Alea iacta est

He didn't quite expect this to happen. The imprisonment and the way he made his escape. Of course he escaped, of course it was a good thing, of course it has been a horrible idea to let all his power go at once. He slowly trotted through the forest, there were no sounds, there were no animals. Not timberwolfs, manticores or cockatrice. He was bleeding, definitely, he was wounded, weak and an easy target. But none of them would dare to attack him. No animal in these woods would dare to come near him. A bit of the 'scent' of his... food remained and scared away everything that normally would want try to devour him.

The forest changed a little bit since the last time. A hundred years, that certainly was a long time, not as long as a thousand years but long enough to make everything change. The vegetation was thicker, far more plants, far more (hiding) animals. He looked for the castle, which the royalty of this country reigned from in the old times. Abandoned a thousand years ago after the Nightmare Moon incident. But a special place, interesting place, full of ancient books, knowledge and artefacts. Locked due to the risks of abusing the powerful magic. It was certainly capable of doing horrible damage. Some things were openly lying around. They were harmless, they were history and they were boring. Very, very boring.

No, the interesting stuff, things like the alicorn amulet, that kind of artefact, they all were hidden and the actual existence of some of them was a secret, even to the royal sisters. This was what he was looking for, this was what was of interest.

Ugh... Dammit. Though being in pain, he couldn't resist to grin at the situation. As it seemed the shards regeneration wasn't working, maybe it needed to have contact with its 'siblings'. The bleeding should have stopped already. A problem. But not that much of one.

Each step through the forest was quite painful. For a pony without injures, one which could walk normally, it took about three or four hours to get to the castle, however, with his injuries, it would take quite a long time. It was a shame that animals didn't dream the way ponies did, maybe he could've eased the pain by consuming a nightmare. But nothing like that was possible. The nearest place where he could rest was the castle.

Suddenly from afar a loud noise, similar to screams, sounded from the direction which he came from. Shortly after it, a gigantic black pillar emerged from the ground, shadowy spectres flew into the sky in a tremendous dark vortex and departed into different directions. The thought of the princess watching in horror and disbelief how the banished shadows escaped, amused him and despite his problematic condition he couldn't help, but laugh, simultaneously coughing out more red dots.

This. Was. Fun.

It took him around four hours until the castle actually came in sight. It was obvious they didn't care about it. Luckily. The castle died a long time ago, when the princess of the night and nightly interruptions lost her mind. Maybe out of nostalgia her sister didn't bother to rebuild it, but whatever reason it was for her to abandon it... Actually it didn't matter. He was back, needed help and from what he could remember, this castle could offer it.

He crossed the old bridge, slightly worried that one of the wooden plates might break. The bridge was almost as old as the castle, it actually was surprising that it still remained stable. It never looked too robust. But well, he would be the last to base his thoughts on the surface of something. Or somepony.

Once more he approached the gigantic gate. The castle of the royal sisters. An interesting feeling, they probably would seal him away forever, if they knew where he was and still they, in a certain way, would help him to recover. Ironic.

He pushed against the gate. It was almost ridiculous how easy it opened. Supposedly there was a story behind the doorway and its size, that involved a dragon and a dungeon specifically made for creatures like hydras or dragons. From what he could tell, there was either no one in there or they starved. That would be interesting for Mrs. Gentle-giant-sun-goddess. Her letting something starve, while he never killed. Hilarious. The irony.

He slowly trotted through the hall, then going through a door and followed a corridor that led to the library of the castle. Many of the books were harmless. Useless. But the mechanisms and artefacts were hidden here. The alicorn amulet. Some crystals, some of his nightmares and the demons. His book, his gift to ponykind. It was almost insulting, that they didn't let it do what it was created for. To make powerful and worthy. To make magical and creative. But probably it was because he never fixed the side effects. So much chaos. Funny, but hard to get rid of. The princess wasn't too fond of it as well. Took it away, wasting the humorous potential. It was so amusing watching its effect on others. But he knew where it would be stored, he knew it was here.

Moving was painful. Instead, he used telekinesis and pulled one book after another. He had almost no magic left. It was just a matter of time until it ran out completely. He had to find the book first, to speed up his regeneration. One by one was pulled to see which of the books triggered the mechanism. Some of the book pages even fell to dust after their covers were moved. It took some time until one of it triggered something. On the other side of the book a piece of metal was attached, which led into the wall behind the book.

Then one of the walls moved and offered the sight on a metal grid with a lock. Beyond the grid, a stairway emerged, which led to a book with something that seemed to be a distorted sun symbol on the cover. Many... he almost would go so far to call them, glorious memories about disorder and observed distaste entered his mind and the cut side of his mouth distorted itself once more into a smile.

Huh...Now how do I get through this?

He looked at the lock. He definitely wouldn't be capable of getting through it right now. The grid was solid. The lock was old but withstood the test of time and certainly would withstand every currently possible attempt to destroy it. For a short moment he thought about the options he had. He couldn't break it open, no key was nearby. Currently he was too weak to cast the syphon on the crystals and their inmates. And it was likely that the alicorn amulet was locked up behind a similar or even stronger barrier.

After what was a timespan of approximately 20 Minutes of thinking and looking around in the room, he made his decision. He lit his horn, the first time since he left his powers behind to build up 'pressure'. He wouldn't be capable of causing a surge and even if, the princesses would find him if he did. Finally he released the spell and in a flash he vanished and reappeared behind the locked door. His sight blurred a little bit, he probably would lose his consciousness soon.

He crawled up the stairs. Until he finally stood in front of the book. He opened it carefully, making sure not to activate the trap that was attached to it and felt as the parasite, his parasite, emerged from the book and crawled into him. He sighed in relief as he could feel his magic powers return and his sight becoming sharper again. He sent the parasite back to the book. It still had enough power to do what it was made for. He easily was capable of resisting the possesive nature of it, of course, it was his magic. His parasite. It almost was sad that it had to remain here, but if the princesses would look for him here, they shouldn't know that he knew about the artifacts.

Anyway, he was done with this. He closed the book and turned around. Leaving the book alone.

He approached the door and then again used a teleportation spell to get behind it. The regeneration of the shard was still not working and he couldn't close his inner wounds by himself just like that. Just as he thought about what he should look for next some, quite incoherent, thoughts crossed his mind.

Alright... He turned back and looked at the stairs.

First, who was the architect for these? They were completely horrible as a construction. Why is there no support for the weight of the stone and especially the ponies walking over it, especially princess Cake Killer, it looked like it could fall apart any second. Then, why is there even a trap attached to it? Why didn't they just destroy the book, why endanger someone who finds this accidently, instead of completely getting rid of it? What where they thinking!

Sadly, for him at least, no one would answer. he let his voices go, out of pure irrationality.

Idiot, focus, dammit! You have more important things to take care of. Focus! He shook his head and walked over to another shelf. Hundreds of books and three of them, as far as he was concerned, led to other artifacts. He repeated the procedure, pulling one book after another until another mechanism was triggered. This one made the floor disappear and made way for a spiral staircase going down into a seemingly impenetrable darkness. Maybe it was because of what he knew to be down there, maybe because the lighting in general was kind of gloomy.

He lit his horn, yet again felt relieved that he at least had an at least slightly acceptable reserve of magic, that was hopefully enough to cast a syphon. It was sad that this kind of magic was forbidden.

He created a little floating and blue flame that provided enough light to walk down the staircase. And took a deep breath before he approached the way into the dark.

While he trotted down the stairs, old buildings often triggered nostalgia and with immortals that wasn't really different. He thought about the history of this place. These catacombs were built before the castle was built itself. The princesses had a deep connection to this realm. Technically it was because of their age. Getting older in this world makes more aware. More sensible. Beings and objects with stronger magical properties were easier to sense.

When someone with strong affliction to the polarizing forces of this world was near, some ponies developed the capability of feeling it. The elder and those which trained to become sensible. Sadly once again. Training to 'Feel' was a forbidden practice. It was dangerous they said. It had too much destructive potential, they said. They were idiots, he said, of course it was dangerous if one ignored the other practics. Safety measures. Called so, for a reason, but... Alright... Who even listens to a lunatic. He has never been known as something else.

What could be felt when going deeper into the earth was the tree. The old tree that was there from the very beginning... Though 'there' was kind of an misleading statement. Relative, actually. This kind of thing was always somehow. In case of this universe it was in a cave, throning on dirt and cold stone as some kind of dark tower, holding this realm in balance. It was never really of interest, but in the end they built the catacombs here because of that, it felt good, it took less effort to cast a spell containing the object, his object.  The tree of harmony was near. These catacombs were a result of pure affinity.

This was a prison for the more dangerous artifacts and beings, for the 'darker ones', maybe some were left? He let thousands of them go, just a few hours ago. A bad idea, maybe. An act without reason, definitely. And hilarious. Absolutely, hilarious.

It took about twenty minutes to get to the end of the stairs. While the walls, during the time he came down the stairs, always were made of properly cut stones, the walls down in this hole were rocky and unclean, giving this place a cavern look. It slightly reminded of the caves where they got the shards. It is so wonderful. No authority. Very few rules.

He wiped his muzzle with his hoof, just to find it covered in blood. He was bleeding quite heavily. He had to make sure that he gets to the amulet quickly. He accelerated a little bit. It, the shard, still seemed to work. He still wasn't dying, he still couldn't close the wounds inside, they made it hard to breath, slowed down his progress. It was unfortunate, but as he slowly walked through the corridor, in front of him a doorframe appeared. It was wooden and very old. Some runes were engraved into it. Some kind of seal, probably.

How lazy.

He increased the intensity with which his light source burned and pushed the flame against the symbols. Very lazy. No steel, no stone, no dragon bone. Just normal, easy-to-destroy, bucking wood. It was unfathomable how somepony who was so afraid of the amulet, could be so lazy with the safety measures. Lazy with all safety measures. Un-bucking-fathomable.

One symbol after another was burnt off the door and its frame. He didn't need to work too much on it. The wood was old and dry, but still he made sure to remove the symbols as thoroughly  to break whatever kind of magic this old piece of wood was containing. When the last symbol was burnt off, he pushed against the door.

Behind the door was a dark room. He brightened the light and levitated it further into the room. The room was quite large and was hemispherical in shape. In the middle there was a pedestal made of grey stone. On it was a little dome which was sealed through a lock. The floor was made of stone piles. No obvious changes. Didn't they actually know that he knew this place?

He approached the pedestal, the steps brought silent knocks to the otherwise quiet hall. As far as he knew, there were no other mechanisms waiting for him... then again it has been a hundred years since the last time. Then again, since he couldn't die anyway, it was unnecessary to even imagine it. It was unnecessary during his first time taking it with him and so it was now.

He was surprised. When he reached the pedestal, there was something. Definitely something, but... It wasn't what was supposed to be hidden here. It wasn't the roots of the tree which wound around the outside of the hemisperical room. This felt far more familiar.

A shard?

The dome on the pedestal had a keyhole. That was new. He curiously examined the keyhole. It definitely was new, if 'new', meant about 90 years old. Very basic, not a security lock. From what it looks like there were no real enhancements, at least not on the lock itself.

He formed a black mass around his hoof, a liquid, and let a few drops fall on the stone dome. The liquid left a few black stains which grew on the surface. He pushed his hoof against the blackened surface and felt relieved as he could go through it. It was hard to go through, felt like he was pushing through sand but in the end he managed to grab what was on the other side. He hastily pulled it out to examine what it was.

Two gems. They were filled, with something. It wasn't a shadow, the 'taint' as the old tribes called it wasn't on it. From these gems he could feel the aura of a shard. He muttered a hastily spoken 'interesting' before he trew the gems on the ground and started to build up a spell. He wanted to see what was inside. or rather, who.