Mortal Coil

by Reeve

LXI - Into The Depths

Things had been rather awkward after the previous night’s stories and reveals. Pinkie and Twilight didn’t speak much following it, both clearly still disturbed by what they learnt about the other one. Twilight's story seemed fairly clear cut, completely understandable really, and only served to make me respect her more now that I understood where she had come from, but then there was Pinkie's story... At first I was very confused on how to feel about it, I could understand why Pinkie's revelation had been so world disrupting for Twilight, she had after all spent years believing that she had succeeded in sealing Discord away in Tartarus. Not only had she not succeeded as thoroughly as she thought, but she had also spent those years unknowingly interacting with him, even treating him as an equal, if not a friend in recent days.

But for me, all I had was the old stories to know that Discord was supposed to be bad news, about how he brought about a hundred years of chaos and misery. Until he was stopped by the Princess, and possibly the other members of the Six, before being locked away in Tartarus. It was hard to believe that I should treat Pinkie Pie any differently knowing Discord was a part of who she was, I failed to see how that knowledge changed anything about her, she was still the same pony I called a friend all this time. Besides, it was difficult to see her as any kind of threat, when the only evil thing Discord had supposedly done was hundreds of years ago, and only affected ponies I would never have known.

So as surreal and mind boggling as it all was, I came to the conclusion that nothing had changed, Pinkie Pie was still Pinkie Pie, she was still my friend and I shouldn’t treat her any differently. When the morning came and the darkness retreated, allowing us a suspiciously clear path to the Demon Shaft, we carried on and I took the time to ask Pinkie some more questions, now that things made a bit more sense. For example, I had often been confused how Pinkie Pie could have had so many incredible stories to tell, when surely she was the same age as me. However now I knew many of her stories were probably from centuries ago, when she was just Discord.

“So what all can you do?” I asked, a little eagerly. “I remember you put us in that weird chaos world when you and Twilight fought.”

“That wasn’t real,” Pinkie admitted. “It was just an illusion made to look like the world of chaos. If I were to open a door to the real place, it would require a massive amount of power that I didn’t carry over from Tartarus.”

“And you remember everything from the dawn of time?” I asked, sounding like a filly.

“Oh not at all!” Pinkie announced, looking a little blown away by the idea. “Like I said last night, there are some memories I’m missing, just strange blank patches where everything is all fuzzy, but even if I did have all my memories, I wasn’t even around that long.”

“But I thought Discord was chaos itself,” I countered. “And hasn’t chaos existed since the beginning of all things?”

“Both true,” Pinkie admitted. “Chaos has always existed, and Discord is the manifestation of pure chaos, but chaos didn’t manifest itself until several hundred thousand years ago. I have memories back that far, but like I said, it’s kind of patchy.”

“But you also remember your life on the rock farm?” I questioned. “Of your normal life before… the incident?”

“Yes, I do,” Pinkie responded, nodding happily. “Oh, sometimes I do miss the old place and my family. When all this is over, I’ll have to pay them a visit, it feels like eons.”

“What I don’t understand…” Twilight began sharply from where she walked several metres ahead of us. “Is why you’ve always been so obsessed with breaking open Tartarus if you’re already free?”

“Because there’s still a lot of myself left there that I want back,” Pinkie replied simply.

“You mean your power,” Twilight muttered coldly. “Not on my watch.”

“Actually the power is secondary,” Pinkie admitted. “What I really want is the rest of Discord’s memories; you see, I actually have quite a few questions that I think my memories can answer. For example, I don’t know the exact details surrounding my initial imprisonment… heck, I don’t even remember why I brought about one hundred years of chaos! I must have thought it would be funny at the time or something.”

Twilight didn’t respond, just kept walking at a slightly faster pace than the pair of us.

“I don’t see the issue Twilight,” Pinkie called after her. “I’m still me; I’ve never been anyone else to you. I know we’ve always had our differences and our disagreements, but I like to believe we’ve been able to put that aside for the greater good recently.”

“My stance hasn’t changed since yesterday,” Twilight replied. “Although I’m seriously reconsidering giving you that head start.”

Pinkie sighed, clearly disappointed at Twilight’s stubbornness.

“She’ll come around,” I whispered to her. “Just give her time to get over the shock.”

“For some reason it bothers me more when it’s her who judges me,” Pinkie muttered. “I’ve had ponies who hated me for who I am, plenty who wanted me locked away where I could never ‘do anymore harm’, but I always just shrugged it off.”

“Maybe it’s because Twilight was the one who stopped Discord from returning,” I suggested. “Maybe you respect her for it.”

“Maybe…” Pinkie said slowly. “Truth be told, I never knew who it was who stopped me from returning fully, not until Twilight told the story last night. It was just another one of the places where my memory is lacking… just another question I had been asking myself all these years.”

“I meant to ask,” I began. “Those stallions, the ones in your story… were they ever caught?”

“Yes,” Pinkie replied darkly. “By me.”

“What did you do to them?” I asked, suppressing a gulp.

“Let’s just say, that was the day I realised some ponies didn’t deserve to live,” she stated menacingly. “I don’t regret it; I never regretted taking any of the lives I did. Like I always say, I only kill those I believe in my heart deserve it, and I always stay true to my…”

Pinkie was cut off by a fork of lightning passing between us, catching a hulking shadow creature in the chest. Glancing to the source, we saw Twilight pointing her sceptre out, staring evenly at us.

“Do try to focus,” she chastised. “They may not be as aggressive today, but they’re waiting for the moment when your guard is down most.”

After that, we kept the talking to a minimum as we progressed to the sandy coloured mound of the Demon Shaft. Indeed, the Nether Vale had been quieter that whole day. Still several shadow creatures of various types, but there were very few environmental attacks of any sort, and none of us suffered a single hallucination. It somehow made me more uneasy than if the attacks had been as relentless as the previous day, we were not about to complain, but nor would we get led into a false sense of security. As we ascended the gentle slope of the Demon Shaft, Pinkie bounced ahead and peered over the edge when she reached the centre hole.

“That’s a long fall!” she called back. “We’re gonna have to be extra careful.”

“I wasn’t planning on being anything less,” Twilight replied as she joined Pinkie at peering over the edge. “So Rarity, where roughly is the door you came out of.”

I looked over the edge and scanned about, placing the door was not an easy task, but I guessed it was roughly half way down the part we could actually see, before the light failed to illuminate any further. After quickly reminding them to be on the lookout for a letter R inscribed on the right side of the doorframe, Pinkie took the lead, hopping down onto the first step. Twilight and I followed, a little slower, taking our time with each step while Pinkie bounced without a care in the world from platform to ledge to step.

“Slow down Pinkie!” I called down to her; she was already a few indistinct levels below us. “We should keep together.”

Pinkie looked up to respond, but as she did, I saw a cluster of shadows darting upwards from the dark abyss below, making a beeline straight for her.

“Pinkie, lookout!” Twilight shouted.

Pinkie glanced around, just in time to see the flitting shadows and leap to the next ledge before they smashed right through the one she had just been standing on, decimating it to dust and pebbles. As soon as the first cluster struck, they all appeared, groups of shadows flying all around the shaft, speeding straight for us. Twilight grabbed hold of me and teleported us away to a safe distance, before a pair of clusters converged on our own rough-hewn staircase. In her panic, Twilight didn’t judge her landing correctly, taking us to a much narrower ledge. While she was safely on the rocky outcrop, I appeared right on the edge and felt it crumble away beneath my hooves.

I fell straight down, but felt Twilight slow me with her magic, so I landed gently on a different platform lower down. She called down a quick apology, but had to move when another cluster soared through the air for where she stood. I myself couldn’t stay in one spot for too long before the shadows converged on where I was, intent on destroying my platform in order to send me plummeting down into the void beneath. Pinkie was able to leap, and somersault, and roll out of the way of any clusters that tried to take her out, and Twilight managed to keep ahead of them with her teleportation. I on the other hand had no choice but to take it slow and stay barely ahead of the clusters that sought me out.

Taking a leap of faith, I was able to latch onto a platform that had already been decimated when Pinkie had jumped on it previously, leaving only a thin strip of rock for me to cling onto with my forehooves. I shimmied along as quickly as I dared before another group of shadows could come and finish the job. Once at the end, I swung myself onto a steep staircase that hugged the wall of the shaft tightly. I practically toppled down them as I heard the shadows smashing into the uppermost steps behind me, and felt the rubble raining down on my back.

At the bottom, I leapt to the next walkway which was mercifully wide and long, allowing me to run at full speed across it. As I went, I scanned around for nearby archways, and if they bore the carving that would indicate the correct one. As I looked around, I could see dozens of the shadow clusters swimming throughout the air, leaving trails of black smoke behind them as they traced their way around the shaft, occasionally doubling in speed as they made a sharp turn mid-air and hurtled for one of us.

I passed by several doorways, pulling my gaze from the oppressive darkness within to the perfectly carved frames to see if my mark was on any of them. It really was such an odd contrast, the rough, natural look of the shaft and all the different platforms that almost looked like they were made through natural means, compared to the stone archways, which couldn’t appear more deliberate in their structure. I was a little lost in admiring the strange charm to it all, that I ran right past the correct doorway, having to come to a skidding halt before turning and running back the way I came.

As I stopped to look at the mark to confirm that it was indeed the one I had made, a group of shadows came flying past, breaking off bits of the platform I stood on. I was left with just enough to stand on, but only if I pressed up close to the doorways itself. Once I was satisfied I was at the correct one, I looked back to find the others, who were busy examining the other doors while trying not to get cast down into the depths.

“I found it!” I called out. “It’s this door here!”

Twilight glanced down at me, making a note of my position before disappearing in a flash of light. I felt her materialise right next to me, the platform suddenly felt a lot narrower. Pinkie also saw me, and in the blink of an eye she vanished and reappeared between us, suddenly we were all fighting for space while simultaneously holding onto each other for support. The shadows took that moment to congregate together, high in the air, forming into a great swirling mass that orbited lazily in the air for a moment, before crashing down in our direction like a meteor.

“Inside!” Twilight cried as we saw the shadow approaching.

We all squeezed through the frame, stepping into the pitch black. I could feel the steps beneath my hooves, but we had all rushed in so quickly, that we immediately lost our balance and began toppling forward. While I could no longer see my friends, I could feel their bodies pressed up against my own as we started to fall. I did however, see the faint spark of light from Twilight horn, followed by all three of us being pushed apart from one another as we were each encased in a faint purple bubble. Our descent down the winding staircase slowed considerably, and while the bubbles bounced erratically off every solid surface, I felt no pain as I was bundled about within, only a mild churning in my stomach.

I bounced about for some time, feeling myself sink gradually deeper into the entrance chamber. Eventually I reached the ground, where my bubble bounced hard once before popping on its second impact, allowing me to sprawl out on the cold stone slabs, my head spinning and my stomach threatening to empty itself of the little rations we had been eating. I heard another pop, followed by groaning, which indicated Twilight was somewhere to my left in the darkness. Then a third pop, followed by whooping and eager requests to ‘do it again’, which indicated Pinkie Pie was somewhere on my right.

Once my head had settled down, I became faintly aware of the distant whispering. Just like last time however, if ever I tried to concentrate on it, it would fade out until there was only silence. There were no calming lights this time, swimming about me and cavorting with the shadows, instead there was only the latter; I could feel them infesting the air like I was submerged in a sea of living, writhing beings. I knew the Demon Shaft would give me no light this time, or helpful gusts of warm, sticky air to guide me, which left me at a loss for what to do.

Somewhere in the darkness, a tiny speck of purple light flickered into existence, I could just about make out Twilight beneath it. I did the same, lighting up my horn for the little good it did, as I walked closer to her. Pinkie joined us, although she was even harder to see, I had a funny feeling Fluttershy’s mace would have been invaluable on this journey, but it was too late to turn back.

“This won’t do us much good,” Twilight muttered hopelessly. “I can feel this darkness sapping my magic.”

“Is that what that is?” I murmured, contemplating the feeling of the darkness in the air.

“I don’t think it’s affecting me,” Pinkie revealed. “Here let me try something…”

I heard Pinkie take a deep breath and vaguely saw her screw up her face, clenching her eyes shut. Then, out of nowhere, her whole body began blinking like she was some kind of living light bulb, before it settled and she radiated a bright light. Like our own lights, it struggled to penetrate the darkness, but it gave a considerably wider scope of view than we had before, just enough to see a few metres in any direction.

“That’s better,” Twilight said, allowing the light in her horn to go out. “How long can you keep that up?”

“Dunno,” Pinkie admitted with a small shrug. "Chaos magic is weird."

“Well it’s something at least,” I said, before Twilight could kick up a fuss. “Let’s get moving, there’s only one door out of this room, hopefully I’ll know the way to go once we get on the move.”

It turned out however, that the fogginess of my memory had most likely been intended so I wouldn’t remember the way to go. Before long, we were hopelessly lost within the maze. The further we delved into the tunnels, the more sounds we heard, and the more things we caught glimpses of. Sometimes I would hear the sound of distant hoofsteps and panicked breathing, however I quickly learned to double check what I heard with the others, it almost always turned out that only one of us had heard it, and therefore it was probably in our heads.

On the rare occasion when we all heard it and chose to investigate, it would always lead to some kind of trap. Either the floor would open up beneath us or the walls would begin closing it, nothing that Twilight couldn’t pull us out of with her magic, or Pinkie with her reflexes. As for things we saw, usually it would be lights down certain pathways, or the silhouette of a pony, quickly running away from Pinkie’s light as we approached, we learned not to trust these either. It wasn’t long before things started getting to me, and I was also feeling frustrated at my inability to keep us on track. Thankfully both my friends managed to keep level heads, and were very understanding regarding my difficulty in remembering.

After an indistinct length of time however, we finally found something of interest. It was as we took a left turn, I noticed a rippling light coming from the distance, and immediately recognised it as the same kind of lights that guided me when I was last there. I hurried forward, forgetting about safety and ran straight for them, arriving outside a chamber which was fully lit up by them. The other two quickly caught up and chastised me for rushing off on my own, but they fell silent when they saw what awaited us in the room.

The lit up chamber was a towering room, travelling up higher than the swimming lights would go. From wherever the ceiling was however, hung dozens of thick iron chains, which dangled all around the room. They all travelled down different lengths, some ending in large, sinister meat hooks, while others held cages big enough to hold an adult pony. Indeed, three of them did contain ponies. We walked into the room, making for the closest cage, which also happened to be the one nearest the floor. As we neared it, we saw a stallion inside, curled up tightly with his head buried between his forelegs, dressed in black robes with rainbow embroidering.

All three ponies wore the same robes, and all three were quite clearly dead. As I got close, I could see flesh had been ripped away the pony, like he had been devoured by crows while he was trapped. There was still some bits of meat left, but as I watched, I saw the flickering lights drift over to the corpse, enter the cage and tear off small strips at a time and begin carrying them away. I suddenly felt very sick, to think I felt safe when those lights had followed me around, now it looked like they had just been waiting for me to kick the bucket so they could dig in to me.

“Rarity, Twilight, check this out,” Pinkie said from the centre of the room.

I looked over to see she was standing beside an altar, not dissimilar to the one I had woken up on. As I made my way over, I noticed the flickering lights that were carrying the tiny bits of pony were drifting this way, approaching the altar where they placed the flesh down, before swimming away again, either to retrieve more or just float about aimlessly, lighting up the chamber. The altar was covered in a mass of torn up flesh, blood oozing across the surface to the edges, where it dripped sporadically onto the floor.

As we watched, we could see the mass writhing, the little bits and pieces moving as if given life of their own. They all clumped together on the altar, where the collection of meat lay and pulsated slowly. I really wanted to be sick after seeing that, even Pinkie didn’t stay and look for too long, Twilight on the other hand, stared at it in fascination.

“So these are the ponies you saw,” Pinkie announced as she examined one of the other cages.

“Some of them,” I admitted. “But I saw four, there’s only three here, and not even accounting for the ones they had already lost.”

“So there’s still more out there,” Pinkie muttered, her eyes drifting around the chamber before lighting up as she spotted something. “Oh, a shiny thing!”

I looked over as she bounced over beneath the third cage, scooping up something and holding it for us both to see. She was holding a lantern, the very same lantern that I had seen the mare leading the group holding. I mentioned this to Pinkie as she began fiddling with it, trying to get it to light up. It appeared to be a fairly simple oil lantern, I wondered if maybe I was out of fuel. I didn't wonder this for too long before Pinkie threw it straight at my face, I reacted instinctively by catching it in my magic, glaring briefly at Pinkie, even as she grinned back at me.

“Was that necessary?” I asked, a little disgruntled.

“Yes it was!” she said happily as she pointed at the lantern, looking down at it, I saw that it was now lit up with warm yellow glow. “It reacts to unicorn magic.”

I looked the lantern up and down curiously at that. Indeed, whenever I set it on the ground, the light went out automatically, reigniting whenever I picked it up with my magic. While I held it out, I reached out and touched it gently with my hoof. As my boot touched against it however, I could feel my hoof heating up quickly inside and retracted my leg, feeling a little confused.

“Holy magic by the looks of it,” Twilight pointed out from behind me. “Remember your body can’t get too close to it, but holding it in your magic should be safe.”

“Well that means I can clock out for a while,” Pinkie said as she returned to her normal level of luminescence. “I was starting to get a bit sweaty keeping that up anyway.”

“Well this is a start,” Twilight said, ignoring Pinkie. “Perhaps the others are nearby; at the very least, we might be on the right path.”

“Then let’s keep going,” I agreed. “This room is making me want to vomit.”

The three of us left and immediately found ourselves standing at a T junction that hadn’t been there before. After a brief moment of swearing and grumbling, we decided to turn left, as it was the closest to the original route. Along the way, we encountered some more shadow creatures. Like the ones that sunk into the ground up on the surface, these one swam through the walls, swiping out with great slicing claws and groping hands. The absolute trough of our journey came when one of the wall shadows reverted back to the good old floor techniques, and successfully grabbed onto Pinkie Pie and dragged her half way into the ground.

Of course I rushed forward and tried to pull her out with one hoof, while jabbing into the black pool with a single knife with the other. Twilight was busy holding off the other shadows while we did this, and while I don’t believe she was intentionally ignoring Pinkie’s struggle, Pinkie certainly seemed to think so once I had freed her and the creatures were taken care of. Naturally this escalated into another shouting match between them, which I was forced to break up. We walked in sullen silence for a little longer before stopping to investigate another chamber, after I noticed a scrap of robe from one of the Covenant members discarded near the entrance to the room.

“Can’t you two just stop?” I asked Twilight in a miserable voice, while Pinkie took the lead into the room and we remained outside in the corridor. “I know it’s hard for you, but whatever she used to be, she’s good now. Surely you can see that, you work so well when you’re not at each other’s throats.”

I expected Twilight to snap something, but instead she just let out a long sigh, looking down at her own hooves.

“I want to, but…” she began in an uncomfortable voice. “But I can’t, Discord is, and always has been an enemy to the Princess and the ponies of Equestria. She’s always taught me that, she’s always considered Discord worship to one of the greatest crimes, she will never accept that Discord has changed.”

“But you see that he… that she has,” I pushed. “You know that Pinkie Pie is on our side, no matter what Discord might have been or done in the past.”

Twilight looked up into the chamber, I followed her gaze and saw that Pinkie was nowhere to be seen inside; I knew Twilight was wondering if she was listening in.

“I want to believe that…” she said at last in a low voice, so that only I could hear if Pinkie was eavesdropping. “But if I don’t act in accordance with the Princess’s laws and condemn Discord, I’ll be betraying her and everything she’s done for me, and I can’t do that Rarity. You are my friend… but she is my enemy.”

“The Princess is important to you, I know,” I replied with a sigh. “But at least meet Pinkie half way until the mission is done, for me.”

“I’ll try,” Twilight said with a small nod. “I’m sorry Rarity; I don’t want to make things difficult for you.”

Before I could reply, Pinkie remerged from the darkened room. Her face was completely passive, it was impossible to tell if she had heard us, and what she was thinking even if she had.

“There’s nopony in here,” she announced. “Alive or dead.”

“Well at least we know they came this way,” Twilight said, indicating the scrap of material that Pinkie was holding. “Shall we keep moving?”

We both nodded and I took the lead, the lantern was proving to be very effective in lighting the way, even more than Pinkie’s light had been. It wasn’t until we were approaching the next junction that we learned just how valuable the lantern was. As we walked, the light inside the lantern intensified, bringing us to a stop as we all looked at it curiously. As we stared, another flash of light appeared to our right, glancing over at it, we saw a yellow light appear on the apparently smooth brick wall, tracing out an ornate doorway.

Twilight scanned her horn over the door, humming to herself as her horn flashed and glowed and dimmed with various detection spells. When she stepped away, her final spell caused the brickwork to melt away to reveal a set of double door made from what looked like solid gold, engraved with an incredible design of a pegasus with its wings spread out wide over each door. It was the first chamber that had any kind of door within its stone frame, and the fact that it was so well hidden gave us great hope for what lay inside.

“That latern must reveal hidden things!” Pinkie declared excitedly. “Where do you think it leads?”

“A tomb perhaps?” I mused, raising an eyebrow at the other two who shared my hopeful expression.

“It’s locked with a great deal of enchantments,” Twilight explained. “It could take a while to get through them all, unless…”

She glanced down at her sceptre, pulling it out and considering for a brief moment, before she pointed it directly at the centre of the door. Pinkie and I watched eagerly as nothing happened for a brief moment, then out of nowhere, the orb on Twilight’s sceptre burst into life. Just like that time at Timber with Spike, Twilight’s eyes shone with an intense white light as the orb detached itself from the end of the sceptre, floating out slighting where the glass petals began to split off, revealing the ball of magic within.

As the sceptre opened up, the same white light flooded through the door, seeping along the engraving lines, so the design shone out brightly. Pinkie and I had to shield our eyes for a moment when the light began to grow to intense, but as we did, I heard the distinct sound of something unlocking. As the light began to dim and we were able to open our eyes again, I saw the orb reconstruct itself while the double doors began to open slowing, revealing a dark passage beyond.

“Nice!” Pinkie exclaimed, nudging Twilight in the ribs with her elbow.

“You made that look easy,” I informed Twilight, giving her a wide grin.

“I don’t understand,” Twilight said, not looking as pleased with herself as I would have imagined. “It was as if the door responded to the sceptre, like it was a key.”

“You said it yourself,” I reminded her. “You don’t know all its powers, perhaps unlocking enchanted doors is one of them.”

“Maybe…” Twilight mumbled, still looking unsure.

“Who cares why it worked?!” Pinkie interrupted happily. “We’re making progress, isn’t that the important thing?”

“I suppose,” Twilight admitted before looking to me. “After you.”

As I approached the door, I held the lantern out, casting its light into the new room which turned out to be a wide staircase that travelled some way down. Glancing back, I received nods of encouragement from the other two. Gulping slightly, I begun the descent with them a few steps behind me. One thing I noticed, which was ironic in its own sense, was the distinct lack of whispers as we made our way down. I asked the other two, and they were both surprised to admit that the whispers had stopped without them even noticing; whatever was down those steps must have been really important.

When we reached the final step, we were faced with a wide archway, leading into a room filled with a darkness so thick, that even the lantern would not illuminate. We hesitated briefly, unsure of what to do, but when Pinkie bit the bullet and took the first step in, the chamber burst into life, flitting lights swimming in from every nook and cranny to push away the shadows and cast their light across the entirety of the massive, domed chamber. We were all awestruck as we stared around at the immaculate room, at the thick columns that circled around the perimeter of the room, at the mosaic tiled floor, but most of all, at the centrepiece of the chamber.

It was a statue, carved from the same sandy coloured rock as everything else, almost filling the chamber with its sheer size and unquestionable glory. The statue depicted a pony, tall and slender, wearing billowing mage robes, the hood was carved down so I could see her sweeping, curly mane, as well as the matching tail poking out the back of her robes. But what struck us most about the statue, was that the figure had two wings spread wide, which is what constituted for most of the size, but not only that… she had a horn that pierced into the sky, almost touching the highest point of the domed ceiling.

“It’s an alicorn,” I muttered in awe as we all looked up at it. “But the pony on the door was a pegasus.”

“No, it only looked like a pegasus,” Twilight corrected me. “The horn was probably obscured by the divide in the middle, but… who is this supposed to be? It’s definitely not Princess Celestia.”

Our eyes all simultaneously navigated to the base of the statue, where a stone dais was. Upon the platform was what appeared to be an altar at a glance, but as we drew closer, we realised that it was a sarcophagus. We approached at a snail’s pace, unsure whether we should be there or not, although it was almost certain this was the tomb the Covenant had been speaking of, that much was clear when we saw the body of another one of their members lying half off the dais. It was the stallion who had wanted to turn back, he bore no obvious marks, but just like the others, he was clearly dead.

This only raised more questions for us, as we tentatively mounted the dais and approached the imposing stone coffin. Could an alicorn really be buried here? If so, who were they? And what in the name of Celestia were the Covenant up to?! As we neared the lid of the sarcophagus, we saw that there was writing inscribed upon it, as well as a picture of a clover. Twilight was the first to step close enough to read it, doing so out loud.

“Here rests…” she began before her eyes widened with a mixture of shock and horror. “Clover the Clever!”

She snapped around to look at us, Pinkie seemed taken aback by this, and I too was a little confused. I knew who Clover the Clever was from my early school years, she had been one of the six ponies involved in the events that became the first Hearths Warming, and would lead to the formation of Equestria. But she had been a unicorn… hadn’t she? Twilight turned back and continued reading, in the hopes the final few lines of the epitaph would shine some light on what was going on.

“Beloved friend… Bearer of Honesty…” Twilight gasped as she came to the final accolade. “Princess of Equestria!”