The Eye of Destiny

by derpyland

Chapter 4: The Secret Tower

“Yes!” Crimson Star shouted. “My evil scheme is working! Soon the Eye will be mine, and I will rule over all of Equestria!”

Applejack looked down at him. “I don’t know if you noticed, but you’re kind of tied up and lying on the ground at the moment. Plus, there’s some sort of fire demon thing blockin’ the way to that passage. Just how, exactly, is this all a part of your plan?”

“All right, I’ll admit this is a slight deviation from what I had in mind – but still, it’s largely what I wanted. When I saw those runes I knew exactly what they meant, but I knew I could never cast the spell they described. What your purple friend has failed to realize is that they are alicorn magic. Only an alicorn can possibly get to the Eye.”

“Alicorn magic?” Twilight said, frowning. “But that would mean–”

Crimson Star interrupted. “So, obviously, the only way to open that passage was to trick an alicorn into doing it for me. Hence my plan to kidnap Fluttershy and manipulate Twilight into doing my bidding. It’s true my plan to kidnap Fluttershy didn’t quite go as I had planned, but overall it still worked. I am close to victory!”

Pinkie Pie spoke up. “See what I mean, Twilight? Villains only monologue when they think their evil schemes are working! I told you you’d get more out of him if you let him think he was winning.”

“But you’re still tied up,” Applejack pointed out. “You ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

“Oh Applejack. Dear, honest Applejack. I think you’ve forgotten something, haven’t you?”

A moment later Crimson Star vanished, and the ropes that had been holding him fell to the ground. He reappeared a second later, standing on his hooves.

Applejack facehoofed. “Of course – you’re a unicorn.”

“Exactly. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an Eye to recover.”

Crimson Star looked up at the giant pillar of fire that was guarding the access to the secret passageway. “You think you’re really something, don’t you? Well, try this on for size!”

The green pony shot a bolt of dark magic at the fire golem. The bolt struck the creature right between its eyes. It had no discernable effect – except to make the pillar of raging fire very, very angry. The creature bellowed in rage and turned white-hot. With one swift move it reached out a fire appendage and kicked Crimson Star. The green pony sailed high into the air, screaming in fear and pain.

Rainbow Dash sighed. “I’ll go save him from falling to his death. Again.”

As Rainbow raced off to rescue him, the pillar of fire moved. It was still exceedingly angry and it made a beeline toward the falling green pony.

“Look!” Rarity exclaimed. “Twilight, the passage is unguarded!”

“But look where that fire thing is going!” Applejack interrupted. “It’s headed straight toward Ponyville!”

Pinkie Pie spoke up. “I think it’s actually headed straight toward Crimson Star. As long as he stays away from Ponyville, the fire probably will too. If he runs around here in circles then it’ll just burn down the Everfree Forest. So you’re probably safe.”

“Burn down the Everfree Forest!” Fluttershy shrieked. “We can’t burn the forest down! All sorts of little woodland creatures live here!”

Rarity spoke up. “I think you mean ‘all sorts of horrifying nightmarish creatures’. But your point is still taken. We probably shouldn’t allow these woods to be burnt to the ground. Zecora does live here, after all.”

Twilight looked at the open passage, and then back at the pillar of raging fire. “But I don’t know how to defeat that thing!” she said at last. “I’ve never even heard of a creature like that before. How in Equestria are we supposed to control it?”

Fluttershy spoke up. “We could use our friendship magic on it.”

“I doubt that would work, dear,” Rarity replied. “I think that only works on living creatures. You really can’t become friends with, well, fire.”

Applejack spoke up. “You know, we could use the Eye. Isn’t it supposed to show the future? I bet someone like Twilight could use it to figure out what would send that thing back to wherever it came from.”

“But isn’t that dangerous?” Fluttershy asked. “I mean, Celestia did say not to use the Eye.”

In the distance, the pillar of fire started burning down more trees. Twilight winced. “Honestly, I just don’t see another way around it. We’ve got to use the Eye. The longer we fight that thing, the more forest it’s going to burn to the ground. It’ll only take a minute for me to run into that passage, grab the Eye, figure out what to do, and come right back. While I’m doing that, you girls can go and try to contain that thing. I’ll catch up to you as soon as I can.”

“Contain it!” Rarity exclaimed. “What do you expect us to do? We’re not fireponies!”

Pinkie Pie spoke up. “True, but I bet I’ve got some asbestos around here somewhere. We could–”

“Absolutely not!” Twilight interrupted. “That’s not what I mean at all! All you need to do is keep Crimson Star away from Ponyville so he doesn’t burn the city down. Have Rainbow Dash use his weather powers to put out whatever fires get started. I’ll be back as soon as I can!”

As Twilight galloped into the open passage, Applejack turned to Pinkie. “What does your Pinkie sense tell you? Do you have anything not asbestos-related that we can use? Any tips, perhaps?”

Pinkie paused to think. “Well, for starters, the forest is on fire. We kind of need to get moving if we want to survive.”

The pink pony pointed a hoof off in to the right. A giant wall of raging fire was headed straight toward them.

Fluttershy stifled a scream. “I think this would be a really, really good time for us to leave.”

“I’m right behind you!” Applejack said. “The fire creature is that way. Let’s see if Rainbow Dash can slow it down!”

* * * * *

The corridor that led into the side of the cliff was pitch black – lit only by the fire that raged just outside. Twilight used an illumination spell to light the passage and hurried up the tunnel as quickly as she could go. The floor and walls were roughly hewn, as if they had been formed in a great hurry. It sloped upward, leading into the heart of the mountain.

As Twilight galloped down the poorly-illuminated tunnel, she began to realize that it was really, really long. It took her a full minute to finally reach the end of it. Apparently whoever dug this shaft didn’t want to take any chances that someone might accidentally find it! This leads pretty deep into the mountain.

When she reached the end of the corridor she found a giant, rusted iron door. Twilight reached out with her magic and gingerly opened it. The door creaked and groaned, but after some determined effort on her part it gave way. The door was surprisingly heavy and stubborn. It was almost as if the door didn’t want to open.

Once inside, Twilight found the very last thing she expected to discover: a tower. The room she had entered was tall, circular, and had granite walls. A winding stone staircase led to another room high overhead. So the book was right! The Eye of Destiny really was hidden in a tower. I guess the magic spell that guarded the entrance also hid this tower out of sight. That must have been a spell of tremendous power! There aren’t many ponies who could have pulled something like this off. Surely it wasn’t Starswirl after all, was it?

Twilight raced up the staircase until she reached another door – this time a wooden one. Its paneling was dry and brittle; age had robbed it of much of its strength. Twilight gently used her magic to swing the door open, and then stepped inside.

This time she discovered a small, well-lit room. A pair of crystal windows let light stream in from the outside world. Twilight saw that she was high above the cliff; far below she could see that the Everfree Forest was on fire. In the distance the pillar of fire was headed straight toward Ponyville.

Of course it is. Isn’t that always how these things turn out?

Twilight looked around the room. To her delight, there were several desks scattered about that were covered in piles of ancient research notes. There was also some laboratory equipment resting on a table at the far end of the room. In the middle of the room, sitting on a stone pedestal, was a small round object about two inches in diameter. It glowed an eerie green color.

The purple pony cautiously walked around the pedestal, looking at it. There was no doubt about it: she had found the Eye of Destiny. But there was something about the ancient artifact that made her a bit nervous. Maybe it was because Celestia had warned her not to touch it, or maybe it was the fact that it was obviously created with dark magic and looked quite evil. Either way, something told her that this time she should not just blindly reach out and grab it and see what happened next.

Maybe I should do a little bit more research before I do something that might doom all of Equestria. I need to know what I’m getting myself into.

Twilight walked over to the nearest desk and started going through the giant pile of research notes that the ancient, unknown wizard had left behind. She had some reading to do.

Fortunately, she had all the time in the world to figure this out. Or, at least, that’s how it seemed in the calm of that hidden room. After all, her friends were on the case! What could possibly go wrong?

* * * * *

Rainbow Dash watched Crimson Star gallop off into the distance. “You could at least say thank you!” Rainbow shouted. “I did save your life, you know!”

But the desperate green pony said nothing. He had only one thought: to run for his life. There was absolutely no way he was going to hang around in a forest that was actually on fire! His mother had taught him well: when you see something burning, you move away from it – and he was going to do that as fast as his legs could carry him. He had absolutely no intention of being turned into a pile of ashes.

As Rainbow watched Crimson gallop away into the distance, her friends caught up with her. “Twilight’s gone to get the Eye,” Applejack told her. “She wants us to stall that fire thing until she can find a way to defeat it.”

Fluttershy spoke up. “I think she said she wanted Rainbow Dash to do all the work. You can make it rain, can’t you Dash?”

“Of course I can! Why didn’t I think of that before? One rainstorm, coming right up!”

The rainbow-colored pony shot high into the air. She quickly raced around the sky and assembled a few scattered clouds into one decent-sized raincloud. Rainbow then pushed the storm directly over the pillar of fire and began jumping on it. The cloud immediately turned dark gray and began to rain – directly onto the fire.

The fire golem looked up at the rainstorm and bellowed in pain. It stretched out a fiery appendage and shot a bolt of raging fire directly at the cloud. Rainbow Dash managed to jump out of the way just in time, but her cloud was not so lucky. It was instantly vaporized.

“So you wanna play rough, do you?” Rainbow Dash said. “Well, try this on for size! If I can’t rain you out then I’ll blow you out!”

Rainbow Dash began flying in circles around the pillar of fire. As she increased her speed, a wind vortex began to form. In mere moments she had created a raging tornado, which coalesced right on top of the fiery pillar.

Once again the fire bellowed in pain. “It’s working!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

But she spoke too soon. A moment later the tornado itself caught fire. It then exploded, sending hundreds of firebolts in all directions. When the firebolts landed they set dozens new sections of the Everfree Forest on fire.

The pillar then resumed its march toward the little green pony, who was still on his way toward Ponyville.

Fluttershy screamed. “There’s fire everywhere!”

“Blast it,” Rainbow Dash muttered. “I was sure I had it that time.”

“What do we do now?” Applejack asked.

Rarity spoke up. “Isn’t the real problem that dreadful villain? If we could just persuade him to stop then Ponyville would be saved.”

Rainbow Dash frowned. “But that’s the problem! Every time I catch him he just teleports out of my grasp. He’s the most slippery customer I’ve ever seen.”

Pinkie spoke up. “Couldn’t you drop him and break his legs? That would slow him down!”

“Pinkie!” Fluttershy gasped. “That’s terrible!”

“Naw, that won’t work,” Rainbow Dash said. “He could still teleport even without his legs. Besides, don’t you think he knows what would happen to him if he did stop?”

Pinkie nodded. “That fire golem would fry him right to a crisp! Or he’d get caught in the forest fire. Or maybe he’d be eaten by the creatures that live in this forest. Why, he could meet his doom in all sorts of different ways! I wonder which one he’d prefer.”

Rarity shuddered. “But what do we do? Is there no way we can stop this dreadful apocalypse?”

“I’m on it,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Fluttershy, go round up as many pegasus ponies as you can find and send them here. We’ve got to put out all of these forest fires before they spread any further. I’ll keep working on it until you round them up. Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie – go stop that green pony. I don’t care how you do it, but stop him.”

“I’m on it!” Pinkie said cheerfully. She began hopping through the burning forest.

As they ran through the woods, Applejack looked at the destruction around her. “I sure hope Twilight hurries up! If she doesn’t then there won’t be much left to save.”

* * * * *

In another part of the forest, Carrot Top had left Zecora’s hut and was hurrying back toward her home in Ponyville. She was hoping to escape the forest before the Mane Six made any more progress toward saving the world – but she soon discovered that it was too late. There was fire everywhere.

The golden-colored pony raced through the trees, trying to find a safe passage through the blaze. She had only one thought: to get home and protect her garden.

Don’t worry, little carrots, I’ll save you! Just hang in there. No one is going to destroy you this time!

* * * * *

In the top of the hidden mystical tower, Twilight set down a stack of ancient scrolls. This is fascinating! There is so much here that I can learn. I’ll have to come back when the fate of Equestria isn’t hanging in the balance. That is, assuming I can come back. Hmmm. You know, maybe I should just take some of these research notes with me. Or all of them. I mean, it’s not like anyone is using them, right?

As Twilight began stuffing them into her saddlebag, she thought about what she had just read. It seems that the story in the book was mostly true. The Eye really was created to see into the future. Whoever created it was fascinated with Luna’s magic. He seemed to believe that she could see into the future, and he was determined to recreate whatever gift Luna had. His only problem was that Luna had already been banished to the Moon, so he couldn’t ask her how she did it. Was it a spell? A natural talent? He simply didn’t know, and he certainly couldn’t ask.

But can Luna actually see the future? This wizard certainly thought she could, but I’m not sure he was right. Sure, Luna did a great job of warning Sweetie Belle that removing that thread from Rarity’s headdress was a terrible idea, but you don’t have to have magical powers to figure that out! I could have told Sweetie Belle the same thing. After all, anyone who knew Rarity could have predicted that she would have a complete meltdown if one of her products fell apart when being shown to her biggest client! Maybe Luna’s just smart.

Anyway, it looks like he eventually found something that worked, but he wasn’t very happy with it. Unfortunately, he didn’t say why he was unhappy with the results. I guess the failure was so fresh in his mind that he didn’t need to make any notes about it. Whatever it was, though, doomed the whole project; he imprisoned the Eye in this tower and then left, never to return.

Twilight looked around to make sure that she had taken every scrap of paper in the room. The only thing the notes didn’t say was the name of the pony who created the Eye. I don’t think it was Starswirl the Bearded. These notes are not in his handwriting, and this magic isn’t his style. This was somepony else – somepony who didn’t mind getting his hooves dirty with forbidden dark magic. I wish I knew who it was, but I guess it doesn’t really matter.

Twilight turned her attention back to the Eye. Thanks to the notes she had found, she now knew how to activate it. She remembered Celestia’s warning not to use the Eye under any circumstances, but one glance outside told her that Equestria was in a lot of trouble. A whole team of pegasus ponies was trying to put out fires that were rapidly consuming the entire Everfree Forest. The pillar of fire was headed straight toward Ponyville and it showed no signs of stopping. If Twilight ever needed to know the future, now was the time.

“Here goes nothing,” she said aloud. The purple pony reached out with her magic and activated the Eye.