"Whaat!" yelled Black Hole as SteelHide was reporting the bad news. "Okay, repeat that again! Slowly...!"
"Lord Black Hole, I keep trying to tell you... Sclar has been..." SteelHide swallowed hard before finishing his sentence. "...defeated by Trailblazer and his friends. I went to do an autopsy and found out that his neck was cut, and he bled out."
"...Clever little nuisance, this Trailblazer..." Black Hole said aside. "Well, did you at least give him decent instructions?"
"What?"
"...SteelHide..." Black Hole was getting furious. "Does that 'What?' mean what I think it means?"
"I... I forgot about it."
"Stupid stupid stupid!! How could you be that stupid?!"
"Look, Lord Black Hole, I..."
"Shut up, shut UP, SHUT UP!" Black Hole yelled in a rage. "What the hell is you problem?!"
"Look, I'm sorry…"
"Apologies won't cut it! You'd better make sure that you do not fail me again! Heads are going to roll if this happens again!"
"…Understood…"
"And SteelHide, consider it your last chance."
SteelHide said nothing. He left the room silently and pondered about what he'd be called to do next.
"Can you believe it, Black Mace?" Black Hole began to talk to him at the enterance. "SteelHide is given orders and he doesn't even use Sclar to his advantage. And he just leaves him to try to kill Trailblazer's friends on his own, when I gave him full consent that he can control him! That's asanine!"
"I understand that you're angry, but there's something that I think should be brought to your attention..." said Black Mace.
"Oh, this is going to be BEAUTIFUL, I JUST know it!"
Black Mace walked up to him and mumbled into his ear what he had to say. Black Hole's eyes widened, and Black Mace stepped away.
"What?! You're joking!"
"I can't say I am, my lord..."
"Ugh... That traitor!!"
Back in AppleJack's holding room, White Comet flew in and had to talk to her.
"Hey, Comet. You... Don't look yourself..." she wondered.
"AppleJack, you have to escape. We have to get out of here," White Comet said. This was apparently urgent.
"What? What's this all about?"
"I have to get you out of here. When I'm not here in your room, I stay in Black Hole's throne room. And he talked about what the treasure is."
"Well, what in the name of cinnamon swirls is it?"
"You don't want to know..."
"Ya should tell me. Ah'm thinkin' Ah have to know this!"
"Seriously, it's best that you don't know what it is..."
"Well, fine." AppleJack scoffed.
"The reason why you're here is because you'll be used with, the treasure, which'll be used to rule the world and to get rid of Trailblazer."
"Well, Ah already knew that..."
"But right now, I need to get you out of here."
White Comet ran towards the balcony doors, but a flock of pegasi blocked it from outside.
"Oh, no..." he said to himself. He ran towards the room's enterance, but that got blocked too. AppleJack and White Comet were trapped in the room, and some other guards flooded it.
"Don't you dare think about it," they heard a familiar voice say. Black Hole walked into the room, angrier than ever. "White Comet, you miserable traitor."
"Wh-what are you talking about?" he told Black Hole. "I'm on your side!"
"Don't act like you can hide it. I know you're lying!"
"At your command, Lord Black Hole," one of the guards said, readying his spear.
"Don't touch him. That'll be my personal privilege," Black Hole said through clenched teeth.
"Stop!" AppleJack got between White Comet and Black Hole. "How could you take an innocent life?! He's done much better than any of y'all have, and he's probably better than y'all in spirit!"
Black Hole used his magic to lift her and pin her against a wall. His guards kept her in place.
"There's no point in trying to change my mind. This backstabber is going to die." Black Hole prepared his magic again. "Besides, I could use some torturing practice to use against Trailblazer..."
Using his horn, he whipped out his magic rope-like beam, lifted White Comet in the air, and wrapped it around his neck. He was suffocating, but nopony was going to help, or think of helping him; they would be sentenced to death too. He loosened the grip around his neck and threw him against the wall, then started to whack him on it continuously. Back and forth and back and forth he went, unable to defend himself.
Then, Black Hole pulled out a sword. Keeping White Comet held by his neck, he also used his magic to lift the sword and prepared it. Black Hole also forced his wings to stay at his sides with his magic as well. Then, the sword stabbed right through White Comet's body, piercing his wing. He screamed in pain, but couldn't move to grab it and pull it out. Then, Black Hole shoved the sword deeper through him, and the end of the blade pierced his other wing too, as well as it stabbing right through his body. All AppleJack could do was watch in horror, wanting to help, but couldn't. The writhing continued, and gradually became weaker. White Comet hung his head, Black Hole retrieved his sword, and White Comet fell down, with a puddle of blood slowly enlarging around him. He was dead.
"Let this be a lesson to all those here who try to oppose me!" Black Hole bellowed at his men.
AppleJack was released. She walked over to White Comet's dead body and looked at it. A few tears fell onto his side. "Ah'm gonna miss ya, White Comet..."
"There's no point in worrying about a worthless pony like himself, AppleJack," Black Hole scoffed at her.
"Worthless! He means more than you'll EVER mean! YER the one who's worthless!!" She yelled at him through tears.
"Oh, please! Like you could possibly defend him now..." Black Hole looked at his followers. "Get a cage ready! We're going to put this stubborn mare in a place where I can keep my eye on her. After all, we've got something VERY special planned for her." He used his horn to obtain some actual rope and tied her up by her legs and pinned them to her body. He then lifted her and took her to his throne room, waiting for the cage to be ready.
"Good morning, everypony!" StarBright sang as the six walked into the kitchen. "I didn't know what you all wanted, so I just got some cereal ready."
"Oh... How thoughtful!" Fluttershy said as she saw the cereal bowls.
"As for you, Trailblazer, I made you those double-stacked fried egg sandwiches you like along with some hashbrowns!"
"Aw, thanks! You must have some sort of sixth sense to predict that I was going to be this hungry."
"Actually, like I said before, I know you have a big appetite." She turned to look at the others that were eating their cereal. "One time, he was challenged to eat an entire stuffed crust pizza and won! The loser had to be the winner's chef for a week!"
"Hey, it was stuffed crust! That stuff is delicious! How COULD I lose??"
"Yeah, and now we have an issue with him sharing it now."
"Hey, you and Blaine don't eat nearly as much as I do, so where's the issue?"
StarBright giggled. "Oh, shut up, silly!"
They all finished their breakfast, and the five mares packed their sleeping bags from the basement. Trailblazer did the same, except for the sleeping bag, which wasn't set up to begin with.
"So, you're all leaving, aren't you..." StarBright said to them.
"We are, StarBright," Trailblazer said to her. "Don't worry about us, or me."
"Promise me that you'll still come back okay..."
"StarBright, I've survived a lockdown, espionage, and a fight with a dragon. I promise you that I'll return just fine."
She thought for a moment. "Yeah, you have... Okay, Trailblazer, I believe you. Good luck out there."
There was some knocking on the door. "Hello? Anypony home?"
"Is that Mayor Dunnam?" Twilight Sparkle thought. She opened the door and saw the Mayor, holding a mirror of some sort.
"Is Trailblazer there?" he asked.
"Yeah, he's here. We were just getting ready to leave."
"Phew! Good thing I caught you just in time." Mayor Dunnam walked up to Trailblazer, carrying the mirror. "I think you'll need to put this into use sometime..." He handed the mirror to Trailblazer.
"Wait, what am I supposed to do with this?" he asked.
"Well, we were cleaning out the storeroom in the castle, when we found this. Attached to it was a scroll, and it read, 'When all hope is lost, the mirror will regain that hope and grant power to those that oppose the Wicked.' and the 'W' in 'wicked' is capitalized. I don't know what THAT means, but I have a feeling that it's connected to that treasure."
Trailblazer looked down at it, only seeing his reflection from it.
"Well, I guess that's not my business. Take care, you six!" he said as he walked away.
"You heard the man, let's keep going," said Pinkie Pie.
They left Trailblazer's place and continued back north towards the Crawnite Mountains.
"Take a look at this!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she looked at her map. "We're not too far away from the Crawnite Mountains!"
They found themselves on some plains between the mountain range and Tethleon. On the map, it was roughly between the top left corner and the center of the map. They were still several miles away, but they were not too far away from their destination.
"If we keep making this progress, we could end up at those mountains in two days," Twilight Sparkle thought aloud. "What do you think we'll use to get in those mountains?"
"Twilight, you already have those rock-busting powers!" Pinkie Pie hopped. "Use use your magic and drill away!"
"...I suppose that could work."
"Well, it's late, everypony..." Fluttershy said. "We should, um, get our rest for the night."
"Okie-dokie-lokie!" finished Pinkie Pie.
All of their tents were set up and had their sleeping bags ready. All of them said their good nights and went to bed.
That night Trailblazer started to dream. Although it wasn't really some fantasy, it was yet more flashbacks about his young bully self. And there was Black Hole, also a foal, giving some of the other fillies grief for no good reason. He would give him more trouble than he ever could at that age. Trailblazer tried repressing the memory, buy it still played in his head.
Then came the time that Black Hole became a runaway. Trailblazer was a pre-teen, but he had a concience now, knowing what was right and wrong. He saw Black Hole running away from Tethleon, and he felt guiltier than before.
"Wait! Black Hole! I'm sorry!" he heard himself yell. But he didn't listen. He hung his head and walked back to his home with his tail between his legs.
The next few days, he decided to become a Rising Warrior, which was established a month ago at that time. He became good in spirit, and the ponies that he bullied as a foal forgave him when he started being good and good to them, even doing things for them. Trailblazer developed a good work ethic, generosity, and a sense of right and wrong, and the will to keep doing the right thing. It even came to the point of rejecting Silver Soul's plan of Equestrian rule, which restored Tethleon back to it's original state.
All this thinking about his childhood and growing up made him think some more. All the more thinking of who's responsible for what.
And then it hit him.
Trailblazer woke up, shocked, and guiltier than ever. "What have I done...?" he talked to himself quietly.
The others were still asleep, but Twilight Sparkle heard some rustling canvas. She thought nothing of it, thinking it was just one of the other ponies rolling over. She she closed her eyes and tried getting back to sleep. Then she heard a zipper getting unzipped, and some footsteps on the grass, walking away. She got up and wondered what was going on, but she didn't think anything of it. She laid back down and tried dozing off. But after around 10 minutes, she didn't hear any footsteps return back to the tent. This time, she knew something was up. Twilight got out of her sleeping bag and walked outside for a couple of minutes. On a small nearby hill, she saw Trailblazer drinking a couple cans of his white pop, with a guilty expression on his face. Twilight even noticed that his ears were drooped, something that none of them have ever seen him do. Obviously, something was amiss.
"Trailblazer...? Is there something wrong?" she asked as she approached him.
"What's more important, Twilight?" he asked her back. "Being good all of your life, or learning from your mistakes?"
"Well, I guess it's good to be good as much as you can, but they're still something to be said about a pony who learned from their mistakes, you know, to differ right from wrong. Wait, where are you coming from?"
"It seems that being good from the day you were born in the better way to go... Black Hole wants to unlock that treasure and use it against me, and he kidnapped AppleJack too. What's worse is that I drove him away and made him think of vengeance..."
"I think he could've come back and gave you a second chance. He made that desicion to get revenge, not you deciding for him."
"That's not the problem. It's BECAUSE he decided to get revenge is what's the matter."
"Well, what is it?"
"Think about it. We both caused a lot of trouble at early ages, but I gave him a lot of grief. And because of that, he ran away and thought about getting revenge."
"Which means...?"
"Don't you get it? I caused a lot of trouble for him, and caused him to run away and plot his revenge, so really, I'M the one at fault. I'M the villain."
"What?? No, that can't be right!"
"It makes perfect sense. I caused all this. I'm the root of this butterfly effect. And now, this world and I are going to hell, all because... Of ME..."
"Trailblazer, please..."
"Just, go away. Leave me."
"Now just think here! Aren't you learning from your mistakes this way? Except on a much bigger scale?"
"Again, it's because I was bad to begin with that caused all this."
"Now, stop it! You know what's right and wrong! It's BECAUSE you learned from your mistakes that lets you know the difference!"
"It's of no use... I can't go on knowing that I'm the one at fault."
"So you're giving up now?"
"What choice do I have? I can't go on like this."
"So, you're going to let everything go to waste, let Black Hole ruin you, and let everypony down." Twilight thought for a moment. "Oh! And won't you be letting AppleJack down too? How do you think she'll react if she finds out that 'her little sugarcube' is giving up on her, huh?"
"She wouldn't want to be with anypony like me anyway..."
"C'mon, Trailblazer! You're not in the right mindset!" She tried pushing him back to the campsite, but he resisted. "You need your rest, now get over here!" he continued to fight her help.
"Why are you helping me out, the bad pony? I need to isolate myself before I do anything else horrific!"
"I have a feeling that this is still about AppleJack. And if so, I know you miss her." She stopped and thought for another minute. "Is it because she's not around that you think everything's lost?"
"Stay away. Leave me be!" Trailblazer got up and tried running away, but he forgot all about his hind leg. He tripped under the pain it caused when flexed and tripped. He quickly got back up and hobbled away on his good legs.
"Trailblazer! Get back here!" Twilight yelled as she chased after him.
Trailblazer ignored her and ran into some nearby woods, and disappeared into the brush. Twilight got into them and tried flushing him out, but he was gone. She sifted around through the shrubs and trunks, but she couldn't find him. She got deeper into the woods to see if he kept going on, but she couldn't find him at all. She lost him.
"Oh no..." Twilight immediately grew worried. She sprinted back the way she came and reached the campsite they were all at and began to wake them all up. "C'mon, c'mon, get up! I need your help!"
Rainbow Dash grumbled, "Huh,,,? What's going on..."
"Get up! This is serious!"
Rarity got out of her tent. "Good heavens, Twilight, what's gotten into you?" she asked.
"It's Trailblazer! He ran away!"
"What??"
"He ran into the woods nearby, and I can't find him!" Twilight Sparkle was growing more agitated, with each minute. "Help me look for him!"
"He's in the woods at THIS hour?" Pinkie Pie said to herself. "Oh! He must want a hardcore game of hide-n'-seek!"
The five ran towards the woods and entered it, fanning out and searched every shrub and through all foilage they ran into in hopes of finding him. As they did, they shouted through the air, trying to get him to come out.
"Trailblazerrrr!" Twilight called.
"Trailblazer!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she tried getting an aerial view.
"C'mon, now, we only want to help!" Twilight called again.
"Trailblazer, please come out...!" Fluttershy let out her worried yell.
"Oh, now he's smart!" Pinkie Pie thought out loud. "Nopony can see colors that well without light, so, he must blend in perfectly here! Clever!"
"Pinkie!" Twilight scolded her. "This isn't a game! He's really somewhere out here! For all we know, he could be seriously hurt right now!"
"Wh... What??"
"Yeah, he could be anywhere in these woods! And he's not feeling well either!"
"So, is he sick to his stomach? Has the flu?"
"He's not thinking straight! He might've even commited suicide right now!"
"Oh, NO!" Pinkie exclaimed, shocked. "He's feeling bad and we have to go look for him before it's too late!" She ran ahead and began to call out some more. "Traaaailblaaaazer!"
"Please come out! PLEASE!" Twilight yelled.
All five of them continued to call out to him for about a half-hour while fanning the area, but without any success. It only grew darker around them.
"I think we'll have to continue this search tommorow..." said Rarity. "We can't find him like this..."
"Okay, fine..." said Twilight Sparkle. "I still hope he comes to his senses..."
"Well, what made him run like that?"
"He talked about how he was the one responsible for getting Black Hole to retaliate, and I'm also sure that he's feeling really upset because AppleJack is gone..."
"He's not feeling well, for sure. Oh, that poor thing..."
"C'mon, Twilight," Rainbow Dash got close to comfort her. "We'll have a better chance at finding him during the day."
"Maybe..."
All five of them got back to their tents and slept. It wasn't easy, to think that their friend took off with an unstable mentality.
Unknown to them, Trailblazer was deep within the wood, deeper than in the area the other five ended up reaching. He heard their calls for him to return, but he deliberately refused to come back to them. In his mind, he was the villain, the one responsible for getting AppleJack taken away, and the one responsible for turning the world into Black Hole's sandbox soon. He laid down on the ground, hind legs spread out, and front legs covering his eyes.
"I'm so sorry, AppleJack..." he said as tears began to stream from his eyes. "This is all my fault..." After he said that, he wept bitterly for a long time until finally falling asleep, upset as ever.