Where...am I? Zecora thought as she opened her eyes. Is this...death or ...inside the spear? There seemed to be absolute darkness, a void of nothing. Zecora flipped her body upright but found that doing so seemed pointless, without gravity down and up were meaningless. As Zecora floated there in an absolute void, she began to feel light headed. There was no way to orient herself up or down, no light and no sound, just an open black void of infinite emptiness.

I guess this isn't a bad way to go, certainly boring though. Zecora floated there for quite some time, contemplating what she had done, what she could have done and if her mate and daughter got away safely. She most likely won't kill my daughter at least. Now that I'm gone she is the only one that can give her blessing when she gets older. Zecora wanted to believe her family and friends were safe but she kept having a guilty feeling that Maskia would just kill them in blind rage anyhow.

I guess I'm the only pony who is being fooled here. If only I had been faster, stronger, had a stronger willpower then her. Then none of this would have happened. Zecora's mind raced with different ways she could have changed the outcome, how she could have saved the lives of so many loved ones. If I never even pursued a relationship with Fluttershy...no, That would have done nothing. Maskia still would have started the war. Zecora couldn't seem to shake the feelings of regret. No matter how she replayed the events in her mind it all came back down to her making mistakes.

There you go again, blaming yourself for things that are completely out of your control.

It took Zecora a moment or two before she realized that the last thought was not her own. It did feel strangely familiar though, in a warm, fuzzy kind of way.

"Who's there?" she mouthed but no sound came out. Oh, that's weird, I can breathe but can make no sound? Zecora felt her body bump up against something in the emptiness. Lacking any light in the void she focused her eyes and managed to get some blue light to reflect off what bumped into her from one of her spells. She immediately wished she hadn't.

Floating lifelessly mere meters from her were dozens of perfectly preserved but very dead ponies. Examining the bodies she noted that she couldn't detect a hint of magical power in them, they were not rotted out or anything, closer to being suspended in time. Each body seemed to be drained of color, although a few of them still had some color left in their bodies. Suddenly a beam of red light struck one of the more vibrant ponies and began to suck the color from its body. Zecora watched closely as the body began to slowly turn grey, the last vestiges of color in the mane being sucked up by the strange light.

As the red light retreated from the body, Zecora watched it fall into a fairly distant red dot. What is that?

It's...something I will explain later.

the voice from before reverberated in Zecora's mind again. She knew where it was from deep inside but couldn't quite put her hoof on it.

I suggest you prepare yourself for a bumpy landing, young one. Sight Seeker has a lock on your body but we have never pulled a mortal body down before.

Before Zecora could respond, she felt something grab a hold of her body around her midsection. She noticed she was being pulled away from all the corpses and closer to the red light below. Zecora watched at the red light got brighter and brighter until she had to shield her eyes from the light. Zecora peeked and saw that she had flown though the light and was falling away from it. All the darkness dissipated below the red light and was being replaced by a vast open blue void with twinkles of light in the distance. Below she noticed platforms, vast platforms made of solid silver.

Zecora, you may want to tuck and roll.

The voice came a bit to late as Zecora slammed into one of the silver platforms, hard.

The still air around Ponyville did little to alleviate the tension Twilight felt deep in her stomach. The vast destruction was already unsettling enough, homes destroyed, the quills & sofa store on fire and the splintered remains of Sugar Cube Corner spoke volumes to the battle that had been fought in this very town. Something about the towns eerie silence of the did manage convey is just how dangerous it was for Twilight to be out of the infirmary, Maskia or her minions would jump at the opportunity to off someone of her position. Despite complaints from Cadence's lieutenant medical officer, Twilight decided to help out the princesses, her sense of duty easily overpowering her common sense, even in her injured condition.

Twilight limped around town, trying to get a fix on Maskia's location to send back to Celestia when she felt something odd. A strange dizzying feeling that she experienced once before but on a much, much larger scale. "I wonder where it's coming from?" Twilight walked through the shattered remains of the once proud town, following her horn, trying to find the location of the disturbance. As she walked out of town she stepped on something that felt rather squishy and oddly feathery. As she looked down she saw what looked like the crumpled remains of a night blue wing.

"Wait, Pegasus don't molt entire wings do they?" Thinking back to her days in the library she realized, that no, pegasi do not molt in this manner, although she did note that some breeds of dragons do. Twilight examined the wing with her horn, she noticed that there was a magical tinge to it. It felt oddly like princess Luna's. "Oh... this must be the wing she lost when she was emergency transported to the infirmary." Twilight stared at the wing for a moment, contemplating whether or not to teleport the whole thing to the doctors at the infirmary.

"No, its probably to far gone. I would never hear the end of it if I sent them a infected feathery stump." Twilight lowered her horn and set the wing ablaze. "Anyways, where was I.." Twilight felt a tingling sensation in her horn. It seemed to be coming from the direction of the Ponyville general hospital.

Twilight. the voice of Princess Celestia rang inside Twilight's mind.

I know you are injured but I need you by my side, there's has been...how do I explain it. A 'temporal' accident.

"Is that what I'm sensing near the Ponyville hospital? Doctor Walwick hasn't been messing with croniton treatments again has he?"

How did you...you know what, I won't tell Cadence. It's bad enough I'm overruling her medical authority. Get here as quickly as you can. We are about a quarter mile behind the hospital, in the wood's.

"Be right there, your majesty." Twilight's horn flared up as she prepared to teleport to Celestia's specified location.

Oh, and Twilight...

Twilight just finished her teleportation spell as Celestia contacted her, breaking her concentration and ending her face first into a tree stump. Twilight rubbed her nose, trying to soothe the pain as she listened for Celestia.

Don't bother trying to teleport here, it's far too risky to enter whatever this disturbance is.

"Now she tells me. " Twilight grumbled as she shook some leaves out of her mane. " Well, at least no pony was around to see that disaster." Twilight looked around town, she almost wanted somepony to laugh at her, at least then the town she once called home would be somewhat normal. Despite her reservations about walking alone, Twilight continued to the edge of town where the hospital was located, her horn tingling with that same familiar sensation as before.

As Twilight walked up to the hospital she noticed a guard that seemed a bit delirious. He was rolling around in the grass, yelling "I'm sorry Celestia, I lost contact with you, please respond!" The royal guards pony seemed to be clutching his ears in agony.

As Twilight approached the guard slowly stood at attention. His eyes dreary and his ears twitching in what Twilight could only discern as pain.

"Arch M-mage!" The pony said exasperated. "Celestia has ordered me to attack those other ponies when they come back, they are trying to overthrow her throne!"

Twilight was feeling something odd coming from this particular pony. It almost felt as if this pony before her had recently come in contact with shamanistic magic. Which could only mean two things; either Zecora was nearby or Maskia.

"Solider, have you seen the war criminal Maskia around?"

The solider fiddled with his hooves for a moment before replying, he looked as if he was listening for something else. "Y-yes ma'am the traitors Celestia warned me about chased her off a hour or so ago."

Twilight couldn't seem to put a hoof on it but something didn't seem to match up. The shamanistic magic vibes she was getting from this pony were quite different from Zecora's. While Zecora's magic as often calm and peaceful this magic felt electric and malevolent.

He might have had his mind addled or his memories modified, but how to get him to drop his guard so I can inspect him?

Twilight noted that this guard had a standard issue longsword on his back leg, although this one looked slightly rusted and dull from disuse it was still very dangerous to sedate an addled pony while it was armed.

"Solider! Attention!"

The solider put his hoof up to his face in salute, standing completely still for inspection. "What is your command arch mage?"

"Remove your pant-..s" Twilight didn't manage to stop herself, immediately face-hoofing at how she worded her command.

"Um, ma'am. I don't think this is the time or place for that kind of ...thing. I mean I can gladly help you out la-"

"No, no. I meant unsheathe your sword, I am mandating a medical checkup."

The stallion looked as if he saw a ghost. "But...Ms. Sparkle, I-I can't just get hard immediately like that. I need music, dancing, romance, maybe you being in lingerie."

Twilight sighed disgustedly. "I mean...you know what. Just remove your weapon holster and throw it in the bushes over there."

Stallions, what do they know. Besides I look way better in latex or leather than lingerie. Twilight shook her head and focused on the task at hoof as the stallion tossed his weapon holster some distance away.

"Okay then, I need you to sit down while I probe you with my....err" Twilight noticed the terrified look on the stallions face. "As I um...scan you with my horn. Don't worry it's not invasive in any way."

"I should hope not, I'm not that kind of pony." The stallion replied nervously.

Twilight slowly panned over the stallions body until she found something odd. A magic repeating device imbedded somewhere in the stallions mind. Twilight kept scanning until she found the device, a magical suggestion orb; similar to the unicorn suggestion spell, embedded in the stallions subconscious.

"Solider, you seem to be infected with...ummm" I have to lie to him, if Maskia is controlling him then me telling him could trigger a reaction. "Heppalitis, a liver infection."

"I never heard of that before, how did you know I was infected?" the stallion said while shuffling uncomfortably.

Twilight moved behind the stallion and hit him in the back of the head with a sleep spell.

"So...sleepy..." The stallions eyes drooped and he fell over, sound asleep.

"Sorry, but I can't risk brain damage with an operation this delicate." Twilight slowly pushed her magic into the stallions mind, slowly severing the connections the orb made with his mind. When the orbs last connection was severed she tried to slowly move it out of his head only to find that unlike the unicorn suggestion spell, this one actually had mass to it and would not phase though solid objects.

"Well then, I guess I have to be careful about this." Twilight searched for a way to move the spell out of the stallions skull. She quickly found that making a incision though the ponies skull and into the nose to be sneezed out would be the best approach. Twilight pushed her magic up against the skull and after she deadened the nerves slowly made a incision around the top of the nose bone and slid the orb though; closing the gap behind it as she went.

Twilight wiped her brow. The monumental effort of brain surgery and not to nick things she should was draining heavily on her magical resources. Resources that were already strained from healing her body. "Maybe if.."

Twilight looked around until she noticed a destroyed pantry in the distance. Twilight teleported the pantry to herself and rummaged through the remains, pulling out a pepper shaker. "One more check." Twilight rechecked the incision she made earlier and double sealed the wound, putting a barrier over it as well.

"Last thing I need is this guy sneezing his brains out." Twilight moved the shaker up to the stallions nose and sprinkled pepper onto his snout.

"Ah,ah...choo!" A little ball of light, no larger than a marble fired out of the stallions nose and implanted itself into the side of a tree trunk. The stallion rubbed his front leg over his face and rolled over, snoring loudly.

Twilight picked up the ball and rubbed it on the grass to remove the brain fluids and snot that was all over it. She pulled the orb close to inspect it. Something about the magic was off, it felt like a suggestion spell but had some slight difference that she could not put her hoof on. Against her better judgement she touched the orb to her horn and suddenly it all became clear.

"This isn't a just some kind of suggestion orb, it's a dominance orb!" Twilight had read of unicorns with less than virtuous intentions dominating other ponies to do their will but the spell was removed from circulation nearly a dozen centuries ago. Only a few copies of such spells still remained, only the princesses and herself had access to them.

Thinking back she remembered many Zebra were mentally dominated, some of them not remembering anything from the time of domination. "This is weird, Zebra show if they are dominated rather easily but I barely detected this one in a ponies body. Something about our biology covers it up. If it wasn't for this one acting weird I would have never guessed anything as wrong."

Twilight watched the stallion rolled over, mumbling in his sleep about Twilight being in lingerie.

"Bweh...stallions." Sexually repressed soldiers aside the chilling matter at hoof was how many other ponies were victims of this kind of domination. how many of Equestrias military was compromised, working with the enemy without memory of it.
"Celestia can wait a couple minutes." Twilight magicked a quill, ink and a piece of parchment in front of her.

"By order of the Arch Mage of Equestria. It has come to my attention that the war criminal Maskia and her cohorts may have been placing domination magic orbs into the sub-conscious of our citizens. All military personnel...no, All ponies are to report to doctors immediately to be scanned with a class S or higher mental probe. This is not negotiable, such ponies could still be a danger, even after the war."

Twilight rolled up the parchment and fired a spell into it, making dozens of copies. "Now to send these to all the doctors...but there's so many of them." Twilight looked at the pile in front of her, there was at least three dozen duplicate letters. "I'll just have the medical team at the air armada sort it out for now." Twilight pointed her horn at the pile and with a burst of yellow flame, all of the scrolls teleported to the medical ship of the Royal Equestrian Air Armada.

Twilight, what is taking so long?

"I'm sorry Princess, I had to help a soldier in need. I think I may have found out how Maskia has been spying on us. How she managed to set us up so much."

We can deal with that later. I need you here ASAP. Cadence is here and I'm trying to get her away so I don't get my head bit off when you arrive.

"Uh-oh" Twilight almost wanted to just head back to the medical ship that instant. An angry Cadence is not somepony to take lightly. "I'll be there as soon as I can...just keep cadence off my back if you could." Twilight took two steps toward the hospital when she turned around, almost forgetting the stallion that slept in the middle of the grassy field.

"Yeah Twilight...eat it like an ice cream cone" the stallion said in his sleep.

Twilight rolled her eyes."I guess I better get him somewhere safe." Twilight lowered her horn onto the stallions side and with a flash of light the stallion disappeared.

"With any luck the medical squad will do a full checkup on him."

Twilight continued past the hospital and into the woods behind it, following the tingling sensation in her horn. "I just know I felt this kind of magic before...but where?" Twilight noticed something in the distance. A pearl white coat and long flowing rainbow hair.

"Celestia!" Twilight ran up to the princess only to stop cold. In a clearing in front of the princess was something she had never seen before. The entire clearing was different shades of grey, as if someone was projecting a very old movie. Inside the grey scale area was a scene which Twilight could only describe as a cheesy action scene. Upon closer inspection she realized it was far more than that.

On one side of the clearing Applejack's brother, Big Macintosh was using some kind of wrestling technique on three zebra that looked sort of like Maskia.

"It's called a triple whammy, Twilight." Celestia said as she watched Twilight's eyes wander over the scene. " It's a double power-bomb and pile-driver all in one. My sister Luna told me about it when she was watching 'Rumble mania thirteen'."

Twilight continued to scan the area, not noticing princess Cadence landing behind her.

"And what are you doing out of the infirmary Arch Mage?" Cadence said as Twilight jumped up in surprise. "I...um"

"I ordered her out here. I need her expertise in magic to help fix this ...problem." Celestia said as she pointed to the grey scene before her.

"You did WHAT!" Cadence walked up to Celestia, her face puffed up in anger. "You circumvented my authority to bring my little sister, who I may add is seriously burned, out of her recovery."

"Cadence..." Twilight whispered.

"You brought her out here knowing the town is in ruin and on fire."

"Cadence?" Twilight said a little louder.

"Putting her life at serious risk, any amount of Maskia's spies could off her in her condition. Of all the reckless, stupid..."

"Cadence!" Twilight yelled.

Cadence looked back at Twilight who was short of breath from yelling.

"I'm a little sore but I'll be fine. I was already halfway through town before Celestia contacted me." Twilight inhaled calmly. "If Celestia needs my help I must do as much as I can to help her. I'm sorry that my sense of duty overrides my common sense but I don't like loafing around when things need done."

Cadence looked into Twilight's eyes and then back to Celestia. "I'm...sorry auntie. I guess I keep forgetting the little filly I knew is a full gown mare now. Sorry for blowing up at you."

"We can handle the apologies later. First we need to figure out what 'this' thing is." Celestia pointed her hoof at the mass of grey behind her. "Twilight, care to inspect it?"

Twilight moved closer to the anomaly, taking care not to step into the grey line on the grass. As she positioned herself toward the outer edge she noticed that Fluttershy was running off with what looked like a Zebra foal in a pouch underneath her. A short ways behind her was Maskia herself. Sitting on her haunches, staring at her spear; a shocked look on her face.

Twilight scanned the rest of the scene. A short distance away from Maskia was a ditch in the ground. On the far end her brother, Shining Armor was breaking through the ground around a cave in. Twilight sat on her haunches, still trying to identify the feeling she kept having in her horn when the solution struck her like a bottle of Apple Vodka on Sunday night.

"This is time magic!" Twilight picked up a nearby rock with her magic and flung it into the grey zone. The rock flew a short distance before freezing in the air entirely. "More precisely a time frozen zone."

Celestia scratched her chin with her hoof. "Time frozen zone? I don't remember reading anything like that, not even in the restricted library."

"And you wouldn't have. Doctor Walwick isn't exactly respected enough for any of his theories to be immortalized in the libraries. Many of his theories don't really add up but his paper of time frozen zones was of interest to me."

Cadence walked up to the edge of the time freeze. "So, what exactly causes these time frozen zones?"

Twilight thought back to the paper she had read a few months back. "A couple ways. A spell, a shattered magical time device can theoretically cause one if infused with ridiculous amounts of cronitons and then there is the last way..."

"Which is...?" Celestia asked.

"An unresolved magical error. One that would require an object to both compress space and time in some fashion, but as far as I know there isn't anything that can compress both space and time short of a black hole or possibly a quantum void." Twilight shook her head while rubbing her temples. "There isn't even an item in Equestria that even remotely has that power or even a theoretical way to break a time frozen zone either." Twilight stood up and started to pace back and fourth.

"Twilight?" Cadence said while pointing at Maskia.

"Huh?" Twilight followed cadence's hoof toward her target.

"Yes, I noticed Maskia is in there but that does us no good if we can't get to her."

"No, I mean the spear."

Twilight magicked a pair of binoculars in front of her face and pointed them at Maskia's spear. At first she didn't notice anything different about it, other than some cracks and scratches on the shaft. Maybe her regular old Unicorn eyes couldn't see certain subtle details she thought but then she noticed something gleaming in the moonlight. Twilight moved the binocular sights up the shaft until she could clearly see the tip. Which was oddly not grey but a gleaming silver in the moonlight.

"Um...Celestia?" Twilight said nervously.

"Yes Twilight?"

"How do they say it in South Clopton 'Shit just got real, yo!' "

Zecora rolled her eyes. her body in pain from some kind of impact she could barely remember. Everything was fuzzy but she could hear voices nearby.

"Is she okay?" Did I mess up on the landing?"

"You are under enough stress keeping that time stop stable Sight Seeker. My daughter is a strong mare, that impact only winded her at worst."

"Look, I think she's coming to."

Zecora opened her eyes. Above her was a turquoise ceiling with patterns that should couldn't quite make out. As she stared at the ceiling her vision slowly focused until she was able to make out some kind of rune, a shamanistic rune.

"Are you just going to lie there while there is so much work to do?"

Zecora's ears perked up, it couldn't be, they told her she had died. Zecora shot up and looked to her side. Sitting in a silver chair was a mare wearing a blue bandanna around her neck, tacky bronze rings around her leg, stripes that came onto her face like a spider;ending in a black splotch on her muzzle and a hole in her left ear from the day Zecora first learned how to throw a spear.

"Imani, is that you?"

"Who else do you know with this taste in jewelry and a hole in her ear where you caught me on your first windup?"

Zecora lunged at Imani in a hug. Her body in pain as she squeezed the her mother with all her might. "They said you died but how are you here? Did grandmother kill you? Am I dead after all? Why does my body...ache?" Zecora hadn't noticed it before but Imani was semi transparent. Behind her mother was one of the ponies she met at the astral springs over two years ago. "I don't...but..."

Imani put her hoof up to Zecora's lips and made a hushing sound. "Enjoy the moment first, then walk with me. I have much to explain."

Zecora tried to hold back her tears but her mother shook her head in disappointment. "Never hold in those feelings. The longer you try the harder it becomes." Zecora hugged Imani, streams of tears rolling down her mothers shoulder. Everything about the moment was magic. The terrible texture of her neck rings, her mane that was always swept a little to the left, her strange taste in poison joke perfume, everything just felt like home. Like something she had lost but now found. As the tears hit the floor Zecora came to a realization that this moment was only temporary. Her mother was without a body and if she was truly inside the spear it meant that she was indeed very much long dead.

Imani slowly pushed Zecora away, wiping a tear from her eye. "That is enough for now. Follow me, we have much to discuss." Imani walked out of the strange oval room though a teal curtain, Zecora close behind. As Zecora walked out side the silence that was the room she was in was quickly shattered by a low roar of whispers from a massive crowd of ponies, Zebra and even a handful of very young dragons.

"Did you hear? She still has a body" whispered a yellow mare wearing a green bonnet.

"Has that every happened before?" whispered another.

"I dunno, why is that crackpot Imani so interested in her." Said a Zebra in very outdated bamboo war armor.

"I hope she isn't feeding her any lies about getting out of here" another whispered.

"Mother, are all these other ponies Maskia's victims?" Zecora asked while staring out over the crowd as she followed Imani.

"Some of them are, but my mother was hardly the first to be corrupted by the spear."

"Wait, I assumed-"

"There is history that you are not aware of. Be silent and I will explain." Imani walked past a few more oval buildings and into a large cavern. Along the walls were drawings made in blood red, each of them seemed to be a representation of the spears past.

"We start here, many a century ago." Imani pointed to a depiction of large dragons swopping down and attacking fleeing Zebra, on of the depictions showed a Zebra clearly trapped in a dragons mouth. "During this time period the green dragons tribe of the south ran into severe food shortages due to overzealous mining from Zebra folk in the region." Imani pointed to a baby dragon clutching his stomach as a Zebra greedily dug up gems next to it.

"The dragons eventually had enough and after attempting to convince the council to have the miners leave some of the caves alone they quickly turned to violence. When the dragons found there was no more gems to be had even after flushing the miners out, they asked the council for emergency aid. Aid that they never received. With starving children to feed they turned to preying on the Zebra folk."

Imani shook her head somberly and sighed before continuing.

"Not knowing how to deal with the dragons turning to predation the council of the main three tribes commissioned a magical work from one of the ancestors of the Wind Runners." On the wall was a Zebra that looked much like Imani herself but with much better taste in neck rings. "They commissioned her to make a magical weapon that could strike fear into the hearts of even the oldest of dragons. They offered her riches beyond her wildest dreams and vast amounts of land for her services, something unheard of for a mare to obtain in that time period."

Imani moved down the cavern, onto the next set of paintings. "She toiled for weeks on the weapon, crafting it from the strongest metals she could find but ran into a problem. In order to destroy a creature of such power the weapon would need a power source of its own. Originally she had planned on the weapon to use the power within the user but quickly found it insufficient and very dangerous on the user."

Imani pointed to a depiction of a mare tossing parchments aside in frustration. "Desperate for a answer she settled on something of a flesh void zone of sorts within the tip of the spear. The spear would drain all the energy it possibly could from a slain enemy and expel the soul out the back of the shaft." Imani pointed to a picture of her ancestor poking the body of a long dead elephant, the body quickly being absorbed into the spear.

"When she presented her prototype to the council they were greatly displeased. The losses were mounting from the constant dragon attacks and they deemed her weapon needed to be far more lethal. That it should use the power of the absorbed souls as well to bring even greater destruction to the dragons. She tried to explain to the council that such a thing was near impossible with what any shaman of the age could do but they refused to listen."

Zecora watched as a depiction started to move. A angry council member pointed her ancestor out the door.

"Discouraged she went back to work in a effort to grant the councils request. After some soul searching she decided that such a horrible fate of having your soul trapped was unjust, even evil. She intentionally built a comfortable living section and a memory system into the inner workings of the weapon. She also built in a soul leak system to release the souls remotely. She still however refused to find a way for souls to power the weapon believing that no one, even the most vile of creatures deserves an eternal prison for what was ultimately a mortal life of evils."

Imani pointed out the mare building leak holes of near the bottom of the spear, holes that opened and closed on her command. Imani walked a bit further down the cavern. "As she was finishing up the last bits of magic on the spear, her best friend burst into her room.

The depiction of the wall began to speak. "You must flee, the council plans to have you executed after the war is over. They never intended to give a low class mare any land. They were only using you."

Imani shook her head. "Back in those days mares had far less rights than stallions. Mares owning land was rare and only typically applied in lesser tribes." The depiction showed Zecora's furious ancestor gritting her teeth in rage.

"Then I will build a safety into the weapon. If my life ends it will shatter, if they use the weapon on any of my kin it will be obliterated. I will take what I have earned, whether they like it or not."

"She managed to coax the council into waiting one more day for the weapon's completion. That very night she cursed the weapon..."

Another depiction swirled onto the wall this one a mix of red and purple. Spell after spell struck the weapon, each time the weapon glowed hot white.

"The very next day she presented the weapon to the council. She lied about the weapons abilities and her curse she put upon it."

The walls swirled again, this time showing a mare presenting the Spear Of Sealing to the council on a golden rack. "Most gracious council, I present you with a weapon that can fell a dragon in a single blow. The Spear of Sealing." The depiction showed one of the council members picking up the spear, magical power immediately flowing into his body.

"This is incredible. How many more of these can you make?"

The mare shook her head. "That is the only one. The core is made from rare falling star fragments. Such fragments are only found every couple thousand years."

The council began to whisper among themselves. "Then how do we possibly kill hundreds of marauding dragons with a single spear?"

"Grab the bottom of the handle and slowly part the weapon."

The council member did as he was told, although with some skepticism. He slowly put one hoof at the bottom of the shaft and pulled. A thin piece of silver peeled off the side of the weapon, slowly inflating in size as it was pulled off. The council member stood there, shocked for a moment, not only becuase of the genius of the inventor but now he had two weapons that could fell the strongest creature in the land in a single blow.

"This is amazing. The copy feels just like the real thing although, not as ornate as the original."

Zecora's ancestor stepped up and bowed graciously. "The copies are tied to the mains power-source, they only last as long as the power in the spear is active but you can make as many as you need. Even if the weapon is damaged or broken you can make some copies, just so long as the power in the weapon doesn't fail." Zecora's ancestor looked pained as she bowed, almost as if she wanted to punch herself for leaving such a obvious flaw in it's design, that the council could possibly exploit the copying ability.

"I don't get it. If she was to be betrayed then why leave such a flaw in it in the first place." Zecora asked.

"She only had a single day my child. She only had enough to time to work in a few flaws, Not all of them. It is a oversight that would haunt her for the rest of her life."

The council members in the depiction waved a hoof to dismiss her. "We need to convene privately, you will return to your quarters while we debate...bonus pay for such a marvelous design. You are dismissed Alahla."

Alahla gave a short bow and exited the room, muttering to herself. "I just know I'm going to get stabbed in the back, but I will have the last laugh."

"So...a mare with this kind of magical knowledge. This level of craftsmanship even our top shaman cannot match" said the first councilman with a red dyed mane.

"I say we have her executed after the war. What if she starts selling these kinds of weapons to the lesser tribes?" said the councilman with the double tied beard.

"Or worse starts training other mares to become shaman themselves? We could have a revolt or a possible civil war on our hooves if she has that kind of talent." Said the councilman in the eye-patch, waving his forelegs in panic.

"Killing her outright would cause a revolt. She has already devised many new medical spells and has saved lives all across the borderlands. Stripping her of her proper reward could possibly do the same." said the councilman with the red mane.

"We could just accuse her of unlicensed shamanism. Mares are not legally allowed to be shamans within the central parts of the country." The councilman with the eye-patch said nervously.

"No, that would trigger a civil war almost immediately. The smaller tribes have sovereignty and fought hard to have shaman of all age groups and genders. We have not the horsepower or capital in the coffers to fight them all off, at least not while we are busy dealing with the dragons."

Each member of the council leaned back in their chairs, exasperated at how to best deal with the payment. "I think I have a solution. We grant her a larger quantity of land but at least three quarters of it by the Denbar badlands. We keep a watch on her and if she even makes any remote moves to seize more power we hire an assassin from one of the lesser tribes to kill her."

The other two councilman nodded their heads in agreement.

"We can also pay her only half her commission as well. No need to give a inferior mare that's not of any noble blood any large quantity of capital."

The councilman with the red mane stood up. "It's is agreed then. We grant her land that is worthless and reduce her pay from one ton of gold to one ton of silver." The other two councilman nodded their heads in agreement. The depiction slowly faded to black and Imani continued down the corridor to the next one.

Imani stopped at the next depiction before it appeared on the wall. "Any questions before we go further."

"Only one so far. Who made all of this? These moving drawings."

"When the weapon was created, Alahla made sure that the weapon would record every single pony that ever used it and every single word ever spoken around it. She also left instructions on the inside on how to go about destroying the weapon but modifications later on prevented some of those."

The next depiction began to form on the silver wall. This time of a audience between Alahla and the council.

"Alhala of the Wind Runners. We the council are impressed with your achievements and have set aside no less than eight hundred acres of land for your efforts. However due to constraints on our coffers from the war we have reduced the payment from one ton of gold to a ton of silver. Is this payment to your liking?"

"I expected more but I will accept this payment graciously. I can expect a caravan to deliver my worldly goods and the rest of my tribe to this new home?"

"That wasn't part of the agreement. Allow me to convene with the other two council members." The red maned councilman bent over to whisper in the other council members ear.

"She wants to move her entire tribe there? I don't understand. I'm sure she can read the map we presented her. That area barely has enough water supply for a couple dozen scouts, let alone the fifty members of her family."

"We should let her. It would only take a few bronze bars to transport them all. With any luck the elements will claim her and her bloodline. The last thing we need is a powerful 'mare' shaman to contend with."

The councilman with the eye-patch scratched at his nose. "Yes, the last thing we want is a foremost being born outside the main ruling families."

The three councilmen broke their little huddle. The councilman with the red mane clearing his throat to speak for them. "While that request was not in our original agreement the council is hard pressed to deny your request. We will have a caravan for you and your entire tribe assembled post haste."

"That you most honorable council. I hope to be of service in the future as well."

As Alahla turned her back to leave the room one of the councilmen whispered in the ear of the councilman with the red mane. "She thinks we are going to hire a commoner mare again? She must be silly in the head."

Alahla heard the whisper of course but she decided that a confrontation was not in her best interests and left the building without a so much as a peep.

"I want to know something mother, Why are we having a history lesson when my daughter could be in danger as we speak."

Imani sighed heavily. "Sight Seeker has stabilized a time freeze outside of these walls using his astral projection talents. On the other side of this cave others that are supporting his efforts are creating a pathway that connects to the core of the weapon. The history lesson is just to pass the time as we make our way there." Imani pointed to the next depiction that was coming into view. "In order to save everyponies future, we must learn from the past."

The depiction began to form slowly at first but sped up as the pair of Zebra approached. "This next part is twenty years in the future. Unbeknownst to the council, they accidentally granted her land with vast emerald deposits beneath the earth. Our ancestor knew this ahead of time thanks to a spying spell she put on the weapon."

The wall swirled with color and the form of a slightly older Alahla appeared on the wall, her body covered in a beautiful green dress. "Have the lesser tribes pledged their allegiance?"

A Hoof-maiden bowed graciously to Alahla. "Yes, they have all pledged their resources to the war. We have not yet heard back from the council though. I do not think they would adjudicate power to a ...what did you call it again?"

"A vote, all laws requiring a vote. A true democracy. I also remember telling you not to bow to me."

"I-I'm" The maiden hesitated. "I'm sorry. I am just so used to bowing before the council when I served them. It's also hard not to bow to a mare nicknamed 'The Emerald Queen' ."

Alahla poured herself and the maiden a glass of juice. "With any luck we will avoid a war and the council will wise up that all Zebra are equals. Power should not be dictated by birth but by what you do with the gift of life."

"But what if we lose?" The maiden said as her glass shook in her hooves. "They have been burning female shaman for months. The only reason they have let you be is becuase you have the power to fight back." The maiden hugged Alahla, much to her surprise. "I don't think I can bear the thought of losing you. You saved my sisters life when the shaman tribunal chased her to the boarders of your lands. You even killed them to save her..." The maiden hunched over Alahla's shoulder, crying profusely.

Alahla pulled the mare off her shoulder and held face, her eyes meeting the maidens. "I know what it was like to be persecuted as a young one. If the council knew that I was born...different then I would have surely been hunted, possibly killed myself. I don't want that kind of world anymore, I want the burnings and the claims of heresy to stop. That is why we must fight."

The pictures on the wall began to swim, leaving Zecora speechless. "Y-you said the spear records memories. How can it re-"

"She had her ways. If the council ever figured out she was spying on them and the weapon was spying on her then history would have been very different." Imani continued down the hall, not too far away was the exit from what Zecora could tell.

"This next depiction is a long one. I suggest we both take a seat."

Zecora and Imani sat down next to each other, the depiction on the wall beginning to swirl. "Watch very carefully my child, none of what you are about to see was in any history book."

The picture swirled until a vivid display of fire was on the wall. Two ponies standing opposite each other, each ready to strike the other down. On one side was Alahla, brandishing a sword made of silver and encrusted with emerald. On the other side was something far more frightening. A stallion with deep battle scars, a crooked jaw, deep black eyes and a red cape; the heresy inspectors symbol stitched in the back of it.

"Brennen the Red?" Zecora said aloud. She remembered reading about the atrocities he committed in the name of the council but no one knew what happened to him or how a once pleasant chemist became a sociopathic killer.

"Shhh, just watch. This is too important to miss."

Alahla stepped forward. "I ask you one more time. Drop the weapon, the modifications you and the council made to it are unjust and corrupting. This isn't the real you!"

"Is it? The council entrusted me to hunt down and kill every last witch I could find. They entrusted their greatest weapon to me, a simple chemist. To be a great destroyer must be what I was destined to become. Every time I draw power from this spear I feel strong, unstoppable. How can something which makes me feel so good be bad?"

Alahla shook her head. "This isn't what you are Brennen. What happened to the chemist I used to work with?"

"It doesn't matter. After I absorb your soul I will become the most powerful stallion to ever live. Ironic isn't it, that you will be killed by the very weapon you created." Brennen slid the spear off the ground, the tip becoming a Trident. "I think the councils modifications fit it well. Don't you agree?"

Brennen charged forward, the gleeful twinkle of murder in his eyes.

For Alahla it must have seemed like an eternity, as she watched her once close friend slip into the cracks of insanity. She quickly made a decision that would ultimately spell her own doom. The fire's licked her sides and singed her coat as she let the one thing; her weapon,the only thing that was saving her from death, drop to the ground.

Zecora watched as the tips of the trident sunk into her ancestors flesh. The mare standing her ground, being pushed back ever so slightly as her own blood ran down the shaft and onto the hooves of the very monster she unwittingly helped create. Alahla coughed up some blood, a fresh stream of tears running from her eyes. She reached a hoof up to the shocked Brennan's face.

"I deserve damnation and much worse for what my creation has done to you and everypony else. I just hope my death is enough to fix what I wrought on this land."

Brennen looked shocked as if he had suddenly snapped out of a dream. "Alahla...wh-what have I done? Why am I..."

Alahla put her hoof to her once close friends face. "Be free...my friend..."

The trident began to glow hot white, cracks forming along the shaft of the weapon. The ground began to quake beneath them, flashes of lightning flying off the weapon as the defense mechanism she imbedded in it so long ago triggered.

Brennen let go of the trident and lunged at Alahla. "No, please don't die. You didn't deserve this!"

The depiction on the wall began to distort, followed by a flash of light as the Spear of Sealing shattered into three parts.

Zecora and Imani sat silent for a moment, both staring at the wall.

"So, what happened to Brennen? Alahla? The history books tell nothing of what happened to them. Also why did Brennen's demeanor change when he struck Alahla. I just don't..."

Imani stood up, adjusting her scarf as she walked ahead. "Follow me, there are a few more things about the weapon that were not recorded on that wall."

"Like?" Zecora said as she followed along.

"Originally Alahla put a spell on the weapon to make the warrior that wielded it take more risks, fight harder, amplifying his rage and combat potential if you will. The councils modifications were haphazardly done by whatever fool shaman they could muster after Alahla settled into her new home."

"They changed the basic properties of it?" Zecora asked.

"The weapon began to take in the atmosphere around it. It took in the thoughts and dreams of the wielder and amplified them, feeding them back into the pony wielding it. In Brennen's case the corruption was intentionally pushed on him."

"I read that Brennen was nothing more than a simple chemist. How did he go from being one of the brightest ponies of his time to a emotionless killing machine?"

"I'll answer that question once...well, you will see." Imani finished coyly.

"But I-" Zecora walked outside of the cavern and into a large platform. A couple ponies were busy trying to get some kind of device working. On the other side Zecora could see a mostly shattered but still serviceable group of floating platforms all heading up in a spiral toward a deep blackness in the sky.

Imani walked toward the group of ponies and pulled one aside. He had a yellow -tan coat, brown eyes, a herb pouch hanging from his side and purple beret. The two ponies talked for a moment before walking toward Zecora, the yellow one with his head down.

"May I introduce you to Brennen the Red" Imani proclaimed.

"Please don't call me that. My born name is Brennen Whitegrass, you know how much I hated that name." Brennen said with some pity in his voice.

Zecora couldn't believe her eyes. This couldn't possibly be THE Brennen the Red. He was much smaller, lacked the scars and angry disposition. He seemed mild mannered, intelligent and well spoken. Attributes Brennen the Red only had before his corruption.

"I know it's hard to believe but I am the monster you saw on that wall, or at least I was." Brennen shuffled uncomfortably.

"I will leave you two alone, I must help with the bridge device." Imani patted Brennen on the shoulder and joined the other ponies on the other side of the platform.

Brennen stood there, silent for a moment before speaking up. "Listen, I know Imani wants me to tell you what happened but I really don't like thinking about that time in my life. I barely even remember what it was like."

Zecora sat on her haunches, staring attentively. "Something happened with this weapon we are in. I won't judge you, but I must know."

Brennen sighed and scratched behind his head. "My first contact with the spear was when I was approached by a high court shaman. He needed someone of a chemist or alchemist back-round to stabilize some recent modifications to the weapon. According to him I came highly recommend despite my commoner status. He promised me riches, mares and power if I could stabilize the weapon."

"I take it that this was a chance of a lifetime?" Zecora asked.

"I couldn't pass it up. My shop was suffering from a recent stock crash and the amounts they were offering were irresistible. I accepted gladly and got to work on the weapon, thinking of all the prestige and respect i would earn if i was successful."

"Things didn't work out as planned though?"

"On the contrary, the spells they cast on the weapon were fairly easy to stabilize...except one. There was a spell that affected the users mental state and when I went to stabilize the spell it backfired on me and made the affect far more pronounced. I presented the weapon a few days later feeling under the weather, like all my frustrations were being rebounded and amplified by the weapon. The Statesman that ordered my services said it wouldn't be a issue when he picked it up but mentioned a I would not be paid unless I gave a demonstration the next day."

"You agreed to kill somepony with it?" Zecora said, surprised.

"No, perish the thought. I prepared a flash copy dummy of myself to be used as an example. After I finished the copy I decided to treat myself to a night on the town and met the most beautiful mare I have ever laid eyes on. She was a shaman, a highly illegal profession for a mare to have but alluring all the same. I treated her to dinner after she finished her magic show in the square when some royal guards with a chip on their shoulders decided they were short their arrest quota for the month and started to hassle her for 'favors'."

"What kind of favors?"

Brennen's face flushed red for a second. "Those kinds of favors." Brennen cleared his throat to continue. "When she refused they tried to arrest her on the ground that she was a mare shaman."

"What did you do?"

"I intervened, I pushed one of the pigs off of her and yelled 'stay off my wife!'

"You lost me. She was your wife or...?

"No, no, just the accusation of another stallion trying to commit infidelity forced or otherwise was a serious crime. Throw in the fact that I could afford a far better lawyer than either of them becuase of terrible guard pay and they both backed off."

"And the mare?"

"The mare, Eleena thanked me. She even went home with me that night and well..."

"You don't need to get that specific I don't think" Zecora said while holding up her hoof in objection.

"I do." said a very low and sensual voice from behind Zecora. "I rode him so hard that he couldn't feel feelings by the time I was done."

Zecora turned around. One of the ponies that was at the group by the edge had approached them. She was a Zebra of very athletic stature, the kind of mare that would be tough competition even for ponies like Spitfire to compare to. She had a red sash over her chest that formed into a eloquent yellow and red toga and a pair of jade rings hanging from her hips.

"Zecora, let me introduce Eleena" Brennen said while blushing furiously.

"I'll take it from here Bren." Eleena said while pointed at the group of ponies by the edge. "They need your help."

Brennen bowed graciously and headed over to the small crowd of ponies by the edge.

"Why did you interrupt him?" Zecora asked.

"This...next part really breaks his heart. I want to spare him the regret of having to relive it again. Besides, I know most of what happened from where he left off."

"Then please continue, if you would be so kind."

"The night we mated I got up while he was still asleep to get something to drink but when I got downstairs there was somepony else in the house besides Brennen. I couldn't find any candles so I cast a simple light spell to illuminate the intruder. It was one of the guards from earlier, looting Brennen's safe of all the jems and gold he acquired."

Eleena sighed. "I should have known the other one was close by by. I fired a cage spell at him only to be hit really hard in the back of the head by his cohort. The last thing I remembered was being carried off by one of them. I woke up sometime later in the royal dungeon, strapped into a four winds torture device."

"Brennen didn't wake up from the commotion?"

"No, he sleeps like a brick. After a couple hours of trying to free myself from the torture device I was approached by grand inquisitor Galfar."

Zecora put her hoof over her mouth, trying to stifle a gasp.

"I see you have read about him, the 'breaker'. He was well known for keeping a coin on him. He would flip it to determine the punishment for mare shaman. Heads was one hundred lashings and set free with a fine, tails was a week of whatever torture he could think up and if you died he just wrote it off as 'prisoner sickness'." Eleena finished her sentence with the greatest disgust in her voice.

"Somepony must have gotten under his coat that day. He didn't even bother to flip the coin. He..he...Oh." Eleena looked extremely uncomfortable trying to relive what had happened to her. "He bound my midsection down with rope and cast a spell that he was well known for, what earned him his nickname." Eleena tried to hold back the tears in her eyes. "He put it in me, slowly at first, probably to give me a false sense of security. What happened next is a pain like I had never experienced before. His hoof was burning underneath my coat, like a cut but without breaking skin. It was like he was raking my nerves."

"I know what you mean. The grand inquisitors torture techniques are well documented." Zecora said compassionately.

Eleena wiped a tear from her eye, looking as if she wanted to stop but continued on. "He kept me down there for hours, raking down my back until I eventually blacked out but he wouldn't even give me that small comfort. He cast a spell on me to keep me wide awake as he broke all my limbs from stretching, healed all my wounds and broke me again. I remember nearly him ripping at my midsection, like I was a fresh salad. He kept on laughing saying how it was so long since he had such a gorgeous mare to break."

"This must have been before he developed his 'other' technique, the one that eventually killed him. I remember he moved on to raping his victims until they died. A very horrible death indeed."

"I heard that as well, the only reason he didn't shatter my hips and kill me that way is becuase other guards were watching. If I was in his personal dungeon..." Eleena looked as if she couldn't take it anymore and leaned on Zecora, crying. "I should have died down there...but they healed me again but stripped me of my ability to speak or even move...what happened next was something that took me and Brennen a long time to forgive one another for."

Zecora patted Eleena's mane, trying her best to comfort her.

"He whispered in my ear...that horrible pony said the only reason I was alive and not his sexual plaything is becuase he needed a new apprentice. I didn't know he meant Brennen, if I knew..."

"No, if you knew nothing would have changed. No pony in that time period could take the barbaric punishments he dealt out." Zecora wiped a tear from Eleena's face.

Brennen walked over, it looked as if he wanted to finish Eleena's story. "The day I woke up and found all my hard earned treasures missing and the mare I spent the night with gone is one I barely remember. I kept getting headaches whenever I got near the spear. I couldn't seem to let go of my anger. It just kept feeding it back into me."

Brennen kicked the ground. "The caravan to escort me to the council palace arrived a couple hours later but no matter what I did, I couldn't push the anger, the feeling of being possibly betrayed out of my mind. When I arrived at the palace they put me before the council to demonstrate the enhancements I had made to the weapon."

Eleena wiped a tear from her eye. "They brought me out, battered and without the strength to even speak. When I opened my eyes I saw Brennen before me. Ge was gritting his teeth from rage. The only thing I could hear was the grand inquisitors accusation that I stole his riches and the guard caught me but not my accomplice. I tried to use what little strength I had to defend myself but every time I tried to talk the inquisitor would twitch his eye, causing me great pain."

"I couldn't control myself." Brennen said as he brushed Eleena's mane. "I was so full of rage at what she had done that I had completely forgotten about how the spear was affecting my judgement." Brennen kissed Eleena on the forehead. "It's okay, I regret it too." Brennen hugged Eleena tightly.

"They asked me to demonstrate the weapons power by killing Eleena with it."

"He raised the weapon over his head and stabbed it into the floor" Eleena added.

"I managed to control my anger, but only just. When the council said she was also the pony responsible for the death of my younger sister a few months back, I snapped."

"His eyes went pitch black and he was bleeding from his teeth from all the anger. Even without the weapon in hoof it was still affecting him, like it was bound to him. The last thing I remember was him impaling me through the chest and holding me above him for all to see." Eleena looked at the ground somberly.

Brennen shook his head. "The next thing I remember was the end of the weapon sticking out of Alahla's chest. I had killed not only one of my best friends from chemistry school but over a hundred other innocent mares. Next thing I knew I was here after grabbing on to Alahla. We have been trapped here ever since."

Zecora tried to hold back her tears. She knew all about the atrocities committed with the weapon but never in such a first hoof manner.

"The bridge is ready!"

A beam of rainbow light fired from the end of the platform to the other side. "Come with me child, I can follow you as far as the twin spires."

Zecora walked toward Imani but couldn't shake the sad tale that was so vibrant in her mind. She turned back to Brennen and Eleena, the expression on her face no longer sad but determined. "I will find a way to free everypony, I promise you that."

The two looked at Zecora like this wasn't the first time anypony had promised them freedom. "We...don't give our hopes up. Many shaman have tried and failed to find a way out. Imani has been trying ever since she got here...but I guess I should let her tell you that."

Zecora gave the pair a hug and walked over the bridge to the other side where Imani was waiting for her. "I have a few things to tell you before we reach the spire and most importantly how to possibly destroy the center power source and free everypony from this eternal prison."

Zecora's mind was racing with so many unanswered questions. Why was her mother here? Does the spear affect everypony in the same way? "Mother, how did you come to be trapped here?"

Imani flushed red for a moment. "It was somewhat an embarrassing event. I came across the hidden tomb during a geological survey where the emerald queen, Alahla, had once set up camp. I was flipping over some rocks for sediment samples when I came upon a tunnel. I asked my travel guide if he knew of this tunnel but he barely spoke my language and decided to ignore me."

"You went into the tunnel alone? That doesn't seem like something you would normally do."

"I initially thought that it was just a deer hovel but when I entered it i noticed glyphs on the wall. I looked back and I could see that there was something that looked like transparent dirt. Like the entrance to the tunnel was guarded with an illusion of some sorts."

"And yet you still decided not to come back with an expedition?" Zecora said curtly. "I do not remember you being so reckless."

"If you had read the glyphs that I read you would have been reckless as well. It was the tomb where Alhala's children had hidden the fragments of the spear."

Zecora stopped for a moment. "What kind of ancestor of mine hides a weapon that can give you near godlike powers in a hole in the ground and leaves glyphs for anypony to read. I am beginning to think my distant relatives were all drinking lead wine."

Imani giggled to herself as she walked ahead. "No, the glyphs told me that a spell had been put on the tunnel and only ponies of her direct bloodline could see though the illusions. It didn't take me long to find the holding chamber of the weapon. My first instinct was that this belong in a museum but after using my abilities I found something..."

"All the trapped souls in this place?"

"Yes, I managed to communicate with a... very special pony."

"Was it one of the shaman trapped inside?" Zecora asked.

"Oddly enough, no. For some reason Shaman were blocked from the inside, most possibly a curse put on the weapon by the council before Brennen stabilized it. The pony I talked to was a blue Pegasus with an astounding power. The power of astral projection."

"You mean Sight Seeker?"

Imani nodded her head."Yes, he had been using his powers for years to allow ponies to project outside the weapon but was too untalented in his skills to project them any further than the holding chamber of the weapon. He told me about some glyphs on the wall that gave very specific instructions on how to destroy it."

"Then why is this weapon still intact? How come Maskia got a hold of it?"

Imani sighed "When a foremost has a child within the first few days certain powers the mother once held are permanently transferred over to the child, even if the child never becomes a shaman these powers are eventually transferred over to the next offspring until a foremost effect is triggered."

"I don't understand. I was never a foremost." Zecora said as scratched her mane.

"No but certain powers were delegated to you. It was your power alone that could break this weapon. The other way was by brute force from dozens of other shaman from our tribe."

"So you failed in your spell, that doesn't explain why you are here." Zecora said,frustrated.

"I...kind of tried to move the weapon, slipped on some root sap and impaled my hoof on the tip of the spear."

Zecora stopped for a moment, she didn't know whether to feel sorry or laugh. "I thought this weapon couldn't harm our bloodline. That doing so would break the spear."

Imani shook her head. "No, Alahla worded that part of the spell to work only it it is used against one of our family. There was never any spell to break it if the family member wanted to use it on themselves...or in my case be a clumsy fool."

The pair of ponies rounded a corner and came upon twin pillars with crystal Zebra on the top.One blue and the other yellow.

"There is a few things I still need to tell you before you go on. I originally didn't want to get you involved and after a couple years of training I was able to get a hold of my mother using Sight Seekers astral projection powers near a spring by her home."

"Why?" Zecora asked. "I thought-"

"I opted for a brute force approach but...I chose poorly. It was little more than a week after Maskia found the spear that it began to feed on the worst parts of her personality."

Zecora looked as if she didn't believe Imani.

"Yes, yes I know. Your grandmother had always been a bit of a bigot and set in her ways but the weapon amplified it and funneled it right back into her. Sight Seeker told me that it was tearing at her sanity, making her crave power, taking the worst parts of her and burying the good."

"So, what you are telling me is Maskia is just another victim?"

"A non-redeemable one I'm afraid. The last communication I had with Maskia was a couple of years before Sight Seeker and his friend had the ability to search for you. She was entirely unhinged, begging for me to find a way to free myself, she didn't want anything to do with the spear. The next day I couldn't get a hold of her, in our panic we got some relatives from the border patrol to steal and hide the fragments but...the weapon chose Maskia as its new master."

I brief silence fell between the two. "When you reach the top all you need to do is touch the power source. The glyphs on the wall mentioned it could be safely destroyed in that manner."

Zecora sat on her haunches, deep in thought. "So... Maskia will die if I free us?"

Imani shook her head in disappointment. "She will but you must not hate her for what she has become. Her soul is still untainted but her body and mind are a lost cause."

"I can't just up and forgive her mother. She raised a weapon on my mate and my daughter, she has killed hundred of innocents, nearly butchered Luna and has even killed children. Forgiveness is not something I just give away."

"If you don't then ...well, I will let the pillars handle that." Imani began to walk away, her head dropped in disappointment. "In order to properly destroy this weapon you must have no hatred in your heart. The pillars there are there to test that."

"Then why don't you go though it then. Why did you push everything on me!"

"I'll show you why."

Imani approached the center of the pillars. The eyes on both statues began to open and stare at her as she walked by. However when Imani reached the other side her transparency began to ripple, parts of her scarf began to blow away. Imani backed up to the other side of the pillars, her body stabilizing as she passed them.

"I...what...?"

"The council modified the weapon to use souls as a power source but needed a pony of our bloodline to removed the restrictions on it. Alahla never removed those restrictions but it doesn't mean a soul can wander wherever they wish in this place. If I kept on going I would cease to exist in this or any other reality."

"And this won't happen to me?"

"You have a body to protect it. I won't tell you the trek up will be painless or without danger but I will tell you this: If you fail to reverse the spell at the top of this landing or fail at those two pillars then everyone here will be free but everyone outside will be very dead."

Zecora looked as if she had eaten Sweetie Belle's cooking. "What do you-"

"You have as long as you need to think things over. I need to return to my living quarters and help Sight Seeker with his-"

ummm Imania, ma'am?

The voice of Sight Seeker echoed about the chamber.