Chapters Author's Note
You don’t really need to have read the first one to understand this, but anyway despite what I said I made a sequel.
The Tower
The colt went over to the fence, and was greeted by the familiar sign.....
WARNING! NO ENTRY.
He had read it thousands, and thousands of times and quite frankly was sick of it. The fence was made of titanium, and nailed inside were the bodies of animals crucified on the wall. Lovely.
The mystery of the Castle of Sorrow made him excited, like he was starring in an action movie he occasionally saw on the Television at his house. His absolute favourite hero and someone he looked up to was Batmare, the billionaire who’s parents were murdered in front of her eyes, driving her to become vengeance, to become the night, to become! You know who.
The castle seemed to have stood there for thousands of years, but still fairly modern due to the fact the lights were being turned on and off. It was obvious somepony lived there, he just didn’t know who. That was why he was obsessed with it!
He knew almost everyone in Ponyville, yet on the hill stood the ominous castle everyone ignored. In Cheerilee’s class, he had learned only about the plays of Shakespeare, and things he won’t ever need in the world. In fact, he didn’t want to be an author, or a mathematician or a scientist. He wanted to be an explorer. His Cutie Mark however, had different plans.
He was stuck with being a architect, although he never even liked the subject. The faults that come with hiring teens to help with the fact you’ll never know who your meant to be. But, he wasn’t meant to be an architect, he wanted adventure. Excitement!
He dug underneath the fence, making a burrow small enough for him to squeeze inside. The dirt was damp from the rain and made it uncomfortable to crawl on. He pushed forward, despite almost sinking into the dirt. When he had just got through, he was relieved that was done with.
“Yes!” The colt cheered. After weeks he had finally gotten inside. Now, he had to get inside. VERY quietly. Along the walls in silver writing was ‘La società della vendetta’. A foreign language! This was more exciting than he thought it would be. The bricks were broken and debris was scattered along the floor. The gates were rusted and almost fragile. In the middle was a sewer network. Well, if he was going to get inside, it wasn’t going to be easy. Using his horn, a silver aura appeared around the top, and he threw it like a frisbee into the wall. He hopped inside.
The smell was, interesting. The floor was sticky and hot with moss and an aroma of something horrible was in the air. It was dark and he could barely see. He used his horn to create some light. He walked down the hallway. The aroma was becoming more and more obvious. He looked ahead. He’d found the source of the smell.
In front of him stood a bipedal rat, eating the dead body of a chicken. His eyes were black as night and the stare was cold as November. He screamed. “AAAAAAAHHHHHAAAAHHHHAAAAAA!”
He ran the other way as fast as he could. ’Mom was right mom was right mom was right.’ Tears filled his eyes and he felt blind. He stumbled and fell to the side falling into water. The Rat pounced towards him.
The waters closed over the boy and he knew nothing more.
Cyrus Miller has a very peculiar life. One that almost makes absolutely no sense. He’s a teenager with supernatural powers, is a superhero, and has to pretend when talking to the Pony of Shadows that he’s not insane. Well, he ain’t seen nothing yet.
His phone vibrated on the table next to his bed. He rubbed his eyes and held the phone in his hand. He was being called by Sunset Shimmer. “Hello?” He said, half asleep.
“Cyrus? Where are you? The bus for Stonehenge leaves in 15 minutes!”
“What?! Uhhm. Wait a sec! On my way.”
He stood up and threw on his jeans, and wore his olive green jacket over his T shirt. He picked up his laptop and chucked it in his bag. “Better not forget this.” He picked up a drive. That drive had everything he had worked on, whether it be homework or combat moves. He went into his wardrobe and picked up his mask. The mask, that when he put on also put on his suit. It smelled of sweat and blood.
"GAH! That is a... weird smell." He remarked.
"You did wear it for 5 hours straight yesterday. And the last time you washed it was 3 weeks ago." The Pony of Shadows said.
"Stop reminding me my life is a mess." Cyrus replied. "Time to go." He leapt through the window and put on the mask, transforming him into The Shadow. He put on his phone and listened to one of his favourite songs.
"Temperature in Canterlot city is 30 degrees Celsius. A lovely day for a walk. Don't miss this opportunity folks!" The weather man said.
Cyrus ran over to his motorcycle and rode as fast as he could. He weaved in and out of traffic, the breeze pressed against him. The trees waved.
“We have an exclusive comment from the man who saved our city! JOE FROM JOES DONUTS!”
“Tell us, how does it feel to save everyone in our city?” The reporter asked.
“Well, some celebrities say they don’t like the attention, well that’s a whole bloody lie! They love it! Doubled me income too! When I went and defeated Iron Grey, I did it because I did not want to live under his command! He would not destroy what I believe!”
“So, you’re saying you defeated him because you were pissed off that he tried to become a god?”
“Err. Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Give it up for Joe ladies and gentlemen!”
Cyrus parked his bike next to the bus stop. He took off his mask and ran over to the bus. Everyone seemed to be getting inside. Except a group of people outside, gathering to see some sort of event. Of course. He walked over to the group to see what was happening. “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” The boys chanted.
He saw Blueblood picking on someone. “Time for fun boys. Get up Nandra!” Blueblood yelled at the boy stumbling away. He’d obviously tried running away, but the crowd was hemming him in.
“What do you think you’re doing, Blueblood?” Cyrus said as he walked into the middle of the fight.
“Get out of the way.” Blueblood said as he shoved him out of the way.
“Pick on someone you’re own size.” Cyrus replied.
Blueblood smirked. He was older and more muscular than Cyrus, but that wouldn’t help him here. He hooked towards the side of Cyrus’ head. He ducked and and uppercutted Blueblood. “ARGHHH!” He yelled as he, (almost gracefully) fell to the ground.
“You had nice white teeth, Blueblood. Sorry to break it to you, it ain’t the same.” Cyrus said. He helped the boy up from the ground. “You okay?”
“Thank you so much!” The boy replied.
“It’s okay. People like Blueblood think they can do whatever they want because of who there relatives are.”
“True. My fathers a maharajah, but I don’t go around be heading people. My names Adan. Adan Nandra.”
“Cyrus Miller. C’mon, the bus is leaving soon.”
They both jogged over to the bus and went inside.
The Tower had stood there for over 5,000 years built from large stones, some 13 feet tall. How the ancients got them here, wasn’t known. That just added to the mystery of Stonehenge and the other Neolithic monuments that stood here.
“May I have your attention please.” A man said in the middle of the crowd. “My name is Dr. Orion. I’m sorry to ruin a bit of adventure. But you will get to go around in a bit. For now, let me tell you about the history of this place. Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument here in Wiltshire, England, 2 miles west of Amesbury. It consists of a ring of standing stones with each standing stone around 13 feet (4.0 m) high, 7 feet (2.1 m) wide and weighing around 25 tons. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds. Archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the first bluestones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC, although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC. Any questions?”
“What was the purpose of Stonehenge?” Cyrus asked.
“Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings. Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, and continued for at least another five hundred years. Good question.”
“What about the Tower?” Cyrus asked.
“We’ve only just discovered it. But we’re optimistic. What’s your name?
“Cyrus Miller, sir.”
“Well then, Cyrus. I think you’ve had enough lecture. Thanks for listening.” He walked away.
“Okay everyone.” Cheerilee began. “Let’s go and see what we can find.” Everyone ran off and did their own thing.
Cyrus ran over to the staircase and walked up it. He looked at the rocks and understood that this was the greatest engineering years ago. Then, something strange happened. Something hit the back of his neck.
“AH. What the hell?” He said as he quickly swatted the back of his neck. “Not a mosquito.” He took his hand from his neck. His hand was covered in blood. “That’s. Blood. MY blood.” He felt uneasy and tripped over. He closed his eyes.
Reality crumbled before him. He saw a terrible image of blood congealing from a bowl that snapped his eyes open. The room was full of people. Not students, but people wearing black robes, and had white skull like faces. Some had glinting knives. He backed away from them and realised he was trapped in the inner workings of the Tower. They began to walk over to him. They whispered things. Italian.
“Sacrifica il ragazzo. Sacrifica il ragazzo.” It turned to chanting. Cyrus hit against the wall, but it was no use. It was pure rock. Trapped. And he would die a slow death. They picked him up and carried him. His throat was so dry he couldn’t speak. Nor would it have helped. He screamed a silent scream. Deafening silence. They placed him on a table and chained him down. One of them plunged a knife to his chest. He was stabbed but felt nothing. He was now falling. Infinitely.
He closed his eyes and embraced his cold death.
He woke up. “I’m... not dead?” He was no longer in the Tower. He was in some unknown place. He lay in a field. He sat up and saw houses. The residents were blurred but he made out bodies. He was somewhere with civilisation. Maybe Amesbury. But for that to be true he would have traveled 2 miles. His clothes were surprisingly not damaged, and he didn’t have a hole in his chest. Yay?
“Are you a human?”
He rubbed his eyes and looked next to him. In front of him stood a light blue, with white and darker blue hair, and an instrument presumably tattooed onto her flank... unicorn.
“WHAT THE FUU-“
The pony stood at the docks of Trottingham, the salt water from the sea hitting hard against the bank. Shipments of cargo pulled into the docks. Stallions gathered around and threw crates onto the sand. The water was churning with salmon, thick and rich with leaping fish. He gazed upon them, whilst they recklessly stumbled over the rocks. Another pony stood behind.
“Hey boss.” The pony behind said.
“Where are the trucks Firestorm?” He asked while turning around to the orange and yellow pony.
“Uhh. Let’s not worry about that right now. How was your stay in Trottingham?” Firestorm asked.
“Fine. Now where are the damn-“ He started.
“Who have you met?” Firestorm said quickly.
The pony had no time for this. Neither could he say who he’d met, because anyone he got close to having a conversation with, had a ’mysterious bullet sized hole’ in their head. His straight eyebrows turned pointed down. “You’re stalling.” He said.
“What?! Stalling? N-no I’m n-not.... d-def-finetl-ly n-not...” He had sweat dripping from his chin.
“What did you do.” The pony said.
“I-I....I..I..”
“What’s that sound?” The pony asked. He heard a roar from the distance getting louder and louder. It was a car. A POLICE car. It pulled over and vans of swat followed. An officer came over to them.
“Can I help you?” The pony asked.
“You’re under arrest for shipping illegal chemicals and machinery into Equestria. Thank you for your service to our country, Firestorm.” He was stalling for the police. Firestorm walked away with the officer. The swat tried to get the pony inside one of their vans. Emphasis on tried.
The pony reached into their pocket and took out a vial. He drank. “Move prisoner!” The swat said. The pony turned around and went behind him. He took his hand cuffs and choked the swat. His bones grew and expanded. His hooves turned turned to claws, and his stature became bipedal. His cuffs broke off. He stabbed the swat through the back with his claws. Another swat swung a rifle at him, and he took it and stabbed the swat with the shooting end of the gun. He turned around and shot the rest of them. He ran towards a table kicked the underside and grabbed a knife as it flew off the table. He threw it at the officers head. Firestorm shivered on the ground.
“Do you know what they did to criminals who gave away information about their gang?” The pony asked as he took the knife out of the officers head. “I’ll tell you. They took a knife..” He put the knife in Firestorms mouth. “And slit their cheeks open!!!” He slit his cheeks open.
“AAAAHHHH!” Firestorm screamed. “
“Good luck old friend.”
He threw Firestorm into the sea never to be seen again.
Where was he? All he could think is he wanted to get out of there. Now. A unicorn was walking over to him. He staggered back and tripped facing forward. He ran as fast as he could.
Feet on stone.
He looked around at the strangely familiar town. It had small thatched roofed cottages and pathways made of stone. In front of him stood a crowded bridge. He needed to get past them. Several stands selling fruits and books surrounded the central fountain and their Town Hall.
Feet on stone.
Lyra Heartstrings pursued the human as fast as she could. Her mane waved at a tremendously fast speed behind and her and threw the air around her like a whip. She’d studied humans her entire life and wasn’t going to let one get away without her seeing him for herself.
Feet on stone.
“Why are you running?” The pony of Shadows yelled at Cyrus.
“I’m trying to get out of here- koahc!” His asthma was taking a toll on his running. He wheezed and fell to the ground. The bridge was just in front of him. He staggered forward and pushed ponies out of the way. He tried to control his breathing. The wind flew against his face like a bullet. He leapt up onto the wooden stand tops and jumped from one to another before landing on the floor, with a roll to keep his momentum. He pushed down signs to block her path.
Twilight and her friends just happened to be going through town. They looked at the chaos to see a human sprinting whilst being chased by Lyra Heartstrings. What a sight to see.
“Uhh Twilight! We should probably stop that guy to find out what this is all about.” Rainbow Dash told her.
They formed a road block which caused Cyrus to have to skid on the floor, sending him face flat on the ground. A crowd of ponies formed around Cyrus as he looked around in confusion. The six friends attempted to grab hold of him.
Cyrus kicked them back. A shockwave of The Pony of Shadows dark magic sent everyone around him flying back. He fell to the ground, feeling powerless.
The Royal Guard arrived shortly after.
He was never sure of how it happened. How he’d fainted and how he’d been taken to the palace in Canterlot. How he was taken, and thrown to the floor in front of Equestrias most powerful individuals. All he could understand, was that he was in big trouble. And no, he didn’t think he was gonna get grounded . But punishment was due.
“Who are you and why am I here?” Cyrus yelled at the white alicorn who stood above him. She had a green, blue and pink mane. Her horn was surprisingly long, and her wings seemed to have a wingspan of 0.5 meters. Still, he seemed to be relatively the same as the other ponies, but felt shrinked. He was definitely not 6 feet tall anymore, more 4 feet. She had what seemed to be a black counterpart of herself, presumably her sister, and both had symbols of a sun and moon on their flanks.
“Hello other worldly being. My name is Princess Celestia-“
“Wait wait wait. Principal Celestia? What are you doing here?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about. But, I do know that you share a body with the entity known as The Pony of Shadows. Am I correct?”
“Uhhh. I plead the fifth?”
“And a friend, Stidgeon was bonded to such entity, causing him to almost destroy Equestria I the process.”
“I will rip your face off Celestia.” The Pony of Shadows said through Cyrus’ mouth. “Wait that wasn’t me!”
“Take him to Tartarus.” Celestia boomed as the guards dragged him out of the room.
“Wait please stop! I’m a good guy! I know you six!” He looked at the Twilight.
“Please! Don’t you know me? You can’t let them do this! PLEASE!”
They shut the door behind him.
The sky scrapers of Manehattan stood high and proud. Made of glass, steel and concrete, they looked down at the ground like a Queen to a puny little subject. Up there you could see everything in the city! Like the corporations owned by the rich and powerful. Or the small shops where the ordinary ponies buy groceries, or other things. Maybe even The Shavlinkins Bank. A bank created by the Shavlinkin crime family, the family that have several territories around Equestria.
A window of the lower part of the Chrysler building shattered. Two thugs with masks were armed with a harpoon gun as they aimed at the dusty topaz of the previously mentioned Shavlinkin bank. Firing at a tremendous speed, it fired into the concrete easily. They ziplined to the roof, their hooves skidding on the floor as they landed.
Another thug on the ground watched those events unfold. A truck with other thugs came by as he stood their. He got in the back and they drove to the bank. “Gotta love the boss’s planning. Still, if he really thinks he can sit out and take a slice of the prize, I say we fill ‘em with lead!” The passenger said as he loaded his gun.
“We got a job to do. Do it and we’re getting outa there!”
“The hell is the boss’s name anyway?” The thug on the roof asked as he tampered with the junction box.
“Calls him self Orion Blacklite. Some call ‘em the elite. You know, ‘cause of his elaborate plans.”
The car stopped as they got out. They kicked the bank doors open and shot at the ground. “EVERYONE DOWN ON THE GROUND!” The other 2 of the thugs ran down stairs to the vault. A pony in an office searched his cabinets frantically.
“Set the bombs.”
“Move your ass. The other guys are blowing down the whole vault doors.”
“Right. Here comes the silent alarm. Goodbye!”
“Hey, someone else is going silent too.”
“Wait. Oh God-“
The other thug shot the hacker. He ran down the stairs to the vault. The others were waiting until they blew up the door. “Three, two, one. Blow it to hell!” The thug at the front detonated the bomb. It sent him flying into the wall, snapping his neck in the process. “Get in! Carry as much as you can.” They charged inside and grabbed all of the bits they could carry. One of them went to the desks and found a data drive. He put it in his pocket.
They ran back up stairs. “We got the cash. Let’s get ou-“ He fell face down as a shotgun fired at him. The rest of the thugs ran as the one with the drive hid behind a desk. One of them met with him at the desk and ducked.
“He outa bullets?”
The other one nodded.
He stood up and attempted to shoot him but he was shot in the hind leg. The other lied. He had one bullet left. The last one standing shot Carmine twice as he fell to the ground.
“Where’d you learn to count?!” The one who was shot stood up, trembling. “Oh. I get it.” He pointed his gun at him. “The boss told ya to kill me too!? Well it ain’t happening.”
“Nope. But I did kill the Ice Cream man.”
“What Ice Cream..?” He stopped as he heard the familiar song of an Ice Cream Truck. It rammed through the wall and headed straight to him. “Oh shi-“ He was crushed by the truck. Another thug walked out and put the bags into the truck. Once he was done, the one with the drive shot him in the head. He walked into the truck.
“Do you have any idea who your stealing from? Shavlinkins you son of a bitch!” Carmine said lying on the floor. The one with the drive walked back over to him. “The crime families have rules. What do you have? Huh?”
“All your crap about rules. You throw it away as soon as it’s inconvenient.” He took off his mask. “Hi. I’m Orion Blacklite.”
“You’ve got a gang war coming.”
“Not if you’re gang is already destroyed. Want some Vanilla?” He pushed a tub of Ice Cream at Carmine.
“You think you can steal from me, and get away with it?”
“Yeah.” Orion walked to the van and drank something from a vial. It turned him, into a human. Like in Trottingham. “Oh. I thought Vanilla would be too bland, so I decided to ‘spice’ things up. You could say it’s now ‘bomb’. Heheehe! Bye!” He drove off.
Carmine looked in the Ice Cream. It had a bomb inside.“You sonuva-“ The room was now veiled in flames, and Carmine was long gone.
The carriage bumped on the rocky ground, making it hard for Cyrus to think at all. He had so many questions. Such as..
What did The Pony of Shadows do to cause rage from these people? I mean ponies. Was that Twilight Sparkle and her other friends? If so, are there counterparts of others from his world coexisting in this one? Do I have a pony version of myself? What can I do to get free and go home? Cry? Beg? Fight? Or maybe give some of the chocolate in my pocket. And why, the f*ck is Principal Celestia the princess of the entire world?
So many questions. But for those to be put to rest for, God knows how long because he has been sent to a ominously named ‘Tartarus’.
“We could of easily destroyed them.” The Pony of Shadows said.
“Yeah. That would definitely help our already tattered image. What the hell did you do to gain such a clean record over here?”
“I almost killed everyone in the entire world.”
“Wow. Very nice.”
Cyrus reached into his deep pocket and reached for the chocolate he stashed in there. It said it was, ‘Best before 19th October, 2018’. Hey, it says Best before the date on the wrapper so he can still eat it. Their words not mine. He wripped it open and took a bite of it. He hadn’t eaten in a while so he was glad to have some energy. He glanced at the guard separated by a single wall and a small window so the guard could keep an eye on him. To pass the time, he decided to engage in, friendly conversation.
“Hi! I’m Cyrus. I’m a high school student and apparently a war tyrant. What about you?”
“Quiet.” He said without hesitation.
He was about to say: ‘Wow. Thanks for the hospitality.’ but he bit his tongue to stop him. He already was coming off as a dick head (you know, with the whole ‘DESTROY EQUESTRIA!’ thing), so he decided not to over do it.
A scraping came from the wheels. At first he thought nothing of it until...
“Goddamnit I was enjoying that!” He thought.
The guards moving the carriage to Tartarus detached the ropes on their backs to see what was going on. A hooded pony trotted over to them. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to take your prisoner with me, please.”
“Ha! And who the hell are you?” The guards asked.
The pony took their hood of to reveal a lavender and azure mane, with her fur being a coral pink. She had blue eyes and was a unicorn. “He hasn’t committed any crimes against Equestria, and I pretty sure if he wanted us dead this carriage would be impaled on wooden stakes. Now, please.”
They threw Cyrus out of the carriage and walked him over to the other carriage and closed the door behind him. The mare sat in front of him. The carriage sped up and went back to Ponyville.
“Who are you?” Cyrus asked.
“Starlight. Starlight Glimmer. Pleased to meet you.” She replied.
“So. Why did you go through the effort to get me out of this?”
“Well, I guess I was almost sick of our stupid justice system. Everypony just gets just banished. And, judging from how nice the only other pony was when he wasn’t bonded to The Shadows, I think you might be a good guy.”
“Starlight... Glimmer.” The Pony of Shadows huffed.
“Hey! This.. mare.. thankfully got us out of prison, so leave her alone.”
“She’s the reason why I ended up in Limbo.”
“Isn’t that a kinda good thing?”
“In a way.” The Pony of Shadows
“Sorry Ms Glimmer.”
“Starlight is fine.” She grinned at him.
“Hey, this a weird question. Do you have technology here? Like, computers, TVs, stuff like that. Just wondering.”
“Uh. Yeah! We have been going through a little, ‘Digital Revolution’ here in the past few years. Magic is still important, just less so.”
“Right.” Cyrus replied.
“How did you get to Equestria?”
“Oh. Um, so I was on a trip to Stonehenge..”
“Don’t you mean Pone henge?”
“Pony puns. Okay. So I was on a trip to Ponehenge .”
“That’s more like it.”
“And there was this Tower of stones, I decided to take a look. Somehow I blacked out and now I’m here.”
“Well, while your here maybe you could look around Ponyville?”
“At night. I don’t wanna cause another one of today’s fiascos.”
Cyrus walked through the streets underneath the glare of the moonlight, Starlight trotting not far behind, giving him a generally good idea as to what Ponyville looks like.
“Thanks for doing this.” Cyrus told her.
“No problem.” She replied happily, a smile beaming on her face. “It’s my pleasure.”
Ping .
“What the hell is that?” Cyrus whispered to her.
“I don’t know. Everypony should be asleep by now.”
Ping .
“It’s coming from there.” He pointed over to a billboard on top of a topaz stoned building. “We’re gonna go check it out.”
“Great, let’s go.”
“No no no. You misunderstood me. I meant me and the Shadows are gonna go, and you’re gonna stay here.”
“What?! Why?”
“Cos’ I don’t need blood on my hands. In your case, hooves. Adios.”
He sprinted over a bridge, propelling himself up the building’s balconies and sprung across them. For short intervals, he ran across the wall and finally, arrived at the top.
On the floor of the roof, bullet casings were scattered across. “That explains the goddamn pinging. A snipers been here.”
“Stand down.” A voice from behind demanded. A click of his gun was all Cyrus needed to find out he was screwed.
“You don’t wanna do this.” Cyrus replied.
“Duck!” The Pony of Shadows yelled!
Ping .
