When Twilight’s consciousness finally came back to her, the first thing she was aware of was a dull humming in the background. She truly started to wake up when it was accompanied by periodic loud clanging, each of which made her head hurt a little more. The scents of engine oil, soot, and what seemed to be liquor finally made her stir all together.
Cracking her eyes open caused the headache to go from dull to stabbing the second light hit her eyes, dim as it was. She quickly held a hand to them until she adjusted enough to open them all together. She saw a metallic ceiling with a gaslight over it. Her brain, tired and hurt as it was, had to take a moment to realize she wasn’t in another cell.
A second later, the head of a green and purple dog moved over her own and filled her vision. Spike sniffed her for a few moments before beginning to pant happily. He started to lick her face all over, getting her the rest of the way alert before she raised a hand to push away.
“Oh, hey! You’re awake!”
Hearing Pinkie’s voice, Twilight leaned up a bit…instantly going back down as that made her headache stab again. Doing so, however, let her realize she was lying down. And on turning her head to see a rather simple and threadbare bunk across from her in a small room, she realized it had to be one of the smaller shared cabins for the former airship crew.
Pinkie herself had been seated on the lower bunk and instantly leapt up to her feet with a grin. “Yay!”
“P…Pinkie…? What’re…?”
“The others will be so excited! They’ve been worried for three days!”
Twilight blinked before leaning up again. The headache wasn’t as bad this time, but she ignored it anyway. “W-Wait….three days? You mean I’ve been out for three days?!”
“Oh, sssh!” Pinkie immediately hushed; putting a finger to her lips. Her own volume dropped. “I forgot! We should be quiet! Fluttershy’s still sleeping underneath you! She passed out around noon yesterday after all the healing she had to do on everyone!”
“He…healing…?”
“I’ll go let the others know you’re up! And I’ll bring you back a tasty treat too!”
She turned to leave through the open hatchway to the cabin, but froze in mid-step before turning back.
“Er…provided the tasty treat you have in mind is whiskey and hardtack. Trottingham soldiers must have terrible taste buds.” She leaned in with a smile. “Good thing I brought that cake along before we started, eh? Eh?”
Without another word, she turned and hopped out. Twilight was left a bit bewildered, but not very bothered by it. It gave her a chance to look around and let her memory fully reorganize itself. It also gave her a chance to calm Spike and let her headache subside a bit. It took some effort to sit up in the bed, which was rather hard with the low ceiling, but after sitting for a few minutes the pain subsided enough for her to straighten.
Around that time, Pinkie came bounding back in with Rarity close behind her. She cupped her hand to her mouth on spotting her. “Oh Twilight…thank heavens. You’re finally awake. I don’t wish to alarm you but some of us honestly thought you never would…”
“I must have overdone it with trying two of those spells…” Twilight answered as she rubbed her head with one hand and Spike with the other. “Pinkie says I was asleep for three days?”
Rarity winced uncomfortably. She looked to one side, trying to be evasive.
“What’s wrong?”
“Um, darling…I’m afraid it was a bit worse than that. By the time we were able to reach you on deck, you were…um…er…what’s the most delicate way to say this… You were, well…you were bleeding freely out of your nose and…eyelids.”
Twilight’s eyes bulged. “Wh…what?”
“We didn’t really know what to do. We were afraid to even try to move you. Eventually we tried to just hold your eyes and nose shut while Fluttershy healed as best as she could. She kept at work until she was exhausted, then we waited for her to recover, and then she resumed again until she was exhausted again. By that point it seemed the bleeding had stopped at least, but you were white as a sheet and looked like skin and bone.”
The mage sat there stunned for several seconds, fear painting over her face. She swallowed after a moment at looked at her lap.
“It’s true I never pushed myself that hard, but…but…I didn’t think…”
“Twilight, I think I speak for everyone when I say you can’t ever do anything like that again. We thought even if you had lived that you might be catatonic. Even now I’m worried about whatever long-term effects you might have had. Fluttershy worked herself to the absolute bone healing the rest of us, but she could barely even walk after trying to heal you. And, frankly, I dread to think of what would have happened if not for her…”
“Alright, alright,” Twilight cut off; running her hand through her hair. “You’ve made your point. I didn’t really have a choice when I did it, though. We had to stop Sunset and that was the only spell I had that could have even moved her in that form.” She paused before looking up. “What about Sunset?”
Rarity crossed her arms and exhaled. “By this point, as dreadful as the thought is, she’s probably in the belly of some horrendous beast assuming she survived the fall. We haven’t seen head nor tail of her or anyone else from Trottingham since the end of that battle. As ghastly as this place is and as nerve wracking as it is to be surrounded by darkness and Nighttouched, it seems to be safe.” She winced again on saying that. “At least, for the moment.”
“What do you mean?”
An especially loud clang, this one sounding like it broke something, resounded through the walls. It made Twilight sit bolt upright so fast she bonked her head against the ceiling, making her wince and lower her head again.
“That,” Pinkie spoke up. “Applejack and Rainbow Dash have been trying to fix the airship enough to get it to move again for a couple days, but every time we ask them for how they’re doing all they give back are a lot of words that would make ma and pa wash our mouths out with soap.”
Twilight rubbed her sore scalp. “We’re stuck?”
“I’m afraid so,” Rarity sighed. “Our airship didn’t take nearly as much damage as theirs, but between all of that power that Sunset was emitting and that horrible snake monstrosity, we haven’t been able to get the engines to move in days.” She looked at her hopefully. “I hate to ask something of you so soon, but I don’t suppose you have experience with engines, do you?”
Twilight looked uncertain for a moment before she let out an exhale. Slowly, she began to push herself off of the bunk.
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt for me to give it a look…”
“Alright, now shut switches 2 and 3, turn the valve to one-quarter, and then give me three manual pumps.”
Twilight spoke like a seasoned pro as she continued to work with the pipe wrench on the conduit she was lying under. Dash and Applejack, who by now were both covered with grease and dirt as well as the occasional steam burn, immediately started doing what she said. After getting over their initial enthusiasm to see Twilight up again, they were now overwhelmed by how quick she took to the engines. It was all they could do to keep up with her now.
As they started to work, Twilight was already moving on to another pipe. “That’s too high. Only a quarter turn.”
Dash quickly corrected it. “Uh, we aren’t going to get it moving with a quarter power…”
“It needs to build up some pressure first.” She sighed as she shook her head, tightening another valve. “It’s amazing this is still in the air. It looks like someone just plain opened every last valve hoping they’d get some power…”
Dash turned a shade red before she kept working.
“And this pipe? I don’t know how it got this damaged from that fight! It looks like someone just kept beating on it with a hammer hoping it’d start to work!”
Applejack let out a cough, lowered her hat over her eyes, and quietly kept working as well.
Rarity and Pinkie, not really able to help, instead stood at a distance and watched; both rather amazed. “Goodness me, Twilight. I had no idea you’d be so fluent at this. For the past three days it’s been like a troupe of chimpanzees playing with sticks and rocks…”
Both Applejack and Dash glared at her.
“Er…no offense.”
“How about you get yerself grease covered if you don’t like the job we’re doin’ next time?” Applejack snorted before pumping a bit more.
“Gee Twilight,” Pinkie threw in, “did you use to work with steam engines?”
“What, me? Oh no. I just got laid over in Manehattan two years ago for about six weeks and I hung out in the library. I had read everything else, so I tried the technical manuals.”
Dash, Rarity, and Applejack all exchanged rather baffled looks at that. Twilight, oblivious to that, finished her own set of work before exhaling, wiping her head, and then pushing herself out from under the conduit.
“I think that should do it. Give it about forty-five minutes to build up pressure and I think we’ll have engine power.”
“Sweet!” Dash cheered. “We can handle forty-five minutes easy!”
Twilight looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”
Both Applejack and Rarity looked at each other uneasily. After a moment of silence the farmer turned to her. “Er, Twilight? I don’t s’pose you read any books on, um, fixin’ air sacs on airships, did you?”
About twenty minutes later, after Twilight had forced everyone to pick up and organize the engine room, they were all gathered on the bridge. It was there that she got the bad news as Dash pointed out the altitude gauge. The mage herself grimaced to even see it.
“3,000 feet above the current ground level?”
“When she blew out the top hatch, that fire witch ripped a big ol’ gash right in the bottom of the air sac,” Applejack sighed. “Don’t even know how to lock it down. Leak’s been gettin’ bigger.”
“The first day we only lost a thousand feet,” Rarity chimed in. “Three thousand yesterday. It’s only been getting worse.”
“Wait,” Twilight retorted, looking up from the gauge, “did you say three thousand yesterday, and it’s getting worse? We only have three thousand left before we bottom out! That means we only have a few more hours at most!” She started to look around frantically. “Where’s the navigation station? Did anyone figure out where we were while I was out?”
As she started scrambling over the consoles, and Applejack and Rarity, both uncomfortable at the latest news, quickly moved in to direct her to the navigation station, Dash remained at the helm studying the other instruments, while Pinkie, a piece of hardtack in her hands, was gnawing on it rather like a dog with a bone. When she looked up and out the main window, however, she caught a glimpse of something else.
Fluttershy was out there, obviously awake and on deck; apparently looking around for the rest of them. Pinkie spotted her just as she walked out from the ruins of the hatch and began to meekly glance around.
“Oh look! Fluttershy’s up too!” She immediately began to bound off for the bridge exit, using the same hardtack she had been trying to eat as a doorjamb for the hatch before running out.
Eventually the Gaitian managed to carefully work her way around the weakened floorboards about the hatch area for the upper deck. On emerging, she saw Fluttershy was still there, but was no longer searching around. She was standing at the edge of the railing and looking over the side, only seeming more nervous now and shaking a little.
“Hey, Fluttershy!” she greeted happily. “Feeling all better?”
“Um…” she answered, even more quietly than usual and sounding distracted. “I…um…suppose so. Just a little groggy.”
“Great! I’ll make you my special Hardtack Caramel Whiskey Surprise!” She grinned slyly. “I’ll give you a hint…the surprise is one of those ingredients is missing!”
She kept looking over the side without turning. “Oh, um… I’m…not hungry.”
“Guess what? Twilight got the airship fixed! That means we’ll be able to leave pretty soon!”
“Ok…”
Pinkie paused, noticing her distraction. She stepped a bit closer. “What’s the matter? Airsick? Queasy? Scared of heights?”
“Um…a little of all of that, but…no. I’m just…” she swallowed. “Just a little nervous because…um…” She lowered her voice almost to a mumble. “They’re doing what they did that time I went into the woods right now…”
“Who?”
She shrank a bit more. “The Nighttouched.”
Pinkie stepped closer to the edge and looked over it.
The night hadn’t ended since they entered the skies over Equestria, but it had cleared up quite a bit. And in the starlight and moonlight, at an altitude of only 3,000 feet above the ground, it was quite easy to see, as far as they eye could in all directions, thousands of Nighttouched. Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Mixed in with at least a thousand Light Eaters of various sizes.
From this high, they moved like ant colonies. Huge masses of them in huge living rivers scurrying all over the landscape, pooling together into tracks and moving en masse. Big ones, small ones, swarming ones, flying ones, even ones larger and more monstrous than any of them had seen before. All of them flowing into the large tracts and making their way south and southeast. Their thousands of yellow eyes gleamed like candle bearers and one could almost hear the echo of their unified movements from the sky.
For once, Pinkie’s smile went away. Genuine concern replaced it.
“Uh…maybe we should get Twilight to look at this.”
About thirty minutes later, after everyone had a chance to see the sight that they were drawing ever nearer to with each passing minute, and after Dash had helped herself to an extra ration of the whiskey and Rarity had taken a moment to quit her initial hyperventilating, all six women were back on the bridge. Between Fluttershy’s healing and having three days of rest, all of them were looking in near tip-top shape externally at least, but all of them were progressively growing more distraught in one way or another.
Although Twilight had only been awake for a couple hours, everyone was already looking fully to her for guidance at this point. She herself looked so overwhelmed she didn’t even think to pet Spike when he crept up next to her and pushed his head against her leg. She exhaled and ran her hand through her hair.
“Alright…here’s where we stand. I can’t be terribly sure, but I estimate the airship has at least five hours left before it hits the ground. We still have the Morning Glory and we should be able to land somewhat softly, but…well…”
“But we’ll be in the thick of thousands of Nighttouched and Light Eaters?” Applejack dully asked.
“…Right.”
“If the engines are working, let’s just get out of here now while we can!” Rarity nearly shouted.
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple. With only five hours, we can only go so many places, and right now we don’t even know exactly where we are. But based on the log info of where the crew of the Legacy intended to take us and where their charts were, and assuming that we’re recognizing the correct topographical features to use as landmarks, we can get a rough idea. And right now, the only places that are within a five-hour flight that aren’t in Equestria seem to be Appleloosa and, well…Trottingham. I won’t really be sure which way we’re flying, but I think I can get us into the former of the two.”
That wasn’t the most comforting thing in the world for the six to hear, and it showed on their faces.
“All of that being said…there’s another concern. At this point, we’ve all seen what’s going on underneath us. If this is really like what Fluttershy saw before we met, then it’s clear what’s happening. They’re getting ready for another surge like the one we saw in Griffonstone. A bigger one, possibly. I don’t know what they’re going to do, but it stands to reason they’re going to try and push into the ocean again. And if they fan out around the Hyperborean Mountains again or hit the same spot…which they have no reason not to as the armies of the world still can’t hurt them…that means they could overrun the train station. In other words, they might not only reach their goal this time, they might eliminate the one route we have to get to Nightmare Moon.”
She hesitated; her eyes looking to the ceiling.
“That is…what used to be the one route. Right now, we have a second one.”
A moment or two of silence passed. Pinkie turned her head. “Really?” She began to look around herself and out the windows. “Huh… I didn’t see any other route. And you think I’d be able to on board this floating airship that has a special magical machine on it that keeps all of the Nighttouched and Light Eaters awa….ooooooooh!”
“The mountain chain around the Castle of the Two Sisters is visible from where we’re at,” Twilight went on. “We can follow it right there, and if the calculations are correct we should just be able to make it. We can still finish our original task.”
Another moment of silence. Pinkie looked a bit enthusiastic, but her feeling was not mutual. Dash took another uncertain swig of whiskey. Applejack crossed her arms a bit too tightly. Fluttershy began to cringe and whimper while Rarity looked to one side and grimaced.
Twilight frowned. “I kind of expected that.”
“It’s not that I don’t see your point, darling,” Rarity spoke up hesitantly. “And I can certainly appreciate making adjustments to a plan as I know all about needs to adapt. It’s just, well…the fact of the matter is not so long ago we fought someone who had only five Anima Viris and…well…I broke a blade trying to stab her.”
“And I busted four knuckles trying to punch her,” Dash threw in. “I can dent metal punching things…”
“And I ain’t quite felt the same ever since that flamin’ missy made me lose my pa’s hammer,” Applejack muttered. “Ain’t nothin’ felt right. And we ain’t got an airship deck this time ta’ knock her off of.”
“Sunset said having six Anima Viris would make you a god…” Fluttershy uneasily muttered. “If Nightmare Moon has six…she’ll be…m-m-much worse than she was, won’t she?”
Twilight looked from one person to the next. Her own head slumped and she sighed. “I’d be lying if I said I feel good about this either… I know we were kind of thrown into the last fight, but even if we stick to the plan we’ve been rehearsing I’m not sure if we can do this.”
She looked back up, her expression firming.
“I also know that we can’t defend this world from the next surge that’s coming, and it’s going to mean thousands of other deaths. And I also know, unfortunately, this isn’t going to get any easier, and that we may not get another shot like this. I’ll be honest…as Sunset kept flexing more of her power in that fight, I started to think we couldn’t win. I thought that we were simply outclassed in every way no matter how little experience she had.”
This prompted the others to look at her in some bewilderment. She shrank a little at having made the admission, but she pressed on.
“But we won, and we won because we stuck together and worked together. Celestia might have always tried to help me increase my own power and had such high hopes for me, but I think the real reason we went on that summer trip was because she was going to teach me to rely on others. Right now, I’m willing to go after Nightmare Moon alone, but I know there’s no way I’ll win.” She glanced around. “Not without the rest of you. Now that I have a better idea of what we’re up against, I can’t ask any of you to come this time. I honestly don’t know how many of us will come back alive. If you want to opt out, I understand.”
Everyone hesitated. Fluttershy moistened her lips but never was able to say anything. Rarity stiffly jerked her hand, nearly raising it, but in the end put it down.
Finally, Dash took another swig of whiskey, and then idly tossed the rest over her shoulder. “Well, I’ve come this far. And I knew it was suicide going in anyway, so count me in.”
“Me too!” Pinkie cheered. “I told you all we had nothing to worry about! Gaia got us through Sunset, the Trottingham soldiers, and all of those monsters in one piece, didn’t she? We’ve got this!”
“Aw hell,” Applejack shrugged, holding up her Anima Viri. “I may not have pa’s hammer, but he’s still here, so I’ll make do.”
“Good grief…I used to think the spring season was one disaster after another…” Rarity sighed. “Well, I’ve committed myself, and I honor my commitments. If I can make the difference between ending this ghastly night and another swarm of these monstrosities, then I simply need to gird my loins and press on. You can count on me.”
That left Flutteshy. The other five looked to her, seeing her still hesitant. She glanced to the side, letting her hair fall over half of her face again.
“Well…um…to be honest, I think I’m too scared to try and fight Nightmare Moon,” she finally spoke up. “But…I think what scares me even more is all five of you trying to fight her and me not being there to help you when I could have. So…that means I’ll come too.”
In spite of the seriousness of the situation, the rest of the ladies found themselves smiling a little at the sentiment. With that settled, everyone looked back to Twilight.
She drew herself up and exhaled. “Alright. Everyone, I’ll need your help to start setting a course. After that, let’s get ready as best we can.”
The ride, while peaceful, was far from settling.
It took another forty minutes to figure out the airship enough to give it the right heading before it took off. By then, more clouds had rolled in, but they parted often. Between them and the yellow eyes and “moonspots” on Light Eaters, they could see quite far.
For the next four hours, all they saw, sprawled along the countryside in every river, valley, and road, were the Nighttouched and Light Eaters. They only seemed to grow more unusual and grotesque as they went along. At one point, they spotted some reptilian-like creature with multiple heads and necks stretching out like fences along the landscape. They realized that had to be the monster, or at least one of its ilk, that attacked the other night. Yet there were far more monstrosities than that, and they only got better looks at them as they kept descending. Things that were amlagamations of snakes and tigers, giant worms with tentacles coming out of their mouths, hulking beasts that looked like bears and moles, and worse, until it was hard to imagine any had ever been something “normal”.
Each one of them flowed to the south. Eventually, far in the distance, they saw what looked like a starry mountainside slowly moving along the landscape.
“It’s another Tantabus…”
“They’re not all gatherin’ ‘round it though…” Applejack muttered.
“Do you suppose there’s more than one this time?” Rarity nervously asked.
“I’d rather not find out if we can…” Twilight sighed.
Eventually, the countryside gave way to rockier hills and mountains. Keeping the airship aloft was much harder then. The mountains were easier than the Hyperboreans, but they were still quite lofty. They managed to get over some of the smaller peaks at first, but eventually they had to start making their way through the valleys and around them as they kept lowering.
“This would be a lot easier if there weren’t all these forests everywhere…”
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Twilight pointed out. “It’s been nothing but night here for eight years. How are all of these trees still alive?”
“Maybe whatever’s keeping the Nighttouched alive keeps them alive?” Pinkie suggested.
“Remind me never ta’ build a cabin outta the pine in Equestria…” Applejack muttered. “Last thing I need is lumber tryin’ ta’ shove me into a sawmill…”
As the landscape grew more uneven and started to climb, they began to fear that the airship would ground long before they reached their destination. Especially as some of the land and boulders got within a hundred or even fifty feet of the bottom of the airship.
However, just as they had to kick the engines up for vertical lift to make up for it, they noticed the landscape changed. The Nighttouched and Light Eaters thinned out before disappearing.
“At least all the creatures are gone…” Fluttershy murmured.
“Y’don’t think they all really went south, do you?” Applejack asked.
Twilight shook her head. “No. Look to the east. They’re still gathering and moving that way. They just stopped coming around here.”
“Those monsters actually try to look for easy routes around the landscape?”
“I don’t think it’s the landscape that’s driving them off…”
No one followed up any more on this—knowing full well what she meant.
As they forced the airship over the last stretch of mountains, the skies began to thin out again. The clouds peeled away and gave view to a clear night. It was amazing. The moon was so pale it almost seemed to have a blue tint, and none of them had ever seen it look so big or bright before. Yet in spite of that, every last star in the sky seemed to be visible. Like an ocean of lights stretching and shimmering above them. If it had been any other circumstance, the otherworldly sight would have been beautiful. Not even Applejack or Fluttershy had ever seen a more dazzling sky.
Then, at last, as they scraped over one more mountaintop, they saw it.
It was on a high plateau, accessible from east and west as well as their approach. There was even stands of woodland around it, but that wasn’t what caught their attention most of all. They could make out the remains of steam carriages, wagons, and even the occasional artillery unit. Eight years later, they were still lying in disrepair and rust. More unsettling, however, was that in the pale moonlight there were easily signs of bones. Many of them were distinctly human. Picked clean and left to rot ever since the Lunar Fall. Seeing the tattered remains of uniforms and firearms around them wasn’t very comforting.
Yet this, of course, was only the “greeting”. Twilight pointed further ahead.
“We’re here.”
At at slightly higher elevation, drawing nearer all the time, stood the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters. The fact that it looked so much like the photograph made every last one of them feel a tremor of cold fear.
“We’re actually here…”
“It’s…l-l-like…being in a real scary story…”
All that seemed to be missing was the eruption from the middle. The upper floors of the castle were gone, but the rest of it still stood. It was dark, hollowed, and empty, but that hardly seemed to matter. The moon appeared to grow so large behind it that they could make out every detail of the parapets and broken masonry. Not a soul was present. Not a light was visible. Not a sound could be heard save for the rotors of the airship and the hum of the Morning Glory.
A moment later Twilight exhaled. “This is close enough. Let’s cut the engine.”
It was perfect timing. Not long after killing the propellers to let it drift to a stop, a scraping was heard on the bottom of the airship as they made contact with the ground. They ended up putting the airship to rest in the middle of one of the roadways that led up to the castle itself. Grinding to a halt, just up ahead loomed a rotten carriage that had been hauling an artillery piece with the bones of two horses still tethered to it. Just across from it was a temporary station for the associated soldiers; the exact claw marks of whatever Light Eater had ripped them apart still visible along the wooden posts and flapping canvas.
Needless to say, the women didn’t stay on the bridge long staring at the sight.
Fifteen minutes later, all of them were at the ventral hatch area, but none of them were eager to leap outside. The Morning Glory kept running, but each of them expected something to attack or come out to “meet” them. Darkened as the castle was, and as low to the ground as the airship had been, there was little chance if anyone was in the castle that they had failed to see them approach.
When they finally decided to move, the six faced each other and began right off the bat with equipping their Anima Viris. Six eruptions of power later, and all were in their current forms and armed as best as they could be. Twilight had reclaimed a new wand with two more in her robe to grab if she lost the first. Applejack had grabbed a new hammer from the tools along with a combat knife. The transformed hammer didn’t look quite the same as her father’s had, but it still formed a warhammer none the less. Rarity had a fresh rapier with a pair of firearms tucked in her belt. She wasn’t able to transform them like her blades, but a couple of loaded guns wouldn’t hurt. Dash had strapped up her hands with scraps of metal from the repairs, giving herself “claws” with a bit more punch. Pinkie still had her knife, but they had arranged for a bit more with her. Dipping into the stores of gunpowder, she had about two dozen small pouches of the volatile material strapped around her. Only Fluttershy, still sporting her staff, didn’t have anything new.
As Twilight stood in front of the hatch, Spike came up to her side and nuzzled her hand. However, she looked at him and shook her head. “No, Spike. You can’t come this time.”
He began to whine; ears slicking back.
“It’s too dangerous. Stay here until we get back.”
He whined louder, beginning to paw at her feet.
“Stay here!”
Her voice nearly grew angry; causing him to recoil back. He whined, but drew back a little before sitting with his head bowed.
Twilight looked regretful at her own actions, but nevertheless turned back to the women. “Everyone…we’re well past the point of no return now. You saw all the Nighttouched and Light Eaters on the way here. Either we defeat Nightmare Moon and end this night and get rid of them…or we never leave Equestria alive.”
Fluttershy let out a whimper. The others didn’t look too terribly comfortable, except for Pinkie who leaned in with a grin. “But no pressure, anyone!”
Applejack shook her head and hefted her new hammer. “Let’s just get this over with. Ain’t gettin’ easier standin’ here.”
Twilight grimaced but nodded back. Looking back to the hatch, she hesitated only a moment longer before opening it. After seeing and hearing nothing but silence, the six stepped out.
Even walking along the trail was like taking steps into another world. The moon gleamed so large and bright that it no longer seemed to be natural light at all, and it was so quiet that it almost felt like they were in an echo chamber. Every bit of grit on the ground that they stepped in made a noise as they walked up the hill and onto what was left of the pavement around the castle. The bones stood out even more there, as did the claw marks of whatever had emerged from the ruins eight years prior. They looked around continuously, expecting to see something, but nothing came on the entire trek. The doors had long since been blown out, along with all the windows, so they ascended the stairs and stepped inside.
Between the brightness of the moon and the fact that so much of the inside of the castle had been gutted, there was light streaming in everywhere. Nevertheless, the place was empty, hollow, silent, and full of shadows everywhere. Most of it was damaged or crumbling in one way or another, although it appeared to have settled for now. In its prime it would have been an impressive enough sight, but even now, on entering the first hall, the towering, thick columns and spacious foyer was grand and majestic. It seemed like it was almost a forest of stone with how it stretched inward.
Seeing this made Twilight slow to a stop briefly. The others looked at her.
“Y’okay, Twilight?” Applejack almost regreted saying that instantly. Her voice echoed long and deep through the empty halls, and for a moment everyone stiffened.
Twilight, however, swallowed and resumed walking. “It’s nothing. Just…the architecture here reminds me of Canterlot Palace.”
The six continued to make their way along. They made out entryways into the wings and other halls, but nothing was in them. And despite all of the shadows and columns, nothing came out, and nothing seemed to be following them. The only thing they noticed was that the darkness in this place seemed to be much deeper than any outside, especially in the light of the moon. In places, it seemed to almost hang out like a cloud or vapor rather than simply represent a loss of light.
Eventually they reached the back, where a pair of staircases on either side led up to a higher foyer that overlooked the hall below along a stone bannister and railing. They stopped here briefly, looking around.
“No sign of her,” Dash pointed out.
“Well, we only had a theory to begin with that she was even here…or even existed,” Rarity suggested, almost hopefully.
“We haven’t checked everywhere yet,” Twilight answered. “Let’s head upstairs.”
The next floor up was much of the same, with the columns extending upward through the floor to provide the ground for another spacious hall. The third floor, however, was visible from this one, as the center of the floor was missing and opened up to show the higher ceiling of the main castle. Rather, it would have if that part had not been so damaged and broken by the eruption, to the point where there were only broken places left before giving way to moonlight. There was another set of stairs opposite this one, and they climbed those as well to the only remaining floor.
This one was heavily damaged, and now their steps began to creak the floorboards and occasionally loosened a stone. There was no wide and spacious hall here, but rather pathways that spread on either side in a “track” around the main hall below that led to the various side halls.
However, it didn’t take them look to spot one passage that stood out from all the others.
It was framed with more skeletons; these ones bearing the remains of uniforms from much more higher-ranking military officials. The wall that held the doors, which were blown out like all the others, was practically falling apart. The ceiling, they could tell, was fully gone here—leaving behind crumbling remains of the rest of the room.
Twilight again halted here. Her eyes widened a little and she studied it momentarily. Tentatively, she stepped forward and reached out to place her hand on the stone.
“What’s wrong, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.
It took her a moment to answer. “It was here.”
“What was here?” Dash threw back.
“The summit. It happened in this room. This is the most secure one in the castle. That’s why all of these guards were here.”
She moved her hand along the wall more. The others looked, and they saw what looked like soot or scoring of some kind moving out from it. Likewise, the bones of the guards were arranged in almost a radial array about it.
Twilight pulled her hand back. “It started here. This was where she hit first.”
Without another word, she stepped inside. The others, a bit surprised at the move, exchanged glances a moment before rushing in through the door after her.
Twilight hadn’t gone very far inside before she froze in her tracks, staring around in wide-eyed shock. As the others pulled to a stop around her, they looked about, and their faces reflected similar horror.
There was practically nothing left of this room…if one could even still call it that. The wall with the doors was the only one that could really still be considered a wall. The rest of it was just the scantest foundation. Some of the them were totally missing along with the ceiling, so that all that was left was a flat space with the remains of a fireplace and then nothing but the moon floating it its starry ocean.
What was disturbing, however, were the skeletons in this room.
They weren’t like the others. These ones had been blasted with a force so hard that some of them were half-embedded in the remains of the architecture. Others were crushed into the floor. Another skeleton was scattered in pieces like a smear; invoking a chilling thought of what had happened with the original body.
After a moment, Twilight walked in a bit further. Just in front of her was one set of bones impressed into the floor like a bas relief. She leaned down next to it as the others took steps inside, nervously looking from one set of remains to another. She glanced over the body, eventually making out some of the metal pieces: all that was left of the “soft” materials. She made out a crown and chain.
“This was King Platinum…”
Dash grimaced at one halfway through the wall. “The insignias on the boots here were burned into his ankles. This one was Dragonlord Torch.”
“Good heavens…” Rarity nearly gasped at the body nearest her. “That pearl… Queen Novo wore that in her public appearances…”
“Think we all knew they were dead,” Applejack muttered as she tightened her grip on her hammer, “but…never thought they went out like this. Didn’t just kill ‘em…damn near ground ‘em down like a millstone…”
“Wh…why?” Fluttershy meekly peeped.
From every last bit of darkness in any shadow about them came the answer.
“Because this world has no more need of pitiful, pathetic little ‘rulers’ now that it has come under dominion of its god.”
At once, the six stood bolt upright and backed up to one another, forming an outward facing circle and brandishing their weapons. In spite of their attempts at boldness, even Applejack and Dash couldn’t fully hide their fear.
The darkness laughed around them. It was an unsettling, fearful noise. It sounded like it was both whispering in their ears and echoing around them all at the same time, freely moving from one to another.
“Well now, it seems after eight, long, lonely years someone finally survived long enough for me to have guests. I suppose I should do you the courtesy of greeting you.”
The darkness that lingered in the shadows suddenly split off from it, coalescing and sliding out into a true mist or miasma. It didn’t take long for the six to notice it, or to see that it was streaming toward the center of the chamber. They turned full attention to it as it gathered, beginning to shimmer like stars as the bodies of the Light Eaters did as it thickened.
It continued until it gathered into an ovoid shape right in the center of the room, perched on top of the scant few remains of the fireplace’s foundation. When the last of it collected, it became solid and turned black as night.
With a rush and a flap, the darkness parted, revealing itself to be a pair of ebony, feathered wings. In the light of the moon, the gleaming, beautiful armor that clad the figure beneath from head to toe had a silvery gleam to it. A mane of starry hair splayed out behind her. Atop her cruel-looking helmet was a spire horn mounted on the forehead. From beneath it, her serpentine pale green eyes gleamed at them.
“I bid you welcome,” she spoke, sharp, carnivorous teeth flashing white as the moon itself with each word. “Now then, do you wish to beg for your lives? Or may I go ahead and kill you now?”