Cracks in Reality - Book One

There was nothing Darklight wanted more than to ask the little filly how she did it. How she was able to completely negate and almost destroy the walls that separated Tartarus from Equestria? Darklight leaned against a wall and used it to support himself as he pulled the leaves off of a nearby plant, one that was going to be crucial to both their survivals. He glanced back at Twilight and gestured to her still full bowl. “You need to keep eating little filly.”

Twilight tilted her head curiously at the stallion. Her academic mind was buzzing with curiosity as she watched the stallion crushing the leaves up into bowl. “W-what are you making?”

“I am going to overdose myself on warmweed little filly. It’s an highly effective painkiller and in high enough doses it’s extremely addictive and can cause powerfully vivid hallucinations. For six minutes it will numb my mind to pain, while increasing my adrenaline and heart rate. In eight minutes it will put me in a coma and ten minutes, I’ll be dead.” Darklight pulled a vial of blue liquid from his cloak and placed it in Twilight’s hands. “This is the antidote to the warmweed, once I’ve killed the caribou raiding party, I need you to make sure I drink this, force it down my throat if you have to.”

Twilight felt herself losing her appetite and she placed the half empty bowl down.“W-why are these caribou after you, though?”
“The caribou’s ruler, Dainn, wanted to create a weapon powerful and strong enough to take over Equestria. I stopped him from doing so. But with you, his shaman’s can harness your magic to tear through the walls of Tartarus and start invading Equestria once more. It is extremely important I stop the caribou from getting you.”

“But I read that that the caribou became extinct almost fifteen hundred years ago.”

“In Equestria, they are extinct.” Darklight stared thoughtfully down at Twilight. He knew there was no telling how long the little filly would be trapped here, and if they both lived through the next ten minutes, he planned to train her into a weapon. Something he could use in the war to saving Equestria from the Seven Lords of Tartarus. “We have to get somewhere safer, little filly.” He tried to take a step, only to have his bandaged left give out causing him to crumble to the ground and double over in pain. He looked up at Twilight. “Got enough magic to support me?”

Twilight hesitated. Her horn was still sore and felt slightly warm from the massive amounts of raw untamed magic that had coursed through it during her flameout. “I-l’ll try.” She closed her eyes in concentration and channeled just enough magic to envelope Darklight’s upper body and help him stand on his feet. “Where do you want me to go?”

“Go down the hallway, turn left and take the stairwell down to the next level.”

As she walked down the hallway, the light from her magical aura did nothing to dispel the shadows which remained darker than they had any right to be. She also couldn’t help but notice an icy chill in the air that seemed to soak past her clothes and fur and into her very bones. She shivered violently and looked up at Darklight slumped over and only supported by her magic. He was muttering incoherent things to himself and every so often the runes carved on his body under his cloak would flare to life with electric blue energy.

“We only have three minutes until the caribou have breached the weaknesses I’ve created in my library’s defenses.” Darklight muttered as they came to the door at the end of the hallway. He leaned against the doorframe panting with exertion. Twilight wanted to inquire about exactly what this strange place was but the words died on her tongue as the stallion met her gaze. “We need to keep moving, little filly. Not too far now.”

The flight of stairs lead down into a different level of wherever she was and her eyes widened in amazement at what she was seeing. This lower level was one massive room so large that not even the light of her magic supporting Darklight could penetrate the corners of the room. But the walls that she could see were carved into bookshelves, each one filled to the brim with massive tomes of various different texts.

They soon came to another flight of stairs that led down into another large room. The walls were lined with a massive arsenal of weapons of every kind, ranging from giant broadswords and war hammers, to daggers and tiny little darts.Twilight could only stare in fascination at the sheer number of weapons that not even the Canterlot armory could compare to.
Darklight gestured to another door on the far side of the room. “That leads down to the ground floor, and the front door. That’s the breach point the caribou will be using. Put me down here, little filly.” Twilight gently lowered him to the ground and Darklight raised the bowl filled with crushed warmweed to his mouth. “Remember, six minutes. Then give me the antidote.”

Twilight looked down at the vial of blue liquid she held in her grasp. “Y-you’re really poisoning yourself?”

Darklight nodded and tipped the contents of the bowl into his mouth “Remember, little filly. I’m counting on you to save me. No matter what happens, don’t leave this spot. And do not lose that antidote.”

Darklight’s eyes narrowed as a sudden explosion followed by a pulse of concussive magical energy came from the floor below. “The caribou are here now.” He stood up slipping his cloak off, with no signs that he was affected by his critical injuries. He looked down at Twilight with those cold electric blue eyes. “Don’t be late.” With that final instruction he strode from the room with a predatory grace, leaving Twilight behind.

She blinked in complete shock after him. Not even a minute ago he was too weak to even stand without her magical assistance, now after swallowing the warmweed, he was practically running. She glanced down the vial in her hand and began counting down the minutes in her mind. The sound of swords and weapons clashing drifted upstairs and through the door left slightly ajar. She heard a scream of pure pain, followed by an echoing crack of bones being broken. She felt oddly relieved that none of the screams were Darklight’s. Suddenly everything was so silent she could hear her heart pounding in her chest. She had four minutes until Darklight needed the antidote.
Tiptoeing through the room, she slipped out of the door and came to a flight of stairs that overlooked the entrance hall. On the ground below were a dozen creatures she had never seen before. The caribous. They were tall with massively built muscles, the shortest one only being just under six and a half feet. Each of them were carrying a massive broad sword a long spear and, a large knife. Another dozen caribou were lying on the floor either dead or dying. Darklight was on his knees trapped there with a caribou holding a knife stabbed through his left shoulder. The dozen caribou that were still alive moved to surround him.

“You’re too late,” Darklight said through gritted teeth, but loud enough for the entire group to hear him. “I’ve already killed the filly and destroyed whatever of her magic King Dainn can use to break through the walls of Tartarus.”
Twilight watched on in complete silence holding a hand over her mouth to muffle her breathing. She had now idea how Darklight could win against such overwhelming odds. The leader caribou moved forward pulling back a fist and punching Darklight across the face. He didn’t seem to even register the pain.

“Kill him,” the leader of the caribou instructed. “King Dainn won’t be pleased we lost the foal.” He punched Darklight across the face once more. “But he’ll no doubt forgive us when we bring back his traitorous pet’s cock and balls.”
Darklight turned his head and spat blood and teeth onto the floor. “Get on with it then.”

The caribou leader grabbed a spear from one of his comrades and thrust it towards Darklight’s heart. Darlight suddenly spun his entire body around moving the caribou holding the knife in his shoulder into the path of the spear. He pulled the knife out of his shoulder, and dove to the side avoiding another spear thrust. He broke the head off of the spear and threw it into a caribou’s throat. He stood, broke a caribou’s neck, and slammed the dead body into another caribou with bone crushing force. An archer fired and he used one of the dead bodies to shield himself from the arrow. He pulled the arrow from the caribou’s body and threw it into the archer’s left eye. A caribou stepped forward and Darklight blocked the knife strike to his throat with an arm. He stabbed with his own knife, catching the caribou in the ribs. He pulled the sword from the dead caribou’s belt and shoved the body away. Before the remaining five caribou left alive could regroup, Darklight stepped backwards into the shadows, suddenly fading completely from sight.

“Find him!” The caribou leader shouted, shoving one of his soldiers forward in the direction Darklight had disappeared.
Twilight stared with wide-eyed shock at the scene of violence and carnage she had just witnessed. Her mind was still counting down the minutes until Darklight succumbed to the warmweed. Two minutes left.

Darklight stepped silently from the shadows approaching the remaining caribou from behind. He grabbed the first caribou’s head and twisted it violently to the side. He swiftly slit the second caribou’s throat with his knife. He grabbed the third caribou’s head and slammed it into the ground before throwing the knife into the back of the fourth caribou’s head.
“Look out!” Twilight suddenly screamed as one of the injured caribou picked up the fallen bow and shoot an arrow at Darklight. The arrow caught him in the right knee and he crumpled to the ground with only a grunt. The last remaining caribou glared up at the unicorn filly and ran up the stairs straight for her.

Darklight cursed and began crawling to a nearby knife. The caribou was now only twenty steps away. Twilight was trying her best to charge a spell through her horn, only succeeding in creating a few magical sparks in her terrified state of mind. “Little filly! Run!” Darklight yelled, still crawling to the knife. The caribou gave a triumphant growl as grabbed the retreating Twilight by the scuff of her neck. Darklight used the last of her remaining strength to lunge forward, grab the knife, and throw it across the room into the caribou’s throat. Twilight scrambled away from the dead looking extremely pale.

“The antidote!” Darklight yelled. “I need the antidote.” Twilight barely even registered Darklight’s words. She was staring down at her blood stained shirt feeling completely numb. “Little filly! The antidote!” Her mind suddenly snapped into gear and she ran as fast as she could down the stairs. She navigated her way through the dead caribou trying her best not to think about the the warm sticky liquid squishing between her toes.

She pulled the stopper from the vial in her hands and knelt beside Darklight’s head pouring the contents into his open mouth. “G-good work, little filly,” he muttered quietly, his eyelids fluttering closed. Twilight stayed there next to the stallion kneeling in the growing pool of warm crimson liquid. She still felt completely numb. She didn’t feel anything. Fear, anger, relief. None of it.
She glanced down at her blood covered shirt feeling slightly uncomfortable as the blood started clotting and making the shirt stick to her fur. Wincing slightly, she grabbed the hem of the shirt and pulled it away from her body. An earsplitting scream of pure terror came from Twilight as the sight of a large and deep scar starting from the top of her chest and ending just above her waistline finally broke her mind from its numbness...