The Power Within

Chapter 8 - Whitestone

The armored gray mare stared down at us from the cliff as her huge silvery mane waved in the increasing wind. She was a somewhat bigger than Redheart and me, but almost the same size as Leaf Trotter. Her green eyes carefully scanned us as we were unable to move a muscle.

I peeked at Leafy and noticed him back away just a little bit. If he was going to run away, I wasn’t going to stop him. Unfortunately, the gray mare picked up on his movement.

“Don’t you dare to move, green one! I gave you no permission to leave!” Silvermane roared, stopping Leaf in his tracks.

Fighting against myself, I wondered if I should just ask about my sister or not. Maybe we could be reasonable here. All I cared about was her well-being. But before I managed to do as much as open my mouth, the gray unicorn continued yelling.

“The white one can go, I have no use for her, but the pegasus will stay,” Silvermane announced and stomped the ground, making a few small rocks to fall down.

“W-what do you want from him?” Redheart asked with a shaky voice.

“Silence! I did not allow you to speak! Run, white one, before I change my mind!” the mare roared, stomping the ground again.

Redheart jumped backward and almost took off, but then held her position.

“N-no, I won’t leave my friends,” Redheart stated nervously.

What the hay was she doing!? If we couldn’t save my sister, at least Redheart could save herself for Celestia’s sake! Why did she care about us!?

“No, Redheart! Run!” I shouted at her, earning a stunned look in return. “Save yourself!” I added to increase the effect.

However, the stubborn mare didn’t move a muscle, she just stared at me in disbelief. Tears ran down my cheeks as I turned to the commander.

“P-please, I just want my sister back!” I pleaded.

The gray unicorn mare stared at me for a moment before giggling mischievously, “Oh, you mean the one that we fed to the timberwolves this morning?”

My brain stopped working completely. My ears couldn’t register her words. The world around me became completely mute as the only voice I could hear was my gritting teeth.

“YOU DID WHAT!?” I shouted and started to walk toward the lunatic mare, intending to tear her into pieces, but Leaf pulled me back.

“No, Shimmering! She’s bluffing! There are no timberwolves on these parts!” Leaf Trotter shouted into my ear.

Now that I thought about it, I had never seen one here, only some dragons. I guess my friend knew what he was talking about. If anypony knew these forests, it was him. I calmed down a little bit, but still kept my angry glare at the gray unicorn. Redheart on the other hoof simply froze on her spot, staring at us, mouth wide open. Honestly, what else could one do in this situation?

Silvermane started to laugh while a bunch of black shadows appeared behind her. Those were the soldiers that had slaughtered our town. Well, minus the one I'd killed...

“The green one is pretty smart, unlike his other friends,” the mare laughed. “How naive can one pony be?” she continued her hysterical outburst, while I fully revealed my teeth at her.

“Let my sister go!” I shouted within LT’s hold.

Without my friend holding me down, who knew what I was going to do that rotten scumbag of a mare. I didn’t even think about losing to her. If she wasn’t going to let my sister go, I’d kick her flank right here, right now.

“Silence!” the mare roared, seemingly more irritated by me. “You don’t tell your queen what to do! I’m the one in charge here!” she yelled.

For a minute, I decided to give her time to cool down. I didn’t know which mental hospital this mare had escaped from, but she was surely living in her own fictional dream world. And that made her dangerous and unpredictable.

“Now, the pegasus comes with us if he wants to see his precious sister,” Silvermane said and pointed at the direction of the town.

“W-what about us?” Redheart asked quietly.

The commander simply sighed while hitting her forehead with her hoof, “Why is the white one still here?” she asked from nopony in particular.

“W-we are friends and we stick together,” the nurse answered shakily.

“Oh, isn’t that cute. But the answer is no! If you don’t leave now, you won’t leave at all!” Silvermane shouted again, stomping her hoof.

At this point, I didn’t have much of a choice. If they didn’t leave, they’d die. I had to get rid of them one way or another.

“Please, go! Don’t worry about me!” I shouted as loud as my lungs allowed, tears pouring from my eyes. “I am not worth it!”

The look on their faces was simply indescribable. They were all confused, scared and horrified at the same time. They came here to help me, but now I had to drive them away. Even Leaf Trotter looked completely helpless as he tried to raise his hoof toward me. But there was no way I could let them follow me.

I gave them one last hiss and started to walk toward the town, soldiers now escorting me in a circle. They had spears and bows ready in case somepony didn’t do as they were being told. Leaf Trotter and Nurse Redheart took a hesitant step after me, but the soldiers blocked their way. The commander simply followed me from the cliff and made sure that my friends stayed behind - like they should.

I was all alone now - and I was relieved. If anypony got hurt, it’d only be me. We walked through the burned down ruins, where dead ponies were lying everywhere. Some had even been decapitated. I had never seen inside of a pony like that before, all the bones and intestines were scattered everywhere. The smell alone was absolutely horrendous. And what was even worse, the rain was now pouring down on us as the rumbling of those dark storm clouds filled the skies. It was getting dark very fast.

The town was so badly damaged that I had a hard time recognizing where I was anymore. There were no houses left, only some charred piles of wood. The only thing that was still up, was the tree at the center of the town. It was the oldest tree in the area and it actually looked similar to Twilight’s library now that I had a comparison. Well, minus the doors and windows. I wonder what Twilight was doing right now. She had no idea where I was. More than that, even Redheart was now missing. I hoped neither of them will remain mad at me. But then again, I might have deserved it.

We walked toward the old tree and I saw something hanging from the branches. No, they couldn’t be… I got a bit closer, but I still couldn’t believe my eyes. There were at least a dozen ponies hanged from the tree, waving in the wind. Some had spears in them, some had arrows. They were barely recognizable due to the blood that had covered their bodies and tails. They were just a red mess of blood and intestines that were hanging out. I couldn’t take it anymore - it was simply too much.

I stopped, collapsed on the ground, threw up and cried. All of my will to live was gone. I couldn’t believe that my sister would even be alive anymore, and even if she was, Silvermane was never going to let us go just like that. I just waited for a spear or an arrow to pierce my skull at any given moment, but sadly, nothing came. I just cried - and cried. The rain was pouring even harder on us while the lightning bolts lit up the place, revealing the horrors in the tree and surrounding areas.

I wanted to die. I didn’t care anymore. Cres was dead for sure. At least my friends had escaped and that was enough for me. I was ready to give up, it was only natural for a coward like me. I had betrayed everypony.

“Get up,” somepony said before me with a surprisingly calm voice, interrupting my crying.

I slowly peeked up and saw the commander Silvermane looking at me - emotionlessly. Not the slightest hint of regret on her face, not the tiniest amount of compassion in her demeanor. I only sniffled a few more times and tried to get on my hooves, but slipped on the muddy ground.

However, the green aura of magic caught me before I smacked back onto the blood-soaked ground.

“Your sister,” the mare spoke quietly and stepped aside, revealing a small metal cage behind her.

A lightning bolt flashed in the sky, momentarily revealing what was locked inside of the tiny cage.

“Cres?” I asked in disbelief.

The white unicorn in the cage slowly raised her head and looked at me, showing her purple eyes and her deep blue mane that was missing the ribbon I had in my saddlebag.

“Shimmering? Is that you?” The mare asked drowsily as she had just woke up.

I nodded rapidly and crawled my way closer to the cage, “Y-yes, Cres, It’s me. I came to free you,” I sobbed while trying to give her the softest smile I could muster.

“Run, Shimmering…” Cres mumbled quietly.

I couldn’t quite understand why would I need to run. I was finally here and Crescent was still alive, I had absolutely zero reasons for leaving. Not without her anyway.

“Cres, you don’t understand, I came to save you,” I sobbed again, as yet another lightning bolt lit up the town.

“No, Shimmering, it’s not about me,” Cres said wearily and tried to stand up inside the small cage, “I was just a bait to get you back… and now that you are here, I serve no purpose anymore,” my sister continued as she lowered her head, dropping a few tears.

“What?” was all I managed to say before I saw a shiny spearhead in front of my muzzle.

“What she’s trying to say, is that we used her to lure you back here like a little fishy that you are, Shimmering. Honestly, did you really think we didn’t notice your green friend snooping around that day? We let him find you and bring you back,” Silvermane said ominously.

“Why? Because I killed one of your stupid henchmen!?” I shouted in tears, earning a kick to my ribs from one of the soldiers.

The kick wasn’t anything to sneeze at, I noticed as I gasped for air. Ow, ponyfeathers! That really hurt!

“Watch your mouth, kid. Ravenheart was a good soldier…” the commander said, her tone giving off a hint of respect for the lost pawn in her army.

A name fit for a pony. I bet it came from his raven black heart that knew no mercy. First, I had felt guilty about the whole thing, but now - nothing. I didn’t think I was a murderer anymore. I hadn’t killed a pony, I had just stopped a monster from hurting others.

“No, it wasn’t for that,” Silvermane continued, “You really don’t have the slightest idea now do you?” she laughed.

I didn’t reply. I didn’t even want to try to think of something that’d cause anypony to do something like this. But why me though? I didn’t know anything that valuable. I didn’t have anything that valuable. This had to be some messed up misunderstanding.

“Your parents were quite a fascinating couple, don’t you think?” the commander asked, earning my sobbing attention once more.

For a moment, I hoped my parents were still alive, but I abandoned the idea quickly. The smirk on commander's face told me enough.

“You know, there’s a ritual where a powerful unicorn such as myself, can use ancient black magic to suck up other ponies life force and receive their special abilities. I don’t mean their cutie marks, of course, but their hidden powers. Unfortunately, this ritual ends up killing the target - as happened to your parents. Very unfortunate, I must say. But don’t worry, they only suffered for an hour, before their hearts simply exploded,” Silvermane said and tried not to laugh, but failed in her attempt miserably.

I wasn’t laughing, though. I was simply infuriated. Never in my life had I been so angry at somepony. It felt really strange to be so mad, but at the same time, it felt really good to finally stand up for myself. Long gone was the shyness and fear from my heart, along with every other feeling but anger.

I stood up and took a few steps closer to Silvermane and growled between my gritting teeth, “You are going to pay for what you have done!”

I readied myself to attack her with full force. Heck, I was even going to sink my teeth into her flesh just so I could taste what the rotten blood of a real monster tastes like. There wasn’t going to be much left when I was done with her.

But just then, Silvermane used her magic to teleport a few hoof steps away and cast a huge beam of magic toward Crescent’s cage. The cage exploded into a pieces, sending my sister fly through the air. Her painful cry drove through my ears and heart like a dagger. Everything happened so fast, yet I saw my sister flying in slow motion as she slammed against the tree head first. She laid on the ground, motionlessly, bleeding everywhere. If she had just died…

That does it. Every single cell in my body was absolutely filled to the brim of rage toward this despicable abomination before me. I lost all control of my mind as I lowered my head and roared as loud as I possibly could. The sound of the rumbling thunder above was no match for my desperate cry, the cry that even made the soldiers to take a step backward.

I could see the ponies Silvermane had murdered before my eyes, I could see Leaf Trotter, weakened by his illness. I saw our flight teacher, Sunshine lying on the road. I saw a fearful Nurse Redheart and Twilight Sparkle staring at me. I saw my sister laying under the tree and I could see my parents back when I was still a foal… And I saw the commander Silvermane standing in middle, laughing at me, mocking me.

Suddenly, I felt a weird sensation of heat traveling across my body, almost like I was on fire or something of the like. The energy then ran into my mane and tail, where it was released in a form of the most furious thunderstorm I had ever experienced. I had no idea what was going on, but I didn’t care. I just roared louder and louder, as the lightning bolts flew everywhere, hitting everything around me.

Sadly, I had no control over the bolts, they were simply leaving my mane and tail at their own will if they even had such thing.

At some point, I had detected a weird flash somewhere near the tree where Cres was lying, but I couldn’t tell what it was. I was in a trance, in a state that was beyond my control, like watching myself from outside of me.

As if that wasn’t weird enough, the huge storm above us started to spiral around me. I could feel the extra energy run through my mane and tail, almost like the storm was giving all of its energy to me. I didn’t know what was going on, but it felt good - really good.

I shouted, roared and howled even louder and the lightning bolts around me grew larger and larger. I could hear a series of explosions following every bolt that left my mane and tail. Among those explosions, were panicked screams of the scared soldiers. I just hoped I could have heard the commander’s cry at some point. This was too good of an opportunity not to get her killed.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the weird energy was gone. I felt dizzy as the world started to spin around me. The reality started to kick in and I could see the havoc around me. There were smoldering soldiers everywhere, each and every one of them being dead.

And then I saw something that made me doubt my own eyes once again. The huge tree had split cleanly from the middle. And in front of the three, was this weird, glowing purple bubble of magical energy. I had no idea what it was, though, but it was beautiful.

Soon enough, my hooves gave up and I fell on my stomach. I saw my reflection from the steaming puddle in front of me, revealing my smoking mane and tail that looked like they had just been burned from the tips. My mane felt soothingly warm as it laid against my soaked coat.

I raised my gaze and looked at the purple bubble again, only to notice that it suddenly vanished. From the bubble, emerged Twilight Sparkle, who was desperately trying to shield my sister. It didn’t make any sense, Twilight was in Ponyville. I’ve never had any hallucinations before, and for this to be the first one, it felt a bit too real. I wanted to go check on my sister.

However, trying to get back up wasn’t something I was able to do. I was dead tired. I couldn’t move a muscle, let alone speak to this illusion of Twilight. Then again, what good would it do anyway? I just wanted to tell her that I was sorry I had left her without saying a word.

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. All I wanted was peace and quiet. However, this stubborn hallucination of Twilight Sparkle didn’t go away. Now it started talking, just like real Twilight. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hear what she said as she was too far away. I wasn’t sure if I were in Equestria anymore, everything was just so hazy and unreal.

“Magnificent! This is just what I was talking about!” somepony shouted a bit closer to me.

That almost sounded like the commander Silvermane - but that couldn’t be. There were only dead ponies around me, I mean aside from this weird hallucination of Twilight Sparkle that I enjoyed watching.

Sadly, the said commander soon appeared to my vision and looked at me excitedly. She then lowered her green magical shield she had cast. So that’s how she had survived. Speaking of a disappointment.

“This is the power I need!” She yelled.

And before I even knew it, I was levitated into the air and this weird green cloud of magic surrounded my body. I felt really tired.

“I was right, the power of your father was passed on to you - and now, I can finally drain your power and use it to conquer the whole of Equestria!” the gray mare laughed maniacally.

This mare was completely out of her mind, I had no idea what she was even talking about. What powers did I have? Did I cause those lightning bolts?

However, the image of the fake Twilight suddenly turned at us and fired a purple beam toward the commander.

Much to my surprise, the beam actually hit the gray mare and she dropped me back to the ground. Okay, that was a bit too real.

“Run, Shimmering! I mean fly, I mean, just do something!” Twilight shouted at me.

As much as I wanted to obey her, My legs felt like they were made of lead.

´I can’t,´ I tried to say, but absolutely nothing came out of my mouth.

The commander stood up and readied her beam to shoot at Twilight, but just then a green earth pony came out of nowhere, hitting Silvermane on the head with his hind leg with an audible smack. Was that Leaf Trotter!? First Twilight, now Leaf Trotter. Maybe I was already sleeping and this was just some weird dream, though it felt so real.

I watched for a moment while Leaf and Silvermane struggled on the ground with hoof to hoof combat. Leaf really gave her a piece of his mind it seemed as he pounded Silvermane’s face with his hooves. Apparently, Twilight wanted to use her magic to help Leaf but she couldn’t do it as she might hit my friend. It was a bit fun to watch, to be honest, mostly because my friend was suddenly so energetic.

Unfortunately, the commander managed to teleport away from my friend and fire an enormous green beam at him, making him fly a good distance. This time, however, I winced. That's gotta hurt. Now the gray mare turned to Twilight. How she was able to see the same hallucination as me, was beyond me.

Suddenly, Nurse Redheart appeared to my vision, trying to scoop me up, “Come on now, Shimmering! We need to get you out of here!” the nurse said and tried to get me on her back.

I wasn’t so sure this was just a hallucination anymore. She could actually touch me. Maybe Redheart and Leafy came back for me, but that still didn’t explain what in the name of Celestia Twilight was doing here.

“Twilight, could you please give me a little help here?” Redheart pleaded from my purple hallucination, who first fired a beam at the commander and then levitated me into the air and onto Redheart’s back. “Thanks, Twilight,” the nurse cheered and slowly started walk away from the action.

“Please try to hold on tight, okay?” my wobbly method of transportation shouted over her shoulder and tried to go a bit faster.

I had to say, this wasn’t the most pleasant ride I had experienced. Redheart panted after every step and I felt how I started to slip off of her back. Regardless of my efforts of trying to pair up my forehooves around her neck, I soon splashed to the ground.

The nurse just huffed and turned back to me and took my tail in her mouth.

“Hey, w-what are you-” I tried to ask, but she couldn’t answer with her mouth full.

A hard yank from my tail made me wince as Redheart pulled me through the mud like a toy, she was actually a pretty strong mare.

Suddenly, I felt how I was dragged over a rock and felt how my right wing folded under me, sending an excruciating wave of pain through my body as the bones bent and cracked under my weight. Everything simply flashed in white while my ears started to ring.

I couldn’t even scream. I simply gasped for air like a fish on a dry land. It hurt like hell, a thousand times more than the spear had hurt. I rolled on my left side, taking the load off of my broken wing.

Redheart spun around and looked at me horrified. She saw my mangled, muddy wing standing up from my body. It didn’t even look like a wing anymore.

“Dear Celestia, I’m so sorry, Shimmering!” Redheart sobbed and shifted in place anxiously, before deciding to continue pulling me from my muddy tail.

After she had dragged me for a good distance, she let off of my tail and fell on her haunches, panting heavily. I managed to turn my head enough so I could see where the others were and noticed that Silvermane was still up and fighting with Twilight. Leaf and Cres laid on the ground, but they weren’t moving.

Twilight seemed to be exhausted, but so was Silvermane. The commander was also bleeding heavily from her head. Leafy had really made a number on her noggin.

The purple unicorn then launched one of the biggest beams of the match and the commander had no strength left to dodge it. The beam sent Silvermane flying for a brief moment. It looked like Twilight had a good chance of winning the fight.

However, I was about to lose my fight against the immense pain caused by my broken wing. I was simply exhausted both physically and mentally. My eyelids felt heavy and they soon closed, allowing me to lose consciousness.