A Forsaken Land

by boronium

Rating: teen
Tags: Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Human, Sad, Princess Luna, Original Character, Comedy, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Crossover
Length: 7134

Small skirmishes rose after the defeat of Deathwing but the cultists was lowering

Following the victory over Deathwing near the Maelstrom, the Twilight cultists continued to fight at Wyrmrest Temple till death but most fled and hid around Dragonblight. Even though their morale must have been low they sometimes engaged in small skirmishes to try and retake position.

The story starts with the one of the last group of cultists in the surroundings of Venomspite with a warlock raining fire and chaos among the battlefield.

Image by DrkSnpr14

Published 2012-10-23 04:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-12-26 18:12:29 UTC

Introduction : Never Cross An Unstable Portal

Deathwing may have been defeated but they were still many Twilight devotees trying to bring the end of the world by trying to summon powerful demons or liberating Old Gods meaning that even though the threat had been severely cut down there remained one possible armageddon for Azeroth.

Near the settlement of Venomspite sitting atop a cliff, an undead warlock was slaughtering his way through the Twilight's rank with a mad laugh as he set on fire the warriors and made magicians run in fear. There never seemed to have an end to the ranks of these degenerates. Cephas always wondered how a such an crazy cult could have so many followers then he rememered that the Royal Apothecary Society couldn't really be called "sane" either. He just had enough time after musing this to dodge the swing of warhammer from a tauren enemy before exploding his head with a well-placed chaos bolt.

As Cephas was gazing quickly around the combat zone he saw that the battle was taking its turn in the favor of Venomspite's undead defenders. Cephas glimpsed to the edges of the battlefield to see a group of cultists fleeing as they also understood who'd win this day.

"I wonder where they are going in such a hurry.." he muttered before lighting on fire two rogues rushing near him. He then conjured a fiery steed as he got on Cephas casted a spell to make a fiery path admist the battlefield and led his mount swiftly across the newly opened exit to follow the cluster of cowards.

"You won't escape." he stated.

As the warlock tracked the company of purple robes for a good hour as they reached a cave he made his mount disappear so he could approch the lair of these sorcerers. Even though he wasn't a rogue he could still move stealthily as undead don't need to breathe as much. He moved carefully trying to avoid making any noise while exploring the cavern he noticed a purple and light blue glow emanating from the confines of the grotto and as he advanced, he discovered that the cultists were creating a portal to escape.

"Stabilise this portal quickly before we are found!" said a tall orc wearing a more ominous robe and aura than the others which logically meant he was the leader of this bunch of spineless welps.

Cephas casted a small incantation on the ground. He continued by preparing a immolating spell in one hand and a chaos bolt in the other he moved cautiously between the rocks sneaking his way before suddenly running in a full sprint while realeasing his spells. The neophytes had barely enough time to hear the prowler charging them before their leader had his body separeted neatly in half. An acolyte next to him was light on fire like a torch and running around shrieked in torment .

Cephas then used his powers to rot two of the cultists insides. He counted that there still was about eight adversaries for him to slaughter two still stabilising their escape route the rest having recovered from the initial shock had charged at the brutal assailant who smirked before conjuring a rain of fire killing one and injuring four of them, the executioner then proceeded by teleporting his way back to the invocation he put beforehand and concentrated to unleash an array of shadow bolts in the confused melee leaving only two survivors who ran to the portal.

"He's too powerful let's get outta h..." one of them yelled before he and his colleague vanished in ashes.

The mages maintaining the portal widened their eyes before releasing their spell and running to step through the portal not caring where it would take them as long as it was far away from this butcher.
The blazing butcher then sped through the 50 meters that separated him from the conjurers' exit route and chased the invokers as they went through the portal.

Cephas had gone into his fair share of magic gates and after a few of them the disquietude eased off but was still present, however this time it was replaced by another feeling, a feeling of unbalance of the arcane hole itself instead of just the bodily reaction.

"I hope they had enough time to stabilise it or I am going to be shattered into pieces...again." he thought.

Chapter 1 : Lost In An Unknown Region...

Oh, why are we so sad?

Are we feeling hurt by their evil eyes and all those empty words?

We are thirsty for payback?

What would we like to do with the town?

Would we like to make it dance?

With the animals?

Would we? Would we?!

Tell us what we would like to do.

Burn... it... all...

Burn it all

After recalling what happened prior in the awakening of his second life, Cephas emerged of the incousciousness brought by the collapsing magic wormhole, He attempted to take his bearings but fell to his knees and almost regurgitated as he felt his head ringing as if he had been slammed into the bells of a church.

As he was slowly recovering his vision, he saw that only one of the mages arrived unscathed and was lying on the grass, the other seemed to have lost the lower half of his legs all the way to his thighs.

"Ugh... It appears I have some luck after all." he thought as he tried to stand on his feet even if his head was still housing hundreds of war drums, unfortunately the dizzyness of his arrival was still ruining his sense of balance and so he fell flat on the grass. He rolled on his back and waited for the uneasiness to disappear as he regained his senses he started to hear a very loud yell and realised that the legless cultist was screaming at the top of his lungs. Starting to go deaf once again, Cephas used his draining magic to absorb the rest of the legless' pathetic life but his abilities hadn't returned properly yet and so instead of feeding on the agonising wretch he created a big hole between his head and guts.

"Not quite what I had in mind but at least he is silent now."

With the newfound calm settling, Cephas finally realised that he was in a small clearing in the middle of a forest. He looked around to locate in which woods he landed. He shuffled through his magic pouches to find his map to establish his landing point but then he remembered that he left it at Venomspite's barracks. Irritated by this discovery he decided to wake up the still cultist that was still lying face down in the dirt. He rose to his feet and walked giddily toward the dormant mage however after giving a few kicks to awaken him, the warlock noted that he didn't even groan at the rough treatement.

Kneeling next to the mage, the sorcerer used his powers to inspect the corpse's soul stream which ran in his blood only to find that almost all his veins had imploded and was actually about as dead as you can get.

Cephas sighed. "Fantastic... Arrived in a unknown territory without map and without anyone I can torture to give me any information whatsoever. I suppose my luck is very inconsistent."

"Well time to go in search of a town." As he got up his stomach growled furiously.

"Right after I've eaten something." he kneeled again next to the corpse and lowered open his mouth near the human's neck and started chewing and pulling the flesh out and gladly swallowing the meat.

After finishing his meal with a pleasant sigh of culinary contentment.

"It still amazes me how easily one can get accostumed to eating humanoids after turning into an undead. Four years ago that thought alone would've driven me sick..."

Stop thinking about the past it never did any good and you know it. Things have never been the same since then and will never be the same so stop it.

Feeling a rising rage begining its ascension he thought that he should probably "burn" some steam off before he should go in search of benchmarks or civilization.

"Well it has been too long a time since I haven't taken a stroll in a forest creating mayhem anyway."

Cephas didn't walk three steps that four creatures appeared in front of him. He didn't think, he reacted by casting void implosion bombs on two of the entities, a third then jumped on his right and the twitchy spellcaster saw that these things were made of wood and had the size and shape of small wolves. The fourth charged slightly after the third and Cephas didn't see it while he was busy pondering and dodging so the woodwolf open its mouth and tore off his left arm.

"HEY! I need that! Okay play-time's over!" He warned with wrath. Cephas casted hastily a spell at the wolf harrassing him making it flee in fright. After a small respite, he turned to notice that the first two wolves hadn't moved much and decided to end their wait by flunging a Shadowbolt at the void bombs he implanted in them as the first one burst it destroyed the canine and triggered the other one's timebomb blowing it up as well. He pivoted back to face the one that took his limb and glared at the wood creature as it gnawed its catch.

"You know." He said with a mischievious grin. "Fire burns wood."

As he exclaimed those words, he lept, arched his back and then made a punching motion with his remaining arm which made the wolve spontaneously combust. It yelped and tried to flee.

"Oh no you WON'T!" Cephas said as he made a semi-circle with his arm and blocked his hand near his ribs, he clenched his fist and pulled the retreating monster's soul out of its body in a quick motion and absorbed it.

"And now I'm even more angry than before." he sighed as he walked to recover from the jaw of the charred monstrosity his fallen member. He then reinjected it back in its place and groaned slightly as he cauterized the scission between body and limb.

"First encounter in an unknown land and I celebrate it by having my first dismemberment experience. It really is a swell day."

Hearing a shuffle through leaves, Cephas paused and tried to determine where the noise came from and what made it before he realised he forgot about the woodwolve he forced in a terror run.

Why are you so cautious attempting to find the sound? Just burn the forrest down.

Sure then I'll have some trouble running faster than the fire I create.

As soon as his internal monologue ceased, the warlock dodged an incoming pile of wood.

"I suppose that's the one that run in dread." He mused to himself before hearing a great roar. He prepared by holding a large Incineration with his two hands. The howling creature then jumped out of the growth, it looked much like a wyvern except it had more the musculature of a mountain bear and its wings were smaller and lodged in its back.

"Too bad for you I'm already warmed up! Let's see if you can survive the heat of battle." Cephas challenged before launching his spell. The fire attacked quickly the creature making it charge in rage and despair. The warlock threw his hands in the air and made the flame rise on all the wyvern's body, burning it to a crisp making it trip and fall to the ground in embers.

Cephas sat down next to the charred corpse to rest a bit.

Chapter 2 : ...Or An Unknown World Entirely

Later taking his break, Cephas thought that the best way to get out of a forest without a map would be by climbing a tree. He never had that experience. So he mused that since he's probably gonna fall off a few times he might as well put a teleportation rune on the ground to avoid losing any bones.To his astonishment he only slipped a few times on the tree's moss but other than that he reached the treeline without any problem. He gazed around and saw that the forest was quite vast and he could not see the edges but again his eyesight wasn't nearly as good as it used to be. While scouring the woods he saw ruins in the distance, it wasn't civilization per se but at least it was something and maybe it had a better vantage point.

Feeling optimic for once he fell lazily from the tree before teleporting back to his rune. He thought that since he already used his legs for fighting and climbing he might as well use them for running. He could not call on his steed anyway not if he wanted to burn the forest, not that he cared about the trees but more about not burning himself.

Cephas rushed for about an hour but then feeling a bit under the weather from this exercise, he broke into a fast walking pace. Two hours later, he reached the limit of the growth and could see the ruins. Unfortunately there was a thirty feet wide chasm surrounding the ruins.

"Inconsistent luck's her name, pissing me off's her game". he sighed "I hope there is bridge of some kind not too far." Cephas said while starting to circle moat. After an hour or so, he started to lose hope to cross the chasm and of exploring these vestiges. However following his heavy sigh of wavering expectations he tilted his head back up and caught sight of a bridge. He ran to it and observed it was in quite a pitiful conditions but that didn't worry him at all. Being an adventurer always had meant slaying dragons and crossing derilect bridges.

While crossing the bridge, Cephas contemplated the ruins and guessed that it must've been a small fort with a watch tower. As the undead reached the doors that seemed in pristine condition when compared to the rest of the ruins which were in shambles for the most part. When he entered he laid eyes to a room with large and numerous broken windows and saw that even if the walls were old and covered with moss they stood except there was no roof at all. He gazed back to the center and contemplated with curiosity a twelve feet structure. It was a pyramid supporting a socle that was holding a cylindrical formed with five arms and a small boulder at the top of it. Even though it wasn't very impressing, Cephas had never seem anything alike. Its width and height suggested a fountain but there was no basin around it. He then considered it to be an alter but usually those would either be small and with a flat top to give offerings or otherwise much taller and much more sculpted to give an idea of who or what it was supposed to worship.

As Cephas was inspecting from bottom to top the intriguing sculpture, he noticed something as he glanced at the sky since they was no more roof in these ruins. "The sun hasn't moved since I've been here!" he exclaimed with a small amount of fear in his voice."It's not possible, when I arrived It was at least the middle of the afternoon! This is..." as he was rambling in bewilderment the sun then promptly disappeared and the moon rose as suddenly.

He kneeled in total incomprehension. Did he enter another realm ? Cephas gradually regained his senses and started to hear a faint sound of horses trotting. He got up swiftly and proceeded by hiding behind the alter to quickly ponder on his next move.

"Only the Alliance would use horses. I doubt I have time to go back to the front doors and catch a quick glance of their number. I can't easily escape even if the windows are broken but the only way across the chasm is the bridge."

As the warlock hid and speculated, he felt a shiver down his spine.

"Great they have archmages..." he felt another shiver.

"So much power and they're not even in my line of sight. What in the Dark Lady's name are they ?!" he muttered with anguish.

He suddenly heard the door with force.

"It has been a thousand year sister and still I feel malice in this place." a strong voice spoke.

"Yes, and it will remain like this for a long time but the reason I wanted you to come back here was to confront one last time your past." a soothing voice

Cephas quickly glanced to identify who were the ones talking and whocould hold that much magical energy. As he scoured the entrance as steathly as possible he saw a tall deep blue horse with wings and a big horn. The second being he saw was the same except it was taller and it was white.

There isn't anyone in this room meaning that he wasn't in the presence of Alliance which he reflected in retrospection would be completely stupid. If he really is in another realm that he's never seen, that means the Alliance probably doesn't know of its existence either. Even if their power was as overwhelming as a Pit Lord's it didn't have any ominous and oppressing glow.

"Maybe they are more akin to the naaru." he mused silently while crouching back into hiding.

Well ok go in front of them and ask if they are. I mean really... creatures with that much power could flatten you easily and they probably never seen any undead but if you think it's a good idea to judge them just by gauging their power go straight ahead.

"It is weird however sister there is malice hanging over these remains but there seemed to be an accumulation of it around the structure that hosted the Elements of Harmony. The councentration isn't surprising but I would've thought that it couldn't taint this alter." said the booming voice.

"Yes it is quite peculiar indeed." said the appeasing voice.

"I am so toast." Cephas thought."Well here goes nothing..." he sighed as he rose back to his feet and sprinted at full pelt towards the nearest broken window while preying to Sylvanas that he wasn't found to quickly admist the darkness in the room.

He had jumped and was halfway through the window that he was held paralysed. He was so close to escaping and he heard saying : "Here is your accumulation of malice it would seem, Luna."

Chapter 3 : Fighting An Unknown

Cephas was slowly brought back to the center of the room, before the alter, with a gold glow surrounding him and restraining his movements.

"Don't call it my accumulation of magic...please."

"I didn't mean it like that, Luna, I'm sorry."

While the two entities were discussing, the undead managed, with difficulty, to move his hands together and vanished in a green flash.

"Where did it go ?!" yelled Luna with anger.

"Don't worry. We can track it easily with the malice it's releasing. Concentrate."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Good thing that I had enough time to put that teleportation rune on the outside wall." Cephas mused "I highly doubt that I can outrun them for long so I might as well give them a distraction."

Concentrating a maximum amount of mana, he drew a massive invocation circle.

"I suggest that you extinguish the spell you are casting right now and that you stop running." whispered an authorative yet calm voice near him. The warlock couldn't bother to see who was threatening him or he would lose control.

Almost there... Almost..!

"You were warned." it said

Almost...THERE!

Cephas released his spell and he witnessed the appearance of a shadow gate. The warlock saw a large gray-green hand trying to pull its weight into this world. Just as it was clawing its way through, several rays of light were traversing it.The beast withi roared in anger and pain. The undead felt despair filling him and let a small whimper escape him. As the demonic door was starting to fade he saw the dark horse flying over the dark gate, shouting with a tremoundous power through her voice.

"WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH ?!" Luna vociferated.

With the light fading, Cephas glimpsed to the ground and saw a gold glow condensing and then in a surge speeding toward him. He didn't have time nor the energy to dodge and was struck by it. The warlock fell to the ground heavily. He struggled to get up...in vain. He was fully conscious yet he couldn't move a muscle.

I hate being stunned... Especially if my face is eating the ground.

Cephas heard the two equine creatures land near him.

"Luna..." one of them said.

"Yes, sister?"

"This... summoner is not the consequence of the residual malice of this forgetten place trying to assemble itself."

There was a short silence.

"You are right, sister. It appears that it didn't even falter even if we took down its supposed incarnation and the spell it had casted." Luna said.

I wonder what is all this malice nonsense they keep spouting.

"I don't quite understand what this means but this spellcaster has no link with the malice. If this paralysis spell works as efficiently on this creature, we should be able to take it back to the castle without too much trouble."

A castle... I supposed it has been too long a time since my last prison break.

Cephas felt a surge of mana just before he was blinded by a dark flash.

Chapter 4 : Dungeon Crawler Part 1

When his eyes were able to see again, Cephas noticed he landed on his right side and thus had a better angle of view to scan the area to determine what the "castle" looked like. It was a white corridor with big columns cut by large windows. While examining his new surroundings he acknowledged something.

It appears I can move my eyeballs now. I wonder if I can move as well

Cephas tried to get up but only managed to twitch.

Well apparently not... Damn it one them saw me move.

"It appears your paralysis spell didn't work as well as you thought sister."

"The teleportation spell must have weakened it. We shouldn't waste time then and lock this summoner in the anti-maigc cell." the white one said before her horn glowed and the warlock was envelopped by the gold radiance and forced to follow the two horses.

With nothing else to do I might as well remember every corner and every corridor if I try to break out of here.

"Luna, why didn't you teleport us closer to the dungeon?"

"It appears I have lost a bit of touch with magic after a thousand years."

Joy... Another millenia old being no wonder they are such powerhouses then.

After a twenty minute "walk" they had arrived in your typical every day dungeon you managed to get bored of after scouring your first hundred. Except it was clean no blood or spiderwebs hanging from the walls.

They passed in front of a dozen empty cells, all of which are empty. The trio stopped in front of one open cell with a smaller wingless horned horse standing next to it. He/she was white with differents shades of blue through its hair which comparing to the other two horses wasn't flowing. It was wearing a purple and gold armor.

"You called for me Princess."

Judging by the voice "it" is a male. Great... Royalty... I am so gonna be beheaded after they've poked needles through me. Wait a girlfriend impaling second! When did they have enough time to call for this... miniature

"Prince Shining Armor in private you can me Célestia as, need I remind you, you're also royalty now. Or you can even call me Aunty if you want to."

Are their names supposed to describe them like a blank slate?

"I tend to forget that sometimes Célestia, however I doubt I'll ever call you "Aunty". So what did you need me for?"

"I need you to maintain a shield on this cell and have two of the best guards you can find to watch over this prisoner."

"Right away your Hig...Célestia, but if I may what is our "guest"?"

"We are not sure. Just know this : it is quite powerful and evasive enough that everypony should stay vigilant." intervened Luna.

Cephas was then levitated through the cell and was gently laid down on his right side on a small bed.

Surprised by the kindness of his landing, he gave a questioning look to the white princess.

"Don't look at me like that. Just because you're our prisoner doesn't mean we can't be civil." she chuckled.

Interesting... Wonder how much I'm going to abuse of such hospitality.

The warlock watched the three "ponies" trot away ,he then moved his gaze to a low window. He peered through and guessed it was about two hours before dawn.

Might as well get some shut-eye while the paralysis spell fades.

Cephas woke up late in the morning with the sight of a purple barrier recovering the exit but also the walls. As he slide his body off the bed, he caught sight of a round light blue tray near the bars. There were quite a lot of different foods aligned for a single prisoner. There was a sandwich with flowers, some hay, an apple, a cherry pie and what seemed like simple grass fresh from the garden. All were in different plates in moderate quantity.

A breakfast with so many flavours shows they have no hint to what I am... or that they are very generous but don't know how choosey I might be. I already imagine their faces when I tell them or rather forced to tell them via torture.

He chuckled darkly while kneeling to grab the apple from the tray. He took a small bite but almost immadiately spat it out.

"Ugh..." he gurgled.

It has been a long time since I last ate anything else than the flesh from the dead or the arcane food of the passing generous mage. Always tastes like ash.

The warlock started to conjure a spell to drain the apple lifeforce away. At midway he remembered the ponies talking about the fact that the cell was anti-magic but still the spell was easily produced. Not knowing why it worked, Cephas nonetheless maintained the spell and felt the soothing sensation of absorbing lifeforce until the apple had rotten out.

Wondering why his spells worked in this cell, he jolted upright and drained the contents of the tray.

The warlock grinned. "Time to bust outta here" he exclaimed while putting his hands together to cast a shadow bolt... except nothing happened. He attempted to draw a magic circle... still nothing. He sighed in defeat. He looked to the exit and saw that no one had seen him cast a spell.

So only affliction works then. I don't see how you could miss such a flaw in an anti-magic cell. They don't know about affliction ? No it's even unlikelier.

He pondered what he could try with the powers available. Not for long anyway since affliction only affect living beings he couldn't use it against walls or barriers. He walked to the barrier to examine if they left another flaw to be exploited but as he approched to start his analysis, he saw something. The exterior of the cell wasn't actually visible from the inside, it was rather a vitrified version of what was beyond.

"Crap... You've just seen what I just did, haven't you." he clammered being sure someone had really witnessed what he could accomplish.

Enraged by being so easily discovered he yelled "Let's see how you like this!". The undead then unleashed a volley of haunting spirits against the entrance of the cell. Cephas had forgotten in his rage that the affliction couldn't get through the barrier and so they recoiled from the purple magic wall. However the magical force that he released managed to dispell the vitrifying illusion revealing two armored horned horses backs against the wall raising spears to the enraged warlock, trembling as dread filled them after having witnessed what he's capable of. Seeing them huddled like that made him burst into a maniacal laughter.

"At least now you know what to fear in the dead of the night when you're trying to sleep."

He only wished he could use his powers to increase their despair and watch them run around screaming.

After having fun scaring the guards for a few minutes with frightening declarations and ghostly apparitions, the cruel undead started to walk to his bed to ponder what his next move or enemy's next move will be. As soon as he sat, a booming sound with a bright light appeared at the exit of his cell.

WHAT HAST THOU DONE ?!

Chapter 5 : Dungeon Crawler Part 2

A very powerful voice erupted from a blinding light in front of the cell, it was a bright dark blue. If that makes any sense.
The warlock went mute to the dark blue apparition for a second but not because of fear but because he remembered that pissing off destroyers of world and genocidal maniacs is basically his day job, that and burning houses to the ground and looting the corpses of their inhabitants. As he was reminiscing, Cephas felt lifted in the air and then thrown against the wall. His limbs were extended away from each other, restricting rather drastically his répertoire of spells.

"Aww... Interrogation time already?"

"Stay your tongue unless spoken to. Biped!" Luna said with authority.

"That's not a very nice to treat a guest is it? Plus you're calling me biped like it's an insult and you're the one with ink on her ass need I remind you." the undead teased.

"Stay your tongue or I shall rip it out!"

"Your so-called "anti-magic" cell is pretty useless too, Seriously your arcane powers work, my powers work, you may want to fix this. Safety reasons and what not. By the way that thing about my tongue, I'm not even sure that would even shut me up since I don't know if I use my tongue anymore for speaking. So "ripping my tongue might not prove utility."

"Perhaps I shall sever your tongue just to be sure then."

"Not going to happen. I'm too unique to be damaged and even if you don't care about that, which I highly doubt, my tongue might be useful for the interrogation."

"We were going to ask you some questions after your senses were regained and your stomach's been filled, however you seem to be quite the reluctant type to answer us willingly. It looks like we are going to have to use different methods..." Luna sighed.

Just as Cephas was going to retort with his legendary wit forged in the pits of monologuing evil tyrants, he was struck with an irrestible envy to sleep. Falling into a deep slumber, while the princess looked at him wondering what hid beneath the robes it was wearing. It still boggled Luna's mind when Célestia said that they should be civil with it. It looks it directly came out of Tartarus' deepest chasm. The robes were burgundy with shades of black and bones, that seemed similiar to the unicorns' horns, were sticking out of its extremeties and along the torso. In a manner that suggested the creature was a zombie, which was ridiculous since they were just deformed stories of changelings leaving their victims to wander aimlessly after being sucked dry of their love. The others possibilities were more realistic but still required closer examination. The most frightening features of the garments was the red glow it was radiating, especially around the eyes.

The princess was torn away from her comtemplation by Shining Armor asking : "Your Highness what has happened?!"

The princess took a few seconds before answering.

"It appears our guest wasn't properly contained after all, its magic wasn't properly locked. Your barrier, however stood until I could arrive. The treatement we give it is a bit too smooth."

"What do you suggest to do Princess ?"

"I'll personally escort it to the old torture room for interrogation."

"Pardon me your Highness, but that seems a tad extreme. They haven't been used since... actually I don't even when they were last used."

"Do you know any other places where we might keep it away and slo make it comply to answer us ? Maybe I’ve been away so long that another room could have been created for such a purpose.”

“I don’t think there are any...”

“Then on to the torture room.”

“Your Highness, like I said that might be to extreme, plus you’ve said it yourself, you’ve been away a long time. I wouldn’t know how such matters were setled one thousand years ago but things have changed.” he exclaimed with conviction.

Your are right Captain, however in the old torture room not only are they means to make it talk but there also something that will hold it completely into place.

“But...”

“Lower your barrier Captain, I’ll escort it personally to its new room.”

“I also feel kind of bad for calling it “it”. It clearly shows intelligence so we should see if its male or female and what its called.”

“Once again you prove a good point Captain. I promise you it will be my first question."

With an approving smile on his face he acquiesed and lowered his barrier.

“Thank you Captain. Now would be so kind as to escort your soldiers back to the barracks for a well-deserved rest.”

“Shall I call an escort of guards to follow you below?”

“No, it is unecessary as would posting guards beside the door. In the event of a escape, I don’t want the death of ponies in my conscience and I doubt anypony would just “stumble” into the torture room.”

“Very well Princess.”

Shining Armor lifted up on the soldiers on his hooves and helped the other,who was completely livid, walk back to the barracks. The lunar princess levitated the unconscious biped in front of her and trotted out of the dungeon’s cells toward the circular stairs at the end. As she descended, she wondered how Célestia would react. Would she approve of her decision? Hopefully she would see reason and realise the only way to keep the creature still was to lock it up in the deeps of the dungeon.

While going down, she scrutunised the creature again and came to the conclusion that the closest thing it could be compared to would be a hornless, skinny minotaur using magic. She stiffled a giggle as she reached the end of the flight.

“Well that dumbs it down... It should be damned for not being cooperative!” she ended with a sigh while opening the second door on her right. It creaked loudly enough to wake up the dead.Which it did since Cephas woke up to the sight of all sorts of his favorite torture tools. The dismembering table or the classic iron maiden. About all of these items were more or less covered in rust and some had a form more suitable for quadrupeds. He then was floated back to the wall and saw that they were manacles on it. They were surprisingly not envelopped at all by the rust and the warlock had time to see that they were runical symbols on them close to that of the metal dwarves of Northrend.

When the blue horse tried to approach him to close the manacles with her hooves, Cephas looked at her having trouble closing the manacles around his ankles and wrists.

It's kind of funny seeing her do all that without realising I'm fully awake. Hooray for cowls! I suppose the why she isn't using her magic to close these manacles is A : she can't levitate two things at a time B : they're totally magic deterrent. It actually doesn't even matter that I'm awake since I can't move squat.

Luna had finished locking the leg manacles and had a greater trouble with the forelimbs manacles since she to stand so high on two hooves. She felt a small chill down her spine and looked at the sleeping figure's cowl trying to peer into its gaze. She was barely a hoof away from its face when he suddenly yelled : I SHALL NOT BE DENIED! MY VENGEANCE!

Chapter 6 : Dungeon Crawler Part 3

Luna jumped back letting a small yelp escape her. Cephas laughed with all his might.

"Have you gone mad already?"

"Myabe I was mad before we even met. Although metting someone usually means saying "hello" and give one's introduction."

"We are long past that." said Luna while starting to feel irritated, as she regained herself.

"Why? I can talk and it's faster to answer this way."

"Very well then, I am Princess Luna, Ruler of the night, Diarch of Equestria."

Two minutes i silence went on before Luna asked : "I think it is your turn to present yourself now."

"I won't speak without an attorney."

The princess beamed with rage, her horn crackled with lightning. She then pointed it directly to the warlock, letting go of her thunderous anger by shooting the lightning at the prisoner. However, Luna forgot two things : one the manacles restraining the trickster absorb all direct magic to avoid easy escapes, two these manacles also have limits. The restraints rattled vigorously before opening brutally, making Cephas almost hit the floor if he hadn't had the reflex to reception himself swifly with his hands and knees.

Heh too easy, altough I still feel I got toasted ever so slightly. Now! Escape plan, escape plan!

Luna fell on her rump, aghast by what had happened when the warlock deftly put his right hand in the back of his robes to reach his pouches and pull out a small potion with a purpleish mixture bubbling inside.

"Buvons en un, buvons en deux à la santé des amoureux." He sang happily as he drank in one gulp the content of the flask. the next moment he disappeared into fine air. Luna's jaw almost hit the floor. Still trying to reel in the situation she heard the door opening behind her and a voice intonning : "Et merde pour le roi d'Angleterre qui nous a déclaré la guerre!"

Probably should've thought of using my potions in the first place. Now I have about fifty seconds to find the exit before I'm visible again. So! I was asleep when I was transported here so I even have less of an idea of where the heck I am and even if I wasn't I still wouldn't know how to get out. Damn it! I should've bid my time to learn more, screw unplanned escapes!

While pondering on his next move, Cephas had walked to the circular staircase and heard the roar of storm behind him. the door of the "guest" room was thrown out of its hinges directly into the opposite wall, shattering upon impact.

"COME BACK HERE NOW!" yelled the storm from the room.

"Better skidaddle!" he chuckled before sprinting up the stairs wondering if he would get out of the dark horse's wrath before the potion faded.

"YOU WON'T GET AWAY!" an echo threatened from the deeps. The undead promptly sped up and passed several exits. From experience he knew with certainty that there would be an open roof from which he could jump off. He crossed his fingers, hoping he still had at least one parachute in his pouches.

"If not this will be a short, bloody, splattered escape. At least with all these exits, I'm sure not be followed so easily." he muttered before suddenly colliding with a brick wall making his translucidity vanish.

"And who are you supposed to be?"

Still pretty dazed after meeting a stone,, resilient friend, Cephas responded with barely audible growls. He managed to get up to the sight of an armored horse with bat wings, he was apparently guarding the last door to this tower.

Meaning this door must be important or an exit.

"Are you okay?" the horse asked.

"WHERE HAVE GONE BIPEDE?!" clammered from below.

"That's my cue to leave." Cephas promptly punched the bat-horse in the stomach and banished him into another plane before he could block his way or send an alert. The escapee kicked open the door and felt a small static shock course through him when stepping through the threshold, but he didn't care for that or the decor of the room as he glimpsed at an open window with glee.

"Finally blessed salvation!" the undead exclaimed with childlike joy. As he ran toward it, a blinding light stopped him in momentum.

"How many times are you going to do that? Why do you keep getting in front of my path to liberty everytime I'm so close to it?! Seriously, this is getting annoying as heck." he pouted to the appearing dark horse.

"Stand down! NOW!" Luna ordered with a authorative and stone cold tone.

"How about... BURN!" Cephas replied while launching a few Incinerations her way. The princess defended herself by making a telekinetic shield collide brutally with the flames making them explode on the walls, setting them ablaze.

"You DARE burn down my bedroom!"

"You did that yourself, equine!"

They circled each other, spells ready to fire. A sudden crack in the walls nearby was the moment when they both released their condensed magic. Chaos bolts against rays of light, fire versus lightning. The tide was at first on the undead's side but was gradually shifting in favor of the blue offender, which they both knew.

"You can't win! Surrender!"

"NEVER!" Cephas screamed as he transformed into a black and purple, winged demon. He started to channel an anomalous amount of magic between his claws making the floor shatter under the sheer weight of power.

"I'll blow you away! This. ends. NOW!" he yelled, throwing a Chaos bolt the size of a buffet. Just as he thought the princess was crushed, Cephas heard her booming voice utter : "You are quite powerful, however this but foal's play."

Luna finished dispersing the magical burst and witnessed that she was the only one in the room, the demon was nowhere to be found. She raced to the open window but didn't manage to see it fall to its doom or fly away.