the last time you cut or styled your mane?"

"I dunno." The pegasus paladin shrugged. "A couple years ago?"

"Years!?"

"Oh! Look! Fishies!" Pinkie Pie suddenly pointed down to a pool of water several meters below them as they crossed over a rocky bridge. Sure enough something seemed to be churning the waters in a pool nearby. There were other fish visible beneath the surface with glowing bodies, identified as "Everfree Frenzies." They didn't look like friendly goldfish.

"Please don't fall in," Fluttershy suggested, still leading them across the slightly slippery viaduct. "It would probably be... bad."

"I bet there's a Lurker Below down there! Or Gahz'rilla! Oh! Or Gahz'ranka! I wonder if that hydra we keep running into has a name too? If not, I think we should call him Gahz'Pinka! Somepony here has to have some fishing skill, right?" Pinkie popped out ahead of their druidic pointpony. "What about you, Fluttershy? I bet you can fish, can't'ya!"

"Um..." said pegasus shrunk back a bit in the face of the excitable earth pony.

"What if that pool has a super rare pet in it?" Pinkie asked, wiggling her eyebrows. "Like a Mister Pinchy! Or a Giant, smelly rat? Or an ooze!"

"Oozes aren't cute. Or animals. They're... blobs."

"What about big, stinky cave rats?"

Actually tempted, Fluttershy did look back at the mysterious pool.

Seeing the druid waver in her determination to just keep leading them forward, Applejack spoke up from the back: "Ya'll ain't really gonna stop and fish in some strange underground cave on the off chance that there's something in the water, are'ya?"

"Well... um..."

"Do it!" Pinkie Pie gave a supportive cheer, grabbing Fluttershy and turning her ninety degrees so she faced the mysterious fishing node. Then, nibbling on her lower lip, she adjusted the pegasus a little to the left. ...and then a little to the right.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash both seemed about to object -

"What if there's some poor animal trapped down there?" Fluttershy wondered aloud, looking at her bemused friends with wide eyes. "Like... a magical crawdad? I've... um... always wanted a magical crawdad..."

"I don't even know that animal IS."

"Ahlright, geez."

"Ugh! Fishing is so... bad for the skin!"

"Okay. Fine." Twilight sat down. "But we're only stopping for a few minutes. Sometimes it seems like everything is trying to side track us."

"Hey, is that an Archaeology node over there?" Dash asked with a grin.

"Where!?" Twilight started frantically looking around... only to catch on at around the same time Applejack and Raindow Dash started to falter in holding back their snickers and giggles. The unicorn fixed the two with a stare.

"Hey now," she remanded them in a lecturing tone. "Archaeology is serious business."

"I totally agree, Twilight darling! Troll artifacts have become quite popular as ornamentation this year. Would you like me to procure one for you?"

Level stare finding a widely smiling Rarity, Twilight hrumphed.

Fluttershy, meanwhile, had somehow fitted on a fishing hat with hooks and loops of wire in it and was now holding a strange looking fishing pole between her legs. How she even held onto the device was anypony's guess. Pinkie Pie was all but bouncing in place next to her.

"Come on Lurker Below!" Her eyes never left the bobber in the water. "Come on giant pony-eating hydra boss!"

"sssh." Fluttershy gently admonished her friend. "please don't scare the fish."

"oh!" Pinkie turned it down a notch, but still bounced. Just in little bounces and not big ones. "come on optional mini-boss!"

Twilight couldn't help but roll her eyes.

As if some giant monster waited in the churning waters below to be fished up like a common trout or murglesnout. Even if there was some monster down there... wait, why the heck were they doing this?!

"oh. a nibble." Fltutershy whispered. "come on big smelly rat pet. I mean... cute little mousey..."

Instead, a fish emerged from the pool at the end of the line. Pulling it up, Fluttershy deftly removed the hook with her hooves. Again, exactly HOW she managed this, Twilight couldn't quite piece together. The filly clearly had some serious skills.

"Hey! I know that fish!" Pinkie Pie stuck her neck out to get a closer look at the catch. It was mostly yellowish in color, with red streaks that seemed to shift in the light. Big blue, but probably blind, eyes dominated the head. Like any fish out of water, it was gasping for water but otherwise not struggling or moving much.

"I'm sorry, little fishie..." Fluttershy began to say, ready to throw it back.

"Wait! Deviate Fish! I love Deviate Fish!" Pinkie suddenly grabbed the freshly caught fish out of Fluttershy's hooves and flipped it up in the air -

And right into her mouth.

With a look of shock, her friends could only watch as the pink party pony caught the small fish in her mouth with an audible 'snap'! Swallowing the magical fish whole, Pinkie Pie's lips puckered and her whole body began to vibrate, sparks shooting out of her coat and mane and tail. Blue eyes became wide as excitable saucers.

"Oh! Oh!" she gasped. "This was a good one! Is it? It is! The Party Time debuff! Eeeeee!!"

A second later, and the zanky pink pony started laughing hysterically, followed by randomly cheering, clapping her hooves, bouncing, dancing at imagined music, and then strutting around clucking like a chicken. The random Deviate-spawned emotes continued for a minute, and then with a WOOSH! they came to a climax. And Pinkie Pie shrunk down, down, down until she became small enough to perch on a pony's nose.

She then started laughing again and bounced around, trailing sparkly light in her tiny wake.

By the time the magical debuff wore off, another minute or so later, Pinkie Pie's friends were still staring at her, slack jawed. The shaman grew back to her normal size, still grinning madly from her little trip down the rabbit hole. She immediately fell on Fluttershy.

"Oh! Catch another! Please?" Pinkie Pie deployed puppy dog eyes. "Please?"

"Hold up one apple pickin' second!" Applejack intervened. "Ya'll didn't just eat a fish whole, didya?" She pointed at the party pony. "Please yell me Ah was imagin'in that!"

"Huh?" Pinkie Pie inquired, cocking her head in (apparent) confusion. "Oh. Yeah. I guess I did?"

"Gross!" Dash exclaimed, but then a second later: "I wanna try the next one."

Rarity shuddered. "Eating an animal is barbaric enough, but eating one live?!" She gave Dash a wary look. "What are you, one quarter griffin?"

"Pops did always joke there was a little dragon in my mom's side," the chromatic paladin replied with a thoughtful look. "Usually when she started yelling about him not mowing the clouds outside."

The ret pally shook her head. "Anyway," she continued. "Everyone else eats fish, and all the best stat food is... you know... meaty or fishy. I was in AV a week ago, and ate this Fish Feast someone dropped..."

Rarity seemed about to object again -

"I don't mean dropped-dropped!" Dash quickly cut off any insinuation that she ate food thrown on the ground. "I meant he set it up in the area where we were waiting. Everypon- everyone else was eating and getting the food buff, so I thought I'd try it, too. Eating some fish or, you know, whatever... won't kill you guys."

She even laughed as a thought came to her. "I guess there aren't a lot of high level vegetarians outside Equestria?"

"Not yet," Fluttershy spoke up. She recast a few times before hitting the churning pool.

"Oh boy! More crazy deviate fish!"

"Pinkie Pie, you really shouldn't eat some poor fish just for amusement," the usually-timid pegasus told her, causing the later to back away a bit.

"But..." the party lover tried to argue. "But it was fun."

"It wasn't fun for the poor fish."

Not quite sad, but chastened, Pinkie Pie sat and quietly watched as Fluttershy continued fishing. The rest of what she caught, she released, except for an old weathered chest that she caught. After a minute or so, the churning pool of Everfree Deviate Fish dispersed. Fluttershy then opened the box she had hooked and trawled from the water.

Inside, they found a few bits of junk: tangled hooks and line, bright baubles ...and three flasks.

"Can I see those?" Twilight asked, and carefully levitated them over to where she was now standing. As usual, her trusty identify spell started searching and scanning. A moment later, and she knew what they had found.

"Elixir of Water Walking," she told her friend. "Lasts ten minutes. Kinda useless in here."

"At least we got something out of all this," Rainbow Dash said, back to her 'let's get going' mode.

Fluttershy efficiently packed up her fishing gear, took off her fishing hat, and poofed back into kitty form. Soon the six mares were back on their way. There were more marked hostile Burrowers in the grotto ahead. What difference there was between an "Everfree Burrower" and a "Maddened Burrower" wasn't clear. Fluttershy dutifully marked the potentially hostile rockworms and led them around. It probably would have been easier just to kill a few of the ones in the way, but the druid wanted them to get through with a minimum of fauna-related casualties.

At last, the rock walls broke, and the normal cave decor became marked by something foreign: mining supports!

This was where the natural network of caves ended, meeting up with the artificial dig that had been hinted at in Voidhorn's letter to Blood Diver. From the information provided by Ice Breaker and the letter, there were supposed to be pony slaves kept in these tunnels. What they soon saw was not wholly what they had expected.

"Diamond Dogs?" Rarity breathed, seeing the familiar Equestrian canines. There were several in the tunnel, digging away at the walls with claws and pickaxes. A few, exhausted from their work, were lying on the ground. They were also chained to color coded metal balls by crudely painted iron chains and shackles.

"Not just them," Twilight remarked, dimming the light from her horn so as not to attract attention. She motioned with a hoof towards the back.

A cream colored pegasus pony, a young mare, was also shackled to one of the ball-and-chains by her left hindleg. She had a pick axe hanging limply from her mouth, and her side was hard against a wall as she caught her breath. Soot, grime and sweat mingled with dust and her coat to give it a grainy appearance. There were also marks on her side and flank.

"Keep working! Keep digging, you scum!"

The voice, disgustingly, belonged to another pony who trotted into view. The six Mares of Harmony ducked out of sight. Rarity and Twilight killed their horn glow. This new pony was quickly identified by Twilight's spell as a "Cultist Taskmaster." The other chained slaves, Diamond Dogs and pony alike, were all labeled as "Beaten Drudges." The purple robed Taskmaster was a unicorn, and he sported both a rather nasty looking whip and no apparent hesitation in its application.

He lashed away at an exhausted Diamond Dog and then at another, before turning to the pegasus pony. "You!" he snarled. "Back to work! Deeper! Dig Deeper! If there are more artifacts out here, you will find them!"

Even before he finished with his second sentence, he had started wailing on her.

Twilight's horn blazed a radiant white, bright enough to turn the dark cave into a strobe light. She didn't speak, except to jump out of cover and offer herself as a target. The other five mares, who had all been watching the offensive scene in varying shades of agitation, waiting only for marks to go out and the order to intervene, jumped out to their friend and leader's side. The Taskmaster pivoted, eyes wide, at the sudden appearance of five rather heavily armored and armed ponies.

"Intruders!" he growled, whip lashing at those nearby. "Assist me, slaves! Or face my wrath!"

Amazingly, the beaten Diamond Dogs, instead of seeing the situation was to their advantage, obeyed the order. With groans of pain and distress, they forced themselves forward to actually protect their abuser. The beaten pegasus mare cried, but also forced herself to her feet, afraid to disobey. With broken, dirty paws and meager pick axes, they charged.

"I'll get these guys!" Rainbow Dash rushed forward, not needing an order or a target. "Take out that other jerk!"

"Go!" Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie rushed forward behind Applejack's charging form. Dash's Avenger's Shield hit the charging group of slaves, bouncing from one to another. They turned to engage her and ran right into her Consecrate.

"I'm sorry!" the whipped pegasus pony cried, swinging her pick axe and dragging her ball and chain behind her. One or two of the other Diamond Dogs seemed to mutter or whimper something similar. A shield of light helped the rainbow maned pegasus to weather their feeble but numerous attacks.

"Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!" The Taskmaster cried, whipping the backs of the slaves (especially the one that didn't move) right up until Applejack charged into him, slamming her head right into his chest. Stunned, he gasped, and a second later her shield and barded upper body were in his face. Like all the elite cultponies, unnatural power enhanced the unicorn's constitution and powers.

Aside from his shadow infused whip, which somehow managed to tear bloody wounds right through armor, his horn glowed to cast a new spell: "Cripple." Twilight interrupted it before he could finish the spellwork. She didn't particularly want to see the effects of a spell like that on any of her friends. Four to one, it wasn't long before the vile Taskmaster let out one last curse and fell back, the sickly light from his black horn fading.

Their handler dead, the Slaves immediately gave up, dropping their weapons and shying away from their saviors - saviors they had, moments ago, been attacking, albeit half heartedly. No longer being swarmed by them, Dash shook her head and mane. Between her armor and Light gifted paladin protection, not to mention Fluttershy's skillful druidic healing, she was as good as new, despite the melee.

"What going on out there?" A cruder voice inquired, in patchwork Equestria, from back the way the Taskmaster had come. "Stupid slaves fight back? Dumb-dumb slaves no learn!"

Rightly, this was no pony that emerged to investigate. It was a Diamond Dog... but in the same black and purple robe that all the Twilight Cultists wore. The humanoid creature wore the attire as crudely as it spoke Common, and like the cultponies, its coat was dyed a shade of blackish-gray by evil energies. It saw the gaggle of slaves, and more importantly the six well equipped pony intruders!

As stupid as his speech seemed to indicate, the dog did the smart thing.

It turned and tried to run.

"Applejack!" Twilight ordered, already casting a Slow spell. The Diamond Dog Taskmaster's frantic Dash was immediately reduced to a crawl. Applejack charged again, taunting the creature and forcing it to fight her rather than escape and get reinforcements. A distinctly unladylike reference to the Taskmaster's mother and her promiscuous lifestyle choices did the trick, and the slave handler turned to fight the apple farmer. He fared no better than the unicorn slavemaster that had fallen less than a minute earlier.

When he, too, fell... and no other cultists emerged from around the corner, Twilight increased the natural cantrip glow of her horn to normal levels. Dash and Fluttershy were already moving to check on the beaten pegasus pony they had saved. Applejack was eying the bend, wary of another Taskmaster coming to check on things. Pinkie Pie was content to trot up to be next to Twilight, and Rarity... Rarity was heading towards the Diamond Dogs.

Horn glowing, back in her Discipline Priest spec, the alabaster Element of Generosity started to heal them with quick flashes of light. She went about it with her usual precision, the blasts of healing light moving from the closest of the canine slaves to the one farthest away. The spate of rapid fire healing quickly drained her energy, but only once she was done did she stop and gingerly find a somewhat clan place to sit and drink to replenish her mana.

The now freed Diamond dogs all shied away from her.

One, however, was watching her with careful eyes set into a pug-like face. The one slave who hadn't moved when the Taskmaster had demanded they attack, he had suffered more for that fact than the others. Seeing him, Rarity stood back up and started to cast another healing spell. To her surprise, the Diamond Dog lifted his arms, and a dark, brown healing energy rose up from the earth to mend his wounds. He barked something at the other Drudge slaves in a low guttural tongue. They shuffled uneasily amongst themselves.

"You healed them," he then said, in accented but understandable Equestrian. The question was clearly directed at the group's fashion conscious priest.

"It would have been most improper not to," Rarity replied, giving the canine a cautious look. "I trust that isn't a problem?"

The Diamond Dog grunted. Literally. "You. Are you here for the treasures, too? Or have you come to stop Night Sky?" He snorted, twice, seeing they didn't recognize the name. "The one who calls herself Voidhorn."

"Treasure does sound nice," Rarity admitted with a little glow in her eyes.

"But we're here for Voidhorn," Twilight confirmed, trotting up with Pinkie Pie close by. The party pony looked curious at what the Diamond Dog had done: it appeared to be some sort of elemental magic.

"Her underlings made mistakes. Capturing ponies is risky." The gritty Diamond Dog smirked, showing teeth. "Ponies always have too many friends who come looking for them."

"Who are you, you old mutt?" Pinkie asked, trotting right up to the chained dog. She stopped only to get a close look at the shackle on his leg. Like all the others it was heavy, but not so heavy he couldn't move. It was tightly secured, and quite heavily locked.

"Like yourself, young pony, I am a shaman of my people," the old dog replied. "I am Rex, a Geomancer of the Rustpaw Pack." He fixed his eyes on Twilight. "To get to Voidhorn, you will need to reach the upper stairs. I believe there to be ten more Taskmasters wandering the mines between you and the subbasement."

"However," he warned. "Unless you wish to risk being attached from behind as well as in front, you would be wise to clear the mines. I can aid you, so long as you free those enslaved here. I have no reward to give you... but..."

"Of course we'll help," Rarity answered, accepting the quest on behalf of her friends.

"That's right." Twilight nodded, agreeing as well. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. To my right is Rarity, and the pink pony poking you is Pinkie Pie. And wow, that sentence was hard to properly pronounce." She coughed, composing herself again. "How long have you all been down here? Sir?"

She tacked on that last bit with some unease. It was hard to separate these Diamond Dogs from the ones that had kidnapped Rarity months ago. They all looked mostly the same. This one had a collar, and he spoke Equestrian, so he was a bit more ponyish and relatable than the others. Still, those dogs had hardly been the kind of creatures good ponies associated with.

"The Rustpaw were hired to dig here three of your months ago," Rex answered easily. He sat down on his haunches, back to the rock wall. "We were promised gems and gold to use as trade, so long as the artifacts we unearthed went to Night Sky... the unicorn who now calls herself Voidhorn. Our Chieftan, Gull, agreed to her terms. Before long, some members of the Pack became enthralled by her, including Gull himself."

The old dog frowned, his lips curling in a wordless growl. "The betrayers joined her growing cult. The rest of us who refused to abandon the old ways ended up as we are now. Soon I noticed more of your kind - ponies - being brought in to labor. Replacements for those of the Rustpaw who died. This brought hope. No other pack would care what happens to Rustpaw, but missing ponies always lead to search parties." He held out a clawed hand. "And here you are."

"Your... pack dug all this?" Twilight asked, looking around at the hewn rock walls.

"Much of it, yes," Rex replied with a measure of pride. "We found strange things, buried. In vaults. Sometimes, in deep places... I have heard that there are great halls from the dark times. We found one, and we gave what we found to Voidhorn and her servants." He huffed, angrily. "Rustpaw never did find any gems or gold, either. Typical."

"You ponies..." He stared at Twilight with something akin to accusation. "You ponies built this place over bad energy. Bad magic. It has seeped into the ground. Poisonous magic. ...Old magic."

Pinkie Pie looked around with bright blue eyes. "It smells funny in here, too!"

"Yes, I don't imagine they have the best facilities down here," Rarity explained with an elegant degree of tolerance for the abominable conditions. To Rex, she curtly added, "You know, dear, it really would help your image if you Diamond Dogs washed occasionally. And cut your nails. And if you had a little grooming. And a breathmint or two. Perhaps after we leave this place?"

The aged canine shaman just grunted. "I will show you the way to the Vault we found, if only to help you defeat Gull and free the Rustpaw. If we are fortunate, one of the Taskmasters will have my fire fetish from when I was first captured."

"A Fire Fetish?" Twilight asked, "Like one of Pinkie Pie's totems?"

"Yes," Rex replied with a snort and a nod. "You would call it a Charm. Without it, my command of flame is limited, and without it, you will find defeating Gull to be ...difficult. Among our kind, he was known as Gull the Unbreakable."

- - -

The mined out shafts soon became mixed with the remains of ancient stonework. The excavation efforts of the Diamond Dogs and over a dozen captured ponies had run into ruins and structures buried beneath Luna's castle. It was as if the fallen structure was itself built on the rubble of even older works. Twilight was simply fascinated: from what little she could see of it, the architecture here was completely different than anything in Equestria.

The walls that had been dug out were monolithic and huge, yet finely wrought with intricate lines and grooves that ran from ceiling to floor. Strange looking geometric shapes occasionally split from similarly colored lines. They looked almost like cut gemstones, but a closer examination revealed some sort of metal set into the walls, like electrical wire. Despite untold ages, it was cool to the touch, and completely dirt-free. Sadly, much of the original structure beyond the walls themselves had been destroyed in the cave-in that collapsed the ruin.

Amid what many would consider the archaeological find of their lifetime, brutal Twilight Cultist Taskmasters whipped and beat their captured slaves. After defeating more than half a dozen of the evil creatures, Twilight Sparkle felt she could say at least this about the so called Twilight Cult: it was equal opportunity. Keeping count, four Taskmasters had been ponies, two male and two female, three had been Diamond Dogs, and one had been a griffin. A griffin of all things!

The cult, it seemed, was not picky about who or what it indoctrinated.

"Unbelievable! A griffon, too?" Dash voiced Twilight's thoughts, leaning down to get a look at the Taskmaster they had just finished off. She had been in the process of lashing an exhausted Earth pony slave when the six intruders had made their presence known. Her companion, another slave handler, was a Diamond Dog and he had watched the beating of the pony slave with a hearty laugh. Twilight had just marked the two and brought them down as soon as possible.

She had known the Twilight Cultists were bad ponies. Bad people. That much had been driven home by their treatment of their captives and Catnip's cruel mutation of local Manticores as fodder to attack the Royal Guard. They had broken into unicorn tombs and looted them with reckless abandon, showing no respect for the deceased. Now, at last, she was seeing just what those captured ponies were being subjected to, and it was starting to make her blood boil ...and if what she heard from Rainbow Dash was accurate, there were other branches of the Twilight Cult doing the same or worse around the world!

"I just don't understand... why would anypony do this?" she wondered aloud, while Fluttershy and Rarity healed the newly freed slaves.

Dash, still hovering over the fallen griffin, carefully parted some of the dead Taskmaster's feathers, as if looking for something beneath. She looked up at the unicorn with russet eyes that betrayed sadness and righteous anger.

"I've been asking myself that since we fought Highdiver," the paladin didn't use his fallen name, Blood Diver. Her hoof glowed with Holy Light, but recoiled. "There's something... wrong with them, Twilight. Like they're becoming... wrong... like part of them isn't even alive anymore."

"Yes, I noticed something similar when I used my Mind Flay spell." Rarity, looking tired but satisfied with the good she was doing, sat and tried to fix her hair, momentarily removing her new priestly circlet in the process. The magic from it dimmed when out of contact with its master.

After a moment or two of preening, the unicorn priest explained, "As I said before, when I use my Shadowform I can not use Holy Light spells. Princess Luna's power, the Light of the Moon, and Princess Celestia's, the Light of the Sun... the same power you use, Rainbow... are actually very similar. But they are spiritual opposites. When I use my Discipline spec, my focus is really inward, towards my own sense of being, but when I go Shadow, a part of me enters the mind of what I'm... dealing with."

"The minds of these cultists," the Element of Generosity continued, frowning at the fallen Griffin and Diamond Dog. "It is like a miasma flows through them. Poisoning them. They don't think about their families or friends. They don't regret their deeds. They just want to hurt others. I don't really understand it myself, admittedly, and I hate to say it... but it may truly be for their own good that we... you know." She coughed, politely. "Stop them."

"You did seem pretty quick to help out that Rustpaw guy, all things considered," Dash observed, trotting away from the fallen Taskmasters. She craned her neck left and right, working out the kinks from the fight.

"I don't hold a grudge against Diamond Dogs, if that's what your insinuating," Rarity sounded a little insulted. "While those who captured me were crude and uncouth in the extreme, not to mention foreign to the concept of sanitation, I never felt as if I was in any real physical danger. With some training their company was actually quite bearable. These fiends are entirely different."

"I'll take your word for it. Hey, Pinkie Pie. Catch!" Dash's left wing flexed, tossing over a small wooden charm she'd found on the griffin's corpse. The pink pony was about to catch it in her mouth, but Rarity's magic intercepted the oval shaped woodcut.

"Hey!" Pinkie groused. "I was gonna get it!"

"Going to get sugary drool over it perhaps," Rarity replied, holding the strange charm up for all to see. "Do you suppose this is the 'fetish' we were supposed to find?"

"I bet it is!" Pinkie cocked her head as she examined it. "Oooo-ooooh! It's different from how I learned to make my totems."

"Where did you learn to make those things anyway?" Dash asked, heading over to round up Applejack and Fluttershy.

"I learned it from a guy I know," Pinkie answered, eyes half lidded, evasively adding a question of her own, "Where did you learn to be a Ret Pally?"

"Paladin Camp, obviously!" Dash chuckled, tail swaying. "Best camp in the world!"

"Better than band camp?" Pinkie asked.

The pegasus stuck out her tongue in disgust. "You went to band camp? Sounds lame."

"Where'd you think I learned to sing and dance and play so many instruments?" Pinkie Pie giggled as a private joke. "Plus, this one time at band camp..."

"Regardless, girls, this charm is clearly incomplete. There seem to be some gems missing." Rarity rotated the charm and closed one eye to get a closer look. "Pried loose. Rather crudely no less! Honestly, wasn't there even one proper jewelcrafter among these ruffians?"

"Oh! Maybe that's what these are for!" Pinkie emptied a pocket in one of her bags and a few 'chipped gems' fell out into her hoof. "I found them on two of the bad guys we took down in the other room!"

"I also looted... ah... I also picked up a 'chipped gem.'" Twilight levitated a small piece of ruby out and floated it to other unicorn. "Do you think you can put the fetish back together, Rarity?"

"I believe so..." The priest answered with a smile. She was already starting to see how it would come back together. "Yes! Yes. I can definitely fix this up!"

"I bet Rainbow has some pieces, too," Twilight reasoned, already picking up the pace to head over and see. "She loots basically everything that isn't nailed down after all."

A minute later, and all six mares were together again, the others sitting or standing around to watch Rarity slowly put Rex Rustpaw's Fire Fetish back together. The fashionista wasn't just a tailor; she was also a skillful jewelcrafter, and reassembling a magical charm wasn't far removed from making idols or figurine trinkets. Six pieces of ruby slowly coasted through the air, and one by one Rarity found their appropriate slot and delicately re-inserted them.

Finally, the last piece locked in place, and the charm burst with living flame.

"Done!" Rarity announced, proudly. "I must say, I had thought the fetish to be rather crudely designed at first, but there was a remarkably complex design underneath! With some modifications for more sophisticated sensibilities, something similar could be quite a fashionable addition to-"

"To what?"

"Ah!" Rarity jumped, surprised by the sudden appearance of the Geomancer Diamond Dog. He had appeared literally out of thin air right behind her!

She whirled on the canine and pointed an accusing hoof. "Where did you come from? You weren't there a moment ago!"

"Wasn't I?" Rex inquired with a toothy grin. "Anyway, you've completed the quest I gave you. The ranks of Taskmasters have been broken and most of the slaves are free. Hand over the fetish and I will take you to the vault to confront Gull."

"I wish I could appear out of nowhere with a big yellow exclamation mark over my head." Pinkie Pie gave the NPC a jealous look. "I'd be like: re-ak! And then: dun-dun-dun-dun-dun!" She popped up behind Dash, arms around and behind her head. "Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Press triangle for sleeper hold! That's what I'd be like!"

"You're already like that," said pegasus commented, flexing her wings to get the crazy earth pony off her back.

"Oh yeah!" A second later and Pinkie was back next to the questgiver.

Rarity had already handed over the reassembled charm, and the Diamond Dog attached it to a loop of string to put it around his neck. Once in place, he exhaled, a few flicks of fire in his breath. Holding his ball he was still shackled to in his left hand, a measure of elemental strength reinvigorated him. And with a blast of ethereal fire, the energy flowed through him and out, down into the halls.

Immediately followed by the sound of voices, yelling -

"The spirit of fire will restore hope and courage to the downtrodden," the Rustpaw shaman declared. "We shall rise up. Those few overseers and Taskmasters who remain will feel a slave's wrath! Now come! Gull awaits!"

Still holding the ball, he shuffled as quickly as he was able. In the next room, Twilight could see the effects of the restored fire fetish in the hands of the Diamond Dog geomancer. Two more Taskmasters, another pony and canine combo, were being overwhelmed by the slaves they had assumed to be whipped into submission. Rex Rustpaw ignored the ongoing battles in the halls, leading them onward.

Deeper in the complex were dozens more slaves and even more Cultists, the Taskmasters now being accompanied by heavily armored 'Cultist Tormentors.' In a fair fight, they would have easily been able to put down a slave revolt, but all the drudges - Pony and Diamond Dog alike - were being empowered by Rage of the Rustpaw.' Bloodlusted, they were able to stand hoof-to-hoof with their better armed and armored Cultist masters.

"Shouldn't we, um.. help... them?" Fluttershy suggested, not too comfortable just walking through an area where so many hostiles were fighting, and so many friendlies could use healing.

"Defeat Gull and this battle will be won," Rex Rustpaw reminded her. "That is the priority now, for all of us. We are almost to the Vault."

Twilight, following closely, stole a moment to check her map.

The magical parchment had again updated itself. She could see, marked out on it, the caves they had entered by ('Burrower Tunnels') and the mines they had passed through, leading into the ancient ruins ('Twilight Excavation'). Soon, they passed into a new section with a separate heading: The Vault of the Moon.

This area was fully excavated. The halls had been cleared of rubble, revealing a stone floor that almost seemed to have been cut from a single titanic block of marble. The metal inlaid into the walls, while dead elsewhere, almost seemed to glow here, providing a ghostly ambiance. Alcoves that had once been buried had been cleaned out, revealing statues set into the walls: more alicons. Some were rearing up, others holding stone-wrought books, others with their heads bowed in prayer. The vaulted ceiling arched high above, providing enough room for Dash to stretch her wings and fly.

"This is amazing..." Twilight couldn't help but say. "To think this was under Luna's Castle...! Did ponies really build this?"

"An' why build it underground?" Applejack asked, green eyes staring up at the unnecessarily high ceiling overhead. "Ah dunno about unicorns, but Ah've never heard of ponies buildin' all that much under tha Earth. Even in Manehattan."

At the end of the excavated hall was a flight of stairs... the steps large enough that they could jump from one to the next more easily than descending the normal way. The stairs themselves split and ran around yet another statue. It was another alicorn, but it was rendered in stars, like a constellation ripped from heaven and frozen with magic. Her body was semi-transparent, composed of a dark ether that shifted restlessly, and within it sparkled points of light.

The posture of the alicorn constellation-statue was also familiar, at least to Twilight Sparkle. She had seen Celestia assume that exact same pose when she ritually raised the run. Yet the unicorn was certain that this was a representation of Luna. The statue's dark wings spread to flank the stairs downward on both sides.

Rex Rustpaw led them past it with nary a backward glance.

At the bottom, there was a large circular platform, surrounded by more shifting dark matter. Mundane crates and boxes and mining equipment lay scattered around, completely out of place among the otherworldly architecture. A large pair of doors with some strange circular mechanism had been blown apart with what must've been a fairly substantial application of explosives, creating a crack easily wide enough for a pony or two to pass through.

"Come," Rex urged them on. "We are almost there. Gull will be within the Vault itself. To defeat him, you will need the power of my Fire Fetish. As you battle him, he will call upon the Earth to shield himself and augment his power. I can call on Flame to melt his protections, but in my weakened state... I believe I can use this ability only twice. Prepare yourselves."

"Buffs," Twilight reminded her party. She refreshed Arcane Intellect. Having done this before, the rest of the group were quick to reapply their designated spells. Fluttershy even added one, by putting a 'Thorns' spell up on Applejack. Spines of natural energy briefly shimmered across the apple farmer's body.

At last, they saw who - or what - they would be fighting.

Gull was a Diamond Dog, but like Blood Diver (or, rather, the former Royal Guard Highdiver) he had been perverted and enhanced through his pact with the Twilight Cult. The canine was now a huge, hunched monstrosity, with a massively enlarged torso and barrel-like arms. Even for a hulking Diamond Dog, his proportions were skewed, and adding to the menace, crystalline growths were merged into his shoulders and back.

He stood in the center of the Vault of the Moon, itself a large open area. The inside was circular and the walls lined with coffers and alcoves and repositories. Piles of books lay in heaps and piles. Standing out even more was the fact that the twisted Diamond Dog was not the only living being in the room. An auburn colored pegasus filly, no more than Scootaloo's age, was suspended in the air by dark chains, and from those dangled evil looking charms and artifacts. The air around her crackled and hissed with malignant power.

Gull growled at the sight of the intruders, pointing a huge paw at them.

"These must be the Elements of Harmony Lady Voidhorn spoke of," he said, displaying perfect diction in contrast to his monstrous form and deep voice. "Rex. You old fool. How kind of you to deliver them to me. Their broken bodies will be a fine gift to present to the Master at her Ascension."

"And who is this Master you guys keep talking about anyway?" Dash blurted out, boxing with her hooves. "I wanna know, so I can give her the old one-two!"

"I was going to ask the same," Twilight said, but stepped back to let Applejack and Dash take up tanking and melee positions. She glared at the former leader of the Rustpaw Diamond Dogs, who had betrayed his people and sold them into slavery.

"You turned your people into slaves!" she yelled at him, anger and disgust undisguised. "And for what? Catnip. Blood Diver. And now you. Why are you doing this? How can you do this to your own kind?"

For a few seconds, Gull just narrowed his eyes at her. At them all.

"Those who wish to survive must serve," he finally said. "The Old Ones will rise again. Deathwing the Destroyer has taken Flight once more! This world will Break and Burn. Our creation was a mistake. Do you understand, pony?" He smiled and laughed, orange eyes gleaming with strange, insane energy. "You are an offense. We are all an offense in the eyes of the Gods! My kind? I feel no kinship towards creatures of flesh and blood like you. Any of you."

"And her?" Dash pointed up at the filly suspended from the chains. Her wings were flexed, itching to fly up and attempt a rescue. "What are you doing to her?"

"This one." Gull pointed back and up at the filly. "Is Voidhorn's. She was our mirror into the past, but... you could say she has had a crisis of Faith... "

The pegasus's heated glare could have melted steel.

"As for my Master," the mutated Diamond Dog chuckled, brazenly. "I speak, of course... of the Ebon Mare. Of Nightmare Moon."

- - -

Uldum

The desert sands crawled with the endless swarm of Silithid pouring in from the crack in the Western Sun Wall. They burrowed from cisterns far below the Earth, so deep that their hives radiated heat. Twitching alien spires of chitin and flesh rose from the baked wasteland, and from this vile Hive the invasion radiated outward. The skies darkened with flying pests, huge shadowy forms buzzing amid the starved, flesh eating locusts. On the ground the sands shifted with burrowing fiends, and skittering warrior insects hissed as they raced to pounce on the unwary.

Western Uldum had fallen. The young Ramkahen Pharaoh, Ninjter, was dead, and central Uldum had fallen into a panic. From the south, only the Tribes of the Neferset remained organized and in the field. Off the coast, nestled high in the sky, the Shearing Gates of the Throne of Four Winds remained closed, barring entrance or exit to the Skywall and the Elemental Realm of Air. No aid would be forthcoming from the Elementals, even as the invasion reached their very doorstep.

Luna's wings stretched wide as she soared, accompanied by her personal guard of pegasi.

Far below, a swarm of shapes began to fjord the Vir'naal River that divided Uldum, making for the Eastern side. One across the river and through the last stretch of desert, there were only verdant forests and wide open plains separating the Silithid advance from Equestria. It would be a slaughter the likes of which a pampered ponykind would never imagine.

The sun behind her set against the flank of a titanic sphinx, perched atop one of the high plateaus on the southeastern side of the river. The moon was starting to rise, and with it, Luna felt her power slowly build. The regal alicorn turned away from the Silithid swarm, heading east herself. There was nothing she and her handful of guard could do to prevent the crossing of so massive a host.

Weeks of skirmishing had proven that the numbers of Silithid were vast, and their magics ancient and deadly. The Qiraji Prophet caste in particular worried her. She had slain no less than three of the monstrous commanding entities, but their haunting whispers still cursed her in her mind, mocking her failure to decapitate the leadership of the invading swarm. Every strike, every minor victory, had dwindled her own forces bit by bit. Her personal guard was down to six pegasi, none with more than five years experience.

'Where are the dragonflights? Where is Ysera? Where is Alexstrasza? The most powerful of their brood can all cross the Sun Wall at will. Where are this world's protectors?' And, a whisper in her mind cursed, 'Where are you, Sister? Where are you?'

The Night came, painting a dark pallet of stars across the sky as Luna and her escorts came in to land and, for a moment, rest. Luna herself felt a sheen of sweat between her coat and her new armor. It was uncomfortable to wear, but the Obsidium and Elementium plates had saved her life in more than a few pitched engagements. Her dark blue helm in particular served to reinforce and protect her mind from unwanted intrusion.

She hardly dared to take it off anymore.

Before her lay the pillared entrance to the forbidden: The Halls of Origination. The Halls in which ponykind had first been created. The Halls in which she had learned to be the Light of the Moon; where she had met her sister and her kin... where she had first met Neltharion and the other young Dragon Aspects. For more than ten thousand years, the great gates had been barred to all those suffering from the Curse of Flesh.

Before them stood the last of her loyal Night Guard, assembled in force: flights of dark pegasi in their stormrider uniforms, regiments of armored earth pony clibanarii and unicorn casters, ready to meet the enemy. Many were wounded, but on their hooves and ready to fight, one last time. They were down to two hundred stallions and mares, including Luna's own Equites Singulares. Since coming with her to Uldum, her Night Guard had fought in dust storms, in the blistering heat of the day, in dark tunnels and in swarm filled skies.

They had never wavered, but the sad fact was that they were losing.

Her Guard alone could not drive back the Silithid incursion, especially not with the Tol'vir kingdoms in disarray. There was only one thing to do: one slim chance to save Uldum, the land of her birth, and in saving Uldum... Equestria.

She had to do the forbidden, and return to the Halls of Origination.

There, she could strengthen the Sun Wall; redouble its strength and extend it deeper into the earth, cutting off the Silthid swarm from its base of operations. The effect would only reinforce the isolation of Uldum and Equestria. Even the most powerful of dragons would find it impossible to pierce the wall, and neither she nor Celestia would ever be able to leave. It had to be done. It would be done. As for a way to destroy the Silithid now trapped beneath the Sun Wall...

Luna smirked to herself as she trotted up the steps and across a sand strewn venue, flanked by a forest of massive pillars. Like all the ancient structures in this land, the scale of the steps and pillars and doors was colossal. Fittingly so. It was built by gods to be used by giants. Her ponies scurried among the sand washed ruins like ants.

And she was the most powerful ant of them all.

Waiting for her at the top of the steps to the Hall of Origination, she saw her trump card: the assembled Elements of Harmony. Around her, the Night Guard began to line up and come to attention, sensing the time had come for one last set of orders from their Princess. Luna's gilded hooves, armored in dark obsidium, carried her forward, higher. Her coat, too, had darkened slightly. Some side affect of the armor she wore, her scribes believed. Luna didn't mind the color change; she felt more powerful than she had ever been before. The wind shifted, and with it, a biting cold.

Luna saw Enigma, first: Bearer of the Element of Magic. By his side, as always, was Loyal Featherfrost, wearing the armor of the now decimated Shadowbolts. She was the last of that elite fighting force. All others had perished fighting the Silithid and treacherous Obsidian Clan of Tol'vir, now known only as Obsidian Destroyers. The two were inseparable.

Further back near the great doors, a pitch black mare with a salt gray mane stood next to an aqua blue mare with a tri-colored iris-violet mane and tail. A third mare, a pegasus pony colored in sunny flax and poppy looked about uneasily. A fourth pony, this one another male unicorn, crept up behind her to whisper something that seemed both encouraging and embarrassing: the nervous pegasus perked up, whispered something back, and tried to keep her wings from growing too obviously flustered. Luna frowned at the unicorn in question; his colors, a white coat and dark pink mane, were far too familiar for the Princess's comfort. It was unfortunate that the Element of Charity had to have so much of that bloodline in him.

Luna grimaced slightly and shook her head: where had that thought come from? True, Luster's colors were a bit off putting, but as befitting the Element of Charity, he was nothing but courteous. If Celestia felt free to let him roam about on adventures, then all the better. In a way, he was the black sheep of that ivory colored family.

The three mares, Luna knew as the Elements of Fidelity, Festivity and Decency respectively: the dark earth pony Black Pepper, her sister Happy Days, and the pegasus Sunflower. Together with Enigma and Featherfrost, all six wore the emblems of the Elements of Harmony as collars across their chests. Only Enigma, as the Element of Magic, was given a headpiece: a coronet of platinum that all but disappeared beneath his silver mane. Not for the first time, she sight of him filled Luna with confidence and... something else. Enigma was her finest servant. His service over the last few years, and more recently in the battles in Uldum, had been very impressive.

She hadn't thought about him that way, not seriously... until recently. It was fatigue, probably. From all the stress and the fighting. She wasn't Celestia after all. She didn't need... or even want to socialize with mortal ponies. No. Not... really...

A whisper in the back of her head turned to mocking laughter.

"Enigma!" Luna called to him as she approached; like Celestia, she towered above lesser ponies at her full height. "Are the preparations complete?"

"They are," the magic user's voice was, as always, calm and cool. He had everything under control. Luna trusted him to do as asked, and to do it well. She trusted him.

"But," Enigma added, trotting up alongside her. He picked what he said next carefully. "With all due respect, I still believe we should wait for Princess Celestia. The tablet you had us translate is very specific. The Sister Princesses. Plural. Entering alone may be... dangerous, for you and for others."

"We will have to take that risk." Luna came to a stop before the vast doors to the Halls of Origination. "Enigma. The armies of the Silithid are almost on us. They know I plan to open the Halls of Origination, and they intend to stop me. My dear sister has left Canterlot far too late to make a difference. It falls on us, Enigma. Are you with me?"

The unicorn archmage chuckled and lowered his head in acquiescence. "I have always been with you, Princess. But casting a spell without all the proper reagents... I don't know if I can compensate for Celestia's absence. Tricking the gates open is risky."

"If we lose this place, we lose Uldum," Luna reminded him, lowering her head slightly to look him in the eye. "If we lose Uldum, Equestria will be destroyed. You can do this, Enigma. We can do this."

So close to him, Luna felt herself smile. Yes. Enigma's magic, with her own, would open the forbidden gates of the Titans. She would reinforce the Sun Wall and unleash destruction on the Silithid - destruction as if a nightmare had been made manifest. Not a single trace of the Silithid or Qiraji would survive. Every foul atom would be burned away!

The thought of what she would unleash filled her with warmth and excitement and a dark pleasure. Impulsively - and Luna did not normally think of herself as impulsive - she leaned closer to touch her cheek to Enigma's. She felt him, felt him stiffen, and then heard him take a step to the side. Frowning, she realized it must have been because of her helmet. Other ponies found it cold and slightly painful to touch.

That was all it was.

"Princess," he muttered, for once sounding flustered. "I - you should know-"

"Yes. Yes, of course. The Obsidium." She apologized, or at least she implied apology. "I had forgotten."

"Yes... that...."

"No matter," she insisted. "I shall have no use for this burdensome armor once our lands are secure. Now: begin the spell. We must open the Gates. I must speak to Anhuur and Rajh as soon as possible."

"Of course, Princess." The Element of Magic curtly turned and rounded up the other five Elements. Luna also turned, heading back to the top of the stairs as the six stallions and mares began Enigma's spell. Arcane energy swirled over their heads, and bright green symbols lit up over the surface of the Titanic doors. Ancient identification mechanisms activated, framing the monolithic stone doorway with runes.

"My Night Guard," Luna addressed the now assembled remainder of her forces. They milled about in companies and regiments, all to hear her speak. "This is our final stand. Together with the Elements of Harmony, you must protect the doors we now open. Inside is our salvation... the magic I need to protect Equestria and destroy the Silithid. Take heart. I will not fail you. By morning, we will all toast to our victory, and rest easily during the day. This I swear to you."

It was not the most elegant speech she had ever heard. She was no Celestia. Yet her Night Guard cheered, moved at the least by knowing what they had to do, and what was at stake. Luna took one last look at them and turned to face the door. Her horn glowed, and her wings outstretched. Her magic mixed in with that of the Elements of Harmony.

And the Great Gates of the Halls of Origination opened to her.

- - -

Gull, it went almost without saying, hit like a tank. That much was implied from the sheer size and mass of the insane Diamond Dog. He eschewed any sort of actual weapon in favor of his massive, rock-hard fists. Applejack, moments after taunting him with an apple to the face, was the first to really feel the power of their opponent. Unlike Blood Diver or the frenzied Manticore, Sniffles, Gull hit slowly. His blows were choreographed with all the cast time of a spell, making the worst of them easy to sidestep and avoid. The quicker, weaker ones that couldn't be so easily avoided, were still telling blows.

For the fourth time, Applejack ended up on her side, backhanded and stunned. Gull was methodical in his attacks, swinging his massive fists like battering rams. Fluttershy's healing was so far able to cope with the damage done, but the apple farmer turned trained-warrior still grimaced painfully as one of her broken ribs forcibly reset and healed. The magic that normally helped to numb pain was hard pressed to keep up. As the only real good side, she wasn't lacking for rage energy to fuel the abilities and tricks Grim Thunderbrew had passed onto her.

Meanwhile, her tanking allowed everyone else to concentrate on their job: Rainbow Dash was behind the monster Diamond Dog, slashing into his back with her Highdiver Hoofblade and blasting away with holy Judgments and Seals. Rarity was in Shadowform, unleashing tendrils of mind flaying energy while Pinkie Pie and Twilight hadn't needed to move aside to stand and unleash elemental and arcane attacks. Gull soaked it all up like a giant, angry sponge.

Aside from one problem, it was basically what Thunderbrew had described to her as a 'tank and spank' ...

Gull was stacking an elemental ability Twilight had identified as "Elementium Aberration" that couldn't be purged, spell-stolen, or otherwise dispersed. He had started the fight with only a single rank of it, but it was increasing steadily every second. Like Twilight, Applejack had an identify spell of her own, though she didn't flaunt it or talk about it much. During her training, Grim had given her some basic magical items she would need as a warrior unable to spellcast herself. One was a simple rune she could use to power the spell-identification she'd need to fight any sort of magic using caster-type.

It had read and analyzed the "Elementium Aberration" spell as it stacked, confirming that as it built up over time, it mitigated more and more incoming damage, magical or physical. When it reached one hundred percent, Gull would become his namesake: the Unbreakable. He would have one hundred percent damage mitigation. It seemed too good to be true to Applejack, and she rather suspected that if the Diamond Dog did reach that many stacks that something different than invulnerability would occur. The name of the spell alone hinted at a possible transformative effect.

She couldn't let him stack the spell that high!

"Ponies!" Rex Rustpaw called out, from near the door. He was casting a spell of his own, using the recovered and reassembled Fire Fetish as a totem. "Remember what I told you!"

Holding out a hand, the Diamond Dog shaman projected a line of churning fire down onto the floor of the Vault. A circle briefly outlined over the marble before turning into a boiling pool of red and orange, like a circle of agitated lava. Then it vanished again, replaced by a transparent sigil. It was about that moment that Applejack realized something else about her opponent. Since the start of the fight when she had charged in, she hadn't moved him much, but when she did readjust slightly, Gull had not exactly been fleet of foot in catching her.

"Applejack!" Twilight yelled, about to give her the order.

"Ah know!" the warrior assured her, smirking to herself beneath her armored helm. This was her fight. She knew what to do! Another brutal strike knocked her off her hooves, forcing her to roll and bounce back up. Gull was already rising up to do a two-handed slam. Knowing what to look for, Applejack spun, slapping him in the face with her tail as she avoided the blow - the resulting miss cracking the marble floor.

"I'll crush the life out of you!" Gull sneered, soundly only marginally put out. He seemed to think time was on his side and that he could just play around until he became 'unbreakable.' Or until he transformed into the 'Elementium Aberration' his spell was named for.

Applejack waited, making sure he had about seventy going on eighty stacks of his protective spell.

At this point, Rarity, Pinkie, Twilight and even Dash may as well have been attacking a block of solid steel. Arcane bolts fizzled and shattered on contact with the Diamond Dog's nearly diamond-hard skin. Lightning and flame shocks splashed harmlessly, and even Rarity's shadow magic had little effect. Behind the wall of muscle, Dash let out an exasperated groan at how ineffective her attacks were.

"Come on, doggie! Come on!" She jeered, backing up.

"Ugh!" Gull snarled as she avoided another telegraphed blow. "Stand and fight me like a true warrior! You fight like a dairy farmer!"

"Apple farmer actually!" Applejack bounced back, leading him... bit by bit. "And at least Ah don't fight like a cow!"

"Stinking little pony! I'll smear you into paste!" So fixated on her was he, that he didn't notice when he walked right over the faint rune left in the marble floor. Applejack's careful backtracking turned into a jump as she got out of the way. By this point, Gull had just over eighty stacks of Elementium Aberration.

The moment he stepped on the Rustpaw rune, the fires of Hell erupted around him, and all eighty stacks turned into an immolation aura. The massive Diamond Dog vanished in a literal pillar of flame, waves of heat blasting outward from the inferno he had been turned into. Gull roared in pain and rage, his pace increasing slightly as he continued to give chase.

Applejack turned and galloped at fill speed, leading him away from her friends. She had just enough time to notice that, just like the protective spells stacks had steadily built up, they were now ticking back down. There was no way she was going to get up close and personal with a bloodthirsty mountain of muscle and fire; by the looks of things, the damage done by setting off the rune was probably more than Pinkie, Twilight, Dash and Rarity had done to him put together.

The enraged Diamond Dog bellowed, falling to all fours as he tried to catch the fleeing earth pony.

"I AM GULL! I CAN NOT BE BROKEN!"

Applejack didn't stop to taunt the immolated canine. She just kept leading him around on a circuit around the curve of the circular room. After twenty seconds or so, the entire Elementium Aberration buff had been burned away. The hulking Diamond Dog emerged from the flames horribly burned, but still intent on crushing the ponies before him. Seeing the immolation aura dissipate, Applejack charged back in, to keep him in one place. She had to keep "aggro" on him, like Grim Thunderbrew had taught her, or risk him turning on her friends.

"Pitiful little pony! Did you think a trick like that could kill me, Gull? Gull the Unbreakable?" He tagged her with a swat of his paw, sending her face down into the stone.

It was not pleasant, even with Fluttershy's Regrowth flowing through her. It was also a position Grim Thunderbrew had been fond of knocking her down into. 'Eating dirt' he'd called it. She'd hated it then and she hated it now.

'Now, now, lass. Yer a warrior, or ye want'ta be one. That means yer gonna get stunned. Yer gonna get knocked around. Yer gonna get beat up.' He had lectured once, after having slammed her into the hay and pinned her under a heavy leather and metal boot. 'Yer gonna have to learn to take it, spit out yer blood and teeth, and get up fer more. Get angry. Get revenge. But get back up. Yer gettin' hit so yer friends won't be!'

Setting her hooves down, she pushed up against the massive paw holding her down. Muscles strained, lifting it just enough for her to roll out and bounce back up. Back up for more. Spitting blood and phlegm to the side, she grinned jumped at the massive Diamond Dog, slamming a steel-shot and armored hoof into his face, and then following up with a shield bash. There was no way she could actually overpower this monster she was fighting.

But she could keep it busy.

Just like before, the stacks of Elementium Aberration began to accumulate. Faster! It was increasing by five at a time! There wouldn't be much time before the Dog became nearly invulnerable again.

"Pinkie!" Applejack yelled.

"Party time!" Twilight ordered, coming to the same conclusion at the same time.

The rosy maned shaman shot fireworks from somewhere within her tail, a spray of sparks and stars briefly surrounding her.

"Okey Dokey!" she stamped her hooves to the floor, and a heroic burst of energy infused the six mares. "Let's get it started in here!"

Strangely, catchy music accompanied the Party Time Heroism spell.

"Ponies!" came the call from the door again. "This is the last one I can manage! Do not let Gull transform!"

So it was a transformation then!

Applejack tasted blood as another blow spun her around. Steel shod hooves clacked as she regained her balance, and took note of where the Flame Rune had been put down. It was in the center of the room: which was convenient but kind of dangerous. Everypony had taken up positions near there while Applejack led Gull around the edge of the room before.

Thirty stacks. Thirty five -

"RAGH!" Gull bellowed shaking a rainbow colored blur of light and steel away from his side. "You scum can not kill me! I am Gull!" A blast of lightning and arcane fire seared the side of his face. "I AM GULL!"

Again, a backhand knocked Applejack to her side with a painful crack.

Fifty five stacks. Sixty -

The Diamond Dog was on his last legs, but being rapidly bolstered by the Elementium Aberration stacks. He started stomping his feet and hitting the ground instead of using the targeted Thundering Strikes from before. Debris began to fall from the alcoves and Vault storage above, along with chunks of stone from the ceiling. The ground itself shook, shockwaves hitting everypony in the room.

"Oh dear! Oh my!" Fluttershy gasped, breaking her normal silence as she struggled to keep everypony up. "Please, if you can heal yourself a bit, please do so!"

"Doggone it!" Applejack cursed, activating her Last Stand. It was what Thunderbrew had called a 'panic button.' When a warrior was up shit creek without a paddle, they used Last Stand. The apple farmer felt the glyph activate, flooding her body with energy and power. She didn't have a lot of self-heals, but this one would temporarily boost her constitution by almost a third.

Fluttershy continued healing, even as debris bounced off a shield of light that had enveloped her. Ironically, she ended up taking the least damage of anyone. Rubble continued to rain down, together with the shockwaves, but the group weathered the attack.

"Haha!" Dash cheered from somewhere behind the enraged Diamond Dog. "Hand of Protection for the win! Paladins are the best class!"

"In yer dreams they are!" Applejack backed up again, pausing only to turn around and buck another pair of apples at the now nearly fully stacked Gull. He was back up to eighty applications of Elementium Aberration. Luckily, he was just as clueless as before that he was being led around, and as he charged at the damned warrior pony that had so aggravated him the entire fight...

The Fire Rune erupted beneath him, consuming and converting his armor into molten fire.

"NO! NO!! GULL - GULL CAN NOT - DIE..."

The monstrous Diamond Dog managed only a few more enraged steps before succumbing. He stumbled, reached out to the ceiling and roared, waves of fire pulsing out from his burning form.

Finally, with a puff, he turned to blackened ash.

Applejack could hardly believe it. They'd done it! They'd won, again! The heady rush was starting to slowly fade, but the danger was past. Letting out a relieved sigh, she fell to the floor to rest. Fluttershy's incredible healing quickly brought her body up to peak condition, as usual, but a big fight like that was still emotionally draining.

Rainbow Dash got the achievement [Flawless! Unbreakable! Diamond Dog!]

Applejack got the achievement [Flawless! Unbreakable! Diamond Dog!]

Pinkie Pie got the achievement [Flawless! Unbreakable! Diamond Dog!]

Twilight Sparkle got the achievement [Flawless! Unbreakable! Diamond Dog!]

Fluttershy got the achievement [Flawless! Unbreakable! Diamond Dog!]

Rarity got the achievement [Flawless! Unbreakable! Diamond Dog!]

"Gull the Unbreakable has been beaten."

Also looking drained from casting the Fire Runes, Rex Rustpaw slowly walked towards the pile of ash in the center of the Vault. He stopped only to look disapprovingly down at the remains of the traitor Diamond Dog chieftain. Holding a hand out over the still burning embers, he muttered a quick prayer, and then stood to face the filly bound by chains in the back of the Vault.

Dash was already up near her, flying, and trying to break the black chains.

"Wait, heroes!" Rex called to them, though probably speaking to the rainbow pegasus in particular. "I know that child. She was with Night Sky - Voidhorn - when my people were corrupted. Are you certain you wish to release her?"

It didn't take long for anypony to make up their minds.

"If you can help, please do so," Twilight spoke for them, knowing how they all felt. "Otherwise get out of the way! We're not leaving somepony to suffer like that!"

"The Rustpaw owe you our freedom." The geomancer raised his hands and closed his eyes. "Spirits of the Raging Earth. Aid me!"

The black chains began to faintly glow, as small clouds of dust formed curling eddies around them. The six mares took that as their queue to strike. Dash cut and blasted through one of the chains while Twilight and Pinkie destroyed the other at range. With a snapping sound of failing magic and overstressed metal, the chains broke, also dropping the blackened trinkets and charms attached to them. The dark aura that surrounded the amber colored filly faded, and she fell - only to be caught by Dash before she could hit the ground.

The pegasus carefully brought the unknown pony youngster to the ground, checking her for wounds. Applejack, having no means of healing anyone, let the magic users take the lead on what to do with this new turn of events. There seemed to be something very strange about the little pegasus. Even a cursory look didn't show any physical damage, and why would anyone, no matter how deranged, suspend a little blank-flank filly in the air with massive chains and dark magic?

It made no sense.

Unless...

The rescued filly took a deep breath. Too deep. Only a truly ...ah, 'special'... pony like Pinkie Pie could suck in so much air. The filly stirred, and her little wings shot out. Rainbow Dash, who had been holding the little tyke, was knocked back, whole cloth. The others hastily backed off, all except Fluttershy.

Fluttershy, despite her fear, tried to get closer... to see what was wrong.

"Don't worry. You're safe now," the kindhearted pegasus assured the frightened filly. "We won't hurt you, we-"

"You." The filly's voice was off. It didn't sound old. It sounded like...

"You will not hurt me?" The filly laughed, and her body expanded!

Hooves turned into claws, and the tiny Scootaloo-wings sprouted, feathers receding into leathery skin. The thing that changed the least was the color. Auburn coat became amber scales. Her cute little blonde tail shimmered and became that of a dragon, the top studded with small spines. This was no adult dragon, it soon became clear, but it - she maybe - was clearly older than Spike, at least by a couple years. Unlike their friend, this dragon immediately fell to four legs instead of his preferred two. Applejack was no expert, but by how she knocked Dash aside it also seemed as if a steady diet of dark magic had clearly given her a jump start in raw power to boot.

She hissed at Fluttershy, bearing her teeth. When she spoke, it was with a young voice, feminine, but not truly pony-like. "Yes! Say it now! That you will not hurt me!"

The dragon huffed, purple and black flame shooting from her nostrils. "I can smell you! I know why you are here! You've come to purge this place of the Twilight Cult, have you not?"

Green eyes shot around, from pony to pony, before the dragon's body relaxed.

"Come," she said, sounding almost resigned. "Finish it, then." Breathing sand and fire, she backed up, wings spread and ready to take her to the air. "But do not think to kill me in my sleep!"

Fluttershy marched right up, heedless of the strange sand-breath, eyes wide and framed by a scowl. The small dragon hissed and shrunk back. She looked torn between bolting, attacking, or just accepting the inevitable. Fluttershy was soon just inches away, looming over her. Her friends were all tensed to jump in, in case their normally timid pegasus druid miscalculated on the use of her stare. The cornered dragon tensed, ready to jump -

"Stop moving," Fluttershy said, simply. She held up a hoof, wrapped in a warm, green glow. "You're more hurt than you look."

Still caught in the stare, the young dragon froze, and then slowly realized that the nature magic being cast on her wasn't harmful. Her wings lowered and her shoulders slumped; head bowed, she finally managed to look away from Fluttershy's stare. Clawed hands balled into fists. In most species, this would be a threat and warning sign, but in dragons, it meant the opposite. It meant her claws were sheathed.

"You should just kill me already," she growled, sounding almost angry. "You don't know who I am. If you knew-"

"Quiet," Fluttershy insisted, and the dragon shut up.

It wasn't the first time Applejack had seen Fluttershy's serious side take over. It was impressive as always, and had staved off an unnecessary fight. The apple farmer breathed a sigh of relief. She really hadn't wanted to charge in and fight some pre-teen dragon filly... or whatever it was they were dealing with. She kept close to Twilight and Pinkie Pie, though. Just in case.

"Rex," Twilight said, turning to the Diamond Dog geomancer. "Who is this? She's a dragon, isn't she...? I didn't think they could polymorph at such a young age."

The old pug frowned, his face scrunching up even more.

"Voidhorn called her 'Amber.' This is the first I've seen of her true form." He gripped the fetish around his neck, protectively. "As I said. It was the two of them... who corrupted and enslaved the Rustpaw. They begat the evil magic that now flows from this place to poison the Earth."

He gave Twilight a concerned look.

"When we first met them..." he told the studious unicorn mage. "They told us they came from Canterlot. And the mark on Voidhorn's flank... is much like yours, Twilight Sparkle. From what little I have learned, I believe you are both disciples of the being we know as Sol Invictus. The demi-god you call... Celestia."

- - -
x
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Dungeon Journal

Gull the Unbreakable

Battering Fists - Gull's blows have a chance to knock the target off his or her feet, stunning them for one second and preventing them from moving.

Thundering Strike - Gull choreographs a two handed blow that can (and should) be dodged by the tank.

Elementium Aberration - every second of combat, this buff stacks on Gull, reducing damage taken by 1% while also slowing Gull's movement speed by 1%. If this buff stacks to 100% then Gull will transform into an Elementium Aberration and enrage, doing 100% more damage and taking 50% less damage. This is generally a wipe for a group. 100 stacks of Aberration can not be removed by a fire rune.

Rustpaw Flame Rune - Rex Rustpaw places a rune on the floor that triggers when Gull gets within 5 yards. It ignites any and all stacks of Elementium Aberration.

Immolate - for every stack of Aberration burned by the flame rune, Gull takes damage over time. He also develops an immolation aura for 20 seconds that deals damage to those in melee. The tank should kite him around while he is immolated.

Cave-in - At 10% health, Gull will cause the walls to shake, raining debris from the ceiling on everyone and doing physical damage.

Achievement: [Flawless! Unbreakable! Diamond Dog!]
Defeat Gull the Unbreakable while he is immolated