Chapter 1: Anxiety in The Order
An Ancient Evil
Chapter 1: Anxiety in The Order
“On the blood of our fathers/ On the blood of our sons/ It is our duty to bare/ Until time itself is done.” – Order of the Sealed Flame
“Its power has not ceased in days, milord. I fear that if this continues the Order may no longer be able to hold the seal.”
“I am starkly aware of our situation, Lambda,” sighed the Elderly Unicorn. His eyes shone of concern and anxiety, both of which drew the age even further from his face. “See to it that Delta and Omicron reinforce the barrier even further. It appears we must once more begin constant maintenance of the seal…”
“Consider it done, milord,” responded Lambda. As she turned away she felt sorry for the greying Unicorn known as Epsilon, but more importantly she could not stave off the deeply rooted anxiety gathering in her chest.
Moments later, Lambda moved across the great hall to face the double reinforced, magically sealed, airtight, nearly impervious doors that guarded the Great Seal. As she neared the monstrosities known as the Gates of Mythica, Lambda lowered her head until her horn came parallel to the granite floor beneath her hooves. As she continued her stride she carefully inserted her singular horn into a small, conical hole in the Gates.
“On the blood of our fathers/ On the blood of our sons/ It is our duty to bare/ Until time itself is done.” The words seemed to echo across the monolithic walls of the Great Hall, and so too did they seem to resonate peculiarly with the Gates before Lambda. Then, with a grinding of metal, the conical opening shone an amber light through the small crevice surrounding Lambda’s horn. With that the massive doors gave way, opening forth into an immense chamber.
The chamber itself was a grave contrast to the marble floors and vaulted ceilings of the Great Hall. Where the Hall was wonderful in its grandeur this room was plane and dark. Rising up the walls and to the ceiling was a strange haze that seemed to disallow light from the chamber’s uppermost extremities to reach the level upon which Lambda stood. Within the chamber there was also no furnishings and no real light save for twenty-four candles that loomed starkly at the opposite end of the chamber.
“Delta, Omicron, Epsilon would have you further reinforce the Seal. He fears the worst as well, it seems,” said Lambda, breaking the silence of the chamber.
“Understood,” said a voice somewhere near the candles.
“Aye,” responded another.
Lambda proceeded to move farther into the bleakness of the chamber, her hoof falls echoing across the hazy interior of the room about her. As she drew closer to the candles it became evident that they were arranged in a circle, and what’s more that only 5 burned brightly. The other 19 seemed dim by comparison, their flickering visages dancing feebly in a wind that seemed to be felt only by them. Upon reaching the outer ridge of the candle-lit circle Lambda also drew into view the faces of two antlered figures. Angled forward and to her right stood Omicron, an immense elk-like deer, and opposite him stood Delta, an equally large figure of the same pedigree.
“Only five still burn brightly,” said Omicron as he broke stance, taking a step further into the candlelight. Now without the hazy darkness to skew his visage Lambda took in his familiar features: a height rivaling Celestia’s, a mane that seemed to rest not on just his neck but grew from the entirety of his neck and chest before dropping just shy of the ground, a flitting bob for a tail, immense antlers, and fierce blue eyes. All of this was compounded with his snowy white coat, a trend that deviated only at his strange “mane” which was speckled black in the regions about his chest. “If they continue the trend we’ve been witnessing…”
“We will have little hope of keeping it held within its cage,” these words boomed from Delta, a stag that heavily resembled Omicron, save for his pale blue coat. “Perhaps it would be best to warn the Princess of what is going o-…”
“You know as well as I do that we are not endowed with the ability to make such drastic decisions. That is left to Epsilon. We must await his order to carry forth any correspondence with her highness,” replied Lambda, cutting Delta off before he could continue. “Should we prematurely send word to Celestia, especially when concerning such grave circumstances, we run the risk of inciting pandemonium. Such would be playing directly into its hands, and you know it.”
“Aye,” responded both deer, their eyes sagging slightly at their oversight.
“Now then I suggest you begin the reinforcements. I’d wager that we have very little time left before we see its strength bolster once more,” said Lambda.
“I’d bet money on it, wouldn’t you say, Delta,” sighed Omicron, his heavy baritone echoing across the chamber.
“I’d take that action, if I were the betting type,” replied Delta, his slightly higher pitched tone reverberating with Omicron’s echoes to form a strange harmony in the haze. As the sounds of the two voices colliding continued on, Lambda took her leave, and as she exited the sounds of the two deer and their voices were swallowed in the shadow.
With Lambda no longer in the candlelight the two deer began to canter about, squaring off as if to fight. Their heavy hoof falls sent loud, thundering echoes about the deeply resonate chamber. Slowly they continued to canter, their hooves ever so slowly inching inward until finally, the two met with a “CLACK!” of their antlers. From here they differed from their species’ indicative behavior, for as it were they neglected to further exert force upon one another. The now linked mess of antlers seemed to be the goal they wished to achieve, and as such they both began to evoke a metaphysical force from one another as they closed their eyes.
Suddenly, both stags opened their eyes to reveal that both of their irises’s now shone with an ambient white light. Their heads tilted from side to side, then, causing their antlers to clack gently against one another’s tines. Directly after this came a rush of wind that extinguished the flickering nineteen candles and in their stead left five miniature bonfires dancing brightly atop those that remained lit.
Apparently satisfied with what had occurred, they slowly backed apart, their snowy and pale blue bodies each returning to its respective place in the haze.
Chapter 2: From Beyond the Seal
Chapter 2: From Beyond the Seal
Hello? Ah, I can sense someone there. Perhaps you’ve inquired upon why this accursed seal is here? Whether or not that’s the case, let me tell you my story. It begins centuries ago; in a world of antiquity that nopony would care to remember. I suppose it’s partially my fault that the era would rather be forgotten, but such is something I'm quite proud of.
I was but a small dragon at the time, but my intellect drastically overpowered that of my brethren. While the others were off munching on rubble for sustenance I was digging about for the finest gems to satiate my hunger. I found out early on that I was talented at such efforts, and as such I found the most nourishing of the gemstones Equestria had to offer. With that in mind, it should be no surprise I grew much quicker than the average dragon. While those of my age were still teenagers in size and intellect I was on par with the adults of my species.
It wasn’t long after I reached my early adulthood that I considered the hum-drum nature of my species. While the ponies slowly overran Equestria, we dragons sat idly by in our mountain caves doing little more than amassing gems and the occasional mound of gold. The thought that we, creatures of such majestic and impossibly powerful tendencies, were the lesser beings in this world disgusted me endlessly. My disgust would not manifest immediately, but rather it festered for years until I could no longer take it.
Then something caused me to snap. I suppose it was a mixture of my growing disgust and the continuous indifference of my species towards the ponies that caused me to finally go insane. And so, wrapped in my hatred of pony kind, I set out from the depths of my mountain home to see what I could… “do” about this horrendous situation.
I was quite fond of how I began to exemplify the superiority of my kind. It all began in the country side, with the homes of the little ponies that sat closest to the mountains I crept from. Well, I shouldn’t say I “crept”, “slunk” would fit better. Although I “was” insane, I put enough thought into matters that I knew flying would give the ponies to much warning. So I hid behind the mountains, slowly slinking through the valleys until I came close enough to the homes I sought after.
The gorgeous display of flames that shot from my mouth to utterly engulf the little settlement I first encountered dazzled me. What further caught my eye was how the fine coat of a pony burned in its excellence. Oddly enough, pony hair doesn’t simply light on fire. It sparks wildly first, emitting a sparkly, almost ethereal form of flame before succumbing to the appearances of an average blaze. What was more tantalizing still were the cries of the young, calling for their parents as I burned them to cinders.
Now, I also have something to say about pony meat. Few gems ever tasted so sweet. I was quite surprised, at first anyway, that my species had never sought out ponies as a food source. I mean, they’re so defenseless… for the most part. In that first village I believe I had something along the lines of fifteen mares, two stallions, and five fillies. The filly meat was especially sweet, especially after it had cooked slowly by my fiery breath. Needless to say I was hungry for more.
Then came the second settlement. Larger than the first, it proved to make for a much more challenging, but all the more satisfying, time. As I know now, the first village consisted of only Earth Ponies, as they’re called. The second had a few Unicorn families, a fact that, for some reason, enticed my more fiendish side when I became aware of these strange ponies.
As I began my siege of this settlement I figured it would be best to leave the strange ponies unmolested until I had first taken care of the Earth Ponies, for I knew what Earth Ponies were capable of: nothing. This was a mistake I would soon learn to never make again. As I slowly picked off the Earth Ponies, or “toyed” with them, if you will, I began to sense some kind of impending danger.
It just so happens that as I was picking a live filly limb from limb… Oh how I did love the raw, still twitching leg meet… ahem, I found myself terribly aware of an intense cold about my right wing. Turning to look at the source of this cold I let the half-alive filly fall to her death as I dropped her, and as it turns out the cold was a spell being cast by one of those pesky Unicorns. Now, it should be blatantly obvious that no single Unicorn is capable of handling one such as I, a fully grown dragon. So it was simple enough for my crush the meddling pony with my thumb.
Now, apparently squashing a Unicorn has a tendency to tick off other Unicorns. That’s when things got a bit… annoying. In a rather poorly executed joint effort, I found myself under “attack” by several Unicorns. Oh, they used several different spells and tricks, but the worst wound I recall receiving was a small gash on my hand. Said gash was caused by the local church steeple being lobbed at me through levitation. At any rate, I quelled the uprising with a sweep of my tail, killing many of the meddling Unicorns while the rest were left unconscious. That’s when I turned back to my previous action of feasting.
I dare say that second village was the most memorable of my meals. Twenty-nine mares, thirty-two stallions, and forty-three fillies, OH MY! The deliciousness of those that were Unicorns is unparalleled. Even the best Pegasi does not compare to the lowliest shred of meat from a Unicorn, especially if it’s the horn.
Speaking of the horn, did you know there’s a very specific method for its removal? One must first find a live Unicorn – the meat about the horn spoils instantly upon death, you see – and take it up in their hands. Then you begin to twist the horn like a corkscrew, slowly allowing the connective tissue and facial muscles to tear away from the pony’s skull. Now, it is blatantly obvious that you’ll have to deal with some screaming, but if you’re anything like me you’ll find it to make the situation even more “special.”
At any rate, the third villa- oh what’s this? It seems those deer are at work again. It looks as if ou…. time… together is ab.. out.. ove… Do drop in aga...n. I appreciate anyone’s company rea…lly. It’s always a pl…ant surpri…
“That should do for now, eh Delta?”
“Aye, hopefully that’ll hold it for a while longer. I could have sworn I heard a voice coming from the inside though. How ‘bout you, Omicron?”
“Hmmm… now that you mention I did here a bit of banter, but I figured it was you mumbling away… perhaps we should report this to Epsilon.”
“Capital idea, Omi.”
“Alright then, let’s go inform him,” with that the two deer left the chamber to go inform Epsilon of what they’d heard.
