Everypony looked over the sights that they were presented with. None of them could believe that there was actually a physical place somewhere within their very world that would be giving Tartarus a run for its money. None of the company’s members had even prepared themselves for the troubles that would arise. All of them knew from the start that the trek would have been loaded with trouble.
But the amount of trouble that they saw before their eyes was something none had taken into account. The words of the admiral still rung within their ears as their eyes moved over from one scene to the next.
The words had been aimed directly to Twilight even though her name was never mentioned. Though he soothsayer knew exactly what was being asked of her. The answer that the company would receive upon it was one just as discouraging as the question whether or not they wanted to tag along.
The soothsayer then made a couple of steps forward and found herself standing at the edge of the cliff. The sheer heat of the magma that was brought up, made the shards of ice work harder and harder. All of them felt the coating of ice becoming more and more apparent.
No longer was it just a little something that was around their hearts. No, it had transformed those very hearts in massive hunks of beating ice. All done in the protection of overheating themselves from the magma.
A deep sigh was released through the nostrils of the unicorn as her eyes were closed off from the world by just a minute or two. Every other mare wondered about the facts as they were and what they could be doing to overcome them.
Obviously the way they had to travel laid forward and going back didn’t seemed to have been much of an option. So all they could be doing was to wait, wait for the answer that would be given off by Twilight. The answer upon the question, of what they needed to do next.
Only once the eyes of the mare went open again, they looked over the scenery as it was presented. No tricks were played, no morphing's happened in them. Twilight saw the place as it truly was. A hellish wasteland that they had to cross no matter what in order to reach their goal.
With another deep exhale she turned around to face the group and placed her hands behind her back. The unicorn then took a couple of steps forward away from the cliff and glanced each mare deep in the eyes for a moment.
Then the words came, just after another geyser of magma had sprouted upwards. “I’m afraid, that in order to reach our goal, we have to cross the plains stretching out before us. Where exactly we need to travel is unknown to me. But my best guess is the middle of it all.”
Her words were devastating and a downright smack in the face of each of the mares. Nopony was in the mood to cross the hellish plain and they showed that to Twilight with a lack of respect. All four of the other anthronies just dropped themselves down to the ground in one way or the other. They were done with it all. They had seen it all, but the most impossible had come right there.
After Twilight already having her mind broken more than once, had the spirit of the group finally given in. No longer could they say they were almost there, no longer could they say that they were almost done. Slow but sure did the realization kick in to all of them. The realization that none had wanted to know, or even dared to believe.
The realization that it was in fact, going to be a one way trip for them all.
Sighs were released into the air as Twilight’s eyes were filled up with worry. She didn’t know what was the best thing for them all to have done. She had to get them all back up on their hooves in one way or the other. If they remained there, who knew what would have happened.
Yet on the other hand of the matter was Twilight not a mare who was completely heartless. She could understand the discouraging thoughts that the mares had and even lived with them. Even the soothsayer herself was having some difficulty to accept that they had to cross the place like that.
There was no denying the facts as they were though. All of them had just plainly given up on their quest. It was read in both their body language and their eyes. What else could have been thrown at them, with the exception of death itself?
Twilight shifted with her eyes almost constant from the group back to the hellish plain. There must have been some sort of way through it, right? Thoughts like that crossed her mind while she wanted to continue on with everything.
They had come that far already, only to give it all up in the literal last leg of their journey. They had not only fought against demons in Everfree and witches in the Frozen North, but they had also fought against themselves and each other in ways unparalleled. Each of them had overcome obstacles that were thought to have been impossible to do.
They had done feats that were thought to have been impossible so far, so why couldn’t Lady Luck just turn it in their favor for one last time? Why couldn’t they have been granted that little bit of fortune for one more time and after that they would see. They would see what would happen next.
The admiral of the navy calmly shook her head as she noticed the gears in Twilight’s eyes turning like mad. “Ain’t no crossing that, partner. After everything we’ve done so far, ya must be utterly mad to even consider it,” she spoke in both a mocking and respectful tone to Twilight.
A tone that wasn’t all too well accepted by Twilight. Without a second thought in her mind did her head turn back to Applejack and gave the earth anthrony a cutting glare. “Don’t, tempt, me,” she hissed through her teeth.
The admiral released a gulp, the fires in the same eyes she saw the cogs turning just a moment ago, were burning with a purple arcane fire. The soothsayer had something up her sleeves, that much was certain. At the same time, that was all that was certain which in return frightened her.
“Oh dear please, there’s always a way. Whether it leads forward or backwards. Something that you probably don’t understand as you only receive your orders from higher up,” added Rarity into the mix before she took a bit more of a pose of leisure upon the rock. She might as well have made the best out of their dire situation, which was the thing she did.
Without a second to spare did the head of Applejack turn over to Rarity and she released just a deep huff through it. Just one huff and that was it. The words were of course ready at the tip of her tongue, but the admiral was far from the mood to actually speak them to Rarity.
If she had the chance and if there nopony else around, she would have still honored the treaty and just spilled the most foul words towards the unicorn that there were. She would curse the pirate like a true sailor with pretty much every disease that was known to them.
But alas, they were six beings strong.
Once again had the bickering between the two mares of the sea erupted and everypony was wanting to seek cover as they thought it would have become a full on battle. But said battle never took place as the earth anthrony just turned her head back.
Thoughts went around the fact that she knew what she needed to be doing in order to keep the peace, whereas Rarity just spoke up what was on her mind. Whether it would hurt anypony or not didn’t matter to her. The two mares just turned their heads away from each other and sunk in their own thoughts. Perhaps the best place for the both of them to have ended up.
Yet the question was still standing. The question that always had come after the other. And it was up to Rainbow Dash to ask it. She too had seen the fire within Twilight’s eyes and knew that the mare was up to something. Whether she would have liked that something was a thing that remained to have been seen.
“So Twilight,” the major spoke while she fluttered with her wings a little bit, “what are you thinking about? Giving it up as you realize it’s impossible?”
“Major, Rainbow, Dash,” the soothsayer said with deliberate pauses between each word. “Nothing is impossible when you’re a unicorn and know a bit or two from the arcane magic.”
“Hmpf, then I must be knowing only one bit,” the pirate added in a faint whisper. Nopony gave it either an eye or an ear. Their attention was pinned to Twilight. Both Fluttershy and Pinkie were silent as the night as they weren’t having a single clue on what was right and who was wrong.
“So, what do you have in mind then?” Rainbow returned then. She almost seemed to have been taunting the soothsayer for whatever reason. Where she was going with her words was a road less travelled by anyone. Nopony knew for certain what would happen in the minutes to come.
“So, with your magic, what do you want to do then? Create a massive ice bridge or something?” Rainbow continued while she began to flutter even more with her wings. In the end of it all, she managed to get airborne and just hovered on her spot. She had levitated herself off of the ground and Twilight changed up her horn.
What then happened even managed to surprise the major herself. The spell wasn’t cast at any other pony. Instead it was done upon nopony other than the mare herself. Soon after her body had engulfed itself within the raspberry aura, Twilight began to levitate. To make matters even worse, she went directly over to Rainbow Dash.
Their noses almost touched one another as the unicorn’s determination could be clearly seen. Rainbow had struck the wrong bell and only just realized that. From that moment onwards did she had to live with the consequences of the events to come.
“Just because you have wings, doesn’t make you any more special, Rainbow. So how about you drop that tone of yours down and just let me think for a change?!” the unicorn soothsayer exclaimed in a shout towards the pegasus. The anger was clearly visible upon her face. She was having enough of everypony’s near constant talking against her and her thoughts.
“Okay, okay, I remain silent, gosh,” said Rainbow while she tried to push the unicorn away from her. Which worked as she hovered out of her personal space and dropped back to the ground.
The eyes of Twilight looked once more over the hellish plain with an expression that was mixed of all kinds of emotions. One part of her wanted to do one thing, another wanted to do another. Yet there had to be a way she could compromise.
For their very goal laid somewhere there. They were just that close to finding the source of the tremors that had been plaguing the land for months already. They were just that close to making an end to it all and therefore save every living being that dwelled above. Nothing would stand in her way to achieve that. Nothing.
Every obstacle that was thrown at them, they managed to work around and there wouldn’t have been any difference that time. All that she needed to do was to remain calm and allow her mind to think straight. Which was actually a lot harder with her heart almost completely covered in nothing else but pure ice.
Perhaps that was the reason why all of them were so cold hearted? A nasty side effect when the spell had been set through that amount of heat. Who knew, but Twilight didn’t care in the moment. She didn’t care for anything else other than finding a possible escape route.
Her eyes gazed from left to right as she finally caught the staircase again. The staircase that would be leading her down to the bottom of the chasm and one more step closer towards the very center of her beloved Equestria.
“Who desires to come with me, I suggest you come along, now,” spoke Twilight after she looked back to the other mares. Her eyes were firm and they all realized that she wasn’t joking around. Not anymore. “I’m going to keep walking down the stairs. If you remain here, I wish you good luck with finding the way back.”
Without waiting for anypony to join her had Twilight simply left them. She had turned herself around in a mere second after she had finished her words and was already heading towards the stone stairs. She had given the mares a clear choice, to either join or to stay back. The choice was theirs to take and see.
~~~~
Step by step had Twilight descended from the staircase and had left the rest of the company on the platform just like that. All of them were looking at each other as the gears in their heads turned and twisted into pretty much every possible direction. What did they needed to do? That question was one that haunted them ever since the unicorn had left them.
Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had made up their minds in fact pretty quick and before the rest even realized it had they been gone. They had been gone to chase after Twilight and join her. Not because they wanted to actually save their land, but more because they knew Twilight better than any of the other company’s members.
Which only left Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow debating with one another. But it was the admiral who was having the biggest fish to fry. For she had made a promise to the unicorn and she would deliver upon it. Even if it meant that whatever else needed to happen would have been just utter insanity, as per usual.
Rarity and Rainbow remained while Applejack stood back up and made the walk over to the staircase. One way or another, those who wanted to return to the surface became smaller and smaller. The remaining two mares looked over to one another with a worried expression.
They had been picked out by powers that were unknown to them to make the journey that laid ahead. Twilight had placed her faith in the pair of them and they would repay her by bailing out in the last possible moment? Unacceptable.
With grumbles in their mouths did Rarity stood up and Rainbow land upon the ground. They too would have joined the company again for perhaps one last time. They were so close, yet so far away at the same time.
All along the staircase were they scattered like insects. They all made the descend down in their own pace and that was just good enough for all of them. They just had to take the time to do that kind of stuff. The very steps themselves were tricky enough to wander over. With both their hands and hooves did the company of six mares make the descend down, down to the plains of fire.
Twilight was the lowest of them all whereas Pinkie and Fluttershy remained a little bit behind her. Then there was a giant gap before Applejack could have been seen and finally there were both Rainbow and Rarity making the descend.
Everypony kept on tagging along for the ride. One which was hopefully going to end soon enough for them all. But the unicorn never seemed to turn her head around. She wasn’t really interested in whether or not the rest came. She was more interested in the facts that were playing out in her mind. All the hundreds of thoughts that rushed through her made her worry a little bit.
What kind of creatures would they encounter within the center of their land? Golems made out of fire? An ancient creature that doesn’t know anymore what it is doing? A star that’s about to go supernova? All of those kind of things went through her mind.
Not to mention the fact that there was possible still a dragon roaming around the place. A dragon that perhaps was older than their entire civilization as anthronies. Mutters, grumbles and whispers were all released by Twilight as she kept on walking down.
“So close, yet so far away,” she spoke to herself while she held one hand constant along the side of the rocks for some grip. If she would have slipped, she would be having something that could possibly stop her fall.
Every step taking downwards caused the spread company to see less and less of the hellish plain. But they could still hear the geysers spouting out their magma. The boiling steam could be heard hissing within their ears as the terror of falling rocks never left their minds.
But next to that did they all had expected the rocks they were traveling on to be boiling hot as well. Yet for some reason they felt cool. Almost as if they were walking on them on a summer day in comparison with the rest. Perhaps another effect of the spell? Or the heat of the magma just wouldn’t have been given off into them.
There probably was some kind of scientific reason that Twilight would be knowing right out of her head. The thought came and went for the mares as it was being used to keep themselves a little bit so it wouldn’t annoy any other being.
The sights became less and less until there was nothing else but rock. Rocks began to dominate the scenery as Twilight realized what was happening to it all. She gave herself a little nod before the exhale followed through her mouth. She had to push on, not for herself though. But for every last living being that didn’t even knew they were making the journey.
After minutes of descending had the unicorn soothsayer managed to do it. Finally had she managed to scale the massive staircase and found herself standing upon the bottom floor. At least she hoped that it was the bottom floor and gave her eyes the time to look around.
Twilight gazed over the spot where she stood and saw it was just one large tunnel. Whether or not there was a stream of magma going right over her head she didn’t know. All that she knew was that she had to be even more careful when it came down to walking through.
With both of her hands against the wall she gently walked through it. Nothing but utter silence surrounded her as her ears were perked. Every last sound that wasn’t supposed to be there needed to be caught up in her ears. She had to be prepared for anything, as anything was possible.
Because for all she knew could she walking next to a stone golem of ancient times. Legends had spoken of the powerful beings made out of stone, much like those she already had encountered out of ice. It almost seemed as if for every extreme element there would have been a golem for. Her hopes were naturally set high on the fact she wouldn’t encounter one.
Uneventful could the travel through the tunnel be called. The unicorn was in fact relieved that nothing had happened in the meantime and another weight had fallen off of her shoulder. Though she was straight away faced with the next problem, or to make matters worse: two.
Her eyes looked from left to right as they only saw the hellish plain they had seen from atop of the platform. She had to find the way to get across it, or at least to get to the middle of it. A thing of which she knew which was being said a whole lot easier than was being done.
Her eyes would have shifted from left to right to find anything that could have been of probably use to her. All while her mind was wandering off to other things. Other events that required her attention just that little bit more.
In the end of her search, it could have been stated that there was actually nothing that could have been found and Twilight just dropped her body on a rock. She needed the time to think about something else that had been chewing on her mind. Something that perhaps was in more need to be thought about than anything else.
While she sat on the rock, there was one hand placed as a fist below her chin while the elbow took a rest upon her leg. All while the other leg went cross over it. A thinking lady would have been the best description of the scene. A thinking lady in the deepest place of Tartarus, among all of the magma and the geysers.
One little thing just didn’t add up no matter how she was looking at the situation. One little thing just managed to blow her mind straight out of the water unlike anything else. She remembered from her vision that there was either this giant ball of magma or a star ready to go supernova. That was the place where she needed to be going no matter what. That was the one place that could stop the turmoil in which the land had been thrown in.
The only problem happened to be the little fact that she hadn’t seen either from her gazing over the plain. No ball of magma, no star or anything that could resemble it. There was nothing, just complete and utter nothing. Which in return pained her heart and mind a whole lot more than it perhaps would have needed.
Twilight slowly began to remember the scene that she always saw whenever the sphere was revealed to her. The more she thought about it, the more she realized it was the only thing in the area. It was a sphere that laid in the center of Equestria, but even there it laid secluded.
“Which means, that the thing lays somewhere even deeper than where I am now,” said Twilight to herself. After which a deep sigh was released through her nostrils. “Perhaps that massive ice bridge wouldn’t have been a crazy idea after all, Rainbow.”
The thoughts were making her head spin more like anything had done so far as she wanted to know the possible location of the secluded sphere. It must have been having an entrance to it from that very room.
The images that she had stored in her mind were all returned to her. Twilight tried her best to make some sense out of everything that had been witnessed. She tried to figure out where the paths were walking down upon the plain and what the possible hiding place could have been.
She wanted so badly to communicate with the goddesses of the sun and the moon in the hope that they would have been able to help her even in the slightest of bits. However, there was a nasty catch. The mare tried to make the ascend up to their planes for numerous amounts of times but she always would have been kicked straight back into her own body.
The eyes of the unicorn opened themselves after the seventh time and the defeated look within them told just about everything. “Impossible,” the mare whispered to herself. Twilight just couldn’t believe the facts as they had been presented to her.
She was just unable to make the ascend up to the planes of the goddesses. Either the depth that she was in caused too much trouble or the cause laid somewhere else. Twilight broke her sitting pose and just assumed a more natural pose on the rock. She summoned her staff in one of her hands for no other reason than to just hold on to it.
The violet rims in her eyes glanced over the thing before they would have been looking up to notice the massive black clouds that were the ceiling. “Can it be that, dragon’s smoke blocks any kind of communication?” she mumbled to herself before the staff was set on the ground. She began to wonder even more as the horn charged up gently. Her eyes were never torn away from the scene as she kept on thinking to herself.
All kinds of thought raced through her but the facts remained as they were. There was no way in which she could rise up to the planes of the goddesses without having to face trouble first. Which meant only one little thing for the unicorn. A little something she wasn’t too happy about.
The very fact that she needed to trust upon her own intuition. And that thing hadn’t happened in a very, very long time. She had to trust upon her own knowledge and know-how to make her way through it all, without the help of those she considered her own friends.
The darkest hour seemed to have hit Twilight. She couldn’t think of anything else to do. Everything had been gone and done. All the thoughts that were rushing through her had caused a massive dilemma to be thrown right at her. With a deep exhale that was being released through her nostrils did the eyes close upon themselves once more as she needed the time to think.
She needed the time to think deep about the matters that she was presented with. The mare had figure out any possible action that could be done with or against it. She had to figure out just what she could do in order to cross the massive lake of magma or the possible maze.
The more she thought about the matter, the more she found herself descending into a deep sleep. The sleep that brought her to places previously thought to have been unknown for any being, whether it be alive or deceased.
The mind of the unicorn was a dangerous place to travel alone, as Twilight would discover with the help of her a couple of nightmares that would haunt her. Yet that one image of the entire place being locked off and the geology of the core as she knew it would be haunting her as if there was no tomorrow.
“Twilight?” a mysterious voice called out to her from the darkness. “Twilight,” it repeated in the almost demonic tone. The unicorn didn’t knew what to do, what if Nightmare Moon had managed to capture her at her weakest point?
The unicorn could only have hoped to be woken up from her own created nightmares. Anything she would be doing to escape the clutches of the devil herself. She wouldn’t end like Sunset Shimmer, not in a thousand years.
“Twilight?” another voice spoke while the unicorn was already trying to wake her body up from the events. Shocks went through it before the eyes finally shot open. Her body shocked up in a straight position as the widened eyes looked all over the place.
Hesitant motions were made before she finally dared to give her eyes the time to look straight ahead. Everything seemed to have been normal and in the manner as she had left it before she had fallen asleep.
But what she saw in front of her was something that frightened her. Something that caused her to gasp for air and reach out for her own heart. The scene she was presented with was a lot more than unbelievable. It was considered to have been just impossible. For the things that she saw before her, shouldn’t have been there.
The eyes of the mare blinked and blinked as she still thought to have been dreaming. Luckily didn’t her horn or staff charge up with the magic she carried but the words that she spoke were harmful. “How do you dare to impose as them! Are you trying to make me crumble even more?! Reveal your true form to me, Nightmare Moon!”
The reason why Twilight acted the way she did, was because she was deluded. She was deluded from her own thoughts and her dreams, for right in front of her stood the five mares that had left her. The five mares who she had left upon the platform quite some time ago. “Don’t make me destroy you!” the unicorn added while she tried to place a tough act before the devil she thought to be facing.
Though there was one little problem, it were the actual mares that stood there. The actual mares had been gathering themselves around the unicorn and brought her out of the sleep. The small smile of Fluttershy was genuine even though she seemed frightened of the unicorn.
That small smile caught the attention of Twilight and her eyes turned into the yellow skinned pegasi her direction. The expression in the eyes of the soothsayer changed almost instantly from bitter to unbelievable. “W-Why..? Why are..?”
“Why are we here?” Pinkie Pie finished off before she released a little giggle. She laid curled up like a sleeping snake as the top part of her body matched the height of pretty much all the other anthronies.
Twilight just nodded in response to the words as she had to know the finer details behind the reasons of the mares. They just seemed to have been so determined about staying where they were a moment ago. Or what seemed to have been a moment ago in Twilight’s eyes.
"Basically…” Applejack began while she scratched herself behind her head, “Ah’m still having mah promise to ya, remember? Ah would be protecting yah no matter what, or try mah best. That’s mah reason for being here.” Twilight released a gentle nod towards the words of the admiral as she did indeed remember the promise that was made. A promise she had dared to question perhaps a time too many along their journey.
“Me and Pinkie, well, we thought, you could use some good company,” lied Fluttershy to the best of her abilities. But with her being the doctor who needed to speak truth almost all of the time, lying wasn’t her strongest point.
“You two were just too afraid to remain there, weren’t you?” Twilight asked them. Instantly she received two nods from the pair of them. Not that she minded their reasoning, she could completely understand the direction that they came from.
“If I left, I would have left with no pride in the matter. Just about the worst thing a pegasus can do to itself,” replied Rainbow as she only thought about herself.
“And I could hardly remain there if everypony else had gone, right?” Rarity added to the mix.
“Nopony just followed me just because they missed me or because we’re actually that close getting done what we have set out to do?” Twilight asked to the group and watched the reactions afterwards.
No hands went up in the first few seconds. But then there were the hands of both Pinkie and Fluttershy that went up, before eventually they all rose their hands.
“We’re in this together,” started Rarity.
“And we’re gonna finish it, together,” finished Applejack with a genuine smile upon her face.