"So, now what?" Gilda asked.

After what little remained of the day had faded into darkness, Twilight had teleported Caballeron's goons to Canterlot prison with a note from herself. Caballeron himself, exhausted was still tied up and his mouth tied shut, and had been magically attached to a chair. He would not be going anywhere.

And so, after helping clean up a little, they had made tea and gathered together around Daring's dinner table to consider their next move.

"I had a plan," Daring Do said. "The intention was to let Caballeron think he got away with the ring, so I could figure out who wanted it in the first place."

"Well, we've figured that the one that wants it is this Ahuichicle guy, right?" Gilda said. "Why don't we go to their meeting place and take care of him then?"

Daring shook her head. "If Caballeron doesn't show up himself, Ahuitzotl will know things went wrong and they'll all be on guard. He's not as smart as he think he is, but he's not stupid. We'll need to figure out a way to trick him into taking us to the temple."

"So, what's so important in that temple that you need to go there?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"The temple itself needs to be destroyed," Daring Do said, "if we simply destroy the ring, it a new one can be forged later on. No, the Temple must be brought down by removing all other rings from the dias. Once the whole thing tipples down, then we can destroy the rings and Ahuitzotl will never control the valley."

"Ahuitzotl is a powerful foe," Twilight said, "especially from what we base him on all your previous adventures and encounters, Daring. But he's also generally not stupid nor prone to do things without an endgame of some sort. What's he going to gain by activating the rings and burning the valley down?"

Daring almost rolled her eyes. Almost. Then she remembered that Princess of Friendship or not, she wasn't playing around. "The valley would be doomed, but the rings could be used for more than that," she said, "Ahuitzotl could bring war and raise an army to attack other countries."

Twilight sighed. "Always wars." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "We can get more information from Caballeron and help you destroy the temple."

Daring huffed. "I always work alone. But since it seems I have no other choice, why don't we get to the point of your visit. You said you needed help? For what?"

"We do need your help…" Twilight cleared her throat. "I have a friend that needs help. She's… been through a really tough time, and is currently in a place with very little magic around… she's also... a blood witch."

The cup in Daring's hoof cracked. "A blood witch?" she said carefully. "As in, forbidden magic blood witch. Scourge of the land, bring down the apocalypse kind of forbidden stuff?"

Twilight nodded. "She's been practicing for years without much of an issue, but recently during a mission, it seems like she was possessed… she's… calling herself something else. She's a good person… a good pony." Twilight looked down. "Please help me save her. There must be some sort of ancient artifact designed to fight ancient magics like that."

Daring stood and rummaged through her books, bringing out an old tome and opening it on the table, flipping the pages until she found an illustration of a city in flames and ruins.

"A long time ago, the great city of the Calpolli tribe was one of the ancient wonders of the world. It is said that their greatest priest, a unicorn of great power named Camazotz, was the first spellcaster to discover blood magic. Whether that's true or not, nopony knows. But what we do know, is that as his power grew, so did his lusts for other things. Mares. Stallions. Gold. Food. Magic.

"At one point, it wasn't enough. One night, he slaughtered everypony in his temple. From the walls and halls of it, massive blood-like tentacles emerged, bringing down the entire city in one night." She raised her eyes to Twilight. "Tell me, Princess. Why do you think the ancient ponies had so many powerful items like the Rings of Scorchero?"

Twilight shook her head, eyes fixated on the image. "Why?"

In answer, Daring flipped the page, where a pegasus pony in golden and white armor held aloft a golden feathered lance. Lightning and fire rained on the city below. "Because blood mages were not saved. They needed to be destroyed."

"I refuse to believe that!" Twilight snarled. "There has to be another way!"

"Your "good" pony already has surpassed the transformations of anypony in history, except perhaps Camazotz himself!" Daring countered.

She stood up, gathering more books and shaking her head.

"There are many forbidden magics, as you well know, and all of them had to be fought somehow! Most often battling these creatures required a great sacrifice." She opened another book, sliding it over to Twilight. "The shadow mage, Tonameyotl, who became powerful enough to inhabit and control everypony that cast a shadow before the heroine Icetlacatl hid her own shadow in a gem and absorbed all the shadow magic within her before throwing herself into the ocean."

She pulled up another book in a completely different language. "Pevka had similarly to deprive herself of sounds… any sounds… trapping her voice and essence before she could take Ritem down forever. She left behind her home and family to stop a monster that could kill anything that even rustled. It's said that even before she reached Ritem, she was half mad."

Another book came out. "Sivil did the same… perhaps the most tragic, capturing her very soul to take down the Time Wizard Lord Murthod by trapping her essence outside of time… while she was still living!"

For each name, she put down a book on the table, flipping pages to show the illustrations of each of their gruesome deaths. "None of those villains were half as dangerous as a blood mage," Daring said. "And all the heroes that tried to fight them, even if they won, died."

"Twilight?" Alejandra asked when she noticed the princess was not answering. Instead, she was staring at the images. One was a blue, earth pony with a feathered headband. The other was a purple unicorn in light armor, and the last one a yellow pegasus in traditional battle armor.

Each of them were depicted wearing a red gem around their necks.

"Oh Celestia…" Twilight murmured, "it's worse than I thought."