Author's Note
Before you read, this is a continuation of Chapter 9's The Adventures of Flare Brimstone. To be concise, it's not an important chapter. It's mainly there to show the treasures Flare had accumulated over the years and tell stories of her finds to Twilight and Princess Celestia.
What you're about to read is just more of the same thing but only with Twilight and does not require you to read the story.
Timeless Artifacts
"Come in, come in," Flare Brimstone beckoned mirthfully to Twilight Sparkle with a swish of her crimson tail. She led the Friendship Princess to the back of her store per her request to view Flare's rarer treasures she's collected over the years.
A black and brown door adorned with several locks fell in view of the lavender princess. Twilight watched as Flare Brimstone bounded to the door in a single stride. She had her brown bag with her, digging into it and fishing out a white key, and began to feverishly unlock the door. When the task was finished, Flare Brimstone opened the door for Twilight to view nothing but a dark room.
"I haven't been in here for a little while since I've been so busy at the castle," Flare told Twilight absently. The bat pony ran her hoof alongside a wall near the door searching for the light switch. "Aha! Found it!"
When the lights flicker on, Twilight stood rigid with suppressed awe. The interior was black and brown like the rest of the store. The size of the room wasn't anything to write home about; it looked akin to a pantry but with a little more space. What caught Twilight's attention was the shelves of trinkets and artifacts she had never laid eyes on before.
One was a red harp with purple strings, another was two pairs of hollowed-out wooden pieces each laced together with their own black string, and another one was a long, black flute-like object with a slim red cloth wrapped at the end of it. It seemed quite large, one that would be cumbersome to carry if one weren't strong; Twilight wondered if Bulk Biceps could carry it.
Turning her gaze, she saw another shelve with odd-looking, glowing liquid bottles. Some were blue, others were green, and some were black. Twilight wondered who concocted them. Were they magical elixirs, medical potions, or other types of mixtures? She did not know.
There were even more that caught her eye, but Twilight didn't know what to make of them. Some were undoubtedly instruments of some kind or another, but the alicorn knew they weren't normal. They couldn't be, not in this shop. Several looked to be weapons, but not any she's seen before and she was sure that not even the royal guards knew, nor Princess Celestia and Luna.
She glanced furtively at Flare Brimstone with a storm of questions. She wanted to learn how this bat pony could come across owning such a vast array of treasures. Twilight understood that these weren't for sale, rather they were unique treasures for Flare Brimstone; her glory and laurels for discovering them. It was a good thing as well. If she did sell these, and to the wrong pony, there could be a crisis.
Twilight shook herself of these fictitious perturbations; Flare Brimstone wasn't callow; she was adept and trustworthy. Princess Celestia certainly trusts her... to a manic degree, almost to the point of obsession.
"Well?" Flare Brimstone prompted, attempting to stifle a laugh at Twilight's astounded expression. "Like what you see?"
Twilight glanced briefly at Flare Brimstone; perplexity layered in her gaze. There was a joke in that pony's chirpy tone, probably one made in poor taste, but not of mocking, for she did not sneer, rather one that might have appealed to a raunchier individual. Regardless of Flare's eccentric whimsy, Twilight divulged her amazement in a hushed whisper, as if reluctant of disturbing these ancient artifacts that slumbered on these shelves.
"You want to start with the black quena?" Flare had asked suddenly. Twilight gave the bat pony a confused look. "The flute on the shelf there, Your Majesty."
Twilight gazed at the black instrument, puzzled. So that's what it is called. A quena. Twilight stepped to the large instrument and examined it closely. It had holes of six, with another on one of the sides, but it seems that the instrument couldn't be reliably performed by a pony, their hooves are too big and wide. She felt the instrument. It was smooth to the touch and hard. It was made up of wood. She tapped a hoof against the instrument gently. Hollow.
Twilight was interested in this quena and turned to face Flare Brimstone, asking the bat pony where she acquired such an odd instrument.
Flare's tail swished side-to-side excitedly. "The quena, or the black quena you see here is from a place far beyond the Mysterious South, past Equestria's territory to unexplored lands, by ponies at least."
Twilight held a hoof over her mouth. She knew Flare Brimstone ventured far for her treasures, but to go beyond the Mysterious South and further still to have a chance to come across something was risky. The lands outside of Equestria were unpredictable and dangerous and Flare simply just goes out there?
"Haven't you noticed yet?" the bat pony inquired silkily. Twilight was silent, not knowing what Flare meant. "Look at the black quena and concentrate."
Unsure of her reasoning yet curious, Twilight complied. She let her gaze focus hard on the black quena and saw something faint rising from it, like smoke after a small fire had been quelled. What she saw was something black and purple that surrounded the quena.
Twilight was confused and a bit apprehensive. She hadn't noticed that eerie aura around the instrument, and she had touched it. Something about the aura made her recoil as if smelling something foul. Troubled yet driven with a morbid curiosity, she attempted to grip the black quena with magic and lift it from the shelf, but found that it was extremely heavy, heavier than the time she lifted an Ursa Minor out of Ponyville. Unable to even lift an inch, she ceased her magic. Twilight panted heavily; she had put all of her strength into lifting the quena and had failed.
Regaining her strength, she gazed at Flare Brimstone and wondered how in Equestria the mare was able to haul this impossibly heavy instrument from beyond the borders of the country to her shop. Flare would have been crushed! Of course, she knew the bat pony's strength was unmatched, but this? Carrying this massive burden all on her own? Flare's power was something to revere.
Flare Brimstone chuckled. "That aura is black magic," she announced, causing Twilight to stare wordlessly at her. "The previous owner of this instrument was a powerful sage, a savant of magical sorcery, particularly a prodigy in black magic. He crafted this quena using his magic to not only play music, as he had a fondness for the musical arts, but also as a weapon to stave off his enemies.
"Black magic is intrinsically destructive and volatile, but if one could wield such magic, then they can mold it into a variety of things. This black quena, imbued with the sage's magical force, when played can blast beams of condensed magic that can tear through anything it touches, even Shining Armor's Shield spell, which is the greatest magical defense we've seen so far. If you play it in a certain way, you can sever a creature's soul, effectively destroying them. It also acts as a bludgeon, obviously. The strength to wield this instrument of destruction is practically impossible if you aren't me or the sage who created it."
Though stunned by the creation of such a weapon, Twilight asked where the mare managed to find that terrifying object.
"It was in an old, broken temple near an ocean," Flare answered. "It was laying on a piece of rubble that had fallen from the ceiling of the temple long ago. I do not know why the sage left his black quena because his body was not found when I searched." Flare gazed at the quena. "It was abandoned, a treasure the sage had crafted for his means, one for joy and for defense."
Twilight detected a hint of sadness in Flare Brimstone's somber tone. The way she described the sage nearly seemed she knew him personally. She didn't know what to make of it, but she was curious. Twilight asked Flare about the sage's personality and identity; she desired to learn about his selfhood and how much Flare knew.
Flare gave the inquisitive mare a wry grin. "I can't claim to know much of anything about him, only from stories I had heard during my search. Some creatures I met told of the sage as an odd individual, mumbling and rambling on about strange things, magic or what have you. He wasn't much of a talker, he'd rather let his actions guide him than his words, and he lived in the temple. All alone, with nothing but power and time. Perhaps he left for something beyond, but it doesn't matter."
Twilight was speechless. Flare talked about the sage as if he was an old acquaintance. Though she wanted to know more, it was clear Flare wanted to move on. Twilight looked at the red harp with the purple strings on another shelf and expressed her curiosity to the bat pony.
"That is called the Blood Harp, a tool created for evil," Flare explained merrily.
Twilight was taken aback by the bat pony's sudden change in mood. Was she faking the somberness before? And what of the Blood Harp? A foul tool brought into the world to commit vile wickedness; she thought she could feel the iniquities pulsing from the harp and stepped cautiously away.
Flare Brimstone did not seem to share Twilight's dread as the bat pony skipped over to the harp and touched it. For a second Twilight believed Flare would hurt herself, but nothing seemed to happen. Then Twilight realized she did not know what to be afraid of. Flare hadn't explained what the harp could do.
"It's called the Blood Harp because it was created from the creator's negative emotions and her blood; the dark magic born the harp for a singular purpose: to enact pain and suffering onto others," Flare explained bitterly. Twilight saw the mare give a disdainful sneer and she heard her snarl like a Bugbear. "What I wouldn't give to rip her limb from limb."
Twilight had never seen Flare look so hostile; the fury in her slit eyes left no room for mercy, only the gaze of a killer. Twilight suddenly felt cold to the bone and fought to keep herself from shuddering at Flare's haunting statement. She had asked the bat pony about the creator to gain some insight.
"Once upon a time, there was a mare with an extraordinary gift for magic much akin to you, Starlight Glimmer, and the previous student of Princess Celestia, Sunset Shimmer," Flare began grimly, attempting to calm herself. "Unlike the three of you, this pony went and did vile things with her magic. She was corrupt to the core, driven by the thirst to acquire more power and subjugate her will to others by any means, and if they didn't, she'd torture and kill them, slowly, and without remorse."
Twilight was silent. She couldn't think to speak at all from Flare's ongoing story. A pony with an affinity for magic is very susceptible to the lull of power, corrupting their mind and heart. Twilight was painfully aware of how her connection with magic could have easily turned her into a dangerous pony by the likes of Equestria had ever seen, and it terrified her. It would be the thing in her nightmares, but to have something be real. Twilight tried to not think about it.
"At one point in her evil life," Flare went on curtly, not attempting to hide the malice layered in her voice, "she created a harp using her blood and her close connection with dark magic. When the strings were plucked by a creature, it sends a wave of black-colored magic to the one directed to. It enters their body, contacting with their blood and making it spike out. Actual spikes of blood, pierce through the affected creature's body from all directions, killing them instantly. Thankfully, it was used only once before the mare died."
Though stricken with horror and disgust, Twilight had the morbid curiosity to want to know how the mare died.
"It was an accident, or so I've heard," Flare responded with a shrug, as if not bothering to care. "I learned that Black Storm, her name, went into a fit of unrestrained madness, like the foaming from the mouth kind, acting like a rabid dog. She fell high from a cliff and plummeted to the blue depths below. Her body was never recovered, and her harp wasn't discovered for centuries until I came across it and brought it back to my shop."
Twilight, feeling sad about Black Storm's supposed death even when she knew she shouldn't, asked how she turned mad and why her harp was here and not destroyed.
"I suppose the dark magic she coveted, eventually she couldn't control it and she paid the price with not only the loss of her mind but the loss of her life. The harp is a piece of history, one I would like to keep around as a reminder." Flare sighed. "I'm not sure she's even dead. A pony with that kind of magic, if she survived the fall, could quite possibly create a spell of pseudo-immortality at least, but as it stands for now until something happens, Black Storm's a dead mare."
Twilight hoped that Black Storm had indeed perished when she flung herself off the cliff and into the raging rapids below; if she was alive right now, the mare knew that Black Storm would be the ultimate test of magical strength. She shuddered inwardly. It would be like fighting a darker version of herself, and that battle would be extremely harrowing.
Twilight veered her gaze to the shelf where the potions sat, wanting to shift away from Black Storm. Those mixtures had enticed her, and she called out to Flare for an explanation.
Flare obeyed and skipped to the shelf, her tail flicking. "These are potions from the coastal region of Farasi, brewed by zebra shamans with a knack for herbs," Flare answered. Twilight was confounded. She had never heard of Farasi before. "It's where your zebra friend Zecora used to live before she came here. It's a region very far away. I'm surprised you didn't know."
Twilight never knew, not because the mare never thought to ask, but because Zecora scarcely talked about herself, and assumed it was just part of her enigmatic nature. Anything from Zecora was either a potion, her knowledge of different plants, or solutions to problems of a more... obscure and strange variety.
Come to think of it, Twilight doesn't know hardly anything about her. She wondered why that was. Perhaps Zecora was merely reluctant to speak of her roots or where she came from. She would have to ask later.
"The potions you see," Flare continued briskly, "are mixtures that contain magical properties, and they were given to me after I helped the zebras out with a problem. When you drink them, they provide a boon." The bat pony pointed a hoof to each colored mixture. "The green ones, when drunk, give the consumer increased durability and protection against sickness and disease. The blue ones give you speed and perception, able to see the world as if it was in slow motion. The black ones boost physical strength and magical power drastically.
"And before you ask, no. I have never consumed any of these and aren't the source of my incredible speed, durability, and strength. The buffs aren't permanent; they have a set duration, and, from what I heard, are very addictive. Only those with a special tolerance are allowed to drink these, so don't get any ideas."
Twilight narrowed her eyes in slight annoyance at Flare's warning. Did she think a mare like herself would be coerced into consuming the potions out of curiosity? The nerve! But... she wasn't entirely wrong, but come on, Twilight could handle herself! She shifted her gaze upward to spot a crimson lance resting on one of the walls. Its long steel shaft had a three-pronged head with each sharp point colored black with an old golden and white flag attached to it. It looked old and worn.
"That's the spear of Magus, a pony from the Old Lands, a period where Equestria hadn't existed yet," Flare told the alicorn. "Whatever tale told of Magus is ancient dust; only the remains of his trusty spear cement his existence. All I know is that he was strong, brave, virtuous and selfless, kind of like King Orion of Timbucktu way back in the day."
Twilight Sparkle was more perplexed than ever. How could Flare come across such an ancient spear? Even with her tireless scrounging, Flare Brimstone should not have discovered an object that dates back to the Old Lands.
It was further before the divide between the three pony races, and Flare just happened upon something like this while seeking some treasure. She squinted her eyes in suspicion. She knew Flare Brimstone had an assortment of odd gadgets and trinkets to assist in her dangerous ventures, and the idea of Flare owning a device that could turn back time wasn't too far-fetched but warrants concern.
Deciding to keep her thoughts to herself, Twilight pointed to a hollow object that hung on a wall. It was a brilliant blue with bright yellow lines with a silver metal clapper inside.
"That's the bell of Misty, a red-coated pink-haired pegasus from long ago," Flare answered. "One of the first followers of Sunuism headed by Mother Oppiera, the obsessive fanatic that built the religion in reverence of Celestia. Before she conformed, Misty was a sly and silver-tongued rogue with a vicious penchant for fighting; funnily enough that was her cutie mark; an assortment of different weapons.
"Mystical Misty, as most called her back then, possessed a special bell that was capable of controlling monsters and bending them to her will; Fluttershy would have not approved of that at all. It was said she used the bell to help build temples for worshipping Celestia all over Equestria. Like I said before the last time you were here, there is a temple at the very pinnacle of Equestria, that is decrepit, and one to the west where remnants of followers of Sunuism reside."
Twilight stared at the bright-colored bell and felt a warm presence lingering from it, contrasting the dark aura that emanated from the black quena. Twilight was intrigued; a bell with the magic to control monsters and make them do what you desired was a tantalizing prospect. But she shoved the thought away and asked Flare anything else about Misty.
"Well, anything else I know about her is little except for her death," Flare said. "Her death was documented in a scroll within the west temple in Haystrings, and I just so happened to have traveled there on royal business. According to the scroll, Misty lost her life defending the town from a rage-induced monster that was bent on destroying the town and everypony in it."
Twilight was confused. She asked Flare Brimstone how Misty would need to defend the town from a rampaging monster if she possessed a bell created to control them.
Flare held a hoof up to quietly, and respectively, stop the alicorn as she continued. "The bell was made with the purpose to control monsters, but monsters that act in a belligerent frenzy cannot be controlled, because their will is so strong that the bell will have no effect. Misty had struggled against the monster, but she did manage to drive it off. However, the strain from fighting the ferocious creature sapped all of Misty's strength, causing her to faint while she was still standing. When ponies came up to her, it was confirmed that her heart had stopped; Misty had died. She was then laid to rest in the Haystrings Cemetery."
Twilight was speechless; what a sad end for a pony like Misty. Twilight wondered if she would give up her life to save others. It was a tough call, but the mare knew she would if all other options was exhausted; she wouldn't hesitate. She felt a sense of respect for Misty.
"It's odd," Flare said absently, drawing Twilight from her thoughts, her stunningly vibrant pink eyes staring at the bell. "Misty wasn't a good pony. She was a rogue, like I said. She stole and hurt ponies; she was a criminal. I don't know why she gave up that life to spend the rest of it serving others. Perhaps she had an epiphany or something about Sunuism that appealed to her."
Twilight thought that Misty wanted something different in her life and noticed that Sunuism was the way to get it.
Flare Brimstone shrugged. "Perhaps. Whatever drove her into such a life is a secret we'll never know. Anyway," she went on, "I got time for one more; I don't want to leave the register alone for too long."
Twilight was saddened to hear she wouldn't have more time to explore the plethora of odd treasures within this room. There was so much history here just waiting to be told, history she had never known. She gazed around and set her eyes on the wooden pieces she saw when she entered the treasure room and pointed to them. She has forgotten to ask about them earlier.
Flare bounded over to the shelf and turned to face Twilight. "These are quite special. They are called castanets, instruments whose true origins are unknown but are found in Ornithia, the Bird Kingdom; and the home of Celaeno; the parrot who helped you and your friends battle against the Storm King a few years back."
Twilight tilted her head as she gazed at the small instruments with a look of faint interest. These concaved tiny shells were created with music in mind. They looked smooth with sheeny gleam to them.
"These instruments aren't really made for ponies since our hooves are too large, but for creatures that have more... dexterous appendages like Spike or the birds of Ornithia," Flare explained. "They make these rapid clicking sounds when you smack 'em together quickly and you use them in dances too. These particular castanets belonged to a shadowed wanderer who bore no name and was draped in a black and gray cloak. The wanderer was no pony but a minotaur. He was known to travel the lands to places drenched in great tragedy and turmoil. He used those ancient castanets and danced for days on end to soothe those who became unfortunate.
"The castanets held the power to heal any wound and restore ravaged, barren lands with life and prosperity. All except one. Can you guess which land were rejected from the wanderer's healing touch?"
Twilight, though enthralled by the story being told had her attention on Flare's question. The answer was obvious. It was the Dragon Lands.
Flare Brimstone smiled at her answer. "Quite right," she told the lavender princess. "Dragons are inherently greedy and prideful, they spurned anything less and was known to be arrogant, lacking any modesty or fellowship with the other races.
"The wanderer personally experienced the dragons' conceitful and disdainful ways and turned away from them, deeming dragons unworthy of a prosperous land. However, he was not cruel or unfair. Without notice, he clicked his castanets and sown a seed deep within the Dragon Lands and would only sprout when the dragons are able to show enough fellowship and respect for other races. The Dragon Lands aren't so barren now, are they?"
How wonderful and curious that a minotaur had such an influence over the world with those very castanets that.... sit now on a shelf in the back of Flare Brimstone's shop. Along with everything else she was told about. However, she could trust Flare to keep these ancient objects out of the hooves of ponies that would love nothing more than to cause some mayhem.
"Alright," Flare announced cheerfully, clopping her hooves together, "that'll be all for today I'm afraid. Come back next time when you aren't so busy, Your Majesty; there's still more I would love to show you."
Though saddened to leave, Twilight dipped her head in assent and thanked the bat pony for allowing her to sate her curiosity, until the next time. She trotted out of the room with Flare Brimstone closing the door behind before following.
When they reached the front of the shop, Flare placed her hooves atop the counter. "Thanks for coming," she said mirthfully, giving the lavender princess a brisk, short wave. "It's been nice talking to somepony about my finds. I apologize if some explanations were shorter than others; I wish I knew more, but there is a limit to what I can ascertain."
Twilight shook her head and told Flare she had nothing to apologize for. Twilight was happy about learning new things, of objects from the distant past no matter the length of their origins. She waved farewell to the bat pony as she made her way out the store, calling back her plans on visiting the shop soon before going back to her crystal castle.
