The girls clawed at the sealed doorway, trying desperately to move the heavy stones. They strained and pulled, but the boulders were slow to move. It would take time to clear the entrance. Time they didn’t have.
“Girls,” spoke Twilight solemnly, “we can’t keep this up. We have to find that apothecary and the cure.”
“Are you serious?!” Rainbow shouted. “We can’t just leave Tacitus!”
“The poor dear is trapped in there with that horrid fiend,” said Rarity as she continued to dig through the rock, ignoring her chipped and dirty hooves. “We can’t abandon him.”
Pinkie was blasting at the rocks with her party cannon, but made little progress. “Tacitus is all alone with that big meanie. We have to help him.”
“But we may not have much time,” Twilight responded. “We need to find the cure before it’s too late.”
“How do we even know Imperius was telling the truth?” inquired Spike. “He could have been lying about the apotha-thingy to get us to not follow him.”
“He does seem like the type who would be a liar,” spoke Fluttershy.
“But if there is even a chance he was telling the truth, then we have to try. Those ponies will die without a cure, and this is our only lead.”
“I’m with Twi on this one,” said Applejack. “As much as I hate to leave Tacitus alone, this might be our only chance of getting’ a cure.”
They all looked to one another, internally fighting with themselves over what they had to do. None of them wanted to do it, but they all knew they had to.
“The sooner we find the cure, the sooner we can get back and help Tacitus,” Twilight tried to assure them. They still didn’t like the idea of leaving their friend, but they slowly stopped digging and turned to follow Twilight as she headed east, to where the supposed apothecary resided.
Twilight took one last glance back at the sealed passage, a sharp pain in her heart. “Please be safe Tacitus. Just hold on, we’ll be back.”
***
Adrenaline pumped through Tacitus’s veins as he ran through the dark tunnel, the glow of his sword lighting the way as he pursued his target.
His lungs burned, his legs ached, his whole body was telling him to slow down, to rest. But he would never rest, not until he tore Imperius apart.
As he ran, his scarf caught onto a jagged rack. Tacitus felt the material tug, and came to a stop as quickly as he could. He gingerly removed the beloved scarf from the rock and examined it closely, relief flooding through him when he saw that it was undamaged. He stared at the scarf for a moment, before clutching it tightly in his shaking hoof.
“I wouldn’t be wearing this, or the hat, if it weren’t for him!” Tacitus thought. “If it wasn’t for Imperius, they would both still be…”
He jaw was clenched so tight it threatened to crack his teeth, anger burned like fire in his stomach. Never in his life had Tacitus felt such intense hatred, nor had he ever had such murderous thoughts. Tacitus wanted to kill him. He wanted to make him suffer, to watch him squirm and writhe in pain like he had forced his parents to. He wanted revenge.
“I will kill you Imperius!” Tacitus shouted, his call echoing through the darkness. “Do you hear me?!”
Tacitus ran on, the only response to meet his ears being rasping laughter.
***
Imperius heard Tacitus’s call, but only cackled in response. Tacitus’s reaction had been everything he had hoped it would be. Few things brought him greater pleasure than breaking somepony. This was a good start, but he wasn’t anywhere near finished breaking Tacitus yet.
“Master,” spoke the voice of Pranceius, “why did you tell them about the apothecary? What if they discover the cure?”
“I am confident that he will be dead long before they find him.”
“And if he is not? If they find him before the poison takes him, what then?”
“It matters not. Enough of them have already been infected to where any resistance they put up will be pitiful at best. Besides, they will die in the end either way, either by the toxin or by the sword. Once my powers are restored, no force on this earth will be able to stop me.”
Imperius halted his advance. Even in this weakened state, he could sense the ancient magics before him. He could feel the traps and enchantments that had laid dormant for millennia. Most importantly, he could feel his armor, its dark power radiating through the stone. It was calling to him.
“These traps are nothing to you master. They should be simple enough to disable.”
“True, but I have a better idea. Let’s leave them for young Tacitus to stumble into.” His vile grin spread wider as his horn began to glow. “And maybe I’ll leave a few surprises of my own.”
***
Twilight didn’t know how long they had been searching. They had traveled five miles east, or at least she hoped they had, but so far had found nothing. The wind and snow made everything difficult, including navigation, so she could only hope she was correct in her calculations.
They had fanned out in groups of two, with the exception of Twilight herself who flew alone in search of any sign of the alleged apothecary.
Doubt and fear crept into her heart as she continued to find no sign of any living thing. Had she made the right decision? Was Imperius lying? Even if he wasn’t, what if the pony they were looking for was already dead, or had no cure?
Guilt weighed heavily on her heart as well. She had made the decision to leave Tacitus to chase after what might be a fruitless endeavor. She prayed that he was okay. The fact that he was alone with that monster was not the only thing that worried her. His reaction, his anger, had shocked her and the others. She caught a glimpse of his eyes before he dashed into the mountain after Imperius. They were filled with a blind rage that she had never seen in anyone before. It had terrified her.
“Please just stay alive until we get back,” she pleaded. “Please be okay.”
Just as she finished her pleading, something below her caught her eye. At first she took it as simply another rock jutting out form the snow, but then she saw a faint glow emanating from it. She landed next to it, and saw that it was a small stone building, candles burning dimly inside.
Twilight sent up a magical flare into the sky, alerting the others to her position. It wasn’t long before the girls and Spike had joined her outside the cottage. Although cottage was strong word. The building looked more like a pile of stones haphazardly formed into the shape of a house. It was amazing it hadn’t collapsed in on itself.
“Ya think this is it?” asked Applejack. “Think this is where we’ll find the cure?”
“I hope so,” responded Twilight as she moved toward the door of rotting wood. It opened with a loud creak, revealing an interior not much more pleasing to look at than its exterior. Most of the space was occupied by what looked like alchemical equipment. Flasks, jars, vials, and all sorts of herbs and potions littered the floor. The only furniture was a desk where piles of paper with notes scrawled on them and more potions resided, and a ragged bed of straw.
On that bed of straw, moaning quietly under a thin blanket, was an earth pony. His coat, at least what was left of it, was the color of rust. Whatever mane he might have had was gone, its remnants strewed about the area where his head rested. He looked emaciated, his breath came in rasping gasps, and his sclera was pitch black. The poison had indeed taken hold of him.
The girls rushed to his side, but as soon as they came close, he began to thrash and scream. He batted at them as much as his weakened arms could allow, trying desperately to keep them away.
“Go away!” he shouted. “Please, no more torture, no more nightmares! Just let me die and end my torment!”
They backed away as he continued to weakly flail his arms, unsure of how to proceed. Only Fluttershy kept going toward him, cautiously approaching the writhing pony.
He tried to bat her away, even landing a blow on her, but the arm was so weak she may as well have been hit by a pillow. The pony screamed louder, shouting at her to go away.
“Shhh, it’s alright,” she said kindly. “We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to help.”
She sat next to him and gently put her hoof to his head. She stroked his head slowly, humming a soothing tune as she did so. His thrashing and screaming subsided, and even his breathing seemed to improve. Fluttershy’s mere presence seemed to lessen his pain. There was a reason she was the Element of Kindness.
“What fresh horror is this that disguises itself in such a fair form?” He spoke with the voice of a pony that had given up all hope. “Please, don’t offer me comfort only to make the coming pain worse. Vision, spirit, demon; whatever you are, I beg you to end this sick game. Please show some small measure of mercy, and let me die.”
“We’re not visions,” Fluttershy said in her soothing voice. “We’re real and we want to help.”
The rest of the group slowly approached them, careful not to frighten him. He looked at them with cautious eyes, and began to shift uncomfortably beneath his retched blanket. However, Fluttershy’s hoof at his cheek seemed to relax him, and he let them near without a fuss.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter if you are real or not. Whatever comfort you give is welcome, even if it is only temporary.”
Twilight approached. “What is your name?” she asked. “Are you an apothecary?”
He stared at the ceiling, as if he was straining to remember. “My name? It has been so long since I heard it. It was taken from me when i was in the darkness. For so long, I have only been called Slave. It is the only name I know. But yes, I am an apothecary by trade. I made potions, meant to heal. Then, I was forced to make this vile poison.”
“Other ponies have been infected with the poison,” Twilight continued. “Is there a cure?”
A groan of pain, more from the heart than from any physical pain, escaped his lips.
“Then I am a murderer. How many suffer now because of my creation.” He looked to the girls, their faces the only kind ones he had seen in Celestia- knows how long. A glimmer of hope seemed to shine in those miserable eyes. “But perhaps there is time to correct my mistake, and save others from this fate.
“When that…monster…had no more use of me, he forced the toxin down my throat and left me to die. But I was determined to find a cure. As the poison slowly spread through my body, I poured into research and experimentation to find the antidote. I was able to find it, but by that time the venom had already done its work. I was too weak to move.
“On the shore of a frozen lake not far from here is a flower called Solarus’s Sun. Ancient and powerful magic resides in it, and has allowed it to survive in this harsh environment. How ironic, that the cure was so close but became forever beyond my reach. You must take this flower and boil it into a tea. That is the cure.”
The pony coughed violently, blood spewing from his mouth and splattering against the wall. All the pain seemed to come rushing back at him at once. He wailed in torment and writhed on the straw bed. Fluttershy clung tightly to him and spoke comforting words as he struggled through the pain.
His writhing lessened some, but the pain was still clear in his wide eyes and gasping breaths. He shuddered before looking at Fluttershy, her eyes still looking at him with compassion. He could see her concern for him, her desperate desire to help him. He knew he wasn’t long for this world, but she and her friends had helped more than they could possibly know.
A strained smile spread across his face. “Thank you for your kindness and for giving me hope that others will not die because of my work.”
He began to convulse, blood flowing from his mouth, nose, and even his eyes. His chest heaved, his eyes widened, and a horrible gurgling noise escaped from him.
The rest of the girls averted their eyes, unable to watch the macabre sight. But Fluttershy did not look away. She held him close and stroked his head until he shuddered and was still.
***
They buried him behind the cottage. Fluttershy and Applejack had stayed behind to dig the grave and bury the apothecary while the others went in search of the frozen lake and the flower that would serve as a cure.
It wasn’t hard putting him in the ground, his body being so thin and light. They wanted to say a few words, but none came to mind. They had only known him for a few short minutes. They really knew nothing of him save his wretched suffering under the toxin.
They didn’t even know his name. But they would remember what he did in his last moments. Countless lives would be saved because of him. All they have to do is find this flower, and they will be saved.
Saved from the poison, at least. There was still Imperius to worry about.
As Fluttershy and Applejack dug the grave, the search for the Solarus’s Sun was already underway. The hardest part was finding the lake, as its frozen surface had been buried beneath a sheet of snow. They had actually passed by it without even realizing it was there, until Rainbow noticed a beam of sunlight reflect across a bit of bare ice.
Some clearing away of the snow indeed revealed a large lake of ice, and on the far shore was a single flower. It was shaped like a sun, and in fact looked remarkably similar to Celestia’s cutie mark. It shined with a golden glow, and it was surrounded, not by snow, but fresh green grass, as if its aura kept away the cold and allowed life to flourish.
“That’s it?” Applejack asked as Twilight showed her the flower. They had plucked it and returned to the cottage to inform Fluttershy and Applejack of their find. “One flower? How is one flower gonna make enough tea to cure everypony?”
“One flower is all we need,” Twilight assured her. “I can use a duplication spell to make as much as we need.” She placed the flower in a small wooden box before storing it carefully into her saddlebag.
A sound of rumbling assaulted their ears. “Uh, guys,” said Spike, “I think we may have a problem.” He pointed to Vehoovius looming in the distance, even more smoke spewing from its top and the unmistakable glow of magma visible even from where they stood. Something wasn’t right.
“We need to get back and help Tacitus. Fast.” Twilight tried desperately to think of a faster way to get back to the mountain.
“Hey,” said Rainbow, "I’ve got an idea. It’s crazy, but I think it’ll work.”
“Let’s hear it then,” said Applejack.
“Okay, so, I’m faster than all of you guys. I can get back to the mountain in almost no time.”
“Rainbow,” said Rarity reproachfully, “this is hardly the time for boasting.”
“Hold on, I’m not finished yet! Anyway, I think I know how I can get all of us there really fast. Twilight, do you remember that spell you cast when we fought Discord? The one where you put all of us in a bubble to keep him from turning all of us into jerks again?”
“Yeah. Where are you going with this?”
“Do that spell again. Make sure all of us are in the bubble.”
Twilight did as she was asked and cast they spell. All seven of them were floating inside of the raspberry colored sphere.
“Alright, I cast it. Now what?”
“Now,” rainbow responded, “you hang on hope this dumb idea works.”
“Oh! Oh!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly. “I know what she’s going to do! This is gunna be fun!”
And with that, Rainbow launched herself forward, pushing against the edge of the bubble and propelling them forward as fast as she could go. The others were thrown backwards, screaming in fear, or excitement in Pinkie’s case, as they rocketed through the snow-covered landscape.
In less than half the time it took them to get to the cottage, they were already fastly approaching the mountainside. Too fast actually. They were about to crash into it.
“Uh oh,” said Pinkie
"Rainbow! Slow down!” Twilight shouted.
“I can’t! I stopped pushing it, but it just keeps going!”
“Then fly in the other direction and try to slow it down!”
Rainbow flung herself at the other side of the bubble and began to fly against it. She could feel it slowing down slightly, but it was still far too fast. They could see the collapsed entry way mere feet away. They braced themselves for impact as they slammed hard into the stone.
Dust and rocks were flung into the air on impact, stones lay strewn across the ground as the girls and Spike slowly began to rise.
“Is everypony alright?” Twilight asked as she gingerly rubbed her sore head.
“Ah think so,” Applejack called back as she dusted off her hat. “Rainbow, we ain’t ever gunna do that again.”
“Awww,” Pinkie complained. “I thought it was fun.”
Another rumble from the mountain, much more violent than the last, shook the ground beneath them. More magma and smoke erupted from the mountaintop.
“Something’s wrong,” said Twilight worriedly. We need to move now.”
Fortune seemed to smile on them. Their impact had cleared most of the stone that blocked the entrance, and the shaking mountain had removed whatever else remained to block their way into the mountain. They surged into the doorway, delving into the mountain.
***
Tacitus jumped back as another spike shot up from the floor, nearly impaling him. How many traps was that now? Twenty? Thirty? He’d lost count. Almost every step he took seemed to spring to life some new machine designed to end his. Only through the sword’s power and sheer luck was he able to avoid death.
“Aeneighus told me how to avoid the traps in Nova Domus, would it have been so hard for him to show me how to avoid these?!” Tacitus thought angrily as darts shot past his head.
He was panting now, the effort of chasing after Imperius and avoiding these infernal devices wearing on him. He was tired, thirsty, and hot. As he went further into the mountain, the heat became more and more unbearable. He began to see small streams of lava drip from the stone walls.
He ignored his weariness. He wouldn’t allow himself to collapse in exhaustion, not until blood had been paid with blood. His fury, his bloodlust, drove him forward, deeper into the sweltering tunnels of the mountain.
Strangely enough, no more traps assaulted him. His advance was undisturbed and unchallenged. It gave him a bad feeling, like something much worse than traps laid ahead.
The whispers he heard confirmed this fear. He could hear them coming from all around him, from the walls and the darkness that was ahead of him. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they were incessant and unsettling. The whispers crawled over him like creeping insects. Then they stopped, only to return a moment later. He could understand them now.
“Failure.”
“Weakling.”
“Pathetic worm.”
“Failure.”
They repeated over and over, at first in unfamiliar voices. Then, the voices changed. These were much more familiar to Tacitus.
“You’re nothin' but a failure, a pathetic nobody,” said the voice of Applejack.
“Why would I be friends with a loser like you?” added the voice of Rainbow.
“You don’t deserve our friendship.” Fluttershy.
“You don’t deserve any friends at all.” Spike.
“Shut up,” Tacitus growled. “I know this isn’t real.”
“Did you really think we’d ever like you? You really are stupid.” Pinkie.
“Why would we ever be nice to someone like you? You were just an easy target, somepony we could use and throw away when we were done.” Rarity.
Tacitus swung at the air, trying to dispel whatever had come over him. “Get out of my head!”
“You’re useless, a spineless coward who has to be saved like a helpless foal. You were too weak to protect me, so what good are you? You are nothing and you will always be nothing.” Twilight.
“I said get out!”
The voices stopped, and the room became dark. No more was there a glow of magma streams illuminating the carved halls. Even his horns glow failed to pierce the dark veil. Then another voice, or rather two voices, called out.
“Tacitus.”
A chill ran up his spine as he recognized the voices. He turned, and with a look of horror on his face beheld two figures horribly familiar to him. There, the only thing he could see in the darkness, were his parents. They appeared as they had just before they died, their bodies emaciated and their coats ragged and patchy. The scleras of their eyes were black as coal, and blood flowed from them freely like crimson tears.
“No,” Tacitus shook his head in denial. “You’re not here. This isn’t real.”
The horrid figures of his parents spoke as one. “Why did you let this happen to us Tacitus? Why didn’t you save us?”
“You’re not real. You’re not real!” Tacitus clenched his eyes shut. He couldn’t look at them.
“You could have helped us, but you didn’t. Why? Why did you let us die?”
Tears seeped from his tightly-shut eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“You failed us Tacitus, and now you even fail to avenge us.”
“No!” he shouted. “I will avenge you, I will make him pay for what he did to you! I promise.”
“No,” they responded, “you will fail. And you will fail to protect your friends just like you failed to protect us.”
Tacitus shut his eyes tighter and put his hooves to his ears. “Stop it.”
“You cannot save them. You cannot save anyone.”
“Stop it!”
“They will die, and their blood will be on your hooves. Just as our blood is on your hooves.”
Tacitus could feel something warm and wet on his hooves. He looked at them and shrieked as he saw that they were covered in blood. He tried to wipe them off, but nothing would remove the stain.
“Everyone and everything will die, and it will be because you failed. You’re a failure son, and the world will suffer because of it.”
“ENOUGH!” Tacitus shouted. The sword reacted to his emotions and let out a blast of magic. The forms of his parents, as well as the surrounding darkness, shattered like glass. Tacitus was back in the mountain, panting heavily with terrified eyes as he beheld a pool of magma mere centimeters away. How far had he walked under the spell, and what would have happened if he hadn’t broken free when he did?
His legs were shaking, and he had broken out into a cold sweat. He slowly looked down at his hooves, and breathed a shaking sigh of relief as he saw no blood. A sudden violent shake within the mountain broke him from his stupor, and almost sent him tumbling into the magma pool.
He steadied himself before a sick, twisting knot formed in his stomach. Something was wrong. Very wrong. Tacitus used the sword’s magic to raise stone platform to cross the river of flame and, with the haunting words of the illusions still echoing in his head, pushed forward into an open rotunda.
***
He was so close now. Every step brought Imperius closer to his restoration. Even the mountain could feel how close he was. As he grew ever closer to his lost armor, the mountain shook and spat fire in response. He could only imagine the glorious eruption of flame and stone that would accompany his return to power.
He entered a large rotunda, and that’s where he saw it. Resting atop a raised pedestal was his armor. He rushed up to it and inspected it thoroughly. The ravages of time had done little to it. It still shined as if it were polished yesterday, no sign of rust, and even the spikes on the shoulder guards were still sharp to the touch. He could feel power ebbing from the armor.
“Finally,” he breathed, “after all these countless millennia, I finally have it.”
“This is it master. The moment we’ve been waiting for.”
“Yes Pranceius. This is it.” He took hold of the armor and spoke in an ancient, dead language. “Recurrunt, qui fuit. Redde rationem, ita ut regnum suum!”
“Imperius!” A shout came from the entrance. He turned and saw the familiar form of Tacitus galloping into the rotunda.
The armor glowed bright in Imperius’s hooves. He could feel the power resonating through him, electrifying his arms and spreading through his veins. He gave a maniacal cackle as the power intensified and began to burn his hooves.
“You’re too late, far too late! My return to power begins now!” A black aura, crackling with electricity, surrounded Imperius. He shouted in painful triumph as magic shot through his body, morphing and distorting it.
“Oh no you don’t,” Tacitus said as he shot a blast at Imperius. The blast just bounced harmlessly off. He sent another blast, and then another, but nothing worked. “Why won’t you just die?!”
“Tacitus!” He turned and saw his friends quickly approaching. How had they gotten here?
“Argh!” The cry came from Imperius. He was writhing within the barrier as his body continued to morph. “Master,” spoke the voice of Pranceius, “what’s happening? You promised I would serve you in the new world.”
“And you will, loyal Pranceius. You will serve me by providing me with my new body. In a way, you will serve me even beyond your death.”
“No! No, this isn’t what I wanted! Argh!”
The aura grew darker, becoming a sphere of pure blackness. Tacitus, charging his sword, took aim at the sphere. He built up the energy in the blade until he felt he could hold it no longer
“This is for my parents, you bastard!” He shot the beam. It struck the sphere and a massive explosion erupted from the point of impact. The blast sent Tacitus and the others flying backward, and they landed hard on the stone floor.
Tacitus raised himself and rubbed his sore shoulder. Dust was everywhere, but he could not see the magic sphere or Imperius. He allowed himself a victorious smile, pride and savage joy swelling within him.
And then he heard the laughter, and his heart sank.
It wasn’t the raspy, grating laughter he heard before. It was deep and booming, echoing through the mountain. It resonated with strength and authority.
The dust cleared and he saw a stallion, almost as tall as Celestia herself and much more strongly built, standing before him.
His coat was the pale grey of a corpse, and he wore a set of black armor in the style of the Roaman Empire. His mane was a sickly pale green, and it seemed to be made of flame instead of hair. The mark on his flank was of a sword piercing a broken crown, his pupils had serpent-like slits, the sclera was black, and a green haze came from the edges of his blood red eyes. Two horns, curved and sharpened, and glowing the same pale green as his mane, protruded from his head.
“Poor Pranceius,” he said in his new, booming voice. “He really was a faithful servant, but it couldn’t be helped. You can’t create a new body from nothing after all. Something must serve as a base for the reconstruction.” He looked to the group of ponies, as if just now acknowledging their presence. He looked at them how one might look at an ant, and flashed a smile to reveal a mouth full of sharpened fangs. “You should consider yourselves lucky. You are the first to witness me in all my majesty. Bow to your Emperor and despair.”
Tacitus was the first to respond. All of the fury came rushing back when he saw that arrogant, vile face. Steam seemed to erupt from his nostrils as he glared daggers at Imperius, his vision turning red.
“Die, damn you!” he shouted as he raised his sword and fired. Imperius just batted it away with flick of his hoof. Tacitus fired again, only for Imperius to become like shadow, the beam passing harmlessly through him.
Before he could fire again, the floor beneath Tacitus turned black and a spike of pure darkness shot up from the floor aimed directly at his throat. The spike stopped just short of killing him, the point digging into his throat and causing blood to trickle down his neck.
Imperius moved like smoke, teleporting himself so that his face was mere inches from Tacitus. “I could kill you right now, crush you like the insect you are. But I have something much better in mind. I want you to see the full extent of your failure. I want you to walk among the burning ruins of your home. I want you to see the corpses of the ones who trusted you with their lives. Then, once you’ve gone mad with grief and beg me to let you join them in death, will I grant you that mercy.”
He moved away from Tacitus and levitated up to the ceiling. The ground beneath their hooves began to shake, and they could hear the mountain erupting.
“Witness my glorious return and the desolation that I will leave in my path!” He wrapped himself in darkness and exploded through the top of the mountain, sending chunks of rock flying through the air as he went to prepare for his domination of the earth.
***
Imperius landed on the snow-covered ground, a cruel and excited smile on his face. His horns glowed black and the ice beneath him began to crack and shake.
“You have rested long enough. Now is the time to rise and do my bidding!”
For miles around, the snow and ice exploded outward, and from the gaping chasm beneath came legions of undead abominations. Ponies, griffons, minotaurs, even dragons and various other creatures emerged from the cold ground and were given new life. Their bodies were a patchwork of exposed bones and muscles, some more so than others. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers now covered the land, all of them standing in tight formation and facing their master.
One of them, a pony whose face was only half-covered by skin and who wore the armor of a Roaman officer, approached Imperius.
“Ah, General Decimus,” said Imperius. “It is good to see you again.”
Decimus saluted. “It is good to be back and serving you once more my liege. What are your orders?”
Imperius’s horns glowed once more, causing several large swirling portals to appear before the massive army.
“Order the troops to march. The conquest and purge of this world begins now.”