//------------------------------//
// 5 - The Trials of the Sun 
// Story: Tales Above a Scorched Land - Sunfall 
// by gerandakis 
//------------------------------//


5.

The Trials of the Sun






The eight mares engaged in casual conversation as they made their way towards the castle. It was true that they were in a forest filled with dangerous creatures who wouldn't hesitate to snatch up a pony or two for lunch, but with three well trained mages keeping up scanning spells and taking up positions in a triangle formation around the group, it was more or less assured that no such creature could approach closer than a few dozen meters undetected.

As such, the first major threat to the group managed to catch them completely off guard. Dangerous creatures they had been prepared for. A cliff with an unstable edge was entirely unexpected. Once more, Starlight needed to remind both Twilight and Sunset of the fact that they could teleport. Rarity, to their dismay, lacked that skill.

From where they had teleported, away from the edge and onto stable ground, they watched as Applejack, who had barely managed to catch Rarity before she fell, told her to let go and that she would be fine. Rarity seemed conflicted for a moment, but finally decided to believe Applejack's words. She fell off the edge only to come back up a second later, safely held by Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. They set her down beside the three mages and Pinkie Pie who had been close enough for the three to catch in their telekinesis when they came out of their respective teleports.

The mares took a few moments to recover from their shock before continuing on their way to the castle. In the commotion, of course, the three mages had lost focus on their scanning spells and the group soon ran into an agitated manticore. More or less all of them made rather ineffectual attempts to subdue the beast, until Fluttershy managed to break through her timidness and stop them.

She carefully walked up to the manticore and gently picked up it's large paw in her hooves. Turning it to face the others, she showed them the large thorn that was stuck there before carefully removing it. The manticore roared in shock for a moment before quieting down and, much to the others' surprise, affectionately licking her face.

Once the mares had recovered from their shock and Fluttershy had bid her newest animal friend goodbye, they went on their way again.

They soon reached a darker area of the forest. The dense canopy more or less blocked out the harsh sunlight from above and, after such a long time in the bright light, their eyes were not at all adapted for the sudden gloom. They stumbled through the darkness for a while, heading loosely towards their destination until Twilight suddenly stumbled backwards from the ball of fire that had appeared in the air before her.

The group quickly reacted and made to move in the opposite direction, only for a second ball of fire to spring up there and block off their path. The same thing happened in any direction they tried to escape. The fact that the fire seemed to form grimacing faces didn't calm them at all.

Except Pinkie Pie.

Minutes later the group were on their way again and the three mages added Pinkie's impromptu musical, laughter-based exorcism to the list of things about the mare they would question once the world wasn't at stake.

Not long after, however, they smelled smoke once again and there was a faint orange light ahead of them. "Pinkie, are there more of them?"

"Nope. That's an actual fire."

"Whatever do you mean, darling?" Seconds later, it became clear just what she meant. The trees parted and the group found themselves on another cliff overlooking a wide section of the forest.

One that was currently on fire.

"Never mind that. I understand what you mean."

"One of those wildfires did look like it was loosely in the way, didn't it?" Sunset admitted. "This is a bit inconvenient."

The eight mares stood atop the cliff for a few minutes, looking over the wildfire below and considering their options. They couldn't see past the smoke and fire so teleporting wasn't an option. Having made it a good part of the way to their destination, the winds overhead were now much stronger than where they had 'landed', so flying was definitely out. And while their cooling charms could hold off the nearly sixty degree heat of surface, even in the shade granted by the trees, the fire was easily twenty times hotter and would get past the charms in moments.

Not to mention that the charms would only protect them from the heat. The flames could still burn them regardless.

Rainbow Dash was not happy. "Come on! We've come all this way and now a fire stops us?!"

"You know, I could help you."

The group whirled around and caught sight of a bluish white pegasus stallion as he stepped out between the trees behind them.

Rainbow landed before him, looking at him suspiciously. "What's another pony doing down here?"

"What?" Another stallion, this one a pale brown with an ash gray mane, stepped up next to the first. "Did you think everypony lived up in the sky these days?"

"Admittedly, most ponies do," the first explained. "But some of us chose to go down instead of up. I'm Snow Storm, by the way. That's my brother, Desert Wind."

The girls introduced themselves in turn. Ultimately, it was Rainbow who spoke up again. "So exactly how can you help us?"

"Remember what I said about going down instead of up?" Snow Storm asked. When he received a round of nods, he continued with a winning smile. "Well I meant that. We live underground. Over the centuries we've built a network of tunnels that spans a good section of the Everfree. If you'll trust us, we can take you to the other side of that wildfire down there by going underneath it."

"Give us a minute, will ya?" When the two stallions nodded, Snow with a smile, Desert with the same frown he’d had for the entire conversation, Applejack shepherded the group a few steps away so they could talk in private. "Ah dunno. Thar's somthin' fishy 'bout them two."

"I know what you mean, darling. Ponies down here. And they're not even wearing clothing."

"Not what ah meant, Rares."

"I see your point, Applejack," Sunset spoke up. "But they've not done anything to make us doubt them. This area of Equestria is relatively safe, but that's not true everywhere. There are pirates closer to the borders that attack ships that go by, even settlements on occasion. If there was a surface community underground somewhere, especially one that old, I'm not surprised they'd want to stay hidden."

"So yer willin' ta go along with 'em?"

"I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt."

"Alright sis. If you trust them, then so do I," Twilight moved to stand next to her sister.

"Me too." Starlight took her other side.

One by one, the mares agreed. Finally only Applejack was left. "Well if y'all say so. Ah s'pose ah'll go along with it. But ah'm still sayin' they ain't tellin us the whole truth."

When the mares returned to them and agreed, Snow Storm took the lead, guiding them a short distance along the cliff, Desert wind brought up the rear. Soon, they reached a path that led down along the cliff, zigg-zagging closer to the flames below until they were at about half the height of the cliff and reached a concealed entrance.

The tunnel they entered led them further down. Occasionally they came to a split in the path, but Snow unerringly led them down a route, not even hesitating before going one way or the other.

Every once in a while they came past a tunnel that led upward, every time sealed by a heavy stone slab and guarded by a single pony. Those, Snow explained, were exits to the surface, sealed before the wildfire could reach them.

After a while, Twilight trotted up beside their guide. "Say, how many ponies live here? I haven't really seen anypony outside of those guarding the exits."

"Oh yeah, most of us don't usually come to the surface. We usually stay deeper down in the lower chambers where it’s cooler, but when there's a wildfire in the area, we need to be able to see where it's going so we can seal the exits if we need to. That's why Desert and I were up there at all."

After about half an hour of trotting through the tunnels, Snow led them up into a tunnel that led back to the surface, one that wasn't sealed. "We're a good way past the wildfire now and it isn't moving in this direction. You should be good to go on."

After the mares had bid them goodbye and gone back on their way, Snow and Desert returned into the depths of the tunnels. Both were engulfed in a flash of green. "You know Pharynx," 'Snow Storm' spoke up, "I don't like that we have to lie to them."

"We're changelings Thorax," Pharynx explained with a sigh, "get used to it, it's what we do."

"No, I agree," came a deeper voice from behind them. A taller changeling with a membranous mane and a small crown on her head walked out from the shadows of a side tunnel. "It really is a shame. But who knows, if they are successful, things may well change. Let's hope that the elements do recognize them."

"Of course, your majesty."





The next major hindrance on their path caused them quite a few mixed feelings. Bewilderment chief among them. Never before had any of them seen a river of that size before. And, being a weather mare and thus, among other things, responsible for keeping the weather factories supplied with water from the underground reservoirs, Rainbow Dash was also the only one of them who could swim.

Needless to say that the raging river before them was a rather major inconvenience.

The next mystery they faced was how exactly there could be a sea serpent in a river that was a significant distance away from the sea and had no actual connection to it. Sea serpents were, after all, not exactly known for walking through the desert. That Rarity managed to calm said serpent and he was actually quite charming afterward was honestly less of a surprise.

With a final wave, Rarity bid goodbye to her latest acquaintance and the group departed, deeper into the forest. "Well, he was quite charming, wasn't he?"

"Oh absolutely. Most creatures are, actually. Ponies just don't understand most of them."

Sunset shook her head slightly. "I still can't believe you made friends with a manticore, Fluttershy."

"Oh she really is a lovely one. Strange thing is that she could swear that thorn wasn't there before she put her paw down."

None of the mares said anything more on the matter as they continued on their journey, but it didn't take long for all of them to reach the same conclusion. The thorn suddenly appearing out of nowhere was certainly suspicious. A wildfire just happening to be in their way was more so. That the sea serpent had just flat out mentioned that his mustache had been cut of by a flash of light made it more or less obvious what was going on.

Daybreaker was messing with them.

But why? Even if she didn't know where they were, she clearly could predict their route well enough. Why not simply wait for them and stop them before they could get close? She certainly had the power and doing so certainly would be the easiest way to stop them. Or had her sanity degraded that far?

Finally, they reached the edge of the treeline, allowing their gazes to fall upon the castle. It clearly was a ruin, but, for its age, it truly was in remarkable shape. Regardless, there was still one major hindrance in the way. Separating them from the castle was a deep chasm. Everypony from Ponyville could also tell from memory, from seeing the forest from the edge of their islands or from the observation deck on the Lumiere, that it fully surrounded the castle. If they wanted to reach the ruin, they would have to cross it.

Fortunately, there was a rope bridge. Unfortunately, it was out. The anchor points beyond the chasm were still there, but the bridge itself hung down from the anchors on their side.

Once more Starlight tried to simply teleport. That, she found, was a bad idea.

Twilight quickly rushed to her sister's side and quickly cast a number of spells to sort out the mess of magical feedback in her horn so as to alleviate her headache. Sunset, meanwhile, looked at the chasm again, then to Starlight.

"Forgot to check for wards first, didn't you, Miss Triggerhappy?" Starlight simply nodded, pain and embarrassment binding her tongue. "Admittedly, hiding the wardline in the chasm is clever. And it can't have been easy either, considering that the chasm isn't even close to circular."

"Somepony ask for a bridge?" All eyes turned to Rainbow Dash who stood before the, suddenly no longer broken, rope bridge, a thoughtful smile on her lips.

"How?"

Fluttershy turned to Twilight with a rather mystified expression. "She has wings, remember?"

"Oh. Right."

After a careful first few steps, the group quickly crossed the rope bridge, though, after Sunset's warning, only one at a time and soon stood before the ruined castle.

Given the time that had passed, the castle was in remarkably good shape. The harsh sun hadn't done much to the old stone, but where vegetation and rain might have caused decay, the perpetually hot weather had prevented either from doing much.

One of the large doors of the castle was open, the other was lying beside the frame, both likely unmoved for centuries. They looked around themselves as they passed through the inner courtyard, then they found the way to the throne room.

There, in the middle of the room, was a strange construct. Seven arms reached out from the center, each holding an orb with an indentation matching the shape of a gemstone.

The elements.

"Ah, so glad you could finally join me." All of them whirled around to find Daybreaker at the entrance, looking at them all with an expression between deranged amusement and annoyed contempt. "I was hoping you'd all be dead by now. Oh well. Guess I'll have to take care of it myself."

Without any further warning she pointed her horn at the group and let loose a stream of white hot fire right at them. Only a shield, hastily conjured by Twilight, Sunset, and Starlight, prevented them from being boiled alive.

After a few seconds, the fire cut out and Daybreaker looked at them with an expression of disappointment, quickly morphing into delight. "Ohh, fighting spirit, have you? Good. This should be fun."

"Why are you doing this?"

The fiery alicorn looked at Starlight with a disturbed expression. "Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this?! Has the world truly forgotten?"

"Hardly. But I'd like to hear your side of the story. Being under attack generally doesn't lead to an accurate retelling and a thousand years of time don't really help either."

"Well it's simple. Our little ponies didn't appreciate me, they never understood what I did every moment of every day to keep the sun from falling on top of moving it across the sky. I guess centuries of having it done for them will do that. Starswirl was one of the last to understand. And when he vanished ..."

For a moment, Daybreaker's expression of fury turned sentimental, then her anger returned. "No. They always preferred my dear sister and her night sky. She protected them from monsters in the night, after all. Oh and from nightmares. Creations of their own imagination. Never mind that I was keeping the other nations of the world in check, who's armies were quite real, I might add- Hey!"

Distracted as she had been, by Starlight's questions and her understanding expression, Daybreaker hadn't noticed that there was one pony who wasn't listening to her story. Twilight.

She had turned to the elements, levitated them off their pedestals and was trying to figure out how to get them to work.

"Oh no, you won't best me so easily. Your little diversion won't stop me." She jumped over the group and, before her hooves touched the ground again, vanished in a flash of red, along with Twilight and the elements.