Diary of Sunset Shimmer
I didn’t think this day would come; I thought Valentine to be safely locked away in the dungeons of the Royal Palace in Vil. But now he was leading the Cult of Chaos in spreading anarchy across the border of the Forest Of Dreams. We had no choice but to go deep into the newly restored Temple of Chaos and shut down the source of chaotic energy. We found an Inevitable trapped in the temple as well, promising us aid if we could disable the Heart of The Temple, the source of the chaotic magic that was spreading across the land.
Inevitables, I have had interactions with them before. Beings from the plane of order known as Axis dedicated to exterminating chaos across the multi-verse and maintaining order. They were neither good nor evil, for all they cared about was order. I remember hearing about incidents where the Inevitables fought against the forces of the upper planes and on the side of the Nine Hells, not to be confused for the Hell me and Cozy went through a harrowing journey to get out of. But they would just as often ally with the forces of the upper planes in their battle against the chaotic demons of the A mouse right Abyss. For that reason, I knew better than to trust Inevitables completely, but for now where we were battling the forces of chaos, this Inevitable would absolutely have our back. I don’t have time to explain every nuance of interplanar politics right now but know that the Inevitables are a mixed bag. Inevitables are also known for their ability to detect lies and being able to see the truth at the core of our being, for their nature is the absolute opposite of deception. Which made its observations about Cozy rather interesting. Her heart was that of order eh? I would keep that in mind.
Our next task was to navigate the confusing labyrinth that made up the underground level of the temple. We started going north at Cozy’s orders, we stepped into a rectangular room with an ornate fountain at its center. The centerpiece was that of a bipedal creature (possibly a human) wearing a dress and holding up a stone urn from which the water flowed, trickling down into the pool at her feet. A large battleax lying in the pool of water. Cozy seemed uneasy while in this chamber and shuddered when she looked at the statue, urging us to move on as quickly as possible, poor thing.
We decided to continue north, we were taken to an empty and featureless room, but it was the room besides that was interesting as in this room had a pedestal with a huge emerald sitting on top of it, electricity arcing all around it as a protective measure. Suspecting this might be the Heart of the Temple the Inevitable was talking about, Night’s Blessing tried to disable this electric protective measure, taking quite a shock in the process, but were ultimately successful, Cozy putting the gem into her saddlebags before we continued forwards.
Next, we stood before a crossroads, Cozy decided we should go left, but by doing so the labyrinth corridors brought us back to the gravity well chamber where the Inevitable was still trapped, we were going in circles, but didn’t seem to make sense as all we had done was moving forward, but we were told this place was coursing with chaotic magic, so maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised. But if we truly had taken out the Heart of the Temple, the Inevitable wouldn’t still be trapped, so it stood to reason we had yet to find the chamber of the Heart.
This time Cozy decided we should go left, reaching a chamber filled with multiple statues of bulls made of brass, once again, Cozy shuddered when she saw them, like they reminded her of some bad memories, and I could understand why. Spending as much time as she did as a sentient statue was bound to leave a mark, yet I hoped that she would one day be able to overcome this fear and put the past behind her. So, I put one of my front hooves around her neck and gave her a hug, telling her that they were only statues and couldn’t hurt her and that I would make sure she never spent any more time as a statue ever again. At that exact moment the brass statues animated, the bulls moving with as much fluidity and grace as they would if they were truly alive. Silverwing and Night’s Blessing moves to engage the bulls animated by chaotic magic, while me and Twilight rained down spells on them until these living statues were reduced to rubble. Cozy stood in the background petrified by fear the entire time, only composing herself after the fight was already over and apologized for her reaction. I told her it is okay and that we all understand. Night’s Blessing hugging Cozy in turn, this seemed to calm Cozy down more than my own hug ever did.
After calming down from her panic attack, Cozy led us forward through the labyrinth. We eventually reached a large room that seemed to have been reshaped by some kind of strange force, the stone appeared to have been pulled and stretched into abstract sculptures and the walls reshaped to contain shelves, on each shelf sat a single stone, none of the stones appeared to be the same but none of them looked particularly valuable. Just appeared to be reshaped grey rocks. The room gradually began to brighten as a sculpure in the ceiling began to glow and suddenly there stood before us waiflike pony, tears streaming down her eyes, forming a puddle by her delicate hooves. I recognized this creature as a Lampad, a type of nymph that often lived underground, beings rumored to possess immense beauty, and this particular exemplar was no different, in fact she was one of the most beautiful ponies I ever laid my eyes upon.
Cozy asked the Lampad if we were allowed to pass through the room into the corridor beyond, the Lampad was at first reluctant, telling her that she would only be allowed to pass if we gave her a pretty rock to add to her collection and we were careful to not knock out any of them over as we went through the room. Cozy presented her with the enormous Emerald from earlier and the Lampad’s eyes really shined as she laid her eyes upon, like she fell in love with object as soon as she saw it.
We continued forward and we were once again back in the room where we originally found the Emerald, this made no sense as this was in a completely different direction from where we went last time. It was literally impossible, but I guess that is the nature of chaotic magic. We decided to take the third path away from this room, the only path we had not taken previously.
We continued forwards until we entered a room that had drops of liquid dripping from the ceiling and disappearing through grates in the floor, as they first entered the room the liquid burned Silverwing, who quickly retracted back into the corridor. It appeared this liquid was acid. Night’s Blessing managed to use her skills to block the drip from the ceiling a few feet at the time, allowing us to move from the room. After everything was said and done Cozy congratulated Night’s Blessing and told her:
“What would we ever do without you? Good job.”
I was glad the two of them seemed so close, Cozy really needed another friend and seeing them so happy together made me happy and turn.
To the north we came across a dead end with a pile of gold sitting in the middle of the room, with a strange message carved on the floor. It was an obscure language from another plane, I recognized it as primordial, and I could translate the message. It simply said: “Above cognition”. Twilight warned against touching the gold and Cozy agreed, so we left it where it lay. Taking the other path forward we soon found herself in the central room with the gravity well where the Inevitable was trapped once again. Taking the only path we hadn’t yet traversed, we passed into a blue room with nothing in it. I could swear we already navigated the corridor before us as it looked identical to the corridor we took from the room with the Emerald originally, yet it took us somewhere completely different.
It appeared we had reached the Heart of the Temple, it consisted of a vast pool of liquid of many different hues of color, constantly shifting, it was clearly infused by chaotic magic. In this liquid were multiple platforms, each containing several of Valentine’s robed minions, as well as a strange creature that appeared to be a hybrid of a strange bipedal creature and a bird with useless tattered wings, one of its arms were a claw and the other a paw, one of its legs were a paw and the other a hoof, it gave off a foul smell. On the platform on the other side of the room, behind a forcefield of chaotic and ever-shifting energies, were standing Valentine himself, a black earth pony with a red mane and the mark of destiny of a red rose, behind him on the altar a glowing multicolored gem, this had to be the Heart of the Temple. Yet the most eye-catching of all was the creature at Valentine’s side. It looks almost like a dragon, fat and without wings, completely lacking hind legs, but with multiple mouthed tentacles with sharp fangs on its back. This was a Protean, the opposite of an Inevitable, creatures that were manifestations of unbridled chaos who lived in a plane called the Maelstrom, a realm of absolute chaos, existing only to spread chaos and disorder across the multi-verse. This was a very dangerous foe, I wondered if we stood any chance.
Valentine seemed to know he had an advantage, for he was quite cocky when he addressed us:
“Sunset Shimmer, welcome to my humble abode, the Temple of Chaos has a will of its own, but it answers to my will and my will alone. I allowed you to reach me so I can finally have my revenge against the person who put me in prison. I was promised that your commander Cozy Glow would already be taken care of by the person who rescued me, but no matter, I will enjoy killing her as well.”
Cozy engaged Valentine in conversation and began asking him:
“Your rescuer, it was Cipher wasn’t it? I barely survived his attempt on my life. Do you know his whereabouts?”
Valentine shook his head and answered her question:
“I haven’t seen Cipher since he freed me from prison, but he gave me very clear instructions, I would be greatly rewarded by his master if I awakened the Temple of Chaos and spread its chaotic energies across the lands, and I would be granted my revenge against the ponies that put me behind bars. And I have to say I think I will enjoy this, minions, attack.”
Diary of Cozy Glow
The journey through the Temple's underground level had been a terrifying one for me. And not because of the things most people would find scary. But because of so many statues. When those lifelike brass bulls came alive, I almost had a heart attack. I had found lifelike statues of any kind unsettling ever since I spent half a decade of my life as one, trapped with only my own thoughts for company. Twilight could never understand what that does to a person. But what made matters worse is that I had read about brass bulls in history books. They were an especially horrific means of execution that would involve placing a pony inside a hollow brass bull and lighting a fire underneath it. As the unfortunate victim was being boiled alive, their screams would only escape the bull as a braying sound from the bull’s nose. A horrifying way to go for sure, but their suffering would not be nearly as lengthy as my own punishment.
If not freed by Sunset, I might have been trapped as a statue to the end of history. Unable to live and more importantly, unable to die. Watching the world crumble around me, even after the fall of Equestria, even after the heat death of the universe, I would still be there, long since driven mad by my own thoughts, until one day, maybe I would find release when the planet finally exploded. These were the thoughts that went through my head whenever I saw a statue, why I couldn't stand the sight of them. Anger towards the one responsible for my fate filled my entire being as well. Discord, the so-called Spirit of Chaos. Believe me, I took great pleasure in delivering a decisive blow towards the forces of Chaos here in Taralos as a consequence of my hatred of this trickster.
Fortunately, both Sunset and Night's Blessing were there to comfort me, and the latter's hug was even enough to snap me out of my trance.
Soon after we would face down against the leader of this Cult of Chaos, Valentine, an old enemy from the time me and Sunset first arrived in Taralos. Apparently, he had been let out by Cipher, the same agent of Prince Swift Blade who tried to have me killed. Valentine bragged about how he was in full control of the temple, and he would soon have his revenge.
Valentine sent his minions after us. But as the fighting broke out, one thing Valentine said struck me, he was in control of the temple, that meant the entire temple was a magical artifact he was attuned to. I had much experience with magical artifacts, I used the power of a couple to dry to drain the magic from my original homeland, and another time I had used the power from the Bell of Grogar to try to usurp Princess Twilight Sparkle. I knew artifacts like few others. Maybe I could attune to the temple in order to contest Valentine's control of it. I placed my hoof on the ground and tried to communicate with it.
I could hear the voice of Valentine echo in my head.
"Good try Cozy, but there is no way your will is stronger than mine."
I begged to differ; I summoned all my mental fortitude to engage him in a battle of will. And I would dominate him, preventing him from using the power of the temple against us.
As the fight start, Night’s Blessing jumped across the gap to the first platform and quickly dispatched one of the cultists standing on it, the other cultists on the platform attempted to attack her, only for Night’s Blessing to parry the blow and make quick work of him as well. She was truly beautiful in the heat of battle, graceful like a dancer. I tried my best to cheer her on while still maintaining my focus on my mental battle with Valentine, I was to keep him from using the temple against us no matter the cost. One of the cultists standing on the platform furthest away hit Night’s Blessing with one of their slings, my heart skipped a beat for a moment, but it turned out that her injuries were mostly superficial. Silverwing flew to engage the cultist on the middle platform. Taking quite the beating from the slingers further away in the process. Sunset cast a fireball to deal with the slingers, but most of them survived by taking cover. Twilight teleported to the platform that Night’s Blessing just cleared from cultists and fired a strand of dark and shadowy energy that killed several of the slingers.
Suddenly, I could feel the presence of Valentine in my mind:
“You shouldn’t have let yourself be distracted.”
He was right, I let Night’s Blessing’s injury distract me from my mental battle. Valentine then promptly kicked me out from my control of the temple and used this control to create a flash of light in front of me in an attempt to blindly, fortunately I was able to close my eyes before I got too disoriented, a similar flash of light appeared before Silverwing and he was rendered completely helpless. Reality distorted around Sunset to grab her and chained her to the ground, she was fast enough to dodge it, but Twilight wasn’t so lucky, and the very ground appeared to shift, Twilight sinking into it like quicksand, her hooves now stuck in the platform. Valentine then electrified the platform, shocking the both of them. I was quickly able to regain control of the temple, but the damage was already done. If only I knew how to use the powers of the temple in an offensive manner like Valentine did. The best I could do was to simply prevent him from using the temple’s powers.
The platforms appeared to have a will of their own, as the one furthest away where the remaining slingers stood moved to the west, the one with the horrific monstrosity that resembled some kind of bipedal bird with body parts of various animals moved to the east and connected with the platform Silverwing stood on, it sort of reminded me of Discord.
Night’s Blessing quickly jumped to Silverwing’s platform and cut down the cultist that stood on it with ease. The slingers continued to bombard Silverwing while he was blinded. I turned my attention towards the monstrosity with the parts of the many different animals and decided to insult its appearance. But it appeared my enchantments were ineffective, so that meant it was probably some kind of golem, a construct made by a magician which specifically had immunities to magic. So, I shouted out to the group to tell them what I discovered. Twilight and Sunset nodded, agreeing that it would be a waste to target it with their magic. Night’s Blessing telling me she would take care of it next. Sunset fired another fireball and killed of the remaining slingers. Now only the golem was left. The golem attempted to hit Night’s Blessing, gracing her with its talon. But fortunately, it still appeared like she was okay. Twilight used her teleportation magic to get out off the floor and teleported to the same platform where Night’s Blessing and the golem were fighting.
The platform furthest south moved down so it directly connected to where I was standing by the entrance. Night’s Blessing made quick work of the golem, striking it multiple times with her obsidian scimitar, and parrying it when it’s tried to attack her back and took the opportunity to make a killing blow. With all his minions defeated, the force field around the platform with the altar and the Heart of the Temple shattered and Valentine ordered the dragon-like creature at his sides to attack Nights Blessing. It distorted reality around it and teleported to her. Sunset had mentioned that this was a Protean, a creature of chaos from another world. The opposite of an Inevitable. The tentacles on its back attacked Night’s Blessing and managed to grab her, its touch seemed to do something to her mind because she seemed out of it. Yet that didn’t prevent her from stabbing it back and wounding it, escaping the grasp of its tentacles. Valentine muttered an incantation which put Silverwing to sleep before hiding behind the altar, the chaotic gemstone of ever shifting colors that was the Heart of the Temple in his grasp. This didn’t look good, as the Protean seemed very powerful, perhaps a match even for someone as skilled as Night’s Blessing.
I realize that if I could get to Valentine and destroy the heart, the Inevitable that was trapped in the gravity well would be able to lend us a. I tried to fly as fast as I could towards Valentine while Sunset summoned a spear of light and hit the Protean with it while Twilight teleported to hit it with a lightning bolt in the other direction. But this barely seemed to face it. The body of this Dragon-like creature appears to shift like rubber to absorb the blow. Whatever the creature did to Night’s Blessing seemed to really take effect now, as she stabbed herself with her own sword before the protean’s tentacles beat her quite badly. She was now dying on the ground in front of the protean who were just going to devour her. I yelled out in desperation, barely being able to keep Valentine from accessing the temple before I without thinking changed course and flew directly towards the monster, putting myself in its path between it and Night’s Blessing. Before uttering a curse-laced insult.
“I will not allow you to touch her you waste of space, you’re so ugly even a troll mother would abandon you."
My words seemed to affect the monster, as it now turned its full attention upon me. As its mouthed tentacles turned upon me, I was sure I was a goner. What a foolish mistake it had been to put myself in its path, in the past I would’ve never taken this kind of risk in order to protect another. But here I had acted on instinct, I didn’t even get any time to think. But I knew I couldn’t live without Night’s Blessing so no matter what happened to me, I had to do whatever I could to protect her. The mouths at the tip of the monster’s tentacles took several chunks out of my flesh as they grabbed me, their very touch muddled my mind, making me forget who I was.
Just before I was sure I was going to die I remembered back to that wonderful night I had spent with Night’s Blessing, and realized I had a lot to live for. No, I wouldn’t let it end like this. This memory was enough for me to break out of my muddled state. While still in the creature’s grasp I reached out as far as I could towards Night’s Blessing, I could barely touch her body straining against the tentacles, but it was enough, I channeled all the magic I could muster into a single healing spell. The spell was successful in healing some of her wounds, enough for her to get on her hooves and as soon as she saw me in the creature’s grasp she acted on instinct, cutting off the tentacle that was holding me in a single swift motion. She was still badly wounded, but thanks to my efforts she was conscious and no longer dying.
Sunset proceeded with bathing the entire area in holy light, healing both some of mine and Night’s Blessing’s wounds. As Valentine uttered another incantation that put Twilight to sleep. The platform that Night’s Blessing and the protean were standing on separated from mine. Leaving her to do duel the monster alone. She looked towards me and smiled, thanking me for saving her life. At this moment Valentine turned his magic upon me, I was starting to feel sleepy, but I tried to keep my thoughts on Night’s Blessing, the feelings I had for her giving me the strength I needed to stay awake. I cheered her on as she dueled the Protean. She parried all its tentacles one after another and then exploited an opening and plunged her sword directly into the head of the beast, killing it in an instant. Its body flickered and then disappeared, like it was never truly there.
After waking Twilight and Silverwing, and we quickly ganged up on Valentine who immediately surrendered, begging us to spare his life. I took the Heart of the Temple from his grasp and gave it to Silverwing who smashed it with his greatsword, breaking the magic of the temple. The Inevitable showed up soon afterwards. Disappointed the fighting was over, but pleased that we had captured Valentine. Now we just needed to decide what to do with Valentine…
Diary of Sunset Shimmer
I witnessed something truly incredible during the fight with the Protean, Cozy throwing herself in between her friend and this powerful creature of chaos. She was not a fighter, she had no reason to believe she could take something this powerful, yet she did it anyway to protect someone she cared about, a truly selfless act. Cozy had come a long way from the selfish schemer who had tried to take over Equestria twice. For the first time since I got to know her, she acted like the other Cozy, the one who challenged Midnight in the other world. She had the same radiance about her. She hadn’t noticed it herself, but she was glowing like a Crystal Pony, but only for a moment while she reached out for Night’s Blessing. The Cozy of the other world had been a Princess of the Crystal Empire. Did the Cozy of my world also have Crystal Pony descent?
Now Valentine was at her mercy, begging for his life at our feet, telling us that they would tell us everything he knew about his employer, Prince Swift Blade. We agreed to take him captive but unfortunately he didn’t know much. Swift Blade’s servants had approached him some time ago and asked for their assistance, some sort of attack was coming, and Valentine were offered terms in exchange for his services. We found the following letter in his possession:
I hear negotiations have gone well.
I am writing to agree with the final proposal.
Your cult will have dominion over the Forest of Dreams and the village of Daisy’s Hope and everything within 10 miles of your temple.
In exchange you will provide distraction, intelligence and assistance as we require.
S