Read this story and all of its chapters in paragraph format with better editing, here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/129684/the-trials

This version of the story is heavily unedited.

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>"What do you suppose is down there?" Gloomie asked, the three of them standing at the entrance of the strange, stone structure.
>In the middle of the blue-lit cave was what looked like a stone door frame embedded into the wall.
>Orange light poured outside from a pair of torches hanging just within the structure.
>The bat ponies stared into it, or rather, downwards, at a long descent of stone stairs.
>Pairs of torches hung on the cobblestone walls every so often, bringing a green-orange hue to the surfaces of the rock.
>"I'm... not entirely sure. It looks like we must go down, though," Mosina said, swallowing before stepping forward.
>"I suppose I'll take the lead."
>Gloomie uneasily shrugged and Night Watch gave a subtle nod, falling behind her with Gloomie in tow.
>The trio descended down the narrow passageway, the clinks of their armoured hooves on stone echoing against the uniformally built walls.
>They barely had enough room to walk single file, and the walls almost brushed up against their sides.
>After several minutes of descending the stony steps, Mosina touched down on a flat floor.
>Extending several dozen feet ahead of her was a narrow hallway of the same fashion.
>She paused a moment, turning her head to glance at the others who merely nodded in response.
>Torches stopped lining the walls down the hallway several feet downwards, a wall of blackness just beyond the light's reach.
>Giving out a deep breath, she began walking.
>She crested the light of the torches, her light crystal pushing the darkness back.
>However, after only several feet, the white light fed into what looked like an empty, rectangular room.
>As the ponies all entered the room standing side-by-side, three dark corridors met them on each wall.

---

>"Which way should we go?" Gloomie suddenly asked, her voice echoing off of the green brick walls.
>Mosina swallowed. "I'm not sure. It looks like we could get lost, here."
>"Do we have anything we could use to mark our path?" Night Watch asked, shuffling through her saddlebags.
>"Hmm..." Mosina searched though her own saddlebags. 
>After a moment of nosing around, she found a pouch.
>"Oh! We have this!"
>Mosina brought it out with her mouth, showing it to the others.
>Gloomie squinted. "What's that?"
>"It's a pouch of some purple powder I found when we started. We could use this to mark our path."
>Mosina unfastened the string at the opening of the pouch, revealing the powder inside.
>She tilted it a little bit to the side, allowing a trickle of the powder to fall to the floor.
>"There. We can use this to mark the way we came from."
>Giving a nod to the others, Mosina turned forward.
>"So, which way should we go, first?" Gloomie asked, looking at all three entrances.
>Mosina gave a small grin. "Whenever it comes to taking paths in forks, I always go right, first."
>"It's settled, then," Night Watch affirmed, nudging Mosina's flank towards the right exit.
>"H-hey! Alright!" Mosina stammered, jolting forward. "I ought to buck your face, one of these days."
>Night Watch chuckled, walking alongside the left of Mosina while Gloomie walked along the right.

---

>However, after only a few steps, Mosina's front hoof stepped onto a tile that sunk into the floor.
>Loud clicking noises came from the ceiling and a stream of darts shot down at them.
>Before she knew it, Mosina could feel the clinks against the back of her armour, knowing that the armour didn't cover her entire form.
>A gasp came from her right.
>Mosina leaped towards the voice, smashing into the leather-armoured Gloomie and shoving her out of the shower of darts.
>A small glance confirmed that Night Watch had leaped out of the way, just in time.
>"Gah... are you all okay?!" Mosina asked out loud, carefully stepping off of Gloomie.
>The trap had finished flinging darts, and holes could be seen in the ceiling where they had come from.
>A whimper came from beneath her.
>"Gloomie!" Mosina cried, kneeling down to the bloodied form.
>seven sharp, metal darts protruted from her back, penetrating straight through the leather armour.
>Mosina quickly threw off her silver helmet and went into her saddlebags, fetching a healing flask.
>"Shit... Night Watch! Help!"
>A quick set of hooves pounded against stone as Night Watch rushed her way over, kneeling down the other side of Gloomie.
>"Nngh... guh..." Gloomie muttered, whimpering. 
>She lay in a pool of her own blood, tears flowing from her eyes.
>"Drink!" Mosina cried, bringing the open flask to Gloomie's mouth.
>"Night, pull those out as soon as she starts drinking."
>Gloomie shakily opened her mouth and accepted the glass, and Mosina tilted it so the red liquid could flow.
>Several drops of the healing solution dripped from the sides of her mouth as she messily drank.
>"Here goes..." Night Watch said with a calm voice.

---

>A sickening squelch filled the air, and Gloomie's body went rigid.
>"Aaugh!" she cried, her teeth crashing into the glass vial as her neck jolted forwards.
>Night Watch threw the two darts in her mouth to the side. 
>"Keep drinking, let it heal the wounds as I pull them out."
>Gloomie whimpered in response, and Mosina lowered the vial to her mouth again.
>Night Watch waited for several moments before saying, "I'm going to pull out another few. Get ready..."
>Mosina pulled back the flask, and Gloomie clenched her eyes, nodding.
>Night Watch quickly bit down on the feathered backs of three darts, pulling them out in one motion.
>"Gaah! Aagh!" Gloomie screamed, Mosina holding her twitching head in comfort before bringing the flask to her mouth, again.
>"Just two more, Gloomie..." Mosina whispered.
>They waited another several moments while Gloomie drank, before Night Watch moved to remove the last two darts.
>However, she was stopped by the sound of a loud thumping noise of metal on stone.
>It was so sudden that Mosina almost dropped the flask.
>"W-what's that?" she asked while Night Watch looked down the left entrance of the room, where the sound was coming from.
>"Screw it... we have to pull these last ones out," Night Watch asserted, immediately grabbing onto the final two darts.
>"Nngh... aah!" Gloomie grunted as Night Watch pulled them out. 
>She accepted the flask from Mosina again, becoming aware of the loudening, thumping noise.
>"It sounds like... steps," Night Watch said under her breath, standing up and facing the entrance.
>Slowly, she pulled out her golden spear and began to walk towards the entrance, warily minding where she stepped.
>The thumping continued to louden as whatever made the noise got closer.

---

>Passing by the sink in the floor, Night Watch made a glance to the step that had triggered the trap.
>A shudder ran down her normally stoic spine.
>Carved into the surface of the tile was the familliar image of a cringing face, like the ones that were on the wooden keys.
>Except, now that it was larger... it looked like it wasn't cringing anymore.
>It was laughing.
>A loud whoosh came from down the hallway, and Night Watch immediately dodged to the right.
>Embedded into the stone floor where she once stood was a large, sharp, double-headed axe.
>And it was made from shadows.
>"Shit...!"
>Before she could do anything, the axe pried itself from the floor and flew back to the thumping figure in the dark hallway.
>"Get out of the way!" Night Watch cried at the other two.
>Eyes wide, Mosina helped the groggy Gloomie onto her hooves and guided her to a safe corner of the room.
>Night Watch nervously held her spear in front of her as the thumping sounded as though they were almost in the room.
>Her beath left her when a giant form crested the darkness.
>A shadow pony--this one with glowing, red eyes--slowly stomped its way into the room.
>However, unlike the ones they had encountered before, it was completely covered from head to hooves in thick shadow armour.
>A menacing helmet with a curved, metal plume sat on top of its head.
>Attached to both sides of the shadow pony were large, spiked shields.
>It looked almost impenetrable.
>"Fuck."
>The shadow pony locked its head onto Night Watch, and accompanied by the loud clinking of its armour, it pivoted its entire body to face her.
>Like the previous shadow ponies, two arms protruted from its back, but instead of curved blades, it was tipped with large, double-headed axes.

---

>From the entrance of the room. one of the axe-arms of the shadow pony quickly flung at Night Watch.
>Instinctively, she dodged, and a shadow axe barely sailed past her, embedding into the wall behind where she was.
>The shadow pony pivoted to her new position and flung its second axe-arm, the axe detaching and flying across the room.
>Unsure of what to do, Night Watch dodged again, watching as the first axe returned back to the shadow pony to attach itself to the back arm.
>It flung the axe at her again, forcing her to dodge, while the other axe returned to the shadow pony.
>She continued to dodge axes as they were flung, slowly making her way towards the the armoured figure.
>However, as soon as she got close enough to strike, the shadow pony returned both of its axes simultaneously and swung at her with them.
>She ducked under the horisontal swing and thrust her spear forward, only to nick the thick shadow armour with a few pitiful sparks of gold.
>The shadow pony swung its entire body this time, its axes almost cutting her into three pieces.
>Night Watch leaped between the axes as they came over and under her, only for her face to meet an armoured tail.
>Like a club, it smashed against her head, throwing her to the floor.
>Before she could even scream, the club-like tail swung down at her and slammed against her armoured back.
>The armour absorbed most of the blow, but she felt several cracks in her chest as she was pushed into the floor.
>"Grrah!" 
>Painfully, she rolled to the side, out of the way of another downward swing from the tail-bludgeon.
>It smashed against the floor, bringing up chunks of green brick on impact.
>Night Watch struggled to get up, limping away from the armoured pony while clutching her chest.
>She removed her helmet.
>"G... guys... get out..." she sputtered, tasting blood as some of it trickled out of her mouth.
>She heard another whooshing noise behind her.
>Closing her eyes, she didn't bother to dodge--she was too weak.

---

>However, a loud crash was heard, and in a flash of indigo light, Mosina went sailing past her, having blocked the axe with Wind Ruler.
>Nimbly landing on her hooves, Mosina twirled her spear and bolted forward with a gust of wind, past the limping Night Watch.
>"Aaah!" Mosina cried, fanning out her wings and pushing herself off the ground with the wind.
>An axe sailed past her, dodging it before she met the shadow pony with her spear.
>With a powerful thrust, she stabbed the Wind Ruler straight at the chest of the shadow pony.
>In a display of indigo sparks, the purple blade stabbed right through the chest armour.
>"Grah!" she growled, landing her hooves on the ground and pushing forwards.
>The two smaller blades of the spear also penetrated through, stabbing into the shadowy flesh.
>The shadow pony grunted, twisting itself and freeing the spear from its front side.
>Mosina lurched to the side as she tightly held onto it before the axe arms of the shadow pony swung at her.
>Expertly, she parried them both, the shadowy metal of the axes unable to cut through the Wind Ruler.
>However, the clubbed tail of the shadow pony swung at her, forcing her to jump and dodge it.
>As she came down, the tail came back for another swing, and this time, Mosina decided to slice at it.
>Miraculously, the blade of her spear sliced straight through the middle of the tail.
>The decapitated tail immediately melted into the air, the shadowy strands flowing into the darkness of the hallway beyond them.
>"Hrk..."
>With new confidence, Mosina twirled the spear above her and brought it down for a powerful stab into the back of the shadow pony.
>It penetrated the thinner armour of its back, between the thick shields on its sides.
>Not backing down, she hopped on top of the shadow pony's back and swung her spear.
>Both of the axe-arms sliced off cleanly, the giant weapons melting into the air.

---

>She effortlessly brought her spear down for more stabs at the now-defenseless shadow pony, punching many holes into its armour.
>The shadow pony grunted and continued to try and shake her off, helplessly.
>"Haah!" Mosina cried, leaping up and thrusting her spear at its head.
>The tip of the blade pierced straight through the armoured neck, just beneath the thicker helmet.
>She groweled and put her entire weight into the stab, the spear digging deeper.
>"Die... die!" 
>The shadow pony tried to thrash its head, but it got weaker as she pushed harder.
>Finally, it went limp and its red eyes dimmed out, its body freezing in its position with the Wind Ruler protruting from the back of its head.
>Beneath her hooves, the shadow pony melted into air, an ethereal sigh accompanying the release.
>Its strands of shadows retreated into the darkness.
>Before the corporeal form completely melted away, Mosina leaped off, immediately running towards the others.
>In the far corner of the room, a weak Gloomie leaned against the wall accompanied by Night Watch, who was drinking from a healing flask.
>"Well... that's that, I suppose," Mosina breathed.
>"I'm impressed." Night Watch grinned. "You had that thing wrapped around your hoof."
>Mosina blushed. "Yeah, well, it wasn't easy." She turned to Gloomie. "You okay?"
>"Yeah... just a little out of it." Gloomie returned a smile. "I don't think I'll ever get used to getting so... hurt."
>"Tell me about it," Night Watch chuckled. "I don't think Mosina's ever been--"
>"Hey, look!" Gloomie cut her off, pointing to where the armoured shadow pony had been.
>A dim glowing pile of white objects sat on the stone floor.
>"Huh..." Mosina shot a glance to Night Watch before trotting over to it.

---

>As she got closer, she made out the form of what seemed to be some sort of garments made out of white material, similar to what the light ponies looked like.
>"Hmm... it looks like some sort of armour."
>She kneeled down and picked it up, feeling it sag slightly into her hooves.
>Night Watch came up from behind her. "That looks like some sort of leather armour."
>"Yeah. Made out of white... lighty stuff."
>"Hey, Gloomie!" Night Watch called back to Gloomie, who was slowly walking her way over. "I think we found you a new set of armour."
>"Look!" Mosina said, putting the armour down and gesturing towards a set of white hoof-claws that was underneath the leather.
>Night Watch's eyes widened. "Ooh..."
>"What is it?" Gloomie fixed her eyes onto the white equipment in front of them. "Ooh..."