Capter 1
The End
The cool air of the Equestrian sky whistled faintly in the afternoon sun's final rays as it was forced aside by a speeding royal carriage slicing through the heavens, its golden features reflecting the celestial body's warming light. The occupants of said carriage had only been within such a vehicle before in order to attend various ceremonies and events hosted in Equestria's capitol, since they lived a good distance from there in a growing town named Ponyville. The five passengers within the royal escort, excluding the rainbow maned one due to her decision to fly alongside the guards pulling the transportation device on her own, shifted nervously at the prospect of their newest assignment.
"What do you suppose she wants us to do over there Twi?" the orange cowpony by the name of Applejack hadn't managed to fully grasp the message contained within the royal letter sent to them a couple of days ago, not to mention that she had missed out on the meeting the Celestial Sisters had held on the subject due to some family affairs she had to attend to on her own.
"Do tell, dear, the details seem to be slipping my mind." Rarity chipped into the questioning conversation brewing, figuring she might as well double-check that she understood what it was their little excursion was all about.
"Well, Princess Celestia seemed pretty calm about all of this, so it's probably nothing too big for us to handle. The letter and the briefing she gave us explained that there have been multiple odd occurrences along Equestria's northern borders, mostly magical anomalies or the occasional flashes of light. The residents near the surrounding areas seemed to shrug them off after observing them for a couple of weeks, but they still sent a complaint to Canterlot saying that the unicorns there began to feel uneasier everyday that passed by." Twilight's intellectual mind was able to summon forth all of the information she had gathered the past week in a matter of seconds, a natural ability she had only managed to refined with her intense study sessions.
The new assignment hadn't really bothered her peace of mind at all, considering how harmless it seemed. She had begun to deduce possible reasons for the disturbances on her own free time, but she almost always found herself concluding that the culprits were no more than a couple of teenage colts messing around with unstable spells on the mountainside. However, as soon as the prospect of a task from her beloved teacher came up, she pounced on it at a second's notice as if it were a case of national security.
"Huh, well Ah wouldn't know much about your fancy magic and all, but if it's disturbing all of those ponies, Ah'll gladly help them out." the determination Applejack had managed to release into the atmosphere with her righteous declaration was tainted by an outrageous fit of giggles escaping Fluttershy as soon as Pinkie found a ticklish spot on her delicate butterscotch wings.
"Oh my, this might be serious after all, Applejack. We must uncover who and where these felons are before their little games get out of hand and start causing some real damage." Rarity's polished hoof was pressed against her forehead in a display of her usual dramatic nature as she envisioned the chaos that could be unleashed at the hooves of some dastardly deviants.
"Actually, we won't have to look for the perpetrators at all this time, Rarity." Twilight's statement broke the fashionista out of her pose, gaining all of the alabaster unicorn's apt attention.
"Oh, and why would that be?"
"Because the princesses already gave us a location to explore. They were able to track down the origin of the disturbances to an abandoned area in the mountainside, not too far from the civilised areas near the northern border. Princess Celestia figured that we could handle this for her while she and Princess Luna attend a diplomatic meeting at the Griffon Nation's embassy."
"That's great! We can kick flank and get back to Ponyville in no time at all!" Rainbow Dash's tomboyishly loud voice startled everyone save the pink mare in the carriage as she swooped down from the cloud cover to join the conversation through an open window, her large grin only growing wider at the prospect of mixing some heroine action into her usually routine life.
"We don't even know if there'll be any flanks to kick, Dash. For all we know, the ones responsible for these problems could have already stopped playing around with their unstable magic tricks and left." Twilight's tone only accented the fact that she doubted what had just escaped her mouth, but she didn't want to get Rainbow Dash too pumped, for everyone's own good.
"Whatever Twi, but I'm still not letting my guard down when we get to that place, they get you when you do." just as the lavender spellcaster was about to ask who "they" were, Rainbow Dash did a barrel roll and sped ahead of the carriage to get some ample space for her aerobatic practices.
"Ah wouldn't think too much about it, Sugarcube. Look, Ah think we're almost there." Applejack pointed her hoof out through the open window and towards the towering mountains that the carriage was approaching. The guards piloting the escort chose a clearing in the woods surrounding the mountainside as their landing spot and began preparing themselves for the routine process of setting down the airborne vehicle.
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After a fairly rough landing at the passengers' expense, the traveling group found themselves in a grassy plain surrounded by thick woods and the giant rocks that marked the border against the Griffon Nation. A slightly nauseous white unicorn stumbled out of the carriage's doorway, having not enjoyed the bumpy landing in the slightest, followed shortly after by the rest of the mares that had tagged along.
"Okay Twilight, we're here, now which way do we have to go?" Rainbow Dash crashed down spectacularly from the heavens above just a few feet from the unicorn librarian, impatience clear in her voice as she startled the lavender mare out of the internal checklist she was revising in her memory.
"Hmm, give me a second. Pinkie, hand me the map please." Twilight turned to face the cotton-candy colored mare, who in turn hopped closer to her a couple of times before responding in her cheery tone.
"Okie-dokie, here you go." Pinkie pulled out a pristine map from the depths of her mysterious bubbly mane, how she managed to have held it there the entire time nopony would ever come to understand. Twilight unfolded the large map scroll to find topographical markings depicting the surrounding areas, and her attention was drawn to the bold red circle drawn on a specific spot on the borderland mountainside.
"Aha! The best way to reach the site would be to travel through these light woodlands and use the stone paths carved into the cliffside." Twilight used her hooves to gesture towards the natural routes that could be seen in the relative distance as she spoke, barely visible in the sunset's final rays, "If we stick to the trail we should reach our destination in no time at all."
"Well, shall we proceed? I'm quite sure the weather up here isn't exactly as warm as it is down at Ponyville, and we don't want to get caught in the cold." Rarity's luscious coat rippled faintly as a faint shiver creeped down her spine, urging her to reach shelter before Mother Nature decides to pull a dirty trick out of her sleeve.
With their plans laid out, the six Elements Of Harmony and the two Guards Of Canterlot made their way towards the worn paths that would aid them in their ascension of the mountain's steep terrain. As the sun disappeared below the horizon and the moon took its rightful place in the night sky, the party of eight spotted rapidly flashing lights coming from within a cave further up the path. The sudden illumination beckoned their full attention and made them quicken their pace to a quick trot. The guards unsheathed their swords and held them in their jaws as they entered the cave's mouth, their wings slightly flared in preparation for a potential battle.
With no immediate threat in sight, the adventurers advanced deeper into the cavernous chamber, their senses being assaulted immediately by the overwhelmingly humid smell of moss permeating the atmosphere. The sounds given off by their hooves striking the cold stone underneath them were only intensified as they bounced back and forth in a cycle of echoes, a detail that was vaguely noticed by the lavender unicorn of the group as her attention was drawn to the center of the cavern they were within.
"Look! Someone carved symbols on the cave's floor!" Twilight approached the mysteriously enticing symbols with her usual scholarly eagerness, feeling the hunger for knowledge building in the forefront of her vast intellectual mind. She ran her hoof across the lightly glowing carvings in a daring prod for information on their unique characteristics, feeling that the ground the inscriptions were etched onto was significantly more frigid than the rest of the cave, and a nearly imperceptible tingle began to stir in her precious horn.
"What is it Twilight?" Rarity trotted over to her unicorn companion in hopes of getting in on whatever it was that her very much productive mind could have concluded, feeling the very same tingle on her forehead the second she approached the unusual patterns being prodded by the bookworm.
"These are sigil runes, a sort of all-purpose mana conductor used to cast power-consuming spells without running the risk of unintentionally using up all of your energy." Twilight began to walk around the circle's circumference as she switched into her scholarly mode, taking in each and every detail put into the apparently ancient formation, "This is without a doubt the reason behind the disturbances in the surrounding areas, but magic of this variety hasn't been used in ages. It's not only dangerous, and partially illegal, it'd take someone much more adept in this specific field of enchanted-inscription than a couple of teenage unicorns to be able to transmit the spell to the entire borderlands."
"If that's true, dear, then I guess we do have a culprit after all. However, I must ask, why is it that we didn't undergo the same sensations as the rest of the unicorns in the nearby towns on our way up here? We have to be no more than a couple of feet away to even feel its effects."
"To be honest, I'm not fully sure about that myself either. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say that whoever constructed these runes has to be here to activate their innate abilities." Twilight raised a hoof to her chin as she scrutinized the minuscule symbols forming the dimly glowing sigil circle, formulating a possible plan of action befitting the situation, "Hmm...I think I can decipher these carvings with some time, but I'll need something to write with to reorganize the arcane matrix without messing the entire thing up. Could you do me the favor of asking one of the royal escorts for some writing utensils, Rarity?"
"Why of course, I'll go get them for right away, dearie." Rarity turned tail and walked over to the idle guards, who were still wearing the stone-cold expressions that had been cemented onto their faces at their training camp. The fashionista had an extremely brief conversation with one of the guards after retrieving a notepad and a pen, one that was entirely unnecessary and proved to be fruitless, but social mingling was basically a second nature to her.
The white unicorn returned with the utensils in her sapphire telekinetic grip, the sound of her dainty hoofsteps drawing Twilight's attention. Of course, her short distraction had been enough for her to miss the pulse of brightness given off by the sigil rune the moment Rarity got within a couple of feet from it.
"Here you go Twilight. By the way, these guards really can't keep up small talk can they?" the fashion-inclined mare let the light objects in her magical grip be whisked away by the much stronger aurora of her studious friend, who immediately began preparing the heading for the barrage of notes she was already itching to take down.
"Nope, that's the way they're trained Rarity. Anyway, thanks for getting these for me."
"Don't mention it de-," Rarity craned her neck a bit, looking over Twilight's shoulder to take in the brewing spectacle behind her, "Uhm, are the runes supposed to be doing that?"
Twilight turned around to discover that the sigil formation had increased the intensity of the light it gave off, many of the unique symbols on the masterfully carved creation twinkling a little brighter before they died down and gave the spotlight to another one near itself. The celestial student gave off a gasp of scholarly excitement as she began to madly scribble away on the notepad she had been provided with, not even looking at the yellow pages as she described the runes' shift in behavior.
"Tw-Twilight." Deeper inside the cavern, Fluttershy found herself regretting having followed a small swarm of bats to the darker regions of the cave as her breath caught in her throat, terror slowly possesing her entire body.
"Twilight." The yellow pegasus couldn't find her voice's full strength as she stared in horror, wishing as hard as she could that what she was seeing was simply a figment of her cowardly mind, but it didn't help ease her growing dread in the slightest. Taking in a deep breath as she forced back the knot in her throat, Fluttershy prepared herself to unleash her warning call.
"TWILIGHT!" with her duty done, the butterscotch pegasus fled from her observational spot to hide behind the security of the royal escorts, shivering as fear poisoned her mind.
"What Fluttershy? What's wrong?" Twilight looked away from the violently flashing sigil runes to look at the cowering mare, who could only use her willpower to point a shaky hoof at one of the cave's dimly lit corners, and the sight awaiting the unicorn there instantly forced a shock of startled panic into her overactive brain.
It was as if the darkness in the room had gained sentient consciousness, slowly slithering across the cave floor and oozing down from the ceiling as they coalesced on a pile of rubble abandoned in the far end of the cold stone chamber. The sludge began attaching itself to the individual stones, pulling them together while serving as a type of organic glue. The mass of oozing shadows stood on a pair of stone pillars it had decided to use as its legs, a massive boulder serving as the central torso to the malicious construct. Tendrils formed by the seemingly organic sludge burst out from the creature's back, wrapping them around several stalactites that it then tore off of the ceiling, jamming them into its back to serve as a set of intimidating spines. Two more tendrils shot out from the torso's sides, which it used to sweep up several smaller boulders that it proceeded to mold into a pair of arms, hands and all. The newly crafted palms picked up what the group had believed to be nothing more than another boulder, only to reveal that the stone had already been crafted to resemble an equine head by someone else, presumably the one responsible for the sigil runes themselves. The enormous construct was at the very least two ponies high, a stature that only grew when a final tendril shot out of it neck, connecting the carved stallion head to the creature's rocky body. The empty eyes of the equine-like stone were set ablaze in a scarlet glow that was as soulless as the absence it served to fill, and it used its new ability of sight to concentrate its hatred-laced attention on its primary targets.
"Celestia have mercy! Everypony back away from that thing!" terror was prominent in the guard's voice as he shouted out his loose command, without a doubt panicking at the very prospect of being pitted against such a beast with nothing more than his sabre.
The towering construct of stone and organic ooze roared at the group of puny ponies, using its uncontrollable desire to destroy anything that dared move to fuel its immense strength as it dug its colossal hands into the ground, tearing out a chunk of bone-crushing stone that it proceeded to throw at the infidelic lifeforms that had awoken it from its slumber. The ponies scattered around the cave to avoid being flattened by the ton of granite hurled at them, leaving them basically powerless against the semi-organic creature.
Of course, who needs to have brute strength when they could just as easily win a battle with a dexterous mind.
Twilight cast a brief scanning spell on the massive living statue, trying her hardest to figure out what the monstrous construct was and what the quickest way to deal with it would be. Her scan revealed the origin of the tendrils granting the construct its movability to be within the chest cavity of the stone body, a key characteristic that finally allowed her mind to bring up a text she had read in the past about the beast she now found herself face-to-face with.
'An Organic Atronach, a beast with the capability to bring nearly anything it chooses to inhabit as its home to life when disturbed by external changes. Although sluggish and not the brightest of creatures, the Organic Atronach makes up for its faults with its extreme durability, strength, and regenerative properties. If one should be pitted against with such a creature, the only way to truly put an end to its nearly-endless lifespan would be to destroy the "heart" of the beast, the root of each and every limb spawned from the mass of organic material.'
Twilight, now fully confident that she understood the physiology of what she was faced with, began to formulate a battle strategy in a matter of seconds. Using both her natural leadership and the plentiful experience she had by hanging around her military brother's training courses, the lavender spellcaster sprung into action before the atronach could strike again.
The Bearer of Magic broke into a gallop towards the towering beast, flushing away her fear with the flash-flood of dedication she had steeled her mind with. Screams of protest rebounded off the walls of the cave as everypony thought that she had gone partially insane again and was just going to get herself killed with her little stunt, but Twilight never ceased her mad sprint. Undignification mixed in with the rage in the atronachs eyes as it was insulted by a pony believing it actually had a chance to take it on, and he rose his massive fist in preparation to crush the lavender unicorn charging at him.
Gasps of terror rang out in shock as the mighty appendage began its path of life-ending destruction, but it never even got the chance to touch so much as a single hair on Twilight's velvety coat. Just as the stone fist was about to crush her, the spellcaster unleashed a kinetic pulse of magic she had prepared during her dash, knocking away the boulder-like hand and staggering the surprised beast long enough for her to enact the second portion of her hasty plan.
Using the remaining energy she had charged in her horn, Twilight summoned a shining violet length of rope that she used to tie the stone being's pillar-legs together while she ran past them. Outraged at being surprised so easily by the puny unicorn, the atronach attempted to swat her with one of its enormous legs, oblivious to the fact that they were now bound together. With his balance lost, the mighty construct collapsed on the cold ground, cracking the floor itself as it sent a tremor throughout the cavern.
"Everypony! Give it everything you've got while it's still down!" Twilight's labored breaths nearly cut into her commanding rally call, but the message was as clear as crystal to everyone in the room. Taking advantage of the temporary disablement of the towering monster, the pony posse pounced on the atronach simultaneously, including a fearfully reluctant Fluttershy.
Each member that had embarked on the expedition improvised with whatever they could get their hooves on, adrenaline coursing throughout their bodies as their minds naturally transitioned back into their most basic of instincts to aid them in the hostile environment. The guards, realizing that their swords wouldn't stand a chance against the sturdy stone body of the atronach, took off into the air to retrieve some small boulders scattered around the cave. Rainbow Dash caught onto what they meant to do and enlisted herself and Fluttershy to give them a couple of helping hooves. With a barrage of heavy stones now positioned over the beast, the pegasi released their charges, letting their improvised weapons crash loudly against the squirming monster.
"Whooo! Yeah, we did it!" the chromatically maned pegasus began her glorious victory dance as she hovered above the now-unmoving pile of rubble she and the other pegasi had rained down on the beast, letting her prideful pegasus personality shine brightly.
Twilight let a wave of relief wash over herself for but a second, amused by the pride being radiated by her enthusiastic athletic friend up until a passage from the Organic Atronach's physiology popped into the forefront of her mind. Her pupils shrunk drastically a split second before a stone palm burst out of the rock pile, gripping Rainbow Dash's right cyan wing before the lavender unicorn could shout out her warning.
The quickster pegasus screamed both out of the horrific shock and the searing pain spreading throughout her sensitive appendage as the stone hand tightened its iron grip, but even that pain seemed dull when compared to what happened next. With a strength nopony in the cave could hope to match, the atronach's limb launched the chromatic mare across the cavernous chamber, smashing her already damaged wing against one of the cave's merciless walls.
"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy managed to snap herself out of the restraints her fear had tied her down with, maneuvering around the stone arm to aid her unconscious friend. Rarity and Pinkie Pie rushed to join the impromptu rescue squad, helping the butterscotch veterinarian drag the knocked out speedster out of the cave before she could sustain any further damage.
The entire pile of rubble began to shake as the now-free Organic Atronach began to reconstruct itself, sending out its ebony tendrils to reattach each and every limb that had managed to crumble off. A booming chortle escaped its unholy throat as it snapped its head back on with a sickening crunch that only accented the sadistic exuberance it felt at showing the infidelic ponies their place.
The hovering guards charged at the pile of summoned flesh and stone in hopes of catching it off guard just like Twilight had done, but the towering creature foresaw their barbaric tactic long before they even decided to employ it.
He may have been dumb, but that didn't mean he wasn't able to learn from his mistakes.
A cocky grin spread its rocky features as it spun on its heels, giving its back to the royal guards. Before they could get the chance to ponder why it had done that, the Organic Atronach fired off the stalactite spines lining its back at incredible speeds, landing a duo of direct hits on their armored chestplates. Their armor may have kept them alive, but the guards themselves were sent flying out of the cavern and tumbling down the cliffside on a very much painful trip to the mountain's base.
As it prepared to release a roar of triumph, the atronach's sadistic grin was literally torn off of its face as a boulder smashed against its jaw, leaving a gaping hole where its mouth once was. It directed its now rekindled rage at the duo of ponies left inside the cave with it, billowing smog from its nostrils at the sight of its final combatants.
Twilight's horn glew intensely as she lifted another ton's worth of stone from the cave floor, flashing even brighter for just a second as it forced the enormous stone forward with as much strength as she could siphon into her kinetic pulse. The Organic Atronach balled its right hand into a fist before countering the attack, smashing the boulder hurled at it into nothing more than a shower of pebbles that were sent flying around the cold cavern. This hasty tactic, however, cost it the entirety of its right arm, which crumbled to pieces from the backlash given off by the boulder Twilight had fired at it.
A portion of its durable torso was torn off its place alongside the arm, exposing a rhythmically pulsing splotch of red among the organic ooze stored within the chest cavity. Applejack, trusting her instincts telling her that the now-exposed heart needed to be destroyed to takedown the creature, sped forward with the aid of her naturally athletic body in a final charge against the towering atronach.
Twilight, deciding that she couldn't stop Applejack pulling off her risky tactic at that point, decided to at the very least help ease the situation for her. The lavender spellcaster took notice in the Organic Atronach's eyes following the earth pony instead of keeping a guardful watch over her, immediately prepping a smaller boulder to knock out one of the beast's senses. Drawing more power from her quickly-depleting mana reserves, Twilight fired the makeshift projectile at the distracted monstrosity with enough force to knock off Applejack's signature stetson with the air currents following the stone missile.
The Organic Atronach felt that something was about to go wrong for him, but it was a reflex that came far too late to save him from the ton of stone that smashed against his cocky expression, reducing him to a headless monstrosity seething with unholy hatred towards the ponies that had disturbed its slumber.
A croaked roar creeped out of the atronach's throat as he descended into utter madness, giving up any sense of coordination it once had as it began to flail its remaining limbs in a fit of blinded frustration. Cracks began to spread on the floor below its might legs as he stomped the chilled ground recklessly, and the faults only grew larger and larger throughout its rampage.
Applejack's stubbornness drowned out her logical fears of getting anywhere near the decapitated construct, and her fate was sealed once she rushed past the point of no return. Her legs ached with the force with which she launched herself at the terrifying creature, her foreleg ready to crush its rapidly pulsing heart with her innate earth pony strength to finally end the battle, but it was an act of glory she never managed to achieve.
Her pupils dilated a split-second before a blind punch struck her out of the air, smashing her orange form into the uncaring ground. She felt the pure agony radiating from the snapped ribs in her body, yet not a sound could escape her breathless body as she writhed in pain on the ground.
The Organic Atronach continued its fit of rage as it barreled blindly towards one of the caves jagged walls, oblivious to the fact that it had just crushed one of its last opponents as it began to hammer its fist against the stone. Cracks began to spiderweb from the area it was impacting, slowly creeping their way up the wall and onto the ceiling as the cavern began to rumble in response to the damage it had sustained.
"You girls need to get out of there, now!" Pinkie Pie's shouts were nearly drowned out by the cave's booming quakes, yet they were still registered by the ponies they were meant to be heard by, or at least one of them.
"Wait! I need to go back for Applejack!" Twilight didn't wait for a response as she dashed towards the orange earth pony, who was bearing through searing pains to rise to her hooves. Sweat profusely dripped down her horned forehead as she maneuvered past the granite raining down from the collapsing cavern's ceiling, and adrenaline pulsed through her veins as she pushed her body to its limits. She could see Applejack just a short distance deeper into the cave, but a stone fist struck directly in front of her, hindering her rescue mission.
Her trembling amethyst eyes looked followed the limbs length until they were met by two glaring red orbs supported by tendrils springing up from the Organic Atronach's neck that served as a pair of replacement eyes. The creature's clenched fist rose once more to finally put an end to her infidelic life, but she disappeared in a flash of violet light that marked the completion of a successful teleportation spell.
The crumbling atronach heard the sound of hooves clacking against stone behind it, and he spun around just in time to receive the full force of a concentrated mana beam that split it down it's center in a second, disintegrating its heart as the magic burned anything near it out of existence. Its sturdy body collapsed on the ground loudly without the tendrils keeping it together, smoldering lifelessly as Twilight continued her rescue, not casting a single glance back.
Her strength was all but gone; the adrenaline rush was not enough to support her overexerted body, and the magical backlash of releasing all of her remaining mana in such a raw spell was beginning to deteriorate her condition, forcing her breaths to become labored and her vision blurred. However, Twilight bore through the pain, she bore through the fear, she bore through it all for her doomed friend.
She could see Applejack closer than ever now, she had barely managed to rise to her hooves after being smashed against the ground, but the sight of hope turned to one of terror once she realize that pebbles had begun to rain down on the orange mare. The ceiling above Applejack's had began to crack apart, slowly beginning to collapse along with the rest of the cave.
Twilight pushed her burning muscles again, but she had already reached her body's maximum limitation. She attempted to summon her magic, yet her exhausted mana reserves could do nothing to delay the inevitable. The ceiling would collapse, and a pony would die on that night, so were the ways of fate's game, yet Twilight continued her relentless efforts to change the outcome.
'I won't let her die here! I've just gotta run faster FASTER FASTER!'
Time seemed to slow down in Twilight's eyes, the world around her almost frozen in place. She took into account the brightly glowing runes that continued to fill the cavern with a dim pulsing glow, the screams from the onlooking ponies that had already managed to escaped the damned chamber, and she took notice of the chunk of ceiling that began to fall towards Applejack. And then, it all sped back up.
Twilight crashed into Applejack's side, knocking her a good distance away from where she was trying to maintain her balance.
She had done the selfless, she had faced fortune and spat in in its face, she had made the ultimate sacrifice.
The weight of her actions collapsed on her spent body, in the form of multiple tons of granite. She felt every individual bone in her body snap agonizingly, every vital organ pop, just before her trained mind gave off its final thought, its final message to the body that it inhabited, before it too was crushed.
'Goodbye...my friends.'