The Citadel

"SHIT SHIT SHIT!" was all that Flurry could say and think as she raced trough the air as fast as she could. Chasing after her was a titanic snake like creature with its mouth open ready to swallow her whole. The maw itself was big enough to fit the crystal empires throne room in it and full of dark teeth. The rest of it was hard to see but it didn't seem to have scales but instead had a mostly smooth dark blue body.

"WHAT THE CRAP IS THAT THING!?" Flurry Heart shouted while pumping her wings as hard as she was able. Her courage had failed with fear and panic taking its place and the loud wailing cries of the monster sent chills down to her very core. Every time she snapped her head back to look at it the creature appeared to be getting closer causing her to flap her wings even more in a desperate attempt to out fly it.

"That is the sky guardian, it protects the air around the citadel from intruders." Zyzix explained but sounding quite nervous.

"This is why I said it was dangerous to fly around here, so I do hope you are able to get us to safety I would prefer to not be eaten."

Flurry really didn't want to be eaten either so she needed to escape this thing before that happened and sooner rather then later. It was still gaining on her so outrunning it wasn't an option because eventually it would catch up to her and devour her, no she needed to evade it in another way. She threw a quick glance back over her shoulder only to realize that she was pretty much looking down the gullet of the monster with seemingly endless rows of sharp teeth. The serpent was a lot closer then she thought, at any moment now it could bite down and end her. Fighting back her panic she did a hard turn to the side, she grazed her leg against a tooth as she made her way out of the side of its mouth. Now flying against the wind it got even harder for her already tired wings so she made a dive towards the citadel again to try and find somewhere to enter.

Having eluded the sky guardian for a moment Flurry Heart worked as fast as she could to look for a window or balcony to get inside. There where things that looked like windows on the wall but to her dismay they where only shallow grooves in the stone. Feeling very stressed over the whole situation she continued her search until suddenly Zyzix called out to her.

"WATCH OUT, TO YOUR LEFT!"

It was the first time Zyzix had raised her voice like that so she got Flurry's attention immediately and she turned her head in the mentioned direction. The gigantic snake monster had found her again and was charging straight towards her with its mouth wide open. The speed of the creature and with her so close to the wall gave her no chance to fly away so almost like a reflex she teleported herself to relative safety. She appeared right above it just as the behemoth crashed into the side of the citadel where she was just a second ago sending rocks and debris flying everywhere. The sky guardian trashed and twisted itself like a fish on land as it howled in displeasure. The chaotic movements caused it to hit Flurry hard enough to send her flying into the wall and tumble down a sloped part of it until she came to a stop against a gargoyle like ornament. With another deafening howl the monster ripped itself free from the wall and leaving a giant hole, seeing her chance Flurry leaped into the air and made her way into the citadel at last.

Stale and heavy air met her as she past through the hole and entered a great hallway with long thick pillars standing in rows stretching from floor to ceiling. The lighting was poor making the whole place kind of gloomy, and then there was a slight haze cowering the floor making the entire thing look haunted.

"You are one interesting individual princess, not only did you survive an encounter with a souleater but you also manage to escape the sky guardian with barely a scratch on you." Zyzix said in a tone that was hard to read, it sounded both impressed and contemplative.

"I do not know if it was just luck or something else but I am impressed."

"Yeah..." Flurry Heart's reply was as empty as her gaze, the adrenaline high she had been on for the last couple of minutes when fighting for her life was slowly subsiding leaving her tired and in pain. She could still hear the monsters wailing howls from outside echoing around her and she wasn't sure it wouldn't try to chase her in here too. So she kept on flying a bit further until she came to a wall and decided to land. Touching down on the stone floor her legs almost couldn't hold her weight so she had to put a hand against the wall just to remain standing. There was a clang as she dropped her sword on the ground that she'd been holding until now, and looking down at it she noticed whole body was shaking slightly even though she wasn't cold. She could feel wetness on her cheeks and only when she brought a shaky hand up brush it of did she realize that she was crying. Her breaths became ragged as her shaking became worse, she could hear Zyzix talk to her but could not make out any words she was saying. And then the dam burst and she slumped down against the wall crying and wailing uncontrollably like she hadn't done in many years.

Flurry Heart had manage to keep her emotions mostly in check up until now when everything came back all at once. All the fear and hopelessness she had encountered all the pain and tiredness she was feeling was to much and had broken her. But the worst thing of all was the homesickness and the uncertainty of her making it home at all terrified her so much it almost hurt. For a long time she just lay there by the wall in a fetal position crying her eyes out unaware of anything around herself until she eventually cried herself to sleep.

~~~~~~

Flurry awoke in a daze several hour later, her eyes felt really dry and even after sleeping she still was mentally exhausted. Sitting herself up she was a little confused at first on where she was but before long she remembered where she was and how she got there.

"Ah, I see that you have awoken princess." The wisp was hovering above her head slowly pulsating a soft light around them.

"I am not sure what happened to you, but when I could not make contact with you I had to put up a illusion spell to camouflage us from enemies that could be lurking here." Zyzix explained.

Flurry Heart looked down at the ground and sniffed before rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry, I think I had a mental breakdown of sorts." she said quietly.

"...I see." came the reply with a short pause.

"Are you still able to continue?"

"Yeah I guess, just give me a minute or two." Flurry answered still in a quiet tone of voice.

She continued to sniff a little every now and then while sitting there hugging her legs and sorting her thoughts. She felt so empty inside, like all of her emotions had been drained. But at the moment that might be a good thing so she didn't have another breakdown. She brushed a hand over a small cut she found on her leg with some dried blood around it, her guess was that she got it while escaping the sky guardian. She also had several other sore spots and bruises all over her body that she didn't notice at the time but now she could feel them ache. Luckily for her it was nothing major so it probably wouldn't hinder her movements any. To be honest it could have been so much worse considering what she had encountered. After sitting down twiddling with her tail for a short while she let out a sigh and reached for the sword that lay beside her, she then got up and put the weapon back in its scabbard.

"Have you taken the time you need?" Zyzix asked noticing her movements.

Flurry took a look around at the huge gloomy room she was in thinking to herself that she was so done with this place.

"Yes, lets get out of this shit hole." she said in a grumpy voice.

"Splendid, we may have manage to enter the citadel but there is still some way to go yet so I hope you are prepared." her companion spoke joyfully seeming to ignore Flurry's sour mood.

"And with so much ancient magical energy around there is no telling what kind of creatures that could be lurking in here, so be on your guard." Zyzix warned.

"Now follow me princess, there should be a stairway not far from here."

Flurry Heart just nodded and let the wisp lead the way without saying anything. At the moment she was glad she had chosen to free Zyzix from her prison at least she wasn't entirely alone and that gave her some much needed comfort. And who knows where she would be without her guidance, she could have been lost forever or even dead. She tried to not entertain those dark thoughts and instead focus on her goal which was to get home to her parents and friends.

After a few minutes of walking trough the giant empty room they came upon a huge opening in the wall. On the other side was deep chasm, there was a draft coming from the darkness down below playing a haunting melody as it traveled upwards. A set of stairs circling around a thick pillar that looked like a spine going down the center of the room with a bridge leading over the pit to access the stairs.

"Here it is, and now we climb, or rather you climb." Zyzix laughed bouncing slightly.

"That's a lot of stairs." Flurry stated while carefully looking both up and down from the bridge.

"Will they take us all the way to the top?" she asked looking towards her companion.

"No, but they will get us a good deal closer."

Flurry took a look up again already feeling the strain in her legs, she let out a sigh and started to make her way up the stairs. Even though the stairway was wide she opted to walk close to the central pillar feeling like she made faster progress that way, and also avoiding most of the gusts. Not long into there journey upwards Zyzix started up a conversation again.

"Say princess you have a very interesting way of fighting is that common where you are from?"

"Interesting how?" she asked glancing at the wisp floating above her.

"You use a lot of movement for example and you are not utilizing nearly as many combat spell as I would have imagine you would." Zyzix explained.

Flurry Heart pondered a bit on what she should answer to that. "Well you see we don't have that many combat spells, most of our magic is manipulation magic."

"And not everyone can use that kind of magic anyway only the unicorns and alicorns can, the pegasi and earth ponies have more of an internal magic." she finished.

She looked up at her companion again who was silent almost like she was thinking over the information Flurry had given her.

"How does that affect the power structure in your world, my guess is that you had plenty of wars."

"We haven't had a real war in over a thousand years." Flurry said with a small smirk.

"Really now, fascinating." Zyzix sounded genuinely surprised by that.

"But won't the lack of conflict dull the blades so to say of your military?"

"I don't think so, we might not have a massive army but they are all well trained and disciplined, quality over quantity you know." she defended.

Flurry had seen them train many times over the years and even trained with them a few times so she knew they where capable. She had full confidence in the soldiers ability to handle any crisis and she did not want anyone to doubt that fact.

"I'm sure they are all fine soldiers princess." Zyzix said with a small laugh.

Flurry Heart ignored her partners snide remark she had come to expect that from her at this point, instead she choose focus on climbing the stairs.

"I hope you are not to tired, it is just a little further now." The wisp teased noticing the heavy breathing from Flurry.

Clearly her partner was in a pretty good mood for some reason, she didn't know why or how one could find any happiness in this tomb but it was better then the opposite she supposed. She looked at the little orb gently floating above her thinking to herself that she didn't really know her new friend to well.

"Can I ask you a question Zyzix?" she asked.

"Of course you can little one." came the reply joyfully.

"You said that you could travel between realities, what's that like?"

"Think of it as a book with an infinite amount of stories, if you tire of one you can just turn the page to find a new one to explore."

"When you think you have learned all there is to learn or seen all there is to see something new always finds me eventually." Zyzix explained in a very passionate way.

"Are there more like you out there, do you have friends or family?" Flurry asked.

"Family no, there is a possibility there could exist more beings like me out there but I have yet to encounter one."

"I do make friends from time to time, but they never last." she let out a small chuckle.

"Why?" Flurry questioned looking at Zyzix.

"Simply put, I am an ageless entity so I tend to out live everything." she said nonchalantly.

"Oh..." Flurry said looking down scratching her neck awkwardly.

There was a brief moment of silence between the two of them before she spoke again.

"I have been wondering something, when you where locked up why couldn't you use your power escape?"

Zyzix got unusually quiet before she eventually answered in a serious tone of voice.

"I will tell you this as a favor because you have been very helpful towards me."

"Do you know about the power of names?" she inquired.

"No." Flurry shock her head slightly.

"Well it is a form of binding magic where as you weave essences into spells, when you do this the spell will be tailored towards whatever the essence was taken from." Zyzix explained.

"This magic can be used to bind items to yourself like a sword or a trinket so only you can truly use it."

"It can also be used to bind living things to places and items essentially imprisoning them."

"It was with this magic my captors manage to create a powerful seal with my own essence, making it impossible for me to break it."

Flurry listened closely to her companions explanation, it reminded her of one of Twilight's magic lectures she wondered if she knew anything about this kind of magic.

"What is essence and why is it called the power of names?" She asked.

"Essence can be something like blood for example, and why it is called power of names is because items are usually given a name when bound." the wisp replied.

"Anyway princess this is our floor, now let us make haste." Zyzix shifted to a more joyful tone again as if she really wanted to change the subject.

Flurry didn't want to push Zyzix by asking more questions so she just nodded and exited the stairway over a bridge similar to the one they entered on.