//------------------------------// // 4. Into the Darkness // Story: Trouble at Midnight Castle // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// It didn’t look any different. Midnight Castle looked exactly the same as it always had. Tirek was genuinely surprised at that. He had expected some degree of erosion to the plinth that it sat on, at least, or perhaps a tower to have fallen. But no. The black spires of the castle still reached up towards a sky that remained unnaturally dim over it. The lack of change only served as a sure example of the ancient and powerful magic that was wrapped around the edifice to evil – and a bare taste of what lay inside. Scorpan had gotten in. Tirek certainly could as well. Even reduced from the height of power he had achieved just a few short years ago, he was still stronger than he had ever been when he and Scorpan had come here as youths. Nothing would bar his entry. Tirek turned back to the four statues before trotting up to the least offensive one: Queen Haydon, his mother. Adoptive mother, technically, but Vorak’s marriage to Tirek’s true mother had been a political thing only, a means of uniting the centaur tribes, and she’d passed on before Tirek had been even a year old. For any real purpose, Haydon had been Tirek’s mother. She had been…adequate. Tirek waved a hand, calling on his magic to lift the statue of Haydon and begin digging out the sand beneath it. Cozy watched curiously. “What’re you doing?” She finally asked. “I don’t have wings,” Tirek pointed out as he began taking off his various packs. “We won’t need the tent and will make do without the bedrolls. I’ll only bring a few days’ worth of food. There’s a fresh-water spring on the spire.” He separated out the supplies he’d be taking, then placed the rest in the hole he’d dug, wrapped in his traveling cloak, and buried them before putting the statue back in place. Then, he turned back to the water…and grimaced. Cozy caught it before she could hide it. “You afraid of swimming?” She asked. “I’m not afraid of anything.” He hefted the remaining supplies over his shoulder – he’d made sure that the pack he’d brought from Grogar’s lair was waterproofed – and started forward, towards the surf. Cozy followed in the air. “But…centaurs aren’t strong swimmers.” Cozy nodded, then fought back a giggle. “I remember learning that fat floats but muscle sinks. All that training to get strong might actually hurt here.” Tirek growled. The water was up to his knees and hocks at this point. “Strong muscles will help me swim even if they don’t help me float.” He eyed Cozy. “Plus I can use you as a floatation device…” Cozy’s jaw dropped. “Did you just call me fat?” “You live on a diet of cake and pie and cookies and ice cream.” “Nuh-uh! I have real food too, you and Chrysalis make me – ” She stopped when Tirek chuckled. It must have occurred to her that Tirek and Chrysalis making her eat healthy certainly didn’t help her case. Cozy’s face twisted in outrage. “I am not fat, Tirek! I kept up with you just fine this entire trip, didn’t I? I was sandy and cold and hot but I never complained about being tired or out of breath or anything!” The water was up to Tirek’s barrel now; he pressed forward and tried not to contemplate if there were any sharks or other hungry, inquisitive sea predators about. “You’re just trying to distract me ‘cause you’re afraid of swimming!” Cozy insisted. She flew in front of Tirek. “You can try and hide it, but it’s true! You’ve got hydrophobia!” “I have rabies?” “Aquaphobia, then! Whatever!” The water swiftly reached Tirek’s shoulders; he kicked away from the sand beneath him and started paddling, a combination of leg-kicks and sweeps with his arms, the latter being the thing that gave him any real forward motion, but the awkward way he had to extend out his upper back meant that said forward motion was, to put it bluntly, lackluster. Hadn’t he planned to grab a palm tree and lug it with him to help with floating? When he had come here in the past he’d always brought something to help him float, and if he had started to sink he could rely on Scorpan… Tirek growled at that thought. Or started to, but it nearly made him swallow sea water and he had to struggle to push forward again. After just a few hundred feet he had to stop and simply tread water, give himself a chance to rest. Cozy splashed into the water as well, probably to cool off from the increasing heat of the day as the Sun continued to rise. She stared worriedly at Tirek. “Maybe…we should have packed an inflatable raft.” “Maybe,” Tirek allowed. He started forward again, Cozy following. She wasn’t as fast a swimmer thanks to her shorter legs, but with her wings to aid her and without having to bend awkwardly she was certainly a more proficient one. After several minutes Cozy took to the air once more, eyes roaming over Tirek as he swam, watching him. Finally, she spoke up. “Okay, slow down. There’s no rush, we’ve got two weeks before Grogar comes looking for us.” She dove back into the water. “You should focus on big, slow strokes with your arms rather than the controlled flailing you’re basically doing.” Tirek eyed her. “Are you telling me how to swim?” “Kinda’! I know you’re trying real hard, but that’s part of the problem: you’re trying too hard!” She gave a few small wing-flaps in the water, inching forward along with synchronized but slow hoof-paddles. “It might take us longer if you slow down, but you’ll be a lot less tired and be in a lot less pain.” Tirek eyed Midnight Castle, still nearly a full half-mile away, then Cozy. “I can’t believe you of all creatures are advising moderation.” “Says the creature who stole the magic of every adult pony in Equestria!” “Says the creature who stole all the magic of everything in Equstria!” “Ha! I did, didn’t I?” Cozy paddled backwards using her wings and hooves. “Look, it doesn’t do either of us any good if you get there all exhausted and stuff. You still have to use your magic to get us inside and out of this Sun! I don’t want a sunburn.” Tirek swam on, but he took Cozy’s advice and focused on more floating and drifting forward than on actively pushing himself towards Midnight Castle. It meant that the trip over there took the better part of an hour, but it also meant that by the time they reached the shores of the tall plinth that Midight Castle rested atop he was merely trudging up onto the narrow beach rather than crawling. Cozy followed him out of the water, shaking off and stretching out. “Gonna sleep like a log tonight,” she noted. Tirek shook himself off as well, glancing around and spotting the stairs that wound their way around and around the plinth until they reached the summit and Midnight Castle itself. He paused at it, however, as there was finally something new about the place: a large, tall, gray monolith set right by the stairs. Cozy noticed it too, and trotted over as she stared at its surface. “Huh…hey, there’s something written here,” she beat her wings and hovered up. “Kind of eroded, though…” “Eroded?” Tirek asked curiously, coming up to the monolith. Indeed, the carving in it was faded by time and tide. It was also haphazard, the mason who carved it clearly an amateur. The result was that it was barely legible. “Curious…nothing else about this place has changed. This monolith wasn’t here before, however. It must not be part of the magic of Midnight Castle.” “What’s it say?” Cozy asked. Tirek glanced it over, rubbing away an accumulation of salt and sand in the lettering and squinting. “The carving is terrible, and it’s in a jumbled mix of languages…Gargoyle, Centauri, Old Ponish, Ancient Unicornian…best guess…” He scowled at the first line, but pressed on anyway “I am Scorpan. Leaving this message is important to me. This is not a place of honor. This is not a place of power. This is a place of darkness. The darkness is still here. It is dangerous, it will take your darkness and grow. It cannot be controlled but it can control and cause harm. Leave now.” Tirek reached out again, running his finger over his brother’s name. This was probably his last message to the world. In essence, his last words…and they were telling Tirek to go away. As if Scorpan hadn’t done that already… Cozy, meanwhile, landed, but she shifted from one hoof to another. “Geeze, that’s…as warnings about ancient evil go, that’s pretty clear.” She swallowed. “S-say, um…we are gonna be extra-special careful with the Rainbow of Darkness, right? I vote we don’t even touch it. Like, just stick it in a bag. And then we have to be super careful.” “Extremely.” Tirek would not end up like Scorpan. He moved down to get a closer look at the rest of the message, the jagged carving, like Scorpan had been struggling to be coherent – something he’d failed in, obviously, since it was only because Tirek was a polyglot that he could even read what was written. “Curious…the Old Unicornian word for darkness is used the first two times, but here,” he pointed, “take your darkness. That’s in Gargoyle…another word might be shadow.” “That doesn’t make sense. A shadow isn’t a thing you can take, it’s just your body blocking light.” “Don’t be so sure. Powerful magic can do strange things…” Tirek considered a moment more, then flicked a finger against his brother’s name. “Then again, Scorpan had clearly lost his mind when he wrote this.” He turned away, heading towards the stairs that wound around the plinth. “Come. I will brook no further delays.” “Right beside you!” The two proceeded up the stairs. As they climbed up the plinth’s height, the wind picked up, while overhead the sky seemed to grow ever darker despite the fact that the Sun was still clearly visible in the east. Its light simply seemed to become less and less effective with each circuit they made up around the tower of dark rock. By the time they reached the summit, despite the still-present heat, it was as dark as twilight, an effect that seemed to blanket the whole land and sea in every direction. “Huh,” Cozy ventured, “neat. And pretty spooky…guess now I know why it’s called Midnight Castle.” The castle itself loomed before the two. There was no wall or even a gate, instead only a yawning portal shaped like an open mouth, complete with faux fangs, that showed a passageway stretching back into darkness. Grotesque sculptures haunted every dark corner in sight, many of them pouring forth water from their mouths that flowed together into a stream that fell off the side of the summit, while a half-dozen towers reached high into the sky, the tallest reaching more than two hundred feet. Cozy swallowed, then her face screwed up with determination. “Well, no sense in waiting!” She called, surging forward towards the wide-open entrance. “Wait – ” Tirek reached out to grab her by the tail, but was too slow. He winced in anticipation. Cozy reached the yawning portal…and slammed face-first into an invisible barrier. The air rippled almost like water, and Cozy was thrown back and to the ground with a yelp. Tirek strode forward, hands behind his back as he looked down at her. “I’ve mentioned several times that there was a barrier that my brother and I had never been able to bypass,” he said as he knelt down and put the dazed filly back on her hooves. Cozy wobbled a few times, shaking her head. “Y-you still could have warned me!” “And you could have waited instead of pulling a Chrysalis.” Cozy began to retort, but then burst out laughing at Tirek’s reminder of what had happened to Chrysalis back at the summit of Mount Everhoof. “Okay, okay, fine. But how are we gonna get in? I don’t have nearly enough magic to loan you.” Tirek shrugged as he trotted up to the barrier, reaching out and lightly slapping it. His hand rebounded off the barrier. “I am much stronger than I was either previous time I came here. If Scorpan could enter this place…” He stepped back and readied his magic, but before he could do anything Cozy was in the air beside him, tapping his shoulder. “Hang on a sec!” She pointed east. “Is that what I think it is?” Tirek turned to look. Thanks to the darkening effect of Midnight Castle, the glare of the Sun was easy to blot out by simply holding up a thumb to cover it, allowing him to see quite far from this high up…and specifically, to see a green-and-gold colored airship in the distance, flying high over the desert with the wind at its back – and heading straight for Midnight Castle. “Company?” Tirek asked, stepping away from the portal and to the edge of the summit. “But who – and how?” Cozy flitted up alongside him, rubbing her hooves together. “Uh…maybe the Princesses finally came to check on us in Tartaros?” “Grogar said he had taken care of that!” “Maybe he messed up or something! Or maybe it’s just a coincidence. Maybe that’s a passenger airship heading to, uh…fly over the southern dragon lands and risk getting attacked…” Tirek shook his head. “The only reason to travel west from Saddle Arabia would be to get to Abyssinia…and no course to Abyssinia would take a ship near this place.” His eyes narrowed and his fists clenched. “This is an expedition to Midnight Castle. It’s the only explanation. Some other creature coming for the Rainbow of Darkness.” Cozy Glow tapped her hooves together. “So…what do we do?” She crossed her forehooves as she thought for a few moments. “Okay, the way I see it, there aren’t gonna be a lot of good creatures looking for something called the Rainbow of Darkness. So they’re gonna be mean. And nopony goes after something like the Rainbow just because they can, they have to have some goal, like we do. Maybe they want to take over Equestria too, or maybe Saddle Arabia, or maybe…who cares where. Point is that we won’t be able to use it.” Tirek crossed his own arms as he eyed the airship. “I am hearing no reason why that vessel should be allowed to continue flying.” Cozy considered, then a slow grin spread across her face. “Nope.” Tirek grinned as well, and started gathering his magic. At this range the only thing he’d be able to hit would be the balloon itself…but that would be enough. Pegasi as a tribe had a tendency towards claustrophobia. It just wasn’t natural or a pegasus to remain cooped up in a small space for a long period of time with barely enough space to spread their wings without touching a wall. Dash and Daring at least managed to get a little more space for themselves by moving to one far end of the hold, the opposite side from Glory Pose’s luggage, and hunker down behind the crates stored there. Overnight, the cargo hold wasn’t entered at all after Caballeron and Cilia left. The day was different, with horses or Caballeron’s pony minions coming in every now and then throughout the day to collect supplies – mostly, food and water, which at least told Daring and Dash which crates to raid so they wouldn’t go hungry. The compressed space wasn’t even the worst of it, though, at least not for Dash. It was the fact that there was nothing to do. Even a lame game of “Eye Spy” wasn’t exactly in the cards when they were in a single small room that consisted of nothing but crates. Dash was a mare of action. She wanted to do something, anything, other than just sit around and wait. Dash fidgeted. Flexed and unflexed her wings. Stood up only to turn around, realize there was nowhere to go, and sit back down. She had enough self-control to not vocally complain beyond the sigh or nicker of annoyance, but that was about her limit. The only exciting bits were when some creature would come into the cargo bay, but they never came anywhere near Daring or Dash. “What if we…I dunno…” Dash finally whispered, after about four hours of silence, “try and take control of the airship?” Daring looked at her, brow raising. “Take over the airship.” “Yeah! I mean…we both know how to fight, right? I bet we could do it.” “In the narrow corridors of an airship. Against we don’t know how many horses and earth ponies plus at least one unicorn and one changeling. With ceilings that are too low for us to fly in.” Dash opened her mouth to retort, but then there was the creak of the door opening and she hushed up, hooves to her mouth as she and Daring hunkered down. They risked peeking in the gap between the crates, and saw a horse shuffling through a crate, retrieving something, then leave. Dash waited until the door was closed before whispering again. “Okay but we do have wings. So we can, like, jump out the windows if things get dicey, cross to the other side. Or heck, we could just…attack the bridge directly! Fly right up to it and bust our way in.” “Through reinforced glass?” “Hey, if I get enough of a lead-up I can blast a building apart! I’ve helped my friend Applejack take down old barns that way. I can bust through reinforced glass no problem.” “So you want to destroy the airship by colliding with it at supersonic speeds.” That was a good point, but not one Dash didn’t have an answer for. “I could just, like, graze it. Or pop off a Sonic Rainboom nearby and break the glass. Or, okay, we don’t go for the bridge, we take the engine room. We can wreck the ship’s engine and then the airship can’t go anywhere.” “So…” Daring droned, “…we leave a few dozen creatures stuck over the one of the most inhospitable deserts in the world.” Dash winced at that thought. “We could wait until we’re near an oasis…okay, if you had to take over the airship, how would you do it?” Daring grimaced, rubbing her temples with her hooves. “Well for one thing, I’d make sure to bring along somepony who actually knows how to fly an airship.” “I could figure it out.” Daring stared at her. Dash stared back. “Right, shutting up.” She actually did, gathering that Daring wasn’t on-board with the take-over-the-airship idea. Pretty much the only option, then, was to doze off. If there was a champion of sleeping in Ponyville, it would be Rainbow Dash (of course), but even she found it difficult to get comfortable sandwiched between a wall and a stack of crates, with only cold metal beneath her instead of a nice comfy cloud, or the oddly comfy apple trees of Sweet Apple Acres. “Okay, how are you dealing with this?” Dash finally demanded of Daring. “Look, I get that archaeology can take a lot of patience, but none of your books ever mention just sitting around and waiting like this! How are you so cool with it?” Daring chuckled slightly. “To be honest…I’m a little more like a tomb-raider than an archaeologist. I never liked sitting around dusting off old stuff or dealing with interns or workers…I like the experience and exploration.” She tapped a hoof on the deck beneath her, considering. “But I’m mostly spending time writing my next book in my head…wondering where to start this. Back in Fillydelphia, or in media res in Istanbull…” “In your head? You can do that?” Daring shook her head. “Heck no! But I’m trying. It helps pass the time.” She looked at Dash pointedly. “Have you tried, I dunno, watching a Wonderbolts race in your head or something?” Dash considered, closing her eyes and trying to do what Daring suggested. Fleetfoot and Spitfire at the starting line, the race began, and…nope, all she could see was Spitfire crossing the finish line first. Maybe a few twists and turns here and there, but she already knew how the race was going to end, and it was all in her head so it wasn’t like there were any surprises or anything… “Gah…” Dash flopped onto the deck. “I’m bored. Maybe if I at least had a book or something...” Daring began a response, but then had to bite it back as the airship beneath the two twisted suddenly, baking hard to the left, and both pegasi had to steady themselves. They’d barely gotten their hooves under them when the airship jinked to the right in the same way, or if anything made an even tighter turn. This one was accompanied by the airship pitching upwards as well. Dash and Daring shared a look, then nodded as one as they hopped out from behind their makeshift cubby. The ship turned left again, and up once more. “Whoever’s piloting this isn’t dong a real good job!” Daring exclaimed. Dash steadied herself against one wall, thinking about the maneuvers the airship was performing, what they would look like if viewed from the outside…and why the airship would be performing them. Her eyed widened. “I got a bad feeling they’re actually doing a great job.” She grabbed Daring, then rushed towards the cargo hold’s door. “We have to get off this airship, like, right now.” “Why?” “Because I’m pretty sure that it’s under attack.” The airship banked again, but this time as it did Dash could feel a rumble go through it, a shudder – as though from the turbulence of something passing nearby. She pulled open the cargo door, not caring if any creature saw her, and leapt out into the hallway, Daring behind her. The two turned to head back towards the stairs that would lead them up the balloon, but as the ship pitched and rolled at almost a forty-five degree angle, a horse in green and gold appeared from around a corner. The horse’s eyes widened at the sight of Daring and Dash. “Intruders!” She yelled, as she turned around – probably to get backup. Dash didn’t have time for this; she turned and ran the opposite direction, Daring close behind her as the two looked for any port-hole that would be big enough to squeeze out of. Unfortunately this did seem to be a combat airship first, meaning that big, wide windows were shunned in favor of small portholes. “Wait, Dash – !” Daring exclaimed as Dash turned a corner, saw some spiral stairs, and started up them. Dash stopped, but the airship banked hard and rumbled and shook again. That attack was closer. “No time!” she exclaimed as she started running again, trusting Daring to follow her. The spiral stairs were short, and lead to a single door. Dash threw it open and dashed inside, and finally saw a decent-sized window, in fact a whole bunch of them that she was sure she could squeeze out through once she busted the glass. Of course, she also saw four or five horses at various stations, a gray-and-blue changeling at the steering wheel, and Doctor Caballeron and Glory Pose practically standing next to her as she barreled in. Because this was the bridge to the airship. What happened next, happened fast. Caballeron’s head whipped around and his eyes grew wide. “You!” he exclaimed. Glory shrieked, stepped back, and pulled down a new pair of goggles over her eyes even as her horn lit up in bright, frightened blue. Daring ran in behind Dash, grabbed her tail with her teeth, and started yanking her backwards even as Dash had tried to fly forwards. The net result was pain and no motion at all. The horses whinnied and whickered in shock. One of them abandoned his station and made to charge Dash. And the changeling, Cilia, let out a long hiss, his eyes focused out the main viewport. “Brace, brace, BRACE FOR IMPACT!” he cried out. That lead to every head on the bridge turning his direction, even as blue magic washed over him and he turned into a rock. Then every creature looked out the viewport and saw the large, red, burning ball of magic heading right for the balloon over their heads. Dash winced. “Shoot – ” WHUMP! It wasn’t quite the loudest sound that Dash had ever heard, but it was close. The airship rocked backwards as the fireball hit the front of the balloon, throwing every creature from their hooves even as all the glass of the viewports shattered; Dash tried to get her wings under her but the ceiling overhead rushed down as the airship pitched forward, knocking her back down to the ground. Daring was thrown forward and over Dash’s head, landing in a heap next to a horse who had fallen to his barrel. Then – WHUMP! Another fireball, this one from somewhere towards the rear of the airship. Every creature went sliding to the side, then Dash felt her weight shift as the airship started falling towards the desert sands below even as it continued forward. One horse got up and started running for the shattered windows, eyes wide. Dash kicked off from the deck and tackled him. “You want broken legs?!” She demanded. “But the Shamshir – ” “Is falling slow! It’s a balloon with a few holes. You’ll fall like a rock and then have an airship land on top of you!” “S-so what?” Glory’s voice called out. Dash looked, and saw that Caballeron had braced her and himself into a small cubby. Behind her goggles, Glory’s eyes were huge. “We’re just supposed to sit and let ourselves fall?” Cilia the rock shimmered with magic and took on his true form. “Yup!” He said with far too much enthusiasm, returning to the wheel and throwing some nearby levers. Over the sound of groaning metal, Dash heard the engines power up, giving the Shamshir additional speed. “If I do this right, I should be able to bring her down on the balloon’s side, spare the gondola! If I do it wrong…well, we won’t be worse off.” Daring had her hooves under her again as well, and came up to and grabbed Dash and started moving her towards a window. “We’ll be worse off – ” she began, but then she was grabbed in blue telekinesis. She yelped as she was dragged back and over to Caballeron and Glory, though not close enough to buck. “If I go down I’m taking you with me!” Caballeron exclaimed. “I’m the one holding her!” Glory said. “And I appreciate that!” “I don’t!” Daring countered. Dash made to go help Daring, but Cilia pulled a few levers and spun the wheel to the right over and over, rolling the airship so that it was practically sideways. “Hang on!” He called out, once more turning into a rock. Dash dove and grabbed hold of the nearest station as tight as she could just before the Shamshir slammed into the desert sands balloon-first and began skidding across the sand. Dash was nearly thrown from the station she held onto. Glory lost her grip on Daring and the pegasus took to the air, but only so that she could dive over to and grab onto Dash. The horses all whinnied in terror, and Cilia the rock was thrown first into a ceiling, and then down and into a control station. Eventually, the shaking, the forward motion, and the screaming of twisting metal stopped. Dash had closed her eyes; she cracked one open, and found that the bridge – the entire gondola – was pitched at an odd angle, the floor sloping down and to the right. Half the right viewport was buried in sand, while the hot air of the Nether Lands wafted into the bridge from the shattered windows on the left. The groan of strained metal reverberated throughout the ship. Dash slowly picked herself up, Daring following suit. The horses stood as well, while Caballeron was helping a laughing-or-maybe-crying-hysterically Glory to her hooves even as Cilia became a changeling again and once more trotted over to the wheel, not bothered at all by the odd angle of the floor as he patted the steering station affectionately. “Any landing you can walk away from is a good one,” he said, looking to Dash. “Right?” “Right,” Dash agreed, holding out a hoof. Cilia bumped it with his own, joining in on relieved laughter that spread through the bridge from ponies, horses, and changeling all. Then he frowned. “Wait, but you’re on the other side – ” Daring bounded into Cilia, knocking him over and away, then turned to Dash. “Can we get moving?” She didn’t wait for an answer, turning and running for the broken viewports. Dash followed. “Stop!” Caballeron called. Dash ignored him, clambering across the deck and over to the windows, then out into the desert. The heat and glare of the Sun hit her instantly. She started running to get a little distance from the gondola, then crouched and kicked off from the sand, only to let out a yelp when she felt her tail grabbed in the familiar feeling of unicorn telekinesis. Dash let out a grunt as she was pulled to the ground and dragged back towards the airship. She gathered sand, spun, and whipped it out, but Glory was still wearing those goggles as she clambered from the airship. She let out a triumphant laugh, then sputtered a little from sand on her tongue but didn’t let go of Dash. Dash might have still been able to escape, but then one of the horses finished climbing out of the gondola and grabbed Dash tightly around her barrel, pinning her wings and forelegs while her hindlegs kicked uselessly in front of her. “Oh come on!” Dash groaned, squirming and kicking. The horse’s grip was tight, though. She glared a Caballeron. “Is now really the best time for this?” “Especially seeing as something was throwing fireballs at us?” Cilia added. “It is always a good time to gain leverage!” Caballeron retorted to Dash, ignoring Cilia. He squinted up into the sky, Dash doing likewise. Daring was hovering a couple hundred feet in the air, eyes darting over the ruined airship and the creatures crawling from it. The skin of the holed balloon was burning, while she was already beginning to sag slightly now that the helium that had kept the Shamshir light had largely escaped. It wouldn’t be long before the skeleton of the balloon started collapsing. Caballeron waved up at Daring. “Hello up there!” He called. “You aren’t really going to leave Miss Dash behind, are you, my old friend?” Daring didn’t answer. “Why don’t you come down here and we can talk? It would be unfortunate if anything should happen to Miss Dash here…” Daring hovered silently for a few more seconds, then dove down and landed in the sand, though she kept her distance. “You know, you’re right for once, Caballeron. It would be unfortunate.” She grinned, pulling back her helmet and looking her nemesis head-on. “How much water do you think survived the crash?” Caballeron growled low at that. Dash looked between him and Daring, then slowly grinned as she realized what Daring was driving at. She stopped struggling for the moment. “I’m sure our water situation is just fine,” Caballeron said at length. “I’ll bet,” Daring countered. She sat down in the sand, considered, then smirked and lay down on her barrel. “I’ll wait.” “Maybe we should also be concerned about those fireballs,” Cilia said. “I know they’ve stopped, but…” Caballeron growled again, but turned around and started issuing commands to the horses, even as his three earth pony minions – frazzled and shaky but looking otherwise fine – stumbled up to their boss. Several horses were dispatched back into the balloon. Over the course of the next twenty minutes, a complete picture of where the Saddle Arabians and Caballeron’s gang stood was formed. There had been no losses among the twenty horses, although two of them had sprained ankles, and bruises and small cuts abounded. Most of the food was salvageable. But the water tank had been ruptured in the crash. The horses were already in the process of gathering it up as best they could before it all leaked out… “…but we’ll only be able to save perhaps a hundred and fifty gallons of water,” the horse reporting all this concluded. Caballeron scowled, glancing up at the burning Sun. “Ponies need five gallons per day normally, but in this heat, this Sun, we probably want double…there’s five ponies…” “Fifteen gallons in this heat for a horse,” the Saddle Arabian said. “I’m the same as a pony,” Cilia supplied. “Can’t hold another form long enough for it to be useful. Also where did we land on that fireball issue?” Daring picked herself up and trotted over, still smirking. “So basically, you’ve only got half of the water you’d need to make it through tomorrow,” she said, stopping a couple dozen feet away. “Ration it, you’ll make it three days. And that’s all assuming you’re not exerting yourself – the more you do the more water you’ll all need. But it’s a week of hard marching to Istanbull.” “There are oases,” Caballeron countered. “Yup,” Daring agreed, pointing east. “About a day that way as the pegasus flies – so I’m going to guess two or three days marching.” She looked to the horses. “You’ve got charts in the airship, I'm sure. If you head out as soon as the Sun sets, you’ll make it. You’ll be thirsty but you’ll all make it. But there isn’t enough water to go and spend a few days in Midnight Castle to get the Sun Stone and make it back to Istanbull.” “Wait,” Glory said, stepping forward and pulling the goggles from her eyes to glare at Daring. “Wait, no! I’ve spent too much – I’m not going to – you don’t have any water either!” “Yeah we do!” Dash objected. She glanced up, smirking at what she saw far above her. “First, we’re pegasi so the heat doesn’t affect us the same way. Second, see that sky? Those cirrus clouds? There’s not a whole lot, but there’s more than enough for a couple of pegasi!" Caballeron did indeed glance at the sky, then back to Daring. “Which means you could also supply us with water. Bring those clouds down here – ” “Yeah, no, it doesn’t work like that.” Dash rolled her eyes. “Long story short, you can’t bring a cirrus below a certain altitude or it breaks apart. Trust me, I’m the weather captain back in Ponyville, I know my clouds.” “But you could squeeze water from them up there into a container,” Caballeron countered. “I am not unfamiliar with weather, Rainbow Dash! You said there was more than enough up there for two pegasi. How much more than enough?” Daring glared directly at Caballeron. “With two pegasi? Maybe enough for you, Glory, and your goon squad.” “Hey, we have names,” one of the goon squad objected. Caballeron considered. “And tell me, Daring Do…how can I trust you? If I let Rainbow Dash go and send off all these horses, what’s stopping you from abandoning us and leaving us to our slow but inevitable demise?” Daring chuckled. “’Cause that’s your thing, Caballeron. I know I can’t convince you to leave entirely, but if you want to beat me to the Sun Stone, then you’ll have to at least send all these Saddle Arabians on their way.” “And who gets the Sun Stone?” “Presumably whoever was throwing fireballs at us,” Cilia cut in. “Oh for Celestia’s – one thing at a time, Cilia!” Caballeron finally snapped. “Yes, Midnight Castle apparently has defenses, or invaders, and we will deal with them. But first thing’s first!” “Alright, fine, no fuzz off my carapace, I’m going home to Istanbull anyway…” Caballeron turned back to Daring. “Well? The Sun Stone? I’ve invested a lot of time and effort, an a considerable fraction of Miss Pose’s fortune, into acquiring it. I won’t let you snatch this one from me, Daring Do, not this time.” “We can work that out later,” Daring said. “For now, let Dash go, and we’ll keep everypony who stays watered, which means the Saddle Arabians have that much more water to make it to the nearest oasis. And we can work together dealing with whatever was throwing fireballs at the airship.” Caballeron rubbed at his stubbly chin. “Deal,” he finally said as he held out his hoof. “At least this way I’ll be able to keep track of you.” Daring bumped hooves with Caballeron. Glory, meanwhile, stared with wide eyes even as Dash was let go. “Wait, what?” Glory demanded. “We’re working with your greatest rival? But she’s…she’s going to double-cross us! And even if she doesn’t…why?!” “This is, like, the third or fourth times it’s happened,” Dash pointed out as she stretched and flexed after having been held in a horse’s grip for so long. “Don’t you read any of the books?” “Don’t be ridiculous, of course I don’t read such tripe!” Dash’s jaw dropped. Daring did her the favor of pushing it closed again even as Caballeron turned around and began issuing orders to his goon squad to get into the airship and recover what they could, while the leader of the horses did the same. Dash didn’t pay any attention. She was about to launch into a tirade, but Daring stopped her by putting a hoof over her mouth. “It’s fine,” Daring said. “A.K. Yearling has plenty of fans.” Dash squirmed in annoyance, but managed to keep her mouth shut as she and Daring trotted over to the shadow of the downed airship’s balloon to get out of the direct sunlight. “Now here’s the real question,” Daring said, “what was throwing fireballs at us?” Tirek was aiming for the balloon, of course – it was an easier target than the gondola at this distance, especially since due to the angles the balloon was partially shielding the gondola. His first several fireballs missed, the airship reacting with surprising speed and more than a little luck…but that luck ran out with the fourth fireball, striking her head-on in her balloons’ front, sending her careening. A second fireball hit her near the stern, holing the balloon enough that she began to fall. Cozy watched from where she perched atop Tirek’s shoulder, giggling at the sight of such awesome power. She sure wished that she could throw around magic like that! Tirek had taught her the very first spell she’d ever known when they’d first met a couple years ago, a spell that let the two of them send letters back and forth between each other after he’d been trapped in Tartaros again. She’d since picked up a few others, but since she was a pegasus and didn’t have any natural spellcasting organs she needed to rely on sigils and ingredients and a lot of patience. She wondered what casting a spell naturally felt like. She imagined it tickled, which was probably super distracting… There was a flash of green from behind her. Cozy turned around quickly – Tirek was too distracted – and let out a yelp at what she saw. “Hey, Tirek!” She exclaimed, taking to the air. Tirek quelled his own magic and turned to look. The portal into Midnight Castle was glowing bright green. More prominently, green lines traced their way through the ground and towards Tirek, though their advance had halted. Cozy flew down, though she stayed well clear of the ground even as she inspected it. She held out her hooves and tried to focus like Tirek had taught her, tried to feel out the magic beneath her. She came away with nothing, though, not without direct contact, and no way was she doing that. Tirek considered it, then beckoned Cozy to return to his side. She did, and Tirek cast a simple spell, creating a ball of light in front of him. The portal to Midnight Castle flashed and the green lines grew out and towards him, until he dispelled the ball and the lines stopped their advance. Tirek grinned. “It’s hungry,” he noted. A distant crash reached their ears, and the two looked and saw that the airship had gone down in the desert, about a mile from the shore. “Well. We’ve bought ourselves some time,” Tirek said, turning back to the portal. He started stepping away, getting more distance from the portal and the lines, then gathering magic again. “Cozy, get behind me. I don’t know how much magic is needed…” “So go big or go home!” Cozy cheered, doing as Tirek asked, taking cover behind his broad torso, though she still peeked out over his shoulders. Tirek gathered an immense ball of fire and magic over his horns, easily two dozen feet across. The portal glowed brightly and the lines started advancing again, but before they could get too close Tirek let out a roar and threw the fireball forward and at the portal. It collided and exploded, for a moment, but then the explosion seemed to be pulled in and towards the portal. The green lines angled backwards and started towards the portal even as it began to glow red. Then the portal flashed red, and shattered like glass, the barrier falling away in jagged chunks that dissipated to nothing as soon as they hit the ground. Cozy started to let out a whoop of joy, but then noticed that Tirek was breathing heavily. She let out a cry of shock when black-and-yellow energy briefly danced over Tirek’s form, and before her eyes he seemed to lose about an inch of height. She darted in front of him, looking him over as he steadied himself. “Oh no…maybe that was going a little too big?” Tirek growled, steadying his breath and looking himself over, scowling at the loss of power. “The magic-draining effect…followed the trail of my attack. Took more out of me than I was expecting…” He waved a hand. “The loss is inconsequential. Come on, we should hurry before this enchantment repairs itself. And when whoever those creatures in the airship arrive, I want to be able to test the Rainbow of Darkness’ power on them!” Cozy nodded and giggled, fitting over and landing on Tirek’s shoulder once more as he headed into the darkness. Food wasn’t an issue, and so Rainbow Dash, Daring Do, Caballeron, Glory, and Caballeron’s goon squad – Withers, Biff, and Rogue – had been left ample supplies. The horses and Cilia were going to take all the water they had been able to salvage with them while Daring and Dash, true to their word, launched themselves into the sky and gathered some initial drinking water for the seven ponies who’d be staying behind. “Of course we don’t really need to do this too often,” Daring said as she hovered upside-down beneath a cloud, squeezing water from it. “Midnight Castle will have to have its own water source, it would never have been built otherwise. I’m surprised Caballeron didn’t realize that.” “Huh, good point,” Dash observed. She had a number of filled canteens slung over her neck already and was holding another steady. Daring’s set was already full. “So…what are we going to do about the Sun Stone? We can’t let Caballeron and Glory get it, it belongs in a museum!” Daring chuckled. “Plenty of time to find it in Midnight Castle first. We’ve got plenty of food and the Saddle Arabians will be sending a rescue airship this way. Even if Caballeron gets it first, a lot can happen between here and Istanbull, or Istanbull and Equestria.” She scowled. “Off limits after that, though.” “Why?” “Caballeron knows I’m A.K. Yearling, Dash. Ever wonder why he hasn’t written a book of his own telling everypony? We have an…an agreement. I don’t go after anything he’s managed to actually get back to Equestria, and he doesn’t tell everypony where I live.” “Huh,” Dash stoppered the canteen she held, then the two of them began flying back down to the others. “I guess that makes sense, if Ahuizotl or any of your other nemeses knew were you lived then you couldn’t ever really live anywhere…” Daring chuckled. “Right…my nemeses, they’d be a problem too.” “Too?” She didn’t get a chance to hear Daring’s elaboration as they reached the ground, Glory putting her goggles back on once Dash was near. That prompted a smirk from the pegasus and a scowl from Glory. The three henchponies were scowling as well, although less at Daring or Dash and more at the supplies they had to carry – while both Daring and Caballeron had broad smiles that didn’t reach the eyes. “Water,” Daring said, hoofing out the canteens to everypony, even as Caballeron hoofed over a set of packs to the pegasi containing their own share of the supplies. “We’re only about a mile from the shore and a quick raft-ride to Midnight Castle, so I don’t see any reason to wait.” “Agreed,” Caballeron said, taking a swig from his canteen. “We took two of the inflatable rafts. You and Miss Dash can fly, however.” “Fine by me,” Dash said as she slipped on her gear. It was heavy, but nothing she couldn’t handle. Caballeron turned around, back towards the Saddle Arabians, and waved. “We are heading out! Please apologize to Emira Numnah and the Sultan for the lost airship, that was not the plan!” “Have fun storming the castle!” Cilia called over from the makeshift camp in the shadow of the airship’s gondola and balloon – what hadn’t been burned off yet, in any event. With that, their herd set out, Daring and Dash keeping a few dozen feet between themselves and Caballeron’s gang. The Sun overhead was annoyingly hot; Dash couldn’t even begin to guess how it felt to the earth ponies and unicorn were taking it without the natural pegasus resistance to temperature extremes. Given how often the group was drinking from their canteens, Dash guessed “poorly”. At least it would be a short trip across the baking sand. They reached the beach inside of an hour, and the ground-bound ponies quickly set up their raft. It was self-inflating, thankfully, and soon Caballeron and one of his hench-ponies were pushing them off while the other two earth ponies worked the paddles and Glory sat inside. Before long the raft was out on the ocean and crossing it, and not long after that they had reached a small beach at the foot of the plinth. Daring and Dash had kept pace, but as soon as they reached the beach Daring noticed a monolith set beside the stairs that wound up the spire and flown over to it. “Carving is terrible…” she said, brushing it slightly and squinting. “It’s in…at least four different languages. Switches between Old Ponish, Old Unicorn, and I think that’s Centauri…can’t read the fourth language.” “Gargoyle,” Caballeron said. The two pegasi both jumped, not having heard his approach. He chuckled. “It’s Gargoyle. But I can’t read it either, only recognize one word: Scorpan. It’s a message from him.” “What’s it say?” Caballeron frowned, tapping a hoof against one word in particular. “Hard to tell, though I imagine that it consists of the usual dire warnings…like this one. Darkness will…something in Gargoyle…and grow. The usual native warnings of doom befalling any who trespass.” “That’s not darkness,” Daring objected. “Darkness is skotadi.” “Skotadi is more a general sense of something being dark or in shadow. Erebos, here, refers to a primordial darkness.” He grinned. “I always was better with languages. And ponies. And archaeology, come to think of it.” Daring bristled. “You graduated last in your class, Caballeron.” “But I did graduate, so it’s Doctor Caballeron, Miss Daring Do.” Dash’s wings flared at that, but Caballeron was already trotting off, humming to himself as Glory and his hench ponies followed. Dash made to follow, but Daring stopped her with an outstretched hoof. “Eyes on the prize,” she said, taking flight. Dash followed. At first the two wanted to head straight up, but after just a few dozen feet they noticed the darkening effect that surrounded Midnight Castle’s summit, the fact that the Sun remained in the sky but its light seemed to recede back into it the higher they went. The two pegasi elected to fly alongside Caballeron’s crew, just in case it was an omen of things to come. In time, the seven reached the summit, and found themselves looking at Midnight Castle, a fortress of twisted spires with no gate or walls, instead just a yawning open portal that looked like a fanged mouth. Dash and Daring both took note of the grotesque carvings that spat water from their mouth which flowed off the side. So did Caballeron, who looked at the water, then eyed Daring. Daring returned the glare evenly. “You want to go into a trap-filled ancient ruin without me having cleared it first, Caballeron?” She asked. “Because you know what I’m better at.” Caballeron shifted, then nodded. “Very well. After you, Daring Do.” Daring and Dash landed just before the portal, squinting against the darkness that lay inside. It seemed impenetrable, at least at first, but after a few moments Glory Pose came up behind the two and lit up her horn. The darkness was pushed back, revealing a stone tunnel that lead deeper into the castle. “Get a move on,” Glory insisted. Dash took a look at Daring. The two pegasi nodded, and then stepped into Midnight Castle.