The Nightguard: Legacy of Star Swirl the Bearded

by BigKlingy

Chapter 5: Into the Darkness

At last, we were in Tartarus proper. And boy, was it a feeling I won’t soon forget. I had expected a place of blistering heat, filled with fire and brimstone. Instead, what I found was cold. Unnatural cold. And darkness, thicker than any night. It was as if all the harmony, all the happiness, had been sucked out of the world. There was no warmth, light or friendship to be found down here. Simply seeing this place, feeling it, compelled me to shed a tear. Being trapped down here would make anypony, no, anything go mad. I dreaded to think what it had done to the one I sought.

Lilly Blossom had finally woken up. Her first thought was to ask if we were all dead. Given the place we were in, I couldn’t blame her. We simply trudged on.

None of us spoke a word for ages. It was… unsettling, compared to how chatty we’d been before. When the silence was finally broken, it was purely for practical reasons.

“Umm… I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but… does anypony have a light?”, asked Lilly Blossom. She wasn’t doing a good job of hiding her fear, but I could understand her request. It felt like we were wandering in an empty abyss.

“Got you covered!”, replied Electric Sky. Illumination spells were a simple affair, but since she was the only unicorn in our group (well, the only unicorn in more than name) the burden fell on her.

“Okay magic…”, she loudly proclaimed, “Happen!”

Nothing.

“I said happen!!”

Still nothing.

“Uhh, are you suuuure you’re doing the spell right?”, said Levee.

“Well of course! I doubt any unicorn worth their salt could botch a simple illumination spell. And, I don’t mean to brag, but I happen to be particularly talented in that area. Hay, I nailed my first illumination spell so well I got to skip Magic Kindergarten!”

“Well then, how come it’s not working?”, the pegasus replied.

“This place must have some kind of anti-magic field or something”, I said. That would make sense, after all, if what I’d read about this place is true, many of Tartarus’ inmates would be creatures of immense magical power. I doubt a single gate with a guard dog would be enough to keep them in check. Yeah, that was the only logical explanation…

So it was just my luck it had to be wrong.

“No, that’s not it. I definitely felt my spell go off. So it’s working, but… not working. It’s like the air itself is sucking the light away. I know that explanation makes no scientific or logical sense, but then again, we are in a place of myth.”

“So… you’re saying no light source is going to work down here, is that it?” Drat, that ruled out my idea of using the Shine Bright spell on Levee or Lilly Blossom’s wings.

“Not exactly”, was the reply, but it came from neither of us.

It came from Emerald Ray.

“I… I…”, he seemed hesitant, but then again, he always was. “I think… I know a way I can be of help.” His voice then took on a much sterner tone. “But you must promise… what I am about to show you… must remain a secret to everypony.”

“Umm… okay.” Though he had always seemed… enigmatic, I admit this request was confusing. Why would a solution to lighting problems be something somepony wanted to hide? Though come to think of it, he never told us what his special talent was. I’d caught a glimpse of his Cutie Mark a few times, but I really couldn’t gather anything from it. It looked like a green sun or comet of some kind. What could that possibly signify?

Perhaps, I was about to find out.

Emerald Ray stepped in front of us, stood still and closed his eyes. Without a sound, his mane started to billow as if blown by an invisible wind. Then, all of a sudden, his coat began to sparkle, and a faint green light filled the area. Next, the hairs on his body seemed to fold themselves flat, forming his coat into one smooth surface that all of a sudden did not look like fur. It glistened and shimmered for a moment, then a blinding emerald flash erupted from all directions, lighting the area around us perfectly, albeit in an eerie green. The stallion opened his eyes once again, turned his head and quipped to Electric Sky (whose jaw had practically hit the floor):

“See, I do have talents.”

“Sweet Celestia…”, was all Bumblesweet could manage.

“Oh my…”, joined Lilly Blossom.

“Ooooooooh…”, added Levee.

“N…nice one.” I tried to say something coherent, but it was harder than I thought.

And then… it was Electric Sky’s turn.

“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh… This. Is. The. Discovery. Of. A. LIFETIME!!! How are you doing this? How long can you maintain it for? Is this your talent? Is it magic? Can I reverse-engineer it? What does it feel like? Hot? Cold? Painful? Oh I could practically write a thesis on this!”

The now-glowing stallion gave her a cold glare.

“I know, I know, keep it on the down-low. Wouldn’t want to break a friend’s trust, after all. Everypony knows that’s the fastest way to lose a friend…”

“Forever!”

We all jumped. “Wh-what was that?”, said a terrified Lilly Blossom.

“Oh don’t worry, that’s perfectly normal.”, replied Levee.

“Ahem, anyway”, continued Electric Sky, “just answer me this: how is it working when illumination doesn’t. From what I can see it’s basically a Shine Bright spell applied to the entire body, the air should still be absorbing it.”

“Actually”, said Emerald Ray, “it is quite different in principle. The light resided within me, where the darkness cannot touch it.”

“Hmm… wait, one more question, sorry. You’re an earth pony, right? By all logic this doesn’t make sense. You can’t do magic.”

“I never said this was magic.”

“Wh-what!? Hold on a sec. You’re saying this is biological? Holy… bioluminescent equines, huh. You do realise resisting the urge to study you is going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done, don’t you?”

Emerald Ray gave no response.

“Who cares what it is”, interrupted Levee, “what’s important is it works! We can see now, yay! Nice going, Crystallion!”

She moved in to give Emerald Ray a hoofbump, but he seemed to recoil in terror.

“P-p-p-lease… I would appreciate… if you did not call me… that.”

“Oh, okay.” Levee dismissed the issue quickly, but it still left me curious. That name really struck a nerve with him. But I felt I’d be prying if I asked him about it. Each of us staying close to Emerald Ray, we pressed on.

Well, what we thought was ‘on’, anyway. It was surprising what little difference the light made. All the walls and passages we went through seemed to look exactly alike.

“Shame there’s nopony to ask for directions…”, said Lilly Blossom disheartened, and seemingly forgetting where we were.
“Uhh, Levee?”, asked Lilly Blossom, “it might be time for another map check.”

“Okay! Right… hmm… let’s see here…”, her eyes began to dart back and forth across the parchment. After a few minutes, a huge, beaming grin spread out across her face.

“This… is… YIPEEEE! YIPPEEEEEE!! YIPPEEEEEEEE!!!”, she flapped her wings wildly with glee.

“What is it that’s… given you cause for celebration, dear?”, asked Bumblesweet.

To this, Levee exclaimed, in sing-song: “We’re in a ma-ze~!”

“WHAT?!” I hoped to Celestia she was exaggerating, but I had a feeling she wasn’t…

“We really need to check the map more frequently. We’ve been through this area four times now.”

Okay, so now we were trapped in a maze. In Tartarus. Brilliant.

“Okay”, said Levee, still cheerful, “what’s our next move, Cap?”

Oh great, they still relied on me to make all the decisions. I desperately tried to think of a clever plan to get us out of this mess. We only had one light source, which just happened to be one of us. That would make navigating a pitch-black maze… tricky.

“I say…”, I began, “we should all stick together!”

That came out a little more dramatically than it should have. The looks I got told me everypony knew I was out of ideas.
“And I saaaaaay…”, Levee echoed, “I scout ahead and get our bearings. Be right back!”

And she dove into the darkness before any of us had a chance for rebuttal. I was expecting to hear the impact of her body against a wall any second…

“Oh, if you’re worried me flying around in the dark”, she said practically reading my mind, “don’t be. I’m used to navigating dark places. I do it all the time. You should try it, it’s fun! Anyway, I can pretty much feel my way around these walls.

Sooooooooo”, she transitioned into sing-song,

“Just don’t worry~! Everything’s gonna be fine~!
We’re in no hurry, relax and take your time.
Just stay with that glowing stallion
His light will be your guide
You need it more than I do so… so… so…

Aaaaaaaaactually, I could kinda use a light right about now. Could you have Glowy take two rights and a left? Thanks.”
Emerald Ray shrugged. “Relax”, I told him, “at least she’s not calling you Crys…”
“AAAGH!”

“Sorry.” Wow, that name really seemed to strike a nerve with him. There must have been a reason, but now wasn’t the time for such thoughts. If he was going ahead, we might as well go to. Two rights and a left later, actually, two lots of two rights and two lefts later, Levee forgot to specify she meant our left, we stood in yet another identical passageway. Except this one was occupied.

“Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”, squealed Lilly Blosssom. “Oh dear, oh deardeardeardear! It’s one of those… those… undead things!”, she swooped in front of us, “Stay back! Don’t let it touch you, it’ll turn you into one of them!!”

“Don’t be silly, Lilly, Nightmares look nothing like this.”, replied Levee as she flitted around what looked more like a pile of bones. “This is just your average dead pony.”

“Oh, right, it’s just a dead… eeeeeeep!”

“My wing brushed against something cold and dry”, Levee ignored the panicked pegasus and explained to us, “I had a feeling it’d be this, given that I… see a lot of these, doing what I do.”

For a moment, just one moment, her face and voice seemed devoid of the cheerfulness that seemed to characterise them. It was almost surreal to see her being so serious. I let her continue.

“This poor guy was probably an adventurer like us. Until…”

Lilly Blossom, having only just calmed down, suddenly flew into a panic once again. “W-wait… If his adventure… ended here, does that mean whatever ended it is still…” She shivered.

“Oh no”, Levee reassured us, “there was no whatever. From what I can tell this pony’s journey was ended by hunger or exhaustion, or both. They died cold and alone in the darkness, without a single friend to…” She stopped. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she simply couldn’t go on. Strange, she wasn’t crying, but I could tell she wanted to.

Of the others, Bumblesweet seemed to understand her too. Electric Sky, on the other hand, seemed visibly creeped out by Levee’s freaky knowledge of causes of death. I guess that made sense, but still I… I felt compelled to lend the green pegasus my hoof. Just as I was reaching out, Levee started speaking again.

“Does it always have to be this way? All alone, at the end, no-one to turn to, nothing to… hey, what’s this?”

She’d just noticed something, and in a few seconds I had too. The skeleton was clutching something in its hooves. It looked like… parchment? Carefully, so as not to disturb the body, Levee slowly pulled it from its bony grasp, unfurled it and…
All at once, she was her usual, beaming self again. There was no doubt now what the parchment was…

“Is this… is this…. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! A map! A map! Woohoo!”

And she left us no room for doubt either.

“They made a map! They made a map! They made a map! Oh this is so amazing! Me and this guy would have so much to talk about! Well, if he wasn’t, you know, dead. Hey, who says that’s stopping him?” She stooped and yelled into the skull’s ear so loudly it would have burst its eardrums, if it still had them. “Heloooooooooooo~! Dead guy! Nope, he can’t talk. Actually, who says it has to be a he? It’s probably more likely it was a mare, after all, just how many stallions do you see around anyway?”

I don’t remember the rest of her little one-way conversation, but suffice to say it went on for a while. It was surprisingly long before anyopny thought to state the obvious…

“Wait a minute”, it was Electric Sky, of course. “You’re saying we now have a map of the maze?”

Levee, who had for a while now been flitting happily around the hall, came to an immediate halt.

“Well, in a word, yeah. Wanna see?”

Like before though, there wasn’t really a choice, she’d already gleefully flung the paper in the unicorn’s face. The rest of us gathered around.

It seemed our hypothesis was right, the map looked exactly like something out of a children’s maze book… albeit something you’d find in the “brain-melter difficulty” section. And you know what the worst part was?

“Uhh… Levee, this map… isn’t even half-finished.”

The green pegasus glanced at the map, then at us, then back to the map, then back to us and declared with heroic resolve:
“There is no greater challenge to me than an unfinished map!”

And with that, she was off. Singing.

“Up and down, to and fro, a-scouting we will gooooo~!”

We all had time for a nice, long 15 minute nap before she got back. Well, all of us but Emerald Ray. Said it was his job to “protect the herd and watch for predators” or something. He must have lived in the wild for quite some time. Still, in a place like this you can never be too careful. By the time we’d all got up and stretched ourselves, our mapmaking friend was back.
“And about time too”, said Bumblesweet, “Napping like that really eats into your time. We have to stay on schedule!”

“This is the longest she’s slept in months”, Lilly Blossom whispered to me.

“I agree”, said Electric Sky, “I get the feeling if we stay here too long we’ll end up like that guy.” She gestured towards the pile of bones beside us. “But at least now that we know the way out, we don’t have to waste any more time.”

“Wow, you know the way out!?”, was Levee’s response. Our hearts sank.

“You… don’t know the way out?”

“Of course not, silly! You gotta know the whole maze before you start planning your route. Every good navigator knows that.”

“Wait, if you’ve mapped out the whole maze, wouldn’t you have seen the exit?”

“Well yeah, but I wouldn’t leave without you guys.”

For all her… qualities, it was nice to know she still considered us friends.

“Ahem, if I may interrupt”, said Bumblesweet, “how exactly do you propose we find our way out?”
“Hmm……..” the green pegasus stroked her chin with her hoof for a moment, seeming on the cusp of something.
“Hey, Ellie!”
It took us a while to realise she was referring to Electric Sky.
“That’s not my name.” said the yellow unicorn, annoyed.
“I know. Anyhoo, you’re supposed to be the smart one. You take a look at the map.”

Once again, she thrust the parchment in the pony’s face, which immediately began to turn pale upon seeing just how intricate the maze that trapped us was. Her eyes darted around so much I feared she would dizzy herself. All the while, Electric Sky muttered vaguely to herself.

“We could go… no. How about… wrong. If we stay close to… that’s out. Argh, there’s gotta be an algorithm for this…”
“You look confused”, said Levee, pointing out the obvious. “Want a hint?”

“Huh?”

Now it was Levee who put on the air of a schoolteacher, even going so far as to affect a posh academic accent. “Ahem. Solving a maze is less about finding out where you want to go and going there, and more about finding out where you don’t want to go and… not going there.” She switched back to her normal voice. “You get me?”

“Not really”, replied Electric Sky, echoing all our sentiments. Levee sighed.

“Okay Feathers, let’s show them how it’s done.” Was she just… talking to her quill? Come to think of it, that wasn’t the first time tonight. But this was the first time she… referred to it by name? This mare was stranger than I thought.

Before I could ponder this any further, she had begun using the quill for its more practical purpose. She had spread the map at her hooves and hung her quill in the air until she found the dead end we currently inhabited. She then began scribbling over it, blotting out the area with black ink, continuing until she reached an intersection. Then, she located the next dead end and repeated the process, filling in the path leading from it to the closest intersection. All of us gazed curiously. It didn’t look like much at first, but as more and more paths were filled in, we actually began to understand her logic. Slowly but surely, every path that would lead us to a dead end was blacked out, eventually leaving only one trail of clean parchment, a perfect route to the exit.

“I don’t believe this…”, Electric Sky stood in awe, “that… that’s actually pretty smart. Why have I never thought of that? You know what? This gives me an idea… You don’t mind if I…”

“Oh no no no, of course not”, replied Levee. Her tone and face expressed not pride, but the feeling she was simply happy to help. “It’s not my technique anyway.”

“Ahem”, Bumblesweet interrupted, tapping the centre of her left foreleg as if gesturing to some invisible timepiece. There was no need for her to say anymore, we all got the message.

“Don’t worry”, said Levee, “this maze is really big. We’ve got plenty of time to talk on the waaaaay~! Oh, wait” she stopped herself just as she was about to fly off. She quickly turned and landed next to the ancient remains of the former explorer. Patting the skull on the head, she said calmly: “Thank you.”

Now we could go.