Fairlight - To the Edge of Midnight

by Bluespectre

Chapter Seventeen - The Path Less Travelled

Your Divine Majesties,

I feel compelled to raise my objection to the appointment of this so-called ‘Night Guard’ to the position of guarding the prison of Tartarus in the strongest possible terms.

These creatures are an abomination, born from a conflict which tore our once beautiful home of Equestria apart and shook everything we held dear down to its very foundations. I understand the need to utilise individuals who have a strong sense of duty and are unlikely to quaver at a posting in such a desolate land, but for the life of me I simply cannot comprehend why we must use creatures who have so strong connection to the darker side of our history. Nightmare Moon has been banished, and yet we would entrust entities spawned of such insidious evil to keep other monsters under lock and key? What is to prevent them from seeking to exact retribution for the downfall of their mistress by letting the foul beasts kept within Tartarus’ halls loose at the first opportunity?

I beg you to reconsider your decision before it is too late and another disaster is unleashed upon the world of the living.

Respectfully,

Lord Almond Tararian.

I think it’s fair to say I didn’t sleep quite as well as I could have that night. Dear goddesses; Tartarus? Some called it Hell, others Hades. But those of us who knew more of their history knew what it truly was: A prison. A prison where some of the worst monsters the world had ever seen were locked away for all eternity by the gods. In common parlance it was where you cursed your enemies, but in truth few had ever seen it, let alone returned to tell the tale. As such it was treated as more myth that reality in our society, but delve deeper into Equestrian history and it’s there all right, sitting like a bullfrog in the middle of a pond waiting for its dinner to stray too close to it’s jaws. Tartarus truly was a hell for those in there, and it was there they and their evil stayed.

“All set?” Rush asked appearing behind me.

I pulled the last strap securing my packs in place nice and tight, slid the keeper into place to prevent it from flapping around, and let out a breath. There was nothing worse than something slapping against your legs when you were walking, and comfort when travelling was always paramount. “Just about,” I replied. I turned to face him, “Thanks for letting me stay the night, and for your generous hosting.”

“It’s nothing,” Rush said with a wave of his hoof. “You’d do the same for me.”

I smiled, “I would at that, Rush. Anyway, I suppose I’d best be going now.” And then I paused, something from last night tickling at the back of my mind. “Celestia never asked me why I was here.”

Rush shrugged, “I dare say she’ll already know. She may not let on that she does, but she’ll know.”

“I’m glad somepony does!” I chuckled, shaking my head. “I don’t suppose she gave you any insight into what I’m supposed to do now, did she?”

“Now that is a good question,” Rush smiled sadly. “If I knew the answer my friend, I promise I would have told you. Of that you can be sure. Unfortunately I learned long ago that Tia doesn’t get involved in matters that involve Fate. The two of them have what you could call ‘history’?”

“So Fate really is one of the gods, eh?” I asked curiously.

Rush shrugged, “I’m not sure you’d call her a god as such, but she wields the power to affect lives both in the mortal realm and here in the herd more so than any other. Personally I would have nothing to do with her, Fairlight. Even Tia is cautious when merely speaking of that mare.” He lifted his hoof, “Just a moment...” Rush reached back into his pocket and withdrew what appeared to be a letter. “Tia left this for you.”

My horn itched just to touch the thing. “From the princess?” I asked.

Rush nodded, “She said you have to read it here before you leave the forest.”

Strange indeed. Curiosity taking hold I carefully opened the neatly folded letter. The writing was, as you could expect from such a refine creature, absolutely beautiful too:

Lord Fairlight,

Firstly, my apologies for not speaking to you in person before I left this morning. Sadly, matters of state call upon me once more and I shall have to respectfully ask that you excuse my abrupt departure.

May I take this opportunity to remind you that what transpired during our time in the forest, stays in the forest. This includes any mention of Rush or of my relationship with him. I will hold you to your honour in this regard. Please take note that when we next meet I may appear to be less informal with you than I was last night, however this does not mean that I have forgotten the pleasant evening spent with yourself and Rush.

In respect to your coming journey I can offer little in the way of practical advice other than this passage from ‘Star Swirl’s Eloquences’:

‘The path least travelled can oft yield the greatest of unexpected treasures.’

The choice, as always, is yours to make. May I wish you well on your journey and the protection of the gods for you and your loved ones.

Respectfully,

HRH Princess Celestia

Well that was short and sweet wasn’t it! And bloody Star Swirl just had to get his damned oar in there too didn’t he, the greasy little turd. I closed the letter and in a poof of blue magic it vanished into nothing. “Very clever,” I noted aloud.

“She’s certainly full of tricks that one,” Rush said with wry grin. “And this is for you too.”

My eyes lit up, “My pendant!” I exclaimed. “Good gods, Rush! How did you-”

“Tia,” he said simply. “She said you’d know what to do with it. She also said that I was to tell you that it was a loan, rather than a gift.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at his expression as I floated the pendant over my head. It was like welcoming an old friend home. To have such a wondrous magical item back in my possession made my heart swell with hope, and dare I say it, an element of excitement at prospect of the journey ahead.

“Well, I suppose this is goodbye, Fairlight,” Rush said with a slight bob of his head. “I’ve enjoyed your company, and perhaps, gods willing, we’ll meet again one day. I feel you and I have some things in common, and it’s been good to speak to another stallion for a change.”

“A stallion from another world with a princess for a marefriend, and a pony-cum-wendigo with a thestral marefriend from another world.” I sighed, “Sounds like a night out for four, Rush.”

He winked, “Or a headache.” The stallion followed me to the door, “I’ll get the table booked for next time, eh?”

I reached out a shook his hoof firmly, “I’ll hold you to that my friend. May the gods bless you.”

The brown stallion clopped me on the shoulder and smiled, “And you.”

Above me the sky was as blue and pure as it ever was in herd. Colourful birds flew overhead, the bamboo rustling in a perfect breeze that was as fresh as it was gentle. Throughout it all the sense of peace and life was an almost tangible energy all its own, permeating everything around me. I could see why Rush and Celestia loved it here so much. This was Rush’s home, but for Celestia it was also her refuge from her duties in the mortal realm, and here the two of them could spend time together and simply forget about the world outside. I wasn’t a fan of the princess, and I doubted I ever would be either, but I could respect her and enjoy her company even so. Perhaps Rush was right, and one day I would come here with a mare I loved and the four of us could act like normal ponies without being pointed at by every passer by. To my way of thinking, public life for high profile ponies like the princess must be an endless nightmare of meetings, audiences, bowing and scraping supplicants, scheming nobles, and all the other formalities and plotting that came with such a position. Rush had experienced himself to some degree, for a while at least, and I could sympathise with the fact that he was more than happy to live in seclusion the way he did since passing away. Thank the gods that in Smiling Borders I was treated more as a fellow member of the tribe rather than as the ‘Lord of the Four Winds’. As grand a title as it was, I didn’t have ponies falling at my hooves and swooning whenever I passed by. Personally I couldn’t think of anything worse!

Before I knew it the fork in the road was before me in no time at all. True to Rush’s description, one path lead south, leading away from the deeper forest and was well tended, probably by that self same stallion. As for the other direction, now that was a different story. There was little to no sign of wear on the moss coated path, and the forest had a feeling about it I could only fairly describe as ‘ominous’. I wasn’t surprised; Jelly Bean had set me on this course, and indirectly Celestia herself too to a degree. The ‘Greatest of unexpected treasures’, huh? What was that then? Staying alive? Luna’s arse, what a choice! Like I really had one to begin with… I took a deep breath and gave myself a hard shake. I didn’t need the pendant to show me. I already knew.

“Here we go, Fairlight. Once more unto the breach,” I muttered to myself, and with a nod of my head set forth upon the path that would take me past the gateway to the worst place the gods had been able to conjure up. What wasn’t to like about that? Bloody hell, why me…

Plodding along I entertained myself by taking in the sights the forest had to offer. The bamboo trees were certainly the most prominent feature, and I have to say, they were extraordinary things indeed. I’d seen tall trees before, the Everfree was chock full of any number of them after all, but they were nothing like these. The trunks, if that’s what they were really called, shot straight up out of the ground like green spears, aiming for the blue sky and sunlight as though in a race with their neighbours to reach that wondrous golden orb of life giving warmth. Each individual tree was a uniform diameter all the way up, with the foliage far above my head whispering steadily in the breeze. Down here in the eerie quiet it was cooling down considerably now, matching the density of the forest as the path continued onward. Even the light was starting to change. The sun was still high in the sky, but the bamboo, crowding each other in their eternal quest for that very same light, was blocking it from reaching the forest floor leaving it a dry soily emptiness. If there was life here other than the bamboo it was doing a good job of hiding itself. I’d detected no animal calls, no insects, not even any birds since I started out on this path. Whereas in the forest surrounding Rush’s home where there was a spattering of what I thought of more ‘normal’ trees, there was nothing else here but what felt like mile after endless mile of the ever present green bamboo. As I walked I kept looking around for any signs of life. At one point I even stopped and checked behind me, convinced something was there. There wasn’t. In fact the only way I was able to tell which way was which was by the scuffed ground where my hoofprints marked my passage. Other than myself, nopony had walked this path in a very, very long time.

What I dreaded eventually arrived. Night time. In reality it was probably still only late afternoon, possibly even early evening, but the temperature had already begun to plummet. As a wendigo this didn’t bother me particularly, but this cold felt different. It seeped into you slowly, chilling not only your body but had the unpleasant effect of sapping your energy as well as your spirit. I was now faced with a quandry; do I walk on in near complete darkness with only a thin ribbon of stars high above the path to guide me, or do I make camp beside the road? I stopped and peered off into the gloom. The forest was near silent save for the distant rustling of the canopy and the crunch of my hooves on the dry ground. The choice was obvious when I thought about it. If I could still do it of course. Fortunately there was a spot near the path that was near enough that I could find my way back easily, and with just enough room for a small encampment. Thankfully I’d remembered to pack my portable heater along with a good supply of crystal and soon had it fired up and working nicely. Carefully I set my packs to one side and checked my blades were to hoof, just in case. All being said however, despite the peculiar sensation of cold it wasn’t too bad an evening in the forest, although I certainly would have preferred to have been a little less exposed. Still, a flask of hot tea provided by my reed cutting friend, a generously filled sandwich, and I was pretty much set for the night. As I warmed myself beside the heater I reflected on my surroundings and the feeling of being utterly alone. It was so quiet here! No buzz of insects, no cries of nocturnal birds, foxes, or any of the usual sounds I was so used to living with in the countryside. Being this far from civilisation was something I can honestly say I hadn’t expected, especially since I was still in the herd. So far as I knew anyway. Oh sure, there would be ponies whose ideal home would be just like Rush’s house, far out in the middle of nowhere, but when you took into account the herding nature of equines it was abundantly clear that this was the exception rather than the rule. The thought of being alone, of choosing to stay alone, was an alien concept to me. I wanted company, needed it even, and as much as I may distrust others it didn’t stop me from feeling the chill bite of loneliness. Especially here.

I took a deep breath, making myself as comfortable as I could as around me, the night rolled on.

Red eyes as rich as blood peered into mine. Clicking, hissing, the slow rolling back of black shining lips to expose short, sharp white teeth made my heart skip a beat. Brimstone and the metallic taste of ozone from the expended burst of lightning that was blacker than the night sky filled my senses. The teeth moved nearer, the jaws opening. I gasped in shock and pain as they sank into my neck, biting through my hide, but not too deep. Her pressure was just enough. Just… right. I melted into her, my tears stinging my eyes in sheer unadulterated joy as her leathery wings embraced me, folding me into her embrace. I could stay there forever, feeling the warmth of her breath upon mine, her body pressed against my own. She pushed into me, running her slim forelegs up my chest and over my shoulders, settling herself onto me. I could feel her every movement, every single beat of her heart. Nickering softly I let the mare have her way. I was tired yet energised, my moans of joy mingling with her huffs. I hadn’t felt this way in so long. So, so long.

“Shadow...” I murmured.

The mare’s teeth began to bite deeper, making me flinch as a shock of pain shot through me. Shadow knew just how much to- Ow! What was she doing?! Damn, this… this didn’t seem right. “Sh… Shadow?” I tried to open my eyes, but something was pressing against them, holding them shut. I tried to move, finding to my horror that I was pinned down, enfolded in a black nothingness that blocked out all light, all sound, and… and air. I tried to push to away, to get up, but I was completely wrapped in the blackness. Panic began to take rein now as the need for survival overrode my conscious mind. I tried desperately to release my magic but failed spectacularly. Trying to tap into it proved to be impossible as it darted out of my grip every time I reached for it, the familiar power of the wendigo dancing away as slippery as a greased up eel. Unfortunately my increasingly desperate attempts to catch it was diverting me from my similarly fruitless physical exertions as I struggled to break free of the nothingness. My heart was beating hard enough to burst, thrumming loudly in my ears, but still I couldn’t move. My body burned with my efforts, yet nothing I did seemed to work! I had to get away, I had to survive, I had to… to… oh, gods. I knew this feeling: the sensation of falling, of floating away, your mind starved of oxygen as you began, inexorably... to die. Again. Once again I was-

A burst of light, the glint of steel, and then… A breath of air! Cold, raw, blessed air! Urgently I pulled it into my lungs, feeling renewed strength surging through me. But it was the scream of rage and pain blasting into my ear from inches away that truly gave strength to my legs. Whatever had a hold of me released its grip, dropping me to the ground like a discarded doll. Shaken and dazed I still managed to kick out, grab my knife in my magic, and brought it round in a savage arc towards the black shape. Something gave, a slight resistance, and a snarl of pained anger answered me. Suddenly a blow from the shape, unseen in the darkness, slammed into my head and knocked me to the forest floor. It was like being slapped by thick wet wash-leather, but still more than hard enough to make my senses rattle around inside my skull.

“Bring it down!”

“It’s moving too fast for a shot. Get the perimeter sphere up now!”

“There’s something over there. Damn it! Check your fire, we’ve got a civilian here!”

I heard the voices. They were nearby, and growing closer by the second. Urgent, and yet with a militaristic edge and intendant professionalism that screamed that whoever they were they knew what they were doing. Personally they were my last concern right then. Coughing violently, my lungs began to fill with life giving air once more as I lunged towards the black shape. It was little more than a black outline on a field of black, but there was just enough contrast between the shadow of the bamboo and the mass for me to make out roughly where it was. But what it was, was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was as though hell had vomited up life into the world of the herd. A light sucking mass of shadow, writhing and morphing into mind warping things of utter darkness, floated before me. For a moment I stared at it. Whether it stared back or not was impossible to tell. Horribly, or perhaps mercifully depending upon which was you looked at it, the thing had no eyes. A long low hiss emanated from the form as though it were some monstrous snake, but by then my scythe was in my hooves, the blade snapping into place as I took my stance. Gods, could I even cut shadows? The damned thing had no legs, no arms, no face... nothing! But instead of reacting to me it just hovered there a few inches above the ground. Then, in the blink of an eye, the shape shot away into the night. Instinctively I ducked down as a shape flashed by overhead whilst another ran past me, a stray mote of starlight catching on the metallic coating. The cavalry, it seemed, had arrived.

“Hold! Lower thy blade and make thy name known, Equestrian.”

Oh gods, what now?! Why did ponies have to keep sneaking up behind me all the bloody time? You know, for once it would be nice to actually see somepony approaching me like a normal equine and not some bloody damned ninja! And another thing, what was with the ‘olde worlde’ speak? I turned to face the newcomer.

“My name’s – Celestia’s arse cheeks!” I nearly had a bloody heart attack for the second time that night. A huge pair of glowing blue eyes with a vertical pupil like some enormous house cat hovered in the air before me making me back up a step in alarm.

The stallion, if that’s what he was, glowered at me, “Not quite...”

“What are you?” I breathed.

“I be the one asking thee questions, Equestrian,” the thing said levelly. “Speak now so I may know thee.”

I could barely see a blasted thing in that darkness. My wendigo magic wasn’t doing anything for me either, and as much as I could sense it within me it was still as elusive as it had been when I’d needed it most. And let’s not forget that thing was still out there too.

“My name’s Fairlight,” I answered. “But do you really think this is the right time for introductions, friend? I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s a monster loose out there that just tried to kill me, and I don’t fancy being on the menu a second time tonight.” I rubbed at my neck and winced as the damage the creature had done made itself known. It didn’t seem too serious, but I’d have to put something on it in case the wound turned nasty.

The blue eyes watched me with their disturbing black vertical slit for a pupil. I couldn’t make much out by way of any other physical features, other than he was male, wore armour, carried a sword, and had appeared out of nowhere. A pegasus? From further away a blast of deep blue magic rolled out, causing the bamboo to shiver and the ground to shudder beneath me.

“We have him!” a voice called out from the darkness in the direction of the magical blast. “Move in and secure.”

All around me more of the warriors emerged, flowing around us and converging on the shimmering blue dome of magical energy that had appeared a barely a second earlier. Whatever was inside howled out its rage and threw itself at the glowing barrier. Thankfully, and much to my relief, it’s wild attempts at escape proved to be fruitless. Steadily the warriors surrounded the dome, and as one began to walk it inward as it contracted, slowly but surely, onto the ever shrinking space the shadow beast occupied.

“What is that thing?” I asked half to myself.

“We call them Glyphs,” my new colleague replied in his peculiar manner, “Beasts that be made of purest night that survive by sucking the very magic from out of their prey, leaving them naught but empty husks.” He held out a hoof, “Now, thou shalt follow me to mine commander, Equestrian Fairlight.”

“And will you allow me to keep my weapons?” I asked, curious of how he would react.

“Of course,” the pony replied. “Thou art not mine prisoner. Unless thou wantest to be?”

“Well then, lead on, friend,” I invited, holding out my hoof. “I only hope they’re got the kettle on. I could kill for a cuppa.”

Night gradually began to give way to early dawn as we walked. My new colleague didn’t bother to wait for his comrades to catch us up, which I found a little unusual to say the least. I was armed after all, and he didn’t have a clue who or what I was. Besides, he was just one guy. One very strange looking guy. Maybe he knew something I didn’t? Despite the low light and the thick cover of the bamboo, a few trickles of sunlight gradually began to sneak their way through the canopy and down to the path allowing me to observe my curious companion. He was certainly an equine, that was for sure. About average height, a dark blue-grey colour so far as I could tell in this light, and wearing a stylised armour of near matching colours of purple, navy blue, and black. The crest on his helmet was strange too, and had the appearance of a short dragon’s wing or fin of some description. His ears had long tufts that caught the breeze, but it was his wings that really gave away what he was. I hadn’t seen them at first, but every so often the light would pick them out when he moved just so. Those eyes should have made it obvious of course, but I had never seen one of these creatures at night before. Rumour had it that they protected the royal palace in Equestria at night, but since I was hardly a regular visitor there I’d have to take that with a pinch of salt. Honestly, I’d only ever seen them a few times and even that was at a distance when Luna had been on official duties in Canterlot. They were the night guard, more commonly known as ‘bat ponies’. Some of the ponies I knew thought they were the product of magical experimentation whilst others insisted that they simply didn’t exist at all and were a figment of the common imagination. Considering the diverse world we lived in I found that attitude a little hard to swallow. Being a wendigo I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of my fellow equestrians believed that I didn’t exist either! In any case, this enigmatic species had appeared when Luna had returned from exile, and many believed that they had gone into exile with her. Which, on the surface of it, did make some sense. But here’s the thing; Maroc’s memories had never mentioned bat/pony hybrids, nor any ‘night guard’ for that matter. Luna’s troops had been thestrals, minotaurs, griffins, and ponies amongst others. Interesting indeed! So far however, I hadn’t been threatened or mistreated in any way, and I confess I was interested to know where this would lead. Getting out of that bloody forest would be a good start, and by the looks of things that was exactly what was happening. Unfortunately the destination we were heading for didn’t look particularly auspicious. ‘Ominous’ might be a better word to describe it.

The red light of dawn spilled over a scene I had heard of but never thought I would ever see with my own eyes. Or at least I’d prayed I never would. The gateway was exactly how I would have imagined it to be too: black iron work, tall, arched, and radiating a degree of menace unmatched by anything in the mortal realm. Each upright iron rod, topped with a crown of curling black spikes that could have impaled a dragon, stood immovably against a backdrop of broiling clouds the colour of flames and fresh blood. Here the blue sky raged in eternal conflict against the borders of the worst place a pony could tread. It was the gateway to a land where the sins of the condemned anchored them to a prison where only the very worst resided. I didn’t want to be here. I’d narrowly managed being one of the inmates here myself according to that blasted alicorn Aethel, and here I was walking in of my own accord! What the hell was I doing here? Had this been Jelly Bean’s plan all along? He didn’t have the stones to send me here himself so he got me to walk in under my own steam like some damned penitent martyr? Ha! ‘Jelly Bean’… Maybe I should ask these guys to send him my thanks for giving me a trim before I was-

“Who be this?”

Another of the bat ponies had approached us from out of a low, black stone built building near the gate. His dark blue armoured hooves crunched over the gravelly blackened ground that had replaced the dry soil of the forest. Going by the silver trim on his armour, this fellow was a higher rank than my less than talkative host.

“He says his name be Fairlight, Lord Commander,” my guard replied. “We found him in the forest when we be tracking the Glyph.”

The ‘Lord Commander’ frowned at me with his glowing golden eyes, “What be ye doing here, Equestrian? This not be the place for gentle souls to wander.”

Gentle souls? I took a breath, trying to keep control of my building anxiety. “Lord Commander, I am on a quest to...” To what? My words petered out like sand from an hourglass. Gods, I didn’t even know where I was supposed to going, let alone what I was meant to do when I got there! I’d just followed the path that lead from the gaol cell, wandered into the bamboo forest, and then blundered into Rush’s home. From then on I followed the path and ultimately found myself here! I certainly couldn’t tell these guys I’d been having a cup of tea and a chat with the princess as her warning about the repercussions for doing so had been all too clear. I cleared my throat, “I’m-”

Abruptly a low moaning horn blasted out across the blackened ground, ending any furtherance of our conversation. Perhaps it was just as well. I had the distinct impression I was going to succeed in little more than making myself look like some wandering lunatic who’d fancied having a gander at the gateway to Tartarus. Instead, everyponies attention was now fully fixed on the direction of the alarm call. The Lord Commander was on it in a trice.

“Alphire,” he said curtly, “take him to the guard house.”

“I can be of more use here,” I replied quickly. “I’m no stranger to battle, Commander.”

The stallion glanced at me and then to his comrade. I could see the reluctance in his glowing gaze, but the next alarm call made his mind up for him. “Very well,” he said checking his sword, “but keep thee to the rear, Equestrian. We be short hoofed and need every pony we can muster. Thou shalt stay with Alphire.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice. In a burst of speed and kicked up gravel, the two of us broke into a gallop towards the call of the horn. Alphire, I noted, didn’t use his wings either. I hadn’t seen much of bat ponies as it was, but those I had had been either walking or running rather than flying. Perhaps they had the same problem thestrals had, and, dare I say it, myself. Heavy wings had the advantage of being stronger than a pegasi’s but that was at the cost of speed. I’d seen thestrals strap down their wings to avoid them being injured in combat, effectively forcing them to fight on the ground. Some of them went further, wearing armour that completely covered their wings so there wasn’t even an option of flight. As for my bat pony hosts, I could only speculate. Then there was the matter of their teeth. These creatures were no herbivores, that was for certain. Small, sharp pointed teeth drew my eye when they spoke, suggesting that these guys were probably the reason there were so many griffin meat sellers near Canterlot palace. I wondered if having a taste for bacon sandwiches would land you in gaol there too?

We galloped at full tilt, the horn’s call sounding louder and more insistent with each blast indicating that we were drawing nearer to the cause of the commotion. It hadn’t been much more than a minute or two at best, but Alphire and I had cleared a good distance already. That said it wasn’t like there was much to see to get your bearings around here anyway. The ground was as black as the sand of the Withers and equally devoid of any living vegetation. It was warm too, and surprisingly crunchy under hoof, like cinders from a camp fire. I tried not to let my imagination run away with me as my eyes began to take in more of the otherworldliness of this bleak place. Around us blackened trees stood like charred skeletons, their limbs twisted into bizarre forms and completely bare of any foliage. Or life. Everything about this place told me one thing: I didn’t want to stay here for very long. Personally I didn’t want to stay here at all, let alone for any length of time, but there had to be some reason I’d ended up here. Other than blundering into it of course, and I wouldn’t discount that as a possibility. Whatever the reason for my arrival here, the cause of the alarm call hove into view the moment we crested the slight incline and began to drop down the other side towards a sight which would have had any sensible pony back peddling like there was no tomorrow. Which for those who passed this way, it would be best if there was none. Huge blackened rocks began to replace the gravel as the ground gradually dropped away into a chasm that cut through the landscape as a deathly scar, deep as the void, and empty save for the faint glow of what appeared to be a river at it base. Beyond it, rocks and flame glowed with an inner heat, shimmering and distorting your vision with images of… things I’d rather not think about. But the cause of the alarm call was what sat in the middle of it all. There, across the gorge on a thin bridge of rock that connected the world of the herd from the prison of Tartarus, lay the sleeping form of largest dog I’d ever seen. I’d heard of it of course, but I’d always thought of it as more of a metaphor for something else. It never occurred to me that it would be an actual living thing, and of such a size at that! We all knew the name. What pony didn’t?

Cerberus, the three headed canine guardian of Tartarus, lay before us as real as the tail on my backside. The huge beast was surrounded by Night Guard, flitting back and forth with their bat-like wings as others buzzed around him on the ground. I’d seen some strange things in my time, but this had to be one of the weirdest by far. Cerberus was absolutely enormous, and dwarfed the bat ponies surrounding him. His fur was as black as night, his muzzles a dark slate grey, and his snoring like a poorly maintained lawnmower built for a giant. One of the dog’s tongues lolled out while another liked its lips as it dozed. That was when I noticed the yellowish goop dripping down the corner of one of his mouths. Alphire was about to walk away when he noticed what I was looking at and gave me a hard stare with those weird eyes of his.

“What be that?” he asked.

I wasn’t certain, but I had a feeling, a horrible sinking feeling, that I already knew damned well what it was. I didn’t want to admit it, but... “Egg,” I replied. “A large egg that looks like a rock. Have your ponies look for any shell fragments nearby.”

“An egg?” The bat pony looked at me askance, but then nodded quickly before leaping into the air and shouting over to his comrades. In short order the fluttering and running mass of warriors spread out. With that sort of pony power it didn’t take long to find what I knew was going to be there.

“We have it!”

Those three words cut through my heart like a knife. I felt sick to stomach. It was that damned Roc’s egg, wasn’t it. The thing I’d found for Lord Maul. The thing that Vela had wanted all along. Steeling myself I trotted over to the broken remains of the egg along with several of the bat ponies who were staring at the shell in confusion. I knew what was coming next...

“How did thou nowest this be here, Equestrian?” one asked.

“I saw the egg on Cerberus’ mouth,” I replied. “It’s the yolk of a Roc’s egg.” I saw the curious expressions and explained, “It blocks magic. My guess is that since Cerberus is a magical creature, the egg acted as a sedative.” I shrugged, “That would be my guess anyway.”

A general murmur sprung up around me, the bat ponies bubbling with speculation as to what had happened to the guardian of Tartarus. Unfortunately it didn’t take an ornithologist or mythologist to work it out. This was Vela’s work, and I’d bet any amount of money you liked that one of the effects of the Roc’s egg was to send the poor sod off to the land of nod. I had to try and keep the conversation going my way or I knew how this would likely end.

“Did you see any strange ponies coming through here recently?” I asked. “Grey unicorns with yellow eyes, snowflake cutie marks or the like?”

The muttering rose to a generalised hubbub of loud conversation. A lot of the warriors were looking at each other and pointing hooves as though they knew something, but weren’t sure exactly what that ‘something’ was. The Lord Commander himself appeared to break the stalemate,

“Nopony would come through the gates willingly,” he stated flatly.

“Well somepony did, Lord Commander,” I replied just as levelly. “Somepony got this egg past your guards and served it to our oversized pooch here for dinner.”

“’twould explain the Glyph, My Lord,” one of the warrior noted, “and the missing guards.”

“Missing guards?” I asked. “You have missing guards and you didn’t investigate it?”

The officer’s eye twitched as he locked onto me, “We only noticed just before the Glyph escaped. Two of the gate guard be unaccounted for.”

“What about beyond Cerberus?” I asked. “The scene’s been churned up by everypony now, but has anypony looked behind him to see if there are any hoof prints leading further in?”

“Further in?” Alphire looked at me like I’d grown another two heads myself. “What lunatic be wanting to enter the prison voluntarily?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted quietly. “But Fate has lead me to this point for a reason, and I intend to find out what that is.”

Suddenly the Lord Commander stepped around me and blocked my path. “Who be ye, Equestrian?” he asked. “I know thy name of Fairlight, but of your hoof in this I know not, and thou clearly knowest far more than thou doth divulge to us.”

Luna preserve us, what was with these guys?! Literature had never been a strong suit of mine, but even if it had been the way these ponies spoke tied knots in my cerebellum. “Lord Commander,” I said politely, “the gods have-”

“He is a wendigo, Lord Commander Candle. He is the Lord of the Four Winds.”

We turned as one to look to the newcomer. Bronze eyes gazed back at me from a pony that looked very much like all the others here, only a little slimmer, and with thinner, longer ears that were tipped in tufts of purest white. I didn’t recognise him at all, but he certainly appeared to know me. Or at least recognised my name.

The bat pony bobbed his head to me as he addressed the commanding officer, “Father spoke of his coming.”

Ah, how I loved being talked about when I was stood right there! I cocked my head on one side curiously, “Pardon me, Sir, but you appear to have me at a disadvantage.”

The stallion paused, looking me up and down as if he was about to put me on display in a shop window. “My father spoke of you, Lord Fairlight,” he repeated calmly. “He is a friend of one you know well I believe. Colonel Fulminata?”

“Fulminata?” I’m sure I’d heard that name, but I couldn’t quite-

“You may know him better as Star Beard?” the bat pony suggested.

My ears perked up at the mention of his name, “Star Beard?” I took a step forward in surprise. “He’s here?”

The bat pony shook his head, “No. Fulminata is still in the Wither World, however he was able to pass on a message to my father who then passed it on to me. That message stated that you would be coming here, and that we were to allow you to progress on your quest without hindrance.”

I didn’t know what to say. Star Beard, or Fulminata as was his real name, had sent a message to say I was to be expected at the entrance to Tartarus? Gods… If I wasn’t so shocked I probably would have burst out laughing. As much as I’d wanted to believe I was in control of my own destiny, reality just kept on pulling me right back down again, didn’t it?

“Who is your father?” I asked.

“Tempest,” the pony replied. “He dwells now in the Darklands with the rest of his tribe.” The stallion bowed his head, “My name is Tempest Moon.” He turned to the commander, “Candle, I shall leave you with the division. Meanwhile I shall take charge of our new friend.”

Candle bowed low, “As you wish, Eldest.”

Eldest? He wasn’t dressed any differently from the other warriors here, and in fact looked for all intents and purposes like one of the rank and file. In fact the only thing that made him stand out from the rest was the way he looked physically. There was a leanness to him that was partially disguised by his armour, and his ears too looked longer, thinner, and more like horns than a regular pony’s. Was his muzzle a touch longer? Or was that a trick of the light? And there, when he caught the light just so, I could see some of his back teeth curling over his top lip. His father was in the Darklands, was he? Ah… all the pieces were slowlyyfitting into place.

Tempest Moon bobbed his head to the others, “Come, Lord Fairlight. We shall see if your deduction bears fruit.”

Obediently I shifted my belongings into a more comfortable position and followed the strange creature.

“I trust my children did not treat you poorly, Lord Fairlight?” Tempest Moon asked.

“No, not at all,” I replied quickly. “They’ve treated me with nothing but respect and dignity since I arrived.”

Tempest Moon nodded his head in satisfaction, “Good. Sometimes they can be a little overenthusiastic in their duties, and as you will understand, we seldom receive visitors to the gate.”

“I can believe it,” I replied honestly. “I don’t believe Tartarus is ever likely to be on the top ten list for desirable holiday destinations.” I dodged out of the way as Cerberus shifted a gigantic paw in his sleep, smacking his lips together and showering several of the warriors in drool. “I didn’t realise bat ponies looked after the gate.”

“Discreet duties are well suited to our people,” Tempest Moon explained. “I’m certain that you will understand well how our appearance causes consternation to ponies in the mortal realm, and it is only in recent years, since the goddess returned to Equestria, that we have been able to show ourselves in public.”

“I’ve seen some of the Night Guard at the palace in Canterlot,” I replied. “They’re Luna’s personal guard, aren’t they?”

“They are,” the bat pony replied. “A role that well suits our nocturnal nature as the warriors of the goddess.” He looked at me askance, “As were the wendigo themselves once.”

“Once,” I said absently. “There are few left in the mortal realm now, but they’ve had no connection with the spirit realm since the fall of the fortress. So far as I know at least.”

“I’d heard some of your people had been living in the northern wastes since the fall of the goddess,” Tempest Moon agreed with a nod of his head. “A sad fate, Lord Fairlight.”

I couldn’t disagree. “Yeah...”

“But you are here, are you not?” he stated suddenly. “You have the magic of the spirit within you, yes?”

I grimaced at the question. Last night I’d tried to release my magic to create a protective barrier around myself whilst I’d slept. As the glyph had found out, it hadn’t worked as well as I’d hoped. “I did,” I said, trying to keep the bitterness from my voice. “But every time I get it back it vanishes again like a breath in the wind. It certainly did bugger all to help me when that Glyph thing grabbed me in the forest.”

“The Glyph attacked you?” The bat pony closed his eyes and nodded slowly, “Ah, I see.” He stopped and faced me, “The Glyph’s normally stay within the confines of Tartarus. For one to escape is rare indeed, as they fear Cerberus and the wards placed around the gate. They are little threat to us, but to a magical creature, particularly one with a high concentration of magic such as a wendigo, you would have been as a suckling pig to a starving hound.”

“Glad I’m so delicious,” I huffed. “So, this thing sucked my magic out did it? Is that why I can’t draw on my wendigo powers?”

“A Glyph doesn’t normally kill,” Tempest Moon said simply. “When it has taken its fill it simply leaves. Victims usually recover in a few days.”

“Good to know,” I grumbled.

Tempest stopped and stared down at the ground by our hooves, “We’re here.”

Pushing aside my concerns about my brush with a magical vampire shadow beast, I slipped into my watchstallion mindset like slipping on a comfortable pair of slippers. It felt homely, safe even, and I confess it was a welcome distraction from the monotone colouration of our diabolical surroundings. Carefully I leaned down and began to study the ground behind where the dog lay. There were hoof prints here. Lots of them. Many belonged to the bat ponies, but others, heavier ones, lead as straight as an arrow past the guardian of the bridge and into the sulphurous nightmare beyond. When you took into account the insanity of wanting to break into this hell, there had to be something I was missing here. I scratched my chin in thought, going over what I knew so far. Vela wanted to return to the world of the living, a fact I knew all too well. To do so there had to be something here he could use, perhaps an item that had the power to do just that, and maybe more… maybe something with the power to overthrow the princesses themselves, or even help him reach somepony who had that power. My blood ran cold. Lumin. My son. Lumin had a magic within him that was born of a wendigo, a pegasus, and Etrida, the elder dragon. He was only a child but had already been targeted by changelings who had been drawn to him like moths to a flame. Maroc had warned me that his son, Vela, knew about Lumin and would use him like a wellspring of magical energy to help complete his nefarious goals. I hadn’t wanted to believe it. I’d wanted instead to believe that it was part of Star Swirl’s and Maroc’s machinations to force me into doing their bidding, and perhaps it was to a degree. But it didn’t stop this being true. When I hadn’t heard from Star Swirl or Maroc for so long I’d begun to believe that I’d actually been right all along, and that Lumin wasn’t in any danger at all. Ha! Gods, I should have known better, shouldn’t I? It was never that easy.

“I make it twelve,” I said looking up to follow the line of the hoof prints. “Wendigo. It has to be.” Drag marks in the gravel lead to the edge of the chasm where several white scrapes on the rock told the rest of the story. “I think you can forget about looking for your missing warriors, Tempest.”

The stallion grimaced, turning to stare at the still sleeping Cerberus. “Why would they do this?” he asked. “You know something about this, don’t you?”

“If I had time to tell you the full story, I would,” I assured him, hefting my gear. “What I can tell you is that Vela and his people are trying to bring about the fall of the Equestrian monarchy and establish the absolute rule of the wendigo in their stead.”

Tempest blinked in surprise, “The goddess knows about this?”

I nodded, “She does, and both she and her sister are at risk.” I took a breath, checking the keeper on my scythe, “As indeed is my son.” I caught Tempest by the shoulder, “Listen, I need to know, is there something in there that they could use to make them become mortal again? Some device, some… magic, that can bring the dead back to life and return them to the mortal realm?”

Tempest shook his head, “Only the gods themselves can restore life, and I have never heard of them doing that even in the oldest myths and legends. No… there is…” He paused. “I cannot...” Tempest’s eyes began to take on a distant caste, as though he were staring into the past.

“What?” I pressed. “For the love of the goddess, Tempest, if you know something you have to tell me. I have to stop this!”

Tempest closed his eyes, his conscience warring with his duty. “There is a place,” he said finally, “deep inside the prison where nopony goes, not even the guards. I have been told of it only by my father, and even then I have no idea how to get into the place where it lies.”

“What is it?” I asked. “Some sort of magical object?”

Tempest swallowed, “We call it ‘the doorway’, but as I said, I only know of this from my father’s day. He called it a ‘master portal’.”

I felt a shiver run down my spine. I hated portals with a passion, and with good reason too. Yet here, once again, it looked like I was going to be looking for another of the damned things. “But a portal can’t bring the dead back to life, can it?” I wondered aloud. “Surely...”

“I don’t believe so,” Tempest replied, “but who truly knows the mind of the gods?

Behind us, Cerberus yawned, bowling over one of the unfortunate bat ponies with a blast of his foetid breath. “Who indeed,” I said quietly. “Well, I think I know my path well enough, my friend.”

Tempest halted me, “You want to go in there after them? On your own?”

“Guess so,” I replied nodding towards the snoozing giant. “Looks to me like you’ve got your hooves full as it is.”

The pendant glowed brightly in the dim light, catching Tempest’s eye. “Star Swirl’s pendant,” he said softly. “I have heard of it, but to see it here… Incredible.”

“It’s taken me to some near death experiences I can tell you,” I replied. “In this case even I don’t know where it’s leading me.” I stifled a laugh, “Other than the worst place in the afterlife.” I clopped Tempest on the shoulder, “Take care, Tempest. I pray the goddess will guide your way.”

“Fairlight...” Tempest lifted a hoof tentatively, “Is it true you have a thestral mare for a mate?”

“Shadow?” I smiled. “Yes. A mare I love very much indeed.”

“You don’t fear her?” he asked curiously.

“Only her cooking!” I joked. “That one could ruin cereal, seriously.” Suddenly I felt like somepony had walked over my grave. Metaphorically speaking of course. “Why?”

Tempest’s eyes looked pained, “She didn’t… force herself on you?”

“Did she what?!” I blinked in surprise, “Good gods, no! What in Equestria made you think that?”

The bat pony closed his eyes and huffed, “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

I moved closer, looking into the unusual fellow’s eyes to meet his glowing gaze. I knew that look all too well. I’d stared into the mirror far too often to be mistaken. “Being part of two races does not make you less of who you are, Tempest Moon,” I said gently. “I didn’t know anything about my own heritage until a few years ago, and when I discovered the truth I confess I railed against it. I hated what it meant, and what it symbolized. I even began to hate myself, cursing my family for setting me on what I saw as a path that had been cursed with nothing but misery and misfortune. If then you had offered me a way to turn the clock back and cleanse myself of everything that made me a wendigo, I would have walked through the fires of hell itself to take you up on it. Even if there was only the slimmest of chances it could be so.” I smiled absently as the memories flitted through my mind. “As time passed I began to realise that the only pony who was concerned about who I was, who I truly was… was myself. If others saw me as a monster, a demon, or a nightmare come to life before their eyes, then they were not worth my concern nor the breath I would waste speaking to them to try to convince them otherwise. Foolishness and ignorance are a universal constant, Tempest. To believe otherwise is to mire yourself in that very same bog and lose yourself to despair. Embrace who you are, take the world by the balls, and never let go. If it tries to kick you, you just hang on all the harder.”

“And is that how you survived, Fairlight,” Tempest asked, “by grabbing the world by the balls?”

“Partly,” I replied with a wink. “Mostly I just chopped them off. A sword or an axe can win many an argument words cannot resolve.”

The stallion grinned wickedly, “I can believe that.”

“Tempest?” I asked.

“Yes, Fairlight?”

I took a breath, hoping my new found colleague wouldn’t take offence at my next question. “Forgive my inquisitiveness, but… what happened to your mother?”

The bat pony’s eyes sparkled. For a moment he hesitated, but then, “She and father live separately now.” Tempest Moon hung his head slightly, “The tribes can be… ‘difficult’ with relationships across the species. As too are my mother’s.” A thin smile broke across his face, “But that does not mean they do not find ways to spend time together.”

“No, of course not,” I said quietly. I looked up at the boiling sky far above. “Times are changing, Tempest. I can feel it in my bones.”

The stallion smiled, “I hope so. I truly do.” He gave himself a shake and glanced over his shoulder before turning back to me. “Cerberus is waking, you must be on your way. He will not see you as one of us.” Tempest lowered his voice to bare whisper, “There is an opening in the rock, beyond the wall of blue flame. Its flames are different from the rest, and will not burn so long as you move swiftly. Tarry, and you will be lost. Take this path and it will lead you to the hall of the master portal. How you will pass through it however, I cannot say. None of us have been there for an age, and as far as I know, the gods themselves locked it away for all eternity.”

“Sounds like fun,” I grinned. “Fortune favours the bold, Tempest.” It was time to go, “Gods be with you.”

“And with you, my friend.” He held up a hoof as I turned to leave, “And always stay to the path, Fairlight, no matter what the temptations. The magic of the prison will ensnare the unwary just as much as the guilty.”

A loud snuffle and grating of clawed paws was my cue to high tail it out of there. Tempest Moon, bat pony and new found friend, stood silently watching me walk across the bridge and into the depths of only the gods knew what. If I’d had more time available to me I would have questioned Tempest in more detail about what to expect in there, but as things stood I had what I had and would have to make the best of it. All my trust I would place in my own heart, and the crystal pendant that showed me the way to its most earnest desire.

Like most ponies I’d heard the old stories and tales of Tartarus from foalhood, and the name was liberally used as part of the more colourful vernacular then in circulation. As I mentioned earlier, ‘Hell’ tended to be intermixed with the name ‘Tartarus’, but the difference, if there was one, was something I wasn’t sure of despite my interest in all things historical. I think part of the issue with it was that historical fact had a general tendency to drift into legend over time, and from there strayed into the even murkier depths knows as myth. The realities of its existence therefore became subject to little more than passing speculation or even outright dismissal. Indeed, few scholars today, if any at all, would give such concepts the time of day, let alone risk their academic careers on serious investigation into what had become ‘outdated’, or even ‘quaint’, concepts. As society moved forward, fear of being sent here was no longer the deterrent it had once been, with threats of being ‘sent to Tartarus’ ultimately replaced with the more tangible reality of imprisonment by the watch or the royal guard. Personally I’d experienced the latter and wouldn’t be recommending it to anypony any time soon. Princess Celestia may have been the consummate host along with her coltfriend, Rush, however it wasn’t all that long ago that I was facing exile or the very real possibility of a short sharp trip to the headstallion’s block. These days I was under no illusion about where I ranked amongst the higher ups, and even if I was somewhere between slug and dog turd on their list, at least my people had their homeland back. If you could call miles of impassable forest full of carnivorous timber wolves and empty desolate mountains ‘home’ that is. Oh well, just as well I have a very active imagination then, isn’t it!

My hooves clopped steadily as I crossed the bridge across the chasm. Every so often I caught glimpses of the river glinting far, far below, reminding me that this truly was the final threshold. With Cerberus now awake it didn’t look likely that I’d be able come back this way even if I wanted to. And right then there was a very large part of the old Fairlight psyche that was screaming at me to do just that. Cerberus was still drowsy of course, one of his heads was snoring noisily whilst the other two lolled this way and that reminding me of one of Pewter’s cats when it came back from the vet. Unfortunately I knew all too well that if I turned back now, If I ran as fast as I could, I could escape this nightmare and turn my back on the future Fate and the gods had laid out for me. It was tempting. Very, very tempting. Instead I took a deep breath and flicked out the pendant so that it hung beneath my neck, adding a white light to the deepening red tinged gloom I was walking into.

“My hearts desire, eh?” I said to myself sadly.

Once that had been Meadow. My Meadow. She was, and always would be, the mare I had loved with every fibre of my being and the mother of my beautiful daughter. I had been lucky once, finding her and enjoying what little time we had together. From that fateful day in the cabin onwards, my life had been a chaotic mess of nightmares, suffering, and death. Not all of it, sure, but too much by far. And this place, this… ‘prison’. This was where some, like Aethel, had believed I belonged. And who can say, maybe he was right after all. Maybe all I was doing was putting off the inevitable and forestalling the day I walked in here of my own accord, never to return. I snorted loudly.

“Well, Tartarus, here I am!” I huffed under my breath. “Do what you will with me.”

I’m not sure I cared all that much about my fate to be honest with you. But then, if I didn’t care at all, then why had I bothered to come here in the first place? Ha! I was such a mess I didn’t even know what I wanted myself, let alone where the pendant was taking me. Throughout my life I’d always thought about others before myself. And where had that got me? When had anypony ever given a damn about Fairlight? Who?! As if what I wanted ever truly factored into anything. Ever! My hooves slogged on, thumping down the great hallway of Tartarus, the sound echoing with each step into the nothingness.

Nothingness...

Well there was certainly an abundance of that here now, wasn’t there! All that grand bridge across the river and the rocks and the fire and all that fancy bollocks. Where were the cells holding the great monsters of the past? Where were the wailing, screaming souls damned for all eternity by unforgiving gods that cared nothing for the suffering of their children? Oh sure, they were quite happy for us to grovel and scrape at their hooves like Celestia and her sister. Even Jelly Bean, the enigmatic ‘barber’ who kept popping up everywhere like some damned magical gopher. They thought they were all so damned clever, didn’t they. Lording it up over the rest of us plebs and yucking it up from their fancy, dancy, white towers of marble and gold. Well, buck the lot of them I say. Damn it all! And damn them! Yeah, stick the lot of those posh entitled nobs in Tartarus and see how they liked it. See how… See... What? There was nothing here! Not a damned, sodding thing! ‘Look out for a wall of blue fire’, eh? Oh, yeah? Where the bucking hell was it then? The only blue fire I’d get round here would be if I farted onto a match and I doubted that would open a magical doorway unless I was expected to disappear up my own bloody arse! Gods, was everypony I’d ever met so full of shit? They had to be! Bloody hell, I was so angry, so full of bitterness, I could almost feel it flowing out of me. But was it that much of a surprise? Here I was again on some insane ‘quest’ to find something or do something I couldn’t even quite remember, and not even knowing why. Had I always been such a fool? Played and toyed with by Fate and her kin while acting as if I really did have some control over my life? I think I’d already established how foolish a notion that nonsense was. I had about as much say in my destiny as an escaped balloon, blown to the four winds only to fall back to earth to who knew where. And who cared anyway? Nopony! Not one solitary soul. Well, buck them. Buck them all! If I could tap into my wendigo power I’d tear this damnable place apart, and some stupid looking mutt wouldn’t be able to stop me. I could-

“You could if you truly wanted.”

I stopped walking and shook my head, staring at the cloaked figure in front of me. “And just who are you?” I snarled. “The grim bloody reaper?”

“Is that who you see?” the figure asked. “Tell me, Fairlight, who do you truly see before you?”

“Somepony who’s pissing me off!” I bellowed. “Get out of my way! NOW!” The scythe leaped into my hooves with little more than a thought.

“Is this what you have become after all these years?” The figure shook its head, “So full of anger. Consumed by only hate and rage.”

“I’ll show you hate and rage, you bucking piece of shit!” My scythe howled through the air, joining the scream released from my lips. Bitter cold burst from inside me, whirling around in eddies of snow and ice, scouring the rock walls, floor and ceiling in the unleashed power of the northern winter. I was lost now. Lost in a world where only madness ruled. Madness… and the blade.

“Is this all you have become?” the figure asked.

I span and bucked out at my cloaked antagonist finding nothing but air. Every kick, every cut and slice, did nothing. NOTHING! Frustration warred with my anger, sending out magical blasts of raw thaumaturgical energy at the target of my rage. But each time, each and every damned time… I MISSED!

“Steady your heart, Fairlight. Rein in your hate.”

The figures words were pointless, unheeded and unnecessary. I knew how this would end. I always had.

Death.

Death for my enemies and the world of life and the afterlife. I was the raging storm of the infinite void and the winter of the worlds end. All the power from the beginning of creation was at the tips of my hooves for me to control as I wished. I could draw upon it and… and I… There was another pony. I recognised him. That voice. That damned stupid beard!

The name hissed from my mouth, “Star Swirl...”

“Fairlight.” The grey unicorn in the ridiculous cloak and hat stood beside the cloaked figure, “Fairlight, I know you’re angry and hurting right now, but you need to listen to-”

“You verminous worm...” Mist dripped from between my fangs, falling like white rain amidst the fog rolling out around me. “Wife stealer. Traitor.” My hooves itched as my grip on my scythe grew to almost painful levels. He was here, the one who had played me like a damned fiddle for all these years. “Thief of dreams.” My magic grew as the intense need to gut this filth screamed within me. “Killer of love...”

“Listen to me, boy,” the stallion said in that infuriatingly patronising tone of voice that had always made my skin crawl. “What you saw is not-”

My scythe cut down like a comet through the night sky. Fuelled by hate. Fuelled by pain. Fuelled by the suffering I had endured and the dreams this monster, this thing, had torn apart before me as though it meant nothing. Nothing. NOTHING!

The blade slammed into the blue shield and stopped dead, quivering with the effort.

“Fairlight, for the goddess’s sake, I wasn’t having an affair with Meadow! It was all an act, boy! I did it to help you, can’t you see that?” Star Swirl grunted under the strain on his magical shield, “Look inside yourself, you know what I say is true!”

“The only thing you ‘helped’, wizard, was yourself to my wife,” I hissed. I took a shaking breath and pushed harder on the haft of my weapon, “You stole that which was most precious to me. You stole my wife. You stole my family. You stole my DAUGHTER!”

“I did it to break you free of the spell!” the stallion shouted over the screech of steel against the shield. “And it worked, didn’t it? See? You have your magic back!”

“I had already found my magic, wizard,” I smiled, narrowing my eyes. “Your words are as empty and hollow as the pony you tried to turn me into.” A shiver of raw power surged through my body, and I knew, one more push would end this tragedy. “Now…” I grinned, showing my battery of lethally sharp teeth, “I will show you true magic.”

“And what then, wendigo?” The cloaked figure pulled back its hood and peered up at me through deep yellow eyes that… that I knew. At least, I think I knew? I… I wasn’t sure. I didn’t… It was a trick! Another damned trick!

“Well done, wizard,” I growled, “A most clever illusion. Instead of drawing steel you seek to wound my heart. Don’t you think you’ve already overplayed your hoof?” My laugh was a cold as the air upon which I trod, “You may have a clever mind, but you’re a fool Star Swirl the bearded. You cannot harm that which is but a void now. A void you created with-”

“Fairlight, put that down and stop playing the fool for once in your life!” The cloaked mare took a step forward. “You know very well who I am, and I know who you are, even when… when you look like that!”

“Like what?” I asked sarcastically. “A demon?”

“Like my SON!” The mare stared into my eyes, those burning yellow orbs cutting me deeper than any blade ever could. “Please, love, I know you’re hurting, but it’s this place. Tartarus is not a prison of the body, but of the mind. It draws out the pain inside your heart, drags out your memories and turns you in on yourself. Please… Please, Fairlight… Don’t do this.”

I faltered. My blade shivered. I shivered. And little by little my magic began to slowly leech away. “Mum,” I breathed, “it can’t be you. You can’t be here! It’s a trick of that damned thief of dreams!”

“It’s no trick, love.” My mother, or the thing that looked like my mother, pushed her hooves up against the shield, “Star Swirl, let me out. I want to talk to my son.”

“NO!” The stallion shook his head desperately, “It’s too dangerous! We can’t talk to him when he’s like this. We have to force him to use up some of his magic before we can-”

“Let me out,” the mare commanded. “If my son wants to kill me, then it is his right to do so. I failed him as a mother.” She closed her eyes and nodded to herself, “The same way I failed the rest of my family.”

“You...” I shook my head in confusion at what she was saying. “You failed me?”

I didn’t understand. It was true mum had always been distant with me when I was growing up, and had, for all intents and purposes, been more like a friendly stranger to me in all but name. She’d never mistreated me, and other than the occasional telling off or spanking when I’d nearly killed myself playing with matches that time, our relationship had always been what you might call ‘cordial’. I think it was one of the reasons I’d spent so much time exploring the ‘great outdoors’ or reading up on Equestrian history – it took me away from the bland and sterile reality of my home environment. Yet as much as my mother struck me as a mare who struggled to express her emotions, I’d always assumed she loved my father. I’ll certainly never forget the state she was in the day he left either. I know their relationship had become stale over the years, but truthfully I don’t think she ever believed he would ever just ‘up sticks’ and walk out the way he did. Even now I still find that time of my life surreal when I look back on it. Mum never recovered from the shock of him leaving us, and I still believe it was that which ultimately took her life. As I tried to come to terms with what was happening, in the back of my mind I told myself she’d loved me too, even if I had seen little evidence of it. And it was that seed of doubt, the one that had taken root so many years ago, that finally began to flower. I’d thought I’d put it all behind me. That I’d left all that pain and sadness far, far behind me.

“Pewter never told you, did she?” the mare huffed quietly. “No… I never told you. And I should have, but I never had the heart nor the courage to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” I asked.

My mother closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “Why your father left us. Why he really left.”

I said nothing. What did it matter now anyway?

The mare took a breath and looked me right in the eyes, “I had an affair.”

There was a pause as if she was expecting me to express some form of outrage, to rail at her for her betrayal of my father. Maybe once I would have been angry, perhaps even furious at her self confessed infidelity. But now, those words meant nothing to me. Nothing at all. Females did this. It was just a fact of life that males had to accept. They all had it in them of course, that capacity for casual betrayal of one who loved them. They kept it hidden, deep down out of sight inside their dark, twisted hearts. Even my own mother.

The mare grimaced and looked away, visibly ashamed by her own words. “I had an affair, and then your father began to doubt that you were his own son.” She shook her head sorrowfully, “He never trusted me again after that. As time passed, I… I began to lose him, little by little. I’d hurt him so badly he couldn’t bare to be near me any more.”

Star Swirl put a foreleg over her neck and whispered something. It was too much for me to watch.
“Get away from her, you BASTARD!” Magic immediately burst into life in answer to my rising anger, flaring all around me in a howling storm of ice and blue fire. “Get your filthy hooves off my mother, you wife stealing filth! I’LL KILL YOU!”

Tulip held up a hoof and waved the alarmed wizard away, “It’s alright, Star Swirl,” she said quietly. “I have to do this.”

“You don’t-” Star Swirl began, but the mare had made up her mind.

“Open the shield.”

‘Noble’, that was the word I would have used to describe her right then: tall, elegant, a pure black mane over a soft grey coat that was as perfect as her beautiful yellow eyes. Tulip, the mare who had bore me into the world, stood below me as I gazed down upon her like death’s angel of unbridled vengeance. At that moment, lost in a word of anger and confusion, I didn’t see her so much as my mother, but as just another machination of the master trickster.

“More trickery, wizard?” My wings caught the frigid aid and held me there, ready to react to any moves the conjurer might make. “Becoming a habit of yours, this isn’t it. Using my family to further your own sick little schemes. Does my mother know what you’ve been doing behind closed doors? Or have you been busy ploughing her like you have my wife?”

“Fairlight Loam!” Mother’s words caught me tighter than a fish on a line. “I didn’t raise you to speak that way!”

“You barely raised me at all, mother,” I retorted sharply. “You were so wrapped up in your own world of self pity your son became an afterthought that I doubt you’d even noticed had gone.”

Tulip shook her head sadly, “You’re right. I wish I could say you weren’t, Fairlight, but you are.” She smiled faintly, her eyes distant and lost, “I loved your father. I really did. But I was young, and foolish. My head was turned by a stallion whose words spoke to an emptiness inside my soul, to the wendigo I could never be. He understood me. At least, I thought he did. Before I knew it I was sleeping with him, and when your father found out, my whole silly little fantasy world I’d built for myself all came crumbling down around me. I destroyed my life, Fairlight. I ruined my marriage, lost my friends, my family turned their backs on me, and… and I lost somepony I thought understood what it was like to be a wendigo.” She threw back her head and gasped in a breath, the tears streaming down her face. “Do you have any idea, Fairlight, how it feels when you suddenly realise you’ve killed that one thing in your life that actually meant something to you? Something that had been so truly special, and yet you’d simply torn it up and thrown it all away without so much as a second thought?” She laughed out loud, “Gods, I can still see him! I can see his eyes, the way he looked at me when I told him what I’d done. He didn’t believe me at first, did you know? He thought it was a joke, that I was being ironic with him. But the punchline was that I had been sleeping with his friend behind his back.” She looked up at me with bloodshot eyes, “Have you ever watched the light die in a pony’s eyes, Fairlight? Have you ever seen that spark of love snuffed out and replaced by utter emptiness? I did. And as you said, I wallowed in it, mired myself in self pity and grief until the day I died.”

I landed lightly on the rocky floor in a plume of white cloud, “But you still had me, Mum,” I reasoned. “You could have tried to make things work out with dad, and-”

“Don’t you think I tried?” she cut in. “The goddess knows how many times I pleaded with him, begged him, to forgive me and try to rekindle the love he had for me. But nothing worked! Nothing! I prayed to Luna night after night after night, but nothing I did could build love from those ashes. When I was a filly I used to believe that love could conquer everything, that no matter how badly hurt a pony’s heart was, all it took was a little effort and a little time, and it would all become right in the end.” She reared, throwing her forelegs wide, “Oh, what an idealistic fool I was! You can’t mend everything with love, the same way you can’t fix everything with magic either. Dead is dead, Fairlight. Once the love inside dies, then it is time to walk away and find it somewhere else. I never did, and it ate away at me day after day, little by little, until I had alienated my son - my own flesh and blood.” She took a deep breath and gave one of her classic sardonic smiles, “Even at the end, I was a selfish bitch.”

I could hear her words. I could hear the sincerity in her voice. But there was one question I’d never been able to ask her, “Why did you tell dad you didn’t want him at the funeral, Mum?”

“You’ve spoken to him, haven’t you.” Tulip sniffed back a tear and rubbed her eyes with her foreleg. “Because I’m a fool, that’s why. Because I wanted to hurt him for walking away from our marriage and leaving me to suffer the way I did. He didn’t understand me. He couldn’t. How could a stallion who isn’t one of the tribe know what it’s like to live a lie every day of your life, pretending you’re something you’re not? I’m a wendigo, Fairlight. I have a hole in my heart and my soul where the spirit should be. You know this yourself. You understand what it’s like to have the power, to lose it, and then regain it once more.”

Something wasn’t right here. “But you never had the spirit bonding,” I said cautiously. “The last true wendigo died in Equestria a thousand years ago. How could you miss something you’ve never known?”

“Because all wendigo know, Fairlight.” My mother glanced back at Star Swirl and then back to me. “Even after a thousand years our people know deep inside what they are. What they should be. Oh, those born nowadays may not know the words for it of course, they may not realise specifically what it is that’s missing in their lives, but they will feel it nonetheless. It is the emptiness that can never be filled; a bottomless nothingness that screams out for that which it will never know. And it is that reason alone that drove what was left of our people into seclusion, far away from other ponies. It wasn’t because the equestrians hated us. At first, yes, but after a millennia?” She shook her head, “No. No, of course not. The colourful folk of the princess do not have such darkness within their souls that they would harbour a grievance for so long a time. No… It was because equestrians would never understand us the way our own people can. It never goes away. It never leaves you.”

I held out a hoof to her. To hear such grief in her voice, to hear of the pain and suffering she had felt so keenly all those years ago, was too terrible to take in. And yet even now she was a victim. A victim of a war from a thousand years before she was born. She had been torn apart by that terrible conflict as surely as if she’d been one of those fleeing the massacre in the mountains. And like our ancestors, left as little more than a hollow shell. She had sought comfort in another, but in doing so had destroyed the love she had built with my father. Goddesses… What a bloody world.

“Fairlight?”

I looked up at her slowly, unsure of whether to meet her yellow eyed gaze or not. I felt… unworthy of her, as though what I was now somehow sullied her and all she had suffered all the short years of her life.

“Don’t look back, Love,” she smiled sadly. “All it does is bring you pain. Learn from it, strengthen yourself with it, and move forward. Always move forward.”

I took a breath and felt my mane shiver. I hated this. I wanted to just walk away and be myself, to be alone and-

“You look magnificent you know.” Tulip suddenly moved closer to me, her big yellow eyes displaying something I had never thought I would ever see again: love.

“Mum…” I swallowed down the emotion surging up from within, “Mum, I-”

“Shhh...” The grey mare pushed her muzzle up against my neck, “It’s all right, my little angel. You’ve been so brave, you’ve so much to help others, and look at you now.” She smiled gently, “I’m so proud of you.” Mum reached up and gave me a light squeeze, “I know I didn’t say it very often, but… I love you, Fairlight. I always have, and I always will.”

To feel the warmth of her love was something that was as shocking to me as it was heaftwarming. “Mum? Why are you here?” I asked, “And with...” I closed my eyes, “Him.”

“Star Swirl wanted to help you, love,” mum explained simply. “He used his magic to travel here and asked me to come and talk to you. He wasn’t sure you’d listen to him if he came alone.”

“Guilty conscience?” I asked a little louder than was necessary. “Or an equine shield, perhaps?”

Mum bopped me on the muzzle, “You’re not so big and strong that I can’t discipline you, Fairlight. So stop it. Yes?”

I never took my eyes off the wizard. “Yes, Mum.”

“Good boy.” She turned to Star Swirl, “I think you had better tell him, don’t you?”

Outnumbered, the grey wizard cleared his throat noisily, “Erm… Yes. Yes, quite...” I noticed the blue shield hadn’t dropped all the same. “I’m afraid my plan to, erm, ‘shock’ you into breaking the spirit seal wasn’t quite as efficacious as my calculations had originally projected. I was not aware you had broken the seal yourself already you see. Quite astonishing, really.”

“Isn’t it though?” I sneered at him nastily. “So shagging my wife didn’t turn out to be quite as necessary as- OW! Gods, Mum, that really hurt!”

Yellow eyes glared back at me and I resumed listening to that damned wizard, rubbing my now throbbing ear.

“It seems Vela has not only made his move,” Star Swirl continued unabashed. “He has been at least one step ahead of me for far longer than I realised. He has agents both in this world and the mortal world: ones which have been working quietly in the shadows since the end of the war. I have to say, that fellow is a whole lot cleverer and more resourceful than I ever gave him credit for.”

“You mean you cocked up?” I snorted, watching mum’s sidelong glance warily. “What happened to your own super secret spy network then? On holiday were they?”

“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, Fairlight,” the wizard huffed irritably. “And no, I don’t have a ‘spy network’ as you call it, but I do have eyes and ears in many places that feed information back to me to help me plan contingencies for any unforeseen problems, and to deal with current ones.”

“So a spy network then.” I waved a hoof at him, “Carry on, don’t let me stop you.”

Star Swirl grimaced noticeably, but still sallied forth admirably, “I hadn’t realised that Vela would be trying to break the seal on your magic himself. In fact I had anticipated him trying to do the very opposite. But for whatever the reason, he has achieved what he planned.”

“But why?” I breathed. “Why would he want to break the seal on my magic? He must have realised I might use it to stop him.”

“I don’t know yet,” the wizard replied openly. “I have ponies working on it and hope to have an answer soon. For now though, we have more pressing problems.”

“Oh?”

“Yes,” Star Swirl snorted, adjusting his huge hat. “Vela and his ponies are here. I don’t know what they’re up to exactly, but we have to stop them.”

“It’s the master portal, isn’t it?” I said levelly. “It can bring the dead back to life.”

“It can- Eh?” Star Swirl stared at me incredulously and then shook his head, setting the bells to jingling like some angry Hearthswarming tree. “Where in Equestria did you hear that nonsense?”

“From a friend,” I answered.

“Well your friend’s wrong,” Star Swirl said huffily. “And believe me, I’d know! I spent more than a lifetime studying the various surviving portals, and I wrote several best selling books on the subject too. In summary however, they are a means of transportation and nothing else. They most certainly do not carry the kind of elemental magic capable of corporealizing souls.”

“Well someponies got their head stuck up their arse, haven’t they!” I pointed my hoof at him accusingly, “You told me my son was in danger because of Vela’s plans to bring back a ‘new age of wendigo domination’ in Equestria, and what happened? Nothing! Months go by with not one single bloody word, and the next thing I know is Vela’s goons are trying to kill me by dropping me of a mountain. After I escaped that fun little escapade, up pops Star Swirl the frigging bearded, ‘magical mage extraordinaire’, banging seven bells out of my wife in my own bastard bed!” I slammed my hoof down hard, “Forgive me if I seem a little unconvinced by your explanation, wizard, because so far you haven’t told me a damned thing I didn’t already know, and while we’re stood here talking about bollocks, Vela is doing whatever it is he’s doing to make his ideas come to fruition.” I paused and looked at him askance, “You didn’t answer my question. Why are you here?”

Star Swirl grimaced, “Because we only recently discovered that what he was looking for is here in Tartarus. When I heard you were heading this way I decided to come and find you.”

“And you know what this thing is that Vela’s looking for, right?” I asked.

The wizard shook his head, “I have some ideas, but none of them concrete. But you, Fairlight, you have the means to find whatever it is before they do. And that gives us a massive advantage.” He pointed at me, “You are aware of the break in at the palace?”

“Something valuable was stolen from the royal family.” I replied. I could remember all the commotion, but other than something being pinched I hadn’t heard much more and had pretty much put it out of my mind.

Star Swirl nodded, “Something that wasn’t real was stolen, yes.” He raised an eyebrow, “I suspect they’ll be finding that out fairly soon.”

“They stole a fake?” I asked incredulously.

Star Swirl nodded, “Indeed. You see, we had at least an inkling into what our wendigo friend had planned, and so I decided to pre-empt him. Vela is not the only one who has friends in the others camp, and tongues wag no matter how much you try to muzzle them”

He had me intrigued now. “So what was the item that was stolen?” I asked.

Starswirl pointed a hoof at me, “You should know, you’re wearing it. The real one that is.”

“What?!” I lifted up the pendant in my hoof and stared at the glowing gem. “Celestia gave me...” Oh, hell! I wasn’t supposed to-

“I know she gave it to you,” Star Swirl answered for me, “because I asked her to.”

I hung my head and let out a loud sigh. Gradually, I began to chuckle and then to laugh. Gods, what a joke! All along this ratty little eccentric unicorn had been pulling the strings, not only of me, but of the sun goddess of Equestria herself! Was there anything he didn’t have his damned hooves in? “So what now then, oh great sage of the ponies?” I asked, wiping away the bitter tears of mirth from my muzzle, “What games do you intend to play with our lives next?”

“I intend, Fairlight, to use you to stop Vela and his wendigo,” Star Swirl answered. “By any means necessary.”

“By which you mean ‘kill’, right?” I sniffed, “An assassin for hire...”

“You have to protect your son!” the wizard snapped. “For the goddess’ sake, put blasted your ego to one side for a moment and consider somepony else other than yourself!”

“Like you do you mean?” I asked sarcastically. “Like you did with Mea-”

“-Will you two stop arguing! Please! This isn’t getting us anywhere.” Tulip stepped in between us, her yellow eyes flashing dangerously. It was like having a barrel of ice water dumped over the two of us. The effect was instantaneous. “Fairlight, I will not see my grandson used by a monster and drained of his life and magic because two fully grown stallions spent all their time bickering like an old married couple!” Mum, her ire up, rounded next on the other grey unicorn in the room, “And you! Don’t think that because I agreed to help you speak to my son that I have forgotten what you and Meadow got up to.”

“I didn’t do-” Star Swirl started.

“-I don’t give a flying toss about your motivations, Star Swirl, what you did was utterly reprehensible and you should hang your head in shame!” Tulip raised herself up to her full height, and despite there being little physical difference in their stature, she positively loomed over the chastised stallion. “First wizard of the royal court? Your philandering exploits are well know to everypony in the land, and if I find you dallying with my daughter in law again you’ll find your chances of any future procreation considerably reduced!” Star Swirl swallowed as my mother snorted loudly, “Now then, can we please get on with the matter at hoof before somepony does something they’re going to regret? And drop that bloody shield will you?!”

“Um…” Star Swirl’s face was an absolute picture, but sure enough, despite his reluctance the shield blinked out of existence. “Erm… Hmm.”

“Oh, fine...” Releasing the spirit’s power was easier than ever now, albeit somewhat akin to letting go of the metaphorical comfort blanket. I can still remember when I’d my first taste of it too: it was intoxicating. And terrifying. That sudden rush of power the likes of which you’d never known before, the incredible ability to fly and to use magic far beyond the grasp of most normal unicorns, was utterly exhilarating and took me into whole other dimension altogether. The only snag now was that I didn’t want to let it go. Being in my wendigo form felt so normal and just simply ‘right’, that turning back to the everyday boring old Fairlight was like putting on somepony else’s pants, and when they were a size too small too. Fortunately at least, that damned wizard looked less like a cornered rat and more like his old self. If you can call that ‘fortunate’. Personally I’d have preferred to have run him through from stem to stern. I still couldn’t believe he’d brought my mother here to… hang on… “Mum?” I looked round at the rock walls and the emptiness of it all. “Mum? Where are you?”

“Phew! Thank the goddesses for that!” The grey unicorn in the stupid hat brushed some dust off his waistcoat and began fiddling with his pocket watch, “Glad we got that all sorted out then, eh? I was beginning to worry there for a minute.”

I think my mind was starting to wander off on its own path while the rest of me stood there dumbfounded by what was I hearing. Had I gone mad? Who the hell had I just been speaking to?! That… that damned wizard! It was something he’d done to me, wasn’t it! Furiously I span to face him and tried to speak but… but no words came out! I clawed at my throat helpless while my hearing started to hiss like radio static and my head span.

“Meadowbrook’s Dysphoria,” the grey stallion said, floating out a bottle from his pack. “Nasty little spell, but fortunately one which doesn’t have any lasting effects on the target. Well, providing one doesn’t injure oneself whilst under its influence of course. Can’t cure a fellow who chops off his own head in a temper, eh?” Star Swirl looked at me curiously for a second, “Oh, that’s right, you can’t speak, can you?” He clucked his tongue, “Right, come on, open up.” I nearly choked as two tablets were all but thrown down the back of my mouth and a flask of water put to my lips. “There you go!” Star Swirl smiled, “You’ll be right as rain in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.” He frowned in thought for a second, “Not sure why a fellow would want to do that, but I suppose it takes all sorts. Maybe I’ll have a look into that later.”

“St.. Star… Sta...”

“Don’t try to force yourself, my boy,” Star Swirl grinned. “The medication will fix you right up, but you need to keep that,” he poked my muzzle, “shut.” “For a minute or two anyway,” he added. “Good lord, look at this place. I haven’t been here for aeons! Or was that a century or two? Not sure right now. Anyway, we need to get moving and find out what your wayward wendigo chum is up to before he brings the whole of pony kind down around us like multicoloured rain. I would have liked to have brought Maroc with me, but he’s not the most subtle fellow I’ve ever met and he’s up to his fetlocks in it with the fighting in the mountains.”

“M… Mum...”

“Mum? Oh! You mean Tulip.” Star Swirl nodded to himself, “She’s probably on her way home now from my office.”

“What… what the hell are you… talking about?” I croaked.

The wizard clucked his tongue as he hoisted his pack back onto his back. “Lift,” he said tapping my chin. Without thinking I complied, letting Star Swirl examine the pendant. “This way! Come along, Fairlight.” And with that he set off, with me bumbling along behind him. “When I heard you’d be coming this way I realised you’d likely fall prey to one of the magical wards here,” the wizard explained conversationally as we walked. “They’re roaming spell matrices designed to immobilise any escapees until the guards come to collect them. Quite a handy little spell too. Dispenses with the need for warders, you see?” He shrugged, “Mind you, they certainly wouldn’t be able distinguish between escaped villains and ponies wandering in from outside without more specific tuning of the matrix parameters.” Star Swirl lifted his head, “Hmm, may have to have a look at that later.”

I gave myself a shake and hurried after the wizard. “All that was a spell?” I asked, clearing my throat.

“Not at all, my boy,” the wizard replied. “The spell draws out the worst of you, you see: anger, paranoia, fear, and so on. It bundles it all up and turns it against you, effectively trapping you in a self perpetuating world of self hatred. Very handy for the guards too. Once the spell’s done its job, all they’d need to do then is collect the affected individual and put them back behind bars. Clever stuff, eh?”

“But mum,” I breathed. “She was here, right?”

“She was,” Star Swirl replied. “Metaphorically speaking anyway. What you saw was actually a magical projection of Tulip, who was, in actuality, all nice and safe back in my offices in the palace. She could see and interact with you quite well enough though, don’t you think?” He gave he a sidelong look, “What, you thought I would risk her coming to physical harm by bringing her here?”

“But… But you’re here!” I blurted. “At least, I think you are.” I couldn’t comprehend what the hell was going on. “How come you’re here and-”

The grey stallion clopped me on the shoulder. “Best not to over think it,” he whispered in my ear, and then he… he actually winked at me! “Right, let’s pick up the pace,” Star Swirl announced. “Time and tide wait for nopony and all that rot.”

So that was the end of that then, was it? Let’s just trot away into the metaphorical sunset like nothing had ever happened. How bloody typical. He comes in, bangs my wife, and then he reappears in much the same vein with his chirpy smile, and it’s business as usual. Bloody unicorns. Of course, I would say that if I wasn’t one myself, but… “Bloody unicorns!”

Star Swirl must have had ears like an outhouse rat, “Hmm? Did you say something?”

“I was wondering how you found my mother?” I replied quickly.

“Tulip?” Star Swirl shrugged. “She works in my office. I thought I’d told you that?”

“You didn’t tell me she worked for you!” My face must have been a picture, “All this time! Gods, Star Swirl, why didn’t you say anything?”

“You never asked,” he replied with a hint of surprise at my question. “And besides, Tulip didn’t want you to know.”

“Oh, goddesses...” I felt my heart deflate suddenly, “She didn’t want me to know?”

“She said that she would meet you when the time was right.” The wizard flicked a drop of water off his rump with his tail and tutted in irritation. “Anyway,” he continued, “Tulip said she was going to the fountain festival to meet you and your family. I take it from the tone of your question that you didn’t get to meet her?”

“NO!” I facehoofed, “I… Oh,no… Meadow had said there was somepony who wanted to meet me there.”

Star Swirl shrugged, “Mmm, Meadow did say you’d had some sort of episode at the festival which was why you ran off to join the guard.”

“I didn’t ‘run off’ as you put it,” I snapped angrily. “I was trying to get myself a worthwhile career helping others like I had in the watch.”

“And did it work?” he asked without even a hint of sarcasm.

I looked at the wizard askance, “I think you already know the answer to that, mister ‘eyes and ears’.” We passed by a large boulder that look like some pony, or some thing, had ripped it out of the wall and casually tossed it to one side. “Why did you bring her here anyway?” I asked. “All that stuff about her past with dad and stuff has bugger all to do with Vela. Trying to get inside my head were you?”

Star Swirl sighed, “The incapacitation spell here has to be broken by either the appropriate thaumaturgical harmonic signature which is linked to the spell or, as I discovered, by a suitably harsh emotional shock that makes the target question themselves, thus unravelling the spell matrix binding them.”

He’d certainly manage the ‘emotional shock’ element. “You mentioned there are guards here?” I asked.

“I did.” Star Swirl stopped and produced a device from his satchel which he slipped over his head and eyes, “You’ve already met them. Equus Chiroptera, or as we know them, ‘bat ponies’. Unfortunately our friend Vela appears to have distracted the guards by allowing one of the creatures here to escape.”

“You’re up to date on your information gathering I see,” I remarked. “So basically what we’re saying here is that Vela and his boys have a free run at whatever it is they’re here for.”

“Not quite a free run,” Star Swirl said motioning with his head. “Over there...”

There were two of them: a stallion and a mare, both of them with a multitude of knife wounds and lying beside the very weapons that had ended their lives.

“Don’t go near them,” Star Swirl warned suddenly. He held out a foreleg forestalling me as he adjusted the contraption on his head. “Hmm, I thought so. It’s the same entrapment spell you walked into. Apparently our two here ended up turning on each other before the guards could get to them. Very ironic, don’t you think?”

“A tragedy,” I said bitterly. “Two less wendigo in the herd. One more step towards extinction.”

“Oh, don’t be so melodramatic. They were already dead, remember?” Star Swirl peered at my pendant and frowned. “Odd. It’s pointing down that corridor there.”

“What’s odd about that?” I asked.

“It’s leading away from the master portal.”

“I thought you said they might not be after the portal?” I pointed out. “It can’t bring the dead back to life, remember?”

The old wizard nodded, conceding my point, “True, my boy, but its possible it could lead to somewhere were that power exists.”

“The power to bring back the dead?” I stopped in my tracks and looked him right in the eyes, “You know damned well where they’re heading and what they’re looking for, don’t you. Goddesses almighty, Star Swirl, you couldn’t lie straight in bed! Just bloody well tell me will you? I’m going to find out sooner or later anyway and I’d rather not go blundering into something because you can’t bring yourself to part with your precious little secrets.”

Star Swirl clucked his tongue and frowned at me. Apparently the old fart was a touch disappointed that I was ruining his clever little game. What a shame! “I didn’t say I knew for sure,” he said huffily. “What I told you about the portal is true. It can’t bring the dead back to life. However that’s not to say there isn’t something, somewhere, that does have that power.” He took a deep breath, “I’m flattered you think so highly of my knowledge, young stallion, but it may surprise you to know that I don’t know everything there is to know about everything in the entire universe.”

I ignored his jibe and pressed on, “Can’t the king and queen help?” I asked. “This does involve them after all. I doubt they’ve overlooked the fact that if Vela gets his way their daughters will be first in line for the chopping block.”

“The royal family don’t get involved directly with matters involving mortals or their souls,” the wizard said as if reading off a card he’d recited a thousand times before. “The gods are the gods and they have their rules which they must abide by. In some ways they’re bound by far more than us mere souls, Fairlight. For now, all I can say is that the pendant around your neck is leading you to your hearts desire, which I believe to be your son, Lumin. As Vela is trying to reach the mortal realm and thusly to Lumin also, I can only assume that our goals will intersect at some point. And that point is, I believe, right here in Tartarus.”

“Then we’d better get going then, hadn’t we?” I snorted. “It’s this… OH, SHIT!” Blue fire abruptly burst all around us in a blinding flash of magic that nearly floored me with the intensity of the feedback through my horn. “Gods almighty, my bloody head!”

“I told you not to move, you damned young fool!” Star Swirl bellowed. “You’ve triggered another alarm spell!”

“What gave it away?!” I yelled over the din of clanging bells. “Gods, I can’t hear myself think!”

“Just keep still and shut up while I try to get us out of this.” Star Swirl rapidly began pulling more equipment from his packs, “Here!”

“What are these?” I shouted.

“Noise cancelling ear muffs,” Star Swirl yelled back. “Put them on and tap the one on your right ear.”

Celestia’s lugs, I felt as sick as a dog. The sound was so loud the pulsing of it hammered into you like a physical force, making your bowels and stomach want to empty themselves out of every convenient orifice. Quickly, and desperate to escape the din by any means available, I rammed the ear muffs over my head, strapped them in place, and… Oh, bliss! Sheer, sheer bliss! Silence truly was golden after all. Beside me, Star Swirl tapped me on the shoulder, motioning towards the muffs. Ah, of course… One click later and the wizard’s voice came through loud and clear. Mercifully, it wasn’t completely drowned out by the incessant clanging of the alarm.

“Stay in the middle of the corridor,” he instructed, “I’m going to try something.”

I nodded as the sound cut off once more. Watching Star Swirl at work was just as I’d imagined it would be: totally inexplicable. Though not, I would hasten to add, completely without interest. Numerous devices constructed of metal and jewels, of wire, fabric and wood, appeared from out of a myriad of pouches, boxes and packs, rapidly being set up and tinkered with by the extraordinarily fast working wizard. It goes without saying that I didn’t have a bloody clue what he was doing. Part of me felt a little jealous of that too. I had me never been the cleverest pony in school, and that was putting it mildly, but I got by with what magic I had. Star Swirl’s magical talents however, were on a totally different level altogether. As we’d been told as youngsters, there was magic and then there was magic. Cue expansive foreleg waving and knowing smiles and nodding, as if that ever told you anything! Most unicorns got to know the basics of magical usage including manipulation, levitation, and so on and so on. Some, the real smarty pants, learned advanced stuff like teleportation and the like. Meadow had teleported me once, and never again; I’d puked my guts out. Fortunately at least, it hadn’t been outside the house. Horn envy was another thing with unicorns, and as much as I’d been told that size didn’t really matter, we all knew it bloody well did. ‘It’s what you do with it that counts’ was the mantra I’d heard time after time after time, and in some respects it was true. Take Star Swirl for example, his horn was pretty much the exact same size as mine and he could use magic like it was going out of fashion. But did the girls see it that way? Oh, no! It was always the guys with the longest horns that pulled the fanciest mares, and the guys were just as bad too. ‘Ooh! Look at the horn on that!’ Gods, how many times had I heard that over the years?! It did seem to coincide with other physical dimensions for some reason though. Short, dumpy mares had short horns, while the taller elegant ones had longer, slimmer horns. Now that I thought about it, were the two related or did you just sort of ‘grow’ into your horn? I might look into that when I got back.

“Here goes!” Star Swirls voice called over the ear muffs.

I nodded my understanding and watched him muttering something under his breath before a sudden pulse of wind shot out from his staff and shook the wall of fire violently. And then, mercifully, they flickered and then popped out of existence. Thank the goddess for that! I was starting to-

“WHOA!” I leaped back just in the nick of time. Blue fire burst into life inches from my muzzle with all the intensity of a blast furnace, singing my fur and sending the stink of burnt hair up my nostrils. “Star Swirl, what the hell did you do?!”

“I don’t understand it,” the voice crackled in my ear. “The inversion conjuration shouldn’t be giving this amount of elemental reverberation. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“Well you’d better do something,” I called back, “I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but I think our living space just shrank several feet.”

It had too. Slowly but surely the flames surrounding us were encroaching on our dwindling living space, pressing us in against each other.

“It’s a reaction to the negativity substatement,” Star Swirl said hurriedly. “It shouldn’t be doing this! I don’t understand why it’s-”

“I don’t care why it’s doing it, just hurry the buck up!” I yelped, backing up and narrowly avoiding some of the wizard’s equipment. The way things were going we’d be burnt to a crisp before smart arse here managed to think his way out of our predicament. Hell fire, if we’d just sat here long enough one of the guards would have come and… I blinked as the memory hit me. Guards… Tempest… The wall of blue fire! Quickly I began to check the burning walls as closely as I dared. It wasn’t easy either, the heat from them was building by the second and the light near blinding in its intensity. The flames, for want of a better word, seemed to shoot straight up like a backwards waterfall of furious magic, rather than actually ‘flickering’ like flames normally would.

“I’ve nearly got it!” Star Swirl shouted, “Hang on!” Everything paused. Silence. Absolute. Deathly… “Uh, oh...”

The shriek of enraged magic flooded our tiny space, hammering into us even over the sound deadening ear muffs. “Star Swirl, you pillock, what the hell have you done?!” I shouted. “The walls are coming in faster than they were!”

It was the first time I’d ever seen the eccentric unicorn concerned. Or better put: panicking. “I don’t know, I don’t know!” He closed his eyes and grabbed my hoof, “I’ll try and… Damn it, I can’t teleport either!”

Well that seemed pretty bloody obvious! Ah, hell. I suppose there were worse ways to go, but I couldn’t really think of one right then. Whichever way you looked at it we were completely screwed. No help was coming here, and as for the walls, they all looked the same apart from that one behind Star Swirls apparatus that… I hadn’t seen. I moved closer, staring at it. I stared at the pendant. I stared at Star Swirl.

“What?” he shouted. “What is it?”

“I think I know a way out,” I said, swallowing. “There’s a break in the wall. If we go this way we may be able to save our hides, but we’ll have to run like the wind to do it.”

“How do you know this?!” the wizard shouted. “You don’t seem to-”

“I know we’re dead if we stay here, wizard.” I grabbed Star Swirl’s gear and shoved what I could onto his back and some onto mine. “Let’s do this!”

“No! My equipment!” Star Swirl turned and began grabbing as much of his things as he could. Parts dropped onto the shrinking floor space or rolled off into the fire. “I can’t leave it behind!”

“Then stay here and die if it means that much to you,” I snapped. “I’m taking whatever chance I can to live and getting the hell out of here.” I reached out and grabbed the startled wizard, staring him straight in the eyes. “Feeling brave, wizard?” I grinned, “Fortune favours the bold.” Taking a breath I span round to face the narrow flickering section of the burning blue wall, dug my hooves into the rough ground, and... leaped into the fire.

All sound cut off abruptly, plunging me into absolute silence other than for the thump of my heart beating and my rhythmic breathing as my hooves propelled me at a full gallop. Ahead of me fire raged on either side of a narrow corridor little wider than myself. I couldn’t stop. I didn’t dare look behind me. All I could do was focus on the path, and run, run for all I was worth. Fire singed my mane, catching my packs, burning my tail, but I didn’t slow down even for a second. Here, to stop meant death. I didn’t know for certain and I sure as hell wasn’t going to try and see for myself, but I knew with deadly certainty that the wall of fire was chasing me. It was gaining too. I could feel the heat, feel the nip of death grabbing at this desperate soul. I was going to die. Again! Damn this place. Damn the gods. Damn everything in the whole damned universe. I wanted to survive, to live, to see my son again. I couldn’t let this end here. I couldn’t! Oh gods, Lumin, my little boy. My beautiful little foal…

Abruptly the world ended in a brilliant flash of blue light and then almost as suddenly was plunged into total darkness. As I tripped on the rocks and fell muzzle first onto the rock floor, something heavy slammed into me from behind and cartwheeled off into a howling heap of legs, bags, and only the gods knew what else. Right then I had my own problems: my head rang like all the bells of the Celestian church on the day of the sun raising festival, with the added pleasure of feeling as though somepony had thrown a tinkers cart at the back of my skull.

“Goddess above…” I groaned, pulling myself to my hooves. Pain shot down my foreleg and along my back where a rock, or something else equally sharp and unpleasant, had raked me under my barding. One of the straps had snapped and two of my panniers were singed and torn, but other than that I was pretty much still in one piece. Well, mostly anyway. If I could get some bloody light in here it would help. Carefully I concentrated on my magic and a small flame popped into existence a few feet from my muzzle, and just high enough to illuminate the surroundings. Nearby something moved in the shadows, groaning. My heart leaped into my throat, but the clatter of metallic debris gave it away all too easily.

“Star Swirl?” I floated the flame over to where the wizard lay. “Are you alright?”

“I… I don’t think so.” He peered up at me from under singed eyebrows, a burnt hat, what was left of his cape and a pile of broken bits of brass, tubes, and who knew what else. “Can you help me up, my boy? I can’t seem to get the old hind quarters moving for some reason.”

“Hind quarters?” I looked down and began to shift the insane amount of junk the- “Oh.” Oh, gods. No wonder he couldn’t feel his legs.

“What is it?” Star Swirl coughed and tried to lift his head to see. “I can’t...”

“Shush,” I said gently. “Don’t move, I need to see what’s going on here.” Unfortunately I could see all too well.

The wizard grimaced in pain, “Don’t mother me, Fairlight, I’m not a child. Tell me what you see.”

I closed my eyes and let out a breath before leaning closer to the wound. “One of your brass metalwork things has gone right through your side and looks like its… broken your back.”

“Ah… thought so.” Star Swirl sighed, “Landed quite badly there.”

“It was all that stupid damned crap you were carrying, you bloody idiot!” I snapped angrily. “I told you leave it, but you had to...” I looked away, furious with both him and myself. “Damn it all!”

“Well, looks like you’ll have to sort our wendigo friends out on your own after all, my boy.” The wizard suddenly hissed in pain, “I don’t think I’ll be doing much in the way of walking any time soon, so-” He suddenly began to cough violently, frothy blood spattering his muzzle. “Oh… bugger...”

“Bloody hell, Star Swirl...” I groaned and began shifting the equipment away from him. “You’re an absolute pain in the arse, do you know that?”

“But one built for comfort, not speed, eh?” he chuckled.

I huffed, “If you’d been built for common sense we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“I’m not the one who triggered the spell, remember?” he needlessly reminded me.

“Oh… belt up.” I undid my packs and slipped off my barding.

“What are you doing?” Star Swirl asked weakly. “You have to get going. We don’t have time for-”

“-I’m saving your life, you dong,” I huffed, moving close.

“The guards will find me eventually,” Star Swirl reasoned. “Once I’m out of here the magic of the herd will heal me right up.”

Personally I wasn’t so sure. “You won’t make it that long,” I said dismissively, “and you know it.”

“Always the melodrama,” the wizard retorted.

I ignored him and stood back, clearing my mind, “Shush while I concentrate.” I ignored the pain in my side and leg, ignored the world around me, and reached for the magic. I needed it now, and it was right there waiting for me like a friendly dog by the front door awaiting its master. Hello old friend… The curious feeling of ice and fire rolled through my body, enticing and delectable. My teeth itched, my wings unfolding and stretching out, shining in the light of my magic. A rumble escaped my lips as the wendigo awoke… Slowly, I tasted the air. I hadn’t fed for quite a while. I was so… hungry. The smell of Star Swirl’s escaping life energy tingled my senses. It was delicious. It was only a trickle, but it was so fresh, so refreshingly tart and full of magic. Nopony would notice if I took a little, would they? Just a taste, not even a mouthful. I doubted even Star Swirl himself would notice, and he would recover it eventually anyway. Of course, he may not survive because of his injuries, but who would know? It was likely he was going to die and be reincarnated anyway if I just left him, and he wouldn’t have the memories of it either. And if he thought I’d forgotten what he’d done to my life, he was sadly mistaken…

“Fairlight?”

I was so, so hungry…

“What are you…? Mmph!”

Blood: sweet, hot, full of iron, and deliciously sticky. I felt myself shivering with the effort. I felt the intake of breath and stifled cry of the wizard beneath me. My hooves and wings held him down so he couldn’t escape no matter how much he struggled. He was mine now, this wizard of the royal court. I could snuff him out as easily as a guttering candle and nopony would ever know. To hold such power, such sway over a life, was both intoxicating and terrifying. It was a heady mix that could spin the head of anypony unused to such wicked power. Slowly though, the struggling faded away, and I let the magic flow.

The song of the wendigo sang in my veins.