Prelude to an End

What do we demand of life? What is it that has seen us through hardships and pain? That mysterious power driving us ever onward?

To love and be loved?

The desert wind whipped harshly through the empty fields of nothing but sand. Not a living thing lived or grew here. All had escaped the deadly touch of the unforgiving heat at day and freezing cold of the night. And the constant storms were only the cherry on top of the damned cake.

A figure made its way through this hellhole, bundled in desert garments from head to toe. Not a single hair could be seen beneath that ridiculous bundle of a thousand layers of cloth. It served its purpose, though, so he bore with it. That figure? Me.

I should have taken the underground route, I cursed and would have cursed loudly, but the fear of sand filling my mouth kept said mouth shut.

But, believe it or not, the desert route was much safer as no one was ever using it. Most of the times, that is. I was the living exception. And I hoped I would still be a living exception by the time I finally arrived at that god forsaken hub of evil housing the scum of this damned world.

Oh yes, I didn’t know what the place was called. It most certainly wasn’t “Equestria”, though I would argue about that.

All I knew was that it was a city for the damned, the hated, the hunted, the different and the morally questionable. It was utopia and hell at the same time, depending on the view of point. If you were born a monster, didn’t belong anywhere, weren’t accepted by anyone, this was the place for you to go to. If you were born a normal person, or a normal pony, or a normal gryphon, or a normal variant of any of the thousands of sapient races populating this planet, you did not belong. Being one of the two only humans on this planet I knew of would hopefully warrant me an access.

That is, if I could find the place first. There weren’t exactly pointers telling “Go this way!” in the whole desert. I had a way of finding it, mind you, but it still was a chore not to get lost. And for all I knew, this place was housed underground, anyway. It’s been said that it used to be an old changeling hive, and still is, but that the changelings have made some kind of deal with the outside world. That’s supposedly how the place came to be.

I couldn’t care less. Or was it I could care less? Whatever.

With my mind occupied with these thoughts that probably helped me not go insane in the desert, I made my way ever onward, though I had to take frequent breaks. I was only human, after all. Well, maybe not so much anymore, but still a human at the core.

Because travelling is really boring, especially when passing through such monotonous landscape, I’ll skip to when I finally found the cave.

Finally, I beheld the tiptop of a small mountain framing the horizon. That was my destination. Somewhere at the foot of that mountain lay an entrance, a cave that would lead me to that nasty, dark “Dwarf Fortress”-esque underground city.

Fun.

I was getting more hungry, thirsty, and Thirsty by the second. The third being the most urgent. Nausea would hit me like a train wreck now and then, and it would always bring me to my knees. I had to find something, someone, and I had to do it soon.

Not half an hour later, the whole of the mountain stood before me. I had to circle around the mountain a little before I found the entrance. And when I did, four bodies greeted me. I could see a unicorn, a gryphon, a pony that was all black and strange, and the last one was a mix between a horse and a gryphon. A hippogryph.

“What?” The question escaped my lips. Why were they…?

Without further ado I took a grip of my mace.

“Took you long enough,” a voice answered my aggression. I had recognized his voice before I could see him.

A gryphon, plumage the color of faded beige, stepped into the light, the dark brown feather tips of his head plumage glistening in the harsh sun. He wore studded leather armor that was stained with blood now and then. A big sword, almost as long as his body from the base of his neck to the beginning of his tail, was strapped to his back. A smile made its way to his face and dark green eyes when he saw me, which looked really weird with the beak and all. Even after all this time, that damn smile still creeped me the hell out.

The gryphon stood up on his hind legs and stretched out while giving a small yawn, his right wing (from my point of view) spread out. His left wing was missing.

“How the hell did you get here sooner than me?” I asked him once I answered with a smile of my own. Causally, I sheathed my sword and made my way to him. “And how do you want to clean this mess?”

“Well, to answer your first question: it wasn’t as difficult as others made it out to be. I mean, yeah, there were some monsters and others that made it more difficult to pass, but it wasn’t a death trap as others had described. To answer the second question, I won’t.”

I stood there, my mouth opened a little. “Wait, so I went all across the harsh, damned desert, trying to avoid something that wasn’t really impassable? Are you f-in kidding me?!”

I definitely should have taken that underground route!

To which he just shrugged and said, “Hey, at least I prepared you a dinner.”

He picked the black pony up. It had holes in its legs, instead of fur it was covered in carapace, and it had a pair of dragonfly wings or something akin to that.

“Oh no," I sighed miserably. This was the least of favorite of the pony races. Even unicorns were better than this.

“Yes, this is indeed a changeling. I think I don’t need to introduce you,” he answered.

Memories of dealing with these disgusting creatures a few times before filled my mind.

I frowned. “Oh, yeah, you most definitely don’t have to.”

He said something similar to “Enjoy.” Before he went away so he wouldn’t have to look. I didn’t blame him. It was awesome to have this supernatural power and all, but the price for it was outrageous. Granted, I didn’t really have to do this, but time was not on my side.

Screams of the changeling went unheard through the sandstorm outside as I feasted upon him. While I would like to say I didn’t like it, some perverse joy still made its way to my heart. And, for all it was worth, I blamed the one responsible for this all. A certain lavender pony that didn’t heed the consequences of her actions.

There was no fanfare. No sense of satisfaction or feelings of power. No joy or contempt. There was only the lack of a nauseating feeling at the bottom of my stomach.

When the changeling was no more, I got up on my aching legs and followed my friend down into the cave and away from the rising storm. My Thirst has been quenched, for the time being.

“So, here it is,” the gryphon said as the warmth and light of Sun was replaced by fluorescent mushrooms and dampness. We were descending into the pit of madness that was the city beneath us; the city with its many routes and places to get lost, with corridors spanning the whole of desert like a labyrinth where one would find nothing but madness. Truly, the city of damned.

At least, that’s what I’d been said.

“Yeah, here it is. And it only took us only two years and something. I don’t count the time anymore.”

He squawked a little laugh, unheeding of the danger that lurked around us. I couldn’t see them, but my hearing was still good. And I knew that he could hear them too, being a superior predator and all that. The poor magician forgot to make “invisible” their heavy breathing. Probably rushed up here as soon as they could, which would take a toll on their stamina.

And, despite it all, the gryphon laughed.

It was a play, then.

“And all the trouble we went through,” he continued.

“Tell me about it!” I said a little too loudly, making sure they could hear us. “Especially the time when I lost my memory! How annoying was that ?!”

I could see his grin in the light of the mushrooms.

“Oh, hey! Look at this amazing shining mushroom. Isn’t it just… amazing?” I asked him and pointed to my right. We began examining a really interesting mushroom, our backs to the rest of the cave. We cooed over the unexciting thing until suddenly I could see Paul’s ear twitching. Well, more like the feathers that covered his ears, but whatever.

My right hand shot to the mace strapped to the belt above my right hip, and gripped it tightly, the toil-worn leather on the grip scratching the palm of my hand almost reassuringly; a small pain that belonged to the weapon. Slowly and inconspicuously, I pulled the mace out so that I could use it anytime I wanted.

And the time was now.

Paul and me both whirled around at the same time, his Big-ass Sword™ unsheathing gloriously, while my mace was already on its way to the closest hybrid trying to sneak up on us. The mace struck the air, and where just a second ago was nothing, a pony-goat flew against the opposite wall of the cavern.

There were three others, one of which was a unicorn hippogryph, its horn alight with sickly green color. My surprise attack seemed to have broken its concentration, but soon he and two earth ponies vanished once again. That didn’t make them any more invulnerable to the cleaving sword, now finally unsheathed, that sliced the air where they were standing

“You need a new sword,” I commented the sword dripping with red. It was dented and scratched and even chipped in some places, the whole thing having been used a lot. It wasn’t even that sharp anymore, and the blade got thinner and smaller as he tried to keep it sharp.

He shot me a look. He really liked the sword. “I think it’s going to work just fine.”

I waved a hand at him with a “Whatever!” and started to slowly go down the cavernous tunnel. I still smiled, though. And he knew that.

“You look so much happier now,” he commented as he managed to catch up with me after sheathing his sword. I stopped and looked at him.

“Well, yeah. I mean, we’re finally here, you know. This is what we’ve been striving for. This is the end!”

He suddenly got very serious, and with exaggerated pronunciation and a dramatic voice, said, “It’s the End Of All Things!”

I rolled my eyes and lightly slapped him at the back of his head.

“Shut up!”

He made a sound of extreme, exaggerated pain, but grinned all the same.

And we continued, leaving the slowly reappearing bodies behind.

He suddenly turned left and I followed him into a side tunnel which was shrouded in darkness. I couldn’t see anything but a distant light, so I immediately used my right hand to support myself against the wall to my right. It went straight without any bumps or turns until we entered another tunnel once again filled with shining mushrooms. Then we turned right and started descending again.

We walked some more for about another half an hour until we reached the end, and a pair of sentry guards greeted us. A diamond dog and a youngling dragon that stood on his hind legs, since he was still young enough that his anatomy allowed him to do so. They let us pass, both of them giving my friend a single nod. I nodded back, just because.

Then we entered the biggest cavern I’d ever seen. It was so huge that an entire city fit in it. A sea of small lights flickered across the bowl-like cavern below, where in the middle (and at the same time the lowest point of the city) a huge pillar stood. The pillar itself, made of the same stone as the rest of the cavern, reached up to the ceiling, supporting the incredible amount of stone above us from falling on our heads.

The chatter and barter of a busy city rebounded around the huge space, creating an echoing melody that was unlike anything I had ever heard. There were stairs built into the walls themselves to our left, and they led to city itself.

“This doesn’t look like a den for dangerous criminals,” I said. He smirked at me, the previous mood already banished far within our minds. The ignorance of our deeds was the only thing keeping our fragile friendship from falling apart.

“Kinda reminds you of a similar place, eh?”

We slowly descended by stairs (that took us about five whole minutes) into the city itself, until we reached the ground level and mingled into the crowd of different beings, hybrids, and creatures I’ve never seen before.

“I got this place in a tavern, since I figured it would take you a while to get here by desert, and because I knew you would be tired.” He stood close to me, his head raised and as close to my ear as he could get so that he wouldn’t have to over-yell the crowd, which was quite dense. I didn’t expect that. I expected half-abandoned, half-destroyed place that was filled with crazy criminals. Seems like I was wrong once again.

I tried to look nowhere as we walked. Looking into the eyes of others wasn’t something you did in such a dangerous crowd. It meant I couldn’t really see where we were going and what was around us, but at least I was alive.

Soon we reached a rather spacious building, its walls made of the same stone upon which we walked, but the roof was made of carefully-preserved wood. By a heavy door and a dim light of crystalight, a small shield with the picture of a keg full of beer clearly indicated what kind of place this was.

We entered through the heavy door, and soon we found ourselves in a busy tavern. The wooden ceiling above us was supported by four pillars creating a rectangle around the room. Around these pillars were stools and piles of hay and pillows that, in turn, stood around tables. Opposite the door was a small wooden bar, behind which stood a stallion, watching everything and nothing at the same time. To the left of the bar were stairs that led onto second floor where I presumed the rooms were.

The tables and seats were mostly occupied, and as my friend shut the door behind us, some heads turned to watch us, only to have them stare at me like I was some experiment. They didn’t stare long, though, and soon we were walking across the tavern to the upper floor and into one of the rooms.

Soon we were safely in, and I immediately fell into the nearest bed, my legs giving up on me.

“I need a small… rest,” I breathed out and closed my eyes, letting my aching limbs slowly throb with pain. Walking through a desert three days straight without sleeping wasn’t hard. It was downright impossible if it wasn’t for Dufus.

Thanks, I thought and let my mind wander.

It would be over soon, and the thought of it brought back the memories I had. Brought back memories of home… of my brother.

Oh, brother. Were the currents of this world kind to you? Were those who had you good to you? Where you ended up after we got here… was it nice there?

I tossed and turned, lost deep within my dreams of better times.