Price

by Havoc

Unsafe Path

Thousands of years ago

This was to be the mountain where the fate of the world was decided. Where one race would fall into extinction to let the others live.

"Is everyone ready?"

An old man addressed his wife, asking her the same question for the nth time, asking himself. She turned to him, a single tear forming at the corner of her eye.

"Everyone is committed. We know what this means."

They joined hands and looked into each other's eyes briefly, an acknowledgement, a goodbye. They then turned to face the churning dark cloud in front of them being held back by a hundred of their kin.

A hundred minus one.

Lucien stood in his old forge. Most of his spare time had been spent here. He'd supported a family with it. He'd once made great works here, now it was broken ruin of a memory.

I have to do this. I've foreseen it. Can I trust it though? My vision. No one else has seen what I've seen? How can I know?

How can I know?

No. No doubts. I have to do it otherwise their sacrifice will be in vain. The Door will eventually crack and we won't be around to stop it again. I have to live.

He picked up his trusty hammer and spun it into a metal ring on his belt where it held fast.

"Up for one last job, old friend?"

Now, can't be late for this. Timing's got to be perfect. Not too late, but not too soon. Have to make the right impression. Have to gain her trust and friendship. Alright, off to set my mad plan in motion.

I hope this works.

He leapt and bounded across the ruined landscape towards a shattered building.

"HELP! SOMEONE!!"

A high pitched scream was heard and Lucien was struck with a sudden doubt. Had he been too late to save her?

No, the shard was towering over the little filly about to strike. He drew and threw his hammer and it slammed into the swirling cloud and hit the black stone beneath. They both shattered and dissipated in the sunlight with a howl of rage.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

Just a courtesy. I already know. Oh, and your friend is dead? Yeah, I knew that too.

Being able to see almost everything happen before it did was a burden he still wasn't sure he could bare anymore. It almost made him understand his kinsmen's decision.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be here sooner. Let's get you to safety."

The sun dipped below the horizon and the sky slowly fell into darkness. He looked over at the mount where he focused his vision and waited. The little filly at his feet stared up at him with a questioning look in her eye, like only a child could.

"What's going on? Why aren't you over there with your friends and family?"

He felt a pang of guilt and a bit of surprise. He hadn't seen her asking him that. He didn't have a pre-meditated answer and he was at a loss for words.

"I... It's a really long and sad story. One that I'll tell for a very long time."

The sky was lit up with a second sun and even at this distance they could see the Darkness writhing against its bonds. It's dreadful wail of pain reached them a few seconds later and Lucien bent down and covered her ears.

The whole world was illuminated. He couldn't see anything. He couldn't hear anything.

I'm sorry Lillian.

The light faded until a single spot remained on the mountain far away. A beacon of light that shone out against the coming night.

All around them the surviving inhabitants of the world wondered what had happened. Had the humans won? Some, who didn't know, rejoiced that the Darkness had been defeated. Others, who knew, wept at the tremendous price that had been paid by so many.

One simply started counting the seconds and centuries. The minutes and the millennia. Until he could finally end his living nightmare and be at peace with what he had done.

Present day.

They all woke up to the smells of breakfast. Applejack sniffed the air and smacked her lips.

"Zzz-mmmm. Apples and oatmeal. Mmmmm-zzzzzz Wait!"

She realized that she'd overslept! She had to make breakfast otherwise they'd never get out on time and they'd be late.

She was too tired to notice the contradiction in her reasoning as she bolted out of her bed roll and jammed her hat on, backwards. She ran over to the fire and started sparking at it with her steel and flint before she became aware of three things.

One, she actually hadn't slept in that late. The sun was up but the chill in the air suggested it hadn't been up for very long.

Two, Rainbow Dash had already lit the fire and cooked breakfast. She held out a bowl of steamy gloop for her, a wry smile on her face.

Three, why hadn't she ever thought of using cinnamon and raisins with her apple and oats mix?

Her brain was still too tired for language, however.

"Ummm, well, uh. Rainbow Sparkle, Ah'm mighty oatmeal and... thanks, Dash."

"No problem, slacker."

Applejack started eating the deliciously hot and savoury oatmeal, trying to hide her apple red face.

She's never gonna let me live this one down.

The rest had already woken up but were reluctant to leave their comfortable beds. It had been a very late night after all.

Twilight, who had been thrown clear of the camp had no such luxury of warmth.

Where's my hot, sweaty, uhnnn, Rainbow Dash! Where's my Rainbow Dash?

She felt her face heat up and she pretended to rub her eyes to hid it. She got to her feet and walked over to her cyan friend and put her legs around Rainbow Dash's shoulders.

"What's this for?"

"You're warm."

"Good morning to you too."

Rainbow Dash kissed Twilight on the cheek and Applejack buried her nose into her bowl of oatmeal despite having already finished it. She recovered a few seconds later and righted her hat.

"Soo..."

An awkward silence passed over the camp, broken only by the snapping of the fire and the occasional groan coming from a bed roll.

Rainbow Dash looked at Applejack, her face unreadable.

"Yes, Applejack?"

Applejack collected herself. She wanted to do this right and was only now thinking she should have woken up more before initiating this particular conversation.

"Well, Ah just think it's... grand! Grand that you two, uh, mares, are so... happy together?"

She hadn't meant to ask it as a question but she'd gotten worried halfway through saying it and her mind had gone in two different directions at once. She needed a strong cup of coffee.

The duo looked at their friend with a hint of sympathy almost completely overshadowed by confusion.

"Thank you, Applejack. I know what we have isn't exactly conventional but I'm glad you support us all the same."

Twilight smiled. A perfectly reasonable answer to the display of eloquence she'd just heard her friend stumble through. Rainbow Dash was not as tactful.

"You alright, Applejack? You're not allergic to raisins or anything, right?"

Twilight rolled her eyes and giggled. Applejack was still stunned she had managed to get her message across to at least one of them. She was supportive of the two and didn't mind that they were two mares and they were romantically involved. She still loved the pair of them just as much.

It was just that she'd never seen it coming and was as shocked as a whale in the clouds.

Pinkie Pie grabbed a bowl of oatmeal and wolfed it down. She licked it clean and then produced a newspaper and cup of coffee out of thin air. She flicked the paper straight and flipped over to the comics section.

"Heh... dead giveaway."

Rarity gave sleep one last chance before getting a face full of sunlight. She got up and blearily looked over at her friends. She covered her mouth and coughed lightly. Fluttershy rolled over in her sleep and stretched a hoof over to her.

"Mmmm."

Rarity looked down at her with an endearing smile before nudging her awake.

"Fluttershy darling, it's time to get up."

"Mmmm?"

Fluttershy felt the warm presence beside her leave and she frowned in her morning dazed state. She opened her eyes and beheld a steaming bowl of apple and cinnamon oatmeal.

"Eat up. I imagine we'll be continuing this crazy adventure some time soon."

They packed up their camp and Twilight checked their map. 'Hmmming' and 'uhuhing' while her eyes darted over the parchment.

There's a road that'll take us right to-

"Well?"

Twilight huffed in slight annoyance. Rainbow Dash was never the patient one.

"Give me a minute will you? I only just started looking. First of all, I need to find out where we are. Second of all, I need to plan a safe and easy route. Third of all... hey! Where are you all going?"

Applejack ran past her trying to catch up to Pinkie Pie who had started bouncing away. Rainbow Dash, sensing a race in the making was charging after them with Fluttershy and Rarity keeping up a modest pace behind them.

"Darling, I think it is really nice of you to be trying to make things easier on us but in all honesty we are heading that way, right?"

Rarity pointed a hoof to a dark thunder cloud looming over a mountain top far away in the distance. The mountain itself towered above its peers and exuded dominance. Fluttershy kept her eyes on the ground and tried not to look up.

Twilight started muttering under breath and stowed the map in her saddlebags. She knew where to steer them once she caught up. It was getting harder and harder to perform the simplest of magic tasks and she scowled. Her expression changed, however, as she looked up to see a sight she would have never expected in all her life.

Rainbow Dash was waiting for her.

As it turns out they weren't that far off course. Whatever had guided them back to each other must have also altered the desert they'd been lost in to put them back on track. Twilight mused this as she followed her friends across the last leg of the plains. Her thoughts quickly began to swirl. She didn't know what was more worrying: that the darkness was so powerful that it could lock them in an infinite desert as well as summon the forms of those they trusted to lead them astray or that Lucien had the cunning and power to save them from it. She was curious and at the same time frightened to finally meet him. How could such power even exist?

"You okay? You're looking a little pale."

Rainbow Dash was looking at her with concern. Twilight did feel a little sick.

"Sorry, just worried about what lies ahead for us."

Rainbow Dash's face drained of colour and her eyes widened.

"You don't mean?!"

Twilight realized her blunder and felt her stomach drop.

"What? No! I didn't mean that! I meant this whole journey. 'What lies ahead' on the journey, Rainbow Dash!"

The colour slowly returned to Rainbow Dash's cheeks and she blew out a sigh of relief.

"Don't scare me like that."

They caught up to their friends and in an hour, stepped into the shade of the trees. This forest was a lot different than the other ones they'd traveled through. The trees were all coniferous and gnarly. There was less space between them as well. Their pace slowed to a crawl as they pushed their way through tight spaces and disentangled their bags from the ever-present thorns and bushes that bared their way.

The wind even found its way through the gaps in the canopy as it whispered in their ears. Twilight stopped and listened as the wind howled at them from every direction before going silent. She gulped and quickened her canter to catch up to her friends.

It wasn't long before they came across the road. It was barely more than a wide footpath through the forest but Twilight began to notice traces of something more. A series of stones placed deliberately every few metres here and a few carvings there. The path was also more or less completely straight as she could look up and down it for a very long way. A tree might have grown in the middle of it or some rocks might have collapsed on it but otherwise it was flat and straight.

Twilight checked her compass and found the road went perfectly north.

Odd.

The forest here was old but green. As they walked they could hear birds in the trees. It was something they had missed but hadn't realized. Just the simple pleasure of listening to the birds singing reminded them of home and what was waiting for them back there.

Twilight felt guilty that Spike had been left with the clean up. She also had a few choice things she wanted to do when they returned.

Applejack, despite having just talked to her sister and brother the night before, missed her family all the more.

Rarity was thinking of ways to spend more time with her sister.

Pinkie Pie, as much as she loved her friends, missed the crowds of Ponyville and all the partying she was going to do when this was over.

Fluttershy wondered who was taking care of her animals back home then remembered that the storm had driven them off. She whimpered and tried to hide her face even more then usual.

Rainbow Dash had so much training to catch up on when she got back as well as other business to attend to.

They came up to a weathered but sturdy looking bridge that spanned a deep gorge. As they crossed they looked over the edge at the tiny stream below and shuddered, thanking their lucky stars that they didn't have to get near it. The stream writhed and boiled as they passed over it.

"Hey, who d'you suppose built this here bridge?"

Twilight thought on Applejack's question.

"I actually don't know."

Applejack raised an eyebrow at her response. She'd been expecting a long and boring story to help pass the time.

"I mean, I suppose I could read historical records and accounts until I could draw an accurate conclusion but it would almost certainly be pure conjecture as-

Applejack smiled and nodded every few seconds.

Ahhhh. There we go.

They crossed onto the other side and listened to Twilight talk about how it may have been the ancient gryphons who built it or perhaps be even older than that. As they listened, however, they began to notice something was off about this side of the bridge, specifically the forest. There was no new growth here. All the trees were very large around and tall, they looked ancient. But what really made them curious was that some trees had large chunks missing out of them. Like a dragon had come through and burned anyway some of the tree. Fluttershy tilted her head to the side and held a hoof up to her ear. She frowned and turned her head in every direction.

"What is it, dear?"

"I don't hear any animals. On the other side there were squirrels and foxes and chipmunks and hares and of course the birds but not here. All I hear is you girls."

"Maybe they don't like the taste of the pine needles?"

"Heh, maybe."

She wasn't convinced.

Pinkie Pie's ear twitched. She didn't think much of it until it happened again along with her shoulder aching and tail twitching. She stopped and felt her back pop and her hooves itch. Hadn't felt a combo like this before and it worried her.

The path split into five directions. The main path continued straight but two pairs of smaller paths split off at forty five degrees angles.

Twilight called for them to stop as she pulled out her map and saw the split on her map. She frowned as the tiny lines disappeared into the forest, however.

"Well, we can't stay on this forever, it'll take us too far north. We need to take... that one!"

She pointed to the furthest path from them on the left. As they approached it they saw a massive stone pillar laying in their way. Almost like it had been pushed over. The trees blocked their entrance on the sides and the brambles that infected this side of the forest would make any attempt to reach the path a fruitless endeavour. Rainbow Dash flew to the top and held a hoof down and Applejack ditched her pack.

"Hey, Twi? Do you mind?"

Applejack galloped at the pillar and jumped, catching her friends hoof. Rainbow Dash bit her lip and pulled her friend up. Twilight picked up Applejack's bags and levitated them up where they were pulled up the last few feet. Twilight exhaled and let Fluttershy take her pack and fly up and over the stone wall with it. Rarity struggled to float her bag over until Twilight helped and pushed it to her friends who were now grinning and trying not to make any comments that had come to mind. Rainbow Dash took off her bags and said something to Applejack but Twilight couldn't hear her.

Rarity frowned at the wall that bared her way before watching Pinkie Pie gallop at the wall and push off it. She extended past Rainbow Dash's helping hoof and caught the edge of the wall. They all looked on in awe as she pulled herself over the edge with her bags in tow.

"Oh, Dashie, *pant* I learned how to do that ages ago. Helps me keep up during the chase scenes."

Rarity looked down the road. She squinted at a dark shape laying on the path but figured it was just a rock as they'd past several already. Some were quiet large and obvious just parts of something larger. Rarity was suddenly picked up by something and hoisted into the air. She was dropped unceremoniously onto Applejack who managed to break her fall.

"Oof! Hey, when you get Twilight, try not to throw her at me like a sack of potatoes."

"Whiner."

Twilight started to protest the treatment she was about to receive but it either went unheard or ignored. She was, however, laid down with much more care.

"Right, now that we have that charming display of bravado over, can we get on with it?"

They continued their journey down the smaller path. It was much darker then the open space they had come accustomed to during the last few days and even on the road and they felt shut in from the world.

A few minutes of walking later Pinkie Pie got the same series of twitches again. She frowned and tried to think of what it could be.

Falling tree? No that's something else. It's definitely a surprise. Party? No, too happy. It's something more sinister. Something's about to burst out at us? No. No, not that. Something is about to-

*click*

-explode.

She stopped as her foot stepped down on something hard, like a rock, just below the surface of the dirt path they were on. She felt it give and then catch as her weight depressed what she was standing on. She stood perfectly still.

"Uh, girls?"

They all turned to her.

"What is it, darling?"

"Run."

Many miles away.

Lucien paced quickly back and forth in the room. He pursed his lips and put a hand to his forehead.

I know I missed something. I forgot something. I know I did. It's that feeling, like when you leave the house without your keys or leave the stove on. That dawning, awful feeling you've forgotten something. I missed something, cleaning up. Yes, that's it. What did I miss though? A pot? An engine? What?

He walked over to an ancient looking metal cabinet and pulled it open, rust popping at the joints as it swung open to reveal a stack of aging parchments. He pulled out a map of the area, his map, and brought it over to a table where he picked up four glossy stones and weighed down the edges with them.

"Alright, cleared that field, cleared that field. I know I got that one. What am I missing."

His eyes traced a path heading towards his mountain and fell upon two miniscule red dots with tiny skulls over them.

"Oh no."

Many miles away

They all stared at her. She hadn't sounded scared or anything. They wondered what was the matter. Then Applejack recognized the tone of voice she'd used. The look in her eye.

She's as calm as can be.

"Do as she says!"

Applejack grabbed Fluttershy and pulled her behind a tree and the rest of them followed suit leaving Pinkie Pie standing alone on the path.

Pinkie Pie carefully looked down at the ground she was standing on and saw that it was a stone, or a metal plate. It blended in with the ground perfectly and if she hadn't been having 'twitches' about it she would have thought it was just another rock. She wanted to get away from it but her Pinkie senses were screaming warnings at her to kept still.

"Pinkie Pie! What's going on? Are you alright?"

She hesitated, cleared her throat and spoke clearly and deliberately.

"Girls, I think I stepped on something really really dangerous. Don't get close to me."

Twilight ditched her bags behind her tree and walked out towards Pinkie Pie.

"What is it?"

Pinkie Pie pointed to what she was standing on with her nose.

"A rock?"

"No! Clearly not! Duh, why would I worry about stepping on a rock?!"

"Alright, take it easy. Let's do this together. First of all, what are you standing on?"

Twilight was slowly losing faith in her 'it's just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie' notion with every second.

Pinkie took a deep breath.

"Um, I don't know but I've been getting this weird twitch that tells me something is going to explode and then I step on this really weird rock and it sunk in and went 'click' when I stepped on it so I stopped and looked at it and its made of metal actually so it really isn't a rock I guess, more like a metal... drum thing and-"

"Pinkie?"

Pinkie Pie looked at Twilight before sucking in another huge breath. She made to continue but Twilight cut her off. A breeze rolled by and shook the branches far above their heads.

"Just step off the rock, Pinkie, I am ninety nine percent sure that rocks, or metal drums, don't explode."

She was unsure.

"Are you sure."

"Positive."

Pinkie Pie let out a sigh of relief and made to step off but something stayed her hoof. She looked over Twilight's shoulder down the path at a pine cone falling through the air. It fell on a lump of dirt and-

-white light-

-thousand angry bees-

Her hearing was gone. Replaced by a high pitched whine. Pinkie Pie opened her eyes. She was still standing on the metal drum and Twilight was still standing in front of her but something was else was wrong. The trees all around them were shredded by what appeared to be glass shards but upon closer inspection were actually razor sharp gemstones.

Twilight said something to her and she almost held up a hoof to her ear but thought better of it.

"Wha- --e he-- -as --at? Al-ight, I be-ieve you! Don't move!"

Twilight gave herself a quick once over to see if she'd been injured then careful inspected Pinkie Pie. They had been far enough away from the blast and were more shocked then hurt. Their friends were frantic regardless.

"TWILIGHT! TWILIGHT ARE YOU OKAY?"

Rainbow flew out from her hiding spot behind a tree and carefully hovered above the ground. She had watched the pine cone fall as well and knew what a wrong step might do.

"Twilight!"

"I'm fine. Really, I'm fine. Pinkie Pie, I think, is currently standing on whatever that thing was, so calm down and get my bags."

Rainbow Dash paled and did what she was told. She explained what happened to the others and again flew out with Twilight's bags in tow.

Twilight sifted through them, trying to find anything that might help. Luna had packed their bags well but could have only anticipated so much.

"Rainbow Dash, could you dig around it and clear the dirt off of it. I need to get a better look. And Dash, be careful."

They were all well aware of the consequences.

It was a small black metal drum a foot in diameter and several inches thick. It had no screws on the outside and they couldn't look at the bottom for obvious reasons.

"Who leaves something like this here? What kind of a sick twisted evil pony does that?"

Twilight looked at a faint series of lines carved into it. It looked like a hand print, like Spike's, but there were five fingers instead of four.

"I think a human left it here."

"What?"

Here, look. A hand print. Remember what Celestia said about humans? They had hands."

"I was asleep, Twilight."

"I remember, Dashie, I was colouring. Now can you get me off this thing?"

While she had asked sweetly, everyone could tell that Pinkie Pie's patience was starting to wear thin. She moved constantly and being forced to stay still was torture.

Rarity stepped out from behind her tree and thought a moment. She looked at the gemstones embedded deep in the bark and was struck with a memory she had spent the last couple of nights trying to bury. She racked her brain for solutions and then nodded.

"Girls, I think I may have a plan."

She walked up to the metal drum and stomped her hoof on it. They all flinched and Pinkie Pie shut her eyes and gasped.

Nothing happened.

"What the hell?!"

"Alright, now you two back away."

"Rarity! What are you planning?"

"Trust me."

Twilight was pulled away by Rainbow Dash and she watched from the bushes. Applejack shook her head and covered her ears. She looked down at Fluttershy who was rocking back and forth with a terrified look in her eye and she put her hooves around her.

"Don't you worry. Ah'm sure Rarity's got a plan to save her."

That is the craziest bucking unicorn I'll ever know.

Rarity put all her weight on the drum and it sunk another inch before stopping.

"Alright, now step off."

Pinkie Pie hesitated.

"But where will that leave you."

"Here. When you do, go and get a length of rope. Alright, ready?"

Pinkie Pie nodded and shivered.

I hope it won't be all over 'here'.

"Step off."

Pinkie Pie slowly lifted her hoof off and the drum didn't move. Rarity was now holding it down.

"The rope, darling?"

She returned with the rope and saw Rarity digging her hoof under it, causing it to shift slightly out of her grip. It creaked up an inch and Rarity tensed up before continuing and worming her hoof fully under the drum.

"Now when I lift it, I want you to tie the tightest knot you can around it."

She clamped her hooves around it and slowly lifted it up off the ground. Pinkie Pie hurriedly looped the rope around it several times and began to tighten the knot. She pulled the end out to finish it and the drum slipped out of Rarity's hooves.

They both watched it fall to the ground.

Rarity remembered the time she had first made a dress. Her first sale, the days she'd met her friends and the day Sweetie Bell was born,

Pinkie Pie remembered the sonic rainboom that changed her life. She remember all the parties she'd ever thrown and that time she'd talked to Twilight from inside a mirror.

It hit the ground and bounced, spinning like a top before rolling to a halt.

...

They looked into each other's eye before bursting out laughing.

Sometime later they were carefully minding their steps as they walked down the path. Rarity rolled her eyes at Rainbow Dash and the others who walked a good distance away from her.

"I still don't understand why you're carrying it around."

"We might need it. It's perfectly safe."

"Safe?! How in Equestria could that thing be safe?"

"It's in one of Pinkie Pie's knots, darling. It's immobile I assure you."

Rainbow Dash gave her friend a bemused look.

"And just how would you know that?"

"Rainbow Dash, it was a long time ago at a party and I was too inebriated to protest, much."

Rainbow Dash's mind ran through the possibilities. None of them were innocent.

Rarity saw the look on her face and realized what she'd said.

"Don't go thinking like that! She tied my hooves behind my back and left me to my own devices for the rest of the night, it was tiring."

Rainbow Dash snorted and nearly keeled over this time.

"WILL YOU STOP IT!"

In between fits of giggles and embarrassment Rainbow Dash walked away to ask Pinkie Pie a few choice questions.