Twin Souls

To say we woke with relative ease is quite an understatement. It was more like being ripped from the wonderful realm of dreams  and forced into the cold air once again. Why? Apparently whatever lives at the top likes to perform his experiments in a dangerous magnitude. My tour guide or my general light up this forsaken mountain explained that it was his Master doing his daily tests. Honestly, what the hell kind of tests is this man doing?

Spike slept through the quake with ease, which is complete nonsense in my opinion. I couldn't get him to awake, so I stuffed him in the sack I was carrying. If anything he was just dead weight. Thankfully I managed to pull a few apples before putting Spike in there. I gave two to Frozen, and kept the rest to myself. He thanked me, devouring the whole apple in a single bite. I ate quickly before following him up the mountain.

I'll skip most of this trek. It was entirely boring as hell. Frozen didn't talk much, but then again, neither did I. When we finally reached the peak, we approached what seemed to be a castle of some kind. After seeing Canterlot I wasn't really surprised. To say the least the castle was massive. So was this mountain though. Everything is big in this world I suppose.

The castle was in ruin. Degrading, slowly becoming nothing but a bunch of hollow stone and metal. Rust covered the majority of the doors, making it nearly impossible to even open them. I was surprised this whole thing wasn't blasted off the mountain already, considering the inane amount of wind battling against it.

"Stay close, Soul." Frozen commanded us, which I gladly obliged.

"Lok!" He shouted, tearing into the air.

All the wind, snow, and air around us immediately scrammed from our presence, leaving a gentle breeze. The storm died down if not only for a few seconds, but by then we were already inside.

"What was that?" I asked, curious to his example. He snorted. "Something drakes learn to better help them find the way back home." I nodded.

We stood in a massive hall, pillars all around us. Various old artwork of stained glass covered the sides, painting pictures of ponies.

"What good would the ponies have up here?" I asked frozen, gesturing to the glass. He shrugged. "I'm not sure. This castle is very old. The Master found this place a few hundred years after he was born. The entire history of this place is quite the mystery if I do say so myself."

He lead me to the end of the hall where a large door with some sort of mechanism was built into it. Pipes made of steel twisted around, focusing on a seal of some kind. Whatever it was, it wouldn't let us through.

"The hell is this?" I asked. He nodded, "A door to somewhere I suppose. I've never figured out how to open it. Why don't you take a look at it?"

I placed my hand on the door, feeling the pipes. There were two different pipes, both identical, twisting and turning in the same fashion. On each side, an large hole was framed into the pipes. I then noticed the inscriptions and illustrations carved into the door. One side had a deep, dark, almost black flame shrouding its own side, while vibrant, pure white flames battled against it. Neither of them unbalanced, both perfectly in harmony of the door. I have to say, whoever created this masterpiece did a wonderful job.

"I haven't got a damn clue." I said, shrugging.

Frozen sighed, "Well so much for that. Come on."

I followed him up a extremely long staircase. It twisted upwards for what seemed like an eternity before I nearly had a heart attack. Not from the workout, but from the feeling of an earthquake shaking the entirety of the castle.

"W-What the hell?" I shouted. Frozen continued up the staircase, not even phased by it. "It's just the Master, Soul. Come on."

I managed to get a grip and quickly followed Frozen up the stairs until we finally reached the last step. Another door lied before us, this one weirder than before. The door was surprisingly small, which confused me greatly. I know dragons as old as his Master grows to insane sizes, yet this door defies this logic. Maybe he just coops himself inside all day?

Frozen approached the door, bursting into flames. Putting both claws inside, he turned something inside the door. The entire thing lit up in flames before turning to ashes. We walked inside before the door materialized back into its metal form again. I don't even want to know.

"Master, I've returned." He bowed to a pile of books. "Oh, and I've brought him as you asked."

"Splendid!" The voice came from behind the books. Suddenly, the books cleared away, carried away by some invisible force. Magic, whatever, I don't care. Behind it sat a cerulean unicorn. Talk about anti-climatic.

"You're just a pony?" I laughed. He smiled.

"Welcome Soul. My name is Arcane. It's finally good to see you again," He said, approaching me before bowing on his knees.

"...Likewise?"