Death City

Back with another chapter. Before I start, I want to say one thing: SORRY! I’m very sorry that I haven’t been able to update from the past few days due to a bunch of homework. Still, I have a tremendous amount of good news that I will be telling you later in the chapter that will make up for my absence for the past few days. It’s right now 3 in the morning and I’m full of energy! I can’t sleep right now so I decided to sneak downstairs and write/type a little more. Without a further ado, I now present you to chapter 26.

Chapter 26 – A Turning Point in Life

“What!?” Pinkie screamed. “B-but how!? Wasn’t she with us the entire time?”

“That’s what I thought to!” Lightning Flash added on. “Why in Equestria would she even do something as foolish and stubborn as to just sneak off all by herself? For all I know, she could get butchered, or abused, or even raped!”

“Don’t you understand?” Dusk began reasoning with the group. ”Why else would she sneak off by herself? It’s obvious that she wanted to save Thunder Ice, even though we told her to stay with us.” Dusk sighed before continuing. “It wasn’t her fault. She just couldn’t control herself. Love is a powerful thing, if you haven’t yet noticed.”

“Well then, what do we do now?” Rainbow Dash asked while gliding through the air of the hallway. “We can’t just leave this castle right now. We have to confront Discord before things get even worse. Who knows what’ll happen when we leave for just a few seconds?”

There was silence among the entire group as each and every pony began thinking and considering whether or not to flee from the castle. The silence was soon broken as a green Pegasus spoke up.

“Let’s go.” A calm yet rough voice emanated from the group. Everypony turned their heads to the source of the voice to see Snake was the one who had spoken.

“Come again?” Applejack had asked the military stallion.

“I say we continue on.” Snake added. “I’ve seen Twilight in action before, and let me say she’s one hell of a mare. She can handle herself, no doubt.”

“Don’t be so sure about that.” Raymond argued. “She’s a mare after all. The outside world is not something to mess with, at least not at this time. With all those creatures lurking around every acre of land, who knows what will become of her?”

“hmm.” Dusk began to think thoroughly. “Both of you have more than reasonable answers, but it’s just too much to think about.”

“Turning tail and running away, I suppose?” The mystical voice ran through the hallways faster than the previous zombie-pony. “I knew you ponies were all just a simple joke. Such irony that you think some helpless life-forms can force a God out of his own throne. Just try and escape. I’ll have all your heads before me before you can even reach the exit.” A menacing laughter was soon followed as the sounds echoed down the hallway.

“Discord!” Rainbow landed back onto the ground and folded her wings back up. She stomped her hooves onto the ground in anger. “Show yourself!”

There was no answer. Instead, a wooden chair against the stone wall had levitated off of the ground. The group looked at the floating chair as if they have never seen magic before. All of a sudden, the chair had been thrown in towards the direction of Rainbow Dash. Having quick reflexes, Rainbow was able to duck just in time to avoid the chair. The result of that was the chair passing overhead from the cyan peagsus and colliding into one of the very few windows in the castle. While everypony thought the chair would break the glass, they had all been wrong.

The wooden chair had hit the window with a great amount of force, but didn’t even dent the window even the slightest bit. The chair, or what was left of it at least, fell to the ground in what seemed to be a pile of wooden scraps.

“Heheheh.” More laughing was soon heard afterward. “That was only my first trick. Just see what else I have hidden up my sleeves, that is, if you dare.” The voices stopped as the laughing halted as well.

“Well, we can’t just pussy out right now.”  Raymond spoke from the back of the group. “It’s pointless to come this far just for nothing.”

“If I had a bit for every time that guy cursed.” Rarity mumbled to herself.

“Guys!” Dusk shouted over the controversy of the group. “Stay focused. We already have a hard enough problem already. Arguing won’t make it any better.”

“Well then, what DO we do?” Strife had asked. “It seems that none of you can agree on even the slightest things.”

“Hey!” Applejack yelled at Strife. “If yall haven’t noticed, yah ain’t doin’ any better than we are!”

This led the argument to getting even more severe second by second. There was a point in life where Dusk couldn’t take it anymore and had blown his fuse over the gang.

“EVERYPONY SHUT UP!” Dusk screamed with all his might. The pain in his throat worsened as he screamed, but it didn’t matter anymore considering his friends argued constantly. “If you guys want to keep on arguing for the rest of your life, then I’ll be more than happy to let you guys rot in your own corpses while I find a way out of this death-trap!” With that, Dusk had turned around and slowly began trotting down the stone hallway, every now and then tripping over his badly-damaged left hoof.

“W-where are you going?’ Pinkie was the first of the group to ask.

“I’m going to defeat Discord by myself.” Dusk responded, stopping in place and turned his hoof to face the windows on the side of the stone hallway. “I can’t get anywhere with you guys, so I decided to fly alone.” Dusk took a deep breath before continuing. “I’m going solo.”  Dusk then turned his head forward and resumed trotting steadily down the stone hallway.

“I’ll go with him.” Shadow spoke up. “I’m the only one he can trust, after all.” With that, Shadow began galloping down the hallway in Dusks’ direction, soon catching up with him. She had pressed herself against his side so he could regain his balance again.

“Good luck!” Rarity shouted across the hall towards the two.  “See you guys later, I guess.” She said quieter. Sadly, there was no response as Shadow and Dusk trotted down the long stone covered hallway. The rest of the group didn’t know what to do next as they watched the tow Pegasi leave their sight for now.

“Wake up!” a muffled scream rang into Thunder Ices’ ear. Everything to him was a blur as he began to drift off into an everlasting sleep. That was until he had felt his back literally get crushed.

“WAKE UP!” The voice shouted again. Opening his eyes, Thunder could see that he had been flipped over onto his backside while his stomach pointed upwards towards the vast sky. For some reason, today the sky had been as clear as ever compared to every other day where the sky had been completely sullen and had been drenched in darkness and despair. This had been a warning that today was supposed to be a positive, happy day. But not everything said goes.

“W-what?” Thunder weakly said, lifting his head up from the rough ground and rubbing it with his front hoof. “What’d you do that for, Twi?” He asked in a state of frustration, looking at the lavender mare.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to wake you, I’m serious.” Twilight began apologizing at the other unicorn. “It’s just that we have to get a move on before the rest of the group notices I’m gone. I’ve already been separated from them long enough.” Twilight began to play with the graveled-up rocks beneath her. “Oh, they must be worried dearly where I am right now.”

“Don’t think that way.” Thunder began to defend Twilight from herself. “Sure they might be worrying about where you are.” Thunder had gotten up on all fours now and had trotted right in front of where Twilight was. He had then placed a hoof onto her shoulder as she continued to look at the ridged ground. “So what? All that matters here and now is that you’re ok and safe.” With that, he leaned into her and wrapped both his front hooves around the mare.

“Oh, Thunder.” Twilight said in a loving and compassionate tone. She had used her own hooves to gently push away the comforting stallion away from her. “I know what you’re doing is supposed to help me stop worrying so much, and I appreciate you consideration more than enough, but it’s just that I can’t get off the fact that the rest of the group must be terrified that I’m not with them.”

“Well, then what are you waiting for?” Thunder Ice had interrupted. “Stop worrying and put yourself back together again. We’re gonna find the rest of the group o matter what it takes.” By now, Thunder had taken control of himself as well as Twilight and began asking her more and more questions.

“Now, let’s get back down to business.” Thunder began trotting in place. “The last time you recalled, where were the rest of the group?” He spoke up.

“Hm, last time I recalled.” Twilight asked herself, scratching her dry chin with her front left hoof. “Oh wait!” She finally understood. “I remember them saying last time they were headed for a castle far in the horizon. The only problem is that I’ve forgotten the name of the castle itself.” At this point, Twilight had been banging the top of her head in the search of an answer to Thunder’s question.” Oh, what was it?” She asked herself again. “Ca-Cou-Coudr-Caul-Cauldron.” She said aloud to herself, looking for the real name of the castle.

“Mystic Cauldron!” Thunder burst out. He had known the haunted estate from when he had been just a little colt.

“Oh, that’s what I was looking for!” Twilight jumped.” But still, how in Equestria do you know the place?”

“Oh, it was a long time ago.” Thunder responded. “I’d rather not tell you it anyway. It’s kinda personal.”

“Well then, do you know how to get there?” Twilight shot another question at Thunder.

“Sadly, yes.” Thunder answered, looking down at the rough ground beneath the two.

“Why sadly?” Twilight questioned the stallions words.

“Heh.” Thunder began. “Let’s just say I didn’t have the best experience with the castle itself.” Thunder then turned his head away from the lavender mare and continued speaking, only this time in a much lower volume. “I still have nightmares of the Celestian-for-saken place even to this day.”

“Oh.” Twilight responded sheepishly. She had regretted asking too much personal information about Thunder after all. “Well, since you know where the castle is, can you lead me there?”

“I don’t know.” Thunder slowly responded. “The pathway there is pretty risky and the castle itself is no better. I fear that something bad will happen to one of us if we go there.”

“Come on. Don’t you know it’s worse to stay here in the middle of nowhere with only the two of us than to be safely protected by the rest of the group?” Twilight argued.

“I know what you mean and all,” Thunder replied. “But it just doesn’t seem like a good decision at all to me.”

“Fine!” Twilight snapped back. “If you won’t go, then I will.” With that, twilight began trotting into a random direction, having no clue whether she was heading in the correct direction or not.

Thunder had sighed before calling out to Twilight. “It’s this way, Twi.” Twilight had stopped trotting and had turned around at the sudden call of her name.

“I knew that.” Twilight said, passing by Thunder as she kept her head and rear up. “I was just testing you.”

“Yeah, right.” Thunder began playing along with Twilight. Catching up to her, he began remembering his past on how he truly discovered the Mystic Cauldron when he was just a colt. On how he truly found out the secrets of the world hidden under the deeps of the castle. But that was to wait for another time. Right now, Thunder had a mission to complete, and it wasn’t considered easy.

Done with another chapter. Now I know all of you must be wondering what the good news is, and I’m here to tell you. The reason I’ve been absent for the past few days was because *drum roll please* I’ve been working on none other than my very first PMV. The good news is that I’ve finished it just the other day and have posted it onto the internet. A link can be found here: Click Here!!!

Watch the video, subscribe, like, post a comment. Do whatever it takes to make me happy. If I get enough likes and views, I’ll create another PMV from a song of any choice. Now, I must be going from all the homework I still need to do. With that, I command you to review!. (As always, still looking for new OC’s and songs to use as always!)