The Macalania Cloister of Trials were a lot more complicated than the previous ones, and with everyone on a strict time limit, they had no time to lose. Blueblood's death is going to strike them as traitors if Tromell and the other Guado tell the priests, but as long as Orion's sphere is still safe and sound, they have the proof they need to excuse themselves for killing the stallion. Though the puzzle inside this room was a major pain.

In order to create the icy corridor, they had to place three of the Macalania spheres in the pillars, creating one piece of the hallway. Unfortunately, the farthest pillar's recess to place the cold and icy spheres was a floor below, the only way to activate it was to push a pedestal with one of the spheres into it, fitting it in like a puzzle piece. In order to fit it, they had to use some of the spheres to create a slope leading down to the lower portion, create icicles in the path of the pedestal to stop it otherwise it would fall off the edge as it slid along the icy ground.

With the pedestal put in place, and everyone was out of the lower section, they quickly placed the remaining Macalania spheres in the remaining recesses, completing the walkway out into the main hall of the temple. As soon as they walked out, they were greeted by the ponies that were celebrating as they looked at them in horror. They must have seen Blueblood's body.

"Great. We're screwed," Rainbow whispered.

"Everypony, please!" Fluttershy said. "We can explain what happened!"

"There is no need." Tromell walked up from among the crowd, several Guado guards slowly coming closer to the group. "I know what to tell the maesters about your crimes. Lord Blueblood was a leader of our kind before becoming a maester, and he wouldn't want any of you to survive."

"We're innocent in all this! Orion's sphere will clear out name!" Fluttershy said, pleading to the crowd to believe her.

"You mean this?" Tromell held up the sphere in his hoof. He then crushed it under his clawed hoof, their proof destroyed by the old servant. "Guado take care of Guado affairs..."

The Guado guards slowly approached them, ready to take them in, but Pinkie reacted quickly, pulling out a grenade. "Hold your breaths, everypony!"

Doing as the Al Bhed commanded, they party took a deep breath as she threw the grenade. As it exploded, it released a blast of smoke that covered the entire room, everypony unfortunate to breath it in coughed heavily while they couldn't see. They charged their way through and out the doors, running down the path and escaping from the Guado.

"W-What in the hay was that thing!?" Applejack asked as she internally panicked while all of them ran.

"A smoke grenade! Useful for getting out of sticky situations, and that was a really stick stucky one!" Pinkie shouted.

"This is bad...This is really, really bad! We've become traitors of Faust! And we killed a maester!" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as Applejack kept complaining.

"Blueblood had to be stopped, Applejack!" Twilight said. "There was no way Orion would ever lie if he was that scared of his own son! Blueblood lost his mind, and he was going to kill the mare he proposed to for power!"

"But I couldn't send him!" Fluttershy said. "Tromell took him away! He's going to turn into a fiend and kill the Guado!"

"Forget them, Flutters!" Rainbow said coldly. "They're trying to kill us! They actually have a right to be hated by us if they were planning to stab us all in the back!"

They soon heard the Guado guards running after them, far faster than the group with their enhanced endurance. They managed to catch up to them, blocking their path and fought them, but not without assistance. To the party's shock, they summoned fiends to fight along with them. They quickly eradicated the fiends and killed the Guado before the rest of them could catch up.

With no time to hitch a ride on their new rides waiting on the narrow pathway, the group headed out to the lake, where they were blocked by a couple more Guado. One of them whistled, and barging through the snowbank was a dangerous ogre, roaring angrily as it obeyed its Guado master's command.

"Ok, this is getting ridiculous!" The Guado attacked, Spike and Rainbow holding them off while the others faced the humanoid fiend. "You know, I'm glad to kill off your leader! I was sick of his smug face! Reminded me of my dad!"

Rainbow began slashing the Guado soldier, unable to back away from the speedy pegasus and was slain. Before it went down, it turned to face the fiend, casting a Protect spell on the ogre before falling to the ground. The other one cast Shell on it before Spike slammed down on him while impaling him through with his spear. Now the fiend was a lot stronger on the defensive side, for both physical and magical attacks, and with its hulking frame, it's going to be difficult to survive against it.

At least it wasn't as fast as anypony, able to avoid its swift punches as it attacked. As it grew weaker, it lifted up its arms in a boxer pose, and once any of the party struck it, it immediately countered, sending those that struck it physically flying back across the ice. Rainbow Dash didn't pay attention to its now dangerous countering, getting knocked out as she was flung into the others. Roaring in anger, the fiend slammed its fists hard into the lake, causing the ice to crack around them. With one last pound, the ice beneath them shattered as they all fell through the dried out lake and down to the water several stories below.

After being unconscious for who knows how long, Rainbow groaned as she sat up. It was a bad idea fighting that dangerous fiend, but at least she survived another long fall. Looking up, she could see the lake where they had fallen, and the bottom side of the temple. Surprisingly, no one actually noticed them.

"Rainbow Dash, you ok?" She looked over at Twilight, who seemed a little weary, though grateful to be alive.

"Yeah. I've taken worse falls." Rainbow stood up, rubbing her sore limbs as she wandered about the strange mass of land they were on. "Where are the others?"

"They're ok. Applejack's busy sulking about what we all just did, and Fluttershy's still unconscious." Twilight sighed, rubbing her forehead while Mog and Smarty Pants fixed the unicorn's frazzled mane. "I'm also kind of in shock about all this too...I can't believe you actually killed Blueblood."

"Well, it doesn't matter. I'm glad I did anyway." Rainbow looked up at the temple, her ears twitching as she could hear the hymn being sung by a feminine voice. "I didn't want there to be a wedding anyway. Fluttershy marrying a heartless killer, and we're supposed to pity him because he had a crappy life as a kid? Not gonna happen."

"You're a hypocrite, Rainbow." The pegasus looked at Twilight in confusion. "Though you also had some issues, they were more focused on your father. Only, I could understand why; he actually insulted you in front of others and he was sincere when he was alone."

"Can you all stop reminding me about my dad? Please?" Rainbow begged. "I just got better after ending that killer's life. It's all just a lie anyway. My dad doesn't care, so I shouldn't either."

"Then why was this in your pocket?" Twilight pulled out Jet Stream's sphere. Rainbow panicked, looking around her clothing, regretting taking it with her or letting it stay in one piece. "It fell out when you were unconscious."

"...I should just break it," Rainbow muttered.

"It's a memento of your father. Why would you want to break something that may be the only thing physically left of your parent?" Twilight asked, only receiving a grunt of annoyance from the pegasus. "...I know you hate him, but be grateful you knew him...I didn't know my parents when I was little...They were probably killed by Sin...All I had was..."

Twilight went quiet, not wanting to finish her sentence as she gave Rainbow the sphere back and headed off elsewhere on their small island of peace and quiet. Rainbow just put the sphere away, unable to look at the thing. She decided to just wander around what little of the land she could out of boredom, and to clear her head. After a while, Fluttershy finally woke up, and everyone began to figure out what they were going to do.

Rainbow muted the others out, overhearing them being considered traitors of Faust, Rarity considering they continue the pilgrimage, even after being wanted. She was too busy relaxing, looking up at the temple as she listened to the hymn. Now she fully recalled where she heard the hymn; she always heard Jet Stream sing the hymn, getting it in her head as she began to hum it. He always sang it whenever he was warming up, or if he was ever drunk, though poorly with the latter. She had always wondered why he liked it, but she understood as it sounded calming, even if it also sounded somber.

"Rainbow Dash?" She looked up, seeing Fluttershy sitting next to her. "You haven't really been motivated to speaking with everypony about what we're going to do."

"...Sorry...I just wanted to relax a little." Rainbow sat up, letting out a deep sigh. "Why didn't you tell us about Orion's sphere when you saw it?"

"I didn't want you all to panic." Fluttershy fidgeted her hooves as she looked at the ground. "Blueblood seemed nice, but I didn't realize how dangerous he was, especially after seeing Orion looked so terrified."

"I knew he was up to no good. You should have said no." Fluttershy didn't look up at her, worried she had upset her with her decline of their forced marriage. "...I'm sorry. I had a hunch, and I was right, but I'm not gonna gloat about it...After everything I've seen in the past few days, I'm not sure anything can fully cheer me up."

"I should be sorry. I thought I could have handled Blueblood on my own. I didn't want to burden you all," Fluttershy said.

"You're not a burden, Flutters." Rainbow gently touched Fluttershy's hoof, the summoner peeking through her mane to look at her. "We're all supposed to protect you. That's what we are as guardians, right? Guard you until the bitter end?" The yellow pegasus hesitated for a moment, but she nodded her head. "Good...Because I'm glad knowing I can keep you safe...I hate to say this, but...It's like...what my dad did for your dad. Protecting him on his pilgrimage, just like us...Maybe it was fate that allowed us to meet. Even if I think it's been mostly bad luck for me."

"...Maybe." The two remained quiet, both their cheeks turning pink as they kept a hold of each other's hoof. Rainbow looked away, trying to shrug off the awkward moment as she stretched her forelegs out. At least the others weren't around to see them, otherwise Pinkie and Rarity might poke fun at her. Fluttershy cleared her throat, trying to find her voice as her slight blush remained on her cheeks. "Umm...We're going to head off to Bevelle next, once we find a way out of here. That's where my next aeon to acquire is, and maybe we'll talk with Maester Star Swirl about Blueblood's betrayal against all of Spira."

"I don't ever want to hear the name 'Blueblood' again. Just the name makes me want to punch something." As Rainbow leered out at the distance, she flinched when she felt Fluttershy hug her.

"...Thank you," she whispered. "I don't know how I could have continued my journey without you."

Rainbow's heart raced, looking down at the summoner as she held her closely. Sure, it was a friendly gesture, their pilgrimage rocky with so many depressing moments where they both needed comfort in these troubling times. She returned the embrace, draping a wing around Fluttershy. As much as she wanted to admit her feelings, she didn't want to ruin the peace and quiet they were relaxing in, taking a momentary break from all the chaos in the past few days.

Confused at the sudden lack of the hymn, Rainbow Dash perked her ears up and looked at the temple, the singing had somehow stopped. "Hey, what happened to the music?"

Fluttershy looked up too, the area eerily quiet as the others had realized the sudden silence too. "The fayth stopped singing." Suddenly, the ground beneath them shook, the yellow pegasus clinging to Rainbow at the quake. "W-What's happening!?"

Everyone's skin crawled as they heard the low grumbling sound of Sin. The land shifted as they had actually landed on top of the sleeping monster of mass destruction, not having reacted as they fell on it earlier.

"Sweet applesauce! We're standin' on top of Sin!" Applejack exclaimed as the others began to panic.

"Don't breathe in the toxin!" Twilight warned as everything around them began to go fuzzy, everyone except for Rainbow Dash trying to find a way to escape.

The cyan pegasus looked down at Sin, sitting down as she could feel her father somewhere inside of the gigantic shell of a fiend. "...You were listening to the song..."

As Rainbow's vision faded and returned, she was seeing what her father wanted to see. She found herself back in Zanarkand, the thousands of ponies roaming around as the buildings were lit up.

"You homesick, too?" She was soon brought to their boat home, several blitzballs littering the deck. "Sorry, dad. You can't exactly go back home. You don't belong there anymore." The balls disappeared as she saw herself as a filly looking out at the city as she sat on the nearby docks. "Hey, I'm an adult now. I don't look like that anymore."

Her vision soon went dark. She then saw Jet Stream standing before her, his back facing her as he looked down at the ground sadly, though it was hard to tell. He must have been suffering, spending ten whole years as Sin, causing nothing but destruction and misery to everyone in Spira. Rainbow was a little surprised at herself, feeling sorry for Jet at his predicament, forced to kill against his own will, following the instincts of a wild beast that follows no pattern of the disasters it causes.

"...Don't worry. We'll find a way to end all this...I promise."

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, trying to breathe, only to begin inhaling water. She poked her head up to the surface, hacking up the water she just swallowed. As she got her bearings, she found herself floating in an oasis, miles and miles of sand stretching out from the only source of water.

"Oh great. Dad put me in a desert," Rainbow Dash muttered as she swam to the shore. "Let me guess; you took me another thousand years in the future, or you wanted me to die from dehydration?" With no sign of the others anywhere in sight, she had no choice but to try to find them, if they're still alive. A loud shriek caught her attention as a massive black avian similar in form to the Garuda flew in, eyeing the pegasus as its next meal. "What the hay is it with me nearly drowning or running into something that wants to kill me!?"

She pulled out her sword, ready to defend herself as the fiend lunged its beak at her. Flipping away from it, the fiend slamming its face in the sand, giving her the opportunity to slash it a few times before it pulled itself out of the shifting minerals. Before it could attack again, it was suddenly struck by a powerful bolt of lightning, Twilight running in to assist the pegasus.

"Rainbow, are you ok!?" she asked as Smarty Pants and Mog put their arms up at the fiend, as if they were going to fight it.

"Nearly drowned again, but I'm sort of alright!" Before she could attack the fiend again, Rarity came in from out of nowhere, leaping up onto its back.

Swinging her katana down hard, the unicorn slashed through the avian's neck, hacking off its head as its body fell and disappeared. "'Sort of alright' means you probably aren't fully prepared to deal with fiends of this size."

"...I could have handled it without you guys," Rainbow mumbled. "Where are the others? Where's Fluttershy!?"

"We all got separated after Sin's toxin knocked us unconscious. Thankfully, we haven't suffered any of its effects." Rainbow and Rarity rolled their eyes, the toxin having done absolutely nothing to any of them. "But being in this desert, I don't think we'll last without water for more than a day. I'm sure we haven't split up too far."

"I hope Fluttershy's alright." Rainbow flew up to look over the dunes, spotting the others not too far away from the oasis.

Applejack was sitting under an old machina to hide from the sun, Spike was trying to climb up the dunes to get a better view of the dry climate, and Pinkie was fixing something, though it was hard to tell in the glaring sunlight and the distance she was from where she hovered. Twilight and Rarity followed her as she located them. The first of their group was Applejack, who glared at the destroyed pieces of machina around her.

"Applejack!" The earth pony looked up, spotting the trio coming up to her.

"Where's Fluttershy?" Applejack asked. Receiving no response, having no clue where she is, the mare kicked the ruined, metallic construct, though not too hard this time to injure herself. "Perfect! First we're treated as traitors, then machina keep tryin' to kill me, and Fluttershy's missin'! Can today get any worse!?"

"We'll find her. Let's hurry and find the rest of the group." Despite Applejack's frustrations, they continued forward and met up with the others.

Spike gave up trying to climb the shifting sands as the others arrived to pick him up, and as soon as they met Pinkie, she was trying to fix up an old machina device. It broke apart, unable to hold itself together.

"Aww man." The rest of the guardians arrived, but as Pinkie looked over them, there was no sign of Fluttershy. "Hey, what happened to Fluttershy?"

"Oh great. Where could she have gone!?" Rainbow began to panic as she flew up, scoping out wherever the summoner was.

"Uhh, I know where we ended up." The guardians looked at her, though Applejack glared at her. "This is actually where I was born and raised. Sin must have dropped us off at Bikanel Island, a desert island all of us Al Bhed reside. And there's this big building we call Home."

"And why is this important to know?" Applejack questioned as her glare intensified.

"Stop looking at me like that, and I'll tell you why I know Fluttershy is at Home!" Rainbow flew down the moment she heard Pinkie mention Fluttershy. "Earlier, some of my friends tried to take Fluttershy, but it wasn't to kidnap her. They must have found her and brought her Home to safety! The desert is kind of dangerous, with dangerous fiends and some out of control machina."

"I've never heard of 'Bikanel'," Twilight said. "It's not on any maps I've ever seen back home."

"That's because we want to keep it a secret," Pinkie explained. "This is our home, and if anypony who believes in Faust knew, then we might get into some more trouble like before."

"Ya probably deserve it." Rainbow smacked Applejack in the back of the head, knocking off her hat.

"Will you cut it out, Applejack!? You think we can discuss your racism until AFTER we find Fluttershy!?" The orange earth pony picked up her stetson and put it back on her head, grumbling to herself.

"You guys have to promise not to tell anypony about the island, and that means ANYPONY." The others agreed, with Applejack hesitating for a second. They soon heard metallic steps run across the sand as they saw two different types of machina approach them. "Uh oh! I got this guys!" Pinkie jumped in and rapidly flailed her hooves around the two machina. She leapt back, holding a few potions with some Al Bhed symbols on them, the machina falling apart and deactivated. "I can deal with the machina, even without using Thunder spells!"

Pinkie began to shudder at the thought of the dangerous lightning spell. She calmed down and began to lead her friends across the desert, defeating fiends that resided in the climate and several more out of control machina. Though, with how the Al Bhed was leading them around, it looked like they would have gotten more lost than when they woke up.

"Pinkie, are you sure you know where you're going?" Rainbow asked.

"I am positive!" They arrived at a fork in the path of sand, one leading to more desert while the other lead to some old machina buildings from several hundred years ago. "Ok! This way!" Pinkie bounded off to the left, where the ruins were. She froze as soon as she saw a massive worm slither by, its gaping maw drooling as it scoped out its next meal. "Not that way! Bad place! Bad place!"

Pinkie ran away from that direction and lead the others further into the desert. They ran into a few quicksand pits that held some plant fiends that dwell in them, catching prey if they were unfortunate enough to get sucked into it. The guardians had to kill one of them as a pit blocked their way to Home, but it was taken care of with Twilight's magic.

"How much further is this darn Home of yours? Ah think you're makin' us run around in circles!" Applejack complained, wiping the sweat off her brow.

"It's just up ahead! I know this exact sand dune!" The others groaned at Pinkie's enthusiasm, wondering if they were going to keep walking around the desert. "After we get to Home and tell the others you can keep our home a secret, we'll all celebrate with any other summoners they rescued and have a big par-AAAAHH!!!!" As Pinkie looked down from the top of the dune, she began to panic. "NO!"

"Pinkie?" The mare immediately went down the slope and the others hurried after her. As soon as they reached the top, they all gasped as the large building that was Home was under attack by fiends of all sizes. The entire structure looked like it could collapse, fires burning out on different floors as the Al Bhed were being attacked. They even caught sight of a few Guado, chasing after them as they summoned more fiends. "Oh no..." Next Chapter: Chapter 30: The Truth About the Summoner's Pilgrimage Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 54 Minutes