After slipping past the monks as their sight tried to recover from Pinkie's blinding flash bomb, the guardians found refuge inside one of the nearby towers. A spiral staircase lead down to where the Cloister of Trials were located in Bevelle, but the one thing that shocked them was a panel on those stairs. It was a machina, used as a lift to get from one point of the staircase to the others, going up and down along the route for quicker travel.

"Why in tarnation is there machina bein' used in Bevelle?" Applejack asked, completely horrified at the unknown truth about the grandest city's heavy beliefs on Faust's teachings.

"Well, might as well use it if it's handy!" Pinkie bounded up to the controls and activated the lift.

As much as Applejack didn't want to use it, she was completely dumbfounded. Bevelle used machina, the monks were using machina, and Maester Star Swirl didn't even bat an eye at it when he teleported next to Blueblood. They reached their destination, and yet again, more machina consoles, this one keeping a barrier before the Cloister of Trials.

"Pinkie, Ah want to apologize again for...sayin' all that horrible stuff about the Al Bhed. After seein' all this...Ah don't know what to believe anymore." Pinkie patted the distraught guardian on the back.

"Yeah, well, I didn't know Bevelle had machina either. They should practice what they preach!" Pinkie said.

"Here, we see Bevelle's true face. Betraying their own teachings and spitting on all the true believers' faces, acting high an might," Rarity uttered as they all walked inside.

Even the Cloister of Trials itself seemed to be a machina puzzle. The entire trial was just traveling along a glyph that floated down many corridors, either running into dead ends or normal walkways where they had to gather other spheres to continue on their way. It was a confusing mess, leading them up and down to grab Bevelle spheres, placing them on the pedestal that acted as their ride along the corridors as long as they had a Bevelle sphere on the pedestal. Even on forks or crossroads, it was confusing to know where to go as they would end up starting back to a certain point if they get too far.

After over half an hour of figuring out where to go, they finally made it to the end of the trial, the guardians quickly entering the waiting room next to the Chamber of the Fayth. "Fluttershy!?" Rainbow shouted.

"She might be inside." Rainbow Dash ran up to the door, trying to lift it up to get inside. "Rainbow, what are ya doin'!?"

"Stuff it, Applejack! I'm finding Fluttershy, no ifs, ands, or taboos are gonna stop me!" The pegasus grunted, barely able to lift the stone doorway up.

Spike came over to help Rainbow, lifting it up slowly until he managed to open the entire way up. She quickly ran in and found Fluttershy sitting before a glass case that held a statue inside of it, which was the fayth. The statue showed what looked like a young dragon boy stuck in the ground, one his side showing a giant wing that was several times bigger than him, almost like he was mutated. Rainbow looked up from the statue and Fluttershy, gasping in shock as she saw the same boy she had seen so many times in her life back in Zanarakand, his body floating above the fayth statue, almost like a ghost.

"W-What the hay?" The young dragon's eyes looked up to her for a moment, then back down to the praying summoner before him.

"That is a fayth," Rarity said as she walked in the chamber. "Those of sentient thought who fight to protect their home become living statues, their souls trapped inside by ancient Faust rites. They join with the summoner, receiving the aeon together."

"But I saw that kid before in Zanarakand," the cyan pegasus said, still in disbelief. "...He's...nothing but a ghost...How was he always stalking me?"

Soon, the young hooded dragon flew into Fluttershy, giving her the aeon for the temple of Bevelle. She soon collapsed on top of the glass dome, falling unconscious. Rainbow had panicked, but breathed a sigh of relief when she had just passed out.

"We're getting out of here," she said, picking up the unconscious pegasus, though wishing she could tear off that wedding dress.

"Wait! Don't come out!" Pinkie warned too late as Rainbow Dash and Rarity walked out.

They were soon met by the warrior monks, all of them cornering the group as they trained their rifles at them. Sapphire was among them, a bruise forming on her cheek where Rainbow slugged her as she was distracted earlier.

"You are all going to stand trial of all your transgressions," the maester said, leering at Rarity.

"Innocent until proven guilty, I hope," the white unicorn, returning the cold gaze back to her old friend.

"...Unfortunately, yes." With no choice, they were lead out of the Cloister of Trials and further into the massive palace of Bevelle.

Moments later, the party was brought into the trial room in Bevelle, where they would await their punishment from the maesters, at least three of the four of them. Fluttershy was awake and was told of the situation, putting her old clothing back on and discarding her wedding gown. The summoner took the stand as the others watched, Star Swirl, Blueblood, Sapphire Shores, and the dragon maester looked down on her.

Rainbow noticed Spike wilting when the dragon maester set his eyes on him. "Spike, you ok?"

"N-No...That dragon...he's the elder of my tribe...Elder Yiazmat," Spike whispered, sounding afraid just mentioning the elder dragon.

Yiazmat was a pure white dragon, his wingspan far surpassing Garble's. He was also quite strong by his build, deserving the title of the strongest member of his tribe. Along with his robes, he had a few small glyphs hovering around his body, one under each of his wings, and one on his chest. If his form didn't faze anyone, his piercing red eyes would make anyone turn tail and run.

"The High Court of Faust is now in session," Yiazmet announced, his voice deep and powerful. "Summoner Fluttershy, you have been sworn to protect the ponies of Spira, yet you have done such traitorous actions. Inflicting dire injury on Maester Blueblood Guado, while also conspiring with the heathenous Al Bhed with their insurrection upon Faust. You'd better have a good reason as to why."

"But I am not a traitor, Your Grace," Fluttershy responded, standing her ground despite the dragon's glare. "The real traitor is Maester Blueblood! He killed his own father with his own hooves!"

Yiazmat looked at Blueblood in shock, while the other three maesters weren't all that concerned. "Oh. You weren't around to hear the unfortunate news, Maester Yiazmat. Sorry."

"Not only that, but Maester Blueblood is also dead! I must send him immediately before he causes more destruction, as his father, Orion, had warned me in his will!" Fluttershy said, desperate to end the stallion's existence in Spira.

"...Send Maester Blueblood?" Star Swirl asked, the summoner nodded feverishly. What made the guardians' blood run cold was the ominous and cynical laughter coming from the old maester. "...Send the unsent?...Then you should send me too."

The party gasped as they saw small spiritual orbs floating out of the unicorn. "He's dead too!?" Twilight shouted, both horrified and shocked as her idol was an undead being.

What was worse is that Yiazmat wasn't all that deterred by the fact that his predecessor is unsent, along with Sapphire. "Grand Maester Star Swirl is a wise leader," the dragon maester said. "Without him, all of Spira would crumble."

"Life is only a passing dream," Blueblood said. "But the death that follows is eternal."

"Everything, even the continents themselves, must die at some point," Star Swirl said, the spirits floating back inside him. "The power of death commands Spira, and resisting its power is futile."

"But what about Sin!?" Fluttershy asked. "All the summoners before me, even my father, tries to stop it before it can cause more death...Is what we do in vain? Our sacrifices mean nothing?"

"It is not in vain," Star Swirl said as he stroked his beard. "No matter how many summoners risk their lives, Sin can never truly be defeated. You give Spira hope, but the rebirth of Sin is eternal. It is not futile when it comes to the life or death of a summoner."

The others were horrified to learn of all this, how all the work that the summoners do to save everyone really was just some false hope to those who don't know the truth. All this time, Faust's religion seemed nothing but a conspiracy from the very beginning, which only made Applejack more sick to her stomach as her religious faith was all a scam. What would the point of death be if it means one can still live in a suffering world, acting like gods in a broken period of time.

"This can't be happening..." Fluttershy uttered, all of her beliefs and acts as a summoner would mean nothing.

"Those who question these truths are nothing but traitors to Faust and all of Spira!" Star Swirl slammed his hoof down on the podium he stood upon, the sound echoing the silent courtroom. "You are all considered guilty of your treason and will be placed under arrest, where you will face your sentence in the underwater caverns of Bevelle!"

"Let me out of here!" Rainbow shouted as she shook the cage she was in. "You punks scared to fight a mare!? You should be, cause I'm gonna kill every single one of you!"

"Rainbow Dash, calm down," Rarity said, watching the pegasus from another cage. Rainbow calmed down, kicking the steel bars. "Try not to waste your breath. It was inevitable we would be sentenced the moment we were caught."

"I swear, if they do anything to Fluttershy..." She sat down, the only ones in the cell room of hanging cages being her and Rarity. "Why the hay does this future suck? Ponies dying everywhere...Still alive, even after they died..."

"The spiral of death." Rainbow Dash looked up at Rarity. "Summoners challenge Sin, and end up dying at the end of their journey. Guardians risk their lives to protect their summoners. The fayth are souls of the dead. Even the maesters are unsent." The unicorn let out a scoff as she looked down at her hooves. "That's all Spira is; death. Sin is the only one of us who is reborn. More death ensues when it comes back, becoming a never-ending cycle."

"...Great...What would be the point of performing the sending if anypony else can defy death by staying connected to the living?" Rainbow slammed her head back into the cage bars, knowing there had to have been something wrong with the way Spira worked.

A moment later, Sapphire Shores walked along the catwalk with a few of her warrior monks, stopping in front of Rarity's cage. "Your sentence has been decided."

"Oh, how lovely. Is it going to be a firing range with machina weapons? Or are you going to chop my mane into pieces?" Rarity taunted, further angering her old friend.

"Just get out," she growled as the cell door opened.

Rarity walked out and obeyed, taking her punishment in stride as Sapphire followed behind her, the monks standing before Rainbow's cage. "You're coming with us. Don't try anything stupid."

"Oh goodie." Rainbow leapt out, following one of the guards as the other stayed behind her to make sure she didn't try to escape. They led her to the entrance to what looked like a flooded labyrinth underneath the entire city. "Ok, so my punishment is going swimming? Not that big of a deal."

She was suddenly bucked into the water, the mare resurfacing as she glared at them, their rifles held out to her. "Get moving."

"Where are the others!? Where's Fluttershy!?" Rainbow asked.

"Somewhere down there. Good luck surviving." Seeing there was no choice but to go through the flooded maze of corridors, Rainbow swam under and began wandering around.

As she turned a corner, she bumped into somepony, ready to kill them off. Luckily, she didn't need to, running into Applejack and Pinkie Pie. The trio of swimmers surfaced, at least glad to know they wouldn't have to go through their "punishment" alone.

"I'm so glad to see you guys," Rainbow said. "Did you find the others?"

"No. They expect us to die in here," Applejack said.

"It's pretty dumb since we can hold our breaths for a long while! I mean, seriously!? Executing us would be a lot simplier!" Pinkie said.

"I know...Let's see if we can find an exit and wait for the others." Pinkie and Applejack nodded as the three mares swam through the labyrinth, hoping to find Twilight, Rarity, Spike, and Fluttershy before something happens to them.

In the council courtroom, Blueblood, Star Swirl, and Sapphire stood as they held a meeting, though Yiazmat was not present. "Are you serious!?" Sapphire shouted. "Yiazmat left!?"

"Sadly, he has. Seems as though me killing my father had riled him up." Blueblood scoffed. "We didn't need that dragon. Though, Fluttershy...she could still be useful if she lives."

"She is a traitor, Blueblood. She must die." Blueblood's eye twitched slightly, but his expression remained unchanged as he bowed to Star Swirl in understanding.

As soon as the grand maester was gone, Sapphire felt a little wary around Blueblood. "Just let Fluttershy go. Nopony's ever survived down in the Via Purifico. Even if they do, I've placed several of my monks around the exits, ordering them to shoot on sight if needed."

"Why is that, Sapphire?" Blueblood asked as he turned to face the mare, his eyes glinting with malice as his features remained neutral. "Do you not trust me?"

"...Would you trust somepony who had killed their own parent?" Sapphire questioned back.

"...Touche." Blueblood smirked as he left, leaving Sapphire with an chill down her spine at the odd feeling she had over the stallion's behavior.

Down in another area of the Via Purifico, Fluttershy took in a big gulp of air as she swam through a long corridor. She wasn't that good at holding her breath as long as Rainbow Dash or Applejack could, but she at least managed to find some dry land. Climbing out of the water, she shook off what water she could on her, though her dress was absolutely soaked.

"Oh my," she whispered as she looked around the maze. "I hope the others are ok." Next Chapter: Chapter 33: Escaping Bevelle Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 10 Minutes