How worlds live and die

by SoikerNahmu

Chapter 3: First Obstacles

“Wow, you look messy. Has something happened to you?”

“Couldn't sleep,” the young creature replied while it was slowly moving towards the table. “The young cerberi were barking all night. Don't tell me you didn't hear them.”

The cerberi? Maybe that was a helpful hint. If she couldn't change what happened here, she could at least try to find it out.

“Slept like a dead”, answered the skeleton with a grin before taking another sip of his coffee.

“Very funny,” said the young one in a bored tone as he sat down at the table. “But it's not normal for them to be that loud around this time of the year. Would you mind passing me the bread?”

“Here.” With a gentle movement the skeleton pushed a box towards the other end of the table. “And don't worry about the cerberi. It was probably just a Windigo that has been a bit too early. It won't kill us.” The skeleton laughed.

“Yes it will!”

“Again, very funny.”

“You two should get out of here.” Again, no reaction.

And then everything crumbled.

---

“These rocks are supposed to be an ancient relict?” asked Rarity unconvinced.

Homer went up towards the structure: “Of course not. The relict is hidden inside them. Let's hope they fixed this.” He reached into a hole between two of the boulders, “I don't want my arm to AAAAAAHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”

The six mares shrunk back from the humans sudden scream. Has Tempa already gotten him? That would definitely not be good.

“Oh, you totally fell for it.”

Right next to Homer, one of the smaller rocks started to move aside and revealed a dark cave behind it. The spirit of knowledge was still crying in pain. Humans sure had a strange way of crying, it sounded like he was laughing.

“You should see your faces.” The human took his arm out of the hole again, which, to the confusion the ponies, was unharmed. Now Pinkie began laughing as well and Fluttershy left out a relieved sigh.

“O Darling,” moaned Rarity “Please warn us next time you want to scare us. This excitement isn't good for my fur.”

“Do ya' think this is the right time for jokes?” asked Applejack.

The rock came to a stop, so that the cave now lay open. Homer shrugged while stepping in front of the entrance.

“It didn't throw us back.”

He enter the cave, but stopped again, as a metallic clicking sounded, followed by a slight rumble. With a thud, the spirit was thrown on his back and landed on the ground before the mares.

“That however did.”

In the entrance, there was a log, hanging from the roof with thick strings.

“Is that supposed to be another joke?” The purple Unicorn was looking down at the human, who examined his nose with his fingers. He then hold up his thumb before Twilight's face.

“I'm all right, nothing is broken. Thanks for being so concerned about me.”

Slowly Homer sat up again. Scratching his chin he examined the log. “We might have a problem here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I cannot remember that trap. Tempa must have build it after someone was here for the last time. Therefore I don't know what will await us from now on.”

He stood up.

“But we haven't got much of a choice, do we?” With that, the human entered the cave again.

---

Why are the nights in Tartarus always so dark? Even the most dangerous creatures in Equestria shouldn't be forced to live like that, but that wasn't what she was here for. Or what she was now for.

Slowly her eyes got used to the lack of light and she could make out a cerberus, sleeping several meters before her. The right place at the first try. Perfect. Maybe a little bit closer to get a better look at them. Carefully. Carefully.

*Crack*

An old bone crumbled under her foot. It wasn't very loud, but enough to wake up the cerberus. His yellowish eyes glowed in the dark. Snarling, the three headed dog rose.

Don't move! Maybe he won't see you then.

Next to the cerberus a pair of red eyes appeared. Angry about his interrupted sleep, the regarding head began barking, waking up his twins and another dozen eyes. Also angry, they began to bark as well, distracting the first one.

That's my chance. Maybe I can get away unnoticed.

*CRACK*

Another bone. This one loud enough to get the attention of all four cerberi.

---

The inside of the cave was filled with the noise of metal scratching against metal. Its source was a field of golden spikes, rapidly shooting out of holes in the ground, and being retracted again. On the other side of the field, there was a giant lever.

“How are we gonna make it past that?” asked Applejack.

“Well, I could just,” began Twilight, but got interrupted by Homer: “Let me handle this.”

The human put down his backpack and began running towards the field. The six mares exchanged concerned looks, but the spirit easily tiptoed around the spikes. As if it was the most natural thing for him to do, he twisted and turned to avoid every attack at a speed, that even amazed Rainbow Dash. Like that, it took him only a few seconds to get to the lever, which Homer moved using the remaining speed from his little 'dance'.

The six mares walked through the now silent trap towards the Human, who sat on the ground, his eyes still spinning.

“That was awesome!” cheered Rainbow “How have you done that?”

“Spirit's immortality. It forces us to avoid damage, even beyond our own physical possibility.”

“Yet you weren’t able to dodge that log.” mentioned Applejack sarcastically.

“It didn't damage me, did it?” Carefully Homer stood up again.

“You know that I could have just used my magic to move the lever?” said Twilight.

“Yeah, but my way was more fun. Now let's go!” Full of elan the Spirit turned around, and almost fell over again.

“Can someone please keep the room from spinning?”

---

This immortality is pretty helpful, she thought to herself while running away from the cerberi faster than her short legs should enable her to. The twelve heads that were chasing her barked wildly. No wonder Vito can't sleep like this.

Another bone made her trip and she fell on the ground. The cerberi's inertia caused them to run past her, so that they came to a stop in front of her. Keeping eye contact with the largest of the four, she slowly stood up. For half a minute the five of them stayed silent, looking at each other, knowing, whoever looked away first would lose. Time was running away, so she had to think of something. Without a warning she spit out a small flame towards the cerberi and used the created moment of confusion to run away, back into the direction they came from.

Was that door already open before?

---

The trap in the next room consisted of giant pillars, crashing into the ground, which resembled a chessboard. Homer was looking around curiously.

“That's interesting”

“What do you mean?”

The Spirit turned towards Twilight: “Well, that artifact I was talking about earlier is a room that suppresses the powers of us spirits and, by that, enables Chron and Tempa to appear in the present. That room used to be about here, but it isn't anymore. Tempa must have relocated it somehow. Nevertheless, some of the rooms power seems to be left here, causing my knowledge to be somewhat blurred.”

Twilight wanted to make a funny comment about the Humans action in the last room, something like 'Are you sure that is no consequence of your show?' but Applejack was faster on saying something.

“Be careful sugarcube, that looks pretty dangerous.”

“We can't die silly, you remember.”

Homer and Twilight turned their heads to see what they were talking about, and bursted out in unison: “PINKIE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

“You were right, this is fun.” answered the pony happily, while hopping around between the pillars.

“She never ceases to surprise me.” The human shook his head. “I hate being a drag, but could you please check if there is a lever or something like that on the other side, that could stop this trap.”

“Oky doky loky.” Pinkie saluted, and stopped for a moment to do so. Just then one of the pillars began falling onto the spot where she stood.

---

*Thump*

She locked the door behind herself and could feel the force of the cerberi rushing into the wall, leaving cracks behind.

That clue was a dead end, so she had to think of something different, but of what, and where could she find other clues? They wouldn't just drop from the sky.

....

Nope, nothing's dropping. Too bad, in a comedy that would have worked, and only in a comedy would this be the appropriate time for jokes.

Maybe....It shouldn't be too late, she could still do something.

---

The six of them were standing there, motionless and shocked.

“Woah, that was close.” said Pinkie, while she was looking at the bottom of the pillar, which had stopped just a few centimeters above her head.

“She never ceases to surprise me.” repeated Homer to himself.

“How. But. What has just happened?” asked Twilight.

The human silently examined the scene for a moment, and then pointed towards the pink pony: “It seems like she got on a pressure plate, which then stopped the trap.”

Indeed, the plate Pinkie stood on was lowered a bit, compared to the surrounding ones.

“Wow, what luck.” The pink pony began laughing.

“Yeah, luck.” Homer said skeptical.

“What do you mean?” asked Rainbow.

The spirit shook his head: “Nothing,” he then began moving towards the door at the other end of the room, “Let's go. There can't be much more room for traps.”

Carefully he stepped from one plate to the next, continuously watching the roof for potentially dropping pillars. Pinkie hummed a joyful tune, while she was hopping towards the door as well. It was her who reached it first. With a gentle push the earth pony opened the entrance, and a cold draft went through the room.

“Wow. That's big.”

Homer sped up to see what astonished Pinkie like that.

“Seems like I was wrong.” He stated after entering the following room, which was enormous. So big, that it normally shouldn't fit into the hill.

“How could Tempa build this?”, asked Homer himself, while looking around.

For the most part, the hall consisted of a vast canyon, so deep that it's bottom couldn't be seen. On the other end a stonebridge rose to the ceiling.

Now the other five ponies followed.

“This is amazing. I wonder what spell they used to make this possible.” Twilight continued walking while looking around the hall. It was big enough to store several of Canterlot's aircraft, whereas the hill outside was hardly larger than one of them. The unicorns thoughts were abruptly disrupted when Applejack grabbed her tail and stopped Twilight’s little stroll.

“You might wanna watch where you go.” mumbled the earth pony. Twilight took a look down into the abyss below her feet and gulped.

“Thanks AJ.”

Rainbow Dash flew in front of her.

“I'll take a quick look at the other side, to see if there's a way to lower that bridge.” Not awaiting any response the pegasus flew away. It didn't took her long to get an answer.

“There is the statue of a human who want's to hear the 'magic word that makes everything happen'.” she called.

“Magic is your specialty Twilight.”

“Yes, but unicorn magic doesn't use words, and there is no one spell for everything. Rainbow said it's the statue of a human. Does human magic has such a word?”

“Humans don't have magic, but there might be something that fits the description, though it is more of a children's rhyme. TRY ALACAZAM!”

There was a short moment of silence, before Rainbow Dash answered: “It's not working, and the statue says I have only two tries left.”

Homer was scratching his head. “Let's see. Who else uses magic?”

“Uhm.”

“Yes, Fluttershy?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“If you got an idea, you can tell us.”

“It's probably wrong.”

“We can't know if we don't try, sugarcube.” Applejack tapped the pegasus' back to comfort her.

“But what if we miss the last two tries?”

“Then Twilight uses her magic to teleport us to the other side. You see, there is nothing to be afraid of. Just spit it out.”

“How about 'please'?”

“Please?”

“You can make almost anybody do anything by being kind.”

“What did she say? I can't hear her.” called Rainbow Dash from across the canyon.

“TRY SAYING PLEASE.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“YOU GOT A BETTER IDEA?”

The echo of Homers voice clang through the room and left behind silence again. But that didn't last for very long, before it got broken by a loud rumbling noise, as the bridge began to fall down. The only sound louder than that, was the shriek Fluttershy left out shortly before running back. Following her example, the other ponies also backed away from the abyss. Homer on the other hand stood still, watching the bridge falling.

“Get away!” yelled Twilight, but the Human didn't move a muscle. She wanted to pull him away with her magic, but the bridge was faster and crashed into the ground, raising a giant cloud of dust.

As fast as she was gone, Rainbow now came back to check on her friends.

“Are you alright?”, asked Rainbow Dash while dissolving the dust with her wings.

“Yeah, it seems so.” answered Twilight, who just stood up again, after the shockwave of the landing bridge had thrown them all back. “What about Homer?”

The human still stood in the exact same spot as before, dusting of his shoulders. The bridge apparently came down directly in front of him and fitted perfectly into the gap.

“I didn't expect that to work.” he said. “Anyway, let's go.”

“Wait!” Rainbow landed in front of him. “I had to promise that stone-guy that we would only cross the bridge one at a time.”

Homer scratched his chin. “Did you promise him that we actually cross the bridge as well?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we don't really have the time to cross the bridge one at a time, so I suggest we save some time by letting Twilight teleport us all over there anyway.”

“Isn't that like cheating?”

“I would rather call it a free interpretation.”

“I'm with Homer on this one.” intervened Twilight. “The whole world’s fate is at hoof. We have no time to waste.”

“Yeah. Teleportations are fun.” Pinkie was happily hopping around the group.

“What fun is there in something that bad for your skin?” asked Rarity, while following the pink pony with her eyes.

Still hiding behind her mane, Fluttershy also rose her voice: “I don't think it is a good idea to anger a giant statue.”

“I guess it's worth a try.” mentioned Applejack last.

“Four against three, I won!” The human rubbed his hands against each other. “Let's do this. Twilight?”

The purple unicorn closed her eyes and lit her horn. In her mind Twilight pictured Homer standing on the other side of the bridge. Once the image was clear, she released all the magic in her horn. With a pink flash the spirit of knowledge vanished, and reappeared in the same way right next to the statue. It really showed a human, though it was twice as high as Homer and much more chunky.

The spirit waited for a short while, to see if the statue would react to him, but it didn't move a muscle. Or rock.

“Hi there stone-giant. Is it okay for you if we teleport over here instead of crossing the bridge?”

No reaction.

“I'll take that as a yes. YOU CAN CONTINUE.”

The next one to be send over was Applejack, shortly followed by Pinkie Pie.

“Hahahahahaha. This tickles.”

“Please be gentle Twilight. Last time you teleported me I got a terrible itch” begged Rarity who was the next in the row.

“I'll do my best”, was the last thing she could hear before the pink flash blinded her and the ground vanished. Then the worst part began. A light prickling, which quickly grew to a nasty electric feeling, and disappeared just as fast.

“Honestly Pinkie, I simply cannot understand how can you enjoy something like this.”

“Don't move.”

“What?” as Rarity opened her eyes she was looking into several afraid faces.

“What's wrong? Ah, is it my mane?”

The unicorn looked up, but couldn't see anything strange about her hair. Instead she could see something moving in the corner of her eye. The ground was shaking, as the statue got on his knees right next to Rarity.

“Don't move”, whispered Pinkie again. “Maybe he can't see you then.”

Rarity followed that advice, after all she couldn't move anyway out of fear. However, that didn't seem to irritate the stone giant, who now slowly reached out for the Unicorn.

“Hey!” Homer called out while beginning to jump around and waving with his arms. “Fight someone of your size, stupid boulder!”

Only a short distance away from Rarity, the statue's hand came to a stop, but apparently not as a reaction to Homer's offense. The mare quickly took a few steps back. For a second everything was quiet, then Rarity's eyes widened.

“Is that for me?”

“Take good care of him.” The statues voice was rough, like rocks grinding against each other.

The white unicorn lit her horn and a light blue shimmer appeared between the stone giants fingers. Magically she brought forth an orange gem.

“Oh thank you. It's so beautiful.”

“Rarity are you alright?” called Rainbow Dash while quickly flying towards them, followed by Fluttershy.

“Of course I am. I'm better than alright.”

As the pegasi landed, Twilight finally teleported herself as well.

“Is anypony hurt?”

Applejack left out a relieved sigh. “Thankfully not. Let's just hope it stays like that.”

After saying so the orange farmer turned around and continued towards the door to the next room. She would never reach it though.

---

Hard to believe, but the cellar was even darker than the outside of Tartarus. She couldn't see anything. Not that there was much to see. Despite their pompous castle, Morus and Vito didn't spend much on furniture or equipment. Not that they could spend much on many down here. Though they could spend a little bit for heating the castle, at least during Summer. She crossed her arms, trying to keep the warmth to her body. With only little succes.

---

“Applejack? Can you hear me? Applejack?”called Twilight down the hole which had suddenly opened up beneath the earth pony. Homer in the meantime examined the door.

“Applejack?”

“I'm fine. There's a haystack down here that I landed on.”

“This is just paint.”

“What?” asked Twilight, too distracted by her worry about Applejack to perceive the human's words.

“That door is just painted.” The spirit of knowledge walked backwards towards the pit, while pointing at the door.

“What?” confused, the purple unicorn raised her head, to see the human turning around and kneeling before the pit.

“Applejack, is something else down there, besides the haystack?

“Uhm, yes. There's another room. This one with a dragon statue.”

“Sounds promising,” and without further words Homer jumped down, immediately followed by Pinkie screaming “CANNONBALL!”

With a groan Twilight covered herself in a magical field and carried herself downwards.

Fluttershy took a quick look down the pit, then backed away and buried her face beneath her hooves.

“I.. I don't think I can jump down there. It.. It's too deep and scary.”

“For Cloudsdale’s sake.” moaned Rainbow Dash in exasperation, “You're a pegasus. You can simply fly down there.”

“You're right.” Fluttershy jumped into the air and began to hover, “I completely forgot that. Thanks. You're a really good friend.”

Slowly the yellow pegasus descended.

“I guess for such a good friend it's no problem to slowly carry another friend, is it?” Rarity smiled at the blue pegasus.

“Is that really necessary?

“No.” The white mare shook her head, “I can fully understand if you lack the skill for a gentle fly...”

“HEY! I'm the most skilled pegasus in Ponyville!”

“That would explain the rough weather.”

“I'll show you how gentle I can be.”

She grabbed the unicorn and followed Fluttershy at about the same speed.

“Wait a second. You tricked me!”

“Rainbow, please. Can we discuss this once we're on the ground again?”

“I can't believe I fell for that.” Without thinking about it Rainbow let go of Rarity to smack herself on the forehead.

“WHAAAAAA”, the unicorns fall wasn't very long, so quickly her scream got drowned by the hay as she struggled, just like a filly which can't swim when thrown into the water. Once Rarity breached the surface again she saw Rainbow Dash flying before her, rubbing the back of her head and looking at the ground.

“Hehe. I'm sorry.” The pegasus put on an uneasy smile.

Rarity spit out a few seeds and then answered, wearing a friendly smile: “It's okay dear. That's karma.”

Behind her friends the mare could see the room that Applejack had mentioned. It was pretty small and round, but the strangest thing about it was the statue. While the human in the previous room was gigantic and strong, this dragon was scraggy and looked like he was in pain.

“Any ideas anyone?” asked the spirit of knowledge.

“He's hungry.” was Twilight's immediate answer.

“Are you sure about that.”

“I have seen that expression often enough on Spike. I would recognize it with closed eyes.”

“How can you see something with your eyes closed?

“I can't, Pinkie. It's just a phrase.”

“So, when will it end?”

“A PHRASE. Not a PHASE. It's something you say, but don't literally mean.”

“Oh, now that makes way more sense.”

“Could we please focus on this one?” intervened Homer, “We are pretty close to Tempa.”

“What makes you think so?

“Well, we had a spike field that could be stopped by magic, stomping pillars which were stopped by playful laughter, a bridge that was lowered by kindness, a statue that demanded our loyalty and a hole where we had to trust the honest one.” While mentioning each virtue of the Elements the human used his fingers to count them, “Which only leaves generosity, and here we are with a hungry dragon and a gem.” He pointed towards Rarity.

“Wait, you want me to sacrifice this beauty for some stone dragon?”

The unicorn took the orange gem out of of her saddlebag and pressed it to her body.

“But I promised to take care of it.”

“If I recall correctly,” corrected the Human, “you promised to take good care of 'him'. Now, who's more of a him, this dragon or that gem?”

Rarity switched between looking into her friends begging faces and looking at the gem.

“Okay, I'll do it.”

Slowly she walked towards the statue, the gem kept close to her body. Hesitating, Rarity lifted the gem.

“We didn't spend much time together, but I enjoyed every second. I'll miss you.”

As the unicorn proceeded to lay the gem into the statues mouth, Pinkies teeth began to chatter.

“What's wrong? Are you freezing?” asked Twilight.

“No, that's my Pinkie sense. Chattering teeth usually mean fire.”

“Fire?”

---

Fire! The cellar underneath Morus' and Vito's dining room was burning. She was too late. The black flames were crawling up the pillars, melting their stone. Under her scales the skin hurt from the immense cold. How could this be possible? How was she supposed able to stop this? None of this made sense. There was nothing she could do.

For a second,that felt like an eternity, the flames went silent and cleared the sight at the endless darkness of their source.

“Oh no.”

Comments

[OdinBrony]

an update yay

[SoikerNahmu]

1709468 I am happy, that you are happy that there is a new chapter.