Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_LWE5Q7K7PRkewk9Qis8xMfQWO-gjX7zEInIFQ1rLdo/edit?usp=sharing

When the group finally reached the end of the tunnel, they had to realize it was already sealed off. Breaking through would only have been a waste of time and energy at this point. It was over. Black Widow had gotten away.

While walking back through the dark tunnel, the group had very mixed feelings. Especially Twilight seemed to be completely terrified about the thought of facing Despair again. But to her big relief, the demoness was already gone. At least for now, Twilight wouldn’t have to worry about her and she could take her time to digest this turn of events.

As the group returned to the ceremonial hall, they could see Lady Truesight finishing off the last cultist. The whole room was covered in bleeding corpses and even the black door to the sanctuary was torn open. It seemed like she wanted to make absolutely sure not a single insane pony or demon was still around.

Spitfire was still sitting close to the offertory table, observing the bloodshed speechlessly. Since the battle was pretty much over, Twilight aimed for her first.

“Are you ok?” she wondered.

“Who... who are you? Wait. I know some of you. Aren’t you guys Rainbow Dash’s friends?” Spitfire wondered.

“Well... yes... Anyway, I’m Twilight Sparkle and this is Rarity. We disguised ourselves as cultists to infiltrate the church. Over here are Applejack, Fluttershy and Crystal Blossom. The reaper mare who fought for us is Lady Truesight,” Twilight explained.

“Well, thanks for saving my fur. For a moment, I thought I was done for. I owe you one for that,” Spitfire responded.

“No problem. You are the captain of the Wonderbolts. We couldn’t just let you die right there. But how did you end up captured by the cult?” Twilight spoke.

“I was finishing my daily routine at the academy when somepony snuck up on me from behind. I tried to fight back but, wow, who or whatever that was, it was fast! Well, next thing I know is that I woke up in this dungeon. Where’s Rainbow Dash by the way?” Spitfire wondered.

All keepers of harmony suddenly lowered their heads and gained sad expressions.

“She... passed away a few years ago...” Twilight explained.

“Oh... Sorry...” Spitfire replied before lowering her head as well and sighed. “So that’s why she never responded. A real shame. I rarely ever had such a great cadet before. She passed all the tests in record time and she really proved she had the moral understanding of a true Wonderbolt...”

“Yes... She really was special and we miss her a lot...” Rarity commented.

“Well... I can’t change the past, but I think I really owe you a big one in Rainbow Dash’s honor and for saving my life. If you ever need assistance by the Wonderbolts, we’ll be there,” Spitfire offered.

“Thanks. That certainly will be a big help,” Twilight responded.

Spitfire saluted to the group to express her gratitude, then lifted into the air and flew out of the church. While the group turned around, they noticed that the reaper clairvoyant had been observing the scene the whole time.

“I am glad to see you came around, Truesight,” Crystal Blossom started.

“Yes. Thank you for your-” Twilight wanted to add.

The rainbow-maned mare went right past the group without even looking at them and aimed for the dungeon of the church. In the heat of the battle, the cultists hadn’t found the time to lock the metal door again, so she could just open it and walk inside.

Once again, the behavior of Truesight baffled the whole group. Had she not come to support Twilight and Rarity? Did she still not trust them? Then why was she here?

Twilight still sought for opportunities to avoid thinking about Despair, so she thought the best they could do would be to follow Truesight and free all the victims of the cult. As usual, Twilight lead the way inside the dungeon while the rest of the group followed.

The dungeon itself seemed more like a twisted mix of a torture room and a pantry than an underground prison. About fifty ponies of all sizes, genders, races and ages were stuffed into cages while various torture instruments were scattered everywhere. There even was an open section in the room where severed pony limbs were hung on hooks from the ceiling to let them drain out. Many of the victims were in bad shape and hardly even conscious. Naturally, their first reaction when the group entered was panic, which only got even worse as they started to break open the cages. But as they were explained that the group were no cultists and here to save them, the mood changed. Several victims suddenly broke out in tears. Some fell down before the hooves of Twilight and her friends and started kissing them with repeated words of gratitude while others started running for the exit straight away without even thanking.

But Truesight was not interested in any of them. She aimed straight for a tiny cage and slowly started opening the lock with a spell. As the keepers of harmony came over, the image presented to them nearly broke their hearts and made them cover their mouths.

Inside this cage was the by far youngest victim. An orange-brown filly, no older than two years. She was in terrible condition. Her mane and tail had been shaved off, her right eye had been removed and the eyelids sewn up. Her still working yellow eye had been blackened. She had scars and bruises all over her body. Dried blood covered large parts of her coat, but mostly covered the areas around her mouth and nose as if she had been beaten repeatedly. Yet, what made Twilight despise the BloodClaw Cult the most for what they had done to this innocent child was the fact that she also had streams of dried blood between her hind legs.

The little filly laid in the farthest corner of her cage, pressing herself against the metal, shaking all over and hyperventilating while she stared at Truesight. Finally, the cage opened.

Neither Truesight nor the little filly moved. They just kept looking at each other for nearly a minute, not saying or doing anything before the clairvoyant finally broke the silence.

“You can come out. I am not a pony. I won’t cause you any harm,” she spoke gently.

The filly kept on shaking and refused to move. After all she must have been through, it seemed like she did not believe Truesight’s words.

Now, the reaper clairvoyant removed the hood from her head to reveal her rainbow mane. Instantly, the expression on the little filly changed. She stopped shaking and gazed at Truesight in fascination.

“Your name is Amber, right?” the red mare wondered.

“Y... Yes...” the filly replied, barely audible.

“I am Truesight. Come with me. I will take you far away from all these ponies,” Truesight offered, reaching out a hoof to help.

Amber hesitated. Her focus turned over to Twilight and her friends. For some reason, the sight of the group caused her to start shaking again.

“Don’t worry about them. Just stay close to me,” Truesight kept speaking gently.

Still shaking, Amber stood up and slowly started walking towards Truesight. Her steps were very insecure, as if she hadn’t been walking at all for a long time. Then, the filly placed her left front hoof on Truesight’s. Moments later, Amber hid herself beneath the reaper cloak.

“You are acting very strange lately, Truesight,” Crystal started. “You are usually such a lone wolf. You never showed any care for ponies and reapers alike. Yet, you put so much effort into rescuing this one child?”

“I have my reasons, elder,” Truesight replied, then turned around and slowly left with Amber still hiding directly below her.

Even Twilight and her friends could tell that this scene was very weird and unusual, even though they hardly knew Lady Truesight. But the actions of this reaper mare should not be their main focus right now. There were still a dozen ponies sitting in their cages, too weak to move on their own. One by one, the keepers of harmony and Crystal Blossom helped the victims on their legs and assisted them on the way out.

Crystal made sure she remained next to Twilight while supporting a pony back outside. There was something she really needed to know and believed Twilight would have the answers needed.

“Pardon me, but I need to know what is behind this demon we encountered. I have never seen you this terrified before,” she requested.

Twilight knew she had to talk about it sooner or later. Even though she wished it would be later, she also knew that she needed to get a hold of herself again quickly. After taking a deep breath, she started explaining.

“Her name is Despair. She is a unique demon that haunted me three years ago with the intention of driving me to insanity and making me give birth to a demon. I... am sort of responsible she exists,” Twilight explained.

“You do not need to tell me these details if they still pain you,” Crystal interrupted.

“Thank you... Well, she is very intelligent and powerful. She is the one who planned the extinction of the changelings and she even devoured the soul of the changeling queen. I managed to defeat her in a duel and she got consumed by Obsidian Shards, but it seems like this wasn’t enough to finish her,” Twilight continued.

“She mentioned a bond between you and her. Do you know what she meant?” the elder reaper mare wondered.

“Despair originally was a demonic imitation of me. She could steal my memories and knowledge just by looking into my eyes. The more she did that, the more this connection between us became stronger and stronger. I thought I had broken it by defeating her, but it looks like I was wrong. Anyway, it now seems like she is the Guillotine of Hope we kept hearing about. For some reason, she decided to become Black Widow’s personal bodyguard and tactician,” Twilight replied.

“Things are starting to become clearer. If she is really this good at planning, it would explain the excellent organization of the cult,” Crystal commented.

“She waited for us... She knew we would be coming sooner or later...” Twilight spoke, starting to shake a little. “Knowing her, I wouldn’t be surprised if she could predict our assault all along and used it to her advantage...”

“Do not let this get to you,” Crystal started. “She might be back, but this whole scene was nothing but an act. She did not even have the intention to harm us. Despair was just bragging and showing off. You have defeated her once. You will defeat her again.”

“You are right,“ Twilight responded with a sigh and started smiling again. “Thank you. I needed some motivation.”

Several minutes later, all victims of the BloodClaw Cult were set free. The group was about to leave when they noticed one of them was missing.

“Hold on a minute. Where’s Fluttershy?” Applejack wondered.

“Is she still down there?” Rarity asked.

The group turned around and went back inside the church. It was now that they noticed the yellow mare sitting on the ground, facing a corner while she had her head lowered to her heart pin.

“What’s wrong, Fluttershy?” Twilight wondered.

“The prophecy... It was all a fake. The demons tricked us. Obsidian died for no reason...” the yellow mare replied.

“That’s not fully true. The plan would have worked out if we didn’t stop it. He still would have...” Twilight spoke.

Before she could finish, Fluttershy turned her head around to the group. It was now that they realized she was crying. Even though her face showed no expression, she had black tear trails running down her face.

“Oh, Fluttershy...” Twilight spoke and embraced her friend.

---

When they finally left the hotel again, they were welcomed by a large troop of royal guards.

“Twily! Is that you? Gosh, what a disguise!” a male voice spoke.

“Shining Armor!” Twilight replied and hugged her brother. “Gosh am I happy to see you again! How are mom and dad? Why are you here?”

“Our parents are fine. I convinced them to move to the Crystal Empire for as long as this civil war is going on. I’m here to take over the cleanup for you. I’m so relieved to see you healthy. Can’t believe you tricked the Cakes into believing you are related to them to gain access to a BloodClaw church,” Shining Armor replied.

As part of the arrangement, the last statement was a spoken out loud lie on purpose. It was very likely they would be observed by cultists or skin-walkers right now. With acting like they used the Cakes as a tool to gain access to the church against their knowing, they made sure none of them would get harmed by the cult. Yet, one thing confused Twilight.

“The Crystal Empire? Why there? That’s a pretty long journey and its far away from Canterlot,” she wondered in a whispering tone.

“In the past years, we found out something very interesting. You see how demons never leave Equestria? For some reason, they want to conquer this land first before even considering to touch foreign ground. Even if an insane pony leaves Equestria and gives birth do a demon out there, it always returns back to Equestria. It seems like they really, really want Princess Celestia more than anything. Since the empire was not present during Nightmare Moon’s rise, the demons don’t consider it as a part of Equestria and none of the crystal ponies are affected by the curse. You know which,” her brother whispered back.

“Wait a minute. You know about...” Twilight started, but couldn’t finish her sentence, since there were ponies present who didn’t know about Maledictum Insania. “Well, that. And you can talk about it?”

“Members of the royal family don’t get cursed with the curse of secrets. We are all on the same side and we all need to be able to talk about it. Anyway, I’m just here to tell you that you need to get back to Manehattan as fast as possible. Babs Seed thinks she found something. My guards will provide you additional protection,” Shining Armor finished, then started speaking normally again. “We will take care of things from here on.”

“Thanks, B.B.B.F.F. Let’s hope this will all be over soon,” Twilight finished and started walking.

The rest of the group followed her with mixed expressions, but only Fluttershy still had her head hanging low.

---

The journey back to Manehattan took another day to complete. Enough time for Twilight and Rarity to get rid of the makeup and dye. With everything that had happened, the group remained silent most of the time. Each one of them had something to think about.

As they arrived back in the big city, they realized it had become a lot more quiet. Since the civil war began, there constantly were battles in the streets. Now, it seemed almost peaceful again. But judging from the expressions of the citizens, it became obvious that fear and tension still filled the air. It was like the calm before a big storm.

When they finally arrived back at Babs Seed’s apartment, the teenager could hardly suppress her excitement.

“Judging by the grin on your face, I take you found the church here, right?” Twilight figured.

“Yep! But not just that! I managed to catch some hints that the cultists are tryin’ to bring something there!” Babs responded.

“Something? What exactly are we supposed to imagine, darling?” Rarity wondered.

“I’m not too sure. Even the cultists are secretive about it. Could be something of value to them or a pony,” the teenager stated.

“Do ya think it might be that high priestess, Twi?” Applejack wondered.

“Doesn’t seem very likely. The cult knows we have our base here. It’s not usually Despair’s way of thinking to make things this easy and obvious for us. But then again, she enjoys playing mind games. Hiding Black Widow here knowing we would think its too easy to be true... I’m really not sure what to think of this,” Twilight explained.

“So Black Widow got away. Shoot... Wait. Despair? Who’s that now?” Babs wondered.

“I’ll tell you about her some other time. First of all... what do you think, girls? Should we check it out or not?” the purple mare asked.

“Babs went through a lot of effort to find this out. But if Despair is truly as smart as you describe her to be, we can not exclude the possibility of this turning out to be a trap. It is a gamble,” Crystal stated.

“But even if it is a trap, we would still be able to attack another church and push the cultists out of Manehattan!” Rarity commented.

“Say, Babs: How’s the cult behavin’ around here lately?” Applejack wanted to know.

“Actually, I’m surprised about how quiet things have become. There’s next to nothing happening anymore,” the teenage filly replied.

“That makes it sound even more like they are setting up a trap. I don’t get it. Why are they making it that obvious? What is Despair trying to do?” Twilight wondered.

“Considering how risky an attack would be, I would suggest that Fluttershy and I observe the church before we take any actions,” Crystal suggested.

“That sounds pretty reasonable. Are you in for it, Fluttershy?” Twilight wondered.

“Oh... um... sure,” the yellow mare replied, shaking herself out of her thoughts.

“Apprentice. I know this is hard for you to take in. But do not forget: You are a reaper now. You must learn to keep your feelings under control,” Crystal commented.

“I will try... Anyway, I will help out spying on the church,” Fluttershy agreed.

“Okay then. Come with me to the living room so I can show ya where the church is on the map,” Babs stated.