“Destiny has two ways of crushing us - by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.”

After thirty seconds, the large blast door opened excruciatingly slowly. As it did, it emitted a soft and constant hiss that was quickly giving me an even bigger headache than I’d had before. Almost as soon as there was a few inches of clearance, we were under fire from the soldiers inside.

And there goes my whole plan for not getting shot at.

“Back, back!” I shouted as I turned and galloped from the volley of fire. I gave Pred a panicked gaze as he simply strode forward, levitating his minigun through the air. “Pred, what…?”

That was all I got out before he spun the gun up and pushed the barrels under the opening. He answered my question by letting out a burst of fire for only a couple of seconds with the gun. The hundreds of shells that now scattered the floor pinged and rolled across each other as he paused, perking his ear as silence met it.

“That’s how you…” He started to say, getting cut off when a rifle inside went off. It punched a bloody wound through his upper foreleg and caused him to gasp in pain. Before I could even react, the minigun whirred to life again and spit fire. As the door continued to raise, Pred too lifted the gun.

Both Gauge and Tasteless crouched down low, keeping their weapons close as they scurried under the heavy steel door. It had only been another six seconds or so since Pred began his torrent of fire, but the gun spun down as it ran out of ammunition. A pair of shotgun blasts and pleading screams from the room met my ears as Pred dropped the gun to the ground and sat down hard. Black ichor seeped out of his bloody leg, and from the way he let it hang limply, I’d assumed it wasn’t in any shape to take any pressure on it.

“Pred, are you...?” I stepped closer to him slowly, holding my hoof out.

“I’ll be fine.” He turned and grunted, giving me a glare that would have even made Filius scared. “Go. Get Pai in there.”

“Come on.” Shadow nudged me forward with a smile. Pred’s expression had been all over the place today, and even now he felt distant. Maybe it was being back in this place again, maybe it was because he was worried about me. Whatever the case, I felt I should probably give him some space.

“Ah, it isn’t so bad! Just a scratch.” Ficha spoke up through his own pained breaths. I looked back and watched as he stuck his muzzle under Pred’s good foreleg and propped him up against his shoulder. “I wouldn’t be surprised if a stallion like you was able to just walk it off.”

Striding back into the core, I looked around. Not much had changed since Pred and I first arrived here. It had been fairly thoroughly cleaned, and most of the monitors and equipment were powered on and displaying things. Other than the slightly off color to everything, I could feel how similar it was too when I was just a little filly.

“Please,” The whimpering voice of a mare came from behind one of the rows of terminals. “Don’t hurt me.” The soft sobbing threw my mind back to the hall with the mare I’d shot.

“Your Enclave friends didn’t seem to care about hurting us, and the bullet riddled corpse of your robed friend didn’t care about shooting Pred back there. Now you’re all alone here.” Tasteless grunted as she hovered above the section the voice came from. The mare let out another whine of fear. “No sudden moves, no getting smart. That’s how you stay alive, got it?”

My vision shifted to pink as Pai popped up with a smile. “Ah, home sweet home.” She sighed quite loudly from the speaker in my pipbuck.

A loud shouting filled the air from the hallway where Pred and Ficha were both limping in from. They both looked back as they scrambled to move faster from the doorway.

“Pai?” I lifted my pipbuck to my muzzle and spoke quickly. “Less reminiscing, more defending.”

“Already on it!” She sang happily as the whole room hummed lightly. A dull pink film coated each of the doorways, sparkling lightly like the shield spell of a unicorn. “That should keep them out for now, and…” She paused as the floorplate in the doorway let out a hiss. It split along the middle and folded outward as a heavy duty sentry turret elevated out of the floor. “that’s for when they get through the shield!”

“Don’t you mean if?” Gauge grumbled as she got herself settled in front of the terminal just ahead of me.

“Nopey nopey!” Pai retorted with a bounce. “We were due for a security overhaul almost a month after the bombs fell. This being the first orchard commissioned, it used the earliest model security gear.”

“If I had a bit for everyplace that was scheduled to have an upgrade…” Gauge groaned as her horn lit up. She used her magic to punch in commands to the terminal at a blistering rate. I don’t mean that she was just fast, but if I were to move that way, I would literally have had blisters on my hooves. “So, in the meantime, let’s find this door of yours.”

My pipvision fuzzed and shifted back to green. A series of beeps and buzzes emitted from the pipbuck itself, and within a few moments, Pai fuzzed into place on the pedestal where we’d first found her.

“It’s good to be back.” She sighed before fuzzing a bit. “Energy reserves at maximum, reactor output stable. Records and transfers is offline, but that’s of no use anyway…” She paused for a moment, letting her words drift off.

“Ah-ha! Found it!” Both Pai and Gauge spoke at nearly the same time.

“You found the door?” I asked in near disbelief. I’d thought it would be quick, but not that quick. Score one win for team us.

“Yes!” Gauge said with a smile, before scrunching her muzzle up. “I mean, no, not exactly.” Hah, I knew my instincts weren’t wrong. “It’s more a reference in a line of code that points to a keypad that exists in the test chamber somewhere.”

“And,” Pai continued hot off her fetlocks, “said keypad is locked by a six pronged access code that’s required to even get power to it. The keypad itself is coded to await the correct genetic markers to open.”

“So… what does that mean?” Shadow asked, taking the words right out of my muzzle.

“Hell if I know!” Gauge shrugged and continued working with a gigglesnort. “But I’ve never seen anything like it. Isn’t that great!?” I facehooved hard enough that across the room, Ficha looked up at me with a worried face. “Calm yourself, Storm. We just need a little time to break this encryption.”

“Time is something that I have very little of to spare…” I sighed and sat down. Shadow again wrapped his wing around me and softly nuzzled against me.

“Huh, do you see that, Gauge?” Pai called out in a puzzled tone. “Line six two four zero zero.”

Gauge tapped a few keys and gave an odd snort. “Yeah, I’ve never seen coding like that before.” She sat back for a moment and scratched at her mane. “Any idea what it is?”

“It’s quite familiar to me, actually, seeing as that’s coding that only an orchard Artificial Pony can do.” Pai shifted to a brighter pink as she puffed up her chest. “Yeah, we’re all pretty amazing coders. Seems like those six keys needed are coded to my sisters from the orchards.”

“Sisters?” It was an odd way to put it. “You mean like tempest?”

“Well, while Tempest was and AP, she was far different than any of the other orchards.” Pai’s color shifted to a soft blue. “She was beyond advanced compared to us, but as you could see, that wasn’t exactly a good thing.”

“Wait…” I brought my forehoof up to my muzzle as I thought back. “What about Care? From the orchard I was kept in all these years?”

Pai nodded and changed back to her normal pink. “Yup! She was the AP based on Fluttershy. There was an AP created for each of the ministry mares!”

“Well, that’s no help.” Gauge sighed and blew one of her orange bangs from her eye. “You know, seeing as we can’t just go to the others and get them to come here for this, now can we?”

“That… isn’t particularly necessary!” Pai spoke with a gasp. As she did, every other terminal in the room flickered over to a new screen. What I assumed was coding scrolled across each of them at different rates while she continued. “If, we were able to split my coding, I might be able to emulate each of them just long enough to fool the lock into thinking we had all of them here!”

“Would that even work?” I asked without knowing a single iota about what they were talking about. It took a pony a lot smarter than I to operate a terminal well, let alone even begin to know how to make with the spells inside them work.

“I might be able to help her emulate the others,” Gauge nodded as she continued to strike keys for her terminal, “though this is a system unlike anything I’ve seen before… we might not have all that much time to get in once the door is open.”

“And there is another problem.” Pai spoke up hesitantly. “Splitting my code even a little? It might destabilize my core spell matrices. On top of that, if this doesn’t work the first time, the firewall might buffett back hard enough that trying again would strip the spells from me altogether.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, feeling a pit in my stomach starting to form. It only got worse as both Pai and Gauge didn’t answer. “What does it mean?”

“Pai could become corrupted.” Predious answered for them. “She could die, even if this works.”

“Storm,” Pai spoke up softly. “If there were any other way…”

“I know.” I nodded, trying not to think too much about the risk that she’d be taking. “There’s too much at stake here. We have to do it.” Looking over to her as she gave a soft nod, I couldn’t even bring myself to tell her to stop. She was risking herself to help, and even through my mind wanted to scream out how it wasn’t worth it, we’d come too far. “Just, try to be careful.”

“I know.” She smiled a sad smile to me before fuzzing slightly.

The hallway past the shield spell erupted into gunfire. Exactly none of the rounds that were being fired made it through the barrier, and the large turret sat there, slowly panning between the numerous enemies that no doubt sat in wait at the end of the hall.

“How the hell?” Tasteless asked with a well deserved amount of annoyance. “I thought you said they couldn’t get through the doors!”

“Ugh!” Gauge whined and clamped her eyes shut. “Shit, they must have brought thermal lances with them.”

“Now would be a great time to get moving again!” Ficha called out, shambling over toward one of the shut exits. “Which way did you say it was?”

“Get the thermal lance on that door!” One of the Rangers from down the hallway shouted. “I want it open in less than two minutes, do you lazy flanks hear me?” The heavy steps of power armor approached the shielded doorway, the turret on our side tracked it as it approached. The pony that appeared in the doorway wasn’t who I’d through it would be.

The sleek black enclave power armor had a gold trim about it, and the mare in it carried the look of an officer. “Yeah, Iron, it’s the mare that crippled you.” She put her hoof up to her ear and nodded, keeping her Silver colored eyes latched onto me. “I’ll take care of it.”

Another set of heavy hoofsteps approached behind her. The control room was silent as we all stared at the purple coated mare as she stood patiently on the other side of the shield. Even when a shower of sparks erupted behind her, she didn’t move.

“Storm?” Pai called out, pulling my attention from the mare. “The monitor in front of you... look!”

I glanced around at a few of the numerous monitors around me before one flickered and switched the what I assumed was a camera feed from in the orchard. A stallion wearing a dark cloak moved swiftly down the hallways on his own. From the way his cloak sat, a horn lay underneath the large hood that obscured his face.

“Is that… Filius?” Pred grunted as he all but threw himself onto the console.

“No.” I spoke slowly. “Look, there.” I raised my hoof as the camera switched to another one, this time on the other side of him. Tied on his side, was the holster for some sort of blade. With the horrible resolution, it was hard to tell what exactly it was. “Even if Filius came all the way here, I doubt he’d have brought something like that with him.”

“Not to mention, with that amulet of his, why would he need a sword.” Pred shook his head. “Well, whoever they are, they’re headed this way.”

“Why do you say…” I began to ask, having my answer presented as the cameras changed yet again to show him stroll right past a medic who was attending to the mare I’d shot in the leg. It’s not my fault that literally all these hallways look the same.

The pink shield flickered for just a moment. “We’re losing containment!” Gauge seethed through her words. “I’ve rerouted power, but it won’t keep them out much longer.” I turned my gaze back down to the mare at the door. A sly smile grew across her muzzle before she turned around.

“Okay rangers, get ready to hit them hard.” She called out, casually strolling away.

“Get ready to fight.” I called out to everypony. “Pai, anything else you could do would be helpful!”

“Sorry, Sis.” Pai whined, shifting to a darker pink. She looked up to me with a nervous smile and rubbed at her neck. “I can wish you good luck if you’d like?”

Pred slammed his minigun onto the console, using his magic to work out another ammo belt from his bags. Tasteless fed a few more shells into her shotgun as she floated up to the back of the last row of terminals. Gauge split her attention between working on the coding, and reloading the submachine gun and shotgun at her sides. Me? I worked on topping off my rifle and making sure I was behind cover. Ficha whined as he shifted himself over beside the door. From his bags, he pulled out his crossbow, holding it in his hoof in the way only zebra’s seemed to be able to do.

With a arcane fizzle, the shield flickered and died. The turret snapped to the ranger who’d been using the lance and started chattering away. It got off maybe a half dozen shots before a rocket screamed down the hall and slammed into it. I ducked down as the blast tore the turret to scrap, sending shrapnel around the room.

Shadow let out a yelp before he dropped to the ground behind me. His helmet was dented inwards, a piece of the turret lodged in it. I panicked, turning around and grabbing at his helmet. As I did, the metal shrapnel jiggled and fell lose, not lodged in deep enough to have hit his head. He let out another groan before slumping limply.

With the fear of him dying calmed for the moment, I didn’t know what our chances were with one pony down. On top of that, our only pony with armor good enough to combat Steel Rangers. I watched on my EFS as the red bars from the hallway closed in quickly. Their heavy stomps giving away that the power armor they wore wouldn’t be so easily stopped. Among the sea of red, a lone green bar wandered.

“Hey, stop right there!” A power armored voice shouted from the hallway. The sound of a high caliber gunshot rang through the air. The blood curdling amplified scream of the same stallion nearly had me covering my ears. Gunfire erupted all through the hallway as half the soldiers headed in turned back around.

“Now!” Predious shouted, heaving his heavy gun up over the console.

I sprang to my hooves as his gun spun up, tensing myself as I threw myself into the air. The world around me slowed to a crawl as the magic of S.A.T.S. took ahold of it. A red highlight popped up around a pair of Power armor clad Steel Rangers, one of which who was in mid turn toward Ficha. Another highlight shimmered into the air just next to them, forming a ponies outline without a pony in it. The way that the air warped in the outline made me think that they were using a stealth buck.

They wouldn’t sneak in and kill us on my watch, I thought as I told sats to select the midsection of the invisible pony. It gave me only a ten percent chance to hit, but anything was better than nothing. Cueing up three shots, I resolved the spell, sitting back in my mind to watch as it went to work.

The spell brought my hooves up, lining the barrel up as best it could with the running pony. I pulled the trigger and watched as the round went off. The first shot sailed wide of the pony, the spell moving my hoof to cycle the weapon while adjusting my aim. As soon as the bolt closed, the gun fired, sending the next round too low. Again, my hoof cycled the bolt, kicking the casing out as a new one was fed in.

As the trigger depressed, time slowly crawled forward, zipping my final shot faster than I could keep track of it. Without seeing a splatter of blood, I figured I had missed the stealth-bucked pony. With time closing in on it’s normal rate, something odd caught my eye.

Ficha’s crossbow launched out it’s bolt, which sailed through the air all of three feet before punching through one of the rubber seams in the power armor standing next to him. S.A.T.S. came to a complete end as the power armored pony went ridged, an amplified gurgle coming from their mask as they fired off a rocket with their dying breath. The rocket sailed forward across the open floor before exploding into gore randomly. The smoking remains of what I could assume was the invisible pony rained down across the consoles.

Tasteless’s shotgun barked, sparking off of the other power armored ranger. “Only got three shells left!”

Another burst from Pred’s Minigun punched a line of holes across the Ranger. Unlike his friend, the ranger didn’t go down. Instead, he turned and let loose with his Anti-machine rifle. The console we hid behind sparked and smoked as a pair of holes opened in the space between Pred and I.

“Down to half a belt!” Pred shouted before letting rip with his gun again. The scream that came from the Ranger sung over the quick clicks that the gun gave out, smoke whafting from it’s barrels as he pulled it back over the console. “Correction, I’m out.”

“Here comes another!” Gauge shouted before letting out a barrage of fire from both her submachine gun and shotgun. The high pitched hum of another minigun built up, a line of fire drawing through the air above us. It chewed through both Gauge’s guns, throwing them in pieces from her levitation. Another scream came from across the room as the minigun stopped.

“Tasteless!?” Gauge cried out.

“They shot up my tail!” She screamed. “I liked this tail!”

What met our ears next was the sound of rending metal. Then, only silence.

“Shey, guysh?” Ficha slurred weakly. “I shink we won.” he let his crossbow clatter to the floor, breathing heavily. “I shink I nee shum blood…”

With my rifle still firmly in my grasp, I spun myself around. The compass in my vision showed only green blips around, but still, I wasn’t convinced. Slowly, I raised up above the sparking and smoking console. The stallion in the robe stood over the unmoving body of the third ranger, his golden blade still embedded through the back of the ranger’s helmet.

“Who are you?” I snapped, keeping my rifle trained on his head. The shrouded stallion turned his obscured face toward me, staring at me from the comfort of his hood. With a quick yank, his magic pulled the sword out and wicked the blood off of it. With a quick spin, he resheathed it in it’s scabbard, slowly reaching his hooves up to his hood.

“I am the shield of Equestria.” He spoke in a very reverent tone, using a voice that I vaguely recalled from the Tenpony bar. “And I’m sorry to say,” He paused as he pulled back the hood, revealing his faded and rotting coat. “The one who is responsible for Filius’s actions.” Shedding his dark robes, the golden cape that I’d seen in Filius’s memories was instantly recognizable.

“Gallant?” The name slipped out of my muzzle as I lowered my gun.

“You know this guy?” Tasteless grunted, slowly floating up over the console she’d been behind. She blew a ring of smoke from her muzzle and took another drag off her smoke. “Shit, he’s not another supervillain, is he?”

“No, my dear, I am not.” Gallant laughed, “And I haven’t gone by the name Gallant in a long time.”

“Wha… how?” I still didn’t understand it. How could he be here?

“Filius was too much of a threat to contain.” He answered my question as he sat down. “The council of necromancers convened a decision that he would be locked away in the frozen north for the rest of time. But he could not be sealed alone, for the threat to ponykind if he were released would be too great to ignore.” He puffed up his chest proudly as he continued. “They required a pony to be sealed with him, able to wake should the need arise to stop him once more. I volunteered, having lost everything I had to him, and though Lichdom was forbidden by the council, one exception was made. They stripped me of my living body, sealing me in this corpse of a pony to spend my days waiting for the time I was needed.”

“Fascinating.” Predious spoke up, putting a hoof to his chin. “So, why didn’t you stop him? If that was the point of you being sealed with him, I’d say you spectacularly failed in your job.” Maybe being snarky with the thousand year old undead guy isn’t the best idea, Pred...

Gallant seemed almost insulted, giving out a quick snort. “You try being asleep for over a thousand years.” He shook his head and gave a dismissive wave. “Waking from the spell, it left the both of us weak. I, still new to the magics of necromancy, didn’t understand that our power grew with raw soul energy being released.”

“Soul energy?” Gauge scrunched up her muzzle. “Never heard of that before. Sounds barbaric.”

“When somepony dies, a small amount of their magic is released into the magical ether that surrounds us. This is where a necromancer get’s their power.” He grunted and turned towards Ficha. He released a bright white beam from his horn, passing it across Ficha’s wound, sealing it almost instantly. “The more death that has occurred in a concentrated area, the more powerful any necromantic spell you cast is.”

“But, you just healed him…” I said slowly. I’m no expert on magic, but life and death seem like separate things. “Isn’t necromancy only dealing with death?”

Gallant shook his head. “Necromancy is about renewal, the natural order of life and death in the world.” He growled and stomped his hoof. “I did not travel here to teach you the whims of a magic I barely can grasp. You are the one who has Filius’s attention, and you are the one to call me by a name that hasn’t been uttered in over a millenia.”

“Haha!” Pai gasped excitedly. With a hiss, the door behind me opened up. As it did, the doors further down the hall from it made a hiss as well. “I’ve opened the path to the antechamber, but I don’t know for how long.” She turned blue, waving at me. “Be safe, sis.”

“We’ll hold things down here.” Gauge spoke up, getting back to working on her coding. “But I think I’ll keep Tasteless and Ficha just in case more of those Rangers come back.”

“Alright, be safe.” I spoke at her before shifting my gaze to Tasteless, “And you, keep them safe.”

“Oh, goddesses.” Shadow groaned, rolling around on the floor. “What happened? Did we win?”

“Welcome back to the land of the living.” Pred muttered, using his magic to lift Shadow back onto his hooves. “Now, get moving. We’re going ahead.”

“Gallant, you’re with us.” I waved him over. “I’ll explain everything on the way.”

“Pardon, but if I am to understand, you aren’t a real pony?” Gallant inquired with the rudest question of my entire life.

“I’m real, I just… wasn’t born like a normal pony.” I sighed, trying to shrug it off. “But yeah, I was made to wield any of the elements. Sometimes they talk to me, you know, in my dreams.”

“Quite perplexing.” He remarked as we trotted down the halls close behind Pred and Shadow. “I had no idea that the elements could engage in conversation.”

“They’re the one who gave me a glimpse into the past, where I learned about you.” I spoke up, starting to recognize the hallway we were in. “They told me to come here as well, that I could find something that will help me to take down Filius.”

“But they did not inform you as to what this object was?” He looked deep in thought, shifting his head from side to side. “Very peculiar indeed.”

“Not what I’d call it.” Predious grunted in annoyance.

“It’s just up ahead.” I spoke up to them without thinking. “Okay… that was weird.” Pred slowed down and dropped to my side, eyeing over me with a concerned look.

“Remembering things about this place again?” He asked in a lighter tone than he’d been recently using with me. “Are you alright?”

“Just, familiar I guess.” I sighed, trying to push the odd feeling from my mind.

We slowed to a walk as we approached at a double wide open door. Inside, I could recall was the test chamber, always set up in a different way for my tests. Sometimes it had rolling mounds of sand, others had several magical gems that flashed and flew about the room. Each time as a filly, I’d thought it a wondrous thing to see it set up in some new and engaging way.

Which is why I was disappointed to find that it was full of dusty old crates and file boxes. Walking in slowly, I couldn’t help but feel sad. They built this room for me to learn to be somepony I wasn’t supposed to be until now. To see it so easily abandoned and forgotten after I’d failed them just reminded me of how much I used to love the ponies here. Of how much they once loved me.

“Hey, sis?” Pai chirped over my pipbuck. “The schematics say that the door you’re looking for is in the center of the room.”

I looked up, walking around a few of the boxes that were stacked near the entrance. Coming around the corner of them, I was met with a solid white, pony height white pedestal. It looked like the same thing that Pai projected onto, but it had a small black square on it, with the impression of a hoof set into it. I walked up to it, looking at it for a moment before pressing my hoof into the impression.

“Ouch!” I gasped as I felt a soft prick on the underside of my hoof. With a light rumble, the pedestal sank down into the floor, stopping when it became flush under my hooves. The whirr of hydraulics preempted part of the floor ahead of me lifting up. Two large metal arms lifted the plate up, while the dark space under it flickered with light. As the floor rose up above my head, the lighting illuminated a long set of stairs that went downward. At the bottom, the stairs disappeared into a hallway that ran under the rest of the room.

I just stood there, blinking and unsure how I’d never even known this had been here the whole time as a filly.

“Huh, interesting.” Predious commented as he walked up beside me. I couldn’t do anything other than nod slowly and stare into the hallway below. “So… did you want to find out what’s down there, or…?” He trailed off, kicking my mind back to why we were here.

“Yeah, sorry.” I blinked a few times and shook off the distracting thoughts. “Let’s go.”

Trotting down the stairs, the lights to the hallway we were entering kicked on. Panel by panel as we went, we followed the hallway into the unknown. My heart beat faster with each step, unsure what we would find. We were so close to getting what we came for, so near whatever it was that would finally stop Filius. Faster I pushed my hooves, and faster the lights lead us forward.

“You’re approaching…” Pai’s voice came out of the air suddenly.

“Ahhh!” I yelped and tripped, flopping down onto my chest and sliding along the smooth floor with a squelch. “What!?” Ponies needed to not surprise me like that.

“As I was saying,” Pai hesitantly continued, “You’re near the six key door.” She paused just long enough for me to push myself back to my hooves. “Gauge and I are starting the separation program. If all goes well, the six locks will disengage, and you’ll just have to open the door.”

“Alright, Pai.” I nodded, looking ahead as the lights stopped, the outline of what looked like a massive door glinted just outside of the light. “Be safe, and I’ll see you when we get back.”

Walking forward, the last of the lights kicked on. The door in question was a massive slab of what looked to be stone. All along the outside, glowing lines of magic pulsed in arrangements that looked like spell matrices. Each of the arrangements were clustered around six dark gemstones, which in turn, were equally spread around a hole in the center of the door. Just off the side of the door, was another square hoof-prick pad.

One by one, the dark gemstones on the door started to light up. Yellow, pink, blue, red, orange, and finally purple. The sound of a heavy latch being removed was all the confirmation that I needed to know that Pai had pulled it off. Slowly, I reached my hoof out toward the prick pad and waited.

What I found instead of pain, was an odd suction on the end of my hoof. I went to remove my hoof, and found that the whole of the hoof pad came off with it. Turning to inspect it, the long, chrome spike that sat on the backside looked more like a weapon to me than anything.

“A horn key?” Gallant remarked. “I haven’t seen one used outside of Canterlot Castle, ever.”

I looked back to the silver spike, looking closer at it. Inlayed on it, was the gentle spiral of a unicorn’s horn. As I twisted and turned the bright metal, I could vaguely see several odd markings shimmer under the surface of the horn. Looking back to the door, my eyes shot straight to the hole in center of it. As if I’d done it a million times before, I slid the horn in and focused myself.

A bright beam of light ran up and down the center of the slab, splitting it before it began to turn its sides inward. The light that projected from inside was nearly blinding, and I raised the horn key up to my head to shield myself from it.

“Why must everything be so bright?” Shadow whined from behind me. “Isn’t the throbbing in my head enough?”

The light drained away as the doors came to a stop. I lowered my hoof, blinking as the bright afterimage of them drained out of my vision. What met my eyes, was something wonderous.

The room beyond the door, was an enormously large dome. The lower walls of it were as stark white as anywhere else had been, but above pony height, it changed to an obsidian black. In the blackness however, small lights of varying colors and intensity shimmered and sparkled, to me resembling the night sky I had only read about in the books.

“This… this is amazing.” I spoke as I walked forward. The twinkling things in the darkness, as I found out, were small gemstones. In between some of them, thin white lines connected them into odd shapes, and names were written beside them.

“Even in a thousand years, the constellations are the one unchanging thing in the night sky.” Gallant spoke reverently before letting out a gasp. “Oh, this is... “ He dropped to the floor with a thump, almost throwing his sword aside.

“What are you doing?” I stopped, turning to look at him. He was kneeling on all fours, keeping his head down.

“Storm?” Predious spoke up from next to me, using his magic to yank my head around. Sitting in the center of the room, was something I’d completely missed. A shimmering magical bubble, held in the center of a small half sphere depression bobbed almost as if it were in water. A ring of strange blue grass sat a few feet around the depression, each of the blades seeming to run toward the bubble in the center.

In that bubble, was a tree. It wasn’t like any tree I’d ever seen out on the surface. it wasn’t twisted, black, and dead. No, this tree was hardly something I would call a tree at all. It’s pale blue bark was faceted like a crystal, and on it’s trunk were the cutie marks of both Luna and Celestia. From its trunk, branches grew that mirrored the pattern of a star, each one leading to a vine of gems. Five of the branches ended in a large block with a hole in the center of each one.

“The tree of Harmony…” Gallant spoke in a soft, but jubilant tone, “I’d never thought I’d see it in my lifetime.”

With a soft ringing, a sparkling and gem covered chest floated up out of the spherical depression. I shouldn’t say that it floated, as after a moment, I watched the pedestal it was on rise into sight.

“That must be it,” Predious looked over to me with a look I couldn’t place. “That must be what they wanted you to get.”

“All this,” I sighed, looking around the amazingly ornate room. “built and left dormant for a hundred and fifty years.” The ringing that I’d heard when the pedestal rose up amplified. I stared at the box, feeling its pull on me. In there, was part of something that wanted me to take it. “Waiting for me to come find it…”

Slowly, I stepped forward towards it. Each step, the ringing got louder, with each moment it took to walk, I could feel the pull get stronger. My heart beat wildly against my chest, and in my head, flashed the years worth of visions that I’d imagined of Daddy and Mommy on this day. How long they’d waited for this day to finally arrive, and how proud they would have been.

The day that their daughter became the mare they made her to be.

I reached out with my forehoof, the ringing in my ears absolute and consuming. Carefully, I lowered my hoof to the lid. The moment my hoof touched it, my mind exploded into pain. The cackling voice of Filius made me scream out. The pull that I had felt instantly reversed, and a forceful wave of magic picked me up off my hooves, slamming me back against the domed wall. I gasped as all the air was forced from my lungs, and I collapsed down onto the floor. As my friends rushed up around me and my vision darkened, I could only watch and stare at the box as it was enveloped in a grey glow.

Then, I slipped away into darkness.