Chapter 1: The Pony Under the Cloak

1,000 Years After the Appearance of the Monsters

On a dirt path not too far off from a town named Ponyville was a small group of Adventurers looking to make their mark.

The small group consisted of two mares and a stallion. The mares were the brute force of the group: one of the mares, Iron Glade, was an earth pony who utilized iron-forged hoof gauntlets that attached to each of her forehooves, and the other mare, Dust Trauma, was a unicorn who preferred dual-wielding a set of dense iron hammers with her magic. As for the stallion, Whistling Wood, he was also a unicorn but rather than using brute force as the mares did, he liked supporting from the back lines with the use of his wooden bow that shot out magically constructed arrows. Each pony also had a set of Manticore hide armor that added a small layer of protection over their softer skin.

"This is great!" Iron Glade shouted out in glee with a wide smile upon her face and a little skip in her gate. "At long last, we all finally became Rank-C Adventurers! I remember when we first took the trials, they were a lot harder than we thought they would be and were devastated when the Hub receptionist informed us we were rank-D. But those days are gone now! We're finally Rank-C! Rank-C!~ Rank-C!~" Glade happily announced over and over again as she hopped along the path brimming with excitement.

"Yes yes, Glade. Yay, we're Rank-C." Whistling Wood exasperated because of Glade's overhyped mood. Meanwhile, Dust Trauma, who was ignoring the entire debacle, was busy scanning the tree line to the right side of the path to keep a lookout for any unusual movements. She wouldn't let her guard down even for a second outside in these monster-infested wildernesses.

They continued along the path for a while longer before Trauma caught sight of some rustling bushes in the forest. "Hey, Glade, Wood hold up a second." Getting their attention both ponies halted their travels and turned towards Trauma.

Wood looked questioningly at her while Glade, with an inquisitive tilt of her head, questioned, "What? What is it Trauma?"

Turning back, Trauma looked at the pair. "I'm pretty sure I just spotted some movement coming from the forest over there. I'm going to go check it out real quick."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Wood asked with a little hesitation in his voice. "Because you never know what's lurking out there. I don't want you getting hurt."

"Thanks for the sentiment Wood, but I think I'll be fine. Besides, from what I saw, the movement didn't seem to indicate anything too big. It's probably just some overgrown rat or something." Trauma brushed off Wood's concern while at the same time reassuring him.

"Ohhh, just be really really really careful Trauma! I really really really don't want to see you getting hurt!" After Glade's worried input Trauma nodded her head and slowly shuffled her way to the edge of the forest where she saw the origins of the movement.

Reaching the edge of the forest she stopped just shy of entering it and tried to peer through the dense foliage. Not having any success Trauma decided to take a couple of steps closer and raise her head up higher in an attempt to look over the thick bushes that blocked her sight. When that still didn't work, Trauma grew a little annoyed and just stuck her head through the bushes. Peeking her head through, she saw nothing at first and let out a little sigh of relief, but in that short time she let her guard down it all transpired in mere moments.

In a sudden turn of events, Trauma was rendered motionless for a long... long time.

Some time has gone by and back on the pathway where Wood and Glade were anxiously watching Trauma; Wood whisperd to Glade, "Don't you think she's had her head in that bush for a little while now?"

"Yeah, maybe we should go and check on her?" Glade offered.

"Yeah... sure... let's go" I have a bad feeling about this... Wood thought to himself as they made their way over to Trauma's motionless form.

Now standing next to Trauma, Glade nudged her side a couple of times, "Hey Trauma what are you doing?" No response. "Trauma come onnnn, don't ignore us!" Glade whined out while continuing to nudge Trauma's side.

Sticking his forehoof out in front of Glade, she surprisingly picked up on the sign and stopped her persistent nudging. "Something isn't right." Wood said out loud but more to himself. Oblivious to Glade's questioning glance Wood walked up to the bushes hiding Trauma's head from view and stuck his head through as well. "Come on Trauma stop messing around, why are you ig... noring... us..." Wood's voice trailed off as he turned to look at Trauma. The scene he bore witness to caused his eyes to shoot wide open with shock and the feeling of bile to force its way to the forefront of his throat.

Barely containing the urge to vomit he turned back around and rushed his shaky legs as fast as he possibly could back to Glade, a couple of tears threatening to fall from his eyes. "GLADE!" Wood shouted out, "We gotta go NOW!"

A little put off by Wood's sudden change in demeanor Glade adopted a quizzical expression while staying in place, not really comprehending why Wood was acting the way he was. Impatient with her lack of compliance he started frantically pushing Glade back away from the tree line hoping to get her away from the harrowing sight he just beheld.

Not liking his actions Glade, who was a good deal stronger than Wood, planted herself firmly to the ground and refused to move. "Wood stop!" Glade yelled in an attempt to coerce Wood out of his panicked state. "WOOD! Please just calm down and tell me whats wr—" Glade's next words were cut off as a guttural screech ripped through the air.

Hearing the screech Wood jumped into the air shrieking before he ran around Glade and cowered behind her. Baffled at Wood's reaction Glade looked to the direction the loud screech came from. Her body tensed and froze, her face drained of color, her eyes constricted, her heart rate skyrocketed, her breathing came out in spazzes, and lastly, she croakingly muttered out a single name, "Trau... ma?"

What Glade was now viewing in front of her was the towering four-meter-tall (13ft.) Class-A monster known as the Scorpada. The Scorpada was really just an oversized scorpion known for having razor-sharp pincers and an even sharper stinger, but not only that, it's chitin was solid enough to deflect any form of bladed weapons.

Luckily Glade's choice of weapon utilized blunt force, unluckily Glade was too catatonic muttering her friend's name over and over again while denying the sight in front of her. Her same friend who was dangling freely in the air by the Scorpada's sharp stinger jammed into her lower jaw with the point of it visibly protruding out from the top of her skull.

In Wood's cowering he noticed how tense Glade became and decided to forgo a little of his cowardice and lift his head up off the ground to view what was transpiring... Bad idea.

The sight Wood was privy to was that of the giant Scorpada flicking its stinger forward and slinging the perished body of Dust Trauma straight at them. Wood's features grew even more panicked and he started to rapidly shuffle away from the incoming projectile. His actions proved to be a bad move because the body flew straight over the still spaced out Glade and impacted brutally against his own, knocking himself to the ground dazed.

Black spots began shrouding his vision and he was light-headed due to the rough impact. Slowly, Wood pushed himself off the ground with a groan and shook his head, trying to whisk away the black spots. Regaining a small semblance of sight Wood applied a bit of pressure to the side of his head with his hoof to try and deter the oncoming headache and turned to look for Glade hoping to see if she was alright.

Sadly, all Wood could see was a massive moving form of some sort because of the black spots still taking up the majority of his vision. He closed his eyes and shook his head once more then reopened them to see that the black spots disappeared, but that was not all.

A little distance away right in front of his very eyes, he saw one of the Scorpada's pincers spread wide open with Glade directly in the middle of them. "GLADE! GLADE RUN!" Woods hysterically screamed out with tears falling down his cheeks. "DAMMIT GLADE! PLEASE SNAP OUT OF IT AND RUN AWAY!" Wood's shouting fell on mostly deaf ears only gaining a single response out of the far too gone mare.

She slowly twisted her head and peered into Wood's crying eyes with lifeless ones of her own. Time seemed to slow down for Wood as he watched the pincers start to zoom closed. "GLADE!" He bellowed out, but that was the last moment Wood ever got to have with her before the pincer fully snapped shut, severing Glade's head from the rest of her body.

Wood couldn't cope with any more of it, he just bore witness to the deaths of his two closest friends not even ten minutes apart. Turning around, with tears drenching his face and the bile once more threatening his throat, he rushed to the nearest bush and viciously released the contents of his stomach.

Once Wood was done hurling his guts out he was heavily panting with exhaustion and bit of saliva was running down his chin while he stared blankly at the ground.

During his time staring at the ground, Wood forgot about the looming presence until he noticed a shadow sneaking up on him in his peripherals. Whipping around as fast as he could with fear overwriting the dull look on his face, Wood came face to face with the monster's menacing form. Rapidly shooting his head around looking for any means of escape he vaguely caught sight of a figure casually walking down the pathway a little distance away.

Jumping out of the way, Wood just barely dodged the Scorpada's stinger slamming down and instead of creating a red smear out of him it created a small crater in the tough soil.

Sprinting on Wood surged himself down the path toward the figure hoping for some kind of support.

The mysterious figure, who Wood could now see was a cloaked pony, came to a stop just as Woods skidded to a halt directly in front of them. "Please! You got... to help... me!" Wood begged between breaths. "My friends and I were just walking down this path when... when a Scorpada appeared out of nowhere and... and killed them both!" Wood, borderline hysterical, quickly spewed out. The hooded pony could make out a few stray tears that were streaming down the stallion's panicked face but didn't react otherwise.

"Please! You got to help me before it catches up!!" Wood continued to beg while the cloaked pony still showed no sign of hearing him. "Hello!? Please! Before it catches up to me, do you think you can help take care of it?!" Silence.

Getting a little frustrated at being ignored Wood yelled at the mysterious pony, "Ugh, FINE! FINE! I don't need your help anyways! I'll just... use you as bait! Yeah, that's a perfe—" Was all Wood was able to get out before a giant stinger tore through his flimsy armor and embedded itself into the back of his spine.

Gurggling out bubbles of blood the life quickly faded from Wood's eyes before the Scorpada chucked him to the side and focused on the new prey in front of it. The cloaked pony, unfazed by the stallion's swift demise, blankly looked up at the Class-A monster now in front of them. Without pause, a magenta glow appeared from, what appeared to be a horn, under the hood slightly illuminating the figure inside. The pony under the hood had a dark indigo mane with a few brighter highlights streaked through it and lighter purple fur to go along with it.

The glow only lasted a short five seconds before it gradually dimmed down until it disappeared, covering the pony's features in shadows once more. With that, the pony casually trotted around the Scorpada and continued down the dirt path to their destination; a simple town by the name of Ponyville.

If the pony were to look back now they would see that the four-meter-tall Scorpada, it's head nowhere to be found with dark red blood oozing out of its now headless neck, was flopped down along the path never to move on its own again...

Just what did this mystery pony do to it?

Further on down the path, the cloaked pony was standing atop a hill looking down to where the path ended at a reinforced wooden gate even further on ahead. Surrounding the edges of the gate was a thick six-meter tall concrete wall that stretched on a long distance to either side of it. There was also a couple of armor bound guards keeping watch from the top of the wall, and a couple more guards posted on each side of the gate on the ground.

Sighting a bit of movement the cloaked pony glanced to see a small caravan a little way up the path heading straight for the gate. With an opportunity now in play, the pony wasted no time lighting up their horn and making their body disappear from sight. Taking one last glance at the caravan the now invisible pony spotted where they wanted to go and disappeared with a flash that no one could see.

'Reappearing' behind the moving caravan the pony promptly matched its pace as it rolled along the path. Able to hear the conversation of the two ponies pulling the cart the invisible pony perked their ears up to eavesdrop on them until they arrived at the gate.

"Dude, are you positive we'll get through undetected? Because I really don't want to get thrown in jail again, once was enough for me." One of them said sounding a little on edge.

"Oh, calm down buddy I already told you about the enchanted blanket covering the goods, the guards will never think twice about them! Besides, when have I ever let you down?" The other pony, sounding a little cocky, responded to his partner.

"Dude, you were the one who got us thrown into jail in the first place." The first pony deadpanned.

"Come on, bud! How was I supposed to know the sack of money I snatched was from a guard!" Pony two argued back throwing up one of his forelegs, jostling the caravan.

"Don't bud me! I don't know how you didn't know, but I do know how you foisted the money off onto me before bolting away down a side alley! And, let me tell you... when I saw that enraged guard charging straight at me I just about pissed myself! I had that fight or flight response, dude, and that guard made me want to 'flight' the hell out of there before he 'fight' the hell out of me!" Pony one said getting a little heated over his partner's past deed.

Waving him off, "Oh quiet you it wasn't that bad." The two ponies were now coming up to the gate. Whispering to pony one, "Now literally, quiet you, let me do the talking." A groan is the only response he received.

The invisible cloaked pony, still tailing their caravan, sped up their pace and was now walking to the right of the caravan instead of behind it; a plan formulating in their head.

"Halt!" A guard bellowed with full authority to the two caravan pulling ponies and blocked their path forcing them to come to a stop. "State your business here."

Unhooking himself from the caravan Pony two walked up to the guard and threw one of his forehooves around his neck. "Ohhh, you know buddy! Just two casual traveling merchants hoping to sell a couple of wares in this here humble little town!" In the background pony one facehoofed... hard.

Shrugging the annoying pony's leg off his neck the guard walked up to the caravan and told both ponies, "I am required to check the contents of your caravan before I'm allowed to permit you both entry into this town."

"By all means, go ahead go ahead!" After that statement, the guard stuck his head through the flaps of the caravan and scanned its contents. Small wooden crates, a couple sacks of money, a few weapons, a suspicious looking blanket, armor, and that was just about it.

The guard pulled his head back out and turned back to pony two. "Everything seems to check out, you two may enter. Enjoy your time in Ponyville." With that, the guard made his way back to the gate and signaled to another guard standing watch on top of the wall. That guard then turned away and walked out of view for a few seconds before the gate started opening with a loud creaking noise.

Pony two now back to the caravan hooked himself back up to his harness. Turning to his buddy he gave him a little wink, "Too easy." All he got in return was his buddy rolling his eyes.

Once the gate fully opened both of the ponies resumed their trek, eager to enter the town and make some quick coin. And it was at this time the invisible pony sprang their plan into action. Lighting up their horn they shattered the front and back right wheels of the caravan making it tip over and slam into the ground, causing some of the more... illegal contents to fly out the back.

"What the—" Both ponies shouted before having the air knocked from their lungs when they fell with the caravan and impacted against their harnesses. Witnessing the accident, both the guards by the gate rushed up to assess the situation and in doing so they sighted the contents that ended up spilling out the back of the caravan.

Not sticking around to watch the aftermath the invisible pony nonchalantly walked through the gate and into the town's limits. Quickly finding a building to hide behind the pony canceled the invisibility spell they cast on themselves and wandered back out into the open.

There were many shops widely spread out across the way, and in the gaps between them, small little stalls were set up to the sides of the cobblestone paths selling foods, clothes, weapons, armor, accessories, and many other exotic looking items. For a small town, an unusually exorbitant amount of ponies were crowding the paths looking to buy some of the goods being sold.

Weaving their way through the bustling crowd the cloaked pony attempted to locate a single building. After an hour of fruitless searching, the cloaked pony resigned themselves and decided to ask somepony else for directions. Walking over to the first pony they saw it just so happens to be a white-furred purple maned unicorn who was busy peering through the window of a clothing shop.

"Excuse me." The cloaked unicorn called out in a no-nonsense tone. Catching the other pony's attention the white mare turned around to identify the pony who called out to her.

When she saw a cloaked pony waiting in front of her the mare hesitated to respond. "Uh... Um, was it you who called out to me, darling?" The mare's blue eyes clearly showed a bit of unease, but if the cloaked pony realized they didn't comment on it.

"Where is the Hub in this town?" Straight to the point, the cloaked pony asked.

"Oh! Well, you're in the wrong area. As you might tell this is the marketplace, while the Hub is positioned more towards the center of the town just further down this path here." The mare answered while pointing her hoof in the correct direction.

Giving a curt nod, "Thanks." the cloaked pony walked away, disappearing into the bustling crowd.

"That was... peculiar, but that cloak was nice." Stated the unicorn mare to herself before shrugging and resuming with her shopping. "Ugh... green? Only a ruffian would wear something like that!" Unbeknownst to her, a green-furred pony was giving her the stink eye.

After weaving through the dense marketplace crowd for what seemed like hours the cloaked unicorn now stood in front of the building they were searching for, Ponyville's Hub. It was a large circular stone brick abode with three stories in height and no windows to be seen besides the two on the top floor. Above the top floor, the roof looked to be a sort of hemisphere constructed with some type of refined wood. And the entrance to the building had a small patio made of polished mahogany wood that was leveled a bit off the ground with two steps leading up to it.

Walking up onto the patio the cloaked unicorn saw a group of pony's milling about. Ignoring them the unicorn made their way to the double door entrance, made of the same material as the patio, and pulled it open. Stepping in, the place was abuzz with other ponies, some stopping to stare at the newcomer while others ignored the pony entirely.

The Hub had a sort of medieval feel to it. Torches were placed evenly along the stone brick walls, covered by some metal mesh for protection, casting a soothing glow amongst the interior. The same sanded down smooth mahogany wood as the patio outside made up the flooring inside. And then there were numerous ponies present drinking, most likely, alcohol and just plain old having a jolly time with their friends or fellow guildmates.

Scanning the place there was wooden tables and chairs scattered all over the place seating the numerous ponies present; there was a small curved bar up against the right wall serving all types of brews; there was a poster board in the middle of the room with multiple pictures of monsters tacked onto it with a couple of ponies looking at them; and next to the poster board was what the cloaked pony was seeking this whole time, the receptionists desk. It appeared to be one long curved marble desk in the shape of a circle allowing any worker to walk freely around in the middle of it.

Ignoring the few looks still being thrown their way the cloaked pony headed straight for the desk. Coming up on the desk one of the Hub receptionists caught sight of the oncoming pony and happily greeted them. "Hello!~ My name is Redheart and I can say I haven't seen you before, is there anything perchance I'd be able to help you with?"

Coming to a stop in front of the desk the cloaked pony nodded their head. "Yes. I need to become an Adventurer here."

"Okay, that's not too hard to do. But you do realize that Ponyville, being a smaller and in turn not as protected town, is considered a more hazardous area compared to other bigger places like Canterlot and Manehatten correct?" Receiving a nod of confirmation Redheart continued, "Alright, I just wanted to make sure you realized that. So before we move on to the Ranking Trials there are going to be a couple of things I need from you."

Ducking down under the desk for a couple of seconds Redheart reappeared setting a camera, a contract, and quill onto the desk. "I'm going to need you to sign your name here, here, and here," she said pointing to each individual spot on the contract, "and I'm also going to need a picture of your face, so I'm sorry to say this, but you'll need to take your hood off for the time being."

Quickly floating the quill on the desk over to the contract the cloaked pony swiftly but neatly signed their signature on the designated areas. Setting the quill back down and cutting their magic the cloaked pony reached up with one of their forehooves and pulled back the hood.

With their hood fully pulled back now revealing the features of their face to the world the receptionist let out a little gasp of shock and held a forehoof up to her mouth. "Wha-wha-what happened t-to your—" Holding their hoof up to quiet the receptionist, the now revealed to be mare, stated her name and intentions.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle and I have only a single objective." She said with a voice devoid of any folly while looking straight into Redheart's eyes with a sharp gaze.

"A-and what might that b-be?" Redheart stuttered, wilting a little under that cold and menacing stare.

"To eradicate every... last... monster... from existence; starting around this town here."

Reigning in her nerves as much as she could, "Th-That's a very grandiose task you set up for y-yourself there Ms. Sparkle, are you sure you could handle s-something that big? Especially with your... um... handicap." Redheart dully finished off as she noticed the unicorn's narrowed eyes.

"No offense Redheart but I don't need you babying me. Even with this left eye of mine," Twilight said while pointing at it, "I am still fully aware as to the extent of my own abilities. And for what I have planned, if something as simple as a partial loss of sight hindered me, I'd have given up and killed myself long ago."

As for what the problem was with her left eye... there were three large scars parallel to each other starting a little on the forehead above the eye and leading straight over it before ending close to the corner of her mouth. The scars looked to have been caused by some type of three-clawed creature that made an attempt to gouge her eye out. And, as for the color of the eye itself, it had long since faded away leaving behind a milky white iris clearly indicating its blind state.

Put off by the blatant disregard the mare has with her own life but choosing to ignore it, Redheart gave a short little bow with a sad look on her face and sincerely apologized. "I'm am so very sorry, I didn't mean any offense with my earlier remark." Quickly attempting to change the subject Redheart looked back to Twilight with a soft smile. "Now, how do you feel about starting the Ranking Trials, hmm?"

"The picture?" Twilight asked simmering down a tad.

"Ehh... we'll just take it once we're finished with the trials, it isn't too big of a deal."

Twilight, nodding in response, waited as Redheart lifted up a panel incorporated into the desk and walked out from the circle. "Alright, just follow me and I'll lead us to the Trials grounds." With that the pair exit the Hub, completely oblivious to the group of ponies tailing behind them.

Chapter 2: That Could've Gone Better

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As Redheart was leading Twilight to the Trials grounds she tried multiple times to strike up any sort of conversation with the purple pony. "So... have you been traveling long?" Redheart asked another question while glancing back to the, once more, hooded Twilight. Like Redheart expected she received no response, again. Sighing, she turned back around and refocused on leading the soon to be ranked adventurer.

The pair was now in a more rural section of Ponyville, so there weren't as many ponies crowding the pathway compared to the marketplace. But there was still something off about this situation.

"Redheart," Twilight spoke up for the first time during the trek, "can I ask a simple question?"

Excited to finally rid herself of the awkward atmosphere Redheart answered, "Of course! I'm the receptionist for a reason you know."

"Why is there a group of ponies following us?" Twilight inquired.

Scrunching up her eyebrows in confusion Redheart looked back to Twilight. "How could you tell they were there? You haven't looked back once since we left the Hub."

"They're not exactly the quietest bunch." As soon as Twilight finished saying that a pony from the group let out a loud belch causing all the other groupies to chuckle.

Shaking her head and looking forward Redheart sated Twilight's curiosity. "They most likely overheard us talking about how you were here to become an adventurer, and from that, they probably deduced that when we left it was because we were on our way to the Trials grounds to begin your tests. So basically they just want to either watch you for entertainment purposes or to assess your skills. It's a pretty common thing with the newcomers, it doesn't bother you at all does it?"

"No." Was Twilight's blunt response. "Also it looks like we're here." Hearing Twilight's statement Redheart reverted her head back to see the grounds.

"Indeed we are." In front of the pair was four acres of fenced off land divided into multiple sections with each section devoting itself to a different test for the Ranking Trials. Also, there were a sparse few ponies already spread about the place currently occupying a few of the sections.

"This is quite a large amount of land dedicated simply to the trials, and considering how there are others present already using the grounds am I correct to assume there's another purpose for these lands?" Twilight deduced.

Having turned back to listen to her, Redheart was now staring blankly at Twilight. "That was... very perceptive of you. Yes, you would be correct. This land is not only for the Ranking Trials, but it also doubles as Ponyville's training grounds; accessible for anypony to use." Twilight just nodded her head in acknowledgment. Waiting to see if anything else was going to be said, Redheart sighed when she just lapsed back into silence. Turning and walking to an opening in the fence, "Follow me and I'll take you to the place we need to go to begin the first of your upcoming tests."

Walking through the opening in the fence the pair, and the persistent group of ponies still tailing them, began the short trek to their wanted destination. During the walk, Twilight glossed her eyes over the many different sections they passed by.

Basic shooting range with targets for any bow/crossbow and reinforced targets for any ranged magic; a simple obstacle course containing a wide variety of different obstacles; there was even a section where a tall mound was created and ponies would pick up sandbags and run laps up and down it. But there was one training regimen that gave Twilight pause for a second before continuing on.

It was such a simple little setup. There were multiple varying sizes of hoops attached to thin metal poles that were jammed into the ground. On a rack were baseball-sized metal balls that, Twilight could tell from a quick glance, were enchanted to have any magical hold slip off it. And while watching a unicorn shakily try to maneuver one of the balls through the hoop, Twilight could deduce that the training focused on improving a magic user's fine magic control.

'Such a simple yet effective method.' Twilight thought to herself, 'I guess a simple town like this has to make do with the simpler things, unlike Canterlot.'

"Annnd here we are!" Twilight was broken out of her musings after hearing Redheart's statement. "This'll be your first test!"

In front of them both were varying sizes of rocks and boulders lined up in rows from lightest to heaviest; the lightest being a measly 5lbs (2.2kgs) rock while the heaviest was a massive 800lbs (362kgs) boulder.

The group of ponies that had been tailing them moved off to the side to get a better vantage point.

Stopping and looking at Twilight, "Now as for your first test, it's pretty straight forward. Since your a unicorn I need to see—"

"—how strong my magic is and how much strain I can take by picking them up, correct?" Twilight finished while pulling down her hood again. Receiving a nod in return Twilight immediately began making her way to the heaviest boulder, a couple of the ponies in the group, who didn't see her eye from before, gasped as she walked by.

Noticing where Twilight was heading Redheart grew a little anxious and, not wanting to be on the receiving end to any more of Twilight's ire, followed silently behind. Redheart wouldn't admit it but there was something about Twilight that caused her to instinctively act a little on-edge around the unicorn mare; like there was something more... something monstrous, but she couldn't for the life of her understand why.

Now standing in front of the enormous boulder Twilight stared at it in deep concentration before her horn, then the boulder was surrounded in a purple aura.

As a short amount of time passed with nothing happening Reheart started to feel a little awkward just looking at the unmoving mare. Deciding to console what she thought to be a struggling Twilight Redheart walked up next to her and placated, "Uh, I know you've been trying your hardest, and you've been doing a great job! But maybe you should... lower... the weight..." She finished lamely as she witnessed the seemingly impossible to lift boulder slowly float out of its small divot in the ground.

A look of bewildered astonishment appeared not only on Redhearts face but on the faces of the spectators as well. "Redheart." Twilight called to the mare with a tiny amount of strain, gaining no response in return. Calling a couple more times she finally broke Redheart out of her stupor and the mare looked back at her with her jaw agape and wide eyes. "I'm going to need you to back away." Nodding silently the mare did just that.

Shocking everypony around, even more, Twilight started to slowly orbit the boulder around herself. As time went on the boulder increased in speed and a small blur appeared as it whooshed around. Not saying anything Twilight cut her magic from the boulder.

The group of ponies faces', who were still shocked into silence from the spectacle, switched to that of panicked fear as the boulder came hurtling towards them. Before they could react it whizzed directly over their heads and smashed into, demolishing, a small grouping of trees some distance away. Recovering as much as they could the group of ponies ran away shouting things like "She's fucking crazy!" and "You're a psychopath!"

Either not noticing or ignoring the comments from the fleeing group Twilight turned back to Redheart to receive her assessment.

As for Redheart, she was in a state between disbelief and anger. "W-What were you thinking!? You could've killed one of them, or worse, the entire group!" She yelled, looking back at Twilight with frustrated features.

Twilight, not showing an ounce of guilt for her actions, casually asked, "So what's my assessment?"

"Assessment? Assessment?!" Redheart started raising her voice before taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm down.

Now sort of calmed Redheart looked back to Twilight with a stern face. "Twilight, I think we're done with the Ranking Trials." With a small hint of confusion, Twilight was about to speak before Redheart cut her off. "As for your assessment..." Redheart stood up straighter and in a professional tone announced, "Twilight, because of your actions during this test I refuse to continue on any further. As for your rank, you may be a strong powerful individual, probably the strongest I've ever seen, but with your callous attitude towards the safety of other ponies, I hereby promote you to a Rank-B Adventurer. Our Guilds here in Ponyville prioritize the safety of the ponies above all else, but clearly, you don't."

"...What a hindrance." Is all Twilight responded with after the reveal. "Are we heading back now to make my card?"

Groaning, "Guh... fine, follow me." Both Redheart and Twilight went to leave but stopped when they heard somepony raspily yell.

"What the hell?!!"

Redheart was confusedly looking around trying to locate the source of the yelling, while Twilight focused in on the group of trees she chucked the boulder into earlier. Without pause, Twilight teleported herself with a flash just outside of the trees leaving Redheart by herself.

Redheart, noticing the small flash, turned around to check it out and when she did she caught sight of a small remaining bit of magical residue drifting down and disappearing. "Well now that's just rude." She muttered to herself before walking to where she believed the source of the yell came from.

Standing outside the mutilated gathering of trees Twilight attempted to locate where the shout came from inside. Most of the trees were completely shattered creating a pathway she could traverse if need be, the only problem was the tree stumps, branches, and sharp debris of wood littering the way.

Twilight perked her ears up when she thought she heard the faint noise of somepony struggling deeper in. Entering through the newly created debris-covered pathway Twilight used her magic to brush aside any menial obstacles in her path while walking closer and closer to the noises. As she continued on Twilight heard the noises deviate off to the right and switched directions delving into the minuscule forest.

After climbing over fallen trees and avoiding hanging branches Twilight was now able to clearly hear the loud sound of somepony's struggles.

"Urgh! Come on! Guh! Hah... hah... hah... Great just great! I just wanted to take a simple nap, and what does that get me? Waking up with a pounding headache with my tail trapped under a fallen tree! How the heck does that even happen?!" Peeking around a surprisingly still standing tree Twilight was finally able to view the pony responsible for all the racket.

A sky blue pony with an uncommon rainbow colored mane, and upon a closer look, she appeared to have a pair of wings. Walking out from behind the tree Twilight started to trot her way over to the unfortunate pegasus.

Hearing the sound of leaves crinkling and crunching the blue pegasus opened her eyes and lifted her head from her prone sulking position. Sighting the purple unicorn making their way towards her the blue pegasus' mood shifted to one of hope. Getting up into a sitting position the blue pegasus eagerly called out to the unicorn.

"Hey! Hey you! Do you think you could help me out here?" As Twilight got closer the blue pegasus forgot about her predicament when she took notice of the unicorn's scarred over left eye. "Whoa..."

Twilight, who hadn't said anything during the walk over, came to a stop a couple of meters away from the blue pegasus. Casually lighting her horn the tree trapping the pegasus' tail was lifted just enough for her to get out.

"Move." Twilight told the pegasus who quickly got over her surprise and did just that.

Now hovering over the ground the pegasus looked back to Twilight. "Thanks, I don't know how long I would've been trapped under there if you hadn't come along. By the way," The pegasus closed her eyes and puffed out her chest then slammed one of her hooves into it with a cocky attitude, "the name's Rainbow Dash! Best and highest ranked adventurer in Ponyville! So who are y—" Opening her eyes she was met with the back form of Twilight walking away. "Hey!"

Twilight, who was now going back to find the boulder she threw, was hoping the pegasus would just leave after helping her. But annoyingly that was not the case. Said pegasus zoomed right in front of her forcing her to stop as she got right up in her face.

"What was that for?! I was trying to be nice and thank you and everything! Yeah, you look pretty cool with those scars and all, but that doesn't give you the right to brush off the Rainbow Dash like that!" Growing increasingly more annoyed Twilight walked around the Rainbow Dash and resumed her search for the boulder.

The entire time Twilight was searching for the boulder Rainbow Dash was for some reason still pestering her. She was getting more annoyed by the second with this pegasus, but finally sighting the boulder a little ways away, an idea came to her head.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash," This was the first time the unicorn spoke, let alone say her name, so Rainbow Dash perked up her ears to listen to what she had to say, "you seem like the competitive type, how about a little wager?"

"Heh heh, bring it! I can take anything you throw at me!"

"You see that boulder over there?" Twilight asks while pointing it out with her hoof.

Rainbow Dash followed the direction of Twilight's hoof before laying her eyes on the massive boulder. "Yeah, what about it?"

"If you can somehow maneuver it onto your back and hold it for ten seconds I'll quit ignoring you and maybe answer any questions you might have about me, but if you lose—"

"Ah! Ah! Ah!" Rainbow interrupted Twilight. "I don't need to hear the penalty. Why? Because I'm not about to lose to something as simple as that!" With that Rainbow zipped her way over to the boulder while Twilight rolled her eyes before teleporting after her.

They both arrived at the boulder at the exact same time and Rainbow, a bit curious, asked Twilight, "You know, how did a boulder this big get over here in the first place? I swear I didn't see it when I flew here earlier."

Twilight, raising her eyebrow at Rainbow's lack of deductive reasoning, reiterated, "You'll have to win this wager before I answer any questions." After Twilight's answer Rainbow groaned before proceeding to the boulder, inspecting it, to try and find a way to get it on her back.

A minute or two passed by as Twilight, in peaceful silence, watched the pegasus attempt to find a strategy to get the 800lbs boulder onto her back. She probably would've sat there unhindered for longer if it wasn't for a familiar voice calling out to her.

"Finally! There you are Twilight!" Twilight looked to who addressed her to see Redheart walking straight up to her. "That was very rude of you teleporting away as you did! And... is that Rainbow Dash?" Redheart stopped what she was about to say when she noticed the pegasus inspecting the big boulder that was harshly thrown by Twilight earlier.

Nodding her head Twilight told Redheart about their little wager. "I don't know about this Twilight, even for a Rank-S adventurer like Rainbow Dash this will be still difficult and let's not forget unsafe." Redheart said feeling apprehensive about the whole thing.

'Rank-S huh? This might be interesting.' Twilight thought to herself. "Well then, it's a good thing we have a medic with us now isn't it?" Twilight said out loud while gesturing to Redheart's cutie mark. Looking back at it Redheart sighed and decided it would be futile to argue any further, so she walked over to Twilight and plopped herself down right next to her.

Whispering to Twilight, "I still don't condone any of this, but I know there's nothing I can do to stop Rainbow when she's like this."

"That's it!" Twilight's and Redheart's focus switched to Rainbow Dash just as she was beginning to put some sort of plan into action.

Without another word, the pegasus zoomed into the sky at an impressive rate before coming to a halt when she thought she was high enough. Turning to look back down Rainbow located the boulder and thought to herself, 'Heh, just you watch... what was it that Redheart said? Twilight? Yeah, just you watch Twilight!' and then nosedived straight for the oversized rock.

Back on the ground Twilight was blankly watching Rainbow gain velocity, already having an idea as to what her plan was. Then there was Redheart who was nervously glancing back and forth from Rainbow to the boulder trying to figure out what she was trying to do.

Her nervous curiosity didn't have to last long.

When Rainbow Dash believed she was close enough she did a complete one-eighty and stuck her rear legs out aiming for the middle upper part of the boulder. Her hooves connected to it with a loud *CLACK* creating a few cracks due to the sudden force acting on it. Not only that but the boulder was tilted off the ground just enough for Rainbow Dash to squeeze herself under if she got there fast enough. And she did.

Like a rocket, Rainbow Dash landed under the boulder with her back to it waiting for it to fall back down. When she felt the impact from the massive boulder her legs buckled slightly and she let out a small groan.

Twilight was looking on from the side and waited until she saw that the boulder was completely free from the ground to begin her count down. When it was, she started, loud enough for Rainbow to hear.

"1..."

Rainbow Dash's hind legs were shaking from holding the brunt of the weight.

"2..."

Her hind legs were shaking just a tad bit faster than before.

"3..."

Now her forelegs were beginning to shake.

"4..."

Her face was now growing a bit red from the strain of deadlifting 800lbs.

"5..."

Her breaths were becoming short and ragged but she still didn't give up.

"6..."

Her legs were now rapidly shaking and she shut her eyes tight to focus more for the final seconds.

"7.."

She was getting a little lightheaded and her small headache from earlier came with back full force.

"8.."

Her face was completely red and her eyebrows were crinkled together as her muscles showed the intense strain she was pushing herself through.

"9..."

Rainbow began swaying slightly as a small stream of blood came out of her nose and dripped from her chin.

"10."

When the ten-second mark hit Rainbow instantly collapsed and would've been crushed if it wasn't for Twilight's quick reaction in catching it in her magic and floating it off to the side. The mare flipped over onto her back breathing in deep and heavy breaths and spreading out her legs with a tiny cocky smile adorned on her face.

"How... about... that... I won!" Rainbow Dash boasted to Twilight between breaths. Twilight walked over to Rainbow and looked into her now open exhausted looking eyes from above her.

"Congratulations. I didn't believe you'd actually be able to pull something like that off. But alas my expectations were off, so a deals a deal I'll answer some questions you might have."

"Awesome." Was the last thing Rainbow Dash said before she decided right then and there to pass out. With a sigh, Twilight picked Rainbow Dash up in her magic and floated her over to the still shocked Redheart and plopped her right on her back.

"Wha— Hey! Why are you making me carry her?" Redheart complained.

"Because I don't want to. Now come on let's go back to the Hub so you can create my adventurer's license." Redheart was beginning to dislike this mare. She was crude, demanding, and always brushing ponies off, but she knew she couldn't do anything about it.

Reluctantly she followed behind Twilight. The quicker this was done and over with the quicker they could part ways, right?

Now later in the day, both arrived back at a less crowded Hub with Rainbow Dash still passed out on Redheart's back. Both walking up to the receptionist's desk Redheart grabbed the camera that was left there earlier and for some reason not put back up.

"Alright, I just need you to stand up against a wall and I'll take your picture, and after that, I'll drop Rainbow Dash off on the second floor and go to create your license while I'm at it." Redheart told Twilight. Gaining a nod from the mare she walked over to the wall and turned around to look at Redheart.

Redheart held the camera up and focused it on Twilight before a small flash came out of it. With that Redheart left to the second floor using a staircase on the other side of the Hub.

Now left alone Twilight decided to wander around for a little while.

The only ponies present at the moment were workers who were cleaning up the messes made by adventurers earlier in the day. There were a spare few adventurers present, but they were tamer than the ones before; probably just trying to wind down after a long day.

Taking a look around Twilight spotted the posterboard and decided to take a gander to see what monsters were posted on it. Back in the day's posterboards would most likely have been tacked to the brim with quests from the Guilds, but nowadays it was different.

Princess Celestia found out quests were enticing ponies to take on more than they could chew with some of the rewards they gave. She discovered that ponies were taking on harder quests, even if their rank wasn't high enough for it, in an attempt to gain the higher rewards the Guild's gave for completing them. This lead to multiple inaptitude ponies dying meaningless deaths all just for a bit a wealth. When she discovered this she placed a ban on Guild's from handing out quests and because of that, the pony morality rate decreased just a bit, but to Princess Celestia every bit counts in a world like this.

Since that ban, the posterboards in Hubs were usually used as a way for ponies/adventurers to see what kinds of monsters appeared around the area. Thus the reason pictures of monsters were tacked across the board.

As Twilight was busy examing the board she failed to notice a certain rainbow-maned pegasus fly up behind her.

"BOO!" Rainbow Dash screamed into Twilight's ear trying to scare her, but all Twilight did was slowly turn and face the smiling pony with a 'Really?' kind of look. "Oh, you're good. Most ponies would've jumped and shrieked scared out of their wits. Anyways, watcha doing?"

"Just checking to see what monsters commonly appear around Ponyville."

"Yeah there's a lot isn't there? Most of them appear from the Everfree Forest." Rainbow Dash said. Twilight had heard about the Everfree Forest before but not too much about it, just that it's a very dangerous place usually avoided by civilian ponies and adventurers alike.

"Ahh, I wish I was alive during the time where Guild's gave out quests." Rainbow Dash said changing the topic. "That would've been so awesome! Getting paid to go out on thrilling adventures and killing monsters, that would've been the life!"

Twilight just rolled her eyes to Rainbow's gushing over quests and kept scanning over the board. She didn't get to continue looking for long before her and Rainbow Dash were called out to.

"Excuse me." Rainbow Dash— shutting up— and Twilight turned around to see a semi-muscular stallion with grey fur and short black hair. "Hello, the name's Tungsten Forge and I couldn't help but overhear you two talking about quests." Tungsten said with a deep guttural voice

Twilight and Rainbow both eyed each other before looking back to the stallion. "Yeah, what's it to ya?" Rainbow Dash said suspiciously eyeing the stallion.

"Whoa, I ain't looking for no trouble miss!" Tungsten said while waving one of his forelegs around. "You two seem like tough mares, I just got a favor I'd like to ask of you two. What do you say?"

This time Twilight spoke up, "And just what is this 'favor?'"

"I'm not gonna lie, it's a bit dangerous. I'm hoping you two could go to a cave in the Everfree Forest and procure some of my namesake for me? I'll pay you finely depending and how much you bring back." After hearing the stallion's request Twilight began to mull it over, while Rainbow Dash...

"The Everfree Forest are you crazy?!" She shouted at Tungsten.

"Like I said, it will be dangerous. You don't have to agree if you don't want to."

"Of course we wouldn't agree to some—"

"I'll do it." Twilight finally spoke up interrupting Rainbow. Tungsten seemed ecstatic by the mare's answer while Rainbow looked at her like she was completely stupid.

"Pleasure doing business with you! Just come to shop whenever you're ready to sell what you got, it's called Tungsten's Forgery and it's located in the marketplace." With that, the stallion left.

Quickly turning on Twilight, "Twilight are you insane?! The Everfree Forest is infested with many monsters known and unknown! It's a deathtrap! Besides, I doubt they'll let you in, they rarely allow Rank-A and above adventurers to even step foot in the forest. What rank even are you by the way?" Rainbow finished by asking Twilight.

"I just became Rank-B," Rainbow, again, looked at her like she was the dumbest pony alive, "besides you don't have to come with me. I'll do fine, probably even better, on my own." Twilight said looking back into Rainbow's eyes.

Rainbow Dash just stood there contemplating it for a little bit before coming to an answer. "No, I'm going to go with you. If I'm not there to keep a Rank-B like you safe you'll most likely just get killed out there. So meet me on the outskirts of the forest tomorrow at noon." After that Rainbow flew out of the Hub without giving Twilight a chance to respond.

Sighing to herself Twilight turned around when she felt a hoof tap on her shoulder. "I have your license for you Twilight." Redheart said holding it out to her. Floating it out of her grasp Twilight saw her picture and rank on the card, as well as a magical mark indicating that the license wasn't foraged.

Stowing away the card in her cloak Twilight looked up to see that Redheart was about to walk away. "Redheart." She called out getting the mare to stop and turn quizzically towards her. "I need to show you something."

Chapter 3: Through the Everfree

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It was noon of the following day when Twilight Sparkle, still donning her signature cloak, arrived at the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, and looking around she didn't find any sight of her pegasus acquaintance.

'Figures.' She thought to herself and began walking into the ominous forest. If Rainbow wasn't going to show up when she said she would Twilight wasn't just going to sit around and waste time waiting for her. But unfortunately for her, a loud shout halted her advances just before she engulfed herself in the foliage.

"Hey! Wait up!" Turning her head around Twilight could see the oncoming form of a flying Rainbow Dash with a pair saddlebags on her back and... something else?

A couple of seconds later she came to an abrupt stop in front of the unicorn, still hovering in the air. "What are you doing? I told you to wait for me before going in there!" She reprimanded Twilight while pointing to the forest with a hoof.

As for Twilight, her gaze lingered on the back of the pegasus for a couple of seconds before switching to look at her eyes. "Actually you told me to meet you here at noon not wait for you, and since you weren't here I wasn't waiting until you were." After giving her a response Twilight switched her gaze back to the pegasus' back once more, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

Groaning in response, "Ugh, fine whatever." Slowly hovering down Rainbow landed on the ground before remembering something. "Oh yeah," Twilight's eyes shifted to Rainbow's again, "I thought it would be a good idea to ask one of my friends to come with us. She might not look the part, but she's an expert when it comes to things rock-related so she'll definitely be able to help us find the tungsten we need. Speaking of her I'm surprised she isn't here yet..." Rainbow trailed off while looking around the surrounding area.

This time Twilight raised her eyebrow at the pegasus and bluntly asked, "You mean the pony that's been standing on your back making crazy faces this entire time?" Confused Rainbow twisted her head around and came face to face with a smiling puffy pink pony before quickly looking back to Twilight.

"Yep! That's her— Wait, huh?!" An astonished Rainbow snapped her head back around just in time to see the pony nimbly hop off her back and onto the ground. "Pinkie?! How the— what the— how long have you been there?!" Looking at the shocked Rainbow the pink pony, by the name of Pinkie, confusedly tilted her head.

"Ever since you left the town Dashie, didn't you know?" Receiving a shake of her friend's head, "Oh... Oh well!" Shifting her body until it was directed towards Twilight, Pinkie zoomed forward stopping just inches from her face. "Hi! My name's Pinkie Pie and Dash already told me yours! It's Twilight! Oh, speaking of Dash, when she asked me to come I was soooo excited, but when she told me a new pony was going too, that just got me even more excited and I just had to come no matter what! This is going to be so fun! Even if it is dangerous, with all of us together—" Twilight shut up the annoying nonstop record player by clamping its mouth shut with her magic.

"Look I don't care if you come, you might even be useful for all I know, but just shut up and focus on the task." Twilight commanded while glaring into Pinkie's eyes, a little annoyed by her invasion of space and highly extroverted personality.

Pinkie wilted a little under the unicorn's glare that was made more menacing by the mutilated eye of hers. Seeing that she got her point across, Twilight spun around and continued her venture into the forest not looking back to see if the other two were following.

Left behind on the outskirts Pinkie Pie was forlornly looking to where Twilight entered the forest while Rainbow Dash let out a huff of frustration through her nose. "What the heck was that about?! There was no reason for—"

"Dash, it's okay," Pinkie interrupted turning to her with a sad smile upon her face, "I wasn't actually scared of her or anything, I was scared of what she might've been through to make her sad like that." Rainbow's anger switched to a look of confusion.

"Sad? Her? What do you mean?"

"Her eye's Dash, or in her case, eye. There was something in there, something unhappy that's locked up but screams out in despair." Pinkie said in a melancholic tone. Turning back to the forest Pinkie stood up and started making her way over to it, and without looking back she threw out a couple more words to Rainbow, "I don't think she's genuinely smiled in years..."

Rainbow, who still utterly confused about what Pinkie was talking about, just shook her head to clear it before running forward to catch up to her. With that, the whole group entered the forest, ready to face any of the dangers it'll most likely throw their way.

Rainbow and Pinkie both caught up with Twilight and were now traversing the rugged terrain through the Everfree. Being a forest, there were a plethora of trees sporadically placed everywhere around the traveling trio, but something about these trees was... darker than the average one. Most of the sunlight was blocked out from their dense leaves overhead casting eerie shadows upon the lands and their trunks looked almost black in color. The buzzing of insects, the occasional rustling bush from any passing breeze, and the clopping of hooves against the coarse dirt were the only noises heard by the silent adventurers as they weaved their way through the neverending maze.

Each pony's senses were on high alert. Twilight was leading in the front scanning for any caves, clearings, or for anything that could be used as a vantage point to look across the forest. While Twilight was in the front, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were walking side by side behind her with Pinkie to Twilight's back left and Rainbow to her back right. Their role was to keep watch for any strange activity in the forest that might indicate a creature/monster was nearby. So far there was none of the sorts.

"By the way," Twilight whispered to the two ponies behind her while still looking forward, "are you two stupid?"

"What?!" Rainbow harshly whispered back, "What the hell do you mean by that?" She spat out at the end, still a little frustrated at the unicorn for her earlier attitude towards Pinkie.

"Yeah, why do you say that Twilight?" Pinkie asked in pure curiosity, clearly not offended by the question like a certain pegasus was.

"What I mean is you two didn't bring a single weapon with you into the most dangerously known forest in Equestria, hence the question, are you two stupid?" After Twilight finished elaborating her earlier question Pinkie started chuckling causing Twilight to stop walking, turn her head, and raise an eyebrow towards the pink pony and as for Rainbow Dash, she for some reason confusedly looked back to her wings before her eyes widened in surprise.

"Whoops, heh heh, one sec." Rainbow scratched the back of her head, abashed, before taking her saddlebags off and setting them on the ground. She then proceeded to open the flap for the left bag and stuff her head inside of it to look for something.

As that was going on Pinkie reached a hoof behind her and pulled out a steel pickaxe from her tail? A pocket dimension? ...Her butt? Somewhere. She pulled a steel pickaxe out from somewhere and showed it to Twilight.

Twilight, witnessing the whole thing, just blinked at Pinkie's defiance of logical logic and simply asked, "A pickaxe? You're going to use a pickaxe as your weapon?"

Rapidly shaking her head up and down with a bright smile on her face Pinkie responded, "Yepperoni! This is all I'll need!" Deciding not to respond back to the mare Twilight switched her attention back over to Rainbow Dash who finally fished out what she was searching through her bag for.

Sitting on the ground were two covered peculiar shaped pure white blades.

"Wing blades?" Twilight asked Rainbow as she picked one up and pulled the cover off revealing the sharp blade.

"Yeph!" Rainbow replied through the blade cover in her mouth. Spitting it back into her bag Rainbow proceeded to take the cover of the other blade and do the same thing. Afterward, she attached them with quick precision to the primaries of each of her wings. Her weapon now equipped, Rainbow stood up and looked over to Twilight.

"Yep, custom made refined cloud wing blades!" Rainbow boasted, "I got a buddy of mine up in Cloudsdale to make them for me. No clue how he refined and sharpened cloud, but these things are freaking awesome!" Rainbow's anger towards Twilight was snuffed out in lew of being able to show off her weapon. "Check this out. Hey Pinkie, toss a stick my way and make it a big one too!"

Pinkie Pie, looking around, located a decently thick stick and ran over to it. Leaning down and picking it up with her mouth she then chucked it over to Rainbow Dash. The second Rainbow saw the stick fly up into the air she took flight.

With a single flap, Twilight was able to see how flexible the weapon was when it bent with Rainbow's wings instead of forcing her to keep them straight. It also didn't hinder any of Rainbow's flight capabilities: the weapon, being extremely lightweight, didn't weigh the pegasus down during her flight.

Homing in on the stick Rainbow took one more flap before fully extending and straightening her right wing. Easily slicing through the stick like it was butter Rainbow finished off by doing a u-turn to drain off her excess speed then landed back next to her saddlebags, proud of her work.

"Woohoo! Go Dashie!" Pinkie cheered pumping her hoof into the air.

Twilight, who took the liberty of floating the two stick pieces over to herself, examined the slice. It was a perfectly clean cut. Tossing them to the side Twilight looked over to Rainbow and asked one more very important question. "Those wing blades are great for fights out in the open, but what about confined spaces? Like caves perhaps?"

"Oh, that? I got a pair of daggers in my bag." She simply said while taking one out and letting Twilight view it before putting it back up. Nodding her head Twilight turned back around and continued on with her trek, hoping to find a cave soon.

Rainbow Dash rushingly threw her saddlebags back onto her back and caught up with Twilight, Pinkie by her side the entire time.

The band of adventurers trotted on in silence for a while longer: the sounds of bugs had disappeared and the occasional breeze ceased. It was a bit too silent for Twilight's liking. She examined her surroundings and noticed there were no signs of small life scurrying about. Thinking to conclude her examinations when a bit of time passed and nothing else noticeable was found, a foul stench suddenly wafted up Twilight's nostrils.

"Ugh, geez Dashie I told you to lay off the bean burritos." Pinkie said in a nasal voice because of her hoof now plugging her nose.

"Hey! This smell ain't coming from me!" Rainbow rebutted.

"Will you two shut up?!" Twilight harshly whispered to them ending their debacle prematurely.

As soon as Twilight said that the feeling of heavy steps began reverberating throughout the ground. Perking up her ears and closing her eyes Twilight focused on the sound and feeling of the steps in an attempt to deduce their location.

*Thump*

'A bit to the left.'

*THUmp*

'A bit more to the right now.'

*THUMP*

'Directly in in front of us.'

Opening her eyes Twilight tensed her legs and positioned her body so her good eye was facing more towards the oncoming beast. Now standing in a battle-ready position, behind her Rainbow and Pinkie were doing the same thing with Rainbow straightening out her wings ready to take off whenever and Pinkie wielding the pickaxe with the handle firmly gripped in her teeth.

Waiting with bated breath, the trio were all intently focused on the brambles, bushes, and trees in front of them.

*THUMP* *THUMP*

The foliage parted ways unveiling the mysterious beast. A manticore. A plain old manticore.

"All the suspense for a manticore?! Come on!" Relaxing herself Rainbow flew around Twilight and right up into the manticore's blank face. "Pshh, just look at you! Everything about you screams weak!" Turning back to the others, "Don't worry guys I'll take ca—"

"Dash! Watch out!" Pinkie screamed out, interrupting whatever Rainbow was about to say.

"Huh?" Rainbow was about to turn around until Twilight wrapped her in her magical hold and threw her to the side, just barely getting her away in time as four pairs of teeth harshly clamped down where she previously was.

Quickly recovering and turning on Twilight with annoyance Rainbow was about to yell why she did that until she caught sight of the abomination.

Where the manticore's head was supposed to be was instead four petal shaped slabs of meat outlined with razor-sharp teeth spread out like the petals of a flower in the blazing sun making the beast appear bigger than it actually was. Droplets of drool were dripping off the teeth and if they looked where the four slabs of meat connected they could easily peer down the open-holed esophagus of the beast and see the walls of convulsing muscles.

Twilight was watching the 'meat petals' of the beast casually sway as she began channeling an attack spell through her horn to obliterate it in one go. About to release the spell, unknown to Twilight, Rainbow quickly flew up from her blind side and grabbed her. Hefting her into the air, the unicorn was forced to cancel her spell and wait as Rainbow dropped her down onto the ground a good distance away from the beast.

Annoyingly glaring at the pegasus and biting back the venom in her voice, "And can I ask as to what the hell you are doing?"

"Uhh, you're a Rank-B adventurer this is clearly way outta your league. Just let Pinkie and I take care of it. Come on, let's do this Pinks!" Rainbow yelled to Pinkie as she tossed her saddlebags off and flew over to her.

Twilight, who was sending the pegasus an unseen death glare, decided that if they wanted to struggle and fight it themselves, she'll let them. Laying herself down on the ground and tucking her legs underneath herself Twilight lazily searched the area. Finding a nicely lengthed stick she floated it, as well as a dagger from Rainbow's bag, over to herself and began chipping away at one of the ends of the stick. Now occupying herself, Twilight lifted her head to watch the battle.

It had already commenced with Rainbow flying around distracting it, slicing it every now and then when she had a chance. And Pinkie was dashing in and out stabbing the beast with the head of her pick when the opportunity arose as well.

Knowing such things were a worthless endeavor Twilight continued honing the stick.

The battlegrounds were unfavorable for Rainbow Dash, the dense forest not allowing her to fly as fast as she wanted. As for Pinkie Pie, there were no major disadvantages besides her choice of weapon.

Completing her makeshift spear Twilight began weaving a complicated enchantment through it.

The body of the beast was still a manticore's— was a piece of information Rainbow seemed to forget about because when she dove for another attack, she was careless. The beast's scorpion tail flashed forward like a bolt of lightning smashing into the pegasus' face. Careening to the side Rainbow's body smashed into a tree and ricocheted off it onto the ground. Groaning she pushed herself off the ground and went straight back into the fray, a purple bruise now forming on her cheek.

Pinkie was furious at the beast for hurting Rainbow, so stepping it up a notch she zoomed around the beast puncturing holes all across its body as she went. In the fit of the battle Pinkie wasn't paying much attention to the injuries she inflicted upon it, but if she did she would've noticed they gradually closed up registering her attacks null.

Twilight finished crafting her enchanted wooden spear and was just casually hovering to the side of her head, waiting...

Rainbow Dash was enraged at herself for her reckless oversight. Not worrying about the restricting foliage Rainbow flung herself at the beast with reckless abandon aiming one of her wings towards the beast's tail. With her high speeds Rainbow easily severed the tail from the base, but not given any time to react Rainbow suddenly found herself hurtling towards the solid trunk of a tree.

A determined look graced her features as she crazily pushed herself faster. Doing a midair somersault Rainbow grit her teeth and cracked her hooves against the tree causing two small craters and shrapnel of wood to come flying off the trunk. Through the strain such an action caused, Rainbow pushed as hard as she could against the trunk and launched herself off the tree right back towards the beast.

Flying upside down Rainbow deftly spun right side up and stretched out her forelegs aiming to land a devastating blow on the torso of the beast. Her eyes spread open in shock when the beast suddenly whipped its body around with the teethed slabs of meat now spreading out ready to catch the incoming rainbow projectile. Even scarier is when the small esophagus expanded, meaning Rainbow was now speeding straight for the gaping entrance to the inside of the beast; unable to stop.

'This is it, it's all over. All because of my stupid recklessness, way to go Dash...' Rainbow resigned and accepted her abysmal fate and just watched as the hole came closer and closer until... a sudden object blurred past her vision and forced itself into the beast.

The velocity of the thrown object was so severe that when it embedded itself to the beast's insides it was brutally flung off the ground and into a bystanding tree. The tree was unable to survive the harsh impact as it shattered and fell to the ground, the beast falling in a heap with it.

Rainbow, still befuddled about the whole thing, was suddenly picked out of the air by Pinkie Pie who casually set her on the ground acting like she didn't just catch a rapidly moving object.

Before Rainbow was able to ask what happened Twilight spoke up to them in her still prone form, "I advise you all to get away from the Parist's host as soon as possible." Rainbow was once again about to speak up until Pinkie set a hoof on her whithers and shook her head before walking over to Twilight. Rainbow sighed and walked over as well.

Standing next to Twilight Rainbow asked a quick question involving something Twilight just said. "So, what's a Parist?"

Not taking the time to look over to her Twilight just pointed one of her hooves towards the beast's form struggling to get up on its wobbly legs.

"That thing's still not dead yet?!" Rainbow was shocked a creature could survive whatever it was it just went through. She was still a little iffy about what happened, but she knew it didn't just take a hard punch to the head. It was more like it got hit by a cannonball that was shot out of a cannon at point blank range.

"Just wait." Turning to look at Twilight then back to the Parist Rainbow rose an inquisitive eyebrow wondering what she meant when. It didn't take long for her to get her answer.

Rainbow spotted bright red spots appearing on multiple parts of the somehow shakily standing beast. It's stomach, back, and most sections of its torso were now colored with those mysterious red spots. Just as suddenly as those red spots appeared they started rapidly expanding.

"What's happening?" Rainbow asked glancing to Twilight out of the corner of her eyes not wanting to fully look away from the spectacle. When Twilight stayed silently looking forward Rainbow decided to glance at Pinkie and saw that she was just as transfixed to the spectacle as she was.

Putting her full attention back on the Parist Rainbow saw that the red spots looked like oversized disgusting bubbly pimples. When they kept growing bigger and bigger Rainbow was surprised they hadn't burst open yet, but what happened next caught her even more by surprise.

The Parist ceased all movements and the bubbles stopped expanding before it's torso suddenly... imploded.

Chunks of flesh and muscle rained across the area getting caught in branches, bushes, and leaves setting a very gruesome setting. A huge puddle of red gloop under the giant toothy slabs of meat was the only remaining portions left of the Parist.

Rainbow and Pinkie became a bit green in the face while Twilight impassively looked on.

"I know I've killed monsters before, but this is probably the most, uh, bloody kill I've seen yet." Rainbow said while trying to hold back the disgust in her voice.

Pinkie, on the other hand, already recovered and was standing next to the prone Twilight. "Were you the one that did that Twilight?" Nodding her head, Pinkie did something that tensed up the usually stoic mare: she wrapped her forelegs around her neck in a hug and whispered into her ear, "Thanks for saving Rainbow Dash."

Untensing herself rather quickly Twilight curtly pushed the pink pony off of her and stood up. "You two had no clue what type of creature you were fighting, did you?" She asked both of them, brushing off the hug as if it never happened.

"Nope!"

"Not really."

Shaking her head Twilight said, "It was called a Parist, I pointed that out to you earlier Rainbow Dash."

Racking her brain Rainbow suddenly remembered, "Oh yeah! Guess I kind of forgot about it after all... this" she finished by waving to the gory scene in front of her.

"If somepony let me fight instead of looking down upon me maybe it wouldn't have come to this." Twilight pointed out to the pegasus with enough tact to now look sheepish. "Anyway, the Parist isn't a monster or creature on its own, it's actually a parasite that infested its host's body, which in this case was a manticore. It slowly eats all the organs of its host overtime before taking over its brain, allowing it to control the body. That's why there are no organs strewn around the place just flesh, muscle, and blood. The specifics of how it can live and operate in a body only consisting of a brain is unclear, and what it does to any living thing that winds up in its hollowed-out body is unclear as well." Twilight ranted on.

Of course, Pinkie and Rainbow only worried over a single detail about the rant while everything else just flew right over their heads.

"Can the parasite infect us?!" They both shouted out with Rainbow looking a little nervous while Pinkie sounded... eager?

"No, they can't infect ponies." Rainbow let out a sigh of relief while Pinkie, strangely enough, looked a little sad.

"Awh, it would've been cool to have a little buddy in my head." Twilight just blinked— now becoming her go-to reaction towards Pinkie's antics— while Rainbow ignored her comment and flew over to her opened saddlebags.

"Huh? Where's one of my daggers at?" Rainbow questioned confusingly looking into her bag. Hearing the questions Twilight floated the dagger directly in front of Rainbow's face, causing her to go crosseyed looking at it.

"I used it to sharpen that stick I threw at the Parist earlier." Twilight said.

"Wait... you threw that blurry thing I saw while flying? That same thing that caused all of this?" Rainbow asked while storing her dagger away and shuffling the bags back onto her back.

"That blurry thing was most likely the stick, and yes, I threw it, causing all this."

"But... how?" Rainbow said now facing Twilight with her bags secured to her back.

"I don't know, I'm just a Rank-B after all." Twilight replied as Rainbow's features grew crossed.

About to turn and continue on with her expedition Twilight caught the sound of somepony sniffling really loudly. Looking around she caught Pinkie with her nose pointing to the sky taking in large wafts of air.

"Pinkie, what are you doing?" Twilight decided to ask. Pinkie ignored her question as she started to move out of the area sniffing as close to the ground as she could get without touching it. Looking towards Rainbow, she just shrugged and followed after the pink canine. Groaning Twilight followed as well.

After some time Pinkie burst out of the trees and into a small circular clearing, Rainbow, and Twilight walking out soon after. The pink pony wasted no time as she circled around the clearing sniffing everything out before sitting down and coming to a stop directly in the center.

Seeing the active pony stop her constant sniffing and stare at a spot on the ground, Rainbow and Twilight walked up behind her and glanced over her head to see she was looking at nothing in particular.

"Uhh, Pinkie... what are you looking at?" Pinkie answered Rainbow's question by lifting up her right hoof and smashing into the ground in front of them. Unexpectedly to the pair the ground she just slammed shook and crumbled away falling into a dark abyss.

"I found our cave!" She gleefully pronounced before jumping straight into the pit without any hesitation.

Looking over to Rainbow, "The only thing I've learned about this friend of yours Dash, is that her nonsensicalness is the only thing about her that makes sense."

Shrugging in response all Rainbow said is, "That's Pinkie Pie for ya." before diving down the hole after her.

Looking down the hole where the two ponies dove in without a care Twilight thought to herself, 'Why am I putting up with these two?' And then she herself walked to the edge and stepped off, getting engulfed by the shadows of the abyss as she fell.

Chapter 4: The Cavern

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It was dark; the sunlight peering in from the top of the hole rendered useless some time ago.

All around Twilight was just pitch black darkness. Her face could be inches away from a wall and she wouldn't even realize it, but what she was a little apprehensive about in this whole situation was the ground. There was no way to know just how far down it was. It could be a couple of minutes until it shows itself or it might even appear at this exact moment. And Twilight knew that if she wasn't prepared the outcome would be grim.

So with no way to precisely deduce how far down the oncoming ground was, Twilight didn't waste any time preparing for the landing.

With the chilly air of the underground breezing across Twilight's body she deftly magicked thin dense purple shoes to the bottom of each of her hooves. And as it would have it, that was a smart move. The exact second after she equipped the magical constructions, the ground made its abrupt, but grand, appearance.

Landing hard against the stone flooring the magical shoes lived up to their purpose flawlessly, allowing Twilight to land unharmed. But the same couldn't be said for the stone floor. The force of her impact crushing a shallow crater into the ground as cracks webbed out around it.

Not taking a moment to ponder how she just cheated death Twilight lit her horn in hopes to get a sense of her surroundings.

As the cave was illuminated in a magenta glow she instantly noticed three things. A passage directly ahead of her extending farther into the cave; the stalagmites and stalactites— which were dripping droplets of water onto the ground every now and then— infesting said passage; and how silent and barren the place was. No living thing, be it pony or monster, anywhere in sight. Meaning the two senseless ponies that jumped down in here before she did continued on ahead without her.

'Their spontaneity is going to be the death of them someday, which would probably be for the better anyway.' Twilight cruelly thought while weaving her way around the stalagmites, beginning her trek through the ominously silent cave.

During the trek, nothing of interest presented itself apart from the occasional ore deposits. Unfortunately, for Twilight, those ore deposits weren't the designated tungsten she was scouting for. Most of them were just basic iron ores with the occasional copper ore.

The boring walk lasted a bit longer before Twilight encountered her first obstacle. Well, not really an obstacle but more of an annoyance because the passage she was in suddenly sloped downwards at a sixty-degree decline. Even more annoying was the water droplets from the stalactites dripping onto the slope making what would've been a dry surface, slick.

Grunting, Twilight trotted to the edge of the drop-off and hopped onto the slippery slope. With a balance akin to a zebra meditating on water upside down with one hoof, the unicorn expertly slid down the slope slowly gaining speed as she went.

Having to keep her keen eye focused on the ground for any irregularities and adjusting her hoofing wherever needed Twilight didn't pay any mind to the ceiling. That was until she unexpectedly felt something grazing against the tip of her horn. Glancing her eye upwards she discovered that the roof of the cave was gradually descending upon her.

Being forced to crouch down low as the pressure doubled-over against her horn the resulting change of posture increased her acceleration even more than before. Not knowing if the roof was going to stops its compression any time soon Twilight took it upon herself to take a few precautionary measures.

She nimbly slid her forelegs forward and her hind legs backward allowing her stomach to come into contact with the ground. Now sliding on her stomach with her body as slimed out as it could get, Twilight now had a separate issue to deal with; her head or more specifically, her horn. If something wasn't done with it soon, the ceiling would certainly take care of it by filing it down to a nub.

Unsatisfied with such a fate and to prevent it from coming to fruition she lowered her head until it looked to be touching the ground, but not quite there. Tilting her head to the side, she moved her protruding extremity out of harm's way.

Coming up on the narrowest portion of the slope with the roof still not halting its decline Twilight snuffed out the magenta light emitting from her horn. She then relit her horn but this time it was the effect from weaving a specific spell that would teleport herself out of the cave and back onto greener lands. Not taking long to finish and with her body now outlined in a magenta glow, she went to release the spell... and the floor promptly disappeared out from under her.

The sudden drop didn't faze Twilight in the slightest, minor problems like that never did anymore. What did faze her though, was the harsh collision of her muzzle smashing against a rock wall. As it turns out, the drop she found herself unexpectedly thrust into was very narrow.

Disoriented and with two streams of blood now gushing out of her bruised nose, the spell she was so close to casting dissipated. And before she was able to reorient her dazed self her body rebounded off the ragged walls multiple times: her cloak becoming useless shredded fabric while jutting rocks shallowly lacerated her body.

Recovering from her disorientation Twilight promptly pushed off the walls until she was safely falling down the center of the hole. The width of it wasn't allowing for any excess maneuverability, so she was stuck nosediving straight down. Just in case, she stuck her forelegs out in front of her and encased her hooves in the same magical shoes as before.

With the air whipping past her face and the remnants of her cloak flailing crazily behind her Twilight never expected that the narrow hole would all too suddenly open up into a massive cavern. Still hurtling straight down she forewent the idea to peer around the cavern and quickly looked up at the incoming ground. Only instead of seeing the ground, she saw the glistening reflection of water from what appeared to be an enormous underground lake.

Dissipating the magicked shoes Twilight kept her forelegs stretched out in front her and breathed in one last large breath, then braced herself for the oncoming dive.

Breaking through the surface with a resounding splash, the momentum from the drop propelled her deep into the depths of the murky waters.

The water was surprisingly luke-warm and besides the reverberating sound of liquid in her flooded ear canals, everything was silent. Casting a single hemisphere shaped shield over her right eye and expelling all the water from it Twilight created a makeshift goggle. Opening her eye, she peered into the murky depths.

They were endless. A dreary never-ending black abyss coupled with her coagulated blood— produced from her nose bleed and lacerations— was the sole view below Twilight Sparkle at this very moment. An abyss like this could be considered a horrifying nightmare to some, but to Twilight it was a sight just like any other.

Ignoring the ominous void beneath her, Twilight glanced up to see the surface of the water was a little ways above her; her dive sending her deeper than she thought. Luckily, the arduous training she endured in the past increased her lung capacity, allowing her to hold her breath many times longer than a normal pony. Swishing her legs through the water she began wading her way to the surface.

Not even halfway up yet, her swimming was cut short when a cool slimy sensation wrapped itself around her left hind leg. In the split-second Twilight felt the chill course through her leg she jolted her head down and fired a concentrated beam of magic straight towards it. The impact was instantaneous and removed the cool threat binding her leg. Now free, Twilight whipped her body around and, with narrowed eyes, peered back down.

What was mere moments ago a barren black abyss was now overrun with a tangled mass of tentacles. Peering through the entanglements Twilight was able to faintly spot a single pitch black eye; an eye whose size could rival that of a full moon viewed on a clear night's sky.

'What is a Kraken doing dow—' Was all Twilight was able to think before she caught movement in the corner of her eye.

Reflexively conjuring up a spherical shield around her body she protected herself just in time. Three tentacles with blurring speeds slammed into her. With a grunt and a frustrated look in her eye, Twilight's shield held strong but she was pushed back from the force of the blow.

The Kraken didn't hesitate before shooting its tentacles forward once more. With her movability hindered underwater, there was no way for Twilight to dodge the attack in time. Wrapping themselves multiple times around her shield they squeezed with a force that could easily pop any living creature. Forced to seep more magic into her shield to keep it, thus herself, alive, Twilight calmed her mind and expertly thought up a means to escape.

Looking around from the inside of her shield she found exactly what she was searching for; a portion of it that wasn't smothered in tentacles. Swimming over and not wasting any time she sliced open a hole in her shield. The small bit of magical backlash from such an action having no effect on herself. Deftly swimming out she made sure to avoid any contact with the tentacles.

Now free and a good distance away Twilight dropped the shield spell. The tentacles that were trying to crush her flailed about wildly, seemingly confused about what just happened.

With her magical prowess still in pristine condition, Twilight recast another shield. What was different about this one though was that it was more akin to body armor than it was a shield. It rested a few centimeters above her fur on all parts of her body causing a magenta glow to outline her frame.

Twilight glared down at the offending appendages, annoyed at them for wasting her time. And even though the fight just began, it was time to end it.

The Kraken noticed the magenta glow outlining his prey that somehow got away. It shot tentacles after tentacles at them, in an attempt to wrap them up again and kill the menace once and for all.

The Menace was already prepared.

Tentacles wrapped around her once more and squeezed with the same vice-like grip as before. Unfazed and unfaltering, Twilight's horn was set aglow with an eerie shade of crimson red.

Even as her legs, head, and barrel became fully enveloped in slimy tentacles out to crush her, she never quit casting. The bloody red light from her horn glowing brighter and brighter.

Almost every single portion of Twilight's body was enshrouded in tentacles at this point, but there was one single anatomy that continued to stubbornly stick out; her horn.

Sensing that the spell she has been charging this entire time was finally complete, she released it.

'Die.'

With that as her last thought, everything went red.

The cavern the purple unicorn wound up falling into was very expansive with varying sizes of pitch black fungi that established a kind of mushroom forest. With some mushrooms being so minuscule that if somepony stepped on it they would be oblivious to it ever happening, while others were so tremendous that small houses could be constructed on top of them and they wouldn't falter under the weight. A distinctive feature of these black mushrooms was the faint grey glow they emitted, illuminating the cave in a soft grey atmosphere. And through the fungi forest, there appeared to be a vague semblance of a paved out path leading somewhere further into the cavern.

In the cavern as well, was the giant underground lake Twilight fell into. The surface of it was tranquil, oblivious to the altercation taking place inside of it. And around the lake were a sparse few black fungi as well: it was like an underground oasis but instead of sand there was cold hard stone and replacing the palm trees were overgrown mushrooms.

All too suddenly the peaceful atmosphere of the cavern was interrupted as a dark red glow began emanating from the center of the drab lake, with it rapidly expanding until the entire surface was aglow. Ripples also began to sporadically spread across the expanse of the lake as a light tremble overtook the cave. As the quake grew significantly stronger random spurts of water began to shoot up as well.

And just like that, everything stopped. No more trembling, no more rippling or spurts of water, and no more crimson glow. Silence reigned over the cavern once more as it basked in the grey glow.

...

*SRRCRK*

A sickening crack echoed throughout the cavern as the lake spontaneously erupted. The strength of the blast sending the waters so high they almost reached the roof of the cavern. A small tsunami of waves was also shot out and crashed against the standing mushrooms surrounding the lake, breaking many of their stems and sending them toppling to the ground.

Chunks of Kraken meat could also be seen flying across the cavern. From tentacle chunks to chunks from its head, and even pieces from its enormous eyes were flung about the place. A very gruesome bloody rain shower overtaking parts of the cavern.

As for the purple unicorn responsible for this entire mess, she was tossed from the lake as well.

Flying through the air Twilight examined all the havoc with a bored eye. Glancing down to see the ground coming closer she nimbly flipped herself around until her hooves were aimed towards it. Hitting the ground, she rolled with her landing to avoid injuring herself. Coming to a stop, she pushed herself up and brushed herself off. With everything calmed down by this point she looked back over her shoulder at the lake.

Giant fallen mushrooms were spread out around the lake while some were even in it, floating on the surface. As for the color of the lake itself, it went from a black and brown murky substance to a bloody red soup; drifting Kraken chunks amplifying the effect.

Content with seeing that there was no way the Kraken could've survived, and having only drained a small portion mana, Twilight turned around and set off down the path through the forest of fungi.

Keeping her eye peeled for any semblance of tungsten, as it would have it, made the trek through the mushrooms as boring and bland as all the other treks before. After a while, and not even finding any tungsten, Twilight broke through the fungi into a large circular clearing.

The first thing to greet her entrance was the back forms of the two idiotic ponies who ditched her earlier on.

Walking up until she was directly behind them she called out to them, a little miffed. "Hey!" They responded in kind by slowly turning around until they were face to face with the unicorn. The words she was planning to yell at the two promptly died in her throat when she caught sight of their eyes.

Their iris' and pupils were completely gone, leaving the sclera of their eyes to flood them entirely.

'Great. Just what I need. More fucking trouble.' She thought while jumping back away from the two. Getting into a battle ready position she kept her eye focused on them, prepared for whatever they might do.

Rainbow, with her wing blades still equipped, flexed her wings and crouched down while staring emotionlessly at Twilight. And Pinkie, with the same blank look on her face, held her steel pickaxe in her teeth. For a few tense moments, Rainbow and Pinkie did nothing. Until... they attacked.

Chapter 5: Corrupted Minds

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The duo lunged forward, spurred on by their corrupt minds. Their consciousness' overridden by the sole command to kill any and all who appear before them.

Having predicted this turn of events beforehoof, Twilight's calm demeanor remained unshakable in the face of adversity. Reaching up with one of her hooves, she securely grasped the hem of her tattered cloak — her perceptive eye attentively trained on the charging pair, waiting.

As the unicorn watched, Pinkie abruptly halted her charge and propped herself up onto her hind legs. With her steel pickaxe held in both her forehooves, she raised it high above her head — the metal of the pickaxe glistening in the cavern's dim lighting — and swung it down with an unforeseen power. As the durable pick struck the ground, it surprisingly chipped off a large chunk of stone. Raising it up and swinging it down again and again and again Pinkie's movements started to blur together as she deftly tunneled into the stony terrain, hunks of stone strewn about in her wake.

Splitting her attention between the two, Twilight also spotted Rainbow flexing the muscles in her finely toned wings just seconds before she took to the air. The expansive clearing cleared of any obstacles leaving Rainbow's flying capabilities uninhibited. So the moment she took flight her speed increased twofold.

Just as the blue blur began rocketing towards Twilight, it just so happened that the ground underhoof started conveniently quaking at the same time. 'So that's their strategy.' The unicorn thought as she waited no more.

Tearing the cloak free from her body, Twilight threw it directly in front of her in a peculiar fashion. The technique causing the cloak to spin rapidly in place until it fully untangled itself, creating a spinning wall of cloth that shrouded her from Rainbow's vision. Now hidden from sight, Twilight took advantage of her situation and teleported away mere seconds before the ground under her exploded into shrapnel of acicular rocks.

As she reappeared, she immediately took stock of the situation. Her tattered cloak was finally done in as it fluttered to the ground sliced in two, and pervading the position she stood moments ago was a haze of rock dust.

Narrowing her eye, she was able to faintly make out the outline of Rainbow through the dust cloud. Almost instantly the pegasus began to rapidly flap her wings, attempting to blow the dust away to disperse its blinding effects.

Quickly surveying the area Twilight was luckily able to locate a relatively thin but long stray stalagmite standing near the edge of the clearing.

Telekinetically snapping the stalagmite off at its base, the purple prodigy floated it over and horizontally held it to the right side of her head — the needle-like side facing the, at this point, almost fully dispersed cloud of rock dust. Homing in on the cyan pegasus, Twilight charged her horn, surrounding the stalagmite in an even deeper purple hue, and hurled it straight at her with speeds rivaling a bullet shot from a rifle.

Five tedious seconds passed, and Rainbow successfully blew away the entirety of the obscuring dust. Her vision now able to roam free, the pegasus instantly spotted the purple unicorn. For a brief moment, she thought she saw a distorted blur but brushed off the insignificant detail when nothing seemed to transpire. Unfortunately, for her, the insignificant detail was anything but that.

When Rainbow readied up to assault Twilight once more, she was unexpectedly hit with a sense of hollowness. A chill suddenly racked her body and instantly preceding it, a wave of weariness. The synchronized flapping of her wings grew uneven as they gradually slowed, and the peculiarly sightful pupil-less eyes became sightless as they flickered into dark nothingness.

With all of these effects piled upon Rainbow, the ability to remain afloat was lost. Shortly as the fall began, it ended. The pegasus flopped uncomfortably against the frigid cavern floors. She laid there, limp. Her final fleeting sense being the pooling of her thick blood blanketing her in a false warmth, unable to prevent the inevitability.

As she laid unmoving, the gaping two-inch diameter hole recently drilled through her throat relentlessly seeped out life. There was no mistaking it now. Rainbow Dash, the brash and cocky pegasus, was dead.

Staring at the corpse with an unremorseful eye Twilight looked past it and to the newly formed hole in the ground. 'One eliminated with one remaining.'

Much was silent after the death of the pink one's pegasus friend, and it would've continued that way for much longer if it wasn't for a pink blur shooting out of the hole in the ground interrupting the brief stagnation.

Twilight easily tracked the pink blur and watched on in disinterest, observing its next course of action.

Reaching the apex of her ascent Pinkie acrobatically began a bout of somersaults, attempting to build up momentum. As her final gyration came to pass, the pink pony hurled her steel pickaxe directly towards Twilight with every ounce of strength her muscles could muster. And considering how effortlessly she plowed through the stone earlier, the throw was far from lackluster.

Seeing the oncoming pickaxe, despite its lethal speeds, Twilight nonchalantly leaned her head to the left. 'Weak.' Freeing herself from its trajectory, the deathly spinning metal on a stick whizzed by unabated, inches from her cheek: a slight breeze washing over her face as it did.

A loud thunk behind her told her all she needed to know.

With the pickaxe posing a threat no more, the prodigy turned her gaze back onto the descending Pinkie. Enlightening her horn with its signature purple glow, Twilight encapsulated the corrupt pony in her telekinetic grasp. Immediately putting up a fight, Pinkie thrashed her legs and head about like a feral beast picked up against its will.

Tired of this farce of a battle Twilight began compressing her magical hold, causing the pink pony to thrash all the more. Soon enough, she would be done in.

Just as Twilight was about to crush the life from the corrupted innocent, she was interrupted.

Unconsciously the unicorn's ears swiveled backwards as they picked up a faint whooshing sound from behind. Whipping her head around Twilight caught the rushing steel pickaxe: the honed end of it millimeters away from impaling itself into her last functioning eye.

Levitating the pickaxe out of the way, Twilight narrowed her eye in agitation at whoever threw the offending tool. To her surprise, and slight dismay, she spotted a certain chromatic pegasus standing upright. Haggard and alive.

'I'm a fool.' Twilight reprimanded herself. 'There's no mistaking it; I killed her. But it's obvious; I should've realized it the moment I saw their eyes. Something more is at play here.'

"You... bitch! Why are you... trying to... kill Pinkie Pie!?" Rainbow raspily shouted out between her ragged intakes of air.

Hearing the pegasus speak prompted a raised eyebrow from the unicorn. Upon closer inspection, it was revealed that Rainbow's sclera's receded and made room for her pupils and purple iris' once more. Continuing to gaze across the pegasus' body, her examination came to an abrupt stop when she took in the sight of her neck.

The hole was mended, gone. And the only evidence to show it ever existed in the first place was the blood drenching Rainbow's fur coat.

'I see. I realize now,' Twilight thought as she glanced back to a still struggling Pinkie, 'what I need to do.'

Ignoring the cyan pegasus' question long enough Twilight turned back around and bluntly answered, "To save her."

After receiving her answer Rainbow's features shifted to one of incredulous shock. "So let me get this straight. To save Pinkie... you're going to kill her?" A small nod from Twilight was enough to throw the Pegasus over the edge. "ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?! Do you really think I'm just going to stand by and watch you do that?!"

"Think about this logically Rainbow. I gouged a hole through your throat, killing you. And now look at you. Besides the lack of blood in your system, you're somehow in perfect condition."

Reaching up with a forehoof Rainbow rubbed at her throat and felt nothing but fur, flesh, and a small bit of wetness. "Yeah, likely story." She seethingly accused.

Groaning to herself, 'Of course she wouldn't remember.' "Fine." Twilight said out loud as she rotated around, and at a sedate pace, walked towards Pinkie, "Try and stop me. But if by some miracle you actually come anywhere near me... don't think I'll retaliate with hesitation. And you never know, I might just accidentally add another airway to your body."

Infuriated, Rainbow pushed through the groggy feeling invading her body and charged after the murderer. Dead set on intervening Twilight's ploy, the pegasus was oblivious to the translucent purple barrier erected around her being.

Brutally smashing her snout against the sturdy wall Rainbow let a small yelp escape her mouth as she fell back into a sitting position.

Reaching up with one of her forehooves, she rubbed her bruised snout, hissing when it elicited a small jolt of pain. "Ugh... What the hell?" Rainbow groaned as she raised her head. Noticing the sheen of purple in front of her the pegasus shot up. "No..." Frantically scanning her vicinity, she discovered barriers surrounded her on all sides, including from above and below.

Rushing to the barrier she crashed into Rainbow peered through it to see Twilight levitating a struggling magically bound Pinkie to the floor.

In a last-ditch effort, Rainbow reared up onto her hind legs and began repeatedly bashing her forehooves against the barrier, small pulsating ripples appearing with every connection. "LET ME OUT OF HERE YOU COWARD!" Bash after bash after bash, the actions continued. "WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE, YOU'RE SO DEAD! YOU HEAR ME!? I WILL END YOU!"

After a while, the futility of her actions started to creep up on her, so in one final attempt, she smashed her head hard against the unwavering barrier causing one last ripple to expand before it stood motionless.

Leaning her head on the translucent wall Rainbow stared down to the ground with a look of poorly concealed rage. She gritted her teeth and as tears formed in the corners of her eyes she seethed. "Just you wait, when I get out of here I'll... I'll..." The cyan pegasus' voice died off as tears streamed down her cheeks, the blackness brought by her closed eyes her only solace.

Oblivious to the rainbow-maned pegasus, Twilight witnessed her emotional breakdown.

Coercing the unicorn to turn around was the relentless pounding against one of her barriers: each and every strike sending a small jolt of pain through the magical backlash her horn was graced with. The sight she beheld was of Rainbow acting upon her rage as she bashed away on one of the translucent walls with her sturdy forehooves.

Stoically standing there, Twilight watched the entirety of the cyan mare's turmoil play out. Ending with the mare smashing her forehead against the barrier as tears leaked from her eyes, the unicorn turned back to the pink corruption without a thought in her mind.

At this point in time, the magically bound Pinkie's struggling numbed down to weak basic movements.

Knowing what had to be done, Twilight dispelled her telekinetic hold on the floating pickaxe and caught it in her right forehoof. Swinging it around she accustomed herself to the tool's weight. Walking until she was a step or two away from Pinkie, she pulled the pickaxe back.

Just as the unicorn was about to rush the steel tool forward the magical backslashes kicked back up. Brushing them off, she swung.

The pickaxe sliced through the dank air for but a few fleeting moments. With an audible rip and tear the head of the tool pierced through pink fur and tan flesh as it sunk it's needle deep into the confines of Pinkie's esophagus, only stopping when the handle interfered.

A squelching noise could be heard as Twilight deftly tore the head from the mare's throat, the front half of the pickaxe head now glossed over with crimson red blood. Tossing the pickaxe away it hit the ground causing a few splotches of syrupy blood to litter the cavern floor.

Looking down upon the lifeless corpse of Pinkie Pie as it slowly drained out fluid, Twilight waited. If her assumptions were correct then, it shouldn't take long, but if they were wrong... well... she'll have pegasus hellbent on killing her to deal with.

Luckily, it appeared the pink mare wouldn't have to suffer through her gruesome fate much longer.

First, it oozed from the hole in her throat, then it poured out from under her closed eyelids, next it seeped out of her ears, and finally, it wafted out of her nostrils and mouth. But it didn't end there. The midnight blue mist began rising out of every single pore in the poor mare's body, creating a dense gloom.

As spontaneously as the ghastly mist appeared, it dissipated all the same. A short few seconds was all it needed to vanish from existence, leaving behind a Pinkie Pie in pristine condition — discounting all the blood of course.

During her examination Twilight discovered that the hole she recently punctured in the mare's neck was, indeed, gone. Not only that but when she took a gander at Pinkie's eyes she found that they were... open? Her iris' and pupils were returned as well.

Scanning around Twilight located the pickaxe she threw to the side earlier. Walking over to it she picked it up and tossed it in front of the prone mare. "If you're fine then get up. This expedition has already been nothing but a waste of time and I don't want to waste anymore."

Standing up, the pink mare picked up her pickaxe. Casting a confused glance at the red liquid coating its head she shrugged it off before setting the tool on her back. "Soooo, what's happening? All I remember is that Dash and I saw this really sparkly looking gem, and then poof! Nothing! Oh! Speaking of Dash where is she? Do you know where she is? I have a feeling you do!~" Pinkie spoke up annoyingly.

"I see you're already fully recovered, so can you do me a favor and just shut up?" Twilight firmly stated as a question before walking back towards Rainbow. Pinkie acquiesced to the unicorn's demand... for all of a couple of seconds that is.

"Hey, what's with that glowing purple box we're walking to?" The pink pony asked with a small tilt of her head.

"Barriers"

"Really? Why are they there?"

"To keep Rainbow contained."

"Now why would you need to do that?"

"She was being a pain in the ass."

"How was she being a pain in th-"

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?"

Rubbing a hoof against the bottom of her chin, Pinkie hummed in contemplation. "Nooo... I'm pretty sure you asked me to shut up."

Pausing and glaring back at the hyper mare Twilight commanded through gritted teeth, "Shut. Up." Receiving a meek nod, the unicorn resumed her short trek.

Now standing in front of her barriers Twilight dispelled them.

Instantly a cyan hoof launched forward aimed directly for the unicorn's head. Raising her own forehoof she deflected the attack before agilely stepping around and capturing the angered pegasus in a headlock.

Keeping a firm grip on the struggling mare, "Calm. Down."

"Calm down?! Do you really think I could calm down after watching you stab Pinkie's throat with her own pickaxe?!" Rainbow hysterically shouted out in rage.

"Pinkie's not dead Rainbow."

"How?! How could she not be dead!?"

Pinkie, who has been silent through this entire ordeal, had a dawning sense of realization light up in her eyes."Ohhh. So this is what you meant by Dash being a pain in the ass!"

"Now's not the time Pinkie." Twilight deadpanned.

"Yeah, now's not the time so-" Rainbow said in a tone drowned with malice before comprehending who it was that spoke. Halting her struggle she silently glanced up to see a beaming pink mare smiling straight at her.

"Hiyya Dash!" The all too chipper Pinkie greeted.

"P-P-P-PINKIE?!" The cyan pegasus exclaimed with unadulterated shock. "B-But how?! I-I saw you die! I saw Twilight kill you! You should be dead, so how?!"

"The same way you're not dead I'm guessing." Twilight piped up while releasing Rainbow. After being free the pegasus cautiously made her way over to Pinkie in disbelief. She was about to say something to her friend but was interrupted when Twilight spoke up again. "Pinkie," After being addressed the mare in question looked over, "you said something about a gem earlier, do you remember where it's located. I want to see it for myself."

"That's an easy one! It's over there." Raising her hoof Pinkie pointed behind Twilight. Following where the mare's hoof was pointing the unicorn saw a tall stone spire jutting from the ground on the opposite end of the clearing. Without another word, Twilight began her short walk over, leaving behind the other two to do whatever they pleased.

As she came upon the towering spire, a large midnight blue gemstone peacefully laying on the ground came into view. Twilight stopped a couple of hoofsteps away from it.

To the regular pony, the gemstone appeared to be just that, an ordinary gemstone. But to the purple prodigy, she could sense it was anything but that. The gemstone emanated dark magic unseen by any untrained eye. Even now she could feel its dark influence attempting to weave its self into her mind, to corrupt her like the ones before.

Through the sheer willpower of her mind alone, Twilight was able to barricade the darkness from entering. 'So this is the source of my unforeseen plight.' She thought as she levitated the offending object into the air and chucked it violently at the spire, the impact shattering it into multiple small shards.

The dark magic trapped in the gem was set free and coalesced into a spinning void. And before the unicorn could comprehend it the miasma burst forth with unprecedented speeds. Even with reflexes as sharp as her own Twilight wasn't able to dodge the magic.

It collided harshly with her dead left eye and began phasing into it. It felt like small needles were being meticulously shoved into every available space and crevice in her eyeball. The pain alone was enough to cause Twilight to fall to her knees as she groaned in horrendous agony.

When the torture finally ceased Twilight was left gasping for air as sweat dripped from her snout and forehead.

As she laid on her knees attempting to recover her breath, unbeknownst to the unicorn her left eye regained color after many long years; a dim glow of menacing navy blue.

Ravaged Lands

by NamePending

Chapter 1: The Pony Under the Cloak

Chapter 2: That Could've Gone Better

Chapter 3: Through the Everfree

Chapter 4: The Cavern

Chapter 5: Corrupted Minds