//------------------------------//
// Chapter Eleven 
// Story: Rise of the Dark Unicorn 
// by Sky McFly 
//------------------------------//

Spike and Rarity descended deeper and deeper into the earth, Rarity leading the way, Spike following close behind. The soft glow of Rarity’s horn lit up about a yard of the narrow passageway in front of her.
“Couldn’t the princesses have escaped if all that was keeping them prisoner was a wall of wood?” Spike asked, his voice voice hushed. Something about the darkness that was pressing in from all sides gave Spike the feeling that he should avoid speaking too loudly, for fear of awakening whatever horrors might be awaiting them.
“Oh, definitely,” Rarity replied, her voice barely above a whisper. “But it’s likely that that’s not all that was holding them in. Styxon probably cast some spells around them too. It takes a lot to imprison a princess.”
“Oh,” Spike said.
They fell silent, and for what seemed like hours the only sound was that of Rarity’s hooves on the stone steps, echoing up and down the passageway. Finally, they reached the bottom of the stairs and the passageway flattened out. Spike was the first to notice the reddish glow a few dozen yards ahead of them.
“Rarity,” he whispered, “could you turn off your horn for a moment? I think there’s some light ahead.”
The orb of light at the tip of Rarity’s horn shrank and vanished, and then Rarity too could see the eerily red light at the end of the tunnel.
“What do you think that could be?” Rarity breathed.
Spike shrugged.
Eventually, they turned a corner, where the floor abrubtly ended and the passageway opened up into a vast, rocky shaft. The far wall, which consisted of a slowly descending layer of magma, disappeared into darkness as it continued indefinitely upward. Thousands of feet below lay a glowing river of magma. A shimmering sphere of somewhat transparent magical energy floated halfway across the gap of about a dozen yards between the passage and the far wall. The sphere was dwarfed by the size of the shaft, but was evidently large enough to hold two alicorns.
“There they are!” Spike exclaimed, hugging Rarity in jubilation. “We found them!”
“But how will we get to them?” Rarity asked.
Spike leaned out over the abyss and looked upward.
“I might be able to climb up this wall and then jump out far enough to land on that magic prison,” Spike suggested.
“No!” Rarity protested. “It’s too dangerous!”
“I’m a dragon,” Spike reassured her. “Magma can’t hurt me.”
Rarity bit her lip, her blue eyes filled with concern. “Are you sure?” she asked finally.
Spike nodded, neglecting to mention that a fall of that distance would likely be more than enough to kill him.
“Oh Spikey-Wikey, do be careful!” Rarity pleaded. “I don’t want to lose you!”
Spike took her hoof in his claws and said, “Don’t worry, my sweet Rarity. That’s not going to happen.”
And he began to climb.


***


Applejack watched as Styxon Stones’s last spell caused Twilight to stumble and fall unconscious. Before she or anypony else could rush to her friend’s aid, Styxon caused a magical dome to appear in the air, shutting out everypony except himself and Twilight as the translucent, gold-tinged walls descended to the ground.
Now Applejack got really worried. She began to drag herself down the steps of the town hall, every inch of her body aching.
“Hey, you leave her alone, you varmint!” she shouted, her voice hoarse.
Then to her surprise, Styxon Stones sank to the ground and appeared to fall asleep.
“What in the hay…?”
Just then, Pinkie Pie returned with a half-dozen pie catapults in tow.
“This is a revolution!” she bellowed, loading a catapult. “You dogs get out of our town or suffer the consequences!”
“Grab her!” Rover, the leader of the Diamond Dogs, barked from the town hall. A Diamond Dog guard attempted to grab Pinkie Pie, but she slipped out of his grasp and nimbly danced away.
“Load the catapults!” Pinkie Pie yelled. Fluttershy, Big Macintosh, and several other nearby ponies obediently complied. Applejack noticed the two Diamond Dogs next to Rover start to look slightly uneasy.
“Styxon said there wouldn’t be a revolution,” the largest Diamond Dog whined.
“Suck it up, Fido,” Rover snapped. “We can take care of this.”
“READY!” Pinkie shouted as she continued to dodge the Diamond Dog guards. 
“The unicorn betrayed us!” the smallest Diamond Dog yipped. “Why should we help him when he refuses to give us the pony town?”
“AIM!”
“We don’t need his permission to take over Ponyville!” Rover said. “I say we take it now! We’re more than a match for a bunch of ponies!”
“FIRE!”
The air was suddenly filled by a barrage of apple pies. Applejack ducked, but the ponies’ aims were impeccable. Rover and his two cohorts were thrown backward as a pie hit each of them in the face. The Diamond Dogs who were holding down Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane were similarly picked off.
“Has it been three days yet?” Fido asked, picking himself up from the ground and licking his face clean.
“Two and a half,” Rover corrected, and shook himself, flinging bits of pie in every direction.
“Close enough,” Fido said. “Come on, Spot. Let’s get out of here.”
“You can’t leave now!” Rover protested. “We can still beat the ponies!”
“RELOAD!” Pinkie Pie bellowed.
“I’m with Fido,” Spot said. “It’s not worth it.” With that, he and Fido scampered out of the town square and away from Ponyville. The remaining Diamond Dog guards quickly followed their lead, leaving Rover standing alone in front of the town hall. After a moment’s hesitation, Rover reluctantly raced after them, shouting, “Wait for me!”	Everypony in the town square cheered.
“That was easy,” Pinkie Pie remarked. Then she, Fluttershy, Big Macintosh, Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane, and Applejack approached the golden dome under which Twilight and Styxon appeared to be sleeping.
“Why would Styxon cast that force field around himself and Twilight and then just go to sleep?” Fluttershy asked.
“Easy!” Pinkie Pie piped up. “He’s obviously trying to take over Twilight’s mind through her dreams.”
“How can you possibly know—" Rainbow Dash asked.
“Is there any way we can help her?” Fluttershy interrupted.
“Not unless you’re a licensed dreamwalker,” Pinkie Pie answered.
Taking her word for it, Applejack gazed through the magic dome at Twilight’s sleeping form.
“I sure hope she’s doin’ okay in there…”


***


With no more than three flaps of its wings, the manticore that was Styxon Stones closed the gap between itself and Twilight. Before Twilight had time to think, it swiped at her with six-inch claws. She scrambled backward and found herself backed up against a large pile of ash and rubble. The manticore let out a roar, saliva dripping off of its knife-like fangs.
Twilight turned and began to stumble up the pile of ash, her hooves slipping on chunks of wood and sinking into the soft powder. The manticore’s scorpion tail arced over its head and slammed into the rubble, just inches from Twilight’s shoulder. A cloud of dust rose up and Twilight began to cough.
He just wants my magic, Twilight told herself. He doesn’t want to kill me. Therefore the poison in his tail must not be deadly. Either way, she knew she had to stay out of reach of any of the monster’s appendages at all costs.
She reached the top of the pile and tripped, sending herself tumbling down the other side. She landed in a heap among the scattered rubble at the bottom. Upon reaching the top of the mountain of ash, the manticore let out another roar, flapped its wings a couple times, and then swooped down toward Twilight. She picked up a charred length of wood and swung it at the beast. The manticore caught the wood in its mouth and stumbled to a stop, spitting out pieces of charcoal in a surprise and irritation.
Let me out of here! Twilight begged her subconscious. Even as she fled from the manticore, it was her surroundings that were really starting to get to her. She couldn’t stand being in a place where everything she had ever loved had been destroyed, even if it was an illusion. If I’m going to die, let it be somewhere beautiful!
Turning to flee from the monster, Twilight caught sight of a doorway she hadn’t noticed before. The doorway stood oddly alone amidst ash and rubble, as if it had once been part of a building until everything but the doorway burned down. Even stranger, bright sunlight streamed through the doorway, so bright that Twilight couldn’t make out what lay beyond, but could only assume was somewhere other than a post-apocalyptic Ponyville.
Without pausing to think, Twilight charged through the mysterious doorway and slammed the door behind her. She now found herself in a large field of grasses that at first appeared white, but when moved by a cool breeze, shimmered with every color of the rainbow. In the distance, the field stopped, leading Twilight to believe that she was standing on a plateau. Beyond the grassy cliff lay a vast ocean, sparkling in the sunlight. Twilight spun around. Behind her, a sheer rocky face rose up, hung with lush ferns and mosses. Liquid spectra poured down from the cloudless sky, cascading down through a series of pools to rest briefly in a small pond at the base of the mountain before streaming through the tall grasses and tumbling over the cliff into the ocean. There was no trace of the door Twilight had passed through seconds ago.
This truly was the most beautiful place she could imagine. Which makes sense, Twilight reminded herself, considering I’m still dreaming and all of my surroundings are created by my subconscious.
And then a creature appeared that not even Twilight’s subconscious could have dreamed up. From behind a curtain of spectra appeared a beast so large that its claws alone were the length of several ponies. Its deep indigo fur twinkled with pinpoints of light, like a reflection of the night sky. Ducking to avoid the endless stream of spectra, it fell to all fours and roared, the resulting vibrations sending rocks the size of buildings tumbling down from the mountain.
Twilight gulped. This thousand-foot-tall creature could only be one thing.
Styxon Stones had become an ursa major.


***


Spike clung to the rocky face, his tiny claws just barely managing to find footholds as he climbed higher and higher. The heat emanating from the wall behind him was stifling, and his claws were moist with sweat. Every time he moved a claw he feared it would slip and send him plummeting thousands of feet to the magma below.
Twenty feet below him, Rarity was hopping up and down in agitation.
“Spikey, isn’t that high enough?” she called up to him.
“Just—a little bit—farther…” Spike grunted.
A small chunk of rock broke off of the wall where Spike’s foot had just left and shrank as it fell until it was too small to see.
Spike looked down over his shoulder. The magic sphere that imprisoned the princesses was now far enough below him that if he leaped as far as he could off of the rock face he would be able to land on it.
He swallowed his nerves and pushed off into the void. Hot air whipped past him as he attempted to steer his fall. The surface of the prison rushed up at him, and before he knew it he had passed through it. He landed heavily between the princesses, on the floor of the sphere. He looked up at the ceiling of the sphere in surprise, and then gathered himself and stood up to address the princesses.
“Your highnesses,” he began, “I’ve come to rescue you.”
The princesses didn’t look as overjoyed as he hoped they would.
“Spike!” Princess Celestia exclaimed. “You shouldn’t have! This is a one-way force field. You can enter it, but you cannot leave.”
Spike’s eyes widened. He scrambled over to the curved wall of the prison and pressed his face against it, looking desparately down at Rarity and thinking that maybe they should have come up with a better plan before rushing in to save the princesses.


***


Twilight ran.
She was kidding herself if she thought she could take on an ursa major. She now realized what it looked like to command the power of hundreds of unicorns. Had she really believed she actually had a chance against Styxon Stones? She couldn’t even manage to fight back against a manticore.
Twilight was beyond despair. Instead, she now faced a sudden clarity.
There was only one way to beat Styxon now. If she could die on her own terms, it would be a small victory, but a victory nonetheless. She had hoped that it wouldn’t come down to this, but ever since her conversation with Luna she knew deep down that she would have to sacrifice her life for the good of Equestria. It was her duty.
The ground shook with every step the ursa major took.
Twilight could only hope that Spike and Rarity were on their way to rescuing the princesses. Maybe once freed, their combined power would be enough to overthrow Styxon.
Twilight galloped past the iridescent grasses as they waved in the breeze. The ursa major’s gait covered hundreds of feet with each lumbering step. If Twilight could just stay ahead of it for a hundred more yards…
Fifty more yards…
Twenty-five…
Twilight Sparkle was going to die.
She had no other choice.
Twilight reached the edge of the cliff, took a deep breath, and launched herself into nothingness.