Starlight rushed forward, widening her eyes.
“Jade? JADE!” Starlight cried. “Are you there?”
She waved the stone dust away from head, closing her eyes and coughing. As plumes of the stone dust continued to settle or float, she stepped away from the blank doorway, shaking your head. Who was that griffon? Why would he attack a sanctum, something that was only part of many things that protected Equestria and the world at large?
More questions began to run through her mind as she stumbled into the hallway adjacent to the door. Where was she? Canterlot? Neighpon? She knew that, by Jade’s own words, Zebrica was the one that was attacked, but… where did the door she had just been pushed through lead to? And was there anypony here?
Trotting hastily through the empty granite halls, she called out for anypony who might’ve been present. “Hello? Helloooo?” Her calls echoed restlessly, but there seemed to be nopony there. She continued her attempts with increasing incredulity and confusion. If this was a sanctum meant to protect the world, where were the mages? The sorcerers? How about the pony that managed it?
After a minute or two, she stumbled into what she assumed was the main foyer, if the empty space, grand staircase, and glamorous translucent door were any clues. As she slowed down, she stared at the door for a second. Breathing, she opened it and walked outside. She widened her eyes, looking around.
Several nobles frowned at her sight, a dirtied unicorn with a cracked horn emerging from a beautiful looking building, but that wasn’t what Starlight was paying attention to. Her eyes were drawn towards the looming structure of Canterlot Castle in the distance, it’s spires and towers stretching to the sky. Even though she had been to the Castle before, this time was different. She hadn’t seen any part of Equestria this close in over a month, not to mention this grandiose…
Blinking, she shook her head and ran back in, closing the doors behind her. As she calmed her breathing, she looked around before frowning. So this was Canterlot Sanctum…
She began to wander. The halls were long, decorated with artifacts and weapons. Various objects she didn’t know how to describe. Several items she passed were leaking magical power, their potential latency able to be gleaned, but if the item didn’t choose you, it was virtually a glorified weapon. She recalled that each item chose their owner… but if that were so, what about those that created them in the first place?
As she thought this, she came upon a display case with a long red cape. By its simple form, it seemed to attach at the neck and drape over the back and haunches. The fact that it floated, softly bouncing with nothing holding it up was cause for interest in Starlight. She found it simply intriguing how it was floating of it’s own accord. She couldn’t really even sense any magic from it. As she moved away from it, she saw it move closer to her but stop at the glass barrier.
Raising an eyebrow, she merely glanced at the other relics in the room before moving on.
Soon, she stumbled on a trio of doors. Each set of door had glass panes in their frame, protecting the viewer from the elements on the other side. Squinting at one of them, she opened the doors, only to find a gush of salty humid air, the crashing of deafening water and the sea spray of intense mist. Blinking as her hair flew behind her, she closed the door and twisted the dial next to the door, finding that it changed the environment. Pursing her lips, she stepped away from the doors.
A noise caused her ears to flick.
Turning her head, she frowned and followed where the sound had come from. Trotting through the hallways, she found herself recognising where she was and the sound began to be clearer, until she realised they were actually voices. Her lips curling, she quickened her pace.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” a gentle voice announces. As I see a large opening from where I stand in the hall, I slow to a trot and walk through the archway, seeing the entrance to the sanctum morph back to normal as three ponies and a griffon walked through it. Stalwartly, an orange-blue mare’s back faced towards Starlight, the whole figure clutching a bladed staff tightly.
Starlight felt a chill run through her as she saw him sneer with cold amusement. “Oh, but how would I be able to do what needs to be done if I didn’t?”
“What needs to be done isn’t always what’s right.”
Mordo simply looked at his claw, studying them expressionless. “A shame, because what needs to be done right now is to get you out of my way.”
Starlight could see the mare’s stance shift ever so slightly as the polearm she held went slightly slack. In the blink of an eye, Mordo’s three henchponies rushed forward, flanking the mare on three sides. The mare tensed and looked breathed before all three rushed in.
She ducked, tucked, and swung her polearm around, knocking one of them off balance. The other two went in to compensate, jabbing at any openings they could find. The mare did not give them any, instead jabbing and parrying with her close combat weapon, blocking any strikes coming near to her. With a flourish, she quickly side-stepped one particular swipe before pulling the henchpony close and impaling them through the chest. Sputtering, the pony fell, and the mare quickly wiped her weapon on him before ducking and swinging around.
Starlight continued to watch, mortified at the death of a pony in front of her and exhilarated from watching the fight commence.
Still the mare fought, managing to handle the two ponies as they all began to tire. She failed to remember however the one extra entity who still had yet to enter the fight. Starlight saw her sense Mordo from behind and she was once again, 3 on 1, but this time, she did not have the advantage. She quickly began to falter against the barrage of a single griffon and two remaining ponies as she miscalculated an attack. She realised her mistake a second too late, and Starlight saw it too.
“No! Stop!” Starlight yelled, rushing to the railing of the balcony looking down on the foyer. It was all moot however, as the mare inhaled sharply and released a surprised gasp at being impaled with an ethereal blade. Starlight could only at her as she fell to the ground before her gaze switched to Mordo.
Mordo blinked and smiled. “Ah! So it’s you. I’ve been hearing rumours of the unicorn with a broken horn taking my place beside the Ancient One!”
Starlight’s eye twitched as she stared at the griffon. His smile only turned colder.
“How long have you been at Kamare-taj, miss…?”
Gritting her teeth, she replied “It’s Starlight.”
“Starlight. Just Starlight? Nothing else? How boring.” Patting his beak in a yawning expression, he violently pulled his etheric blade from the mare lying on the ground and looked to his two remaining henchponies. It was all they needed.
Starlight could barely think before she was being attacked from both sides by two vicious assailants. Quickly twisting her hooves on the floor, a runic circle burst into being and connected her hooves together. With no time to waste, she threw up what she had conjured and hoped for the best.
It did not disappoint.
Her mana-whip conjured from the energy between dimensions lashed out, blocking the swing of an etheric blade from her left. She then lashed it to her right, grabbing the other pony’s blade and ripping it away. It dissolved, and in a blink, the pony had a new one.
“That’s going to get annoying real fast,” Starlight mumbled, before whipping her whip at both ponies one more time. As they dodged away, Starlight used that split second to begin running. As she went down the halls, she could hear Mordo rally them. She focused on her escape.
Staring at the doors ahead of her, she frowned, for she didn’t seem to be advancing any closer towards it. Glancing behind her, she saw Mordo with his claws outstretched, flexing inward. Looking down, the floor was shifting, but it didn’t feel any different. It was as if it was moving at an equally opposite rate to her. With an eye-twitch, she turned around.
Shifting her hooves, she slammed them down, erecting two glowing-blue shields. Panting from adrenaline, her running, and her summoning, she waited. She didn’t have to wait long, as the Mordo’s two followers… ran on the walls?! Starlight had an instant to ponder the insanity of such physics before she blocked their attack, one of her shields sputtering out with a single clash. The other, thankfully, survived. She slammed the shield into one of their faces before being surprised by the other one.
“Hrnnngh!” Starlight grunted, being tackled to the ground. Slamming into the wall beside her and knocking her head back, she winced before rolling out of the loosened grip. Hastily getting a footing, she saw Mordo coming at her, blade swinging from running on the ceiling. Starlight barely had time to duck, swearing she could feel a few strands of her hair being cut off. With a huff, and seeing she had stalled them for a time, she tried running again.
She widened her eyes when she felt the world beginning to tilt.
Glancing back, she could see the hall angling down, and she gasped, quickly jumping to a corner that led to the outside, now a ledge to hold on to against the gravity. Breathing quickly, she glanced down to see them still standing normally… in front of the doors to other biomes.
With an idea, she let go of her grip.
She immediately fell, straight into one of the hench ponies. Instantly, the pony flew backwards, shattering the glass and tumbling into the sandy dunes of a desert. Quickly finding the world magic dissipating around her, she got up and ran to the dial that changed environments. She was met with a hoof around her neck.
Tucking her chin, she saved her throat from being crushed, but was still faced with being stuck. Sucking in air, she slammed her hindlegs down and threw her assailant over her, breaking his hold and slamming him into the stone floor. Dazed, he grunted. Rushing to the dial again, she saw a fist out of the corner of her eye and dropped, the talons whizzing by. Bucking backward, she hit Mordo with a leg, pushing him away. Crawling to the door, just as the pony on the other end was about to reach the doorway on their side, she twisted it.
It changed back to the ocean.
Whipping her head around at the sound of a shout, she widened her eyes and threw up a shield, sucking in a breath as the etheric blade pierced it’s weak runes and the tip lingered just centimetres from the bridge of her nose. Slamming the shield away, both it and the blade dissolving, she rolled onto her fours and leaned against the wall for a second.
Mordo smirked before the one remaining pony charged her. With bared teeth, Starlight shouted and conjured her whip, wrapping his leg in blue mana-bindings. It didn’t stop his momentum though. Slamming into her side, Starlight wheezed. With a headbutt, Starlight yelped in pain, her horn stinging, before pulling her whip causing the remaining pony to lose their balance. With one quick buck, the pony went into the rainy jungle, shattering more glass.
That left her with Mordo.
Staring at Mordo, he stared back. They stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity, Starlight panting from exertion and her robes clinging tightly from sweat, while Mordo studied her curiously. With a quick step, Mordo broke the staring contest.
Starlight dodged the blade as she sidestepped and ran into the adjacent hallway.
Knowing there was only one of them now was a relief, but knowing it was Mordo of all ponies-er, griffons, was no comfort. Throwing shelves of ancient artifacts and cupboards of vintage tea sets, she hoped it would slow him down.
Of course, what was she expecting, a miracle.
Starlight felt the gush of air and twisted around just in time to take on Mordo’s cold grin and blade. She used her foreleg to stop his arm, blocking the blade from slicing her in two, and they fell into a few glass panes. She could finally feel some shards prick and stab her, and she yelped in surprise, but she took it like a mare and threw Mordo off. Throwing some of the broken glass at him, she grabbed the nearest artifact and pointed it at him menacingly. The top began to glow, emanating etheric golden light, but that was it.
Pausing, Mordo’s eyes darting from the relic to Starlight, he untensed.
“You have no idea how to use that, do you?” Mordo asked, pointing at it with a claw.
Starlight glanced from relic to Mordo before tossing it at him and turning tail. Mordo shook his head as he deflected it and gave chase.
Seeing him still in pursuit, Starlight conjured her whip again and swung it at Mordo. He deflected it with his blade and rushed, shoving Starlight into another glass case, though it’s frame still remained. Resting in shards of prickly glass, she panted and stared up at Mordo’s looming figure.
With a victorious smirk, Mordo swung down, and Starlight closed her eyes, awaiting blissful death.
Ka-Thwip!
Starlight waited. A beat.
Fwoo-Thwip!
Cracking open an eye, Starlight found Mordo’s hand and blade stuck in place for the second time inches away from Starlight’s face… held by a deep crimson fabric. Following it, Starlight saw it was the cloak she had seen earlier, floating around in it’s case.
Growling, Mordo pulled Starlight by the hair and threw her. Grunting, Starlight got up but was met with a drop kick, and she sputtered, falling backward in surprised before she fell over a railing. Expecting to be knocked out from the fall, she gritted her teeth, before seeing a flourish of red and something clasp around her neck.
Floating up, breathing in deeply, she grinned and silently prayed thanks to Celestia for the robe before conjuring her mana whip once more and lashing it at Mordo. With a quick movement, the whip, instead of wrapping Mordo, wrapped around his blade. And then he pulled.
It was tug-of-war, and Mordo was winning. With one last pull, his talons digging into the ground and breaking the stone, Starlight felt her entire body jerk forward and she collided into Mordo.
They stumbled and Starlight felt the cloak help her up. Mordo shouted in frustration and threw his blade at her. Starlight threw her hooves up in defense but quickly switched to maintaining balance as her cloak jerked her away, the blade harmlessly flying past.
Starlight then knocked against a wall, and she looked for the nearest weapon. A halberd! With a glance at the recovering Mordo who was already standing up, she rushed to the weapon on the wall next to her.
“Ack!” Starlight pronounced, stopped by her cape. Glaring at the thing, she made for the halberd again before “Urp!”
With half-a-mind to just take the cloak off, she saw it swing up, almost pointing at something. That something was a set of chains and iron locks which hung on the wall. Frowning at it and the cape, as well as acknowledging the pouncing Mordo, she grabbed the whole thing.
Mordo finally reached Starlight and screeched before being smacked by the cape. Falling to the side, he got up quickly. Starlight, still holding the contraption in her hooves with no idea how to use it, did the one thing she knew she could do. She threw it at him.
Mordo’s next assault was stopped abruptly as the chains wrapped around him, the iron bars slid into place, and he was suddenly being moved into what looked to be a very uncomfortable position, his whole body arching backward. Now immobile, he glanced at his chains before a guttural sound came from his mouth. After that, he began to say some things that were muffled by the muzzle on his beak.
“A fmmmph fm urffum ormmm pur iffm. Anh whhn henhorr hnnn hnnn annn mmmph kmmm.”
Starlight rolled her eyes and facehoofed. Breathing airily and trotting forward, she removed the muzzle.
“When I get out of this prison, I will destroy you and all that you love.”
Starlight groaned and turned away, shaking her head. Facing him again, she sighed. “Seriously? We’re going the cliche villain route here?”
Mordo turned his up in curiosity. “Were you not a villain once, Miss Starlight?”
Starlight winced as she thought of her cozy little dictatorship and time-travel shenanigans.
“Look, it’s Starlight bucking Glimmer, okay? And I’m better now! I seriously thought I escaped being reminded of that.”
Mordo’s sly little smile annoyed her to no end. “Ah. I see. Well, you must know then that some things us villains do make the most logical sense for the good of the majority.”
Starlight blinked.
She blinked again.
And again.
“Okay, what the buck.”
Mordo cocked an eyebrow before rearing his head back as much as he was allowed when Starlight shoved a hoof at his face.
Starlight laughed. “This? All of this! This doesn’t make sense. I just had an intense fight that may or may not have been complete luck and skill on my part that left me breathless half the time and now you’re here talking to me as if I’m some sort of outlet for monologuing.” Giggling manically, Starlight shook her head.
“Seriously. None of this! I’ve only been at Kamare-taj for maybe a month or two and I’ve been going hard at it for the whole time, but this? Being thrown into combat? What? Seeing two ponies die and I myself fiercely fighting for my life? Huh!? And now a murderous catbird that was tearing me to shreds a few minutes ago but is now talking to me? Has this world gone crazy?!”
Huffing and puffing, Starlight glared into space before realising she had just ranted and made a show of herself. Rubbing one hoof, she chuckled nervously. “Er… yeah…”
Mordo studied her in amusement. “It would seem, Miss Glimmer, that you have your own issues with the world.”
Starlight faced Mordo once again. “Of course. Everypony-er, everybody does. Just… some more than others.”
Mordo smiled. “Well, what if there was a way to relieve yourself of all that pain? All those worries? The Dark Deity provides for us, Miss Glimmer. He offers immortality, the likes of which the rulers of Equestria and ponies like the Ancient One so selfishly withhold. We could be living forever, with power granted from the Dark Dimension, reigning supreme over all other beings on this twisted world.”
Starlight cocked an eyebrow. “Seriously? You’re trying to convince me to join your side? You’re actually serious. Oh my Celestia… there is so many things wrong with that. I mean, first, look at your bucking headcrest! It’s all smouldery and burnt and glowy! What the hay? And I mean, immortality is great and all, but the princesses earned it, especially Twilight, and I’m sure the Ancient One has done her own amount of good deeds to warrant such a gift-”
“Ah, but that is where you are wrong, Miss Glimmer, and you know it yourself,” Mordo interrupted. “I know you’ve seen the rituals. Lie to my face that you don’t know what those rituals entail. What the effects are. What they do.”
Starlight paused, her face blistering in anger at Mordo before turning away. “I’ve… seen them, yes. In the Book of Starswirl.”
Mordo’s beak twisted into a predatory smile. “Then you know exactly what I’m talking about. Who, to be more specific.”
Starlight gritted her teeth. “You’re wrong about her. She’s not like that. All she’s been with me through all my time in Kamare-taj is honest and giving. She would tell me if she was doing something like that.”
Mordo tutted, looking Starlight in the eye. She tried her best to look away… but she couldn’t.
“We both know you don’t believe that. If she would’ve told you… why did she never tell me?”
“...” Starlight stared at him. “Don’t think that because of this, you’re excused of your crimes against Equestria.”
“Crimes?” Mordo said, “What crimes? I intend on bringing a new age of glory to this forsaken plane, to make it one with the Dark Dimension. You came to Kamare-taj to be healed, and with such power, we would never need to be hurt again.”
Starlight furrowed her brows and chuckled hysterically. “Seriously? Look, this power? It turned you into a cold-blooded killer! Even I wasn’t this bad!”
In that moment, Mordo chose to begin to laugh, closing his eyes and slackening in his prison. Fuming, Starlight glared daggers at him as she narrowed her eyes. “You think that’s funny?” Starlight said, “The lives of ponies? Gone in an instant, forever? You think that’s a joke?”
Mordo shook his head, still softly chuckling. “No,” he said. “What’s funny is that you lost your ridge gauntlet.”
Starlight studied him with a confused expression before patting herself down. Frowning at its absence, she heard hoofsteps coming from behind her. Somewhat deterred, she turned around and-
Shwick!
Feeling her breath catch, she looked down… and saw an etheric blade impaled in her chest.