We packed up and left early in the morning, avoiding the crowds in the streets of Baltimare. After a week in the city I felt ready to face the bigger stuff. We were heading to Manehattan after a short trip through a trail on the Everfree forest. I knew we wouldn't stick on the trail, we still had to hunt down goblin campsites and such. It would be four days on the trail at most to explore the entire surroundings of the forest. We were lucky to have a Pegasus in the air, I'm pretty sure we would've been through the forest for much longer without somepony up there. We set off before the sun had risen to the northeast. We could've gone northwest along the field, but that would only take hours to arrive at Fillydelphia, and we would be leaving the entire section of the forest trail uncovered. Everypony was pretty awake and ready to walk. It took about half an hour to get to the forest's edge.
"I can't believe we have to cover the ENTIRE forest!" Tiki said disappointedly.
"We can get it done fast, but it has to be done. We can't leave any stray rebel goblins out there." I said.
"Why can't we just break the sources of power and let the stupid goblins wander around?" Silver Dust asked.
"Come on, you all know that they're fighting on Blunt Will's orders. They aren't stupid creatures like regular goblins." I explained.
"He's right you guys, we can't let these critters come up and bite our behinds." Bronze chimed in.
"Alright. Lets get this over with." Tiki sighed and took off into the air.
We started walking through the forest and immediately came across two different camps. At first, we took out the camps swiftly and recklessly, which costed us some bruises and scratches from simple goblins. The robes did a good job of sealing off small wounds and keeping us comfortable, but we couldn't risk any serious injuries. We decided to take on the next camp slower and more cautiously. Tiki suggested just burning down the camps and everything in the area, but it wasn't an option. As much as I would love to turn an entire goblin camp into a blackened crisp, I didn't want to burn down the forest. If we had been in the field where my magic fire would've been easier to control I could remove an entire base from the face of Equestria.
We kept exploring for the day, finding only one more goblin camp and pony camp. We came across a group of gypsy carriages set up along the forest trail. The gypsies of the camp seemed oddly familiar. I noticed a strangely pink older couple resembling an energetic pink mare I knew in Ponyville, then I remembered something I heard from the human world. This gave me a strange idea that I would have to try out later on, maybe in a personal note to Pinkie Pie. The bard of gypsies warned of the strange properties of the forest and told us to turn back and go a different route. As much as I would've wanted to heed the warning, the other three agreed that the trip wouldn't be worth it. We continued through the path until dusk came and we could no longer traverse in the dark. Before the sun set and the moon rose high in the night sky the trail became less visible and more dense with overgrowth. I didn't like the look of the trail, but with my friends and myself we could take on whatever lies ahead. We pitched the tent at the side of the trail in a soft bed of tall grass. That night I had a single dream of the deep, mysterious voice calling to me from the trail. Everypony else was having the same dream and even the amulet was captured in the trance and remained silent through the night. Something powerful beyond our reach lied within the trail, and we would have to face it tomorrow.
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"Anypony else have a weird dream all night?" Tiki asked.
"You all heard that voice, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, it didn't seem very threatening, but I'm sort of afraid of what's in that trail." Silver Dust said.
"I'm not exactly afraid if it's related to another voice, he's the one who gave me my blade." I smiled.
"What? You've been talkin' to this mystery voice and haven't told us about it?" Bronze Hammer asked.
"I've probably mentioned it a couple times, but not in an important way." I explained.
"Well, as long as he's on our side I'm alright." Tiki said.
"Whatever, let's head out while its still morning." Silver Dust said, opening the front of the tent.
Fog poured into the tent and shrouded us all in mist. It didn't feel damp or smell like swampy mud. There was no condensation anywhere, the mist was just there. It was a complete mystery to all of us, especially Tiki. After being through the clouds so many times the Pegasus had picked up on the details of clouds, fog, and mist. This apparently wasn't anything cloud related, which made us cautious exiting the tent. There was nothing bad around and everything was still where it was from last night. I packed up the tent and we each had a small meal before we went out to the thick foggy trail. I decided to send a letter off to the mane 6, since we hadn't written to them in what seemed to be weeks. After discussing the events from the last week I continued to our current situation. I described the mysterious fog and where we were going. Each of the other 3 put in notes from their point of view and anything private on a separate paper. At the end I sent a small message for Pinkie Pie to see how she would react. I finished the letter and we all signed the bottom. I sent the letter off in flames and we went to the shrouded path of mystery.
"It's not that bad in here, just a crowded path is all." Silver Dust said.
"True, but we still have to make it to the other side." I replied.
"I feel so exposed down here... It's strange not flying above you guys." Tiki said.
"Well you couldn't fly without us in your sight, welcome to the ground." I said jokingly.
"Lets just get through this..." Tiki sighed.
As we kept walking, the path started to open up into more of a field. There were large rocks covered in moss with pools of crystal clear water all around. Gentle hills rolled over the land from what we could see. The fog was still thick in the air and kept our distance of view extremely short. I tried my Draco-vision, but there was nothing to see and I doubt it would work through the mysterious fog. We continued to walk through the fog even after the trail slowly turned to grass and we were walking blindly. Tiki tried flying into the air but fog crawled through the sky a mile high. Tiki couldn't fly past a certain distance without the weight of the air dragging him down to the ground. The fog kept Tiki from flying higher as it grew thicker in the air. After he reached the mile mark, the fog was like butter and Tiki went into a free fall before recovering about 20 feet above the ground. I tried to view Tiki in the air through my Draco-vision as he climbed higher, but the fog was obstructing all of my visions. As he climbed into the shrouded sky I lost complete track of him within 20 feet of his takeoff. We continued to walk through the land for what seemed like hours, almost days. We passed many unique structures, none made by ponies or anything of the sort. This mysterious land seemed untouched by the hooves of mortal souls. I doubt we were even in Equestria still, and this fog was now intriguing me beyond imagination. After an eternity of silence I tried to break it. I shouted but no sound went through the air. My shout was like a whisper to the other three near me. I thought about how we would communicate and somepony responded in my thoughts.
"I guess thoughts are the only thing that can really travel through this fog." Silver Dust said in thought.
"Are you using the amulet to do this?" I asked.
"Nope, I just heard you thinking to yourself and decided to think with you." Silver said jokingly.
"Ah'm surprised we didn't find this out earlier. Ah guess we were just busy with the scenery." Bronze chimed in.
"Alright. That doesn't matter any more, I want answers from somepony!" Tiki said loudly through his thoughts.
It's about time I explained myself.
The mystery voice from our dream had echoed through the fog once again. The very sound of this deep tone shook the ground and distilled the pools of water around us. We all looked around franticly for answers, but nothing showed as far as we could see. We continued walking slowly until we approached an unusually flat patch of taller grass. Anypony could easily tell that this was a perfect circle around 20 feet in diameter. The grass didn't feel like grass, it was extremely soft and induced sleep to the touch. Before anypony could respond to anything, two massive emerald wings spread across the patch and a scaly face emerged from the patch. The wings weren't scaled, but covered in a certain fluff that whisked around like a blazing fire. The dragon seemed to have a mane of the flaming fuzz around his ears going down his neck and falling a bit into his face. The rest of his body was flame fluff on the top and smooth glossy scales on his underside. His tail and body didn't show much through the fog so we couldn't tell exactly how large the beast was. I was skeptical on referring to him as a dragon due to the mysterious fuzz along his back and his fuzzy mane, if it was a mane.
"Lord of bliss, it is a delight to see you in the flesh!" The creature said in a jolly tone.
"What? Lord? I would hardly call myself that, maybe just a strong leader." I said sheepishly.
"Now now, do not deny your destiny!" The beast bellowed.
"Well if you say so. Can you tell me who you are and where we are?" I asked politely.
"You are all in the afterworld! The land of life after death! And I am the great lord of desire! I was the creator of greed and war! Do not fear though, I am an honorable being, with my past far behind myself!" The dragon said happily. He was indeed a dragon, a strange dragon.
"Oh Celestia! Dying is gonna be a bummer with this fog all around!" Tiki blurted out.
"Of course not! You all only see fog because you are still mortal!" The dragon explained.
"Thank CELESTIA!! When y'all said afterworld I thought we were all dead!" Bronze said.
"Oh, all of you are far from dead!" The dragon bellowed.
"I'm guessing you know the past and future, don't you?" Silver Dust asked.
"Of course I do! It's quite boring so I try my best not to look into the future all the time, but I've seen great things for all of you!" The dragon lord said.
"So why did you bring us all here?" I asked.
"You stopped in front of the portal, so I opened it during the night while you all were asleep." The dragon explained.
"Do you have a name?" Tiki asked.
"I was not named when I was created, but I have taken the element of desire to myself, you may call me Desire if you wish." The dragon lord offered.
"Alright, Desire, why are we here?" I asked.
"I didn't want to give up the opportunity of bringing you all here! I had just opened the portal for you to visit me in!" Desire said cheerfully.
"Alright, so whats up with this fog?" Tiki asked.
"It isn't fog, its the souls of all the creatures of Equestria and beyond, the souls of the past and the future." Desire explained.
"What?! These are living things floating around us?" Tiki asked.
"Well, its hard to explain. They aren't really living and they're all soul floating around you. Each individual soul cannot be given a unit of definition, but when they are all together they create a dense cloud of one." Desire told us.
"Well how big is this world?" I asked.
"It's physically endless!" Desire burst out.
"That's not really possible." Silver mumbled.
"You're in the afterworld! Don't question my authority!" Desire said jokingly.
"You rule over the afterworld?" I asked.
"Well, we all do. Power, Deceit, Mutany, Rage, Sorrow, and myself." Desire had explained.
"Wait a second... 6 dragon lords, all having special elements. I've heard this somewhere before." Silver Dust thought to himself.
"Most likely from being around the elements of harmony. We are the counterbalance of those six." Desire explained.
"They have been around as long as ourselves, but it is their time to walk the land after the Discordian era had ended." Desire continued.
"Where do I come in?" I asked anxiously.
"Ah! You are an unexpected element that harmony had formed! With the era of Celestsia and Luna, there has been so much happiness in such a well working world, your presence was necessary!" Desire explained.
"But I'm not part of this world! How could this have affected me from a different universe?" I asked.
"Oh, it didn't! When you showed up with such power the energies of the world started to take advantage of this spawn!" Desire ranted on.
"They were preparing for you to take your role in the world with such perfect timing! The lab explosion that had broken your physical bond from your home world was completely unaffected by our dimension's actions, but it was another well timed occurrence!" Desire continued on.
"When that bond broke, you became part of our world and you gained even more immense power from the immortal energies around you!" Desire finished.
"So it was just the Equestria dimension placing my power into a proper position?" I asked.
"Well, with a bit of adjustment. I'm a bit surprised your physical body was able to contain the energy." Desire said shockingly.
"Well, there have been outbursts, but nothing large." I said.
"There haven't been outbursts at all, we would all know if there was. Your largest energy leak could level Ponyville three times over, which is why you must be careful of yourself until your true form takes place." Desire explained.
"So I'm going to look like you?" I asked.
"Well, not exactly, you'll have a mane and the fuzz, but it will reflect your personal feelings and your element." Desire explained.
"What? Ironclad is going to look like you? He's going to be a dragon?!" Tiki asked frantically.
"I never said that exactly, but his true form will be different from his original, most likely larger to host his core power source." Desire said.
"Aw man! You would look so cool as one of these fluffy dragons! We could be flying buddies!" Tiki said to me.
"So lords of the elements don't all take the same form?" I asked.
"Well, the dragon lords all have taken quite similar form such as my own, but the elements of harmony had taken form only recently from being only forces of pure invisible energy. I really can't say if you'll take dragon or pony form, maybe both, or something completely different." Desire had pondered.
"And ya also mentioned that you don't act like yer former self? Your days of desirin' are over?" Bronze asked.
"Yes, mostly. After many millenniums, my personality smoothed out to a more full range of emotion rather than a spike of desire, greed, and selfishness." Desire explained.
"Ah hope the rest of ya did the same, 'cause some of them elements sound pretty nasty." Bronze said.
"Yes, all of them have mellowed out to a more mutual personality such as mine, but we all still share our unique qualities." Desire explained.
"Well, we best be on our way. We have a long trip ahead of us!" Silver said walking off into the mist.
"I really should send you all back, its already been 6 months..." Desire said casually.
"Celestia, no... You don't mean that time isn't correlated to the mortal world here?" Silver said, panicking.
"Why would it ever correlate? The souls in this land would have to wait an eternity to enter the mortal world!" Desire laughed.
"Just send us back before we lose more time..." I said worryingly.
As you wish, lord of bliss.
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A portal was opened in one of the pools of crystal clear water and we jumped through. Everypony shot out of the other side and fell onto the ground of the trail we were originally in. The mist had disappeared from the forest and everything seemed the same as when we entered. When I looked over to the entrance I saw that it was completely opened up and the vegetation had been cut back. The path had been cleared out like any other trails that we walked along Equestria. At first we had thought that we came out in a different trail, but then I noticed the opening and the area of grass we had pitched our tent in 6 months ago. We sat there beyond belief at what was happening and the next thing that went through my mind were letters. I haven't received any since leaving the portal and the last one I had sent was before we entered. I pulled a quill and paper from my pocket and started writing a note to Twilight. I asked what the date was and how long we had been gone for. After writing down those few sentences I sent the letter immediately and waited for a response.
It was late morning so Twilight and the others couldn't have been so busy as to ignore one of our letters. At the least, Spike would just read off the letter to Twilight while she was busy doing whatever she was doing. It didn't take long for a letter to be sent back to us, and what it said shocked everypony even more. The letter said that we had been gone for 6 months and 2 weeks. Letters where trying to be sent to my source of energy, but couldn't be traced to be sent. The mane 6 had been worried sick about our disappearance and thought something horrible had happened to us. Twilight also mentioned something about Pinkie Pie acting differently after I had sent her that verse of song in our last letter.
When you've bungled all your bangles
and your loved ones have been mangled
listen to the jingle jangle
of my gypsy tambourine.
Those were the words I had sent in the letter in a song form. It was an old nursery rhyme I had remembered from a music video I had seen in the human world. Maybe it would bring back memories from her past, maybe not. I just wanted to know Pinkie's reaction if any was given from the verse. Apparently it had affected her initially, and became progressively worse as answers started to run out. I wasn't around to give Pinkie the answers she deserves. With that aside though, I still had to sort out this whole time warp stuff. Before I got to the rest of the group, I felt a potential communicating portal in the pool of water on the side of the trail and had to talk to Pinkie Pie. I dropped a single spark around the pool and it danced across the water until it found the middle. The spark dove into the water and one ripple flowed to the sides and returned to the center, replacing my image with a reflection of Pinkie Pie.
"It's been 6 months, hasn't it?" I asked the reflection.
"Ironclad?! How did you get into my drink?" Pinkie asked ecstatically.
"Just a little messenger spell I know, but that isn't important." I said sternly.
"What's the important thing then? Other than you guys being gone for 6 months!" Pinkie said into her drink.
"I heard you were acting strangely after I sent you the gypsy verse..." I said.
"Where... Where did you find that song?" Pinkie choked out.
"I saw a group of gypsies on the trail into a forest and one of the couples reminded me of you. One thing lead to another and I thought about something I heard from my home world." I explained.
"I saw images. Memories came back and I couldn't explain them. Do you know about my past? Before the rock farm?" Pinkie asked desperately.
"I don't know the details, but it doesn't matter. You have your best friends in Ponyville!" I said encouragingly.
"I can't sleep though! I haven't been able to sleep! I need to know my roots!" Pinkie yelled into the glass of water.
"I don't exactly have the back story, but I think I know the ponies who do... If I find them I'll get you your answers, Pinkie." I said assuringly.
"Okie doki loki, I'll be waiting for those answers. At least I can rest now knowing that." Pinkie said, letting out a deep sigh.
I returned from the pool's view, letting Pinkie's image fade into the water as I joined the other three at the edge of the trail. We sat there for a while looking at the scenery, just trying to grasp the fact that 6 months had gone by within minutes in that other world. Silver snapped us out of our little meditation in the forest, and we continued through the trail. I knew that once we reached the next largest city I would have to get a letter out to Princess Celestia. I needed to know the situation at hand with the goblins and anything else. We continued our regular patrol with Tiki circling overhead while the rest of us trekked through the forest trail. We walked all day, only to find empty camps that once held goblins within their tents. The goblin forces had moved out from their hiding places and gathered somewhere else. I didn't know where they were, but I was worried that the worst had happened and that they invaded the major cities without warning or something related to the subject. The sun started to set as we continued to walk the trail, but the glow of Fillydelphia could be seen from the air. We galloped all the way to the city as it got darker out to find that everything was in tact and nopony was harmed. The campsites didn't have any fresh signs of departure so I wasn't worried about anything imminent. I had to get a letter to the princess for a briefing on what had happened over the last six months. I wrote a small message and sent it out as the sun set before us on the edge of the town.
The message I received came quite quickly and was shorter than I would've imagined. It explained that the goblins had moved out against Manehattan as their first target. Without our help around, the Princesses deployed their men to the city for aid and crushed the resistance. The soldiers could only stop the invasion for so long and had to barricade the entrances due to the overwhelming population of goblins. I took a good guess to say that a source of power was behind the army. Since we were nowhere to be found for 6 months, the goblins were able to move ahead on their plan because we weren't there to stop them. The cobblestone roads of the city where dimly lit by street lamps glowing a pale yellow, along with the occasional green glow of a firefly. Nopony was walking the streets at night, just a few shady characters along the sides down a few streets we went through. The Princess designated us to a house on the end of a side street that was run by a friend who could house us for the night. It took a bit of navigation and walking to find it, but we finally found the complex on the end of South Hay Street. I knocked on the door and heard a jumbling of a lock and noticed movement through the peep hole on the middle of the door.
"Ah, so the four warriors have returned!" A familiar voice rang out.
"Yes! We need somewhere to stay for the night before we can leave for Manehattan!" I said through the door.
"Hold on! I shall open the door soon, but this lock is a bit rusted." The familiar voice replied.
"Here we go! Please, come in." Luna opened the door.
"Luna?! What are you doing here in Fillydelphia?" I asked in surprise.
"I am stationed here in Fillydelphia for the week for the soldiers in Manehattan. It was too dangerous to stay in a suite in the city under siege." Luna explained.
"I see, but why stay in such a basic little apartment?" I asked.
"Looks are usually deceiving!" She winked at us as she revealed what was behind the door.
"What the buck?! This place is huge!" Tiki exclaimed.
"How far does the building go back?" Tiki asked as he flew back behind the building.
"Thank you for allowing us to stay here for the night." Silver said graciously.
"It isn't a problem! But there are a lack of rooms, so somepony will have to sleep with me tonight." Luna said, looking at the shocked expression on all of our faces.
"You aren't serious, are you?" I asked, closing my dropped jaw.
"There are enough beds for you all! I am just having fun with your group! Would there be a problem with sharing a room with royalty?" Luna asked playfully.
"Of course not!" Silver Dust said shaking his head.
"Good, because I may change my mind later." Luna said jokingly.
"That definitely threw me off my hooves, I'm ready for bed." Tiki said, flying back in through the door.
"The magic apartment or Luna's way of havin' fun?" Bronze asked.
"Both, but I'm too tired to react to a princess flirting with our group." Tiki said blandly.
"Alright, I will allow you all to rest while I take my place into the night. But I should let you know there are only so many beds in the back room, one of you will have to use mine." Luna said, opening the door into the night sky.
We all went to the back room where the beds were all located. There were only two beds and a guest bed in another room in the back hallway, and each pony got to pick their own beds before I could even enter the rooms. I was a bit hesitant to do this, but Luna insisted on using her bed for a good night's rest. The couch in the living room was a bit small. There was also a reclining chair and another two seat couch in a small semicircle around a small fireplace. The front door was to the right of the living room, and in the back was a step up to the dining area. A large round table of black wood was set up in the back with a small chandelier hanging over the middle of the table. The kitchen was to the left behind the dining room with many different burners and stoves behind an island bar in the kitchen. I never knew Luna was a skilled chef until seeing this. There are probably many things that I didn't know about Luna, but looks are deceiving as she said. I continued walking down a side hall outside of the kitchen into a door at the end. I opened the door slowly to find a smaller room with a large, glorious bed of black and blue laying in the middle of the room. Drapes of stars and galaxies came over the ceiling and down the edges of the bed. The sheets and pillows were extremely light and fluffy, also matching the dark color scheme of black and blue. As I touched the pillow, twinkles of stars jumped from it and floated away. It was becoming increasingly late outside the window looking into the back behind the alleyway. The window could be opened and an alicorn like Luna could even fit out and step onto the roof of the neighboring complex outside. I tried doing so and stood outside in the spring night air and looked upon the moon. The air was warmer than expected and felt a bit moist. I thought it would be much colder and more dry, but then I remembered that I completely missed the winter season in that single visit through the portal. I sat down on the roof looking into the stars, thinking about the future.
"Cannot sleep in a bed such as mine?" Luna had asked behind me.
"I haven't tried it yet, but I like this little rooftop you have access to from your window." I said.
"It's nice to come out here once in a while, just to look up to the stars." Luna said.
"Yeah, looking at them keeps your mind clear, I bet." I said.
"You must have a lot going through yours, being gone for so long." Luna said.
"Yeah, it's tough to comprehend, and everypony must've been worried about our disappearance." I said.
"Yes, I spoke to the mane 6 in Ponyville about your coming, they've all missed you so much and are relieved at your return." Luna said comfortingly.
"That's a big relief to hear. There haven't been any large changes in their lives yet?" I asked.
"Yet? Your group knows more about our future than we do, that's right." Luna said.
"Yeah, but I've figured out that some things don't happen at all and others may happen at different times." I explained.
"I guess you might know about what will become of Twilight and you..." Luna said disappointedly.
"What? Is there something wrong with becoming an alicorn?" I asked.
"An alicorn?! Is that what lies within Twilight Sparkle's future?" Luna looked surprised.
"Well, yes. If everything happens according to what I've witnessed." I said.
"We will all have to wait for the future to reveal what is in store for us." Luna said.
"You're right, but it's time I got some sleep." I said.
"Yes, I shall continue my job watching over the night. I will be back in the early dawn to join you." Luna said playfully.
"Oh, I thought that was just a joke!" I laughed.
"It mostly was for your friends! I had my suspicions on how they would react." Luna smiled.
The young alicorn princess took off into the night as I went back to the window. I creeped through into the dark room and climbed into the plush, comfortable sheets of the bed of night. I soon fell asleep and it felt as if I was falling through the stars in space, floating endlessly in the dark of the night. My dreams also floated endlessly through the abyss of sleep.
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"Good morning, Dragon Lord." Luna's voice whispered as I turned over to face the princess lying in bed next to me.
"Hello, when did you get here?" I asked drowsily.
"I have been laying here for 2 hours now, just resting." Luna replied.
"I thought princesses like you didn't need sleep?" I questioned.
"It's true, but a bit of rest never hurt anypony. Besides, your internal flame is very comforting in bed." Luna answered playfully.
"Eh, thanks. I hope you enjoyed it while you could." I said awkwardly.
"I enjoyed it more than I should have." Luna giggled.
"What? What did you do?" I asked nervously.
"I am just having more fun! Do not worry." She replied.
"Alright, well I should probably get my group and head off, we have to go clear out Manehattan." I said.
"You're right, hurry now before it's too late." Luna said, turning over in bed and returning to her rest.
The sun was rising in the sky as the other three were just waking up from their sleep. I had called them from bed and told everypony to get ready to leave soon. Luna heard the ruckus and decided to stop sleeping and prepare a meal for us. I was interested to put Luna's cooking abilities to the test. As we were all getting ready packing our pockets and throwing on our robes for the day, Luna was preparing the kitchen with all different ingredients and cooking utensils. Her magical horn was working hard as many different things floated through the air and made their way to their proper position. After we were all packed we just sat from the living room watching the amazing show of magic in the kitchen. All different vegetables and spices flew into different pots and pans as the different meals took form and started to smell through the air. The different aromas were very appetizing and none of us could wait for the food to be prepared. As each of the different foods came off the pans and onto the plates, everypony took a seat at the dining room table and prepared for breakfast. Luna brought over the dishes for each of us, a bit exhausted from using magic on so many different things at once. We all sat down and dug into the meal and weren't disappointed. The food wasn't 5 star exquisite material, but it was much better than snacking on the road. It only took a few minutes for everypony to finish breakfast and be ready to leave for the road. We said our goodbyes to the princess, still a bit shocked at finding her in such casual living conditions.
We left the complex and started walking through the city. Fillydelphia was much larger than Baltimare and was a lot more confusing traversing all the short winding streets around the tall buildings. Tiki's license to fly through Baltimare also had affect in the other large cities such as Fillydelphia and Manehattan, which gave us a large advantage for navigating the streets. It only took an hour to get through the entire city at a walking pace and moving on to Manehattan. We were slowed down another hour by a hold up situation at the Fillydelphia bank. A group of rogue Griffins were planning on taking all of the golden bits and whatever gems they could get and selling it to an unknown source for an artifact of power. The group meant business and didn't plan on sparing anypony if it wasn't necessary. There were a few deaths in the process, but it was only that from before we arrived. The griffins had the front door of the building barricaded and the back door was guarded by two of the larger griffins of the group. There were 7 robbers in total, all of them were very well armed with bow, sword, axe, etc.. Each of them carried multiple weapons for different purposes. They used certain tools for killing civilians, another for fighting other forces, and an extra for ranged attack. Tiki flew up to the top of the building to look for the roof entrance while Silver Dust kept the robbers at the blocked door busy. Bronze and I went around the back to deal with the two bigger guys.
"How do you suppose we approach this?" I asked Bronze.
"Ah'm not really sure, ah guess just roast em if the door and walls aren't gonna burn down." Bronze replied.
"Sounds good, I'm getting pretty fired up for this anyways." I said in a cheesy pun.
"Alright, drop the jokes and toast these little birdies." Bronze said loudly so the two guards could hear him loud enough.
"I'm not sure, I don't think it would be very nice. Maybe we should just approach them and ask nicely." I said loudly as a joke.
"Enough jokes! Run off before we actually come over there!" One of the griffins yelled down the hall.
"What? Come over HERE? Somepony might sneak through if you two leave your post!" I said jokingly.
"It's a hallway! Nopony... Ah forget this, I'm gonna deal with these two!" The other griffin said in rage.
"Ok, I guess it's fire time then!" I said, filling the hall with a tsunami of blue flame washing down the brick corridor. Flames danced down the hall and jumped from the ground up along the roof at their highest. Trash cans that were made from anything other than the strongest metal either burned away or melted into a puddle. The two griffins standing down the hall in front of the door screamed horrifically as they were almost instantly turned to a pile of charcoal and ash. I didn't hesitate brushing them to the side and moving up to the door, but Bronze needed a quick moment to recover from those screams. I'm pretty sure if I didn't have the blood of a fiery-hearted monster I would've been a bit haunted by the noises that burning griffins made. As we both approached the door the other griffins on the inside became increasingly worried about their friends on the outside from the sounds of agonizing screams. One of them opened the door just a crack to check on their friends, but received a metal hammer to the cracked door. The blow shattered the griffins face and bent the metal door in half. As I jumped through the doorway I was jumped by two more griffins, sinking their larger blades into my neck and flank. The blades didn't penetrate my hide, but I could feel the irritating weight of thick metal on my neck. The sword along my flank might've broken my coat or removed the hair from my flank, I could feel something happening either way. In response to this, I met the axe on my neck with my own broadsword and slashed the metal head in half down a diagonal angle, rendering the weapon useless. As I turned around to meet the other attacker on my flank, Bronze had already brought his hammer across the side, throwing the bird into the wall and breaking his neck on the impact. Hearing the noise on the inside, Tiki dropped down from a window opening and assassinated one of the charging griffins with his short swords. Silver Dust stopped wasting time with the griffin at the front door in the other room and just blew the barricade down with a thrown barrier of magic generated by the amulet. The griffin of the front door was thrown behind the wooden counter from the impact and was soon finished with a blade to the neck from Silver Dust. The robbery was stopped in it's tracks and all the hostages in the bank at the time were rescued. Silver went through bringing the injured ponies back to a better state of health and even saved one from near death. The stallion had been shot in the neck with a bow and was physically dead for about 45 seconds before Silver reached the business horse. During those 45 seconds I had put my Draco-vision on to see his life force jumping from his body. I saw a small hazy portal open in the back room near one of the safes as his life slowly floated towards the opening. When I discovered this vision I just guessed it was from the dragon blood and that all dragons saw in this way. I had vision to detect heat signatures from animals, which changed the shape of my eyes to a serpentine slit shape. This vision to see life force only caused the colors in my eyes to glow and swirl different shades of green and required magic to activate. I thought more deeply about the facts and what my supposed fate was for myself to make the conclusion that this ability was only possessed by myself or the other dragon lords of the afterworld. As I continued thinking, it made more and more sense. The life forces I see looked completely similar to the fog in the afterworld that I saw when my Draco-vision was active. The fog I see emanating from live bodies were just tiny clustered bundles of the mist, about the size of a small apple. I can tell the different animals because of the size, shape, and color of each soul is different. As I continued to think I was snapped out of my thought by an officer who came to ask our group what we were here for. I only explained to him that it was our job to help and I showed him the backside of our medals we received at the ceremony after the goblin battle. He knew the engravings and waved us off as clear. After that we left the city in the last 15 minutes and now we were on the edge of a field, leading to a coastal path to Manehattan.
It was about mid day now as we marched the path to Manehattan. The day was increasingly warmer than yesterday, making it a good time to swim through the beach. Tiki had grabbed a large solid piece of driftwood to try his surfing abilities as a pony. As if it came naturally to him, the Pegasus used his wings as perfect balance as he shot through a funnel of water and out the other side of the massive wave of salt water. I had witnessed Tiki surf thunderstorms on a sheet of white cloud in Ponyville before this quest of ours. The white cloud was apparently lighter than storm clouds, which allowed Pegasi to glide across storm clouds like a surfboard during a storm. During one of the storms over Ponyville, Tiki was given the job to steak a rainbow at the end of the storm across the sky. Using his cloud board, Tiki took the bucket of rainbow and let it trail off the back of his board through the weakening winds of the storm, creating a perfect rainbow streak across the sky that day. Everypony was so amazed by the intensity of the rainbow colors because Tiki had used all of the bucket across the middle of the sky, and not a regular bucket across the entire sky. It wasn't a bad thing, it was just a different way of spreading rainbows across the sky.
As the day went by and Tiki continued surfing I noticed a small ship in the distance of the waters of the ocean. The ship was sailing the same way we were headed, and came increasingly closer as we walked. I got a look of agreement from Silver and Bronze. Tiki came in a bit later after also spotting the ship in the distance. The ship continued to come closer to the shore as we prepared to be met with whatever danger was aboard the vessel. Tiki flew out to the ship to be greeted with open hooves from all sorts of jolly sea ponies from different places. The ship anchored off of the drop off of the shore and sent a dingy onto the beach to search for their business partners. A group of griffins were supposed to meet the group on the shore somewhere with a large bounty in exchange for a magical artifact from a far away place. I decided not to tell them what happened to their business partners, but to just sit here on the beach for a while and chat. The pirates agreed to the idea and set up a bonfire for the night while they waited. We talked about where we were from and some of our personal lives. The sun was getting close to setting as we all built the large bonfire along the beach, enjoying the company of our new privateer friends. They claimed to be pirates of code and do not partake in direct violation of laws wherever they are. Another dingy soon pulled ashore with different types of liquor and a group of ponies with different instruments. I know good alcohol is extremely hard to come by in such a good intentioned world such as Equestria, and I had my suspicions. The band of musical pirates played and I continued the conversation by explaining where my group originated from and why we were here and such. The captain of the crew jumped at the word "human" and tried to brush his reaction off.
"You seemed a bit nervous at that word..." I said suspiciously.
"Nope, I've never heard of it before!" The captain said, taking a large drink of his bottle of rum.
"There's nothing to hide, alcohol was nonexistent in this world until an unusual group of pirates showed up off the shore of Equestria." Silver said, trying to make the captain more nervous.
"We're all originally from Equestria! We just sailed off for a couple years is all, learned some new tricks." The captain claimed.
"Well, I know that any regular human would come into this world with alcohol, guns, and other ways of life from the human world, which would only taint the innocence of Equestria." I explained, eyeing the captain.
"I know what you all are trying to do, but it won't work!" The captain had shouted.
"Who put you in this world!" I shouted with a smile on my face.
"I did it myself!" He shouted back.
"Yeah, I knew you were human." I said, satisfied with my results.
"Well, you caught me, just send me back or whatever you've got to do." The captain said.
"Well as long as you don't work for anyone in the human world that I should be worried about, you might as well stick around. You deserve the reward for building your own machine and getting to Equestria!" I said.
"You mean nobody else found the code for Equestria?" He asked.
"No, why? How many people have been doing this so far?" I asked nervously.
"It's just becoming a regular thing, everyone builds their own simulator for FPS games and such, I'm just one of the few who go code hunting for different worlds." The captain explained.
"Sweet Celestia... This is bad, how many years has it been since the first simulator was built?" I asked anxiously.
"It's been about 50 years now, it's pretty common technology." The captain said casually.
"Holy... Son of a... It's been 50 YEARS, guys..." I said as we all shared the same expression of shock and dissapointment.
"Wait... You were the test subjects, you were the four who died all those years ago?!" The captain asked surprisedly.
"That's us... We've only been in here for about 50 weeks now, with the time warp through the afterworld and all I'm pretty sure." I said, calculating the math.
"I can't believe I found the same server! This is amazing!" The captain said.
"You don't understand do you, this isn't a man made server, this is another dimension... This is a world untouched by human hands with all of its innocence preserved..." I said irritatedly.
"This is truly amazing! I have to exit and inform someone about this!" The captain said anxiously.
"If y'all leave here and bring any other humans back, you'll be in a mighty sticky situation when ya get back." Bronze Hammer said angrily, bringing his hammer and some rope from his tether.
"What, why shouldn't humans know about this? It's an immense discovery for mankind!" The captain said, drinking more rum.
"When humans come into this world, everything changes. It won't be Equestria anymore, it'll be a pony version of earth with all of its flaws and such brought in with it." I explained.
"You've all changed! You're one of them now, aren't you?" The captain asked.
"Yeah, and we know what we're going to lose if you bring humans into this dimension." Silver Dust said irritatedly.
"It can't be that good, could it?" The captain asked.
"It's perfect, better than anything else from the old world. Nopony around here cares about money more than each other, we're all supportive and strive to help one another." I explained.
"I'll ditch the alcohol..." The captain sighed.
"I'm glad you understand." Tiki said, putting his swords back into his tethers.
"Oh and... About those griffins..." I said sheepishly.
"No... You didn't annihilate the whole bunch did you?" The captain asked, spitting his alcohol from his mouth.
"Yeah, they didn't get away with anything, sorry about spoiling your little deal." I said.
"Oh no, I guess it's for the best." The captain said disappointedly.
"So what did you find outside of Equestria, anyways?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing really. It's just a lot of forest out there with some dragon roosts and all." The captain explained.
"Well, its definitely getting late out, I think we'll just pitch our tent and head to bed." I said.
"Please, join us out on the water for tonight!" The captain offered.
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Last night was a pretty crazy night. We boarded the ship of Captain Barrels. He told us his name after he introduced us to his crew and announced himself as Captain Barrels of The Black Serpent. He explained that some of the ponies on board where friends from the human world that helped build this massive galleon along with some handy computer programming thought the wormhole. Everything on the ship was black, the wood was a dark flexible palm wood and the sails were slick black sheets of strong fabric that pulls the ship along in the wind. The cargo ship was also build for war, carrying three decks below lined with rows of 26 cannons on each row for both sides. Gun powder hadn't been discovered or used in Equestria from what we know, so the cannons are powered by a spark of magic. A skilled unicorn could easily spark off an entire row of cannons from one of the floors and move down to the next to do the same, but none of the members of the crew were strong magicians. There were a lot of men who could operate the cannon, though, so there wasn't a problem with that. The floor below the last cannon row was a massive storage room, filled with crates, which were filled with exotic goods from different lands of Equestria and gems from far away lands uncharted by Celestia or Luna. A long time ago, Luna once tried to set out to one of these far away lands to create her own land to rule over, the land of the night. Princess Celestia forbade this to happen though, for she saw that it would cause problems between the two lands and only wanted unity for her people. Unity was something that stuck around for the last thousand years, so Luna did not argue with Celestia's wish and remained in Equestria.
The sun was just coming over the horizon and the crew of the ship was laying about, sleeping in hammocks or just across the floorboards. A lot of the ponies came from the shores of towns and cities across Equestria. Captain explained that his men went through the bars and alleys of the towns searching for the right stallions to work the ship and be apart of the greatest crew in Equestria. Most ponies showed up to the beach, but only few were allowed onto the ship. Some of the toughest ponies were turned down because they were prone to cause trouble on the ship. Captain Barrels was looking for determined, loyal ponies to work with his crew, not tough guys who came along to drink and cause trouble. I looked over the group and knew that they were a good bunch, and should be kept close to myself. I knew I could use them for something if I payed them well. My group had woken up in the crowd and soon joined me on the high deck looking over the crowd near the captain's quarters. We had to go into shore soon and continue our walk to Manehattan. The captain came out from his quarters and rowed us to shore in a small dingy. The sun was still low in the sky, so we were in the cold shade of the galleon until we reached the sand bar. It was low tide so the sandy shoal was showing from the water and wasn't possible to cross by dingy, so we had to swim back the rest of the way. I made sure to keep in touch with the captain. He had a gem on the hilt of his glorified sword that was compatible with Silver Dust's gem. It didn't talk or anything, but had traces of magic which allowed us to get mental contact with the captain if we ever needed him. The gem in the hilt of his sword was originally the item of interest for the griffins, but looked much better in the golden hilt of a broadsword. I looked back to see the stallion paddle back to his ghostly ship. The silhouette of the already black galleon made the ship look fearsome in its own ghastly shade of darkness. I felt uncomfortable leaving the group of human ponies alone because of the knowledge they possess and what it could do to Equestria if human ways got out into the world, but I know that after talking to the captain that they should be able to keep most of it to themselves.
The four of us continued walking to Manehattan along the coast of the beach. Tiki continued to surf at our side as much as he could. Nothing really happened all day on our walk until we reached the grassy area before the forest trail leading into Manehattan. It was later in the day, the sun was still high in the sky. The four of us gathered outside the forest and had to keep quiet. We didn't know exactly where the army of goblins were, but we had to find the energy source generating it. Tiki made a trip high over the forest trying to see any sign of goblin activity in the forest in front of us. We were given the all clear and moved cautiously. The next hour was silent, completely silent. We used mental communication to whisper off to each other in thought, but we didn't talk much, we just had to get to Manehattan.
"Ironclad, when we get there, I can flash myself and maybe another one of us in." Silver said.
"You've learned the teleport spell that Twilight uses often?" I asked.
"Yeah, but I don't have it down quite yet." Silver said.
"I could help with the magic, but I'm not familiar with the spell." The amulet said.
"Alright, that's ok. I'll stand outside while you and Bronze head in, I'll keep guard outside while Tiki keeps me covered from the air." I said.
"Sounds good, I'll keep an eye through the forest and the other on you." Tiki added.
"What do ya reckon we do when we get inside?" Bronze asked.
"I want a SitRep on the goblin attacks and the barricades." I said.
"Alright, I'll talk to whoever is in charge. I won't take long." Silver replied.
It was a long, slow walk to Manehattan, but we arrived soon enough. The sun was getting lower in the sky as Silver and Bronze warped through the barricade into the streets of Manehattan. Nopony was out at dusk because of the curfew put upon the citizens due to the situation at hand. This has only been going on for about two weeks now since the goblins attacked. Buildings on the outside of the city were fairly mangled and some of the goblin bodies were lying in the buildings and windows. The guards seemed to take care of the situation that occurred at the time, but they don't clean up too well. The bodies didn't rot or smell much, they just dried out and lingered until the dark magic of the source of power was broken. The bodies were just conjurations and weren't actually made of flesh. Silver and Bronze didn't have Tiki around to navigate the streets, so it took a bit longer than usual to find whoever was in charge around the town. It only took minutes for the two to find a guard and have him lead them to the commander of the Manehattan forces. The commander walked down to the edge of the town with Silver and Bronze, talking about the goblin attacks and how the barricades are holding up well against the attacks. Some of the green creatures have been able to find small tunnels through the debris into the town, but a spear to the head had stopped any crawlers from making it through. The spear would then be positioned into the hole for any other unlucky goblins to run through. The commander gave us a supposed location for the source of power generating all of the warriors. There was a large mine somewhere in the forest that leads down pretty deep into the land. The source of power would most likely be located in the bottom of the mine, creating armies of goblins as we spoke. When I learned of this news as Silver and Bronze warped from the town, we spared no time in galloping for the mineshaft.
Goblins littered the forest floor along the way. Conjured goblin soldiers didn't hold up for long periods of time and were only meant for a short lived battle. The fake goblins didn't eat after they were created and only wandered around until they found a purpose or a command to make them useful. The fakes would all die and blow away in the wind after the crystal is broken or their original copy was killed. A gem of such dark power could hold up to ten or more original copies and make hundreds of each easily. There seemed to be at least four original copies with all the zombielike goblins wandering around without purpose. They didn't really bother attacking because the gem hadn't been activated to attack a certain point or pony. Some jumped our way lazily to just throw us off or give them something to do, but I just threw a blade out and ended the lazy attackers. We didn't have an exact location for the mine, so we spent a few hours wandering around looking for the mine. I remembered within an hour of searching that my Draco-vision could see through the ground and into, say, a mineshaft. I quickly took a look around the ground and saw a large blob of energy coming from deep within the ground of a mine entrance about 30 minutes away from our position. We soon found the entrance and the fight began as the sun touched the horizon.
Goblins were covering the entrance, allowing nothing to enter the mine. I had no patience reasoning with goblins, neither did the other three. Bronze cleared the entrance with a sweep of his hammer. It was a fast sweep, removing all three goblins from the entrance without making much noise. Aside from the crunch of bones and the clank against the metal, the attack was completely silent. We soon entered the mineshaft swiftly and quietly. Gems and ores covered the walls and bodies of miner ponies littered the floors. Most of the bodies were reduced to dried skin and bone, but rotting flesh lingered in the air as we crept through the narrow halls of the cave. We soon came into a larger opening into a cavern filled with goblins. With a purplish glow in their eyes, each of the hundred warriors charged with simple stone weapons or bare claws. We all drew our weapons and prepared for a good fight. One by one, we each slashed down the marauders. Tiki and I parried most of the attacks and slashed back with a quick swipe of a metal blade. Bronze Hammer just swung his hammer like nopony else could do, clearing off groups of incoming attackers as the next row lined up to be swept off once again. Silver Dust took the defensive approach, shielding off the groups and finishing them with a quick magic projectile. Anything that got behind Silver took a quick blade to the head and dropped to the ground like a doll being dropped by a clumsy little filly. We could see that the group thinned out immensely when I blew a blast of fire across my own little crowd. The gems in the room picked up the glimmer of the blaze and held it for a small while. The room glowed different colors from the gems and the thin rankings of the goblins could be viewed clearly. With a whip of fire tamed by magic, I had guided the trail of leaping flames across the last of the warriors, scorching them to the ground. Silver Dust healed off a wound on Bronze's side and the robes we had on fixed up any little scratches over the next few minutes. We continued walking after Silver lit an orb of light to follow us through the cave system. I was beginning to wonder how long we would be down here for, so I activated my Draco-vision to see if I could pick out any more groups to search through. I spotted a small ball of energy in one large room and a larger bundle of energies in a larger cavern. I noticed the smaller orb in the little cavern wasn't a group of goblins, but a single living energy source emanating power from itself. I didn't know many other things that were capable of doing such energy, so I took a good guess on that being the crystal. We continued through the cave, making a right turn to the smaller bundle of energy. We were soon stopped by a pit traveling straight down into a pool of water being illuminated by a species of bioluminescent mushrooms. I didn't want to fall down into the pool, only because we didn't have time to get lost and I didn't want to go for a swim just yet. There was a single railroad dragging over the ditch, bending to it's own weight. I decided to make this quick and sprinted across the rails, stepping lightly and making as few impacts as possible. Thankfully the rails stayed in one piece and I had an exit. Only Tiki flew along with me to the other side because I didn't want Silver or Bronze to break the metal bars by accident and remove my way back. I continued through the cave after telling the others to wait there for a bit. The cave soon became extremely narrow and reduced Tiki and I to a single file line down the tunnel. As we continued walking, the faint purplish glow of the crystal shown through the tunnel as we approached the cavern. We continued to move closer as sounds of screeching and fuzzy white noise echoed through the cavern from the crystal of dark energy. As we entered the room, the crystal exploded with horrific noises of screams and cries of lost souls of ponies and goblins alike. Tiki and I were forced to the ground covering our ears from the horrible sound until the ghastly voice of Blunt Will shook the walls and punched through my chest.
"My cause will not be lost. I will bring you to your knees once more..." The crystal glowed brighter.
"I'm going to end this." I grunted through the noise as I raised my blade, glowing deep blue with fiery power.
I ended the sounds and released the energy from the gem as I split it in half down an angle. Howls and screams shot from the cracks and jumped through the room as ghost white shadows. They crawled through the room and escaped through the cracks and holes in the cavern ceiling, entering the air above and speeding to the afterworld. Energy shot out from all directions and jumped through the different precious stones in the walls. With the last of the energy from the crystal, hundreds of goblins were instantly generated in front of us. Some of them weren't fully generated and some were over generated due to the lack of filtering and control through the crystal. The gnarled bodies fell to the floor and started rushing for us in the middle of the room. I felt like I was in the scene of a horror movie, making my last stand from the horde of creatures coming to tear the flesh from my body. Both Tiki and myself were overwhelmed by the horde of creatures that were supposedly goblins. Claustrophobia soon found its way under my skin and I became extremely uncomfortable with the greenish monsters clawing at my hide. I soon heated up and started to melt the goblins from my body until I had some breathing room. Once I could see my surroundings I unleashed a rain of hellishly blue fire from my muzzle and cooked the surface of the cavern. Most of the creatures fell dead and turned to dust as the next wave of monstrosities showed. Tiki was yelling something from the pile he was trapped under as the live horde started to move its way toward me. Blast after blast, I cooked the incoming monsters down to dust as they floated away through the crevices of the cavern. Within moments I made my way to Tiki, who was covered in horrific gashes and cuts from the gnarled creatures, using only teeth and claws to maim us to death. I picked up the Pegasus and slung him over my back. With a friend clinging to life and an army of creatures you would call goblins coming to me, I had tapped deeper into my core of energy. My features changed once again as my tail turned to scales and flesh and my underbelly became smooth and scaled. My back hooves soon turned to three large claws with a smaller hooked toe on the back of each ankle. My mane turned to a sparkled golden downy fuzz that ran long and went down my backside and puffed out near my tail. Streaks of blue and white danced through my cloudy mane as the raw power jumped from my body and overtook myself. Tiki would have said something that only he would say at the moment, but pain was overtaking him and he grabbed onto the fuzz along my back as I sprinted like a bolt of lightning through the cave. When we got to the tunnel I had used my hind claws to gallop across the ceiling where I had more room to spare. I could physically feel myself moving more efficiently because my midsection had lengthened out and my legs became longer, increasing the distance of my stride. The goblin monstrosities started to scream through the cave as a flood of blackened green. I continued to speed through the cave as I saw the opening with Silver Dust and Bronze Hammer standing there like nothing was happening. "Jump in the water!" I yelled in a rasped draconian voice as I came sprinting through the cave, my coat and mane lighting up different colors of blue and gold. My eyes streaked green through the path that I ran as I hoofed it as fast as I could to the opening. Both Silver and Bronze jumped into the water with no questioning when I called to them, thank Celestia. I dropped Tiki down with Silver and Bronze as I stood at the edge of the rail thinking of something to do. Blue fire occurred to me naturally, and I decided to use whatever power I had left in this new layer of my core. I jumped from the ledge and started to free fall. Time itself seemed to slow down as I started to fall, either that or the raw force of draconian magic emanating from my body kept me airborne. I saw the goblins start to spill over the ledge. When I heard my three friends hit the safety of the water I exploded with power. It felt as if flames danced from all corners of my body, even through the hairs on my coat. Fire filled the cavern and flooded through the tunnels as I loosed a breath of flame like no other. Every single goblin in the cave system was disintegrated, the railroad tracks above me were instantly melted and thrown into the ceiling and walls around it. Anything that wasn't extremely solid rock or at least metal was vaporized. Nothing survived the blast, not even the dark magic that leaked through the cave from the crystal. As I hit the water below me, I heard the voice of Desire echo through my head.
Half way to your full potential. Once it is unlocked, everything will change.
The three stallions washed up on the beach of the underground lake illuminated by glowing teal mushrooms. Little white fish swam in schools around the pillars of rocks sinking down through the lake. I noticed that they had no eyes on them, just small whiskers and large, sensitive fins. Plants grew in the lake, but they were colors of white, blue, even black. There was no sunlight shining down here, so none of the plants could actually turn green for photosynthesis. I washed up to my three friends, unconscious as my features and energy levels returned to normal. Tiki was being patched up by Silver and Bronze was shaking the water from his ears after dragging me to shore. A combination of Silver's magic barrier and the fire proof robes kept the three ponies from being scorched beyond repair. The intense heat from me back in the cavern and tunnels had cauterized some of the more dangerous wounds Tiki had received, which may have saved his life by giving him a bit more time to hold on in the run through the tunnel. After everypony was ready to head off, we looked around for the exit out of the lake. There wasn't exactly an open exit from this side of the lake, so we swam to the other shores while Silver searched underwater in a bubble of magic. We continued to search and found a clear exit straight up to the light of day. As I looked up the hole I noticed the bucket hanging from a small roof, which meant that it was a well. If we were under a well, we must've been under somewhere in Manehattan. I decided not to rush anything much, since we've already removed the problem from Manehattan. We spent a lot of the day enjoying the sights of the lake. There were some interesting plants that the amulet of Silver Dust had pulled from the lake or the shores. They had a much different taste than any green plants from the surface. Most of them were more sugary from the minerals of the cave, others had no taste at all but were supposedly packed with vitamins and such. I had a good time swimming through the warm water, observing the different fish in the lake. At the bottom of the waters, near one of the deeper pillars, I had found giant albino catfish that were as large as myself. They also had no eyes and could only have a good feel for what was going on around them. The other three were doing their own things, I hadn't payed any attention to what they were doing because I was so caught up with the fish in the lake. Neither was I paying any attention to the time, so we left through the well in a hurry before it became too dark to see our surroundings.
"That was pretty crazy down there, we should go back sometime!" Tiki said.
"I'm planning on that, after we're done traveling Equestria, we can bring the mane 6 back here." I said.
"Ah bet we'll find a good bunch of places to go to when we're done with this little tour." Bronze added.
"Plan on that stuff later, guys. Right now we have to talk to somepony about a place to stay." Silver said.
"Do you two remember the way to the commander's house?" I asked.
"Yeah, we're going there right now." Silver replied.
"It would be a lot easier to navigate if it were brighter out." Tiki said.
"Don't worry, I know where we're going." Silver argued.
Soon enough, we arrived at the front door of the commander, who assigned us to a nice four bedded room in a complex down the street. We got in late during the night, not bothering to unpack and such as we all just hit the bed and went straight to sleeping. I knew we all had our own beds, but I couldn't resist asking for the joke of things, "who wants to cuddle tonight?" I received three NO's in unison reply as I chuckled and fell asleep with the others. I drifted into my dreams, cracking my eyes to the glow of the bright full moon shining through the window to see the mare in the moon. Before I fell into a deep sleep of faint dreams, I saw Luna gliding across the sky through the middle of the moon, her shadow passing through our only window. As her shadow passed my face my eyelids shut and the darkness stayed.