> Trailblazer The Rescuer
>  by Trailblazer Rocker
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Bully
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A month has passed ever since Silver Soul's plot to conquer Equestria was thwarted. Trailblazer, along with the help of AppleJack, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy, put a stop to his plans. For the first time in a long time, he could take it easy. He felt no pressure on him to protect anyone from any threat, and it was that which made him feel at ease.
Tonight, there was a campfire at AppleJack's farm. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Trailblazer were with AppleJack that night to relax and eat s'mores around the fire. Everypony was enjoying the presence of their friends all in one place at a relaxing time. While they were there, they told stories that were either about their past, funny events that happened between a select few from them, or gossiped. Trailblazer simply strummed an acoustic guitar he bought a few days ago as he sat and listened.
"...So Prince BlueBlood is going after Candace's sister now?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"But of course. I swear, the way he's going, he keeps on getting rejected by every mare he meets!" exclaimed Rarity. "Not that I'm surprised. He was just unpleasant to be around because of his, well, immature mannerisms at the gala."
"From what I've caught, this Blueblood guy sounds like a complete pansy," remarked Trailblazer.
The rest of them laughed and spoke in agreement.
"Say, sugarcube, do ya got anythin' interesting to share with us?" asked AppleJack.
"Well, what else is there to tell?" he asked. "You all know my cutie mark story, I escaped death when Silver Soul took over..."
"Do you have anything about the place you grew up in, at least?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Yeah, tell us a story about your hometown!" Scootaloo yelled, trying to imitate Rainbow Dash.
"Come to think of it, there IS this story that was passed down from generation to generation in Tethleon... But I'm not sure if this story about ancient Tethleon is completely credible..." pondered Trailblazer.
"It sounds interesting enough. Let's hear it!" said AppleJack excitedly.
All the others agreed to hear the story.
Trailblazer saw this and agreed to share it. "Okay, here's how this story goes..."
"Way back when, two millenniums ago, many ponies crossed paths and began to know each other. They set up a camp for themselves in that area. During their stay, they began to build some houses and started to open some shops for any other traveler that came by. More and more ponies began to gather at that site, and they started to build a sophisticated city there. That place became known as Tethleon in the ancient times. I know for a fact that one of my many grandfathers was one of the first campers there."
"But one day, a great cataclysm struck the city, and it fell into ruins. It was feared by all, and many ponies lost their lives in it. Darkness filled the sky, and a formiddable power was in their presence. Tethleon was wrecked, and only a few stood up to that powerful catastrophe. It then swept the rest of the world during it's wrath. At some point, it subsided... But what that cataclysm was and how it stopped is unknown. It has been forgotten over time due to the few survivors that stood in it's wake."
"Many moons rose and set, and the city was rebuilt. There have been rumors about what happened during that pseudo-Armageddon. Some say that a big storm swept the area. A few say that it was the work of a demon. What is known is that after that catastrophe, a group of survivors carried away a chest and buried it. Whatever the case, there is one thing that can make it an archeologist's gold mine: Somewhere in Equestria is that well-preserved and valued treasure locked deep within the earth. Where that place is exactly is unknown, again, because this is a 2,000-year old treasure. Even more theories spread from ponies that lived in Tethleon about what it is: it could be a giant treasure hoard, ancient money made in gold, a magical item of some sort, some scrolls that tell us what actually happened during that disaster, or some personal belongings, like a time capsule. Me? I don't have plans on making it a lifelong goal to find that treasure chest and discover what it actually is, but it does keep me up at night whenever I think about it..."
"Wow, that's pretty interesting!" said Twilight. "It sounds like whatever they buried and hid away must've been really important."
"From what I've been told, it is. If only there was some sort of place to get started, like a first clue, to get started on finding that treasure..."
"There HAS to be some sort of thing to start such an expedition, isn't there?" asked Rarity.
"Yeah, but I JUST don't know where, or WHAT, that first clue is... If only anyone knew what it was... If only..."

***

"Hey, Trailblazer!" Rainbow Dash said as she met him in Ponyville Square. "That story you told last night... I've been thinking that it could be an adventure tale just like Daring Do's adventure!"
"Who's Daring Do?" he asked her.
"Oh, she's an archeologist character that I read about when I was hospitalized for a few days." she said. "Someone should write a story about her based off of the one you told last night! Could be that for something that's been passed down through your family, you could make a lot of money with a top seller like that!"
"You really think so??"
"Yeah, I do! Since you seem to know about it so much, you could write it the most fluently!"
"Well, I guess so..." Trailblazer felt unsure about the idea.
"What's wrong?"
"I do know a lot about it, but I don't know EVERYTHING about it. These chaotic events that happened 2,000 years ago actually happened, but the details on what that chaos was and what the treasure is remain vague."
"So, just make it fictional!" reasoned Rainbow Dash.
"That could work."
"THERE you two are!" said Pinkie Pie as she spotted and ran up to the two ponies. "Didn't you get the announcement?"
"What announcement?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"The mayor has an announcement to make at town hall, and she's about to speak in a few minutes!" answered Pinkie Pie. "Follow me!"
Pinkie Pie led the two ponies towards town hall. There, they saw nearly all of Ponyville's residents standing before a vacant podium, waiting for the mayor to show up. Pinkie led them to their friends, who were all standing near the platform in front of them all. Even the Xutie Mark Crusaders were standing with them.
"There you are!" said Twilight Sparkle as they met up. "Where were you two, and how did you not hear about this announcement?"
"I never even heard about it," said Trailblazer.
"We were at the center of town," Rainbow Dash added.
"Well, how did you not know about it? We're the ones that the mayor will be talking about."
"Really??"
"Yeah!"
"Shh, quiet everypony," instructed Fluttershy. "She's coming right now."
All the ponies saw the mayor walk across the stage, and they quieted themselves down. She made her way to the center and began to make her announcement.
"Fillies and gentlecolts, it is with my pleasure to announce that a dinner party will be held at Canterlot Castle, honoring the heroes that thwarted King Silver Soul's plan for world domination. I'd like to bring them all up here on stage with me right now. Twilight Sparkle, AppleJack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Trailblazer!"
All seven of them walked on stage and stood to face the crowd.
"And, as our special guest for this announcement, and the host for this dinner party, please welcome, Princess Celestia!"
At that cue, Celestia slowly descended onto the stage from the sky. "Yes, my little ponies. This dinner dance will be held at Canterlot Castle this upcoming Friday starting at 7:00 p.m." she announced. "Please make arrangements to be there, to be in the presence of such ponies that kept us safe last month."
"So, look your best as well, everypony!" the mayor ended with. "You are all dismissed."
All the ponies disbanded, leaving the seven of them on their own before town hall.
"This isn't going to be another Grand Galloping Gala, is it?" asked Fluttershy.
"Maybe, maybe not," thought Twilight. "They might've fixed their mistakes by now on how to make it work."
"True."
"Well, dears," Rarity said. "You still have those dresses I made you, right?"
All of them said yes, except for Trailblazer.
"Oh, that's right. You weren't here at that time."
"You don't need to make me anything, I have a suit that I can wear," said Trailblazer.
"Fair enough," replied Rarity. "On that note, I should make outfits for Applebloom and Scootaloo too."
"Okay!" Applebloom said.
"Yeah..." Scootaloo replied, uninterested.
"Well then, I'd say that this will be a great opportunity for us to be known for our accomplishments! Let's make this dinner party worth every minute!"
All of them exclaimed in agreement, and they headed back to their homes.

It was now the day of the Canterlot Castle Dinner Party. The seven ponies and their three fillies had their own private escort via Princess Celestia's guards by chariots. When they arrived, they saw that they were all wearing the same dresses that they wore at the gala, along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders in their own new ones. But Trailblazer was not there when they all arrived.
"Now, where could have my little sugarcube gone to?" AppleJack wondered.
"He was at the same announcement, and he heard the same things we did..." Pinkie Pie said. "Did he go loco in the coco and forgot about it?"
"No, he would've been reminded, he got the same kind of escort we got."
"Sorry that I'm a little late, everypony," they heard Trailblazer say.
All of them looked up to see one of Celestia's guards carrying him by a chariot and landed on the hall floor next to them. Trailblazer jumped out to reveal that he had a black suit, complete with a white undershirt, black tie, and rose on his chest. His mane was also nicely combed, without a messy appearance.
"I stopped to pick these for you, AppleJack." He pulled out a funnel of lilacs and handed it to her.
"Awww, Trailblazer!" AppleJack was awestruck and happy at the sight and thought. "Ya shouldn't have!"
"Well, how could I show up without a little gift for you, 'ma petite chou-fleur'?" he asked her.
"Oh, stop it!" giggled AppleJack. "Still, how thoughtful!"
"Dinner is served, everypony," said one of the waiters. He led all the guests to the dining room and got more of the waiters to take the guests to their seats. The nine ponies had their own big table reserved for themselves.
"If you'd like, we have a buffet set up for all of you," the same waiter announced to the entire resteraunt.
After an hour passed in the castle when all of the ponies had their fill, Princess Celestia showed up on stage in front of a red carpet.
"Fillies and gentlecolts, as the princess of this fair kingdom of Equestria, it is with my pleasure to present our heroes of Equestria once again to you all. Would Twilight Sparkle, Trailblazer, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, AppleJack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity please come join me on this stage?"
All seven of them got out of their seats and headed towards Princess Celestia.
"More showering of praise, 'si vous plait'," said Trailblazer, quietly to himself.
As they were just about to walk up on the stage, many armored pegasi broke into the resteraunt, shattering the windows that they all crashed through. Everypony was startled by this, as they were focused on the princess and the seven ponies that he brought up with her. An entire army of other large ponies covered in armor barged in through the doors, blocking all the exits. They held spears in front of them, ready to impale anyone who dared to escape. All the dinner guests looked around in surprise and fear; none of them knew what was going on. Just then, an indigo-coated unicorn with a pitch-black mane floated down through the broken glass ceiling, laughing evilly as he did so, and stopped when he landed. All eyes were on him, all of the ponies wanting to know what was going on.
"Well, well, well. I'd never thought we'd met again, Trailblazer," he said.
Trailblazer jumped off from the stairs that led to the stage, and looked at him intensely.
"You...! I remember you from somewhere...!" he thought.
"Pfft, I knew you would. I was never good enough for you when we first met each other, was I?" he questioned.
Trailblazer strained to think, and then the memory hit him. "I remember now! You're Black Hole!"
"Impressive, you thug," the unicorn known as Black Hole responded. "I told you that I'd come back, and now I have. I'm going to get my well-deserved revenge!"
AppleJack ran up to Trailblazer. "What is this colt talkin' about, sugarcube?!"
Trailblazer ignored her question. "What, for bringing on a bunch of misdeeds on yourself that I had to address?"
Black Hole chuckled at him. "Surely, you jest. Clearly, it was you that made my life hell. I never had to suffer those injustices if it weren't for YOU!"
"WHAT injustices?!"
Black Hole laughed again. "Just as I expected, Trailblazer, You're too proud. So, it looks like I'm going to have to remind you."
As he talked, the events played back in his head, recalling all the happenings that took place from his point of view.
"Back before the Rising Warriors guild was made, we were all fillies at that time. We went to the same school, and had the same classes. And there was you, bullying all the other fillies."
"You're lying!" Trailblazer interrupted.
"Oh, so you don't remember the time that you squirted glue down my throat?"
"Well..."
"Or the time that you broke my nose with that baseball bat the year before the Rising Warriors were made?"
"Now that..."
"And most of all, the time that you sabotaged my chances of becoming a Rising Warrior, by deliberately hurting yourself, and framing me?!"
Trailblazer grew worried that he recalled all of these times. "...But I..."
"I had terrible self-esteem, and I was put in tears. You made me miserable."
"...When I became part of the Rising Warriors, I saw all the things that I did that were wrong, and I tried to find you so I could correct all of my wrongdoings..."
Princess Celestia, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and the other six gasped. Obviously, they now saw that Trailblazer was no perfect pony.
Black Hole scoffed at him. "You made my life such a living Hell, that I ran away from Tethleon, with what little self-esteem I had. I even set up my own little campsite in the most desolate area I could find, contemplating suicide. However, I was given time to think. I thought, and I thought, and I thought, but all I could think about was you..."
"Sugarcube, did you really do all those awful things to him?" AppleJack asked Trailblazer.
Trailblazer turned away from her, ashamed at himself. "...Yes..."
AppleJack gasped again. "How could ya have done such terrible things?! That just ain't right!"
"So, you see, Trailblazer. I have big plans for your punishment," Black Hole spoke up.
Trailblazer immediately looked back at him with disgust. "Like what?"
"Are you familiar with the story of the 2,000 year-old treasure of Tethleon?"
"Yes?"
"Well, I have discovered what that treasure is, where it's at, and what I need to unlock it."
"What?? How?! And you'd better tell me what it is!"
"You know, I would, but... Why ruin surprises?"
"You dirty little...!" Trailblazer yelled as he charged him. Black Hole set up a force field around his body using his unicorn magic. It felt as if Trailblazer ran right into a concrete wall as he collided with the barrier, and he fell backwards, stunned.
"You've made my life a living Hell, you thug. And now, I'm going to return the favor."
"You listen here, ya party crasher!" AppleJack yelled at Black Hole. "Ah know that no pony's perfect, but Ah've seen a lotta good in Trailblazer! Ah've seen that he's learned from his mistakes, and that's what matters now! Can't ya see that he has remorse?!"
Black Hole looked at AppleJack with contempt. "What, are you his marefriend, trying to defend that scumbag you're calling a gentlecolt?"
"Stay out of this, AppleJack..." warned Trailblazer as he tried to pick himself up.
"That's not an option. I'll need a vessel for our plan for world domination," said Black Hole. "And seeing how you care for Trailblazer that much..." Using his horn, he shot out a dark blue rope-like magic beam that wrapped itself around AppleJack's body, constricting her as it did. She couldn't move as she was wrapped, and she was dragged back to Black Hole. "You'll make the perfect one," Black Hole said, finishing his sentence.
"No... AppleJack!" Trailblazer got up and charged him again. Black Hole deployed his force field again, knocking Trailblazer back like last time.
"Hear me, Trailblazer!" he yelled. "I'm going to make your life an even bigger hellhole than the one you put me through! Once that treasure is mine, you will be tortured so badly that you'll wish you've never born! The world will be mine, and it will be against you!" Black Hole began to levitate, laughing maniacally as he did so, carrying AppleJack with him.
"Trailblazerrrr!" a desperate AppleJack cried out.
"AppleJack!" Trailblazer yelled back as he tried to stop Black Hole. Before he could, his horn began to glow, and in a flash of light that was left behind by the entire army, all of them disappeared into thin air, along with AppleJack. Trailblazer looked at the last place he saw her, in disbelief.
"AppleJack..." he called out. "AppleJack! AAAPPLEJAAACK!" he cried out, stressed. He had to accept the fact: AppleJack was gone.
"AAAAAUUUUUUUuuuuggh..." he screamed towards the sky, and then it grew to a small strained moan as he crouched down, shut his eyes tight, and covered his face with his hooves. He then collapsed on the floor with his legs sprawled out, teeth grit, and with solitary tears flowing from both of his eyes. He was in shame, and in quite a lot of it, reflecting on how his mean youthful self came back to haunt him after all.
> Enemy With Benefits
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two large soldier ponies, a black one and a white one,  walked into the throne room of Black Hole, keeping AppleJack between them. Another maroon soldier pony stood off to the side in the room and followed their movements with his eyes.
"Lord Black Hole, we've brought the mare, AppleJack, that you wanted to speak too." the one on AppleJack's left said.
"Well, isn't it about time that you spoke, my pet?" Black Hole asked AppleJack.
She remained silent.
Black Hole turned around, "AppleJack, you will speak when spoken to. That is an order."
"Ah'm tellin' ya, ya ain't gonna change my mind about Trailblazer," she finally replied.
"Such a stubborn mare you are. Well, let me tell you this again... Trailblazer was a bully to all of us, especially to me. I don't even know why he did, but he was quite mean."
"Oh, get over it!" she interrupted.
Black Hole walked up to her and gave her a sharp gaze. "Well, it looks like we got a little sassy one here. Now, what have I told you about speaking?"
"Speak when spoken to." she replied, rolling her eyes.
"Yes. Now, as I was saying, Trailblazer did all kinds of things to make me miserable. Such as taping me to a flagpole near the top, eating my food and spitting it back out so I could eat the masticated remains... The list goes on, you see."
"Well, Ah've seen him do no such thing," AppleJack fought back. "Ah saw that he had remorse for what he's done, and he even said that he wanted to apologize, too. And if all of those things were way in the past, you can get over it! Yer takin' this way too far!"
"Too far? Let me think here... I ran away from home with such low self-esteem because of him. I tried committing suicide multiple times, because of him. AND, I found out what the treasure is and am seeking it's keys so I can get my revenge. The day that him having peace of mind being less than none is quite soon. Maybe I'll even kill him after I'm done torturing him as much as anypony can take. What do you think about that?"
"And just why exactly did you low-lives have to take me away?!"
"Because... We'll need you when the treasure is ready to be unlocked."
AppleJack grew and looked worried at the thought of being the tool for world domination.
"That, and it's a headstart for his inevitable fate. He'll be crying and begging for mercy, and his suffering will be sweet to me, like candy is sweet... But I've grown bored of winning this argument. Take her back to the holding room," he told his two guards.
"Yes, my lord!" they both said, simultaneously.
"And be sure to take good care of her. She is NOT to be harmed, understood?"
"Understood, sire!" Then the two guards escorted AppleJack away. Black Hole turned to look at the maroon pony.
"Well, SteelHide, since Trailblazer will no doubt try to save AppleJack from us now, it'll more than likely impede our progress at unlocking that treasure. So, I'm sending you out to keep him away.
"Huh, sure thing, Lord Black Hole. You can count on your admin to get the job done! I'm on it!" the maroon pony addressed as SteelHide spoke. He ran away to work on his assignment. Black Hole turned to look at the back of his room.
"I wonder if sending SteelHide alone is a wise thing to do... He's... Out there..." he thought. He turned around again to face the enterance to his throne room. "Sound Wave! Come here!"
An orange pony ran up to him.
"You rang, dude?" he started. "I MEAN, sir? NO, Lord? Lord Black Hole?"
"Shut up," replied Black Hole sternly. "Go get the Shadowcolts for me."
Sound Wave immediately knew that this was no task to be taken lightly, and he became a bit frightened. "But Black Hole... The Shadowcolts... They're, like-!"
"I don't care how you planned to finish that sentence, idiot. Now fetch them for me."
"Gotcha!" Sound Wave left. After a minute of waiting, three dark purple ponies with a dark aura emanating from all three of them appeared from the ground. The one in the front laughed for a little bit.
"So, what is it that you seek from us, sire?" he asked.
"Enough talking, Dark Sun," said Black Hole. "Here's your assignment: SteelHide has been sent to seek out Trailblazer and his friends. I need you three to help him seek him out."
"I see, not at all a difficult task. Would you like him dead, or alive?"
"I could care less about what you do to his friends if he brings them along, but Trailblazer MUST be alive. If he's going to be tortured and get his cruel and unusual punishment, it'll be me."
"Understood, my lord." The one in front, turned to look at his brothers. "Dark Moon! Dark Sky! We have a job to do!"
The other two Shadowcolts agreed and disappeared into the floor with him.
Back in AppleJack's holding room, there was nothing for her to do. It was a simple hotel-styled bedroom with a bed and a nightstand. There was a glass door that led to a small balcony, but there was nothing else in there.
"Just dandy..." AppleJack said with sarcasm. "What in the hey do they expect me to do here? Bore myself as much as Ah can?"
Just then, a white soldier pony flew onto the balcony. It was one of the same guards that brought her into Black Hole's throne room a little bit ago. AppleJack saw him and gave him a rotten look.
"And what do ya think YER doin' mister?!" she asked him.
"I apologize, AppleJack," he said. "I've been ordered to keep survelience on you for the time being." The white pegasus opened the glass door and walked into the waiting room.
"And what's yer beef, pal?"
"I understand that you're angry, but I don't have a bone to pick with you." He scanned the room to make sure that no one else was watching or hearing him. "Actually, I've grown to be more and more disloyal to Black Hole..."
AppleJack thought for a second. "Wait... So, what's your story?"
"I've seen Black Hole's lunacy and what he plans on doing, and I, too, know that he's going way too far with his revenge against Trailblazer."
AppleJack began to think that she had a pony on her side. "Could Ah get yer name?"
"I'm known as White Comet," he introduced. "I'll be keeping surveliene over you for the time being, but I still am against Black Hole's ways..."
"Well, why don't ya just leave?"
"I've already joined his army. It's too late. If I tell him that I'm leaving, he'll take it as betrayal, and I will probably get beat to death..."
AppleJack grew worried about him. "Wow... It looks like yer in a tougher situation than Ah am..."
"I really want to help you, I really do," said White Comet. "But stepping out of line against Black Hole, whether you're with him or not, is asking for a death sentence."
"Now, that there is just plain awful!" AppleJack said. "But... How can you help me?" He looked around. "And where am Ah anyway?"
"I'm afraid that I can't relay that information to you right now. I can't let any pony here know that I'm against Black Hole, never mind, helping you out while you're being held here. So as of now, I want to keep a low profile about it. During my next shift, I may be able to help you."
"Fair enough..." AppleJack said.

The next day after the attack, the remaining five walked up to Trailblazer's house. They didn't hear anything inside, but there was still a gut feeling that told that he was here.
Pinkie Pie walked up to the door and continuously knocked on it. "Trailblazer? Are you in there?"
"Go away!" he yelled.
Pinkie Pie backed off from the door, looking hurt.
"C'mon, Trailblazer! We're here to help," said Twilight Sparkle. She began to knock on the door, and noticed that it was unlocked. It even creaked open on her. Without bothering to ask to come inside, she did. He walked up to the second floor and walked into the bedroom. Inside was a queen-sized bed, and lying over it, was Trailblazer.
"C'mon, we need you here," she said. Despite how uncanny it was, she tried to mother him and stroked his mane in an effort to lift his mood.
"I've been scandalized," he began. "Now all of you know about how bad of a pony I was when I was a filly. And look where it got me: AppleJack has been kidnapped and no pony's going to help me."
"But we've seen you do great things!" Twilight talked back. "And we all saw that you had remorse."
"Yeah, and that was to hide my younger meaner self that I'm not proud of. I'm sure that any pony that remembers me now will remember me as Tethleon's little hell-raiser more than King Gold's right-hand colt who strove to be good."
"But what about those that saw you being King Gold's right-hand colt? Certainly, one HAS to be REALLY good to rise to that status." Twilight continued to stroke Trailblazer's mane, but she saw that he was now giving her a dirty look. Apparently, the mane stroking was irritating him.
"Maybe, but it's just a 'maybe'..."
"...Is this because AppleJack is gone? Is that why you're not feeling well?" asked Twilight.
"It's a part of why I'm in such a funk," sighed Trailblazer. "But it's a part of Black Hole... I wanted to seek forgiveness after I picked on him so much, and I wanted to make it up to him. But he took off before I could. I saw how much of a ruffian I was, and I felt terrible. From that moment on, I became a better pony, which is how I got accepted into the Rising Warriors. Still, it bothers me to no end that Black Hole is hellbent on getting his revenge against me, even though I wanted to tell him that I'm sorry... And now he's taken AppleJack away and plans on taking over the world. But I JUST can't fathom why he needs AppleJack and the Tethleon treasure to do that..."
"Well, lying here isn't going to solve anything," Twilight spoke up. "Let's get you back in action."
"After what all the ponies witnessed last night? Not even in my dreams!"
"I understand that you're upset about AppleJack, and I'm worried about her too. But you got to have faith in yourself!"
"Yeah, and she'll be REALLY thrilled to see me again..."
"Oh, come on! You can't feel sorry for yourself forever! Like I just said, you have to believe in yourself! I don't think AppleJack wants to see 'her little sugarcube' give up like this before even trying."
Trailblazer groaned. "Just give me time to think."
"I would, but I have a feeling that you're going to stick around here, getting nothing accomplished."
Trailblazer got up quickly and grabbed her by her chest, growling deeply at her.
"...Okay, I'll let you go..." an intimidated Twilight said. She left the room and closed the door to his room, and she got back with her friends.
"No luck. He's not moving..."
"This isn't right!" Rainbow Dash spoke up.
"WAIT!" they all heard from inside. They all turned to look at the open door to see Trailblazer standing there. "I was bluffing."
"So, you're not feeling so bad right now?" Fluttershy asked.
"Oh, of course I'm still upset," he said. "But I shouldn't have been such a sore loser a little bit ago. AppleJack needs me!"
"So, we're going?"
"Oh yeah, we are! ...But..."
"But what?"
"I don't know where to start..."
Twilight thought for a moment. "Do you think Princess Celestia can help us out with that?"
"She might."
Twilight Sparkle's horn glowed in a strange way. After a little bit of that happening, Princess Celestia dropped down from the sky and landed next to them.
"What is it, my dear student?" she asked after she touched down.
"It's AppleJack. We're going to have to find her and rescue her, but we don't know where to start." Twilight answered. Then she thought for a second. "I think Trailblazer knows something you should know too."
"Urk!" he yelped.
"I do believe that it entails this Black Hole unicorn, correct?"
"Yes..."
"According to him, you're the reason why he wants to take over, right?"
"Yes," he squeaked.
"Don't worry, we all do things that we're not proud of."
Trailblazer didn't know if she said that so he could either feel better about it or quit beating himself up over it. Either way, it didn't work.
"Now, isn't there something that you wanted to tell me?" Celestia asked him.
"Well, yeah... Have you heard of the 2,000 year-old Tethleon Treasure?"
"It was brought to my attention last night, but I knew about it before then," she said.
"Okay, but the thing is... We don't know where it's at. Since you've been around much longer than us, do you have any ideas on it's whereabouts?"
"Well..." Celestia thought to herself for a little bit. "I DO remember this one thing about a big container being kept hidden away in the northernmost part of Equestria... That could be it."
"Yeah... It must be."
"I also remember that there was this big maze-like chamber that it was kept in as well."
"Oh yeah, that sounds even more like it..."
"But I'm not sure as to what it could be. Any ideas?"
"I'll ask the bastard when I find him," finished Trailblazer as he looked north.
> Looking Forward
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Let's grab some supplies before we head out," forewarned Twilight Sparkle. "This won't be just a trip to Silver Soul's castle that one time."
"Yes," Rainbow Dash agreed.
"It would behoove ourselves if we did so," said Rarity. "Will it just be the first-aid kits we've used before?"
"Ooh, but we still have to eat and drink!" informed Pinkie Pie. "Won't we need food and water too?"
"Way ahead of you," Trailblazer said as he walked out of his home again. He was wearing two bags that rested at his sides, which was the standard backpack design for ponies. "But we shouldn't leave one of us just in charge of one thing. Say that Fluttershy got separated from us and she had all the first-aid kits. That would be asking for trouble."
The other five observed what he had for belongings. He was carrying a couple first-aid kits, some bottles of water, a tent bag with all the tent drapes and poles inside of it, a bunch of miscellaneous snacks like trail mix and snack crackers, and many cans of white pop.
"Um... I don't think you need all of those pop cans..." said Fluttershy.
"Maybe you all don't, but I could always use some for myself," he replied. "Feel free to pack whatever you'd like that'll help out yourselves on this trek, but first-aid kits, food, water, and tents for shelter are mandatory."
"Yeah, no argument there," said Rainbow Dash.
"I'll wait for you all here."
While they were gone, Trailblazer ran back inside his house to grab a knife, figuring that it'll be needed in case a beast or great enemy appeared on their travel. He only had to wait for five minutes for the other five to pack their belongings. Along with the mandatory supplies, he noticed that Twilight Sparkle had her spell book, and Rainbow Dash brought a map of Equestria. It was the only two things that stood out to him.
"Are we all ready?"
All of them said "yes".
"Okay. Off we go."
The six of them started to walk north, where the treasure was buried at.
"We're coming to save you, AppleJack," said Trailblazer, aloud. But in his mind, he started to doubt.

Along the way, a group of nomads had a campsite set up, and it stood in their way. The six stopped there for a second, hoping that there was something they could use and get there.
"Hey, are you guys nomads too?" one of them asked. "Or are you just traveling?"
"Well, we've just started our journey," said Rainbow Dash. "Actually, we have to go save a friend of ours that was kidnapped by some bad guys."
"Is that so?" the same pony asked.
"Of course," Rarity stepped in. "Are you all aware of the Canterlot Castle Dinner Party?"
"Yeah, I've heard of it," a second mare said.
"Oh, yeah," said another colt.
"Well, that's where it all started. A bunch of hooligans broke in and kidnapped our friend."
"Hey, I recognize you!" one of the yellow colts said. He walked up to Trailblazer and scowled.
"Um..." Clearly, Trailblazer didn't know the other pony.
"Yeah, you're that bully from Tethleon! I was one of the ones you picked on!"
"Oh, no..." Trailblazer said.
"I joined this group of nomads to get away from you! I'd say that Black Hole had every right to get his revenge on you!"
"Okay, so I was no angel, I'm glad you still have some fond memories of me," Trailblazer talked back, annoyed. "But I'm not here to cause trouble."
"Then, what are you here for?"
"Well, we figured that we might need some help as we make our way north, where the Tethleon treasure is locked away."
"Hm, so it looks like the treasure and your missing friend is connected somehow..."
"Yeah, but I don't know why..."
"Well, don't expect any help from me... Or rather, US. You've done some really mean things to me, and for no reason. Now, you come here trying to be all Mr. Nice-Guy so we can do a favor for you? Just looking at you and thinking of the bad memories of you make me sick to my stomach."
That last comment made Trailblazer frustrated, and he walked at the stubborn yellow pony. "You haven't considered the possibility that I've seen all the bad things that I've done in the past, and that I've learned from my mistakes, which have made me better, HAVE YOU?"
The stubborn pony thought. "Maybe you have, maybe not. But will that change my mind about you? No."
Both of their noses were pressed against each other's. Trailblazer had his teeth grit as well. Pinkie Pie stepped in between the two.
"Stop it, both of you!" she barked. "Let's talk this out and settle this in a different and better way!"
Trailblazer backed away and turned his head to the side, eyes closed and eyebrows low. "Hmph!" he said.
Before they said anything else, a small pony ran to the campsite. He was panicking.
"This is bad!" he yelled, "Really bad!"
"What is it? Speak to us, Scouter!" one of the other mares said.
Scouter stopped for a moment before talking again. "I saw it. There were these three dark purple ponies that captured our herb pickers! And they were asking them about somepony named Trailblazer."
"What??" the stubborn yellow pony yelped. "Don't tell me that my younger brother got captured by them too!"
"They got them all. All four of them!"
"Oh no! Santos!" the yellow pony cried out.
Trailblazer crouched towards the foal. "Where are these shady ponies?"
"I'll show you." Scouter ran in the direction that he saw them last. Trailblazer leisurely jogged behind him, with the other five following him as well. Upon reaching a pasture with some bushes along it, three shady ponies held four of the nomad herb pickers, questioning them.
"We will NOT be taking 'I don't know' for an answer," the one with a black sun for a cutie mark said.
"I'm telling you!" a pale green pony replied. "We've never heard of this Trailblazer pony! This is the fifth time we've said it, our answer will not change!"
"We'll see how playing dumb works out for you to our boss," the same shadowy pony said. "All right, boys! We're taking these ponies back to the..."
He stopped and noticed Trailblazer, whom was confused at why this shadow pony knew about him.
"Never mind, my younger brothers," he said. "Let them go. We don't need these few at all."
All three of them released the herb pickers and they ran away.
"Why, hello, Trailblazer. We've been waiting for you!"
"Waiting for..." Trailblazer was quite confused. "What's this supposed to mean?"
"Why, to escort you!" he joked. "We know all about what happened at the dnner party, and we're here to bring you to AppleJack!"
"Wait, are you working for Black Hole??"
"Why, yes!" the same dark sun pony answered. "At least you're not a complete idiot, that, I can appreciate." He turned to face his brothers. "Let's rough him up, bros!"
"Roger that!" the one with a black moon cutie mark yelled,
"Come get some!" the third one with the black stars arranged in the shape of a pentagon yelled. With that, the Shadowcolts rushed Trailblazer and his friends. Trailblazer braced himself and counterattacked when the oldest one got close enough. Rainbow Dash jumped and flew up high, avoiding any retaliation. Pinkie Pie started to hop around, seemingly teasing the three as she avoided two of the attacking Shadowcolts at the same time with leisurely hops. With Trailblazer and Dark Sun nearly at each other's throats, Twilight Sparkle rushed in and gave Dark Sun a hard headbutt. Her horn made it even more painful, and he stepped back.
"Thanks," said Trailblazer. He looked back at Dark Sun, who was trying to pick himself up. He placed a hoof on his side and kept him pinned. "Stay down," he told him.
Dark Sun did. After that, Trailblazer rushed back to the other two Shadowcolts, who were attacking Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Rarity seemed to be putting more effort into staying untouched, whether it was to keep herself from looking bad or just to stay unharmed, it was hard to tell. But they did notice Rainbow Dash dive at them, ramming into the star-marked one. He retaliated by kicking her back and chasing her when she tried retreating, but failed. All three of the Shadowcolts were earth ponies, technically subpar to the unicorns and pegasi. Trailblazer noticed that Dark Star wasn't watching his back. He took this opportunity and flanked him, beating him up enough to keep him down. The last one, Dark Moon, was whaling on Fluttershy. She tried to fly away, but Dark Moon hung on to her by her shoulders. He then saw the mistake he made by refusing to let go: falling from the height they were at now would injure him for sure. Fluttershy tried to shake him off, but he hung on tightly. Rainbow Dash interfered and knocked him loose, falling and landing on the ground, hurt.
"You give up now?" asked Trailblazer.
The three Shadowcolts stood back up together, dazed, and moaning.
"Ooooog... We must've been a touch cocky..." said Dark Sun.
"Dark Sun, does this mean that we have to tell Black Hole of our failure?" asked Dark Moon.
"I fear so..." he answered unhappily. "I'm not looking forward to it as you two either, bros... But we'll come back, Trailblazer, and you WILL be ours next time! Let's go, bros." Shadowy holes emerged from the ground that they were standing, and they fell through them, disappearing through them.
"Y'all come back now," Trailblazer taunted sporting a southern accent. "Plenty more where that came from."
"That was it?" Rainbow Dash Questioned. "They were total pushovers!"
"Is everypony okay?" Twilight asked.
"I'm a little banged up," said Fluttershy. "But I can manage." None of the others were hurt.
"Let's head back to that nomad camp," Rainbow Dash suggested.
The six of them jogged back to the campsite and saw the four herb pickers there.
"There they are!" one of then exclaimed. "Those were the ponies that saved us!"
"I saw them fight them too!" Scouter said.
"Y'know, Trailblazer," the yellow pony started. "I guess I was wrong about you. You're all right after all. You even saved my younger brother, Santos."
"Hey, I'm over it, you're over it, it's all good, right?" Trailblazer asked.
"Yeah, we're cool."
"I think I know how to thank you," Santos said. "These herbs that we gathered? We use them as medicine. Considering what could've happened to us if you hadn't come and what you're now up against, you could use them more than we could." He gathered all of the herbs that they collected there and dispersed them among the six ponies. "These can cure poisoning, these can relieve dizziness, and a few of these can heal you for a little bit."
"Oh, yeah, we could use these," said Twilight.
"Hey, Trailblazer, I'm sorry that I judged you a little bit ago..." the yellow pony said.
"Hey, we're both sorry for what we did, I'm cool with it," he replied.
"Thanks, man. Anytime you need more herbal remedies, you come back here anytime you'd like."
"No problem."
"Shall we get going, dears?" asked Rarity.
"Yes," came the general reply.
After that, they took their belongings and headed north again.

Back at Black Hole's base, the Shadowcolts were reporting back to Black Hole, who was displeased with their failure.
"Tell me: Where did you go so wrong?" he asked them.
"We're terribly sorry, my lord..." said Dark Sun. "We ran into them, but he had five other ponies with him. They were tougher than we thought, and we were outnumbered and overwhelmed."
"Hmmm..." thought Black Hole. "Maybe Trailblazer is a lot stronger than I expected... Okay, I'll let it slide this time."
"Thanks for your pardon, Lord Black Hole," said Dark Sun.
"In the meantime, train yourselves to become stronger so you can beat him. But don't expect any more sympathy from me if you fail again."
"Understood. Let's go, Dark Moon and Sky."
They all disappeared into the floor, off somewhere else.
"I suppose I'll have to let SteelHide off easy when I see him next. Trailblazer and his friends will probably give him a good beating too... I guess I'll just let it slide." Black Hole looked up at the wall clock, and noticed that it was time to switch. "White Comet. It is now your turn to watch over AppleJack."
White Comet, who was standing near the enterance of the throne room, nodded. He flapped his wings and got out of the room through an open window. From there, he got onto the balcony of AppleJack's holding room to address the black pegasus guard.
"Hey, Black Mace, you're time's up. I can watch her now," he told him.
"Okay," said Black Mace. He flew back to the balcony and flew away.
"So, do you have anything to say?" AppleJack wondered once he was out if earshot.
"Well, from what I gathered, Trailblazer and his friends are coming to rescue you and are starting off strong. They beat the Shadowcolts, and they beat them good."
"Yee-haw! THAT'S my little rump-kickin' sugarcube right there!" she cheered while rampant.
"Yeah. Off the bat, and already, they're doing really well."
"Somepony ought to tell him to keep it up. Thing is, Ah can't talk to him right now, by bein' held here 'n all..."
White Comet listened to her wish, but he grumbled after hearing it.
"What's wrong?" AppleJack asked him.
"I'd go out and be the one sending your encouragement to him, but I can't go alone."
"What?"
"Thing is, if we're leaving the castle premises, we have to have another pony with us. Black Hole only allows his admin, SteelHide, out on his own, but all of us have to be with another guard or soldier when going out. If I went alone, they would notice that and I could get in trouble."
AppleJack groaned. "Well, it's still nice of you to be willing to do that."
"Yeah, but I still can't help you right now..."
"Don't beat yourself up about it. Yer allright, White Comet."
"Hm, that actually makes me feel better," he said.
AppleJack turned around, worrying, and spoke quietly to herself. "I wonder how Trailblazer will hold out without me around... I sure hope he'll still be okay..."
> Flood of Thoughts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trailblazer and the other five continued their journey north. So far, there wasn't much to do except for following the path that they were on. Only one day has passed since they left the nomad campground, and so far, there were no enemies to deal with during that period. During that day, they walked, set up their tents, took them down the next morning, and continued. Here, they stopped for a second to examine the map Rainbow Dash had.
"Do you know where we are now?" Twilight Sparkle asked.
"I'm taking a look at the landmarks and I'm trying to find them here..." said Rainbow Dash. "Okay, we're right here," She pointed to some plains between Marehattan and Ponyville somewhere between the bottom-left corner and the center of the map. "It looks like we're still a ways away from Marehattan, but once we get there, we have to continue going west if we want to keep going north to the Crawnite Mountain Range."
"Well, what's west of Marehattan?"
Dash scanned the map again. "Tethleon."
"Hey, we're going to end up in my home city?" Trailblazer said, a little bit surprised.
"Yeah."
"Huh. That's kind of a pleasant surprise."
They walked some more and ended up at a river with a steep cliff. The slowly flowing water was about 100 yards below them. The lack of waves of any kind told them that the water was deep.
"Well, this isn't any good," said Pinkie Pie. "There's a river, but no bridge. How are we supposed to get across?"
"Uh, Pinkie...?" said Rainbow Dash. "We have wings, we can just fly you all across!"
"Oh, silly me!" Pinkie Pie said back as she rubbed the back of her head, a little embarrassed.
"All right. Fluttershy. We have a job to do."
"Right with you, Rainbow," Fluttershy said, preparing for their flights.
Before they started with their friends, they all took off their backpacks and carried them across the river. Once all six of them were on the other side, Rainbow Dash got a hold of Twilight Sparkle and flew her across, with Fluttershy right behind her as she carried Rarity. Fluttershy flew back and got Pinkie Pie, carrying her over as well, leaving Trailblazer as the last one left. Rainbow Dash flew over and grabbed him, ready to take off and carried him.
As she was halfway across, a bunch of darts flew from a concealed area on the side that the other four ponies were on now. They stuck to Rainbow Dash's body, stinging her upon impact, and injected her with a black liquid.
"OW! Those hurt!" she yelled. She tried to fly, but she started to feel weak.
"Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie shouted. "What's going on!?"
Dash's body started to feel a bit numb, and her flight became worse. "I think I'm losing feeling, I don't think I can make it!" She strained to continue carrying Trailblazer and she flapped her wings even harder to stay airborne, but the effect of the black liquid took over, and she couldn't hold out. She let go of Trailblazer and hung on to the cliff edge, at the mercy of the substance that got into her as she tried to hang on. Trailblazer screamed as he fell, trying to latch onto the face of the cliff to slow his fall.
"Oh, NO!" Fluttershy lept and dove after him, which she saw him grabbing onto the rocky edge, although not stopping himself, it slowed him down. He fell into the water, where Fluttershy hovered above it, looking around anxiously for him to resurface. After a few seconds, he came back up, taking a deep inhale once he did. He swam hard towards a dry surface and grabbed onto it.
"There you are!" she yelled. "We have to save Rainbow Dash!"
Trailblazer grabbed Fluttershy and she flew him back to the side they were headed towards. Upon getting back up to the land, they saw a maroon pony charging at them.
"Oh man, did I get you guys GOOD!" he yelled. "The boss sends his greetings!"
"And just who are you?!" Rarity yelled at him as Twilight started to pick Rainbow Dash up."Were you the one that shot Rainbow Dash?"
The pony let out a big laugh. "I'm SteelHide, here giving you a free sample of Black Hole's homemade fast-acting poison darts!"
"That was poison??" she asked. Trailblazer and Fluttershy touched down near them.
"Ha! You'd better believe it!" he laughed back. "But wait, there's more!" He charged them again and rammed Twilight and stepped on Rainbow Dash's hooves, forcing both of them to fall down towards the river.
"Oh, hell no!" yelled Trailblazer. Fluttershy dove after the two, trying to save them.
"I guess I can't take you all out on my own, but that was a grade A ambush you just walked into! And with that, I'm outta here!" SteelHide yelled as he ran away.
"We have to go after him!" yelled Pinkie Pie.
"No, we can't do that now," said Trailblazer. "We have to help Rainbow and Twilight!"
Fluttershy dove and caught Rainbow Dash, leaving Twilight Sparkle behind.
"No! Flutter-" but before she could finish, she fell into the water. Fluttershy flew Dash back to the others as quickly as she possibly could, and set her down next to them. Fluttershy quickly flew back to the edge and dove to retrieve Twilight Sparkle. But she wasn't on the surface of the water. She saw some distinct bubbling near her position, but there was some real struggling there. Twilight Sparkle emerged from where the bubbling was, trying to stay above the surface.
"Hel-!" she yelled before falling back underwater. Fluttershy tried getting close enough, but she fell back down before she had a chance. Twilight reemerged one last time. "I can't swim!" After Twilight yelled that, she fell back down and didn't resurface.
"Oh, you have to be kidding me!" Fluttershy said. She took a deep breath, got towards the last place she saw her, and dove beneath the surface. It took her a few seconds to come back up with Twilight Sparkle in her grasp. She coughed hard continuously from swallowing a lot of water.
"I don't ever want to do that again..." Twilight said as she was shivering.
While that was happening, Trailblazer plucked the darts that were stuck in Rainbow Dash's body. Rarity gathered her anti-poision herbs from her backpack and walked back towards the three. Trailblazer grabbed them from her and fed them to Rainbow Dash.
"How's it working?" he asked her.
"My legs still feel asleep..." she told him, shaky.
"We need to get more of those anti-poison herbs!"
Both Pinkie Pie and Rarity gathered some more herbs from the backpacks. Trailblazer grabbed them and gave them to Dash again.
"Anything now?"
"I... I can feel everything now, but I just feel terribly sick..."
"Hang on." Trailblazer ran to the backpacks himself and grabbed some of the herbs. For the third time, he gave them to Rainbow Dash to see if it worked.
"Oohhhh..." she moaned. "I still feel sick to my stomach..."
Rarity ran to her bag and grabbed one of her first-aid kits.
"I don't think we can use that now," said Trailblazer. "Those are for like physical injuries."
"Have you even looked?" Rarity asked. She opened it and looked inside. Sure enough, she saw band-aids, gauze pads, cloth for slings, tape, and scissors, but nothing else that could help Rainbow Dash's poisoning.
"Just get me one more herb, please," Trailblazer instructed.
Pinkie Pie hopped back to the backpacks and pulled out another herb. Rainbow Dash took it.
"...Nothing. I don't feel any different than before..."
"I think that's all we can do for her now." Trailblazer turned to face Rainbow Dash. "How are you feeling now?"
"I feel sick... And I have a bellyache like you wouldn't believe."
Trailblazer groaned. "I think you can pull through." He picked her up and placed her on his back. "I gotcha." Rainbow Dash's head was resting near Trailblazer's left shoulder, with her body lying across his back, and her hind legs hanging near his right hind leg.
After that happened, Fluttershy joined the four again with Twilight Sparkle beside her. They touched down and gathered their backpacks.
"I, never, want to do that again..." said Twilight.
"Why, what happened?" Pinkie Pie wondered.
"I almost drowned!" she yelled, surprising them all.
"Good lord, Twilight!" Rarity exclaimed back.
"I'm sorry... I still could've died... It was a scary thought..."
"It could've been worse..." said Rarity. "You're still okay, but Rainbow Dash..."
"Don't remind me," she told her.
"Let's keep heading for Marehattan. We'll need some help."
A unanimous agreement rang from them and they hiked some more.

"Hey, doesn't AppleJack have some relatives in Marehattan?" Pinkie Pie wondered.
"I think she told me about them one day," said Trailblazer. "Kind of opposites, from what she's told me."
"How so?"
"AppleJack is a farmer, while her... Orange something aunt and uncle are more like... Rarity, with how they talk and act."
"Do you think we should tell them about AppleJack?"
Trailblazer grimaced. "Well, no news is better than bad news, but they may be able to help us out. It's worth a shot."
"So, we head to Marehattan, find AppleJack's relatives, and tell her what happened to her..." thought Twilight. "On the bright side, we could have a place to stay when we get there."
"And if we're lucky enough, they'll kill the messengers." Trailblazer said, with strong pessimism.
They had their campsite set up for the night. One was made a bit bigger by stretching out the span of the drapes they had and spreading the spikes out. Trailblazer used his tent to shelter both Rainbow Dash and any of the others.
"Until we reach Marehattan, we should keep an eye on Rainbow Dash throughout the night."
"Is that why you have your tent wider than usual tonight?" asked Fluttershy.
"Yeah. I'll watch over her first for a few hours and then I'll call upon any one of you to take that shift. If she gets any worse, use those herbs to help her out. Do you all understand that?"
"Yeah, we got it," said Twilight. All of the others nodded.
"Okay, good." As he said that, the other four went to their tents to sleep. Trailblazer walked back info the tent he set up and watched Rainbow Dash.
"Go get some sleep, Dash. You need it." he mumbled softly to her.
"I'll try..." Rainbow Dash quickly fell asleep. Despite the comfort she was put in, it still looked like she struggled to be relaxed. Trailblazer watched her, thinking to himself about the Tethleon Treasure. Watching over Rainbow Dash like this reminded him of the time he took AppleJack inside after she exhausted herself from her latest Applebuck Season. A wave of melancholy swept him at the thought of it. He reached into his saddlebag and pulled out one of his cans of white pop. Going against his own orders, he walked outside and opened it, drinking it as well. He knew that it was going to keep himself awake, but he didn't feel as if he was going to get any sleep tonight anyway. He looked up at the sky to see the moon, which was providing the only kind of light that night, and sighed, looking down after seeing it. He thought about what took place in the past as a foal, and reflected on how he tormented Black Hole. At those thoughts, he felt some guilt and at fault, and still he wanted to do the right thing as he grew up. Now it was too late, and the thoughts of responsibility came to him some more. At last, he grumbled to himself and walked back into the tent. Rainbow Dash was now relaxed, but still sick. The reflection thoughts and the pop kept him awake as he watched her body raise and lower with each breath. After a few hours of watching her, he walked back outside and woke up Pinkie Pie.
"It must be my turn, right?" she asked groggily.
"Yeah..." Trailblazer stepped aside and let Pinkie Pie out of her tent and into the one Rainbow Dash was sleeping in. He took her sleeping bag and laid down on his back, staring up at the tent's ceiling, not moving at all until his eyelids felt heavy. He finally fell asleep, which he found hard to believe, but he accepted his tired state of mind and slept.
> Stress
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, four of the ponies woke back up; Rarity was the last one to watch Rainbow Dash, so she was the one already awake. Already, the others gathered around that tent for any updates.
"Well, Rainbow Dash is still asleep, but she didn't do anything out of the ordinary," said Rarity.
"She'll wake up in a little bit," said Twilight Sparkle. "Let's pack up and head out."
Without answering, the others got their tents taken down and packed. Trailblazer took the tent he set up for Rainbow Dash and took it down as well. He began to take away the sleeping bag she was in, which started to wake her up, groaning as she did so.
"Psst!" Trailblazer whispered. "How are you feeling?"
"Nggghh..." she moaned. "I still feel sick..."
"Any better or worse?"
She began to get up, but her legs still gave in. "Still the same..."
"Well, just hang in there. We'll get to Marehattan this afternoon and find a hospital so you can recover."
"Okay... By the way, thanks for taking care of me last night."
Trailblazer stopped packing and looked at her. Already, his lackluster sleep and thoughts last night came back to his mind. He thought about making a snide remark about how she didn't have a single care or responsibility in the world, but he stopped and shook his head. "Yeah, you're welcome." He packed everything else he had except for a blanket and put on his backpack and walked back to Rainbow Dash. "C'mon, let's get you back up." He crawled underneath her and stood back up with her lying face-down on his back. Already, a flashback popped into his mind about how he carried AppleJack back into her barn in a similar way a while ago. He quickly shut the memory out and rubbed his eyes, then came back to his senses.
"Well, let's go," said Fluttershy. "We'll be able to reach Marehattan today if we keep it up."
"Yes, let us move," said Rarity.
They turned and proceeded towards Marehattan to continue their quest. Trailblazer's nagging doubts still continued to work against him during their walk.

"So, you see, I was alone, and I noticed that he had, like, five other ponies with him," SteelHide said as he was reporting to Black Hole in the throne room. "I really couldn't take them all on myself, so I had to rely on an ambush..."
"Hmmm, I see..." said Black Hole. "What else happened?"
"Well, I took those poison darts you made, and I stuck one of their pegasus ponies with them. After that, she was hanging onto the cliff edge. One of the unicorns ran to her to help her up, and that's when I knocked them both over the edge. The second pegasus dove after them, but that's when I had to bail."
"Ah, yes," thought Black Hole. "Considering how long it took to get the poison to act, that pegasus is either dead or incapacitated. You've done well."
"All in a day's work, Lord Black Hole," SteelHide said back, sensing approval.
"Hm, let me think here..." said Black Hole. Then, he called out. "Shadowcolts! I summon you!"
After a few seconds, three shadows appeared on the floor, and the Shadowcolts emerged from them.
"Your faithful servants return. Pray tell, do you have another assignment for us?" Dark Sun spoke.
"Yes. I need you three to team up with SteelHide and ambush Trailblazer and his friends, wherever he's at now."
"Ah, a surprise attack. This shouldn't be too difficult."
"Let SteelHide take care of the ambush. You three should go by his order out there."
"Will do, my lord."
"Okay, so what are we waiting for? Let's go," said SteelHide.
Dark Sun grabbed SteelHide and dragged him into his shadow. Dark Moon and Dark Sky followed Dark Sun, chuckling to themselves.
In the holding room, White Comet came back into it to tell AppleJack what happened.
"So, what's the scoop?" she asked him.
"I have some bad news..." White Comet said. "As your friends were crossing a deep canyon-like river, they were ambushed by Black Hole's admin, SteelHide. As they were flown across, SteelHide managed to poison Rainbow Dash with a fast-acting toxin. Then he said that he knocked another pony off the cliff. I don't know what happened after that, but I don't think either one of them survived."
AppleJack sat down to keep herself from fainting. "No... How could this happen...?" She started to breathe heavily and quickly.
"Hey, stop, calm down." White Comet got close to her and shut her mouth. "We don't know if they're okay or not. We just have to hope for the best in that they're all still okay."
"But what if we really lost them?"
"Just stay calm. We won't know until later."
Just then, Black Mace flew onto the balcony. "Hey, White Comet! Get this! We found the first key we need to unlock that door! That, and Trailblazer might've lost a couple of his friends!"
"Yeah, I heard!" White Comet said, using fake excitedness.
"Anyway, you can go on break. I can watch her from here."
"Allright, I will." White Comet flew away off the balcony, and Black Mace walked into the room. AppleJack opened the glass door to the balcony again, walking to it's edge, looking at the world from  it, wondering what went on. All she could see were rocks that sloped to the ground. The nearest walkable surface rock from the balcony was about 300 yards below her. She still looked intently at the landscape, still hoping, yet doubted.
"Trailblazer... Where are you..." she called out meekly.

"We made it!" said Pinkie Pie. "We're in Marehattan!"
"Oh, goodness!" said Rarity as she breathed a sigh of relief. "Let's go find the hospital here and get Rainbow Dash back to her prime!"
"Look up, Dashie!" Pinkie Pie piped up. "We made it!"
Rainbow Dash looked around to see the statues and brick buildings that were either stores, apartments, or condominiums that surrounded them. She scanned the area to look for a hospital herself. Then, she started to feel worse.
"Owwwwhh, my stomach...!" she said trying to clutch her stomach. She ended up brushing Trailblazer's underside by accident.
"I think we're going to have to look for it, fast," said Trailblazer. "I'm sure the locals here know where it's at."
Twilight looked at a sign on the street, which showed them the directions around Marehattan. Some arrow signs led the way.
"Look at this!" she motioned for the others to take a look. "This tells us where the hospital is at!"
"Top shelf!" said Rarity. "Proceed!"
They jogged throughout the city, following the metal signposts that led to the hospital. Although they could've ran there, unless Rainbow Dash was able to hang on to Trailblazer, they had to slow down so she wouldn't fall off. Many twists and turns were taken as they galloped on the streets and between buildings, following all the signs that told them where the hospital was. It was easily found when they reached the campus. It was a big square building with a tan coloration and a skywalk that led to another part of the campus. The one they saw led to a small clinic that was similar in appearance. They continued to gallop to the hospital's main enterance that had an overhang. They walked through the rotating door and walked to the front desk, where a female receptionist greeted them.
"Hello, welcome to Marehattan Hospital. Is there something I can do for you?" she asked.
"Well, a friend of ours is sick, and we're running out of time..." said Fluttershy.
"Okay, just head straight down that hallway on your right, and Wayne will get you registered."
Off to the right, they saw a glass door down the hallway that the receptionist pointed out to. They saw another pony in there, working on some paperwork. They all walked over to him, and he saw them coming. They opened to the doors and got into the office.
"Hello, take a seat here," said Wayne.
There were only two chairs on their side. Fluttershy and Rarity took them, leaving the others on their feet. The door was closed behind them, Then, Wayne looked up and noticed Trailblazer carrying Rainbow Dash on his back.
"Oh, don't tell me..." said Wayne, with a negative tone of voice.
"What?" Trailblazer asked.
"You're that troublemaker, Trailblazer, right?"
"FORMER troublemaker," Trailblazer mouthed back.
"What ultimately brought you here anyway, huh?"
"Hey, this isn't about me. We came here to get our friend in better shape."
"And what makes you think I can let her get the treatment she needs?"
"Well, she's poisoned, and needs help."
"Oh, hell yeah! I'll help YOU!"
"What, you're going to just let her go like this? Just let her remain poisoned until she dies?"
"Well, serves you right. You did unspeakable things to us when we were little, and I ran away to Marehattan to get away from you. Now you wind up here so your friend can get healed, for you?? You're dreaming!"
"Yeah, thanks for the history lesson. How about you start living in the present and help Rainbow Dash out?"
"What, do you want some cash with that treatment too? How much would you like, $25? 50? 100?"
"Yeah, how about you take that cash, turn it into some coin rolls, and stick them up..."
"Knock it off, you two!" Twilight interrupted, trying to stop the fight. She got next to Trailblazer and shoved him aside. At that moment, she felt some stings on her side. She looked at her side and saw that more poison darts stuck to her.
"Oh, no!" yelled Pinkie Pie. As she reached into her bag to pull out some poison-lifting herbs, all the others looked in the direction that they came from. Twilight Sparkle plucked the darts out of her side. She grabbed the herbs and quickly ingested them. Upon looking to their left, SteelHide and the Shadowcolts began to close in on them.
"This time, we're gonna RUIN you, Trailblazer!" said Dark Moon. Using some lassoes, Dark Star captured the receptionist, and dragged her towards them.
"No, Cinnamon!" Wayne ran up to them and tried to ram them, but SteelHide knocked him aside when he got close and pinned him down. "Let go of my sister!"
"I don't think so," said SteelHide. He turned to face Trailblazer's friends, but he wasn't there. "Where'd he go?!"
"Ack, behind us!" Dark Sun yelled. They saw that Trailblazer attacked them from behind, and had Dark Sun dragged away in a tight headlock. He set him down and gave him a hard kick, stunning him.
"Security!" yelled Wayne.
Fluttershy kept Twilight in the registration room, giving her the herbs to counter the dart's poison. Both of them were protecting Rainbow Dash from further harm. As she was doing that, Dark Moon was fighting Pinkie Pie, Dark Star was fighting Rarity, and Trailblazer squared off against SteelHide. It was evenly matched between the three of them, but then the hospital security came into the scene, working to stop and tackle the invaders.
"Oh, crap! This backfired real fast!" yelled SteelHide.
"Quick, SteelHide, hold on!" Dark Sun ran back to their group and pulled him through the shadow on the floor. His two brothers vanished to the floor too, and they didn't return.
"Boys..." Trailblazer said, with his southern accent. "This here is just gonna keep happenin' an' happenin'."
"Oh, Cinnamon, are you okay?" Wayne said as he ran up to her.
"I'm shaken, but I'm okay." she told him.
Wayne thought for a moment, and looked at Trailblazer. "Trailblazer, I'm going to make sure that your friend gets the best treatment she could ever get."
"Whoa, what's with the sudden mood change here?" he wondered.
"Cinnamon is my sister, and you saved her. I can tell you've changed."
"Well, here's my little history lesson: When I grew up and reflected on what I've done as a foal, I saw all the bad things I did, and I wanted to change. Now, here I am, trying to keep everyone safe and sound." Trailblazer told him.
"Well, you saved my sister, so that's very good of you."
"I don't think I ever got to say that I was sorry though."
"Hey, you saved my sister, Apology accepted. Now then..." Wayne walked back into his office and pressed a button on his desk next to a speaker and microphone. "Hey, I need someponies here to escort a pegasus pony to one of your rooms. She's been poisoned and needs the proper medical treatment."
"Will do, Wayne. We're coming down now," a voice spoke back.
Wayne shut off the speaker. Then, he turned to look at Trailblazer. "By the way, I'm curious. What was the deal with those four thugs that broke in anyway?"
"Well, it's kind of a long story, but I'll try to shorten it," said Trailblazer. "Do you remember a unicorn named Black Hole?"
"...Oh yeah... He wasn't really a good egg either back then."
"Well, those four ponies you saw just a little bit ago are working for them. And Black Hole is trying to unlock the Tethleon treasure to get his revenge against me."
"He's trying to get that treasure?"
"Yeah... The reason why we're out here in Marehattan is because we're on a trip by foot. We need to keep going north so we can stop him before he unlocks it. I still don't know what that treasure is, but if he wants to gain control of it, it sure can't be anything positive. Also..." Trailblazer stopped.
"Also... What?"
"...He also kidnapped my marefriend."
"And you're trying to rescue her?"
"Uh-huh."
"Wow, it sounds like you're caught up in something serious..."
Just then, two ponies with a stretcher walked into their lobby.
"Where's this pegasus?" one of the stretcher carriers asked.
Trailblazer walked towards where Fluttershy and Twilight were standing and picked Rainbow Dash up. He carried her over to them. He walked up to them and gave Rainbow Dash to them. The two ponies set her down on it and carried her away.
"I don't know what exactly lies ahead of you between you and Black Hole, but I wish you all the good luck," said Wayne.
Trailblazer nodded and thanked him. Pinkie and Rarity walked back to Fluttershy and Twilight along with Trailblazer.
"Are you all right, Twilight?" Pinkie Pie said.
"Actually, I'm perfectly fine," she answered. "I guess we just have to use those herbs early enough and the poison will be neutralized."
"I guess that makes sense," thought Rarity. "The earlier the treatment, the less effective the ailment will be."
"Exactly."
"Hey, your Rainbow Dash friend is in her room right now," Wayne spoke up. "The doctors are getting her stomach pumped, so you can't visit her now, but she should be okay to greet the next day."
"Oh, that's right!" said Pinkie Pie. "We still need a place to stay here in Marehattan."
"Well, we should go look for one," said Fluttershy.
The five ponies walked out of the hospital and onto it's campus. To their surprise, Applebloom and Big Macintosh were outside the doors.
"What?" Trailblazer stammered. "What are you two doing here?"
"Hi, you five..." Applebloom greeted them with. Both of them looked upset with drooped ears, but none of them wondered why.
"Y'all forgot to tell us about AppleJack..." said Big Macintosh.
"Oh..." said Fluttershy, a little guilty.
"How did you get here anyway?" asked Twilight.
"Well, our Orange relatives are now on vacation, so we decided to rent out their place while they're gone." Big Macintosh continued. "An' Applebloom an' Ah figured that y'all would be here too."
"Wait, did you just say that you have a rented-out place?"
"Eeeeeyup..."
"You, wouldn't mind if we stayed there overnight, would you?"
"Nnnope..."
"Oh, great!"
"Many thanks," said Rarity.
"Just follow us."
The five followed Applebloom and Big Macintosh through the city. It was now nighttime, and all they could do was follow the two as AppleJack's siblings led the way. After a five minute walk, They stopped at a brick two-story building and went inside.
"Here's the place," said Applebloom.
It was an apartment building. They walked through the hallways until ending up on the second floor near the right end of the apartment complex. There, they ended up in a room with small proportions, like any other apartment.
"It ain't much, but this here is where our Orange relatives call home," said Big Mac.
The five got their sleeping bags laid out in the small living room. They were going to need some shut-eye, but Trailblazer still found it difficult to rest.
"I wonder how Dashie is doing," wondered Pinkie Pie.
"I hope she'll pull through," said Trailblazer. "I know she's a tough mare, but poisoning is not to be taken lightly." Then, he said, "I wonder if AppleJack is still doing okay..."
"Trailblazer?" Applebloom overheard that. "Do ya know where she's bein' held?"
"She's held way up north, in the Crawnite Mountains."
"Please take me with you. I want to see her again."
"I'm afraid that you'll have to be with us in spirit, Applebloom."
"But why?"
"We almost lost two of our friends before coming here. I really don't want to tell AppleJack that you're gone when I find her."
"But Trailblazer..."
"Please, Applebloom, it's for your own good. Just sit tight and let us handle it."
Applebloom looked down, still upset. "Yeah, okay. I'll be good."
"Now go get some sleep." Then, Trailblazer mumbled to himself. "Chances are you'll get more than I can."
Applebloom nodded and walked away into a bedroom. At that time, the other four were already asleep, but Trailblazer stayed awake for some time that night, staring blankly into the darkness, still thinking of what he was up against, and what he did when he was younger in Tethleon. Only until his eyelids felt heavy did he fall asleep, but he couldn't tell if it was physical weariness or emotional stress that he was hiding that got him to get some rest.
> Home Sweet Home
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey, Rainbow Dash..." Fluttershy asked. "Are you feeling all better?"
The five ponies along with AppleJack's siblings were in the waiting room, greeting Rainbow Dash as she was escorted to the room. She was now able to stand on her own and seemed to glow with health.
"Oh, yeah! Now I'm feeling right!" she said. She started to move around, moving with a swag while standing on her hind legs, then got back down on all fours. "Man, that felt terrible, poisoned, sick, and unable to move around and all, but it's all good now."
"All right!" said Pinkie Pie. "We can move on now!"
"I don't know what lies ahead of you six, but best of luck to all of you," cheered Wayne.
"Trailblazer..." wimpered Applebloom. "Please save AppleJack... Ah don't want her to be gone fer good..."
Trailblazer knelt down to her. "Hey, I miss her too..." He thought for a little bit. "You still remember the time that I saved you, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo from that forest fire, right?"
"Yeah."
"So just think of it like this... AppleJack was worried sick about you when that happened, but I pulled you three out just fine. Now you're worrying about her, but I'll come back. The next time you see me, AppleJack will be walking by my side."
"Oh, thanks, Trailblazer. Ah knew we can count on ya."
"Y'all stay out of trouble now, y'hear?" Big Macintost spoke up.
"We'll do our best," Fluttershy told him. She looked back at the group. "Our next stop is Tethleon, right?"
"Yes," answered Twilight Sparkle. "Let's go."
All six of them left the hospital grounds and headed onward, to the place Trailblazer called home.

"You can't be serious! Did you really fail this task I gave you four?!" Black Hole questioned SteelHide and the Shadowcolts in a fury. "Speak!"
"Yeah..." SteelHide was not enjoying reporting about their failure. "We tried using those poison darts again, but we were caught and beaten before we knew it... Security came, which made us WAY outnumbered..."
Black Hole growled. "So then what."
"I also found out that both of those ponies that I tried killing at that cliff river were still alive..."
"Let me guess... Since they were all in a hospital, they both got treated and got back to full health?"
"I'm going to say... Maybe?"
Black Hole let out a loud frustrated sigh. "And you did so well at the river too, never mind, on your own. How could this happen?"
"Look, I'm sorry, Lord Black Hole... I guess we were at the wrong place at the wrong time..."
"Maybe so... As for the Shadowcolts, I have nothing for you to do. Just go work on your training."
"Very well, Lord Black Hole..." Dark Sun and his brothers vanished in their shadows.
"As for you, SteelHide, I have a task for you to do in hopes of ruining Trailblazer and his friends."
"What's the mission?"
"I need you to unlock Sclar and unleash him against them."
"Whoa whoa whoa, SCLAR?!"
"Yes! I need you to go unlock him from his cell and let him loose in the area he's in. Control him so that he can get rid of them."
"O-okay, if you're certain that it'll be okay for us." SteelHide turned to walk away, but Black Hole stopped him before he left.
"Oh, and also..." Black Hole started. "Make sure that Sclar is nice and hungry before you let him loose against Trailblazer."
"Okay, I will..." SteelHide walked away to work on his mission.
"You know, White Comet, I'm beginning to think that my minions don't get what I do for them..." Black Hole pondered to White Comet, who was across the room.
"And what would that be?" he asked.
"First, the Shadowcolts fail to stop Trailblazer, then SteelHide ambushes them, yet doesn't kill any of them, and now, their latest ambush fails miserably. This is going south real fast."
"Is there something you want me to do differently?"
"No, you're doing fine, even though I don't ask much from you. Just continue to watch AppleJack when you're called to do it."
Right after he finished saying that, Sound Wave barged into the throne room.
"Hey, dude! No, I mean, Lord Black Hole!" he yelled excitedly. "Get this: we've found the second key to that treasure's door!"
"Ah, excellent! It's good to know that I have followers that I can still count on." he told him.
"Only one more key to go and we'll be BITCHIN'!"
"Yes, yes..." replied Black Hole with an evil voice. "Keep up the good work and find that last key!"
"We're on it, dude!" Sound Wave bolted out of the room to spread the word.
"I believe that it's my turn to watch AppleJack now," White Comet mentioned.
"Hm?" Black Hole looked at the wall clock. "Ah, yes. Go ahead."
White Comet flew out of the room and down towards AppleJack's balcony. Black Mace already got the hint that his shift was over, and he left.
"So, what happened?" she asked, bracing herself. "Do ya know what happened to them?"
"Good news!" he said. "It's true that Rainbow Dash got poisoned, but they all survived everything that's come at them. They're now at peak strength and are headed this way."
"What? Ya mean... They're all okay??"
"Oh yes, definitely."
"Woo-hoo!" AppleJack became rampant again. "They're tough, that's fer sure!"
"Uh-huh."
"They'd better keep it up!"
"Yeah, Black Hole is not too happy about it. ...But now he's even more determined to get rid of them because of their line of success."
"Why, what's he up to now?"
"He sent out SteelHide to unleash this thing called Sclar."
"Sclar? Who's HE?"
"I don't know, but SteelHide seemed really afraid just at the mere mentioning of it's name. Obviously, it can't be any good if they're afraid of it."
AppleJack grew worried. "Oh, boy... That there IS a scary thought...!"
"And here's something else that caught my attention, to make it even scarier..."
"Well, just tell me."
"Black Hole's last part of his order was, and I quote... 'Make sure that Sclar is nice and hungry before you let him loose against Trailblazer'."
AppleJack felt faint. "Oh no... Ah think Ah'm goin' to have a nightmare tonight because of that last part..."
"I'm sorry that I had to tell you that..."
AppleJack shuddered.
"Well, that's all I have to share with you."
"Yeah, okay... Ah hope my little sugarcube stays safe..."

"Over there! Can you see it?" Trailblazer ran ahead of them and hopped. "There it is! Tethleon!"
In the distance, all six of them saw some tall buildings made of concrete and glass. In the past, they've all been there before, but that was when they were all trying to stop Silver Soul. There, they only were around the castle grounds. Now, they were actually going to be in the city itself, experiencing what it really had to offer. Although they were on a crag landscape, they could see some greenery around the city. Either this was to make it stand out, or to make it more welcoming.
"C'mon, let's go!" Trailblazer shouted excitedly. He started to run along the path towards Tethleon.
"Hey, wait up!" Pinkie Pie requested. She, Twilight Sparkle, and Rarity found themselves chasing after him, but weren't keeping up. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy found themselves flying after him, easily keeping up with the help of their wings.
"Hey, what's the hurry?" Rainbow Dash asked him.
"I haven't been in my hometown in a long time. I'm just really excited to see it again," he told her.
"Slow down, Trailblazer!" Twilight yelled. "How are you so fast anyway?!"
As they all ran, they got closer and closer to Tethleon. Just getting closer got Trailblazer more motivated to keep running. A couple more minutes passed until he finally reached the gate to the city. He stopped in front of it and panted for a little bit, turning around to face the other three trying to catch up. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy landed next to him and looked at the three too. At last, they managed to catch up, slowly. Twilight Sparkle and Rarity were breathing heavily.
"Could you... At least... Let us catch our breath?" Twilight panted.
"Fine."
Both of them took a minute to catch it, with Trailblazer waiting for them a little impatiently.
"Better now?"
"Yes."
"Okay. In we go."
Trailblazer passed through the gate and into the place that he grew up in. Already, another pony greeted them as they took their first steps on Tethleon grounds.
"Hello, travelers," he said. Welcome to..."
He stopped for a minute and recognized Trailblazer.
"Hey, wait a minute...! Aren't you Trailblazer?"
"Yeah?" he said.
"Oh my God, you're back!" the greeter said. He turned to look around to alert his friends. "Guys! Those rumors were true! He's still alive!"
"Get out! Really?!"
"Yeah, really! He's right here at the gate enterance!"
Another pony walked up to them. "Well, I'll be! He IS alive and here!"
Many other ponies swarmed around them to see for themselves. Sure enough, they saw Trailblazer in the flesh. And all of them wanted to talk to him.
"Now, now, don't crowd the young man..." they heard somepony say. A pony with a tan coat and gray mane stepped forward. "Why, hello there, Trailblazer! Welcome back to Tethleon!"
"What's going on here?" asked Trailblazer. "All the ponies are treating me like a hero."
"Oh, but you are!" the gray-maned one replied. "By putting a stop to Silver Soul's plans, you saved not only us, but the rest of Equestria."
Trailblazer stopped and remembered. "Ooooooooops..." he chuckled, a little embarrassed. "But now that I think of it, who are you?"
"I'm Mayor Dunnam," he introduced himself. "Let me give you an update here... Ever since Silver Soul took over, we've been working on a democratic rule in our city rather than the monarchy King Gold and Silver Soul ruled with. I'm the first mayor in line for that."
"Ah, okay. That sounds promising."
"And these other few behind you are..."
Trailblazer looked behind him. "Oh, yes, of course. These five behind me are some friends I made in Ponyville."
All five of them stated their names in order.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle."
"Just call me Rainbow Dash."
"Fluttershy."
"And I'm Pinkie Pie!"
"You may call me Rarity."
"Pleasure to meet you all." said Dunnam. "Anyways, Trailblazer, I think you'll be pleased to know that I'm working on reestablishing the Rising Warriors guild."
"Oh, really?? Great!"
"Anyway, I think that's all I have to say for now. Feel free to do whatever around here."
Mayor Dunnam left the scene, along with several other ponies. Quite a few still stuck around him.
"Please give me space, guys," said Trailblazer. With that, they did.
"Are you like some celebrity here?" asked Fluttershy.
"You could say that."
"I don't know how you can take it and how Rarity wants to be one..."
"It's just not for everyone, dear," Rarity answered.
"I wonder..." Trailblazer began to walk away.
"Where are you going?"
"Home."
The five followed Trailblazer around the city for a few blocks until reaching a residential area. From there, they walked around a few blocks until reaching a long gray house.
"This was my home before I had to run away," he told the others.
"You haven't been in it in over a month. Why does it still look fine?" Rainbow Dash wondered.
Trailblazer didn't answer her. He rang the doorbell, stepped back, and waited. After several seconds, they heard some footsteps, and the door opened. Answering the door was a creme-colored earth pony mare with a smooth gold mane.
"Hello-" But she stopped as soon as she saw Trailblazer. "No... It can't be..."
"I'm back, StarBright," said Trailblazer.
"Trailblazer??" she answered, almost ready to cry.
"Yeah, that's me."
"Oh my God, TRAILBLAZER! Where have you been?!" StarBright immediately hugged him and started to cry. "I missed you so much, and we all thought you were, well, gone!" StarBright dragged him inside the house.
"Aw, I'm sorry for making you worry... You know I didn't mean to," said Trailblazer, holding onto her.
"Still, don't scare me like that again! You had me worried sick!"
A bright red small pony walked into the living room from inside. "Trailblazer?"
Trailblazer looked up and stopped comforting StarBright for a second. "Is that you, Blaine?"
"Trailblazer! You're back!" the excited school-age pony shouted happily. Trailblazer let go of StarBright and knelt down to catch Blaine as he ran to him. He jumped into his hooves and let Trailblazer pat him on the back.
"I'm glad to see you again."
"Me too!"
Twilight Sparkle walked to the doorway. StarBright noticed her.
"Hey, Trailblazer, what's going on?" she asked.
"Who is this pony?" StarBright asked as well.
"Oh, that's right..." thought Trailblazer. He stood back up and faced Twilight. "Twilight, this is my younger brother and sister: Blaine and StarBright. And Star, this is Twilight Sparkle. She's a friend of mine." Trailblazer looked at her. "Where are the others?"
"I'll go get them," said Twilight. She turned to look outside. "You can all come in, it's okay."
The other four walked through the doorway.
"This is Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity," Trailblazer said, pointing each one out as he called out their names.
"I never knew that you had these two as siblings," said Rarity.
"I haven't said much about them, actually," Teailblazer said to her.
"Well, still, it's nice to know you five," said StarBright. "Where do you all hail?"
Most of them answered with Ponyville while Twilight answered with Canterlot.
"Oh, those two places are a long ways from here. What made you all come here anyway?"
"Well, we're on a journey to the Crawnite Mountains," Trailblazer said.
"Well, you all don't need to be shy. You can all rest here for the night if you'd like," StarBright said. "Although I have to ask... Why are you going there anyway?"
"The thing is... I have a marefriend, but she's been kidnapped..."
"Kidnapped?!"
"Yes, by Black Hole."
"Why would he do such a thing?! That's cold!"
"StarBright, please promise me that you won't get too upset after I say this next part..."
StarBright closed her eyes, then reopened them. "Okay."
"Black Hole plans on using the power of the Tethleon treasure to rule the world, and from what he told me, he needs my marefriend to unleash it's power."
StarBright's pupils shrank. "This sounds very serious..."
"We got that a lot," said Rainbow Dash.
"Well... You shouldn't exhaust yourselves. Please, make yourselves at home here and relax. It'll do you a lot of good."
All of them unloaded their belongings and set up their sleeping bags in the basement. While they did that, Trailblazer walked into his bedroom. He hasn't seen it in a month, but it didn't look any different than when he had to escape when Silver Soul started to take control. There was still the same small bed with navy blue plaid sheets, white liner, and black headrest. The room's walls were a pale-cream color; nothing too fancy. He figured that his sister was cleaning it and keeping it looking nice in his absence. He thought nothing more of it and set his backpack on his bed. Right as he did that, he heard the footsteps of his friends coming up the stairs. He walked into the kitchen and met them all there along with StarBright.
"Would you all like something for supper?" she asked them.
"I packed some snacks for our trip, sis," Trailblazer answered her. "I can just share those."
"Come now, Trailblazer. You should have something more substantial." StarBright walked up to him. "Besides, I know you have a big appetite. I can make you something good to fill up that tummy of yours." StarBright began to pat his underbelly as she said that. Trailblazer reacted by grimacing and backing off quickly.
"Hey, don't do that." he said sternly. "You know I don't like that."
There was some frantic knocking on the front door. Trailblazer took this to get away from StarBright and opened the door. On the other side was a blue male pegasus, panicking.
"Trailblazer! Oh, thank God I found you!"
"Why, what's going on?"
"Well, you see, there's this big giant... I mean, we have a huge... Problem... I... Well, maybe you ought to hear it at the city hall. You'll get the message better there than I can tell you about it now. Hurry!!" The pegasus yelled. He quickly bolted back into the sky after telling him that.
"I don't like the sound of this but..." Trailblazer thought.
"But... what?" wondered Twilight Sparkle.
"I think you five need to come with me."
Trailblazer walked out the front door. The others decided to follow him outside, headed for city hall to hear the news.
> The Night Steed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "Trailblazer!" StarBright yelled as she ran outside. "You come back here this instant!"
All six of them were out of eyeshot when she got outside. She got back inside and sat down, worried. "What if we lose him THIS time...?"
Meanwhile, the six ponies ran out of the residential area. They followed Trailblazer around the houses and into the retail area of the city, and then ended up in downtown. There, they all saw Mayor Dunnam, the blue pegasus they met earlier, and a few other ponies. Dunnam was trying to calm them down, but the others were shivering.
"There you are!" said Dunnam upon seeing Trailblazer and his friends. "You're gonna wanna hear this..."
"What's the matter?" asked Rarity.
"Okay, settle down, you four," Dunnam instructed to the ponies that were with him before they arrived. "Please explain calmly to Trailblazer what's going on."
"Well, okay..." One of the gold unicorns said. "Trailblazer, we are a couple of Rising Warriors, like you, but something came up... Just a little bit ago, we five went to the Tethleon Cave to investigate about some stranger walking into it... But... But..." He found it hard to spit out the rest of the sentence. "Anyone else want to finish?"
"I-I'll try..." said the green earth pony. "When we got in, there was this HUGE green dragon inside."
The six pony's eyes widened.
"A... D-d-d-d-dragon??" stammered Fluttershy.
"Yeah," the green pony continued. "We tried stopping it, but we had to retreat. And what's worse..." He paused and swallowed. "We lost the mare that came to try to fight with us..."
"Oh, I don't like how I THINK she was lost..." said Twilight Sparkle.
"Well, I didn't look back..."
"I did..." the blue pegasus said. "I don't want to say it, but..." He paused and shuddered before finishing his sentence. "Brrrr... That dragon took Celestic and- and, ate her."
"Whoa, you can't be serious!" said Trailblazer, gritting his teeth.
"I'm not kidding!" the pegasus stuttered. "I saw it happen myself... He swallowed her whole."
"I knew it!" Twilight shut her eyes tightly and put a hoof over her mouth. "I think I'm going to be sick..."
"What do you want us to do about it?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Well, finish what we couldn't do? Slay him or something?"
"What??" Twilight barked. "I'm feeling uneasy just thinking of it. Why would I go ahead and risk my life to actually let that happen?!"
"If you all don't..." thought the pegasus. "This whole city could get ruined by that dragon... And we all could end up as dragon food..."
"I don't know..."
"Could you at least try to rescue Celestic?"
"I want to, but..."
"Come on, Twilight!" said Rainbow Dash. "We've handled a dragon before, and you even got away from one on your own. Could you at least help us bring back this Celestic?"
"I want to, but, it seems too dangerous..."
"We could all be dragon chow if nopony stops it," the green one said.
Twilight was looking more uneasy with each sentence.
"I'll go and try to stop it," said Trailblazer. "I don't think we'll be able to move on knowing that that dragon is still threatening to us." But he looked uncertain.
"What are we waiting for, let's go," said Rainbow Dash.
Four of them left and headed for the cave. Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy stayed at city hall, but then Twilight looked up.
"Hey, don't leave without us!" she yelled at them. She began to run towards them. Fluttershy saw this and followed her too.
The six ponies walked to a den and stopped outside of it's enterance.
"Umm, have you ever stood up to a dragon before?" Rarity asked Trailblazer.
"No..." he answered her with.
"Well, we actually have encountered a few, so we know how to deal with them..."
"I just know how they behave and what they do, but I've never fought one before..."
"Well, we should be okay, right?" wondered Rainbow Dash.
None of them spoke. They all looked to their sides, thinking.
"...Right?"
"Yeah, it's perfectly possible," Rarity spoke up.
"Okay... In we go..."
All six of them slowly walked inside, not wanting to disturb anything. All of them were still quite nervous, but Twilight Sparkle's anxiety was high.
"So, do you all want to talk about how we're going to handle this dragon?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Oh, could we just get this over with?" Twilight wispered loudly. "This place is giving me the creeps..."
They continued to head deeper into the den. It was well lit, due to most of the rocky ceiling being absent. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Trailblazer were walking forward, with Fluttershy and Twilight walking backwards behind them, watching their backs. Twilight Sparkle's fear grew with each step, wanting desperetly to leave.
"Hey, Twilight?" Trailblazer asked. He stopped and tapped her on the shoulder. Twilight shrieked, thinking that something got her.
"What's the matter with you??" Trailblazer raised his voice at her.
But before they could get an answer, large pounding footsteps were heard and grew louder with each step. All of them turned around to see a big lime green dragon approaching them. It let out an earsplitting roar, and then simply looked at them. Just then, they saw SteelHide calling at them from the broken ceiling.
"Ha! You're in for it now!" he yelled.
"Wait, it's you! SteelHide!" Pinkie Pie yelled back.
"Yeah, the boss wasn't too pleased with how we were going, so we decided to let our pet dragon finish you off. Go ahead and play with him! He doesn't bite... TOO hard!" He laughed at the six, who were stuck in the den with the green dragon. "Okay, Sclar! Dinner's served!" SteelHide ran away from the broken ceiling, leaving the scene.
"Ooh, that coward! That guy's gonna pay!" Rainbow Dash grit her teeth as she said that.
"Um, we have a bigger problem here..." Trailblazer kept eye contact on Sclar. The giant dragon roared and began to lunge at them.
"Oh, S---! Watch out!!" he hollered. He jumped out of the way to escape the dragon's open jaws, intended to make snacks out of them. The other five followed suit, keeping clear from his maw.
Rainbow Dash got an idea. "Hey, let's split up and scatter!"
"Are you out of your mind?!" Twilight yelled at her, hysterically.
"Nono, listen! He can't chase all of us at once! Distract him and then hide!"
"And get cornered?! That sounds like you're setting us up for failure!"
"A plan is better than no plan, Twilight!" Rarity yelled at her. "Let's move!"
All of them scattered, hiding behind one rock and another one as the dragon tried to claw it's way around. Rainbow Dash's plan was working. Sclar could only focus on one of the ponies as they ran from cover to cover, hiding their presence and where all of them were hiding.
Now, can this dragon breathe fire? thought Trailblazer. I know dragons tend to do that, but so far, he hasn't done anything like that...
Sclar became angry at the fact that he was being outsmarted. He blew a flaming burst of breath through the cave's path and stalagmites, flushing them out. The stalagmites protected them, but the heat was incredibly intense for all of them.
Oh, God, he can! Trailblazer thought, finishing it. He shut his eyes tight and shielded them with his front hooves until the fire breath subsided. They all ran again, trying to find more hiding spots for themselves. Rarity used her unicorn magic to lift some of the stalactites from the den ceiling and thrust the sharp ends against Sclar's body. He was slightly hurt by them, but he tried fighting back by clawing at the ground in an attempt to swipe or grab one of them. He didn't grab one of them, and Rainbow Dash began to distract him by flying around him. She zipped around his eyes and then his neck, giving the other five a chance at hiding again, and then retreated as well. Rarity and Trailblazer coincidentally ended up behind the same rock.
"I tried harming him, but it didn't look like my attack worked. How are we supposed to best this beast?!" she whispered.
"There has to be a way..." Trailblazer whispered back. He thought for a few seconds, and then got an idea. "Oh, now THIS is why I always carry this around!" He reached into his backpack and pulled out his butterfly knife; it was the same one used to kill Silver Soul's army.
"Trailblazer, that's suicide!" hissed Rarity. "You're going to get yourself devoured!"
"If he can't find me, then I'll be able to sneak to him and kill him," he said, speaking of his plan. "And judging by how he took those rock spears, that hide is pretty tough. He won't realize that I'm on him until it's too late."
"Enough of your nonsense! Better safe than sorry!"
Before he could respond to that, the dragon began to crush some of the stalagmites, forcing them to separate. Trailblazer ran off and got towards a stalagmite that was closer towards Sclar's position.
"Fluttershy! Help me out here!" Rainbow Dash yelled, getting airborne. But Fluttershy didn't risk getting anywhere near Sclar. Rainbow Dash took her flight to the ceiling, zig-zagging through the stalactites. Sclar tried to burn her with his fire breath, but failed. While he was trying to fry her, Trailblazer ran up to him and attached himself to his neck, hanging on upside-down by all four of his legs. Sclar didn't see him close in, and he couldn't feel him either.
It looks like his hunch was right, thought Rarity.
Just then, Pinkie Pie began to hop around on the ground, baiting the big wyvern to attack her. She still managed to bounce around cleanly without getting swiped or clawed, leaving him confused as to how she managed to dodge all of that. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy came out of hiding and kicked him in his eyes, each of them taking one of them at the same time. This actually hurt him, and he retaliated by opening his mouth and tried to bite them. Fluttershy quickly flew away, but Rainbow Dash flew around for a little bit. But then, Sclar caught her, leaving Rainbow Dash's head, shoulders, and front legs sticking out from his closed jaws.
"AAAHH, IT'S GOT ME!! HELP!!" she cried out desperately.
Sclar started to smile and began to force her whole body in his mouth. Rainbow Dash resisted, but couldn't escape. Trailblazer saw this and readied his knife. He stabbed his neck, breaking a vessel. The dragon let out a screeching roar of pain, allowing Rainbow Dash to escape from his maw. As she flew away, Trailblazer started to slice the neck even more by inching the knife towards the dragon's shoulders while it was still puncturing it. Sclar became enraged and shook himself, shaking Trailblazer off. Then he swiped him with his claws, sending him flying. Trailblazer landed on his left hind leg, and he felt a sharp pain from it as soon as he landed on it. He tumbled along the ground and crashed into a big rock, leaving him cornered and lying on his back. He noticed that Sclar began to bleed out quickly. But he was also enraged, and closed in on him. He got close to Trailblazer and opened his mouth, ready to chomp him. He was helpless; all Trailblazer could do was back himself against the rock while trying to fight the pain in his left leg, anticipating the jaws closing on him. But then, the dragon's entire body started to wobble, and Sclar felt faint. His mouth didn't reach Trailblazer, and the loss of blood was killing him. After several seconds of shaking, he fell down, closed his eyes, and didn't get back up.
"Is... Is he gone?" Twilight wondered, finally feeling calm.
"I... I don't believe it... It actually worked," Rarity said, astonished. "That dragon has been slain!"
Twilight let out a deep sigh of relief. "I has afraid of that thing..."
"What are you complaining about?!" Rainbow Dash barked. "Try almost getting swallowed and THEN talk to me about being afraid of it!"
"Hey, speaking of which, don't we have to save somepony from his big belly?" Pinkie Pie reminded them all.
"Oh, of course!" Rarity exclaimed. "But... How are we to do that?"
"Here, use this," Trailblazer got back up on his feet, but the sharp pain in his hind leg came to him again. "Owchowch, ow." He immediately lifted it in midair and kept it hanging. He limped over to Rarity and gave her his knife. "Use that."
"What happened to you?" asked Twilight.
"I think my left hind leg's sprained or something..." He hobbled around back to his backpack. "Yeah, he got me good."
"Here, let me help you." Twilight pulled out one of her first-aid kits using her unicorn power and walked to Trailblazer. "Now, lie down and stay still, I don't want to mess this up."
While she tended to Trailblazer's wounded leg, Rarity used her own unicorn powers to cut away at the dragon's striated underside.
"Is somepony there...?" a weak voice cried out.
"Hey, that must be Celestic!" Fluttershy spoke up. "Um, we're here to save you."
"Hey, I can see light!"
The four got the hint that she saw the light coming from the slits from the cut stomach wall. Rarity paused, then started to cut away faster. She cut along horizontally, and then vertically from both sides, creating a flap that fell down on the ground. A navy blue earth pony darted out from inside, covered in saliva.
"Oh, thank God you came and saved me! I thought that I was a goner..." she said.
"You're Celestic, right?" Pinkie Pie asked her.
"Yes, but who are you?"
"I'm Pinkie Pie! We all came to save you!"
"Where are the others?"
"They're right here around you, silly!"
Celestic looked around to see Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash around her.
"I am in your debt, you four."
"Well, actually, we only tried to help, but the colt with us is..." Pinkie looked around and didn't see them around. "Hey, where is he?"
"Does that feel better?" Celestic heard a feminine voice speak.
"It still hurts, but I can soldier on," a masculine voise answered.
Twilight Sparkle and Trailblazer walked out from behind their stalagmite, whereas Trailblazer limped back to them. He had a simple splint on his left hind leg, which was wrapped with some white bandage.
Celestic watched as the two walked towards them. "Hey, I think I recognize you!" she told Trailblazer.
"You do?" he asked.
"You're... Don't tell me, um... Trailblazer!"
"Hey, right!"
"So, are you the one responsible for getting rid of that dragon?"
"Well, I couldn't have done it if it weren't for those around me, with all the distracting and flanking they did."
"Oh, so we have a hero and heroines! I am in your debt."
"Hey, how about we get out of here?" Fluttershy mentioned.
"Yeah, let's get back to Tethleon," said Twilight.
The seven ponies walked back to Tethleon city hall. There, they saw the same group of Riding Warriors, Mayor Dunnam, and StarBright. They immediately noticed them and began to shout their hurrahs and praises.
"Oh my God, Celestic! You're okay!"
"Yeah, I'm back in one piece," she shuddered. "That was a really scary experience that I DON'T want to do again..."
"Well, all's well that ends, well, correct?" Dunnam mentioned.
"Yeah, sure thing, Dunnam," said the blue pegasus.
"Trailblazer! You're still okay!" StarBright happliy said as she ran towards him.
"Well, kind of."
"What?" She stopped in her tracks. There, she saw his wrapped hind leg. "What happened to your leg??"
"Ugh, that dragon got me there."
"That WHAT?!" StarBright turned to face the group of Rising Warriors. "How could you allow them to go face a terrifying beast like that?! That's stupid! Who put you in charge to risk their lives?!"
The initial group of Rising Warriors, Mayor Dunnam, and Celestic backed away at her harsh words. Trailblazer walked up to her. "StarBright..."
"You listen here! What possessed you to go up against that dragon in the first place?! You could've gotten killed!"
"Uh, StarBright?"
"Don't interrupt me! That was very stupid of you, to actually THINK about going there and taking it on!"
"StarBright."
"Stubborn, headstrong, and idiotic! I really can't believe why you went off and did this!"
"ENOUGH!!" Trailblazer shouted, stopping her rambling. StarBright backed away, with a sad expression, one foreleg in midair, and drooped ears.
"Show some respect! We just got rid of a big problem that could've easily became a bigger one and rescued a mare from that dragon! Isn't that something to be proud of?!"
StarBright didn't say anything to him. She looked even more upset after he said that, and hung her head. Trailblazer saw that he made her unhappy and felt guilty again.
"Look, I didn't mean to make you unhappy..."
"No, you're right, big brother." StarBright looked up. "I shouldn't have been so negative. You're all right, really." She walked back to him and hugged him. Trailblazer backed up a little bit after she did that.
"Oh, please! Everypony's watching!" he hissed.
"It's all right, Trailblazer," Celestic told him. "Go ahead, make up with your sister."
Trailblazer sighed and wrapped his right foreleg around her.
"There, is that better?"
"I'm sorry for yelling at you like that..." StarBright said.
"Me too..."
"Aw, that's better now..." the green one said.
"Here, let's get you all back home so you can rest," StarBright said.
They all followed them back to their place and spent the night there, Trailblazer in his bed and the other five in the basement. He surprisingly got a good sleep, but he couldn't tell why. He thought that the most likely cause was from the physical exhaustion earlier today, but he didn't mind. He took advantage and had a good rest.
> The True Enemy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Whaat!" yelled Black Hole as SteelHide was reporting the bad news. "Okay, repeat that again! Slowly...!"
"Lord Black Hole, I keep trying to tell you... Sclar has been..." SteelHide swallowed hard before finishing his sentence. "...defeated by Trailblazer and his friends. I went to do an autopsy and found out that his neck was cut, and he bled out."
"...Clever little nuisance, this Trailblazer..." Black Hole said aside. "Well, did you at least give him decent instructions?"
"What?"
"...SteelHide..." Black Hole was getting furious. "Does that 'What?' mean what I think it means?"
"I... I forgot about it."
"Stupid stupid stupid!! How could you be that stupid?!"
"Look, Lord Black Hole, I..."
"Shut up, shut UP, SHUT UP!" Black Hole yelled in a rage. "What the hell is you problem?!"
"Look, I'm sorry…"
"Apologies won't cut it! You'd better make sure that you do not fail me again! Heads are going to roll if this happens again!"
"…Understood…"
"And SteelHide, consider it your last chance."
SteelHide said nothing. He left the room silently and pondered about what he'd be called to do next.
"Can you believe it, Black Mace?" Black Hole began to talk to him at the enterance. "SteelHide is given orders and he doesn't even use Sclar to his advantage. And he just leaves him to try to kill Trailblazer's friends on his own, when I gave him full consent that he can control him! That's asanine!"
"I understand that you're angry, but there's something that I think should be brought to your attention..." said Black Mace.
"Oh, this is going to be BEAUTIFUL, I JUST know it!"
Black Mace walked up to him and mumbled into his ear what he had to say. Black Hole's eyes widened, and Black Mace stepped away.
"What?! You're joking!"
"I can't say I am, my lord..."
"Ugh... That traitor!!"
Back in AppleJack's holding room, White Comet flew in and had to talk to her.
"Hey, Comet. You... Don't look yourself..." she wondered.
"AppleJack, you have to escape. We have to get out of here," White Comet said. This was apparently urgent.
"What? What's this all about?"
"I have to get you out of here. When I'm not here in your room, I stay in Black Hole's throne room. And he talked about what the treasure is."
"Well, what in the name of cinnamon swirls is it?"
"You don't want to know..."
"Ya should tell me. Ah'm thinkin' Ah have to know this!"
"Seriously, it's best that you don't know what it is..."
"Well, fine." AppleJack scoffed.
"The reason why you're here is because you'll be used with, the treasure, which'll be used to rule the world and to get rid of Trailblazer."
"Well, Ah already knew that..."
"But right now, I need to get you out of here."
White Comet ran towards the balcony doors, but a flock of pegasi blocked it from outside.
"Oh, no..." he said to himself. He ran towards the room's enterance, but that got blocked too. AppleJack and White Comet were trapped in the room, and some other guards flooded it.
"Don't you dare think about it," they heard a familiar voice say. Black Hole walked into the room, angrier than ever. "White Comet, you miserable traitor."
"Wh-what are you talking about?" he told Black Hole. "I'm on your side!"
"Don't act like you can hide it. I know you're lying!"
"At your command, Lord Black Hole," one of the guards said, readying his spear.
"Don't touch him. That'll be my personal privilege," Black Hole said through clenched teeth.
"Stop!" AppleJack got between White Comet and Black Hole. "How could you take an innocent life?! He's done much better than any of y'all have, and he's probably better than y'all in spirit!"
Black Hole used his magic to lift her and pin her against a wall. His guards kept her in place.
"There's no point in trying to change my mind. This backstabber is going to die." Black Hole prepared his magic again. "Besides, I could use some torturing practice to use against Trailblazer..."
Using his horn, he whipped out his magic rope-like beam, lifted White Comet in the air, and wrapped it around his neck. He was suffocating, but nopony was going to help, or think of helping him; they would be sentenced to death too. He loosened the grip around his neck and threw him against the wall, then started to whack him on it continuously. Back and forth and back and forth he went, unable to defend himself.
Then, Black Hole pulled out a sword. Keeping White Comet held by his neck, he also used his magic to lift the sword and prepared it. Black Hole also forced his wings to stay at his sides with his magic as well. Then, the sword stabbed right through White Comet's body, piercing his wing. He screamed in pain, but couldn't move to grab it and pull it out. Then, Black Hole shoved the sword deeper through him, and the end of the blade pierced his other wing too, as well as it stabbing right through his body. All AppleJack could do was watch in horror, wanting to help, but couldn't. The writhing continued, and gradually became weaker. White Comet hung his head, Black Hole retrieved his sword, and White Comet fell down, with a puddle of blood slowly enlarging around him. He was dead.
"Let this be a lesson to all those here who try to oppose me!" Black Hole bellowed at his men.
AppleJack was released. She walked over to White Comet's dead body and looked at it. A few tears fell onto his side. "Ah'm gonna miss ya, White Comet..."
"There's no point in worrying about a worthless pony like himself, AppleJack," Black Hole scoffed at her.
"Worthless! He means more than you'll EVER mean! YER the one who's worthless!!" She yelled at him through tears.
"Oh, please! Like you could possibly defend him now..." Black Hole looked at his followers. "Get a cage ready! We're going to put this stubborn mare in a place where I can keep my eye on her. After all, we've got something VERY special planned for her." He used his horn to obtain some actual rope and tied her up by her legs and pinned them to her body. He then lifted her and took her to his throne room, waiting for the cage to be ready.

"Good morning, everypony!" StarBright sang as the six walked into the kitchen. "I didn't know what you all wanted, so I just got some cereal ready."
"Oh... How thoughtful!" Fluttershy said as she saw the cereal bowls.
"As for you, Trailblazer, I made you those double-stacked fried egg sandwiches you like along with some hashbrowns!"
"Aw, thanks! You must have some sort of sixth sense to predict that I was going to be this hungry."
"Actually, like I said before, I know you have a big appetite." She turned to look at the others that were eating their cereal. "One time, he was challenged to eat an entire stuffed crust pizza and won! The loser had to be the winner's chef for a week!"
"Hey, it was stuffed crust! That stuff is delicious! How COULD I lose??"
"Yeah, and now we have an issue with him sharing it now."
"Hey, you and Blaine don't eat nearly as much as I do, so where's the issue?"
StarBright giggled. "Oh, shut up, silly!"
They all finished their breakfast, and the five mares packed their sleeping bags from the basement. Trailblazer did the same, except for the sleeping bag, which wasn't set up to begin with.
"So, you're all leaving, aren't you..." StarBright said to them.
"We are, StarBright," Trailblazer said to her. "Don't worry about us, or me."
"Promise me that you'll still come back okay..."
"StarBright, I've survived a lockdown, espionage, and a fight with a dragon. I promise you that I'll return just fine."
She thought for a moment. "Yeah, you have... Okay, Trailblazer, I believe you. Good luck out there."
There was some knocking on the door. "Hello? Anypony home?"
"Is that Mayor Dunnam?" Twilight Sparkle thought. She opened the door and saw the Mayor, holding a mirror of some sort.
"Is Trailblazer there?" he asked.
"Yeah, he's here. We were just getting ready to leave."
"Phew! Good thing I caught you just in time." Mayor Dunnam walked up to Trailblazer, carrying the mirror. "I think you'll need to put this into use sometime..." He handed the mirror to Trailblazer.
"Wait, what am I supposed to do with this?" he asked.
"Well, we were cleaning out the storeroom in the castle, when we found this. Attached to it was a scroll, and it read, 'When all hope is lost, the mirror will regain that hope and grant power to those that oppose the Wicked.' and the 'W' in 'wicked' is capitalized. I don't know what THAT means, but I have a feeling that it's connected to that treasure."
Trailblazer looked down at it, only seeing his reflection from it.
"Well, I guess that's not my business. Take care, you six!" he said as he walked away.
"You heard the man, let's keep going," said Pinkie Pie.
They left Trailblazer's place and continued back north towards the Crawnite Mountains.

"Take a look at this!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she looked at her map. "We're not too far away from the Crawnite Mountains!"
They found themselves on some plains between the mountain range and Tethleon. On the map, it was roughly between the top left corner and the center of the map. They were still several miles away, but they were not too far away from their destination.
"If we keep making this progress, we could end up at those mountains in two days," Twilight Sparkle thought aloud. "What do you think we'll use to get in those mountains?"
"Twilight, you already have those rock-busting powers!" Pinkie Pie hopped. "Use use your magic and drill away!"
"...I suppose that could work."
"Well, it's late, everypony..." Fluttershy said. "We should, um, get our rest for the night."
"Okie-dokie-lokie!" finished Pinkie Pie.
All of their tents were set up and had their sleeping bags ready. All of them said their good nights and went to bed.
That night Trailblazer started to dream. Although it wasn't really some fantasy, it was yet more flashbacks about his young bully self. And there was Black Hole, also a foal, giving some of the other fillies grief for no good reason. He would give him more trouble than he ever could at that age. Trailblazer tried repressing the memory, buy it still played in his head.
Then came the time that Black Hole became a runaway. Trailblazer was a pre-teen, but he had a concience now, knowing what was right and wrong. He saw Black Hole running away from Tethleon, and he felt guiltier than before.
"Wait! Black Hole! I'm sorry!" he heard himself yell. But he didn't listen. He hung his head and walked back to his home with his tail between his legs.
The next few days, he decided to become a Rising Warrior, which was established a month ago at that time. He became good in spirit, and the ponies that he bullied as a foal forgave him when he started being good and good to them, even doing things for them. Trailblazer developed a good work ethic, generosity, and a sense of right and wrong, and the will to keep doing the right thing. It even came to the point of rejecting Silver Soul's plan of Equestrian rule, which restored Tethleon back to it's original state.
All this thinking about his childhood and growing up made him think some more. All the more thinking of who's responsible for what.
And then it hit him.
Trailblazer woke up, shocked, and guiltier than ever. "What have I done...?" he talked to himself quietly.
The others were still asleep, but Twilight Sparkle heard some rustling canvas. She thought nothing of it, thinking it was just one of the other ponies rolling over. She she closed her eyes and tried getting back to sleep. Then she heard a zipper getting unzipped, and some footsteps on the grass, walking away. She got up and wondered what was going on, but she didn't think anything of it. She laid back down and tried dozing off. But after around 10 minutes, she didn't hear any footsteps return back to the tent. This time, she knew something was up. Twilight got out of her sleeping bag and walked outside for a couple of minutes. On a small nearby hill, she saw Trailblazer drinking a couple cans of his white pop, with a guilty expression on his face. Twilight even noticed that his ears were drooped, something that none of them have ever seen him do. Obviously, something was amiss.
"Trailblazer...? Is there something wrong?" she asked as she approached him.
"What's more important, Twilight?" he asked her back. "Being good all of your life, or learning from your mistakes?"
"Well, I guess it's good to be good as much as you can, but they're still something to be said about a pony who learned from their mistakes, you know, to differ right from wrong. Wait, where are you coming from?"
"It seems that being good from the day you were born in the better way to go... Black Hole wants to unlock that treasure and use it against me, and he kidnapped AppleJack too. What's worse is that I drove him away and made him think of vengeance..."
"I think he could've come back and gave you a second chance. He made that desicion to get revenge, not you deciding for him."
"That's not the problem. It's BECAUSE he decided to get revenge is what's the matter."
"Well, what is it?"
"Think about it. We both caused a lot of trouble at early ages, but I gave him a lot of grief. And because of that, he ran away and thought about getting revenge."
"Which means...?"
"Don't you get it? I caused a lot of trouble for him, and caused him to run away and plot his revenge, so really, I'M the one at fault. I'M the villain."
"What?? No, that can't be right!"
"It makes perfect sense. I caused all this. I'm the root of this butterfly effect. And now, this world and I are going to hell, all because... Of ME..."
"Trailblazer, please..."
"Just, go away. Leave me."
"Now just think here! Aren't you learning from your mistakes this way? Except on a much bigger scale?"
"Again, it's because I was bad to begin with that caused all this."
"Now, stop it! You know what's right and wrong! It's BECAUSE you learned from your mistakes that lets you know the difference!"
"It's of no use... I can't go on knowing that I'm the one at fault."
"So you're giving up now?"
"What choice do I have? I can't go on like this."
"So, you're going to let everything go to waste, let Black Hole ruin you, and let everypony down." Twilight thought for a moment. "Oh! And won't you be letting AppleJack down too? How do you think she'll react if she finds out that 'her little sugarcube' is giving up on her, huh?"
"She wouldn't want to be with anypony like me anyway..."
"C'mon, Trailblazer! You're not in the right mindset!" She tried pushing him back to the campsite, but he resisted. "You need your rest, now get over here!" he continued to fight her help.
"Why are you helping me out, the bad pony? I need to isolate myself before I do anything else horrific!"
"I have a feeling that this is still about AppleJack. And if so, I know you miss her." She stopped and thought for another minute. "Is it because she's not around that you think everything's lost?"
"Stay away. Leave me be!" Trailblazer got up and tried running away, but he forgot all about his hind leg. He tripped under the pain it caused when flexed and tripped. He quickly got back up and hobbled away on his good legs.
"Trailblazer! Get back here!" Twilight yelled as she chased after him.
Trailblazer ignored her and ran into some nearby woods, and disappeared into the brush. Twilight got into them and tried flushing him out, but he was gone. She sifted around through the shrubs and trunks, but she couldn't find him. She got deeper into the woods to see if he kept going on, but she couldn't find him at all. She lost him.
"Oh no..." Twilight immediately grew worried. She sprinted back the way she came and reached the campsite they were all at and began to wake them all up. "C'mon, c'mon, get up! I need your help!"
Rainbow Dash grumbled, "Huh,,,? What's going on..."
"Get up! This is serious!"
Rarity got out of her tent. "Good heavens, Twilight, what's gotten into you?" she asked.
"It's Trailblazer! He ran away!"
"What??"
"He ran into the woods nearby, and I can't find him!" Twilight Sparkle was growing more agitated, with each minute. "Help me look for him!"
"He's in the woods at THIS hour?" Pinkie Pie said to herself. "Oh! He must want a hardcore game of hide-n'-seek!"
The five ran towards the woods and entered it, fanning out and searched every shrub and through all foilage they ran into in hopes of finding him. As they did, they shouted through the air, trying to get him to come out.
"Trailblazerrrr!" Twilight called.
"Trailblazer!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she tried getting an aerial view.
"C'mon, now, we only want to help!" Twilight called again.
"Trailblazer, please come out...!" Fluttershy let out her worried yell.
"Oh, now he's smart!" Pinkie Pie thought out loud. "Nopony can see colors that well without light, so, he must blend in perfectly here! Clever!"
"Pinkie!" Twilight scolded her. "This isn't a game! He's really somewhere out here! For all we know, he could be seriously hurt right now!"
"Wh... What??"
"Yeah, he could be anywhere in these woods! And he's not feeling well either!"
"So, is he sick to his stomach? Has the flu?"
"He's not thinking straight! He might've even commited suicide right now!"
"Oh, NO!" Pinkie exclaimed, shocked. "He's feeling bad and we have to go look for him before it's too late!" She ran ahead and began to call out some more. "Traaaailblaaaazer!"
"Please come out! PLEASE!" Twilight yelled.
All five of them continued to call out to him for about a half-hour while fanning the area, but without any success. It only grew darker around them.
"I think we'll have to continue this search tommorow..." said Rarity. "We can't find him like this..."
"Okay, fine..." said Twilight Sparkle. "I still hope he comes to his senses..."
"Well, what made him run like that?"
"He talked about how he was the one responsible for getting Black Hole to retaliate, and I'm also sure that he's feeling really upset because AppleJack is gone..."
"He's not feeling well, for sure. Oh, that poor thing..."
"C'mon, Twilight," Rainbow Dash got close to comfort her. "We'll have a better chance at finding him during the day."
"Maybe..."
All five of them got back to their tents and slept. It wasn't easy, to think that their friend took off with an unstable mentality.
Unknown to them, Trailblazer was deep within the wood, deeper than in the area the other five ended up reaching. He heard their calls for him to return, but he deliberately refused to come back to them. In his mind, he was the villain, the one responsible for getting AppleJack taken away, and the one responsible for turning the world into Black Hole's sandbox soon. He laid down on the ground, hind legs spread out, and front legs covering his eyes.
"I'm so sorry, AppleJack..." he said as tears began to stream from his eyes. "This is all my fault..." After he said that, he wept bitterly for a long time until finally falling asleep, upset as ever.
> Assurance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, the main five packed away their tents and other belongings. Twilight Sparkle had a feeling that it would be best to look for him and press on at the same time.
"We can't just let him off like that..." said Twilight. "We need to find him and talk some sense into him."
"Hang on... Shouldn't we grab his tent so that we don't have to come back here again?" wondered Rainbow Dash.
"Oh, good thinking. Let's pack his tent."
With all five of them working on it, Trailblazer's tent was taken down in a matter of minutes.
"All right, let's go find this stallion," said Rarity.
"Um, Rainbow?" Fluttershy said as they all were approaching the woods that Trailblazer took off into. "I think we'll have a better chance at finding him with the aerial views we can get now."
"Yes, good idea," Rainbow Dash agreed. "He shouldn't be too hard to find in daylight."
The three walkers and pegasi entered the woods and resumed their search. Like they mentioned earlier, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy got airborne and searched from beneath the treetops. The other three kept on searching through the thick plants and other foliage.
"Trailblazerrrrr!" Pinkie Pie called out.
"We're only here to help you, Trailblazer!" Rarity called. "Please show yourself."
They kept on searching for another half hour, like last night. This time, they weren't looking in just a certain area. They kept on walking forward, hoping to find him deeper in the woods.
"Trailblazerrrr!" Twilight hollered. "Please answer us!"
"Anything on the aerial views, Dashie?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"No... We haven't seen him or anything of his around," answered Rainbow Dash.
"You don't think that... He ran off somewhere else... Do you?" Fluttershy questioned.
"That... Would be bad..." said Rarity.
Just then, they heard some low singing coming from somewhere.
"Nooo-bodyyy, knoowwws, the trouble I've seen..." it sang.
Twilight Sparkle gasped. "Could that be...?"
"That sounded like him!" Rainbow Dash talked back. She started to fly around more quickly to see if she could find him. While Fluttershy followed her, the other three tried to listen to where that singing was coming from.
"Nooo-bodyyy, knoowwws..." the voice trailed off.
Rainbow Dash heard where it came from, and went in that direction. There, she saw a brown earth pony with a long, thick, and shaggy mane, and a backpack worn on his back, hanging on at his sides, wandering aimlessly through the woods.
Trailblazer.
"Hey, I found him!" she exclaimed.
"What? You did?!" Pinkie Pie asked loudly.
"I'm looking at him right now!" Rainbow Dash swooped down and got a closer look. She was not mistaken; it was actually Trailblazer. She and Fluttershy got down on the ground and stopped him from going anywhere. The three on foot quickly caught up to him.
"Oh my God, Trailblazer! You're okay!" Twilight ran up to him and gave him a big hug. Trailblazer did not react. He simply just stood still with her forelegs wrapped around him, head hung low, and drooped ears.
"You know that I'm the real villian here. Why are you all so excited to see me?" he asked them all.
"You're not at fault, Trailblazer!" Twilight started to nudge him. "I know you're better than this!"
"Darling, we all make mistakes, and we do things we might regret later on..." Rarity lectured. "Come now, things aren't so bad now!"
"Turn that frown upside-down!" Pinkie Pie yelled quickly.
All five of them gathered around him, ready for a big group hug.
"All this comforting you're all trying to do is making me feel worse..." he said, gloomy.
"Oh, knock it off already!" Rainbow Dash barked at him. "We need to talk some sense into you!"
"Please... Just cope with us," whispered Fluttershy. "Don't be so negative. We don't like it..."
He rolled his eyes at her. "Big talk coming from the one as timid as a pony can be."
"Excuse me??" Fluttershy got a little angry at that snide remark.
"Go tend to your little fuzzy bunnies and birdies. You talk to them more than you can talk to another pony."
Fluttershy immediately rammed him and left him lying on his back. She stood directly over him. "You listen here, you mule! Don't you try to shift the attention on anypony else here! YOU'RE the one that's in the funk, and YOU'RE the one that's not working with us! Now, we're trying to help you out, but you are going to accept our help, whether you like it or not!
All of them, even Trailblazer, were surprised at her sudden aggression. Fluttershy reacted to it by backing off, regrouping with her friends, and with a worried look on her face. "Was I too assertive?"
"Don't worry about it, Fluttershy," reassured Twilight. She walked up to Trailblazer, who was still lying on his back. "Please, Trailblazer. Just tell us what's wrong, and how this all happened."
He let out an unhappy sigh. "Fine, I will... But it's not like it's going to change anything or make anything better."
All eyes were on him, paying attention to what he had to say.
"Back when we were all fillies, Black Hole and I were troublemakers. Both of us picked on the other students as much and we could with some of the most unruly things we had in mind. But I had this alpha-male belief at that time and picked on Black Hole too. He tried retaliating, but never succeeded in doing so. His constant failures at bullying me and my constant bullying of the other fillies at that time made him miserable, according to him."
"Then came the time that we were all pre-teens. I saw all the stupid things I did as a foal, and felt really guilty. I went to apologize to all the ponies that I bullied and seeked forgiveness, through apologies and other means, like doing favors for them. But when I went up to Black Hole, I saw him tears. He felt miserable, and I felt the guilt grow even more. He yelled something at me about all the cruel things I did to him back then, and he ran away. I got in one last chance to say that I was sorry, and I yelled it at him to make sure that he heard me. I know for a fact that he heard me, but he didn't listen. He just ran away without accepting my sincere apology."
"And nowadays, as you all know, he's now more vengeful against me that he wants control of the treasure to do sone cruel things to me..."
"Well, thanks for letting us know what happened between you two..." said Pinkie Pie. "But now what can we do about it?"
"Wait a minute...!" Trailblazer's ears perked back up. He rolled over and got back on his feet, then rested a hoof under his chin, thinking out loud. "I made honest attempts to make up with all the ponies that I bullied, and they've all accepted them so far. Even in the few places we've visited on this journey, they've accepted my apologies because I saved their siblings. So, they see the good in me, even after years of making my first impressions on them..."
"Yes? Go on, this is good," encouraged Rarity.
"But Black Hole refused to accept it, even though I am truly sorry for what I've done... That means..."
"Yes, yes??"
"That means that I've all that I can. And if he still couldn't see that, then, I'm perfectly fine!"
"Yes, this is good!" exclaimed Twilight.
"He made the choice to not accept my apology, when I had honest remorse!"
"Well, I've been TRYING to tell you THAT..."
"So, if he thinks he can get away with taking away my little red delicious, he's got another thing coming!"
"Is this it? Are you back, ready to keep going?!" Rainbow Dash asked excitedly.
"Oh, like you wouldn't believe. That's my precious AppleJack he made off with! And he's gonna pay."
"That's the spirit!" Pinkie Pie said while rampant.
"LEEEEET'S DO IIIIIIIITT!" he yelled.
All the other ponies around him cheered, praising him for regaining the will to keep going.
"I knew you had it in you!" shouted Twilight. "I take it that you're feeling better now?"
"Heh... Yeah."
"There you go!"
"Good on ya, 'blazer!" yelled Rainbow Dash.
"Ummm, please don't be hard on me for yelling at you like that... I- I didn't mean to..." Fluttershy now felt guilty.
Trailblazer walked up to her. "Hey, I think that if it weren't for your assertive rant, I'd probably still feel blue. So really, I should thank you."
"Oh, thanks for your forgiveness!" she yelled in her mild tone of voice.
"All right! Who here's ready to save AppleJack from our favorite train wreck?!" Trailblazer shouted that in a mix of excitement and anger.
The other five cheered and let out affirmative shouts.
"All right! Onward!"
Twilight pulled out his packed up tent and handed it to him before they continued, and then they made their way through the woods.

"So, how are you enjoying your new holding place, you stubborn cowpony?" Black Hole asked.
AppleJack was locked in a small cage next to his throne. Inside, AppleJack was tied by her legs, which were pinned to her body, forcing her to be lying down. The cage that she was encased in was small, which almost made the ropes unnecessary. It was wide enough to accompany her length, and tall enough for her body in her lying down state, forcing her head to be lying down on the cage's floor.
"Is this really the biggest cage y'all have??" she asked. "Ah'm cramping up in here, way more than ya probably think!"
"Oh, shut up. White Comet was a useless surveillance guard, and look where THAT got him."
"That was a terrible thing for ya to do!" She paused. "And he did nothin' wrong!"
"Oh, please. He carried such little weight for us. Yes, he did what I told him to do: watch you. But he told you information about the plan, and talking about Trailblazer's progress behind my back, AND he was going to take you away for an escape. Why SHOULDN'T I have cut his life short?"
"Because yer Black Hole, and you have no heart."
"Ah, yes... Now then, I suggest you give up on Trailblazer. He's going to get killed too. I guarantee it."
AppleJack looked down, resting her chin on the cage floor, had floppy ears, and let out an unhappy sigh. It's been awhile since she's heard anything about him, and she wondered if they've defeated this Sclar thing. Her answer to that question never came. She continued to lie down, thinking that they weren't going to make it.
A little bit later, the Sound Wave pony barged through the doors, wound up as ever.
"Sound Wave! This had better be good, for you to burst in here like that!" lectured Black Hole.
"Yeah, my bad. Sorry, my Lord," said Sound Wave. "But, yeah, it's good, all right!"
"Well, what is it?"
"We have found the third and final key to unlock that temple door!" Sound Wave held out a bronze key with a ruby planted at the head.
"What?? Is... Is that it?"
"Damn right, dude!"
"So, the time has finally come..." Black Hole let out some long evil laughter. "Now, that dark power is finally going to be brought back!"
"What...? D-dark power?" AppleJack asked.
"I'll let you do the honors, my lord!"
"Good, good." said Black Hole quietly. He picked up AppleJack's cage and began to walk up to Sound Wave to grab the key.
Just then, one of his soldier ponies barged through the doors. He was panicking a little.
"What? Now what?" wondered Black Hole.
"Lord Black Hole! Please excuse me for arriving without permission, but, our scouts have spotted Trailblazer and his friends outside the mountain base!"
"Wh-WHAT?!" screamed Black Hole. Sound Wave and AppleJack said the same thing, except Sound Wave sounded afraid while AppleJack sounded happy.
"It's true, my lord!"
Black Hole growled angrily while AppleJack cheered.
"Heeeeeee-yaw! Now THAT'S my little sugarcube! He's-a comin', and he's comin' to whip your smug behind!"
"Shut up!" Black Hole turned to look at the soldier. "Tell the others to get into position! I'll also need some of my soldiers in the temple with me. Hmmm..." Black Hole thought for a second. "Ah, yes, of course. STEELHIDE, SHADOWCOLTS! I summon you!"
SteelHide and the three Shadowcolts appeared in the room.
"Yes, Lord Black Hole?" SteelHide asked.
"I need you four to come with me. I'll explain what you need to do when I get there."
Everyone in the room followed Black Hole to a room deep within their castle, a few floors down. There, they found a big door, which had two keys inserted into it already. Black Hole inserted the key into the last keyhole and waited. Just then, a deep rumbling was felt, and the door almost looked as if it was going to burst. The door started to open, slowly, and the rumbling reached minor earthquake proportions. Dark purple shadowy smoke was released as it opened, then quickly disappeared when it was released. The door finally stopped rumbling when it stopped opening. All of them could see what was beyond that door, which was an eerie temple made of dark purple, gray, and black rocks. Fallen pillars were in the temple. Balconies were also eroded and chipped away. Stalagmites rose from the sides of the temple path.
"At long last, the enterance to the Tenebres Temple is opened!" Black Hole hollered. Then, he looked at his followers. "I need half of you guys to come in with me. Just stay along the path and stop Trailblazer when he approaches you." He looked at SteelHide. "I need you to watch the enterance to this place. If anything, just stall him by fighting him."
"Okay, my Lord..." said SteelHide.
"As for you, Shadowcolts..." he said to them. "You tag along with my guards and try to stop Trailblazer when he comes."
"Ah, and tag along, we shall!" He turned to his two siblings. "Come, my brothers!" The three disappeared into the ground through their shadows.
"As for you, AppleJack..." Black Hole turned to her. "You're coming with me. Enjoy keeping control of your own body while you still can."
"Wait, what do ya mean by that?" she asked, a little bit scared.
"You'll find out soon enough..." Black Hole chuckled evilly to himself after saying that and entered the temple. Several guards followed him into it. The largle door was shut when everypony that was allowed to entered, and SteelHide stood in front of it.

"Is everypony okay?" Fluttershy asked after the tremors subsided.
All five of them stood outside the Crawnite Mountain base, shaken, but unharmed. The woods that they were going through led to the Crawnite Mountain Range, conveniently. From there, they kept on heading through it and ended up at the mountain base.
"Yeah, we're quite all right," answered Rarity.
"So..." Pinkie Pie wondered. "Anything about that pegasus we just saw a little bit ago?"
"What about him?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Well, he saw all six of us, then went all, 'Oh no, they're here!'" As she repeated what that pegasus said, she exaggerated her imitation of the panicked gesture he made when they were spotted by hanging in midair and covering her mouth with small pupils. She fell back down and resumed talking. "And then he flew back into the mountain!"
"Seems to me like there was an enterance up there," pondered Twilight, looking up at the face of the mountain.
"Looks like we'll have to give you four more sky rides," said Dash.
"You should go see what's up there first though."
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy lifted off and headed for the area that they saw that pegasus disappear to. There, they saw a balcony with a glass door, which they thought was where he went through. They touched down after seeing it.
"We found a balcony up there. I'm pretty sure that's where he went."
"Very well, let's head for that balcony," said Rarity.
Fluttershy grabbed Twilight Sparkle as Rainbow Dash carried Pinkie Pie. Rarity and Trailblazer had to wait for a little bit before they came back down and carried them to the balcony.
"Okay, AppleJack..." Trailblazer said quietly to himself, taking a deep breath. "Now is the real deal, and we're coming to save you." He felt and looked determined as he said that, and opened the balcony window.
> Infiltration
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey, Trailblazer. How's your leg?" Rainbow Dash wondered.
"Huh, I never thought about it." He tried moving it around, but it didn't hurt. He placed it back on the ground, but no pain came from doing it. "I'd say that it's better now." He bucked and kicked the wall, and still didn't feel any pain on impact. "Yeah, I'm good all right!"
"Although we should've checked before we came up here," said Rainbow Dash. She chuckled for a little bit, but then it grew weaker quickly.
"Okay, joke's over! In we go!" Twilight Sparkle stepped ahead of the others and turned at the first corner. Then she screamed.
"No!" Pinkie Pie yelled. The other five ran to the corner to see what happened. "Are you okay, Twilight?"
"I'm fine. It's THIS that I screamed about!" She pointed to what she saw, and the others saw it and recoiled. There, they saw a white dead pegasus, with a large puddle of blood around him. His sides and wings were impaled, leaving a hole that could only have been left by a blade.
"Did Black Hole really go and kill his own followers?" thought Rarity. "How uncouth!"
"I think I've seen this pegasus from somewhere..." Trailblazer said.
"Huh?"
Trailblazer walked to the corpse's head and examined it. "Yeah, I remember this guy... His name is White Comet, and he was one of the ponies that I picked on as a foal."
"Now how do you think he ended up working for Black Hole?" Pinkie Pie wondered.
"I don't know, but I do know one thing... I never got a chance to apologize to him." Then, he sniffed.
"I'm sure he knows now, Trailblazer..." remarked Twilight.
"Rest in peace, Comet..." Then, he looked back up. "There's nothing we can do about him now. We should get going."
"Right behind you," said Fluttershy.
The six ponies began to walk up the stairs that they ran into and walked up them. Once they reached the upper floor, they found a bunch of Black Hole's guards around the corner, prepared to attack.
Trailblazer quickly pulled his head back after peeking around the corner. "Hm, it looks like they're prepared to ambush us when we arrived," he whispered. "We'll have to find some other way around them."
"Not quite," Twilight reassured. "Remember that invisibility spell we used back at Silver Soul's castle? I can do the same here."
"Oh... Right. I forgot all about it."
"Okay... Now."
All six of them became fully invisible from the cloak effect. They walked past the guards in the hallway, undetected. After they reached the next room, the cloak wore off, but they still weren't noticed.
"Simple, simple, no big deal..." Trailblazer said softly.
"Well, it takes a little bit of time to recharge the cloak," said Twilight. "Should we wait until it recharges?"
"I think we can make our way around this castle without it. We just have to go without any of them seeing us."
"But what if they do...?" wondered Fluttershy.
"Then we just have to fight them."
They wandered through the wide open room that they uncloaked in and ended up in an empty hallway. There was an adjacent hallway with no guards in it either. On the other side of that hallway, there was another staircase that led up to a higher floor. Trailblazer walked up to the entryway of that staircase, but he caught a glimpse of a guard walking down them. He quickly jerked his head back.
"There's a guard coming!" he whispered. He quickly bolted to the other side of the entryway and pressed himself against the wall. The other five went into the adjacent hallway and kept themselves pinned to it's wall. By any chance, the corner would hide themselves.
The guard walked through the passage and looked off to his left. He noticed Trailblazer against the wall.
"Hey, boys, I found him!" he yelled.
He lowered his spear and charged at him. Trailblazer dove to his left and tackled the guard. He placed his left loof over his mouth and stabbed his neck with his knife in the other. His head fell and he passed away.
"With my apologies!" he told the departed.
"Do you hear anyone coming?" pinkie Pie asked.
All of them stopped to listen for anything. They heard no footsteps coming.
"Why is this place so vacant?" Rainbow Dash wondered. "You'd think that they'd be all around the castle"
"Maybe Black Hole is stupid," said Pinkie.
"Well, that's not our problem," said Twilight. "We should keep moving."
They walked up the stairs and reached a hallway with a few more doorways on the same side that they came from. They walked through it for a couple seconds until one of the doors opened in front of them. Trailblazer quickly leaned himself against the wall, hoping that whoever walked from the open door was headed the opposite way. Right then, another door opened behind him, and a guard walked out of it. He noticed the six trying to sneak around.
"I spy with my little eye!" he yelled. Many other guards began to run into the hallway, alerted from the yelling.
"Here they come, fight!" Trailblazer yelled. As he did that, he lunged at the one pony who called for his allies and knocked him down. He got back up and got his support from the several other guards that ran into the hallway. As Rainbow Dash flew around all of them to attack and distract them, the others kicked them in an effort to fend them off. Pinkie Pie kicked around, Twilight and Rarity attacked using some of their unicorn magic along with their kicks, Fluttershy did some distracting but refrained from attacking, and Trailblazer used his knife to try to stab, slash, and quickly dispatch any incoming guards. They didn't get beat up too much though. As the guards simply tried charging them, they used a mix of magic, combat, and flanking to defeat them. This continued until all of the guards were on the floor, either unconscious or dead.
"Why, that was no fuss whatsoever!" Rarity scoffed, analyzed the horde.
"What, sick, leader sent BABIES to fight me?" taunted Trailblazer with a thick accent.
"Okay, I know they didn't do much, but they still know we're here," warned Pinkie. "Go go go!"
All of them started to run through the hallway that they just fought in and tried going through a door at the end of it. Another wave of guards were in that room, already running at them.
"Get ready!" alerted Rainbow Dash. She flew over the guards, tempting them to throw their spears at her. A few on the front lines did, but they got distracted by her. Trailblazer took the opportunity and drove his knife into the unaware guards. The several that were alive retaliated and attacked Trailblazer, but he easily dodged the charges and spear jabs.
Then they heard Twilight emit a yell of severe pain. The other few ponies in the back noticed that the guards that they snuck past when cloaked were also alerted of their presence. They also saw Twilight got impaled by one of their spears.
"Enemies on our flank!" Trailblazer yelled as he quickly took a peek to see what happened. In that split second, he was nicked with one of their spears. He turned around and kicked him with his hind legs and then went to help out the ponies in the back. Rainbow Dash took care of the guards in front, being too fast for them to follow and rammed them to knock them out. Rarity and Pinkie Pie assisted Trailblazer in fighting off the enemies that flanked them. They got pushed back and were knocked away. The last one of the flankers got knocked off a ledge and didn't return.
"Twilight!" Trailblazer said as he turned around. "Tell me something!" He saw that her left side had been punctured, and she was bleeding. The wound was near her hind leg.
"They... They're trying to kill us!" she said, then strained to get up with her hind legs. She simply stayed sitting down.
"Just hang on. Let Dr. Trailblazer fix you." He pulled out one of his first-aid kits and began to help her out. While using a cotton swab to wipe the blood away, he then cleansed it a little. Twilight cringed then that happened.
"Ow! That hurt!" she yelped.
"I know this'll sting a bit, but that only means it's working. Now quit fussing."
He then grabbed some of his pain herbs and let her take those. A bandage was wrapped around her waist and taped, cleansed, and padded at the puncture area with a small square cloth. Pressure was kept on it, and the bleeding stopped.
Twilight let out a relieved sigh. "Thanks."
"No problem. Now then, where were we...?"
The six ponies jogged through the castle, trying to find their way through. Upon finding a door with a fancy gold lining, they opened it. Inside was a room with a big door, nearly as tall as a two-story house. It had three keyholes with the keys absent, and even more gold lining along with some gold decorations forming geometric patterns of triangles, diamonds, and stars.
And standing in front of it, was SteelHide, angrier than ever.
"You guys are making me SO mad!" he growled. "First, my ambush at the cliff fails, next, you beat us, even WITH the help of the Shadowcolts, and then, you manage to kill Sclar!"
"Yeah, we just kick too much ass," a smug Trailblazer talked back.
"But I guess there's nothing else that can help a bad mood other than spreading it around... AppleJack had it rough around here."
Trailblazer felt his temper dwindling. "What...?"
"Yeah, we beat her, tied her, and even locked her in a little cage, just big enough for her to lie down in."
"Did you..."
"Yeah, we made her miserable, all right."
Trailblazer stared at SteelHide, squinting, his rage building quietly for several seconds. After that time has passed, he screamed and charged at him. SteelHide lifted his right foreleg, which now had mechanical parts over it. A bright, fat, green beam became charged in front of the bottom of his hoof, and it got fired at him. Trailblazer was struck with it, and he got knocked back and was rammed into the wall. He fell back down on the ground. A pony-sized indent was left on the wall where Trailblazer struck it.
"Whoa! What was THAT?!" Rainbow Dash quickly flew to his side and helped picking himself up. SteelHide stood in his place, admiring the machine around his foreleg. It was shaped like a metallic tube that surrounded his foreleg to accommodate it, so it could be worn. There were three thin metallic extensions in front of the bottom of his hoof that reached towards the center, which was where the beam was prepared and fired from. SteelHide lifted his leg to his face and smiled, admiring it.
"Take a good look at this little beauty," said SteelHide. "Yeah, we had this gadjet getting developed by some of our scientists here. It was a top secret project that Black Hole started and supported on his own. It's still a prototype, but, DAMN! I love this thing already! Hell, I haven't even tried out all of it's features yet!"
Trailblazer got back up, aching. "Oh, now this is going to be cheap on so many levels..."
SteelHide turned a dial on his laser gun and made a screen in front of him turn a reddish orange. A thin fiery beam shot from the barrel and set a corner plant on fire. It was incinerated in a matter of seconds.
"Whoa! Now THIS thing is bloody useful!" He turned to face the six ponies and aimed his new device at them. "Your journey ends here! With me!"
"Oh, please! Like a ruffian like you could best us! We'll still emerge victorious!" Rarity shouted at him. She then looked at the other five, looking somewhat worried. "Right, dears...?"
"No problem!" Rainbow Dash yelled. She got up and zipped around through the air, baiting SteelHide to fire at her. He turned the dial on his device and turned it red. A bunch of bright red beams fired rapidly at her, but Rainbow Dash was dodging all of them.
"How about we attack together, Rarity?" Twilight Sparkle suggested.
"Well, let's keep our distance now..." she agreed. Their horns glowed together, preparing a beam of their own. SteelHide noticed them preparing an attack, and aimed it at them. Twilight and Rarity fired their two beams, which twisted around each other and at SteelHide. his screen turned green again, and he fired his fat green beam at them. It easily disintegrated the twisting beam attack that the two unicorns fired. They both ran in opposite directions to avoid SteelHide's attack and kept him from making his beam connect with the two unicorns. This distracting gave Rainbow Dash and Trailblazer a chance to close in and attack him. Both of them started punching and kicking him from all over, Rainbow Dash handing her aerial advantage and Trailblazer striking him from behind. SteelHide shoved Rainbow Dash back and aimed at her, but Trailblazer saw this and kicked his machine, causing his beam to aim harmlessly at the ceiling. He ran away as SteelHide tried getting his gun to get back to the way it was, giving Dash a chance to get some distance between them.
"Ugh, now I'm starting to hate this thing," he grumbled.
"Hey! I have an idea now!" whispered Trailblazer to his friends. "If we keep on attacking that machine, it'll stop working for him!"
"Huh, why didn't we think of that before?" wondered Pinkie Pie.
Just then, a blue mortar-like projectile flew at them and exploded just a few feet away from them.
"Come get some!" SteelHide angrily yelled. He launched another blue mortar and tried aiming at  the whole group. They quickly separated to avoid having all of them getting blasted at once, but Fluttershy got caught in the blast. She was thrown back at the wall and fell, dazed.
"Fluttershy!" exclaimed Rarity. She dragged her behind cover, which were some crates, and pulled out some dizziness-lifting herbs. She gave them to Fluttershy, and she ate them. Her dizziness went away, and she got back up to try to help again. There, she saw Pinkie Pie zig-zag bouncing across the ground. She did not get hit once, unknown to everypony in the room on how she is able to do that. But she closed the distance and tried the tapping on the opposite shoulder trick. Rainbow Dash was on that opposite side and kicked him. He got knocked down, giving Pinkie a chance to stomp on the device, and she did. SteelHide quickly pulled his leg back and shoved her back, but Pinkie Pie was away when that happened. He then turned to face Rainbow Dash again, who was flying away in a high ark across the room. SteelHide switched to his rapid fire beams and struck her with them. She yelled in pain and plummeted to the floor, landing hard on it.
"No, Rainbow!!" yelled Trailblazer. He ran to where she was lying and picked her up. SteelHide aimed at him and resumed his rapid fire, trying to strike both of them. His gun recoiled with each shot, making all of the laser beams fired around him rather than at him. He ran behind cover and tended to her.
"Where did he get you?" he asked.
"Ow, it feels like all over..." she moaned.
Trailblazer pulled out his other first-aid pack, but he hesitated. "Tell me where it hurts the most."
"It's my head and all of my legs, ow!" Rainbow Dash tried to move, but it hurt to do so.
"Just stay still, and let me heal you as much as I can. And eat these while I'm at it." He gave her the last of his pain-lifting herbs and put a bandage around her forehead and tied it. He then placed splints on her legs, similarly to the ones he had on his left hind one after getting thrown away by Sclar, and wrapped them.
"How are you holding out now?"
"I can still fly, so that's something..." She got up and started to fly back into the fight.
"No!" Trailblazer bit her tail and yanked it back behind cover. "You don't want to get more hurt than you are now." He took a peek over the crates and saw the other four trying to fight the constant beams of fire, energy mortars, and forceful repositioning from SteelHide, who was just as irate as he was when he was struck a little bit ago.
"Fluttershy!" he called. She flew to them and saw an injured Rainbow Dash. "Listen..." Trailblazer ulled out his knife. "I need to go back on the offensive. Watch her and make sure that she doesn't get more hurt."
"Yeah, yeah, I will..." Fluttershy panted. She stood in front of her, keeping her covered. Trailblazer got back in the open and ran to Twilight.
"I could use that cloak again," he told her.
"Oh, yeah, good idea." Her horn glowed and Trailblazer became fully invisible. Pinkie Pie continued to distract SteelHide by bouncing around, not taking a single hit. Rarity kept on firing her own beams at him, harming him, and causing him to retaliate at her. She dodged easily, but he didn't notice Trailblazer decloaking right next to him. He thrust his knife into his device, damaging it for the last time. He ran away, to avoid getting attacked. SteelHide tried pulling the knife out, but he couldn't. Electrical sparks began to surge from the machine.
"Hey, what is this?? How can I take this thing off?!" yelled SteelHide. He couldn't get his machine off of his leg, and he got shocked. The pulse ran right through his body in a millisecond, and he fell, limp, and lifeless.
"Here, a touching story..." Trailblazer said softly yet in a cruel manner. "Once upon a time, you died, and I lived happily ever after. THE END."
"Well, now that he's out of the way..." said Rarity. "Shall we go through this door?"
"Hey, Rainbow," called Trailblazer. "How are you holding out?"
"I can make it," she said. She flew from behind the crates with Fluttershy and caught up with them. "Let's go."
The door opened when they approached it. Beyond the large doorway was an eerie looking temple with the dreadful coloring that Black Hole and his followers observed earlier.
"So, this is that palace-type place that this treasure is locked in..." pondered Trailblazer.
"Oh, not to worry," said Rarity. "Our magic can brighten up this place."
"Okay, great. That'll help. No biggie! Just stay along the path and we'll be okay." Trailblazer walked a little bit ahead into the temple, and looked through it. He swallowed and looked a bit worried, thinking that they could get lost and unable to find their way out if the worst had come. But he knew that he had to do this, to stop Black Hole, and to rescue AppleJack from him. He ventered forward into the dark temple, with the other five following close behind.
> Tenebres Temple
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"That story you told, Trailblazer? Do you have anything to say about this place?" Pinkie wondered.
"Well, all I can say is that it's creepy, dark, and spacious," he replied.
"This place is a wreck!" said Rarity. "The disrepair, the dreadful coloring, it could use some renovating."
"Um, Rarity? This place hasn't been getting any tourists. It's been sealed away for two millenniums, so who's going to take care of it if it's supposed to be locked away?"
"Well, it COULD'VE been built to last longer. I mean, LOOK at the fallen pillars and crumbling structures! Clearly, a sacred place like this could've been kept better!"
"It feels more... Cursed..." said Rainbow Dash.
"I really wish you didn't say that..."
"Sorry."
There was a message carved into the wall near them. Trailblazer walked up to it and read it out loud.
"'If your goal is to avoid losing your bearings in this tomb, follow the Pure White Ailcorn.'" Then, he saw some engraved text beneath that message. "'The Pure White Ailcorn got lost. We'd appreciate it if you would find him for us.'"
All six of them looked at the writing with dull looks on their faces. "Not like he could've helped us now."
They walked along the constructed path, hoping not to disturb anything they came across. In one area, they came across a set of stairs that acted as a bridge over the underground lake that they were crossing. On that narrow stair bridge were more armored guards.
"If only we had that machine..." said Fluttershy.
"Allright, stand back," said Twilight. "Rarity, come with me."
"Very well."
Both of them charged their rail shot and fired together. The shot pierced right through the guards and knocked them all off the stairs. They fell into the lake, but there were no fixtures that they could use to climb back on.
"Oooh, can you feel the schadenfreude?" asked Trailblazer mockingly.
"Now that that's out of the way..."
The six continued to make their way deeper into the temple, running into a hall with some stairs that ran deeper down the temple, but there were no guards in the area. They opened a door that led into another room, one that had lit torches along the walls.
"These torches... Somepony's been here recently..." thought Twilight.
"I guess we have to brace ourselves for any ambushes..." Trailblazer was already tense to begin with.
They opened the door and ended up in a very spacious room. The cave around the gray temple room they entered was like a dome, almost as big as a football stadium. There was even a working fountain with flowing water in the room that spread out in a crafted pond, with two small channels flowing to some other place. Two small bridges were there to allow them to cross over the channels.
"Did this place really have an irrigation system here?" Twilight wondered. "I'm guessing that this is, well, WAS, the garden here, but it just feels so weird..."
"I agree," Trailblazer said, bracing himself for anything, but was shuddering. "The working fountain here feels REALLY out of place... That, and we've been through some rooms with stalagmites along the path, and now, we come across this, big room. It feels like it's intact."
"It feels like time stopped here..."
"Hey, do you see those pedestals over there?" Fluttershy pointed to two pedastals, one near the enterance to the room, and the other near the exit from his room, across from their side, which was sealed with a big rock slab that fit perfectly in the exit passageway. She flew up to the one closest to them and noticed that there was a keyhole in it. "What do you think these are about?"
"I guess we'll have to find the keys to find out," said Trailblazer.
"Oh, were you looking for these?" they heard sonepony say.
All of them heard that, and they recognized the voice. They looked around themselves, but there wasn't anyone around. Suddenly, Dark Sun emerged from the ground in front of them. This startled the six a little bit, and then the other two rose from the ground. Dark Sun held up two baby blue keys.
"These are the keys that you're seeking," said Dark Sun.
"Oh, thanks for finding them for us!" said Trailblazer, sarcastically. "Now give them to us before you get hurt."
Dark Moon laughed. "See, now THAT'S funny! You see, we've learned from our mistakes, and now, we're here to take you on and take you out!"
"It's on!" Dark Sky yelled. "Say your prayers, you junior-varsity losers!"
Trailblazer charged at Dark Sun and attacked him. Dark Sun managed to retaliate by kicking him back in the chest, which he stumbled backwards on upon impact.
"Now, Dark Sky!" he yelled.
Dark Sky charged himself for an attack and began to rain shadowy shooting stars at the group. They all scattered, trying to avoid all of them, but Rarity received a direct him from one of them, and she laid down in a little crater left by it. She was singed and cut all over from it, and didn't get up.
"Rarity!" yelled Fluttershy. She quickly flew to her side, pulling out her first-aid kit. Rarity reached out to her, trying to pull her closer.
"Help... Me...!" she panted.
"I'm not going to leave you behind. I'm going to heal you, and then we're going to beat them."
"I'll protect you here," said Rainbow Dash, standing between them and where the Shadowcolts were.
"But Rainbow Dash!" yelled Fluttershy. "Aren't you hurt too??"
"I'm fine, don't worry about me, now go help Rarity!"
Fluttershy obeyed, and she cleaned Rarity to find where the cuts and burns were, and started healing her. While Rainbow Dash stood in front of them, she witnessed a heated fight between her friends and the Shadowcolts. They seemed to know more spells in order to attack with a degree of magic. It was still a bit even between the two sides; Trailblazer fought physically by punching, kicking, and ramming them against walls, while Twilight fought using magic attacks of her own. Pinkie Pie bounced around all of them, distracting them as well as attacking on her own. For the most part, she distracted the Shadowcolts, diverting their attention so that Twilight and Trailblazer attacked freely. They all ganged up on Dark Sky and neat him to the ground.
"Augh! Brothers! I'm down! He yelled out, unable to fight anymore.
Dark Sun growled, and then he charged a spell of his own. Fiery energy was gathered in front of him, and he fired a beam that started to sweep the area. As it passed, the three on the front lines dodged it by jumping over it, but Rainbow Dash saw that the beam could still reach them.
"Get down!" she shouted. She tackled Fluttershy and pulled her into the crater and laid down in it, leaving the fiery beam passing over them by just a few inches. Once it swept their area, it disappeared. None of them were hurt from the attack.
"Are you two okay?" Dash asked them.
"What about YOU?" Rarity coughed. "You're hurt too, aren't you?"
"Well, I'm feeling better now." She took off the bandages and showed that she had no signs of physical harm on her. "I'll still watch your backs here."
While Fluttershy continued to healed Rarity, Rainbow Dash observed the battle some more. Twilight Sparkle was trying to fight Dark Sun on her own, and she saw Pinkie Pie and Trailblazer ganged up on Dark Moon. Trailblazer had him in a headlock, allowing Pinkie to take free shots at him. He fell unconscious after taking so many blows. Then, they assisted Twilight in finishing off Dark Sun. He quickly fell down, beat up, and stayed down.
"Ooooohhhh..." moaned Dark Sun. "At this rate, she'll never..." He moaned again and didn't finish his sentence.
"It's starting to bore me how much you three suck," taunted Trailblazer.
"You three. Come here." Rainbow Dash beckoned them all to Rarity's crater. They walked over to her and found her injured.
"Rarity..." pondered Pinkie.
"I'm afraid that they harmed me a bit TOO much with that attack..." She began to stand up, but she had to keep one of her forelegs in the air. "I'll be fine, just try to take it slow for me... Please?"
"Yeah, gotcha," Rainbow Dash obeyed. They walked back to the beat up Shadowcolts and grabbed the two keys from Dark Sun.
"Ugh... You know not what you're up against..." he warned.
Trailblazer rolled his eyes at him and placed one of the keys in the first pedestal near the enterance to the garden. Rainbow Dash grabbed the other key and flew to the second pedestal near the garden exit and put it in it's keyhole. Once she did that, the place started to rumble.
"Wh-What's going on?" Fluttershy panicked.
The stone slab that covered the exit moved into the temple wall, unblocking the exit to the garden.
"Well, that takes care of that," Trailblazer said. The six walked towards it and got through the exit. Ahead of them was a dark hallway, with a single door at the end.
"I guess we just have to go and open that door at the end," said Rainbow Dash. "Whee. Exciting."
The six walked through the door. In the next room was a wide spacious hallway with a high ceiling. Two chandeliers hung from the ceiling, one between them and the center of the room, and the other placed in the same manner from the exit. A strange, ghastly, continuous echoing was heard in the area, but the source was unknown.
"Anyone else creeped out here in this room?" wondered Twilight.
"This place... It's quiet..." thought Trailblazer. "A little TOO quiet..."
"Did you REALLY have to say that?" Rarity asked, annoyed.
"Sorry, but still..."
They all walked to the other door and opened it. There, they saw a room with a set of large stairs that led to a tall leather chair. Superficially, it was like a throne room.
"Geez, we come from one creepy room and into another..." Rainbow Dash commented. "Still, it feels like there's always something bad going on in this whole temple. What IS this place??"
Without answering, Trailblazer walked up the stairs and made himself level with the chair he slowly walked towards it, bracing himself for whatever was to come.
"Welcome one, and welcome all," they all heard.
Trailblazer jumped. "That voice... BLACK HOLE!"
Black Hole decloaked in front of the chair. "Impressive... You've bested my guards, SteelHide, and the Shadowcolts."
"Yeah, we did!" yelled Trailblazer. "Now, don't even bother fighting us if you don't want to end up like them."
"No, really, I must thank you all."
"Huh?"
"If you all have been spared, then that means that I will have the pleasure of ripping you all to shreds!"
"...Really? Just so you could try to beat us up?" Rainbow Dash looked at Black Hole with contempt.
"It's part of it, but really, your presence means that you'll die with honor... And my amusement!"
"You, sick, freak..."
"I don't suppose that SteelHide or the Shadowcolts had any idea of my plan though, but that's just fine! And, this surprise will soon be unlocked..." Black Hole chuckled after saying that.
"Well, we can't let that happen!" Twilight yelled.
Black Hole placed a hoof under his chin. "Meet your ends, you fools..."
Trailblazer began the fight and charged at him. Black Hole teleported out of sight, making his attack miss. Black Hole reappeared right behind Fluttershy and punted her across the room. She used her wings to lower her inertia and didn't collide with the temple wall. Rainbow Dash dove after him, but Black Hole darted away, leaving a blurry trail behind, traveling faster than they could follow. It was his magic that allowed him to do that. He then stopped hear the throne and began to levitate. Trailblazer ran towards him while he wasn't focused on him. Black Hole's horn began to glow red, and then a barrage of fireballs were launched at the five ponies. Some made direct contact, but they just blew up upon impact, damaging them. He then began to float back down at the ground. Trailblazer took the opportunity to attack when he became within reach. He pulled out his knife and slashed at his belly. Black Hole cried out in pain, and he fell back down on the ground, only to get punched by Trailblazer. The blow sent him lying on the ground, and he began attacking while he was down by bouncing on him. He hopped on him seven times until Black Hole deployed his force field, throwing his timing off. He fell on his side, and then Black Hole kicked him away down to the lower level of the room, leaving the other five left against Black Hole. He then raced past them and tried flanking them again, but Rainbow Dash rammed him. Black Hole retaliated as soon as she attacked, and the two found themselves chasing each other. Rainbow Dash ended up doing more of the leading rather than chasing, allowing Black Hole to attack with some rocket-like projectiles. She dodged them and then went to fight Black Hole head on. With a few body blows, he wasn't too distracted, and shot Rainbow Dash point-blank, which sent her flying backwards and harming himself too. While that was going on, Twilight Sparkle shot a similar energy rocket-like projectile at him. As soon as he blasted away Rainbow Dash, he received the attack, knocking him into a wall and leaving a few cracks from the strong impact. Trailblazer and Rainbow Dash got back on the main platform.
Black Hole picked himself up. "Maybe it's time I stopped being so merciful," he said, angrily.
A sky-blue arc started to glow around him, and the arc became a wall of blue fire. It was blasted out around him in all direstions. They were too high for any of them to jump over, and they panicked. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy quickly grabbed two of the allies and lifted them above the flames. Pinkie Pie could jump over them for her own reasons, leaving Trailblazer behind. He quickly ran towards the lower level of the room, leaving him able to avoid the attack. He got back up to see that Black Hole started to attack with his energy rocket spell. Rainbow Dash kept on dodging with her high flight speed, easily maneuvering through the barrages. This gave him an idea. He reached into his backpack and pulled out one of his pop cans. He opened it and drank it in one gulp, and he instantly got a sugar buzz. He zipped around faster than normally and reached Black Hole from behind. He was still focused on the other five, allowing him to flank him easily. Trailblazer put him into a tight headlock, cutting off his attacks. Black Hole tried to cut him off by deploying his force field, but all that did was trap him inside, allowing him to beat him some more. He kept his head locked with his left leg while striking his head with the other. Black Hole then pulled down his force field and threw him off of himself. Trailblazer landed on his back, and then was blasted with one of the energy rocket attacks.
"I'm DONE," he growled grimly. "Now it's time for something I should've done a long time ago..." He turned to face the group, visibly showing that his right eye was closed. "Trailblazer, I have a question for you."
"What's that?" he wondered.
"DIE."
"...That's... Not... A question..."
Before he could finish what he was saying, Black Hole used his rope-like beam and wrapped it around his neck. He then lifted him into the air, and the rope-beam began to tighten around him.
"That's because I don't make requests."
Trailblazer tried to grab the beam, but it wasn't a physical object. He couldn't breathe with the rope-beam wrapped around his neck.
"Help... Me...!" he gagged.
"NononoNO!" yelled Twilight Sparkle. She and Rarity tried to use their own unicorn magic to loosen the grip, but it wasn't budging. It only got tighter and tighter, and Trailblazer's face was turning blue.
"I thought about torturing you before killing you, but you're so annoying, so that only give me this option," Black Hole said, with a sense of his own reasoning.
Pinkie Pie snuck behind him and attacked him, cutting off his concentration. The beam vanished, and Trailblazer fell to the ground, coughing and inhaling deeply. Pinkie started to dart and circle-strafed around him, dodging all of his retaliation.
"TrIlblazer! Tell me that you're okay!" shouted Rainbow Dash.
Trailblazer continued to cough. "I'm... Okay now..." He shook his head and regained his focus. "Now for revenge..." He ran up to the distracted Black Hole and kicked him. The blow struck his neck, sending him stumbling backwards. He fell down on his side, moaning.
"Had enough already?" Trailblazer asked angrily. The six ponies walked back to the center of the room, regrouping with each other. Black Hole got back up, tired and weakened.
"You... You are more than you seem... But even at a loss, I still have this opportunity..." said Black Hole.
"Hm?" wondered Rarity.
"WATCH THIS!"
With a sweep of his magic, an invisible veil was lifted off the area directly in front of the small throne. It revealed a small cage with an orange pony lying down inside. That pony's back was turned to the rest of them. Then, Black Hole rotated the cage so that it faced all of them.
It didn't take a second for Trailblazer to recognize who it was. "APPLEJACK!"
"Trailblazer?!" she called back.
"Take one step closer, and she will perish!!" Black Hole screamed.
Trailblazer leaned forward. "You wouldn't..." he growled.
Black Hole laughed. "And, now, for this!" His horn glowed, and a pseudo-lightning bolt struck all six of them. They all recoiled and fell down, eyes shut tight.
"No! Trailblazer!" AppleJack cried out. "You leave them alone!" She started to squirm around in the cage in an attempt to bust out of it.
"Ha ha HAA! Now, AGAIN!" His horn glowed again. As soon as the six picked themselves up, they were struck again, and they fell back down, either on their sides or their stomachs.
"No, NO, NO! You stop this!" AppleJack started to try to bust out of her cage even harder.
Black Hole laughed maniacally. "Oh, I LOVE it when you suffer! It's as sweet as sweet can GET!"
The six got back on their feet, with Rarity, Fluttershy, and Trailblazer panting heavily.
"What are we going to do?? We're screwed either way!" Rainbow Dash panicked.
"Why are you still standing?" Black Hole mocked them. "Take your dirt naps!" His horn glowed again, but he noticed a spikey ball rolling at him. "Huh, what?"
The spike ball unrolled itself, and Sound Wave emerged from it in front of it and faced the six ponies. They were just as confused as Black Hole was.
"Go, my lord!" he yelled. "This armor I have will last long enough!"
"Sound Wave..." Black Hole shook his head.
"Do it! It's your mission, dude!"
Black Hole closed his eyes, then reopened them. "Right, thanks for reminding me."
Sound Wave curled back up into his ball, and rolled at the six ponies. They all got out of the way, and then Sound Wave unfurled himself.
"See this sweet armor? I can roll around it, and it'll hurt to touch!" As he talked, he had eye contact on Black Hole, who blasted away the small throne, revealing a passageway. He then lifted AppleJack's cage and jogged through it.
"Not if I can help it!" Twilight gathered energy, ready to attack Sound Wave.
"Okay, you guys, stop!"
All of them were confused. "Huh?"
"I'm only acting as a distraction to Black Hole. You need to stop him before he awakens that thing!"
"What... Thing...?"
"I don't know! Only he knows! I only did this to keep you all alive so you van stop him! Now go!"
The six ponies turned around to see the revealed passageway.
"Oh, NO! APPLEJACK!" Trailblazer began to panic. He sprinted to the enterance of that room, with the others following, just as anxious. They ran down a narrow hallway with a low ceiling and steps leading downwards, not knowing what was going to happen. But they knew one thing: it wasn't going to be good.
> Plunged Into Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Let me go!!" the six heard AppleJack scream.
All six of them ran into the next room, and found Black Hole standing in front of AppleJack, and a coffin behind both of them. The room was lit with a countless amount of candles that had their own individual shoulder-height stands.
"You're too late, you little pests!" Black Hole yelled at them.
"What is THIS?" Twilight Sparkle questioned.
Black Hole let out some loud maniacal laughter. "Take a good look! Trailblazer, do you remember back at the castle how I didn't want to spoil this surprise?"
"Uh, yeah?" he wondered.
"Well, now is the time to be surprised!" Black Hole lifted a hoof in the air and pointed it at the coffin. "Do you see this coffin behind us? In this tomb sleeps the 2,000 year old treasure of Tethleon! From the depths, the most powerful witch in existance will rise back to life! It will possess AppleJack, and then I will have control of that power, and then everything will be MINE, the way I want it, and you will be finished."
Trailblazer recoiled. "P-... POSSESS her??"
"Trailblazer... I love you... Don't ever forget that..." said AppleJack, fearful that it was their final good-bye.
"Yes... Now, it is time... Arise! ARISE, MAIMTEAU!"
"Oh, no you don't!" Trailblazer ran at him, but Black Hole set up his force field. He ran into it hard, still it was just like running into a wall. Black Hole spread his force field to separate him from the other six so that he couldn't be stopped. While still using his unicorn magic, he lifted the lid off of the coffin, and it fell behind the casket. The candles in the room blew themselves out, and they lit themselves with black flickering flames. Many black waves of dark energy emanated from the coffin, and then grew into a shape of a tornado. A tall dark purple apparation of an ailcorn with black horns, a long flowing dark purple mane, faint dark purple eyes with menacing-looking pupils, and bat wings slowly emerged from the coffin. The spirit stopped when she was fully levitating over her casket.

All over Equestria, the skies began to turn pitch-black. A giant black cloud began to spread all over. None of the ponies questioned it's presence. They all saw the black sky, blocking out the sun, and plunging them into darkness. While Vinyl Scratch and the Wunderbolts were discussing their next show, they noticed the black sky instantly upon them. None of them knew what was going on.
"Huh? What? What's going on...?" Soarin' wondered.
"What's with the sky?" asked Vinyl Scratch.
The nomad herbal medicine group noticed the sky turning dark. They looked around and noticed that the entire area was black.
"R-Randy?" Santos wondered.
"The sky... It's..." but he couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence from all of the awe, and all of the ponies didn't need to be reminded.
Out in Marehattan, Applebloom and Big Macintosh were in their aunt's garden, watering the flowers. They noticed that the area around them turned black too as they were watering.
"Big Mac, could ya move?" Applebloom demanded.
"I'm not in yer way..." he said.
Applebloom turned to see her brother in the planter, but way on the other side of it. She looked towards the sky to see that it was also pitch-black.
"...Brother...?" she asked, a bit afraid.
"The sky's turning dark..." he commented.
In Tethleon, the Rising Warriors were in their dojo to train themselves. StarBright was talking to a few of the ones that were on break, trying to warm up to one of the guys, and Mayor Dunnam was watching their progress.
"What... What's THIS?" barked Dunnam.
The trainees stopped and looked out the windows. They were darker than ever, pitch black.
"It's still daytime, isn't it?" asked Celestic.
"It is, but... Why is it so dark?" StarBright pondered.
They all walked outside to see the sky, pitch black.
"Is... Is this related to the treasure??" wondered Dunnam.

Back in the tomb, Mainteau, the Demon Witch, levitated above her coffin.
"Who... Is responsible for calling me back?" she asked slowly.
"It is I, Maimteau!" yelled Black Hole.
She Looked at him skeptically. "You...? Very well. Where is the vessel?"
"Right here! It is the caged mare that is lying down right in front of you!"
After saying that, all eyes were on AppleJack.
"Ahhhhhh... A find vessel indeed. Now, it is time..." The Demon Witch's apparition started to bear a typical ghost's tail, and started to envelope herself around AppleJack.
"No, NO, NO! NO!!" AppleJack started to rock her cage trying desperetly to escape. "HELP ME!"
Trailblazer and the other ponies continued to knock on the force field, trying to break it, but it remained intact. They could do nothing, except to watch helplessly. The room turned a pure white, and the silhouettes of the living beings became pitch black.
An earthquake began to rumble all over the world, terrifying all of the land. Flashes of lightning and claps of thunder crashed down and fell from the black skies. A big windstorm swept the world as it stormed. The cities all over were panicking at the worldwide tremor. Then, the storm subsided, and the tremors stopped. Every pony looked amongst each other, afraid, and confused.
"What... Happened?" wondered Mayor Dunnam.
"Something bad has happened for sure..." the blue pegasus said.

Black Hole lifted his force field, revealing the newly born Maimteau, the Demon Witch. She has taken AppleJack's physical form, and was now standing outside of the cage. Her size stayed the same before the possession, but the colors of her mane, tail, and body matched what Maimteau had. Black horns, a unicorn horn, and bat wings were now in place. Even her hat turned black as well.
Maimteau mumbled some small laughter. "Witness my rebirth."
"AppleJack..." Trailblazer was shuddering.
"Yes, very good, my witch queen. Now, destroy these foolish ponies," ordered Black Hole.
"Who are you that would command me?" she asked. "How can you consider yourself above my class?"
"Wh-WHAT??" Black Hole was confused. "I thought you were bound to obey the one who woke you!" He shook his head. "Enough of this nonsense! Now, do as I say, or I'll send you back into the depths!"
The Demon Witch's eyes glowed green. Black Hole's body began to melt away from the bottom. His legs dissolved into an indigo puddle, and his body started to melt too. The last of his head and neck melted away into a thick oily substance.
"It would have done you well if you knew your place, slave. No one commands me." Her eyes glowed orange, and then what was left of Black Hole burned in a fire and was incinerated into nothing. His matter was completely destroyed.
"My powers seem too weak in a body so unfamiliar... But they will grow with time."
"A... AppleJack..." Trailblazer was shivering. "What the hell kind of being got into you...? I can't..."
"My queen!" The Shadowcolts rose from the floor and into their room. "You have finally returned to us!"
"Aaahhhhh... My dear servants... It has been so long..." The Demon Witch seemed to have a soft side for them. "So, you are the ones truly responsible for reviving me, correct?"
"Ah, yes. You see, 2,000 years ago, we knew of your defeat with the Honor Mirror, so we thought of bringing you back. After some time passed, we spread a rumor that you were a mythical treasure, so that your tomb would be unlocked. It was only recently until I found a pony that wanted to unlock you. I told him the truth about what you are, and I made up a lie saying that he'd have control over you if you were awakened. This got that poor fellow more determined to unlock you, and so, he did. We've been working undercover as his, 'minions', and in doing so, we have found and revived you so you could rule once again like in the past."
Maimteau lifted a hoof to her mouth and smilied. "Hmm mm mm mmm... You have fulfilled your duties admirably."
"We am not worthy, Oh, Queen of Witchcraft," Dark Sun finished.
She took a step forward towards the six ponies. "And, who are these... Beings that stand before me?"
Trailblazer took a step backwards as she made eye contact with them.
"Hmmmm... They do not seem to hold power... Nevertheless, if you become my loyal servants, I will not harm you."
"This is bad... Really bad... VERY bad..." Trailblazer couldn't get a hold of himself. "I don't want to harm AppleJack, but the alternative is just as bad..."
"No!" yelled Rainbow Dash. "We're not coming on her side!"
Maimteau lifted her hoof back to her mouth. "I see... So you defy me. How... Amusing..." Then, her voice grew more intense. "Well, then, you wretched fools. You will learn your place in the netherworld!"
Trailblazer had a faint look of determination on his face from his fear. It then grew more determined, and he dug his hoof at the ground. "Fine... It's time to step up."
"You are foolish to defy me... Yesss, verrry foolish. And that foolishness, will have to be punished." the Demon Witch said.
"What have we gotten ourselves into?" asked Twilight, also somewhat afraid. "If we fall, the world is doomed..."
"I don't like the idea of attacking AppleJack either, but we have to do SOMETHING!" reasoned Rainbow Dash.
"We need to stand up for what's right," Trailblazer said, finally coming to his senses. "It's all or nothing, now, COME ON!"
Mainteau's eyes glowed red, and a lightning bolt struck him, shocking him briefly. He regained his control and charged her. She tried to fake him out, but he stopped before making contact. He then started to jump on her, harming her with each bounce. He hopped on her for 10 consecutive times until he lost his footing and bounced off of her, landing back on the ground. He then punched her and retreated. Retaliating, the Demon Witch got some dead shadowy hooves to rise from the ground underneath Pinkie Pie and dragged her under the floor. There were sounds of scuffle under them. Pinkie was then ejected from the ground and landed hard on the floor, taking some fall damage. This angered her and she ran towards her and circle-strafed her. Rainbow Dash began to fly around, distracting her at the same time. Fluttershy got airborne and did the same thing. Maimteau tried to attack with her unicorn magic, but she couldn't focus on all three at once. Twilight and Rarity began charging their duo-beam attack as Trailblazer rushed in. Pinkie Pie started to bounce on her justlike Trailblazer did a little bit ago. He attacked by continuously kicking her as Pinkie  bounced. This angered Maimteau, and she released a wave of black energy that threw both of them backwards, giving her breathing room. Twilight and Rarity released their charged duo beam and struck her with a large laser. After taking that hit, she took to the air and chased after Fluttershy. She tried flying away, but Maimteau unleashed one of her lightning attacks and struck her with it. She was hurt and shocked from it and fell to the ground. Rainbow Dash noticed it and flew towards her to catch her. The Demon Witch chased after her and dove after both of them. With herself directly above them, she dove at a high speed and caught Rainbow Dash and caused her to run into Fluttershy. She then dove straight for the floor and crushed both of them. Fluttershy got incapacitated from the blow and unable to move. Rainbow Dash slowly got up and tried dragging her back to Twilight and Rarity, but she was limping. She, too, was badly hurt. Maimteau saw this as an opportunity and prepared to launch a beam at them. This was stopped by Pinkie and Trailblazer by getting kicked from both sides of her body, and her charge diminished. Rarity ran up to the two pegasi and helped carry Fluttershy back to their group. Pinkie and Trailblazer retreated as well. Maimteau stopped fighting and started to talk.
"Of course... Physical body, physical harm... I must confess that you six are quite powerful after all." She paused. "This body is too unfamiliar to me. Yes, too unfamiliar. Allow me to assume my true self."
After saying that, she started to grow back in size to her original height. She now looked more like a taller version of AppleJack, while still under the Demon Witch's control.
"Here, your attacks are like an infant to me. You are lucky... You will die knowing true terror."
Trailblazer ran up to her while Twilight charged a beam attack. He struck with an uppercut as Twilight's beam connected at the same time. Maimteau remained intact.
"Was that your idea of an attack? Laughable."
"You two try to attack. I'll guard Dash and Fluttershy!" Trailblazer commanded.
After taking that position, Twilight and Rarity charged their duo beam again. It grew into a fat powerful beam, and they fired away. She absorbed it and wasn't hurt by it at all. Maimteau laughed at them again.
"Fools... I am now invincible, and you are still vulnerable."
"Our, attacks aren't, working?" Twilight asked, afraid.
"I fear that this is the end..." Rarity squeaked.
Maimteau simply looked at them again and ceased to attack them. "I will ask you again. Will you serve me? If so, I will forgive you for this."
"If we're going to die..." Trailblazer said as he breathed heavily. "I want it to be a last stand, unwilling to give in..."
The Demon Witch chuckled at him. "Very well..."
All six of them fixed a sharp gaze at her, bracing themselves.
"Then you will all perish."
> The Last Hope
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Demon Witch prepared her next spell. A ghastly white aura shown from her horn and grew bigger.
"You are lucky... You shall die knowing true terror," reminded Mainteau.
"I think this is... The end..." said Trailblazer, unhappily.
"Hey, look!" Twilight pointed at his bag. "Your bag... It's shining!"
"Huh?" He looked at his bag. Indeed, it was shining. He grabbed it and opened the bag to see what was going on. The mirror that Mayor Dunnam gave him was shining and began to float towards the center of the room. It faced the Demon Witch, and the ghastly energy she gathered disappeared.
"What? No... It CAN'T be!" she yelled.
The mirror began to spin as it floated in the center of the room. They didn't know what was going on.
"I'm recalling what Dunnam said when he gave you this..." said Rarity. "'When all hope is lost... Then this mirror will regain that hope and grant power to those that oppose the Wicked...' I think... This is that moment!"
"OOOHHHHHH!"
The mirror split into multiple smaller mirrors and flew away through the ceiling. They all flew to the areas that The six ponies stopped at during their travels.

***

One of them stopped at Ponyville, breaking some of the darkness there. All of the ponies saw this obvious presence, but it's significance was unknown to them.
"What's this shining thing?" Spitfire asked.
"I don't know, some sort of magic mirror, from the looks of it," said Soarin'.
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna landed next to all of them to examine it. "I think this has to do with the sky turning dark..." Celestia told them.
"Tis truth..." Princess Luna mentioned.
"But, what are we supposed to do with it?" wondered Vinyl Scratch.
Lyra Heartstrings and Octavia gathered with them to look at the mirror.
"What's going on here?" they asked.
The mirror's glass reflection became a view of what was taking place in the Tenebres Temple. They all gasped at the sight of the Demon Witch, and the six ponies that ran off to stop it.
"Is that... TWILIGHT SPARKLE?" Celestia was astonished.
"Methinks thou heroic six are fighting for us..." Luna said, gazing at the image.

***

The second part of the mirror fell from the sky at Tethleon. The Rising Warriors and the other few visitors walked up to it.
"Does anypony here know what this thing is?" Celestic asked the others.
"That... That's the Honor Mirror!" Mayor Dunnam answered her. "But... I thought I gave this to Trailblazer... And how did it get so small?"
"Beats me..." one of them said.
The image of the Demon Witch's revival and the six ponies standing up to her surprised them.
"So, this 'Wicked' that was linked to this mirror... The Tethleon Treasure IS, in fact a demon!"
"Dunnam!" the blue pegasus raised his voice. "This, mirror, is telling me something! Trailblazer and his friends are fighting for us! And they are about to fail! They need our help!"
Dunnam paused before responding. "I think I'm getting the same message..."
"Oh, Trailblazer..." StarBright said with worry. All of them looked at her. "You promised me that you'd return okay..."
"Don't you worry, StarBright!" Dunnam reassured her. "Your brother will be fine! I... I still remember how he and his friends stood up to that dragon in our outskirts and beat it. I'm certain that he'll prevail. I say that we just have to let him know. Let's cheer for him and give our support!"
"Yes!" The Rising Warriors gathered around the mirror and yelled various encouragements towards them.
"You go, Trailblazer!"
"You're the bomb!"
"Show 'em who's boss!"
"Keep fighting!"
"Show them what a Rising Warrior is made of!"

***

The herbal nomads also got the message through the floating mirror that came at them. All of them started to cheer for them.
"You got them, guys!"
"Give them hell, Pinkie Pie!"
"Go, Rainbow Dash!"
"You! Trailblazer! Show them what you're made of!" Randy yelled at the mirror.

***

Marehattan had their own part of the mirror that appeared in front of the hospital. The four ponies that they met there, Cinnamon, Wayne, Applebloom, and Big Macintosh were witnessing the event take place.
"Keep fighting, Fluttershy!" Cinnamon yelled at it.
"Rock on, Twilight Sparkle!" Wayne screamed.
"Make 'em suffer, Rarity!" Big Macintosh called out at them.
"Trailblazer..." Applebloom looked at the mirror. "Ya make sure that my big sister AppleJack comes back just fine! She'll be at yer side when you return, remember!?"

***

At all of the sites where the mirror came to, other ponies gathered around it. They decided to do the same, seeing that the sky was black and many others were doing the same. They all saw off of the reflection what the six travelers were up to, and what they were up against, and supported the hero and heroines even more.

***

All the ponies in the room looked around the tomb. They all heard the cheers for themselves, for them as a group, and encouragements to keep up the fight. The initial part of the mirror returned to the room and spun in the center.
"Are they... Cheering for us?" asked Rainbow Dash.
They stopped and listened some more. They were hearing the voices of those that they met on their travels, as well as several other voices, telling them to stand up for the world and to keep fighting.
"They're all, sending us their positive thoughts and are cheering for us to win... That's... So sweet of them!"
"The voices...! They are so vile!" Maimteau yelled, covering her ears.
"Are... Are they affecting her in any way?" Twilight looked at her.
"Yeah, it is! LOOK!" Pinkie Pie jumped and skipped at the sight of some light shining at her. The mirror returned to face her and shone on her even more.
"Get that wretched thing away from me!" she yelled.
A bundled shot of light blasted her, breaking a spell she had on herself, and she stumbled backwards, looking a bit hurt.
"Sugarcube..." a voice rang out.
Five of the ponies looked up at hearing it. Trailblazer jumped at the sound of it.
"That voice! Was that... APPLEJACK?" he thought out loud.
Standing in front of the Demon Witch was the apparition of AppleJack, looking intently at Trailblazer.
"Ah know things are goin' rough for y'all right now..." she started.
"What are you doing?!" the Demon Witch yelled at her. "Obey me, brat!"
"But Ah'm not goin' to stand by as ya get beat. Here... Take her power..."
Maimteau was shocked that she was put out of control. Her wings lifted, and her forelegs became outstretched. A white beam descended upon all six of them, healing them from all the injuries they sustained, and they became energetic once again.
"What... IS this??" Rarity found all of her battle scars from fighting the Shadowcolts gone. "I feel... So relieved. All of my pain and injuries have been lifted!"
"Me too!" Twilight took off the bandage that was put on when she was stabbed back at the castle, and the wound was gone.
"And, for you, my little sugarcube..."
AppleJack poured more of the Demon Witch's energy towards him.
"Stop it this INSTANT!" screamed Mainteau at the top of her lungs. But she couldn't control AppleJack's actions now. More and more power flooded into him.
"I... Feel...!" Trailblazer felt the energy getting too intense for him to handle in his current state. Just then, his color started to change, and his mane and tail began to change color too. His size grew slightly, and his muscle tone increased around his chest. His color started to fade into a somewhat saturated yellow, and his mane and tail turned into a golden yellow.
"ALIIIIIIVVE!" He jumped and looked towards the ceiling. The energy flowing into him started to change him. A unicorn horn grew on his forehead, and he now had feathered pegasus wings. A fiery gold glow flowed from his backside.
"Now, it's ailcorn versus ailcorn," AppleJack said. "Ah took her power and gave it to you so y'all could stand up to her."
"Enough, you stubborn hillbilly!" The Demon Witch was irate.
"Don't ya worry 'bout me, Trailblazer. Ah know y'all can do it..."
Lasers shot from the Demon Witch's horn and at the apparition of AppleJack. It floated back to Maimteau and disappeared back into her current form.
"AppleJack!" yelled Trailblazer.
Mainteau let out a loud snarl. "Very cunning, girl... You WILL know me as your queen!"
"This is it!" Rainbow Dash called out. "We have the support of everyone we know! We're all back at 100 percent! We CAN'T fail now!"
Trailblazer began by pulling himself back, and then fired himself at Maimteau. She took the blow and stumbled backwards.
"Wh-what??" She looked around, confused and a bit afraid. "How is it possible that you can hurt me??"
"All RIGHT!" Rainbow Dash laughed. "Now we're talking! Let's send this witch back to her grave!"
"FOOOOOOOOLS!" the Demon Witch roared.
She retaliated by summoning a bunch of shadowy hooves that stuck on the ground and charged them at the six ponies. Pinkie Pie jumped over part of the wave, but she got hit by the assaulting dead hooves. The rest of them avoided the attack either through teleporting or flying over the wave. Seeing it's failure, she summoned a haze that covered the room and obstructed their view. Rarity tried finding her way through it, but was lost. She ran into a wall by accident, but she ran into a corner. Mainteau took this chance and began to stomp on her.
"Some assisstance... please! Ow!" she yelled between stomps. "She's... Crushing, me!"
Trailblazer fired a rocket-like projective at her head, cutting off her concentration on Rarity, juat as the haze drifted off. He charged another attack and made a big fireball as big as her head. She looked at Trailblazer angrily, but he launched his fireball and struck her face. She grimaced and covered her eyes once it struck, screaming in severe pain. Fluttershy swooped towards Rarity and got her away from the corner and back with their friends. Trailblazer dove after Pinkie Pie and picked her up. He flew her towards Maimteau and threw her at her back. Once she got over the attack, she glared at Trailblazer, who was hovering, had his forelegs folded, and gave her a smug look. She began to chase after him in flight, but she didn't notice Pinkie Pie on her back, who got a hold of her wings and held it in place. She jumped and threw herself out of balance. Pinkie Pie fell off as she tumbled, but Maimteau fell on the floor and landed hard on her chin. When she was down, Twilight and Rarity fired their duo beam, which pierced and damaged her heavily. Pinkie landed back on her feet and kicked her face once before she was swiped away. She got back up and chased after Trailblazer like she was trying to do earlier. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy came back and zipped around her as well. They tried fending off Mainteau as she chased after Trailblazer, who was flying backwards and led the way. He charged a flaming beam and fired it at her, inflicting some harm as the other two pegasi continuously rammed her physically at her body. Trailblazer fired at her wings, forcing her to fall down and try to put the fire out. Trailblazer landed another bodyshot near her hind leg.
"Ooooohh..." he said softly. "Gotcha right in the ovary."
She then teleported back to her casket.
"I hope you are enjoying MY powers, but I suggest that you surrender now..." said Maimteau, with a sinister laugh.
She gradually gathered some dark energy, building to the point of some bolts of electricity cracking from her. It was dangerous to get hear her now.
"Get behind me, everypony!" Trailblazer shouted, crouched and preparing for the attack.
"What are you doing, Trailblazer?!" Rainbow Dash yelled at him. "You're not going to stand up to her like THAT, are you??"
"Maybe you all can't, but with her powers flowing in me, I can."
She stopped gathering her energy, and prepared to unleash her attack. Trailblazer began to hover, ready to take the attack. Then, Maimteau's forelegs and wings stretched out, firing her Megawave at them. It was a giant dark purple ball of energy that would seal their doom. Trailblazer caught the energy and was resisting against it, pushing at it with all of his might. It was a tug-o-war with the energy wave like the mud in the center. As Maimteau willed it to strike all of them, Trailblazer continued to push against it, keeping it from connecting with the rest of his friends. He cried out, feeling more of his power coming to the surface. He managed to punch it and fired his own fire beam at it, sending it back to Maimteau. She watched in horror, seeing as she couldn't stop it. It collided into her and then collided into the wall, exploding upon impact. A giant smokescreen of dust filled the room, blinding all of them for a brief moment. After the dust settled, it was revealed that Maimteau was lying on the ground, as hurt as can be. She struggled to get back up.
"You... You do not know what you've done... Even though I was revived, the unthinkable happened..."
"Right. You... LOST." Trailblazer landed back on the ground. The mirror floated down from the ceiling. "Well, then. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. Shall we all have the honors?"
They all nodded and said their "yes"'s.
They all held the mirror up and turned it so that it faced the fallen Demon Witch. A deep rumbling started to shake the room they were in.
"No, no!" she yelled. "How...? This can't be, I have JUST been reborn into this world!"
"My queen!!" Dark Sky yelled at her.
Her very being started to get sucked into the mirror, starting with her tail. It worked her way up her body so that it sucked in her hind legs, which were at her sides. Her wings became sucked into the mirror. The Demon Witch kept on fighting the mirror's influence, but it was stronger than her will to stay. She let out an earsplitting scream as she was desperately holding on to the outside world. Her forelegs were hanging over the edge of the mirror as her head was sticking out too. The mirror sucked in her forelegs that were anchored on the edge, and her head was pulled through the mirror. All that was left of where she stood was a ball of smokey shadowy residue, which floated back down to the ground. The mirror then levitated back into the air, started to spin rapidly, and shrunk on itself, disappearing from existence. The candles in the room blew themselves out again. After they all blew out, they lit themselves back again. They now had the standard candle color for the flame.
"She... Our queen has fallen!!" Dark Moon and the other two Shadowcolts panicked.
"LET'S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!" Dark Sun screamed. He disappeared into his shadow and didn't return. His two brothers followed him and also didn't come back.
"Well, that's a wrap..." Trailblazer said. He let out a deep exhale, and his skin tone, hair color, and muscle tone returned to normal. Now that the Demon Witch was now just a bad memory, her, and her powers became nonexistent. All of them watched the shadowy smoke dissolve into nothing, revealing AppleJack. She was lying on the ground on her stomach with her legs sprawled out. Her eyes were closed and she had a neutral expression.
"AppleJack..." Trailblazer said calmly, waiting for a response.
AppleJack woke up and blinked. She lifted her head off of the floor and looked at him a bit worried.
"Is... Is it all over...?" she asked.
Trailblazer put his right foreleg towards her. She grabbed it, letting him help pick herself up. She stood up and looked at the six ponies.
"Look, Ah'm terribly sorry for havin' y'all go through all that..." she started.
"No, AppleJack. It was my fault, really." Trailblazer spoke up. "I know that I wasn't the greatest of fillies, but Black Hole put himself in harm's way to try to kill me for all the things I did to him."
"No, Trailblazer..." Twilight spoke up. "You told us all of this before. Yes, it's true that neither of you were nice to anypony around you, but you learned from your mistakes, whereas Black Hole didn't. He let his emotions and need for vengeance get to him, and it got us all here."
"Well, who all saw this comin', at all?"
"None of us did..." said Rainbow Dash. "It was a big adventure, but it ended up like those fairy tales where a knight goes off trying to save a princess from a dragon. Really, it almost got us killed..."
"Well, Ah guess we all do things that we aren't proud of, but, at least it's all good now."
Trailblazer turned around. "You know, if it weren't for you five coming along with me, we'd all be puppets for the Demon Witch. I wouldn't have wanted to fight for the world or regain the confidence to keep going. And even you, AppleJack, helped me too, by giving me the strength to defeat her and send her back to the netherworld." He closed his eyes and turned his head to the side. "Thank you all."
"We all were team players, Trailblazer!" Pinkie Pie said. "You protected a group of ponies from becoming kidnapped, saved Rainbow Dash from dying of poison, saved another pony because of your will to do good things, and you also killed a dragon and rescued yet another pony from it! I'm sure you know now that we all need and support each other through everyday things!"
"...I guess you're right, Pinkie!"
"Well, all's well that ends well, right, darling?" Rarity asked. "Now then, we should all go home. Our work here is done."
"All-righty then!" AppleJack said.
> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The seven ponies made their way out of the temple and into the castle. They kept on walking through the castle and were flown down to the base of the mountain. Their trip back to Ponyville took a full week, but they didn't have any enemies to deal with.

All seven of them were stopped when they were passing through Tethleon. Mayor Dunnam stopped them.
"You, Trailblazer, are the best there is!" he shouted. "I don't think there's a proper thank you for your actions!"
"Well, I couldn't have done it without my friends. They kept me going throughout this journey." Trailblazer told him.
"I'm thinking of erecting some statues of you six, honoring your courageous efforts to save us all!" he said back.
They stopped, and their jaws dropped.
"You can thank me later for that."
"Hey, they're here! They made it!" The Rising Warriors guild swarmed them, praising them and shouting cheers for their success.
"Make way, please!" a feminine voice cried out amongst the noise.
StarBright made her way through the crowd to greet Trailblazer. "You're still safe! Oh, thank God that you're all still okay!" She hugged him tightly, showing a sign that age was about to cry.
"Uh, Trailblazer." AppleJack was growing a bit rude. "Who's this pony?"
"StarBright is my sister, AppleJack."
"Oh, what?"
"They are, A.J," said Twilight. "He wouldn't go out with his own sister."
"Okay, that's better."
"Really, you're a great brother. I couldn't ask for a better older one!" StarBright dug her head into his neck. Trailblazer took his foreleg and wrapped it over her shoulders.
"Things got bad, I heard. But it's all good now."
StarBright looked up and noticed AppleJack. "Oh! Is this you're marefriend that you were talking about when you were here earlier?"
"That'd be me!" said AppleJack.
"Okay, nice."
"Well, we should all get back home," said Rainbow Dash, motioning for them to get going.
"If you ever decide to come back to visit or whatnot, Trailblazer... Please consider it." Mayor Dunnam ordered the crowd to create a path to let the seven pass by. They left Tethleon, with their backs towards the city and headed for Ponyville.

On their way, they went through Marehattan. Wayne and Cinnamon saw them walking through the city, and they stopped them to congratulate them.
"Good on ya, you six!" said Wayne. "If it weren't for you, we'd all be cast under darkness and slaves for that demon thing we saw a few days earlier."
"You deserve a medal or something for your efforts," said Cinnamon. "You have our honest gratitude."
"Heh, we came, we saw, we kicked it's ass!" Trailblazer taunted.
"Yeah, you did!" Wayne stopped and noticed AppleJack. "So, was this that marefriend you said was kidnapped?"
Trailblazer looked at her. "Yeah."
AppleJack stepped forward. "Ah am. It wasn't no fun now, but Ah'm glad my little sugarcube saved us all. He's the greatest!"
"Is that what she calls you?" Wayne chuckled. "'Her little sugarcube'?"
"Oh, shut up!" Trailblazer closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his head, a little embarrassed.
"Oh, don't worry now. It's all good!"
"Oh! I just remembered!" Rarity piped up. "AppleJack, your brother and sister are here!"
"What? They are??"
"What, the big red pony and the yellow filly with a bow on her head?" Wayne interrupted. "They just left yesterday."
"Oh, they did?"
"Yeah. I won't stop you. Go back home and tell them the good news."
AppleJack nodded and left with her friends towards Ponyville. Their trip from there and towards Ponyville took a few days, but there was no pony around to cause trouble and slow down their progress.

They finally reached the Ponyville gate, but Trailblazer hesitated.
"Wait... AppleJack." He looked at her.
"What is it?" she wondered.
"Stand by my side." Trailblazer stood on her left side and rested his right foreg over her shoulders.
"What's this for?"
"You'll see why."
They walked through the gate to Ponyville and entered the town. Already, the residents saw them come back, and they immediately began to praise and cheer for them. They ran up to them and crowded them all. They tried pushing their way through, trying to accept as much of the praise they got as they went around looking for AppleJack's siblings. There, they saw Big Macintosh with Applebloom on his head, looking around for them at the same time.
"Hey, Applebloom!" Trailblazer yelled.
Applebloom turned to look in the direction of where she heard her name. There, she and Big Mac saw Trailblazer and AppleJack side-by-side.
"Make room for us, please!" demanded Trailblazer.
The crowd backed off and left an open area around the seven ponies. Big Macintosh worked his way through the crowd to get in the open area. Once they found solid ground, Applebloom jumped off of his head and on the ground, looking at the two, standing side-by-side.
"AppleJack?!" Applebloom began to smile and looked about ready to cry at the sight of them. "AppleJack!"
"Oh, Applebloom!" She and Applebloom ran towards each other, with Applebloom laughing through a few tears of joy. As they got near, she jumped at AppleJack. She caught Applebloom, and they hugged each other. Applebloom continued to laugh, hanging onto her sister. Big Macintosh trotted up to them.
"Big bruddah!" AppleJack shouted.
He simply smiled and hugged her too. They held their group hug for a moment until Celestia descended from the sky and into the open area that was left by the crowd.
"I cannot thank you seven ponies enough," said Celestia. "Not only have you rescued AppleJack, but you have also saved the world from utter chaos and destruction. Words cannot express my gratitude right now."
"Heh, heh... Yeah, thanks," said Trailblazer.
"I'll be the host of another dinner party in your honor, if you'd like. I'll assure you that it won't be like the one we had last time."
"It's all good, Princess," said Twilight.
"Then, it's settled! Next week, at 7:00 p.m, this dinner party will held back at Canterlot Castle for the same heroes that saved the world! Please plan on being there. Surely, you won't want to miss this!" She called that out to the entire crowd and left. After that announcement, the crowd diminished and split apart. Soarin' Spitfire, and Vinyl Scratch walked up to Trailblazer.
"You are the BOMB, 'Blazer!" said Vinyl Scratch. "I knew you rock, and now, you RULE!"
"Thanks a million, all of you!" Soarin' thanked them with. "So, hey, Trailblazer. Could we speak with you in private?"
The three walked away with Trailblazer, out of earshot. Spitfire began the conversation.
"So, thing is, we were thinking of putting on another show in a couple of weeks... Would you like to be with us again, maybe even be a part of our full-time musicians?"
"Whoa, seriously??" he asked.
"Yeah, seriously. You and Vinyl, sounding good, while we are in the sky performing! The last concert we had with you two in it was a huge success!"
"Yeah, count me in!" Trailblazer pounded his hoof up against Soarin's, but he noticed in the corner of his eye, Rainbow Dash, looking upset. He felt bad on how he got to be with the Wunderbolts, yet it meant more to her than it did to him. Then, an idea came to his mind.
"Now, I'd like to ask you something too," he said.
Soarin' and Spitfire looked at each other, confused.
"I'm pretty sure that you both know Rainbow Dash, right?"
"Oh, yeah... We know her quite well," said Spitfire.
"Well, I was thinking... Maybe you could let her be a part of your flight squad?"
"Well, I know she has the speed talent, but we're looking for skill, not speed."
"I had a feeling that that was going to be the answer, but I've seen her skill put into use during our journey."
"Unless she knows good maneuvers, it's not happening."
"Not happening?" Trailblazer started to support her. "Boy, I've seen her zip through cave stalactites and a forest canopy, and I've seen her brave a pony-gulping dragon, waves of spears getting thrown at her, and a bunch of magic attack beams, shooting stars, and 20 other spells that I don't even recognize, all without getting scratched! She HAS the skills all right!"
"Whoa! Are you serious?" The two Wunderbolts were shocked.
"You can ask the other four that came with me, and they'll tell you the very same thing!"
"Wow..." Soarin' said, astonished. He turned to look at Rainbow Dash. "Hey, Rainbow Dash! Come over here!"
She looked up, and flew over to them quickly. "What is it?"
"We were just discussing our next performance and were thinking of having Trailblazer as our musician from now."
"Oh, was it just about him...?"
"Well, actually, he's been talking about you while you were all on your adventure. He's been telling us about your flights, and it's left an impression on us."
"Wait, what are you saying here?"
"You've been flying through magic attacks, dragons, and stalactites, right?"
"Oh yeeeeaaaaah, I HAVE!"
"Well, that's impressive, really. Would you... Like to show them off with us?"
Dash's pupils became huge and her ears drooped. "You... You MEAN it??"
"Yeah. How about performing with us as our newest Wunderbolt?"
"OhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGod..." Rainbow Dash was awestruck.
"I take it that that's a 'yes'?"
She squealed with delight. "Yeeeeeess!" She then tackled Trailblazer and looked at him with a big smile. "This is a dream cone true, 'Blazer! You are like, THE best friend ever!!" She then got airborne and wheeled happily in the air.
"She was REALLY that much of a fan of us, it seems," Spitfire commented.
"Ah, she'll calm down in a little bit. Just give her time to celebrate." Trailblazer picked himself up and dusted himself off.
"Well, we'll discuss this next show later. We have some more errands to run," Soarin' said. With that, he, Spitfire, and Vinyl Scratch took off.

The dinner party that was hosted by Princess Celestia and the Wunderbolt performance and concert were both held with no mistakes or incidents. They all has dinner, Celestia gave them all awards, Rainbow Dash was a Wunderbolt like she had always dreamed of, and Trailblazer performed along with Vinyl Scratch at the Wunderbolt's show. After that show, he walked alongside AppleJack and took her back home.
"Yer the greatest colt there is, ya know that?" she told him.
"I'd like to think of myself that way," he answered with.
"Well, yer the best in mah book, Ah'll tell ya that."
"And you're the best mare I could ever have, too. You're my little sweet apple."
"Aw, Trailblazer!" AppleJack giggled. "Yer embarrassin' me!"
"Well, who is there to embarrass you in front of?"
"Well, that wouldn't matter one bit. Yer still the best."
They smiled at each other and gave each other a big hug, hanging on tightly and nuzzling each other too.
"It's gettin' late, Trailblazer."
"Yeah, it is." Trailblazer let go of her and stood on all fours. "I'll letcha go now. Sweet dreams, AppleJack." He finished with a kiss on the cheek and began to walk away.
"Good night. Trailblazer." With that, they walked back into their homes and went to bed. It had been an eventful month for all of them, but he was still going strong. He thought about a future with her, but he became afraid of the possible rejection. He stopped and went to bed and slept. He finally had a good rest ever since AppleJack was back. And he thought on keeping it that way.