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// Five Rivers 
// Story: Eveningray-Who is that foxy? 
// by ChevalNoir 
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First, Eveningray headed for Misty Valley to know what happened to Brook. Following the clues she found the broken barrel with stains of the tar around on the top of the hill. The mare read hoofprints in the snow, 'Five on one?! Those cowards!' A light-green splendor on the snow attracted her sight. 'So, this is the moldavite marvel.' She put the ring into her bag. The cart tracks led her to a steaming river. She went downstream along its shore. At night, the foxy got to the confluence of the four rivers. Eve crossed a half-rotten wooden bridge and saw a strange fortress. It was a dome of dark walls with no windows. Behind a massive draw bridge, was the only gate obviously leading somewhere to the underground. The gate and bridge opened. Silver Mane and six guards went out. 
"Catch her!" He called out.
In a while the guards encircled Eveningray. One of them took a step towards her. She threw a clod of mud in his face with her magic. Other two jumped to catch her. The mare used her levitation skill and flew up. The two head-butted each other. She landed several yards farther. The remaining guards followed her. Two of them sank in a mud. The others were trying to get them out. Another group of six guards went out of the fortress. Eveningray straddled away her front legs, and aimed her shining horn at them. The rising sun shone through dark clouds. Eve raised her head.
'Why did Blizzard put a sign meaning 'RISE' on me?' Flashed through her mind. She the  said, "I see," and hung her head down. The aura of her horn went out, while Silver Mane's horn shone. The dark tar came out of a near pit, covered her body and hardened. The guards took her to the fortress, into a chamber where Blizzard and Brook were standing as two dark statues, and walled them up.

Silver Mane entered a large hall with a big violet crystal in the middle. "We got another one. I think she was the last."
A strong deep voice sounded, "Well done. Now there is nothing in my way."

All three mares were standing motionless in the darkness of their cell. Suddenly, a glimmering slightly shone through the crust on the forehead of each of them. As the light grew stronger, it formed into runic letters. When Blizzard gave Eveningray her name, she put a sign on her. The same kind of magic rune as she had put on Brook and herself. Blizzard's rune was 'TOGETHER', Brook's sign meant 'WE', and the rune of Eve was 'RISE'. The crust cracked, blew up in a dazzling shine, and all the mares woke up.
"What are you doing here?!" Blizzard asked, "Didn't you get my message?!"
"Yes, but Brook was already away," the foxy replied.
Blizzard counted to three to calm down and said, "Let's get out of here."
Brook heated a wall of the chamber, Eveningray cooled it down rapidly, and Blizzard struck it with a lightning. The wall exploded. The mares were trotting through underground tunnels until they got to the large hall.
Eveningray had the same feeling like in her dream. Something evil was near. Then the foxy remembered.
Once when she was a little filly straying in a forest, rain drove her into a cave, but there was some dark thing there either. Her animal instinct told her to flee. 
On the way out the filly heard a voice saying, "We'll meet again, and it will be your end!" Little Eve was galloping through the forest in the pouring rain until she fell down exhausted. Some steps rustled around. She raised her head, and saw a pack of wolves showing their teeth. Eveningray closed her eyes expecting the attack. Subconsciously, she used her horn and made series of small explosions. Then the wild filly opened her eyes, and saw the wolves hid scared behind the trees. 
And now in the fortress of Five Rivers she felt that the dark thing was near again. Silver Mane with the guards came from behind and cut off their way out. Blizzard tried to knock him down to his knees with a lightning but she couldn't.
"Can you see that crystal over there? It emits a certain kind of energy neutralizing magic of unicorns," Silver Mane laughed. 
Blizzard kicked the stone three times, but she didn't even scratch it. From the opposite side of the hall, a huge thing was coming. A hairy leg appeared first.Other seven followed it. The mares stepped back, looked up, and saw eight red eyes and a pair of terrifying mandibles.
"It's time to get rid of the pest!" The giant spider said.
Eveningray stood behind the crystal and leant her front hooves against it.
"You can't hide from your destiny. Your days are numbered!" Malevolent said.
Trembling Eve closed her eyes.
"Oh, oh, don't you cry, little pony. It will be over soon!" The spider laughed.
"Leave her alone!!" Blizzard shouted, and pointed her sharp horn at it. The spider stretched its leg forth, knocked Blizzard down on the floor and stepped on her. Brook reared and kicked the leg.
"Isn't this cute?" The spider said, "Once I wanted to take over your mind, and control the flame through you. It would be real fun to make my puppet of you, Princess Polar Sky. But I don't need you anymore." The spider raised another leg to knock Brook down.
Eveningray opened her eyes. Her mane and tail were light blue. The crystal under her hooves was deep frozen. She turned around, kicked the now so fragile crystal in full strength, and shattered it into pieces so small that it looked like a diamond dust.
"How come?!" Malevolent thundered at Silver Mane, "you told me they wouldn't be able to use their magic!!"
"This is not my magic, but a terrifying nature of my monstrous existence! You'd better run!!" Eveningray shouted. 
Her mane and tail turned red again. Eve made a wall of ice between the mares and Silver Mane with the guards. Brook burnt the spider's leg. It screamed and stepped back. Blizzard stood up. The monster tried to attack them with its mandibles. Eve and Brook sent a fire stream and freezing beam against it. The spider dodged them nimbly. Blizzard struck its abdomen with a lightning. The eight-legged freak staggered. Then a cross on its back shone. Malevolent raised a shield around itself. The walls of the hall made of the hardened tar began to melt in the place where the ponies were standing. Blizzard, Brook, and Eveningray attacked the monster again, but they couldn't overcome the shield. Eveningray tried to freeze the tar flowing down the walls, but there was too much of it. Soon the mares were crowded on a small elevation that remained after the broken crystal. The red-maned mare took the moldavite ring out of her bag.
"NO, EVE!!" Brook got appalled.
"Trust me; I know what I'm doing." The foxy wedged Maple's garnet brooch into the ring. Both the parts perfectly fit together. She put it on. The garnets powered the moldavite part. Eve's horn shone so bright that Blizzard and Brook had to turn their heads away. The walls and floor of the hall  froze in a few moments. A cold mist spread around the hall. Maple's brooch cracked. Eveningray took the ring off.
"Did you get the monster?" Brook asked.
Malevolent put on an amber amulet. The cross on its back and the amulet shone. The alicorn lady shook her head.
"What's the matter with you, Brook?" Eveningray asked her.
"The flame," Princess Polar Sky whispered.
The floor between the mares and Malevolent bulged.
"The monster is trying to raise the flame. I can feel it." Brook said.
Blizzard turned to her, "You are supposed to gain the power over the eternal flame during the coronation. You haven't been crowned yet, but if you can feel the flame, you are supposed to be able to control it!"
The bulge cracked. A hot lava flowed out through small fissures.
Eveningray looked at the princess. "Can you stop it, Brook?"
"I am dizzy," Princess Polar Sky said and fainted.
The foxy tried to stop the lava with her freezing beam. It just sizzled and made the fissures longer and wider.
"I am going to have fried ponies for dinner today," the spider laughed.
An invisible force lifted Brook's body aloft. Eveningray was about to get her down, but Blizzard stopped her, "Don't touch her! You might get hurt!"
Other cracks arose in the floor. Two green flames leapt out of them, flew around the princess and hit her chest. Her muscles twitched.
"LEAVE HER BE, YOU DIRT!!!" Eveningray shouted, and shot a series of freezing beams at the spider. None of them pierced its shield. The cross on its back and the amulet shone brighter. The lava poured out. Then two blue flames came. The Princess spread her wings, the flames touched them and disappeared. The tips of her outer feathers became golden. She opened her eyes. They were white. Above her head,a red flame appeared, which turned into a golden crown.
The alicorn lady descended to the floor. She stretched her front leg forth and said, "obey."
The eternal flame calmed down. The lava returned deep to the underground. She blinked, and her eyes turned back to normal. Blizzard bowed down before her.
Eveningray hugged her, "I feared for you so and you became our Queen."
"Blizzard, get up, please. I will always be the same Brook for you two."
Malevolent's amulet went out. The spider tried to gain control of the flame again. In vain.
"You won't steal my power away from me, you queen of fleas!!" The monster said and set off towards Polar Sky, but the damaged floor couldn't bear its enormous weight any longer and collapsed. Malevolent fell down into a deep abyss with a lava river on the bottom. 
On the way down, the spider called out, "This is not the end!"
Its power over Silver Mane and the guards' minds ceased. The hole in the floor enlarged. Brook broke the wall of ice.
"Which way is to the exit?" Blizzard asked Silver Mane.
"I--I don't know," the confused stallion mumbled.
A wall on the opposite side of the hall crumbled.
Blizzard shook him, "Which way?!"
"Through the tunnel on the right, I guess," he said.
All the ponies escaped from the fortress a few minutes before it tumbled down. None of them noticed a long spider's hair sticked up to a hoof of one guard.

Nervous Maple was cleaning up her log cabin. Someone knocked at her door. She answered it, and saw the three mares standing there.
"I knew you would bring them back," Maple hugged Eveningray.
"I am sorry, Maple, your brooch is broken," the foxy said.
"You know what, my little wild mare? Have a piece of my apple pie. You look so hungry."

THE END