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(8)
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Pinkie Pie cautiously peered around the corner of the pillar, her face lit by the dying glow of a magical torch. There were dark bags around her blue eyes, and dust covering her carnation coat and rosy mane. There was fear in her eyes, too, at war with a waning determination to see her terrifying task to completion.

"I did as you told me, Twilight...! I found the temple of the Marearum..."

Buried, cursed and forsaken beneath the earth, divorced from the light of the sun or moon, a domed ceiling covered a vast, open arena. Rivers of fire and blood surrounded a raised platform inscribed with curses in long forgotten tongues. Torch-light filled the hollow eyes of hundreds of piled pony skulls with a hellish semblance of life.

"In the deepest recesses of the temple, I found a dark gathering.... my companion, the wanderer..."

Pulling back her hood, the first of the three pony-like beings revealed herself. A once rich blonde mane was now matted and tangled, an ochre face with freckles lined by months of struggle against an inner evil. Green eyes were left glassy and defeated as she stared into flickering candles.

"... Rainbow Baal..."

Across from the wanderer, a walking corpse leered excitedly. The desert sands had scoured the color from her coat, but her mane and tail were a collage of bright colors, undaunted by centuries trapped in darkness. Bright red eyes glowed with malice.

"...and a great evil... who could only be the Lord of Hatred herself..."

Exalting in her own triumph, and upper half of what had once been a pegasus raised her skeletal hooves. Great coils of her pink mane fell to the side of her face and across her chest, the ends whipped into a ferocious frenzy by the unholy pink energy that kept her upper body afloat. Her turquoise eyes were sunken, but bright with the fires of madness.

"...Flutterphisto!"

Dark Parasprites took to the air, chittering and screeching.

"I heard a voice then. Like a thousand needles in my heart...!"

"Umm. Hello. My Sisters... At long last, we, um, stand reunited..." Flutterphisto's mouth moved out of sync with the words, terrifying and impossible to un-hear, despite the stuttering shyness. "The, uh, Infernal Gate has been prepared, so... the time of our final victory is at hoof. If that's okay with you two. If you're not busy, I mean."

A monstrous portal rose from the streams of blood that surrounded the vile platform. Built from the bodies of hundreds of slain ponies, it wailed and screamed with their trapped souls! Oooo!

"So, um... let the way to Hell, be opened?"

Rainbow Baal and The Wanderer focused their evil powers, widening the rift between worlds.

"Um, yes. Okay. It looks... nice. I guess the evil that was once vanquished, will rise anew?" Flutterphisto chanted, adding to the horrible spell her Sisters were casting. "Wrapped in the guise of pony, shall she walk amongst the innocent, and, um, terror shall consume they that dwell upon Equestria I suppose?"

Remembering the soul stone she had pulled free from Rainbow Baal, Pinkie Pie ducked back against the pillar, keeping hidden. She had kept the stone safe, just like the Archangel Twilight had told her. All she needed was the courage to step through the gate and find a way to the Hellforge!

"The skies shall rain fire, and the seas... oh my... the seas shall become as blood! Oh, I almost forgot. Also, the, um... if it isn't too much trouble, it would be just great if the righteous could fall before the wicked." Flutterphisto vowed, reaching a mad climax. "And all creation shall t-t-tremble before the burning standards of Hell!"

"What I saw then, was not meant for pony eyes...!"

"Um. Yes, so, the gate stands ready?"

The Wanderer gave an inpony scream, falling to her hooves. The fabric of her cloak rippled and warped, as her body changed, great spikes and horns tearing free!

"Are you okay? You look very spiky. Well, um, my young Sister, the time has come to assume your true form!" Flutterphisto commanded. "Arise, Diablojack! Lord... of eeeeee Terror...!"

With thunderous hoofsteps, the hulking, transformed pony made to enter the screaming portal.

Flutterphisto issued one last proclamation: "You are the harbinger of our return, Diablojack. Send forth your Terror... into Hell! Please."

To the sound of ominous Pontin chanting, she -

"What just apple pickin' second now! Why'da ah have to be some kinda pony hell spawned demon in this 'ere story?"

"Duh! Because you were the hero in the story before that! But it was all part of the evil plan, so the hero becomes the bad pony! That's how these stories go! Good pony turns into bad pony!"

"Umm... why is my character so talkative? N-not to be too critical, I mean. Just that... um.. Twilight talks more than I do... and being the Lord of Hatred doesn't sound very nice."

"But Twilight is already the archangel who secretly helps ponykind fight evil!"

"I could fight evil, too..."

"I think it's pretty cool! So I'm the Lord of Destruction, huh! What kind of powers do I have?"

"I haven't planned that out yet."

"First, I should be super strong, and super fast, and super tough, and I should have a ton of minions to fight for me. Like fifty minions! No! Sixty! All of 'em super strong! And...!"

"Enough already!" Twilight interrupted, angrily stomping a hoof.

They were still in the Crypts under Luna's Castle, and a 'five minute afk' had turned into ten minutes, and then fifteen, as everyone started wandering off for "bio breaks" or just generally foaling around. Rarity had needed time to fix her hair and magic out all the sticky webs from before, Pinkie Pie had started talking about a 'fanfic' she was writing (Celestia knew for what, it didn't sound like any story Twilight had ever heard), Rainbow Dash started smashing a locked chest she'd found with a mace to break it open, and Fluttershy was trying to turn a small black crypt rat into a pet. Only Applejack couldn't seem to find some annoying distraction to keep them from the last leg of their little dungeon romp.

Sending out another "ready check" spell, she saw everyone confirm that they were "ready" ... except that Dash was still trying to pry open the chest she had found.

"Where's... a rogue... when you need one?!" she growled, finally putting away her mace and appearing to give up. Only to promptly start kicking the solid container. "Open! Open! Open! Open!"

"Whatever's in there is probably broken by now anyway," Twilight told her. "Just leave it!"

"No way!" Dash protested, patting the locked chest lovingly. "I've got a really good feeling about this one! What if there's an epic inside? Like a Krol Blade?"

"The chances of that being the case are one in ten thousand," the unicorn librarian lectured. "In other words, so remote as to be hardly worth considering at all."

"But what if you're wrong?" the pegasus refused to give up. "What if this is our one, super lucky epic drop, and we just leave it here?" She took out her mace again, holding it tightly in her mouth. "I 'st rotta 'ret 'ris open!"

"For heaven's sake!" Rarity finally said, putting away a fine mother-of-pearl comb. She gave their resident engineer a look. "Pinkie Pie, don't you have something to blow open that chest? Explosives or what have you?"

"Do I have explosives? Do I have explosives?" The pink pony chuckled, dryly amused, while draping a foreleg across the unicorn priest's shoulder. "What a funny question, Rarity." She tilted her head, asking herself, "Do you have explosives, Pinkie Pie?"

"I'm an engineer!" she announced, throwing a rectangular case down onto the ground. "Of course I've got explosives!!"

Pinkie Pie quickly started rummaging around the toolbox, her fluffy pink tail swaying wildly in the air. "But do I have the right kind of explosives? Not every boom needs a bang, and not every bang needs a fizz! Should there be more pop or more pew? Wham or whomp? Hot or bright, big or small, loud or..." She peeked out from the cover of the toolbox. "Silent but deadly?"

"Not one of those," Dash pointed out.

"What about a squeaker?"

"No!"

"Awww!" Pinkie Pie pouted, but picked something out from the case with her teeth. It looked like a rectangular block with brightly colored wires sticking out. "This might work!" she gleefully declared.

"Alright!" Dash pumped a hoof. "Hook it up! Let's blow this puppy open!"

Fluttershy grimaced. "I don't like that phrase..."

"Okey Dokey Lokey!" The engineer-shaman. With a spring in her step, she started wiring up the slightly bruised and battered treasure chest. There was a Twilight Cult mark on the front, but none of the cultists they had found dead in the crypt had a key for it. With no blacksmith in the group to make a skeleton key, and no rogue to pick the lock, the only recourse was to use overwhelming gnomish-inspired force.

"Oh! I almost forgot the disclaimer!" Pinkie Pie added while she worked. "I'm supposed to say: Pinkie Pie and Boombox Engineering Associates assume no responsibility for lost or destroyed property, limbs or other body parts. In the interests of safety, do not use this product! If accidentally used anyway, point away from face, friends, or anything you care even remotely about. Do not look directly into or directly away from the explosion. Do not ingest. In the event of a crit fail, run for your life!"

She bounced back away from the now rigged up chest, pushing a surprised Rainbow Dash and Rarity to the floor with a "WEEE!" Biting down on a bit of string, there was a faint fizzle... and a tiny pop of light. A few fireworks twirled lazily from the seaforium charge, hitting the ground in a sparkle of green and pink.

Twilight shot a disappointed stare over towards her party loving friend. "Well, that was -"

The next thing the unicorn knew, she was embedded in a wall, covered with black ash. Coughing smoke and falling onto her face, Twilight groaned.

"Always me. Always me," she groaned, shaking her mane to get rid of the comical black dust. At least it wasn't an anvil or a grand piano hitting her this time. Eyes wide, the mage jumped, landing on her hooves just as a sizeable chunk of the ceiling fell, missing her by mere moments.

"I knew it!" she declared, pointing accusingly at the ceiling. "I knew you'd do that!"

Only to have a brick fall soundly onto the top of her head, cracking in two and leaving a sizeable lump in its wake. Gritting her teeth and digging at the floor with one hoof, Twilight had to fight to not burst into flame.

"Oops," Pinkie Pie appeared in the corner of her eye, face upside down. "I forgot to say there was a chance of causing the walls to collapse!"

Delicately touching the second horn on her head, adding a minor cold spell to decrease the swelling, Twilight sighed. Increased chance of bodily harm was pretty much the price one paid for being around Pinkie Pie for any length of time.

"I hope whatever was in that thing was worth it," she said, keeping nice and calm. Her eyes bugged out at the fact that the chest was now splayed and blasted open, like a pumpkin stuffed with cherry bombs. Parts of it were on fire. Twilight face-hoofed.

"Well," she declared. "That was a waste of time!"

"I know!" Dash was already looking down into the smoking ruin. "All that... just for some lame book?"

"A Book!" Twilight was suddenly bumping the colorful pegasus out of the way. She levitated out a musty tome, bound in iron and leather. "A book!! JACK-POT!"

"Unless it's a relic, I'm not interested," said bumped-paladin bounced up onto her hooves and dusted herself off with her wings.

"Is it a relic?" Fluttershy cautiously inquired, inching closer. While come classes used wands to augment their powers, others used relics or librams (essentially the same thing these days). Notably Shamans, Druids, Paladins and Death Knights. They were often a pretty rare find.

"Let me see," Twilight replied, floating the book around. It could also be an off-hand, and of use to herself as a mage. The identify spell triggered, reading the energies of the artifact.

"Lost Rites of the Western Reach?" she told the rest of the party. "As a subscript, it says: written by a mad zebra in alliterative haiku.'"

"But what does it DO?" Dash asked, narrowing her eyes at the document. Clearly she preferred her relics and librams to involve less reading and translating of foreign languages.

"Looks like stamina, intellect, spirit..." Twilight noticed an empty notch on the enchanted leather and iron cover. "And a gem socket. The identify spell says having it increases haste."

"Um. Can... can I have it?" Fluttershy squeaked. "Please? It's... kind of a healer... item. If Pinkie Pie doesn't want it, that is."

The elemental shaman shook her head. "I don't heal!" she said. "Oh! Unless chain lightning counts as a heal. Like electroshock therapy!"

"And I can't use it," Rarity, the only other healer in the group, also declined.

"All yours," Twilight said, floating over the ancient relic. "But I'd be happy to help when it comes to translating it! Zebra tomes are incredibly rare!"

Fluttershy nodded agreeably, and gratefully accepted the book. She took the back of it in her mouth, put it down in front of her, and opened the cover. A light flashed around her, binding the relic to it's new owner. The pegasus druid then put it into her neatly organized saddlebags.

"Now that all that excitement is over with," Twilight began, and everypony was finally ready and at attention. "Let's go over what's in the next room."

Trotting a dozen yards or so deeper into the crypt's third level, Twilight passed another pair of fallen cultponies. Like the others, these had been killed by the various forms of enraged spirits that haunted the Defiled Mausoleum. The last couple hours had been spent steadily clearing the more dangerous forms of ghosts encountered by the Elements of Harmony.

Some, after taking enough magical punishment, dissipated entirely. Others left glowing husks, like orbs, on the floor. The zombie-like Preserved Dead crimpled into piles of broken bones and tattered cloth. None of them dropped any gold, but Rainbow Dash had noticed that she could recover some sort of "ghost slime" that she thought she could sell or vendor. Why anyone would buy "ghost slime" Twilight couldn't imagine, but the pegasus was sure there was some hidden market for it.

"Vendor trash!" the pegasus had explained. "Also called easy money!"

Rarity had accumulated a surprising amount of mageweave from the pacified spirits, and Pinkie Pie had (disgustingly) been struck by the idea of eating a mushroom she found on one of them. Because, really, it made perfect sense to eat a mushroom you find on a dead body. The shaman was lucky she hadn't been poisoned, never mind that many mushrooms were hallucinogenic. Not that one could tell if Pinkie Pie suddenly became a shroom fiend.

"It's a truffle!" she said, chewing happily on the recovered fungus. "And its soooo chewy!"

When offered, Twilight had politely declined on joining in on the culinary experiment that was "what can I eat that I find in a crypt."

At least, they had come to the apparent end of the road. This was where she stopped now.

Close by, the normal crypt architecture changed, the straight lines of intersecting halls becoming curved. Past an open door was a large circular space cut out from the rock. A gradually descending ramp ran down along both sides of the door, following the circular walls of this inner crypt. It was cylindrical, with a flat ceiling decorated with dark blue and white tile. Being a student of astronomy, Twilight had, on first seeing the room, immediately identified the constellations represented overhead.

This was clearly a very important tomb within the greater mausoleum, and her map had even marked it as distinct from the rest of the "Defile Crypt." This chamber was called the "Harmonious Shine." Sadly, things didn't look very harmonious down below on the lower level. There had once been three internments, not within the walls, but set into the floor. Cultponies had dug these up, or tried to. Only one had been successfully opened, the others left half-exposed.

The bodies of almost a dozen of the pillaging cultists were strewn haphazardly on the floor, some still with shovels and pick axes in their mouths. One of them was dressed in a more outlandish purple robe than the rest: their leader, clearly. She was just as dead as her followers. Or... undead, rather. Still lingering near their bodies, the spirits of the cursed cultponies wandered aimlessly. Twilight didn't doubt that they'd be hostile, though at the same time they did look pretty weak.

The bigger problem was the three large spirits that hovered in the back of the room, about three yards off the ground. They were much clearer to the eye than the other spirits encountered in the crypt. It was rational to assume that they were the spirits of the three special ponies buried in the three special graves. Just by looking at them, in terms of size and visual clarity, Twilight could guess that they were much more powerful than the undead cultponies.

"Three boss type enemies," Twilight said, seeing her friends standing right behind her. None of them seemed too eager to dive down into that mess.

"A council fight!" Pinkie enthusiastically added. "These can be tough!"

The party leader nodded. Very likely they could AOE down the nine or ten minor ghosts in the bottom. The problem was the big three.

According to her identify spells, the one to the left was called "Shade of Nemo" - the same unicorn from the Vision of Nightmare earlier. He was partly wrapped in spectral cloth, like a mummy, and his original colors were still identifiable. He was naturally gray, with a light blue mane.

The one on the right was a new face, identified as "Shade of Talos." He was a very light shade of red, slightly shy of Pinkie's trademark pink, with a dark black mane braided into dreadlocks. Scars crossed his right eye and lower jaw, giving him a fearsome appearance in both life and death.

Lastly, in the middle, was the unicorn from the vision, not as a colt but as an adult. The "Shade of Enigma" floated easily, his eyes closed. He was larger than in the vision before, a handsome stallion rather than a colt, but his mane was as still snow white and brushed backwards into dozens of uneven spikes. The dark blue of his coat seemed almost lifelike, broken only by the occasional transparent ripple.

"We all saw the one on the middle and the one on the left in the vision before," Twilight said, having had a little time to think about this before. "They were Elements of Magic, from more than a thousand years ago. We haven't seen this third pony before, but he's probably another Element of Magic, too."

"Ah hope we're not supposed'ta fight three ponies with yer kinda crazy power, sugarcube," Applejack said what they were all probably thinking.

"They aren't Elements of Harmony any more," Twilight reasoned. "We are. As a worst case scenario, they're probably just three... undead unicorns."

"Three super powerful undead unicorns!" Pinkie Pie added with a carefree bounce. "With super scary magic and powers and fight mechanics we don't know about!"

"I don't think things are that bad," the purple unicorn replied, facing the sunken chamber. "I was told that the identify spell would indicate anything much more powerful than myself as a 'skull' level. I'm pretty sure... ninety percent sure... that these are just shadows of the ponies buried below."

"A shade is often formed from a powerful spirit that has been wronged," Rarity elaborated. "Those cultponies down there. They've done their best to make an absolute mess of this crypt."

"More than setting off a bomb to open a treasure chest?" Pinkie asked.

"More than even that," the fashion conscious priest answered with a upturned chin. "If we can defeat these shades and then restore the damage done, then it may be enough to pacify the weaker spirits on the other levels. That is how these things seem to work, or so I've heard."

"Unfortunately," Twilight spoke up again. "Pinkie's right. We don't know what kind of powers we'll be facing. The regular spirits look weak. We can burn those down with 'area of effect' spells."

"Just say AOE," Dash chimed in. "It's faster. AOE!"

The unicorn rolled her eyes. "Anyway... after that, I don't know what will happen. It could be that all three of the shades will attack, or they could come one at a time. Everypony will have to be ready for anything. Remember to keep your identify spells up so we know what kind of magic we'll be facing."

Pinkie rubbed her head with her hoof. "Oh...! If only there was some kind of place where we could go to read about the enemies we'd have to fight! Wouldn't that be super neato? Then we'd know what to do, oh, oh! And maybe there's be pictures of how to do it, too! And funny or inappropriate music to listen to!"

"Ya'll can keep dreamin'," Applejack dismissed the very idea. "Ain't gonna make it happen."

"If you see something dangerous, call it out," Twilight reminded everypony.

"Refreshing mark of the wild," Fluttershy quietly said, her body glowing green as she re-administered the 'buff' to the rest of the party. Magic from the Emerald Dream filled the bodies of her companions, providing them nature's blessing in the form of increased abilities, from agility to stamina. The blessing also greatly increased resistances to various forms of natural magical damage.

"I should redo Fortitude as well," Rarity realized, lowering her head in silent supplication. Flashes of light followed shortly after Fluttershy's blessing, filling everyone with holy vigor. "And Shadow Protection..."

"I'll put up a new brilliance." Twilight began preparing the buff spell.

Seeing everyone else was rebuffing, Rainbow Dash joined in, too. "I'll put up Blessing of Kings! I was using Ret, but I guess I can switch to Devotion Aura for the armor bonus..."

"Actually, would it be very much trouble to get Blessing of Wisdom instead?"

"I'd also like Wisdom... please..."

"I'll be using... ummmmm....!" Pinkie Pie pulled four different totems out of her bags, only to fall forward with a yelp. She quickly bounced back up, a totem in her mouth, another in one hoof, one balanced on her elbow, and another tucked into her tail.

"Stoneskin rocky-face!" She announced, twirling the earth totem in the air. "Flametongue-zappy-thing since I don't have Totem of Totally Super Wrath yet, Mana Spring! Tastes-like-pepsi... or maybe healing stream? Oh, and Wrath of Air! Everyone loves wrath of air!"

"And, ah... Ah guess Ah'll just raise mah voice and yell real loud..." Applejack adjusted her helmet. "That's about as much magic as you'll get outta this pony."

"Everything looks good. Everypony looks buffed and ready..." Twilight began to say, double checking to be sure.

"Okay, let's do this!" A certain pegasus rushed right into the room full of undead. "RAAAAIN-BOW DAAASH!!!"

"No wait - !" Twilight groaned, following the impetuous paladin. "Everypony! Go Go Go!"

"Awww, horsefeathers!" Applejack leapt down into the lower level. The fight was already starting, as the slain cultpony ghosts converged on Rainbow Dash, only to be momentarily stunned by a divine storm of swirling holy light. Burned and purified by the holy flames, the undead turned on the two heavily armored mares, grasping phantom hooves that tore at the soul and chilled the body. Fire and arcane energy still had telling effect, and Pinkie Pie and Twilight were soon down in the mix of things, unleashing their area of effect spells.

Glancing up, Twilight saw that a shimmering wall of magic had closed off the only entrance and exit to the sacred mausoleum antechamber. For better or for worse (probably worse) they were trapped inside. For the first time, the three floating Shades noticed the intruders.

"Who... dares... to trespass...?" The Shade on the left, Nemo, groaned.

"Who defiles this place?" The one on the right, Talos, sneered. "I shall have their souls!"

The one in the middle, Enigma, spoke last. "The living have no place here. How many centuries have passed in the lands above, that you would defile the Tombs of Fallen Elements?" The three watched as the cultist ghosts began to weaken and dissipate.

"Wait," Enigma continued, his voice a soft baritone. "I sense among them the Element of Magic."

"Then let us reclaim what is ours by right!" Talos roared. "Prepare yourselves, foals!"

He began to descend just as the last of the cultpony ghosts faded.

"Applejack!" Twilight yelled.

"Ah'm on it!" The apple farmer was already moving in to intercept the murderous Shade. "Show me what ya got, ya dried up old mule!"

The phantom unicorn floated a half-hoof off the ground and reared, accepting the warrior's challenge. Fluttershy and Rarity were keeping everyone up and in peak form, and when Talos and Applejack crashed together, jockeying and batting at one another with their hooves, it seemed pretty manageable. The Shade could only impart limited force; the damage it did cut through armor with an immaterial, freezing touch. Despite this, Fluttershy's healing was easily up to the task of fixing the little damage being done; everyone else did what they had always done, and concentrated their offensive abilities on the Shade of Talos.

"Rise and suffer anew, you damned!" Talos bellowed, his eyes burning white.

That was the first hint that something was amiss. The second hint was when all the cultpony ghosts that they had just destroyed began to reform and reanimate. Now dubbed "Broken Spirits" the ethereal blue figures all came back, answering the call of the one who cursed and controlled them.

"Consecrating!" Dash yelled. "AJ! Hold the big guy!"

Flapping her wings, the pegasus paladin landed purposefully, directing a rainbow colored pulse of Holy Light straight into the ground. It spread out rapidly in every direction, producing a short lived ground consecrated by the Light. She divine stormed for good measure. The mass of undead spirits writhed and groaned as they suddenly found themselves on holy ground. Identifying the paladin as the source of the purifying flames, they converged on her.

"AOE! AOE!" Twilight yelled, running back into the swarm of phantoms. She was already building up energy for an explosion. The returned undead didn't seem very different from when they had originally been milling around. If everything stayed the same, then it wouldn't take long to repeat what she and Pinkie Pie had done before and burn them down.

"Impudent Foal!" Talos suddenly snarled, and Applejack cried out in pain.

"What's happening?!" Twilight has to raise her voice to be heard over the Fire Nova-ing flame totem and her own Arcane Explosions.

"Some sort of mortal strike," Rarity answered, backing away from the tumult. "It is interfering with our healing, but Fluttershy and I can handle it."

"All we have to do is heal a little more than before," Fluttershy explained. She was also backing safely away. Twilight realized that the two healers were already expecting that the ghosts that she and Pinkie Pie were destroying would just be re-summoned again.

"Pinkie Pie! Focus on the Shade!" Twilight ordered, as the Broken Spirits fell apart around her, filling the air with ghostly embers.

The shaman was in the middle of unleashing a torrent of lightning. "Should I pop a party before the other guys join in? I think we should party, and party now, Twilight!"

The mage gritted her teeth; considering the question as she cast another arcane barrage. The other two Shades hadn't joined in yet. So far the fight didn't seem that bad, but it was only a matter of time before the other pair got involved.

"Talos. You seem to be having trouble," Enigma observed, still floating and watching the battle.

Twilight quickly made up her mind. "Pinkie! Party!"

The rosy maned shaman cheered. "PARTY TIME EVERYPONY!"

Whatever she did to trigger it, Pinkie Pie's call was followed by a massive rush of power and energy. Just like before, Twilight Sparkle felt her body grow larger, taller, all but bursting with heroic effort. Spells became clearer and faster to cast. They poured all that magic into the Shade of Talos, for the moment the only enemy in their midst.

Still, neither of the two other Shades intervened.

For the second time, the Shade's eyes glowed white, and he reared up higher. "Rise and suffer anew, you damned!"

At his command, the Broken Spirits again reformed, rising up from their ashes like the not-so-mythical phoenix. Already knowing what to do, Rainbow Dash broke away from attacking the Shade and grabbed the mass of undead. Damaging and burning them with Holy Light, she built up threat on the endlessly resurrecting swarm. Twilight and Pinkie Pie rushed in to drop totems and aoe in the form of Arcane Explosions, Fire Novas and Chain Lightning.

"Impudent Foal!" Talos roared, again, just like before.

"This is not good, Twi!" Applejack yelled. "Another two a these and mah healin' will be down'ta almost half n' half!"

"We can handle it!" Rarity assured her. "As long as..."

"I have waited long enough!" the Shade of Nemo announced, slowly lowering down. "Talos. We shall oust these intruders together and be done with it."

...and there things went, flying out of control.

The gray unicorn coincidentally ended up far from any of Pinkie Pie's, Twilight's, or even Rainbow Dash's attacks. He paused on his near-landing, raised his head, and waited a moment. Not being actively engaged or taunted, he instead picked his own target. A heal from Fluttershy drew his attention, and his ire.

"He's heading for Fluttershy!" Twilight realized. "Rainbow!"

"Awwwwww! You guys better keep me alive this time!" Dash hollered, and stuck her right hoof forward, towards the newly arrived Shade. "Hand of the Righteous!"

A holy brand seared the Shade of Nemo on the face, moments before he could close with the resto-druid. Fluttershy, for her part, had kept healing, despite the look of terror in her eyes at the rapidly approaching unicorn wraith. The Shade, almost on her, spun at the attack, face contorted with rage at the searing mark branded on it. Successfully taunted, he turned to engage Dash, despite the fact that she was still tanking several near-destroyed Broken Spirits.

The Shade of Nemo, like the Shade of Talos, fought hand to hand, but didn't seem to do even close to the sort of damage that Sniffles the Manticore did, much less Blood Diver. In fact, Nemo's melee was rather weaker than Talos' ... not that it would have helped much if his target was a frightened healer druid. Dash didn't seem to be faced with too much trouble keeping him occupied.

When, suddenly, Nemo spun around.

"Your magic!" He said, voice dripping with cold fury. He pointed his horn at Twilight. "Do you control it, or does it control you!"

Abruptly, Twilight felt her spells slipping out of control. Magic that had come easily before became wild and untamed. Finishing a round of arcane missiles, a spell she had cast almost a hundred times in the last twenty hours, she felt a reciprocal cascade of arcane energy shoot out in random arcs. Pinkie Pie, who had been staying close to help with AOE, yelped and jumped like a startled cat as a tendril of unfriendly fire hit her on the rump.

"Owie owie ow!" She spun in midair. "Watch it, Twilight! That hurt!"

"S-sorry! Sorry!" Hissing under her breath, the mage quickly backed away. Was it a curse put on her? A quick de-curse would fix the problem then! Activating the spell only prompted more violent fireworks and wild magic. It didn't hurt her, it only threatened those around her. The de-curse also didn't help at all. Whatever had been put on her, she would just have to wait for it to wear off. In the meantime, she needed to stay away from her friends.

The Shade of Nemo, again, turned away from Dash, and this time pointed at Rarity. Twilight had expected the same strange curse-like spell, but instead he projected a wave of arcane missiles towards the priest. It was far more potent than Twilight's own version of the spell, she couldn't help but notice. Just a second or two had knocked Rarity off her feet. Healing Light and a green natural glow surrounded her as she forced herself back up and into the fight.

"Well, I never!" She remarked. "That is not how a gentlecolt sweeps a lady off her hooves!"

"Rise and suffer anew, you damned!"

Again, the Broken Spirits reformed. Twilight checked herself and saw that she still had the Arcane Ignition debuff. There was no way she could run in and help Pinkie Pie AOE. She had to stay at range.

"You!" Nemo turned and pointed, this time at Fluttershy. She ended up with the Ignition debuff on her as well, and with the furious rate the druid was throwing out heals, the violet storm of energy around her would be suicide to get close to. At the same time, Twilight realized something. The Ignition debuff wasn't just making her spells go wild, harming friend or foe. It was also enchanting them slightly!

She focused on the Shade of Talos, hoping to bring it down. So far none of them had shown any signs of weakening. Mentally queuing up her trusty identify spell, Twilight noticed that both the Shade of Talos and the Shade of Nemo were at the same level. Either Nemo was far more fragile than Talos, or they somehow shared the life force that was animating them.

"Impudent Foal!"

"He's stackin' this attack faster'n it wears off!" Applejack yelled. "Pretty soon ah won't be getting healed at all!"

"Twilight!" Dash called out. "Should we switch?"

It was either that, or let the pressure built on Fluttershy and Rarity.

"Do it!" the unicorn ordered. "Applejack! You pick up the next group of adds, too!"

"You!" Nemo pointed, this time at Pinkie Pie. Twilight had to keep from cursing. There went their other AOE. Now neither of them could get close to Applejack or Dash when the Broken Spirits reanimated! The longer these various debuffs piled up, the more impossible things were looking!

At virtually the same time, Dash and Applejack switched places, taunting off each other. Now the warrior was holding Nemo in place, and the slightly more lightweight paladin was muzzle to muzzle with the Shade of Talos. This was the hardest and most complicated fight yet, and they were rapidly running out of safe places to stand, as more and more of them became tagged by the Arcane Ignition debuff.

"Rise and suffer anew, you damned!"

This was, hopefully, the last time that -

"I grow tired of this display, my old Masters. Allow me to intervene and finish this farce."

Aw... nuts.

Enigma, however, did not descend like the others. He floated forward slightly, surrounded by a great halo of arcane light and fire. A glow over his chest radiated white light. It was a frankly frightening display... one Twilight suspected was similar to her own, many years ago, when a certain Sonic Rainboom had caused her powers to rage out of control. Regardless of how accurate that speculative comparison was, Enigma wasn't coming down. Did he intend to just rain fire from above? Dash and Applejack already had their hooves full!

Enigma glared down at the six mares. "Bathe in the Fires of the Infinite Beyond!"

That didn't sound pleasant. Twilight changed targets and confirmed that the Shade was casting a rather lengthy spell, called "Aura of Infinity." She tried to counterspell.

Only to have her counterspell bounce off an arcane shield!

"Everypony!" she yelled, a frantic note to her voice. "Switch to my target! Now!"

Collectively, they followed, directing shadowy curses and lightning upward. Only Applejack and Dash were too busy to help. The shield fell just in time, and a quick Wind Shear interrupted the cast that likely would have made the next few seconds of life very uncomfortable. The Shade of Enigma snorted in frustration.

His horn glowed, silver eyes alive in undeath.

A seemingly harmless bubble appeared around Twilight, colored a faint yellow. It didn't take a genius to realize that standing in something cast by a malicious Shade of a once powerful unicorn mage wasn't very wise. It also didn't take a genius to realize that, within the golden bubble, her spells - even instant cast ones - weren't working!

'Some kind of... anti-magic field? He can DO that?!'

Galloping out of it solved the immediate problem, but it also presented another concern. The more anti-magic bubbles the Shade of Enigma threw down, the closer everypony got to everypony else. Coupled with the Acrane Ignition debuff, it was effectively herding them together, where they'd blast each other to bits with wild magic! As if to make things WORSE on top of that, the floating Shade collected dark energy around his horn before hurling it down, aiming towards a now fleeing Fluttershy.

The Arcane Crash missed the frightened pegasus, but forced her close to Twilight. Putting up a regrowth on Dash also sent a bolt of wild magic streaking towards the unicorn mage; it struck her foreleg with a painful crack -

"Impudent Foal!"

"You! Your magic betrays you!"

"Bathe in the Fires of the Infinite Beyond!"

"This is not gooood!" Twilight heard Rainbow Dash yell.

"Ah'm on the adds!"

"My target!" Twilight ignored the distractions. They needed to burn down that shield. The adds and the moving around could all come later. They all had the Ignition debuff by now, meaning everypony had to stay a few yards from anypony else while avoiding the Arcane Crashes and Anti-Magic bubbles. Dash only had one stack of the Mortal Strike ability used by the Shade of Talos. This was doable. They could do this!

"T-Twilight..." Fluttershy cried, starting to panic. "M-maybe we..."

"Oh dear, oh dear!" Rarity had to dive to avoid an Arcane Crash, moments from fleeing an Anti-Magic Bubble.

"Nopony panic!" Twilight yelled, loud enough not just to be heard, but to be sure her friends all heard her voice in full. "Keep doing what we're doing! We can do this!"

It wasn't a magic spell. It was just a few hastily chosen words.

Yet the effect was, really, almost magical. Fluttershy and Rarity, who had been under intense pressure, who were both running low on mana, steadied. Fluttershy jumped out of an anti-magic bubble, staying as close to it as possible to save space. Rarity backed up against a wall, forcing half the arcane crash to end up wasted and unable to threaten anyone else in the room. Pinkie Pie was likewise carefully keeping her distance and bringing down the horde of Broken Spirits that were mobbing Applejack.

"Applejack's mortal strikes have worn off," Fluttershy said, her voice tense but determined. If she was afraid, and Twilight knew her friend had to be (they all were), it wasn't impairing her ability to act.

It also meant that their tanks could swap again, if need be.

Finally, blessedly -

"How? How can this be...?" The Shade of Talos began to fade, growing less corporeal. "My power... I was... wasn't I dead...?"

The Shade of Nemo followed, a moment later, also fading. "Brothers? Where... am I...?"

Above them all, the Shade of Enigma stopped in mid-cast. The animating energies of the Shades were all connected. Hardly more than a few stray lightning bolts and arcane missiles had damaged Enigma directly, yet he was as weakened as Nemo and Talos. The unicorn wraith began to fade.

"Well... fought..." he whispered, yet somehow it was as if he was speaking into Twilight's ear. "Your magic.. your friendship and solidarity... is strong enough to cleanse this place."

Slowly, Talos and Nemo began to sink into the earth.

"If a thousand years have passed, then the Princess you saved..." Enigma descended, his body nearly transparent. The Elements of Harmony all watched him fall, near exhausted from the battle won. "Tell her... I am sorry... but what I did, had to be done..."

And he sank beneath the tile. All was silent, and then the ground shook. The three forcibly uprooted graves forced their way back down, seeming to reverse the flow of time. Earth piled back up only to disappear beneath reconstructing blue and black tile. With one last shudder, the whole floor solidified, restored... save for the cultpony corpses.

- and then even those disintegrated, leaving empty robes and fallen equipment behind.

"Well, ah'll be," Applejack said with a crooked grin. An unearthly glow filled the purified crypt, and in this one antechamber, it lit up the tiled night sky inlaid into the ceiling above. Faded stars twinkled as clearly as the day they had been installed, more than a thousand years ago. The site of their battle became almost... serene.

"I can't believe we pulled that off!" Dash muttered, and quickly amended, "I mean... ah... not that I was ready to bubble-hearth or anything!" She chuckled, and slapped Fluttershy on the back. "Good heals! You, too, Rarity!"

"I must say, that was quite a bit more difficult than I expected," the sometimes-shadow priest commented, looking up with wide blue eyes at the cleansed and purified tomb relief overhead. The smile on her face seemed to hint that she was silently impressed with the decor, now that it wasn't quite so haunted.

"Mmm!" Fluttershy cheered, almost under her breath. "We did it."

"I'm almost too tired to have a party to celebrate!" Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing up and down. "Almost but not quite! I have just enough energy to eat a ton of cupcakes and brownies and caramel apples and sweet tarts and maybe, just maybe, some cream puffs and cookies!"

Twilight ducked low to pick up a small Mark of Command from on top of a pile of cultpony robes. To her surprise, the act of her doing so caused a small portal to appear overhead. The six mares inched away, more than a little wary of some kind of evil magic given what they had just fought. The energy from the portal was pure and white and soothing, however, and didn't bear any malice or ill intent.

Three small orbs emerged, circling the portal briefly, before falling gently to the floor a top each of the graves. Twilight blinked, noticing for the first time that the restored and purified resting places each bore a different mark. A cutie mark, long forgotten, inlaid in polished copper. The falling sparks rested like tiny glowing balls before morphing and transforming into...

"A new shield!" Applejack and Dash both declared, eyes wide.

"Oh! A staff!" Fluttershy and Rarity did the same a moment later.

Pinkie and Twilight quickly identified the third gift. "A spellpower trinket!"

Slowly, six pairs of eyes narrowed at the sudden loot competition.

"Ha," a ghostly voice laughed.

- - -

The Shadowbolts had returned.

Luna remembered the night well. It had started like any other, as she did her duties as was her station in life, and then waited out the night in silence. Her Night Guard were all self-sustaining. They no longer came to her, except when there was some great emergency. The Grand Master of the Order was well able to see to trivial, mortal matters. It had been hundreds of years since she had given up trying to micro-manage her subordinates. There was no point. It was enough to set a system in place, as the Titans had done, and let it tick away over the ages.

This night, however, presaged an interesting break in an existence of forgotten and unappreciated tedium. The Shadowbolts were a cadre of her finest pegasi, all richly dyed in her power. They were the very finest in all of Equestria: trained in magics both Light and Dark and able to execute any mission, covert or overt. Her sister's festive weathermares, the so called 'Wonderbolts,' were hardly worth a mention. Flying rings around an enraged dragon was fine. Killing that same dragon in its sleep was better.

She had expected at least three to enter her throne room, fresh from their mission to the west.

Only one entered. Luna recalled a name based on the mare's coloring... only to realize that the pegasus whose name was on the tip of her tongue had died. A century ago. The resemblance of this filly was uncommon. Luna focused on the present and raised higher on her throne.

"You may speak, Shadowbolt."

"Princess Luna," the mare looked worn and hurting, but she spoke with authority and presence. She still wore the form fitting guise of the Shadowbolt, including combat harness and saddlebags. There was a bit of moisture on her lower lip. She had stopped only to dehydrate, and then rushed to submit her report.

Knowing the manners of her Princess, she dispensed with pleasantries and ceremony.

"Expedition Two-Four-One returned to the Lunar Observatory at two hundred hours," she announced, head high. "Casualties high, Princess. But we were able to reach the Western Sun Wall."

"And the Decurio?" Luna inquired.

"The Decurio is dead, Princess," the Shadowbolt lowered her head slightly, her eyes wandering to the cold tile floor. "I... I am one of four left in my unit. With our officers dead, I assumed command."

"...I see," Luna replied at length. A second or two passed, and her expression softened. "Featherfrost, isn't it?"

"Yes, Princess."

"I must see what became of the expedition." As she said it, Luna had already begun casting her spell. Her power touched the mind of the Shadowbolt pegasus. Featherfrost's eyes widened and she gasped. Images appeared before her, in reverse... a spell-like projection from her consciousness.

The dazed soldier shook her head to clear the cobwebs.

"Princess," she began anew, and her mind projected the initial ten-pegasus expedition as it left the castle grounds. "As ordered, our Decurio, Falconmane, led us west. The journey was uneventful at first..."

The pegasi traveled fast by air, usually at night, navigating by the stars. Like most Night Guard, they rested during the day in safe places. West of Equestria was a vast open steppe and prairie. In the northern reaches of the steppe, savage pony tribes still clung to their ancient ways beyond civilized borders. Luna had some affection for these ponies, that others called barbarians and nomads. They, too, knew how to travel by the night stars. Those brutal, nomadic ponies could at least appreciate the night sky, though they refused to recognize Celestia or Luna as Sun or Moon.

"We made good time across the steppe. As we entered Buffalo Lands, however, we noticed a migration in progress. We stopped briefly, and our translator spoke to one of their many chiefs..."

The projected vision showed the Shadowbolt Decurio, Falconmane, speaking with a huge quadruped around a crackling fire. Another Shadowbolt was seated nearby to translate. The Buffalo were another barbarian race who recognized no authority or beliefs native to the east in Equestria. Separated by vast wild lands, like Everfree, most Buffalo would live their lives never seeing a pony in the flesh.

"We learned that they were being driven north and east by the zebra, who were themselves being driven out of Uldum by the Tol'vir. We rested there for a morning and then continued west. The nights were cold, but quiet, and we were able to rest within the ample cloud cover. On the third night, just within the borders of Uldum, we caught sight of fires. Reconnaissance identified the disturbance as coming from a large group of fleeing zebra. They were under attack."

Luna frowned at the proof of warfare in the west, now laid before her.

Taken from Featherfrost's memory, she could see a large migratory collection of pony-like shapes from above. Attacking them were strange, black creatures...

"After an initial fly over, Falconmane made the decision to aid the zebra civilians," Featherfrost continued. "We attacked, using wind and lightning. To our shock, the creatures were able to use some sort of magical Purge against us. It locked down even our ability to fly. We were, however, able to ultimately destroy the attackers."

Luna got a clearer look at the creatures from the memories of the battle and the aftermath, when the un-injured Shadowbolts examined the fallen. The creatures were... vaguely similar to Tol'vir. They had catlike lower bodies, wings like pegasi only much larger, a humanoid torso and arms, and hideous toothy faces hidden beneath golden shrouds. More shocking than any of that was the fact that their bodies were not flesh and bone, but stone! A black, onyx stone!

Her pupils shrunk as she considered what that could mean.

"I myself was wounded in the battle, and nearly lost the sight in my left eye," Featherfrost said, not noticing the reflective look that came and went on the Moon Princess's face. "Fortunately, the Zebra were willing to aid us and attend to our injuries. They were lead by a mare... a Witch Doctor by the name of Zecora who was held in high esteem. She told us more of the horrors... of the situation... in the west."

The memory shifted to an aged Zebra crone holding a fetish mask.

"The Witch told us that those Zebra who remained in the West, fighting for the few fertile lands, had surely been killed. The creatures we had fought were related to the Tol'vir, and they called themselves Obsidian Destroyers. She said they were in league with a great evil that had risen further west, beyond the Obelisk of the Stars and the Halls of Origination. We stayed only long enough to heal our wonds, and then we continued..."

The Shadowbolts once again took to the sky, crossing from steppe to endless desert.

"As requested, Princess, we flew on, to the Court of the Ramkahen Pharaoh. The reigning monarch was a boy-king, known as Ninjter..."

The brave pegasi descended in the night, and the view became an ancient city, still lit by life. Ramkahen was ancient even by Luna's standards. It had been built not long after the departure of the Titans and the Ordering of the World. Mortarless sandstone palaces and obelisks reached into the dusky desert sky. The Shadowbolts landed, the translator and Decurio speaking with Tol'vir guards. The cat-like humanoids were reclusive, but not normally unfriendly so long as sacred sites were avoided. Very few ponies dared to travel so far west into their lands, and none of the isolationist Tol'vir cared to venture outside Uldum.

"We were unable to speak with Ninjter himself, but his councilors assured our Decurio that the 'Obsidian Destroyers' were merely part of a clan in revolt over famine and taxation. We were advised to return home and inform our Princess that the affairs within Uldum were an internal matter of state, to be handled by the Armies of the Ramkahen."

"You did not do so," Luna guessed.

"Princess," Featherfrost replied, with a ghost of a smile on the daring pegasus's face. "Our Decurio thanked the Councilor for his hospitality and advice, and promptly led us west and north. The Old Maps spoke of an Obelisk of the Moon, and we made for it to investigate for ourselves."

Once again, the Shadowbolt's memory became more endless desert...

"We had, at this point, a full Decuria of ten pegasi. Then, a night soon after we left the Court of the Pharaoh, we bore witness to... Princess... what we saw was. Words fail me." Featherfrost lowered her head in apology, taking a shuddering breath.

"We saw something rise from the sands," she finally managed to say.

Her eyes closed, and the spell displayed what she could barely describe. It was some sort of creature, like a sand worm, but massive, and with a monstrous head bearing huge pincer jaws. The segmented body was orange, like the color of fire, broken by streaks of black, especially on the legs where they ended in wicked claw-tips. A tail with a pincer swept hungrily back and forth. It was fighting a large body of Ramkahen soldiers in the desert alongside a mass of mutated scorpids.

"I saw, with my own eyes, a dozen of the Pharoah's soldiers devoured alive..." Featherfrost continued, eyes wide at her own memories. "We tried to go around the battle, but several packs of scorpids must have seen or sensed us. They broke away to follow. We were far faster, but there were Obsidian Destroyers with them. They purged our ability to fly. Two of our Shadowbolts fell, and the Decurio ordered us to turn and engage."

What followed was a flurry of battle; broken, flashing memories -

"We destroyed our pursuers, but lost a flyer," the Shadowbolt explained, her face grim. "By morning, we were down to eight. The enemy used poisons we had no cure for. Burning our dead, we continued towards the Obelisk of the Moon, and marking it on our maps, kept west to the Sun Wall."

Eight Shadowbolts now, flew past a great black obelisk. Not far from it, built into a cliff wall, was a titanic set of doors, tightly sealed against mortal intrusion. Luna felt the breath catch in her throat. She knew what was behind those doors.

She knew that obelisk.

Featherfrost continued her report, "We came to the Sun Wall early the next night. It was as brilliant as the Wall to our north and east..."

The memory-picture changed to a great, glass-like energy matrix that encircled Equestria and Uldum. Here, it reflected back the vast desert and not the lush forests and mountains. It was also reinforced by a bulwark of stone in the form of great, mountainous cliffs. Dry winds kicked up sandstorms, and the picture soon changed to that of a cave, where the Shadowbolts huddled together as the sandstorm raged outside.

"Princess. We were forced to remain in that fissure for two days. No pegasus could have survived outside. We had been rationing water and food the entire trip, but... Princess... those howling winds..." Featherfrost licked her dry lips. "I swear, we heard voices. Whispers. From the wind and the sand. When the storm died down, we left... but we still heard the desert, whispering to us."

"Finally, our Decurio found the source of the shifting sands..."

The picture became one of a strange circular pit, dug into the desert. The walls had been reinforced by an organic ooze, hardened, and huge twitching legs protruded upward from the baked desert floor. Never before had Luna seen anything like this. It resembled nothing so much as a demonic, nightmarish hive.

"It wasn't long before we were noticed," the Shadowbolt's voice grew slightly weaker. "Things... things of all sorts began to crawl out. Some on six legs, some on four, some on ten or twelve... creatures never recorded before. Falconmane ordered one last pass, and then we fled."

"This time, we kept south and then east. We didn't find any others... nests... except that one, and the Sun Wall itself seemed intact all the way to the southern ocean..."

The desert once again stretched on, until, finally, meeting the blue sea.

"We stopped and landed only to investigate this. It was a... a face in the sand..."

The pegasus thought back, and the memory spell recalled a picture of a statue buried under the sand. Only the head stuck out from the side of a dune, but it was not the face of a Pegasus or pony, or even a Tol'vir. It was an Ancient Watcher, and the face was flat, with a nose and dark, lifeless eyes. Luna alone knew what it actually was and who - or what - had built it.

"Finally," Featherfrost said with a snort. "We headed towards the Throne of Four Winds. The elemental children of Al'Akir have often shown favor to pegasi, and our Decurio believed they could be willing to share information. Unfortunately, we were not permitted entrance to the Skywall itself, and our Patron among the Council of Wind, Rohash, soon dismissed us."

"We were to leave the next nightfall, but Siamat, Lord of the South Wind, sent a dignitary to speak with us. After a lengthy wait, his seneschal informed us that something he called the 'Curse of Flesh' was being undone, within a place he called 'Ahn'Qiraj.' He refused to speak the name of the one responsible, or to point out the location of this temple ruin. Wind Elementals are often fickle and capricious, so getting anything at all from them may have been fortunate."

Featherfrost frowned at what came next, her memories quickly turning to an ambush and a fight.

"But... soon after leaving the safety of the Throne of Four Winds we were attacked by flyers from the west. Some attacked upright, on two legs, and wore strange barding and robes, and they led insect like creatures. We were forced into a fight, and vastly outnumbered..."

The Shadowbolt's eyes hardened. "Princess... we all would have perished, had Decurio Falconmane not flown into single combat with the enemy Captain. At the cost of his own life, he was able to slay the abomination. Without leadership, the insect swarms were easier to handle. I stand before you today due to his brave sacrifice."

She reached back into her saddlebags, carefully retrieving an item and placing it on the floor.

"I carried my three wounded comrades to a secluded cave, disposed of the bodies of those beyond saving, and salvaged what I could from the fallen enemy," Featherfrost explained, setting down one last item in addition to the rest. "On that slain monstrosity, we discovered this, Princess."

"These things...!" she implored, eyes wide. "Are not just beasts! They possess items of magical craftsmanship, the likes of which I have never seen...!"

Levitating the items in question, Luna examined them herself. There were strange, dark metal plates, made of a material and in a fashion she had never seen before. There were bits of cloth, with inscriptions and wards of alien design. And then there was a black metal band with a glassy crystal embedded. It was a ring, and within that crystal, bringing it closer - she saw a reflection.

A reflection of a jet black mare with murderous emerald eyes.

"No!" Luna gasped, awake. She looked around, momentarily frantic. It took a second or two to realize and remember where she was, and what was in the past. Buried, hopefully forever. Shuddering, she tucked her legs in tight. If only she had destroyed those horrible items!

Calming herself by force of will, she tried to regain a regal bearing. She was in her throne room. In Canterlot. Of course. Canterlot. Her new Night Guard were standing watch at the doors. They didn't have armor yet. Luna decided she would attend to that as soon as possible. It wasn't proper to have guards without armor. If any of them had noticed her panicked outburst a moment ago, it didn't show.

To the left of her throne, one of them lowered his head.

"Princess?" he inquired, quietly.

It took just a moment for her to remember his name.

"Marrs. I - I would like some tea, please," she whispered, a little shy of raising her voice just yet. That dream. Why was she having that dream? Why was she remembering back then, of all times?

"I will have some brought to you here," Marrs Orange replied. "The morning is a few hours away, yet."

Thankful for the reminder, Luna settled uneasily back into her throne. The walls and the faces around her may have changed, but the world outside was as dark and quiet as it had always been. Somewhat desperately, she watched her four silent guards. They bore her colors now. They were her ponies. They stood, mute, like living statues. They saw her watching them, but they didn't smile - they couldn't and wouldn't - no matter how much she secretly wanted them to. Maybe... maybe they would come to be as precious to her, and her to them, but Luna knew they would never be friends or companions.

Not like...

No. She didn't want to remember that.

So Luna sighed, lowered her head between her hooves, and waited restlessly for the dawn.

- - -

"She's a party pon-ee, a party poo-oo-nee! She likes to party every night and day, she likes to party singing hey-hey-hey!"

Captain Morning Star, of Her Majesty's Royal Guard, rocked back and forth as a hyperative pink pony either tried to shake him to death or dance with him. The words spilling out of her mouth in concert with the strange music she had conjured up out of nowhere all indicated the latter. The fact that his teeth felt loose pointed to the former. Like a machine powered by pure sugar, Pinkie Pie was on a high.

She wasn't the only one.

"And then I was all like zap, pow! Exorcism proc! Judgment! Consecrate!"

The rainbow-maned pegasus was chatting up another, somewhat bemused, fellow Paladin from the Pegasus Detachment off duty. Watching her from a short distance away was a light gray pegasus civilian who actually seemed to be taking her wild tale at face value. The already colorful mare was adding similar color to her perhaps jaundiced account of the battle they had just returned from, playfully batting at the air and ducking and stepping like a boxer.

The priest and the warrior were at least worn out enough that they were simply resting on their blankets and enjoying the night air at this un-Celestia-ly hour. The druid and the mage were lying down by the fire, the former looking on the verse of falling asleep while the latter studiously took notes on a book they had unearthed. Her dragon friend was with her. Spike had been, to the baby dragon's sullen disappointment, left in the safety of the Guard camp while the Elements of Harmony went crypt diving. He hadn't been happy about it, but when they all appeared, alive and triumphant, he'd cheered loudly enough that the remaining cultists in the Observatory probably heard him.

Morning Star himself had been glad to see the mares back, and with news that the crypt areas were clear of both killer spiders and vengeful spirits. He had said as much while accepting another Mark of Command. Only the Observatory was left now, after a quick push through the Cloister. It had been his pleasure to accept ten Marks of Twilight as well, proving yet more essential equipment for the adventurous fillies. Was it his fault that he just didn't sound that excited? Royal Guards had an image to maintain after all.

Then the pink one had announced her intention to throw a 'party.'

What harmless fun, he had thought. After all, what kind of party could a pony possibly throw in a place like this? He had expected to see a round of drinks, some cheers, and a good meal passed around, followed by a night's well earned sleep. That was not this particular pink pony's idea of a party.

"Aww! You aren't having fun!" Pinkie Pie, for the Nth time, stuck her face several inches into his personal space. Pink hooves mashed his cheeks together. "Come on, smile! Smile!" She leaned in closer, trying to rearrange his face. "Smile." Blue eyes bugged out, and her hooves forced back his mouth into a grimace. "Smile. Smile now! Pinkie Pie compels you!"

"hrg."

"I will make you smile, good sir!" she declared, mimicking the voice of her violet colored friend. She bounced back, cartwheeled a few yards away, and pointed dramatically at the stoic unicorn guard. "You're pretty good at not laughing, I'll give you that, Mr serious pants-not-wearing-pants! But I've gotten a lot more powerful when it comes to my partying!"

"Miss Pie," Morning Star tried, not for the first time, to reason with the crazy pony. "I assure you I'm quite content. Those sweets you shared with my colts earlier were quite flavorful."

"Nein Nein Nein!" Pinkie Pie stomped both her rear hooves. "This is a party, and I will get you to laugh!"

Spinning around like a top, the strange music-making spell she had been using stopped with a vinyl scratch. Where the party-crazy shaman had even learned such a spell, Morning Star couldn't hazard a guess. It had no combat utility at all. Instead, as the pink pony came to an abrupt stop, the tune switched to something completely different from the previous background beat.

This new tune was... kind of annoying.

"Earth!" Pinkie Pie threw down an Earth totem.

"Fire!" She dropped another, striking a silly pose. "Wind! Water!"

Raising a hoof to the air. "HEART!"

"Heart?"

"GO PLANET!" Pinkie Pie yelled, and the elemental totems all exploded, showering her with streamers and obscuring her behind a curtain of balloons. When the smokescreen rapidly dissipated, it revealed the once pink pony, now dressed up in an absurd red costume with hastily applied blue cupcake frosting over her face.

"By your powers combined," she overdramatically declared. "I am Captain Planet!"

The Royal Guard's eyes squinted.

And then she started to sing. "Captain Planet, she's our hero! Gonna take pollution down to zero!"

Biting his lip, he nobly made it through the first chorus.

Up until Pinkie wiped the blue goop from her face, and melodramatically cried, "You'll pay for this, Captain Planet!"

"Oh, Celestia, please," the guard captain coughed, hiding his face behind a raised foreleg. "That's enough."

"Did it work, huh, did it?!" Pinkie popped up from the opposite side, suddenly back to what passed for normal. Seeing the embarrassing smile he was hastily trying to conceal, her grin grew wide and bright enough to force her eyes closed. "It did! I got you! I got you!"

"It would be difficult for anypony to keep a straight face at such a ridiculous display," Morning Star said, trying to force the undignified smile away.

"That's why I did it!" Pinkie confirmed, her grin turning into a more sedate smile of her own, and allowing her to open her eyes again. "Why are you ponies so frowny faced all the time? Doesn't the Princess ever let you have fun? She seems to smile a lot! You should smile with her!"

Morning Star nickered, amused by the innocent observation.

"That is exactly why we must keep a straight face, Miss Pie," he replied, his facial features finally returning - mostly - to normal. Damned, but her mood was infectious. "The Princess is loved for her generosity and kindness, as she should be. None care more for our land than Her Majesty, Princess Celestia. But kindness needs contrast. For there to be a carrot, there must also be a stick. We, the Royal Guard, must be that stick. When ponies see a benevolent Celestia, and a stern Guard, they will instinctively direct their hopes and affections where they belong: with Her Majesty."

It wasn't the best explanation, and it didn't capture the whole story, but it seemed to get the point across. Pinkie Pie's smile seemed to become more knowing, and she nodded.

"I know that," she said, glancing momentarily back at her friends.

Dash was laughing and chatting with her two hangers on, trying to convert them into fanboys (or just to convince them of her coolness), Fluttershy was sound asleep next to Twilight, still engrossed in the book from the crypt, and Rarity and Applejack were quietly watching the stars and nearly asleep themselves. Those who had seen Pinkie's flaunting of copyright infringement a minute ago had just as quickly forgotten about it, dismissing it as more randomness.

"There'll be more fighting tomorrow," she continued, her eyes pricking just a fraction in thought and concern. "So everypony should smile and be happy while they can. If I could... if they'd let me... I'd even try and throw a party for the cultponies."

"Them?" Morning Star snarled, glaring at the fires in the night by the inner castle ruins.

"Yep!" Pinkie cheerfully confirmed. "Even them! I don't like them, but they're ponies too, you know? Even if they are dangerous, bad, super-mean ponies. Maybe if they were happier, maybe if someone had thrown them a party when they were sad, then maybe we wouldn't have to fight them tomorrow morning?"

The Royal Guard Captain could only stare at her. What she was suggesting was so... so... well, he doubted a party would've managed to convert any of the blackhearted ponies they had to face. Yet, at the same time, a part of him really did want to believe that, just maybe, it could have made one or two think twice before throwing their lives away. Of course, it was just stupid, silly optimism. Pie-in-the-sky. He was about to say as much, but...

But by the way Pinkie Pie was looking at the castle ruins, she knew it was a long shot herself.

"I see why you're the Element of Laughter," he said instead. Beneath this bright pink party pony was a sharp, though somewhat silly and idealistic, young mare. "Do you think you'll be able to keep an attitude like that going? If you intend to get to level 85, you'll end up fighting a lot of bad creatures. Not just ponies."

Serious, despite her smile - a contented smile, he realized - Pinkie Pie nodded.

"I have to! There's too much sadness in the world." Her blue eyes caught the fire from the camp, and she closed them to giggle again. "That's what I felt, when the Princesses brought us back to life. Back in Ponyville. Everyone was sad."

She looked down at her hooves - no, past her hooves.

"Not just ponies... the world itself was sad. Broken, like a wagon without a wheel. That mean dragon bully did something to it, I just know he did! Ever since then, it was like my pinkie sense got a big super charged jolt! But I didn't know what to do, and it wouldn't go away..."

She tilted her head back to the camp. "I always loved parties. So, just my luck, I heard that when you get five or six friends together to solve some of the world's problems... well, that's a party too! And I am Ponyville's Number One Party Pony!"

"So you keep saying," Morning Star replied, forgetting to repress a sudden, small smile of his own.

"There it is again," Pinkie warned him, pointing playfully at his grin. "You guys have nice smiles, so you better smile for us when we win tomorrow, okay?"

"I'll pass the order on to my colts," the Captain promised. "In the meantime, you should get some sleep."

"I can stay up longer than Dashie at least!" Pinkie Pie assured him, producing another blue cupcake from her puffed tail. "Once she turns in, then I'll get my rested bonus!"

"Hmn," he grunted, reverting back to his preferred silence.

Well, after one last thing, galloping around in the back of his head. "Tell me, Miss Pie, what would you have done if I hadn't laughed at that Captain Planet nonsense?"

"Beats me! Most of my stuff is just improv!" She giggled happily. "Even I don't know what I'm going to do half the time!"

Despite her earlier promise to outlast her boastful paladin friend, Pinkie Pie was soon yawning and she eventually relaxed, laying down on a nearby sleeping roll. It had been a long and exhausting day for her; she and her friends had earned at least a few hours of sleep. The Guard camp was no inn, but at least here they had a warm fire to keep away the cold night air.

Morning Star and the night shift of the guard remained awake, keeping watch. It was hard to believe that the fate of the expedition tomorrow, and the fate of the Everfree Forest, would be in the hooves of the now quietly dozing party pony and her five friends. He found it even harder to believe that he couldn't imagine them failing. Such strange and colorful mares, these 'Elements of Harmony.'

The Captain's mind wandered back to a letter, hastily delivered while the six had been away.

'Celestia, Your Majesty. You know where they are and what they're doing. The bearer of Magic is your personal student. Why do you need me to report on their progress?'

Of course, he would do as he was ordered, but still:

'Just what are you expecting them to find, in the heart of that tower... that we, your own Guard, are forbidden to enter?'


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x
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Ha. I can't believe I'm at chapter eight already. That's page 170 on my master file, using my preferences for tiny times new roman font 10. And here I hadn't expected it to be more than fifty or sixty thousand words. Oh well. Here's some more WoW-isms that people may or may not have already gotten the gist of.

AOE – “area of effect” – this is a spell that doesn't just affect a single target, it acts over an area. There are both damage dealing and healing 'aoe' spells. Here's some examples from in-fic: Applejack's thunderclap (warrior), Rainbow Dash's consecrate (paladin), Pinkie Pie's magma totem (shaman), and Twilight's arcane explosion (mage).

Taunt – In the story, this is slang for any ability that forces an enemy to attack the taunter. This is generally used exclusively by tanks to keep squishier members of the party safe. Taunting often produces threat, see below:

Threat/Aggro – In game and in story slang for the ability of a tanking class to keep an enemy focused on them after the initial taunt. The tank basically makes himself or herself impossible for the enemy to ignore through a variety of means.

Bubble-Hearth – More in-game and in-story slang! It describes a very specific move, where a paladin puts up a divine shield and uses the momentary invulnerability to flee using a hearthstone, teleporting to safety. Paladins who do this are rightly mocked. Silly pallies.

AFK – "away from keyboard" - In-story, this somehow became common Azerothean slang for when someone has zoned out or become distracted, usually holding up the rest of his or her group. No one knows what AFK actually stands for, but the term caught on anyway. If Fluttershy gets distracted by a Fjord Turkey in Northrend, and misses when everypony else hops on a departing ship, she's "afk."

BIO - "bio break!" - Hey. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Even in the middle of an instance dungeon. I shouldn't have to explain this one, I hope.

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Shade of Talos

Broken Spirits - Talos constantly re-animates the ghosts of the slain cultponies who defiled the Harmonious Shrine. These adds are weak, but should be rounded up and burned down with area effect spells so that they don't attack healers.
Hateful Strike - Talos will periodically use this to stack a debuff on his target (the tank), reducing healing done by 10%. An offtank will need to swap in to allow the debuff to fade, otherwise it will keep being refreshed.

Shade of Nemo

Magic Ignition - Nemo will randomly debuff an enemy, who does not already have this debuff, every 30 seconds. It increases the damage and healing done by spells by 20% but also mirrors the damage or healing done by the spell as arcane energy, radiated from the victim. Anything within 5 yards will be hit, so everyone has to stay apart.
Arcane Missiles - Nemo will periodically launch powerful arcane missiles at a random enemy. These simply have to be healed through.

Shade of Enigma

Aura of Infinity - Enigma begins to cast a spell that will engulf the room in arcane and shadow energy, killing everyone present. Interruptible. This must (normally) be interrupted to prevent a wipe. Lasts ten seconds.
Mana Shield - Enigma will erect a shield to prevent spell interruption. This shield must be burned down to interrupt Aura of Infinity.
Arcane Crash - A slow, large, magic missile that damages everything within 4 yards. Pretty easy to see coming, so avoid it!
Anti-Magic Projection - Enigma will periodically put down anti-magic fields that prevent spellcasting. These anti-magic fields also protect against harmful spells, like Arcane Missiles, Arcane Crash and Aura of Infinity.

Achievement: [Infinity Plus One]
Survive Aura of Infinity
(by taking shelter within anti-magic bubbles)