Illuminated by the rays of the sun awaited them their destination, the forest named White Tail Woods. The trees at the edge wore in their crowns verdant, yellow, red, and to their astonishment, blue leaves. All showed up in a colorful display by the approaching twilight. The shining, green, grass blades in full growth were moving in silent wind and a few critters followed their own business. Truly, it was a scenic picture that presented itself to the trio.

Shining Armor, Sunny Flare and Sunset Shimmer sat around in a small circle, protected by their tents the Apple Family provided them with, near the forest. Their location was shielded against hungry predators by nature itself and the help of Sunset's flames. She saw it as a little bit wasteful of her abilities, because it was disrespectful to her magic, at least in her opinion.

The only male member of the group found a flat and barren area, where boulders of varied sizes and dark colors were positioned in close proximity to each other; a natural shelter. Shining got the idea to use Sunset's phoenix fire as another safety measure when he saw how controlled she could manipulate her magic.

On the line between the grass and the barren land, without burning everything around them, Sunset should be able to create a circle of her flames around their position about chest height, Shining figured. She did that in an accurate manner.

Sunset may have had this new magic just for a very short time, but she was once a powerful and gifted Unicorn and control of magic was always important for her. Especially after the fire elemental told her that he found them, because they didn't control their magic flow at this time and it served as a beacon of sorts. Sunset used her free time before all were prepared to leave and practiced her control at the lake where she trained shortly with Amara.

They ate and drank a bit of their supplies before their conversation started.

"I must say, Sunset, your abilities are really useful. Protection, no problems in making a fire, you must be the hit at every bonfire party," Shining joked poorly. The girl in question groaned and gave him a deadpan stare as her response.

"It's strange. The earth around us looks gray, like some kind of ash and the trees there have blue leaves. I'm sure we would have heard if something like that existed here. Guess things really changed. But it has its charm," Sunny Flare voiced her opinion.

"You are right. Though I would like it more if we could search for the missing students. But it's already late. We'll literally invite trouble if we can't see anything in the night. It's a pity that we couldn't be faster, but our preparations took most of the time of the day," Shining Armor stated, annoyed by the lack of process.

Sunset firmly agreed, "No, not in the dark. I feel that the forest conceals its true colors and it would be foolish to wander in it during the night. Since we came here, my entire body feels tense and my gut feeling is telling me to run."

"OK, that was so not creepy at all. But now we have time and I have questions for you, Sunset. You said that you came from a parallel world. What did you mean by that?" the Shadowbolt inquired curiously. Shining Armor looked interested, too.

The magician looked troubled for a few moments, until she decided to answer truthfully, "Well, just that. I came from a land known as Equestria. We live there already for over 5000 years and-"

"Wait, pause. 5000? How is that even possible?" Shining interrupted in disbelief. He never heard about a land, populated by humans, that had such a peaceful history before.

Sunset took a teacher-like tone,"We Ponies, that means Unicorns, Ponies with horns, Pegasi, Ponies with wings and Earth Ponies, without either, lived in Equestria since millennia in relative peace and harmony. Things like murder are very, very, very rare and we solve our problems more with words than brutal force. Violent behaviour is even very frowned upon in my homeland and seen as barbaric. Our ruler and yes, I know that will sound crazy, Princess Celestia is the monarch of our country. She and recently her little sister, Princess Luna, are the immortal co-rulers of our nation. Celestia governed it alone for 1000 years, before her sister returned from her banishment to the moon.” Her comrades looked with hanging jaws at her, she ignored it, “So, do you have any other questions?"

“You are a… horse?” he commented intelligently. Shining had already a hard enough time to process what else the young man was told about this mysterious girl.

The Unicorn-turned-human looked annoyed, not so sure anymore if it was the right call to drop hints on her true origin when the topic of the Friendship Games came up again. They talked about it on Cadence’s request, because she never got her head around what she saw during the final.

Her excuse of being from a far away land wasn’t convincing any longer since everything went to Tartarus anyway.

"You are kidding, right?" Sunny started in astonishment, remembering the short conversations they had in their freetime earlier about the origin of the Rainbooms’ abilities. Something about another world, it was vague, "I mean the part where you come from another world makes sorta sense, I guess? But Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna? Immortal co-rulers of a land of magical talking ponies? Gee, someone got the short end of the stick there," the former CPA student commented in amusement and disbelief. Afterwards she raised an eyebrow, more serious again, “But how is that even possible?”

Though that explained for her why the Rainbooms had equine ears on their heads during the Friendship Games.

Sunset chuckled nervously, not sure how to explain herself, “Weeeell, you could say I want to come clean with you and I’m a little tired of keeping my guard up around everybody except my friends.” But she was sure that she could trust the duo in front of her with more informations, “I don’t only come from another world, but a parallel one. It is similar to yours when it comes to its inhabitants. Until now I can confirm that everybody who lives here should have a counterpart on Equus.”

Shining Armor shook his head in defeat, he needed to sleep about everything. Another topic was more interesting for him, "And banished to the moon? How does that work? Shouldn't she die up there, because the moon has no air to breathe? And when she was banished there, how could she return to her sister's side?" he asked further.

Sunset grinned smugly, "Magic. No, seriously. There was once a dark being who called herself Nightmare Moon. She wanted to bring eternal night and had possessed Princess Luna, apparently. Having been influenced by whispers in her head. Luna grew jealous and hateful, because everypony slept during her night and nopony appreciated her. They even linked her domain and the princess in process with the dark and unknown; with evil. So they stopped to visit the Night Court of the younger sister and only wanted to visit the Day Court of the older one, she felt ignored and abandoned, unloved by her subjects. So this mare became one with her inner darkness in order to force everyone to love her night. Her big sister, in order to save her subjects and the world at whole, had to seal her within the moon for 1000 years with six holy, magical artifacts; the Elements of Harmony. They represent six virtues. Honesty, Generosity, Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty and Magic.”

“Did she just say everypony?” Shining thought tiredly.

“That sounds like something you would see in a cartoon for children or younger teenagers,” Sunny said dryly. Their only male member of the trio chuckled.

The amber magician sighed, “Yes, I am aware of that. The point is that this is the official version. Princess Celestia once told me about Nightmare Moon in greater detail when I was younger, because I asked her who she was exactly, having read about her in a book. She said that Nightmare Moon was only sealed in the moon by her big sister, because the older sibling was blinded by the worship she received from her Ponies, remaining ignorant of her sibling's plight. So it was her fault, too, because she never tried to put an end to the undeserved fear and distrust the younger sister received. She saw the plight of her only relative as a childish phase, which would disappear in time.”

Shining nodded his head in understanding, “The attention and adoration of others can easily twist your head and perception of the truth, if you are not careful.”

Sunset winced, knowing very well how close his statement hit. She was relieved that they didn’t notice, “As you can surely guess by now, she talked about herself and Princess Luna. On the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration, a holiday in Equestria, Nightmare Moon returned from her banishment. She attacked Princess Celestia, banished her to the sun and wanted to bring eternal night. But the Pony counterpart of Twilight and her five friends, the Pony versions of Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity, were chosen by the Elements of Harmony and purified Princess Luna from her darkness with the help of the artifacts."

She was curious though what the Elements did to Princess Luna, aside from destroying the Nightmare. Her other self told her that they forced her to follow their virtues until she liberated their mind from the influence. Sunset didn't tell the others about it, because it would likely make them question their friendship and their entire relationship in general. They would wonder if the former Unicorn just befriended them, because she had no choice.

"What do you ponies even look like? Like normal horses here, just with horns and wings? And are Earth Ponies weaker, because they have none of it?" Shining Armor asked in sincere interest.

To Sunny's and Shining's confusion, Sunset turned an unhealthy shade of green in her face, "Guuuuhhhh. Sorry, but your horses and ponies are just too creepy. They have such cold, black eyes, dull colors, no facial expressions, such a strange body... so, no. Besides, they are like average animals. No. We Ponies, well, from what I understand, we would look adorable and cute to you humans. An average Pony would reach to your hip or a little higher, so we have the size of medium to large dogs. Our body structure is thinner than the body of a normal horse and our legs look and function a lot differently. We are much more colorful in fur, eye and hair coloration and have a much shorter muzzle. It looks quite similar to a human's face. We have, on each of our flanks, a symbol that represents our special talent. It's called a Cutie Mark and to you-" Twilight’s older brother laughed, tears in his eyes. Sunny found it adorable.

The magician pouted, "Hardy-har-har. Laugh it up, tough guy. Yes, they are called Cutie Marks. And to answer your second question, everypony, yes, we use that as a word, deal with it, has magic. The same can be said for every Pony tribe. Earth Ponies are the best farmers. They can grow plants of all kinds with their magic at a rate that would make a GM farmer blush. They have great endurance and strength. They also have a more fine control of their manes and tails, to the point that they can hold objects with them, use them as tools or even manipulate each strand of hair individually, with enough focus.”

Sunny Flare supported her chin on crossed fingers and ogled the teenager like a child in awe, mesmerized by such tales, “And what about the other two tribes? What can they do?”

Sunset chuckled at her teammate’s enthusiasm, “Pegasi control the weather and... we should let it be the only explanation, because what Pegasi can do with weather is a whole story on its own. Trust me, it's sometimes very complicated.” A nostalgic smile graced her features, “Unicorns can do many different things, like levitation, teleportation and transformation as a few examples. They use their horns as a focus of their will to command great amounts of magic.”

The former police officer thought he connected the dots, “So the Luna and Celestia of your world must be pretty strong Unicorns, right? Tons of magic are surely needed to seal someone away like that.”

A sly undertone was noticed by the two born humans, “Close enough. Princess Luna and Princess Celestia are called Alicorns, because they have the abilities and appearance of all three tribes in one. That means they have a horn and wings at the same time, but also the implied powers of the Earth Pony,” Sunset ended her lecture.

"Ohhhh! You Ponies sound so cute! I wish I could see how you look as one," Sunny said with a smirk, "I could comb your mane and your tail, scratch you behind your ears and make you my little unicorn."

The girl in question shivered, but knew that she didn't mean anything by it.

"Hmm, that sounds like the pony counterparts of the principals are crowned princesses, these alicorns, because they are a combination of all three tribes in one package and have the power to back up their position. But why princesses and not queens?" Shining asked.

"The princesses didn't announce themselves queens, because they wanted to show that they were equals in every right. And because Equestria had its fair share of bad experiences with evil queens and kings in the older times. They were always crowned princesses since the unification of the three tribes. We have four princesses in the moment. OK, maybe five, from what I'm aware of. Princess Celestia, Princess of the Sun. Princess Luna, Princess of the Moon. Princess Cadence, Princess of Love, her daughter, Princess Flurry Heart and Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship." Sunny was confused and Shining was shocked, deeply.

She didn’t want to overload the other two with too much input and hoped that they simply connected the titles of the Celestial Sisters with the time of day they ruled. No questions were asked in this regard.

"Wait a minute. Cadence's counterpart is the Princess of Love? It makes... some kind of sense? And my little sister is the Princess of Friendship? Are we really talking about Twily's counterpart here? And if Cadence has a daughter, then who is the father?" He had an idea.

Sunset grinned waggishly in response, "Who? The dazzling former captain of Princess Celestia's Solar Guard of course. Princess Cadence and he, as her husband, rule over their own domain, the Crystal Empire. His name is Prince Shining Armor," she ended her sentence dramatically.

He froze with a wide open mouth and shrunken pupils.

Sunny waved her hand in front of his face for a few seconds. He didn't react at all, "I think you broke him. If he and Cadence rule an 'empire', doesn't that make them 'empress' and 'emperor' and not princess and prince?"

Sunset shrugged with her shoulders, "In theory? Yes. But they wanted to be prince and princess and rule as equals, in order to show their support for Equestria's way of life. And Princess Cadence really didn't want to be addressed with a higher rank as Princess Celestia, from what I know."

It was interesting and confusing at the same time, but there was something that Sunny found strange, "How do you even know all that? I thought you lived here for a long time already, from what the others told about you when I asked them. But you talk about some topics like you were there."

That was bad, Sunset thought. Except her human friends from CHS, nobody knew about the portal and this knowledge could cause great trouble in the wrong hands.

The magician was nervous and angry at herself. She didn't want that the portal or her diary would become common knowledge, especially because it was, with its counterpart in Equestria, the only bridge for her to return, as far as she knew. But only if the pedestal of the statue still existed and wasn't already destroyed by Raga's Infernal Guard.

It didn't matter in this case, these people, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Shining, the Shadowbolts, Moondancer wasn't decided, yet, besides her friends from CHS who already know most things, were now her closest allies and friends as well. They deserved to know what was going on and needed to be informed accordingly. Kept up to date so to say.

"You have to promise me that you will keep what I'm telling you now a secret. You can only talk about it with the Rainbooms, Twilight, your Shadowbolt friends, Cadence and the principals, because some of them already knew a few things about me. Can I trust you?" she nearly implored.

Sunny Flare nodded her head, "No problem. Your secret is safe with me." She hit Shining Armor in the side.

"Wha-what happened?! Why did you hit me?" he asked irritated at first, then he remembered why he spaced out.

The Shadowbolt frowned at him, "Did you even listen to anything we said?"

"Yes, I heard everything. I wasn't that out of it. I just didn't know what to say to something like that. Yes, Cadence and I planned to marry each other in the future, but we never talked about children. Suddenly I'm being told that my counterpart is married, father and ruler of an entire empire. It was a bit too much," Shining Armor confessed to them.

"Oh, I was wondering just now. Do you know my counterpart, too?" Sunny inquired suddenly.

"Hmm? No, sorry. I never met your counterpart before, or heard about her. But I'm sure she's somewhere in Equestria." Sunset didn't want to tell her that her counterpart, for all she knew, could be something else entirely. On Equus were many sapient races. Still, until she had a proof, Sunset didn't want to make Sunny nervous about the possibility that her counterpart could be a donkey.

No offense to donkeys of course.

"Don't worry, it's fine," Sunny Flare smiled reassured.

The former Unicorn sighed fatefully, “To tell you the truth, I took a magical diary from Equestria with me. I can use that to write to Princess Twilight. By the way, the book is the reason I know everything about Equestria, even if I'm not there. The princess tells me many things when we write with each other. She has the other journal and it was her who came to help us defeating the sirens in the Battle of the Bands. She-” Sunset swallowed heavily, “-came to stop me, as I tried to steal something important from her and Equestria. She took it back, defeated me, helped me to see reason and in process to befriend the others. I was always ambitious in my earlier days and would use everything to my advantage, without remorse. I thought of friends and others as distractions and obstacles. I can understand if you would think of me as a selfish bully..." she closed her eyes in resignation.

She felt hands on her shoulders, from both of her teammates, and saw them looking at her with kind eyes and an understanding smile.

"Sunset, we are not angry with you. Everybody makes mistakes, some are bigger than others. But in the end it was you who changed to a better person. That is what matters," Shining told her.

“Yes, thanks to Twilight and the Elements of Harmony,” Sunset thought bitterly.

"But there is something I can't really believe," Sunny Flare said in a very serious tone.

"Hmm? What is it?" Sunset didn't like where this led.

The former student of Crystal Prep sounded indifferent, "In our long history, many humans built their own kind of 'paradise' and on the outside it all looked fine, but on the inside were the hidden 'corpses in the closet'. Or to say it in another way: 'The closer you are to the light, the greater your shadow becomes'. Especially the 'most peaceful' places are an El Dorado for crimes, power plays or hidden politics with its own agenda and secrets.”

Sunset knew these things already. What was this all about?

Sunny continued more somber, “Real problems will be solved in the shadows, hidden to the eyes of the public, in order to hold up the facade of peace and prosperity and to please the clueless, naive citizens. Something like pure innocence is very rare. Even more rarely is something like that allowed to be continued in the real world.”

The Unicorn-turned-human snorted, “And what is your point?”

Sunny Flare held her hands up in an appeasing manner, “I'm sorry Sunset, but I can't really believe that your Princess Celestia could keep every enemy of state at bay with mere words or a friendly smile. I can only imagine how many threats she disposed of and the books of history just told of her version. As another idiom goes: 'History is written by the victors'. It would be damaging for the ruler's image and his or her created paradise when the ugly truth in form of history books remained. Both would ruin everything. That means the truth will be changed to ensure the maintenance of the paradise."

After Sunny Flare was finished, she saw how Sunset and Shining looked at her in surprise, in light of the amount of wisdom they just witnessed.

She blushed furiously in response, "Come on guys, please don't look at me like that. I just really like philosophy and to find out secrets in general. So I like to read old stories about history and politics of the older times. It's just an embarrassing hobby. Nothing more."

Shining complemented her regardless in amazement, "I've rarely heard words with so much hidden truth. Yes, it's most of the time the case that people can only see reality like they want to see it, but most don't want to accept such a painful truth. Peace has to be fought for. You won't receive it for free. That is, sadly, how it is."

Sunset closed her eyes and sighed fatefully in her mind, the words of both her friends reminded her of something she didn't like to think about, because it felt like treason or... ungratefulness for her.

She remembered things her other self told her, before they fused back together:

”Maybe the princess even disposed of some dangers in a more permanent way, but that happened in the hidden shadows, where her subjects wouldn't witness it.”

It made her question everything she ever learned about Equestria's unbreakable virtues, or the infallibility of Princess Celestia, and forced Sunset to see her former teacher from a different angle, this made her pretty nervous. Behavior and thoughts the Ponies of her home country, especially the ones who believed in her abilities on a religious level and followed her every order, would see it as sheer blasphemy.

She had to sleep on it.

"I think we should go to sleep and start searching in the early morning. Good night guys." That being said, Sunset yawned convincingly and backtracked herself into the warmth of the tent.

Sunny and Shining looked at each other, surprised by Sunset's sudden decision to rest, but shrugged it off and went to sleep, too, entering the realm of dreams.

Cinch trained for two days at the Temple of Cinder. She could always admire its architecture anew.

The temple itself had at least 100 meters in height and 300 meters in width, its appearance reminded her of the Gothic style from the 13th to 14th century.

The material the temple was made of was primarily Zyphorium, in an orange, glowing color. It was used for the rich, with spells enforced and symbols inscribed gates in the west, south, east and north. Pointed arches atop the obsidian made windows, which were painted with the symbol of a simple flame in varied intensities in dark blue.

And the spires!

At least 25 steeple-looking towers existed. Five were positioned with a distance of 30 meters between each other in the south, west, east, north and the center 20 of them reached 100 meters high and were 20 meters broad. The five in the center reached perhaps 120 meters in height and were the greatest ones. 50 meters broad, arranged in a cross formation relative to each other, not in a line like the other towers. They were also covered in different colored flames, black, blue, red, green and yellow. They were Gothic styled too, and gave the illusion, with help of pillars, arches and more, that the entire temple expanded in height, which made it that much more impressive.

The foundation and the very stone the temple was built of was enchanted against magic and other weapons, and the outer temple walls were colored a sandy brown. It gave the entire building an ancient sort of charm.

She was inside the building and wandered through the cross-ribbed, vault-covered halls and corridors. The cross-ribbed vaults themselves were colored in a scarlet red and pure gold in changing patterns. The ground was checkered in purple and sapphire blue.

Sentinels patrolled in teams of two to five through the whole construction, or were positioned in pairs of two at opposite walls. The security was very high.

Two libraries, the Holy Flame Library in the southeast of the temple and the Nemesis Library in the northwest, were the bastions of knowledge in this place. Cinch had access to information about her powers, the culture of this land and possibilities to develop her skills.

She was only there a short time, but she already heard from conversations and the right questions at the right time that two major forces of fire elementals occupied the temple for themselves, split its areas in two and had a great influence on their own.

The Order of the Holy Flame, which believed that the Burning Mountains only existed because of its eternal warmth, a well-structured organization. It was the religious fraction of the fire elementals. Thus they had the leadership in this building and its various outposts. Their commander was a fire elemental, named: Archbishop Magma.

Nemesis' Crusade was the other faction and consisted of the most powerful elite force in the military. Well, from what Cinch knew. She was only here since two days, after all. This force was led by Archon Nemesis herself.

She didn't meet either one of them yet, but Cinch wasn't keen on it anyway, because she heard that beings who were weak couldn't exist in their proximity. Their magical auras were very strong and Abacus Cinch didn't have the wish to perish.

Hence, she once asked High Recruiter Igniticious why the military was there, when the order had the final say in things related to the Temple of Cinder. He just laughed in his burning voice and said to her that the highest leader, the Lord of the Everlasting Fire decided that, but he left the order to its own devices, for the most part.

After Cinch was so bold to ask who this lord was, he admonished her, saying that she didn't need to know the name, yet. She was quiet immediately.

She was still so used to others jumping when she demanded something from her time as a principal of Crystal Prep that she forgot her position. No, from this point on she would serve in perfection.

She trained the control of her magic and first abilities. Cinch could already shoot beams of flame from of her palms, summon fire out of circles at her feet and create fire chains. Not bad for only two days of training, but she knew that her iron discipline was the reason for it. The High Recruiter himself trained her first and foremost and sometimes he would let her fight a lesser fire elemental. She would fight against stronger elementals as her training would progress, so he said.

Yes, she, Abacus Cinch, would prove herself worthy of the title and rank as Blazing Inquisitress.

"Who are you and what are you doing in the temple?" a voice inquired accusingly.

She didn't recognize the owner, but she already knew it was male. Cinch's powers told her. Sometimes it could be very hard for a non-elemental to hear solely by the voice who among the elementals could be defined as male or female.

An unknown tall, gallant-appearing fire elemental made of indigo flames had asked her the question. She had to be respectful. The High Recruiter once told her that only elementals of high rank were allowed on the temple grounds. It made the former principal wonder why she had the right to be here.

Abacus nodded her head in a polite gesture, "Greetings, Milord. My name is Abacus Cinch. I was given the rank of a Blazing Inquisitress, it is truly an honor to meet you. What can I do for you?" It was strange. He looked at her in, she couldn't place it. Recognition? Surprise? Why? Cinch was sure that she never met him before.

"I am Commander Raga, leader of the Infernal Guard. It is... a surprise to make your acquaintance. I thought half-elementals always trained and lived in the Conclaves of Initiation with other Scions. Of course, I mean you no disrespect. I must confess I never met a Scion with such a special rank as 'Blazing Inquisitress', so excuse my rude behaviour, my lady," Raga said humbly, but interested.

So her rank meant something? Cinch didn't know that. She thought that she occupied a lowly position, because she took the deal only recently and was solely tolerated in the temple because of High Recruiter Igniticious. She had to search for literature about the fire elementals’ chain of command one day.

Cinch bowed briefly in acknowledgement, "I thank you for your kind words, Commander Raga, I'm the Scion of-"

"Ah, Commander Raga! I awaited the report about your little 'training session'."

They both turned around to face the owner of the new distorted, smoky and very deep voice, and saw someone, or something, who gave Cinch the chills. It looked like a skeleton. Yes, a skeletal giant, 10 feet tall in forest green flames. He looked at her with empty, blazing eye sockets, it gave the impression as if he tried to look into her very soul. She couldn't see the colors of the bones.

The skeleton itself looked very human, but it had many more bones at its disposal. She saw at least 20 ribs, not the normal 12.

The bones themselves were much thicker than usual as well. She only saw them, because the scarlet red robe he wore was open at the upper body to the location where his stomach should be. Otherwise, the fabric surrounded his bones to the ground. The skeleton wore a fitting scarlet red cap as headgear, but it belonged clearly to a religious type, by its appearance. He must be part of the Order of the Holy Flame, the half-elemental mused.

"I don't think we met yet. A denied pleasure, I must say. My name is Pontiff Infernus." He looked at the nervous woman, "And you must be the new Inquisitress I heard such pleasant tales about. Your teacher has a high opinion about you and thinks that you will be a helpful addition to our ranks, my dear. You should return to your training." Infernus rested his gaze on Raga, "My faithful Commander. Follow me, if you would be so kind."

Raga put a hand to his chest and bowed his head, "Yes, Milord!" he followed the pontiff and both left Abacus Cinch alone.

The High Recruiter thought highly of her? Her hard work began to gain her recognition. Yes, she would build herself a new reputation again and the name ‘Abacus Cinch’ shall be whispered in awe and respect.

The next morning arrived in form of an orange-red dawn. The three-piece rescue team was ready to finally enter White Tail Woods. They packed their camp equipment together and put it on their backs.

"We should hurry. Come on," Shining urged the girls.

"Aye, Captain Armor," Sunny muttered sleepily.

The team noticed another problem as they made themselves ready. The clothes. Every one of them was limited in their choice and the rest of the team at the farm was, too. They hoped they could buy new pieces later in Ponyville, especially Shining, who only wore his dark blue uniform when they had to escape out of Canterlot City. Owning just one set of clothes was annoying.

He even had to ask Big Mac for spare underwear. It was a very awkward talk. Shining Armor prayed that Cadence would never find out the details or she would never let him live that down.

They traveled through the forest for three hours without success. Suddenly Sunny shrieked in shock, pale as a ghost, and pointed to the right, "Look!"

The team found two of the three students, or what remained of them: withered husks. The corpses looked like someone sucked everything out of them. Shining mumbled something about ‘victims of the mummy’, inaudible to the young women.

Sunset turned a little green in the face, but she could hold her breakfast inside, which surprised her. Since everything started, she seemed to be able to pull herself together faster with every event. She wondered if that was something bad or good.

Her eyes widened in recognition, "I know these two. The girl was called Water Melody. I can still recognize her green hair and the black gloves. She, like every student, took part in the activities of Camp Everfree and I shortly talked with her when Fluttershy and I tried to build a birdhouse. She tried to build a ‘mobile feeding ground’, to use her description. The boy was named Micro Chips. I recognize his black glasses and blue hair. Twilight talked with him about some series called 'The Big Void Theory' or something, I didn't listen to details."

"These poor guys. What could do something like that?" Shining Armor wondered. "Hopefully not the mummy," he whispered to himself, again.

"I really don't know, but we have to find the last student. Maybe he or she could escape who- or whatever that was." Sunset went ahead, deeper into the forest, Sunny and Shining in close pursuit.

They all hoped that at least one survived, but in the back of their minds, the team already knew the painful truth.

The forest got darker. The sounds of animals stopped a while ago and more and more trees had no leaves, dead and surrounded by... spider webs? Sunset was perplexed. These circumstances gave her a bad feeling.

"Something isn’t right here. The forest looks more and more like a deathtrap. Dead trees, brown grass blades, no flowers, no noises of animals and a lot of webs, I guess from some mutant spiders if the thickness is anything to go by," Sunny Flare voiced her own observations, "What worries me the most is the size of these things, if they can create such amounts.”

They didn't notice the glowing brown eyes in the dark. Every step of the team was carefully watched.

"Look! There is another area," Shining pointed out.

He showed them a steep path. It led down into a valley. The stone walls were mounted with peculiar green ores. They followed the path downwards. The valley itself was full of spider webs and infertile earth. No plants, just hard stone. They reached a few dark looking caves.

"I think we should-behind you!" Sunny warned in panic.

Sunset turned around, just to face a giant, hairy spider. It tried to bite her, but just in time, she engulfed her body in phoenix fire and surprised the attacker, making it stop for a moment.

"Take that!" Sunset shot flames from her hands upon the spider's entire body, it shrieked in terror, the flames eating away at it in a fast rate. After a few seconds it fell to the ground, dead.

"Wow, Sunset! That was so cool!" Sunny exclaimed in a much more excited manner.

"Thank you. I trained my control a little in my free time at the farm. Of course, it helped that I already had an idea how to focus magic. Watch." In order to prove her point, the magician concentrated and her flames extinguished before they could jump from the spider to the surrounding forest and caused a forest fire by accident.

"So, that is the reason your clothes are not burning away? You can control now what, where and how long something will burn when it comes in contact with your magic?" Shining asked, a little jealous.

Sunset couldn't let this temptation go to waste and smiled seductively at him, "Oh, Shining Armor. I thought you had only feelings for Cadence and now you want to see me naked? How naughty."

His head exploded in a blush and he stammered excuses. Sunny Flare knew what Sunset was going for and laughed loudly.

"Wh-what?! No, no, no! I swear, that wasn't the reason I asked! Pl-please forgive me and don't tell anybody! Cadence would have my head!" he implored.

The amber girl turned her head away in a dramatic way, “So you don't like my looks? Am I too ugly for you, is that it?"

Sunny decided to play along. She gasped, “How could you?! Sunset has feelings, too! And you know what? This morning, as you watched for a safe way into White Tails, she told me everything. I can't believe you jerk would reject her like that! I'll tell Cadence!"

Shining went full panic mode, bathed in perspiration. He thought about a possibility how he could save his life, but he knew it was all over! He would never escape!

Luna and Celestia would destroy him, because they would think that he tried to seduce a minor!

What would his sister do?! She would disown him as her brother, that's what she would do! And Cadence... she would abandon him! She-! His inner terror stopped as he heard full blown laughter from the girls. Then he understood. They both had tricked him.

He groaned, "That wasn't funny,"

"Sorry, Shining, but you ran into that one. It's always funny for me how you humans have such huge problems with nudity. I mean, sheesh. You are not born with clothes and still you have such a high level of shame when it comes down to that," Sunset explained her point. "But to answer your question seriously now, yes. I can control my fire to a level that my clothes won't burn to ashes."

"Let's go forward. I don't think our last missing person will be here, but-" Sunny squinted her eyes and saw something; a shoe, "I found something!" she announced and ran ahead into a smaller looking cave to their left.

Sunny was so eager to put the whole thing behind her and excited that they finally found a clue, she didn't see the lurking spider above her.

But Shining saw it in an instant, "Sunny Flare! Watch out!"

The girl in question looked up, just to get jumped by it. She couldn't dodge. Sunny knew that instantly. She closed her eyes and hoped her death would be painless. She would never see her friends again. She waited... waited... and waited, why was she still alive? Sunny Flare opened her eyes, just to see a bright gold-whitish bubble, which shielded her entire body, and the spider's angry but futile attempts to break through.

"Shining Armor! What that your doing?" Sunset asked the alumnus of CPA, surprised.

He was still quite shaken by this close call, "I guess so? I just saw how this thing jumped at Sunny and my only wish was to protect her, to protect an innocent. I failed to do my duty in Canterlot, but I refused to fail again. I wanted to save her. Then something awoke inside of me and my body did something on its own accord. It's strange. I suddenly know how to use my... magic? Yes, my magic. And a name: 'Paladin Magic'."

Shining was determined. Finally he could protect again! "Hey, ugly! Fight with someone of your own size!" The spider stopped its attacks on Sunny and looked at him. It screeched at a high pitch and charged, poisoned fangs in position.

This time a wall made of holy light appeared directly in front of Shining and the spider crashed full speed into it. They could hear a loud snapping sound and the spider screamed again, now in pain because of its broken fangs. It tried to bite through the wall.

"Shining! End it fast!" Sunny Flare shouted from the distance.

The young police officer concentrated again, and a short sword, made out of golden light, appeared in his hand. "Hai-Yaaaahhhh!" With an angry warcry, Shining charged at the spider.

It turned around, too late.

He rammed his sword into the skull of their enemy and ended its life. He panted heavily from exhaustion and a short time later, the sword disappeared. "Is magic always this hard?" He looked at Sunset for an answer.

"You get used to it. Most of you guys never had magic before, so it's something new for you, especially because you used your magic a few times in a row. Train a little bit and your endurance will become greater. Training your magic is like training a muscle; everything is about practice. Well, and not overexerting yourself," Sunset explained in her lecture mode.

Shining wanted to say something, but didn't get a chance. Sunny Flare tackle-hugged him for a few seconds.

"Thanks! Without you I would have been a goner." She smiled mischievously at him and released him from the hug, "I guess I will tell Cadence that you are perhaps more than decoration. But seriously, I will repay you somehow. I hate to be in debt."

"It's fine, Sunny. Really, I just did the right thing. You don't owe me anything at all," Shining responded kindly.

Three more spiders came from the cave, alerted by the earlier fight. They all tried to attack at once, but Sunset positioned herself in the front this time. She flexed more of her power now, inhaled deeply and out of a bigger spell circle in front of her, a broad fire breath roasted all three spiders to burning crisps.

"We have to look out for them, I fear their nest is nearby. We should go somewhere else. This shoe could belong to any person, or it could be-" Sunset couldn't finish her thoughts.

"A trap? Seriously Sunset, you saw how they behaved. They are big, but at the end of the day, these things are just spiders. They can't plan a trap like that," Shining stated calmly.

He was kind of right, but something told Sunset that there was more behind it, "I think we have to face it. The third student will be already dead, too. Even if we're hoping that someone survived. More important now is that we do something about these spiders. I'm sure they did that to Water Melody and Micro Chips. Spiders inject their prey with poison to liquefy the organs, so they can drink everything out. For future people, who could wander into the White Tail Woods, we have to eliminate them," she finished with courage.

"You are right. Well, we shouldn't have any trouble with our combined magic. Let's go further into the cave," Shining agreed and led them now because of the protection he could give.

Sunny occupied the Phoenix Magic user's left the whole time and stared at her sometimes, Sunset had enough and asked, "Is something wrong? You've been looking at me strangely since we started to move again."

"Oh you saw that?” She cleared her throat awkwardly, “It's... how can I say it? Uhm, you see, Sunset... I've had my share of conversations with your friends, because I wanted to know more about you. Sorry I didn't talk with you directly, by the way. The thing is, they told me only positive things about you, but what they said the most was your devotion to do good in a, well, 'holier-than-thou' kind of way. And no, the last part is just my perspective. They even shared your attitude at some points. But back to the point, you always wanted to redeem others, never thinking about an alternatice way."

The former Unicorn raised an eyebrow, “And? There is nothing wrong with giving others a second chance. Celestia knows I needed it.”

Sunny ignored the strange way she addressed the principal, looking sheepishly, “Of course not! But now you are the first who clearly said that we should kill all spiders, without a second thought. We both know it is the right thing to do; the necessary thing to do. I was just very surprised that you came up with such a plan without any disgust in your voice or even thought about a peaceful solution,” she clarified.

“Sometimes we have to do in life, what is necessary. We have to adapt ourselves to the circumstances, take the odds head-on and do our best. We just have to be careful that we make the right call in the end. But it won't always be the way we want, nor the way we like. Being in this world has taught me that. If a peaceful solution is possible, good. If you know that going for it would be pointless, it's best to do what you have to to resolve the situation,” Sunset replied in grim acceptance.

Sunny looked at her with a sad smile.

"Hey, hurry up! It seems our 'cave' was a tunnel the whole time! There is a way out!" Shining Armor shouted from a good distance in front of them.

"You heard him. Let's do it." Sunny started to run to catch up with Shining.

Sunny Flare was right, much to Sunset's shock. She really came up with the plan to kill the spiders without any second thought. And worse, it was OK to her. Even to think about killing something didn't bother her in the case of the spiders.

That was not the Pony-way!

Sunset already accepted from the talk with her former demon, the Everfree Forest incident, or the invasion of Canterlot that the Magic of Friendship couldn't solve everything and you had to fight. But was she starting to lose herself? Was she losing and forgetting everything she learned from Princess Twilight?

No! She wouldn't lose herself. Sunset was sure. The spiders were likely just a one-time thing anyway. After that she could always go back to her ways of forgiveness. Besides, the spiders couldn't talk, so they couldn't be reasoned with, right?

With this last thought in mind, Sunset left the dark tunnel of stone and stepped out to catch up with her friends.

They apparently found the center of the spiders’ hideout, so Sunset believed. A giant spiral led into the underground. The green ore was everywhere along the walls and boulders around them. These strange looking structures were sharp and varied in form and size, putting color in the landscape of pure white stone, including the spiral.

Now she recognized the stone of the helix and the biggest part of the valley; marble. Sunset was lucky that Pinkie Pie wasn't here, or she would make a joke about the stone and her little sister.

The spiral around the entire area was massive, maybe 100m² altogether, made of the expensive stone. Webs were everywhere, festooning the place. And, of course, the spiders themselves. There were at least 20 of them, but something was peculiar. They just looked at them, but not a single one attacked.

"Ah, our dear guests have arrived. The murderers of my children," a creepy female voice announced. Out from the depth of the spiral came the most disturbing spider the group ever saw, it looked like a giant albino, if not for the legs, and it dwarfed all the other arachnids by a long shot.

"The Queen," Sunset realized.

"S-so you are the leader of these spiders. What did you do to the third student?" Sunny asked in fear.

As a response, the giant matriarch looked to her right. The others followed and what they saw disgusted them badly. The head of the student hung from a giant rock thorn of the spiral on a thick string of spider silk. The rest of the corpse was pierced and hung on another thorn, beside the head. Both body parts were dried out.

Sunset recognized him still, because Flash introduced her to him in the time when they were still together in her bad days. "Sandalwood," she whispered loud enough for the others to hear.

"You monster! You violated his body as well. Have you have no respect for the dead!?" Shining Armor shouted at the giant spider with disgust and anger.

"Respect? HA! I made an example out of his corpse for any weaklings who think they could take away my domain. This area is mine and I won't share it with anyone. Whoever trespasses here will die," the matriarch explained with authority. "You humans are amusing. Why should I care for some 'rules' or 'morals'? You are nothing more than food. I have no reason to respect the feelings of my meals."

Sunset put a hand on Shining's shoulder to calm him down, "Be careful. I think she wants to goad you," she warned.

"Your friend is right; you should be careful, but I just have to tell you how I met this 'Sandalwood'. He ran away like a coward when my children consumed the other humans. He literally fell into my domain, broken. So I, in all my wisdom, released him from his miserable existence. After I had my fun, of course. I punctured his skin and pumped him slowly full with venom to prolong the process. Oh, how he screamed in agony. It was truly delicious. I love it when my prey fights back and screams, but in the end, I will win. You should have heard him. But where are my manners? My name is Arachne. It is a pleasure to meet you. I hope we can be the best of friends," she mocked with a malicious undertone.

"Shut up!" Sunny Flare screamed furiously. She took out a knife from a pocket of her shorts and threw it at the spider. At the same time, Shining shot a sphere of light in her direction, the size of his head.

"I don't think so," Arachne responded coolly and shot, much to the humans shock, an equally sized sphere of white lightning. Both spheres collided in midair and caused a bright golden explosion, "Surprised? Yes, I can use magic, too. Shocking, isn't it?"

Sunset's eye twitched at the terrible pun.

The red and yellow haired girl sighed and looked again into these merciless eyes, "I don't understand you. You are clearly sapient, but you seek to kill and torture the innocent. Why? Why are you doing this? I'm sure you and your brood could easily live on normal animals and have no need for hunting humans. Can't we talk this out?"

Her friends looked shocked at Sunset. It was her idea in the first place to kill the spiders, with good reasons. So why the sudden change of heart?

"Sunset, what are you doing? I thought we were on the same page. That we have to kill them, because they would never stop killing the innocents otherwise," Sunny Flare whispered annoyed and confused. Shining nodded instantly.

Sunset couldn't do that. The spiders were normal predators, animals. There was nothing she could do about them. But now she knew that they had a mother. Worse, the matriarch was intelligent and could talk. She promised herself that she wouldn't lose her path entirely. The princess showed her. She wouldn't take an intelligent life if she could help it!

"Please, if you attack us, then we have no other choice than to kill more of your children in self-defense. So, what do you say?" Sunset tried one last time.

"What do I say? I say I have enough of this ridiculous chatting. It is time to feed my children. Devour them!" the matriarch ordered, her brood attacking.

"Sunny, behind me! Sunset, I will shield us from all sides, except the front. You have to roast them as much as possible, or they will overrun us," the former police officer ordered harshly.

Shining started to concentrate and breathed heavier, but he managed to put up higher walls in all directions he mentioned, before the first spider closed the distance.

"I really tried, but I won't-I CAN'T let you get away with that!" Furious now, because the spiders solely accepted ‘kill or be killed’ as a language, Sunset shot eight small fireballs from both hands so she wouldn't overdo it.

Some spiders managed to dodge, but she hit four of them. 17 foes were left, including the queen. But for Sunset... it was a heavy blow to her moral code, she never had to fight a sapient being to its potential death. In her mind, she had to fight solely 16 opponents. Maybe Arachne could be redeemed, still.

"Incoming from the right!" Sunny warned, then two spiders rammed the right wall. Shining grunted. He had to hold up the wall or they would die.

"Sunset! Take care of the spiders in front of us. I will try to stop them from the sides," he exclaimed in determination. She nodded her head in agreement.

Sunset started to focus again and summoned her fire breath. She killed five spiders at once; 12 remained.

"From the left!" Sunny announced this time. Again, two spiders rammed the second wall. Shining Armor was in trouble. He never used this much magic before and he had no training in proper control. He had to invest much more power in his spells as if he had proper training.

One spider used the moment when the young magician didn't look and lunged at Sunset, pushing her down with one leg, ready to bite the dazed woman.

"No!" Sunny shouted, enraged.

She jumped at the spider and hit it in a futile manner with mere fists against the side of its body. That just angered the arachnid and it easily pushed her away with another leg. She landed hard on the ground. Shining couldn't help or move. He had to hold five spiders at bay with his walls and it took everything he had. It looked like they were about to fail.

“This. Can't. Be. Happening!” the Shadowbolt thought in desperation.

She had to do something. She promised herself that she wouldn't be useless on this trip. Since the invasion of Canterlot City, Sunny tried to do her best, but it was never enough in her opinion. She wouldn't let it end like this! Besides, she had to do something for Sunset. She was still indebted to the girl because of the Friendship Games. And she always repaid her debts.

She stood up and just saw how the spider tried to bite Sunset, who recovered enough to hold the venomous claws away from her face with fire encased hands, to prevent the attack. The redhead was still too dazed to evoke more of her power.

This picture was finally enough to release something Sunny wanted for a long time; the chance to do her part. "Ice Magic," that was she only thing she heard.

A lance of ice shot out of her hand and into the spider's heart, killing it instantly. But before it fell upon Sunset, the girl reacted fast enough to roll to the side. 11 were left.

"Sunny! Look out!" Shining screamed.

The girl in question turned around and was nearly bitten by another spider, but she couldn't dodge completely. The pest hit her left leg and she stumbled onto the hard marble ground, knee first. it caused a very painful laceration.

"Ahhh! Dammit!" Sunny cursed for the first time in her life, but this situation gave her the right to curse, she figured.

Sunset Shimmer had already recovered for the most part and burned her friend's attacker to ash with her flames, nine smaller spiders left, one large. "Can you stand?" she asked her injured teammate, worried.

Sunny put an ice covered hand on her knee and froze the wound with her magic. Sunset looked nervously at that display, but the newest magician assured that no harm was done, "Don't worry. My magic won't give me frostbite. I froze the wound for the time being. Think of it like cauterization, but colder."

The two girls positioned themselves back to back, Sunset killed two more spiders with a second breath of phoenix fire.

At the same time, Sunny put her hands on the ground, summoned a magic circle of ice on it and froze the ground in front of her to stop the third one from advancing. It made the spider slip and it fell to the ground. She used her chance and shot her ice in form of five blue, gleaming, little daggers in the direction of the spider. Three missed, two hit their mark, the weak abdomen. It succumbed fast to internal bleeding and the magical ice in the body.

Six targets remained.

"Enough!" Arachne shouted, livid, "You won't escape my wrath! I will avenge my children!" Her entire body glowed in white electric sparks and from a white magical circle lightning shot brutally into Shining Armor's barriers and the surroundings, shattering them instantly.

The resulting destruction from the attack broke their concentration and blinded them with dust, but their enemies weren't affected. The remaining six spiders pinned down the humans and made themselves ready to devour their prey.

"Wait! I won't make it easy for them. I want to let them suffer for my losses," Arachne ordered maliciously.

She looked between her three future meals and locked eyes with a desperate and tired Sunset Shimmer. She created chains of lightning, using them to bind her victims, but this time the lightning was a sickly green.

The effect was immediate. Somehow it stopped them from using any more magic to defend themselves.

A dark cackle escaped the matriarch’s throat, "I hope you are enjoying it. This type of lightning is known for its ability to block off your mana and makes it impossible to use magic for a short time." Well, when the victim was weaker than the caster of the spell, but her enemies didn't need to know that. "The second useful effect is to chain my prey without hurting it. This ability was taught to me by the same being who gave me the magic to use lightning, but I digress."

Arachne was enjoying her victory, then her eyes fell upon Sunset, "You! You, oh fire-shooting whore, were the biggest thorn and killed most of my children. I want to make you suffer, hearing you scream! I will let you watch as I slowly torture your friends and liquefy their insides into a puddle. Bring forth the other human female!" she demanded.

"No, please! It’s me you want to torture! I killed most of your descendants! Let them go!" Sunset pleaded for the lives of her friends with tears in her eyes. She closed them fatefully and lowered her head in silence.

Gone was her fury and anger, gone was her will to fight. Still, she couldn't watch how her friends had to die a horrible death, because someone hated her. It should be her in this case, not them.

Oh, what would Princess Twilight do? Would she try to talk about it? Would she surrender? Would she fight back? Sunset didn't know.

Arachne used one of her giant legs to push Sunset's head slowly back up to lock eyes with each other once again, "Now listen to me, you pathetic excuse of a human being, and listen well. Since the magic of this plane awoke, countless changes happened all over this world. Many beings died, many others survived. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. Carnivore and herbivore, plants and animals. The strong devour the weak, the eternal fight for survival. Everything that is created on a natural way exists with a reason. Everyone has the chance to choose how they want to spend their life and I enjoy torturing my prey. It's nothing personal. OK, that was a lie, but I like to do what I do.”

Shining Armor snorted in disgust.

She wasn’t done yet and chuckled in cruel amusement, “But disillusioned, pathetic excuses like you can't understand that. No, you have to search for petty excuses for why something shouldn't be like that. Beings like you put everything in categories like 'good' and 'evil'. You demand that you don't have to shape yourselves after life, but that it should be shaped instead after your desires. What arrogance. The world develops itself from everlasting change, but beings like you want to live in eternal stagnation, when it means that your little dreamworld stays intact. But when you want to achieve something you have to live in the real world; you have to adapt. That is exactly what I did. In this part of the forest were a few other animals who wanted this area as their home, but I won in the end. Do you think I would still be alive if I tried to 'negotiate'? Of course not. I only survived, because I adapted."

Arachne gave a signal and her children brought Sunny Flare in front of her, "Now it is time to have some fun," she added darkly.

Sunny Flare looked back to her friends, tears in her eyes. She tried to be brave, "It was nice meeting you."

Shining was desperate and tried to struggle harder, but had no chance against the chains. Sunset Shimmer meanwhile looked into Sunny Flare's eyes and couldn't believe what was about to happen.

"Sunset, thank you for everything." The young ice magician closed her eyes and waited for the torment.

My friends would die, because I held back. I attacked the spiders with only a part of my magic, because I was always sure that we could find a peaceful agreement; that I didn't have to kill everything. Now it's too late. Shining... Sunny... they will suffer, because I believed until the very end that Arachne would see reason.

That she could be redeemed.

I wanted to keep the Sunset Shimmer who was created by the Magic of Friendship, by the Elements of Harmony. The kind of friendship Princess Twilight shared with me. But was that the right way in the end? Could I save them, if I didn't hold back?

I remembered my other self on the plateau, in the landscape of my mind:

"Tirek could steal the entire magic from every single Pony with Discord's help, but all that could have been avoided, when Celestia just would have eliminated this guy. Sometimes you can't spare a life, even if it goes against everything you were taught."

Enemies of my past, who would return, though I wouldn't be there to face them, to protect what was important to me:

"Tell me, young magician. What is your name?"

"Sunset Shimmer," she replied without moving an inch.

"I will remember you. Maybe one day we will meet again. Until then, get stronger." Those were Commander Raga's last words, before he faced the gateway again and returned to wherever he came from.

Shining Armor and Sunny Flare, friends, who would suffer and die, because I placed my virtues above their lives:

"Yes, it's most of the time the case that people can only see reality like they want to see it, but most don't want to accept such a painful truth. Peace has to be fought for. You won't receive it for free. That is, sadly, how it is."

"I'm sorry Sunset, but I can't really believe that your Princess Celestia could keep every enemy of state at bay with mere words or a friendly smile."

I remembered the words of my soon to be murderer, who survived because she chose not to hold back, when I didn't:

"The world develops itself from everlasting change, but beings like you want to live in eternal stagnation, when it means, that your little dreamworld stays intact."

Of course. It made sense.

I was not evil only because I did what was necessary and learned to change and adapt myself according a situation. Sometimes you had to make a hard decision in life and couldn't refuse because of the consequences. Personal sacrifices of my morals were sometimes unavoidable, as long as I didn't lose myself and became the very thing I fought.

I always blocked my own development. By Luna’s wing, I was such a featherbrain!

I did everything possible to achieve princesshood and neglected everything else on purpose, but the deeper reason was that I wanted to be recognized and be loved by Princess Celestia.

Then I wanted revenge on her for taking away what I ‘deserved’ and on Twilight Sparkle, because she got what I always dreamed of. I stole the Element of Magic out of spite, but again, because I wanted to prove to Princess Celestia that I could be her equal, and sought once more her recognition. In a... twisted way.

How embarrassing. I always held back the full potential of my magic, because I still feared, in the darkest corners of my mind, that I would return to my old ways before the Fall Formal someday. In the end, it was enough when I was myself, I realized that now.

Sincere acceptance.

"Hmm, how should I start?" Arachne asked Sunny Flare with malicious glee. "Should I use my lightning to skin you? Poison you now? What do you think?"

"I-I, please, just end it fast! I can-" Sunny couldn't say more, because she felt a giant heat wave on her back. She turned her head around, just to face a giant pillar of fire in gold, red and blue, like she saw it from Commander Raga, just weaker.

The two spiders who held Sunset down were incinerated immediately. The remaining arachnids, except Arachne herself, ran away in blind panic, the survival instincts stronger than the loyalty to their mother. As the flames disappeared, they saw Sunset again, but this time not in the attire she got from her geode.

She wore an armor, similar to the ones of Celestia and Luna, but her gear was made of a few armor pieces. There was firstly a chain mail in a pure, radiant shade of silver; mithril, above it. Her main armor. It was colored in a vibrant ruby red and on her chest was the like golden fire blazing form of a phoenix. The proud firebird had spread wings and a delicate appearance.

The armor itself protected her body, but not entirely. It was gallant in its appearance, masterfully crafted, nearly covering her entire upper body. Her shoulders had even thicker shoulder pads, which were built tightly around them, but gave her perfect mobility to move her arms. Her feet; the armor there had golden highlights on the upper edges of the boots and on the underside, reaching to below the knees. Her hands were covered in fine, thin, fingerless gloves in a golden color, made of an element she didn't know, but not gold itself. Sunset could feel that it was much, much stronger. Her upper arms were protected with gleaming, violet colored armor that didn't engulf the entire area there, but was connected with the shoulder armor through silver colored metal strings.

Sunset had vambraces on her forearms. They were colored in a shining silver, with adornments in the form of unknown ruby red runes upon them. The headgear was no helmet, but a diadem, shaped in the same form as the phoenix on the chest. On the diadem's center rested a fire ruby, slender and not flashy or big. Its color was a faint aquamarine. Her plate leggings were golden in color with seven, vibrant red highlights over their entire length and protected her from the hip to a little beneath the knees like a second skin. The remainder of the lower legs was protected by equally colored greaves.

In her hand was a 1.7 meter long sword. It had a golden colored and gracefully looking hilt, the sword itself was two-edged, it looked thinly built, but was most robust, it could not be damaged easily by its foes. The blade itself was made of crystal, it could furthermore store her magic to enforce her abilities in emergencies. The color of the blade varied. It was colored scarlet red from the hilt to nearly the end of its first half where the color merged slowly to this point into a pearl white that dominated the rest of the blade. Her Cutie Mark, the two-colored sun, adorned the base of the hilt from both sides and Sunset's red geode was placed in the center of the blade, where the colors merged perfectly, infused in her sword and could be seen from both sides, glowing.

"W-what are you doing?! How are you able to use your magic?!" Arachne queried nervously. She might have been much bigger, but she felt the power behind Sunset's release of power, worse, she felt that this woman was now far stronger than her.

Sunset opened her eyes, the irises were infused by magic, flickering like unforgiving flames. Ready to devour their foes, "I nearly lost my friends, because I was stupid. But no more. I understand now. I've taken what you said to heart. What you now see before you is my strongest form, with all my magic released. It is still not much in comparison to someone I encountered in the past, but it's more than enough for you, Arachne, I know that.”

Sunny and Shining could only stare at her in sheer awe. Arachne stepped back with every step taken by the Phoenix Magic user herself. The albino needed to think about a strategy, and fast.

She sighed and looked with pity at the large spider, “I could make demands, force my will upon you and make you eat what I say, but I won't take your very nature from you. I have to tolerate that, but we both know I can't let you continue. You are a danger to all humans and, from what I've seen, to nature itself", Sunset finished.

Arachne cackled madly, "I see. I thought you would give me an holier-than-thou kind of speech about how I shall change my evil ways. Well, don't think I will run away from you like my children. Let's end this, but before we do that, what is your name?"

The Unicorn-turned-human granted her bit of information, "Sunset Shimmer."

"Then I will enjoy tearing you apart, Sunset Shimmer," came the once more confident boast.

Shining Armor and Sunny Flare used the confusion and stood behind their friend, both magically empty and tired from the last fight. Sunset saw that.

"Please take cover somewhere. I can't hold back with her," she requested urgently.

The magician glared firmly in the spider queen's direction. The giant knew what was on her mind.

"I will kill them later. I can feel that they are done and won't be able to use any more magic for quite some time. You are my problem now," she said angrily.

"Good luck. Sorry that we can't help you," Sunny said sadly. Shining sighed in annoyance.

After Sunset was sure that her friends were safe, she let her sword disappear again. She never had any sword training in her life, so it wouldn't make any sense for her to use it. She just needed her magic.

"Die!" Arachne shot volleys of lightning at Sunset. She decided to attack with magic, too.

She knew that if Sunset could somehow position herself beneath her, the young woman could just scorch her from the softer underside of her body with ease. So the queen had to kill her prey from a distance. She didn't know that it wasn't going to work that way anyway, because the girl had no confidence in close combat with a giant spider.

Sunset shot her own fireballs and eliminated the incoming danger. Her only problem was that she still felt slightly tired from the fight before. She didn't use much magic, but she did use it, so she had not enough for a longer battle. The amber human needed to end it with one shot.

She took a deep breath and concentrated. her entire body glowed in the multicolored outline of her flames.

"No, you don't!" Arachne felt how much magic Sunset started to focus in her next spell and knew it would be the end of her, when that hit. "You need to stand still when you want to use your next ability with precision and power."

She started her own attack and knew she would be faster. After a few seconds the matriarch was already finished with her preparations and aimed directly at Sunset. She could already see the despair of the human, the... smug smile?

Sunset chuckled slyly, "I think you forgot something every phoenix has. Yes, I have to stand still for a short time and I can't escape you on my feet..."

The matriarch didn't let her say any more words and shot a a gleaming beam of white lightning at her prey.

"Sunset!" Shining and Sunny screamed in terror from a safe distance. Their friend wasn't ready! They watched the beam and how it nearly hit. Emphasis on the word ‘nearly’.

Angelic looking phoenix wings appeared upon Sunset's back the moment Arachne started to shoot. They were broad, but graceful, made entirely out of blazing phoenix fire in crimson, gold and a little white on the upper parts of the wings.

She made a few strong flaps with her new appendages, flew out of the way, up into the sky and landed, with much luck, on a white thorn of the spiral. It was her very first try using the wings. Sunset marked that as a brilliant success; a little bit more to the left or right and she would have fallen into the depths to her death. She stood now 15 meters above where she was and looked down at the spider, ready to unleash her full power for the very first time in her life.

Her friends celebrated.

"Finish her, Sunset!" she heard the shouts of Shining Armor.

Arachne looked up, tired. She used her entire mana reservoir for that attack and could only watch helplessly as a giant magic circle appeared in front of Sunset and the redhead unleashed her last attack. It was an inferno. A giant beam of her enemy's flames came down upon her and turned her massive body into less than ash.

The former matriarch's last thought before the attack erased her from existence was how funny the world could be, that something this small, like a human, could be her demise.

Sunset landed ungracefully back on the ground and her wings and armor disappeared instantly, she just wanted to sleep.

"You go, girl! That armor, that sword, those wings, that last attack... that was all levels of incredible!" Shining Armor said in pure awe. He would never say it to anybody, but he was never this jealous before in his life.

"What he said! I think it's time to go," Sunny commented with a smile.

"Wait, before we go, I still have enough mana for two last fireballs," Sunset stated, clearly out of juice.

"And?" Shining inquired.

Instead of answering, Sunset looked in the direction of Sandalwood's head and body, she shot one of her two last projectiles directly onto the pieces of the student's body and let her flames devour them in a few seconds.

Then she looked down the spiral stairs, firing off the last shot, burning any eggs that Arachne had left behind at the bottom.

“Try coming back from that,” were her final words before she lost consciousness. But before she could hit the ground, her body was caught by Shining Armor.

"Wow, that was intense. Let's bring her back to our campsite. We were nearly the entire day in this accursed forest and she needs her sleep," Shining said, exhausted himself.

"I'll follow your lead. The others will never believe me,” Sunny Flare commented in agreement.

After the rescue team was long gone, a circle, made of golden lightning, appeared at the place of the fight. A thunder elemental entered the valley.

All elementals had bodies made of the element they represented, but not all had the same form. Most liked a bipedal shape, but some elementals preferred something different. Made of golden lightning, the same color like the magic circle, an otherworldly entity materialized. It had the body of a centaur.

The centaur was 13 feet tall. Power in pure form shaped the golden body. The upper half was built broad and gave the illusion of strong muscles, the lower half wasn't shaped any less imposing, broad back, strong legs and hooves. Most interesting was the tail.

The tail was shaped like the tail of a horse, but it was made of red, glowing electricity instead of gold, like the rest of the body. Between the hairline of the tail and the back of the body was a gleaming silver ring, which separated the red and golden currents.

The armor of the elemental was, in some places, nearly transparent so it was possible to see the lightning of the chest and the four big legs. There the body changed color from gold to a ghostly bright blue, nowhere else. The original ore could be seen in a dark green shade of jade and emitted sparks of lightning, but lost its coloration when in contact with a thunder elemental's body. Its special task was it to make the lightning at these places much denser, so attacks wouldn't cause much or any damage at all and the change of color was just a byproduct. This ore could only be used by thunder elementals. They named it with that reason Ampharite.

However, ihe entity wore on the head, arms and back of the animalistic half of the body, thick plates of Zyphorium armor in its most common color, a vibrant orange, with symbols in the language of the elementals, Kalamdur.

The helmet covered only the lower half of the head and was formed in a half circle with jagged teeth. Its sharp eyes were silver in color.

He saw the entire fight, as it was his task. He gave this overgrown spider, this Arachne, the ability to use lightning through lightning infused crystals, which she had to devour to use the power of thunder. The acid of her stomach could easily erase the crystal and set the lightning free in her system. It was a very painful process and most creatures would die. That was the reason why that kind of transformation was rarely used at all. But the experiment had to be done. It was his task. The elemental had to say, he never saw such a wasteful use of lightning, the lowly arachnid was unworthy of such a blessing.

Still, he was ordered to watch the fight and to report about the progress of this lowly human, this Sunset Shimmer. Why his lord and master wanted to monitor her fight and why he wanted to know things about this mortal was a mystery to him. He remembered every detail and would report it all, with comments of course. He watched from a safe distance from the higher levels of the helix, so nobody could see him. Only perfection was enough for him. There were reasons why he was one of the four members who made up the Akil’ir Council.

These four thunder elementals were chosen by their lord. The title was similar to a governor for the mortal races, a being in charge for someone else. The name ‘Akil’ir’ had two meanings.

First, they ruled in their master's name one of the four lesser islands; one island, one Akil’ir.

Second, Akil’ir was their title, too. Not only the description for the council.

Normally a scout could have done this job, but his master wanted a perfect report. It was just obvious that he would trust solely him with such a delicate situation. He, Akil’ir Proton, never failed a mission. He always delivered perfection.

Indeed, Lord Imperion would be most pleased with him.

Author's Notes:

Greetings my avid readers!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Well, Shining Armor sure hates mummies, that racist. No heart for the deceased.

I wanted to keep the number of words in the chapters between at least 8500-15000 at its maximum, or so I hope. Just so that you have a vague idea how long the chapters of this story could get.

Thank you very much for reading and stay tuned!