I'm standing in a Cathedral. A statue of Celestria, holding her staff high into the sky, stands behind a podium at the front of the large chamber, which overlooks rows and rows of wooden benches. No one stands to preach. No one sits in the pews. Everyone is huddled together in the center of the atrium, surrounded by Wardens. I recognize the scene all too well, just as I recognize the faces of my little sister, mother, and father within the group of worshippers.
"Is this the vision that haunts you?" A voice rings in my ears, pulling me away from the vision.
I instinctively throw my arm up, barely blocking the would-be fatal blow from the blade of the dog statue. It slams into the shoulder plates of my armor and flings me away from Liaz and Goldenclaw. I didn't even see it move, and yet somehow it was standing right in front of me, preparing to close the distance between us.
"Guys! Snap out of it!" I yell, scrambling towards a nearby pillar as fast as my feet will carry me.
"What the- Holy shit! Run Ironvine, Run!" Liaz screams, coming out of whatever trance he was in before.
He whips his pistols from their holsters on his sides, each firing a shot at the statue chasing me. I hear the sound of stone bursting immediately after. Liaz dashes backwards and sucks in a deep breath. He exhales, and a ball of fire explodes from his mouth. My gaze follows it as it soars through the air and slams into the humanoid dog statue, flinging it backward. It tries to regain its balance, snarling all the while. Its stone face glows orange and red with heat. Another gunshot goes off, and its head explodes into a million pieces. The body of the statue collapses forward, shattering like glass.
"Where's the other one?" Goldenclaw is looking around frantically, and for good reason, too. The statue of Celestria is nowhere in sight.
I hear a slight rumbling and look back towards the statue of the humanoid dog, which has somehow reassembled and is climbing back to its feet.
There is another flash of blinding light from above. I'm back in the cathedral again. I can see myself in my bloody uniform, standing between the innocent people and the other Wardens who surround them.
"No. We mustn't do this, brothers!" I plead with them.
Nobody moves. Instead, hysterical laughter fills the room. A knight in all black armor pushes his way through the group of Wardens. I clench my teeth at the sight of him. The man who cost me everything. Captain Black.
I'm snapped back into reality by the pressure of a double-sided blade slamming into my stomach and throwing me back, even further away from the others. The dog statue places the blade in its mouth and drops to all fours, quickly closing the distance between us. Another flash of light goes off, and I'm jolted back into the cathedral.
The black gauntlets of Captain Black slam into my face, over and over, painting them red with my blood. All I feel is pain. All I can see is the terrified face of my baby sister.
"How did you plan to protect them…" Captain Black's taunting voice echoes in my head as he hits me again and again. "...when you can't even protect yourself?"
I am thrown out of the vision once again by the blade of the humanoid dog statue, which isn't sharp enough to cut through my armor but still flings me backwards. The statue stands up straight and disappears into thin air quicker than I can blink, followed by another flash of blinding light from the sky.
I'm flung back into my visions, on the ground now, looking around at the carnage. The cathedral is destroyed, the statue of Celestria shattered. The limp and bloodless bodies of my family and the other innocent members of the cathedral lay strewn about the debris. Through the single tear dropping from my eye, I make out the shape of an old woman rummaging through the destruction.
"You must be pretty strong to endure all that…"
The woman's voice is replaced by ringing. I'm slammed into the chamber wall by the dog statue. It reaches its weapon up and attempts to slash down, but I kick off the wall and roll out of the way. The blade carves through the stone wall behind me like butter. Behind the dog, I can see the statue of Celestria land from somewhere above. I am not in the cathedral, I am in a dungeon. The dead bodies of my family aren't scattered around me; I'm being chased and attacked by moving statues.
"Guys! Attack the other statue!" I yell to Liaz and Goldenclaw, who have returned to the same dazed state as earlier. "It probably has something to do with that bright light!"
Liaz shakes his head rapidly from side to side and then makes eye contact with me. I can see him gritting his teeth, but he turns away and rushes towards the statue of Celestria.
"Gold, you help Ironvine." He fires off a series of shots that shatter the statue into a million different pieces.
Goldenclaw dashes towards me and the humanoid dog statue, sticking his paw out as he runs. It glows golden, and the statue, which is mid-swing with its sword, floats off the ground and into the air above me. It swings its arms around to no avail, as it cannot reach anything. I make a break for Goldenclaw's position, trying to get as far away from the statue as I can.
"Uh, Ironvine, what now?" I look over at Liaz, who is slowly backing away from the now fully repaired statue of Celestria. "I destroyed it, but these things keep fixing themselves!"
He thwip, thwip, thwip, reloads both of his pistols in a split second and begins to unload on the statue again. The bullets slam into it, blowing it apart just as quickly as it repairs itself.
"Keep destroying it then!" Goldenclaw drops his hand.
The dog statue crashes into the ground. Before it can stand on its feet, Goldenclaw has already closed the little distance between us. He raises his rapier, a golden aura permeating around the edge of the blade, and unleashes a flurry of slashes upon the stone figure. When he is finished, there's nothing left but a pile of rubble beneath his feet.
"Is it over?" I huff, looking between the destroyed statues.
Neither of them moves or begins to repair. I sigh in relief and slump to the ground, exhausted. As if in response, the set of doors underneath the archway that the statues were guarding swings open, revealing another hallway.
"Not for long." Liaz blows away the smoke coming from his pistols and slides them back into their holsters. "I say we rest for a few hours before moving on. There's no telling what we have to face next."
"Is everyone unharmed?" Goldenclaw sheaths his rapier and walks over to me, examining me for any wounds.
"Surprisingly, I didn't get hurt from that at all. Just a little shaken up, is all." I stand back up and walk over to the chest in the center of the room. "I wonder what they were protecting?"
I pop open the lid, my eyes met by a similar white light to the one from earlier. When the light has died down, I can see that the chest is full of glowing, white feathers.
"No way! I know what these are." Liaz grabs one of the feathers. "These are teleportation feathers."
"I've heard of those." Goldenclaw takes one off the top as well. "They can supposedly teleport you anywhere as long as someone you know is in the same location."
"Wait. This is perfect, right?" I look down at the chest full of what has to be at least 100 of these feathers. "Now we can help get Glimmer back."
"Yeah, and I'll do you one better." Liaz smiles at me. "Now we can get out of this cursed dungeon."