Hecate.
At least, that's what was inscribed on the inside cover. Hecate, not a word I am familiar with (I would have to look it up in my copy of Every Word Ever) but that only made my curiosity tickle me harder.
With barely a thought my magic manifested around my horn, levitating the cup to my lips. Through my magic I could feel so much, every molecule and grain of dirt that was compacted in the clay moved and jutted out against my magical power, creating a mould of sorts that I could sense and figure out the exact dimensions of the cup.
The hot tea entered my mouth, it was a little too high in temperature so I ended up with a slightly scalded tongue and throat. No matter, I felt the hot liquid pass through my esophagus and settling into my stomach. Slowly I could feel the effects of the herbal brew as it entered my bloodstream, my mind became more awakened. My breathing and heartbeat sped up, not much, but enough that one could notice if they were observant. I was
ready to read.
I set down the cup, my magic leaving it and taking my mental mould along with it. Instead I shifted my power to the parchment, I felt everything there was to know about that on piece of paper through this simple contact. The image of a large oak tree bloomed in my head, I knew his old the tree had been before some local loggers had chopped it down and processed it into parchment, I could feel the long-dead plant cells.
There was something else too, something much more alive, something powerful. It was faint but with enough probing I could feel the subtle shimmering effect of the enchanted book. I could feel it, but I didn't know anything about it. How old it was, who had cast it, not even what it did. This scared me, I wanted to know, I needed to know. My curiosity had me by the throat.
I turned the page.
And I entered Eitheruim.
Drops of golden liquid rained down on me like a summer rain, sizzling and popping against my coat and body in a very uncomfortable way, the occasional drop would enter my eyes and burn like fire inside their sockets. I screamed in pain as the sizzling and heat intensified, I felt as if I was in a frying pan, covered in cooking oil and being over done. My flesh boiled and melted off of me only to form back over my bones again to start the torturous process over again.
Mercifully the rain stopped, leaving me gasping for air and my mind still in shock from the pain. I opened my eyes again and gasped, around me were small burning stars of every colour, they swirled around me in a tornado of cosmic beauty. Occasionally one would bump against my body, I tensed, expecting painful heat, but instead I was met with pleasant cooling sensation that soothed my still sizzling flesh.
One of the stars touched the tip of my horn and sent a slight electrical shock through my body, my eyes filled with sparkling lights that blinded me temporarily. Once the light faded I gasped, the stars were still there swirling around me but they weren't stars, they were fairies. Tiny little Pegasi with the most beautiful see-through butterfly wings that flapped gently, they glowed softly with magical energy.
Several of the fairies flew close to my face, I could see their expressions. They exchanged gleeful glances and giggled at me, they flew around me and started playing with my mane. Tumbling around in it and pulling at the strands gently, it didn't bother me much so I let them be and took the moment to look around.
I was standing on a bridge of light, it shifted colours gently as it explored the entire spectrum. Around me was a light purple that bubbled and swirled around like a massive ocean, mixed in with it were what appeared to be more stars. These ones flared to life brightly and gave way to small images. I could never see what they were showing- only a colour here and a movement there -as they only lived for seconds before flaring brightly again and exploding into tiny supernova's.
My attention was grabbed by the fairies again as they pulled at my mane harder, I looked at them and saw that they were beckoning to me, they wanted me to move along the bridge. Without much choice I complied, cantering calmly along the seemingly endless light bridge.
As I went, I started to question how I had gotten here and what 'here' even was. I soon found that I couldn't keep a strand of thought's in my head, the moment I started to question this reality my mind was invaded by admiration of the pure majesty of everything around me. As if something only wanted me to admire what was presented and not question it.
So I didn't.
As I admired the scenery the fairies began pulling at my mane again, I ignored them at first but they starting pulling harder and it got painful. I tried to shake them off but they only pulled harder and harder, I growled slightly in pain and swatted at them. It appeared to work for a moment as they all backed off, I barely had time to take relieved breath before they swarmed on me again. Pulling on my hair so hard that I could feel some strands being uprooted, they coated my back and began biting and scratching. I felt like I was being ripped apart, I screamed a full-throated scream and shook wildly, trying with no avail to throw them off.
My heart was thumping and my entire body was being overwhelmed by pain, my throat was raw and I could feel the fairies tearing away layers of skin and flesh. Blood was leaking from multiple cuts and my head was swimming, it was becoming hard to even stand and I was losing hope of surviving to see home again.
My salvation came in the form was a primal roar, full of rage and bloodlust. In a moment the fairies flew away, leaving me on shaky legs and with ragged breath, not far in front of me was some sort of abomination. At first it appeared to be a large shadowy black blob but as I looked at it I noticed at least three dozen eyes swirling around in the mass that were all different colours and sizes. There was the occasional bone or skull that would float to the surface for a few seconds before plunging back in, as I watched a Pony skeleton burst from the side of the mass and attempted to drag itself out. Black tendrils wrapped around it and dragged the skeleton back in.
The thing roared again and began oozing along the light bridge towards me, the fairies had left me in a right state so I couldn't move let alone run away. As the blob got closer all of its eyes alighted on me, in defiance I attempted to spark my magic, it manifested around my horn but began to glow abnormally bright. Heat grew on my horn and forehead and painful sparks began exploding along my horn, I knew this feeling, it was magical overload. It happened when a Unicorn put too much magic into their horn at one time, but I hadn't done so since I was young, it was impossible for me to make such a novice mistake.
But it appeared I was, desperately I tried to cut of the flow of magic. I did, I know I did, but my horn continued to glow bright and burn my head. The blob was almost on top of me and I closed my eyes for the inevitable, the magic overload reached it's peak and a blindingly bright explosion erupted from the tip of my horn. I felt myself thrown far and the sensation of falling, I opened my eyes and saw the light bridge quickly disappearing in the distance as I fell, all light faded away and I was consumed by darkness.
I seemed to fall for an eternity, every inch of my body was consumed in a constant aching throbbing pain and I couldn't summon the will or energy to cast a spell to do anything. Eventually, I did stop, and it was very, very painful.
My hooves slammed into the invisible ground and shattered instantly, I heard the sickening crunch and cracking sound as the majority of my bones became powder. My head slammed into the ground and I felt a crack split across the side of my skull, I lay there barely able to breath- a rib had punctured one of my lungs -and not able to move, I barely held onto consciousness as the pain hit me, my jaw was locked and my tongue severed so I could only voice my agony through a loud guttural, primal groaning sound.
I lay there unable to do anything, my thoughts filled with agony and misery. Desperately I wished for death, or anything to stop this slow torture. Just as the wish flared in my mind I saw a golden light envelop my emaciated foreleg and supposedly the rest of my body as well, slowly I could feel a moving shift in my body. My bones were knitting themselves back together, in the most painful way possible, my groaning turned to screaming as my jaw and tongue were repaired and after an eternity of flaring agony my body was as healthy as a newborn foal.
I lay on the invisible ground breathing heavily, my body was fine bar some aches but my mind was reeling from the torture that had just occurred. I recovered for a few minutes, I couldn't see a thing the entire time as even the light from before was lost in this void. Suddenly light bloomed under me, an eerie red light the colour of blood, it illuminated the space I occupied. A beam of it shot out in front of me along the ground, it lead through the darkness and illuminated the way.
I stood up and looked in the direction that the light went, I had no real choice in the matter so against my better judgement I followed the light. As I went I peered into the endless darkness, not surprisingly, I couldn't see anything. At least when I looked directly but out of the corner of my eye I swore I could see... Things, moving, following me.
I didn't have to follow the red trail for long as it soon came to an end, at the end of it was a large carved black steel door, in front of it was a pedestal of similar design. On top of the pedestal was a large empty basin with a single curved dagger laid inside of it. Upon closer inspection of the door and pedestal, I discovered that the carvings depicted gruesome images of both Ponies and other creatures meeting their deaths. A Pegasus being beheaded, a Minotaur stabbed with his own horns, a strange bipedal creature having it's limps ripped off, a city exploding throwing body parts and gore in every direction.
I ignored the basin and dagger and tried to open the door, naturally it didn't budge. Sighing I looked back at the basin and dagger, carefully I sparked my magic again, taking care to not have a repeat of the previous magic overload. My magic seemed to work and I grabbed the dagger in the basin with my magic and levitated it over, it didn't feel like I expected, I couldn't feel any of the molecules or particles but I could feel something else; some sort of energy.
I probed at the energy with my magic and immediately I felt it shoot back into my horn, I felt the sensation of cold water being poured on my head. But I liked the feeling, I admired the red glow that was reflected in the dagger's glassy surface, I noticed the beautiful carvings of skulls and corpses that were on the hilt. Gleefully I brought the blade to my foreleg and drew a long cut along it, I sighed and giggled, honoured that the dagger would sever my flesh. As my blood seeped out of the wound it ran along my foreleg to meet with the dagger, the blood fused into the metal and the dagger began to admit its own red glow. The sensation sent pleasurable waves through my body, a warm feeling coming from the cut.
The basin began glowing red as well, as I watched it slowly began filling with blood, my blood. Dumbly I observed the basin fill to a quarter of its entirety, I looked at my reflection, my dead eyes and the blood being eaten up by the demonic dagger.
My eyes widened as I realized what I was doing, I screamed and immediately tried to pull my magic away from the dagger. It resisted, holding onto my magical grip and sucking up my blood at a rapid pace, finally I was able to let the wretched thing drop to the ground, but not before it had devoured at least a litre of blood.
I was lightheaded and weak, I swayed on the spot as my vision swam. I had lost too much blood, I needed to rest, eat, drink, only then could I continue. Instead, that golden glow enveloped me again and the sensation of being filled, like I was a cup and some invisible force was pouring liquid into me. I felt a sharp pain in my heart but my head stopped swimming, I felt better but my temples were pounding, it was something I would have to deal with, I looked down at my foreleg and saw that the cut had healed leaving only a faint scar in its place.
Sending up a silent prayer to whomever was keeping me alive, I cautiously approached the pedestal again, the basin was still full of my blood and was glowing red. As I watched the blood started boiling and steaming, red tendrils that dripped blood rose out of the basin, they swayed for a moment before lashing out at the door. They gripped the door and slowly pulled it open before retreating back into the basin, the blood fazing into the metal of the bowl.
Taking care not to touch the dagger or bowl, I moved past the pedestal and through the door. The moment I passed through the door it slammed shut behind me, leaving me in total darkness. I didn't have to wait long before several torches flared to life around the stone room I now found myself in, the room gave off the appearance of a dungeon which was solidified by the bones.
About sixty or so full skeletons decorated the room, most were scattered across the floor and the others were chained to the wall. By the looks of them they had died trying to escape their fate, several of the skeletons suggested that they had been clawing at the walls by their positions, others were curled in the fetal position, some in what looked like a praying position of some sort.
On the opposite side of the room was a heavy wooden door. Careful not to step or brush against any of the skeletons I moved towards the door, I managed to make it there without incident but as soon as I put a hoof on the door that changed.
A universal moan shuttered through the room, I looked back in horror as one by one the skeletons eye socket's alighted up with angry red fire that seemed to focus directly on me. Desperately I pulled at the door but with no avail, the skeletons were moving now, slowly picking themselves off the floor and approaching me. The ones chained to the wall struggled against their bonds, making loud metallic sound that echoed throughout the room.
Will all of my might both magical and physical I tried to pull the door open but I didn't budge, the skeletons were almost on top of me, as a last resort I throw my body against the door.
And it opened without a fuss.
It was a push not a pull.
Mentally punching myself I dove through the exit and slammed the door behind me, in a moment it disappeared into smoke. Supposedly taking the unrestful dead along with it, taking a deep breath and turned around, taking a step forward as I did so.
And I immediately fell.
Once again consumed by darkness I didn't waste my breath screaming, rather I took the time to mentally prepare myself for the eventual impact. After a while, I began to feel water droplets bumping against me, falling on my head and around me.
A light bloomed below me, a bright blue glow. It grew in proportion until it blinded me, expecting the painful end to my fall I braced myself, but instead of a harsh impact and cracking bones. I was met with a gentle splash and the cooling sensation of water around me.
I opened my eyes, incidentally I was underwater, and a strange omnipresent blue light illuminated everything around me. Not that there was much to see, there was only empty ocean in every direction, there wasn’t even visible particles or clusters of plankton floating around. It was just water.
At this point, I realized I was drowning. I had involuntarily opened my mouth and windpipe to suck in air but water had rushed in instead, I convulsed and struggled to swim upwards. But I didn’t know where up was; my body slowly descended into the deep crushing oblivion, my sight was slowly fading as the embrace of death slowly took me.
But it never came.
While the edges of my vision were consumed by darkness and my lungs screamed for air, the end never came. It was cruel, unusual torture, to be trapped in this perpetual state. My oxygen depraved brain managed to remind me that I had been in this situation previously and had been rescued by a strange golden light. Well, that light was nowhere to be found this time, it had abandoned me.
My body silently shifted forward, so my eyes faced the endless dark clutches of the sea. From this position I could see a figure moving below me; it was large, giant even. Big an lumbering to moved slowly under me, vaguely I could make out fins and a tail, like it was huge fish.
The fish got bigger.
And bigger.
And bigger still.
It was ascending towards me.
The moment the thought entered my head, the beast crashed into me. It was gentler than expected but I wasn’t free from pain, I still slammed against the creature’s hard back as it continued to ascend. Sooner than I could contemplate we burst from the clutches of the ocean into the air. My lungs immediately became retching up the water and filling instead with the breath of life, I lay there for several minutes, I puked thrice.
Eventually I recovered from my latest ordeal and I shakily stood up, I observed my rescuer. His back was large and wide with a distinctive mountain-like hump towards the front; additionally I could see water spouting out of a hole that was embedded in the creatures flesh.
It was a whale.
I was riding a whale.
After getting over the ridiculous situation I found myself in I trotted to the front part of my saviour, going around the hump to save time. Now with a clear view ahead, I could see that my new friend was heading forward at a speedy pace, leaning over the side I located the whale's beady little eye, it seemed to focus on me as I entered its vision. I swear, I could see a hint of a smile in that eye and in spite of myself I gave a warm smile back, pulling myself up I made myself comfortable on top of the mammal's head.
We moved at a decent pace, although, it was hard to tell with nothing but water in all directions. I glanced up meaning to judge our speed by the motion of the clouds, my jaw dropped at what I saw.
There was no sky.
Only more ocean.
Everything above me was a mirror of the ocean that I traveled across, minus the giant whale with a Pony on it's back, I watched in wonder as waves rose from the sky-ocean. Their tips reaching far downwards before crashing back up into the water, looking forward I tried to spot a visible horizon, there wasn't one, it was if I was travelling in one huge dewdrop.
I stared at the ocean above me- at least I assumed it was above me, for all I knew I was down was up and up was down -in captivation, it was just so bizarre that I was having trouble fully comprehending what my eyes were showing me, I felt like I would never truly understand the secrets below those waves, and that was good, some secrets were meant to stay an enigma.
I was dragged from my daydreaming by the whale stopping, I took my eyes off the up-ocean. In front of me was a beach covered in brown, wet, sand, the sand would give way to dirt and trees. Thick trees that reached high into the watery sky, each branch was smothered with dark green ovals that blocked any real light from making it through and thus the forest was shrouded in heavy shadow.
I patted my ride in thanks before hopping onto the beach, the sand was soft, almost like it was made of silken bits of fabric instead of course sand. I glanced behind me to see that the shake had become the ocean and was gone, I could only go forward.
As I entered the tree-line, it became dark. The leafs seemed to smother more than light, I felt heavy, stuffy, like I couldn't get enough air but I wasn't drowning. Grogginess invaded my usually clear head and I couldn't focus on what was around me, I stumbled through the thick foliage with my mind filled with boulders.
When I finally burst out of the smothering forest I took a breath of fresh air, my mind instantly cleared of its groggy overlay. I looked at the new scenery, somehow, I was in a cave, one that was as big as the world. Mountains and canyons splayed out before me, the ceiling consisted of the same thing but in different patterns. It was nod dissimilar to the 'dewdrop' I had been travelling in previously but only this was with rocky, sturdy earth rather than the fleeting, weak water.
All this rock, earth, steadfast and strong. I felt strong myself, like I could move any of this mountains if I wished, I was steadfast against whatever adversity this realm could throw at me. I was a mountain, large and beautiful and strong.
At least that's what I thought until the ground opened up and dropped me into a pit of lava.
Even before I hit the liquid fire, I was burning. The sheer heat igniting my mane and fur, my flesh boiled and bubbled like wax and I screamed as long as I could until the smoke and fumes burned my throat to a crisp. I hit the lava and I felt a pain that could not be described, I burned, everywhere, my very cells disintegrated into puffs of smoke and my nerves barely had time to send the pain signals to my brain before they to were burned away.
Fleetingly I managed to feel another sort of heat: anger. I felt angry at my arrogance from before, my carelessness when I travelled the ocean, at whomever had trapped me in this Celestia-foresaken place. They will burn in a brighter fire than I did now.
All these thoughts and feelings happening in a fraction of a second, before a golden light flashed in the sea of red and I blacked out.
I awoke, and I was flying.
All around me was sky, clouds drifted aimlessly in random directions and I floated amongst them. I was tired mentally despite being yet again brought from painful death by the strange golden energy. I decided to float around and explore, I was weightless to I soared through the air as free as a bird. In every direction the boundless sky was there, giving me room to do as I pleased, I was away from the pain and the darkness. No skeletons or shadowy blobs infected this realm, no, it was just me, the clouds, and the air.
But only for a moment.
The world around me began crumbling away, shattering as if glass, pieces of reality fell away and disappeared into oblivion. The sky gave way to darkness that was punctuated by swirling golden beams of energy, the same that had saved me countless times. The light came together into a large ball, like a star, before in shifted into another form: that of a pony but this one possessed both a horn and a pair of wings, it was an Alicorn!
Eyes opened on its head, shining blue with pure magical energy. It's horn glowed brighter that the rest of its body and suddenly my mind was filled with images, of boundless sea's of golden magical energy's, swirling and tumbling in the great sky of the universe. Some of it burned, some of it was scary, evil even but all of it held power in its own right.
When I next opened my eyes, I was sitting back in my quaint little library, the book in front of me turned to the last page with fresh glowing words that read:
Hecate, Alicorn Goddess of Magic and Power.
