//------------------------------// // Unnoticed Threats // Story: Price // by Havoc //------------------------------// A shadow moved across the surface of the Door. A black skull that devoured the warning carved across it. Lucien stood a few feet away and had his hands held out, as if holding something back. His breathing was laboured and he sunk to his knees as the skull grew larger and larger until it towered over him. "Did you foresee this, Old Man?" Lucien grit his teeth and a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. Hundreds of miles away. Breakfast was on the go and the sun's morning rays did nothing to ease the cold winds on the plains. Applejack's eyes were trained on an egg bubbling in the hot pan in front of her on the fire. The others watched intently, eating their own meals already. Rarity turned in her sleep. Early morning frost covered most of the campsite and she unconsciously moved about in her bed roll to get warmer. Applejack carefully picked up the pan in her teeth and flipped the egg. With all eyes watching, it soared through the air in a lazy circle before landing back on the pan where the uncooked side hissed and sizzled. Rarity woke to the smells of breakfast. She sleepily got out of her bed roll and then recoiled at the cold air. She rummaged through her saddle bags for her scarf and hat. "Applejack dear, since you are already cooking breakfast-" "Here you are, Rarity!" The white unicorn was presented with a plate with a fine example of expert cooking on it, with toast. Her mouth watered at the sight and she looked up questioningly at Applejack. "Applejack! Why, this is perfect? How did you?" "Well, I know how much of a prissy eater you are so I took extra special care in cooking it just the way you liked it. I had the time and all." The others sat around the fire, their bags packed. Rarity didn't notice. "Well, that is just the sweetest thing, Applejack." "You're welcome! Now eat, we're waiting on you." Rarity grinned at the comment and stuck out her tongue mockingly before digging in. A few minutes later they were trotting over the frost covered ground. Their hooves crushing the frozen grass. They picked up the pace as a biting gust of wind found its way into every exposed bit of skin. Steam flowed out from their muzzles as they fought to stay warm. Pinkie took out a handkerchief and blew her nose only to have the cloth freeze to her face. The sun offered little warmth as it rose. Twilight ran close to Rainbow Dash and the others eventually huddled in around them as well. "H-hey, T-Twilight. C-can you c-c-cast a sp-spell or someth-thing?" Twilight blinked as her eyes watered up from the winds that were gnawing into them and looked at Rainbow Dash who's wings shivered. "I c-c-can t-try." They all stopped and waited on Twilight who screwed her eyes up in concentration. She figured she would have to try extra hard to overcome the anti-magical field Lucien was producing. A wave of hot air flowed over them and Applejack clutched her head as the temperature shock overloaded her system. Twilight eased off on the spell and looked around in confusion. They all got up from where the blast of hot air had knocked them over. They all shivered now because their skin crawled. "I don't understand. That should have been way harder! It's like-" She teleported a few feet away. "-the anti-magical field-" She did it again with no sigh of strain on her face. "-is down? But that means!" She looked to the north. Nothing had changed. She quickly looked to the ground, but doubt still lingered in her mind. Rarity tried her own magic and found that it too wasn't affected anymore. "But, it was strong enough to handicap us, well, you, all the way back at the cliff? I don't understand." Twilight took a deep breath and readied herself to try and believe the words she would have to say. "Maybe Lucien has beaten it for now and is giving us a break? Come on, we're wasting time just standing here and hey, we're not cold anymore!" Her false enthusiasm fell dead on even her own ears as they all warily continued. They walked in silence for hours until Fluttershy couldn't take it anymore. She hated, well, really really really disliked, seeing her friends scared. She was scared, but that wasn't a change from the ordinary and she'd learned to handle her fears inwardly if not outwardly. "Girls, stop." They all stopped on the spot and stared at her in disbelief. "Look, I know that we're all really worried right now but we shouldn't be. Because isn't that what the Darkness wants? It's thrown storms and winds and tricks at us all this time and we've never seen them coming until it's too late. But look at it this way. Isn't this just another trick? Sure, we could all be walking towards our doom at the top of some awful mountain but that's just what it wants us to think. So, I for one...I am not worried." Her voice trembled at the end and she waited for the immediate rebuttal. The counter arguments of which she had several of her own. "I agree." Fluttershy looked over at Twilight who wore a small grin that grew as she spoke. "This thing has been trying to stop us all this time and now is using our fears of failure against us. I don't know how but maybe it's boosting our magic to try and make us think Lucien failed. Or any number of possible explanations. The thing that she is trying to remind us of is that we shouldn't doubt our mission. Thank you, Fluttershy." Rarity nodded and thanked her and the rest followed suit until their spirits were lifted. They now trotted with enthusiasm and gusto across the plains, warmed in both body and mind. A smile spread across the dark clouds in the distance. They stopped for lunch in a small dip in the landscape that was protected from the winds. Rarity and Fluttershy laid out a brightly coloured picnic blanket and pulled out what they had been eating for lunch for the past couple days: bread, hay, assorted grasses and flowers they'd found on their way and apples. A fruit that Applejack's saddle bags never seemed to empty of. "Mmmm, apple and daisy sandwiches... again." Applejack raised an eyebrow at Rarity who bit onto her sandwich delicately. "And what's a'matter with apples?" "Who says it was the apples I was complaining about? For all you know, it could have been the choice of bread." "My mistake, Rarity, I forgot you're always complaining about something." "And just what is that supposed to mean?!" Before either of them could continue bickering a strong breeze whipped through them. It was hot and carried grit in it that made them shut their eyes and close their mouths. It passed and the camp was covered in a fine layer of sand. Twilight shook herself and looked to where the sand had come from. She walked up the hill that surrounded them to investigate. She stood there for a long moment. "What is it, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash flew up to her and looked out across the plains. She also stood there, silenced by what she saw. The rest made their way up the hill to see what the matter. A warm wind carrying more grit made them shield their eyes as they climbed and so they did not see what had caused so much confusion until they reached their friends at the top. A sand storm as high as the clouds was moving towards them from the north. It looked like an toothy maw eating the land before it. They galloped down the hill and began frantically packing up their things. The picnic blanket was picked up and thrown away by a sudden gust of wind and their bags began to roll. Static was all they could hear as the sand grated against itself. Twilight put her hooves to her mouth and yelled but no one heard her so she ignited her horn and gestured for everyone to stay close to her. The sand storm hit and they were all nearly blinded. Their bags disappeared and they struggled to stay upright in the winds. All they could see was a shining beacon in their darkening vision getting slowly smaller and smaller until it too disappeared. They laid down and were covered by the biting sands. They each felt consciousness slip from them. Rainbow Dash woke up and felt a weight pressing in on her from all sides. She couldn't tell which was up and she tried to move her legs. Her left legs and wing broke through the ground and she dug herself out of the hot sand. She blinked in the bright sun and looked around for her friends. All she saw were sand dunes, no landmarks, no mountains, no friends. Where am I? Fluttershy sneezed and all the sand on top of her blew off. She shakily got to her feet and tried to get the sand out of her wings and ears. She coughed and looked around for her friends, instead seeing an endless desert in every direction. She was alone. Rarity sneezed and back flipped out of the sand. Her joints popped and snapped as she got to her hooves and her mouth was full of sand. She spat it out and sneezed again although less violently. She had had her saddle bag under her leg when the storm had hit and she went to get it for some water. She didn't see it in the hole in the sand she'd made. She sifted through the sand but all it did was level out the hole. Her bag was gone. Something else struck her as worrying and she turned around to see nothing but sand in every direction. Applejack was already galloping around trying to find her friends. She couldn't find her bag either and was now anxiously running in circles around the dune she had burst out of the side of. "TWILIGHT! RARITY! ANYPONY HEAR ME?!" Her voice was absorbed by the dunes and didn't carry very far. Pinkie Pie sat on top of a tall dune, her hoof to her brow trying to shade her watering eyes. Everything was too bright. The ground and the sky. She hadn't even thought about her bags as she searched for her friends. Twilight's purple hoof burst out of the sand and she slowly dug her way out. She coughed and gagged on the grit stuck in her throat. She squinted in the desert sun and nothing she saw was familiar. "Hey girls! Girls?" She got up and hunted for her friends but didn't find them. She also didn't find her bag and had a pang of guilt that she'd lost Luna's things. Then the guilt turned into terror. What happened? Why am I alone, weren't they right next to me? It must have been a teleport spell. Oh, but that means they could be anywhere! Where is here? "Twilight Sparkle, thank goodness I found you." Twilight didn't believe the voice she heard behind her. It was impossible. She spun on her haunches and her eyes didn't believe what they saw. But her mind did. "Princess Celestia!" She ran into the legs of her mentor and hugged her tightly. Celestia embraced her back and put her wings over her student protectively. A thought struck Twilight as odd, however. "But why are you here?" Celestia stood still for a moment before her voice poured over Twilight's ears. "When Lucien's power relaxed he sent me a note telling me to come and find you. Telling me it was very urgent and that you needed my help. Do you know where the others are?" She shook her head sadly at the question. "That's alright, if I can find you then I can find the others. Climb on, we'll go faster flying." In the sand not far away on top of a dune sat a purple bag with a pink six pointed star stitched into it. It had been opened in the sand storm and in it sat a golden compass. An 'S' pointed after Twilight as she was flown away. Rainbow Dash soared on the thermals that riddled her field of view. She scanned the landscape and saw nothing but sand dunes. They stretched on endlessly and the whole place looked like a shore line whose waves had long receded. As much as she loved flying, this flight was beginning to worry her. She was totally alone in this desert. She'd seen no tracks or signs of her friends for hours. Her ears were filled with the wind and she was surprised when she heard a faint calling. She looked to the ground but saw nothing. Again she heard it, this time behind her. "Rainbow Dash!" A blue and orange streak shot past her. It turned around and revealed the face Rainbow Dash was all too familiar with. "Spitfire?" The Wonderbolt Captain pulled up beside her and smiled. "Come on and land down there with me!" They flew to the ground and landed on a dune below. Rainbow Dash's brain didn't know what to make of this newest development. It shrugged. "Spitfire! What are you doing here?!" Spitfire peeled off her goggles from her sweaty brow and shook her mane out. Rainbow Dash shifted her weight and tried not to think. It didn't work. "Celestia told us Wonderbolts to come with her to help you girls out. She teleported us here and told us to find you and meet up as soon as possible." Spitfire walked right up to Rainbow Dash and smiled. "Come on, we need to get you flying." Rainbow hesitated for a second. Her brain was still fused. Spitfire noticed and put a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. "I'll race ya." She winked seductively and took off and that was all Rainbow Dash needed to follow her. Fluttershy didn't know what to do. Should I stay up here in the sun and keep looking for my friends or go down to the shade where I won't fry? She was already beginning to get a sun burn and her fair coat was getting redder. She frowned and wetted her lips to keep them from cracking but only hastened the process. Thirty minutes later she was trying to cool down in the shade. She cursed herself for doing it though. Oh, I should have been tougher and stayed up there where my friends could've seen me. They'll never find me here. It's my coat's fault, if only it wasn't yellow and the same colour as all the sand around here they would have found me already. I should be up there flying around looking for them. I'm no good to them down here. I'm no good to anypony down here, alone. Her ears were ringing from the overpowering silence. She wasn't used to such stillness. There wasn't even wind for her to hear. Only her own breathing and thudding heartbeat filled her ears. Rarity stumbled down the dune she had been walking up for the past hour, kicking up plumes of sand until she came to a rest at the bottom. She breathed in heavily and immediately regretted it. The hot air chocked her and she coughed into the sand. She lay there panting for a moment before she was pushed aside by a moving wall of sand. The dune had collapsed and the mouth of a dark cave had opened up. Rarity stared at it a moment before getting to her feet and staggering into it. The cave was blessedly cool and Rarity hugged the cool stone floor, nuzzling it. "That floor is rather dirty, dearie." Rarity opened her eyes to see an old mare standing over her, looking at her thoughtfully. Rarity realized what she had been doing and stood up, mortified that somepony had seen her act in such a way. "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me." "I do. Let's get you cleaned up now shall we? And I bet you could do with a sip of water, yes?" Rarity followed her eagerly to a well where she washed her face and gorged herself on the cold and refreshing waters. She rubbed it into her hair and face. Then simply dunked her head into the well, shocking herself into a more alert state. "Thank you so much for the water, Miss?" "Ebony Bloom," said the dark coated mare, "and it is no trouble. I am a well tender after all. It would be pretty silly of me not to let travelers use it. Although nopony has used it in a long time now." Ebony walked over to Rarity and inspected her. Rarity began to feel uncomfortable in the old mare's gaze. "Is something wrong?" "No, and yes, my dear. Something troubles you. Something at your very core. Come with me and I will show you." Rarity, perplexed, followed her deeper into the cave where there sat a basin of black water. She was beginning to have her doubts about this strangely helpful stranger. Ebony waved a hoof over the surface of the water and it rippled and lit up. "Come and see." Rarity walked up and saw. It was an image of Ponyville, specifically her boutique. It had been rebuilt and as she looked closer she could see Sweetie Bell open the door and walk outside. Her parents stood in the doorway and smiled at their daughter playing in the yard. Rarity smiled and felt a small pang of guilt that she hadn't been there to say goodbye to her parents and her sister back in Canterlot. "What is this thing?" Ebony stared at her across the basin with black, beady eyes. "It shows many things and many places. The past, the present, and the future." A black shadow spread over the boutique and Sweetie Bell looked up to see another monstrous storm attacking Ponyville. Her parents waved frantically for her to come to them and she ran. But a tree fell and blocked her path. A bolt of lightning stabbed the ground behind her and a carriage that had been picked up by the winds fell out of the sky and- Rarity gasped and tore her eyes away from the basin which had been bubbling as if at a hard boil. "No more! No more, just stop!" Ebony quickly hid her grin and moved over to comfort Rarity who had collapsed on the floor, the image of what she had seen burned into her mind. Her voice was like that of soothing grandmother. "There there, child. What you saw has not yet come to pass. You care for her deeply though, don't you?" "Yes, more than anything." "Then go to her, child. I will point you on the right path." Ebony led her outside where she pointed her south. "Go that way, back to your lands it will lead you. Be safe, child, be swift." Rarity galloped through the shifting sands as best she could. When she looked back the cave's entrance had disappeared. Applejack fell down and lay still. She had been running in the heat of the day for hours and had finally succumbed to exhaustion. She struggled to her feet but fell over again. Come on, your friends need you Applejack. Move. Applejack rose halfway only to have the sand shift beneath her and make her fall. There she panted and now fought just to stay awake. She heard something behind her. It sounded like a voice. A rushing of footfalls then a presence over her. Applejack." With that voice it could have been a question or a simple hello. Big Mac turned her over and looked into her eyes. His face told her he was worried more than his voice ever could. "Big Mac? What... what are you doing here?" "I'll explain later, come on, let's get you to some shade." He picked her up and deftly put her on his back. He took her behind a dune where he lay her down in the refreshingly cool sands. "Thank you, Big Mac. What brings you out to these parts? Heh." She was still delirious from her long walk in the sun. "After the storm I went looking for you. Wanted to make sure you'd gotten out safe. I searched everywhere and got a might worried. Couldn't find you, see? I got really worried after that and just moped around town, helping out where I could. Then I heard that the Princess had come and swooped all you girls up and brought you who knows where. I figured it had to be Canterlot, what with that being the place she lives. So, I took the next train outta Ponyville and made for the palace. Darn near got myself arrested barging though the gates, demanding the Princess tell me where she'd taken you. She'd then told me to calm down a bit and took me to a room where a bunch of other Ponies were, Wonderbolts I think. There she told us we needed to find you girls and help you out. Then she teleported us here and I went off to look for you and now here I am. I'm here to get you home though, I don't know about no mission you're on but it can wait or somepony else can do it." He looked right at her and his voice changed. "Applebloom was hurt in the storm, Applejack. She needs you. You need to come with me now. Get up, we're moving south." Applejack was still too tired to understand but she'd heard enough. Applebloom was hurt. She had to get home. Pinkie Pie hopped up the dune at an impossible angle at an improbable speed. Her upbeat attitude defying more than physics, she'd gone like this for hours searching for her friends. She crested the dune and stopped to survey the landscape before her. Her eyes scanning the dunes for anything besides sand. They almost didn't comprehend the explosion of colour that painted her view. A veritable oasis was at the bottom of the dune complete with palm trees and a pool of shining water. She tried blinking the mirage away but it stayed in her vision. She turned around, anticipation in her eyes. She licked her lips and jumped back around. It was still there. She cart wheeled down the hill and somersaulted into the pool. The water was pleasant, if a little warm but she didn't mind as she gulped down huge amounts of it. "Pinkie Pie?" Twilight Sparkle stood by the edge of the lagoon, her eyes wide in surprise. "Pinkie Pie, I can't believe it! You found me!" Pinkie Pie also couldn't believe it but was so relieved she didn't care. She rushed out of the water and embraced Twilight in a soaking wet hug. "Oh my gosh! Yes! One down, four to go!" And I got a landmark to find my way back. I am so good! She got off of Twilight who just smiled and called out to the pink mare now running out into the desert. "Where are you going, Pinkie Pie?" "To find our friends, Twilight! What else?" Twilight pointed over her shoulder at the other four appearing out of the bushes. They all gasped and ran over to Pinkie and buried her in a group hug. Never mind what I thought earlier. I am AWESOME! A few minutes later they were partying like there was no tomorrow. Pinkie played on a set of steel drums she'd pulled out of nowhere and they all danced into the night. Hundreds of miles away. Lucien laughed in the Darkness's face. It hadn't escaped yet but it's power to alter the world had grown considerably. "A 'Lost in the Desert' hex and a 'Trusted Friend' spell? That's old school even for me." "It is working." "They'll figure it out eventually, fiend. You've only bought yourself time." "And did you see this eventuality, Old Man?" Lucien scowled and angry beams of light erupted from his hands to smite the black shadow on the door which reformed a moment later. "A pathetic attempt at resistance. Your kind could never see their own failures. You have not broken that cycle." "Shut up, demon." "You were once a promising young being so full of light and power but that time has long left you. You are bereft of strength and will. You hold on to a vision you had thousands of mortal lifetimes ago in the hope that it will come true. You have played into my shadow all this time, Lucien." The Darkness paused as if to let it sink in that it could now speak his name. "Your kind was far too powerful, I could foresee my downfall at every turn. So I hatched a plan to help me survive. And we can both clearly see it has worked. First, I tricked your kind into thinking that I was too powerful to kill, then you know what I did, Lucien? I told them to kill themselves, and they did." The last human howled in agony as the Darkness spread over the entire surface of the Door. The crack got a little wider.