Chimes In the Dark

by Faindragon

Rating: teen
Tags: Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Sad, Original Character
Length: 49211

Notharam finds himself awoken in an old sanctum. Why is he here and who are the rest of the ponies?

Notharam finds himself awoken within an old sanctum. Why is he here and who are the rest of the ponies with him?

Chimes In the Dark is a story woven from my view of events in MLP:FiM. I won´t write anything about the story; after all, it´s you that shall be judging it, not I.

Chimes is finished, but some of the chapters haven't had their grammar corrected. If you want to help out on that, give me a heads up, I need all help I can get with that!

As a side note, the [Sad] tag is there on Request from one of my prereaders.

Published 2011-12-17 20:17:31 UTC
Last updated 2012-01-13 19:05:50 UTC

Chapter 1: Awake

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 1: Awake

Notharam’s nightmare came to an abrupt end. A pair of hooves gently shook him, shattering the dream that had held him in its grasp, made it vanish back into the darkest part of night. The embrace of sleep slowly let go of him. The memory of the nightmare was still fresh in his sleepy mind, although he could only remember one thing from the dream that had haunted him during the night. A pair of deep blue eyes which he had been fleeing from the entire night.

He slowly opened his eyes and found himself staring into the eyes from his nightmare once again. The eyes shone with amusement, but a single tear had formed in the corner of one of them. He flinched in shock at the sight of those eyes. The deep blue eyes slowly faded away; fading and leaving behind nothing but a feeling of loss inside Notharam.

It wasn’t until then that he realized that he wasn’t in his own bedroom.

‘Where am I?’ He thought as he tried to stand up. His leg wouldn’t respond so he did not have any choice but to stay on the cold, dusty stone floor.

“I would not try to stand for a few minutes if I were you.” A green coloured unicorn walked into Notharam’s vision. “You have been drugged with a strong tranquilizing venom which knocked out your ability to control your body. But do not worry, its effects will end soon.” the unicorn continued.

As the unicorn had said, the venom began to release its hold over his body only seconds later; Notharam could feel how his body slowly started listening to him again. He tilted his head from side to side, and saw a gray mare who he guessed had woken him up standing over a pale yellow filly that was lying on the ground. The small filly’s sides moved in the slow, regular breath of sleep. The gray mare had a scarf around her neck and her cutie mark was nothing more than a few white lines on her gray flank. He looked back at the green unicorn.

“Who are you and what is this place? Why am I here?” Notharam asked.

The green unicorn looked down at him, meeting Notharam’s eyes with his own chestnut-brown ones. Notharam found calmness in those eyes, eyes that hide a sadness that he could not place.

“I am Emerald Scroll, scrollkeeper at the royal library of Canterlot. What this place is, I do not know, nor do I know what you are doing here. I can try guessing though; I will bet my hoof that this place once was a church. But that does not answer why you, or we for that matter, is here. I have given your my name, but I still have to get yours.”

“I’m Notharam, pegasus guard of Cloudsdale. Who are those two ponies? And how do I know that I can trust you?”

“The grey earth pony is named Mistrunner,” Emerald said as he raised his hoof and pointed at the grey mare who was trying to awaken the small filly lying on the ground.
”The name of the little filly is as unknown for me as it is for you. We will have to wait until she is awake before we will get that name, Mistrunner do not know either. As to why you would trust me... That’s up to you. If I had wanted you any harm, would I wait until you woke up and until the venom started to lose its hold of your body?” Emerald said. “No, if I wanted you any harm then I would have made that reality before Mistrunner awoke you.”

“When you put it that way...” Notharam said, still not sure if he could trust the green unicorn.

He could feel how the last trace of the venom vanished from his veins. As he tried to get up did he feel that the venom had left him too weak to do so alone. Unsteadily, with help from Emerald, did he get up on his legs. The strength of his body slowly returned. Carefuly did he try to flap his wings a few times, but was rewarded with nothing but a sudden pain from his right wing. The sudden pain that shoot through his body made him draw a breath in surprise. Only seconds later was the pain gone, the only remains of it a fading memory in Notharam’s mind. The wing had been damaged somehow; he couldn’t use it; it only hung useless from his side.

No sooner than Notharam was standing steadily on his own legs again did he take a closer look at Emerald. The unicorns coat had the same green color as the gem he was named after, his mane a faint yellow color. He carried two small saddlebags on his back; one of them filled to the brim while the other seemed nearly empty. He also noticed the cutie mark on Emerald’s flank; he wasn’t surprised to see a scroll.

Emerald had tilted his head and looked into the distance; Notharam guessed that the unicorn had not even noticed that he had looked at him. Then Emerald shook his head, seemingly trying to shake something of him, before he slowly started to move towards the other ponies.

Notharam followed and together did the two ponies make their way towards Mistrunner, their hoofsteps swirling up dust from the stone floor. Notharam’s right-wing hung down unusably; dragging after him through the dust. Withstanding the small pain emerging from the wing, did Notharam look around the place he had woken up at.

The room was circular. Large pillars had once supported the ceiling, but some of them had long since been eroded by the hooves of time and collapsed. The pillars still standing, as well as the base of those who weren’t, were placed in four circles around the middle of the room; rippling outwards from its center. The first and third circles were of white stone, the second and forth made of a dark stone.
The ceiling had crashed down at some places, and was scattered around the pillars that had once supported it.

And in the middle of the room stood two statues, representing two ponies; one white and the other black. Both had the horn of a unicorn and wings of a pegasi, evidence that the statues was that of alicorns. The white alicorn had the sun in a necklace around its neck, the black one had the crescent moon. Two braziers stood beneath the two strange sculptures, illuminating them with a pale light from the fires within. This was also the only light source in the room, casting shadows around Notharam and the other ponies. Dust covered everything but the statues, as if somepony had kept the statues clean. They both gleamed in the light from the fires, the black statue nearly gleaming as much as the white.

It was not hard for Notharam to recognize the pony that one of the statues was made to represent.

“Celestia? Who would make a statue of her? And who is the other? What is the statue of not only one, but two alicorns, doing down here?” he asked as he eyed the masterly made sculptures in front of him.

“You ask a lot of questions, Notharam, and I will answer those I can. The white statue is indeed of princess Celestia, riser of sun and moon, ruler of Equestria. As of who made it, can I say nothing more than whoever it was were skilled in the art of sculpturing; that or that they are made of magic. I have a faint idea of what a statue of the princess is doing here. To answer why they’re here, however, I would have to recite something I read in a scroll a long time ago.”

Emerald cleared his throat.
“And she ruled the sky and the earth, raised the sun and the moon, took care of the living and the dead. She was the goddess over all, and the ponies of Equestria lived in harmony with each other and with the nature. The unicorns used their magic to build Canterlot, the royal city, to show Celestia their affection towards her. The pegasi makes sure that the sky over the royal city is clear every day and every night, while the earth ponies make sure that it gardens are in perfect condition every day of the year. And Celestia blessed the ponies with her presence, and she has since that day lived in the royal palace of Canterlot.”

“So what you are saying is that Celestia is not only our princess but also our goddess?” Notharam asked with a frown. He didn’t believe what he had heard.

“Exactly. That makes me believe that this is a church, once used to praise her. It still doesn’t answer who the other alicorn is; I cannot recall reading about another alicorn in those scrolls.” Emerald said with a puzzled frown against the darker statue. “But I assure you that I have never laid my eyes on a puzzle I cannot solve, and this one will not be the first.”

“But how come that I, who served in her army, or anyone else I know doesn’t know about that? The fact that she is our goddess, I mean.” Notharam asked, still not believing.

Emerald looked away from the statues and looked directly at Notharam.
“That, my friend, is a question I cannot answer. Very few know it, even fewer believe it. I can give you my theory on the subject, and that theory is a pretty basic one. She does not want to be worshipped. Perhaps she doesn’t even want to rule, but, being the kind soul that she is, doesn't want to lay the pressure of celestial control on somepony else."

The walk wasn’t long and they found themselves at the place where Mistrunner stood over the other earth pony, the small filly, still trying to wake her up. Mistrunner turned around and looked at Notharam, her pale amber eyes meeting his.
“Ah, you are awake. Good.” Mistrunner smiled at him, a warm smile that made his mind dull. “I will check on your wings just as soon as this sleepyhead here wakes up”.

Emerald laughed softly behind him.
“Don’t let her melt your heart my young friend. I tell you, she is as hard to catch as the mist that lent her its name.”

“You know her?” Notharam asked in surprise, eyes still on Mistrunner.

“She was... well, if we get out, is my assistant at the library. She did brighten my days there, always there to help me when I needed.”

Mistrunner smiled as she turned around, giving the pony on the dusty ground her full attention. The earth pony had started to move.
“Ah, it seems as if you are awake. Now, now, take it easy my little friend.”

The earth pony filly slowly opened her eyelids, revealing the jade green color of the eyes that had been hiding underneath. There was something about this small filly that triggered a memory in Notharam’s mind, but it disappeared as fast as it had appeared.
“Where am I? Who are you?” the small filly started to cry. “I want to go home.”

Mistrunner gently patted the small filly on her head, and tried to soothe her.
“There, there. You are safe. I’m Mistrunner, and the old dusty unicorn over there is Emerald Scroll. I have yet to catch the name of that pegasus, but I’m sure he will say it if we ask him nicely, don’t you think?”

Mistrunner smiled at the little filly, who turned her tear-filled eyes towards Notharam.
“What’s your name, mister?” she asked; her tear-filled eyes on the brink of flooding once more.

“I’m Notharam from Cloudsdale. And who are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m Zinky from Ponyville.” The little filly started to cry again. “I want to go home; I don’t want to be here anymore!”

Emerald slowly trotted towards Zinky, descended himself to her level, and looked into her eyes.
“You know what, my little filly from Ponyville? I might have a treat for you if you stop crying.”

Zinky immediately stopped crying, and looked in awe as Emerald rose from his knees and picked out a lollipop from the saddlebag that seemed nearly empty.
“Here you go Zinky. Its raspberry flavor; I think you might like it.”

Zinky took the lollipop from Emerald and swiftly put it in her mouth. Notharam must have given the scrollkeeper a questioning look, the unicorn looked at him and said:
“It’s always good to have a lollipop around the foals in the library.” he said, smiling warmly at Zinky. “A library is supposed to be quiet, and some of the more... ordinary visitors does not like a crying foal. A lollipop usually stops that crying and everypony is happy.”

Notharam nodded.
“Ah, she reminds me of the small fillies and colts at Cloudsdale. I can’t wait to get home and watch them pla…. Wait, correct me if I’m wrong; but the colors of our eyes are brown, amber, green and my orange ones, right?”

Emerald chuckled.
“More questions, but at least I can give you an answer to the one you gave me this time. You are completely correct; we do indeed have those colors on our eyes. My chestnut-brown ones, Mistrunner’s pale amber ones, Zinky’s jade green ones, and your own dark orange ones. Now that I have answered your trivial question, let me ask one in return. Why do you ask?” Emerald chuckled again.

“I must sound crazy, but when I woke up I looked straight into a pair of deep blue eyes. It felt like those eyes gazed into my very soul. But there are only the four of us in this room, and none of us have deep blue eyes.”

Emerald shook his head, his mane whirling around him.
“Those words does indeed sound as if they came from a broken mind, the mind of a crazy pony. I however, do not think of you as such a pony. I noticed that you flinched only moments after Mistrunner said that you were awake, but I thought it was as an effect from your body fighting of the venom. But now I guess that you were flinching from those eyes, were you not? “He gave Notharam a questioning look.
“Those eyes did not belong to any one of us at least, but I still have the feeling of being observed, and I can’t shake that feeling away.” he added.

A voice filled the room, a voice cold as ice. A chill ran down Notharam’s spine, his eyes widened in shock. He knew this voice, although he could not remember from where.
“Ah, our guests have arrived, how cute. Our last… guests are being taken care of as we speak. What my name is, you need not know. Oh, don’t look so surprised, I can see everything that happens in here, and your cute little faces are so easy to read. Surprise being the easiest feelings to read.”

A scream of terror was heard, and three faces turned towards the sound. The scream got higher and higher, until it suddenly stopped. The only sound that could be heard when the scream disappeared was that of Zinky sobbing. The little filly pressed herself against one of Mistrunner’s legs, eyes shut and her small body trembling in fear.

The ice-cold voice laughed softly.
“As I said, that was the last guest to be taken care of. Let us see if you stand a better chance against us, shall we? Now listen carefully…”

“What did you do to them? What is this place, why are we here?” Mistrunner shouted out, her voice heated with rage and anger.

“Well, we killed them of course. Don’t look so shocked, you asked what we did with them. This place is a holy place, built to honor the goddesses. You are here to be sacrificed to them, a sacrifice for the harmony of Equestria. And you are not the first who have come to this place to be sacrificed. In fact, you are the last to be.”

Notharam realized where the sound of that ice-cold voice came from. Above. He flapped his wings, and the sheer force of a single flap took him into the air. He didn’t get any further than that; the agony he had forgotten about came rushing back from his right wing. He let out a scream of pain as he fell to the ground again, the impact of his body causing the dust that covered the ground to whirl upwards

The ice-cold voice took up again.
“So easy to read, my dear Notharam, but your wings are useless for you now.” The voice laughed, and Notharam once again felt his spine chill as he recognized the laugh.
“I will give you one more chance to listen to what I have to say.”

The silence was once again interrupted by the sobs of the little filly. Notharam could hear another sound in the distance, a sound of something dripping onto stone. He didn’t want to know what was causing the sounds.

The silence stretched out for a minute, before the laugh of the cold voice was heard once again.
“You amuse me, small ones. But, I’m a mare of my word; you will be given your chance. This is your only chance to survive this room, so listen closely; I will only say this once.
This game is a game of life and death; if you lose you lose your life to me, if you win then you are free.
This game is played in the rooms of this holy building and your mission is to survive.
Celestia has raised the moon, the clock starts now.
Survive until the next rise of the sun, and then you are free to leave.”

“I can’t help but notice the flaws in that. If, as you say, the moon has been raised, would it not be lighter in here? Wouldn’t the moonshine beam through some windows and give us its light, if not from this room so from the hallways that leads from here? Who has ever heard of a church without windows?” Emerald asked.

The cold voice chuckled.
“You also ask a lot questions, scrollkeeper Emerald, and you will get your answers. It would indeed have been lighter in here; if there actually were any windows in these halls. You see, this isn’t an ordinary holy building. This is a building of a long-lost time; a time when the ponies of Equestria lived differently. It was made without windows; the only windows in here are the windows of the throne room. The inside was lit up with the magic from the unicorns that worked here. And then Celestia took over as superior ruler after many years of harmony. If that wasn’t enough did she also close this place, destroyed it purpose. But the goddesses demand sacrifices; the harmony must not be contested!”

Notharam couldn’t take it anymore; he recognized this voice more and more with every passing moment. But he couldn’t place his hoof on where he knew if from, nor who it might be.
“I... I know you, I know you! Show yourself!” he yelled at the ceiling.
The cold voice laughed, a hard and lifeless laugh.
“Of course you know me, Notharam. You were the one who abandoned me. You abandoned me; you were the one to betray me! You betrayed me, Notharam; and now, I will be the one that destroys you.”

The voice disappeared, leaving behind only the sound of the crying Zinky and the sound of something dripping on the stone floor not far away.

Chapter 2: Dripping of a Liquid

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter Two: Dripping of a Liquid

The mare relaxed against the throne. Two years of planning, two years of preparation; it had all come to this. Notharam was the one it could all be blamed upon, the one who had betrayed her so long ago. Had he known then what it would lead to? Had he known what she could do? Probably not. She looked out the window. The moon had just been raised. This was the last night, the nightmare.
^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

You betrayed me. The words rang in Notharam’s head. Who was the owner of the voice? Was it the owner of the blue eyes? He asked himself, knowing that he recognized the voice. It was as if a part of him had expected that voice here, but where had he heard it before?

Mistrunner tried to soothe the crying Zinky but without success, the little earth filly didn’t stop her crying.

Emerald, on the other hand, was looking through his saddlebags, mumbling into them.
“Hmm, I know I had it here somewhere, I do not think I took it out before I went to bed. Ah, there it is.”

Emerald raised his head from the bags, bringing up an odd-looking object with him. It was round, made of a strange metal, with four copper tubes sticking out from the sides and one silver tube from the middle of it. A quiet clicking sound emerged from the strange object.

“What is that?” Notharam asked while looking at the thing. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. And why did you have it in your bags?”

Emerald carefully placed the thing in one of his hoofs, gazing upon it like his whole heart was in that piece of metal.
“This, my friend, is a masterpiece, the last of its kind; the inventor is long since dead. It’s a clock that chimes once an hour, starting when you connect the four tubes. We have to survive until sunrise, which is in about 12 hours. With that said, we only have to wait for this little beauty to chime twelve times. This gives us the advantage of knowing how long we have left until we are free - knowing how long we have to survive. And of why I had it, I had only just taken it home. I was to tired to pick it up, we had sorted the part of the library with books for little foals. And after that last school that had been there was it an utter disaster. ” Emerald shrugged. “The next thing I remember was waking up here, as relaxed as I would have been after a long nights sleep, with Mistrunner standing over me, trying to wake me up while you and Zinky was still asleep.”

Emerald slowly bent the tubes with his mouth, carefully connecting each tube with the silver tube in the middle. For each copper tube connected to the silver tube, the ticking came faster. After the last connection had been made, the ticking changed to the sound of a low humming.

“There, all set. It should chime once every hour from now on.” Emerald said, his eyes drifting to the hallway where the dripping was heard from. “I do not know what you think, Notharam, but I’ve got the feeling that it is not a good idea for us to stay in one place for too long. The scream that was cut off indicates that we are not alone. I believe that there is something out there, something that is waiting for us or coming for us. If that is the case then I believe that our best chance of survival is to keep moving and not stay for long at the same spot. After all, that maniac told us that she could see anything in here so she must know where we are and what hallway we go. But, since we won’t be able to change that fact do I at least want to get my curiosity stilled. Why are we here? Who let out that scream?” he said, turning to look at the twin statues. “And most importantly, who is the other alicorn?

Notharam looked at Zinky, who was still crying even though Mistrunner tried to soothe her.
“Emerald, I believe that I’m nearly as curios as you, although I‘m more curious about the owner of the voice and why we are here. And if our every move is monitored does it not matter where we go, she will find us in the end anyway. But we cannot go anywhere before Zinky is ready to, I will not leave a foal behind. Especially not in a place like this.”

He gently nudged the small earth pony’s neck with his muzzle, doing his best to try and help Mistrunner soothe her.

“There, there, little one, don’t cry. You are safe; we will protect you and make sure you get home again, but you have to stop crying. Show us how brave you can be.”

Zinky stopped crying and looked up into Notharam’s eyes.
“Noth…. Noth… Noart… Noaram, I want to go home” she said with tears in her eyes.

Those eyes nearly broke his heart; he felt as if they had before, in a past long since gone. But he tried to be brave himself. He had always been weak for the young ones; he wanted every filly and colt to be safe from danger. That was one of the reasons that he joined the air guard after his time in the army. He had been in the air guard for three months now. To see those fillies and colts look up to him and feel safe every day was his wish; that was what was important to him. He had abandoned one filly before, and he had never forgiven himself for what happened. Zinky reminded him of the other filly, and suddenly he felt obligated to ensure her safety and happiness.

“We all do, my friend, and trust me; I will make sure you get home to your parents again even if I don’t make it out of here myself.”

The little filly’s face began to shine, a smile spreading over her muzzle.
“You promise? You are going to take me back home? Then I will be brave and not cry.”

Notharam smiled at the little filly, nudging her once more.
“I will protect you, but you are going to have to stay close to Mistrunner. She will help you if anything happens - promise me that you will.”

Zinky looked straight at Notharam.
“Zinky promises that she will stay close to Mistrunner so that Noaram can protect her.”

Mistrunner looked at Notharam; her pale amber eyes full of concern.
“I did not take you as one that was good with the younglings, Notharam. But I will help Zinky as much as I can. Now, let me take a look at your wing, I think it might be broken.”

Notharam could feel how the blood drained from his face. Broken? He had not even thought about that possibility.

“Notharam, are you okay? You don’t look very well, are you sick?” Mistrunner asked him.

“I’m okay.” Notharam said, smiling at Mistrunner. He hoped the smile looked genuine, but his voice betrayed him, he sounded afraid. “Thank you for asking.”

Mistrunner carefully examined Notharam’s right wing. Her hoof felt every muscle and bone in it, and she could quickly locate what she feared.
“Your right wing is broken near the joint.” She pressed her hoof to the area between Notharam’s back and wing; Notharam let out a cry of pain at the touch. “I wouldn’t try to fly for at least seven days, and take it to a doctor as soon as you get home.” Mistrunner removed the scarf from her neck, starting to bandage the wing so that he would neither hurt it nor drag it in the dust. It wasn’t long before Notharam’s wing was tightly bound to his body.

Notharam could see on the look on Mistrunner’s face that it was something she hadn’t told him, but he didn’t want to push her, it was hard for them all as it was. He knew that they had to move soon, he did not have time to push her even if he had wanted.
“Thank you, Mistrunner, I won’t overuse it if I don’t have to.” He gently nudged her. “I truly am happy that I have somepony who warned me, of its condition so I wouldn’t use it due to the danger. Somepony who made sure that I didn’t hurt it more.”

Mistrunner looked away.
“I-I have always enjoyed helping those in need, so there’s really nothing to thank me for.”

Notharam gave the back of her neck another smile before he turned to Emerald.
“Well then, if we’re all ready we should keep on moving. We should not stand here any longer. Emerald, which direction would you suggest?”

Emerald, who had stared into the distance, seemingly lost in deep thoughts, shook his head again and started to speak.
“I can’t shake the feeling that we are being observed, I wonder… Huh, oh yeah where to go. Well, my curiosity about that dripping sound has been awoken, and I also want to find the source of the scream we heard, I believe we will find them close to one another. We could go any way really, but that’s the way my curiosity leads me. I would say the dripping comes from that hallway, but it’s hard to hear. I also believe that the scream originated from that hallway as well.”
Emerald raised a hoof and pointed towards one side of the room.

Notharam listened carefully, but the dripping sound was hard to hear. He could hear so much else around him: the low humming from the clock, Mistrunner’s, Emerald’s , and his own heartbeats, and the sound of the little filly’s quiet sobbing when she tried to keep the tears back. In the end did he give up, hoping that Emerald knew what he talked about. But why can I not hear the dripping now when I heard it before? Then another thought hit him.
“Emerald, can you use any illumination spells? It’s really dark in that hallway, and we can’t haul any of the braziers with us. It would be way too heavy for us. And the maniac told us that there where no windows in here.” he asked the unicorn.

Emerald looked at Notharam as if he was seeing him for the first time.
“Of course I know how to use illumination spells! What do you take me for, a filly? A unicorn’s first spell is often one of levitating smaller things, quickly followed by an illumination spell. As a scrollkeeper, don’t you think I have to read in the dark sometimes?”

Notharam took a step back, surprised by the anger in Emerald’s voice.
“Easy there, Emerald, I never questioned your intelligence. The only unicorns I have been around were the unicorns in the army, and you know what kind of magic they use. Unicorns are rare in Cloudsdale.”

The anger in Emeralds eyes faded away, and he slowly shook his head again.
“I’m sorry Notharam, I shouldn’t have gotten angry over such a question. It’s just that this place gets on my nerves. It feels like the walls are observing my every move - like they are whispering in my ear. To answer your question, yes, I can use spells of the illumination nature. I am, however, not particularly adept at it. After all, you do not need a lot of light to read in the dark.”

Emerald smiled at Notharam, and suddenly his horn began to glow, a warm emerald shine erupting from it.

Emerald took the lead, holding his horn high, the warm emerald glow illuminating his path. Mistrunner seemed surprised that they started to move, but she did not say anything. Instead she keep an eye on Zinky who happily trotted in front of her. The stone floor was covered in a thick layer of dust, old tracks of hoofsteps clearly visible within. Notharam knelt, examining the dusty hoofprints with a trained eye.

“These hoofsteps are not all from the same pony - far from it, in fact. Some of the hoofsteps have to much dust in them to be newer than a month; others cannot be older than an hour. Look at this hoofprint.” Notharam pointed at one of the hoofprints. “I believe this one is from a pegasus.” He pointed at a line drawn to the right of the hoofprint. “This would be the wing, probably broken, similarly to my own. He probably didn’t have the luck I had, somepony who could look at it and bandage it.” He smiled at Mistrunner. “The luck of having somepony who could care for his wounds.” He returned his eyes to the hoofsteps. ”This pegasus passed through here less than two hours ago. I would say he or she was in the company of a unicorn who cared about how it looked more than he or she cared about the others around her. The trail from the pegasus is as old as the one from the unicorn.”

He pointed at another line in the dust. “This is what makes me guess that the pegasus was here with a unicorn who cared more about it looks than the others. I would guess this line was made by a tail, and since there aren’t any hoofprints in front of it. I believe that the tail’s owner was levitating to avoid the dust. I cannot, however, say for sure that they were here at the same time. Judging by the several hoofsteps in this room and the time between them I would say that there have been around forty ponies here, and perhaps some more that were levitating, but I would not say that there were a lot of ponies doing so.”

This time it was Emerald’s turn to look at Notharam.
“So what you are saying is that there have been around forty other ponies down here, at one point or another in time, all killed by that maniac?” Emerald said with a voice which betrayed the panic within him.

Notharam had to act swiftly. He needed to soothe the unicorn before things took a turn for the worse, they couldn’t afford to have anypony panicking.
“Emerald, were you not listening to what I said? That group either didn’t care or couldn’t help the pegasus. You saw the tracks, the unicorn of that group levitated to avoid the dust on the floor. They probably didn’t stick together half as well as we have, as we help each other when needed.”

Emerald looked at Notharam, the panic slowly evaporating from the unicorn’s eyes.
“You are right; I don’t know what made me think like that.” He shook his head. “I swear, these walls are whispering things to me, observing our every move…” He shook his head again. “Let us get going, I can’t take being in this room any longer.”

With those words he started to go towards the hallway from where he said the dripping noise came from. The others started to walk as well, tailing behind him. Mistrunner walked by Notharam, giving him a sad look.
“We will help each other for as long as we can. Come now, Zinky. Let Notharam take the rear.” she said, tears forming in her eyes.

Zinky looked up at Notharam as she passed, nudging his leg.
“Noaram will protect us won’t he? He won’t leave us?”

Notharam gently nuzzled the little filly.
“I won’t leave you and I will protect you with my life if I have to. Nothing will harm any of you down here as long as I can help it. Now go on, we can’t stand here all day.”

He looked after them when they walked, took a last look at the room they were now leaving.
“But how will I be able to protect them with only one wing? What can I do?” He whispered to himself. Then he did something he had never done before, or ever even thought about doing. He prayed. It was not a pray to the elements around him as he had heard some of the older ponies do. No, this was a prayer toward the one that could help them if her powers were as Emerald had said.

“Celestia, give me the strength to protect your people in this forsaken place.” It was a short prayer, but it felt like a mountain was lifted from his shoulders. He slowly started to trot after the others.

Slowly did they trot down the hallway, stopping at every sound that was heard over the sound of their own hoofs against the stone floor. It was during one of these pauses that Emerald stayed while the other started to move, stood and examined one of the walls.

Notharam looked at him, before he turned around and trotted up to him.
“What have you found Emerald? Can we afford to stay and look at walls now?” Notharam asked curiously.

Emerald didn’t move, only looking at the wall. Suddenly he began to speak, repeating words he had spoken earlier.
“And she ruled the sky and the earth, raised the sun and the moon, and took care of the living and the dead. She was the goddess over all, and the ponies of Equestria lived in harmony with each other and with the nature.”
He moved his hoof over the wall during his recital of the text.

“Look over here. Somepony has carved out depictions that describe the events from the scroll I told you about earlier. Carved it in the wall.”

He pointed at the wall, indicating the depiction that he had mentioned. The carving depicted two alicorns standing upon one cloud each at the top of the firmament; one had the sun above it and the other the moon. Under the clouds stood ponies of different kinds, each one kneeling toward the clouds.

“And over here” he moved his hoof to another point on the wall “we have the next part of the text: The unicorns used their magic to build Canterlot, the royal city, to show Celestia their affection for her.”

At the place he pointed, another depiction was carved out. It featured a group of unicorns building a big city. Notharam could easily spot the royal castle of Canterlot among the other building on the depiction. But above the city stood two alicorns, not just the one that had been named in the scroll.

“But who is the other alicorn? I know I should know its name, but I can’t for my life recall it.” Emerald said. “The signs are everywhere. The two statues in the main room, the two alicorns here… Who is this alicorn?”

Notharam walked up to Emerald, poking him with his hoof.
“Emerald, the answers to those questions are somewhere in here - you said so yourself. My curiosity has been awakened as well, but I believe we will find all the answers we need before this is over.” He nudged Emerald away from the wall.
“Let’s go, no need to stand still for too long.”

“You are right, Notharam. This is not the time to stand still, the answers are located somewhere within.” Emerald answered, before he started to trot again, walking down the hallway once more. The others followed him, Zinky looking wide eyed back at the depiction.

Notharam placed himself in the rear of the group. It really felt as if the walls were observing them. He felt a chill travel down his spine as he walked down the hallway behind the others.

Notharam found himself lost in thoughts. What was this place? What dangers awaited them down here? How could he protect the others? Would he and the others survive? He realized that he had passed the others, and turned around to see what kept them. They stood still, looking at a point right above Notharam. Something dripped on Notharam’s muzzle, a red drop of liquid. He looked down and saw that he stood in a pool of that same red liquid. His mind, still lost in thoughts, slowly realized what that red liquid had to be. It was a liquid he had seen enough of in the army. Blood, the life-giving liquid that was in every being. He looked up.
They had found the source of the dripping sound.

And the clock chimed.

Chapter 3: What's Written in Blood

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 3: What’s written in blood

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime echoed through the sanctum, finding its ways through hallways and rooms. The sound arrived at a room with a giant throne and made its way to the black mare sitting at it. She smiled a smile that never touched her deep blue eyes, a smile colder than the embrace of death; colder than the moonlight that shone upon her. Her horn started to glow and a quill drew a line on a piece of paper. One chime had passed. They wouldn’t stand a chance.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

As the sound of the clock faded away, three ponies stood frozen in place, staring up at the object hanging from the dark ceiling. Notharam backed away from the dripping, trying to avoid the fresh blood on the cold stone floor. His gaze drifted upwards. Even though he didn’t want to see what caused the dripping, the fast glance before should have been enough, would his eyes not listen to him. His gaze continuing to move upwards, and he found himself looking at the source of the dripping.

The source was a pony, or the remains of one. It had once been a pegasus stallion, a coat that once had been light brown was now nearly completely covered of the red that was the pegasus’ own blood. Even the cutie mark was covered by the blood. It didn’t have a mane, not anymore. The mane that once had graced the pegasus was now gone, dark green straws at the neck indicated the color of the mane. It was nearly as if it had been ripped off the neck. The pegasus had been hung by his rear hooves, and slowly did the corpse rotate around, and what Notharam saw shocked him more than the corpse itself had done. The pegasus’ left wing was gone, ripped cleanly off the body, leaving a horrible gaping hole where it should have been. The right wing was bent at an abnormal angle, in a manner that led Notharam to believe that it had been broken.

The light from Emeralds horn changed position, Emerald had started to trot again. Every step he took made the light illuminate the corpse from a different angle, revealing more details on the corpse. A scar here, a gash there. But Notharam took a step back at the sight of the right eye socket. It gaped empty, staring right at Notharam; blood was still dripping out of the hole. It was not the worst thing that Notharam had seen; he had seen things in the army that he did not wish anypony to see. That did not change the fact that he hoped that neither Mistrunner, nor Emerald or Zinky, had seen it. But he saw one thing that made his heart jump over a beat.

The characteristic scar over the muzzle, a scar in the shape of the horseshoe that had caused it. He had known this pegasus by the name of Thunder. He was an old stallion who had held the rank of general in the army during Notharam’s time there. Notharam raised his hoof in salute, tears forming in his eyes. Thunder had been in command of the special squad that Notharam had been a part of, a unit which struck the enemy lines from the flanks.
Life had been a luxury in that squad, a luxury that was easily lost. The number of living members had dropped drastically until there were only two left, Notharam and Thunder.

Now death had found the second to last member. Notharam was the last remaining member, and a thought popped up in his mind.
How long will I be alive? Death has taken all the others, and I’m in this place with a maniac; how long will it be before death takes me?

He trembled at the thought, feeling his bones freeze. It only lasted for the moment up until the light from Emerald’s horn had passed the pegasus tied to the ceiling. Notharam shuddered and looked where the unicorn had walked. Emerald stood at one of the wall, examining something that Notharam could not see. Notharam also saw how Mistrunner had moved further away from the body, Zinky still with her. The two of them stood still; Mistrunner looked like her stomach needed to be emptied. But even if that was the case did she talk softly with Zinky, tried to support the little filly. It could not be an easy sight for her, and he wished it was a sight she would soon forget. being careful not to touch the blood.

Emerald stood and examined something on the wall, mumbling to himself.
“No, I can’t let them know… Mistrunner would be destroyed. Zinky is only a filly… The corpse passed what she should have to see by far. How can this be? Who would do this?”

“Let us know Emerald, what is it that you have found? What is happening?” Notharam asked.

Emerald looked back, giving Notharam a long glance.
“Notharam, I wouldn’t have told any one of you if you hadn’t walked over here, and I will still not tell the others. A text is written on the wall, and I wish that they had not told me about it, that I had never found it.”

“Who told you what? What are you talking about.” Notharam could not keep the fear from his voice.

“The walls Notharam, they spooked with me about this. What I didn’t want you to know is that written on this wall is a message from the maniac to us. Read it if you want, but this explains why I felt observed. All the time. It also explains that the wall talked with me.” Emerald said, his eyes once again on the wall.

“I really hope, not for my sake, but for yours, Mistrunner’s, and the little filly’s, that this isn’t true.” He turned to go, only to stop after taking two steps.
“By the way Notharam, I owe you my hoof. This place is not a church. It’s a temple.”

With those words did he trot away from the wall, slowly making his way to Mistrunner and Zinky, who had moved and now stood at the hallway they had come from. The unicorn didn’t seem to care if he walked into the blood or not. With him moving away, the light started to fade as well, but there was still enough light for Notharam to see what the unicorn had been staring at. On the wall was something written, in the same liquid as the one that had been on the floor. He slowly read the text, trying to figure out what Emerald had meant.

Four sacrifices have entered this building, this temple of light and darkness, this temple of life and death, this temple of harmony.
None of the ponies will get out again, the sacrifices will be made in the favour of the goddesses.
The walls are the judges, they choose in what order the sacrifices will be made.
The chosen will be warned, the judges will talk to them.
This is their judgment.

Another row had been added after the others; the blood with which it was written fresher than the rest.

The gemstone will die by its own curiosity, the first pony to the sacrifice is him.

Notharam felt the cold hoof of fear take a hold around his heart. The message on the wall was clear. None of them would be spared. He didn’t know how the walls would be able to judge or how they would be able to speak to the ponies, but he didn’t doubt that it was true. Emerald had told him about that wall spooked to him. The gem that was named in the text had to be a reference to an emerald, but how did curiosity come into the picture? Notharam was confused and scared, but he knew why he had to keep this from the other two. The idea of scaring the other two made him sick; why should they have to feel the same fear as he did. Why should they have to be scared as well? He started to trot towards the others, avoiding the blood once more. He prayed that the worry he felt inside wasn’t reflected on his face.

Notharam could see how Mistrunner looked at him as he slowly made his way towards the rest of the group. She had a puzzled look on her face, as if she was considering something; her eyes went from the filly at her side, to the corpse hanging from the ceiling and continued to the wall he had just returned from. Lastly, her gaze reached Notharam. She smiled lightly before trotting forward and gently wiping away the blood that was still on his muzzle with her hoof, leaning forward and whispering to him.
“What was it that you saw on the wall? “ Notharam gave her a questioning look.
“Don’t give me that look, pegasus boy; you have a horrible poker face. Something is wrong and I want to know what. If I could I would have gone over there myself. However, Zinky seems to want to stay close and I will not make her go any closer to that body than I have to.”

Notharam felt fear building up inside him. What was he going to say? He couldn’t tell the truth; he believed in what Emerald had said - that Mistrunner wouldn’t be able to handle it. And even if she could, why should he share this and scare her? But he had to say something. Anything.

“I will tell you later.” He responded while backing away from Mistrunner. “I promise.”

Mistrunner glared at him and opened her mouth to speak once more.

Emerald must have been listening to them; he spoke up from behind them and saved Notharam from further questions.
“If you two are finished, can we keep going? I don’t want to end up like that pegasus in the ceiling, and I feel that the best way to avoid it is to keep moving. We have three choices. We can go either of these two ways.” He pointed with his hoof to the right and the left of them. “Or we can return to the inner sanctum. But to returning to the sanctum would not help still my curiosity.” He seemed to think for a moment, before he added: “And I still want to solve this puzzle.”

Mistrunner was quick to turn around, turning to face Emerald.
“What was it on that wall, Emerald? Exactly what is it the two of you are hiding from me? I have the right to know!” she whispered. Zinky had moved away as Mistrunner whirled around, and looked confused at Mistrunner for a moment before she dove into the cover of the elder ponie’s leg one again.

Emerald gave Mistrunner a look full of concern, before he looked away, unable to meet her eyes any longer.
“It’s better if you don’t receive the information that we acquired from that wall, believe me. At this moment of time I sincerely wish that I never had seen what was on that wall, nor that Notharam had. To know what’s waiting in the future is not a thing I wanted to; and I don’t think you want either. So let’s just get going. Left or right?”

Mistrunner opened her mouth to protest once more, but was interrupted by a quiet sound that came from the right hallway. It wasn’t easy to hear at first, if she had spoken or the dripping from Thunder’s corpse had not stopped then they would perhaps never have heard it. Or at least they would not have heard it until it would have been too late. The sound that emerged from the shadows of the right hallway was the soft beating of a heart. Notharam felt confusion and curiosity for a moment, how could they hear the heart? It should not be possible, the sound of a heart is way to low to be heard just like that. Then he felt a gaze upon him, a gaze filled with hatred.

Notharam reacted quickly; he really did not want to meet the owner of that gaze. At least not in this place, not with Zinky this close.
“Everypony, take the left hallway. Avoid whatever it is that you hear the heart of. You go first; I will take the rear. Now MOVE before the owner of that heart comes too close. I don’t think it has found us yet, or else it would probably already be upon us,” he whispered to the other ponies, partly lying. He knew that he had felt something from the being in the shadows. He just didn’t know what being it was, but if the hatred was anything to go by then it wanted to kill them.

“Notharam is right - let’s go. I will lead the way, so stay close.” Emerald said. He looked at Notharam, and Notharam could feel that the unicorn knew that he would not follow them directly, before he quickly turned around, dimming his horn to illuminate only a few hoofsteps around him.

“Follow him Mistrunner, hurry, before it notices us. Take Zinky with you.” He nudged Mistrunner in the side. “Go!”

Notharam watched the other gallop away, their hooves whirling up dust. Emerald must have casted another spell since he couldn’t hear any sound from the hooves, but that was nothing he had time to think more about now. He turned around, prepared to meet whatever was coming towards him. But he could not hear anything, neither did he see anything moving. The hatred was still there however, pushing against his mind. A minute passed, two, three. No sound was to be heard and the hatred disappeared. He relaxed, and released a sigh.

He did, however, find himself in complete darkness. He hadn’t thought this part over, he had been sure he would die, all that hatred come crushing against him. He was stuck in the darkness, without any way to return to the others.

He sat down, what should he do? What he knew was that there were three hallways out of here, but which one had the others passed through? And in what hallway was the thing waiting? He realized that he had a one-third of a chance of getting to the right hallway by pressing his hoof against the wall and walk. It was all about finding the right wall.

He slowly started to trot, hopping that he walked in the right direction. With the sight gone did his other senses sharpen, he could feel nearly every grain of dust under his hooves, hear the sound of his own heart. Then he stepped into something, a liquid that he was sure he knew the origin of. He guessed it was the blood that had dripped onto the floor. That would mean that he was at the hanging corpse of Thunder, and only had to take a few more steps to get to the wall. He held his hoof out in front of him, and felt it hit the cold stone wall. For once luck was on his side, he would be able to find them again. He started to trot towards the right, knowing that that was the way the others had run. Perhaps his new found luck would hold for the rest of the night?

Notharam didn’t know for how long he had wandered around in the darkness, nor how many times he had stopped at a sudden sound. What he knew was that the hallway didn’t get any brighter; he had walked into a wall more than once, where the way had turned abruptly in the complete darkness. He was glad that he was not afraid of the darkness, but that did not stop the feeling that he would be jumped on by the owner of the hateful glare he had felt before. He had lost the count of times the hallway had changed direction, but it was after one of those turns that he finally found what he was looking for. The other three ponies had stopped in front of a giant door, made of a dark wood material with golden fittings around the edges. Emerald’s horn shone with the light it had before he had dampened it, the hallway bathing in the light emerging from him.

Judging by their reaction, they, or at least Emerald and Mistrunner, nearly jumped out of their coats; had he made some kind of noise and had scared them. They quickly turned around, eyes widened in fright. Mistrunner placed herself between him and Zinky, but Emerald only stared at him.

“Notharam, is that you? But, how can it be? We heard that heartbeat getting louder, we heard you running at it, heard a sound that had to be your body thumping against it. Then we heard you scream, a heart piercing screech of horror, we heard the sound of flesh ripped apart, and the scream stopped. WHO ARE YOU!” Emerald said, his voice unstable.

Notharam was taken aback by this. What had happened? What had they heard? He knew that he hadn’t died, he hadn’t even seen anything in that pitch black darkness that had been back in that room.

“Yes, it’s me. I don’t know how I can prove it, but I will! I stayed back into that room to meet whatever it was, to buy you time to escape. But it wasn’t anything there, I don’t know how long I waited. I realized that nothing was coming towards me, that I was alone in that place without any light at all to illuminate my way. I walked towards the wall, and felt my way here. I will do anything to prove that I’m the one that I say I am.” Notharam said, fear filling his voice.

Emerald rapidly responded with a question.
“What flavor was it on the candy I gave Zinky?”

Notharam had to think for a second before he remembered.
“It was a raspberry flavored lollipop, you took it from one of your saddlebags.” He answered, smiling when he thought back at the smile on the little filly’s face as she got the lollipop.

Mistrunner had stared at him in disbelief since Emerald had been speaking.
“Notharam, that doesn’t prove that you are who you say that you are. You must answer something that happened before we got to this place.” She went silence, thinking.

“Mistrunner, we didn’t know each other before we came to this place, how can we be sure that he answers with the truth?” Emerald asked Mistrunner without taking his eyes from Notharam.

“Well, I didn’t know him, but I have seen him before.” Mistrunner said looking at Emerald, before she turned her head towards Notharam. Something in her eyes told Notharam that he lied, he couldn’t figure out what she lied about thought. “Three years ago you were in Canterlot during a military ceremony. How many ponies stood between you and Celestia?.”

Notharam remembered that day, he and Thunder had been there to receive a recognition for their service in the army, for risking their life’s more than once in the service of the military. He wasn’t surprised that Mistrunner had seen him, nearly all of Canterlot's inhabitants had been at that ceremony.
“I stood at Celestia’s left wing, Thunder stood at the right. I was the first too be offered it of us, but refused to accept it before Thunder, who was of a higher rank than me, had got it. All of the previous members of my squad, those who had died in service, received the Medal of Honor as well. The members of their families had been there to collect them. “

Mistrunner looked at Emerald.
“I’m ready to believe him. You were working deep in the library that day, but I was looking at the ceremony from a window. He did indeed stand at Celestia’s left wing.”

She turned toward Notharam again, this time with a concerned look in her tear filled eyes.
“I… We were so afraid. We thought you were dead.” A single tear rolled down her cheek.

Notharam slowly walked over to her and the filly that now had moved to stand next to her.
“It’s okay Mistrunner, I won’t leave you that easy again. I promised to protect you, didn’t I?” He smiled weakly at her.

“Noaram promised to protect us. I believe him, Noaram won’t let any harm come upon us.” Zinky said, her eyes wide as she looked up at Notharam, smiling.

“I will Zinky, as I promised.” Notharam said, returning the smile, before he turned towards Emerald, who stood and examined the door.
“Emerald, do you not believe me? What more do I have to do to prove for you who I am?”

Emerald flinched, Notharams voice bringing him back from his thoughts. He turned around, facing Notharam.
“Why, of course I believe you. It’s just that this door with its decorations, I feel like if I have seen this symbol somewhere else.”
He pointed at a golden circle in the middle of the door. In the circle was an open book engraved.

Mistrunner took a look at the circle, and then gave Emerald a sidelong glance.
“Are you starting to become senile or is it something else wrong with you Emerald? That symbol is the same as the one that is on the door into the closed section in the Royal Library of Canterlot. The section that was the oldest part, were only the royalty herself had right to enter.”

Emerald shacked his head.
“I think I might, haven’t been in that part in years. Fifteen years to be exact, when Celestia herself demanded the key. She went down there, and I followed her to make sure that the books were in a good order, it wasn’t often I was down there. But as you say, I remember it now.”

Notharam couldn’t stand still any longer.
“Then let’s get going.”

He putted his hoof against the door, pressing it open.

It opened without a sound.

And the clock chimed.

Chapter 4: Secrets of a Library

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 4: Secrets of a Library

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime echoed through the church, finding its ways through hallways and rooms. The sound arrived into a room with a giant throne and made its way to the black mare sitting at it. She smiled, a smile that never touched her deep blue eyes, a smile colder than the embrace of death. She flapped her wing, trying to get it in a more comfortable position. The stitches itched; she wasn’t used to her new wing yet. It had started to change color now, the hideous light brown color changed to her own black. She couldn’t wait until she had the other wing as well, the other part of this memory. She lifted the quill with her magic, making the second line. Two chimes had passed.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

Notharam still had his hooves on the open door, facing into the darkness behind it, when the clock had chimed. He had flinched at the sudden sound, his hooves nearly enough flying away from the door as if the door had burned him. It had taken him some seconds to realize where the sound had come from, seconds he used to look around, eyes big in shook.
“What the hay, I must be really on the edge if I react like that at the chime of that clock.”

He noticed that he wasn’t the only one that had reacted at the sudden sound. Mistrunner had turned around and tried to look in all directions at once, Emerald on the other hand was looking at the clock.
“Hmm, I wonder… Isn’t this day, or night to be precise, the night before the Summer Sun Celebration?”

Zinky was the one to answer, bouncing up and down on the spot.
“Oh, oh, it is. And Celestia will raise the sun in Ponyville. Can we go there? Please can we can we?” She shone up with a happy smile.

Notharam couldn’t say no to the happy filly. He sat it as another goal, that he should take Zinky to the Summer Sun Celebration, if not this year so another.
“I would love to go there with you, and the rest, Zinky. But I don’t know if we can go now.” He turned to Emerald. “Well, it seems like it is, how come?”

“Well, it’s not that hard to understand where I’m going with this. As every filly know is the Summer Sun Celebration a celebration of the longest day of the year. This means that we have less than twelve hour, or ten now, left for our survival. If I don’t remember wrong is this night only 7 hours long, giving us 5 hours to survive.” Emerald said in a lecturing tone.

“Well, that is great news! Then we have a greater chance of survival.” Notharam said, a knot in his stomach, that he didn’t even knew he had, fading away. He let a short laugh slip out. “That really is a relief Emerald.”

“Yes it is…” Emerald said with a worried frown. “But I wonder… No, it can’t be, I’m sure….” He shook his head. “Shall we start to go? We have been standing here for too long I’m afraid. Even if this makes us have more... less time to survive doesn’t mean we should stay at one place for too long.”

Emerald slowly walked up to the entrance, followed by the other ponies, the light from his horn illuminating the door and its book engraving. As he walked through the entrance did the shadows of the room flee to the corners, hiding from the unicorn who walked in and disturbed it. The room bathed in the light from Emeralds horn, a light that was reflected ten times over by an, for Notharam, unseen source.

Notharam waited until the others had entered the room before he himself did it. It was a small room with a staircase in the middle of it, a staircase that was in the shape of a spiral, spiraling upwards to a floor over them. From the ceiling hanged drop shaped crystals, the source of the reflection. Two statues stood at the base of the staircase, shaped as the lightalicorn, Celestia. None had taken care of theses statues as they had the statues at the inner sanctum. These statues had small cracks in them, the white gleaming stone was nearly grey under the dust that covered the twin statues.

The floor in front of the staircase was decorated with a symbol, a sun with eight rays. The rays erupted from the center, five of them ending in a gemstone. The gemstones were in the colors of red, orange, green, light blue and pink. Even Notharam knew what this symbol symbolized. The Elements of Harmony, the great powers of old tales, long since lost in the twists of time.
‘Why was this symbol here, in a temple like this?’ Notharam thought.

Emerald answered the question, as if he had been able to read Notharam’s mind.
“The Elements of Harmony, used more than once in the legends, the last time a thousand years ago when Celestia imprisoned Nightmare Moon in the moon after Nightmare Moon’s attempt to take over the throne and create eternal night over Equestria. Or at least that’s how the old maretale goes. It’s also stated that the Elements of Harmony is the ‘greatest magic power known to pony kind’.“

Emerald took a quick breath before he continued.
“They are said to have been created by the two goddesses during a time of great need. Perhaps this symbol, in a place like this, proves that The Elements of Harmony have existed once. This temple is between one and two, perhaps even three, millennia old, the art style of the statues and pillars, not to talk about the door, is of a very old design. This place must be at least as old as the castle of Canterlot, if not older. I have only seen this kind of style in the old throne room of Canterlotcastle, and I would say that that room was only a copy of an even older piece, copied the day the room was built.”

Notharam slowly walked forward, placing one of his front hooves on the edge of the closest ray, the one ending in a red gemstone.
“I don’t know if the Elements are real or not, and I don’t see how that would help us. We are probably not the first of the ‘guests’ that figured this much out, and even if we were do I not believe that we would be able to use the power of them either way. I don’t know about you guys, but I still don’t want to stand on one spot for too long.”

He started to walk forward, crossing the symbol on his ways to the staircase. As his hoof hit the first step of the stair was a loud rumbling heard. The rumbling was the sound of the door that closed behind them. The sound of the door was followed by another sound, that of metal snapping above them.

The crystals hanging from the ceiling crashed down, splintered into thousands of small shards as they hit the stone floor. It only took seconds before it was all over, thousands of crystals shards filling the floor, reflecting the light that erupted from Emeralds horn in all the colors of the rainbow, reflecting it over the walls and ceiling.

“Is anypony hurt?” Mistrunner called out.

“I’m okay, the crystals didn’t hit me at least, nor did the splinter of them.” Emerald answered from where he stood in the middle of the symbol.

“I’m fine, those big things didn’t hit me.” Zinky called from under Mistrunner.

“Nopony hurt then it seems, I wasn’t hit either.” Notharam said, before turning towards the rest of the group.

As he turned did the door come into his view area, seen over the heads of the other ponies. The door was closed, that he wasn’t surprised about. He flinched at the seeing what happened on the door, the letters that had formed there. The letters was in the same style as the ones that had been on the wall, and in the same red color. A single word was written on the door.

Trapped.

He turned around on the spot, started to walk up the staircase.
“Let’s go everypony, no use in just standing here, let us see what this stairs lead to.” He could hear the panic in his own voice, and tried to calm down, hoping that the rest would follow him. It was enough that he had seen it, no need for the rest to see it and panic. They had heard the door close; he only hoped they didn’t turn around to check it.

Too his relief did they follow him, but he couldn’t see the looks that Emerald and Mistrunner gave each other behind his back. The staircase was pretty wide, three or four fully grown ponies would easily have been able to walk next to each other in it. The staircase ended in a big room, a room as big as the entire lower part they had traveled in had to be.

The room was filled with bookcases, most of them completely emptied. Dust covered the stone floor, and only a few hoofsteps could be seen interrupting the thick layer.
A few statues was placed in the room, statues of pegasi, unicorns and earth pony alike. Most of the statues were of ponies writing or reading, but some was of something entirely different. In the middle of the library was a giant statue of Celestia raising the sun. The sun was made of a yellow stone, and weakly illuminated the room, making the bookcases and statues throw long shadows across the room.

The floor had holes in some places, probably where the pillars of the inner sanctum had collapsed. Notharam reacted on this, how come that they hadn’t seen the light from the sun when they were in the inner sanctum?

He slowly trotted into the room, the others followed him closely, their hooves whirling up dust from the ground. Notharam could hear Emerald talk behind him.
“This library… It must have contained at least thousands of books. And the statues are made with perfection!”
His voice changed, he nearly sounded sad.
“Too bad that the books are long since gone, I’m sure the solution of this puzzle could have been found in one of them.”

The group carefully navigated through the library, making their way to the statue of Celestia. A showcase stood in front of the statue, a book lying inside. The book was old, with a cover made of a dark brown material with golden fittings around the book sides. The characters were written with a swirling style, it was nearly as if they were connected with each other.

Emerald stopped in front of the showcase, looked as in trance at the book lying inside.
“It’s written in a really old dialect but I think I might be able to translate most of it, just give me some time.” He started to search his saddlebags again, casting glances on the book every now and then. “Notharam, could you move that table over there?”

Notharam did what he was asked to, and got help from Mistrunner in moving the table over the floor. It was not a big table and Notharam turned towards Emerald when it was in place.
“Here you go Emerald, but why do you need a table?”

Emerald looked up from his bags, mouth full of different objects, a bottle of ink, a quill and some parchment. He shot a quick glance toward the book before he looked at Notharam with a flat look.
“You didn’t think I was just going to let this piece lay here without me noting it down and translate it, did you?”

He placed the writing equipment on the table and started to slowly read the side of the book he could see through the showcase glass.
“I wished I could take it out of there, but I will not even try. I do believe that it would crumble to dust in my hooves if I tried. Now, leave me alone for some minutes, I need to concentrate on the translation of this text.”

“Let us go Notharam, if somepony can translate that text over there is it Emerald. He knows more languages than anypony I have heard of, it was one of the reasons he got the position as scroll keeper of the royal library.” She looked at Emerald, admiration in her eyes. “Come here Zinky, leave Emerald alone. Let us see if we can find something fun in this place shall we?”

Zinky had stood with the upper half of her body on the table, playfully checking out the writing equipment that Emerald had put on the table. She looked away from the objects, a wide smile on her muzzle.
“Yes Mist, I will go with you. Fun sounds like fun.”
She jumped of the table, carefully not to disturb any of the objects she had looked upon. Slowly did she trot to Mistrunner and Notharam, the smile still on her muzzle.
Together did they walk around in the library, avoiding every hole in the floor. The statue sun illuminated enough light for them to see around them in the library. Notharam couldn’t help but staring wide-eyed at the things around him. He wasn’t a fan of art, but these statues and paintings that filled the library was of another level than anything else he had ever seen.

He saw a painting of a single pegasus clearing a black thunder sky, the details so fine that he could see the confident shining from the pegasus eyes. Another painting was of an earth pony, who carefully planted a seed in the ground. Notharam was surprised over the details in this painting as well; he could see every crack in the seed. A third painting was of a unicorn holding a book as she protected two fillies from an Ursa major, and he could see every star in the Ursa’s fur as if he had looked upon the night sky.

Even Zinky had seen a painting she liked, and Mistrunner stood next to her and looked at the painting as well. Notharam let his curiosity take over, slowly trotting over to them, looking at the painting that hung pretty low on the wall. It was a painting of a rabbit family, standing in the snow outside the small hill that had been their home for the winter. In the background was the snow melting, making room for flowers.
“Look at that rabbit, it is so cute.” Zinky cried out, pointing at the little baby bunny in the middle of the group.
“And look at the details of that flower.” Mistrunner said, pointing at a flower that the baby bunny was holding.

Notharam walked away from the two other ponies, left them to look at the painting by themselves. He admired the statues and paintings in the library, carefully looking at each of the statues in the library.

The other caught up with him, Zinky happily bounced around him. Her voice was full of enthusiasm.
“We saw a bunny, and butterflies, and ducks and and and…” she stopped in the bouncing, head tilted towards Mistrunner.

Mistrunner chuckled, fondly looking at Zinky.
“And snakes and a lot of other animals.” She sounded nearly as enthusiastic as Zinky had.

Notharam stopped, front hoof in midair. He couldn’t keep the surprise out of his voice.
“Wait, you found ANIMALS in here? Where? How? And those animals doesn’t even live close to each other.”

Mistrunner laughed, a cute sound that sounded like silver in Notharam’s ears.
“Not living animals, filly, the animals on paintings and in the statues. Zinky wanted my help to name them all, and I couldn’t say no to her.”

Notharam looked at her, the truth slowly revealed in front of him.
“Oh, I hopped there was another living animal here, someone who knew a way out.” He said, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice.
He slowly started to trot again, looking at the different statues. He took a turn around a bookshelf, the other two following him, softly whispering to each other.

He found himself facing a big statue, shaped as a creature of mythical nature. The skull was that of a pony, with two different horns erupting from it. It had a long body, with six limbs, four of them legs and two wings, not a single limb from the same creature as another. Notharam could feel something evil about this statue, as if an evil presence erupted from the statue.

The eyes of the statue slowly turned red.

A scream filled the library.

The light that had been illuminated by the sun statue disappeared.

And the clock chimed.

Chapter 5: The Orb - Part 1

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 5: The Orb - Part 1

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime echoed through the church, finding its ways through hallways and rooms. But something was different; this time did the chime follow another sound, the sound of screaming. The sounds entered a room, the throne room of this place, found its way to the pitch black mare sitting on the throne. She couldn’t help but laugh at the sound of the screaming, it was so filled of… horror. What delight she found in that sound, the sound of somepony in horror. She didn’t like this, it had been too easy this far. The sound of the chime followed the scream. She laughed again, barely managing to lift the quill with her magic. The quill made the third line on the paper. Three chimes had passed, this would be a fun night.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-

Notharam could feel his essence being, ripped apart of the statues deep red eyes. He realizes that the scream that filled the library was his own, a scream that slowly thorn his throat apart. His eyesight narrowed, narrowed so that the only thing he could see was those deep red eyes, staring into his soul, ripping his essence apart.

Slowly did the light return, replacing the darkness and the red eyes within it. He was shaken by hooves, his name called over and over.
"Notharam, wake up! Notharam, I won't let you die here!"
Mistrunner half screamed, half cried, with a voice full of panic and horror.

His throat felt like fire was going through it, like if it was burning from the inside. He must have damaged it with the screaming. He tried to talk, forced the words out, ignoring the pain it caused him.
"I... I'm here Mis... Mistrunner. "

His eye vision returned to normal, and he saw Mistrunner and Emerald standing over him. Zinky was hiding behind Mistrunner, tear streaming out from her eyes. He lifted his head, looking around before he focused his eyes on the others.
"How long where I gone?" He asked, and directly wishing he hadn't. He hadn't more than whispered, and still did it feel like if he had thorn of flesh from the neck with his own hooves.

"Not for more than a minute or two. You started to scream when you saw the statue, and wouldn't answer when I asked what it was about. You really scared Zinky and me, I thought I would lose you."

Notharam looked around, finding himself at the statue of Celestia.
"How did I get here, what happened? The light disappeared!"

"I don't know what happened, Notharam. But the light didn't disappear. I had just finished the translation when I heard your screaming, that wasn't even three minutes ago. Then Mistrunner appeared, like if she came out of a mist, with you and Zinky on her back." Emerald said, he sounded worried.

Notharam looked at Mistrunner, for the first time seeing how tired she really had to be. Her flanks heaved as she breathed, short and violent breaths. She had tears in her eyes, tears that made her eyes reflected the weak light from the sun statue,reflected them in more colors than he thought was possible.

"I thank you, Mistrunner. Without you would I probably not be alive at this moment." he had to thank her, even if the pain that rippled inside of him threatened to make him lose his consciousness again.

“Take it easy Notharam, we don’t want you to hurt your throat more than you already have. Let it rest for a bit.” Mistrunner said, her breathing had nearly returned to normal but concern still filled her eyes and voice.

Notharam relaxed, putting his head down against the chilled stone floor. He found himself looking up at the sun statue; the warm light erupted from it illuminating his body. His throat slowly returned to normal, as if the sun itself had healed it. Emerald had gone back to the parchment, writing on it at the same time as he checked the book. Mistrunner and Zinky talked softly, too low for him to hear, Mistrunner looked his way more than once with her eyes full of worry.

It was then he noticed it. The sun was slowly transforming, getting darker. The yellow slowly turned black, but the light was still illuminating from it. Abruptly something could be seen in the dark sun, something blue. It was those eyes again, staring at him, staring into his soul.

He wanted to scream, his lung was filled with the air needed, but he didn’t. Something stopped him. Did they others see the eyes as well? Was it only his imagination this time as well? And why couldn’t he see anything else than the eyes, where was the coat on the other horse? The mane? He wanted to see anything at all, other than those ice-cold eyes.

“You are really cute when you can’t do a thing, you know that don’t you?” The ice-cold voice called out from around him, mocking him.

He opened his mouth, trying to scream, only to be stopped by a cold hoof against his lips.

The owner of the ice-cold voice laughed softly. “I wouldn’t scream if I were you, my dear Notharam. You are the only one that can see me, the others cannot. I don’t think you have seen the looks they have given each other behind your back; don’t push their view of your sanity. Instead, listen to what I have to say Notharam, it might help you survive through this night.”

She chuckled once more; Notharam felt it as if a bucket of ice-cold water had been emptied over him.
“You know too well that I’m planning on killing you and the others, but did you know that the others all have something that ties them together?” The ice-cold voice said, followed by a soft chuckle. “What ties them together, the reason they all are here, is you Notharam.”

Notharam flinched, feeling a cold hoof touching his cheek. He couldn’t see the hoof, only feel it. He closed his eyes, trying to ignore the cold hand. He couldn’t ignore it, and the worst thing was the ice-cold voice whispering to him, it was as if the owner of the voice stood next to him. But he knew that wasn’t the case, he couldn’t feel the breath of the other pony, the only thing he could feel was the cold hoof on his cheek and the whispering into his ear.

“You Notharam, and you alone, are the reasons why they are all here. You are the reason why they will die, why their lives will be ended in this temple tonight. It is because of you that they will be sacrificed for the greater good. The harmony of the goddesses must be contained.”

“Why? What have we ever done to you?” Notharam whispered, hoping that the others wouldn’t hear him.
“I never said that they had done anything to me. The only pony in here that have ever done anything towards me is you, Notharam. YOU are the reason that anypony is here at all. You are the one that is to blame for this.” The cold hoof moved, followed his muzzle to its tip. It pushed against his muzzle tip, pressing his head back.
“YOU ARE TO BLAME FOR THIS, NOTHARAM.”
The cold voice was heated with anger, anger that was gone in an instant. “You don’t recognize the others? I’m not surprised, you were never bright with the details, only the straight rush before a fight, it was the only thing there was for you.” The chuckle was heard once more. “Let me brighten your memory, Notharam.”

The sun statue slowly changed, the blue eyes disappeared and were replaced with something else, a picture. As if the orb had transformed into a window could he see something, a beautiful view over a small town. He could recognize the town, it was Ponyville, a town he had only have the joy of visiting a few times in his life.

The leaves had started to change color, he understood that this was something that had happened, and not something that happened now. He could see himself down there, it had to be two years ago, that was the last time he had been in Ponyville and it had been in the autumn, only days after he had been taken out to join the army. No sound emerged from the statue, even though he remembered that the birds had sung in the wind this beautiful autumn day. This was a time when he had to make the toughest decision in his life. He knew all too well what would be seen, and he feared it.

He saw himself going up to a big building, with a small filly in one of his saddle bags. The filly didn’t look more than a week at the most, he knew that the mother had died in the birth bed. He hadn’t been able to take responsibility for the little filly. He hadn’t had the bits, he hadn’t had any home for it. He had been the only one who had been willing to take care of the filly.
The mothers’ family, Silverstar’s family, believed that the filly was the reason that Silverstar had died. But to take care of the filly he needed bits, so he had signed up for the army again. He had been accepted, and had taken the filly to the only place that had been able to take care of her while he was away. Ponyvilles home for homeless fillies and colts.

As the past him enter the building did the view changed. Now he saw the inside of the house. The house had once been a beautiful house, but had seen better days. He had lifted the filly, tears streaming from his eyes, and given it to the ‘child keeper’, a fat mare with grey coat and a hideous pink mane. The filly had looked upon him with her big, sad jade eyes, and Notharam could feel how he started to cry when he looked at the scene.
“Take it away, please take it away. I understand where you want to go with this. I can’t handle it.” He begged with a whisper, hoping that the view would disappear, that the statue would change. It did.

He could see himself, standing outside the same building once more. This time it was spring, the snow had just melted away. He had returned to Ponyville after his three years in the army. He knew too well this scene, it had etch itself to his mind. The ‘child keeper’ had invited him into the office, where she had explained that a mistake had been made. The little filly, his filly, had been given a new home. He had started to cry, nothing had been able to stop it. He had ignored the papers, papers that he now saw from the view of the statue. It was the adoptions papers, a name had been filled in under ‘Name of the filly being adopted’: Zinky.

Notharam could feel tears streaming down his muzzle, Zinky was his daughter? But, how could it be? He had looked for the ponies that had adopted his daughter for a long time, without any luck. It was as if the ones that had adopted her had fled Equestria, nopony he talked with had recognized the name of the colt and mare that had adopted his little filly. And now he had found her, in a place like this, with a maniac that wanted to see them all killed, or sacrificed as she said it.
“How can you do this to me? Who are you?” He whispered out, his heart aching.

The ice-cold hoof was back, gently whipping the tears away, the voice softly whispering into his ear.
“You should know who I am. After all, you are the one who abandoned me; you are the one who betrayed me. Let us say this is my revenge, even if it serves a greater purpose as well.”

Notharam was taken aback. He would never have betrayed anypony, nor abandon. He tried not to think about his filly, Zinky as he corrected himself, who he had left in the homeless home. He would have returned to take her back, but things had turned out different.

“I have never betrayed anypony, nor abandon them. What are you talking about?” he whispered to the thin air around him.

The owner of the voice laughed again.
“You have betrayed more than one pony in your life. You betrayed Zinky first, then me. But now you will pay for it. Let us see what it is that ties the next pony with you, shall we?”

Notharam opened his mouth to protest, but was silenced by a hoof over his lips.
“Sssh, look and enjoy the show, Notharam. It’s the least you can do for the ponies you have doomed.”

Notharam could only watch in horror as the statue slowly changed again.

And the clock chimed.

Chapter 6: The Orb - Part 2

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 6: The Orb - Part 2

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime echoed through the statue of the sun, magically making its way to its twin statue, the moon statue in the throne room. The mare on the throne smiled, it was so much fun in the mental torturing of Notharam. Notharam, the one that had betrayed and abandon her, left her to die. She stopped the laughing, thought back at the memory of that betrayal. What had gone wrong? How had it all come to this? And how could she change this? No, she would have to make sure that the sacrifice was made, that they all was sacrificed, for the good of all. A soft chuckle emerged from her throat, they didn’t know how long time it really was left, nor what this was all about. She lifted the quill with her magic and made the fourth line on the paper. Four chimes had passed, and they weren’t even close to survival.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

Notharam could only watch in horror as the statue slowly changed again, showing him the fluffy city of Cloudsdale. The sun was high on the cloudless, deep blue sky, it had to be summer. He could see himself, together with the other three pegasi of his group. The light brown Thunder talked with a pegasus guard, while the two red twins pegasi Nimble and Eastern Bolt as usual fought over something that wasn’t important. He could see himself lending against a cloud pillar, with a bored expression on his face.

He remembered this day, it had been the day they had departed for a longer journey, he and his squad. The squad had at this time been eight ponies, half of the original size. He could still remember the name of all the ponies that had been part of the squad. The squad members had been four pegasi Thunder, Nimble, Eastern and Notharam; together with the unicorns Four Star and Pendant as well as the earth ponies Iron and Aura.

In the clear vision of the statue could Notharam see that the squad had headed out, quickly heading towards a distant point in Equestria. Thick, black smoke rose to the sky, the smoke of something burning. Notharam remembered this, it had been on the third day of the journey.

The view in the sun statue faded away and was replaced by something else. A house on a hill replaced the view. The house was on fire with thick, black smoke emerging from it; smoke that had started to cover the sky and the hill. He could see himself, and wasn’t surprised to see himself being the one that spotted the house first. He had always been the fastest one, and since he wasn’t very talkative had he nearly always been flying in front of the others. The others were a great bit behind his past self when his past self began to dive towards the burning house. He could see how the others in the squad hurried up, the ones without wings running upside the hill as fast as they could, while the pegasi quickly dove towards a nearby lake, starting to get water that would extinguish the fire.

‘But how is this related to any of the other ponies here?’ Notharam thought. ‘The only one who had been in that house was a mare unicorn.’

The view changed, now showing the inside of the burning house. Notharam could see his past self carefully going in, protecting his muzzle from the smoke with his right-wing. He could see himself looking in all directions, looking after the source of a crying if his memory didn’t fail him. His past self trotted through one of the doorways, and the view changed to show the room he entered. It was a kitchen with flames emerging from the floor, fire that had started spreading on the walls and furniture as well.

He saw himself galloping through the room, avoiding the fire and the furniture, making his way towards a staircase. His hooves had started to get covered in soot, and small soot dots had appeared on his coat. The view from the statue changed, showing him on the upper floor.

The upper floor wasn’t in the same mess as the lower had been, but the smoke was really thick. The wing hadn’t been working as good as a filter up here; he saw from the statue view that he coughed, although no sound was heard.

He saw something in the view of the statue that he didn’t believe in. The fire from the floor below had spread up the stairs at the same moment as he had entered the upper floor, and now stood completely still at the top step of the staircase, as if it waited for something. Then he saw that his past self started to trot again, carefully finding a way towards the sound that he had heard then but couldn’t hear through the statue. And the fire followed him, spread where he had trotted, only some steps behind him. Nearly no light emerged from the flames, but he could see how the wood in the floor and walls, as well as some of the supporting beams, had turned black of soot.

Once again did the view change; this time showing a bedroom which past Notharam entered. He could see how the fire slowly spread into the room behind him, spreading up the wall and onto the big beam in the ceiling. Past Notharam, however, had only eyes for one thing. His eyes were on the crying unicorn mare in the corner, who was surrounded by small dancing flames. The unicorn was covered with soot, small part of her light green coat shining through the dark grime.

The small flames stopped in the strange dance, turning as to face Notharam. Notharam could see how his past self became afraid; he could see it in his eyes. They had widened, the small flames reflecting in his eyes. That’s when the flames had jumped at him. He could still remember how the flames had seemed to have small eyes looking at him, flames of rage burning inside the eyes he had imagined back then. He saw how the flame put his coat ablaze, how his muzzle opened in a wordless scream, still no sound emerged from the statue.

The fire must have done a good job; Notharam could see how the big beam started to bend under its own weight. It must have been a loud crack; Notharam could see himself quickly spinning around, the small flames flying of him, crashing into the wall.

The past Notharam looked up at the beam, and then threw himself away; threw himself towards the corner where the unicorn lay. It was not a second to early, the beam fell down with what must have been a really loud noise. Ot fell down, crushing the floor at the door on its way down, and it would have crushed Notharam as well if he had been a second slower in jumping away.
The crashing beam had released thousands of sparks, sparks that sat the entire room on fire. It happened to fast, a dozen spark landed on the bed, suddenly it was all in flames, he thanked his lucky star that he wasn’t hit.

Notharam had done what was best in that moment; escape the scene. He could see himself, chased by the flames he had shaken away from himself, running towards the unicorn. He took a firm grip of her, and flew out of the window. The unicorn had almost seemed dead, only hanging in Notharam’s grip. The view changed.

He had landed ten meters away from the house, exhausted with his lungs full of smoke from the fire that still ravaged the house. He collapsed in the summer grass, the unicorn lying next to him. The others of the squad galloped forward, finally catching up, galloped forward to the two ponies lying unconscious in the grass. The pegasi used the water to wake them up, saving the house was out of question; he could see from the statue how it collapsed under its own weight.

The view changed, it went fast now. It showed him and the rest of the squad standing together with the light green unicorn with a cutie mark shaped as a quill. They stood together, waving goodbyes, before they turned different ways. The squad kept going towards their southern destination. The unicorn, whose name was Feather Quill, should head home towards Canterlot.

Notharam was shocked, that unicorn, could it be…

The view changed, Notharam could now see Feather Quill standing in front of a huge building. Two things gave away what building that was; the first being Emerald Scroll standing together with Feather Quill, hugging her. The other was the big sign in front of it, a sign with the text ‘Royal Library of Canterlot’ written on it.

No, it couldn’t be. That unicorn whose life he had saved… It couldn’t be Emeralds daughter… Had he, by saving the life of a unicorn, doomed another?

The ice-cold voice answered as if it could read his mind.
“No Notharam, you didn’t doom another unicorn, you doomed them both.” That cold chuckle was heard again. “In fact, you have doomed around fifty others. Forty-nine other ponies have you doomed together with yourself. You are the one everything revolves around, you are the last one that will be sacrificed. You are the last sacrifice Notharam.”

No, it couldn’t be… Who was this maniac whom was so focused around him? What had he ever done that got him ending up in this situation? A maniac who had killed, or sacrificed as she put it, forty-nine other ponies just to get too him?
The voice was heard once again.
“Don’t flatten yourself, Notharam. It might be you that is in the focus, but that’s only because I hate you. I have already told you why, do I really have to tell you again? No, don’t answer that. And I haven’t killed forty-nine, I have only killed forty-six. You four are the last on the list, I could have picked you from the start. But where would the fun be in that? “ The voice chuckled again. “Shall we see what ties the lovely Mistrunner to your life? What have she done that makes her one of the victims here? Why is she sacrificed?” The voice laughed.

And the sun statue changed once again.
He could see himself as a little colt, sitting in school class. He had grown up in Ponyville and it was so many faces that he recognized. He could see Four stars sitting with her muzzle in a book, Thunder was as always trotting around in the class room, not standing still for a second. He saw it now, the only one that he had never seen in class, the quiet one in the back of the room, with eyes on the colt version of him, Mistrunner.

The view changed.
He could see himself, slightly older, playing airball with the other fillies and colts. He had just passed the ball to Thunder who scored, doing that silly victory dance he always did. But something caught Notharam’s eyes, at the far end of the field, nearly hidden behind some trees, with eyes on him, Mistrunner.

The view changed.
He could see himself with a pony he never thought he would see again. Next to him at the small hill stood Silverstar, the two of them standing still; looking up at the night sky. And behind them, in the bushes, with a blush on her face and eyes on him, Mistrunner.

The view changed.
He could see himself standing together with a group of other ponies, it was when he joined the army. And in the background with eyes on him, Mistrunner,

The view changed.
He could see himself hugging Silverstar goodbye, tears streaming down both their eyes. It was when he would leave with the army for the first time. And in the background, standing still with eyes on him, Mistrunner.

The view changed.
At his and Silverstar’s wedding did she stand in the crowd, with eyes on him.

The view changed.
At the funeral of Silverstar, standing in the crowd, with tear filled eyes looking at Notharam, Mistrunner.

The view changed.
He gained the Medal of Honor. And in the background, standing at a library window with her eyes on him, Mistrunner.

“I got it, I understand, stop it.” Notharam whispered begging. ”I have seen enough, do you say that Mistrunner deserve to die only because she have looked at me?”

The cold voice was back, whispering into his ear.
“She loved you, Notharam. All those years you just ignored her, as everypony else. That cutie mark on her flank isn’t from the mist, it was in fact not even the mist that gave her its name. Her cutie mark is representing how she felt that everyponyelse saw her. Like a mist, a thing nopony cared about, a thing you only let your eyes wander over, nothing to see there.” She chuckled. “You ignored her, Notharam. You didn’t care anything about her at all, nopony did. Did you know that she was abused in her home? That her father hit her nearly every day, but who noticed? Nopony noticed.”

Notharam couldn’t believe it. Somepony had to have noticed that Mistrunner didn’t feel well, anypony at all. And why hadn’t she talked to anypony? Talked to him?

“She was afraid, what do you think your thick-headed colt? She didn’t know what to say, or how to act… And you didn’t help her, she looked up at you, saw you as her knight in shiny armor, and what did you do? Yes, you ignored her.”

Notharam’s inner was in chaos, it felt like his heart would break after the sight of the wedding and the funeral. Now he felt sadness, sadness for Mistrunner who had lived a miserable life, looking up at somepony who hadn’t cared. His inner was in chaos.

The voice returned once more, mocking him.
“Now, when you have seen why they are here, what ties you together with the rest of the ponies, why they are doomed; let me show you something else. THIS will make you afraid, my dear Notharam, THIS will show you how little chance you all have of survival.”

The laughed was heard once more.

And the clock chimed.

Chapter 7: A Horrible Truth Revealed

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 7: A Horrible Truth Revealed

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime echoed through the statue of the sun, magically making its way to its twin statue, the moon statue in the throne room. Oh how fun she had, it was a long time since she had seen Notharam this afraid, a long time since she had seen that emotional mix of horror and fear in his face. And she enjoyed it, she enjoyed every minute of it. Notharam really was a thick-headed idiot, who hadn’t figured out yet who she was, whom he had abandoned and betrayed mere years ago. The betrayal that had been the start to this nightmare, the betrayal that had pushed this all, made all of this happen. Thunder had figured it out by now, when she had showed him his past with Notharam. She laughed, a cold, hollow laugh. The quill was once more magically lifted, making the fifth line on the paper. The night was far from over, and she would enjoy every minute of it. It was time to drop the last piece of information, the information that would shatter Notharam’s hope to shards. This would be fun.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

Notharam flinched. ‘What could possibly be worse than the things she has shown me so far? Mistrunner…. How could I just ignore her all this time, how could I have been so blind? And Zinky, could she really be his filly? The color on the eyes was right…. And on the coat… And Emerald, was he doomed only because I saved his daughter's life?’ Notharam’s heart ached, he felt how a tear rolled down his cheek. Had he really doomed them all?

“Yes you have Notharam, you doomed them all. From your own little filly, to the girl whom you never noticed. They are all doomed because of you, they have all be chosen as sacrifices because of you.” The cold voice laughed. “You should never have betrayed me in the first place, Notharam. Now you and everypony around you will pay. Lay back and enjoy the show now, Notharam. This part is for your eyes only; I didn’t even show it to Thunder.”

The statue changed.
Notharam flinched at the magenta eyes that meet his, magenta eyes filled with tears. He couldn’t mistake who it was, not with the hair that swirled in the background. Celestia, princess and goddess of Equestria.

“What is this?” Notharam whispered. “Why do you show me a picture of Celestia? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Don’t you understand, Notharam?” The cold voice called out. “She can see you, she has seen everypony in here, have watched over them every night. Still she haven’t done anything to stop me. She only watches, noting down everypony who dies on a parchment!”

“No, it cannot be. It have to be a lie. Our princess would never leave us to a maniac like you! Why would she abandon us in a place like this?” Notharam whispered, he couldn’t believe anything of this.

“A maniac like me? You have no idea Notharam. You made me this way, you were the one who betrayed me, who abandoned me! Let me show you, Notharam, how much your goddess helped the others. She have her reasons you know? If you lost somepony, wouldn’t you do everything to get him or her back?”

The voice laughed and the statue changed, the sad magenta eyes slowly fading away, eyes that still hadn’t blinked once.

The statue showed him a room. A wooden door led into the room at the left wall, a door decorated with gold and silver. A fire was lit in the fireplace and a window let the cold moonlight shine through. On some cushions, cushions colored in purple and yellow, lay the goddess of the day and night, the princess of Equestria, Celestia. She had a parchment in front of her, together with an orb. Tears had formed in Celestia’s eyes, and her horn glowed with magic. The quill wrote down a single name, Noir, on the parchment, a parchment that had started to get wet of the tears streaming down Celestia’s muzzle.

Notharam reacted strongly on this. FeatherHeart? Had she died here, had he doomed her as well? But it couldn’t be. Doctor FeatherHeart had been his doctor for years, she had been the one who had taken care and tried to save Silverstar’s life when the birthing accident had occurred. FeatherHeart had died this very winter in his sleep. Nopony knew what he had died from, the doctors who had checked him hadn’t found anything that could have caused the death. FeatherHeart had been buried only days after he had died.

The statue changed again, showing him exaclty the same room once more. Celestia sat at the cushions once more, tear roiling down her muzzle. The quill was lifted again, noting down two more names, Obsidian and Smoulder.

Notharam was shocked. They were dead? He remembered them faintly; they had been friends of his during his time in his last years of school. They had drifted apart after school, however, he hadn’t heard from them in years.

The statue changed again. But something was different this time. Celestia didn’t seem sad, she seemed…. Afraid and furious. It seemed as if she screamed at the orb, the parchment was no were to be seen. Notharam could see a pair of eyes in the orb, a pair of cold, blue eyes. No sound was heard from the statue, but Celestia’s feeling shone through her, it was scarily easy to read. The fury was removed, replaced with first curiosity, sadness and horror. The horror and sadness disappeared, and she slowly sat down at the cushions again. Celestia sat in that position for a while, her facial features unchanged.

Then suddenly was the anger and wrath back again. She flew up from the cushions, and kicked the orb across the room. It flew straight towards a wall, stopping with a dark light mere centimeters from it.
Slowly did the orb start to levitate towards Celestia, spinning around her. Celestia’s facial features changed once more, now it shone defeat. The orb stopped and floated back towards the place it had been positioned at from the beginning, the cold blue eyes faded away from it.

Celestia heavily sat down in the cushions, magically conjured a quill and a parchment;onto which she started to write something with the quill. Notharam couldn’t read what it was she wrote, and when she was finished did she send the parchment away.

Celestia now cried, tears streaming down her face. But why did she look so defeated? A new parchment was conjured by the alicorns magic, and a single line was placed down on it. A line containing a name he had feared to read. Silverstar.

Notharam opened his mouth, ready to shout out his hate towards the statue, ready to let it all out. The tears that had burned his eyes, tears of sadness and anger, but also tears of loss, rolled down his cheeks. However, before he could scream out all his hate and loss toward the statue, did he feel the cold hoof against his muzzle again.

The cold voice was heard.
“Don’t scream out your anger Notharam, I told you that the others already believe you close to insanity, don’t push it any closer. Screaming out to thin air for something you have seen and they have not is one fast way to make them believe that you have snapped. Do you really want to put that on poor Mistrunner?” A soft chuckle emerged from the voice. “I didn’t think so.” The hoof disappeared. “There is other ways for you to talk to me Notharam, ways that you have to find for yourself.”

What did she mean? How could he talk to her without using his voice? What did that maniac want of him and the others?

“Just like that Notharam, that is how easy you talk with me. Through your small little mind, through your thoughts, I can hear every thought you have if I want. The mind is the most powerful thing in any pony. Well, not in you perhaps, you were never bright when it came to thinking. And I thought we had been through this before, I’m not a maniac.” She laughed again. “A maniac wouldn’t be able to do this; a maniac would never be able to get this master plan to the finish. I have already told you, Notharam, you and the rest are here as the last sacrifices.” The cold voice rang in his head, he had to fight himself from putting his hooves over his ears, knowing that it wouldn’t help.

‘You killed Silverstar! Why did you do that? Was she a part of your plan as well? She had a filly your heartless monster!’

“Oh Notharam, no she wasn’t that big of a thing around my plan. And the filly was the reason why I killed her. I didn’t want to start this before this year, but I had to put some rocks in motion, otherwise you would never have joined the army again. I had to show Celestia why I did this, and she… agreed with me that it was of necessity that it happened. And I’m the heartless one? You ignored those around you who loved you.”

‘How do you mean that the filly was the reason? And why did I have to return to the army for it to work out? And what did Celestia agree on?’

That laugh was heard again, followed with the cold voice.
“It was a filly spawned from your love; of course I wanted it sacrificed together with its mother. Unfortunately did I only get one of the two, I wasn’t as good at this then as I am now, at first could I only take one at the time, and Silverstar were weak at the point of birthing. And how would I be able to search your past if you were not close to me? And at the thing that Celestia agreed on, let us say that you will notice in time.”

Notharam felt sick. Silverstar, the one he had loved, had not died from giving birth. No, it had been so much worse. And what did she mean search his past, no file had been created when he reentered the army. And could it be that Celestia let this happen only like that? What was Celestia’s reason?

The cold voice whispered softly to him, whispering as if she tried to soothe him.
”Celestia have abandoned you, just like you abandoned me mere years ago.” The cold voice chuckled. “You really don’t remember me, do you? After all the time we spent together? Well then, let us see if I can brighten your memory. Does the name….”

“The translation is finished!” Emerald called out.

And the clock chimed.

Chapter 8: The Translation

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 8: The Translation

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime echoed through the statue, magically making its way to the twin part of the sculptured masterpiece. The sound reached the mare standing at the statue, starring into the deepest part of the clear moon it represented. The black mare released the magic she had held up for some time, laughing to herself. Had Notharam understood what she meant? Had he even heard her speaking the name of the one that did it all to them, giving him her own name? Notharam was a fool, the inside of that thick skull of his was as empty as her heart was after Notharam’s betrayal. She slowly made her way back to the throne, lying down with her wing carefully folded next to her, she had started to get more used to it by the hour, but it would be some time before she would be able to use it efficient. The quill was once again lifted with her magic, making the sixth line on the paper in front of her. The sixth chime had passed, and it was soon time for her to make her move. The move that would be the beginning of the end of this nightmare.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

Notharam lay on the cold floor, his brain working at its limit, tears still dripping from his muzzle, eyes still staring into the pale sun statue. That voice, he knew it. He had the name on the tip of his tongue, but it slipped away all the time. He knew that if the ponies he had seen in the statue had talked would he have found the owner of the voice, he would have recognized it! It was somepony of them, he just knew it. But who was it and what had he done to her? And then the voice had said something; giving him a name, a name that had been drenched in Emerald’s voice when he said that the translation was finished.

He couldn’t let the others know. They wouldn’t believe him, they would think he was insane, that this place had drained the sanity out of him already. No, he would have to keep this to himself, at least for the moment. He couldn’t believe that the rest hadn’t reacted when the clock had chimed, he had lain there through three chimes, that had to be three hours. Wait, three chimes? That meant that it would have been six hours since Celestia had raised the moon! It was only one hour left, they would only need to survive one more hour. With renewed hope rushing through his body did he try to stand up; only to feel how his leg yielded from the weight of his body. He felt the pain struck though him as his muzzle hit the cold floor, felt the vibration diffuse through his cranium.

“Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?” he heard Mistrunner call to him while she trotted over to him.

‘Mistrunner, here because of me, here because of that she loved me.’ He thought, holding back the tears that formed in his eyes.

“I’m okay Mistrunner, I only feel a little dizzy, I must have fallen asleep.” He said to the grey earth pony, his voice not as steady as he wished.
He tried to stand up again, this time with a better result; mainly because of Mistrunner who stood and supported him when he was close to fall. He turned his head, ready to thank her, but she was looking the other way, looking straight at Zinky. The little filly had fallen asleep on the floor, her sides heaved as she breathed.
“I think its best that we wait to awake her until it is time for us to leave. I think she needs to sleep, she is after all only a filly.” Mistrunner said, concern filling her voice.

‘My filly, here only because of the fact that she shares my blood; on the fact that she is a filly spawned from the love between me and Silverstar.’

He slowly trotted towards Emerald, Mistrunner following him, supporting him although he didn’t need it anymore. He didn’t complain, not after what he had seen, how would he be able to do it? He looked up at Emerald, who stood still and looked down at the parchment in front of him.

‘Emerald, here as a sacrifice only because that I saved his daughter and gave them more time with each other.’

“Ah, Notharam, look at this! The translation is finished, although I don’t know if it help us much, if at all.” Emerald called out, back still against them.

Notharam took the last few steps towards the table where Emerald stood. Mistrunner started to trot towards Zinky, leaving Emerald and Notharam alone.

“What does it say, Emerald? Is it anything that can help us? Anything that can cast new light over the dark situation we have found ourselves in?” Notharam asked. “We only have one hour left in this dark hell hole, and I’m afraid it is now the maniac mare will make her move.”

“I’m afraid we have more than an hour left, but that is nothing we need to care about now, in worst case we will have to care about it in an hour. As of the translation, I’m not sure we can use it, but I finally know who the other pony is, and I bet you will be as surprised as I was. Just listen” Emerald said, before he cleared his throat, starting to recite what he had written.

“In the beginning of time was Equestria ruled by the two sister goddesses, Celestia and Luna. The two sisters upheld harmony in life and death, day and night. And ruled together, side by side, for nearly two thousand years. But Luna, riser of the moon and goddess of the dead, became corrupted in heart. She believed the tale of a since long defeated enemy, a tale about how the ponies of Equestria feared her and only loved her sister. She felt towards bitterness and hate, hate against the ponies who she thought only loved her sister. Celestia had seen what started to happen to her sister, but what could she do against the sister she loved? She tried to talk to her, showed the ponies the wonders of the night. But the ponies were a hardworking people, who used the light of the day to grow their food. At the night they were asleep, only a few of the younger were up to praise the moon.”

“This wasn’t enough for Luna, she wanted it all.
The power should be hers, the night should last forever, she was the one who would be praised by the ponies of Equestria.”

Emerald stopped to take a breath, and Notharam was over him directly with questions.“So the other statue represented Luna? But Celesita is only goddess over night and day, not death and life. And how about….”

He was silenced by Emerald, who looked at him with a frown.
“Let me finish what I started, Notharam. The translation isn’t finished yet.”

He continued without checking if Notharam would remain silent or not.
“So Luna challenged her sister. And Equestria trembled at the wrath of their goddesses at war, life and death locked in battle. Celestia, the goddess of life and day, in a battle against the goddess of death and night, Luna. The night silent was interrupted in the middle of the night; the sound of battle reached the ponies on the soil of Equestria. Beam made of the darkest shadows of night hammered against a shield made of the light of the sun. Luna, in a form of the darkest nightmare, tried to hammer Celestia into the very foundation of Equestria. Celestia begged her sister to return to normal, to end this nightmare and let her hate go. But Luna, driven by her nightmare form, refused. This was the time for her to shine, this was the time for all the ponies in Equestria to live under her rule, live under the night.”

Emerald took another breath pause.
“Celestia gave up the battle to get her sister back and used the Elements of Harmony to imprison her sister in the moon. Worn out after the battle, tired into the bone, Celestia let the sun stay down for a day so that she could rest. After that sunless day has she been raising the sun earlier once a year, to celebrate the victory over the night, to remind everypony about the grieving that still fills her heart. But it is said, that on the longest day on the thousandth year the stars will aid in her escape and bring nighttime eternal. Let us hope that Celestia will be ready to defend Equestria once more when Luna, or Nightmare Moon as she was known as during the war, returns from her imprisonment.”

Emerald putted away the parchment, carefully placing it in one of his saddlebags.
“This give us the answer who the other alicorn is, so we have solved one of the puzzles. We do however still have one left, what are we doing here? Who is the maniac and why are just we here are the questions, and I’m sure the answer is out there somewhere. We also have a new puzzle to solve, or two really. Why are the two goddesses named as goddesses over life and death, and why aren’t Celestia named as it today, after she banished her sister and took over her duty to raise the moon as well? Where did the prefix goddess of life go and why didn’t she take the prefix of death as well? Don’t misunderstand me, I know that I have said that she might not want to be praised as a goddess; and this cast new light over why. She banished her own sister, whom she ruled together with, while she still loved her.”

“According to this text did she let the sun be raised longer once a year to remind the ponies of Equestria about her grieving, her sorrow of losing her sister. Perhaps she didn’t want to be known as a goddess anymore; what kind of goddess did she see herself as when she couldn’t even keep her sister from the black hole of bitterness and hate? Today is it a tradition to celebrate the longest day of the year, I guess the only one who know what they really are celebrating is Celestia. It still hasn’t answered why the suffix ‘of life’ is gone in all books I have read that have taken up the subject that Celestia is our goddess.”

‘And one of those questions would I be able to answer, but you would see me as an insane pony if I did.’ Notharam grimly thought. He knew it was something that the voice had told him that would help them here, but he couldn’t recall what. His mind was still stuck on the thoughts of him being the reason that they were all doomed.

Emerald looked around, resting his eyes on Mistrunner, who stood and stared into the statue; who were standing out of earshot. He leaned his muzzle towards Notharam, whispering into his ear.
“Notharam, you are hiding something from me. Don’t give me that look, it is pretty plain for me only by looking at your face. And don’t forget that the walls whisper to me, pierce my mind with their needle sharp voices, leaving behind a trail of lose when they aren’t there. They have spoken to me, saying that you have information that you do not share with the rest of us. I can understand why you keep it away from Mistrunner, but if you have any information that can help us solve this problem let me know.”

Notharam didn’t know what to say. Had Emerald started to go insane, already speaking about talking with the wall just like that? No he wasn’t, after all Notharam had had a conversation with a statue for the last three chimes. And if he could get information from the statue, even thought it was from the maniac who held them here, then Emerald would be able to get information from the walls. But he didn’t know how Emerald would react, nor if it would help them enough to make a difference.

“Emerald, do you have a daughter? Feather Quill?”

“I had a daughter with that name, named after the quill that as gracefully as a swan landed on her mere seconds after she was born. However, she is not with us any longer, nor will she be again. She was interred less than a week ago, interred at the hill were she loved to sit in the summer. No, do not worry; she died peacefully in her sleep.” Emerald said, tears filling his eyes, his voice cracking with the sorrow that must surge through the old unicorns’ body.

‘But Celestia wrote her name down on that parchment, I saw it with my own eyes. Feather Quill died in this temple, sacrificed as we are about to be. I can not tell him, I’m not sure that he would believe me or choose not to believe in me…’ Notharam thought, his mind racing.

Mistrunner was the one to save him; she trotted over to them and Emerald quickly withdrew his head, giving him a look that screamed out ‘you will tell me everything later’, a look given with eyes still filled with tears.

Mistrunner talked in a soft voice, eyes on the still sleepy Zinky.
“If what you have said is right then this is the last hour, and the maniac still haven’t done a thing. I’m worried but relieved, this is not a place for anyone of us, least of all the little Zinky. I think it is time we start to move again; this place gives me the chills. But I do not want to awake the small filly. Emerald, can you make place in your saddlebags to carry her around in, only for this last hour?” She turned toward Emerald, imploringly looking at him.

Emerald smiled towards Mistrunner, the tears already gone from his eyes.
“Of course I can make room for the little filly, I have some things in there that I have meant to get rid of for a long time.”

He started to empty his saddlebags, taking out book after book; moving some quills, parchments and ink bottles from one bag to the other. It only took a minute for him to finish emptying one of the saddlebags, and they trotted slowly over to the young filly on the ground.

The little filly had to been deep asleep; she only stirred and whimpered once or twice while they carefully moved her to the saddlebags. They gently placed her within the saddle bag, careful not to wake her up.

“Well, now that’s done why do you want to go from this place Mistrunner? If we only have this hour left; then I can not see a reason for us to move. No no, do not misunderstand me, I’m still curious over this place; I do however not see a reason for us to leave the safety we have found here.” Emerald said, giving Mistrunner a sidelong glance.

Mistrunner didn’t have time to answer; a loud crack followed the sound of Emeralds voice. The sun statue was collapsing, bringing a part of the floor down with it. The impact on the floor must have started a ripple of collapse on the level underneath, the library floor started to collapse downwards. In one second did they stand on the solid stone, the next did they fall down together with the floor. Their screams filled the air as they fell.

And the clock chimed.

Chapter 9: What's Written In Stone

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 9: What's Written In Stone

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime echoed through the temple, finding its way through the hallways and rooms. It reached the throne room, reached the mare standing with her hooves on the moon statue. The masterpiece had begun to crumble under her hooves, her horn illuminating the entire room, out shining then moonshine. Shadows playing on the walls around her. As the chime reached her did the statue collapse under her hooves, just as its twin had done only seconds ago. She smiled, an unpleasant and grim smile, as she walked towards the thrones. She had been better to use her wing; she had played some with it when she had listened to Emeralds speak. He had been the second pony ever in a long time who had been able to translate that text. She laid down on the throne, her wing slowly flapping in the air. The quill was lifted up in the air by her magic, making the seventh line on the paper in front of her. The seventh chime had passed, and she had made her first step. The night was long from over; she had a lot of surprises left.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

Notharam could see the floor collapsing, he felt the gravity take a hold around him and force him into the fall together with the floor and the other ponies. In panic did he flap his wings, pulled away the scarf that held his right wing by sheer force. He was only rewarded with a jolt of pain from the right one; the left one however worked as it should. The result of this panicked flapping was that he threw himself into a spiral. He tried to stop the uncontrollable spin and the fall; the only thing he succeeded with was to get another jolt of pain. He could feel the pain as his body was trashed against the floor, right wing first. The pain rushed through his body, a loud snap was heard as his wing broke in another place. His view darkened as his body tried to protect him from the pain.

*****************************************************************************************************
He ran through a dark place, a cold laugh haunting him, playing with him. He could see those ice blue eyes looking at him from every dark spot, disappearing as soon as he saw them, floating into the solid darkness around him. He turned around, trying to catch a glimpse of the thing that haunted him. What he saw took him aback.

There on the floor lay the other three ponies, side by side. Emerald looked as if he was asleep, if it wasn’t for his lifeless staring eyes.

Mistrunner had her throat slit open, the stone floor below her wet by the life-giving liquid that emerged from the wound. Her eyes did slowly lose their steadiness before him; the cold veil of death slowly draping over her eyes.

To the right of her lay Zinky, her left eye gorged out from its socket, her right leg completely ripped apart. The little filly looked pleading towards him, trying to draw herself closer, losing more and more energy with every small pull she did with her only functional front leg. She died in front of his eyes.

Notharam felt how he emptied his stomach.
*********************************************************************************************

He awoke from the strange dream, woke up at the stones that once had been the library floor. His heart was pounding hard in his chest, pumping out the panic in his veins. The bile burned his throat, his stomach was already empty; the only thing that emerged from him was that burning bile. What had happened? The memories returned with the pain from his wings; the memories of the incident. The incident that had made him lose consciousness.

He lifted his head to take a look around at his surroundings and instantly understood where he was. Those two statues marked this place, the statues of the alicorns, Celestia and Luna. The library, or at least the part that collapsed, must have been located straight over the sanctum. The statues stood unharmed in the middle of the sanctum, two statues of harmony in the chaos after what had been the library floor.

This couldn’t have happened, the last chime had passed! It had been seven hours, but why were he still here? A thought came, unpleasant and unwelcome, to his mind. Where were Mistrunner, Zinky and Emerald? Notharam jerked up to his hooves, the sudden pain nearly driving him down again. He tried his best to ignore it as his mind rushed in panic. He threw his head from side to side, trying to find them.

It didn’t take long for him to find them, laying close to the statues. Both Mistrunner and Emerlad did slowly get up, both seemed to be unharmed. He quickly trotted towards them, his eyes searching for the little filly. As he came closer did the other two ponies start stand up, unsteady on their legs. Then he heard it; a soft crying from the saddlebags still on Emeralds back.

“Is anypony hurt?” Notharam called out as he trotted closer to them, eyes on the saddlebags.

“I’m fine Notharam, and so is Zinky I believe. I landed on my side, the saddlebag on that side had slid of in the fall down, so I did not land on any of my books. I do however believe that my parchments, quills and books can be thrown away; I could hear the sound of my ink bottles breaking apart. Zinky had a soft landing with me as shock absorber; I believe the crying is tears of shook and not of pain.” Emerald said, slowly checking the bags, emptying it from everything soaked with ink.

Zinky stuck up her head from the bag, tears filled eyes turned towards Mistrunner.
“Mist, I had a bad dream.” She said, the tears in her eyes nearly flooding over.

Mistrunner was fast at the little filly’s side, trying to soothe her.
“It’s okay sweetie, the bad dream are gone, you are safe.”

Mistrunner had a few gashes, but nothing that looked seriously.
“But how could this be? The seventh chime has passed! It have gone seven hours; the sun must be raised by now! Why are we still here? YOU PROMISED US FREEDOM!” He shouted, knowing that the mare could hear him.

Mistrunner and Emerald turned around and looked at him, Zinky started to cry. Emerald was the one to speak up.
“Take it easy Notharam, calm down. I’m sure it exist a reason behind why we are still here, and I’m afraid that I know that reason.”

“Well then, Emerald Scroll, let us hear the reason, let them know why they are still in this place, let them know why they haven’t regain their precious freedom.” The cold voice called out, amusement filling it.

“You promised us our freedom! The seventh chime has passed!” Notharam called out once more.

Emerald was however the one to answer.
“Yes Notharam, the seventh chime has indeed passed, but that does not mean that seven hours have. I do believe that something went wrong when I prepared the clock. The fact that I might have done a mistake during the preparing has bothered me for a long time now. The chimes have been too close to each other; I noticed it during my work with the translation.”

The cold voice chuckled.
“You are indeed right my dear Emerald Scroll; indeed you made a mistake during the preparations. The clock has chimed seven time, but that is not the time that had passed. No, the time that have passed is much less, in fact has half of the time passed. Three and a half hour have you spent here, and now the fun will start. Prepare yourself, it’s time for me to make my next move my sacrifices.” And just like that, was the voice once again gone.

Notharam felt how he fell to the floor. ‘Three and a half hour, have only half of the night gone? How can this be, how can this much have happened in three and a half hour?’

Mistrunner quickly trotted up to him, carefully checking him.
“Notharam, your wing, its broken in one more place! What happened?”

Notharam answered, his mind on other things. ‘How should they survive?’
“I landed on it when we fell, I passed out from the pain in some seconds.”

Mistrunner carefully checked his wing. She was gently at hoof, yet Notharam winced as the pain spread through his body.

Mistrunner spoke softly so that only he could hear her.
“Notharam, I don’t want to say this, but it is better if you get to know it now then try to use your wing in a panicked situation.”

She breathed in, then the words, words that shattered him, words spoken softly so that only he could hear, yet words as sharp as knifes, washed on him; chilling his bones.
“Your wing is very badly broken, and it is nothing we can do for it. If you use it anymore before it have mend will you never be able to use it again, it will be ruined; out of range for any mending, magical or natural.”

Notharam could feel how he trembled. ‘Would his wing unusable for the rest of his life? No, it couldn’t be. And only half of the time passed? They had as long time left as they had spent here already?’ Mere seconds later did he realize exactly what it was the mare had said, the meaning of those words.
“Everypony out of here now, that maniac do most certainly have a trap laid in here, and I can bet my hoof that it is on its way to spring.” He said, panic nearly taking his voice over.

Both Emerald and Mistrunner was taken aback, but Emerald was quick to recover.
“Yes, that seems to be the situation, after all she said that she should make her next move, and I believe that she sent us here for a reason. I don’t have any idea what way would be best, but we have already been over there.” He pointed his hoof towards the hallway that lead towards the place they had found Thunder. “And to get too two of the hallways would we have to climb the stones. That leads us with that hallway. It might be a trap there, but I do believe that the trap is more in this room in that case.”
He pointed towards a hallway to the right of the statues, the stones had fallen so they didn’t hindered anypony to go there, even if it would have been easier to walk there before the ceiling fell in.

Notharam started to run, screaming to the ponies behind him.
“Keep some space, if the trap is in the hallway then it will only get me this way, but don’t go too far from me; the trap might still, and most likely is, in this room.”

He didn’t wait for the others to answer, they had to trust him for this one. ‘As much as you can trust a mad man’ he grimly thought as he ran.

As they ran did the floor start to fall, started in a ring around the statues, slowly rippling outwards. The floor didn’t fall fast, but they would have been stuck if they hadn’t moved as early as they had. As it was now were it not many seconds before they stood in the hallway, gasping for air, looking out over the inner sanctum; at least of what was left of it. The only thing still standing, magically floating in the air, was a circle of stones; the floor were the statues stood. Below could they hear the sound of the floor crashing into mark and splashing in the water.

Notharam looked around, finding himself in nearly completely darkness. The braziers still shone up the statues, but it wasn’t much of the light that reached this hallway.
“Emerald, could you illuminate our way? I don’t want to be found by the maniac in this spot, trapped between her and a fall that we don’t know where it will end; it’s time to get moving again.”

Emerald smiled towards Notharam.
“Of course I can my friend; you are not the only one that wants to get going. Three and a half hour left, three and a half hour to fear from our lives.”

Emeralds horn started to glow, warmly illuminating the cold stone that the hallway was built of. The thick dust hadhoofsteps in them, Notharam didn’t dare to count how many. ‘They were all here because of me…’ he thought.
“Well then, shall we get going? I don’t really know what way is the best to take, the only thing I know is that we cannot lower our guards; we must be ready for everything. So the best thing now is to go and be quiet, I do believe that it is at least one more pony in here than us and the maniac. Lead the way Emerald, we need the light you can provide us with.”

Emerald slowly trotted forward, softly talking to Notharam who walked behind him.
“Notharam, what makes you think that it is more than one maniac in here? Isn’t one maniac enough?

Notharam laughed at the question, careful not to make a high sound.
“Believe me Emerald, one maniac is more than enough for me. No, I have been thinking, and it is really only one thing that makes me believe in that there is more than one maniac, and that is that Thunder must have been killed while we talked to the mare, otherwise we wouldn’t have heard the scream as we did; and she would probably not talk that easily during the kill. And she would easily have been able to kill us all at this moment if she could talk that clearly with us and still kill somepony; or that I believe at least. No, I believe that she has somepony, or something, else with her in here.”

Emerald looked back at him.
“That conclusion are you not alone to achieve, I had the same thought the moment you told me that you believe in a companion. And I do not want to run into somepony either, so lets keep it quiet.”

They walked like that for some minutes, changing direction in every turn, trying to find something that would help them, anything. The only sound that could be heard was the breathing from the little sleeping filly as she slept in the saddlebags that Emerald carried.

Then, after one sharp turn, did they suddenly find themselves in front of a staircase going downwards. On the wall over the stairs was a symbol carved into the stone; a symbol of a crescent moon, white on the black stone that made the wall. Dusty hoofsteps went to the staircase, but the stairs did not have hoofsteps nor dust on them. Torches were mounted on the wall, burned out torches that once had lit this part up.

“Strange.” Emerald said. “Didn’t the maniac say that it wasn’t any need for torches, with unicorns once lit up these hallways, then why is it torches on the walls?”

Notharam couldn’t but agree, as he looked around in the small hallway that stopped with the stairs. Some rocks lay neatly ordered close to the same spot as the torches started; Notharam realized something. This wasn’t a hallway, it had once been a small room.

“I don’t know about you, but I want to go down there, my curiosity drives me.” Emerald said. “Why isn’t there any dust on the stairs; and why is it torches on the wall?” He trotted closer to the stairs.

Notharam looked at the other two ponies.
“Well, I don’t see why not, I must say that it has awoken my curiosity as well.”

Mistrunner only nodded, and together did they walk down the stairs.

They arrived in a cold room, torches casting a warm light over the cold environment. The room wasn’t big comparing to the rest of the temple, around fifteen ponies would have been able to stand next to each other. In the middle of the room stood a statue of a dark stone, a statue of the goddess Luna. A stone tablet stood in front of the statue, around a pony length from it, facing towards the statue and away from the stairs. As they put their hooves at the cold, flat stone floor did the illuminating light from Emeralds horn die out.

Emerald looked around in confusion.
“My magic…. I was cut off from it. It’s something about this place; I know I have read about it somewhere. A location where unicorn’s magic doesn’t work, but I can’t recall it now. It feels like something is budging against my mind, but I cannot say what it is, nor what its purpose is.”

He slowly trotted towards the statue, bent his neck in respect towards it, before he turned to stand in front of the stone tablet.
“It’s something written here, not as hard to read as the text in the book. I won’t even need to translate this one. It says”

Emerald smiled and started to read.
“We have gathered here today to say our goodbyes to me, the one who enters this chamber to die. Under the light of Celestia have I been wandering, into the darkness of Luna shall I now step in. Celestia, goddess of day and life, I will now leave your heard to step under the protecting wings of your sister. Luna, goddess of night and death, take me under your wings; make me a part of your heard. I have arrived here, to the chamber of life and death, the place where I was born and the place where I now shall die, to get your blessing to move on. Celestia, give the ones close to me strength to live with my choice to leave your heard.
Luna, give me the chance to meet them once again when their time have come. In under Celestia’s wings have I lived my life with honesty and truth as leading marks, and under Luna’s wings will I watch over the ones that is left in Celestia’s heard.
Just as Luna is the protector in the night, the one who watch over and protect her sister’s children, so shall I watch over and protect the ones I leave behind me. Luna, lead me on, let me find power at your side; protect me when the choice seems hard. May the sisters watch over Equestria, now and forever.”

************************************************************************************************

When the first word had left him did Emerald realize his mistake; he couldn’t stop, the words were forced out of him. He could hear himself speak, but it was like if he heard it from a distance, like if it was all a dream. But he knew this wasn’t a dream, he was in danger, he knew that he was going to die soon. He could feel a cold hoof touching his neck, finding its way down his back, sending chills down through his whole body. He could feel it reach inside him, grapple something deep inside him. It had grappled something that he understood to well what it was, an understanding that shook the very foundation that was his body. The hoof had grappled his very soul. He heard the ice-cold voice whispering into his ear, repeating the last words that would ever leave his mouth; “Now and forever".

He saw letters forming at the wall in front of him.

The curiosity won over the gemstone, the first sacrifice have been made.
The innocent is next.

He felt how the hoof ripped the soul out of his body, saw the deep blue eyes looking at him; eyes with the deep blue color of the cold winter night sky.

He tried to scream.
And the clock chimed.

Chapter 10: Enemies In the Dark

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 10: Enemies In the Dark

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime echoed once, and then it was no more. The throne room was quiet, the mare sitting on the throne; playing around with a translucent glowing orb. She spoke softly with her cold voice to the orb; it pulsed in a green glow, pulsing in beat with her voice.
“Welcome Emerald, sacrifice number one in this round, number forty-seven total. I must say that you have a beautiful glow around you, even if you daughter had a more… complex scheme in the way her soul blended white with the green.”

The green orb sparked darker. The mare tilted her head, as if she listened to something only she could hear; a smile on her muzzle, a smile that didn’t touch the ice-cold eyes.
“Notharam never told you that he was the reason for you all being here? I’m not surprised, why would he tell you? After all, it would make him the bad one. Feather Quill would have made your proud for what she did in here, Emerald Scroll. She was close to survival, she was sacrificed only mere minutes before the sun raise; she had before that been holding the group together and meddle between them when anything went wrong. She was a kind-hearted pony; I almost regretted that I had to sacrifice her. After all, Notharam had saved her life only a year or two earlier, and that is the only reason that she died here; it’s the only reason that you died as a sacrifice here now.”

The green orb started to pulse slower, a touch of blue in the green. The smile that touched the mares lips this time were a genuine smile, she didn’t like this part, it made her feel vulnerable. But the sacrifices had to know what awaited them, they had to be told the reasons.
“Now now, don’t cry, she is in a better place and you will soon meet her again. Before that will I do the last thing I have done with every soul on its way from here; I will tell you the reason behind my actions.”

It didn’t take long time for her to explain her reasons; she had after all done it forty-six times before, still it was as hard to do it now as it had been the first time she had explained it. She smiled as she moved her hoof against the little crystal that she had in a saddlebag next to herself, pushing the soul into it. The crystal was almost full.

She lifted the quill with her magic, making the eight line. Eight chimes had already passed, now to let them know about the nightmare this was; it was time to send out him.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

Notharam didn’t understand what just had happened. One second had Emerald been reading aloud the text from the stone tablet, the next had he and Mistrunner galloped forward to catch him as he fell to the stone floor; dead.

Truth to be told, something had seemed wrong already when Emerald had started to read, his voice had been… different somehow. It had been a much darker voice, and every word had made it more and more hollow. His eyes had been clouded, but Notharam had seen his eyes flicker to a point above him, before they had widened in horror. He hoped that Mistrunner hadn’t noticed that, he had a feeling of knowing exactly what it was Emerald had seen those last second in his life, and it wasn’t anything he wanted Mistrunner to see.

As they had reached Emerald and pulled him out had Mistrunner started to scream Emeralds name, hoping for a response. She hadn’t been given any; tears had started to shred from her eyes, making their ways down her cheek. As if a miracle had Zinky been sleeping through this, and she was still sleeping.

They had lowered him to the ground, carefully so to not awaking the little filly in the saddlebag. Notharam had quickly moved his hoof to check for a pulse; that or anything that could tell him that Emerald was alive. However, he had quickly withdrawn his hand as he felt how Emeralds body was as cold as ice. It had only been taking seconds after they had lowered him to the ground, but he had already lost all his body warmth.

Notharam had turned towards Mistrunner, sorrow thick in his throat.
“He is dead, his body cold as ice already. I don’t know how or by whom, but he is as dead as you can be. I’m sorry, I should have been the one to read, not him. I should have done something!” He was angry at himself, the only pony who should die down here was he, not any else.

Mistrunner trotted around Emeralds corpse, trotting to stand in front of Notharam. She looked at him; her eyes full with concern and sorrow.
“Notharam, he is dead and there is nothing you could have done. Don’t blame yourself, you know as well as I that he would have moved you out of the way to read it. Besides, he wouldn’t want us to blame ourselves; nor would he want us to stay here. We must move Nohtaram, or else we will all end up like him. I know we will meet him again someday, but I don’t want that day to be today, nor would he want; that I know for sure. Don’t give up Notharam, we will survive this night. A time for grieving will come, we can let go of our sorrow then. As it is now, keep it inside you.”

Notharam looked up, tears dropping from his muzzle onto the cold stone floor. Something caught his eye; something was written at the wall above the staircase. He quickly looked at Mistrunner, his mind racing.
“You are right Mistrunner, its time we get going onwards. We still have a long time before the night is over. Could you take the saddlebags with Zinky in? Thank Celestia that she is still asleep. I would have taken them, but my wings would be in the way.”

As Mistrunner walked over to Emeralds body to take up the saddlebags did Notharam look up at the wall; tried to read what was written. It wasn’t very hard to read the blood-red letters.

The curiosity won over the gemstone, the first sacrifice have been made.
The innocent is next.

‘Both of them are innocent’ Notharam thought. ‘I am not. Who of them is it that is the one chosen for the sake of being sacrificed this time?’

He jerked his eyes away, trying to push the thoughts out of his mind. There was a more important matter to take care of right now. They would need light to keep going, with Emeralds death would they need to find another source of light. He let his eyes wander over the room, trying to find a solution to the problem. The torches drew his attention to them, but he quickly realized that wouldn’t work. They were placed to high up; he wouldn’t be able to reach them without the use of his wings and that was a thing he would wait to do for as long as possible. It was then something caught his eye, a strange metal item, partial hidden behind the statue.

He slowly trotted forward to the statue, stopping to help Mistrunner take of the saddlebags from Emeralds body and putting them on her instead. The quiet snores from Zinky had a relaxing effect on him, it made him feel calm. He started to trot towards the metal item once more, now seeing the weak blue light that seemed to emerge from it. Mistrunner looked after him but she didn’t say anything. The item was a lantern, a small metal frame with glass. Inside did something blue floating around, the source of the light. He lowered his head to pick up the lantern. Mistrunner cried out behind of him, making him stop in the motion. “Notharam don’t, we doesn’t know if that item is cursed or something else like that. I don’t want you to face the same fate as Emerald.”

He looked at her; he could feel the determination building up inside him. He was the one who was responsible for the rest of them to be there; he was the one who would make sure they came out of there alive. They had to use this lantern; it was the only light they could carry efficient.
“Mistrunner, we must have the light up there, else we will run around in complete darkness up there; vulnerable for anypony or anything that wants to hurt us. No, we will need the light, I will not lead you up there without light, putting you in the mercy of the ones that might wait. You are carrying Zinky, and I have been rendered useless with my broken wing. Let me take the lantern, we must have the light that it gives us.”

Mistrunner looked away; what she said was so low that he nearly couldn’t hear it.
“Take it, but be careful; I don’t want to lose you as well.”

Notharam carefully took the lanterns handle between his teeth. The lantern was lighter than he had expected; the blue glow that emanated from the inside of it flickered for a second before growing in size, now illuminate a few feet around him. No warmth emerged from thee lantern.

He turned around and without a word did they went up for the staircase, once more entering the ground floor of the temple. At the top of the stairs did Notharam turn around once more, looking down the staircase.
“Goodbye Emerald, may you find peace in the afterlife.” He said, paying the unicorn a last thought.

He noticed something strange as he turned back to the room. One of the four torches on the wall was alit, illuminating a green light in the room. It was strange really, but he didn’t paid it a second thought. It was time to go on, time to leave this room behind them. He guessed that the maniac knew exactly where they were, it was a thought he stayed at. If she knew where they were then she would find them if they stayed. Best to keep the moving up to reduce the risk of getting cornered in a place; a risk they would take if they would stay in a place for too long.

They walked in silence; the only thing that was heard in the hallway was the steady sound of their hooves hitting the stone floor and sometimes the snores of the filly. Notharam couldn’t help but let his mind wander. Emerald was dead, sacrificed only because that Notharam once had saved his daughter. And with him had he two others who would be sacrificed together with him; one who had fallen in love with him and one for being his daughter. He knew that he was the reason for them being here. He knew that he had to get them out of here; that, if not more, did he owe them. He knew that it would be a way to get them all out from this place; the problem would be to find that way.

The hallway was dark and silent; the blue glow of the lantern was the only light to guide their way. Notharam felt observed. Something, or somepony, was watching them from the shadows; traced their every move. He could feel hate and anger, as well as excitement, in the gaze that emerged from the darkness just outside the lanterns glowing radius. He shuddered at the feel of that gaze; shuddered at the raw emotions that emerged from it.
And as suddenly as it had arrived did it disappear; merged together with the shadows around them.

“You are weak, Notharam. One is already dead because of your weakness; will the rest die for the same reason?” a soft voice from the shadows whispered in Notharam’s ear. The sudden sound startled Notharam.

“Who goes there?” He called out, head turning from side to side. “Show yourself.”

Mistrunner was soon by his side, looking worriedly between him and the shadows around.
“What is it Notharam, what did you hear?” she said, the anxious thick in her voice.

Notharam stopped his head turning, he had not even caught a glimpse of the things in the shadows.
“I thought I heard something. But it is nothing around us; it must have been my mind that played tricks on me.”

They continued their slowly trotting in the hallway. The hallway turned more than once; Notharam didn’t even try to keep the number of times in his head. But in every dark shadow was something waiting, following him with that gaze; a gaze full of raw emotions. He still couldn’t place where the gaze came from, and he didn’t want to worry Mistrunner. It was after one of those turns that he turned around to look at Mistrunner as he saw something in the corner of his eyes. He saw a pair of golden-yellow eyes reflecting the glow from the lantern. Then they disappeared into the shadows again.

“Would you really let her die, Notharam?” the soft voice was back. “Die in this place? Do you know who I am Notharam? Do you remember me? You killed my other part, the only one I loved. But SHE gave me a new chance, a chance of revenge; a chance to redeem the death of my other half. Brace yourself Notharam; I will be your undoing.” The voice disappeared once more, leaving Notharam standing in place, confused and afraid.

He didn’t have any idea how long time that had passed, nor did he care. He only knew that the only thing that was of matter where to get out of here alive, and that wouldn’t be archived before the clock had chimed five more times. He was determined to stay alive for the time; he should find a way to save himself, Mistrunner and Zinky. He wouldn’t let anypony else die.
“Don’t you remember me, Notharam? We meet in the north, not even two years ago. You killed the only one I have ever loved that day, you and Thunder both. I have gotten half of my revenge; SHE gave me Thunder to kill. And now SHE will give me you to feast upon.” The soft voice spoke to him, chilling his bone. Then it disappeared once more, but this time did Notharam have the time to see something; a patch of white fur that disappeared into the darkness with the voice.

He found himself in a room, Mistrunner at his heels. It was a circular room, what it once had been used for he didn’t understand. In the middle of the room stood the being; a creature he recognized, a creature he had fought once in the cold north. A wolf, fur white as the snow it hunted in, eyes yellow as the moon their kind howled against; railed around. And in front of the wolf lay the little filly; Zinky. Mistrunner span around at the sight, tossing the saddlebags of her self with a speed he was surprised to see in the earth pony. The saddlebags made a loud thump as they hit the stone floor. Mistrunner opened the saddlebag where the filly had been laying and slept; the bag was empty, nothing was in them at all.

The wolf laughed; a soft laugh from a heart that had lost everything it cherished.
“Finally will my revenge be complete. Do you remember my name, Notharam? Or have you forgotten it just like you have forgotten HERS?” The wolf spoke with the same soft voice that Notharam had heard from the shadows.

He looked at the little filly on the floor, his filly. A memory arose in his mind; giving him the name of the wolf in front of him. A memory of snow and blood, of fighting and death; a memory of a cold winter night in the harsh north where he had fought for his life.
“I remember you, Snowfang. I was the one who killed your mate after she had attacked Thunder.”
Snowfang chuckled, turning those yellow eyes towards Notharam. Notharam could feel the hate and anger in that gaze; together with the excitement for blood.
“So you remember then. SHE will not be happy with that you know. Notharam, I am here to kill you, SHE sent me here; I owe it to HER after SHE saved my life. Prepare yourself Notharam, I will have my revenge; you will pay for the death of my beloved one. First I will take something from you. SHE wanted this one; SHE will get it. Prepare yourself!”

The wolf lifted his paw and the little filly in front of him disappeared; faded away in front of their eyes.

And the clock chimed.

Chapter 11: The Second Sacrifice Made

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 11: The Second Sacrifice Made

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime echoed through the temple, finding its way through the hallways and rooms. It reached the throne room, reached the mare sitting on the throne. She smiled at the small sleeping filly in front of her. She didn’t believe that Snowfang would succeed at killing Notharam; Notharam was a fiercer fighter than Thunder ever had been. No, Snowfang was only a diversion, a way to make sure that Notharam would be worn out before the sacrifice, make him tired. Notharam would be the last to die, the last to be sacrificed; of that she was sure. No, Snowfang wouldn’t succeed. With the use of her magic did she lift the quill once more; making the tenth line. She was confident in herself; she would succeed in the sacrifice, for the sake of Equestria. The cold smile embraced her muzzle as she looked at the filly. A fast change on the magic was all that was needed to let down the quill and lift the knife instead. The second sacrifice was about to be made.

The little filly cried in her sleep.
^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

Notharam stared in despair at the spot upon which Zinky had laid only seconds ago. He felt how his heart was embraced by wrath; felt how every fiber of his body heated up. He carefully placed the lantern on the stone floor.
He spoke, spoke in a voice he hadn't been using since he had last encountered a battle, a voice filled with the cold-warm wrath that surged through his body.
"You have gone too far, Snowfang. Threaten me as you wish; of that I do not care. But making a filly, my daughter; disappear in front of me? That is to take maters to far, Snowfang; you have crossed a line that I drew a long time ago. The last one to cross that line was your mate; I believe you remember what happened to her."

Snowfang snarled. With the fear and panic, blended with the old feelings of anger and hate, did he speak; the words were meant to hurt him.
"I did not know that she was your daughter Notharam; even if I had known that would that fact not changes anything. SHE wanted the filly, I gave it to HER."

Notharam could feel how his body prepared itself; felt how it searched after the power reserves within him. He could feel the blood rushing through his veins; he could feel the still air around himself. Thunder had been the one to give the name to this frenzy.

It was nor a frenzy of battle nor one of bloodlust; this frenzy ran deeper still. This was a frenzy of pure emotions; a frenzy of wrath that only appeared when a pony felt the deepest of wrath against somepony or something else.

Notharam had only entered this frenzy once before; during a battle against a female wolf in the cold harsh north. The wolf had attacked them as they had settled their camp; Thunder hadn't stood a chance before the wolf had broken both his right-wing and his back legs. That was when Notharam had returned from gathering material for their fire.

The squad had already lost three members in a short time, and the wrath had quickly risen in him as he saw Thunder laying in the snow. He had thought that Thunder had died, the amount of blood around the still body had made he believe it. Then he had seen the wolf circling around Thunder and the wrath had embraced him; wrath that came from him believing that he was the last left from the squad, believing that he had lost Thunder so close after losing the three others they had lost before. Strangely he couldn't remember the name on those three members. The wolf had started to walk in smaller circles to get closer to the still laying Thunder. Notharam had seen his chance and had attacked; attacked with all his wrath and might. The wolf did not stand a chance.

He had come to senses later and had found, to his relief, that Thunder was still alive. He had treated the wounds on Thunders body and they had moved the camp as soon as they could; moved it to a place where they could stay until Thunders wounds had healed. It was at that camp that Thunder had told Notharam about the wrath frenzy; it was at that camp Notharam had drawn a line. He wouldn't let the wrath control him if nopony didn't hurt the ones close to him. The night in that camp had one thing in common; the howling of a wolf that howled out its sorrow and lost against the night sky.

Notharam smiled. That line had now been crossed; he had never felt this alive. The blood pumped in his veins; spreading the wrath he felt for the wolf in front of him. The frenzy enchanted his feelings, made him more aware of his surroundings. He spoke to Mistrunner, tried to talk low so that the wolf wouldn’t hear.
“Stay out of this Mistrunner; I do not want to lose you as well. It make take some time for me to recover when I have defeated Snowfang, but do not worry I will defeat him. Don’t approach me before I have said that its okay; I have no idea how I will react once this frenzy have taken its hold over me. I might attack you; I’m not sure that I would be able to tell that you are a friend.”

He did not await an answer, he wasn’t sure that he could take the answer. Instead he stepped forward; submitting to his wrath, allowed it utter control over his body. He hoped that Mistrunner would back away; keep clear of what was about to happen. He took a quick look in the room, tried to find anything he could use for his advantage. The room was circular, four pillars supported the ceiling. In the middle of the room was the stone darker than the rest of the stone that was the floor; the darker stone was formed as a circle.

The grim smile on his muzzle widened as he stepped forward to the circle in the rooms middle. He could see the hate and anger that radiated from Snowfang’s eyes; blended with fear and dread. But one of the feelings that radiated from the wolf’s golden eyes was a feeling that Notharam was surprised to find, even if he admired the wolf for keeping that particular feeling in a time like this; determination.

As he entered the dark circle did two things happen really fast; he didn’t have time to react. First did bars as thick as his legs shot up from the ground, meeting together around five meters up in the air with a high sound of metal hitting metal; efficiently creating a cage that nor he nor Snowfang would be able to escape from. Second did four torches lit up around the cage, lighting up the inside. As his eyes adapted to the light did he feel how his wrath was fueled with more power. Nopony could cage him and get away with it!

He met Snowfang’s gaze as they stood completely still less than twenty feet from each other. Both waited for the first to make an attack; tried to find the moment to do the first attack. Notharam was the one to attack first, galloping forward. He aimed to knock the wolf of balance; the wolf however simple sidestepped his attack and bite Notharam in his left-wing. He growled in pain as he whirled around, the wolf was fast; he was already out of range for Notharam. The wolf’s yellow eyes tried to find a weakness to exploit; Notharam wouldn’t give him any.

They circled around each other; yellow eyes meeting deep orange in a battle of wills. Notharam was ready to attack as soon as that yellow gaze left him and he was sure that Snowfang was as ready to attack if Notharam would let his gaze wander.

Notharam could feel how Snowfang’s fangs embraced his leg; to high up for it to hamstring him. It was not the first gash he had acquired, nor was it the first against his back legs. Notharam kicked out and felt how his hoof hit something soft. A yelp assured him that he had kicked the wolf somewhere. He whirled around and reared; legs kicking in the air. The wolf had however already backed away; he limped on his right back leg. Notharam smiled as he attacked, once again letting the wrath take over his attack.

His wrath overtook him; he attacked over and over, getting more reckless for every successful hit. Snowfang snarled at him, his white fur blood stained. Notharam knew that he had been damaged badly in several places; the wolf however where in a worse condition.

Nothara couldn’t say how long the duel had taken when Snowfang collapsed onto the floor; his sides trembling as he grasped for air. Then the wolf spoke, his soft voice tremble of the agony that seeped through his body from the wounds.
“I… couldn’t revenge my mate…. Not full revenge…. At least I tried and got one of you… Finish me… Notharam…. Crush me with your wrath…. You were stronger than I thought… At least SHE will be happy that I wounded you like this…. Your daughter is probably dead by now…. Killed by HER….” The wolf gasped for air. “Finish me… give me a worthy end…”

And Notharam let all the wrath in his body into his hoof; slammed it down at Snowfangss skull, fulfilled the wolfs last wish. The wolf was no more.

Notharam blinked. Where was he? Then the memories came back; a painful wave that threatened to crush him underneath it. Mistrunner sat beside him, crying and bandaging his wounds.

He didn’t know where she had gotten the bandage from nor did he care. He looked to the other side, steeled himself for what he knew he would see. Snowfangss body lay only a few feet away; crushed beyond recognition. The blood had created a thin layer around the dead wolf, small patches of fur floated around in it. He lifted his head a little; tried to look at Mistrunner.

“How did you come in here? I was surrounded by metal bars; caged in like an animal.” He said; his throat dry.

“The bars sank back when you had crushed the wolf. You collapsed then, but I hesitated to go forwards to you. I remembered to well what you said before the frenzy took you over. I stood still in a couple of minutes; the only thing that moved was your side as you breathed heavily. I took the courage to go forward, and here I am treating your wounds. You took a lot of hits from his fangs; I’m surprised as well as relieved that you are still alive.” She said. “Don’t you ever dare to do that again, you scared me.” She added with a tear filled voice.

“How long have I been out?” Notharam asked.

“I can’t tell for sure, the clock haven’t chimed yet at least, my guess is that you have been out for around fifteen minutes; the clock should chime any second minute now.” She answered. Then she asked the question he knew would come. “Who was that wolf? I heard you called him Snowfang and that you killed his mate.”

“It’s a long story…”

“Don’t worry, you will have the time to tell it. It will take some time for me to bandage all these wounds and I won’t let you leave unless we have to before that.”

Notharam tried to shift; tried to get into a more comfortable position. However, Mistrunner pinned him down.
“Don’t move; you will only end up hurting yourself more.”

Notharam tried to wet his throat, but without success. He was determined to talk, he didn’t know how long his throat would survive it thought.
“It was nearly one and a half year ago, up in the cold harsh north. The squad I was a part of had just failed miserably in a mission up there; of the five that went there where I and Thunder the only survivors. It is strange thou, I cannot recall the name of the three we lost, it doesn’t matter how deep into my memory I dig; their names I cannot remember. The only thing I know is that back then Thunder and I were alone; alone in the dark snow-clad world.”

He could feel how his throat hurt, yet he continued; the word streaming out of him.
“We had traveled through the north on our way back in a week when we heard them for the first time; what we then thought was a pack of wolf's howling towards the moon. We had heard the locals talk about them; however, we had not seen anyone for ourselves. That night, when we made our camp, was I the one to go out and gather the wood for the fire.”
“When I wandered the forest for woods did I hear the wolf's howling in the distance; I didn’t care much about it since that sound had followed us for the last couple of nights. However, I noticed quickly that something was different. I heard shouts of pain from the camp. Dropping the wood I carried did I turn around and galloped back as fast as my legs could bring me there. What I saw when I arrived froze my bones to the same coldness as the snow around me. In the middle of the camp lay Thunder, the snow around him red with blood, and circling close to him was a big wolf. That is the first time I felt the wrath embrace me; I let it take utter control of my body. I later remember that I took the wolf with surprise and kicked, as I understood later, her in the lower jaw; breaking her neck.”

Notharam took a breath before he continued. To his surprise did he notice that he wasn’t dry anymore, it was as if the words was water for his throat.
“She was dead before her body hit the cold snow. I believe that Snowfang was close by; I could hear him howl in sorrow and curse me, spoke his promises of vengeance. It was from that I remembered his name. As I examined Thunder did I, to my relief, find out that he was still alive. I threatened his wounds; he was more wounded than I am now, still he survived. As fast as Thunder could walk again did we depart; we didn’t hear the howling of wolfs anymore after that.”

He coughed; his throat drier than he had wanted. He felt how Mistrunner was sitting by him, still treating his wounds.
“But why didn’t Snowfang attack you and kill you?” Mistrunner asked.

“That I cannot answer; both I and Thunder tried to figure that out during the time it took for Thunders wounds to heal. Either he wasn’t strong enough or he was wounded somehow; waited for it to heal just as we waited for Thunders wounds to heal.” Notharam answered.

“There, all done. Try to stand up.” Mustrunner said.

Mistrunner helped him to get up on his legs. His gaze landed on something on the stone floor; Snowfang’s blood gleamed in the light from the torches. They had floated together as letters. As fast as he had seen it did it disappear; the blood once again behaving like it should do. But those few seconds had been enough for him to read and understand, his heart sinking in his chest.

The innocent have been sacrificed.
The mist will disappear.

And the clock chimed.

Chapter 12: The Remains of a Filly

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 12: The Remains of a Filly

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime echoed through the temple, found its way through the hallways and rooms. It reached the throne room, reached the mare sitting on the throne. In her hoof gleamed a translucent orb; a white light glowing softly from inside of it.
“You have failed me, Snowfang. Your mission was simple, kill Notharam; still you have failed me. Not just by letting him survive but also by getting yourself killed. Now is the question; what should I do with you?” She said; her voice as cold as ice.

The orb became, if possible, even whiter. The mare tilted her head; listening to the soul in her hoof.
“No Snowfang, I will not give you a second chance. Not after that you failed me this hard; after all I have done for you did you just go and fail me. I saved you after your mate’s little brawling with Thunder and Notharam; I saved you when you was wounded and could not move. You would have died without me up there in the cold north. And now I gave you your chance for revenge; I served you first Thunder and then Notharam on silver plates before you. And you dared to fail me with killing Notharam, he is still alive and I am not pleased Snowfang. You have not just failed me, Snowfang; you have also failed your mate, the one you swore to revenge. And most importantly, you broke a direct order from me! You didn’t kill Thunder as I told you, instead you toyed with him, TORTURED him. So no Snowfang; I will not forgive you. In fact, I cannot even use you as a sacrifice, the ritual demands pony souls. You are worthless to me.”

The orb flickered in panic, the panic clear for anypony with an eye for it. The mare didn’t care anymore, she used her hooves to press away the soul, destroying it once and for all; erase it from existence.

She laughed out; she had known from the start that Snowfang wouldn’t have a chance. Still she found this… delight in talking with the souls. They were so vulnerable before her, as she had once been vulnerable before others. She shifted her gaze to the little filly in front of her. She looked upon what she had done and then nodded; lifting away the now bloodied knife and changed her magic to drop the knife and pick up the quill instead. The little filly flinched at the sound of the knife hitting the stone; she cried and sobbed from what the knife had done to her, tears of what was about to happen.

The quill made the eleventh line; eleven chimed had passed. She smiled for herself; Notharam would appreciate her work with his daughter. Her horn glowed as the filly faded away.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

Notharam could feel a lump of sorrow in his chest, his heart ached. Zinky... Dead? No, it couldn't be. He was not going to lose his daughter again. This place was only toying with him; he wouldn't admit that his daughter was dead before he saw her body.
"Thank you, Mistrunner. I would not have been able to walk if it was not for you."

She gave him a weak smile.
"You are welcome Notharam." She looked at him with concern. "Are you okay?"

Notharam tried to smile.
"I have felt better, but I'm fine after the circumstances. I cannot help but feel helpless at this point in time thought. We must find Zinky."

Mistrunner’s smile disappeared.
"She really is your daughter isn't she?"

Notharam didn't answer.

"You shouted it at that wolf before. And now when I think about it; she did have the same coat and eyes as Silverstar had."

"Zinky is my daughter, and I failed to protect her as I promised." Notharam said; his voice thick with sorrow.

"But why didn't you say anything earlier?" Mistrunner asked, her face mirroring the sorrow he felt.

"I didn't know it before. Silverstar died when she gave birth and I couldn't take care of the filly. I left her at a home for homeless foals while I searched for a way to earn some bit. The only answer was the army. When I returned had she been adopted by another family. I was too ashamed to search for her; I was sure she had it better where ever she where than she would ever have with me."

Mistrunner had tears in her eyes.
"Then why didn't you say anything before, when we first arrived here?"

"I didn't know then; nor would it change a thing. We have stayed here for too long, I believe that Zinky still is alive. I want to find her before it is too late."

Noharam saw that Mistrunner wanted to ask more question, but to his relief did she only nod.
"Yes, let us go. I don't like this place nor do I like the sight of that corpse; it makes my spine chill." She pointed towards Snowfang’s corpse with a hoof.

“I can feel it as well, something is not right with that corpse. I cannot say what; I have never felt anything like it before. The only thing I can say is that it isn’t natural.” He started to trot towards one of the hallways.
“I’m not sure where Zinky is; but I can feel that she is alive. Deep down in my heart I just know it.”

Mistrunner silently took up the lantern. She followed him and together did they walk into one of the hallways; leaving the room and Snowfangs corpse behind them.

The hallways kept going; the gray stone unchanged. Notharam did not like this place; he didn’t like it at all. The last traces of his wrath had finally released its grasp of his body, leaving behind an emptiness that Notharam wasn’t sure that he wanted to fill. Suddenly he felt how all the others feelings rushed back to him; overwhelming him. He staggered under the sudden rush of feelings in his veins. Anger and hopelessness rushed side by side with the even stronger emotions of sorrow and hate. He had to find Zinky.

His mind cried out to him; begged him to see reason. ‘Stop following your heart and start to follow your mind. The walls have chosen a new sacrifice, Zinky must be dead already otherwise they wouldn’t have chosen a new sacrifice. Work towards saving Mistrunner and yourself. Give up the hope of finding Zinky alive; it will only lead towards your own destruction. Your own as well as Mistrunner’s destruction, you don’t want it to lead to that do you?’ But he ignored his mind; the heart was stronger in this question.

He could feel how the emotions were pushed back; lifting the cloud from his mind. The anger, hate and helplessness were pushed down to a faint whispering in the back of his mind; their influence over his veins disappearing. Left was only the sorrow he felt; the sorrow of losing something you had forgotten you had. Still he couldn’t let the thought go. Zinky was alive; he didn’t know how he knew it, only that he did. He could feel it deep down in his heart; Zinky was alive here somewhere and he had to find her. The sorrow filled the empty space after the wrath. He felt how tears streamed down his cheeks as he walked. Still did his mind lose over his heart; the sorrow after Zinky, the hope to find her alive was stronger than anything else. Mistrunner didn’t seem to notice anything.

Mistrunner walked a few feet in front of him, looking from side to side; tilting her head as to listen to something far away. She stopped in the middle of a step; her eyes wide in terror as she turned to face Notharam. It was as if she didn’t see him, as if she looked right through him; eyes locked at an invisible spot in the distance. She slowly shook her head; her eyes getting back their focus again. She dropped the lantern; it felt to the stone floor and rolled away a bit before stopping, lighting up the surroundings with a pale blue light. Mistrunner trembled as she spoke, clearly afraid of something.
“It is something hiding out there. It is calling for me, wants to lure me into the darkness.” She spun around as if she tried tolocate the source of the voice she had heard. Notharam quickly wiped away the tears from his cheeks, no need to worry her about his condition.

“It feels as if I were observed by the walls. It feels as they close in on me, as if they want to tell me something. But I can’t hear them; it sounds like the wind that goes through the leaves a silent night.” Mistrunner said still looking around in terror.
Notharam slowly walked over to Mistrunner and gently nudged her with his muzzle.
“It will be alright Mist; we will get out of here. We will find Zinky and get out of here. I will not let that maniac get us as well. Do you hear me? I have yet to see the walls that can keep me in one place for long.” He tried to smile at her, tried to put all his faith in that smile, tried to soothe Mistrunner with it. “Somehow we will get out of here.”

Mistrunner looked at him; some of the terror had disappeared from her face.
“I hear you Notharam. I wish I could believe you, everything feels so… hopeless right now. Zinky is gone, we have no idea where she went or what happened to her, you are wounded in more than once place; it’s a miracle that you are alive.” She said, her voice trembling.

As if the wounds had heard what Mistrunner said did they suddenly start to release a wave of pain through Notharam’s body. Notharam staggered under the sudden pain, his breath found its way out of him and his eyes lost their focus. Black dots danced in front of his eyes; threatened to overwhelm his eyesight. The pain clouded his mind. And then, as suddenly as it had come did the pain disappear; leaving behind a memory he would rather forget. Mistrunner didn’t seem to have notice at all; she had tilted her head as if she listened to something in the distance again.

Notharam started to worry about Mistrunner. Deep down did he understand what it meant that the walls spoke to Mistrunner; still he didn’t want to think about what it meant, he ignored it.
“Let us keep going Mist, we cannot stand still here in the middle of the hallway; anything can lurk in the shadows.”

Mistrunner looked at him and opened her mouth as to speak. She closed it shut and looked away, then opened it once again.
“You are right Notharam; we cannot linger in one place for too long.” She slowly walked over to the lantern. “I only hope that we find Zinky and that she is okay. This is not the place for a filly to be alone in.” She picked up the lantern and started to trot forward; she didn’t look back to see if Notharam followed or not. Something was wrong with Mistrunner but Notharam couldn’t figure out what it was.

Notharam didn’t care to keep count on how many times the hallway had changed, neither did he care of how many rooms they had been through. The only thing he cared about was getting out of here, leaving the temple behind him once and for all. They walked in silence; they had nothing to speak about. Notharam could feel how they were getting closer to Zinky he had no idea about how he could feel it, only that he did. And he was right; they would soon get to see Zinky again.

It was in a hallway that Notharam saw it; a small shape that lay upon the cold stone floor. The light from the lantern illuminated the scene; gave it a blue glow. The little shape was not bigger than a foal, its color impossible to say; its coat was covered in blood. The foals right leg had been ripped apart; blood streaming out from the various wounds in it. The little foal opened her eyes, her head in the direction of Notharam and Mistrunner. Notharam wanted to scream, wanted to do anything.
It was impossible for him to mistake the color of the eye that tried to focus upon him; that jade green eye. The left eye socket gaped empty. The little foal in front of him was not any foal. It was a filly; it was Zinky.

Notharam galloped forward to the filly on the ground, carefully embraced it with his hooves.
“Don’t move Zinky, everything will be fine.” Tears started to stream down his face.
“Im sorry Zinky, I was never there for you. I promised to protect you, both now and before, but I failed you every time; I was never able to protect you. But don’t worry Zinky, everything will be okay, we will get out of here. Don’t worry, I will protect you. Daddy will protect you.”

Notharam didn’t care for the blood that dripped and smeared into his coat, nor did he care for the tears that streamed down his cheeks. His only thought was at the small, torn body of the filly in his hooves. He wanted to scream, he wanted to… he didn’t know what he wanted. The tears hit the filly, who painfully opened the eye she had left; trying to focus her eye at Notharam. The cold membrane of death had started to spread over the eye; she didn’t have long left. She opened her mouth, drawing some painful breath, her whole body trembled of the pain now; tears had formed in the left eye.

“Daddy?”
Notharam didn’t know what to say, he couldn’t do anything but look as the small filly, his filly, slowly drifted into the cold hooves of death. He hugged the body closer to his own, tried to warm it with the heat from his own body. The filly went colder and colder for each second. Notharam couldn’t hold it inside him any longer, he screamed out all his sorrow and agony, as the little filly drew its final breath.

And the clock chimed.

Chapter 13: The Mist

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 13: The Mist

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime echoed through the temple, found its way through the hallways and rooms. It reached the throne room, reached the mare sitting upon it. The mare was laughing, a laugh that made ice warm in comparison. She went silent as she heard the chime; the smile on her muzzle reaching her eyes.

She reached out her hoof as the little orb came floating towards her. The orb landed in the offered hoof. It was a small translucent orb that had landed in her hoof. It trembled in her hoof; tried to move away from her. The orb glowed with a soft yellow glow; it was probably the smallest soul she had been taken since she had started with this. Carefully did she place her other hoof over the orb, moving her muzzle closer; whispering to it.
“Easy there Zinky, you have nothing to be afraid of. I won’t hurt you anymore. But I will not lie to you; I enjoyed every second of it. For Equestria did I take this quest, for Equestria have I killed close to fifty other ponies; for Equestria have I suffered. I will not let Equestria fall.”

She nudged the soul; it had stopped its trembling and was now completely still.
“That’s better; you have nothing to fear here Zinky. Now, let me tell you how all this happened, the reasons and circumstances; let me tell you why I did this.”

And she started to talk, explained every reason and every way around. Although she had done this nearly fifty times had it not becoming easier to say it; every pony had reacted differently. And Zinky was the first to make her recoil at the simple thought that emerged from her soul.
“You forgive me? I cannot say how much that means to me Zinky, you are the first one who has done that. You are not only one who have seen my reasons and understood them, but you are the first one who has gone so far as forgiven me. Thank you Zinky.”

She lowered her hoof, placing the soul into the crystal. She didn’t even have to push it; the soul jumped into the crystal by itself. She whispered to the crystal.
“Thank you Zinky.”

She turned around, gently lifted the quill with her magic. The quill made the eleventh line and she couldn’t help the smile that covered her muzzle. It was only a few chimes left and two sacrifices were yet to be made. The mist was next; and after that the very reason why they all had been sacrificed. Then this nightmare would finally be over.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

Notharam didn’t know how long he had been sitting in that position, hooves around Zinkys dead body and tears streaming down his cheeks. He cared about it as much as he cared about the blood that soaked his coat; not at all. And all the time Mistrunner stood there, tears in her eyes; tilting her head as if she listened to something in the distance.

Notharam could hear her mumble for herself. He only caught a few of the words she mumbled.
“No, I will not believe you….. Notharam would never….. that maniac will not…… I will not be…. this is….. for the good of….. why would she let this happen….. Notharam know what?”

He didn’t pay any mind about what she mumbled. All that was for him was the body of the filly in his hooves and the sorrow in his heart.

Mistrunner shook her head and looked at him; the tears in her eyes started to slowly roll down her cheeks. After standing still as a statue for some minutes did she finally walk forward to Notharam; softly nudging him with her muzzle.
“Notharam, Zinky is gone. It is nothing you can do and it was nothing you could do before either. How much I would like Zinky to be alive is it nothing we can do to make that happen. She have gone on, she is in a better place now. She is happy now, happy together with Silverstar. We must start to move again, you have said it before; if we stay for too long in one place will that maniac find us. Do you think that what Zinky wants, that we get killed only because we mourned her? We will have time for the mourning later Notharam, we should focus on surviving for now.”

Notharam looked up from Zinky, looked straight at Mistrunner. Their eyes were locked for more than a minute, dark orange ones meeting pale amber ones, before Notharam looked away. He stroked the little filly’s mane, looking away in the distance. ‘I will kill the maniac for this. She was only a filly; she had long yet to live. I don’t care what that maniac has against me; she have passed a line.’ The weird thing was that he didn’t feel anything at all. He was empty inside, even his sorrow had disappeared.

He glanced toward Mistrunner who stood looking at him with a worried frown on her muzzle. She was right, it was time to move. He gently freed himself from Zinkys body, carefully laying the body on the stone floor. His coat was blood soaked, it had started to dry and path of fur had adhered together. He stood up, cheeks still wet by the tears that had streamed down them.
“You are right Mist, it is time to move. Zinky is in a better place now; happy together with Silverstar. I will get time to mourn when we are out of here.” He tried to smile towards Mistrunner.

“So it is true then, you know why we are here? You know what this is all about; you know the truth about this place!” Mistrunner said, nearly screaming at the end. The panic was clear in her voice, as was the anger.

Notharam took a step back, confused. ‘I know why we are here nothing more’ he thought, his mind racing.

“Don’t try to hide if from me, Notharam. Your face is as easy to read as an open book. You know something, something you haven’t told me. What is it Notharam? What is it you know?” The panic was now clear in her, her eyes had widened and it was if possible even clearer in her voice.

“Calm down Mist, no need to panic. What are you talking about? What do I know about this place that you do not?” Notharam said, trying to soothe the panicking earth pony.
“They speak to me; whisper in my ear. They speak about the truth, speak about what is happening. They tell me you know why we are here, tell me that Celestia knows that we are here. They told me you know why Celestia allow this. They tell me that you know everything; the reasons behind this. WHY?” Mistrunner nearly screamed now.

Notharam was now sure that Mistrunner heard the walls, just as Emerald said he had. He was sure that they really whispered to her. But he had to be sure.
“Who or what did you say speaks to you? Who or what whispers to you?”

Mistrunner laughed. It was a grim laugh, filled with panic.
"The walls Notharam; they tell me you know everything."

Notharam felt how the panic started to build up inside him as well. How could he possibly explain this? How could he explain in a way that would calm her down?
"What makes you think that I know anything that you don't already know Mist? What makes you believe something that a wall whispers in your ear than what I say?" he asked; trying to buy some time.

Mist smiled that grim smile again. It made him shiver; froze every bone in his body.
"Silverstar, Notharam. That was what made me believe that you were hiding something from me. Or rather, that was mademe know that you hide something."

Realization hit Notharam, could it be? He had to make sure of it first. He looked at Mistrunner.
"How do you mean Mist? What does the name of my now dead wife have with anything to do?"

Mistrunner met his eyes. Her eyes were cold; almost dead.
"You know already Notharam, do you really need me to confirm what you already know? Well then, I will confirm it. You didn't react on me knowing the name of your dead wife. The walls had told me that you had, somehoof, seen her funeral again; that you saw me there looking at you. If that would have been a lie, that you never had seen that in the view, seen me at the funeral; then you would have reacted. You didn't however, that confirms it for me. What more do you know that you did not told us; that you haven't told me?"

As he has feared; she had been told about the viewings. But it might have given him an opening.
"of course didn't I react for it; my daughter had only just died. How do you believe that I could think about that?" he said; trying to keep the growing panic from his voice.

Mistrunner laughed; a grim and hard laugh.
"Notharam haven't I told you that I can read you like a book? You can't hide the fact that I hit something, that I told you the truth. You didn't react because you already knew that I had the name on your wife." her smile grew even more chilling. "There is no meaning to keep up this charade Notharam. Tell me what have been said to you and we can keep going, make me trust your words once more. How could I otherwise trust you in a situation that could cost us both our lives otherwise?"

Notharam felt that this was a war he could not win; he had never been the one who was skilled in meddling. No, the time had come to put all the card on the table and hope that Mistrunner accepted it. He had to force the words out of him; he really didn’t want to say it. He didn’t want to know how Mistrunner reacted.
“It was in the library, after the incident with the statue. Emerald had started the translation and you were”

He stopped to wipe the sudden tears from his eyes; tears that emerged from the memory of Zinky.
“And you were talking with Zinky. It was then she, the maniac, did… something. The statue in there transformed into a mirror, showing me things from my past. All the time did she whisper to me, telling me that it was my fault that you all were here; telling me that it was for my betrayal that you all were to be sacrificed. She did never tell me how I betrayed her; the only thing she told me was that she had chosen you all as sacrifices only because that you all were connected with me in some way. She then showed me how you all were connected with me. She showed me from the time in the army how I saved Feather Quill; Emeralds daughter. This made her chose both of them as sacrifices; choose them because I saved one of them. And you, Mistrunner… that maniac showed me all the pain I had made you go through. She showed me every time that you had stood and watched me and the ones I was with. In the school when we were fillies, at my and Silverstar’s wedding, at her funeral; she showed me a lot of times as you had stood in the background, looking at me. All those years and I hadn’t seen you once. And Zinky…”

Once again did he stop to wipe his tears.
“And Zinky was the child I had left at Ponyville’s home for homeless fillies and colts’. The child that, when I returned, had been adopted; I couldn’t find her anyway.” He couldn’t make himself speak more.

Mistrunners softened, her features going back more to normal; her panic seemed to have disappear.
“It is okay, Notharam. I won’t blame you. You are not the maniac here; you have lived your life with honor, helping those in need. But why didn’t you tell us? Both Emerald and Zinky died without knowing why.”

“What do you think? I was afraid of that you would see me as insane and abandon me.” Notharam answered.

“I would never have abandoned you Notharam; you should have understood that after you had seen me all those times.” Mistrunner said, nearly whispering.

“I didn’t want to take the chance for that. But I have to ask you one thing Mist. Why didn’t you say anything during those years? All the years you stood aside; you watched me live with Silverstar and you didn’t do anything?” Notharam couldn’t keep the question inside him, he had to know.

Mistrunner smiled at him, before she softly spoke.
“I had two reasons to do what I did. First I wanted to see you happy. And second, Silverstar was my sister. So I had the opportunity to see you both happy.”

Notharam was now confused, all this time had they been related, his wife had been sister with Silverstar?
“But why didn’t Silverstar say anything? Why did I never meet you?”

Mistrunner shrugged before she answered.
“Well, my dad favored her over me; I left my home years before you and Silverstar became beloved. I didn’t think I would survive to meet you in person when I knew that you were Silverstar’s and she promised not to talk to you about me. No, I asked her to promise it; at that time did I only want to see you two happy. I had lived free for some time and just got a job at the library as Emeralds assistant.”

Notharam went silent; he didn’t know what he could say. Mistrunner didn’t seem to want to take up the subject again, so instead she asked him.
“Notharam, the walls told me that you knew something about Celestia, what was that?”

Notharam looked at Mistrunner.
“Do you really want to know? I can nearly promise you that it would be better for you not to know.”

Mistrunner nodded sharply.
“I want to know Notharam. If it has anything to do with this do I want to know it.”

Notharam smiled weakly.
“Well, I will not keep the information from you. Celestia knows about all this and she doesn’t do a thing about it. The only thing she does is to read down who have been sacrificed here. I don’t know why; neither do I want to know actually. The fact that she knows about it and doesn’t do anything is enough to make my blood boil.”

Mistrunner looked taken aback.
“She… knows? She knows and doesn’t do a thing?”

Notharam could only nod.
Mistrunner hurled around, trotted towards the lantern.
“We have stayed in one place for too long Notharam. You have answered my questions and I believe in you as I hope you believe in me. It is time for us to get going.”
She took the lantern between her teeth and started to trot.

Notharam knew that Mistrunner spoke the truth; they had stayed here for way too long. He looked at the corpse of the filly on the floor. Slowly he whispered to himself.
“I swear on everything I am and on my soul that I will avenge you Zinky; I will kill that maniac.”
The light had started to fade.

He heard a scream; a scream that quickly was ended and replaced with a gurgling sound. He whirled around towards the place were Mistrunner had disappeared. His eyes took in every detail in a few seconds. Mistrunner lay on the floor, her throat slit open and the stone floor below her wet by the life-giving liquid that emerged from the wound. Her eyes did slowly lose their steadiness before him; the cold veil of death slowly draping over her eyes.

And above Mistrunner stood another pony; an unicorn mare. Her coat was blacker than night and her mane was the same color as snow in the winter. And beneath the mane was a pair of eyes the deep blue color of a cold winter moon; those eyes. A single wing emerged from her body. But this was not what made Notharam realize who the mare in front of him was; who the maniac was. The thing that made Notharam realize who it was he had in front of him was the cutie mark on her flank.

“You.” He called out.

“Yes Notharam, me. It have been a long times since I last saw you, my dear friend.” The mare answered with the ice cold voice.

And the clock chimed.

Chapter 14: The Memories Returns

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 14: The Memories Returns

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime echoed through the temple, found its way through the hallways and rooms. It reached the throne room, reached the mare sitting upon the throne. Her eyes were closed, a faint glow surrounded her horn. She smiled; her mind had wandered somewhere else. She could feel the rush of power that pumped through her veins; she could feel it surging through her body. Soon her horrible deed would be done; Equestria would once again be in harmony. She laughed; the same cold laugh she had always had. A single tear rolled down her cheek. Soon this nightmare would be over. Only one sacrifice left, the only one who had to go unforced; the only one she couldn’t just kill. She would have to show him all her reasons, had to make him understand. The quill floated by itself this time, her magic didn’t touch it. It made the thirteen line on the paper. The nightmare would soon be over but she couldn’t let Notharam see how much she hated this. No she had to be strong; if she couldn’t be it before Notharam how could she then be strong before her? No, this would not fall together now.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

Notharam stared at the mare. He couldn’t get his thoughts together; how could she be here? And how could she be the maniac? He knew he had recognized that voice before, but this couldn’t be true. His voice trembled.
“No, it can not be you! You died in the cold north! I saw you die!”

The mare gazed on him; her frosty eyes chilled every bone in his body. A cold laugh was heard from her; a laugh that made Notharam’s bone freeze. Her voice was as cold as her laugh had been.
“You are a foal Notharam. You don’t remember a thing about the north do you? Can you remember what my name is? Can you remember anything about me?” The mare didn’t sound angry, more… disappointed.

“I remember a few things; the sound of your voice and your laughter. They always chilled my bones during our time together, during the time in school and during the time in the army. How could I forget you, Four Star?”

Four Star smiled, a gently but still grim smile.
“It seems that the spell I casted over you not too long ago have started to loosen its grip over your mind; releasing your memories. Yes, Notharam. The mare in front of you is Four Star; the unicorn you went together with to school and later ended up with the army together with.”

Notharam looked at the body of Mistrunner, a tear formed in his eye; slowly rolled down his cheek.
“But I don’t understand. Why? All you said is that I betrayed you; but how have I betrayed you? And how should I remember it if you had cast a spell that kept me from my memories?”

Four Star removed her gaze from Notharam; moved it towards Mistrunner instead. She lifted her hoof and gently stroked away Mistrunner’s mane from her face.
“She had been through a lot of pain Notharam, but look how peacefully she looks now. She have found true peace.”

Her hoof had worked its way down, ignored the blood on its way, and was now placed at Mistrunner’s chest. Slowly she pulled her hoof away from Mistrunner’s chest, pulled it upwards; a translucent orb following with the hoof, emerging from the chest the hoof had only just touched. The orb glowed in a light grey color.

Notharam looked at the orb.
“Why didn’t you answer me?” he asked. “And what is that?” he added before he could stop himself.

“This, Notharam, is a soul. In this case Mistrunner’s. The soul is a fascinating thing; the ones who have studied say that it takes the color of your coat. Even thou I believe that it’s the other way around; the coat gets the color of the soul. That can be discussed although it is not a discussion I want to take. As for all your others question will I answer them in due time. You are invited to my throne room. All your questions will be answered.” She smiled towards him as she spoke.

Notharam suddenly felt how the anger boiled up inside him. Before he knew it was he galloping forward as the same time as he screamed out.
“LEAVE HER SOUL ALONE! LET HER FIND PEACE IN THE AFTERLIFE THIS INSTANT!”

He jumped towards Four Star; aiming for tackling her of her hooves. He readied himself for the impact.

It never came. He passed straight through Four Star; it felt as if he had passed through a mist; water drops had gotten stuck in his coat, chilling him. He hit the cold stone floor.

The mare laughed behind him.
“Poor, foalish Notharam; always so fast with taking actions without stopping to think first. As I said before, find me in the throne room; I will let you know everything there.”

And just like that was she gone, disappearing together with the orb without a trace. Notharam was left alone with Mistrunner’s body and the lantern that once again seemed to have survived to be dropped onto the floor. The lantern illuminated the scene with a steady blue light. His eyes went to the corpse of Mistrunner. He could feel the sorrow build up inside him, but something pressed it down.

A memory from only moments ago suppressed his sorrow. A single memory, a memory of Mistrunner standing next to him when he embraced the body of his daughter, embracing the dead Zinky.
“We will have time for the mourning later Notharam, we should focus on surviving for now.”

He slowly stood up again. He shredded a tear; it slowly rolled down his cheek. I will honor my memory of you when I have gotten out of here. I will make Four Star pay for this, mark my words. She will not get away with this! The tear dropped down upon Mistrunners mane. He gently removed the mane from her the slit throat. It had been a clear-cut; it had hit killed her before she would have felt any pain at all. The scream must have been of surprise. For the first time did Notharam feel thank full towards Four Star, at least Mistrunner had an ending without feeling any pain.

“Goodbye Mistrunner; we will see each other another day. Let Silverstar and Zinky know that I loved them, and that I will meet them and Emerald when my time has come. As I will meet you and the others that were chosen because they meant anything to me or I meant something for them.”

He slowly trotted away from the corpse of Mistrunner, leaving behind a corpse but carrying with him a memory.
********************************************************************************************************

The snow was deep; too deep to walk in fast. He and Thunder flew over the landscape together with the rest of the squads pegasi. In the snow behind them was the other of the squad trotting in the snow; or fighting forwards was more like it. All expect one of the unicorns who was floating in the air; her tail making a track in the snow behind her.
********************************************************************************************************

Notharam stopped in mid step. What was that? It felt as if that had happened a long time ago. But when, And why had he seen it now? What was happening? He stood still in place for a minute. Nothing happened so he started to trot again. Where was that throne room Four Star had told him he should go to?
********************************************************************************************************

They came upon a huge building. It was made entirely of stone; it looked like an ordinary temple expect for three things. It had a flat top and not the dome that an ordinary temple had. Also the ordinary temple didn’t have a staircase leading up to the top, they had the entrance at the base of the north wall. And lastly it was bigger. A lot bigger… They had slowly walked forward to it when Four Star had started to talk; she had been assigned for the leader at this mission.
“This is what Celestia wanted us to find; the enemy is waiting inside.”
********************************************************************************************************

Again? What was happening? What was this place? He had once again stopped mid step, but this time in the middle of a room. He got recoiled as he realized what room he was in.
The room with the two alicorn statues; it was just the same as the first time he had been here. At that time had he awoken after being brought here together with Emerald, Mistrunner and Zinky; the floor hadn’t fall down and the neither had the ceiling. The floor was back, the same was true with the ceiling and the pillars. What was happening here? Confused he kept going; entered one of the hallways he hadn’t been through before. It was as if his hooves knew where to go, knew the way.
********************************************************************************************************

The squad trotted through the snowy top together; each of them ready to defend themselves against the enemies that could be anywhere. They stopped before a huge wooden door that stood before them. Golden fittings were wrapped around it. In the middle of the door was two alicorns made of gold fitted; standing beside each other. One had the moon above her and the
other had the sun. The door slowly opened; revealing a hallway going inside.
********************************************************************************************************

The… memory faded away, leaving Notharam once again wondering what it was that just had happened. He found himself in front of a wooden door; a wooden door with golden fittings. He realized that it had been the same door as the one in his memory, the two alicorns was fitted in the middle with gold; one with the moon over her and the other with the sun. Notharam realized that this door could give him freedom; this door could let him out. He raised his hoof against the door; putted it between the fittings of the two alicorns. The door was unlocked; he would easily be able to just open it and leave this place. But something stopped him. Not the thoughts of revenge, not the thoughts of that he might not even survive the trip home. No the thing that kept him here was a simple thing; curiosity. How had he betrayed Four Star? What had made her go through all this? And what was it she believed she would get out of this? No, he had to keep going. He started to trot again, leaving the door behind him.
********************************************************************************************************

They stood in the center of a room, two alicorns statues on either side. They all looked confused, even Four Stars seemed to have lost her normal cold. The alicorns loomed over them; the torches the squad had with them threw shadows all over the wall. The unicorn, Notharam couldn’t remember her name, was floating again; avoiding the dust on the floor.
********************************************************************************************************

Notharam kept walking. What was with this place? What were those memories that kept coming? He had clearly been here before, but for what reason? What more of importance had he forgotten? He kept trotting. What would this place reveal next?
********************************************************************************************************

A statue of Celestia raising the sun was in front of him. The others had kept going around it, stood staring at something on the other side. But this statue… it had caught his eye. He could hear Four Star call out from the other side of the statue.
“This book… Its cover is made out of pony hide. Who would do such a thing?”
********************************************************************************************************

A book with a cover made of pony hide? Was that the same book that Emerald had translated from? He kept trotting.
********************************************************************************************************

He still stood at the statue, staring into the depths of it. He heard a voice whispering to him.
“Im sorry, Notharam, but there is no other way. You are all bricks in this game, but you are the most important one. Everything will work out fine, for you and Equestria. You will understand everything when it is all over.”
He could hear the others talk as he jerked his eyes from the statue; jerked away his eyes from the gaze that now was within the statue. Another set of eyes had locked his, a pair of magenta eyes.
********************************************************************************************************

Those eyes, hadn’t he seen them today? What was it with his memory, he couldn’t remember anything at all… and what did it mean with that they were all bricks in a game? The hallway he was in was unknown for him; he just kept trotting, allowed his legs to take him to his destination.

********************************************************************************************************

He stood on the other side of the statue, together with the rest of the squad. They were all looking at the book now; Four Star was reading aloud from it, she was at the very end of the text.
“But it is said, that on the longest day on the thousandth year the stars will aid in her escape and bring nighttime eternal. Let us hope that Celestia will be ready to defend Equestria once more when Luna, or Nightmare Moon as she was known as during the war, returns from her imprisonment.” They was silent before somepony, Notharam couldn’t recognize the voice, asked.
“What does this all mean?”
********************************************************************************************************

It wasn’t long left; he could feel it in his entire being. He was close to the throne room. The memories, he had been here before. But no enemy had been seen, not as he could remember at least.
********************************************************************************************************

They were trotting away from the building; returning home. He could hear Four Star speak for herself, caught a few of the words.
“The harmony… Celestia and sister… the stars… The longest day is the summer sun celebration… and if I only had the information… it must be close… and Celestia have…”
********************************************************************************************************

Notharam shook his head. The memories, what was it with them? Were they of importance? And what did they mean? He knew the answer would be found if he puzzled them together, but he just couldn’t figure out what end to start with. He rounded a corner.

And found himself outside a twin wooden door. The doors had a golden fitting of two crowns; one on each door. One of the crowns had the sun as a symbol, the other had the moon. He gently lifted his hoof, pressed it against the door. It opened without a sound. Four Stars cold voice called out from the room, the throne room.
“Come inside Notharam. All your questions will be answered; all my reasons will be told. Come inside and all will be revealed.”

And the clock chimed.

Chapter 15: The Truth

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 15: The Truth

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime did not have to echo to reach the throne room this time. Four Star sat at her normal spot on the throne; her hooves holding the grey soul of Mistrunner at the height of her eyes. The soul had stopped trembling now; it knew the reasons and had accepted them. It felt as if it was grateful that Four Star did this, a feeling that she did not understand how Mistrunner could have for the one who killed her. No, it wasn’t Mistrunner who trembled now. It was herself. For the first time since this nightmare had begun so long ago was she afraid. She had kept this inside herself for so long. All of her reasons, her fears, hers logic; all of them had she kept for herself since the beginning. Or as nearly to herself as she had been able to; it was one other pony who knew about it, who had given her the approval, a pony that had seen it like she did. A pony that had understood her logic, understood her reasons. And the souls had she told, but that was not the same. It didn’t matter if they agreed or not; they she could force. Notharam on the other hoof had to go freely, he had to accept it and be a part of the ritual. His soul was the most important one for this, and for the sake of Equestria would she not fail. Not in this, the harmony would be retained; Equestria would be safe again. She could feel how the soul in her hooves tried to soothe her, telling her that everything would turn out to the better. She smiled at Mistrunner soul before she lowered it down to the crystal. She had collected forty-nine souls. Left was the most important one, Notharam’s soul. She lifted the parchment with her magic, raising the quill to make the thirteen line. She stopped herself, what would be the reason to do this? It was the last half hour, a single half hour to explain all her reasons to Notharam, a single half hour that would bring with it harmony or chaos for Equestria. She steeled herself; she had to do this and succeed. A single tear rolled down her cheek, she wiped the tear away with her hoof. The nightmare was soon over, would she wake up to harmony or chaos?

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

Notharam stared into the darkness beyond the door, trying to see the room before he entered it. It was, as nearly every other room he had a memory of, a circular room. The ceiling was higher here, the pillar were well taken care of. In the middle of the room stood two statues; one of Celestia raising the sun and one of the other alicorn, Luna, raising the moon. The statue of Celestia was a perfect twin of the statue in the library. Between the statues was a red carpet placed on the floor, leading towards the raise of the floor. And on the raise was a throne placed. Upon the throne lay Four Star. Notharam slowly walked forward. Four Stars only wing was slowly moving back and forth. Her hard cold gaze meets his eyes; locked eyes with him, blue eyes against dark orange. They were frozen like that, he standing between the two statues and she lying on the throne, in more than a minute. Notharam had to admit his defeat, he looked away, but not before he could see the satisfied smile on Four Stars muzzle. She spoke with a cold voice; it was something in the voice that he couldn’t place.

“Welcome Notharam, to my throne room. Here you can speak without fear; everything that I say will be the truth. I will answer all of your questions before the clock chimes next time. The clock will chime around five minutes before the sun raise; in those five minutes will you have to make a decision. Ask anything you want.”
Notharam didn't have to think about a question, it escaped him before he could consider it. It was a simple question.
"Why?"

Four Star flinched, it didn't seem like she had expected that question. Notharam could feel her gaze at him but he didn't look at her.
"Notharam, you will have to be more specific, why what?" she said, her voice still held a trace of something he couldn't put his hoof on.

"I have a lot of why questions that I want answer on, but I'm gonna ask the one closest to my heart first. Why did you torture Zinky? As if killing her wasn't enough did you have to go and tear her apart, torture her. Why?" he said, his heart once again ached at the sorrow, a picture of the little filly flashed before his eyes. "Did you want to give her a painful death? Did you want to find revenge on me by torturing my filly?"

Four Star stared at him.
"I guess my memory spell removed to much of your memory Notharam. Don't you remember what field I was a master of magic in? I was a master in the fields of protecting and removal, both of the body, the mind and the magic alike. I can ensure you that your little filly did not feel a lot of pain during my 'torture' of her. I blocked as much of her pain as I could without interfering with her other emotions." she chuckled coldly. "As to why I did it. See it as a safety reason, I wanted you to show your daughter how much you loved her. You have been in the army long enough to have seen accidents that have killed ponies, you have seen the affection another pony shows a pony that is on the brink of death, even more so if they die a horrible death. Words are said that would not have been said otherwise, emotions are shown that wouldn't have been. I gave your daughter a chance to see what you felt about her, tried to keep the pain from her. The tears you saw in her eyes where tears of joy, not of pain. You showed your feelings towards her in the end. She wanted me to thank you for that. What is your next question?"

Notharam looked at Four Star. For some reason did he feel that he could trust her. Had it really been tears of joy? Had Zinky died knowing his much he loved her? He looked at Four Star, saw the tears in her eyes. That was as much of a confirmation as he needed.
"What is this place and how many times have I been here?" he asked.

Four Star chuckled.
"You have been here three times now Notharam. The first time was when we were sent here by Celestia herself to vanquish an enemy that was within these walls, an enemy we never found. The second time did you escort the squad here before leaving with Thunder and now you are here for the third time." she shifted in the throne before continuing. "This place is an old temple, founded a long time ago. Its located in the cold north, located between the physical world and the spiritual world."

It was Notharam’s turn to flinch.
"I understood that I had been here once before, but I couldn't have guessed that I had been here three times." A question popped up into his head, a new question that he had asked himself before.
"Why me? How did I betray you?"

Four Star looked away stated at a spot in the distance. When she answered was it with a worried tone.
"Notharam, do you know the meaning of your name? Your name is translated to leading sacrifice. You have that name for a reason, your name is written in the stars as the one who should lead the ritual to restore the harmony on Equestria, as the last to be sacrificed for harmony." she chuckled softly. "You betrayed not only me but all of Equestria by not accepting your fate, you refused to be sacrificed; not only once but twice did you refuse." The worried tone had disappeared; anger had taken its place for a brief moment. Anger that now was gone as well.

It felt as a hammer had struck Notharam. Equestrias fate depended on him? Depended on him to be leading a ritual where he himself would be sacrificed to restore the harmony in Equestria.
"How is the harmony in Equestria damaged? What is it that needs a sacrifice to be restored as it once where?"

Four Star looked with disbelief at him. It felt as if that could gaze saw straight through him.
"You were blind during your time in the army Notharam. You better get comfortable, this might take a while to explain."

She looked at him as he lay down on the carpet, waited for him to get comfortable. She laid her head to rest on her front hooves, her mane hiding her eyes from him.
"For you to understand this do I have to tell you a story that tonight is one thousand years old. It's the story about the two goddesses; I believe Emerald told you about it. Luna and Celestia, the goddesses of death and life, of night and day. I don't have the time to tell the story in detail, but know this; Luna must come back to Equestria. I searched through this entire library when we were here the first time, and I found something interesting. Luna wasn't in control of herself when she challenged Celestia. No, she was corrupted by another being, a being she had helped Celestia to imprison long ago. The corruption slowly changed Luna; made her feel hatred towards the ponies that she should protect over while they slept."

She stopped to see if Notharam followed. He motioned for her to keep going. She nodded before she continued.
"The corruption did not come from Luna's inside. It came from something that shouldn't be able to become corrupted, something created to imprison the being. It flooded through the elements of harmony, corrupted her from outside and in. As the corruption reached Luna's heart did she change, she became Nightmare Moon. And she killed hundreds of ponies; she was the goddess of death after all.”

“Long story short did Celestia banish her own sister to the moon; she took control over the elements herself, used them to rebuild the destruction that had happened during the battle between them. She also used the magic of the elements to remove her control over life and her sisters over death; making sure that something like this could never happen again. The ponies had to pay the price for this however; they lost the immortality they once had. This place was once a place where a pony; where he pegasi, unicorn or earth pony, went to die, went to let his soul join Luna’s side with protecting over the living."

"So the elements are now slowly corrupting Celestia?" Notharam asked" But how can we stop..."

Four Star laughed out.
"No you foal, Celestia is not getting corrupted. She cleansed the element as soon as he had understood what had happened. She would probably have done it during the time that Luna had control. I do however believe that she would have to control them herself to be able to cleanse them. No Notharam, the answer is much simpler. Celestia's power is weakening, weakening of the tiredness that drains her veins of its power. For a thousand years have she raised the sun and the moon singlehoof. She won't have the power for much longer to continue with it. And I'm not the only one who has noticed this; both the griffins and the zebras are preparing for war. I do believe that Luna now could get cleansed like the elements and Celestia have confirmed this. She didn't like this but that's why she has not stopped it."

Notharam didn't quite follow here, he had to ask.
"Why does she allow this? Why have she allowed you to kill forty-nine innocent ponies?"

Four Star sighed.
"Notharam, if this works then a war will be stopped; a war where hundreds if not thousands of innocent would die; pony, unicorn, gryphon, zebra and pegasi alike. She allowed me to sacrifice a few for the chance of saving Equestria from war."

Notharam looked at Four Star.
“Then why did you chose to go after everypony that meant anything to me or I meant anything to? Why did you chose to go on ponies who had a connection to me?”

Four Star sighed.
“I would have loved to keep that part away from you. But I promised to answer and answer truly. I thought you had figured it out by yourself, but I guess that memory haven’t returned yet have it? Oh well. I believe you don’t remember the first time we had been here, I erased all memories of this place from your mind, replaced them with other harmless memories. You, together with the rest of the squad, were with me that night when I spoke with Celestia about this. All of us, your fellow squad members and Celestia, tried to talk you into it; you were after all the one fated to lead the ritual. But you was stubborn, you refused to see reason. You had a wife and she would soon have a filly.”
“You refused at those ground; even though you knew what was at stake! You refused for your own selfish reasons, even though you knew you could stop a war and save thousands of lives.
From the moment you entered the army you had chosen to sacrifice everything for Equestria. And there you threw those arguments in our faces. Celestia removed you from the army and I was given the order to remove the memories about this from you. But that night I did something I have never forgiven myself for. That night I brought Silverstar over here and killed her, killed her in hope that it would make you see reason. But something, call it a miracle or a curse, happened; the foal survived. I didn’t know that then. You rejoined the army; you never said a word about your little filly. You didn’t speak much at all really. We went here again, this time we explained to you at place, told you what you had to do.”

Four Star took a pause to breath. Notharam waited, he would have time to ask more questions.
“And once again you refused; you had a filly at home that waited for you. I would say that answer made me… insane for a moment or two. I wiped out your memory, as well as Thunders who would follow you back home. I followed in the distance, I saw your battle against Snowfang’s mate, and I saved him from freezing to death. That poor thing had broken his legs; he couldn’t go and defend her mate. I knew that I could give him revenge one day, so I brought him here. No, it was not to kill them so brutally as possible, that doesn’t have any real use here. It was to scare; a scared soul is easier to harvest than a stable one. You arrived home and got your goodbye from the army, you also realized that Zinky had been adopted. And I returned to this temple; started to bring ponies close to you here, making sure that you couldn’t refuse next time you came here. Celestia was furious about it at first; she believed all would come here by free will. I told her that we wouldn’t have time to wait for ponies to get here at their own will, nor would we have the time to persuade you in other means. We don’t have long time left Notharam, one or two more questions is all you can ask before you must make the decision.”

Notharam stared at Four Star. She had thought about everything, that he had to give her.
“I have three questions; the first is what do you mean with bringing them here? The second is why have you taken Thunders wing? The third is why didn’t I see any of writings about my sacrifice, and why haven’t the walls talked to me?”

Four Star looked at him.
“That was four question, Notharam. However, they will not take long time to explain. I can not really say how I brought you here; the spell is far too complex. However, since this place is between the physical and the spiritual world so aren’t you here physically. You are only here mentally; or spiritually if you want to say that. Your body here is only a projection; your real body will not take damage here. However, if you die here then you die in the physical world as well, your brain will believe you dead and shut down the system so to say. This place is also the only place where you can harvest a soul, remains from the goddesses’ time. The wing is a memory, a way to remember myself about what I went through for Equestria, a memory of one of the greatest leader there have ever been. About the walls not talking to you so are you wrong. They didn’t talk directly to you. They did, however, give you some of your memory back, memories they had been a part of. They talk to each other, shares memory; and now they shared some of them to you. And for the text, take a look behind you.”

Notharam whirled around, stared into the darkness. And there, above the door was a text written in red letters.

The leading sacrifice will choose his way.

And the clock chimed.

Chapter 16: The Decision

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 16: The Decision

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

The chime echoed in the throne room. The night was almost over, the sun’s first rays had reached the horizon, it would not be long before it was to late.
“It is time to make your decision Notharam, will you follow the stars or not?” Four Star said.

Notharam laughed.
"You have me cornered Four Star. I don't have any other choice than doing what you want. I can not let the others deaths have been in vain. I will lead this ritual."He smiled towards Four Star."I promised to avenge them you know, both Zinky and Mistrunner. I guess I failed in that as well."

She smiled back at him.
"You never had a choice you know. The stars had chosen you; or fate if you want to call it that, chosen you to lead the ritual."

Notharam looked away.
"Exactly what is this ritual? What do I have to do?"

Four Stars smile instantly disappeared.
"It is nothing difficult, it is fairly easy. You will need to have this in front of yourself." She picked up the crystal from the bag. The crystal glowed faintly in a whirl of color.
"Both your hooves must be placed onto it." Her horn started to glow; the crystal was embraced by the same light as it slowly floated towards Notharam. It landed softly in front of him and he placed his front hooves over it.
"Good. Now to the bad part..."

"You kill me." Notharam said. Four Stat stared at him.
"Oh don't look at me like that Four Star, I have known since I entered here that it would end with either of us dead. And after all, you told me before that it would be fifty sacrifice; you already have most of them in this crystal I believe."

"Yes, I kill you. I can however make it so you do not feel any pain at all." Four Star said, her voice sounded Warner than normal.

"No, I will take the pain."
Four Star eyes widened in surprise.
"I'm the reason that these ponies died without a choice. I will welcome the pain."

"You are a foal Notharam, you have always been and will always be. But if that is your wish then it will be that way." a bloodied knife started to float by her magic, the tip in a straight line towards Notharam’s heart. "Are you ready?"

"I only have one last question." Notharam said, a smile playing on his lips. “Exactly how will this work? How have you harvested the souls here? Why did it have to be here?”
“What you ask is hard to explain, but I will do my best. It had to be here of a simple reason, this is the only place in Equestria where you can see a soul. This place was created by the goddesses in the beginning of time. It was created to be a place where a pony who had found peace with itself could come to die. Back then a pony didn’t die by sickness or age, no battle was heard of.”

“The sisters looked over the inhabitants of Equestria. Celestia, the goddess of life and of the sun, took care of her children when they played and grew. Luna, the goddess of death and the moon, guarded her sisters children during the night, made sure they could sleep peacefully. In this temple, the temple of the guardian as it was known during those times, could a pony who wanted to serve Luna go to die; his or her soul would forever sit at the goddess side and protect the sun goddess children. It was those souls that loomed the land, protected the children of the sun. No pony had to fear about anything, the invisible protectors would defend them against it all.”

Four Star took a deep breath before she continued.
“Emerald was the first in a long time to complete the ancient ritual of protection, a ritual that hadn’t been practiced since Celestia closed this place, made sure that nopony would die in here. Celestia made us all mortal with the power of the elements of harmony, all to create balance in Equestria, a balance that must be contained. I had to interact quickly, I could not let his soul pass on as it would have; it would have ended in him looming Equestria alone, without a clue what had happened. I had to force his soul out of him, that’s why it took so long time before I could do anything else. A soul is easier to harvest if a single feeling is stronger than the rest of the feelings, if one feeling breaks the harmony. In Zinky that feeling was joy, in Mistrunner it was fear. That or surprise, I had a hard time to tell in that second it took to harvest her soul.”

She looked at Notharam.
“As for you, Notharam. You play the greatest part in this; you are the only one who have to go freely. The only one who have to go with harmony in heart and soul. You have to guide the rest of the souls into the afterlife; you have to guide them to the Great Plains of Harmony. The soul portal that opens for all of you will be big enough for me to see, big enough for me to drain power from. It is that power, a power from neither life nor death, which will make my task possible. That power is the power that will cause disharmony in the Elements of Harmony; cutting the bonds they used to banish the goddess of the moon so long ago. It will only be disharmony for mere seconds, but the banish spell will be broken and will not be able to get back without the interference of the bearer of the Elements.Celestia’s bond with the elements will be broken as well, leaving Equestria in harmony since the power of the Elements of Harmony will not be tied to one of two immortal beings, instead it will be bonded to somepony else; who I do not know.”

Notharam smiled weakly against Four Star.
"Thank you, Four Star, for telling me about this. Now I know what awaits me. Kill me now, Four Star, the clock is ticking and we do not have long time left before it is too late."

“Are you sure, Notharam?” Four Star asked. “Are you ready to do your final part in this?”

“I am ready, Four Star. Let it be done.” Notharam said, closing his eyes.

"Goodbye Notharam." Four Star said, hurling the knife with her magic.

Notharam could feel the pain rushing through his body as the cold steel of the knife pierced his hide. It went straight in, torn muscles on its way toward his heart. But he welcomed it, and the only thing he regretted was that he wouldn't be able to see Equestria in perfect harmony. The knife pierced his heart and Notharam as a being was no more.

Four Star looked as Notharam collapsed, the smile on his lips frozen as a death mask over his muzzle. And slowly did the translucent orb that was his soul emerge from the body, whirling upwards. As if that had been the signal did forty-nine other souls emerge, but this time for the crystal in Notharam’s dead hooves. They whirled around his soul, as if they were embracing him.

She jumped back in surprise as all of the souls floated towards her. She stood perfectly still as the souls started to dance around her. The faint glowing of fifty souls, nearly everyone in a unique color was a sight she knew she would never forget. She could hear Notharam’s voice whisper in her ear.
"Are you ready Four Star? It's soon over, only your last part left!"

She smiled; it was the first time a warm smile had caught her muzzle.
"I am ready Notharam. I will see you when it's my time to move on."

A soft chuckle was heard in the air, followed by Notharam’s voice.
"Take your time; you have done more for Equestria than any non alicorn pony that is alive today. And Four Star, take care of yourself."

The smile had spreader to her eyes.
"I will Notharam."

The souls floated upwards, joined together in a whirling mess.

"Thank you, Notharam." Four Star said, tears streaming down her face.

For every soul that floated upwards where a small passage to the The Great Plains of Harmony. Each of them was too small to see with the eye, but fifty at the same place was enough for her to see. And it was there she aimed her focus, started to tap its source on energy.
She had to work quickly; the passages had already begun to shut close. The power rushed through her, threatened to kill her. At the brink of her power did she start to cast the necessary spell.

It was a simple spell, made to cut of wires or threads of magic. But the threads she should cut now were thicker than a tree in comparison to the normal thread. This was the threads of the Elements of Harmony. But the force she had inside her, pure power from The Great Plains of Harmony should be enough to cut the magic weaved by the Elements of Harmony that imprisoned Luna, or Nightmare Moon, on the moon.

She aimed her spell towards the only place she would be sure to hit; she aimed it straight at the moon. A beam of light blue, nearly white, color emerged from her horn, flashed away towards the moon. It clashed against something; she could feel how the power drained away from her. And then, suddenly, did the other power give after.

Gasping for air did she fall to the floor. Had she succeeded? The answer came from behind her; she could feel the presence of the other pony before she heard the hoof steppes that announced her. She quickly stood up, kneeling.

Then she felt the gaze against her neck. She said the only words that came to her mind.
"Welcome back, Princess Nightmare Moon."

The alicorn mare started to laugh.

Epilogue

Chimes In the Dark - Epilogue

NOTE: Grammar not corrected

Celestia rose from the cushion she had laid on the entire night. After years of preparations had it finally been done; Four Star was no foal, still she had been tricked into playing as Celestia had wanted. Four Star had taught it had been her own idea, how wrong she had been. Celestia had herself placed the idea inside her mind, had made her do this part. She would have done it herself had she been able to, but these bonds had to be cut by another power, wielded by another pony.

No, this plan was much older than Four Star ever would suspect. It was twenty years ago since Celestia had started to see the sign of her growing tiredness; twenty years since she had realized what it was that would have to be done. She had started simply.

Planting the six elements of harmony had been an easy task. He had never doubted that the elements would find each other; it was its nature to work towards harmony between them. Of course would the elements shape those six ponies life, which she had no doubt about and that had been proven to her more than once since, they had for instance gotten their cutie mark at nearly exactly the same time. She had at the same time made sure that Notharam would be given the name he had gotten. Seeing Notharam again had been as seeing an old friend.

She had chosen two from each of the pony races, one from each race had gotten her own element and the other had gotten the element that had previously been wielded by Luna.

The earth ponies had gotten Honesty from Luna and Laughter from herself. Luna had always been telling the truth, it was just she that had ignored it. New tears joined the others on her cheek at the memory of her sister, the memories of her ignoring the words she had said.

Then it was the pegasis, loyalty after herself and kindness after Luna. Her sister had always been kind over the souls she had protected, taken care of her sisters children during the night, protecting them.

And last it had been the unicorns which had been given the elements of generosity and magic. Generosity from her sister, who gave all to the ponies she protected, gave all to the souls in her service. And the magic had come from herself, given down to the unicorn who would later turn out to be her student.

To make sure that Notharam had ended up in the army hadn't been hard, not since he made friends with both Thunder and Four Star. Both had parents in the army and it hadn't been hard to
make sure that the child’s would follow their parents.

The next plan had taken a little longer to do, re write and plant out the prophecy about the return of Nightmare Moon. It had been simple to send the squad to the north, and the other pony, one of the bearer of one of the elements, had 'happen' to find the book containing the prophecy that very morning. That one prophecy that she had received so many years ago, in that corrupted city.

Now it was only one part left in all of this.
The bearer of the now cleansed elements would have to defeat her sister. But she believed in her student and the other bearers. The only thing needed for now would be for them to become friends, make the last connection between the Elements. The elements would draw towards each others, so that would not be a hindrance either.

Celestia wiped the tears from her cheeks. She would have to find a way to repay them all, or at least their families. The sacrifices families would be repaid, even though they would never get to know what really had killed their loved ones. They would never know that their loved ones had died to protect all of Equestria. She would also have to find a way to repay Four Star, this had really been a nightmare for her.

But Four Stars nightmare was over, she could move on; even if the memories would haunt her for the rest of her life.
^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-

It had been a horrible night, this night before the summer sun celebration. Heartmane stood at one of the hospitals beds, looking at the clock on the wall.
“Time of death: ten minutes over four. Cause of death: The body shut down after a coma. Name of patient: Notharam, last name nonexistent.”

Heartmane sighed. This had been the second pony today that had died of the same cause; the other had been a filly mere hours ago. They had both be found at the same time, not very far from each other, in or close to the heart of Ponyville. And the strange things hadn’t ended there. The little filly’s name had been Zinky, no parents had been found. Information had been collected and after an hour had he gotten the information that had shocked him. The little filly had been daughter to Notharam. But he couldn’t do anything about that; they were both dead and he had other patients to take care of this night before the summer sun celebration. He could hear the party from the library all the way here; it was another of THAT ponies parties. Well, at least nopony had been hurt so far, or they hadn’t come here anyway. He had hoped for a calm night; and so far it had only been the two incidents with the coma patients. He firmly pushed the thoughts away, it was nothing he could do to them more than contact the families.

He entered his office, a warm place illuminated by a simple lamp in the ceiling. Then he saw something that had not been there before; a scroll lay on his desk. He gently opened the scroll. The first thing he noticed was the royal seal in the corner of the parchment.

‘Dear Heartmane, colonel doctor of Ponyville Hospital, it is in my interest that the two ponies, Zinky and Notharam, that died after a coma tonight get sent to the city of Canterlot for interment. I trust that you will not speak with anypony about this request, nor ask me why. The reasons are mine and mine alone. What I can say to still your curiosity is that those two have served Equestria in a way that nopony will be able to do again.’

Heartmane read the scroll once more, shaking his head when he came to the last line. The scroll was signed by Celestia and it hadn’t been the first time he had gotten one of these.

All of the patients from the last months that had died during a coma, around fifteen with the ones tonight, had been erased from the hospitals record and sent to the castle for ‘interment’.
He wouldn’t ask any questions, it was not his job to ask questions. The two dead ponies would be sent to Canterlot in secret, nopony would get to know a thing.

He sighed again. He had hoped that this night would have been easy, he had been wrong. And the sun had not even been raised yet. This day had already been long.
^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

The sun would soon rise again, the night did never last forever, nor did the day. Equestria would soon find harmony again.

The day after

Chimes In the Dark - The Day After

Luna could not understand what had happened. One second she was full of rage.
The next she laid on the cold stone floor in the ruins of her once beautiful castle.
The only thing she had left was small memories, memories that she could not fit together.
She had been as small as she had been the day she was... born was not the word.
The first time she had stepped down to Equestria.
What had happened?

And here she was, after a nights sleep. It had felt as if she had not slept for a thousand years. And the worst part was, that of all the ponies she had meet since she had came back to consciousness were it only two she recognized. Celestia, and the unicorn that now trotted beside her through the hallways in this new castle. The moon, her moon, shone in from one of the windows; illuminating as she made her way to, what her sister had called, the throne room.

"Tell me, Starswirl," she said, addressing the phantom unicorn trotting beside her.

The old unicorn sighed. He had waited a thousand years for this question.

"What happened? Where are the rest of the guardians? What did I do?" Luna's head hang. What had happened?

"Luna, what happened was not your fault," the ocean blue unicorn started, his once powerful voice now nothing more than a faint whispering in the air. "Discords corruption had gone deep, it twisted your entire being. The hate, the anger, that called forth and gave the demon we know as Nightmare Moon entrance to your body and heart was not yours. The feelings emerged from Discord, his magic still strong after all those years."

The old unicorn sighed. "And for the guardians. I was the first of us, I knew you better than anypony else, more so than your own sister, so when Nightmare Moon sent the armor command did I stay strong, repelled it's effect from me." he said, a sad expression on his face. "The others was not as strong. They attacked your sisters and her guards."

Starswirl looked away.
"I'm sorry to say this, but not a single one of Celestia's ten honor guards survived. In fact, the death count were probably ten times as big before Celestia had shielded the entire city from us. I stood alone when Nightmare Moon challenged your sister."

Luna could not keep her silence.
"What happened?"

Starswirl chuckled.
"You know how Celestia is, would not kill a parasprite if it so feasted on her dinner. No, she refused the challenge, tried to talk with you. But the demons power was to strong, it held you within its grasp. So she turned the elements against the demon, banished it to the moon. And with it did she also banish you my goddess."

It was Luna's turn to sigh.
"All as the prophecy said. So many years to prepare and still I could not do anything. It is all my fault. How many ponies died because of me?"

Starswirl firmly walked in front of Luna, his lighting blue eyes looking her in place.
"I will not let you blame yourself goddess. If anypony is to blame is it we guardians, we who were to blind to see the change in you. I was there when the prophecy was spoken, I knew as well as you about what was to happen, but each sign went by me without me noticing."

Luna could not look away.

"Luna, goddess of night, understand this. You could not control what happened to you, the god Discord's magic was overwhelming. You could not resist it, your and Celestia's strength lay in your number, and she could not help you without her corrupting herself. I should not have to say that to you. And remember, I will be with you during the meeting, I will talk when I am needed to. But trust my word when I say that I will flog you if you let yourself be destroyed by blaming yourself or something that childish."

Luna looked at Starswirl in shook.
"You would not."

Starswirl smirked.
"I would, and you know that. I know you, Luna. It would be hard for me not to after all those years I spent with you. I spent two hundred years with you, creating the spell that would allow a pony to die and go to your side without any harm be done to their body. Two hundred years, and I was the first to use it, just to be at your side for the rest of my life, and longer." he nuzzled her gently. “ Now, step forth and enter this chamber, the room that your sister asked you to visit when you returned. And I promise you, I will tell you everything she does not, you deserve to know the truth.”

Luna returned the nuzzle, tears in her eye.
“I’m afraid, Star. What if I can not handle it? What if the corruption is still deep inside of me?”

“You are strong Luna, stronger than anypony I have ever meet. Now go, we will talk more later. And Luna. It’s good to have you back.”

“It is good to be back, Star.” Luna said as she rose to her full height, her self-confident boosted by Starswirls words.

And with her head high did she enter the room, in every inch a goddess and a princess.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-

The room was a smaller lounge room. Midnight-blue curtains drifted slowly in the night wind that gently washed over Luna. The moon was illuminating the room through two enormous windows, making the room bath in the glory of her night. Three cushions lay in front of the fire place, a blazing fire crackling within. One of the cushions was occupied by her sister, the pinkish white alicorn sitting on it and talking softly with her guest. It did not seem as if they had noticed her yet, or at least not the guest. Luna could feel the warm presence of her sister, in the same way that she knew that she could feel hers.

She took the time to look at the guest. It was an unicorn.

With two wings...

Who was this third alicorn?

Luna’s eyes went to the cutie mark on the black mares flank. Four stars.

Had she been replaced during her absence? But why could she not feel the presence of this alicorn as she did with her sister? And why was she so small, nearly as small as herself, with horn no longer than the average unicorn?

Then she noticed it. The wings were not the unicorns. They had been sewn onto the body. But why? And who?

A small memory from the night before. She had walked forward this unicorn, who had turned around and quickly dropped to her knees.

Could it be? Was this the unicorn that had released her?

She trotted forward. Celestia looked up at her, her sister’s sad eyes meeting hers.
“Welcome sister. I hoped you have slept well.” she said with a cheerful tone.

Luna could hear that the tone was forced, but she did not comment it.
“As well as I could hope. I have trashing in my sleep the entire night, nightmares haunting me.” she said honestly before she turned to the unicorn. “Is this who I believe it is?”

Celestia’s smile had faded as Luna spoke, her sadness had shifted to concern. She followed her sister’s eyes to the unicorn. She did not even try to sound cheerful this time.
“Yes, this is her. ‘Her name will be the name of the brightest part of your sister’s celestial masterpiece’. Luna, this is Four Star, the one who have lived through the nightmare to release you.” Luna flinched at the name. Four Star, it had to be a coincident.

The unicorn had felt to her knees, eyes looking down at the ground.
“Rise, Four Star, you have no need to kneel before me. In truth, it should be the other way around. I’m the one that owe you my freedom.”

Four Star slowly rose, her ice cold laughter filling the air, freezing Luna’s bones.
“You do not owe me anything, Goddess. I went into your sisters service, I got a mission and I fulfilled it, no matter what the cost.”

Luna sighed. She really did not feel well, did she have to do this? Was she strong enough? Of course she was strong enough. Starswirl trusted her!
“Tell me, Four Star, what was this cost? And what was this mission?” she said, motioning to the unicorn to sit down.

“The cost was the life of my comrades, of my friends, of the ones I loved. The mission? To serve the princess and releasing the demon that scourged this land a thousand years ago.” Four Star laughed again. “I must have been insane to take that mission, and it will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

“I’m sorry for everything I put you through, Four Star, if there is anything I can do let me know; I will make sure it is done.” Luna said. How could the unicorn live with this, and how could she look so self-confident around it? “How many died to release me?”

“Fifty ponies lost their life to release you. And I would not ask for anything either way. This was much better than the option that could have been. In fact, if it wasn’t for my own mistakes than I would maybe ask you to wipe out my memory, but those mistakes is something I will live with until the day I die.” Four Star said, and just like that her self-confident was gone. She staggered over, softly landing on the cushion. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she silent wept.

“Fifty ponies...” Luna turned to her sister. “How could you let this happen? Fifty ponies just to release me? What could possibly be worth that cost?”

Celestia looked at Luna, her eyes teary as well.
“Nothing should be worth the life of fifty innocent! Do you not think I hate myself for this? Do you not think I hate being this weak? I had to do it, sister! My magic is on the brink of giving up, I could barely raise the moon this sunset!” she sniffed loudly, tears streaming down her cheek. “I did this to prevent a war, Luna! A war! Equestria have not felt war since briefly after the demon took you over! I could not plunge Equestria into war! It was for the better good of Equestria. Equestria needs you, Luna. I need you! We are weak apart. It is together we are strong.”

Four Star looked at Celestia, her own tears had stopped to fall. Luna slowly trotted forward and lay down besides her elder sister, embracing her with her wing. Celestia borrowed her head close to Luna, whispering between sobs.
“Fifty ponies dead, I could not stop it. The elements was to strong, I could not just cut the magic from it. The magic was still firm, it held Nightmare Moon banished to the moon, and nothing I did could stop it. I do not even believe that Discord’s magic would have been able to cut the bonds between the banishment and Nightmare Moon.”

Celestia stopped whisper, she only lay still against her sister’s side, sobbing. Luna turned to face Four Star, who had been sitting still during the goddess crying.
“Four Star, if it is not to much to ask for, would you please explain this? All of it.” she said, her own throat tick by withheld sadness.

And Four Star spoke. She told everything, from how she found the prophecy the first time, how she translated it and understood what was about to happen. How she had talked with Celestia with it and how her squad had walked up there. She told Luna about how Notharam had betrayed her trust, how he had refused to sacrifice himself for the life of thousands of others. Of how she had quickly understood how the spiritual thing had worked, at least the basics. How she had felt anger and hate against Notharams betrayal and how she would make sure that he would change his mind, how important it was that he did it. How Celestia reacted when she had heard that Four Star had started the operation before it was time and how she planned to proceed.

She told her about how she took Snowfang into her service and how that ended. And she told her about the nightmare, the nightmare that was killing innocent, telling each of them why they died and what impact it did on the world. Telling every one of them the same story and get a reaction in turn. Most was angry at her, why just them? A few had accepted the fact for what it was.

And she talked about Zinky, Notharam’s filly, who had even comforted her when she was ready to give up, who had given her the power to continue. She spoke about the power that existed on the Great Plains of Harmony, how it was used to cut the bond between her sister and the banishment spell.

Luna listened through the whole thing, asking brief questions on some of the places but mostly sitting still. In the end had she tears rolling down her cheeks.

Four Star looked at Luna, a sad smile on her muzzle.
“Anything more you want to know, goddess?” she asked, concern in her voice.

How can you live with this? Luna wanted to ask. But she asked something else.
“What about the wings? From your story do I take it as that you keep them for memory and that it is the wings of Notharam and Thunder. But memories of what?”

Four Star snorted.
“The wing from Thunder is a reminder of the gravest mistake I ever have done, releasing a wolf on a wounded pony that the wolf loathed. Thunder died in horrible pain, and that I will never forgive myself for. The wing of Notharam is a reminder of this entire nightmare and the pony who shared the destiny to release you with me. That is why I keep these wings.” she said softly, her voice betraying the sadness she must feel inside.

Four Star turned towards the door, turning to leave.

“Wait, where are you going?” Luna asked, her voice thick with sadness.

The unicorn stopped and looked back at Luna.
“I’m going back to the sanctum. I will live the rest of my life there, reliving this nightmare over and over. That is my choice, and I will live with it. I will never fit in around other ponies again, so why bother trying.” she said and walked out of the door.

“Thank you.” Luna whispered softly into the night.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-

The night was almost over when Celestia spoke up, her sobbing had long since eased.
“I have killed them all sister. I cursed them, I removed the gift they where all born with.”

“What are you saying, Tia?” Luna asked, nearly afraid of the answer.

“When that demon took over you... that night when my guards were killed by your guardians... that entire event. It... paralyzed the whole of Canterlot for weeks. I could not do anything against it, the citizen feared. They feared what they did not understand.”

“They feared death.” Luna filled in.

“Yes, they feared death. They feared Nightmare Moon, they feared what death would do to them. Would they turn against the one they loved? Would they wander Equestria restlessly for the rest of their life? And I could not answer them. What would happen with you, the goddess of death, gone?” She sighed and looked at Starswirl, who had entered the room recently. “It was then Starswirl spoke to me. He had watched when you was banished, and he said that the ones who died and your guardians did not just disappear.”

“Something else happened.” Starswirl interrupted. “Their souls, small orbs in the color of their coat, started to float upwards before they travelled into a portal of some sort. I could feel the magical energy from the portals, it felt as if I had stood between you two, Discord and the Elements of Harmony. I realized that I probably looked into something that had been created during your battle with Discord. A place the souls of the dead searched themselves towards. I could feel it draw me in, that pure power. It was not harmony, it was not chaos. It was something in between. I knew that I looked into the only thing that would ever be able to cut of the bonds that the Elements had created.” he smiled at Luna. “And I could not follow my souls wish when my hearts desire was to see you again. Instead did I start to study it, knowing that it one day would bring you back to me.”

“But the thing was that the only way for a pony to die was still violence, and that normally never happened. But war was on our doorstep. We were paralyzed. The guards knew what they had to do, the entire army marched and defended our land. And they died. They died and for each death did our country become more and more paralyzed. That was when I spoke to the elders. But they already knew what had to be done.”

Celestia shrugged, tears rolling down her face again.
“I killed them all Luna. With the power of the Elements of Harmony did I gently wipe out every memory of eternal life. Then...”

Celestias voice failed her.

“Then she ripped away what made every pony immortal from their body, giving each living pony a life span. Many of them died, but now it was natural, they where old. But Celestia did not stop. Equestria had to be able to handle it, the life would have to go on. Equestria nearly lost a war because of the paralyzing that happened when a few died. We could not risk that again.” Starswirl concluded.

“I’m no longer goddess of the life, just like you never will be the goddess of the dead again. Now, we are only the goddesses of our celestial eyes.” Celestia said, tears streaming down her face. “I had to do it, I could not fly out and end the war myself, my wing was damaged after the fight that had been between me and the demon that called herself my sister. If I would have teleported myself out then I would be too weak when I arrived to the battle field. It was as if they knew that it was time for them to attack. I could have just erased their memory, but what if it would be a new war?” she said. “That memory would return, and who knows what would happen. What if it had been another war? I could not take that risk.”

Luna could just look at her sister.
“No, Celestia. You were not the one who killed them. I was. If I had not given in to the power of Discord, if I had not let the anger and hate consume me would nothing of this have happened. But we can change it back, we can change it with the Elements. Everything can be as it once was.”

Celestia shook her head.
“No, Luna, that is not a possibility. None of us is the bearer of the Elements any longer. I have passed that legacy down. That power is not for us to handle, it will only lead to things like this, one way or another. I can not let that happen again, it would destroy Equestria.”

Luna held her head low, tears dripping from her eyes.
“So we will have to live with lives passing as we blink, pony dying under our eyes? We are immortal, Celestia, but we are not cold hearted beings.” she said, when realization suddenly came. “How have you been able to live with it for a thousand years? I remember how you cried and begged Philomeena to be okay when she turned to ash the first time. How have you been able to live like this for all these years?”

Celestia looked at Luna.
“In the worst possible way. Or maybe the best since I’m still standing here. I befriended everypony I came across. I talk with most of the staff in the castle every day, as I have done since the day I casted the spell. I have been on every funeral that have been for the past thousand years, and I have known every one of the ponies that have been put to rest. I have cried, and I have found comfort in knowing that they will be reborn. It was Starswirl who gave me that information.”

Starswirl smiled.
“The portals are not one way only. It was one subject I had never studied during my time in life, or in the time there after for that matter, and that was the subject of birthing. But one day, when I threw a visit to one of my past students grand daughters, did I arrive there just as she was about to have a foal. It was then I saw it, a small portal opened and a lavender colored orb found its way down. I could feel the power from that portal, and I knew directly where it went. To the same place as the dead traveled. Now, that in itself did not prove anything, but the fact stood that I had seen that very soul only a couple of... what was it, day? months? ago. It had a pattern in it that I could not forget. Either way, I saw it touch the belly of the mare giving birth, merging inside of her. And a couple of hours later did the same mare lay with a little lavender colored filly next to her, a newly proud mother. That was eight hundred years ago, and I have seen that soul more than once since then.”

Celestia smiled fondly at Luna.
“They are not gone for ever, their memory might be but not the soul. Every soul has their own resonance, all of them are destined for something, be it this life or a life thousand years away. And I try to befriend them all, guiding them on their way. That, Luna, is what have kept me going for all this years.”

The elder sister stood up.
“And an era of nightmare have come to an end, you are finally back, and we can once again rule together. It is at it always have been, we are strongest together. Will you join me to lower the moon and raise the sun? A new era is about to dawn, unnoticed by the ponies of our nation.

Luna smiled at her sister.
“I would love to.”

And so, the twin sisters walked out on the balcony that overlooked Canterlot, and Luna lowered the moon before Celestia raised the sun.

Equestria had finally found balance, harmony, once again.

Authors Word

Authors Words

Just to clear one thing up. Chimes was finished before Episode 11: Hearth's Warming Eve. (Actually, it was finished before episode 8)
I could have changed some things, like that the unicorns once had control over the day circle, but I chose not to, I chose to go with the first episode "The eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn." and use that as the "common fact" in texts, rewritten to fit in with the rest of the story.

(The rest of this can be ignored, its just me that let my hands type.)

For me, at least while writing this piece of fiction, is the alicorn sisters goddesses, they are the ones who rule the day and the night. It might be that the unicorns had that power a long time ago, but I believe that at this time is it the alicorns alone that know that magic.

And one thing makes me think that the unicorns only brought forth the day and night by prayers, and that is the flag in the ending of Hearth's Warming Eve. A flag that, althought the episode was before Celestias and Lunas time, had the alicorns twins on it. It makes me wonder if Celestia and Luna wasn’t goddesses even before. This together with that AJ says "Heaven Above" (or something like that) in the middle of the episode.

I have always enjoyed the sound of a harp. My favorite sound is the deep tones, the tones someone might say is the dark tones; the sad tones that strike directly through my heart.

I don’t see myself as a musician, I enjoy the pieces but I cannot play.

To know what I want about this, think of yourself as a harp.
Think about the text you are about to read as a music sheet.
Think about your emotions as the tune that emerges from the harp.
Look as me as the audience, who enjoys the piece of music that you play.

The piece of music that we have created together.

Without you, my reader, this would not have been a completed piece. For that I thank you.