Chapters Author's Note
I sprained my wrist so for the next week this fix is gonna be slow production =P.
New Old Friends
“Ouch! Hey back off!”
I slowly raised my head. I feel like I’m going to die and my brains would explode seconds later. I tried to get to my hooves but felt like there were cinder blocks on all four of them. I looked down and turns out I wasn’t completely wrong. I had one fore leg in a sling and a bandage wrapped around my head just under my horn.
I don’t really have time to think about it, but I can’t really think right now anyway. I heard a soft padding of hooves that seemed to be nearing me. The voice I heard earlier continued to struggle.
“Leave me alone! I’m don’t need your dumb medicine!” It was Dashie. A voice that sounded almost identical to mine resounded through the large area.
“If you don’t take this medicine, you will die. This will keep you healthy until Swift gets here.” I couldn’t open my eyes fully so I had no idea where the two of them were. But the thought of Dashie dying was enough for me to force my magic to pry open my eyes. Not to say it didn’t hurt, though.
I had full view of where we were now. A large room with three beds and a small pile of bandages, bowls with green liquid. I guess that’s the medicine that pony was talking about. I forced myself out of the bed and onto my hooves. I stood still for about 3 seconds before my legs collapsed out from under me. I expected to crash against the floor when I was caught in a orange wing.
“Easy there Starry. You had a rough landing. Right through the ol’ temple’s roof! Here, this’ll make you feel better.” He pressed a cold glass on my lips and tilted it backwards with my head. The cold liquid was bitter and made me gag, but I did feel a lot healthier.
I opened my eyes and looked up to see a smile on the orange alicorn’s face. He seemed happy to see me and lifted me to my hooves. “Thank you but, who exactly are you?”
The orange alicorn frowned. “You don’t remember me?”
“No. Sorry.”
He rubbed his chin. He seemed to have a realization and let out a sharp gasp. “Remember back when you were just as old as your two daughters here?”
I don’t think I’ve ever been as embarrassed as I was then. “Um, I um... I actually found Dashie and Luna and her sister Celestia actually needed a place to stay. So they asked me if they could crash at my place for a little while... which turned out to be six years so far.”
He gave me a ‘I doubt it’ look. Then turned his attention back to Dashie. “This little one is very difficult. But at least she is able to talk and nothing seems to be broken.” He looked over at the third bed. A mountain of bowls and cups lay next to it. The filly on the bed wrapped in various places with bandages and her wings wrapped in full. Most of the bandages were slightly red in places.
I was horrified at the sight of Luna like this. “What happened to us?” I asked as I rushed to her bedside.
“You three fell out of the sky. I noticed you but couldn’t catch you. Unfortunately the temple didn’t either. You all seemed to be unconscious because the roof shattered leaving a gaping hole but none of you moved. This one here was the first to hit anything. Poor filly...”
I heard a trotting noise approaching from behind and turned to see Dashie standing behind me. “What’s wrong dad?” She looked past me and saw Luna laying in the bed. Her eyes widened with tears on the brims. “Luna...?”
I wrapped my wing around her and held her close. “She’s hurt right now.”
Dashie looked up at me and asked me the worst question possible. “Is she going to be okay?” It was almost a whisper. Not asking but pleading, begging for me to give her a good answer.
I couldn’t. “I don’t know.” She buried her head into my chest quietly sobbing.
The orange alicorn stood and picked up another glass of medicine with his magic. He trotted over and pressed it against Luna’s lips and the liquid flowed into her mouth. He carefully tilted her head like he did mine so that Luna wouldn’t drown.
“Luna will be alright if Swift gets here in time. I told him the situation and where to find us. Odd name for somepony so slow.” He set the glass down and turned to face me and Dashie. “The medicine will work for now, but we need healing magic. Something only Swift and AR are able to conguer up. Unless...”
I watched him walk away just to come back with a dusty scroll. “Unless that scroll can let us do the spell?”
“Yep! Oh I almost forgot! I’m Infinite Aimer. I’m one of your friends from way back when headmaster was our teacher. But call me Aimer.” He unraveled the scroll and squinted at the front of it.
“What happens if the spell is done incorrectly?” I asked hesitantly.
“According to this,” he squinted harder then reeled his head back and yelled, “it’ll destroy everything within a 20 mile radius!?!?!”
This was unpleasant news. “What!? We can’t risk that! And I’m not so sure about this ‘Swift’ guy doing it either.”
Aimer just rolled his eyes. “Relax. Swift knows what he’s doing.” He looked at my cutie mark. “Come to think of it, kind of off-topic here, but it would seem that we all share the same cutie mark to an extent.”
I looked at his and he was right. It looked exactly like mine but flipped on it’s head. If it had one. “Odd.”
Our conversation was interrupted by the beating of wings outside. Aimer and I rushed to the door in time to see a white alicorn in the distance.
“Hey Aimer! Hi Starry! Man you really are looking worse for wear.” The white pony said. I made the connection and figured this was Swift. “Alright, I’ll heal the worst injured first. Then I’ll work on you two.” He pointed a hoof at me and Dashie, who was standing by my side, as he landed softly in front of the three of us.
He began to glow green on the outer shell as if outlining himself. Swift trotted straight past and into the large room. Once inside, he walked over to Luna. Swift looked her over then gently placed a hoof in between her closed eyes. Luna also began to glow green. For a brief moment everything was quiet. Then Luna stopped glowing and Swift raised his hoof.
Luna twitched in the bed. Then her eyes snapped open and she shot straight upward. “Whoa! I feel great!” She squealed. Her next sentence was cut off by a bear hug from Dashie, sending them both toppling onto the ground.
Swift smiled and looked over at me. “If you don’t mind, I brought somepony else with me.” He pointed a hoof towards the doorway just in time to see a white alicorn mare burst through the doorway. She was the same height as me, Aimer, and Swift so it was safe to say that she was abnormally tall for here age of 18 compared to her sister’s age of 12.
The tiara on her head and rose pink mane were enough to give her name away as Celestia. She didn’t even speak to any of us as she frantically looked around the room. Spotting Luna standing up next to Dashie staring at Celestia like she was some crazy creature that was going to murder all of us, she pounced on Luna, scooping her up and wrapping her forelegs and wings around her. She sat and kissed Luna’s head repeatedly only to stop to snuggle her more.
“I’m so glad you’re alright little Woona!” Celestia managed to make out in between snuggles and kisses.
Luna was not amused. “Tia! You’re embarrassing me!”
“Nonsense Lulu!”
“Okay, so you really have no idea who we are?” Swift asked curiously. I shook my head. He sighed. “Well AR did find you under that rubble...” His voice trailed off, as if he was debating whether to tell me my past or not. I was starting to get annoyed.
We were now out of earshot of the three girls. Luna was to busy struggling to escape her sister’s tight grasp and Dashie was to busy laughing and Celestia, well, she was strangling Luna. We had walked down some stairs that lead to an even larger room. Aimer was upstairs attempting to pry the two sisters apart. So we basically left him for dead. If he made it out of that alive I’ll ask him in case Swift never tells me.
Swift just walked next to me, staring blankly at the door that was approaching. As we came right in front of it, he stopped advancing. “Are you sure you want to walk through this door?” He asked me.
I gave him a dead look. “Of course, why wouldn’t I?”
“Because if you do you’re gonna have the worst headache in the time that you exist.”
“What?”
“You’re gonna remember who you are.”
It hit me like a rockslide. I had never come to realize that maybe they never remembered their pasts’ either. I suddenly had mixed emotions about walking through the door. It was half sun, half moon, and sprinkled with hearts of crystal and purple stars. Very particular door to walk through to get a headache.
I also didn’t expect to not want to remember. I don’t want to know what happened. Even if I already have had dreams of what I think is this place, I never really got the full picture. I figured out that if got hurt I would wake up. I always got hurt. I WANTED to get hurt. I hate this.
“You’re telling me I’ll remember everything?” I asked. Swift didn’t answer with words, but with a nod of his head. “Does this mean...”
“Yeah. It happened to all of us. It hit AR the hardest. We haven’t seen him or heard from him since.”
I wanted to meet AR. But that story got some gears turning. “Did he ever tell you what happened?”
Swift seemed to have bad memories of this. He hung his head in shame. “It’s probably better if I tell you what really happened after you walk through that door.”
I turned my head nervously. I was face-to-face with the door now. I raised a hoof and gave it a gentle tap. The door flung open, slamming against the wall. The room started to spin and I was getting dizzy. I felt myself lose balance. My head made contact with the floor.
————————————————————————
”Ughhhhh... what happened?” I raised my head wearily. All I could see were the hooves of a pony. I followed the forelegs upward with my gaze and saw a grey stallion standing above me. We have various rights of passage from colthood to being a stallion and this stallion looked like he had gone through every single one. From the scrapes and cuts on his head to the bruises on his wings.
I attempted to get to my hooves only for them to crumble beneath me. Looking down at my right foreleg it was clear it was badly damaged. It had cuts and bruises all up and down it and it appeared to be broken. I tried once again being the stubborn ralicorn everypony knew I was. This time I was a little more successful and managed to get, the 3 that could, my legs fully extended. But it didn’t last long and I crumbled again. I was caught in the hooves of the stallion, who was about my age, and slowly lowered onto my back.
“Hold still.” He whispered. “And be very quiet when you talk. If they find us, we will die.” He reached out one of his hooves and placed it just above my eyes. I suddenly felt like I was floating. I heard my leg crack back into place. That HURT. I was prepared to let out a mighty shriek of pain when a bloody hoof covered my mouth. “Be. Quiet.” The stallion scolded. The floating sensation left me and as I looked back at my hoof I saw that the bruises, cuts and scrapes were all gone.
I looked up at the grey stallion and our rainbow eyes met. He held out his hoof and helped me stand. “Thank you.” I whispered.
“Don’t mention it.” He whispered back. He gestured for me to follow him and I did as instructed. “I’m Ace Runner. But you can call me AR.” He walked into the temple’s entrance. “Tread softly. Don’t make any noise.”
We walked in unison and in silence for several seconds. “I’m Starry Light. But you can call me Starry.” The pony stopped walking. He turned his head to look at me.
“Don’t walk in front of me. I’m no leader yet.”
“Oh.” I trotted softly past him.
“Don’t walk in front of me. I won’t follow.” He softly padded across the floor until he was next to me.
“Well then where am I to walk?” I asked dumbly. It was not in our culture to walk anyway else.
“Walk beside me. As a friend.” He smiled. I smiled too. We came to a pile of rubble with a large wooden panel that AR moved to reveal an entrance. He moved the panel back in
We emerged into a large open area where ten other ralicorns sat, some badly injured, some perfectly healthy. There was another stallion, this one white, who was doing the exact same healing method AR had used on me. When he saw us walk in he trotted over and placed his hoof on AR.
“Be careful next time AR!”
“Pfft. What ever Swift. I found somepony. His name is Starry Light.” He pointed a hoof at me.
Swift turned his head towards me. “Any injuries?” He asked.
I looked at AR, then back at Swift. “Nothing that hasn’t been fixed already. Is this some sort of rescue operation or something?”
“You could call it an attempt to escape but we’re all 13. We haven’t gotten very far.”
I looked around. It was a decent sized little cave of rubble for the 12 of us. “What do you guys call this place?”
Swift looked at me after removing his hoof from AR’s head. “We’re still in our temple. But hopefully we get out alive. In case you didn’t know, a group of elders turned on the counsel. Absorbing and harnessing the greed and jealousy of everything inside this place. They became nightmares. AR here is the only one who can even put up a fight against them.”
AR had a smug smile.”I won this time!” Swift rolled his eyes.
“Anyway, just giving you the layout here; if we don’t leave we are all going to die here. We’ve got an escape route but we’re still searching for survivors. We want every last ralicorn.”
AR looked at the ground suddenly. He whispered something inaudible under his breath.
“What was that?” I asked.
He looked up at the two of us. “Starry was the last life energy I’ve detected. Your detection ran out a long time ago. There’s... there”s nopony left to save.”
Author's Note
When I started this chapter I was also helping an author who got hit with writers block mid-story to get the next few chapters moving. (I basically sat at a desk for about two hours straight writing rough draft after draft and throwing a lot of ideas away before I came up with something that was actually good. So I sent him the idea and he managed to make over 1,000 words out of it.) I was put into the story with a really cool cover name that he made up. (Even if it’s not my OC’s actual name it was cool
I suggest you check his fic out; https://www.fimfiction.net/story/402360/a-mothers-love-is-eternal
It had been quite some time since the news broke. Given our small number basically everypony heard AR when he informed us that I was the last survivor. It hit a few of the others pretty hard. One pony named Vanilla Cream said she had a twin and a big brother. Only her brother made it. To my surprise her brother was AR and he was born only a year earlier. “He’s always been so happy until now.” She told me. “Now he seems obsessed with keeping me safe. We don’t have much food for everypony so he gives me a big portion of his.”
I didn’t really know what to say. AR seemed like the type of pony that would kill you if you touched his glass of cider. “How long have you been down here?”
“About five days. It’s amazing you’re still alive, any other pony would have starved by now!” She exclaimed.
Huh. Five whole days! I should be dead. I didn’t have much time to think about it as the cave suddenly grew silent. Nervous looks were exchanged with the others as AR got up and very carefully tip-hoofed over to the wooden plank. As he got close to it he pressed his ear to the plank’s side. His eyes got real wide real fast and he carefully turned around to face us.
His words were almost to soft to hear. “Nopony make any sudden moves. The Nightmares are right outside and I don’t know if they know we’re here.” Apparently, a teal mare didn’t get the memo.
“What?” That was all it took. That little word ruined everything. The plank shattered and sent AR crashing against a wall. A tall, dark figure with a flowing mane emerged from the opening.
Just one pony. Not a group. Just one. The same mare that was the cause of all this screamed and ran towards another plank in the side of the cave. The dark figure’s head snapped in the direction the mare was. A long vine sprouted out of the ground and grabbed the mare by her back hooves and wrapped around her neck. Two stallions tried to help the choking mare but within seconds the pony’s windpipe was crushed.
Her lifeless body flopped onto the floor, eyes still open.
The three vines selected the two stallions who had attempted to help the dead mare as their next targets. This time Swift fired a beam of magic cutting one of the vines, freeing one stallion. “Open the escape!” He shouted. The stallion did as he was told and removed the plank from it’s resting place. But when he turned to help his choking friend the vines tightened their grip, a crunching sound resounded through the area. It was followed by the snapping of the pony’s spine and one last painful scream of desperation for help. Then his body joined the teal mare as a lifeless husk laying motionless on the ground.
“Get out! What are you waiting for!?” AR screamed. An orange stallion ran out followed by 2 others and Swift. I tried to get Vanilla to move but she was frozen in fear. “Get Vanilla out of here!” AR yelled.
“I’m doing the best I can! She won’t budge!” I replied. “Vanilla let’s go!” A vine sprouted right next to Vanilla and wrapped around her forehooves.
——————————————————————————
I snapped my eyes open to see a whole different reality. A REAL reality. Swift stood over me with onlooking eyes.
“So,” he started, “where’d you get to?” He asked it in a form of sympathy. There was more to this than meets the eye. I had assumed it was just a one-shot feeling and a rush of memories that was over as quickly as it started. I was very wrong in many ways.
“How long am I going to be having these dreams? Or, flashbacks if you will.” I asked him. He put a hoof right above his own eyes. I guess that’s just how he thinks.
“I had them for a day ‘cause I took about ten individual naps. Aimer took about 4 naps and AR took 5 whole days.” He looked back at me, held out a hoof, and helped me up. “Did you experience any pain?”
“Yeah. When I was thrown into the memory my leg was broken and I was covered in cuts and bruises etc. But AR fixed it the same way you patched up Luna. But when the bone clicked into place it was very, very painful.”
Swift seemed to remember something. “When did your memory end?”
This was disturbing to me, the way my memory ended abruptly like that. I did something I thought I wasn’t going to do. I lied. “I ran out of the shelter, right behind you guys. But I stopped.” A spark of doubt flashed across Swift’s face.
“Okay. Anyway we better go see how Aimer is holding up back there. If he’s still alive.”
As if on cue, a thudding resounded through the floorboards. I rolled my eyes and trotted towards the stairs, closely followed by Swift. As we came up the stairs. More thuds echoed through the halls. I could tell that things probably weren’t going Aimer’s way but what I didn’t expect is for Aimer to be tied up with bandages so that his hooves would attach him to a pole that the three alicorns had found.
They carried him upside-down and pranced around the area with Celestia holding the pole up with her magic. Dashie and Luna followed close behind her with makeshift spears that were really just sticks. Luna noticed we had come up the stairs and in response widened her eyes and stopped moving. Dashie And Celestia noticed too so they also stopped moving and stared.
When Aimer finally noticed and gave us a look of desperation. All I could do was laugh and I laughed hard. But Swift fell over laughing.
“Ha ha real funny guys!” Aimer shouted from his side. “Untie me! Untie me now!”
Author's Note
Sorry for the super delayed chapter. As for the ages (just in case);
Swift = 70,080
Starry = 17,520
Aimer = 61,320
Ace = 113,880
They age one hour for every year that passes so for every 8,760 years they become biologically one year of progression yet that is only for the main parts of their lives. They are as big as the average pony is at any time of pre-50 years then their aging slows WAY down. Yeah I thought of all that. Deal with it.
Also... at the time of making this three of my stories have hit 200 views and I would like to thank everyone who has had my back for the past time I’ve been here.
Honesty
It was a bit murky the next morning. My head was still throbbing from the next dream. Swift had taken it upon himself to make pancakes for breakfast with strips of bacon and mouth-watering cinnamon rolls. I had no idea he knew how to cook so well. I didn’t even make nothing that looked half as good.
“Guten Morgane!” He said as I sloppily attempted to make my way down the stairs.
“What?” I asked. I had absolutely no way of knowing what he meant. I had never studied foreign language in all my years.
Swift rolled his eyes. “It means good morning in Germane. It rhymes, I know.” He snickered a little under his breath. He seemed kind of childish to me, almost as if he was a past version of somepony else. I had become fond of Aimer even in the short time we had been here.
As a friend, of course.
He knew how to make others laugh, even when he wasn’t trying to be funny. I liked Swift too, but he was a little on the ‘awkward’ funny side. He could make you laugh when you need it, he could get under your skin when you need it or make you sad. He could mess with your emotions to his will. I hope maybe he will make something of that one day. But there was one serious question.
But it was stupid at the same time. Biologically, I’m about 2.
But in reality, I’m around 17,520.
I am OLD.
I would say that Swift is somewhere around my age. He is kind of short though. “Hey Swift how old are you?”
He seemed to zone out for a second, like he was contemplating the universe. “Biologically or in general?”
“Both.”
“Not sure. Like, 8 biologically and 70,080?”
I swear my jaw hit the floor. This was crazy! He was so immature and short that it was impossible!
He snapped his head towards me and squinted hard. Suddenly, his eyes seemed to spin. Faster and faster until they came to a halt. “I’m not immature! And I am 4 foot 4 for your information!”
“I’m biologically 2 or 17,520 and I’m 4 foot 10. You’re short. How’d you know what I was thinking?”
“Magic, duh.”
“You really are immature.”
“Whatever!”
Aimer walked down the stairs at that exact moment. “Compared to me, Swift is extremely mature.” He managed to make out in between snickers.
“Highly doubt it.” I snipped back.
“I’m biologically 7. Or 61,320.” He as surprisingly tall for his biological age. “Oh, and I’m 5 foot 2 shorty.”
Swift seemed highly offended. “I may be shorter than you two but I’m definitely faster.”
“You have yet to beat me in a hoof race.”
“Shut up.”
“You guys do this often?” I cut in, hoping to get out of the situation alive.
“Yep.” Swift replied automatically. He then returned to the task at hoof and passed me a plate with, “3 hot cakes 2 strips of bacon and 1 cinnamon roll!”
“Thanks!” I wasted no time slicing into the food. And when I took the first bite, I thought I was in heaven. It tasted so good!
My enthusiasm was cut short by a question I had hoped to avoid. “How’d the past play out?” It was from Aimer. I had almost forgotten that I had lied to Swift yesterday. If I told the whole truth, he would know that I hadn’t been honest with him. But luckily a rapping at the door broke the awkward silence that had formed thickly like Aimer’s red mane.
This was the first real time I had noticed either of their manes. Aimer’s mane was red with rounded tips and ran long along his right side.
Swift had a gold mane with edges like Dashie and his ran down his left side. It was very short compared to Aimer’s.
I started feeling self-conscious about my mane and how it was black with two points at it’s ends and it ran down my left side.
I was snapped out of my very odd thoughts by a fairly loud voice. “So you finally turned up?” It said. I turned a 180 to face an incredibly tall grey alicorn with eyes like mine. His shoulders were broad and strong. His mane was also grey and had three points one for each end. “Oh and I overheard your guys’ little conversation. I’d like you to know biologically I’m 13 or around 113,880 years old. I looked really young when we all first met. I’m also 6 foot 4.”
The last line was brimmed with pride, as if he couldn’t help but boast, yet it didn’t feel like he was sneering either. I got a tingling feeling down my back as if his presence chilled the room.
Swift rolled his eyes. “Sheesh AR. Use the door next time.”
“I was never new to use doors.”
“Don’t I remember.”
AR shrugged this remark off and looked down at me. “Okay, back to the question. I missed the last part but I might be able to connect the dots. After all, we were together almost all the time.” It was at this time I remembered I had spared Swift of my last memory. I had lied for a reason I do not know, yet I couldn’t bring myself to tell the truth. Now that Ace was here could I hide it?
“Right, um... I was running down a tunnel and I got hit in the head. When I woke up I was at the edge of some random town. A Unicorn and Pegasus found me and took me to the hospital where it said I had a concussion. They also said I was lucky to be alive and it had probably altered my memory or erased it. Then I woke up.” I tapped the glass of cider that was next to my plate nervously. I looked at Swift and he made no motion towards me and his eyes were still. That was good. I wondered how Ace was going to react.
I turned to see that he was walking towards the big door that leads to the outside. With his wing he made a motion for me to follow. Aimer looked at me. “I’ll go wake the girls up. They are probably hungry.” And with that he went up the stairs. Swift walked over and placed a saddlebag over his back.
“I need to head into town a couple miles away to get ingredients for lunch. Don’t blow the place up, okay?”
I nodded and he flew out the window. All alone I trotted out the front door and found Ace waiting for me.
“We both know that’s not what happened. And judging by your tone you had lied before. So you’re gonna tell me the real story.”
