No turning back. Four of the six looked back when they heard flames roar to life behind them. Ace and Stella, however, were already mentally preparing for what was about to come. "Get ready! It's about to begin!" Ace yelled back before drawing his sword. Any second now, there should be a hole appearing at the center of the arena.
Two figures appeared to be crawling towards the group; one a mint green and one a pale blue. They had a faint blue glow around them. They looked like normal ponies, one being a pegasus and one being an earth pony. The green pegasus even had what appeared to be a burnt wing.
A black pegasus was on the ground behind the two others. It was also glowing faintly, and also appeared to be severely injured if not dead. It had blood and gashes from the neck down. Some of the gashes had what appeared to be metal sticking out of them.
"Wait a second... Ace, aren't those...?" Before Stella could finish her sentence, the figures had gotten close enough to recognize.
"Ace? Stella?" one of them called.
Ace had put away his sword and ran up to them. "Pepper, Crescent, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be in Ponyville!"
"Did you make it?" Pepper asked. "To the Epochust?"
Ace hesitated a moment. "What's the last thing you remember?" he asked.
"I read another funny message, and then I was in the middle of the first trial," Crescent said. "But the hole was gone and Pep and Nighthawk were there too." She stopped and had a sad expression.
"Nighthawk died before you got here, though," Pepper continued. "The last thing I remember was going into the pillar so you could finish what we started."
"You mean that's me out there?" Nighthawk asked. "How is that possible?" Both Pepper and Crescent looked between the two Nighthawks, the living one and the dead one.
"I'm not sure it's safe to tell you yet," Ace said. He stopped time and brought Pepper and Crescent into it. "Yes, we did make it to the Epochust. I thought you all died, though, so we went back to the perihelion. After about a week of not being able to tell you, Luna came to us and brought up a method to let you know. It backfired when we tried it, though, and you ended up dying again.
"Finally, we went back and decided to tell you directly. Of course, we both knew that we would die from it, but I couldn't just lie to you for the rest of my life. It turned out that you would die, too. Luna stepped in and gave herself up so that we could all continue living. That's why we came back. To bring Luna back."
Peppermint walked up and hugged Ace. Something trickling down the back of his neck caught his attention, and he pushed her away. He noticed the rings of blood around her hoof where her bracelets would normally be. Shards of it appeared to be implanted into the wound.
"What happened to you?" Stella asked, coming in after seeing the blood going down Ace's neck.
"Same thing that happened to Nighthawk," Pepper replied. "Any metal is crushed into the skin of whoever's wearing it."
"Is this really Nighthawk?" Crescent asked. She had been so unnaturally quiet, Ace had forgotten he pulled her out of time.
"Yeah, that's really Nighthawk. But he doesn't remember anything that you do after the perihelion," Ace said. "Now go back to where you were so I can resume time safely." They all did as instructed, and time returned to normal.
"When will it be safe to tell me?" Nighthawk asked angrily.
"We have three trials ahead of us," Ace said calmly. "Once we've finished all three and rescued Luna, then it's safe to tell you."
"Don't worry about it, Night," Crescent said. "It'll all be over soon enough."
Nighthawk was about to respond when the ground started to shake violently. "Sounds like the first one's starting!" Ace yelled. The shaking lasted for a minute, and then ended just as suddenly. But something was different. There was no hole in the center. Instead, the dead body of Nighthawk lay there. Ace cautiously went closer.
Stella, Blaze, and the living Nighthawk came closer as well, but they kept a safe distance. Lila and Chrys stayed a little farther back. Ace stepped closer and closer until the corpse was within reach.
Before Ace could even react, the body sprang up and kicked Ace hard in the jaw. Ace was sent flying, and he hit the ground unconscious a few yards away. That's when all hell broke loose.
Crescent pounced on Lila. She struggled to break free, but it was no use. Crescent easily pinned Lila on the ground and let loose a barrage of attacks. She would have continued if Chrys hadn't intervened, sending Crescent flying with a well-aimed kick to the side.
Pepper flew a loop and dove straight towards Stella. The strike winded her, and she found herself on the ground gasping for air. Pepper flew high into the air, ready to drive Stella right into the ground. Stella attempted to put up a barrier, but she couldn't. Pepper was mere feet above Stella when she bounced off an orange field. Seeing Blaze had it handled, Stella went over to check on Lila.
Nighthawk pulled out his remaining sword, ready to kill. He started towards Ace, but was stopped by Nighthawk. He sent a strike, but it was blocked by Nighthawk's sword. Strike after strike was deflected on both sides as the two Nighthawks were locked in battle.
Chrys stepped towards Crescent, who was motionless. Another step, and Crescent was engulfed by a bizarre effect. Momentarily, she was nothing but tiny squares that were various shades of gray. She was like that for less than a second, and then she was standing upright. She had a smug look on her face, taunting Chrys.
The force of hitting the barrier face first knocked Pepper away. She regained control and flew full speed towards Blaze, who retaliated by shooting orange bolts of magic at her. She dodged most of them effortlessly. One appeared to hit her, but it passed right through her wing. Her wing seemed to be split where the bolt hit, but it was reformed by the same gray squares. Pepper hit Blaze full force, landing him right beside Lila and Stella.
Nighthawk managed to knock the sword away from his clone. The clone easily dodged all of Nighthawk's attacks. Finally, the clone decided to go on the offensive. After a nimble dodge, he flew straight at Nighthawk. He put the tip of his sword directly at the clone just in time, causing the clone to take a self-inflicted stab to the face. As he pulled his sword out, the clone fell to the ground.
Chrys tried multiple times to charge Crescent, but she would always disappear and reappear behind him. Finally, he decided to try another approach. He charged her, but when she warped behind him, he stopped and kicked hard. A direct hit to the face which sent Crescent back quite far. She got up, only to be struck dead by Nighthawk.
Stella was trying hard to fight off Pepper, making sure she wasn't able to attack Lila or Blaze. Every spell she used seemed to have no effect. Bolts passed right through, immobilization spells did nothing. Pepper slowly came closer, even walking right through Stella's last resort barrier like it was nothing. Stella, close to magical exhaustion, put up no resistance when Pepper knocked her aside. She almost reached her target when a sword stuck through her neck.
Ace released the sword as he flew over, allowing it to stay lodged in Pepper's neck as she joined her corrupt comrades in death. All three exploded into tiny gray squares, which all converged at the center before disappearing entirely. "Everyone alright?" Ace called to his teammates.
"I'm fine," Nighthawk said, putting away his swords.
"Doin' swell!" Chrys called back. "But Blaze seems to be out cold. Kinda ironic, huh?"
"What about you, Lila? You alright?" Ace asked.
"Yeah. Just regretting following you is all," Lila replied.
"Don't worry, it gets easier from here on," Stella said. "Chrys, can you carry Blaze for a while? We need to move on as soon as possible."
"Sure thing," Chrys said as he followed instructions.
"Shouldn't we wait for him to wake up?" Nighthawk asked. "That way, we're more likely to pass the next trial."
"No, the next one's flight based," Ace replied. "It's just you and me, Nighthawk. Blaze has the whole trial to recover if necessary. It's the third one we'll really need him."
The group made their way to a hollowed out pillar. The pillar had an inscription on the inside. Lila stepped up for a closer look. "Ego ipse ut tributum ad Epochust...?" she said.
"Lila, no!" But it was too late. The center of the pillar crashed down, killing Lila on the spot. Stopping time was evidently useless, as the pillar still collapsed. Ace closed his eyes, turned around, and laid against the pillar. "This is why I didn't want you to come..." he finished weakly.
"Ace, you knew this would happen," Stella said, sitting next to Ace.
"Yeah, but I figured once we got Luna back, we would be able to turn time back to before this and keep everyone alive."
"We still can, though."
"I'm not so sure, now." Ace opened his eyes and looked at the pillar. "The pillar came down even though I'd stopped time. I don't think we can bring Lila back."
Stella was speechless. She thought Ace was simply overreacting. She didn't realize the full severity of the situation. "Then that means..."
"Two more of us have to die still," Ace finished. "And there's no going back."
"What just happened?" Nighthawk asked once time returned to normal. Stella and Ace hadn't bothered to move from their place before the pillar.
"Lila's gone," Ace said, standing up.
"That's terrible," Chrys said. "She seemed so nice."
"There's no time to dwell on it," Ace added. "We need to finish the other trials."
"Do these other trials end in one of us dying?" Nighthawk asked.
"Unfortunately, that is the case. I'm sure there are ways around it, but we can figure them out at the next one." Nighthawk said nothing more as Ace led the way through the arch to the next trial.