Romance and the Fate of Equestria

New reviewer shout-out to The Cowardly Christian, who is currently in the process of reviewing every single chapter. Only 100 more to go! Well… you certainly showed up at a good time. 180, that's a nice even number for, well, something to happen, something I've hinted at previously.

Chapter One Hundred and Eighty

"Twilight, can you tell me again why we were assigned to this job?" Rarity said exhaustedly.

On the same mountain, the six friends ascended the slopes, laden with massive amounts of supplies and following the trail Shining Armor and his soldiers had left.

"Nopony in Equestria has any experience with alchemy," said Twilight. "Since I'm the most accomplished magician in Equestria, Shining Armor thinks I'm the best bet to capture this guy. And, of course, I'm nothing without all my reasons for existing behind me. Elements of Harmony forever, right? The Primary Six, or whatever they call us."

"Mane Six, Twi," Applejack corrected.

"Right. Because… puns. Of course."

"I'm not sure this is wise," Rarity said bitterly. "We're not, any of us, quite as dangerous as we ought to be, seeing as we don't have the Elements of Harmony."

"No, but we can hold our own, I think," said Twilight. "We've proved that. Over and over."

"I love Derpy so much," Rainbow blurted.

"Would you stop that?"

"Nope, can't, it's a running gag now."

"Ugh, I'm gettin' jumpy," Applejack muttered. "I see these crooks everywhere I turn."

"And it's the two guys from the museum?" Fluttershy said, with no less incredulity than she'd had the first several times she'd checked.

"Yup," said Twilight. "Among others. We still have no idea who the two of them are, of course…"

"Are you all right, Applejack?" said Rarity, pouting.

"Just… with ya," Applejack said grimly. "I don't know that we're a substitute for the royal guard."

"Not Element-less, at any rate," Rarity agreed.

"Boy, are you two on edge," Rainbow chuckled. "You really need to get laid."

"We're workin' on it!" Applejack retorted.

"Don't… don't worry, okay?" Twilight said unconvincingly. "I trust Shining Armor's judgment. We've gotten through plenty of fights and skirmishes and quests without the Elements. Like the castle heist… or when we ascended the mountain to awaken the red dragon. None of us have died yet, y'know?"

"Ah, yeah, the red dragon quest," Rainbow said fondly. "We were so young. Undeveloped. But we learned from it. Still one of the coolest things we've done."

"Why didn't we get the Elements back for that one?" said Fluttershy at the sudden, genuinely surprising realization. "It all would have been so much easier if we could have just… defeated the dragon, as peacefully as the Elements would have allowed…"

"Celestia has informed me that ever since the six of us became a thing, she's had no idea what she's doing," Twilight said brightly.

"Okay, that checks out," Fluttershy muttered.

"So, uh… yeah," Twilight said awkwardly.

"Yeah, what are we doing now?" said Rainbow.

"We… we search. Searchy actions. Searching for stuff. Or not, maybe we just find the… the cave."

"We are so good at this," Rainbow said enthusiastically.

Raindrops began to fall from the black clouds that hung low over the mountainside. The very moment she felt them, Rainbow sharply looked up and stared at the clouds with a discerning, calculating eye.

"I don't think this rain was scheduled," she said uneasily.

Twilight looked to her in alarm. "Are you sure?"

"No. But… call it a hunch."

Suddenly, Bardic and Bark stood before them. They hadn't approached or appeared in any noticeable way; they were simply there.

"Well, I've got a hunch about your hunch," Twilight said grimly.

Bardic stepped back, and Bark floated toward them, his white fur turning a sickly, smoky green. "Greetings," he said grandly. "If you'll excuse me, it's nothing personal, but as you're here, I must slime you. With my slime."

From the tips of his spindly fingers, he shot a torrent of green goo at the ponies, most of it coating the mountain beneath their hooves. Vapor rose from the slime, clouding their eyes.

Twilight hastily cast a spell, encasing her muzzle inside a transparent pink bubble. "Everypony, hold your breath!" she called, her voice echoing. "And get…" She gazed upward as the gas continued to rise. "Oh. Oh, crud. Yeah, we're gonna have to move to lower ground."

Guided by each other's noises and movements, the six of them travelled in a downhill direction, at a heavy disadvantage, impeded by the vapor, slowed by the slime, and with Bark taking chances to swoop down upon them to scratch them with his claws every few seconds. Finally, they escaped the zone of the slime and turned their eyes upward, searching for where Bardic could be on the higher slopes. Bark continued to circle around them.

"What the heck is that thing?" Rainbow Dash demanded.

"I… I think it's a mephit," said Twilight.

"Well, it's certainly mephitic," said Rarity, wrinkling her nose.

"And what precisely is a mephit?" said Applejack, gagging.

"It's a kind of elemental… or, para-elemental, at any rate." Twilight slipped and stumbled. "I would guess he's of the… the slime mephit variety?"

Dark gray started to seep into Bark's color, and with a wave of his hands, the ponies were pelted with tiny shards of gravel on a windstorm. "You ponies have enough grit for my grit?" he taunted.

"Or perhaps not," Twilight muttered. "That's different. I've never heard of anything like that before…"

"Don't feel too bad, none of us have any context for what his capabilities should be," Rainbow said dryly. "We're willing to roll with the punches."

"Sounds good."

Bardic drifted past them, sliding sideways as though the rocky mountainside was a chute of ice, fixing them with his blank stare. He made a few dexterous, squiggling arcane gestures in the air with a single hoof, then raised that hoof to the cloudy skies, and with that gesture four walls of rock rose out of the ground, encircling the ponies.

Reacting before the barrier was even finished forming, Rainbow kicked one of the four walls down.

"Nice try," she said smugly.

Letting her momentum carry her, she tackled Bardic, and he sank into the earth, pulling Rainbow down with him. She was left trapped from the waist down in the stone.

Struggling and straining, she flailed her hooves and wings. "I'm stuck!" she yelled.

Applejack trotted over to her, flinging off her saddlebags. "I'll bust you out of there, Dash." With a flick of her tail, she pulled a pickaxe out of her pack and gripped it in her teeth, beginning to chip away at the rock around Rainbow's waist.

A tentacle of stone emerged from the mountain and slammed into Applejack's ribs, knocking her a dozen feet down the mountain.

Twilight's lip thinned and she took a few ragged breaths. "Fluttershy," she said shakily. "Fly back to Canterlot and get help. I'll cover you."

"Okay!" Fluttershy said. She immediately took to the air, but paused after going only a few feet and turned back. "W-w-wait a minute, why am I running while the rest of you stay and fight?"

"You're pregnant. If you get hit the way Applejack just did…"

Fluttershy gasped and her eyes bulged. "Okay. I'll go for help, I'll—I'll get Princess Celestia!"

"Perfect," Twilight said tensely. "Go for it."

"And you'll keep me covered?"

"On my honor, I will keep. You. Covered."

Spotting Bardic on the ridge a few dozen yards up the mountain, Twilight started shooting small magical pulses at him, with the frequency of a machine gun in short bursts. Staying directly behind Twilight, Fluttershy slowly crept down the mountain until she attained enough distance, then began flying downward, back to Canterlot.

"You're not all getting away that easy, ladies," Bark said in his silky voice, looming behind Twilight. "How about a bit of hot magma?"

He glowed red, and in his hands he produced an orb of fiery rock, flinging it into the ponies' midst. The resulting shockwave cracked the ground, knocking the ponies off their hooves.

The cracks half-freed Rainbow from her stony entrapment, and she started squirming out, aided by more chipping from Applejack's pickaxe.

Bark swooped over them, his fur flashing in a kaleidoscope of color.

"Pure light!" Rarity blurted, producing a burst of light from her horn not unlike a camera flash. Dazed, Bark stopped moving and went white once again. Rarity stood up on her hind legs and delivered an expertly-placed roundhouse kick to his head, dropping him out of the air.

"Pinkie," Rarity said thoughtfully, "are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

"I think so, Rarity," said Pinkie, "but wouldn't we get red jelly all over your pretty white coat?"

"Oh, don't even worry about that, darling."

Bark rolled over, producing tendrils of water from his fingertips which attempted to grab Rarity. A small spark of electricity from her horn ran through the water and set Bark's fur standing on end.

Snarling, he turned brown. A massive hand made of mud formed itself around his claw, and he wound up for a mighty slap.

From her saddlebags, Pinkie produced a tiny electric fan. A current of electricity from Rarity's horn powered it up, all-too-quickly turning the mud hand into clay, which Rarity kicked, shattering it.

"Nice quick thinking, darling," said Rarity, winking at her.

"Yeah?"

"Oh, I'm a big fan." Absently, she kicked Bark again.

Twilight raised her head, scanning the mountain for Bardic. "Where are you…?" she muttered. "Where have you gone now?"

Bardic appeared out of nowhere, armed with a spear made of the mountain's stone, and lunged at Rainbow Dash. Applejack jumped in to intercept, but was batted away with the flat of the blade.

Rainbow lunged at him, throwing a flurry of punches which he dodged effortlessly with clearly no physical effort on his part, his body merely moving out of the way through some other force. Frustrated, Rainbow instead grabbed the spear, pulling it away. With a casual wave of his hoof, the spear dissolved into dust before she could make use of it.

Applejack, hobbling a bit after her blow, took up a position at Rainbow's side.

"You and me at the front line?" Applejack said casually.

"Always, sister," Rainbow said smugly, giving her a hoof-bump.

In response, Bardic blinked.

Cued by that, dozens of red-laced lightning bolts shot from the gathered clouds, each much broader than a normal bolt, sizzling the ground. More bolts began shooting from one point of impact to another, covering the mountain in a grid of lightning, leaving nothing visible but the flashing of red and white lights.

"PINKIE, LOOK OUT!" Rarity shrieked.

The lightning fizzled out, but its effects were clear: the ponies were scattered, and much of the earth beneath their hooves was blackened.

"Everypony okay?" Twilight said raggedly. "We need to regroup. Rainbow Dash, take him from above. Applejack, charge him from the front. I'll take him from both sides with magic. Rarity, you're with me. Pinkie, back us up."

"Um, Twilight?" said Pinkie.

"Just do it, Pinkie. Come on."

"Twilight…"

"Limited window of opportunity, ponies…"

"TWILIGHT!" Pinkie screamed.

"WHAT?!" Twilight snarled, turning her head to face Pinkie. Her snarl quickly transformed into a shriek of horror.

The lightning had left a huge, bloody gash on the side of Pinkie's face, a deep vertical cut dominating most of the right side. Pinkie was cradling Rarity, who was covered in similar gashes, all over her body, chest, sides, and flank. Pinkie had a hoof pressed against the side of Rarity's neck… waiting.

"Pinkie?" Twilight said softly.

Pinkie's eyes widened, darting back and forth faster and faster, as she waited to feel a pulse.

"Twilight," Pinkie said, slowly, shakily. "Rarity is dead."

With a sharp intake of breath, Twilight slowly turned back to Bardic, vibrating so hard that her teeth were chattering.

"Who are you?" she demanded of him. "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!"

Her horn sparked. Her veins were popping, glowing red, and her mane and eyes erupted in fire.

"Everypony stay behind me," she growled.

She assaulted Bardic with erratic, whipping bolts of flaming lightning, and he responded in kind, raising his hooves to direct bolts from the clouds above, but they had less power than his initial burst, and Twilight was prepared for them this time. One by one, magical shields from Twilight and slabs of rock from the ground emerged to deflect the dueling strikes.

The bolts crashing against the shields began to drive Twilight backwards, inch by inch.

"Hmmmm," Bardic murmured. "Wearing on you. Bark?"

Bardic raised a hoof, and Bark flew over to him and grabbed onto it, coiling his tail around Bardic's forearm. The two of them sank into the earth once again. Twilight instantly dropped her shields, and took a huge flying leap toward where he had disappeared, shooting a pulse of magic at the spot, blasting the earth open.

She leapt backward in surprise, finding that they had disappeared into a deep tunnel, perfectly circular and going deep into the mountain. In Twilight's alarm, the flames within her were snuffed out, and she cowered.

"He's gone," she muttered. "Gone. Deep."

Applejack and Rainbow joined her, gazing into the tunnel.

"It goes on forever," Applejack whispered. "I mean, not actually forever. But deeper than the mountain is tall."

"How can you tell?" Rainbow asked.

"Earth pony. It's earth. I got a sense for it."

"Is that a thing?"

"Trust me."

"Could he be with Mitgaeard?" Rainbow said uneasily. "You know, deep within the earth and all that?"

"No, it can't be," said Twilight. "How could it? There's no way he could be involved… he's just some random criminal from the Whispering Desert… ugh, of course there's no way for us to really know that, but how could he possibly…?"

Pinkie hobbled over to them, gazing into the deep hole. "Whoa," she remarked.

Twilight gazed at Pinkie, and hastily conjured up a large piece of cloth, dabbing the blood away from Pinkie's facial wound. "It's very clean," she said. "That'll heal right up."

"Good," Pinkie said quietly. "Thank you."

"Pinkie, can you do something for me, please?" Twilight asked.

"Of course, Twilight. Anything."

"Please tell me Rarity's not dead," said Twilight. "Please tell me you just said that to motivate me into fighting the good fight. Tell me she's okay."

Pinkie shivered. "Except that. I can't do that."

"Why not?!" Twilight snapped.

"Hey!" Applejack said sharply. "Hey. You know perfectly well why she can't do that."

Twilight turned to Applejack, not comprehending. Applejack didn't say anything, only raised her eyebrows.

"Because it's not true," Twilight said slowly. "Rarity really is dead."

Applejack gave a single, tiny nod.

"W-where is she?" said Twilight, a single tear dropping from her eye.

"Right over here," said Pinkie, gently stroking Twilight's back. "I'll take you to her."

The four of them slowly walked over to where Rarity's body lay, Pinkie gently guiding Twilight with a hoof on the back of her neck. Pinkie had set Rarity down as gently as she could, and the bloodied form was on her side, eyes closed and curled up.

"How could this happen?" said Twilight, her voice cracking at the end, giving way to a torrent of tears.

"Has she always been so… small?" Rainbow peeped. "It doesn't look right."

"Rarity…" Applejack said tenderly, leaning down and gently touching Rarity's face. "I'm so sorry."

"I tried to protect her," Pinkie mumbled. "I didn't… I couldn't… it's just not fair."

A flash of light from above pierced the clouds, and Celestia and Fluttershy descended.

"I found the Princess, everypony!" Fluttershy called out frantically. "Is it over? Is everything…" Her eyes took in the sight of the four of them crowded around Rarity's body. "NO!" she shrieked. "Rarity? Rarity, no! Is she…?"

Fluttershy dove to Rarity, scattering the others. Celestia gently settled on the ground and approached Twilight.

"Was it Bardic?" she said seriously.

"Yes," said Twilight. "Him and the mephit. We didn't see the other two."

Fluttershy bent over Rarity, blubbering as she never had before. "Rarity…" she gasped, managing little over one word for each mighty, heaving sob. "I… need… help… her… she… no… she can't… we can't help her… she's… she's really…" Her voice gave way completely, and she bawled, pulling the body into a crushing hug. "She's… she's dead!"

"Dead?" Celestia said quietly.

"Is there anything you can do?" Twilight said desperately.

Celestia started, and trotted, stumbling, to the huddled ponies. "Fluttershy, move," she said. "If there's any vitality left in her, perhaps I can…" A golden light from her horn scanned Rarity's body.

"No," she said in a small voice. "No, there isn't. She's been gone for… for a good five minutes. Rarity is… gone."

Fluttershy screamed with anguish and hugged the body again.

"I did this," said Celestia, her voice sounding ancient and feeble. Her eyes began to glow yellow, so bright that suddenly Twilight couldn't bear to look at her. "I did this," she repeated. "I… I allowed them to do this."

When Celestia spoke again, it was in two voices at once, her own and the ancient growl she had just adopted. "Murderers, schemers, whoever they are, whatever they're up to… they're mine. I'll get them for this."

The princess howled like an anguished wolf. Her mane glowed with pure white light, and after a few seconds, so did her entire body. The light became so intense that soon Twilight couldn't bear to even be near her, and scrambled away.

The light abruptly faded, and Celestia collapsed.

"Take her back to Ponyville, Twilight," she said, sounding truly defeated. "Send her off. Whatever happens, I… won't be calling on you again for some time."

"All right," said Twilight in a broken voice. She joined Fluttershy, and gently ran a hoof through her mane before turning her gaze to the body. "Come on, Rarity, let's get you home."