Dungeons, Dragons, and a Little Friendship

by Lawrence Gander

Chapter 15

Dungeons, Dragons, and a Little Friendship

Chapter 15

Twilight rested, but sleep did not come for her. She found that her mind was filled with far too many problems for such a reprieve. At the very least she could allow her body time to recover, all this running wasn’t exactly something she felt prepared for. So she waited for her friend and mentor to finish whatever preparations he was making, all the while Rarity lay not far away unable to give into sleep either. It seemed neither of them wanted to risk such an activity, even in this seemingly impregnable place.

“Miss Sparkle,” it was Cartanis, “Lady Rarity.” He was ready for them.

The room they were within was so small they barely had to do more than just get off the floor to meet up with him.

“I didn’t realize spell preparation was such an efficient activity.” Rarity began. “It’s been scarcely a few hours since we stopped to rest.”

“There are still a few on the backburner, I assure you, but while I had a moment I thought I would see how you two are doing.” His gaze fell upon Twilight, “To hear any concerns you may have.”

Rarity watched her friend, she remembered what had happened earlier and knew Twilight had to talk to Cartanis about it, but she still seemed reluctant to speak. Cartanis seemed to pick up on this as well, so he gave his attention to the other unicorn in the room.

To whom he asked. “When did you ever learn to fence in such a manner?”

Rarity was slightly surprised that he knew what that was. “Oh, for some time now. Although I’m afraid I may be a tad rusty, the last time I properly handled one was in my finishing school days.”

The wizard laughed. “A finishing school taught their students how to fight?”

“A lady must know how to take care of herself.” Rarity said back with regal bearing. “It was something that most other schools overlooked, but our headmistress believed in an old way of teaching. We all had to know how to defend ourselves, and since I lacked the aptitude for something more… magical, I took up the other advantage unicorns have.”

She drew her rapier, giving it a few careful swipes through the air in front of her, never once doubting where it was or what it was going to do.

“Precision and control.”

Cartanis could only laugh once more. “Is the lady sure she was meant to design dresses? You handle your blade well.”

“Oh I may have some talent for it, but I’m afraid I only came third in my class. There are a few things about fighting up close that elude me. Although my opponent assured me that I deserved the silver more than the bronze. She on the other hoof, I heard she is a rather high ranking guard somewhere now.”

“You kept tabs on your old classmates?”

“Not entirely, there’s this biannual get together of prominent graduates. To attract donations and such. They always serve the most delectable little sandwiches. Oh I really should take you and the girls sometime, a stallion like you would have such a time.” Rarity just smiled at dreams of better times, for a fleeting moment she didn’t feel like she was trapped like a rat, and she was able to breathe a little easier. “Thank you Cartanis, for the talk.”

“I seemed to do far more listening then talking Lady Rarity.”

Rarity just hushed him, “Stop that, you helped and that’s final.”

With nothing else to add Cartanis simply let the mare have her way. He then turned his attention back to his original target, the one who seemed most in need of one who could understand. Twilight only watched him with growing unease. She seemed afraid, unable to speak against a great fear. They were going to need a moment.

He spoke up to Rarity, “Would you go see how our friend Keystone is doing?”

Rarity was not thick in the head, she knew what he implied, and off she went. With a sense of privacy in place, he went back to Twilight. Hopeful that she may finally be ready to talk.

“You didn’t need to do that.” She finally replied.

“If that’s the case I can call her back over.”

“There’s no need for that either.” Twilight took a deep breath, filled with nerves. “It’s just weird to… I’m sorry, this is such a strange thing to be talking about.”

“Since when has magic been strange? You were born with it, grew up with it. What has changed?”

“Nothing changed, it’s just that…” She sighed. “It’s my talent, literally, magic is what I was born to do. But I don’t understand this, and you said before how sorceress magic is different from wizard magic so I don’t even know if you can help me.”

She continued while the wizard watched her, frustration and fear all bottled up in such a young mind. “You heard it, didn’t you?”

She froze mid sentence. “…Heard what?”

“It is a voice with no sound, a force with no body, and it whispers in such ways that you are drawn into it.”

Twilight only shifted uncomfortably in place, his words held an eerie tone of awareness to what she had experienced.

He continued, “She had a word for it, the only thing she could think of to describe its bottomless want. Hunger.”

“Veranda told you—”

“Yes, we spoke of many things. One such thing was our love of arcana, and its teachings. There was much both of us didn’t know before we found each other. So no, I do not entirely understand… but perhaps some of her lessons might live on through me.”

“I’m sorry Cartanis I—”

He quietly hushed her, “There is no need to apologize every time she gets brought up. I doubt she would want me to treat her like such a taboo.”

“Sorry… I mean not about that, the other thing, and I’m rambling…” She blushed at her own silliness before finally calming herself down. “I’m not too good at this am I?”

“Better than I was at your age.”

Twilight grew a small smile, but quickly tried to change the subject. “So, about the words of wisdom?”

“I would like to hear your views on the matter first.” He noticed her reluctance. “I was there Twilight, and you know I’m only trying to help. I saw the fear in your eyes when that ghoul came at you, but it wasn’t just fear for your own life. You’re scared of something else, and I want you to tell me what that is.”

Twilight did her best to swallow her fear. “Do you know what it’s like to burn something?”

“How so Miss Sparkle?”

She rolled her eyes, sometimes she hated his tendency to be so formal. “When I was fighting off all those… things with Rarity, I used my power, but it was so strange. It was like something I never knew before, I wasn’t just watching them combust I could actually feel the fire destroying them and I… I…” Her voice croaked for a moment, before she finally said. “I liked it.”

“Twilight…” She didn’t hear him.

“I wanted more things to burn, I reached out for anything I could touch, I didn’t care who or what it was.” She was almost hysterical in her declarations, but what she said next carried the most weight. “I wanted to feel skin crumble and bake, just because it was there. Cartanis, I almost tried to do that to Rarity, one of my best friends, one of my only friends.” She was almost to tears. “I can’t do that again Cartanis, I just can’t. I don’t want to be a monster.”

He sat and held out a foreleg to her, “Come here.”

She welcomed his embrace, and rested herself on his shoulder with her own forelegs wrapped around him in kind. She couldn’t bring herself to say much more, and only stifled her sobs as best she could.

Cartanis just spoke to her with kind words. “You won’t become a monster.”

“But—”

“Don’t!” He said rather harshly. “What did I tell you about going down that road?”

She was silent, the slow flow of sadness stopped for now.

He pushed her away, just enough to look upon her face. “Now you will listen to me. You will never hurt your friends. Because that thing, the hunger, or whatever you wish to name it, cannot take them from you.”

“What do you mean?”

“It can only take what you give, and I know you Twilight. You are a smart, caring, uncompromising individual who would never stand to see something bad befall her friends, and for those reasons alone it will never have them. Do you understand?”

She sniffled a little. “Yes.”

“But there is one thing you must never do.” He held her close and made sure she was listening. “You must never give yourself to your power, for any reason.”

“Why?”

“Because it will never give you back.”

Twilight could see the pain on his face, and knew immediately of what he spoke. “I won’t, I promise.”

[/][/][1][/][/]

Keystone watched the two of them hug for a time before she spoke to Rarity, “Are things always this… emotional in your little group?”

Rarity could only say, “Not always. Things are a little rocky right now, what with not knowing how the rest of us are doing.”

“Oh, yeah… how many of you were there?”

“Nine.”

The answer hung in the air, and Keystone’s eyes grew wide at the implication.

“You lost six?” Her voice carried a tone of disbelief. “You lost six in under a day?”

“Lost is the word that must be used. We were split up by an unfortunate event, although there are sufficient signs that say we may have permanently lost at least one.”

Keystone tried to sound at least a little positive. “Exactly how much hope is left for that one?”

“Perhaps the same amount there was for whomever you lost.”

Rarity’s unbroken gaze seemed to shake the mare. Neither able to speak past what was said. In time they seemed to relax, but there was nothing left for them to converse about. They instead just waited for the wizard and his apprentice to join them, which seemed to be not long after their own little talk had ended.

As Cartanis approached he simply said, “So about that other exit.”

“Right, about that.” Keystone responded.

“You mentioned that it was locked or trapped in some way?”

“Defninetly locked, probably trapped.” She said with some level of certainty.

“Probably trapped?”

“You’ll see.”

Without another word she trotted over to a far wall, the others followed with a shared look and little protest. Keystone had made her way to a corner, the one she had been resting at a few moments before. They saw her do the same as she had before. Taking the glowing stone from its hiding spot behind her ear she placed it into another barely noticeable keyhole in the wall. Those present took note of the wall they were gathered before, it seemed to shift about subtly somewhere behind what they could see. Without warning a good portion of the wall seemed to melt away and be replaced with another, except this one was covered in characters that seemed rather familiar.

Cartanis was the first to speak, “Do they mean anything?”

Keystone simply seemed to marvel upon the sight for a moment. “It’s an alphabet, the entire Equestrian character set across five columns and six rows.”

“Columns and rows?” Twilight tried to get a closer look at the sight. “Of what?”

“Buttons.”

Without warning Keystone pressed her hoof to one, and as it depressed into the surface there was a noticeable change in the room. What was once a calm and peaceful bluish hue had suddenly shifted into an angry red, slowly growing back and forth between an almost unbearable intensity all the way to a swallowing darkness. Before anything else could happen Keystone removed the magical gem from the lock, and the storm of red passed away as though it had never been. The group as a whole looked upon the mare who had set it all off.

“That’s what I meant by Trapped,” Keystone began, “I haven’t really let it go farther than that, but I don’t want to find out what happens if I do.”

Now vanished thanks to Keystone’s actions Twilight gestured to the wall that had once been covered in the so called ‘buttons’. “So do you need a code for it or something.”

“Yes, but I think it changes every time I activate it. Otherwise I would’ve figured it out by trial and error by now just from resetting it.”

“Strange that you can do that at all,” Cartanis chimed in. “If you’re pre-banishment society was as paranoid as you said it was, they would’ve had something against that.”

“I thought so too,” Keystone remarked. “I think that maybe whatever is powering this place doesn’t have enough for everything in this room, and maybe my key gives it enough power to turn on.”

“Any leads to a code?” Keystone shook her head to Twilight’s first question. “Nothing in here when you first found the place?”

“There were a few things.” The group looked about at the relatively empty space, save a tarnished blanket that served as her bed. “Sadly, they made better weapons than clues… broke most of them over heads when I had to.”

The wizard broke into the conversation once again. “It seems we’re back at step one.”

“Not completely.”

Keystone broke away from the group, over to her makeshift bed. She moved a corner of her unkempt blanket, and underneath they could see something old that she quickly grasped gently with her teeth. One quick wander back and they all gazed upon a strange sight, a smooth stone tablet that looked cracked from a larger whole, why Keystone had gone to any length to hide such a thing was beyond those collected before it.

Rarity spoke up first. “May I?”

There was a quick nod to Rarity as Keystone seemed thankful to have the thing out of her mouth. With the stone in her aura she could now understand why Keystone was so eager to be away with it, for the stone tablet no larger than a pastry but it was heavy, very heavy.

“My word, how is this possible?”

“Magic.” Keystone said flatly after giving her jaw a welcome massage.

The purple one immediately intervened, “Of what kind?”

“I don’t know much about magic but it’s definitely magic, that much I can tell you. We call them Diary Stones, each one we’ve ever found has given us researchers a profound look upon pre-banishment culture.”

“How does it do that?”

“Well…” Keystone looked slightly deflated, “If this one wasn’t broken I would show you, but chances are it won’t even work. I’m slightly afraid of even trying to activate it, these things pack quite a bit of magic and it can backfire terribly. Anyway, if it was working it would be quite a sight to behold. It’s almost like looking through a window with a pony on the other side talking about whatever they felt they needed to save on one for later.”

“Really?” Twilight asked with an unmasked glee about discovering another kind of magic.

“If I may,” Cartanis interrupted. “How do you know it’s broken? Besides the crack of course.”

Keystone quickly replied. “I don’t exactly, I know that it seems only a corner is missing, but with these things it can be finicky. If it isn’t whole then it probably won’t work right.”

“If it is possible to at least try, Miss Keystone, I would like you to. It could tell us something, a clue or a hint. At this point anything could help us, no matter how small.”

Keystone bit her lip nervously, but sighed soon after, “Fine.”

[/][/][2][/][/]

They had set down the stone next to the wall, its shiny surface left facing out toward them as they gathered around. Keystone stood before them, closest to the device.

“Now if anything funny happens, just… get away from it I guess.” The group of ponies could only nod at Keystone’s vague warning. She then bent over slightly, bringing her face within inches of its surface, and gently breathed upon it.

The Diary Stone seemed inert to her strange ritual, but as Keystone removed herself toward the group a faint sheen seemed to overtake the blackness of the stone. The assembled ponies marveled at the sight, as what was once a dark featureless stone began emanating a soft light. Then as the light faded, a figure seemed to appear upon the surface.

At first it appeared to be a trick of light, something to dismiss, but the shape slowly began to be more defined. What was a hazy square slowly formed into face, followed by a neck, and shoulders. It continued to grow in such a way until it seemed that they were gazing upon a portrait of a grey stallion from the shoulders up, his hair old and mangled from age and lack of care. There was also a rather unkempt coat about his neck with an emblem upon it, but aside from that they had no idea who they were looking at.

“Is that it?” Rarity asked as she moved a little closer to inspect the image.

“…so sorry…”

Rarity jumped back slightly at the unexpected noise, as the group recovered they took notice of the picture, and it’s strange movements.

“We…wrong…many broken…”

As the alien fear of the device settled a few things became apparent to those assembled, perhaps the most obvious was the disordered speech of the living portrait before them. It was more than that however.

“…nothing cou-… the ponies I’ve… understand…”

His voice carried such a heavy tone, each word may have been distorted but each one seemed painful for him to utter. His face seemed to recount horror and regret, what they looked upon was not something meant for them.

“…my son… only son…sorry that this…-ow I leave you…”

Rarity seemed quite shaken and spoke up, “Keystone I think that’s enough.” The mare in question made a move toward the device.

“…Void resear-…rediscovered…”

Cartanis quickly stopped Keystone, “Wait a minute what does he mean?” His attention snapped toward Twilight. “Void, what does he mean void? What does it mean in your world Twilight?” The mare could only answer with a mundane shrug.

Soon their attention was focused back to the Diary Stone’s words.

“…Unspe-… -nd of…-anno-…-roy-…”

Sadly the stutter of its speech seemed to be getting worse, the image slowly faded and became hazy. Then it seemed to freeze, stuck as the stallion in the picture seemed lost in a stare that gazed far out upon something no one else could see but him. There were no more words, only that blank face which waited. The wizard was not happy with it.

He shouted at the device, “Tell me what you meant! What void? Explain yourself!”

There was no response, only the stare.

“It doesn’t work like that.” Keystone tried to explain.

The wizard simply rounded upon her, “Then make it explain!”

She backed down slightly, but held her ground against this sudden anger. “Look, it can only say what was recorded on it, and I already told you it’s broken. Unless you fix it, the diary stone isn’t going to give you much more than that.”

Cartanis seemed about ready to explode once more, but Rarity intervened. “Cartanis control yourself, this is no time to be acting in such a way.”

“You don’t understand, none of you do. If your kind was capable of opening a rift then the dangers that we face could be so much more than we originally perceived!”

“What do you mean?” She continued. “Cartanis we are not your enemies here.”

“I know.”

“Then just tell us what we’re dealing with.”

The wizard took a deep breath, slowly letting the heat drain from his voice. “I hope… I know better but I hope, that what he means is not the same void I know. The same void we traveled to get here in the first place, because there is far more to it than just empty space between our worlds.”

“Wait, what do you mean space between-”

“Another time Miss Keystone.” The wizard then continued. “The way he spoke… that stallion in the stone. It carried a tone of what he had done, and if he did what I believe he did. Then they dared do something we never would, something so dangerous we lied about our findings the first time we discovered it.”

Twilight spoke up. “Wait, they? What makes you so sure it was more than just him?”

“You can’t pierce the veil forcefully by yourself, not easily. I am almost positive he was part of a team.” He cast a wary glance back to the frozen picture. “The fact that he’s an Earth Pony only worries me more.”

“And that discovery?”

Cartanis seemed hesitant to answer Twilight’s question, but he relented. “Do you remember when I explained the void to you, how it breaks down anything that enters it?” She nodded. “And you remember that I said we lost our bodies to it, and returned with new ones in your world?”

Twilight nodded again, “Yes, but you said you still had your mind and soul when that happened.”

“True, but I haven’t told you what happens when the opposite is true.” He seemed weighed down with horror at what he remembered. “When a body separated from its soul returns from that blighted realm.”

A chill ran across her spine, “That can happen?”

“Yes…” The wizard had not lost the terror in his gaze. “The body and soul are so intimately connected that one cannot exist without the other, but the body has a much harder time remembering what the soul was like… so something takes its place.”

The group only shared an uneasy look upon one another, unsure if they wanted to understand what he meant.

“It was something we had to test, so we took an animal, nothing harmful it was domestic. If we could make a soul be reconstructed then we could accomplish so much more… but there was nothing to suggest what happened.” He just closed his eyes and shook his head. “When the soul is lost in the void, and the body returns without it… the void exploits the link between them to continue what it started.”

“So.” Twilight started. “So they both just… disappear? The void just obliterates them both?”

“No… the void is given life.” He could still hear the sound that it made. “Can you imagine it? Nothingness given everything we have? A creature created that cannot fathom sound, or light? Warmth and life are as unwelcome to it as the fear of death is to us. It lashes out, and it does so with a power beyond anything you can conjure. All with just a single touch. And until the soul in the void is destroyed, the body cannot die.”

The group was in an uncomfortable shock to what they had just been told, but Twilight was the first to come forward.

“Why would they do that? What can you gain from doing that to something?”

“I don’t know Twilight.” The wizard began. “Our venture into that avenue of research began and ended with that creature. We spoke of it no more.”

Keystone then found herself the focus of the wizard’s attention once again.

“Are you sure there is nothing you can do to fix it?”

She simply looked back to the Diary Stone, “No… but, there might be something else we can do.”

The group watched as he inspected the frozen picture of the stallion more closely, namely the brooch worn on what little of his garment they could see.

“You see that, right there.” She was pointing toward the brooch she so carefully inspected. “I think it’s from the Order of the Night.”

Everypony seemed confused by her proclamation.

“I take it this order is from pre-banishment times?” The wizard inferred.

“Yes, as you all may or may not know Luna attempted a sort of coup. Those that supported her took up a place within, and those of particular importance received a badge or brooch such as what our mysterious friend here is wearing.”

She pointed it out once again, the strange symbol of a moon and a sun together.

“That doesn’t make much sense for an emblem,” Twilight began, “the moon and the sun have a place on many things.”

“Not like this they don’t.” Keystone began to recite a rather learned piece of history. “The moon is not a crescent, nor does it share the place with the sun. Instead it is overlapping it, dominating the space. That isn’t the symbol of togetherness from two sisters ruling in peace, it is a statement of intentions from a thousand years ago.”

Her words hung rather heavy in the air, the figure in the portrait still held that fear within him, but now they were not sure what to think of this stallion that had long passed away. Rarity spoke up, hoping to break the rather dark mood.

“How does this help us exactly?”

“They had a saying. A type of code or phrase they used to identify each other. If this was some form of hiding place for them, or cache, then it might work.”

“And that phrase was?”

Keystone just held her gaze steady upon the symbol that represented such an ancient idea, “Darkness Eternal.”

[/][/][3][/][/]

“K-N-E-S…” She continued to slowly spell out the words as she carefully entered the code. There had yet to be a reaction like last time, yet the group was still uneasy.

Cartanis Spoke up, “Any clue what may be on the other side?”

“Not really, T-E-R…” She continued her spelling.

Twilight quickly caught Cartanis’ attention, “Why are you so worried about what might be on the other side.”

The wizard just shifted uneasily in his skin, “Many things… that stallion in the diary stone may have sealed something away beyond this doorway, assuming that’s what this’ll open. I just don’t see a need for a password on such a thing without it holding something precious in… or trying to keep something from getting out.”

“A-L”

When Keystone finished there was an audible pause in the air. All eyes watched the wall, the faint glow in the air unchanging, all the stone unmoving. Then there was a loud clack of stone giving way, and suddenly there was movement. They watched in awe as stone began to shift and bend, the wall slowly disappeared within itself as a new avenue of escape slowly made itself known to the assembled onlookers.

The spectacle continued for a time, the wall receded deeper until only the sound of the activity gave clue that it was still going. Then without warning it stopped, and those gathered simply waited, unsure of what was to come of it.

Suddenly there was light, held aloft before Cartanis’ head. “We best get moving, I doubt something that loud wouldn’t attract some form of attention.” He caught Keystone’s attention for a moment. “Leave the crystal where it is.”

“What? But what if we need to open a door or something on the other side?”

“You said it yourself, that stone may be the only thing compelling this doorway before us to open. Remove it and the whole thing might close on us as we are within, besides it might leave us an avenue of escape if we need it.”

Keystone groaned, “I guess you have a point.” She didn’t seem happy about it, but she resigned to the idea at least. Before they left she gathered up her blanket, and quickly stuffed the diary stone within its confines as she tied it against herself.

“Is there a need for that?” The wizard retorted to her action.

She snipped back, “Look, if we get out of here I want at least something with me that made this all worth it all right!?”

Cartanis backed down, there was far more pain in her voice than he needed to hear, it wasn’t an argument he would win. He checked upon Rarity and Twilight, both of whom seemed fine with the idea. Without further delay the wizard stepped forth, his companions at his side, as they went forth into the unknown.

[/][/][4][/][/]

It was still, standing upon its appointed place. What little light there was revealed nothing, yet it still inspected its surroundings occasionally, as its training dictated. However there was never a change, only the eternal silence of the halls to be company to it. All was as it should be.

Unauthorized entry.

The update was unexpected, but it did not change its course. Plans and tactics were already forming in its mind for what might be the problem.

Lockdown still in effect. Escort all unneeded and unwarranted personnel off property.

They were already in the area, tracked to the more desolated parts of the facility. It was one of the closest units to their location, and was predicted able to intercept them along with other’s already on route. Their minds were already being linked, information exchanged. They knew were to go, and concluded the most accurate place to be in order to intervene upon the trespassers.

Note. The order distracted them for a moment as its voice took precedence. Eclipse is still in effect. Normal safety procedures and legal warnings are overridden should the situation warrant.

The words dug deep into their minds, old locks and ties were undone and new ideas were made available to them. Ideas once considered dangerous and unsafe. They contemplated this new avenue available to them, and the plan was conformed to its new shape.

With their plan locked an ancient power stirred its limbs to life, and from its eternal vigil did it move. Each heavy fall of its hooves echoed down the halls, bringing some small sense of life back to the time worn walls of this forgotten place.

[/][/][5][/][/]

Rarity trotted closely next to Keystone, their fourth member had quickly taken the role of leader soon after it was established that Cartanis had no sense of direction. It wasn’t long after they had made some progress that their newest member began getting enamored with their surroundings. It seemed that something about the seemingly endless hallway of the strange glowing stonework was more fascinating than usual, the only thing the others noticed was that they were clearly out of the mines and had been so since they had crossed the secret passage in Keystone’s hideout.

However the going seemed to be pretty slow and each pony seemed to escape into their thoughts to pass the time. Rarity in particular was deep within her own mind when Keystone’s voice broke her concentration, and she was suddenly aware she was part of a conversation that had been going on a while.

“Just look at the cut of this stone! It looks as though it came out of the mason’s workshop only a few days ago. It’s just gorgeous, oh if I only had the time. You wouldn’t happen to have a pick or something on you perhaps?”

Rarity suddenly realized the conversation had turned toward her, “Oh, um, no dear I don’t partake in such dirty tasks such as that.” She realized what she had just said, and quickly did a roundabout before she lost face. “It’s not that I’m not absolutely fascinated by your practiced knowledge of this place my dear. I’m just wondering if you know where we’re going?”

Keystone seemed slightly off put by her manner, but answered Rarity nonetheless. “Well I’m hoping to find us the living quarters.”

“Living quarters? What good will those do? I doubt someplace this old would have anything of use to us.”

“That’s where you’re wrong Rarity, you see the ancient ponies from a millennia ago had a huge range of magic and technology we don’t have anymore. I swear to you that one time me and my team actually found a sandwich that was still edible. Can you believe that!?”

Rarity wasn’t exactly sure she wanted to, edible didn’t mean tasty. “So… you want to find us something to eat?”

“What? No, although that in itself would be an amazing find, but what I want is to get our hooves on something useful. Maybe a map or if we’re lucky a few of those crystals like I had before. If my professor’s old theory was correct a fully functioning Glowstone facility like this would require you to have them to do anything besides wander the halls endlessly.”

Rarity couldn’t help but ask. “Why do you know all this?”

“It’s my job.” She answered half-heartedly. “Beyond being an archaeologist I mean, the team hired me on as an expert on pre-banishment machinery and such. All I really did was mess with stuff we didn’t understand or opened doors that we didn’t want to destroy. I never got to throw my knowledge around much, not like now.”

“What was your team doing here.” Rarity felt a pause in the air, and slowly realized why. “If it isn’t too much trouble to ask.”

“No, it’s fine. I already know plenty about all of you, it’s only fair.” Keystone took a deep breath and gazed down the hallway for a time. “We were just a few freelancers, got together because we felt like we could attract better work if we advertised ourselves as a group of experts. It helped a bit, but nothing good ever really came through. Never made a discovery big enough to get my name on anything solid, or any of our names for that matter.”

“So it was just another job?”

“Technically it wasn’t even a job at first, just a ‘hint’ from a source that demanded a ridiculous finder’s fee on anything we ‘might’ find. To me it sounded like another pony that thought the hole in his backyard was special, an in and out no deal. Then suddenly Leeway comes back from the meeting with them and I find out this pony apparently scrounged together enough money to actually hire us, and then some. So we agreed to the stupid finder’s fee because we couldn’t pass that up. Lo and behold their claim actually has some meat to it when we get on site, and we regret not trying to talk the fee down before we took the job.”

“So you’re team have been down here before? You found this place?”

“What? No, we only found a few scattered relics in some decent shape in the cave systems. It was dumb luck and a lot of getting lost that made me find my way here. I’m surprised you guys found you’re way here, took me a time and a half of crawling in crevasses to get as far as I was when you found me.”

“You didn’t take the path?”

“What path?”

“It was right inside the main entrance, not far from your camp. It led almost all the way down here and over a bridge to someplace else.”

Keystone just stared at her as they continued to trot, seemingly in disbelief. “There was no path. Not when my team was there.”

Rarity tried to put pieces together in her head. “You said the last time you were there was about two days ago. Which means-”

“-that something made a path.”

“So… what does that mean?” Just as they began to silently reflect upon what their musings could suggest a loud booming voice interrupted them.

“Ladies!”

Rarity had nearly jumped out of her skin alongside Keystone as their old pal Cartanis shouted their way at them.

They looked back to see the wizard standing before another stone doorway. “I do believe that both of you are going to get yourselves lost if you keep going that way.”

Keystone spoke up as Rarity followed her over to her other two compatriots, “At least I could find my way back if I realized we left you behind, you’d get lost just standing around waiting for us to return.”

“My sense of direction is not that bad, I’ll have you know that one time I led our group through a maze of tunnels with simple logic that even a child could understand.”

“Yeah well I doubt ‘following the left wall’ works every time, especially when we start going in circles.”

“Now you listen here-”

“Just save it, we had this fight before, and I don’t want to hear about your imaginary ‘Zebragus’ friend still owing you money.”

Twilight piped in. “He is real you know.”

“Look, I’ve been around the world a few times. There is no such thing as a zebra-pegasus hybrid, his friend is just a Pegasus with an ego and some dark grey coat dye so he can look ‘exotic’ for all the airheaded mares out there.”

“I wouldn’t put it beneath Ted to do something like that, but I shall enjoy making you eat those words Miss Keystone.”

“We’ll see about that.” She then turned toward what they had parked themselves next to. “So what did you manage to find by no small miracle?”

Twilight clasped a hoof over her face, she knew what was about to happen.

Cartanis began with a voice layered in sarcasm. “I thought it should be obvious to someone of your renowned experience with all things underground and ancient.”

Keystone returned fire with a statement feigned with surprise. “Well it seems to be a door, I’m shocked that with all that ‘arcane’ knowledge such a simple facet escaped your unfailing mind.”

Rarity just closed her eyes and rubbed at her aching temples.

“Maybe I’m just testing the fine young lady to see if she’s really as good as she says she is.”

“And maybe I’m just humoring an old coot who can’t stand to be told he’s not good at something.”

Cartanis’ face just spasmed as his composure fell apart with a red passion smeared across his face, “Unfettered bulbous brannigan!”

“Uptight pajama-wearing toad!” Keystone fired back at the end of her own rope as well.

“Lout!”

“Jerk!”

Rarity exploded, her voice boomed with such authority that it seemed to cause out of place rocks to fall back in line. “We get it, you two can’t stand each other! Now start cooperating before I have to start treating the both of you like the toddlers you are, and do something not befitting a lady!!”

There was silence for a time, the only noise that pierced the silence was Rarity’s harsh breathing as she slowly collected herself and swept her mane back into a proper styling. All the while the two grown ponies who had allowed themselves to regress years of maturity shot each other a glance that seemed to ignite a truce between them, for now.

“So what do we do?” The now reasonable wizard asked.

“Give me some time, I need to figure out a few things first.” The cool headed archaeologist answered back.

[/][/][6][/][/]

“Alright, so you’re going to need to destruct, that means take apart not destroy, a crystal lock matrix.”

“And what pray tell does that mean?” Rarity asked in slight confusion to what she had just been told.

“Remove this stone,” Keystone pointed to one just next to the doorways frame on the wall.

Rarity had volunteered to help her when she approached the group about needing a unicorn’s help with something. Cartanis, though willing, was rather incapable of producing more than a harmless spark. Twilight had acted as though she was recovered, but Rarity knew better; so it came down to her.

So Rarity followed Keystone’s instruction, the stone that she wrapped in her magic seemed far looser than it looked to be. As she slowly pulled it out of place there was a light peering out from behind the stone. Once it was free she had to shut her eyes for a moment from the sudden brightness, only to hear Keystone coo at their sudden discovery.

When Rarity had finally recovered from the unwanted glare in her vision she noticed Keystone urge her over to the small glowing window she had created. What she saw made very little sense to her, but it didn’t stop Keystone from idolizing another strange find.

“I can’t believe this, a fully functioning crystal matrix. Just look at it! Inlaid spellwork that gives instruction about what to recognize as a key and how to react to outside stimuli, oh Rarity do you know how wonderful it is to find one so completely intact?”

“Umm…” Rarity just cleared her throat slightly. “I’m sure it’s something worth mentioning in next month’s Equestrian Archeologist Monthly I’m sure.” She really hoped that was a real thing, or else she was going to sound terribly nervous about her friend’s behavior.

“Oh more than just that. We haven’t been able to recreate such crafts in all this time. An entire millennia to catch up and the way of those old long gone ponies still escapes us.” Her eyes seemed to beam as she looked pleadingly toward Rarity. “Please Rarity do be careful with what you have to do next.”

“I’ll try.” She said behind a nervous smile, she wasn’t even sure what she was supposed to do yet and she had been looking at the strange cluster of crystals and stone for a while now. Suddenly she felt Keystone pull her close until they had almost no room between them, the eager mare staring into the bright pit in the wall pointing out strangely named intricacies to the device all the while.

“But you don’t have to worry about all those little things, all you need to mess with is that.”

She pointed toward a large crystal located in the center, floating within a space bored through the structure of the device, two smaller crystals gently suspended in midair with it.

“What exactly do I do with them?”

“The central one, the core, controls the door. When you turn it, it’ll open the door. The thing is those crystals on the side are locking it in position, as well as being aware of tampering. So you have to operate them the same way one of the keys would.”

“Which probably requires magic.”

“Glad you catch on so easily. What you need to do is grab those two locking stones, and slowly move them out of position until they stop inhibiting the central stone from moving. Just don’t remove them from the crystals gravity field given off by the central core, or else it’s going to lock itself down. ”

“So that’s it, the door will open once the lock is gone?”

“No. You have to start turning the central core, clockwise mind you, and the door will start to open. However don’t let the two smaller crystals get back in position until the door is completely open, or else it’ll sense the tampering and well…”

“Well what?”

She cringed as she answered, “It’s going to lock us out or… deal with the tampering directly.”

Rarity’s eyes went wide. “Directly?”

“I wouldn’t worry too much though, its only a two crystal lock. The more crystals in a matrix tends to depict the strength of the magic involved so you might only end up with some singed eyebrows.” That didn’t seem to calm Rarity much. “Or you know… just seal the door. If I had my tools I’d do it myself Rarity, but I don’t so I’m sorry that I have to ask this of you.”

Rarity took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and gently pushed Keystone aside. She then slowly reached out with her magic. Multi-tasking her powers wasn’t exactly a new idea to her, but the danger potentially posed by these small bobbles made her prior accomplishments seem null. So she very carefully coaxed her magic around them, a bit uneasy that they seemed to resist her attempts to envelope them in her horn’s shimmering magic.

She kept on working at it, shutting everything else out like she always did when attempting something this difficult. Slowly but surely the two small crystals were grasped by her radiance. Rarity then began the long process of trying to move them. Directly attempting to force them out of position didn’t work, neither did twisting and turning them. She couldn’t figure it out, something about how she tried to move them seemed wrong. Perhaps they didn’t need to be forced, maybe it took a gentler touch.

It was difficult, but after some experimentation she got them to move. The exact effect needed seemed to be coaxing them into moving, more gentle pushing then pulling. The two small crystals seemed to be listening to her, slowly moving away from the large center piece with every gentle nudge from her magic. Yet on occasion she would feel resistance, and never from both at once. They seemed to push back, every time she felt a spark of her magic disappear, and coaxing them became a little harder.

Eventually though she helped the two small crystals find their way to the end of their path, where they stopped moving completely. Only for her to notice that they would shine occasionally.

“Alright they’re in position, now start turning the central core clockwise.”

Rarity did as Keystone said, making sure not to let the smaller crystals free of her grasp. As her magic began to envelope the central core she noticed something about the smaller ones, they had begun sparking slightly, with a glow familiar to her own. Suddenly she felt a force explode from them, something counter to what she was doing. It took everything in her to maintain control, as she tried to turn the core to open the door.

“What are you doing? Just hurry up and-”

She had to shush Keystone, this took more concentration than threading a needle. The two smaller crystals kept trying to move, almost counteractively to what she tried to do to keep them where they were. It was almost like they were aware of what she was doing, alive. The thought of such was unsettling to say the least. Whatever the case Rarity began turning the core while trying to keep the locks in line. As she did so the door beside her began to grate and groan as long untended gears began to pull the doorway open.

Keystone was already at the entryway, trying to peek inside the opening. “Good job Rarity, just keep at it.”

Suddenly Rarity heard a screech, it definitely didn’t come from the door, and it definitely didn’t come from a pony.

In no short order she heard Cartanis shout, “Ghouls!”

Rarity’s mind froze for a moment, memories of those terrible blackened eyes entering her thoughts. She shook herself out of it, this wasn’t the time to panic.

“How many?” She shouted back, trying to maintain control of the door all the while.

“I’m not sure but I’d rather not find out.” Cartanis’ attention then went to Keystone. “Is there another way out in there?”

The archaeologist practically had her head shoved through the meager opening to the next room. “I think I see something on the other side, but I could be wrong.”

“Rarity, get the door open. We’ll hold them as long as we can.”

She would’ve preferred that he hadn’t sounded so final about it, but never the less she went back to work on the door. The core was being far too stubborn for her tastes, as she heard the first volley of spells rip into reality down the hall. Slowly but surely the door gave way to her tampering, the core spinning a little faster as the small crystals seemed to fight her less and less.

“Just a little more, maybe I can squeeze through and see about getting it open from the other side.”

Keystone’s words fell flat as Cartanis shouted out once again. “By the gods, what is that!?”

Rarity couldn’t take her eyes from her work, but hearing the experienced wizard be surprised in such a way caused more than a little worry. Without warning she heard a concussion of air behind her, as something loud and powerful nearly took her head off; she was barely able to keep her hold on the lock.

“Twilight! How do we break that barrier?” The wizard had shouted after the event.

“I don’t know, the trick my brother taught me isn’t working. It shouldn’t even be able to move while it’s concentrating so hard.”

Another blast of force echoed down the hallway, followed by a curse from the wizard. “Everything I throw at it just bounces off. Rarity we need that door open now!”

Rarity did her best but the stone would only turn so fast, the door ancient and slow. She wasn’t sure how much time they still needed, but it seemed like it wasn’t on their side. At least until she heard a welcome surprise from Keystone.

“Alright I’m through! I see another lock on this side!” Her head suddenly peeked out from the rather small leeway created by the still opening door. “I’m going to need another unicorn for this!”

Cartanis quickly shouted an order, “Twilight, go!”

“But-”

“GO!”

Rarity held her concentration as she heard Twilight trot past her at a quickened pace. She could do little more than continue to try and open the door, hoping it would be wide enough for her friend to fit through. All the while the commotion down the hall only continued to grow more intense, the occasional blast of force was soon joined by bouts of fire and the roar of thunder. She could only hope he would be able to hold out.

Suddenly she heard the old stallion grunt in pain, right before the world seemed to spin out of control as something heavy slammed into her. In her panic she gripped whatever she could in her power and threw it at whatever had her. She remembered a bright light, followed by an explosion of force that threw her to the ground and left her ears ringing. Before she could recover there was something on top of her, cold and angry. Rarity came back to her senses with a terrible maw that dripped with a black venom from a face that held an empty stare behind blackened eyes.

Rarity froze, only to be awoken from her blank stare as those needled teeth darted for her face. She barely recovered in time to shift out of its reach, but she couldn’t move from the beast’s grasp as it had her pinned beneath it. As she fought for her life Rarity saw Twilight out of the corner of her eye on the other side of the door. Her friend screamed her name as it slammed shut between them, leaving her with only the angry maw of the ghoul that snapped at her with a deep seething hunger.

She tried to maintain her composure as she used her magic to dig around her saddlebag, angry snarled teeth darting for her face all the while. Then she felt something familiar collide with her horn’s shimmer, and in one solid motion the blade arced out of its sheath and broadsided the beast’s chest. It recoiled in pain, just enough so that Rarity could crawl out from under it. Before it had time to try something again she pulled her back legs close and launched them in its general direction. She felt her well cared for hooves slam into it with a full force buck.

Rarity quickly got to her feet, blade floating before her, ready to deal with the beast. When suddenly the air felt charged with energy as a bolt of light and sound ripped into the abomination. It flailed and screeched as the energy seemed to sear its flesh from the intensity, a broken body soon falling where before a menacing beast had stood. She looked over and saw Cartanis charging down the hall toward her.

“Run!”

It had all happened so fast Rarity didn’t have time to process what he said, not until she noticed what it was he was running from. There was a wall of swirling purple energy not far behind him, a small locus of light just beyond its border. She could only hazard a guess that his was the thing that had impeded their defense earlier. It didn’t take long for the belated order to set in, and so they ran.

[/][/][7][/][/]

“Rarity!”

Twilight could only watch as that image of her friend’s face frozen in fear was burned into her mind. She went back to the lock, she had to get the door open, and she had to get it open now. But no matter how she tried to manipulate the complex device it wouldn’t respond. Only a slight headache divulged that she was even trying to use her weakened magic at all.

Twilight turned to face Keystone directly, “Why isn’t this working? You told me this would work!”

“I don’t know maybe Rarity tripped something when she got-”

Her explanation was interrupted as they heard a terrifying howl from the other side of the doorway, cut short by a rumble of thunder as a small heard of hooves echoed through the wall.

“What… what happened?”

“I don’t know.” Twilight quickly returned her attention to Keystone. “We have to get out of here, they need me with them.”

“Alright… maybe we could-”

Keystone jumped back slightly as a sound of scratching emanated from the closed doorway, an uneasy tempo to the animalistic noise that gave no ease to their minds.

“Oh just buck off!” She shouted back as she tried to get her racing heart under control. “Please tell me things like this are not the norm for your little group.”

“More often than they should be.”

“Well, whatever it may be we really should get out of here. I’m not coming this far just to starve to death in some musty old room.”

Twilight tried to keep pace with Keystone as she took off deeper into the room. Albeit the space wasn’t very large to begin with, but it was dark enough that the slight glow from her horn was appreciated.

“So are we going to try the trick with the lock again?” Twilight looked about the room, what she could see made it look like a bunkroom, beds and odd looking dressers spanning the length of the strange hall.

“No,” Keystone answered as she opened a drawer. “Well maybe, only if we find ourselves without any luck left. Ah-ha!”

Twilight tried to peer over Keystone’s shoulder to see what the discovery was, only to find a strange purple crystal shoved in her face.

“Take this.”

She didn’t know what to make of it, but it looked slightly familiar. The chain latched onto the crystals surface gave an idea that it was a necklace. “What is this for?”

Keystone had already raced off to another dresser and was sporting an orange one for herself. “They’re like that stone I had before. Never understood what they were for exactly, but they were common apparel back in the day apparently. They should let us operate the doors at the least.” She disappeared from Twilights view for a moment and returned with two other crystals wrapped around her neck.

“So do we need to use one per door or?”

“What? No, these are for your friends. When we find them of course.”

Twilight was thankful for the words of hope. “Okay, so how do we use them.”

“This way, I’ll show you.” She cast a wary glance toward the door that still had the attention of the beasts on the other side. “On the other door.”

Twilight gave some attention to the door that had locked behind her as well, she knew that even if they could get it open there was no telling how many of those things were on the other side. She just had to hope there was some way to find her friend’s through the other exit.

“So.” Keystone began as she once again gained Twilights attention. “It’s rather simple, you just have to find the open socket beside the door and…”

With a gentle push she inserted one of the three glowing crystals into a small divot beside the new door. Instantly there was a flash of energy that seemed to worm its way through the wall and into the frame of the door. The air was filled with noise as ancient stone grated against itself. Keystone seemed to inwardly smile as the doorway before her began to open.

“Alright.” She began. “Do you think you’re up for finding those friends of yours?”

Twilight only gazed upon the doorway, anxious to see the other side. “Yeah.” She felt that inner fire deep in her heart, the fire that would inspire her to lead. “And nothing is going to get in my way.”

There was an audible rumble in the air as the door finally locked itself open. The duo wasted little time in seeing what lay upon the other side. That which they saw was different from the endless halls and corridors from before. The space had strange machines scattered about, old desks with ancient paper flung wild in a panic all across the room. It was like the lab in her basement at the library, but far larger and perhaps a bit messier. That was when Twilight realized that this wasn’t just another room, just another place on the journey. She knew now that this was a place of purpose.

“Twilight!”

Her attention was grabbed by Keystone who had already headed toward a door that she hadn’t seen yet across the room.

“Come on, they should’ve gone in this direction!”

Twilight saw the door’s frame light up like before, but Keystone was nowhere near it. “Keystone wait!”

The archeologist screeched to a halt as she noticed the door, her eyes wide. “No, that’s impossible.”

Twilight barely made out what she had said, when suddenly a beam of light shot through the open doorway and slammed into keystone. She screamed in pain for a second and then fell flat against the ground.

“Keystone!”

Before Twilight could hope to rally a defense against it another beam of light arced through the air. When it slammed into her she felt her whole body go numb, the world began to spin then fall. She was incapable of understanding what was happening, not even able to feel the cold floor smash against her face as she crashed into the floor. Everything began to fade from her vision, colors mute and lifeless, sounds distant and distorted.

“Subdued.”

One voice rang out, like a metallic bell that pounded against her ears.

“Remove to Quarantine. Anomalies still present.”

She could see them now, barely. Hooves covered in metal, light leaking out from cracks in their strange armor. All of it slowly disappearing, as a force wrapped around her body and left her helpless, the world fading all the while into darkness.

[/][/][8][/][/]

Rarity dived behind a pillar, shards of magic smashing pieces from its surface. They had been chased for a time now. In that time they learned that their mysterious magic wielder was in fact a unicorn ghoul, and they had finally wound up in a dead end. Luckily there was plenty of cover, whatever this place had once been it had become rather destroyed before they arrived.

Rarity saw something move in the shadows, “Cartanis, he’s back.”

Another shot from the ghoulicorn bounded off one of his counter spells, thankfully able to block the magic it used. “I can’t deal with him at the moment.” Was all he was able to say as another wave of spells approached.

She had hoped he could at least help, the ghoul that kept returning was the last of the ghoulicorn’s entourage and also the toughest. The others were outdone by a lucky chance that provided itself, and some of the wizard’s fire. This one though was different, tougher. The mark upon its eye led her to believe it was the same one that had dogged her the whole while she had been down here.

Rarity had no time to think further as it leapt from the shadows, its ability to hide in plain sight removed ever since the wizard had singed its flesh. It was darting straight for Cartanis as he created a dome of arcane light over them to prevent the nastier spells from getting through.

She placed herself between them, rapier drawn and ready. When the monster closed the distance it lashed out with its claws, appalling unnatural things that had left her with more than one aching wound. Rarity managed to backpedal, dodging the swipes and leaving a few of her own whenever it left itself open. She didn’t have much room to give however.

Light bloomed across their fight, as spells smashed against each other overhead, small sparks raining down to crash in an angry release of energy around them as the shell began to fade.

Rarity did something brash, a dive toward the creature to make it fall back. The first strike dove deep into flesh, she heard it recoil from the pain. She advanced toward the beast, another blow prepared, but the ghoul had feigned. It ducked under her prepared blow and sank its claws in her shoulder, she could only cry out in pain as teeth flew forward to deliver the final blow.

All she could do was try something desperate. She took her rapier where it was and drove it down into the beast, piercing it through its back deep enough that its impalement was evident from the other side. Rarity had left wounds upon it before, but when the blade was driven through the beast’s chest it seemed to back away in a fit of some sort. The pain inducing claws ripped from her shoulder to expose the deep wounds to the air, her robes torn partially from the scuffle that followed as Rarity did her best to get away from the beast.

She could only watch, her leg limp and useless, as the ghoul tried to remove the rapier. Luck would have it that the beast seemed unable to reach the handle stuck into its back, and there seemed to be a fair bit of the beast’s blood dripping from the other end that was jutting out from its chest. Rarity could only wonder how much more punishment this monster could handle, much to her dismay it seemed to be capable of taking a bit more.

The beast wasted no time in charging straight for her, no way to defend herself. She had one last gambit, something she had no idea would work. A spell she had read from Cartanis’ old book, one that had something to do with force, capable of being focused and applied in all manner of ways.

But what was the word? Closer and closer the beast became, every immense stride giving it more speed. All she had to do was remember the word! Teeth covered in its blood snarling and ready to end her.

“Newtonus!”

The word spoken from her mouth rang with power, and the vibrations of power seemed to find home in her weapon. The blade impaled into the beast began to glow, and a concussive thud shocked the air. As magic ripped apart the flesh that it surrounded, leaving behind the lower half of the living corpse that had attempted to take her life.

All Rarity could do was hope for a moment of peace, but she seemed to not have such fortune. A spark of magic appeared not far from her, and it wasn’t until it was far too late that she realized what it was. She didn’t have much time to contemplate the form that took shape, the surprise of a teleporting ghoulicorn too much for her weary body, and without warning she found herself thrown aside by a powerful force; the air knocked from her chest as she slammed against a pillar.

The world seemed to spin, noises clashed in the distance, as lights danced on the edge of her vision. She tried to get a clue to her surroundings, and could only see the power of two worlds collide. Arcane lightning ripped across the ground as it rebounded off a spell concentrated from a unicorn’s horn, the two great forces not giving in, each spitting smoke and ash as they fought each other for dominance as their user’s fed them power.

Rarity tried to get up, to help, but every time she would lose herself as the ground was her only comfort while her body tried to catch up to her mind. There was a great concussion of noise, as the terrible sound of the two magics colliding ceased for a moment. Rarity looked up and saw Cartanis preparing another spell, as the ghoulicorn’s horn began to reignite with power once more. She had no idea how either of them kept going, Cartanis must have been near the limit of what he was capable of; the wear evident on his face. Yet the ghoulicorn showed no sign of slowing, some unseen force seemed to give it an unimaginable pool to drain in their fight.

She could see that Cartanis had a spell prepared, its power distorting the world around him, yet he waited. Waited as the ghoulicorn’s horn sparked and cascaded with layer after layer of enchantment, some spell yet unseen forming for its next attack. She didn’t understand, why was he waiting, the creature was open.

“Cartanis!” He spared her a look, for only a moment, and she understood in a single horrifying instant.

The ghoulicorn’s horn exploded with light as a beam of sound and fury echoed toward the wizard. It was like nothing Rarity had ever seen before, a concentration of power absolutely terrifying to behold. There was no doubt in her mind what would happen if Cartanis was unable to deflect it. With no time to spare the wizard fired his own spell, a great ball of fire lobbed high; well over the beam and any defense the ghoulicorn may have created. She could only marvel at his plan, but it had a cost, one very steep.

At the last possible moment, she saw a barrier form, but it was weak; created in haste. The two magics collided once more, one trying to destroy the other, as the world seemed to barely hold itself together from their clash. He was trying to keep the barrier alive, the strain evident in his stance as any power he had left went into it. Rarity could only watch as the barrier seemed to melt, flakes of the ghostly weave burning away like a gossamer curtain in a fire. His own spell was almost upon his target, he just had to hold on for a while longer.

Suddenly great cracks formed across the barrier’s surface, and it began to fade away; quickly, far too quickly. She called out his name, just a little while longer, just a moment was all he needed; but even that was asking far too much for the tired old wizard. The beam engulfed his fading barrier, and slammed into him, as a great fire began to burn across the way; a creature of nightmare howling in pain as death finally claimed it. Rarity could only watch in horror as the wizard’s body was encompassed by the spell, causing him to glow with a terrifying radiance, as his form began to wither away into countless strands of light that faded away into the darkness. His body slowly became nothing, the spell only sparing what was left of his robes.

This couldn’t be real, it shouldn’t be real. She had to get up, she had to try and help him, whatever may be left of him. Her body was weak, but it finally began to listen again. She cared little for the smoldering remains of the ghoulicorn as she began to hobble her way over to him, to what was left. As she began to move something grabbed one of her back legs, a horrid rough palm had wrapped around it. She kicked at it immediately as a response of fear took hold, a bit of speed returned to her as she gained some distance from the weak grip. What she saw left her with no little sense of disgust and anger.

The ghoul from earlier, its torso, was still mostly intact and barely alive. Even when at death’s door it still sought to end her life, but it was weak now, whatever strength it had was spent just trying to crawl out of wherever it had landed to try and kill her despite such odds against it. She saw her blade, still stuck in its back, and without remorse she used her magic to rip it from the beast’s spine. The creature moaned in agony as she brandished her weapon once more, prepared to fight, prepared to kill.

Yet the creature stayed its ground, unable to even lift its head as its strength finally began to leave it. She prepared her blade, closed some of the distance, ready to strike where she had been trained to do so in the name of defense to take the life of another. Those eyes looked up at her, still filled with the blind anger that the ghoul’s seemed to carry within them. Yet Rarity found herself hesitant, the blade simply waiting for her command, ready to sink into the beast and end its horrible existence. Yet all she could do was look into those eyes, and see something familiar, an insignificant wisp of a thought that made her know she had seen them somewhere before.

That was when it hit her. Everything about this creature was wrong, the claws, the fangs, the body contorted and mutated into a cadaver of muscle and anger. Yet the eyes, they were the only thing that made her stop, the only thing that made her realize. This used to be a pony, more than that it used to be somepony from her home, turned into this creature, this thing of nightmare. It wasn’t a monster anymore, not when it was like this, not when it was no longer filled with fire and hate. Now it was a face of one of those townsfolk with a good heart, one she may have seen before but never knew, turned into… this. She couldn’t do this, how was she supposed to do this?

Its breath seemed to grow weaker, as the body seemed to slowly lose what was left of its strength, only a weak raspy sound emanating from the creature as its eyes began to stare blankly ahead. The corpse slowly returning to what it once was.

Rarity couldn’t leave it like this, as a monster that may return, the memory of who it once was forever locked within a beast that would kill without hesitation. She couldn’t just walk away, it had to be done. She readied her blade, held it close to where it must go to end it quickly. Those eyes though, they stared at her, through her; blank and lifeless as the corpse continued to wheeze. She closed her eyes, and struck. The last thing she heard of it was a final release, one last long sigh as the corpse was finally free of its unlife.

All Rarity could do was try and hold herself in check, as she slowly withdrew her blade and cleaned it. Those eyes, even without life, seemed to stare at her. She did the only thing that felt right, and closed them, the only feature upon the terrible creation that still looked normal, that still looked like a friendly pony. She looked at the smoldering remains of the ghoulicorn, knowing that it too was another face she may find familiar, and then she looked toward the remains of the wizard; his cloak and hat all that remained.

How was she supposed to do this without him? How were they supposed to fight this lich that could turn ponies, good well-meaning ponies, into these abominations without their help? What were they supposed to do when the faces were not just ghosts in the back of their minds, but fresh familiar faces that they had known so well? What were they supposed to do if Applejack… she couldn’t finish that thought. She didn’t know, and she didn’t want to know.

The pain of it all, the very idea of it all, crashed into her and she couldn’t hold back anymore. She weeped, controlling herself as best she could, but the tears still flowed. This entire venture was falling apart, she was all alone in a mountain filled with monsters that had once been part of her home, with faces that she would know were once pleasant. How was she supposed to get out of this? How were any of them supposed to get out of this without losing someone else?

“No… No Rarity stop that.” She told herself, slowly but surely regaining her composure. “This isn’t how a lady acts, this isn’t how you were raised and taught, you’ve dealt with worse than this.” She stopped herself short of making it sound trivial. “Well, relatively speaking.”

She then took a potion from her saddlebag, noticing she had a few left, hopeful that they would last.

“Down the hatch then.”

She gagged at the flavor, like ill-prepared tea, or just about anything Sweetie Belle may have prepared. Thankful that the pain and soreness in her shoulder began to disappear she couldn’t understand why the thought of Sweetie Belle’s cooking made her smile. It slowly disappeared as she looked toward the wizard’s remains, knowing that she must peruse them to find anything that may help it. She was by herself now, she could not avoid such a truth, and she must do what was required of her to help herself at the least. It was something she knew he would’ve wanted her to do.

It simply felt wrong to even approach his forgotten robes, clumped together in a pile as the hat sat not very far away. Rarity began to look through the robes with as much respect as she could muster, rifling through pockets that may have contained something useful. She found his book, the one that refused to work, and placed it inside her own packs. Aside from that there wasn’t much else, save a potion that she might use later, anything else felt a little too odd to take from him.

She laughed at herself, treating it as though he was still there, at that moment something fell out of the robe; something heavy. It clattered on the ground in front of her, and she was absolutely dumbfounded at what she saw. She slowly, and carefully, lifted it from the ground with her magic. Its shape was odd to say the least, especially so given that it was a plant. What in the world was a wizard doing with a cactus stowed away in his robes anyway? Especially one that was potted and looked like a pony.

Slowly, but surely, the gears in her head began to turn. She remembered a story that Twilight had told her, of what she had done once when she was just a filly, but this was impossible. How and why would the ghoulicorn use that much power just to turn Cartanis into a… She remembered the barrier, how it was engulfed in the beam’s power, how the magic of the two world’s always interfered with each other. Maybe, just maybe, there was hope; but how was she to be certain?

Rarity began looking around for his hat, maybe there was something in his hat that could help her. Except the hat seemed to have grown legs of its own, it was not where she saw it last, and it was nowhere in sight; not until she looked back at the ponified cactus. There, in a much smaller size, sitting upon the cactus’ featureless head was a tiny top hat. Rarity began to giggle with glee, it wasn’t the best possible sign, but it was good enough to give her some hope. In a fit of joy she snuggled the little Cartanis Cactus against her face, only to recoil as the realization of needles pressed into her face slowly took hold.

Slowly removing one or two that had buried themselves in her she spoke to the plant, “Don’t worry Cartanis, we’ll find Twilight then she’ll get you back to normal again, and we can get you back into some proper colors. Your hat definitely does not go with cactus green.”

She then, with a far cooler head, placed Cartanis within her saddlebag along with his carefully folded robes. He sat high enough just so his head popped out the top, and on some level she felt comforted that he might be able to see and know she had him. She looked around, the space in a terrible state after the prolonged fight, the bodies of the ghoul’s left her wishing she had time to give them the burial for the ponies that they once were deserved; but she knew there was no way to do so in this place.

All she could do was figure out a plan. There was more than one other path they had been unable to explore thanks to the chase, but now that she was free she might be able to explore them and perhaps find their friends. She just took a deep breath and let the stress of the situation leave her, this was like any other task she had given herself in life, just one stitch, one cross, one step at a time until she could come up for air. She left the horrible place at a fast trot, ready to do whatever it took to save her friends that might have need of her.

End of Chapter 15

Comments

[ArchAIngel]

Odd tech, messing with horrible arcane THINGS, crystals, golems... Did you ponify the Dwemer?

[Sonicbrony66]

CARTANACACTUS

[Lawrence Gander]

2350161

I suppose that is a close enough allegory, although they are not literally the dwemer mind you.

[ArchAIngel]

2350245 Good, otherwise the princesses would be missing their hearts, and the dwemer would be busily mutating and screwing around with the locals, and probably dissecting pinkie to see how she works. That is the Dwemer, and they are NOT NICE.

[TheTautomer]

READING LATER.

[drake geargrinder]

1425381
you owe me ten bits
bet you thought I had forgotten

[Lawrence Gander]

2350676
2350682

Good luck with your story, yes OC can mean Original Character or Original Content (with stories though it tends to mean Character). Just be very careful with OC's they can be tricky to implement correctly, my message box is open at any time if you wish to talk.

Also, damn i wish i had known of that song's existence before i split up the party.

2350182

And now i want to go back and find a way to sneak that name in there

[Arcane Howitzer]

2350182
No, Cactanis. Cactanis is best desert flora.

2350802
Darnit, the entire dungeon craw has gone to heck in a hamsterbowl and you're bringing that up?!
...
I don't have the bits.
Have some Derpy instead

[drake geargrinder]

2355518
YOU SHALL SUFFER FOR YOUR INCOMPITENCE.....

oh a Derpy, All is forgiven!
(overzealous use of Emoticon Ponies)

[Anquietas]

What was Nightmare up to....

[Bronydragon]

Well here I am. Six years after the last comment.
This was in my read later for a long time and I definitely enjoyed it.
Hope even though you haven't updated in so long that this story isn't dead but merely postponed.
I'd love to see how they handle everything.

Dragon