"Ok, does everypony understand the plan?" I asked the group quietly as we stood at the base of the cliff. We had walked around the edge of the crater to near the front of the castle.

"We run like headless chickens in the opposite direction you run. It's not that complicated of a plan." Spot Light responded sarcastically.

"Good, good. Here, take my axe." I took the axe out of it's sheath on my back and held it out for Spot Light to take. "It'll keep you safe as you leave." His eyes widened and he backed away.

"I can't take this! You'll never survive in there without it!"

"Pfft, yeah. The magic glowing axe will totally help my stealthy entrance." Spot Light flinched.

"Point taken..." He grabbed the axe with his mouth and turned back to the group.

"Ok, now get going guys. I'll see you after I finish up here." Scarlet looked me dead in the eyes.

"No you won't." I gave her a soft smile.

"Of course I will. I still have to take you to meet Esmerelda, remember?"

"Yeah... I'll hold you to that." The group slowly turned and started trotting away.

"Whew, good. They never would have survived this place." I muttered to myself as they gradually faded from sight. "Well, guess I'm all alone. Hey! What the fuck am I, chopped liver?! Well, let's hope my plan works..." I slipped over the ledge of the cliff and started climbing down slowly. The cliff was very tall, it took me about ten minutes to finally reach the ground. At the ground, I turned back to face the castle. It's flames were now my only source of light. "Now, let's see where I can cause the most mayhem... Those dragons look loud." I started running flat-out across the base of the crater.

"Warrior! What foolishness is this?!" I skidded to a halt and looked around quickly for the source of the voice.

"Alright, come on out! I know I heard someone!" I whispered harshly. For a moment, nothing happened. Then a small red light began to form before my eyes. It grew to about the size of a baseball, then hovered about three feet away from me.

"Yes, you did her someone. Greetings warrior. I am Ravidos."

"Ah ha! I knew I wasn't going crazier! What the hell are you and what do you want?!"

"Ah yes, I am Ravidos. I was once a great warrior... let's just say... I am very interested in your survival."

"Why the hell is that huh?" There was no response. The light disappeared completely, leaving no trace of it's existance in the first place. "Hey, wait! I'm not done with you yet!" I shouted. Then I flinched and slowly turned around to the castle. The vamponies had stopped circling the castle and were flying towards me. I heard the sound of tons of hunting horns go off as they sounded the alarm. "Well, fuck stealth I suppose." I sighed as I turned back to the skeletal dragons that were now lumbering to their feet. I drew my sword and set it on my shoulder. "As good a day as any to die. Actually, my schedule is full today, can we push it back 60 YEARS?!?!" I started a slow jog forward as the vamponies started a collective charge towards me. Luckily they were still pretty far away. Their vision must have been amazing to see me as far away as I was. The dragons were much closer than they were, but much slower as well.

"Look, a snack has wandered into our master's domain!" One of the dragons exclaimed giddily. Its voice was raspy and dry." The dragons had finally stood and turned to notice me. They sprang forward with suprising speed and strength, covering yards in a single bound. I stopped about a hundred yards away from the dragons.

"Ok... Yeah, they should get here about the same time..." I muttered to myself.

"Oh, it has been ages since I tasted living flesh!" The second bone dragon cheered. A shiver of disgust ran down my spine.

"Dear god I hope I can jump as high as I think..." I muttered quietly as the dragons and vamponies bore down on me. At the moment the dragons reached me, the first one cackled and raised its mighty bone talons.

Back-handing the vamponies right above it.

I grinned viciously and leapt right as the dragon swung at me. I soared clear over the talon and next to the dragon's ribcage. I grabbed the rib bone right in front of me, which was about three bones away from the top of its ribcage. I could feel the dragon sway as it looked around for me confusedly.

"Where did our meal go?!"

"There! On your chest, brother! I'll get it!" The second dragon swung for me right as I pulled myself up with a massive heave. I was actually stonger than I thought, and I flung myself so hard I smacked my head into the first bone dragon's jaw! Right as I moved, the second bone dragon's talon smashed through the first dragon's ribs. Suprisingly, the dragon didn't even seem to notice his suddenly missing body parts. I quickly recovered from my small daze and grabbed the second dragon's arm as I fell next to it.

"No, its on your foreleg! Time to end it!" The first dragon swung down at me at the same time the vamponies finally flew through and around the dragons to get to me. I let go of the dragon's forelegs as the first dragon's talon smashed through it. I landed on the back of a passing vampony.

"Wha-what the!?" The mare screeched as I thudded onto her back. I quickly grabbed a handful of her mane and yanked it back. Her head tossed up and she started a straight flight upwards. I held on for a few minutes until I was well over the dragons' heads. I grabbed the mare's wings and forced them against her sides. We lost our forward momentum before we slowly turned and plummeted back down to the dragons. I waited until we had some great speed going before I let the mare go and kicked off of her back, slowing my own fall immensely. The mare didn't even have time to throw her wings out to slow her decent before she crashed into the skull of the first dragon.

*splat* "Oh damn, that wasn't pretty..." The dragon's skull cracked around the point where the vampony impacted, but the vampony was now no more than a smear. I whipped out my sword and pointed it directly at the crack as I fell. I met the skull with a resounding shockwave of impact that actually moved the vamponies in mid-air. I broke clear through the skull and fell through its jaw. The shattered bone stabbed into me as I passed through, tearing long lines down my arms and chest as well as ripping a few slates off of my armor. I kept falling all the way to the ground. I landed harshly, and I could feel my legs try to give out beneath me. I managed to limp back upright as the dragon skeleton crashed to the ground.

"Brother! You little whelp! Forget food, I'm going to take you alive and tear you apart piece by piece for this!" The remaining dragon growled.

"Yeah, well you should take that b-- Oh god vampony!" I leapt to the side as a vampony divebombed at me. The sudden weight changes caused my legs to collapse underneath me. The dragon flashed me a toothy grin right before his talon fell towards me. "Gah!" I gasped and crossed my arms above me protectively. The talon slammed into my arms heavily. The blades snapped clear off of my gauntlets and flew away. One struck a vampony in the eye. I was forced to drop the Buster Sword by the impact. It landed next to me heavily. The dragon laughed maliciously as it slowly pressed forward on me. With the dragon pinning me down, the vamponies all landed around me and eyed me hungrily. Then I pressed all of my strength into one last, desperate push. I pushed upward on the talon as hard as I could. The dragon laughed at my seemingly feeble effort. He seemed to have forgotten that he was missing his other foreleg. With each inch I managed to push, the dragon's balance began to slip. It stopped laughing and flailed it's wings wildly in an attempt to regain its footing, but it was too late. With one last mighty heave, I managed to knock the dragon's last foreleg out from under it.

"Nooo! This isn't possible!" The dragon roared as it began to fall. Using my very last bit of energy, I stabbed the handle of the Buster Sword into the ground. I collapsed on the ground and rolled off to the side as quickly as my exhausted body would let me. I managed to get just far enough away as the skeleton came crashing down right on top of all the vamponies, impaling its own skull on the Buster sword.

"Whew! Yeah... *gasp gasp* Now... How in the name of fuck do I get my sword back?" I laid there in an exhausted heap until I heard a strange creaking sound. I pushed myself off of the ground and looked around confusedly. Then I saw it. The broken ribcage of the first dragon was starting to pull itself back together. "Whoa shit!" I struggled to my feet and stumbled over to the skull holding my sword painfully. I Pulled myself onto of the skull and looked around for the top of my sword. Luckily the sword stabbed clear through the head and shattered it outward. I was able to pull it right through with no trouble. I stapped it back to my back and turned around to face the castle. The skull underneath me moved slightly. "Right, let's move!" I gently eased myself off of the skull and started limping to the castle.

"I totally knew you could handle that..."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh thank god, finally here!" I gasped as I finally reached the doors of the castle. I stumbled up to them and pushed on them. They didn't budge. Then I looked at the door and realized it had 'pull' handles. I sighed heavily before pulling on the doors. They moved slightly forward, but they refused to move any further. I looked up to see a large chain binding the doors together. "Man, I don't have time for this shit...." I lifted the Buster Sword to see if it was tall enough to hit the chain. It was more than enough, and with a few swings the chain broke. Sending the lock straight down onto my head. "Ow! Damn, you think I'd learn..." I pulled the doors open to reveal a small room. There was a throne in dead center of the room, and there was a pony lazily leaned up against an arm of the throne. The entire building was made of black stone with red edging. There were green flames on top of the throne, and the stallion in the throne sat up and smiled at me as I limped in.

"Ah! The great hero of Equestria." He said sarcastically. "Allow me to congratulate you on your journey here with a nice, sarcastic, slow clap." He gloated. He started a slow clap by smacking his hooves together while I examined him. He was a totally black stallion with one solid green stripe that went right through his mane, down his back and through his tail. The green stripe pulsated and swayed of it's own accord. "What, looking for this?" He asked as he noticed me staring at him. He pointed off to the side of the room. There, chained to the wall was Anubis. "Or this?" He pointed to the other side of the room, where there was a huge green book chained to the wall.

"Anubis! You're alive?!" I shouted. He gave me a weak grin.

"Just about as much as you... which isn't much."

"Now, let me explain how this game works," The odd mad stallion interrupted. You can have either the book, or your friend here. You can have one free, the other... will be very difficult to retrieve afterwards..." I glared at him angrily.

"You need the book, you wouldn't really just let it go..."

"Oh, I do need the book. I find this to be much more fun than lounging around a castle surrounded by undead all day."

"You're one twisted fuck, you know that? That's coming from me. Well then there's no choice. I choose Anubis." I answered immediately. The stallion gave me an evil grin.

"Tell me hero, have you ever heard of an Ecorche?" He asked as his horn glowed and the restraints on Anubis started to slowly undo themselves.

"No..."

"It's a truly facinating undead, a really remarkable piece of work..."

"Thundraga." I pointed at him and called my lightning, but instead of striking him, a loud boom came from the roof. "Shit..."

"Right... Anyway, this particular undead has a very nasty habit... It completely and totally skins it's victims perfectly."

"That's fantastic. Why do I care?" Anubis's last shackle unclapsed and he fell to the ground.

"After that, and Ecorche can wear the victim's skin magically, taking over even the voice of the previous owner... Oh, and it's pure muscle in its true form." I gave Anubis a wary glance as he grinned at me wickedly.

"Oh shit." Anubis suddenly exploded outward, sending bits of his skin everywhere. Left standing in his place, was the gigantic muscle creature from the cliff. The madpony practically rolled in his chair laughing. The Ecorche ran towards me and smacked me clear across the room with a foreleg. I hit the wall next to the book, splintering the stone around where I landed.

"C'mon hero! Show me your pow--" The madpony began to taunt. His speech was suddenly cut off though. I saw the Ecorche turn to look at him, so I decided it was safe for me to risk a quick look too. There, sitting in his throne, the madpony had a dagger through his left eye. He was dead. The dagger was wrapped in a pink aura and retracted.It flew all the way back to the doorway, where Scarlet Scales was waiting for it.

"That was for Anubis, bitch." She muttered. Spot Light appeared in the doorway wielding my axe. The group was all right behind the two of them.

"This is for you Lime Light!" He lead the group forward in a charge, heading right for the Ecorche. With my axe and the multitude of weapons they still had, the thing didn't stand a chance. The group brutally tore it apart as I fell to my knees next to the wall. The Ecorche died quickly, and the group quickly ran over to me. "Sharky? Are you ok?!" Spot Light asked me frantically.

"You all sure took your sweet damn time getting here!" I yelled. They backed up slightly in suprise.

"You... you aren't suprised to see us here?" Scarlet asked.

"You're a group dedicated to being like me, I would have been shocked if you hadn't shown up. I just went in first to make sure the path was clear."

"Oh... well uh... suprise. Are you hurt?" Scarlet leaned forward to start examining the cuts on my arms.

"I'm pretty much fine. I almost broke my legs I think, but my equipment is what got really damaged. Broke my gauntlets and ruined my leg armor..." Spot light poked my cuts.

"Then... What are these?"

"Flesh wounds. Now, unless you all want to fight two skeleton dragons and dozens of vamponies that will undoubtedly be back to optimum operation strength soon, we should leave." I tried to stand, but my legs gave out from under me. I sighed in annoyance. I heard the sound of metal hitting metal before one of the ponies nuzzled my arm onto her neck.

"Don't worry hero, we'll carry you." The mare promised.

"Thanks..." I muttered as more ponies began to lift me. Suddenly something landed on my chest. I lifted it up slightly. "Libro Mors. We went through all this hell for this little book..."

"So make sure you hold on to it tightly." Spot Light said with a gentle laugh as he hoofed me back my axe. "C'mon hero, I've got foals and a wife to get back to." He turned and started to walk outside of the castle.

"What the fuck are you all doing?! Run, run! What part of skeletal dragons don't you get?!" The group took off quickly to the clifface.

We were finally heading home.