“That was c-complete and utter b-bullshit and you have to agree with me.” Pyro said through chattering teeth.

“He has a point Dark. Things like that shouldn’t happen to ponies, he’s still shivering and it's been like, what? Two hours now?” stated Strife.

I looked to the stallion as he shook in place, completely frozen from the waist down. “Well, you have no one to blame but yourself Pyro. I warned you not to build a fire so close to their cave.”

“I was f-freezing! I’m made for warmer p-places like the badlands.” The fiery stallion shook violently with his arms crossed, trying to warm himself up with his own body heat. Terra had been carrying him for nearly two hours and the block of ice that encased Pyro’s lower body had only just begun to melt.

“You may have been freezing, but I told you to pack some warm clothes. Did you listen? No. And now you’re frozen in a block of ice. Congrats.” I told the frozen stallion.

“I was t-told no such thing!” He claimed but was quickly declined by Night Strife.

“Well, he did. He told all of us just before...” Strife trailed off as Pyro gave him a death glare.

“I get it, alright? S-shesh.” The frozen pony crossed his arms and pouted while laying on Terra’s back. He shook from the cold and just as I expected, the ‘expected’ happened. The stallion began to cringe on the dragon’s back and shook violently. Night Strife looked to Pyro and quickly became confused.

“Pyro, are you alright?” He asked but in return, got no response. Terra slowly hid his muzzle underneath his giant claws and turned his head away. “Dark? Is Pyro ok?”

“Just turn away Strife, you wouldn’t want to be caught in the fire zone.”

“Fire zone?” He looked to Pyro and noticed him pulling his head back and scrunching his nose. “Pyro?” A loud sneeze could be heard and again, as I expected, I heard Strife yell,“Sick! You sneezed right in my mouth, you monotonous ass!”

Pyromancer was sick, and soon, so would Night Strife. Through a stuffy nose, Pyro said in a weird voice,“I might be an ass, but now you’re gonna be sick. Just. Like. Me.” He began to laugh as he rode on Terra’s back. His fit of laughter was soon ended by another powerful sneeze. He let out a loud groan and said,”Can I go home now?”

I looked to the sick stallion and smirked,“You live on the road, remember?”

He looked to me for a moment, and away for another. When he returned his eyes on me, he said,“Oh yeah. Dark? Can I crash at your place? I promise not to break anything.” a stream of snot leaked down from his nostrils but he quickly snorted it back up.

“Elegant. Sure you can. Moon’s with Chrysalis, so you got the house to yourself.” I looked to him and held a serious expression,“But if I hear one word about a party going on in that house, I will make it my life’s goal to make your life a living hell, are we clear?”

He looked to me and grinned,“Buddy, my life is ‘hell’. What more could you do?” I paused in my tracks and looked to the shaking stallion. I continuously glared into his eyes, not blinking once.

“I’m not saying I would, but being the guardian, personally knowing both princesses, and having the changling kingdom to back me...” I cracked a smile and said,“Yeah... no one would find you.”

Pyro’s expression turned from playful to frightened in the blink of an eye. A loud gulp could be heard and Pyro slowly hid himself behind Terra’s wings.

I asked him,“You knew I was joking right?” I quickly pondered my own lifestyle and quickly realized that I wasn't the playful type. “Right?”

Worried laughs could be heard from the opposite side of the wings,“Yeah... of course I knew. Ha... yeah.”

////////////////////

Some time had past and after many explanations on ‘How I was only joking’, I had managed to calm down the startled stallion, we dropped him off at my house and he was accompanied by Strife. “I’ll keep on eye on the guy for you. Have fun wandering the ruins of a haunted fortress.” With a quick grin, he slammed to door behind him and locked it in place.

Terra and Axton looked to me with troubled expressions,“Is he scared..”

“Of ghosts, yes.” I said plainly.

Axton stood before me and gave a small smirk,“Ghosts aren’t real.”

“I’d think twice, if I were you.” said Terra,“Where we’re going, you’ll find plenty of proof.” Axton turned to the dragon and raised an eyebrow. “Somethings in this world are stranger than they seem.”

“Hey dark, do you believe in this whole ‘Ghost’ business?” Axton asked.

I looked to the stallion and thought back to the cave, the entire experience with Diamond Dasher was still fresh in my mind. I stared into the stallions eyes and nodded,“As a matter of fact Axton, I do. Back in the cave, up in the mountains. When I went in alone, I was traveling through the long stretching halls. I thought I was alone, but I wasn’t.” I placed my pack on the ground and sat on down on the porch,“I heard a voice call out to me, and when I went to turn around, there was a blade. It was just an inch or so away from my throat, one lunge and my life would have been over.”

I pulled my hood down and ran my fingers through my hair to focus,“The voice was warning me that I shouldn’t have been there, and what I was doing was against the guardian order. I jumped back and pulled out my sword as he swung his down on me. The sword passed through my body and chilled my very soul. He continued swinging as he passed me, swinging at something else. While I watched this ‘spirit’ thrash his sword through the three encounters I had seen him, I figured out who he was fighting. It was Senior.”

“Your father?” I turned my gaze to Terra and he was lost in his thoughts from my story.

I nodded as I looked to the stallion,“The very same. I later found this, it was a letter from Diamond Dasher.” I reached into my pack and retrieved the note I have taken from the skeletal remains. I knew that Terra would want to be the first to look over the note, so I offered the piece of paper over to him. “Here Terra, you knew him better than any of us. You should keep this.”

Terra took hold of the note and buried himself into the paper as he read. “Senior...” After the drake pulled himself away from the note, he looked to me and his face was pale. “Why would he... He couldn’t. We all looked up to him, he wouldn’t do something like this. He wouldn't just up and abandon us for his own selfish reasons, it’s not like him!”

“Terra, I know it’s not something you want to hear, but it’s true. Senior killed Diamond Dasher, and his reason for it was because he wanted to leave the order. The responsibilities. This world. I know this to be true because that’s the reason he wanted me to come here. He wanted me to toughen up and build up my strength so that we could take care of our family back on earth. That was the only reason he wanted me to come here, not for the land, nor it’s people.”

Terra sat down on the porch and buried him face behind his huge claws, he let out a sigh. He ran his claws down his face and revealed his eyes. The dragon looked to me and his eyes were filled with sorrow,“I don’t want to believe it, but I don’t think I can refuse the truth.”

We both stood to our feet and stood beside Axton,“I’m sorry for what you must be feeling right now Terra, should there be anything I can do. All you need to do is ask.” Axton stated sympathetically.

“I think I’m good, but thanks.”

I looked to the two and asked,“Well ladies, are we gonna go explore this ancient, haunted ruin of a fortress? Or are we gonna stay here and talk about our feelings?” I gave a quick laugh and the others joined in almost instantly.

//////////////////

“There it is!” Cried Terra. We stood on the top of a hill as we all glared down the old ruin. There were vines, trees, and tall grass surrounding and occupying the building.

“We’re gonna build up the guardians from that? It’d be a lot easier to build our own castle than renovate that catastrophe!” Axton said.

I looked to the stallion and grinned,“Who said being a guardian would be easy? If we can’t renew this half decent relic, then we’re terrible guardians.”

“You have a point there, I guess.” I could hear Axton grumbling under his breath.

“Come on then, let’s go investigate.” I signalled for the both of them to follow and we began our approach on the building. We arrived at the entrance, or what was left of it due to the tree blocking the once clear path. I looked to the large wooden door and lightly knocked, testing its strength. “See? perfectly fin...” I trailed off as the door collapsed and fell to the ground. I looked to the two and smiled. “It’s a fixer-upper.” I leant against the stone wall and waited. After a couple of moments, I figured it was at least strong enough to hold my weight. “See? Good as..” The wall had slipped under itself and a small hole in the wall formed as I fell through. “Ah Come on!” I yelled.

“Are you sure we should still keep this place? It’s pretty secluded from the rest of the world and it’s at least a good two hours from town. Not to mention the damn place it falling to pieces.” Axton said. Terra jumped in and spoke.

“He’s right, sure this place has sentimental value to me, but then again. I say that we search for anything useful and gather as many books and scrolls we can find that contain any wisdom and leave.”

“Alright.” I pushed the bricks and stone on top of me away and stood up. As I dusted myself off, I said,“Just a grab and go mission, I can work with this.”

////////////////

We strode through the halls of the dark building, we each held a torch to light our way and a sword ready in the other. The hall was dimly lit, surprisingly, the vines and grass inside had managed to survive inside the hall without much sunlight. We crept through the ruin and checked each door, some would be locked and others weren’t. The one’s locked we decided should stay that way, for one loud sound could trigger a cave-in. We had managed to scavenge a few texts and scrolls, bits and pieces of armor and the occasional weapon. The craftsmanship of the armor and weapons were astonishing, and the scrolls and books were all well preserved.

I approached a large iron door inside the hallway and had seen that it was covered in chains and locks. “Whatever’s in there, they didn’t want getting out.”

“What do you think was in there?” Axton asked.

“I don’t know, but from these chains, it must have been dangerous.”

Terra spoke up,“Let’s check what’s inside.”

“Are you crazy? It could kill us!” Axton said in terror.

“Or if you really think about it, it could be curled up into a ball in the corner, nothing but a bunch of bones.”

“What if it was a dragon? You know that you guys live for thousands of years.”

“Yeah, but with no source of food or water, we die like the rest.” Terra approached the door and lifted his foot. I stopped him just before he could slam his foot against the door.

“Terra, if you do this, it could send the building crashing down on us. It’d be simpler to find the key that unlocks the door.” The dragon placed his foot back onto the floor and nodded.

////////////////////

It took us a little short of an hour but we finally found what we figured was the key inside the masters room. It was a large room, it was illuminated by the sun as it shone through the gaping hole in the ceiling. “I wonder who used to be the guild master. I guess we’ll never find out.”

“Or maybe we will.” Axton was searching through the tattered and broken desk and pulled out a small journal. “Seeing as how you’re the new guild leader, I think this is now yours.” He tossed the journal over to me and I caught it.

I looked to the leather cover and noted the small scratches across the front and back of the book. “I’ll have to read this later.” I placed it inside my pack and turned to the others. “Well, we have the key, or I hope we do, so let’s go crack open that door.”

////////////////////

We arrived at the large iron door once again and with the key in hand, Terra placed the key inside the first lock and turned it. The lock fell to the ground and the chains hung loosely against the door frame. Terra placed the key inside the last lock and turned to us,“Wait Dark, I have a question.” I looked to Terra and raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Well, you’re able to use magic, and you never use your keys to open your door. Do you leave the your door open all the time?”

“No, I...” I finally realized that we searched the entire building in search of a key we didn’t even need. “Well, I feel like a complete dumbass. We got the guild masters journal, so at least it wasn’t for nothing.” I mentally kicked myself and turned to the lock once more.

Terra twisted the key inside the lock and it fell to the ground with its kin. Terra grabbed the handle of the door and pulled. The door must have been welded shut because the door wouldn’t move. As Terra pulled on the handle, his once green scaled face turned bright red. “A... Little... Help please?” I could see that he was struggling and tried my best to aid him. I wrapped my hands around the door handle and pulled with all my might. Again, the door wouldn’t budge.

After a couple of minutes of constant struggling, I finally gave up. Through pants of exhaustion, I said,“We’ve done too much to not know what’s on the other side of this blasted door.” I turned to Terra and said,“Ready?” He looked to me as he panted as well and nodded. “On three.”

Axton spoke up,“What are you two doing?”

“One...”

“Guys?”

“Two...”

“You two better not be thinking of...”

“Three!”

The once solid door busted off its hinges and away from the shards of metal that froze it to the ground. It flew into the back of the room, smashed through the wall and plummeted to the ground. We all stood looking out of the new addition of the building, the balcony, and watched as it collided with the ground of the forest below. “That was interesting.”

Axton turned around and began to struder. “G-g-guys?” Terra was the first to turn around and I could hear him unsheathe his blade. I quickly placed my hand on the hilt of my blade as I spun around to take a look at our opponent.

“What is that thing?” Cried Terra, he swung his broadsword wildly, trying to fight off the creature. It was fast, and hard to see. I drew my blade and readied for a fight but everything turned black as a loud and overpowering screech could he heard.

As things faded and my mind drifted into unconsciousness, I could hear the sounds of Terra and Axton crying out for me. Saying things like, “It’s taking him! NO!”

Everything grew dark and I was at the mercy of the creature, whatever it was. All that I wished for, at that moment point in time, was that Chrysalis and Moon would forgive me... for not coming home.

I’m sorry.

Next Chapter: Runs in the Family. Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 53 Minutes