The PAWN Chronicles

When they finally reached their destination, they put up the game and placed it back in Arcane's saddlebags as they then left the train.

“Alright.” Arcane said. “Where to first?”

Noctis gave it a bit of thought. While he did so he commented on the place. “This city looks like trash and the ponies in it look like trash. Only too appropriate for such a wretched place.” He said.

Arcane simply shrugged as he hadn't visited the city before. He spent most of his time at home researching or working on commissions. They then looked on the map for a good place to start. “Hey! Rarity has a Boutique here!” He said. “Maybe we can start there. I mean I don't know if they have anyone were looking for, but they're from here so they should know some pretty good places to look.”

“I suppose it's a place to start.” Noctis said. Some reluctance in his tone.

Arcane then got out a map of the area and looked for the boutique. He was having a bit of trouble until he realized he was holding the map upside down. Once he found the map marker he then pointed in the direction to go and they headed there. Along the way they kept and eye out for anyone who looked like they could be of use to the team. They then stopped for some lunch at a nearby restaurant. The outside looked like garbage. Some of the bricks where cracked and worn, The windows where caked in filth, and the corners all looked as though they where gathering a chalk like substance on them. Arcane wondered if it would be funny to go inside and actually order something, or just stupid. Either way, the white stallion trotted inside.

Noctis followed, thinking it to be foolish to eat at such a poorly kept eatery. Though if their food had something on it he could use in alchemy, then that may be useful at the very least.

As the two came in through the front doors, seemingly the only well kept thing in the establishment, they then saw the inside which seemed to be a complete opposite from the outside. Arcane's jaw dropped in surprise as he saw the interior that looked like it could be a five hoof restaurant. Noctis on the other hand, didn't seem so impressed. He had seen stranger things. The two waited to be seated and took in the ambiance of the area. The walls where decorated in a pristine white wallpaper and a green ceiling with gold patterns that decorated it. The floor was carpeted dark gray, almost black. The counters and tables where all pristine.
A unicorn mare then trotted up to them carrying a couple of menus. She had a silver coat and light green mane.

“Right this way please.” The server said as she led them to their table. Once they took their seat they noticed how comfortable they where as well as how the marble table's seemed to be scratchless. The server then placed the menus on the table as well as utensils wrapped neatly in forest green cloth napkins.

“Here you are!” the server said. “Ill just give you some time to look at the menu and if you need anything, just call.” With that, she left them to search the items on the menu.

“What kind of place takes care of the inside only to neglect the outside?” Noctis said. “Ridiculous!”

Arcane shrugged and started looking at the menu. It was encased in a silicone envelope embroidered with leather and brass on the corners. The selection was quite various and plentiful. It took a bit for him to come to a decision. “Huh... this menu's got a lot of variety.” he said.

Noctis came to a decision more quickly, though once he put his menu down he found that the entire restaurant was completely empty. “Well well well.” he then said.

“Huh? What is it?” Arcane then asked as he then put down his menu and noticed the same thing. “What the hell?” he said. “What happened? Was I really looking at the menu that long?”

“No, only for about two minutes or so.” Noctis answered. “Not nearly enough time for everyone to just up and vanish. Not to mention there's no noise coming from the kitchen either.”

“And yet the lights are still on.” Arcane added. “You think there's some sort of trick going on?”

“I'd say this is a bit more than a trick.” Noctis said. “We may want to keep our guard up. I don't think this is one of Pinkie Pie's attempts at throwing a surprise party.”

“Something tells me your right.” Arcane replied.

The two Stallions got out of their seats and walked around the area. Arcane looked outside and everything looked normal. Noctis checked the kitchens and found no one. He looked around to see if anyone was hiding. Arcane tried looking outside but as soon as he opened the door, all he saw was the inside of the restaurant. As if it was a mirror image. He walked inside and ended up right back. He shook his head and thought for a bit. How was this happening? And what have they gotten themselves into?

“The kitchen's empty!” Noctis said. “Just as I thought!”

“You might want to take a look at this Noctis.” Arcane said.

Noctis trotted over to Arcane and watched as Arcane opened the door and waked through. However, this time it was a black void of nothingness and he would have fell in had Noctis not caught him. Taking him be the scruff of his neck with his teeth and pulling him back inside.

“Holy shit!” Arcane said as he then rubbed the back of his neck.

“What the hell where you doing?!” Noctis snapped.

“I swear, the last time I did it it there was a mirror image on the other side.” Arcane replied. “I walked right out and ended up back in.”

Noctis then had a pensive expression as he thought about that. In the meantime, Arcane looked around a bit. He found some stairs leading to the second floor. “Since there's nothing down here, maybe we should looked upstairs?” he then asked.

Noctis, locked in thought then snapped out of it and then nodded as he followed Arcane up the stairs. The Marble steps where embroidered with brass and decorative emblems littered the walls. Near the top was a glass window in the wall with brass gears on the other side. The brass railing going up the stairs where getting more and more tarnished as they climbed up. When they reached the top, they found what looked like a room not nearly as pristine as the room below. The marble floors where caked in dust and the brass linings where tarnished. The ceiling was cracked and the plaster yellowed. The lights where flickering and crackling a bit. But the most disturbing thing was that there was no one around. Noctis looked out a nearby window to see that it was night. He raised an eyebrow at the fact everything looked normal out this window when compared to the door downstairs. He looked around the room, noting the various hallways, looking for any indication to where they could lead.

Arcane tried to sense any magic in the area to see if he could pinpoint anything useful, but he sensed nothing but magic everywhere, as if the entire area was completely made up of magic. “Magic sense is useless here.” he said.

“I see.” Noctis replied. “Quite a few hallways to go through though.”

“Should we split up?” Arcane then asked.

“Why not?” Noctis replied as he then looked to one of the hallways and trotted to it.

Arcane headed over to a different hallway and trotted through it. The two ended up back in the same room yet again. After a few seconds looking around, Arcane then decided to run through a different hallway, Noctis doing the same.
Arcane ended up in a different room this time. He looked around, examining the walls and found that they seemed to be caked in limestone this time. He saw Noctis come from the hallway at the opposite side, then he proceeded to stand there and stare. Arcane tilted his head in confusion at this, then Noctis did the same. They then walked over to each other.

“Looks like this place is playing tricks with...” Before Arcane finished his sentence, he noticed Noctis was mimicking his movements. It was like looking in a mirror, if the mirror's reflection showed someone else. Arcane started moving his hoof around, and Noctis simply mimicked the movement. When Arcane tried walking around Noctis, his mimicking Arcane's movements prevented that. Arcane then stared back at Noctis, trying to find out what was happening. Weather it was just a prank or if it was something else entirely. He examined Noctis for anything that might be different. He then noticed that his face expressed no emotion. Noctis often always expressed anger and superiority if anything. Arcane then tried going back through the hallway he came from but it was gone when he looked back.

“What the hell?” He said. He then quickly looked back as he figured it was probably best to stay on guard. He then saw that Noctis seemed to decay a bit.
He looked like a zombie, bits of flesh missing, eyes completely white. Noctis then started walking toward him, his razor sharp horn lighting up with magic. Arcane got into a combat stance and lit his horn up as well. The zombie Noctis then shot a beam of magic at Arcane, when he jumped over to dodge, the spell exploded, sending him flying into the lime caked wall. Arcane was dazed for a second or two but managed to quickly shake it off. But when he opened his eyes to see, he saw two other zombie ponies.
One that had a blue coat like Noctis but a paler as well as a pair of antennae on his head. And the other looked like a changeling with a pale brown carapace, a bit like khaki but darker. The changeling also had red eyes and a midnight blue aura swirling around him, the aura looked as if it had stars on it like that of an actual midnight sky. It's fore hooves looked like it had hands that ended in claws and it's hind legs seemed to be suited to standing upright a bit. In fact, it didn't exactly look like a zombie. It simply stood there while the other two ponies started their attack.
Noctis fired another beam of magic, Arcane jumped forward this time, using his magic to increase his speed and strength. He then fired a blast of his own, it was a fireball. This exploded on impact, sending Noctis flying, but the other pony then lifted Arcane off the ground then started spinning him in place. This made it hard for Arcane to focus and attack accurately. Luckily he wasn't prone to motion sickness. He then started charging up a spell, his horn shining brightly with magic before releasing a bright light from it. This caused the Antennae'd pony to become dazzled and lose concentration of the spell.
Once Arcane fell to the ground, he quickly got back up and shot a lightning bolt at the dazzled zombie, knocking it out cold.
Once this was done however, Noctis recovered from the fireball previously and charged up another attack. Arcane quickly charged up a shield to block the attack while at the same time charging up an attack of his own. This expended a lot of energy but he needed to defend himself while charging his attack lest his spell be disrupted. Noctis released his attack and shattered the shield, but otherwise, Arcane was unharmed. Now that that was dealt with, he could use all his focus into this attack. He charged up a fireball and shot it directly at Noctis. It hit and the zombie was reduced to a mass of ash scattered all over the room.
With the two Zombies gone, Arcane then looked to the changeling who simply stood there for about a minute or two while Arcane caught his breath. But Arcane didn't let the changeling out of his sight as he figured it was an enemy and probably a necromancer as well. He would probably be curious as to how Noctis ended up under his spell, but he knew well that it would have taken longer for the necromancer to kill and raise Noctis like that.
As soon as Arcane's energy restored, he flared up his horn with magic and used it to increase his speed and strength again. The changeling on the other hand simply smiled and stood upright on his hind legs, still quite low to the ground with his claws out. He dashed around the room with blinding speed. Arcane put up magic armor around himself just in case, but before he could complete the spell he found himself struck by some wickedly sharp claws. This left three gashes in his rib cage. He then tried watching the changeling and using his increased speed to dodge it's attacks, but the changeling was too fast and nimble.
Arcane then began charging a spell and the changeling then stopped and started charging a spell of his own. It was then that Arcane focused all his energy into a lightning bolt spell. As the two charged said spells, the changeling's horn then seemed to absorb the magic it was charging as well as the changeling's aura, which confused Arcane as he never knew why such a thing would be needed as the spell is already amplified by the horn. But then he saw the changeling's mouth glow as it then spewed a wave of magic from it's maw at Arcane. Arcane had no choice, he had to unleash his spell, then atleast he would have a small chance of surviving. He released the spell and a large stream of lightning this was an impressive spell to be sure, but the changeling's magic wave completely obliterated the lighting stream.

Before it could do the same to Arcane however, he then found himself on the floor in a hotel room. Two figures standing over him. One revealed himself to be the same as the zombie pony with the pair of antennae. He had yellow eyes, slits for pupils, seaweed green mane, and sure enough, a pair of ant like antennae upon his head instead of a horn as well as bat like fangs. The other pony was Noctis. Arcane tried making no sudden movements just in case it was a trick to make sure. Noctis simply snapped at him to which Arcane replied by firing off a beam of magic in panic. Luckily, Noctis already had a magic shield up.
The two laughed hysterically at this behavior. It surprised Arcane to see Noctis laugh since he didn't consider him to be the humorous type.