When Snow Falls

by Prophet Of Doom

Chapter 39: No Safe Haven

“Are you alright?” Twilight asked Starlight Glimmer, who was dusting herself off.
Twilight had just teleported them away from of Nightmare Moon’s chains. They landed ungracefully in the unfinished foundations of a building. The site was further down the causeway from where they had confronted Nightmare Moon.
“Yeah, I think so,” Came Glimmer’s stuttered reply. Twilight nodded and moved over to the construction site’s edge. Here she could see back down the causeway. At her friends chained and subdued, and the forces of Nightmare Moon charging forward. Glimmer pulled Twilight back from the causeway, “We can’t stay here, Twilight.”
“But, the others!” Twilight protested.
“We can’t help them if we’re captured too. We have to move!”
“But…” She continued to protest before she released something. “Wait, where's Sunset and Midnight?”
As if on cue, the two ponies in question teleported in behind them. Sunset was still holding Midnight in a headlock, “Are you an idiot!?!”
“I had to try to get through to her.” Midnight said, freeing himself from Sunset.

“Hey!” Glimmer called as loudly as she dared. “You made it.”
The two pairs acknowledged each other presence. Sunset approached Twilight, “Everyones been captured, Twilight! We must fall back to the palace!”
Reluctantly, Twilight was about to agree when the sound of thunderous hoof beats filled the air. The four looked to the main causeway as waves of ponies under Nightmare Moon’s control charged past them. These attackers raced headlong towards the palace and hurled themselves into the guards defending the entrances.
Twilight turned and was alarmed to see more attackers on the opposite side. Even the skies were filled with Nightmare Moon’s forces, either attacking the upper floors of the palace or sparing with defenders in ariel duels. They had got themselves inadvertently surrounded.
It wasn’t long before they were noticed. Indigo eyed ponies peeled off from the main thrusts and approached them menacingly, both on the ground and on the rooftops.
Twilight and the others donned defensive postures but held their fire, not willing to harm them. They were standing back to back, in an ever decreasing circle.
“Twilight, do we try to get to the palace?” Sunset asked. “Or do we attempt a breakout of the city?”
Twilight was trying to way the options she had available and calm herself.

“Aaaah! Oww!!
The sound of Midnight Snow stopped the mares in their tracks and stared at where he was. Whilst backing up, Midnight had failed to see the deep hole in the ground and subsequently fell in.
“You ok, Midnight?” Twilight called.
“Hey, there's a tunnel down here!” Came Midnight echoed reply.
A tunnel!?! Twilight thought.
“Girls! Into the hole!”
Sunset and Glimmer nodded dived into the tunnel. Unicorns fired on them but theses attacks were easily blocked by Twilight's shield spell, who then jumped into the hole. Glimmer fired a parting shot out of the hole, in order to put off any pursuers.
Lead by Twilights glowing horn, they then ran into the dark tunnel

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Foxtrot Lay limply on the ground which like the world around her, was was a dark godless void. All sense of time had long since been lost, with it almost all of her remaining memories. She was no longer being tormented by Nightmare Moon. Either with bad memories or windows of the outside world.
Alone and forgotten, she did nothing but lay staring into the void, like a dying beast waiting for deaths embrace. The only thing she felt were random pains in her belly. So zoned out was Foxtrot, that it took her a long while to notice a new window that was presented to her. When the windows glow finally caught her attention, Foxtrot was presented with a very different world to the one she was shown before. It was a land of crystal structures and ice laced winds. Now sitting upright, she saw a group of ponies standing resolutely before her, many Foxtrot found vaguely familiar. Led by a black alicorn, the ponies proceeded to launch a rainbow beam at her. Foxtrot cowered away from the window as this rainbow struck. After hiding behind her own hooves for while, she hesitantly looked back through the window. The situation presented now was dramatically different. The ponies that were standing so strong before were now bound in magic chains, in a fashion all too familiar to Foxtrot. She grimaced at the sight of those ensnared, clearly in great discomfort.

“Foxtrot!”
The sound, the first she heard in a long time, reverberated through Foxtrot. The window turned to reveal a Persian blue alicorn, standing defiantly with his eye fixed firmly on her. She studied him intently, as a name forced its way into her mind, “Midnight?”
At the very moment the window closed, leaving Foxtrot alone in the void once more. Now though, she had a strange pain in her chest that she could not explain.
“Midnight…”

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Twilight raced down the narrow rocky tunnel, her glowing horn lighting the way. She checked again over her shoulder to make sure the others were still with her. They were, horns glowing just as brightly.
Focussing back on the path ahead, she could now see path start to widen into an opening. This opening quickly came to abrupt halt, as a huge stone slap blocked the path.
Twilight almost crashed into. Behind her, the others had also come to a halt.
“Sweet Celestia! Is it a cave in!?!” Glimmer exclaimed. She and Sunset were feeling around the edges of the slab for a weak spot. Midnight had turned around and watched the tunnel they had come from, looking out for any pursuers.
“No,” Twilight said gravely, brushing a hoof against the stone. “It's a dead end.”
Sunset banged a hoof against the slab, “Dang it! Where do we go now!?!”
“Back the way we came,” Twilight repelled grimly.
“Snow,” Sunset called. “Anypony coming?”
“None that I can see!” He shouted back.

Glimmer flopped against the stone, rubbing her eyes, “Now what do we do?”
Sunset ran a hoof down her face, “Ok, let's just stop and think for a second.”
Sunset took a step back and look up at the grey slab, taking in the strange markings on its surface, “So, what is this place?“
“A tunnel that leads to a stone seal,” -Glimmer looked up- “It's a tomb.”
“No, not a tomb,” Twilight said, drawing the others gaze. “It's some kind of….test or trial.”
“Trial?” Glimmer repeated with a raised eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
Twilight ran a hoof across the stones surface, feeling the engravings, “These are runes, similar to the ones Nightmare Moon uses.”
“You can read them?” Sunset asked.
“Sort of,” -Twilight looked at Sunset- “I did study runes a little, ages ago. Before I moved to Ponyville. And when Nightmare Moon turned up using them, I thought I’d better brush up but it's still hard to work out.”
She pointed to a symbol at the very top, of a sword encased in a crystal, “It's was placed here by Formade the Terrible.”
“Formade,” Midnight echoed, turning and looking at the slab properly. Walking towards it, his attention was drawn to various tools and cases on the ground. “This Blessed Beard’s dig site.”
“Who?” Sunset asked.
“Professor Blessed Beard, he was teaching me magic before he was reassigned to a new dig. This must have been it,” He guested to the stone. “He was evacuated to Rainbow Falls a while ago.”
Midnight stood alongside Twilight, both staring at the engravings.
“It talks of Formade’s vast knowledge and that he’s left it here,” Twilight read, following the text with her hoof as she went. “And only does of…….blood can access it.”
The text on the stone slab ended with a recess clearly meant for ponies hoof. Twilight looked at her own hoof before placing it in the recess. Sunset cocked her head at Twilight, “Get anything?”
“No,” Twilight answered. “Has anything changed?”
Sunset shook her head.

“Twilight, I know the promise of knowledge is very alluring,” Glimmer butted in. “But there's an insane alicorn above us, who has our friends and is wishes to bring an eternal night to Equestria. We need to focus here.”
“Yes, your right,” Twilight half giggled. “Formade’s trial can wait till after we get our friends back.”
“It’s not Formade.”
“Sorry, Midnight?” Sunset asked.
“It’s not Formade the Terrible, it’s Formidable,” He clarified.
Twilight looked quizzical at him, “Ehh.. How do you make that out?”
“See that symbol at the top,” He pointed to the engraving of the sword in the crystal.
“Yes, we believe that was his cutie mark,” Twilight explained.
“But it's also on the flag of Westhumberland, my homeland,” Midnight added. “It was the symbol of Formidable, a wise man who according to legend appeared out of thin air and freed my world from darkness several centuries ago. Most people think he’s a myth, I included.”
Midnight then looked at his own hoof and then at the recess, “Surely not.”
He placed his hoof into the stone recess.

Nothing happened.
“Huh…” Midnight grunted. “Well, thats dissap…….”
With no warning of any kind, Midnight Snow vanished from existence. The three mares recoiled, scanning the spot where he had been.
“Midnight!?!” Twilight called out. “MIDNIGHT!!”