Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.

by Totito30

Searching a castle.

J´zar crossed the risky bridge with celerity, careful not to make it collapse under the bulk of his armor. The six manes followed him. There was a short path leading to the bridge and into the castle, but the main door, which was old and rotten, was locked with a massive log.

"How are we going to get past that?" Rarity asked.

"Applejack, help me with this, please" J´zar said, grabbing the log.

The pony walked over to him and helped J´zar push the log away from the door. The warrior then rammed the door open.

"That’s how" He said before proceeding into the castle.

"The funny thing," said Twilight Sparkle as she followed J´zar "is that this door was not locked last time"

J´zar was paying little attention, however, for his mind was obsessed with the old armors and chairs which rested around the main hall. At the end of the hall there was a stone throne, filled with ancient carvings.

"I don’t remember this place looking like this before too" mumbled Twilight Sparkle, worried about that.

"Maybe Ix had it remodeled" J´zar suggested "He is the kind of person that would like to overrule ancient castles to use them as strongholds"

Everything smelled of oldness, and all armors and chairs were covered in spider webs, a testimony to how much time had passed since it was utilized.

"We need to find anything to inform us of how to destroy magical barriers" J´zar explained "Rarity and Twilight Sparkle should check the main halls and rooms. Applejack and Pinkie Pie will search the dungeons under the castle. Rainbow Dash will go with Fluttershy to inspect the towers"

"¿And why are you telling us what to do?" Rainbow Dash defied.

"If you have any other ideas, I am willing to hear them" J´zar said.

"Well…no not really" Rainbow Dash said, slightly ashamed.

"Then go" J´zar said "May your adventures be stricken with luck"

"¿And…umm…sir?" Fluttershy asked "¿What…erm…what about you?"

"I will stay here and see if I can find anything of use" said J´zar, looking through the considerable library which was positioned on shelves at the sides of the throne.

Each team said a few goodbye words before departing into their respective objectives. J´zar hoped they would work great.

Twilight and Rarity walked through the door left of the first hall, and found themselves inside a dining room outfitted with a table which encompassed almost the entire room, with chairs placed at both sides. The whole place was filled with webs of spiders long dead.

"¡Eww!" Rarity whined "¡This place is so nasty!"

"Focus, friend, we have a task to accomplish" Twilight Sparkle answered.

"Of course, ¿but couldn’t we do just a little bit of cleaning?" Rarity begged.

"¡No! There is no time" Twilight put her friend back in place.

"Alright, fine" Rarity wasn't in the mood for arguing.

The two ponies searched the place, but besides the bodies of a few dead spiders, they could not find anything. Twilight and Rarity proceeded to the next hall, hoping to find the information they needed. In this one there was nothing but lagoon-sized bathtubs and boxes which seemed carts filled with shampoos, towels and aromatic soaps. The next room had an excellent collection of what seemed to be stuffed animals and dolls. They found many rooms, including one with a small theatre, a cathedral to ancient gods, and finally, a long hallway whose walls were covered in hangings depicting elaborated figures.

"Hey, Rarity, look at this one" Twilight Sparkle said as she looked on a noteworthy hanging.

"¿What is it?" Rarity asked as she walked towards the ragged piece of cloth.

These words were inscribed upon the hanging:

“From the world of cruelty, a warrior will fall. A terrible lord of battle, clad in armor black as a murder, his eyes shimmering with rage. Blood is the only thing that sates him, battle his only joy. His blade is sharp, his eyes are keen and his assault is unrelenting. No mere pony will stand up to his litany of hatred. He will battle the White Ghost, shattering his transparent armor with a fist of great power, and he will save the fate of ponykind. ”

"This is something important" Twilight said "I can feel it"

"Me too, dear" answered Rarity "We better take it back to J´zar"

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flew to the first tower, one which was perfectly straight.

"Fluttershy,"Said Rainbow Dash as she landed inside the middle floor, the only on with a working window "You check the rooms above us while I check the ones below"
"O-Okay" Answered Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash rushed towards the stairs, descending into the room below. That tower in particular must have been used as some sort of attic, for it was filled with coffins and chests, most of them filled with useless things such as stained parchment or broken telescopes. One of them, however, contained a perfect set of what seemed to be maps of the Everfree forest.
The next floor was empty, bar for a few long stripes of parchment covered in a tight and small handwriting. One of them, named “Banishment of magic” called Rainbow’s attention, who carefully picked it up from the floor.

A loud “¡Click!” was heard as the small string which was sewn into the parchment broke. Rainbow Dash instantly knew something had gone wrong, and as she shouted “Fluttershy, get out of here!”, Rainbow Dash also spread her own wings and flied towards the exit.

Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen, and Rainbow Dash felt the tower tilt to one side, slowly but surely. “That pony is going to die in there if I don’t save her!” she thought, feeling fear’s claw around her heart. She flew through the upper hatch and into the only room above the window, where Fluttershy pushed her back against a wall, scared to the bone. Not wasting time on words, Rainbow Dash grabbed her by the left forehoof and pulled her out of her hiding place.

She tried to talk her into reality, but Fluttershy was shocked beyond that, and nothing would work. Finally, Rainbow Dash decided to do the simplest thing. She wrapped Fluttershy’s hooves around her own neck, and carrying such a massive weight, she used her last forces to fly out of the crumbling tower. The head of the tower never fell off, though. It only tilted massively into a 45 degree position.

The dungeon was doubtlessly the creepiest place Applejack had ever been in.

The walls were dark and the long hallways were only illuminated with small torches. However, Pinkie Pie made up for it:

"¡I wonder why they built this place! The ponies that did must have been REALLY slender!" she joked.

Applejack laughed, but it was a fake laughter. She did not really felt like laughing. It made her feel like if somepony was watching her from the dark cells.

"¿And what do you think about the new guy?" Pinkie asked.

"¿What do ya mean?" Applejack said, unsure of what to answer.

"¡What you heard, silly!" Pinkie gloomily shouted.

"Ah think he’s somebody not to mess with unless you have a death wish" She gurgled, straight to the point.

"Sometimes he can be funny" Pinkie said dreamily.

"And how are ya sure?" Applejack was dubious of J´zar's nature.

"I’m not. I just hope I’m right" Pinkie affirmed.

The duo passed through an opened wooden door which led into a chamber that had a strange machine which sported multiple metallic arms with sharp blades on the end. On the other side of the machine, however, there was a single old book.

"¿What is this?" Pinkie asked, as she reached towards the book.

Blowing the dust off the book’s cover, she read the words “Magic Disruption” emblazoned on the first page.

"This will be most likely useful" She said to Applejack.

"Let’s just bring it back to J´zar and get out of here" She said grumpily.

Then they heard a mighty roar.

J´zar had looked through most books in those shelves, yet found no answers to his questions. Apparently, those who lived there did not care much about militarism. Most of the books held many cooking recipes, but nothing more.

The first ones to come where Rarity and Twilight Sparkle. They had found an ancient hanging, which was inscribed with what seemed to be a prophecy. J´zar thought on how curious the term White Ghost was, for Ix was called that way during the third Crusade because of his white robes and mask. “¿Fist of great power?” He thought.

The second group to arrive was the pegasii. Rainbow Dash was half-dead out of pure exhaustion. Fluttershy was soundless, simply standing still and letting Rainbow drag her. J´zar rushed to help, and asked Rainbow Dash what they had found. Dash simply gave him a grim look and told him “the tower crooked” as she handled over a sheet of parchment. It was named “Banishment of magic”. J´zar read a portion of it, learning that it was about ancient methods to dispel magical effects. It said a sacrifice of blood was needed for the mightiest spells to disappear. J´zar wondered whose blood would be offered.

The last group to return was Applejack and Pinkie Pie. They were scared, and their faces had an expression of shock. They hurriedly closed the door behind them and ran towards J´zar screaming for them to escape the castle.

"What is so bad"…J´zar started saying, but he didn´t managed to finish the sentence before a massive blue paw blasted the door open with a deafening roar.

J´zar and his companions ran towards the exit as the beast pursued them. Reaching the outskirts of the castle, J´zar gazed upon the creature that had pursued them throughout the door: A huge blue bear the size of a house with a shining star on his forefront had ripped open the castle’s front wall and was now staring at them with feral fury.

J´zar slowly backed away from the massive beast drawing his swords. The situation was desperate. On normal situations, six warriors of the Order under J´zar’s command could have downed the beast in minutes, but he only had six scared mares to fight with. He had to create a new strategy. A plan had already brewed in his mind, but he needed for Rainbow Dash to be as brave as she always bragged.

"Rainbow Dash! The tower!" J´zar yelled at the pony.

"¿¡What!?" Was her only answer.

"You must fly…" he dodged on of the beast’s claw swipes with skillful grace "¡…besides it!"

J´zar sled under another swipe and kicked himself off a tree to stab one of his swords into the bear’s left eye. A stream of red blood poured out from the wound as J´zar descended to the ground leaving his sword stabbed into the creature’s head. He looked at the tilted tower, and felt satisfaction as he saw Rainbow Dash flying right at its side. The plan was working.

"¡Now kick it towards her!" he shouted with the full might of his lungs. Rainbow Dash simply nodded and prepared to kick the almost loped-off tip of the tower.

However, the time it had taken to say those words had been fatal for J´zar. The bear crushed him under one of his massive paws to prevent any chance of dodge or parry and then raised one mighty claw to turn J´zar into bloody shreds.

Then, with a mighty “¡CRASH!” the top of the tower crashed into the bear, shaking it off J´zar and leaving them both crushed under an avalanche of debris. The mares held their breaths as they waited for J´zar to come out the debris. Finally, when they thought everything was lost, a pile of loose rocks was turned aside, and from it raised a healthy (though dirty) J´zar. And as salute, he uttered a single word:

"Easy"