Bloodlines

Celestia had paused a lot longer before the armor, than in front of the other Spellblades. But the next one was also an absurdity, in its own right. To this day, it was a mystery to Celestia. It was also the one that was practically best preserved.

And it was the one that had been studied the most. Though, that knowledge was also lost to her and again, her eyes darted to the book at the end of the row and she let out a soft sight. Still, soon her attention was cast back to the chain in front of her.

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Year 14, eight days since the longest night.

The war was at this point, practically over. In the end it had been a war, longer than both Celestia and anyone else, had hoped for. nearly 13 years of war. 13 years of her dear subjects suffering. It was horrible.

But the princess knew, it was necessary. It had to happen, lest everything fell apart, before she could even start to rule the land. Luckily however, despite the length, the victim count had been manageable. And the ponies now following her, were convinced of her and her cause.

Still, without Luna by her side, it would have been impossible. Not just because the night princess had done so much during the war, but Celestia could rely on her. Under all circumstances, Luna was by her side, when she needed her. Well, nearly always, but they were no gods. They were not omniscient.

And yet, she could not tell her sister, when her intensive search, brought up a rather bizarre rumor. The island of chaos. Apparently some of discords magic had still persisted, even after he was turned to stone, on an uninhabited island, down in the desert sea. Somewhere, far out to the southwest.

It was only a rumor, told by a few fishermen, about flying trees and rocks, clouds pulled to the ground, holes in the water and odd tubes of rock and water, winding through the sky. It was impossible, even discord, for all his shenanigans, rarely did something like that. Celestia assumed it was because it would resemble his own home, the chaos dimension, too much.

Still, the rumors, while at first completely ridiculous, was by now at least plausible. Now, being after a couple of encounters with the Spellblades wielded by the Spell Blades. She did not like to think that such a thing could actually exist. A weapon, to distort reality in such way. But she knew, that it was possible.

And if it was Discord’s magic.. it was a tough choice for her to make. For Luna had been rather deeply affected by the fight. Loss of flight and magic, distortion of her emotional state, fears and negativity shown to her, in cruel displays of her personal failure. It was something she could never fully forgive Discord for.

Still, she did not outright hate Discord, for she knew that deep down, it was simply his distorted nature, as well as the very foundation of his power, that caused him to take such a cruel route. Boredom, absolute power, lack of consequences, it would practically ruin every character. And despite all this, he never outright went to harm ponies. He did harm them, but his intentions were to play.

And so, even if it was not directly Discord, the sun princess still did not want to burden Luna with this. Neither did she involve her too deeply in her own theory, of the father of the Spell Blades being one and the same.

Those were simply things not too important. Or too bothersome, to share with her beloved sister. Which was, why she found herself flying alone over the ocean, after telling Luna that she was going to investigate a rumor about another spellblade.

In the worst case, she lied to her sister and just dealt with a little left over chaos magic. At best she told her the truth and she knew that all of the weapons, while incredibly strong, to the point where in their regards, they trumped the alicorns, eac and all had a flaw, a shortcoming, something to overcome.

The solution was often even rather simple. So, right now she felt cautious, but not overly paranoid about the possibility of a spellblade, as well as her ability to deal with it. Still, once the island did come into view, she was doubting herself once again.

The rumors had not been an exaggeration. No, they aired more on completely improper, for the true display of chaos, that spread before the alicorn.

It was as if someone took the sky, balled it up and then tore it apart, leaving it scattered over the island and in the air of it. The trees were apparently split apart and set out into the air, but they still looked alive, for all she could tell. Water ran upwards, or was practically frozen in the air.

Pillars of rock, dirt, giant blades of grass and more obscure shapes reached into the sky. Down from it dripped apparently melted pieces of cloud, rain and apparently the very air itself, with darker veils of night in the broad daylight. It was bizarre.

Closer and closer came the alicorn princess to the shores, where waves were dragging back and forth in random patterns, some seemed to be chained to the sand and vice versa, as waves of sand and rock cascaded back and forth from the ocean.

And yet, Celestia could not feel tremendous amounts of magic radiating from the island. Unlike with discord, who was an amalgamation of chaotic energies, clumped together and with a rather large quantity of it. Here? Nothing. Which gave her suspicion of it being a Spellblade a lot more credibility.

What she did feel, was a certain amount of life. It was difficult to tell, but it was something she had also noticed from the tails of Sparrow and Blackbird. The weapons felt nearly alive, yet not quite. And so similar to the ponies wielding them. Nearly indiscernible. And so it was here, with each anomaly having a sliver of something not quite recognisable, yet similar to life radiating from it. It was fascinating for the princess, so she investigated.

First came the oddly moving shores. Back and forth went one wave, but the crest was seemingly tied to the air. And as Celestia got closer, she saw a small, metallic object. It did not shine in the sun, as it was dull. But it was there and as Celesia drew close, she could also recognize it.

It was a ring. A simple, round ring. Too large to get put on a finger, but too small to be a bracelet. It was bizarre, but the ring simply hung in the air and held the tip of the wve, just as it was about to crash, locked into the air. A simple test and her magic slid right off. Oddly enough though, she could also not really affect the water, the closer it was to the ring and neither the air. It seemed the effect of the ring spread slightly into the material it was attached to.

It was on one side fascinating but also rather worrying. She did not quite dare to touch the ring, but instead she just noted it. Further on she went, finding more of the rings. Small, seemingly randomly strewn into the air, or laying on the ground.

Further on she flew through this chaotic garden. Though, one thing got to her. It was eerily silent. Even the sound of the waves had very quickly died behind her, leaving her in a rather uncomfortable state. Her wings barely made a sound and even the ground below her was warped in a way.

The island had to be rather small, as she had not found it on a single map. And it also did not appear that big, but the moment she entered it and saw just how absolutely wrong it was, that she felt sort of lost. The ocean should be just behind her, but behind her did not really feel clearly defined, if you suddenly found yourself flying upwards, along a sideway leaning tree, on which a few rocks stood in a tower.

Curiosity got the better of her and she landed near a spire, that came out of the ground and at it’s base she could find another ring. This one as large as the pillar. The same material, but apparently stretched thin. She prodded the pillar. It was solid, but in an odd way. Where she normally would get as much pressure back, equal to her own force. But this one felt off. As if it was not all there.

“Beauzifal, ishn’t its.” came it suddenly from behind Celestia. Sufficient to say, she was practically jumping into the air. Or downwards? Immediately her spear was beside her, floating in the air and she looked around for whoever had said that.

It was a mare, limply hanging from a ring, attached to the air. She was dangling slightly back and forth and her eyes were somewhat askew. Though, what made Celestia really stop was the fact, that she was apparently an alicorn.

Only, that that was impossible. She would have known if there had been another alicorn and this one did not feel like one either. Still, she was nearly completely covered in chains. Her eyes were purple and had a glow to them. Though, the iris also had the odd, off gray tint of the chains.

“Ah, shorre. Ai ofshen forhet shat ponjis ahr skitsh.” she said, her speech heavily impaired. Celestia was not even quite sure what she was saying. There was so much wrong with this mare. She still just dangled back and forth and was even rotating slowly, by now barely able to see Celestia.

The actual alicorn was more than wary of the weird pony, that hung in the air before her. Still, she was going to be polite. So far the pony had not shown hostility, the opposite, she had not attacked her from the back.

“Ah, no, it is quite alright. I should have paid more attention. It is also more me intru-”

“Shorre tuh inderrabt ju, Buht Ai am def.” interrupted the mare, as she finally turned enough to see Celestia talking. “juhr wordsh miehn nofin tuh me” She fiddled with her wings on one of the chainlinks. It was odd to see the wings act like fingers, or hands. Finally they simply undid one of the links, the others molding back together.

“Heer. puht jish aroun juhr neck.” she continued and held the ring roughly in Celestia’s direction, with it growing in size. Celestia was not quite sure what to do with it. It could be a trick, but why should it? She hesitated. She could not use her magic, to fight this. It could simply kill her.

Suddenly though, the decision was taken from her, as the ring was simply lifted into the air and then slipped over her head, faster than she could react, so deep in thought. Panic threatened to overtake her, but as the metal just laid against her neck, causing her mane to turn pink and nothing more she calmed a little.

“That was rude” she said with a frown, before remembering that the other mare was deaf. To her surprise though, the mare seemed to know what was said, as she responded.

“Oh, shorreh. Ai jusht thogh juh had prohblehmsh puhtin it ohn.” came the sheepish sounding response, as she rubbed the back of her head, the chainlinks accidentally hooking into another. She struggled briefly, but then freed herself, the chains rattling, as she dropped from the air, only for her wings to spread and apparently hook into the air itself, with the chains grasping into the air.

It was bizarre to watch, as the mare slowly grasped into the air with her hand like wings, which just moved wrong and then pulled herself upwards. Or, well, roughly upwards. She was moving perpendicular to another pillar around.

“Dahr. Ahlwesh jeesh shtupihd litel finhers” she seemd annoyed, as she crawled her way back up, veering off course more and more, until she apparently found another line to orientate herself on and thus changed course. “Shorreh, shorreh. Ai haf no eehrs. Sho Ai dohnd haf a shens of balanz.” she explained as she finally hung before Celestia.

Her body was limp. But at least now she was no longer spinning around. It still made Celestia incredibly uncomfortable and she was not quite sure how to interact with the mare. She was far out of her element, in a place, that felt so alien, with a mare, that looked just as out of place.

“That is quite alright.” Her voice sounded awkward, even to herself, so she cleared her throat and regained her composure. “I fear introductions have been skipped. I am princess Celestia. I am the co ruler of Equestria, with my-”

“Noh, juh ahre nawt.” came the interruption once more from the mare. “Noh oan ruhles Ehqwestriha. Sere ish noh reehl Ehqwestriha. Iht ahl ish nofin. Iht ish ahl enty. Ahl is enty.” her eyes got a sullen look, staring right through Celestia it seemed, sending a shiver down her spine. She was not quite sure, what the mare was talking about.

The silence was absolute and hung between them like the mare and just as Celestia was about to speak, the mare looked directly at her, with both eyes and a wicked smile spread over her face.

“Iht ish bootefuhl. Soh mutch pohzencial.” she landed on the tree below her and kicked it. it made a metallic sound, for whatever reason and rippled like water. “Juh juhsht neeht to fihl je void” She giggled slightly and then held a ring towards Celestia. “Puht iht ohn, brimchess. Leht mih jow juh je void.”