//------------------------------// // 11. Darkness Ascending // Story: The Return of Tambelon // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// Ditzy Doo stared at Corona as the alicorn trotted through Castle Tambelon, trying to understand the would-be Queen of Equestria. And much to her own surprise, she almost could. One moment, Corona would promise fire and destruction. In the next she would promise mercy and glory. In an instant she could go from enraged and raving to calmly rational and composed. She had kidnapped Ditzy’s daughter eight months ago, and had in every way acted like the sort of monster more than willing to harm an innocent filly, yet when push had come to shove she had avoided her threat with the flimsiest of excuses and focused her ire instead on Ditzy herself. Had she been lying when she had told Ditzy, just now, that she had never actually intended to harm Dinky? Why? Did she honestly expect Ditzy to believe that lie? Corona was not stupid by any means. She had to know that Ditzy would never forgive her, that kindness had its limits and Corona had reached Ditzy’s limit on the first night she had met her. And yet… Trotting alongside Ditzy, her wings twitching with nervous agitation, her feathers ruffled and her fur standing on end, Raindrops stared at Corona, and also tried to puzzle out the alicorn. Corona hadn’t ever lied. Never. Not once. She only ever spoke the truth – or what she understood to be the truth, in any event, through perceptions that were twisted by madness. And she had risked her life (presuming that she could die; Raindrops wasn’t sure, but certainly she could be injured and feel pain) for the six of them – interposed herself between golems, took a magical blast that would surely have killed Raindrops. She had promised that their alliance would not be broken by treachery from her, and she was right – it had been Raindrops, and Trixie, and all the rest of the ponies who had tried to end this long ordeal on Tambelon in one fell swoop, to capture Corona and Grogar both at the same time and remove the concern about what would happen once their alliance was over. Yet despite their duplicity, Corona, now back at her full power, hadn’t immolated them – had actually, in her own way, apologized to them. Trixie didn’t understand Corona either, as they followed the alicorn through the halls of the palace of Tambelon, Corona’s horn glowing bright white to provide light and to magically search for Grogar. Trixie’s brow was furrowed. Corona wasn’t supposed to be this complex – she should have been single-minded, dangerous, insane. That’s why ponies went inside at noon lest the baleful glare of the midday sun that had been her prison for a thousand years fall on them. And she was supposed to be treacherous – a thousand years ago, Celestia, the Undimmed Daystar, the Princess of the Sun, who had everything and was beloved by everypony, had betrayed them all – her ponies, her Court, her own sister – and tried to make herself Queen out of greed. That was what all the stories made her out to be, stories that every foal knew. Corona was supposed to be driven by greed and rage and anger. She was numbered amongst Tirek and the Smooze and Discord. She was supposed to be a monster. Instead, though Trixie could hardly believe she was beginning to realize this, she found that Corona wasn’t driven by mere greed or rage. Those informed and colored her actions, they were certainly there, but they weren’t her driving force. That force? Compassion. Cheerilee glanced at her friends, and then back to the alicorn. Cheerilee stared at Corona, and was beginning – just barely – to understand her. Somewhere deep inside Corona, past the greed and the fire, was a mare who’s heart broke every single time she saw a pony suffer, even when she was the one to do it. Seeing that suffering too many times had caused her to retreat into insanity and delusion, to use madness as a shield against the cruelty that had been inflicted on ‘her’ little ponies over her immortal lifetime. Cheerilee knew of others who had acted in a similar way. Her old friend, Count Shiny Copper Coin, had risked everything – his reputation, his fortune, his own life and the lives of others, an entire town called Oaton – to try and save his sister. Or Ditzy – Ditzy’s daughter had once been kidnapped by some very bad ponies, looking to extort favors from the Elements of Harmony. Cheerilee realized that the latter comparison, to Ditzy, was actually the most apt. Ditzy had all but lost her mind. She had nearly killed one of the kidnappers herself to find out where they were, grabbing him and dragging him into the air and then letting him fall to scare information out of him, catching him near the ground – even though, with her strabismus, such a save had been no sure thing. Lyra stared at Corona, as Corona looked back for a moment – checking on the six of them, who were following behind Corona now looking for a chance to get the Element of Magic back and, because, she honestly was their best shot at staying safe from any other golems that may have been lurking somewhere in the castle or the city beyond. Corona didn’t look at them like enemies, in spite of their treachery. With her eyes a blank and featureless white due to the glow of power that came from them, it was difficult to read her sometimes, but not now. After spending hours with the alicorn, Lyra finally was starting to recognize the patterns, the common threads, to everything she did. Corona didn’t want to hurt anypony, not really. But she would do anything – anything – to protect them. If she had to hurt her little ponies along the way, she would do so, but she would weep molten tears while she did it, and use every tool at her disposal to avoid finding herself in a position where she had to – including kidnapping ponies to ensure the compliance of other ponies. Carrot Top watched as Corona finished checking on them, and then got back to her search, her wing tightening its grip on the Element of Magic held by one of her wings, but otherwise unconcerned by the ponies following her. She really didn’t see them as a threat anymore, and somehow Carrot Top knew that this would extend even if they did manage to get their hooves on the Element of Magic once more – even if they managed to use it on her. As much as Carrot Top was finally beginning to understand Corona, Corona was finally beginning to understand them. And Corona wasn’t driven by single-minded cruelty and malice as Carrot Top had been raised to believe when she was growing up. Only monsters were so base, and Corona wasn’t a monster. They were all following the same line of thought, and without realizing it, the six friends reached their conclusions almost at the same time – that Corona wasn’t what she was supposed to be. She wasn’t the monster they had been raised, that all of Equestria had been raised, to believe she was, a belief that had been reinforced by eight months of worry and concern over the fact that she had escaped her supposedly eternal prison within the heart of the Sun. It should have been obvious – after eight months of almost no activity, she had finally emerged not to wreak havoc and destruction, not to turn the land into a burning ruin, no – instead, her first major act had been to come here, to Tambelon, to finally slay the demon ram Grogar in order to protect her little ponies. Corona wasn’t a monster. She was a mother, or viewed herself as such: the surrogate mother to the entire pony race. And that was an altogether more dangerous, more terrifying, and more heartbreaking thing. --- Tirek was gone from the island below, but that had not assuaged Luna’s fears in any way, shape, or form. She had seen, perched as she was upon the shield that still covered Tambelon, the spell-battle between Bray and Grogar that had occurred on Tambelon’s tallest tower. She had hoped that Bray truly had been successful in slaying the demon ram – but she was not surprised when she had seen Grogar get up a few minutes later, despite the fall and the knife that had been embedded within his heart. Grogar had succeeded. After two thousand years, Grogar’s plans had come to fruition – and Luna and Celestia had failed. She had seen Grogar enter Spellhold; why, she didn’t know. He hadn’t come out yet, though the entire building now glowed slightly with a bluish light. The worst part was, Luna couldn’t even create an avatar and send it down to warn her little ponies and her sister. Somewhere out there, Solrathicharnon was still hiding and waiting for her to become distracted. Her consciousness had to leave her body in order to create an avatar through the shield – which would leave her vulnerable to the ancient dragon’s predations. Solrathicharnon almost certainly couldn’t kill her, no matter how hard he tried – but he could certainly injure her, deal a blow so great that she would have to retreat within the Moon to heal. And then, there was her sister. Luna had seen Corona with the Element of Magic, seen her recover her power through it. Why? What game were the Elements playing? Or were they playing a game at all? In thousands of years of knowing and using the Elements of Harmony, Luna had never been able to answer to her satisfaction whether or not the mystical artifacts were somehow sentient and aware, or if they were just magical rocks. This journey to Tambelon was supposed to help answer that question. Regardless, her sister had saved her little ponies from golems, and though they had been frightened of her returned to her full strength, Corona had done nothing to them – keeping her word to not break their alliance. Her ponies now followed Corona, probably waiting for a chance to steal the Element of Magic back. Luna’s horn glowed brighter as she tried to force more power into her hoof. One more blow – one solid strike against the shield, and it would be gone. Then… Grogar and Corona. She would have to deal with them both. She would fight Grogar with her sister’s aid – she was certain that she could count on her for that while Grogar yet lived, no matter their own lingering enmity – but Luna would then have to deal with her, while getting the Element of Magic back to her ponies, and also protecting them. But first she would have to deal with the new lich, who stood upon ground where he himself had slain ten thousand beings. The lingering pressure of those deaths would make him…strong. How strong, Luna didn’t know – but he had already been so strong before, for a mortal being. Now… Luna raised her hoof, readying herself. Not long now... A mile away, Solrathicharnon’s head was floating just above the water, the rest of his body beneath the waves as he treaded. He was blind, yes, but alicorns, especially those in the middle of casting spells, positively glowed with magic. Dragons were sensitive to such things, and Solrathicharnon was more sensitive than most. He ‘watched’ Luna carefully. Water was a useful thing. Magic tended to be impeded by the change from water to air – the most powerful spell, on striking a body of water or trying to emerge from it, could be weakened or even negated trying to transition itself between the two mediums. Ice probably functioned in a similar manner, though Solrathicharnon had never tried to find out if that were the case. He had used the water of the Sea of Tranquility to hide himself from Luna, her magical senses unable to penetrate very deep beneath the surface. Solrathicharnon had been similarly blinded, of course, but the difference was that, when he did raise himself above the surface, she was much easier to ‘see’ than the reverse. Even as soon as three centuries ago, Solrathicharnon’s hate for Luna had burned within him like the fires of an erupting volcano. But not now. The hate remained and was no less strong, but it had hardened, calcified around his still-mighty heart as he aged like cooling yet still smoldering lava. He had allied himself with Celestia – Corona – whatever she was called, for one reason and one reason only: Luna’s destruction. He had been unable to resist attacking her a few hours ago when she had lain so helpless in the sky, projecting an avatar into the world below. He had hoped that his fire, the flames of a thousand-year-old dragon, would have been enough to kill the Alicorn of the Moon. But it was little surprise to him that Luna had recovered, and the ancient dragon had otherwise managed to hold himself in check. It wasn’t easy. One could not hate for a thousand years and not lash out at the object of one’s hate when the opportunity presented itself, not without a very, very good reason. Fortunately, Solrathicharnon had one. He had a plan. He had lied to Corona when he had told her that he knew nothing about Tambelon. He was more than a thousand years old, and a dragon besides. He was only two generations removed from when Tambelon had first been banished. Besides which, a thousand years was a long time to gather information, to learn, and to direct all that learning towards a single purpose. A thousand years ago, Tambelon had re-appeared, and then been banished again by Luna. Five hundred years ago, it had appeared once more, and then once more been banished through the actions of the Moon Princess. It did not take a dragon’s intellect to recognize a pattern. The return of Tambelon was a predictable thing, as was Luna’s sojourn to Tambelon to banish it once more. It let Solrathicharnon know exactly when and where Luna was going to be. And more importantly, it let Solrathicharnon know where Luna was not going to be. The plan had to be adapted, of course, no thanks to Corona dragging Solrathicharnon to Tambelon with her. Still, the hallmark of a good plan was flexibility. Solrathicharnon had adjusted his plan as necessary, bringing the salamanders that Corona now reigned over into the fold, knowing the snakes were too cowardly to betray him. In a way, it was actually an improvement: the salamanders were consummate thieves and very good at sneaking about unseen. Solrathicharnon couldn’t go where he had needed to go without being noticed, even if it would have been too late for Luna to do anything. The salamanders? They could. The dragon’s maw curled back into a grin as he sank once more beneath the waves. Then again, perhaps this Grogar would be able to kill Luna before Solrathicharnon even had a chance to. That would be disappointing – but Solrathicharnon could learn to live with disappointments such as that. --- Celestia had, on entering the castle Tambelon, used her magical senses to search it. It had taken a little time, going from one floor to the next, supplementing her magical ability with a more mundane but no less useful physical search as well with her ears and eyes and sense of smell. She found the throne room abandoned, Tirek nowhere to be found save a lingering scent of brimstone. Had Grogar gotten his soul back, or had he failed? Corona was almost tempted to summon Tirek herself and interrogate the demon, but that would take too long if the demon ram had indeed retrieved his soul. In any event, it took only a few minutes to clear the palace. The ponies, the bearers of the Elements, followed behind her the entire time, while Zecora was beside her. Though there was the smallest of risks that, with the bearers so near, they could contrive some way to retrieve the Element of Magic from her, Celestia could not help but consider the risk worth it. After all, it meant that they were close by, where she could keep an eye on them. Grogar had had four hundred days in Shadow to construct a golem army, and Corona didn’t doubt that some would still be lurking somewhere. They would continue to function as long as the demon ram was around. Her searching, at length, took her from the castle, and out into the northern courtyard. Directly ahead of her lay the Necropolis. To the northeast was the barracks through which she and the bearers of the Elements had entered Castle Tambelon in secret, while to the northwest was Spellhold, the repository of Tambelon’s arcane knowledge. Its doors had been locked when she and Luna had banished Grogar centuries ago, and the magic that had locked them was so strong that even the two of them together could not break down the doors, nor destroy nor move the building – the result of hundreds of years of layered enchantments over its frame that protected it from all save members of the Tamberlaan royal family. Still, only such a member should have been able to open the doors, and in Tambelon’s happier days she and her sister had often wiled away the hours inside, disguised as mortal petitioners. They knew more about the library than the royal family had ever suspected, and so knew that there was nothing in Spellhold that could have freed Grogar from his prison. They had felt safe banishing Grogar with it into Shadow. Luna and Celestia hadn’t known about Bray. Celestia’s eyes widened slightly when she saw that the door to the building was hanging open, and the entire building was bathed in a slight blue glow. She started forward at a somewhat more hurried pace. A mere few hundred days trapped in Shadow would not have been enough to plumb all of Spellhold’s secrets, but nevertheless – She stopped when she felt a magical presence, seconds before it made its actual appearance. Walking out from Spellhold at an even, leisurely pace came a monster, a black ram’s skeleton wreathed in green and purple flame. Its pace didn’t slow in the slightest when it spotted Celestia, but somehow, though its skull was incapable of changing appearance, it seemed to grin. “Impossible,” Celestia breathed. She was aware of the ponies behind her stopping short and gasping at the sight of Grogar, as did Zecora. She used a wing to motion them all to back away, even as her other wing tightened its grip on the Element of Magic. “How – without your soul – ” A low rumble came from the lich, and Celestia realized that it was chuckling, though the sound was like the pounding on the doors of a tomb. “I took from Tirek what was mine,” Grogar responded, his – its – voice as hollow-sounding as that of his former golems. “But the final step – you could not have killed yourself – ” “Bray,” Grogar answered. “Though it may please you to know that he is now dead. I took the traitor prince’s soul. It shall be the first fuel to feed the fire of my…immortality.” It said the last with no small amount of satisfaction, the grin on its skull seeming to grow larger. Celestia rocked back on her hooves at those words. She jabbed a hoof forward. “Souls cannot be taken, only given – ” Grogar laughed aloud, a hollow, hacking sound that nevertheless reverberated through the courtyard as it at last stopped its advance, a scarce twenty feet from Celestia. “Such rules may apply to demons and alicorns, Celestia. But not to what I have become.” Grogar held forward a skeletal hoof, and the flames there danced higher, revealing a small, white glowing mote of light. “Bray’s soul shall sustain me for a time. But I shall need more.” It looked at Celestia hungrily. Celestia bristled, flaring her wings as the fires at her mane and tail lit up higher. The ponies and Zecora retreated back several steps. “You will not find me so easy prey,” she said in a low voice. “But prey you are,” Grogar responded. The grin that wasn’t there seemed to widen, and the baleful flames across its form doubled in size, the ones on its back taking on the appearance of great, batlike wings. “Everything in this world is now my living prey – ” The attack that Celestia launched was nearly subconscious, a fireball from her horn that impacted against Grogar’s form in a split second. The lich was sent flying backwards, stopping only when he impacted against the distant wall of Tambelon’s Necropolis. Then the fireball that Celestia had created exploded, a great conflagration a hundred feet across that let loose an airburst that would have bowled over the ponies and zebra behind Celestia had she not used yet more magic to protect them. Even after the explosion cleared, the fire yet lingered in many places, tall pillars of flame that formed a small wall between Celestia and the Necropolis. Grogar lay in a heap, the fire that had surrounded its bones extinguished and the bones in a scattered pile. Celestia was not much surprised, however, when the green-and-purple flames started up once more, the skeleton reassembling itself as Grogar stood once more, looking no worse for wear. “Die.” Grogar’s fires flared up, and black magic lanced from the lich’s horns. Celestia’s own horn glowed as she conjured a shield sphere around her. The magic struck the sphere and seemed to ooze around it, crawling over and around the sphere – and then lancing after the ponies and zebra behind Celestia. The alicorn’s eyes widened in shock as she turned around, quickly conjuring another magical shield around her charges before Grogar’s spell could slay them. Celestia turned to bring her attention back to Grogar, and found that somehow the lich was there, right in front of her, having crossed the distance between them with no sound. She gasped in surprise, rearing back to lash out with a hoof, but Grogar moved yet again, head lowered and ducking beneath her blow and ramming her full-on in her exposed barrel. She had not expected a physical attack, and was sent soaring into the air. Even as she did, however, her horn glowed white, and the ponies and zebra disappeared in flashes of light, teleporting them safely to elsewhere on the island. Celestia arrested her ascent into the air with magic, glaring down at the necromancer-turned-lich as she stood on the air, one wing spread out in instinct even as the other continued to hold onto the Element of Magic. Grogar looked back up, the skeletal grin on its face once more seeming to widen even though it remained frozen in place. As Celestia watched, Grogar’s ribs one by one broke apart and re-assembling onto the lich’s back, connected by strands of black magic as they formed a rough shape of wings that were wreathed in the same purple flame that had burned in its chest and still burned in its eyes. The lich leapt into the air, and didn’t fall back down, quickly ascending to Celestia’s height. The flames around Celestia’s own form doubled as well, and she threw herself forward, horn down, fire burning at its tip. Grogar maneuvered out of the way, lashing out with a necromantically-enchanted hoof as it did. Celestia avoided the blow as she spun to match Grogar’s movement, bucking with a hind leg and striking Grogar’s spine. Rather than being hurled backwards, however, the spine simply shattered as her hoof struck it, while the green fire of Grogar’s form tried to climb up and over her body, towards her heart. Celestia beat her wings furiously to escape, grabbing the Element of Magic telekinetically now. Once she was a hundred feet back, the fires receded from her form, but Celestia saw that Grogar’s spine had already repaired itself. Celestia reacted before Grogar could, surrounding it in a magical shield. She laced a second one around it, then a third, before readying a fireball at the tip of her horn. The small bead of compacted fire magic shot from her horn towards the trapped lich. The shields would open only large enough to accept the compacted fireball, there would be no escape – Grogar placed its hooves against the innermost shield containing it, and black magic oozed out from its hooves, covering the inside of the shield and obscuring all light from leaving it. Just as the fireball might have reached it, the necromantic sphere suddenly grew spines that lanced out in every direction, destroying the shields that Grogar had been trapped in and sending a jolt of pain straight down Celestia’s horn. The necromantic shield disappeared just as the beat of fire would have reached it, and Grogar’s hoof was already outstretched and waiting for it. With a single fluid motion, the ram changed its course, pushing it aside and sending it flying to the ground below. The force of its detonation, hundreds of feet below, was still enough to send Grogar soaring into the air, but it did so in a controlled way, necromantic wings spread wide as it soared upwards. Its wings then curled around it – and it vanished. Celestia’s eyes widened, and she turned around just in time to see Grogar appear behind her in a flash of green and purple fire, hoof once more outstretched. Its spine, hip, and hind legs broke apart this time, moving with lightning speed down its outstretched hoof like an extending, flaming lance. Celestia tried to move out of the way, but she had been caught by surprise – she hadn’t known that Grogar knew how to teleport – and the lance cut a deep gash in her barrel’s side, not deep enough to be lethal, but enough to hurt and make her cry out, first in pain, then in horror when the baleful flames of the lich remained behind on the wound, cooling into a black tar that tried to seep its way into Celestia. Celestia teleported herself back a thousand feet first, then turned her attention to the wound that hurt far, far more than it should of, and the crawling, creeping feeling of the necromantic tar burrowing into her. Her horn flashed, and fire scorched the tar from her body, then burned into her. It hurt. Celestia was essentially fireproof, but that didn’t apply when she was intentionally trying to burn herself to stop some kind of invasion of her own body. The necromantic tar was destroyed, but Celestia found herself gasping for breath, glaring at Grogar. “You…” she hissed, the pure flames of her own mane and tail flaring bright, the fire now burning down along her wings and at her hooves as well, “you should not be this strong! I have fought liches before – they were not nearly so dangerous so soon after their creation!” Grogar’s hollow chuckle echoed through the air. “You fought none like me,” it responded, pointing down. “All of this, Celestia…all of this was one great plan. Ten thousand beings died on this island – died by my hoof, a single act causing so much death that now fuels my power, that would have let me escape the chains I knew Tirek would plan to trap me in. The land remembers. Here…on this island…I am no mere undead thing.” Grogar disappeared in a flash, teleporting one more. Celestia anticipated it, however, turning around to where it appeared and trapping it once more in a shield. Grogar didn’t hesitate in the slightest, however, as it struck the shield with a necromantically-powered hoof, and shattered it. Celestia’s eyes widened. “I cannot be caged.” Grogar stated as it soared forwards, ramming Celestia square in her face before she could react. She went flying away, crying out in pain. Grogar had teleported again, however, appearing behind her and catching her in a thick web of necromantic magic. She struggled against it, but it dragged her down towards the ground below, in the eastern courtyard of Tambelon’s palace. “I cannot be controlled.” Celestia collided with the ground before her fires could burn away the necromancy. Grogar landed a few feet away, its fires still burning bright. “Understand this even as you die, ever pathetic, ever foolish Celestia. Nothing can stand against me here, on this island. No demon. No dragon. Certainly no alicorn.” Necromantic whips lashed out from Grogar’s form once again, and the green-and-purple fire danced along them as they struck and wrapped around Celestia. The alicorn cried out in pain as the fires surrounded her and engulfed her, burning away her own flames. The necromancy oozed towards her mouth, her nostils, her eyes, the baleful fire burned down them as the lich’s grin seemed once more to widen. Celestia realized that his magic was reaching towards, was trying to take, her very soul. “You soul will be mine. After that, those ponies and zebra you protected. Then Luna. And then – ” Grogar got no further with whatever it was trying to say. Celestia roared, reaching deep within herself, pouring magic across her form. She ignited in a white blaze, the fire burning away Grogar’s necromancy, overwhelming its own green flames, and then extending outwards in a massive holocaust. She heard Grogar cry out in pain and surprise as it was thrown away from her. When the fire cleared, Celestia stood tall and bathed in pure fire, while the stones beneath her were split apart from the heat and glowed red, and the air itself shimmered. Grogar’s skeletal form was standing as well, its flames having gone out for a moment, but re-igniting as soon as Celestia could be seen again. CRACK. Celestia and Grogar both looked up at the noise, though neither were entirely surprised to see where it originated from – the shield-spell at last failing. It shattered much as glass dome might have, spider-web cracks forming along its surface before the pieces they outlined fell away, though they fell no more than a few dozen feet before dissolving into black dust that itself disappeared long before reaching the ground. The night sky was once again clearly visible over the island of Tambelon. And in a flash of midnight blue, Luna arrived, standing a few dozen feet away from Grogar and Celestia both. The younger alicorn looked to Celestia, and Celestia looked back. Entire volumes could have been written about what the looks contained. Celestia noted that Luna’s gaze flickered momentarily to the Element of Magic, then back to Celestia, eyes narrowed slightly. But then, she turned to face Grogar, spreading her wings wide. No words were needed. Celestia turned to Grogar as well, knowing that, for at least a little while, she could once more depend upon her sister – she could forget a millennium of distrust and betrayal, a millennium of lies, forget all of that for long enough to deal with this threat to their little ponies. The lich looked between the two sisters, then spread boney its wings wide as the green-and-purple fires flared up as they charged, the rictus grin frozen on its face once again seeming to grow wide. “Let us begin, then.” --- “…don’t believe this,” Trixie continued as she stomped around, pacing back and forth. “We’re…what is going on here? Why is he a lich now? I thought he needed his soul for that. I have a very distinct memory of somepony saying that. Or was he a lich? I don’t even know what a lich looks like. Was that Grogar? I don’t imagine there’s a whole lot of goat skeletons floating around on this island. Certainly probably not too many of them on fire. Green fire – ” “Trixie? Calm down,” Cheerilee insisted, stepping in front of the ranting unicorn and stopping her with two outstretched hooves. Trixie did stop, though she looked no less annoyed, as she turned and looked over to Zecora and pointed. “You’re our prisoner,” she insisted. Zecora smiled. She was sitting in a position that surely even Lyra would have considered uncomfortable – straight-backed, her hind legs crossed beneath her and her forelegs spread wide, head bowed and eyes closed. “You will do as you feel you must,” she said. “My queen will come for me, I trust.” They had been teleported by Corona, that much was clear, appearing somewhere in the forest that lay beyond the city of Tambelon. They could see the occasional flash of magic from somewhere to their north, and so assumed that the city was in that direction, but they had no way of knowing exactly how far that was. “Your record of attempts to secure a prize, however, leave much to be desired to my eyes,” Zecora added. Trixie bristled at that. “Je vais vous montrer ce que je pense de vos rimes…” she threatened in Prench as she started forward, horn glowing, though the zebra only seemed to grow more amused and didn’t look concerned at all. Before Trixie could act on her threat, however, and before her friends could stop her, there was a crack as lout as thunder from the sky. The six ponies, and Zecora, all leaped in surprise, Zecora falling onto her back at first thanks to the way she had been sitting. She righted herself in a moment. Above them, the shield-spell collapsed. The ponies looked on in surprise. Far above them, they saw a midnight-hued flash of light – and suddenly, beside them all, was Princess Luna. Trixie’s body moved of its own accord; the unicorn galloped full-speed up to her mentor, quickly finding herself beside the alicorn and nuzzling her like a foal would her mother. Luna returned the nuzzle without hesitation. “You’re alright…” Luna breathed, relief obvious in her voice as she looked to the other six mares. “You’re all alright, thank goodness…” “Um…” Lyra said, stepping forward and holding up a hoof. “I…I mean, not that I’m not thankful, Princess, but…shouldn’t you be dealing with Grogar?” The Princess stiffened, and she nodded as she withdrew from Trixie. “I am dealing with Grogar,” she said, looking between the six ponies. “I spared a little of my myself to check on you – split my consciousness across two bodies. I will need to return shortly, however…I suspect I will need all of my strength soon enough.” The ponies nodded, looking between each other. Trixie grimaced as she stepped forward. “He’s a lich,” she said. “I mean…I’m assuming he’s a lich. We saw a goat skeleton that was on fire – green fire.” “Liches may take many forms depending on the precise magic used, but that is one of them. You are correct: Grogar has succeeded.” She shook her head as Carrot Top and Ditzy opened their mouths to apologize. “This is far, far outside what I prepared you six for, and earlier I sensed Tirek’s presence. You have encountered two of the most evil beings to have ever lived, Grogar multiple times, and lived to tell the tale each time. That is no mean feat.” The ponies nodded. Ditzy came forward, a determined look on her face. “What do we need to do?” she asked. “And what about Bray?” Carrot Top added. “Bray…is not an issue right now.” Luna turned and looked to Zecora, studying her for a few moments. “You follow my sister?” The zebra nodded, standing firm. “I stand beside the Alicorn of the Sun,” she said, “to aid her in what has yet to come.” Luna nodded. “Very well. I cannot spare the time or effort it would take to detain you and teleport you back to Equestria. Head to the nearest beach and stay out of the way. I will collect you later.” Zecora turned around, nodding. “Assuming my queen does not emerge the victor. She is, after all, your elder sister.” She paused, looking back to Luna, her gaze surprisingly soft. “But truthfully, O Princess, against Grogar I hope you win, else dark times for the world will surely begin.” The alicorn and ponies watched Zecora leave, making her way deftly through the foliage of the forest. “Not sure if you can rhyme victor and sister,” Cheerilee noted. Luna looked at her, and the magenta earth pony wilted slightly. “Sorry. Humor. It’s my defense mechanism.” Luna winced slightly. “Better than any of mine,” she noted, turning to face the ponies. “I will be brief as possible. I have studied dark magic, as you know – it was, for a time, my defense mechanism. Thus I know much about liches. I know that they are very difficult to harm under the best of circumstances. I know that they alone, out of every other force and being in creation, can take a soul against its owner’s will, and feed upon that soul to fuel their power and immortality.” She grimaced. “And I know that a lich grows more powerful the more death has occurred wherever it is. The more murder that has left an impression upon the land, especially deaths that they themselves have caused. As the brief insights into Tambelon should show…” The ponies looked between each other, each of them bearing pained looks on their faces as well. “Grogar…he killed an awful lot of donkeys here,” Raindrops noted. “Exactly,” Luna said, looking in the direction of the city, where her other self and Corona were even now dueling with the lich. “Anywhere else in the world, and Grogar would be mighty enough to give even my sister and I pause. Here…” she shook her head. “I do not believe Grogar can take an alicorn’s soul…but it is possible. And even if he cannot, he could very well be strong enough to injure myself or my sister enough that we would have to retreat within the Sun or Moon to heal. Even if he is not strong enough magically under normal circumstances…he can outlast myself or Corona. He cannot be truly injured anymore, he cannot tire, and his magical power shall not fade from use, for he draws upon the necromantic pressure of ten thousand slain Tamberlaan. “Grogar, at this point, can only be surely defeated by the Elements of Harmony.” The other ponies looked to Trixie at that. She flinched, glancing up at her head, where the Element of Magic should have been. “Um,” she said. “Corona has it…I made a – ” “We made a – ” Carrot Top began to interrupt. “It doesn’t matter right now,” Luna said, cutting them both off. She shook her head. “I don’t know what happened. You don’t have time to explain. I assume that there was a falling out in your alliance. But all that matters is getting the Element of Magic from Corona and returning it to you. You must then focus solely on Grogar. Understood?” The six ponies nodded. Luna looked back to Tambelon. “Run to the city’s main gate,” she instructed. “I will attempt to convince Corona to return the Element of Magic to you. If that does not work, I will attempt to steal it back.” She glanced to Cheerilee, and then offered a weak smile. “I stole all six Elements from under her once before, after all. I’m sure I can manage it again if I must.” Cheerilee grinned herself at that. Luna looked to the six ponies again, a pained look in her face. “I…am not comfortable placing you six in such jeopardy. Grogar is a foe unlike any I have fought for a long, long time. In the past I have taken every action to protect everypony I could…but this time, I must ask you to risk your lives.” She bowed her head. “And I suspect this will not be the last time.” “We’ll be ready every time from now on,” Cheerilee insisted. Trixie nodded in confirmation, then pointed off, towards the city. “Get going, Princess. We’ll do our part.” Luna nodded once, then closed her eyes, horn glowing. She instantly broke apart into starry mist that quickly soared away, returning to her other half so that she could engage Grogar with her full power. Trixie turned back to her friends, making a cutting motion with one hoof. “Okay. Step one: get Element of Magic. Step two: beat evil necromancer. I think we can do that.”