Uncharted: Starswirl's Secret

Drake followed an anxious Twilight through the swamp-filled area, internally wincing at the horrific smell that filled the air. He had been worried about the lavender mare since they had left the library, due to her odd behavior and lack of talking about statistics he did not need to know. As well as that, she had been moving quicker than usual, as if she wanted to be as far away from the bog as possible. She was gazing around at the surrounding area constantly, like she was expecting something to leap from behind a muck-covered tree and attack.

As soon as Drake noticed how far ahead she had moved, he quickened his pace to cover the distance between them. “Twilight,” he called to her, finally appearing at her side. “Why are you moving so fast? It’s only noon. We have all day to get this done. You’re acting like something’s going to leap out of the mud and attack us.”

“Am I? Twilight asked absent mindedly, not taking her eyes off of the route they traveled down. “I hadn’t even noticed. It’s just... this place brings back bad memories. I would appreciate it if we could get out of here as soon as possible.” At this, she let out a soft, nervous chuckle. “No need to be concerned. Everything should be fine.”

Drake gave her a disbelieving stare, one eyebrow raised at the comment Twilight made. “No offense to you,” he started. “But I would feel a lot more comfortable if you would just tell me the truth right now. Is there anything in this swamp that could... I don’t know... potentially kill us? These are some things that would be good to know before we continue.”

Twilight shook her head gently. “No, nothing you should be worried about. If I planned this right, we should be in and out of here in no time. We shouldn’t run into any trouble.”

Drake rolled his eyes. “If you’re certain we won’t be running into any trouble, than you should calm down. I’m pretty sure that we...” That’s when Drake looked ahead into the distance and his worst fear has been realized. “Twilight, get down!” he called to her as she continued to walk off. “Trouble!”

He dropped down behind a fallen tree quickly, and glanced over the top of it to look at Twilight. However, she didn’t seem to understand what he meant by trouble, and she was looking fearfully in the air.

“Twilight,” He whispered loudly to get her attention. “Get over here!”

Twilight thankfully heard him and sprinted over to where he kneeled in the shallow water. She leapt easily over it and landed with a quiet splash next to him. Peeking over the side quickly, she seemed to finally notice the men in suits that stood in the ankle deep water not 40 feet away from them. She asked rather loudly, “Do you think they would be willing to help...”

She got cut off as Drake silenced her, listening carefully to the agents. “What was that?” he could hear one call loudly to himself, and as Drake turned to his left to look through gnarled and twisted roots, he could see one, who was lightly concealed in armor, walking towards them with his gun slightly raised. As he got closer, Drake prepared himself to leap up and attack. Hearing the soft sloshing of the water, he sprung.

It was easier than he expected to pull the man down to the other side. Twilight stared at him with wide eyes as he placed one hand on the agent’s mouth to muffle any screams, the crook of his left elbow crushing his windpipe to suffocate him. Dropping his gun, the man put up quite the struggle, although Drake had the upper hand of it all and wasn’t about to let him go.

However, Twilight was horrified at sight she was seeing, and practically shouted at him, “What are you doing?”

“Be quiet!” Drake whispered softly to her, although there was urgency in his voice. Glancing over their cover, he could tell some of them were confused by the noise, and after discussion, only one walked forward slowly, approaching them. At this point, the other agent had stopped struggling in his arms and now lay still. Drake gently set him down in the shallow water and grabbed the KAL-7 he had dropped into the water moments ago.

As Drake waited for him to come closer, he could hear the soft splashing as he moved. It was much quieter than the first time, as the man was lighter and leaner than the last one. And as he heard him approaching, he once more leapt from his cover and pulled the agent down with him, snapping his neck. However, the others had been watching that time, and they saw the whole thing. And now they shouted to each other and took cover behind other objects around, guns ready.

“Crap,” Drake mumbled to himself, loading the gun and bringing it close to his chest. Standing up quickly, he aimed at the agent closest to him, pulling the trigger. The bullets hit the target easily, and he ducked back down just in time as a few flew by his head, missing by an inch. As soon as it was clear, he got back up and fired a few more shots, taking out another guy.

When Drake saw that he had taken out all of the people near him, he leapt up over the trunk of the tree and raced to one of their parked jeeps, rolling once to avoid the bullets being fired. Blind firing quickly, he brought back towards him and reloaded it before aiming and hitting one more guy.

A flash of light was seen as he pressed his back against the car. Twilight now stood beside him, and she looked frantic. ‘What are you doing?” she practically yelled at him. “They’re humans like you. Maybe they could help us out.”

Drake shot out once more before retreating to his cover and saying to Twilight, “They do not want to help us.”

But Twilight wasn’t listening to him. Instead she walked out among the fighting, shouting at them. “Don’t shoot! I just want to talk! We need your help to find something.”

“Twilight!” Drake practically yelled, leaping for her. He shoved her out of the way into another piece of cover, managing to get there himself a second away from being shot. The bullets that were fired hit the water where Twilight stood just moments before. As he turned to make sure she was okay, he saw a look of horror upon her  face, and he couldn’t help but yell, “I told you so.”

He continued how he was going for a short while; shooting, rolling, reloading the gun. Eventually they all lay dead in the mud filled water, their bodies floating the smallest bit above the ground. Their guns were strewn about everywhere, and Drake took all the ammo he could from them.

Picking up a Raffica, he turned back to Twilight, holding it out to her. “Alright, here’s what you have to do. Next time you see people that I am trying to shoot, I want you to try and shoot them as well.”

Twilight gave him a surprised look. “You mean... kill them?” Slowly, she grabbed the gun from Drake’s hand, levitating it in front of her face to inspect it closely.

“Yes,” Drake replied slowly, glancing down at her. “I know it goes against your morals, but those aren’t innocent people, and will kill you if you don’t kill them first.”

Twilight still seemed uncertain, but she placed it away from her face and followed Drake as he began to walk off. Drake was sure they couldn’t be that far off now if Talbot’s men were there, although he wasn’t sure how they had gotten there in the first place, especially in such great numbers. However, Twilight might know the answer.

“Hey Twilight,” he called back to her as he walked. “Is it possible for a unicorn to use their magical capabilities to open up some sort of portal to reach Earth?”

“I’ve heard about some ponies opening up portals to other places, but they need to be an extremely powerful unicorn. Starswirl the Bearded was the first to have ever done it.”

“Interesting,” mumbled Drake to himself. “Seems this Starswirl guy has done a lot with his life.” At this moment, he could see the outline of the cave ahead. “Watch out for more of Talbot’s men!” he warned Twilight.

As they entered it, everything grew darker as they continued, and Drake was hoping it would open up soon. His hopes came true as he saw light appearing slowly, which led to a large room filled with different symbols spread out everywhere. The light was shining down from a large, gaping hole in the ceiling. Across the room, a large, ancient door stood in their path. An old tree, aged quite well, sat growing through the somewhat crumbling walls. To the left, a small black car was parked off to the side. Talbot’s men had been in here.

Upon closer inspection, it was noted that the symbols in which they saw were small triggers which sunk down into the ground. Drake assumed that they needed weight on a certain one for something to happen. Pulling out the notebook, Drake began to flip through it until he found a sketch of the room with small X’s on it. And it all seemed to be leading to one particular symbol that they needed to press down. It was a circle that swirled in the middle. There were many of them.

He placed a small rock on the first one, and he watched as it sunk down slightly under the weight. However, he noticed that the symbol didn’t match the one in the journal. Realizing his mistake, he quickly moved it over one where the real symbol was.

The next one was on the far right of the cavern. Glancing at the tree, Drake noticed that it seemed heavy, although not that stable towards the trunk. Taking out his Para 9, he fired a couple of bullets at it, which weakened it just enough for it to bend down, hanging by a few pieces. Drake kicked the trunk several times before it finally fell to the ground at his feet. Picking it up, he dropped it on the symbol.

A loud sound shook the cave, and Drake stumbled slightly before regaining his balance. Looking over at Twilight, he noticed she seemed shaken up, which he confirmed when Twilight said unstably, “We need to hurry up.”

“What was that?” Drake asked her suspiciously. It sounded like a loud roar, but had a screeching quality to it.

“It was nothing,” Twilight tried to defend.

“It sure didn’t sound like nothing.”

“Look,” Twilight said to him loudly. “It is nothing to be worried about. Let’s just hurry with whatever it is that we are doing so we can get the information needed.”

“Alright,” Drake said slowly, moving towards the symbol in the center of the room. “I’m going to need you to stand here. And don’t move off of it until something happens. Like a path opening up.”

Twilight nodded and stood on the symbol quietly, sinking down slightly from the weight. Drake went several feet away and stood on the other, and they waited. Nothing happened.

Drake opened the journal again, looking at the sketched map on the page. “Something’s not right,” he said to himself, his finger trailing across the page. He thought he had gotten all of them. However, he noticed one he hadn’t seen before, located over by the car.

It was about 6 feet away from the front tire of the small black car, which would make a great weight for it. Getting behind it, he pushed at it with the back of his shoulder. It was still in park, so it was harder to do than he though. But he made it there eventually. When he was done, he wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve and moved back to his spot.

Rumbling came again, although this time, the door slid open slowly to reveal where they needed to go. “Come on,” Drake said to Twilight walking towards it and into a small tunnel.

Drake grabbed the fallen tree branch off the ground and snapped it in half so it wasn’t as large. “Sorry Rarity,” he said as he ripped off a piece of his sweater sleeve and wrapped it around the top. Taking a match out from his pocket, which he had now started carrying, he lit it and set fire to the sweater piece carefully as a torch.

Making his way through, he could hear the sound of Twilight’s hooves on the ground behind him, signaling she was following. Occasionally, the roaring would sound outside once more and Twilight would speed up in her nervousness.

At the end was a small room, where a stone coffin lay in the middle. It was much like the one beneath the library, and Drake was sure it would be empty as well. It was filthy and covered in dirt and dust from being down in the cave for so long, and just touching the top of it made his hands brown and caked in grim.

Lifting the top of it off, the sounds of stones scraping together, he realized he was right. There was nothing in it but a small Enochian script carved into the bottom. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out the cypher disk and ring. He gently placed the ring into the small spot, watching it reset.

“Does it automatically know the script is there?” Twilight asked from behind him, setting down the gun he had forgotten she was carrying.

“No. It’s just resetting the gears. Here Hold this.”

He handed Twilight the torch, her grabbing it with her magic. When it was finished, he started turning the top ring, writing down what it said in his own journal. “The path... to understanding... begins... where...” He stopped and glanced back into the coffin, dusting around the edge of the sentence. “That’s it? Where’s the rest of the message?”

Twilight went around on the other side to inspect, and Drake followed her. There was nothing that would give them any information. Everything was bare. He thought for a second about what he wrote and tore a page out of the back of his notebook. Writing down the information again, he slipped it into Starswirl’s journal.

“What are you doing?” Twilight questioned.

“Trust me,” Drake answered. “It’s necessary.

Another roar shook the cave, and Drake had to cover his ears during it. It was louder than the others he had heard, like it was furious and in pain. When it had stopped, Drake straightened himself again. But something seemed off. He could hear a rustling in the walls.

“Oh no.”

‘Is everything alright, Drake?” Twilight asked him.

“Twilight, it is my turn noticeably scared of something and not tell you what it is.” He grabbed the torch from her and looked up in horror as the spiders began streaming down the wall. “Run!”

Twilight looked back in horror before racing out of the cave, grabbing her gun as she went. Drake raced after her, swinging the flame behind him to drive them back. “Why does this always happen?”

Reaching down, he grabbed the grenade he had collected earlier off his belt. Pulling out the pin, he tossed it behind him into the swarm. As they raced away, it exploded behind them. Drake swung the flame one more time before they burst into the open cave.

“Close the door!” Drake shouted at Twilight, who quickly dropped her gun and slide the doors together once more. Afterwards she picked up the car and slammed it against the crack as a barrier.

Both of them sighed in relief, gasping for breath after their run. Drake leaned against the wall, leaning his head back on the clod stone. Twilight glanced up at him.

“Why did you throw that explosive?” She asked angrily, almost yelling at him.

“At this point I’m just trying to get rid of those things.”

“That is no excuse to defile Starswirl’s burial site like that!” Drake gave her a look of questioning, and she sighed. “I know there was no body there, but it’s still the same thing.”

“Alright. I’m sorry Twilight. I promise at the next site, I will try to be more careful and not throw grenades.”

Drake walked to the exit and into the darkness, appearing a moment later in the bright sun of outside. Twilight followed him angrily, eyes narrowed. As he was about to turn to say something to her, he spotted something in the distance. Talbot and his men.

“Great,” Drake muttered as he watched Talbot approach him.

“Hello Drake,” Talbot said ‘politely’, his gun in his left hand. A small trickle of blood was running down from the side of his left eyebrow, as Drake noticed, which surprised him. Whatever Talbot had gotten into, it hadn’t ended well.

Drake slowly raised his hands until they were about eye level. He leaned over towards Twilight slightly. “Do you believe me now?” He whispered to her.

Talbot’s men came closer to them, their guns raised and pointed at the two. One held out his hand slowly, as if on a silent command.

“Now hand over your weapons,” Talbot told them, his gaze never leaving them to look around at anything.

Reluctantly, Drake took his pistol out of its holster and handed it to the agent, who backed away slightly after that. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Twilight slowly moving her gun away and hiding it in her tail so it wasn’t visible.

Talbot didn’t seem to notice. “Good,” he responded. “Now give me the journal.”

Drake reached into his back pocket slowly and pulled it out, holding it out for Talbot. Reaching forward, Talbot took the journal from him and tucked it into his jacket pocket. As he did so, Drake noticed the cut Talbot had on the palm of his hand, much like the one on his forehead.

“The cypher disk as well,” Talbot demanded, holding out his hand.

“I left it back at the library,” Drake lied.

“Now why do I doubt that?”

At that moment, the roar was back, although it was much louder than before. Talbot half turned around, gun now pointed at where the sound was heard from. At this moment, Drake could see the large cuts Talbot had on his left forearm through the rips in his suit sleeve. They seemed like they had stopped bleeding as badly as it would have, although small drops still leaked out every now and then.

Talbot turned back. “I believe that is our cue to leave.” He slowly backed away towards one of the cars parked. “So long, Drake.” Turning, he got in swiftly while the rest of his agents followed, and they drove off, spraying water as they went.

Twilight raced off as soon as the car had gone. “We have to go. Now!”

Drake raced after her, trying to catch up to her. “What is that thing?” he asked her as they went.

Before Twilight had time to answer, a large shape began to emerge from the deeper part of the swamp to their right. It had four heads, and as it came onto the shore, it was noticeable that it had no arms and a large tail behind it. The thing screeched at them loudly, showing its razor sharp teeth.

“Hydra!” Twilight shouted, stopping in her tracks as it blocked their path. She quickly turned around and began to run back in the other direction, Drake following close behind.

Drake tripped and fell one hand in the water. He felt something beneath him, and picking it up, he was glad to see AK-47. He got up and started running again, although he turned around to fire at the hydra. When he ran out of bullets, he reloaded quickly. Even after the second round it wasn’t showing any signs of pain, like its skin was immune to it.

“Drake, look out!” Twilight shouted at him. Drake turned ahead to look and almost ran off the edge of a cliff. He stopped short of it and turned back around to continue firing. Once out of bullets on the AK-47, he turned to look at Twilight, who had gotten used to her gun and was firing away at it. When the hydra realized he was no longer firing, it roared again and one head came down to him, snapping its jaws.

Drake leaned back to avoid it and fell backwards on his back. It snapped at him again and now he shoved at its head, grasping its teeth to avoid its gaping jaws. “Twilight! Help me!”

He was unprepared for the explosion on the hydra. It screeched in pain and stepped back, confused by the sudden pain. Drake could see a large mark on its frontal area near the necks where something had hit it.

A second explosion came a second later, and the hydra retreated into the mud to get away. Turning to look back at what it could have been, Drake was surprised at what he saw.

“Sully!” he cried happily, laughing slightly. “Man, is it good to see you.”

Sully removed the cigar from his mouth, holding it off to the side. “I really can’t leave you alone for a minute, now can I kid?”

Drake glanced over his shoulder quickly before looking back. “I had it under control until the hydra showed up.”

Twilight was holding the gun up towards Sully, eyes wide. “Is this one a friend?” She asked.

Drake looked over at her. “Yes. This is Sully. Don’t shoot him.”

“Is that purple unicorn trying to shoot me?” Sully called from the other side of the gorge.

Drake looked back up at him. “Yeah. She might be. I taught her well!” Glancing around, he added, “Now how are we supposed to get across?”

Sully held up another rocket, loading it into the gun. “Last one.”

He fired it, hitting a large tree on the other side where they stood. It creaked from the explosion before slowly tilting forward and making a bridge across where they could cross. Drake got up on it and walked across carefully. Twilight, however, was able to simply teleport across like she normally did.

When Drake was safely across, he looked up at Sully and hugged him quickly. “Crazy place, isn’t it?”

Sully took another puff of his cigar before answering. “You’re telling me? I met a mail carrier. She gave me a box of muffins and my Smith & Wesson back. I have no idea how she got it.”

“Beats me,” Drake replied before walking off. “Come on. Let’s go before it decides to show up again.”

“Hey kid,” Sully called as he picked up the gun and box that lay on the ground before following. “Want a muffin?”