For a split second, though it felt like an eternity flashed past her eyes, there was nothing but darkness. No sounds of breathing graced her hearing, not even her own. Her sight failed to give her any clue as to her whereabouts, neither could she feel the presence of her friends beside her. It was as if she had been thrown away from them, and left drifting in this strange plain of reality.
But before Fluttershy could start to question any of it, another flash of light appeared before her eyes, and just as quickly disappeared again, and when her sight – albeit blurry and disjointed – sound, smell and touch returned, she felt something hard against the ground and her coat tingling with numbness.
It didn’t take long for her to realise that she had arrived at their destination on her side.
‘I hate teleportation,’ she reminded herself, closing her eyes and shaking her head rapidly to clear her senses. As the numbness of the aftermath of teleportation gradually faded across her coat, she opened her eyes to find herself on her side – as she suspected – in a small circular clearing covered in small blades of grass and surrounded by trees and bushes, which were neatly arranged as if they were too afraid to step into the woodland before them.
At both ends of the clearing, two dirt paths wormed their way along the Vale, one heading west, and the other heading south and up a hill. Beside the path heading west was a small boulder, looking more like a model of a mountain than a rock. And above the trees, the mountains that hemmed the Vale of the Lost in dominated the skyline and the crests of the hills that gave the Vale its bumpy appearance.
“How could you be so stupid, Luna?” Fluttershy brought her head up and watched as Cadence, walking sloppily and glaring angrily, towards an exhausted Luna, whose head was bowed and sweat glimmered down her neck. To the right, Trixie and Spike sat back to back, clearly exhausted from the day’s ordeals.
While right behind Cadence and close to her – too close for comfort – was the creature. Its white eyes were open yet its body stayed motionless. Fluttershy sprang to her hooves and backed away from it, too scared to even be close to the creature. She stopped when she felt the leaves of a bush brush against her flanks.
“I don’t understand what you mean, Cadence,” Luna countered, breathing heavily and staring up at her niece. “I got us away from that place, didn’t I?”
“Yes,” Cadence agreed, “But at the same time you gave away our positions to Celestia! She will gather as many troops as she can to surround the Vale and capture as we make our way out!”
“Be thankful I didn’t teleport us out of the Vale, then we would have been found and taken prisoner,” Luna countered, sounding angry but having got the energy to show it at her niece.
“But you teleported us!” Cadence persisted. “You warned us that we couldn’t use the teleportation spell in fear of our positions being discovered by Celestia!”
Luna sighed. “I know, I know,” she said, nodding. “I simply did it in the hope that Celestia might send scouts to find us, only for them to run into them.” She gestured with her head to the creature lying in the middle of the road. She looked back at Cadence warmly. “I am sorry about what I did. Really. But I only did it to protect you and the others.”
Cadence’s glare stayed fixed on Luna for a short moment, before gradually softening to a more kindly stare. “I guess I shouldn’t be mad at you, really.” The younger alicorn looked away. “I used the teleportation spell to dodge an attack a few hours ago.”
“Yes, I felt it echo through my mind,” Luna said. Before Cadence could utter an apology, Luna shook her hoof. “You have no reason to apologise for that, my sweet. I’m certain it was the only option you could take. I could never be cross with you for that.”
“Hold on,” Trixie butted in, much to Fluttershy’s surprise. “You felt Cadence teleport?”
Both alicorns nodded. “We have an ability to detect one another’s uses of the teleportation spell,” Luna explained. “As well as knowing the location of their teleportation, we can also feel what one another are thinking and feeling. It’s a psychic link between alicorns that nopony can ever truly explain.”
Trixie looked blankly at Cadence, then turned to stare incredulously at the older Princess. “Then, if you sensed Cadence teleport, and felt how she was feeling, then why didn’t you teleport straight to her side? You can see on her face that she was in a lot of pain!”
Fluttershy sat up, reaching out to Trixie with a hoof. “Trixie, calm down, I’m sure Luna has a very good reason that she–”
“I was scared,” Luna answered.
The Vale suddenly went quiet. Fluttershy’s eyes widened in shock and her shoulders sagged. ‘Did Luna just say that she was… scared?’ The thought of the Princess, usually fearless against many terrible things Terra offered, was actually scared of something brought the Dragonlord to feel a little light-headed. She wiped her brow and then massaged her cheeks. ‘This is getting very interesting or very, very scary.’
“Scared?” Cadence asked. Luna nodded in shame, bowing her head further and further. “But Luna, I know you, and you are rarely scared of anyth–”
“But I am,” Luna replied, lifting her head to stare Cadence in the eye. “I’m scared. Really, really scared, Cadence. And it forced me to cower, to fall to the ground when I felt the pain running through you. The agony you must have received through this…” She paused to lightly caress the side of Cadence’s face, where heavy bruising remained. “Drove me to cower. By the time I was fit to move and teleported to your last position, I couldn’t trace you anymore.”
Luna sighed and looked away, closing her eyes. “I am so sorry, my sweet. I am so sorry I left you alone to face these monsters.” Luna’s ears fell flat. “Could you ever forgive me?”
Cadence simply stared at her aunt sympathetically, her lips moving yet no sound coming from between. Suddenly, she leapt forward and wrapped her legs around Luna’s neck, grinning. “I missed you, Luna,” she whispered, a word of forgiveness not needed, apparently. “I missed you so much, my silly auntie.”
Luna’s smile turned into a teary grin, and stepped forward. “I missed you too, my child,” she said quietly. She quietly wrapped her neck around the back of Cadence’s, and stood perfectly still, her face revealing her enjoyment of her niece’s affection.
Fluttershy smiled warmly at the sight, before looking away and turning her attention to Spike and Trixie; she felt that she was prying into their moment of reunion. Spike and Trixie had separated during Luna and Cadence’s talk, and were now on opposite sides of the path. Yet, their eyes wandered into the path of each other before drifting away once more. ‘They want to talk to one another, but they’re too afraid to say anything,’ she thought. She would have to find a way to get the two to talk later.
“But you must know, I wasn’t alone that hour,” Cadence finally said, killing the silence. She pulled away, smiled at Luna, and then turned to look at Fluttershy with a bright smile. “Had Fluttershy not the strength to fight, then I would almost surely be dead.”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened when she realised they were looking and talking about her with praise, and she instantly felt heat in her cheeks. She bashfully put her head behind her ragged and dirty mane and took a step back. “Oh, well I didn’t really do anything for the first half. I- I was pretty beaten up by the beast that attacked us to do much. Cadence pretty much saved me and herself by not giving up. I-I-I w-was– eep!” she squeaked and closed her eyes in fright when she felt herself picked into the air and hugged like a filly would hug a new teddy bear.
She opened up a single, scared eye to see it was Luna, her eyes closed yet the widest grin was spread across her face. Luna must have realised what she was doing, for she quickly opened her eyes, wide with horror, looked up at Fluttershy, then grinned sheepishly and dropped the mare to the ground with an, “Oomph!”
Luna moved a hoof to her mouth and politely coughed. “Uh… it’s – it’s good to see you, dear Fluttershy,” she said, blushing in embarrassment. She rapidly shook her head and stared at the young Dragonlord questionably. “But I have to know. What happened yesterday at the lake? Why didn’t you join us sooner?”
Fluttershy’s ears flattened across her skull, and she lowered her eyes in shame. “I am sorry I didn’t get here sooner, Luna,” she said. “Really. I am. I was delayed, to cut a long story short.” She looked back up at Luna with bashful eyes, adding, “And, um, it’s good to see you are all right.”
Luna nodded understandably. “I will have to hear it some other time, then,” she said, smiling. “And don’t you ever apologise for not being there. I sincerely doubt things would have been much different had we the privilege of your presence.”
Fluttershy nodded mildly, though it was clearly obvious from Luna’s reaction the confusion she felt in her heart. ‘Why should she be privileged to have me by her side? Am I that important to her after all?’
“Luna?” Fluttershy craned her head passed Luna at the sound of Spike’s voice, and watched him cautiously approach the fallen creature. “Is this thing dead? Please tell me it’s dead.”
The beast suddenly brought its head up and screeched deafeningly at the young dragon. Spike staggered backwards, falling onto his backside in his haste to get away. Fluttershy leapt around and stood between the little dragon and the beast, her wing blades shining in the late afternoon sunlight. “Just who do you think you are, snapping at a child like that!” she yelled, anger in her eyes at the sight of it. The creature drew its head back, stared at the Dragonlord emotionlessly for a bit, then its eyes wandered to its left.
Fluttershy looked to her right to see Trixie and Cadence moving around it, watching it as though staring at a sleeping bear. The creature stared at them, hissing under its breath and baring its dented fangs. The pair had expressions of disgust and hatred for it, their auras of magic wrapped around the hilt of their swords as though they were prepared to put an end to its life.
Fluttershy felt hate for the creature, too, but at the same time, as she stared at the place its hindlegs would be, she couldn’t help but feel sympathy for it. It was broken, wounded, probably dying, and without any of its comrades by its side to help. It was alone, like she had been, and would most likely be killed by them, like she would have been if Cadence hadn’t turned up. ‘I have to try and spare it,’ she decided. ‘It wouldn’t be right killing a defenceless beast, no matter how evil they are.’ Whether the others would be convinced by her attempts would be another matter.
“Now then… let us see what we can learn from this one,” Luna said, though Fluttershy could see that it was more to herself than anyone else; she could even sense a touch of fear in her voice. The Princess walked up to the beast, and before it could bare its fangs at her and hiss, she shoved its head to the ground with a hoof. The beast squirmed, trying to escape, but Luna’s grip on the beast was like iron. As far as Fluttershy could tell, there was no escape for it.
“It would be wise not to try and escape,” Luna growled venomously. “Just a bit more pressure, and there wouldn’t be a head worth seeing.”
The creature snorted. “What difference would it make, Princess?” it asked spitefully, much to the visible shock of everypony – and dragon – around it.
‘So they can all talk Terran. Maybe they can all talk Equestrian, too,’ Fluttershy thought, staring at the beast in awe. Before she could ask it if it could speak several languages, the beast snorted again and continued.
“My death here will only be a minor delay. If you do bash my head in, be assured that I will return to repay the favour. Mark my words,” it declared, grinning wickedly.
In response, Luna pressed her hoof even tighter. “How did you come into this realm, filth?” she snarled. “One of you, let alone a thousand of you, should be impossible.”
Fluttershy looked back at Luna with growing confusion, and dread. The creature below her hoof grinned. “It seems ‘Princess’ Luna has turned simple in her time on her moon,” it cackled. Luna’s teeth gritted together; Fluttershy could see she was close to smashing the beast’s head apart, and inched closer to stop her. “How else do you think we could come into this realm, dog?” it answered a moment not too soon. “We found the tear at the heart of this place and swarmed the Vale in a day. The second day we grew more adventurous and scouted out the Unicorn Range. The seventh we began razing the small villages we came across. So far, this is the eleventh day we have occupied the Vale.”
“Yes, we saw your dirty work on a hamlet two days ago,” Cadence said. She strode up to the beast, her sword half-drawn in its scabbard. “What happened to the ponies that lived there?”
The beast sneered at her. “They fled, Mi Amora Cadenza. Ran like frightened chickens from a fox. They ran this way, that way, and any other way. What happened to them after that, I don’t really care. I just wish I had the chance to sink my fangs into one of those ponies’ necks.”
Cadence made a move to draw her sword and kill the creature. Luna raised her eyes, flicked her head at Cadence’s sword, and with her magic slammed the weapon back into its place. The younger alicorn looked to Luna with bewilderment, which the elder replied with a sharp shake of the head.
Reluctantly, Cadence took a few steps back and bowed her head in submission. Before Luna could ask the creature another question, Fluttershy took a step forward, clearing her throat with a light cough. “Um, excuse me, mister evil creature?”
Both the creature and Luna looked towards her with curious eyes. The look in Luna’s eyes were warm and encouraging, yet the creature’s eyes, like it counterparts, were cold and spiteful. It was the gaze coming from the creature that forced Fluttershy to take a step back in fright. ‘No, Fluttershy, don’t you dare back down! You need to know this, you have to find out, no matter how much the answer will hurt!’ her mind yelled at her.
Fluttershy knew her mind was telling her truth, yet her heart didn’t feel ready for the truth just yet, even though she knew the answer already. Willing the courage, she looked the creature dead in the eye, showing no fear or anger, and asked, “Wha-what about the critters that live in the Vale? Wh-where did they all go?”
Rather than reply straight away, the creature merely grinned. “Don’t you mean, ‘lived’ in the Vale, pony freak?” it said, its grin stretching further at the heartbreak Fluttershy felt in her chest and across her face.
The pegasus knew she shouldn’t be shocked at the answer. Her mind knew the answer before the beast had even uttered a word. Nevertheless, her heart wasn’t ready for the truth. ‘So many innocent creatures. So many families. All of them… gone,’ she lamented, choking back a sob. She felt something run along her back, and looked around to see Spike staring back her in sympathy, his claw running smoothly down her lined back. Fluttershy sniffed back a few tears, and set a leg around Spike’s shoulders. ‘He is such a sweetheart,’ she thought. She gently nudged him a little closer, feeling his chest press against hers in a comforting hug, and turned to stare at the creature once more.
All traces of sympathy in her eyes for the beast were now gone.
“Do not think that this act of barbarism will go unpunished, beast,” Luna snarled, pressing her hoof down. “That teleportation spell I cast would have been traced by my sister to this location. Soon, she will gather a group of ponies that will make their way here to find and apprehend us. When they get here, they will find you first, and once Celestia knows your vile kind has returned, you will have the whole Equestrian army on you doorstep.”
Luna’s words were not as fear-inducing as Fluttershy had thought, for the creature merely chuckled. “Let them come. We are ready for them,” it said, its grin stretching disturbingly wide. “We have the supplies to feed our numbers, and soon we will have the provisions to arm them.” Its eyes narrowed. “Do you think of us as a mere raiding force? Here to cause a nuisance then flee back into the void?” The creature cackled. “Oh, and we all thought you would remember our promise.”
Luna’s eyes widened ever so slightly that it wasn’t very noticeable, yet Fluttershy noticed it, and she could feel her heart chill at its sight. “What are you talking about?” the Princess enquired, her anger slowly growing. “Tell me.” The beast simply began to laugh. “TELL ME!”
The beast looked up once more, its grin never shifting. “It has been a long time, hasn’t it? Thousands of years must have passed here, and yet time has been quick in ours. While you ponies and other races have moved on and forgotten what happened, we have been looking to our bleak skies, plotting our revenge. Biding our time for the right moment. Building up in strength that hasn’t been seen since the cataclysm.”
Luna began to shake her head, her eyes now wide with horror. “No… you… you can’t be…”
“Oh, but now our time has come. Equestria is weak. Terra is weak. It has been a long time since this world has felt the flames of war consume its cities, its lands, its continents. Soon, though, my master will ignite the furnace once more, and he will herald a new era of chaos for us. He has been waiting for a long time, you know? He looks forward to seeing you again, Princess Luna Nocturnus Sola–”
With a scream cascading from her mouth, Luna swiftly brought a hoof down hard on the beast’s skull before the Dragonlord could stop her. Fluttershy looked away, covering Spike’s eyes with a wing, with only a thick crunching sound giving her an indication of what just happened. She could hear Trixie trying to hold back the contents of her stomach, while Cadence only gasped in horror.
Yet Luna continued to smash her hooves into the creature, even as it withered away. Fluttershy looked up in growing fear as the Princess screamed through gritted teeth, punching what was left of the beast. “LUNA, STOP!” Cadence screamed, throwing herself at Luna. She pushed the older alicorn away, throwing Luna backwards a few steps and onto her rump, breathing heavily, her lust for violence seemingly dissipated. Cadence was breathing heavily, too, though it was from fear more than fatigue.
Luna stared at the ash pile before her, then peered down at her trembling hoof. After a moment, she stared at Cadence in regret. “I… I’m so sorry. I… I never…”
Cadence wrapped her hooves around Luna’s neck in a comforting embrace, rubbing the side of her face against her aunt’s. Luna continued to stare at the remains of the creature with wide eyes and an open mouth. For a long moment, there was no sound other than the heavy breathing coming from the five companions. Eventually, Fluttershy patted Spike on the shoulders, silently telling him to pull away from her. Spike nodded, and pulled away, staring in horror at the Princess.
Fluttershy took a step forward, feeling she needed to ask the question what was likely on everypony’s mind. “Luna?” The Princess’s eyes turned on her, wide and afraid – yet also shame of showing such fear. Fluttershy gave her a comforting look, hoping it would be enough to soothe her into answering what needed to be answered. “Luna? Tell us, please? What was the creature talking about? What did it mean, ‘The flames of war’?”
Luna looked away, then after a moment, pushed herself out of Cadence’s hold and walked to the end of the clearing, staring into the distance. “Luna?” Cadence asked, her ears flat and her features solemn. Fluttershy looked at her expectantly, and with a great deal of concern.
Eventually, Luna sighed. “It meant that the daimons of Tartarus, are preparing for war,” she stated. She turned to face them, taking in all of their looks of horror with a quick look of her eyes. “And it will begin here, in the Vale, where nopony will be able to find them until it is too late. Unless my sister acts upon my teleportation spell and sends troops to find us. What they will find instead, are creatures from hell.”
Fluttershy felt the chill in her heart turn even colder. “Daimons?” she stuttered. She pointed to the ash pile. “You mean to tell us that those… creatures, are d-d-d-daimons?” Luna simply nodded in response. Fluttershy let out a tiny squeak in terror, shivering as if an early winter cold had come in and gripped the Vale in its frozen embrace.
“Wait, you mean the prowlers of Tartarus who would mercilessly hunt the souls of those that had evil in their hearts and pursue them till the end of time?” Spike asked incredulously.
Luna looked towards him with narrow eyes. “Yes, and at the same time no, youngling,” she answered sullenly. “Daimons are hunters and predators, true. Easily the most fearsome hunters the three realms have ever seen. But they wouldn’t care if you were a bad person or a good one; they would hunt you down and rip you asunder all the same. What you know was a fairy tale made up to scare the fillies and colts into being good.”
“Oh. Well it certainly fooled me,” Spike said, looking away from Luna and to the ground, crossing his arms. “Don’t judge me.” Fluttershy walked over to him and patted him on the shoulder, smiling assuredly.
“But how on Terra have daimons managed to come this far into Equestria?” Cadence asked, turning back to her aunt. “Wouldn’t they have had to pass Cerberus to get out of Tartarus?”
Luna shook her head. “I am afraid it is a bit complicated to discuss now, but I will try and keep it short. You see–” A train of screeches echoing across the Vale sent Luna spinning in their direction. The alicorn’s coat suddenly paled. “Oh no.”
Fluttershy turned, too, wondering where they came from, and saw at the top of a hill in the distance, a lone shepherd standing tall, with two teethed longswords in its hands. It reared up, raised the blades high into the air, and roared, “SLAUGHTER THEM!” A thousand screeches followed in its wake, and were getting louder with every passing second.
“Here they come,” Spike muttered, his eyes wide with terror.
“I’ll explain if we survive this. Quickly, all of you, follow me to the bridge!” Luna yelled, and before she could give the others time to reply she was galloping down the road, her head low in the hope it would give her greater speed.
Cadence nodded rapidly, and with her magic swung Spike onto her back. “Hold on tight,” she said, and raced after Luna and Trixie, who was but a dust cloud in her haste to get away. “Come on, Fluttershy!”
Fluttershy glanced back at the three as they began to gallop away, then looked south again as the screeches became louder and louder. Her eyes slowly grew in horror as far ahead, at the top of a hill that the path climbed up, an army of daimons descended and charged towards her like a huge wave about to crash onto land.
It was a wave that had no end.
Fluttershy took one good look at the army coming towards her once more, terror written across her face, before spinning around and galloping after her friends. ‘Come on, Fluttershy, big strides!’ she yelled at herself. She quickly caught up with her friends, and was beginning to overtake them. She quickly noticed and slowed down, not wishing to part from her friends’ sides once more.
She looked back at Luna, who gave her an encouraging smile, then looked beyond at the army chasing them. A shepherd daimon was in front of the group, and with waves of his staff and a few barks of command, the smaller daimons were splitting off and heading into the forests. “They’re trying to get ahead of us!” Fluttershy warned quickly.
Luna looked back, too, and smirked. “They will have to do more than that to catch us,” she said, and turned to look ahead once more.
Fluttershy nodded and followed her example, but couldn’t help but look back from time to time to see the daimons were catching up, and fast. “Cadence!” Luna barked, picking up Spike with her magic and floating him onto hers.
Cadence nodded, and with swift movements, brought her bow up, nocked an arrow to its string, drew back and loosed. The arrow flew straight and true, smashing into the shepherd’s head as he barked one more command, throwing the beast to the ground. The daimons behind tried to avoid the falling corpse but were too late, with one crushed by the falling shepherd, and the others smashing into it and tripping up over it as they tried to jump the bigger daimon’s remains.
Fluttershy looked ahead, and let out a gasp of shock. Before them the path suddenly turned left from a sharp drop, and descended gently down the cliff side to the flats below, where a path ran through more trees and over a small gorge further ahead. After that, she couldn’t see where the path went, but the mountains that Trixie said were the way out of the Vale were close now, so close that she could make out where the rocks on the mountains formed small ridges.
The Dragonlord stopped at the edge of the drop, and looked down. Her eyes widened in horror when she made out daimons making their way towards the path leading up towards them. “Luna!” she yelled, before the alicorn could pass her.
Luna stopped upon hearing Fluttershy, and looked down to see more daimons following the hillside and turning to follow the path up. “Keep the daimons behind us busy,” she said.
Fluttershy nodded, gulping when she realised what Luna meant by ‘busy’. She turned back to the daimon horde charging at them, paying particular attention to the seven or eight daimons that were ahead. ‘They really don’t know a thing called a break, do they?’ she wondered. She locked her gaze to one of them, which seemed to run even faster at her stare. ‘Do they have holidays in Tartarus?’
She was thrown out of her thoughts when the sound of an arrow flying off a string, given her a chance to see the arrow in question fly straight through the neck of a shepherd leading the charge. The beast cried out in sudden pain, before tumbling to the ground. The remaining seven kakos daimons swerved around it and continued to charge.
Fluttershy raised her right leg and drew Drage Bane, the blade singing in anticipation. In the corner of her eye she could see Trixie draw her sword, and watched as Cadence launched another arrow, which slammed into another daimon going for Spike. Trixie leapt forward and swung her sword into the neck of another as it charged for her, throwing the daimon to the side like a ragdoll.
Fluttershy looked ahead when she heard the cries of daimons a bit louder than normal, and saw one heading for her. She reared up onto her hind legs and prepared to charge. ‘Time to send these beasts back to hell!’ she yelled in thought. She gulped and her ears flattened as her first target charged towards her. ‘I hope.’
The first daimon charged forward, then turned and swung a scythe at her chest. Fluttershy spun away from the attack, around the beast, dodging a swing of its claw, and slashed across its back and into its side with Drage Bane. She spun back around and parried as another kakos daimon swung a claw at her. She pushed the offending leg away, leapt forward and swung Firewing at the beast’s arm, severing it from its body. The beast screamed out, but was quietly drowned out by Drage Bane’s point running across its neck.
Fluttershy pushed the dying creature to the side and walked on, watching as a shepherd advanced slowly towards her, twirling its two short swords around its hands like it was an acrobat in the circus. When the Dragonlord was close enough, the beast stopped its show and thrust one sword forward. Fluttershy deflected the strike with Drage Bane, then lunged forward with Firewing. The beast brought its second sword low, then swung it upwards, throwing Firewing pointing towards the air and throwing Fluttershy off guard.
The pegasus squeaked in alarm as she felt gravity pull her to the ground, landing on her back. The shepherd daimon stepped forward and prepared to deliver the killing blow, snorting with amusement. It plunged both blades down, one aiming at her throat and the other at her belly.
The Dragonlord spread her wings out and caught the swords between her wing blades. The shepherd daimon’s eyes widened in shock, which was all Fluttershy needed. With a grunt of strength, she pushed the blades up and away from the daimon, then slashed at the daimon’s forelegs with her wing blades.
The beast cried out in pain as it fell to its knees, crippled. Fluttershy jumped up onto her hindlegs, drew Drage Bane and Firewing, and then thrust Firewing forward. The beast caught it with both of its swords, then its eyes widened, realising too late what it did. With a cry, Fluttershy sliced Drage Bane into and through the daimon’s neck.
As the beast’s dying sounds faded into nothing, Fluttershy pulled her sword out and looked ahead for more to banish. To her confusion, however, the daimon force chasing them not too long ago decided to stay put and wait. ‘Probably waiting for those coming from below,’ she guessed. But when they did get up the hill, then they would be surrounded, and trapped between two forces.
“All of you, on me, now!” Fluttershy spun around at Luna’s command, and saw to her surprise a large, nicely rounded tree trunk lying across the path, surrounded in the dark blue glow of Luna’s magic.
“Oh, please don’t say you’re gonna do what I think you’re going to do with that?” Cadence asked as she took up position at Luna’s side.
Luna pouted. “Oh, don’t spoil the surprise, dear niece,” she said, smirking. She turned to the others. “Right, all of you, push on my command, and keep it even!”
Fluttershy nodded, and moved to the centre of the fallen tree; she glanced back at the path behind to see the daimons had realised what was about to happen and sprinted forward, bellowing cries of rage.
“Push!” Luna commanded, and pressed her hooves into the log and pushed with all her strength. Cadence, Spike and Trixie followed Luna’s call and began pushing as well. Fluttershy set her good shoulder to the log and pushed, using all four legs to help with her momentum. She could see with the corner of her eye that the daimon force behind was only a few seconds away. ‘Come on, keep pushing!’ she thought, putting her all into it.
Suddenly, the tree she was pushing felt very light. She pulled her head back and watched as the tree began to roll on its own accord. She instantly stopped pushing, stepped back and began to follow it. “Stop pushing, let it go!” she ordered.
The ponies and dragon around her complied with her request, and took a step back, letting the log roll faster and faster down the hillside. “Keep up with it!” Luna ordered once the tree was a few feet away, and began to gallop after the tree, picking up Spike and setting him on her back. Fluttershy and Trixie galloped after her, while Cadence galloped behind them, keeping the daimons behind them at a distance – any that came closer than they liked was shot through the head with an arrow.
She turned her head forward, just in time to watch the tree smash into the first of the daimons coming up the hill. The creatures in its path were crushed utterly, leaving nothing but dust in their wake. The daimon force behind stopped in their tracks and tried to get away from the falling monstrosity, but the densely packed creatures had no room to manoeuvre through the crowd, affectively trapping them in the path of the rolling tree.
Fluttershy could only look away as the panicked screams of the daimons echoed across the Vale, wincing every moment the sound of bodies being crushed filled her ears. She looked back to find the daimons chasing them had stopped at the top of the hill, in awe of the tree annihilating their comrades below. ‘That won’t keep them frozen for long,’ she thought.
The tree made it to the bottom of the hill, crushing a shepherd between the rock behind it and the tree in front. At least ten kakos out of the many were left, and clambered over the fallen tree to get to them. Luna’s horn lit up, and before the daimons could charge into them, launched a small ball of blue light towards them. The ball hit one daimon square the chest, before exploding and claiming all but two of the daimons.
Luna drew Nightbringer from her side and swung, cutting off the forelegs of her first attacker. She turned and parried a scythe that came from her sword, allowing Trixie to draw her own sword and stab it through the daimon’s side. The pair had pulled their swords out and were past the fallen tree before the creature had even turned into dust.
Before they reached the tree line, Fluttershy looked back at the hill behind them, and saw a group of shepherds line up along the path heading down, their hand occupied with longbows. She did a double take when she realised what she was seeing, and cried out, “Luna, they’ve got bows!”
Luna looked back with wide eyes, and came to a stop as the shepherds drew back their strings. “Everyone, take cover!” she yelled, and dived behind the nearest tree she could find.
Fluttershy watched as Cadence, Trixie and Spike followed suit and jumped behind other trees, just as the shepherds loosed their arrows and sent them sailing into the air. Fluttershy squeaked in fright and veered off the path and squeezed into a small hole she noticed at the bottom of a tree. She turned around and saw the arrows land across the path, some exactly where they stood, others landing where they would have been running, but most slammed into the trees her friends sheltered behind, ripping off chunks of the trees’ trunk. She could hear some slam into the tree she was hiding in, but kept her cool for the most part.
Finally, after a long minute of arrows tearing through trees and digging into the ground, the volley stopped. As soon as it had stopped, Luna jumped out from behind her tree and began at a trot. “Come on, all of you, get up and get moving!” she yelled.
Cadence, Trixie and Spike followed her, eager to get away. Fluttershy crawled on her belly through the hole, feeling the fresh air on her face once more, before suddenly coming to a stop. She looked back in fright to find that while one half was out, the other half was stuck. Her ears flicked at the sound of the daimons advancing. She began to wiggle her body desperately, inching bit by bit out of the tree. Screeches of the daimons forced her to struggle faster, but she knew she would never get out on her own. “Help!” she called.
Spike looked back at her plea, and raced over to help her. “Give me your hooves,” he ordered upon reaching her, stretching out his claws.
Fluttershy complied and set her hooves into his claws. With a grunt, Spike began to walk back, inching the Dragonlord out of the tree. Fluttershy felt the tree rub heavily against her sides, bruising them badly. ‘Ignore it for now,’ she thought, pressing her teeth together to endure the pain.
She suddenly felt the cold air against her flanks, and instantly knew that she was free. She leapt forward, wrapping Spike in her embrace before throwing him onto her back and jumping up onto all fours. “Let’s go,” she said, and charged forward as if she was being chased by a hydra. Behind her, the daimons surged forward, eager to sink their scythes into their flesh.
Fluttershy caught up with Luna, Cadence and Trixie, and looked back once more at their pursuers. The daimon host were once again splitting up, with several of the shepherds armed with bows moving into the trees, while the smaller creatures were racing down the hill as if it were a waterfall. Trees and bushes rushed by, throwing her giant world into the path in front and behind her. Nothing else mattered.
The sound of heavy feet slamming into the ground beside drew her attention to the trees, and her eyes widened at the sight of a shepherd racing beside them, bow drawn and an arrow ready to loose. “Everypony, to the right!” she called, just as the beast launched its arrow straight at her. Fluttershy reflectively swung her wing up and swatted the arrow away. “Cadence!”
Cadence looked around, drew her bow, and launched an arrow. The arrow punctured the beast’s neck before it could launch another shot, sending it tumbling to the ground and smashing into a tree. “More on the left!” Luna cried. Cadence responded by picking up another arrow, turning to look the other way, and loosed without bothering to aim. The arrow smashed through the leg of another shepherd, throwing it to the ground which tripped up another that ran directly behind it.
Unfortunately, more daimon shepherds followed in their wake, all of them ducking shots thrown at them and swerving around trees, firing crack shots at the group – most of them missed, much to Fluttershy’s delight, but a lot were too close for comfort. “I don’t have enough arrows to take them all down!” Cadence stated, looking back at her quiver to see the dozen or so she had left.
“Then keep on running!” Luna yelled in reply, her strides appearing to make her move even faster.
Fluttershy followed suit, hoping beyond hope that the barrage of arrows would stop and the beasts would come at them with blades. ‘At least then I could be of some use,’ she thought.
“Wait a second, why aren’t we using our magic?” Luna asked herself, pulling a face as the thought came to her. She looked left, tilted her head forward, and blasted a beam of blue light at a shepherd. The daimon took the beam to the side, throwing it into a tree. Cadence followed suit, looking right to the other side, and sent a blast of pink light into another daimon, hitting it in the leg and sending it rolling into another tree. The two alicorns continued their volley of magic, hitting any of the daimons that came close to the group or put themselves into the open. Fluttershy’s ears rang with the pained cries of the daimons the two former Princesses had hit, but she dared not look back and watch; she was too transfixed on getting out of the Vale alive.
The Dragonlord noticed the path suddenly whirled around a corner, and veered towards the trees in the hope to cut time. “Everypony, follow me!” she ordered. She glanced back to see if she had been heard, and was relieved to see Luna, Cadence and Trixie following her; the unicorn turned her head around and with a flick of her horn, fired a cloud of smoke across the path, blinding the daimons chasing them. “Nice one, Trixie!” Fluttershy called encouragingly, before looking ahead to see the path at the far end of the woods.
Once she had made it to the other side, Fluttershy looked ahead. Before her was a long, wooden bridge, suspended above a gorge by old, worn ropes. Beyond the bridge, the path disappeared into the tree, but the pegasus could see the mountains were growing larger by the minute. ‘We must be getting close to the exit,’ she thought, a feeling of relief glowing across her chest.
“What are you staring at, Fluttershy? Get across!” Spike yelled into her ear.
Fluttershy jumped out of her thoughts, and shook her head. “Oh right, sorry,” she said, and galloped over to the bridge, then slowed to a trot as she walked across the bridge. It was old and worn, with many of the planks showing signs of aging and even the bite marks of woodlice. She broke into a canter, knowing she needed to get to the other side. Fluttershy looked back to see if she was being followed, and sighed in relief to know Cadence had started crossing and Trixie was waiting on the other side.
Luna, on the other hoof, was busy fighting daimons that had rushed forward and had caught up. She lowered Nightbringer and skewered a daimon through before it could run around her and try to attack Trixie and Cadence. She picked up the banishing daimon and threw its remains into another. The daimon spluttered as its comrade’s remains were flung into its face, blinded by the dust. Luna stepped forward and swung, cutting open its chest and throwing it back into a tree. She spun and deflected an axe from a shepherd as it came from behind her. She then pulled Nightbringer back and swung for its chest. The daimon parried, then pushed forward and with its free arm swung a punch at Luna.
The alicorn ducked at the last second and rolled away, before getting up and keeping Nightbringer raised at a high guard. The Shepherd snarled and swung its axe in its hand, before charging forward and swinging for her leg. Luna deflected it away, raised Nightbringer up and struck down. The daimon brought the axe back up and parried the blow, then stepped to the side and swung for the alicorn’s side. Luna parried, pushed the daimon back and swung for the neck. The daimon deflected the strike and swung for Luna’s neck, but the mare ducked once again and jumped back. The daimon snarled and charged, bellowing.
Fluttershy watched in dismay at the two engaged in a duel, with daimons moving about to cut off any possible escape should Luna triumph. “We need to help her,” she whispered to herself. She looked to the bridge to find Trixie was still crossing, and was still in range to use her magic. “Trixie, help Luna!” she called.
The unicorn stopped and looked to Fluttershy, then nodded and turned around. “Cadence, cover her,” Fluttershy ordered, then looked to Spike. “Find some rocks or something to throw, and cover our backs.”
“What are you doing?” Spike asked.
Fluttershy looked back towards Luna, and spread her wings. “Oh, right. Just be careful then,” Spike said.
Fluttershy looked back, and grinned. “It’s me, isn’t it?” she said, before taking off and flying straight towards the shepherd assaulting Luna.
The daimon swung its axe down on Luna’s sword, throwing its point to the ground and putting the alicorn off guard. The beast brought its axe back up, but before it could, Fluttershy jumped onto its back, and yanked the axe free of the daimon’s arms. “Excuse me? Would you mind if I borrowed this for a minute?” she asked. She jumped off the daimon’s back and spun, swinging the head of the axe into the shepherd’s skull. The daimon was thrown back by the blow, landing on its back and quickly dissolving into dust.
She brought her head up to look into Luna’s eyes, who stared at her with awe. “That was pretty impressive, dear Fluttershy,” she said. Screeches from the daimons surrounding them tore her gaze away to settle on several of the beasts. “But now the daimons have no reason to hold back.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Fluttershy said, grinning. She turned to Trixie, and raised her hoof into the air. “NOW!” she yelled.
At once, a small ball of magic shot out of Trixie’s horn and spiralled towards the cluster of daimons that now charged the two ponies. The ball slammed into a daimon and exploded, showering the daimons around it with smoke. Fluttershy grinned to herself, amazed her plan had worked. Another ball of magic rocketed from the tip of Trixie’s horn and slammed into the daimon group on the other side of the ponies, shrouding them in smoke.
Once the smoke had grown large and thick enough, Fluttershy spread her wings once more. “Luna, follow me!” she commanded, before taking to the air. The alicorn spread her wings and followed the Dragonlord out of the smoke and into the air, before heading over the bridge and to the other side.
Fluttershy landed with a thud, turning to see Trixie cantering over the bridge to them. “Trixie, once you get across, cut the ropes!” she yelled.
Trixie, whose eyes were wider than saucers out of fright, nodded blankly. “Ropes. Cut them. Got it.” She made it to the end just as the smoke began to clear and the first daimons began to cross the bridge. Trixie then turned around, drew her sword, and swung it down on one knot. The rope snapped with a loud, “twang!” sending the bridge onto its side and throwing the daimons on it into the river below. Trixie swung her blade down onto the other rope and cut it.
The bridge dropped suddenly, the remaining daimons that had managed to hold on screaming, and swung back onto the wall of rock on the other side. The bridge slammed into the rock like a cannonball smashing into a wooden wall, throwing the daimons that were clinging on to it for dear life into the water below. Fluttershy flattened her ears to dull the sound of their screams and looked behind, at the long road ahead of her and her friends.
“Do you think the daimons will stop now?” Trixie asked, looking towards Luna.
Luna, unsurprisingly to Fluttershy, shook her head. “Daimons are stubborn beasts that don’t easily give up. They will try to jump across,” she answered grimly, slowly stepping back from the edge. “Unless they’re too scared of the water below.”
“Why would they be scared of the water?” Fluttershy asked.
Luna looked back to the Dragonlord. “Because water in its purest form can permanently kill a daimon. That, and the fires of a dragon.”
Fluttershy looked back at Spike in shock, who simply stared at Luna with wide, disbelieving eyes. He unintentionally clenched his claws into fists, shocked beyond words of what he had heard. She moved forward to comfort him, but the shrieks of rage from the daimons forced her to look back at reality. ‘I will have to comfort him later. Right now, we need to leave,’ she thought determinedly.
She gently set the frozen and haunted baby dragon on her back, then turned to the others, who continued to stare at the daimons on the other side. “Come on, everypony, let’s go while they are on the other side,” she ordered.
Cadence, Luna and Trixie looked back upon hearing her command, and nodded in agreement. They turned away from the daimons and galloped along the road with Fluttershy, leaving a trail of dust in their wake.
A few minutes later, Fluttershy and her friends found themselves moving onto a large road, big enough for two carts to move past one another. ‘We must have hit the main road,’ she realised, smiling to herself, though her mind was clouded with worry. She wanted to know that this would soon be over. That they would be clear of the range and the beasts that now inhabited it. That they would be free.
Suddenly, Trixie squealed in delight. “Oh, I know where we are! I know where we are!”
“Then where are we?” Cadence asked, her voice heavy with fatigue.
“About a few minutes or so away from the main bridge leading into the cave that is the exit to the Vale,” Trixie answered, grinning. Somehow, her strides were quicker as the news entered her own head. “Come on, we’re almost there!”
Cadence and Luna both grinned at one another, and together galloped after Trixie. Fluttershy could feel the grin of relief on Spike’s face as well as her own. In only a few minutes, it will soon be over. They will be free and they could continue on their journey to Horsca together. She put all her strength into her legs and galloped after her friends.
Ahead of her, the road bent into a tight corner, disappearing behind a row of tall foliage and large oak trees. ‘Beyond that, the bridge out of here, I expect,’ she hoped, grinning to herself. She rounded the corner, then like her companions skidded to a halt at the sight before her.
The road suddenly fell down the steep slope of a hill, then flattened out as it came to a crossroads, a large, featureless plain covered in dirt. Beyond the road, the bridge beckoned them like a lighthouse. It was made of stone, probably carved from the rock of the mountains themselves, and was wide enough for nine ponies to stand across and long enough for maybe a hundred. Both ends clung to the edges of the earth as though they were holding on for dear life, knowing that to let go was to fall a thirty foot drop into the river below. And on the other side of the bridge, the dark mouth of a cave was laid bare before them, inviting them to cross and enter into safety.
Fluttershy sighed at the thought of safety. ‘If only there wasn’t an army of daimons blocking the bridge,’ she thought, staring at the occupants of the bridge in dismay.
The daimons were compacted tightly across the bridge, kakos daimons and shepherds alike shifting uncomfortably close to one another as they tried to keep themselves from falling into the ravine below. Spread out across the road, many more were waiting for them, hissing vehemently for their blood, while the shepherds ran a hand over the edges of their weapons to be sure that they were sharp and able to kill brutally and efficiently.
“Wha- what are we going to do now?” Cadence asked, staring in growing horror as the monsters prepared to charge.
Luna said nothing for the moment, and instead drew Nightbringer from her side. “We fight. Fight until they are all banished, or we are dead,” she answered grimly.
Fluttershy looked away and sighed sadly, disheartened by the numbers against them. She could see by the numbers that they could not possibly win, unless… “Can’t you just blast them all off with that spell you used earlier?” Fluttershy asked.
Luna nodded. “I could use the spell again, but I am worried the spell may damage or even destroy the bridge. If I do that, then I will surely doom us to die here.” She shook her head. “No, I cannot risk that happening. We will have to do this the old fashioned way.” She looked down the hill, and then glanced back. “Keep in a circle here. We have the high ground at the moment. Whittle them down to the point where we could make a break for the crossing.”
Fluttershy nodded, then lowered herself onto her belly. “Spike, guard the back with Trixie. I’ll go in front,” she commanded.
Spike grumbled something yet nodded nonetheless. He jumped off her back and moved to stand next to Trixie – a bit too close than the Dragonlord thought possible when he concerned himself with Trixie. Fluttershy decided to push it to one side for the moment – there were greater things to worry about. Particularly the daimon army ahead of them preparing to charge.
She set herself next to Cadence, then lifted her right leg and drew Drage Bane. Cadence drew her own sword and lowered its point at chest level. Luna moved to stand beside Cadence and lowered her head, as if she was about to use her horn to banish daimons. “All of you, stay in line, and do not leave this hill,” the nightly Princess said, her eyes fixed on the horde before them.
At the sight of their weapons, the daimons screeched to the skies, and then charged forward with reckless abandon; those that were too slow were crushed by those behind them, and many were shoved out of the way by some who wanted to get to the ponies first. ‘Wow,’ Fluttershy thought as she watched a daimon pushed away from a shepherd daimon, only to be shoved to the ground and crushed underfoot by another shepherd behind it. ‘Those poor little things.’ Despite her dislike for the daimons, she could easily sympathise for the smaller ones.
Just as the daimons reached the bottom of the short hill and began the climb up, a dark blue screen suddenly appeared across Fluttershy’s vision, as tall as Cadence. The pegasus jumped back a bit in surprise. ‘Am I seeing things?’ She blinked rapidly in the hope that it would get rid of the thing in front of her, but the screen stood stoically in place. The screen suddenly thickened out, and took the shape of a great stone wall, similar to the wall one of her old neighbours built months before he died. She followed the wall right around, watching in awe.
Wherever there was a spot for daimons to run through and take them, a piece of the wall was formed. Between every tree, every bush, a blue coloured wall stretched out and formed from mid-air and create a formidable blockade that – Fluttershy hoped – would stop the daimon charge. The pegasus followed the wall right around as it encircled them. Straight back at the caster, Princess Luna.
Luna saw her looking, and offered a brave smile. “A bit of protection for us. A standard shield for most military unicorns, yet with me it’s thicker and stronger. It should stall them for a while, but whether it should hold them indefinitely, I… I don’t know,” Luna explained, her ears drooping as she finished. She looked ahead as the first of the daimons made it to the top, and raised Nightbringer. “If we can hold them off until nightfall, then we will make it. Fight until the darkness comes, one way or another!”
Fluttershy swallowed the lump in her throat back down, knowing what the alicorn had meant, and looked back at the daimons just as they charged at full speed at Luna’s magic wall. To her surprise, though, the daimons didn’t come through as she had – admittedly – expected, but crashed into it as if they had charged into an actual stone wall screaming wordless battle cries. Those behind crashed into the ones in front, falling onto their stomachs or knocking themselves out. Behind them, confusion and disorder ran rampant as daimons clambered over their fallen comrades, and the shepherds tried to restore what could be considered order.
Fluttershy lightly shook her head at the display. ‘If they are going to act like that, we might as well wait until they’re finished banishing each other, and then fight those that are left,’ she thought. She let out a sad sigh, knowing that was wishful thinking. ‘But, I might as well give them a hoof at banishing themselves for us.’
She stepped towards the shield wall and thrust Drage Bane forward. To her surprise once more, the sword went through the shield and into the chest of the daimon opposite her. The daimon groaned for a long time, before withering away into dust, giving the one behind a chance to move forward and thrust its scythes at the wall. The scythes, however, simply bounced back upon impact, throwing the daimon onto its hind legs. Fluttershy thrust forward and skewered the daimon with Drage Bane as it brought its scythes back for another go.
Another daimon tried to climb over another as if it was a step ladder conveniently placed to allow it to leap over the wall. Fluttershy looked up too late as the daimon spread it scythes and moved to jump down. Before it could move an inch, a rock flew over Fluttershy and smashed into the daimon, throwing the creature back off the wall and into the daimons below it. The pegasus looked back in shock, and watched as Spike picked up another, and flung into the ranks of the daimons. Fluttershy was aghast to see him taking part, fearing for his safety, but quickly thought reprimanding him would be pointless. ‘We all have to take part if we want to survive,’ she reasoned to herself. With a small sigh, she nodded in acknowledgement of him, and turned back to the battle.
A shepherd came next, trampling over some of the daimons before, and raised a mighty battle axe to bring the wall down. Fluttershy quickly looked to the left and noticed Cadence was too busy wiping out half a dozen at a time with the swings of her sword, while Luna was slashing, cutting, and stabbing the daimons coming at her part of the line. ‘Guess it’s up to me, then.’
Just as the daimon began to bring its axe towards the wall, Fluttershy spread her wings and shot forward with a speed she only used when saving animals from mortal peril. She perched herself on top of the wall and used Drage Bane to parry the axe, and her free hoof to roughly push the daimon back. The force of the push nearly threw her back onto the ground on the wrong side of the wall, but she quickly pulled herself back and prepared for the counter attack.
The daimon snarled in rage at the push, then charged forward and swung its axe from over its shoulder at her side. Fluttershy jumped into the air, missing the axe’s sharp edges by an inch. She set herself back onto the wall and thrust Drage Bane forward. The daimon deflected it with its axe, then swung it around and thrust it forward. Fluttershy leaned to the side, missing the strike, and then jumped up and landed on top of the axe, severing it in half. The daimon’s eyes widened in horror, and began to walk back through the lines and away from the fighting. Fluttershy looked at it with narrow eyes and snarling teeth. Abruptly, she leapt her head forward as though she was snapping at it. The daimon jumped back in fright, before spinning around and galloping back to safety. Fluttershy jumped off the wall and nodded firmly to herself. ‘Let it go. It’s of no threat anymore,’ she told herself.
She looked across the wall that was probably considered her area to defend. The wall was holding the daimons back, but like Luna said, she didn’t know for how long. Some were even starting to use others to climb over the wall and overwhelm the defenders on the other side. ‘If they all started that, then this wall wouldn’t hold them back for five minutes,’ she thought. With that realisation in her head, she leapt forward and stabbed a daimon with Drage Bane.
Before the creature had fallen, she pulled the sword back, then thrust forward again, stabbing another daimon. She pulled out, and thrust forward again. Back, then forward. Back, then forward. Fluttershy began to lose all sense of the world around her, even the cries of her friends fighting for their lives was but an echo to her ears. To her, the world was in front of her, a single nightly blue wall holding the forces of Tartarus at bay, and her sword stabbing anything within leg’s reach.
Suddenly, a sharp, throbbing ache echoed across her leg, forcing her to cry out and step back in shock. ‘Have I been hit?’ she wondered. She looked at her right leg and twisted it this way and that to know if she had been wounded by a daimon that had managed to get a strike in while her mind was away. To her surprise, there wasn’t even a scratch on her leg. She leaned her leg forward, and hissed as the pain came in full force. Fluttershy set it back down and leaned on her left leg, taking a deep breath. ‘I must have been doing that for so long my leg has worn itself out,’ she realised, grimacing as the pain receded once more.
She looked across the line to see how the others were getting on. Luna was still cutting, slicing and chopping at the daimons on her side of the shield, but her attacks seemed more cumbersome than before. Cadence slashed across the chest of three daimons, then set her sword down for a quick breather, only to take it back up again and slash across the chest of several more daimons and thrust it through the heart of a shepherd daimon. Trixie had joined the fight at some point, and was busy stabbing into the daimon ranks as they pressed against the barrier.
Fluttershy lifted her left leg and drew Firewing. Then, with a defiant cry escaping past her lips, she lunged forward and speared the sword through the chest of a daimon trying to climb over. She pulled Firewing out, then looked in front of her and stabbed forward, skewering another daimon. She pulled it out, then slashed through the legs of another as it moved to take its fallen comrade’s place. She suddenly noticed in the corner of her eye a spear moving in her direction, and quickly jumped away from it. She looked in the spear’s direction, and saw a shepherd pressed against the barrier, bringing its weapon back for another strike while three daimons leapt from its back to the other side.
Fluttershy only took a minute to realise what they were doing, and stepped away from the barrier in horror. “They’re jumping over the top!” she yelled, and prepared for the first attack from these creatures.
“Fluttershy!” The Dragonlord looked back at the sound of Spike’s cry, and her eyes widened in horror as several daimons, having waded through the trees and flanked the shield wall, had jumped over the wall and were now advancing on Spike.
“Luna, help him!” she commanded, pointing to the little dragon.
Luna looked back at the situation, then looked to Fluttershy and nodded. “Trixie, Cadence, hold them back for a little while longer! Come on, everypony, we can survive this!” she assured, before charging at the new foes coming from the rear.
‘I doubt we could now,’ Fluttershy thought hopelessly, before turning towards the daimons advancing on her. The first three were preparing to attack her – one from the front while the other two slowly made their way around her, keeping their distance – while others that had jumped off were now smashing their scythes against the barrier. With them breaking the barrier, and the others on the opposite side doing the same thing, it would only be a matter of time before it falls and they would be overrun. ‘We have to stop them,’ she thought.
She looked to Trixie. “Trixie, stop those daimons from breaking the barrier!” she ordered, using Firewing to point at them. Trixie looked back, saw the danger, and then charged at the daimons with a speed that showed the unicorn was using what strength she had left. Fluttershy watched with a gaping mouth as the mare sliced open the throat of one daimon, then stabbed the side of another, then finally slashed open the chest of a daimon that saw the danger and moved to take her down. ‘They would need a lot more than that to take down Trixie,’ Fluttershy reckoned, watching as the show mare ducked as a paw was swung her way, and then stabbed through the belly up.
A screech coming her way forced Fluttershy to look away from Trixie, and focus on the daimon charging her with scythes raised high. Fluttershy, rather than back away or roll away from the strike, reared up and drew both blades. She leaned to the side and missed the attack from the daimon’s scythe, and with Drage Bane chopped down on the daimon’s back, almost cutting the creature in half. She pulled it back and thrust Drage Bane forward at the second daimon.
The daimon jumped to the side, then reared up and tried to slash across the back of her neck with a claw. Fluttershy ducked and leaned to the side, dodging the blow, then swung Drage Bane at the outstretched claw. The daimon reeled it back in, and looked towards its companion. Fluttershy glanced over her shoulder to see the other daimon was directly behind her. She set herself back on all fours and kicked out with her hind legs, hitting the daimon in the face so hard its neck snapped. The daimon in front of the Dragonlord let out a cry of rage and lunged forward. Fluttershy cried out in surprise as the daimon rammed into her, pinning her to the ground with its bodyweight. The daimon opened its mouth, revealing its fangs, and then leaned forward to bit at her neck.
Fluttershy punched the creature back, throwing its head into the air. She then used her hind legs to kick it onto its side. The creature screeched with pain as it fell, and promptly tried to get back up and fight, but a quick swing of Drage Bane from high cut the beast’s belly open.
Fluttershy sighed in relief as it turned into ashes, then looked towards the barrier expecting Trixie to have cleared them up. To her horror, another group of daimons had made it over the side, and the part of the barrier they were smashing into with their scythes was beginning to crack apart like glass. “TRIXIE, BEHIND YO–!”
Her yell to the unicorn was drowned out by the barrier breaking like the sound of a thousand windows shattering, and the triumphant cries of hundreds of daimons.
Fluttershy could hear Luna and Cadence cry out in horror, while Trixie disappeared in the tidal wave of daimons that surged forward. “NO!” Fluttershy yelled, her eyes wide with sorrow, as all traces of the unicorn vanished under the tide that came before her. With a cry of rage, Fluttershy reared up and charged forward, her swords Drage Bane and Firewing singing their songs of steel for one last battle.
The Dragonlord ducked as the first daimon came at her, swiping a claw for her neck. She reared back up and slashed upwards, cutting the daimon’s head off. She spun and slashed back with Firewing, cutting down another, and used Drage Bane to stab forward as she tried to get to Trixie. She stabbed forward as another daimon tried to pin her down, ripping open its chest and belly. She slashed right with Drage Bane at one daimon, and slashed left at another with Firewing. She slashed with her swords at a shepherd with a spear – the same shepherd that changed the outcome of the entire battle, and cut off its forelegs. The shepherd screamed in fury, and as it fell it lunged its spear the pegasus, scraping its sharp edge along her shoulder.
Fluttershy cried in pain, and reared back while setting a hoof against the wound to stop the bleeding. She noticed too late that she had put herself in a weak position, and instantly removed her hoof to try and defend herself. Suddenly, a daimon leapt forward and with a claw slashed Fluttershy’s other shoulder, sending her to the ground with a cry of agony.
As she hit the ground, she could hear Cadence’s cry of help as she was pushed to the ground. Luna’s yell to her niece was cut short by a cry of pain as she too was felled. She opened her eyes when Spike’s yell for help hit her ears. ‘I must do something!’ she thought, tears running down her cheeks. She set herself on her knees, hastily getting up, but a sharp blow to the stomach from a daimon beside her forced the Dragonlord back to her side, her hooves clenched around her pained stomach. Another punch to the side of the head forced her head back down onto the hard ground. Spike’s cry for help was lost in the triumphant cries of the daimons.
Fluttershy groaned, half in the pain she felt around her stomach and her head, and half in despair. They had failed to get free of the Vale, and would die here together in possibly very painful ways. She would never see Horsca, and Vidarr ever again. Yet if any daimon ever saw it, there was a brief but faint smile on her lips. ‘At least I get to see my father again,’ she thought.
She suddenly felt a powerful hand lock around her neck, and weakly tried to free it with her hooves. With a grunt, she felt herself hoisted into the air, the breath of life being strangled out of her. Fluttershy weakly opened her eyes to find a daimon shepherd at the other end of the hand, grinning maniacally as it tightened its grip. The Dragonlord’s eyes widened in alarm and gasped for air, desperately trying to break free. Every second that passed, however, she felt her strength torn out of her, and her movements became weaker as her chest was thrown into agony by the lack of air.
She suddenly felt the hand around her neck changed, and whispered with her last breaths, “Goodbye,” then steeled herself for the quick pain to come.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhooooooooooooooooooo
At once, silence reigned across the Vale. Every daimon had stopped and stared towards the sound of the noise. Fluttershy felt her captor’s hold loosen, and she drew a few quick and quiet gasps of air, continuing the struggle to get free. The shepherd paid little attention to the pony in its hand, it just continued to stare confusedly to the west.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhoooooooooooooooooooo
The sound came again, this time louder and, seemingly, more urgent than the last. This time, Fluttershy’s ears picked them up. ‘A horn. Those have to be horn blasts,’ the Dragonlord thought. She could barely turn her head in the direction the daimons were staring, but a quick glance told her they were looking in the direction of the sun, which was three quarters of the way behind the mountains. ‘But why?’
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhoooooooooooooooooooo
At the sound of the third horn blast, the daimons grumbled to one another and began to follow the path back the way they came. Fluttershy was stunned. ‘They’re not just retreating like that, are they?’ She silently hoped that they were. She looked behind the daimon grasping onto her, and saw the daimons around the bridge hastily ran off the bridge and disappeared down the two paths leading over it. The pegasus couldn’t believe it. They were actually leaving.
“Don’t think this as your lucky day, pony freak.” Fluttershy looked back at the daimon hold her, and trembled in fear at the hate coming from its eyes. “We will meet again, and when we do, I will finish what I started and snap this tiny little neck of yours like a twig.”
‘So why don’t you do that now rather than do it later?’ she wanted to say, but bit her tongue between her teeth; she didn’t particularly want to give the daimon any ideas. With that, the daimon tossed her to the ground like a doll. Fluttershy cried out in pain as she rolled and landed on her pained shoulder, hissing through her teeth. She opened up an eye to see the daimon sneer at her, before breaking into a gallop after its comrades. She took another breath, and closed her eyes once more.
When she opened them next, the daimons were long gone.
The pegasus groaned as she blinked rapidly, her senses returning to her bit by bit. She brought her head up and looked around. She firstly noticed the sun was almost gone – just the very edge now remained, while the rest of the sky moved into twilight hours. Dust and small drops of dried blood surrounded her – her own, by the looks of it – some of the dust flying with the wind to places only the wind could take it. ‘But where did the daimons go?’
A groan of exhaustion and pain whipped Fluttershy’s head around, and she gasped as Trixie tried to get back up. “Trixie!” Fluttershy hissed, too scared to speak any louder in case the daimons were in the woods and waiting for them to begin moving again, yet at the same time, she was overjoyed to see the mare was alive.
The unicorn looked her way with wide eyes, and gasped in surprise. “You’re not dead!” she said happily.
“And neither are you!” Fluttershy responded, grinning tiredly. Trixie got up to move towards her, but collapsed onto one knee after a single step. “Trixie, stay where you are for the moment! Once we’re all fit to move, then we will.”
“But what about them?” Trixie asked, pointing behind Fluttershy. The Dragonlord turned around, and gasped in horror at the sight.
Luna was on her stomach, breathing weakly but cut and scarred in over a dozen places. Cadence was on her side, her exposed wing spread and lying along the ground. While Spike was on his back, and despite Fluttershy’s vision, she couldn’t make out any movement whatsoever.
“Spike!” Fluttershy yelled in horror. She jumped onto her hooves and moved towards him, but a sharp pain in her right hind leg forced her onto her stomach. Ignoring the pain, she crawled slowly to the young dragon, despite feeling her coat and skin being torn by the ground beneath her. But none of that mattered to her; she had to know if Spike was all right.
She soon made it to the baby dragon’s side, and roughly shook him by the chest. “Spike! Spike, can you hear me?” she called loudly. When she received no response, her heart felt like it was going to collapse onto itself. She shook him again. “Spike? Please… please wake up.”
Yet there was nothing. Fluttershy’s ears fell flat, and tears began to fill her eyes. She shook him again, though this time it was weaker than before. “Spike, please… yo-you can’t leave me. Not now.”
Suddenly, the dragon groaned and his eyes opened just a fraction. The young Dragonlord breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Oh thank goodness you’re all right,” she whispered.
Spike groaned once more, and rubbed his forehead with a shaking claw. “So am I, to be honest. Or are we actually dead and are both in Paradise now?”
“If we were in Paradise, I don’t think we would be in any pain, don’t you think?” Fluttershy asked, smiling warmly.
“Touché,” Spike said quietly, looking himself over. He wasn’t badly injured, Fluttershy noticed. His scales had managed to take the brunt of any attacks he might have suffered. It was his chest area, however, that was the worst affected. Small scratches zigzagged across the top of his chest, with patches of dried blood around them and running down his body like running paint recently applied to a wall. “Is it bad?” Spike asked, looking a little concerned.
Fluttershy frowned a little at the sight, but her smile quickly returned and she shook her head. “You’ll be fine,” she said assuredly. She set a hoof on Spike’s chest and gently pinned him down. “Just stay there and rest for a moment. Once you and the others have recovered, then we can move on.”
A groan – this one louder and more pained – coming from the left told Fluttershy to turn, and watched with concern as Cadence lifted herself to her knees. “What… just… happened,” she rasped, her eyes only half open.
Fluttershy slowly set herself up onto her hooves, spreading her hind hooves apart to support her weight, and took a moment to know how she felt. To her surprise, the pain she had felt in her hind legs only minutes ago had become a dull ache that was even now slowly dissipating like a minor headache. Feeling confident to walk, she slowly set one leg forward, followed shortly by another. When she set her left hind leg down, the pain returned, but it felt more like she had been stung by a bee than attacked by a creature from the ‘underworld’. She ignored it and walked slowly in a circle, getting used to walking once more, before moving to Cadence’s side.
“Many things happened, but don’t worry about that now. Just rest for a moment,” the Dragonlord said gently, setting a hoof on Cadence’s shoulder to delicately set her back down.
Cadence did as she was told and set herself back onto her stomach, but didn’t stop looking around fretfully. “But, where are the daimons?”
“It’s all right. They’ve gone now. We’re all safe,” Fluttershy replied, looking Cadence over. Like the rest of them, Cadence had been scratched and kicked in several places, but nothing save the alicorn’s damaged wing appeared to Fluttershy to be serious injuries. ‘She’ll recover. We all will,’ she thought.
“What?” Cadence asked incredulously, looking to Fluttershy with raised eyebrows. “Are you sure of this?”
“Oh yes,” Fluttershy answered, nodding vigorously. “There were these long horn blasts that were really loud and quite scary, but when the daimons heard them they stopped and left very quickly. It was as if they were scared of them.”
“They weren’t.” Fluttershy jumped and gasped in surprise at Luna’s voice, and instantly turned towards her. The older alicorn groaned and sat up, a foreleg clutching against her head – the pegasus could see a trickle of blood break free from under it. “It was a command. A command that no daimon could possibly refuse. Even if it meant you couldn’t kill those they had by the throat.”
‘Some quite literally,’ Fluttershy quipped in thought. She quickly traced a hoof along her neck, and though it felt sore, she couldn’t feel anything that was out of place. “What kind of command was it, Luna?”
Cadence silently crawled up to her aunt and traced a hoof all over her to be sure that she was all right. “Three blasts of the horn orders all daimons must return to the tear before it closes. For a daimon to exist in this realm, a magical connection must exist between the two realms, so magic from Tartarus must be pouring into this realm. If that connection broke with daimons on this side, however, then those daimons would simply cease to exist.” Luna let out a gasp of surprise when Cadence wrapped her legs around her neck in a tight hug, apparently finished checking over her.
‘Wow. I didn’t know magic could be so confusing,’ Fluttershy thought, scratching the side of her head in puzzlement. She set her hoof down, and looked around the Vale once more. “Okay, you might have to tell me about it later, and in more detail. If I’m honest, I’m not really in any mood for long explanations at the moment.”
To her surprise, Luna chuckled. “I don’t blame you. But I will tell you more at a later point, be assured. Right now, I suggest we take this window of opportunity and leap out of it, never looking back.” With a grunt, she lifted herself onto all fours, and hastily set Nightbringer back at her side.
Fluttershy stared at Luna in shock, aghast at the idea. “Leave? Now?” She looked at the others briefly, then turned back to the older alicorn. “Forgive me for saying so, but I don’t think the others are in any fit condition to–”
“I don’t mind leaving now,” Spike interjected, raising a claw. “I’m getting quite bored of this place, and have had enough of dodging death today.”
“I agree with Spike, to be honest,” Trixie said, throwing an apologetic look at Fluttershy. “I just want to get away from this horrible place.”
Cadence said nothing, but a quick nod in Luna’s direction told Fluttershy whose side she agreed to. The pegasus sighed. “Are you all sure of this?” she asked. Everybody nodded, each throwing an appreciative stare at her. Fluttershy smiled at each of them in turn. “All right, then. Let’s get out of the Vale and back into the rest of the range.”
Trixie sighed in relief, then picked up her sword, sheathed it, and began walking down the small hill towards the bridge. Cadence grinned at Fluttershy, then walked around her and picked up Spike before setting off after Trixie. “Well done, Fluttershy,” Luna said, smiling kindly at the Dragonlord. “You listened to others first and took their opinions into account rather than follow what you thought was best.”
“Well, it was a unanimous vote, Luna,” Fluttershy said. “I couldn’t just ignore all of your wishes even if I wanted to. What would that make me look like to the rest of you had I said no?”
“I would say a pony that’s highly arrogant and probably vain,” Luna answered, staring at the sky thoughtfully. She began walking, glancing back at the young Dragonlord. “But enough talk, let’s get away from here.”
Fluttershy nodded, and trotted after Luna and the others as they crossed the bridge and left the Vale of the Lost behind them.
If Fluttershy was a meaner pony, she would probably be chanting to the others of how right she was. She would have told them repeatedly that they should have camped out by the bridge and made their way out at the sight of the moon ending its cycle in the sky. But due to her kind heart, she kept quiet, and instead issued words of encouragement to the group as they slowly and tiredly followed the path down the gently-sloped mountainside.
By the time the group had made it through the mountains and out of the Vale and back into the Unicorn Range once more, the sun was gone and the stars and the moon had taken its place. The land was covered in darkness, with only the silhouettes of the mountains in the far west barely visible in the moonlight. This meant a harder time for the group to climb down the steeper elements as each of them had to check their footing and make sure they didn’t set a hoof down on the wrong place. Otherwise, they would all be coming down in a rather painful and awkward way.
But, somehow without any incidents, the travellers had made it off the mountainside and were making their way across a vast plain with but a single dirt road leading to and from the Vale. Trees were silhouetted in the moonlight, given them an appearance to the cardboard trees some fillies or colts used to be in a school play – something Fluttershy always wanted to play as, but was always tricked out of it and had to play nothing or only had a quick appearance before being pushed off stage by others with more important roles.
She shook her head of the thoughts coming into her mind, and concentrated on getting as far away as she could from the Vale. She looked left and right, and could see how high up they were. To the north, she could see the Equestrian Plain, or the Equussteppes as some ponies called them, and beyond that the Crystal Mountains. To the south, she could see the end of Whitetail Woods, and part of another woodland that ran right along the top of Las Pegasus.
“Fluttershy…” Trixie rasped, stumbling as she walked. “Can we please… stop now?”
The Dragonlord looked back at her friends, and could see how exhausted they all were. ‘Trixie’s right. We need to stop soon,’ she thought. She looked ahead, and could see something shimmering in the moonlight. ‘That has to be a river.’ She looked back and offered the most encouraging smile she could to the others. “All right. Just a teeny bit further and then we can rest for the night,” she said, walking forward once more. Her legs ached, and she felt herself swerve across the old track like a drunken sailor, but her determination to make it to the riverside drove her on.
At last they made it to the river bank, and Fluttershy thanked the stars that they had stopped beside a ford. It was about the size of a pond that was close to her cottage back in Ponyville, and was surrounded by long blades of grass. Small, pointy rocks reached out from the water, forcing the water to splash over it like tiny waves were it just a model, and combined they created a sound that was tranquil, and eased a lot of Fluttershy’s fears – for now, at least.
She stopped by the edge of the ford and dunked her head into the water. Her eyes widened as the freezing temperatures of the water caressed her face and hit her mind, but she ignored it for a second. It felt really good to feel just a bit cleaner. She threw her head out of the water, gasping for air, sending droplets of liquid down her neck and across her body, then fell unceremoniously to her stomach.
Her ear twitched at the sound of a pony falling beside her, and lifted her head up and glanced left to see Cadence, her breathing fast and heavy. After a minute to catch her breath, Cadence licked her lips, then leaned her head forward and stuck her mouth under the water, taking great gulps of the river. ‘You poor thing,’ she thought, watching sympathetically as Cadence continued to drink.
Beyond Cadence, she could see Trixie falling onto her rump, her ragged mane covering her face, though Fluttershy could make out the exhausted slump the mare possessed. Suddenly her head disappeared behind Cadence as she too began drinking from the river. Another loud thump of a tired sentient creature drew Fluttershy’s attention right, and saw Luna fall onto her side, her back facing the Dragonlord. That only left Spike, but where was he?
“Oh, that feels good!” Spike suddenly yelled amidst the splashing of water, much to the relief of the pegasus. She looked over Cadence to find him on his back, gasping for air, his scales dripping with water after a quick dip. “Oh, this is… I don’t know. I actually can’t think of what to say.” Spike went quiet for a moment, a slight hum coming from him as he thought. “Oh, I know! I’m not sure how we escaped, but I don’t really care. We made it, we’re free!”
‘Yes. Free. But for how long?’ Fluttershy wondered, her brow creasing in fear. She sat up and looked back the way they came. The mountains of the Vale were barely visible in the darkness, but to her, that darkness was a spell brought about by the monsters that now occupied the Vale.
A violent shudder crept up from her rump to the top of her head, though it wasn’t from the wind that chilled the night. She still couldn’t believe Luna when she said that those things were daimons, the prowlers of Tartarus. But though she tried to deny it, she couldn’t. Those creatures were daimons, despite them being vastly different in appearance from what Fluttershy had read as a filly. They were creatures that were reputed to be the manifestations of the most negative emotions a sentient being could possess: anger, hatred, malicious joy, sorrow, despair, every emotion save fear they felt and used to bring about pain and suffering the likes of which had never been seen.
And they were in Equestria. And they were preparing for war. It was a thought that caused Fluttershy to shudder in terror once more. From what Luna had said, they were forced to stay in the Vale for the time being, or else they would die. Once that limitation has been broken from them, however, then nothing would stop them from spreading across Equestria and setting it aflame.
She knew she had to stop them from ever doing that and starting a war that – at the moment – Equestria could not survive. But how? She couldn’t face the whole daimon army alone, and even with her companions at her side she knew they couldn’t face such a horde with their numbers. ‘I have to think of something. Fast,’ she thought.
Whether or not she would have the time to think of something before the daimons launch an assault was another matter.
“Fluttershy?” The Dragonlord jumped at the mention of her name, squeaking in shock. She quickly calmed when she felt a hoof on her shoulder, and glanced over to see Luna on the other end, staring at her concernedly. “Are you all right?”
Fluttershy sighed and nodded, staring at the ground. “I’m sorry, Luna. I guess the daimons have put me on edge. But I’m fine, I think.”
Luna’s frown deepened. “I shall be the judge of that. Turn around so I can see your face and your body. I want to check you for injuries.”
Fluttershy reluctantly nodded, and sat up and turned around so she was directly facing the elder alicorn. Luna stared silently for a moment, before closing her eyes and casting a single light, bright enough to illuminate the entire group. Fluttershy squinted her eyes, yet stopped short of throwing a hoof over her face. “Oh, sorry, I should have known that was too bright,” Luna said, grinning sheepishly. The light suddenly dulled a bit, bright enough to still see the group as a whole, but dull enough so it doesn’t feel like the sun was in her face. “Better?”
Fluttershy simply nodded, and lifted her chin so Luna could examine her. Luna clicked her teeth together as she looked over Fluttershy’s body. “You’ve got some nasty scars on your chest and your sides. But I think they’re not deep enough to leave a mark on your body. Your coat should grow over it in time. Now stay still. I’m going to wash off the blood.”
Fluttershy did as she was told, and stood as still as a statue. She heard Luna’s hoof dip into the water, and quickly come out again, water trickling off her hoof and back into the river from whence it came. Then, with the gentleness of a towel, Luna began washing off the blood that stained her coat.
“Tis strange to see that Dragonlords are merely ponies, after all,” Luna remarked, the tip of her tongue appearing from between her lips as she tried to remove a stubborn stain on the Dragonlords coat. “No offence, but the way you spoke of them, made them sound like they couldn’t bleed, or die in battle.”
Fluttershy lightly shook her head. “We are – or were – ponies as much as you are, Luna,” she quipped. She looked towards the mountains in the west with tired eyes. “How do you know that the daimons can’t leave the Unicorn Range at the moment?”
Luna stopped briefly, but quickly continued as if the lapse hadn’t happened. “I followed them to the mountain where the tear resides – once they had stopped chasing me, that is. They cannot venture too far from it, lest they be discovered or disintegrated by the magic that exists in this world. Tis also one of the reasons they abandoned their attack on us to get back to the tear; every second counts if they want to live.”
Fluttershy nodded. “I’m surprised I didn’t hear the horn the first night in the Vale,” she said.
“You might have done, but your mind paid little notice to it in your time of panic,” Luna stated, dipping her hoof back into the water and rubbing against Fluttershy’s side. “Don’t worry about it, it’s a thing many ponies do.” She wiped another stain of blood, and then said, “So what happened yesterday?”
Fluttershy sighed sadly, the images of what had happened running through her head. ‘I can’t avoid it. I guess I have to tell her,’ she thought. She proceeded to tell Luna what had happened with the Poseidon Eel Kraken, and how she had defeated it.
Luna stopped her cleaning when Fluttershy ended the story with one of her swords through its eye, but quickly continued cleaning. “You did what you had to do, Fluttershy. Everypony else would have done the same, believe me,” she said comfortingly.
Fluttershy smiled at her, but said nothing, and allowed Luna to continue scrubbing off the blood. As Luna continued, the Dragonlord’s ear twitched at the sound of little dragon claws walking, and glanced over her shoulder to see Spike walking hesitantly over to Trixie. Her eyes widened in wonderment. ‘Surely he isn’t…’
“Hey,” Spike said quietly, claws entwined around another nervously, and he stared at the ground before him. Trixie jumped at the sudden attention, but said nothing. “Do you… do ya want any help with anything?”
Trixie snorted. “The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t need the help of any…” She stopped short when she realised she wasn’t fooling anypony, and sighed. “Okay, I have a wound on the back of my neck that can’t get to and it’s driving me crazy, happy?”
Rather than jump back and flinch at Trixie’s tone, Spike simply straightened up, then walked to Trixie’s side and inspected the wound. He grimaced at the sight. “Hold still,” he ordered, as he walked to the riverbank. He dipped his hand into the water, lifted it up and started rubbing into the wound.
Trixie sighed blissfully, closing her eyes. “Oh, that feels much better. Could… could you do that a bit more?”
Spike smiled. “Sure,” he said, and walked over to the riverbank once more.
Trixie’s eyes opened in shock upon hearing Spike’s words, and stared at him in wonder. “Why are doing this for me?” she whispered.
Spike said nothing at first, but simply worked his claw into Trixie’s wound once more. “I just want to thank you, I guess. You pushed me out of the way of that daimon when you could have just left me to my own fate. But you didn’t. Why?”
Trixie shrugged. “I couldn’t see that happen to anybody, not even to my worst enemies – not that I am saying you are, or were, one of my worst enemies, you weren’t at all, but you know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Spike said, chuckling to himself. The smile on his face quickly disappeared. “But you had no reason to help me at all. I have been nothing but an a–”
“And I have to stop you there, young dragon,” Trixie interrupted, raising a hoof in objection. “Your reactions to my presence have been largely justified, considering the few times we have met before this catastrophe happened. I have been rude, conceited, arrogant, and angry at others for faults I alone am to blame for. Trust me this once, you are not the first to scorn me for what I have done. And for what I have done, I am sorry.” Trixie bowed her head in shame. “I am sorry for everything.”
Spike stared sympathetically at Trixie, before lifting her head up with a claw. “As long as you can forgive me for not giving you the second chance Fluttershy said I should.”
Trixie smiled widely, then licked her lips. “Listen, I cannot thank you enough for saving my life earlier, and for keeping me company in that foul place. If you hadn’t stayed like I thought you might, I… I’m not even sure that I would be here.”
Spike waved a claw. “Hey, it’s all right. I couldn’t just abandon you like, no matter what you have done.” He looked back at the ground, rubbing his claws together. “Hey, I was wondering if, you know, you would like to start over. Maybe we could, you know, try to be friends?”
For a moment, nothing gave away the feeling Trixie might have felt at that moment. But suddenly, a lovely smile crossed her face. “I would like that, Spike. I would like that a lot,” she said. Spike smiled, then slowly and awkwardly wrapped his arms around Trixie’s neck. The unicorn looked stunned by the move, but quickly relaxed and hugged him in return.
Fluttershy beamed as she watched the pair hug, a merry tune running through her head with trumpets booming and choir singing their joy to the sky. What was beginning to look impossible actually happened. A friendship once thought impossible had actually become reality. She wanted to jump up and hug them both, squealing of how proud she was of the both of them. Before she could, she quickly told herself, ‘Leave them to it. We are all tired and need a decent amount of rest. I’ll say something tomorrow.’
“I don’t get it,” Luna said suddenly, drawing Fluttershy’s attention back to her. “Those two have been more or less at each other’s throats since we met Trixie back at the castle, and now he wants to be friends with her?” She chuckled as she shook her head. “I don’t think I could ever understand how friendship works.”
“But that’s just the magic of it, Luna,” Fluttershy said quietly. She looked back at the pair, who had split off, walked a fair distance away and began talking – what about, the Dragonlord could not hear due to them talking in low whispers. And she was glad that she couldn't. “Two ponies who many would have thought they couldn’t get along actually can. And I think it’s wonderful.”
“I suppose,” Luna grunted, wiping another stain off. She set her hoof to the side and sat up. “All done, dear Fluttershy. You are now blood-free.”
Fluttershy looked herself over, and though there were tiny dots of red left along her coat, they were barely noticeable. ‘I will have a wash tomorrow morning, before dawn,’ she thought. “Thank you, Luna,” she said, looking up at her. She lifted a hoof. “Do you want me to look you over next?”
“Oh, it’s all right,” Luna said, gently setting Fluttershy’s hoof down. “I’m fine, really. I’ll have a wash later.”
Reluctantly, Fluttershy pulled her hoof back, and nodded. “If you’re sure,” she said. She looked up at Luna in sudden remembrance. “You know you said yesterday that you had a hunch as to who attacked that hamlet and you hoped you were wrong? Well, were you right? Did you think it was the daimons in the first place?”
Luna stared at Fluttershy as if she had not spoken, blinking once, then after a moment blinking again. “Yes,” she said, then hastily lifted herself onto her legs. “Now if you excuse me, I must attend to Cadence.”
Fluttershy nodded timidly, then watched her go in stunned silence. ‘That’s it? She had nothing else to say?’ She narrowed an eye as she watched Luna settle down beside the younger alicorn and look at the swelling on Cadence’s face. ‘Why did she wish that she was wrong? Why is she so afraid of them?’ The questions running through her head, and more besides, was starting to make her head hurt and her eyes heavy with fatigue. ‘I need to sleep.’ Silently, she lowered herself onto her belly, rested her head on her hooves and fell asleep.
She was suddenly awoken a few hours later by the sound of hooves hitting the ground in a poor attempt at sneaking away. She brought her head up to see Cadence following Luna away from their resting place and into the darkness. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and called out, “Where are you two going?”
Luna and Cadence stopped at the sound of her voice, and looked back at her with red faces, as though they had been caught doing something far worse. “We’re moving away so we can have a chat,” Luna explained. Cadence nodded in agreement. “Would you like to join us?”
‘This could be a chance to get some answers,’ Fluttershy believed. “If you don’t mind.” She scrambled to her hooves and started walking over to them. “Shouldn’t we ask Spike and Trixie if they wanted to join us, too? It would seem quite rude without them.”
Luna chuckled. “I would rather not wake them up,” she said, gesturing with her head to the pair.
Fluttershy looked back, and couldn’t help but smile at the sight of Spike and Trixie sleeping side by side. ‘They need the rest, the poor things.’ “All right. But I hope you will tell them what they will need to know. I don’t want any secrets left hidden between us.”
Luna bowed her head. “You have my word, dear Fluttershy. Now then, let’s go over here where we can talk freely.” With that, Luna led the way into the darkness. Fluttershy looked at Trixie and Spike one last time before disappearing into it with the two Princesses.
They stopped in a small space on a sloping field on the other side of the path that lead up towards the mountains of the Vale of the Lost. Sweet daisies with petals as white as snow and dandelions as yellow as Fluttershy’s coat covered the field, giving it a colour that even the night could not hide. The pegasus took a moment to admire the many flowers that covered the field, and took a quick bite out of a daisy close to her hooves. ‘Hmm. Tastes like custard,’ she thought, rolling the daisy across her tongue.
“All right, Luna, I think you have kept us in the dark for too long. Please tell us, how on Terra are daimons managing to come into Equestria this far from the Gates of Tartarus?” Cadence asked.
Fluttershy turned away from the field and the flowers, and set herself beside Cadence, who stared at Luna expectantly, almost questionably. Luna sighed, and sat on her rump, staring at the ground.
Fluttershy could see it was difficult for Luna, and whispered encouragingly, “Take your time. There’s no rush.”
Luna nodded her thanks, then bit her lip as she thought of her explanation. “Okay,” she said eventually. “I guess I should start at the beginning. Well, what is presumably the beginning.”
Fluttershy and Cadence stared at one another in puzzlement, then looked back at Luna. “What do you mean, presumably?” Cadence enquired, lifting an eyebrow.
“Well, my sister and I are old, but neither of us were there to see this world be born. So from what I know are tales passed down from generation to generation. I really can’t say that what I will tell you is entirely fact,” Luna explained.
Fluttershy smiled comfortingly. “That’s all right, Luna,” she said. “Just tell us what you know.”
Luna nodded, then took a deep breath and began to speak. “Long ago, before this world was moulded and formed, there was only the darkness and the great beings that dwelled in it: the Primordials. They shaped the universe the way it is, created every star and every planet, and once they created a planet each Primordial cared for a planet until the time came for the deity to move on, and create a new planet elsewhere.”
Cadence whistled. “Wow. How were they able to look after so many planets if there were so few of them? As far as I know about Primordials, there were at least a dozen of them.”
Luna shrugged. “I can only imagine time is different for them,” she replied. “Now, there were three of these Primordials that had something akin to a sibling rivalry going one: Uranus, Gaia, and Tartarus. The three were tasked by their mother to create a world unlike any other, one that would endure even after their passing and the ending of time was upon it. The three agreed rather joyously to their mother, but silently, they all grumbled about being put together.
“So they began putting this world together, with each agreeing to work on a continent each with the help of their other siblings that specialised in creating features like oceans, wind, sky, mountains and deserts. Most of this work went into Gaia and Uranus’s creations, yet Tartarus, due to his temper, was ostracised by his siblings and left to creating his own continent, which mimicked Gaia’s in every way but was simply a barren wasteland with a highland and a lowland, and that was it. Gaia decided to name her continent Terra, while Uranus named his Paradise. Tartarus, however, decided to name his after himself.”
“Wow, talk about an ego trip,” Cadence murmured to Fluttershy. The Dragonlord put a hoof over her mouth to stifle her giggles. She quickly calmed down when she noticed Luna staring at her, waiting for her to stop.
“Sorry,” she squeaked, blushing. She waved a hoof at Luna. “Carry on, if you want.”
“I will,” Luna said, and turned back to the story. “The three lived in harmony for a while, looking after their works and making sure everything was working perfectly. Little nations started to form on Terra, with prisoners sent to Tartarus, while those that lived long and accomplished lives were sent on a ship to Paradise, to live eternally and youthfully and live in a place that held your every whim. And before you ask, I mean every whim.”
“Fascinating,” Fluttershy quipped, her mouth hanging open like a cave.
“Yes, truly, but something must have happened to send it all crumbling,” Cadence pointed out.
“Correct, dear niece,” Luna said sadly, her ears falling flat. “Tartarus started to see how his siblings’ lands flourished and thrived, while his remained as lifeless as the day he created it, albeit a few monsters now roaming about its plains. Creatures so consumed with hatred and lust for sorrow that they were banished to his realm.”
“The first daimons,” Fluttershy said, staring at the alicorn in interest; nothing could pull her away from the story spilling out of Luna’s mouth, not even if the daimons themselves were right behind them.
“Yes, dear Fluttershy,” Luna said, nodding. “A sickness started to take him. But it wasn’t an illness anypony could catch, it was a sickness of the mind and the heart. Jealousy was created, and rage unlike any other. He knew he had to go to one of his siblings and force them to change his land, but he knew not which one. He eventually decided on Uranus, the one who created a beauty never before seen in the universe, and marched off the confront him.”
Luna paused to sigh. “The two fought like animals for years, punching, kicking, and biting at one another. The blood that was spilt between them drowned civilisations and started wars, the first Terra had seen. Gaia is said to have wept as she watched her brothers fight, yet did not intervene until the fifth year. When that day came, Gaia created an army out of the very forests that dominated her land and used them bind the fighting primordials’ feet, hands, and bodies together, so that they could not move. Gaia reprimanded them both for the destruction they have caused, then left them to think about what they did.
“Once the fighting had stopped, Gaia set about re-healing the world and everything on it. Years passed by, and once she had completed her task and the world was set to right, Gaia released her brothers from bondage, and ordered them both to apologise, to each other and to herself. Tartarus, unable to stare at either of his siblings, returned to his land. Uranus returned to his land without a word. In the wake of her brothers’ estrangement, Gaia turned miserable. And in her misery, the forests lost their leaves and the grass died, creating the first winter.
“Not long after their feud, Tartarus used powerful and dark magic to break his continent away from the others and placed it in a bubble, becoming a material plain outside of existence, free from the machinations of his two siblings. But in the process of using such magic, he had to give his body and soul to it. And so he was utterly destroyed in the act. Uranus, after learning of what Tartarus did, enacted the same ritual, separating Paradise from Gaia’s realm. The remaining Primordials had long since left existence, leaving Gaia as the only Primordial left in the cosmos.
“And so she wept. Oh, did she weep for her brothers and sisters that had gone. The continent she had created disappeared under water, such was the mass of Gaia’s tears, wiping out everything. Eventually, she slit her own throat and fell upon her creation, breaking it apart and began the creation of the continents as we know them today.”
Fluttershy didn’t know why, but for some reason she felt slightly depressed. “Um… I know it’s not my place to say how a story goes. But, couldn’t you have made that story sound a little bit more cheerful?” she queried.
“I’m afraid I cannot, dear Fluttershy, for such stories are categorised as ‘Tragedies’ for a reason,” Luna said solemnly. “But believe it or not, that is not the end of the story. It is a bit difficult to explain, but I will do my best. For the spell to work, Tartarus needed something like an anchor to keep it from being thrown into the Never. So he created bridges that broke out from Tartarus and bridged the gap into Terra, throwing dark magic into the realm as he did so.
“At the same time, Uranus worked out that he couldn’t lift Paradise away and let it become its own world; he would have to follow his brother’s example and created something that would anchor the world together. So he created tunnels of pure darkness, with only the light of Paradise at the far end, and set them across the continents of Terra.
“Though you both might think this is a good thing. Trust me when I say that it was not. The two types of magic were set in the same places, so both types began to fight over the dominance of the world. These magics’ struggle for power threw nature out of balance and created creatures and beasts like dragons, hydras, and worse; even the ponies, who before that point had no intelligence in them, began to learn and study. The sun and the moon no longer worked themselves, and were thrown about like toys by the magic that quarrelled over this place like children.
“But, the third kind of magic, Gaia’s earth magic, waited in the shadows, healed where the light and dark magic couldn’t find, and watched as its world burnt. Then, in a show of strength, the magic of Gaia surged out from the place the great Primordial died, and sealed the tears, as they became known, with her magic. With this act, the magic of Paradise and Tartarus calmed, and the world of Terra slowly began to heal.”
Luna paused, her ears flattening in sorrow. “But the damage had been done. Enough magic, good and evil, remained in Terra, and the natural order had been thrown out of place, too damaged to be repaired. Three types of magic now existed on Terra: Earth, Light and Dark. The only thing the Earth magic could do was keep the tears sealed to prevent more ‘untamed’ magic – that is, magic from the space between realms that hasn’t been shaped into the three types – to pour in and cause mass destruction. And her magic has continued to do so, over millions of years.”
Fluttershy was too engrossed into listening to Luna’s story, that it took her a few minutes to realise she had stopped talking. She rapidly shook her head and continued to stare at Luna in awe. “That was... quite a story.”
Cadence nodded in agreement. “Yes, quite a story, indeed, aunt. A few plot holes here and there, but it will do.”
Luna squinted an eye at her niece. “What plot holes?” she asked.
“Like why is the magic of Light, Dark and Earth spoken about as if they are sentient beings?” Cadence asked. “They don’t display such a power struggle anymore, so what brought them down to becoming things to be played with?”
Luna opened her mouth to respond, yet not a sound came out. She quickly closed it again and rubbed her chin. “Okay, you got me there. It’s just a story I was told when I was a filly, all right? I imagine mother changed it so that Light and Dark were bad guys and Earth was the good guy. I guess it went a lot differently than that.”
Fluttershy giggled. “Fair enough. So, um, why are the tears opening up now?” she asked.
Luna shrugged. “Though the magic holding them closed is powerful, there are times – once every millennia, if I’m precise – when the magic weakens and the tears split open. When that happens, new magic pours through from place between realms, injecting the world with new magic and creating opportunities for new magic spells, new monsters, new breeds, that sort of thing. But they only stay open for at least a few seconds before being closed again. It’s much like an earthquake occurring.” Luna paused to frown. “The fact that the tears are opening up now, and staying open for a long period, is troublesome.”
“Which means something else is forcing these tears early,” Cadence suggested. Luna nodded faintly. “But how could that be possible?”
“The only way the tears between here and Tartarus can be opened and kept open is if the magic from Tartarus – really dark magic – and magic from Terra are bound together and create something like a key, unlocking the doors sealing them off and keeping them open. But even if that were true, the way such a thing can be possible is if there are two highly powerful spell-casters, one on each side.” Luna jumped up to her hooves and turned, staring towards the Vale. “Which would mean something or someone got out of Tartarus.”
“But how is that possible?” Cadence asked, taking a step closer to her aunt. “Nothing, not even us, could get passed Cerberus.”
“Oh, I can believe that. He is such a good and well-trained doggy that I think nothing could escape his eyes,” Fluttershy agreed. She jumped when she noticed both of the Princesses were staring at her, intensely. She rubbed the back of her neck. “Is there something on me?”
“How do you know of Cerberus to know him in such light?” Luna asked, taking a step closer to her. Cadence eyed her, too, curious to know the answer.
“Yo-you mean, you both don’t know?” Luna and Cadence shook their heads, which Fluttershy found odd. ‘I thought Princess Celestia would tell them something as big as that. She probably didn’t want to alarm them.’ “About a year ago, Cerberus suddenly appeared in Ponyville and caused quite a panic. I managed to stop him of his rampage and gave him a nice belly-rub, while Twilight found a ball and took him back to Tartarus. That’s all I know.” Fluttershy shook her head when she realised that wasn’t all she knew. “But Twilight did say nothing got out!”
“Well, for Cerberus to make it to Ponyville and back, that would mean he had been away from his post for about two days,” Cadence said, staring at Luna worriedly.
“And in that time, any creature could have sneaked through the tear, through the gates and back into Equestria, some of which would be too small to ever be noticed missing.” Luna suddenly shook, and a hoof moved up to her belly, rubbing it smoothly.
Fluttershy watched in worry, then licked her lips and took a step closer to Luna. “Luna? Is everything all right?”
Luna opened her eyes, rapidly moved her hoof away from her belly as though she hadn’t done it in the first place, and put on a forced smile – that smile hurt Fluttershy more than it probably did Luna. “Of course. Everything’s fine. Really. I-I was just thinking, that’s all.” She stifled a yawn, which was obviously fake, and began to walk away. “Come on, everypony, let’s get some rest. At dawn we head north, leave the Unicorn Range, then make our way east towards Strutford, and finally Horsca.”
Fluttershy looked back at the Vale, then at Cadence, and finally at the retreating Luna. “But, what about the daimons? Should we do something to stop them?”
Luna stopped, yet did not turn around. “There is nothing we can do about them now. Alicorn magic has no power against the raw magic coming from the tear. Besides, it will probably close up after a week or so.”
“But what if it doesn’t?” Fluttershy persisted, taking to the air to bar Luna’s way. “What if- what if the tear stays open and the daimons are allowed to race across Equestria, pillaging and destroying everything in their way, and, uh, what–”
“Do you trust me, dear Fluttershy?” Luna asked, staring at her emotionlessly. Fluttershy stared at Luna, a large frown across her face as the question hit home. She knew the answer to the Princess’s question, but couldn’t Luna trust her or any of the others to speak the truth? She could tell that something was bothering Luna, and she knew that you can always talk about your problems to a good friend. To keep it hidden from her felt wrong to the pegasus, and if not tonight or tomorrow, but later she will find out what she’s hiding, and then help Luna with that pain.
With a heavy heart, Fluttershy nodded in response. ‘Guess I will just have to wait,’ she thought, feeling annoyed of herself for being too weak to push the questioning.
“Then trust me when I say that none of that will happen,” Luna continued. “Besides, the daimons are confined to the Unicorn Range; they cannot venture beyond its mountains without straying too far from the tear. Sleep easier, little pony, for tomorrow we continue our journey to Horsca.” With that, Luna spread her wings and took to the air. A few beats of her wings later and she was gone, blended into her domain.
Fluttershy set herself down and stomped on the ground in frustration. “That stubborn alicorn!” she hissed to herself. “It’s blatantly obvious she’s hiding something from us and yet she still won’t tell us! What will it take to get that–?” Her ranting stopped short when a hoof touched a shoulder, and in that instant, her anger and frustration faded away.
“Don’t worry about it,” Cadence said, smiling. “Luna is probably tired and a bit shocked. If she had something to say, she will tell us in time. Just be patient.”
Fluttershy took a deep breath, and nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have reacted like that.” The pair began to walk back to where Trixie and Spike were sleeping. “I know something has her scared and I want to know so I can help her. It’s always better to share your fears so you can get through them.”
“I’m sure she knows, and I’m certain she will tell us. You just have to be patient and wait for her to feel ready,” Cadence said, as the two of them arrived at their makeshift campsite. Cadence let out a heavy yawn, and quickly covered her mouth in embarrassment. “Excuse me. I think that tells me it’s time to go to bed.” Cadence set herself down on her belly. “Goodnight, Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy fell to her side, the exhaustion in her body finally felt by her mind. “Goodnight, Cadence. Oh, Cadence?”
For a moment, there was silence, but then Cadence’s voice crept out from the darkness. “Yes, Fluttershy?”
“I just wanted to say thank you. For saving my life today,” Fluttershy said. “A few times, actually.”
Cadence chuckled. “You already thanked me for that, but you are most welcome all the same. And thank you for saving mine. Sleep well.” Cadence let out a long yawn, before setting her head down on the ground and closing her eyes.
Fluttershy sighed. “You, too. Goodnight.” She covered her mouth to stifle a yawn built up at the back of her throat, and then set her head back onto the ground. As sleep started to take her, she quickly wondered what Luna was leaving out. She knew something had her worried, and wanted to know what it was so she could help. But how could she do that without sounding forceful?
Either way, she knew in her heart that it wouldn’t be the last she had heard of the daimons of Tartarus.