The sound of water dripping could be heard even where the ponies were standing as it echoed off of the cave walls. And despite the sunlight shining into the clearing through the hole left by the lack of trees, the mouth of the cave seemed pitch black save for a few stalagmites and stalactites jutting from the rock at the opening to the cavern, as if the large opening was a mouth full of sharp gnarled teeth.

Twilight and her friends couldn’t believe that such a structure could have been hidden so well in the forest without anyone from Ponyville discovering it. However awe inspiring the sight was, the purple unicorn had to force herself to stop gawking in wonder and amazement.

Rainbow Dash looked up to the sunlight streaming down into her face and squinted while shielding herself with a hoof. “Wow, sure is bright here… I guess they must be coming out at night. How big do you think that cave is?" The cyan mare asked curiously while observing the cavernous opening.

Twilight stared at the cave apprehensively. She was getting a bad feeling just from looking at the pitch black opening. Suddenly, the unicorn dawned on the fact that she would have to go inside of the cave. The realization made her break out into a cold sweat. She could feel her heartbeat speeding up and every muscle in her body becoming tenser.

As she noticed her friend growing more pale and nervous, Rainbow Dashing thought about what could have spooked the unicorn, and suddenly realized herself what they would be doing. “So w-what will we be looking for in there anyway?” Rainbow stammered slightly while gulping down the lump building in her throat.

“We will be checking for any signs of foul play. Darklings and dark matter appearing this suddenly seems to suggest that something else could be going on.” Tom explained somberly. The cyan pegasus seemed confused by the statement but thought about it for a moment anyway. She didn’t like where the human’s train of thought was going, but she felt compelled to ask him anyway.

“Something else… Like what? You don’t think somepony caused all this trouble do you?” Rainbow Dash asked apprehensively. The boy shrugged at the thought of someone intentionally bringing about all these problems for such a seemingly peaceful race.

“It’s definitely a possibility that someone could have done this on purpose, but we won’t know for sure by staying out here.” Tom stated with determination as he readied himself to charge headfirst into the foreboding cave.

As Tom walked toward the cavern, Twilight and Rainbow Dash gave each other a nervous look before turning and hesitantly following the human. Celestia let the boy lead the way into the dark cave as she stayed close to her two nervous charges.

Twilight stayed close to Tom and lit up her horn so the group could see in front of them. Celestia decided to light her horn as well to provide a larger comfort zone of light for Rainbow Dash, who stayed between her and the pair in front of them.

Regardless of the amount of light in the cave, a thick layer of shadows seemed to permeate the area around them. It was entirely pitch black outside of the radius of light provided by the two magic users, leaving only the echoed noises of water dripping and the ponies own minds to determine the size of the cavern. The only comfort the group had was the entrance of the cave being illuminated very brightly by the sun outside, but even this uplifting ray of light was quickly growing smaller as the group ventured further into the depths of the blackness.

Twilight tripped over one of the larger rocks that jutted out of the cave floor, causing the group to pause briefly as she regained her balance. The unicorn took this time to look around and try and make out any shapes around them that could indicate any walls or other such features of the cave.

Small streams of water seemed to flow past them and toward what Twilight hoped was the direction of the entrance, while drops of water seemed to fall into view from the blackness above, presumably coming off of the stalactites that were scattered on the ceiling somewhere above the group. A wall sat to her right side, with many cracks and uneven crevices permeating the damp gray rock. And to the unicorn’s surprise, she could make out a dim light coming from an area on the wall.

“What is this?” Twilight uttered barely loud enough for the others to make out as she leaned in closer. As her eyes adjusted to the shapes, she could make out small symbols inscribed into the rock. The symbols seemed to glow a dull shade of white that would easily have been missed had she not been right next to the area.

Tom noticed the unicorn inspecting the wall and crouched down next to her to see what she was looking at. “Whoa… Nice find there Twilight. What are they, though?” The human ran his fingers over the symbols while trying to analyze them. “Don’t seem to resemble any arcane glyphs I’m familiar with. Doesn’t even look like they belong to any ancient language I’ve seen before.” He scratched his head curiously as he compared the strange symbols to his memory of the arcane arts.

Twilight squinted while trying to get a better look at the strange glyphs. They seemed slightly familiar to her in a strange sort of way. It was like they were an altered version of something she had encountered before. “They look like symbolic writings of a magical spell.” The purple mare looked at the group, hoping they would understand her findings, but Tom seemed confused at the explanation given.

Rainbow Dash looked at the human with an understanding expression on her face. “Don’t feel bad Tom, this time you’re not the only one who’s clueless.” Rainbow gave him a pat on the back and shared in his confusion. The princess looked knowingly at the two as they tried to mull over the possible meaning in their own way.

“I’m not surprised Rainbow Dash. Not much on the subject of magic is taught to anyone other than unicorns.” Celestia reassured the pegasus that it was normal for her to be clueless about the topic.

Twilight sighed and tried to think of a way to simplify her knowledge of the subject for the two. She hoped that the human’s background as a slayer would help him to understand, but she wasn’t sure how well her pegasus friend would fare.

“Unicorns sometimes use symbols to help them learn how to use magic or perform spells that are new to them. We can use our magic to sort of read over the symbols to get a feel for how the spell is performed… It’s kind of hard to explain to anyone that isn’t a unicorn, so I’m sorry if that seems a little vague.” Twilight explained as clearly as she could to the pair. Both of them nodded, but she could only guess as to whether or not either of them comprehended her lecture.

The unicorn then returned to studying the symbols. She lit up her horn and moved across the glyphs to try and decipher their meaning in her head. But even with the knowledge of what they were, Twilight let out a grunt of frustration as she struggled to comprehend the odd glyphs. “Ughh… I can’t seem to translate these into anything sensible. It’s almost like they are either not finished, or written partly in some other language. And the small section I can read doesn’t look like any spell I know of, maybe you know what this goes to Princess?” Twilight stepped aside and pointed to the section of symbols she was referring to.

The princess stepped over to the wall and lit up her own horn before gliding across the wall and concentrating. After going over the entirety of the symbols, Celestia then ran over the section Twilight had identified a few times to see if she could figure out their meaning. “No, I’m afraid I can’t understand these either. This section here reads like a spell for gathering energy, but I can’t decipher enough of it to make any sense of what its purpose is.” The alicorn frowned as she shook her head in defeat. The group decided to move on and keep exploring, whilst keeping an eye open for any other symbols that could be littering the walls of the cave.

The darkness of the cave seemed unending as the group walked in a straight line for several minutes. The ponies searched feverishly through the pitch blackness looking for any sign of something to further their cause, while the princess hovered close by to act as their protection should anything hostile emerge from the shadows.

Tom walked in front of the group while staying just behind the veil of light Twilight was creating. He starred off into space occasionally, presumably to pay attention to his senses to see if anything lurked in the cave along with them.

The sound of wind rushing through the cave via cracks in the walls mingled with the constant noise of dripping water, causing a feeling of dread and fear to well up in Twilight and Rainbow Dash as they nervously pressed on.

The unicorn felt incredibly uneasy in the stark silence. Even in the presence of friends, she felt as if her heart would explode any minute from the feeling of sheer terror that was welling up inside her. Twilight looked back to Rainbow Dash, hoping to gain confidence from her friend, but judging from her pale appearance, the cyan pegasus was not doing any better in coping with her fear.

“How you holding up back there?” The purple unicorn couldn’t think of anything meaningful to say. Still, she felt that some lighthearted conversation could do both her and the pegasus some good.

Rainbow Dash jumped slightly at the sudden break in silence before calming down and looking to her friend. She mustered a nervous smile and sighed. “I think I’m starting to get sensory deprivation from being in here so long. You can only stare at pitch blackness in a giant cave for so long without going crazy.” Rainbow stated in an attempt at lightening the mood.

Tom perked up from hearing the conversation behind him and turned around to face the pair of ponies. “You know, we have only been in here for like fifteen minutes.” The human remarked playfully. The cyan pegasus shrugged in annoyance and rolled her eyes at the boy’s statement.

“It feels like we’ve been here for an eternity. I almost want something to jump out and try to kill us. It would be better than whatever my hocked up imagination can think of.” Rainbow Dash spoke her mind while secretly wishing that her statement would not come true.

Twilight hummed curiously at the statement. She couldn’t help but notice the distinct lack of horrific monsters trying to rip her to pieces. Despite how fortunate this might have made her feel, the unicorn knew that something was off about the peacefully dark and silent cavern.

“That reminds me, we haven’t seen any sign of darklings since we got here. Shouldn’t this place be crawling with them if this is where they are coming from?” Twilight asked while puzzling over the issue in her head.

Tom started to say something but was caught up in thought. He looked around curiously and scratched his head. “Actually that is quite strange now that I think about it. I haven’t sensed any dark matter in here at all, and the only sign of darklings I can think of was the trail leading in here.” The boy stated in confusion as he searched the area around the group with his senses.

“Well, maybe your senses just aren’t picking them up. I’m sure there are probably hundreds of them waiting for us out there in the dark.” Rainbow Dash looked around nervously as she let her imagination run wild.

Tom turned to the group and chuckled confidently. “Don’t worry, not many things get by my senses. After all, I am a profession- Whoa!” The human was cut off mid-sentence as he walked backwards into a rock. He tumbled over the rock and landed on his head before the rest of his body settled to the floor.

The others quickly rushed over to the human, concerned for his wellbeing. Tom blinked rapidly and stayed on the floor while trying to process what had just happened. He lifted his head up and looked at the knee-high piece of rock that he fell over while cursing under his breath.

“As I was about to say… professional in training, there is still some room for error.” The boy said with mild humility as he tried to hold on to whatever shreds of his dignity that remained.

After making sure that their friend was ok, the ponies chuckled under their breath as the human had his ego deflated by an inanimate object. Tom then picked himself up and dusted himself off before taking a look around the rock. Lined up in a row were several other rocks around the one that he tripped over. Upon closer inspection, these rocks bore similar glowing symbols to the ones found before.

As she noticed what the human was looking at, Twilight stepped forward, allowing her light to fall on a bigger area around the rocks. “There are more of those symbols here.” The unicorn observed while scanning the row of stones and taking note of how many symbols were on each. The human inspected the symbols to see what they looked like before shaking his head.

“Can’t understand these either. I don’t suppose you have a way to write these down for future research?” Tom asked the unicorn hopefully.

The purple mare thought for a moment before turning to answer the question. “Well, I didn’t bring a quill and paper. But due to the nature of these symbols, I should be able to use my magic to store them until we can write them down.” Twilight explained with an optimistic smile on her face as she planned out her success in her head.

Tom looked at her, confused as ever. “And just how do you plan on doing that?” The human asked before immediately regretting his request for more information that he would probably not understand. The purple mare inspected the symbols closer to confirm her suspicions before answering.

“Even though I can’t understand these glyphs, they do appear to be some sort of spell. I can use my magic to read over them and hopefully I should be able to recreate them later on paper.” Twilight clarified slowly. Tom was surprised at the simplicity of the unicorn’s explanation.

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s copy these symbols so we can get out of here. If I stay in here any longer, I swear I’m going to forget what sunlight even looks like.” Rainbow Dash chimed in eagerly while anticipating leaving the darkness of the cave.

Twilight nodded before lighting up her horn and concentrating on the symbols, she passed over each of them before moving on to the next rocks. While the unicorn memorized the symbols, Tom decided to investigate the immediate area.

Walking forward a few steps He noticed something just outside of the ring of light created by Twilight as she ran from rock to rock. The human could just barely make out what appeared to be chalk markings on the cave floor. They formed what appeared to be part of a circle, but Tom couldn’t see them well enough to make anything else out.

He stepped forward into the darkness and stood in what he assumed to be the middle of the large circle. He bent down to examine the markings closer before shrugging at his inability to make any of them out in the blackness.

“Hey Princess, could you come over here? I think I found something on the ground, but I can’t see two feet in front of me.” The boy asked with intrigue as he inspected what few lines he could make out.

Celestia looked over to where Tom’s voice was coming from and walked over to him. Once she got within range of the circle and cast her light upon it, she could see several intricate markings on the floor. Various symbols similar to the ones on the rocks were spread throughout the design of a circle with numerous decorative lines.

“These look a bit more complicated…” Celestia inspected the odd design on the floor while stepping into the middle where Tom was sitting. Upon setting a single hoof in the center of the circle, the entire design lit up in a violent display of light.

The circle of light on the floor made a loud humming noise before emitting a blinding flash of light that made everyone cover their eyes. When the light dimmed and everyone looked over to the area of the circle, they discovered that the odd symbol had disappeared, leaving Tom and Celestia standing where the center had once been.

Suddenly, a low rustling noise enveloped the group from all around. It sounded like something was gently scraping along the rocks of the cave floor, walls, and ceiling. The ponies looked around nervously while backing closer to each other.

Rainbow Dash tried to pinpoint the source of the sound, but could not determine whether the noise was coming from above or around her.

“Is that bad?” The cyan mare asked in a slight panic while huddling closer to her friends in anticipation.

Tom suddenly gasped as his evil sense went off, causing a surge of blue mist to rush out of his mouth unexpectedly. He searched around frantically while trying to determine the cause of the reflex. “This doesn’t make sense. I can feel something all around us, but it feels too big to have snuck up on us this suddenly.” The human stated with a perplexed sense of dread.

The purple mare looked to the ground beneath them and tried to find an explanation for the sudden disturbance. “Maybe that flash of light had something to do with it?” Twilight suggested in an attempt to rationalize the situation and ease her growing anxiety.

Tom started to reply but was silenced by the noise suddenly growing much louder. Now that it was closer, the noise sounded more like a high pitched shrieking sound, almost as if a swarm of angry bats was descending on them. The group’s eyes darted around as they started to see something move in the darkness outside of the sphere of light. It appeared to move rapidly all around them as the odd shapes blurred together while whipping around.

Upon looking up, the group noticed the same shapes moving above them and through the air just outside of the barrier of light. The sight, combined with the noise made even the princess and Tom nervous. Twilight and Rainbow Dash stuck close to each other and darted their heads around fearfully while trying to determine what the mysterious forms surrounding them were.

“I… I t-thought darklings couldn’t fly?” The unicorn stammered nervously while trying not to picture what a darkling with wings would look like.

Tom took on a more serious expression as he used his senses to try and identify the danger around them. He suddenly gasped in surprise as he realized why the shapes felt oddly familiar. “That is not darklings… That is much worse.” The human said in a grim tone as his face paled slightly. Twilight and the others were about to question the slayer’s statement when suddenly the shapes moved closer to the light.

A large mass of black shadows crashed through the threshold of light. The mass seemed to be one large cloud of darkness as it swirled around the group. The shadows appeared almost foreign in comparison to the darklings and sample of dark matter back at Zecora’s house, which had softer shades of purple and black which seemed to shift around their skin in constant motion. The cloud of darkness currently swirling violently around them was void of any sort of color, it appeared as if the blackness of the cave had come alive and decided to suffocate the intruding ponies.

Celestia seemed flabbergasted at the immense negative energy she was feeling. She had never seen anything like it before. “What is that thing...? It looks like living shadows.” The alicorn observed as she tried to make sense of the strange smoke-like mass around her.

Tom took on a more stern tone of voice and turned to the others. “Precisely… That is a rather large mass of dark matter.” The human said in a hushed tone of dread. The explanation caused the ponies to turn to the boy with shocked expressions on their faces.

“What?! But the stuff the princess described looked nothing like this! It was nowhere near this active either!” Twilight squeaked nervously as panic started to set in. She seemed to be taking things the worst out of the group with how frightened she looked and sounded.

“This mass of it seems to be charged with a frightening amount of negative energy. We need to get out of here now!” The slayer announced loudly as the cloud of darkness closed in on the group, shrinking their sanctuary of light down to a small bubble.

Celestia steeled herself and adopted a determined expression. She wasn’t about to let a cloud of living shadows harm the two ponies next to her, not when she was the princess of the sun after all. “This stuff hates sunlight, right? I should be able to get us through.” The princess lit up her horn and prepared to blast a ray of sunlight at the swirling mass when suddenly a section of the mass broke off from the main cloud and rushed forward after her. The alicorn yelled in pain as the black substance hurled into her body with enough force to send her to the floor. The black shroud latched onto the helpless alicorn and seemingly started hurting her as she cried out in pain and fear.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight and Rainbow Dash screamed in unison at the sudden attack. They were forced to watch helplessly as the alicorn struggled on the ground in a vain attempt at removing the cloud that was suffocating her form.

Tom quickly sprang into action and got closer to the princess. He then quickly pointed his open palm at the black substance wrestling with her. A bright flash of blue light hit the shadowy mass on top of the princess, causing it to erupt into smoke.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash quickly rushed to the alicorn and stood over her while waiting for any sign that she might need their help. The princess groaned in pain and weakly got up from the floor.

“Ughh… T-thank you Tom. I would have been a goner if you didn’t…” Celestia winced as she dropped to her knees weakly.

“Princess! Are you ok?!” Twilight frantically rushed to her mentor and helped her stand up. She could feel the princess shift her weight onto her as she failed to support her own body. The alicorn breathed heavily a few times before looking to her student and smiling weakly.

“I’m fine Twilight… I just feel weak… Ung… I think that thing must have drained my energy.” Celestia lit up her horn and tried to muster enough strength to use a spell. She then groaned from exhaustion and practically fell onto Twilight as her horn puttered out.

The purple unicorn struggled to keep the heavy alicorn upright. She looked at her mentor with a concerned expression.

“You’re in no condition to be using magic right now princess.” Twilight stated with worry evident in her voice. The purple mare and her cyan friend then looked at each other and to the swirling black cloud around them as they realized what that meant for them.

“That thing is going to kill us if we don’t do something!” Rainbow Dash could hardly contain the panic in her voice as she watched the cloud move in closer to the group.

Just before the dark mass got any closer to the cowering ponies, Tom jumped in front of them and stretched his arms into the air around him. Using both hands, the boy conjured two streams of the blue light which bounced off of the cloud as it tried to resist the assault. The light was bending off of the cloud, almost forming a bubble between it and the group as it pushed against the light.

Tom grunted as he concentrated on keeping the dark cloud at bay, he then looked to the surprised ponies and drew in a breath to yell over the noise of the cloud pushing against the barrier.

“I can’t keep this up forever! Help her up and let’s get moving!” The human exclaimed urgently. The two ponies snapped back to reality as they both nodded to each other and got on either side of the injured alicorn. They both supported her weight and helped her walk faster as Tom carefully moved forward while keeping concentration on his powers.

The walk to get into the cave did not take very long, but with the constant grinding noise, the dark mass was making as it pushed on all sides of the blue force field, the slow walk towards the entrance seemed to take an eternity.

On top of the nerve-racking tension in the air, the group could not see past the dark mass attacking them, which made the heart pounding venture all the more tense as they wondered whether they were walking towards the exit, or further into the cave.

The ponies struggled to carry the princess’s practically dead weight, but somehow they managed to stay right behind Tom as he shuffled forward while fighting the unrelenting shadows. Twilight could see Tom sweating as he struggled to keep the strenuous use of power up.

“How are you holding up Tom?” The purple unicorn looked to the boy with a concerned expression. She was afraid that he would pass out from exhaustion, leaving them alone to fend off the shadowy mass and sealing their fate.

Tom shook his head quickly as a sign that he didn’t want to waste energy on talking. He winced and groaned as he pushed against the barrier forcefully to acclimate to the cloud’s attempts at applying more force.

Twilight nervously looked at the mass of negative energy slamming its weight against the shield. It seemed to be unfazed by the same energy that had instantly defeated the monsters that attacked them the night before, only being kept at bay from prolonged exposure to the light as it tried to pass through.

She then looked to Celestia, who was drifting in and out of consciousness causing the two ponies to pause briefly and apply more force to keeping her upright and moving. The unicorn was deeply concerned for the princess. She had never seen her this weak and helpless before.

“Don’t worry princess, we’re getting out of here soon. You’re going to be fine.” Twilight spoke softly and reassuringly into her mentor’s ear. The alicorn weakly shifted her head to look at the two ponies beside her before going back to staring blankly at the ground. The princess tried to put more energy into standing on her own but faltered once more before being caught by Rainbow Dash.

“Take it easy, princess. We’ve got you.” The pegasus said in a reassuring tone.

Suddenly, the cloud seemed to react slightly different. A shrill noise filled the air followed by the sound of several solid objects thudding on the floor just outside of the group’s bubble of protection. A familiar growling noise made the ponies spines tingle with terror.

“Oh no, not these things again!” Rainbow Dash darted her head around as she noticed new shapes approaching the light from behind the cloud of shadows. The familiar form of darklings started walking through the barrier of light, pausing briefly and struggling against the slayer’s attempt at protection.

“Ugh… They’re breaking through!” Tom wheezed in between breaths. “Twilight, I can’t fight these things and keep the shadow at bay at the same time. Is there anything you can do with your magic to fight them?” He asked while giving the pony a look of desperation.

Twilight’s pupils shrank and her eyes widened as she was now required to act. She wasn’t sure if she could handle the stress of being responsible for saving the group. The unicorn looked over to Celestia and Rainbow Dash for reassurance. The alicorn was in a daze as she occasionally moved her head around slowly to observe her surroundings. While the cyan pegasus was darting her eyes around nervously, Twilight could tell that she was scared out of her wits.

Having decided that she had to at least try to do something to save her friends, the unicorn raced her mind in an attempt to find a spell to use.

“Umm… uh… I got it! I can knock them back out of the barrier. Hopefully, they won’t be able to get through twice.” Twilight spoke up with anxious excitement as she came up with a sound plan. Tom was slightly concerned at leaving it up to an innocent bystander to fight off a dangerous bunch of shadow creatures, but he realized that they were out of options.

“Alright, do your best to keep them away from us... Just be careful!” The human stated in an attempt to reaffirm the need to be as cautious as possible. Twilight looked over to her pegasus friend sympathetically. Rainbow Dash would have to support Celestia’s entire weight while she focused on keeping the creatures from getting in.

“Just go! I can take care of the princess.” The cyan pegasus nodded to her friend confidently as she prepared to carry more weight. Twilight slowly let the princess shift over to Rainbow Dash, she then walked into the middle of the bubble of light and darted her eyes around to see which direction the creatures would come from.

One of the beasts slowly stepped through the barrier, Twilight could see that these monsters were as pitch black as the dark mass that spawned them. The beast smoked briefly as it struggled to pass through the barrier. Once on the other side, it quickly lunged for the princess and Rainbow Dash.

The pegasus flinched briefly as she prepared for her demise. When suddenly, the beast was sent hurtling out into the darkness by a concentrated blast of light. Rainbow Dash looked over to see her friend with her horn lit up in anticipation.

“Nice shooting Twi! Keep it up!” The cyan pony cheered her friend on as she readily confronted the attacking beasts. The purple unicorn smiled confidently as she blasted away another one of the beasts that had gotten through as it tried to lunge for Tom.

After a few minutes, multiple creatures started to come through at once. Twilight struggled to keep up with the monsters as she frantically whipped her head and body around to face the attackers. Although her tense nerves assisted her as she spun around to fend off the beasts, there was only so much she could do considering she had a whole wide open area to contend with.

Suddenly one of the creatures lunged for Twilight, catching her off guard. The unicorn screamed in surprise as she just barely missed the opportunity to blast the creature before it reached her. The beast tackled the frail unicorn, sending her flying to the edge of the barrier where her body skidded to a halt against the rough stone floor.

“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash screamed and reached out a hoof as she was forced to watch helplessly as her friend struggled against the monster pinning her to the floor.

Twilight could feel the coldness of the dark cloud trying to leech her energy as her body just barely stopped within the confines of the barrier. The dark smoke lunged back and forth against the thin film of light as it tried to make contact with the purple pony. The unicorn cried out frantically as she tried to keep the darkling’s mouth from clamping down on her throat. She whimpered in fear as her muscles were slowly failing her and allowing the monster to get closer to her neck.

“No!” Rainbow Dash cried out defiantly at the scene before her. She wanted nothing more than to run over and help her friend but realized that she couldn’t leave the princess unattended for fear that she might collapse and be left behind the barrier of light.

Twilight shut her eyes as she let fresh tears stream down her face. She could practically feel the beast’s teeth grazing against her throat as it drew closer to her body. She mentally accepted her demise and hoped that whatever pain would come would be brief.

Tom looked over to his side at the struggle taking place. He then grimaced as he focused more energy into one hand. He then quickly dropped one of his arms and pointed a quick blast of light at the monster.

The beast flew off of Twilight from the force of the blast, making her wince in pain as the creature’s claws raked across her arms. She then quickly got up and ran to the center while trying to compose herself.

“Thank you, Tom.” The unicorn panted heavily and smiled at the human before looking down to check the severity of her wounds. Blood ran down her legs from the jagged cuts, but they did not look deep enough to cause much concern at the moment.

Finally, the cloud started to move away from the front of the barrier. Through the gaps of the waning mass of blackness, the ponies could see daylight as they approached the mouth of the cave.

“We’re almost out!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed excitedly as she watched more pieces of the cloud flee from the front of the barrier and join into the rest of the mass.

Tom focused more energy to the back of the group as the cloud focused more force into one direction. The cloud began to emit large quantities of smoke as the group backed out into the sunlight. Although it seemed harmful, the sunlight seemed to only weaken the black mass as it pushed defiantly on the barrier to make one last ditch effort at getting at the escaping intruders.

Twilight quickly ran to Rainbow Dash and helped her move the princess out of the cave and into the grassy clearing where they gently sat her down. They then turned to look at Tom, who was still battling the mass.

The further into the daylight it pushed, the weaker it seemed to get as it ignored its own survival to get at Tom. The slayer planted his feet on the ground firmly and pushed back with great determination. He let out a yell as he put all of his energy into the stream of light in front of him. The light finally went through the cloud as its strength gave out from the combined forces of Tom and the sun. The cloud was rapidly reduced to smoke as the light surged several feet into the cavern, leaving a more natural shade of darkness in its wake.

Tom practically hyperventilated as his entire body shook from exhaustion. Finally, the boy’s legs gave out and he fell to his knees and went face first into the floor.