Beyond My Grave: Exhumed

by AnnEldest

The Final Chapter

Everything had gone to Hell.

Wherever they were, their lives were in constant danger of the things that came after them. In the bowels of those labyrinthine stone hallways, hurried steps skittered in the darkness. Their shadows passed along the wall, and a monstrous roar echoed behind them.

“Come on! Don’t slow down!” Discord shouted as he rounded the corner.

Spike appeared around the hall shortly after, clutching his spellbook. He sprinted as fast as his tiny legs would carry him, but the book under his arm and the backpack on his back were beginning to grow heavy. But the roar behind him spurred him onward, as the shadow of the thing passed over the wall of the corner he and Discord rounded.

Ahead of him, Spike saw Discord round a corner. Just as he was getting nearer, there was a loud crash like something heavy had dropped, and Discord’s voice yelped loudly.

“Discord!” Spike shouted.

Discord came barrelling back around the corner and kept running straight.

“Not that way!” he shouted.

Spike collected himself and only saw an empty hall with a gate slammed down in front of himself. After only a glance, he kept running desperate for any escape from the beast behind them.

The torches on the wall ahead of Discord started flaring up brightly, spewing embers at him as he ran. He had to cover his eyes as he did, blinding himself as he ran forth.

Something sliced across his arm and he spun to the ground. There was no time for Discord to see what had happened. Only enough to see something recede into the wall. Discord held his bleeding arm and quickly stood up far from where the thing had gotten him. He saw Spike rushing toward him from around the corner.

“Look out!” he yelled.

It took only a blink for the blade to come slicing out of the wall toward Spike. The only thing that saved him was his diminutive stature, allowing the blade to harmlessly slice the spines atop his head. Spike staggered against the wall, and raised his arm up to allow a single iron stake to pass beneath it.

“What the hell is this place!?” Spike shouted.

His question couldn’t be answered, as the thing at the end of the hall reared its head back and roared, before it started charging toward him and Discord.

Discord tried to run, but was stopped by a stake that shot up in front of him. He looked down, and saw that the ground was perforated with tiny openings. One was set directly between the toes of his cloven hoof.

There was a glint of metal, and a stake rose between his toes. Discord fell back just before the stake impaled his chin.

“The floor!” Discord said.

Spike dodged left and right as the stakes erupted around him. One rose too near him, and pierced the tip of the corner of his book. He stumbled to the side, and a horrible, cold feeling shot up between his spine and his backpack. Spike rose up into the air, dangling from his backpack.

“Discord!” he shouted, as he tried to pull his arms free of the shoulder straps.

Discord carefully tried to reach Spike as more of the stakes shot up around him. As Spike spun around the metal stake he hung from, he stopped himself when he saw their pursuer growing nearer. With the fangs of a ravenous beast and the muscles of a vicious ape, the thing bounded toward them on its enormous legs. It roared as a stake pierced its arm, and another through its foot. With a jerking motion, it broke the stake that impaled its arm, then used both hands to pull the stake through its foot up. It reared back and threw the broken stake at Spike, who spun around to dodge it. Discord had to wave his body to keep from being gutted, then coil around another stake that nearly gutted him again.

Spike yelled as the thing came closer. Every step it took, it was hindered by another stake impaling it. But even that hardly seemed to bother it. No matter what, it was going to get them for intruding in its home. Its prison. As it broke another stake, Discord was able to start lifting Spike upward. The going was slow, and Spike started frantically flipping through the pages of his spellbook.

The thing bellowed again, baring its fangs up to its gums as a stake from the wall impaled its neck. The stake started to bend as it walked forth, reaching for Spike.

“Find something! Hurry!” Discord strained.

“I’m trying! I’m trying!” Spike said.

He was rising up. The space between his back and his luggage was growing larger as the tapered point of the stake came nearer.

The beast roared and a stake rose up between Discord and Spike, forcing him to let go.

Spike started to drop and let go of his book as he raised his arms upward. The straps of his backpack slipped from his shoulders, allowing him to land on the cold, metal floor. Before him laid his spellbook, which landed with its pages open. He reached to retrieve it, until a stake pierced between the pages on the side. The book was pushed into a wall, nearest to where the beast was stuck.

Without it, Spike was nothing. He knew that from the encounter with the grey ghost when he had lost his book that time. His only weapon that could have saved his scales was nearly at the feet of the beast, which broke through another stake and inched ever nearer. Without thinking, Spike made a dive for it.

A stake from the wall stopped Discord reaching Spike. He only just had time to notice a glint of metal from the floor right in front of the dragon.

“Wait!” Discord yelled

It was too late. The moment the book was in Spike’s claws, the stake rose up on to his stomach. Discord shouted as his diminutive friend was risen into the air by the stake, until he rolled off the tip. Spike laid there, holding his stomach, groaning in pain. He wasn’t bleeding, but the stake had clearly done its damage to him. Spike rolled to the side just as another stake nearly pierced his eye. No time was wasted running to Discord, sliding beneath another stake that threatened to impale him from the side. Without stopping, Spike collected his backpack and clumsily put it on his back as he ran forth with Discord.

The beast behind them roared, shaking the hall with its voice as it watched them run away from it. It powered forward, bending and breaking the stakes that impaled it.

Discord and Spike both struggled to run. Both were injured and on the run, without much hope of the thing behind them letting up. Never before were things so hopeless and bleak for the two, who could only keep running until the beast caught them.

Without either one seeing it, a golden light seeped from the seams of Spike’s backpack.

---

The golden light at the altar glowed more brightly, and it began to spread further and further out into the endless sea of columns that surrounded it. The light burst forth, overtaking everything in that dismal room. A shadow appeared within it, its horned head lowered and its muscular legs pounding furiously against the stone floor, the chains of its body rattling violently. It opened its enormous mouth, and in an instant it was gone when the light faded.

Two more shadows appeared in the light as it rippled through the room. The second the golden light touched them, Misty yelped and rolled onto her face.

“Misty!” Luna said, as she helped her friend up just as the light passed and the room filled with shadows.

“Luna? Oh my– I could feel it! It was so big! I just couldn’t handle it!” Misty shuddered.

Misty’s talons were shaking violently in Luna’s hooves. Whatever it was she felt, it affected her worse than anything else up to that point. It was then that she realized the biggest mistake that she had made. There was evil in that room, and their backs were turned to it.

“I know where you are…”

Luna heard the voice as if it were speaking directly into her ear. No matter where she looked, she could see no trace of the beast in chains. Only the candles that flicked and waved in their sconces on the columns. She looked for the beast and listened for its steps or its chains. There was no sign of it. As if it had gone away.

The candle next to her snuffed out.

Luna dove aside with Misty in her hooves, just as a monstrous chain wrapped around the column. There was a glint of metal, and Luna ducked to avoid a bloody hook that lashed at her from beside herself.

“What was that?” Misty asked.

“Didn’t you see?”

The look on Misty’s face made it plain. No matter what happened, no matter how greatly she felt it, she didn’t have the gift of sight. Then, over her shoulder, something moved.

Luna pulled Misty from danger, just as a hook dug into the column where her neck would have been. The hook penetrated deep, scratching a groove as it dragged through the stone, then disappeared again. She yelped as a hook sliced her back. Misty caught her before she fell and was pushed out of the way of another swinging hook.

Misty stumbled and her side hit a column.

“Move!” Luna yelled.

Misty moved and a hook barely missed her.

Three hooks lashed out at them from the darkness. Luna stood herself and Misty on their back legs and pressed their fronts together, narrowly avoiding all three attacks.

Misty was pushed back as a hook lunged at her and dug into the stone floor with a sickening crack. She watched as a trickle of red pooled up from the ground where it had broken, and her heart turned to ice.

Luna was just able to see a pair of chains snaking down the columns on either side of Misty, who looked rapidly in every direction.

“Over here!” Luna said.

Misty started running forth, just as the hooks lunged at her. She was able to miss the first one, but it was too late for the second. The hook looped around her neck, only superficially cutting her flesh. But it still dragged her backwards into the darkness, toward a pair of enormous, orange eyes.

She struggled against her unseen restraint, leaving white marks as her talons dragged against the stone floor.

“Luna, what’s happening!?” Misty panicked as she was pulled back into the shadows.

“Hold on!” Luna called, running to Misty’s aid.

Luna tried to get closer to Misty, and a wall of chains stopped her. She climbed through the gaps between two of the chains and fell when another caught her leg. Pain surged through her body as she landed on her injured wing, nearly keeping her from standing back up. It was only Misty’s cry for help that moved her on. Luna rose to her hooves and stumbled to Misty’s aid. There was a sharp pain in her wing that made her cry out in pain.

She dared not look, but she knew what had happened. A hook had pierced the wing she had injured that fateful night in the cemetery. The chain went taut and nearly made her hooves slip out from beneath her. The hook tore her flesh and ground against her bones. Every moment of struggle was agony.

Misty kept dragging further into the shadows where the beast waited, its eyes shining fiery orange. She grasped the edge of a column, barely able to grip it

Luna inched forward, her wing bleeding profusely. She could see the desperation in Misty’s eyes. Her silent plea for help. A shout escaped Luna’s throat as she stepped forth, the flesh on her wing tearing, staining her feathers red. Tears filled her eyes, blurring her vision. But she didn’t need to see. She knew where she was needed. Another shout, and she rushed forth, tearing her own wing apart when she broke free.

The way to Misty was painful, each step making her wing tremor harshly.

Misty’s talon slipped around the column. She could feel the thing behind her smiling. It was going to get her.

By the time Luna was at her side, she had to dig one talon into the floor. Luna pulled against the chain, feeling barely any resistance from her effort. She used both her hooves and her teeth, but still felt herself pulled toward the shadows. The eyes of the beast glared out at her. After so long, it was going to have her. And she would never escape.

Luna motioned the chain toward Misty, and felt just the slightest slack on the chain behind where she gripped it.

“Tilt your head back!” Luna grunted through her teeth.

“What!?” Misty said.

“Tilt it back!”

Misty did as she was told, feeling as if her spine were about to crack. She felt something pressing against her throat, choking the breath from her.

“Turn your head!” Luna strained.

Misty did, and felt that same pressure whoosh over her temple and across her beak. By some miracle, the point of the hook had missed her. Luna had to crumple to the floor to dodge the flying hook and landed with her eyes upon those in the darkness. She heard a rough growl from the dark, then the eyes blinked themselves out of existence.

“Luna…What just happened?” Misty whimpered, nearly in tears. “Your wing!”

“It will heal. Right now, I need you to not look away. It’s still there,” Luna said, pointing to the shadows.

“It’s everywhere,” Misty corrected.

Luna moved her gaze from where she last saw the eyes of the beast, expecting to see a thousand orange lights leering at her from the shadows. There was nothing. She couldn’t even hear the clinking of the beast’s chains. But the next time the beast showed itself, she knew her life was going to end.

An angry roar echoed from the darkness. The feeling was clear to Misty. It was after Luna. It was going to kill her. There were no thoughts in Misty’s head. Her whole body moved as if she were in some sort of dream. She only was aware of her talons shoving Luna aside, before she felt a pain greater than any she ever had before.

Luna stared, stunned at the sight of the hooks that dug into Misty’s flesh. Misty, who stood twitching her body, her voice stammering pitifully and her eyes frozen on Luna. Her mouth opened and she managed only one word.

“Run…”

It was the last thing Luna heard her say as she was dragged into the shadows. There was no struggle. There was no time. The candles along her path snuffed themselves out as she passed them, and Misty was swallowed by the darkness. All but two lights that were nothing but dots in the distance remained. And they started moving toward Luna. Heavy steps and the rattling of metal were heard, and Luna turned to run.

There was no more point in not turning her back. The beast was everywhere. It was going to get her.

---

A wall crumbled, and the beast charged through. Its roar echoed through the tunnels of the dungeon, announcing its arrival. When the echoes quieted, it was greeted with silence. It knew its prey couldn’t have gone far. It would find them. And it would kill them.

It crept through the halls, keeping its eyes turned to the shadows. The intruders were somewhere in its domain. None of the traps or the winding corridors would stop it. They would only serve to kill its quarry, if it didn’t find them first.

The sounds of squeaking, rusted metal caught its ears, and it charged in the direction of the noise. Through the many twists and turns of those devilish halls, two frightened figures tried desperately to escape their entrapment.

“Hurry up! Before it comes back!” Spike groaned.

“You hurry! I’m doing the best I can!” Discord replied.

The way before them both had been shut. Of four paths to choose, all of them closed. Discord had nearly been decapitated by a dropping portcullis, saved only by his quick reflexes. Now, they were trying to lift the heavy, metal gate, barely able to get it an inch off the ground.

Spike’s miniature arms strained to the point of nearly breaking from their sockets when he heard another roar. Whether it was coming from in front of him, from behind, or left or right, he couldn’t tell. All the more reason he felt to double his efforts. But, it was no good. The gate fell again with a loud thud.

It was no use. Between the two of them, their strength wasn’t enough to free themselves. Now, they had alerted their enemy to their location, if they hadn’t already. Spike began pacing impatiently. If he only had his fiery breath, he would be able to slice through the portcullis and make his own doorway. Better yet, if Discord had even a drop of magic, he could have turned it into gingerbread and they’d bust right through. As it was, they had only the spellbook Spike had brought along. And he had already flipped through it to look for a spell to open doors.

Nothing was found. As hard as he had looked, Spike could find no spell to specifically open doors, raise gates, or even blow up walls. The closest that he had ever come was the spell about crossing into other worlds with the use of a mirror.

Unless…

“Come on, Spike. I barely have one good arm here,” Discord said, as he tried lifting the gate again.

Spike ignored him. He kept flipping through his book, looking for that page. It was one that he had passed several times. Though he never paid much mind to it before, it may have held some clue to their escape at that moment. When he found it, he began to read the pages faster than he had read anything before. The wording was vague, but it seemed to be about how two similar elements could be twisted to the user’s purpose. Whatever that meant, there was no instruction about how to perform such a feat. But, with the other knowledge Spike had so far attained, it would be the closest shot he and Discord had.

He took off his backpack and retrieved the small mirror that he had taken from Luna’s room. He checked the handle of it, and found that it was made of solid wood. The rest of the frame was made from porcelain, and the surface was the usual reflective glass. Even though they weren’t the same as the gate, it would surely be close enough.

Somewhere in the distance, the sounds of rapid, heavy steps were approaching.

“Oh, shit! It’s here!” Discord harshly whispered. “We gotta hide somewhere! That thing’s gonna rip through these gates like cotton candy!”

Discord tried in vain to find a place to hide. Without his magic he was unable to reach the ceiling, which was the only conceivable place that he and Spike could have avoided the gaze of the beast. Instead, he saw something very odd. Spike was placing the mirror against the portcullis that they had been trying to open, and began chanting as he stared intensely at the glass.

“Thing of the earth to thing of the earth, I twist you so! Thing of the earth to thing of the earth, I twist you so!” Spike chanted.

“What the hell are you doing!?” Discord said.

Spike’s concentration wouldn’t be broken. He continued to chant as he held onto the mirror, his eyes fixed on the glass and the corridor past it. His slit pupils shrank into nearly invisible threads as the words repeated over and over from his throat.

“I’m gonna twist your neck so, if you don’t start helping to save our hides!” Discord growled.

The portcullis’ beams twitched and bent ever so slightly.

Discord gasped and looked more closely at the metal barrier, and saw it barely moving. Like molasses in a blizzard, as Applejack would have said. It was then that he became aware of the sounds of the steps once more, and saw a gigantic shadow appear in the darkness of the halls behind them. He turned around and saw something just barely visible in the dim torchlight. Its enormous muscles undulating, its sharpened fangs glistening. All prepared to rip and shred whatever it caught.

“Uh, Spike? You might wanna hurry that up!” Discord said.

Spike acted like he hadn’t heard a word that was said to him. He kept repeating his chant, even when he saw the eyes of the beast flash in the mirror. Not even when the metal beams started noticeably widening the spaces between them.

Discord watched as the beast stomped closer and closer to them. The walls around it began to glow, and the hall set itself ablaze as flames erupted from the stones. The beast roared loudly as its limbs flailed. It pounded its fists in vain against the walls, unable to stop the flames.

The thing would not be stopped. Only slowed down by the fiery assault. Discord looked at the walls around him, and saw the many grooves that he hadn’t noticed etched into the floor and the walls. If anything, they only indicated something bad. Down the hall, the beast had become a glowing silhouette within the flames. And it was looking at Discord.

“Gimme that!” Discord said.

“Hey!” Spike said, as the mirror was taken from him.

Discord placed it against the portcullis, chanting the same as Spike had been doing. His voice grew loud and fierce as he saw the flaming beast trudging toward him in the mirror’s reflection. Yet, nothing happened. Except for the sawblade that buzzed out of the wall dangerously close to his face. Discord yelped and jerked away from the blade, nearly toppling over Spike as more of the spinning blades came out of the floor and wall, grinding along the etched grooves.

“You’re doing it wrong!” Spike said, taking his mirror back. He placed it back onto the portcullis and resumed his chant.

Discord watched as the blades spun along their tracks, crossing each other's paths like some diabolical checkerboard. Beyond them, there was a loud crash as the beast grabbed the portcullis it had approached. It glared at Discord through the grates, baring its fangs as it growled. Its flaming arms wrenched and wrung the iron bars, warping them to allow it entry. The stone walls around it began to crack.

Spike continued his chant as the iron bars before him opened up just enough that he could put his head through them. Behind him, the halls shook as the beast started pulling the gate from the stone.

“That’ll do!” Discord quickly said, as he pushed Spike aside.

“What the hell!?” Spike said, as he fumbled to keep from dropping the mirror.

He was never answered, as Discord managed to make his whole body slither through the opening. Spike looked over his shoulder when he heard the terrifying scrape of metal on stone. The beast had nearly ripped its way through. Wasting no time, Spike tried crawling through the opening as well. Only his head managed to go through, as his backpack prevented him from proceeding.

Spike pulled his head back through and took off his backpack, just as the beast stepped over the twisted wreckage of the gate. He pushed his backpack through the hole in the gate, then lodged his head through, forcing his spines to squeeze through to the other side.

The beast stomped toward him.

Spike scrambled through the gate, and was almost all the way through when he was suspended above the ground.

The beast loosed a satisfied growl as it clenched its fist around Spike’s tail, its fangs bared ferociously. It yanked the dragon backwards, nearly pulling him through. Only Spike’s spines lodging in the grate aided his feeble resistance.

“Get this thing away from me!!” Spike shouted.

Discord reached through the gate and grabbed Spike’s tail. No matter how he pulled, he was no match for the strength of the beast.

The burned face of the beast pressed against the portcullis, growling quietly in Discord’s face. Discord tried to pull back, before his arm was grabbed by the beast’s free hand. Try as he did to resist, Discord couldn’t stop his arm slowly being hovered toward a spinning blade in the wall.

Curse after curse rapidly issued from Discord’s mouth as his arm got closer to the blade. Below him, Spike was gradually pulled back through the gate. The spellbook was against the gate beneath him. Even if he reached it, he knew he wouldn’t find a spell in time.

A golden light shone from the floor. Spike looked, and saw it seeping like a mist from his backpack. Not knowing what else to do, he lashed his tongue from his mouth and unpinned the flap on the top. The pack opened on its own, and the golden light burst out, shining on the face of the beast.

A low gasp filled the air as the grip on Spike and Discord was suddenly released. They looked and saw the beast’s face twisted in fear as it was bathed in the golden light, before it shielded its eyes. Spike dove for his pack and removed the source of the light, and pressed it against the gate.

The beast roared in terror and fell backwards when a blade in the floor sliced off its leg. Even as the rest of the blades tore it apart, it tried to retreat from the light. What remained of the beast looked back one last time as the golden light grew brighter. And in a flash, it was gone, only its bloodied bones left to be ground up by the blades.

Spike held the golden phoenix statuette in his shaking claws. If this was the power that it possessed, then Luna was in more danger than either he or Discord had realized.

The wings of the idol flapped, making Spike nearly drop it.

“What the hell did you do!?” Discord said.

“Nothing!” Spike said, as he struggled to put his backpack over the flapping statuette.

Spike jumped from the ground as the phoenix flapped madly inside his pack. He was bounced around against the walls and the gate, and barely managed to grasp his spellbook. Discord grabbed onto Spike’s tail and tried to pull him back to the ground, but was taken off his feet and dragged down the hall.

Try as either did to control the errant statuette, both failed. And their situation worsened as a gigantic arrow came hurtling toward them from the shadows at the end of the hall. Before either attempted to dodge, the arrow dropped to the ground the moment it touched the golden light from Spike’s pack. Along with that, dropping guillotines stopped in their tracks, mechanical rams jammed, acid ejectors sputtered feebly, and every other trap seemed to fail against the light of the phoenix.

There was no telling where they were going. As long as they were with the phoenix, it may have been the safest place for them, or the most danger they had ever been in in their lives.

---

Another soul has been claimed…

The words echoed through the many corridors, hammering Luna from all sides. In time, the words all melded together, creating a droning hum that faded into a whisper. As she ran, Luna heard the hum grow gradually louder. Ahead, she saw the candles down the corridor snuffing themselves out.

The hum became unbearably loud as the darkness drew nearer. Just before the candles before herself extinguished, Luna ducked behind the column nearest to herself, and the candles down the way she had just been all went dark. She peered out from her hiding spot, and saw the candles next to herself reignite. Along with them, the hum became quieter.

Luna walked into the open, looking for any sign of the beast’s approach. Only the hum of its voice remained a whisper in the distance. But the darkness that preceded it couldn’t be seen. She had to find a way to escape. Unless she was able to find a way to live another day, Misty’s death would have been all for naught.

The humming gradually became louder once more. Luna looked desperately around herself for where it was coming from. In the corner of her eye, she saw the light turn to darkness and dove to her side just as the light where she had been snuffed out. She yelped as her injured wing tremored from the impact.

Luna hastily rose to her hooves as she heard the humming grow louder and almost missed it as the darkness was approaching directly in front of her. She sidestepped the encroaching dark and ducked out of the way of the wall of hooks that came with it. Her hooves pounded the floor as she ran aimlessly between the columns. The humming had grown faint once more, but she knew it was only a matter of time before that terrible darkness charged her again. Luna looked all around herself, expecting to dodge a hook or run from the shadows. What she saw only surprised her more.

A green flame was lit somewhere in the distance, and it was flickering in her direction, then flickering back. She didn’t have Misty’s gift, but Luna felt as if she were being beckoned toward it. By who or what, she couldn’t say. But the sound of the dreaded humming growing steadily louder made up her mind.

She ran. Her wing seemed almost numb to her as she galloped for all she was worth. After that, she could hear nothing. Not even her hooves pounding the floor were heard by her. Her whole world had become that flame. If only she could reach it.

As if it were right behind her, Luna could hear the humming again. There was a chill wind that blew behind her, and she could see the world around herself growing darker, swallowing her up from behind.

The flame grew nearer, its sickly green light beckoning her closer, promising her sanctuary. The sound of the humming was overtaking Luna, coming at her from all sides at that moment. Right beside her, the candles that lit her way were snuffed out, and the sounds of rattling chains rang in her ears.

There was nothing else she could do. She couldn’t face that terrible darkness and the evil within it. Luna’s world went dark when she closed her eyes and leapt forth, feeling the cold, hard impact of stone a moment later. Luna opened her eyes and spun around, hurting her wing in the process.

The entire world had gone as dark as if she still had her eyes shut. Every single candle had gone out. The only light was the glow of the green flame she now rested beside. She looked left and right, high and low, but couldn’t see any trace of the beast. Even the humming had stopped. But she knew it was out there, waiting for her to make her next move.

A silver spark drifted from above. Luna looked up and saw the sparks emanating from the flame, which motioned as if to beckon her forth once more. Luna obeyed and stood before the flame, which flared up higher and brighter. And again still, showering the area around its sconce with silver embers. Luna had to cover her eyes to keep them from the bright light. In another moment, she lowered her hoof and was shocked at what she saw. There in the flame was an image of the stallion she had known from her foalhood.

Berry Tarts stood in the foggy waters of a lake up to his knees. He looked forlornly out into the distance, unable to see anything ahead of himself. No light. No way forward. No future. Only the blade he held in his teeth offered any light. For many moments, he stood there with his head hung low, until he finally raised his eyes to the sky. He raised his hoof skyward and drove the blade deeply into his wrist. He winced, then dragged the blade through his flesh, spilling his blood in a bitter cascade that went down his arm and onto his shoulder. His bloody hoof rested in the water. And with his other hoof, he took the knife and dragged it across his throat, allowing his blood to pour out into the water.

For just one moment, Luna pitied the stallion in the image as he gasped and sputtered. Where he had gone, there was no turning back. And from the look in his eyes, she thought that he knew it. Even if he had wished to undo his actions, that was it. He was only a victim of himself. Anypony would only blame him for his death, and they would have no remorse for his self-inflicted demise. And it chilled Luna to think that she had only days ago considered such a thing when she saw that beastly light in the sky.

The blood in the water began to trickle further into the foggy depths, and Berry Tarts collapsed to his knees. His bleeding throat saturated the water with its crimson deluge, feeding the flow into the mist. Until the bleeding stopped altogether, and the river of blood disappeared into the murky beyond.

There was the sound of a heavy step and the rattling of chains. Luna looked around herself, terrified that she may see the beast standing right beside herself. There was that sound again, along with the splash of water. Luna turned her eyes back to the image in the flame, and saw a pair of orange lights appear through the fog. Another step, and she could see the darker shadow that the eyes were embedded in. In time, there was the beast that Luna had seen by the lake, towering over Berry Tarts.

It looked at him the same way that it had looked at her, its eyes understanding and fierce. But, there was something different about Berry Tarts that it could sense. A stallion who disregarded all life. Who knew there was nothing waiting for anypony who lived. Only to die at the end, no matter how they fought it. Who wished he could make others understand what he did, so that they might end their own miserable lives. There were no words between stallion or beast that Luna could hear, but that was what they knew. Berry Tarts would be granted a new life as a servant of the taker of lives. The destroyer. Shader.

The flame swirled about, and changed to show Berry tarts at work in his private chamber. The casts and molds that he had built for himself. The spells and formulas that he had concocted on his messily scribble chalkboard. At the end of it all, the heart of a filly that had died by her own hoof placed before a golden statuette of a phoenix, which spread its wings and absorbed the essence of the filly into its being. It couldn’t have just been any filly. They had to be chosen. For their power. For their gifts. Gifts to know things that other ponies simply couldn’t.

Once again, the flame swirled about. There was a silver filly with a white mane sitting on a fallen log by a foggy lake. She had no friends. No hope for a future. She was nopony special, and she knew it. All there was then was her and the rock that she had tied around her neck. There was only one thing else to do. She walked out to the water, dragging her heavy burden along with herself.

By the time that she was in the water that was up to her chest, she looked back at the stone that she had dragged out with herself. That was all there was left for her. Something that would drag her down into a darkness that she would never return from. Taking the rock as best she could, the filly heaved it forth and jumped into the depths with it.

As if the lake had been suddenly replaced, a dark hole seemed to have opened up where she was drifting down. The filly pulled at the roped around her neck as she sank lower and lower into the darkness. All she could do was turn around and face the light up at the surface one last time, before metal hooks rose up all at once, pierced her flesh and pulled her deeper and deeper into the dark. She didn’t fight it. She didn’t struggle or try to save herself. She just allowed herself to be dragged underwater, until she disappeared forever.

The image faded. The green flame sputtered in its sconce, and slowly died down to almost nothing.

Luna stared at the spot where the image once was. For centuries, she had wondered why she was tormented so. Only now, so far into her life, did things start to make sense. They had chosen her for a reason.

“You see now, do you not?”

Luna yelped and stepped back from the sconce as a pair of orange eyes opened up in the darkness beyond it. She hid behind the sconce, hoping in vain that the beast called Shader wouldn’t come looking for her.

“Why me?! Of all the ponies in the world, why did you choose to follow me?!” Luna asked, not even thinking that she would have given herself away if her enemy didn’t already know where she was.

The sound of rattling chains drew closer, and Luna shuffled around the side of the sconce.

“Yours is a power greater than any normal pony,” Shader’s voice rumbled from just a few feet away. “Even before your ascension, there was something special about you. And to think you envied your sister so.”

The tip of a fanged snout appeared from around the sconce, sending Luna running as quietly as she could behind the nearest column that she could reach.

“With you, Luna, I would no longer be confined to the realm of woes and fears. Your world would be mine to freely roam. To make my own.”

“And to convince everypony you see to take their own life?” Luna said from her hiding spot.

She heard a step come from in front of herself and ran off to her side. In the darkness, she could barely see what was in front of herself, hoping that the next column she reached hid her from Shader.

“Did I not say before that everything in life was worthwhile?” Shader’s voice said from somewhere in the darkness. “I take only the life which is offered to me. If one should want to end it, then I will not refuse it. Even if they come to regret their decision later.”

There was an orange light from very nearby, and the form of Shader illuminated in the darkness not fifty feet from Luna. She watched as the beast started walking between the columns, and saw his shaggy fur billowing about as his hooks swung. At the end of those hooks, the ghostly forms of departed ponies appeared once more. Each of their faces was lined with woe and regret. Whatever they had hoped to accomplish, whether to end their own suffering or perhaps to hurt somepony else, it had not gone as planned. Deep in the hairs of the beast, another chain swung in and out of sight. Attached to it was a pony that Luna hadn’t seen in years.

Her own father’s face appeared from within Shader’s form, staring directly at her with those same dead eyes she had hoped to forget. As soon as he had appeared, he was gone. Luna had looked into his eyes and felt his sorrow and loss. Every iota of his regret and crushing despair permeated her being. To bear the burden of rearing up the future ruler of Equestria, and the other daughter who wanted nothing to do with him. To have given his life to his career, but never even knew his youngest daughter’s favorite color. There had been nothing for him in the world of the living. In death, absolution. Or so he had thought.

“It was a terrible thing for him to be your poppa,” Shader said, as he walked between the columns. “He wanted the best for you and your sister. But, he never had what it took to father an alicorn. And he knew it.”

Luna continued to avoid her demonic pursuer, hiding in the darkness behind each of the columns. Some part of her had always wondered why her father would have done something so depressingly selfish. To abdicate any of his burdens would have been a blessing. To do it as he had made Luna choke on the memory of finding him.

“You can see him again,” Shader’s voice rumbled. “Let yourself reconcile with your dear poppa, and your friends will go free.”

The image of Shader flashed between the spaces between the columns from the direction Luna saw him moving. As she started circling around to avoid him, she saw something that halted her steps completely. There was Misty, alive and well hanging from the hooks that draped over Shader. Each of her limbs was restrained by a hook, with one pressed directly over her heart. Her eyes locked with Luna’s, and her beak opened ever so slightly. No sounds came from her throat. Luna didn’t need to hear any to understand the plea for help.

Luna’s father appeared from within Shader’s fur again, his face right next to Misty’s, who recoiled at the sight of the dead stallion beside herself.

“The receiver has come. Make your decision,” Shader said.

With that, he was gone. Luna looked around for the presence of the demon, but saw nothing in the darkness. Then, somewhere in the distance, there was a golden light. And it was growing rapidly closer to her. With it, there came the sounds of two familiar voices shouting as if they were falling from a great height. The candles mounted upon the columns all lit up just as the golden light was upon her. In the light, she saw something that she had never expected. Just as they passed by her, Discord wrapped his serpentine body around a column.

“Luna! Spike, we found her!” he said.

“How–What in the–” Luna stammered, both relieved and frightened for them.

“Luna! The phoenix! It’s alive!” Spike said, clutching his pack as the idol within thrashed about.

“I know!” Luna said. Suddenly, things began to fall into place in Luna’s mind. As if something had suddenly possessed her, she realized the way out. “You must find a way to use the phoenix!”

“What!? Are you out of your gourd!?” Discord said.

“Trust me! It’s the only way!”

Spike tried to answer, but stopped as his spellbook began slipping from his grip. All Luna could do was hurry over to help him restore his hold on it, before Discord’s body slipped from around the column, and the two of them went hurtling onward into the distance.

Luna watched them go into the darkness. Before she could ever decide whether or not to go after them, she felt a presence behind herself. She slowly glanced over her shoulder, and saw Shader standing there. He didn’t hide or obscure himself. He was there, far away down the corridor, staring directly at Luna. And Luna, in turn did the same. There would be no more running away. No more denial or foalish pretending. She would face it. For the sake of her friends, she had to.

With one step after another, she began advancing toward the demon, who did the same in kind.

---

The phoenix flew through the corridors, carrying its unwilling passengers along with it. After what felt like forever, Discord and Spike finally were dropped to the ground when the phoenix simply fell from the air.

“Just once, I’d like to land on something soft,” Discord groaned as he picked himself up from the stony floor.

Spike’s backpack finally fell from his shoulders, and he scrambled to get a grip on the statuette again, only for it to roll out of his backpack all on its own. He watched as it levitated into the air.

“What the hell is this?” Spike wondered aloud.

He and Discord watched as the phoenix floated downard, its wings spread like some angelic statue. It alighted upon an altar at the far end of the platform they were standing on. Before the platform was a stallion who had his back turned.

“This…This is the beginning of a grand, new age. Where everypony will know what I have always known,” the stallion said, as he looked over his shoulder.

“It’s you! The foal fucker!” Discord said.

“Ah, yes. I believe we’ve met before,” Berry Tarts said, a fiery, forked tongue flickering between his teeth as his skin became sullen and grey.

“Fuck me!!” Spike yelped as he recognized the stallion for what he was.

Berry Tarts glanced at Spike and smirked.

“Such a foul mouth on such a little dragon. Your parents would be disappointed. Especially since you should know better than to take things that don’t belong to you,” he said.

Spike noticed the way that Berry Tarts was looking at his spellbook, and briefly wondered how he never thought about why such a thing was in Twilight’s library. A devilish book filled with devilish spells, penned by a devilish pony who had nothing but contempt for ponykind. He began flipping through the pages, trying to find a spell to use.

“It’s no matter,” Berry Tarts continued, making Spike stop. “Neither you, nor that book can do anything to stop me. Before the greatest power is taken, you will serve as a delightful precourse.”

Discord’s heart sank as he heard shrill, manic laughter coming from Berry Tarts, whose limbs started to morph into grotesquely long, seemingly boneless appendages that reached out into all directions. He stood upright and his head twisted completely around, revealing the visage that Discord hoped he would never gaze upon again. The Laughing Man had come for him.

There was no time to perceive what had hit Discord from the side. Whatever it was, it had sent him rolling nearly off the edge of the platform. His arm draped limply over the side, soaking in the pool of blood. There was a flash of metal, and Discord pulled his arm out of the way as one of those hideously long arms swung a cleaver with the force of a guillotine. The blade cut through the stone, leaving a deep gash where Discord’s arm was.

Discord stumbled to his mismatched feet and found himself surrounded by the writhing limbs of the Laughing Man. More hands than there should have been passed by his gaze, each holding some bloody instrument of pain. Discord had suddenly become a lone survivor in the eye of some terrible storm that wanted him dead. He dodged as an arm with a fistful of nails jabbed at him. And again when another arm with a hatchet nearly sliced off his elbow.

He grabbed the arm with the hatchet and used it to disarm a circular saw blade that was swung at him. Soon, he was fighting off attacks from all sides. The arm with the hatchet extended and wrapped around Discord like a python about to consume its prey. More of the hands reached in from the cyclone of limbs and started pulling at him from all of his extremities, as though they meant to pull him apart.

Discord quietly yelled as his body was pulled beyond its limit. His spine began to crack, and his arms and legs became numb.

Over the sound of his cracking bones, Discord heard another noise. One like a thousand crackling fires that swept through the world’s driest forest. The air grew hotter as hellish red flames billowed through the spaces between the cycling arms. Like a bunch of cockroaches that had just seen a lit room, the arms scattered. Spike stood with the open spellbook in his hands, blowing over the bare pages. Though it was only air, it turned to those infernal flames the moment it left the pages, fanning out and torching every one of the flailing arms.

The arms convulsed and released Discord from their grip.

“Fuckin’ sweet!” Spike said, admiring his own handiwork.

His elation ended very quickly when one of the hands grabbed the other end of the book and hoisted it into the air. Spike kept his grip on the book and was lifted up with it. The other arms reached for him, their weapons in hand.

Discord picked up the saw blade he had disarmed before and threw it at the arm that held the book, severing it.

Spike fell through the air and was caught by another arm. He tried breathing his hellish flames at it, but had to dodge a swinging cleaver. He slipped from the grip of the hand, and landed on the back of another arm, sliding down its length. Spike batted away the other arms that reached for him with the spine of the book, before he managed only a short spurt of his hellish fire from the pages.

The arm he slid down convulsed and threw Spike off, sending him into the moat of blood that surrounded the platform. The blood rose up to meet him, opening up like a pair of fanged jaws. Spike fell between the open maw of the blood, and it snapped around him, pulling him into its sanguine depths.

He didn’t even have time to take a breath. The blood around him came down on his body, crushing his chest from the outside as his lungs begged for air. He couldn’t explain what, but he could feel something else that was in there with him. A thousand other things, filled with a thousand regrets and sorrows that tried to fill him with the same.

His legs paddled frantically, but Spike could barely feel any movement. No matter what, he was unable to rise. He started paddling with his arms, and his spellbook fell from his grip. Spike reached for the book, the tips of his claws barely touching the corners as it drifted in the blood. The book turned around and its pages spread apart. Through the murk of the blood, Spike saw something. The very page that he had turned to in order to bring himself and Discord to help Luna. Perhaps if it could be reverse engineered? It was a longshot, but his hare-brained improvisation hadn’t failed him before.

The book drifted closer to him, and Spike clutched it to his chest. He kept his grip on it as he resumed paddling toward the surface.

His arm was grabbed and he started thrashing about. He wouldn’t go down. Not when he was so close to escape.

Spike rapidly ascended upward, and his lungs filled with air. When the blood dripped from his eyes, he was just able to see Discord dodge another blow from the Laughing Man. Directly after, he swung Spike to deflect a blade.

“Hey! Watch the book!!” Spike shouted, sheltering the book from attack.

He was swung again by his tail, knocking away the volley of attacks that rained down on them.

Discord clubbed one of the arms with a sickening crunch, making the limb writhe in pain. One of the arms lunged at him, making him fall over and drop Spike.

“Cover me!” Spike said, as he collected his backpack.

“For what!? You think fighting this guy’s easy!?” Discord replied.

“I think I can get us out of here!”

Discord didn’t know what was going on. Whatever it was, he decided to trust his friend and defend him from the onslaught of the Laughing Man.

The terrible, grinning face of the Laughing Man appeared between the mass of its own limbs, and its laughter quietly seeped into the ears of Discord. It was now or never. Chaos versus chaos. Insanity against insanity. Discord trembled as he faced down the demon, ready to lose it all.

---

Luna continued to walk down the corridor toward Shader, watching as the beast grew ever closer to her. There was no fear in her. No hesitation. She could hardly feel anything but her drive to move onward. There was no way for her to explain it. All there was left was herself, walking toward what she knew was meant to be the end of her. Even though she was too far away to see, she knew that Shader was smiling. He knew that there was nothing left for Luna. Nothing but the will to do what it took to save her friends.

It was the simplest thing. Offer up her life, and the others would be able to return to the life they once knew. Most of all, she would see her father again. She would finally know why he had taken himself from her life. Why he would do something so selfish when other ponies faced similarly overwhelming trials in their lives. If he even still loved her.

Shader was growing closer. Luna could hear his chains rattling as the demon gradually began running toward her. Beneath the chains, she could hear the many voices moaning their sorrowful choir. Between Shader’s strides, Luna caught sight of Misty, who was staring ahead, her eyes wide with terror. It was then that Luna became suddenly thoughtful of her choices. If her friends were allowed to return to the lives they knew, what life would they be returning to? It would be the same as it was, but their lives would belong to Shader. And there would be more ponies like Berry Tarts in the world, throwing away the lives that they had to spite and hurt others. And there would be Shader, feeding off of their abandoned lives.

She would not allow it.

Keeping her pace, Luna continued further on down the corridor, the candles on either side of her growing suddenly brighter as if to shout their protests, then suddenly dying down into almost nothingness. Shader’s body illuminated with a dull glow, the silhouettes of his many hooks strobing across his body. Through them, Luna could see the only living form that clung to Shader, her face passing between the shadowy chains like prison bars. Shader began to run, while Luna continued her determined stride.

They were upon one another. In a matter of steps, the demon would have her. All or nothing. Life or death. Luna was prepared to lose it all. No matter what happened to her next, she knew that her friends would find a way. And it would be the biggest mistake that Shader ever made to let them go free after he had her in his grasp.

The entire world ahead of Luna was blotted out by Shader’s enormous form. The orange eyes of the beast flashed brightly, bathing Luna in their otherworldly light. Then, the world became a swath of swinging chains. To bind her. To pull her in and never let go.

Misty’s face appeared between the swinging links.

A sudden weightlessness overcame Luna, and she could feel her body brushing past the chains. She could see the lost souls. Feel everything that they did in their moments before their death. And when her eyes met her father’s, Luna knew why she had been given her gift. If she could ease the sorrows of the departed, they would rest. If she could change the course of a pony’s life from Shader, her gift would not have been wasted.

For the first time in centuries, she saw her father smile. Though it passed quickly, it was a memory that she would hold onto forever as she reached out her hooves and wrapped them around Misty.

The hook by her heart was knocked away. Her limbs were lifted from the other hooks. Misty felt herself rise up, then fall to the ground with Luna on top of her.

Misty wanted to thank Luna, but she felt a sudden terrible tremble in her spine. Luna looked over her shoulder and saw Shader turning sharply around. She clambered to her hooves and grabbed Misty by her talon.

“This way! The others are working on our escape!” Luna said.

Though Misty had no idea who the others were, she didn’t question Luna. She simply did as she was told and followed after her. Back through the darkened corridors. Back to the pool of blood.

As she ran, Misty began to notice something had changed about Luna. She began to feel something growing within her friend. Something that was warm and sheltering. The one thing that was lost in that desolate place. Somehow, she knew that it was what was going to get them out of there.

---

No matter how Spike tried to sprinkle chalk, it was dusted away. Whenever he tried to burn his lavender, his concentration was broken. Even as Discord was fighting off the many attacks of the Laughing Man, Spike was still in a fight for his own life.

Discord fared no better. Without his own magic, he hardly knew what to do in a fight. Even with a weapon in his hand, he was practically powerless against the onslaught of the demon. Chaos was fighting a losing battle against an enemy who outnumbered you on his own. Not changing the clouds into cotton candy. If only he understood his own power. If only he ever knew what he wasn’t, then he could have known what he was.

The swirling limbs brought the image of the technicolor sphere back to Discord’s mind. The sheer, unknowing force that he could never have hoped to match. The force that he would have faced to rescue everypony. Spike. Luna. Silver Blitz.

Silver Blitz appeared in the mind of Discord. The filly who had awakened something deep within him that even he never thought could have come to light. Somepony who he had almost given his very blood to rescue.

“Blood!” Discord suddenly thought.

He was pushed back when he blocked another attack from the flailing limbs. Back to the edge of the platform, where he saw the Laughing Man’s malicious grin peering through the flailing arms.

Discord dropped to the floor and allowed his hatchet to dip into the blood. Without standing up, he slashed at one of the arms that tried to impale him with an iron stake. The hand was severed from its body, and the bloody stump spewed a sickly grey mist. The shrill cackling of the Laughing Man turned to a shriek of pain, and a sadistic smile spread across Discord’s face. It was he who was laughing now.

“Spike! Use the blood!!” Discord shouted.

Spike had done what Discord had told him and started mixing blood with the chalk in his claw. Why had he not thought of such a thing before? The second the bloodied chalk was put on the perimeter of the platform, it became immovable by the power of the Laughing Man. Whether it was some power beyond either of them, or simply the spite of the many victims whose blood had been spilled by that sadistic demon, he didn’t question it. There was now a way to keep his spell from being ruined. He had his eyes on their salvation, and he wasn’t going to fail.

Discord lopped the limbs of the Laughing Man. No matter how many were cut, more came. But, he was no longer concerned with winning. So long as Spike was safe to finish his magic. A pair of arms lashed out from the bloody pool and reached for Spike. Discord lunged across the platform and sliced them both in one clean blow.

The Laughing Man rose up from beyond his wall of flailing limbs. The storm of arms closed in around the two, and the demon began laughing his cruel laugh.

Discord stood protectively over Spike, who kept about his business. The little dragon wasn’t about to stay and drown in the overwhelming odds, and Discord resolved to do the same.

The sight of one of the severed arms awakened a deliciously evil thought in Discord’s mind. He grabbed the arm by its bloody stump, tossed his bloody hatchet into the air and swung the arm so that it caught the weapon. With a wide swing, he cut an enormous swath through the swirling arms, and the Laughing Man’s shrieks of pain became a sweet tune that Discord could almost dance to as he whipped his improvised butchering tool.

Through one of the gaps he had cut, Discord could see something approaching. Luna was coming. Next to her was a griffin that he didn’t recognize. Behind them, there was an encroaching darkness. Something that he knew could only be evil.

Spike finished the circle of bloodied chalk. He opened his spellbook to the page he had marked, and started reading the spell that had brought himself and Discord to that horrible place. When he did, the phoenix statue began to emit its horrible golden glow. Its eyes shone eerily red, and the ring of bloody chalk began to glow with the same golden light. The glow began at the pedestal by the phoenix, and it slowly spread around like a flame along a trail of oil.

One of the Laughing Man’s limbs rushed Spike, but stopped as if it had hit a wall when it tried to pass through the light. Discord saw the happenstance, and looked out to Luna and her griffin friend. Supposing that they didn’t reach the circle in time? Supposing they were trapped outside while he and Spike went on without them.

The Laughing Man’s eyeless gaze turned to the approaching newcomers, and his smile grew more malicious.

“Keep reading!” Discord instructed Spike as he rushed to the walkway at the end of the platform.

While Spike continued his magic ritual, Discord lopped away the reaching limbs of the demon. Luna and the griffin were so close now. Even with the darkness encroaching behind them and the Laughing Man coming down from above, they couldn’t fail.

Discord swung the severed arm around and sliced away the arms of the Laughing Man that came down on the others. The hand of the arm let go of the bloody hatchet, and Discord swung it toward the others. The gnarled hand grabbed Luna and Misty by their front legs, and Discord yanked them both like he was reeling in the granddaddy of all marlins on a hook.

The light around the circle was nearly closed. It crept closer on either side of the walkway. Closer…Closer…

The two flew into Discord, and the circle was completed. They were trapped now. Luna could see the Laughing Man clawing desperately at the barrier around them, but Shader had disappeared into nothingness.

“The phoenix!!” Luna gasped when she saw the statuette coming alive.

“Everypony look away! You can’t look at anypony living!!” Spike shouted.

They all did as Spike had said. Discord looked to the east. Spike looked to the south. Misty looked to the west. And Luna looked northward, directly into the eyes of the phoenix. Past the phoenix, she saw Shader appear from the darkness beyond. He glared at her, silently telling her that he would never be gone. And she knew it. So long as there was despair, he would be there to take a life. As long as there were ponies, griffins, and whatever have you, there would always be despair. But Luna knew what she would do next. The moment she was home, she was going to do everything she could to weaken the power of the demon. And that would be the sweet revenge that she was going to have for the years of torment she had endured.

Luna took the phoenix in her hooves, and raised it upward.

The haughty grin of the Laughing Man changed to a horrified gasp. Shader’s gentle eyes morphed to fury as the golden light of the phoenix engulfed him and what was now Berry Tarts. A pathetic stallion who dedicated his existence to hurting others was now panicking to cling to it.

Spike ignited the lavender with his hellish fire breath and chanted the magic words over and over, his mind focusing to a fine point. An image appeared in the bloodstained image of the mirror he held in his claws, and with a shout he shattered it at his feet, the shards of silvern glass falling into the pool of blood.

The blood began swirling violently about, until it engulfed everything. For just one more moment, Luna saw her father’s face. Then, she saw nothing.

---

First, there was the sound of the gentle wind blowing. Then, the sound of a bird chirping.

Luna raised her head and looked around herself. There was grass before her snout, and a tiny flower growing through it. Raising her head, she saw a grubby old headstone with the name Dusty etched into it. She rose to her hooves, and found that her wing was no longer reduced to shreds of flesh. It was now only as wounded as that first night she had spent escaping the cemetery. To her everlasting delight, she saw Discord, Spike and Misty all lying in the grass as well.

“Everypony! Get up! We’re home!!” Luna jubilantly shouted.

Misty’s eyes fluttered open.

“Wha…What the hell happened?” she asked.

“We’re home! It worked!!”

“We’re alive! We’re home!” Misty squealed as she hugged Luna.

Discord jolted awake and scrambled backwards as he found that he was dangerously close to the cliff that he had fallen down only a few short nights ago.

“Mighty crap! Isn’t a guy safe anywhere!?” Discord said.

He yelped when he tripped over Spike, who sat suddenly upright in Discord’s way.

“I did it! I got us out!!” Spike cheered as he triumphantly waved his spellbook around.

Luna and Misty watched as Spike celebrated his victory. They shared a smile between them as they watch the dragon dance around with his book like it was a living partner.

“Should we tell him what actually happened?” Misty asked.

“No. We’ll let him have this,” Luna giggled.

“Oh! Princess Luna,” Spike said as he and Discord trotted over to the others. “I’m sorry, but I had to break your mirror to get us out of there.”

“Worry not, Spike. Mirrors come and go. But friends? Well…you know,” Luna said.

The others all smiled. It was something that they had heard Luna and her sister espouse for years. Only now did they truly appreciate what it had all meant. None more than Luna herself.

“Hold on. There is something of yours that I managed to save. Sorry for taking it, but I had to use something of great value to you to help you,” Spike said as he rummaged through his backpack.

“What is it?” Luna wondered.

Spike produced the item from his backpack and handed it to Luna, who was delighted to find that she was able to use her magic to take ahold of it. When she saw what Spike had given her, her lighthearted smile changed to a furious scowl.

“This–You used my issue #0 Power Ponies to cast your spells!!?” Luna yelled.

“Whoa!! That’s, like, a crime against culture!” Misty said.

“And if there’s a single wrinkle on this, I’ll make it a crime punishable by banishment!!” Luna growled.

“Petrify the bastard! See how he likes having a stiff neck for a thousand years!” Discord said, gesturing shame to Spike.

“Hey! Let’s not be hasty here!” Spike nervously said.

Whatever could have been said next was silenced when the phoenix dropped between them all.

Not one of them dared to go near it. They all looked at it like an explosive that was about to go off at any second. Finally, Misty stepped forth and looked over it.

“I don’t feel anything in there,” she said.

“Nothing?” Luna asked.

“No. No spirits. No power. No thoughts. It’s like it just, I don’t know, stopped working.”

Luna magically picked the idol up and examined it carefully. Such a dangerous thing had no place in the world of the living. Not even the moon was a safe place to keep it. Knowing the danger it posed, but unwilling to destroy it, Luna tucked it into the sling that held her wing.

“This vessel holds not only the evils of two demons. It houses the thousands of restless spirits that the two have collected. Until we are able to put those spirits to rest, I shall keep it,” Luna declared.

“You sure that’s a good idea? All this garbage was started by that trinket,” Discord said.

“I can think of no better thing to do with it. For the sake of everypony who has ever felt their life was never worthwhile, I must do this.”

Discord managed a smile. Among those souls, Silver Blitz was sure to have found a way to put her regrets to rest. And he looked forward to the day that she would happily meet him in his dreams. His eyes fell upon the gravestone with Dusty’s name on it. On that night, that terrible night when he had considered taking his own life, he wondered why he ever considered such dark thoughts. There was always so much to live for, even if he didn’t see it right away.

Luna was about to turn around and urge the others to follow her, when she heard hooves approaching up the steps of the hill. Strangely, she saw an antiquated coin flip up into the air and fall back down. Then again. This time, a stallion in tattered clothes walked up the steps to the cemetery hill. When he caught the coin, he noticed the others.

“Well, isn’t this a pretty picture. Here I thought I was the only one who was going to pay respects to the departed on this fine morning,” the stallion said.

Luna looked at the stallion, who flipped his antique coin once more and caught it in the pocket of his coat.

“Have we met before?” she asked.

“I don’t think so. I’d remember meeting a motley band like you guys on my travels,” the stallion said. “Although, maybe you met one of my family. I come from a long line of travelers. Professional sightseers, you might say. Picking up the wisdom of the world throughout the ages. Always with a coin in our pockets and a smile on our faces.”

Luna recalled the coin as one that existed long before she was even born. Perhaps like the phoenix, it held the spirits of those that came before. She hoped that one day, the phoenix would only be a prison for evil it contained. With what she had learned, she knew how to begin. And as a smile bloomed onto her face, Luna bade him goodbye.

“Then, I’ll wish you safe travel,” she said. “And remember, only wish them the best and never turn your back to evil.”

“Oh, don’t I know that. I’m surprised that hasn’t become common sense by now,” the stallion said as he took his hat off before one of the graves.

“Discord. If you will,” Luna said.

“Coming right up,” Discord said, cracking his knuckles.

A snap of his fingers, and they were all gone from the cemetery. Back to their homes. Back in the world they belonged. A world that was waiting for them to make it a place that everypony couldn’t wait to live in.

Author's Note:

What can I say? it's been wonderful to see this story finally become what I originally wanted it to be. I wish I didn't get busy with life because I lost focus on posting this story even though it's been fully done since last summer. but I am so happy that it is now finally released. the second one will come out at a later date because that one also has been fixed and I can't wait for all of you to see that. As for what is to come for the series, I thought long and hard about it as this story since being shaped into the original idea I had, I decided I was just going to fix the entire series. because it really deserves that and I don't think I could ever fix it with the idea it was heading to now. I'll explain more of that later but I hope you all enjoy this remastered and I am very happy I could deliver it. thanks to everyone who helped me make this possible and to you all for reading it. As always:

Till Next Time!!!!

Comments

[wingdingaling]

I just want to say that working on this really meant something to me too. Not just because it was one of the biggest messes that I've ever had to help clean up, but because there really is no other story like this one. The reason I stuck with it the whole time was because I recognized that there was something truly unique and special beneath all that mess. And after many hours of work fueled by insomnia, heavy metal, and just knowing that this was going to be great, it's finally done. Your abilities have come a long way since the original story was written, and you were able to make this version happen with what you've learned since then. I'm really proud to have helped you on this one. And congratulations again on your second featured story.