The party of five, consisting of a nerd, a fashion designer, a pregnant mare, an autistic and a baby monster, delved deeper and deeper into the cavernous and freezing trial set before them. The air around them slowly became colder and colder to the point where hot drinks just about had no effect anymore. If they stayed down there, they would freeze to death. Fortunately, by a stroke of pure luck, they found a small heat-pocket. They decided to rest there until they warmed up.

"I never thought it would have been this cold" Unity said before turning to her pet Lagombi "George, hug me! Make me warm!"

The baby rabbit snuggled closer to the pregnant mare and made her and her own baby very warm. Unity sighed with a smile as she too cuddled up with her pet for extra warmth.

"Unity, how much farther is the final seal?" Twilight asked "We've been walking for a while."

"Well, there were a lot of seals" the dark grey Unicorn recalled "But if memory serves, we shouldn't be too far now. If anything, that scale around your neck would glow the closer we get to the seal."

"Do you know that for a fact?" the lavender hunter raised an eyebrow.

"Well... no..." Unity slightly blushed from embarrassment "But let's face it; half the stuff in Equestria glows when its brought near something important."

"She does have a point, darling" Rarity spoke up "Our cutie marks glow when they appear on our flanks. Our horns glow when we use magic. I'm sure just about everything glows."

"Do wings glow?" Bright Light suddenly said "That'd be so cool if my wings could glow!"

"I'm not exactly sure that-" Twilight began before being interrupted by a glowing golden light below her "Oh, yes, of course, because that makes sense..."

"I guess I wasn't too far off" Unity smiled devilishly before getting off George and back into a standing position "Well, I'm all warmed up and ready to go. I think we should get moving. I'm super curious as to what lies just after this!"

"I think we all are, darling" the white mare among the group said as she looked at Bright, who was bouncing everywhere around the heated room.

"Right, let's go" the purple maned mare nodded, following the light from the scale tied around her neck. The scale lead to the exit of the heat pocket, and from there the group merely followed the pathway downwards.

XXXXXX

Darker and darker, colder and colder the cave became. It proved to be a worthy test for the five. No more heat pockets appeared before them, and they had used all of their hot drinks. They just had to hold onto what they had left. George had snuggled underneath Unity's belly as to keep her foal warm. She appreciated the gesture, but she wasn't sure how long they would last by this point.

"This s-seal better b-be here sooner r-rather than l-later, Unity" Twilight spoke, slightly cross and very cold "I'm f-f-freezing c-c-cold..."

"R-Relax T-T-Twilight" the pregnant mare smiled weakly "W-W-We're almost th-th-there..."

"Th-This isn't f-f-fun anym-m-more..." Bright Light sighed as he used his wings to warm his face up.

"T-T-Took the w-w-words r-right out of m-m-my mouth, d-darling..." Rarity shivered.

"W-Wait" Unity perked up "I-Is it getting w-warmer to anypony?"

"Y-Yeah!" Twilight noticed it as well as she also saw something coming from the end of the large tunnel they were going through "And look! Light! Th-This tunnel is almost done!"

The five quickly rushed to the end of the cavern to finally feel the warmth of whatever room awaited them. The smiles on their faces grew larger and larger as they approached their destination. At long last, this gruesome journey would come to a close.

But that's what they originally thought.

The second they exited the cave into the rather large and icy room, they skidded to a complete stop. Their smiles turned into gaping mouths and their pupils shrank as they witness the thing right in front of them. It was turned around, but no one could forget the black scales and dark mist surrounding it. While all the ponies (plus one Lagombi) were either curious by the creature or completely terrified of it, Twilight was the one struck the most by fear. She knew what it was; it has followed her through her entire adventure. The dragon took out its wing arms and slammed them into the icy floor before using them to turn around. With all six of its limbs, it approached only Twilight until it was right dead in front of her, staring at her with its no eyes. She swallowed her fear and began to speak.

"Fancy seeing you here, Gore Magala" she looked dead into its face. The creature merely growled at her before opening up its mouth to attempt to eat her. Twilight braced for the worst until a voice called out behind the dark dragon.

"Hey you!" shouted Bright who had sneaked around the dragon and called it, to which the Gore turned "Yeah you! Big, fat and ugly! Come and get me, ya big wuss!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgojcdH3BJg

The Gore Magala turned around quickly, swiping the three ponies and one monster with its tail against the wall. The beast ran after the white stallion before taking off and dive bombing right into him. He managed to dodged the attack, which hit the ice instead, cracking it.

Twilight and Rarity turned to Unity who, unfortunately, got the worst of it. Her left eye was a shade of purple now and her front left leg looked broken. But the worst part was the huge gash across her belly. It wasn't deep enough to hurt the foal, much to the relief of the two hunters, but it was large enough to cause great pain to the dark grey mare.

"AAHHH!!" she cried in pain and fear for the well-being of her child "N-NO!"

"Shhhh, shhhh... I want you breath now, darling..." Rarity tried to comfort her by rubbing the part of her belly not wounded "The wound isn't large enough to hurt your foal, I promise."

As Rarity was busy trying to relax the mare, Twilight noticed a small puff of black dust around the scar left by the Gore Magala. It faded away so quickly that she was unsure if it was even there at all. But she could have sworn she saw it, and within it held horribly dark powers.

"Twilight, deal with that... thing" the white mare caring for the injured soon-to-be mother said as she pointed at the black dragon currently being distracted by Bright Light "I'll help Unity" she took the dark grey mare and began walking her out of the room. Twilight turned to the Gore Magala and took out her insect glaive with her magic, swung it around a bit and aimed it straight at the dragon.

"Hey you!" she shouted, making it turn around to face her "I'm the one you want!"

The dark creature let out a horrifying screech and extended its purple horns at the lavender mare, making her slightly flinch. She quickly got back into posture though.

"Alright, that's new" she said in slight amazement before going back to her original scowl "But you hurt my friends, and now you're going to pay the price!"

The beast charged straight at Twilight and attempted to crush her with its giant arms. She rolled out of the way to avoid them and was currently behind it. It quickly turned around and roared at her again. By this point, the purple maned hunter was in the centre of the room. Seeing this, the Gore Magala flung itself into the air and shot its body straight at Twilight. She was knocked back from the force of the hit, but got back up quickly to see that it had cracked the ice below it.

(Music stop)

It stopped to stare deep into the cracked ice before letting out a growl that sounded like it was laughing. Twilight, soon joined by Bright Light, was confused on why it would laugh at something as meaningless as breaking ice. Her thoughts were interrupted when it extended its wings again and flew upwards at the speed Rainbow Dash would usually go, shattering any ice in its way and letting down a ray of sunlight onto the area. It was already morning, which meant a certain light blue Pegasus would be searching for his wife right now.

That was the least of her concerns though. What she was more focused on was the cloud of black dust seeping into the cracks of the ice. Something was below the room.

"Of course" Twilight sighed "Every time I want to get something done, the Gore Magala comes around and infects something for me to fight. Well, at least it can't be any bigger than a Dire Miral-" the ground below her shook violently "What the? Is it actually something giant after all?"

"This is gonna be so exciting!" Bright Light squealed with excitement.

"Quite the contrary!" Twilight shouted as the rumbling got louder and louder.

"What does that mean?" the white Pegasus asked curiously. Just as Twilight was about to answer, the cracked ice burst and out flew a gigantic monster aimed to landing right on top of the two hunters. They quickly ran out of the way to avoid the heavy and loud stomp of the beast. After it landed with booming thud on the surprisingly stronger ice, it turned around to reveal itself to Twilight and Bright.

It was large for starters, and it was covered in light grey scales presumed to be harder than diamond. It had a long, thick tail which to hit things with, forelegs larger than its back ones and protruding scales of the same colour coming out its back. But its most defining features were its giant shovel-like chin and glowing red eyes. After a while, it got up on its hind legs and let out an ear-shatteringly loud roar, forcing the two hunters to cover their ears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM57mErVM7Y

Once the roar subsided, the beast smashed its forelegs down onto the ice, finally cracking it and sending the ponies flying across the ice from the force of the shock wave. Once they got up, Twilight took the time to analyze the monster before them.

"It's a Ukanlos..." she stared at the monster in awe "I've heard about them in my books, but they're pretty rare. I've read they're very powerful, yet not strong enough to be considered an Elder Dragon. They're forces of nature not to be reckoned with..."

"...let's kill it!" Bright said with a smile after a short pause.

"WHAT?! Are you-" the lavender Unicorn shouted at the white stallion, but he was already off, to which she sighed "I guess we're killing it then... Wait for me!"

The behemoth monster stared right at the hunters before standing on its hind legs again and opening its mouth before letting out a high-pressured beam of icy wind at them. The beam struck the ice floor and forced the hunters back again, albeit only slightly this time. Once the beam stopped, the Ukanlos stomped back down onto the ice and flung them back once more.

"We can't even get close to that thing..." huffed Twilight as she got up from the ice yet again.

"Then we don't have to!" grinned Bright as he brought out his gunlance and fired a shell at the Ukanlos's head. He laughed as he thought of all the damage he could do with this weapon. His mood reversed as soon as the shell bounced off its body, leaving it unfazed.

"Uh oh..." he said before running off to where Unity and Rarity were hiding away from the creature.

"Oh, yeah, thank you! That really helps!" Twilight shouted sarcastically at the fleeing pony before turning back to the Ukanlos "Alright big guy. You want to play by your rules? Then lets play by your rules then!"

Twilight immediately ran forward with her glaive in her magical grasp at the beast, flinging her Kinsect at the Ukanlos's belly. The bug managed to bite into it, signaling its underside was softer and therefore easier to deal damage to. The purple insect friend of Twilight's came back to her and gave her a defense buff. Feeling stronger, she continued to charge right at the beast. However, before she could get close enough to hit it, it began digging into the ice and charged at her from underneath. Only its back scales protruded from the floor as it dug its way toward the lavender mare, who had stopped to quickly turn around and run for her life.

"Hold on, darling!" Rarity, who had come out from the cave exit, shouted before firing a barrage of flaming arrows in the direction of the Ukanlos. While they merely bounced off, the beast came to a complete stop to jump out of the ice and stare right at the white Unicorn. She made a mad dash to make it stare at her and not at the cave which she just came from, where the injured Unity was.

"Rarity, what are you doing out here?!" Twilight asked in a tone of both confusion and slight anger.

"Well I couldn't leave you to fight this alone, Twilight" she reasoned with her bookworm friend.

"What about Unity?"

"Oh, Bright Light is taking care of her. What a darling stallion he is."

"Rares, he has ADHD" deadpanned the lavender mare "Are you sure that was a wise idea?"

Rarity was about to answer her, but the Ukanlos staring at them made the first move. It dug its chin into the ground only to flip them back up, with it three huge chunks of ice headed straight for the two. They dodged out of the way just in time to avoid the approaching ice destined to either crush them or freeze them.

"There must be a way to hurt it, darling" Rarity said "But what could we use? Our weapons would bounce right off of it, and any softer spot we found would result in taking far too long to rid of it."

Twilight frantically looked around the large room covered in ice and snow. She then noticed that under the ice were the same old ruins she saw when fighting the Gigginox not a few hours prior. Searching further, she noticed the large and spiky needle-like weapon protruding from the frozen arena. It was a Dragonator, and by the looks of it, it might still be functional.

"There!" she pointed at the Dragonator, gaining her fashion designer friend's attention "That Dragonator might still be usable! If we can get the Ukanlos close enough, we could either shoot out the Dragonator or impale it into the Ukanlos."

"Um... May I ask, what is a Dragonator, darling?" Rarity asked "You mean that large spike from the ice?"

"Yeah, that!" Twilight nodded

"Darling," the white Unicorn tried to reason "I'm not exactly sure if it'll work after however long this place has been hidden from us."

"Do you have another idea?" the lavender mare questioned, to which Rarity let out a defeated sigh and shook her head "Okay then. You distract it and I'll... Well, I'll improvise."

"Wait, darling!" the purple maned fashion designer shouted at her friend who was currently rushing forward to 'improvise', to which the former sighed again "Wasn't she the one calling Bright back not a few moments ago? No matter. I suppose I have to distract it now..." she too ran off to try and gain the monster's attention.

As Rarity waved her front hooves up in the air to distract the Ukanlos, Twilight saw an opportunity to jump onto its back. Once she did with the power of her insect glaive, her plan came to a complete stop. Now what was she supposed to do?

"TWILIGHT!!" the white mare shouted at her friend in fear and anger "What in the lord's name are you doing?!"

"I HAVE NO IDEA!!" she shouted back, struggling to stay on the Ukanlos. Finally, she managed to find a way to tilt the monster in the direction of which she wanted it to go. She made it slowly approach the Dragonator, much to all the struggling it did to shake her off its back. Finally, it was right next to the weapon, but Twilight had no idea how to effectively kill it. Of course, there was an answer for everything. She took a hold of her glaive and dug it slightly into the monster's thick skull before dragging its head down onto the spike, impaling its brain and killing it instantly. Gore spew out the top of its head, a bloody Dragonator following soon after.

(Music stop)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv8-Pz0p_K8

"Twilight, you did it!" Rarity smiled in glee as the lavender Unicorn came down from the body of the creature, embracing her in a hug "Never do that again, okay darling?"

"S-Sure, Rarity..." Twilight let out a gasp for breath, signalling the white Unicorn to stop the hugging.

"My apologies, Twilight" she professionally spoke right after letting go of her friend "I was just so excited to see you safe and uninjured."

"Speaking of injuries," the purple maned bookworm remembered "I think it's time we see how Unity is faring. I'm not exactly sure how well she'd last with Bright Light as company."

(Music stop)

XXXXXX

Unity sat in a corner, taking deep breaths through her nose as Bright treated her wounds. He smiled kindly as he gently rubbed a potion on her belly, making the mare feel slightly uncomfortable but certainly better than before. He finally wrapped a bandage around her back and abdomen to seal the wound before lightly rubbing the uninjured parts of her enlarged midsection.

"Like Rarity said, the wound isn't too deep" the white Pegasus surprisingly calmly spoke "Your foal is totally safe and you should be too. Be sure to get plenty of rest and don't go out trying to unlock ancient seals in the future until this little rascal is out, okay?"

"O-Okay..." Unity smiled "But, wait... Don't you have ADHD?"

"I do" he replied simply and nodded "But, that doesn't mean I can't recognize when somepony is hurt or in trouble. That's why I'm usually the medic when I go on hunts with other ponies; I know my medicine, and I can be funny as well."

"There you guys are!" Twilight came into the cave, followed by Rarity "We defeated the Ukanlos, so you can come out now."

"Darling, did you bandage Unity up?" Rarity asked as she saw the pregnant mare treated belly.

"Yeah, he did" the dark grey Unicorn smiled as she rubbed her abdomen filled with her foal "He's actually a pretty good doctor."

"Yeah! I'm a doctor!" Bright saluted in joy before he packed his healing items up "Now, with my special, super-duper permission, I will allow you to do one last thing before you take plenty of rest."

"Right, I'm on it" Unity slowly got back up from her resting position to open the final seal. She politely asked Twilight for her necklace, to which she gave it to her. The pregnant mare smiled and took the scale with her magic before she and the others, including George, headed out towards the large area where the carcass of the Ukanlos lay. Underneath the impaled monster and the Dragonator now covered in blood was a door that Twilight was surprised she hadn't seen prior. But what was taking her attention the most was the bright glowing coming from the Gore Magala scale. Soon after, the door began to glow as well.

"Well, I suppose everything DOES glow in Equestria..." Twilight finally understood her homeland's biggest cliche ever. She continued to watch the scale and door glow brighter and brighter until, at long last, the door's light faded away, and with it the door itself. Behind the door (now said four times in this paragraph) was a surprisingly not icy room. It was small and circular, and in the centre was a weapon resting on a pedestal. It was long and golden with two pointed sides and a handle in the centre with a brace on one side of said handle. A blue colored blade surrounded the two ends and brace.

"A weapon?" Rarity wondered "But, it's unlike anything I've ever seen before..."

"The shape, the handle..." the lavender Unicorn analyzed the new-found staff "This is an insect glaive, like my weapon. But, that means Luna didn't make it. Somepony else, somepony very ancient created it first. Either way, this thing will help me defeat the Gore Magala and finally bring peace to Equestria."

"Yeah, you're welcome by the way" Unity laughed a bit, making Twilight blush from embarrassment.

"Oh, sorry I-"

"Twilight, it's okay" she chuckled some more "I think saving the world should come before a thank you. Now take it and take out that bastard for nearly killing my foal and terrorizing Equestria!"

"Don't have to tell me twice!" nodded the purple maned Unicorn before taking the legendary weapon with her magic and placing it on her back with her other glaive "Alright, let's go and-"

"Have a word with Unity's husband..." said a rather cross voice from behind them. All five of them turned around to see that Rage Quit and his team of six hunters all clothed in Khezu armour had followed them into the depths of the Frozen North. The light blue Pegasus, still in his cast but rather unfazed by it now, was wearing his armour and switch-axe on his back. He was also extraordinarily cross with his wife for going out into the wild and risk getting her and their foal seriously injured. However, he did his best to contain his anger as he was in front of both his troop and his wife.

"R-Rage Quit!" nervously laughed the dark grey mare "Heheh... What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just curious as to where my pregnant wife had gone when I couldn't find her in her bed when I woke up" Rage Quit said, his voice calm yet still very angry "Wanna know how angry I was when I learned she went out into the Frozen North with our unborn child?"

"Ragey, I can explain!" hastily spoke Unity before being stopped by Twilight.

"Rage Quit, don't blame her" she sighed "I dragged her into this... She said she could open the door to something that could save Equestria from the Gore Magala! Of course, I agreed and we went out together."

"Darling, don't blame yourself; I was the one who never stopped this foolishness" Rarity spoke up "If I did, we would have still been at your home, Unity and the foal completely out of harm's way."

"No, it was I who did it!" Bright Light shouted "Wait, what are we talking about again?"

George simply made a cute growling noise, rolling around on the ice and making all of the ponies present make a 'd'aww' noise. Rage got back into a cross expression once the d'aww-ing was over with.

"I should arrest all of you, save for Unity" the light blue Pegasus said in a rather cold tone "However, I won't, because one; I would never arrest the ponies who not only saved my life, but protected my wife from certain danger, and two; I'm not the police, I don't have that right."

"Rage Quit, we are forever in your debt" bowed Rarity.

"Hey, no problem" he smiled "But you all know you're still in huge trouble, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Big time..."

"Vast amounts..."

"A little..."

XXXXXX

After the team got the five out of the temple, passing the dead Gigginox body and Tigrex carcass missing a head until they finally reached the Crystal Empire. Rage Quit dismissed his team back to their posts before taking Twilight, Unity, Rarity, Bright and George back to his and his wife's house to talk with them. He sat them all down on his couch, where they all saw that his eyes weren't as intense before, but Unity has seen them slightly less angry. All in all, he wasn't impressed.

"What were you thinking, Unity?" he finally spoke after a long pause "You could have gotten you and the foal killed! Yeah, stuff about saving the world and stuff, right? I don't care! You and that child are, without a doubt, the most important things to me. To hell with the world! If I know that you two are safe, I can sleep easy!"

"Rage Quit, please!" Unity argued back "You're beginning to act like your father!"

The light blue stallion took a long pause before finally letting out a sigh.

"...You're right" he finally spoke "I'm sorry... It's just, if something happened to you, I don't think I could continue living. You know I love you, both of you. I just never want anything to happen to you two..."

The pregnant mare simply smiled before getting up and giving her husband a hug, then a quick kiss on the lips. Rage began to hug back before softly crying. Unity patted him on his back.

"There, there..." she softly spoke "Don't cry, baby..."

"Thanks, honey..." he sniffed before letting go of the embrace and looking back at the other four, sniffing once more to act more professional and not a complete wreck "Now, as for you lot, while I'm not particularly impressed by your reluctance to stay here and keep Unity out of harm's way, I AM grateful that you did such a good job protecting her. You have my thanks."

"You're welcome, Mr. Quit!" Bright beamed.

"Second," Rage Quit cleared his throat and raised his voice "who the hell are you?!"

"A friend, Ragey" Unity calmed her husband down "He helped me when I was injured. He's a good stallion.

"Oh..." the light blue Pegasus calmed down "Sorry..."

"Quite alright, sir!" the white stallion smiled.

XXXXXX

It was at long last time to head home. Only one problem; Twilight had no idea how to get back home. The carrier Rathian had gone back to Dracoville, and, because of a raging Elder Dragon in the desert, no trains would be going through the city anytime soon. She sighed in her seat at the train station. Joining her was the to-be-mother and father, the autistic, the fashion designer and the pet that all played an important role in her adventure so far.

"I have no idea why the train isn't coming..." Rarity pondered "Perhaps it's merely late?"

"Yeah, by an hour..." Unity sighed.

"Well, funny you should mention that..." nervously chuckled Twilight "You see, I kinda-"

Her sentence was interrupted by a loud horn that blew from a distance. The group looked around to eventually see a ship sailing towards them. It was wooden, but had platforms on its sides, a large mast with a silk sail attached to it and a hunting gong on its bow. But what got Twilight's attention the most was the familiar teal silhouette driving it.

"...Teal?" she guessed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63fpuamGJ3I

The ship, now recognized to the lavender mare as the Dragonship, pulled up to the train station and docked itself. The staircase to it came down and out hopped Teal Speck, in the flesh and blood. Following her was her younger sister, Sun Stone.

"Hey, babe!" she chuckled "Miss me?"

"Miss Twilight" Sun Stone now spoke a little more clearly "How are you doing?"

"Teal? Sun Stone?" Twilight was amazed by the sight of the two "What are you doing here?"

"Thought we could give you and your pals here a ride back to Ponyville" the teal Pegasus laughed "When I heard from good ol' Celly that you went and rode a carrier Rathian to get here, I couldn't leave you abandoned like that! I just had to swoop in and save the lovely damsel in distress."

"Since when have I been a 'damsel'?" Twilight smiled. She had missed her friend's unique personality.

"Since, like, forever!" Teal smiled "Now c'mon; we have a lot of work to do!" she turned to the others behind Twilight "You coming as well?"

"I suppose I shall..." Rarity said, still shocked by the appearance of the Dragonship.

"We'll stay" Rage Quit spoke for the rest of the ponies there "I think we've had enough excitement for one day."

"Well, fair enough" the slightly more mature Teal spoke before going back to her usual self "Now, who's ready to get hammered?!"

"But, sister, didn't you tell me that 'hammered' means to get drunk?" Sun Stone questioned her sister's choice of words, to which she merely let out a sigh and a smile.

"I know what I said, kiddo" she said "That's just me talking, okay?"

"Twilight, was this the mare you were speaking about earlier?" Rarity asked her bookworm friend.

"Yeah..." the lavender Unicorn said with a small smile "I guess she is..."

"All aboard the S.S. Funtime, bitches!!" Teal laughed before starting up the Dragonship's engines again, raising the sails and withdrawing the side platforms. The ship slowly began moving through the ground on its long voyage back to Ponyville. This was it; the final battle was about to unfold, and Twilight couldn't be more excited!

(Music stop)

Little did she know that this final battle would change her life forever...

Author's Notes:

Big ass chapter calls for big ass apology! I'm sorry for the rather lackluster frequency of these chapters. School and work had been hitting rather hard, but now that Easter is here, I have more time to write! YAY!!

So yes, this is the second-last chapter not including the epilogue or the possible bonus chapter. One more chapter remains. It's been a long ride guys, but we all knew it had to end eventually. But, I'm happy to announce that the next chapter will be the longest one yet. A lot of story means a lot of time, so this might take a while, but I promise it will be well worth it.

Comment down below if you want a sequel to this story! Basically, its eighteen years later. This means new faces, new towns, and, of course, new monsters. But I'm planning to spend more time developing my OCs in my sequel than in this story here. Character builds better stories, and better stories means I can please you all!

The new season of MLP comes out today! Is everyone excited?!

Be sure to Like, Comment, Favourite and Follow, and until then, happy hunting everyone.

Ukanlos was suggested by... Everyone. Seriously, everyone wanted me to put this asshole in my story. I almost didn't after the crap he pulled with me, but hey, a request is a request, right?

Oh, and this is what the ancient weapon looks like: