A metal pang-like sound screeched outside of the cave. It was faint, but it was surely there.

I closed my eyes--though, that didn't do much since the cave was as dark as night itself. Perking my ears, I intently listened.

It was unsettling, to be concise; the muffled screams and clashing of metal rang out from outside of the cave, striking much anxiety and dread within me.

"The hell is happening out there?" I muttered in the darkness of the cave, my eyes frantically darting around for an exit. I darted forward, bumping the unseen stone wall against my head. "Argh! Dammit!" I cursed out in a sharpened tone as I stumbled downwards.

Rubbing my hand across my head back and forth, I winced as I felt a bruise forming on my forehead. "Damn this. I can't see inches away from myself!"

Staggering to get back up, I let out even more inaudible curses as my composure began to recover.

Suddenly, the structural stones above me began to disintegrate into dust as a tremor-inducing blast flared into the cave through the ceiling. Whole stone layers scattered everywhere, pebbles and stone alike pelting the ground. A tremor caused by the blast shook the ground, forcing me to go back down on one knee.

Rays of light began to seep in as the stony ceiling began to crumble. Dodging and strafing away in order to avoid being pulverized, the stinging sensation of burning filled my eyes as the whole room was finally lit up by the sun.

"The bleeding hell!" I exclaimed, coughing away as the dust pervaded into the room. Fanning off the dust with my hand, I looked skywards- to which I instantly regretted as my eyes were assaulted with an even singeing sting.

Wincing out loud while flailing my tightly clenched fist in the air, in a very desperate attempt to fend off the searing light, I shielded my eyes with my free hand.

Tense seconds passed in incomprehensible pain for my eyes. Shrugging off the pain as my eyes adjusted to the level of lighting, I opened them once more. Blinking, I looked upwards to the colossal gape of what was once the ceiling that.

Through the gaping hole that has formed as a result from the explosion, I took notice of the skies above. The clouds eclipsing the yellowish radiance of the sun.

Narrowing down my eyes, I barely managed to catch a glimpse of some sort of blur passing over the breach into the cave with one swift jump. Suddenly, arrows came whizzing past through the space--presumably aimed at whoever jumped past over the hole.

I hesitated, opening my mouth slightly. "It's probably a bad idea, but I think I'll have to call out to whoever is up there..." I whispered to myself as I bit my lip in indecision. "Then again, I could probably-"

"Be damned in Tartatus, traitor!" I heard a pained shout ring out from the surface in a desperate tone. Following that rather unfriendly gesture, a spherical orb of light lanced through the winds, leaving particles of magic as it passed.

"That's familiar..." I commented silently to myself as I witnessed that particular form of magic. Suddenly, my eyes widened. It was oddly reminiscent of the arcane artillery strikes employed by Celestia's army.

Faltering, I stepped back a few feet as a bead of veining cold sweat run through my temples. "No- They can't be here! Can they?" Shrugging my head in a frantic state, I bit my lip. 'Celestia is one hell of a sly bastard!'

Thoughts began to turn rampant in my mind- should I run? Should I stay and fight? Should I simply observe? Panicky, I adjusted my ruined demeanor; I loosened my tense shoulders, I calmed my breathing, and brushed off the sweat seeping out of my head.

Before I could even react, a blur of a dark figure leaped its way into the cave, landing just a few feet away from me. It hasn't taken notice of me just yet, as he was too occupied pulling off the tip of an arrow from his leg.

At the instant of a swift glance, a paralyzing vice of fear coiled around my mind. It was a pony.

It donned the insignia depicting the moon on the plating of its armor. His fur was a that of a teal pigment, as such was his eyes. His tail and mane shared a very tenacious golden-brown color with streaks of silver running across it. On its neck was a teal tattered scarf that complimented his coat.

Unlike most ponies, however, it donned bat-like wings. Its eyes were slit, and it had a visible tuft of fur on both ends of its ears.
Across its legs were soft-looking protective guards. One of which had an arrow protruding from one of them.

Gnashing on the blunt end of the arrow, he flicked it aside. The metallic resonance as the arrow struck the stone-cold walls rung out for a few before it dissipated.

Standing up, he examined his wounds- the gash wasn't so steep. The arrow barely managed to pierce through its leg-protection and through his skin.

Looking around in a panicked fashion, its vision leaned over towards where I stood. He stared at me, unblinking and merely motionless- I too did the same.

"Stand back, foul creature!" it yelled out as it began to unsheathe its sword sheathed from his back.

"Don't try to make a move," I steeled myself in a stance, retrieving the Grimoire from my robes. "I've not much interest killing anybody today..."

He blinked at me with an agape jaw as if stunned. "Are you the Summoner?" he asked, disbelief and uncertainty lingering in his voice.

I arched my eyebrow at the peculiar question. "Maybe I am--maybe I'm not."

"Yup. You're definitely the Summoner-" a stray arrow landed just a few inches away from him, embedding itself into the ground. "Oh... The name is Vesper! Sorry, but I really need you to hear me out, " he nimbly sidestepped to the left, burying himself in the shadows as well as preventing any arrows landing straight into his skull.

"Alright, Vesper..." I sighed out, but not easing up in the slightest. "Since you're not looking for a fight with me, and seeing that you've struck a skirmish right here, I'll listen to whatever you have to say."

He appeared grudgingly, almost appearing as if he was pained from whatever he had in mind to say. "I defected from Celestia."

My eyes flared a bit, startled. "So I take it that whoever is up there are your friends hunting down you?"

"I've gone renegade because..." he struggled to form words, fumbling about as he glanced at every direction. Calming himself with a sigh, he continued, "Celestia lost it. She's much more different than she was before. Even her voice has a hint of malice and malevolence behind it."

A pang of guilt recoiled around my mind. I clenched my teeth against each other hard before I continued, "Still. It's nonsensical. Why would you help me rather than staying loyal to Celestia?"

He began to speak, opening his mouth, but his words were abruptly halted as the swift hiss of a bow discharging its bolt rang out from above. The bolt struck the ground just before me, missing just inches away from my foot.

"Dammit!" my new 'friend' cursed out as he recoiled in astonishment as the bolt rebounded off the ground. "Can we save this for later? How about we silence them first?"

"Silence them? As in kill them?" I gave him an uncertain look. "Are you sure-"

"By Celestia's divinity!" I heard them yell from just outside the rim of the crater leading into the cave. "It's that monster--the Summoner! Go! We shall fend them off for as long as possible. Alert the rest of the forces!"

Soon enough after those words were exclaimed throughout the vicinity, arrow after arrow began to line themselves into my direction as the heads of ponies suddenly popped up from the breach in the ceiling.

Barrage after barrage of arrows rendered me immobile as I desperately tried to shield myself with a piece of rubble. The clangs of metal repeated itself over and over as arrows were deflected by the boulder I was taking cover behind.

"Great. Now we really don't have time!" I heard Vesper yell out from across where I stood. Diving out of his cover, Vesper gnashed his teeth as he coordinated his dash in such perfection he dodged every single bolt squalling from above. He grabbed me by my collar with his hoof.

"Hey!" pestered, I yelled out. "What are you doing? Woah-" Before I had even realized it, I was airborne as Vesper soared high, me being carried away by his hoof.

I was getting somewhat sick at the sudden shift of elevation, but I remained calm. Finally, the sun bathed my robes as we exited through the hole in the middle of the ceiling of the cave.

The grasslands stretched for miles on end. Patches of shrubbery and vibrant flower beds caught my eye for a brief moment until I was brought back to reality by the sudden panicked shouts.

I could see them, pony after pony clad in armor surrounded the breach in the canopy. They all held ranged weaponry such as bows and bowguns, but all of them were too startled to react and use them.

"Dammit. You're heavy," I heard Vesper remark with a strained voice as his hooves desperately attached themselves to my collar. "Do something or we're going to be turned into a pincushion!"

Everything around me was muted, as if my ears failed to pick up any sound. For a brief moment, I felt as if I was torn away from reality, a trance-like state filling my mind. I heard my heartbeat within my throat as my perception of time seemed to slow down.

My vision was only fixated on the surrounding ponies now siccing their weapons at me. Everything else was blurred.

As if an innate-instinct guided me, I retrieved my Grimoire in one swift flourish. Flipping it open, I muttered inaudibly to myself, "Flames."

Flickers of purplish, arcane flames danced around the pages of my book. Without warning, the mere embers uncontrollably became a torrent of flames.

The inferno was like that of a vortex, streaming in a whirl-like pattern at the battalion of ponies in a searing line that stemmed from the book. I could see their startled faces just across the swirling fires simply consumed them in their flames.

They began screaming as their bodies began to fade away as the slithering flames consumed them whole. Muffled by the sizzling of fires, I could barely perceive their agonized wails.

In a split-second, the flames vanished in a display of fluttering embers fading away into the air. The ground wasn't affected by the slightest--not even a single patch of grass was scorched.

"By Tartarus..." I heard Vesper say in a dumbfounded hesitation as he began lowering me to the ground. "By what pact of a devil did you sign to use such terrible might?"

"I... I didn't even." I was doubtful with my own actions. I couldn't even stop my arms from trembling. Landing on the grass, a single reassuring thought tugged away at my mind.

I shook my head, clarifying the anxiety and grim thoughts lingering in my head. "They're not dead. They were sealed into this book."

"That's... convoluted, isn't it?" Vesper said beside me as he eyed me with a mix of concern and distrust. "For as long as the two sides--you and us--fought, you always left the bodies of the dead to rot away in the battlefield."

"There are no rotting bodies as a result from my Grimoire," I gestured at the emptiness of the surroundings. "If you haven't noticed."

"You're right..." Vesper said, still a bit weary of me as he was reluctant to take a step towards me. "So you're saying that they were all absorbed into that... thing of yours?" he extended his hoof at my Grimoire.

"Yes... They're still alive, definitely. Things aren't looking that way, however." I looked confident, but inside, I was fully doubtful of my words. There's just something lodged in the back of my mind--perhaps the Summoner's sense? "For now, you can believe in that, or whatever you choose to believe in."

"So, they were just absorbed and not killed?" Vesper faltered, but managed to utter, "I think I'll be a bit more at ease if that truly was the case."

"At the moment, I don't know how to bring them back, but enough of this." I stared at him with a sharp glare. "I think it's time you really tell me why you're against what was your own side now."

Vesper cocked his head. "I told you, I defected."

I kept silent, simply staring at him with an arched eyebrow.

Vesper shook his head with a sigh. "Alright, alright. It's not just I who defected. If you haven't realized yet, I'm not like most ponies."

"Yeah..." I glanced over at him, intently examining his bat-like appearance. "You appear to be one of Luna's personal guards, right? The last time I saw the likes of you was when Luna personally led an attack against me."

Vesper nodded. "Yes. We are referred to as thestrals by most ponies." He turned his gaze away from me, facing the sun lowering itself in the horizon. "Well, you see..." he trailed off for a moment, but managed to resume his sentence, "I'm not the only one of the thestrals who have gone rogue. By orders of Luna, she told us one by one to rebel against Celestia."

I widened my eyes. "Even Luna herself is cautious of her sister?"

Vesper couldn't help but nod once more. "Yes. Celestia has changed that much subsequent to your arrival."

A whirl of zephyrs followed, accompanied with an eerie silence. The orange, warming beams of light from the sun seemed to have died out by now, being replaced with shadows. Night was approaching quickly. The skies turned from a bright orange to a pale dark.

"We should hurry," Vesper said as he began to trudge towards the direction where the remnants of the ponies that were fleeing to. His figure began to be obscured by darkness as he trailed further. "We'll have better chances of escaping the ensuing army that has been no doubt alerted about us."

"I guess..." I complied, following closely behind him. Soon, I too began to vanish into the shadows.