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// Ace in the Hole 
// Story: Dying Embers 
// by MrSpartan 
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Luna wasn’t sure where she was or how she got there, but everything was on fire. She was seeing nothing but flames as they hugged themselves to the buildings and trees. Burning away thatch roves and greenery. She could hardly breathe, and the smoke was hurting her eyes as well. The sky was pitch black in hue. She trotted forward, both to get out of the blaze and to try and find any survivors. She realized her royal vestments were gone for some reason. She was momentarily distracted by this as her ear twitched. Somepony was calling in the distance. It sounded like they were in danger. Luna’s common sense insisting she just keep going to escape the fire. Her conscience on the other hoof was blaring like an annoying rooster that wouldn’t shut up in the morning to go help. The choice was easy. It sounded like the shouting grew louder, even through the deafening roar of the inferno raging around her. The matchsticks that had once been trees grew in quantity.

Luna was getting closer when she started hearing whispering. 
“You can’t save him.” 
“It’s hopeless.”
“Your land will die.”
“All will die.”
“He cannot be redeemed.”

The malicious whispering continued, but Luna barely registered it in her mind. All she could focus on now was the cries for help. She skidded to a halt as she arrived at the scene before her. There was a puddle of quicksand. In its center was a young human male. He was waist deep in the natural deathtrap by now. His eyes locked with hers. They practically verbalized his plea for help for the Princess to rescue him. Luna was running short on time. The forest around them was burning hotter, while getting closer and closer every second.

“Please take my hoof. I can pull you to safety,” Luna said.

She used her wings to hover just above him. He seemed to be sinking even faster now. He reached out his hand to hers. His fingers were just nearly making contact with her. Suddenly muddy claws made of quicksand reached out from the puddle. The human began panicking as the extremities grasped his shirt and attempted to pull him down to cold, eternal rest. Luna wasn’t about to let that happen. She hovered as close as she dared and grasped his hand with both of her hooves. She then increased the flapping of her powerful wings to pull the younger man to relative safety of the burning forest. At least he was out of the quicksand now. That was something.

She asked “Are you all right? Quick, we must get out of this forest. I can’t fly us through all that hot smoke and fire. We must get away by ground if we are too-“

“It burns.” The man interrupted.

“What?” Luna looked at the man, fearing the worst. Something looked wrong with him.

“IT BURNS.” He said while clutching his hand.

He then ignited! The flesh was cooked from his bones in less then a second. He stepped closer to Luna despite the lack of any muscles or tendons. The burning forest was gone. Replacing it was an abyss of darkness. The fiery figure’s skeleton held Luna’s throat in his grip.
“MAKE IT STOP! IT BUUUUURNS!
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Princess Luna awoke with a gasp. She was in cold sweat under the star print covers of her bed. The fire was gone, replaced by the darkening serenity of her room in Canterlot Castle. She glanced out her rather large window, her hoof rubbing her chin in thought. The thick velvet curtains were pulled back to reveal the evening sky. She still didn’t have to raise the moon and stars for an hour or two. She slumped in her bed. As the Princess of the Night, she was gifted with many of the powers linked to it. The rarest and most mysterious, not to mention the most annoying, being able to view the past, present, or future in dreams. It wasn’t the clearest of abilities and her sister Celestia; despite being so cleaver and organized, could not see things like Luna could. Of course being the avatars of night and day certain gaps in similarity was to be expected. Because of this Luna was forced to try and decode her obscure and often abstract visions alone. It was a somewhat dangerous thing to attempt. The future and even the present to a degree were always in motion. While glimpses of the past themselves were a little safer to analyze, the reason for their viewing was difficult to grasp. If she acted on visions incorrectly, she risked causing terrible accidents. She had dreamt of visions of Nightmare Moon before it had come to pass. They had led her, incorrectly, to believe there was an adversary heading for Equestria that only she could halt. She had tightened national security to near dictatorship levels. That had caused tensions with her sister and the ponies of Equestria. It had also later caused the little ponies to shun both her and the night out of fear. That, in turn, led to the later events that led to her becoming Nightmare Moon. You certainly wouldn’t find any of THAT in the history books.

Luna got up from her bed, pulling the covers back neatly with a levitation spell. She started pacing, trying to get a clearer idea about her dream’s true meaning. It definitely wasn’t a dream about the present. It could have been a dream about the past. Yet such visions almost never involved her in the actual events of the dream. All that was left was another abstract dream about the future, right? The princess sighed. Even with the approaching threat of the humans (at least she assumed they’d be a threat) the Princess had hoped to put off such matters. Only two days had passed since the meeting with the Elements of Harmony. Ugh, it was too early for this. She rubbed her head in exasperation. What did it MEAN!? She’d have to think this over a lot more, but first… coffee.


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About half an hour later the curious group arrived at a vast clearing within the jungle.
It was easily 170 feet across with large limestone pillars on the edges of the clearing. The ground was unusually bare with nary a trace of plant life except the occasional tuft of weeds or grass. Even the trees on edges were all growing away from the clearing. It was as if the vegetation itself knew it simply wasn’t welcome there. It was the long dead equestrian human empire that owned this part of the Everfree. The humans all sauntered up to the center of the clearing where a stone pedestal had been conspicuously placed. It went up to about waist level. It seemed to be springing up from somewhere in the dirt. The nine arcanists looked to their leader about what to do next.

He spoke in a raspy but commanding tone. “Finally, we are ready to begin the ritual. Gather in a circle and focus a spell of candlefire near the center of the pedestal. I will be in the center handling the rest. First though, we must inscribe the runes of animation and willpower. Then Mundall will invoke the spirits of the wolf, stag and eagle.” He nodded to the shaman, who in turn nodded back.” As he does that, Turluck and Terran will re-inscribe the runes with these.” 

Illitheous reached into his tattered trench coat and pulled out two pouches. He tossed them to the enchanter and the overall prodigy. They were filled with human blood and gold dust mixed together. Don’t ask where he got the human blood; you really don’t want to know.

“Now move! We must finish the ritual before dawn. I want NO mistakes.” Illitheous ordered.

And so the runes were carved into the ground with the pedestal being the center focal point. The necessary alchemy ingredients were used and the proper totem spirits were appeased. The ten then gathered together in that forbidding jungle clearing. The air around them seemed heavier then before as they all cast the simple beginner’s spell. Ten tiny fires only big enough for a wax candle appeared. They illuminated the humans with a devilish red glow. The nearly dead commander of the others stepped up to the pedestal. His boots echoed sternly as he approached the center. One could almost hear chanting. It was as silent as a whisper on the wind. The power of spirits and astral energy flowed like water though a riverbed, leading past the pedestal and into the earth below. 

The earth trembled as the man from a bygone era spoke.  “I Sir Illitheous demand you rise once more. Your strength is needed for the reborn Empire of the Black Dragon. The spirits call and you answer. You will answer to us. You must obey.” He stretched out his, mostly, unrotted hand and placed it on the pedestal. “Meae misereatur animae Dues.” (See authors note at bottom) With those last words a jagged metal spike shot through the decrepit man’s hand. He screamed in pain. The others nearly broke their spells to go and help, but he barked at them. “Don’t you dare break the spells or I swear you’ll die where you stand! We all must make sacrifices! This is just another of mine.”

Then he started to shake in agony. The remaining veins in his arm burned red. The machine was taking away part of what remained of his soul. The spike retracted and the candlefire spells were sucked into the new gap created by the spike. Suddenly the stone pedestal was gobbled up by the earth and the runes began glowing florescent green. Illitheous was currently kneeling down grasping his hand. The flesh on it was self repairing but it felt like his hand was being dipped in acid as it did so. The others hadn’t moved away from the glowing sigils yet. 

“Move now. I can’t afford to lose any of my crusaders to a magic mishap now can I?” said Illitheous. They moved as instructed, though somewhat reluctantly. The ground now shook violently. Gravel and soil erupted from one side of the clearing as a giant metal hand erupted up to the surface, like a drowning man reaching for air. A second hand followed on the opposite side. The entire clearing was now being disrupted as a massive three story tall behemoth was literally digging itself out from its resting place. Even in the darkness, all could view the fierce majesty of the construct before them under the waning moonlight. It was entirely made of metal that gleamed like silver and green hued malachite. Its joints seemed to be made of clockwork gears and steel struts. It was basically human shaped but definitely not an exact copy. Its features were all exaggerated. Its chest was overly broad and coated with untold layers of that beautiful imposing metal. Its arms were thick, like that of a muscular wrestler. The legs were nearly the same, but longer, and the feet looked like combat boots made of additional metal. Its head was a little small compared to the rest of its massive body, but that wasn’t saying much. It looked like a human skull with the lower portion of the jaw gone. Its eye sockets were vacant, but for the golden glow in their centers. 

Then it spoke “I…shall serve…those who have…awakened me.” Its voice sounded like metal grinding on stone with a faint echo to it. 

Illitheous’ grin seemed to spread even to the half of his face that was no longer present. “Yes, arise for your empire!” He then addressed his crusaders of fire.



“Behold the Adamantine Golem!”



Authors note: For those of you that are curious, “Meae misereatur animae Dues” is Latin and translates roughly into May God have mercy on my soul.