The journey in the darkness was frustratingly dull, the stone passageway held nothing of interest to take their minds off the coming trials. These tunnels all looked the same to Sky Strike and he quickly found himself disoriented with all the twists and turns the lithi took.
The living ponies tried to rest, but most found their dreams disturbed by the events of the last few weeks and their sleep didn't so much refresh as draw out their tiredness. The lithi, not needing to say anything simply didn't but just pulled the carts and focused on the path way ahead. The only pony who seemed to be able to get any rest was ironically Foresight.
She and Enigma were riding in the cart ahead of Sky and Shakala, Foresight sleeping quietly next to the older nightborn who watched over her with protective manner. Enigma’s mane was still a mess despite her efforts and though there was no outward sign of harm on her Sky felt like something vital had gone from the mare.
Sky watched Foresight with worry and a kind of brotherly affection, seeing her chest rise and fall gently as she slept. He didn't want any harm to come to Foresight who had surprised him on more than one occasion. She had performed feats of courage that even a hardened warrior like himself or Shakala would balk at and most of all, the pony seemed to radiate hope like a beacon. Hope that things could be better than they were now.
Sky wasn’t sure if it was the effect of the soul she carried, or the protection that Focal Balance had blessed Foresight with, but she really did lift Sky’s heart when he was around her. May be it was just Foresight’s boundless determination that reminded Sky of his younger self.
looking across to Shakala, Sky smiled, seeing him in some sort of meditative trance again. Shakala had been overjoyed to get his carved pole arm back and had spent the first couple of days of travel adding more decoration to it. With little better to do, Sky asked him what he was doing and had gotten the same explanation as Foresight had.
Unlike Foresight however, Sky picked up on the underlying sadness that Shakala tried to hide; seeing in him another equine that had lost something important to them. His curiosity roused, Strike reasoned he probably wouldn't get another chance to ask Sky and so probed Shakala for more details about himself.
"There is more to your story than you have told us isn't there? If you don't want to tell me I understand, but well you know where we are heading, best to know you fellows better if we're going to be watching each other’s backs huh?" That was true of most of the fights if Sky was being honest, but this next coming struggle filled him with a deep sense of foreboding.
Shakala didn't answer right away, finishing the carving the likeness of a scorpni with immense care onto the haft of his weapon. Once he was satisfied, Shakala looked up with his own eyes full of sadness and Sky thought about how different the zebra looked without his wolf mask.
When Sky had first met the newcomer he had radiated mystery and a feral danger; though these were still true Shakala seemed to have a kind face, one that if circumstances had been different Sky could imagine laughing a great deal. He fixed his amber eyes on Sky and began his answer:
"For most pony folk getting a cutie mark is a joyful time, but sadly it is not so, when it came to mine," Shakala released a weary sigh before going on, "I was out finding food and berry, to make my sister's birthday sweet and merry, but sadly upon my return to my home so dear, a beast had attacked and slain all as was my great fear."
Tears began to well up in Shakala's eyes as he recounted the story and Sky was moved to see this normally cryptic zegra open up. He'd never given Sky a straight answer since they had first met and Sky hoped it was a sign of trust forming between them. Shakala’s voice took a sad musical tone, telling the story like a lament.
"Filled with rage and sadness was I you see, so I took up spear and tracked the beast that had taken so much from me. I followed it for days on end, over hill and past each river bend," Sky found a mental picture of the quest forming in his mind's eye, this younger Shakala following signs left by his quarry.
"Until after a great hunt and long trial, I met the monster I thought so vile. With a cry we struggled and we fought, but despite a hard fight its efforts were all for nought," There was no triumph in the zebra's eyes as he said these words, only a melancholy tone.
"Too late I found the creature had only its brood tried to feed and that I had forfeited their lives also by my angered deed." The next words came almost as a whisper, "That my cutie mark came that day no joy it gave me, I had become a killer and a hunter for all to see," Shakala motioned to the pole arm he bore as a weapon.
"A killer I have been born to be. It is my special talent, but in my heart, this is not me. That is why I wore the wood wolf mask of a beast more fearful. So that I become another on the hunt and my heart will not be so tearful," Sky struggled to understand this logic, there was obviously more differences to ponies and zebra than just looks it seemed. He felt he was missing something fundamental in their culture.
"So you wore the mask as what; a war face? so you could go back to being just 'you' after what?" Sky was trying to understand as best he could, but it just sounded like a scary case of split personality to him.
Shakala mulled this idea over for a moment and then nodded, "That is what you may call this way, though it is by different words you say." He explained further, "So I took the bone of the creature I had slain, as a reminder to be careful not to cloud my thoughts with anger, and cause yet more pain. I place the marks for those I must fell, to remember them as noble beasts with their own stories with which to tell."
Sky waited while he worked out that last bit and Shakala's motives became clearer. There was a kind of nobility mixed in there somewhere he guessed and he could look up to that.
"So what tale would you share? I have told of me, now it's your turn and fair is fair." Shakala asked Sky Strike.
Sky strike nodded, but now that it came to it he struggled to come up with a good story about himself, especially after Shakala’s honest and tragic story. He took a few moments to think before he began a tale of his own:
"I grew up in High Point, I don't know if you have heard of it? No? It’s gone now any way the cult ponies destroyed it, but that's not what I was talking about. High Point was a rough place as Foresight may have told you, she bumped into a zebra that was bad news there...."
"Your words are all of a place, not of the pony who bears your face," Shakala pointed out and Sky nodded; he was getting off the subject. His thoughts had gone to home again, as if by remembering High Point he could bring it back again, but heeding his fellow's prompt he began anew.
Sky cleared his throat, "It was my first outing with the town's militia and I was just short of my second coming of age party. I was so excited to finally get outside the town's walls and go foraging. It’s a really big event when a pony gets to finally start doing a job, we start contributing to the community rather just taking from it. You need to prove you are of use in High Point if you wanted to stay.”
Sky despite agreeing to tell some history of his life, still found it hard to open up. Such confessions felt like a sign of weakness to him, but if he was going to trust any pony then he may as well start here. His previous words reminding him that he may not get another chance.
“Both my parents had gone by that point, I never knew my dad and mum caught an incurable case of dust phage. I won’t tell you the details of it, but not a nice way to go. That left me fending for myself. I thought I was tough and took to the life of street pony. I stole what I needed to get by, not a rare thing in High Point, but I prided myself on being one of the best street ponies out there,” Sky smiled ruefully, “But then Enigma caught me.”
Sky’s mind drifted back to that scary day of revelation. It had been a simple task of lifting food from a fruit traders cart that had lead to Sky’s first meeting of Enigma. Sky could still remember that first confrontation with the nightborn mare like it was yesterday. His eyes drifted over to the ex-commander of High Point sitting in the cart ahead of them. A lot of Enigma’s former poise and haughty manner had gone, to be replaced by a cold determination. Sky still didn’t know what Catalyst had put her through, but it had obviously shaken her to the core.
Coming back to his tale, Sky Strike explained that day in more detail: “Lived on the streets for years and never got caught, oh some came close, but I just laughed that off. I got cocky, that was my mistake. I stopped to taunt a shop keeper who had tried to catch me after I made off with a bushel of his apples. That’s when I felt her in my head. It seemed my little crime spree had finally caught the attention of the ‘boss’.”
Shakala didn’t say anything during Sky’s telling of his story, just listening with a blank face and watching impassively as Sky told him of his criminal past.
“I tried to run, but at every turn Enigma was ahead of me. It was as if she knew what I was planning before I did,” Sky chuckled, “Which turns out that was exactly the case with nightborn. Enigma knew I couldn’t run far enough from her and so let me wear myself out trying. Eventually she found me in a crate in an abandoned dark alley way.”
“So you’re the young miscreant that has been giving us the slip for the last few months," Enigma’s voice echoed in Sky’s head and he shivered at its touch. Sky was too tired to run any more and Looking up the colt saw the pair of ice blue eyes looking down on him, but instead of the expected anger there was approval in them.
“’You have some skills my little fugitive, I believe we could put them to good use’" She had said and I was too exhausted to say otherwise. That’s how I ended up in the militia anyhow, sorry got off topic again didn’t I?” Sky grinned in a sheepish way; he wasn’t good at telling stories.
“No, this is your tale my friend, it is for you to weave, and bring it to its end,” Shakala encouraged Sky Strike.
Sky was emboldened by this and tried for the last time to tell the story he meant to. “Well Enigma was leading this outing and she had me as her lead scout. The nightborn had sort of taken me in, well as far as work went anyhow. The militia kind of became my family after that.”
Sky tried to go on with his tale, but found his mind had gone blank, “Now that I come to think of it, this was a far better story about myself than the first one I was going to tell. I was going to say how I got my cutie mark. That turned up later when I showed a good talent for diving and hitting fast before being off once again, a bit like a lightning strike,” Sky mumbled in an apologetic way.
“Don’t worry pony Sky, words and their telling are not talent for all that try,” Shakala said in an understanding tone, “That you shared how you came to know your friends, the trials you went through is more important than how the tales ends,” Shakala finished with a grin.
Unknown to both of Sky and Shakala, Enigma’s mouth formed a little smile as she recalled her first meeting with Sky Strike too. Of course she’d listened in on the stallion’s conversation, old habits die hard after all. A seldom shed tear formed on her black face as a feeling of pride filled her heart, Sky had turned out to be a very good pony and Enigma was happy she’d played a part in that.
These equines had formed a bond through their shared adversity: They may not be related in any direct way, but together these four had grown to rely on each other. Enigma thought back to her foal hood and all the things her mother had taught her, the love and hope of the stories of old.
It had been the only thing Enigma had been able to hold on to when the mental assaults of Catalyst had gotten too much for her. When it felt like her world was being shattered and rebuilt just for his amusement. Enigma would never admit it of course, but that pony scared her, the others mercifully had not been subjected to his methods.
Catalyst had used every mental trick to try and break Enigma, posing as friend, ally, and at times torturer. He had hurt Enigma deeply, making her question her own sanity at times. She shuddered and blocked out some of the worst parts as they threatened to seep out and hurt her again.
Catalyst had been desperate to know of the orb’s secrets, that Enigma didn’t know them had been the only thing that kept the secret safe. She felt terrible that what little knowledge she did have, of Foresight and her importance had been stolen from her mind, despite her best efforts.
Enigma whispered in her seldom used voice to the sleeping Foresight, “I am so sorry Foresight, I should have been stronger.” That core of ice within Enigma was all that drove her now; she would not let Catalyst win, if nothing else Enigma would make him suffer for all he had done. It was not a happy thought, but it drove her now and once he was defeated Enigma would let herself deal with the trauma she had gone through.
Foresight slept through all this talk and thoughts. She was getting one of the best rests she had ever had, kept safe by magic beyond her skill. Enigma hoped her dreams were peaceful, spending time in safe places as others took the burden from her. Enigma wondered as the skill of Focal Balance, the mental barriers and protection used were far beyond anything she was capable of and a good thing too. Enigma knew Foresight would need her rest for the coming days if they were going to confront Catalyst once more.
The destination came upon the ponies after what felt like days in the tunnels, with no way to tell the passage of time it was hard to know how long they had traveled. As the group made their way along the rough byways of the underway they had passed evidence of further fighting, Shattered Lithi were mixed in with dead and stone bodies: Catalyst was driving his followers hard also it seemed.
Not all the dead were from battle either; they came across bodies that seemed to have died from exhaustion, trodden down and left where they lay. Foresight looked away at these sad scenes not wanting to deal with the tragedy being played out before her.
It wasn’t long before they came across the first ambush. Catalyst was no fool and evidently knew he was being pursued. Crazed ponies and other creatures were thrown in the way of the lithi, not a sane being among them. Whatever horrors Catalyst or his underlings had thrust into their minds had broken them completely. All this cost the pursuers time and both forces were being bled dry by the attrition.
Enigma was first to tell something was amiss when they came across what seemed to be another scene of battle. The nightborn's connection to their sleeping minds discovering their unconscious forms before them, just before they awoke screaming.
The frenzied creatures threw themselves at the lithi without thought for themselves, in fact to Enigma’s disgust they were barely capable of thinking at all. The insane babble coming from the attackers was best left unheard and the lithi with their typical stoic way just dove into the fight, crushing and slashing about themselves in methodical motions.
These poor emaciated foes were no match for the calculated destruction wrought by the lithi, but it did slow them down. Some of the attackers even made it to the carts where Sky Strike and Shakala dispatched them with wing blade and polearm.
Enigma and Foresight fared far worse. Enigma couldn’t influence the attackers in any way, their minds being far too gone and risked madness herself if she were to try. Foresight did the only thing she knew how and raised her aura of cold. The few mad attackers that did reach her were frozen before being smashed by the lithi, causing Foresight to wince painfully at each one that was brought down in this way.
It wasn’t just equines that made up the ambush. Catalyst had driven and enraged all sorts of native life too, giant mole like creatures along with other troglodyte beasts, burst through the walls to grind their fangs against the lithi’s stone forms.
All these battles were short lived, fierce but bloody and as the last of attackers were slain the lithi simply reform their lines renew their march. In each fight a few more lithi were lost lost: mostly those who had thrown themselves bodily in the way of attacks aimed for the four living equines.
Slowly their numbers were being worn down and the threat of further such ambushes along their path caused the small army to slow, giving up valuable time in the name of safety. No doubt that was Catalyst's plan all along. There were two further surprise attacks fought off by the travellers before the lithi finally informed their charges that their destination nearing. Their journey through the tunnels concluding as the last path taken by the lithi lead upwards.
They came to the surface into an area that Foresight recognised instantly as the Everfree Forest. The moon was high in the sky, full and round in all its cold splendour. She looked to the image of the Mare in the moon on its surface, now knowing who it represented and shivered.
There was a charge in the air that Foresight could almost taste. She looked to Enigma who nodded in understanding, “They have already begun, we have to act soon or all will be lost.” The feeling of magical power being manipulated was filling the air with its touch.
It was not hard to track the source of the power; the roaring of huge beasts echoed between the trees around them and swirling lights could be glimpsed in the distance. As Foresight watched and tried to take in all that was happening, Enigma directed the lithi to form up into ordered groups, where they stood waiting for the order to attack to be given.
Sky Strike’s ears flattened as he looked about this dark place which was full of threat. “So this is Equestria? It sounded much nicer the way you described it Foresight,” he commented in a low voice.
“This isn’t Equestria at its best, the Everfree forest was always a wild place,” Foresight replied softly, glad to have her attention drawn from the scary events unfolding. The dark and ominous trees looming all around them like a jagged mountain range, all sharp angles and oppressive creaking.
“I feel much sadness and pain here, a land that has seen much sorrow and fear,” Shakala added his views on the forest, “You can feel it in the air, a land born down by a weight of care.”
Foresight nodded at this point, “We're near the sight of the last battle where Celestia banished Nightmare Moon. I read about it in some old scrolls we found here.”
“A fitting place to force Nightmare’s return, and where ‘true’ followers, her favour hope to earn.” Shakala continued, his rhyming voice filled with dread.
“That’s not going to happen, not on my watch. I’ll die before I let that smug ‘shadow caster’ get away with everything he has done!” The venom in Enigma’s words shocked the other three, more so that it was spoken out loud rather than in her normal manner.
“Care oh pony full of ire, words spoken in such anger, often lead to something dire,” Shakala cautioned.
Sky looked to Enigma who seemed to have a cold fire burning in her eyes now, “Whatever boss just don’t kill him before we do what is needed huh, remember we need to get Foresight into the ritual?”
Enigma snorted in anger before nodding, “Fine but then he's mine.”
The small army marched into the forest ahead of them and Sky took a chance to talk with Foresight before they reached Catalyst. “You sure you’re up to this and what of Celestia, if she’s so powerful as you say then why isn’t she here trying to stop this madness?” Foresight looked into Sky’s brown eyes and wished she could tell him, but the truth was that she still didn’t know the answer herself.
Why had Celestia chosen her of all ponies to do this, and why hadn’t she sent her more help? If Foresight made it through this ordeal then she was going to ask the ruler of Equestria some very pointed questions, but tight now she couldn’t let Sky Strike down now by showing doubt.
“Celestia said she trusted me to handle this, that she was doing her part as I did mine,” It had been so much easier to believe that when Foresight had first set out on this adventure, now she was starting to doubt her princess’s wisdom, but that was something to deal with at another time, now was a time for action and not questions.
As they drew closer the Everfree forest suddenly became ominously quiet and none barred the small armies' approach to the former home of the royal pony sisters. It wasn’t hard to guess at the cause of such a disturbance: In the distance strange lights continued to swirl over the ruined castle. The shapes and outlines Catalyst’s followers were swarming everywhere.
Even if their numbers were far smaller than the hoard that had attacked High Point they still outnumbered the lithi and friends buy hundreds it seemed. To Foresight's dismay she caught sight of a massive wrattle python towering over the throng..
“You ready for this Foresight?” Sky Strike whispered with concern.
“As I am ever going to be,” She replied back.
Looking to Enigma and Shakala, Foresight saw the determination in their eyes: No need to ask if they were ready. The lithi had spread out into ranks, mingling with the moss covered trees and tall ferns that all seemed to hold a slight sickly air to them. Catalyst must know they were coming and they made little effort to hide themselves among the vegitation. Tense moment drew out with no pony making a move and Foresight could almost 'feel' the expectant hush from the ruins ahead.
The air grew frigid and the moment was broken by the sound of hundreds of lithi advancing towards the ruins, with the little bang of living ponies doing their best not to draw attention as they alone, among all the obvious attackers, did their best to sneak forwards.
"With no where left to run Catalyst will be even more dangerous than before." Enigma warned the others. "Don't worry about his minions, I’ve got them covered. Shakala, Sky, focus on getting Foresight into the place safely: Nothing else matters." The two stallions nodded in understanding standing either side of their charge.
Foresight felt the ever present fear welling up in her heart before looking deeper and feeling the assuring presence of Star Glow wishing Foresight silent encouragement. Taking a deep breath she followed the others and unknown to her the world held its breath, awaiting the outcome of this fight.