Delta Alpha November. E - I admit that my earlier chapters suffered from pacing and other problems, but that's where reviews like yours come in; they point out mistakes that I may not have otherwise caught so that I can correct them. While I'm sorry to see you go, I also understand your decision. I've already sent a PM thanking you for your input, but I felt I should give you a reply here as well.

Darksroid17 - And the next chapter is here ;) What can I say? I like to keep you guys (and gals) on the edge of your seats sometimes.

xel101 - You're welcome, it was my Christmas gift to all of you :D He never actually lost his sword, he just hasn't used it since Canterlot; it's actually sitting in the library at the moment.

Guest - And a belated Merry Christmas to you! I hope yours was as enjoyable as mine was

DragonLord RyuKizoku - Then I've done my job ;)

centaurus2 - I'm actually borrowing them from a flash game

KillerWow - Why thank you :D

RattPitt - Lol, I actually considered using that line... Army of Darkness is one of my favorite movies after all, but I decided against the obvious. To b honest, while he usually gets depicted as an assbag in fanfics, he actually seems to be a pretty nice guy in the show; though perhaps there's more going on with both him and Nightmare Moon than meets the eye...

chipmunkfanatic - *shrugs* Hey, I never said these guys were pros...

Kyguy - Aww yeah! that's what I'm talkin' about!

xel101 - Hmm... that's an interesting thought... Did Blueballs have anything to do with it indeed...

WSRaptor - well, here's a new chapter for you to enjoy. :D Hmm... I suppose it's possible, if I (and by extension, they) would have thought of that.

centaurus2 - It makes sense if you think about it; Why would they stay in an area where Blake has loved ones? Besides, even though they've been through quite a bit, they're all still fairly naive...

noah2x4 - Now... another chapter!

Kyguy - Maybe beat the tar out of him, but Blake's no killer... at least, not if he has a choice...

bloodycyclone - Not per se, but feel free to submit one if you want; I can't guarantee I'll use them, but its possible

UnknownHero55 - It would make sense, wouldn't it?

KillerWoW - ... I don't think the residents of Ponyville would appreciate barbequed stallions... especially not so close to the schoolhouse filled with fillies and colts...

A/N - Howdy everypony! I hope you all had an awesome Christmas! I know mine was pretty cool; I actually got to visit family this year! Not much to talk about though, unless you want to hear about my presents ;) Have a fun New Year's this year, and stay pony! As always, don't forget to follow/favorite, review, and most importantly; enjoy!

I gently took hold of the crimson-maned mare's hoof. "Of course I'm real, why wouldn't I be?"

She looked down at her hoof as it rested in my hand. "Well… With everything that's happened, I thought I was… going crazy…" I reached down and lightly pinched her shoulder. "OW! What was that for?"

"Nope, not crazy and not dreaming either." Her bright red eyes widened in realization.

"Y-you… I didn't even think of that…"

I looked around the relatively small room. "What say we get out of here? This place is kinda depressing…" I walked over and secured the door to the cage two guards were in with lengths of rope that had been laying on a table next to the pedestal. "There, that's better; can't be too careful, can we? Now we can… Are you ok?" I turned back to Mitta to find her slumped on the floor and breathing somewhat heavily.

"Yeah… just need… a minute… They did something… and now I… feel weak… all of a… sudden." She was panting, taking in breaths as she spoke. She looked around as best she could, mostly with her eyes. "I just thought… how did you… get here anyway?"

"I helped him!" Ruby suddenly squealed from the doorway, causing me to jump as my hand went to my re-holstered pistol.

"R-Ruby…? What are you… doing here?"

Ruby pranced around the room. "I followed those bad stallions when they brought you here! I wanted to help, but I didn't know how with all the guards around. Then I asked Blake here if he could help you, and he did!"

She smiled at us. "Thank you… both of you…" She looked up to me. "I…if you don't mind… I think I'll… rest here for… a bit…" Luckily, her breathing didn't sound forced, just tired.

I knelt down and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you sure you'll be ok Mitta?" She nodded. "Ok, if you're sure… I'm going to go around and take care of the rest of these clowns; wouldn't want them escaping and kid- err, foalnapping us again." She nodded again.

"I'm coming with you!" Ruby pranced up to me. "I can look around for you to find them so you don't get surprised!"

I opened my mouth to tell her 'no', but closed it as I started to think about it. "That's… actually not a bad idea. Mitta, I'm going to have Ruby bar the door from this side, so don't open it for anypony. I'll have Ruby let you know when it's safe to come out again." Mitta raised a hoof in what looked like a thumbs-up gesture and waved me off.

I couldn't help but feel a pang of worry for the mare as Ruby and I exited the small room, Ruby going back once I was out and placing a few objects against the door. I was going to ask why the filly didn't simply wait in the room for me to leave, but decided now wasn't the time.

We slowly made our way through the ruinous castle, Ruby peeking into each room to see if there were any ponies within while I waited in the hallway for her to check each room.

After what felt like forever, Ruby popped her head soundlessly out of a wooden door somewhere further down the hall. "They're here!" She exclaimed in a loud whisper.

I crept up to the door where she was standing and placed an ear to it. There were definitely voices on the other side, but they weren't loud enough for me to make out what was going on. I focused on the 'aurasight', as Twilight had dubbed it, and attempted to 'see' beyond the door. I nearly slipped up and cursed aloud as I realized the pair of inhibitor rings were still preventing me from using my magic. "What's wrong?" There was obvious worry in Ruby's voice.

I held up my hands and showed her the rings. "These are keeping me from using magic, and I can't figure out how to take them off."

Her glowing yellow eyes brightened in a somehow cheerful manner. "I know how to take those off! I overheard the guards talking about them. Here, let me see." I lowered my hands to her level, and she took each of the rings in turn in her teeth and slipped it effortlessly from its finger.

I blinked and looked at the freed digits as I felt my connection to my body's magical flow returning. "How did you do that?"

She grinned. "It was easy!" She was fortunately still using whispered tones. "They can't be taken off by the pony wearing them, or anypony wearing another one, but anypony who's not wearing one can take them off no problem."

I shook my head to clear it of the buzz the reforming magical connection was causing. "Awesome, thanks Ruby. Now we need to take care of these goons and look for more."

I focused again on my aurasight and the room on the other side of the door came into view. I had been practicing with this particular ability since I had learned of it, and I was good enough that I could see with it almost as well as I could my own eyes. I looked around the room, the walls and other inanimate objects taking on a grey, lifeless hue while the two stallions in the room each took on a different color. I had learned from my practices that each aura generally corresponded to the pony's coat color, and unicorns had brighter auras than Pegasi or earth ponies.

Fortunately, both of these stallions seemed to be 'earths' as well. I turned to Ruby. "Alright kiddo, I'm goin' in. Keep watch, and if things go sour, feel free to jump in and help me." She nodded vigorously and hopped off to the side, out of sight of the two stallions as I swung the door open.

The two stallions turned to face me and opened their mouths, which were quickly clamped shut with a ring of blue-flecked gold as I used a levitation spell similar to the one I had used for my wheelchair to keep them from calling for help.

They both jumped back and started scrabbling at their muzzles in a vain attempt to free themselves from my magical grasp. I took the time to grab a few ever-present lengths of rope and walked over to the stallions. One noticed my approach and went for the sword at his hip. I held up my hand and his foreleg was wreathed in my aura. "Ah ah ah… I wouldn't do that if I were you, someone might get hurt." The stallion gulped, but made no further move for a weapon.

After taking their weapons, I tied their front and back legs together in a hog-tie before tying the two stallions together, back to back. I also used a few rags I found next to the rope to gag the two so they couldn't call for help. I was fairly certain that if the gunshot from earlier hadn't raised an alarm, these two wouldn't be able to, but I wasn't going to take chances.

I turned to leave the room and spotted a small, grey muzzle and a pair of glowing yellow eyes poking through the door, watching me. I chuckled as I walked over and opened the door, the little ghost filly's body passing effortlessly through it. "Enjoy the show?"

She giggled and pranced along down the corridor. "That was awesome! I wanna see you do it again!"

I chuckled. "I hope I don't have to kiddo, but we'll see. I know there's at least one unicorn guard around here somewhere; not to mention that Filthy Rich guy…"

We searched the rest of the castle's many winding corridors, fortunately not coming across a single guard the entire time. We entered a set of large double doors and I let out a low whistle at the sight. "Twilight would go nuts over this…" Sprawled out in front of me was a massive library, easily dwarfing the one I had seen in the Canterlot palace. Once we made sure the enormous room was clear, we headed back out and into the darkening corridors.

The next room we entered was another, more ornate set of double doors. On the other side was a large hallway with a pair of banners at the far end of it. The banner on the left was a deep blue and had a motif of Luna standing beneath a crescent moon while the other was orange and had a motif of Celestia standing beneath her sun.

Beneath the banners rested a pair of ancient thrones, each one matching the colors of the banner above it. Though faded and worn with time, I could see that the thrones had once radiated their splendor, a symbol of the joy and prosperity of the land. Seeing that the area was clear, I turned from the sight, not wanting to be reminded of the tragedy my beloved Luna had faced so long ago.

After we had finished searching the castle proper, we finally moved into the castle's basement, which was just as much a labyrinth as the upper floors had been. We were headed down a particularly eerie corridor lined with armored pony statues that seemed to stretch on for quite a way. The various armors themselves were rather intimidating, being made of the same greyish metal as the armor the stallions currently inhabiting the castle were wearing, though that's where the similarities ended; the stallions who had kidnapped me were wearing armor almost identical to that of a royal guard, but these suits covered the entire body instead of just the torso, and they were spiked and the helmets had sharpened horn guards.

"Can't say I'll be sorry to see the last of this place…"

Ruby looked around. "Yeah, this place gives me the creeps." She walked up to one of the suits and poked it. "I wonder if anypony actually wore this stuff…"

I ran a hand over one of the helmets; the smooth, cool metal hardly seemed aged, even after a millennia of sitting down here. "I dunno Ruby; it looks like it's entirely possible. It's strange though, Equestria doesn't strike me as a place that would need something like this…"

We walked along in silence for a time, only my own footsteps quietly echoing down the eerily silent hall. I had to keep looking down to make sure Ruby was still by my side, since her ghostly little hooves made no sound against the cold, stone floor.

Finally, at the end of the seemingly endless hallway, there was a single door. I crept up to the door, a pale yellow light filtering out from beneath it. I turned to Ruby, her glowing eyes looking up to me expectantly. "Alright Ruby, it looks like this is it… I need to know how many ponies are on the other side of this door."

She nodded and soundlessly slipped into the wall to the left of the door. I waited on the other side, watching the shadows shift in the light, hoping that whoever was on the other side wouldn't spot Ruby as she investigated the room beyond for me. Even though she was a ghost and I doubted they could do anything to harm her, I couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt for sending her into a potentially dangerous situation like this. I would have used my aurasight, but I still didn't quite have the hang of it and any unicorns within its area of effect would be able to sense it easily.

Eventually, the ghostly filly popped her head out through the same wall she had gone in through, nearly scaring me out of my skin. She grinned sheepishly in apology. "Hee hee… Sorry… It looks like there are three ponies in this room, but only two of them are wearing armor, the third one was just wearing some fancy looking clothes."

I ruffled the filly's mane affectionately. "Thanks Ruby. Now, let's go get us some bad guys…"

I kicked the door open to see all three ponies gathered around a table with various maps and other papers strewn about it. Before they even had a chance to look up in shock, I used a levitation spell to grab the sole unicorn in the group and fling him against the wall, knocking him unconscious.

The other guard stallion unsheathed his blade, which was quickly yanked from his grasp by my telekinetic grip. Filthy Rich started backing away towards a corner of the room as I levitated the other stallion into the air. He kicked and struggled in the air as I floated him over to a cage that had been bolted to the floor; the cage looked like it was a new addition to the ancient castle.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?!" I secured the cage door and turned to see Ruby standing between Filthy and a bookshelf in the corner.

Filthy backed away from the ghost filly, shaking with fright. "N-No! Stay away from me!" He turned and ran off, or would have, had he not run straight into my waiting fist.

I hauled his limp form over to the cage and tossed him in with his companion before relocking the door. "Where was he going Ruby?" I asked as I tied up the unconscious unicorn before slipping one of the inhibitor rings over his horn.

The little filly was running around in front of the bookshelf. "Blake, ya gotta see this!" She dashed into the bookshelf and poked her head back out. "Come on!" She promptly disappeared back into the shelf.

I walked over to the lone bookshelf and examined it. "Uh Ruby… how am I supposed to follow you?"

Her head popped back out again and rotated so she was looking straight up; it looked like she was lying on her back in midair. Her head cocked to the side in thought. "Hmm… Try pulling on the books! These neat-o secret doors always have some kind of secret way to open them!"

I followed her advice and began pulling on various books on the lower levels, focusing on the ones a pony could easily reach. After a few minutes, I had fruitlessly pulled on every book below chest level; standing back up, I pondered the bookshelf for a moment before a thought popped into my head. What if the mechanism wasn't built for a normal pony to access easily…?

Following this line of thought, I began pulling on the books at the higher levels with equally as much success. I paused as one of the books that was roughly eye-level with me jerked out of my grasp; it slipped back into place with a loud *click*. The bookshelf shuddered and shifted forward and to the side. I blinked as a passageway opened before me, a breeze wafting in from the pitch black corridor, carrying with it the musty smell of long-undisturbed dust.

I pulled out my flashlight and turned it on to its middle brightness setting; enough to see clearly by, but not overly bright in the relatively cramped corridor. The walls seemed to be made of far older stone than the rest of the castle, being far more worn than the already ancient stones of the abandoned castle.

"Whoa, that's really cool!" I looked down to see Ruby staring at my flashlight; I bent down and held it out so she could get a better look at it. She looked the flashlight over. "How does it work?"

"Well, you press this switch here to turn it on and off," I demonstrated by clicking the tail switch and cycling the flashlight. "When you do that, it sends power to the bulb which produces the light. You can also press this little grey button to make it brighter." I clicked the indicated button for emphasis.

"That's awesome! Where'd you get it?"

I sighed. "That's a long story that we don't really have time for right now. Let's just say I came from somewhere else and brought it with me."

She looked between me and the flashlight several times, as if trying to decide whether to pursue the issue or not. Finally, Ruby shrugged and turned back down the passage. "Ok. Let's worry about this place for now." She began trotting merrily down the hall as she spoke.

I followed her down the bare hallway, the only thing to break up the bare walls being torch sconces, each with a long-decayed torch resting in its rusted grasp. The air was cool but surprisingly dry here, which wasn't what I had been expecting from an underground stone passage. We only walked for around a minute before another light source became visible at the end of the hallway. We walked to the end to see a blank wall with a faintly glowing clear orb set into it.

Ruby trotted forward, looking like she was going to walk through the wall; however, instead of phasing through the wall, she crashed face-first into it. "Oww…" She sat on her rump and rubbed her nose with a hoof. "That's never happened before."

I walked up and placed a hand on the wall above the orb. There was a slight tingling sensation where my hand contacted the wall, almost like the wall was charged with static. "Hmm… If I remember what Twilight told me, this means there's a ward here. That means that there's something on the other side of this wall that the ponies that built this place didn't want others to get into it easily. The real question though, is; who built this place and what were they trying to protect…?"

"Yeah. Hey, I wonder what that weird ball thingy is…"

I reached my hand out to the orb, which responded by glowing brighter in a rough hand shape that mimicked my own hand. I pulled back experimentally and the glow diminished, but the shape remained. Moving my hand closer again caused the glow to brighten once more. "It looks like its responding to me being close to it. See if it does anything for you Ruby."

The filly stood on her hind legs and reached her little hoof up towards the ball, which didn't respond at all. She dropped back to all fours with a disappointed 'Aww…'

Taking a deep breath, I reached out once again, this time placing my hand on the orb's surface. The orb flashed brightly and I felt a tingling sensation surge through my entire body before fading an instant later.

A vertical crease formed in the wall, which I now realized was a door, and it split in half, with the orb remaining attached to the left side of the door while the empty half of its socket remained with the right as it slid into the wall.

The room beyond was equally as dark as the hallway behind us. I shined my flashlight into the room to see that the ornate tapestries and various other decorations had been exceedingly well preserved, leading me to wonder if there was some sort of spell on the room, even though I couldn't feel the telltale pressure of a spell.

I took a hesitant step into the room and was simultaneously startled and almost blinded as several torches flared to life of their own accord. I looked around in awe at the sight before me. The room seemed to be octagonal in shape, and each wall of the room held a tapestry, each depicting a scene of some great, ancient battle or a major event. The one directly across from me depicted a stunningly realistic suit of armor that looked to be designed for human use, its gauntleted hands resting on the middle point of a three-pointed kite shield while being bordered by a sunny day motif on one side and a starry, crescent-mooned night motif on the other.

The entire display reminded me of the stained glass windows in the Canterlot palace, which depicted the various important events of Equestria's history, many of which involved Twilight, Applejack and the rest of their close circle of friends. As I looked around, the thing that caught my attention about the tapestries the most was that every single one displayed humans at the forefront of whatever event they were depicting.

There were other ornate items at the base of each tapestry, vases and sculptures and other trinkets, but they seemed unimportant compared to the tapestries themselves. Wanting to take a closer look at said tapestries, I walked over to the one on my left. I froze in place as I caught something strange out of the corner of my eye. I looked over to see that something about the tapestry depicting the armor looked odd. I walked over to the tapestry and my jaw dropped in shock as I realized that the tapestry wasn't depicting a suit of armor, but was in reality a backdrop for an actual suit of armor. The two meshed so well when viewed from the front that the armor actually looked to be a part of the tapestry.

"Whoa… That's awesome!" I jumped as Ruby's voice chimed in from next to me. I mentally scolded myself for forgetting about her.

I walked over to the suit and placed a hand on the breastplate in reverence. The cool metal was a silvery grey in color, both lighter in color and more reflective than the armor sets I had seen in the hallway, though its surface was still relatively dull. The armor seemed to be in almost perfect condition, without even a speck of rust marring its silvery-grey sheen.

The plates that made up the suit's bulk seemed to be fairly thick but also well formed to allow for a high degree of mobility and flexibility. The thinner, more flexible material around the joints and between the plates looked like some sort of metallic scales, though they felt like metal and were far more flexible than their appearance let on, moving almost like cloth.

While I was examining the armor in more detail, I came across a pendant draped over the neck, the slender chain wrapping around the aventail hanging from the helmet's rear. The pendant was a disk of gold swirled with silver and had a single, brilliant sapphire placed at its center. Almost automatically, I reached up and gingerly brushed my fingers across the surface of the pendant.

Almost as soon as my fingers touched the metal of the pendant, I felt a pulse of magic saturate the room and the pendant disappeared. Before I could straighten up to see what had happened, the armor and I were surrounded in a vortex of bright yellow light. I looked around helplessly for a way out, but an invisible force was holding me in place, hovering in midair.

I was faintly aware of Ruby calling my name, but something kept me from answering her. I looked on as blue streaks began to paint the golden light, swirling around in the vortex and adding a strange kind of beauty to it.

One by one, the various pieces of the armor began to disintegrate into sparkling, multi-hued motes of light and disappearing into the vortex surrounding me. Once the armor and disappeared entirely, the vortex closed in around me, seeming to gain speed as it closed in. I was completely unable to do anything to stop what I was certain was my impending doom.

The light of the vortex touched me, and exploded in a blinding flash. I felt myself gently floating down, and a moment later, I felt my feet come to rest against something solid. I still couldn't see anything but spots due to the blinding flash, but I could tell that something felt…off about me.

"Blake! Blake, are you okay?" Ruby sounded both worried and excited.

Slowly, my vision came back to me and I saw the ghost filly staring up at me in awe. "Wh-what is it?" I was almost afraid of the answer.

Instead of replying, she pointed to a tabletop mirror resting near one of the tapestries. I walked over to the mirror and sucked in a breath as my reflection came into view. I was now wearing the mysterious suit of armor.