Lunar: Caught Somewhere in Time

Chapter 5: The Drake and the Rose

‘What is Democracy?’

-“It has something to do with young men killing themselves.”

‘When my time comes, will you want me to go?’

“For Democracy, any man will give his only begotten, son.”

It had been several long hours, as Twilight grew tired once more, feeling the drowsiness in her.  She looked towards Rainbow Dash, seeing that she was in way better condition than her, she was studying her gait, admiring the fact she could walk so steadily with a broken leg.

It was hard for Twilight to focus on the birds that led their path, but she could tell that the birds were catching on to them. They had seen that she was following them, and they had started to increase the speed at which they flew. At any normal given day, Rainbow Dash could catch up to them, in a heartbeat. And Twilight would be able to use her teleportation powers to catch up to the flock, but at this point, the weather was getting frigid and the night was at its peak.

They were losing the birds, and Rainbow Dash was starting to get colder and colder to the point of where her teeth were chattering.     She could tell the birds were leaving them, and she had to speed up. Her teleportation powers were useless because of her condition at the moment. Rainbow dash was trying to keep up, but she was freezing to death, or so it felt like to her, and she couldn’t walk as fast as she was able to before the cold had set in.

The terrain hadn’t changed much, but there were many small hills, and a few rocks that were bigger than them here and there scattered amongst the landmass they could call a continent. It seemed they had been there for a few days, but to tell the truth there had only been one day and one night.

Supposedly there was some migratory spot they were trying to reach by following these birds, or at least Twilight thought. What if she was wrong and they had been led to a barren wasteland?

“Are we almost there? Can you see further?” A voice took her out of her deep thoughts.

Rainbow dash had been growing restless of the long walk and started to ask a lot more questions than usual.

“Yes Dash, we are almost there, just a little longer ok!”

Her sweat poured over her brow, but it wasn’t a hot sweat, more like a chill that shouldn’t have been. As they progressed, the air got dense, and the walk seemed heavy on both of them. It was as if the clouds above had dropped right on them, causing the air to pressure itself right on their shoulders. But the worst thing of all happened at the worst time, it rained.

Of all the things that could have happened in the cold, it started to rain, and this caused it to feel colder than it should have. Twilight was rushing to find some way of locating shelter. Her protection spell wouldn’t work this time, she was too weak to cast it, and she had to stay with the birds.

Rainbow Dash was falling behind to the point of where she could barely see Twilight in front of her. The rain was fogging her view of what was in front of her, causing her to lose sight of Twilight. She stumbled to the ground, losing balance of her feet, and falling to her side.

Twilight was rushing ahead and not paying any attention to the friend she had just left behind her, as she moved closer to the top of a hill. She motioned herself to the top, trying to maneuver the jagged side, which was different terrain from which she had experienced. She took her last steps up the crooked side to reveal something she never would have expected.

Rainbow Dash quickly crawled to her feet, and the pain she felt was unlike any other, she could tell that it was strange that she didn’t collapse but she was thankful she didn’t. She started to walk towards the spot that she last saw Twilight go, and she saw a Cliffside in her pathway. Seeing this made her unsure if she was able to go one, but she knew she had wings, but was unable to fully use them.

She leapt in the air and her wings started the motion of flapping towards each other. She could feel the winds and rain dividing to make way for her wings in the air. She started to glide into the sky pass up the hill, past the rocks and the small trees. As she was gliding up, she noticed Twilight at the top, but her voice was too hoarse from the lack of food to make a sound to say something to her.

She reached the top of the hill, or cliff if you want to call it, just to see what Twilight was seeing. She stopped in awe, as she gazed out into a plain of Roses.

Shadow woke in the room he was assigned by the Princess last night, which by this time smelled of cherry blossoms and fresh roses. Had the housekeeping come early? Or had he just slept in too late? Maybe it was just the second one, he was laughing for a moment to himself about that. He looked around and thought what a beautiful room, and then widened that statement to what a beautiful world’.

He strutted over to the door and moved his hand to open it. He stopped himself because he heard the sound of hooves rattling on the somewhat of a linoleum floor. He stopped himself to study the floor, ‘what a nice floor’ he said.

He looked around for things to hide himself from, he didn’t want to be seen sleepy, especially in the presence of such beauty.

He walked over to the window and clothed himself as fast as he could as a rattle on the door sent a scramble to his mind. He wasn’t dressed yet and he knew it, he would be walked in on while he was naked. The thought came to his mind, what it if was a boy pony? Or even worse, Spike. He called out with a scent of anger in his voice, “One minute I’m dressing to get ready.” But this didn’t help the knocking on the door continued and a voice bellowed from behind it.

“We think you have locked us out of the royal Guest suite, maybe we should wait for thou to precede with thy dressing ritual. We shall leave you alone.”

The voice seemed like the most royal person in Equestria. More than anyone else he had ever heard while he was in the stay here so far. Even though he had only been there for two days, it felt like he was getting used to the environment around him very quickly.

He continued to dress in his very orderly fashion, fastening his braces around him, and then putting on a cape, which draped down to the floor like the last. This outfit was a pale white, which sung out night like the mockingbirds that slept in it. The pale lining of silk gauntlets that struck his arms shined around his wrists like the moon itself, and the bracers climbed up his arm like snakes up a vine. The hood he wore was velvet, like a deep blood color, that poured over a white floor, as smooth as the skin of a baby.

After he was done, putting his clothing on, he admired himself in the nearest window, which he loved because it was a very fine texture of gold, which he could tell was very expensive. He couldn’t tell what karat it was, but he could tell it was worth a lot of money.

However, he did not know what money system these people, or ponies, used here in Equestria. Spike had not explained everything that was important to him when he was traversing the railroad, but even if he did Shadow did not really listen to everything that he said.

Shadow walked over to the door and was ready to open it this time. He grabbed the handle and turned it, slowly pushing outward. He looked to his left, then to his right, and found there was nobody waiting for him in the Hall. After Shadow moved outwards to the main passage to the foyer of the Castle, he started gazing at the tapestry and the amazing artwork that hung from the sides of the hallways and the passages.

He thought nothing of the sort that he was treading on Royal territory, and that there were no guards, or at least any he could see. He just kept walking and wondering about the voice he had heard at the door a little while ago.

Rainbow Dash stood in shock at what she saw, for it was true beauty.

The field was blood red, as if it had poured from the sky, raining blood. You could see the roses everywhere, as far as the eye could see from that point was roses and hills. Twilight had lost sight of the Birds already, but it didn’t matter, the two of them could eat roses, and there were plenty for them to eat. Rainbow Dash was eager to take a closer look at the field, for she was admiring the stone pillars.

The Pillars stood about twenty feet from the ground, as if they were taller than a house. They shined as the sun bounced off of them, reflecting the light given. They had some sort of crystal like make up inside of them, and the sides seemed to be littered with jade.

Rainbow Dash darted over to the side of a pillar and scratched her face against it. “Wow Twilight, this place is cool! I wish we had huge fields of roses just lying around back home.”

“It Is pretty amazing, but it’s a strange phenomenon for all these jade stones to be symmetrically placed like this.”

Rainbow Dash looked at her.

“What do you mean?”

“Look around,” Twilight pointed knowingly towards the stones. “They form a pattern of circles and those form one big circle.”

Rainbow Dash looked around to see if she could find out what her Unicorn friend was talking about. She saw that the patterns resembled that of a circle, yes. But her feeble brain (At least compared to Twi’s) couldn’t begin to understand what Twilight was getting at.

“Well if they are symmetrical,” Twilight began to say again. “Someone must have put them there, because nothing in nature is that perfect.”

Twilight advanced towards the middle of the field of roses, where she noticed a huge settled area of grass, or at least cropped. She saw that something big had been lying here, and she knew that it wasn’t safe to stay here for much longer.

“Rainbow Dash, you might want to leave.”

Rainbow Dash looked at her in a confused manner, “Why?”

Before Twilight had the time to respond to her derped question, a massive gust of wind knocked both of the ponies to their backs. A swooping sound echoed through Twilights ears as she saw a massive shadow pass overhead. Twilight cocked her neck and tried to swerve her head to view what had caused them to fall.

A massive Dragon was lying in the spot that Twilight had just been previously observing, which was about the same size as it. The Dragon paid no heed to the ponies; I guess he found them no threat. He curved his neck around and grazed on the roses, letting the blood red pedals settle on his tongue and his nose. He seemed to be somewhat of a blue and black color, with a silver glow.

He swerved his head from side to side, surveying the area, and observing the two ponies in the roses before it. He changed his position from lying to crouched as he rose to a threatening height. Twilight got from her shocked position and stood before the dragon, quivering in fear, as Rainbow Dash rose next, following in her fear.

The Dragon peered at the two from burning eyes, which seemed to have a smoldering red in the ghastly pale white sea. His scales shimmered with the sunlight, as he brought himself to speaking. “What are you two doing in the Field of Sorrow?” His eyes glared at them like a owl would peer at a mouse.

Twilight Spoke, “We were passing through, just admiring the view of your beautiful roses. However, the problem is that we are not from here. We are lost; you see we aren’t from this place at all.”

The Dragon stopped her there with a raised hand; he then spoke, knowingly, “I see, you say you are of the lost, but you seem to know where you are right now. Let me help you, you are in the Field of roses, and I am the one they call the Drake. I can predict what is to come of the things around you in your coming years.

Twilight looked at him in dismay, “What is this place, where are we?”

“Nobody ever has trespassed hear in these lands they call the Fields of Blood. I call them the Fields of Roses, because if I have to live here, why live in a dreaded environment. I used to be a normal being, back before time started. Way before anything like this land ever existed.”

“What do you mean?”

He stood there gazing at the sun, his eyes like pearls in the wind, and his teeth were like blades that glistened with every new flash of light.

He started to speak, remembering back when there was a time that was different from this one.

‘It was a long time ago, probably over 500 years, give or take a few. I was a young boy, about the age of twelve, standing at about five foot eleven. The skies weren’t so grey back, then. In fact, they used to change more often, in a shorter time period than which they would now. I was living in a ruffian’s town called Shalksa, about the population of 300. I didn’t know much when I was growing up, all I knew was that we were at war with another part of the tribal plains. They called themselves the Visionists, and they said they had a plan for all that was supposed to happen to the world as they saw it. We thought we should just let the world plan itself out, and not interfere with the changes occurring. We were people of the land you see, just living off of what we could get and harvest. I however did not care to take sides on the war or let alone discuss the political views the others had.

‘I cared, for one thing in particular, which was love. This I looked upon as a gift, as to which was given to me by sacred gods. I had my eye on a woman, whose name was Rose. She had the tender skin like a baby bear. And she was as pale as the lit night. She had lips as red as the darkest veins, and she had the deepest eyes that would swallow you with the glare she gave. Her looks were stunning, and she always wore the most beautiful things. She could put on anything and make it beautiful, like a stunning cashmere gown woven into a webbed corset lacing itself into silk lined stockings. She had the most beautiful black hair you could imagine, and she wore it with pride in any fashion she wanted to. But I found out that she was not the beautiful woman that I had planned her out in my mind to be. I had asked her for a dance one night, and she said yes.

‘It was on that night that my whole life changed, for you see, she wasn’t a regular woman at all. I found out when she explained to me, she was a Witch, and to my shock she was a murderer. I immediately told her that I refused to love someone who killed others for enjoyment, who cursed them for pleasure. She looked at me with the eyes of fire ablaze, and I knew right then what I had done wrong. I had angered I witch, which was a tragedy, the turning point in my life was when I did that. She had cursed me, for if I had found another lover in my life, the curse would take effect. I would turn into a hideous beast, and my life would be cut off from love again. Of course I heeded her words, but not for long.

‘I grew older in the coming years, and at the age of 16 decided to join the rebel militia. For someone to join the militia at a young age they have to have a reason, I however, didn’t have a reason. I was one of the few that didn’t have a reason to do much of anything. If I walked down the street and stabbed a man I wouldn’t be able to tell you why I did it. My parents by this time had both died; father by war and mother by cancer. I grew into my military fit quite quickly, but it wouldn’t be long before the worse would happen. I was at the battle field one day, at the center of the action on the Hills of Catarys. Because of my arrogance I was near killed in battle by arrow wound. The Visionists were faster than out men, and we had to retreat to the town that we grouped at. I was injured badly, to where they hospitalized me.

‘The doctor there recommended me to a nurse of great healing; I thought I was going to die of course. Without a thought of the Witch in my mind, I reached towards the young nurse as a younger sister, as she healed me day by day I grew closer to her. And she knew that soon I would fall in love with her, she started to grow close to me, and ask questions. I would tell her stories of my family, and she would sit by me, eagerly listening. But lo and behold I forgot about one thing, the curse. The Witch was the one that had so dreadfully cast this evil spell on me. I had forgotten not to fall in love, and so I had transformed into what I am now, I would say she made the mistake of calling me hideous though. I killed that nurse, and all of the other soldiers and patients in the room with me that day.

‘It is my fault the world is like this, the Roses here, the world here is changed so much. After I left that hospital my mind went in a different direction than I did. I started to go insane to the thought of living as a dragon for the rest of my life. So I called upon the god of death to rid me of the suffering I felt. He glared at me for the time being, looking into my very soul, and glancing at my thoughts. He found the thing that ailed me most and killed it. People. People were the thing that ailed me most, but that was only in my mind, and I was distraught when I found what the young god had done. He had completely wiped the world of humanoid life, killing it of its peaceful population. But it was my fault because of my wish to be ridden of the pain. Really in my mind he saw the wish for no more wars, and for the fighting between peoples to stop. But the young god knew that the only way to stop that was to terminate the life. Since then, I have planted a rose for every person I used to know, maybe a little extra.

‘I go around planting these roses, and moving the stones because it signifies the hard work that I have put into my life.”

Rainbow Dash looked at the Drake, astounded by the story, but confused about half of the things that the magnificent creature had just said to them. “So you mean you caused the world to stop living like this?”

The Drake answered back, “Yes it was I who uttered the words that ended the life of Humanoids on the planet. Now listen, the world is not dead, there are creatures far beyond the comprehension of your minds. Things that bend time to travel to other sides of planets or galaxies. Sea monsters that rip holes in water that widen from a mile to at least the size of a big city. This is no lost planet let me assure you, it has just gone to the creatures of evil.”

“How big is the planet?” Twilight asked. “It can’t be that big, I mean it can but, that’s just ridiculous.”

“It’s very big, I mean I can fly and I haven’t even traversed the whole planet side.”

Rainbow Dash gulped, showing that she was impressed that the Drake flew so much, and that must have meant the planet was immense. “So can you tell us how to get off of the planet?”

Twilight looked over at Rainbow Dash, because she had just stolen her question. But that was all right; at least one of them had asked it. But it was a silly question, considering the fact that you can’t really leave a planet, other than the time that Luna was banished. But that was totally different, and with very different circumstances.

“You will need to find the Mask of Sorrow, the only thing that still lets you access the lost Nexus.”

Twilight was confused already. “Excuse me but we don’t know what either of those are, can you please help us understand by first explaining what this Mask of Sorrow is, then get onto the next part?”

The Drake took in a gasp of air as Rainbow Dash plopped to the ground ready for an explanation of what and where they would have to go, how they would get there, and how they are going to get home.

As the hall deepened to a room with tables and beautiful dining sets, Shadow was wary not to touch anything. He knew this was probably the dining room, and if he messed anything up in here, he would be in big trouble. Instead, he just passed by, gazing at the wonderful artwork and tapestries, which hung from the banisters on the wall. Most of them were meaningless, but one caught his eye in particular, one that resembled some sort of sorcery. He glared up really hard at it to study the details, which at this point were really small and textured into the picture.

It seemed to be some sort of Witch, or Wizard, cursing another man. And the details he was looking at were the spells enchantments upon the man, which were what they would have done to him. It seemed there were little encryptions of dragon fire, or holy crosses and many different little religious symbols littered about the artwork. He couldn’t tell what it meant but he was sure it wasn’t something good, or maybe it was a sign showing something in the past had been done.

He couldn’t tell.

Nevertheless, the one thing he could tell was that the noise in the hallway was guards, and they sounded upset because they didn’t find him in his room this morning when he was supposed to be asleep. He knew that the princess would be upset about him wondering the castle in the wee hours of the morning when he should not have been, but he was curious, and he was worried about some things that should have been answered a while ago.

He wanted to know more about the castle that Spike did not tell him about, he needed to know about the princess of theirs. He wanted to know all about this tapestry, and what it meant. He needed to know about all of these other ponies that spike had been talking about and if his prophecy was going to be correct or not.

Shadow heard the guards coming up to the door to knock, but why knock. The people practically owned the place, he guessed they were trying to be polite, or something like that.

They stood there knocking at the door for the few seconds they had to, and it sounded like a rude voiced colt at the door was frustrated with the guest that had been staying, so he just told him to get out.

“Excuse me sir, you have to get out of there, it is the royal dining room and we request you leave at once… Now.”

Shadow listened and he waltzed out of the room with no trouble at all, because why give the people that are housing you trouble when all you want to do is help them.

He followed the guards that lead him throughout the halls of the castle, which at this point had seemed to be turning into a maze. Even the guards themselves were getting worried they didn’t know the way of which they needed to go to bring him back to his room. But nevertheless there was the one brave guard in the front who found the way for the rest of them while running ahead and scouting out the path. Not like there was any danger in the castle, but it was the fact that most of Celestia’s guards were a big joke, and they were afraid of most of the things that they came upon.

Shadow arrived in the foyer of the Castle, looking back around at the beautiful tapestries and décor in the main room, which amazed him how so little ponies could put this together, even if it did take 1000 or so years.

He quickly turned around for he had heard footsteps behind him nearing his back, just to reveal the stunningly dressed Princess Celestia gallantly trotting upon the marble floor, which made her look regal. She requested a bow from, him, and he did; his knees a little shaky on the lowering and the rising portions of the bow, but as he rose he felt good about himself.

“Shadow, I have wonderful news for you!” She said.

Shadow looked at her, but he wondered what could be so wonderful about a time like this when he has delivered a warning, and Spike has gone missing. “What is it Princess?”

She smirked through the side of her pampered face, revealing she had something big planned soon, even though it really wasn’t a surprise. “We are holding the annual Grand Galloping Gala this year, and it will be a night to remember, I do hope you can attend.”

Shadow was dumbfounded, first at the fact he didn’t know what a ‘Gala’ was, and the second one was that he didn’t really care about happy events, he was more worried about the fate of the land; and another thing was that this was the princess, shouldn’t she care more? His thoughts rambled through his head like a train speeding town the track, but he ceased to find the ones that would really make sense, and he went with the ones that he didn’t care for as much.

“Well I would love to come, but first, what is a Gala?”

Celestia giggled, and this made Shadow blush madly, “A Gala is a formal event, usually a dance or dining get together. Many proper ponies from all around are gathered to celebrate formal wear and casual dances with soft toned music.”

Shadow understood halfway, at least he tried to, but he didn’t want to accept the offer, it was just his big mouth that got him into this situation. But now he had to attend, and he would have to be a pony for this just so he wouldn’t freak the public population out. But first thing was first, he had to get to know the people around the castle.

“The Mask of Sorrow,” The Drake started saying as he drew deep breaths which seemed to freeze the air around Twilight and Rainbow Dash, “is an ancient artifact from a distant time, originally used by witches in my era. But before that, it was used by the gods, and they used that for transporting the people that were to be judged of their fate to the spot of redeeming. Mostly, the spot of redeeming would be the Nexus, a portal to the dimensions that linked the Purgatory with living realm and rift traveling. The Mask of Sorrow was named so for the original king who created the Gods; his face was sculpted into the mask, after he died from the lack of power to support his life. It is said that once the Mask of Sorrow is used though, evil gets its right to travel to a dimension of its choice.”

“The Nexus is the gateway in which you would be brought to if you were asked to choose, if not you would be sent to the Purgatory in the rift, which is a place of no description. I can’t explain much more about what to do when you find the mask, or what it is; to tell the truth I don’t know what it looks like. But I can tell you where to go, but instead of you going alone you will need to go with me. I think I could give you directions on the way as we travel…”

Twilight looked over at Rainbow Dash, who just shrugged it off and thought it was ok if the Drake went with them. Twilight then looked back at the immense Drake, raising her head to speak in a tone of voice she rarely had to use.

“All right, you can come with us; just don’t try anything silly, even though we basically can’t stop you considering our injuries.” Twilight glared up at the kind and somewhat seeming to be gentle face of the old dragon. She understood his troubles, and his lust to help them, so she said ok.

“All right then you two, follow me; and try to stay close, don’t worry I won’t fly either.” He started to walk, which was basically running for those two, and at this point they would find the Mask of Sorrow in no time, or so they are thinking. Twilight has her doubts, and she thinks that maybe, just maybe there are those odds something will happen that could cause this to be a terrible upset.

The Drake led them over the first set of hills, traveling at a speed that was wearing Dash’s newly healed leg out faster than she wanted. She was slowing down, but she could still keep up even though she was moving slower than the other two. Twilight was running, jogging actually, to keep up with the Drake, and it seemed he was leading them right into a dark forest. Twilight looked up to his face as he looked down at hers, and she knew that this journey had just begun.

Authors Note: The next chapter has Zecora in it, and I didn’t think about it until after I had thought about the storyline after the fact, but she rhymes in every conversation she has. And I am terrible at rhyming, that is why I am no songwriter. I tried to find another character for the chapter who could fit the bill, but I was screwed after I had etched the story into my head, and it fit pretty well with the chapter name I had planned out. So if my rhymes are a little cheesy, please don’t blame me for trying to try, everyone gives it a shot every once in a while.

I just wanted to thank you all for reading and please comment on my story, I would also like someone to help (It’s just a request from anybody who ‘wants to’) Make a cover art for the story. Anybody that does deviant art or imgur, either one. I have no drawing talents, and as you can see I have a slightly good writing talent that I don’t really credit myself with, I let you do that for me. Anyway, contact me on my steam ID when I get it back up, or my imgur. Also my live messenger account, jburton1997@live.com. Thank you for comments and further help with cover art!