Succession

by Helrael

15 - The Hunt

Succession

Chapter 15 - The Hunt

---

Twilight gave a long and heavy sigh, and the book in front of her snapped shut. The book, describing in acute detail the nature of magical duels throughout history, was nearly thrown against the wall as Twilight felt the familiar surge of anger and frustration that had been dominating her mind as of late. She resisted the urge, however, and instead dropped it onto one of the growing stacks of books she had already gone through.

A gentle knock at the door to her quarters in Cristallum made half of her despair the many daily interruptions she received from both Spike and various palace guards, while the other half welcomed the distraction from her fruitless research. Expecting the worried dragon, Twilight opened the door with her magic and instead found Artemis, the council’s head of arcane and mundane sciences.

“Hope I’m not interrupting anything important,” the reddish violet unicorn greeted her, eyeing the numerous books stacked both on and beside Twilight’s desk.

“It is very important,” Twilight replied, shaking her head. “But I’m not making a lot of headway. What do you need?”

“I came here to talk,” Artemis said, conjuring a chair out of nothing and sitting down so she faced the other unicorn. “We’ve all been pretty worried about you, Twilight. First, you almost died in Dragoncrest, and then...” She shook her head. “We still don’t know what exactly happened in Neighbury. The coma happened, and, by all accounts, you suffered from some sort of nervous breakdown just two weeks ago. And that didn’t really end well for... anyone involved. Apart from your recent excursion to The Manehattan Central Library, you’ve kept yourself locked away in here for two weeks. I think it’s time you told us what happened in Neighbury. And outside Ponyville.”

“You don't understand,” Twilight replied, averting her gaze from Artemis. “Just the memory of it hurts. I can't tell you how much.”

“You should talk about it,” Artemis insisted. “We can keep it just between the two of us, or we could get you a professional.”

“I can’t.” Despite her best efforts, Twilight’s voice was noticeably strained. She summoned another book from a stack to her right and set it down in front of her with a resounding thud, whipping it open violently. “I feel a lot better now,” she told Artemis, unsure of whether the unicorn was genuinely concerned for her or not. “As long as I don’t think too much about what’s been going on.”

“We can’t just pretend like nothing happened,” Artemis argued.

“I need time,” Twilight defended herself. “Time to get my thoughts straight and clear my head. And I can’t do any of that before I finish this!” She waved a hoof at the books littering her desk with an annoyed sigh.

“So what are you working on?” Artemis inquired, her gaze sweeping over the many titles with curiosity.

“Mind magic.”

Artemis frowned. “That’s... Twilight, the majority of the spells in that school have been illegal for centuries.”

“Celestia’s murderer doesn’t seem to care!” Twilight shot back. “I’m working on a way to counteract them, not cast them.”

“Ah, so you did meet... her? Him? Spike said something about you thinking an alicorn stallion had killed Celestia. I couldn't make much sense of his account.”

Twilight nodded. “I recognized his voice from The Great Tragedy.”

"Spike?"

"No! The murderer!"

“But if the murderer is a stallion, what about Nightmare Moon?”

“She was a fluke!” Twilight slammed her book shut and pushed it to the far end of the desk.“She was never real!”

“But... Oh. Mind magic, huh? So, the few times you’ve seen Nightmare Moon, it was him tricking you?” Twilight nodded, and Artemis looked thoughtful for a second. “Do you... need any help?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Help? Why?”

Artemis gestured at the piles of books. “Couldn’t you use a hoof with all this? Rediscovering mind magic?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, I mean why are you offering to help me out? What’s the catch?”

“I just want to help you, Twilight, really,” Artemis insisted. “We got off on the wrong hoof when we first met. I shouldn’t have lost my temper and I definitely shouldn’t have let Scarlet draft you into the Sword of Equestria. I want to make it up to you.”

Twilight didn’t answer, but instead kept looking at the other unicorn, eyeing her suspiciously. After a few moments, Artemis hung her head in defeat.

“And... I was hoping that... that me helping you could be the start of something. A partnership of sorts.”

“You want me to work for you instead of Scarlet Bolt,” Twilight concluded.

“With me!” Artemis stressed quickly. She rose from her seat, and the conjured chair vanished in a puff of smoke. “You shouldn’t tell anypony in the council about this, but you’re a bit of an idol to me.”

“An idol?” Twilight asked skeptically, turning her head to look at the pony now behind her.

“When we were both nominated for the position of Arch Mage, everyone assumed you’d be taking the title. I knew you’d trounce me in pretty much any field of magic, maybe even the ones I’d specialized in! The way you can just outperform almost any unicorn in Equestria, without you even realizing it, is... amazing. I’ve always envied your abilities, and even though the thought of you wiping the floor with me in the Arch Mage’s trials wasn’t all that appealing, I was looking forward to finally meeting the unicorn that had saved Equestria time and time again. Of course, you never showed up.”

“I didn’t want to move from Ponyville,” Twilight explained.

“Indeed. And yet, here you are in Manehattan. I’m really sorry, Twilight. Let me make it up to you. Let me help you deal with whatever’s troubling you.”

“Fine,” Twilight finally relented. “I don’t suppose you have access to some sort of restricted section of The Manehattan Central Library? I’m pretty sure I won’t find what I’m looking for in anything available to the public.”

“I do, but that’s mostly just dusty old texts and such,” Artemis admitted. “The kind of books that are too fragile to be handled by just anypony. There wouldn’t be anything about outlawed arcane practices in them.” She gave a deep sigh. “Something like that would have been in Canterlot. Everything important was stored in the palace, where it was safe. In comparison, Manehattan’s literary collection is pretty underwhelming.”

“So the knowledge is lost,” Twilight concluded, hanging her head. “He’s the only one who knows how to use it.”

“Maybe there’s a way to solve your problem with conventional spells?”

Twilight shook her head. “I haven’t come up with anything in two weeks.”

“Two heads are better than one,” Artemis encouraged her. “Might be you overlooked something. What’s the problem exactly?”

“Don’t you have other things to do?” Twilight pressed. “I mean... sorry, that didn’t really come out right, but... you’re a ruler of Equestria. You must have a lot on your plate already.” She gave another heavy sigh. “I can deal with this. It’ll just... take a while.”

“Something tells me you’ll want to deal with it as fast as you can,” Artemis told her. “Despite everything, I bet you’ll want to be part of the Sword’s next mission.”

“Why’s that?” Twilight asked suspiciously.

“They’ll be going to Canterlot,” Artemis revealed, and the lavender unicorn’s eyes widened. “Well, the caverns beneath it, at least. I’ll admit, I kinda agree with Scarlet when it comes to whether the Elements are still there somewhere, but if anypony can find them, it’d be you.

“You’ll have to pull yourself together, though,” Artemis warned her. “Scarlet’s considering letting you sit this one out because of Neighbury... and Ponyville.” The unicorn gave Twilight an uneasy look. “Guards investigated the diamond dog burrows after you retrieved Fluttershy and the three others, and all they found were corpses. Most of them looked as though they’d been burned alive. You’ll have to tell the Council of Nine what happened if you want any chance at going to Canterlot.”

Twilight bit her lip nervously, an uncomfortable silence forming between the two unicorns, growing only lengthier as Twilight’s mind worked furiously to come up with some excuse. Slowly, however, those thoughts were pushed aside by the much more commanding, and terrifying, memories of what she’d done to the diamond dogs. Before she even knew it, her lip was bleeding, and she decided to change the subject.

“My problem,” she said, running a hoof against a nearby stack of books to align it properly, “is that my enemy, this alicorn, can use a spell to put me to sleep. For any length of time, I think. And then I have a nightmare. Except... it’s so much more real than a nightmare. As long as I’m under the influence of his spell, I see whatever he wants me to see. I hear it, feel it, smell it, taste it. He traps me in a false reality that holds more horrors than you can imagine, but he does it so seamlessly that you never realize you’re dreaming. He did it to me when I travelled back in time. He made me see Nightmare Moon instead of himself and that ended with me trying to commit suicide... It never made sense how I survived falling from that tower, but now it does, I suppose. Makes me wonder if what I remember of The Great Tragedy even happened at all.”

“You remember something about that night?” Artemis asked, taking her eyes off Twilight’s books to look at her curiously. “What?”

Twilight shuddered. “Just the deathblow. I remembered it while I was creating that solite in the conclave.”

“Ah. That explains a lot. Alright, so he puts you to sleep, and he traps you in a nightmare. I suppose that’s what happened to you in Neighbury? The reason you were in that two month coma?” Twilight nodded. “What did he make you see then?”

Twilight shook her head. “The worst things imaginable. The Great Tragedy was nothing compared to what that... thing put me through!”

“What?” Artemis pressed. “What did he do?” Twilight didn’t answer, only staring at her desk as she shook with silent anger. Eventually, Artemis gave up. “Something really bad, I suppose. What about the diamond dogs? Were you under his spell when you killed them?” The unicorn caught herself. “That is... you did do it, right? I don’t think anypony else would have been able to do something like that.”

“Yes,” Twilight answered, almost choking on the words. “To both,” she lied.

I was under his spell, though, wasn’t I? That anger wasn’t my own...

“He casts this spell subtly,” she continued, growing calmer as she left behind the haunting memories as quickly as she could. “And traps you in this nightmare, which at first seems like reality, but slowly turns into your worst fears. How do you protect yourself from something like that!? At any moment, your enemy can put you to sleep, and you won’t realize it until two months later!”

“Normally, I’d say an Anti-Sleep charm,” Artemis answered hesitantly, “but if you’re up against an alicorn, you’d be hard pressed making it powerful enough to block his spell. Perhaps some sort of shield?”

Twilight shook her head. “He can smash through my shields without a second thought.”

“Really?” Artemis sounded both impressed and frightened. “He can do that to Shining Armor’s sister?”

“The trick doesn’t lie in blocking the spell,” Twilight offered. “I don’t think so, at least. Any obstacle would only slow him down. I need to be able to dispel its effects after it hits me.”

“While you’re sleeping?” Artemis’ brow furrowed as she thought. “That’s tricky... The dream is lucid?”

“I think so. At least, I seem to be conscious of my decisions.”

“Then we should be able to think of a spell which can detect whether you’re dreaming or not,” Artemis suggested. “If that spell says you are, you have nothing to fear from the nightmare you’re experiencing, right?”

“That would work if I was in control of the dream,” Twilight sighed. “It was one of the first things I thought of as well, but the fact is that this alicorn has complete control over what happens in the nightmare. I’m not even sure if I am conscious of my decisions, or if he just lets me think I am. Even if I can cast the spell, he’s in complete control of my senses; I can’t trust any feedback from that spell. If he doesn’t want me knowing it’s a dream, he’ll ensure I get a false negative.”

“Ah, yeah. Well, then it sounds like you need an outside influence to break you out of the spell if you can neither detect it nor block it.”

“You mean another pony should wake me up?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow. “If that were possible, wouldn’t I have been woken up as soon as you found me?”

“It’s a strong spell,” Artemis admitted. “But it’s cast by an alicorn, so that’s no wonder. What makes you think you can break it, though? Are you that powerful?”

Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know. If anyone can, I suppose it would be me.”

“But you’re unconscious when the spell hits you,” Artemis argued. “How do you propose to cast any kind of spell when you’re in this fake reality of his? Wait...” The unicorn tapped a hoof to her chin. “Hmm, what exactly happened in that dream?”

“Why?” Twilight asked, uncertain of whether she wanted to tell Artemis.

“In your dream, you cast a lot of destructive spells, right? Lightning bolts, a few gouts of fire and stuff like that? A ton of force fields too?”

“Not sure I would call it a ‘gout of fire’” Twilight replied, shuddering at the memory of the spell that had destroyed both herself and Ponyville. She felt a sharp pain in her neck, and she shook her head to clear her mind of the thoughts. “How did you know?”

“Your dream spells translated into the real world,” Artemis revealed. “It took three hours to secure you after you were found; you were shooting bolts of lightning and flinging force fields at high velocities everywhere at random. Every now and then, you’d... erupt. Everything around you ignited, and you screamed in pain. They eventually managed to block your magic by putting a ceratic seal on your horn. They put you in a steel crate, put that steel crate inside another steel crate, and carted you back to Manehattan, depositing you, crates and all, inside one of my magic proof cells.”

Artemis shook her head and snorted. “You broke the ceratic seal. By the time you woke up, those crates had simply been... erased.” She gestured at the lamp set in Twilight’s ceiling. “The magic that cell absorbed powered the majority of appliances in Cristallum for almost a week. And then you managed to break out of my magic proof cell... using your magic.” She shook her head again. “Sorry. Off topic. My point is, the spells you cast in your nightmare seem to be cast in the waking world as well. If you cast an Awakening spell on yourself while you’re dreaming, there’s a good chance the real you will cast that spell as well, waking you up.”

“Hmm, I didn’t know about the spell translation,” Twilight admitted. “It might work, but there are still a lot of uncertainties. What if I wake myself up and he just puts me back to sleep? What if I can’t control where my spells go? What if I target myself with a destructive spell instead? And it still doesn’t solve the problem of how to find out whether or not I’m dreaming.”

“I was about to suggest you just cast the spell on yourself whenever you weren’t sure if you were dreaming or not,” Artemis offered. She went around Twilight again to stand between her and the door. “As to the other issues... If you give me a few days, I could enchant you an amulet of some sort. Something that could charge up on any spare magic of yours and release it in the form of an Awakening spell if you should fall asleep. This alicorn might just put you back to sleep, but I doubt we can do anything about that.”

“An amulet,” Twilight mused, shaking her head lightly. “I think I discarded that idea because of that exact problem, but maybe it is the best solution after all. It’d be best if we could enchant it so it would activate after he’s gone, though.”

“I’m the best enchanter Equestria has to offer!” Artemis boasted, giving her a grin that reminded her of Rainbow Dash. “I’m working on an artificial intelligence at the moment, so an amulet like the one you’re asking for won’t be a problem at all!”

“You have that much time on your hooves? I should make it; it’s my problem.”

Artemis shook her head. “I said I’d help you. Besides, you don’t have too much time on your hooves. Not if you want to go to Canterlot, anyway. The Sword has been preparing for that mission for three days now,” Artemis revealed. “They’ll be leaving tomorrow night. If you wanna go with them, I’d focus on getting up to speed and convincing Scarlet Bolt to let you go.”

“And how do I do that?”

Artemis smiled and shrugged. “It’s one of the most dangerous areas in all of Equestria, and you’re the most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria. It shouldn’t be hard.”

“Why are they going to Canterlot anyway?” Twilight asked curiously. “You wouldn’t let me near that place even to get the Elements of Harmony.”

“The council is convening to discuss just that. Among other things. I was hoping I could convince you to deliver some kind of statement about what happened to you as well.” At Twilight’s look of worry, she quickly added, “don’t worry about the diamond dog thing. It wasn’t your fault. Equestrian law clearly states that the target of mind magic like you experienced can’t be prosecuted for any crimes they commit while under the spell’s influence. Culpability falls upon the caster. Besides, it was a rogue burrow; they kidnapped the Element of Kindness, so I doubt the dogs in the western mountains will want to be affiliated with them in any way. And if talking about the details of your nightmare is too personal, I think the general idea you’ve given me will suffice.”

Twilight nodded uncertainly and followed Artemis as she turned toward the door. Before opening it, however, Artemis stopped and gave Twilight a mischievous grin. “I hope you don’t get too comfortable in the Sword, now; I’m getting close to breaking you out.”

“Breaking me out?” Twilight gave Artemis a puzzled look. “You can’t just convince Scarlet Bolt to... I don’t know, ‘hand me over’?”

The violet unicorn snorted at that. “Not a chance. She’s been wanting to have you underhoof for a while, Twilight. Now that she’s got you, she’s not letting go. Just you wait,” she warned her. “She might’ve drawn you in with the title of captain, but I bet she’ll demote you given half a chance. She wants you to be a soldier, nothing more.”

---

“It is good to see you have recovered, Twilight,” Civil Tenet opened after the Twilight and the council ponies had seated themselves. The table in front of them had been replaced since the last time the ten ponies had met, and the deep gashes Twilight’s failed solite had burned into the marble floor had been filled and coated with silver, adding them to the elaborate patterns that already adorned the large chamber’s walls and floor. “The surviving citizens of Neighbury may well owe you their lives for confronting Nightmare Moon when you did.”

“Not Nightmare Moon, though,” Scarlet Bolt offered curiously, looking Twilight over thoughtfully. “I hear you fought a stallion.”

“A ‒?” Civil Tenet began, but fell silent of her own accord, turning instead an expectant gaze to Twilight.

Twilight couldn’t bear to meet any of the nine gazes directed at her, and so she stared glumly at the table. “Turns out... It turns out Princess Luna is dead after all.”

“You said you saw her during The Great Tragedy,” Lucre observed suspiciously. “When you travelled back in time.”

“I know. I’ll get to that,” she promised the head of finances. “Nightmare Moon didn’t destroy Neighbury. It was a stallion. An alicorn.”

“There hasn’t been a male alicorn in Equestria in nine hundred years!” Civil Tenet exclaimed. “A predecessor of the late Prince Blueblood, but he also died nine centuries ago. Who is this stallion?”

“He didn’t give me a name,” Twilight admitted. “He has a black coat like Nightmare Moon, but his mane and tail are black as well, and his eyes are amber, not Nightmare Moon’s cyan.”

“And now you tell us this alicorn is behind The Great Tragedy, I assume,” Lucre gathered, “since you now tell us Princess Luna is dead.” He eyed her critically. “I found it a hard pill to swallow when you first told us about Nightmare Moon, but you insisted you were right! That you saw her with your own eyes!”

“The alicorn is an illusionist,” Artemis broke in calmly. “Please let Twilight finish, Lucre.”

The brown unicorn rolled his eyes, but shut his mouth, allowing Twilight to continue. “I think he wanted me to join him, but I refused, which prompted him to attack me. At least, I thought he did. The coma I was found in was his doing; he trapped me in a nightmare for those two months, and I think that’s exactly what happened when I travelled back in time to The Great Tragedy. He uses his magic to manipulate other ponies’ minds.”

“An alicorn that uses dirty tricks, then,” Scarlet Bolt said, shaking her head. “I would have preferred Nightmare Moon.”

“I’m glad he didn’t finish off the survivors, but I can’t help but wonder why. Do you know where he went after... defeating you?” Rain Dancer pressed.

Twilight shook her head.

“Do you know anything about the inscriptions this alicorn left in the ruins of Neighbury?” Scarlet Bolt followed up almost immediately, and Twilight shook her head once more, this time a little confused.

“The inscriptions were left some time after Twilight was recovered,” Artemis reminded the pink pegasus.

“What inscriptions did he leave?” Twilight asked. “Is it the reason for why he destroyed Neighbury?”

“We believe so,” Artemis answered, then shrugged. “But we haven’t had any luck in deciphering them yet. He did speak Equestrian, right? He certainly doesn’t write in it. Or any other known language.

“I’ve seen him write in Equestrian,” Twilight grumbled uneasily, her thoughts drifting back to Dragoncrest Valley.

“So an alicorn was in Neighbury. That explains the explosion there and your coma, so I suppose those’re the most pressing questions about Neighbury answered,” Amity offered, eyeing Twilight uneasily as everypony realized where the conversation was headed. The earth pony’s familiar drawl seemed to have been strongly diluted over the course of the two months Twilight had been sleeping, conforming instead to the mix of Canterlot and Manehattan dialects predominant in Cristallum. “I’m sure there’s a lot more to it, but... what I really wanna know is, well... There is still the matter of the, ah, diamond dogs.”

Amity hesitated, uncomfortable with the topic herself, so Lucre finished for her. “All evidence points toward you killing them off.”

“Few would doubt you have the power to commit the murders,” Quiescent Atonement explained slowly, as if to excuse the bluntness of Lucre’s words. “You were angry at the diamond dogs for kidnapping, perhaps hurting, a close friend of yours. You entered the burrow alone, allowing no witnesses. Means, motive, and opportunity are all present, Twilight Sparkle. Please, tell us what happened.”

Twilight didn’t answer, too busy staring intently at the moon instead. The sight of the bright orb shining through the blue-tinted glass ceiling helped take her mind off of the sights of dark tunnels, fire, and screaming that were clouding her mind’s eye, but it was a losing battle. Artemis, sitting beside her, was the first to notice when the her breathing started quickening, and she quickly broke in.

“Twilight told me of what transpired in the burrow, Quiescent. I think it’s fairly obvious that the memories still pain her greatly.”

“Then you tell us,” Lucre prompted her impatiently. “Is she guilty or a victim?”

“A victim,” Artemis answered almost immediately. “But she did kill the diamond dogs.”

Murmurs of confusion broke out amongst the council ponies, but Scarlet Bolt seemed to be the only one to catch Artemis’ meaning. “Mind control,” she stated simply, and the violet unicorn nodded.

“A two month coma was not the only effect of this unknown alicorn’s spell, it seems. Although Twilight did kill those diamond dogs, the crime was committed by him.”

“So this alicorn... forced Twilight to kill?” Civil Tenet asked, eyeing the unicorn in question with a mix of shock and pity.

“Forgive me for saying this, but... that’s awfully convenient.” An uncomfortable silence fell upon the council as all eyes fell upon Lucre, who in turn rolled his eyes at the others’ reaction. “Look, all I’m saying is that this mysterious enemy of ours is, according only to Twilight’s testimony, to blame for everything that goes wrong around Twilight.”

“Surely you aren’t blaming‒” Civil Tenet began, but Lucre promptly carried on.

“Neighbury,” he started. “We know Twilight was there when it blew up; two pegasi can confirm that. Nopony in the town can confirm what exactly it was that attacked Neighbury, though, but Twilight claims it’s this alicorn. Dragoncrest: Twilight insists on going into the valley despite Coup de Grâce’s advice. In there, she manages to get Lightning Rod, a unicorn rivalling Twilight in power, killed, along with three other pegasi.”

“Dragons did that!” Twilight insisted, scowling at Lucre.

“And pray tell, who, do you claim, set those dragons off?”

“Nighmare Moon,” Scarlet Bolt answered, though it was hard to determine if she was siding with Lucre or not. “But I suppose it is this unnamed alicorn instead.”

Artemis snorted in derision. “Forgive me for saying this, but what you’re saying is absolutely idiotic, Lucre. First, Lightning Rod is nowhere near as powerful as Twilight; that’s why we wanted her to be a part of the Sword so desperately in the first place. And even if the two were comparable in terms of magic, do you seriously believe Twilight would want her killed out of, what, jealousy?”

“Is it impossible?” Lucre challenged the other unicorn.

“That Twilight took control of half a dozen adult dragons’ minds and made them attack her subordinates out of spite? Yes! That’s insane!”

“I think we all agree this is pretty far fetched, Lucre,” Penning Draft observed. “Did ye have a point, or were ya just throwing accusations around for the heck of it?”

“My point is we shouldn’t trust Twilight blindly!” Lucre groaned in response. “For all we know, she could’ve even caused The Great Tragedy. That too happens to be one of those catastrophes where we only have her word for what happened.”

“What!?” Twilight erupted, glaring daggers at the brown unicorn. The scar on her neck pulsed painfully in response to her anger and only a subtle hoof against hers from Artemis kept her from leaping forwards. “Did you just imply I killed Celestia!?”

“Calm down, Twilight,” Scarlet urged the unicorn in a no-nonsense tone of voice. “And shut up, Lucre. We have more important things to discuss than your little conspiracy theories.”

“It’s fairly important to find out who this here fella is,” Bramley pointed out. “He is goin’ around blowin’ up our cities, after all.”

“I don’t care who he is!” Scarlet Bolt sneered. “The only thing about him we need to worry ourselves with is how to kill him! And to do that, we need to not freeze to death!”

The outburst was met by a brief period of silence, broken by Artemis. “Well, now that we seem to be on the subject: Twilight has... offered to rejoin the Sword of Equestria, Scarlet.”

“She wants to go to Canterlot,” Scarlet Bolt immediately surmised, eyeing the unicorn in question. “The Elements of Harmony won’t be there, Twilight.”

“You’ll need her help,” Artemis insisted. “This is Canterlot we’re talking about.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want her help...”

“You aren’t considering letting her back on the Sword?” Lucre pressed of Scarlet Bolt, disbelief tinging his voice. “After her breakdown? After she killed a burrow full of diamond dogs!?”

“We have just been told it was not her,” Civil Tenet pointed out. “It was the work of this alicorn.”

“So she says. Did you pay any attention to the discussion we just had, Civil?”

“Regardless of who killed them, fact remains those diamond dogs had held the Element of Kindness for four months,” Artemis broke in.

“And as much as we may dislike that incident, it did end up saving the lives of four ponies,” Scarlet Bolt offered, agreeing with Artemis. “If what Twilight says is true, this stallion did us a favor. In a way.”

“A favor!?” Lucre rose from his seat in outrage. “A favor!? I see! You’re all so afraid of stepping over the diamond dogs’ toes that instead of acknowledging that Twilight might actually have gone crazy, you’re more inclined to believe that a rogue alicorn stallion that we’ve never heard of before is suddenly waltzing around Equestria killing everyone he sees for no reason whatsoever! If you’re going to reward a unicorn who murdered more than half a hundred defenseless diamond dogs in cold blood, you’ll have to do it without me!”

“They weren’t defenseless!” Twilight defended herself. “They were armed! One of them was holding an axe against Fluttershy’s neck for pony’s sake!”

“Could they defend themselves against you?” Lucre pressed, glaring at her as he left the table and headed for the exit. “You’re a powerful unicorn, Twilight. But your sense of responsibility is sorely lacking!” He eyed the other gathered ponies when he reached the doors. “And you aren’t the only one, apparently. I find that a great deal more frightening than any alicorn, real or not.”

Civil Tenet gave a deep sigh as the doors closed behind Lucre. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I think it’s safe to say that none of us believe you were responsible for what happened with the diamond dogs. Or any of the other incidents Lucre accused you of for that matter.”

“Now that he’s gone,” Rain Dancer offered, “Tell us more about this alicorn you met. What’s he like? And what exactly did he do to you? I’ve been waiting two months to find out!”

“You’ll have to wait a little longer,” Artemis responded. “These past events haven’t been easy on Twilight. Whatever he did to her, it’s not easy to talk about.”

“I’m happy to wait,” Scarlet Bolt said, waving a hoof dismissively. “I don’t have time for an explanation now; when I’m done here, I need to make the final preparations for the Canterlot mission, which is what we should be discussing.” She nodded at Twilight. “Are you sure you can handle that? You’ve been out of commission for almost three months.”

“To me it’s three weeks,” Twilight reminded her, and Scarlet Bolt chuckled and sighed.

“If I knew what those soldiers were up against, I’d probably say no, but fact is, anything could be hiding away in those caverns. Alright. If nothing else, being there while the caverns get searched will shut you up about finding those Elements, I suppose. Coup will remain Captain, though.”

Beside her, Artemis gave Twilight a knowing look which nopony else seemed to notice.

“At least until we can evaluate the extent of damage your encounter with this alicorn has had on you,” Scarlet Bolt reasoned. “Coup has proven herself an excellent captain during the recent windigo battles up north.”

“Windigoes!?”

Scarlet Bolt smiled grimly at Twilight’s expression. “Winter’s here, Twilight. With a vengeance. I suppose you’d have to be under an evil alicorn’s spell to not notice the shifts in temperature.”

“To say nothing of the wild weather accumulating above Canterlot,” Rain Dancer added. “For some reason, hundreds of those windigoes have flown all the way across Equestria to settle in the former capital.”

“Discord,” Civil Tenet hissed, sounding very much similar to Celestia when she, Twilight, and the rest of her friends had confronted the spirit of chaos for the first time.

“Discord is still in Canterlot?” Twilight asked with confusion. “Nopony’s keeping an eye on him!?”

“Wasn’t an easy choice,” Penning Draft replied. “But in the light what had happened to him, we thought it best to leave him there.”

“Some of us would have preferred to toss him into the deepest part of the oceans,” Scarlet Bolt remarked.

“In light of what happened to him?” Twilight repeated. “What? Last time I checked, he was fine!”

“When’s the last time you checked?” Scarlet Bolt asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Uh, I had Rainbow Dash check sometime around the funeral...”

“From the air no doubt,” the pink pegasus sighed. “The statue was still there when we evacuated Canterlot. But... it was damaged in The Great Tragedy. All other statues were destroyed completely, so it’s just our luck Discord was left standing.”

“But he was... damaged?”

“A big hole in the chest area,” Amity explained. “Didn’t go all the way through, though. I guess he must’ve been hit by some kind of debris.”

“We determined that the damage could mean one of two things,” Scarlet Bolt continued. “Either that with three quarters of his chest gone, Discord had been killed along with everypony else in the palace, or that the damage had only affected his prison, meaning his escape would be made easier. We figured that the less strife and chaos surrounded him, the less chance he’d have of escaping.”

“Which is why we left him behind,” Civil Tenet finished for the pegasus. “Of course, that was before Canterlot was overrun with every beast imaginable.”

“We performed every kind of magical scan of the statue we could,” Artemis reassured Twilight. “Discord himself has always been undetectable, so I can’t say if he’s alive or not, but last we checked, the spells keeping him locked up were still active.”

“But he’s attracting quite a bit of attention regardless,” Civil Tenet murmured unhappily. “I feel like we’re doing nothing but waiting around for him to break free!”

“We’d have to secure most of Canterlot to get that statue out of there,” Scarlet Bolt countered. “It would cost us too many lives.”

“And we can’t fly in?” Rain Dancer asked, and Scarlet Bolt laughed.

“There’s a roc in Canterlot. If you’d been stationed in Zebrica with me, you’d know such a thing was suicide. I’ve seen a roc. It’s the size of an ursa major, but I suppose only Twilight can really appreciate how utterly enormous that is. The freak storm that hit Manehattan several months ago? That was the roc landing in Canterlot. And I’ll tell you, nothing annoys it more than a crowded sky...” The pegasus grimaced at some unknown memory and shook her head. “We can’t approach Canterlot yet. Hopefully, the cold will drive the roc away in time, but until then, the closest we’re getting to that place will be its caverns.”

“Perhaps we should move onto that point now,” Bramley suggested. “You’re not the only one running on a tight schedule.”

“Of course,” Scarlet Bolt replied before turning her gaze back to Twilight. “How much did Artemis tell you of the mission?”

“Just the destination,” Twilight admitted. “What are we looking for?”

“Well, as you might have noticed, Equestria’s gotten a lot colder in your... absence,” Scarlet Bolt explained. “Not only are we missing the sun, but the windigoes just had to show up as well. Flim and Flam’s solites can’t keep up anymore. Now, before you can say ‘I told you so’,” she warned Twilight, “we anticipated this a long way off.”

“The design and the spells themselves have gone through some major improvements, and we’re ready to begin production of the Flim Flam Brothers Solite 2000,” Artemis revealed.

“Almost,” Bramley corrected her, and she nodded.

“While the previous solites could be constructed from almost any type of magically active crystal melded into the hollow-cored spherical shape you see all over Equestria, this design is a bit more particular. The spells are much more powerful, but only because they are more precise. Without the proper crystalline microstructure, the solite doesn’t work. Converting the structure is a process that requires extensive chemical, electrical, thermal, and magical treatment, and it would make the solites more expensive than the farms they’re supposed to light up. Lucre hasn’t found a way of continuing the production without draining the entire nation of its resources in a matter of months. The geological archives have been searched, and just one type of crystal fits the structure we need perfectly. With a supply of this crystal type, we could eliminate the restructuring process entirely.”

“And the crystals are only found in the caverns beneath Canterlot,” Twilight gathered, and Artemis nodded her head.

“It’s convenient yet... terribly inconvenient.”

“During your coma,” Scarlet Bolt continued, getting to the point, “we’ve dug an underground passage from a relatively safe zone in the vicinity of Canterlot and into the heart of the mountain. A week ago, we breached the caverns themselves, but as could be expected, it’s not exactly a safe working environment. We need the entire area secured.”

“The question is what else needs to be done,” Civil Tenet said. “I still do not think it’s a good idea to destroy the entrances leading into Canterlot. With them, we can travel directly from the base of the mountain to the city’s suburbs once the caverns have been cleared out. If we want to retrieve Discord...”

“We don’t want to retrieve Discord,” Scarlet Bolt argued. “I just told you it was too dangerous! Clearing out the caverns will serve no purpose if we don’t close all openings between Canterlot and the caverns while doing so.”

“A door, then,” Civil Tenet argued. “Close all openings except one, and block it somehow. Don’t destroy it. If we think ahead now, getting Discord will be much easier once we do decide to approach the old capital.”

“And how do you propose we block the entrance?” Artemis challenged the silver unicorn. “The windigoes up there can slip through any crack and crevice; they’re even known to pass through solid walls. Once ponies start mining, they’ll be attracting a lot of attention and they won’t be safe unless they’re fully isolated from the creatures above.

“We’d need a very, very solid door to keep out an ursa,” Scarlet Bolt agreed, “and building one there? Right next to Canterlot?” She shook her head. “We’d be better off drilling through the rock once the time comes to secure Discord.” She then turned her head to Twilight, as if remembering she was still there. “You have my permission to participate in the mission, Twilight. I’m afraid the rest of this meeting doesn’t really concern you. Go to the Sword of Equestria and report to Coup. You’ve got quite a bit of catching up to do.”

Twilight nodded her head appreciatively and rose from her seat. As she turned to leave, however, Quiescent Atonement spoke up without warning. “This alicorn... Until we know more, until we can... ascertain his existence, we should not speak openly of him. We seem to have, prematurely, declared the return of Nightmare Moon a reality, and it is not a mistake any of us would prefer to repeat, I am sure.”

Scarlet Bolt nodded her head, soon joined by the rest of the council in her agreement. “True. Keep a lid on it for now, Twilight. Lucre might have been a bit too blunt about it, but we do need more evidence before we can make any decisions regarding this alicorn. It would be best if you didn’t mention this meeting to anyone in the Sword of Equestria. Good luck with Canterlot. You just might need it.”

---

Centurion snickered as Twilight’s whole body shivered violently despite the heating spell she had been casting on herself. She stomped her hooves against the ground, but the ankle-deep layer of snow blanketing the entire area only served to further steal away what little body heat she possessed.

They had arrived at the base of the Canterlot mountain an hour ago, but had been forced to wait for the remainder of the force in the freezing cold. Since they had only been allowed to fly in teams of four chariots at a time in order to avoid attracting the attention of the roc, the arrival of the entire Sword had been a lengthy process.

Twilight had spent her chariot ride with Centurion, who seemed remarkably unbothered by the freezing temperatures that had only dropped lower and lower as they approached the former capital. The two, along with three scores of other soldiers, now stood within the flimsy force field surrounding the mining outpost, a barrier that seemed to do nothing more than keep out the brunt of the chilling winds.

The outpost was situated within a rocky formation that helped hide it from any roaming predators of the Canterlot area, keeping it relatively safe despite its proximity to the enormous mountain, which rose steeply into the sky only a few miles ahead. The outpost itself seemed to only hold the bare necessities needed for those who worked there: a bunkhouse, a small dining hall, an outhouse, some sort of storage facility, a simple train station, and something that looked like a barn, most likely the entrance to the underground tunnel that led into the heart of the mountain. Twilight had yet to meet Coup de Grâce as the captain had apparently gone straight to the bunkhouse to discuss some kind of details with the residents of the outpost, ordering the other soldiers to remain outside.

Twilight already missed being Captain.

“You really weren’t built for this kind of weather, were you?” Centurion remarked with a teasing smile upon his lips.

Twilight shook her head and increased the feed to the spell keeping her warm. “Who is!? When did it get so c-cold!?”

“Probably sometime during the two months you were sleeping,” he observed. “We’re in the middle of winter now and hundreds, maybe thousands of windigoes are loose all over Equestria. Once you’ve faced those things in a place like Vyatkiev, you won’t be complaining about the cold here.”

Twilight nodded grudgingly as she turned her gaze toward the mountain, still two or three miles away. A truly gigantic mass of clouds had formed just above Canterlot, swirling around with surprising speed like a minor hurricane. A tiny break in the clouds gave away the center of the formation, which seemed to be positioned someplace above the ruins of the palace, or more precisely, Twilight did not doubt, directly above Discord’s statue. A thin shaft of moonlight shone down through the center of the pseudo-hurricane, giving Twilight the disconcerting impression that the many windigoes’ eyes were all fixed on the lone statue. Not for the first time, she wondered what connection was shared between the spirit of chaos and the lesser winter spirits feeding on the strife of others.

“If I’d told you ten months ago Canterlot would look like that,” Twilight said, nodding at the frozen ruin barely visible from their position, “what would you have said?”

“‘Over my dead body’, most likely,” Centurion scoffed, looking disappointed. “In fact, that’s probably how it would’ve gone if it hadn’t been for Shining Armor. He ended up dismissing me a few hours early that night so I could get to a friend’s bachelor party. I should have been there when it happened.”

“Be glad you weren’t,” Twilight said with a grimace, still not taking her eyes off Canterlot.

“Right,” Centurion replied, forcing a light chuckle. “I keep forgetting you were there. You’re tougher than you look.”

Twilight sighed. At least she had Centurion fooled, it seemed. Contrary to him, she was certain her appearance was the toughest thing about her at the time. Her insides were quivering. Quivering with hatred, fear, rage, and sorrow, emotions she had all kept bottled up for weeks now. Part of her couldn’t bear seeing what had become of Canterlot, but another, stronger part of her forced her to keep looking, to take in what the black alicorn had done to her old home, to remember it the next time she faced him. To never again allow herself to give up as she had in the final moments of that nightmare.

“You alright?”

Twilight blinked and took her eyes off the distant maelstrom of clouds. “Y-yeah.” She stomped her hooves against the ground again and groaned. “How much longer do we have to wait!?”

“Three, two, one...” The door to the bunkhouse opened, and Coup de Grâce and an earth pony emerged, the latter carrying a set of keys between his teeth. “Hey, it worked!” Centurion chuckled, he and Twilight trotting up to the entrance to the tunnel along with the rest of the Sword.

“We’re going in!” Coup de Grâce announced unceremoniously as she went to the front of the group of soldiers. The earth pony with her unlocked the large door, and with a grunt of effort, she slid it aside, revealing a large elevator within the barn-like construction. Steel cables and winches in the ceiling all connected to the mobile platform that made up the majority of the building’s floor, and a number of rails ran from the platform and outside to vanish under the snow. With the exception of those features and a simple lever in the left corner, the building was empty, the many hoofsteps of the entering soldiers echoing all over the place.

“So what do you reckon?” Centurion asked of Twilight as they all stepped onto the elevator which easily accommodated the twenty unicorns and hoofful of earth ponies. “Will it be colder or warmer underground?”

“At this point, I don’t think there’d be much difference,” Twilight complained. “I’m completely numb from standing out there.” She prodded at her skin to affirm her lowered sensitivity. She almost lost her balance when the elevator set into motion, and her eyes widened when the first few gusts of wind from the tunnel beneath them swept across the gathered ponies.

“What do you know,” Centurion remarked indifferently. “It’s even colder.”

“This is ridiculous,” Twilight muttered, powering up the spell keeping her warm. The noticeable difference in pressure between surface and underground tugged forcefully at the ponies for a few seconds as the tunnel hovered into view, and a moment later, the elevator came to a sudden halt. Ahead of them was a long, straight tunnel that seemed to go on forever. The three sets of rails set into the elevator continued into the tunnel, and not too far ahead were a small number of minecarts.

Coup de Grâce was walking even before the elevator stopped, pointing a hoof at three of the minecarts as she passed them and barking out orders. “Centurion, Amber Vane, Iron Sword, Oak, Vigilance, and Sunburst, I want you at those carts. Twilight Sparkle, Starburst, Orion, and Fire Streak, you’re up front! These tunnels should be safe, but I’m not taking any chances.”

As pegasi started flying down the short elevator shaft to join the rest of the task force, Centurion and Twilight split up, the latter striding forwards to walk by the captain’s side, soon joined by the three other unicorns.

The Sword walked on for an entire hour before the large tunnel they were traversing took on a gentle incline, suggesting that the ponies were entering into or nearing the mountain. After another two hours of keeping up with Coup de Grâce’s surprisingly brisk pace through an increasingly steep tunnel, a huge set of steel doors reinforced by three heavy crossbars loomed into view. The armored pegasus nodded wordlessly at the heavily fortified opening, and Twilight and the three unicorns used their magic to slide aside the steel bolts and push open the doors with a deep, rumbling creak.

Ahead was nothing but darkness, illuminated only faintly by the light of two electrical lamps set into the walls of the cavern immediately beyond the doors. A very faint keening sound could be heard from somewhere ahead, a sound that Twilight attributed to the howling winds rushing about Canterlot far above them.

“Unicorns! Give us some light!” Coup de Grâce shouted back at the soldiers behind her as she walked resolutely forward, Twilight following as her horn began shining brightly. Visible now in the myriad of lights cast by the group of ponies, the granite of the tunnels very soon gave way to the sparkling crystal of Canterlot’s caverns. The walls that had been surrounding them for three hours quickly receded as they kept walking, the cave finally opening up to the newcomers, and Twilight found herself walking along a large shelf set into a crystal wall, a deep, dark abyss below her, and nothing but blackness above. Although it was hardly noticeable at first, Twilight soon realized that the majority of the surfaces all around her were coated by a layer of ice, varying in thickness everywhere she looked.

No sources of water as far as I can tell... Is it just moisture in the air that’s formed the ice, or something else entirely?

After another ten uneventful minutes of walking, the wall to Twilight’s right receded as the Sword walked out onto an enormous crystal plaza surrounded by a deep chasm. The three sets of rails ended abruptly near the middle of the large platform, but a multitude of natural crystal bridges spanned the distance between the plaza itself and the many surrounding shelves and tunnelways that led further into the caverns.

Coup de Grâce spun around as she reached the end of the tracks and once more called out to her subordinates. “Alright, welcome to our base of operations! I, the four lead unicorns as well as Primrose and Aloe and ten pegasi, I don’t care who, will remain here! The rest of you will split up into ten teams! Two unicorns in each! Now!”

As the soldiers quickly did their best to oblige, the three minecarts reached the end of the tracks, coming to a halt in front of Coup de Grâce. From the center one, the captain produced a green, elongated crystal roughly the same height as herself. “We’ll be going through our procedures one last time, so listen up! This here’s the aggregating crystal, courtesy of the Manehattan mages! If they’re any good at what they do, all of you unicorns should be able to lock onto its magical signature by touching your horns to its surface or something like that. You know how it works. What’s important is that this’ll be our hub of communications! The reason you’ve been practicing those telephonetic spells the last few days! You encounter a threat, you report to base camp! You need backup, you report to base camp! See something out of the ordinary, you report to base camp! Anything at all goes wrong, you report to base camp! Is that clear?”

At the shout of affirmation from the majority of the soldiers, the large pegasus continued. “There’s no two-way communication here! If you encounter a problem, either remain where you are or, if necessary, fall back! If you need backup, I want a detailed description of your threat so I can assign reinforcements accordingly! The ten pegasi remaining here will be our only way of reaching you and they will serve as backup if needed. The four unicorns will be serving as reinforcements only! Also, and I cannot stress the importance of this enough: Place markers! Place markers everywhere you go! If you come upon a junction, mark whatever path you choose! If you run into a dead end, mark it twice so anypony can see you’ve been in and out! The markers are the only way we’ll know what we’ve scouted out and what we haven’t, and it’s the only way for reinforcements to track you down!”

As she spoke, the captain gestured at Iron Sword, who demonstrated the marking technique, his horn glowing a bright cyan before a small flare of the same color appeared on the floor in front of him. “Now,” Coup de Grâce continued, “killing off whatever threats are down here is just half the job! Some of you will be reaching the surface of Canterlot which is the source of all our problems! Under no circumstance, I repeat, no circumstance, are you to leave the caverns! It’s simple; Canterlot is a danger zone and is off limits for unauthorized personnel, these caverns are not! Not only will you sign your death warrant by going up there, you’ll be bringing the rest of you fellow soldiers in danger! The last thing we want is for the predators up there to know we’re down here! Do not go outside! If you find an opening leading to the surface, report to base camp and do whatever’s in your power to destroy the entrance! Once you’ve done so... report to base camp!”

The captain reached a hoof into one of the adjacent carts and pulled out a small flashlight fitted onto a headband. “Soldiers without horns will be wanting these! Finally, we have no idea how large these caverns actually are or what you’ll encounter along the way, so you’ll have to improvise while searching! Pegasi will ferry fellow soldiers across chasms, unicorns and earth ponies remove loose boulders, so on and so forth! Now, unless there are any further questions, you’d better gear up and get going!”

One by one, the teams went by the minecarts, the unicorns touching their horns to the green crystal while the other types of ponies took a headband each. After only two minutes, all ten teams had left the base of operations, leaving behind the four unicorns, two earth ponies, and eleven pegasi.

After touching her horn to the crystal as the last of the unicorns, Twilight seated herself near one of the minecarts, wincing at the freezing crystal surface. After waiting around for half an hour and realizing that she probably wouldn’t be called upon any time soon, her horn sprung to life with a violent blaze of magenta as she summoned a powerful version of her Awakening spell. The giant mote of crackling energy barely left her horn before rushing back into her, giving her a strange tingling sensation all over her body. She closed her eyes and opened them, confirming that she was indeed inside the crystal caverns beneath Canterlot.

“What was that?” Coup de Grâce asked suspiciously, eyeing first the unicorn and then her surroundings in an effort to spot any effects the spell might have had.

“It’s... a long story,” Twilight tried answering dismissively, but failed to persuade the pegasus. “You’ll be better off not knowing. Trust me.”

“If there’s anything that might interfere with the performance of the most powerful unicorn soldier I have at my disposal,” the captain argued, “I think it’s my business to know.”

“It’s an Awakening spell,” the unicorn sighed. “By casting it regularly, I either assure myself I’m not in a coma, or I wake myself up.” Twilight irritably returned the disapproving and slightly confused look she got from the pegasus captain. “Look, you fight timberwolves and the occasional ursa, I fight mindcontrolling deicidal monsters, it’s as simple as that!”

“Mindcontrol?” an orange and red-maned unicorn whom Twilight could only assume was Fire Streak interjected, looking slightly apprehensive.

“I’m dealing with it!” Twilight insisted, waving a hoof in dismissal as she felt the eyes of everypony on her. “Can we just... focus on the mission at hoof?”

“This... business won’t affect your performance?” the armored pegasus inquired finally, and Twilight nodded impatiently.

“I can handle whatever’s down here.” Coup de Grâce gave a hesitant nod at the unicorn and returned to the green crystal, waiting expectantly for any report from the teams.

And now everyone thinks I’ve gone insane, Twilight sighed to herself. Or they think I’m still insane... Maybe I am...

I see things that aren’t real and believe they’re real. He made this thing inside me that... that’s angry... that wants to kill. He broke me. I’ve defeated Discord, I’ve defeated Nightmare Moon, I’ve imprisoned a giant dragon in Tartarus, I’ve successfully negotiated peace with an extremely stubborn spirit of nature, I’ve saved my friends more times than I can count, I’m the Heroine of Equestria, the Element of Magic, but with one spell, that guy broke me.

Will the Elements of Harmony even work? He was too powerful last time, but that was in his dream, he controlled everything then.

“Team Lime reporting threat number one,” a voice emanating from the green crystal spoke, interrupting Twilight’s train of thought. “Nest of spiders. Like, pony-sized ones. Shouldn’t be a problem, though.”

“Alright, things are getting interesting!” Coup de Grâce told the soldiers around her. “I want the carts emptied and ready for wounded!”

Twilight absentmindedly grabbed the spare headbands with her magic and removed them from the cart she was sitting up against, diverting some of her magic as she did so to heat up the floor she was sitting on.

The Elements of Harmony don’t kill, she thought to herself, continuing her musings on her enemy, and he needs to die. He must have been imprisoned long ago, probably by Celestia and Luna who did it in a time long forgotten by history. But imprisoning means he’ll break free. Like Nightmare Moon. Like Discord. Like the Blazebringers of Tartarus. It might be a hundred years, a thousand or even a million, but if we imprison him, he’s going to break free sooner or later. And he can’t be allowed to run free again. Ever.

But then how do I kill him?

“Team Cyan here,” a second voice said through the crystal. “Got a giant nest of... well, we’ve agreed they’re large spiders. The size of ponies, maybe bigger. All dead, though. Something’s killed them. We’ll try and track whatever it is down.”

How do I kill something stronger than Celestia? How did she die? How did he do it? Sheer power? A secret weapon? If only I could remember what exactly happened at The Great Tragedy! It has to be there somewhere! Locked away deep inside my brain, a trauma that I’ve suppressed... It should be possible to dig out.

“Team Green,” Amber Vane’s voice said through the crystal. “We’ve got some large snakes here. Nine.. ten of them. Bluish, flat-headed, quite a few yards long... Not anything I recognize. We’ll try and isolate them and dispatch them one by one.”

An earsplitting shriek followed by a thunderous explosion rang through the cavern, and the pegasi and unicorns were on their hooves in an instant, looking ahead into the unrelenting darkness from which the disturbance had come.

“I need a light on that!” Coup de Grâce ordered, and Fire Streak was quick to oblige, shooting ahead a beam of light that swept back and forth in the general direction of where the armored pegasus was pointing. A cloud of dust was caught in the light, soon followed by a group of ponies standing upon an exposed shelf, all of them lowered into a ready battle stance.

“Cut the light! Cut the light!” a stallion hissed through the crystal, and Fire Streak’s horn immediately darkened.

A series of bright flashes of yellow and blue appeared where the group of ponies had previously been visible, followed by another loud explosion and an unearthly screech. The ponies standing near the minecarts were silent, waiting for some sort of sign from the soldiers up ahead.

Just as Coup de Grâce opened her mouth, the green crystal behind her came to life with the voice of the stallion that had spoken before. “Alright, we’re clear... Team Yellow’s clear... Sky Shiner’s gone, though. Something came out of the wall. A creature made of ice and walking on two legs. It grabbed her and just... snapped her like a twig. We got it, though. The second one too. Warn the other teams, though. They’re pretty darn strong and you’ll only see ‘em if you know what to look for. Team Yellow will be moving on.”

“Pegasi!” the captain shouted in response to the unicorn’s suggestion. “You heard him! Find the other teams! Spiders, snakes, and bipedal ice creatures! Everyone needs to be on the lookout! I’m not losing anypony else in these caves!”

The pegasi quickly dispersed to fulfill the captain’s orders, and the soldiers remaining fell silent once more. Fifteen minutes later, Amber Vane’s voice returned to the crystal next to Coup de Grâce. “Team... Green reporting in. Snakes were tougher than expected. Flitterfly, Cloudy Runner, and Starmist are dead. I guess that means we’re Team Gold now. Skyswirler was bitten, but she’s not dead... yet. She’s not looking good, Captain.” The unicorn was silent for a while before speaking again, this time with a more urgent voice. “Seems there are half a dozen more snakes all of a sudden! Pulling back! If you got her, I could use some backup from Twilight Sparkle!”

Coup de Grâce frowned as she looked to the lavender unicorn, who was quick to get on her hooves. The captain, however, quickly turned to the three other unicorns present. “Starburst and Orion! Get to Team Gold immediately! Orion, you’ll get Skyswirler back here! Alive! Fire Streak, you track down Team Yellow and lead ‘em to Gold! Once the teams are merged, you and Starburst return to base!”

Doesn’t she trust me? Twilight thought to herself suspiciously as the large armored pegasus saw the three unicorns off. What does she think I’ll do?

“Team Purple,” a voice Twilight recognized as belonging to Bluebell, the mage who had helped her pacify the ursa minor, called out through the green crystal. “We’ve found two large snakes, both dead. No sign of a predator, but we’ll keep a lookout.”

“Must be those ice creatures,” Coup de Grâce muttered to herself as the message ended. “Killing spiders and snakes and ponies alike...”

The Elements of Harmony, Twilight thought, ignoring the pegasus and focusing on her most pressing problem. That’s the only ‘secret weapon’ I know of. It’ll probably be what I’ll end up using against that monster. I can’t see why it shouldn’t work. The Elements always work. If they defeated Nightmare Moon and Discord, they can defeat him. If the Element of Magic allowed me to defeat something like Inferno, if Kindness allowed Fluttershy to face down a pegasus imbued with Nightmare Moon’s power, if Loyalty gave Rainbow the determination and perseverance to race a griffon around the world... Then the combined power of the Elements can stop any threat.

But is he just any threat? Is he like Discord? Or Nightmare? Discord was almost peaceful compared to what that alicorn has done. He never hurt anypony. Nightmare Moon never got the chance to either. If only I could be certain! If only I could use the Elements without my friends getting anywhere near that murderer! But... can we even use the Elements?

Celestia would tell me to trust in the power of harmony... But can I? After what he did to me? Perhaps he was just buying time when he made the diamond dogs take Fluttershy. Now I’m the one who’s crippled... Maybe. I hope not.

The silence between the five remaining ponies wore on for almost an hour, broken only by the occasional report transmitted through the green crystal. Eventually, Orion returned with Skyswirler in his magical tow, placing her gently on a small cot the two earth ponies had prepared. Another few minutes later, the ten pegasi and two unicorns finally returned to the base of operations.

“Team Cyan here. Uh... Cerulean’s gone... No scream, no sign of where she went or what carried her off. Think we might’ve found out what killed those spiders... Will report if we find her... or it.”

“Whitewing, Sky Sweeper.” Coup de Grâce called out, and the pegasi in question stepped forward. “Make sure Team Cyan has the eyes they need to look out for their silent killer.”

“Team Silver’s found their first threat,” a mare whispered in the crystal. “One of the ice things. At least we think so. We’re gonna go ahead and shoot first and ask later.”

“How long are we gonna keep at this?” Fire Streak asked. From what Twilight could tell, it sounded as if the unicorn had exhausted herself while helping Team Yellow.

“Till we’ve searched every nook and cranny of this freezing cave,” Coup de Grâce sighed. “Dealt with every threat down here, and sealed off any entrance leading to the surface. Could be hours, could be a week.”

The gathered ponies let out a joint sigh of displeasure at this, soon interrupted by yet another report from one of the teams in the field.

The minutes of yet another hour had sluggishly ticked by before Twilight’s ears perked up at the sound of Team Cyan’s leader speaking through the crystal again, his voice an agitated whisper this time. “Uh... again... Argh! It happened again! We lost sight of Iron Sword, Coup. We just searched through this giant cave, and we think we’re getting close to the surface. Iron Sword and Pale Pass were the first to go through the tunnel, but by the time the rest of us were there, Pale had a giant gash in her side and had been knocked unconscious! Iron Sword’s... Ir-Iron Sword! Oh, Celestia! We found him! I-I-Iron S-Sword! We found Iron Sword! He-He-He’s dead! Very dead! Wh-where is his head!? Wait, where... Where did Waterbreeze go!? Where in Tartarus is she!? Hail Trail, you were right beside her! Coup, Cap’n, we need backup now! Everything you’ve got!”

“Twilight Sparkle!” the armored pegasus shouted at the already alert unicorn. “Whirlwind! Cloud Slicer! Get to Team Cyan! Destroy whatever’s picking off our soldiers! Stay with ‘em until you do!”

The two pegasi saluted as Twilight set into a gallop, teleporting toward the first of the cyan markers and after the pony hunter that somehow seemed eerily familiar to her.

Comments

[Helrael]

Sorry about the wait, but here it is. Not a whole lot going on in this chapter if you ask me. Twilight's sitting down most of the time...
But next chapter'll be fun! If you like gore... and sadism..? I got nothing. Hope you enjoyed!

[Omega Delta]

3498501 MOAR!
please....

[Sergiovan]

“My point is we shouldn’t trust Twilight blindly!” Lucre groaned in response. “For all we know, she could’ve even caused The Great Tragedy. That too happens to be one of those catastrophes where we only have her word for what happened.”

Bastard

Also, if Twi got out of a Magic Resistant cage using only Magic, whatever is harassing Team Cyan is not dead. It is erased from time and space

[Helrael]

3505624 I'll be the first to admit; I wasn't really prepared for a third alicorn at the time. It didn't affect this story's alicorn head canon, but I really needed Equestia to be utterly leaderless. So I exploded them.

[Helrael]

3506898 Can we make a compromise?

[amacita]

The Sword of Equestria gets through all those pest control missions while barely losing anyone. Now they're in the caverns, and they're dropping like flies. This is pretty cool. I love how the guy at Team Cyan is freaking out.

[Helrael]

3507695 I like how it turned out. Twilight's much too powerful at this point for me to use her POV to establish a proper horror vibe, which is what this pony hunter deserves, so I ended up using Team Cyan instead. Poor guys.
Then again, considering how much trouble I went through keeping track of who died how, when, and where during this and the next chapter, I don't feel that sorry for them

[NebulaNyx]

3506993 ....No
unless of coarse you do something like, I don't know bring them back from the dead or just make us think their dead, that could work.
Actually ill end up reading all of this anyway, I enjoying it to much, however ill be holding back on the like and favorite until i find out how this ends.

[BlueNinja]

3507695 Gives off a very Aliens vibe.

So out of curiosity, now that Captain Coup is in charge ...
if Twilight pulls an armed takeover of the Sword, is it a Coup coup?