Tales of the Forgotten: Eternity

Allow the darkness to consume you and you shall lose all of your humanity.

June 20th, 2027 9:46 P.M.

Location Unknown

I woke with a start from underneath the covers, flinging them off as I sat up on the bed I was on. My mind started working at a million miles per minute as I remembered that Michael and I had both walked into the Castle of the Two Sisters beforehand. My heart started to pick up its pace as adrenaline shot throughout my body and kicked into gear as I leaped from the bed. Michael first, questions later! I yelled at myself as I slammed open the doors to the room I was in.

The hallway was dimly lit by torches placed along the walls, there was some stirring further down the hall from something that no doubt heard the ruckus I was causing. I quickly went back into my room and closed the doors, proceeding to look for my belongings only to find nothing. I don’t recognize any of this architecture, where the hell am I?!

The room was lit by a singular fireplace that was burning bright at the periphery of the room. The walls of the room were covered with dark oak wood before transitioning to a dark gray wallpaper. There was a single window that had curtains draping over them, arousing my suspicion to see where I was; I walked over to them and cast the curtains open.

My heart fell into the pit of my stomach as the blood drained from my body as I saw the badlands hive of Sypher sprawling out in all directions below me. Nephilis! I thought as I turned around, watching as two changeling guards came into the room. Today just isn’t my day!

Alright, take care of these two then to find Michael and get the hell out of dodge. I grabbed the chair next to the table and smashed it against the wall, allowing me to create two makeshift clubs out of the chair legs. I took one in each hand and charged the changelings who jumped back, dodging the clubs. “NOT THIS TIME YOU BASTARDS!” I shouted at them as I charged them again, slamming the two clubs into one of the guards head. The other changeling quickly shot off a small ball of fire at me whilst hissing, the fire connected with my bare back as I grimaced in pain.

I quickly dropped to my back and put out the fire before sweeping its legs from under it, swiping at it with one of the clubs when he hit the ground. It rolled out of the way and popped back up, charging at me with its horn. I tossed one of the clubs away and gave him a right uppercut to his jaw as he reached me before slamming him back down with the club I had in my left hand. The guard tried getting back up but I kicked it in its temple, knocking it out cold.

I turned to see where the other one was; they were out cold laying on their side. I ignored the pain that was shooting throughout my body as I opened the door to the room across from me. The room was pretty empty spare the two chairs and single coffee table in the middle of the book lined room. I closed the doors and moved to the next room, it was another bedroom such as the one I had woken up in but it was barren of anyone.

“Shit” I whispered harshly as I turned from the room and slinked along the hallway wall towards the intersecting one. I made sure no one was watching before I crossed the hallway and made my way to the staircase near the end of it. I made sure to stay quiet as I descended further and further into the depths of the castle. I passed a few entryways into larger halls before finally reaching the bottom of the stairs with a single wooden door.

The door was barely tall enough for me to walk through as I opened it, immediately being greeted by the smell of rotting bones and dried blood. There were only a couple of torches lining the walls as I walked cautiously down the hallway, the sound of muffled voices getting louder and louder before I could finally hear them clearly around the corner.

“Well if that’s the case, why don’t we kill this one and the one upstairs already?” a changeling asked as another sighed.

“I’ve already told you, the Queen wants to keep this one alive as incentive for Traysil. She has a past with him and she wants to make sure its paid back in full and then some.” I smirked as I heard another name I went by. I remember meeting Queen Nephilis of Sypher when I had come to the badlands several years ago. I did not leave on the best of terms with the Queen as I left her with a ‘beauty’ mark.

“But isn’t she just going to kill them both anyways? Why not lie to this Traysil saying that his friend is alive?”

The other guard sighed, “I don’t know but we can’t go against the Queens orders. I think we should at least have some fun with it, what do you say?” the guard asked as the other one chuckled.

“Let’s.” they responded as I popped my head around the corner as they turned to walk further down the hall. I won’t let them hurt you Michael, I’m coming little man.

We passed by a weapon rack that had a rusted longsword hanging from it, I grabbed it carefully and held it close to my side. It didn’t take long before we arrived at a large iron door that had a few complex locks on the left side of it. They undid the locks and opened the door, walking in single file. There was a single torch in the room as I saw Michael hanging there by his hands, limp as a ragdoll. His body was littered with cuts and bruises and his left eye was swollen shut.

“Wakey wakey!” one of the guards said as they started to charge their horn. I reacted quickly as I drove the sword through the back of the changelings unguarded neck. I quickly flicked the sword to the side into the head of the other stunned guard. Both of them fell to the ground limp as I stood over them with fire in my eyes.

“No one hurts my family.” I said emptily as I looked over at Michael as he struggled to lift his head up, barely opening his right eye. He opened his mouth to say something but it fell shut as he hung his head again. I walked over to the guards and grabbed the keys from their armor and unlocked the chains binding him. His body fell limp into mine as I felt tears welling up behind my eyes.

“I will not let you die Michael, not now!” I growled as I shifted him to my back and hefted him up to carry him. My wounds didn’t make it any easier to carry him but he wasn’t too heavy. “Just hold on, lets get you upstairs where I can properly treat you before we get out of here.”

I started to walk down the hallway as I felt Michael take a ragged breath. “Don’t say anything Michael, and I swear if you tell me to leave you I will kick your ass when you get better.” I warned him as he tried to speak.

“T-th-th-thank y-you.” he finally stammered out as he let his head drop onto my shoulder.

The journey up to the first floor didn’t take long and considering that it was still night time it made my journey a lot easier. I recalled the floorplan of the castle ground floor (it was the only floor I had been on during my unfortunate encounter) and made my way to the kitchen where I could cauterize some of the wounds and clean them up quickly.

The blood drained from my face as I opened the door to find half a dozen changelings working the kitchen. I immediately turned tail and bolted down the hallway as fast as my body would let me at the moment. Michael let out a few pained grunts as he bounced up and down on my back as I turned the corner and ran through the front doors of the castle, ignoring the four guards that were smacked by them.

I kept running as fast as I could as my body burned, making me wince in pain as my feet carried me. I started to hear the buzz of changelings chasing us, but I didn’t want to turn around to see how many. The last time I had run from them there was enough to partially blot out the sky. The only reason I escaped is because Faelan was with me and was able to fly us out of there.

“STOP IN THE NAME OF THE QUEEN!” I heard one of them yell from behind me. I continued running until eventually the buzzing started to fade behind me as I crossed the border to Equestria and ran into the Haysead Swamps. Luckily for us, the changelings knew that crossing the border into Equestria would end up in a war between them and their hive.

I didn’t stop at the border for fear of losing Michael and continued running for another ten minutes before I finally allowed myself to collapse on the border of the Haysead Swamp and Horseshoe bay. The moon was high in the sky and I could hear the waves on the shore a bit farther away, I still laid there with Michael rolled over at my side panting as I caught my breath. My legs burned as if a dragon breathed fire into my veins and turned it into magma.

Michael was still out cold as he breathed shallowly next to me. Why did you have to come here Michael, you were safe back on Earth and now look at you. I thought as I stared at him. After a while, when I finally caught my breath, I shifted into a sitting position and stared up at the moon.

“After all this time, you don’t even allow me to say hello before you take off. You wound me Traysil.” A female voice I recognized all too well said as I circled around Michael and took a defensive stance towards her. The changeling standing before me was Queen Nephilis, her golden yellow eyes piercing through the night air as she looked down at me. The rest of her body was hidden by the darkness but I could still clearly see the gift I left with her plain as day.

Her left wing was still gone at the the base of her chitin as her right wing stood erect on her back. “You know entering Equestria will result in war Nephilis, go home now and I promise to place the blame elsewhere for our wounds.” I offered with a deep scowl.

“Oh but why let you go and tell when we could take you back and avoid lying altogether.” She bared her fangs as she stepped forwards from the treeline and into the moonlight. The light revealed everything about her from her perforated black carapace to the golden yellow chitin, mane and tail. “It’d be far better for you to come peacefully.” She grinned.

I stood as tall as I could and glared down at her as the moonlight shone on my back, casting a dark shadow over my face and body. “Thou dost dare threaten us Nephilis? We could forgive thee and forget thy had ever hurt us, but there tis one thing thou hast done that thou shouldn’t have.” I walked over to her as she tried to keep a calm and stern visage as she started backing away. I reached out and grabbed her horn, pulling her face close to mine so she could see my eyes.

“Thou didst nearly kill our brother, so we shall return the favor!” I growled as I slammed her head into my right knee then gave her a left hook, proceeding to slam her head into the ground. “An even greater mistake was coming here alone, THY WENCH!” I put my foot on her neck and started to press down as she started to struggle against me. Her horn glew as I saw a rock fly at me, I didn’t dodge fast enough as it slammed into my side and sent me sailing through the air.

As soon as I hit the ground she was on top of me holding her hoof to my throat as she held her horn in front of my face, getting ready to release a fire bolt. I reached up and grabbed her horn, feeling as the fire burned my hand I yanked her head to the side as it engulfed my arm. I didn’t let go of her horn as I slammed her head into the ground and got above her. I brought my left fist down onto the base of her horn, trying to break it off as she screamed in pain. My arm was no longer burning but the fire had done its damage.

I pulled her up by her horn and punched her in the throat three times as I started walking towards the coast. She was barely able to move as she tried to get some breath. By the time we reached the water she had recovered and started charging her horn again for more fire, continuing to burn my right arm as I cringed at the searing pain. I slammed her head into the sand as she let the bolt go, creating a small fire pit where I put the right side of her face as she screamed in pain.

“STOP PLEASE!” She started to wail as I continued to burn the side of her face. I grinned maliciously as her screams filled the night air, the small of her burning mane and carapace reaching my nose. The fire died out finally as I threw her to the side and brought my elbow down on her throat. She coughed up some blood as I held my elbow there as she flailed about. I felt her starting to become limp so I let go of her throat as she gulped in air greedily.

I reached down with my left hand and grabbed what was left of her mane and ripped it off as she tried to scream but the only thing that came out was a broken whimper of pain. “Thou wish of us to show thee mercy?” I asked as I cocked my head to the side with a crazed look in my eyes. She looked at me with tears streaming out of her one good eye as I looked down at her. “He..hehe...hehehe….hahaHAHAHAHA! Doesn’t that just bring upon a sense of irony Nephilis?! Thou wish for us to show thee mercy after what thou hast done to us?”

“The last time we did see each other we warned thee it would not be pleasant the following time for thee.” I took the bundle of hair that I clumped in my hand and shoved it into her mouth as she gagged on it. I held her snout closed as she continued to gag on it until she threw up and I let her snout go. I was grinning from ear to ear now as I felt joy in watching her. “First thou hadst made the mistake of ripping half our mind from us to leave us all alone. Second thou chose to attack the hive of Mistress Thyxia, our friends resided within that hive. Third thou had chosen to bring our brother into a personal quarrel between the two of us in hopes to force our loyalty.” I slammed my knee into the side of her head as she yelped in pain.

I grabbed the edge of her horn and slammed my foot down on the lower portion, causing it to snap off as she wailed in pain. “THOU DOST NOT DESERVE MERCY AFTER THE CRIMES THY HAST COMMITTED IN THIS WORLD NEPHILIS! ALLOW US TO SHOW THEE THE TRUE MEANING OF HELL!” I tossed the horn aside and kicked her in her stomach as she threw up more blood as well as what was left in her stomach. Something had finally snapped in my mind as I thought of Zeke being ripped from me by her magic. I remembered being chained there as I watched them dissect Zeke as he cried out in pain to me yelling for me to help him. I remember watching his face as he eventually fell limp with his soulless eyes still staring at me in shock.

I remember watching the skies above the hive of Syrnix, home to Mistress Thyxia and her followers, have the sun blotted out by the massive hoard of changelings led by Queen Nephilis. Her only goal out of it was to show her ‘sovereignty’, nothing more and nothing less. The Mistress led me to safety before going back to the hive to help defend it. Not a single changeling from Syrnix survived her pointless invasion.

I grabbed her horn as I dragged her by her wing towards the water, looking over my shoulder to Michael who was lying still as the moonlight revealed the severity of his wounds in full. His face was hardly recognizable from the dried blood that coated it from various cuts and bruises on his head. His left eye was purple and swollen completely shut. You could see other knots from where they had hit him in his head.

Both of his legs were broken and contorted in a way that would make many lose their lunch. His arms fared little better but luckily were not broken, then I saw his chest. There were two large gashes going from the base of his neck down to his waist that had various cuts stemming from them. His back had been mutilated so bad that there was no longer any skin and it looked like it started to become infected.

I looked back down at Nephilis as she wailed for me to let her go, for me to stop, to show her the mercy she should have shown him, Syrnix, and Zeke. I threw her into the sand where she proceeded to cower under me. “P-Please let me go. I promise not to attack you again! Please let me live! Please!” she exclaimed through sobs. I knelt down to get to her eye level and put my hand under her chin and lifted it up and smiled.

I didn’t say anything as I jammed her horn into her side as she opened her mouth wide in horror and pain as her eye looked at me in shock. “Life is too good for one such as thee.” I pulled out the horn and pushed her over to her side and used the perforations in her horn to create two large gashes similar to the ones Michael had on his chest. She didn’t say nor do anything as the pain had become too great for her to breath properly.

I rolled her over into the water as she tried to get up I knelt down and pushed her head back into the water. She tried to get away from my grip as I drowned her but it was to no avail as she started to calm down before stopping altogether. To make sure the job was done I stabbed her in the back of her skull with her own horn.

“Never attack our family and expect mercy from us.” I growled at her dead body as I turned around and walked over to Michael who was lying completely still now. I knelt down and put two fingers to his neck and checked his pulse, although it was extremely slow it was still there and he was dying. “We will not lose another.”

With what strength I had left I hoisted him up onto my back and started to run again as fast as I could towards Baltimare.