Prologue: The Cathedral.
Run…
Keep running…
Run…
We must not fail.
That is what Faded Light told herself as she and the rest of her companions galloped with ragged breaths through the Whitetail Woods, a group of Royal Guards hot on their trail.
It was supposed to be a simple mission. Break into the Royal Treasure room to grab a gemstone, a beacon, and present it to their patron’s likeness. They failed to account for the powerful warding magics that guarded the room. Within minutes, the guards caught their train, and the fugitives had to flee on hoof.
They were close now. Faded Light could hear their shouts in the distance, the faint sound of their hooves striking the ground. Suddenly, the gem that she carried began to glowed softly. They were near the temple.
Faded looked ahead, spying the cathedral by the rays of the coming dawn. A second wind filled her body with a burst of energy, and she began to outpace her fellow cultists. In a matter of seconds, she was practically leading the group. They reached the cold stone steps of the temple. As they regained their breaths, all of them drew their dragon cult daggers, and glanced at Faded Light through their masks.
They were preparing for a final stand.
It was part of the plan. They would stay outside to make sure that nopony interfered with the placing of the beacon. However, they made that plan as a precaution, for the original plan was to make sure the guard didn't notice them. That plan failed. Now, the cultists that Faded Light has spent her entire life growing up with drew their daggers against the most elite fighting force of the Equestrian military, knowing full well that they will die. It seemed that they believed in their god.
Faded Light wanted nothing more than to tell her childhood friends that they shouldn't be so foolish with their lives, that they should come inside the cathedral with her to witness the glory of their patron, to reap the rewards of many years of constant worship and pain they endured to make their plan a reality. But, it seemed that it was simply not meant to be. They all decided long ago that Faded Light should be the torch bearer of this mission, for they believed that she was chosen by their patron herself. They have seen the visions of her carrying the beacon, but not the part of their demise.
One of them, a unicorn named Light Speed, nodded to her in a urging, but reassuring way. He was confident that they would fight the guards off. It was a confidence that has been his greatest strength, and his greatest flaw.
Faded Light stopped a sob from erupting under her mask. She nodded in confirmation, and went into the temple, not daring to look back, for fearing that her emotions would distract her from her goal. Two of the other cult members closed the two large stone doors behind her. One put two padlocks on the door, and the other enchanted the locks so they would be indestructible my magical means. The one that placed the padlocks on the doors tossed the keys to Light Speed, who caught the keys with his magic. He then put the keys under his tongue and sealed his mouth with a spell. He put his mask back on and prepared himself as the guards started to appear in the clearing.
⇔ ⇔ ⇔
Faded Light made her way pass the pews and down the aisle of the cathedral. It was old, ragged, was as big as the Canterlot Castle, and had a few cobwebs here and there. It seemed that the cathedral was abandoned for hundreds of years before the group discovered it. It had to have been, considering the cathedral’s only resident, a frost dragon by the name of Viintaasaar.
“Viintaasaar! Nust los nau mu!” Faded Light said as the dragon turned his head towards her. The dragon nodded, “Zuu mindok mal dovah” he said, his ancient voice causing the floor around him to rumble slightly. “You must place the beacon on the pedestal before they break in. Your friend’s voices aren't strong enough to face the guards, so make haste!”
Faded Light used her teeth to remove her saddlebag from her back and rummaged frantically through it. She placed her teeth around the white gemstone when she found it, and made her way to the altar. The altar was a strange statute of a bipedal creature that had a pegasus’s wings and had its paws held up towards the roof. At the bottom of this statute was a pedestal of two earth ponies holding a circular ring platform. She carefully placed the gemstone on the pedestal. The gemstone began to glow brightly, and then, a beam of light levitated the gemstone…
⇔ ⇔ ⇔
Light Speed, the last cultist standing, was tossed like a ragdoll from a spear blow into the stone steps of the cathedral, some bones breaking on impact. He disguised his howl of pain as an animalistic grunt, his enchantment refusing to let his mouth open. He was then pinned into place by a spear of the royal guard that went through his throat. As Light Speed choked on his own blood, he heard the guard who pinned him demand to know the location of the keys to the cathedral. Light Speed attempted to laugh as a final act of defiance, but ended up choking on more of his own blood.
One guard approached the pair. “Sir, he is the only one that didn't use the strange magics his comrades used.”
The guard narrowed his eyes and tore off the dragon cult mask that Light Speed wore. Then he noticed the magic markings that were on Light Speed’s mouth. Enraged, the guard captain twisted the spear, causing even more pain and blood loss. Light Speed gurgled his final words, before his spirit left his twitching and blood soaked body.
“I want those keys ripped from his mouth, now! The longer we wait, the longer-”
A beam of light erupted from the cathedral’s only spire and into the dawn sky, causing a loud thunderclap that shook the area around the cathedral. The doors that where the entrance to the cathedral where blasted off their hinges as a three powerful words tore them asunder.
“Zuu fen kipraan nau hin iiz slen!” roared Viintaasaar as he unleashed his frost breath upon the guards. His breath shredded armor and feathered wing as if they were paper. Many tried to flee, but the cold froze their limbs, and caused severe frostbite on any exposed flesh that didn't get shredded by the iced crystals. The cold was so intense that the guard ponies body temperature quickly reached the negatives, and ice crystals were growing out of their bodies.
Not a single guard survived the attack.
The frost dragon turned to the cathedral, and saw Faded Light. She knelt in front of a orb of bright light.
The dragon bowed its head.
“Welcome, Bromkunthur.”
Author's Note
Cheers for a new story and a new epic! I got plans for this one, and hope that you all will stick with me until the end. This story, I plan to update regularly, which is a much needed change for my writing. Anyways, see ya in Chapter 1: The Greatest Interruption.
(P.S. Don’t forget to Review.)
