The morning broke, unleashing light into the small household. The three woke up, remembering the task at hand. "So, what would rid darkness from a person?" Crimson asked, probably a rhetorical question.
"I don't know..." Radi responded verbally, "Athelas?"
While the other two messed around in the small shelter, Grandiur paced outside. The statue lied at the heart of the mountain. They were taking their precious time with this endeavor, at no haste at all. Ricordo will hold up, he hoped, Everypony else will as well. They survived two years with those things. I shouldn't be so worried. But there was always that twinge in his gut that he was going to fail at this rate. They had already spent more than two weeks on their quest. Will Equestria last while they sought the statues? Grandiur snapped himself out of his anxiety. He needed to think more rationally.
"You're wearing a line in the ground," said the orange mare they met the previous night. "What's up?"
"I'm just really anxious," Grandiur replied, "you know, having to save the world, and all."
"You shouldn't have to worry. We held our ground against those creatures for two years. We're not going to give up any time soon."
"Orenji!" yelled the purple mare, "We still have patients to take care of! Get back on task."
The orange mare, Orenji, sighed and kicked the ground. "Well, it seems duty calls. Murasaki is the strictest sister you could have." She turned and walked toward the infirmary, her blue mane flopping as she moved. Grandiur caught her flank, a cutie mark in the form of a right angle, the red lines pointing down and left.
Grandiur started pacing again until Crimson stopped him. "Woah there, buddy, you'll start eroding a chasm if you keep pacing like this!" Crimson said, putting a hoof in front of him.
"I just can't... bear... the anxiety." Grandiur explained, lightly panting in the brief pauses.
"You can..." Crimson pushed against Grandiur to stop him from pacing, "...and you will." Grandiur stopped his pacing, breathing heavy. "Look Grandiur, there's nothing to worry about. We're making fair progress!"
"Fair, but not sufficient..." Grandiur said, his breath becoming heavier.
"Hey, look here," Crimson knocked one across Grandiur's face to get him to focus, "You've got nothing to worry about!" he repeated.
Grandiur rubbed his cheek. "What the hell was that for?" he snapped.
"You're focussing, good. Come on, we've got some work to do."
"How the hell's a punch gonna make me focus?"
"Just come on, Grandiur."
They assisted Orenji and Murasaki with the patients while they were waiting for Zecora. They wet rags at the aqueduct, and helped clean up any at all messes that occurred. There wasn't that much for them to do while they were waiting for Zecora. Just these small things that could make a big difference. They repeated these jobs until the afternoon, when the visitor approached the village.
Zecora inspected the patients inside the infirmary, noting every ailment that afflicted the villagers. She turned to face the others, speaking in a heavier accent. "For this illness, there is no physical cure. But there is one more challenge the unicorn must endure."
Grandiur cocked his head to the side lightly. "What must I do?"
"There is one spell that can cure this disease. The answer is in the statue, you'll learn it in a breeze."
"Great," Crimson said semi-enthusiastically, "we can hit two birds with one stone."
"Wait, how do you know I can interact with the statues?" Grandiur asked.
"I know because I'm friends with the five. They told me that the last of the young guardians was alive."
Grandiur recalled Inky mentioning him being the last guardian. "I know..." he sighed.
Zecora glanced at the three, nodding. "You should go now, when the sun is still low. When it reaches its peak, you'd wish you were below."
The three walked off, after filling their water supply and gathering some food. Orenji, Murasaki and Zecora saw them off, making sure no immediate dangers faced them. "One thing hasn't changed about you, Zecora," Orenji said.
"Hm?" Zecora responded.
"You still speak in riddles."
Zecora chuckled, "Yes, yes I do. If you've known me, it's nothing new."
---
The three hiked the mountain toward the peak. There was some life around their area, though the dry climate had still persisted. Any trees were void of leaves, sagebrush scattered around them, cacti not a rare sight. The ground was relatively flat, with dips occasionally, the ground getting steeper as they progressed. As time went on, the desert climate crescendoed to its max, the temperature scorching hot, the air as dry as paper. They progressed slowly, the height of the mountain coming closer and closer. Finally, they reached the mountain as the sun was high in the sky and a warm breeze wrapped around them. The shade of the mountain was over them, giving them relief from the sun. Looking forward, they could see an opening to the mountain, possibly a shaft of an old mine. A weathered iron frame supported the entrance, darkness blocking their view from the outside.
"We need a light," Crimson proposed. Grandiur stepped in front of them, popping his neck. Time to put what I've learned to use, he thought. Closing his eyes, he focused his magic energy to light his horn. After a couple of short lived sparks, the light grew to life, illuminating the passageway beyond. He smiled back at his friends at his success. "Let's go," he said, walking toward the cramped mineshaft.
The jagged walls only allowing one pony to pass without possible injury. Grandiur lit his horn as much as he could so his friends could see better from behind. They traveled through the passageway, turns here and there. They descended, small stalactites forming on the ceiling. Watching their heads, they continued. After a while of descending, they finally reached a wide open space. Not far in, Grandiur ran into an extrusion from the floor that was as high as his chin. Grooves were carved into it, covered in dark reflective material. Radi studied the substance, scratching it with the tip of a hoof. "It's amber," she announced, studying the scratches.
"Amber..." Crimson repeated, "that stuff's flammable, right?"
"Yes. This might be a system to light the mine. If only we had fire."
Grandiur studied the grooves. It would be a tight fit, but maybe...
"Back up," Grandiur commanded, "don't want to set any of you aflame." He focused the energy emitting from his horn to separate into a smaller orb of energy. He visualized the orb of energy flowing into the grooves of the extrusion. The orb of energy did as he visualized, and lit aflame in the groove. The fire spread fast, splitting at a fork, wrapping around to the wall behind. Torches mounted high on the wall lit in sequence, also lighting chandeliers that hung overhead. The place illuminated, revealing a large area, with a gap separating one side of the area to another. As light quickly filled the space, a loosened bridge hanging between the two platforms was revealed. On the opposite platform lied a figure. A figure that glistened like marble.
"The statue!" Radi exclaimed. The alicorn statue had a normal figure, while a poof-y mane and tail were visible at her about-face position. She was rearing, but unlike the statue of Rarity, it looked more playful than graceful. Crimson squinted. "Could that be a statue of Princess Pinkie Pie?" he asked.
"Yes..." Radi answered, "but why here? Why would any of the six be in a mine. Of course, there was that one time where Rarity was captured by thugs... but why Pinkie Pie of anybody?"
"Something tells me that the places aren't all that representative..." Crimson mumbled. He raised his voice. "Grandiur, do you think you can use your magic to crank the bridge up?" He gestured to a crank near the lip of the platform.
"I'll try," he responded. He focused his magic energy to move the crank from the other side, but before he could put the crank in motion, an image flashed in his mind. A pink mare, same mane style and tail style appeared in his mind, mouth open but no teeth, big eyes darkened and leaking with dark ichor. Next thing he knew, he was tossed against the wall, screaming in surprise and pain. He fell on his side on the ground, grimacing. His friends galloped toward him. "Are you alright?" They asked in unison.
"Yeah, yeah..." Grandiur said through gritted teeth, "... just gotta walk it off..." He gathered himself to his hooves, flinching.
"So magic's out of the question..." Radi noted. She surveyed the area, spotting a point of interest. "There is a mine shaft over there. Maybe if we go through that, we'll be able to reach the other side?"
They followed Radi into another cramped mineshaft, now lit by a flaming groove near the low ceiling. It was then they ran into their first problem. The shaft forked off into three directions, one to the front, one to the left, and one to the right. On each of the walls were markings, the roman numeral 'I' on the farthest left, 'II' in the center, 'III' on the farthest right. "I've seen this somewhere!" Radi exclaimed, "I've read bits about this. The route we want to take is I, III, III, VII."
"That is an interesting pattern..." Crimson said.
"So, are you absolutely sure that is the route we take?" Grandiur asked.
"Positive. I wouldn't recommend it otherwise." She confirmed.
Path 'I' was simple to access, the first 'III' had to be climbed to, and the next 'III' was the most difficult. It required all of them to get up to 'III', Grandiur stacking rocks to build unstable stairs, Crimson to pull them up, and somepony to stabilize the rocks. Grandiur made sure the rocks wouldn't budge, but he couldn't sustain the spell and walk up the stairs he had created. So, he went for it as fast as possible, knocking over his flight of steps, being caught by Crimson before he fell among the pile.
After that ordeal, VII was child's play to reach as compared to the second 'III'. All that was required was to jump across a sizable gap, not hard to jump across, yet not entirely easy. They walked through another narrow shaft, until they finally broke to the open, onto the platform the statue was built on.
"I will draw the bridge," Radi volunteered.
"Shouldn't one of us guys do that?" Crimson spurted before thinking.
Radi rolled her eyes, "It doesn't take that much to maneuver a crank." She continued to reel the bridge up.
"Okay, Grandiur," Crimson said, "do your thing." They approached the statue, Grandiur focusing his magic energy to shoot into the jewel around the statue's neck.
All went white. Grandiur covered his eyes from the sudden release of light. He studied the area, noticing that nothing surrounded him but white. He couldn't tell if he was looking forward, right or left, nonetheless north, south, east, or west. He looked down at his hooves and looked back up to find the pink alicorn in his face. "Hello!" She squeaked, Grandiur jumping back a couple feet, "Who must you be?"
Grandiur was tense. This was the same mare that flashed in his mind, except her eyes weren't leaking blood. In fact, she looked more friendly than that disturbing image. He loosened. She was an alicorn after all. If she was a psychomaniac, she wouldn't be. "I'm Grandiur," he introduced, "I am on a quest to activate the statues around Equestria, and deploy the shield to prevent -"
"Those dark and nasty creatures of the night!" She said, rearing up on her hind legs, hoovering her hooves over her head.
"Yeah, that..."
"Oh, by the way, I'm Pinkie Pie!" She beamed, giving him a big contagious smile. Grandiur chuckled, the smile spreading to him. Well, he thought, this isn't so bad...
"But, why am I here, in this... this..."
"This big white area? Oh, it's a great place, where you can just make things appear by imagination! Here, look!" Without the aura around her horn, she flew up in the air, producing a cannon out of thin air, the metal hunk crashing to the ground. She landed, and pulled the fuse. "Party cannon!" she exclaimed as loads of confetti, balloons and ribbon shot from the nozzle into the distance. Most of the decorations fell onto the ground beyond Grandiur anticlimactically, the balloons flying up into an endless void of white. She held her excited stance for a moment, than returned to a normal stance, raising an eyebrow. "Huh, I expected it to hang on something.
"But why you're here... there were distress calls from the village on the mountain. A sort of dark disease that cannot be cured with physical resources."
"How do you know about these things so fast?"
"How? Spike! I'm surprised you didn't see him yet!"
"So pretty much, this Spike fellow is spying on us."
"Well I wouldn't necessarily call it spying..." she hesitated for a moment, "... yeah, it's spying. But we need to have information about your status. The fate of Equestria does lie in your hooves, after all.
"But, back on subject. I was sent here in your subconscious to teach you a spell that will dismiss the darkness from the afflicted. Personally, I think that Twilight should've come to teach you. She is a bookworm in these type of things. But she's recovering from an injury from a battle at Mikaz."
Grandiur blinked. He was... sleeping?
"But," Pinkie continued, "since I'm not here to complain, I will teach you this spell." She started bouncing up and down. "Yay! I get to teach someone!"
Grandiur half-smiled. He'd never met somepony this enthusiastic.
"This spell is very energy sapping. Be prepared to fall into a layer of Limbo when you perform this here. Close your eyes." Grandiur did as she said. "Good. Now, light your horn. There you go! You're going like a pro! Visualize the light from your horn compressing and getting more powerful. Great, you're doing it! Put as much energy as you can. The Essense is no pushover. Great!! Now release all the energy!" Grandiur saw the light flash through his eyelids, the force of the release pushing him back. He opened his eyes, to see Pinkie Pie wobbling around, eyes extremely dialated. "That... was... really... well... performed..." she slurred, her horn glowing with a pink aura. The aura surrounded her face, and an instant later, her pupils were back to normal size, and stopped swaying like a drunkard.
"This spell is crucial to expel darkness from the civilian's bodies," Pinkie stated, "If you don't do it soon, the disease will... do something, I dunno! But, cure the civilians as soon as possible, capiche?"
"Okay," Grandiur responded, "I will do that."
"Okeydokeylokey. Now I just need to figure out away to escape your dream, so..." she reared up and waved her hooves slowly in front of her, the dream fading slowly into reality.
Grandiur awoke laying belly-down in front of the statue. The light from the jewel aimed toward the exit, going through a small hole in the ground. He stood, shaking off dirt on his coat. "Crimson?" Grandiur called, looking around.
"Grandiur, I'm right behind you." Crimson responded, the closeness of his voice confirming his position. Grandiur studied the area around him again. "Where's Radi?" he asked.
Crimson gazed around. "I'm not sure, actually. She went back into the mineshaft last I saw."
"Why would she go back into the mineshaft?"
"Once again, I'm not sure." Crimson repeated, "I'll check on the other side."
"Right," Grandiur responded. He studied the area around him, searching every nook and cranny of the place. After doing a full scan, he recognized a figure at the back wall. It was Radi! What was she doing there?
"Radi!" Grandiur exclaimed, "Where have you been?" She stood facing the wall, not responding. "Radi," Grandiur approached her, "is everything alright?" He nudged her with his hoof, and he was immediately surprised that she was cold. As cold as the darkness.
Before he knew it, he was pinned to the wall by the neck, hanging off the ground. Radi grinned darkly at him as she applied pressure to his neck. Grandiur gasped for air as he reached his hoof up and hit her. She screamed as she let go of him, Grandiur being dropped onto the ground. The scream seemed much more gurgle-y than Radi's. The mare rushed at him again, pinning him to the floor. He hit her across the face a couple times until she released her grip. He then bucked her backward, her figure degrading, random holes appearing on her legs. Her body darkened, growing a black, jagged horn from her forehead. It bore sharp teeth, an endless void for eyes.
"Shit! Changelings!" Crimson yelled the other platform. "We're outnumbered! Grandiur, we need to go now!"
"On it!" Grandiur responded, more of the changelings gaining on him. He sent out a pulse of energy from his horn to knock them aside. He galloped across the bridge, the changelings in hot pursuit. He proceeded through the exit, whipping around narrow turns and stalactites on the ceiling. He could make out two figures, one was obviously Crimson, but the other...
"Radi, is that truly you?" Grandiur asked.
"Of course!" Radi responded, "Who did you think I was?"
The three broke to the outside of the mine faster than expected. Adrenaline pumping through their veins, they continued to run. Up ahead was the village, though many changelings were flying over it, though they didn't seem to be attacking. They galloped as fast as their legs would take them toward their destination.
---
Upon arrival, the village was a mess. Houses crumpled and broken, shacks completely demolished, the infirmary collapsed. "Radi, Crimson, Grandiur!" A voice called. The voice belonged to Orenji, hiding under remnents of a house along with Murasaki, Zecora, and the young mare they'd met the day before. "Get over here!" Orenji commanded. Without hesitation, they took cover with the other four. As soon as the trio joined them, Crimson was the first to speak. "Where the hell did the changelings come from?"
"Well," Murasaki said, "They are the villagers."
"What?"
"That was the sickness. The darkness inside them corrupted everything. Their appearance, their way of thinking, everything just void. So, they became the changelings."
"Zecora, is there any way to change them back?" Grandiur asked.
Zecora nodded, "Maybe, maybe, but I wouldn't count on it. It would take the spell and some wit."
Grandiur nodded. "I'll do my best." He ran out of cover into the open, drawing their attention to him. To aggravate more of them, he pestered them with rock throwing. The whole group of them flew down to persue him. Grandiur closed his eyes, and focused. Energy around his horn compressed and intensified, becoming a bright ball atop his horn. He grit his teeth and locked up, head pounding and heart racing. He'd never spent this much effort on a spell before. Finally, he released the energy, flashing light upon the changelings. He opened his eyes, and realized that half the changelings that were chasing him down were back to normal. The other half, however, flew off into the distance, leaving the wreckage of the village.
Grandiur fell to the ground, breathing heavily. His vision would no longer focus. Not unexpectedly, he fell unconscious, now knowing he was prone to doing so when over-exerted.