The House Of The Rising Sun - Part 2.

Everything happened so fast. In the blink of an eye, Chrysalis disappeared from the airship platform while the group of changelings surrounding it used the power of their combined magic to make it descend in just a few minutes. Booker was not able to even defend himself because something or someone hit the back of his head with such force that he was knocked unconscious. Hours later, the former Pinkerton woke up thanks to the feeling of something cold falling on his face.

“Woke up freak, the Queen wants to speak with you.”

Someone told him and Booker finally woke finding himself with his hands tied to a hook that hanged from the ceiling and with the point of a spear pointing at his face. Said weapon was held by another of those strange creatures, its body of a deep black color bluish eyes and green insectoid wings, its face somehow showing fear and admiration of the human in front of him.

“Hey pal, where the hell am I?”

Booker asked while giving a look at his surroundings. The large room was made of black tall walls with greenish and fluorescent orbs incrusted on them, some rays of the sun entered through holes on the ceiling that served as natural illumination, all this giving the place a feeling of belonging to another world.

“It’s good to see that you finally woke up.”

Chrysalis appeared in front him in a burst of green flames. She looked at him with curiosity before she started to saunter around him. He tried to break free, but the ropes around his hands where strongly tied.

“You bitch!” Booker told her trough gritted teeth. “What have you done with Trixie and Twilight? Where are they?” The changeling queen laughed sinisterly and looked directly into his eyes.

“Your little friends are fine, by now. It all depends of you of course.” She turned around while brushing her green tail against his face. “You’d better not test my patience DeWitt, unless you want them to suffer.”

Chrysalis made a gesture to the other changeling, he nodded and used the spear to cut the ropes. Once free, Booker rubbed his wrist but made no move towards her, after all, he wanted to be sure that both of his companions were okay first.

“Follow me, Mr. DeWitt.”

He did as she said and started to walk through a long corridor, many more changelings appeared from different places and rooms of the colony, all of them with their sight placed on the human. They kept walking until they reached an enormous hall, he have to admit it, the colony was a sight to admire, a circular great hall spread in all directions, thousands of changelings passed flying above them or walking over the bridges that connected the structure, a great beam of sunlight that entered through the hole at the top of the structure reached the bottom and was reflected by the green orbs that were all over the place.

Chrysalis looked at the surprised face of the man and a feeling of pride washed over her. “Do you like what you see?”

“I can’t tell that I like it.” He answered. “But it certainly is impressive.”

“Keep moving DeWitt, they’re waiting for us.”

At the end of the bridge, they went down the stairs until they reached a door engraved with runes of blue color. Two tall and bulky changelings stood at every side of the door and when they saw their queen, they bowed their heads before moving aside to let them pass through.

Inside the room, Trixie and Twilight were looking out of the window towards the desert, once they heard the door being opened, their faces showed fear at first, but it changed to happiness and relief in the moment that Booker appeared. They ran towards him and he kneeled to receive them in a tight hug.

“Booker, I was so worried about you.” Trixie told him as she embraced his neck.

“Did they made something to you?” Asked Twilight while nuzzling his face.

“Hey, everything is ok, don’t let them see you weak.” He tried to give them valor, but Chrysalis laughed and he felt them shiver.

“What are you planning Chrysalis?” Twilight growled.

“Oh look at you, you seem so brave right now.” The changeling queen taunted.

“Remove the glyphs and let us show you what we are capable of.” Trixie demanded.

“Why would I do such a thing? Believe me ladies, those glyphs are a protection for you, you would never survive even for ten steps outside this room, so get you better get used to it.”

Booker stood up and faced her. “What do you want with them? I’m here now, let them go.”

“That will never happen, there is so much at stake right now. It is time for you to get ready to leave and fulfill your part of the deal.”

“And what if I refuse?”

Both mares and human glared at the queen, she just smiled and moved aside to let another hulking figure enter into the room. The massive changeling was covered in scars and one of his eyes was missing, still, his figure alone helped to induce fear into the hearts of the mares.

“This is my personal bodyguard and executioner, his name is Goliath, and I can assure you, his methods are more than painful, I don't think you would like to find out.”

Goliath just looked at them and growled. Booker understood that there was no escape from this situation, so he just sighed and nodded.

“All right Chrysalis.”

“No, Booker, you can’t do this, if you help her all of Equestria will be in danger.” Twilight pleaded.

“I’m so sorry Twilight, I need to do this.” He told her and kneeled once again in front of them. “Everything will be okay, I promise.”

Twilight placed her head on his chest while crying, Trixie got closer and kissed his cheek.

“Take care, please.” The cyan unicorn told him.

Booker nodded and stood up following Chrysalis outside the room. Goliath looked at the man go before he turned to see the mares once more, he sat on his haunches and remained in silence as Twilight and Trixie hugged each other.

Chrysalis guided Booker outside the colony where another changeling gave him his gear. Once he checked every weapon, the queen gave him a compass, a canteen made of leather and a couple of large blades made of black crystal, he looked at the weapons for a fraction of second before he just shrugged and placed them on the back of his holdster.

“Follow the direction that compass marks.”

He looked at the object and saw it give two complete turns before the needle stopped.

“And what exactly am I looking for?”

“You will know it once you reach it. Oh, I almost forgot, once you retrieve your objective made your way towards the north, there is a place at three days of travel in that direction called Wolves Cannon, we will leave the airship there for you to retrieve it, the compass will guide you there.”

Booker said nothing and started to walk but after some steps he stopped.

“That way back to my world, does it really exists?” He asked.

Chrysalis smiled. “Of course not, but I think that it doesn’t matter anymore to you, isn’t it?”

Booker sighed and looked behind him. “For your own sake, you'd better not hurt them.” He told her with voice cold as ice and then started to walk until he disappeared behind the dunes of the desert.

From another balcony of the colony, Kriket saw the man disappear in the distance, then she entered into the structure and walked down the corridor.  In her way she found many of his brothers and sisters, all of them seemed to be confused as to what was the queen planning, after all, their only source of information were their own rumors. Kriket paid them no mind, she was more focused on seeing someone.

Finally, she reached a red painted door with many flower pots surrounding it, however, she noticed that the flowers on the vases were dead and even some had started to rot with a foul smell arising from the water.

“Something is not right.”

She said to herself before opening the door and walking inside the room. What she saw inside left her without breath. The curtains that covered the windows were torn apart with only some of the sun rays passing through them. The furniture was also turned over and with some plates of food already rotten. Kriket felt shivers all over her body after seeing the condition the place was on.

There was some rustling behind the bed and Kriket rushed to see who or what was causing it just to find Arklin with her body pressed against the mattress. Her once healthy body now seemed so fragile, her eyes had lost the shine they use to have and one of her wings was badly damaged, almost ready to fall apart.

“… Arklin…” Kriket called to her.

She stretched one of her forelegs and her hoof touched softly the body of her sister, but Arklin shouted in terror and tried to get away from her. Kriket rushed and hugged her against her body. She started to run her hoof over Arklin’s back in a soothing way until she stopped shivering. Arklin was still crying but with trembling hooves she embraced the body of her sister.

Kriket kept rocking her and her sister’s body to and fro to try and calm her down until something caught her attention, she reached out with her hoof and passed over the stained surface of the mattress, then she brought it up to her eyes and saw with horror that it was blood, not only that, the color it had made it clear that it belonged to Arklin. There was no doubt of it, kriket knew better than no one that in the whole colony only she and Arklin had blood of a deep red tone.

“Arklin… look at me… what happened?” Kriket asked in fear.

Her sister looked at her and started to talk with weak voice. “R-Ridley… he…” She started to cry again.

“He what?” Kriket felt a lump on her throat.

“He r-raped me!”

Arklin finally blurted out and kept crying with her face buried in the chest of her sister. Kriket’s mind went blank after hearing those words, but just for a moment before she felt the rage consuming her mind. Kriket had to do something, so she grabbed her sister face with her hooves and touched Arklin’s horn with hers. A faint blue glow enveloped both, then a blue mist started to come out of Kriket’s slightly opened mouth. The mist parted from her lips and entered on Arklin’s mouth, it should suffice to help her recover some of her forces.

While she kept feeding her sister, Kriket couldn’t help but think about Ridley, that son of a bitch had dared to destroy what she loved the most and literally condemned her sister to die due to poisonous feelings coursing through her body. He should pay for what he had done, and she would make sure he did.

***---***

The inclement sun shone over him. The wind as hot as the heat of a bonfire struck his face and lifted thick clouds of dust that limited his vision. Even so, Booker walked without slowing his pace, even as his feet sank into the burning sand of the desert. He had already lost count of the hours he had been fighting against the elements of that place, wherever he fixed his sight, only dune after dune were the only things he could saw.

Booker paused for a moment and took the small leather bag tied to his belt. He drank some of the water stored in it, but he barely took a couple of sips since he didn't know for how much longer he would have to keep walking. After quenching his thirst a little bit, he pulled out the small compass from the bag of his pants, the arrow in it rolled for a few seconds before stopping. Booker looked up but once more he only saw the immense desert that stretched before him.

"Something bothers him."

"Or maybe he's afraid"

"That can be a plausible explanation"

"Still, he needs to keep pushing through."

Booker was startled after hearing the voices of the Lutece twins again. At mere five meters away, Rosalind and Robert seemed to be enjoying a tennis game, a very slow and tedious game. They were holding the racquets in a blue faint aura, the same that covered their horns.

Booker looked at them for several minutes, he could even swear that for an instant they had resumed their human form, but it was only for a fraction of a second. The wind blew again and he threw sand into his eyes, after using his hand to rub them, he looked back to the Luteces, but they had disappeared.

He mumbled a silent curse and placed the compass back into his bag before he set off again. An hour later, after he reached the top of a great dune, Booker was left speechless. In front of him, inside what appeared to be a great crater, an imposing construction welcomed him.

A castle of immense white walls like ivory rose proudly in that place, its tall towers crowned with multicolored windows seemed to be eternal guardians of that fallen giant, as if they guarded his eternal rest and for the first time, Booker felt insignificant.

At the top of one of the towers, Seraphy was seated in the shade of a large tent, she closed her eyes and the air around her was filled with tiny electric sparks, in front of her, a small portal opened from which came a faint purple haze. She concentrated her magic a little more and finally got the desired result, from the inside of that portal to an unknown dimension, the sounds of music reached her ears as well as the grave voice of who gave life to its letters.

There is a house in New Orleans

They call the Rising Sun

And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy

And God I know I'm one

The crystal alicorn felt a strange sensation and quickly she closed the tear and stood up walking to the edge of the tower. Her eyes scanned the desert and finally settled on a figure that walked towards the door of the castle. With a powerful flap of her wings she rose in the air and dived down reaching the entrance of the colony in just seconds

The creature seemed to be surprised by her sudden appearance and Seraphy saw it grab what looked like a branch with a hole in its front. Human and alicorn looked at each other for what seemed like an eternity, none of them dared to make the first movement.

“Who or what are you? And what are you doing here?” Seraphy asked to the creature with demanding voice.

Booker put down the shotgun and rose his hands in the air. “Listen, I’m not looking for troubles.” He saw the face of the alicorn turn from a frown to a surprised gesture.

“You… you speak my language?” She asked.

“Well… yes… I came from a city far away from here.” He told her. “My name is Booker DeWitt.”

Seraphy was in shock, the creature in front of her was intelligent and not only that, it, or better said, he was from the world outside her colony. She saw him start to walk towards her with his hands still in the air. At her back, the doors of the castle opened and a group of fifteen dragons in blue armor came out of it. All of them formed a semicircle around the human and pointed their spears at him.

Booker took the shotgun with one hand and to the surprise of the dragons and the alicorn, his other hand turned into crystals that emitted purple sparks. Another dragon came out of the castle, only that this one was black as the night and taller than the others, he even stood over Booker by a head at least.

“What is an Equestrian doing this far away from his home?” Ridley asked to the human.

““Listen, as I already told her.” Booker told him while pointing towards Seraphy. “I’m not looking for troubles, also, I’m not that what you just called me, I’m a human being and I just happen to have lost my way in the storm and ended here, I’m just passing through.”

“Hmmm.” Ridley walked around Booker. “I don't know if I can believe your story, Antares will have to judge that.”

The dragon made a sign with his claw and the others lowered their weapons.

“Follow me Mr. DeWitt, the king is awaiting for you.” Ridley said before he walked into the castle.

Booker dispersed the vigor with a shake of his hand and put away the shotgun before he was escorted into the structure by two of the dragons. Seraphy couldn’t part her eyes from the human as he passed at her side. Something about him made her feel happiness and even hope. She finally walked behind the court and as the doors closed behind them, alicorn and human shared another look.

“So she is the reason why I'm here.” Booker thought.

There was another thing biting at back of his head. He gave another look at the black dragon and he knew what was wrong, the dragon knew his name, the question was how when the only one that had hear him say it was the alicorn?

“... Something stinks here…" Booker said to himself. "... This will be harder than in Columbia…”