My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Of Ponies and Humans

Chapter 17

The Fortress

49 Days after Zero Hour

After receiving the letter from Cadence; Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Halo, Zilver, Shadow, Derpy, Requiem, Aura, Ash, Jax, Bahamut, Spike, and Sora left for the Gryphon Kingdom to find the Reversal Spell for the human-turned Ponies. What they don’t know is that this journey is going to be a lot tougher then it sounds.

They arrived in the kingdom with no trouble but are informed of a curfew in place due to the impending threat of a slave trade going on. They are to meet with the king tonight and find out where the reversal spell to this predicament is.

There, Dash had a very brief reunion with Gilda and met back up with her friends from her foalhood. Also, Twilight finds out she’s gonna be a aunt when Cadence reveals she’s pregnant… and was for 3 months prior to the Changeling’s botched invasion. Guess even Ponies can’t resist the call of the wild when it hits, huh?

Now, after many days of waiting and searching, the location of the Reversal Spell is about to be revealed, and with Trixie, Fluttershy, and Marble on their way, this is gonna get worse before it gets better.

Upon meeting with the king Zaltan, who’s very laidback for a ruler, and who‘s daughter who summoned them who turned out to be Gilda, informs them of a fortress Nightmare Moon had in the area during her uprising. Hopefully, there’s a reversal spell inside that can change them back. And soon cause it turns out this spell has a side-effect. In 50 days, the affected will die by a brain tumor. It’s been 48 days and Derpy’s starting to feel the effects.

They have no time to waste.

On the way, the humans ran into a old foe from one of the worlds they visited: the Green Death, a massive dragon from Berk. They quickly defeat it with unexpected help from Gilda and Jax‘s signature spell, Indignation. the enemy destroyed, they continue on their way to the mountain.

Upon arriving at the base of the tall and lonely mountain, they start to climb but quickly run into trouble as a giant raven tries to turn them into lunch. It ends up becoming fried chicken as Aura and Bahamut kicked it’s ass. Now they gotta hurry.

Requiem stretched her arms as she woke up. “oh, momma. I needed that.” she groaned. Before long, everyone started to wake up as well from the night’s rest they got.

“*yawn* what time is it?” Zilver asked.

Twi rubbed her eyes as she looked up to the sky. She went wide-eyed when she saw that the sun was directly above them. “it’s noon. We slept for 13 hours!?”

Aura burped. “guess that Raven really knocked us out. *burp*. from the inside.”

“no duh. And I was having the most eloquent dream.” Bahamut said. Aura raised a eyebrow in suspicion. “okay. I was doing it with Sapphyre.”

“Ew!” the girls all exclaimed.

“no need for images. thank you.” Rarity groaned, trying to get the picture out of her head.

“Girls! We don’t have time for this.” Twilight said as she quickly got up. “we got less then 12 hours to find that reversal spell before we all die from the tumor.”

the ponies exclaimed as they quickly got up. They didn’t want a first-class ticket to Tartarus so they moved.

Pinkie stopped for a second and thought for a moment. “wait. Which way do we go?”

Ash grabbed her head and turned her around. “My guess; That tower.” he said, pointing to a big tower that broke the horizon.

“oh.” Pinkie bounced on ahead. Ash face-palmed and groaned like a ghost.

“when we get there, where do we start looking? Knowing Fortress’s, it’s probably going to be a big place.” Sora pointed out.

“likely the library or a secret lab. Villains love those 2 spots in a evil lair.” Req said.

The group made their way to the tower, which was farther away then it looked.

“I can see why Nightmare Moon chose this place for a fortress. This place is gorgeous.” Rarity exclaimed in awe as they walked though the light forest.

“no argument from us.” Requiem and Dash both said.

“so when should I be able to fly again, Req?” Dash asked, flexing her wings.

“least not for a few days. That crow…”

“raven.” Zilver corrected.

“…whatever, really did some damage. Even with the cure spell, it’s still gonna take away.”

“well, I can feel it working. Should it tingle?”

“yep. That means it’s workin’.”

“great. Guess I’ll be flying in no time.”

Jax yawned. “so… how long till we get there?”

“well, we don’t know how big this place is. It could be a few minutes. Maybe a few hours.” Twi explained.

“then shouldn’t we be running instead?”

“We got until Midnight to find the spell before we go splat.” she looked up. “and it’s only Midday. We got 12 hours to find it. Figure we got plenty of time to find it.”

“I hope.” A.J. whimpered. Zil walked backwards to keep in tune with her.

“you okay, Applejack?” Zilver asked.

“no. no I’m not.” she worriedly said. “I… I don’t want to die.”

Zilver put his arm around her. “everyone’s afraid of death. No one knows what happens when one dies. That’s part of the allure.”

Bahamut and Sora glanced at each other. They all knew what happens when one dies but didn’t want to say anything.

“that’s not exactly making me feel better, Zil.” A.J. coldly said.

“least I’m trying. Give me credit for that.” he asked the others. Some kinda shrugged in agreement.

They came out of the woods and saw a sight that may them go ‘OOH.’ Standing before them was a massive fortress as big as Buckingham Palace and dark & dismal to boot.

“ooookay. Who wants to go into the creepy castle first?” Shadow asked. Nobody volunteered but they came up with the same idea to choose; They all took a step back. Only one who didn’t step back Jax, who was looking up at the tower.

“That would make a good lightning cond--” she finally noticed that everyone had stepped back. “oh, hell no. I ain’t going in first.”

“sorry, Jax. The line has spoken.” Aura said like a announcer. “you have been voted to enter the stonework of death first.”

Jax chuckled coldly as she grabbed one of her chakrams. “ho ho ho. If you say so. But… I’m gonna need a torch.” her chakram lit on fire as everyone took several dozen steps back from Aura.

“I gotta learn to shut my mouth.” he groaned as a red glow got brighter.

The orb left by Orochi continued to glow.

Derpy continued to shiver and pant in pain. Cadence placed a washcloth on her forehead, hoping to help.

“how is she?” Whooves asked as he came in.

“still as bad as before.” Cadence sighed. “still wondering what’s causing this.”

Whooves sighed as he sat down in a chair. “poor Derpy. She’s had a tough life. Bullied by a couple of mean rapscallions when she was a kid, lost in the Everfree Forest for a long time, her husband leaving her, now this. Only good thing that happened to her was Dinky.”

“Dinky?”

“her daughter. Loves her as much as life itself. Sort of like you and Armor.”

“I can bet.” Cadence chuckled.

Derpy started groaning loudly which got both of their attention. “nnh… ugh… nhh…”

“Derpy?” Whooves asked.

Derpy was muttering something but was too soft for them to hear. “e….e….”

“What’s she saying?” Cadence whispered. Whooves shrugged.

“e…tu…nes…”

“eTu’nes? That sounds familiar.” Whooves muttered as he thought about it. He didn’t think for long as another headache hit, this one stronger then the last.

“could’ve just asked me to go Sol, Jax.” a burning Aura muttered as the 2 of them stood at the large doors to the place. They were locked by a chain and lock, which meant getting in was gonna de difficult.

“I know.” Jax smugly said as she spun her chakram around her finger. “I just felt like doing it.” she smirked as she walked towards the doors. Aura snarled at her.

Jax grabbed her chakram and swung at the lock. It hit and broke it off.

The doors creaked open all on their own, freaking Jax out a bit. “okay. That’s new.” Jax backed off and kicked Aura in first.

Aura yelped as he fell onto the floor of the fortress. His power illuminated the place, making it bright for all to see. True to the outside, the inside was dark and dismal and completely dullish grey.

“gee. How homey.” Aura joked as he tapped his fingers on the stone. “I feel like moving here.”

“you’re a funny man, Aura.” Sora sarcastically said as she and everyone else walked on in.

“hello!” Pinkie yelled out. Nothing but a echo replied. Pinkie being Pinkie, however, took this to mean something else. “How are you!?” she yelled out. The echo replied. “I’m doing fine, thanks for asking!”

“this is gonna get annoying fast.” Jax groaned.

“this place is loco big. How are we gonna find it?” Shadow asked.

“Simple. We split up.” Twi suggested. “we search though all the rooms, hope one is the library, and contact the others thought these…” Twi reached into her bag and pulled out small green stones. “…when we do find it.”

“What are they?” Spike asked as he took one and looked it over. Dash got bored and started looking around.

“Gossip Stones. I had Armor make them back when we were at his place. They for us to talk to each other over long distances.”

“oh. Sort of like Walkie-Talkies.” Ash muttered as he looked one over. “so… how do we split up?”

“hmm… that is a good question. Without a map or blueprints, we’ll just be fumbling in the dark.”

Jax continued looking around and bumped into something. She snarled till she saw it was a skeleton of a human holding a map. “guys. You may wanna come take a look at this.”

Everyone gathered round and let out a collective gasp when they saw the skeleton. “human bones? I thought the tales said Discord got rid of them 30000 years ago by making them disappear.” Gilda said.

“they do. So what’s the bones of one doing here?” Rarity muttered.

Bahamut reached down and grabbed the map with his mouth. He pulled on it but skelator had a tight hold on it. Spike and Shadow pulled back with him. With one hard pull, they pulled out the map and landed on their butts. The skeleton dissolved to dust.

Twi took the map and blew on it, clearing off the dust that covered it for a millennia. “this place looks big. Not sure how to split us up, though.”

“I’ll take that.” Jason said as he took it. He opened it up and looked though it.

A.J. thought for a moment about something the king said before they left. “wait. Didn’t Gilda and the King say that there were booby-traps in this place?”

“we said we think there are booby-traps, genius.” Gilda scolded. “that’s one of the guesses on why those who came here never returned.”

“what others are there?”

“Ghosts. Deadly animals. Holes in the floor. Crumbling parts of the castle. There’s a whole array, genius. Take your pick.” Gilda explained before flapping her wings and flying up to the rafters. A.J. rolled her eyes in anger at Gilda.

“so, what’s the map say, J?” Dash asked as she walked over.

“says here there’s lots of corridors but it’s not labeling any of the rooms. My guess is that our dead guy was making a map before something happened that killed him.”

“I’m still wondering what a human was doing on Equestria. Think it was one of Merrifield’s people?” Req asked her friends.

“possibly. But why would one of the Temhres want with this world?” Sora muttered.

“who know’s? that race is always a wily bunch.” Ash said. “so, back to the problem at hand, Jason?”

“thank you, Ash. As I said, it’s nothing but corridors that lead to other rooms. Odds are one of them is our library. But there’s dozens of corridors. Might go faster if we split up.”

“okay. How?” Shadow asked.

“well, maybe Aura and Requiem can check outside…” the 2 looked at each other and laughed flirtatiously. “…and maybe--”

Jax took the map out of his claws. “if you send those 2 together, you’ll never hear from them for the rest of the day.” she berated while hitting him on the head with the rolled up map. Aura and Requiem pouted as Jax took her turn at bat. She looked up from the map a few times, mapping it to the layout in front of them. “okay… and that’s there…”

Dash and Gilda started to get impatient, rapidly tapping their feet.

“Okay. Got it. Rainbow Dash, Storm Shadow. You 2 go around the castle outside, see if there’s a secret entrance or something.”

Shadow gave a fake salute. “roger, Mon Capitan.” he said like a idiot. Dash rolled her eyes.

Jax did the same. “Aura and Pinkie Pie, you 2 go down that corridor on the left…” she pointed to the corridor just left to the doors. “…and me and Req will go down that one on the right.” she pointed to the one opposite of it.

“okay, upstairs. Twilight and Halo, you 2 go down the right way while Applejack and Zilver go down the left way. Spike and Rarity, you 2 check out the attic and towers. Sora will stay here to keep an eye on the entrance; see if no one followed us. Guess that leaves Gilda, Jason, and Ash with the basement.”

“whoa whoa whoa. How come I get left alone?” Sora angrily asked.

“you wanna explore the creepy castle or stay here where there’s likely the only light in the place?” Sora shut up and sat put.

“well, now that that’s out of the way, everyone take one.” Twilight said, offering up those Gossip Stones. Every group took one.

Sora peeked outside. “by the looks of the sun, we have 11 hours till the dawn of Pony Genocide Day.” she called in.

The various groups looked at each other, nodded, and went down their chosen paths. Shadow closed the main doors behind him, with Sora leaning on the castle outside. She mockingly repeated what Jax said as the doors closed.

When the last person walked out of view, a freaky creak filled the air.

Near the door, a suit of primitive gryphon armor’s helmet started to glow bright yellow.

*Author’s Notes*
Ooh. Got a Scooby-Doo vibe going.