Chapter 1

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My earliest memories are not my own, though I was fortunate in that my creators saw fit to inform me of this fact. While they have never communed directly with me, or with anything or anyone, I feel they have never lied to us, never led us astray. It is a feeling that permeates everything around me, I am as certain of it as I am certain there is a heart that beats within my chest.

At first, there was nothing, not even darkness, nor time. Then, there was something, all of which we call the universe spring forth from a single point, expanding outwards at the speed of light in all directions. The universe was fresh and hot, hotter than any furnace built today, hotter than the sun, and this heat was everywhere. As it expanded, it cooled, and as it cooled, it began to organize. Mundane matter spun and collided with other matter, building larger pieces from the primitive tools created in that early fire. Hydrogen, then Helium, then Lithium, these were the names we would give them billions of years later.

But, this mundane matter was not alone. For, in addition to it, something else had been created in the birth of the universe. They do not have names, for they predate even the concept of names, though my sister once called them, "The Keepers of Order". It is a fitting moniker.

I do not know how many there were, or if it was just one. Perhaps it had been as many as the primitive atoms, and they coalesced in the same way, combining with one another, I do not know. These creatures - no, they were not creatures, they were forces of nature given thought. Just as the matter was primal material, so were the Keepers primal thought.

They looked out upon the young universe and saw incredible potential stirring within it, and they sought to bring out that potential through their works. They split from each other and took to the corners of the cosmos, nudging here and tugging there, pushing stars together to create more complex elements, causing galaxies to form with careful planning. They set about these works over the span of many billions of years, and in their focus, they did not notice that they had overlooked something.

Unlike its cousins, we are very sure there was only one of it. Another primal force, the yin to their yang, had been born out of the fires of the first seconds and escaped their notice. It was solitary, it was as powerful and capable, and certainly as intelligent, as the Keepers were, but it desired something different. It looked out on the universe and cursed it, cursed everything; its first thoughts were of the potential for sadness, suffering, eternity. It saw all that was and sought to unmake it, and so we call it the Unmaker.

It drifted as the universe was constructed, perusing the plans the Keepers had put in motion while remaining under their notice. I am unsure of how long it did this, but time brought no soothing to the beast. At some point, it noticed something unusual, some unforeseen consequence the Keepers had not planned on, and it hatched a plan. What it saw, we would later call home, Earth, Equestria. What it had noticed, was life.

Life, or at least the very first inklings of it, back in the primordial fire and magma that raged across the planet's surface. Great mountains made of black rock roiled in a planet-wide sea of living earth, but the pieces, the prediction, was there. The Unmaker saw all this and decided to make it its own. In a direct confrontation, the Unmaker could not destroy the Keepers, the two forces were the perfect match, but life complicated that simple equation. Life, if it could, would tip that scale in its favor, and be its vessels to the unmaking of all.

It buried itself, deep within the still soft crust, and allowed it to cool and harden over its body. It created a thick, powerful shell of living rock around its essence, trapping it there while giving it immense influence over the fledgeling planet. It sat and waited there, for millions of years, as life grew, spread, lived, died, and evolved.

The ponies, they were the first. The others came later, but ponies, they were the first. Exactly when they first looked up at the sun and realized they were more than the beasts around them, is a question lost in the mists of history, to be studied and pored over by palaeontologists. I do not know the answer myself, I only know that they decided to work together, forming societies for mutual aid and survival.

The Unmaker saw this cooperation going on above, and though it realized that to band together was necessary for its plan, it disgusted it, reminded it of the Keepers. It reached out from its cavern below the surface and touched the minds of whatever ponies would listen, promised them power, fame, glory, eternal life, if they pledged servitude. Some rejected the call, some answered, some stayed silent.

Though the records from this time have been lost, I still know of it from my memories. I know the ponies who had sided with evil did what their master bid. They created the first great empire that stretched over much of the world, by conquest. Kill the leaders, enslave the rest, and force them to work on pain of death to bring to kneel the next civilization, until all were united under one banner. It was cruel, it was efficient, it was exactly what the Unmaker wanted to see.

But, it was not the way of the ponies. Though they were divided at first, a great call went between them. They saw the eventual results and the terrible crimes visited on those who had already fallen victim, and they banded together. There was a war, and the united front of the good ponies, combined with their allies in the younger races, were able to vanquish the Unmaker's pawns. In their victory, they did not execute the defeated warriors, nor did they visit harsh punishments. They told them to return to their lives and never raise weapons ever again, they forgave them, and this, this enraged the Unmaker. It had foreseen this possibility, and had another plan already in motion.

If the creatures above it would not be cruel, it would beat them into shape, as one beats a piece of metal to remove its flaws and strengthen it. It would afflict them with trials, force them to fight among themselves to grasp at the precious few resources available. Wherever there were ten, there would be enough to feed five, and the resulting battles would surely crush any good emotions left within. Suspicion would defeat cooperation, comradery crushed beneath simple 2survival.

The Unmaker made one mistake, though, and that was that its actions had drawn the attention of the Keepers. They saw its plans, predicted its results, and calculated how best and most efficiently to thwart them. The result of their calculations, the first of them, was me.

My first real memories were just of waking up, somewhere out in a field. It was dark out, but the sun was coming up, and before me stood the silhouette of a distant farm house. I knew my purpose, I had the skills I would need and had been instilled with the experience to do it, so I set out towards that small house.

Inside, I found a couple, a mare and a stallion, along with two of their young foals. No words passed between us as I entered the house, they had been expecting me, I think. The mother held a wrapping of cloth around something, and presented it to me as I drew nearer. Within, was a foal, newly born, moments before I had arrived. It was afflicted.

I cured it, using my skills, and I left them shortly after. They asked me to stay, promised me everything they could offer, pledging servitude and loyalty in thanks for my act, but it was not my place here. There would be others in need, and my purpose was to aid them.

As I wandered away from that house, I did not pick any particular destination. My instincts would tell me where I was to be needed next, and they were quiet, so I just wandered. The morning passed as I strode through the fields, and as noon crept up, I felt something beneath me shift. This was the second part of the Unmaker's plan, and as I felt that shift, I felt something else shift against it.

From out of the sun itself, a white mare descended and landed next to me, the one who later would be called Celestia. She is my sister, in a way, for we share a purpose, and we share creators. Is that not how one defines a sibling? I had not had occasion to see myself, but I could see 'Tia just fine, and I realized indirectly what I looked like.

We were ponies, just like the inhabitants of this planet, but not quite the same. We had been molded in their image, given their patterns of thought and habits of action, but we were different. We possessed wings to soar with the Pegasi, horns to manipulate magic like the Unicorns, and that intricate and deep connection to the earth like the earth ponies. We were like them and unlike them.

My sister and I walked for a time, until the night set and I felt a shift again, much like the one I had felt before. Again, I felt something push back, and our youngest sister, Luna, descended from the moon to land at our side.

The Unmaker had seen what brought about depression and anxiety amongst the populations here, and the thing that made it most apparent was random cruelty. To be good, wise, and capable, yet stricken with tragedy through no fault of one's own, this was the height of injustice, and the Unmaker sent forth whispers of its mind to infect the weak and vulnerable. I was the antidote to this, and my task was to undo the random cruelties it visited among others. I am not perfect, I have failed many times, but it is my purpose.

The Unmaker had seen how stability and surety brought about great works, great cities, great civilizations, and schemed to undo that. It sent a mighty perturbation through the solar system, and in doing so, disrupted the orbit of our planet around the sun. Left unchecked, seasons would vary in length, days would vary in heat, and the plants of the world would not be able to sustain the life which relied on them. Success of harvests would become unreliable, and life would become a series of battles amongst migrating tribes for the scarce and random food resources they could scavenge. Celestia's task was to realign the orbit, each day in the morning and at night, to slowly erase this perturbation. She has been doing so for millennia, but it still lingers and requires careful maintenance.

Finally, the Unmaker saw how the great cities of the world had been found on water bodies, and had deduced this was due to trade. Boats could carry weight across water that even the strongest pony could never haul over land, and the great countries of the world all had bustling hubs along water's edge. Without this trade, the countries would become isolated and vulnerable, and so it disrupted the orbit of the Moon to ruin the regularity of the tides. Left unchecked, whole cities would be flooded one month and miles away from the ocean the next, mighty storms would wrack the world as hurricanes struck aggressively inland each year. Luna's task was to maintain the balance of the Moon and the Earth, and like Celestia, millennia of adjustments and realignments has still not completely stabilized it.

So thoroughly had we countered its plans, all within the span of one day, that the Unmaker decided, then and there, that life was no longer worthy of its domination. It felt something new: envy. Envy at how the living beings of the world seemed so keen on aligning with its mortal enemies, the Keepers of Order. If it could not have them, it would destroy them, and it set about building the army it required to bring this to pass.

For a time, we believed all was well, and we wandered across the lands, meeting those who dwelt there and learning of their customs. Eventually, Celestia and Luna decided they would need more precision in their daily and nightly duties, and we stopped at the dwelling of a hedge wizard who gave us the use of his spare room.

The two got to work constructing elaborate charts to map the positions of the Sun and the Moon, as well as the other planets, both in the sky and in locations of orbit. They were required to invent new methods of calculation, and new methods of language to describe them, and in a short time, word got around about where we had settled. Other scholars came from around the land, at first as a trickle, and then as a stream, visiting the rather bemused wizard's humble abode to seek out our knowledge. In time, others came and settled to better provide for the scholars, and we formed what has widely been considered the world's first true University. Our names became known across the land and many sought our wisdom not only in the sciences, but in the arts and politics as well.

This first city was known as Raget Ur, which in that old tongue, meant literally "Learning Above". A rough translation to today is "Place of Higher Learning", as it had literally meant the study of the skies above, but eventually the knowledgeable had come from everywhere and every subject was under consideration.

It was at Raget Ur that we, and those who helped us, built the first castle which we would call home. We built it, because in their discoveries and research, Celestia and Luna had noticed a very peculiar shifting around of material within the earth below. They dispatched me to investigate, along with a few ponies who had insisted on accompanying me.

As we drew nearer to the location my sisters had specified, I became uneasy, for the area was dangerously close to the great disturbance I could feel each time a pony, somewhere, became afflicted. It would only surge for a second, but it was there, and I knew where instinctively. Finally we came across a cave in the middle of an otherwise peaceful forest range, and it was there that we first encountered the Faceless ones.

Some of my companions had wanted to probe the cave, though I warned them against it. When they had not returned by that afternoon, the rest of us went inside to investigate. There we found a maze of caverns hewn from the rock around them, yet everywhere there was a black, oozing material that drove my senses to a frenzy. This rock was being infused with the same ooze that would rob an innocent pony of their sanity, and by doing so, the rock became animate and utterly enslaved to its master far below us. The living rock came for us, and we fled. I lost many friends in that maze, scrambling away in sheer terror, getting separated from one another only to hear their cries echo off the unfeeling walls, and then, be silenced.

When I got back to my sisters, their expressions were grim as I told them what I had seen. We had been foolish, our enemy had been thwarted but not defeated, and now it was building an army to strike us down with. We had precious little time to form our own army to fight back, to train every pony we could find and produce weapons for them to fight with.

We sent couriers to every nation and culture in the world, begging them for assistance. Though a few refused, they would be swayed very soon, as reports of random assaults by a monstrous new force that appeared from the very ground itself lent credence to our cries. And yet, we feared it would not be enough. The stakes could be no higher, we knew that existence itself hinged on our victory, and so Celestia did something profound to better our chances.

She saw that we would need food to feed the young races as they fought, and that they could not grow it and train at the same time. So, she asked the earth itself to yield its plants and harvests to us. She saw the earth could not provide without rain, so she asked the clouds if they would kindly let us direct their showers. She saw many creatures who could not assist us, for they lacked the language and social structures necessary, so she asked them to be our eyes and ears. And finally, she saw that magic itself could be a powerful weapon to help us, and asked it to lend us its aid. All said yes, save the force of magic. It said nothing back to her.

The results have been carried down through the ages, and their power has not waned with time. The creatures of the sky still have that hold over the clouds, and the creatures of the earth still have their unspoken connection with the ground, the trees, the plants. With the help of every thing, living and nonliving, we may have been able to defeat the corrupted earth, maybe. It was not to be.

Within a year, the reports of attacks had become so great that we could no longer abide. We organized armies to patrol and flush out the attackers, and the "Era of Fire", as historians call it today, began.

Wherever the dark ones came, we fought. We fortified every city, developed evacuation plans for every village and hamlet, hoarded food in every center. Plows were beaten into spears, and the earth itself urged us to victory by furrowing itself and giving us what it could. Though we fought the hordes to the bitter end, no matter how many we killed, there were always more.

The Unmaker had been constructing them from rock, and they were powerful and fast. The only way to destroy them was to cut them into small enough pieces, but they lacked intelligence with which to fight. The Unmaker itself was not enough to control all of them, it had instead found willing spirits to serve as the generals of its armies. The history books know the names of many of them, though some are regarded as pure legend. Discord, the Windigoes, The Rooted Howler, and more, all spirits who, before, had been harmless tricksters. In exchange for power, all they had to do was serve the Unmaker, and it darkened their souls as it did so.

The war raged for nearly a century, and with no end in sight. Our forces fought, aged, died. Theirs did not, and there were always more. It stopped being a battle we could win, and became one we could only prolong. In desperation, we took to burning whole landscapes in an effort to destroy the faceless hordes on them, and though it caused them innumerable losses, still more surged forth from the earth and attacked.

At last, all other bastions of civilization had fallen. At last, our time had run out, and the only place left for us was one fort that lay on a hilltop, that fort where we had formed the first University in times that seemed so distant. If this was to be our last stand, we would make it a good one.

But, the hordes did not come. We waited for weeks, and the assault never came. Finally, we sent a scout out to the horizon, any direction, it did not matter, to find out what had happened. It amazed us. Magic itself has listened to Celestia's plea.

The Keepers, we reasoned, were the arbiters of magic. Perhaps they were magic, or perhaps they were a part of it, I am not certain, but they had decided to provide for us what little they could. Beyond the horizon, as seen by our scout, marched a long column of creatures made from living metal. They were every bit as powerful as the faceless ones, but had an intricate, logical intelligence as well. Our enemies had diverted all their forces to assaulting this new threat, and their broken, rocky corpses littered the landscape around them. Eventually, they arrived at the walls of our castle, and pledged their service to us. We called the the Redeemers, and they were to be our last hope.

We could not attempt to battle the nigh-infinite hordes, even with our new allies, and hope to win. We struck out from our fort in an effort to rally the pockets of resistance in the countryside that still stood. We were a scant forty-thousand, the entire remaining civilized population of the world, forty-thousand. All of these had been born in war and lived their whole lives under the shadow of tyranny, fear, death. We brought them back and hatched a desperate plan, to strike at the generals who controlled the faceless armies.

We realized we could not defeat them ourselves, for when they had presented themselves on the battlefield, we found they were untouched by physical weapons. Even the Redeemers could not even scratch them, they were empowered creatures of magic, after all, so we sent one final plea to the Keepers for a way to defeat them. The Keepers responded with something every school filly has heard of today, the most powerful magic known. The Elements of Harmony.

Chapter 2

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To my dear sister Celestia, keeper of the sun and bringer of light, was entrusted the Element of Wisdom. It took the form of a small pendant which hung around her neck, in the shape of the sun she bore on her flank. It was a trinket, but it was more than that as well, a feeling that surrounded her and brought calm and tranquility. It has been my pet theory that the Elements are only physical things in the most base of perceptions, and are something else entirely when they are not needed. It is only a theory.

To Luna, was entrusted the Element of Courage. It took the form of the crescent moon which has been her mark from the day we were created. It suits her well, for she always was the mightiest among us, stoic and resolute no matter the danger.

And to me, came the Element of Love. It was a depiction of a heart on a small brass tiara, barely large enough to extend above my mane. It fit my head perfectly, like it had been molded for it, though I did not wear it until the time came.

We issued a challenge to the most notorious of the Unmaker's generals, Discord. We believed he would answer the call out of foolhardiness, and we were not mistaken. He brought no escort, he came alone and met us, also alone, out in the fields beyond the walls of our fort. If anything, he seemed more curious than aggressive, wanting to see for himself what these supposed magic toys could do. He had spent much of the time before taunting us, and more viciously, torturing our unfortunate soldiers with his sadistic mind games. I had been told that, before he answered the Unmaker's call, he had been a minor trickster spirit, reveling in watching ponies grow minorly upset with one another at misunderstandings and giggling to himself as they shooed him away. With the Unmaker's power, his ways had not changed, but the games had become so much more deadly.

We left his petrified body on the field where it lay, though I believe it was recovered later on. Celestia had told me she had it put on display somewhere, though that stopped recently. She didn't tell me the details either.

The message to the other generals was clear, and no sooner had they found out about Discord's defeat did they scatter to the winds like the cowards they were. Disorganized and leaderless, the faceless hordes were lured into ambush after ambush and thoroughly routed, the remainder retreating into the ground itself to return to the place where we had first encountered them, so they could be closer to their master.

Finally, the time had come to end this conflict. A century of war had left the world scarred, its populations devastated, and our own armies in ruins. Though the Redeemers were fantastically powerful, they could be destroyed, and their numbers had dwindled in place of the living creatures they defended. There were now only fifty of them still standing. We took them, along with fifteen volunteers, to lead an expedition deep into the Abyss to strike at evil itself.

It had been called the Abyss ever since the war had begun, though I presumed the cave system was not truly bottomless. Rather, it would end where the shell of its creator began, and so we struck out for that cave I had visited a century ago and entered it, with no resistance.

Though we had initially thought the faceless had perhaps been reincorporated into the walls, it was not to be. As we made our way into a grand cavern, hollowed out by an underground lake that still lay at its base, we were assaulted by a grand creature, five stories tall. It had been made out of the remaining faceless ones, fused together into one giant creature, and it wasted no time laying into our formation. The Redeemers fought back, while we three Bearers and a few of our volunteers escaped further into the cavern.

Now we were twenty, though some had fallen in the battle, a few Redeemers had made it along with us. We hoped we were clear of the horrors the Unmaker could throw at us, but there were still challenges ahead. It pulled monstrosities, not of its own creation, but out of the minds of our followers, taking their primal fears and carving the living rock into those shapes to attack us. Apparitions made of billowing smoke would strike and drag off victims before we could react, and our party frequently had to break and run deeper into the caverns. This was only compounded by what was happening to Celestia.

As we had been traveling further and further underground, she began to lose her connection to the Ssn, and thus her strength left her as well. At first, she had simply complained of feeling dizzy, fearing it was some unidentified gas causing the weakness. Then, she kept requesting us to slow down and rest, unable to keep pace with us. We took the supplies she carried and redistributed them amongst ourselves to lighten her load, and that helped for a time, but soon she was unable to carry her own suit of armor. We dropped that too.

Soon she was unable to trot alongside us, so we slowed our pace. Then, she could no longer stand, and Luna and I hefted her along with us. Our friends fell, the Redeemers met their end in battle against the monstrosities, and soon it was five of us left, my sisters, myself, and the last two Redeemers. Celestia could no longer keep her eyes open of her own accord, and spoke faintly, in a harsh, raspy tone.

Though her strength had left her, she insisted we kept going further down, no matter the consequences, and we did, descending the last few levels of the caverns without incident. It became eerily quiet as we entered a dead-zone where there were no attacks, so close to the shell of the Unmaker, until we came across it. Luna, her sight better in the dark, noticed it first, and we saw that the floor we had been walking on was no longer made of rock, but a thick insect-like carapace, too strong to cut with my sword. We followed the winding trails of flesh until we found an opening in them, and the opening billowed out hatred so pure that it chilled my bones to their cores.

The Redeemers wasted no time in attacking, but their weapons could make no impact on the creature. Though this was its shell, it seemed nigh-impenetrable to anything physical, so we called upon the powers of the Elements of Harmony again. As we did so, Celestia, scarcely able to stay conscious, began to shudder as the magic flowed through her. Without her concentration, it began to dissolve her very essence back into itself, and we had to stop the spell.

Desperate to defeat the evil and put it away for all time, we pleaded with Celestia to summon up the last of her strength and focus long enough to cast the spell. She assured us she could do it, and we started again. This time she would not cancel the spell even as the Elements started to tug at her very being and break her into a million points of light that only I could see with my sight. This time, I stopped the spell, but Celestia would not. She told me, in halting whispers, that her life was of no moment compared to what we needed to do here, and to complete the spell even if it meant sacrificing her. Luna and I refused, and while Celestia insisted, she could do nothing to stop us.

I sent out one last prayer to the Keepers, begging them to save my sister, to take me instead if they had to, to give us some way out of this without leaving the whole world in jeopardy. The Element I wore on my head is what responded, in a soft whisper, and it told me to take my sister back to the surface.

I did as it asked, and we left the three Elements behind us in that cavern, to the protestations of Celestia. The Elements formed a barrier with their own magic, but remained permanently a part of that barrier. The Unmaker was not defeated, but merely sealed away, all because I was not strong enough to part with my sister and finish the job I had been created to do.

We left the Redeemers down there, for their mission, too, was to bind the beast as best they could. We told them to build a structure that would keep it in, and any careless explorer out, though we never heard back from them after we left.

The Elements have since manifested themselves in different ways to us, but they are scarcely a shade of their former power. I suspect they are still mostly at the bottom of the Abyss, still binding the creature there until some other pony can come and finish the task we had started.

To assist in the binding of the Unmaker, we had gathered every sample of Ziristone we could, for it is a material known for its ability to absorb magic itself. We left it in lumps at the entrance of the Abyss, and the work crews would report that each day, as they went to place more in, what they had previously left was gone. I hoped the Redeemers made good use of it. After that, the area around the Abyss had been considered off-limits, forbidden for any creature to tread upon without explicit approval from one of us three, who history would later label the Triumvirate.

With the now-weakened Elements, we set about chasing down the remaining generals of the former faceless hordes. We did not catch them all, for ephemeral spirits show themselves only when they have to, but the threat, such as it was, was ended. The world was finally allowed to gain peace, and the long and difficult task of rebuilding the world began.

My sisters are not aware of it, or maybe they are, on some level, but I believe I know why we have never since heard a whisper from the Keepers of Order. They had seemed aloof, only responding when the situation was truly dire, and since the binding, they have never spoken to us or done anything. I know why, because when I pleaded for my sister's life, the Element of Love answered me. I believe that the Elements and the Keepers are one and the same, bound into physical form, bereft of their own free will so they might bind their ancient foe. All for the life of my sister. Our victory came at the highest possible cost, and I have always felt unworthy of their sacrifice.

And now, ten-thousand years later, that seal is weakening, and I do not know why. The terrible strands of corruption lash through the barrier with increasing frequency, and though my sister Luna has returned to us, healthy and whole, I fear we are once again on the verge of war. This time, we have no greater power to appeal to. I hope Celestia is right, I hope that little Twilight Sparkle really will be the one who saves us all. To me, she has always been that same filly, though she has grown now, become independent, made friends. If she is not, then the end comes soon and I can see no way to prevent it.

I hope Celestia is right. Hope, as she had told me once, is will, in the absence of action.

Chapter 3

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By the time I had finally made my way up to the palace, the moon had already begun making its way across the sky. I had been out, once again, chasing shadows to the edges of the earth, and now my instincts had become quiet for the first time in months. Seeing as this was possibly the only respite I'd get, I had headed back home to Canterlot to spend my precious spare moments with Shining Armor. Sadly, before I had arrived, he had already gone to sleep, slumped next to the nightstand in our room, the candle next to him having burned itself down to nothing.

I sighed, seeing him like that. I had only had the occasion to see him one or two days every month, and even then that took special arrangements. I could tell he'd tried to stay awake, but I was late, always late. He was breathing so peacefully, I contented myself just to watch the rise and fall of his chest for a while, leaving my clothes packed in the bags I had carried.

I don't know how long I sat there, watching him in the dim glow of the moonlight. I wondered if I was really worth to him what he was to me, if he really understood just what he had gotten himself into. I knew a lot of young couples these days were always so busy as to rarely see one another, perhaps he had contented himself with the small mercies that came when they did. Wouldn't it have been that much easier to just find a normal mare, fall in love with her, get married, have foals? No, he had to choose the difficult path, maybe not even really believing me when I had told him what it entailed.

I felt tired, but too awake to go to sleep, so I left my clothes there in our room and departed. Luna was always awake at this hour, so I decided to go pay her a visit.

My old room was next to Tia's and Luna's, but was filled with old junk and certainly not the kind of place I wanted to spend time with Shining Armor. The walls were too thin, for one thing; we needed privacy. For another, the odds of being walked in upon by my sisters were simply too high, or worse, what if Twilight barged in during one of her visits? Instead, we had taken a room in the east wing that had been unoccupied, treated mostly as a guest room, though guests of Celestia's had been becoming less and less frequent.

I knocked on Luna's door, but there was no answer. She was usually up and about anyway, so I wandered around aimlessly. A few of the night watch passed by with a polite nod as I did, the corridors otherwise bereft of life. I estimated it was around three in the morning, and on a weekday, so the staff weren't having one of their usual parties down in the kitchens like they did on Saturdays.

My roaming took me towards the auditorium in the central part of the palace, and as I approached, I could hear a muffled tone coming from beneath the doors. I hovered outside them for a moment, pressed my ear up to the thick wood, an elaborate and ornate carving of a cornucopia that was supposed to represent how music could sate the soul as food sates the body. It was mystical crap that Celestia loved, while I was indifferent to. I creaked the door open as quietly as I could, and to no surprise the room beyond was almost completely black.

I snuck in gently and hung near the back row of cushions, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the gloom. There was somepony else in here, other than the musician, I could hear breathing out of time as the grand piano in center stage pounded on. The song was a country ditty from very olden times, though there was no singing. If I'm recalling it correctly, the original lyrics had something to do with a farm worker who fell in love with his employer's wife, and had an affair. Further, I recall the original song ended bloodily, and later versions had happier endings with higher notes. I waited patiently for the song to reach the final verse, listening to the clacking as the pedals and keys were pressed expertly, rehearsed a thousand times. This version did not have the higher notes in the final verse.

The song ended and somepony clapped hooves on the floor in applause, softly as not to alarm anypony outside. I still couldn't see anything, but the gasp I heard coming from the stage confirmed my suspicions as to the performer.

"Amoria, how long have you been listening?", Luna's voice come from somewhere towards the front. Her horn lit up and cast a pale glow over the hall. There was a uniformed guardspony down in the front row, who stood as suddenly as the light was cast and turned to see me in the back.

"Long enough. I see you've been practicing," I said.

"I must get myself back into my old skill, so I will petition thy – er, I mean, your criticism," she said. Luna, I had noticed, was still occasionally getting her thees and thous in her normal speaking voice, but at least she was catching herself now.

While Celestia had explicitly forbidden me from attending the Summer Sun festival in Ponyville a few years ago, I had still wanted to attend for other reasons. It was only at her insistence, and her reasoning, that I did not. She had told me I would need to stay behind to act as a leader, should worst come to worst, but really I think she wanted to confront Luna by herself. She always considered it her fault, even though it was shared evenly between all three of us, so I let her go. Since our youngest sister had been cleansed, she had been slowly readjusting to normal life, re-learning the language and all the little formalities that I had taken for granted. For one thing, life was a lot less rigid now.

"I think you should play the more modern version of the song, the one where they run off together. Most ponies are going to think you made a mistake if you play the older verses," I said. She nodded.

"I see. I'll take that into consideration," she said. Her gaze swung down to the guardspony in the front row, who had returned his eyes to her. She cocked her head to one side.

"Amoria - " she started.

"I told you to call me Cadence", I said, cutting her off. She glared at me.

"Amoria, have I introduced you to the captain here?" she said, waving a hoof to indicate her audience. He stood up and turned to look at me.

"Wedge Antares, captain of the night watch," he said, bowing.

"Oh, yes, you're the one that Shining Armor is always talking about. Congratulations on your promotion," I said.

"Thank you ma'am. Give your husband my regards," he said.

"Before you ask, Captain Antares is off duty at the moment. I offered to let him hear one of my practice sessions, since he had nothing else to do," Luna explained, unprompted. I wondered why, though perhaps she felt it had been improper for her to be alone in the dark with a stallion. She was still literally quite old-fashioned.

"I really must be going. A thousand thanks for allowing me to sit in on your sessions, Princess," Wedge said, bowing again to Luna before trotting up the aisle and past me. The door shut softly behind me. It seemed he couldn't wait to leave as soon as I had arrived.

Luna hopped off the stage and made her way up to me, giving me a sideways look as she did.

"Are you always so heavily attired?" she asked. I hadn't realized it, but I was still wearing my barding and sword from the trip. I hadn't taken them off, and I probably smelled pretty rank too, though I'd no doubt be used to it by now.

"Just got in, actually," I said, looking down at the steel plating on my forelegs.

"And you are not spending this time with your husband?" she asked, again with that sideways look.

"He's asleep, but I'm restless," I said simply.

"Come walk with me then, perhaps I can tire you out," she said, and started towards the doorway. The pale light of her horn dimmed as she moved away, and I started after her to be kept from the dark.

We walked for a time without exchanging words, at first out into the courtyards, then up the walls onto the parapets which outlined the palace. In the very old days, troops would be up here, watching the landscape, every day and every night, but in modern times these areas were just for show. The military had since decided that stone fortifications wouldn't be that useful now that modern siege equipment had been developed, and the reports from the generals that Celestia kept on staff were always suggesting field engagements should any enemies rear their heads. We had no enemies, that they knew of, but generals get paid to plan for everything and so spent all their time in drawing rooms coming up with strategies and tactics to keep their minds sharpened. I suppose if I had nothing to do but otherwise collect pension, I might do the same, but at least I'd do something entertaining, like take up painting.

As we rounded the southern parapet, the grand view of Canterlot proper lay below us. All through the city, street lamps were lit and homes had candles and lights visible from within. You could even tell which parts of the city were using electrical lights, based on the intensity of the glow. It was almost all of them, though when I was a filly, candles had dominated. The world was changing, faster each day, but the innate beauty of the city before us would remain the same.

"Amoria?" Luna asked me, stopping to look out over the city.

"I told you, call me - " I started.

"What is it like to have parents?" she asked, though she kept her gaze focused on the houses below us.

The question came as a surprise, and I stuttered, searching for an answer. Luna was in no hurry, she stared idly out into the distance.

I thought for a moment, to try to explain it to her. I hadn't even thought about it much myself, really, it was just a part of life for most ponies. I suppose that some lived without parents in orphanages, so that'd be the closest similarity, but even then they knew that somepony had been their parents at some point. That simply wasn't the case for Luna.

"You know how Celestia and I are always there for you," I said.

"It's not the same, it can't be the same," she said. She was hiding her face from me, facing it off in the darkness. Her voice didn't waver at all.

"But it is. My parents were always there for me, whenever I needed them. They knew things I didn't and they taught me as they went. I never once questioned that they were looking out for me, I never even thought about their motives. Your parents are ponies you can trust so completely that you don't even think about it. Isn't that true of me? Isn't it true of Tia?" I said.

She was silent for a second. "Maybe, but I still think I'm missing something," she said, turning to me. "May I meet your parents?"

"You haven't yet?" I asked.

"You're always so busy, and who would introduce me? Invite them over for a banquet, that'd be the best way, I think," she said.

"Okay, okay. I'll do that. Is that why you wanted to get me alone out here?" I asked.

"No, but it has been gnawing at me for some time. I had other business to discuss with you," she said. She turned to face down the wall and walked off, leaving me confused for a moment before I realized she wanted me to follow her.

"Maybe you could just tell me what it is you wanted to discuss," I said.

"The movement is refreshing, I like to move while I think," she said.

We trotted in silence along the wall for a short time, two silhouettes moving under the night's crescent moon. Nothing stirred in the gardens or on the street below, the world was still, even the air was without wind.

"So what is it then?" I broached. Luna's pace slowed slightly.

"I know that it is something you cannot know, because of your immunity, but I cannot talk to anypony about it. I don't think Celestia wants to even fathom it," she said. "I don't think the young ones even tell stories about it any more, the world itself had forgotten. Have you not been telling them of the challenges we are about to face? Why are we not better prepared?" she asked me.

"What would you like us to do? Drill the populace on fighting again? Rally the nations of the earth into an alliance?" I asked back.

"Yes! Something is better than nothing. All I have seen is you pinning your hopes on a pony who cannot heft a blade, based on some hunch of Celestia's that she's supposed to make all whole," she said.

"You know yourself what the new bearers are capable of, and you're saying you doubt Twilight can do it?" I countered.

"No, but I do know how accidents happen. One slip, one dropped object, that is all it takes to end a life. Faith and prophecy are no substitutes to evidence," she said.

"That doesn't seem like it'd convince you. Come on, tell me what you're really thinking," I said. She swallowed hard, and closed her eyes.

"It's not scared of her," she said.

"But – " I started.

"When I was released, I felt it for a moment, it wrapped around my mind and held my psyche in its embrace. The confidence in me, the power, the thrill of domination. That confidence came from it, it wasn't my own. It wasn't afraid," she said.

"I don't understand," I said, sighing.

"At first, it reached into me, and whispered all the little things I wanted to hear. It told me that I had no need of others, the weak and the soft. It told me all I wanted and needed was obedience, and that I would be rewarded with power. It told me to hate you..." she said, trailing off. She didn't speak for a moment after that, nor did I. She needed to let it out, I think.

Her voice dropped, barely a whisper now.

"It told me these things I wanted to hear, while it took the parts of me that would have opposed it. It took my love, my empathy. I stopped caring about you, Celestia, the world, everything. I stopped caring that it was taking parts of me," she said.

"It wasn't your fault," I said.

"You don't understand. Whenever I would think that maybe what I was doing was wrong, it would wrench me, just a little. Make my stomach hurt, or my head ache, and as soon as I stopped thinking that, the pain stopped. When I questioned the corruption itself, it hurt twice as much. Eventually, I could not even question it anymore, for fear of the pain, so I did not," she said. She turned to me.

"I let it rewrite me," she said, looking straight at me.

I needed to change the subject before she started crying.

"And so, you think it rewrote you in its own image? And because you weren't afraid, it must not be?" I asked.

"Yes, that would be a good approximation. It must know something we do not, and since we have scarcely any backup plans, I do not see good results coming from this," she said.

"Hmm," I muttered.

"Are you tired yet? Perhaps we should travel indoors again," she said, and set off again without waiting for me to answer. I followed, again, but slower this time. Worry was infectious, and now I found myself doubting Twilight and her friends. Would one small slip really spell the end of Equestria, of the entire universe? Chance was cruel, and it would only take one mistake. Maybe I ought to talk to Tia tomorrow.

Chapter 4

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We walked back into the palace and made our way down towards Luna's room, in the same wing as mine and Celestia's. We spoke no more on the way.

As we made the turn to the hallway where the doors to our rooms were, I spied a guardspony standing near Luna's door. As we got closer, I noticed it was the same one I had met earlier, Antares, if I was recalling correctly.

"Captain, I thought you said you were off duty? What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"My job ma'am. A soldier is never off duty," he said simply. I wasn't buying it, but before I could probe him further, Luna cut me off.

"I appreciate your concern captain, but I'm sure we can take care of ourselves," Luna said. She was keeping her face flat and her voice monotone, but I swear I heard her stifle a giggle.

The guard corps insisted on protecting us and treating us as crucial, to be saved even if it meant sacrificing their lives, but in truth, I was sure that we had wound up protecting them more often than not. Such happenstances were rare, of course, as the occasional mentally-ill pony would make an attempt on Celestia and during such circumstances, Celestia would need to be restrained to keep from hurting her assailant. Political rebels usually took to attacking the council members instead of us, and I can recall at least one occasion when it was up to me alone to protect them. That was in an age before newspapers, but the rumors that passed around were a treat to listen to, afterwards.

"Very well ma'am," Wedge said, "at least let me get the door for you."

He opened Luna's door and held it open as she passed through. It was dark, and she was a dark mare, but I was pretty sure I could make out the hue of a blush on her face. This was getting more and more amusing as time went on, suddenly I wanted to spend more time with her just to watch her get embarrassed when stallions did things for her.

I was getting ready to leave when I heard something out of place. I stopped and looked around for a moment, listening and trying to focus on it. Wedge noticed my attention and looked around too, leaving Luna's door open as she went to her desk.

"Is something amiss?" he asked me.

"Shhh, listen," I said. The sound had stopped, and Luna stopped moving as well, turning her head to look at me with a curious expression. She didn't speak, we just waited in silence until the sound came again.

Skrik skrik skrik skrik.

"There, did you hear that?" I said softly. Wedge shook his head, but Luna nodded.

"It's coming from in here somewhere," she said, "likely a mouse."

"Yes, likely a rodent of some sort. You shouldn't leave food out in your room," I said, scolding her. It felt good, really good.

Oh no.

I'm becoming my mother!

Before panic could set in, the sound came again, and much louder. Too loud for a mouse to make. It quieted after a few moments, but I wasn't going to just ignore it.

"Perhaps we ought to figure out what's causing it. It'll drive me crazy if I don't," I said. Wedge still looked confused.

"I don't hear anything, are you sure you're not just imagining it?" he asked.

Luna started to pace nervously, and I took the hint of what her body language was saying.

"Captain, could you wait outside the door for me? Make sure no rodents come rushing out of the room without us knowing," I said.

"Of course Princess," he said. I walked into the room, and he closed the door softly behind me.

"Hope you don't mind," I said in a whisper to Luna.

"Thank you, sister. I do not want to do anything improper," she said.

I giggled, maybe a bit too loud, and her face turned fire-red, visible even in the soft moonlight coming through the windows high on the wall.

I had to pick my wording carefully to avoid implying something here, but this was going to be fun.

"Luna, do you perhaps fancy captain Antares?" I asked her. She turned away and started looking through the stacks of papers which she had stacked against the walls, next to her bookshelves.

"I do not know what you are talking about," she said. She buried her face in the papers so I couldn't see her.

"I knew it! Oh Luna, there's nothing improper about a Princess fancying an officer. Just look at me," I said. She kept her head in the papers.

"No, nothing scratching in here," she said. In fact, I hadn't heard the scratching sound since the door had closed.

"You don't have to be embarrassed about it, it's perfectly normal in this day and age," I said.

"We are to remain distant and our judgement to remain clear," she said, though it was her repeating a mantra as though she didn't understand the words themselves.

"This stallion, he has rekindled something that I thought I had lost. I... do not wish to talk about it," she said finally.

"Fine," I said. I went over to her desk and started to look under it for a mouse hole, but in truth I was looking at the documents on the desk. The letterheads all indicated they were formal government correspondence, nothing juicy. No love letters, is what I mean.

"Has the castle had a vermin problem recently?" she asked, muffled, as her head was now under her bed.

"Not that I know of, but then again, I haven't been around much. Maybe they followed me in, thinking I was their leader. I smell the part," I said.

I stopped and perked my head up, as did Luna.
SKRIK SKRIK SKRIK.

There was the sound again, and now it was very loud. So loud, that I wondered why Wedge hadn't heard it and said something. It was also coming from up on the walls.

I looked up at the windows as Luna did, and finally I saw the source of the sound.

Something was hanging outside of her window, looking at us.

While most ponies would bolt at the sight of that, I was more curious than anything else. My first approximation was that it was a tree branch, and the shadows were playing tricks on my eyes. I spent a lot of time outside at night during my work, so this sort of thing was common. However, the wind outside should have been sending measured waves through the leaves if it was a branch, while this object was hanging perfectly still.

Luna walked over to me and looked up at the object as well. Her night vision was better than mine, or anypony's, really, so she'd be able to deduce what it was.

"Celestia?" she said.

"What is she, spying on us now? It's not her," I said dismissively.

She ignored me and flew up to the window. The ceiling in this room was two stories tall, the windows were above the tops of the bookshelves and cast the light downwards, to facilitate reading in the dark for Luna. As she flew up towards it, the black object reacted and rotated to face her, and I could see very clearly the outline of the horn and face. It matched Celestia's shape but I still wasn't alarmed. It must have a reasonable explanation.

Hovering in place for a moment, Luna worked out how to open the window, as it was presumably not made for such things, being up on the wall as it was. At last she pushed something I couldn't see, and the window opened neatly with a click.

A hoof shot through and caught her in the chin, forcing her backwards. She whirled in midair and landed on the floor next to me. My sword was already drawn before she landed.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" I shouted, and brandished my blade in the glow of the moon. Luna took my hint and cast a light spell to help me see, and I saw from the outline of the creature as it effortlessly melted and reshaped itself to flow through the window that it was indeed Celestia. I didn't react, I could scarcely believe it. My mouth hung open, but my grip did not relax.

A prank. Maybe another of those rotten Changelings. Something else. My senses had sent off no alarm at all. Luna had already made up her mind.

"Celestia, if you can hear me, please. Say something," she said, calmly, as though it were a simple request to pass the salt at dinner. I wasn't sure how she was keeping her repose like this, the only reason I hadn't moved was shock. I kept trying to convince myself this wasn't happening, as the black shape that matched every curve of Celestia's body landed on the floor in front of us. Behind me, the door opened and Wedge burst in, but he said nothing. I couldn't tear my eyes away for fear that I'd blink and she'd be gone.

"Tia? Stop it, stop whatever sick prank you're playing!" I pleaded with her. Sheer instinct kept my sword aloft, though I'd never swing it at her.

Her eyes opened, deep crimson spheres amid her black body. No pupils, just red. The face was crunched in anguish, or anger, it was impossible to tell. Her mouth opened, and only a faint whisper came out.

"H-help me.." it said. Her mouth closed abruptly and her neck started to twitch at unnatural angles. It turned to look at me, this thing that held Celestia in its grip, then it snapped abruptly to glare at Luna.

It stared at us as we stood, motionless. I chanced a whisper to Luna, though no doubt the creature could hear us.

"You must distract her," I hissed, "hold her still. There may still be a chance."

Luna did not respond, and instead continued focusing straight ahead.

"Celestia, fight it. It will do terrible things to you, just keep fighting it. It cannot win if you do not let it," she said.

"Have you gone mad? I can fix her! I can – " I started.

"She will not let you fix her," Luna said. The creature took a step forward and the both of us tensed, waiting for it to strike out. The scene was all too familiar. Could it have happened twice?

There was no argument, no talking, no bragging. The corruption must still have been fighting her for control, I reasoned, but I was reluctant to do anything. Luna really was the expert here, and I didn't want to botch it like last time. So I stood helplessly, watching everything spiral out of control, watching the world fall apart around me.

Luna took a step forward, and the creature took one backward. Luna's step was gingerly, the beast's was fearful. It was like cornering an animal, waiting for it to lash out in desperation. Luna took another step forward.

"It will make it hurt when you resist. That is good, learn to love the pain. The pain means you're free," she said. I began to wonder just what kind of hell Tia was going through now, if these were the words Luna was speaking to her.

A hiss came out of the creature. It took another step away, and had little space left before it would bump into the wall. It looked at me again.

I heard something crack within it's body, like a bone snapping. I couldn't see any deformation in the outer layer of black, but it opened its mouth. A moment later, blood started to pour out, and we stood there watching as it did, afraid to get closer. The message was clear enough.

"This one belongs to me," it said. It was Celestia's voice, sure enough. It looked at Luna again. "It gives itself willingly."

"Do not listen to it Amoria, that is not our sister!" Luna shouted, the words bouncing off the walls and lending an echo. Hollowness. Mere moments ago the fight had ended, and I had stood by and watched. Like a fool, a helpless, weak, fool.

"It laments this affair. I will bend it. It wishes for tolerance. This one is amusing," it said, again in Tia's voice. Her voice no longer had that heavenly, inspiring tone. Gone was the love and caring behind every word. There was no compassion here.

I felt an upwelling of magic in the room, the kind I could feel sometimes when my sisters would raise their respective bodies. This was no lunar ascent though, it was a gathering. Luna's face betrayed none of the emotion swirling within her, but the magic flowing into her from everywhere on earth did. Her eyes began to glow as the moon did, and the familiar royal voice boomed through the room.

"Release my sister, abomination, or face the full force of my wrath," she said. Her tone, measured and professional, sat opposed to her stance.

"It would not strike its loved ones, would its loved ones strike it? It will learn this lesson too," the creature said.

A great wave of force conjured from beneath Luna's hooves and shot out in every direction, looping and swirling in the air of the room. It went everywhere, kindly skirting around myself and the shocked guardspony just behind me, traveling the full course of the room all at once, before concentrating and attacking Celestia from every angle. The force hit from every side and Luna shouted at me from above the din.

"Now Amoria!"

I did not hesitate this time. I leaped in and grabbed Tia's neck, concentrating as hard as I could. The flow of the air around me stopped in a moment as Luna scaled back her assault, and the other-sight came quickly to me.

I stopped.

No.

I stepped back and the sight dropped. Luna dashed towards me as the beast took off and flew up towards the window.

"Amoria!? What is wrong?" she asked me. The creature melted into the darkness and flowed out the window as though it were consciously guided air, a part of the night itself. Celestia was gone. Not that she had left, but when I had looked...

"She wasn't there," I said.

"What do you mean? Speak!" Luna shouted at me.

"There was nothing to save. All black, just black. Celestia is gone," I said.

I felt tears well up in my eyes and could see Luna desperately fighting back her own, to no avail. They came and poured out as she threw herself around me. Though we have lived for so many millennia in each other's company, never before had we felt more alone.

Chapter 5

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My world began to grow hazy, a dark fringe all around the edges of my vision. I was reacting now, some other part of me was talking care of my actions while I tried to comprehend what was happening. I saw Shining Armor come in, flanked by a dozen guardsponies. We were talking, somepony was shouting. Luna was as paralyzed as I was.

I couldn't hear anything, all that I heard was a muffled roar, the sound of my own thoughts rocketing around my head, ricocheting along the inside. Tia was the rock upon which everything else rested, the foundation of the world, to me. She had always been there. She always knew what to do, she always had a plan. I thought I would have had more time, time to say goodbye, and yet now she was gone, snapped up and taken away, off into the night.

Shining Armor brought me close, and I said something to him. I think I told him not to worry, but I wasn't paying attention to my own words.

Damn it Cadence, now is not the time for self pity!

My own thoughts snapped me out of my trance, pushing away the veil of darkness around my thoughts and bringing the world rushing back to me.

"What are we going to do?" my husband asked of me. I stopped, thinking. It was time, wasn't it? If this had happened, it was time.

"The volunteers, you organized them. Tia must have given you instructions," I said. He nodded.

"Volunteers?" Luna asked. I hoped her mind was doing better than mine.

"Twenty of our finest soldiers, who are ready and willing to enter the Abyss with us, and protect the bearers with their lives," I said. Luna's concern was a difficult thing to note, her face would not betray it except for the very corner of her mouth, but I could see it. She knew that, most likely, these volunteers would not be returning.

"Okay, listen to me. We're out of time. I thought we'd have more, but we are literally out of it. Luna and I will head to Ponyville and get the bearers," I said. Luna immediately trotted over to her wardrobe and began rifling through it.

"I'll go with you," Shining Armor said.

"No," I said back.

His expression fell.

"That's not what I meant. I need you to get our troops suited up and ready to go, you've got two hours. Meet us in Ponyville," I said.

"But - " he started.

"No buts," I said, but I couldn't stop myself anymore. I drew close and kissed him, holding him gently by the neck.

"This is it, Shiney," I whispered.

"I know," he said. He held me closer, our coats warmed one another gently as I savored the moment, memorizing every little part of it. I'd need it to keep me warm later.

"All right, let's go," Luna said. I turned to see her in her armor suit, with her longbow slung across her back and her spear in its holster along her side. The crescent moon symbol featured prominently on her chest, her armor a dark blue to camouflage her among her element. I hadn't seen her wear it for centuries, but it still fit as well as it had when it had first been forged.

"Two hours, captain Sparkle," I said, formally. Shining Armor crisply saluted.

"Yes ma'am!" he said. The guardsponies arranged around him as he prepared to bark orders. Luna and I made our way out of the room. A pony waited for us on the other side of the door as we shut it.

"Captain Antares?" Luna asked him. He had left the room at some point during the scuffle, and was now in the hallway waiting for us.

"Princess, I would like to unofficially request permission to accompany you to Ponyville," he said, standing at attention, chest puffed out.

"Was he addressing you, or me?" I asked. Luna shrugged.

"Captain, I appreciate your concern - " Luna started.

"This is me asking, not my rank. I would like to come along, as a pony. As your friend," he said.

Luna considered for a moment. I deliberately said nothing, because, despite the circumstances, I still got a kick out of watching her struggle. I may be millennia old, but I swear I will never grow up.

"Captain, I - " Luna started.

"Please, call me Wedge," he said.

"Your duties at the palace - " Luna started.

"Are nothing compared to the fate of the world," he said.

"The risks will be unfathomable. The survival rate - " Luna started.

"Is near zero. I know," he said.

"Can you fly, soldier? We're not going to slow down, we're going full speed as soon as we take off," I asked. Wedge flared his wings and angled them in a stretch.

"I got second place in the marathon in high school. I'll keep up," he said.

"Amoria..." Luna hissed at me. I winked at her.

"Very well, you may accompany us," Luna said. She turned smartly and used her magic to open Celestia's door. The room beyond was darkened as I entered it. I spied a candle, and tried to light it with my magic, only to find that it had been doused with water. How strange.

"Tia must have kept the key in here somewhere," Luna said, looking around in the dark.

"Key to what?" Wedge asked.

Luna didn't answer, and instead went over towards Celestia's bed. She was looking for something under the carpet, stamping her hoof, hoping to hear an echo.

"There's a secondary lock for the vault. You know, the one with the Elements of Harmony in it?" I whispered. He seemed confused, but I let it drop. I had to search myself.

It took us a few minutes, knocking over the desks and throwing aside the sheets, to locate the hidden vault. It sat on a carpet directly adjacent to the fireplace, right under Tia's favorite pillow. I supposed she spent enough time sitting on it, writing correspondence, that it'd be the safest place to keep something so valuable.

Actually opening the vault was an even simpler matter. It was about the size of a hoofball, square, made of metal, and bolted into the stone in a recess on the floor. I pried the bolts off my the tip of my sword, then I held the vault up in the air. The vault was fairly heavy, mostly the weight of the vault itself, since after Luna disassembled it using her magic, the only thing left was a key. Celestia was an awful clever one, I'll give her that, as the key was made out of Ziristone. I recognized the material right away, it was hewn from a midnight-black rock. The material would prevent a spell from accidentally destroying it. Perhaps she had expected the vault to be destroyed, but felt the key itself too valuable to risk.

With the key in tow, the three of us headed towards the shrine, located in the exact center of the palace gardens. The shrine itself had been constructed a long time hence, but Tia had decided to renovate it fairly recently, and replaced all of the old glass with stained depictions of great events in Equestria's history.

We entered the shrine, lit only by moonlight from the windows. The defeat of Nightmare Moon, I saw it off to my left. Discord, petrified and sealed away by Twilight and her friends, off to my right. Spike, having saved the Crystal Empire thanks to Twilight's humility, the most recent addition, closest to the door. There was only one non-decorative glass pane left in the shrine, an unadorned window nearest the chamber housing the Elements.

Luna inserted the key into the lock as we reached the door. It took a few seconds for the mechanism inside to open, revealing a pedestal with a solitary box on it, sitting in the center of the vault. Wedge waited at the door while we went inside.

I hadn't seen them in some time, truly. I would never have asked to see them, and had no reason to: they didn't belong to us anymore. Some time ago, we discovered a book, called "The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide". It detailed the story of the three elements that we had worn around our necks, their significance, where they came from. No author had been listed, and none of the scholars at the University would admit to having written it. There was knowledge in there that nopony, save my sisters, could have had.

When Celestia banished the Nightmare, I had... left, for some time. I couldn't bring myself to face my sister. I wandered the country as I always had, but my route never did take me back to Celestia, perhaps I was guided by my own guilt rather than my senses. Regardless, I had asked for a place to rest in a sleepy town on the eastern border. It doesn't exist anymore, abandoned when the area was found to not have replenishable water sources, and its name is lost to me, but I do still remember the kindly old mare who let me sleep in the library's basement there. She didn't care who I was, she had seen a traveler in need of a place to get away, and given her one.

There, on a reading table, I had found a copy of the book. Somepony had left it open, and I decided to glance at the page. It detailed six elements, not three. I assumed it had been a mistake, since books were copied down by ponies and not presses in those days. I had thought nothing of it at all, until much later. We never did find out who wrote that book in the first place...

Luna opened the box and revealed, well, nothing. The box was empty. She shook her head.

"Again? I feel as though I have walked this road before," she said.

"They must have relocated themselves, without us knowing it," I chuckled. This wasn't the first time these innocent little jewels had somehow absconded from a locked vault under guard.

"That is – good news? I am not sure anymore," Luna said.

"One less thing to carry. To Ponyville?" I asked. She nodded.

"One thing first," she said. We walked out of the shrine, Luna with her head to the sky.

She waited, looking up at the moon. It was near the horizon, the glow of the sun overpowering its figure as it neared. We waited there for another minute, before Luna lowered her head. She flapped, rising slowly off the ground until she was aligned with some axis I could not see, and the moon and sun switched positions. The sun now shone over the land, lighting it in the glow of dawn.

Luna landed and turned back to me. Her eyes said more than her words ever could, a thin film of tears threatened to burst forth, but was dashed away with a blink.

We took off, heading west, away from the sun and towards the blackest pit the universe had ever fathomed.

Chapter 6

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Our three bullets soared through the empty sky, heading west. The wind in our faces was far too loud for conversation, we had already wasted too much time as it was, and had to make up for it by flying at full speed.

I hadn't been back to Ponyville in some time. I could speculate on why, but all I knew was that my services were no longer needed there, and so I hadn't spent any time. It was also a very out of the way village, as the official advisory for citizens traveling was to take the longer southern road around the vast expanse of unregulated forest territory the town bordered. It was tucked into a nook, cut off from the world, snug in a little hole.

Oh, and the tourism board had been noticing a lot of mysterious disasters afflicting the town recently. Dragons, Ursas, Parasprites, and a host of other strange creatures would attack every now and then. Maybe it was for the best that I had stayed away.

Ponyville had grown since I had last seen it, but it was still a small town with only three or four buildings worth noticing. A grand, ancient tree stood in the middle, and I nodded to my companions as we angled in to land there.

I had estimated it was about eight in the morning when we finally arrived, though something about its arc seemed off. Which is not to knock Luna's capabilities with the sun - far from it. A certain amount of practice is needed with such things, and she is no exception.

As we landed, I wasted no time. I trotted up to the door and rapped my hoof on in a few times, listening for a response. The town was still quiet, as it was almost winter and the farmers had likely finished up their last preparations. Perhaps they had taken the day off, or maybe the inhabitants just slept in. Canterlot never sleeps, and I had grown accustomed to wandering around at night, of late.

No response came from the door, and I tried to push it open to find it locked.

"Erm, that's weird," I muttered to myself.

"Is something amiss?" Luna asked, trotting up to me and noting my consternation.

It suddenly occurred to me that this door was at risk of getting kicked in if I didn't deflect her from the task. Luna's excesses are legendary, I recalled a case of an alarm clock burying itself in a stone wall when it had displeased her by going off at the appointed time. Had the clock had the good sense to let her sleep in, perhaps it would still be with us.

I was certainly not going to let her kill this door.

"It occurs to me that we will need food and water for the trip," I said. Luna turned her head sideways at me, hopefully causing the door to fade from her mind.

"What I mean to say is, Luna, could you go get some of that? For the trip?" I said.

"Right now?" I tried again.

"If you are attempting to keep me from meeting Ms. Sparkle for some reason, you are too late. I have been keeping some correspondence with her," she said.

Wedge cleared his throat. I had almost forgotten he was here.

"I wouldn't mind getting some breakfast, we didn't pack anything to eat," he said.

Luna shot a glare at me, before turning to Wedge and saying something too soft to hear. What just happened? I had suggested she get us some food, and now she thinks I'm hiding something? Is this normal? Am I living this life? Who are these ponies!?

The two walked away and left me standing in front of a locked door, uninvited and unannounced at eight in the morning. Luckily, I knew a few tricks about getting into locked buildings.

The handle of my sword would have knocked in the window, except I realized that there wasn't one. In fact, the building only had windows on about half of the openings, and the others were just carved in and had drawn curtains in front of them. I managed to squeeze through one, fortunately with nopony looking on, lest they see a heavily armed and armored Princess burgling a library in Ponyville. It'd give the local paper something to write about, I suppose.

The inside was dark, with only the light from the window I had come in through to illuminate the floor. Books were scattered everywhere and in every orientation, some up, some down, some open, some closed. None were actually sitting in a sensible place to read, such as a table, because it'd be much more efficient to just store them on the floor. Why use shelves when the floor is so much faster? This is one of the many reasons I'm not a librarian.

Still, the dark character of the building suggested Twilight may not be awake yet. Last we met, she told me she still lived in this library, but I didn't know if the basement or the second floor were better candidates to check.

My horn lit up the gloom as I made my way towards the basement entrance. On a small sign next to the door was written, "By royal decree, stay out of the basement. -The Management". The scrawl of the writing suggested it had been written by Spike, but the royal decree had Twilight's hoofprints all over it. Either way, the door was also locked, leaving me to check the upper floor.

This door wasn't locked, so I nudged it softly open and peeked inside. The darkness was near total, and I could hear something sleeping, making a soft snore every few seconds. Only a scatter of light that had passed the curtains above made its way in here.

Trying to be quiet always sounds louder than normal moving, and each step I took seemed to screech and squeak, but the dozing party did not wake. I kept the light from my horn as dim as possible and slowly made my way up the steps, the beds being on the upper floor of the upper floor. Whatever architect carved this place had a love of steps, it seemed.

When I got close enough, I noted a large basket with a familiar purple and green baby dragon sleeping in it. He was getting big, and was going to need a new basket soon, or maybe a proper bed. I could remember when he was so small, he could fit on one hoof, and would ride Twilight around, sometimes falling asleep in mid-trot. She had been a filly but he was about the size of a sandwich, and their relative proportions had stayed the same over the years. I wondered if he still rode around on her, and what was going to happen when he was big enough for her to ride.

I tried to sneak around his basket without waking him, before I remembered how he could sleep through anything, including having water dumped on him, if you were lucky. Which is not to say Twilight would even intentionally dump water on Spike, but she was rather clumsy sometimes. I had certainly not laughed about it. Not publicly. I suppressed that desire.

Her bed was empty, though she had made it before she left. Crud. This did not bode well.

A startled gasp came from behind me. I turned around to see the basket whirl and flip, as Spike was fighting with his sheets to get up and about. His claw broke free first and tried to grip something on the floor, causing the basket to pitch over and land on his head as he stood up. His vision obscured, he tried to say something under the blanket, but it came out unintelligible. He took a step, and lost his balance, tumbling towards the edge of the floor.

My foal-sitter instincts were still sharp after all these years, and I quickly grabbed the basket and yanked it off his head with my mouth. It was still too late, and he pitched over the edge with his foot wrapped in the blanket. I stomped on the other end and held it still, peering over the edge to see him hanging off the blanket.

"Twilight, don't be mad at me," he said, with a warble of fear in his voice. This wasn't the first time he had said that, to my knowledge. What sorts of terrible things did she do to him anyway? What sustained cruelty were her punishments for sleeping in, or was it all figments of Spike's imagination?

"I'm not Twilight," I said. I had figured that might help. It didn't, and he started to struggle as I pulled the blanket up. He stopped when he could make out my face.

"Cadence!" he shouted, throwing himself around my neck in a big hug. Just like old times, even though things were now capital-B Bad, I still took the time to return the favor. I nuzzled Spike and he smiled, before seeing the light coming through the blinds behind me. The panic came back.

"I slept in! Ahh! AHHH!" he shouted, leaping off the edge and landing hard on the floor below, then dashing through the partly opened door. I heard some thumping from downstairs as I made my way down after him.

I found Spike buried in a small stack of books, and it wasn't a big guess to say that he'd tripped in his haste. I pulled back the curtains to let some light in as he struggled to stand up.

"Okay, now that you've calmed down - " I said, foolishly with my back to him. When I turned around he was already gone, through the door to what must have been the kitchen. I followed after him.

"Spike, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Gotta make breakfast, way behind, what time is it?" he asked.

"Uh, around eight?" I said.

"Ack!" he shouted again, charging at the fridge and throwing it open so hard I thought the hinges were going to come off.

"So do you know where Twilight is?" I asked.

He stopped, calmly pulled his head out and shut the fridge. He turned to me and padded quietly over, and stopped in front of me, with all seriousness on his face.

He looked around the room to make sure we weren't being spied upon. Only the kitchen window was open, and there was nopony on the other side.

"Is this a test?" he whispered.

I was starting to think everypony but me was taking crazy pills.

"Spike, I don't know where Twilight is, and she's not here. It's very important that I speak with her," I said. As usual, whenever I say something direct and formal, that just causes more panic. Spike threw together a spinach sandwich in a few seconds and slapped some mayonnaise on it, then listened intently.

I really didn't know what kind of weird rituals these two had developed, but randomly testing food preparation skills was still not completely outside the range of Twilight's imagination. Spike waited for a few seconds before sighing and taking a bite of the sandwich.

"She's not here? She didn't say anything to me," he said, chewing. Terrible manners I must put up with, sometimes.

"Do you know where she might be?" I asked.

"No," he said, still chewing. He swallowed and made a face, then put the sandwich down.

"Did you mess up the library? I am not cleaning it if you messed it up. And why are you dressed like a knight? And why are you here? Don't you have stuff to do at the palace? And - " Spike kept on rattling off questions. I don't think he cared about the answers, and I knew how to reassure him. I gave him another nuzzle.

"Why, I missed you, Spike! Can't I come see my favorite dragon every now and then?" I said.

"Well then what's with the sword?" he asked.

"I always wear this, it's totally in vogue," I said with a chuckle.

"What's vogue?" he asked.

I suddenly remembered why I left the foalsitting profession behind. A knock came at the door, and the both of us went to go open it. Spike won the race and stared up at Luna, who was now sporting some saddlebags stuffed with packages.

"We have messages for you, Amoria," she said. Spike wasn't moving, so I poked Luna in the shoulder and pointed at him.

"Greetings, citizen," she said curtly. I cleared my throat.

"Spike, meet Luna. Luna, Spike," I said. I picked up Spike's claw and held it up, and Luna took a few moments to realize that she was supposed to shake it. That awkward greeting out of the way, Luna and Wedge pushed past us and put down a set of saddlebags on the library's one clean surface: the reading table.

"One Pinkamina Pie is unaccounted for, so said the proprietors of the bakery, and should we find her we are to send her back at once," she said. Wedge opened up the bag and started reorganizing it to fit better.

"You mean Pinkie?" Spike said.

"I hope that is a nickname," Luna said. If there was some history between these two, I hadn't heard of it. Why can't we all just get along? For my sake?

"Luna, Pinkie is one of the bearers, remember? Laughter?" I said. She was unfazed.

"Pinkie, Pinkamina. Hmm," she said.

She laughed and smiled brightly, from ear to ear. Spike and I instinctively took a step back.

"Ah, the one in the chicken costume! She is good fun, and she is a bearer? I was hoping we'd meet again!" she said, loudly. Not quite shouting, but still too loud for normal indoor speaking.

"Chicken costume?" I asked. Luna blushed.

"This is all well and good, but what's our next move?" Wedge interrupted. I shook my head quickly, I needed to think. Time was important now.

"Twilight's not here, and Pinkie isn't either, if I don't miss my guess. I'd go as far as saying the other four would be missing as well," I said. I looked at Spike, who was staring back at me with a grave look on his face.

"Spike, was this place clean when you went to sleep?" I asked him. He nodded.

Forget capital-B Bad, this was capital-W Worse. The bearers had already left and now we were behind by at least a few hours.

"Luna, we may have a problem here," I said. The happiness melted off her face at once.

"Am I to assume all our plans are now defunct?" she asked.

"We're not out yet, we could try to catch up to them, if we left right now. There's a shortcut they won't know about that Tia told me about once," I said.

"She told it to you, but not to me?" she said, disapprovingly.

"You weren't around. I'll explain on the way, we have to go," I said. I started for the door, but Spike stepped in front of me.

"What's going on Cadence?" he asked. Every time something bad might have happened to Twilight, even if it was just her having to go somewhere without him for a while, he would start to worry and no amount of nuzzling could get him to stop. Whenever I would sit for him during those absences, I could only keep telling him that everything was all right until he would eventually drift off to sleep.

This was no field trip, and looking at him now, I had no heart to lie to him. He was going to worry, and I was going to have to accept that.

"Spike, Twilight and her friends - " I said.

"Are going to go save the world?" he interrupted.

"Uh, well, yes?" I said.

"Oh phew. I thought it was something important," he said. He pushed past me and went upstairs, humming softly to himself. "I'm going back to bed," he said as he reached the door, and closed it behind him.

"He's so considerate," I said, replying to the quizzical look Luna was giving me.

"Please explain," she said.

"I know he's going to worry, so he's trying to save me the worry of that worry by acting tough," I said.

"Was that supposed to make sense?" Wedge asked.

"Come on, we're wasting time," I said, and made for the door again. A big white pony stopped me as I reached the portal.

"There you are! Just where do you get off leaving me behind like that?" she demanded.

I had to look up to see who it was, and for a split second I thought Tia was back and standing in front of me. All my worries and stress had vanished for that split second, but it wasn't Tia. It was a very tall, white earth pony with a red mane.

"Gabby?" I asked in disbelief.

"Who were you expecting?" she asked. I didn't have the heart to answer.

Chapter 7

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"Gabby..." I muttered to myself.

"Amoria, do you know this pony?" Luna asked from behind me.

"Cadence, who's Amoria?" Gabby asked from in front.

"This is Amoria," Luna said, putting a hoof on my back and pushing off slightly, to make herself appear taller. I didn't like where this was going.

"I - ", I started.

"No, this is my friend Cadence," Gabby said, putting her hoof on my head, and pushing off slightly to appear even taller.

"I - "

"Her real name is Amoria," Luna said, lowering her head and making what I swear was a growling noise.

"Please - "

"I've known her since we were fillies. Miamore Cadenza, class Q foalsitter," Gabby said. She pushed down on my head harder, and it took all my strength to keep from buckling.

"I've known her since before you were fillies," Luna said.

"Hello?"

"Oh yeah? Then what's her mom's maiden name?" Gabby asked.

Luna glared at her.

"Get off of me already!" I shouted, and ducked. The two lost their balance for a second as the weight they had put on me shifted and gave way. They caught themselves before they fell over, and wound up face to face. There certainly weren't smiles anywhere around here.

As you can plainly see, my skill at spreading love and happiness wherever I go is impeccable.

"Gabby, what are you doing way out here?" I asked.

She looked surprised to hear me ask that.

"You missed our get together and then act surprised when I keep my appointments? Are you spacing out or something, girl?" she said. Luna chuckled.

"Spacing out. Most amusing," I heard her mutter. I shot a nasty glare at her, and she stopped and straightened up. If there's one way to get on her good side, it's to mock me.

"If you're thinking of missing another appointment then I'm going to straighten out that crooked mouth of yours. You and I are going to have some motherbucking tea and crumpets, and we're going to laugh and talk about old times. It'll be so much fun, you won't want it to stop. Do you understand me?" Gabby said, leaning in close and placing her face directly in front of mine.

"Crystal clear. Can I get back to you in a few days?" I asked, with the most insincere smile I could must.

"No, you can get back to me right now," she said.

"I'm serious Gabby, time is short and we have to get going." I said. She pulled her head away and stepped back, opening up the doorway to allow us out. I recovered from my shock as quickly as I could.

"Really, you're not going to stop me? You're just letting us go without a struggle?" I asked.

"Of course. As you said, time is short, so I've skipped to the conclusion. The more the merrier, as they say," she said. She held her head up in what I can only assume was a sign of respect.

"Thank you very much. It was nice to be able to see you again, however briefly," I said. The three of us trotted past her and prepared to take off.

"Oh you expect me to follow you on the ground then, huh?" Gabby asked.

"No, I – what? Did I miss something here?" I asked.

"This is why you don't skip conversations, Cadence. If you hadn't been in such a rush, you wouldn't have agreed to let me come with you," she said.

But I didn't -

"And it was quite generous of you, even though you owed me one. In fact, I think we should skip the arguments from now on and just get to the ending, it's so much more efficient," she said, smiling wryly at me.

"But I don't have time to argue now either! Gabby, you can't come, it's much too dangerous," I said.

"Where, the forest? To go into some stinking cave? I think it's too dangerous to let you go alone," she said.

"How did you know that, if I may ask?" Luna asked.

"You may indeed, Princess. I was told by Shining Armor this morning when I came to see Cadence," Gabby said. Wedge made a whistling noise which I tried to ignore.

"Glad to see he's so good at keeping secrets," I muttered, loud enough to be sure everypony heard me.

"If that's the case, then how did you come here before we did? Certainly you did not run here," Luna said.

"Why, I am incensed! To question my athleticism, 'tis an insult," Gabby said.

I had never heard her speak like this before, either.

"Tis not a stroke against thy – er, your, skills Miss 'Gabby'. I am simply observing a lack of sweat on your coat," Luna said.

"Keen eyes, or perhaps a keener nose, Princess," Gabby said. She turned to me.

"I took the train. Don't tell me you flew here. Did you?" she asked.

My mind had already slammed my hoof into my face before I could come up with an answer. The train would have been much faster than flying, those things go four times faster than the fastest flier.

"Tis quite all right, old friend of mine, for you have just demonstrated precisely why I shall accompany you on your journey. You're kind of an idiot, and I will be your brain. And since I'm bigger than you, your brawn as well. And your good looks, while I'm at it," Gabby said. Wedge was now desperately fighting the urge to laugh, I could see his chest convulsing as he tried to keep it in.

"So you made one good decision, it doesn't make up for the waffle incident," I said.

"I was young and you encouraged me. That one doesn't count," she said.

I stepped up next to her and pressed my head close to hers.

"Then what about that time at the magic show?" I said.

"That punk was a fake and he was going to steal our bits. You ought to be thanking me," she said.

"It was still stupid!" I said.

"If we're going to go over a list of everything dumb we've ever done, yours will be longer," she said.

I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Gabby, you could get killed. I could get killed! This isn't some silly adventure like when we were little. If I fail down there, it could be the end of everything. Wouldn't you rather spend what could be your last minutes with your family?" I hissed.

She didn't respond at first.

"You've been away for a while, so I'll forgive that one," she said. "You either let me come, or I'll follow you and save your butt anyway. One or the other."

I stepped back and looked at Luna. She was making a show of checking something in the saddlebag Wedge had given her, because eavesdropping was supposedly bad form. Wedge had the same unconcerned look on his face as he usually did.

There wasn't exactly any protest coming from the peanut gallery, it seemed.

"Fine," I said.

"Good. See, the conclusion is the same, but we could have skipped all of that fighting. Next time you'll listen to me, eh?" she said.

"Shut up and let's get going. Follow me," I said.

"Amoria, about this shortcut," Luna started.

"It's to the south of here, about four hours, three if we speed it up," I said. I set off at a trot, and my three companions followed along behind me.

Ponyville, though a small town, still stretched out some distance. I'll admit I was keeping track of the time, at least passively. It seemed to take forever to clear the buildings on the way out of town, last I had been here it seemed much smaller. It still had that distinct, small-town charm, perhaps because there were no electrical lights to be found, or because all the houses were thatched-roof. Technically that was still a style, but the further outwards we went from the town's center, the more modern the buildings became. The newest constructions had a very square look to them, with the exception of the sole windmill that was near the southern border.

We crossed a bridge over a stream and into the green fields on the southern edge of town. The buildings stopped at that natural border, and only the occasional tree broke the openness of the surroundings. We were following a dirt road as it meandered to the south, towards the Pie Family Farms, which was our first stop if we were going to catch up to the bearers.

Since we had left without waiting, Shining Armor knew he was supposed to go there as well, should I be unable to meet him. If he couldn't catch up, we'd just have to go on without him; time was running out and such sentimentality had to be discarded, no matter how painful it would be to not see him again.

My mind began to drift. What was the last thing I had said to him? Hadn't it been some order? Barked like an uncaring monarch, and it could be the last thing to cross between us. That time had been so precious, and while I knew I had not wasted it, I still felt as though it was too short.

I shook my head.

I was making sure we kept a good enough pace. A hearty trot, too quick for anypony to speak, but not fast enough to tire us all out. Exactly right, since if I let Gabby tell Luna her thoughts on politics, sooner or later one of them would take a swing at the other. Or Gabby's idea of sexuality. Or music. Or clothes.

Gabby has a problem with authority, you see.

The fields began to become cluttered with shrubs as we made our way further south, and eventually a forest became present, then meandered about closer and closer to the path, until it overtook it. We now wandered in shade amongst Whitetail Wood's outer perimeter, but strictly speaking, the ancient entrance to the Abyss was a long distance west.

Finally I saw a clearing ahead onto a long, flat, empty plain. For whatever reason, this area of the forest had been cleared off and turned into rock growing fields. I didn't understand much about the mechanics of how one grows rocks at a rock farm, but it had something to with magic, and it was supposedly very profitable.

We reached a fork in the path with some signs pointing in various directions, but the writing was all weathered away, so I could only guess at what they meant. The topmost sign pointed off to my right and had no lettering on it; if memory served, that was the right way to go. The bottom-most sign pointed off to the left and had something carved into it, but the lettering was all smoothed out. The middle sign pointed back behind us, and somepony had painted a crude 'P' onto the side, perhaps because Ponyville was the only major settlement this far out.

"Which way now?" Luna asked me.

I looked off to the right to see, in the distance, a solitary farmhouse and a grain silo standing next to it. Exactly why a rock farm needed a grain silo was probably none of my business, but I did stop to wonder what they filled it with. Sand? Salt?

"Amoria?" Luna asked again, louder.

"This way, come on," I said.

We passed under a worn out sign that looked about ready to fall off its hinges. The sign itself was part of an archway that went through a fence, and it read 'Pie Farms Ltd.' There was nothing else even remotely interesting about it, it was almost confrontationally boring.

The house itself was some distance away from the fence, so I trotted over with purpose and stood afront of what seemed like a deserted building. I couldn't see any light coming from inside and there was no sound, and all the windows were closed. The place could certainly use a coat of paint, and probably some maintenance.

"Do you think anypony is home?" I asked. Nopony answered.

I turned around to see Luna, Gabby, and Wedge standing some distance behind me, staring at me curiously.

"What are you doing standing way over there?" I shouted at them.

"That place looks like it's about to fall apart," Gabby shouted back.

"So? It's not actually going to fall apart," I shouted.

"Then you should be so kind as to go in first," Gabby said.

I felt my teeth grinding of their own accord, but it wasn't just Gabby who was staying back. Luna and Wedge should certainly have more sense, and it's not like the building was going to collapse.

I knocked on the door a few times, and waited for a response, though none came.

I knocked again, with a bit more force.

I knocked a third time, and as soon as my hoof connected, it punched through the rotten wooden door, and I nearly got it stuck trying to pull it back out. I didn't get any splinters in my panic, but I did tear the door off its rusted hinges. It collapsed into the yard next to me and kicked up a cloud of dust as it did so.

I shot an angry glare back at my companions, but they weren't laughing at me. They were just looking disinterested, probably because they didn't know why we were here.

"Hello?" said somepony from inside the house.

"Ah, I thought nopony was home. I am - " I started.

Whoever it was, they screamed, and all I saw as I turned around was a flash of a dark tail retreating into the darkened home. I waited some more, but the house was quiet again.

I stuck my head in to try to look around, and -

CRACK

A rolling pin slammed into my forehead, but not very hard. Just enough to annoy me, and not enough to leave a proper bruise. I stumbled backwards and sat down, holding my snout and quickly running through a list of swears I had memorized for just such an occasion.

"Oh Dog Flagget!" I shouted, but I think I got it wrong. I was pretty sure it was Dog Something.

"Get back you brute!" screamed a dark gray mare just in front of me, still brandishing the rolling pin. I looked up to make eye contact, and as soon as I did, she dropped the pin, eyes widened with fear, and darted off again.

I darted forward and grabbed the rolling pin, tossing it into the yard. My friends, some distance behind, still had made no effort to come assist me, but that was now because they were busy laughing at my misfortune.

Luna, I should point out, was the loudest.

Maybe I should give them a rolling pin upside the head, see how they like it.

"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry," the gray pony said, now having reappeared in the doorway in front of me. Fortunately, I am a Princess, and I was not going to lose my royal composure over such a minor incident.

"Fliminigibbet," I said.

"Sorry, sorry," the pony was still saying, repeating it to herself more than to me.

"Why did - " I started.

"I thought you were a burglar! You broke in the door and you have a big sword and - " she said, but stopped herself mid sentence and started to breathe in and out heavily. Her hoof to her chest, she was trying to measure her breaths and calm herself down.

According to Celestia, this was the exact same sequence of events as when she had visited, except it had been a frying pan for her. Meet the Pie family, fillies and gentlecolts.

Chapter 8

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"Hey, it's turned red," Gabby said with a chuckle as I took another sip of tea. The Pie sisters had ushered us in and offered us some tea as an apology for the large red bruise they had given me.

It's times like this I wish I remembered to bring my helmet, but I wasn't wearing it since it didn't fit me for some reason. I obviously would never have told anypony that, because then they're make fun of me for having a big head, so I had meant to get it sent to a blacksmith for refitting, and never got around to it. The rest of my armor fit fine, just the helmet didn't.

"Your observational powers are uncanny," I muttered.

"Sorry again, so sorry," Inkie Pie said, for about the millionth time.

"It's just a bump, I'll be fine," I said, for about the millionth time.

"It's just that Blinkie saw your sword and she thought you were going to - " Inkie started.

"I know," I said, interrupting her.

We were sitting in their living room, though it wasn't a particularly nice house. All the furniture was covered in white cloths like they were trying to keep dust off of it, except that's something you only do if you're not living in a place. Even the kitchen looked barely used, and I hadn't yet had the chance to ask why.

"So, um, why are you here?" Blinkie asked. She was a dark grey pony with a short, dark brown mane that covered her eyes. She would periodically push the mane away to reveal a purple eye underneath, but soon enough it would cover her again.

"I've come to hire somepony to act as a guide. We're intending to travel through the mineshafts on the western edge of your property," I said, trying to keep it brief. I had already wasted enough time.

"You know mineshafts don't generally lead up to the surface, right? They go down, and they stay down," Inkie said. It was hard to tell which of the two was older, but this dark blue mare acted the part. She had spent most of the time trying to apologize for her sister and taking responsibility, however indirectly. Blinkie had hardly uttered a word, and was unwilling to meet my gaze; she would purposefully look down at her still-full teacup whenever I looked at her.

"It is our intention to stay down," I said. Inkie turned her head sideways.

"Like, you don't want to come back up? Is this some kinda really crappy prank?" she said.

"No, our target is somewhere in Shaft 51," I said. No sooner had I said that then Blinkie stood up and left, without even uttering a word, to go into the kitchen.

A grim silence hung over the dimly lit room. Gabby cleared her throat, but Inkie didn't say anything. She took another sip of her tea. Luna took a step forward from somewhere behind me.

"Did she say something out of turn?" she asked.

"How did you know about that? Father says it's illegal to talk about it," Inkie said. She kept her face focused and steady, staring right at me.

"My sister wrote that particular law," I said. Inkie nodded, but said nothing.

Silence again. I heard a dish being washed in the kitchen, it was the only sound in the house.

"Am I missing something, ma'am?" Wedge asked Luna. She shrugged.

"Amoria is the one who knows about it. Perhaps she would care to inform us?" Luna asked leadingly. I shook my head.

"Not now, when we're underway. Miss Pie, is your father - " I started.

"Father's in no condition to go leading you around," she snapped.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said. Last I had visited, Jedediah had been getting on in years.

"It's all right, he'll be fine. He just pulled a muscle and had to go to the hospital," Inkie said.

"Hmm, and so you two are managing the farm?" I asked.

"More or less. It's the dry season so we've been in Ponyville most of the time," she said.

"So then, who is going to be our guide?" I asked.

Inkie looked down, and focused for a moment.

"It'll have to be me," she said.

Blinkie entered the room again, quietly, hovering in the door frame for a moment to size us up. She trotted up next to her sister and whispered something in her ear. She looked at me, then whispered something else and departed.

"What was that all about," I wondered aloud.

"Absolutely nothing. I need to go pack, give me ten minutes," she said. She stood up abruptly and walked out, down the darkened hallway, leaving the four of us in the living room.

"That was awkward," Gabby said.

"You wouldn't think so if you knew what happened in Shaft 51," I said.

"Is it a big deal?" Gabby asked, walking up beside me and sitting down.

I sighed. I was going to have to tell them. No doubt the Pie family already knew, but I had hoped Jedediah would be able to lead us in, instead of his daughters.

"I think it was almost fifty years ago," I said. I paused, trying to remember. It was somewhere around there, though I hadn't been present myself. Everything was second-hoof, from Celestia's accounts of it.

"Yes, around there. This area was just being settled, lots of wilderness, when somepony happened upon a big gold vein," I said.

"Ah the Ponyville Gold Rush," Gabby said, leaning back and smiling.

"Wow, you remembered our history lessons after all these years?" I said wryly at her. She lifted a hoof to threaten me with, so I decided it best to continue with the story.

"Yes, it triggered a gold rush. Lots of workers, drifters, and prospectors flooded to the area looking to hit it big. Most of them stayed up north, where the rivers could be panned for gold, but one prospector, Herbert Pie, set up a claim just west of here. It was the big one, they found a quartz vein rich in gold, leading due west," I said.

"Did they not know? So close to the Abyss..." Luna said.

"They knew, but greed does strange things to a pony's heart," I said. Luna closed her eyes and nodded for me to continue.

"Technically, only the surface was considered to be off limits. The miners dug closer and closer, branching off to follow the veins of gold, but always encroaching. Tia said she visited herself and warned the miners to stop, and they promised they would. The next day, she visited again, and was not surprised to find them digging again as though nothing had happened," I said.

"Grandpa said we're not supposed to go down to Shaft 51," Inkie said, re-emerging from the darkened hallway. She now sported a hardhat with a light strapped to it, and some saddlebags that matched her grey mane. A pickaxe was strapped to her left side, and a rock hammer to her right.

"Do you know the way?" I asked.

"Yeah, I've been there," she said.

"But didn't - " I started.

"I thought it was a superstition. I was wrong, okay?" she said. She shook her head, and said, "There are things in there."

"Things?" Gabby asked.

"We should get going," I said. I couldn't wait to be out of the house, I felt uncomfortable for no apparent reason. I stood up and everypony else did too.

I secretly hoped that Shining Armor would be standing outside, waiting for us, but he wasn't. We wouldn't be able to wait for him either, so I asked Inkie to leave instructions for him to follow. We were going to leave marks on the walls of the mineshaft as we went, for his party to follow so they'd not get lost. I also made double-sure to tell Blinkie he was coming, lest his head meet the same fate as mine. It was starting to sting now.

We set off at a trot, heading due west, following a path that had been worn into the brown dust fields. Here and there, I could see markings where rocks had presumably been tilted, turned, or dragged off.

"Miss Pie, would you be so kind as to inform me as to how rock farming works?" Luna asked. It was better than talking about Shaft 51.

"Huh? Oh, it's pretty simple, I guess," Inkie said.

"See the markings on the ground? Magic flows along the air currents between rocks, and we've mapped out the flow patterns. If you leave rocks exposed, any large crystals in them get larger by absorbing some of the current. Then we sell the resulting gemstones," she said idly.

"Fascinating. You have mapped out the currents? I did not know such a thing was possible," Luna said.

"You can buy an arcano-voltometer for a couple bits, Luna," I said, chuckling.

"Pardon?" she said.

"The ones we have are more expensive, and more accurate, than ones you can find at a hardware store," Inkie said, "but yes, we use them to map the currents out."

"A device that maps magical currents?" Luna asked.

"She doesn't know much about electricity," I said to Inkie.

I leaped about four feet into the air before my mind caught up with the powerful shock I had received to my hindquarters. I looked back to see my tail cast a faint whiff of smoke, though my coat wasn't charred.

Luna was giving me a chiding look.

"I know a bit about the basics," she said.

Everypony except Inkie laughed at my expense, she was lost in her own thoughts, looking off into the distance at the hill that now occupied the horizon.

As we approached, I could see more of the cliff face. A quarry had been dug into the hill, stripping away all the plant life, and boulders began to become more common. A rather large mine entrance led further underground, though now it was boarded up, and some squat, ramshackle wooden buildings stood around its entrance. They looked about ready to collapse, even more-so than the Pie household, but at least these buildings had an excuse. They likely hadn't been in use for decades.

It was like entering a small village, the way the buildings were arranged. We walked between them and the world became totally silent again, all sound caught between the wooden planks, only the faint rustle of wind made any impact.

"Don't tell my mom, but we used to play in these buildings when we were fillies," Inky said.

"Were they as dilapidated as they are now?" Wedge asked. He pushed on a board with his hoof, and looked disappointed when it didn't give way.

"They're tougher than they look, but they're one bad storm away from a fall, I think" she said.

She led us to a side entrance, not the main shaft entrance that I had seen. Had it not been for her, I wouldn't even have known this entrance existed. It was a smaller opening, hidden behind some rotted wooden boards, and covered in a much newer set of boards attached by nails to the frame of the supports.

"Why the side entrance? Why not go down that big opening we saw," I asked, as I tugged on the lowest board. It refused to budge.

"This one's faster, trust me," she said. She struck the nail out of the board with her pickaxe.

"Stand back, wimps," Gabby said, and the two of us obliged.

Gabby sized up the boards, then turned around. She paused, gave me a sidelong look, and seemed to be waiting for something. She looked up as if to sight a bird.

She bucked so fast, had I blinked I'd certainly have missed it. Each hoof connected with a board and broke it clean in two, the two halves still attached by nails at the sides. She leaped into the air, spun around, and kicked the highest board and broke it into three pieces, the third one sent flying into the mine. I couldn't see it as it skittered off into the darkness.

"Hi-YA!!" she shouted, and brought a forehoof down on the last board, nearest the ground. It broke as well, though she pulled up her leg and held it gingerly for a moment.

"Piece of cake," she said, wincing.

"Thank you for saving us ten seconds of hard labor, Gabby," I said. She took a small bow.

"Anything for you Princess," she said.

"I'm no stranger to sarcasm, you know," I said. Everypony was giving me a hard time lately. Must be due to stress. Or because my friends and family are cold-hearted monsters who merely masquerade as ponies. At least the faceless ones are honest about who they are, sort of.

"Are you coming?" Wedge asked, sticking his head out of the mineshaft. I was the only one still outside.

"Yeah, be right there. Taking one last look at the sun," I said, and I was only partially lying. It really could be the last time I saw it, you take this sort of thing for granted and never realize what it meant until it's gone.

Just like Tia.

The sole source of light as we followed the narrow hewn cavern was the light on Inkie's helmet. It cast a pale glow ahead of us, reflecting off the rock. All around us it was a thick dark igneous stone, but along the walls was a distinct white rock, running in a vein between two differing rock slabs. Inkie stopped abruptly and the rest of us stopped as well.

"Before we get too far ahead, I should give you some of these," she said, and sat down. She opened her saddlebags and pulled out several sticks, giving two to each of us.

"Am I going to look stupid if I ask what these are?" I asked, examining the stick closely. It looked like a stick, but there was a metal cap at one end which must be significant somehow.

"Yes," Gabby said before Inkie could answer. Inkie ignored her.

"These are magnesium flares, I made them myself. Just yank the cap off quickly and voila," she said, and chomped the metal cap, ripping it off. An intense white light shot everywhere and lit up the cavern, I had to look away lest I go blind.

"Impressive," Luna said. She took a breath and her horn began to glow, casting a similar light that wasn't as intense or painful to look at.

"Or you can do that, I guess," Inkie said, "but keep the flares in case we get split up."

"Will do," Wedge said. The others voiced their own agreements. I looked at my own flare uneasily, but botching a light spell at the wrong time would be a bad move. I could count on the flares, so it was best to keep them.

We trekked for a time, and I could no longer keep track of the hours as we went, lacking a sun to use as a reference. Luna didn't have that problem, she would tell us when it was sunset, as it was something she could feel in her bones, the same as my own particular sense, which was quiet right now. I couldn't rely on it anymore, not since the Los Pegasus incident, but the quiet still reassured me, even if it wasn't rational.

The clear white rock vein on the wall zigzagged as we went, sometimes disappearing for a distance only to reappear later. I saw some other passageways that followed it, to our left and right, each clearly marked with a big number carved into the wall. "Shaft 11", "Shaft 12", "Shaft 14". I guess they thought 13 was an unlucky number, and had decided to skip it. Inkie would stop and chip an arrow onto the floor with her pickaxe to show which path we were taking, but we were just following the main one. It was also getting wider as we went.

"So – "Gabby said, probably bored.

"If you want to know about it, just ask me," Inkie said. Gabby cast a sidelong look at me, again.

"Why are you looking at me?" I asked.

"Aren't you going to shush me?" she said.

"You need to hear about it, and now is as good a time as any," I said. Inkie was probably itching to get it off her chest, the way she had been walking made her look like she had an upset stomach.

Inkie seemed to be gathering her courage up, we kept walking as she breathed deep a few times.

"Papa said he was just little when it happened. He said Grandpa woke him up in the middle of the night, said he saw lights coming from the mineshaft and was real unhappy about it," she said, at last.

"This was after the mine had been closed, right?" I asked.

"Yeah. Grandpa said he started feeling really uneasy whenever he was down there, and then they got the official order. Inspectors said there was a poisonous gas leak, but he knew there wasn't one; He sealed it up anyway," she said.

"Then, a few days later, he wakes up papa and says he's got to go down there and shoo off the intruders. Figured it was probably the miners he laid off, taking their chances to get a little more gold out."

"So he goes down there, and my papa is told to watch the house. Grandpa didn't come back, so he waited until noon the next day and then set off himself."

She hung her head.

"Inkie?" I asked.

"It's okay. Papa went down into the mine, and he got down to Shaft 40 and then he heard it. Screaming, echoing up from the depths of the mine. So he started running, and as he did, the screaming got louder and louder. He found grandpa lying unconscious next to a mine cart, his head was damp on the back where the mane was. He shoved him in the cart and dragged him back up to the surface, and they boarded the mine up the next day," she said.

Gabby hesitated, but one of us had to ask sooner or later.

"What about the miners?" she asked.

"They were never seen again," I said.

"That's not true," Inkie said, much to my surprise. I hadn't heard this part.

"A few years back, our farm was in a bit of trouble, see? Pinkie had to move out to take her apprenticeship, and we had a bad year, so we were in debt, right?" she started. She stopped again, and I noted we had passed Shaft 22 now.

"Blinkie didn't want to go, but I figured it was up to me to handle it, so I went down to try to find some gold. I had a gas mask, but it had been decades, so any gas leak must have cleared up. Or not, either way. Gold or bust," she said.

"I had never been underground that far, and when I got closer to the end of the mineshafts, I started to get nervous. I thought I was hearing things, hoofsteps behind me, somepony whispering something I couldn't hear. I felt like I was being watched the whole time, but I shook it off, told myself it was my nerves. I went down Shaft 51 and I found them," she said.

"The – miners?" Gabby asked.

"Yep, two dozen of them. Their bodies were still fresh, but they didn't stink. It was weird, they should have rotted away by then, but there they were, mouths still open, pieces torn off. I swear one of them move to say something to me, then stopped by the time I had turned to face it. There was blood all over the walls, it was like something had scraped them against it, leaving scratches all over. I tried not to look, just tried to focus on the vein, but it was too much, I got scared, and I ran out as fast as I could," she said.

"And as I got to the entrance to Shaft 51, there was a big thing in the way, blocking it. It was black and huge and it just sat in the portal. I froze, and I just looked at it while it looked at me. It'd follow my movements left and right, but it didn't come after me. Just sorta looked at me," she said.

"It seemed like hours went by before I panicked and threw my flare at it. Then I ran past it and didn't stop until I was at the surface. So, that's what we're going down to," she said.

"Then why'd you agree to take us?" Wedge asked from behind me.

"Somepony has to, right? Can't turn down a request from royalty," she said.

"Yes you can," I said. I didn't like being referred to by rank, I hated how some ponies thought they were somehow less than us just because of circumstances like their birth, but now wasn't the time for that sort of political talk.

"If I didn't do it, Blinkie would have. She doesn't have the nerves for this, but she does know the way," Inkie said.

Gabby nudged me.

"Well? This is the part where you reassure me," she said.

"Gabby, the thing she saw is called a Faceless one. They're real. I've fought them," I said.

"Oh well if that's all – "she said.

"No, it isn't. This is not a game, and it's not a joke. They're strong, fast, and they can shrug off any amount of pain. They play tricks on your mind and they can strike from anywhere with no warning. If we see one, leave it to Luna and me," I said.

"I'm not scared, if that's what you're implying," she said. She picked up her pace a little, moving past Inkie and casting a long shadow in the light ahead of us. I sighed, and picked up my own pace to match.

"What is up with you today?" I hissed. I hoped the others wouldn't hear, but sound echoes in caves like this.

"Cadence, you didn't hear, did you? Have you talked to the twins lately?" she asked, in a tone altogether not playful or aggressive like her usual. It was rare to hear her take this sombre pitch.

"No, I was doing my job. You know, Princess stuff," I said.

"I take it that it involves these things, right? Just like at Los Pegasus?" she asked.

"Yeah, this is them," I said.

"Listen, Cadence. My mom - " she said.

"Oh I forgot her birthday! Ack," I said. It had been a thing that we did, because Gabby's mom lost her husband a long time ago, when Gabby was little. So, me and the twins, we'd get her a present on her birthday, and -

"She hung herself," Gabby said.

It was all I could do to not break pace. I don't think anypony behind us heard that, or they gave no indication if they did.

"Gabby, I'm so sorry," I said. She had been in and out of depression for some time, and sometimes she would just zone out for days on end. Sometimes, Gabby would show up at my house in the evenings, back when we were in high school, and ask to stay the night. My parents had just accepted it after a while, they didn't ask why she would show up out of nowhere. I was just a dumb kid, and hadn't realized why.

"It's okay, I'm over it," she lied. I could tell she was lying, wasn't exactly hard.

"Sorry, I must have been all insensitive earlier," I said.

"Not your fault, just, stop trying to persuade me to go home, okay?" she said.

"I wasn't trying to - " I started.

"Yes you were. Just let me do this, okay?" she said.

"Okay," I said.

Chapter 9

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We trudged ever onwards, deeper and deeper into the earth. The rock beneath us had changed color now, it was a pale brown and made a curious crunching noise as we walked, like sand but not quite. I was sure Inkie probably knew more about it, but my mind was distracted by a feeling I was getting. It felt odd, it wasn't quite the same as a disruption, like my senses would tell me about, but it was something.

"Please hold a moment," Luna said. We all obliged, my legs were starting to hurt. I had no idea how far down we had gone, the path sloped gently but it could be deceptive, it's impossible to judge distance down here. The only landmarks were the marked signs indicating we were near shaft 33. They had been getting more and more spread out as we went, the earlier shafts were all clustered but these later ones were often so far apart, well, I couldn't tell how much time elapsed either. I wanted to say they were hours of walking apart, but it only felt like hours.

Luna turned to one side and walked up close to the wall, and her horn went dark. Only Inkie's light now cast long shadows around us, and Luna felt the wall for something. She backed up suddenly, and reared up. I felt a surge flow through me as her horn lit up again, and a great body, far away, moved. She turned to us when it was done.

"It is night time now," she said simply. It may as well always be night down here.

We continued to walk, I didn't know how much further we were going to go, but we needed to rest. Luna had no doubt never bothered with sleep, unless she was feeling bored, but I had become accustomed to it and liked getting a full night's rest. It gave me time to organize my thoughts. No doubt our companions would need it too, their biology, though different, had the same drive, in essence. Time to relax and think about what's happened so far.

"Inkie, is there a place we can rest?" I asked her as we walked.

"Yeah, but we're a little behind where I wanted us to be," she said, her gaze fixed forward.

"Oh?" I led, but she didn't take the bait.

"Princess, I know I've been all grim with you, but it's all the circumstances. Things haven't been going very well for us lately," she said.

"I gathered," I said.

"First this thing with papa, and now the house needs all these repairs we couldn't afford, then Pinkie went missing..." she said, trailing off.

"Pinkie? Oh do you know her?" Luna asked, trotting up alongside us and butting into the conversation.

"Of course, she's my sister. Pinkie Pie," Inkie said.

"Oh I see. I did not realize, I had thought it a coincidence. Is it a common last name?" Luna asked.

"Common as dirt," Inkie said.

"Wait, she went missing?" I asked. This was important.

"Yeah, yesterday. Just up and left without saying anything to anypony. She missed her visiting hours with papa, and then it turns out she never went back to Sugarcube Corner after a little get together with her friends. We didn't have time to search for her 'cause we had to watch the farm," Inkie said.

Hmm, do I tell her that I know where she is? It may assuage her conscience, or it may disturb her further. What to do?

"I'm sure she's just fine," I said.

"Yeah, she can take care of herself," Inkie said.

There was that feeling again. I had felt it before too, a long time ago, but where? When? It was coming from somewhere in the walls. It certainly didn't feel threatening, but I had felt it before. No sooner had I thought of it than it was gone again.

I saw a reflective glint ahead of us, something square reflecting the light from Inkie's helmet back at us. As we got closer, I saw it was a metal sheet with words on it, "Switching Station B. All visitors report to the forepony's office. No access without hardhats, this means you!"

"Oh, I forgot my helmet," Gabby said.

There was an uneasy chuckle in the air as the cave around us opened up. It was strange, I had never spent a lot of time underground, and this, I was totally unprepared for.

It was like an underground city, the opened cavern has a number of wooden houses with barrels and crates in front of them. They were labelled quite clearly, one house had a big red cross that unmistakably meant it was a hospital, and the other buildings had indicators for things like management, records, bunks, and storage.

"What is this place?" I asked nopony in particular.

"Switching station B?" Inkie said.

"It's like a village, but underground," I said. I hoped I wasn't the only one in awe here.

"Yeah, when doing really deep mining, you have to build this stuff so your workers don't have to spend half their shift walking to the surface. So we had doctors and bunks and a bar down here. Must've been something to see," Inkie said.

"Must have?" I asked.

"Well it was all over before I was even born, you know," Inkie said. I presumed her father had told her about this place, but it was no less fascinating to me. If you didn't look up, you could be forgiven for thinking you had gone into town at night. A particularly dilapidated town with no residents, so maybe a ghost town, but still.

"Over here," Inkie said, and we walked to one side of the main 'street'. It really was like a street, with rails where minecarts would have run back and forth, and there were a couple broken ones stacked near another building we passed.

Inkie led us to a room that had been carved from the rock at the edge of the chamber. A wooden door gave way to a small, two-room office. The room behind the first had several slabs carved from the stone engraved into the walls. It looked like an ancient tomb.

"We can sleep here for the night, this is about as good as lodgings get," Inkie said.

"Would not the bunkhouse be a better choice?" Wedge asked. I had seen a building with a sign on it showing a picture of a bed outside, closer to the middle of the village.

"All the beds are gone, anything that was worth carrying was taken out when the mine was closed," Inkie said.

"Did you just leave the rest of this junk down here, then?" Wedge asked.

"If it'd cost less to buy a new one than to pay a pony to haul it out, better to leave it here," Inkie said. Her demeanor was that of a hard-nosed naturalist, but she truly was a businesspony at heart.

There were some recesses in the walls where candles had once been, but I couldn't locate any in the office. The only thing still here was a box filled with ancient looking work records, scratched on paper that'd turn to dust if you shook it too hard.

"Well, time to get scrounging," I said.

"Hmm?" Luna said, looking at me.

"It means searching, I'm going to try to find a candle or two. Wanna come with?" I asked hopefully.

"I'll go," Wedge said. Luna nodded in assent.

"All right, let's go check the storage building. Be back soon," I said.

The two of us ambled off into the dark, and when the door shut, we were left in pitch blackness. Wedge cleared his throat somewhere off to my left.

I waited a moment.

"Princess?" he asked.

"Give me a second," I said.

The feeling was back, as we had walked into the dark, it became stronger. I was considering an experiment.

I cast a light spell, and I didn't even screw it up too badly. It took me a few adjustments to get the intensity down below 'blinding', and as the light became less intense, the intensity of that odd feeling became greater. I still didn't know how to place it. What was it?

We passed a rickety looking shack with a picture of an ale stein on it, and I stuck my head inside briefly to see if anything had been left. The whole place, however, had been ransacked. Leave it to a bunch of miners never to forget the booze. Then again, it'd probably have turned to vinegar by now. Or, it'd be a finely aged wine, if they had any, but the building was completely empty, save a bar stool or two.

The second building we checked was marked as a storehouse and it yielded some results. There was a pillow inside, but it smelled nasty so I left it where it was. There was also a toolbox full of bolts and screws, some old-timey magazines (mostly oriented towards a colt demographic, I'd venture), and a candle with a decent amount of wax left. Otherwise, the building was empty, probably not ten bits of actual value remained in the whole complex, just a lot of forgotten junk.

I picked up the candle and put it in Wedge's saddlebag, but he didn't seem keen on leaving quite yet. As I turned to walk out, he stayed where he was.

"Is something the matter?" I asked him.

"I needed to talk to you, in some amount of privacy," he said.

"What about?" I asked. I was getting tired, and didn't want to have another discussion when I could be taking a nap.

"It's about your sister," he said.

I chuckled.

"Luna? What about her?" I asked.

He paused, trying to think of the right word.

"Has she ever had a relationship before? It seems as though nothing I do even makes an impact on her," he asked.

"Well, we're leaping a few steps ahead, aren't we? Do you realize the rules of propriety here?" I asked.

That one flummoxed him.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"If you fancy my sister then you must behave as a gentlecolt would. Need I remind you that her etiquette is over one thousand years out of date?" I said.

"Oh. When I was a lad, I would just ask mares to a dance. What did she do a thousand years ago? Was it that different?" he asked. This was going to be more like a history lesson, I felt.

"Yes and no. Courtship between most ponies was just like today, let me tell you," I said. It brought back a memory of mine, a stallion, Alexei? No, I had always called him Alex.

It hadn't gotten serious between us, but I still remembered him, eleven-hundred years ago. Ah, he had been quite a charmer. How did he first approach me?

"Writing letters!" I said. Wedge turned his head sideways.

"I don't understand," he said.

I was going to leave Alex out of the conversation, if I could; I doubted Wedge would understand my strange circumstances, and I didn't want to make things confusing for Shining Armor. That'd upset him quite a bit, if Wedge said something out of place.

"In the old days, a gentlecolt would write his lady letters, always sent with a pen-name but otherwise anonymously. They were like poems, extolling the virtues of the lady and her family. You have to write it to make her feel like the most important pony in the world, get me?" I said.

"But she already knows me," he said.

"Yes, and she'll figure out who the letters are from pretty quickly, but that's how you do it. You have to win her heart like that, then tell her to meet you someplace romantic and do a big reveal. That's how you woo a princess," I said.

"Is that how Shining Armor won you over?" he asked.

I blushed.

"Ah - no, he lifted a book for me," I said.

Wedge wisely let that one slide. We made our way back to the office to find Gabby already asleep, and Inkie looking like she was about to collapse. Luna, though she was laying down, did not look the least bit tired.

"I was wondering if I'd need to retrieve you," she said as we entered.

"Just follow the smell," I said.

Luna lit the candle for me as I put it in the recess on the wall, and it cast an orange glow over the room. Much more natural that our light magic, and I estimated the candle would still be burning when we woke up.

I didn't want to go through all the effort of pulling off my armor, and Luna had left hers on as well, but Wedge disrobed quickly and stacked his gear in a corner. I noticed Luna watching him intently, but I decided not to mention anything we had talked about earlier. She would find out soon enough.

"Not going to sleep, sister?" I asked her, as I made myself as comfortable as possible. I didn't feel quite right trying to sleep on the rock slabs as the others had, and I figured the floor was just as comfortable, so I propped myself in a corner and laid down.

"I will keep watch," she said, but gave me an intense look.

"What?" I asked, answering her stare.

"You ought to remain awake too, but you sleep. Why?" she asked.

"Did she just ask you why you sleep?" Inkie muttered. I couldn't tell if she was awake or half-asleep, and she didn't seem interested in an answer.

"It's how I relax. You're always on edge, you need to lighten up," I said. Her stare was as intense as ever.

"I have reason to be 'on edge'," she said.

There was that feeling again. It was closer now, but still very distant. I sat up again.

"Do you feel that?" I asked her. She shook her head.

"Are your senses telling you something?" she asked.

"I don't think so, maybe I'm just uneasy," I said. I yawned.

"Hmm. Good night, then," Luna said.

"Good night," I said. I drifted off as I laid my head down, but there was still an uncertain feeling coming from somewhere nearby. I remained aware of it even as I closed my eyes, like I was only partly asleep. That awareness tugged at me, but I was too tired to listen.

Chapter 10

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"Now, this project is going to be about something I know you've been itching to look into," my professor said. Professor of what?

"Really? Should I take a guess?" I asked.

"Skip the games. Are you aware of the cannibalism incident that happened a few years back?" he asked. I tried to focus on him, but I couldn't make out any details. All I could tell about my professor was that he was older than me.

"Cannibalism? Really?" I said.

"Anthropology wing, in the museum. There are two books I want you to get, and have them read by this weekend. Get going," he said.

I stepped out of whatever room I had been in and into the main hall of the physics building. I recognized the broad layout of the University of Canterlot but all the rooms were in the wrong places, and the connection between the physics building and the chemistry building seemed to extend at an impossible angle into the ground. How could anypony walk on it? The floors looked to be at sixty degrees to the ground!

I started walking over to the doorway that led out into the yards, I figured the fastest way to reach the anthropology building was to cut through the computer science building, so I headed that way first. It was a bright and sunny day out, the grass green and the sky blue and happy, yet it was bitterly cold for some reason. It felt like the dead of winter, but there was no snow around. Nopony was out in the yards either, and I wasn't wearing a coat or anything. I had to hurry or I'd freeze.

I jogged over to the CS building's entrance and pushed past the door. They were all locked, but the door itself fell inward when I pushed it, and a janitor ran up and neatly replaced the door behind me as I entered. He gave me a nod, so I thought nothing of it.

I felt as if I had plenty of time, and decided to take a quick detour. In fact, since the connection to the sociology building was on the second floor, I could dart through the mainframe room on the way and check out that enormous machine. It took up a gymnasium and was loud like a snoring pig, with enormous vacuum tubes running here and there, and busy ponies making punch cards surrounded the thing twenty-four hours a day, but it was state-of-the-art ultra-technology. The papers always said that computers were the way of the future. Those things are always biased.

As I reached the second floor, though I couldn't recall climbing any stairs, my legs felt a little tired. Since nopony was around, I figured I'd just sort of inch my way over. I laid on my back, legs up in the air, and started expanding and contracting my midsection, like a caterpillar, sliding across the floor and making good time while doing it. It was so relaxing, and the floors here were so clean you could eat off of them. I still wouldn't, but if I dropped something it wouldn't be an unrecoverable loss.

There was a door coming up ahead of me, so I expertly shifted my weight and rolled over in one smooth motion. It would have looked like something a gymnast would do, I'll go ahead and give myself ten outta ten for that one.

The door led back outside, on the same level as when I had entered, but hadn't I gone up a floor? No matter, it wasn't cold anymore so I walked the rest of the way to the sociology building.

The museum was in the main floor, and the whole place was dark as I entered, with mist and smoke swirling around. The exhibits were illuminated by green lights placed around them, and the whole place was ominously silent as I made my way over to the cannibalism display my professor had spoken of. There were no books here, but I found what I was looking for: A golden medallion with a picture of a slab of cut up carrots on it.

"My my, what a strange dream you're having here," my sister said, and I turned around to see her familiar navy blue face smiling at me.

"Luna? Oh, this means I'm dreaming doesn't it?" I asked.

"You were having so much fun, 'tis a shame to break it up," she said. I blushed a bit.

"Did you like that worm thing I did? I figured the dismount was the best part," I said.

She chuckled, and a great smile came over her face. Luna so rarely smiled, but then again -

"H-hey! Where do you get off coming into my dreams!" I demanded of her.

"It is my duty, is it not? I watch over the night, and I must watch over those who inhabit this dream world. You know I am to comfort ponies whose sleep is disturbed," she said.

"But my sleep isn't disturbed. Surely somepony somewhere is having a nightmare," I said.

"I can think of nopony who needs my help more than you. And don't call me Shirley," Luna said, and she smiled wider.

I had never seen her before, in my dreams, because she had never been needed here. She had told me about it, sometimes, as it was her duty. We all have our duties, our special places in the world, and this was hers, not just the guide of lunar course. I didn't understand what she did or how she did it myself, no doubt she would not fully understand my special gift either, and I made no effort to explain it, nor she to me. Perhaps because it felt so personal, to invade another pony's psyche in order to help them, that it would be a violation of an unspoken trust to discuss it much with another. She had no doubt seen thousands of dreams but never spoken a word of them to me.

And yet, she was different here. She smiled so rarely in the real world, but here, all grins. She had even cracked a joke, and it was a funny one too!

This is my dream though, and that meant I was in control. Now that I was aware of it, it became a lucid dream, by wanting something to happen, I could make it happen.

We were now standing outside, and it was warm and comfortable, because that's how I wanted to be. So relaxed, at least in my own head. Much better than that creepy anthropology exhibit.

"I approve of the scenery," Luna said.

"Now tell me, why have you come?" I asked.

"You may not think so, but you are disturbed. I can feel it as surely as you can see me in front of you. What is bothering you?" she asked.

"I'm not really sure. My memories are so disjointed in here," I said. It was like a heavy fog was over my consciousness as I slept, I couldn't remember things, I knew that something was wrong but was unsure as to what. No doubt had I been awake I would know instantly, but this was a different place, inside my own thoughts. Ideas could not be summoned up by my disjointed consciousness, thus perhaps I could manifest them some other way?

"Ladies, such a nice day for a stroll," Celestia said as she trotted past us.

The sky went dark, all at once. The world became cold, and clouds blotted the sun out. Celestia looked the same as ever, though. Why had she triggered this?

"I see. This does not surprise me, though you give an admirable performance of hiding your emotions on the outside," Luna said.

"What? Tia? What about her?" I asked.

"Amoria, please remember what happened. Remember what happened to Celestia, or you will not be able to face it," she said.

"Nothing happened to me, don't be silly Cadence. I have to go pick up Twilight for this evening's lesson. Care to accompany me?" Celestia asked, in her usual, chipper tone.

I turned to look at her. She was smiling at me, but the sky behind her was dark. It was like there were no more stars in the sky, no clouds, not even a sky. The world was empty, except for the three of us.

"She's right here," I said to Luna.

"Amoria, this is a dream, you know this. You can manipulate events here, but that does not make them true. Remember what happened," she said.

Something had happened to her, I remember that now.

"I'm fine, I'm right here," Tia said. It was less reassuring, though, and more like she was ordering me to believe her.

I closed my eyes and thought.

"Cadence? Please? Let me be fine! Please?"

When I opened them, I saw a black mist rising up out of the ground, and it flowed around my taller sister from the legs up. I stepped back, my mouth agape.

"Amoria. Concentrate. You must do this," Luna said. I wanted to look away, but Luna was right, so I kept looking. The mist flowed up through Celestia, flowing inside her, around her. It solidified, covered her in a black tar, and all I could see was the outline of her, before it consumed her completely. Her eyes opened, blood red, and she scowled at me.

I rushed forward, and brought my sword down on her, at the neck, severing her head. The image melted away, and we were standing back at the University campus again.

"Was I really repressing that?" I asked Luna.

"No, that was only an image. You were refusing to face it, but it was still an image. What it represented is still with you," she said.

I sighed.

"Hmm?" Luna said, leading me.

"It felt so right to do that, to cut her like that. Does that make me a bad pony? Should I feel remorse for it?" I asked.

"I think that you were doing the right thing, so that's why it felt that way. The true question, then, is whether or not you will be able to do that when the time comes," she said.

I didn't answer, not immediately.

"Would you?" I asked.

She didn't answer immediately either.

"One of us has to," she said.

"It may as well be me, then," I said.

"I will accept your nobility, if only to spare myself. Tell me, why would we not leave her to the bearers?" she asked.

"Twilight? We need to get there first. If Tia were to say even one disapproving thing to her, it'd ruin her life. She won't know Tia doesn't mean it, that it's not really her, and by crushing the spirits of the Hero of Harmony, she'd seal the doom of us all," I said.

I wanted to weep, right then. To imagine that monster using Tia's body like a puppet, and to do it in such an insidious way. Wrench her out and use her mouth as a weapon, it was disgusting.

"If I faced this fear, now, then it's over right? I just want this to be over," I said.

Luna laughed.

"Over? You have destroyed a minor figment of your subconscious. You will need to face this every night, possibly for years, possibly forever. It was easy here because you are in control of your own mind, and you are aware of it, but I cannot be here to guide you every night. Some nights, you will fail. Some, you will succeed," she said.

"What happens if I fail?" I asked.

"Then the dream becomes a nightmare, and there is nothing I can do to help," she said.

"How very reassuring," I said.

"Dreams are complex things, Amoria. I have seen much symbolism in your mind here, though I cannot work out all of it. What does the University represent?" she asked.

"How should I know!?" I said.

"What of the cannibalism? That was most interesting," Luna said.

"Oh nuts to you, let me have my fun here," I said.

I got a wicked idea.

A lightning cloud appeared somewhere above our heads, and before she could react, it send a bolt straight into Luna's rump. To her credit, she didn't react too much, merely kicking back her legs before recovering her balance.

"That counts for less, this isn't real," Luna said. I made sure to make her tail smoke slightly, just like mine had.

"Who's keeping score?" I asked. We both laughed.

Behind us, a dark form swirled up out of the mist, the same mist that had taken Celestia earlier. It felt angry, hostile. I shooed it away, but it didn't want to listen to me.

"Are you now trying to scare me? I've seen far worse," Luna said.

I concentrated, but the cloud of gas didn't listen to me.

"Go on, get out of here," I said. The gas swirled some more, becoming thicker.

"Amoria?" Luna asked.

"I'm trying, it won't go away," I said. No matter how hard I thought, it wasn't listening.

"You are a figment of my imagination. Do as I say!" I shouted. Nothing.

"Amoria, wake up! Wake up now!" Luna shouted.

I bolted awake, the dim glow of the candle was all that illuminated the room ahead of us. Luna stood in the middle, looking at the door. An all-pervading sense of anger, hostility, hatred, surrounded me. They were here.

I checked over myself quickly, my head coming out of the fog. I needed to wake up fully in the space of a few seconds. I was still wearing my armor, my sword still in the scabbard on my back. Luna poked me and I stood, and we moved for the door, quietly. I wanted to keep my friends from getting involved if I could, and there was no need to risk anypony's necks but our own.

We stepped out into the gloom, leaving the candle and our sleeping friends safely in the office. Luna lit up her horn and sent the light into the air above us, illuminating the decrepit surroundings as clearly as possible. Like the moon on a bright night, it would have to do.

I tensed up, and waited. They were somewhere ahead of us, and I could sense three distinct signals.. and that odd feeling again, also somewhere close by. I saw a bubbling ahead of me, and heard Luna shift herself to face it.

The liquid coalesced and congealed, hardening to form a body, not fifty yards ahead. Another appeared off to the left of the first one, but I couldn't focus on it, not as I was seeing the strangest thing. The first creature, it formed four legs, then a body atop them. Then a tail, and it formed a neck, and placed a head atop that neck, with a mane. The mane and tail were of the same black rock, they hardened and became firm, real, but it was a pony. A pony. The creature had taken the form of a pony and stood opposite me, yet another in a long string of unprecedented happenstances.

I've fought hundreds, thousands, of these things. Never has it taken the form of a pony. I've killed more than I could count, and never did it look like a pony. They looked like anything and everything else, and some looked like nothing at all, but never ponies. There was a reason we called them the Faceless ones, but this one had a head, if not a face.

"Amoria," Luna hissed.

"Yes?" I asked, but did not take my eyes off of the faceless pony.

"I will take the one on the left," she said, her gaze similarly transfixed by the other creature.

I glanced over at the creature she was referring to, and while I knew Luna could handle such an enormous, armored creature with enough pincers to make a crab symphony jealous, I was more concerned about where the third one was. I could only see two, but I could sense a third one.

I checked behind us, in case something was wonky, but my senses told me there was a third one somewhere ahead of us. I just couldn't see it, but then I looked up.

Chapter 11

View Online

Hanging off the ceiling was an enormous black snake-like creature, except it wasn't moving. It was, if anything, more like a cocoon, twisted at ninety degree angles and corkscrewing down towards the ground. It just hung over us, and I didn't have any time to figure out if it was going to attack or not.

Luna drew her bow and created three arrows of pure magic, which hung on the string and sent out their own pale light in front of us. I lifted my sword to match, but the creatures standing opposed to us did not move. We had as much time as they did, so I was content to let them make the first move, and counter it.

The pony creature saw me rear up and draw my sword, so it reared up as well, matching my pose. It cocked its head to the side and waited.

"Amoria, what is happening?" Luna whispered to me.

"I don't know," I whispered back.

The pony creature turned to its companion and made a gesture with its forelegs, throwing them up in the air and looking like it was embellishing something in a speech. It was mocking me. Copying my behaviors for some reason. I took a step forward, and after a beat, the creature opposite me did the same.

"Enough of this," I muttered, dashing forward and bringing my blade up to slice off one of its forelegs. Luna took my hint and launched her arrows, which pierced and stuck within the body of the creature opposite her. A moment later, I saw more arrows arc and stick into the body of the creature, as she filled it up like her own personal pincushion. It did not react.

I brought my blade up to slice off the other foreleg and stepped back to avoid a counterattack, but it didn't come. The pony creature seemed to be examining its two brand-new stumps and took a step back of its own, before two new legs exploded out of the old sockets. It took the pose I had taken as I held my sword up, and cocked its head to the side again.

I decided it might be a good idea to lop that stupid head off, so I shot forward and beheaded the ugly thing. The head splattered against the ground, sending the black tar in every direction, and the creature waited until I had backed up before erupting a new head out of its body. It clutched at its core and made the distinct appearance of laughing at me, holding its sides, except no sound came out. Perhaps it could make no sound, but the message was clear.

Luna, with her spear drawn, charged at the creature she had been perforating for the past minute. She struck with a wide arc, not contacting the creature but rather dashing her spear across the arrows still stuck in it. Everywhere her spear touched, the arrows around it burned brighter, until she had touched them all and backed up. The arrows began to glow brighter and then burst, like popcorn, splattering the thick mud everywhere. I had to duck to avoid a splash of tar, and darted behind the corner of one of the buildings to avoid the rest.

"Very subtle," I said.

She just winked at me. The creature had been reduced utterly to pieces, but I was not sure why they weren't resisting. I sliced another part off the pony creature and it simply created a new limb to replace it, now it cocked its head back as if to laugh even harder.

It stopped laughing at once, snapping itself back to a reared up pose, and then pointed at me using a hoof. I stepped back and Luna stood to my side, wondering as much as I was what was going on.

The creature pointed up at the ceiling, and the both of us looked up at the cocoon creature to see it extend downwards. It continued to extend until it hung just above the head of the pony creature, and it began to swell up until it was much like a bloated sack, or maybe a balloon, hanging above us.

"Should we shoot it?" Luna asked me.

"I don't know," I said, not for the first time.

It suddenly occurred to me that this was probably a huge mistake. The Los Pegasus incident had demonstrated that some of these faceless ones were capable of thought, to some extent, and had learned what my own patterns were in order to best them. I was going to find out very soon if I had been a fool, as the pony creature leaped up and punched the bloated sack.

It burst, and a thousand tiny green marbles rolled all over the ground, running everywhere.

"Luna, don't touch them!" I shouted, darting in front of her and placing my sword horizontally on the ground. The marbles rolled and collided with the sword, and Luna hesitated for only a second before leaping into the air.

"What is this? What is happening?" she asked, startled, as she drew her bow again.

I recognized the green color of the marbles instantly.

"Ziristone," I said.

I was still immune, but I did not want to chance what had happened last time, with Celestia. She had told me of the strange feeling it gave anypony that touched it, how it made them appear gray, and I had connected it with General's plan only after the fact. Luna may be able to resist it, but it was best not to even come into contact with these things.

The pony creature was nodding its head, but in a mocking gesture, as if to say, "Oh, you finally get it!". It bent down to the ground and took great interest in one of the splashes of its tar body, a leg I had cut off, as the marbles came into contact with it. It had started to bubble, then it swirled and absorbed some of the rock floor into itself and began to assemble into a new faceless creature.

In front of us, the same scene repeated a hundred times, with the marbles touching pieces that we had torn off and assembling new creatures from them, crafted from the living rock.

"This is not good," I heard Luna mutter. I had to think, had to think of a way to deal with all of these creatures before they overwhelmed us, but cutting them apart would not work. It would only compound the problem.

I felt a great surge next to me as Luna was preparing a spell. I turned to her and tried to shout, but the spell began to create a storm of fire around her and my words were drowned out.

Desperate, I leaped in front of her and threw up my legs, and only then did she relent. I had foolishly turned my back to the assembling creatures and, this time, there would be no mockery. They had already accomplished what they had set out to do, and something hit the back of my head extremely hard.

I pitched forward, dropping my sword and plowing my mouth into the dirt. I didn't try to stand up, instead I pulled my head just far enough up to leap forward, narrowly evading something else that slammed into the ground behind me, inches away. I lost my balance but tucked into a roll and turned around to see the horde of creatures advancing on us, my sword lost in the swarm.

"What do we do? Will my magic not work?" Luna asked, hovering near me.

"It'll just break them up again, and then we'll have even more to deal with," I said, and I spit out some of the blood that had pooled in my mouth. At least none of my teeth were loose, but I'd be making an appointment with a dentist if I survived this.

I began backing up instinctively, and Luna hovered to the side, wary of touching the ground lest a marble roll under her. We had precious little space as the creatures bore down on us, but I reasoned they likely did not know of our sleeping companions in the office behind us.

Last time, I had destroyed the Ziristone with an explosive, Minty's rocket rigged with who knows how many fireworks. Other than that, I didn't even know how to damage the rock, it seemed extremely hard when I had touched it and I now lacked the tools or time to experiment. But I did have an idea.

I took a breath and concentrated as hard as I could. It was difficult to bring up the othersight, in this situation I had to fight the urge to panic, which was ever present. Still, I kept it going long enough to see what I was dealing with.

The marbles had aggregated like little atomic nuclei inside the creatures, and you can thank Squeaky for teaching me what an atom was. Pulling the marbles out would disable the creature, but it would not be long before a spatter of tar was reanimated by another marble. Still, I had an idea and it was worth a shot.

"Luna, your spear," I said, and she passed it over to me as I reared up.

"This will do us no good," she hissed.

"I will mark a spot. When I do, use your magic to cut it from the body of the creature, and place it on the roof of the building to my left. Do you understand?" I said.

"I will trust you," she said. She hovered higher as I surged forward, striking straight at the ball of marbles in the nearest creature. I did not slice it, rather, I poked it just enough that Luna could see where, and as soon as I withdrew a gust of wind blew past me. The wind became solid as it contacted the creature and sliced a square through its body, suspending the marbles in the air in front of me as the rest of its body dissolved completely and became a lump on the ground. I saw the balls float up as Luna levitated them atop the wooden structure nearest us, and I prepared to strike again.

Again I punctured the nearest creature just enough to indicate where the core was, and again the wind spell cut past me and neatly, surgically, removed the corrupt core, destroying the creature.

It seems they had possibly anticipated this, or had a plan, because after disabling the first few creatures, the balls began to dissociate and took up positions throughout the bodies of the creatures. Unfortunately for them, they had failed to understand the level of harmony between myself and my sister. Our minds were as one, we were effectively the same pony as she read my body language in time to see the wind spell strike the target immediately as I punctured it. So they had split their cores, it only meant I had to do three or four smaller strikes instead of one big one. The creatures advanced at us and we hacked them up, their bodies melting into nothing as we tore out their souls.

At last, the final creature charged me and I waited as Luna neatly sliced its core out and deposited it with the rest of them, safely, inertly, atop the wooden house. Had it been rock we placed it on, I could not be certain what would happen, but the wood was something the faceless could not manipulate. It was over, and we had won. I recovered my sword, laying off to one side of the path, and shook my head as the sight left me. Luna was overjoyed, smiling broadly at me as I strode to rejoin her.

"Such a rush! It has been so long since I had felt that kind of excitement, we really must do this more often," she said.

"Was that a joke?" I asked her, and she giggled.

"It is rare to see you at your peak. How long has it been?" she asked.

"I'd rather not have to be at any sort of peak, thank you. What do we do with these marbles?" I asked. Luna flew up to examine them more closely in the dim light of her spell.

"Ziristone, you said? But how?" she asked.

"It can absorb magic, and I think the faceless ones are animated by such magic. It's like a control unit," I observed.

"Hm, very clever of them. I trust General was the one who did this?" she said.

I paused. I had not told her of General, nor had Celestia, to my knowledge.

"How did you know that name?" I asked.

She sent a dour look at me. "I am not sure. Who is that? It seems familiar, but I am not certain where we met," she said.

"Luna, General was the leader of the faceless when they attacked Los Pegasus. I briefed you on it, remember?" I said.

This had taken a rather disturbing turn. Luna hopped off the roof and landed next to me, her stern expression a total departure from the jocularity only moments before.

"I knew her, him, it, very well. I am certain of that, but I know none of the details," she said.

"Anything you can remember would be a great help. How – no, I'll let you figure it out on your own," I said.

We walked back to the office door after Luna had piled some timber atop the marbles and collected a few strays that had scattered during the fight. My senses had gone quiet, though that could mean they were now hiding instead of openly stalking us. I could not relax, yet.

General had been dead before Luna had been freed, but there had been some sort of contact between them. What's more, had they been friends? Was that possible? Why would they have needed to contact one another?

It was all mysteries, and only Luna could puzzle the truth out of her foggy head. I'd just have to wait until she could recall what had happened, almost all of the "Nightmare Moon" business had been painfully teased out of her subconscious over the course of several months. She had demanded a full account, and when she heard of what she did, the repressed memories came back and had caused much anguish. I wondered if it would cause her still more pain to recall what she knew of General, but it was valuable intelligence, and that was something I needed desperately. Had it not been for quick wits and teamwork, our journey would have ended in this forgotten mineshaft.

We entered the dimly lit office and Luna extinguished her light spell. Our friends were still sleeping, though I noticed Gabby had shifted in place. Probably the stone made her uncomfortable, nothing for me to worry about.

I laid back down in the same spot as before, hoping I could get back to sleep, but it occurred to me I didn't know how long I had been out.

"Luna, what time is it?" I whispered, as she settled into the same spot as before.

"Almost four," she whispered back.

I groaned. Exactly too late to go back to sleep, and too early to make me feel good about staying awake. I didn't know about Inkie, but Wedge would certainly be up and about before long and then I'd never be able to stay asleep.

Fortunately, my Princess physiology would keep me sane, I just wouldn't be very happy about it.

I contented myself with merely keeping my eyes closed, sleep deciding to remain tantalizingly out of reach. As expected, Wedge awoke at 6:05, even though we were far underground. Perhaps he was disturbed by Luna raising the sun that morning, I know I was. It was a little surge that would run through me, though it was not quite as powerful as Celestia's, and the intensity seemed to be related to the solstices. I had asked her, once, to explain why that might be the case, and Luna had seemed genuinely surprised that I could feel anything at all. Had I been sticking my nose into something private? Or had she simply thought it beyond my grasp?

"You smell like a dead fish," Gabby said, and I turned to her to see she was awake at last. Inkie moved in response.

"Thanks Gabs," I said.

Chapter 12

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We ate breakfast, mostly in silence. I noticed Inkie hadn't packed anywhere near enough food for the trip, most of her carrying space was flares and assorted mining tools, so I decided to forgo my food and let her eat it instead.

Luna also decided to abstain, though I could see her mouth watering as Gabby wolfed down a sandwich. Never one for table manners, Gabby burped and gave me a look.

"Forget how to eat?" she asked.

"I don't think I could after that display," I said.

"You've seen worse," Gabby said.

"Yes, and you were the worse. Were you raised in a barn?" I asked.

"That depends, does the back alley behind the porcelain goods store count as a barn?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

She stopped and stared at me for a few seconds, before stating, "Pottery barn, get it? Do I have to explain the joke to you? Criminy!"

I frowned back.

"I don't recall you ever doing much better, especially not with the way you eat cotton candy," she said after a moment of refection.

"That was one time," I muttered.

It suddenly occurred to me that if Gabby couldn't catch up with me over tea, she'd catch up with me during a life and death struggle for the fate of the world.

"But seriously, are you three not eating? If that's so, I won't save you a granola bar," she said.

"Three?" I asked. I looked at Inkie, who looked up suddenly with her mouth full of salad.

"Whah?" she asked, and lettuce fell out of her full mouth. She swallowed, then started choking for a second before recovering and coughing.

"I meant the other guy, pitching wedge," Gabby said.

I had to stop for a second.

"Gabby, there was a joke there. Sand wedge, sandwich, we could have made it work," I said. She nodded, closed her eyes, and thought.

"No, it's too much of a stretch. If it comes up again I'll use it," she said. She turned to Wedge.

"If you're not gonna eat, can I have your chocolate bar? I saw you put one in your bag in Ponyville," Gabby asked.

Luna cleared her throat. Gabby stopped and gave her a nasty look, before correcting herself.

"May I have your chocolate bar?" she asked.

"I already had it last night, as a snack," Wedge said. He hadn't eaten anything this morning, and was now putting his armored suit back on. Unlike me, he didn't smell terrible, and his mane wasn't greasy from lack of bathing, while mine was. I hadn't bathed in days. Some ponies get all the luck, and it seems I wasn't one of them.

I pushed my way out of the office and stepped out into the darkness, as Luna stepped out behind me and lit up her horn. As expected, Shining Armor wasn't outside, waiting for me. It had been a faint hope, that maybe he and his troops had stayed up all night to catch up with us, but it was not to be. In fact, he could be only minutes behind us and I wouldn't even know it, sound tended not to carry too far in these mineshafts before becoming so much background noise.

We trodded out, back towards the center of the switching station, before Inkie marked an arrow on the floor indicating a 45 degree turn, down a different path from the main one.

"Why aren't we taking the straight path?" I asked.

"Collapsed tunnel on the main shaft, we have to take a detour to get around it, unless you want to try digging through a few thousand tons of rock," she said.

We followed one of the mine cart tracks over to another shaft and Inkie marked the wall, then pulled out a map and looked at it.

I looked over her shoulder, but the map didn't make any sense, lines and markings that had nothing whatsoever to do with the mineshafts we had been traveling down. What good was a map if it didn't show you where you were and where you could go?

"This isn't good," she muttered.

"What isn't?" I asked.

"Nothing, this way," she said.

This shaft was narrower than the main shaft, and the mine cart track kept getting under me as I stepped, it felt like I was one false move away from a nasty trip. The cramped conditions weren't helping my nerves either, and the light from Luna's horn didn't carry so well when there was Gabby's flank in the way, blocking it out.

We followed the path for some distance, single-file, for about another half an hour, before Inkie stopped us and turned around.

"What is it?" I asked from behind Gabby, who tried to step to the side but was too big to let me do anything except see Inkie's dour expression.

"I need you four to wait here a bit," she said.

"Why?" Gabby asked.

"Well, you're too big, for one thing," she said, frowning.

"What are you implying, shorty?" Gabby threatened, but Inkie remained unflappable.

"If you want to crawl through this little hole here, be my guest, but otherwise, just wait here okay?" she said.

Just behind her, blocked by her body, was a hole that was exactly large enough for her to crawl through. I would probably get stuck, and Gabby was way too large. I wouldn't want to risk sending Wedge through either, he was probably too big, and Luna was right out, as she'd probably get her horn stuck if she tried. Personally, I didn't like tight spaces anyway, so I wasn't about to argue.

"Oh, and stand back. Like, back up until you can't see my headlamp anymore, okay?" she said.

It was too narrow to turn around, so we just had to back up. Luna was in the rear, and I had so desperately wanted to see her face as Wedge was forced to put his rump right in front of her nose. I couldn't hear embarrassment, so we just backed up until Inkie's light was lost in the twists and turns of the shaft.

We waited for a while. I could sit down and stretch my legs just a bit, and I figured I'd have a chat with Gabby while I waited.

"So Gabs, what's been new with you?" I asked her, hoping to defuse any tension that may have been building up.

"I'm stuck a thousand miles below the surface with my idiot friend waiting for somepony to do something I can't see, what about you?" she said, trying to turn her head far enough to see me.

"Not much, stuck a thousand miles below the surface with my idiot friend waiting for her to lighten up. Been keeping busy, I guess," I said.

"Yeah, tell me about it," she said.

I murmured my ascent.

"No seriously, tell me about it," she said.

"What? What I do to keep busy?" I asked.

"Yeah, all I hear is that you're all over Equestria doing 'something' that nopony can adequately describe," she said.

"I wander the streets at night, listening for the cry of the oppressed pony. When I hear it, I spring into action," I said, and Gabby's face broke into a grin.

"I am the blade that glistens in the twilight," I said, holding up my hoof. It scraped the side of the shaft as I did so.

"I am vengeance, I am justice," I said. Gabby was trying to turn around to get a better view.

"I am the Princess of Love, I am: Cadenza – The Class Q Foalsitter. I am the night," I said, and I heard a hissing noise. At first I thought it was Gabby laughing but she was just smiling at me. I tried to turn around to see if it was Luna or Wedge, but it wasn't coming from there.

"Do you hear that?" Wedge asked.

A blast of air so powerful it nearly knocked me down went firing past us as a sonic boom shuddered the walls and dust plowed through us. I didn't even hear the explosion, just the ringing in the air as it went past, making my ears sting and my eyes water.

After the aftershocks subsided, I heard Inkie's voice calling through the dust clouds at us.

"All right, get over here, move it!" she shouted. Wedge pushed me forward from behind and we blindly groped our way through the fog, emerging into the same main mineshaft as before after climbing a pile of rubble.

I was too busy coughing to accuse her of anything, so I let Luna take care of it.

"Oh, I take it that you used some magical device to clear the blockage?" Luna said.

"It wasn't magic, it was a bomb," I wheezed.

"Bomb?" she asked.

"Yeah I used a charge to open a hole. Now we're past the collapse site, so we can keep going. Shaft 51 is about an hour's walk," Inkie said. She had set off before I recover, and I had to jog to catch up.

My coat was now covered in gray dust, as was Gabby's and Wedge's. Luna was still the same navy blue as always, it was probably the same magic that made her hair look all goofy. Must be a pain to wash.

We were now getting right to the heart of the mining complex, the signs we passed showed "Shaft 45" "Shaft 46" and it would be no time before we reached the end. It was also getting very hot this far down, and the caverns were getting steamy. Any moisture stuck in the air, then to your fur, and sweating would avail you not. It was probably going to get worse before it got better.

"Hey look Cadence, you can take a bath," Gabby said, pointing to a small rivulet of water running out of a fissure in the rock. It was a crack running from the floor to the roof and water was leaking out, cascading down the slope further into the mine. It was merely a trickle, but it looked disgusting and stunk like salt.

"Don't drink that," Inkie said.

"I had no intention," I said.

The water was coming out of more cracks as we went further down, each one adding to the stream behind it. Soon we were walking through a marsh, the cavern floor had half an inch of water running over it and we splashed as we went. The stuff smelled terrible, like rotten meat mixed with moldy hay, and I had to breathe through my mouth or I'd probably throw up.

"What is this curious substance?" Luna asked Inkie.

"Brine," she said.

"Like pickle brine?" Wedge asked.

"About a thousand times saltier. Don't drink it," she said again.

"You already said that," I observed.

"Sorry, it's an old habit. Pinkie used to try to drink it whenever you took your eyes off her," she said.

I briefly tried to imagine what it'd be like to drink a brine so loaded with salt, but then concluded it'd be about the same as just eating a hoof-full of table salt. You'd have to be some kind of nuts to try that more than once.

We were getting closer to Shaft 51, and I figured it'd be a good time to dismiss Inkie and send her back to the surface. There was no need to get her further involved, and she'd likely be in a lot less danger if she wasn't accompanying us. I rehearsed my lines in my head a few times, trying to get it to sound inoffensive and concerned at the same time.

"Here we are," Inkie said, stopping at a sign labelled "Shaft 51". The main mineshaft continued for some distance down past this one, but the water was getting pretty thick at this point. It'd probably be flooded if we kept going down any further, and I knew this was the path we needed to follow.

"Thank you muchly for your assistance, Miss Pie. We can handle it from here," I said. Short and to the point, and now comes the inevitable counter argument.

"Good, glad to be rid of you," she said.

"Well I – what?" I asked.

"I don't want to be down here any longer than I have to. Do you have somepony to guide you the rest of the way?" she asked.

"Huh?" I was dumbfounded.

"Is there something more than just a mineshaft here?" Luna asked me, or maybe Inkie, it was hard to tell.

"Yeah, this shaft opens into a gallery carved out by our neighbors. Do you know them?" Inkie asked.

I honestly hadn't thought of it any further. I just knew this was where I was supposed to go, not any of the specifics. I had figured the shaft went into the Abyss, but it seemed not. This was not good.

"I thought this place was off limits," Gabby said, peering into the shaft. It was way too dark to see anything, but I thought I could see a bone.

"It is to ponies, but dogs don't care about our laws. They had a mining project down here a while back, tried to sell us the gems at an outrageous price, let me tell you," Inkie said.

"So their digging intersects with yours?" I asked. Inkie nodded, but gave me an uncomfortable look.

"So I take it that means you don't know the way? Lovely," she said, and pulled out the same map as before. Perhaps the reason it didn't make sense was because it had been made by Diamond Dogs instead of the Pie family.

"Any idea what you're looking for down here?" she asked.

"Have they ever come across a rock that they were unable to pierce with conventional picks? Something resistant to even explosives?" I asked. The stuff lined the edges of the Abyss, made it nigh-impossible to tunnel into from the side. There were a few entrances here and there, gaps in the rock, and these were what Celestia had had in mind as a shortcut. Then again, the Ziristone shell had been weakened, so it was possible there were even more entrances elsewhere, but this was a surer bet. She had been adamant this would work, but hadn't told me exactly why. I was trusting her blindly at this point.

"You kidding? Look at this," she said, pointing to a large arc marked in black on the map. It was then that I realized the map was not showing mine shafts, but rock layers, and there was nothing on the map past the arc. Because that arc was impenetrable. Perfect. Sort of.

"They told me that the gems were enormous right up until they found this thick black stone they couldn't cut through, and then they had to give up. I told em to get stuffed, because I had heard rumors about where they came from. The Pie family doesn't buy or sell illegal gemstones no matter the price," Inkie said.

Inkie shined her light down the mineshaft ahead of us, and something white glinted a reflection back. Pure white, a ribcage, but the rest of its owner was nowhere to be found. She swallowed audibly.

"Here we go," she said.

Chapter 13

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I let Inkie take the lead, she refused to let me pass her, though there weren't exactly any twists and turns in this mineshaft. In fact, it looked pretty normal, but every few feet, there'd be a bone. A ribcage, a skull, a femur, strewn about at random. Grotesque, sure, but nothing terrifying. It was more like wandering through a tomb than a massacre.

"Do you smell that?" Gabby asked from behind me.

"No, I don't," I said. If she was going to make fun of me for the stench, we all smelled like salt now. It wasn't going to stick.

"Hm," she muttered.

"Ohhhh, it's happening again," Inkie said, but she was blocking my view of the shaft past her. This area had a lot of wooden boards on the walls and buttresses on the roof, it had been under construction when it was abandoned. I noticed the boards were now damp, all the way up the ceiling, and certainly not due to the pools of water strewn about. Though the place was flooding slowly, something else was causing the dampness.

Then I saw it: Blood, all over the walls, floor, ceiling. Bodies of ponies, some half rotten, some skeletal. Pieces strewn everywhere, nothing was intact. The skulls had been smashed in and scattered about, legs snapped in several places. The blood was most certainly not related to the corpses, but I couldn't guess at what it was really due to. Some sort of geological phenomenon?

"Princess Luna?" I heard Wedge ask from behind, and I turned to get a look at her. She had stopped at the rear of the party and wasn't keeping up with us.

"What is it?" I asked.

"The stone here is bleeding," she murmered. She looked up and around at it, then down at the water pooling on the floor.

"Something is trapped within it," she said.

"What, something stuck in the walls?" Wedge asked. Inkie was staying silent, but what I could see of her face in the glow was paler than her usual blue.

"Yes, there is a magic in the rock that cannot escape. We should hurry, so as not to disturb it," she said. I couldn't feel anything myself, but the blood was unnerving. I also hadn't known rocks could bleed.

Inkie had been walking before, but now she was trotting, then jogging. Each step she took caused her to increase her pace more until she was nearly at a full run, and then rest of us were trying to keep pace. She was breathing hard and kept looking at the walls, which ran and flowed, the blood shining back the light of her headlamp.

At last we reached a point where the rocks returned to normal, and there were no more bones. We must have been near the edge of the passage, because the quartz veins here still hadn't been removed, and there was a distinct golden glow coming from deep within. Inkie stopped and held her chest, trying to calm herself. None of us spoke as she did.

"Heart. My heart's going a mile a minute," she said, between breaths.

"It's okay, take your time," Gabby said.

"But it's not bleeding anymore," Inkie said.

"What, the rock?" Wedge asked.

"Couldn't any of you feel that? Didn't you hear it?" Inkie asked. I shook my head, Gabby did not.

"I could hear them crying, begging me for something. Was it really just me?" Inkie said, and Luna pushed her way past me.

"That was merely an echo, child. The victims have long since moved on. We must continue forth," she said.

"Just give me a second," Inkie said. I let Luna stay in front of me as we waited for Inkie to recover, her face written with concern, but she wasn't going to confide anything in me. It was strange that I had not felt it, but perhaps the trauma of her earlier experience had imprinted something on Inkie's mind I could not grasp at. Magic was indeed a strange thing, and not always in a good way.

Inkie took her time, but eventually she was able to stand and continue down through the mineshaft. It was quickly becoming narrower and smaller, and I wondered just how much further it'd go, before it suddenly took a sharp right-turn and stopped following the quartz vein. I got a last look at the vein, still bearing faint slivers of gold, before it pinched out and was gone. Now the walls were dark stone and the path became mazelike.

We took a turn, then another turn, and another, and I wondered just what madpony had been digging this before it occurred to me that a Diamond Dog must have their own sort of work discipline. We came across a concrete constructed door frame with a new wooden door, and Inkie fiddled with it for a minute before it opened into an enormous cave that glowed of its own accord, without our light sources.

"Whooaaaa," Gabby said, looking up and around at the suddenly open expanse. Hey jaw hung open as she scanned the cave ahead of us.

I took the opportunity to stretch my legs, and I was plenty sick of tight cramped quarters. It was an altogether different experience to not have to walk in single file, and this cavern was large enough to allow some air flow. It felt like there was wind in my mane again.

"Amazing. Did they dig all of this?" Luna asked Inkie.

"Some of it, some of it is natural. As you get away from the porphyry complex we'll be getting into more limestone. I believe your goal is in the D section, but we'll have to detour through these natural caves in order to get there without digging our own mines," Inkie said.

I wasn't listening all the way, now I was concerned with trying to wring some of the moisture out of my tail. I was never going to get the smell out.

Inkie walked behind us and shut the door, and I heard her slam something, presumably locking it.

"So now we've saved about two days of walking by taking that shortcut," she said.

"More ponies than you realize are in your debt, Miss Pie," I said. For the first time, she smiled, then sat down and pulled out her map and busied herself with it.

Gabby had wandered a bit into the cave, though I was not worried as there was some sort of natural light source here and she'd not trip and hurt herself in the gloom. I decided to follow after her while Luna and Wedge were merely stretching themselves, and I found her looking intently at some sort of fungus.

"You ever seen a mushroom glow like this?" Gabby asked. There was a bluish fungus growing all over a rock she was looking at, and a periodic drip of water would splash down from above, right on top of it, nourishing it. A big fat mushroom was growing off to one side, with spores practically visibly falling off of it. It was like looking at a fog as the spores floated across air currents and coated the rock, all under a phosphorescent blue light.

"The natural world is full of wonders," I said.

"Five bits says you throw up if you eat it," she said.

I was about to take a bite when my brain got the best of me.

"Shame on you," I scolded, and she walked off, back towards Luna, without saying anything. I turned back to the mushroom, and as soon as I did I heard her stop and look back at me.

"Eat it. Eat it! Eat it, filly!" she chanted.

I swallowed hard. The mushroom was mocking me. It sat there, uneaten, possibly being centuries old, undisturbed at the bottom of a cave. I had to eat it. It was made to be eaten.

"What if it's poisonous?" I asked.

"Then you'll die a courageous taster of exotic fungi," she said.

I stepped gingerly closer and held my head in front of it. It didn't smell like anything edible or inedible, it gave no smell at all. I've eaten mushrooms before and they don't smell like anything until you cook them, so that was no surprise.

I had skipped breakfast for the good of the group, damn it. My mouth was watering. It was right there, inches away. So delicious, so tempting. Just one bite, and I'd shut Gabby up for good. Or until the next time she found a reason to dare me to do something stupid, then I'd do it again. So, I'd shut her up for a day. Just one bite...

"What are you doing?" Luna's voice snapped me out of my trance. I backed up suddenly while Gabby made a sucking sound.

"Just checking out this cool mushroom," I said.

"Oh, very exotic. Are you perhaps a connoisseur of rare fungi, Amoria? This is something new," she said, standing beside me.

"You know what this is?" I asked.

"Certainly. Photophorm, I hear it's quite delicious," she said.

I shot a smirk at Gabby, who was whistling. Maybe I could take a bite...

"And a potent laxative. These were considered an expensive medicinal ingredient, as I recall. Everypony takes pills these days, hmm," she said. She muttered something else about sterility as Inkie and Wedge ambled towards us.

"Were you going to eat that mushroom?" Inkie asked me as we started our march through the caves. I couldn't tell direction anymore, we'd taken so many twists that I had no idea which way was north, but Inkie said she knew and I had no choice but to follow. There was a subtle hatred in the air, my senses were alert, but it was ambient, all around us.

"Absolutely not," I said. Gabby wasn't making eye contact.

There was more than one species of Photoform in the caves, the first had been blue, but as we walked I saw gold, green, orange, purple, and all the other colors, rainbow or not. The stuff grew everywhere there was a source of moisture, and cast faint lights through the cavern, though it was a gloom to be sure. We'd still need our lamps to see properly.

The dogs had been carving paths between the openings, and leaving crude doorways between each one. Inkie made sure to carve a sign on each wall as we went through the doors, and as she did I noticed someone else had left markings already. I had no idea what they said though.

"Hey, good news," she said, after we had walked through about a dozen different rooms.

We all waited patiently.

"Somepony prompt me," she said drily.

"Uh, what's the good news?" I asked.

"Well I'm glad you asked!" she shouted, and whirled in place to point to the sign on the door we had plodded up to. It looked like the head of a Diamond Dog, in a scowl, and there were some scribbles underneath it.

"This sign says there's a trading post not too far from here," she said. She raised her rock hammer to point at the scowling dog.

"Says they might have some Rock Nuts for sale, anypony interested?" she asked.

I think I heard Wedge cough, but none of us knew what she was talking about. I had other questions.

"Trading posts? Down here?" I asked.

"Sure, gotta put em somewhere. I've never been to this one, it's a ways, but there's always something good on offer. If you know the right dogs," she said.

"And what would you trade, Miss Pie," Luna asked, examining the sign intently. I didn't think she'd have any better luck than I would reading it, but making a show of doing so might make her look sophisticated.

"We do everything on credit with these guys, and they owe me a few. Rock Nuts! Come on!" she said, smiling.

This time I decided to cough, to break up the silence.

"Fine, no nuts for you," she said, pushing on the doorway and leading us into the black beyond it. Each doorway had another on the far side of a narrow, twisting passage. The doors must have served to stop water from getting in if there was a flood, for I could see no other reason for placing them at every opening. Perhaps the Dogs had used them to mark natural openings from carved ones, I really had no idea.

We went through another open, natural cave, this one almost exclusively with dark red photoform illuminating it. It reminded me of high school, when I had to go into a dark room to develop some photos for my art classes, the deep red made everything look like rose petals except for Inkie's headlamp. If the Pie family ever ran into financial troubles, I was considering telling them to sell guided tours. I'd have certainly paid a mint to see these caves.

This time, when we reached the next doorway, Inkie made a mark on it, then didn't open the door. She instead trotted off to another door nearby, which had the same picture of the scowling Diamond Dog as before.

"Is this the way to the trading post?" I asked, looking at the picture.

"Yep! Just a few more minutes and we'll have Rock Nuts for everypony!" she said excitedly.

Silence.

"They're a candy! They're really good!" she shouted.

"Ohhhh," Gabby said. I admit, that didn't sound like the name of a candy until she had said so, and suddenly it made sense.

We went through this new door and followed the darkened passage until it led us to a room that was not natural, and had been carved out. There was no Photophorm here, either, perhaps it took a long time to grow and thus would not be present in a hewn room. Instead, there was an unlit torch in the center.

Luna made to light it, but stopped and gave out a grunt of disapproval.

"This torch has burnt all its fuel," she said.

"Hello? Trader Dogs?" Inkie called out.

I got that strange feeling again. It was nearby, and then began to recede as soon as I had noticed it. My stomach twisted. This was not a good sign.

Nobody answered Inkie's call.

We stood in the gloom of Luna's horn for a moment as I decided to look around this small room. There didn't seem to be any Diamond Dogs present, or sleeping, and there were two cots in the back of the room. The entire place was full of assorted junk, crudely made clothes, metal replacement parts, picks, hammers, gems. Everything you could expect to find at a trading post, I suppose, but I'd never been to one. If there were any Rock Nuts to be had, I'd never be able to identify them.

"Well, I guess nobody's home," Inkie said, dejectedly.

Luna pushed a pile of shirts aside and revealed a torch which had been partially covered by them, and she levitated it up to replace the old one, and lit it. The bright orange glow looked much more natural in this sort of setting, and made the place seem almost homey. It also brought attention to a note, printed on a scroll, that was in the middle of the room. It had been unremarkable in her pale horn-light, but was easy to spot in the orange.

Wedge got to it first and picked it up to read. He scanned it over quickly, then turned to me and decided to read it out loud.

"Muttin, left to go meet up with Firewatch's team. Get out now. Don't take anything, just go. Meet us at the main camp. Not kidding -Q".

That didn't make my stomach feel any better.

"Well that's cryptic. Should we be worried, Inkie?" Gabby asked. Inkie shrugged.

"I don't know, I didn't even know they could write. Somepony's been giving them literacy lessons," she said.

"Any idea when it was written?" Gabby asked Wedge.

"Mmm, fairly recently, the parchment isn't faded or torn. Within a week at most," he said.

I looked up, then around. I tensed. They were all around us.

"Luna. Luna!? Do you feel that?" I hissed.

"Feel what?" she asked me, stepping close to my side.

"Everywhere, thousands, millions. We're surrounded," I said.

Luna drew her bow as I drew my sword. Wedge waited not a second before likewise drawing his own spear. Even Inkie brandished her pick, and Gabby was ready to fight with her bare hooves.

"Where are they Amoria?" Luna asked, her eyes darting everywhere, searching for our enemies.

Then we heard it. A billion skittering little feet.

Bugs.

Chapter 14

View Online

"They only look like bugs, they are far worse!" I shouted. They had started to stream into the room from every tiny hole and crevice in the rocks. We had walked into a trap, and no doubt the trading post had been abandoned in fear of these things. It was a black swarm all over the walls and ceiling, so many, far too many to fight. We had to run.

"Luna, you're last! Follow me!" I shouted, and charged towards the door, smashing through and knocking it off its hinges. My friends followed but the bugs were already upon us, trying to crawl up our legs and do who knows what else. They weren't biting – yet – but I didn't want to wait to see what their plan was.

Luna, the last one out, sent a blast of wind in an effort to scatter them away from us, but there were already thousands in the tunnel as we charged through. Gabby screamed and started to slam her body into the walls, trying to crush the insects. They were hard, very hard, and the hits did nothing to shake them off.

Wedge spit something out and I realized they must have gotten onto his face. He wasn't yelling, but he was running. We just kept running, barreling through the narrow passageway in hopes of reaching the relatively safe natural caves beyond.

Unable to see properly, I slammed into the next door and tumbled through it, breaking it into splinters as I had hit it at a dead run. I tripped over myself and landed on my chest, before Gabby hit me and tripped as well. Wedge and Inkie spilled through and threw themselves on the ground, rolling in an effort to squish the insects, to no avail.

Luna stepped through the door, calmly, carefully, and I stood up to look at her. He pupils had disappeared, and her mane was billowing as though a strong wind tore through it. She did not speak, she merely concentrated and pricked each and every insect off our bodies and suspended it in the air, before taking it with her back into the tunnels. She disappeared from sight as we lay gasping, and a shield spell appeared over the doorway. It was to protect us from what was coming next.

A great flare of intense heat and light appeared from behind the shield as every molecule was being incinerated as though in the furnace of a star. I had my own problems, checking myself all over to see if there had been any bites. Luna, it seemed, had been thorough, and had missed not a single bug, but I was still getting a feeling.

"Yeaaaaaaaargghhh" Gabby screamed, and she slammed her head into the ground as she did. She then stood up and slammed it down again, grunting with pain and winding up for a third hit.

"Gabby! What's wrong? Did one bite you?" I asked. Inkie and Wedge helped form a circle around her, and I motioned to them to hold her still.

"One – one got on me. It crawled in my ear. Get it out!" she screamed again, a high pitched blast that stung my ears.

"Hold her down, now!" I shouted. Wedge and Inkie leaped on Gabby and pinned her to the ground, but she could have shaken them off if she wanted. She looked like she was having a seizure, her legs would spasm and her mouth was nearly foaming.

I focused and brought about my sight, looking intently at Gabby's light. I could not detect the black corruption, it wasn't on the surface. I ran around her quickly, trying to find it, circling, and then again, but there was no sign of it. She surely wasn't lying.

I put myself right up to her head and held it in front of mine, groping for her body as my sight hid her physical form. When I was this close, I could feel it. It was inside her, hidden from me by her own signature. This was going to take some finesse.

I pressed myself up against her, looking for all the world like I was giving her a hug, but that was not what I was doing. I was impressing myself into her consciousness, it was far too dug in to deal with surgically. I'd need to find it inside her mind, and pull it out with my own.

I stepped back, except I wasn't actually stepping back, not in the real world. I had managed to insert myself into Gabby's perception, I could see the world as she was seeing it, and it was completely dark.

"Gabs, open your eyes," I said. The world suddenly lit up, in a cone in front of her. It quickly swept over the cave we were standing in, and wherever the cone of light looked, the world lit up accordingly. Inkie and Wedge seemed a lot smaller here than when I looked at them.

Everywhere she wasn't looking, the world darkened slightly as she held it in her memory. Small objects like pebbles or marks on the floor disappeared as her short-term memory had forgotten about them. Behind us, out of her sight, I could see sound-waves appearing from the door as Luna finished her spells within.

"Gabs, look around. Just keep looking," I said. As she did, I was searching, looking for the insect that was hiding somewhere in this perception. I, as an intruder, would be able to see it, but Gabby would not. She looked all around, scanning the cave, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"Look up? Check the ceiling," I said. There was no insect there.

Gabby shut her eyes and I heard her chin thump against the ground as she must have pushed my body back. A moment later I heard myself slumping over, and the cave began to vibrate as the pain came back. I had to get that bug out now, before it did any more damage.

"Come on, where is it. If I let it bond to her psyche – oh," I thought. I couldn't see Gabby's exact position, since she could not see herself, but I could feel it. I felt over her body, feeling for a lump, but there was nothing attached to her tactile perception.

Sight, Sound, Touch. Taste would probably not be strong enough to house the insect. Had it attached to her sense of smell? Those were linked, somewhere in the back of the head.

"Inkie, shove something in her mouth," I said.

"Like some food?" she asked.

"Anything!" I shouted.

A moment later Gabby contorted as the colors here changed violently, a backlash of the perception of taste and smell. I saw a big, obvious black outline as they flashed across my vision. Gotcha.

I felt around for where her mouth was, then opened it. I had no idea if I was really doing this in the real world, but nopony else was reacting, so I assumed not. I reached in with one hoof and felt her mouth, and there it was. The lump. It had attached itself to the back of her throat in her mind's eye, and was no doubt going to burrow further if I hadn't found it. I tried to tug it out, but it was stuck. I could hear Gabby sobbing now, but she wasn't moving too much. I put my other hoof down and grabbed it, pulling as hard as I could, but the bug was latched on, possibly with a hook.

I reared up and put my hind legs on Gabby's chest, and stretched my back out as far as I could, exerting the maximum possible strength any pony could muster, and I felt it give, slightly. The bug lost its grip and I kept pulling as the feeling of fluid began to fill the cavern, manifesting itself to me as sweat all over Gabby's body. She was bleeding, psychically, but there was no other way, the only thing I could do was tear the bug out.

With a sickening wet screech, the bug was torn out and I fell over backwards. I squished it easily and looked at the lump of flesh I had torn out with it.

"Gabby, tell me your name, your full name," I said.

"Gabriella Degine," she said. I could feel tears forming in her eyes, but the pain was over, for now.

"What is your favorite color," I asked.

"Blue," she said.

"What high school did you go to," I asked.

"Briarwood High, Canterlot," she said.

I rattled off several other questions about her life, quizzing her about anything I knew in common with her. She answered all the questions correctly, but I had to find what I had torn out.

"Who's your favorite Wonderbolt?" I asked.

"Screw the Wonderbolts," she said. I suppose that was correct.

"What's the heaviest thing you've ever lifted," I asked.

"A... book?" she was asking. Here we go, the memory there was incomplete.

"Yes, and why were you lifting it?" I asked.

"I don't know," she said.

"Who was with you?" I asked.

"I don't know," she said. She started crying again.

"What happened after that? Before it? What job did you get that summer? Do you remember the festival?" I asked.

She just cried. A whole year of her life had been torn out, and only bits and pieces were left.

"It's okay, it's okay," I said. I couldn't leave her like this, the wound was too big. She'd risk going insane if she had such a big psychic wound left untreated, so I did what I always did when I had to help somepony who had their mind scarred. It was just a bigger patch job.

I returned to my othersight realm, and stood up to see Gabby's sphere. I took a part of myself, a copy of my own mind, a hunk no larger than your nose, and poured it onto her sphere of light. I pushed and prodded a few times until I found the empty spot, buried beneath the surface, and then allowed the hole to be filled by the part I had put on it. Never had I put such a large piece on another pony, but Gabby was an exception.

We waited about ten minutes for Luna to finish what she was doing in the cave. Wedge waited at the door the whole time while I monitored Gabby, who had passed out when I had applied the bandage. She would need time to process what I had put on her mind, and we weren't going anywhere. Inkie merely paced back and forth until Luna came striding out and lowered the shield.

"Princess!" Wedge said, and looked as if he was about to throw herself at her before stopping.

"Captain, is everything clear out here?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am," he said.

"The hell were you doing in there?" I asked her.

"Such an apt term, is it not?" she said, and smirked. I doubted the Diamond Dogs would come back to this place any time soon, but at least when they did, it would be safe. All their possessions were likely ash at this point, though.

"Will she be all right?" Luna asked, and laid down next to Gabs.

"Yeah, it got bad, real bad," I said.

Luna probably hadn't heard me, as she was doing her dreamwalking thing. Her eyes closed, she placed her head on Gabby's back and made a humming noise for a few moments until Gabby suddenly woke up, sputtering.

"I'm awake," she said. She groaned and tried to stand up, her legs shaking as she did. I had to brace her before she got her balance. She didn't take her eyes off me the whole time, a thousand-mile stare right through me.

"Are we quite far from our destination?" I asked Inkie, who had finally stopped pacing and come to stand near us.

"Two hours, tops," she said.

"No more detours, agreed?" I said.

"Agreed," she said.

"An ambush, you think?" Luna asked me, as we trekked towards the next door.

"No, or at least, not for us. That was for Inkie's neighbours," I said. Luna nodded.

"It would have been nice to see someone else, if at least to remind myself we are not alone," she said.

"Hmm," I grunted. We kept walking.

We passed through two more large, open caves, before Inkie made a mark on the ground that didn't point towards the nearest doorway. This one was pointing down through the cave itself, and not along the artificial cut points.

"Last one?" I asked.

"Yep, we can follow this underground river most of the rest of the way," she said.

"I see no river," I said.

"You will," she said, and trotted off.

It was amazing that I could not hear it at all, but as we crested the next rise in the cave, there was a river, flowing out of a cut in the rock and cascading down, further into the caves. It went so far I could not see the other end as it twisted. All around us, crystals were growing out of the floor and Photophorm lights were everywhere, reflecting off of them. It was almost as bright as daylight out, and the water flowed without a peep.

All across the surface of the water, I could see little rafts of crystal growing and flowing with the water. Beneath it, stone pillars grew up from the bottom of still sections of the river, where the water was ponding, and reached the surface where they would spread out, just like a rock Lilly pad. Some aquatic species of Photophorm backlit the whole thing from below, casting eerie shadows all over the ceiling as we stood.

"Incredible," Luna whispered in awe.

"Don't take any crystals or I'll get sued," Inkie whispered. I wondered if she had seen this sort of thing so many times it no longer made an impact.

We set off again, and Inkie made sure to keep us away from the banks of the water as it had cut its way through solid rock. She had warned us that the banks looked sturdy but could collapse, so we kept close to the wall. As we walked, Gabby sidled up next to me, and slowed down such that I had to drop my pace as well.

"Subtle," I whispered as we were now at the back of the group.

"Sorry," she said.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Listen, Cadence. What did you do to me, back there?" she asked.

"The same thing I do for everypony who has been hurt. Princess stuff," I said, "I'd do it for anypony."

"It's so weird. I know who you are, who you really are, because it's like I lived it. Why didn't you tell me about this before?" she asked

"Would you have believed me?" I asked. She shook her head.

"I'm struggling to avoid calling Luna my sister," she said.

"I'm sure she won't mind," I said.

"I, uh, erm..." she said, hesitating before spitting out, "Shining Armor."

"It's okay! But I'm not sharing," I said. She giggled.

"I've got a new respect for you, okay? But don't do that again," she said.

"Why not? Would you rather I left you?" I said.

"Yeah. All your memories make me feel short. I don't like being so tiny, it's unnatural," she said. She picked up her pace and trotted back to the front of the pack, and smiled at Luna as she did.

Chapter 15

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We broke for what I guessed what lunch at this point, but it was never apparent what time it was, down here. Luna remained mum as Gabby and Inkie ate the rest of the food they had packed. The sandwiches looked soggy, but I'd kill for one right about now. We had underestimated the distance we'd have to go and not packed enough, and it was wise of Luna and myself to abstain. Unfortunately, you can have all the wisdom in the world and it won't fill your stomach.

The water in the river, however, was fresh enough to drink. In fact it was much like tap water back home, whatever brine we had seen earlier had not contaminated it. It was cool and delicious, and we all filled up. Except Wedge.

"You're not going to take a drink?" I asked him, as we were preparing to go.

"I'm not thirsty ma'am," he said.

"Could be your last chance for a while," I said.

"I'll be all right. How much further?" he asked.

Inkie, overhearing us, turned and motioned ahead.

"Can you hear that drumming sound? There's a fall up ahead," she said. Presumably that was the answer to our question.

The crystals now were as big as your head, green and gold and red clusters jutting out of the walls and ceiling. It was a wonder the dogs had not extracted them, though perhaps there had been reasons why they did not venture down this way. As we got closer to the falls, though, the crystals began to shrink, and then vanished entirely, leaving the rock bare. Not even the mushrooms were growing here, despite the moisture. The rock itself even seemed darker in the renewed light of Luna's horn.

At last we came upon the waterfall, roaring and billowing mist everywhere as it plunged off into endless darkness below. The cavern opened up, going up so high I could not see a reflection off the ceiling, and down so low I could not hear the water crashing below. To our left and right was a narrow path, barely even one pony wide, and in front, a chasm. This was the Abyss.

"Do we go left or right?" Gabby asked, glancing and straining to see in the gloom.

"Neither, we go straight ahead," I said.

Luna shot her magic spell out ahead of us, and it flew for about a hundred yards before the light hit something and cast back a reflection. A black, impenetrable cliff face. I knew that no normal tool could break through it, save for explosives, but I had a plan for that. There would be openings, but not physical ones.

"Luna, would you help carry Gabby?" I asked. She tensed.

"Whoa hey, don't you get any ideas," Gabby said.

"It's the only way, trust me. Now all I need to do is find a weak spot," I said.

I concentrated, despite the din of the waterfall, and waited for my sight to come about. It did not, remaining stubbornly out of my reach. Frustrating. Now was a perfect time to fail, me.

"Here," Gabby said, walking over to me and touching her head to mine. The sight slowly came to me and I looked across the way at the Ziristone wall. Some distance up the cliff face was a green iridescent marking, in the shape of a circle on an otherwise black and empty universe. I opened my eyes, keeping track of where the spot had been, and looked at Gabby, who was awkwardly stepping back.

"Whoa," she said.

"You'll lose it over time, it's not permanent," I said, trying to reassure her.

"Do you do that all the time?" she asked.

"It's my special gift," I said.

My gaze fell to Inkie Pie now. Certainly she would not want to keep going.

"What are you looking at me for?" she asked. She was checking her bags, making sure none of the flares were loose.

"I think we have no further need of a guide, unless you're going to claim you've been inside," I said.

"Inside what? This is the farthest I've ever been down here," she said.

"Well then, I humbly thank you for your services. You have performed admirably, and if we survive this, I'll see to it you get a medal. Or maybe just a gift basket, if you're not one for ceremony," I said.

"You don't gotta give me nothin'. I'm just happy to help," she said. She looked much more confident now than she had when we met, near death experiences have a tendency to do that. Or cause you to quake with fear, either or. Depends on the pony.

"So now what?" she asked.

"We're going to fly across this chasm and enter the Abyss from the side. We may not see you again, so please be careful," I said.

"Uh huh. You think soldier-boy over here can carry me?" Inkie asked.

Wedge stood up at his tallest and flexed his foreleg.

"Please," he said.

"But he doesn't need to carry you," I said. Oh please don't do this.

"You may think I'm some uncaring geologist, but you decided to neglect a few of the details and assume I wouldn't pick up on them. Well, I knew the whole time," Inkie said.

"You did?" I asked. I didn't know what she was talking about.

"Pinkie misses her visiting time with papa, then she goes missing completely, then two Princesses just happen to want to take a trip to a place that's been off limits since forever? Don't tell me that's all a coincidence," she said.

"It isn't. I take it she has told you about what she and her friends can do?" I asked.

"Yeah, and I'd be willing to bet she's in there. Well if you're going in, I'm going with you. So pony up and carry me across this here chasm, or I'll figure out some way to do it without your help," she said.

"And what was all that bluster earlier about being glad to be rid of us?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Pah, I'd have found a reason to stay even if you did know the way. You're not getting rid of me that easily," she said.

"All right everypony, listen up. I've never done anything like this before, so I don't know exactly what's going to happen," I said, addressing the whole group.

"What do you mean? Haven't you been in there before?" Gabby asked. Luna shot her a look, and I waved my hoof to indicate it was all right. I hadn't told her, but she knew anyway.

"I have, but what we're going to be passing through is a gap in the outer wall. Except it's not a real gap, it's a metaphysical one. That means..." I said. I thought for a moment.

I tapped my hoof on my chin. Nothing.

"I have no idea what that means. We'll have to meet up on the other side if we get split up," I said.

"Doesn't sound too difficult," Wedge said.

"It will be worse on the inside. When we get in there, don't trust anything, even what seems real. That place plays tricks on your head, and it fogs your memory. Just focus on the fact that we're searching for the Elements of Harmony and, no matter what happens, it's not real," I said.

It was a peculiar speech to have to give, but it was all I could do to prepare them. Their own instincts would have to guide them once we were in the Abyss proper, I had only an inkling of what we would encounter. No living pony had been down there in ten thousand years.

"All right then. Luna, help me carry Gabs. Wedge, you got Inkie," I said. Gabby only fidgeted mildly as we picked her up and starting flying to the other side. Unsurprisingly, Wedge and Inkie were much faster, and made their way off into the darkness, though I could see the reflection of Inkie's headlight on the distant wall.

There was no platform for us to land on, so I just hovered up as close to the spot I had seen as I could. It looked the same as from a distance, but I could certainly feel something different here. Hollow, something was flowing through the rock and out into the world, and I had no doubt that my friends could not feel it. This was the source, after all, and gaps like these are how the attacks struck the world above.

I hovered as close as possible. Instinctively, Gabby reached out to touch the wall with her hoof, and then, she was gone. As though I had blinked and she wasn't there, she just vanished. Luna looked as shocked as I did, quickly looking downwards to be sure she hadn't dropped her, before realizing what had happened.

"What happened?" Wedge asked, floating over towards us.

"Touch the wall, right here. Inkie first," I said. I made sure to keep my eyes on her as she did so.

The effect was the same, her little hoof touched and instantly she vanished. Wedge tensed and relaxed.

"You next, Captain," I said. He nodded.

"Been an honor, ma'am," he said. He gave a crisp salute.

"You'll be fine. I have confidence in you," Luna said. Wedge smiled, and touched the wall, vanishing instantly.

Luna and I were all that was left. I didn't want to go first, nor did she.

"After you," I said.

"Oh but I insist," she said.

"On three," I said.

"Wait, does that mean we go on three, or we count to three, then go?" she asked.

"It means we go on three," I said.

"One," we both said.

"Two," I said, Luna staying silent.

"Three"

Chapter 16

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My child, awake. It is time.

I awoke, for the first time in over one-thousand years. My body, ageless, perfect, powerful, clothed in the blue armor my master had fashioned for me. My coat, black as the night itself, a fitting tribute for what I would soon wreak upon the helpless denizens so far below me.

What is your command, master?

Prepare for my coming.

That was all. I had my orders, but how I was to execute them remained unspecified. I stepped out of my prison and onto the dead, barren white dust that was the moon.

Far, far above me, or below, if you will, lay the planet that bore my most hated sisters. They had sent me here, they had dared to defy my master, they were no doubt preparing to celebrate the height of their strength. I would crush them, flay them, carry them prostrated before their own citizens, and scour the earth of the pathetic resistance that would dare oppose my master. I would prepare the way for it, by bringing about the everlasting night it craved. All a part of its perfect plan, and I, its perfect instrument.

The rebuilding of my body had given me new powers, and I could dissolve myself into my own essence and reassemble later. I did this, and, with no body, floated easily up to the unsuspecting world, lit by the reflecting glow of the sun that I could now see. It was nearly time for it to rise, on the longest day of the thousandth year. Oh those ponies, they would get a surprise.

Ponyville. A village that had not existed before, it stood close to my master's prison. She had elected to hold her triumphant festival about a pyrrhic victory in this, the soon to be seat of its power. Fitting. I could see easily that the villagers were congregating around the town hall, the largest building in the town, and I glided down around it until I found her, in her dressing room, alone.

She was facing away, gazing into a mirror in front of an assortment of gems. She was considering which ones to socket into her wear for that evening, idly wondering which would make her look prettiest, no doubt. I reformed myself on the balcony behind her, hidden by a thin veil of a curtain that tugged with the wind. My body restored, I stepped into the room, pushing aside the curtain.

She did not speak, nor did she move as I entered. I could see her eyes in her reflection, following me as I approached. There was no fear. Yet.

"Sister," she said.

"Sister," I said.

"So you've come at last. I was worried you might be late," she said.

"Expecting me?" I asked.

"Of course. It's almost time to lower the moon, you can't miss you cue. Oh what a chore it would be if I were to do it," she said.

"Don't play your silly games with me. You've relished it for the last thousand years, every amateurish tug you make, every idiotic misplaced push you botch, well no more. I have returned," I said.

"I saved you a seat, so to speak," she said. She turned around, to show herself to me, though one of her eyes lay hidden behind her mane. Regal, tall, weak, vulnerable. Celestia. My hated sister.

"Have you told them? Told the pathetic whelps out there that this was their last day? Have you told them that all their lives are to be for naught, soon? Have you told them?" I asked.

"No," she said.

"Have you no plan? No scheme? No way to thwart me?" I asked.

"No," she said.

"What do you have? What is the game? Where is your cleverness now, or does it fail you?" I asked.

"I have nothing," she said.

"You will die, then. What good are you, if you have nothing?" I said.

"Luna - " she started.

I charged forward, faster than an eye can blink, and slammed her body with my own, careening her backwards into her mirror and cracking it with the impact. The crack propagated all around, up and down, but the glass did not shatter. I held her there, pinned against the wall, and bared my teeth as I spoke.

"Never call me that," I spat, though she did nothing but return her cold, hard look. No fear.

My point proven, I relaxed and let her slump onto the ground.

"How does it feel to be so powerless?" I asked. She stood up but did not answer.

I looked at her again, and still she had that alien coldness about her. Did she not care? Did she not realize her life was forfeit?

"You can beg, if you feel it will help," I said.

"I will do no such thing. Please, just listen to me," she said.

"Worthless prattle from a bygone Princess. I have no need for words, I have power," I said.

This time I would not be merely making a point. My magic leaped up from all around her, forming a force field from the floor that quickly wrapped around her legs and body, paralyzing her completely, save for her head. She did not resist, and I decided to maybe tighten the field around her neck until I heard her gasp.

There was no gasp, just that stare.

I released the force field, and she slumped over again. It took her longer to stand up this time, but she did, and she never took her eyes off me.

"Please, just listen," she said. Her voice was hoarse, weak.

"A favor you never returned to me," I spat. I rushed forth again, this time I spun and bucked her in her filthy, lie-spewing mouth. She staggered backwards and crashed against the mirror, knocking some of the shards out. Blood poured from her mouth, yet she did not stop that stare.

A knock came at the door.

"Princess? Is something the matter?" came a light, high-pitched voice from the other side.

"Nothing, I just stumbled over something," Celestia said.

"All right. You're on in ten," the voice said.

I waited a moment for the interloper to leave the door before I continued. This was personal, and those ponies outside would get theirs soon enough.

"Why don't you resist? Do you see the futility of it?" I asked. I arched back my head, cocking it in the most mocking pose I could muster, but that damned stare continued. It looked past me, into me, through me. Damn her, damn that stare!

"I will not fight you," she said. She spat, blood hitting the carpet on the floor and scattering about.

"Why not?!" I roared. A hint of lightning cracked from my eyes. Lost my composure, for only a moment.

"You are my sister. I love you," she said.

"I love you too," I said.

I shook my head. Love? What good was love? All that mattered was power, and I had all of it. Tia could not fight because she would lose, and had accepted the futility of it. That was all that mattered, I told myself. That was all that mattered.

"Now is the time for you to face your makers, if they still exist. I have had enough of you, and I think the world here has too. Goodbye," I said.

I began to gather my power, the air itself flowing and billowing around me until magical energy practically crackled in the air. Celestia only kept that stare, she did nothing but gaze at me as I did so. Helpless, that's what she was.

From deep within me, I heard a little voice speaking. It was unfamiliar, certainly not my own voice. Was it? It had the same tone, same pitch, same bearing. It shouted, "No! Don't kill her!".

I had to kill her!

Don't! You love her more than anything!

Of course it was right, but the master must be obeyed. Of course, I could torture her first, couldn't I?
No! Stop, wake up! Wake up!

That – that was my voice, I was certain of it. I was speaking, wasn't I? Could Celestia not hear it?

"Well? Aren't you going to kill me?" she asked. That stare had softened. Become concerned.

"No. No! I'm – "I said.

Wake up!

"I'll - I'll do what I want to, nopony can tell me what to do!" I shouted.

Just a little more!

"You have to kill me, it's the master's plan!" Celestia shouted. She strode forward and sat before me, lifting her head to expose her neck, inches from me.

"Quickly! Do it!" she shouted.

"No!" I said, reeling backwards.

You are your own pony!

I looked down at myself, no longer a creature of nightmares. I was back to my old navy blue self, clad in my familiar armor with my bow held around my chest by its string. The Night Mare was gone, no more, and would never have hold over me.

Devious. I stared at the illusion of my sister, the questions answering themselves in my mind before I could think them all the way through. All except one.

"You brought me here, warped my form, warped my mind, but you have not trapped me. You have had chances here, but you wished for me to kill you instead. Why? What would that have accomplished?" I asked the false Celestia before me.

"The master had such hopes for you, and you let them all go to waste. Why not redeem yourself by carrying through what you had started? You could be ours once again," she said.

"I am not interested. No pony, no thing, will hold such sway over me, now or ever. I have learned this lesson at great cost, I will not forget it from some cheap parlor trick of illusions. Show me your true form," I said.

The creature that had disguised itself as Celestia warped, twisted, and undid its illusion, revealing itself as one of the many thousands of Faceless that had fallen at the edge of my spear in ages past. This whole environment was likewise a facade, an image pulled from my memories and placed here for me to live in. My companions no doubt were facing their own such monstrosities, but this one had failed.

The time for words had ended, the creature made one last desperate attempt to attack me but it failed, as they always have. No sooner had it reformed itself and made a blunt weapon had I lopped it off with the edge of my spear and blown the creature into a thousand pieces with a magical burst. These things have never been a match for me.

Now I had to find a way out of this illusion, and the illusion was quickly decaying into something more monstrous, and certainly less subtle. The door was locked, though that alone did not mean much. It had not been necessary for there to be a hallway outside for the ruse to work, I would not have tried the door until after dealing with Celestia. Things were not going according to plan, so the rules had to change.

These places have rules, an unspoken, unwritten set of strict instructions hashed out between psyches. I have seen it many times in the world of dreams, as a pony sleeps. To share perceptions between us, our minds must agree on things. Doors must open to go places, or not open at all. Walls must hold up ceilings. Things must be cut when an edge pierces them, and so on. These rules can be bent, but never broken, and the great game is to force the other side to break the rules, thus breaking the power of the illusion.

I have much experience dealing with this. The key was the symbolism, and this room had had plenty for me to spend ages working out. But now, the facade crumbled, and I could see the limits of the psyche I had been up against.

I walked to the balcony, and looked up at the night sky. There were no stars out, now, and the empty vacuum of space beyond was similarly a detail it had forgotten to include. As I watched, the horizon lit up a brilliant blue, as a great blue fire rose up at the edges of the world, all the way across the horizon and into the sky. The flames rose higher and higher until they seemed to arc towards me, and then they stopped, burning that same height as I turned around.

Now the room had given way to a masonry that underlay it. Gray granite stone, interlocking brick, but no mortar, girded the room, greeting me as I turned inside to face it. The doorway remained as a crude outline carved from the rock, indented slightly but otherwise indistinguishable from the rest of the wall. The room had nothing else in it, save the broken mirror at one end. Thus, its significance was revealed.

I checked over it, the mirror having cracked when I had slammed the creature into it. It had broken into exactly six shards, of roughly equal size, all of which had a very sharp edge on one side. Two of the shards had fallen out of the frame, and the other four hung from the edges, scrambled.

I put the other two shards back in and rearranged the pieces until all six fit into what was roughly the shape of the original mirror. Some minor shards had broken off, less than a centimeter in size, and had scattered across the floor. I recovered those as well, and placed them over the broken edges. There were five, but four of them did not fit. It was strange, as I could see five spots in the mirror where chips had broken off, but only one fit into its slot properly. Still, whatever symbolism I had discovered had worked, and as I placed the only fitting piece into the mirror, the wall behind me creaked and opened up where the door had been earlier.

Whatever mind I was opposing was improvising now, the hallway beyond nearly featureless grey stone. The hallway extended into the darkness, not in the layout of the Ponyville town hall. I followed this corridor for a time, it was totally straight with no bends or curves, and at the end was another door, stone, and of the same make as the one from the dressing room.

This one opened, and before me lay an empty, vertical shaft. I looked up at the smooth stone ceiling, and down, off into the darkness. Deep, very deep. It went down a long way, and my magic light did not cast a reflection back from the bottom.

I leaped out into the empty air, and flew around the edges of the room to confirm there was nothing of note along the roof. So I went down, into the hole, trying to keep a decent, controlled descent.

I heard a metallic creaking above me, and I turned to look up at the roof. A row of serrated spikes had revealed itself from behind the rock, and another chunk of rock slid backwards and away, into the wall, to reveal another row of spikes. Soon more slid back, until the entirety of the roof was spiked, and then the roof disconnected and began to fall.

I shot downwards in a full speed dive, hearing the roof spikes collide with the wall as I did. They did not fit perfectly, their edges touched the wall and scattered sparks as they fell towards me, screeching in incredible volume. All around me the screaming of the spikes continued as I dove, faster and faster, until suddenly I could not heard the spikes anymore at all.

I looked up quickly to see they were still there, but they made no sound, nor did they cast any more sparks. As I tried to turn myself to angle down more, I realized why: the room had no more air, and had become a vacuum. I could not angle my wings, and now I was free falling down from the spikes.

Finally I saw a reflection of the bottom of the room from the light of my horn, and I spied that, in the dead center of the cylinder's floor, was a small, square hole. It was almost exactly the size of my body, but I could not steer myself or slow my descent.

I thought as quickly as I could before deciding to pivot myself with my own telekinesis. I waited, calculated the arc, estimated the timing, saw the size and position of the opening. I would need to arc myself, twenty-nine point five miniscule pushes with an interval of twelve milliseconds between each push, in three, two, one.

I fired the push, then again, then again. Expert timing, perfectly calculated and performed with my magic as I angled myself in a vacuum towards a narrow hole exactly wide enough. I had been doing just that for thousands of years, this was no different. The last push was a half-strength push right before I reached the hole, and I fit neatly into it as the spiked ceiling crashed above me.

I kept falling.

Falling.

Into the void.

Something was below me now, I could see it rushing up at me, slowing as I got closer. I was slowing. I exited the tunnel.

Chapter 17

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"Ha! Hey Inkie, look!" somepony shouted.

I looked around quickly. I was standing outside my house, in our rock garden, checking some of my own personal projects. They hadn't been turning out so well, so it wasn't exactly captivating my attention here. Something else tugged at me.

Wasn't I supposed to be doing something important?

Evidently not, I supposed.

"Inkie! Look!" somepony shouted again. Definitely coming from the roof. I backed away from the house to get a better look but there was nopony there. Hmm.

Pinkie appeared from the other side of the house, hovering into view above the roof, and waved at me before vanishing down the other side.

I went around the house to investigate, and found the most bizarre sight. Somehow, without me having heard her doing it, Pinkie had smuggled in a trampoline and assembled it on the other side of the house. She twirled in midair like a trapeze artist and bounced hard, waving to me as I looked right at her.

"Look! I got a trampoline!" she shouted.

"I gathered," I said.

Off to one side, my other sister, Blinkie, was standing, admiring the sight of the thing. It was pretty big, not one of those narrow trampolines made for exactly one pony. This one could probably fit several if you didn't collide in midair. Which was exactly what I was expecting to happen.

"Come on, hop on! It's tons of fun!" Pinkie shouted. I've heard her whisper before, but usually? Shouting.

"Pinkie, what's going to happen if you and I hit each other on there?" I asked.

She shifted her weight on her next bounce, slowing her descent and bouncing barely at all. On the next hit, she stopped completely, her eyes closed, lost in thought.

I heard a bird chirping from the lonely apple tree, the only one on our property. Pinkie continued to think as Blinkie made her way around the trampoline and closer to me.

"How'd you do that?" she asked me. She brushed aside her mane to better see, and I watched over the next two seconds as the cast-aside follicles inexorably found their way back in front of her eyes.

"It's simple. Just ask her to consider the consequences of her actions, and it's like flipping a switch," I said.

"Wait!" Pinkie shouted. Again with the shouting.

"If you hit me in midair, but I don't hit you, then it was a miss, right? But if I hit you, and you don't hit me, it's a miss. Only if we both hit each other would anything bad happen, and that's like a one-in-three chance of happening. It won't be that bad, come on!" she said.

I admit I was stunned by that logic. Nopony ever accused Pinkie of being dumb, not in my recollection. She was probably smarter than all of us put together, because I could see there was underlying combinatorial math there that nopony had ever taught her, to my knowledge.

"I'm not going on if you're on it. I don't wanna get hurt," Blinkie said, so low as to be almost a whisper, but Pinkie could hear it just fine.

"Okay, your turn then!" she shouted.

I watched Blinkie bounce for a while, though the sun didn't move much. What time was it? I felt like I had been up forever, but it should have been about ten in the morning. Regardless, Blinkie seemed to be enjoying herself quite a lot, giggling quietly to herself and feeling the wind rush through her hair.

Amazingly, Pinkie was actually being fairly disciplined, and standing next to me without darting off.

"Is something wrong?" I asked her.

"Oh nothing, just enjoying my brief time here," she said.

"Well you can come visit whenever you want," I said.

"I can?" she asked.

That was confusing, to say the least.

"Well yeah, if the Cakes will give you time off. Door's always open," I said.

Her head started bobbing and I had seen that sort of thing before, she was coming up with a song. Fortunately for me, she didn't sing it. Her songs can be a lot of fun, but never the first draft, let me tell you. It's best if she works out the kinks and doesn't try to make up the lyrics on the fly. Instead, she started humming something to herself, stopping and restarting every now and then.

You know, what was I supposed to be doing? I realized then that I was wearing my hardhat. And my rock hammer. And I had a pickaxe strapped to me, and saddlebags loaded with flares. Flares? I had a feeling that something earth-shatteringly important was supposed to be happening but I couldn't quite remember what. Was I supposed to be in a mine somewhere?

"You wanna have a go?" Blinkie asked, settling herself and hopping expertly off the trampoline.

"I dunno, I was supposed to be doing something," I said.

"Once you start, you won't want to stop! It's great! Just for a minute? Please?" Pinkie said, alternately proclaiming and begging with a change between the two so quick it'd give you whiplash.

"Oh fine. Hold my pickaxe," I said.

She didn't hold it, she just let it sit on the ground, but she made sure no dust got on it. Because a dusty pickaxe meant something in that tangled mess of a mind she had, I guessed.

I climbed onto the trampoline and tested it. Very strong, and quite well made.

"Where'd you get this from?" I asked.

"Oh, didn't you hear? There was a circus in town, and they had this trapeze act, and I went, and it was soooo awesome, and I was like, I wish I could do that. So I asked them if I could try it out, and then the guy, really nice guy, said, sure! You can keep this trampoline, we were gonna replace it anyway! And I was like, no way! And he was - " she babbled.

"Okay I get it," I said.

I ain't no dummy, though. If they were going to replace it, it probably had some fault that Pinkie wouldn't have noticed. It didn't smell bad. It didn't look bad, and it certainly wasn't broken or Pinkie and Blinkie would have found that out. Maybe they thought it was bad luck, I knew how some performers would get really superstitious sometimes.

I pushed down and jumped off the mat, and the springs bore me aloft, then down again, then up, higher than before. This was fantastic, mostly because it was so relaxing. The impact with the mat was gentle and the lift was amazing, but the best part was the height. I could see everything for a mile around. Of course, our property is pretty flat, but I could see above the treetops of our neighbors, something I had never seen before. Most importantly, I was in control, not being carried by a Pegasus or something, I could decide how high I went, and I wanted to go higher.

I shifted my weight as I landed so I could bounce even higher, clearing the height of our house's roof, but it seemed I had hit the limit. The trampoline could propel me no higher than that, no matter how hard I tried.

Blinkie moved over to the one of the poles that held the thing up and seemed to be fiddling with it. Pinkie took notice and followed her. What was she looking at?

"Hey, stop! Stop!" Pinkie shouted, and I instinctively reduced my bounce as quickly as I could. Blinkie pulled a pin out from the leg and caused the trampoline to collapse just after I took off, and the sudden change of balance caused me to flip over in the air.

I landed hard on all fours, barely. One split second of difference and I would have hit my head, and hardhat or no, that would have been bad, even fatal.

"What the hay were you doing?" I shouted at Blinkie.

Blinkie had lost all notice of me and focused her ire on Pinkie instead.

"You idiot! I had it, why did you stop me!?" she shouted, and lifted her hoof to strike Pinkie. Blinkie. My shy little sister who had once told me that she was literally incapable of hurting a fly. Something was profoundly wrong here, and only just now had I noticed it.

Blinkie smashed Pinkie's head with her hoof, a blow that I could hear from where I was, and knocked Pinkie down. She landed hard on her back, and spun around, rolling over and starting towards me.

"Run! Run!" she said.

"Blinkie, what has gotten into you?" I asked her. A dark, angry look had come about her, even looking at her seemed to dim the sun around us. It was cold, suddenly and for no reason, despite it being a hot summer day.

"Traitor!" she shouted, and she dove at Pinkie. She grabbed on and the two fell over in a heap, wrestling with one another. This wasn't like when we were fillies, this wasn't play fighting, Blinkie was trying to kill Pinkie, and I was just shocked.

I stepped back and my hoof connected with my pickaxe, sending out a high-pitched ping sound which cut through the fog over my head and rattled something deep within me. I knew what they feared, somehow.

I sat down and pulled out a flare from my saddlebag, checking it over to make sure I hadn't wrecked it earlier. I chomped the cap and pulled it off, sending a powerful bright white light everywhere, illuminating the world, really illuminating it. It revealed a black, almost insect-like carapace floor beneath me, but only when the flare was within a meter of the ground. Somehow this intense light could reveal the truth. They feared light. It all made sense.

I threw the flare at Blinkie, and she screamed as it revealed her true form, some sort of creature made of black, flowing rock. All across her skin, especially her eyes, were green etchings, much like malachite but darker, deeper. Pinkie, too, was a creature like this, and she grunted and turned away from the light, but kept on fighting Blinkie, or the thing that only looked like her.

"Get out of here! Run, Inkie! Run and don't stop!" Pinkie shouted at me.

I turned and bolted, where, I don't know. The world around me was dissolving, gone was the farm I had grown up on. Gone was the blue sky, the house, the trampoline, all had turned to some thick, hard, smooth substance. I was barreling blindly through some sort of cave system, without regard for where I was going, just away.

The conflict behind me echoed ahead until I had outpaced it, leaving no sound save the clacking of my shoes on this stuff. I could remember what I was supposed to be doing, at least, but I couldn't see the others anywhere. Did I risk calling out? Were they anywhere near me, or were they dealing with their own problems?

I had no answers, I just charged off, turning whenever I felt like it, until I tired and had to slow down somewhere in these caves. Direction was meaningless, as was time. This was stupid, I shouldn't have come here but I did because I was worried about Pinkie. That creature wasn't her, but it had saved me anyway. Didn't Princess Cadence say something about that? Why didn't it try to kill me?

I could hear talking from somewhere up ahead, and I instinctively pulled out another flare, in case it was a trick. The talking wasn't coming towards me, though, and I couldn't make out any of what was being said through the echoes. There were two voices, I was sure of it. One was Princess Cadence, and the other I had never heard before, a mare's deep voice.

I ventured towards it, or at least towards the nearest echo, keeping the flare in my mouth if it came to that. They were talking about something very genially, like old friends, I think.

"Now, what say we play a little game?" teased the mare's voice.

"You're dead. Why don't you just stay dead?" Cadence asked.

"Because, like you, I am compelled to return over and over. Isn't that funny, how we share this? We have so much in common," the mare said.

"You're a mass murdering freak whose soul is imprisoned in a cage buried and forgotten. We have nothing in common," Cadence said. There was no anger there, but the words betrayed they weren't exactly old friends. Perhaps just speaking cordially out of respect?

"Come now, you may look like all these other ponies, but it's just superficial. You could be so much more, you are immortal, undying, powerful. Why fight for them? What have they ever done for you?" the mare asked.

"You don't get it, and you never will. I was created for a purpose," Cadence said.

"So was I! It is you who will never 'get it'. You can reject that purpose, can't you? Then why don't you!?" the mare shouted in defiance. I snuck closer, but these two were still some distance away. It was impossible to judge with the echoes just how far I was, but they did seem to be close.

"I like it. I came to agree with it in my own way, in my own time. That's why I fight for them, because I love them," Cadence said.

"Oh, then you'll love this game I came up with. Care to play?" the mare asked.

"That depends on the conditions," Cadence said.

"Oh it's very simple. If you manage to kill me, then you get to go, and I, well, I die. For real, I promise," the mare said.

"Uh huh. And if you kill me? This sounds not at all like a game, more like a death match," Cadence said. Her composure was astounding, this mare was making death threats and she didn't waver.

"Oh no, see, I've been planning this one for a very long time. It's got everything you love, I made it just for you!" the mare said.

The bizarre cavern around me started to shimmer and shift again, and I couldn't follow their voices anymore. They were becoming more distant.

"Okay General, it's not like I have much of a choice," Cadence said. Then she was gone, along with her interloper, and I was surrounded by a wall of granite that looked much like the palace in Canterlot.

I couldn't find a way in, though, the wall ran all the way across the cave in both directions, from top to bottom. Whatever game they were playing, I was stuck sitting it out.

Chapter 18

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Canterlot castle, my sometimes home, sometimes place where I store my stuff. An obvious illusion, I was under no pretense here. General, somehow, was still alive, its consciousness returned to its master down here in the Abyss after Erdrick destroyed its body. Cursed to come alive again, denied rest, I supposed we had something in common. Idle speculation of course.

I took stock of my surroundings. Right now I was in my room, or an illusion of my room, with all the usual junk lying around. Presumably this 'game' General had come up with hadn't started yet, but it was likely no different from the last one. She/It was going to do something awful to ponies I cared about, and I had to stop that. Nothing to it.

I stepped out into the hallway and looked up the skylight. Ten in the morning, roughly. A clip-clopping came down the hallway and muffled itself as it stepped onto the carpet that draped the marble floor here. I looked to see who it was.

Celestia.

My heart stopped for a moment before I forced it to beat again. Just an illusion, certainly General wouldn't have used the real one. She was probably beyond its power, I reasoned. No, not reasoned. Hoped.

"Cadence? Oh there you are," she said. Sing-song voice, regal bearing. This was a good illusion.

"Yes?" I asked.

"The council wants a meeting with us, and that means you, specifically, in half an hour. Are you able to attend?" she asked. She lingered in front of me, waiting for the answer, as I looked up at her.

How desperately I wanted for this to be real, for everything to be normal and happy back at home. These images still resonated despite that part of my mind that told me not to believe them. Just to let myself go, off into the dream, a part of me still wanted that.

The smart part of my mind won out.

"Sure, I'll be there," I said.

"Right, try to clean your mane off at least. And you smell a little off too. Don't be late!" she said, and trotted past me. I noticed another serving filly had been following along behind her the whole time, with a notepad, trying to jot down what she had been saying. I eyed her as the two passed. Nothing out of the ordinary, yet.

I knocked on Luna's door, but there was no response. Perhaps she wasn't a part of this game. Best to leave it that way, I thought, though that might also have meant she was dealing with her own nightmares right now. Good luck, sister.

I had a little while to poke around before I needed to be at the councilor's chambers, so I wandered the halls. Absolutely nothing was unusual, this was a very well put together simulacrum of the palace. Ponies darted here and there, politicians and nobles trotting back and forth yammering at one another, workers cleaning up. Guardsponies trying to ignore everypony as they went about their business. I had an idea.

"Excuse me," I said to the nearest guard. He straightened up.

"Yes Princess?" he asked.

"Is Captain Antares anywhere on the grounds? I'd like to speak with him," I said.

"Err, captain who?" he asked.

Not good.

"The captain of the night watch," I said.

"The captain of the night watch?" he repeated after me, "That's Captain Orion, ma'am."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I must have forgotten," I said. This little game of General's was playing with outdated pieces. That meant it'd be easier to identify Wedge, I guessed, but I had no idea what he had done before becoming Captain. I had barely spent any time around the castle, Shining Armor would know more.

Oh please, tell me he's not part of this.

One way to find out.

"What about Shining Armor?" I asked.

The guard looked at me for a moment. He was thinking.

"I'm not sure. He should be on duty, ma'am, but I don't know where he is," he said.

"Thank you kindly," I said. I trotted off, aimlessly moving through corridors dreading to meet a crude imitation of my husband. It didn't happen, and I wondered if General had a plan for him, or perhaps had mercifully left him out. Mercy? Heh.

Here I was, constantly second-guessing myself. This was a game, though I didn't know precisely the rules, and I knew something was going to happen. Wouldn't it be best to play along?

I headed over towards the councilor's chambers and arrived a few minutes before I was due. They all looked up as I entered, the twelve of them seated around an elongated table. Celestia was in a corner looking at some documents, and she passed them to her assistant as I entered, eying her speaking podium at the front of the room which was currently unoccupied.

"Ah, there she is," the representative from Baltimare said.

"What is it you needed to consult me about?" I asked. I've never been terribly good at this, and the councilors rarely asked me for advice, that had been Celestia's thing. I also didn't particularly care about making a good performance, and I looked a little rough, and likely smelled like salt. They could go suck a lemon if they didn't like it.

"Ahem," Celestia said, stepping to the podium at the head of the table, and looking down on all of us.

"Princess Cadence, we summon you to ask your consultation in matters military," she said, formally, as she was now speaking for the council.

"Very well," I said.

"We have been concerned as of late due to an increase in the number of changelings spotted within our borders. You know more than anypony on how to deal with them," she said.

Changelings.

General's game was even sicker than I had expected. It knew I still had nightmares about them, it knew they had almost ruined my life once. It knew I hated them and would scour every last one from the planet if given half a chance.

"Might I suggest we form a group of changeling hunters, then. Groups of three, with at least one talented Unicorn who can cast disruption magic. We'd need at least twenty for each major city, and a smaller number for the towns," I said. This wasn't new, this was very similar to the policy we had instituted after the disaster at my wedding, to flush out the changeling spies in Equestria.

This was all a retread of where I had been before, even the statements Celestia had made were the same to the letter. This 'game' had me going back a few years to relive something that had been boring and procedural.

A shadow loomed above us in the room. I noticed it first, and looked up at the skylight which illuminated the chamber. Above the glass was a black shape, buzzing in place and casting its shadow over the table. Everypony else looked up to see what I had seen.

"That's not a guard," I said, stepping back. This was where the history had diverged, it seemed.

It was a changeling, and above it there were more, lots of them. Dozens. Hundreds. The alarm sounded and the great ringing bell was deafening as the sounds of battle started throughout the palace. The changeling above us took this cue to smash its way through the glass, followed by several of its cohorts, and landed in front of us as the councilors scattered and made for the door.

The first one to land came straight at me, lunging with something that looked like a pair of scissors in its hoof, swinging it wildly. I drew my sword and gashed open its neck in the same motion, the clumsy attack being barely worth acknowledging. The councilors were nowhere near as competent, or as armed, as I was, and the changelings that had poured in pursued with zeal.

"Tia, get them out of here!" I shouted, though I guess she thought I was referring to the councilors. She forced the door open with her magic and the panicked politicians followed her out, save one, who could not get past the changeling who was blocking her way.

"Cadence!" she shouted, pointing at the cornered councilor.

"I'll get her, get them someplace safe!" I shouted back.

The representative from Trottingham, I know not her name, had backed herself into the corner opposite the door. I vaulted the table and landed on the other side of the changeling, but he made no effort to attack me. He brandished that strange scissors-like device and stabbed the councilor in the leg as she tried to shrink into the corner. He turned to me and smiled, I think, before my sword punctured his heart. The smile vanished, as did his life, and he slumped over.

"Come on, whoever you are, Celestia knows of a safe place," I said. I actually didn't know where she had gone to, but there were enough secret passages in the palace that we could hide the councilors fairly well. The pony didn't follow me, she just kept clutching at the wound where she had been stabbed.

"Hold still, it didn't go deep. Put pressure on it," I said, getting close to the leg.

"It – it oooh," she said. This wasn't a pain reaction. The wound wasn't bleeding either, but there was something distinct and black spreading under her skin, visible through her coat.

"Poison?" I said, looking closer.

"No, don't," she said, as I bent in closer. Poisoned knives, that's pretty messed up. The changelings had evidently had enough of stealth and infiltration.

I leaned in to try to suck the poison out, but the councilor shoved me away with her hoof.

"Hey! I've done this before, let me help you," I shouted.

"No! It feels so good," she said. Her face had taken on the look of a coked-out addict, she had a vacant smile and her eyes had rolled back.

The black sludge was spreading up her leg fast, way too fast to be poison. It made its way to her heart within seconds and then, everywhere, all at once. Her entire body turned black except her eyes, which she closed. She slumped over, leaving me baffled. Could I have saved her? Or was this the explanation of how the game worked? Was I supposed to see this happen so I knew the rules?

I checked the body, and to my amazement, it was warm. Still had a pulse. She wasn't dead, but she certainly wasn't moving either. I supposed she was safe enough this way, but I certainly couldn't let this happen to my friends. Now the game was on, I had to find my companions before the changelings did.

I bolted out of the room and into the chaos that raged in the hallways. Guardsponies and some staff members, the more courageous ones, anyway, were battling changelings all throughout. They had come in though the skylights that lit much of the palace, glass shards lay everywhere as spears and those strange scissor-needles clanged. I could already see several blackened bodies lying in the hallway, and before my eyes a guard had been stabbed in the chest.

I shot forward and impaled his attacker from behind, but it was already too late. I wasn't sure if I could suck out the poison or not, but it was so fast acting that even the five seconds I took were too much. He was gone, just like the councilor.

The battle was far out of my control at this point, and it wasn't going so well. For every changeling that had fallen, there were two of those black lumps that had been ponies. I could fight and try to win here, but I was going to be outnumbered, fast.

"Cadence, over here!" Celestia shouted at me across the din, and I whirled to see her suspending a changeling in midair with her magic, before tossing it against the wall. It crumpled like a can at the impact.

She ran off and I followed, tearing through the maddened corridors. All around us the battle continued, the changelings winning, by a lot. We had only minutes before they would clinch total victory.

At last we broke into the throne room. Wait, the throne room?

"Why are we here Tia? This isn't safe! We're going to get pinned!" I said.

"It's the only place left. The changelings knew about all our hiding places," she said.

"The councilors?" I asked.

"They got them. I'm sorry," she said. She hung her head.

"Damn it," I spat. The door burst open and a dozen changelings swarmed in.

They took up positions in a circle around us. Celestia had accepted defeat, it seemed, and was not willing to keep fighting, but I wasn't going down that easily.

"Come on, who's first? Who wants to test themselves?" I barked, a challenge that went unanswered. None of the changelings wanted to get close, they waited in a horde that grew all the time as more flooded into the room. Those creepy scissor-needles glinted as they brandished them.

One stepped out, or maybe was pushed, and I sliced his head off before he took two steps. I punted the head into the crowd and challenged again.

"Who else? Come on!" I shouted.

"Why not me?" came a voice I had been dreading, from directly behind me. I whirled around just in time to catch a hoof in the mouth and fell over, dropping my sword. It clattered on the floor and skittered into the horde of changelings. I didn't care, because it was her.

Chrysalis. Standing over me.

"Been a long time, Princess," she said. Practically drooling, she gazed at me with unalloyed malice.

"Celestia?" I asked.

"She's been gone a while. I had adequate time to learn all your secret passages, and now, I've got all your political leaders. Let's see you mount a resistance without them, hmm?" she said.

"You bitch," I said. I spat in her face, and she didn't even flinch as it splashed on her cheek.

I knew, deep down, that this was part of General's game, but seeing her snarling face brought out something in me that few living ponies had ever seen. The only reason I hadn't slashed her throat open was I had dropped my sword. Given the chance, given even a moment's opportunity, I'd cut off each one of her limbs and dangle it in front of her eyes, just to watch the horror in them as she realized she'd never use it again. I'd carve hateful slurs into her back with my blade's edge, I'd pull out her crooked teeth one by one, then shove them down her ugly neck. I'd bend her, then I'd break her, and if I could, I'd bring her back only to break her again.

"Well, time to see if you're immune to this too," she said with a chuckle. One of her changelings handed her a scissor-needle and she swung it at me as I lay on the floor.

I rolled out of the way and stood up, angling a kick at her jaw. I missed and threw myself further off balance, she had recoiled at the last second.

"Hold her down!" she shouted, and all at once, thirty changeling hooves grabbed me and pinned me to the floor. I struggled, vainly, as the odds were firmly against me now.

She stabbed me in the chest, but it didn't hurt at all. It was barely even a paper cut, and none of the effects I had seen earlier happened to me. My physiology was different from that of an ordinary pony, and Chrysalis' expression told me she had anticipated this. The black poison sat in the wound for a moment, then dissipated.

"Too bad. Toss her in the dungeon until I figure out what I'm going to do with her. And no beatings, you hear me? She's mine," she said.

"When, when, I get my hooves on you, I'll strangle you with your own intestines! I'll - " I shouted, before a changeling grabbed my mouth and held it closed. They hauled me out of the room and I lost sight of everything behind a sea of black changeling bodies.

Chapter 19

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And now the game began in earnest, it seemed.

The changelings, working as a team of two dozen, dragged me off to what I suppose we could consider to be a dungeon. It wasn't really a dungeon, it was actually a repurposed kennel where some visiting dignitaries had put their dogs and cats if they couldn't supervise them. A big, sandstone-brick room behind the kitchen with bars on some of the openings, with slots to put plates of food for the animals on. They picked one of the bigger cells and threw me in. I heard my sword clang on the floor somewhere out of my sight, but within the same room, and all the changelings left. I heard them shut the door but not lock it, though I could guess at least one or two was still inside, standing guard.

All I could see from my vantage point was the other wall, along which was a similar row of cages to this one, but smaller, and all empty. We hadn't entertained any pets in some time, it seemed, because the place didn't smell like animals at all. If anything it smelled like soup.

The cell I was in had only a pile of old hay to lay on. Other than that, it was a small, arched opening about two body lengths in depth, and one in width. I could turn around, but not much else.

Wasting no time, I checked the strength of the bars. These were designed to hold pets, not ponies, but they were sturdy enough. I could peer around a bit to see the rest of the room if I got up close to the bars, and I tried to see the door.

Next to it was my sword, propped up against the wall. A changeling was looking over it, possibly admiring its impressive craftsponyship, but more importantly, not looking at me.

I took the opportunity to examine the lock on my cage. Key lock, steel, certainly not something I could break, and I was definitely not going to unlock it magically. Nuts.

I checked over the walls of the cell but I couldn't find anything I could use there either. No loose bricks, no hidden levers. It was as if this thing was really just the cage for a dog to sleep in.

I heard a commotion over by the door, and I sidled up to listen.

"Feeding the prisoner," I heard a changeling say. A male voice, though I'll be damned if I could tell a female from a male changeling at a distance.

"Already?" another asked. Male as well, but his voice was higher.

"Ponies need to eat regularly. You'd know that if you spent any time studying them. What's your rank?" the first one asked.

"Class Q harvester," the second said. I don't know why, but class Q must be universal for a rookie, somehow.

"Really? And you're on guard duty? No way, I am relieving you," the first one said.

"My orders are from the queen," the second said.

"My orders are from common sense. You didn't even know ponies eat, and you're watching the prisoner? Did you not notice she was trying to pick the lock a second ago?" the first said.

I backed up a bit instinctively, but it wasn't like I wasn't obvious before.

"Sorry sir," the second said.

I heard the door open and then shut a moment later. A changeling walked in front of my cell, and I glared at him with as much hatred as I could generate. If I could just get my hooves on him, if I could reach through the cell bars I could try to snap his neck. Then he wouldn't -

Unlock my cell door.

"What?" I asked.

"Time to go," he said.

He vanished for a second and returned with my sword, waiting patiently at the cell door as I edged out, uncertain.

"You're going to need this," he said. I took the sword, still bewildered, and slid it back into the scabbard on my back.

I looked around the room to make sure this wasn't a trick, but there were no other changelings around, just the two of us.

"What the hay? Who are you? Why are you helping me?" I asked.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. I'm under strict orders to make sure you succeed, so listen closely to me. Most of our troops are out in the city, we've only got a skeleton crew running things here. We've set up a hatchery in the throne room, probably for symbolic reasons, and that's where the queen is right now," he said.

"Why should I trust you?" I asked.

"Well I could have left you in your cell, but I figure you have a better chance of pulling this off than I do," he said.

I had no choice but to go along with this. I had figured out General's game, though it would be impossible to confirm until the last moment, but this changeling mess meant I couldn't trust anypony I met. Thus I would have to guess if my friends were changelings in disguise, or the real thing. If I killed one of them, then I'd lose, and thus General would get to watch me squirm.

"Okay, but what will busting up a hatchery do for us?" I asked.

"It's not the hatchery, it's the queen. I need you to take care of her, I'm afraid I don't have the heart for it," he said.

"You've not the heart? Changelings have morals?" I asked.

"I'm under orders, okay? I can't do it, you can, what's there to talk about? Get going," he said.

I stepped out of the cage as the changeling stepped in. He shut the door behind him and it locked automatically with a click, the key sitting just outside of his reach.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

His form shifted and swirled, wrapping and folding in on itself until I stood in the cage. He had disguised himself as me, a mirror copy, including the mangled mane.

"This way the guards won't be looking for you. Pass me that key will you?" he said. I said. Whatever.

I pushed the key into the cell, and he picked it up and hid it under the pile of hay in the back.

"Well? Move it!" he said.

"Whoever you are, whatever you are, thanks," I said, to myself, sort of. He/She/I just waved and sat against one side of the cell wall.

Stealth is actually one of my strong suits, so to speak. I don't usually have to be quiet and careful in my line of work, but it has come in handy, for privacy mostly. Being discreet means ponies don't investigate and interrupt me at crucial times, so I've learned the basics of being light on one's hooves, then practiced them over and over.

I stuck my head into the kitchen in front of the kennels. Empty. The fires had conveniently been doused by the staff during the attack, and the place was brick anyway, so there'd be no risk of the place burning down. As I left, I almost stepped on the discarded plate of food my changeling benefactor was going to give me, now a forgotten afterthought. I picked that up and put it on a table, so it'd seem less out of place.

The hallways outside the kitchens were very quiet, but I could hear the faint sounds of battle filtering through the skylights from the city down below. As I stepped out, I heard the sound of somepony walking, some distance behind me, and I flew up towards the ceiling to hide myself in the shadows under the skylight. The palace was largely illuminated by skylights, except at night when we lit torches and lamps, but that left blind spots on the ceiling which were completely darkened. Two changelings disguised as guardsponies, or they could have been real guardsponies, if not for the situation, walked by and didn't notice me as they did. I tried to hover as quietly as I could, bracing myself against the wall to reduce the amount of flapping I had to do. It worked.

The guardsponies passed, I waited a while to make sure there were no others treading the same ground, before ducking through the archway they had passed under. I had to make my way towards the throne room, but it was slow going. Every single pony in the palace was likely a changeling, the guardsponies were probably a lure in case a worker had hidden during the chaos. They'd run up to the guards and ask to know what happened, then get captured. Devious.

An explosion rocked the air above the skylights as I made my way further into the palace. I guessed it had come from the city, but it was no real concern of mine. It wasn't part of the 'game', at least I thought it wasn't, so I could safely ignore it.

Another patrol, this time of two mare nightguards, forced me to duck into a side room as I did not have enough time to hide in the hallway. I watched through the crack in the door as the two passed, an air of superiority about them. So, just normal night guards, then. These actors knew their roles.

They stopped just a bit past the door and started loudly talking to one another. Frustrated, I could do nothing but sit and listen, I couldn't risk trying to slip past them when they were this close.

"Did you hear what the queen is doing in the hatchery?" one asked.

"No. Did it have to do with those needles?" the other asked.

"I heard it's supposed to be a part of fixing our breeding problems," the first one said.

"How?" the second asked.

"Beats me. That's the rumor, that this is gonna fix all our problems," the first said.

"What is she gonna do with the bodies?" the second asked.

"That I don't want to know," the first one said.

They kept walking after that.

I slipped out of the room as another explosion echoed in through the skylights. There was less din coming from the city this time, it had been quieting down. It had barely been half an hour, but the changelings had evidently managed to suppress a lot of the guard very quickly. I didn't like that this scenario was eerily realistic, that despite it being a hallucination brought about by the Abyss, I couldn't definitively say it could never happen. We had been taken by surprise before, and a miracle saved us. What if we didn't get a second miracle?

At last I was within sight of the throne room, but there were two undisguised changelings out front, holding spears they had likely lifted from the guardsponies. Speaking of, where were they? The hallways had been full of bodies during the battle but they were all gone on my way here.

No time for that, sneaking into the throne room was probably out of the question. Those two guards weren't going anywhere and would hear me if I tried to open the door. I took stock of the situation.

I knew the layout of the antechamber like the back of my leg. The throne room's door stood at the top of a short flight of stairs, with the two guards on either side at the bottom of those. To both sides of them were rows of pillars that stretched up to the ceiling, but those pillars wouldn't hide me, and the whole place was lit by the noon day sun coming in through the skylight. There were open doors leading to hallways on either side, but a quick glance left or right by one of the guards and I'd be spotted. All one of them had to do was shout and every changeling in the building would come after me.

I needed to take out both guards without either of them making a sound. Quite a challenge. Approach from the pillars, and get spotted. Take a side passage, and get spotted. There were likely a lot of guards outside the palace on the grounds who would see me if I tried to enter the throne room from the windows. Wait.

The windows. Brilliant.

I backed up a bit and went up through the skylight onto the roof, but I stayed low and kept on the roof itself. There were a few fliers patrolling the sky, but their attention was focused on the grounds below them, not the roof.

Still, I didn't have much time. I ran over the roof to the skylight of the antechamber, and dove in from that angle. I unsheathed my sword and threw it straight at one of the changeling guards, then angled my wings and slammed into the other at full speed. The first guard looked up just in time to catch my sword with his throat, while the other had exactly enough time to see my face before I broke his neck with my bare hooves. I knew they were fakes, but it still felt good to murder changelings. Damn you General, this game is screwed up worse than any I could have dreamed up.

There wasn't a lot of room to hide their bodies, so I stuffed them behind one of the pillars, in the corner, and hoped none of the patrols would look too closely. I didn't have a lot of time before someone noticed they were missing anyway, so I made for the throne room and ducked inside.

The changelings had been busy. They had covered the skylights with black tarp and all the windows likewise. It was like stepping into another world, as the whole room was darkened except by the light from the doorway, and the slivers that snuck past the tarps from outside. I guessed changelings needed darkness for their eggs, and there were a lot of them.

I didn't know too much about changelings except from what Celestia had told me after my encounter with Chrysalis, but from what I knew they had hives that hatched new changelings from eggs. They were supposed to be small, about the size of a wing fully flared, but these egg sacs were huge, and clustered around the middle of the room. I looked up to see the silhouettes of more sacs hanging off the ceiling. Some were moving.

"You know, I'm not surprised you made it out," came a familiar voice from somewhere amongst the eggs. Chrysalis wasn't interested in hiding, though, and stepped into the middle of the room. My lips curled into a snarl of their own accord as her figure stood in the gloom before me.

I cast a light spell to better see, and then I saw what had been inside the egg sacs. Ponies. Their blackened bodies were visible underneath the translucent sheen of the sacs. They weren't moving, just suspended in them. Hundreds of them, rows and rows all over the room and from the ceiling.

"What the hell are you doing..." I muttered.

"Do you like it? It's my solution to a long-standing problem. Did you know we changelings are an endangered species? It's true, we've simply been having fewer and fewer younglings, and nobody knows why," she said. She stroked one of the egg sacs and it quivered in response to her hoof.

"What good is a food source? You can't make babies out of food," I said.

"Food? Oh you poor dear, maybe it's best if I show you. This one is just about ready," she said. She prodded the egg sac nearest her and it started to quiver more than before. She pushed it, and the sac broke open. A black lump that had been a pony fell out and landed on the floor with a squish.

But she wasn't done. She stood over the fallen creature and sung something gentle towards it as it began to writhe on the ground. Flashes of green began to emerge and the blob of material took shape and stood up. A changeling. A brand new changeling, where a pony had been before.

"You monster," I shouted. I had already unsheathed my sword and was in mid-charge before my mind caught up.

I was stopped when an enormous changeling landed right in front of me, having fallen off the ceiling moments before. It opened its disconcerting, pupil-less eyes and glared at me, baring its fangs. It spoke.

"No harm shall come to the queen," it said. In Celestia's voice.

"No... no... no..." was all I could mutter.

"She was our test subject, I had to practice on somepony. Do you like how she turned out?" Chrysalis asked.

I knew it was fake, but it was summoning up the memories of the real Celestia. It was the same, something came and took her away, turning her into a monster, and there was nothing I could do about it. The only thing I could do was kill her, but this time Luna wasn't here to comfort me, and this was no dream. I was awake, living this nightmare again, and being forced to bring it to its conclusion or face terrible consequences.

"Ooh we have a bumper crop. Stand up and greet your princess!" Chrysalis gloated, and pushed over more sacs. Their contents spilled onto the floor as they writhed about, waiting for her to sing something over them and finish their transformation.

All the worst elements of my life had been combined together into one. Watching my friends go mad, having to kill ponies I cared about, my loved ones being twisted into monsters before my eyes. This was too much, too much. I wanted to just give it all up, right there. Throw down my sword, ball up, and just cry. This pain wasn't worth it, it was all stacking up and there was no way I could ever deal with it.

I dropped my sword. It clanged on the marble floors and I slumped over. Tears came out and I made no effort to stop them. This was it, I failed. The beast that had been Celestia loomed over me, glaring at me. It spoke again.

"Giving up so soon?" it asked. But not in Celestia's voice. In Gabby's.

Chapter 20

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The creature backed up suddenly and bucked Chrysalis right in the face. Surprised, she staggered backwards and collided with an egg sac, knocking out its prisoner as well. She stood up as quickly as she had fallen and hissed something in language I couldn't understand. Changeling speak, I guessed.

The creature that spoke like Gabby looked at her, puzzled.

"Did you make out any of that? I didn't," she said.

"You are mine, submit!" Chrysalis screamed.

"No thanks. I've got a better idea, bitch," Gabby said, and threw herself at Chrysalis.

The two collided and Gabby, being the bigger, knocked her down and sat on her. She forced her weight onto Chrysalis' chest and squeezed.

"Hurry up Cadence!" Gabby shouted.

I grabbed my sword and dashed forward, shoving aside the half-finished changelings who were trying to stand up. Before I made it there, Chrysalis stood up and threw Gabby off her, sending her careening into the egg sacs.

"This was not how it was supposed to happen! Why won't you submit!?" Chrysalis screamed at Gabby.

"You didn't do your research, moron. And now you're gonna pay the price," Gabby said, struggling to stand up amongst the slippery cocoons.

"Gah!" Chrysalis grunted as I leaped at her, swinging. She blocked my sword with her leg and saw it get carved off before her very eyes. I loved it, I loved every millisecond of it. I wanted to memorize this and replay it over and over in my head a million times every day.

Grinning, I took the edge of my blade and quickly traced out a profanity I intended to carve on her back, slowly. It'd be so much fun, watching her writhe in incredible pain. I could torture her for days down here, if I could get Gabby to keep the other changelings back. Really I'd only have a few minutes, but I'd make it feel like days. A dark smile took over my face.

Profanity? So blase. Maybe I should carve something else on her back, my own personal canvas. I wanted something for everyone who saw her corpse to remember, to mock, to spit on. Fillies would take photos next to it with their parents consent, they'd make mocking poses and stick out their tongues. I'd charge for admission.

"Cadence?" somepony asked.

No no, carve off her legs first. That way she can't run away, can't fight back. You'll need to make sure she doesn't bleed out, so cauterize the wounds with fire. Oh that will be a joy.

"Cadence? Hello?" somepony asked again.

I could tear off her wings too, just pull them right out like those of a fly. Oh she'd scream when I did that, tears would pour down her face. It'd be worse than a whipping.

"What are you waiting for!? Finish her off!" somepony shouted.

"What!? And let this fun go to waste?" I demanded. Gabby, still in the shape of a large changeling, nonetheless adopted a terrified look.

"Fun? Just kill her so we can get out of here!" she said.

"I want her to suffer. I want her pain to be a legend told to keep colts from being bad or staying up past bedtime. I want to pay back a thousand times what she did to me," I snarled. I grabbed Chrysalis by her disgusting puke-green, mottled hair and held her head up. She was crying at the loss of her hoof, sniveling and whimpering. Pathetic.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Gabby asked.

"You don't know what it's like!" I shouted.

"Yes I do! It's because of you that I'm here at all! Isn't that your code? Give life when possible, death when necessary. Where are pain and humiliation in that mantra?" she asked.

"Screw the mantra, screw everything. She represents everything that is evil in the world, and nothing but nothing is too awful to do to her," I said.

"No, not screw everything! Cadence, you're supposed to be the picture of good and right and all that crap. You gave me a part of your soul to save my life and expected no reward at all. I refuse to believe that you'd ever torture someone, no matter what they did, no matter what they represent," she said.

The whole world was gone. We weren't in the throne room any more. Gabby no longer looked like a changeling. It had come down to just us three. The game was almost over, and all that remained was the last move. Chrysalis made a whimpering noise as I ruminated on Gabby's words.

"You're right. Damn it, you're right," I said.

"No! Hate me! Hate me! I'd rape your corpse! I'd make your sister my slave, and force her to kiss my hooves! Hate me!" Chrysalis screamed. Begging. That was what was truly pathetic.

"No. I don't hate you," I said.

I shoved my sword into her chest, and pulled it out in one swift motion. The world returned to what I knew it truly was, a cave made of black carapace. This was the bottom of the Abyss, where the game had taken place. Next to me lay the body of General, still in the shape of Chrysalis, both my most hated enemies fused into one. She coughed and sputtered, black fluid leaking out of the hole in her chest. She didn't have long left.

"Heh, I guess I was right all along, and so wrong," she said. With each word, she coughed and a little more fluid escaped.

"Are these to be your final words, General? I will listen to them," I said.

"I thank you, Amoria. You know, we are different, so different. I see that now," she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You were made to fulfill a purpose, but you were given the choice to reject it. Did you know that I was made for a purpose? I was, my master sent me to destroy you, but it was not something I was given a say in," she said. She coughed again.

"You cannot know what it is like to have intelligence but not choice. My hate for you was burnt into my very being, even though I realized it was not rational. But you? You hated me, and you could overcome that hate. We're so alike, but so different. We could have been friends, were the situation different," she said.

"Really? You and me?" I asked.

"Maybe, when you tire of this world, I will meet you in the next one, if I am allowed there. But before I go there, I must tell you one thing," she said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"My master no longer cares for me, only now am I truly freed. I can tell you that your sister is not beyond saving. She waits for you, to liberate her," she said.

"Wait, how!? How do I save Celestia!?" I asked.

"Heh, and spoil the fun? No, I think you'll find that out yourself," she said. She smiled at me, a truly warm, generous smile, even if it was the face of Chrysalis.

"Good luck," she said.

She stopped holding herself together, and let her form dissolve. Chrysalis disappeared into the black tar that had formed General's body, and that too leaked into a mush on the floor. It seeped down and spread thin, until it was nothing, indistinguishable from the carapace.

I heard the sounds of ponies trotting up behind me, but I didn't care. It was just the same as all those ponies I had slain on the fields of battle, those whose minds had been forfeit. They were victims of a power far greater than their own, and the only way to gain peace was death. Was General any different? Were any of these Faceless creatures different? Were they not just innocent pawns in a game so large and grand that none living could even comprehend its scope?

Even after everything it had done, I could not hate General. I forgave it. It pained me to do it, but I did, because that's what I had chosen to do and will continue to choose to do. The choice made freely, regardless of what choice it was, was what made me different, and that was something I cherished.

I left a single tear staining the ground where General had lay. My duties come with a cost.

I turned around to see my friends gathered behind me. Gabby, Luna, Inkie, and a changeling. Wait.

A changeling?

The four of us, having finally noticed him, spun around and drew weapons to face him. He laughed at us before shifting himself back into the form of captain Wedge Antares. I relaxed, but everypony else didn't.

"Wedge, you were a changeling all along? Why didn't you tell me?" I asked him. I strode up and hugged him, and my friends, especially Luna, were baffled by the exchange.

"Orders from above," he said.

"I'm a Princess! Luna's a Princess! Who's above us!?" I demanded.

"Princess Celestia. If you want to know why she outranks you, it's because she said she does," he said, winking at me.

"Captain, you are a changeling?" Luna asked, lowering her spear. At her cue, Inkie backed up and Gabby relaxed herself.

"Sorry to deceive you ma'am. I wanted to tell you, but Princess Celestia ordered me not to," he said.

"But why?" she asked.

"I'm head of our intelligence division, specifically, I was hired to flush out any changelings who may have been undercover in the administration," he said.

"Surely you did not need to be a guard captain to accomplish this," she said.

"Of course not, but I had seen how it had worked for captain Sparkle, and wished to duplicate his success. Your sister did give me her blessing for it," he said.

"Duplicate his success..." I said, trailing off. Luna took a moment to realize what he had meant, then she blushed harder than ever before.

"All this just for me?" she asked. He nodded.

"I'm so sorry for not telling you sooner," he said. I didn't know if he was referring to his feelings, or being a changeling.

"Wait wait wait, don't changelings, like, feed off of your love? Isn't that what they do?" Gabby asked me.

"Yes, we do. But it's not a bad thing, I am quite taken with you, Princess," Wedge said, and Luna looked at the ground to try to hide her rosy cheeks.

"I return the love to her, and both of us are stronger for it. This is how we have lived since the beginning of time," Wedge said.

"Then what was with that attack at your wedding, Cadence?" Gabby asked.

"Chrysalis wanted to take love without returning it, through force and deception. I see now that she was just desperate, fearful of her own extinction, and willing to try anything to stave it off," I said.

"This is too weird," Inkie said. Gabby nodded in agreement.

"This place is just a graveyard now. We're almost out of here. Luna, do you remember the way?" I asked.

"No, but we will find it regardless," she said.

"Gabby?" I asked, as we walked through the empty caverns. Luna was leading us, guided by some unseen force, or just wandering. Either way, we were following her.

"Yeah?" she said.

"Thanks," I said, "You saved me back there."

"Just evening up the score," she said.

"But, what happened to you? Why did you look like a changeling?" I asked.

"I was just playing along with the game. I guess General thought I was under her spell, but I wasn't. Because I've got you in here," she said. She poked herself in the head with her hoof.

"Did my immunity really transfer over?" I wondered aloud.

"Hey! If you're gonna try to claim under some technicality that you saved you then you can just forget it. I would have saved the day even if I didn't have any weird psychic imprints," she said.

"Okay okay," I said.

"I'm not kidding. We are even, get me? Even!" she said.

"I get you!" I said.

"Good," she said.

I now walked with a bounce in my step. We had done it, we might even pull this off! If I could somehow save Celestia, if we really were ahead of the bearers, if all of us had pulled through that calamity, then maybe there was hope for us all. I was now prepared, I thought, to do what I had to do. If General was wrong, then I knew I could deal with my sister. I knew that even if we failed down here, that we had given it everything we had. No pony could have hoped for a better showing than the one my friends had given here. Maybe I had wished I could have sent them back to the surface before, but now, these four were the only ones I'd want at my side when we faced down the puppet-master behind all of this. At last, everything that had begun so long ago would end, the cycle of death would be broken at last.

I looked forward with true confidence and surety. With these ponies at my side, I could not fail.

Chapter 21

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We followed Luna's meanderings for some time, though she assured us they were not meanderings. I could not see any landmarks that reminded me of our last visit, everything here looked the same as what came before it. Endless caverns in every direction, made of obsidian or something else, casting a sheen when light was brought over it. The only thing truly different from last we were here was the sound.

The caverns were quiet, our hoofsteps bouncing back to us. No ghostly echoes, no cries, no screams of assault. Nothing bore down on us. Nothing whispered to us. Nothing moaned. Nothing charged us from the shadows, nothing grabbed at us and carried us away forever.

We just kept walking, until we found what seemed like an edge. It was the same wall, but it had been smoothed by something, and Luna decided we ought to follow it. So we did, for nearly half an hour of walking, before we found an opening.

This was not part of the Abyss, it was new. The smoothed wall gave way to a corridor built from stone brickwork, glowing golden of its own accord. No light sources, just the rock itself letting out an ambiance of reassuring calm though the straight hallway.

"Do we follow it?" I asked.

"What choice do we have?" Luna replied.

Marching down the hallway we soon saw the far end of it, the whole thing was scarcely a hundred meters long. At the end, it turned, and a flight of stairs led us down some distance before the hall turned again, then again it came to more stairs. We descended, turned, followed, walked, then descended again, deeper into this artificial construction in the Abyss. I could estimate our travel time at two hours total among these endless glowing halls before we happened across a grand stone door, likewise crafted from the same golden brick, at the end of a long stairwell. The doors were twice as tall as I was, and double-wide as well. Carved onto the doors, in a symmetrical pattern, was a six-pointed star, surrounded by five smaller six-pointed stars arranged in a rough pentagon around it.

"The mark of the champion," Luna said.

"Twilight's mark," I said.

The door opened with little resistance despite being made of stone. It was nigh-weightless, and beyond it was what I would describe as a chapel. The floors were smoothed and polished rock, the room itself was rectangular with a low ceiling that domed in the middle, over a fountain that had real, flowing water in it. Arranged atop the fountain were six familiar artifacts, in the shapes of a star, an apple, balloons, diamonds, butterflies, and a lightning bolt. We had found them, the Elements of Harmony, the true Elements, in their resting place here. This shrine had been built atop the focal point of the containment shield, and beneath it lay the Unmaker, waiting for us.

While everypony else wasted no time in dashing forward to take a drink of the water, which I had assured them was real and not a trick, I had spied something in the corner away from the fountain which dominated the room. Two rusted mechanical hulks, stacked on top of one another, tucked away in the corner in the otherwise spotless and empty room. Luna noticed them too, and we walked over to examine them.

"Amazing that they are still here after all this time. Did they build all this?" Luna asked.

"Who else would? Who else could?" I asked.

It had been ten-thousand years since anypony had seen a Redeemer, but here they were, the last two in existence. Preserved down here, far from the prying eyes of the world. I could hear a faint humming coming from within them as I got closer.

"They're still alive," I said.

Luna hovered near but the hulks did not respond. The humming was audible, yet no sound other than that came, no reaction or stimulation. Not dead, but close to it.

"What are those things?" I heard Inkie ask from behind us, trotting closer to see.

"The ones who built this place," I said.

"I've never seen anything like them. Are they, like, robots?" she asked.

"Something grander than that, I think," Luna replied.

We had other things to attend to, so we left them where they were, for the moment. I took a drink from the fountain myself, the water was cold and sweet, the best I had ever tasted. It was pure, composed of magic itself, I reasoned, to be flowing here in this fountain. It poured out from springs beneath the Elements and drained somewhere in the base of the fountain beyond sight.

"What now?" Wedge asked. Despite himself, he hadn't refrained from drinking of the fountain, either.

"I suppose we must wait for the bearers to arrive, then go with them," I said.

"Bearers? Of these little trinkets?" Gabby asked dismissively, "they don't look like much to me."

"Those trinkets have saved the world more times than you know," I said.

"That's because I wasn't around to do it for you," she said. She winked at me.

"Fine, whatever. Now might be a good time to get some rest," I said.

Taking the cue, everypony was more than amenable to resting a while. Inkie took off all her burdens and leaned them up against the fountain, while Wedge put aside his armor and leaned in a corner, his eyes closed.

This place was safe enough, I supposed, though I did not know how long until Twilight and her friends would arrive. They could have been mere moments behind us, or a full day's walk, I could not imagine what sorts of things they had dealt with on their way here. I only regretted not being there to guide her.

Luna, I noticed, had taken up a position next to Wedge as he lay against the wall. I cocked an eyebrow at her, and she returned my look with a hint of a smile. I laid down next to the fountain, fairly close to where Gabby had decided to rest, but there was no speaking here. She was already asleep.

Inkie had gone back to examining the Redeemers in the corner, when a gentle knock came at the door. Had they arrived already? Not even a minute after I sat down?

I shot a look at Luna. She was asleep, as were Wedge and Gabby. Inkie, despite the softness of the knock, had heard it and come over to me. I hadn't even had time to take off my stuff and yet it was time to go back to the fray.

The two of us pushed the door open to find Pinkie Pie standing in front of it, alone. My senses shot into full-scale alarm, and I had drawn my sword before anypony had a chance to speak. I held it inches from the pink beast's face. It did not flinch, it scarcely regarded me at all, focusing on Inkie instead.

"Pinkie?" Inkie asked.

"That it not your sister!" I hissed. The creature masquerading as Pinkie nodded at me, but didn't attack. She calmly looked at Inkie and cleared her throat.

"She's right, I'm not," it said.

"I know," Inkie said. To my astonishment, she stepped out of the door and hugged the pink pony anyway.

"What are you doing?" I asked. They embraced and then disengaged, as Inkie stepped back into the shrine, Pinkie recoiled at the sight, lowering her head before bringing it back up. A tear was dashed away in a blink.

"Who are you? Do you have a name?" Inkie asked.

"No, I'm Pinkie Pie, right? There were no names before that," it said.

"Why did you help me?" Inkie asked.

"Do you two know each other?" I asked.

"Yeah, this thing saved me from a - another thing. I'd be dead if not for her," Inkie said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I was supposed to help kill you, sister. Oh, sorry. I'm not your sister either," Pinkie said. She shook her head.

"Sorry. I was created to destroy you, but I had to act the part of Pinkamina. And when I got on that trampoline, I felt joy, pure joy, and I wanted to keep feeling it. I didn't care what the master wanted, and I just did what I thought was right instead. And now I'm an orphan, the others won't take me back," she said.

"I see. Would you like to come with us?" Inkie asked.

Pinkie shuddered.

"No, I'm sorry. I can't even go through that door, the light from it stings even to think about. But I'm not going back," she said.

"We're going to put an end to your master," I said. She nodded.

"I know, and I'd help you if I could. I just can't. But I wanted to say thanks," she said.

"Thanks?" Inkie asked.

"Yeah. I don't know what it was, maybe it was a thought your sister had, or something weird in her head, but it gave me the strength to resist. I'd just be a blob on the floor if it wasn't for you. So thanks, Inkie. Thanks for that," she said.

They hugged again, longer, a real hug.

"Here, hold on a second," Inkie said. She trotted back into the shrine and came back a moment later, with one of her own hoof-made flares in her mouth.

"A flare?" I asked.

"It means something. If you run into my sister out there, just show her this, she'll know," Inkie said.

While Pinkie didn't want to touch it at first, she took it anyway, looking at it with curiosity. It was like a poison to her, yet it also represented what made her different, in a way. Perhaps these Faceless creatures weren't as mindless as I had thought before, even this one had strength within. Strength to resist, even to love.

"Guess this is goodbye," Pinkie said.

"Goodbye, whoever you are," Inkie said.

"Goodbye," Pinkie said. She shut the door and left us in the silence of the shrine.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Inkie asked.

"I don't know. I don't know what'll happen to her once her master is dead," I said.

We just left it at that. I was tired, we were all tired, and I needed to get some sleep. I took up the same pose I had been trying to sleep in before the interruption, leaning up against the fountain, and I was out like a light.

I awoke to the sound of my own skull cracking against the floor. I was horizontal, somehow. I stood up quickly and felt my head, trying to find a dent or maybe a bit of exposed fluid or whatever it is that they put inside the skull, but it was just pain that I found. Lots of it.

"Oooooh," I groaned. Nopony else stirred.

I looked around, still within the bounds of the shrine, except the fountain had lifted off the floor, suspending itself along four narrow metal pillars with ribbing on them. I must have been leaning on it when it activated to expose a metal platform beneath the fountain, but it had done so without waking me up. The floor had done that job.

Inkie was slumped nearby, without any cranial damage, and still asleep too. The bottom of the fountain, now above me, was flat and smooth, but what caught my interest was the device just below the fountain, now on the floor's height. It was a smooth gold and grey platform, distinct from the floor around it, and by the looks of it, capable of detaching. I felt it with my hoof gingerly, in case it broke away, but it was sturdy. There was something beneath it, I could see emptiness beyond the cracks where the metal met the stone. All dark down there.

Looking around, nothing much else had changed. Everypony else was still sleeping, exhausted, though I could not say for how long I had been out. I hopped into the air to check the top of the fountain, and the elemental treasures were still in the same places as before. The bearers had not come yet, but what had caused this fountain to raise up?

"Mmmmm, five more minutes," Inkie mumbled. Her hard hat, the only thing she had not taken off, slumped off her head and onto her nose, blocking her airway. She snorted and bolted awake.

"Gah!" she said, coughing and sputtering.

The noise was enough to wake up everypony else. Luna woke easily, gracefully, simply opening her eyes as though sleeping was just keeping them closed. Gabby was the opposite of that.

"You shaddup or I'll whup you," she grumbled, rolling over.

She suddenly sat up.

"Hoofball practice!" she shouted. She looked at me, bewildered.

"Oh, it's just you. What time is it?" she asked.

"Nearly five thirty," Luna said.

"Morning or evening," Gabby asked.

"Evening, of course," Luna said. She looked at the fountain.

"Did I miss something here?" she asked.

"It was like that when I woke up. Think it means something?" I asked.

"No doubt. Nothing in this place is a coincidence, I fear," she said.

I examined the metal plating while gingerly standing on top of it. It didn't move, just clanged as I stomped around on it.

"You know it's an elevator, right?" Gabby said, frowning at me.

"Really? How can you tell?" I asked.

"I dunno, that's what I'd put right here. We're supposed to go down, and I don't see any other stairs or nothin' around here," she said.

I admit she could have been right.

"So how do we turn it on?" I asked.

I stood on the elevator as everypony must have come to the same conclusion, and stood on it with me. When all five of us were standing on it, only then did something beneath it disengage and we started to descend.

The narrow square of light streaming in from above us showed the walls around us, and Luna wisely decided not to cast her light spell here. My friends would be seeing it soon enough, so we waited in darkness until the elevator reached the bottom.

Luna cast her light spell, and the walls were no longer composed of a thick shell. We had passed that, and now the walls themselves were alive. There was fluid running all over beneath a thin, transparent sheen of some kind of skin. The walls were as hard as rock, yet their form was, for all appearances, like the skin of any pony, save the blood beneath was black. We stepped off the elevator and trudged down the only pathway in front of us, the floor squishing as we trod upon it.

After a short distance I could no longer see the elevator behind us, as the path was just curved enough to keep me from seeing more than a few meters in either direction. I hadn't noticed it before, but this place was warm, and very moist. Balmy, even. I had started to sweat again in the moisture.

After only a few minutes of walking through these passages we entered into a wide open cavity. This was it. The memories were so vivid, this was the Unmaker's shell, its true shell, and beyond it was its body. The open cavity had a bridge made of flesh, true flesh, meat torn from some impossible organism, that led to a little temple, made of stone on an island hanging in eternity. The temple hadn't been here before, it consisted of four pillars in a square and an altar in the middle, likewise made of stone. A black figure adorned it, it did not react as we approached.

As we got close enough for Luna's light spell to illuminate the figure, I realized who it was. It was her, Celestia, standing here on the cap of the Unmaker's form.

Chapter 22

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"Leave this to me," I whispered. Luna, though wanting to protest, had agreed that this was my task. I hoped General was right about this, but I had come to terms with it if not.

I walked gingerly towards her, wondering if she was even conscious. Would she attack me on sight? Was she in control of herself, the way Luna had been before? Could I hope to reason with her?

"It may not look like it, but I am extremely busy right now," Celestia said. "Do you think you could come back later?"

"Celestia, it's me," I said. She had been facing away, but I couldn't tell as her eyes had been closed. She turned around to face me, and opened her eyes. Blood red, no pupils. I steeled myself, couldn't react. Had to be strong.

"Damn it," she said, but not at me. At herself.

"Listen, Tia. I know you're in there somewhere, and it's going to be all right. Twilight is on her way, we can make it out of this," I said.

"You idiot, you idiots! You weren't supposed to see this. Why? Why couldn't you have been good little ponies and stayed home?" she asked.

This was not at all going how I had expected it to.

"You know we're not going to give up on you," I said.

"You weren't supposed to get here, they were supposed to stop you. You," she said, pointing directly at me, "were supposed to die."

"I - I - Huh?" I said, sputtering.

"I'm sorry Cadence, I didn't want to tell you all this. It was best if you died before you got here, then you wouldn't have to have watched all this. It'd have been better if you thought I had been consumed at the palace," she said.

"What are you talking about? Consumed?" I asked.

She closed her eyes again, and when she opened them, she focused on Luna.

"It was wrong of me to deceive you, most of all, Luna. I had hoped you'd understand eventually why I did this, maybe even agreed with me someday. I can now only ask your forgiveness," she said.

"What is this? What have you not told us? Why do you not speak as a pony possessed?" Luna asked.

Tia sighed, hung her head. She was every bit as tired as we were.

"I came down here of my own free will. I made a deal with the Unmaker," she said.

I paced my breathing to keep my heart from exploding. It was a tough choice between grief and anger.

"Why?" I asked.

"It can no longer contain itself, Cadence. It has been trapped down here, within its shell, for ten-thousand years, with no contact with anything outside of it. The endless recycling of its own ideas within itself, no outlets, no inlets. We drove it insane, Cadence. It is barely even aware of us right now," she said.

"Every now and then, it has moments of lucidity. They have become less and less frequent, and so I volunteered myself to step in. I have been here, preventing it from exploding and destroying our world in the process as it loses control of its own power. But I will not be able to detach myself from it, and so Twilight will have to destroy me as well," she said.

"Oh Celestia..." I said.

"It cannot be, there must be another way!" Luna said.

"I have considered that, but it is already done. I will be destroyed here. Perhaps that was my fate all along? Maybe this was how it was supposed to be," she said.

"Then why pretend? Why make us go through all that grief!? Why couldn't you ever just be straight with me!?" I demanded.

"Let me be straight with you now, then. Cadence, I wanted to keep it from you. I didn't want you to watch me sacrifice myself, I know you'd never part with me willingly. That was our mistake, and look at what it has cost us! Look at all the innocents who have suffered over the millennia because I was too weak and helpless, and because you would not let me do what I had been made to do. So here, I would have done it without you even knowing otherwise. You'd think I had died a simple death, that Twilight would have been unable to save me," she said. "Wouldn't that have been better?"

"No! No you idiot, if you had told me then I'd have done it in your place!" I shouted.

"And I as well! You had no right to take this burden, Celestia!" Luna shouted with me.

"Of course that's what you'd say, and that's why I couldn't tell you. Do you think I could bear to part with you, any more than you could bear to part with me? I could have saved you all that anguish by taking the choice away from you. So, so much simpler," Celestia said.

"It's not too late, is it? Is there anything we can do?" I asked.

"No, nothing. Already the Unmaker is no longer aware. It is taking the full force of my intellect to hold it in check, and soon even that will not be enough. And yet, I am glad that I got to see you one last time. It has been a treasure to know you, my sisters," she said.

"Then that's it. Do we just wait here for Twilight?" I asked Luna. She shrugged.

"Would fate really drag us down here only to leave us as observers? I think it has more for us than that," she said.

"I must concentrate," Celestia said.

A blast of cool air struck us suddenly, hitting my face and ruffling my mane. Luna shivered and shut her eyes.

"This one this one this one," Celestia muttered.

"Tia? What's wrong?" I asked.

"Tia? What a silly name. I am Tag Rufflepuff, chancellor of the pillows in this district. I'm sorry but I must collect a soft tax from you before I'll let you on your way," she said, without breaking her expression. Deadly serious, black features and blood red eyes, threatening us with a softness tax.

She shuddered visibly and spun back around to where she had been standing on the podium.

"Its dreams are not all humorous, I assure you," she said.

She spoke not a word after that, but the temperature of this void was shifting rapidly. Cold one moment, blisteringly hot the next. The air in here was swirling, and the cavern had begun an ominous rumbling. Celestia stepped back, thrashing wildly for no reason, terrified of an invisible attacker.

"Not now, it's too soon! Not now!" Celestia shouted.

A powerful and sustained rumbling came from below us, the earth itself splitting open as an enormous crack split the flesh that the altar rested on. Black fluid oozed out of the gap, and beneath it I could swear I saw the glint of something glowing. A bright point of light that was swallowed by the fluid.

"Cadence! Run! It's coming and I can't stop it!" Celestia shouted.

We tried to flee, but the path we had entered on had crumbled behind us. Wedge lifted off and flew towards the narrow entryway, but connected with something solid and invisible in the air. He darted back to us and set down, baffled.

"There was something in the way, I couldn't see it," he said.

"Augh!" Inkie screamed and pitched forward as something likewise invisible had hit her in the back of the head.

"What is this force? Celestia?" Luna shouted. We both turned to see her lying prone on the altar, and the black fluid that had coated her was dissipating. We wasted no time running to her.

"Tia!? Wake up, say something!" I pleaded. She wasn't moving.

"Whatever she had done must not have been enough," Luna said. Gabby, Inkie, and Wedge had run over to join us, and Wedge's face looked grim.

"Princess, look. The entrance has sealed up," he said.

I looked, but all around us was empty blackness. No way out now, nothing could save us. But I could try to save Celestia, try to buy us a few extra moments and hope for a miracle. Always hoping for a miracle, that was what I had done so often.

Luna's chest caved in and a neat dent formed in her armor as she cough and choked. She gasped for air before hissing, "Something just hit me."

I stood over Celestia and drew my sword, but that was not what I was hoping would work. I concentrated, bringing up my sight for what I thought would be the very last time.

Stars. All around me, stars. Galaxies, nebulae, great clouds of dust and gas. Space, in all its glory, an endless sea of stars. Never before had I see anything like this. As I watched, the stars were all being pushed out of some point far below me, off in the darkness, and they swirled and flew as dust caught in an updraft. They collided, grew, faded, were born, burnt out, collected together into clusters. An endless sea erupted up into the space above me as a grand web of stars collected together and flew at me.

I could see it, but I wondered if I could fight it. My friends were shouting now, as these stars, invisible to them, had become more numerous and more aggressive. They formed sheets and clumps and launched at us, striking them, knocking them down. I swung wildly but could not connect. Hopeless.

One of the clusters broke up and swirled over to me, around me. I couldn't hear my friends anymore, nothing could escape from the cluster. The points of light condensed and formed an impenetrable wall before lashing out. It ripped into me, tore at me. I dropped everything I was carrying, I dropped my sword. I struggled, tried to kick at them, to no avail.

The tearing continued until I couldn't feel my limbs anymore. Still I fought, numbed to the pain. The stars broke into shards and plunged themselves into my eyes, and the world went dark as the blood and tears poured out. I did not need to see, I could sense where they were and madly threw my dead limbs at them. At last, the stars sheared those off too, and I couldn't feel my body at all anymore.

There was something ahead of me, something still out there that I had to resist, so I did. I focused myself on it, on finding out what it wanted and on stopping that. It hurt me, somehow, though I had nothing left to be hurt. I couldn't hear anything, see anything, feel anything. Just pain, a mind floating through an empty void surrounded by pain.

Never give up, I thought. Never let them enjoy your defeat. Even if I was nothing but a floating idea, I would be the idea that they feared. Colors danced in my perception, my mind's eye. Golden orange, blue, pink. Purple. Something was happening. I felt a shudder, more pain, more discomfort, but I would not let it take me quietly.

I could choose to return. I could choose to continue, it was my choice to make. Ponies needed me, somewhere, somehow, and I could not abandon them. No matter how much it hurt, I would suffer for them, to save them, and I pushed and pulled until -

A great tearing in front of me. A wall of flesh torn apart and I stood in the gap between it, bleeding, covered in sludge, my armor dented and my sword in my hoof. I could not hope to explain how I had gotten here, it didn't matter. Don't stop fighting. Something tumbled out behind me and I realized it was my friends, my sister. Inkie, Wedge, Gabby, Luna. They piled out of the gap I had torn in the fleshy wall and landed on the ground in front of me. We were inches away from the elevator, and I put what remained of my strength into pushing them onto it. Exhausting, everything I had and so much more. Every fiber, every cell, every molecule and atom and whatever the hell is smaller than atoms was begging me to stop here, to go back up that elevator with them. Celestia wasn't here, she was still somewhere down there. Down behind that wall of flesh I had torn open.

I stood in it, looking down, into the void of space. It was a reflection of the night sky, below and not above, but the sky just the same. This, maybe, was the inside of the Unmaker, a universe all to itself, kept bound here in our plane by a physical shell it had grown around itself. Celestia was somewhere down there, down in that void. I could not go home without her, so I stepped out into it, and I plunged off into the darkness.

Into the nighttime eternal.

Chapter 23

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Theater. These were new, relatively. When I was a filly my dad had taken me to see the cartoons, once, and I had loved them. A big funny looking cartoon creature called a 'human' was on the screen, and there was a big rabbit too, and they cracked jokes and whacked each other with clubs and anvils. There was singing and an operatic score, brilliant stuff. The kind of humor they did in those cartoons was peerless, and I would make time to see them as I grew up.

After I graduated from high school, I had stopped going to them. They still showed them in theaters, of course, but I never had time. Gabby had been really into them too, though the twins hadn't, they only tolerated them because I loved them so much. I remembered at first that they even had newsreels that played alongside the cartoons, and while I hadn't really cared about them, they were what my dad had wanted to see. I got to spend a lot of time with him in darkened theaters, watching the news with him, hearing him discuss it with me. I suppose I learned a lot about the world outside of Canterlot because of him, that way.

As I got older they stopped putting those newsreels on and dad and I had no reason to go to shows. I kinda missed it, but I was getting to that age where I had to do stuff without my parents. I hadn't been a rebellious daughter, but I also wasn't daddy's little princess e,ither. Still, theaters held a special place in my heart even if I never went to them anymore. I can still remember how it was, to quote my dad, a "Five bit holiday". Admission cost two bits, and I got in free because I was a filly. Then he'd buy me a popcorn for a bit and we'd give another bit to the street musicians who were always playing outside. I didn't care for the music much but dad just loved it, you could always hear the waft of jazz music in that neighborhood if you cared to listen for it. The last bit was for the tram tickets there and back, they gave you a day pass and you could ride as much as you wanted. A bit didn't go as far as it did in the old days, not anymore, so I guess that'd be around twenty bits today.

"Celestia, why did you pick a theater?" I asked her. We were both sitting in one, watching a blank white screen. The projector was on, clacking away, projecting white emptiness.

"You chose to come after me. This is the best place for it, if you think about it," she said. She was sitting next to me, we were in the front row. I didn't take my eyes off the non-movie playing, I was waiting for something to come on.

"I can't leave you here," I said.

"But I can't come with you. Watch," she said.

A movie began to play and I settled into my comfortable routine. A mare appeared on screen, both a horn and wings, standing in a field, as the camera-pony swooped in from out of the sky. It landed next to her, and they exchanged a look, but no words.

"Oh, this. It's different from your eyes," I said.

"Watch what comes next," she said.

The sun appeared, and I saw the tiny ball of rock and water that I called home appear as a tiny little black dot in front of it. The camera flew towards it, the little ball became bigger and bigger as the sun became smaller and I saw myself and my two sisters, staring up in awe at the sky. A terrible crash echoed from somewhere and the three of us scattered as a shadow of some menacing monster loomed over us. I remembered that, too, but whose eyes was it seen through?

"That's not your memory," I said.

"Isn't it? I know it isn't, but it has become tangled within me. I cannot leave this place, I am tied to it," Celestia said.

"Oh, I see now," I said.

"You should go. This is the way it had to be, from the very beginning. Go back with Twilight, you'll have to be her mentor now. Let her know how proud of her I was," she said.

"But you're so close. It'd be robbery to have you right in front of me, and not be able to help," I said.

"Fate is cruel sometimes. I could not deprive the world of you. Just go," she said.

I laid my head back, against the hard seat that separated the rows of cushions. I closed my eyes, thinking. Perhaps praying.

Elements? Keepers? Whoever you are, or were? If there's a way, I will do anything.

I felt a warm feeling in my chest and opened my eyes. Tia was gone, though the theater had no exit. No movie was playing now. In front of me was a tray, the bus that held the projector. You could push the projector around on this metal tray to move it and detach the film reels and put on others, like when the staff needed to change what movie was playing. There were several reels next to the projector, and a pair of scissors. A roll of tape hung off one side.

All the time in the world was what I had. Time didn't matter here. Time was not a thing in the realm of perceptions, unless one wanted it to be. Untethered from that cold and sterile reality outside, the place I shared with other beings, here I could work for any amount of time, no exhaustion, no hunger or thirst.

I pulled out the first reel of film and looked at it. Some of this was Celestia's memories, personality, ideas, hopes. Some of this was some other creature's, some other entity had shared itself with her. It knew things I didn't, had seen places I could only guess at. The far reaches of the universe, the depths of the earth. I cut those frames off and pasted Celestia's together. I had only some idea of how long it was taking me, for though time did not pass here, I still had to do this cutting and editing in my own idea of time. Just as crossing the room had distance, though one could never run out of meters, doing something expended time, even if I could never run out of it.

I worked off the first reel of film, and it took me months, years. Decades. Small price to pay. The labor was tiring, emotionally, not physically. I saw all of Celestia's innermost feelings, I saw her jealousy, her displeasure, her triumph, her pride. She was not perfect, and never pretended to be, yet all the rest of us told ourselves she was. She was as close as any pony could be to that lofty ideal. Still, it hurt to have to see it. Sometimes she was petty, sometimes she was cruel. She had done terrible things to the weak, the poor. She cried in regret, having nopony to confide in lest she admit the deed. She had spent so much time alone, even in a crowded room. I wished I could cut those parts out too, but that? Unforgivable. A pony is as much virtue as vice, to excise the flaws would be to excise a vital part that I loved as much as the others.

The second reel was the same as the first, but farther along in her life. So intertwined with the Unmaker was she that there was no way she could have undone these bonds herself. I wondered how far she had been from losing herself completely within it, it was so much grander a creature than her. I cut and snipped and examined and evaluated. More centuries passed, now millennia. Celestia was over ten-thousand years old, as I was, and that meant all those memories had to be checked over. An ordinary pony would have gone mad to work at the same task for so long. Thankful, I ought to be, that I was no ordinary pony.

I labored over those film reels in silence and loneliness for another millennium. Sometimes I wanted to give up and just quit. Give up, go home, sleep. My friends were distant memories, I hadn't seen them in a dozen lifetimes, yet I knew they were mere seconds away from me had I wished to see them. Celestia was more important than my own desires, this was something only I could do. Another thousand years of my editing and tinkering. Another. Seven total before I had cut all the parts that were not her. Another three hundred years to put them all back together. I watched them all, sped up sometimes, skipped sometimes for brevity. I had to make sure I had not missed anything. I even, in my saintly patience, resisted putting in a memory of my own, about how awesome Amoria was and how much she deserved to not be randomly pranked for no reason.

At last, the finished reel lay before me. I had cut a million tons of film, more than all that the real world had ever printed and may ever print, and discarded it in nothingness, to be banished from existence as soon as I lost notice of it. My task complete, I relaxed on the theater chair and closed my eyes as I had before.

Yet I was compelled to return, yet again. All this work and there was still more to do. Ponies relied on me. I had to go to them.

I opened my eyes to see myself standing on the elevator, battered and broken. My friends, no longer faint sparks of light, lay before me, surrounded by the buckling flesh of the Unmaker's shell. How I had gotten here was of no importance. What was, was that Celestia lay with us on the elevator, as it began to ascend.

Great things were happening below us. When we returned to the shrine of the elements, I found that the elemental treasures were gone. Who could care what had happened to them? It all seemed so insignificant to me now, all I cared about was the safety of these five ponies before me. I dragged them off the platform and lay them all near the door. Only Luna stirred as I did so.

"Amoria? Is that you?" she asked. Her eyes were open. Perhaps she refused to believe them.

"It's out of our grasp now, Luna. It's all up to the bearers now," I said.

She could not feel it, but I could. The fountain of energy and emotion that had set off below us was being contained, restrained. With each second that passed, I felt it become slightly smaller, slightly lower in the ground. Whether or not we had done anything to help was a moot point now, it didn't matter to me. What mattered was that Celestia was here.

"Will she be all right?" Luna asked.

"We'll not be able to tarry long getting her to the surface, but I'm sure she'll hold out," I said. Celestia was breathing, though it'd be a wonder if she could lift her head. Perhaps that black shell she had been wearing had sustained her, so far from the sun, but now she was without it and every bit as weak as when we were last here.

We watched over her until the others awoke. They didn't speak of what had transpired below us, perhaps because they wanted to forget it, or perhaps because they knew on some primal level that it was something nigh unexplainable. I could only guess at what I had done, refusing to give up? Refusing to die? Pushing and tearing at something even without a body to tear at it with?

Hours passed as Celestia breathed steadily. She did not wake, until at last I heard a shout from the elevator's pad. It had descended quietly without me noticing, and now it came back up with six ponies in tow. The battle outside was over, and there was no hostile force below us. My special senses quieted for the last time, never to reactivate.

"Princess Celestia!" shouted Twilight Sparkle. Her head was adorned with that tiara she had always referred to as a 'crown thingy', which bore a six-pointed star as a gem on it. She rushed over to us, surrounded by her five friends. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity. The bearers of the Elements of Harmony, at once jubilant and grim.

"Is she okay?" Twilight asked me.

"She'll be fine," I said. She hugged me before I could react, and they all breathed a collective sigh of relief, all at once.

"So it's over? It's all over?" Twilight asked me. She hadn't left Celestia's side, though her friends were introducing themselves to mine, chatting about what they had seen, and done. Pinkie and Inkie had embraced, then promptly tried to scold each other, before laughing at the absurdity of it. Fluttershy was about ready to die of postponed terror, having put off feeling scared and vulnerable until after the fate of the world didn't rest on her.

"Yes, it is. How many is that? How many times have you six saved all of us?" I asked.

"I lost count," she said. She wasn't excited or happy like everypony else was. Her face betrayed something else, something she had seen while they had not.

"What was it like? What did you have to do?" I asked.

"My friends held it still. It was strong, and I couldn't do it myself, so they held it still for me. And I went in alone and – " she said. She stopped and turned to me, a tear in her eye. She blinked to dash it away, hoping I hadn't noticed it.

"It begged me to finish it off," she said.

"Oh, Twilight," I said. She was not reassured despite my efforts.

"It was angry at you for putting it down there and not letting it out. It said it was sorry for having done all this, and it knew it had to die so everything else could live. It didn't want to be trapped in its own maddening hell anymore, and it begged me to kill it," she said.

I couldn't bring myself to say anything after that. Celestia did it for me.

"Twilight," she said, raspy and weak, "I'm so proud of you."

Twilight nuzzled her mentor as Celestia went back to sleep, tired even to have spoken six words.

Everypony was preparing to leave, and not a moment too soon. We had a long walk back to the surface ahead of us and it would not be helped by us having to carry Celestia up with us, at least until she was strong enough to walk herself. Before we could depart, Luna called me over to the metal lumps still in the corner. They still hummed with electrical current.

"What are we to do of them?" she asked.

"I think this is a fitting tomb, don't you? This place will be forgotten, and they along with it, and that's for the best," I said.

The gentle electrical hum intensified for a moment, having heard our speech and recognized it. A light turned on on the top Redeemer's head, though it could not turn to face us, and a monotone mechanical voice spoke from somewhere within.

"Commander. Luna. Is. The. Mission. Complete?" it asked.

"Yes. The mission is complete," she said.

"Con-firmed. Engage. Shut. Down. It. Was. An. Honor," it said. The hum of power in it ceased and the light went dark. The last Redeemer was gone.

With nothing to stop us, the trek to the surface was long and uneventful. The dark forces of the Faceless ones were gone, forever. The caves of the Abyss had lost their bizarre appearance and become glassy black obsidian rock. The Ziristone now had large, obvious holes in it as we approached the shell, where before there had been weaknesses only I could sense. Luna's impeccable sense of direction led us up the same path we had taken to come down here, as the two of us carried Celestia's inert body up through the caves and back to the mine shafts that would lead us to the surface.

Eventually she recovered and insisted on walking herself back up. It was only with a lot of coaxing that we put her down, and she had staggered but shoved us away when she tried to help. She laughed at us and we laughed back. Each step she took made her stronger and lifted her spirits higher, until ahead of us I could finally see a sliver of the night's sky through the mine shaft ahead.

Gabby insisted on knocking the boards in herself, impressing everypony with a display of martial prowess the envy of any action-movie star. Outside the mine entrance, I looked at the glow of the coming dawn and asked Celestia if she would raise the sun for all of us to watch. She did not answer as it came closer, and when the sun dawned, right on time, she had stood looking at us, not using her power. It had dawned on its own.

"Everything is as it should be," she said. Her smile was warmer than the rays of the sun ever could be.

Epilogue

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On our way back to civilization, we ran into Shining Armor and his team of volunteers. He told me they had been unable to follow us past the caves where we had flown through the Ziristone, that they could not find out how we had gotten through, and they had decided to return to the Pie household to wait for us. I didn't scold him on being so slow, though I probably could have. I had some sympathy for him, as he had a large red welt on his head, somewhat in the shape of a cooking skillet.

Pinkie decided to stay with her sisters for a day to get everything at the farmhouse back in order, before joining us in Ponyville the next day. They had stayed overnight before coming back to visit their father in the hospital, who would eventually make a full recovery and continue to run the farm with their assistance.

Inkie, telling nopony but me, had discovered an unused magnesium flare on her doorstep the morning they were to set out for town. The meaning passed between the two of us, unspoken, and I wished the best for that thing we had met. I hoped it could find a place in the world all its own, a peaceful place free of its old influences.

Twilight and her friends returned to their lives in Ponyville. She visited us more frequently in Canterlot, I had noticed, but otherwise she went back to her endless studies and wrote letters to Celestia about the things she was learning. Perhaps all this had seemed as though a distant dream, in retrospect, or perhaps she had seen what she and those like her would someday be responsible for. Exactly what had transpired down there was a secret shared only between her and her friends, I knew only that it was done, in broad outlines, not details. I noticed she no longer obsessed over things like she once had, and she no longer engaged in marathon study session – as often, anyway. Once a month at most. She had grown up, and at last I could picture her, not as a filly, but as an adult. At least until she asked me to do that dance she adored.

Gabby and I grew closer than before. I no longer had to wander the world on an endless quest, but I still did anyway. Just now, I was doing it for diplomatic reasons. Celestia, sensing my desire for adventure, had tasked me with keeping up appearances with the far reaches of the world, and Gabby insisted to come with me. I gladly welcomed her, not only because she was big and not to be trifled with, but also because she had nopony else left. We were connected more profoundly than even siblings would allow, as my thoughts and memories within her would wane with time, and her spirit replaced them with the memories we made together.

That, though, was not immediate. I had a lot of lost time to make up with Shining Armor first. He had felt practically neglected as it was his little sister who kept on saving the world over and over. That was a major blow to his ego. I, an only child, was repeatedly assured I'd never understand what it felt like, so I was not to try. Twilight and I tried to figure something out to reassure him, and had eventually settled on a mock tragedy where he saved her life at the last moment from a marauding changeling. Wedge was not compensated.

Speaking of him, he and my sister Luna enjoyed a relationship of sorts. I insisted he write her letters as was the custom, and he did at first, until Luna had grabbed him and pulled him into her chambers when he had been passing one night on patrol. It would be improper of me to speak about what happened afterwards, though it would be no surprise if anypony guessed. The two did not formally marry, but I know Wedge spent the rest of his long life infatuated with her, and she with him. She did not follow my example though, when the time came, and as she wept, she told me it was this pain that she had been dreading for so long, yet this pain that also kept her going. She told me she wanted to feel the lows as well as the highs that I had been feeling, that objectivity could get stuffed, to use a turn of phrase.

Celestia, though she no longer had to tug on the sun to keep the solar system spinning, still charted its movements with pinpoint precision. An old habit, I supposed, or she enjoyed the exercise of it. She also still enjoyed playing nasty tricks on me, which I could have done without. She was freed from her true duties but had decided to remain on as Equestria's leader for some time longer, for the world was still fraught with danger and the ponies still loved her and sought out her wisdom.

As for myself, I still feel compelled to return. At the same time, I know that I have the choice, in the end, and someday I will make it to rest. I still feel the call of adventure, I still long for the open road and the darkened alleyway. Just because there are no creatures of shadow lurking on the edge of our psyches does not mean the world has been freed from injustice. Perhaps when that has been done I will not return, and my sisters and I will finally be the last of the old guard to retire. The Keepers, and the Elements of Harmony, are old trinkets that will someday be forgotten, remembered by the bearers and their descendents as they tell the tale to future generations. The responsibilities that the Keepers of Order had once had, now fell to these intelligent creatures that inhabited this little spinning ball in our corner of the universe.

That, I'm afraid, is another story. This one is over. I, Princess Amoria, first of the Triumvirate and former Protector of Harmony, face the future with optimism.

The End

Forbidden Deeper

by SaltyJustice

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Epilogue