Salvation | Rebirth

Just as Artful asked, Wild woke him up in time for lunch, gently nudging him awake.

“Huh?” Artful vocalized groggily as he blinked sleep away from his eyes. Wild smiled, internally considering it cute, and planted a small kiss on Artful’s muzzle.

“Lunch time,” he said quietly.

“Oh, right,” Artful yawned, stretched, and then finally stood up, “Alright, let’s go.”

After a small detour to the bathroom, Artful and Wild headed towards the cafeteria cart. The train gently rocked under them, and the two of them looked out the windows to see the scenery they were passing. At the end of their own cart, the transition to the next one was a short and relatively narrow and loud corridor between two heavy-looking doors. Then the two made their way through a few more carts identical to their own. They passed a few ponies going the opposite direction and soon joined a small line heading to the cafeteria just like them. The corridors, thankfully, were wide enough for two ponies to stand side by side comfortably. Overall, Wild suspected that trains in Equestria were noticeably wider than the trains on Earth. Which was no surprise - ponies were quadrupeds, they took more horizontal space than humans ever could.

Once Artful and Wild entered the cafeteria cart, which seemed surprisingly open despite being exactly the same size as all the other carts, they headed straight to food pickup area. Food was already cooked and ready to go, all of it nice and appropriately hot. While there wasn’t much variety compared to what could be had back at the Royal Orphanage, what was there looked tasty. Rice, beans, fried tofu, buckwheat, pasta, some vegetables, all of it enough to make balanced and healthy meals. Surprisingly for Wild, the cost of those meals was covered already since he was a volunteer. He should have known to expect it, but he couldn’t help but think that this kind of thing probably didn’t exist on Earth. Not that he had ever volunteered for anything back then, so he couldn’t truly know. Once both Wild and Artful grabbed what they wanted to eat, they settled down on one of the tables near a window. They ate at a slow pace, enjoying their food and each other’s presence, comfortable with the silence between the two of them.

“What do you think they’ll have us do when we get to the Crystal Empire?” Wild heard coming from a table next to theirs.

“I dunno, probably carry things around. Heard there are cargo trains coming and going there all the time now,” the other pony replied, “Honestly, I don’t mind that. Bunch of us doing simple work will make complex things happen, you know?”

“As long as some useless glory hounds don’t try to ‘take charge’,” the first pony scoffed, “Shitty managers manage to make easy things shit.”

“Isn’t that the truth. But we can tell them to fuck off. No one’s getting in the way of good, honest work, not if I have anything to say about it.”

“Count me in too. Plus I bet everyone we’re gonna pick up along the way-”

“Oh, Sickle!” a pony hollered as they entered the cart, getting the attention of the two, “Long time no see!”

“Shit, that you, String Practice?”

“Yep!” the now-named String Practice nodded as they walked over to the pair, “Should’ve expected to see you here. How’s the farm life treating you?”

“As usual. It’s honest work, outta doors, guarantees I won’t go hungry,” Sickle smiled, “Now, come on, grab a bite and sit down with us.”

“Won’t be long!” String Practice made some sort of a jaunty salute and trotted off.

“Who’s that?” the remaining unnamed pony asked.

“String Practice’s an old buddy of mine,” Sickle explained, “Him and I go way back, right to kindergarten. Went to school together, then the same college. Well, he only spent a year in the college with me, but damn does that year count,” he smiled in reminiscence, “Things we got up to... but yeah, so, he’s a bit of a late bloomer, finally figured out he has a talent for music, so he went to work on that. Agriculture and music don’t really intersect, you know? ‘Cept when we get some music going during work, sure makes shit easier, know what I mean?”

“Power of music, oh yeah,” the second pony said, “How many ponies can he get into an impromptu street musical?”

“Think it was a couple dozen last time.”

“No shit?”

“Well, he does live in one of them big cities, s’lot of ponies there all clumped together.”

Wild let the conversation drift away from his mind, wondering if he would someday have such spontaneous reunions in the future. If he were to judge their ages, they were perhaps about twenty, perhaps thirty at most - they did sound somewhat older than either him or Artful, but Wild couldn’t exactly call himself an accurate judge of age based on the voice alone, and while he had been living among ponies for some time, he still couldn’t say whether there were any outward signs of aging between when a pony enters adulthood and when they become noticeably old. So far, he could only tell someone’s age, even if very imperfectly, only when they were either very young or very old. Even then, there were outliers like Celestia and Luna, who didn't sound any older than, perhaps, the pony equivalent of human late thirties or early forties.

“What’re you thinking about?” Artful asked.

“...the future,” Wild half-shrugged, “There are... many years to live. Ponies live long lives, longer than... you know.”

“Oh yeah, it’s kinda nuts, right? We still have many decades to live, and, you know, that’s... a lot,” Artful somewhat sheepishly smiled, “I mean, what are we going to do, really? I know I want to do art, and I will do art, but, like... a lot happened in the past, like, ten years, right? And that feels like a lifetime ago.”

Wild nodded, knowing exactly how Artful was feeling. It wasn’t even a year since Wild was homeless and struggling to survive. Despite that, however, it felt like the distance between then and now was a lot longer than just a couple of months. Things had changed so much, and they had changed for the better.

“I feel like a different person,” Wild confessed, speaking quietly enough that others around them wouldn’t be able to listen in without obviously leaning in, “I know I am not, but I feel like I am. And it is all... better. A lot.”

“I’m really glad to hear that,” Artful smiled at him, and Wild smiled in return.

Just barely more than a month ago, Wild saw no future for himself. There had been only one future then - being a constant drain on everyone and everything without anything to show for it. Wild had hated how useless he was, how he could bring nothing to the table except his own misery and skill at fighting with swords, which was nothing but a hobby he was good at. Now, however, he knew he could do more, and he would do more. Being a volunteer would, hopefully, help him prove it to himself.

***

Princess Luna was looking at a crumpled and distorted portrait of Princess Amore, her face scrunched in disgust. In this nook of the Crystal Palace, the air was filled with the stench of stale urine.

It wasn’t truly anything she hadn’t expected from Sombra, but this was no random act of pettiness - there was something personal, more than just the fact that Princess Amore was the ruler of the Crystal Empire before him. The idea was further supported by the fact that no other portrait suffered the same fate. She wondered what it was that made Sombra hate her so, as she could almost sense the said hatred infusing this disgusting yet very petty action. It wasn’t even something that was supposed to be ever publicly shown, considering how out of the way this scene was. It was... private, somehow. Princess Luna wished she knew more, but even her memories of what Radiant Hope had said and the recent information brought forward by Chestnut Falls didn’t paint a complete picture. There was something missing in between Sombra being just an outcast loner with only one friend and Radiant Hope discovering Sombra stealing the Crystal Heart. Was his resentment something that built up over the years and then spilled over as hate? Or... was it something else, a piece of the puzzle that was still missing?

“Mark this spot for later recovery,” Princess Luna ordered. Perhaps someone would be able to salvage the painting and restore it to its proper condition, as well as thoroughly clean it of Sombra’s... hatred.

Princess Luna couldn’t say she was particularly close to Princess Amore, but she knew her as a kind, soft-spoken, and wise ruler of her time. She had been, perhaps, a ruler that Luna had wanted to be back then. However, Princess Amore was gone now, reduced to literal pieces scattered far and wide. Perhaps those pieces would be found one day and, if magic allowed, be used to restore Princess Amore, but the chances were slim at best. Those pieces were likely buried under the ice and snow that accumulated over the last centuries. Finding just one piece of her would make it much easier to find the rest, but even finding that very first piece was not something Princess Luna expected to be easy. So, she had to consider that perhaps Princess Amore was gone forever, never to return, much like how everyone but her sister had long since died in between Luna’s imprisonment and return. Just like with them, she would mourn, and then she would go on. She had to.

Princess Amore was not a close friend, but she deserved more than her legacy being a urine-stained portrait and a broken nation.

Princess Luna and her group continued forward, her horn shining with magic. She scanned everywhere for traps, even though it slowed their progress down to a snail’s pace. This day, they would be lucky to reach the Throne Room, and the rest of the palace would be explored during the next few days. There was no hurry - had to be no hurry. So far, there were no deaths, and Luna would rather keep it that way. She scanned the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the air, all to make sure that no one following her would step into something nasty that would hurt them or kill them. So far, however, there was nothing. No traps, mechanical or magical, and Luna knew the palace had some defenses that could be easily activated from the Throne Room as well as from the private quarters. Did Sombra not know of them? Did he never find them during the short period of his reign?

Anticipation grew thick in the air as Princess Luna and her group approached the Throne Room. They moved slowly, still expecting traps, but it appeared that Sombra either didn’t have time to put them in, put them elsewhere, or simply didn’t bother. Perhaps they were hidden better, though Luna doubted it.

As powerful as Sombra was in Dark Magic, power was just one part of magical ability - the other was skill. From what he remembered of the fight with him, he could throw powerful spells around but didn’t seem to know how to use them together for a better effect, inventing combinations on the go, trying to see what would stick. It made him unpredictable and thus dangerous, and were he properly skilled, perhaps he would not have fallen in defeat as long as he didn’t allow Celestia and Luna to use the Elements of Harmony. However, it was clear to Luna that he was mad and not thinking particularly straight, which turned out to be a blessing... almost.

His curse had still taken the Crystal Empire with him.

The doors to the Throne Room were closed, but not barred or locked. From a distance, Princess Luna used her magic to open them - after checking for any sort of traps or triggers that this could cause. She expected perhaps an ominous creak, but the hinges were well-oiled, so there was nothing but a slight whoosh of air as the doors swung open. It was time to see what sort of havoc Sombra managed to wreck there.

The Throne Room was nearly unrecognizable. Even in the dim light coming from behind the closed curtains on the windows, the cracks in the previously smooth floor were apparent, the top layer resembling natural rocky terrain more than an artificial floor. Black crystals were growing from the floor in no pattern that Princess Luna could recognize, though she mentally noted to check if they perhaps made some sort of a grid that would interact with magic in some interesting - and possibly deadly - way. From the entrance to the throne along the uneven floor lay a carpet, previously a pleasant darker shade of pink, but now a spotty red with green fading in at points, with some cuts and frays, looking as if it aged years. The throne itself was an awkwardly large asymmetrical amalgamation of more black crystals, with a large misshapen pillow the same color as the carpet laid on top of the seat. Two bulky black crystal statues stood to the side of the throne, shaped like unicorn guards, wielding wicked-looking spears with barbed ends. Princess Luna grimaced - such spears were not made to be weapon of war but as means of causing the most harm possible with one strike. A tool of a sadist, not a weapon of a warrior. Each of them also wielded large tower shields, spiked with jagged crystals in the front. She suspected those shields would not be easy to handle, considering their bulk and how unwieldy they looked, but it was clear they were made with the same idea as the spear. It was all about causing pain.

Princess Luna did not enter the Throne Room and neither did the guards following her. She surveyed the room from where she stood, especially the ceiling - it was not a habit of most to look up. From the ceiling, tattered banners hung, unrecognizable, although the ceiling itself seemed intact and unchanged from what she could remember. No surprises were waiting to drop on anyone entering the throne room, at least.

She scanned the Throne Room with her magic, finding nothing out of place. That was until she got to the statues, and she nearly gasped.

“Someone is trapped in the statues,” she said out loud, “They are alive, but I am unsure for how long. I believe they are... not awake.”

She stepped into the Throne Room, and that was when the statues began to move. Their horns lit up, easily lifting their spears and shields. Their movements were stiff, emitting a grinding sort of noise, and yet the crystal acted more like rough and thick skin than solid rock. Luna immediately sent an immobilization spell at them, and they were caught in its effects, immediately coming to a sudden stop. The glow ceased, the weapons falling to the floor with loud clatter. Luna checked the statues - the ponies inside seemed to be physically unharmed by what happened and still alive.

“Secure the Throne Room,” Princess Luna ordered, “And we need an enchanting specialist.”

Princess Luna knew quite a lot about magic, but it was more about combat and healing than enchanting. She didn’t know whether her immobilization spell would be permanent or if the statues would resume moving, so it would be for the best to remove the spells that bound those constructs together, as well as extricate the trapped ponies from it.

Luna let herself sigh in relief. While she did miss whatever triggered their activation, at least they were easy to deal with. Perhaps they were made purely for intimidation, never expected to be actually used in combat. They could also be a trap, which was quite a likely possibility considering Sombra’s ‘surprise’ after his defeat, so Luna needed to be careful.

Once the enchanting specialist was there, Luna would try to enter the Dreamscape and search for the minds of those trapped within the constructs. Hopefully, she would be able to reassure them of their imminent release, as well as perhaps get some additional much needed information.

This day, hopefully, wouldn’t become any worse than it already was.