A Rather Large Adventure

by BradyBunch

Chapter Eighty-five: The Corrupted Element

“Is there a faster way than this?” Tempest grumbled as they tramped through the passages. Her armored hooves made pronounced clinks on the metal floor. It was the only way to track progress, since the dull lighting didn’t make things easy to see.

Starlight sighed. “Probably. We just don’t know what it is.”

“Then we’ll persuade somepony to tell us,” Tempest shrugged.

“Where do we find one of them?” Starlight asked in response. “I don’t even have an idea where we are!”

“I can fix that.” She began to examine the walls. “Look for a door.”

“To what?”

“Anything. It could be a bathroom, but we need to find someone to beat this out of.”

“Bathroom?”

“Yeah. So?”

“It’s just weird. I think they wouldn’t have them.”

“Why not?”

“Well, they’re immortal alicorns, aren’t they? They don’t have any reason to eat or drink. Besides, look at this place. You can’t plant crops or hunt out here.”

“I suppose.” Tempest shrugged, then frowned. “Wait. Twilight eats, and she’s an alicorn.”

“Fine. Then these alicorns may not need to eat.”

“But wouldn’t that make these alicorns an improvement over the princesses?” Tempest asked.

“I… don’t think so,” Starlight slowly said.

“Why not? If you don’t need food or drink again, you’re not in danger of starving. You aren’t tied down by the burden of finding food. You aren’t even enslaved to a temptation to indulge, since it doesn’t make a difference either way. What advantage could a reliance on food possibly bring?”

“When was the last time these alicorns felt hunger?” Starlight asked.

“Probably never.”

“When was the last time they felt satisfied from food?” Starlight followed up.

Tempest took a second. “Probably... never.”

“These alicorns don’t feel the joy food can bring,” Starlight said. “It’s become irrelevant to them. Even if they had good food, they wouldn’t appreciate it. They’re missing out on what the world has to offer.”

“But they don’t need to.”

“That’s the trap. Solaris transforms these poor ponies into alicorns and promises them nothing but benefits. The problem is, they’re missing out on the mortal experience. They opted out of Faust’s gift of life by cutting themselves off from suffering, and joy in the process. They might claim they’re blessed by their God, but they’re the ones stuck in a volcano, cut off from the rest of the world, with nopony but themselves. Why does it matter if they’re more advanced if there’s nothing to do with it? They’re impotent. They have nothing. They have no joy because they have nothing to rely on, nothing to make them humble. And do you know how happy prideful, cocky ponies are? They aren’t.”

“So, wait. We’re going to suffer… but we’re going to be happy about it?” Tempest shrewdly observed.

“Pain is inevitable, Tempest. Suffering is optional.”

Tempest blinked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Starlight, however, swiveled her head to her side of the hall. “Found one!”

Tempest rolled her eyes. “Nice evasion,” she muttered.

Starlight’s eyes were drawn to the glowing red text above the door. “Authorized access only,” she read aloud. Then she enveloped the door with her magic, and with a grunt ripped the slab of metal off its hinges. With a pulse of her horn, the entire thing crumpled into a ball, and she set it aside. “I suppose that’s my authority.”

Meanwhile, Tempest leaped inside, her horn crackling like a cut wire. The door led to a maintenance room no bigger than a closet, and there just so happened to be an alicorn tinkering with floating tools on a series of pipes and electrical boxes, an open toolbox at his hooves. The alicorn, who himself was electric blue with a white mane and a black bolt styled into it, fell against the pipes as Tempest approached. His quivering yellow eyes focused on her broken stump, and drifted to the circuit breakers right beside her.

Tempest quickly inferred what he was thinking. “Here’s the deal, boy. I need some answers. And if I don’t get them, I’ll fry you and the entire grid.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” he breathed.

“Watch me,” she whispered, and her horn sparked, almost touching the circuit breaker. The blue alicorn flinched, and Tempest let her magic simmer down a bit. “Now. What’s your name?”

“... Lightning Lover,” he responded. In the light provided by her sparking horn, he was staring at the ground, pink in the face.

“Did you choose that name when you were turned into an alicorn?” Tempest asked.

He nodded, his head tight and his lips sealed.

“Guess that didn’t turn out too well for you. How religious are you?”

“A little bit,” he murmured.

“Where is the Element of Harmony you use?”

Lightning Lover started to shake more profusely. “Wh-what?”

“It would be a stone, about the size of a child’s heart. Maybe I can provide you with a reference.”

“Y-you don’t have to!” he quickly said. “Y-you must be talking about Thragya, right?”

“Thragya?” Tempest repeated, tilting her head.

“It’s a sacred rock. It means Soul Stone. Very important to Solaris. I-it’s in the temple, at the top of the volcano. There’s an open area we use for ceremonies.”

“Are you sure? Have you ever seen Thragya?”

“Plenty of times. It’s green, but it has swirls of mist within. You can’t miss it. Every so often, one who thinks they are worthy to wield it steps forth, but they’re always destroyed.”

Tempest remembered what happened to the Storm King’s servants on the airship. Each of them obliterated in a unique way. This was it! It had to be!

“And how would one get to this Thragya?” she finished.

“Some of us fly. The rest of us use the main doors.”

“Isn’t there a secret way?”

“Well,” he said, pausing. “I-I don’t know.”

Tempest raised her hoof threateningly. “You sure?”

“No, no, wait! I know! But it’s just…”

“You don’t want to betray your heavenly father.” She rolled her eyes. “Trust me, I know. There was a Nox who thought just the same as you.” She leaned closer in. “Why serve him if you are so afraid of him?”

Lightning Lover’s teeth chattered as his eyes darted from one corner to another. “S-s-stop it!”

“Of course,” she allowed him, backing up. “Who am I to give you so much fear? That’s the work of your God to do.”

His horn burst into brilliant blue flame. “Stop it!”

Her hoof quickly wrapped around his horn, and her metal-shod hooves extinguished his magic like a doused lamp. “Curious. You were the one that stopped.”

He tried to tug away, but Tempest’s grip was too strong.

“That’s a nice horn,” Tempest remarked. “I’d love a horn like that. It’d be a shame if something…” She raised her other hoof high above her head. “Happened to it.”

“Stop!” he cried, falling to his knees, although his head was still being held up. “I-I’ll tell you! Just don’t break my horn! Please!”

“Then talk.”

“There’s a passage the priests use!” he said, and his voice choked up. “Just a bit up ahead! That’s how they enter at the horn's call! Aaah!”

Tempest released him, setting all her hooves on the ground again. “Show us.”

Lightning Lover, though, started to cry, wheezing as he did so.

“We don’t have all day,” Tempest snapped. “Get to it.”

“Oh, my God,” he groaned in despair. “My God! Why am I so weak?! Why did I give in?” He moaned and punched himself in the temple repeatedly. “I don’t deserve your mercy!”

“You don’t deserve ours, either,” Tempest reminded him. “You can repent later. Hop to it.”

The alicorn got to his hooves, still crying, and forced himself past Tempest, who didn’t move an inch as they bumped shoulders.

Tempest looked behind to watch him exit, and as she did, she caught Starlight’s wide eyes. Starlight watched Lightning Lover exit in a bumbling mess, then she turned her shocked face back to Tempest.

Tempest shrugged noncommittally. This was a war, right?

Starlight, though, broke away from Tempest, gritting her teeth in anger, and Tempest felt something churn inside her. Had she done something wrong? She made a brat cry. So what? They got what they wanted. And the alicorn was a Solaris-worshipper. Why was Starlight feeling sympathy for them? They were enemies. You specifically designated them to be destroyed. That was the point, right?

And yet, Starlight’s reaction…

---

As Fluttershy finished explaining, Cinder stroked his green chin with his stubby claws. The refinery station was left unattended. “So you’re saying… if we manage to help you in your little mission… then Malice will be destroyed?”

“Malice serves a devil,” Fluttershy said, and beside her, Bedrock squirmed at the word. Fluttershy didn’t stop. “And the Elements have the potential to create or take life on a large scale instantly. I-I’d hate to take life, believe me. But… then again, Malice and the Noxxa aren’t exactly living like you or me. They’re living a half-life in cursed bodies, and it’s little more than dust at the end of the day. It’d be better for them if they didn’t have them.”

“It’d be better for me if he didn’t have one, too. You sure Malice will be destroyed?”

“With all ten Elements, there’s nothing we can’t do,” Fluttershy affirmed.

Cinder hummed, eyes roaming over the interior of the mountain. All over the place, miniature dragons were hard at work. Only a few alicorns were supervising; they were on the upper branches of the Tree.

“Malice always treated me like scum,” Cinder noted. “And rightfully so. I was a coward. Spineless. I want the chance to prove he was wrong about me.” He nodded. “I don’t see why I shouldn’t go along with you.”

“Yay!” Fluttershy whispered, hovering in the air for a moment. “What do we have to do? I could talk with the dragons and see if they’re interested.”

“Of course they’re interested!” Cinder immediately refused. “But they’re demoralized. That’s what this place does to you. Why bother trying to look for a way to escape?”

“But if we showed them a way out, I’m confident that they’d take it. All we have to do is provide them with a chance to be free,” Fluttershy encouraged.

“I never knew how small my world was until my eyes were opened,” Bedrock pointed out in agreement. “If we showed them… they’d follow.”

His eyes drifted back up to the few alicorn guards on the metal walkways. “Luckily for us, these ponies aren’t used to keeping prisoners. They were as surprised to see us as we were to see them when we first appeared here. But they quickly overpowered us and set us to work reinforcing the mountain. They haven’t estimated yet how many of them they need to keep us docile, though. They think only a dozen or so is enough, since they’ve got wings and a horn, but there are thousands of us. And we have an alicorn of our own--and we have you.”

“Me?” Fluttershy bowed her head in humility. “I-I’m not sure how more powerful I am than my friends. They can control lightning, and fire, and jewels and explosions. All I can do is make animals.”

“Perfect! You can inflate our numbers! They’ll get overwhelmed in no time. We just need to start the attack and make it go well.”

“And, I mean… Look, these are alicorns I’ve known my entire life,” Bedrock said. “I’m not sure if I can just fire on them.”

“Then don’t fight. And don’t be free,” Fluttershy replied. “If you lose, you die. If you fight, you can win. If you win, you become free. The only way to live is to fight for your vision! Fight for the sea, Bedrock. Just as how I’ll fight for my friends.”

Bedrock rubbed his arm while looking up at the faraway shadowy alicorns. His mouth was twisted in indecision.

Fluttershy, after her statement, gave a sideways glance to Cinder. “So, uh, when do we do this?”

“Why not now?” Cinder asked.

Fluttershy looked taken aback. “What?”

“There’s nothing stopping us from this, right?”

“Um…” Fluttershy considered the success of Starlight and Tempest. Would it still succeed if they ripped the mountain apart from the inside? “...No, not really.”

“So let’s get to work!” Cinder turned back to the refinery station. “I’ll try to sabotage the mechanics. You start making animals. Big ones.”

“Big ones,” Fluttershy repeated, taking a deep breath. “Bears. Tigers. Lions.”

“What are those?” Cinder and Bedrock asked at the same time.

Fluttershy blinked in brief surprise before rolling her eyes in bemusement. “I’ll show you.”

Fluttershy trotted over to a bucket of molten metal in the refinery. The size seemed suitable. She could work with it.

She placed her hoof on the metal edge and immediately withdrew it, shaking it and hissing with sudden pain. Seeing Cinder work it barehanded made her momentarily forget it was scalding hot.

“You okay?” Bedrock immediately asked, trotting over.

“I’m fine,” Fluttershy said, lifting her hoof again. “I only need to touch it for a moment.”

Concentrating her will, building up the power residing inside her, she scraped the surface of the metal bucket, and in that one moment when she touched it, her power was all channeled into the bucket, and her command was put into action. Live.

The cast iron bucket immediately stretched and squashed into an unnatural shape. A tinkle was heard as the magic worked and solidified the shape into something recognizable.

Bedrock and Cinder stared, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, as the very much inanimate metal bucket shifted into a black bear, all traces of its previous state disappearing completely. The bear gave a moaning grumble, and Fluttershy grew a smile as the bear nuzzled her fuzzy but dirty chest.

“Aww, there, there,” Fluttershy encouraged, rubbing his furry nose and ears. “I’m glad you’re excited. We have a big job ahead of us.”

Bedrock took several cautious steps towards the bear, extending a hoof. “Is that…”

“This is a bear,” Fluttershy explained, stepping out of the bear’s way. “They’re usually dangerous, but this one follows my instructions. There, there, say hello!”

The bear took one look at Bedrock, and, after a tense moment, gave a long lick of his face. The front of his bowl cut immediately stuck up.

“I may have to get used to this,” Bedrock deadpanned.

Fluttershy laughed. “He likes you. Why don’t you pet him for a bit?”

Fluttershy then turned her attention to the metal barrels she had been brought in. There were plenty of loose rocks and scrap metal all over the place.

“I’ve got a job to do.”

---

Lightning Lover didn’t have to go far before leading them to a patch of wall they would have found otherwise indiscernible. It was right beneath a red lantern, and there was a hole just wide enough for a horn to fit into. Lightning inserted his horn into the wall and made it glow an intense blue.

Blue spirals bloomed from the entry point and traced elaborate lines into a glowing outline on the angled wall. Lightning Lover took his horn out and stumbled back. The outline slid back and split in half, revealing a sinister red tunnel vanishing into oblivion.

“How did you know this exists?” Starlight asked him directly, although her tone was one of wonder.

“I-I’m mostly maintenance. Mostly chose to because… it was once my Cutie Mark.”

Starlight took a glance at his flank. It was blank. Most likely erased when he became an alicorn. Starlight gulped, taking a step back in realization. Tempest realized all this, but reminded herself to ask later.

“Now, about you,” Tempest said, as her turn came to speak.

“Please,” Lightning stammered, the black bolt wobbling in his mane as he shook. “If you’re going to kill me-”

“Kill?” Tempest asked. “I’d sooner destroy a stained-glass window than stoop to killing someone as cowardly as you. However, since we can’t have you following us either--”

Here she smacked him upside the head.

“Ow!” Lightning cried, rubbing his skull. “What the-”

Tempest hurriedly smacked him again, and this time he went out cold, slumping against the wall.

“What’s wrong with you?” Starlight hissed.

“I’m wondering the same thing!” Tempest said, adjusting Lightning’s body. “I thought I was really practiced at it. Maybe his head is harder than I realized-”

But upon seeing the face Starlight was giving her, Tempest fell silent. She knew inherently that she was messed up more than the other Element bearers. Tempest even put on a shamed expression the longer Starlight maintained eye contact. That was something new.

“Come on,” Starlight urged, brisk and cold. “Let’s get this over with.”

She trotted into the corridor. Tempest quickly followed.

The corridor was narrow. Red lamps still illuminated their vision, but it was no longer lined with metal. The black cave walls were carved and smooth, and every step echoed. There were no shadows, for the darkness was already everywhere.

After going for about twenty seconds, Tempest sighed. “What’s your deal?”

“You haven’t heard about what I’ve done,” Starlight snapped. “Who I was before. I once controlled a village full of ponies with no Cutie Marks. So seeing more ponies without them...”

Tempest inhaled through her teeth. “Yikes.” After a second more, she said, “Look, if you’re really so concerned about that guy-”

“He’s a pony,” Starlight cut her off. “Just like you are. Just like I am. We got better. Who knows about him?”

“He won’t,” Tempest assured her. “He made his choice.”

“Treat them like you would treat yourself,” Starlight maintained. “It doesn’t matter what they’ve done.”

“It kinda does,” Tempest muttered under her breath.

“This is not friendship,” Starlight asserted, stamping the ground. “If losing what makes us special is what it takes to get the Elements, we won’t be able to use them!”

“How else will we do it? Sing kumbaya and dance past the danger?”

“Don’t you see?” Starlight said. “What if this is all a ploy by Solaris? He’s probably realized by now that he can’t stop us from getting the Elements, so now he’s trying to break our minds and spirits. Can a bunch of depressed, lonely, furious, vengeful, spiteful ponies use the Elements of Harmony?”

Tempest considered it for a second. “Probably not.”

“We can’t lose ourselves,” Starlight urged. “Not right now! Not when we’re so close! Even if we have the Elements, we can’t defeat Solaris if we’re as evil as he is!”

“So… I suppose I was wrong all along,” Tempest whispered. She had explained the Elements as divine artifacts to the Storm King, but the Elements were even more than just divine artifacts. They were keys, used to access incredible potential. And they only worked if the lock itself matched the key. And the keys could not be changed, but ponies could, and so the lock would not always match the key.

Which begged the question: if a lock didn’t match the key, would the key seek out a new lock?

Could there be other bearers of the Elements of Harmony?

The question was persistent in her head. Tempest couldn’t shake it. She wasn’t sure of its origin, but Tempest wanted a definitive answer, and soon.

"Let's be careful," Starlight advised, breaking her out of her reverie. "There could be a priest in here."

Tempest wisely kept her comment to herself and quieted her approach. Starlight touched Tempest with her horn, and Tempest rippled and waved until her hooves in front of her became transparent. Starlight became invisible soon after. All that could be seen was an outline and her opened eyes.

"Quickly," Starlight urged, speeding up. Tempest tried to match her pace, but the clink of her metal-shod hooves could echo.

They soon came to the end of the tunnel. Sure enough, a crimson-cloaked alicorn was tapping his hooves as he waited beneath a hatch ten feet above his head. Nothing but his shadowed face could be seen.

"Om nan Solar, Om nan Solar, Om nan Solar, Om nan Solar," he was repeating. "Sun and moon and stars and sky, far above in heaven where the shadows lie. Mother cries, Father dies, Faust is the mother of lies."

Starlight ignited her horn, which meant breaking her invisibility spell. She suddenly appeared not ten feet from him.

"Nothing personal," she promised to his astounded face before firing.

The priest flew back and hit his head on the rock wall, slumping to the ground.

Starlight gathered the cloak he was wrapped in and floated it over to her. "I'll disguise myself. You stay here. You got me this far, so keep yourself safe."

"Hold it!" Tempest quickly said. "I'll come."

"No," Starlight refused, pulling the cloak over her body. "I can't risk you. I'm the one that needs to do this."

Tempest, after taking a moment, decided to comply. She hung her head in reply.

All of a sudden, the tremendous blare of a horn shook them both. It was deep and wavering up and down, unaccompanied by any other instrument.

"That's the horn's call!" Tempest hissed. "Get up there!"

Starlight flipped the hood over her head. Then she floated up to the hatch with her magic and opened it with a creak. The outside was only slightly brighter than in the tunnel. Starlight exited.

Tempest, quickly contemplating what to do, wall-jumped to the top of the hatch and hung on by her two front hooves. The lid of the hatch slammed on her front hooves, but it harmlessly banged on her shod hooves, and Tempest's eyes came up to peek over the edge through the crack.

---

Starlight was frozen. Her surroundings surpassed anything she had seen in her entire life.

The top of the volcano was an open-air, smooth, tiled ground. It was a perfect circle a hundred meters wide, decorated at evenly spaced intervals on the edges with torches and statues of animal hybrids. In the very center of the circle was a deep hole fifty feet wide, and almost brimming over with boiling orange lava. Starlight remembered the massive pipe in the bowels of the mountain, and guessed this pit was just the top of the pipe. The lava gave enough light for her to see.

She wasn’t alone. There were five other priests in scarlet robes arrayed in a triangle, and Starlight was on the far right corner. The six of them were on a raised stage spanning one half of the circle, and the six of them were looking into an audience below. Starlight immediately felt herself lock up in place.

The musical horns were soon joined in by drums, steady and deep. “Om nan Solar,” the priests began to chant. Starlight, recognizing the words, repeated them from memory. “Om nan Solar, Om nan Solar, Om nan Solar. Sun and moon and stars and sky, far above in heaven where the shadows lie. Mother cries, Father dies, Faust is the mother of lies.” Starlight couldn’t bring herself to say the last part, though.

They then repeated the phrase once more, but this time, the alicorns assembled sang along as well. The low orange lighting, steady beat of the drums, and the nature of the song was both invigorating and sedative. It was designed to easily manipulate and hook the audience. Starlight, upon realizing this, blinked hard and quick to keep herself from genuinely falling into the rhythm.

The drums picked up pace, and a fine white mist began to cover the stage and spill into the audience, rolling into the lava pit as well and dissipating. This time, the priests stamped on the ground to accompany the faster beat, and started a new chant. It was more wild and deep and harsh. Starlight stamped as often as she could, but didn’t even try to imitate the words, let alone the pronunciation.

“Ade be te ori'dush buir, Canterlot sa kaysh yaim, turn-ta teh kaysh miit bal yaimpar, at kaysh tion'ad keep-ta gar!”

“Sons of the evil mother, Canterlot as her footstool, turn from her word, and return to he who keeps you!” the foremost priest translated to the audience as the priests repeated the chant again.

The drumsticks started clacking together between every four or five beats, whipping Starlight’s senses into a flurry. She turned her head this way and that, seeing all the alicorns swaying in place and occasionally screaming nonsense.

“Cuyir ti mhi ibic tuur, at cabuor bal guide-ta. Olaror! Olaror! Olaror!”

“By order of our Lord and King,” the foremost priest intoned, among growing chants of Olaror. “We call upon High Priest Ajax to come forth.”

A vortex swirled in front of Starlight’s eyes, slowly growing the edges of robes, then the flesh beneath them, before unraveling completely. High Priest Ajax looked like he was untwisting grotesquely, and Starlight couldn’t tell if that was an optical illusion or actual magic. Finally, he materialized entirely, and his mere presence was enough to immediately silence the instruments, priests, and audience.

High Priest Ajax’s entire body was hidden by regal robes of crimson and gold. His hooves were covered in pitch-black boots. His shimmering golden cape draped in a long train. The maroon paulets on his shoulders curved up wickedly. Bones and fangs were strung on a necklace, and resting on his chest was a flawless amethyst. His towering headdress had two layers to it, both curving up like the claws of a viscous beast. His face was covered by a golden mask, lipless and narrow-eyed. His jutting horn was sharpened to a needle’s point and covered in steel.

The alicorns in assembly groaned and kneeled as one collective. The priests simply bowed their heads, and Starlight quickly played along.

High Priest Ajax gave a generous gesture to the assembly and lifted his arm. “Bring forth the newborns,” he ordered. Ajax’s voice was clear and crisp, but croaking with age.

Several mares flapped up to the elevated stone stage. The mares in the audience were either unbelievably beautiful--lithe, slim, sleek, tall, and fair, with long, flowing manes in multiple vivid colors and eyes like precious gems--or deliberately deviant from the standard of beauty the world held--short manes or balding entirely, dozens of piercings in bizarre areas, sagging skin, fat bodies, a perpetual scowl on their thick black lips. Sleeping babies wrapped in cloths were accompanying them.

Starlight had to hold her front leg with her other one to prevent her from rushing out. What was about to happen?

Three babies were laid before Ajax on the ground, and the alicorn mothers flapped back into the audience. Starlight tried to see what colors they were, but the oppressive orange light and the darkness of the smoke above them obscured any distinction she could have made.

“Praise be unto the mothers for their contributions,” Ajax intoned. His horn glowed a vivid red, and the three children were lifted up. “They will be treasured after we baptize them by fire.”

Starlight’s jaw dropped. No. He couldn’t!

A new rhythm started, one beat per second. After five beats, the drumsticks clacked together between the bangs, and it morphed into a clack between every three beats. The priests all bowed their heads and stayed stiff. Starlight kept following along.

Ajax was unfazed as he carried the three babies over the open pit of lava. Their bodies were glowing from the liquid fire. The three children began to cry from the stuffy heat.

“You are reborn this day,” Ajax said above the noise and drums. “In the form of Solaris himself! As alicorns!”

A powerful music horn blasted, accompanying what happened next. The three babies tumbled from their wrapped cloths and dropped into the lava pit with three separate sizzles. Starlight had to spread her legs to steady herself. Her throat felt constricted with wire. It was the most horrible thing she had ever seen!

But Ajax’s horn ignited again, and the three children emerged, steaming and screaming, but noticeably unhurt. The fillies and foal floated back up to Ajax, who deposited them into the care of one of the priests. He trotted back to the mothers and handed them off as if distributing gifts. The babies were still crying, but none of them were burned. They just ruffled their wings and clung to their mothers.

“And now, for the testing of the heart,” Ajax announced. “Who comes forth?”

One alicorn stood up. He was very muscular and square-jawed. “I do!”

Ajax’s arm swept to the side. “Come.”

The alicorn took to the air and glided over the lava pit to where Ajax indicated. Upon landing, he bowed again.

“If testing your worthiness is the true desire of your heart,” Ajax warned him, “you may not live to see your results.”

“I don’t care,” the alicorn waved aside. “Solaris loves me. If I die, I’ll be with him.”

Ajax turned around, looking up. “Then show your devotion.”

The rest of the priests turned around as well, and so did Starlight, a tiny bit off. Looking up as well, she froze once more.

A statue dominated the back of the temple, taller far than the lip of the volcano and hanging above them all. It was a pitch black alicorn emerging from the shapeless stone on the far edge of the mountain. Its muscles were chiseled into impossible curves, its wings curved up and wide, its legs in the motion of rearing. His hooves were sharp and jagged, ending in unnatural small claws. His horn alone was several meters long and spewing real billowing fire like a flamethrower.

But an idol’s body is irrelevant compared to its face, and this face chilled Starlight’s soul. The bones around his eyes and jaw were devoid of flesh or skin. They were hollow and skeletal. His nose was flared, and his mouth was slightly open, exposing rows of close-fitting fangs like railroad spikes. His tongue was snaked, and from the tip, another eternal flame was flickering. His eyes were wild, ringed, and sunken, narrowed down and glowing with even more flame on the inside. He was terrible, and awful, but so beautifully carved, so detailed!

“Father,” Starlight whispered, her knees shaking.

For who else could it be? That face was the sum of all the depravity and insidiousness a mind could conjure. Lust and fury, ecstasy and longing, greed and gluttony, satisfaction and desperation were etched deep into the flesh, along with other emotions and sins for which there was no word. Solaris embodied all forms of hedonism, so it was impossible for any tongue to describe beyond what lay before their eyes. So this particular statue was likely just an interpretation of who Solaris was, rather than an accurate portrayal of his physical form. But what hoof could carve such a striking and terrible visage with both such accuracy and ambiguousness?

But in front of him was something that drew her attention even more. On a white pedestal, on top of a further raised stone terrace, was a misshapen jewel encased within a decomposing skull. From what little she could see through the eye holes, it shone like a light was pressed against it, and it was green.

The volunteer took slow steps up to the skull. His legs trembled when he put his hooves on stone again.

The same slow beat started back up again, and with it a new chant. “Bakt’hi de… sa miraak ast… Tal teroch… Equeiisi Ma’den… Shuraan… vi at Thragya, Do’lya… Bakt’hi de… sa miraak ast…”

One word caught Starlight’s attention. Thragya. It was what the Rolk called his stone containing his life force. Going by context, it was probably referring to the Element before her eyes. But why would it be used to describe that Element?

When the volunteer was eye level with the skull, he caressed the skull before lifting it up, and the green stone lay there on the pedestal.

The beat picked up once more, and Starlight’s muscles locked with tension. What if something huge happened?

His hoof, after a hesitant second, made contact with the Element.

Immediately, his skin and flesh peeled away like he was standing behind an engine. His fresh skeleton clattered in a heap in front of the pedestal, his square-jawed skull landing atop the pile last.

A groan emanated from the alicorn crowd, and the music stopped. Starlight’s heart lurched in her chest. An irrational fear came over her: what if that happened to her?

What was it about that stone? There was something… unnatural at work here. Was this how the Guardians reacted to their Elements?

Ajax approached the bones with no sign that he was fazed. “Another unworthy,” he mourned.

One of the priests was sweeping up the bones except for the square-jawed skull, which another priest placed over the Element to replace the previous one. The old skull and bones were casually tossed into the lava, which sank after a second of floating.

Ajax’s arm raised, and the commotion amongst the alicorns quieted down. “We have another ordinance to perform today,” he ominously spoke. “Courtesy of my most loyal servant Brimstone.”

Starlight put the pieces together. That was one of theirs! But who?

Ajax’s arm pointed to a spot just in front of the pedestal holding the Element. “Rise.”

The floor disappeared. A clink and clatter of squeaky chains accompanied the slow rise of a pair of metal beams welded into an X. Strapped onto that X, splayed in a leg-spread cross, was a familiar face.

“Hey! Guys! This is sooo not-cool! This is not the kind of party where I’m the main attraction!”

“Pinkie Pie,” Starlight breathed, afraid to call her name. She was mussed up and dirty, and her mane was no longer puffy, but tangled and flattened. Strands of it were hanging in front of her face. Her chest was bare, her Element nowhere to be seen.

Ajax was unresponsive to Pinkie’s words, instead approaching her slowly and methodically. The longer Pinkie spoke while watching him not break his stride, the more hesitant her objections became until, two feet away from Ajax’s golden mask, Pinkie stopped entirely.

“Blood of Life,” Ajax said simply. “You are a hindrance to the work of the one true God.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie replied. “So? You guys are the same to us. But you don’t see me tearing you all a new one.” She jiggled her head in despondent acknowledgement of her surroundings. “Probably ‘cause I’m, uh, trapped.”

“You will pose a threat to us no longer,” Ajax declared, not responding to Pinkie. “And perhaps Solaris will appear before us himself.”

Pinkie bursted into laughter. “Oh, that’s a good one!” she complimented. “How will he if he doesn’t have a body, doodie-face?!”

“You are in a position unsuitable to make inquiries,” Ajax told her.

His arm reached into his robes and disappeared, then slowly took out a shining Black Blade, glittering from the obsidian shores of Tartarus.

This was the first thing to legitimately put an expression of fear on Pinkie’s face for as long as Starlight could remember. But what could she do? What could she do?

“I need but a drop,” Ajax spoke, adjusting his grip on the knife. “Struggle, and you will give me far more than that.”

Pinkie leaned far back. “Nuh-uh. No way!”

Ajax was still unfazed. “Fine.”

His arm gripped onto Pinkie’s left hoof, and the Black Blade positioned itself directly onto the skin of her arm. Pinkie flopped against her restraints, but her struggle only caused the tip of the Black Blade to puncture her skin. That part of her was stained black, and a thin trickle of scarlet blood ran down the curve of her arm and beaded on the edge before dripping.

Ajax caught several drops of blood in his magical aura that coalesced into a floating red sphere. Holding up his black knife, the blood bubble slid down and coated the blade completely red.

"While a Black Blade does possess the potential to pierce an Element of Harmony," Ajax explained loud and clear, "that Element still responds only to the touch of the original Element bearer. It would resist the power of the Blade and even shatter it." Ajax's hoof held up the bloodstained blade. "But now that the bearer's blood coats this tool, it will slip by the Element's defense!" His arm then gestured to the foremost priest. "Bring out the Elements!"

The priest created a puff of white smoke, and he disappeared in the cloud. Starlight assumed he simply went back through his hatch. It only took a moment before he appeared once more in the smoke, and this time, a clay bowl was in his green aura, which floated gently over to Ajax.

The bowl contained two necklaces. One had an orange apple in the center, and the other held a blue balloon.

"Take heed and take heart, my little ponies," Ajax announced, the sinister blade hovering above his head. This day, an Element of Harmony is destroyed!"

Starlight couldn’t just stand there! She had to do something!

Flap. A shadow.

Starlight looked up. So did some of the other priests. They pointed and gasped. Starlight joined in with them, but not just to blend in. What was approaching was legitimately horrifying.

A milky white dragon-thing was descending slowly upon them. Ajax noticed it as well and stepped back to allow him room. The bowl of Elements was set aside.

The creature finally landed with a ponderous thud, swishing its tail contentedly. Half a hundred centipede legs sprouted from his armored body, some small and stubby, and some freakishly thin and long. One of the claws gripped a bony scepter with a tremendous jewel embedded in the tip. His wings were folded across his back, revealing a horned, three-eyed creature with a black slash across one empty eye socket. His exposed yellow teeth, as long as railroad spikes, were in a grim smile.

It was Malice. But not like Starlight had ever seen Malice before. He was some abhorrent hybrid who reeked of death. Starlight could not help but move slowly away, and she was thankful she wasn’t the only one; the other priests were also giving him room and taking protective stances.

A dragon descended beside him, holding an identical knife to the one Ajax had. He was purple, thin, and had a crooked snout. He was tall, but beside the looming Malice, he seemed shrunken. He even looked… reluctant. Like a whipped dog. Starlight couldn’t explain it.

“Venom,” Malice said, and the dragon looked up. But Malice hadn’t even turned his head to regard him. He simply gestured with the jeweled scepter. “Take a good, long look. But stick close. These are dangerous creatures. We can’t risk one escaping from their zoo.”

Ajax, for his part, remained unmoved. “Who are you to dare trespass in this sacred place?”

“Perhaps you don’t know me,” Malice cooly replied, folding several arms behind his back and taking a few slow steps towards Ajax. “I am the servant and son of the Eternal Father. I am he who was chosen to bring Solaris into existence.” He lifted the Bloodstone Scepter. “I am Dragon Lord Malice.”

“Begone, foul creature. Trouble this place no more, for I am he who Solaris has appointed!”

“Cookie Cutter said the same thing,” Malice deflected condescendingly.

Ajax’s stance tightened--the first sign Starlight had seen that proved Ajax had another emotion. “What did you just say?”

“Not only are you deaf, you’re stupid. Typical of ponies. Cookie Cutter was no different. He sent servants and correspondence to me for my war efforts. He was uptight, to be sure, but he’s also dead, so look where that got him. You’re a substitute for a false prophet, nothing more.”

“I am Solaris’ servant!”

“And I am his sword,” Malice replied. “By all means, break upon me. Make my day."

Ajax snarled, but did nothing more.

Malice then addressed the crowd of assembled alicorns. "I know you seek to bring your God back. And I know how to do it. So drive me off if you want, but your hope will be lost."

No one objected to his presence. Malice commanded the attention of every living creature.

Malice turned around. His eyes drifted up to the terrible statue in awe. Solaris’ furious, flaming, evil gaze stared him down.

“Hello, father,” he greeted, giving a slight inclination of his head. “See you soon.”

The statue made no response. Starlight would have been surprised if it did.

Malice’s swollen, baggy, red, bloodshot eyes finally regarded the immobile Pinkie. He smirked and shook his head. "Oh, you poor thing. I don't need to kill you. Yet. But please, consider your fate sealed already."

"I can hardly wait," Pinkie sarcastically replied.

"Does nothing faze you?" Malice curiously followed up.

"Your face does!"

Malice actually laughed. "You are funny. I'll enjoy watching you die. Sit tight for now."

Whereupon he bonked Pinkie on the head with the scepter.

He then ignored Pinkie entirely and maneuvered towards the Element on display. The green glow was reflected in his scarlet eyes.

"The fates of so many," he said. "Held in something so small."

He scooped up the skull holding the uneven green stone and used the skull to carry the dangerous Element.

"All I require," Malice said, rattling the stone in the skull like he was swirling brandy, “and all I’ve ever required, is an alicorn princess. Anypony here that fits that description?" His wild red eyes roamed over the assembled ponies. "You must have heard of the specifications Solaris set forth. He needs an alicorn princess. That must be why you keep on trying despite always dying. But there’s more to being an alicorn than having wings and a horn. Is this really the best you can do? Are any of you special? Are any of you fantastic creatures actually unique? Any of you alicorns actually worth something?"

The ponies milling about made grumbles and mutters, but none of them stepped forth.

"I knew it," Malice noted derogatorily. "For all your talk of being special, you're nothing but the dust at my feet. You're counterfeits, fakes! I need an authentic alicorn princess to touch this stone. And thankfully, one happens to be on the way. So you're irrelevant already."

“Do not speak of us in such a way,” Ajax warned, flipping the grip on his knife.

“I think I can,” Malice casually refuted. “And so I will. I’ll put in a good word with you for my father. Maybe he’ll remember your mindless fanaticism when he remakes this world.”

Starlight began to maneuver herself so she was positioned behind Malice. Perhaps she could get the drop on him. She wasn’t alone in this endeavor; two other priests were also repositioning themselves. Starlight’s more rational side told her that Malice could see them, but all Starlight needed was an opening.

“Go right ahead,” Malice invited before she could make a move, without even looking at her. “You were the ones who wanted to die this day. I, however, intend on living a little bit longer.”

The other priests definitely were preparing to jump him. Maybe Starlight could use them as a distraction? She needed an opening! Now!

BANG!

A hatch in the ground flew open. Out flipped a dark-colored pony, landing in a crouch on the floor. Her horn was already sizzling, and when she landed, it immediately fired a long arc of electricity right at Malice.

The skull was knocked out of his claw, and the green Element separated from it. The stone bounced on the tile floor and skittered to a spinning halt.

The entire temple burst into chaos. Four of the priests rushed for Malice, while the other one began firing at Tempest, who was now galloping across the ceremony stage for Pinkie Pie. Ajax ran right at the bowl of Elements, but Venom charged at Ajax, intercepting him. And Starlight had to make a split-second decision in that very instant.

Would she attempt to kill Malice? Would she intercept Ajax and secure the Elements? Would she join with Tempest in rescuing Pinkie? Or would she lunge for the Element of Redemption?

It might have seemed tough to some. But not for her. The right choice was abundantly clear.

Starlight fired a bolt of magic at the swishing blade in Ajax’s hoof. It clanged, Ajax loosened his grip in pain, and the Black Blade clattered on the ground, skittering for the edge of the stage. At the same time, Starlight charged right at him and knocked him to the ground, and she barged at the bowl of Elements instead.

“Take them!” Ajax roared, evidently unaware that the priest picking up the bowl was the same one who had knocked him to the ground.

Starlight, taken aback by the reaction before remembering she was disguised, took the bowl of Elements in her magic grip. After desperately looking around and up, she sighed and tossed them into the air, into the closest secure place she could see: the cavity of Solaris’ bottom jaw.

One Element, then the other, flew between the jaws of the stone devil and clattered into the mouth of the statue, resting safely behind Solaris’ teeth. Starlight desperately hoped it wasn’t foreshadowing their own fates.

Ajax got back up again. But Ajax wasn’t concentrating on her. The fallen Black Blade picked itself up, hovered in front of Ajax in a vibrant red aura, and zigzagged its way towards Venom.

The purple dragon, horrified, began trying to bat it away, evading the rest of the swishes and strikes. After their Black Blades clashed several times, the blade knocked Venom’s weapon from his claws. Venom backed up some more, the tip of the blade at his jaw. He ended up on his tiptoes on the edge of the bubbling lava pit.

Meanwhile, Tempest reached the crossbeam. Her sizzling, sparking horn fired at the magic cusps holding Pinkie’s hooves to the crossbeam, and Pinkie fell forward on her face. Still evading the magic blasts from the one priest shooting at her, Tempest slung Pinkie across her back and began to examine the ground for a hatch leading out. But the amount of white fog covering the ground made her groan in frustration.

There came a very wet crunching sound, and the magic shooting at her stopped. Malice had enveloped all five priests in his pale white magic grip and was twisting them the way one might wring out a soaked rag. But instead of gushing water, blood and worse was the result.

“Stupid scepter,” Malice grumbled, tapping the crystal as the priest’s lives were drained away. “How do you work? I thought...”

Malice callously tossed aside what remained of them and focused on Tempest Shadow next. Tempest turned to sprint away. But with an ignition of his bony horns, Tempest was immediately immobilized mid-run. Pinkie slumped off her back and hit the now-wet floor with a thud.

Malice, for the first time, looked taken aback. “You?” he asked, drawing her closer despite her struggles until Tempest was hovering right in front of him. She was close enough to examine all the ugly perforations and lacerations in his flesh and exposed bone.

Starlight’s eyes darted to the weak Pinkie, to Malice, to Venom, an inch away from a Black Blade by a furious Ajax, and to the Element lying several meters away. This was it! She slowly scooched closer to the fallen green stone.

Malice continued to speak, scrutinizing her with an unbelieving eye. “You struck me as largely irrelevant. Since you were with the Storm King. I thought you and he died on Mount Aris.”

“Wrong on both accounts,” Tempest hissed.

“Now what on Equus would you be doing here?” Malice quizzed suspiciously. “This wouldn’t have to do with that particular stone?”

“I don’t need its power to get what I want!” Tempest refuted.

“What you want is irrelevant now. All that matters is what will happen. This is your only choice: to accept it or not.”

“I’ll never accept a world with you alive!”

“We all have our regrets,” Malice agreed. “Like how you’ll regret being born by the time I’m done with you.”

“And how you’ll regret saying that!” Starlight yelled in response, throwing back her hood. She was right beside the Element by now.

Malice leaned back. His red eyes went wide. “WHAT?!” he shrieked.

Starlight felt her heart soar. “How does it feel, Malice?” she taunted. “Knowing everything you’ve done has been for nothing?”

Her hoof reached for the green stone.

Her skin made contact.

And the stone flew into her chest with a sharp pang of agony.

It sizzled and smoldered as it sunk into her flesh, and Starlight scrabbled at her chest to pry it out, but it was too late. It had already embedded itself into her sternum.

“Starlight!” Pinkie and Tempest cried simultaneously.

Starlight collapsed, her muscles twitching. Only the tip of the stone was emerging from her chest, still glowing as strong as ever, but a drop of inky darkness had been splashed into it, creating a darker tint of green. Starlight felt something cold grow across herself, and her coloration immediately turned grey.

“Wh-what’s happening?” Starlight hoarsely creaked out, examining her colorless coat on her hoof. “I--how…”

“Elements are keys. But that particular Element was corrupted by my Father’s spirit during the War in Heaven as a backup plan before He was banished,” Malice explained, and he was no longer desperate. In fact, he sounded almost ecstatic. “It is both a prison and a key for His power. If an alicorn princess Element bearer touches you now, it will recognize her divine authority and give Solaris back His power, and He will use it to turn his formless essence into an eternal body!”

Starlight lifted her head, shaking. But if Malice knew all this already, why did he even bother trying to stop them all this time?

Unless-

“If I motivated you to search for the Elements, you would find this one,” Malice giddily said, obviously relishing the experience to finally let his secret out. “Because I was attacking you relentlessly, you searched for the Elements. By letting you collect your rocks, I came closer to victory! And by trying to stop me, you just accelerated the grand design! And you have all danced in my palm to the beat I set, driven into the corner I wanted you to. There was no way I couldn’t win! The plan all along was not your Goddess’ plan. It was mine! In seeking for a way to bring me down, you have procured the one thing essential for the ultimate triumph!”

He was lying. He had to be.

No. He had lied from the very beginning!

“How does it feel, Starlight?” Malice repeated condescendingly, coming closer and looming over her. “Knowing everything you’ve done has been for nothing?”