Forgotten Legacy

I laid there, staring at the rain falling down, my mane getting matted to my head. I couldn’t figure out why it was raining in a snowscape. My mana was still exhausted, and I felt the fatigue of the day-long battle hit me suddenly.

“Sunny? Sunny!?” I heard Sunshine whisper, concern evident in her voice.

I turned and stared at her, my lids heavy. “I’m ok,” I smiled. “But I could stand a nap right about now.”

She laughed in relief, plodding over to me. She stared up at the sky, raindrops sliding down her glasses. “Why is it raining?” she mused.

“Probably the release of the mana in those plinths,” Twilight said. “It’s unbalanced the weather in the area.”

“So,” Sonata said. “What are we going to do about her?” We all looked to where Sorla had landed after the explosion. Her fur was shriveled and blackened, burned right down to the flesh. Her horn was cracked and shattered at the tip. It would regrow eventually, but until then she’d be incapable of casting any magic. Her eyes, however, were ruined messes, the corneas filled with a milky white fluid. She was effectively blind.

I glanced over where AJ had landed. The farm pony stirred as Dash nuzzled her with a concerned look on her face.

“Anypony get a look at the train that hit me?” she joked as she rubbed her head.

I slowly climbed to my feet, going over to Sorla, hearing her ragged and pained breath. They were sharp and rapid, and her face was twisted in pain.

“Is there anything you can do?” Elegance asked the Sirens.

Adagio shrugged. “We can help with the pain, maybe some of the burns,” she said. “But the eyes, those are beyond what we can do.”

“Do it,” I said gently. “She shouldn’t be forced to suffer, despite her crimes.”

The song started, refreshing each of us as it healed the worst of the burns on the defeated Unicorn. I slid a forbearance spell around her horn just to be safe.

She laid there, a grimace of pain still crossing her face as her muscles twitched or she moved in any way that pulled at the burns on her flesh.

“This isn’t over,” she rasped. “Nieghlin is still out there, and she will free me. She is bound to me.”

“No, she won’t,” I said quietly. “She’s a pile of ash in a snowdrift about three miles from here.”

“And you called me cruel,” she gritted.

“She left me no choice,” I said, feeling my face grow hard and cold. “Just as you have.”

I turned and walked over to Sunshine. For the first time since the battle started, we had a moment of quiet. I swept her up and kissed her hard as the rain thundered down.

“I was so worried about you,” I whispered into her ear as we held each other.

I heard various ponies coo in the background but ignored them.

“One thing I have to ask,” Twilight said as she came up to me. “You could have subdued Neighlin easily. You came back that day smelling of smoke and burned flesh.”

“And you want to know why,” Sunshine said.

“I know why,” the Princess of Friendship said. “I want to know why she went as far as she did.”

I felt every eye on the overlook fall on me. I shifted on my hooves uneasily.

“She hurt my wife,” I whispered.

The combined exclamation was deafening.

Several days later, we were all rested and healed from the physical wounds. I was standing on the overlook again with Twilight. We had discovered a cache of mana crystals glittering black with necromantic energy.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked.

“Trust me,” she said, levitating an ancient piece of parchment over to me to review. “If we tried to discharge the mana any other way we’d be swept up in the tide.”

I looked behind us, seeing the milling undead wandering aimlessly. Sorla may have animated them, but the crystals bound them to the world. I skimmed the words on the parchment again. It was a complex spell that would take both of us to pull off.

The tricky part would be not incinerating us as well in the process.

We spread our wings and lit our horns as we took to the air, our mind's eye creating the complex shapes of the spell. Then, in unison, we began reciting the words of the spell.

Para nudoii, furmo blooru. Brag za hars, karzard azuzard, kisku. Hansay glos silk. Zam-zin zar-oni eni meto, ari deko za heerun-eni rooyan. Tia-tio rain, zazard, zazard, sorono, rono-sook…

The hallowing spell was long and complicated, but when it unleashed itself, it’s glare swept over Goraumn’s Overlook, consuming the crystals, the undead, and the overlook itself. When the flare of light died down, nothing remained of the undead, crystals, or half the rock of the overlook.

We touched down, and I stared at the devastation the spell left in its wake.

“Now all that’s left to deal with is Sorla,” Twilight said. Then she grinned. “And your wedding reception.”

I groaned. “Couldn’t that wait until the actual wedding?”

“It’s what you get for having Luna perform a wedding in a dream state prior to going to war,” she said, sticking her tongue out at me.

I couldn’t be mad at her. She had a point, and she probably knew just as well as Sunshine did how to put me at ease. They had been spending a lot of time together since the attack of Acerak.

“Let’s just try and keep the Pinkie’s under control, at least?” I hedged.

“Agreed,” she said before winging her way towards the palace.

Sorla was curled up in the corner of the cell. She was still blind, but the healers had managed to heal the worst of the burns. She was still going to have scars and no guarantee that her fur and mane would grow back properly. The shackles that hobbled her were inscribed with tiny runes that would leech away mana as it regenerated, ensuring that she couldn’t light a candle without a match.

I stared at her, emotions conflicting. She, for the moment, was just to be incarcerated while the Princesses convened to deliberate over her fate. AJ stood next to me, a glare focused on the mare that had threatened a kingdom.

“I can hear you breathing,” she muttered, turning her blind eyes to us. “Out with it.”

“Why?” AJ asked. “Why use undead? Why deny folk their proper rest?”

“That’s your question?” she said, turning away again. We waited, but she never uttered another word. I turned to walk away, but AJ slammed her hoof into one of the bars of the cell before turning.

I put a wing over her shoulder. “Sometimes, we don’t get all the answers,” I said.

“It ain’t right,” she grumped.

“No,” I said, mind whisking back to bring my parent’s faces into my mind, their smiles evident. “No, it’s not. But sometimes we have to just move along, as best as we can.”

She wasn’t satisfied, but her frown eased.

“Now how about you tell me how you and Dash hooked up,” I said, mischief in my voice.

Her blush was worth ever rib I had gotten over my hush-hush wedding.