> Twilight?
>  by Lunafan1k
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Zombies, Spiders, and Creepers; Oh My!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Today in the library, Twilight was meticulously marking out an arcane circle with magic infused chalk. She glanced to her notes, then back at the circle taking up most of the space in the library before muttering incoherently to herself. After several hours of preparation on top of months of research, she was finally satisfied and ready for the initial testing.

“Alright, looks like the circle is complete with nothing out of place.” She said to herself as she levitated a quill and notebook in front of her, “Now we need to log the test.” She lit her horn and cast a spell on the book and quill.

“Ahem, testing. Testing.” She said. She looked at the book in satisfaction, the quill was quickly scrolling across the page, the words ’Testing. Testing.’ were written neatly at the top of the page.

“Excellent!” She exclaimed, followed by her speech being transcribed in the book. She rolled her eyes before continuing. 

“Today I will begin testing on theoretical long distance teleportation of multiple goods and personal transport that uses little to no magic needed from the pony using the arcane circle, codename waypoint. By using various magical glyphs in a specific pattern drawn with a magically charged specially made chalk, I am hoping to create a self-powering waypoint that can be connected to other waypoints of the same make and design. For this test, Princess Celestia has offered to create the twin circle in the Crystal Caverns beneath Canterlot, where the effects would be observed and recorded by other ponies from the Board of Magic.”

A flash of light marked the arrival of a letter. Twilight read it over before speaking once again. “I have just received word that they are prepared to begin testing. The first object will be a single sheet of paper. This is to test for temporal stability in the making of the paper and ensure it stays in one piece on top of actually making it to the twin portal.” 

She levitated the paper into the center of the circle, “For control purposes, a normal unicorn would not have enough mana to teleport the distance attempted, and the longest recorded teleport by the most powerful Unicorn, Starswirl the Bearded, was just over twenty miles. The spell required a buildup of magic over the course of three point two minutes. With this waypoint we are hoping for near instantaneous teleportation to a predetermined location approximately sixty miles away using less magic than would be needed to lift a quill. I will now feed some magic into the waypoint and begin the teleportation process.”

Twilight lit her horn and directed her magic into the circle. The moment her magic touched the circle there was a flash, and the sheet of paper was gone.

“So far the result is perfect, the moment my magic made contact the paper was instantly teleported. I am currently awaiting word from Canterlot as to the results on their end.” A moment later another letter flashed into existence. The writing in this letter was rather sloppy, the unicorn obviously excited. 

“I have the results from Canterlot, initial test went perfectly. They should be sending it back to test the other direction-” she was interrupted by another flash of light. “Seems they were rather eager, the paper has now arrived here on my end. Preliminary scans show that no damage has occurred. Now beginning tests with more complicated forms of matter: paper with ink written on it!”

And so the next several hours passed, open ink wells on a chair so see if any would spill, several random assortments of items at once, and an accident involving her Owl assistant flying over the circle at the wrong time. The owl arrived in Canterlot safe and sound, albeit slightly confused as to have suddenly found itself in a cave. 

This brought a dangerous idea to all the unicorns working on the project, should they send a pony though to learn firsthoof experience? They quickly decided that Twilight should do the honor, being as the entire project and calculations were thought up by her alone.

“For this next test, I will be teleporting myself through the waypoint. Based on all previous tests there should be no side effects with the exception of standard teleportation dizziness.” She carefully stepped into the center of the circle, being mindful to not damage the fragile lines of chalk on the floor. 

She took a steadying breath, “Alright here we go!” she yelled as she powered the circle. 

She experienced a familiar pulling and squeezing sensation that came with teleportation. Then just as quickly as it arrived, she felt the ground beneath her hooves. She cautiously opened her eyes, expecting to find some hideous deformity on her body, but there was none. 

She grinned as she looked to the cheering ponies around the cave, the waypoint is a success! She was overcome with joy and reared up in celebration, the hair of her tail mixing with the chalk on the ground.

“Great job everypony! I know you’re all really excited about what we accomplished today, but I think it’s time to call it a day. I’m sure we all have a ton of paperwork to finish filling out.” She said to a round of chuckles, “You’ll receive my notes by tomorrow evening but for now,” She paused to let out a yawn, several other in attendance following suite, “Now I think I’m going to bed.”

And with that she lit her horn once again. However, one of the unicorns noticed the rune that was smudged by her tail a moment too late. “Twilight wait-!” and with a flash she was gone.

“Damnit!” he yelled, he rushed into the circle to identify which rune was broken.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” asked his worried colleague.

“No, no no no… It’s the rune controlling the pathway, if she’s still alive she could be anywhere within reach of this waypoint.”

“Oh, well she can’t have gone too far then.”

“Weren’t you paying attention? We have no idea what the maximum range is with just the minimal magic needed to activate it! She could be further than Luna’s stars by now!”

The mage was dumbstruck for a moment, unable to counter the argument.

“Now if you’ll excuse me,” he said, “I have to inform the princesses of what just happened here. Do not touch the circle until we analyze just where it may have sent her.”






Far across the multiverse


Twilight’s hooves struck the ground hard, like she was thrown to the ground, as she tumbled through the grass. When she finally came to a stop she just laid still catching her breath, mentally going over a checklist to get a feel of any injuries or deformities. Finding none, she grunted her way to her hooves and stretched herself out, her back and neck popping in several places. 

“Now, where am I?” She asked as she looked around. After a moment she began to panic, nothing was right. Trees didn’t look like that, grass and dirt didn’t look like that, and what is that, a cow?! Everything around her was made of perfectly cubed blocks of the exact same size, the only exception would be the cow and herself, but the cow looked nothing like the cows around Ponyville. This one was about the size of her, and if the eyes absentmindedly pointing in opposite directions was anything to go by, was dumb as a box of rocks.

However, there was one Ponyville resident with the same disability, and she was anything but dumb. Clumsy, yes, but not dumb. She approached the cow and cleared her throat, “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, what’s your name?” 

The cow continued to wander in a circle, its eyes unfocused and rolling around in its head as it mooed occasionally.

“Well I guess that answers that question.” She said. She started off at a trot to see if she could find anything else of interest that may explain her predicament, noting the odd world around her. More square trees, several blocks of dirt here, and absence of dirt there.

Finally after a few minutes of travel she saw something that brought a smile to her face, a small farming village! She rushed towards it; maybe she’ll find some help after all! As she neared, she saw that the buildings were also made out of blocks, these of different types of stone and wood. All throughout the village were patches of farmland growing different foods; there was wheat, carrots, and potatoes.

The citizens, however, were the strangest creatures she had ever seen. They walked upright on just two legs, their upper legs, arms, were folded in front of their chest. Their faces were flat, lacking a muzzle and their squared jaws made them more closely resemble the type of world they lived in. Their eyes, unlike those of the cow, bore a semblance of intelligence.

As she approached, a few turned toward her and muttered to themselves, but otherwise did nothing. “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. Is it alright if I ask you some questions?”

The villager in front of her, the only one wearing a white coat, looked at her. “Hum.”

She took that as a yes. “Alright! Well, I’m not from here, so could you tell me a little about this place?”

“Hurm.” He, it sounded like a he anyway, grunted, his unblinking eyes gazing in her direction but not looking at her.

“Um, okay. So why is everything made out of cubes? I’ve never heard of anything like this.”

“Herm.” He grunted.

She was about to ask him some more questions but he suddenly looked up at the sky. Twilight looked as well and noticed that night was quickly approaching. When she looked back in front of her she noticed that the villager was gone. Looking around she saw several others walking into one of the larger buildings. She was about to follow when she heard something behind her, like a low moan.

She turned and saw what looked like one of the villagers, but its clothes were blue and its skin was green, almost like it was rotting. It saw her and walked closer into the light of the village’s torches. Twilight’s scream pierced the night, the villager’s skin WAS rotting away, and the shambling pace of it meant just one thing, zombie.

She spun around and ran, unfortunately she didn’t get very far, her path was blocked by an angry, tall, fat green thing with four stubby legs holding up its shaft of a body. As she stared in confused horror it began to hiss and puff up. Not knowing what to do she ran, but suddenly the green thing exploded in a massive fireball.

The force of the explosion knocked several blocks of the ground into the air, the blocks shrinking in size as they became dislodged. The zombie was obliterated in the blast, bits and pieces littered the area while there was nothing left of the green thing.

Twilight fared better, the blast just knocking her off her hooves to tumble across the ground. She quickly shook off her dizziness and cautiously examined the blast zone. The damage was massive, a huge chunk of the land was reduced to rubble, but looking at the debris there was something wrong. There wasn’t enough of it to fill in the hole. 

She picked up one of the small bits of cobblestone in her hoof, it weighed almost nothing. She made to set it back beside her, but instead there was a small ‘pop!’ sound as it instantly grew in size and aligned itself with the other stone cubes.

She was beginning to ponder the mechanics behind such an event when she heard a ‘twang’ sound from behind her, followed by an arrow imbedding itself in the stone block she just placed. She yelped in surprise and spun around, behind her was another biped creature, except this one was an animated skeleton with an overly large head.

She turned and ran; aiming toward the large building housing all the villagers, she was sure they would help her. She ran up to the door, but there was no door knob to open it.

“Help me! Monsters are coming and I need your help!” She yelled, knocking on the door so hard that it began to crack.

“Hurm. Hm. Hurh.” Was all the villagers said as they stood by, idly doing nothing.

“Oh Celestia, let me in!!” She screamed as she pounded harder on the door, the cracks reappearing once again. Suddenly she heard a chitter-like, almost clicking sound. She froze in horror before slowly turning around to face the sound. It was an enormous black spider with long hairy legs ending in a claw, its eight blood red eyes glaring at her as it clacked its venom-leaking mandibles together eagerly.

Fear finally overtook her; she turned her back on the door and bucked with all her might. The door held, several cracks once again strewn across its surface before fading to nothing once more. She spun back around and began pounding on it frantically, finally noticing the door’s cracks returning. This time she didn’t stop, and when the cracks covered the entire surface there was a ‘pop!’ and the door shrank in size and clattered to the floor.

She ran inside to the back of the room, the villagers seemingly ignoring the fact that a panicking unicorn just busted down their door. The giant spider was clawing frantically inside, unable to squeeze into the opening  it gave up and wandered away. The villagers also seemed equally unconcerned as a zombie shambled its way inside and began biting and clawing at one of the villagers, the villager only grunted as the zombie bit and clawed through his clothing.

Soon the villager fell to the ground, dead. The zombie shuffled over to its next victim, a trail of fresh blood leaking from its mouth as bits of cloth and flesh clung to its hands. Twilight watched in horror as the blood spilled from the first villager, and she came to a realization. She was going to die. Remembering what happened with the door she spun around and began pounding against the wooden wall, hoping the effects would be the same. She felt a sense of relief as the cracks began to show across the wooden surface, before popping out of its place and shrinking into a small block. 

She glanced back, the zombie was on its third victim and, to her horror, the first villager was now a zombie as well and it made its way to the final villager. She was soon to be out numbered as she quickly turned back to the wall, a single square opening proved to be too difficult to fit through so she frantically began beating the block above the hole. She could hear three zombies now shambling their way towards her as she sped up her attempt to escape.

She nearly cried out in joy as the final block popped out of her way, and she ran out into the open. But as she did, she heard a slight hisss emitting from around the corner. She looked back, standing not a body length away was another of those green, four-legged monsters, and it was rapidly increasing in size for another explosive blast. She tried to run or use her magic as a shield, but she was too slow. The monster exploded with fury, destroying half the building and blasting her into the air.

She hit the ground hard; her vision was unfocused as she coughed up a bit of blood. Her ribs hurt the worst, three having been broken from the explosion and her limbs and head sore from the fall, her ears were ringing and she felt a wetness oozing from them. She looked around to see the sun, also a square, rise over the horizon. She wanted to laugh at that, a square sun? But pain kept her still. 

The sound of shuffling behind her brought her attention back to the zombies. The blast killed two of them, but another dead villager rose to its feet. They shambled after her into the light. But the moment the sunlight touched their skin they burst into flames. Within a mere moment they were reduced to ash. She looked around the plains, noting several more monsters bursting into flames as the sun rose.

“Oh, well that’s good to know.” She said before quickly collapsing into unconsciousness.

A shadow soon fell over her body, another biped looking over her with interest.
> Of Endermen and Mine Carts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



“Thank you, Spike, for offering to be the court scribe while Mrs. Flowing Script is sick.” Princess Celestia said. It was the end of the daily open court, the day having previously been full of various ponies petitioning their projects or asking for advice for their concerns. Through it all, little Spike was at her side writing everything down.

“It’s no problem. Besides, I’m sure I’ll be able to feel my claw again eventually.” Spike replied with a laugh, earning a smile from the princess. “But what I don’t get is why you need a scribe anyway; why not just use magic to record everything?”

“Because the dictation spell cannot discern everything, for instance, if two ponies are talking the words would become jumbled and it will try and write every sound.” Spike nodded in understanding, more than a few bickering arguments had sprung up that day, resulting in him returning to his comic book. “Now, I was told Twilight and a team of unicorns from the Board of Magic will be conducting some experiments down in the Crystal Caverns today, I was thinking of seeing how things are going.”

“Wait, I thought it was the Circle of Magi?” Spike asked in confusion.

Celestia paused with a thoughtful look, “They have always been the Board of Magic; perhaps you read about that in one of your comic books and confused the two?”

Spike looked up guiltily as he failed to hide a comic book behind his back; the very one he would resort to reading when there was nothing to do in the court. He was about to respond when one of the board members rushed into the room, closing the door behind himself and casting a sound ward around the room.

“Whatever is the matter, Flicker?” Celestia asked.

Flicker glanced at Spike worriedly, “I’m not sure if Mr. Spike should hear this.”

“I assure you, Spike is very responsible for his age. Now, what is your report?”

Flicker took a steadying breath, “The waypoint worked flawlessly, we even accidently sent an owl through it with no harm, so we thought we should try something else. We decided to send a pony, and we agreed Twilight should have the honor of the first pony to travel by waypoint.” Celestia’s brow began to lower into a glare. “But she was fine! She congratulated us then decided to go home. But somehow in the wave of celebration one of the runes was damaged. I tried to warn her but she was already gone.”

“You let my student use an experimental form of magic on herself without testing for everything first?” Celestia asked coldly. Flicker was beginning to sweat bullets as Spike was filled with worry. “I want everypony to examine the rune and determine the distance and direction of travel. I will inform my sister and we will send search parties to scour the area. Now go!” She commanded rather forcibly. Flicker let out a worried whinny as he turned tail and ran out the door.

“She’ll be okay, right Princess?” Spike asked.

She looked down at the young drake, “I’m certain she is, she’s a strong pony. Now come along, I need to inform Twilight’s family of this travesty.”





Twilight slowly returned to the land of the living, she felt herself gently rocking back and forth as the sun beamed down on her. She groaned as she lifted her head, her ribs shifting painfully as she did so. She winced through the pain and looked around. She found herself in some kind of large metal bin; the slowly moving landscape revealed that she was moving.

She looked toward the front and saw what looked like a different villager, this one was slightly taller. His arms were thick and muscular, his back and legs bulged with power as he pulled on a rope connected to her metal bin. 

She observed his motions for a few moments as she tried to determine why this one had gone out of its way to drag her around like this. For a moment she entertained the thought that it was going to eat her, but if that was the case why didn’t it tie her up? She decided to ask it.

“Um, excuse me?” 

The villager stopped suddenly and looked around for a moment.

“Uh, hi.”

He spun around and looked at her, his eyes full of fear and worry. He began waving his hands in front of her face frantically and grunting.

“Okay, I have no ide-” she was cut off as he clamped his large hands over her muzzle. She was about to resist more, but he glanced off into the distance again. Wondering what his cause for concern was, she glanced off to the side. There on the horizon were several figures standing in the sun. Most of them were more of the green monsters that exploded, but one of them looked like a tall black shadow with glaring purple eyes. 

As she watched it, it whipped its head in her direction, and then her vision cut out as another hand covered her eyes. She tried to yell and fight him off, but he was too strong. He forced her head back down into the bin and grunted loudly. He released her eyes but kept a hand on her muzzle.

She looked up at him in fear, but his fear was greater. ‘What could scare someone who was so strong?’ she thought to herself, the revelation causing to cease her struggles. Once he was certain she would stay down and be quiet, the villager slowly released her and began nervously glancing around.

Once he was certain they didn’t attract too much attention, he made to grab the rope once more. He was about to stand but a sudden sound cut across the plains. It was a moan, a loud yelling moan filled with rage. Twilight wanted to look over the edge of her cart but the villager ran up to her, grabbed her head, and forced her eyes to lock with his. 

She was stunned for a moment, and then began to question what he was doing. He was obviously scared; his eyes were shaking back and forth as sweat began to roll down his face. She shifted her eyes to the side, but before she could see anything he gave her head a firm shake and locked eyes with her again. She made the connection: don’t look.

She nodded her head and locked his gaze as the moaning continued. There was a ‘POMPF’ and a black shadowy figure appeared out of the corner of her vision. She focused in front of her as it moved around them, using just the edge of her vision she wasn’t able to make out its form, just glowing purple eyes and a large screaming mouth.

Even though it stood right next to them, it didn’t seem to notice them, much to her confusion. Could it only see you if you looked at it? Suddenly it vanished, she heard it pop back into existence a little ways away. 

It screamed again, and then she heard it, the sound of some living thing being ripped to pieces. The wet tearing sounds followed by the bloody bits and pieces splatting against the ground struck terror in her heart, her face soon matching the fear and worry of the villager clutching her head. ‘That could have been me!’ she thought fearfully, ‘He’s saving me… he’s really saving me!’ She wanted to cry in joy, but not looking at their surroundings was their main priority.

Soon there was another ‘POMPF’ and the echoing screams faded away. The villager visibly relaxed once silence fell upon them once more. He released her and looked off to the side with a frown. Twilight lifted her head and looked as well, then wished she hadn’t. One of the tall green explosive creatures had been torn to bits and pieces. Long claw marks were slashed through the body multiple times removing large chunks of it. Inside appeared to be a ruptured bag or sack spilling an unknown black power into the blood. Her scientific mind kicked in, pondering if that powder was behind the explosions it caused.

The villager sighed, then grabbed the rope and continued pulling the cart she was riding in. Normally Twilight would argue against the treatment, but the thought of that creature being ripped apart forced her to curl in on herself. For a while she laid there, the cool iron of the cart swaying gently as the villager pulled it to wherever he was going. She laid there and thought about her predicament, how will she ever get home? She would need to re-create the waypoint from the ground up; unfortunately this world may not have the components needed to make the special chalk. But then again she could always search for some, but that leaves another problem.

This world was far harsher than anything she had previously encountered, let alone imagined. If she was ever to see her home and her friends ever again, she would need to survive this place. In order to survive, she would need to learn how this world worked. 

She sat up in her cart and looked around; they were approaching the mouth of a well-lit cave just as the sun was beginning to set again. She blinked at that, they haven’t been traveling that long, she must have been unconscious for hours.

The villager suddenly stopped and dropped the rope, turned around, and punched it a few times, causing it to release from the cart and shrink into a tightly wrapped ball. He then motioned to Twilight, almost like he was shooing her away. After a moment she understood and eased out of it. He proceeded to punch the iron cart a few times and that too shrank in size. 

He picked them up, placed the rope in his pocket and pulled out a second miniaturized cart. He then motioned for Twilight to follow him; she did her best as she painfully made her way to the cave entrance, using the villager as a crutch. As they neared, she was able to make out a bit of a rail road track, though it was too small to carry a train. Several sections of it appeared to be made of solid gold and seemed to glow with a red energy.

The villager walked up to the rails and placed the cart on it. When it popped back into full size, Twilight was able to see that it was actually a mine cart, not too different than the ones used in the Crystal Caverns back home. Her posture drooped as a wave of depression overtook her, but quickly fought off the surge of homesickness, there would be time for that when it was safe. That is, if anywhere in this world is safe.

She watched him place another mine cart behind the first one, then latch them together. He clambered into the second one then motioned for her to climb into the one in front. She hesitated for a moment, and then limped up to it. He lent a hand to help ease her over the edge, but it was still painful as she hissed in pain. She looked around again and noticed that the entrance to the cave was open for anything to follow them in.

“Um, what if monsters follow us?” she asked.

The villager glanced around quickly; there were no monsters in the area so he let himself smile. He turned around and pressed a button on the wall at the end of the track. Nothing happened at first, but the villager continued to watch her with a smile.

Twilight was just confused, how was a button going to solve the monster issue? She looked around for anything that may have changed, but she didn’t see anything right away. She was about to voice her concerns when she saw it, a bright glow coming from over the edge of the cave opening. She watched curiously as gravity seemed to slowly pull it to the ground, it was red and seemed to flow, but it remained in a block shape. Soon it hit the cave floor and spread out in shallower squares. Twilight felt the heat on her face as it spread to cover the entire entrance area.

“Is that… is that lava?!” she said, “If that’s lava and acts anything like the lava I know, it’ll be impossible for anything to get through! This is genius!” She declared excitedly. She looked to the villager and smiled back at him. He motioned for her to look forward and pressed another button.

The mine carts instantly shot forward, causing Twilight to flail her hooves and grab onto the edge as they shot down a steep incline. Every second they seemed to travel over one of the golden glowing rails that seemed to push them faster. She looked ahead, the tunnel went ever further down into darkness, exactly how far Twilight may never know.

The torches lining the tunnel were suddenly replaced with some sort of red block that burned with huge flames, creating the illusion that they were descending into a tunnel of fire. She laughed out loud at the thrill of the ride and threw her hooves up to the ceiling and she cried out in joy. She looked back at the villager; he was giving her a confused look before following her lead and threw his arms into the air as well.

Suddenly they leveled off, going straight forward instead of down. The fire rock remained on either side as they blasted faster into the receding darkness. There was a light at the very end she was able to see, it grew bigger and brighter as the quickly approached. 

There was a rush of air as they burst into an enormous cavern, the sheer size of it was lost to her as the ceiling and far walls were shrouded in darkness, but right in front of them was the main attraction. 

In the center of the cavern was a castle made of stone blocks, it had several towers and tall walls, not too different from the castles built when Luna and Celestia were young. But that’s where the simplicity ended. The entire castle was floating in the air, suspended over a pit of lava, a small rail bridge was all the connected it to stable ground. The mine carts shot over the bridge and through a small opening in the wall. There must have been another switch somewhere that closed the wall behind them as the sped inside.

Traditional torches lit the narrow hall, the end opened into a small room with a patch of non-glowing golden track. As soon as the carts hit that section they slowed to a stop almost immediately. Twilight wasn’t expecting this and was thrown forward and toppled out of the cart, landing on her side with a pained yowl. The villager leaped to her side in a moment and looked over her with worry.

“I-I’m fine, just give me a sec.” She said as she slowed her breathing to lessen the pain. She watched the villager walked away through a door, and return a few moments later. He handed her a glass of purple liquid and a loaf of bread. 

He held a second loaf of bread in his hand as he sat down next to her. He took several small bites at a time then the bread vanished, he gave a hearty belch and patted his stomach before looking to Twilight expectantly. She took the hint and munched on the bread. It was alright as far as bread went, tasted like wheat and could definitely use some jam but it’ll keep her fed. She then popped the cork out of the bottle and gave it a hesitant sniff before trying to sip it.

Unfortunately the liquid acted like a solid and refused to flow into her mouth. She looked to the villager and he emulated drinking the potion, telling her to take a lot of tiny sips from it. She shrugged, based on everything wrong in this world why wouldn’t that work?

She tilted the potion back toward her mouth and began sipping at the opening. After a few sips the potion vanished. She wondered what happened for a moment before she felt it; her wounds were slowly beginning to heal. The pain in her ribs faded as her headache vanished completely. Within a few minutes she was feeling much better, yet still sore in some areas.

She smiled to the villager, and then frowned. She had been thinking of him as ‘villager’ this entire time, but that can’t be accurate. “So, I get that you don’t talk, but what should I call you? You’re not a villager, and calling you a miner just sounds strange.” He looked at her, knowing she was speaking but unable to understand a word. “I’ll just call you Steve; do you like the name Steve?”

Steve tilted his head, so Twilight pointed to herself, “Twilight.” Then pointed to her new friend, “Steve.” He nodded in understanding and she smiled, then frowned as he stood and walked out of the room. “Where are you going?” She asked. There was no response. “Oh duh, he’s mute Twilight, learn to think once in a while.” She berated herself with a giggle.

She stood and followed him into the adjoining room and gasped in surprise. The room she left had been carved from the stone, leaving smooth stone walls. This room was lined with wood planks, several pictures lined the walls and there was a bed in one corner. Along the wall in front of her was a cube of a table with several different tools hanging off of it, on either side there was what appeared to be a long wooden chest. Further along the wall appeared to be a giant anvil, next to that appeared to be a potions stand. 

The other half of the room seemed to be devoted to one thing: books! Books were everywhere along the walls, and isles filled the empty spaces. Several benches and tables were on the ends to allow to a comfortable reading area, and all of this was accented by a fireplace with more burning stone set inside. This was the work of a true craftsman.

Steve waved a hand in front of her face to get her attention. She blinked several times and shook herself out of her daydreaming and glanced up at him. He smiled then motioned for her to follow him. He led her to the tool table and opened one of the boxes and began to rummage around. Twilight looked over his shoulder, inside was a jumbled mess of thousands of small blocks of various colors. Her eye began to tick at the level of disorganization before her.

She lit her horn, grabbed all the blocks and assorted items inside, and rearranged them according to color, unfortunately she didn’t know what half of them were but she did her best. When she finished a few moments later Steve was staring at her in wonder and gratitude. She smiled in kind and stepped back so he may continue his search. He glanced into the newly assorted box for a moment before closing the lid and shaking his head. He moved to the next box and revealed an even larger mess of items. If the red glow of his cheeks and awkward smile was anything to go by, he was actually quite embarrassed.

Twilight rolled her eyes, a few frantic minutes of magical sorting later and the box was neatly organized. Steve looked inside and carefully sorted through the items. He stood a moment later and scratched is head.

“So, uh, what are you looking for exactly?” Twilight asked. 

Steve looked at her for a moment, and then returned to the second chest. A moment later he held out several tiny blue things. Twilight looked at them in confusion. Steve grunted and slapped one of the pieces against his chest, and it was instantly on his body. Her eyes widened in understanding, it was armor! 

“Are you making me armor?” She asked. She grabbed one of the pieces that looked like a helmet and tapped it to her head. Instead of popping onto her head it made a cracking sound and burst into dust. Steve saw this and fell to his knees, tears flowing down his face. 

“Oh no! I’m so sorry I had no idea it would do that!” Twilight said as she wrapped her arms around him in a hug. He heaved a sigh and patted her head. He sniffed back his tears, and then stood and returned to one of the chests for a moment. He soon turned toward the tool table and placed several items on it. She looked at how he placed them in a pattern on a grid on the table.

It looked like there were three bars of metal across the top, and two sticks under them down the middle. She looked at it in confusion, she was about to ask what he was doing when he pressed a button in the corner. There was a familiar pop sound and the items compressed further, turning into a metal pickaxe!

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed. “Just how in the world is that possible?! How do you get a pickaxe from sticks and chunks of metal?!?! Just- You know what? Forget it. As Rainbow Dash would say, ‘who cares how it works as long as it works.’ Right?”

Steve watched her rant and blinked, having no idea what she was saying. Once he was sure she was done he handed her the pickaxe. She took it in her hoof, but it remained too tiny to actually use.

“I don’t think-” She was cut off, she had moved her hold from her hoof to her magic and it burst into full size, startling her so bad she jumped a foot into the air. As she was calming down she heard a series of deep grunts. She turned to see Steve barely able to control his laughter. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. What else can you make with that thing?”

Steve, still holding in several chuckles, placed several more items on the table and pressed the button. He kept the item hidden from Twilight until he slapped her back. She felt a fabric wrap gently around her midsection from her rump to her withers and settle against her body. Steve nodded in approval as Twilight looked over her new equipment; she had a pair of saddlebags!

“Wow, this is amazing! I-I don’t know what to say, but thanks!” She said as she beamed up at him.

He smiled back and handed her a few more items, another pickaxe, about a hundred torches, a sword, some blocks of wood, and a pile of coal. She placed the items in her bags and turned back to see that he had a blue sword and pickaxe, as well as a full blue armor set on, he must have had a spare helm so she didn’t know what brought him to tears when the other was accidently destroyed.

“So, now what?” She asked.

He seemed to ignore her question and instead opened a book and used an inkpot and quill to write down a few lines of alien text. Even though Twilight had never seen the language, she could recognize a checklist anywhere. She looked back into her bag of materials as she connected the dots as she realized what they were about to do.

She straightened out and held her pickaxe high, she was about to go mining with her new friend!

> Pain of the Heart
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Shining armor was furious; the day had been going on as usual when there was a sudden call to arms. Thinking there was an imminent attack on the city, the entire guard had fallen into formation as the captain and his most trusted subordinates rushed to the war room. They were stopped halfway by another of the guard who directed them to the throne room. They were confused as to why the meeting would be there but nonetheless made their way to their new destination with much haste.

“Princess! We’ve assembled as soon as we got word!” Shining slid to a halt, there was nopony on the throne.

“Captain Armor.” He turned to his left to see Princess Luna holding a cup of coffee in her magic, her mane a slight mess and her royal garments seemed to be sitting crookedly, as though she was recently woken up.

“Princess Luna, we came as soon as we could. What is the nature of the emergency?” He said as he and the other leaders bowed down to receive their orders.

“Rise.” She stated, “Shining Armor, I need a word with you in private. Your lieutenants may join the rest of the assembled guard, we…” She trailed off with a yawn, “We will make an announcement once we finish here. Dismissed.”

Shining watched his lieutenants leave and then he turned to his Princess, “Did something happen?” He asked in worry.

“Come, sit with us.” Luna sighed as she led him into a comfortable sitting room. Once they were situated she handed him a cup of relaxing herbal tea. 

“You know of Twilight’s latest experiment?” She asked, taking another sip of her coffee

“Her latest obsession with runic magic? Yeah I've heard a little about it.” He understated. The past few months all he had heard from her was runic magic this, and how it could do that and this and all sorts of upper level magic mumbo jumbo that went right over his head.

Luna shared a smile before it dropped into a frown. “Today was the beginning of the initial tests. From what little I know, everything was going perfectly, then Twilight teleported herself.” She looked away from Shining’s angered scowl, though she couldn’t blame him. Teleporting somepony this soon in testing was an insane idea.

“When she made it here she had accidently altered one of the runes, and was teleported to an unknown destination. We have a team of mages deciphering the altered rune as we speak so as to see how far she has traveled, but I will tell you this: the probability she is even still on this planet is lower than the lowest probability you can imagine. So instead of searching fruitlessly around the grounds, I want you to return home for the day. I know you want to look for her, but I assure you that effort would be better spent with your family.”

She was right, as much as he wanted to go out and look for her, he should be home comforting his parents and Cadence. No doubt they each felt the same as he did. He nodded once to the princess as he stood, and then made his way out of the castle. He traversed the familiar paths toward his home, lost in thought along the way. 

Soon enough he arrived at a familiar house, an odd sense of nostalgia overcame him as he walked the old stone path. He raised his hoof to knock on the door when he suddenly heard glass shattering. His protective instincts went into overdrive as he threw the door open and rushed inside. He soon slid to a halt, his parents were clutching each other and weeping, a broken cup of tea lay in the middle of a puddle.

Across from them sat Princess Celestia herself, a sad look on her face. She looked to Shining and nodded. He nodded back and moved to join his parents as she stood to leave. They stayed like that for a while, comforting each other as best they could. Suddenly Night Light, his father, burst out laughing.

“What? Why are you laughing?! This is serious!” Twilight Velvet yelled hysterically. She wanted to hurt her husband so bad sometimes.

“I just came to a realization, I bet wherever Twilight is, I bet she’s having the time of her life. All the new things she’s learning, she probably forgot all about us.” He said with a confident smirk. “Now come on, let’s be happy for our little girl’s new adventure!”





As enthusiastic as she was to join Steve on an adventure, the excitement quickly died down and morphed into pure boredom. She got the hang of mining fairly quickly, chip away at the stone with the pickaxe three times, watch it pop out of place, and hit the one below it, rinse and repeat. Every few meters she would pause to turn around and maneuver the little stones into her bags before turning forward once again.

Steve had wandered off to Celestia knows where. No, that’s not right. If Celestia knew where he had gone, she definitely knew where Twilight was, and then Twilight wouldn’t be stuck here in her tiny tunnel breathing the stale air. Speaking of air, shouldn’t she make an air vent of some kind? 

She looked up at the stone above her, but how was she going to reach that high? A moment later the narrow cave echoed with the sound of hoof meeting face. She sat down and lifted the pickaxe above her head in her magic and began hacking away at the stone above, quickly burrowing higher to the surface. 

She reached the surface faster than she thought she would, the bright light from the sun shining its way toward her. She smiled now that her task was done. She maneuvered the pickaxe back to her side and continued on her forward path. As the progressed, instead of everything getting gradually darker the cave seemed to grow steadily brighter, and if the sweat forming on her body was any indication, it was quickly becoming much warmer too.

Curious, she looked behind herself. The shaft she had dug was glowing brightly. Her curiosity quickly turned to fear as the heat radiated into her tunnel. Lava slowly spilled down in front of her and she began to panic. She spun back toward the end of the tunnel and hacked at the stone as fast as she could, slowly moving forward away from the lava.

In her panic, she failed to notice the ground open up beneath her and she fell several meters to the stone below. She cried out as she landed painfully, thankfully nothing had broken in the short fall. The glow above her, however, followed her through the hole in pursuit. She staggered to her hooves and hobbled backwards, the pain forced her mind to focus and the more open space helped to calm her nerves, if just a little.

The lava slowly fell through the hole and pooled in squares on the ground, spreading several meters in each direction before stopping at her hooves. The glow lit the cave she found herself in, revealing two directions that disappeared into darkness. Twilight sighed as she sat down to rest. She grabbed a glass bottle of water and downed it with several sips, quenching her thirst and restoring some of her energy.

“Well this sucks.” She stated. She had no idea what she was doing, Steve showed her how to mine then left her to her own devices, probably to dig his own tunnel. Unfortunately she had no idea how she was going to get back up with all the lava in the way.

With no other option seemingly available to her, she chose to travel down the path leading to her right. She placed a torch down at the edge of the darkness and kept moving forward. Her horn’s magical light lit the path ahead well enough, and the train of torches behind her marked her progress. She tried to place each torch an equal distance apart as she had done in her tunnel, but the curves and uneven surface made that difficult.

Now and then she would come across strangely colored stone, it was like the other blocks but sometimes they had black spots on them, and a few looked like they were being covered in brown mold. Not knowing what they were, she hesitatly picked at them with her pickaxe. The black splotched stone in front of her took a few more hits from her pickaxe than the other stone, but instead of popping out of the wall it broke into several small black chunks of equal size and shape. She picked one up and examined it.

"This... This is coal!" She said in excitement. She looked up around the cave with a smile, more blocks containing coal seemed to line the tunnel. With a happy giggle she went to work collecting every piece. Once she finished, she had a sizable thirty pieces of coal stacked neatly in her bag.

She nodded, content that was the last of the coal, and then continued further into the tunnel. She was about to place another torch when something seemed to leap at her from the side. She turned to face the assailant only to scream in fear. It was a bat! She hated bats! Not as much as she hated snakes or spiders but they were scary little devils. She screamed again as she ran blindly into the darkness. 

A moment later she crashed headfirst into something soft and gooey, her horn piercing into it. She staggered back to her hooves and cleared her head with a firm shake. She lit her horn to see what she had accidentally smashed into and quickly wished she was back with the bat.

The zombie moaned as it slowly stood back up, a hole leaking black blood was punctured into its chest. Twilight was frozen with terror, but then she felt the blood on her horn drip onto her muzzle. She lost any semblance of reason as she randomly struck out with her magic, imbedding her pickaxe in the side of its head, breaking the handle in the process.

The zombie stopped moving and fell in a heap at her hooves, her pickaxe disintegrating into nothing and leaving a gaping hole in its head. She stood over the body, her legs twitching frantically from the adrenaline pumping through her veins as she backed away. She was scared, she didn’t mean to kill it but it was obviously violent, but then again it’s not fast and she could have just run away.

It made her sick. The smell of the zombie’s insides clung to her forehead; the body not ten paces from her smelled much the same, that that wasn’t what made her ill. She had killed something out of a reflex. Sure this time it was a monster, but what if it had been Steve? Or what if it was another living, thinking creature like the villagers, or one of the helpless cows? She would have killed them, and that would have made her a murderer, unworthy of being the Princesses student, unworthy of her friends, unworthy of Equestria. 

A shiver traveled down her spine as the taste of bile rose in her throat. She leaned down and retched, the sound of wet splashing chunks of half-digested bread echoed off the walls, the sound and smell causing her to heave even more so. Soon she was empty, her body going through the motions but nothing more spilled to the ground.

She spit out the remaining amount clinging to her teeth and wiped her mouth clean. She staggered back to the wall and lay against it, tears matting the fur around her eyes. She didn’t want to do this anymore, she was done. Her hopes of a fun adventure had died with the zombie.

“I just want to go home…” She whimpered. Thoughts of her home, her family and friends pained her heart as she broke down.
> Reunited
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	She had stopped crying some time ago, instead choosing to simply lay still and stare at the wall, her back to the open cave. A small part of her warned that she wouldn’t be able to see any monster heading towards her; the other part of her ignored everything. Her mind was a torrential torrent of emotion, burying her in memories and self-pity. She was so lost in her own troubles that a sudden, unexpected ‘pompf’ sound nearly caused her heart to stop as her body locked up.

She stared at the wall in front of her with wide eyes, straining her ears. She knew that sound, the sound made by that horrible shadow. Her chest began to burn, and as much as she wanted to begin gulping down lungful after lungful of air, she resisted and managed to breathe as slowly as possible. She listened as the black monster wandered around behind her, seemingly paying her no mind.

Every now and then it made several gurgling sounds; whether or not it was some form of speech she wasn’t sure. The longer she lay there with nothing happening the more she was able to calm down. Her breathing regulated and she more easily tracked its movements. It sounded like it was rummaging around behind her, doing what exactly was beyond her.

Soon there was the sound of a familiar ‘pop’ as something was dislodged from its place, followed by another ‘pompf’ as it disappeared to parts unknown. She took a moment to gather her courage before pulling herself to her hooves. She lit her horn and looked around herself. 

The cave was as she remembered, a dead zombie was still on the ground, while the light of the torches could be seen further down the direction she ran from. The only thing that seemed out of place was the ground now had one block missing.

“Did… Did that thing just take a random block of stone?” She asked aloud. She shook her head and returned to her line of torches, lighting the cave up to where she ran headlong into the zombie. As she passed by the hole again she knew she shouldn’t just leave it like that. She reached into her bag and pulled out one of the stone blocks she had gathered from her own tunnel and set it into the hole.

There was a ‘pop’ and the hole had been filled, but instead of being as smooth as the stone around it, it was irregular and more cobbled together. She sighed and decided to let it go, now wasn’t the time to let her OCD kick in and fix the tunnel; she had to figure out a way to the surface and hopefully back to Steve.

She stepped around the zombie and placed another torch, then stepped bravely into the darkness. The walk for the most part was uneventful, she found several more veins of coal and even a few blocks of what appeared to be iron. Soon the end of the cave seemed to light up as she neared. She grinned and rushed forward, mindful of any obstacles while continuing to place torches behind her.

She was forced to slide to a stop, however, as the end of the cave suddenly dropped off in a sheer cliff. She scrambled backwards in a small amount of panic until she backed into one of the raised blocks of stone on the ground. She steadied her nerves and placed several torches around the edge, unfortunately she hadn’t been counting how many torches she had, and now found herself without any left.

She groaned in agitation, “One problem at a time, Twilight.” She said to herself. She took a moment to lay on her stomach and slowly crawl closer to the edge. She peered over and her breath was stolen away. The sight below her was beautiful; she must have been over three hundred feet above the bottom of the cliff. The entire floor was flooded with molten lava, lighting up the massive chasm bright enough to see the ceiling so far above her head. Rivers of magma flowed through various openings and joined the ever churning pool far below her.

She was so taken in by the sight that she almost didn’t hear the tell-tale sounds of a pickaxe working its way through stone. She squinted her eyes and pivoted her ears in effort to pin point the sounds. Soon she saw the cause; Steve was standing precariously on a narrow outcropping of stone mere feet above the lava as he carefully chipped away at a stone block glinting with a strange blue color.

She waited for him to finish collecting the blue gems before calling out, “Steve!” He paused and looked around in confusion. “Steve! Up here!” He followed the sound and his eyes settled upon his furry friend. He smiled and waved, then held up the blue gem triumphantly. 

Twilight smiled back, while she didn’t find an exit, finding a friend was the next best thing. She levitated several stone blocks from her bag and affixed them to the sides of his narrow path. They popped into place and quickly formed a much larger platform. A moment later she lit her horn and in a flash of pink teleported onto the platform.

She looked up to Steve with a smile, but he was staring intently at his feet, sweat forming on his face as he shivered in fear. She was confused for a moment; he was acting as if one of those shadow creatures was nearby. Her confusion turned to horror, her teleporting sounded just like the shadow creature! 

“Steve, Steve it’s okay. It was just me.” She cautiously reached out a hoof and set it onto his shoulder in a comforting manor. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to startle you.” He looked up at her touch and listened to her kind tones. He soon calmed down and patted her head.

He stood and motioned for her to follow. He led her through several winding tunnels, the bodies of several zombies, creeping exploders, spiders, and piles of bones lining the caves. “Wow, guess I was lucky with just my lone zombie.” He looked back at her and motioned for her to remain quiet. She nodded in compliance as they continued walking.

Eventually the stone blocks turned into crafted stone stairs that led up into a small shack. Twilight looked around in relief; they were finally out of the caves. Steve led her through the door to a familiar sight; they were actually back in the library. She smiled; the familiar scent of books was rather pleasant on her frayed nerves.

Steve poked her to get her attention. She turned and saw him holding out a book, she took it in her magic and opened it to the first page. She saw a series of images aligned in a box pattern followed by an item. The one she looked at had a stick with a piece of coal on one end, somehow that made a torch.

She looked at Steve skeptically, but he was already playing with the table in the corner. She rolled her eyes, it was at least worth the try. She pulled out a stick and one of her chunks of coal and jammed them together. There was another pop and suddenly she had four torches floating in her magic.

She stared at them and blinked, then repeated the process once more and finding herself plus four more torches. She shook her head in bafflement and returned to the book. This image showed a block of wood turning into planks. She pulled out a block of wood and looked at it. The other steps for the torches seemed pretty straight forward, but she had nothing to piece together with just a single block.

She shrugged and swung her hoof at it, hardly unfazed at this point as it was suddenly four blocks of wood planks. She went through the book, page by page and created several more items, one of which was another crafting table. She followed the more advanced pages using the materials she had on hoof and was quickly getting the hang of crafting. 

Soon she had a furnace of her own with a chest full of materials, a crafting table, and some iron bars. Steve admired her work with an approving nod, and then presented her with a grey item, iron horse armor. Twilight took it into her magic and attempted to equip it, unfortunately it seemed to reject her and burst into particles.

“Huh.” She said. She looked at Steve who had the same look on his face. He shook his head then returned to his side of the library. Twilight returned to the book and searched for the armor set she just tried to wear.

Looking at the item in more detail she noticed that it wasn’t meant for her smaller stature. She grabbed her iron bars and formed the pattern on her table and hit the button. This time the armor was slightly smaller and seemed like it would cover more of the neck and limbs than the other set of armor, allowing for free movement with the added protection.

She held it in her magic for a moment before pressing it to her back. There was a bit of a warping sound as her body was encased in light. She felt the metal stretch and mold to her body, and when the light faded she felt her new armor hugging her body rather comfortably.

She lifted a hoof to examine the armor; the leggings were segmented to allow free movement as she thought, as was the portion over her neck that seamlessly joined her helm, ending with a large curved blade in front of her horn. She looked over her back at the weapon and tool holsters attached at her withers while the center of her back was free to allow her saddle bags to be worn. She was even pleasantly surprised that the armor also sported her cutie-mark on her haunches.

She smiled and laughed giddily, trotting around the room in her excitement. Steve watched with a smile, mostly glad he didn’t accidently waste any more diamonds with the horse armor. He stood and motioned for her to follow him up a set of stairs. 

A few moments later they arrived in a greenhouse of sorts. Being underground, the ceiling instead of being glass to allow sunlight to filter through was instead a multitude of glowing rock, or glowstone for the uncreative.

There were several rows of various plants that Twilight saw growing in the village she found, mainly wheat, carrots and potatoes. There was even an extra row of what appeared to be sugarcane growing as well. Twilight smiled at the simple elegance of it.

The next hour was filled with Steve showing Twilight how to farm. She had never done any farm work other than help buck apples, and this was nothing compared to farming in her world. It was almost too easy, smack the ground with the hoe and it was tilled in an instant. Planting crops was simply placing the seeds on the tilled land, and they instantly spouted. About a half hour later they are fully grown and ready to harvest, which consisted of smacking the plant and exploding it into several piles of seeds and wheat, or  multitude of carrots and potatoes which could be planted again right away.

Twilight stood and looked over the fields of freshly replanted crops with a small smile on her face. She shifted her bag, it was deceptively light for being packed full of various vegetables. She wandered to one of the windows lining the wall and looked out into the cavern the house was built in, once more marveling at the sheer size of it.

She glanced down in thought, ‘This place is really beautiful in its own way, I wonder if I could ever come back and visit from time to time when I make it home?’ She looked back at Steve, ‘For a friend, I would find a way. That’s a promise.’

She looked back out the window; her sight was filled with angry, glaring purple eyes. The skin on its head was black as the deepest night and stretched tightly over the skull. Darkness seemed to roll off of its body in waves as it stared into her soul. The lower half of its face opened impossibly wide, and it screamed.

> Confrontation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The window shattered as a massive concussive force erupted from the creature, several of the stone and wood blocks becoming dislodged in the process. Twilight was flung back against the far wall, the force of the scream pinning her in place.

Steve wasted no time; he quickly re-equipped his light blue crystal armor and leapt forward, matching sword slashing through the creature. Instead of biting into flesh, the sword passed through the monster as though it were made of shadow, quickly dissipating into nothing at the sound of teleportation.

Once it was out of sight the blast of energy relented, allowing Twilight to fall shakily to her hooves. She sat down as her legs gave out, Steve backing up to her defensively as the cries continued to echo around the room.

There was another sound of teleportation; the black creature appeared before them. In that split second, the horrible image of the monster burned itself into Twilight’s mind. The head looked like an overlarge skull, the skin stretched taunt over it so tightly it easily revealed every bump and curve of the skull. The rest of the body was the same, arms and legs thin as twigs, and overly long and spindly. The arms ended in hands much like Steve’s, but they ended in long sharp claws that would shame a manticore’s in comparison. The supporting feet of the monster were elongated much the same way, ending in clawed, boney appendages. Over all its body, a shroud of darkness ebbed from it, concentrated in the empty eye sockets where the darkness let out its own purple glow. The monster’s mouth was horribly wide, stretching downward far longer than was natural; a blank white emptiness resided within as the sound continued unabated.

Time sped up for Twilight as it lunged forward, gliding effortlessly across the distance to Steve and landed a powerful swing on him. Steve grunted as the force knocked him back several feet. He landed in a ready position, his armor taking most of the blow. The monster had teleported right after landing the blow, appearing behind Steve as he tried to get a lock onto it.

The monster swung again, this time the blow threw Steve into the wall where the monster teleported in front of him with his arm raised to strike once more. Steve ducked to the side, the clawed hand missing his head by mere inches and tearing out several blocks of the wall. Steve reversed the hold on his blade and stabbed sideways as he ducked past, cutting into the monster’s leg deeply.

A horrible screech of pain rumbled throughout the room, echoing further into the cavern as it teleported out of sight again. The screams turned from pained to enraged, making the horrible sounds all the more soul wrenching.

Steve’s head swiveled back and forth, keeping a sharp ear out for the monster, ready to evade or lash out at a moment’s notice. His armor was beginning to show signs wear, several scratches along the surface with a small dent here and there, but it will hold for now.

Twilight sat there, stunned at the ferocity of the monster as it swatted Steve around like a doll. She felt something wet drip onto her fetlock; she raised her hoof to take a look. A red splotch of blood was seeping into her fur, followed by another. She wiped her nose, more blood smearing onto her leg. She ignored it for the moment, instead taking this time to reach into her bag and remove another vial of potion. She downed it in a few sips and levitated her last one up to Steve.

He smiled at her as he reached for it, but the monster teleported behind him as soon as he dropped his guard, arm already in motion. Steve wasn’t able to react in time as Twilight’s eyes widened in horror. The arm crashed down on the side of Steve’s head, he let out a pained yell as he tumbled sideways. Before he could stop his roll the monster glided across the floor and struck him dead center on the chest, sending small bits of crystal glittering through the air.

The armor held, allowing Steve to grip his blade and force it upwards. He struck the monster through the chest, the sword piercing out of its back side. It screamed louder as it fought against the blow, teleporting rapidly but always appearing in the same spot with the blade through its heart. The darkness seemed to lift from its body as its struggles grew weaker, yet still it cried out. Steve twisted the blade, spurts of dark blood splashed out against his face that quickly evaporated into shadow.

There was a dark flash as the darkness disappeared, the screams soon fading away as the purple in the eyes faded to darkness. Steve grunted as she shoved the corpse off of him and pulled the sword from its chest, the blood staining it evaporating quickly. The body twitched, then began to curl in on itself, coiling tightly into a ball. Dark shadows hissed from the corpse as it condensed and molded itself. Soon the process was over, the body now a small blue pearl.

Steve rose to his feet and picked it up, then dropped it into his satchel. He staggered over to Twilight, she was a mess. Her nose had stopped bleeding but the blood staining her muzzle and foreleg remained. She was sobbing softly to herself, trying to make as little noise as possible as though it would bring the monster back.

Steve patted her head reassuringly as he picked up the unused health potion. A few moments after downing it he was refilled with energy once more. He turned from Twilight and began to gather the dislodged blocks and set them back in their proper places. Twilight was able to pull herself together and help rebuild a section of the wall.

Their job soon done Steve led her into one of the upper rooms of the mansion. There he showed her into a comfortable room with several potted plants, more bookshelves, and a bed. Twilight ignored the rest of the room and plopped herself down on the bed, quickly passing out in its soft embrace





It had been three days since Twilight’s mishap with the portal, and progress with the spell has been slow but steady.

“Princess,” Flicker started as they made their way down into the crystal caverns, “We have determined the exit of the waypoint, and it does lead to a land of some kind but we are unable to determine anything beyond that. However, using the rune as it was is far too unstable, so we needed to create something far stronger in order to hold it open for a solid path.”

“One step closer…” The princess whispered before asking, “So how do you plan to rectify that?”

Flicker smiled, “We have determined the use of magically charged blocks of cooled lava, pure obsidian. They are able to withstand the magic of the portal much better than any other substance we tried to use. We have determined that the portal should be a closed ring, and judging by the amount of power a single block can sustain we have determined the use of eighteen blocks in total.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow, “That’s quite the number.”

“Indeed.” Flicker nodded. “We have already begun construction.” They reached the end of the hall and walked through the door into a large antechamber, the same one that contained the waypoint spell. On the far wall large blocks of black obsidian exactly one cubic meter in size were mounted onto the wall in an odd pattern.

The bottom was three blocks in width, as was the top. The outer top corner of the bottom platform was touching the bottom corner of a single block, which was touching another corner of a stack of four blocks, forming a crude octagon pattern.

Several mages were looking back and forth between their paperwork and the blocks of obsidian. “Each block needs to have the exact same pattern engraved on it.” Flicker explained, “Once that’s done we can begin testing.”

“Good.” Celestia nodded, “And Flicker? Do be more cautious this time.”

“Of course, Your Highness.”


> Beyond the Gates
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Steve watched Twilight’s prone form with a small smile as she passed out on the bed, she reminded him of himself his first few days here. He softly closed the door behind him as he headed back toward the library, thoughts of his strange purple friend floating though his mind.

Once he was downstairs he made a beeline to his large chest, where he removed several more of the ever so rare diamonds and an old set of his diamond armor. He made his way to the anvil in the corner and went about repairing their durability. His face was set in grim determination, an Enderman this close to his home meant one thing: they found him again, and they were coming.





Twilight stirred awake, her body demanding rest but her mind was working overtime. She tossed and turned in the sheets, trying to find that blissful comfort she felt mere moments ago. Giving up, she decided to simply lay still and listen to the silence around her.

Unfortunately that silence was interrupted by a sharp metallic clang, jolting her upright in the bed. She listened for it again and wasn’t disappointed. The sound rang out once more from the floor below. Fed up with trying to sleep she threw the sheets off of her body, vaguely thinking she may have slept better if she took her armor off.

The clang sounded again as she made her way into the hall. She glanced back to close the door, raising an eyebrow at the pristine bed that somehow made itself while she wasn’t looking. She shrugged it off and closed the door. The clang resounded one last time as she followed it into the library. There she saw Steve hunched over what appeared to be an anvil, fiddling with his armor.

He re-equipped the armor and she noticed that it looked as good as new. Intrigued, she removed the book he had given her and flipped through the pages to find the anvil. The first page showed her how to make one, apparently using a lot of iron; the next page showed her how to use it. She nodded in understanding, using a like item to repair a like item seemed pretty straight forward. 

She put the book away in time to see Steve turn toward a wall and stand on a hidden pressure plate. There was a sound similar to a steam piston and suddenly the wall opened up, revealing a dark tunnel. Steve turned around, causing Twilight to hide around the corner. Steve shrugged and descended into the darkness.

Twilight watched as he left, the steam piston hissed again and the wall was reformed. She pondered her actions for a moment, was she really about to follow Steve into the hidden tunnel? What if he just wanted to be alone? She shook her head; if he just wanted to be alone he wouldn’t take the time to repair his armor first. She nodded her head, decision made. ‘If Steve is about to fight something, I’ll do my best to help.’

Twilight walked up to the unassuming wall and stood where she saw Steve not a moment before. She felt a slight shift as the plate depressed into the floor and the familiar hiss of steam met her ears. The wall in front of her suddenly opened up, revealing the dark passageway. She tentatively walked forward, her hoof steps echoing off the smooth walls.

Once she was a few feet into the tunnel the pistons activated and the light from the library was cut out as the wall sealed behind her. She lit her horn against the darkness and descended down the long staircase.





The darkness was always stifling down at the bedrock, the only stone even his diamond pick was unable to crack. He had his reservations about what this chamber was specifically built for, but the valuable materials he needed could not be gathered otherwise. 

At the far end of the chamber was what appeared to be a wall of lava that pooled on the ground. He approached a switch on the wall and pulled it down, and waited. The lava had stopped flowing continuously, instead slowly flowing lower and lower to the ground. As the lava faded to nothing, the twisted and melted remains of various monsters were revealed. The wall of lava performed its job admirably, killing anything that tried to come through.

Once the lava had fully disappeared, he walked forward toward the newly revealed Nether Portal. He pulled out his sword and stepped into the purple field. It had always made him queasy as it seemed to push and pull him constantly before a great pressure shoved him someplace impossibly far away, but he wasn’t moving at all.

He stumbled forward and almost tripped as he stepped out of the portal. He scanned the area for a moment, once he was sure he wasn’t about to be attacked he took a moment to down a regeneration and strength enhancement potion. He winced at the bitter taste as he set off toward a familiar cave, moving swiftly as to not attract undue attention to himself.





Twilight picked her way passed the melted remains in the chamber, cautiously approaching the odd field of energy. Steve was nowhere to be found and the only things she saw in the chamber were the dead monsters and the odd energy field. It felt magical, but after further investigation if felt… evil. She shuddered, why would Steve have such a thing? It made sense to hide it deep underground, but what was the point of it?

She looked around once more before sighing, there really was nowhere else to go but into the portal after Steve. She checked her armor and readied her pickaxe. She cautiously stepped up to it, feeling the light thrum of power deep within her being, as though it were judging her motives. With one last gulp she hopped up onto the stone and through the portal.





Steve had wandered these ancient castle halls in the nether countless times before, his original signs pointing what lay ahead old reminders of his first trials in this nightmarish landscape. As he navigated through the halls by memory he mentally went over his checklist for materials he needed.

He had to find to find the fire elementals, blazes, for the rods they dropped, and then using those with the ender pearls he could find the main portal they entered his world from. Once he finds it, he’ll destroy it just like he had to all the others in the past.

His musing was interrupted though, as he heard the tell-tale creak and rattle of bone on bone. He turned around quickly, his diamond sword rising just fast enough to block a powerful blow. His foe, a skeleton of black bone wielding a massive great sword, pressed into the attack. Steve was pushed back from the force, his diamond boots scraping across the stone floor with a horrid screech.

He shifted his hold and rolled to the side, the force behind the great sword sending it into the floor with a resounding crack. Taking the opportunity, he swung his diamond sword with all his might. He was grateful for downing those strength and regeneration potions beforehand. The added strength to his swing chipped away at the bones, but it did little to stop the skeleton.

It quickly recovered and stood to its full height, nearly three feet taller than Steve himself. He dropped low and brought up his sword defensively. These skeletons were indeed among some of the most powerful monsters he had ever encountered, but once he found their weakness and exploited it; there was little they can do to stop him.

As expected, the skeleton swung straight down. Steve deflected the attack into the stone once again, this time swinging his sword onto the skeleton’s wrist, striking hard enough to cause a spider web of cracks to shoot across the arm. He jumped back as the skeleton ripped the sword from the ground and swung it around backhanded. 

Once more it readied its sword and marched toward him. Steve repeated his movements and waited for the strike, he was soon rewarded for his patience. The skeleton struck again, but this time Steve was able to sever the skeletal claw grasping the sword and sent it skittering across the floor.

He then kicked out the stunned skeleton’s legs, causing it to fall on its face. He stood over it and swung repeatedly, severing each limb then the head. Once he was finished he moved the pieces away from each other. He had learned long ago that these skeletons are never truly killed; all he could do was separate the pieces so it would take longer for it to pull itself together. 

Done with his task, he set off once again toward one of the only remaining gates spitting out the blazes.





She felt herself being pulled along as she fell through reality, the land on the other side quickly meeting her hooves. She shook her head to re-orientate herself, and then her breath was taken away. She had personally seen the Gates of Tartarus herself, and even had a brief description of the inside from the princesses themselves, but this place made Tartarus look like a child’s playground.

It was red everywhere she looked; the red ground beneath her hooves was porous and felt like coal, several blocks around her burned without an end in sight, like the material would burn forever. Looking out further she saw the vast majority of the new world was covered in lava. It fell like a waterfall from the ceiling of the massive cavern and pooled far below in what could only be described as a lake of lava.

She turned around to see what lay behind her; luckily the exit was on one of the few bits of solid ground jutting out from a sheer cliff. But what caught her attention was a torch, several of them in fact, seeming to lead into a cave nearby. She did a double take and looked around more closely. There were indeed many caves scattered around, and if there was a maze of caves underground then she could get lost very quickly.

She began to follow the path of torches, carefully avoiding the fires that were scattered around. Suddenly the ground to her right erupted in a fiery explosion, sending her sailing through the air. She landed in a roll and jumped to her hooves, silently thankful her armor absorbed most of the damage as she looked around for the cause.

Just in time she saw a massive ball of flame growing larger as it sailed toward her. She leapt to the side and avoided another explosion as it impacted, scattering red stone and setting several on fire. She looked out over the lake of lava, following the trajectory of the fire ball. She gasped in shock and froze in terror. There floating high over the lake was what looked like a giant pale jellyfish, with a face. 

Its soulless black eyes were locked onto her, it opened its mouth and she could faintly hear a horrible screech as it blasted another fireball her way. She moved to the side, the distance allowing her to easily avoid it entirely. The jellyfish seemed to hum in contemplation for a moment as it floated closer, shooting more balls of fire at her. 

Left with no choice, Twilight turned tail and fled into the tunnel lined with torches, the entrance exploding behind her. She sighed in relief; the monster was hovering near the portal looking for her, but seemed to give up as it began to wander off out of sight.

She put the entrance behind her as she followed the trail of torches deep into the twisting red caves. They seemed to cross over each other, resulting in Twilight having to avoid falling into another tunnel and back tracking on occasion as the torches went into an easily missed tunnel. Eventually she came upon a black stone wall with several blocks knocked out of place.

She cautiously stuck her head through the wall and looked around. She was greeted with a welcome sight, a familiar chest and several odds and ends lined the walls, as well as a number of torches lighting the chamber.

From here there were several signs pointing to each of the three stone halls. She pondered for a moment, unable to read the signs and having no idea which direction her friend had wandered off to. Her decision was made for her, however, as she heard a clash of steel on steel. 

She took off down the right hall, following the sounds of a fierce battle. However, the sounds of the fight had stopped long before her arrival, but all she found was a discarded great sword and a few black bones scattered around. She was looking closer when one of the bones twitched and slowly rolled to another, connecting into an elbow.

Twilight was able to hold back of screams as she scooted back towards the far wall. She watched with wide eyes as the two bones flexed back and forth, achieving nothing other than creeping her out. She scooted along the wall in an attempt to remain as far away from it as possible. Once she was passed she broke into a gallop, hoping to catch up to Steve.





Steve hated the magma cubes. The slimes on his side of the gate were more annoying than dangerous, but the magma cubes here had a tendency to set his clothing on fire, a lot. While his burns would heal rather quickly, sheering sheep and crafting clothing was far too tedious for his liking.

Steve danced around them as best he could as his attacks broke them into smaller and smaller slimes. Eventually the last one was slain and evaporated, allowing him to continue on. He only made it a few steps before one of the blazes he was looking for floated around the corner ahead of him.

He dodged to the side as it wasted no time in its attacks, Steve in turn taking out his bow and notching an arrow. He dodged another blast and quickly took aim, he only had a few precious seconds between blasts of fire to line up the shot, and then let the arrow fly.

Unfortunately he missed, striking the wall behind it. He dodged to the side as the fire blasted against the ground behind him. He notched another arrow and shot quickly, this time his aim was true, striking it in the center of its body and causing it to sputter a moment. As he readied a third arrow two more blazes joined it. He cursed to himself and hid around another corner. He dug into his pack as blasts of fire bombarded his cover, soon pulling out a fire resistance potion. He popped the cork and drank it in a few sips. A few seconds later he felt his body temperature cool, making him feel as though he were in the mountains again.

He readied his sword this time and ran around the corner, charging the blazes head on. His sword was able to deflect some of the attacks, while those that hit him bounced off his armor doing minimal damage. He stabbed one in its fiery core, causing it to explode in a brilliant burst of flames. Next he swung to his left, knocking the second into the wall where the flames dispersed, revealing a blaze rod. He swung down over his head on top of the last one, causing another rod to drop to the ground.

He picked them up, their size small enough to easily fit into his bag. He shook his head, he would need a few more of these, and blowing them up would get him nowhere. He set off around the corner and headed toward the gate they were born from.





Twilight stuck her head around the corner toward the sound of more fighting, but quickly pulled it back as a stream of fire shot passed, blackening several hairs as it did. She took a moment to calm herself back down and looked again, this time with her magic at the ready.

She smiled; she finally caught up to Steve! He was standing next to a black cage that had a small fire creature trapped inside. As she watched, an opening appeared on top of it and a much larger version of the creature floated out, followed by Steve smashing it with his sword.

The elemental flames dispersed, revealing a short fiery rod, which Steve placed into his bag. He hadn’t noticed her yet and she was about to call out when she heard steps coming from the dark hall to her left. She turned in time to see a massive black skeleton charging towards her. She immediately ran in the opposite direction, but the skeleton proved to be faster. 

It quickly caught up and swung down at her, clipping her right flank hard enough to send her tumbling to the ground. She looked up to see the skeleton bringing down the sword on her again, this time she was able to cast a shield in front of her. It blocked the attack but it would only take a few more hits before it shattered. 

She reached out in her magical aura and brought the pickaxe to bear, prepared to fight against this skeleton as best she could. She waited for the barrier to break, and with one final swing of the great sword the shield gave way, causing the skeleton to stumble for a moment.

Twilight swung her pickaxe at the skeleton, but her aim was off and she just managed to clip it. The skeleton recovered and swung the sword at her again. She deflected with the pickaxe as she spun around and bucked with enough force to make AJ proud. She connected with the skeleton’s knees, shattering them to pieces as it fell to the ground.

It didn’t stop though, it tried to crawl towards her but she had other ideas. She charged her horn with magic and blasted it, the force behind the beam blowing the bones to pieces. Once she was sure it was nothing more than dust she relented, all that remained was several blocks missing from the floor.

A sudden clang ran out behind her, causing her to jump in the air. She spun around and charged her horn, but cut off the magic as she saw who it was. Steve was standing there, wide-eye and slack-jawed with his sword on the ground next to him, having fallen from his loose grip.

She chuckled nervously, not only had she been caught following him, but also had apparently blown his mind with the power of her magic. That or her mane was a mess, she thought with a chuckle. Steve shook himself out of it and picked up his sword. He patted Twilight on her armored head and motioned for her to follow him.

He led her back to the main room, where he pulled out a book and drew several shapes on the pages. Once he was finished he showed them to her. She took the book in her magic and interpreted the drawings. There was a crude rendering of the tall black screaming monster with an X through it, followed by a picture of the blue pearl it transformed into.

The next set of pages showed the fire elemental he was fighting, and the rod he had collected from them. The rods would need to be broken down into powder, then it showed the powder and the pearl being combined to form a serpentine eye. The next set of pages were difficult to interpret, but it looked like he was going to use the eyes to find another portal, one that looked like the black monsters were coming through.

She nodded her head, “You’re going to stop them.” She looked up at him, “I’m going too, and I can’t let my friend face them alone!” He stared at her declaration blankly, and then motioned toward the book for her to read it. She nodded her head indicating she understood what he was doing, and then pointed to herself then to the black monsters on the portal, then to her horn.

He thought for a moment before nodding, a powerful ally on his side would make the battle all the easier, it was no fun fighting three of them at once. She smiled back up at him and stored the book in her bags, then followed him back to the over world.






Elsewhere


In a small room hidden far underground rested a horizontal portal of the darkest black that thrummed with power and pure evil intent. From this portal emerged a large number of black monsters, each one screaming a battle cry. War was at hand, and this time the battlefield will not be in their sacred chamber, but in his.


> Through the Gate
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Shining Armor stood at the head of a small detachment of soldiers, before them was a large blocky circle holding open a swirling red portal. He looked to his left at his hoof picked commander, a young thestral by the name of Faina. While young she had amazing skills in combat, her special ability allowing her to control and travel through shadows themselves. He had no doubt she will aid greatly in the battle to come, if they were met with any opposition that is.

“Alright, listen up!” The elder Archmage Flicker shouted, no doubt using magic to amplify his voice for all to hear, “By our calculations the portal is holding steady and anypony should be able to pass through freely. Side effects should be limited to slight nausea and dizziness if you’re not used to teleporting. Now, everypony has two yellow-disk things in their bags. These are the fail-safe return stones. In case something happens and you can’t return to this portal in time or another catastrophic event destroys it on that side, these will bring you back. Worry not, we sent several through on a timer and they returned to the Canterlot Medical Wing. The other, obviously, is for Twilight. I know we gave everypony two but better safe than sorry. Any questions?”

The chamber fell silent as those gathered mulled over his words. “Good! Captain Armor, it’s all yours. I wish you and your troops safe passage and the best of luck with the mission.”

Shining nodded, determination chiseled into his face. “Thank you, Archmage.” He stepped up near the portal on the rise so everypony could see him better. “And thank you, everypony, for volunteering for this mission. There is too much we simply don’t know, so we must prepare for anything. Commander Faina and I will head in first and establish a perimeter. The first team will wait thirty seconds before joining us, followed by team two a minute later with the gear. Are we ready?”

The rest of the guards nodded and strapped their gear tighter to their bodies, tense and ready to go. Shining turned and faced the portal and was soon joined by Faina. 

“Ready?” He asked.

Faina smirked, “I live for this.”

Shining smirked back, “Then let’s save Twili!” 

Together they shot forward through the portal. Unfortunately for both of them, the Archmage greatly underestimated the toll the portal would inflict on their body. A normal teleport feels like a slight pull while being spun in a circle. This portal felt like being stretched an infinite length while being twisted around like a pretzel, and lasting seemingly forever.

Thankfully they arrived on the other side of the portal and landed in a heap. Shining, while unable to stand, was going through a mental checklist to make sure he was alright. His concentration was broken by the sound of Faina emptying her stomach nearby.

“You going to be alright?” It took more concentration than he would have like to say, but he had to stay strong, for Twilight.

“Y-yea…” Faina went silent for a moment before retching again, the wet sound soon after painting a clear picture for Shining.

“Alright, just take it easy, I’ll start setting up the perimeter.” Shining forced himself to hid hooves, his legs shaking for a moment before his strength returned. Once the dizziness left him he opened his eyes and took in the surrounding landscape, and gasped.

He had heard stories of Tartarus, a cold dark place of stone to imprison those of the purest evil. He had no idea it could be so much worse. The first thing he noticed was the lava, it was everywhere he looked, there was even a river of it not too far from where they came through the portal. 

Looking out revealed a massive cavern, large enough to hold Canterlot Castle with ease and some of the surrounding buildings. The bottom was nothing but an ocean of lava, the heat rising up more than enough to singe his fur from his height. He looked upward toward the ceiling; there he noticed a large number of glowing rocks hanging down like a chandelier.

He noticed that the glowing ore was made of perfectly square blocks. Raising an eyebrow he looked over his surroundings again, noting the red stone he stood on also appeared to be perfect cubes. He gazed back up at the ceiling just in time to see a massive ball of fire headed straight at him.

His training kicked in as he threw himself to the ground, “DOWN!” he yelled out, hoping his commander heard him. The fireball passed over him harmlessly and detonated behind him in a fiery explosion and screams of pain.

He leapt to his hooves and ran toward the portal, or what remained of it. The symmetrical stone blocks that held the energy had been blown apart, smaller pebble sized square rocks were all that remained amongst a series of small fires around the blast zone. He ignored this in favor of checking on Faina, the blast had thrown her into the stone wall with quite a bit of force.

“Faina! Faina, speak to me!”

She moved slowly as she started to regain consciousness, wincing as several motions caused more than a bit of pain. “I-I think my wing is broken.”

Shining quickly examined her wings, the side that met the wall was bruised badly and her wing was bent at an odd angle.

“Alright, nothing I can’t fix but we need to move and find cover now, can you run?”

Faina stood shakily, doing her best to keep her wing pinned to her body. She winced at the weight on her hind leg but fought through the pain. “Think I’ve got a sprain too, but I can move-LOOK OUT!”

Shining spun around defensively in time to see a while blocky creature rise over the edge of the cliff, and raised a shield as it screamed out another ball of fire. Shining braced for the blast as it hit, devastating the ground around him but his shield stood firm.

The creature rose further into the air with a high pitched hum and shot another fireball with a squeal, this one impacting the wall next to them. Shining re-focused his shield with practiced ease and blocked the blast once again, setting more stone around them on fire.

Faina noticed the blast revealed what appeared to be a cave just through the wall. “Captain! Cave!” She called out as she started to limp her way to safety. Shining looked back and saw the cave as well and expanded his shield to encompass the entrance.

“Alright! Go!” He called out. 

Faina limped as fast as she could and jumped into the cave. The drop to the floor, while not long, made her wings open on reflex. She screamed in pain as her left wing folded over itself in the short fall to the ground. She landed on her bad leg causing searing pain to spike through it as it throbbed. Her body began to shake uncontrollably from the pain in her wing as she tried to shift her weight onto her good side.

Shining leaped down next to her, his hooves clopping firmly against the stone as they absorbed the impact. He seemed to wait a moment before his horn stopped glowing as he dropped the shield outside, the strange creature having lost interest now that they weren’t in the open.

“Faina, hey, you still with me?” He asked as he started looking her over, noticing she was now much worse for wear than before. “I think you should use your portal device and get to the medical bay, this looks really bad.”

Faina grunted and hissed through her teeth to turn and glare at him. “The portal is destroyed, nopony is coming through for a long time, and until you find your sister I’m all you got! Now heal me so we can both get the buck out of here!”

Shining took her words in stride, “Alright, I need to set the wing and it’s going to hurt. A lot.” He removed his saddlebags and placed a thick strap in front of her, which she bit down on. 

Shining moved to her side and gently let his magic flow over her wing. “Ready?” Faina nodded and squeezed her eyes shut in preparation. “On three, okay?” She nodded again and took a few deep breaths. “Ok, one-!” A muffled scream echoed down the cave as Shining straightened her wing in one swift movement then poured in soothing healing magic.

Faina was breaking out in a heavy sweat as she started shaking again, her vision fading slowly. Shining noticed her sagging head and drooping eyes and jabbed her in a bruised rib, causing her to jolt back awake.

“Ow! That hurt you flank!” 

“I need you to stay with me; I’m just finishing mending the bones together but the wing will still be tender, I’ll help with the pain and swelling in the sprained leg and ribs too.” He said. 

“You came out of that without a scratch; I’m beginning to suspect foul play here.” She said with a weak chuckle.

“Yea well I’m not done with you yet, I’ve seen you take some serious beatings and get right back up.” He said as he carefully folded her wing back against her side. His horn lit up again as he started mending her bruises and sprains.

Faina shifted her wing around carefully, “Not too shabby, might even be able to fly in a pinch.”

“Well then let’s just avoid those situations.” She chuckled in response. Silence fell between them as Shining finished mending her wounds.

Faina’s sensitive ears perked and swiveled about, a looks of confusion spread over her face. “You hear that?” She asked.

Shining paused for a moment to listen as well, “Uh, no… I don’t hear anything.”

“Well hurry up, something’s coming. A lot of something’s.” Shining nodded and focused more intently, her wounds mending slightly faster than before. After another minute he cut off his magic with a few pants.

“That should get you back on your hooves, try not to overdo it.”

“Gee, thanks doc. I’ll get right on that, don't want to lose your meat shield too early in the mission?”

Shining rolled his eyes, "Yeah, sure. Now come on, I'd rather not be ambushed."