The battlefield remained unsalvaged. Tarnish’s eyes swept over the bodies of the automatons, many of which were half buried in the snow. From the looks of things, there had been no further attempts to reclaim the scrapped mechanoids, no effort made to reacquire and recycle. Tarnish knew that Vinyl was worried about the morality of just leaving the booby traps here in this place, which would soon be buried beneath the snow.

Loaded down with supplies, the plan was to make an extended foray into Skyreach. It was risky, of course, but after much discussion, the dangers were deemed acceptable. Vinyl had a great deal to say on the matter, and Tarnish made certain that he gave her the attention and the respect that he felt she was due. Vinyl had a lot to say, period, and Tarnish worried that not having Octavia around might be causing Vinyl some special kind of stress, because Octavia did so much for her by listening.

It felt as though everything was aimless, directionless, even though there was something that almost resembled a plan. Exploring Skyreach was the plan, but to what end? Until they found whatever it was that would free them from this place? Then what? What came after? How would they get out? Turning off the defenses was a good start, but how would they follow this up?

With these sort of hopeless situations, it helped to have goals to strive for, some sense of purpose, something that you could do and feel a sense of accomplishment. Today’s goal was to reach the door of Skyreach again and hope that it would open once more. Rainbow’s fear was that the door would be sabotaged somehow, they would be shut out, and then potentially stuck here forever.

It was a valid fear, and Rainbow was relieved when the others acknowledged it as such.

That was another lesson that Tarnish took to heart; acknowledging the fears and worries of the others and treating them with the degree of seriousness that they deserved. Just dismissing and calling them non-issues, all that did was increase stress. He and his companions had enough stress. Daring Do seemed to be aware of this as well, because her demeanour had changed a bit. All of them had changed in some way, since the crash.

Tarnish liked to think that they were achieving some harmonious ideal, and he treated it as a goal.

Once more unto the breach, as the old saying went. Much to Rainbow’s relief, the door opened when the statue was presented with the snowflake gem and they found themselves back in the familiar entryway of Skyreach. With some retracing of their steps, they found themselves back in the arboretum, where the battle of the lift had happened.

The earth pony science wing had been largely explored, though perhaps they might have missed a room or two. In the general area, they found the doors leading to both the unicorn science wing and the pegasus science wing, but they also found evidence of ancient disaster. The door leading to the pegasus science wing was completely ruined; the door itself was crumpled, broken, smashed, and the passageway beyond was collapsed.

Tarnish hoped that access to the pegasus science wing might be gained from some other entrypoint, but he had a hunch that it had been ruined on purpose, and he suspected that unicorns had done it. It was a hunch, a guess, and he had no evidence to back it up, making it an assumption. But, he felt it was a reasonable assumption. After all, Vinyl was a walking battery of destruction when something set her off.

The small, circular arboretum to the unicorn sciences wing had also seen heavy fighting. The frescos on the walls were blistered, burnt, and blackened. The statues were melted, amorphous lumps. Of the directory, there was no sign. There was a large section of the floor that appeared to have been seared by acid, leaving the stone rough and bubbly looking, like a simmering soup frozen in time.

Vinyl cast a spell and sections of the ruined arboretum lit up. Tarnish didn’t understand what was going on, this was wizard stuff and he was no wizard. After a few minutes of watching in utter silence, Tarnish realised that Vinyl had cast detect magic spells, perhaps because she was trying to discern what sort of spells had done so much damage to the room.

After a bit of study, Vinyl’s slate appeared, along with some yellow chalk, and she began to write out many small words with great care, having a lot to say but so little space to say it in. Over a dozen different unique magical signatures. Immense power. Power is rare. Either every powerful unicorn in the region came here, or unicorns were just somehow more powerful and plentiful back then. None of this makes sense.

Tarnish didn’t understand this, and he wasn’t afraid to say so. “I don’t get it, Vinyl.”

With a flourish of magic, she wiped her slate clean, and then began writing out more words, again, with great care so she could fit more onto the small space available. Unicorns with immense power are rare creatures. One in a thousand? Maybe more? One in ten thousand? But here, in this place, in this room, in this battle, there were dozens of super powerful unicorns all packed into one place. This doesn’t make sense, at all. This defies all logic and reason.

Reading these words, Tarnish didn’t quite understand what Vinyl was saying, but he felt his blood run cold. If something bothered her, if something disturbed her, nothing good would come of it. Rainbow Dash brushed up against him and he let out a startled whinny. Right away, Rainbow began trying to soothe him, apologetic for spooking him with a careless bump.

“Vinyl is right,” Daring said to the group. “Powerful unicorns are as rare as hen’s teeth. I’ve been all over the world, I’ve crossed entire continents, I’ve been to places near and far, and I’ve met a countless number of ponies. I can count the number of high powered unicorns I know on my right primaries and still have a few left over. Vinyl being one of them, of course.”

This time, Vinyl’s words were careless when she scribbled them. I’m powerful, but I’m not that powerful. I’m exceptional and above average, but I don’t have a talent for magic.

“Vinyl, do you think these ponies that destroyed this room had a talent for magic?” Daring asked.

After a few seconds of consideration, Vinyl shrugged, then nodded, her way of saying, ‘maybe, it’s likely.’ Tilting her head, she looked down at the acid-seared floor, where there was still a trace of glowing magic. It shimmered and warped, like heat rising off of a griddle, and then Vinyl lifted her head to return her attention to Daring.

“Maybe this place did something to them,” Tarnish said. “Maybe they were altered, changed, maybe they were boosted by the ley lines—” His words died on his tongue and he shook his head as his own intelligence kicked in. “All of the power in the world doesn’t teach you advanced spells and magical applications though. They had to learn that from somewhere, that takes extensive knowledge, and it was knowledge that caused all of this destruction.”

Head bobbing, ears wiggling, Vinyl nodded, and Tarnish felt rather proud of himself. His confidence soared, his spirits lifted, and all things considered, Tarnish was feeling pretty good about himself. He had reached a logical conclusion on his own with no help, no assistance, no hoof holding.

“It’s nice to see you smile, Tarnish,” Rainbow Dash remarked. “You’ve been scowling a lot lately and you’ve been kinda edgy.” Reaching out her wing, she patted the much taller stallion beside her and smiled herself. “We should be going because we have a lot of ground to cover.”

Tarnish agreed, they should be moving—there was a lot of ground to cover.

This place was a mess. Sections of the wall appeared as though they had melted like wax, suggesting heat high enough to make stone soft, or somepony had gone nuts with stone-shaping. Tarnish could do a little stone shaping—not with his horn, but with with a touch of his hoof—but he wasn’t very good at it yet, and he wasn’t sure he would ever be. Like trying to coax animals to do his will, it was just something he wasn’t good at. Talking to plants and plant-shaping though, he felt he was pretty good at those.

Doors had been ripped out of doorways and were now found willy-nilly on the floor. Even more disturbing, bones could be seen, half in and half out of the wall, suggesting that somepony had been teleported into solid mass or that the stone had been shaped around them, trapping them. Either way, it was a horrifying way to go. All around Tarnish were the nightmarish reminders of what might happen if somepony like Twilight Sparkle decided to go on a spree one day, and around each corner was some fresh horror that he and his companions would never unsee.

In one room, it appeared as though a body had been trapped inside of a massive cube of glass. The remains were preserved, still visible, and nightmarish to behold. The flesh had boiled, bubbled, suggesting that the glass was hot, perhaps it had just been created, shaped for this occasion. The eyeless remains of a unicorn had spent the long centuries trapped inside the glass, his mouth open in a silent neverending scream. He had no hair—that had been burned away—and all that was left was boiled, blobby flesh.

Daring Do just stood there, staring at it, only blinking when it became absolutely necessary. The room in which the glass cube was found was a mess. Overturned stone tables, knocked over pedestals, and smashed, broken glassware was still all over the floor, suggesting that this had been used as an alchemy lab.

“Daring,” Rainbow whispered, breathing out the word, “are you going to put this in a book?”

To which Daring responded, “Possibly.”

Tarnish, who did not go further into the room, fearful of the glass shredding his frogs, stood between the two pegasus ponies, listening to their exchange, and not knowing what to say. Vinyl began to look around the room, but did so by walking straight up the wall and then along the ceiling, avoiding any dangers the broken glass posed.

After a quick look around, it seemed that this room held only ruination, broken glass, and horror. Tarnish began backing away, towards the door, glad to be gone from this room, this reminder of the dangers of unicorn magic mixed with madness. His companions seemed all too happy to follow his lead, and Vinyl crossed the ceiling in a hurry.

As they departed, an unnoticed, unseen crystal rod flickered beneath an overturned table, forgotten beneath the rubble. It’s light was faint, dying, and it would not be long for this world. It, like so many things within this troubling place, this Skyreach, would soon pass from memory and fade into nothingness.

Some stories were best left forgotten.

Author's Notes:

Major battle chapter coming up. Nervous.