Chapter 16:

Rainbow Dash had never been known for being a patient pony, and her shallow reserves were stretched especially thin as she slowly paced Linden and Nightfire up the ladder. With steady wingbeats that brought a much needed but faint breeze to their surroundings, she glided upwards beside Linden, who climbed with a look of determination on his handsome face. She had offered to save him the climb, but he had opted to make the ascent himself, followed closely by Nightfire and Skipper. Sunglow had remained below to await any news of her brother.

As they finally neared the level where the slave ponies had broken through, Rainbow crossed her forelegs over her chest and sighed.

"Nearly there," Linden said, rolling an eye towards her and panting a little from the effort.

"I hope so!" Nightfire craned his head on his neck, trying to get a look of anything other than Linden's tail. The orange pony was panting harder than Linden and looked grateful when Rainbow shifted her wings to fan him. "Thank you, M'lady… I'm sad to admit that climbing is not really my forte."

"I wouldn't say that," Linden quipped, hauling himself onto the rickety ledge of the scaffolding and turning to offer his friend a hoof. "You've always climbed the ladders in the library with no problem."

Nightfire let the prince assist him onto the scaffold and looked down, blinking at the distance between them and the cavern floor. "There is a slight height difference, Linden."

Rainbow landed beside him with a little snicker, unperturbed by the slight swaying of the scaffold that made the colts step gingerly away from the edge. Falling beside Linden, they approached a young slave pony armed with a rough hammer, who was sitting on his haunches beside a hole in the quarry rock. The hole was irregular and jagged, but they could make out the distinct, rectangular shape of the window that had been previously buried.

"Y-your H-h-highness!" the colt squeaked, dropping into a clumsy bow and banging his forehead on the wooden boards. "Ow! Uh, sorry! I-I was digging, sire, like I'm s'posed to, and I hit the chisel and… and it fell through."

"Good lad!" Linden praised, making the colt blush pink beneath the thick layer of dust on his olive-green coat. The prince patted him with a hoof, making the little slave beam with pride, and trotted past him to look into the hole. He was able to fit his head through the break in the stone, his tail flicking back and forth excitedly before he backed up and turned to the nearby guard who had been stationed on that level. "Is there any way to widen the hole quickly?" When the guard glared at the young slave, who withered under the look, Linden added sharply, "Without causing further suffering."

"Kinda makes you wish Tiny was here," Rainbow Dash quipped. "He could probably kick our way through in no time."

"Uh, well, she considered it," Nightfire explained, looking back at her as he edged towards the opening, "but she wasn't sure if she could teleport a pony his size over such a long distance."

"Really? She did it with me and Rarity and Spike once." She cocked her head to the side as Nightfire ignored her, leaning in to look through the partial window into the castle.

"Sire, uh, I mean, Your Highness, uh, Sire… sir… um…" The slave pony kept his eyes down and trotted nervously in place, his hindquarters practically jigging in apprehension.

"What is it?" Linden glanced at him sadly and approached the colt, his eyes showing a brief flash of anger at the way the slave shied away from him. "It's okay. Nopony is going to hurt you. What's your name?"

"H-Hill Racer, Sire."

"Hill Racer. Well, Hill Racer, you have a suggestion?"

The colt nodded energetically, confidence growing. "I can do it, Sire. I mean, make the opening wider now that I've broken through. It's brittle 'round the edges, you see? If I have another chisel…"

"You're certain?"

Another nod and Hill Racer picked up his hammer again. "Yessir!"

"You heard the pony!" Linden rounded on the hapless guard. "Get him another chisel."

"Y-yes, Sire! Right away." With a frantic whinny, he raced down the scaffolding, his hoofs rattling on the battered wood. When he returned a moment later, he presented Hill Racer with another chisel with a careful deference that left the colt rather flustered. He thanked his former task master and trotted to the wall. After a quick study of the rock face, he went to work with his tools, tapping away and widening the hole.

Realizing that she was going to have to watch and wait as rock was chipped away, Rainbow rested her chin on an upturned hoof with a sigh. As Linden gave instructions for the guard to gather the slaves from all the levels of the scaffolding and assist them down to the cave floor, she listened to the tap tap tapping and tried to figure out what was bothering her. She was excited about the chance to investigate the castle, and glad that Linden was putting an end to the horrible conditions of the quarry, but there was still something making her uncomfortable, like a fly buzzing between her ears. She flicked her tail in annoyance, then got up to help deliver the new orders to the upper level slaves.

"Okay now, Mr. Twitchers, that's much better! I think you've got it!"

The rat paused, balanced on his hind legs, and executed a deep, formal bow with sinewy grace. Looking up at Fluttershy, his whiskers twitched and he chittered excitedly.

"Yes! That was perfect!" The little Pegasus clapped her hooves together appreciatively. "Very good."

"Yes, very good," Rarity repeated a little acerbically. "But, Fluttershy, darling, wasn't the point in befriending the rat to get him to fetch us the keys? I mean, courtly manners will be so useful to him and all, but we are still trapped in a cell!"

"Oh dear, you're right. I'm sorry." Looking abashed, Fluttershy turned to the rat again and favored him with a sweet smile. "We need to get out of here, Mr. Twitchers. Do you think, maybe, that you could possibly help us by getting the key?"

Mr. Twitchers, as he was now known, stood up to his full height of ten inches and squeaked with a nod. Squaring himself proudly, he marched across the floor of the cell, small chest puffed out importantly, and slipped under the bars with ease…then sank to the floor and turned to Fluttershy with an embarrassed squeak.

"What's wrong?" Rarity asked, moving to the front of their cell.

"He…doesn't know what a key is," Fluttershy explained.

"Oh, Sweet Celestia!" Rarity clapped a hoof over her eyes.

"It's okay, I'll just explain it to him. Just give me a minute." Fluttershy crept to the bars and beckoned the rat back to her. Quickly, she described the little piece of metal that hung on the hook down the corridor, explaining that it was a very special bit of metal. It took a few moments to get the rat to understand that this bit of metal was different from others he could find closer to the ground. Mr. Twitchers squeaked back emphatically, his bright eyes finally dawning with understanding, and he pointed to the lock on the door of their cell.

"Yes, that's right! It'll open the door and let us out so we can help our friends. Can you help us? Please?"

The rat bowed again and dropped to all fours, scurrying across the corridor to blend in with the shadows along the bottom of the wall. He moved stealthily, unafraid, and the two mares watched anxiously, pressed to the bars to watch his progress. He was only halfway to the key hook when a long shadow stretched ominously across the stones. A pony-shaped shadow.

Fluttershy gasped and tried calling out to the rat just as Rarity clapped a hoof over her mouth and pulled her out of sight. They crouched in the gloom of their cell, listening to the hollow clopping of hooves approaching, watching the shadow grow larger and larger before it resolved into a dark figure standing before the bars.

"By the Savvy Stallion, what are you two doing down here?" Wild Rose asked. She stepped to the side, the light falling across her face and the little ball of fur clinging determinedly to her mane.

"Gumdrop!" Fluttershy exclaimed, knocking Rarity over in her rush to the bars. "You're alright!"

Wild Rose lifted a hoof to the mouse, then passed him through the bars to the ecstatic pegasus. "I was walking along the garden when this little fellow raced up to me and started chittering up a storm. He was talking about horrible, red-eyed monsters and dungeons and that you needed to be rescued." She stepped back, looking at the dirty walls with distaste. "He said I simply had to help him free you. He wouldn't take no for an answer."

"Please, Wild Rose, I know this looks bad, but we need to get out of here. Our friends could be in danger. Linden could be in danger."

Wild Rose tipped her head to one side, bewildered and a little nervous. "Th-that's not funny. What do you mean?"

"It's Nightfire. He's not who he says he is," Rarity explained. "He's a unicorn and he's been lying to Linden this whole time!"

"A unicorn?" Wild Rose's tail lashed from side to side as she shook her head. "No…he's an earth pony. He couldn't—he doesn't have a horn!"

"He's been hiding it under a glamour," Rarity told her. "It's a spell that disguises somepony…he's using it to hide his horn."

"Really? That would be so useful! Imagine if you're having a bad mane day, or you have a cold and your nose is all swelled up, and you could just go poof! and it's all gone?"

"Yes, yes, they can be very helpful…uh, not that I've used one, of course." Rarity patted her mane self-consciously, then gave her head a brisk shake. "That's not the point. The point is, he's an imposter, and he's able to get very close to the prince and the rest of the royal family. Who knows what he has planned for them?"

"You really think Nightfire would hurt Linden? He's one of his best friends—has been for years."

"He's been lying to him for years."

The periwinkle blue pony stepped back again. "Why should I believe you? You're strangers here, and from what I've heard you've been lying as well. To Linden, to the king and queen, to-to everypony!"

"We didn't mean to," Fluttershy said sadly. "And we're not lying to you now, Wild Rose. I promise. Please, ask Gumdrop if you don't believe us. He saw it all." She held out the mouse and Wild Rose automatically stepped closer as he began to urgently squeak and chitter. Her eyes widened.

"I…I don't know what to—aaah! A rat!" She leapt to the side, hooves ringing loudly on the stones, and Gumdrop vanished into the pink and white curls of her mane.

Mr. Twitchers dropped the key to the ground with a little clang and sat on his haunches, breathing hard. Looking up at Wild Rose, he sighed in exasperation and squeaked up to Fluttershy, waving his paws wildly.

"Yes, I know you're a good rat," she told him, dropping down to his level to favor him with a smile. "I just think you startled her, is all. No, I don't think she hates rats…yes, I know your bad reputation isn't deserved. Why don't you introduce yourself? And you should say sorry to Gumdrop too—you really scared him earlier."

The rat spun on his back paws and sketched his bow to the noble pony, directing his next series of chitters to her and the mouse. Slowly, nose rapidly twitching, Gumdrop peered out from the strands of Wild Rose's hair.

"For goodness sake." Rarity pressed herself against the bars, reaching through in an attempt to snag the key. Her hoof scraped the stone, the tip just barely scratching against the rusted head. She stretched further, her pretty face twisted in concentration, and had just managed to slide it closer when a pale blue hoof came down on the key and dragged it away.

"I'd better not regret this," Wild Rose muttered, picking up the key in her mouth and rearing up to thrust it into the lock. With a loud snap, the lock opened and the bars swung outward. "Linden is a good pony," she said as the two stepped out into the corridor. "If he's in danger, then we have to help him."

"Thank you, Wild Rose. Thank you so much!" Gumdrop leapt from Wild Rose's mane to Fluttershy's as the pegasus cantered past her to the stairs. Mr. Twitchers scrabbled after her, jumping to latch onto her tail.

"Do you even know what to do?" Wild Rose asked, falling in beside Rarity and racing up out of the dungeon.

"Not exactly, but first things first, we have to go and find our friends."

"What? Shouldn't we find Linden first? Or Nightfire? Or the palace guards?"

"We will." Rarity's hooves echoed along the stairs. "But if we're going to do anything to help the prince, we'll need the rest of our friends." She gave the bewildered pony a determined smile. "Believe me, when we're together, there's nothing we can't do!"

"What do you think is taking them so long?" Fletcher was wearing a runnel in the floor, trotting back and forth impatiently.

"Well, Twi was only able to zap them there the one way," Applejack said, her eyes following the colt in his circuit of the room. "Rainbow's gonna have to fly them back, and who knows what all they found when they got there."

"Like trouble?" Tiny mused, watching in dismay as Pinkie Pie made a third X on the parchment between them and struck a line through the winning row. He had noticed the pink pony looking a little faded, her normally poufy mane distressingly straight, and had suggested a game to brighten her spirits. So far, he had lost twenty-three games in a row.

"Should've gone there," Fletcher told him, glancing down at their game in his next pass across the room and indicating a square with his hoof. "You would have won two moves ago."

Across the room, Twilight Sparkle was standing by the window, looking out as the moon started to rise. "I hope Nightfire found something in the library. It's not going to do us any good if Rainbow and Linden come back and we still can't understand what's so special about the—do you hear something?" She walked back into the main room, her head cocked to one side curiously.

"Yeah." Fletcher's trotting had brought him near the door and he paused, pressing his ear up against the wood. "I'm definitely hearing—eep!"

The very high-pitched and startled squeak was the result of the door abruptly swinging open. Fletcher leapt backward, green eyes wide, as Aster trotted into the room flanked by a half dozen palace soldiers. The older pony looked surprised to see Fletcher and Tiny in the room, but stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"Twilight Sparkle, I am here to place you and the rest of your party under arrest."

"A-arrest?" Twilight stammered, looking completely bewildered. "For what?"

"For treason against the kingdom of Saddellia, for duplicity and intent to perjure yourselves with the royal family, and for the murder of King Oak Bough."

There was a long moment of stunned silence.

"Wh-what are you talking about, Aster?" Fletcher asked.

Aster bowed his head, his dark blue mane falling over his sorrowful eyes. "Our king is dead. Murdered in his chambers this very night."

"No…" Fletcher's voice was weak, horrified. He shook his head disbelievingly. "No, it can't…he wasn't…"

"Aster, I'm so sorry," Twilight spoke up. "That's just…it's terrible…"

"But you can't believe we had anythin' to do with it," Applejack protested.

"That's right. They've been here, in these rooms, the whole night," Tiny agreed, standing and interposing his large body between Pinkie Pie and the guards. "We would know…we were here with them."

Aster looked uncomfortable and let his breath out in a small, distressed whinny. "That is not for me to say. I am just here to deliver the Equestrian ambassadors to the queen." He tapped a hoof on the floor and directed his next words to Twilight. "I'm sure you would not want to create more scandal by putting up a fight, Ms. Sparkle. Please, come with me peacefully."

Twilight turned to her friends, completely at a loss. Nothing, in all her years of studying, could have prepared her for this. For the first time since leaving Equestria, she felt truly out of her depth. Laying her ears back against her head, she favored Aster with a small nod. "Of course," she murmured. "This all has to be a great misunderstanding. I'm sure when we speak with the queen, we can get it all cleared up."

"We're coming too," Fletcher announced. "We'll vouch for them. Linden wouldn't want this."

"Where is the prince?" Aster said, looking around as if expecting to see Linden sitting by one of the windows. "He should know…about his father…that he…"

"That he's the king now," Applejack said, her green eyes wide. She took off her hat, pressing it over her heart. "Poor Linden."

"Indeed." Aster frowned, his eyes darting around the room again. "And where is Lady Rainbow Dash?"

Once again, the five younger ponies exchanged looks before Applejack cleared her throat. "Now, don't go getting all upset, but she's with Linden. He believed us about that quarry an' he wanted to see it for himself."

"Of course he did." Aster clapped a hoof to his face in annoyance, then glared at Tiny. "And you were aware of this? You let your prince leave the palace in the company of a mare who admitted to lying to him and using him!"

"I couldn't have stopped Linden even if I had wanted to," Tiny admitted solemnly.

Aster snorted angrily. "We'll see what the queen has to say about that as well." He waved a hoof to the guards, who moved quickly to surround the young ponies. With nowhere to run, they allowed themselves to be marched from the room. More guards flanked them, armed with swords and spears, their eyes hard.

A pall lay over the palace, the news of the king's demise traveling quickly throughout the court and servants. Already, a sizable group of the nobles who lived within the palace grounds had gathered in the throne room, filling the cavernous chamber with hushed and confused whispers. The whispers fell ominously silent, all eyes following Twilight and her friends as they were led down the center of the room to the pair of thrones at the head. A black cloth had been draped over the larger of the two, an empty crown placed in the seat. Bright Song sat in her throne beside it, dressed in a gown of shining black, her mane straight and loose about her pretty face. Her eyes were red-rimmed, but dry, and she raised her head as the ponies were brought to a halt before her.

"My husband, King Oak Bough, is dead!" she announced, her voice ringing through the throne room to another excited and shocked flurry of whispers. "Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, you and your friends stand accused of the murder of the king. How do you plead?"

The whispers turned to angry hisses and the clopping of hooves. Twilight could feel the weight of the glares focused her way. Swallowing hard, she spoke in a trembling voice, "Your Highness, we are so sorry for the loss of your husband. This news has come as just as much a shock to us as to anypony."

Bright Song stared hard at her, unmoved. "So, you deny having anything to do with my husband's death?"

"We do!" Applejack stated, taking a step up beside Twilight in support. "We didn't have nothin' to do with it. We've been in the Emerald Rooms all night. We haven't left since you came there to talk wi' us after the banquet."

"It's true, Your Highness," Fletcher spoke up. "Tiny and I have been with them for the last few hours. And Nightfire saw them there too. They've never had a chance to leave their quarters."

"All the more reason to show they're guilty." The smug voice preceded the appearance of Goldhoof from behind the king's empty throne. The unicorn moved forward, face stern. "The king's death was…not natural." He cast a quick glance at the queen, who lowered her head to wipe away a tear. "I have determined that he was slain by magic. By a unicorn."

More gasps and angry muttering from the gathered court.

"I am, of course, a unicorn myself and have never denied that I possess magic," he continued, one hoof pressed solemnly to his chest, "but my magic is admittedly weak and only good for a few simple tricks. Besides, there is no pony who was more loyal to our noble king that I."

Murmurs of agreement came from the crowd and even Bright Song nodded.

"But two other unicorns have come to Saddellia recently, one of whom has claimed to be in control of great magics, and who has shown us first hoof the scope of her power. And one who has come to Saddellia under the guise of friendship, only to bring lies in her wake."

"No! Please, that's not true!" Twilight protested. "We came here to help ponies! We would never…I would never…"

"Hurt the king?" Goldhoof finished for her, sarcasm dripping from his tongue. "Even though he had learned of your true mission and your plot to infiltrate the kingdom? You truly had us all fooled, Twilight Sparkle. You and your friends and especially Lady Rainbow Dash. How convenient that Linden came across you while he was alone in the forest? How convenient that Rainbow Dash saved his life and earned his gratitude and affection? So quickly too, almost as if by magic!"

"Now hold on here! Just what in tarnation are you suggestin'?" Applejack snapped. "Are you honestly tryin' to say that Twilight bespelled the prince into fallin' for Rainbow?"

"I was, yes, but you just said it for me, and so quaintly too. It certainly did allow you to get close to the royal family, closer than any foreign delegation would have been allowed. Why, you came through our gates to fanfare and celebration, with the king and queen in your debt for your service to the prince."

"It's all true! Rainbow Dash did save the prince."

"So you claim. But nopony among the prince's entourage was there to witness it. Were you?" Goldhoof turned to Fletcher and Tiny, who looked stunned at being trapped by such a question. Guiltily, they had no choice but to shake their heads, admitting that they had not seen the rescue.

"But Linden told us what happened!" Tiny protested, glaring first at Goldhoof, then looking to the queen in obvious entreaty. "You have to trust your own son. He's smart and knows his own mind, and he trusts Rainbow Dash."

Bright Song's eyes narrowed at the colt. "I notice Linden is not here to defend her himself. As his bodyguard, Tiny, it is your job to stay by him and protect him, yet now, when his own father has been murdered, you are here defending these strangers while my son is—"

Pinkie Pie's ears flopped up and down. Her nose twitched. Her eyes spun dizzily and she shot five feet into the air, her tail whirling like a helicopter to make her hover in place. As the crowd gasped in surprise, the guards rushed towards the little pink mare, who dropped to land on the back of the first, somersaulting over his tail to the next, then backflipping over his head to another. Landing on his back, she rapidly tap-danced along his flanks before spinning like a top and leaping in a grand jete to land directly in front of the queen. As Bright Song gaped at her, Pinkie shook her head, her eyes clearing, and blinked up at the mare. Instantly, her mane and tail deflated to a straight cascade of dull pink.

"What did you do!" she exclaimed. Her blue eyes flooded with tears. "Oh no, what did you do?"

Bright Song's eyes widened in horror and she sprang to her hooves. "Guards! Seize the Equestrian ponies!"

The guards closed in on the three mares, one looking dubiously at Pinkie Pie before prodding her back to stand with her friends. Head hanging, she went without a fuss, only looking back over her shoulder at Bright Song.

"You can't do this!" Fletcher shouted. He tried to push his way towards the girls, but was roughly blocked by one of the guards, who forced him back with a flourish of his sword. "Linden is the king now!" Fletcher yelled, pawing the ground with a hoof. "He wouldn't want this! Leave them alone!"

"Linden is not here, is he?" Bright Song snapped. "The prince is not here. No doubt he has gone with Rainbow Dash!" A glance to Tiny and Fletcher confirmed her accusation. "You will stand down! Any pony who dares to help them will be instantly guilty of treason against the crown and will share in their fate!"

"What fate is that?" Tiny demanded, shifting angrily as more guards appeared to surround him. "What are you going to do?"

"Take them to the courtyard!" Goldhoof announced, stepping up onto the dais beside the queen. Staring into Twilight Sparkle's eyes, his horn emitted a single, tiny spark. "It is time to show these Equestrian ponies how we deal with plots of treason against Saddellia. At dawn, they will be executed for the murder of the king!"

If the slave tunnels had been uncomfortably claustrophobic to Rainbow Dash, the castle inside the cave was a nightmare come true. She had squeezed into the hole Hill Racer had carefully chipped into the wall, following Linden and Nightfire. The latter had asked for a lantern from the guards and had been given one with a curved metal wire for a handle. Clasped between his teeth, it swung back and forth, casting dizzying shadows that grew and shrank with each step he took.

"I could really go for a breeze right now," she murmured, fanning herself with a wing. They were walking down a corridor, wider than any of the slave tunnels, which still had the rotted remains of tapestries dangling from the walls. Surprisingly, they seemed devoid of the dust one would expect in such a place after so many years of abandonment.

"It is really stale in here," Linden agreed, pausing to wipe at his forehead, damp with sweat. "Nightfire, what do you make of it all?"

Nightfire raised the lantern as high as his tall stature would allow, peering at the faded images that blurred the tapestry fragments. "I've never seen the like. The ways these stones were carved…there's no marks from tools—they're perfectly smooth, and there seems to have been no mortar. I can't say what holds them together…"

"Did ponies build it?" Rainbow wanted to know. She moved up beside Nightfire and also peered at the tapestry, then closed her eyes against a dull headache. She stepped back, her hooves tangling in the long length of string that trailed from a loop that had been draped about her neck. Muttering, she kicked out, freeing herself, and gave the string an impatient tug to straighten it.

"It's to make sure you don't get lost," Slippery Jack had said. Once he'd realized that Linden was adamant about exploring the castle himself, he'd fetched the ball of twine and presented it to them, explaining, "We use it whenever the diggers find a new series of tunnels that branch. It helps to keep track of them."

Rainbow hadn't been thrilled when Linden suggested she keep track of the string. It had an aggravating habit of getting tangled onto itself and tripping her up. It also meant she had to bring up the rear, so the colts wouldn't trip as they explored.

"I don't know," Nightfire answered her, his voice muffled by the lantern. "I can't see what was on these tapestries…they may have told the history of the castle's occupants once but now…"

"They're gross, useless rags?"

"Yes." Nightfire sighed, looking distressed. "What a waste. There's so much we could have learned from them."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "You really are just a tall, orange, Twilight, aren't you?" As she spoke, she tipped her head to the side. "Hmm."

"What?" Giving up on the ruined tapestries, Nightfire turned to her.

"Nothing. I was just—"

"Hey! Come see what I found!" Linden had drifted ahead, unperturbed by the lack of light, and had moved around a corner. He peeked back, waving a hoof for them to follow him. Intrigued, Rainbow Dash and Nightfire trotted down the corridor, their hooves clopping hollowly on the stone, shadows stretching behind them to vanish into the gloom.

Linden's curiosity had led him to press on until he'd found a hole in the floor. As the pair arrived, he was walking a slow circle around the hole, brow furrowed. He looked up as Nightfire's lantern lit up the corridor and gestured with a hoof at the gaping pit. "Almost walked right into it," he said with a shake of his mane. "We should have brought more lanterns."

"Or you could stay with us and not go galloping off into the darkness," Nightfire said, his tone reproachful.

"I didn't gallop!" Linden protested, looking a little chagrined. "Anyway, I've been nosing around and I think it's meant to be a way to travel between the levels. The edges are well sanded and smooth, but there's no sign of stairs—not even broken ones."

Nightfire put the lantern down and inspected the mouth of the hole carefully, then raised his head to look above them. "You're right. There's another right over us, and if you look carefully, you can see one more above that. It must have been a throughway, but how would anypony get from one level to another? I would guess there would have to be some sort of pulley system or counterweight and I don't see anything like—"

"Uh, or…" Rainbow fluttered her wings, then made a show of hopping nimbly through the hole and gliding down to the landing below. "Back home, our city of Cloudsdale doesn't need stairs either, because pegasi can just fly from place to place."

Linden and Nightfire exchanged startled looks as the implication dawned on the two simultaneously.

"They could fly?" Linden mused.

"They could fly!" Nightfire exclaimed. "That seems the most likely explanation. Do you think they were pegasi?"

"Maybe," Rainbow's voice drifted up from below, sounding further off.

"Hey, don't you go wandering off too!" Nightfire scolded. "How do you expect us to get down there?"

"Oh, right." An abashed chuckle rose up from the hole.

Nightfire rolled his eyes. "You two really are made for one another," he said to Linden, who beamed in reply as Rainbow Dash came shooting up from the lower level. One by one, she lowered them down a floor, yanking on the string before it could snag on the lip of the hole.

"This thing is really starting to get on my nerves," she griped. "Can't I carry the lantern?"

Nightfire was already moving ahead, blatantly ignoring his own warnings against wandering off on his own.

"Do you want to call him a hypocrite, or should I?" Rainbow asked Linden.

The prince smirked and set off after his friend. "He's like a foal at a candy booth. It would be kinda cute if it weren't so…"

"Freaky?"

"Yeah. You should see him when he gets a new book. When he first saw the palace library, I thought he was going to faint. I was excited to have a new playmate, but all he wanted to do was read. I had to drag him out by his tail and we nearly came to blows over it when I threatened to drop every book in the frog fountain."

Inspecting another tattered tapestry a few steps ahead, Nightfire let out a snort. "If I recall, you had Tiny drag me out by my tail after I knocked you down and sat on your head."

"He was only trying to protect me after you decided to read out loud from the royal family lineage records!" Linden shuddered. "Most boring three minutes of my life!"

"A little history never hurt anyone."

"Not true. Fletcher had a welt between his ears for a week after you brained him with that book."

"He was going to deface it! He was trying to write his own versions and had already come up with three dirty limericks."

"Remember the one about the pony with a lot of sass?" Linden asked, trotting up beside him. He leaned against the wall, laughing. "My mother grounded me for a week when I repeated it."

"Those are the ones with five lines, right?" Rainbow asked, thinking of words she could rhyme with sass. She snickered, then gasped when the stones behind Linden slid smoothly backwards, dumping the startled colt into a dark room beyond. "Linden!"

"I'm okay!" Linden called out. "Check it out! I made a door."

"What did you do?" Nightfire asked. Eyes wide, he stepped through the doorway, illuminating a large room. Setting the lantern on the floor, he inspected the section of wall that had fallen away. "It's on runners…there's a catch here that must have been triggered when you leaned against it." Awed, he gave the stone a nudge, sliding it back and forth on the hidden runners.

"I was starting to think it was strange that all we'd found were hallways and that drop through in the floor," Linden said, getting back to his feet. "We probably passed dozens of rooms and didn't even know it."

"Look at these!" Rainbow Dash had stepped into the room, her magenta eyes wide. Lining the walls were tall, thin windows covered in faceted glass. Only stone was visible beyond the glistening panes. "Why have windows that look out on nothing?"

"I'll bet they didn't at one point. This castle wasn't built in a mountain." Nightfire murmured.

"Then how did it get here?" Linden wanted to know. "How do you move a castle?"

"And why?"

"I'll bet they knew." Rainbow raised a wing, pointing at a trio of immense statues at the far end of the chamber. They stood on pedestals in a half-moon shaped alcove, hidden in deep shadow. The three ponies approached cautiously, looking in awe at the structures. Each one was easily ten times the size of the average pony, and they had been wrought of different materials. Though each statue sat on a pedestal of stone similar to the rock used to create the castle, the one on the left had been cast of bronze, which shone dully in the ineffective light of the lantern. The figure on the right was wood, highly polished to a deep reddish sheen. The last figure, sitting in state on the center pedestal, was of marble, white and smooth and carved with exquisite detail.

The creatures were like nothing Rainbow Dash had ever seen before, yet strangely familiar. They had the general shape of a pony, and long, spiral horns like a unicorn, but the similarities ended there. They would have looked ridiculous if they hadn't been so beautiful, for they had the appearance of being pieced together with parts from other animals. The heads were dainty and tapered with large eyes, like that of a deer. The four legs were long and impossibly slender, ending in the cloven hooves of a goat. Even the tails that wound around their haunches were strange, as sinuous as a snake, with a tuft of hair at the end. It reminded her of the lion's tail on her old friend, Gilda, the gryphon.

"What are they?" Linden asked from beside her. His blue eyes were round with wonder. "I've never seen anything like them…it's almost like…like they were made from spare parts or something."

"I was thinking the same thing…they look kinda like unicorns…but I've never seen a unicorn like that. Not even Princess Celestia."

"No wings," Nightfire observed quietly. He had set the lantern down and moved closer to the middle statue, studying the glyphs carved into the stone pedestal. "And these aren't in any language I've ever read…they're as much pictures as words. Look."

Strange symbols and pictographs covered the pedestals in neat, orderly squares. Some looked like birds, others were wavy lines that could have depicted rivers, or even the air currents Rainbow Dash knew so well. Still more showed what looked like ponies, gems, snakes…but there seemed to be no order or reason to the designs.

"Maybe you should lean against it," Rainbow said to Linden. "See if there's another hidden door."

"I don't know whether to take that as a joke or not."

"Some of these pictures are definitely of ponies…" Nightfire mused. As he spoke, he drifted over to the figure on the left, peering at the carvings on the pedestal beneath the bronze sculpture. At the same time, Linden wandered toward the wooden statue, his head cocked thoughtfully, as though considering Rainbow Dash's suggestion. As he stepped into what would have been the statue's line of sight, a beam of light shot from the carved eyes, bathing the prince in a vivid glow.

Standing before the marble statue, Rainbow yelped and was forced to shield her eyes as light blazed from the figure's eyes, bright as daylight.

"What's happening?" she asked, her eyes watering.

"We…I think we triggered something…" Nightfire shouted, trapped in his own luminescence before the bronze statue. Before he could elaborate, a shrill, high-pitched hum filled every inch of the room.

Rainbow Dash dropped to the floor, covering her head with her hooves, her ears ringing painfully. The light intensified, blindingly bright even behind her closed eyelids. The sensations bore down on her, isolating her from the colts, even as the light coalesced into shadowy, indistinct images. She couldn't see them, not with her eyes closed, but she could still see them, a flurry of scenes that flickered through her stunned mind like half-formed dreams.

She saw the beings from the statues, hundreds of them, as alive and real as any pony, yet ethereal as light through a fog. They moved smoothly through the air, carried purposefully on the wind as effortlessly as a fish moved through water. One, with the fine features of a female, turned impossibly blue eyes towards her, and Rainbow Dash suddenly knew.

They were zephyrim, elemental creatures of light and wind and knowledge. They lived for knowing, collected all the information in the world, and willingly imparted all that they knew to those who wished to learn. Scholars far beyond even Twilight Sparkle's yearning, they were revered as oracles and teachers, with ponies and other creatures coming from far and wide to their castle in search of truth and enlightenment. They thrived for years uncounted, happy and at peace in the beautiful lands surrounding their castle home.

Then came one pony, a stallion, shrouded in darkness, features obscured. He petitioned the zephyrim for certain knowledge, flattering them, praising their vast intellect. Charmed, they welcomed him into their midst, giving their knowledge freely, but the pony had tricked the zephyrim. He had been lying about his intentions, and used their knowledge to imbue the necklace he wore with a dreadful purpose—to strip the magic from any being he chose. Having created this monstrous artifact, he traveled the country to use its power against his fellow ponies, stealing their magic, their flight, even their color, and leaving all those he passed dull and plain.

In his greed, he even chose to test his newfound powers against the zephyrim, determined to steal all the knowledge of the world for himself. Helpless against his betrayal, the zephyrim did the only thing they could, luring the pony into the depths of their castle in search of their most secret truths. Once there, they sealed themselves within, summoning the deep magics of the elements to cover their home in the earth, leaving only a mountain where it had once stood. Their sacrifice came at a great cost—locked within, they were denied the air and knowledge on which they thrived and so, slowly faded away through the years until only three remained. With the last of their power, they transformed themselves into the silent guardians of the castle, nothing more than a captive memory of an entire, lost race.

Rainbow came back to her senses slowly, lifting her head from the floor with a groan. Tears streamed unbidden from her eyes and her head throbbed from the sudden absence of the shrill tone.

"Ow," she muttered, looking to find Linden bending over her, his face awash with concern.

"You too?"

"There…there was…that was…wow!"

"That pretty much sums up how I felt too." Linden nodded and helped her to her hooves. "How do you feel?"

"Like a herd of buffalo just stampeded through my head." She wobbled a bit, blinking rapidly to clear her vision, and looked at the prince. "Did you see…?"

Linden glanced over his shoulder at the marble statue. "They were called zephyrim. They were some kind of air elemental that survived on knowledge."

"Yeah, that's what I saw, but how did they—"

A blast of red light cut her off, the sound of shattering stone crashing through the chamber. Another bolt of light drove back the shadows, a large chunk of stone clattering across the floor before coming to a shaking halt between Rainbow and Linden.

"Nightfire!" Linden yelled.

Nightfire was standing with his legs braced, his head lowered, pointing the horn now visible on his brow at the pedestal beneath the bronze statue. Bolts of bright red blasted from the tip of his horn, sheering off chunks of rock, sending pebbles and dust scattering through the alcove.

"You're a unicorn?" Rainbow asked incredulously. Her eyes widened in understanding. "You're the other unicorn the slave ponies were talking about!" She stomped a hoof on the floor, wings flaring. "I knew there was something weird about you just showing up! Twilight's magic is always that pink-purple color, but you showed up in red magic."

Nightfire paused in his destruction long enough to level a smirk her way. "Very good, though it took you long enough." When Linden took a step towards him, he shook his head, tossing his mane. "Don't interfere, Linden."

"What are you doing?" Linden demanded, pausing with one hoof in the air. He looked completely bewildered. "Wh-what is this? You're…why didn't you tell me you're a unicorn? How have you been hiding this? Why have you been hiding this?"

"A simple glamour spell. We thought it best not to let your father know there was a unicorn with actual talent in his kingdom. I mean, look at all the good he does with Goldhoof—little parlor tricks." He shot another blast of crimson power at the pedestal. More stone tore free, leaving a large enough gap to undermine the integrity of the structure. With an ominous groan, the bronze statue began to lean, further and further. It toppled, slamming sideways into the wall of the alcove with a thunderous crash. Shards of stone and broken glass exploded outwards and Linden leapt in front of Rainbow Dash as they were showered with debris.

Slowly, the dust settled, revealing Nightfire peeking into the broken base of the statue. He sighed. "Nothing."

"What in the blazes are you doing?" Linden bellowed, shaking dust and bits of rock from his mane. His coat was peppered with stone, cut in places from the sharp projectiles.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm looking for the necklace."

"The necklace? You mean, the one that pony used to…"

Nightfire pointed his horn at the wooden statue, firing a bolt of energy that had Rainbow and Linden leaping away to avoid more dangerous debris. They kept back, watching as Nightfire attacked the pedestal with deliberate fury, the second statue toppling like the first. The wooden figure broke into pieces on impact with the ground, the deer-like head rolling their way.

"Stop! Nightfire, please, look at me! Talk to me! How…how did you even know about this place?"

The orange unicorn paused, favoring the prince with a smile. "My father first learned of the necklace when he was just a foal. It was a single line in the song of a bard, no more than that. So much time has passed, the truth has been lost to myth, warped and fragmented into songs and stories. It took him years to piece it all together from the legends. When he met my mother, he told her what he had learned and they searched together."

"What legends? I've never heard of anything like this!"

Nightfire laughed. "Of course you have! I mean, it takes a very savvy stallion to be able to outwit the elementals of knowledge, now doesn't it?"

"The…are you saying that…?"

"Amazing isn't it? How truth fades into legend." Nightfire's smile grew wide, a few sparks dancing from the tip of his horn. "They traced the legends back here, and when they learned about the grand library of the Saddellian royal palace, my mother was determined to find a way to search it for clues. She was able to catch the eye of the king—in becoming his wife, she had free rein of the palace and all of its contents…and was able to bring her first son and his father into the court without suspicion."

Linden laid his ears back against his head with a distressed whinny. "Y-you're joking!"

"Didn't you ever wonder why your mother suddenly introduced me to the palace as your companion? I mean, I had no obvious lineage like Tiny or Fletcher, yet I was allowed to join the royal prince's inner circle like a high ranking noble."

"You're saying that Queen Bright Song is…your mother! Then that would make Linden…"

"My little brother, yes. Well, half-brother. I definitely won't admit kinship with that oaf of a king." Nightfire whirled around and jabbed his horn at the pedestal beneath the middle statue. Red light burst forth, streaming from the unicorn to the final pedestal. The stone splintered under the onslaught, one of the panels containing the pictographs separating from the structure and falling forward to smash onto the floor. A hollow space was revealed behind it and Nightfire whinnied triumphantly, cantering forward to extract a surprising plain bronze pendant on a thin chain from the secret compartment. "Huh, guardians indeed," he said, the necklaceheld aloft in a sphere of his magic.

"And what do you think you're gonna do with that?" Rainbow Dash demanded, flaring her wings defiantly.

Nightfire laughed and started backing away from the statue, moving between them and the entrance. "Bring it back to Mother and Father of course. With this, the three of us will control all of the magic in the world. I'll be one of the most powerful ponies of all! Saddellia may have been drained of magic long ago, but from what I've heard, Equestria is simply teeming with it!" A manic light gleaming in his eyes, Nightfire reared and shot a stream of magic at the pedestal, blasting away the remains of the stone supporting the enormous marble statue. One final bolt sent it careening down onto the two ponies with a resounding crash that shook the very foundations of the castle.

"So long, little brother," Nightfire called into the rising dust. "Maybe one day ponies will speak of you in legend as well…nah, I doubt it." Flinging the necklace over his head, he vanished in a burst of red light.

Hi! Soooo, yeah, I know. Abject apologies for another uber long wait. Did you know I moved last year? Yep, twice in the space of a year, from Idaho to California to Maine. I am settled in now and the creative juices are flowing once again. I have finished the first two books in the urban fantasy series on which I am working, and am more than 100 pages into the 3rd. Still working on whether I will self-publish them on Kindle or try to get in with a publishing house if possible. I don't know...

Anyway, I hope I have made up for the long wait with a long chapter. Seriously, this was 30 pages long, and my eyes were burning by the time I finished writing and editing it. I did leave you all with a few cliffhangers too...am I evil?

The zephyrim are creatures of my invention-it was hard coming up with some mystical, pony-like being that the show hadn't already covered. For those who may have seen the Rankin-Bass movie, or even read the book, they are based after the unicorns described in The Last Unicorn. Unicorns, yes, but not horse-like, and actually more like what would happen if you crossed the unicorns from that story with an air elemental. Like my favorite blue pegasus, they rarely, if ever, touched the ground. You may have also noticed an extremely slight reference to Wan Shi Tong from Avatar: the Last Airbender in their collecting of knowledge.

Okay, so I feel I have a good idea of what to do going forward-I may actually be finishing this soon! To those of you who suggested I post a synopsis ending just to let you know what happened, I just hate doing something like that after writing more than 450 pages. This is almost a full ream of paper!

Reviews are always appreciated, even ones that brow-beat me for taking so long *sniffles. You can also like my facebook page - /TinaMossauthor where I sporadically (Gonna try to be better about it) post updates to my projects and maybe even samples and blurbs.

I hope you enjoy!

Nightwings81