Sparks stood there, horror firing through her. She was alone, the others had just... disappeared. While she was a trained Guard the effects of her foalnapping when she was nine had left her with a fear of being alone, which was part of the reason she was almost always paired with Blades. Sparks trusted the Pegasus-like Kirin very deeply and Blades was her closest friend, to the point that they were rarely seen apart. Right now her fear began to increase, with no idea what happened to her group or where they went Sparks was now entering panic mode.
"Okay Sparks... deep breaths. You're a Guard, you can't let fear control you."
Sparks slowly pulled out her sword, holding onto the hilt tightly as she started walking forward, her eyes scanning her surroundings like she was trained to do. Things escalated quickly as her vision flashed again and she saw her surroundings change again, to something that was far too familiar to her: The crowd that she had gotten lost and foalnapped in. Only this time the Ponies looked... wrong, like misshapen ghosts silhouetted by a blood red light that surrounded her on all sides. Sparks fear was really starting to overpower her training as the trauma from that day struck back, she started hearing whispering and low but deep growls all around her.
As much as she tried, Sparks couldn't hold the fear back any long as from the silhouettes a large shape emerged. Sparks took a step back in horror as features began to form.
"I..im...impossible! You're dead!! Burned alive to ashes by my second mother!"
In front of her was the very same Unicorn Noble that tried to kill her all those years ago, only he looked like something out of a horror movie: He body was covered in burns, some severe enough to expose the spine and some ribs in places, his teeth looked like they had grown out to become a maw of fangs, his horn was lopsided to the right and was bent and cracked and his front hooves were replaced with four-fingered hands with each digit tipped with a long scythe-like claw.
Despite her fear Sparks couldn't help but think: This is some Nightmare on 12th street bulldung right here.
The worst part was the Unicorn's eyes: They. Were. Gone! only the holes remained, just empty voids that stared back at her.
Sparks tried to raise her sword, only to find she couldn't lift it. She turned to see why and found that she was somehow her nine year old self again! Sparks looked up as the Unicorn opened its mouth, showing more teeth than what should be with what looked like pieces of bones stuck in between them.
Sparks tired to run only to find a heavy iron shackle around her neck, keep her in place. Trapped, Sparks did the only thing she could; she covered her eyes and screamed.
Something struck her face from the right hard as a voice shouted "Sparky Gears!". Reeling from the blow she opened her eyes, vision burred by tears, to see the familiar and very welcome faces for her friends, all staring back at her with worry. In front of her was Indigo, who had slapped her trying to wake her. Sparks blinked.
"I... In... Indigo??" She asked, her voice shaky from what she had just seen.
"Yes Sparks, its me." Indigo said gently, worry in his voice. "What happened? We heard you call out and noticed you weren't-"
He didn't get to finish as he was suddenly wrapped in a bear hug from the trembling Earth Pony Mare, despite the sudden grab Indigo didn't pause as he returned the hug as strong as he could while Sparks sobbed heavily into his neck. Blades walked over and wrapped her wings around the two as Sparks let out her fear through her sobs.
Blades rubbed her friend's back as she leveled a nasty glare at Dragonfly, who was looking at Sparks with deep sympathy.
"Blades, can you carry her?" He asked, Blades stood up and growled at him.
"Yes but I will not move until you tell us wh-"
"Blades unless you want the rest of us to suffer what Sparks just did we need to move now!"
Blades, and everypony else, flinched back at the tone of his voice and the fear in it. Blades didn't say anything as she picked up both Sparks and Indigo and placed them on her back while the latter used his magic to retrieve Sparks' sword. Dragonfly nodded and gestured the others to follow him as he picked up the pace, going from a walk to a trot. It wasn't long before the reached a spot that Dragonfly stopped at, before any of the others could ask why he had stopped their vision flashed white again. When it cleared there were more silhouettes clustered together in front of them.
Only these ones were different: While the shaped resembled that of Ponies, the group could clearly see holes in the legs, both wings and horns, and webbed tails. Before anypony voiced their thoughts Dragonfly spoke up.
"A battle raged here, one separate from the Nightmare Moon battles, long, long ago. The defenders still man their stations." He turned back to the group, his face serious. "Form a line, grab hold of each others' tails and then grab mine and do not let go until I tell you."
Everypony did so and once they were ready Dragonfly nodded and turned back to the silhouettes, then did something none of the others had ever seen or heard he do. Dragonfly started to chant in a series of clicks, hisses, chirps, squeaks, and buzzes as he walked forward, the silhouettes moving aside to let him and the others through. It was only once the others were all through and another flash of white filled their vision for a split second that Dragonfly stopped and said they could let go of each others' tails.
"We're in that safe area I told you about earlier, now I owe you all some explanations."
"Like hay you do." Blades snorted after punching him in the jaw, sending the disguised Changeling to the ground. Both Belle and Dancer opened their mouths to shout at Blades but Dragonfly held up a hoof as he stood back up, rubbing his sore but he didn't complain.
"It's alright, I deserved that, now I suppose I'll start with what's going on around us and what happened to Sparks." He took a deep breath and started.
"The reason I wanted us to hurry to this spot was as soon as we entered the hall past those voice-making pipes was because I sensed Dark Magic." The eyes of everypony went wide, now understanding. "This Dark Magic, from what I could tell, has been here since Nightmare Moon's first defeat. Since we had no choice but to go through it I wanted us to get here as fast as we could, before it started effecting us like it did to Sparks..." He paused, swallowing hard. "and before we ended up like those who came before us."
There was a long pause as the group took this in, finally Belle asked,
"How come you didn't just say this before? Back went I asked?"
"Because we had already been exposed to it by then and time was running out. I'm sorry Belle, I wanted to tell all of you right then and there but it was only a matter of time before the Dark Magic started taking hold, which is what happened to Sparks."
"What did happen to her?!" Blades asked, wrapping her wing around said Earth Pony.
"Dark Magic, at least this particular type, causes past trauma to flare up and take hold of the mind. From what you told me Blades, Sparks was foalnapped at nine years old and was almost killed."
This was news to the Mane Six while the rest of the group knew the story, Twilight turned to Sparks.
"If its not too much, what happened?" Sparks slowly let out a breath, and told the story; starting with how she was separated from Flame, waking up in the cage, the Noble, Hidden Blade saving her, the tearful hug she and Flame had, and finally meeting and befriend Blades. Twilight looked completely stunned, horrified at the fact that somepony would go as far to kill a nine-year old foal over "maintaining purity". Applejack had her hat over her chest, looking at Sparks with deep sympathy. Pinkie and Fluttershy had tears flowing from their eyes, while Rainbow Dash looked like somepony had told her the Wonderbolts were being disbanded. Rarity slowly reached up and rubbed her horn, utterly floored that a Pony would to that.
"The thing is..." Sparks continued, "I know that Unicorn is dead, my family made absolutely sure of it. But that vision, it was him alright. Only he looked... I can't even begin to put it in words. It has also been years since that day, I thought I was over it."
Dragonfly walked up and put a hoof on her shoulder.
"My guess Sparks is that you still had some lingering issues that you never noticed, its alright though." He gave her a hug, which Sparks returned. "I know I still have issues with spiders."
Pulling out of the hug Dragonfly was asked about the silhouettes, he sighed sadly.
"Those my friends, are literally the souls of those trapped here by the Dark Magic, doom to repeat their final moments over and over again. The only way to free and allow them to pass into the afterlife would be to purge the Dark Magic from the area. That would however take some very powerful Light Magic, to a level that only Celestia would have."
The looks of horror on the faces of the group spoke great volumes, just now realizing why Dragonfly was so serious on avoiding them as much as possible, then Rose spoke up.
"You mean, if we died here, we would join them?" The fear in her voice was unnerving for those who were use to Rose's normally cheerful and carefree demeanor. Dragonfly only nodded grimly, what he hadn't told them was that those trapped Ponies were fully aware of what was happening, unable to do anything but watch as time passed around them. There were fates worse then death, and that was one of them.
He didn't want to tell them that either, they were scared enough as even Dusk and Blades, normally the ones who weren't fazed by much, looked very frightened. Then Dancer asked,
"What about those silhouettes we just encountered? They didn't look anything like Ponies." She had guessed that those were Changelings, but she didn't say that out of respect for keeping Dragonfly's secret. Said disguised Changeling frowned and looked at the floor, thinking about how he wanted to answer before he turned to address the Mane Six.
"Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow, and Fluttershy. What I'm about to tell you must remain between us for the time being, it would take me too long fully to explain why here so I Pinkie Promise once this is over and we are back at the Cozy Rest i will tell you five everything. The others of the group plus Pinkie as well as Celestia know already know about what I'm going to show you, all I ask is that you trust me for the time being."
The five Mares looked at each other for a minute, then looked at Dragonfly with Applejack speaking.
"Alright Dragonfly, we're willing to listen so what is it ya have to say?"
"It would be easier to show you first; while it is true I'm half-Thestral, my other half isn't a Unicorn." Before the five could ask a green fire flared around Dragonfly for a second, scaring them until faded away and revealing Dragonfly's true form to them. The five stared as they took in Dragonfly's form, noticing right away how it closely it resembled a Pony Stallion just instead of a coat his body was covered in black carapace, his back had a shiny metallic silver plate which had a short spike in the center, and little fangs stuck out from his upper lips. a long horn somewhat bent in a few places jutted out proudly from his forehead and six tall and large red dragonfly-like wings sat with three on each side of his back plate. His eyes had stayed the same along with his mane and tail, the latter two had several holes of various sizes appear, a closer looking showing that the holes were formed from the hairs shifting to the sides like they were holding invisible water drops. Beyond that his height was also unchanged.
"Girls, I know this likely comes as a shock but I only hid what I was, never who I was. I'm still the same Dragonfly the five of you met and befriended all that time ago."
There was a long pause as the five stared, their expressions ranging from suspicious to curious. Applejack and Rainbow looked ready to attack but Blades and Dusk grabbed hold of their shoulders, the looks the two gave the Mares stopping them. Finally Twilight, her eyes sparkling with wonder, asked the question.
"Then what are you Dragonfly?"
"I'm what's know as a Changeling. More specifically, a Royal Changeling."
Twilight walked up to him looking closely at his new features with great curiously, already thinking of many questions she was going to ask after this was over. She didn't notice that Dragonfly was looking uncomfortable until Belle grabbed her shoulder and pulled her away.
"Sorry Twilight, but he is mine and Dancer's."
"Oops, sorry." Twilight smiled sheepishly as Grace asked the next question.
"What was that chanting a few minutes ago? We get that those silhouettes we just encountered were Changelings, but the chanting?"
"It's a long forgotten Changeling language, only very few still remember it. The chant itself is an ancient mantra for dismissing negative energy from a body."
There were a few blinks from the group as they took that in, then Rarity spoke.
"Excuse me darling, but why would Changelings stay hidden like you and your mother did. None of us form Ponyville even knew what a Changeling was before now, so why stay hidden?"
Dragonfly opened his mouth to answer, but paused as he suddenly felt something. He closed his eyes and used his magic to reach out, the others watching him curiously. After a minute Dragonfly opened his eyes.
"That answer will have to wait until later, the Elements are close."
With that he donned his disguise again and the group set off, thankfully reaching their destination without anymore trouble. Finally they passed through a broken door and saw before them a rounded hall with a large stone structure of some kind in the center, Dragonfly entered the room first as he immediately looked around, thinking that as soon as they crossed into the room, something would fall on them or catch them like a trap, but nothing happened. Once he was sure nothing would happen he waved the others in. Once everypony was in they slowly approached the structure, stopping half-way as they gazed at the five stone orbs that sat on arms sticking out of it.
"There they are, the Elements." Twilight said in awe.
"Don't look like much." Dusk said, wincing as Grace shoved his shoulder.
"I think that was the point Dusk."
The others agreed with Grace's statement, with the Elements looking like just stone orbs with symbols on the it was much more likely that those looking to loot the ruins would pass them by. Though from the looks of the place it seemed no creature had even stepped into the castle since it was abandoned so long ago, apart from them. Twilight smiled wide seeing the Elements and rushed to get them, only for Dragonfly to grab her in his magic and hold her back.
"Dragonfly what are you doing?! The Elements are right there!" Twilight called out gesturing to said objects.
"That's just what I'm afraid of Twilight! A large open room with the goal right in the middle? It's too easy, there has to be some kind of trap."
Setting Twilight next to him he looked around the chamber; Besides the structure which consisted of a round base, a huge ball in the center, and five stone arms that held the Elements there wasn't much of note. Yet, Dragonfly's instincts were telling him something was wrong. After the encounter with the Badlands Spider and after he had recovered Dragonfly had spent a lot of time honing those instincts and they had helped him during his travels in the Everfree.
But what was setting them off here?
Looking down at the floor, he noticed something off. While the floor was completely covered in dust, no surprise there, he spotted that there was an oval-shaped indented line right in front of them. Leaning down he placed his hoof next to the spot and moved it to the right, wiping the thick dust layer off and finding a small hoof plate of some kind. Dragonfly wiped the dust off his hoof using a napkin he had brought with him and frowned in thought, asking for a torch or something similar which Sparks pulled from her saddlebags and hoofed it over to him. He thanked her and carefully pressed one end on the pad and pushed as the others watched in curiously.
"Dragonfly, what are you-" Rarity started to ask but was cut of as something tiny shot from the wall to the left of them and impacted the torch he was holding; a thin and tiny dart no bigger than a nail which was now releasing a slow stream of dark copper fluid, ignoring the other's jumps and gasps Dragonfly used his magic to pull the dart out of the torch with a little effort and examined it closely, noticing the barbed tip right away which was also where the fluid was leaking from. He gently touched the tip of his tongue to the dart and spat, pulling out a small flask and opened it before taking a swig. He held it for a few seconds while swishing around his mouth before turning away from the group and spitting that out, Dragonfly then turned back to the group.
"Basilisk venom, one of the most potent poisons in the world, and it never loses that potency even over a thousand years." He said showing off the dart. "A single drop in your blood stream will shut down all your organs in a minute at most and that's if you're lucky. I've heard of creatures dying in as little as three seconds flat."
The group visibly paled at Dragonfly's explanation, Twilight's coat going from lavender to almost white at the though that she was almost hit by that dart if Dragonfly hadn't stopped her. Dusk spoke up after he swallowed hard.
"Then 'ow do we get the Elements?"
Rainbow scoffed, "Easy."
She gave a flap of her wings and shot forward, only to impact a wall of magic Dragonfly had cast.
"Not a good idea Dash." He picked up a rock and tossed it over the threshold, where it was zapped by pure white lightning bolts and turned to ash. Rainbow turned white at the sight, while it was true Pegasi could take a few hits from lightning bolts they still had limits, they tried to avoid it as much as possible, and these bolts were clearly far more intense than the ones in the weather factory. Rainbow had heard stories of unlucky Pegasi getting stuck by bolts like that, leaving almost nothing left to recover afterward.
Indigo decided to try something; Lighting up his horn with a small glow on the tip he walked forward and slowly passed his horn over the threshold, recoiling with a yelp of pain as a flash appeared and his horn started smoking, landing on his back with his hooves holding his horn.
"Son of a B-"
"Indigo Patches! Watch your language around the Mares!" Dusk scolded him, the Unicorn shot a glare back at the Thestral.
"Well you grow a horn and stick it in an anti-magic field! That. Bucking. Hurt!
"Okay we can't walk or fly over to them and we can't use magic. How are we suppose to get the Elements then?" Belle asked, her sister nodding in agreement. Dragonfly put a hoof on his chin as Twilight did the same.
How would they get the Elements? With the traps in place getting to them would be deadly, the two glaced at each other, a thought striking them t the same time. Looking around Dragonfly and Twilight examined the room more closely, both noticing small runes that they had missing before, Kirin Runes. It was well known that all four Kirin races were completely immune to magic of any and all types, even Chaos and Dark Magic, this was because of the race of Dragons the Kirin had been born from had also been immune to magic. The Kirin couldn't use magic the same way other Pony races could, so they had created their own. Somehow, someway, they had discovered how to make runes that could draw in loose magic in the air like a magnet and store it. These runes then allowed the Kirin to use magic through items imprinted with these runes.
Twilight had once asked Celestia if she could study and research this but Celestia had sadly said that she couldn't due to agreements between her and the Clan Leaders, the Kirin were extremely protective of the secrets of rune magic, and for good reason: Items enchanted with rune magic would allow anyone to use magic. Only Kirin Runesmiths fully knew how they worked, though any Kirin could learn it through trial and error. But these runes, unless either the Kirin had learned from a Runesmith or one had improved them, were far weaker.
The fact that there were Kirin runes here caught both of them by surprise, could the Kirin have been here after the place was abandoned? If so, why?
Something then clicked in Dragonfly's head as the gears began to turn faster, he turned his head back to the group as Twilight noticed and followed his gaze, which landed on Blades. Said pony/Kirin hybrid was currently helping Indigo apply some anti-burn cream to his horn. She looked up to notice Dragonfly staring at her.
"What?"
Than her eyes widened
"Oh no. I am not gonna be the test subject here. I'm only half Kirin so I don't know if I even have the magic immunity."
"Oh Blades."
Turning she said Sparks, who had caught what Dragonfly was thinking, holding a large piece of smoked bacon in her hoof.
Which was Blades' favorite food next to her mother's noddles.
Blades' mouth opened as her fangs began to drip, tongue rolled out and a wide open smile appeared on her face. Her tail started wagging as her wings spread.
"You what this girl don't ya? Ya want it?"
Sparks suddenly turned and tossed the strip of bacon towards the center structure.
"Go fetch!"
Blades surged forth after the meat, the ones in front of her diving to the stone floor. It was a simple rule with Blades; If she smelled smoked bacon, Get. Out. Of. The. Way!!! Blades quickly caught up with and grabbed the meat strip in her teeth, landing on the center structure unharmed as she ate it, making surprisingly cute "nom nom nom nom nom nom" sounds as she did.
The pose she took only added to it: Blades had sat down on her hind legs with her forelegs holding the bacon like a chipmunk as she nibbled with her eyes closed. Her wings were half-folded and her tail was draped over two of the arms. The group couldn't help but "Dawwwww!" at the sight, Blades not caring as she was in bacon zen.
Until a bright flash lit up the room as Blades finished, Sparks had a camera that Pinkie had pulled out of her mane. Blades stared for a minute in surprise before a nasty scowl appeared.
"SPARKS!!! That wasn't funny!" Blades place her hands on her hips as said Earth Pony flashed a smile that would have made a Griffin proud.
"Yes it was, funny and cute."
Blades just snorted as she turned and gathered the Elements before flying back, Twilight turned to Dragonfly.
"How did you know that would work?"
"I didn't."
The collective "WHAT??!!" caused both Dragonfly and Dusk to cover their ears.
"Ya guys let's just blow out my eardrums why don't we." The latter said, the sarcasm so thick it could form a planet. Dragonfly uncovered his ears only to hear Blades.
"You gave Sparks the thought to throw a strip of my favorite meat into a dangerous area, and you didn't know if I would be find." She hissed lowly in his ear, that wasn't a question, it wasn't even a promise.
"I did not know she was gonna do that Blades, I swear!" Dragonfly leaned back from her, hooves up in front of his face. Blades glared at him for a second, then smacked Dragonfly over the head with her tail.
"Ow, shall we call it even?"
"Deal."
"So... we have the Elements, what now?" Belle asked as said objects were place in the middle of the group.
"Well..." Twilight started, "There's only five. The book said: "When the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed."."
“What in tarnation is that supposed to mean?” Applejack asked, the others sharing her thoughts.
“Not too sure, but I got an idea. Everypony stand back, I’m not sure what will happen.” Twilight said as she closed her eyes and lit up her horn while the others took a few steps back to give her some space. After a few minutes nothing happened, as Twilight opened her eyes and looked up.
"Nothing, I can't seem to feel anything."
"So we're stuck?" Grace asked, looking a bit downcast.
"Not yet, but-" Twilight was cut off as Dragonfly suddenly winced and looked up above them, following his gaze the others let out shouts of surprise as a smokey, black cloud suddenly dropped on them and everything went dark.
When the group could see again they found themselves in a large room, the others were fine as they coughed and stood up. The room was mostly empty with a few pillars and a raised dais on the far end.
And over on the dais, surrounded by the Elements, was the Alicorn they had been after. Dragonfly's eyes narrowed as the other Guards quickly pulled out their weapons and took defensive positions.
"Nightmare Moon." Dragonfly said in a low tone.
The dark Alicorn let out a loud laugh.
"And this is all they could sent to try and stop me? You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right?" She asked amused. She soon spotted Dusk who was couched low with his wings spread out, sword at the ready in his right hoof. Nightmare gave a small smirk
"And one of my children of night, why do you fight for the weak Princess Celestia? You did swear an oath to me after all."
"The Thestrals swore an oath to Prince Luna." Dusk hissed through his teeth. "Not you."
"She and I are one and the same."
"No, you are not. And even if we had, those oaths died when we were abandoned, almost doomed to a slow extinction."
Nightmare Moon faltered for a split second, but quickly stood proud. However in that second, the group heard a very faint sound.
"I'm sorry Dusk, I never meant for it to happen."
Nightmare Moon's wings flared out
"You fools thing you have a chance against me! The Mistress of the Night! You cannot win!"
"Even if that's the case, we ain't goin' down without a fight." Dragonfly hissed as he pulled out his halberd.
Nightmare Moon's eyes narrowed.
"Very well, have at thee!"
Dragonfly and the others charged.