//------------------------------// // Ch. 01; Quest For The Temple // Story: Temple of the Justicars // by Dorath //------------------------------// A vast sea of rolling dunes shimmered in the heat of the late afternoon. The desert stretched on, seemingly without end, unbroken but for six riding lizards and their riders, mares all, two unicorns, two pegasi and a pair of earth ponies, all swathed in hooded cloaks and light robes, that were slowly crossing the burning sands, “Why are we doing this again?” one of the pegasi grumbled in a raspy voice as she brushed a lock of her multicolored mane back under her hood. “Really, Rainbow?” one of the mare’s companions chided, pulling a veil down to reveal a regal, white-haired unicorn as she frowned at her friend, “Applejack and Twilight already explained all of this, didn’t you pay any attention at all, darling?” “Sure I did,” Rainbow Dash protested, “… sorta. It’s just I don’t get all of it, is all, Rares, I mean if this Orange Swirl stallion’s sword was so important, why didn’t Celestia take it when he died, why send an angel to hide it away? And now that somepony has found it, why send Applejack to get it? Why not send one of the knights of Sol Invictus? Tartarus, why doesn’t one of the Princesses just go get it themselves?” “The Princesses can’t 'just go get it themselves’,” the second, smaller, unicorn sighed, as she reached up a purple hand to rub the bridge of her muzzle while holding up a finger, “Firstly, while I think even Celestia might like to get away for a while to go on a little adventure, and Luna and Cadance definitely would, they just can’t, they have too many duties. Secondly,” she held up a another finger, “These lands are disputed territory between Equestria and Saddle Arabia, if one of the Princess came here, it could be seen as provocation by the Sultan, and would likely invite one of the other divines to also come here to investigate her presence, and not all of the other divines are on good terms with the Princesses – especially here in Hippeia. So, we’re handling this ourselves.” “Besides, that’d be too easy, Dashie!” laughed a pink-coated earth pony, her muzzle shining with cheer through the stains of travel and her mane a poofy mass, despite the weight of her hood and accumulated sand, “While it would be great for AJ to say ‘this is tha sword of Orange Sherbet, give unto me by tha hands of Princess Celestia herself’, it’s even better to tell how we recovered the sword from evil cultists and had to fight creepy undead and how we reluctantly resisted the advances of pleasantly plastered fey who wanted us to join them in a nonstop party for a hundred years and have our foals! So, of course, we go with the one that makes a better story!” The other five ponies all stopped to stare at her, with Twilight being so flummoxed she didn’t even correct her friend on the stallion’s name, “Um, Pinkie?” the second pegasus finally asked, “We’re all mares, how could they have our foals?” “Because they’re the fey, silly filly,” Pinkie Pie shook her head at Fluttershy’s naivete as she patted the mare on the head, “They’re like mini-Discords.” “That’s tha part ya ask about?” the last mare, a strongly-built earth pony, grumbled good-naturedly as she raised an eyebrow at the now furiously blushing pegasus, “And Ah don’t sound like that,” she retorted at Pinkie, drawing amused eyerolls from all of the others, “As for why we’re doin’ this quest, it’s because that weird sage pony came ta tha Apples, not ‘em fancy soldier ponies.” “Applejack!” Rarity and Fluttershy reproached the farmer, causing her to blush slightly. “Sorry, fillies,” Applejack apologized, “Ah know tha Order does a lot of good, it’s jus’ … tha Apples have been members of tha Fellowship of Harmony for as long as anypony can remember, an’ both tha Order of Sol Invictus an’ tha High Astral Temple have always treated us like poor cousins, backwards bumpkins that were only ‘playin’’ at doing tha Princesses’ work an’ gettin’ in tha way of tha real religious orders. But if’n we can brin' back Orange Swirl’s sword, then maybe they’ll start showin’ tha Fellowship a mite of respect.” “Well, that angel filly did a good job hiding this ‘Temple of the Justicars’,” Rainbow said as she idly rode out ahead of her friends, “The last town was two days back, and we haven’t seen a soul since.” “Eeeyep,” AJ nodded, “Plenty of grit, dust an’ heat, but not a soul ta speak of. An’ ma thanks ta you an’ Zecora for that potion of yers,” the blonde mare smiled at Fluttershy, “It tastes right foul, but Rainbow an’ me would be cooked in our armor without it,” she added, rapping her knuckles on the cuirass she wore under her robes. Fluttershy giggled, “Actually, Zecora originally used that potion to help her deal with Ponyville’s winters, I guess snow is something of a shock when you’re used to jungles and veldt. I’m just glad it works for the heat as well.” The sun was dipping behind the horizon when the little band made camp, raising light tents, and starting a fire to cook dinner, as each pony went about her accustomed chores with the speed of long practice. “Is everythin’ a’right there, Pinks?” Applejack asked with a worried frown as the party pony wandered distractedly through the camp, “Ya look like yer a hundred miles away, somethin’ on yer mind?” “I don’t know AJ,” Pinkie replied, her muzzle wrinkled in confusion, “My Pinkie Sense is warning me that a dozy is coming, but it’s so faint, I can barely feel it ….” The other five mares exchanged concerned looks, “We’ll keep a triple watch tonight,” Twilight declared, taking a firmer grip on her staff, “And we’ll get an early start in the morning,” she added, ignoring Rainbow Dash’s groan at the prospect of lost sleep, “Maybe we can avoid whatever this dozy is.” Grogar’s hour was waning as Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity stood guard, the silence of the nighttime desert disturbed only by the crackling of the fire, the occasional shuffle of the riding lizards, and Pinkie Pie’s snoring. The peace of the night was broken by howls as Pinkie suddenly bolted from her tent with a shout of “It’s here!”, while four lanky, wolfish hounds with fiery eyes and flame-wreathed teeth appeared out of the air, flanking Rarity and Fluttershy! “Well lookie here, Gloomy Grace,” a cold voice laughed from above, “We go out for a ride, and prey is just waiting for us.” Applejack drug her eyes away from her embattled friends, only to settle on a pair of mares, an earthy pony and a unicorn, mounted on inky black riding lizards whose maws spouted flames as they ran across the sky, their claws somehow striking sparks from the air itself. Even as AJ readied her maul, the unicorn began losing arrows into the tents with a sadistic cackle, while the earth pony couched her lance and charged at Applejack. Her hooves stumbling in the loose sand, Applejack flung herself aside, allowing the lance to glance off her breastplate with bone-numbing force rather than running the mare through. Rolling back to her feet, the farmer quickly whispered a prayer to the Princesses, causing her hammer to gleam with divine light, as she set herself to face another rush. Meanwhile, the enemy unicorn found her aerial superiority challenged as a mostly naked Rainbow Dash, leg streaked with blood from a glancing hit, took to the skies, bow in hand, “Shooting ponies in their bedrolls? Is that the best you can do, you nag?” Rainbow punctuated her words with a trio of arrows of her own; one rebounded from the unicorn’s mail hauberk, but the other two bit deep, only for the mare to snarl, revealing needle-like fangs, and rip the unbloodied shafts from her body, “Ah, tartarus, vamponies!” Twisting out of the way of the undead unicorn’s return shots with a bit of fancy flying, Rainbow risked a quick glance to see how her friends were doing; two of the hounds were down but both Pinkie and Twilight were bleeding and burned from the demonic dogs’ blazing fangs, while the last two hounds were crouched submissively before a scolding Fluttershy, as Rarity warily stood guard nearby. Turning her full attention back to her adversary, Rainbow was forced to dodge again as an arrow scraped along her ribs, the honed edges drawing blood. Choosing to risk more darts from the vampony, the pegasus took a moment to line up her own shot, her return arrow punching through the armor over the vampony’s left breast, causing her to shudder and slump slightly in her saddle. A pair of arcane bolts, one cast by Rarity and a second, brighter, one conjured by Twilight, lanced up from the ground to strike the mare in the head and chest, making her wobble, and then a pile of armor, filled with ashes and bits of bone, fell from the back of the demonic riding lizard to crash on the ground. Whilst all this was going on, Applejack was trading blows with the other rider, her maul flaring with divine fire every time it struck the vampony, while the undead mare, her lance splintered, hammered away with her sword, as her riding lizard’s fangs rent the farmpony’s robes and scored the armor underneath. Applejack’s arms ached from repeated impacts, she knew she was strong, but the undead earth pony’s might put even her brother and Snowflake to shame. Hearing the noisy clatter behind her, Applejack didn’t even blink as an arrow streaked down from above to punch through the narrow gap between the vampony’s spauldron and gorget, sinking almost to the fletching, as two more shafts bit deep into the tartarean mount’s flank, sending the riding lizard rearing and bucking. The undead mare quickly brought her mount back under control and turned back to the annoying earth pony, only to find that her five friends had joined her, their weapons at the ready and horns aglow with magic, while behind them, her compatriot’s mount fled across the sky. With a snarled curse, the vampony reined her riding lizard aside with brutal force and fled back into the desert, mount and rider alike vanishing like an image in the fog between one stride and the next. “Ah guess their gone, maybe?” Applejack asked hesitantly, drawing uncertain shrugs from her friends. Turning back to their camp, the ponies found that the last two hounds had also disappeared, leaving only corpses and ravaged tents to show that anything had happened at all. Late the following day, guided by the ancient sage’s words and Twilight’s knowledge of astronomy, the six mares came to a cleft between two hills of tumbled red rocks. A half-hour ride later, the narrow path opened into a box canyon, its far wall composed of worked stone, pierced, seemingly at random, by several dozen archways, each flanked by bas-relief statues of armored knights. “We found it,” Applejack breathed, “The Temple of the Justicars, we’re here!” she continued, while her friends cheered. “Hey, Applejack?” Pinkie spoke up as they started down into the valley, “What is a Justicar, anyway?” Four days later, even Pinkie’s cheer was beginning to reach its limits. The valley floor was searing hot during the day, and freezing cold at night, while monstrous scorpions inhabited the caves, each twice the length of a riding lizard. The giant vermin proved immune to Fluttershy’s talent with animals and completely single-minded, forcing the ponies to reply with deadly force, much to the shy pegasus’ distress, whenever one came down into their camp or when the mares entered the archways in search of the Temple. As for those archways, only a handful were at ground level, the rest scattered across the stone face of the valley, and with neither ledge nor trail to provide access to them, the ponies were forced to laboriously scale the sheer rock walls in order to check each doorway in turn. And once reached, and the arachnid squatter that seemed to infest about half of them was dealt with, every single arch had opened onto a short tunnel that ended in a carved chamber, occupied by a stone sarcophagus crafted to resemble an armored knight. Nowhere could the mares find any sign of the Temple itself. As the shadows lengthened, Rarity gave a tired sigh as she looked over their stores, “I’m beginning to fear we might be on a wild goose chase, darlings, and we only have enough supplies to last us another two days before we simply must head back.” “I’m telling you, I saw something gleaming over there last night!” Rainbow protested, “The Temple’s there somewhere, I’d bet my Daring Do collection on it!” “And I searched that entire area,” Rarity countered, “and found nothing.” “Well, maybe AJ needs to be the one to look?” Pinkie suggested, “After all, it’s her quest.” “You may have a good point there, Pinkie,” Twilight mused, “What did the sage say about finding the Temple again, AJ?” “‘Only somepony prayerful, who sees with tha eyes of faith an’ truth can find tha Door ta tha Temple’,” the farmpony repeated dutifully, “But Ah’ve already been prayin’ plenty,” she added. The academic frowned, her eyes gazing blankly into the distance, “When did you see the glow, Rainbow?” “Just after midnight, why?” “I think we’ve been going about this the wrong way,” Twilight explained, “Instead of looking physically, I think we’re supposed to be looking symbolically,” turning back to Applejack, she continued, “I know it’s a longshot, but maybe if you start fasting and praying right now, and keep it up past midnight, and I cast a True Sight spell on you just before midnight, well, then you’d be actively prayerful and seeing the truth of things ….” “It’s worth a shot, Ah guess.” “I don’t suppose you see anything?” Twilight asked hopefully as the magenta glow faded from her horn. “Eeenope,” Applejack replied dejectedly, “Not a thin’ … wait … yes! Ah can see it, sugarcube, tha door’s right there!” “Wonderful! Do you think you’ll be able to find it tomorrow?” Twilight sighed in relief at the farmpony’s nod, “Good, I think we’ll all do better with some sleep before we go inside.” “Umh, Applejack? I don’t see any doors.” “Trust me, ‘Shy, it’s right here,” AJ assured her friend, gesturing across the opening. “Whoa, how did you do that?” Rainbow demanded as she leaned against the solid stone wall that the other mare had just waved her hand through. Applejack’s lips curled in a small grin, “Jus’ like this, RD,” and, with that, she grabbed the pegasus and dragged her through the hidden archway, Rainbow’s startled squeak sending the farmpony into a fit of laughter. The other four mares were quickly brought through, Applejack trying to control her giggling the entire time, before the little group turned to look at the ten-foot-wide tunnel that slanted windingly away from them into darkness. Rarity sniffed as she raised a glowstone lantern to light the barren hall, “Rather austere for my tastes, but here we are. Well, Applejack’s holy relic won’t just find itself, shall we be off?” Several minutes later, the hall opened into a large room, lined with caryatid-style pillars carved to match the armored knight theme of the archways outside, and lit with everburning torches, “Now things are starting to look like a temple,” said Rainbow approvingly as they started across the chamber, only to stop and stare as a thing floated in through the tunnel opposite; a nauseating mass of floating, dripping, fanged, intestines tangled about a massive, fang-filled mouth. The ponies response to the arrival of this twisted aberration was immediate and violent; Pinkie, Rainbow and Applejack plunged forward, swords and maul drawn, while Rarity and Twilight hurled bolts of magic, and even Fluttershy, her gentle face twisted in horrified disgust and her eyes wild, called upon the powers of Nature to blast at the abomination with lightning. For its part, the perverse-looking thing seemed undaunted by the mares’ attack, eagerly snapping and tearing at them with its mouths, even as one intestine turned to vomit forth a gout of caustic bile that barely missed the rose-maned pegasus. Their own assault did not go quite as the six friends had hoped, either; the horror’s soft, pulsating flesh resisted blows like the hardest armor, and what ichor they did spill burned like acid, but they continued fighting. As if consumed by madness, the ponies attacked with ever increasing ferocity and recklessness, scarcely thinking to defend themselves at all. Its moist hide rent by weapons and blistered by spells, the abomination seemed to flicker, teleporting behind the mares, where it poured a swirling green fog from its mouths. Rainbow, Applejack and Pinkie started forward, only to pull back as the obscuring mists seared their skins and set their eyes and throats to burning. Twilight blinked as the lunacy that clouded her mind lifted somewhat, “Fillies! Too me!” As the other ponies gathered around her, Fluttershy and Pinkie blinking in confusion, Twilight’s aura flared as it wrapped around her friends and whisked them all past the caustic fog. As they reappeared beside the aberration, the wildness claimed the six mares again, and they immediately rushed to the attack, with Twilight freezing the horror in ice, while Rarity and Fluttershy blasted at it with lighting, and Applejack, Pinkie and Rainbow frenziedly hacked away at the rime-shrouded creature until it finally lay in a dismembered, oozing heap on the floor that quickly dissolved into a noxious mist and dispersed. “What happened?” Pinkie asked as the six mares looked at each other, their faces flushed from exertion, and a sudden shame at their excessively violent behavior, “That wasn’t like us at all, we’re good ponies, not screaming, crazy, meanies!” “The … thing, I think it was a qlippoth,” Twilight replied, her ears dropping flat as she wrapped her arms about herself and shivered, “Celestia told me about them once, but I’d hoped to never encounter one. They’re from outside of the Realm, from before the Creation of the Realm, just looking at one causes insanity in mortals.” “Is that why I could think clearer while it was behind the fog?” Rarity asked, “Because I couldn’t see it clearly anymore?” Twilight could only shrug, “Maybe? At least I think so.” “So, what the hay is one of these qlippoth things doing in a bucking temple?” Rainbow demanded. “Rainbow Dash! Language!” Fluttershy chided her friend, even as she treated the athlete’s wounds. “She’s got a point, though,” Applejack observed, “Ah mean, one of Celestia’s angels put a holy relic in here, this place ought ta have all sorts of enchantments an’ prayers on it ta keep demons an’ such-like away.” “Maybe the abjurations have just faded over the centuries?” Twilight suggested uncertainly, “Or the protections have been broken?” The six mares, once their injures had been treated, continued on down another featureless, winding tunnel, although now they kept their weapons at the ready, and their ears swiveled constantly, searching for any hint of sound. After several minutes, the faint sound of chanting reached the ponies’ ears, carefully sneaking forward, the little band came to the end of the tunnel; lit with everburning torches and carved from sky-blue marble inlaid with holy glyphs and images, a temple to Celestia, tiered like an amphitheater, stretched before them and opened into a pillar-lined secondary chamber containing a towering statue of the Solar Alicorn, her arms spread wide in benediction, and her muzzle raised to the sky above, while a wide, mist-filled pit separated the statue from the rest of the chamber. Five robed figures danced around the near side of the fog-shrouded abyss, singing hymns in ancient Unicornian. Pinkie quickly shot out her hand to stop Rainbow from stepping into the temple, “There’s something wrong about those ponies,” she whispered urgently, “I think they may be really not nice.” "I think there might be something wrong with this entire place," Twilight added, gesturing at the grandiose temple, "The runes have all been subtlety defaced, and those hymns sound ... off," her muzzle wrinkled in a confused frown, “And why haven’t we seen any side chambers or halls? Where do those ponies even live?” “Sounds like ya was right about tha protections bein’ broken, Twi’,” Applejack said as she drew her maul and whispered a quick prayer, “Well, let’s go and have a look-see what’s goin’ on … quiet-like.” Despite their attempted stealth, the five robed figures whirled around as soon as the mares entered the temple, a crackling blast of black energy filling the chamber as they flung aside their garments to reveal what lay beneath; while generally bipedal in shape, the creatures’ elephantine feet, tusked and horned heads, clawed fingers and barbed shoulders made it clear that they were very much not ponies, or anything native to Equis, for that matter. Unfortunately for the six mares’ sensibilities, the displayed figures were also manifestly, grotesquely, male. Pushing through the wave of sickening, oily, freezing darkness that washed over them, the six ponies closed upon the demonic dancers, who merely watched as they advanced, lips curled in fanged smirks. Then, as Rainbow and Applejack drew near, a great cloud of putrid smoke erupted from nowhere, blocking the mares’ path. The haze quickly thinned, displaying a small horde of misshapen, cancerous blobs, each about half the height of a pony, with twisted, dripping faces and malformed arms, that immediately oozed forward to surround the two warriors in a wave of rending, clawing, putrescent flesh. As the swarm surged forth, there were five flashes of sickly yellow light as the dancers teleported to the back of the ponies, surrounding Fluttershy and Twilight, only to have their reaching talons rebound from a hastily conjured magenta shield. Rarity and Pinkie promptly turned back to aid their besieged friends; pushing through a second wave of tartarean energy, they rained down sword blows, and a carefully placed arcane bolt from Rarity, that staggered one of the hulking demons, the dazed brute quickly falling to the two ponies’ flickering blades. One of the monstrous dancers sneered at his fallen comrade, before lowering his horns and rushing at Pinkie, throwing her several feet into the wall, where she collapsed in a bloody heap. Fluttershy gave an anxious cry, while the Twilight let her shield fade, only to immediately conjure a circular wall of ice, driving the horned demons staggering back, and giving the librarian an opening to conjure a bolt of magical force that rammed into the back of the demon that had attacked Pinkie, and sent him flying in turn. Applejack and Rainbow, meanwhile, had managed to cut their way free of the throng of misshapen, malignant, midget monsters surrounding them and rushed back to their friends’ side, the farmer pausing long enough to bring her maul smashing down on the stunned dancer’s head as the demon lay sprawling. Twilight blasted her ice wall with a wave of telekinetic force, shattering it and raining the demons with razor sharp frozen shards, reaching over to grab Fluttershy’s hand, the two ponies ran over to where their friends had gathered around Pinkie Pie. Dropping to her knees, Fluttershy began tending the groggy baker’s injuries, “Where did all the birdies come from?” Pinkie mumbled, as the other mares readied themselves to face the onrushing mob; Applejack and Rarity stepped to either side to anchor the magical shield Twilight raised to protect Fluttershy and Pinkie, while Rainbow took advantage of the chamber’s vaulted ceiling to pepper the demons with arrows from above “Hah! These little stallions are nothing!” Rainbow crowed as each shot transfixed another miniature monster, “All they got is numbers!” “That’s all a bee swarm has, too!” Applejack shouted back, “Don’t get cocky!” Rising unsteadily to her hooves, Pinkie took a firm grip on her rapier and charged forward, tumbling between Rarity’s legs, and those of the horned demon she was fencing with, to rise behind him. The tartarean dancer only had time to blink in surprise at the two mares flanking him before he was impaled from both sides. Cartwheeling away from the surge mass of small, oozing demons that reached for her, the party pony retreated behind Rarity, only to stumble and collapse back into Fluttershy’s arms. On the other side of the tiny redoubt, Applejack and Rainbow pounded away at another of the horned demons with hammer and arrow, while Twilight tapped into the power stored in her staff to blast it with rays of fire even as she maintained the arcane wall that sheltered them, until the tartarean figure finally toppled, its body crushed by hammer blows, pierced with arrows and smoking from Twilight’s spells. The last surviving dancer raised his hand with a snarl, only to stop as a blinding golden light suddenly filled the chamber. The mists filling the pit roiled as a statuesque, white robed, pegasus mare rose from its depths, her scarlet mane flowing behind her and a brilliant silver sword glowing in her hands. The horned demon recoiled from the angelic figure as the remnants of the tartarean swarm faded away like smoke on the breeze. Swooping down, the angel smote the cowering demon with her sword, sending it reeling with a loud cry, while a second stroke stretched the tartarus-spawned figure motionless upon the temple floor. Turning back to the mares, the angel smiled as a voice, so melodic and otherworldly it was almost painful, sounded within their minds, :May Celestia bless you for freeing me from my long captivity,: she said, :Long ago I brought this sword to this temple to await the next worthy wielder, but hordes of evil priests and their demons overwhelmed me, imprisoning me in the pit before you. Your presence and actions disrupted the ritual they used to keep me captive, allowing me to regain my freedom,: turning to Applejack, the angel held out the sword, :To you, champion, I bestow this weapon, the holy sword of the great hero, Orange Swirl. You have proven your worth to succeed him, may our lady, Celestia, bless you as you go forth and bring just retribution to evil in her name.: Hesitantly, Applejack took the offered blade, “Um, thank ya, Ah guess?” The angel smiled down at her, before disappearing in a blinding flash, leaving the six ponies’ injuries, and the blade shining in Applejack’s hands, as the only sign that anything had happened in the ancient temple at all, for even the fallen demons had vanished.