Evening
March 21st, 71 BNM
Equestria, North midland mountains
Citadel, lower basements
Dungeon levels

Keeping himself invisible, Starswirl had found his way down into the basement levels, which made up most of the Citadel’s internal structure, built into the mountain face and depths over decades, manual and magic work building its great halls, tunnels and secret chambers to their current state.
He passed by prison cells, the iron barred cells devoid of occupants, save for the occasional hairs and scales he saw on the ground giving away the occupant history. It seemed whoever was kept in here was more than one race.
Keeping his breathing low, Starswirl ducked back instinctively as a pair of guard pegasi walked past, their black and silver armour simple but ridged with serrated edges. As they ventured down the hallway, Starswirl saw where they had come from, and slipped inside.
Finding a large vertical shaft of sorts, with a large spiral staircase running along its outside circular walls, he slowly trotted down, blue magic softening his hoofsteps to that of a mouse.
Down and down he went, and soon he saw a doorway before him, as water lapped below, clearly an underground pond feeding into the bottom of the stairwell depths. Glancing inside, seeing that torches were lit, he braved the orange lit hallway, seeing a gentle slope running further down, as some echoes carried from the chambers up ahead.
As he advanced though, he paused mid step in the middle of the hallway, something bursting in his mind. He sensed some new presences he hadn’t before, faint, but there.
“Alicorns… Here?”
All races and sibraces had unique magic ‘signatures’ to those that could read them, and Alicorns were no different.
Up ahead, through the hallway into the chambers ahead, their presences flickered, muted, many of them.
Blinking, nerves on edge, Starswirl advanced, invisible all the while.

Lower chambers, storage vault

Coming to a doorway just before the main halls up ahead, Starswirl saw a problem. The metal cast door was enchanted, as a faint ripple of grey magic emanated over it. Every part, except for a lock in the centre. Peering into the hole, Starswirl grimaced as he mumbled bitterly:
“I can’t see inside, dare I risk it? If I overpower the spell, hidden alarm spells may go off… Another way in, carefully.”
Looking at the door, Starswirl focused his magic, his eyes seeing a projection of the vault beyond, where the door ended. Shutting his eyes, he let his other senses guide him, and he teleported.
A blue flash went unnoticed in the hallway as he entered the vault, none of the enchantment alarms tripped.

It was pitch black inside, but his blue light from his horn illuminated all. With nopony else inside, he had no need to be invisible. So he wandered through the long hall of shelves and storage cabinets.
It was not a storage vault of treasures as he suspected, but some things in here were rare and valuable in other ways.
An entire side of the room seemed to be a library of plants, animal body parts in pickling jars, all culminating in it being an apothecary that would be the envy of any would be potions brewer. Some creatures and plant parts in the jars and tubs Starswirl had never seen before.
A few small creatures the size of bluebirds, even dead, and deformed, seemed to stare back at him from the jars, too deformed to know what they were beforehand.
Passing by what seemed to be potions pantry Siral had dreamt of, even in his more noble times, Starswirl saw a group of cabinets up ahead. As he sensed with his magic, he felt the Alicorns coming from within them. But the cabinets were smaller than any ponies he’d seen.
With a slight gulp of trepidation, Starswirl slowly walked forwards, a slight echoing whisper from many voices vibrating in his head as he came to the cabinets, some cries of pain even as his horn glowed blue to sense their signatures.
Opening up the cabinet on the left, Starswirl didn’t find the source of the voices. Oddly though, what horror he did find should have been them.
He saw a dozen or so long horns, all Unicorn but larger in appearance. Alicorn horns, multi-coloured, some older than others in how long they’d been here.
“Alicorns going missing in the war, presumed dead…”
Bowing his head in lament, Starswirl quietly shut the cabinet doors, but not before he noticed something back over in the creature part shelves. A few tubs and preserving jars with other parts form ponies:
“Not just horns, wings too, a butcher’s fortress is what I am in.”
In disgust, Starswirl finally turned to the cabinet form which the voices came from in his head, and with a blue glow of magic from his own horn, he wrenched them open.
He saw nothing inside at first, but as the shadows fell back, he saw what looked like amulets with different gem colours in them. As he stared at them, he heard the voices, and the Alicorn carving from the gold chain and head seemed the source.
Voice after voice, whispering in pain, but to Starswirl’s horror, he found that some had faded entirely.
One with a red gem in the centre was the clearest, but even that one was incomprehensible. Yet something came through.
Turning to the other cabinet, Starswirl opened it, and noticed an Alicorn horn perched inside it that bore a striking colour resemblance to the amulet’s gemstone.
At that moment, raw magic inside an amulet, Starswirl stared back at the amulet, and his mind raced.
He then had a memory suddenly come back, from so long ago, but clear as to why it applied now.
Pandina, 534 years ago, when he and Siral were still friends.

29th July, 605 BNM
Midday
Imperial Pandina, Tabit Province
Hilomeyan Mountains, Xigongyian Valley
River banks

Their Eastern Dragoness companion, Hinai, also their found Exemplar of Magic, had bid them farewell hours ago, and they faced their next stage of travel through the world and time.
Walking down the massive valley, Starswirl and Siral were already searching for a place to begin their next ‘hibernating state spell round’, for they had more individuals of merit to find.
Walking along the river bank, Starswirl asked Siral cautiously:
“What of the amulet found on Ghung Chian?”
“It may take weeks, months to fully understand it. I know not who forged it, but I think together we can understand the magic behind it.”
“A side project, we must remain focused.” Starswirl reminded him, to which Siral waved a hoof offhandedly in acknowledgement.
Still, the amulet’s silver chain and blue/grey stone within were heavily on their minds. That orange Eastern Dragon had wielded great power with it, power beyond his own, by draining others magic and very life essence into it, for him to use. An extremely dangerous and insidious magic, not to be idly tampered with.

Present
Citadel, lower basements
Forging chambers

Head still reeling from the horrors he’d seen Siral keep in his vault, of his own creation, the Wizard had left the vault with haste. Now invisible once again, he had ventured down into the main chamber looming before him.
A large stone viaduct spanned the chamber overhead in a winding fashion, with platforms at intervals, 7 of them.
Opposite each platform, was a massive stone cauldron the size of a small hut, looming high in the darkly lit stone chamber, yet only stretching halfway to the ceiling.
As he sensed with his magic, Starswirl nearly recoiled. In his mind, emanations of the magic from the 6 beings so far enhanced practically wafted from 6 of these massive vats.
Here was the birthplace of the beings to exemplify Envy, Greed, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony and Sloth, in order of oldest to most fresh by the magic ‘signature’.
“So, one at a time Siral?” Starswirl murmured, before he noticed what looked like a small plaque before each massive cauldron.
A sound of hoofsteps echoed behind him, as Starswirl quickly dashed down the stairwell nearby to the ‘ground’ level, at the base of the cauldrons.
A half minute passed, as Starswirl came up to one of the massive caldrouns, overhearing discussion from a patrol of guards overhead, noting the magic signature of ‘obedience’ that seemed to come off them by Siral’s magic senses.
“-got them on edge, but why would an intruder come down here? Other than the handful of prisoners, it can’t be a rescue attempt, they were presumed dead.”
“But to get inside, they must be dangerous for the master to send out a warning, whoever they are.” The Earth Pony stallion replied, his armour clinking as he walked along the stone walkway above, the Unicorn mare in armour beside him nodding in agreement.
Keeping invisible, Starswirl let this patrol pass by, as they would check from up on high where they could see all, except him right now.
Coming up to one of the plaques, before the oldest used of the 7 vats, Starswirl saw the magically carved image on the front.
A scorpion body with 6 legs and 2 pincer arms, an ape torso with 2 dragon arms, a shortened Unicorn head with 4 curving horns coming down and out like a headdress of sorts, and a short cut mane flowing from its back. The being of Envy.
“So this is what it looks like up close… Only from a distance have I seen you, that day in Canterlot.”
As he made to wander off, his thoughts turned to the other vats, and one by one he briskly wandered to each, knowing here was where he could evaluate the threats.
Greed, a centipede legged dragon with Gryphon wings on its upper body that doubles as arms and hands, and 2 more sets of dragon like wings along his back.
Wrath, an ape shaped golem with skin imbedded with stone plating, spikes, and a thin mane of hair stretching down its back to the end of its stubby tail.
Lust, a serpentine form with 2 lithe arms and clawed hands, the ears and head of a Siren, insectoid like back scales from a changeling, and 2 horns arching backwards like 2 twin head tails.
Gluttony, merely a Minotaur with a very bloated appearance, simplicity that belied his power.
And Sloth, a very slender looking Alicorn mixed with the wispy look of a Windigo, and the fiery feather mane of a phoenix.
All 6 showed lines of energy coming off them, to which Starswirl mused:
“Each emits an aura of their ‘trait’, or else they perform it themselves. Beings, made to cause grief in different ways.”
Finally, he came to the 7th vat, only to find the plaque before it was blank, and no magic seemed to be coming off it. No stench of pride.
“I am not too late, as suspected. But where is the host?”
Walking slowly around the massive vat’s walls, Starswirl placed a hoof on the edge, thinking aloud in a whisper:
“Beings can’t be created from scratch, only altered from ones already alive. Where is the seventh?”
Looking around, Starswirl recalled what the guard overhead had said, as he looked around, looking for a doorway to search other areas:
“Other than the handful of prisoners, it can’t be a rescue attempt, they were presumed dead.”
“Prisoner, any sane being wouldn’t volunteer for these horrific existences.”
The Wizard continued into the catacombs, searching for any dungeons he had not yet found.
Deep down though, he had noticed the being of Sloth strongly resembled an Alicorn. And Siral may well have one or more as his prisoner right now, as the seventh to come.
He would be merciful in this regard if it was true.

Minutes later
Lower chambers, storage vault

Opening the chamber, the vault lit up in proper torchlight as Siral entered the chamber. Striding into the vault, Siral muttered under his breath in a rare moment of self-deprecating casual behaviour he allowed only when alone:
“Close to my goals and he comes and starts snooping around… And he calls me inconsiderate.”
His grey magic opened the cabinets, as he saw the collection of Alicorn amulets he had created. The most recent red amulet was still ‘cooling’, as all of them needed to become stable. With this, he opted for taking the 2 oldest for good measure, his grey magic seizing the white and the yellow amulets and slipping them around his neck.
As he slipped them on, he felt a rush of energy each time, white and yellow rushing his eyesight before settling down, as Siral grit his teeth to let the energy sync with his own.
“Can’t believe these are to be first used to deal with a trespasser…”
As he moved to shut the cabinet, Siral paused, as he sensed a recognisable magic to Starswirl’s own, having been around the cabinets.
“So you’ve seen my work Starswirl? You will more than see it when I find you…”

Meanwhile
Evening
Citadel, upper levels, living areas

The sunset had passed already, no more sunlight streaming into the living area lounge. The fireplace crackled, but offered little relaxation.
The book before her was a decent novel, nothing spectacular, but she needed a distraction.
But Teal Quirt couldn’t help but keep glancing up and around, even down towards the floor, anxiety eating at her from the inside. Her blue/grey mane was somewhat dishevelled from her nervous fiddling with her hoof.
A sound of hooves came behind her, as Gaudium casually trotted into the living area, some flecks of dried clay on his light brown Alicorn coat. Turning to him, she saw him magically peel away all the clay ‘crumbs’ into a ball before his face, with it transforming into a small bread dough ball before her eyes.
Seeing her odd look at his magic, not too powerful but creative, Gaudium remarked shyly as he hovered the dough ball near the fire to quickly cook:
“I missed dinner, just a little snack.”
“Has anyone told you that you have more creativity than most Alicorns, of any age?”
“Believe me, I hear that often. Not that my parents thought much of artistry, while they were alive.”
At Gaudium’s remark about his parents, Teal Quirt’s nervous tick came back with a storm. She kept quiet, she had to. It was another reason for her to be wary.
She had been the one who led, and in person, killed Gaudium’s parents in Trottingham, and made sure his siblings were killed, to get him here with no ties he’d be wanting to find.
But this Alicorn sat beside her in his own armchair now, warming a magic made bread dough to bread over a fireplace, was a cause of worry on two counts.
Siral told her to make sure Gaudium was kept away from Starswirl, keep him safe. She knew Gaudium may be a target, and he was crucial.
But if Gaudium found out anything that occurred, he would have to be kept check by force, no friendly unity between them.
As he finished heating the bread to cooked form, Gaudium noticed Teal’s thousand-yard stare, as he asked:
“Something’s bothering you, what is it?”
“…Has Siral told you some Royalists want to attack the Citadel, us?”
Gaudium was quiet, as he took a small bite of the bread ball with a sad understanding look:
“He mentioned it, not surprising given the war. He said its why he’d made sure Ave-Dol’s home remained hidden, and that the others are staying hidden and separated for now.”
Teal Quirt nodded, but she knew secretly this was another half-truth. Siral kept them separate on their tasks outside the Citadel for not being found as easily, and to do more at once.
“Well, there’s talk of a powerful figure hunting us, specifically, and he’s prowling around these mountains. Wouldn’t anybody in our position be nervous?”
At Teal’s words, Gaudium looked at the Unicorn mare blankly, as he admitted:
“You said you’ve been in grave danger before, not exactly how but you have. I can’t say I’ve ever been in that position, I’m not sure what to think.”
“Pray that day doesn’t come.” Teal finished, before Gaudium asked outright now:
“On that note, you never said what that mortal danger was. I heard it was before you had your own power ups. What did happen?”
“Let’s just say I have a dislike for Salamanders now, where to begin?”
Telling/venting about a certain Salamander she’d been wounded by in horn, and nearly fatally, on two separate counts. And Gaudium was willing to listen at least.

Late Evening
Citadel
Catacombs, underground lake.

Keeping his hoofsteps silent as usual, his form invisible, Starswirl was in awe, and fear even, at what he beheld.
The viaduct bridge, stretching across a lake in a massive cavern, with chains reaching down from the caverns to large cages that hung level alongside the viaduct.
The lake below practically reeked of ominous threat, the surface black and foreboding.
Wandering along the cages, Starswirl found the cage that held prisoners, all in one cage as well. But his hopes fell.
They were merely soldiers, Unicorns, Pegasus and Earth Ponies, 5 of them, huddled together and starved looking.
He couldn’t help it, as Starswirl flickered the air as he reemerged in midair with a whisper, nervous as he heard it echo slightly in the cavern.
“Don’t panic, I’m here to help.”
A set of tired eyes looked at him, the lead soldier Pegasus stallion seeing the grey bearded wizard before him, a light of hope, but mostly fear, in his eyes.
“Is…Is he near?”
Starswirl’s blue magic pulled the cage closer to the viaduct bridge slowly, the chains creaking ever so louder in the lake chamber than he would be comfortable with. Shaking his head, Starswirl’s magic slowly creaked the cage door open, the Wizard hovering the 5 ponies out onto the bridge beside him and then letting the cage swing back quietly into its hanging position.
“Siral? No, not yet. But you should leave, I sense a back exit near the end of the hall.”
Pointing to the other end of the chamber, where a narrow doorway beckoned, the other starved soldiers looking at it with some uncertainty. Their captain, the Pegasus stallion, weakly remarked:
“We are not in the best shape…”
“What did he do to you all?”
“Us? He just left us here, for later use he said. He killed out leader, we were escorting our Mistress as she went to meet with the Trumanes in Baltimare, and-.”
“Wait, you are Nationalists?” Starswirl remarked, surprised rather than aggressive. The other soldiers weakly nodded, as their captain finished:
“The black wizard, he, he used his magic, some medallion. He sucked her magic dry, nearly killed her. He had two, one he already had, a silver chain, but her magic was taken into a gold one, pink, like her coat…”
Starswirl’s memory flashed to the vault. He had seen a pink amulet among those that emanated stolen Alicorn power and life.
“And then he just, dropped her into the lake. Its horror, they ripped her apart…”
“Were there other Alicorns killed?”
“Just a red stallion after her. Hard to say how long ago, time’s hard to keep track of down here.”
“This can’t go on. Make your way to the exit, I’ll find Siral and make him answer for these unspeakable crimes, and others he has done.”
Starswirl boldly stated this in a low tone, as he gestured for the 5 soldiers to head out of the tunnel at the far end of the viaduct bridge.
“Thank you, whoever you are.” The Pegasus leader weakly laid a hoof on Starswirl’s shoulder, clapping the still grimly determined Wizard in utter thanks.
But as he looked over Starswirl’s shoulder, he froze in horror. The others turned, and saw it too.
Sensing a presence, and power, Starswirl turned around, putting himself in front of the 5 weak ponies, stripped of their weapons, armour and magic in the Unicorn mare’s case.
At the far end of the bridge, the end leading up into the Citadel’s other catacombs, a grey robed Unicorn with a hideously scarred face, a ghostly white mane and short beard, and a slight grey and black aura around his horn, stood like a statue facing them.
“So it seems knocking on the door is beneath the great Starswirl the Bearded now, is it? Skulking about, as if afraid of what happens if you’re found.”
Siral’s tone came across as utterly condescending, yet spiteful at the same time. Silence that could be pierced at any instant reigned, while Starswirl stood firm against Siral, keeping the 5 soldiers behind him safe from this Wizard’s powers, those that he knew of.
But what drew Starswirl’s true ire, and fear, was the dark magic he felt coalescing around Siral, and the two golden chains around his neck, sensing ex-Alicorn magic inside them, in the same vein of the medallion the two wizards came across so many centuries ago.
Starswirl had delved into his own questionable magic sources, the necromancy magic he’d taken as a last resort knowledge source. But here, Siral had all but drowned himself in magic neither he nor the Siral he’d once been friends with would have dared delve into.
“How far you have fallen Siral…” Starswirl lamented aloud, to which Siral’s eyes narrowed while he stood 30 metres from them on the bridge. Looking at the cowering soldiers behind Starswirl, Siral asked sceptically:
“Before you inevitably try to preach me to death, what do you plan on doing with them? Release them I presume?”
At Siral’s remark, Starswirl took a step forwards, glowering at Siral as he replied:
“Obviously, they have seen what you’ve done. And if you try and-.”
“I won’t try to stop them. Not that anypony will believe 5 soldiers wandering the wilds after losing their Alicorn mistress, and going mad to the point of delusions about a key ally of the Nationalists.”
As Siral spoke, he pointed a hoof at himself with a small grin on his face, knowing he had the troopers escaping well in hoof. Looking behind Starswirl from afar, Siral gestured with a hoof to the tunnel, his tone flat:
“Straight through the tunnel, you’ll reach an exit gate. Try not to get lost on the way out, it’s a labyrinth if you try to come back.”
Unnerved, the soldiers began to scurry down the viaduct bridge, whilst the Pegasus captain cast a terrified look at Siral before turning to gallop as fast as his starved body could carry him through the tunnel a fair distance away.
Now alone with Siral on the bridge, the lake below as ominous as ever, Starswirl was tense, ready, as he spoke:
“Maybe not them, but my word shall be believed. I will go to your allies, tell them-.”
“They won’t believe you either, they see more value in me as an ally, then turning against me. Try as you might Starswirl, I have been at this longer than you. While you have served, I’ve played the war’s events to my advantage, positioned myself so that they don’t want to believe I’m a threat to them, even if evidence does get out.”
Bristling with anger, Starswirl finally exploded as Siral offhandedly remarked about the now vanished fleeing soldiers in the tunnel:
“Besides, my servants in the mountains will deal with those starved test subjects, not yet tested on mind you, before they get far from the exit.”
“ENOUGH SIRAL! I know you’re not yet finished in your goals, one remains to be birthed. You won’t carry out any of your evils any longer while I am here!”
Starswirl’s blue magic lit up in a furious display, while before him, Siral’s own magic, enhanced by 2 Alicorn amulets he’d forged, was less prominent for now.
“You dare confront me in my own-!”
Siral’s eyes widened as a blue light engulfed him, though his white/black protective shield stopped direct contact. Starswirl’s magic spread lightning like sparks across Siral’s shield surface, before he was flung sideways through the cavern, smashing into the rock wall with a resounding crash that rumbled through the chamber. Grey/black magic flickered as it blasted Starswirl’s blue magic off him, with Siral shaking his head in a daze as the 2 amulets then began to glow slightly, white and yellow amulets growing in brightness as dark, twisted Alicorn magic bolstered his own.
“By the ways and times you and I have time jumped, I have lived in real time 60 years that you have not.”
Hovering above the waters of the cavern, which began to ripple as the demon enhance leech hordes were awakened by the impact on the wall above them, Siral’s magic brightened as he readied an area attack:
“You were 60 years my senior in experience, now we are the same age. But unlike time and our age, I have surpassed you in ways you don’t even dare, accomplished feats you wouldn’t have dreamt of.”
“6 feats I came to destroy, that or the 7th if they are waiting.”
“Perhaps I was wrong; you are willing to go to extremes as I am. A lesson learned too late for you I am afraid, but you could still prove, useful to me.”
Starwirl’s eyes widened at Siral’s last words, dripping with toxic intent. With a blinding flash of blue light, Starswirl attacked again, whilst grey and black light engulfed the cavern, and the waters below in the lake broiled under the collision of magic between them.

Meanwhile
Late Evening
Citadel, upper levels, living areas

The Citadel shook slightly, too sudden for an Earthquake.
At the rumbling, Gaudium’s head glanced to the window, remarking: “Is one of the stone giants taking a walk near here?”
Teal Quirt leapt to her feet, as she heard a voice in her mind calling out:
Starswirl is in battle with me, I may require assistance to make sure he is brought down!
As the Unicorn took off, her form changing to her scorpion lower body as she bolted out the door, Gaudium turned to the fleeing Teal with a look of fear and concern:
“Where are you-!”
“STAY HERE GAUDIUM!” She bellowed back, as she tore through the halls towards where she sensed a great conflict occurring in the lower levels. The Citadel was in uproar at the rumbling, the noises and echoes.
Back in the living area, Gaudium glanced at the doorway, sensing something was terribly wrong. The attacker may have come.
Danger to those he cherished…

Author's Notes:

A clash at last between Starswirl and Siral, and Starswirl is the one throwing the first blows. He is in Siral’s territory now, not that Siral is overconfident, as calling for potential help from Teal proves.
What fate befalls Starswirl will give way to an extremely cruel irony about the creation of the seventh being he is destined to stop.
And once this conflict is over, it has a snowball effect. Won’t say anymore.