It had been a long year for Jack Mayfield.

At least, he assumed it had been a year. It was hard to tell when you lost track of the time. Days just sort of blended together into one big, blurred mess of light and darkness. The only real indication he had of the true passage of time was when the snow had come and gone. It was probably spring now. So, maybe a year… maybe less?

Anyways, it felt like it had been a year since the fire, and the day the whole world went mad.

Jack had been one of the many scientists in/on the Energy Research branch of the FDR Research Institution. He had gotten into that particular field in the hopes of helping with the world’s ever-growing energy crisis. With the FDR Research Institution being one of the leading forces behind finding a means of clean, renewable energy, it had been a natural first choice for him, and he had sent in a job application as soon as he had graduated from college. Almost immediately, the Institution had hired him.

A dream come true, really.

Easily one of the brightest minds in his field due in part to nearly a decade’s worth of schooling, Jack had been one of the privileged few who had been selected to work on an experimental form of energy generation based off of the theoretical Tesla Generator. If they somehow managed to get the generator operational, it would be the only source of clean, self-sustaining energy in the world, with nearly the same level of output as three nuclear power stations.

After years of work, the generator was finally ready to be tested. The switch was thrown, the generator was turned on, and history was made. However, there had been some… minor issues. The generator was self-sustaining, yes, but the final output had barely been enough energy to run the building, let alone any large populated areas.

Saddened, but not discouraged, Jack and his team had thrown themselves upon the problem with new zeal, several of them even staying overnight in order to work on the issue. They had been making progress fixing the errors and boosting the output, but it had all come crashing down the night of the fire.

Nobody was sure what had caused the fire. It had started in the old wing of the Institution, where old military experiments had taken place during the Cold War. That section of the Institute had been shut down due to a freak accident that had left part of the old lab missing. That part of the building was used only for storage now.

The fire had spread quickly, and even with the fire alarms alerting them to the danger, the scientists had barely enough time to escape before the flames grew to block the way.

Unfortunately for Jack, due to his polio, he was unable to flee with the rest of his colleagues. He, as well as three other individuals, were stuck in the building as the fire grew. He watched two of them burn in the fire as they attempted to find a means of escape. He took refuge in the bathroom, along with the third scientist as they waited for the end.

However, it was not to be.

He wasn’t sure if the flames had reached a gas line or one of the generators, but just when he thought that he was going to pass out from the smoke and heat, there had been a blinding flash of light, and Jack was knocked unconscious. He awoke a few hours later in this madness that he now found himself. The fire had been put out, for which he was grateful, but it appeared that the part of the building that they were in had been moved. Instead of being where it was supposed to be, the Energy Research branch of the FDR Research Institution was now smack dab in the middle of some weird-ass forest inhabited by creatures that shouldn’t exist!

Jack glared at the forearm crutches dangling from his wrists. If only he had been a little faster, a little better in shape, he wouldn’t be in this predicament.

A loud thumping noise coming from the ceiling drew Jack from his thoughts, and he glanced up in time to see the vent burst open and a human fall out— “GAAAAH!” —only to land on a strategically placed mattress.

Wincing, Jack spun his chair around.

“I don’t know why you insist on doing that,” he sighed with a shake of his head. “It’s completely pointless.”

The other human sat up, rubbing the back of his head. “Because it’s the safest way to get out of the building, duh!”

“There’s the front door right there,” Jack commented, pointing with one of his crutches at a pair of double doors that had been barricaded with various furniture.

“What, and get mauled by one of those fucking lion-scorpion things?” the other human growled. “I don’t think so.” Standing up, the human stretched, allowing Jack to eye him.

Drew Rayner was a thin man, barely into his adulthood. He had been an intern at the Institution, although for the life of him, Jack could never figure out how he got in. With his shaggy black hair and Metallica t-shirt, as well as his loud and obnoxious attitude, Drew was the last person Jack would have chosen as an intern. The fact that he now sported an unkempt, scraggly beard didn’t help the image either. Though in this new world, he did have his uses.

“So, what did you manage to find this time?” Jack asked, eyeing the backpack flung across Drew’s back.

Flipping the bag around, Drew unzipped it and began to rummage around inside. After a few seconds he pulled out a strange-looking piece of fruit. It was about the size of a mango, but was violet in color and lumpy.

He tossed it to Jack, who caught it clumsily.

“What is it?” he asked, eyeing the fruit curiously.

“Not sure,” Drew said, still rummaging about in the bag, “but I saw several birds and a weird deer-like creature with four antlers eating them, so they must be safe. I grabbed a couple dozen of them.”

“That’s reassuring,” Jack grumbled, lowering the fruit. “Anything else?”

“Yeah, I managed to get to the stream and refill our water supply,” Drew said as he pulled two jugs of water from the bag and placed them on a nearby desk.

“Any troubles?”

“Not really,” Drew shrugged. “I mean, I saw the star bears again, but they left me alone this time. I didn’t really stick around, though. I filled the jugs and got out of there as soon as possible.”

“Did you see any of those wooden wolves at all?” Jack asked, returning to studying the fruit. It wasn’t as firm as he had thought it would be, but the skin wasn’t soft either. It had some give to it when he pushed a thumb down on it.

“No, didn’t see any of them,” Drew said as he emptied out the backpack. “Haven’t really had much trouble with them since that big flash of fire to the north. The ones I do see look a little charred though.”

“I wonder what happened,” Jack said as he sniffed the fruit.

Sitting down, Drew watched him curiously. “You think it’s safe?”

“You said you saw wildlife eating them, correct?” Jack asked.

“No, I saw a bunch of rocks eating them,” Drew scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Yes, wildlife was eating them! Birds, deer, et cetera. Geez...”

Jack eyed the fruit for a few more seconds before suddenly leaning forward and taking a bite. An explosion of juices filled his mouth, and Jack was pleasantly surprised to find it tasted like a watermelon, if only a little more sour.

“Well?” Drew asked as he continued to chew.

“Not too bad,” Jack said, taking another bite of the fruit. “A little sour, but it’s pretty tasteless to be honest.”

Picking up a fruit himself, Drew eyed it skeptically before taking a tentative bite.

“I guess it’s better than stale chips from the vending machines,” he muttered. “Not that we have many of them left.”

“Hopefully this doesn’t give us the runs like those weird berries did,” Jack muttered, shivering slightly at the memory.

“Yeah, that was horrible,” Drew said, shivering as well. “It got so bad, it hurt to wipe.”

Silence fell as the pair continued to eat, only the sound of their chewing filling the room. After a few minutes, Drew paused before glancing over at Jack.

“So, um… is our… ‘friend’ still out there?” he asked softly, nodding towards a window behind Jack. There was a sheet covering the window, blocking the other side from view. It was an inner window, allowing those in the room to look out into a small hallway and vice versa. It was currently quiet on the other side, but Jack knew better.

Without glancing around or stopping his chewing, Jack reached behind and used the tip of one of his crutches to lift the edge of the sheet, revealing a zebra with his face pressed up against the glass.

“God damn it,” Drew growled, falling back in his chair and glaring at the zebra. It was smaller than normal zebras, with impossibly large green eyes. Red markings covered its muzzle, running across its face.

Smooshing its cheek up against the window, it tapped on the glass with a hoof.

“Um, excuse me,” it said, its voice muffled by the glass but clearly masculine, “but could you fine gentlecolts let me in? I promise that I mean no—I say!”

Jack moved the crutch and allowed the sheet to cover the window again.

“He’s still here,” he grunted.

“Persistent little bugger, ain’t he?” Drew growled, chomping angrily on his piece of fruit.

Jack nodded his head absently. The weird zebra had shown up nearly a month ago, and while Jack didn’t know where it went during the night, it had spent the first couple of trying to gain entry to the building. It had managed to get into the hallway only a few days ago, and the only reason it was able to do that was because of a large, gaping hole in the wall further down the hall. It had been a shock for both men when the zebra had first started talking, but now it was just getting annoying. Not that it said much.

“I still say it’s a figment of our imagination,” Drew muttered, glaring at the sheet. “I mean, it wasn’t here in the beginning, it only shows up occasionally… so it just proves that we’re slowly losing our mind, right?”

“It’s not a figment of our imagination,” Jack sighed. Closing his eyes, he fought off a growing headache. They had had this discussion many times within the past month, yet Drew always seemed to bring it back up whenever the zebra was mentioned.

“Then explain it!” Drew said loudly, motioning towards the hidden zebra. “That isn’t a normal zebra!”

“I can’t!” Jack shouted back. “I’ve already told you that! I can’t explain what it is, why it can talk, or where it came from! I don’t know! And what part of any of this is normal?!”

“Um,” came a muffled voice from the other side of the glass. “My name is the Desert Vagabond, and I’m from Sandpoint.”

“Shut up!” Drew screamed at the window, the loud noise causing Jack to wince in pain. “What do you want from us, huh? What, you want food or something?! Cause this fruit is ours, got it? Ours!”

A long pause followed Drew’s words before, to the surprise of both men, a soft chuckle came from the other side of the glass. “Do I want your food? No, I can’t say that I do. Those are, as the Hellsteed call them, Zt’rul fruit. I’m not sure what their Equestrian name is, but with my people, they are referred to as ‘Fiber Fruit’. Very good for relieving constipation… if you know what I mean.”

Both Jack and Drew froze, their mouths full of juicy fruit. Slowly, both men glanced down at the fruit still in their hands, each one almost completely eaten.

“Did I mention that they’re fast acting as well?” the zebra chuckled.

As one, their stomachs gurgled loudly.

“Stupid mare,” the Archmage snarled as he stood up, almost knocking the chess pieces off of the board in the process. He glared at the pony before him, the figure of Monochrome now frozen in her new stony prison with a look of shock and horror clearly carved into the frozen face.

The game had taken far longer than the Archmage had wanted, Monochrome somehow managing to keep her king safe despite the odds. It didn’t help the fact that she was able to get her queen back not once, not twice, but three times before the Archmage was finally able to checkmate her. Even so, the sun had long since risen, almost to the point of beginning to set, and he was now behind schedule.

Glaring at Monochrome, the Archmage’s eye twitched.

“So, it appears you and I are even now, Celestia,” he growled. “I’ve turned ponies into stone too. Although, now that I have done it, it’s such an anticlimactic way to deal with annoyances. I prefer the direct approach. It’s much more… permanent.”

Still glaring at the statue of Monochrome, his horn lit up a sickly yellow and the fire poker behind him levitated into the air. It hovered there, quivering ominously, before with a shrill whistle, it zipped through the air towards the statue. With a sickening ‘crack’, the poker imbedded itself into the statue’s right shoulder, erupting out her back in a shower of dust and debris.

“Let’s see you survive that, my dear,” he sniffed. Glancing at the clock on the wall, he grimaced upon seeing the time. His horn flashed once, and he grimaced again as more information was relayed to him. “Running behind. Always late. Things to do. Chaos to wreak. Time to go. Oh, but before I do!” Grinning madly, the Archmage conjured an umbrella from somewhere and, opening it wide, placed it above Monochrome petrified body.

“I hope you brought your galoshes,” he chuckled darkly, “because there’s a flood coming.” Patting Monochrome roughly on the cheek, his horn flashed again and in an explosion of light, he disappeared, only to reappear a few seconds later inside a large cavern.

Unicorns glanced up as the Archmage materialized.

He glanced around at all of them, a neutral look on his face. Silence fell around the cavern for several seconds, until the Archmage spoke. His voice was soft, barely above a whisper, but it still echoed around the rock walls like thunder. “It is time.”

Turning, he began to make his way towards the steel doors embedded in the far wall, all while issuing commands. “Dark Spice, take your crew, as well as the others, and get into position. You have your targets. You know what to do. Wait for the signal.”

The cowled unicorn nodded once before slipping back into the shadows, most of the surrounding ponies following him.

“Darkflare, you and your gang are following me,” the Archmage growled. “We’re gonna get this whole thing started.”

“It’s about damn time,” Darkflare said, a grin flashing across his muzzle. “I thought you’d forgotten about us.”

“Play your part right, and no one will ever forget about you,” the Archmage said curtly as he reached the doors. Lighting up his horn, he pulled them open with little difficulty, the loud grinding of gears echoing around the cavern.

The Archmage slipped into the metal passage, Darkflare, Pearl, Rose, and three other unicorns followed quickly behind him before the doors closed with a metallic ‘thud’. Lighting up their horns, they made their way through the narrow corridor, the soft click of their hooves the only sound audible in the gloom.

The Archmage couldn’t help the sneer that worked its way across his muzzle. At long last judgement day was here. And nothing, pony or human, was going to stand in his way.

The sound of roaring water filled Sunny’s ears, and she kept them pressed against her head in an attempt to block out some of the noise. She clung to the cliff face in front of her, standing on a narrow ledge of rock barely wide enough for her hooves. Behind her, the waterfall cascaded down into the lake at the base of the mountain. Droplets of water splashed against the rocks beneath her hooves, making them slippery and dangerous.

Around her, the other members of the Coming Dawn clung, trying to keep their footing on the slippery ledge.

“Whose bright idea was this, anyways?” Sunny yelled over the sound of the waterfall. “We’re mostly pegasi here, right? Why don’t we just fly the others up to the entrance and be done with it?”

“Because it may be booby-trapped,” Ivory shouted back, her voice muffled by her skull-pattern kerchief. Her red-tinted glasses flashed as she turned to glare at Sunny. “The last thing we need is to get tangled in barbed wire or something worse.”

“Darkflare wouldn’t set a trap out here,” Sunny shouted back. “He’d do it inside, where there’s a better chance of catching a pegasus. Out here, we can come from any direction, but once inside, we are limited in our ability to fly!”

“No flying!” Ivory growled. “Besides, we’re almost there. The entrance is just ahead!” Digging a hoof into the rock wall in front of her, she motioned upwards. There, just barely visible over the edge of another ledge was a small cave. It looked like it had been blasted out of the cliff face, the edges jagged and uneven.

Grumbling to herself, Sunny hunkered down and continued climbing.

After several minutes, the small group of ponies finally reached the cave entrance. As they pulled each other up over the lip of the ledge, Stacker called out. “Hey, LT. Whatcha make of this?”

“Make of what?” Ivory asked, turning to see what Stacker was talking about.

Sunny turned as well, only to blink in confusion. The first few feet within the small cave were made up of rock. However, as the passage went further into the mountain, it slowly began to morph into a tiled floor with steel walls and ceiling. A red line was painted on the floor, faded from years of weather and wear.

Stacker was hunched over the floor, eyeing the seam between rock and tile carefully.

“They’re fused together,” he said, tapping the floor with a hoof. “There’s no point where one begins and the other ends.”

“That doesn’t happen naturally,” Sunny said as she trotted up beside him, only to wince at how stupid she had sounded.

“Unicorn magic, maybe?” Stacker hummed. Everyone turned to the unicorns of the squad.

“Don’t look at me,” Ivory said, shaking her head. “I just burn things. You’d have to talk to a Battlemage. They’d know more about this than me.” The other unicorns just shrugged their shoulders and nodded in agreement.

“Well, regardless of how it was made, I think we found what we were looking for,” Stacker said, straightening up. “So, how do you want to proceed?”

“Unicorns in front,” Ivory grunted as she moved forward. “Shields up and ready to go. The rest of you stay behind us. Pegasi have better eyesight, so keep your eyes peeled for anything. Hopefully we can catch them unawares.” Pausing, she turned and glanced over her shoulder at Windbreaker. “You have the magic-dampening rings, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am,” she chirped, holding up a bag and giving it a quick shake. The muffled sound of clinking metal filled the air. “The Battlemages didn’t catch me this time either! They seemed to be distracted by something, so I was able to sneak in, grab the stuff, and sneak out before any of them saw me!”

Ivory nodded. “Excellent. Pass those out and keep them at the ready.”

As Windbreaker passed out the rings, Ivory and the unicorns began to slowly make their way down through the metal passageway. The light of their spells cast a multi-hued glow around them, illuminating their surroundings. The hallway was old, and the years unkind. Grime covered the metal, dulling its shine. Wires hung from the ceiling, twisting and turning like roots as they dangled from strange glass fixtures that dotted the ceiling. The red line painted on the floor continued to guide their path, faded in some places to the point of nothing, but still present all the same.

A stifling silence hung over the strange hallway, broken only by the click of the ponies’ hooves, which echoed eerily. The eeriness grew as they passed by door after door, all of them either blocked by debris or their doors wedged shut, buckled under some unseen pressure.

Sunny glanced at one of the doors as she passed. It had faded writing beside it, and upon glancing closer, she released that it was written in a language she had never seen before.

[Lounge/Break Room]

Staring at the weird, alien runes, Sunny felt a shiver run down her spine.

“I don’t like this place,” she murmured softly. “It feels… wrong.”

“I know how ya feel, ma’am,” Stacker muttered. “It’s making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.” A gentle murmur of agreement came from the others, and they soon found themselves unconsciously grouping closer together.

Eventually the corridor split into two separate hallways, one heading to the right and another heading to the left. The passageway on the left was blocked by a pile of rocks and debris.

“I guess that decides that,” Ivory grunted, casting a bemused look over the heap of rubble. Sighing, she reached up and pulled her kerchief down and lifted her tinted glass over her forehead. “To the right it is then.”

The group turned and slowly made their way down the right corridor. They had only taken a few dozen steps before a pair of large, steel double doors suddenly materialized out of the darkness.

“And what do we have here?” Stacker asked as the group came to a stop. They stared up at the doors, eyeing them cautiously. Sunny noted that the same alien runes as before were on the door in large, ominous lettering.

[Authorized Personnel Only!]

“Anypony seen writing like this before?” Windbreaker asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Nope,” one of the guards huffed, her face scrunched up. “It just looks like weird scratching. Are we sure it’s a language?”

“It’s a language alright,” Ivory said, her red eyes darting back and forth. “Just one that I’ve never seen. It’s got some repeating runes and such, but I’ve never seen these kind of markings before. It doesn’t come close anything I’ve seen before either.”

Windbreaker gave her a curious look. “But don’t you know, like, six languages or something like that?”

“Ndiyo, hun di, fréta, hí, khirrt, craw.”

“Um, what?” Windbreaker blinked in bewilderment.

“She just said ‘yes’ in zebrican, diamond dog, griffon, armored bear, changeling, and hellsteed,” Stacker replied, not taking his eyes off of the door.

Windbreaker’s ears splayed backwards and she chuckled weakly. “Oh…”

“So, nothing?” Stacker asked softly, leaning towards Ivory.

She shook her head. “Nothing. It looks almost like a diced up version of minotaurian, but it’s not even that.”

“How do we proceed?”

“We go through the door,” Ivory said with a sigh. “They’re just words. Whatever they mean is no matter to us. We have unicorns to find.” With that, she stepped forward, put a hoof on the cold metal, and shoved.

Dust covered everything. That was the first thing Sunny noticed as the group ventured through the doors and into the large room on the other side. A large machine rested along one of the walls with several screens embedded in it, most of which were cracked and busted. Mountains of scrap metal had been shoved up along the other walls of the room, nearly reaching the ceiling. Several of them appeared to have collapsed some time long ago, scattering their contents throughout the room. Various machines dotted the debris, broken and unused.

“Everypony be vigilant,” Ivory ordered. “We don’t know what’s in here. There could be traps hidden in the scrap.” The unicorn guards glanced around the room, the lights from their horns causing shadows to dance around the debris like ghouls.

“Are you guys seeing this stuff?” Windbreaker asked breathlessly.

“What about it?” one of the pegasi asked, eyeing a twisted beam of metal.

“Some of these machines would make the griffons cream their feathers!” Windbreaker said, reaching out to pick up one of the smaller devices. She was blocked though as a red barrier suddenly sprang up around the device.

“Don’t touch,” Ivory growled, her red eyes flashing in the gloom.

“We need to search the room for another entrance,” Stacker said softly, walking up behind Ivory. “This can’t be a dead end.”

Ivory was silent for a long time before closing her eyes and sighing.

“Alright,” she huffed. “Spread out and search for another path, but nopony goes off by themselves… and each group needs to have at least one unicorn in it, got it? Watch for traps.” A murmur of understanding sounded before the guards began to fan out, picking their way through the metal and debris.

Sunny crept up alongside Stacker, sticking close to him. Ivory followed as well, and the trio began to make their way along the edge of the metal piles.

“This… what is all of this doing down here?” Sunny breathed, eyeing broken machine after broken machine.

“I’m not sure,” Stacker muttered, “but with how big this facility is, whoever’s behind this has been planning this for a long, long time. This wasn’t done overnight.”

“I’m not so sure,” Ivory said softly. “There’s something else going on here. My horn’s been itching like crazy since we arrived, and I can’t place the reason why.”

“Scratchy horn?” Sunny asked, raising an eyebrow. “What…?”

“There’s weird magic in the air. A type I haven’t felt before,” Ivory explained, eyes scanning the room. “It feels familiar yet… strange at the same time. I… I don’t know how to explain it.”

“Well,” Stacker huffed, flexing his wings, “the sooner we find our targets, the sooner we get answers and the sooner we can get out of—”

He was interrupted by Windbreaker, who stuck her head out of a side room. “Lieutenant, you really need to come see this!”

Turning abruptly, Ivory made a beeline for the room, followed closely by Sunny and Stacker. Windbreaker had already pulled her head back into the room when they arrived, and, lighting up her barrier, Ivory stepped cautiously through the doorway.

It took Sunny’s eyes a second to adjust to the light of the sudden barrier, but when she could finally see again, she gasped. The room was smaller than the one they had just left, more of a storage space than anything else. However, someone had gone through and rigged the entire room full of weird pod-like machines with glass panels on the front of them. Almost all of the panels had been smashed, pieces of glass littering the ground around them.

“What the…?” Sunny gasped, looking around at the metal pods.

“I’m getting flashbacks to the Changeling Invasion,” Stacker said, shaking his head. “What the buck are these things?”

“I don’t know, but my horn is really starting to itch,” Ivory growled, one of her eyes beginning to twitch as her magic barrier flickered out. The other unicorns nodded, one of them even reaching up to scratch his horn.

Stepping forward—being mindful to not cut her frog on the broken glass—Sunny cautiously approached one of the pods. As she drew near, she saw that the same strange writing as earlier was engraved along the top of the pod’s opening. Leaning forward, she squinted her eyes, trying to make the faded letters out in the gloom.

[ADAM 001 - Male]

Scrunching up her face in confusion, Sunny turned to the next pod.

[EVE 002 - Female]

Snorting in annoyance, she stepped back and shook her head.

“I’m… I’m so confused,” she whined.

“Well, that’s interesting,” Stacker muttered, peering into a pod.

Sunny perked up. “What?”

“There’s no glass inside the pods,” Stacker said, looking into another one. “Just outside of them.”

“Why is that interesting?”

“Because,” Ivory said, eyes darting from pod to pod, “that means that the glass wasn’t smashed from the outside, but from the inside. Something was inside of these things but got out. The question is, what?”

“Um, I can answer that.”

The group turned to look at Windbreaker, who had just spoken. Her usual smile was gone, replaced instead by a nervous look, her ears pressed against her head. She turned and pointed a hoof towards a pod in the far corner.

Lighting up her horn, Ivory cast a soft beam of light towards the pod in question, illuminating it in the gloom.

Sunny gasped, her eyes widening.

“Celestia’s ivory teats,” Stacker breathed as the rest of the Coming Dawn muttered around him.

Unlike the other pods in the room, this particular pod still had its panel intact, although a large crack ran through the glass. The alien script atop the pod glowed in the magic light, proudly proclaiming the words, [ABEL 004 - Male]. However, the source of the ponies surprise was what was inside the pod.

There, lying in a crumpled heap against the back of the pod, was the skeletal remains of a human.

“Everyone got everything?” the Archmage asked, glaring around at the group of unicorns. “Knives, gems, loot?”

“Yes, yes,” Darkflare snapped impatiently. “Can we hurry this up? I’ve been sitting around for far too long. It’s time to have some fun.”

“Yes… ‘fun’...” the Archmage growled as he looked around the destroyed room, searching through the metal desks and bookshelves to see if anything had been forgotten. With how disheveled the room was, it was hard for an untrained eye to see what Darkflare’s gang had brought in and what had been there originally.

However, as the Archmage’s cold eyes drifted over the mess, he could pick out the changes with almost perfect accuracy. Several of the desks had been moved across the room and cleaned off. A pile of books had been knocked over, their fragile, crumbling pages now scattered across the floor. There were even a couple of full bags of bits hidden in the far corner of the room, something that Darkflare had clearly overlooked. Not that it would matter here in a few minutes.

A muted clattering noise echoed from one of the side passageway, causing all the unicorns to whip their heads around and stare at the doorway. The faint sound of voices could be heard, although what they were saying was too quiet to understand.

“It seems we have some company,” Rose muttered, her eyes narrowing.

“Guards? What do we do?” Pearl asked, glancing at Darkflare, who just shrugged.

“Burn them out?” he suggested.

“No,” the Archmage said sharply, causing all of them to look at him. “Leave them be. It won’t matter in a few minutes. Besides, I have a little… surprise in store for them.” As he spoke, his gaze slowly drifted to another one of the side rooms.

Darkflare followed his gaze, and a small sneer slid across his muzzle. “Fine, we leave the guards. But what are we going to do about her?”

Silently, the Archmage pulled a small metal ball out of thin air. He stalked through the debris and made his way towards the side door, stepping over the collapsed door as he did so. Making his way past the empty holding cells within, he stopped in front of the last cell, glaring down at the occupant.

Melodic Wind laid on the ground, staring blankly ahead with one eye, the other one swollen completely shut. She was now little more than a skeleton covered in fur, her faded blue fur coated in dried blood. Her bones were visible, and her wings stripped of their feathers.

Tossing the metal ball up and down in his magic, the Archmage stared down at the prone pony with no emotion in his gaze. His eyes drifted to the ball, and he tsked softly.

“Alea iacta est,” he muttered before pushing a small amount of magic into the metal ball. Immediately, it orange lines covered it and it began to emit a loud beeping noise. With that, he released his spell and the ball dropped.

Melodic’s eye darted to the ball as it landed with a thud in front of her face, her pupil shrinking to a pinprick. She just stared blankly at the orb for a few second before muttering weakly under her breath, “Equine, four, nine, twenty-three, six, twenty-two, twenty-six, twenty-three, twenty-three, eleven, three, twelve, eight, twenty-two, eight, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, eight, four…”

As Melodic continued to recite numbers faintly to herself beneath the beeping sound coming from the glowing ball, the Archmage turned and exited the room.

“The guards are definitely going to hear that,” Darkflare growled, his ears folding against his head.

“That’s the point,” the Archmage said as he walked up to one of the machines attached to the wall. Tapping one of the buttons, the cracked monitor lit up, glowing green in the gloom. The Archmage tapped two more buttons and yellow alien text began to scroll across the screen. One more tap and the text faded, replaced instead by strange symbols that changed periodically.

“What’s that?” Darkflare asked, eyeing the glowing screen curiously.

“That,” the Archmage said, stepping away from the console, “means that it is time to go.” The other unicorns gathered around him as his horn began to glow.

Casting one last look around, Darkflare sneered, “I’m not gonna miss this place.”

“That’s because it isn’t yours to miss,” the Archmage muttered under his breath. With that, his horn lit up and the unicorns disappeared in flash of light.

Silence fell over the disheveled room, broken only by the shrill chirp of the beeping orb in the next room. The monitor continued to glow, the green light casting an eerie glow around the room. Slowly, the symbols displayed on the cracked and dirtied screen continued to change.

[5:37]

[5:36]

[5:35]

[5:34]

[5:33]

[5:32]

[5:31]

“What’s that noise?” Ivory asked, ears perking as she lifted her head.

Stacker scrunching up his face. “Is that… beeping?”

Straining her ears, Sunny could just barely pick up a shrill beeping noise coming from somewhere nearby.

“Where is that coming from?” she asked. She turned her head, trying to pinpoint the noise’s location.

“Hey!” Windbreaker called from across the room. “There’s another door over here. The beeping’s coming from the other side!” There came the sound of a handle being jiggled. “It's locked.” The jiggling continued for a few seconds before a loud crack echoed around the room. “Oops… never mind!”

Sunny, Ivory, and Stacker glanced around at a cluster of broken pods. Windbreaker was standing there, broken door handle held in her hoof. Beside her, an old rusted door was swung open, hanging by a single hinge. On the other side of the doorway was a long corridor. It was pitch black except for a small glimmer of light in the distance.

The beeping sound was echoing eerily down the hallway.

“It seems kinda strange the noise would start right as we arrive, right?” Stacker asked, glancing sideways at Ivory.

The stoic unicorn nodded. “Yes.”

“Kinda feels… off, no?”

“Yes.”

“Almost like a trap.”

“Yes.”

“So, what are we going to do about it?” Stacker asked, scratching his chin with a hoof.

Ivory was silent for a brief moment before stalking towards the door.

“Proceed with caution,” she said softly. Her horn lit up, and a large red barrier of magic appeared in front of her. The other unicorns lit up their horns as well, adding their magic to hers and strengthening the barrier.

Before slipping down the passageway, Ivory glanced over her shoulder. “Pegasi, stay close to our six, but be prepared to pull out at a second’s notice. We’ll cover your retreat.” With that, the Coming Dawn slowly began to creep their way down the hall, ears perked and bodies tense.

As they neared the light, the corridor suddenly gave way to a large room. It was illuminated by the green flickering light of a group of monitors against the far wall. Metal desks were scattered everywhere, several of them collapsed upon the ground. Several unidentified electronic devices were smashed upon the dust-covered floor, their pieces and gears scattered everywhere.

As the unicorns entered the room, the light from their barriers mixed with the light from the monitors, creating a weird mixture of color and light. Doing a quick scan of the room and finding nopony present, they ceased the flow of magic to their horns and allowed their magic to fade.

“It’s clear,” Ivory muttered, her ear twitching in time with the beeping, which had grown louder.

“Where are we?” breathed Sunny, glancing around as she entered. Tilting her head back, she turned her gaze upward. Several catwalks ran across the length of the room, leading to doors that were shrouded in darkness. In the faint glint of the monitor lights, she could make out the gleam of barbed wire.

Swallowing nervously, Sunny lowered her gaze and clamped her wings tightly to her side.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Stacker answer, walking up beside her. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” A shiver ran down his spine. “I don’t like it, though. It feels too… artificial in here.”

“Too much metal,” Windbreaker mumbled, her eyes darting back and forth.

“Sergeant,” Ivory said, her head tilted backwards, red eyes unblinking. “What do you make of that?”

Following her gaze, the others beheld a large, tattered piece of cloth dangling from the ceiling. The colors on it were faded considerably, the reds and blues almost matching the white.

“What is it?” Sunny asked, squinting to see the fabric in the gloom. “A blanket?”

“Looks like a flag,” Stacker grunted. “Seen better days, though.”

“What’s with all the stars?” Windbreaker asked, cocking her head to the side. “It’s weird.”

“This whole place is weird,” Sunny countered under her breath.

Tearing her gaze from the hanging cloth, Ivory glanced around the room.

“Spread out again and search around,” she ordered, keeping her voice low. “Try and find any sign of Darkflare and his gang… and somepony find what’s making that damn beeping!” As her guards slowly spread out to search the room, Ivory approached the flickering monitors. There were strange alien symbols on them, changing in a slow, methodical rhythm. The only constant was that there was always three symbols displayed.

“It sounds like the beeping is coming from over here,” Stacker said, moving towards a small doorway off to the side. The door was collapsed upon the floor. Stepping over it, Stacker cautiously entered the side room, Sunny and Windbreaker following close behind.

“What the…?” Stacker breathed, glancing around at the line of holding cells.

Windbreaker tapped on one of the iron bars experimentally with a hoof. A sour look crossed her face.

“Oh great… more metal,” she grumbled.

Sunny gave her a confused look before glancing around the darkened room. She paused as she spotted a faint glimmer of orange on the floor near the back of the room. The light flashed in times with beeping.

“Hey, look at this!” Perking up, Sunny trotted forward. “I found the source of the noise.” Picking it up, she turned to show Stacker, only to freeze halfway. Her eyes widened, and she opened and closed her mouth wordlessly. Finally, she managed to find her voice.

“S-Stacker,” she choked out. “Stacker!”

Stacker and Windbreaker raced towards the distraught mare, only to freeze upon seeing what had frightened her.

“Luna’s frozen teats,” Stacker breathed as Windbreaker gagged beside him.

Oblivious to the three new arrivals outside her cell, Melodic continued her trance-like mutterings, all while blood continued to ooze from her various injuries, many of which were heavily infected. “Alicorn, nine, eleven, thirteen, eleven, four, nineteen, eleven, twenty-three, one, eighteen, four, twenty-two, nine, twenty-three, nine, one…”

“How could anypony do this to another pony?” Windbreaker gasped, holding a hoof in front of her muzzle as if she was going to be sick. “I can understand that they view humans as beneath them, but this… this is another intelligent creature!”

Sunny shook her head weakly. “Darkflare doesn’t like pegasi.” Her eyes roamed over Melodic’s plucked wings, the bare appendages sickly and scarred. “This… As grisly as it is, this doesn’t surprise me. I was expecting worse.”

“Ma’am,” Stacker called back down the hallway to Ivory in the other room, “I think we’ve found our missing guard!”

Ivory didn’t reply, still focused on the flashing symbols.

“We’ve got to get her out of there,” Windbreaker muttered, searching around for a way to unlock the cell. One of the unicorn guards stepped forward.

“Here,” she said before her horn light up. She grabbed the bars in her magic and, with a grunt, pulled them apart far enough for a pony to slip through. Stacker shoved his way between the bars, struggling slightly to get his bulky frame through. Once in, he gently lifted Melodic’s body, being mindful of her injuries.

He lifted her through the gap in the bars, where she was immediately taken in a cloud of magic. Carefully, Melodic was levitated out of the cell and down the corridor, all the while muttering out the seemingly random string of numbers.

“Medic!” Stacker called as they moved Melodic into the main room. Immediately, the squad’s medic was by their side.

“Here, put her…” she began, only to trail off as she glanced around the dusty room in disdain. By now the rest of the Coming Dawn had gathered around. A pair of pegasi grabbed one of the knocked over tables and righted it before dusting the surface off with their wings as best they could.

“Put her down here,” the medic said, moving to stand beside the table. When Melodic was placed beside her, she began to examine her gingerly.

“How bad is it?” Stacker asked.

“Bad,” the medic said grimly. “She is severely malnourished and dehydrated. There’s swelling around her right eye. Multiple lacerations across the body, many of them infected. Her wings have been plucked several times—” the pegasi in the room all flinched at the same time “—and both her back hooves have the skin rubbed off by what appears to have been chains and shackles.” The medic ran her eye over Melodic’s body one last time before shaking her head. “There’s no way I can treat her here. She needs to get to a hospital immediately.”

“We can’t pull out now... can we, Sarge?” Windbreaker asked, glancing at Stacker.

He shook his head, a troubled look on his face. “I’m not entirely sure. There’s no way we can leave her like this… but we still have to find Darkflare.” He chewed on the inside of his cheek, staring down at the tormented pegasus on the table before him. “Hey, LT., What say you?” When no reply came, Stacker glanced around. “Lieutenant?”

Ivory stared at the symbols before her with narrowed eyes. There was a pattern to them, she was sure of it, but whatever it was eluded her. Whatever it was though, Ivory couldn’t help her growing feeling of dread.

“Lieutenant?” Stacker called out, cocking his head to the side as he stared at the back of her head. “You in there?”

As Ivory watched, the strange text went from three symbols to two. Her ears perked up.

“Lieutenant?”

“Look, we need to get her some help right now,” the medic growled, her head bobbing slightly as she checked Melodic’s pulse.

“We can’t just leave,” Windbreaker said. “We have a mission to finish.”

Sunny gaped at her. “There’ll be other days to catch Darkflare. We’re talking about somepony’s life!”

“Lieutenant.” Stacker grunted, a small frown crossing his face.

“And if Darkflare escapes, other ponies might die!” Windbreaker shot back. “Remember the researcher at the Institute? We could be looking at similar cases!”

“Darkflare isn’t a serial killer,” Sunny growled. “That’s not how he works! He doesn’t just go around killing random ponies.”

“We can’t risk it!”

“She’s going to die!”

“Lieutenant!”

Two symbols became one.

Ivory’s eyes flew open as she suddenly realized what it was the symbols meant. Time seemed to slow as her heart began to pump at a fevered pace, pushing adrenaline through her veins. Her pupils constricted as black veins crept across the whites of her eyes. Spinning around, Ivory shouted out even as magic was beginning to flow up her horn. “Everypony out!”

One symbol became none.

From somewhere beneath their hooves, something exploded with enough force to shake the very earth.

Before anyone could respond, Ivory released her spell in a burst of red light. One by one in quick succession, the guards of the Coming Dawn began to disappear in flashes of light. Sunny gasped as something invisible hooked itself to her chest, a strong force yanking her upwards. The last thing she saw was Ivory’s eyes, demonic and glowing.

Then there were flames. Endless flames.

Ivory was consumed almost instantly, her flesh searing away in a roar of fire. The heat was so intense that even as Sunny was teleported away from the inferno, she could feel the fur on her face singe. The intense light of the explosion burned her eyes, causing her to cry out in pain.

Just as soon as it began, the pressure around Sunny ceased, as she reached the spell’s intended destination. Immediately collapsing to the floor, she pressed her hooves to her eyes and rolled around on the ground, writhing in pain. Around her, she could dimly hear the shouts of the other Coming Dawn members over the sound of her own screams. Many of them appeared to be in the same shape she was. Hooves were running about, voices she didn’t recognize shouting at one another.

“Get the Healers! We have multiple Code Grays! Level three trauma patients inbound!”

“Somepony lend me a hoof with these stretchers!”

“Where the buck did they come from?!”

“He’s not breathing!”

Voices came from all around her in a whirlwind of noise. Yet all Sunny was aware of was the mind-numbing pain that was coming from her eyes and nose.

“Celestia damn it!” she heard Stacker cry out, followed by the sound of hooves slamming against tiled floors. “Ivory! You… stupid… gah!”

Sunny suddenly felt a pair of hooves grab her, the pony trying to hold her still. A soft voice spoke up nearby, the tone urgent. “Ma’am, let me see. Take your hooves off your eyes, I need to see!” Recognizing the Coming Dawn’s medic’s voice, Sunny obeyed instantly and reluctantly lowered her hooves. She attempted to open her eyes, but was meet with only darkness and horrible pain.

A sharp hiss came from above her. “By the… Healer! I need a Healer immediately!”

As numbness began to cloud around Sunny’s mind, she was dimly aware of another pair of hooves grabbing her head. A voice, louder and more authoritative than the first, was shouting at her.

“Miss, you have to stay awake! Do you hear me? Stay awake! Quick, get her on the stretcher!”

Celestia stood upon the dais, staring out at the newly risen moon through the windows of the throne room. Against the moonlight she could just make out the forms of the Night Guard flitting about the sky as they went about their appointed tasks. Some were headed for their posts, others off to their training. A select few however continued the search for the missing human that had begun earlier that day.

Letting out a sigh, Celestia closed her eyes and gently shook her head. She had no idea what had caused Max to run off like he did, but she hoped he was alright. For his sake as well as Twilight’s. The poor mare was nearly hysterical when she discovered that her tracking spell wouldn’t work. She had quickly hurried off to search for Max herself, and she had spent the rest of the day looking with no rest alongside her friends. Now, even as night descended upon the land, Twilight was still out there, searching.

The sound of a door opening drew Celestia from her thoughts and she glanced around. Luna was emerging from the hidden door behind the throne, a troubled look on her face.

“Anything?” Celestia asked softly as her sister climbed the steps to the dais.

Luna shook her head. “Still nothing.”

“This is most troubling,” Celestia sighed. Draping a wing over Luna’s shoulders, she pulled her sister close to her side and gave her a quick nuzzle.

“Agreed,” Luna said, returning the gesture. “Tis most strange, we will admit. We do hope that nothing has befallen the dear human.”

“All we can do is continue the search and hope he shows up eventually.”

“We asked the sanguinarians to see if they could track him down,” Luna said, “but they don’t think they’ll be successful. His scent has faded, and the trail's gone cold. Still, they’ll continue looking until the sun comes back up.” Both sisters fell silent for a few minutes, content to just stand there and enjoy each other's company.

“How is young Twilight doing?” Luna asked eventually.

“She’s still out there looking for him,” came the reply. “She’s stopped in occasionally throughout the day to check if we’ve found him, and during one of those visits I forced her to stop and eat something. She ate quickly and left, though, desperate to return to the search.”

“We are unsure as to why she is looking so vehemently,” Luna hummed. “Tis true that we are concerned about Max as well, but he can look after himself, can he not?”

“Yes, he can. I believe Twilight’s fear comes from past experience.”

“How so?”

“The last time Max went missing like this, he was taken and forced to fight within a human fighting ring,” Celestia said. “Remember the condition he was in when you first met him? I believe that is why Twilight is fearful. Not because Max is missing, but because of what that might entail.”

Luna frowned, and her ears splayed to the side. “We suppose…”

A small smile touched Celestia’s lips and she opened her mouth to say more, but was interrupted by the ground beneath her hooves beginning to shake. It started off weak, barely enough to cause either sister to stumble, but soon the whole room was shaking. The windows rattled in their frames, and bits of masonry fell from the ceiling and walls. Both sisters fell on top of each other as the dais shifted beneath them slightly.

After about half a minute, the tremors began to fade.

“What was that?” Luna asked as she got shakily to her hooves.

Beside her, Celestia stood up as well. “An earthquake? Strange… there hasn’t been seismic activity like that around here since Discord first appeared—”

The main throne room doors slammed open, the unconscious body of a guard skipping off the floor as he sailed across the room. The doors trembled once before the hinges gave out and they toppled to the ground with booming ‘thud’s. There was a bright flash followed by a ‘crack’ and another guard was tossed into the room. He tried to get up, only to collapse upon the floor again. A small pool of blood began to form around his still form.

Both sisters tensed, their eyes locked on the doorway. Smoke was wafting through from some unseen fire on the other side. As they watched, several forms began to materialize from within the haze.

Celestia’s eyes widened before narrowing as she glared at the foremost figure. “You!”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Is this a bad time?” the Archmage asked with a large grin. “What’s wrong, Celestia? You don’t look happy to see me.”

“Archmage,” Celestia said, eyeing him coldly. “It would be a lie to say that I am completely surprised.” Her eyes drifted over to the half a dozen ponies that had entered the throne room. “I knew you were up to something,” she said as Darkflare leered at her. “I just never imagined it would be something like this.”

The Archmage grinned. “Surprise!”

“What is the meaning of this?!” Luna snapped, eyeing the advancing unicorns.

“I believe it’s called a coup,” one of the unicorns—a gray mare with a black mane—sneered. Beside her, an identical unicorn giggled coldly.

Luna snarled at the both, her horn beginning to glow softly.

Celestia ignored her sister and focused instead on the Archmage.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked.

The Archmage paused, an incredulous look crossing his face as he stared up at Celestia. “Why? Why? Whhhhhyyyy? Well, because I can!” His eyes flashed red. “Because you made it so easy to get away with this. Your ‘elite guard’ is a bunch of bumbling has-beens, you put too much faith in those close to you, and, most of all, you like to sit back and see how things play out, only to have it come back and bite you in the flank. Hard.”

“Insolent swine,” Luna hissed.

“There’s a prime example right there,” the Archmage said, motioning towards Luna. “You ignore your own sister’s feelings because you figure she’ll spring back. At least, that’s what you tell yourself to make it hurt less, right?”

“I regret what happened between my sister and I,” Celestia said, her face expressionless. “However, that was a millennium ago. She is back with me now, and I have learned my lesson.”

“Apparently not,” the Archmage chuckled darkly.

Celestia paused before reluctantly nodding her head. “Apparently not.” She closed her eyes sighed. “I’m unsure of what has caused you to resort to this, but I… I am sorry for not acting sooner to prevent your fall.”

“My fall?” the Archmage scoffed before laughing. “My fall? Celestia, my dear. I haven’t fallen. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I’m finally climbing out of the deep, deep pit you dug for me so long ago.” Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but the Archmage raised a hoof to silence her. “I don’t expect you to understand, or even remember what you’ve done. In fact, I’d be rather surprised if you did.

“However, I didn’t come here to reminisce about times gone by,” the Archmage sighed.

“Then don’t waste our time,” Luna said coldly. “You came here for a reason. Get to it.”

Celestia nodded. “Yes, I must admit that I am quite curious of this plan of yours, my old friend. What is your plan?” She glanced at the unicorns behind the Archmage, all of whom started to look a little nervous. “Do you plan on killing us? No… you haven’t brought enough unicorns for that.”

“No, we haven’t come to kill you,” the Archmage said, his expression unchanged even as Darkflare and the others took a step back. He rolled his eyes. “That would be too quick. No, I have something better planned. I’m going to take from you what you took from me all those years ago. Something precious. Something you hold most dear.”

“And what, pray tell, is that?” Celestia asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Well, I’ll tell you,” the Archmage hummed. “But first, before I go too in depth about my plan…” His horn suddenly flashed a bright, sickly yellow. Faster than either sister could react, a bolt of magic shot across the room and slammed into them. The magic around Luna’s horn shattered as the spell failed. Both of them collapsed, their bodies tumbling down the dais’ steps.

Within the Archmage’s office, sitting upon his disheveled desk, the ancient chess board began to glow. The pieces, once a work of priceless art, began to melt, staining the surface beneath them. The board shuddered once, twice, three time before cracks began to spider across its face. It gave one last shudder before, in a burst of sickly yellow magic, the board exploded.

“What did you do to them?” Darkflare asked as the Archmage slowly approached the crumpled forms.

The Archmage ignored the question, focusing instead on the twitching bodies before him. Their muscles were rippling beneath their fur, causing their bodies to warp. Loud ‘crack’s could be heard as the bones in the alicorns’ bodies snapped and shifted. After a few seconds, the noise ceased, and an eerie silence fell over the throne room.

Then one of the sisters moved.

It started off as a slight twitch of Luna’s shoulders, but then slowly the two sisters began to get to their hooves.

“Cerberus rut me senseless,” one of the unicorns whispered, her eyes widening in shock.

Gone was the once royal facade of the alicorns. It had been twisted, morphed into something that barely echoed what they once were. Their bodies—once quadrupedal—were now bipedal in nature. They stood up on their hind legs, towering over the ponies before them. They had hands now, each of the long, boney fingers ending in a claw. Their muzzles had become elongated, the teeth inside sharp and predatory. Eyes, once so full of intelligence and warmth, were nothing more than cold, white orbs that glared out upon the world around them.

The once proud alicorns were now reduced to nothing but mindless monsters.

“Almost didn’t work,” the Archmage muttered, eyeing his handiwork. “I didn’t take into account their natural resistance… almost drained the reserves. Fucking alicorns. Even in defeat, you continue to vex me. Need to watch magic use from now on. Don’t want to lose control just yet.”

“That’s it then…” Darkflare breathed. A large grin slowly worked its way across his muzzle as he gazed up at the transformed princesses. “You did it. You actually did it!”

At the shout, the abominations’ gazes locked onto Darkflare, and a soft growl reverberated around the room.

“And what is it I’m supposed to have done?” the Archmage asked, giving Darkflare a blank look. Beads of sweat trickled down the side of his face, and his breathing was a little more strained.

“Are you blind, you old coot?” Darkflare laughed. “You just reduced the princesses—the strongest ponies in the world—into… these things.” He did a little jig, hopping from hoof to hoof. “With power like that, all of Equestria is ours! Power, money, nopony can stand up against us.” Trotting up the dais steps, Darkflare walked past the twin monstrosities, who both slowly turned, keeping their gazes locked on him.

With a happy groan, Darkflare sat down upon the cushioned throne.

“The entire nation under our hoof,” he grinned. “Not bad for a ‘useless whelp of the streets’. Who’s laughing now, huh? I am, that’s who. You know what?” He asked suddenly, leaning forward and eyeing the emotionless Archmage. “I know what we should do first. Hollow Shades deserves a visit.”

The Archmage shook his head. “As entertaining as that might be, that goes against my plan.”

“What do you mean?” Darkflare asked, his face scrunching up. “We’ve taken the throne room, the princesses are defeated. We’ve won. It’s over. What else is there?”

The Archmage chuckled softly, shaking his head. He gave Darkflare a pitying look.

“You poor, deluded stallion,” he said. “So ambitious, but unable to see past your own muzzle. If it was this easy, why would I have all those other convicts running around? You’re so lost in that little world of fire and bloodshed of yours. Of course, that’s what I liked most about you. You were so much more violent than anyone else I’ve stumbled across. That’s why I hired you. You made such a good pawn… such a loyal knight. No questions, no misgivings. I just had to point you in the desired direction, and you left nothing but chaos in your wake.

“But in the end, you were nothing more than a pawn after all,” the Archmage sighed dramatically. “And sometimes, in order to get better pieces, a pawn must be sacrificed. So it is with little to no regret that I must say sorry, Darkflare. Your services are no longer required.”

The smile had left Darkflare’s face, and he glared down at the Archmage in a cold fury. “I advise you to pick your next words carefully, old one.”

“Oh, it’s nothing personal, I assure you,” the Archmage said airily. “At least, not between you and me. Rather, it’s between me and Celestia. You just so happened to get caught up in the middle of it.”

“You think you can just toss me aside?” Darkflare growled. “After all I’ve done for you?”

“Of course not,” the Archmage scoffed. “I’m not tossing you aside. To be perfectly honest, I still have need of you, my aggressive friend.”

“Why then—”

“It’s just, in order to be useful to me, you’ll need an… upgrade, as it were.”

Unfortunately for Darkflare, he was so focused on the Archmage that he failed to notice the two princesses-turned-abominations creeping closer and closer to him before it was too late. The one closest to him—Luna—darted forward and grabbed him by the neck, causing Darkflare to gag. She lifted him bodily from the throne even as the rest of the unicorns cried out in alarm.

The Archmage slowly began to back his way towards the door, a dark smirk crossing his face.

The Luna-creature’s claws dug into Darkflare’s flesh, causing blood to trickle down his body and onto the floor. Then it happened. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his body went limp. It twitched several times before, with a horrific gurgle, the snapping of bones began to echo around the throne room.

Darkflare’s body began to shift and morph. His limbs began to grow, his forehooves cracking and splitting open as long, clawed digits erupted from beneath the hard nail. His muzzle elongated, his teeth sharpened, and his skin stretched until it threatened to rip.

It only took a few seconds, but after the grisly transformation was over, there were now three abominations staring down at the horrified unicorns below.

“Welp,” came the Archmage’s voice from behind, causing the unicorns to turn around. He was standing in the doorway to the throne room, the two large doors hung in his magic. As the ponies watched, they reattached themselves to the hinges and quickly repaired themselves.

“Oh, don’t worry,” the Archmage said as he slipped through the doors and began to close them. “It’s not as painful as it looks… but you’ll find that out soon enough. Don’t be too easy for them, though—make them work for it. Much more satisfying that way.” He made to close the doors, but paused. “Oh, I almost forgot,” he grinned. “A little sporting word of advice. Try not to let them touch you.” With that, he slammed the doors shut and locked them from the outside. The anti-magic lock would prevent any of the unicorns inside from magicking it open, not that they would have time to try. The minute the doors closed, the screaming had started.

The Archmage stood with his back to the door, listening to the muffled screams and pounding upon the door. As the noise slowly died off, a small smirk worked its way across his muzzle. “That should be a lovely surprise for the next pony who opens the doors.”

With that, he turned and trotted off down the smoke-filled hall, humming softly to himself.

The dark of the tunnel gave way to the light from his horn.

The ‘click’ of his hooves echoed every time he took a step.

The lanterns slowly turned from red to white as he descended further.

As the Archmage came to the end of the tunnel, he looked out upon the large cavern before him. The sound of rushing water filled his ears, as well as the faint sound of voices.

He stood there, gazing out upon the sea of beings before him, at the camp that encompassed the small lake in the center of the cavern. He looked at the hundreds of humans that mingled together in a veritable mass of chaos.

It had taken him a long time to reach this point. Ages upon ages. But now, it was all becoming a reality. Before this night was over, he’d have his revenge.

And there was nothing that could stop him.

As he descended down the sloping path towards the camp, the Archmage allowed himself a brief moment of happiness.

Happiness… he had almost forgotten what that was like. It was something that the ponies always preached—something they took for granted—but it was something that he hadn’t truly felt in a long time.

As he made his way through the crowd of humans, they parted before him like the sea before a ship. Some gave him fearful looks, others looked away, but all moved out of his path. The strong, the aggressive, the cowardly, the weak. All knew what he was, and allowed him through.

He paid them no mind. There was only one human he was looking for at the moment. That dogface soldier—Dustin. That was his name. He just needed to find him, and things would get rolling.

After a few minutes of searching, he spied his quarry through a break in the crowd. He smiled and made to step towards him, only to freeze upon spying the human standing beside him.

The smile left his face.

His eyes narrowed.

His lips pulled back in a snarl.

And he stepped forward with murder in his heart.

Author's Notes:

So it begins...

---

Naughty Melodic, giving out major spoilers like that. She should know better than to ruin the surprise!