The Twelve Schools
Prologue: On The Run
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The cobblestone was barraged as frantic hooves laboured to escape, enchanted arrows raining from the sky and spewing forth torrents of flame and arcs of lightning.
“Quick! Down here!” Sombra stumbled slightly, almost letting go of the wounded Trixie laden on his back in his hast to catch up with the voice of Starswirl, echoing down from an alley off to the left of the street that he was charging down.
He moved as fast as he could without letting go of Trixie, who was now wheezing heavily upon his back as her wound was subjected to violent bounces brought about by their speedy escape.
“Its okay Trixie,” He mumbled back, “we'll make it out of here. I promise you we'll all be fine.”
The dark coated stallion made a sharp turn once he reached the darkened alley from where he heard his companion yelling earlier, once again almost losing Trixie to the cold street floor, only managing to grab her with his red magic aura as she was half way off of his cloaked back.
The moment he was off the street he ducked behind the only cover he could make out in the darkness; a lone pile of rubble, caused presumably by the fallen wall directly adjacent to it. Both buildings that made up the wall of the alley were in disrepair, although the one on the opposite side was in far worse condition, with boarded up holes along its side.
Among one of the wall’s decrepit planked barricades there was a familiar pony, the owner of the voice from before.
Starswirl waved a hoof, beckoning for Sombra to pass through one of the many, many holes in the wall and join him, something which he would do, if it weren't for the entire platoon of soldiers still running past the street he was on mere moments before. Luckily it seemed none of them saw him enter the dank, dark alleyway.
Sombra poked his head around the corner, only to pull it back quickly once seeing an amour clad pony looking right back at him. With any hope the soldier hadn't seen him but it was doubtful that he didn't notice him. Sombra’s breath held, and his heart hammered in his chest with enough force to allow him to feel his blood pump throughout his whole being.
The silence was unnerving; horrifying, even. With the passing of a tense few seconds with nary a movement at all, the guard galloped off after his comrades, allowing Sombra to let air into his aching and burning lungs. He pulled Trixie onto his stomach, looking over her bleeding form and briefly thinking of inspecting her wound. He thought better of it; she would be fine for a few more seconds until he was within the relative safety of the crumbling building.
With his ears standing at attention for even the slightest disturbance, Sombra slowly crawled out from behind the rubble to look down the alley into streets beyond. With a loving ease he lifted the catatonic blue mare onto his withers with his bright red magic, careful not to pull at the arrow stuck into her side.
Making sure that both Trixie’s and his cloak wouldn't get caught on the low hanging wooden planks, the dark grey unicorn began the arduous task of shuffling on his barrel through the dirt and dust covered floor. With a grunt of effort Sombra pushed himself clear of the barred entrance, feeling the weight on his back being liberated by the careful and delicate hooves of Starswirl as he looked over Trixie's haggard form.
“How is she?” Sombra asked in a quiet, worried whisper. “Will she be okay?”
Starswirl rolled Trixie onto her back before unclasping her dark cloak and placing it within his worn brown saddlebags. “She'll be fine,” he said, “we just need to get out of here.”
Sombra nodded and silently walked over to a smashed window with a cracked and creaking wooden frame, cautiously looking out onto the dim, moonlit streets below from his slightly elevated position. The slum district of Canterlot would normally have been filled with the poor and desperate but they had all most likely run off at the first sight of the royal guard. It left the buildings feeling more dead and abandoned than they normally were.
“What of the others,” Sombra called back, “did they make it out?”
The sounds of shuffling hooves and lightly clicking tools was heard, and moments later the arrow had been cut right down to the fur of Trixie's coat as Starswirl’s mediocre medical skills began removing the arrowhead from the smaller mare’s barrel. “...I don't know.” He finally admitted.
“Then the plan remains unchanged?” Sombra asked, slowly walking back over to the pair in the centre of the room. The room was dirty; cluttered remains of furniture and rubble piled up into mounds strewn about the dust coated floor, and as such he had to navigate over and around various obstructions.
The older pony looked up, watching Sombra lay down beside Trixie, placing a small kiss on her forehead and squeezing her hoof tightly. The blue mare’s breathing had returned to a regular rate after having the arrow removed, not fully healed yet safe enough for now.
Starswirl placed a comforting hoof over Sombra. “I told you she'll be fine,” He softly spoke, “we just need to get her to Zecora as soon as possible.”
“...I know...” Sombra spoke, voice distant as he stared at the sleeping unicorn. “Its just--”
Sombra's ears flicked. He barely had time to leap to the side as an enchanted arrow lodged into the wall in front of him, originating from the window he had just been looking out of moments before. It was glowing wildly and flashing a threatening red colour, sigils swirling angrily along its shaft with increasing speed.
Without any verbal communication between the two, Starswirl helped lift Trixie onto Sombra’s back as they prepared to run once again, Sombra being the physically stronger of the two. They galloped up what little was left to be called stairs, for they knew going outside on even ground with the guard outside would not end well.
More arrows sailed in from the walls, smashing brick and throwing rubble everywhere as they impacted the far wall. One arrow came very near to hitting Starswirl as it travelled through the air at near supersonic speeds and cut through his light blue cloak. With a hum of power the light grey unicorn’s horn activated, casting yellow dancing lights across the room as his magic aura began to coalesce into a large domed shield.
The first arrow detonated, blossoming a large fireball and sending out a shockwave of force that knocked Sombra of his hooves and made Starswirl’s horn flare brightly under the strain of holding the shield. Sombra collided with the unstable wall before him with a loud grunt of pain as all air vacated his lungs, falling to the floor clutching his barrel in discomfort.
Forcing himself to his hooves, Sombra looked around wildly once realising that Trixie was no longer on his withers. Losing her now would be devastating for him.
“Let's go!” Sombra’s head snapped towards the shout in alarm. There, standing further up the stairs carrying Trixie aloft with his magic was Starswirl, already turning around to run once seeing Sombra in good health.
Sombra did not hesitate to follow. With a burst of speed he charged up the stairs after the galloping Starswirl until they both made it onto the second floor. This room was in even more of a ruined state than the first floor, with a gaping hole in the floor where it had collapsed after being crushed by something that had fallen down from higher up, leaving the doorway to the upper levels inaccessible.
The second arrow exploded from below, sending a shower of wooden splinters into Sombra’s underbelly and Starswirl’s shield, shattering it. Sombra gritted his teeth in pain while Starswirl grasped his aching horn as their world shook from a third explosion, sending more shrapnel through the air.
Trixie had been dropped onto the creaky wooden floor panelling during he second explosion and was now lazily waking up, a lack of blood making it difficult for her to rouse. Both stallions went after her when the fourth arrow detonated, setting fire to the ground floor and breaking down one of the few remaining supports for the surprisingly tall structure.
“You get across, I'll pass her over to you.” Starswirl made a motion to indicate the large broken floor space, quickly picking up the mumbling Trixie.
Sombra nodded, dashing forward towards the gap. It would have been too great for a normal unicorn to jump, but for Sombra it wouldn't be a problem. While leaping into the air, bits of Sombra’s dark fur became little but a swirling, wispy fog of even darker smoke and shadow, more and more of him changing as he sailed over the flames below. Smoke billowed outwards once Sombra’s hooves hit solid ground again, forming himself into a tangible state once more as the remaining smoke dissipated.
“Quickly!” Sombra yelled as he spun around to face the older unicorn.
With a flick of his white-yellow magic Trixie was tossed across the gap towards Sombra’s awaiting hooves. He was forced to the floor as Trixie collided with him, using himself as a cushion to brace her rough landing. With a heave of effort he pulled her off of him and placed her gently on the steadily warming floor. By now smoke had begun filling the air, making it harder to see and dulling the ponies’ other senses.
Starswirl made a running start towards the drop. He leapt into the air, quickly making it clear that he would not make it if he didn't do something hastily. The air around his hooves glowed with power as Starswirl’s magic made a compensation to save him, forming a small, solid glowing platform of solidified magic. He kicked off into the air, shattering the platform in the process, filling the building with a resounding crack of power and a fizzle of energy.
With a thud Starswirl landed on the floor besides Sombra, who had by now pulled himself up and placed Trixie back upon him. Panting hard, both stallions stumbled towards the stairs leading to the next floor. The stairs were burning hot and threatening to burst into flame at any second, further spurring the two young ponies forward.
The new room was in little better condition than the last, with the key difference being the lack of flames as they had yet to spread this far up. It gave them a small amount of time to gather and plan their escape amongst the detritus across the dingy room. This room, too, was filled with holes, though in far less abundance than the previous two rooms.
With a loud boom and a crushing wave force the fifth arrow released its fury upon the building. The guard never spared any amount of force for their objectives it seemed. They definitely weren't worried about collateral damage.
The two unicorns were now presented with another problem. The room, now set alight in flame, was the highest in the building. They had no where else to go.
“Do you think you can teleport us out of here?” Sombra enquired, eyes darting around at the growing flames in steadily increasing anxiety.
“No, I don't have a target destination in mind and I don't have time to set up a ritual for a long distance teleport,” Starswirl sighed, turning to Sombra with a hopeful look in his eyes, “I don't have any tricks to get us out of here, but do you?”
Sombra examined the room further for any signs of escape. Nothing in the room would be useful in their situation, even had it been in a useable condition. The room was lacking any windows as it was likely a form of attic or storage room during its long gone prime.
They could always break through a wall.
“Hey Starswirl...” Sombra called back over his shoulder, remarkably calm all things considered, “do you think...”
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There was a loud crack and then the sound of flames as three ponies, one unconscious and in the grasp of another, came bursting forth from the side of an old building in the slum district of the high and mighty Canterlot, disturbing what little peace there to be had in the dirty streets and neglected buildings.
The ponies that were awake at this Creator-damned hour paid it no mind, keeping their distance. After all, if it’s something you don't know about and it involves guards, fire or any other hazardous things it was best to leave it be and continue with your day. Such is the ways of the low-lifes’ of high society.
The building could take no more abuse and promptly started caving in on itself, spewing copious amounts of flame into the cool night air as it teetered to the side from its midsection. The roof structure failed first, collapsing downwards and crushing what little remained of the original support structure, killing the already doomed construction.
The heat soared outwards, carried aloft by low winds in the dark. Embers fell upon the cobblestone and lit up like tiny flares, searing any and all it touched. Specks of light were sent scattering through the streets as ash and smoke was guided by nothing but hurried hoof steps and run down carriages to escape the danger so nearby. Fire was spreading to more buildings and it would not be long before practitioners of the more helpful arcane arts showed up to douse the blaze before it burnt down the whole city district.
Sombra hit the roof first. He met little resistance with the adjacent building and instead fell straight through into whatever lay beneath, Trixie in his tight hold. Starswirl was less fortunate, hitting the roof and sliding down its angled slope, pulling many of its shingles out with him in his descent.
At the last second Starswirl halted his painful death of fiery destruction by biting into the gutter pipe traversing the edge of the building’s roof, hitting the side wall with his momentum. The unicorn looked back at the tiles hitting the inferno beneath him, realising very clearly that that was almost him. Shakily he pulled himself up and onto his hooves, stumbling over to inspect the hole in which he saw Sombra fall into.
It was dark, hardly enough light to see the floor at all. From what he could see, Starswirl noted that both Trixie and Sombra were in good health for the time being, so long as the fire didn't spread too rapidly.
“Hey!” Starswirl shouted down over the din of flames in the background, making Sombra look up at him, “come on, we need to get going!”
“Alright! Alright! Help me get Trixie back up.” Sombra replied, already picking up said mare with his magic.
Trixie floating through the warm air in a red-turned-golden aura of magic as Starswirl pulled her up through the small hole and onto the slanted roof, careful not to let her fall into the raging fire below. Sombra followed suit and jumped, once more turning to shadow as he barely made the height, having to pull himself up onto the roof using naught but his forehooves.
“Alright let's go--” Sombra was cut off by pegasi guards approaching from the direction he was heading, nearly being hit by the non-enchanted arrows flying his way, “--the other way,” he finished quickly, ducking to avoid being impaled from more arrows flying overhead.
Starswirl concurred without a word.
They took off from the sloped roof, gracefully leaping from one building to the next in order to escape their pursuers. Sombra glided across on shadows and fog in elegant bounds while Starswirl flashed with golden energy, blinking between their realm and the next to transcend the meaning of distance.
Their chasers had an advantage, or two, in this case. They could all fly, and every time Starswirl blinked it wore him twice as much as it normally would as he was carrying for two, Trixie being under his care. It was beginning to show; ragged breaths came from the older pony, only getting worse with each jump. He was not a Master in the Aether arts, after all, and continuous use would wear him down.
Sombra, likewise, was having difficulty going on after overusing his chosen secondary magical study. He was by far faring better than his peer, only starting to feel the drain of energy as Starswirl began slowing down. Both realised they couldn't keep this up, for they knew that slowing down would be to suicide themselves to the guards’ arrows.
As one, they stopped mid-leap, coming short and falling down into another of the many dark alleys of Canterlot. Without words they linked hooves and the younger stallion turned to face the shadowed floor of the cobblestone pathway between buildings. They would hit it soon without anything to stop or slow their descent, and as such the guards stopped their assault to watch them perish as they fell.
Sombra made certain he held onto his two companions tightly, a gesture returned in kind by the only waking other.
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It had always been an awkward experience for Sombra, and likely always would be. Luckily, he had years to build tolerance to traversing the Shadow. Starswirl and Trixie were far less fortunate.
To them it felt unnatural, despite them believing in the nonexistence of such a concept. It felt so unreal; fake yet not, endless darkness within but a moment, to be whisked from one place to another through the trail of cessation and end. So violent yet gentle and disturbing was the journey that it awoke the sleeping mare, who was dazed and confused as to her surroundings.
Starswirl briefly mused that it must feel like this for others whenever he teleported them somewhere.
The room they had appeared in was in bad condition; they were still within the slum district, it seemed. It was actually occupied when they arrived, startled ponies hastily leaving was all Starswirl could see while his head spun from the odd experience.
Once he could see straight again, Starswirl noticed that the room was actually in better condition then he first thought. There were no holes in the walls, floor or ceiling, and only minor cracks could be spotted along the few windows that opened to the outside world from within the dark building. The floor itself was free of any rubble, dust or broken furniture.
Unlike the last building this one was rounded, roughly circular in shape, with two doors being the only visible way out, each at opposite ends of the room. Both looked to be barred and blocked with wooden beams and metal locks, for whatever reason Starswirl couldn't tell.
Sombra was already up and running towards a window. He didn't want to attract more guards so he hid himself in shadow, disappearing in an inky blackness of swirling nothingness. Starswirl and Trixie were only able to see him as that because they were bonded, along with the rest of their group, and they alone could see Sombra when he was like this. Down below Sombra could see the streets; they appeared to be on the third floor, making what few ponies could be seen look like little flytrs’, hiding amongst the shadows.
Trixie groggily got to her hooves, almost collapsing from the pain in her chest, “W-where are we?” She asked.
“I don't actually know to be honest,” Sombra called back to the two, not looking away from the window as he scanned for anything that might give away their position again. “I kind of just picked a random shadow and went for it. Not like we had much of a choice anyway.”
Trixie nodded lazily while Starswirl voiced his approval in the form of a quick, “Agreed.”
Upon further inspection, Starswirl noted that his medical skills were much better than he had originally thought. Trixie’s wound was largely gone, with only a small, thin little cut as evidence to its existence. That led him to wonder if it was his skills or Trixie’s magic that had healed her. While looking over towards the blue mare beside him for any other outstanding wounds she may have gained, Starswirl noticed a glint out of the corner of his eyes.
Above them, floating between the hanging light of the room and the ceiling, was a magical sprite. It hovered daintily across the air, its light green glow not quite bright enough to garner much attention unless one was extremely perceptive.
“Sombra... I think its time to go now...”
Curiosity piqued, Sombra turned away from the window and looked towards his fellow. “Why?” he asked, before noticing the sprite. His eyes widened in surprise. “Oh...”
Trixie, still quite thoroughly out of it, hadn't noticed the sprite yet, concentrating more on staying awake than observing her surroundings. She simply left her two companions to their own devices while she nursed her aching wounds.
Starswirl knew that they couldn't make another run for it, as did Sombra. Since escape by traditional means didn't seem plausible at this moment, Starswirl began preparations for an alternate escape.
The others could do nothing but wait for him to finish, not that Trixie could do much to help in her current state.
Starswirl pulled off his bags, bringing out some enchanted chalk and a single, green crystal. He went about drawing intricate patterns on the floor, patterns few could read and even fewer could use. Soon the floor was covered in a mix of swirling lines and geometric shapes. With a flash of his horn he moved the crystal to the centre of the markings and began to pour magic into the sigils before him, making them glow with a bright white light.
Sombra began pacing nervously; his sensitive ears could hear guards in the distance.
“How much longer?” Trixie asked anxiously.
“Just a little longer!” Starswirl gritted. By now his horn was a blinding cone of energy and the sigils were so full of power that they leaked into the air, filling it with an energising buzz.
With a blur of shadow and smoke Sombra appeared at the window again. Outside he could see the searchlights of the nearing guards flashing in the night, casting foreboding shadows that grew larger as they drew closer. They were just outside now, looking into windows along the street to try and find them.
“Starswirl!” Sombra yelled out.
“I'm trying! I'm trying!” Starswirl called back over the roaring sounds of magic that filled the air.
The guards could now hear the magic emanating from Starswirl and called to their fellows with shouts of ‘over here!’, and ‘this way!’, with loud clacks of hooves on stone being the indicator that they had been spotted. They didn't have much longer.
“Starswirl hurry!” Trixie weakly screamed out, as the first of the guards started banging on the doors in an effort to break in.
“Done!” He yelled back, just as his horn flashed one final time before the whole room was engulfed in a bright light that shone as brightly as the sun itself.
When the guards finally broke in they found nothing but a singular sprite, gently floating about before drifting towards a unicorns outstretched hoof, landing softly before being fizzled out of existence.
They had lost them.
Author's Note
Please leave all critiques, errors, compliments etc. down below. I want to know what you think of this story and your feedback is much appreciated.
Chapter One: Days Long Passed
The Twelve Schools
Chapter One: Days Long Past
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The forest was almost entirely silent, soft winds playing the leaves forming a quiet song that filled the air. Branches rustled gently, trees swaying smoothly in the twilight breeze and foliage shaking minutely from small creatures that passed by. All was peaceful within this forest, even the distant howls of wolves added an ambiance that soothed ones body and calmed ones mind.
It was soon to be disturbed. Seven little foals were running, frightened and afraid, both of what lay ahead and what they had left behind.
“Sombra stop! Please, we can't keep going!” Gilda yelled towards the small colt, taking deep breaths between her words. The young pegasus was panting deeply, as were the others that were now catching up to Sombra and Starswirl, who were the fastest on hoof out of the group.
“Yeah, we’re all too tired.” Trixie groaned, falling and stumbling over onto the soft grass.
Reluctantly, Starswirl stopped and looked over to his friends. They all looked very tired, and he too felt exhausted, emotionally and physically. He thought it would be a good idea to take a short rest, however Sombra had other ideas.
“C’mon guys! We have to keep going.” He said, stopping to beckon them onwards, deeper into the forest, away from what they had forsaken.
Starswirl glared at him. “Sombra!” He yelled, “we can't keep going like thi--”
“You know what’s back there Starswirl!” Sombra cut in, pointing in the direction they had been running from. “We have to--”
“No, we don’t!” Starswirl shouted, turning to his face his friend directly. “We’re all exhausted, Zecora is hurt, and just look at the state of Nightmare!” He jabbed a hoof in the direction of the dark coated pegasus, glaring at Sombra and fuming over his stubbornness.
Sombra looked to Nightmare for the first time since they had all started running from the orphanage. She wasn’t looking too good. She was silent, almost deathly still and not moving a single muscle. Tears were streaking down her face, mixing with the blood that soaked her barrel, blood that was not of her own. She was being comforted by Chrysalis, the nature pony rubbing her back soothingly to help calm her down.
Sombra stared at the sight for the longest while, several different emotions battling to show on his face. “Fine.” He finally breathed, looking away from the others, “but only for a short time, okay. Then...then we will move again.” He added. Starswirl merely nodded in acknowledgement before slowly trotting over to his other friends, leaving Sombra for the moment.
The part of the forest that they had stopped in was largely flat, little roots being the only thing breaking the smooth monotony of the plant covered ground. The trees were tall and foreboding, dwarfing the little foals considerably. The bark was rough and dark, seemingly casting shadows in the dim light of the evening sky. Moss and other such flora grew and thrived upon the harsh bark, making the otherwise spooky tree look lively.
“...I'm sorry...” Sombra mumbled, barely audible to the others in the vicinity.
“Sombra...” Gilda started, unsure of what to say next. She looked to the ground while the others watched silently, as if gazing at the forest floor would reveal the words she wished to speak. “It's been a hard day for all of us...” She finally decided, “we all know you only want to help but sometimes you push too much.”
Sombra merely looked away in shame. He knew he could be a bit harsh at times but he really wanted what was best for them all, even if he occasionally went beyond what was necessary. “Okay...” he mumbled at last, even more quiet than before.
The others had yet to say anything, opting to just savour their resting period while they could. Nightmare was still in a state of shock and Chrysalis was busy trying to make her feel better. Zecora ambled around the others silently, nursing a nasty gash that ran across her side, cutting deep into her barrel. Trixie was the only one that sported no wounds at all, minor or otherwise, and was gaining her breath back while she laid down on a patch of vibrant pink flowers.
Starswirl was away from the group, over by a tree that was nearest to Sombra, silently observing the events before him. He realised that, despite his overzealous actions, Sombra was right; they did need to get going soon. He didn't want to think about what would happen if they got caught and sent back, especially after what Nightmare did...
Suddenly the howling wolves sounded much closer. The foals jumped, startled by the sudden noise. They began looking around at the trees surrounding them in fear, slowly gravitating towards each other in the centre of the small clearing.
Another howl sounded directly behind them. It couldn't have been more than forty metres away from them.
“Guys...” Sombra said quietly, “I think its time to go now.”
Before any of them could move a single muscle a loud rumble swept through the air, followed by a loud crack. This situation was quickly getting out of their hooves and rain was the last thing they needed right now, especially if it was a thunderstorm like it sounded to be.
As if summoned by the storm itself, which they very well could have been, the wolves leapt out from behind the trees and vines, growling menacingly at the foals which had entered their domain. They were not like the normal wolves that hunted in the woodlands of Elyriir. Instead of flesh and blood like other wolves, these wolves had only magic and stone forming their bodies. With every movement they made, harsh sounds of rock grinding against rock filled the air, further accentuated by a buzzing energy that invaded the surroundings as arcs of lightning danced along the wolves’ forms, most heavily concentrated around their eyes and claws.
The foals were terrified. There was no way they could outrun the buzz hounds and their rudimentary lessons on combat magic wouldn't be enough to take on four of them at once. There was nothing they could do in this situation, other than huddle close to each other in fear and hold each other tightly as the wolves approached.
A flash of light temporarily blinded the foals as lightning struck right beside the buzz hounds, causing bright electricity to web outwards, sizzling the earth and burning the plants in its path. By the time the foals had managed to blink the dots from their eyes a new creature had appeared.
There, standing between them and the buzz hounds, was...something. It was tall, standing over two full grown ponies in height. Its appearance was similar to that of a swirling plethora of shadows and darkness that twisted and turned in such a way that it hurt their eyes to look at it for too long. It possessed long claws and had large, tendril-like appendages on its back, slashing through the air with great fervour. A long, serpentine tail flicked through the air behind it, coming within centimetres of the scared foals. It eyes were the worst; dark pits that weren’t, streaking endless torrents of fell magic from within that glowed with a sickly green colour. It claws flashed with red flames as it growled, a sickly sound akin to an ear-splitting screech yet somehow managing to remain deep and guttural.
The foals were frozen in fear at the new arrival. This new creature was even more terrifying than the buzz hounds, and by far the most horrifying aspect was that when the creature spoke it wasn’t through any vocal organs. No, it was projected straight into their minds.
With another growl that sent shivers through their very being, the creature leapt forward towards the buzz hounds, leaving the foals to watch in silence. The creature landed on top of the closest wolf, breaking its stone back with a crack of shattering rock. It flicked its smokey tail and rammed it straight through the hound’s neck, not disturbing the rock but rather tainting the magic that flowed through the wolf.
The other three buzz hounds lunged at the dark creature, trying to sink their sharp fangs into flesh that wasn't there to begin with. Loud crunches sounded throughout the forest as the hounds’ teeth met nothing but its fellow, only succeeding in breaking the stony protrusions.
The dark creature was annoyed by this and flew upwards like a plume of smoke before landing a short distance away from the remaining wolves, the one it had attacked now no more than a pile of rocks and rubble, flickering with small remains of electricity. It turned to face the three wolves who in turn snarled maliciously at it, a nasty sound similar to arcing electricity through the air.
With a roar that left the foals clutching their heads with their hooves the creature surged forwards, more floating than galloping. With a crack of lightning the creature collided with a hound that had jumped at it, sending electricity and smoke in all directions. They bit, clawed, and shot arcane blasts of lightning and shadow at each other, blasting away pieces of their opponent. In the end the shadow creature was the victor.
With another brain-aching snarl the shadow creature smacked its tail into the back of the wounded wolf, shattering it and sending stones hurtling towards the ground where they bounced and rolled away harmlessly. It looked to the other two wolves. Both looked younger than their deceased fellows, a fact made apparent by the rocks that floated between their claws and their chest; they hadn't completely filled in their limbs yet. They were still just as deadly.
With a swiftness that surprised the shadow creature they lunged again, this time as one rather than alone. The dark creature stood its ground and the tendrils on its back swatted at one angrily, breaking it to pieces. The other wolf it managed to swipe with a tendril as well, only this time it didn't kill it instantly. The wolf growled at being smacked away from its prey.
Arcs of blinding electricity surged through the air, causing the foals to stumble backwards and fall to their rumps. The shadow was hit directly and for the first time it was actually wounded. Its tendrils fell dead to the floor, quickly disappearing into nothingness.
All was silent. Thunder rumbled. It started to rain.
The shadow looked to where its appendages had rested. Beyond that it didn't move. Slowly -- oh so agonisingly slowly it moved, barely tilting its head to look at the wolf, who was now growling fiercely and pacing back and forth in front of the creature.
It moved too fast for the foals to comprehend, and it caused Zecora to cry out in pain in light of her precognitive abilities. For but a mere moment it moved faster than even time itself. Such a feat should not have been possible, and Starswirl, behind the fear and shock, was thinking much the same.
The animated rocks that comprised the wolf were no longer animated. Instead they were a smouldering pile of rubble that had been blackened by the red witchfyre that coated the shadow creature’s claws. It was most definitely dead.
The group froze when the creature turned towards them slowly, just like it had done before it killed the wolf.
A chill seemed to permeate the air as the creature began laughing, sounding like nothing the foals had ever heard before. It hurt their heads to just listen to it, listen being a term used very loosely.
They all screamed and ran into the forest, sounds of thunder rending the air and lightning striking the earth.
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It was no longer silent. Booming thunder split the forest, lightning flashed blindingly, howling winds whipped at the trees, and the fillies and colts running though the forest were being pelted by a constant stream of frigid rain. They were cold. They were afraid. They were very, very lost.
Their breathing was deep and ragged, coming out in quick, deep gulps. Zecora, Nightmare, and Trixie were the worst off, either not physically inclined or wounded.
Lightning flashed again and a giant, overarching tree caught fire. It was unable to spread far due to the rain that pounded it from the heavens above, but that didn’t stop it from trying, futilely attempting to consume the thin forest canopy it was on.
Trixie tripped on a small root jutting out from the ground, falling into a dip in the ground that led an even darker pit. She rolled down the gentle but slippery slope in a rather violent fashion, landing awkwardly on her hooves. Something cracked, almost inaudible against the fury of the storm.
“Trixie!” Gilda screeched, garnering the attention of her friends who stopped to see what was wrong, eyes widening once seeing Trixie. She was down a little slope made of rock, little vines entwined with jutting stones along the path down. It was covered over with low-hanging tree branches, low enough that a grown pony would have to crawl but a filly or colt could walk under with little worry.
“O-ow...” Trixie whimpered quietly, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. She held one of her front legs with the other, splayed over on her side as she was.
The others were quick to race back after hearing Gilda’s cry of worry, all gathering under the overhanging tree branches that Trixie had been running through, careful not to fall down into the small dip.
“Hold on Trixie!” Chrysalis was the first to respond, hastily making her way over to her downed friend, sliding carefully down the wet rocks on her hooves. She gained a few cuts and bruises for her efforts but that didn’t matter to her, not while her friend was in pain.
The others were quick to follow in her hoofsteps, sliding down ungracefully or, in Gilda’s and Nightmare’s case, flying down, surrounding their hurt friend and trying not to panic. First Zecora and now Trixie too. They needed to get them someplace safe, somewhere where they couldn’t get their wounds infected or worse.
“Can you walk?” Starswirl asked quickly, voice full of concern.
“I - I think so.” She spoke weakly, trying to stand up but quickly falling down with a yelp of pain.
Looking around, Sombra quickly took charge of the situation, “Gilda,” he said, getting her attention, “I need you and Chrysalis to carry her. Me and Starswirl will try and lighten her with our magic. Okay?”
With a nod Gilda trotted over to Trixie and carefully picked up her front legs, manoeuvring her with her wings and resting her half across her back while Chrysalis did the same with her back half, letting Trixie lean on both of them at once. The blue coated mare shone with a mixture of golden-white and scarlet, alleviating a bit of her weight.
“Where to now Sombra?” Starswirl asked, only slightly straining with the weight of holding his unicorn friend.
“That way.” He pointed, showing the others a dark stone tunnel leading into darkness.
The group hesitated only briefly before slowly making way towards the tunnel, carrying a whimpering Trixie with them. Starswirl led the way with Zecora as his magic was much more suited to lessen the darkness, leaving Nightmare at the back with Sombra.
It was slow progress, especially when the tunnel started descending with a steeper angle than before. More than once had they almost slipped over little rivulets of water pooling from the rain above them, forcing them to pay closer attention to their hoofing. Little fungal growths began appearing on the walls of the tunnel, glowing with a soft, almost calming purple light; a shade of the most beautiful magenta, almost indescribable to the foals.
Before long the tunnel started to widen, slowly at first, but then suddenly opening up into a miniature cavern of sorts. With a start Starswirl and Zecora realised their hooves made a clacking sound rather than the gentle splashes of water they made when trotting down the tunnel. They could hardly see a thing, so Starswirl sought to remedy that. Moments later his horn flared brightly and started producing enough light to see better in their environment.
It was strange; they had stumbled upon solid rock surface, a smooth, grey, and perfectly finished stone. It didn't even have any chips in it, nor any sign of the corroding influence of time. On its surface there were intricate engravings, magical in nature, if they had to guess. Two small aqueducts ran parallel to each other down the sides of the floor, off to the very sides of the cavern. They were each full of lightly running water, filled from the rivulets that pooled into them with a soft, constant sound of running water.
The others slowly came to a stop besides the duo, taking in the room they found themselves in. “I knew we could get out of the rain but I didn't expect this.” Sombra said, looking around at the others, who either shrugged or didn't respond at all, too busy looking at the strange chamber.
“Come on.” Zecora intoned, walking forwards. She went for an archway on the opposite side of the cavern. It was old and showed signs of decay, unlike the floor, with its carved wooden door fallen to the ground and crumbling with age. Strangely, the stone foundations themselves were intact, just like the floor.
Without a word the others followed behind. Beyond the archway and fallen doors was a hallway, mostly barren besides intricate carvings in the stone and little metal dishes hanging from chains, once serving as a form of illumination but now little more than rusty scrap. They could see an end to the hallway in the form of a split passage: one going to the right, one going to the left, and one going straight forward but downwards, if the light from Starswirl could be reliable.
“What is this place?” Zecora asked quietly. She was examining one of the fallen dishes before noticing that the others were still walking forwards. Without a sound she replaced the old fixture on the ground before hastily trotting back to them, silently looking from one carving to the next in awe as she moved.
“I have no idea,” Chrysalis replied, her warm voice echoing slightly against the stone. “It looks like some kind of old ruin, but I've never seen one like this before.”
“Me neither. Or read about one like this for that matter,” Gilda replied.
“When have you ever even seen an ancient ruin Chrissy?” Sombra called back over his shoulder, looking away from a strange shining crystal on the floor. He picked it up and placed it gently on a folded rag that was on the floor besides it, before he turned and caught up with Gilda.
“Once I found a small, crumbled pillar outside the mountains of the valley. There was little more than broken stone and rusted steel, nothing like this.”
“When was this?” Starswirl asked while pointing his horn down the stairs. They all came to the conclusion that going in a straight line would be easier than going left or right; they could explore later.
“Almost two years ago. It was before I got taken in by the orphanage, you see. Didn't have much time to do any exploring around it though.”
“And why was that?” Gilda asked after breathing a light groan of exhaustion.
“Horned Ones.”
“Oh...”
The conversation stopped after that, the silence dragging on for minutes. The only sound was Trixie’s heavy breathing and the sound of their hooves clopping against the masonry beneath them. Unbelievably, there was actually some light coming from the bottom of the staircase, glowing with a multicoloured, ever changing light.
The light was coming from one of the dishes, as they discovered once they reached the end of the stairs, a dish that had somehow survived the ravages of time and the decay of the elements. It was clearly magical in nature, with a bright licking flame that didn't actually burn in the dish but rather slightly above it. The strangest part was that whenever they looked away the flame it would change colour, and none of them saw the same colour at the same time.
Magic indeed.
Zecora was carrying the small dish by the chain. After having pulled it off the wall she found that it didn't actually produce any kind of heat, but rather just provided luminescence, which was useful now and for which Starswirl was grateful as his magic was starting to make him weary.
The new hallway they had found themselves in was longer than the last, and had regular, symmetric doorways on either side all the way down, all the way down to the end where it appeared to end in a chamber, a much larger chamber. Each doorway -- those with doors that were destroyed enough to see beyond -- held something similar, at least in relation to each adjacent doorway. They either contained a room with varying furnishings and design, or had stairs that led even further down into the earth.
The end doorway was the most intricate in its patterns. It consisted of many geometric shapes joined together to make a swirling line that travelled all the way along the arch of the doorframe. The doors were by far the most preserved although they still were in a state of disrepair, with large cracks in the wood running down the length of each piece of timber and burn marks marring the rest. It looked like something had blasted the doors outwards, ripping them from the frame in the process.
With a glance the group passed the wreckage and moved under the archway in silence. The room was large, the largest they had seen so far, in fact. It was large enough that the light only managed to bring barely a quarter of the whole room into focus, leaving the rest dimly lit and hard to make out.
The room was circular in shape, with seven evenly spaced doorways leading into other halls, some hidden away behind oak doors. Towards the space where an eighth door should have been there was a pit, a pit that looked to go all the way down into the Night Realm, if not further. A little ledge protruded from the hole in the floor, pointing outwards and slightly upwards, with moss and vines growing along its length. On top it had a pedestal with an object on it that the group couldn't make out due to the harsh shadows in the chamber.
Directly above the pit there was a hole that went straight up into the sky, letting in the blue moonlight and a cool night breeze. The light was disrupted by shrubs, trees and other flora that grew along the walls of the shaft. Due to the way the stone receded outwards the further it went up, the foals couldn't make out where the shaft pierced the surface, or how far up it went. Rain water cascaded down the shaft in the form of a brilliant waterfall, or it could have been a regular waterfall that fell there all the time, they couldn't tell. Drops of rain fell down the tunnel and into the pit, some even landing upon the ledge of stone.
The little illumination provided by the dish and the moonlight was enough to make out the curved wall of sigils and runes of all kinds on the wall opposite the protruding ledge, the light even bright enough to make out individual symbols due to its proximity to the open shaft of light.
The aqueducts, which had traversed all the way down with them since the first door, led straight to the pit where it cascaded off of the edge and into the abyss, showering water along the adjacent wall of the drop. Similar aqueducts came from all oft he other doorways, each, too, falling into the dark bottom, leaving the room with a feel of tranquility and making the room look a little segmented.
“Yeah, this definitely isn't like any ruin I've ever heard of.” Gilda looked to the others, “how about you guys?”
“Nope,” Sombra answered, while the others simply shook their heads or walked over to one of the walls between the doorways to examine it.
“What is this place?” Trixie asked weakly.
“I have no idea, Trix.” Starswirl spoke, shaking his head slightly, “I don't even know what this room could have been used for, let alone the entire structure.”
“Guys, here. We can put Trixie down on this.”
The others looked to the sound of Nightmare’s soft voice, having spoken for the first time since leaving. She was floating a small, dirtied and aged quilt with her dark blue magic. She placed it gently against a small pile of broken stone to allow some support for Trixie when she would lay down on it.
With a grunt Chrysalis and Gilda carefully lowered Trixie onto the makeshift bed and allowed her to get comfortable. The blue mare rolled until she was facing the stone ceiling, hurt hoof clutched by her good one. She got her first good look at her surroundings; before she had been busy blinking away tears while trying not to cry out in pain.
Chrysalis set about looking over Trixie’s leg, as she was the most skilled healer amongst the group, besides Zecora who also needed help. She looked over the small appendage before taking it in her magical grasp. It was a clean break, and luckily the bone hadn't protruded from her skin, so it shouldn't be too hard to fix with her expertise. Still, she wouldn't be doing any intense running for a while.
“Guys, can you find me something to make a splint?” It wasn't for the broken bone itself, as that would be fixed with her magic. Rather, once she healed her bone it would be extremely fragile and would need to remain in a splint for a few days minimum.
With a nod to her friend Gilda trotted off into the dark hallway they had come from, taking the burning dish from Zecora as she passed her.
“W-where are we?” Trixie asked feebly, curiously examining her new surroundings.
“We've been asking the same thing.” Starswirl was over by one of the walls. They were amazing, covered in runes and symbols that definitely had a magical origin. “None of us have ever seen anything like this before. What about you?”
“What?” She asked, confused.
Starswirl looked over to Trixie from across the room, eyebrow raised in curiosity. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”
Trixie took a moment to think about that. Sure, she had seen a few ruins, even the Old Sigil Stone itself, but never anything to the degree of what was in this cave. “No.”
“Yeah, I didn't think you would've.” Sombra cut in, “It looks way too old to be any Sigil ruins, and too old to be anything left behind from the Alicorn wars.” He shook his head. “Whatever this place is it predates anything I've ever learnt about, how about you guys? Have you ever learnt anything about ruins as old as these?” He looked between his friends.
Nightmare remained silent. Trixie merely shook her head and Chrysalis was too busy fussing over her to respond. Starswirl and Zecora simply said: “No.”
It was quiet after that, only the sounds of falling water in the air to break the silence. They didn't really know what to do at this point. The only thing they could really do at the moment was explore the ruins while they waited for the rain to cease outside. And that line of thought brought them somewhere else entirely. What exactly were they going to do? They had left everything, their whole lives, behind.
“I think I got enough for you Chrissy; those rooms are full of stuff.” Gilda trotted in with an old blanket and rusted steel pegs laid out across her withers, looking over to Chrysalis with a slight smile of achievement on her face. She looked down to the floor for a second and brought a hoof to her muzzle in thought. “Although, it took me a while to find anything useful. The first three rooms I entered either had strange walls of runes or massive shelves of books. They were all preserved as well, strangely enough.”
“What preserved them?” Starswirl queried.
She paused then shrugged her wings. “I dunno.”
Gilda dumped the rags besides Chrysalis, who was now stroking Trixie to comfort her. It landed on the floor with a bang as bits of ancient metal pieces fell to the ground, particles of rust floating gently onto the stone. Some fell into the closest aqueduct, falling off the edge, never to be seen again.
Chrysalis looked up from Trixie, the little filly almost asleep around her hoof. “Thank you, Gilda.” She spoke quietly. She looked down to the little blue unicorn wrapped around her hoof. Trixie was the youngest of them all, by at least three years. It was difficult to tell as none of them knew their birth dates and so had to approximate by comparing themselves with other foals their size, something which didn't really work out all that well for them.
Gilda silently laid down besides the black coated nature pony, watching intently as she weaved the materials she had gathered into a splint with her emerald magic. With an almost expert grace the splint was finished and quickly placed on Trixie’s leg, tied on tightly with a torn piece of cloth. Chrysalis had made sure to clean everything with a purge spell before setting it anywhere near Trixie.
“Is it done?”
Chrysalis smiled warmly. “Yes it's done Trixie.”
“Hey guys, there's a book on this pedestal.” The trio turned to look to the intruding voice, finding Sombra trotting towards the stone pedestal resting upon the protruding rock structure overhanging above the drop. Indeed there was a book.
Sombra blew a gust of air over the book, sending dust into the air. It was a strange book. None of them could place the material on the cover; it looked to be anywhere between leather and parchment, yet somehow looked like neither. It was also magical in nature, they all thought, as on the cover laid an intricate pattern of twelve circles. Each one had a smaller circle within itself, lined with strange sigils and runes, with lines -- both straight and curved -- passing through, around, and over each set of circles. It wasn't static either; every time they looked at it the pattern would rearrange, never having one set of runic circles in the same place, nor with the same size.
Sombra slowly trotted up to the short little pedestal. It, too, like its surroundings, had intricate carvings down its length, much more sophisticated and complex than the ones on the walls. They depicted stories of magic and wisdom, transcended beyond the ages. Vines snaked their way over the whole thing in a vain attempt to break the structure’s beauty, but instead it only made it seem more mystical.
The book was offset slightly, fallen from its proper place on the podium. It was a barely noticeable thing, just pushed forwards by less than half a hoof in length, tilted at an odd angle. All it would take was a slight tap to set it in place...
“Wait, Sombra stop!”
It was too late. He didn't hear Gilda’s cry in time. He was already pushing it, had already pushed it. It fell in place with a soft clink of metal hitting stone.
At first nothing happened. Then the book exploded in a blinding burst of cyan energy, filling the room with an expanding spherical corona. The dishes -- whether broken and on the old floor or hanging vigilantly -- burst into sudden life, filling the whole ruin with an eerie ever-changing light. The walls lit up with living, magical runes that floated a few centimetres away from the stone surface, drifting gently on some unseen wind. The pattern of aqueducts throughout the floor started spewing out small particles of light of the same colour as the initial blast, making the pit and the room glow with a cool blue hue.
It stopped as quickly as it came, leaving everything how it was hundreds, maybe even thousands of years ago, when the ruins were in their prime. The room was now more than adequately lit to see everything, light pouring from the dishes and the pit alike, illuminating the detritus that had previously been unseen by the foals.
There were skeletons on the floor. Some clutched scrolls or books in their last moments, their most beloved possessions. Some were held within the embrace of their loved ones. More horrifyingly, some were a lot more recent than others.
Trixie was the first to react outwardly, screaming and scrambling backwards away from the nearest dead pony. She rolled over hastily and made for a mad dash only to find her vision blocked by one of the floating patterns. She froze, mesmerised. It was beautiful. She should... She should...
Touch it.
She didn't even hear her friends shout of worry; her world nothing more than primal sensations that she just couldn't understand. Fleeting, emotions and senses flashed briefly before flickering into nothing, coming to her in torrents of feeling.
And then her world went dark.
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Confusion, pain, worry, fear; all emotions Trixie could make little sense of. She couldn't find the will to rationalise her state of being let alone come up with something as complex as understanding thoughts, sights or sounds. Distantly, she felt that she could hear screaming. No, it was coming from all sides, she realised.
By the time she had pulled together enough of her mental faculties the first thing she saw was a sharp, gleaming metal sword swinging right towards her face. With a limb not of her own she brought up her own sword to parry the attack, swords clashing together with the sound of harsh scraping steel as she quickly used the opening to rend the assaulting ponies barrel, dropping him to the ground in a puddle of his own blood.
“Yaagghh!” She spun, facing another charging pony, but this time she could make out more of the details of her attacker. He was a stallion, a nature pony, unless he possessed wings that were concealed. He wore crude, barbaric amour fashioned from the bones of his slain enemies. He held a wicked looking curved blade within a dark green aura of magic, which he was swinging down while using his shield to protect himself from a pony attacking his side.
Suddenly Trixie found herself in control of her body, just as she was about to be sliced in half. With a scream of terror Trixie threw her own sword at the attacker, luck seemingly with her it struck him in the head and sent him falling.
What? What?! What are you doing to me? Let me go!
Trixie stumbled, “W-what?” The voice came from everywhere at once. It was a whisper in the wind yet a voice as loud as the pounding of drums. It left her feeling more confused than ever before.
Let me handle this!
Before Trixie could voice her confusion she felt her body become lost to her again, just in time for the savage pony to get back up on his hooves, releasing another feral scream in the process. He raised his sword, along with the one Trixie had thrown at him, brandishing both as he charged forward.
With a scream that wasn't her own, Trixie felt herself charge to meet the savage halfway. With a start Trixie felt something new and unfamiliar spring from her sides, launching her into the air. She flipped through the air in a stunt that made her nauseous and sick in the stomach, which was busy doing flips and sliding around inside her.
The not-Trixie landed on the other pony, using her momentum to flip the stallion over and into the beaten dirt that served as their battlefield. A crunch sound was the first thing Trixie registered after stopping her mind from spinning. A crunch, followed by a wet warmth around her hooves. Looking down proved to be a mistake on Trixie’s part, who now had control over the not-Trixie again.
There was so much blood. So much.
The not-Trixie’s hooves had crushed the stallion’s...something, for Trixie didn't dare look for anything more than a quick glance...still long enough to leave the blood in her mind. She had to stop herself from losing her lunch at the sight. It was like what happened to Nightmare, although she wasn't there to see what had happened, the others just told her that it wasn't nice and then they ran. She could understand what they meant now.
She zoned out after that thought, nothing held any meaning to her any more. Her surroundings vanished, the shouts of death vanished, the clash of swords vanished. Everything ceased to exist. Right up until Trixie found herself staring at her hooves.
Trixie morbidly noted that her hooves were a beautiful lime green colour, now painted a thick, glossy red. She wanted to feel sickened but she just couldn't, all she felt was...strange, and not in any way she would be able to describe. Hollow would be a close approximation to what she felt at that moment.
What are you doing? If you don't move we're both going to die!
She did not move, content to just stare at the blood on her hooves. Blood that she, in a sense, took away from another pony, another living, intelligent creature. She felt herself lose control again and merely watched as the not-Trixie fought and killed to stay alive, unable to avert her attention elsewhere.
She lost count of how many fell to this mare she was somehow inside of, this warrior pegasus. The savage ponies charged endlessly, only to fall to the pegasus warrior she resided within. It was only when a searing, white-hot pain lanced into her side did Trixie snap back into reality with a scream of agony.
It was a strange sensation, having a wing broken, especially if the one having such sensations had never possessed a pair of wings before.
A crunch resounded as the bones in not-Trixie’s left wing shattered under the blow of a large, spiked war hammer. It was almost as bad as having the other voice scream in agony, which was only akin to that of the shadow creature that killed the buzz hounds, only this time it was being projected from inside Trixie’s head.
Not-Trixie fell to the ground in pain, too brutalised both mentally and physically to stand back up and continue fighting.
Ah! My wing...my wing...my wing...oh gods my wing!
They were dying. The wound had shattered not-Trixie’s wing but it had also caused several large lacerations across her back. Their murderer was standing over them, ready to finish them off with her savage, bone-riddled war hammer. She raised it above her head to strike at them, floating it in a dark magenta aura of magic, but before she could land a blow something happened that neither of them could see from their angle on the floor, laying down besides corpses of allies and slain enemies alike.
The battle had all but quietened down, and everyone was looking towards the centre of the war zone, where a large fortress-like structure towered above all. Arcs of magical electricity of all shades of colours were flying through the air around the giant structure, filling everyone's eardrums with the sound of crackling lightning. A bright beam of green energy shot down from the heavens at incomprehensible speeds before impacting the fortress.
Then everything became a blinding white, before becoming nothing at all.
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She was a little confused as to what just happened, to be honest. One moment she had been in the middle of the battlefield and the next she was paralysed and with a presence stuck within her. It had all gone so fast that it made it a little difficult for her to process it. And now, dazed and confused, she was splayed across the floor, which appeared to be nothing more than shimmering light that phased between solid ground and nothing at all in a continuous cycle.
There was a distinct lack of a ceiling as well, or any sort of surroundings for that matter, with the exception of the strange, ethereal -- possibly magical -- floor. The thought crossed her mind that this might be an afterlife of sorts. Sure, she had seen a lot of evidence for the existence of souls, being a High Mage herself, but she had never really believed in anything beyond that either. Now that she thought about it she realised she hadn't really put much of any kind of thought into it, since she always seemed to be preoccupied with more troubling matters than her own life and what happened thereafter.
Still, she was here now. She might as well try to make sense of her situation.
With a grunt of effort she rolled onto her hooves and shakily stood up. One thing was for sure, she realised; that she was absolutely exhausted. Nothing too concerning since she had just left a battle zone...moments ago? Hours ago? She wasn't sure. It felt like a large amount of time had passed...yet it didn't. Such feelings were often associated with time travel, she realised with a start, something only the highest grade of chronomancers could ever hope to achieve. Just who -- or what -- had possessed her?
Forcing all troubling thoughts aside with a quick shake of her head, the pegasus strode forward in what she reasoned to be the best direction to take; an area of structures that seemed out-of-place among the vast, empty blackness that was her surroundings.
As she got closer she realised that the buildings got more detailed and closely spaced the further she went in that direction. The buildings themselves seemed very odd as well. It wasn't that any of the buildings were strange, more so that, once placed together, they seemed...weird, like they came from completely different eras of architecture and design.
A sound filled her ears after a while of walking through the buildings, too faint for her to make out what it was at first but then she heard it. Crying.
She increased her pace to her fastest gallop and headed in the direction of the crying, which got steadily louder the further she went. Her hooves made no sound as she raced past the numerous buildings that dotted the void. The only thought in her mind was finding that pony, or whatever creature was making that sound.
She almost fell over when she stopped before the pony. She was just a filly, no more than six years old at the most, bawling her eyes out on the floor while curling up like a small ball of blue fur.
Immediately her maternal instincts kicked in, forcing her to gallop to the little blue unicorn. The sound of her hooves caught the attention of the little filly as she approached hastily, making her back peddle in fear with an expression of terror on her face.
“No! Don't worry dear, I'm not here to hurt you,” she spoke in the most soothing voice she could manage, attempting to calm the scared little unicorn. It succeeded in getting her to stop her retreat and look back up to the pegasus.
“W-what do you w-want?” Trixie asked shakily.
“I just want to talk to you,” the pegasus said soothingly, lying down on the ground, “is that okay?”
At first Trixie was quiet, not moving a single muscle. Then, with a little, shaky nod, she sat down in front of the older mare, never once taking her eyes off of her. After a few moments of nothing but Trixie silently shuffling her hooves nervously the older mare finally spoke up.
“Now then,” she gave Trixie a warm smile, “what's your name little one?”
“I-it's Trixie,” she mumbled, wiping the tears from her eyes a hoof.
“I see, and why are you crying exactly?”
The filly looked uncomfortable for a brief second, the worry and terror she had from before reappearing.
“Y-you killed them. All of them...”
It suddenly clicked for her; this was the pony that had possessed her, who had travelled through time. And she was utterly terrified of her. She wrapped one of her silver-tipped wings over the fillies back in the most comforting way she could manage, then, quickly, she asked, with a gesture of her hoof, “how did you get in here? In this place?”
“I don't know.” She started crying. Then sobbing. Then she went silent as she rolled up on the floor, hiding behind her mane. “I just touched something,” she added quietly.
The older mare’s mind went into overdrive. The only way a filly could traverse time to possess such a powerful magician would have been an artefact from the high temple, and that brought up some very troubling lines of thought. If a filly could get into the temple, just how badly had things gotten?
With a shake of her head she cleared her thoughts, then said, “Don't worry Trixie, I'll get you home, and I'm sorry you had to see that. I just want you to know that they were bad ponies, okay? They were hurting a lot of other ponies to get what they wanted.”
Trixie sniffled, “I know,” she said, “but I still don't like it. It wasn't very nice when Nightmare had to do it.”
“I...see,” she said, “And who is Nightmare? Is she your guardian?” She asked kindly.
“No, she's only Nine; she's too young to be my guardian.”
A sharp gasp found its way through the older mare’s lips. What kind of world was it where a foal had to commit murder? Just how horribly had they failed their mission?
“I... ...see,” she said at last, gaining her senses once more, “and what year is it now?” It would help her to know how many years in the future Trixie was from now, or possibly how many years in the past. She was concerned that she might be bombarding the filly with too many questions, but if that were the case then Trixie didn't show it.
Trixie gave her an odd look, before answering, with a slight stumble; “22,001 AE.” It confused the mare, not that she stumbled over numbers but because she had never heard of that date before. It was worrying, as she herself had seen every time stamp within The Book herself, and that was not one of them. It spoke magnitudes of concern for her.
“I'm sorry what was that?” The pegasus asked. She thought she had heard the filly mumble something while she was thinking to herself.
“U-um...it's just that I don't know your name...” Trixie looked away shyly and scraped her hoof against the floor idly.
“Oh,” the mare said, surprised that she forgot something as simple as introducing herself to the filly, “it's Silverwing. Wing-commander Silverwing,” she said with a little bow to the small filly, eliciting a little giggle from her.
At least she was smiling now.
“Miss Silver?” Trixie asked quietly, then added with a tilt of her head; “where are we?”
“Well, we're inside your head.” She gestured around them with a hoof. “No, not like that,” she added with a giggle when Trixie brought a hoof up to her forehead in shock, “it's your metaphorical mind, where all your thoughts and memories are stored in a way that is perceivable by the normal conscious.”
Trixie looked around in awe, then turned to face Silverwing with a small frown, asking; “why does it look so weird?”
Silverwing smiled. “No one knows for sure. Everything you see here before you is created by magic and your own subconscious mind, and when they combine they make magnificent structures or puzzling shapes that break and bend all forms of geometry.” She gestured to the floor beneath them, the made a wide sweeping motion around them, adding with her warm smile, “everyone is unique. Because of that no two ‘mindscapes’ are alike.”
“Wow,” Trixie breathed. It was fascinating to her, but the biggest concern still rested upon her mind heavily. She voiced her concerns by asking; “But how do we get out of here?”
“Come on,” Silverwing called as she stood up, “I'll show you.”
Trixie was hesitant, but finally stood up and followed behind the older mare after she had started walking off. She didn't quite trust her yet, but she didn't have any other way out either, so she decided it would be for the best for now. Besides, it was very large in her mindscape. She would probably get lost on her own.
And so she left, behind the hoofsteps of an ancient warrior.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{~(0)~}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They were worried -- no, terrified would be a better word to describe how they felt at that moment. Trixie had just...gone still, completely still. She wasn't even breathing.
“Trixie? Trixie!?” Chrysalis was sobbing and screaming at the limp form at her hooves, begging for it to get up and for everything to be fine.
The others all were in a similar state, all in varying degrees of sadness and despair. Zecora and Nightmare simply stood there silently as tears threatened to grace their eyes, while Starswirl was openly sobbing and Sombra was outright yelling, much like Chrysalis.
“Trixie please get up! Please!” Sombra screamed, charging over to his fallen friend in panic. “I can't see you die here! No, I won't let you die! Just please wake up!” He shook Trixie's limp body violently, trying to get her to move, to do something. Anything.
A sharp gasp filled the air that made everyone jump in surprise, as Trixie sat up and looked around in fright. Before anyone could speak she latched herself onto the closest thing she could find and didn't let go, which happened to be Sombra. He stumbled slightly, at first, but caught himself quickly and returned the hug with vigour. From his position he could feel Trixie’s heart pound in her chest and could feel her rapid breathing, especially so when her breath blew across his withers in quick, hot and shallow blasts.
It made him squeeze her tighter.
The others quickly drew into the hug as well, each holding Trixie tightly until she was calm and her breathing was steady. They were each curious and frightened by the walls of runes -- which still remained. For now, though, the only thoughts on their mind was Trixie’s safety and well-being.
Trixie fell asleep within the comfort of her friends hooves, a peaceful slumber, not like that of her eventful travel into the past but one that brought dreams of meadows and laughter; of happiness. This scared the others at first, but then they discovered that she was merely sleeping and not under the will of the runic walls.
“I think we should follow Trixie’s example,” Starswirl said while watching Chrysalis tuck Trixie under the rags she was in before. The others agreed; they had all had a very long day, and things seemed to only get more tiring the further they went on without rest.
Zecora laid down besides Trixie and curled up with her under the rags. The others didn't complain about her getting the sheets with Trixie; she was one of the most badly wounded, along with Nightmare, who also snuggled up tightly with her two friends. They both fell asleep almost immediately.
Gilda made another, quicker trip to find more rags they could sleep under, and returned only moments after she left. Before long she was asleep with Chrysalis, laying across from Trixie, Nightmare, and Zecora.
“Come one, then,” Sombra yawned, “we should get some sleep as well.”
“Indeed,” Starswirl replied.
The two sat down between their friends with a rag that Gilda had found and tucked themselves under, finding the cold ground to be surprisingly comfortable, apart from the fact that it was frigid.
“Hang on a moment,” Starswirl whispered to Sombra.
He stood up and looked around briefly, Sombra watching on curiously, before seeing a bunch of shattered wood piled up near one of far walls. He telekinetically pulled them towards himself and piled them up on the floor near his slumbering friends. With a flick of his horn a magic circle flared to existence around the pile, before the pile itself combusted into bright, beautiful flames.
Wordlessly he climbed back under the blankets with Sombra, shivering as the warmth began to reach him. It did not take long for him to pass into the dream world.
Sombra carefully eyed the burning wood scraps. They seemed safe and he trusted Starswirl implicitly so he paid it no mind. Soon he too fell into unconsciousness, into the gentle comfort of his dreams.
Tomorrow they would face whatever the world threw at them. Together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{~(0)~}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Chrysalis awoke it was to the smell of something delicious. When her eyes finally peaked open to the chamber that she fell asleep in, lit by slivers of daylight streaming through the rocky ceiling, she saw that Zecora was already awake, and was responsible for the aromatic smell.
She stood over a cooking pot -- an old, rusted thing, that evidently still worked despite its age -- resting above a small fire that had appeared without Chrysalis’ notice. The nature pony was stirring away at the pot, which was filled with a gently bubbling liquid that was the source of the scent in air.
“Good morning,” Zecora said politely.
“Morning,” Chrysalis said, still not quite fully awake yet. “What's that?” She added.
“Breakfast,” she said, not looking up from her stirring, “Nightmare and Sombra went looking for something to eat and found a room full of magically preserved herbs and spices; so I offered to make some soup, with a little boost added in to help heal our wounds.”
Chrysalis looked around. Indeed, the aforementioned ponies were gone. The others were still sound asleep, peacefully slumbering beneath the old rags. She also noticed that at some point during the night Gilda had wrapped a hoof around her midsection and was snuggling up to her tightly, most likely to stay warm during the cold night.
With care, Chrysalis gently moved Gilda’s hoof and trotted over to Zecora.
“Where are they now, then?” she asked.
“They decided to look around a little. I think they plan on making this place our new home,” she replied.
Chrysalis paused to digest that piece of information. This place would serve as a nice temporary home, or maybe even a permanent one, if they did it up a little and cleaned it, she thought.
She levitated away the bowl that Zecora was passing to her. It was old and chipped ceramic that had been cleaned by Zecora before she had put the soup in it. She took a sip of it and found it to be delicious; a mixture of Honeymint and Moonshade in a warm blend of other herbs that Chrysalis couldn't identify.
Chrysalis found herself sipping more of the delicious liquid as Zecora poured herself some.
“I wonder what Sombra and Nightmare are doing,” Chrysalis voiced as she took another sip.
She hadn't really expected an answer, but one came in the form of a deep rumble through the ruins, followed by a loud, ear-shattering roar that woke the others from their sleep with a start.
Zecora sighed wearily. “You just had to ask, didn't you?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{~(0)~}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sombra and Nightmare were walking along yet another corridor in the seemingly-endless series of chambers, doors and -- yes -- long corridors.
‘Why does this place have so many corridors?!’ Sombra internally groused, ‘this is the fourteenth one we've gone through in the last minute alone!’
After some initial exploration on their part, they had found out where the two different directions they could have taken yesterday led. The one to the left led to a series of more corridors found beyond some pine doors, each leading to many other corridors that seemed to form a literal labyrinth of rooms and passages. They had taken the simplest looking direction and had ended up in -- after winding through countless stairs, walkways overhanging above chasms, and tunnels that went through even more corridors -- a massive library.
In a word, Nightmare had described it as ‘wow’, and that had been the only thing she had said all morning. Sombra had figured she would still be upset, but he was concerned for her.
The library itself was a multi-storied, pentagonal chamber with huge bookshelves converging in the centre of the room from its corners, leaving a smaller pentagon-shaped space in the centre of the room. It had a large rune as its main fixture, with desks and chairs laid about haphazardly. They had discovered that the rune was responsible for taking ponies up and down the floors by simply levitating them.
The books were in fantastic condition, given their age, with thick layers of dust caking them. They hadn't spent too much time looking around in the library, since they couldn't read any of the plaques on the end of shelves that supposedly categorised the books. Nightmare did happen to find a book on combat magic; a dusty thing with yellowed pages that she now carried around with her.
“Hey Nightmare, you've been really quiet this morning,” Sombra started. The right pathway was were they were moving through now, and so far it had just been more endless corridors. “I know you're upset over the whole...incident,” he said solemnly, “but you need to talk to us; it's not good for you to keep all these negative emotions to yourself okay?”
She said nothing.
“Look,” Sombra sighed, “at least talk to me. I can understand if your worried about talking to all of us at once, but we're here on our own; you can trust me okay, if you want to talk about something private then I won't tell the others.”
Sombra suddenly found himself unable to move, and with a weight on his barrel. He embraced his friend in a warm hug as she started sniffling into his chest.
“I-I-I'm scared, Sombra...I lost control an-and -and...”
Sombra remained quiet; he didn't know what to do or say in this situation. He settled on hugging her tightly as he had done with Trixie.
“No one blames you, Nightmare,” he said softly.
“No, I do; I blame me.”
“You shouldn't,” he said, “there was no other way out of that situation that didn't put you or us in harms way. You did the right thing.”
She pulled away harshly, and spoke with an edge of venom; “Did I? Did I really do the right thing?! You weren't there Sombra, you didn't see what happened, w-what I did...” She started sobbing.
“You're right, I wasn't there,” he admitted softly, “but I do know what would have happened to you if you didn't do what you did.” He pulled her into another hug. “I don't want to lose you. None of want to lose you, Nightmare.”
She remained silent once more.
The two lost track of how long they stayed like that, but eventually Sombra broke the hug and smiled, saying warmly; “come on, there's more stuff to look at down here.”
She simply nodded her head and stayed still, looking conflicted for a moment.
“Okay,” she finally said.
Sombra had worried for a moment that she would remain quiet again, but his worries turned out to be false. Now all he had to do was keep her talking, and in a positive mood. With that in mind, Sombra hastily -- and almost giddily -- turned around and trotted forwards.
And smacked straight into something solid.
“Ow!” He screamed while rubbing his snout with a hoof. He hadn't seen that when they had entered the room moments ago, but maybe that was because it was so dark. The dishes that were lighting the place up hadn't moved -- they had just started, so there was lighting in random areas while others remained pitch black.
The chamber looked round and big, a theory Sombra made when he found that he couldn't see any surfaces besides the strange rock he had just run into. In fact, the only thing either of them could see was the large stony wall before them.
“Stupid rock!” Sombra screamed as he spun around and bucked the rock as hard as he dared without hurting himself.
He heard a crack sound and that startled him. He then saw nightmare staring in fear at something behind him as his pupils became pinpricks. There was a sound of rock smashing and he turned around to face a horrible creature with a tooth-filled maw open in front of him.
It roared at them.
They screamed.
Author's Note
Please leave all critiques, errors, compliments etc. down below. I want to know what you think of this story and your feedback is much appreciated.
