The Nightguard: Legacy of Star Swirl the Bearded

by BigKlingy

First published 6th of January, 2013

My nane is Star Swirl, and if you're an egghead, you'll probably recognise the name. If not, well there's a pretty good reason. I didn't learn of this until the first year of my adulthood, but the day I did was the day my life ch

My nane is Star Swirl, and if you're an egghead, you'll probably recognise the name. The most important conjurer of the pre-classical era, the greatest sorcerer who ever lived, and yes, he is my ancestor. There's just one small problem: I'm an Earth Pony. Or so I thought. It turns out the truth was... much more complicated. And the day I learned the truth was the day my life changed forever. But not in the way I expected.

This is my story.

Chapter 1: Heir in Name Only

So you wanna hear the story of how I got my Cutie Mark? Well, that depends on your definition of ‘got’. If you mean to ask when it appeared, I can tell you in ten seconds flat.

I got it when I was born.

But if you want to know when I earned it, then sit tight, this is going to take a while.
I’ll start at the beginning. Most ponies get their Cutie Marks when they discover their special talent. Me, I was born with mine. The doctors were perplexed, obviously, and tried to pass it off as some strange birthmark. But my parents knew better the moment they saw it, and if I was born 1000 years ago, I’m sure the doctors would have too.

A single, white star surrounded by a swirl of ten crimson lines, each inlayed with a smaller star. That symbol had been passed down in my family for generations. My mother was born with it, and her mother before her, and her father before her… and now I’m starting to sound like an old buffalo. I’ll just cut to the chase: its original bearer. He was one of the greatest unicorns Equestria has ever known. The most important conjurer of the pre-classical era, the father of the amniomorphic spell and, sadly, only known today by self-proclaimed “eggheads”. Yes, he was Star Swirl the Bearded, and he is my ancestor. Despite his current obscurity, my family has always strived to keep his legacy alive. And so every generation, when a foal is born bearing his mark, tradition decrees they must take up his name. So it’s about time I introduced myself, I’m the latest Star Swirl, bearer of his legacy and inheritor of his magical powers.

There’s just one tiny problem: I’m an Earth Pony.

Or at least I think I am. I wasn’t born with a horn or wings, so what else could I be? And the strange thing is, so was my mother. And her mother before her, and her father before her. I thought it was just coincidence at first, until I got curious and searched for my family tree in the royal Canterlot library. And sure enough, my suspicions were true: despite being descended from possibly the greatest sorcerer of all time (NB: if a certain ‘Great and Powerful’ individual somehow gets hold of this, I feel obliged to say this was not meant as a personal attack in any way, shape, or form, although I know that won’t stop her from taking it as one. I should then remind her that he’s been dead for over a millennia. Nothing to get worked up over.) None of my family were unicorns but he himself. And yet his very same insignia has been passed down through the generations. It almost felt like some incredibly twisted Poison Joke prank, the kind you-know-who is famous for. So I did the only thing I could, I learned to live with it.

It certainly wasn’t easy at school, I can tell you. Every first day was the same, the foals would all flock to me to admire my Cutie Mark, I’d be the most popular filly on the playground… and then the question came.
“So what’s your special talent?”

At first, I’d make up some kind of excuse like “I can’t show you here” or “I have homework to do, maybe later.” But I knew I could only delay the inevitable. The kids would keep asking and asking until I finally broke down:

“I DON’T KNOW!”

And with that, my ten minutes of fame vanished. In the next few weeks, somepony else would get theirs, except they could, you know, actually do something. Sooner or later everyone would be showing off their talents, and I’d be left alone once again. My parents would move, and it’d be new school, same routine. And so on until I finally graduated.

Seeing as I didn’t have much I could really do, I never really had any lasting friendships back then. The closest I had were the times I hung out with the unicorns in high school. It was kinda nice, at first. We’d talk about magic… and then they’d go off and actually practice what they preached. It was fun to watch, but deep down it hurt knowing I could never join them, as much as I wanted to. I visited the library as often as I could and read every book of magic I could lay my hooves on, but even that only gave me a temporary happiness.

My mother would always tell me she’d been through everything I had, and that just because I didn’t have a special talent didn’t mean I couldn’t be happy. After all, she kept reminding me, she’d learned to get over it, and I should too in time. “If that’s really the case”, I thought, “then why do you always make sure we get a house next to a family of unicorns every time we move?” I never told her that, of course; even an illusion of happiness doesn’t deserve to be shattered.

After graduation, I was faced with the dilemma of having to find something to do with my life. With my interest in magic, I decided applying for a job as a magic historian was the way to go, though I learnt the hard way most of the top places only accept unicorns. Which is understandable, I guess. (That still doesn’t excuse the way the Blueblood Brotherhood treated me, but I’d rather not go into that here.) After a string of rejections, my options dwindled to the point where I had to consider the one place I dreaded applying for: the Royal Canterlot Library itself. I mean, come on, this is the Princess Celestia we’re talking about, there’s no way she’d accept somepony like me. And besides, if word on the street was correct, she already had all the library help she could ever need. Still, it couldn’t hurt to at least try.

And I’m glad I did, because it was that one application that changed my life forever.
Though not in the way I expected.

A few weeks afterwards, I awoke one day and found I had received a letter in the mail. And sure enough, it bore the Royal Canterlot Seal. “Oh great”, I thought “one of those ‘ultra-formal’ rejection letters”. I continued in my best imitation of the Royal Canterlot Voice “We much appreciate your application, but we regret to inform you that, after much deliberation…” I braced myself for disappointment and opened the envelope.

What I got wasn’t quite disappointment, but certainly not joy either. It was more like… bewilderment. The parchment within was midnight blue, written on in glowing silver ink. But what was most surprising was the script itself. I’d seen it before, but only in history books. In fact if I hadn’t taken those obscure dead-language studies at school I wouldn’t have been able to read it at all. (Let that be a lesson to you foals, despite what others tell you, those subjects are useful for something.) Roughly paraphrased, it said:

Hear me, O Daughter of the Bearded One!

If thou wishest to know the truth of thy heritage, at the stroke of midnight thou shalt meet Us at the Keep of Nightmare Moon in the Everfree Forest.

Thy Friend

“Okay…” I thought to myself, still mentally recovering (I swear it felt like the letter shouted at me) “that was… weird.” Of course, I was suspicious. It had been half a year since the return of Nightmare Moon and her subsequent defeat, but still, a meeting in the heart of the Everfree Forest at midnight hardly boded well. But the Royal Seal on the envelope seemed genuine, and what kind of mugger uses a script that ancient anyway? Come to think of it, what kind of pony uses that script these days? This was getting weird. Maybe I should get an escort? I heard the one they call Stare Master lived at the edge of the forest, perhaps she’d be willing to… no, there was no way I could convince her to go out at this time of night. What to do…

In my pondering, I hadn’t realised I wandered into the centre of the street, and had been standing there for some time. So, naturally, the moment I finally made up my mind, somepony crashed into me. It was a perfectly normal occurrence, I’d bumped into ponies like this several times before. But this time stood out, because as far as I know most ponies don’t make a bright blue flash and an almighty CRACK when they fall. It was almost as if a bolt of lightning struck. As I raised myself from the ground, I caught my first glimpse of them; a unicorn mare, around my age, with a lemon-yellow coat and a short blue (and black in places, but that didn’t seem a natural colouring) mane. I couldn’t get a good look at her Cutie Mark because my eyes were first drawn to the heavy-looking, bronze-framed goggles she wore. They looked ill-cared-for, caked in soot and oil. And for a moment, I thought I saw something metal protruding from her right foreleg, but I thought it just my imagination at the time.

“Hey!” she snapped, before I had a chance to fully rise, “Watch where you’re standing! Can’t you see I’m busy here?”

“Sorry, I kinda spaced out there.” I replied as I offered her my hoof, which, to my shock, she immediately batted away.

“I wouldn’t touch that hoof if I were you.” the unicorn advised, gesturing to the foreleg I noticed earlier. On closer inspection there was definitely something… different about it. She managed to stand while I was busy staring.

“This may come as a surprise to you” she said, giving me the look of a schoolteacher, “but ‘spacing out’ in the middle of the street isn’t what I’d call a smart idea. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some pacing to do.”

“But,” I couldn’t help but add “didn’t you say you were busy? Looks to me like you’re doing nothing.”

As I saw the mare freeze in place, then double back towards me, I realized in hindsight that I probably shouldn’t have said that out loud.

“Doing nothing!!” ,she yelled, “I am thinking! This is the most important thing I do! How could you possibly call that ‘doing nothing’! Why I… wait.” With that last word, the anger suddenly vanished from her face. Replacing it was a slowly widening smile.

“Do… nothing… Yes. YES! That’s it!
EUREKA!!!"

The unicorn mare’s horn gave off a blinding glow as she yelled, naturally turning the heads of everypony in the street. Seemingly oblivious, she continued her ecstatic yelling.

“Of course! Why didn’t I think of this before! If I have the machine do nothing for 60 seconds after every discharge, that’ll give it time to cool down before the next one, NO MORE EXPLODING!!” She’d now grabbed me by the shoulders and started shaking me. “Thank you! Thank you miss… miss…”

“Star Swirl.” I replied.

“Star Swirl… Star Swirl… now where have I heard that name before…” Uh oh, I thought, this again. I’d learned to get used to it by now.

“Did your grandfather…”

Here it comes…

“Invent the anemometer?”

I sighed. “No, but you’re closer than most. Oh, I didn’t catch your…”

But by the time I’d finished, she’d already ran off, saying something about having to get the machine ready before… something happened. I didn’t quite catch the rest.

It took me about five minutes to catch my breath after that… surreal experience, but eventually, I finally remembered what I was thinking about. I had decided to go to this meeting in the Everfree Forest. And it was a good thing I’d finally made up my mind, it was already getting dark. From my house around the centre of Ponyville, it’d take me about half an hour to reach the forest’s edge. From there it was just a nice, calm, hour long walk straight to Nightmare Moon’s castle. If by ‘calm’, you meant, ‘fraught with constant peril’. Well, I convinced myself, if a librarian, a farmer, a dressmaker and… Pinkie Pie could do it, I could too. Probably. And so I packed my saddle bags, dusted off my old monster encyclopaedia (just in case), and set off.

If only I knew where I’d actually be going that night, I would have packed a lot more than that. Not to mention written my will. But I’ll get to that later.

Along the way, I passed by a small cottage around the edge of Ponyville, not far from the Apples’ Orchard. I recognised the place; I’d been there many times when I was just a filly. Everypony I knew would come here and line up for a taste of the best honey in town. I couldn’t help but stop for a moment. The rows of beehives in the yard, the flower garden I was sternly warned not to touch back then, the place even smelt the same way it used to.

“No time to be reminiscing.” I told myself “I’ve got a meeting to get to and…”

“I absolutely can’t be late!”, exclaimed a voice, and it wasn’t mine. As I turned, I noticed an earth pony with an orange coat and familiar bee Cutie Mark had come hurrying up the garden path. She seemed to notice me too, but didn’t so much as glance in my direction.

“Sorry Star Swirl”, I heard her say as she ran, “I’d love to talk, but I simply don’t have the time. In fact, I don’t even have the time to tell you I don’t have the time to talk to you. Oops, I just did. And I did it again. And again and… I’m losing precious time!!” She’d reached the hives and dropped a crate on the ground with a crash, from which she started hastily unloading glass jars. I sensed I should probably just leave, but my curiosity held me back.

“Just one thing”, I began “why exactly are you gathering honey at this time of night?”

“I appreciate your concern, dear, but it’s really alright. Baltimare just doubled next week’s order, so I really have to get it ready by tomorrow.”

“Oh, okay”, I replied, preparing to leave, until I realised her answer posed even more questions.

“Wait a minute. Why is it so important you get next week’s shipment ready tonight?”

The mare turned her head for the first time and gave me an ‘isn’t it obvious’ look. Once she realised it wasn’t, she sighed and launched into a rapid-fire explanation:

“Well, you see, tomorrow is market day, so I’ll be in town the whole time. The day after I have to meet with Granny Smith to discuss preparations for the next Zap Apple harvest. The day after that I’m giving a presentation at the school on the importance of beekeeping in today’s society. Saturday I have to babysit my sister’s newborn foal and Sunday I need to inspect the flowers in the Canterlot gardens to check they’re appropriate for the social gathering, as well as the flowers in the food stores to check they’re safe for lunch. Which, trust me dear, is very important if we don’t want a repeat of the infamous Poison Joke sandwich incident that happened last year. By then Baltimare will want their shipment, which unfortunately would cut into my scheduled rest time if I did it then, so naturally the only time I have free to do it is right now. Time that is fast running out so if you don’t mind I’d like to get back to…”

“But…” I interjected the moment my brain switched itself back on, “shouldn’t there be other things on your schedule like, oh, I don’t know, sleeping?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her.”

I was surprised to hear another pony’s voice coming from behind the shed. This one was noticeably quieter and calmer. Not long afterwards, I saw it belonged to a lavender-coated Pegasus, her long golden mane tangled in locks. She swooped down silently to land beside her friend, in a manoeuvre whose elegance wouldn’t have looked out of place on a stage.
“Bumblesweet”, she said to the one still unpacking, “I know you like to play your part in the community and all, but shouldn’t you leave yourself just a little time to relax?”

“Ah!”, I felt the need to intrude into the conversation, “you’re Bumblesweet, of course! Sorry, I nearly mistook you for Honeybuzz.”

“Oh don’t make anything of it dear”, she replied while screwing on the lid of another jar, “I’ve been getting that a lot ever since my twin sister moved to Manehatten. It’s been hard without her around. But you can rest assured her absence will not affect production, I’ve been pulling double shifts since she left.”

“You don’t say…”, I replied dryly.

“And that’s the problem”, added the pegasus, “you just don’t get out anymore. Have you ever done anything, you know, fun lately?”

“Well, there was that gardening convention last month.” The earth pony replied.

“Which you were hosting.”, the pegasus clarified.

“And what of it? Who says work can’t be fun too?”

“I agree Bumblesweet, I really do, but you need to learn to balance things.”

“So,” I began to ask the pegasus, “is she like this all the time?”

“Mostly”, she said. “You know we were supposed to go on a picnic together? I think that was about… yes, three months ago and, oh, I’m sorry, I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. Is this a friend of yours, Bumblesweet?”

“Well… kind of”, I said, “I’m…”

“Star Swirl, Lilly Blossom. Lilly Blossom, Star Swirl. Now if you two want to keep talking could you please find somewhere else? As you can no doubt see, I’m… Oh sweet Celestia is that the time!? I’m sorry, really I am, but I must get back to my work. I think I’m next free three weeks from now, how about we catch up then, okay?”

I gave a nod of agreement and began to turn.

“Ooh, Ooh!”, squealed the pegasus earlier identified as Lilly Blossom, “maybe the three of us could all go on a picnic together! Wouldn’t that be the best?”

But by that time, I had set off once again. It had dawned upon me that I, too, had a schedule to keep. And as nice as it was, I had no time to stay and chat either. I left the cottage, the garden and the pair behind me and hurried to the forest’s edge.

I’ll spare you the recount of my first trek through the forest, no doubt you’ve already heard many such tales. And nothing particularly strange happened on the way to the ruins. Which, in itself, was strange. I thought I heard rustling and heavy breathing behind me at one point, but it must have been my imagination, as it soon vanished. Finally, I arrived at the ruined keep. I just hoped I hadn’t kept… whoever it was… waiting.

I’d read about the place in history books, so I knew the layout well, as well as I knew the best place for a meeting would be the old throne room. Determined, yet still fearful, I entered to find…

Nothing, and nopony.

“Hello? Is anypony there?” My voice echoed through the hall. No answer.

I must be early, I thought to myself. Or they must be late. Or… there was a third possibility of course, but I tried not to think about it. Still, the long silence was giving me the creeps. Maybe I should just…

CRASH!

Almost as if in response, the defining roar and blinding flash of lightning filled the room. Another soon followed, the eerie blue glow flowing through what remained of the stained glass windows. My mind wanted to run, but my body remained frozen in place. Shivering, I watched as a shadowy figure descended from the skies on ebony wings, her mane a perfect image of the midnight sky, billowing as if blown by an invisible wind. It was all too much. I clung to the floor and buried my head in my hooves.

“BEHOLD! Thy Princess of the Night HATH ARRIVED!”

The figure’s voice made the lightning seem like a whimper by comparison. I moved to cover my ears, but resisted. If I moved my forelegs away from my face, she was sure to notice…

“Child of Magic! Wherefore doth thou hide?”

Too late.

“Thou needst not be afraid. This is the traditional Royal Canterlot Entrance. It is tradition for a Princess TO ANNOUNCE HERSELF IN THIS MANNER!!”

Those last words were accompanied by another lightning flash and a dramatic pose. What her previous words were to lightning, these were to a volcanic eruption. Still reeling from the assault on my ears, my lips managed a single muffled utterance.

“N…Nightmare… Moon?”

“We have forsaken that title long ago” , she said, her voice taking on an altogether different tone, almost mournful, “though Our subjects oft fail to realize.”

“Princess Luna…?”

“She.” Luna approached me and held out her hoof. But as her voice was suddenly booming once again, I couldn’t help but recoil.

Had I known then just how my behaviour was offending her, I would have endeavoured to improve. But you have to realize: at that time, Nightmare Moon was still firmly ingrained in the public eye as a diabolical cannibal overlord who once threatened the entire world with destruction. Naturally I feared her at first. But as she continued to speak I slowly realized, just as others did that fateful Nightmare Night, that there can’t have been any truth to those legends.

“So,” I began “you… sent me that letter?”

“Indeed. We heard of your plight from our sister, and have decided to aid you.”

Did that mean… my application made it all the way to Celestia herself? That can’t have been good, I hastily wrote that thing knowing I would never get in. No doubt I’d become the laughing stock of Canterlot by now. Now nopony would ever want to hire me…

But now wasn’t the time to think of my career prospects. I had more pressing questions on my mind.

“But princess, why me? And, why you?”

“Dost thou not see?” she roared again “Thy ancestor was Star Swirl the Bearded, was he not?”

“Yes. But how do you…”

“Star Swirl the Beared was a good friend of ours, in an age long past.”

“You mean you knew him?”, I said, and should have stopped there, but I got ahead of myself “Wow, I knew you princesses were immortal, but I never realised you were that old…”

Luna shot me a sharp glare. I apologised.

When I thought about it though, it did make sense. How else could she tell who my ancestor was at a glance, in a time when his name had long faded into obscurity? I continued.

“In your letter, you said you wanted to tell me ‘the truth about my heritage’, or something. What did you mean?”

“We mean that we are among the few who know the true story of Star Swirl the Bearded, and so we have graced thee with our presence to tell it to thee! But this tale” , she added “is for thine ears only! And thus we have summoned thee to the heart of this forest… SO WE ARE NOT OVERHEARED!!!!!!”

The stones of the hall rumbled, the one intact stained glass window was instantly shattered, and I swore I could hear the groan of a hibernating Ursa Major waking up.

“Umm, excuse me, but could you maybe keep your voice down for just a moment.”

“But this is the traditional Royal Canterlot…”

“Yes, I know, but we’re not exactly in Canterlot now, are we.”

Luna looked at me for a moment, then gave a heavy sigh. “Forgive us, we have not set foot in this kingdom for many years and we are still… getting used to its present customs. Will this do?”

Her voice would still be considered shouting by normal standards, but compared to before it was certainly an improvement.
“Go on.”, I said.

“We shall”, she replied, “but art thou certain thou art ready to hear what we have to say?”

The ominous warning caught me off guard. But I told her yes, I was.

“Very well. THE TRUE…!” she stopped herself. “I mean, the true story of Star Swirl the Bearded.”

Author's Notes:

Disclimer: The entire plot of this fic was planned at the time the only thing we knew of Season 3 were the words "Crystal Empire". I did go back and add a few minor S3 refferences later on, but no main plot points were changed. Thus any similarities to actual events in Season 3 are purely coincidental.

For those wondering what Star Swirl, Electric Sky, Lilly Blossom and Bumblesweet were based off:
http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/File:G4StarSwirl.jpg
http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/File:Blind-Electric-Sky-noglitter.jpg
http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/File:Honeybuzz.jpg
http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/File:LilyBlossomBackcard.jpg

Chapter 2: The Tale of Star Swirl the Bearded

I don’t remember Luna’s exact words to me, so I can’t recount them in exact detail. Which is probably a good thing, as her tale was littered with some obscure middle-pony terms only the most dedicated of scholars would understand today. But I can tell you the general gist of what she said.

Like she claimed, Luna and by extension her sister Celestia, had known my ancestor Star Swirl the bearded personally. In fact, he was their long-time friend. But it turns out their connection to him was far more profound than I could have ever imagined. No doubt you have all heard of the First War of Chaos, the time the two sisters defeated the villain Discord, spirit of disharmony, and restored peace to Equestria? (Actually, at the time Luna recounted her tale to me, it was the only War of Chaos. Nopony could have imagined Discord would break out of his prison to terrorize the world a second time. But that’s irrelevant here.) Well, it turns out Star Swirl the Beared was one of the Six Heroes of that war, the first Circle of Friendship, the original bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Joining him were the sisters themselves, along with two others I can’t seem to recall. I remember hearing vague allusions to the name ‘Sir Reginald’, and Luna seemed to avoid mentioning the Element of Laughter at all, but those were the only clues.

It was the sixth member, the Element of Loyalty, who was the important one here. A silver-maned stallion named Midnight Lance. Who was, as it turned out, a fierce rival and lifelong friend of my ancestor. This puzzled me, I didn’t remember ever reading about him in the history books. Come to think of it, I didn’t remember reading about any of these element bearers. To my knowledge, all accounts of that battle tell of the sisters alone wielding the Elements against Discord. But as it turned out, there was a good reason for that…

It had seemed like the Heroes were inseparable. No threat could sever their bonds of friendship… or so they thought. On the eve of the final battle, Midnight Lance betrayed the six, and turned to Discord. To this day, not even Luna knows why. But without his element, they all knew they were powerless. And so Star Swirl the Bearded decided to take matters into his own hands. He vowed to the princesses he would bring back his friend, or failing that, at least recover his Element of Loyalty. But before he went, Star Swirl left his own element behind. He knew that moment he was going to his death.
Star Swirl tracked down his former comrade and tried to reason with him, but he would not be swayed, by then his heart knew only hatred and betrayal. My ancestor knew there was only one option left to him to save his friend. He challenged him to a magical dual, like he had many times before when they were still students. But this time the stakes were altogether higher. Their battle raged on for what seemed like days. In the end, Midnight Lance was defeated, and cast into the pits of Tartatus. But as he fell, he gave one final parting shot: with the last of his strength, he cursed Star Swirl’s line. He decreed that from that day on, his descendants would all be born with the gift of magic, but be unable to use it. With those final words, he vanished.

But Star Swirl had been gravely wounded in their battle. He sent the recovered Element of Loyalty to the sisters, but knew his time was growing short, and he would not be returning to them. As his last act, he sealed himself inside a cave, there to pass on alone. That way, his family would never know the truth.

That he had failed them.

And, well, you probably know the rest of the story. Celestia and Luna defeat Discord, peace returns… and Star Swirl’s name is forgotten. As for why the other two Element Bearers were indisposed at the time, and what became of them, Luna told me that was a story for another time.

But for now, it’s back to mine. After Luna had finished, I simply stood there, stunned, for what seemed like an hour. It took me a while for all of it to sink in, but when it did, everything made sense.

“So you’re telling me”, I finally broke my silence, “that I… that my family… are not earth ponies, but… hornless unicorns?”

“Precisely.” ,she replied. “And that is why Star Swirl’s name has faded into obscurity, though his decedents survive.”

“You mean… that my family is cursed, and will stay cursed, forever?”

The whole thing was still difficult to swallow. But at least I finally knew the reason behind my Cutie Mark: the curse decreed I would be born with my ancestor’s talent for magic, but would never use it.

But her response was something even more surprising.

“It depends.”

“W-what?”

“We mean to say, it is up to thou whether thy family remains cursed forever.”

I immediately knew what she meant, but I had difficulty believing it. “You’re saying”, I asked once again, “that I can… lift the curse?”

She smiled.

“If thou wishes.”

I didn’t speak. The last few moments were playing endlessly in my head. I had convinced myself they couldn’t have happened. That I must be dreaming. But my breath, my heartbeat, the stones beneath my feet, they felt real enough. But that means…

This was the moment I had always dreamed of, I could finally be who I was meant to be, I could finally realise my true potential. I could do what I always wanted, and Equestria would learn to know the name Star Swirl once more.

But then it hit me. I had always imagined a day like this to be the happiest moment of my life… and yet I wasn’t. But why? I had always dreamed of using magic, becoming a sorcerer but… now that I knew it could become a reality, suddenly I wasn’t so thrilled by the prospect.

But then something strange happened, I thought back to my mother, always staring out the windows at the unicorn family next door. She never showed it, but I could tell she was hurting. All the time I’d known her, she had never known true happiness.
And right now, I had the power to change that. That was it; I had made up my mind.

“How?”, I asked.

“If thou wishest to end the curse, thou must first track down its cause.”, Luna began, back to her usual dramatic manner.

“Wait… you don’t mean…”

“Yes, Midnight Lance yet lives. Of course…”

I gulped. I had I feeling I knew where this was going, but I hoped to Celestia I was wrong…

“He remains imprisoned in Tartatus. They say its deepest circles are reserved for traitors, if thou wishest to find him, thou wilt do so there.”

And I wasn’t. It took all my willpower to stave off fainting.

“I… you… me… Tartarus… go…” I was gasping for breath “Oh no. Oh no nononononononono NO! I mean… I’m just one pony. One. Pony. You seriously can’t expect…”

Luna stared at me and simply stated, matter-of-factly:

“Either go to Tartarus, or learn to live with thy curse. The choice is thine.”

And with that, she turned and made her way to the opening she had entered from.

“Discover the true meaning of thy ancestor’s Element, and thy curse shall be undone!”

“W-wait!”I yelled, “You can’t just leave me like that! Tell me, what do I do? Where do I start?”

She turned and smiled at me once again.

“We suggest finding some friends would be a good start. Good luck, child of the Bearded One, FARETHEEWELL!”

There was another deafening crash and another flash of lightning. By the time my sight returned, Princess Luna had gone, a single black feather floating to the floor the only sign of her presence.

So basically, that’s how I agreed to go to Tartarus. Not your average pony’s idea of a midnight outing. ‘It’s not too bad’, I tried to reassure myself, ‘all I need to do is go to the place where the most vile villains and malicious monsters are imprisoned and confront a murderous backstabbing lunatic who clearly has it out for my family, what could possibly go wrong?? I mean, it can’t possibly be as bad as enerypony says, they clearly have no frame of reference, seeing as nopony’s ever been there and returned alive…’

“Come on Star Swirl,” I thought out loud as I approached the castle’s entrance, “get a hold of yourself. Before you can start thinking about your inevitable painful death down there, you first need to actually find the place. Oh, why didn’t Luna at least give me a hint? Where to start, where to…”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!”

Lost in thought, I didn’t notice the shadowy figure standing in the doorway. We collided, and the sound of screaming filled the ruins. But wait, I recognised that voice…

“Eeep! A monster! I knew it, I knew this wasn’t a good idea! Please don’t hurt… oh, it’s just you. Hi again.”

As my vision returned, the figure revealed itself to be the same lavender pegasus I met earlier that night. Unaccustomed to the very thought of another pony in the forest at this time of night, I was at a loss for words.

“Lilly Blossom, wasn’t it? But what are you… how did you…?”

“I was worried about you, of course”, she replied, as if it should have been obvious to me. “I mean, what kind of pony goes into the Everfree Forest at this time of night? So, naturally, I followed you to make sure you were okay.”

“Err… thanks, but you really didn’t need to…” Then it hit me. “Wait a minute. You followed me here? B-but how…? I mean, I would have heard your wings if you were flying behind me, but I don’t remember hearing anything.”

“Well that makes perfect sense then”, she said in the same tone, “because I wasn’t flying.”

“Oh, right.”, I replied… before realizing that made things even more confusing. “Wait, WHAT? You’re telling me you were walking behind me this whole time, and I didn’t hear anything?”

Lilly Blossom stood still for a moment, as if she needed to let those words sink in. Next I knew, she was… smiling. It was a small smile, barely even noticeable, as if she was flattered but desperately trying to be modest about it. She didn’t do a good job of hiding the glee in her voice though.

“R-really? I was that quiet? This is great! Oh, sorry, It’s just that I’m learning to be more graceful on my hooves. I’m training to be a dancer, you know.”

I wondered for a moment if ‘dancer’ was code for ‘ninja’.

“Although… I did hear heavy breathing at one point… was that you?”

“Oh no, that was just a Timber Wolf.”

“Oh, okay. Wait, WHAT?!?!” I really wished she would stop doing that. She thankfully elaborated.

“Yeah, there was a Timber Wolf behind you at one point. So I… protected you.”

‘Protected’… silently? I had a feeling that was something I didn’t want elaborated on. Thankfully, something interrupted us before she had the chance. It sounded like… panting?

“Don’t just run off like that, Lilly Blossom! You know I can’t keep up with your ‘dancing’… Star Swirl dear, is that you?”

I knew that voice. And that Cutie Mark.

“Bumblesweet? You too?”

“Y-yes”, answered the honey-coloured earth pony. “Actually, I think I’m a little out of the loop here. I came after Lilly Blossom after I saw her run off…”

“You see?”, the lavender one interjected, “When you see somepony run off into the forest at this time of night, you worry, it’s a natural reaction. I knew I wasn’t going crazy!”

“So you mean…”, her friend was starting to put the pieces together, “you went in after her, and she…”

I completed the picture. “Like I told you, I came in here to meet somepony. Look, I have somewhere I need to be right now, I’d appreciate if you didn’t follow me this time, you’ve endangered yourselves enough as it is. I’m sorry, but could you just let me...”

“Get back to your epic quest to uncurse your family and restore your ancestor’s good name?”, said Lilly Blossom.
This was getting ridiculous.

“WHAAAAAAAT???? Y-y-y-you heared!?”

“Well of course!”, she replied, “whoever it was you were talking to clearly had no concept of an indoor voice.”

“Oh, right.”, I said sheepishly. In hindsight that was pretty obvious. “I assume you heard everything too, Bumblesweet?”

The earth pony turned to me. “Well, I do remember hearing what I had assumed was a rampaging dragon…”

“Don’t worry”, said Lilly Blossom cheerfully, “I can fill you in on the details on the way.”

This was the final straw.
“SHE DOESN’T NEED TO KNOW THE DETAILS! You two! Home! Now! Please! I never asked you to…”

Lilly Blossom tilted her head and smiled. “I know you never asked, but we’re going anyway. Look, you clearly need our help, that Timber Wolf back there was proof of that. Come on, just let us see you to your… destination”, she approached me, her hoof outstretched. “After all, nopony should have to brave the Everfree Forest alone.”

It was a gesture as old as the foundation of Equestria itself, a hoof extended in friendship. I’d read about it, of course, but I never thought I’d be on the receiving end. I didn’t want to involve them in this, and I certainly wasn’t going to let them follow me into Tartarus, but… for the moment, I felt… safer. Perhaps Luna was right, maybe this was the ideal first step? At least it was nice knowing I wasn’t alone. And so I reached out my hoof in return. I accepted.

“You’re in this too, right Bumblesweet?”, said Lilly Blossom.

The yellow earth pony said nothing, she simply trotted forward and added her hoof to ours.

“Of course, dears. I couldn’t let you young ones run off on your own, could I?”, she said, then turned her head towards me and whispered:

“Where are we going, again?”

Chapter 3: New Path, New Friends

We had been walking for quite some time, the forest becoming darker with every minute, when I finally felt the urge to ask:

“There’s… no chance either of you know how to get to the gates of Tartarus?”

“Well…”, Lilly Blossom began “there was this scary story I heard at a slumber party once. It was about three ponies on a journey to Tartarus.”

I sensed potential hope, but didn’t hold my breath. “And?”

“None of them made it there, though.”

“Oh. Thanks, that was very reassuring.”

Oh well, I thought. Nothing to do but keep going. I mean, this road was bound to lead somewhere, as long as we keep following it it’s bound to lead us…

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

I stopped. Ahead of me was a small clearing of twisted trees…

And a fork in the path. Great, just what we needed.

“Shh”, I heard Lilly Blossom whisper, “not so loud. Who knows what kinds of creatures inhabit this part of the forest.”

“B-b-but” I started, distraught, “wh-what do we do now? Which way leads to Tartarus? We’re stuck!”

As I was too busy panicking, it took me a while to notice the third member of our company was… humming? I thought I was hearing things at first, but when I looked up, I saw her. Bumblesweet was almost prancing through the clearing, sniffing the flowers along its edges. She seemed to be enjoying herself, but I felt the need to remind her now clearly wasn’t the time.

“Come on dear, you shouldn’t be so stressed”, was her response. “It’s important one take time out to relax, stop and smell the flowers.”

For a moment, I could hardly believe this was the same overworking pony I’d seen earlier that night. And she chooses now of all times to take a break? Just my luck, I thought.

But the whole time, Bumblesweet kept mumbling to herself, as if she was deep in thought.

“Hmm… Thimbleberry… usually grows on trails or at the edge of forests. Well, we’re certainly not near the edge, and we already know we’re on a trail. Nothing new there…
Wait… is that, Bleeding Heart? Relatively rare, incredibly fragile, dies quickly if trodden on. This concentration would mean… ponies don’t often venture into this part of the woods. Great, another fact we already know…”

Her mood had changed; she was now pacing up and down by the forked trail, and looked more frustrated than relaxed. Could she be trying to…

“Mmm… hmmm… sniff… sniff… there’s a subtle difference in the scents of the flowers here, but I can’t quite put my hoof on it.” At this, she turned to face us and triumphantly declared:

“I need a second opinion!”

She then made a… noise that… I’m sorry, but I just can’t describe it in words. I’ve never heard such a sound come from a pony’s mouth. Or was it her mouth. It did sound kind of nasal… ugh, I’m getting headaches just thinking about it. But before I could even think ‘how the hay does she even make that sound?’, the clearing was filled with another. But this one’s nature was more obvious.

It was a swarm of bees.

It must have only been a few seconds, but in that moment I saw the cloud envelop Bumblesweet, who seemed to whisper something to them. At that, the cloud divided itself in two, each half flying down one of the road’s branches. More seconds passed, and each returned.

“Aaah, I see. Thank you, dearies.” she said, and dismissed them with a casual wave of her hoof.

“Bumblesweet?”, asked Lilly Blossom, “did you… find anything out?”

“My friends say”, she began, “the flowers on the left branch feel… sorrowful, cold, lonely. The others… show signs of being near water. I’m no expert, but I have a hunch the former is our path to Tartarus.”

I stood in stunned silence for a few minutes.

“Wow. That was… wow. I’m… glad you’re with us.”

“Oh don’t thank me, dear, thank my little friends.”, was her reply.

As we set off down the left branch of the path, I wondered to myself. Sometimes a pony’s talents can prove useful in the most unlikely of situations.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************

Onward down the path we went, desperately hoping we were actually getting somewhere. Before long, we did…
The sea of trees had parted, and we stood in another clearing. Though this one was far larger, in fact, I wondered for a moment if we had actually left the forest.

The ground was cold, hard and grey, and an eerie silence hung in the air. All around stood a maze of stone walls, clearly remnants of… something that once stood here. Was this an ancient city that time had long forgotten? I’d heard of ruins within the Everfree Forest, but I never would have imagined them being on this scale.
But my sense of wonderment soon gave way to more important manners.

“So”, I asked, “which way now?”

Bumblesweet answered surprisingly quickly. “Well, my bee friends told me the scent continues in… this direction.” She pointed her hoof to the west. Funny, when I squinted, I could have sworn I saw a chasm over there…

“Eep, a giant chasm!”, yelled Lilly Blossom as we arrived.

I sighed. Must this forest throw every foreseeable obstacle at us? Apart from a strange iron pillar, our side was bare, not a bridge in sight.

“Whatever shall we do?”, said Bumblesweet, “You know Star Swirl and I can’t fly.”

I had one idea, but I could already tell it was doomed to failure…
“Lilly Blossom, you couldn’t…”

As I predicted, shot down immediately.

“Oh no! Even empty crates are a struggle for Lilly Blossom to carry. She could never support our weight.”

“It’s true”, Lilly Blossom replied, “I think I have freakishly light bones or something. Of course, it helps my dancing, but…”
Knowing this had the potential to go on for a while, I intervened. “Okay, scratch that. Anypony else have any bright ideas?”

“Well, you might wanna check that console there, for starters.”

That voice belonged to neither me nor my two companions. But I recognised it… I had heard it earlier that night.
The lemon-coated unicorm mare trotted towards me and said.

“It’s Electric Sky, by the way.”

“W-w-what?” utterly flummoxed, my voice could barely manage a whimper.

“My name. You asked me before, remember. Or is your head still hurting from our little ‘meeting’.”

“W-w-what? H-h-how? W-w-why?”

Seeing me looking as if I was petrified, my new friends came to my rescue.

“Star Swirl, dear, is this mare a friend of yours?”

“NO!”, I suddenly exploded. “Sorry, I mean, we just met earlier tonight.”, I turned back to the unicorn, “So… how did you…?
She stared for a moment, her eyes giving that distinct “I am just about to be brilliant” look.

“You might wanna sit down, this is going to take a while.”

She took a deep breath. So did we.

“The moment I bumped into you, I noticed you were in a hurry to leave. The natural conclusion being you had to be somewhere that night. Judging by the direction you kept glancing in, it was obvious you were headed to the Everfree Forest. But why would somepony go there at this time of night? Perhaps you were meeting with somepony, in secret, I thought, though it was only a hypothesis. But suddenly, I remembered, I had evidence that not only confirmed it, but revealed to me the very identity of who you were meeting! I love being efficient! Ahem, anyway, what I had noticed was the tiny smear of red wax on your lips. Clearly from the seal on an envelope. But I knew I had seen that wax before… I pondered long, for about a whole minute, before, eureka! There it was, the Royal Canterlot Seal!”

She stopped. My brain seemed to be running on overdrive keeping up with that, but it suddenly screeched to a halt.

“And… that proves?”

She gave me that very same, ‘isn’t it obvious’ look I was starting to grow tired of.

“Don’t you see! That narrows it down to only one possibility. You see, Princess Celestia hasn’t used the Royal Canterlot Seal in over a thousand years! She moved to abolish formalities a long time ago. So who, then, would use it? It’s simple: a royal who’s been absent from society for exactly that length of time! PRINCESS LUNA! And with that, I had it! You were going to the Everfree Forest to meet Princess Luna. Knowing that, the meeting location naturally followed: Nightmare Moon’s keep. And I just happened to know the way there so… here I am!”

Silence fell for what felt like an hour. But one mystery still remained.

“Wait”, I asked, “then how did you find us here? It’s been ages since we left the keep.”

“Oh, that. It’s simple, really.” I braced myself for another barrage…

“I followed your hoofprints.”

“Oh, right. That was obvious. So…” I knew this situation was… surreal, to put it mildly, but I thought I may as well make the most of it. “You said you could help us?”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.” She put on the goggles hanging around her neck and galloped towards the metal pillar with barely controlled glee.

“Right, let’s see what we have here… Oh wow, just look at you! My my, you have seen better days, haven’t you? Shh, everything’s going to be alright now, you’re in good hands. Yes you are…”

Bumblesweet turned to me and whispered “is it just me, or is she talking to a machine?”

The yellow unicorn didn’t take any notice. She was clearly busy. After a few minutes, she managed to drag her head away from the device for a moment to give us the info.

“Yeah, I see what your problem is. What you’ve got here is ancient unicorn tech. Standard four gear system, I recon I can fix this.”, her gaze had left us again, “All it takes is a little magic…

And a drop of oil. OIL!”

The three of us jumped with a start. That shout was almost on the level of Luna’s Royal Centerlot Voice. Almost. After a few seconds of silence, she turned towards us again.

“Oh, sorry. I’m not used to… not having my lab assistants around.”

Lab assistants? Just what kind of work did she do?

“Could one of you please get the oil from my saddle bags? It should be in the small glass vial.”

Lilly Blossom had already volunteered herself, and produced just such a vial. “Is this the one?”, she asked.
Electric Sky turned again.

“Woah, no! Not that one, that’s my stash of dragon perspiration.”

And at that, the pegasus let out a squeal and dropped the bottle. The unicorn eyes widened in panic for a second as she magically snatched it out of the air.

“Hey, hey, hey! You wanna burn the whole forest down! Be careful with that!” She took off her saddle bag, clearly she’s realised it would be safer to fetch the oil herself.

As she tinkered with the rusted gears, I felt another pressing question I needed to ask, though I felt I would regret it.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why exactly are you carrying a vial of… dragon sweat.”

She turned again, obviously annoyed this time.

“Let’s just hope”, she said, “you never have to find out. Aha!” Her attention shifted and there was an audible ‘clunk’. “There we go! All better now.”

“Again, excuse me for asking”, I began, “but how exactly is fixing this… thing going to solve our problems?”

She ignored me.

“Sometimes all it takes…” she placed her horn in a small cavity at the top of the machine,

“Is a little spark.”

A flash of blue leapt from its tip, and light soon danced about the machine. The gears whirred to life, and the trio of glass globes at its top (which I had noticed resembled the devices depicted on the mare’s Cutie Mark) flicked for a second, then began to glow. The noise grew louder and louder until…

Nothing.

“Well, that was anticlima…”

“Shh!” Electric Sky silenced Lilly Blossom and prodded a now-glowing red button on the device.

The noise continued, then grew louder… and louder… until with was replaced with another, even louder sound. The earth beneath us shook. Lilly Blossom dived behind Bumblesweet. There was a deafening screech of metal, and…

The next we knew, there stood a bridge before us, ready to cross.

“Wow, that was… thank you.”, I said, still a little overwhelmed by all this. “But, why are you helping us?”

“Well, if you really wanna know”, she replied, “your situation… intrigued me. I understood the who and what, but as for the why… my curiosity got the better of me. But hey, it’s a good thing it did! Whatever you’re all doing, you wouldn’t have been able to do without me. Maybe it was fate that I bumped into you tonight, Star Swirl. What do you say? Mind if I join your little party?”

I wasn’t sure what to say. An extra hoof would be useful, but then again, it was another life I was placing in danger.

“Well… I…”

But somepony else answered for me.

“Ooh! A new friend! Great! I’m Lilly Blossom, and this is Bumblesweet…”

“Delighted to meet you.”, Bumblesweet added.

“Great!”, replied Electric Sky, enthused, but her mood changed the moment Lilly Blossom offered her a hoof-shake. “Woah, mind the hoof, delicate equipment, you see.”

“Wait a minute”, I butted in, “you don’t even know where we’re going yet…”, I trailed off for a moment as I realized, “you already know, don’t you?”

Electric Sky glanced back at me. “I think I’m well on my way to finding out. I don’t really mind where, actually. As long as it doesn’t involve water. Water and this thing”, she lifted the same foreleg from before, “don’t mix, you know what I mean?”
I reassured her that we weren’t. To my knowledge. We were about to set off once again, when our newest addition stopped.

“Oh shoot! I just remembered I left something important back at Canterlot. Would there be any time for me to go back…”

“No”, I said, “we can’t turn back, not this far in. And going back to Canterlot would take days.”

“B-but it’s…”
“We can’t. We have to move on.”

Electric Sky sighed and followed after us.

*************************************************************************************************************************************************

“That’s amazing! I had no idea ovens worked like that! I always assumed it was just magic.”

“Well, technically speaking that’s all it is. The Gem Circuits are just there to focus and amplify its power.”

“And you actually invented those?”

“Oh no, they’ve been in use for a long, long time. But I did have a hoof in the new systems. I can’t believe nopony before me realized using Sapphire-Sapphire-Ruby-Emerald-Garnet-Amethyst instead of Emerald-Ruby-Sapphire-Amethyst-Sapphire-Garnet cuts down energy wastage by 2% and gives you a little more power to boot.”

“Is 2% really that big a change? I mean, it’d look a lot more impressive with an extra zero…”

“Of course it is! That equates to a full weeks worth of extra time before you need to recharge. For non-unicorn families who have to get others in to do the top up, that’s pretty significant.”

“But everypony I know uses that new oven. My word dear, the royalties you must be getting…”

“Come on, you think I could demand payment for such a tiny tweak? Knowing my ideas are making life easier for all those ponies is reward enough.”

“But you did say you lived in Canterlot, right?”

“What, you think everypony there has to be filthy rich?”

“Since when were we talking about Diamond Tiara’s father?”

“Since when do you know Diamond Tiara’s father, Lilly Blossom?”

“Oh, I heard about him the day I came to the school to help you with your beekeeping talk, remember?”

“Hey, ah, Lilly Blossom, was it? Speaking of the school, has anyone noticed that, if you ignore her colouring, Bumblesweet looks almost exactly like Che…”

“Oh it’s been remarked upon. She doesn’t talk much about it, but apparently they’re distantly related. Very distantly. Come to think of it, I’ve had cases of mistaken identity too. There was this one time when I wore my mane short, and this delivery pony came up to me and yelled about me dropping a shipment of anvils or something. But then he took one look at my eyes, realized he had the wrong pony and apologised. It was… weird.”

“I know exactly how you feel. You see there’s this fiddle-playing pony who’s got my exact mane and coat colouring. Course’ she’s an Apple so I’m pretty sure we’re not related, else I would’ve been invited to their reunions.”

“Oh so that’s it! I knew you reminded me of somepony! But I’m well acquainted with her and I can tell you…”

“Girls”, I reminded them all, “I know you’ve got a lot to talk about, but remember we’re on a mission here.” We’d got to talking ever since the four of us crossed that bridge. It was almost like we were old friends already. But beneath the aura of friendliness, I could sense everypony’s anxiety. Perhaps this conversation was a way of taking our minds off things. The path had become oddly less twisted at this point, so I guessed now was the perfect time. But I wondered what we would all do if we ran into an Ursa, or a Manticore, or a…

“La la la la…”

Singing pony?

“La la la la la…”

“Hey, girls”, I stopped then, but remembered to keep my voice down, “do you hear that?”

“All the roads we have travelled…”

“Yeah, I hear it”, confirmed Electric Sky.

“It sounds like… another pony?” said Lilly Blossom.

“Right, but one this deep in the forest, let alone a singing one, is a near impossibility.” stated the unicorn with the air of a true scientist.

“Our true hearts they unravel…”

Whoever it was sounded female, and upon listening closer each line they sang seemed to be punctuated by quill strokes on paper. There looked to be a clearing up ahead, perhaps this was where the sound was coming from. We entered and…
“Ah, dears, it looks to me like there’s nopony here.”

“Oh my… it’s true then, these woods are haunted!” Lilly Blossom looked around desperately for somewhere to hide.

“Relax Lilly, everypony knows ghosts are, logically speaking…”

A black shadow darted over us.

“Eep!”

“Ah Cosmos, must you always mock me so?”, said Electric Sky, her voice simply dripping with sarcasm the likes of which I’d never heard.

“La la la la…”

“Oh merciful Celestia, it’s still singing!”

“Now now Lilly Blossom, you know it’s rude to call somepony ‘it’.”, lectured Bumblesweet.

“B-but it’s not a somepony! It’s… it’s… ahhh! I heard there are these evil spirits that use song to steal the souls of unsuspecting ponies! So it must be one of… eep! I’m still doing it! Oh great soul-sucking spirit, please forgive my rudeness. Surely we can work this out without… somepony… losing their… soul…”

It was clear to me Lilly Blossom either had a very overactive imagination or read one too many horror stories as a filly. But even I couldn’t deny the creepiness of the situation. Something in that singing voice was a little too happy…
The shadow darted again.

“And new friends we will find… WOAH! Talk about a freaky coincidence!”

“W-what was that?”, I whispered.

“Hey, up here!”

Suddenly I felt like a total idiot. Why hadn’t it occurred to any of us to look up? Well, we soon did and sure enough, there was our ‘guest’.

It was a pegasus mare, her coat a muted green colour, like dried leaves. Her mane and tail were short but curled, not to mention very unkempt, almost as if she hadn’t washed in days. And her cutie mark… I couldn’t get a good look, but it seemed like a…square of parchment marked with a cross, a quill imposed over the top. Looking again, I noticed that also described what she was carrying: except that the parchment in her hooves was absolutely massive. Though it seemed she could still see us just fine.

“Helooooooo? Why are you all spaced out like that? Haven’t you ever seen a pegasus before? Oh, that can’t be it, there’s one right there with you. Silly me. Okay, so why are you acting so weird then?”

“We’re sorry, we thought you were a soul-s…”

Bumblesweet thankfully stopped Lilly Blossom’s mouth with her hoof.

“We mean, we’ve been walking in the forest for Celestia knows how long, and we’re keeping on the lookout for monsters. Sorry, it’s just not every day you see another pony this deep in the woods.”

“I believe that’s my line”, said the pegasus. “Just what are you ponies doing here? The map says you’d have to be pretty crazy to go this way.”

“What map?”, I asked.

“Why… this map of course!”, the pegasus thrusting her parchment in my face caught me off guard, to say the least. “See, look.”, she pointed out an area that looked remarkably like the clearing we were in. “Three skulls. Three. Skulls. And you know what that means… oh, of course, you don’t know. Sorry, sometimes I forget I haven’t published my maps yet.”

This night just kept getting stranger and stranger.

“Uhh… excuse me if I seem rude but… just who are you?”, I asked.

“Ooooooooh! Sorry, sorry. Introduction time~!”, she said almost in sing-song. “I’m Levee Scales, pegasus cartographer nonpareil!”

“Non-par what?”

“Nonpareil! That’s exactly the reason… ARRRGH! Great, now they’re rubbing off on me. I’d heard of their reputation, really, I just… I needed ink, and they happened to be selling it and their song was so catchy I just… couldn’t help myself. They said it was the very kind Celestia used, how was I supposed to know it would vanish after a few hours, don’t judge me, okay!!!”

Everypony in the clearing went quiet. Clearly nopony was judging her for something that made absolutely no sense to them. I sighed, why were we becoming a magnet for eccentric ponies?

“Um, heloooooooo~? You gals didn’t answer my question! What are you…”

“You first”, Electric Sky butted in, bluntly. “Apologies, but we’re gonna need to know if we can trust you before we tell you why we’re here. That okay?”

“Didn’t I just tell you? I’m a cartographer. It’s my job to map out every corner of Equestria! Actually it’s more of a hobby. Though I don’t really have a job anyhow, and some publications do pay me so technically…”

I had to stop her again.

“Let me get this straight: you’re mapping out the Everfree Forest.”

“Yeah.”

“At this time of night.”

“Yeah.”

“In an area you yourself have marked as dangerous.”

“I don’t see where you’re going with this.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I exploded.

“ARE YOU INSANE!!!!!”

The pegasus chuckled. “Well duh! I gave up my sanity looooooong ago when I mapped out the entire San Palomino Desert.”
Oh great, I thought, a pony who willingly admits to being insane. Just what we needed.

“I like her, she seems nice.”, said Lilly Blossom.

“Could I see that map for a second?”, Electric Sky had already began to ask.

“Sure.”, replied the clearly eccentric Pegasus.

The parchment was so huge the yellow unicorn had to spread it on the ground just to get a good look. She mused to herself as her eyes darted back and fourth across its length.

“I… I don’t believe this. This is… this is… SHEER GENIUS! Look here: here’s the ruins we just passed. She’s got the exact number of buildings down, in their exact orientations. She’s marked every type of tree individually. She’s indicated which bridges are intact and which aren’t. And it’s all to scale? Not even my design sketches can measure up to this! How do you do this?”

“Aww, it’s nothing, really. Everypony’s got their special talent, right?”, was the mapmaker’s response.

Electric Sky smiled, and her horn gave off a brief glow.

“Everypony, huddle, now.”

Bumblesweet and Lilly Blossom immediately complied. I was somewhat more reluctant, as I had an idea of what was coming.
“I’ll just put this briefly: we need her.”

“B-but Electric Sky”, I began, “are you sure that’s a good…”

“I agree”, said Bumblesweet, “a map would be a most useful thing to have right now. We won’t always be able to rely on my friends for navigation.”

“And she really does seem very nice.”, added Lilly Blossom.

I admit, they did have a point. That map would certainly be useful. But I worried having a… personality like this around might complicate things. Then again, we already had a workaholic beekeeper, a totally-not-ninja and a borderline mad scientist with us. And I, being a descendant of an all-powerful sorcerer on a quest to undo a centuries-old curse, was hardly one to talk.

We all turned to our soon-to-be new companion.

“After much deliberation, we have decided… to offer you to join us.”

“Umm… yay, I guess. But you still haven’t told me…”

“Where are the gates of Tartarus on this map?”

“Lilly Blossom!”, scolded Bumblesweet.

“Wait… don’t tell me… you’re going there?”, said Levee. “That… that’s, INSANE…ly awesome! You see, that’s the one part of the forest I haven’t mapped out yet!”

“Sooooo, your map isn’t going to help us?”, I said, disheartened.

“Weeeeeeel~, that depends on your definition of ‘help’.”, she replied. “My map won’t help you know where you want to go, but it makes it pretty clear where you don’t want to go.”

“Come again?” Why did I feel like everypony I met tonight operated on their own unique brand of logic?

“Look at it this way: if you’re going to the one area I haven’t mapped out… than you obviously don’t want to go here. Or here. Or here or here or here or basically, anywhere I’ve drawn on. Which just leaves…”

“North!” Electric Sky was still studying the map. “Of course, that makes sense. Wait…”, her gaze was drawn to something else. “What exactly does this skull mean?”

“Oh, that. That’s just a little system I devised. Now where’s my legend…”, she rummaged in a saddle bag, and eventually drew out a small scroll, which she unfurled. “Ah, here it is.” She cleared her throat and recited, again in sing-song: “Danger: extreme risk of serious injury and/or death.”

“And,” Electric Sky added, “what do two skulls mean?”

“Same thing, just without the ‘or’.”

“Three skulls?”

“Same again, but drop the ‘or’ and add the word ‘painful’ before ‘death’.”

I gave the map another look. I noticed there were areas marked with as many as five skulls, but I thought it wise not to even ask about that.

“Well then, if we know where we’re headed, shall we get a move on.”, Bumblesweet said with a hint of urgency in her voice.

“Yes, let’s.”, said Lilly Blossom in agreement. “Hey Levee, you could fly alongside me. It’s been ages since I’ve talked to another pegasus.”

“Thanks, but I prefer to fly above the trees, I can survey the area better from there. I’m still mapping this place, you know. But we can still talk, I might have to shout back, but I can hear you from up here.”

And with that, our new ally started singing again.

“On this road that will lead us…
To the gates of Tartarus…”

Electric Sky suddenly stopped her.

“Okay, I know you have to make liberties sometimes to fit the rhythm of the song but, that’s not how you pronounce Tartarus.”

“Really?”, Lilly Blossom joined in the conversation, “I’ve always said it that way: Tar-TAR-us. Yeah, that sounds right to me.”
“No no no! Clearly it’s Tart-uh-ros.”

“Look dears, I don’t want to be one to escalate an argument”, added Bumblesweet, “but I have to side with Miss Sky here.”
I groaned. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

“Who care’s how it’s pronounced, what’s important is how many skulls I give it!”

****************************************************************************************************************************************************

The night seemed to be going on forever. By now I was getting tired, and my legs felt heavy. I looked back at my quickly growing party to see how they were doing. Lilly Blossom seemed fine, still chatting away to her fellow pegasus above. So did Bumblesweet, but then again, she was used to pulling night shifts. I could see tiredness in Electric Sky’s face, but it certainly didn’t show in her legs, in fact it was almost as if that right foreleg didn’t even get tired. I reminded myself to ask her for the full story on that later. As for Levee, she was… acting normally. By her standards. She was still singing (I was amazed it hadn’t attracted any monsters so far), stopping mid verse to yell out directions. At least she seemed to know what she was doing, none could fault her mapmaking skill.

We continued on for a while longer, and I could tell most of us were having a very hard time fighting our urge to ask ‘are we there yet?’ Just as I was about to recommend a quick snack break, our ‘eye in the sky’ said something… I wasn’t expecting.

“Dragon!”

“W-what?”

“Oh wait, false alarm. That’s not a dragon. Silly me. It’s just a very green pony.”

“Oh, right, that’s more…WHAT??”

“Oh, look! Now the trees are swaying! Wait a minute… if there’s no wind at the moment, that means… Ooooooh! Did I just discover living trees! This is so going in my… Hold on, there could be another explanation. It could just mean something really big is coming through the forest. Personally I like the living trees idea though. I wonder if they talk…”

I’d kinda tuned out the moment I heard ‘something really big’. I knew it was a violation of common sense, but I found myself running ahead. Somepony could be in danger.

“Hey, wait for us Star Swirl!”, I heard Lilly Blossom yell. Next thing I knew, she was flying beside me… which took me a while to realize seeing as she made almost no noise. What I could hear was the sound of the others galloping to catch up…
And a voice, that sounded like a pony. Though this one sounded male… and desperate.

“L-l-look… I can explain! Really! W-we can t-talk this over!”

The next we heard was a roar. That couldn’t be good. I ran faster.

“N-n-n-no this can’t be… P-please! Have mercy! PLEASE!”

The trees flashing past me parted, and I sped into the clearing. I immediately noticed an emerald green stallion curled up and shivering at its edge. Next thing I knew, I was standing in front of him, assuming my best imitation of a defensive posture.

“Stay back”, I told him, “we’ll handle this.”

But there was nothing to handle. Whatever it was that had him so scared had retreated back into the woods the moment we arrived. I was a little relieved; after all, I wouldn’t know what to do in a fight.

As the others entered the clearing, I turned to the stallion whose life I had seemingly saved. He recoiled.

“Aaaagh! D-d-don’t c-come any closer!”, it seemed his panic hadn’t left.

“Relax”, I assured him, “the beast is gone, you’re safe now.”

“H-how do I know y-you’re not…” He stopped. All of a sudden, he looked up and scanned me with his eyes. His gaze seemed fixated one one…particular area, and I saw fit to strike him for it, until I realized he was staring at my Cutie Mark.

“You… you’re… it can’t be. Good miss, would you kindly inform me of your name?”

His first coherent sentence was… certainly not what I was expecting. Not only was his manner of speech incredibly stiff and formal, but the sentence itself was very awkwardly worded. It was almost as if he didn’t speak pony often, but how could that possibly be true…

“I’m Star Swirl.”, I answered.

“I thought as much. You are the inheritor of the great Star Swirl the Bearded, is that not true?”

“’Inheritor’… don’t you mean ‘descendant’… wait, you actually know my ancestor!?”

I couldn’t believe it, this was the first time in my entire life somepony outside of my family seemed to recognise my mark, and know of my heritage. But it was strange, this stallion was no unicorn, nor did he seem an avid historian. He was an Earth Pony, as far as I could tell. Just what kind of earth pony would know of the greatest figure in magical history? I was already dying to ask him more.

“Hey Star Swil.” I jumped with a start. I had no idea Lilly Blossom was standing right behind me. I was starting to wonder if she really was a ninja. “Who’s the stallion?”

“I…” I began, but realised I couldn’t even answer that. I redirected the question. “I… don’t think I know your name.”

The stallion seemed to recoil in panic once again. Was it the extra company or…

Finally, he spoke.

“Em… em…”

“I’m sorry”, I said, “I can’t hear you.”

“Em… Emerald… Ray…”

“Emerald Ray?”, echoed Lilly Blossom. “That’s a very interesting name.”

“Oh, umm… and… you… who… are…” The stallion’s voice was unusually quiet for somepony of his size, I’m sure he was trying to say more but those were the only words I could make out.

“Sorry”, I said again, “I didn’t quite catch that.”

“M-my… apologies. Sincerest apologies. Was I speaking Deer again? Sometimes it just… slips out. I barely even notice. You must… remind me when I do, so I can… correct myself.”

“No”, I reassured him, “you weren’t speaking Deer… wait, what??” Come to think of it, I had no idea what Deer sounded like. I wasn’t even aware they had their own language. But why would a pony be speaking Deer anyway?

“It’s obvious.”, came Electric Sky’s voice as she joined us. It was almost as if she read my mind. “Pony clearly isn’t your first language, is it?”

“N-not… really…” Emerald Ray’s voice seemed to grow softer with every other pony who approached him.

“But”, I interjected, “that doesn’t make sense. Look at him, he is a pony. We may have different accents, but we all share the same language. Why would a pony not know how to speak pony?”

Electric Sky smiled again. It seemed she already knew the answer.

“Well, judging by his meek demeanour and clearly poor communication skills, I’d say he was… actually, no, I won’t. It’s probably a touchy subject for him, best to stay away.”

I thought I’d do him and everypony a favour and change the subject.

“So, Emerald Ray, what are you doing here so deep in the Everfree Forest?”

“Yeah”, came a voice from above. Our eye in the sky had finally decided to join us. “I mean, the areas surrounding here have a grand total of 30 skulls between them. Not the place for a casual moonlight stroll.”

“Well, truth be told… I… I am…

lost.”

I could tell everyone mentally facehoofed at that. Except one…

“Wow! Looks like you came to the right pony then!”, our new pegasus friend shoved her map in the stallion’s face. “See ponies, this is why we need maps! Ooooookay… so if we’re…aha! Here… and I presume you want to get out of the forest, right? I mean, it’s not like you came out of Tartarus or anything. Hey, you know we’re going to Tartarus? Personally I think everypony’s crazy, but I’m just in this for my map, so what do I care~! Oh, I got sidetracked, didn’t I? I tend to do that often, just tell me if I’m doing it. Or if I’m annoying you. Am I annoying you? Oops, did it again… ah! There we go. Okay, so if you want to get out of the forest, the quickest way would beeeeeeeee…”

She took a deep breath.

“Back through the scary trees across the raging river of doom through the cave that may or may not be home to an Ursa down the perilous cliffs over the ravine through the hydra’s bog over the bridge-that-could-fall-down-any-second through the clearing where somepony got murdered past Zecora’s hut across the Poison Joke fields and you’re free!”
Levee was panting heavily after all that, though she still seemed cheerful. Of course, our more… pragmatic friend had to butt in here.

“Ah, Levee, you wouldn’t happen to know a… better path, would you?”

“Well maaaaaaybe~, but this one’s a little dangerous…”

We all sighed. I knew I’d hate to be in Emerald Ray’s position right now, but he was taking it surprisingly well.

“You all are making a journey to the gates of Tartarus, yes?”

I laughed nervously. “Yeah, you got us. My… new allies don’t exactly do a good job of keeping secrets, sorry. But hey, it’s not like you’re interested, right?”

I really shouldn’t have said that.

“Actually…”

Lilly Blossom had already jumped to conclusions.

“Ooh! Another new friend! Isn’t this, like, the best night ever?”

“Hey, he never said anything about”, I began to remind her, until the stallion finished my sentence.

“How shall I say this… it is… not Tartarus itself that interests me. It is… you, Miss Star Swirl.”
“M…me?”

“Forgive my rudeness, but I would like… to talk to you for just a moment. I never once thought I would meet the great Star Swirl the Bearded’s legacy. Please, tell me what you know of him. I have a great interest in matters historical.”

This was certainly unexpected. Somepony wanting to talk to me, personally? And he knew, he knew who I was. As much as I didn’t want to endanger him, there was no way I was passing up this offer. I’d finally found somepony, besides my mother, who I could talk about my heritage with.

“Everypony”, I said, “mind if we take a quick breather? We’re long overdue for a snack break anyway. Let’s all just rest here for the moment.”

“Mind if I go off and map some plac…”

“No!”, I yelled almost reflexively. “Safety in numbers ponies, we have to stick together.” In truth though, I was afraid Levee’s singing would attract unwanted company. Once I could see her sit down with the others, I turned to the emerald stallion.
“Now we can talk. But could we do it… actually, let’s stay with the others, I get the feeling they’re going to need to know this stuff anyway.”

“A-as you wish, Miss Star Swirl.”

“No need for formality, just call me Star Swirl.”, I told him, but he seemed oddly startled.

“F-forgive me, it’s just that nopony has ever said that to me before.”

I was intrigued. “Just how many ponies have you met anyway?”

“N-not many. They are mostly… scholars and academics.”

That probably explained why he knew about my ancestor. And the stiff speech. Growing up around those stuffy Canterlot institutions will do that to you.

“So… you know my ancestor?” I tried to begin the conversation the only way I could, though when I heard my voice I could tell I sounded awkward.

“Y-yes… I… know of his life… and work…”

“Look”, I put the topic on hold for a moment, “you don’t have to be so quiet.”

“Oh… f-forgive me. This… is not my strong point.”

“Well, it isn’t really mine either”, I confessed.

“I know… 150 of his 200 spells, by both name and effect.”

I gasped. “Wow, I don’t even know that many! Hey, you know the amniomorphic spell?”

“Of course.”

“Do you know what it does?”, I eagerly asked.

“N…no.”

“Well, that makes two of us.” We both laughed.

We talked on about… just about everything I knew about my ancestor and my family. And a few things I didn’t. Did you know he practiced pottery? Anyway, we eventually got to the curse. He didn’t know, of course: Luna did tell me that part wasn’t in the history books. I knew it was strange telling something so important to a total stranger but something about him… I just felt could trust him, you know? I couldn’t really explain then, and I still can’t now. But something happened then that made me glad I brought up the topic.

“To be honest”, I was saying, “I don’t really know how to go about breaking the curse. Princess Luna told me I needed to find the one who did it, Midnight Lance, I think it was. But what then? I doubt he would just end the curse willingly…”
“He can’t.” Emerald Ray’s reply was short and abrupt.

“What?”

“A curse that powerful… so long lasting… will not just end of its own will.”

“Then you mean it’s impossible?” I could hardly believe what I was hearing. I can’t have come so far for nothing.

“No, there might be one way.”, he said.

“And that is?”

“Scholars say a unicorn’s horn is the source of all their powers.”

His reply felt a little underwhelming at first. “Well duh! Everypony knows that. Look, see? I don’t have one, and that’s why I’m in this mess.”

“I was not finished. Recent findings say that may not be the case. Magic exists, to some extent, within all ponies, even non-unicorns. The horn acts merely as a device through which it is channelled. A connection, in a manner of speaking, between the magic within and the world without.”

“Keep talking.” This was getting a little confusing, but I could see it was going somewhere.

“And if that connection were to… cease to be, that unicorn’s magic would be totally confined within, as in the case of you, no offence intended. In other words, any magic they wrought on the world would suddenly cease, vanish, fade… am I making myself clear.”

“You just said the same thing three times”, I reminded him, “but I think I get it.”

“Apologies. Some of your words still confuse me. In brief, what I am trying to say is…”

By now, I was able to finish that sentence.

“You’re saying if I break his horn, his magic will lose its power?”

“In a word… yes. You said it better than I could.”

I was afraid it would come to something like this. What was now asked of me wasn’t exactly murder, but it was close. No matter how evil they were, nopony deserved to be permanently crippled like that, to have a part of what made them… them, taken away. Of course there was a twisted irony to this: that’s exactly what he did to me, and my family. Perhaps it was a fitting payback. No. The very thought of it sickened me. ‘A horn for a horn’ is not a philosophy we ponies are comfortable with. A dragon or a gryphon might consider it, but never a pony. (Disclaimer: I am in no way intending to imply dragons or gryphons are inferior species. They just think differently to us, and there’s nothing wrong with that.) But did I even have a choice? Was it my duty to walk the dark path to save my family’s future? Was I willing to sacrifice myself? No, a worse thought hung on my mind: was I willing to sacrifice another?

I snapped myself back into reality. That conversation went on longer than I thought it would, and it was about time to get going. Turning around, I saw my allies were talking various steps to alleviate their boredom. Bumblesweet was smelling flowers again, Lilly Blossom seemed to be practicing a dance routine, Electric Sky had a stick and was drawing… what looked like the plans of an airship turbine in the dirt and Levee… seemed to be talking to her quill. I could tell I was never going to understand that one.

“Girls!”, I called everypony to order. “Break’s over. We need to get moving.”

“We certainly do!”, I heard Electric Sky yell back, “I just realized Canterlot’s airships run 3% slower than Baltimare’s while still using more energy! This is an outrage! Somepony needs to get over there now and tell them.”

“I’ll do it!”, replied Levee with enthusiasm.

“No, no , no! We need to get going! To Tartarus! You’ll all have plenty of time to do… whatever you need to do… After! We! Get! There!”

I realized everypony was staring at me.

“Look, there’s no need to shout dear.”, said Bumblesweet. “If there’s anypony who knows how to keep a schedule, it’s me, and I can tell by the moon we are still on schedule. So relax, no need to panic.”

I had a sudden flashback to my fillyhood. When the other kids and I all lined up to get some of Bumblesweet’s home-made honey, she was just like this. No matter how loud we got, she never lost her cool, and always managed to calm us down. I had to admit, for a self professed workaholic she had a knack for staying calm even in the most stressful of times. I thanked Celestia we had her with us.

“Well then, shall we?”, said Lilly Blossom.

“Yipee! Map time again, map time again!” And Levee had already flown ahead. I’d have to gallop to keep up. But first, I turned to the stallion I had just met.

“I’m sorry we can’t help you out of the forest, we’re kinda going the other way. Look, just follow those directions and I’m sure…”

He stopped me.

“No need. I shall accompany you on your… quest.”

“Oh no, you really don’t have to…”, I said, but I didn’t mean it. Truth was I’d never found somepony I could talk to like this before, and I didn’t want our time to end. There was so much more we hadn’t spoken about.

“Come on”, I spoke my mind this time, “we need to hurry and catch up with the others.”

He nodded, and we headed off. Well, he did, because just as we were leaving, Electric Sky stopped me.

“Listen, about your new friend, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“You’re going to tell me what you found out before, aren’t you?”, I guessed.

“You’re getting good at this. Okay… come closer so he doesn’t hear. Difficulty communicating, unfamiliarity with our language, it all points to one thing. Parental abandonment.”

When I thought about it for a moment, that did make some kind of sense. It didn’t seem like he’d had much experience socializing. But just what sort of parent would do that to their foal? Whatever childhood he had, it can’t have been good. I must admit I was a little curious about his past.

“If you’re getting curious”, said Electric Sky, “don’t. I told you, this is probably a touchy subject for him. You don’t just go up to somepony and say ‘hey, I heard your parents abandoned you!’”

“I know, I just…”

“But hey”, she abruptly changed the subject, “at least you’ve got somepony to talk to. I haven’t heard a conversation like that in ages. You two should stick together.” She paused for a moment, then dramatically shifted her tone. “Uh-oh! Better get going. We don’t want Levee to get to Tartarus first and start”, she shuddered, “mapping the place.”

I agreed, and we both galloped on. But all the while, my thoughts were somewhere else. I kept thinking about the stallion I met, the conversation we had, and what Electric Sky had told me. Emerald Ray… he was certainly somepony I wished to learn more about.

***************************************************************************************************************************************************

It seemed like we were passing the same sets of trees and clearings again and again. Levee assured us, though, that we were going the right way. Or at least, we weren’t going the wrong way. Did those mean the same thing? I could never tell with this one…

And so, onward we went; Lilly Blossom, Bumblesweet, Electric Sky, Levee Scales, Emerald Ray, and myself. Now, the astute among you will have noticed our company now numbered six, just like the legendary heroes on their quest to defeat Nightmare Moon. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I suppose it was a strange coincidence. Or did Luna plan the whole thing? No, she couldn’t have. Look, just let me get to the next part. We were walking, when Bumblesweet suddenly stopped cold and began sniffing the air.

“I can’t… I can’t smell the trees. It’s as if… all the life in them is gone. Could that mean…?”

“YES!!”, cried another voice that totally clashed with the first, “We’re cloooose~! Come on, last one to Tartarus is a feather-brain!”

“And the first one gets mauled by Cerberus.”, added Electric Sky dryly. “Come on, let’s get after her.”

As we did so, I noticed the trees flashing past were changing. Each one seemed to have fewer leaves than the last. Before long, they had become cold, dead, withered. I knew the Everfree Forest was an inhospitable place, at least to us ponies. But this was worse, much worse. I could feel an unsettling chill grip my body. But I had to go on. Soon, the trees parted for what felt like the hundredth time and…

What lay before us was a sight none of us would soon forget. It seemed like we’d stepped out into another world. The earth felt cold and desolate, tinged a subtle shade of red. Save for the dead ones behind us, not a single tree could be seen. A thick, gloomy fog hung in the air, we could barely see a few feet in front of our faces. But what was directly ahead of us; that was clear as day. A steep grey cliff face stretched up into the sky, seemingly without end. At its feet was a gaping hole in the earth, within it I could barely make out stairs leading down… down into the depths. The gateway was framed by two ancient-looking stone pillars, each bearing an ethereal blue flame.

Three guesses as to where we were. The first two don’t count.

An unsettling silence had befallen us. I realized most of my companions had been rendered speechless. And honestly, who wouldn’t be.

“Wooooooooow~! This is so cooooool!”

Well, her, I guess. Our cartographer friend had already began plotting out the intricate positions of even the tiniest stone in the area. The rest of us let her be for the moment.

I trotted towards the hole in the ground and gazed down. Those stairs seemed to go on forever. I gulped, and turned to face the others. I knew this moment was coming, I knew I had to go it alone from here. But somehow, I felt sad. I’d found a group of friends, and now I had to leave them. Even still, I reminded myself, I certainly didn’t want any of them risking Tartarus for me. But why? Why couldn’t I say it?

“Listen, girls, I really appreciate your help so far, but from here on, it’s too dangerous. I have to… I have to…”

I was mentally kicking myself. Come on, just say it!

“Alone… go… must…”

“No.”

That voice. One of them had stopped me. But I could hardly believe which one. The emerald stallion I had just recently met stepped forward.

“Even if the others will not, I shall accompany you.”

“B…but Emerald Ray, why?”, I asked.

He lowered his head and placed one hoof on his heart, as if in some kind of gesture. Whatever it was, I didn’t’ recognise it. He spoke again.

“You… Miss Star Swirl, you saved my life. In my… culture, that is an action not forgotten. My customs decree I owe a dept to you, and I am obliged to honour it.”

A dept? Honour? Just what was this culture he came from anyway? It didn’t matter. I got what I wished. I wouldn’t be doing this alone.

But it didn’t stop there.

“If he’s going, I may as well go too.” Electric Sky had stepped forward to join the two of us.

There was another moment of silence, and then…

“Count me in.”, said Bumblesweet.

“Me too.”, added Lilly Blossom.

“You guys…” I was a little overwhelmed at first, and the rational part of my mind demanded I fight back. “But you do realize where we’re going. Tartarus. There’s a very good chance we’ll face horrors in there the likes of which nopony has ever seen.”

“Exactly!”, yelled the yellow unicorn, as if that was a good thing. “Who knows what new scientific discoveries await us down there! Why, this’ll do wonders for my research.”

“And”, said Bumblesweet, “I could really use a break from work.”

“And”, added Lilly Blossom, “I could really use a break from you having to work.”

“We are your friends, Star Swirl”, said Emerald Ray, “and we are all with you, to the very…”

“Da da da DA da DA da da da dee dee dee DAAAAAAH DA! DA da da da!”

The abrupt interrupting jerked our heads violently. It seemed the last member of our party had begun a sort of aerial victory dance. From what I remember, it involved a couple of twirls, a backflip, then a short flight straight upwards with her quill held high above her head. She held the pose for a moment and said:
“Everfree Forest map: 100% complete!”

We all stared slack-jawed for about a minute.

“What? Doesn’t that deserve a victory fanfare?”

We were still silent.

“Oh and I’m totally in on that Tartarus thing too, just so you know. I couldn’t pass up on an opportunity to map a legendary place like that!”

We all laughed, even though we knew she was being perfectly serious. It wasn’t her, really. I guess were all just happy our time together didn’t have to end just yet. Either that or we’d finally snapped. Your guess is as good as mine.

“Well then”, I began, “shall we go?”

As one, the five ponies behind be replied:

“Let’s go.”

Author's Notes:

Emerald Ray is based on another toyline exclusive.
http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/File:Emerald_Ray_crystal.jpg
His backstory is partly inspired by one of Lauren Faust's episode ideas that never saw the light of day: the mane six finding a pony abandoned at birth and raised by deer in the forest. See this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UztWnWOdAyc

Levee, on the other hand, is completley original. I'll upload a Pony Maker pic of her later.

Chapter 4: Tartarus Hath No Fury

I put my hoof forward, and slowly but surely let it touch the first step when…

“Hang on.”

It was Electric Sky. Before I even had the chance to ask why she’d stopped me, her horn began to glow a brilliant blue. She raised it to the sky, sparks flying off in all directions, and with a crack, launched a ball of energy into the air. The magical burst flew higher and higher, until finally it stopped. It hung in the air for a few moments, then suddenly burst forth into a surge of energy, blanketing the night sky in a sea of blue streaks. The others looked up and gaped in awe. The unicorn’s name seemed oddly fitting now. She her gaze returned to us, and she said:

“Okay, now we can go.”

I was still confused.

“Uhh… what was that for?”

She smiled. “Just a precaution.”

Once again, I thought it best not to ask. And with that, we proceeded onwards, for real this time.

I don’t remember much about the stairway to Tartarus, only that it was dark. Very dark. I could barely see my forelegs in front of me, let alone the next step.

“One false step and we plunge into the abyss, la la la la!”

Levee was not helping matters.

“Your singing isn’t helping matters, Levee”, said Electric Sky, “and you do realise you can fly, right?”

The green Pegasus stopped for a moment, before facehoofing. “Oh, silly me!”, she said, before turning and jumping into the aforementioned abyss.

“Wheeeeeeeeeee!”

“LEVEE!!!”, yelled Bumbleseet.

We all stood, waiting, waiting…

“Oh, come on everypony!”, echoed a familiar voice, and we all breathed a sigh of relief, “you can go on without me. I’ll catch up later, I promise. Well, right after I map out every nook and cranny of this crevice. Exploring tiiiiiiime~!”

Electric Sky gave me a nudge. “Good thing we’re here to keep an eye on that one. Actually…” I could practically hear the abrupt topic switch. I could tell something had just crossed her mind.

“Okay everypony”, she began, “listen up. I think it’s about time we formulated our strategy. I trust you all know what I’m talking about.”

“Cerberus…”, I replied softly. I knew this was coming, but I was trying not to think about it.

“Exactly, Cerberus is the name of the game, ponies. I can tell you’ve been trying to avoid thinking about it, but we cannot put off this strategy meeting any longer.”, she was suddenly starting to sound like a Royal Guard commander. “After all, it’s hard to plan while you’re being… torn limb from limb.”

Lilly Blossom visibly cringed. Electric Sky continued.

“Okay, first things first: team makeup. Let’s see… our combined skillset… Woah!”, the yellow unicorn had just realised she had put her left hoof down onto nothing. Luckily, Lilly Blossom was there to catch her. Scarily quickly, and quietly, I might add.

“Phew, thanks for that. I’m not used to… not having room to pace. This is going to make my job so much harder. Okay, where was I… ah! Yes, our talents. We’ve got: Beekeeping! Dancing!” She pointed dramatically at Bumblesweet and Lilly Blossom.

“Mapmaking!” She pointed down into the abyss.

“Being male!” There was an awkward silence. Emerald Ray clearly took offense to this, but it took him a while to muster up the courage to speak.

“Uh… um… If you don’t mind… There is… a little more to me than merely that.”

“Look, I’m sorry okay”, Electric Sky replied, “but you really didn’t give me much to go on. Seriously, if the Canterlot archives made a profile on you with the information I have it would probably be just one sentence: ‘Boy pony.’ Other than that there’s just… speaking Deer, and I doubt that’s going to be of use here, so…”

“So, um, so what?”, Emerald Ray suddenly sounded a lot more confidant. In fact, he almost sounded brash. It was as if he was a completely different pony. ‘In case you haven’t noticed, I do have a Talent Sign.”

“T-talent Sign?”, asked Bumblesweet, bemused.

“Oh.. ah…”, and he was back to his usual self. Odd.

“Apologies. Talent Sign is what deer call the… err… marks we ponies have on our… hind regions.

“To be fair”, I interjected, “Talent Sign is the more accurate translation of the original Old Pony term. You see, Cutie is a corrupted form of the word…”

“Look guys”, Electric Sky cut in, “I’m learning a lot from this conversation, really, but could we please get back on topic. Emerald Ray I’m really sorry for before. But it would help if I knew just what your talent was.”

“My talent… it is…

a secret.”

“Eh, fine. I can work with what I have at the moment”, Electric Sky began to turn, and I realised I was next on her list.

“And you, Star Swirl…”, dramatic point, “Ah, actually I forget, what do you do, again?”

Ah, there it was. The question I always dreaded since my childhood. At least I felt better answering it among friends.

“You know… I’m not actually sure. I technically got my Cutie Mark for something I can’t actually do, yet.”

Electric Sky gave a nod, and turned her mind elsewhere. She began that incoherent mumbling I had begun to term ‘logic mode’. It was a few minutes before she began to speak coherent words again.

“So… sooooo… I’ve got two blank slots here… two blank slots… two… blank… white… snow… winter… Winter Wrap-Up! EUREKA!”

And as usual, ‘logic mode’ was followed by the ‘eureka moment’. With bated breath, we awaited her discovery.

“Don’t you get it… oh wait, you never do, do you. Okay I’ll explain. Remember this year’s Winter Wrap Up?”

“Cos’ tomorrow Spring is here~”, sung a voice from below us.

I replied that I did, of course. Winter Wrap up was always a good time of year for me. After all, I was used to going without magic my whole life, so doing work without it was nothing to me. Why, it was one of the few times I felt I actually belonged.

“Yes, of course you remember it”, Electric Sky reminded me I was missing the point, “I mean what happened, you know, the big change the Mayor announced.”

“You mean the new organizer?” Bumblesweet clearly knew what she was referring to.

“Precisely! Word on the street is that the unicorn mare chosen was one who didn’t fit into any other team, but still tried her best to help. The ‘blank slate’, you might say.”

Before any of us had opened our mouths, the unicorn answered for us.

“You’re all probably wondering where I’m going with this, so I’ll get to the point. Star Swirl. You. Blank Slate. Just like her. So I hereby appoint you Captain of our squad.”

“Woah woah woah, hold on a minute…” I barely had time to argue when our ‘tactician’ made her next assignment.

“Emerald Ray. You. Bodyguard. Star Swirl. Now.”

“Umm… I…”

“Look, she’s the one we’re escorting, right? It only makes sense she should have a dedicated bodyguard, I feel like such an idiot for not thinking of this before. And you two seemed to really hit it off so…”

Before I could object, the others had already shuffled around so Emerald Ray was behind me.

“I shall guard you, Miss Star Swirl.”

The stallion seemed so serious about this offer that I couldn’t help but accept. Electric Sky smiled, it seemed she knew I would.

“Alright then!”, she said triumphantly, “we all know our roles. And now…”

“Ahem, excuse me dear”, said Bumblesweet, “I know assigning roles is all well and good, but how exactly is this going to help us beat Cerberus.”

Electric Sky sighed. “I was just getting to that. Now… we plan.”

“But weren’t we already…”

“Oh no, that was just the pre-plan preparations plan! If I don’t plan out our roles, how am I supposed to plan how to use them? It’s like I always say when working on a new design: if you rush straight into planning without first planning your approach to the plan, you’ll just end up with a lot of wasted time and a burnt face. Or, as is the case here, no face at all, due to Cerberus having…”

“Please don’t say another word”, squealed Lilly Blossom.

Electric Sky took her advice and changed topic. “Let’s plan and walk. As somepony once said ‘I think better when my legs move. Pumps blood to your brain.’” And so we continued down the stairway.

“Alright, captain, you have any ideas?”

Everypony stared at me. I almost felt like I was plunging through the abyss myself. I swallowed and began.

“Well… you see… according to my rigorous mythology studies”, truth be told, I just liked the cool stories, but I wasn’t telling them that, “Cerberus’ job is to guard the gates of Tartarus. Which makes things a problem for us, he’ll want to stop us getting in just as much as stop the monsters getting out. Now, we’re going to have to get him out of the way somehow… but we mustn’t harm him. Without Cerberus to guard the gates who knows what horrors will escape.”

“Good, good”, Electric Sky seemed to be evaluating me, “a solid plan, captain. And how do you propose we do this?”

“Well”, I replied, “I’d suggest we use something to distract him for a few moments while we all hurry past. That way, he’s not gone long enough for anything… worse to slip by.”

“There’s one slight… um, issue”, Lilly Blossom entered the conversation, “if Cerberus isn’t distracted long enough, we’re all doomed.”

“And if he’s distracted too long, or permanently”, Electric Sky added, “Equestria is doomed. We’re straddling the line between two extremes here, certain death and an Equestrian apocalypse. And neither one is good for us. We need to find the right balance… but how…”

I turned my head briefly. “Anypony have any ideas?”

“Umm…”, the first voice came from my newly-appointed bodyguard. “The deer have a unique method of deterring predators. One must first let their foe charge, and stand firm with their head lowered. Their antlers will stop the foe before it can reach them, and one can hold this stance for a fair while to buy time for others to escape.”

Emerald Ray stopped, took a look at each of us and, realising none of our company had antlers, simply said “Oh.”

Lilly Blossom was next to suggest a plan of attack. “I know a few lullabies. I could try to sing Cerberus to sleep. Ahem, hush now quiet now…”

“It’s time to lay your sleepy head, I said hush now, quiet now, it’s time to go to sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! Yeah! Sorry, when I hear somepony singing I just have to join in!”, echoed the voice below us, loudly. We all realised that plan was doomed to failure.

“Hmm…”, mused Electric Sky. It seemed like she was on to something. Perhaps we’d finally hear a plan that made sense.

“Aha! Clearly this situation requires the most powerful magic of all…”, she began. I mentally flicked through all the spellbooks I had read as a child, desperately trying to recall something of that nature.

“The magic of, pause for dramatic effect, FRIENDSHIP!”

Aaaaaand awkward silence once again. I tried to remind her that we weren’t the Mane Six, when I realised she wasn’t finished.

“Channelled through an Orbital Friendship Canon!”

The silence was even more awkward this time.

“Now… where would I get the parts to build an Orbital Friendship Canon down here…”

I sighed. “Anypony got any other ideas?”

“How about a ball?”, said the voice below us.

“Huh?”

Our green Pegasus friend finally emerged from the abyss.

“Well, Cerberus is just a big doggy, isn’t he? And everypony knows doggies like balls. You know, I once helped somepony stash balls all over Ponyville, in case of ball emergencies.”

I had a feeling I knew who that ‘somepony’ was, but I didn’t want to bring it up. But still, this was probably the most intelligent suggestion I’d had so far. Well, were it not for one tiny problem…

“There’s no chance”, I begrudgingly asked, already knowing the answer, “you stashed balls here too?”

“Oh no, we almost never get ball emergencies in the Everfree Forest. Hydra Emergencies are more likely. Or, in my case, Parchment Emergencies. Then I realised there’s this bark of a certain tree that’s pretty much perfect for writing on, so I soon solved that problem. Maybe I should ask the earth ponies to plant some around Ponyville. Wouldn’t that be convenient? Whenever anypony feels the sudden need to write a letter they’d just have to…”

“LEVEE!”, once again I found myself having to stop her getting out of hand.

“Oh, ahem, sorry. Anyway, as long as you gals are, strategising, here’s a map of the Tartarus entrance.”

“WHAT?! Let me see that!”, Electric Sky suddenly blurted out. She ran so fast to get a look that she almost, err, almost fell off the edge again. “Wow, would you look at that. How did you manage to get such a detailed picture so quickly?”

Levee giggled. “Oh it was all too easy. I pretty much had free reign of the place, what with Cerberus not being there.”

We all stopped dead in our tracks. I felt like my heart had jumped up my throat, and given how pale the others looked I’m sure they felt something similar.

It was only a matter of time before Bumblesweet said what we were all thinking.

“Wait. If Cerberus isn’t there, and we didn’t see him outside, and Celestia hasn’t issued any lost dog notices, then that that means…”

We heard a heavy panting and the sound of thunderous footsteps approaching us. Very soon six yellow eyes gleamed in the darkness.

“Oh horseapples.”

“Oh that’s right, Cerberus has super-hearing. Silly me!”, said Levee, seemingly totally oblivious to what was happening.

“And I knew these stairs were freakishly wide!”, added Electric Sky, “It only makes sense they were designed for a creature of this size.”

“Argh! Now is not the time for your scientific…”

“Behind me, Miss Star Swirl!”

While we were all busy arguing, Emerald Ray had already taken action. It was a good thing too, as it spurned the rest of us to do the same. Although ‘action’ in Lilly Blossom and Bumblesweet’s cases mostly consisted of them running around screaming, Levee was nowhere to be seen and I didn’t see how Emerald Ray standing between me and a creature ten times his size was going to solve anything.

“Don’t worry everypony, this is just organized chaos!”, Electric Sky assured us, though I could tell it was mostly for her own benefit. “We’ve still got time to…”

Cerberus’ blood-chilling roar filled the air. All three heads were fully in view now, and all only inches away from Emerald Ray’s face. And yet he still remained where he was, unmoving. In hindsight, I guess it made sense, I’ve heard deer have been known to do that in the face of danger. But in their case, it’s usually out of fear. I sensed no fear in Emerald Ray. If anything, it was more like the exact opposite.

“Face me, beast, and…”

It was over in an instant, though not in the way either of us expected. Cerberus had leapt right over our heads, landed with a crash behind me, and ran on towards our other companions.

“Well…”, said Emerald Ray sheepishly, “that didn’t go quite as I’d hoped.”

“Yaaaaaaah!”

We didn’t have time to relax, the beast now had a clear run to Electric Sky. But no matter how we looked at it, there was no way we could get to her in time.

“Ponyfeathers! He’s faster than I expected. Come on, think, think! There must be a way out of this…” Electric Sky’s speech became increasingly more rapid and panicked as her attacker came closer.

“No, no, it can’t end like this. We can’t fall here… wait! Fall! That’s it!” She consciously suppressed her horn’s usual ‘eureka glow’ to save time, and darted to the edge of the stairway. She threw her body over the side, grabbing the very edge with her front hooves just as Cerberus passed her. Electric Sky had found the one refuge from the beast’s massive bulk. She breathed a sigh of relief… before realising she hadn’t planned what to do next.

“Umm… a little help here, girls.”

“Just jump”, came that oh-so-familiar voice from down below. “It’s really not that far to the bottom.”

Knowing she was safe (or at least I hoped so), I could turn my attention to those next in line to meet Cerberus.

“Oh dear. Oh dear dear dear. Nice doggy, good doggyEeep!”

The speed at which Lilly Blossom went from cowering in terror to deftly dodging Cerberus’ paw was astonishing. Soon she was darting between the creature’s thrashing heads while it pawed and chomped ineffectually at the air.

“Just stay calm, and imagine this is just a dance routine…”

“Lilly Blossom!”, interrupted Bumblesweet with a tone of urgency, “I know you’re good at this, really, but this isn’t helping us get away…”

In an instant, Cerberus turned its six-eyed gaze away from the lavender Pegasus and on to the yellow earth pony below with a loud snort.

“Uh-oh.”

Something had prompted the beast to switch targets. But as it lunged at Bumblesweet her Pegasus friend and dashed to the side, shoving them both off the edge. It must have been a reflex but… I gasped as the realisation hit me; Lilly Blossom had told us earlier she couldn’t support another pony’s weight. It seemed she’d realised too.

“Oh deaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!”

My magical research told me now would be the perfect time for a levitation spell, but of course I was in no position to actually do one. All I could do was watch, helplessly as…

“I GOT THIS!”

Levee swooped in with a flash and snatched Lilly Blossom’s cargo. Without the extra weight, the lavender pegasus was free to gently glide to the floor below. I thanked Celestia we’d found a second pegasus.

With the others all having made their way down in some way of another, Emerald Ray and I galloped down the remaining stairs to join them. Levee was right, it really wasn’t that far. Unfortunately, the moment we arrived we were greeted by a panicked yell that almost put Cerberus’ to shame.

“WhatTookYouSoLongComeOnComeOnWeNeedToGetThroughTheGateNOWBEFOREITCOMESBAAAAACK!”

Electric Sky’s mane was in more disarray, as if that were possible, and she was sweating profusely. Actually, we pretty much all were by this point. Well, except one.

“Relax everypony”, came Levee’s voice, still as optimistic as ever, “if that big doggy is as dumb as he looks, he’ll keep running up those stairs not knowing we’re even gone.”

An almighty crash reverberated through the room, and the earth below us lurched violently. We all gulped, none of us wanting to turn around, but knowing we had no choice…

“Oooooh wow, I guess he’s not as dumb as he looks.”

Everypony resumed running around screaming. Each of Cerberus’ heads sniffed around at the air, eventually converging on a single spot. As spot occupied by a honey-coloured earth pony. Bumblesweet screamed even louder and ran even faster.

“GIRLS! Could one of you please tell me WHY IS IT GOING FOR ME!!”

“Perhaps I assigned the bodyguard to the wrong pony.”, said Electric Sky.

Soon enough Bumblesweet was backed into a corner. Emerald Ray had lunged at the creature’s back leg and chomped down on it, but if Cerberus felt anything beyond mere annoyance, he certainly didn’t show it.

“No, please! I taste terrible, really! Get back!”

Cerberus’ first head lunged. Bumblesweet rolled to the side.

“Bumblesweet!” Lilly Blossom tried to fly to her friend’s aid, but her earlier stunt had taken a tool on her body, and it would not listen to her.

Cerberus’ second head lunged. This its target wasn’t quite as fast. The creature’s maw struck the side of Bumblesweet’s saddle, knocking loose a glass jar which spilled its golden contents on the ground. The pony herself was knocked reeling. She knew she didn’t have the strength to dodge a third time.

Bumblesweet closed her eyes… the third head lunged and…

Began lapping up the spilled contents of the jar. The other two soon joined in. The beast game a low growl of contentment. We all breathed a sigh of relief. Except Lilly Blossom, who had already fainted.

Those of us still conscious rushed to Bumblesweet’s side. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.. I… I am quite alright dears”, she said as she scraped herself off the ground. She gazed at the creature that had recently towered over her. “But I never knew dogs liked honey.”

“Well”, I told her, “Cerberus isn’t exactly a normal dog. It’s safe to say its eating habits are also… abnormal.”

“Are you sure it’s… good for him?” I was shocked. Bumblesweet’s tone showed a genuine… concern for the thing that very nearly killed her.

‘It’s probably fine.” I didn’t know, of course, but I wanted to reassure her.

Cerberus didn’t seem to notice us at all. Its full attention was now directed at feasting on Bumblesweet’s home-made honey.

“You know…”, I began, “things didn’t go… quite as planned, but look! We distracted Cerberus without actually harming him, exactly what we set out to do! Great job everypony!”

My comrades each gave an exhausted pant of appreciation. I turned to the enormous iron-barred gate at the other end of the room.

“Now all we need to do is go through this gate before Cerberus notices us again and…”

I pushed at the iron frame with my hooves. It would not budge.

“It’s locked. We’re doomed.”

“CERBERUS IS ALMOST THROUGH THE HONEY!”, informed Electric Sky, loudly.

“Relax dears”, said Bumblesweet and took out another jar from her saddle bags. “I’ve got plenty more where that came from.” She trotted over to the creature and poured the contents at its feet, remembering to save the jar this time.

“Okay, no need to panic”, I said to myself, “we just have to find some way to unlock the impregnable gates of Tartarus before we run out of honey jars. Nothing to worry about…”

“Engine grease… dragon sweat…”

“Huh?”

“Eyeglass cleaner… spare scooter wheel… spare scooter jet booster… spare micro fusion reactor gem circuit…”

It seemed like Electric Sky was going through the contents of her saddle bags. But unless she had some kind of turbo unlocking device…

“…Prototype unlocking device… AHA! There we go!”

Oh come on.

Electric Sky’s horn gleamed once again in the darkness. “Brace yourself everypony”, she began overdramatically, “for I am just about to be brilliant! I must thank you, Star Swirl. Without your input, I would never have been able to finish this.”

She produced a small metal object from her bag. So this must have been the device she was working on when I bumped into her that evening. It was a tiny little thing, so small you could fit it in one hoof and still have plenty of room to spare. One end was noticeable more bulky than the other, I could make out a few of those round devices we had seen in the ruins earlier, and one of those glass orbs depicted in its creator’s Cutie Mark. From this end extended a thin metal rod, almost like a key, only… without the bits on the end. And on top of the device was what looked like… a miniature rotor blade?

“I’d advise you all”, she warned us, “to stand away from the gate. I haven’t tested it since I made the modifications you inspired.” She tossed the device into the air and gave it a jolt of energy from her horn. The rotor spun to life, and the tiny thing floated its way up to the gate’s massive keyhole.

With the air of a true mad scientist, Electric Sky yelled “Now, witness the true power of the UnlockMaster 5000!!! (Patent pending)”

With that, the device inserted itself into the keyhole and fired several short pulses of light. It paused for about a minute, then repeated the process. I saw now just how my idea had been applied.

Then I noticed Electric Sky had put on her goggles and was now covering her ears with her hooves. That didn’t bode well. We all did the same, minus the goggles, and braced ourselves.

But all we heard was a loud “KER-CHUNK!”, and the iron barred gates groaned open. There was silence for a moment, until it was broken by a surprising squeal of glee.

“It works! It works! I did it!”, Electric Sky yelled as she pranced about the room. “My device can open that gates of Tartarus!!!!”

She paused, then repeated in quite the opposite tone. “Wait. My device… can open the gates of Tartarus.”

Said device had only just returned to her. Immediately, she threw it to the ground and began stomping on it, repeatedly.

“GAH! Die! Die! DieDieDieDieDiediediediediediediediedieDIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!”

The invention that looked as if it had taken a painstaking amount of work to build was now a pile of barely recognisable powder. Its creator turned to us, and said:

“Get me the dragon sweat from my bag. I’m gonna need to burn my blueprints.”

We all laughed, though we knew she was being perfectly serious. Then it hit me.

“Um, girls, don’t you think we should be, you know, going now?”

With that, we all dashed through the gates, dragging the unconscious Lilly Blossom with us. Just as we were through, they groaned shut once again. I had no idea how we were going to get back now, but we’d cross that bridge when we came to it.

“Woah, that was intense!”, said Levee. “This place has already earned itself four skulls. Four. Skulls. I haven’t given anywhere that many since that time I…”

We stopped. I could have sworn I heard a noise… and I was right. It was a low whimper. Three, to be exact. We turned to see three heads drooped sadly, as two paws reached out through the bars of the gate behind us. I’ll tell you now; seeing puppy-dog-eyes coming from three heads at once was an experience I’ll never forget.

“Aww, poor little doggy.”, said Levee.

Bumblesweet turned and gave us almost the same look. With our nod of approval, she tossed another jar back through the gate. All three heads beamed in delight as the creature leapt at the gift.

“Just remember”, Bumblesweet called back as we left, “don’t go visiting Ponyville for more!”

Author's Notes:

You know, just after I wrote this I discovered there actually IS a Greek myth out there involving someone getting past Cerberus by distracting him with honey. What a freaky coincidence!

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.

Chapter 6: Battles and Riddles

Levee wasn’t kidding when she said the maze was big. Trust me. Even knowing where we needed to go was little comfort in these cold walls. Not to mention we were bored out of our minds.

“I spy with my little eye…”

“A maze of twisting passageways; all alike.”

“Cool! How’d you guess?”

“Because that’s exactly what you ‘spied’ last time. And the time after that. And the time after that.”

“But I’d already gone through all of you guys. And I can’t really spy myself, can I? Maybe I can? Oooh, I’ve got a good one! I spy with my little eye…”

“Yourself.”

“How’d you guess?”

This routine went on for far, far longer than it should have. Until…

“I spy with my little eye… a light!”

“Look dear, it’s rude to refer to our friend here as if he were an object.”

“No silly, I don’t mean Glowy, look there!”

Indeed, we did spy a light. It looked like fire, but that wasn’t possible. The air in here should have snuffed out external light like that.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you”, Levee interrupted our bemusement, “I saw that light before, when I was scouting. That’s how I knew the inside of this”, she pulled out the map and pointed to a large square room at the edge of the maze, “room without actually going in.” She awaited a reaction. Getting none, she continued. “Well? Aren’t you guys pleased? This is the end! We’re almost out of the maze!”

Yeah, we should have been pleased, but something didn’t feel quite right.

“Uhh… Levee, how should I put this?” Electric Sky pondered for a moment before settling on “I’ve spent enough time at the arcade to know large square rooms with only one entrance are never a good sign. Especially at the end of an area.”
That was certainly the strangest logic I’d heard from her tonight, but I couldn’t help but agree. There was something suspicious about that room, and the light.

Which, as we got closer, revealed itself to be a pair of flaming torches, framing the entrance to the room. This was certainly ominous. Nonetheless, from the map it was clear this was our only exit, so it seemed we had no choice.

The room was bright, so much so that we, so accustomed to the darkness of the maze, had to cover our eyes as we entered. Emerald Ray, seeing his talents were no longer needed, um, extinguished himself. I hope that made sense.

As we took our first steps into the ominous square room, we realised we were not alone. Standing in the centre was a giant figure on two hoofed legs, with the upper body of a particularly muscular ape-like… thing. (Sorry, there really isn’t another way to describe it. I hear biologists have been debating the origins of the minotaur’s top half for centauries) I… just realised I spoiled what this creature was, so I’ll cut to the chase: this was bad.

“Wow, a minotaur! I’ve always wanted meet one!”, said Electric Sky, clearly not sharing my sentiment.

“Meh, see one minotaur you’ve seen them all”, said Levee, before adding:“But this is the first brown one I’ve seen…”

“D… do you think it’s dangerous?”, muttered Bumblesweet.

“Come on, just because he looks scary doesn’t mean he is. He’s probably a really nice…”

The minotaur cut Lilly Blossom off with a snort of contempt.

“What’re you lookin’ at, four-legs?”

We all slinked back towards the entrance.

“I’d warn you all to run but…”

Said entrance slammed shut behind us.

“It’s a little late for that. Heh heh heh.”

“Oh, oh dear…” said Lilly Blossom.

The minotaur took two giant strides towards us. We’d run out of space to retreat.

“Now then, sissies, let me explain how this is gonna work.”

“You leave us alone and we’ll get on our way?”, said Bumblesweet, although she knew as well as I did that wasn’t going to work.

The beast snorted. “Afraid not. Ya see, bein’ cooped up down here gets boring. Real boring. And it’s not often I get visitors so…”

“Ooooh! I see how it is! Well I think I have the answer! I always have some spare parchment with me, a quick round of Tick-Tack-Toe ought to…”

“LEVEE!”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Bwahahahaha!” The minotaur laughed so loud the room seemed to shake. “Sorry, it’s just hilarious how sissy you ponies are sometimes! Lemme tell you my idea of fun. One of you hasta’ challenge me to single combat.”

I gulped, I was afraid he’d say that.

“If you win, I let you all go. But I’d feel sorry for ya’ then, cos’ in here you’d be missin’ the pigs flyin’. And explodin’. And the oceans boilin’ and…”

“We get it”, interrupted Electric Sky, “You think our chances of winning are approximately one million in ten to the ninety nine…”

“Your fancy mathematics won’t muddle me!”, the minotaur roared in her face.

“Aw ponyfeathers, I thought that would work.”

“And just because I’m so kind”, the minotaur continued, “I’m gonna let you try as many times as ya’ want. Not that it’ll help. But only one at a time! And no flyin’! Or magic! Well, this room will see t’that anyhow.” He strode back into the centre of the room and began to flex his muscles in anticipation.

Electric Sky took this moment to whisper to me “He’s right you know. You can’t tell, but I already tried a couple of spells. This room has some kind of anti-magic field.”

Well, at least that didn’t affect me. But still, there was no way any of us could take on something like him. We were doomed.
The minotaur assumed a battle stance.

“The process continues until you’re all dead, or I get bored. Whichever come first. Now… which one of you sissies wants to take the first shot?”

Electric Sky donned her goggles and gave her right foreleg a few prods. “That would be me”, she said, with an air of confidence.

While I admired her bravery, my practical side immediately objected. “Uhh… are you sure this is a good idea? You’re a scientist, not a fighter.”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan”, she whispered with no loss of confidence.

The yellow unicorn trotted up to the muscle-bound brute in the centre of the room. The two exchanged glances for a moment, before the pony held out her right hoof in a gesture of honourable challenge.

“Let’s make this a fair fight. Agreed?”

“Sure”, replied her opponent, and reached out his arm.

Rapidly. In a gesture of much-less honourable clobbering. Electric Sky flew across the room and slammed into the wall behind us, groaning in pain.

“Bwahahaha! You think I’d fall for a cheap trick like that?”

“Oh heavens dear! Are you okay?” came Bumblesweet’s cry.

“Ugh… y…yeah, I’m fine”, she said, obviously not. “Curses… how’d he know about my… Argh! This is gonna take ages to recalibrate…” She seemed mostly concerned about her right foreleg which, strangely enough, was the only part of her body that still looked in pristine condition. But at that moment, I suddenly noticed something. Within that same pristine limb, for a moment, I swear I saw a gleam of silver.

But my mind returned to the problem at hand. Electric Sky looked like she’d be out of action for a while, leaving just five of us. Among those left, Emerald Ray, being an earth pony and one raised in the wild at that, was most likely our best option. But, just my luck, he’d immediately gone to tend to our fallen companion, despite her protesting. And that really narrowed down our options. I had pulled snowploughs at Winter Wrap Up for years, but I doubt that qualified me to fight in a battle to the death. But, when it came down to it…

“Very well. I will go.”

But Bumblesweet had taken the words out of my mouth before I could say them. We all had our doubts, but I reminded myself she had survived a direct encounter with Cerberus. Perhaps she could…

“Bwahahahaha!” laughed the Minotaur again, “Oh, that’s rich! Look, your Sissy Mark is even a buncha’ bugs! So I guess your special talent is GETTING SQUASHED BY ME!!”

“Laugh all your want, monster”, Bumblesweet replied, taking on a tone I had never heard her use before. In that moment, the earth pony standing before the horned beast had ceased to be the motherly mare I knew. She was defiant, determined, and about to get dead serious.

“No foe in Equestria is a match for my top tier BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!”

And with that she made the… noise she had before. And like before, the bees answered. I you ask me, I honestly have no idea how a swarm of bees managed to hear her from down here, let alone actually find her. But find her they did, somehow, and it wasn’t our place to question it. Bumblesweet now had an army. We might be in with a chance.

“Fly my pretties! Fly, fly, ahahahahaha!”

I admit that this Bumblesweet kinda scared me though.

Her army obliged, and the minotaur soon disappeared in the cloud of their swarm. The buzzing grew louder and louder as we waited with bated breath…

Before it was silenced by an even louder sound. One that, by this point, was really starting to get annoying.
“BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” The minotaur simply stepped out of the cloud that assailed him, looking barely more than annoyed.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Was that suppos’ta STING!?”

He stepped forward to tower over his would-be assailant. Bumblesweet’s, and eveyopony’s, confidence vanished in an instant.

“Don’t worry, THIS sure will!!”

“STOP!!!”

An unlikely voice cried out. When I regained my composure, I saw Lilly Blossom standing between the two combatants. I tried to call out, but the words wouldn’t come.

The minotaur gave the loudest snort yet. He was furious now.

“I TOLD you, only one at a time! You really must have a death wish, fourlegs.”

Lilly Blossom still stood firm. “I am not violating the rules, I am offering to take my friend’s place. I will not see my friends hurt.”

“Lilly… Blossom…”, said Bumblesweet, “You don’t have to…”

The purple pegasus gave her friend a look that told her, yes, in fact, she did. Bumblesweet seemed to acknowledge her wish. The minotaur, not wanting to go against his own rules, allowed the exchange.

“Everypony, get back”, said Lilly Blossom as she took her position. Facing the minotaur, she proclaimed:

“I am your opponent!”

“You’ve got guts”, replied said opponent, “but you’re gonna be wishin’ ya didn’t. I’m done messin’ around.” And he wasn’t kidding: for the first time, he stood back and readied a charge. I’d heard not even castle walls can endure the full strength of a charging minotaur. The damage it could wreak on a pony… was something that didn’t really bear thinking about, and we all made sure to stay out of his path. All but one: Lilly Blossom didn’t move an inch. She seemed intensely focused, almost as if she was… waiting?

Silence. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Neither combatant had made a move. Suddenly, Lilly Blossom held out her right wing, and let it gently flutter for a moment. The minotaur’s eyes burned blood red and I swear I saw him expel smoke from his nostrils.

“NOW YOU DIE!!!”

The ground beneath us shook with the force of the beast’s hooves. For something so bulky, he was incredibly fast, and he was upon Lilly Blossom, horns lowered, in a matter of seconds. I called out in panic, but she remained still, as if she couldn’t even hear me. We all covered our eyes, none of us could bear to look…

The next thing we heard was a loud CRASH! Fearing the sight that inevitably awaited me, I slowly lowered my hooves and half-opened one eye…

To find the minotaur in a crumpled heap beside the opposite wall. And in the room’s centre stood the lone purple pegasus, very slightly to the left of her former location, but otherwise unchanged. Not a scratch on her, not even so much as a missing feather.

But we couldn’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet, as the minotaur let out a groan and rose to his feet.

“Uuuugh… Uh… I mean… GRRRRRRRRRRR!!! I see what your plan is! Yer tryin’ to create an escape route by havin’ me smash the walls! Well sorry t’disappoint ya, but these here walls are completely indestructible! There’ll be no escapin’ for you… only DYING’!!!”

The beast charged once again. And once again, Lilly Blossom held her ground until the last possible moment before…
I’d say ‘swish!’ here, but as you’ll know by now, Lilly Blossom’s manoeuvres rarely made any noise. Anyway, all you need to know is she deftly dodged the charge, and her attacker’s head met the wall once again.

“Arrrrgh! Y…yer cheatin’! How can somethin’ even do that without wings!? Rrrgh, ya can’t dodge me forever, fourlegs! GRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!”

CRASH!

“Ugh…. gah…. D…do ya’… know who… I am!? I’m the Bronze Beast! The Butcher of Baltimate! The Slayer of Stalliongrad! The one who almost single-handedly brought back the Windigos! Ya think a sissy fourlegs like you can beat me!?!?
AAAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHH!!!”

CRASH!

“Why you little…”

CRASH!

“Ugh… I’ll get ya! All b-both of ya!”

CRASH!

“I’ll…”

CRASH!

“I’ll…”

CRASH!

CRASH!
CRASH!
CRASH!

“Okay! Okay! I give up, you win!”, the now very battered and thoroughly unintimidating minotaur yelled while visibly struggling to stand. He stared blankly at us all, all the fire in his eyes gone, and seemed to trying to come up with a particularly intimidating parting taunt. Unfortunately, battered, bruised and heavily concussed, the only words he could muster were:

“W… why is everything… bigger and… eight?”
And, with a final crash, he fell to the ground, motionless. The doors behind and ahead of us creaked open.

“Da da da da DAAAAAAAAAA! You are Victoryful~!”

My jaw felt like it had hit to floor. Levee excluded, I’m sure the others felt something similar. By the time I finally regained the power of speech, the only words I could muster were:

“And you’re SURE you’re not a ninja?!”

Awkward silence.

“N…no”, Lilly Blossom replied, bemused, “but my grandmother was from Neighpon, if that’s any consolation.”
“That… makes a surprising amount of sense. Anyway, nice going, you really saved our flanks there.”

“Oh, don’t mention it. It was just dace practice, really. It was his own strength that did him in in the end.” She turned to her fallen opponent and said in a dignified yet still slightly immature fashion: “Serves you right you big meanie!”

“Lilly dear”, said Bumblesweet, “I know you’re a good dancer and all, but promise my you will never do that again.”

“Hey, she just saved your life!”, reprimanded Electric Sky, rising to her hooves despite Emerald Ray’s silent protests.
“Hey, hey, hey, I’m fine! Fine! Sheesh, I heard deer were overprotective, but this is ridiculous!”

“Oh… if… if you say so.”, he replied, sounding disappointed.

“Well”, I reassured him, “at least it’s good nopony was hurt, right Levee? Right?”

No response. That was odd. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen her since the little victory song.

“You don’t suppose she’s…”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

No mistaking it, that voice was definitely hers. That couldn’t be good.

“Emerald Ray, your light again, please. We need to go now.” We followed the still-continuing scream back to its source, which, thankfully, wasn’t far away. But once we reached her, we found nothing. No horrible monsters, no more pony skeletons, just another dark, walled corridor.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH”, continued Levee.

“W-what’s wrong, dear? There’s nothing here.”, said Bumblesweet.

“W…we’re…we’re…

WE’RE STILL IN THE MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZE!!!”

I nearly tripped over. Still, our green pegasus friend was now just as furious as that minotaur, perhaps even more so.
“I! Cannot! Believe this! After all this time… after all this time… MY MAP WAS ONLY 50% COMPLETE!!! ………………..Yippee!”

Her sudden mood swing hit me like a mail cart. But I suppose it was to be expected by now.

“Now if you’ll excuuuuse me, I’ve got some mapping to do~!” and she was off once again.

“Sooooo”, I began, “I guess we should just wait here?”

“Sounds logical”, replied Electric sky.

“B-but what about that…”, added Bumblesweet.

“Oh I wouldn’t worry about him. He’s going to be out for a looooooong time.” reassured Lilly Blossom.

And so, all there was to do was wait.

**************************************************************************************************

“…And so I learned the hard way that Lightning Topazes and water don’t mix. Anyway, that’s how I lost my third laboratory.”
Electric Sky finished her tale just as we finally exited that blasted maze. Ugh, to this day children’s maze books still give my nightmares. But the trials of Tartarus were only just beginning.

The darkness was gone, thankfully. But the cold… that seemed to be getting worse. The air felt thick, almost crushing. Out of instinct, I turned to everypony and said:

“Look, you’ve all been an amazing help so far, but it’s just going to get worse from here on out. So if anypony wants to leave now, I’m not going to stop you.”

Nopony spoke a word.

“Alright, if you insist.”

And so we continued. The main path started to diverge a bit here, with several side branches splitting off to head Celestia knows where. My guess was that was where this place’s… inmates were kept. And to be perfectly honest, I didn’t even want to know what was down there. That minotaur from before was bad enough, thank you very much, and this was only the outer rim of the place. Put it this way, if some… thing as bad as Discord wasn’t sent here, I shudder to think what kind of monster would be. As for the fact I was on my way to meet somepony imprisoned in its inner circle, well, I tried not to think about it.

Luckily, it looked as though the further we went down the main path, the deeper into Tartarus we went. So at least we had no chance of getting lost. (not that we ever would with our resident mapmaker on our side) So, deeper we went, until we reached a great stone arch that looked like it would hold a door of some kind. As far as I looked though, I couldn’t see any trace of one. What I did see, however, was something that had been bothering me for quite some time.

“Umm… is anypony else getting really creeped out by those statues we keep seeing, or is it just me?”

Levee took the words right out of my mouth. Ever since we passed Cerberus’ lair, we had always been greeted by these stone statues. They were always… somewhere, watching silently in the distance, just out of our reach. Except I could have sworn the further in we went, the more there were, and the closer they got. To the point where, right now, they stood firmly in our view: one standing at either side of the arch, as if on guard…

And for the first time, I could finally get a closer look. On first inspection, they looked much the same as the statues you’d find in the Canterlot castle gardens, though the stone looked a darker shade of grey. The two before us were pegasi, but I remember seeing a roughly even spread of all three pony types among those I saw earlier. But no matter their breed, they all shared three characteristics: all stood in the same pose, all wore armour like the kind used in ancient times…
And none of them had a face. Clearly that was the source of all the creepiness.

That, and the fact the two before us showed absolutely no sign of age or wear. No chips, scratches, not even any dust. It’s almost as if they weren’t statues at all…

Weren’t statues at all.

My stomach seemed to jump at the very thought. The others looked like they were shivering, but I could tell it wasn’t the cold. We’d all silently come to the same conclusion.

And then I realised. Statues that aren’t statues, I vaguely remember reading about that in a book once…

“Hang on everypony, I just might know what these things are”, I said as I rummaged frantically through my saddle bags, feeling as though they’d get me if I turned my back on them…

“AAAH! HERE IT IS, FINALLY!” Everypony jumped with a start. They sounded normal in my head, but I was so terrified my words came out as a shrill scream.

“Ahem, sorry. Here we go: The Mesmerized Monster Masher’s Marvellous Magical Menagerie!”

“Sigh. Do the Canterlot publishers have some kind of unnecessary alliterative title division?”, muttered Electric Sky. Though I kind of agreed, I was too busy searching the book to comment.

“Tartarus… statue… AHA! Here!” I opened the book on a double-page spread (which, strangely, lacked any pictures) entitled ‘The Guardians of Tartarus.’ Just below the heading was written, in much smaller print: ‘information purely speculative’. Upon reading this, Electric Sky immediately turned away. Unperturbed, I read on:

Anypony will tell you Tartarus is a prison for the most foul and evil of all beings. But what exactly is keeping them in? Cerberus, most will reply, and this is correct to the best of common knowledge. Recently however, several of Canterlot’s top scholars have theorized that Cerberus is only the last resort, the final line of defence, if you will. According to this new belief, the insides of Tartarus in fact contain several layers of protective measures. Logically this makes sense, after all, Cerberus can’t be relied upon to deal with all threats. (and is prone to wandering off at the most inappropriate times)
There are many individual theories as to the exact nature of these ‘defences’, but the one held in most esteem (several of its supporters claim to be in close contact with Celestia herself, though this is impossible to verify) is the idea of ‘Guardians’, Tartarus’ “white blood cells”, so to speak. As nopony has ever ventured into Tartarus and returned, it is impossible to determine the appearance of such Guardians, but several facts have been established:

-They are most likely non-living, magical constructs. This much is certain, as no ruler in their right mind would send living ponies to guard such a place. Even if you ignore the fact the very action would amount to psychological torture, the truth is mortal ponies would simply not be strong enough to hold back the horrors there imprisoned. So artificial beings born of magic is a logical guess. Historical sources do indeed mention such beings, in the form of animate statues, used in a unicorn war of ancient times. Perhaps, in this time of peace, the very same beings were reassigned to guarding Tartarus? (Just speculation, I might add) Of course there are other theories, such as the souls of those lost to the place becoming bound to serve it for all eternity, but such an act of profound cruelty has been dismissed as preposterous even by the most irrational of ‘Tyrant Celestia’ conspiracy theorists.

“Well”, said Bumblesweet, “at least we can be thankful for that Lilly Bloss… Oh dear.” Realising said pegasus was already lying in a quivering heap on the floor, she stopped herself. I continued:

-Assuming the above, these constructs possess only rudimentary intelligence. In fact, if they are indeed the same constructs used in the unicorn wars, it’s hardly fit to call it ‘intelligence’ at all. It is, however, just enough to get their job done. Essentially, the Guardians awaken only in times of dire crisis, upon which they seek out anything that doesn’t belong in their designated area.

“That… means us”, I spoke the obvious, but it did little to calm me down.

The guardians’ main strength is their numbers, and so when faced with multiple targets they will instinctively prioritise whoever poses the biggest threat. This behaviour has been exploited in the past, but it presumably becomes useful when dealing with Tartarus escapees, it’s best to make sure those who pose the greatest threat to Equestria don’t get out, after all.

-Taking into account the above two points, it stands that these constructs CANNOT BE REASONED WITH, AND WILL NOT BE MOVED TO SHOW MERCY. But if you’re faced with them, you’re either a notorious evil beast or idiotic enough to actually venture into Tartarus. Either way, you had it coming.

“Well that’s awfully nice of them”, quipped Electric Sky. “Does this book have any other bright ideas, or is it just insults?”
“Hang on, I’ll check the ‘Battle Advice’ section…”

Tips from the Pros:
If you are encountering this monster, it means you are in Tartarus. Ergo, you are already dead. Actually, you’re worse that dead, you’re as far below dead as dead is from living. Either way, you’re too dead to be reading this sentence now, so stop.

“The book doesn’t say anything”, I wisely replied.

“Well, we know one thing”, Electric Sky had already begun strategising. “This ‘crisis’ that sparks the Guardians into action hasn’t happened yet. Which means…”

“It could happen at any time!”, said Lilly Blossom, still no more composed than before.

Electric Sky sighed. “Must you always be such a pessimist?”

“I’m not a pessimist, I’m a ‘don’t want to get killed by creepy statues’… ist.”

“She has a point, dear”, Bumblesweet entered the conversation. “For all we know this ‘crisis’ could be us going further into Tartarus. We should be ready for anything. Which, fortunately, I always am.”

“Really?”, said Electric Sky, possibly beaming with curiosity, “So what’s your ‘magically animated statues’ counter plan?”
“Oh that would be telling, wouldn’t it?”

I felt the need to intervene. “Look, girls. I think we can all agree that standing around here talking isn’t the most productive use of our time, so let’s…”

“Actually, what you’ve been doing has been very productive so far, I say keep at it!” Ah, so that’s where Levee had got to. She was now holding a whole pile of parchment. No doubt she’d been busy.

“Anypony have any extra space in their saddle bags?”, she said while flitting between us. “Oh, just fyi, if you want to go further into Tartarus I think the bridge would be your best bet.”

“What bridge?”

“HOLY MOTHER OF LUNA!”
“GREAT WESTINGHOOF’S GHOST!”
“CAN WE PANIC NOW??”
“Oh dear.”
Emerald ray said something exasperated in what I presume was deer.

“Oh… that means, ‘it’s a bridge.’ Deer do not have… how do you call it… expletives.”

“Yeah, what’s the big deal? It’s just a bridge”, said Levee.

An inexplicably thin bridge suspended over what looked like a bottomless ravine, obscured by mist.

“There’s no chance you could clear this with a spell…”

“Already tried”, came Electric Sky’s answer before I was even finished.

“So, uhh… just… be careful not to fall… then?” I was at a loss. This place just kept getting crazier.

“Sigh, do I have to do it again? Oh well: “Just don’t worry~! Everything’s gonna be fine~! We’re in no hurry, relax and take your time. Just…”

“Quick! Maybe she’ll stop if we get over the bridge!”, yelled Electric Sky as she ventured on, suddenly fearless. We all did our best to follow.

“Keep moving, don’t look down. Keep moving, don’t look down. Keep moving…” Before I knew it, my hoof once again met the more-familiar ground.

“Hey hey hey, you made it! See, that wasn’t so hard~”

“AAAAAAArrrrRRRRrrrrrrgggghhhHHHHHhhhhhhhhHH!”

“Oh, sorry. I can fly pretty fast when I know the area.”

Looking again, I could see I was actually the last to arrive. Which meant…

“Yeah, we all got her creepy little greeting too. But hey, at least we got through fine. I mean, things could have gone a lot worse.”

“Oh yes they could have.”

I jumped. “Who was that?”

Each of us sounded off with a “Not me.” Which is what I was dreading.

“Or should I say, things are about to get worse.”

“Show yourself!”

“Oh I’m afraid I can’t do that. Could I get you guys to come to me? Thanks.”

The voice sounded female, but it certainly wasn’t a pony. It sounded… bigger than that. And the way it rolled its r’s, it almost reminded me of a cat’s purr…

The closer I came, as the speaker came slowly into view, I soon realised why. Standing before us was a creature that was wholly alien, but composed of individually recognisable parts. The haunches of a lion, the wings of a bird, and a face that wouldn’t seem out of place on a household cat. Well, a really creepy household cat. I was sure I’d read about creatures like this in my books, but to see only for real…

“Look, I know it’s not everyday you see a Sphinx like me, but you don’t have to stare, it’s rude.”

“Oh, m…my apologies, Miss”, said Emerald Ray, as if he genuinely thought it would work. “We are on a quest presently, would you mind permitting us to pass?”

“Heh, nice try. I can tell you’re a pretty nice bunch though, which makes even harder for me to go through with this. Sigh, sometimes I hate my job.”

“And… umm… what exactly… is your job…?”, said Lilly Blossom, trembling all over. (and seemingly forgetting she just single-handedly took down a rampaging minotaur)

“Honestly, don’t you read?”, the Sphinx replied.

I answered for her: “She’s going to ask us a riddle, am I right?”

“Very good, very good. And if you answer correctly, I’ll let you through.”

“Yay!”, said Levee.

“But, answer… unwisely”, we all shuddered, “and you’ll be trapped down here, for all eternity.” That last word shook the walls and pierced us like a spear.

“Nothing personal”, she added casually.

“We get it, just give us the riddle already”, said Electric Sky.

The Sphinx sighed. She really seemed like she didn’t want to go through with this.

“Alright. If you wish to pass, you must give me… what I desire.”

“Okaaaaay” I certainly hadn’t heard this one before.

“I desire something that is:
Greater than Celestia
Worse than Discord
Rich ponies need it
Poor ponies have plenty of it
If you eat it you die.”

“That’s it?”, I asked.

“Yep.”

“And we have as much time as we want to think about it?”

“Sure, take all the time you want. Though you might want to know, I once had somepony in here who spent a year trying to figure it out… and he still got it wrong.”

Electric Sky seemed to takes this as a challenge, given how she positively bolted forward.

“Yes, but he only had one brain. We… have six. Come on everypony, it’s brainstorming time!”

And so the huddle began. It was just as well we had 6 brains, as I alone certainly couldn’t have figured this out. Placed in my position, could you? Think about it for a bit. While you are, I’ll report the results of our brainstorming session.

“Greater than Celestia… but worse than Discord? How can something be both at once…?”, Lilly Blossom began.
“You think it’s a trick question?”, said Levee.

“It’s a Sphinx riddle, they’re always trick questions.”, answered Electric Sky.

“Okaaaaaaay, so at least we’ve established that. We’re on our way, yay!”

“Umm… ahem… excuse…”, it took Emerald Ray several attempts to get into the conversation.

“Got any ideas?”

“Uhh… no… I was just trying to inform… I mean… your words, I still find, difficult, so I believe it is best I…” he trailed off into silence, but by then he’d made his point.

“Now come on dear, I’m sure you could…”, began Bumblesweet, before being cut off.

“But, it would displease me to… doom you all… because the answer is a word I do not know.”

It pained me to say it, but I admitted he did have a point. I convinced the others to let him sit this one out.

“Right, so now we’re down to 5 brains. Drat, we need to pick up the pace. How about we scan each line individually…”

“Way ahead of you, Sparky. If you eat it, you die, hmm…” Electric Sky looked a little confused, but it was soon gone, clearly she’d learned to get used to our mapmaking friend’s logic by now.

“Let me guess: it’s a trick question, so you figure it makes sense to work backwards.”

“Nice one! You’re starting to get the hang of this!”

“And I wasn’t even being serious”, the yellow unicorn muttered under her breath. Well, any start was a welcomed accomplishment, in my view.

“If you eat it you die… Aha! It’s so obvious! POISON!”

We all stared blankly. I sighed and resigned myself to ‘awkward silence breaking duty’ this time.

“Explain to me… exactly how can poison be greater than Celestia?”

“Well maybe if it was delicious poison.”, Levee stated is if it were an obvious fact.

A disturbing thought suddenly entered my mind. “Wait a minute. Poison. Rich ponies need it… poor ponies have… plenty…of…it…” I noticed everypony begin to turn pale. We unanimously voted to pretend we’d never brought that up.
“So we’re back to square one”, stated the scientist among us and sighed. “Don’t worry, I’m used to that by now.” Her tone quickly returned to one of optimism. “Okay, I say what we’re looking for is more likely to be an abstract concept, rather than a physical object. That’s how most of these riddles go, anyway.”

At this, Lilly Blossom was suddenly enthusiastic. Was she on to something?

“Ooh, ooh, I just remembered we used to hear riddles like that all the time at slumber parties! And you know, I’ll bet you the answer here is…”

We all held our breath. Scarily enough, so did the Sphinx.

“Love!! It’s always the answer to things like this!”

“Well, she kinda has a point”, said Electric Sky, “After all, love can be greater than Celestia, and when brought on by Love Poison it’s certainly worse than Discord.” She turned to me and whispered: “Accidently brewed some once. You don’t wanna know.”

I hated to shoot down everypony’s hopes, but...

“There’s just one slight problem: you don’t die if you eat love. Come to think of it, how would you even eat love anyway?”
“Well, maybe ponies don’t”, Lilly Blossom replied, “but there could be some creature out there that does. And maybe if it ate too much love all at once…”

Deciding that route was a total bust, we moved on. (Yes, yes, no doubt you’re all seeing the delicious irony there, but we certainly couldn’t have. Moving on.)

“Any other ideas? Anypony?”

“Ah! Amm… wait, no.”

Hours passed.

“Yes! That’s it… no.”

More hours passed.

“Take all the time in the world, really.”, the Sphinx said, oddly reassuringly. “I mean, it’s not like I’m going anywhere or anything…”

“Well you may have all the time in the world”, Bumblesweet approached the Sphinx, suddenly furious, “but we have families to return to, schedules to keep… Oh sweet Celestia my schedule!! I’d totally forgotten! Next week’s shipment to Baltimare… No, I mustn’t… okay… need to calm… down…” She said while still obviously hyperventilating. Trotting back over to us, she said slowly: “Now dears, no need to rush or anything, but could you…”, unfortunately, she couldn’t hold in her panic for much longer, “pleasegetamoveonnow!”

Lilly Blossom flew to her longtime friend’s side in consolation. “Now now Bumblesweet, I know you like to work to a schedule, but we can’t rush this: if we get this wrong… you’re never going to work to a schedule again.” Pity that last part sort of undermined the first.

“As much as I agree we can’t rush”, came Electric Sky’s first words in several hours, “Bumblesweet has a point. I mean, we can’t just sit around her doing noth………………………”

She froze. Her blue eyes widened. A beaming grin formed across her face. I knew full well what came next…

“EUREKA!!!”

And we were blinded by the flash of her horn once again. But by now we all knew this was a good sign.

“YES!! YEEEEEEES! I don’t believe this! The same thing solves two problems in one day, I love being efficient!!!”, at this she grabbed by and shook me by the shoulders, even though I had no idea what she was talking about. Though I had a hunch she had solved the riddle…

“Everypony”, she said, and we gathered around. “I… think I know the answer.” It was strange, she seemed a lot less confidant than I would have thought. “But I know… an awful lot is riding on this. Do you really… think you can trust me?”

Though I admit I would feel the same under such pressure, I had never seen this side of Electric Sky before.

The first reply came from an unexpected source.

“Of course we do. You’re our friend, right everypony?” Levee glanced at the rest of us, almost accusingly.

“Of course dear.”

“Exactly.”

“You are correct.”

“But, you’re all trusting me with your…”

For reasons I can’t quite explain, I felt the need to stop her.

“It’s okay. We all know you’ve got this. And I know you know you’ve got this. There’s nothing to fear.”

I could tell Lilly Blossom was thinking “group hug”, but with a glance I mentally told her now was not the time.

“You’re right.. I… I got this. Thanks.”

She strode over to the Sphinx, slowly at first, but slowly hitting her stride. We knew she could do this, and thanks to us, she did too.

“Ahem. Excuse me.”, she called out the creature, loudly and proudly.

“Oh, what is it?”

“We have your answer.” She paused. “Or, I should say, we don’t have your answer.”

Concern began to show on my friends’ faces. But I retained my composure. “She’s got this”, I told myself.

“Do go on”, said the Sphinx. Electric Sky did.

“We cannot give you “what you desire”, because it doesn’t exist.”

Concern turned to confusion. “She’s got this, she’s got this…”

“Let me put it another way: what you desire, is ‘nothing’.”

At last, confusion turned to understanding:

Nothing is greater than Celestia
Nothing is worse than Discord
Rich ponies need nothing
Poor ponies have nothing
If you eat nothing, you die

“And that”, said Electric Sky, all hesitation in her voice gone, “is our final answer.”

The creature stood, immobile, as if savouring the moment. Finally, with a great sense of relief in her voice, she simply said:
“Thank you.”

“Really… really? Our green Pegasus friend looked like she was about to explode. And explode she did.

“WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!! Victoryful once again! Now if you’ll excuuuuse me~, I’m off to map the deepest, dingiest, darkest depths of Tartarus, be right back!”

And so the Sphinx was forced to lift her paw and allow us passage a little earlier than she wanted to. The others hurried after our intrepid friend, all but Electric Sky, who had… struck up a conversation with our former opponent?

“You know, you’re more than welcome to come back and visit. I’ve got loads more brainteasers where that came from. Oh don’t worry, I’m not going to imprison you if you lose, it’ll be strictly a social thing.”

“Uhh… yeah, if I get the time I’ll try and… come down… here.” I realised now would be a good time to intervene. As we put another… interesting experience behind us, Electric Sky said to me:

“Did I just… befriend a mythical creature?”

Both laughing, we proceeded on, until…

“Hey, unicorn!”

Electric Sky turned with a start. “Huh?”

“Not you, the other one.”

My heart skipped a beat them moment I heard those words. I felt frantically at my forehead but… nothing. So how could she have known?

“Y-yes…”, I reluctantly answered.

“Good luck”, the Sphinx called back.

Chapter 7: Reunion

After travelling for this long, I must admit the words ‘are we there yet?’ came into my mind, numerous times. I mean, we’d been through so much, surely we must be getting close. But how far had we come? And how long had we been travelling for anyway? In a place like this it was impossible to tell. Hay, for all I knew the laws of time and conventional distance didn’t even apply here. Could we be no closer to our goal than we started? Could we be even further? Such scary thoughts probed my mind as we walked onward, onward into the darkness.

At last, we caught up with our green pegasus friend. It was always a relief knowing she wasn’t harmed, though come to think of it, she never was. As much as she loved to dive into the unknown, she had a knack for self-preservation. Of course, at the time I had no idea how long she’d been in her ‘business’, or the places she’d seen. But surely none of them could be worse than here, right.

Of course, there was another reason we liked having her around…

“How’s the map coming, Levee?”

“Argh, can you believe I’m nearly running out of space? This place is bigger than I thought! Well, it is a prison for worst monsters and villains ever to threaten Equestria but you’d figure a land so bright and happy wouldn’t have that many of them…”

“Well whatever is bad enough to be in here is clearly something Celestia doesn’t want escaping”, I said, thinking back. “That Minotaur we faced back then, his brutality was just… unnatural. I’d be willing to bet he’s a prisoner here, and that maze was designed to keep him in. And if the others here are as bad as he is…”

“Hey, I have a question”, said Electric Sky, “if the most vile, evil creatures in Equestrian history are imprisoned here, how come Discord’s not?”

Come to think of it, that was a good question. But I, not being in a position to answer, could only reply: “Only Celestia knows.” Besides, we were getting off topic.

“More to the point, Levee, where do we go from here?”

“I can tell you this place is getting more and more non-linear!”, was her response. That wasn’t much of an answer.

“Which means?”

“Which means good news! …And also one teensey bit of bad news.” She seemed to be dodging my question. That didn’t bode well.

“Good news: we’ve got looooooots of choice on where to go next! It’s boring going in a straight line all the time, you know?”

“And the bad news?”

“Teensey tiny bad news”, Levee corrected, “is that there’s, oh, no indication whatsoever which path leads where we want. But you know, that’s always part of the fun…”

She’d said enough.

“I knew it, I knew it. I knew this would happen sooner or later. We’re doomed, doomed to be trapped down here for the rest of our miserable lives!”

“Now now dears, no need to panic”, said the earth pony who’d been panicking only a few moments ago.

“She’s right, no need to panic, the map just needs a more… analytical approach, that’s all.” Electric Sky trotted over to Levee’s side and gave her parchment a quick scan. “Right now let’s just… HOLY HORSEAPPLES! Are you sure you got this rig… who am I kidding, of course you have. Okay, I officially subscribe to the ‘we’re doomed’ theory.”

The others began a heated argument over this ‘theory’, but my ears were closed to them. Though we’d come so far, a small part of me was ready to give up hope entirely. I tried to fight it, but its victory seemed inevitable. Until…

“What the hay’s a country music singer doing down here?!”

I initially dismissed this as another non-sequitur of the kind I’d been used to hearing tonight. Until I looked up.
Standing in the distance, like a light in the darkness, was a lone pony. A stallion, by the looks of it, with a yellow-brown coat. There seemed to be something on top of his head, but I was too far away to make it out. The only other colour came from below his face. It was grey, no, practically white. And it’s shape, it almost seemed like a…

Beard.

I was galloping. I heard the others call out to me, but their cries fell on deaf ears. I couldn’t help it, my body practically moved of its own accord. My heart was beat faster than it even had before, the world around me was a blur. Everything faded from my vision, and my mind, everything except him.

“It can’t be…”

I had a clear view of what was on his head now. A pointed hat the colour of the night sky, embellished with stars. A matching cloak hung from his body, and both were lined with golden bells.

“It couldn’t be…”

My mind persisted in denying what was plain to my eyes. All my live I’d read about him, revered him, kept his memory alive when nopony else would. And here he was standing before me.

“Tis I, my child.”

My ancestor, Star Swirl the Bearded.

A second. That’s how long I managed to look him in the eye before, out of instinct, I kneeled. I confess I bowed lower than I would were I ever to meet Princess Celestia herself (Though I’d appreciate if word didn’t get out). Plus, those eyes… they were unlike anything I had ever seen. In this darkness, they seemed to shine like miniature stars, and I felt as if their gaze pierced my very soul. I wasn’t what you’d call frightened. It was more… sheer awe. His presence was so magnificent I felt… unworthy to even look upon it. And, perhaps more importantly, I didn’t want him to see I was crying. Again, this was something I couldn’t really help. To see my ancestor face-to-face… I was happier than I’d ever been in my life.

“Peace, my child. You may rise.”

His voice was… contradictory. Does that work? Probably not. It was something I really can’t describe. Overwhelming, yet calm. Commanding, yet caring. Wise beyond measure, yet personal. One that made no attempt to hide its bearer’s immense power, and yet never sounded proud or arrogant. It was everything I imagined, and more.

“St…st…star… s….” I could barely manage a coherent syllable through my blubbering, which made me even more reluctant to speak. So he did for me.

“You are probably wondering why I am here.”

I lifted my head no more than an inch and gave a rapid nod, before slinking back into my bow.

“To be honest with you… I am not entirely sure myself. It seems the curse”, his voice grew sharp with anger as he spoke that word, “has trapped me down here.”

“So”, this time, my curiosity overcame the emotions entrapping me, “you’re… alive?”

He gave a long, deep sigh, then raised both his forelegs as if to clap. I gasped in utter horror as I watched them pass right through eachother. “Not exactly”, he replied.

“You… you’re…”

“The curse”, he said with no less distain, “has kept my soul tethered to the mortal realm. Only when it is broken will I finally know peace but, as you can tell, I am in no state to break it myself.” At this, he bade me rise and stared into my eyes with a look of utmost joy.

“I have waited a thousand years for somepony to end my suffering and now, at long last, you have come. I have been watching you ever since you set hoof in this infernal realm” (a phrase, I may note, he said with as much anger the word ‘curse’) “and from what I’ve seen, I know you will be the one to do this. I am truly proud of you, my child.”

At this my body overflowed with so much happiness I felt I might explode. Once again instinctively, I leapt forward at my ancestor, forelegs outstretched…

Only for him to leap away from me in turn. The situation had reversed: now he seemed to dread looking me in the eye. As I approached with concern, he slunk even further towards the wall, before finally turning to me, a single tear falling from his eye.

“I… I am truly sorry. You… you have no idea how long it’s been since I embraced my own flesh and blood. But in this state… I cannot. And the mere thought of it brings back memories… of the time I farewelled them, the last time I embraced my family… and the last time I ever will. The pain, it’s just…”

“Stop.” That was enough. I knew full well how he felt, and realised at once just how foolish my action was. Now that I thought about it, when was I last with my parents? I’d moved out several years ago, so I rarely saw them anymore. My heart filled with guilt when I realised I couldn’t even remember the last time I saw my father, my mother. And the way things are, I may not have had another chance…

It seemed I did take after my ancestor after all.

“Hey, who’s this?”

It was around this time that the others caught up with me. I knew it was inevitable, but I admit I kind of regretted having to explain this all to them. I mean, not everypony gets to introduce their who-knows-how-many-greats grandfather to their friends.

“Everypony, this is my ancestor, Star Swirl the Bearded.”

“So this is the stallion you’ve been talking about”, said Bumblesweet.

“But… he lived over a thousand years ago. I mean, that’s scientifically… and magically…” Electric Sky’s amazement ensured that sentence went no further. My ancestor turned to me and asked if these were my friends. I replied that yes, they were.

“A Circle of Six…”, he said and gave a chuckle. “It seems history has a knack for repeating itself.”

That’s right. I’d almost forgotten he was one of the original element bearers, along with the royal sisters. There was so much I wanted to ask him. But I realised there was one question I should probably ask first.

“This may sound stupid but… do you know a way through here?”

He gazed into my eyes once again and replied.

“Fear not, my child, for I shall be your guide.”

Well, that was certainly a relief. We’d wasted enough time sulking and arguing as it was, so I gestured to the group to follow…

“No.”

I was taken aback. “What?”

“The road from here on is too dangerous. As much as I understand the value of friends, if I were you I would not want mine to come to harm. There are times we must bear the dangers for them.”

Even coming from my beloved ancestor, I was still hesitant about this advice. I knew it would be dangerous, but leaving everypony here, at the mercy of Tartarus…

“Go.”

Once again, the stallion among us was the first to speak.

“Go, Miss Star Swirl. The remainder of us are equipped to take care of ourselves. You must not fear for us. Go forward, and fulfil your mission.”

The others glanced at Emerald Ray, then to me, and nodded in approval. I understood. If it was what I must do, then so be it.
“Make your way back to the exit. If I’m not back by the time you get to the gates, leave without me. And I won’t take no for an answer.”

Forlornly, my friends nodded.

“Good luck Star Swirl, it was great travelling with you!” said Lilly Blossom.

“Come back alive dear, I won’t forgive myself if you don’t.” said Bumblesweet.

“I’d wish you luck too, but… that implies relying on chance, which I know you don’t need. If my logic is sound, and it usually is, you’re going to succeed. I know it.” said Electric Sky.

“Uuuughhh… I hate to leave part of a map unexplored… so be sure to tell me what you see down there, woncha!” said Levee.

“It was a great honour meeting you, Miss Star Swirl. It saddens me I am not able to accompany you until the end.” said Emerald Ray.

And with that, everypony turned and made their way back. I hoped they’d be safe. No, I knew they’d be.

“It must me nice… to have such good friends.”, said my ancestor with a smile.

“Well, you would know, right?”

“Y…yes, I…I would”, he replied with a laugh as we proceeded down our road.

Travelling with Star Swirl the Bearded was… an experience I’ll not soon forget. As the passages of Tartarus grew ever more twisted and complex, a quick burst of light from his horn would never fail to illuminate the correct path. I was so sure of his guidance we even galloped most of the way. All the while, we got to talking. Though it was mostly him asking the questions. I explained to him the current state of Equestria, all I could recall of Celestia’s reign (he seemed particularly interested in the city of Canterlot. Come to think of it, it probably wasn’t built in his time. I guess he was interested in knowing where his former friend now lived.), and the events of recent history, right up until the return of Nightmare Moon and the new element bearers. He felt reassured knowing Equestria was in good hooves, though he was saddened by what happened to Luna. He was particularly close to her, if historical sources are to be believed.

“And… what of… the great enemy?”

I knew who he meant, of course, but I didn’t really know enough to give a full answer.

“He’s currently spending time as a life-sized lawn ornament, from what I’ve heard.”

“Does the Seal still hold?”

“Sorry, I couldn’t tell you.”

I prepared to change the subject, but before I had the chance…

“We have arrived.”

Both my body and mind stopped in their tracks. What stood before us didn’t look particularly ominous or threatening. It was a wall no different to the others in Tartarus, at its foot a hole barely big enough for one pony to fit through, fitted with a perfectly ordinary-looking iron gate. Was this really the place I had sought?

“He is inside”, boomed the voice of Star Swirl the Bearded.

Well, I guess it was. Before I had time to muse further, he continued:

“I will use my magic to send you in.”

“B-but aren’t you coming with me?”, I asked, a little scared, but mostly because I just didn’t want our time together to end.
“I am sorry”, he said forlornly, “but in my current state my spells have no power over him. This is something you must do yourself.”

I had a feeling something like this might happen. But was I really ready? I hadn’t had much time to prepare, what with all the other life-threatening situations I’d been through tonight. Uncertainty gripped me for a moment.

“But, what if I…”

My ancestor stopped me. “You won’t. When the time comes, I trust you will have the courage to do what’s right.”

“What do you…” But before I could finish my sentence, a strange sensation gripped me. Here’s my best attempt at putting it into words: the world seemed to flip upside-down. Then… picture what happens when you throw a bucket of water on a still-wet painting. Well, everything looked like that. And spinning. I’d read being forcibly teleported when you aren’t expecting it could be ‘startling’, but I now realised that was beyond an understatement. It was over in a few seconds, but even seconds of that was a little more than I could endure.

Before I even attempted to think about where I was, I made sure to follow the sudden teleportation safety protocols I learnt in my magical studies: first, I remained perfectly still until the dizziness had subsided. Then, I checked myself for any burns or missing body parts. Assured that all was well, I started to take a look around.

There wasn’t much to see, really. The room was dark, even by Tartarus standards, and small, with not a single light source in sight. It seemed like there was nopony else in the room…

Until I heard the breathing. Heavy, rasping breathing, the likes of which did not sound remotely natural. It was slow at first, but since I’d arrived it seemed to be speeding up. My pulse raced, and I tried to take a step back, but the instant my rear hoof touched the ground…

“Who dares?”

The voice was unspeakably rough, dry and guttural, as if it came from something being choked. My heart jumped, and was given no time to settle, as the very next instant a silver light erupted from the far corner of the room.

Illuminated, though still streaked in shadow, lay the form of a unicorn stallion. It was no wonder I hadn’t seen him earlier: his coat was blacker than even the darkness that once filled the room. The floor around him was filled with masses of dull, grey hear which seemed to have fallen from his mane and tail, both of which looked worse than even the most unkempt ponies I’d ever seen. It was clear that once they shone the same gleaming silver as the aura that now surrounded his horn, but those times were long since gone, by the look of it. Speaking of his horn, it immediately drew my eye, and not just because of the light: it was unusually thin, and longer than any I’d seen, save for perhaps Celestia’s. From there my gaze was drawn to the stallion’s face, and I heard myself let out a gasp of horror. Every inch was crumpled, wrinkled and scarred, the face of a pony forced to live far beyond its natural lifespan. But worse of all were the eyes. Their gaze was blank and hollow, as if they weren’t even there, but they were bloodshot through and through. And they were staring right at me.

Not a single part of the stallion moved, save for those eyes. Slowly, they appeared to be looking me over, up and down, until finally they froze for a few moments and… started to change. They still looked as awful as before, but this time instead of blank they seemed… almost sad. If this was indeed Midnight Lance, had he just realised who I was? But this was my ancestor’s greatest enemy. He should have hated me. I should have hated him. And yet the emotion I felt was different. It was more like… pity.

When the time comes, I trust you will have the courage to do what’s right.

I gathered all my courage and stepped forward. This was it, the moment I had been waiting for. As I stepped towards him, I spoke words that simply came to me, in the heat of the moment.

“My name is Star Swirl.”

Another step.

“You betrayed Celestia.”

Another.

“Killed my ancestor.”

Another.

“Cursed my family, and…”

“I forgive you.”

One part of me couldn’t believe what I’d just said. But in my heart, it felt right.

“I don’t resent you for what you did a thousand years ago, how could I? I know what you did was wrong, but it would be wrong of me to mete out justice for it. It’s clear you have already been dealt the punishment Celestia has seen fit for your crimes, causing you further suffering would be going against her wishes. Besides”, equally incomprehensibly, I found myself smiling, “I could never bring myself to hurt a defenceless pony.”

“St…st…sta….”, Midnight Lance could barely manage my name before letting out two deep, grating coughs. But I could tell by his eyes, he was thanking me. But I had more to say, though again my emotions got the better of me, and I broke into tears as I did.

“I mean… I don’t… even care. That I can’t use magic, I mean. I’ve lived my whole life without it, and I’ve got by just fine. But…”, my tears flowed even faster, “my mother. All her life she… she just longed for something. Felt happiness was always… just out of reach. She never showed it, but I knew. I always knew. She rarely ever smiled, every day I knew her. N… nopony should have to go through that. And I…. I always thought: if there was anything I could do to make her smile, anything, I’d do it. But now I… I…”, my voice was barely coherent by this point, I doubted he could make out anything. But I had to let it out. “Please! If there’s any way you can… please! Not for me, but for her. And my descendants. I want them all… to have the chance to do whatever they want… be what they want to be, without some ancient curse tying them down. I just want want… them all… to be happy… so please… please… please…”

The stallion stared at me with those same forlorn eyes. He didn’t move, he didn’t speak, he didn’t even blink. With my own eyes clouded with tears, I could barely make out any movement anyway, but I kept my gaze locked on his, waiting, waiting…
And finally, I noticed another change. His eyes began to widen, their blood read cracks growing even redder. Suddenly, his horn gave a blink of silver light. I felt the unmistakable grip of magic on my body. Was this all a trick? Did he intend to kill me all along? All those questions were answered as quickly as they came, as I soon felt myself lifted and flung to one side of the room, just as an enormous beam of green light burst through the doorway, sending shards of iron gate flying across the room. Only then did I realise I would have been right in the path of destruction. And so was…

“Midnight!” I yelled, out of instinct.

As the dust slowly cleared, quickly glanced to where Midnight lay to see the remains of a shield spell fade away. Its caster slumped to the ground in exhaustion.

My gaze turned to the other side of the room, hoping to Celestia I wouldn’t see what I thought I’d see.
But I did. Standing in the doorway was my ancestor, Star Swirl the Bearded, his face now sporting an unnatural grin.

Author's Notes:

Star Swirl the Bearded's appearence based on this fanart:
http://ziom05.deviantart.com/art/Legends-of-the-Equestria-296045689

Midnight Lance is totally original.

Chapter 8: The Enemy

“Yes, yes, YES!!”, I heard the form of my ancestor say, his voice no less overwhelming, but with none of its previous calm. “This is even better than I imagined! This mare’s love for her family has made me strong, stronger than I could have ever dreamed!”

“You…” came a voice from the other side of the room, weak yet utterly filled with resentment.

“Ha!”, the bearded stallion snorted in contempt. “So you do recognise me! You’re not as dumb as I thought. I’d hoped she’d have taken care of you by now, but no matter. You’re no match for me regardless.”

“Foal…”, was his only response.

“Oh I’m the foal, am I? I take that back, you are as dumb as I thought. Now then… they say those imprisoned here are kept from dying. Shall we test that claim?”

That was my cue. As fast as my legs could carry me, I run between the soon-to-be combatants. The one claiming to be my ancestor glared at me with malice for a moment, then, to my humiliation, burst into loud laughter.

“Hahahahahaha! I’m sorry, it’s just… you’re about to die for your family’s hated enemy! It’s just too funny!”

“I don’t care about my family’s past. I know full well who my enemy is now, and I’m looking right at him.”

He continued laughing. “And now you’re actually threatening me? Ahahahahahahaha! It’ll almost be a shame when I kill you.”

“You won’t have the cha… ugh!” The black stallion behind me did his best to sound defiant and come to my rescue, but it was clear even standing was painful for him. All those centauries down here must have taken their toll.

“You know what?”, said our adversary, “Just look at you: a Hornless and a cripple. You’re not even worth the seconds I’d take to kill you! Equestria awaits!!”

And with that, he was gone.

“You mustn’t let him… argh!”

“Midnight!” This time I caught him with my shoulder before he fell. He stared at me again with those eyes.

“W…why? Why… help me?”

“Because I can’t stand by while another pony gets hurt”, I answered. “Look, you stay here. I’ve got some friends down here with me and together we might be able to…”

“No!”, he yelled abruptly, and coughed again. “He… is strong now. Too strong… You will not… survive. I must… the Guardians…”

That was it! The Guardians! (I wondered if this was what it felt like being Electric Sky) Surely they’d be able to…

“Will not… hold him…”

Oh. “Well I’ll still go. Maybe I can get out of here and warn Celestia.”

He shook his head and replied: “Tartarus is on alert. Gates… sealed.”

“There must be something we can do!”, I yelled in desperation.

“Go… take me… with… you…”

“No!”, I said firmly. “If you’re out of your cell, the Guardians will think you’ve escaped and…”

“Exact…ly.”, he replied and gave his best impression of a smile.

“Oh no, no, I’m not letting you…”

“You will.” His voice sounded clearer all of a sudden, though from his face I could tell he was in pain. Perhaps this was something he had planned to say for a while, and he was using all his strength to make sure I heard it. “You must live. That, I will do all I can to ensure. I know what I did was wrong. I hope this may go some way to atone for it.”

As much as I wanted to, I just couldn’t turn down a proposal like that. And so, still lending him my shoulder, I led him out of the cell and back into the abyss of Tartarus.

Things seemed to be different to what I remembered on the way in. The walls now bore torches aglow with bright red flames. Perhaps this was the “alert” Midnight Lance had mentioned. Since the supposed Star Swirl the Bearded had shown me the way the first time, I had no idea how to go about getting back. Luckily, my new companion seemed to know the way. As we walked on, slowly, everything seemed eerily quiet.

Until suddenly, Midnight Lance gestured to me to stop. His eyes darted around the room, as if chasing a shadow. He then stood perfectly still… as out of the darkness leapt one of the statues I had seen earlier. Barely did I notice this when Midnight Lance’s horn glowed and sent a spear of silver light hurtling towards it, knocking it backwards where it fell to the ground, motionless.

I stood in awe. “I’ve never even heard of a spell like that.”

The stallion turned to me. “You… wouldn’t have. It’s my…” As I watched an eyeless stone pegasus spring onto him from behind, I realized now was not the best time for conversation. Without thinking, I wheeled around and kicked out my hind legs, feeling the hooves strike something, which I desperately hoped was my intended target…

I turned around to find the stone pegasus lying on the floor, a statue once again. I breathed a sigh of relief, then beckoned my ally to get moving.

We ran into more and more of these things as we went, each dispatched with a shining lance or a well-placed hoof to the face. But the attacks were getting more and more frequent, and relentless. I knew Midnight Lance could only take so much of this. We had to hurry.

“PRISONER ESCAPE! PRISONER ESCAPE! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!”, hissed a familiar voice as we rounded the next corner.
“Oh no, it’s her”, I said to Midnight. “Quick, hide!” Too late, the Sphinx had caught wind of us.

“No! Please don’t hurt us!”, I begged.

“Relax”, the Sphinx calmly replied, “I’m not talking about you. Hey? Whose that with… actually, I don’t wanna know.”
“What?!” I honestly wasn’t expecting that to work.

“I’m magically bound not to attack those who’ve passed my tests. And even if I wasn’t, I’d never stoop to harming a friend. Or a friend of a friend. You can go.”

We were both a little stunned at the circumstances, and as such didn’t notice the Guardian galloping behind us.
“Hold on, I got this”, said the Sphinx, firing a thing red beam from her eyes which struck the stone construct and shattered it into more pieces than I could count.

“You guys had better get moving. I’ll be in serious hot water if I do that again.”

We took the hint and shuffled on as fast as we could.

By now, we could make out mist in the distance, which meant we were almost at the bridge. And in the distance, I could faintly make out a blinking light. Had I known Horse Code at the time, like I do now, I would have known it was spelling out ‘Star Swirl, we are here. Come now.’, and that my friends were on the other side. But as it stood I didn’t, so I couldn’t.

There was, however, another light in the distance. One far brighter, and green. This, I understood perfectly.

“Come on”, I said as we made haste to the bridge.

What greeted us was a battle already in progress. Well, if you could even call it that. The Star Swirl impersonator (I knew by now it couldn’t possibly be the real him, but I still had no idea what it was) was swatting hordes of pegasus Guardians with magic as if they were nothing more than flies. Midnight Lance was right, they couldn’t hold him.

Speaking of which, my companion wasted no time in readying some magic of his own, firing another shining lance in his direction. But his foe turned to face the danger at once, and next I saw the silver light dissipated against a wall of sickly green flames.

“A cheap shot, just what I’d expect from a traitor!”

“Name calling won’t get you anywhere… usurper.”

“You’re in no position to sass me! You can act all tough but…” The imposter sent a ball of green energy in our direction. Midnight Lance again pushed me aside and deflected the shot with a quick shield spell, but noticed only too late the second incoming blast. By the time it reached him, his shield had already given out, and he lurched back in pain.

“As I said: You. Are. Nothing.”

I smiled as his gloating had given the winged statues time to recommence their attack. My smile soon vanished as I watched him blast another three out of the sky without even batting an eyelid.

“As are they. As is everypony to me now!”

A rumbling echoed through the area. I noticed that above archway at the end of the bridge, a stone slab was beginning to fall. I knew that gate had to serve some purpose. Perhaps we could stall him long enough to…

“If you’re thinking of stalling me until that door seals”, said the imposter, as if reading my mind, “go ahead, I don’t care. Your funeral.”

“What…” I was stunned, and so was Midnight by the looks of it, he hadn’t even moved since that last attack.

“Argh, do I have to spell it out for you morons! Look, I can just blow that door up whenever I want, there’s no rush. So all waiting for it will do is seal off your means of escaping me!”

Midnight Lance remained immobile.

“Actually… this sounds like fun. Perhaps I can spare a few seconds to kill you after all.”

Still nothing.

“Ready or not, here I…”

In a blinding flash of silver, Midnight Lance had vanished from my side and reappeared in the far archway. At an instant I could tell what his plan was, but I didn’t like it.

“Now, go!” he yelled to me.

“Not so fast!”, cried the impostor, turning to face him. “Don’t think I’ll let this be so…”

I galloped forward to interrupt him with a hoof to the chest. My opponent lurched back a little, but more out of surprise than anything.

“Argh, you little vermin! Fine, you have a death wish? Be my guest!”

His horn, which he had so shamelessly stolen from my ancestor, began to glow a sickly green once again. I could tell he was readying the same magical sphere from before. Ha, predictable. I recognised the spell from my magical studies. It was heavily modified, sure, but it was a Class A Magic Spark, no mistake. But what did that tell me… aha! I saw it, he wasn’t lowering his head while preparing to cast. Which meant this kind of spell would travel no lower than head-height.

The counter was simple: I ducked.

As I thought, the spell passed harmlessly over my head. My adversary’s composure was shaken for a moment, but he soon recovered.

“Well then, how about this!”

Horn pointed at the ground, magic aura running across it in lines, slight increase in air temperature. This was a Burning Ray, textbook. Limited range on this one, meaning I just had to dash backwards. My adversary was beginning to lose his patience.

“Enough toying with you, now DIE!!”

Horn now raised to the sky, distortions in the air around it, a slight breeze on my face despite there being no wind here. This looked like a Wind Slash. A little trickier, especially in such a narrow area. I couldn’t tell how many he was going to launch, but the books said there was usually a one second delay between them. Taking this guy’s power into account, it’d make it about half that. If I could just keep my rhythm… One, two, three…

Whoosh!
Dodge!
Whoosh!
Dodge!
Whoosh!
Dodge!
Whoosh!
Do..ah!

I felt the last one, but it only seemed to clip me. Still, the blood trickling down my cheek was unmistakable.
“Unbelievable! You surv… ahem, you survived my most mediocre spells. I am not impressed!”

His borrowed horn began to glow once again, but brighter than before, and this time it was pointed right at me. This was bad, a Power Beam. Which, on a narrow bridge such as this, would be impossible to avoid. “Okay, don’t panic”, told myself, “I’ve just got about ten seconds until he vaporises me. Unless there’s some way I can stop it…” I had a thought. Ten seconds was more than enough time for me to…

“Hi-ya!!”

“Ngh!”

I knocked him back with another buck to the face. Busy concentrating, he didn’t see it coming. And to my surprise more than his, it broke said concentration.

“If that’s the best you’ve got”, I cried triumphantly, “then how dare you take my ancestor’s form!”

Of course, I knew it was all talk. I could counter his spells, sure, but I knew he was too strong for me to actually defeat. And I knew I’d grow tired eventually, and then I’d be doomed.

The rumbling grew louder. The falling slab was now halfway to the bottom: we were running out of time. Just as I was hurriedly thinking up a way to buy us more, the stallion standing under the arch provided the solution: he had conjured a shield spell to hold the door in place above his head. I could see he was visibly straining with pain though, he couldn’t hold it for long. And worse, our foe had caught on to his plan.

“Ah, trying to buy yourself more time, are you? Perhaps I should ignore the mare and finish you first…!” He turned and readied another spell, but I wouldn’t let him. I sprang forward and gave another kick.

“Ignore the mare at your peril!”

He barely moved, but like before my blow was enough to break his concentration. Unfortunately, I didn’t anticipate how quickly he could focus his attention back on me. Caught off guard, I was sent sprawling backwards by a magic spark. I had underestimated him: when his spells actually hit, they hit hard. My body was aching so much I could barely stand as the imposter in the form of my ancestor loomed over me, his eyes glowing with murderous intent.

“I’d say ‘see you in Tartarus’, but it looks like we’ve already past that stage.”

I felt control of my legs returning, but knew I wouldn’t be quick enough to avoid his next spell. This was the end.

“So I’ll just say…ugh!”

There was a tiny flash of silver light, so short it was barely noticeable. But whatever it was, it seemed to break my foe’s composure for one short moment. That was all I needed. I rammed my front hoof as hard as I could into the imposter’s chest (His beard parted as if it weren’t even there). Then, wasting no time, I followed up with a sweep to the legs, knocking him off balance. His expression of confidence turned to horror as he realised my next move just as I did. With one final blow, I sent him flying over the side of the bridge and watched as, silently, he plummeted into the abyss below.

It took me a few moments for my mind to register what I’d just done. Finally, with a newfound sense of relief, I managed to stand. Realising this was probably cause for celebration, I shouted:

“That’s right! And don’t come back!!”

But my joy was to be short-lived. A sound soon penetrated the silence, the sound of stone hooves against stone floor. Soon, the one sound became many, and a series of all too familiar shapes emerged from the fog. The Guardians had stepped up their attack, and we were their next target. And at the far end of the bridge, the stone door had advanced to just inches above Midnight Lance’s head. His spell wouldn’t hold much longer. I ran.

As I finally reached the archway, I realised my new companion had a look of absolute urgency in his eyes. When I turned, I saw why. Not only were masses of earth pony-shaped Guardians thundering across the bridge, but a cloud of winged statues were flying overhead. And it seemed they had some unicorns in their ranks too. Things were even worse that I thought.

“Come on Midnight”, I yelled, “we have to run!”

His response came in a voice even worse than ever, as if that were possible. The strain of his spell was really getting to him. But what hit me far harder were the words themselves.

“You… run… not ‘we’…”

“What?”, I said, but my confusion lasted only a moment before the truth set in. I had a feeling this might happen and strange as it may seem, I didn’t want it to.

“No Midnight! You… you’re coming with me, aren’t you?”

He looked at me with those tragic eyes once again.

“If they… get through… you… will not… escape. Be…sides… It’s me… they’re after… If I come… quietly… perhaps… they…”

“No! You can’t… you can’t just leave me like this! Not after all we’ve been through… when there’s so much more I want to…”
“I… must… I still… must pay… for my crimes. Until then… I cannot leave here. But…” There was less pain in his voice now. Or perhaps it was still there, he was just concealing it better. Like before, he had something to say he felt I had to hear. I’ll never forget what he told me that moment.

“Star Swirl, I am truly honoured to have met you. Seeing you has taught me… how much pain I have caused, and what a fool I truly was. Knowing you has shown me… you don’t deserve to suffer, for my foolish pride. I know you will live on to do amazing things, and I will help you, in the last way I can. I know you are worthy of this final gift.

My heart stopped. “No, Midnight, don’t even think of…!”

“Farewell!”

And in that instant, the unicorn stallion, coat black as night, drew himself back from the doorway, though not all the way. If one could freeze time at that exact instant, they would see him lean his head slightly forward, and one brief flash of darkness in the path of the falling stone. But to the untrained eye, it was all over just as it started. Another instant and the stone gate was sealed shut, its base littered with a few bony, obsidian shards. An instant later, and they were gone as if they were never there.

I stood in silence. I thought I heard a voice calling my name, but I was deaf to it. I thought I heard hoofsteps from behind me, but I ignored them. I felt as though all the world had left me, and I was alone.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, assuring me I wasn’t. Slowly, I turned to see the faces of my five friends. Immediately, I saw their expressions change. They were gaping, speechless, their eyes fixed on my forehead. They looked at me as if I’d changed, but I didn’t feel a thing. I knew what had happened, but somehow, I didn’t want to believe it. I gazed back at the door I’d come through, now sealed shut and… felt a single tear stream down my face.

“Mignight… you…”

Once again, I found the same sound breaking me out of my trance-like state. The stone hoofsteps were still coming, but not from behind the gate. It sounded like they were all around us.

“Save the moping for later! Now we ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun~!”, said Levee, and I couldn’t agree more.
But just as I was leaving, I could have sworn I heard a voice whispering in my head…

“At last, it is finally… over.”

Chapter 9: The Escape

I did my best to fill everypony in on the details as we went, but in the adrenaline rush it mostly came out as “StarSwirlBeardedImpostorEvilMidnightHelpMebBigfightonbridgeBadGuyFallDownButGuardiansComingRunRunRunRun!”

“That sounded like fun!”, replied Levee.

There was no time for idle chit-chat anyway, more and more Guardians came pouring out of every passageway we passed. And they seemed much, much more aggressive than before. But it wasn’t until we were almost at the maze that my friends asked the obvious question.

“Wait a minute. If the ‘bad guy’, ‘fell down’, and the ex-bad guy gave himself up… then why are the Guardians still on alert?”
As if on cue, a maniacal laughter resounded through the halls, and we all skidded to a halt. “Oh no, oh no no no no no NO!”
And there, standing before us, was that thing, still in the form of my ancestor. Except this time, from his back sprung a pair of insectoid wings.

“Oh, by the way”, he said casually, “I can fly.”

“Horseapples.”

Before I knew it, everypony had scattered every which-way, thrown into chaos as the fiend began his magical barrage. Magic Sparks, Burning Rays, I recognised them all, but the chaotic nature of this assault made it hard to come up with a counterplan. Then, feeling like an idiot, I realised I no longer needed a counterplan. For the first time I could match his magic with magic.

“Everypony, get going! I’ll handle this!”, I declared.

“B..but…”, came Emerald Ray’s voice, before he nodded and beckoned the others to follow. As my friends slipped into the darkness of the maze, I assumed the battle stance I remembered from my study of magic duels. To my annoyance, this was once again met with laughter.

“Ha! You mean to challenge me?! Foal! And to think I was going to let you live for another few minutes.”

“Do you realise I beat you last time?”, I reminded him, “and that was without magic.”

His response was another laugh.

“You little foal! Did it never occur to you that I let you win? I’ve been in Tartarus long enough to know that chasm is not nearly as bottomless as it looks, in fact it actually served as a short cut! And I knew with me gone your little friend would have to stay behind to stop the Guardians. I killed two birds with one stone!

I was taken aback. I admit I had to give him credit for that, that was pretty smart.

“But like I said”, hastily turning my last sentence on its head, “that time was without magic. I now have the power to fight you on even terms!”

“Oh isn’t that just precious! Do you honestly think a famous ancestor and a few years of studying put your powers on my level? And ironically enough”, he added with a sneer, “I have you to thank for them. My escape wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for you. Such a shame I have to kill you, although I owe you a great deal.”

“Do your worst!”, I yelled, and prepared for it.

“Oh don’t worry, I INTEND TO!!!” And with that he fired off a massive green beam of energy. I cursed under my breath; he must have been charging that during our conversation, the little sneak. But although avoiding a Power Beam is near-impossible, blocking it is another thing entirely, and now I had the means to do so. I focused my mind as much as I could, picturing an unbreakable shield, and closed my eyes…

And opened them to find myself miraculously unharmed, a magenta-coloured sphere surrounding me. It worked! I did it! I pulled off a class A-2 Shield spell on my first try! Now all I needed to do was close the distance and follow up…

And find myself slamming my head against the shield wall. As I recovered from the mother of all headaches, I reached out my hoof to see if what I feared really was true.

And it was. This magical bubble surrounding me felt like stone, even from the inside. The barrier was impenetrable all right, it let nothing through. I never realised that would include me. And having no idea how to dispel it, I was now trapped. Once again I heard my enemy’s mocking laughter.

“Seriously?! Seriously?! You actually did that?? Ha! Even at my weakest I’ve never been dumb enough to make that mistake! You know, if I was feeling particularly mean, I could just leave you there to rot. But where’s the fun in that?” An overwhelming flurry of blasts came at me, shattering my protection. The moment I regained control, I leapt away and prepared a Magic Spark of my own. ‘How hard could it be?’, I thought. All the books said was to point your horn at the target and focus your power. But I, never having been acquainted with this ‘power’ before, had to clue what ‘focusing it’ entailed. And so I simply spent the next few seconds ineffectually tensing my facial muscles, which would have been an acceptable first try… were this not a life-or-death battle. My hesitancy was punished with another perfectly accurate blast, and this time I had no shield to rely on. Once again I flew backwards, pain coursing through my body.

I was surprised my opponent had no mocking words to share with me this time, only an immediate follow up attack which forced me to roll sideways. Knowing full well now I couldn’t afford any screw-ups, I began to focus again, this time letting loose with all my anger. I knew a Power Beam was unadvisable for a new mage to attempt, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I felt magical energies in my horn for the first time, and the experience was strange to say the least. Think of it this way, if an earth pony suddenly became a unicorn, would they know how to describe the sensation of casting their first spell? I thought not. What I did know was the sensation kept building, until I felt like my skull was on fire and starting to split open. It was too much to bear, I screamed as my vision turned white…

And felt myself blown several feet backwards. But the room was now enveloped in light, and my adversary was nowhere to be seen. Had I done it?

As darkness returned and my blurred vision restored itself I found, to my disappointment, and horror, the bearded imposter still standing. On closer inspection, though there seemed to be a charred line in the ground stemming from my position, it stopped about halfway across the room. He didn’t even need a shield spell; my beam would never have reached him anyway. And what’s worse, he didn’t even attempt to stop it: he knew my attack would fail. And this hit me harder than any conceivable insult.

“Like I SAID!” I dodged another blast.

“Theory!”

Another.

“Practice!”

And another.

“Entirely different things. Power means nothing in the hands of those who can’t control it. Not that you’re pathetic display of magic can be called ‘power’.”

I thought to retort, but realised it was pointless if I couldn’t back up my words.

“You may as well have stayed hornless”, he said coldly, as if stating an absolute fact. Which, I was forced to admit, it was. No amount of magical knowledge could prepare me for actually using it. I was back where I started, not being able to use magic at all.

Wait a minute.

I sprung forward, beginning to charge another Magic Spark. My enemy wasn’t fazed, of course. He knew the spell would either backfire of be too weak to pose a threat, and planned accordingly. But here’s something he didn’t plan for: me not using the spell at all. Stopping the charge at the last minute, I instead gave him the good old buck to the face. One moment of confusion was all I needed. I dashed past him, out of the room and into the darkness of the maze. He followed immediately, as I thought.

“Grr! Coward! Get back here so I can kill you…” I heard his hoofsteps stop. “Ah, I suppose you think you’re clever. But my senses are advanced beyond those of a mere equine. Darkness means nothing to me!”

I kind of figured he could see in the dark. But it didn’t matter. What mattered was his surprise at the darkness itself. If he spent most of his days imprisoned in the very depths of Tartarus, I wondered if the outer regions would be unknown to him. And I was right, which meant I was in with a chance, provided I could outrun him for the moment.

Of course, upon remembering I was now inside a convoluted maze without a map or a light, running from something with night vision, I realised I didn’t quite think my plan all the way through. But it was the only option. If I could just feel my way back there…

But after a few steps, I felt something alright, but it was against my hooves. It was a light brushing, almost like a quill. Still moving, I took a look downward to satisfy my curiosity. My eyes had adjusted to the dark to the point where I could see what was below me, if not any further than that.

And what I found… was a feather. A faded green feather, like a dry leaf. No, it couldn’t be, could it?

A few steps later, and there was another. And another. They seemed to be forming a kind of trail. And at that I knew. I had to hand it to her, she was still looking out for me, even when I’d stayed behind. I trusted her sense of direction enough to know that following these feathers would lead me to freedom. But freedom wasn’t my first concern.

I ran on, keeping my head to the ground (the feathers always warned of an upcoming turn long before I risked colliding with a wall). A little further, and I saw it: the one lighted room in the darkness, the flaming torches still visibly burning within. I desperately hoped Lilly Blossom was right about how long the Minotaur would be out for…

And to my relief, he still lay motionless on the room’s floor. Nice to know I had one less thing to worry about. Now it was time to set the plan in motion. I positioned myself at the far end of the room, just in front of the far exit, feigned exhaustion and turned to face the other opening. He’d been following me close this whole time, so I knew it was only a matter of time before…

The impostor burst into the room, and upon seeing my panting form his scowl of frustration turned to a smile of sadistic glee.

“Ha! Looks like you’re done running. Good. NOW DIE!”

This time, I could sit still, knowing his attack would be useless. No light coming from his horn, the imposter stood ineffectually tensing his facial muscles.

“AAAAAARG! YOU! What did you do!!”

“Don’t blame me”, I replied with an air of satisfaction, “this is a special room. It seals magic, didn’t you know? Now that I’ve got you here, I don’t plan on leaving any time soon. Welcome to my world!”

I may have spoken too soon. Knowing his magic was useless, the impostor rushed at me. I jumped to the side but he caught me with a sideways swipe of his leg, sending me sprawling. I realised I was not the only one capable of hoof-to-hoof combat. I tried to rise, but he was quicker. He struck me again, this time with a stomp to my foreleg. The unbearable pain had barely begun to register as he hurled me backwards into the wall. My body could barely move, but I forced myself at him again, managing a few feeble blows before being beaten back once more. Clearly growing bored of this charade, he lunged after me, and I found myself pinned to the wall, his leg around my neck. As he began to tighten his grip and my world grew dark and dizzy, he spoke what he believed would be the last words I would ever hear…

“You sought to face me on equal ground? Ha, foal! There is no such thing!”

It was a strain for me to muster even a few words, but I made sure to make them count.

“Not… ‘face’, …stall…”

My assailant had barely mustered a grunt of surprise when the next phase of my plan began, right on schedule. A single Guardian had leapt onto his back, and fending it off required him to let go of me. Catching my breath, I made sure to stand as far away as possible. If I had stalled him long enough…

Another Guardian. And another. More and more poured out of the room’s rear entrance, and immediately set themselves upon the imposter. The first few he flung to the side as effortlessly as he had me, but these moves left him open to the others. He had fought off swarms of Guardians before, but that was with magic. With that removed, it became harder and harder for him to handle such numbers. Soon he began to tire, and was dragged to the floor, more and more stone ponies piling on top of him. I knew now it was safe for me to go. But as the imposter disappeared into the growing mass of bodies, I heard him yell these words:

“Listen well, Hornless! You have only briefly delayed the inevitable! I am but one drone in a colony. You’ll see… one day soon we will rise again! And then all will belong to our Que…”

It would be almost a year before I understood what that warning meant. Of course, I’m sure you all know that story, so I’ll get back to mine.

I breathed a sigh of relief. My plan worked surprisingly well, for something I put together at the last minute. Panting, I began to take my first step away from this infernal place…

And promptly passed out. Partly from pain, partly from exhaustion, I guess. I have no idea how long I was out for, but after some time, I began to hear faint voices.

“Star Swirl! Can you hear me?”

“Miss Star Swirl… I implore you… wake up!”

“I don’t suppose an electric jolt is what she needs?”

“Gracious no! The smell of my honey should do a much better job.”

“Oh come on gals, you’re all doing it wrong. Here, let me show you…”

I fully regained my sense of hearing just in time for…

“STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!”

Right in my ear.

“N…no need to shout”, I said, nervously, “I can hear you just…fine.”

“Thank goodness! We were all worried sick about you!”, said Bumblesweet, as if I was a foal who’d run off at a fair.
“B…but”, my speech functions were still returning, it seemed, “I thought I told you all to go ahead.”

“We did”, said Lilly Blossom. “But then we got worried and came back.” She tilted her head and smiled, as if this kind of thing came naturally to her.

“Yeah. No offence pal, but being trapped in a room with a homicidal shapeshifter isn’t the best for your health. Neither is passing out in the middle of Tartarus, come to think of it.”, added Electric Sky.

“I mean, we’re all friends, right?”, Levee concluded.

“Th…thanks”, I said as I realised how lucky I was not to have come down here alone. “But we’ve gotta get… argh!” I had momentarily forgotten the state of pain I was in. It wasn’t nearly as bad as before, but the leg that had been stomped on made walking hard. Luckily it seemed like there were no bones broken, but I sure wouldn’t be galloping until it healed. And considering we had to make a hasty escape right now, this wasn’t good.

“We can all catch up later”, said Levee, getting the exact same thought, “somepony help Star Swirl, stat!”

Before I could protest, Emerald Ray had lifted my unto his back. I was surprised at first, but logically speaking this was our best option: not only was he the biggest among us, he was also an earth pony, with all the strength that entails. I still felt bad to be burdening him, but he insisted it was no trouble.

“Okaaaaay! Now that’s sorted… EVERYPONY RUN!”

And we did. The others had dragged my unconscious body out of the maze, so we were close to the gates as it was. Unfortunately, it seemed that the escapee’s capture hadn’t ended the state of alert. Though I reminded myself the Guardians were essentially mindless. For all they knew, we could be escapees ourselves. We had to contend with a few on our way out, all of which were surprisingly drawn to me. As I’d read, the Guardians always go after the biggest threat in the area. Had my newfound powers really elevated me to this status? No, that couldn’t be right, I still had no idea how to use them. Unless…

Before I could ponder further, we were at the gates. As Emerald Ray lowered my down, I realised we may have a teensey problem.

“Drat. I just realised destroying my Unlockmaster 5000 prototype may not have been such a good idea.” Electric Sky said what we were all thinking.

“Oh come on, Sky”, said Lilly Blossom, “I’m sure you have another burst of inspiration like you always do…”, she was immediately cut off.

“BURST! That’s it!” Perfect, it seemed she’d had another of her ideas. “Stand back everypony, things are about to get explosive.”

I didn’t like the sound of that, but she’d always had the right ideas before…

Electric Sky laid down her saddlebags and began rummaging. With a smile she soon found what she was looking for: a small vial of liquid I could have sworn I’d seen earlier… uh oh.

“Please don’t tell me that’s…”

“You might wanna duck and cover, gals.”, she replied and lowered her goggles. Oh yes it was. A bright yellow aura surrounded the vial as it was levitated into the air. A second later Electric Sky hurled it towards the gate and, at the very instant of impact, fired a jolt of lightning from her horn in its direction. What followed was…

“Woah!”

Even Electric Sky seemed shocked at the size of the explosion. As the bright white light cleared, the gate had disappeared in a wall of tall green flames. I tried to take a step forward, but Electric Sky held me back. And with good reason, as the flames soon erupted into a second explosion, though not as big as the last. As we all opened our eyes, we found…
The door still standing. Glowing white-hot, but definitely still standing. Electric Sky stood still for a moment, then pulled out a quill and parchment and muttered to herself while writing:

“Dragonfire Bombs do NOT work on gates of Tartarus.”

I heard rumbling in the distance. Trying ineffectually to hide my desperation, I asked: “I don’t suppose you have anything else in that bag that might help?”

Her response didn’t bode well. “Put it this way: if that didn’t work, there’s not much that will. I’ve got to hand it to whoever designed these gates. Brilliant piece of engineering.”

“I hate to be rude, dear, but not is not the time to be admiring…” Bumblesweet began, but something stopped her. Staring through the bars of the gate, a familiar sight met our eyes. Actually, that’s what it was: another three pairs of eyes. Though considerably larger than ours, and still as sad and pleading as the last time we saw them.

“Oh, hi doggie!”, said Levee, with an air of cheerfulness that completely clashed with the situation.

“He… he’s still looking at you”, Lilly Blossom added, gesturing towards Bumblesweet.

Bumblesweet’s eyes had gone almost as misty as the larger pair. We all knew she couldn’t say no.

“Okay, since you’ve been such a good boy, here.” She smiled as she tossed her last jar through the iron-wrought gate. I heard the sound of glass shattering, the sound of frantic licking and… the sound of frenzied digging?

A few moments later, with a resounding CLANG, an enormous metal object landed at our feet. It was long and thin, and its end bore a design that looked as if it’s fit right into…

“You have gotta be kidding me”, exclaimed Electric Sky.

As the rumbling behind us grew louder, I knew we had no time for disbelief. I gave a hurried gesture to Electric Sky, and she got the point. Straining under its weight, she slowly levitated the great key towards the iron lock, then inserted and turned it. And just like that, the gates swung open. We wasted no time.

I once again needed Emerald Ray’s assistance as we galloped as fast as we could up the great staircase. I had forgotten just how far down we were, but knew we had a long way to go. And that was troubling, to say the least. Behind us a swarm of Guardians had finally come into view. Those shaped like pegasi were already moving in to cut us off, while the unicorns in the rear fired off inaccurate, but numerous magical blasts. To fail this close to freedom is something I would not stand for, but there wasn’t much I could do in my condition.

You’re probably thinking things couldn’t possibly get any worse. Well, naturally, you’d be wrong. Levee, who seemed to have been scouting ahead, suddenly returned to us. And her news was a heavy blow to our already heavy hearts.

“Uhh… everypony? The stairs are kinda running out.”

“What!?”

“I mean… while I was flying ahead, the stairs in front of me kept vanishing. I thought it was just a trick of the light at first… until I tried to step where they used to be. Yep, definitely gone.”

“You mean to say… the stairs are ceasing to be?”

“Sorry Glowy, but that’s the honest truth. If this keeps up we’ll probably… ooooh! Sooner than I thought!”

We all skidded to a halt as we saw for ourselves the harsh truth Levee had discovered. The stairs ahead of us just… ended in midair. And what’s worse, those few we had were vanishing one by one.

“Ah, should’ve known there’d be some kind of failsafe. Nice.”, said Electric Sky, once again admiring the ingenuity of the place that was about to kill her. My brain frantically spun with ideas.

“Can Levee and Lilly Blossom fly us out?”

“You know full well Lilly here can’t take our weight”, answered Bumblesweet. And we can’t just leave all the work to Levee.”
“Hey, don’t you worry yourself about that!”, the green pegasus interjected. “I’d be happy to. Though it’ll take a while to fly all of you out. So maybe you could all slooowly walk backwards to avoid the…”

Judging by the look of shock on her face, whatever she was going to suggest was now invalid. Dreading what I’d find, I turned around. And I saw… nothing. And that was the problem. It seemed the stairs were disappearing both forwards and backwards. We now stood on a slowly diminishing island. I noticed my friends’ expressions grow melancholy as they, like me, prepared for the inevitable.

“Lilly Blossom, go ahead, save yourself”, said the orange earth pony.

“Don’t you dare think I’m leaving without you”, replied her lavender pegasus friend.

“I just hope… somepony carries on my research. Continues to… improve pony lives”, said the lemon coated, blue maned unicorn.

“I still have… things I must do. I cannot fall here.” Unlike the others, Emerald Ray’s voice had an air of defiance.

As for me, well, if you were expecting some poignant, meaningful last words, you’d be disappointed. Because at that moment, all could manage was:

“Mother…”

We each held hooves for what we believed to be the last time, as the world went white…

Chapter 10: Nightguard

It was a light. But it was coming from above us. Eyes straining, I looked up to see…

Something I never would have expected. It looked as though the light was coming from a spotlight, attached to a large wooden hull. There appeared to be two ponies standing atop it, but before I had time to make anything else out they had thrown down something. A roll of wood and rope that slowly untangled, until it was just within our reach. Five of our company, myself included, were incredulous at this miracle. But one among us had let out a beaming grin. Looking up at… whatever it was, the blue-maned unicorn shouted:

“Quickfix! Mjolna! You finally decided to show!”

The two ponylike forms seemed to hear her, but gave no reply, instead gesturing us all to hurry. We naturally complied, each grabbing hold of the ladder as they pulled us in. I couldn’t quite believe what was happening, but soon enough I tasted the sweet, fresh air of freedom. Utterly out of breath, it took me a few moments to realise where I was.

It was standing on what looked like the deck of a great ship. Except it wasn’t the ocean to each side, but a beautiful night sky. I realised we were now as high above the earth as we had once been below it. Giving the place a further look-over, I noticed the edges of two great wings jutting out of either side. Ahead of us was a small cabin and what looked like a ship’s wheel, while behind was a metal monstrosity the likes of which I’d never seen. All around were the same metal disks and shining glass orbs we had seen on that ancient contraption back in the Everfree Forest. A small metal box, no bigger than a shed stood in the centre, large pipes connecting it to the rest of the device. In front of it an earth pony, probably only a little older than myself, was tending to it just as a pony would shovel coal into a train’s boiler. Except instead of coal, the pony was shovelling in gems. Masses of gems. And there was no fire either, the strange boiler instead glowed with a cool blue light, the very same aura I’d seen Electric Sky produce earlier. Speaking of which…

Our unicorn friend was chatting to another of her kind, this one was brown and had a Cutie Mark resembling the kind of tool used by those who work with this kind of equipment. After they had finished their conversation, our friend returned to us and finally said:

“Let me introduce you to my pride and joy. Welcome aboard the Lindwyrm!”

“Woah woah woah!”, I yelled in utter disbelief. “This thing is yours!?”

“Well, not technically”, Electric Sky assured me. “But after I made a few… improvements, the Canterlot boys were more than willing to let me take her for a spin whenever I want. Which reminds me, we need to get her back there soon or they’re gonna start asking questions.”

Something suddenly dawned on me. “Wait a minute. When you said you’d “left something” back at Canterlot, you didn’t mean…”

“Well of course!”, she replied enthusiastically. “I can’t believe you told me there wasn’t time to go get it. Would’ve saved us a LOT of hassle if you ask me. Good thing Quickfix got my signal, or else who knows where we’d all be right now.”

“We came as soon as we could, Miss”, said the brown unicorn, giving a salute which judging by Electric Sky’s reaction was completely unnecessary. “Well, as soon as Mjolna got the engine running. Though I personally think she applied a little too much force in that regard”, she pointed at the blond-maned earth pony accusingly.

“Lady Sky was in danger, by Celestia’s mane. Didst thou expect me to be CALM?!” The voice of the pony identified as Mjolna was incredibly overdramatic and booming, almost sounding as if she was trying a little too hard to be like a certain princess I knew. “But we have more pressing matters on our hooves”, she changed the subject. “If thou dost not mind me saying, this eldritch location chills me to the bone. We must fly, with haste!!”

“Oh, of course, I’d forgotten”, said Electric Sky, before whispering to the rest of us: “You might wanna hand on to something. Just a suggestion.” With that she pointed her horn at the boiler-like contraption and, sending a spark darting towards it, yelled:

“Mjolna, floor it!!”

With perfect timing, Mjolna shoved a large yellow gem into the furnace just as the bolt struck. She then gave the whole thing a resounding whack with her hammer and…

“G! FORCE! IN! MY! FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!”

It felt kinda like being teleported. Only more dizzying. We all looked as though we were going to be sick. After what felt like an hour of this torture, we came to a sudden halt, sending us flying into the walls of the cabin ahead. As my vision came swimming back to me, I made my best attempt at speech.

“Whurr arr weeth?”

Much to my surprise, our host’s speech seemed to fuction normally. “I’m impressed. You all handled that surprisingly well. Most ponies vomit the first time. Despite that supposedly being biologically impossible. Maybe that’s why the guys at Canterlot are so eager to let me borrow this thing… That being said I probably shouldn’t have used a whole Lightning Topaz. I just knew you were all desperate to get outta there, y’know?”

We all nodded in agreement before slumping back to the floor. It was only then that I thought to re-ask: “so just where are…”
“Lady Sky! Dire news! It would appear we are being followed!”

Inexplicably, I sprung into action, following Electric Sky in a gallop to the end of the ship. Sure enough, a black shape was visible on the horizon. It looked far at the moment, but there was no doubt it was getting closer. As for its shape, it appeared to be pony-like, but I could definitely make out wings.

“Don’t tell me one of the Guardians followed us here?”, said Electric Sky.

“They can’t exist outside of Tartarus. Besides, it’s too large for that.” My heart stopped when I realised what I’d just said.

The others appeared to be panicking, but Electric Sky was quick to take action.

“Quickfix, how are the cannons?”

“Seeing as I haven’t yet replaced the ones you blew up last time: not good”, came her response.

Before we could come up with a plan B, the earth pony had leapt to the ship’s stern, hammer in hoof.

“Heed my words evildoer! If thou dost wish to challenge my mistress, thou will face the divine power of MIGHTY MJOLNA! Never shall the Goddess of Thunder relent!”

“Look Mjolna, I admire your enthusiasm, but…”

“BY CELESTIA’S MANE! MIGHTY TORNADO!!”

Suddenly, Mjolna was enveloped in a whirl of yellow lightning. I’d never seen anything like it before. My first guess was that hammer was enchanted. After all, no earth pony I knew could pull of something like that naturally. But soon, the magical votex had subsided… and the dark shadow was still closing in from the distance. Mjolna turned to us and said sheepishly:
“Methinks that move hath embarrassingly short range.”

We resumed panicking. For a moment at least, because before we knew it, the shadow was gone. Just like that.
“Well, that was certainly anticlima…”

With an almighty flash and bang an explosion of darkness burst forth from the centre of the ship. Once the flash of lightning had cleared, before us stood an alicorn dark as night, one I knew all too well.

“BEHOLD! THY TRUE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!!”

Once again her words were punctuated by thunder and lightning. I noticed Lilly Blossom had already abandoned ship, and even the non-pegasi among us looked about to do the same.

“Be still everypony”, I tried to reassure them, “It’s only…”

“NIGHTMARE MOON!”, came a squeal from under the ship’s hull. “Everypony run before she gobbles you up!”

Princess Luna looked visibly dejected at these words, and even more dejected to see Bumblesweet, Quickfix, Electric Sky and even Mjolna quaking in fear. Strangely enough, Levee didn’t seem fazed in the slightest.

“Peace subjects!”, said the princess, clearly trying her best to calm everypony down but of course having the opposite effect. I had to stand in for her.

“Everypony, calm down. This is Princess Luna. She means you no harm.”

“Y… you… know this princess?”, said Bumblesweet.

“Let’s just say”, I replied with a warm smile, “she’s a friend of the family. Now, what is it you want, your highness.”

We each bowed as low as we possibly could. The princess strode over to me and said, oddly quiet for once:

“We simply wished to congratulate thee, child. Thy curse is no more, thou has done thy family proud.”

I had suddenly found myself in tears. Partly out of joy, but also partly…

“But I didn’t! I know you would have wanted me to put an end to the one who betrayed you, but I just couldn’t. He just looked so… pitiful, so sad. I couldn’t… I couldn’t bear to harm him… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

“Do not be, child. Thou hast done the right thing, what thou knew in thy heart to be right. And for that, We are proud. I believe we needs have word with Our sister. Methinks our former comrade has served his sentence.”

I still wasn’t satisfied. I still felt unworthy. “And I… I’m a failure! Even with the curse broken, I couldn’t manage a single spell! I’ve failed to live up to my ancestor’s Element…”

At this, Luna stopped me. Looking deep into my teary eyes, she whispered softly:

“We never said thy ancestor’s Element was Magic.”

“W-what??”

But before I even had time to ponder this thought, the princess had returned to the ship’s centre and begun addressing us all.

“Our subjects! We have witnessed thy deeds tonight, AND WE ARE PLEASED!!”

Though rocked by the gale-force shout, my friends seemed slightly less afraid now. Lilly Blossom had even returned, though she was hiding behind the captain’s quarters.

“After much deliberation, we have decided to… recruit thee into our, ahem, forces as our… personal… assisting…”

“Wait, let me get this straight”, said Electric Sky, “you want to hire us?”

“Hire? Nay. But if our sister has her own personal taskforce, why not us? The Element Bearers may keep Equestria safe by day, but they must sleep during our time, and cannot be relied upon to respond to all threats.”

“That’s true”, said Lilly Blossom, finally mustering her courage, “after all, everypony needs a break sometimes”, she gestured accusingly yet affectionately to her earth pony friend.

“INDEED!”

“Eeep!”

“Ahem, we mean, indeed Lilly Blossom. And as we have only recently resumed our rule, we have need of able-bodied ponies to help us… guard the night.”

I was a little confused at the offer, to be honest. Confused, yet intrigued.

“What exactly would such a job entail?”

“Most likely nothing worse than thy adventures tonight”, was her reply.

But it wasn’t like I’d care either way. I already knew my answer.

“It would be an honour to serve the friend of my ancestor. And I’d like to know more about him, and you’re pretty much the only pony who can tell me. What I’m trying to say… is you can count me in.”

The next voice I did not expect.

“And me.” The lemon-coated unicorn stepped forward. “What? Despite the near-death experiences, tonight’s adventure was… kinda fun, if I’ll be honest. And besides, could I ask for a better opportunity to further my research?”

Then came another.

“You… may as well count me in, dears. I mean, I’m no stranger to working night shifts. I barely need much sleep anyway. And I should be able to fit this into my schedule, even if it does require cutting back on leisure time.”

At this, another voice immediately cut in.

“Oh no, not if I have anything to say about it. If Bumblesweet’s in, I’m in too. Without me to remind her to take a break she’ll work herself half to death.”, said Lilly Blossom, and giggled.

There was silence. All faces were on one green pegasus. Eventually…

“What are you looking at me like that for? Of course I’m in! I thought it was obvious, so I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t say no to an adventure like this! Oooh! Maybe her high-and-mighty-ness will like my maps?? Wait, she’s been gone for a thousand years so… actually this is perfect! Hey princess, could you tell me what Equestria looked like a thousand years ago! Oooh this is gonna be great!”

Her celebration went on for a while. I admit I was happy too, but there was still somepony missing. I glanced over to the emerald green stallion beside me. Strangely, he hadn’t spoken since Luna arrived. Come to think of it, it even seemed like he was trying to avoid eye contact with her. Of course, it was naturally for ponies to fear her since her stint as Nightmare Moon, but this felt… different somehow. He seemed adamant on avoiding her. A little worried, I turned to him and asked:

“Are you alright?”

At my acknowledgement he immediately jumped with a start, eying me nervously.

“O…of course! Of course! Why would you, uhh, believe… anything was… amiss… uhh…”

There was no doubt; something about his behaviour was certainly odd. But before I had time to think, he spoke again.

“O great Moon Pony…”, he received several awkward looks at this, so felt the need to explain. “Oh, in the language I was raised in, we only have one word for this princess. It… loses a little something in translation. Ahem, as I was saying, it would be an honour to serve you, O great and powerful Moon Pony.” He knelt low before her, though still avoided eye contact.

“Charmed”, she replied, which I presume was a ‘yes’.

So that’s how it happened. The night the ancient curse on my family was broken, my life changed forever. Though not in the way I expected. My friends and I had become a part of something bigger than we could have known.

We call ourselves the Nightguard. Princess Luna’s personal taskforce. Our job is to guard the night, while Equestria’s more public heroes sleep. History books will hold little record of our names, but we don’t care, so long as we’re making even a small difference. As for me, though I have yet to master my newfound powers, I endeavour to do my best to improve. One day, the world will know the name of my ancestor, Star Swirl the Bearded, once more. Until then, I’ve got many more adventures in store, and the best part:

I get to spend them with my new friends.

Somewhere in Tartarus:
“Star Swirl… Thank you. I’m glad you’re safe. But… I sensed an aura about your friends, one I haven’t felt for a thousand years. It would seem “his” influence is not quite gone.
I’m afraid your adventures are only just beginning, Star Swirl. I pray that, when the time comes, you will have the courage to do what’s right.”