//------------------------------// // Part IV - Chapter 15: A Tenebrous Threat // Story: Return of the Mare // by Victoria //------------------------------// Chapter 15: A Tenebrous Threat I trotted through the streets of Ponyville with my head still spinning from the newfound memories. The things I had remembered about Doctor Shade and his plans had made Twilight fall into a state of near panic at first. She was able to collect herself however as we walked back to her castle, and even sent one of her guards to summon her six best friends for the council. “Tartarus is serious,” Twilight repeated once again, opening her castle’s doors. “Despite popular belief, it’s very real and contains the most dangerous creatures in the history of Equestria!” I barely acknowledged her words with a nod and followed her into the Throne Room behind her. The six were already sitting on their own respective thrones, waiting for us, and for the rest Twilight conjured some simple chairs. For once, the spacious room didn’t feel as empty and cold as usual. She quickly retold them what we had just learned — Doctor Shade was gathering information about Tartarus. It wasn’t a crime by itself; the crime was that he intended to keep it for himself. But Twilight doubted it was the actual reason why he had decided to get rid of me. He would face some small charges, sure, but nothing worth killing for. No, after all we’d learned about him in Manehattan, his plans, whatever they were, seemed much more grim. Twilight’s theory that had caused her initial panic was that he intended to free some monsters from Tartarus and use them to get into power. Gasps sounded from all over the room as she shared it with the others. “We sent Tirek packing, we could beat whatever monster this stallion frees,” Rainbow Dash stated confidently after a moment of hesitation. Rarity shook her head with a humorless smile. “I would prefer to avoid letting him go that far in the first place, darling.” Now that I remembered Shade myself, I could share my personal opinion on him. With his pride, he could actually hope to control whatever monster he wished to free from Tartarus. Still, even though he had been pretty mean to me in the past, I had never considered him to be truly evil. Of course, his actions, such as an attempt to kill me — twice — had destroyed all of my illusions about him. “If he wants to free some monster, why didn’t he do that sooner?” Applejack asked in doubt. “He’s had six years since he got rid of Sundae here.” It caused some mild arguing among the six, but I couldn’t concentrate enough to listen. Too many memories plagued my head. The things I saw, every thought I had, even every smell — everything caused my brain to spit out some related memory. It was like a dam finally had broken and was flooding my mind, almost overwhelming it. I had so many older memories to replace the bits of living as a human, but I didn’t want to throw away my human side — I considered it a part of who I was, even though I was a pony first and preferred it that way. I hoped it was a temporary effect of so many memories resurfacing at once, while my brain was trying to decide what was most important. I frowned slightly from a headache it had caused. “Are you alright, Sunny?” Ruby, my dear Ruby, asked in concern. Now that I remembered her, I realized how differently she was now acting towards everypony else. She used to be so cheerful all the time…Though this part of her was slowly returning, she was still far from her old self. But one of the few things remaining intact was her affection towards me. I nuzzled her side to express my own affection, making her eyes go wide in surprise. Her soft coat felt so warm and had a pleasant smell of shampoo. I wouldn’t consider doing such an action before, but now it seemed so appropriate and natural, like I had been doing such things all my life. I suppose I actually had — my life as a human was a blur to me at the moment. Ruby patted me on my head and rubbed my mane gently. I looked at her face and she met my glance with a warm, friendly smile. Somepony coughed behind me and I turned around, realizing that everypony in the room was looking at me expectantly. Oh my, with all the mess happening in my head, I kind of forgot that we were on a very important meeting. “I’m sorry, you were saying?” “I asked if there was anything else you remember about the Doctor?” Twilight repeated her question, politely ignoring my discomfort. I thought hard for a moment, sifting through the various memories, but couldn’t find anything new. I guess I had already said everything there was to know about the Doctor and his plans. I shrugged. “Sorry, Twilight…” “It’s okay, Sundae. I think we already know enough to make a thorough report to Princess Celestia. Spike!” Spike, who was standing with a scroll ready, rushed to Twilight and prepared to write down on her command. As she started to dictate the letter to Spike, with her friends listening in and sometimes offering suggestions, I concentrated on my feelings again. I was happy to have all of my memories back, that was for certain. It was exactly the result I had hoped for when I drank Zecora’s potion a month ago. Despite that, it still had happened completely unexpectedly. One moment I had gotten my mark and the next… I could now recall how I’d gotten my first cutie mark of an old vase and I had to admit — my new one suited me much better for who I was now. Finally, the letter was finished and Spike blew it away with his dragon fire. It should land on Celestia’s lap immediately after, catching her attention with the emergency red seal. The envelope was even enchanted by Twilight to bump into Celestia’s face if she was busy, so we all hoped to get an answer from her soon. It took another ten minutes that we spent sprouting various guesses about the Doctor’s motives for us to finally receive the answer. “Princess Twilight, The situation you have described to me is a serious one, but I’m afraid it’s just the calm before the storm. After you had brought the malefactor’s interest in Tartarus to my attention, I discovered that the Key of Tartarus has disappeared from my personal chamber as well! It had been used by me quite recently, so the theft couldn’t have happened more than a month ago. Thankfully, it hasn’t been used yet. My warning spells, unless the malefactor has rendered them useless, have told me if somepony had crossed the border to Tartarus. I will send a detachment of the guard immediately to increase security, but they may not be able to get there in time. The last time a monster freed himself from Tartarus, he devastated the whole country, and we must not allow that situation to repeat itself. That is why I ask you, Twilight, to secure the gate personally until that help arrives. You must go now while the gate is still closed. But if, for some reason, the gate is already open, you shouldn’t try to fight the monsters yourself — especially considering you lack the Elements of Harmony. Good luck, Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight read the letter for everypony to hear and looked at us with her wide-open eyes when she finished. I couldn’t blame her — I was stunned at the news myself. The Key of Tartarus, whatever the item was, was now in the Doctor’s possession! Technically, we didn’t know if he was the one who had taken it, but he was involved beyond a shadow of a doubt. “So, I’m gonna pack mah stuff then,” Applejack said simply. “Do you mean we’ll go with Twilight?” Fluttershy, a timid pegasus, asked in a fluttering voice. “Why, of course we will, darling,” Rarity assured her with a chuckle. “When have we ever sat out on a world-threatening danger?” “That one time when Starlight stole Starswirl’s scroll to travel into the past and DESTROY—” “Thank you, Pinkie!” Starlight stopped her, looking flustered. Twilight stood up and tapped her hoof at the crystal table to catch our collective attention. I looked at her, wondering what she was going to say. “I think it would be for the best if I only took the Royal Guards along with me,” she said, drooping her ears. “Celestia is right — we don’t have the Elements anymore. I don’t want to put your lives in danger, girls.” A murmur of discontent from her friends was the reaction she got. Nopony appeared happy with her suggestion, with Rainbow Dash being the loudest about voicing her displeasure. “We can kick any Doctor’s flank even without our Elements, Twilight! We’re awesome like that, remember?” As for myself, I felt the need to go too. I just wouldn’t be able to sit idly in Ponyville, while the Doctor had the Key of Tartarus itself and was about to set all the terrible monsters loose on Equestria. With my returned memories and my latest magic practices, I felt confident in my ability to defend myself if it came to that. Besides, Celestia’s reinforcements would arrive soon anyway, right? After our combined efforts, Twilight reluctantly agreed to let us come along, and only after we stated that we would go anyway with or without her consent. She gave us a tired smile in the end, “With such friends by my side, the Doctor will stand no chance.” Everypony went for a group hug after that. Well, everypony but Marcus, who stood at the side looking uncomfortable, like a lone pole on a plain field. It didn’t last for long though – as soon as Pinkie noticed such a horrendous sight, she removed herself from the hug and tackled him, wrapping her limbs around his torso. Marcus patted her on her back carefully at our chuckles. “So, where are we going?” *** As Twilight had told me, Tartarus’ entrance was in the middle of the Everfree Forest, much further than Zecora’s hut. I asked one of the guards for his spare utilitarian saddlebag, since I didn’t want to ruin my pretty one on the journey. After that, I packed some food, blankets and some matches — everything I needed for camping. No one knew if we would have to spend the night in the forest, but I felt the need to prepare for every possibility. Our large group moved through the forest at a slow pace. Twilight led the way as the only one who knew the location of Tartarus, while I and her other friends followed right behind. Marcus walked by our side, wearing the modified guard armor to fit his human form. An old rifle hung on his back, as well as the sword on his hips. He looked ready to take on any monster by himself. The guards marched separately in their own column; a few pegasi watched over us from the air. I felt much more secure with all of them nearby — they looked able to defeat any monster who dared to cross our path. That was probably why nothing did. I guessed even the crazy inhabitants of the Forest would think twice before going up against such a force. “The Castle of the Two Sisters is not far away,” Rarity announced for me. “Yeah, I’ve studied that place. Always wanted to visit it…” I said, memories of my school days coming to my mind. “It’s a shame that such an important archaeological site would be left abandoned like that.” “I know exactly what you mean,” Rarity said, glancing at me in surprise. “Me and my friends prettied it up a little though, so it’s not completely abandoned. I also destroyed most of the ancient drapes there myself!” “Really? That’s wonderful news. So much has changed from what I remember of Equestria though…” Rarity looked at me in question and I explained. “Take the Princesses, for example. Princess Celestia used to be the only one around, but now Princess Luna is back from banishment, Princess Cadence appeared out of nowhere and Twilight was crowned one. Or those monster attacks. I had never heard of anything like that in my time here, but now you've been attacked by Nightmare Moon, Discord, Tirek! Everything in the span of a few years. It’s like Equestria went off the rails as soon as I left.” “Discord is not a monster,” Fluttershy corrected me, but I just shrugged. “I’m having a hard time imagining that, sorry,” I said. Fluttershy’s furrowed her eyebrows at that so I quickly explained myself. “I’ve read the books about ponies who lived in the time when he reigned free in the country. It was nightmarish. Frankly, the thought that he’s free now terrifies me.” “Don’t say that, Sundae,” Fluttershy said quietly, but firmly. “He may have been pretty bad in the past, I won’t deny it, but he’s better now. He isn’t hurting anypony.” “Yeah, right…” Rainbow muttered from up above and Fluttershy threw her a sharp stare. “Well, if you say he’s good now, I believe you,” I assured her, but I wasn’t being completely honest. Discord was literally a boogiepony my mum used to scare me with and now I’d learned that he was a good guy? A likely story. He was known to be a master of deception, so I wouldn’t accept his “reformation” without some solid proof. However, I didn’t want to spend my time with pointless arguing and I switched the topic. “So who is Princess Cadence?” “Don’t you remember her?” Ruby bumped me at the shoulder and I shook my head. “Huh, it’s weird. She’s been around for a long time, but she didn’t use to be very public, I guess. She used to spend more time among the commoner ponies like us, not with those snooty nobles.” “She was my foalsitter,” Twilight suddenly said. “She loves foals, so she volunteered to foalsit them for free. I wasn’t the only one under her care.” “An actual princess working as a foalsitter…” said Ruby wishfully. “Told you, she’s totally awesome!” After that our conversation naturally shifted to our childhoods. I was happy to actually be able to share some of the stories from it with Twilight and the rest. They especially liked the one about me casting my first spell, which ended up setting my father’s tail on fire…I remembered being pretty terrified at the time. That way, talking and sharing stories, we got to Tartarus in what seemed to be a pretty good time. Twilight stopped before a clearing among the woods with some stone building in its center and warned us not to step any further. “This is it. The Gate of Tartarus.” There was a statue of a stallion closer to the treeline. It looked like he was running: his mouth was gaping in panic and his whole expression suggested terror. The statue looked realistic, almost lifelike — I wondered who had made such a masterpiece. It was at odds with the utilitarian looking building behind it, so it couldn’t have been the same architect. The archaeologist inside me cried at seeing such a waste — the statue would be a prized possession of any museum! “This hadn’t been here before,” said Twilight, pointing at the statue in question. “He’s wearing the same armor we saw in the warehouse!” Rarity exclaimed. Ruby nodded rapidly in support. Now that they mentioned it, I noticed the similarities myself. But why would somepony make a statue with such an armor? “It must be a petrifying spell,” suggested Twilight and I immediately felt like a fool for not guessing so myself. “There is a pretty powerful one set up by Celestia herself. She gets warned if something triggers it, though, and she didn’t mention that in the letter.” “The Doctor must have gotten here in the last hour!” Ruby tried to rush forward, but Twilight grabbed her in her magic aura. “The spell is still active; we can’t go there,” she said, putting Ruby back on the ground. “Turn it off then,” my relentless friend demanded. Twilight shook her head. “I wish I could. I’m afraid we can’t do anything but wait here for him to come out.” I was glad now that I had brought along my camping supplies. *** Spike had been left back in Ponyville to mind the Castle. At least that was the reason Twilight gave him, but I suspected she just didn’t want to put her small friend at risk. Spike acted pretty mature for his age, but he was a baby after all. The dragon was upset, of course, but he didn’t argue much. Now though, Twilight probably wished that she had brought him along. She called one of the pegasus guards and Sturdy Peak approached her with a salute. “Yes, Your Highness?” “Fly to Ponyville as fast as you can and give this letter to Spike,” she gave him a scroll and he tucked it into his saddlebag. “He’ll know what to do.” “Yes, Your Highness,” he nodded and took off at once. Twilight rolled her eyes. I knew she couldn’t stand those fancy titles. The rest of the guards had learned pretty quickly about her way of doing things – she practically insisted on being called just Twilight or Princess at worst. Sturdy Peak, however, was an exception. Despite how much Twilight and I disliked it, he continued calling us miss or your highness respectively. But he was fast, there was no denying that. As soon as he was gone, we set up a small camp away from the border of the spell and prepared to wait. The mood in the camp wasn’t high — everypony was worried about the situation at our hooves. Twilight paced around the camp, making everypony even more tense. Celestia knew what the Doctor was up to inside of Tartarus. Or, rather, she didn’t and that was the issue. For all we knew, he could be freeing any monster he came across! Though I doubted he would do that. The Doctor, no matter how much I disliked him, had always appeared to be a reasonable pony and he wouldn’t just set horrific monsters on a rampage across Equestria. The most likely explanation was that he planned to free one specific creature whom he had the means to control, though I had no idea who that would be. “Do you think we’re gonna fight Tirek again?” Rainbow asked, a note of hope in her voice. “He got pretty tiny after we beat him the last time,” smirked Pinkie. “And I’ve got a feeling that something big is coming.” Everypony shifted uncomfortably for some reason after she mentioned her feelings. “Oh my goodness…” Fluttershy muttered. The waiting for something to happen was the worst part of all. I hoped that Celestia’s forces would arrive first, but my hope was in vain. After about an hour or so mulling about the camp, one of the guards watching the Tartarus entrance ran back to us with the news. I and the others waited impatiently for what he was going to say. “They’re getting out!” he finally reported. Well, that settled that. We hastily packed our small camp and went to look at the entrance for them, but not before Twilight cast some pretty complicated spell, rendering everypony almost invisible. It wasn’t an invisibility spell per se, more like some super-chameleon ability. I could only imagine how much mana it cost for Twilight, but she appeared completely fine. Perks of being an alicorn, I thought with a bit of envy, trying to distinguish her transparent shape among the trees. We arrived at the clearing and I finally saw the Doctor in person for the first time in so many years. He looked a little older, which was understandable, and wore the same set of armor as his henchponies. I recognized Morning Bright by his side immediately and my heartbeat accelerated. His calm demeanor had always spooked me more than Shade’s rage. Our recent encounter in the warehouse where he’d sacrificed his own ponies in cold blood just to get us played its role too. There was just dozen of ponies in total, so we outnumbered them almost two to one. If we attacked and apprehended them now, the Doctor would be done for. Him going to Tartarus was blatantly against the law and all the six, including Princess Twilight herself, were the witnesses of his crime; he wouldn’t be able to deny it now. I also saw no monsters with him — perhaps he had failed to free anyone or decided that it was too risky. It felt a little anticlimactic, but I wasn’t going to complain when luck was on our side for once. Twilight wasn’t in any rush to command an attack though. I couldn’t see her facial expression because of the spell, but judging from her drooped ears and frozen pose, I could guess that something was worrying her. My insides went cold — had she seen something that I had missed? I looked at the Doctor’s party again as they moved through the opening and noticed something weird. A unicorn mare walked in their midst wearing no armor like the others. She had a larger build than a regular unicorn and her black mane and night-blue coat looked very similar to Shade’s, if more elegant. But it was her eyes that truly differentiated her from everypony — they were almost completely white and literally sparkling with energy. Suddenly, she stopped like she’d felt something and her gaze flicked in our direction. I tucked my tail and lowered my ears, taking an involuntary step back. Her horn flashed and it was like something heavy pressed on my head and my knees trembled — her stare was terrifying! The next moment the unicorn mare flashed her horn again and our chameleon spell dissipated like it was nothing. It caused some momentary panic on the enemy side as they scrambled to get their weapons, having noticed us. With our cover blown, Twilight gave the guard the order to charge. War cries and screams of pain pierced the air as the two group of fighters clashed with each other. Twilight and her friends surrounded the unicorn mare, who appeared to be the biggest threat, while Starlight was taking on Bright all by herself. I could only watch it from afar because no matter how I tried my limbs refused to follow my will and my heart fluttered in crazy panic at the mere thought of getting closer to this mare. Ruby shook my whole body, making my teeth to clench painfully. “Sunny, wake up!” “I’m n-not asle—” I couldn’t finish my sentence because my tongue felt too thick in my mouth. “You don’t look alright, Annie,” Marcus said, slipping into my old name by mistake. “I mean, Sundae.” The name was the last of my worries at the moment, however. Marcus was right — I wasn’t alright; it appeared that this weird mare had hit me with some kind of spell that rendered me completely useless for a fight. I glanced at the continuing brawl in despair — my friends weren’t faring well and would greatly appreciate my help, however small my fighting abilities were. Even though the guards were beating back the enemy combatants, a few of our own already lay on the ground, bleeding — I sincerely hoped they weren’t mortally wounded. I saw how the guard’s spear deflected off the breastplate of the henchpony and he struck right back with a sword. I winced as the weapon sliced through the guard’s armor like it was made of wood. At least there were more enemies on the ground, despite their clearly superior weapons. The unicorn mare was holding her own against the six of her opponents. Even worse, she was winning! Twilight threw a powerful attack spell at her that would smite somepony like me like a bug, but the unicorn deflected it seemingly with ease. The rest of Twilight friends were trying to strike her when they saw an opportunity, but were just as unsuccessful. Applejack found the right moment and rushed to her from the back, preparing to give a powerful buck with her hindlegs, but the unicorn somehow noticed her and sent Applejack flying through the air, hitting her with some powerful magic. My heart clenched in terror for her life as the apple mare crashed into a tree, breaking it in half and landing somewhere behind it. I breathed a sigh of relief when she got back up looking mostly fine, and went back into the fight, though limping a little. I searched with my eyes for Starlight next — she appeared to be in a stand-off with Bright. No one had the upper hoof in their magical duel this time. I should help at least her! With me by her side as a distraction, Bright would stand no chance. Grunting, I forcefully moved my hoof forward and made the first step, but Marcus stopped me with a palm on my back. “You’re in no condition to fight,” he said and Ruby nodded vigorously. “And neither am I, to be completely honest.” I glanced at his pale face and realized that Marcus was scared. It wasn’t at all surprising — he was seeing battle magic and such violence for the first time. It would shake anyone’s spirit without preparation. The guards at least had their training to prepare for something like that. “Let’s just go,” Ruby suggested. “Twilight’s got it.” The situation didn’t look as great as Ruby implied, however. “B-but…we have to…” “You almost died the last time we were in a fight, I won’t let you do that again!” “I didn’t…have my memories…” I tried to argue, but Ruby smirked despite the grave situation. “Then you should know that you’ve always been a pretty weak unicorn,” she said bluntly. “Memories or not, you’re not fighting this time.” Frankly, I felt insulted. I had always considered myself no less than average level by the very least. But before I could answer, a stray spell hit the ground in front of us, blowing up in a wave of ice shards. I barely covered my eyes with my foreleg, wincing as the small shards cut into my skin. At least Marcus had some clothes and his armor to protect him. “We need to run!” exclaimed Ruby and pulled me away by my tail. It was a totally undignified method of travel. “I can go myself,” I said, recovering a little the further we got from the fighting. She let my tail go and we trotted in the opposite direction from the battle. We didn’t go very far, however — I stopped at our recent camping site and refused to go any further. “We’ll be fine here. Let’s just wait until it’s over.” And so we waited. I lay on the ground; my legs tucked under me, still shaking from whatever mind spell I had been hit with. Ruby was right by my side — so close that our coats were intertwining and I could feel her body heat. Marcus was sitting on some tree trunk nearby. Everyone listened to the sounds of the still ongoing battle. My ears were pointed in its direction, so I could hear the clashes of metal on metal and loud spell discharges. I hoped that our side was winning; the alternative was too scary to consider. Soon the fighting seemingly ended and deadly quiet loomed over us, interrupted only by the Forest’s unnatural sounds. Neither of us said a word; we exchanged quick glances and stood up to prepare for whatever happened next. But nopony was truly ready when two figures suddenly appeared in our midst with a bright flash. We dashed to the sides in case that was an attack, but it turned out to be just Starlight. I gasped when I noticed the condition she was in — her mane disheveled and half-burned, coat covered in dust and dirt; she could barely stand on her trembling hooves! That teleportation seemed to have sucked all the remaining strength out of her and she collapsed onto the ground, unconscious. I rushed to her, ignoring the other pony, Fluttershy, who was sitting there staring at the ground dumbfounded, but looking unharmed otherwise. “What happened?” I asked her after making sure Starlight didn’t have any visible wounds. “This awful pony…she’s too powerful,” Fluttershy said, her words barely understandable because she had started sobbing. “She’s killed all the others!” My heart dropped to my hooves. I just couldn’t believe what she was saying. How could Twilight and the others just…die? Nope. She had to be mistaken. I refused to believe it until I saw their bodies for myself. I ignored my shocked friends and galloped in the direction of the enemy; the adrenaline washing away the remains of the mind spell cast on me. “Wait!” exclaimed Ruby, but I was already gone. After a short and wild sprint, I glimpsed the clearing between the trees. Blood was pouring into my brain and all I wanted to do was bring a world of pain on the ponies who’d just killed my friends. No, not killed! I should remain positive. I forced myself to stop and take a few calming breaths, as Twilight had taught me to do in a stressful situation. Instead of charging blindly forth, I carefully approached the clearing, hiding myself low in the bushes. I peaked through the leaves at the trio of ponies who stood in the center, giving orders to the few henchponies still remaining. I didn’t care much about them for the moment — my gaze desperately searched for my friends. The next moment felt like a mountain had fallen from my withers. “Thanks Celestia,” I murmured as I saw everypony alive. Certainly not well, but at least they were still alive. I couldn’t see much from my low point of view, but I watched as my friends were picked up from the ground in various states of consciousness. All of them looked beat up; some barely moved. Rainbow struggled against her captors stubbornly, refusing to be tied up, but the mare shot a blast of electricity into her flank. With a painful neigh, Rainbow submitted. The surviving guards were getting much rougher treatment. They were being raised up despite their wounds and shoved in the building’s direction. The ones who could stand themselves helped their less fortunate comrades to move. A few remained on the ground; they were either too injured to walk even with the help or…dead. Grass shuffled and Ruby crawled up to me, having finally caught up. She sighed in relief seeing our friends alive and then gave me a painful smack in the head. I cringed, suppressing a yelp. I threw a furious stare at her and she met it with one of her own. “Do you want to get killed, stupid?” Ruby whispered furiously into my ear. “We should run.” I pointed her in the direction of our friends, who were now being levitated into the building by the unicorn mare, followed by the Doctor and most of his followers. A few ponies stayed outside and were helping their own wounded. “We need to save them.” “Don’t be ridiculous,” she smacked me again and I lowered my ears. “If Twilight and all the others couldn’t win, we don’t stand a chance on our own.” I knew that she was right. It was kind of ironic that our situation was reversed — usually it was me who talked her out of doing something crazy. But I was burning in shame for not joining the fight in the first place. How could I just watch and do nothing, while the Doctor was locking my friends up in Tartarus, especially knowing it was partly my fault? But that was exactly what I did. The reasonable part of my mind had won the battle in my head in the end. After a few minutes, Ruby and I slowly backtracked and walked back to our camp in defeat. Fluttershy was taking care of Starlight, despite tears rolling out of her eyes. She had already put the bandages on the few small cuts I had missed at a first glance. Starlight herself had already come back to her senses and was sitting on her haunches with a grave expression. “Twilight and the others are alive,” I announced to them. Fluttershy perked up her ears and stared at me with a wild hope in her eyes. “Really?!” “Yep,” Ruby nodded. “Looks like you were wrong.” “I’m so happy to be wrong!” Fluttershy exclaimed with a large smile, which disappeared a moment later. “But they’ve still been captured. And you said nothing about the guards… What should we do now?” “We need to get back to Ponyville,” said Starlight, giving me a hard stare for some reason. “I have no idea who that mare was, but she’s extremely powerful. We need the alicorns’ help to beat her.” “Let’s go then.” *** Our retreat back to Ponyville was much less enjoyable than the beginning of our journey. We were constantly on the lookout, reacting to every branch cracking loudly under somepony’s hoof — there wasn’t a guard’s platoon to protect us from the monsters anymore. Marcus walked, holding his rifle at the ready. He obviously thought that it would be more useful in his hands than a sword that he had just barely learned to wield. I had my reservations about it, considering the most common monster in the Forest was made of wood. I thought that the blade would cause more damage to it than rifle bullets, which would probably make it angrier. But I kept those thoughts to myself; if Marcus felt safer with a rifle, then so be it. “Who do you think that mare was?” I asked Starlight, who dragged her legs on the ground. She shrugged. “I said, I have no idea. She’s obviously somepony who was locked in Tartarus. Twilight called her Tenebris a few times during the fight.” “Tenebris…” I mulled the name over my tongue. “The name seems vaguely familiar.” “You’ve probably read about her in some old book,” said Starlight. “Tartarus preserves the lives of the ones imprisoned there, so they’re basically immortal.” “That’s cool,” Marcus commented. “So they can suffer in that cursed cage endlessly for all of eternity,” continued Starlight. “Less cool.” That grim revelation seemed to kill the mood for any more talking. Some time later, a quick movement flicked at the edge of my vision. The others had noticed it too as they stopped, trying to see what it was. I stared into the deep shadows, but could distinguish nothing except for the dark trees. Maybe it was just the wind…At least I desperately hoped it was. We slowly continued on our way, watching our surroundings with redoubled attention. I had only made a dozen steps when a low growl sounded right behind me. I walked in the tail of our small group, so my blood ran cold in terror. My primal instincts kicked in and I instinctively bucked behind me, feeling my hind hooves hitting something with a loud crack, and I sprinted away with a scream. My friends turned around, alarmed, to face whatever had spooked me and I joined their line; my hearts beating furiously in my chest. I crunched my muzzle from the disgusting, vile smell that told me who the monster was before I even looked. A large wolf-shaped beast made of wood stood a few meters from us, recovering from a blow to his head. A few of his fangs were missing and one of them hung on a thin twig from his mouth — my buck had had some effect. It was a timberwolf. I saw Marcus leveling his rifle — BAM — and half of the wolf’s face was gone. I flatted my sensitive ears against my skull, but it was too late; it rang from the shot so badly that I couldn’t hear anything else. Everypony around me fared no better, so we noticed the second wolf only when it jumped on Marcus from the back and tackled him onto the ground. The timberwolf mauled him savagely. I gazed at the tragedy unraveling before my eyes, shocked for a moment, but then I screamed in rage and blasted the wolf with a spell, which came to me easily in the heat of the moment. The wolf was thrown off, hitting the closest tree and fell into pieces. However, each piece was sucked into some sort of aura and the beast started to reassemble. Starlight put an end to him with a spell of her own, though she cringed painfully as she did so — she wasn’t fully recovered from the fight before. The monster was destroyed, with his parts set ablaze and thrown high into the sky. Hopefully they’d burn up before they hit the ground. I glanced at Marcus, who appeared to be alive for now, but my attention was on the first wolf, who was trashing around with no head. Ruby tried to approach him for a heavy buck, but she barely avoided one of his blind attacks and so started to circle him from behind. It was difficult, as the monster was changing direction seemingly at random, swinging his sharp claws wildly. Without thinking, I grabbed a log from the ground and launched it at the wolf, hoping to hit his legs. It broke his front one in half and he fell down, still beating around with his remaining limbs. Starlight followed my example and together we continued to hammer him with heavy logs until every part of him had been smashed to dust. With the danger finally over, we all rushed to Marcus, who was already trying to get up on his own. Thankfully, his armor had protected him from the worst of the damage, but he still had a gash on his arm and his nose was bleeding. Starlight applied some quick spell to stop the initial bleeding and then Fluttershy used a mixture from her saddlebag and some bandages to properly tend to the wound. “What the fuck was that?” Marcus asked in a shaken voice. “Timberwolf,” I said, jumping from hoof to hoof nervously, still full of adrenaline after the fight. The ringing in my ears subdued and I swiveled them in all directions at once, expecting a new attack at any second. I held the half-destroyed log in my magic and waved it around threateningly, ready to swing it into the enemy. I almost smashed it into Ruby thinking she was an attacker when she touched my shoulder, but managed to stop it mere inches from her head. “Whoa, girl, calm down,” she said to me, flinching at the log. “The fight is over now.” I put the log on the ground, shaking. I needed to keep my cool — I had almost killed my friend just now! I took a few deep breaths and it helped to calm me down a little. Ruby pulled me into a hug without a word and I sobbed into her warm fur. “There, there…” she gently patted me on my mane. The stress of the situation had finally gotten to me. I realized how bad everything was, with Twilight and the others being captured and us being in the middle of the Everfree Forest, getting harassed by some dangerous monsters who could eat a pony in one bite. After a few minutes of making a mess with my tears on Ruby’s fur, I felt much more at peace. Finally disengaging from a hug, I looked at the wet, dirty spot at her shoulder. “Sorry,” I said, blushing. “That’s what friends are for!” Ruby nodded happily, not disturbed in the slightest at my emotional breakdown and the mess I had made. Together, we approached the rest. Marcus was reloading his rifle, which was difficult using only one hand. I offered to help and quickly put everything in place with my precise levitation skills. The rifle wasn’t as useless as I had thought — it had likely saved our lives in the encounter. Too bad it had just one shot in it before needing a reload. Marcus nodded in appreciation as I gave the rifle back to him, ready to fire again. “It looks kind of bent now,” he said, examining the weapon closely. “I hope it still works.” I gave it a quick glance, but it looked the same as usual to me. Though I admit I wasn’t a rifle expert, but neither was Marcus. I was hungry, but we decided not to stop for that — the Forest had proved to be too dangerous for that. We continued on our way immediately, but not before I grazed a few patches of grass. It tasted bland, but it at least it was edible and satisfied my hunger somewhat. Marcus gave me a funny look as I chewed the green straws. “Ew, what are you doing, Sundae?” he asked. I shrugged — it wasn’t uncommon for ponies to eat plain grass. “It’s delicious!” I said with some fake enthusiasm. “You should try some.” “No, thanks,” Marcus declined my offer with a disgusted frown and I heard Ruby snicker. I flickered a smile myself. We chatted with each other much more than before the encounter with the monster. Maybe we were feeling more confident after defeating two of them or, more likely, were trying to hide our fears behind some mindless talk. We were still careful and attentive of our surroundings though, so we were able to notice another attack in time. I threw a log at the wolf from afar and then we quickly finished it off like the first one. After that, the forest beasts learned to keep out of our way. After a few hours of tiresome walking like that, we realized that we were getting lost. Fluttershy was our savior as she was able to fly up above the canopy to find the direction we needed to go. I didn’t let my guard down, even after the forest thinned out and finally ended. We walked out onto a big, unfamiliar pasture with no Ponyville in sight. It seemed like we had gotten a little sidetracked on our journey, which wasn’t a big surprise — no one knew the Forest as well as Twilight. The large hills around us were blocking our vision, so Fluttershy had to fly up again to look for Ponyville from the cloud level. After a few minutes, she landed beside us with a worried expression. “I don’t see Ponyville anywhere close.” My ears fell in disappointment. Too bad I couldn’t fly myself — I was reluctant to blindly trust Fluttershy’s judgment after her recent mishap. Fluttershy was nice, but she was just too nervous… I immediately felt bad thinking such thoughts, recalling my emotional breakdown after the fight with the timberwolves. Starlight was doubting her observation as well, however. “We couldn’t have gone that far,” she said. “Are you sure you didn’t just miss it?” “I don’t know…I guess, I can try again.” “Eh, don’t bother,” I said, waving my hoof dismissively. “It’s getting late anyway. We all should get some rest and find Ponyville in the morning.” “We don’t have the time to spare, Sundae,” Starlight snapped at me. “Every second we waste is one more second our friends are spending in the Doctor’s hooves!” I took an involuntary step back — Starlight had never yelled at me before. It was just the stress of the situation getting to her, I told myself. “Fine, I get it…No need to yell.” Starlight looked ashamed for a second, but then that emotion disappeared, replaced with anger. Anger at me. “Why didn’t you help us in the fight?” she said, stabbing me painfully in the chest with her hoof. “Maybe together we would have beaten them.” I was shocked, hearing such an accusation from her. Before I could say something in my defense, Ruby intervened. “Don’t you dare to blame Sunny!” “I’m not blaming her,” Starlight said, frowning deeply. “I’m just asking why she didn’t use all those spells I had taught her to help us.” “Girls, stop fighting please!” Fluttershy exclaimed, landing between us. I looked at her in surprise. “Not everypony is as brave as you, Starlight. Sundae went through a lot today — she got a new cutie mark, got her memories back and you expect her to throw herself into a vicious fight just like that?!” “I wanted to help, honestly,” I mumbled, “But just one look at that mare gave me the shivers. I couldn’t even take a single step…” “That’s right, she was hit with some kind of mind spell just before the fight! She was all wobbly and shaky, but she still tried to go in. She probably would have if I hadn’t stopped her in time, but she would have been killed in such a condition.” Starlight seemed to deflate after hearing that, losing all her energy to continue the arguing. She let out a heavy sigh. “Well, it looks like I’m a horrible friend,” she stated flatly and stared onto the ground. “I…I was just trying to blame somepony for the disaster…I’m sorry.” “It’s fine,” I said, approaching her and wrapping my forelegs around her neck. “You’re just worrying about our friends. We all are.” Starlight let me hold her for a while, just like Ruby had done to me earlier, and it helped her to collect herself. “I understand that we’re tired,” she finally said, “But we really have to find Ponyville today. The sooner Celestia knows about what happened, the faster we can free our friends.” “It’s getting dark and we don’t even know the right direction,” countered Ruby. “I can look for it from the skies while you all rest,” Fluttershy offered after a second of consideration. We turned to look at her and she fluttered a little, but continued nonetheless. “I’ll find Ponyville, tell Spike to send the letter and then return for you in the morning.” “That…actually sounds like a good idea,” Starlight nodded slowly. *** The next morning, I was awoken by Marcus. I stirred on the grass and yawned widely, feeling completely at peace, right until I remembered the reason we were sleeping outside. The sun had long since risen; it was late in the morning by all signs. I frowned in concern — wasn’t Fluttershy supposed to have woken us up? I looked around, but couldn’t see her among our group. “Where is Fluttershy?” I asked the question out loud. “She’s not here yet,” answered Ruby with a hint of worry. My frown got deeper. Was she still looking for Ponyville after so long? I sincerely doubted we’d gotten that far from it by wandering through the Forest. With all the crazy stuff happening with us lately, I was afraid to imagine what could have delayed her. “I have a bad feeling about this.” “Maybe she just overslept,” Starlight suggested. Whatever the reason was, there was no point for us to stick around at this particular spot. After a quick breakfast — with some real food this time — we picked a direction where we hoped Ponyville would be and trotted up the first hill. No town appeared in our sight after we had gotten on top of it, only more hills, but we continued on our way determinedly. I just hoped we were going in the right direction. As it turned out, we were. It was good to have luck on our side for once. It took us a few hours of tiresome climbing up and down through the rough terrain, but we finally saw Ponyville in a distance. We were pretty close to it — the hill had been blocking our vision of the town until the last moment. The closest house was just a mile or less away from where we were standing. My worry about Fluttershy increased. If we had managed to find Ponyville that quickly, she would do that much more easily from the skies. I shared my thoughts with the others and they agreed that we shouldn’t relax just yet. For all we know, the Doctor could have outpaced us and was waiting somewhere behind the corner, ready to spring his trap. I noticed that there was a much smaller number of ponies on the street than usual. It wasn’t that weird, I suppose — most of them would be at work at that time of day, so I told myself not to jump to any conclusions. But I couldn’t help but suspect the worst. “There she is!” Ruby exclaimed, pointing at the yellow pegasus trotting towards us from the town. I let out a sigh of relief. Fluttershy — it was definitely her — waved to us from afar and soon we got close enough to talk. I glanced at the guard kneecaps she was wearing for some reason. “Hello, Fluttershy!” Ruby greeted her and gave a quick hug that the pegasus barely reacted to. Fluttershy’s smile grew from ear to ear. “Hello, my friends!” I flickered my ears down from her unexpected loudness. I guess she was just happy to see us. Come to think of it, she seemed too happy, considering that most of her friends had just been imprisoned in Tartarus. “Did you send the letter to the Princess?” Starlight asked. “Of course I did!” Fluttershy answered after a moment of barely noticeable hesitation. “Mister Spike sent it right away.” Starlight tilted her head in confusion. “Since when do you call Spike a mister?” “Eh, I just respect him so much since he’s such a rare creature,” she said, waving her hoof dismissively. “Anyway, what’s up?” “Why didn’t you return for us as you’d promised?” Ruby asked with a narrowed stare, ignoring her question. Fluttershy appeared thoughtful, carefully considering her answer, and then looked at the ground in shame. “I overslept. I’m sorry, I was just so tired…” “It’s fine, Fluttershy,” Starlight assured her. “There is no harm done. Have you already gotten an answer?” “An answer? Yes, of course,” she nodded. “And it’s very urgent. I left it back at the castle. Let’s go!” Having said it, she turned and walked in the direction of the castle, clearly expecting us to follow. We did so, keeping a little behind her. Something was off in Fluttershy’s behavior — everypony had noticed that. She usually talked with some sort of timidity, but here she was speaking loud and clearly, and was hesitating with each reply. “She’s acting weird,” Ruby whispered so only we could hear. Starlight nodded silently, deep in thought. “Be on your guard.” Fluttershy glanced back to see if we were following and I faked a smile to her. Soon, I discovered something weird — everypony we met refused to look at us. I caught somepony’s stare once, but he quickly looked away. One of the ponies was making some wild gestures to me from the window, pointing at the castle and shaking her head. I alerted my friends to it. Starlight’s reaction was to stop in the middle of the road. “I feel like I’m walking into a trap,” she stated loudly. Fluttershy apparently heard that as she stopped as well and approached us with a weirdly stretched smile. It was kind of creepy, to be honest. “What do you mean, Starlight Glimmer? Why would I lead you into a trap?” Instead of the answer, Starlight grabbed the pegasus in her magic and forcefully slammed her into the ground. There was a sickening crunch and Fluttershy yelped in pain, having apparently broken one of her wings. I gaped at the sight before my eyes in horror. Had Starlight gone crazy?! Sure, Fluttershy was acting weird, but that was no reason to beat her up! Ruby thought so too apparently, as she tackled the purple unicorn to the ground, distracting her enough to disrupt the spell holding Fluttershy. “What the hell is happening?” Marcus asked no one in particular, while I just stared dumbfounded. Starlight tried to untangle herself from Ruby’s grab, but the earth mare was too strong and Starlight was reluctant to use magic to free herself. “Don’t you get it?! That thing is not Fluttershy!” “What?” I asked, starting to fear for my friend’s sanity. I turned my gaze back to the hurt mare, but instead of her, some fanged monstrosity was getting up. It was definitely pony-shaped, but it didn’t look like a pony with its insectoid wings, one of which was broken in the middle, nor with its black coat. I took an involuntary step back as the creature looked at me with its glistening green eyes. Ruby shrieked in surprise, noticing the thing too and hastily helped Starlight to get up. We stood in line, facing the creature together. I lit up my horn, preparing the most powerful blast spell I knew and Marcus aimed his rifle at its head. “I wasn’t going to harm you, I swear!” the creature dropped on its knees, instead of attacking like I had expected. “A likely story, changeling,” Starlight said. “Why did you take Fluttershy’s form?” “I’ll tell you if you promise not to hurt me.” “We won’t hurt you,” Starlight assured the changeling. “Now talk.” “Tenebris has captured Miss Fluttershy and ordered me to take her form and lure you all to this castle over there,” — the changeling pointed at the large crystal building behind him, as if there were any other castle nearby, — “She threatened to kill me if I refused.” “Tenebris?” I repeated the name. “Is she that pony that the Doctor freed from Tartarus?” “That’s the one,” the changeling nodded. “Where is Spike?” Starlight asked menacingly. “If you did something to either of them…” “I’ve done nothing to them! I’m a prisoner, just like they are.” The ponies cleared the street around us after our clash. I felt nervous just standing there so close to the castle, knowing that our enemies were waiting for us there. “Maybe we should get off the street.” Starlight nodded. She grabbed the changeling in her magic and we turned to the side alley. The inhabitants of Ponyville hid themselves in their houses at our approach — understandable, considering the changeling we had with us. The changeling itself remained quiet and didn’t complain, even though I saw that his broken wing was obviously causing him much pain. We stopped at the dead end between some old buildings and she put the changeling on the ground. He cringed, correcting his injured wing. “I’ll tell you what you want to know.” “Why should we believe you, changeling?” Ruby asked with spite in her voice. “Tenebris is my enemy just like she’s yours,” he explained, but Ruby and Starlight still watched him with narrowed eyes. As for myself, I was confused. Sure, the changeling looked pretty evil and I’d heard the stories about his kind’s recent attack on Canterlot, but this one wasn’t acting like the monster I’d imagined them to be. But on the other hoof, maybe he was just pretending in order to stay alive — Marcus still held his rifle pointed at him. There was also something vaguely familiar in the way the changeling acted though. “Who are you?” “I’m a changeling, miss,” he said. As soon as he addressed me in that particular way again, I got it. I was able to recognize that attitude pretty well by now. “Sturdy Peak?” I asked to confirm my suspicion. The changeling nodded, resigned. “Wait, what?” Marcus exclaimed suddenly. “You’re Sturdy Peak?!” “Yep. Hi, Marcus,” the changeling grinned half-heartedly. Marcus just stared at him in shock. The changeling admitted that he’d infiltrated the Guard years ago to spy on Equestria’s military. But after the invasion had failed, he just went on with being Sturdy Peak the Guardpony, having not received any new orders since then. He claimed to be acting on his own free will and I was inclined to believe his story, but Ruby and Starlight weren’t so trusting. “Have you at least delivered the message that Twilight asked of you?” Starlight asked. “Yep,” the changeling nodded. “I gave the scroll to Spike, as she’d ordered. Tenebris appeared soon after that and seized the castle. She somehow immediately discovered that I was a changeling.” “She also saw right through the chameleon-spell back in the Forest…” Starlight mulled. “Perhaps it has something to do with those eyes of hers.” The changeling shrugged, not having an answer to that. Sturdy, as I continued calling him, offered to help us and Starlight decided to release him. It was either that or finishing him off for good, since we had nowhere to hold him as a prisoner. No one in our group had the heart for that, however, so we had to give him the benefit of the doubt. The situation was grave. All of our friends had been captured and the Doctor – or rather Tenebris – had basically taken Ponyville. The good news was that Celestia had been warned about the Doctor successfully breaking into Tartarus, though she was yet to receive any information about his recent advances. The forces she had sent to guard Tartarus would be idling uselessly, being unable to enter and having no way of knowing what had happened. We didn’t know the Doctor’s full plan, but he had proved to be a dangerous foe and was probably prepared for a way to deal with Celestia, most likely with the help of Tenebris. And now with Tenebris at the lead of his whole organization, if the changeling was to be trusted, he’d come dangerously close to success. We couldn’t afford to be idle. Twilight and the rest were out of our reach in Tartarus, but we could at least save Fluttershy and Spike from the castle. Especially Spike, as he was the key to alerting the Princess. Tenebris didn’t have many ponies with her in at the moment; most of them had been wounded in the fighting. Besides, I knew the castle like the back of my hoof by now and all the places where the prisoners could be held. “So we all agree that’s what we’re going to do?” asked Starlight. “Yep. Sunny stays out of it, though.” “Hey,” I glanced at Ruby in annoyance. “I want to actually help this time.” Thankfully, Starlight supported me on this one. “She’s not a young filly, Ruby. You can’t order her around like that.” “But we’ll have a better chance with fewer ponies, right?” Ruby remained at her position. “We’re supposed to be sneaky and Sunny is as loud as a yak.” “I’m not that loud…” “We’re all going,” Starlight stated with an air of finality. Facing the both of us, Ruby finally gave up. *** We decided to go immediately. We approached the castle from the lake side and I saw no enemy patrols around; they were all probably waiting for us inside. It felt foolish to try something like this in broad daylight, but there was no point in waiting until night — they might have left by then, taking our friends with them as well as our chance to warn the Princess in time. Starlight teleported into her room on the upper floor and we waited with bated breath until she finally opened the window and gave us a sign that everything was fine. She levitated us to her one by one, including the changeling, who we had to take along. We kept an eye on him, of course, but so far he’d appeared to be on our side for this. If he had wanted to hurt us, he would have had plenty of chances this past month. Once we all got into Starlight’s room, she cast a spell that allowed her to see through the walls. I was familiar with this one too, so I followed her example. The corridor outside looked empty, but I couldn’t see further than that. With a spell that muffled our hoofsteps, we left the room and went to check the first place where we were expecting to find our friends. The castle appeared completely abandoned. Of course, I knew that there weren’t supposed to be a lot of ponies, but so far we had not found a single soul. I would suspect that Strudy had lied to us, but why would he? According to him, he was supposed to lure us in here, so the enemies could capture us. It made no sense for him to say that while they weren’t actually here. Suddenly, I noticed that the temperature in the corridor was dropping. The floor quickly became covered in a thin layer of ice. I stopped dead in my tracks, lighting up my horn, while Starlight did the same. Marcus cocked his rifle, pointing it forward, where a cloud of mist was growing out of thin air. There were three distinctive pony shapes in it. A moment later it dissipated revealing the unicorn mare — Tenebris — along with Doctor Shade and Bright. I recoiled, almost stumbling and falling to the floor if not for Ruby. I glanced back, hearing some hoofsteps behind us — a few henchponies in armor blocked our way there as well. It was a trap! The changeling among us appeared to be scared too, having returned to his original form and scowling at the enemy with his fangs. “Good job, changeling,” Tenebris said in a high and deliberate voice. “I’ll let you live for now.” Sturdy changed his expression to one of surprise and then frowned. I could practically feel the conflict inside him, while he was deciding whether he should stick with us or pretend that it had been his plan all along. I wasn’t surprised by his ultimate decision — I would probably do the same in his position. “I’m happy to serve you, Lady Tenebris!” He walked past us, ignoring Ruby whispering damn traitor at his back, but before he could stand beside Tenebris and the rest, her horn flashed with a spell and the changeling fell to the floor with a surprised yelp; his legs frozen in a solid block of ice. “I would be a fool to trust your service, creature,” she said, her voice sounding as cold as the air in the corridor. “I promised you’d live, but I didn’t say you’d remain free.” “What do you want, Tenebris?” Starlight asked the mare; her horn glowing with magic. “I want you to stop opposing me.” Having said that, she fired a spell at our group. However, we had long since been prepared for that. A shield spell powered both by me and Starlight came to life, harmlessly deflecting Tenebris’ first attack. I felt strained, however, and even Starlight grunted, struggling to keep it together. Marcus attempted to fire his rifle at Tenebris, but it jammed at the worst possible moment — the damage from the timberwolf attack proved to be more serious than it had seemed. He pulled the trigger wildly, but the rifle just refused to shoot. Tenebris’ second spell destroyed our shield completely and I fell to the ground in exhaustion, my horn smoking from the magic overload. Starlight remained standing, but she was panting hard, continuing to glare at Tenebris. Bright and the Doctor simply stood beside her, not participating in the fighting. I understood that we’d already lost, but Ruby had other ideas in her crazy head. She charged at the enemy before I could stop her. Another flash of Tenebris’ horn and she crashed beside the changeling, her legs strung together with ice. “You’re no match for me, little ponies and the beast,” she said, with the latter obviously referring to Marcus. “I have no plans to kill you two if you swear loyalty to me. I appreciate such bravery in my fellow unicorns.” I could barely remain conscious at that point and briefly wondered what she had meant by you two, before the blackness finally overtook my mind.