Beyond the Vail

Chapters

Loss filled with gain
Nightmare
I never asked for a roommate
Some stones are better left unturned
The more, the merrier

Loss filled with gain

The drive was long and uneventful. Well, besides a homeless man who tried to get me to pay him to squeegee my car’s windows. Homeless people aside the trip consisted of me driving several hours to get to a house I hadn’t seen more than a few times in my life. My great-aunt Margaret had been eccentric to say the least, she lived alone in a big old house in the middle of the woods on the edge of town. Though she was a black sheep she always made it to the family reunions and once even hosted one, or so I’m told. She had held it long before I was born. Whenever I saw her at reunions she would be sitting in a chair in the corner of a dark room in the corner of the house. The first couple years I had just ignored her, but after a while I became interested in this quiet woman, curiosity outweighed the part of my brain that wanted to ignore her. I sat down next to her at my third reunion and just said nothing for the first ten minutes.

She didn’t say anything, she just wrote in a small notebook and read a book. She always had a book. After about half an hour I finally spoke, “um, what are you reading?” She looked up at me with a tight-lipped mouth, the wrinkles on her face brought out more by her pursed lips, “a book.” Her voice was old like stone, it was the voice of a librarian who had just always been there, just unseen and unspeaking.

“What’s it about?”

She sighed and closed the book, “you’re Paul and Sarah’s kid, aren’t you?”

“Uh yes?”

“Then why don’t you run off to your parents and leave an old woman to her solitude?”

My eleven-year-old-self thought for a moment before replying, “because you seem lonelier than them.”

She didn’t speak she just sat there in thought. When she replied it was with a hint of sadness in her tone, “a book about fantasy.”

“Like dragons?”

She let out a laugh, it was an odd ancient sound that just didn’t sound right coming from her lips and she ended it with a small coughing fit, “yes, like dragons and griffins.”

“What’s a griffin?”

It was a simple question, she looked down at me searching for the smallest hint of sarcasm, of insincerity. Apparently finding none she flipped through the book until she came to a page bearing the image of the fearsome creature, “the griffin is a creature with a body that appears to be a mix of a lion and an eagle. It has fur and claws, but it also has feathers and a beak.”

I looked at the picture in awe, the words on the page were written in a wavy cursive script, but I was too enamored in the picture to read them. My eyes were focused solely on the picture of this odd-looking creature, I reached out a hand towards the book, but the book was pulled back quickly, “no touching!” I jerked my hand back suddenly shocked. She appeared to have seen my confusion and looked down at the book, “you mustn’t touch it, it’s far to old to be touched by untrained hands.”

I furrowed my brow, “well why don’t you teach me then?”

She seemed surprised for a moment before a toothy smile crept across her face, “perhaps I will. Do you read often?”

“Yeah! All the time!”

“Then perhaps you will do. Tell me, do you ever read fantasy stories about dragons or monsters?”

“They’re my favorite, dragons are super cool!”

She laughed again, “yes, yes they are. I think perhaps you’ll do quite nice.”

She pushed herself up and walked out of the room I thought about following her for a moment before noticing the book sitting in her chair. I looked at the doorway, she wasn’t there. I reached out for the book before stopping myself, I shouldn’t. She had said not too. I pulled my hand away and looked up as she came back into the room. She looked down at the book and ran her hand over the cover, “restraint over curiosity. Interesting… I spoke with your parents, they agreed to let you come stay with me this summer. Would you still like to learn how to treat a book right and more?”

I sat surprised for a moment before the giddiness took over, “yeah!”

The memory was pleasant. She had indeed taught me much on how to treat books, how to bind them, and how to handle an old book. She had plenty of ancient leather-bound tomes that talked about creatures that I had never even dreamed of. She had been a nice woman under it all. Had been. I frowned at the thought. A stroke. It was such an… uneventful death. Boring, she didn’t die in a blaze trying to save her books. No, she had a stroke and died in her sleep. Peaceful I’d heard. She was such a nice woman, but it seemed odd for her to have such a normal death.

I pulled my car up to her house to see more cars parked nearby and a crowd of about two dozen gathered on and around the front porch of the ancient New England nineteenth-century house. I parked and walked up to a man standing on the porch holding an envelope. He was a tall well-dressed man of about sixty who was trying to assure everyone, “yes I know, I’m sorry but Ms. Aegis made it clear she wanted her will reading outside her house. I’m sorry I know it’s an inconvenience, but these were her wishes. Now if you would be so kind as to quiet down, I will begin the reading.”

The crowd gradually got silent and I walked up behind one of my cousins, Bryan, I had never gotten along well with him, but he nodded at me in acknowledgement before looking back at my great-aunt’s lawyer. The man adjusted his tie before opening the envelope and unfolded a piece of paper before clearing his throat and beginning, “I, Margaret Faust Aegis, being of sound mind and body hereby bequeath my last will and testament. In all my years on this earth I have known many people and as of this being written I have outlived many of them, but to those that remain I leave my possessions. To my great-nephew, Jacob, I leave my house, property, and all the possessions inside and out. I also leave all my monetary wealth, physical or otherwise to Jacob. I also leave my various intellectual properties, patents, or anything else I owned or created to Jacob.”

I felt four dozen eyes turn to look at me before one of my uncles pushed up onto the porch and grabbed the will before looking it over. The fight left him, and his hands dropped to his side, “it’s right.” The lawyer grabbed the paper back and stepped down off the porch before walking through the crowd and up to me, “here you are, call me if you need anything. My greatest condolences about Margaret, she was a terrific woman.” He handed me a ring of keys and a business card.

My family seemed shocked, all of them tried to talk to me and I just pushed past them and chose the key on the ring labelled front door, before unlocking the door and going in, shutting it behind me and locking it. Things were off to an interesting start.

The rest of the day was more uneventful. After my family finally got off the porch, I got to work going around the house looking at it. Should I move here, or should I sell it? I had no obligation; the will hadn’t said I had to stay here or even keep the house. I resolved to cleaning up some of the dust tat had piled in the last few hard years of Margaret’s life. Her house was filled with every bizarre collectable she had gotten her hands on in her life. An African fetish doll here, a Tibetan tapestry there, and even a few skulls from the Paris catacombs on a shelf. But it wasn’t those things that interested me. Ok, I’ll admit the skulls were cool, but what had always drawn my interest were the relics.

Ancient pieces of Mayan knives sat in cushioned cases next to Greek vases in identical cases, death masks, parchment, and ancient texts sat in the dimly lit cases waiting for the chance to show off their secrets. I fiddled with he keys in my hand and sighed, there was no time to get nostalgic, work had to be done. I counted the keys on the rings, there were seven, most of them were labelled to parts of the house, but two weren’t, an elaborately fine key, and a plain iron one that looked like it opened a castle door or a dungeon cell rather than a door in a house.

There was only one room that this key could belong to. I entered the library and walked towards the heavy reinforced door placed in the opposite wall, it was the only room in the house I’d never been allowed into. My great-aunt’s private collection. I had asked her more than once about the room and she had only ever told me that there were some items in the room, that only she’d ever see.

I pushed the iron key into the door and turned it, the tumblers catching and clicking as the lock was disabled. I put a hand on the handle ant turned it before pulling open the door. The door revealed a dark room, I could barely see the floor in front of me as I felt for a light switch and flicked it on. The lights came on revealing a beautiful room decorated with cases, pedestals, and shelve filled with artifacts, relics, and pieces of art. A plush chair was set against the back wall, the only real piece of furniture in the windowless room.

I paced by the cases, before noticing a peculiar sculpture that caught my interest. It was of a jet black unicorn with wings wearing in an elaborate set of silver armor holding up the moon, set in the middle of the moon was a beautiful dark uncut, blue crystal. A plaque labelled the statue as, “Nightmare Moon, the third terror of Equestria.” I reached out and with a bit of manipulation easily pulled the stone from the disk-like moon, examining it. It was beautiful, the light shone through it, illuminating dark veins inside it.

A loud ringing interrupted my thoughts, the doorbell was going off. I slipped the rock into my pocket before shutting the door to the room and walking to the front door and opening it. An older woman with fiery red hair and pale skin in a pantsuit stood on the front porch holding a briefcase. I blinked and opened the door wider, “can I help you ma’am?”

The woman smiled at me showing a row of bright white teeth as she stuck out a hand, “hi I’m Mary with the local historical society and a member of the town council.”

I shook her hand with a no doubt confused look on my face, “uh ok… How can I help you Mary?”

“Well, you’re Mr. Vail correct? I’ve come because I heard about the unfortunate departure of Ms. Aegis… my deepest condolences of course.”

I nodded, “thank you, but that doesn’t really answer the question does it?”

Her smile only seemed to grow, “right you are sir. I would like to present you with the society’s offer regarding the house. You see, Ms. Aegis’ house is of great historical importance, not to mention her vast collection and we at the historical society would like to see the house protected and perhaps even turned into a museum… thus we would like to offer to buy the house and all the contents within.”

I frowned and blinked, “you want to buy the house? I’m not sure I’m going to sell actually.”

“That’s no problem at all, the society has already composed an offer for you.”

She opened her briefcase and pulled out a manilla envelope with a few papers inside. “You see Mr. Vail the society is quite ready to buy at this very moment. You can sign right now and well even set you up in a hotel for a few days until the transaction is finalized.” I could hear it in her words even if I couldn’t see it on her face, she wanted this house. I looked down at the contract and scanned it. It said that I agreed to sell the house, everything inside, and anything on the property for a sum of… my eyes went wide as I saw the number.

Mary only smiled back at my wide eyes, “as you can see Mr. Vain, we have considered not only the value of the property, but of the collection included inside. The society, in my opinion, was a bit generous in their offer.”

I bit my lip, “can I have some time to think it over?”

“Of course! Take my card and when you decide to sell just give me a call.”

She handed me a business card with her name, number, and email on it. I just stuffed it into my pocket next to the stone I’d pulled from the lunar statue and gave her a half-hearted smile, “thanks. I’ll make sure to call you when I decide.” I shut the door before she could try and spin more silver thread with her tongue. I hated the whole used car salesman vibe she had given off, I was no idiot.

Though the offer was tempting… millions… for an old house and a dusty collection. What did I honestly have to lose by selling? Yes, it had been my great-aunts house, but she was gone and it’s not like I was planning to become a collector… but still… I had a nagging feeling that I shouldn’t sell. My hand drifted down to the stone in my pocket and I absentmindedly rubbed my thumb across it.

Decisions… decisions…

Author's Note

Hi, I'm Cinos! I'm glad you're checking out my story, so thanks!
Chapter one huh? I'm hearing a lot of love for Luna and Nightmare Night, heh, she's my personal fav as well.
If you have any suggestions or anything you'd like to say go ahead and tell me what you think! I love to see comments above all else!
Also.... yes even though this chapter doesn't technically have ponies in it.... later ones will.

Nightmare

I gasped loudly as the hot water popped onto me. Standing behind the stove I shook my hand in response to the boiling water hitting it. The store-bought instant noodles were cooking nicely, and I was here all alone in this old house as the sun began to set. I turned off the stove and poured the noodles into a bowl, steam pouring off them in waves. I ate them with a general disinterest, they were as bland as eating actual string.

I tiredly washed the bowl and headed to the guest room I had always stayed in. I was not going to sleep in the main bedroom, it just made me uncomfortable thinking about it. As I laid down thinking through the events of the day I set the blue stone from earlier on the bedside table and pushed my head back against the pillow making a crackling noise as I did. I frowned and rolled over in bed, sticking my hand under the pillow, and pulling out a folded piece of paper.

It was just a normal sheet of unlined paper other than the fact it seemed to be sealed with wax. I couldn’t tell what the seal was supposed to be, but I cracked it open and read the paper.

Jacob, if you are reading this then I have died. I have prepared a long time for this eventuality and I hope you find the monetary compensation sufficient to persuade you into assisting me with my dying wish. My collection must never be sold or seen by anyone other than you, including your family. People will no doubt approach you about selling the house or my collection, I implore you to say no. My collection is only safe in my house and nobody must ever get their hands on it. My private collection vault is locked, the key should be on the key ring. Inside you will find my most precious artifacts. I have attached instructions regarding each one, under no circumstances must you break these rules.

My eyes squinted to read the curved text, so I reached behind me and opened the blinds, allowing moonlight to fill the room before looking back at the letter. All that was left was instructions regarding the care and preservation of her most important pieces, I looked down the list until I found the one, I was looking for.

Nightmare Moon Statuette

Do not ever remove this item from the vault or any part of it ever! Especially not the embedded stone, it should never be removed. If for any reason you must remove the item from the vault, do not do so at night! The item must never be exposed to sunlight ever, doing so would be disastrous for you and the item.

If the item is ever broken, then dispose of it in a way to where it will never be found by anyone ever again.

There was more written, but I wasn’t interested. My eyes quickly snapped to the gem sitting on my bedside table as a single ray of moonlight fell on it. I jumped at it but stopped and watched in awe as the stone refracted the light around the room, making it look like hundreds of small stars. My eyes went back to the stone when the tiny pin pricks of light disappeared and the stone began to spew what looked like thick black smoke, but it seemed heavier than air. The black fog only rolled along the floor and wasn’t even light enough to rise to the beds level.

My hands scrambled to grab the stone and pull it out of the light, but even when I pulled it to my chest and out of the moonlight it still spewed the fog, though this time over the bed and me. My head began to lighten as I tried wrapping my shirt around the stone to stop the black fog, but it only made it more concentrated around me. I desperately pulled off my shirt, still wrapped around the stone, and threw it to the floor. I gasped out as the fog rolled off the bed and my lungs were no longer blocked.

The fog seemed to be coalescing in the spot where I’d thrown the stone and my jaw dropped as it rose and shaped itself slowly into the form of a onyx black horse with a mane and tail as blue as the stone had been with small dots of light, not unlike stars, in them. The mane and tail appeared to flow in the air on their own as if there was a breeze, even though the air low in the room was nonexistent. On its rump, or flank, I thought remembering the correct word, it had a marking that looked like a huge splotch of blue with a crescent moon on top in white. But it wasn’t paint I realized, it looked like a tattoo.

The horse I also quickly noticed somehow had a horn jutting from its head and wings tucked to its side, it was identical to the horse in the statue. I gasped slightly at the realization and its eyes opened and locked onto me. They were blue, a deep blue, not in the sense that they were dark. In fact they were akin to cyan or teal, but they were the kind of eyes I felt that I might fall into them, as it stared at me I noticed its pupils were not normal either. They were slits, like a cat, not like an equine. For what felt like a millennia I just sat upright in bed locking eyes with it, it only stared back, it didn’t whinny or neigh or make an noise, it just stood silently, the seemingly ethereal wind in its mane the only thing making it move at all.

Finally, I made the first move, I pulled the bedspread down off my waist and slowly slid out of the bed, my eyes never leaving the midnight creature. I stepped closer to it, its eyes still staring into me. I saw something in its eyes, was it intelligent? No. It was impossible, but the way they considered me was unsettling. I leaned over and peeked at its stomach and underside, a female then. I looked up at it and it seemed to be sneering at me, my eyes widened as it opened its mouth and spoke.

“Thou wouldst dare act so unfitting as to stare at our undercarriage so completely blatantly? We are disgusted by this reviling behavior and demand that thou give thee name and titles!”

I sputtered out a response somehow despite the utter shock, “I-I’m Jacob. You can t-talk?”

“Insolence, of course we can speak, didst thou believe us deaf or dumb perhaps? What gave thou the sheer arrogance as to assume thee could ogle us?”

“I-I didn’t know you were intelligent; I was only checking your gender. How can you talk? You’re a horse!”

Her eyes narrowed and she snarled at me, showing a row of sharp fangs, “is thou implying that thou could not perceive our gender and thou doth blatantly insult us by comparing us to a horse! We are a pony!”

Her horn glowed with a blue light and I felt myself jerked in front of her face by some unnatural force, “we know not what you are, nor how thou could be so ignorant, but even a fool serves a purpose. Where are we? Do not lie to us fool, we will know.”

She punctuated her point by using her strange blue… magic you could call it, to pull me inches away from her sharp horn, I swallowed and quickly answered, “you-you’re in my great-aunts house, or well… my house. Listen! I don’t know what or apparently who you are, but you don’t have to hurt me!”

She stared into my pleading eyes for a moment, before I felt the strange force holding me let go and I fell to my knees on the floor. I looked up at her imposing form as she stared down at me emotionless.

“Thou doth not lie. Thee truly is ignorant to our identity? And this home, where is this?”

“Y-yeah I don’t know who you are, and the house is in the town of Tillersville!”

“We are not familiar with this place, what nation doth this town belong?”

“Uh… the United States of America.”

“This place is also unfamiliar to us, where is it in relation to Equestria? And what is your kind?”

“Equestria? There’s no place I’ve ever heard of by that name and I’m a human.”

“Though bizarre as it sounds, we know thou is still speaking the truth human. Perhaps we were quick and harsh in our judgement, we appear to be lost in thy nation.”

She bowed down deeply to me, “we are Nightmare Moon, we are pleased to meet you… Jason. We hope that you will forgive our indiscretion.”

“Yeah it’s a pleasure to meet you too and really I should apologize for uh… peeking at you.”

I bowed deeply back at her before rising. This day just kept getting weirder and weirder, I was contemplating whether I was simply having a mental breakdown when she spoke again.

“Thy speech is particularly strange, we do not mean to insult thee, as we need your assistance. We assure you, that you will be compensated for your help.”

“Money? Oh, no I don’t need money!”

“Nay? Thou doth no accept our offer?”

“Oh, I do! I just don’t want any money.”

She sighed and stepped in front of me, “doth thou… seek an alternative form of payment perhaps? We doth understand… if it insures our safe return… despicable creature”

“Wait, what? No! No! That’s disgusting to even suggest! Besides you’re a uh… nevertheless, I want to help, I don’t need any form of compensation.”

Her eyes widened and she stepped back, “what? Why wouldst thou not wish for payment? We could give thee gold and many honors for thy service.”

“I don’t care about any of that, if you need my help then it would just be… wrong for me to just ignore that, Ms. Moon.”

She stared at me a moment more, the slits in her eyes narrowing before she laughed, “Ms. Moon? Thou are most humorous! We are Nightmare Moon, princess of the night, and matron of the moon itself!”

“Ok… Ms. Nightmare Moon?”

The black matron laughed harder still, “my, we have not had such entertaining a conversation in more than a thousand years!”

As she said this a strange look passed over her eyes and she stopped laughing, it was the same look you saw in soldiers, a stare that wasn’t seeing anything. “Your highness then? How can I help you?”

She turned to me, the look gone, “we would like thou to show us on a map where we are and help us chart a way back to Equestria, we are unsure how we were contained inside that stone or when, but it is imperative that we return, else our gift may never come to fruition.”

I could feel the visible confusion on my own face, but I just nodded along and said, “that sounds like a good idea if you’re trying to get home, but would you rather do it in the morning?”

“This is our morning, when thou doth lay thy head upon thy pillows, our work doth begin and it doth not stop until the dawn breaks.”

My body was tired, and I felt as if I had been thrown around by a magic pony with wings and night owl syndrome. I groaned loudly, before remembering that she stood directly in front of me and I looked up nervously. She had an unreadable face for several seconds before a slight smirk appeared, “thou doth rudely sound excited. Move or we will move thou ourselves and trust us when we say thou doth not want that.”

It was going to be a long night.

Author's Note

DUH DUH DUH!!
That's right! Shes here!

Ahem, hope you enjoyed chapter 2 and meeting NM!
If you did enjoy, leave a comment or a thumbs up to show your love for your favorite nighttime villain!

I never asked for a roommate

My face dropped into my cereal before I caught myself and pushed the bowl away slightly, laying my head on the table, comfortingly. A hoof slammed down on the table next to my face making me jump, my arms swinging around, “I’m up your highness!”

The alicorn, as I had learned she was called, got up into my face with a smirk, “tired? We were only working for a few hours.”

I groaned, “I haven’t slept in nearly twenty-four hours.”

“Shame for you, there will be time for thou to rest when we say so.”

I was on the verge of sobbing into my milk, a talking magical pony was cool for the first couple hours, then it was just terribly annoying. When she finally realized there wasn’t a magical continent of ponies on Earth, she seemed frustrated, but it only made her seem more perseverant to get back to her kingdom. She had traveled between worlds was her opinion, the news that magic and other worlds would have been cool, if I didn’t feel like my head was filled with concrete. I’m sure later hat it would hit and be impressive, but until then my hair was dipping into my bowl again.

“What is this peculiar soup that thou are consuming?”

“It’s cereal, it’s not a soup, it’s just eaten with milk. Try some.”

“Are thou acting as my cupbearer? Thy courtesy is much appreciated.”

I went to scoop up some cereal to eat as the bowl slid across the table, enveloped in a blue aura as she sat down at the table and used her magic to lift up some cereal and eat it. I just gave up and set my head on the table as she continued to eat my cereal. She finished the cereal and set it on the table, “hm, oats, but sweet and in interesting shapes, what is this cereal called?”

“ugh… Cheerios.”

“Cheerios? An interesting name for such a treat, we are grateful that thou have served us such a flavorful dinner before I slumber.”

I grunted, “it’s nothing your highness… anything else I can do for you?”

“Well, since thou are so kind as to offer, yes, we could use a fitting place to sleep. We do not think it would be fitting to sleep in thy bed, it is much too small.”

“Of course, it is, how would we both fit?”

She laughed, “it is cute for thou to assume we would allow thee to even slumber in the same room as us.”

I just rubbed my eyes and stood, “follow me your highness…”

I walked tiredly down the hall as nearly bumped into the wall… twice. I unlocked and opened the door to the master bedroom. A large four poster bed dominated the middle of the room and a dresser stood against the wall, a large window occupied the left wall and several pieces from my great-aunt’s collection were placed around the room.

Nightmare Moon smiled slightly in satisfaction, “this is far less than our room once were, but until we reclaim our title this will do.”

“Great… now I’m going to go collapse… I’m taking the day off.”

“Yes indeed, we are grateful for your assistance and will alert you should we need you.”

I just mumbled some unintelligible acknowledgement and wandered back to my room. I had gotten my first house and on day one, some… pony had taken it over. Mares, am I right? I slammed myself down into bed and finally shut my eyes punctuated by a sigh of relief. I was laying there drifting off for approximately twenty blissful seconds before my I heard someone knocking on the front door, then ringing the doorbell. I wanted to cry as I dragged myself out of bed and to the front door, opening it with a grunt.

“Mr. Vail, a pleasure to see you again. Sorry to keep showing up on your doorstep, but I seem to have forgotten to get your phone number as well! I was thinking that we could meet for lunch or perhaps over dinner to discuss the possibility of you selling the property! I for one…”

I stopped listening and just stared ahead nodding until she stopped talking and gave me one of her white smiles, “uh… yeah. Sounds great… when was it?”

“How about… tomorrow at six?”

“Great… sure…”

I gave her my number and shut the door as she left, before collapsing back onto my bed. More tired than before… finally I fell asleep. I dreamt of a tall obsidian mare with a flowing mane of stars standing with me in an empty black void. Really? Her taking over my house wasn’t enough? She had to steal my dreams too? Well, I could always just dream about something else…

“Uh… could you like go… I don’t want to dream about you… let me go to the beach or something…”

“Thou are not dreaming of us Jacob. We are the mistress of the night and of dreams.”

“So, you’re saying that you’re actually here right now?”

“Indeed. We are responsible for all dreams, but thine are the only ones that we will enter for now… thy species is so strange. Thine species’ minds are… clouded and inaccessible. Except thine mind, our conclusion thus far is that thou have accepted us consciously and thus thy subconscious has allowed us access.”

“You’re literally inside my head? Great. Can’t I rest in peace?”

“Thou offered to help us. Just as easily as we can reward thee… we can destroy thee.”

The unseen ground beneath my feet shook at her words. My footing was nearly lost as the ground began moving like it was a liquid, “okay! I get it! You’re super powerful in my dreams.”

“Doth thou mock us? Our power is far beyond the realm of dreams, just as we may give, thou joy or insight pleasure, we may create pain and horror in thee.”

“Alright then, I’m not mocking you, but I haven’t really seen you do many very impressive things. I saw you levitate a bowl though, that was pretty cool.”

“Thou foster doubts against us. Our power grows with each day we are under the moonlight, it strengthens us. Nevertheless, we require your assistance again… Jacob.”

“Alright go ahead, also why do you talk like this is medieval England?”

She gave me an annoyed look, the kind that says, “silence puny mortal before I reduce you to bones which I will then grind down into powder.” I just clicked my tongue and shrugged at her.

“Indeed… we speak normally for the old times. We need thy assistance with supplies. We need better nourishment than simply cereal. As well as supplies for us to return to our home. Some hay, but not too dry, lightly salted, with a olive oil glaze. As for the magical supplies we will need to visit thine nearest library and retrieve books on magic.”

“Uh so, the hay I might be able to find, I don’t know about all that gourmet stuff though… also, there’s no library in the entire world that has books on magic, there’s no such thing as magic… well with the exception of you.”

“We were not mistaken then, we sensed no magic in thee, nor anywhere around us… it is chaotic in every grain of sand and breath of air, we are surprised thine kind prospers remarkably for such chaos.”

“Yeah, I suppose so. Though, you could try out some magic and create this world’s first spell book or something.”

“Perhaps, or maybe thou should keep a record of us and our exploits so far?”

“Me? Write about this? Meh, that’ll never happen… I would like to know as well… could you like… give me magic powers?”

She smiled a creepy evil grim grinchy smile, “it could be possible, if thou are useful to us, perhaps it will be thine reward. However, we can only give thee the beginnings of magic, we cannot make thee a master in one day or grow it strong in one, thou will have to start as any infantile unicorn would.”

“Really,” I asked excited. “What about like wings? Could I fly?”

“No. We could not turn thou into an alicorn. Any wings that we gifted thee would only be temporary and not last for long. Though, this is only if thou are useful to us. If thee has no value then there will be no reward for thou.”

“What would be useful is if you spoke normally.”

“We could destroy thou easily. Do not tempt us.”

The pitch alicorn laughed to herself, she had an exceptionally beautiful laugh. Creepy now in this black place, but it was nice, I guess. I just rolled my eyes at her and motioned as if I was wearing a watch, “how long can you keep this up. I’ll wake up eventually.”

“Time passes different here. In thy dream realm we could speak for days. Now, however we need thee to do something for us. Our memories of the past have returned slowly, but we remember most of how we were imprisoned inside that crystal.”
I woke with a start to see her standing over me as i got up off the bed, the crystal that she’d originally come out of was now sitting on my dresser and she had shown an obvious disdain for it, it had been pretty funny to tease her with it until she shot me with a beam of magic that literally froze me to the floor. I really didn’t like alicorn magic. She continued as my thoughts came back to her, “we were trapped by an unknown being for unknown reasons, but we are sure that there are more of these crystals somewhere.”

“More crystals? Where?”

“We are unsure, but if we have enough time, we could devise a spell that could use ours to find the others. We need about a week.”

“Right, magic. So, is it possible that the other crystals also contain…?”

“Ponies like us? Yes, it is quite possible that the crystals contain more like us.”

“Do you know any of the other ponies that could be trapped inside them or how many crystals there may be?”

“No, we have some ideas, but we are not completely dure who else may be trapped. As for how many, we will not know until the spell is complete. Thus, we will begin work now.”

She walked out of the room leaving me standing alone, my feet frozen to the floor, “uh… Nightmare? Miss Moon? Your highness?”

I stood there silently for a moment with no response before I sighed and tried to pull my feet free. No dice. I reached over towards my dresser to grab the lamp off it so I could smash the ice. I reached as far as I could, but the only thing I could reach was the crystal. Reluctantly I grabbed it and tried to break the ice without breaking the crystal, eventually I busted off enough ice to free myself before examining the crystal. She deep color of the crystal didn’t reflect any light as I stared into it, but it didn’t seem to be busted or chipped at all. As an experiment I bashed the crystal onto the edge of the dresser, but it didn’t seem to do any damage at all. No chips or cracks at all.

Interesting. Remarkably interesting. I’d have to ask my roommate about that later, but for now it would be a good idea to go on a jog, my feet were about to turn blue and I really needed to get the blood pumping again. I pulled on my sneakers and started to jog in place before I opened the door and after closing it, I began to jog down the long road to the house.

After a few minutes I took a turn and veered into the woods, my feet crunching on dead leaves as I jogged, panting quietly as the sunlight was blocked out by the foliage. Even though I kept jogging I still felt cold, and as I ran it only got colder before I stopped, my hip was aching with cold. I reached into my pocket and cringingly pulled out the crystal, my hand began to slowly ache, and a thin layer of frost began to form on it. Looking at it I began to jog backwards, and the frost slowly melted. I stopped and so did it. I ran forward suddenly, sprinting and the crystal grew colder much faster before suddenly warming up. I stopped and backed up until it was at its coldest. I turned right and it began to warm up, I turned around and after passing the coldest point it grew warm again. I went back to the central cold spot before swapping hands, my hands were turning red from the cold.

I got down on my knees and sat down the crystal, frost began to spread around me on the ground before I started digging.

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait on this one, but i hope you guys like it! The story is moving forward! And if you have any comments, suggestions, or you want to share the story, go for it!!
I really appreciate all the love!

Some stones are better left unturned

Dirt burrowed under my fingernails as I dug deeper into the ground, the cold that the crystal had given me was like a buzzing, like an itch. Behind my eyes scratching with its frozen nails, trying to escape and I wanted so bad to scratch that itch. It got louder and colder, the crystal was beginning to freeze the ground around it before suddenly there was silence and the frost on the ground stopped spreading. I pushed my hands again into the dirt and felt something solid and after a quick knock, metallic and hollow. I uncovered the small metal box and pulled it up and out of the hole.

It was a metal lockbox with a half rotted wooden handle on top. Oxidation had long ago rusted spots onto it, the hinges were nearly covered in it. The only part of the box that didn’t seem to be rusted was the simple key lock on the front. Further examination and a few attempts with rock revealed that I wasn’t getting the box open without some tools or the key. On a hunch I pulled out my key ring and went through them one by one. None of them fit, but I also noticed a small flathead screwdriver attached to the ring as well. I pushed it into the lock and despite my newfound fifteen minutes of lockpicking skill I failed to open it. So rather than try to open the box via the lock I instead focused my efforts at prying off the hinges. One of them came off easily, but the other was more rigidly attached and didn’t seem to want to come off.

I used all the leverage I had to pry off the hinge and eventually I was able to rip the screws out and pull off the hinge. The box still wouldn’t open quite right since it was still locked, but I put my hands on both halves and pulled with all my strength to open it. The lock whined and the old metal groaned before eventually bending enough for me to reach into the box with a hand and close my fingers around something. I pulled out a bundle of cloth wrapping something hard and tied shut with twine. A note was folded and tucked into the string, I pulled it out and read it.

“The time has come, there is too much danger. They were banished here for good reason and it is not our place to free them. The Lunar Crystal will remain in my possession, but I’m burying these so that even if mine were to be stolen then they will never truly have them all, there will still be hope. If you are reading this then I beg you. Take this box and toss it and its contents into the ocean, it must never become exposed to the light of day.”

My head was a ringing mess of indecision. Should I open it or toss it in a lake like an Arthurian legend. No, I conceded that I couldn’t just throw it away. The crystal had drawn me to it, surely not so I could just dispose of it. But from what I had read the note had to have been written by my Margaret. Why did my great-aunt have it and why had she tried to hide whatever this was? I reread the note and had second thoughts about just opening it after I read “it must never become exposed to the light of day” again. The other note had said something similar before I met her royal nuttiness, my roommate.

The day was bright, it was possible that this was another crystal, but the process could work in reverse. This thing might activate if exposed to sunlight, so I stood and picking up the “Lunar Crystal” after realizing it was no longer cold and put everything back in the box before heading for home. The leaves crunched heavily under me as it seemed that the entire forest was dead silent.

I shut the door behind me quietly and dumped the box out on the table, the Lunar Crystal and the small bundle made dull thuds as they landed, only furthering my suspicion that it was a crystal inside. I made sure that the blinds were shut before stepping into the pantry and shutting the door, there was absolutely no light besides the bulb which dimly lit up the small area when I flicked the light switch. It only made sense that sunlight would cause the crystal to react so I figured that a light bulb would be safe as I gingerly unwrapped the bundle. The rough twine fell from my fingers as I untied it and pulled away the cloth, revealing a piece of paper wrapped around a beautiful golden crystal that shimmered as I held it up to the light.

The paper only had one word written on it, “fountain.” There was a fountain in the garden, was it possible that another one of the crystals was kept there? It was like a scavenger hunt from beyond the grave. The implications of there being more crystals was suddenly invading my thoughts. I could keep one giant magical pony secret, but I couldn’t do that for twenty or however many of these crystals there were.

What was I going to do? I couldn’t tell her highness, not yet. Besides, what if the pony inside this crystal was dangerous? I had never considered before as to why they were locked away, there had to have been a good reason, I had asked her, but she said some weird stuff about jealousy and being imprisoned by elements. I had no idea what she was talking about, but she had never really and truly seemed dangerous to me, she was just full of empty threats.

The day came and went slowly after I hid the crystal from Nightmare Moon, it was mostly me going back and forth for her highness’ every whim. The next day came and went about the same until the evening when I had to get ready for my dinner with Mary, even if she seemed like a nut I wasn’t one to just stand someone up for no reason. I put on one of my nicer shirts and headed out, Nightmare Moon was still buried in her work when I left. I drove my car into town and headed to the place she had said to meet her, walking in I noticed her sitting at a table in a black dress before she saw me and motioned for me with a smile.

I sat and picked up the menu as she greeted me, “Mr. Vail, it’s great you were able to make it. Have you considered the society’s offer?”

“Actually, I was hoping to get a bit more information on your organization before I start dealing in absolutes.”

“Of course, the society works for the preservation of historical artifacts across the east coast and abroad. My apologies, our official name is the Official Historical Society of America, the organization was started about sixty years ago by a distant relative of mine actually, so I guess you could call it a family business.”

“How big is the society?”

“Very large, we have locations we preserve all around the world, from the States to Germany to South Africa to the Philippines. It’s why we were able to offer such a… large amount for the house.”

“Yes, the house. I don’t think I’m going to sell.”

“Mr. Vail, I urge you to reconsider. The society has given me the authority to negotiate, I can go up by ten percent if it would change your mind, or if you have a counter offer than I would be more than happy to pass it along the line.”

“No, I’ve made my decision. I’m not going to sell.”

“Mr. Vail. If the house is so important to you sentimentally then I’m sure I could get the society to renegotiate for just the collection instead of the entire property.”

Our food arrived as I finally gave my absolute, “no, I’m not selling any part of the property or the collection. I’ve come to realize the full value of what my great-aunt left me, it’s an amazing collection and I wouldn’t trade it for double the price on those papers.”

I began to eat as I watched her eyes suddenly harden, “Mr. Vail please… reconsider, you are being emotional. I could possibly get the society to the purchase of some of the collection instead of all of it.”

I raised my burger to my mouth and took a bite, “those things meant nothing to me in life, but in her death, they have suddenly taken in her vitality and memory. That is sentimentality. I will not sell.”

“Mr. Vail… I have hope you may yet reconsider, but I understand. When my grandmother passed away a few years ago it was hard to empty out her house, there were so many pleasant memories.”

“I’m sorry for your loss, but I’m glad you understand, this is a personal decision, it has nothing to do with money.”

“I understand, again, if you reconsider do not fear calling me at any time, the offer will still stand at least for now.”

We both ate, the defeat was evident on her face as I finished my meal and left after putting down my half of the check, rude to not pay all of it I know, it was insult to injury, but she could afford it I’m sure. It wasn’t meant to be an insult and I wasn’t trying to be a jerk, but the society was just a nuisance trying to circle my great-aunts property like vultures over her still twitching body, I’d bet this woman knew about my great-aunts death before I did, she probably already had the contract drawn up before I even arrived.

Her fingers suddenly closed into fists as he stepped out the door, such infuriating ignorance. The fool! He had his every chance, but he had to be a pathetic wimp for that old history whore. Her rage subsided as she breathed deeply and unclenched her hands, blood seeped from where her nails had dug into her palms. She stood and whistled loudly, the music stopped and everyone in the restaurant turned to her.

“He will not sell. He’s made it evident that the old woman is some kind of saint to him, and he holds her collection in high regards. He could be turned with the right time and effort, but it would be so much easier to let a natural accident happen to him. I don’t care how you do it, when, or where as long as it can’t be tied back to us and the property becomes ours! So, for the love of God, get out there and find a plan to wipe that insignificant pawn off the chess board!”

The general cheers of approval met her ears as all the restaurant workers and “customers” shuffled out, the operation was done for tonight. She watched as all of her pawns, knights, rooks, and even her bishops walked out, but no king. She was the king and the queen, she was the center piece and the most maneuverable on the board, she was going to wipe out the other side and get exactly what she wanted, no matter the cost. The society would find the stones one way or another and when they did they would no longer have to worry about petty matters such as procedure or law, only the ones that they drew up for themselves.

It’s true as they say, she thought, the world is an oyster and she was going to rip it open and pull everything from inside, the world would cry out at first, but the power and things they could promise would quickly overwhelm anything else that they could try and do to stop them. She fingered the necklace she wore, an old one made of jade, it was only a stone, just like the ones she sought, but they would be her greatest achievement and Vail was not going to stand in her way.

Author's Note

Yes! I know it’s been far too long! I’m sorry about that. Christmas in 2020 has been crazy, as was everything else, but happy 2021! This is my gift to you guys! A new chapter! Finally, you see another crystal and see some of the other side of the “society” who want the house, what do they really want though? Is there more than is alluded too? I would like to hear some comments or criticism you guys and gals have! I love to read them so write up some more cool comments! An incredibly special thanks to mein Deutsch friend! You know who you are!

And to all the rest of you who’ve liked, commented, shared, and added my story to your collections or groups a great big New Year’s hug! Until next time!

The more, the merrier

“Hallo, Frau Summer.”

Her hand held the phone steadily as she spoke softly, “Ms. Summer, It’s me.”

“Ah, hello Mary how goes your progress?” She sat at a table examining a few documents, the phone propped between her shoulder and head. “Still don’t have any of the stones yet?”

She felt her fist clench subconsciously as she breathed, “you are quite aware of our progress ma’am. Is Herr Steiner there? I’ve been unable to reach him.”

“He is indisposed of right now. Chasing down a lead in Minsk on a potential sighting.”

“What color?”

“A possible brown sighting.”

“The Chaos Crystal? What’s it doing in Minsk?”

“Supposedly going to a private buyer in a black market auction,” she brushed her hair out of her face and continued, “after the Wall went down it disappeared, only to reappear two weeks ago in Belarus. There’s also supposedly a pink sighting by one of our operatives in South Africa.”

“Pink? In Africa?”

“So it would seem. Of the known ones it is the most unknown, its presence is usually considered a sign of good fortune. What of your stone? How goes the progress?”

Mary stroked the jade-colored necklace she wore, a perfect replica of the crystal which was safely locked away, “the crystal shows no sign of activity, our testing has been inconclusive.”

“And the house?”

“Nein, the boy won’t sell.”

“I have heard talk that perhaps he’s found the crystal.”

“I have considered the possibility, but it seems unlikely. Even if he had found I doubt he would even know what it is, let alone how to use it.”

Frau Summer pinched her forehead stressfully, “frauline you are aware that the rest of the council has ordered a meeting, no?”

“What?”

“You were not made aware? An online meeting at four tomorrow. Be there or be toten, President Rook made it truly clear that she wanted you to attend, she wants a status report.”

“Must you keep speaking Deutsch, Herr Summer?”

She smiled, “indeed, I will see you then goodbye.” She placed the phone on the receiver and sighed annoyed. Always the same with her, she couldn’t just do her job, excuses only. Herr Summer looked up at the woman standing across the room observing the call. She always held herself so regally, so unlike a humble president.

I yawned as I felt myself be shaken awake, “highness, you may be royalty, but on God if you don’t let me sleep, I will hit you.”

“Thou speak powerful words for a conniving thing,” she said as if I was the most disgusting slug she’d ever stepped on. “We can feel the magic on thou, what is thee keeping from us?”

I sat up and looked at her, her slitted eyes just stared into mine. I looked back at her unflinching before sighing and rolling my eyes, “listen Nightmare—”

“Silence!”

My throat constricted on itself as her magic wrapped around it and lifted me off my feet, I saw her dark blue magical aura moving around her horn as I choked and gasped airlessly, all I could do was watch and listen as she gnashed her teeth and yelled in my face with a voice like thunder, “WE HAVE TOLERATED THOU LONG ENOUGH! THY SARCASM AND DISGUSTING LIES ARE ENOUGH! TELL US! HAS THEE FOUND ANOTHER CRYSTAL!?”

I felt my face flush as my heart slowed and my lungs screamed for air, my hands slapped at my throat and my legs kicked out wildly as I gasped for breath and tried to speak. I thrust my hand outward, gesturing at the dresser frantically. She used her magic to open it and pull up the small bundle, untying it and holding it up… right into the early morning sunlight. I tried to warn her against it, but my efforts were in vain as the crystal began to produce flames which seemed to radiate from it. Nightmare dropped me and the crystal, before I fell on my side gasping as the flames spread across the room before forming into a vaguely familiar shape.

The being that stepped out of the fire could be called just that: a creature. Unlike Nightmare Moon, this was a different type of pony altogether. It had a snow-white coat with an image of a yellow star emblazoned on her flanks, her mane and tail however were the thing that drew the eye. Where Nightmares had been wavy and like a star-filled sky flowing in an incorporeal wind, this new pony’s mane, and tail were literal fire. They burned upwards flicking like a fire would but producing no smoke. A violent heat filled the room and Nightmare had fled out the door as soon as the fire began to spread, leaving only me and the new… thing alone.

I just stared, gasping and out of breath before the alicorn with the burning mane and tail opened her eyes and stared into mine. They were slits, terrifying and burning into my soul. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing seemed to come out, so I shut it and tried it again to the same effect. She looked at me, portraying no emotion, just staring at me before she took a step towards me. I scrambled backwards until my back was to the wall, the heat she radiated got hotter as she got closer until her muzzle was inches from mine, her eyes never wavering. She spoke with a voce that was like fire, wild and untamable, “you have freed me?”

I swallowed and finally strung together a mostly coherent sentence, “y-yes, I was the one who found you…” of course I didn’t want to tell her that her release was an accident and not my doing.

“You have done me a great service by releasing me, tell me what are you?”

“I am a human…”

“Do not be afraid to speak. What is your name?”

“Jacob… a-and yours?”

“I am her royal highness and most powerful princess of the sun, I am Daybreaker.”

“I-I see… and are you related to Nightmare Moon?”

“What?” Her eyes widened as she watched me. “She is here as well? You freed her?”

“Y-yes?”

She smiled showing off sharper teeth than any pony should have, “you are correct, she is my sister, and I am grateful that you have freed us both.” Her smile turned into a smirk as she leaned over my shoulder, her mane barely far enough away to not touch me, as she whispered in my ear, “incredibly grateful~”

My face heated up noticeably and I could tell it was not from her mane, “w-what?”

She chuckled in my ear, it sounded as if it were intermingled with a growl, “oh yes… you are quite deserving of a reward~”

“No that’s quite alright! I don’t need any wealth, Nightmare already offered. I’m helping you for no charges.”

“Is that right? She already offered you a reward and you refused it?”

“Yes, I don’t need anything. I just want to help.”

She looked into my eyes with her smirk as she raised a hoof and softly rubbed it across my face, “my, my… what a selfless creature you are. You most certainly require a reward~ Tell me what you desire most, and I can give it to you… anything~”

I shivered despite the heat and stared wide-eyed and unblinking at her before squeaking out a response, “n-nothing… I’m fine…”

Daybreaker’s eyes were quick and flashed trying to find some hidden meaning in my face, they were extremely beautiful… no! She was a pony, this wasn’t going to go there, despite her obvious want for it. She opened her razor-lined maw slightly and gave my cheek a wet lick, I froze, and my face got redder than her mane as let out a “eep”. Then she did it again and spoke, her whole voice dripping honey, “you truly are selfless. Even at the prospect of me and my body, you still hold back and deny it. Hmm… perhaps then I will just owe you this one~”

I shakily nodded, “sounds good… I’m sure if you want y-you can reward me in some way…”

“Then I await the time when you will allow me to study your human anatomy more… in depth~” She nipped at my ear with her sharp teeth drawing blood and forcing me to let out a quiet groan, “specifically my depths~”

My eye and something else twitched as I gritted my teeth and replied, “I’m afraid I cant do that… that’d be a bit weird…after all you are a pony… and—”

“—and? And what? You not ready to ride this mare yet~? Perhaps you’ve never done this before~?”

“I-I uh well…”

“Really? Oho! This is good! You really haven’t,” she lay down next to me and nuzzled my shoulder. “Good… neither have I~ It’ll be a learning experience for us both~”

Before I could give some poor attempt at a response, Nightmare bust back into the room, “Jacob I will get rid of the fire!” She then tossed a bucket of water directly at me which bounced off a golden forcefield which appeared in front of me and Daybreaker, “not funny sister.”

“Daybreaker?”

“Yes sister, it’s me.”

Nightmare ran across the room and wrapped her hooves around Daybreaker, “sister! We were so worried for thou!”

I laid down on my side and lay on the ground before I gave a groan of a lot of different emotions at once, most of them confusing and related to thoughts I probably shouldn’t be having of the pony above me, she looked down at me and with a wink that said, “don’t forget,” she moved her tail in a swish to the side revealing some very interesting sights. I was never a fainter, but I really wanted to as I looked up at her. These ponies were going to be the insane death of me, now I had angry princess and horny princess. I was so quite literally—and probably going to be—screwed.

The two of them began to talk and I carefully removed myself before I ended up seeing or hearing too much. I went to the table and sat down before flopping my head down on the table and letting out a groan. This just couldn’t get weirder… and yet… my mind came back to the same word… fountain. I rose and walked out into the garden courtyard where the massive fountain dominated. I poked around it and looked in the flowing water to no effect for a while before stepping back. If I were going to hide a magical crystal… where would I? I looked over the exterior of the fountain closely and noticed something. The very top of the fountain made up a small statue of a strange creature, it was similar to the one in which I had found Nightmare’s gem, but this one was of a black pony with a horn and insectoid wings, weirdly the statue was covered in holes on the lower parts and in the statue was embedded a solid black crystal almost like obsidian.

I had to get it. I crawled up the fountain, getting wetter and wetter as I ascended. Odd that this crystal was out here in the open, the others activated when exposed to the sun and moon, but this one had to have seen both and not reacted at all. So how did this one work? I grabbed it with my wet hands and attempted to pry out the crystal. I managed to pull it halfway when I noticed a note stuck inside as well. I pulled out the note and crystal. Pocketing the crystal I read the note, “you should not be playing with these things, if you are reading this, please return this crystal to the statuette, it must never touch a tree or the effects on the world…” I skimmed the rest and immediately stuffed the note in my jeans, I wasn’t particularly good at following directions anyway, the two insane mare that were walking out now were a testament to that.

Author's Note

Hey hey! A newbie! Yes, all you guys who wanted more finally get to see another one of your favorite villains who’s sort of… not a villain? Either way, I find that Daybreaker is an extremely amorous character and super fun to write because of that XD. I didn’t plan her out that way but when I wrote her it just felt right. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter enormously! A special thanks to Feynna for being just a cool and supportive person, you can check out her story called Twin Suns. It’s an amazing read and I promise you will not be disappointed; I believe her skill is unparalleled. Comment plenty and leave some likes, go ahead, and add it to a few groups too if you want, it doesn’t matter how, but make sure to show some love!