"More warriors," Mayfly said as she pointed to a large number of zebra jogging west. All of them were armed, and all of them moved with a purpose. That purpose being war.

"It won't be enough," Trixie sighed. "Spears and fancy body paint against what Faust can throw at them? They might as well fall on their spears now and save themselves the effort of running there."

"How curiously defeatist," Sunset snickered. "One might think you're giving up."

"Hardly," Trixie said back. "I'm just pointing out that the only advantage the zebras could hope to have is numbers, and I doubt they even have that. You agree with me, don't you Twilight?"

Twilight didn't answer, not immediately. She was trying to sum up in her head the zebras chances of successfully repelling the Mareitanians from Zebrica. Before Twilight and the others arrived they probably wouldn't have succeeded, but between that, and their martial skills, and the kuua giving them an advantage, the answer was still a maybe. It was possible though.

"Twi-light," Trixie sang, "are you listen-ing?"

"Yes, I'm listening, and I think the zebras stand a chance, and they'll stand a better one the sooner we get back to help. Are we nearly there, Daring?"

Daring pointed a hoof at a lone mountain in the distance. "That's Mount Chembechembe, so we're not far away. I'm not going to recommend rushing in though."

"Why not?"

"Because while no zebras live around there, there are other things to watch out for."

"Like?"

"Like the Grootslang."

"Now you're just making shit up," Trixie laughed. Her laughter slowed as Daring stared at her flatly, but she still maintained a smug grin. "Alright then, little Miss serious, what's a Grootslang?"

"It's a zebra legend, but basically it's a giant snake, roughly thirty meters long, or thereabouts, and kinda has a bit of a thing for diamonds, and gems, and... cr-"

"Crystals. You're going to say crystals, aren't you." Twilight groaned as Daring nodded, "And why has this not been brought up before now?"

"Because I figured that it wouldn't matter too much. Between you and three unicorns, I thought it wouldn't be too much of a problem."

"Except," Moondancer said sharply as she stuck her head out of Twilight's saddlebag, quickly regretting it as she held her mane down with a hoof, "there's a big magical deadzone around the mountain, so three unicorns and an alicorn aren't going to have any magic at all. I'm not even sure you can even fly there."

"Oh great!" Twilight shouted, throwing her hooves up. "And when were you planning on telling us about that?"

"I didn't think it mattered much until I found out there might be a giant snake there!"

"Uh-huh, and is there anything else that anyone would like to share? Some useful information that might aid our way?"

"There's a big swamp around the mountain," Daring said sheepishly. "Probably full of all kinds of nasties, like poisonous snakes, deadly spiders, disease carrying insects..."

"Is there anything in there that isn't dangerous?" asked Sunset.

"Uh, only if it's wandered in there by accident. It's pretty much like the Everfree forest, but way worse."

Twilight closed her eyes and drew in a cleansing breath that did nothing to calm her down in the slightest. A little bit of information sharing would've been great in the period prior to when they flew out here beyond the reach of anyone that could give them any help in the slightest.

"I thought this was supposed to be the easy job," she muttered a moment later. Mount Chembechembe was close enough now for them to see the swamp that filled the basin that the mountain sat in, surrounding it in a few mile wide belt of greenery. "I'm really starting to appreciate why the zebras avoid this place."

"My wings are starting to feel heavy," Mayfly said as she started to wobble through the air. "Should we land?"

"Yeah, alright. Better not get too close in case I can't get these three back to size."

"Yeah, I'd rather not stay bite-size, thank you very much," said Trixie. "If we weren't going into a swamp I'd be very tempted to put my armour on, but I don't think making myself extra sinky would help either."

They landed on the edge of the basin that denoted where the swamp ended and the savannah began, although the fact that they were on a ledge looking down on even the tallest tree in the swamp might've had something to do with why the swamp hadn't expanded further. It simply couldn't.

Twilight quickly returned Trixie, Sunset, and Moondancer to their proper sizes, although she could feel the strain on her horn as she did. She couldn't figure out why there was a deadzone here, at the sight of a leaking ley line. In her head there should be a ridiculous amount of magic going on here. She quickly got her answer though.

"What's all these standing stones about?" Trixie asked, pointing and then trotting to a monolith about two dozen meters away to their right. There was another a similar distance away to their left, while beyond at regular intervals were even more of the standing stones. "Are they magical? I'm only asking because this deadzone feels familiar, like the one in the badlands."

"It would make sense to try and neutralise the magic in the area," said Daring. "Perhaps not the ley line itself, but enough to keep its effects contained to one small area."

"Otherwise they'd have raw magic crystalizing all over the place here," Sunset said, agreeing with Daring's theory. "I imagine it doesn't affect the zebras, so they thought nothing of erecting it. Too bad it makes things suck for us."

Twilight followed Trixie and ran her hoof over the surface of the monolith. If it was partly responsible for the deadzone, she had no idea, at least not until she moved around to the side facing the mountain. She staggered as her magic suddenly vanished, and it took her several seconds to recover. "Woah."

"Yeah, that's not great," said Trixie as she did the same. "At least whoever put this up was nice enough to make it only face inward." Trixie ran her hoof over the inside of the monolith, tracing it over ancient runes that had eroded over the long years it had stood here, although that hadn't diminished their effectiveness apparently. "Yeah, how long are we going to procrastinate for?"

"Just long enough to work out what we're doing," Twilight told her as she walked back out of the circle. Summoning Swordy, she held out in her magic until he was inside the ring of standing stones, where her magic immediately gave up and dropped him. On the plus side though, Swordy's internal magic didn't seem to be effected to any significant degree. Twilight had been worried the deadzone would damage him, which would've been annoying as she expected the sword would come in useful.

"Twilight, what are you doing?" Sunset asked the alicorn as she started rooting around for rocks and bits of grass.

"Making a scabbard so I don't have to carry Swordy in my mouth the entire way."

"Out of rocks?" Sunset shielded her eyes as a bright infusion of magic blinded her, and as she looked back Twilight was strapping a scabbard to her side. "I guess I stand corrected."

Twilight slid Swordy into the scabbard, and adjusted it so that she could reach the handle with her mouth as that was the only way she'd be able to use him for the time being. Saying that, she really hoped that she didn't need a sword for anything worse than cutting through vines.

"Alright, everypony get a drink and let your canteens refill, then we're going in.

"Oh my god, this'd be so much easier if I was still a human," Sunset lamented as they climbed, slid, and occasionally fell down the steep decline into the swamp.

"What's a human?" Daring asked.

"Who's your god?" Moondancer also asked.

"Nevermind," Sunset sighed, unwilling to go there right now. "My point is that ponies and climbing aren't really compatible. If we were meant to climb we'd look more like monkeys."

"Just like if we were meant to fly we'd look more like birds?" Trixie said dreamily.

Sunset glanced at Twilight and Daring, then decided to say nothing as she had nothing to really say to that. Her hooves were already sliding enough without extra distractions making it worse. Wet moss covered rock really did go out of its way to kill you at times, as Daring was about to prove.

Daring stumbled as her hoof slipped from under her, the moss peeling away from the rock like the skin off a banana. Her heart jumping into her mouth, Daring did the first thing her instincts told her to, which was to use her wings as she overbalanced. For obvious reasons that weren't funny even in hindsight, that didn't work.

All of them shouted as Daring fell, and a scream echoed over the treetops as she plunged down through the canopy, three unicorns and an alicorn giving themselves headaches as they tried to catch her using magic.

A stunned silence fell over the group as they watched the spot that Daring had fallen through, none of them able to comprehend the speed that had happened at. In the blink of an eye Daring was gone, swallowed by the swamp.

"I'm okay!"

"Oh thank fuck for that!" Trixie gasped. "I was holding my breath until I heard her hit the ground. I was starting to wonder why it was taking so long."

"You really are all heart, aren't you?" Twilight said to Trixie before trying to see where Daring was. "Where are you?"

"Some vines caught me," came the reply. "I'm kinda stuck though, and- Ah! Yep, definitely hurt something."

"Okay, try not to move and we'll come get you!"

"Really not a problem."

"I swear that pegasus is the worst adventurer I've ever heard of," Trixie snickered as the group resumed their descent to the canopy. "She gets caught, or captured, or injured at highly frequent intervals. I'm amazed she's still alive at times."

"I can hear you you know! Come down here and say that to my face!"

"Alright, but I think I'm going to try a safer way down!" Trixie grinned as Daring cursed at her, "We're doing so well you guys. Barely fifteen minutes in and we've had only one pony almost die, one pony get stuck somewhere, and one pony get injured."

"That was all the same pony," Moondancer pointed out.

"I know! Go team!"

Twilight went ahead of the others, Mayfly being the only one to keep up with her as the changeling seemed to have very little issue with climbing, even here where her magic didn't work. The canopy was right below her now, with the branches touching the cliff well enough for her to take a running jump onto a branch strong enough to hold her, her wings giving her enough of a boost to make the distance.

She could see Daring not too far away, tangled in a mass of the vines that covered much of the trees up where they were. There wasn't much of a path to Daring either, not without effort. That in mind, she was about to call back to the others to continue down when she looked down herself, finding the ground to actually be mostly murky looking water. It was also quite far below her. These trees were actually quite tall.

"How are we going to get to mountain if we can't walk?" Mayfly asked, making Twilight jump as she had no idea the changeling was right behind her. "Can we go through trees?"

"I don't know." Twilight bounced on the branch, checking how sturdy it was, and if it could hold all their combined weight. By her guess, it could, but that seemed like the kind of thing that would lead to branches breaking and dumping them in the water. Goodness knows what deadly creatures was lurking in that stuff.

"Get the others here while I go get Daring."

"Okay."

Twilight trotted along the branch to the trunk, then jumped to the next branch pointing towards the tangled pegasus, stopping for only a moment to regain her balance. There was no way they could do this all the way to the mountain, even if there was a convenient path along the branches. Naming no names, but certain bespectacled ponies just weren't fit enough, ignoring the fact that Twilight didn't exactly feel confident enough to say she could go the entire way herself.

"A tropical swamp," Twilight sighed. "Why did it have to be a tropical fucking swamp?"

"What else was you expecting?" Daring asked, Twilight being close enough for her to hear that.

"A nice open plain that led to the very foot of the mountain, like what would've made sense considering Zebrica's climate. Instead we get a deadly swamp, full of deadly things, up to and potentially including a giant deadly snake, and I feel like maybe if I'd been told about any of this before we left Zanzebra I might've been able to prepare a little for it."

Daring held her hooves up in submission, "Alright, I'm sorry I forgot to tell you these things. Didn't you think to do a little research on this place first?"

"Oh, I normally would, but I've been rather busy." Twilight reached the end of a vine holding Daring, and pulled Swordy out, cutting the vine in one motion before putting him back. "You might want to hold onto something."

"You could've given me a little warning!" Daring's expression went sheepish at the way Twilight was looking at her, "Right, gotcha, lesson learned."

"Uh-huh." Twilight continued along her branch, cutting the vines holding Daring, who was acting more and more alarmed as she went on, but didn't say anything even as Twilight came to the last vine on her branch that was now supporting a lot of the weight. She cut it.

"Aieee!" Daring shouted as she and the mass of vines swung away from Twilight, her eyes tightly shut as visions of falling to her death filled her mind. Only when the swinging stop did she look again to find herself hanging inches over a broad branch. "Oh. Did you plan that?"

"Me? Plan something?" Twilight dismissively waved a hoof at Daring, "Perish the thought."

Daring gave Twilight an incredulous look, then sat and held out her left wing, wincing at the motion. "Why is it always the wings? Guess it doesn't matter since we can't fly here, but it still hurts."

"Broken?"

"No, just battered and bruised." Daring folded her wing back in and pulled herself onto her hooves. "Maybe it's time I retired. I just don't seem to have what it takes any more."

"Normally I'd argue with you, and tell you a whole bunch of stuff that would largely centre around you being capable of doing anything you set your mind to, but I'd mostly be saying so that my favourite book series didn't end. These days, where I barely get a chance to read anything, and retiring sounds great, I'm just going to say you do what you feel is best, although you're still more than capable of going on adventures."

"I don't know. I'll think about it more once the world's actually been saved. I can keep going 'til then."

"Good to hear." Twilight quickly checked on the others, finding that Mayfly had gotten them into the tree without anything going wrong, which was about as much as you could hope to ask for. "Come on, Daring," Twilight swung her hoof in a little pump, "adventure awaits!"

Daring laughed at the hammy delivery of a catchphrase she had used in her earlier books. "While I'm sure you might consider gruesome death an adventure, I'm not so keen on the concept."

"Alright then, how about I tell you to get moving before something eats you?"

"Works for me." Daring ran and jumped, scrambling onto the same branch as Twilight, then jumped to the next, leaving Twilight to catch up on the way back to the others, two of which were fussing over Daring while Trixie at least refrained from insulting or laughing at her. Mayfly was currently nowhere to be seen, which was what Twilight asked about first.

"She's scouting ahead for a decent path," said Trixie. "Since the concept of falling off stuff seems foreign to her, I thought it was a good idea."

"Then it doesn't occur to you that a decent path to her might still be impossible for us?"

Trixie shrugged, "Still a good idea."

"Yeah, it is." Twilight patted Trixie on the head, "Good girl."

"Never do that again, or I will push you off this branch." Trixie ran her eye over Twilight's strong alicorn body, "Although I'll probably end up pushing myself off. Pretty sure my point would still be made though."

"Please don't make me have to save you from yourself." Twilight looked up as she saw Sunset carefully walk over to them, "Yes, Sunset? I get the feeling you've come to tell me this was a bad idea."

"Then I have literally nothing else to say, other than to ask if that tarantula in your mane is there for a reason?"

Twilight jolted, quickly running a hoof through her mane and dislodging a massive black tarantula out of it, screaming as she sent it flying away to land in the water below with a plap! She then felt a little, teeny tiny bit guilty. "I'd have just lost so many filly scout points with Fluttershy if she was here. Why the fuck didn't you tell me it was there, Trixie?"

"In Trixie's defence, I'm a massive asshole, which is all the reason I needed to say nothing. Believe me though, it was really hard to keep a straight face through that, so you should be at least a little impressed with me."

"And for some reason I am, but really not for the reason you think."

"I'll take it!"

Twilight closed her eyes and breathed in slowly. Unfortunately Trixie was still there when she reopened them, but Mayfly could be seen making her return, so that was something at least. "Can we get out of here, Mayfly?"

"We can. Seems we possibly picked wettest spot to come in. There's solid land a couple hundred meters away, towards the mountain."

"Thank goodness," Twilight said with relief. "Is there more good news?"

"Only if you consider that good news," Mayfly replied, pointing a hoof behind them at the large snake slowly making its way through the branches towards them, looking directly at Daring. It was, thankfully, still some distance away.

"If that isn't the Grootslang," said Trixie, "I'm not sure I want to see the size of what is."

"Oh that's nowhere near the size of the Grootslang," Daring informed Trixie as she calmly watched the snake inch its way towards her.

"I was afraid you'd say that."

"Do you think it can smell my injuries?" Daring asked, curious as to why the snake seemed to ignore the others in favour of her.

Twilight eyed the snake for a moment, weighing up whether it was worth the risk of killing it, and deciding that live and let live was probably the best way to go about this. "Probably," she answered Daring, feeling she had to. "Mayfly? That path?"

"This way."

All of them followed after Mayfly, carefully making their way through the branches of the trees, using the occasional vine tied onto a higher branch by Mayfly to bridge the larger gaps. Fortunately nothing went wrong with that either, and they were soon above solid, if not actually dry, ground.

"That's great and all," said Trixie as she looked down at the ground, "but how do we get down there?"

"If this was a comedy, I'd probably be kicking you off the branch right now," Twilight joked, her smile growing as Trixie scowled at her.

"Unfortunately, this is reality, and I'd rather not die falling out of a tree. Now seriously, how do we get down?"

"Gravity is still very much an option, just so you know." Twilight stopped and searched around for a way down, taking note that Mayfly was already crawling down the tree trunk. All Twilight could find was more vines, which did technically count as a way down if she tied one around a trunk and rappelled down it, which she started to do.

"I'm not doing that," Moondancer said as soon as Twilight made her plan known. "I'm surprised I've made it this far without falling, so I'm definitely not doing that."

"Alright then," Trixie said as she laid a companionable hoof on Moondancer's shoulder, "you watch the tree and make sure nopony steals it while we go ahead."

"Funny. No way are you leaving me here."

"So you won't go down, but you won't stay here either?" Trixie raised an eyebrow as Moondancer slowly yet firmly shook her head. "Riiiight... Twilight?"

"Just get down the vine, Trixie, please?"

"You got it boss." Trixie took the vine in her hooves and used it to brace her back legs on the tree trunk to start walking backwards down it, then jumping down the last bit that the vine didn't reach, and sinking up to her knees in mud. "Aw, what the fuck! Why didn't you say it was like this down here?" she asked Mayfly, who was standing on the surface of the mud with little difficulty.

"Maybe you're just fat?"

"Ouch. Put your fangs away, Mayfly."

"Um... how? They're attached to my face."

"Nevermind…"

"I'll go next," Sunset offered back up in the tree, doing as Trixie had done, but a good bit slower. After that Daring went, leaving Twilight with Moondancer.

"Can't you tie the vine around my chest and lower me down?" Moondancer asked meekly. "I'm not strong enough to do that."

"The vine doesn't reach the ground as it is, so you'd only wind up stuck, dangling above the ground. Look, I'll go down before you, and stay right below, so if you do run into trouble I'll be there to help, okay?"

Moondancer looked down at the others far below, seriously doubting she could do it, and if she were given another choice she wouldn't. That choice was missing though, so with a small sigh she nodded.

"Alright, give me a moment, then follow me down."

Twilight started her descent on the vine, stopping when Moondancer started to get onto it, giving her a few words of encouragement. If she were honest with herself though, this was far more of an annoyance than she wanted to deal with. None of the others had bitched about this, so why did Moondancer feel the need. Still, at least she was doing it now, even if it was pretty slow.

A loud crash from somewhere else echoed through the trees. Moondancer screamed and latched onto the vine tightly, and screamed some more as a tremor shook the tree. More crashes and tremors followed, each one seeming closer than the last, when suddenly they stopped altogether. Twilight was about to risk continuing down when Moondancer screamed again.

"I'm slipping! I'm slipping!"

To Moondancer's credit, she was actually slipping, rather than just freaking out. This did mean that she was falling towards Twilight, who knew she had no real chance of stopping Moondancer, so once she was close enough, Twilight pulled herself up sharply, giving her the momentum to let go and grab Moondancer around the chest, then push away from the tree so they didn't land on the roots.

Twilight's back impacted onto the mud with a wet slap, and as soft as the mud might've been compared to anything else, it still hurt, and would've without the added weight of Moondancer as well. Twilight lay still for a moment, her eyes closed against the pain, even as Moondancer was pulled off her by the others.

"Y'alright there, Twilight?" Trixie asked, poking the purple alicorn on the chest with a short stick. "Are you dead?"

Twilight slowly opened her eyes, and carefully shifted all her limbs. She was pleased to find she could still feel them. "Are you okay, Moondancer?" she asked, mostly to distract herself.

"Are you crazy?" Moondancer shrieked. "You pulled me out of the tree! I though the idea was to stop me falling, not make it worse!"

"But you aren't hurt though?"

"No, but I'm covered in mud now." Moondancer sighed and rubbed her eyes, pushing her glasses up until they were almost falling off. It was a small miracle they hadn't already. "Thanks, I guess."

"You're welcome." Twilight tried to pull herself up, but gave up after a second as it hurt a bit too much, and the mud didn't appear to want to let her go just yet. Standing could wait a little longer.

"Did anyone see what made all that noise?" Sunset asked.

"Grootslang," Trixie said with a firm nod. "Definitely the Grootslang."

"That same one you don't really believe exists?" Daring said flatly.

"At no point did I say it didn't exist. I said you were making the name up, because it is by all accounts a stupid sounding name. What's it matter anyway? It's gone now."

Twilight laughed once, "Did you just hear yourself?"

"I didn't say it wouldn't come back." Trixie offered a hoof to Twilight, which the alicorn took to pull herself out of the mud with a wet schlurp. Mud caked her back and wings in a thick layer that slowly oozed off with considerable shaking. "Are you hurt?"

"Let's just say that if I wasn't already purple, I soon would be." Twilight adjusted Swordy's scabbard as she'd just landed on it. That was the part that hurt the most. "Let's keep moving. The more distance we put between us and whatever made that noise, the better."

Twilight didn't know whether to classify their current environment as a swamp or a jungle, mostly because it had elements of both things in it. The wet bogginess said swamp, but the flora and fauna suggested jungle, and for a significant part it reminded her of the bayou by Neigh Orleans in Mareitania. Whichever one it was, it contained enough hazards to keep them on the tips of their hooves, as proven when a large centipede scuttled across Sunset's hooves.

"Yah!" Sunset squeaked, jumping back. "Why is this place trying to freak me out so much? I'm walking here!" she shouted after the invertebrate.

"I miss Equestria," Moondancer whispered, her eyes a little vacant after walking into a spider web strong enough to stop her, traces of which was still in her mane, and on her jumper. If Twilight had been a little slower with Swordy... it didn't bear thinking about. "Things didn't try to eat me in Equestria."

Twilight and Trixie shared a look, as both had seen plenty of pony eating monsters in their time, one as a scholar and hero, and the other as a travelling magician whose journeys had given her quite the education in where to never set hoof if you wanted to keep said hoof.

"Look on the bright side," Sunset said, giving Moondancer a friendly nudge.

A beat passed, and Moondancer found herself wondering where the second half of that sentence was. "What bright side?"

"I don't know, I'm still trying to think of it," Sunset confessed. "I suppose at the very least we're all still alive."

"The uplifting power of positive thinking," Trixie said sarcastically.

"What would you say then?"

"Me? I'm not the one suggesting we look on the bright side of things. The only silver linings I tend to see are the ones with razor sharp edges."

"That doesn't even make sense."

"You don't make sense!"

"Oookay... how about we just agree to disagree?"

"Deal." Trixie stopped as they came up to a stretch of water shimmered brightly, even though there wasn't any visible sun. As pretty as it was though, there was the issue that it blocked their path. "Oh great, more obstacles."

"Relax," Daring said, pointing to the right where a tree had fallen over the pool, "we can cross over there."

"I knew that. Trixie was just testing you."

"And lucky me, I passed," Daring deadpanned. A quick trot brought them over to the tree, and Daring made her way onto it first to test it. Like much else in the swamp, it was slick with moss, and quite rotten which suggested it had been there for a while. It was strong enough to get them across though, which Daring did, followed by Mayfly, Trixie, Moondancer, and Sunset, with Twilight bringing up the rear.

Twilight stopped as the shimmering lights caught her eye, and she could've sworn they moved. Weirdly enough it seemed like they were coming from beneath the water.

"Nope. Investigating things like this leads to ponies getting killed," Twilight said to herself. She was about to carry on when the lights shifted, and two shiny orbs opened near the surface and looked right at her. "Oh shit. Run!"

Twilight didn't even have time to make good on her word as the water burst up to meet her in a blinding spray that obscured whatever it was attacking her, although it didn't take a great deal of imagination to make a guess. The tree trunk bucked as something hit it from beneath, and Twilight was tossed up into the air, screaming the entire way. Flailing wildly, she managed to catch hold of something to stop herself falling back down, although that didn't stop her from looking.

A massive snake rose up out of the water, huge in terms of length, but also in girth, being at least twice as wide as Twilight was herself. Its skin shone with a faint light from the crystals that encrusted it from head to end, and in its mouth were fangs comparable to Swordy in size.

Quite frankly, if that wasn't the Grootslang, nothing was.

Twilight yelled as her grip shifted, and she looked to see that she hadn't caught hold of a branch or vine, but another snake, also quite large, but nowhere near what was currently below her, which was coiling up to strike with its maw open directly below her. "What's with all the fucking snakes!?"

Twilight swung on the snake, probably upsetting it quite a lot, but not as much as the Grootslang did when it sprang up and bit down on the coils that Twilight had been holding onto. Not that Twilight cared. She hadn't got very far when the Grootslang struck, and was headbutted with enough force to send her flying through the air into the water.

Twilight surfaced, shaking water out of her eyes. The Grootslang had lost her for a moment, so she struck out for the nearest shore, considering her chances of survival much better on solid land. She glanced at the giant snake as she struggled up through the mud, and felt sickened by the length of incomplete snake hanging from its mouth. Even worse was when she realised she'd swam to the side of the pool away from the mountain, back the way they'd come from.

"Twilight!"

The sound of her name being shouted drew Twilight to her friends, who were stood on the opposite bank, helplessly watching what was happening. They were currently safe though, and would remain so as long as the Grootslang was too busy with her to worry about them.

"Go! Get to the mountain!"

"But Twilight-"

"Don't fucking argue with me, Trixie! Run! I'll catch up!" Or die trying, Twilight thought to herself. She could see the others hesitating, but they knew better than to wait around.

"Hey, you!" Twilight shouted up at the Grootslang, which was finishing its impromptu meal of smaller snake, "If you wanna eat, you gotta catch me! Come on big boy!"

Twilight turned and ran into the jungle, and with a hiss the Grootslang followed her, shaking the ground with its movements. Movements that were much going much faster than Twilight was over the wet, greasy ground.

"This is so much worse than the tatzlwurm!" Twilight cried as she ran and slid through the dense foliage. At least the ground had been nicer to run on, and she'd had magic to fight back with. Here she had nothing except a sword she had to hold in her mouth, which was hardly ideal. It was a very sharp sword though...

Twilight slid to a stop and turned to face the Grootslang. She pulled Swordy out in one smooth motion, then started to charge at it, hoping to catch it by surprise, which she did to a certain extent as it quickly reared up and snapped at her, missing her completely to crash into the mud. Twilight took the opportunity to slash at the nearest bit of snake to her, but was rather disappointed when Swordy bounced off the crystals embedded into the snake's skin.

The Grootslang twisted towards her, knocking Twilight and sending sprawling. Swordy bounced out of her mouth, and Twilight was forced to quickly scoop him back up along with a mouthful of mud as she resumed fleeing for her life. Clearly trying to fight the Grootslang head on was not a viable tactic.

At the very least she had confused the Grootslang with her doomed to failure attack enough to get a headstart, and made use of it to try and get back on track towards the mountain. The Grootslang was still in pursuit though, and as Twilight found the pool again it was almost on her heels.

Twilight did briefly consider the tactic she'd used with the tatzlwurm, where she let it swallow her, then cut it down from the inside, but she had magic to help her survive that, and even then it'd been a close thing. Now, with no magic, and a snake's tendency to crush things to death before eating them, it probably wasn't the best idea.

She did however spot a small tunnel formed out of some foliage hanging over a hollowed out tree trunk. If she could goad the Grootslang through it, perhaps there was something she could do to put it off its pursuit.

"Come on you bastard!" Twilight shouted, standing in the entrance of the short tunnel. She ran through as the Grootslang caught up to her, and got Swordy ready to strike at one of the few vulnerable spots she hoped the snake had. Its eyes.
Sadly her opportunity was stolen as the Grootslang went straight over the mass, and tried to block off Twilight's exit, meaning it was at least clever enough for some strategic planning, which was extremely worrying. Twilight doubled back as soon as she saw her way become blocked, and barely made it out before the Grootslang worked out she'd done so.

Twilight swore around the hilt of Swordy in her mouth, really wondering how the hell she was going to get out of this. It was stronger than her, faster, and dangerously smart, while she had some ingenuity and a very sharp sword which was barely a toothpick to something that big. Her only option really was to hide somewhere it couldn't go, and the only option she could see there was in the mountain.

Twilight kept running around the pool, which thankfully the Grootslang wasn't smart enough to cross to try and cut her off. She did eventually find the end, and ran around it to start sprinting for the mountain, and although the terrain wasn't much easier than it was before, there were less trees, giving Twilight a straighter run to build some distance between her and the thing chasing her. That distance grew further when she jumped between two trees growing next to each other in a v. The Grootslang followed her, but got itself stuck.

Twilight's heart raced with relief as she saw the others up ahead, although there was far from enough time for a reunion as the Grootslang wasn't going to stay stuck for long. "What are you all doing here?" Twilight shouted as she got closer, finding the other fussing around what appeared to be a giant gem encrusted piece of parchment. It took her far too long to work out it was the shed skin of the Grootslang.

"Twilight!" Sunset shouted with relief, "You're alright!"

"For now, but we need to get into the mountain where hopefully it can't follow us."

"That's what we're trying to do, but this thing is in the way."

Twilight tried to see what Sunset was on about, and saw a crevice behind the skin. Perhaps there was a way in there.

"Alright," Twilight said as the splintering of wood from the jungle indicated the Grootslang was probably free, "take a hold and pull on three." Twilight clamped onto the skin with her teeth, quickly lamenting having the hard, rubbery, and most importantly foul tasting substance in her mouth. "Un! Twho! Phee"

Working together they moved the skin enough to uncover the crevice, and once there was enough room they let go. A quick glance confirmed the Grootslang was coming right for them, so Twilight quickly ushered the others in, and had barely made it in herself when the Grootslang reached them.

Although not large, the crevice was still big enough for the Grootslang to push its head in as it fought to not let its target escape. It thrashed hard, smashing chunks of rock off the edges to make the entrance bigger. Twilight fought to get away, but past the initial opening the crevice turned quite narrow, and the others were struggling to get away fast enough for Twilight to escape its range.
Desperate enough to try anything, Twilight freed Swordy and attacked, her opportunity to hit its weak spot wide open. She plunged Swordy into the Grootslang's left eye, hoping the blade would reach its brain and kill it, but as the Grootslang screamed and failed to die, she knew that wasn't to be.

The Grootslang pulled backwards, knocking Twilight into the wall and stunning her into releasing her grip on Swordy. She tried to grab him back, but the agonised movements of the Grootslang kept Swordy out of her reach, and when it finally managed to pull its head free entirely, he was gone.

Twilight jumped away as the damaged crevice collapsed, plunging them into near darkness save for a thin sliver of light from the top of the rubble. Twilight coughed as the dust cleared, and could see there wasn't an easy way out there.

"Shit-shit-shit!"

"What? What is it?" Trixie asked as Twilight continued cursing, her voice coming from the narrow gap the others had crawled into.

"I've lost Swordy! He's stuck in the eye of that bastard Grootslang! I can't believe it. Fuck!" Twilight stomped her hooves, impotently displaying her anger like a child.

"Can't you summon him back once we're out of here?"

"Not when he's still in the deadzone. Urgh, I can't believe this."

"It's just a sword," Moondancer said from past Trixie.

"It's not just a sword. That was Swordy McSwordface, the Magnificent, the blade that got me through a fair few battles in Mareitania, and is also the sword that killed me, which I admit sounds weird, but it's still my sword."

"Wow... almost sounds like you care about that sword more than all of us being alive."

"Of course I don't, but it's still fucking annoying. We're also trapped in here, so unless that tunnel goes somewhere, we're screwed."

"Actually it does go somewhere," Daring said from even further away. "It gets pretty tight, then opens up. I think we might've found part of the old mines down here."

Twilight positioned herself to see up the tunnel, and could see Daring illuminated by a lighter held in her hoof. The tunnel did seem to carry on, but it was hard to see much past where Daring was. Still, it was the only viable route they had now.

"Alright, keep going, and we'll see where it goes. This doesn't feel like a proper entrance, so there might be another one somewhere."

Twilight squeezed in after the others, into what was a claustrophobes' nightmare. There was only just enough room to get through, and even then the stone walls tended to scrape along your sides. It got even narrower towards the end before it opened up again, and as the largest pony there, Twilight had to work the hardest to get through. She did though, eventually, flopping to the ground on the other side.

"I don't suppose any of you have your magic going?" Daring asked of them. "This lighter won't last for long."

"I got nothing," said Sunset as she tried to create even a spark with her horn. "Anypony else?" The other three ponies with horns shook their heads, "I guess we just have to hope the lighter lasts then."

"Yeah, that's not happening," Daring muttered. "We better not waste any time then. Come on."

Gems glittered in the walls as they walked, laying bare what it had been that the zebras sought down here when they mined this place. Looking at it now, you wouldn't think that they had abandoned all that long ago, rather than centuries past, it was that well preserved. There were still even rudimentary mining tools scattered about the place, although that did suggest that this place had been abandoned in a hurry when it happened.

"What are the odds on this place being haunted?" Trixie asked after a few minutes into their exploration. "This place feels perfect for spooky things to happen in."

"Trixie," Twilight sighed, "just don't even."

All of them ducked as a wail echoed through the mines, sounding exactly like what none of them wanted to hear.

"Well, great," Twilight said flatly, "the mine's haunted. Congratulations, Trixie, you got your wish. Now what are you going to do with it?"

"I don't know. I'm probably going to be all like 'piss off ghost,' then go about my business. What else am I expected to do? Fight it?"

"Now that would be all kinds of hilarious," Sunset laughed. She stopped as a deeper wail sent shivers down her spine. "Okay, maybe not."

"You guys are all being ridiculous," Moondancer sniffed. "Have none of you considered that the Grootslang might live in these mines, and that it's making these noises after getting stabbed in the eye?"

"I think I prefer the ghosts," Trixie said after a short, contemplative silence. "Great. What are the odds that thing is exactly where we need to go?"

Sunset smiled and shrugged helplessly, "Practically guaranteed."

A bit more walking brought them to a nexus, with several other paths branching off it. There were also scratches on the floor, all of which followed the same, well worn path. None of them needed to ask why that was, as all of them knew the answer was to do with the giant snake they were avoiding.

"So, avoiding the obvious answer," said Daring as she quickly cast her gaze over their options, "which way do you think we should go?"

Twilight pointed a hoof down the path that the Grootslang used. "It goes down, which feels like a good place to find ley lines, and I can feel magic coming from down there. There's also an increased number in the quantity of crystals in the walls, which is another clue. It just also happens to smell like death down there, and is quite possibly the Grootslang's den."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I have a Grootslang to kill. If you'll all excuse me." Twilight started heading down the slope to the Grootslang's den, and probable source of everything they needed. There was only one way this could end, and that was with the Grootslang dead.

Okay, there might be two if you called getting eaten an option.

Wisps of stray magic tickled Twilight's horn as she went deeper, and after a few minutes she lit up her horn. Either the output of magic down here was enough to overpower the wards outside the crater, or the wards' effects couldn't penetrate the mountain this far. Whichever the reason, it certainly helped.

"Twilight! Wait up!"

Twilight stopped, expecting Trixie to catch up with her since it was Trixie that spoke. She was only half right though, as both Trixie and Sunset were running after her. None of the others were though, which wasn't all that surprising.

"We thought we'd come and help," Sunset said with a confident smile.

"Couldn't let you get all the glory."

"I'm not sure what glory you're expecting to find in this, Trixie, but I'll give you a pat on the back if it makes you feel better. Now shush. If we can sneak up on it, all the better for us."

Both unicorns nodded as they followed Twilight's lead, all of them trying to walk as softly as possible to stop their hooves echoing on the stone floor. A bright glow filled the passage before them, removing the need for their horns to light the way.

The tunnel opened out into a large, circular chamber, which didn't appear to have been mined out, as what little of the walls could be seen beneath the layer of crystals appeared to be quite smooth, and rather like it had been molten at one point. The source of that was in the middle of the room, contained within a pillar of crystal that glowed with a bright white light. You couldn't see the ley line itself, but the crystals containing it were impressive enough.

The most important feature of the room was loosely coiled around that pillar though, whining and writhing as it fruitlessly tried in vain to remove the sword from its eye by rubbing it on the ground. This was only making a considerably bigger mess of the wound, and yet was still not enough to kill it.

"Protect the pillar," Twilight whispered to Trixie and Sunset. "If it smashes that thing we're done for."

Both unicorns nodded and moved away from Twilight in preparation to shield the pillar should they need to. That left Twilight on her own to confront the Grootslang. She stopped as her hoof stuck to a patch of blood on the floor, and made her think for a moment. If the Grootslang was smart enough to try and trick her, was it smart enough to know she won the fight, and that she wasn't worth the effort of attacking again? Could it be encouraged to leave them alone?

Probably not, but considering how hard the thing was to kill, perhaps it was worth trying.

"Hey!" Twilight shouted, getting the Grootslang's attention. It stopped what it was doing to focus its one good eye on herself, although even then it couldn't resist turning its head to keep rubbing Swordy against the floor.

Twilight summoned Swordy back to herself, removing it from the wound, and held it up in front of the snake so that it could see she'd removed it. She then stepped aside in the hopes that the Grootslang would go for the exit and leave. It didn't even look at it, instead keeping its eye fixed on Twilight.

"Go for the door you big dumb snake. Choose to live, please?"

"You know it's probably going to protect its den," Trixie said from the side of the room.

"Shut up, Trixie! Don't give it ideas!"

"It's going to attack you!"

Twilight growled as she could see Trixie was right. The Grootslang was curling itself back to strike, apparently oblivious to the danger it was in. The thing was that Twilight didn't really want to kill it. She'd hurt it, which should've been enough of a lesson, but as far as the Grootslang was concerned that wasn't enough.

Twilight teleported as the snake sprung for her, then blasted it with her magic from the air to keep its attention on her, barely even realising she was flying as she did it. Her magic did nothing to the crystals on the Grootslang's skin, instead being either absorbed by the crystals, or dissipated by them. At the very least Twilight could now see why Starsy suggested these crystals to make armour.

The Grootslang coiled tighter around the pillar, either unaware of what breaking it would do, or not caring if it meant they all died. Either way a shield of both pink and red covered it before it could do any damage, although it soon faded from contact with the crystals on the snake's hide.

Twilight swore loudly, and flew in close to kick the Grootslang on the side of its head. It forgot whatever else it was doing in favour of snapping its fangs at Twilight, who made an important discovery. Firing magic into its mouth hurt it. Also its underbelly wasn't covered in the magic proof crystals. Both of those were significant.

"Trixie! Big crystal spike under its chin! I'll shout when!"

Twilight didn't, and couldn't, check whether Trixie heard her, so had to act as though she had. The Grootslang was coiling up defensively now, like it knew it was losing, so Twilight kept hammering away at it, blasting its wounded eye and into its mouth when the opportunity arose.

The Grootslang was acting sluggish now, Twilight's attacks taking its toll, even if the damage was minimal. It was totally unprepared for when Twilight teleported above its head and poured every bit of magic into herself that she could.

"Now, Trixie!"

Twilight pushed down on the Grootslang's head as hard as she could, while from the other direction a spike of dark crystal speared up from the ground, stabbing the snake's head just behind its chin, and doing what Swordy could not.

Twilight tumbled to the ground as the head jerked to a stop, which was just as well as the tip of the spire would've got her as well if she'd stayed where she was. It still wasn't over though as the Grootslang twitched, trashing around and threatening to destroy the pillar. Again and again they put up shields to protect it, until eventually the Grootslang went still.

"Fucking hell," Twilight swore tiredly, sitting hard to try and catch her breath. "Stupid snake. Sunset, could you go get the others please?"

"Uh, sure, back in a mo."

"Alright, so, I have an idea," Trixie said as Sunset trotted out of the chamber. "What if we... skin the snake and use its skin to make the armour. It's covered in those crystals we want, so it'd be perfect."

"Seriously, Trixie? Ew. Okay, first off that's disgusting. Secondly, it's going to be really hard to skin that massive fucking snake when none of us know how. Thirdly, it's going to be really hard transporting a skin that weighs tons when we can't use magic outside of here, and fourth, we have no idea how to make it into actual leather. or whatever, so just no."

"Fine, be like that. I thought it was a good idea."

"Yeah, but you would."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

Twilight just shrugged, then sat quietly enjoying the rather invigorating feeling of being bathed in magic. It was rather like sitting out in the sun. More to the point though, her fancy alicorn healing worked fine here, whereas she suspected the deadzone outside affected it to the point it was pretty much like regular healing.

"Guess you showed that snake who's boss," Daring said as she entered the chamber with Mayfly and Moondancer, who went straight over to the pillar, her eyes wide with awe.

"Not really," said Twilight. "Now it doesn't know anything. It's just dead. Anyway," Twilight flapped a hoof at Moondancer, "what do we need?"

Moondancer ceased her examination long enough to speak, "We need three of the highest quality crystals we can get from the pillar over here for the oubliette, which is why we're taking six, and as many of the other crystals as we can carry. Unfortunately we didn't actually think to bring a cart, so we'll have to load our bags and hope we have enough. Sunset and I will take care of the pillar, while the rest of you take care of the other stuff."

"And how will we know if we have the right kind of crystals?" Trixie asked.

"Try to pick them up in your magic, and if you can't, they're fine," Moondancer replied like it was obvious.

"I knew that."

"You and Twilight will have to check them for Daring and Mayfly."

"Well pshah, obviously."

"Then get to it."

"You're not my boss."

Twilight stood and pulled Trixie after her as she pulled a couple of sacks out of her bags, "I'm not your boss either, but come on, we got stuff to do."

"You know, I can really appreciate why the zebras fear this place. The sheer amount of energy coming from this thing is staggering." Sunset gently pressed a hoof to the crystalline pillar, finding it warm to the touch. "No wonder the Grootslang was drawn to it."

"I'm surprised there wasn't more things living here," Moondancer said back. "Worse things."

"Worse than that?" Sunset looked over at the body of the Grootslang, "Really?"

"Maybe the snake ate them. I don't know. Anyway, stop thinking about that and start looking for those crystals."

Alright, alright." Sunset scanned her magic over the pillar, searching for the perfect gems, wishing they had an expert on such things. The Rarity she knew back on Earth had an eye for such things, so it wasn't too farfetched to imagine the pony Rarity did as well. It was just too bad she was still a prisoner, leaving Sunset to try and make up for an innate lack of skill with gems.

An even number of facets, a regular shape, no inclusions, whatever they looked like, and no larger than the size of her hoof. It also had to be pure enough to hold any enchantment. That's what Starsy's instructions had been at least, with an amendment that you could tell the purity just by feeling it. Saying that was a lot easier than doing it when you're standing next to a giant pillar of crystals radiating pure magic.

"I got one!"

Apparently it wasn't impossible though.

"What do you think?" Moondancer said, holding a white, glowing gem up in her magic for Sunset to see. It certainly looked the part, and when Sunset took it in her magic it certainly felt decent, giving her a nice reference for what to look for herself.

"Nice work." Sunset opened the padded case they had for holding the crystals and placed the gem in one of the slots. "Five more to go and we're golden."

Sunset resumed scanning, and soon found a gem that felt almost exactly like the one Moondancer had found. She gently teased it out, and turned it in her magic, counting over the facets for an even number, and trying to find any of those mysterious inclusions. It seemed to be good on both those counts, so into the case it went, soon followed by another from Moondancer.

That was merely a good start though, as for every good gem they found, a half dozen improper ones were found that simply didn't fit the bill. Odd numbers of facets, flaws, or just not feeling right, all were reasons to discard them.

"Okay, two more," Moondancer said, placing another into the case.

"You are so much better at this than me."

"Maybe my side just has the better crystals. Who knows what miniscule conditions can alter how these crystals form."

"Yeah, I guess. Ooh, I think I have one." Sunset pulled a gem free, and was about to check it when the sounds of splintering brought her attention back to the pillar. Cracks were spider webbing through the pillar, and with a small cry she grabbed them with her magic and held them. Thankfully they stopped spreading, but that was only one upside in a big problem.

"Are you alright?" Moondancer asked, sounding worried.

"Yes!" Sunset said a little too quickly. She cleared her throat of the awkwardness and gave Moondancer a smile. "Yes, I'm fine, I just almost dropped the crystal." A quick scan confirmed it was good, so she put it in the case. "Now we just need one more."

"Okay, keep looking then."

"Will do!" Sunset gave Moondancer another smile to reassure her, then turned her gaze back to the pillar. The cracks hadn't spread any further, thankfully, but there was no way to restore them either. Sunset didn't know what to do.

"We've gathered up as many crystals as we can carry," Twilight said, walking up behind Sunset. She stopped as she saw Sunset's red magic wrapped around part of the pillar, maintained by the pony sullenly looking up at it. "What are you doing, Sunset?"

"Oh, uh, nothing, just scanning the pillar for the last crystal we need."

"No you're not, you're holding the pillar! Sunset, did you... did you damage the pillar?"

Sunset winced guiltily, but decided it wasn't worth trying to lie about it. The others would still find out about it eventually. "It cracked when I pulled a crystal free. I did the only thing I could think of to stop it killing us all."

"But- But... don't you realise what that means?" Twilight asked, her voice catching as she tried to speak. The feeling only grew worse as Sunset nodded slowly.

"It means I can't let go, because as soon as I do, boom." Sunset shrugged helplessly, and gave Twilight a tiny shrug. "Oops?"

"Oops? Oops? Sunset! That- That means you're going to-" Twilight couldn't even bring herself to say it. Tears ran down her cheeks as the others gathered around, all of them appearing as horrified, if not as visibly upset. "Sunset..."

"I know-"

"Why didn't you say anything, Sunset?" Moondancer cut in.

"Because you had a job to do, and I didn't want to worry you while you worked." Tears finally spilled down Sunset's cheeks as the gravity of the situation finally set in to her mind. "I'm sorry, Moondancer."

Moondancer hugged Sunset fiercely, sobbing her heart out. "But I don't want you to go! You're one of the only friends I have! I don't want to lose you!"

Sunset hugged back, sobbing just as hard. "I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!"

Twilight straightened up and brushed her tears away. Maybe Sunset didn't have to die, not if there was somepony that could take her place. "I'll stay and hold the pillar."

Sunset jerked at the suggestion, "Twilight, you can't! Even if you could safely take over holding the pillar from me, Equestria still needs you!"

"I can't die. Not permanently at least. Equestria can survive without me for a while."

"No, it can't. Without you we mightn't be able to stop Faust! What if you don't come back at all? The whole world could be doomed if you stay here instead of me, and I can't let that happen!"

"But-"

"No buts, Twilight, you're too important."

"But I don't want you to die," Twilight choked as her tears started to fall again. "Sunset, please..."

"I'm sorry, Twilight, but the world needs you far more than it needs me, and there's no way I could ask anypony else to pay for my mistake. Besides, Moondancer is needed to make the oubliette, and Trixie is a far better fighter than I could ever hope to be. I'm the only one that can do this."

"She's right, Twilight," Trixie said softly.

Twilight couldn't say anything else. There was nothing else to say. Sunset was going to die, and there was nothing she could do about it. She watched, whimpering with tears as Daring and Mayfly hugged Sunset goodbye, both of them openly crying. Trixie was next.

"I'm sorry, Sunset."

"Don't be, Trixie. It's hardly your fault."

"I know, but I'm still sorry." Trixie offered Sunset a wan smile, "I always figured I'd be the first to go. Guess you won that one."

"I guess I had to be first at something," Sunset joked weakly. She tugged Trixie a little tighter, "Don't give up, Trixie, and don't let the darkness win. I believe in you."

"At least one of us does." Trixie sniffed as a tear finally crept down her cheek, "Goodbye, Sunset."

"Goodbye, Trixie."

Moondancer practically shoved Trixie out of the way to latch on to Sunset, "I don't want you to go! Please, Sunset, don't do this!"

"You know I can't do that."

"Then let Twilight take your place!" Moondancer looked over at Twilight, "Please, Twilight, take her place, I'm begging you!"
"You know she can't do that either," Sunset said gently as Twilight hung her head and choked out a sob. Sunset nuzzled Moondancer on the cheek, "I will always be your friend, Moondancer, never forget that."

"I'm not leaving you. If you die, I die with you."

"Moondancer, no, you can't do that!"

"Don't tell me what I can't do!"

"Then I'm sorry I have to do this." Sunset looked pleadingly at Trixie, who nodded, knowing what she wanted. She lit her horn, peeling Moondancer's limbs from around Sunset, and carrying her away."

"No!" Moondancer screamed. "Put me down! Sunset!"

"I'm sorry, Moondancer. Bye."

"Sunset!"

Moondancer's screams echoed around the mines for some time, even after Daring and Mayfly departed with the crystals, leaving Twilight as the last one with Sunset.

"This shouldn't be happening," Twilight said so weakly she was hardly sure she said it at all.

"I know." Sunset rubbed her eyes and sniffed, "Twilight, I- I want to thank you, for everything. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be who I am now. I'd still be angry, and alone, and-"

"Alive?"

"If you could call that living. You gave me the chance I needed to become a better person, and I will always be thankful for that. Thank you, Twilight, thank you so much."

Both of them embraced again for what they knew would be the last time, and they did their best to make it count, but Twilight knew she couldn't stay forever, even though she wanted to more than anything.

"I'll miss you."

"I know. Twilight, could you tell the girls what happened, and that I'm sorry, and that I love them so much. And thank them, for also giving me a chance I didn't deserve."

"I will."

"Good, thank you." Sunset squeezed a little tighter for a moment, then released to hold Twilight at legs' length, "You're a good pony at heart, Twilight. Please, don't ever forget that."

"I'll try."

"That's all I ask. Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle."

"Goodbye, Sunset Shimmer."

Turning away and leaving was the hardest thing Twilight'd ever had to do, and she must've glanced back to see Sunset giving her a gentle smile over a dozen times before her friend was out of sight. Then she ran, not stopping for anything, because as soon as she did she knew she'd only end up going back.

Sunset sighed in the quiet loneliness, not wanting to count down the minutes between her and the end she so desperately didn't want. There was nothing for it though but to wait and give the others enough time to get away. She couldn't do that forever though. Her magic was already tiring.

Perhaps the worst thing nagging at her right then was the one pony she couldn't apologise to for more than just this. Princess Celestia deserved masses of apologies for the way she'd acted at times, but that would never happen now.

More minutes passed, and Sunset was having to fight to maintain her magic now. She did entertain the thought of letting go slowly in the hopes that the pillar would hold together long enough for her to escape, but as her grip weakened the cracks started to spread further, and she'd rather not give herself false hope.

"I guess this is it then," Sunset said as her magic faltered. "Good luck stopping Faust, and I wish I could've been there with you." Sunset took a deep breath and prepared herself as best she could. Not that there was any preparing herself for this, but she'd rather die standing tall than cowering and afraid.

"Goodbye everyone," she said, and squeezed, shattering the pillar.

Twilight had barely made it up the slope out of the crater when the ground bucked hard enough to send her flying. She landed hard and barely had enough wits left to drag the others to her and put the strongest shield over them that she could muster to protect them from falling debris. There wasn't as much as she thought there would be, and none of it was the boulder sized chunks she was expecting. All the same she kept the shield up until everything had settled enough to make her think it was over.

The top of the mountain was gone, and through the dust a wavering beam of ethereal light was reaching for the heavens, shimmering with all the colours of the rainbow. In any other situation it would be beautiful, but that meant nothing now because all it meant was Sunset Shimmer was gone, vaporised in an accident that should never have happened.

Twilight watched the lights blankly, her mind empty of everything except the pain she felt, and the only distraction she got from that was when Moondancer, screaming and crying, launched herself at Twilight, knocking her to the ground to hit her again and again.

"You killed her! You killed her you bitch! You fucking killed her!"

Twilight didn't have it in her to deny it, or fight back, and left it to the others to drag Moondancer off. Twilight was the reason Sunset was dead, because she was the one that asked Sunset to get involved. Sunset's death was entirely her fault. Moondancer was entirely right to hate her, but she could never hate her as much as Twilight hated herself.

The worst part was that the Harmony map had tried to warn her of this by excluding Sunset's cutie mark from the collection surrounding Canterlot, the last time she'd seen it. She'd been warned this would happen, and she'd chosen to ignore it, and had done nothing to try and prevent it. She really was just scum.

Author's Notes:

Alright, so, Sunset's dead-

-and I deserve that. (I doubt she'd ever want to marry me now. I've crushed my own delusions like a fool.)

Figured not everyone could get to die in a blaze of glory, and Sunset gets to be the first major character to go out in this book (if I remember correctly). Sadly, she won't be the last. Maybe if I hadn't overloaded myself with characters things could've been different. (I'm a terrible human being.)