the curse of stone and sightby dragenfire68ChaptersChapter 1: the serpent and the stone.Chapter 2: serpent's glance.Chapter 3: serpent's magic circle.Chapter 4: wrath of the serpent kingChapter 5: soul of the nightChapter 6: stones edgechapter 7: from stone, to firechapter 8: From fire too ashChapter 1: the serpent and the stone.It’s deep in the everfree forest that we can find ourselves looking down upon a rather interesting scene; it beheld a long, black, huge serpent facing off an attack by what seemed to be an army of aggressive forest animals. 14 timber wolf packs, 5 manticores, 6 giant scorpions, 4 hydras and finally 7 dragons, There they stood face to face, but while the serpent was coiled around an intimidating statue, he was ready to fight with all the ferocity that would require him to leave the battle alive. “What do you all want?” asked the serpent A dragon stepped forward and in a booming voice he cried “we want you and your companion’s blood, and we want to rid this forest of the nasty presence of your kind; THE BASILISK and the GARGOYLE.” “You shall never taste our flesh, nor did we invite you into this battle.” The basilisk said with as much courage as he could muster, “no one will mourn you, no one will find you, for tonight you shall feel the wrath of the basilisk’s greatest weapon.” He cried widening his eyes as far as they would go. All the elder creatures looked away from his deadly stare, but a few of the younger more brash ones dared meet his gaze, they didn't have long to see, for as they looked into his eyes; they fell dead to the forest floor. “Grrr…. CHARGE YOU MORONS, KILL HIM BEFORE HIS GAZE FALLS THE REST OF US”, bellowed one of the larger dragons, however as the front lines charged the basilisk, he spat venom into their face and on the ground beneath them. = change POV to the basilisk= I can’t keep them back forever, the dragons can snap my spine in halve before I could puncture their skin or use my deadly gaze.He thought as he shift high above a courageous manticore and struck it full in the face, puncturing its eyes and pumping deadly venom into its brain, hmm manticore taste different that the usual food that has graced me and my companions stomachs in a long while, I’ll save some for him. He thought as the let go of the manticore’s head. = change POV to dragoness= We can’t fight him forever, his companion will rise when the sun sets and then we will all be doomed, but if we don’t get rid of these two here they will surly find the rest of us and kill us off. The dragoness turns from her muted thinking to survey the damaged wrought by their battle, and what she saw was endless territory destruction that will cost the dragons a lot of gems before the battle is over, so she decided enough was enough. “ENOUGH, WE ARE DONE HERE.” Shouted the dragoness in a voice that could beat back Luna’s canterlot voice in a heartbeat. “but Vistrow, we are so close to over whelming him, we could-“ he said before being interrupted by vistrow ,”CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT THE EARTH IS SCORCHED FROM THE BASILISKS VENOM, IF THIS IS WHAT THE SURFACE HOLDS; WHAT DO YOU THINK HAS HAPPENED TO THE PRECIOUS METALS AND GEMS BELOW?” The dragon that Vistrow had dragon-voiced at look around them at the dead land and the even worst animals that lay upon the floor, some lay wounded and dying from the venom, but they won’t last long; some had unintentionally met the fierce creature’s deadly gaze, at least their pain was swift; the survivors looked terrified at the prospect of being the creatures that has angered two of the most deadly beasts alive, he then took a look at the ground using dragon sight, and it revealed that the venom of the basilisk has destroyed many of the precious metal and gems in a 4500 mile radius. = change POV to basilisk = Enough blood has been shed here today, I have no need to spill some more just because the others followed a stupid notion, he thought before he spoke in and this that cause all the living creatures to jump in fright, “I leave in piece now, I have no need to kill the rest of you in needless violence; however if you ever attack me again while I’m on my way I will not hesitate to end all of you with one swift gaze.” “FINE BUT YOU MUST PROMISE TO LEAVE OUR MOUNTAIN HOME ALONE AND THE FAMILIES OF THOSE THAT FOUGHT WITH US HERE TODAY.” Vistrow replied. “I promise, and for one thing; I never intended to go after any of you, it was all of you that went after me now go before my companion rises and changes my mind.” “FINE” And with that the creatures left in quick haste because as they left the dead and desolate battlefield, the sun had just set below the tree line and within moments my companion will wake and he will be hungry. = change POV to gargoyle statue = Cold, dark, silent; these are all the things that I look forward to during the day, however when I am free I can serve the one who has earned my respect not only as a fellow creature, but also as someone who I can trust to keep me alive and intact; wait I can feel the magic weakening its almost time. The basilisk watched the gargoyle statue as it trembled at first; then, in a rain of stone, an 8’ 9’ winged beast burst from the statue and since being a statue for 12 hours is hard he set to stretching his wings and popping his joints. “AHHH feels good to be outside my prison,” he said while look around at the carnage,” aww damn, some stupid ass beasts decided it was a good time to rumble with a basilisk that has an anger issue the size of a mountain” “bullshit all you want Vatry, but I’m the one that has to haul your fat ass statue all round this land; and I haven’t even come close to finding the mythical sun princess and moon princess, I don’t even think that civilization is around for the next few months.” Replied the basilisk in a mocking tone “Wait Fang, I hear something.” “I know I can smell them, they seem to be searching for something around here.” “Should we drive them away?” “No, because I smell,” Fang closes his eyes and then snaps them wide open and says in a long hiss, “sun and moon princess on them” “How can we introduce our selves without fighting, I can already hear one of them plotting with another to beat us to a pulp” “You forget that we are two of the least known myths to these ponies, they will have to hear us out, and if they try to look me in the face, force their head downward” “Agreed, lets find me a cure” = change point of view to Twilight Sparkle= “Alright it’s not every day that we see a pack of dragons fly away from an area as fast as they can” twilight stated “w-w-well they look very, very afraid.” Fluttershy stuttered “Ah gotta agree with Fluttershy on this one, if something can scare away dragons, then what chance do we have?” Applejack questioned “It probably left by now to search for somewhere else, there’s- OH MY, what manner of horrid creature could have done this” Twilight exclaimed loudly as she look at the wrecked and bloody battle field They soon all got a good look at the field, all the trees were downed and rotted, bare patches of deadened grass lay surrounded by scorched earth, but it wasn't that , that made them sick, it was the bodies of the Timber wolves, some were half melted, some just lay dead with open eyes; the manticores were even worst, some had their entire heads torn off, some were like the wolves, dead but with their eyes open, some had small puncture wounds that were now gaping holes of decayed flesh. “Oh-oh my, what kind of nasty creature could have done this to these poor, poor animals.” Fluttershy stammered while she tried not to cry. “This wasn't a battle, it was a slaughter.” Twilight stated while being equally disgusted by the carnage “Not my fault they tried to attack me and my friend while we were peacefully passing through.” came a hiss from all around them They all jumped and started looking around, looking for the hissing voice that seemed to come from all around them, of course Rainbow Dash the brash one yelled, “ SHOW YOUR SELF WE AREN'T AFRAID TO TAKE YOU ON.” “AHHAHAHHAHAHAH, funny coming from the bite sized meal that walked willingly into my temporary territory, and what of you little purple one, you haven’t said a thing.” “UH-WHAT, how did you know that I was here?” ask Twilight a little startled “I can smell the ancient magic on the six of you, I also can smell; the sun and the moon princess on you” Ancient magic; we don’t have ancient magic, unless…..WAIT, Twilight suddenly knew what the voice was talking about, so she called out to the voice, “what do you know of the Elements of Harmony and what do you mean you can “smell” the princess’s on me?” “I may be another animal to you, but I have long since had the ability to smell more than just organic scents, I can smell magic and I can see right through any disguise, and the princess’s need only touch you once to leave a magic scent on you, but enough hiding on my part; it’s time to show you who you have been talking to.” With a huge groan the six look around as the darkness that had long since surrounded them swirled and came closer until they saw not just darkness but glinting, black, armored scales, and above them a head that was of snake shape but had the look of a dragon; Twilight continued along its neck until she saw its nose and she was going to look into its eyes, when suddenly something knocked her over and said in a firm, yet concerned voice “don’t you dare look into the eyes of my companion, you almost just cost yourself your life.” “Why not uh-uh-uh-uh does he have bad eye sight or something, I’m going to do an eye checkup” Pinkie said and rapid fire speak, and before anypony or creature could stop her she looked right into Fang’s eyes. Author's Note i wont bother using the "im a new writer crutch", but i will need constructive critisism. no spouting crap in the comments. haters can hate and i dont care. randomness welcome, this will update slowly due to the fact that reality just kicked in my door and man handled me out of the house. Chapter 2: serpent's glance.A basilisk's glance is bad, the full glare of its stare is fatal. = POV Fang= NO SHE CANNOT LOOK INTO MY EYES he thought in a panic, but because pinkie is being pinkie; she managed to get almost full look. "......" was all that pinkie said before she went rigid and fell off fang's head and hit the ground. = POV change rainbow dash = "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER YOU MONSTER", yelled Rainbow in anger and sadness Fang turns his head to her, but not looking directly at her and says "you obviously don't know what i am, but your purple friend probably knows what i am." Rainbow turns to Twilight and sees she visibly started to freak out. "Yo Twilight, what wrong?" Rainbow asks "Its a- its a- ITS A BASILISK." she stutters as she tries to be like Fluttershy and make her self as small as possible "So?," Rainbow says bored,"what does that have to do with what happened to pinkie?" "IT THE KING OF SNAKES, ITS GAZE IS DEADLY; Pinkie is lucky she didn't look fully into his eyes, but due to just getting a glance at his eyes, she is now paralyzed and i don't know how to counter a basilisk's paralyzation." Twilight said momentarily forgetting her fear of snakes while in her lecture mode. "How do we beat a basilisk?" "No one ever has, and because its scales are immune to all types of magic; the elements of harmony are rendered useless." "Hello, anyone gonna mention me or am i invisible?" Ventry asked out loud, in a annoyed voice. They all look around until the area, until their gaze fell on a two legged, 8' 9" creature that instead of its wings tucked at its sides, it had its wings wrapped around its self and its skin look like stone. "I thought you were just myths!!!" Twilight exclaimed as she realized what she was looking at. "Well gargoyles and basilisks do exist, we just don't like to show our self's unless absolutely necessary" replied Ventry "I always read that gargoyles were extremely protective of their territory, are there any now?" "My race lives in a stone and metal fortress across the dragon badlands, through fyre falls, and lastly you must make it across the shadowed canyon." "Okay, are there any basilisks alive?" "In the city of fre' kreia 150,000 miles below equestria" replies Fang "Wow, if its so far down," Twilight says," how did you reach the surface in your life time?" "Magical teleportation points that were hidden around equestria hundreds of years ago, by my races last wizards" "Wait, basilisks could use magic?" "Yes, but that all ended when many of them; went dark and invented a megaspell that would wipe out all of my people and those on the world above" "How did you stop it?" "Every magic user we had that was still young gave up all their life force in order to subdue the megaspell users and redirect it, since there was to much energy to disperse it." "Couldn't they have just absorbed all the energy?" "They were all novices, and our masters were either; to weak to help, or on the other side." "Why did they even invent the spell in the first place?" "Because they thought that, if they used their life force for their spell; they were immune." "So if your people redirected the spell, where did it go?" "My people teleported the spell to the surface then, they shot it at a distant planet far, far away from here" "So what do you want on the surface now?" "Well me, and my friend are searching for the princess of sun and the princess of night" "You mean Celestia and Luna" "Ahh, so that's the names they go by now, and yes we do seek them." "Why do you seek out Luna, and Celestia?" Rarity inquired "We are going to ask them if they know of a cure for the stone curse laid upon Ventry" replied Fang "Do you even know how to get there?" Twilight asked "Yes, we must go north, far, far to the north" replied Fang "How do you know that they are to the north?" "Because their magic scent points to the north, and i bet they live in the city of lights that sit upon the mountain side." "Not to get off topic, how do i cure your paralyzation?" "A simple anti-paralyze spell." Twilight blushes in embarrassment as she charges a anti-paralyze spell; pinkie jumps right up and says "whatjusthappenedhuhuhuhuhdidigetfrozenithoughtiwasgonnabethereforeveritssoboring" pinkie says in her machine gun way, so of course no one understands. "Anyways, how do you expect to got to celestia if you cant pass through a town with out inciting horror?" asks Twilight "What has that have to do with finding celestia?" replies Fang "Shes surrounded by ponies," Twilight replied in the "are you fucking kidding me?" look. (Pretty much this, but on twilight.) (Back to story) "Hot damn,how do i get close enough to ask her then?" "I'll just use dragon breath to send a letter asking for her assistance." "Cool, what do me and ventry do until then?" "Well the suns coming up, I'll just go and get stoned," ventry says," and i don't know what Fang will be doing." "I'm going to let them go, and stop wasting their fucking time," says Fang ," and they will go and stop wasting their fucking time." "Okay, i'll be going now," twilight says turning and then says to her friends," lets go contact princess celestia and see if we can help ventry out." "I don't know Twilight, ventry and Fang are sketchy; i don't like them." says rainbow dash "I'll take that to heart, and your right they are a little sketchy but we will know in time," twilight says, but she runs into part of Fang's tail and so she calls back to him "CAN YOU MOVE YOUR TAIL?" "Oh right," Fang says and moves his tail to clear their path. "You know they don't trust you, right?" says ventry "I know, but what did you expect?," says Fang, turning from the path the six took," i am the king of snakes and a nearly invincible predator." "Aww damn the sun is coming up." ventry says as the skies above turn purple *yawn* "Good that means I'll get some sleep for now, but remember in a few weeks, you will be free from your curse of stone." So as the sun came up and ventry returns to his temporary prison, and Fang coils up to sleep, they fail to notice the shadowy form that flits away from watching their camp. = change POV Twilight = "So what are your perspectives on the trustability of Fang, and Ventry?" ask twilight "Well, for a couple of creatures that are known to be beasts of legend, they were quite civilized." rarity says "They seemed nice enough" answers fluttershy "You already know my answer" rainbow dash chimes in "Ah didn't hear a single lie come from their mouths" applejack calls to twilight "I was stunned the whole time, so i don't know." pinkie says, being pinkie chapter end here have a photo that i think is cool. Author's Note can you spot the references? NOW. GO. Chapter 3: serpent's magic circle.anaconda, king cobra, garden snake, they all bow before the basilisk. the sun was just rising when Fang took his statue friend and coiled inside a cave just a few feat away from the entrance to the once tree filled field and went to sleep. we have been waiting a long time for you. "huh what?," fang says as he raises his head to look around and sees hes is surrounded by another basilisk, a dragon, a storm giant, and wind elemental, and naiad. i am tetronoa, the earth former the basilisk telepathically said to fang the names ignusia, the eternal flame the dragon telepathically introduced herself my name is aquios, the life giving water aquios wrote in the air using water "MY NAME IS SURGIAS, THE STORMS JUDGMENT" surgias said by using claps of thunder my name is silent breath, the whisper of the wind the air element said by throwing it on a whisper on the wind "i take it your the manifestations of the five base elements." fang said to them "yes" all five said, some telepathically. "why do you need me?," fang asks ," if your the five base elements, what problems can you not handle?" death, necrosis, decay, sickness, and a force twisting our elements into dark versions and its threatening to destabilize the world silent breath breezed "cant the elements of harmony stop it?" fang asks if the base elements fall, the elements of harmony shall be rendered useless, and our circle is incomplete ignusia states matter of factually "how long is it until this happens, and how is your circle incomplete?" fang asks "WE LOST OUR LIGHT BRINGER AND SHADOW MISTRESS DURING THE REIGN OF DISCORD" surgias rumbled we have 6 years before the problem shows it self tetronoa said "then why contact me now?," fang asks," if you have that much time, why don't you wait?" "because you already have a quest and you will need time to find our last two elements, also you need time to train the powers we shall be giving you." aquios said, while her companions gave her looks of surprise "what powers?" fang asks curiously "these" they all say and shoot five different colored beams at him, and his world goes black. change POV to twilight sparkle twilight had just gotten home and was surrounded by her friends, and started writing a letter. which said; dear princess celestia, we and my friends have just come across a basilisk and a gargoyle, and we talked to them. they want to find you and Luna ,so they can free his stone friend from his imprisonment, but i do not trust them. can you and Luna come with at least a legion of armed guards, so that we have our safety assured. also, this basilisk can smell magic scents. your faithful student, twilight sparkle = POV change to celestia = celestia was busy reading a book when a letter appears and drops onto the chapter she is reading "hmmm," she said as she reads the letter," it seems a basilisk and a gargoyle have taken up temporary residents in the everfree forest, and they want to find me and Luna so we can break his friends curse," and then she goes off to find Luna. hmmm, something out there doesn't seem to fit, i must remember to ask the stars what they see out there. Luna mused as celestia landed behind and started saying "Luna, we must go meet twilight sparkle and her friends and meet this-." "basilisk", Luna finished for her. "yes, the basilisk and his gargoyle friend are asking for our assistance of breaking the stone by day and flesh by night curse laid down." "we could 3500 years ago, but after our battle with discord we were weakened, but i cant remember why." "you're right we are still weakened but i cant remember why either" "hmmm, we will scry and uncover our past before discord." "now lets arm our men and go over to twilight's for this audience with this basilisk" so celestia walks over to the night stand, and starts writing: dear twilight, we are on our way, please wait outside the library so that we can be swift, and we are bringing a full legion of armed gaurds with incase this goes sour. sincerely, celestia back in the clearing "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGG" fang shrieked as the feelings of burning and electrocution faded hello? can you hear me? a voice said in his head. who are you? fang thought back this is silent breeze telepathically speaking, the others will speak to you when they feel the need, im just making sure that the powers bestowed upon you are working, because the first 4 must be able to speak to you before me. how do i use them? you will learn your powers as you test your known powers, but for now you need to focus on whats happening at the presence. with that fang felt a presence leave his mind that he had not known was there before, and then that's when he senses two incredible powers pass over his cave, and not to far off to the north he felt the familiar magic. "WE KNOW YOU ARE HERE, SHOW YOUR SELF" a voice boomed outside fang's cave of course in alarm at the booming voice, fang coiled tighter and slid deeper into his cave, until he heard a soft voice say, "doing that will only scare him," the voice then called softly, "can you come out, if that's alright with you?" sensing no danger in the voice, he slowly uncoiled and slithered slowly out into the mid day sunlight, but he saw no one and looked around until a regale voice called out, "excuse me, we are up here". hearing the voice behind them, he closed his eyes and turned to where he smelled the eight magic scents mingled with at least 60-80 normal scents behind them, fang then said "you must be celestia and Luna, but i smell you brought the element bearers with you," fang said and continued," hmmm, i smell at least 80 soldiers in the back round." "twilight wasn't kidding when she said you can smell magic scents, but that's not the point," celestia remarked, she then continued " you said that you need us to break the stone curse on your gargoyle friend." "yes, we should commenc- WAIT!!!," fang suddenly whipped around," EVERYONE INTO THE CAVE!!!" "why, what do you smell?" celestia asked worried "it seems as though a dragon tribe around here made a deal with the gorgon stonelands in the south and now they are coming to kill me." "me and Luna can help, we can help you beat them" "no this is my war, protect ventry should i fail, im sorry", and with that fang sucks in a huge breath and blows celestia, Luna, and the element bearers into the cave, but not before celestia told her soldiers to return to canterlot, then he uses his tail to smash the entrance into the cave shut in the cave "is everyone alright?" celestia asked as a huge rumble far in the front of the cave sounded "what was that?" twilight asked "that twilight, was fang sealing us into the cave." Luna deadpanned "but why?," she asked,"why wont he allow us to help him?" "because he believes that because he brought them to us, he must be the one to face them alone" celestia answered walking toward ventry, "he asked us to protect this statue, we must honor his request" she continued as she started laying down wards around the statue the battlefield just as fang predicted at least 225 - 300 gorgons crashed into the clearing, followed by 40 shades, 10 wyvrens were circling the clearing, and the sound of 400 - 800 werewolf's were heard, then came 20 dragons, and the leading one said "you're a blight upon this land. and your kind need to stay below the earth where you belong, you will never beat our army, you should just give up and allow us to kill you quickly and destroy the statue you hold so dear." "you're mistaken if you think i'll just roll over and die to let you touch my friend, you just like those before shall fall, but i wont let any of you leave here to follow me, for THIS ENDS NOW!!" fang roared with a ferocity not used in may decades. driven by the tune on the breeze, fang lost himself to the animalistic ferocity he saves just for battles like this, but unlike the other times, he had more attacks than just bite, smash, venom, death-gaze, for he had in his fury, earth spike field devastator, wind Scythe, liquid flame, dry drowning, thunder field, and with a roar that shook the ground fang charges the ranks. Author's Note dry drowning only works if fang can touch his victims, liquid flame = magic napalm, if you played ninja gaiden 2 then wind scythe should make sense, if not then you suck, JK, i took the idea of thunder field from the diablo 2 sorceress's thunderstorm spell. his magic was super charged due to fang restraining his natural magic, he wont use this every battle, he will only use it in dire situations for a short time, he also will have to learn all the skills and abilities in this battle naturally, but due to him unleashing his restrained natural magic, he got a massive knowledge boost until he drops out of it. Chapter 4: wrath of the serpent kingeven blind, the basilisk can still see you. inside the cavern luna, celestia, and luna watch as the circle they set up glows brightly with intertwined magical knots, but since twilight was to busy to ask questions she had kept quiet until they were finished, so she asked "what does this circle do?". "it is a very high leveled soul-shield, it should keep out all but the names we put in it base, and vatry can leave breaking the spell" celestia answered "how does it keep things out?," rainbow dash asked, "i cant even see it, are you really sure the spell worked?" she continued as she reached out touch where the shield was supposed to be. "NO, DO NOT TOUCH THE SHIELD" luna cried as she pulls RBD's hoof away from the shield perimeter "i think", celestia says " a demonstration is in order" celestia detachs her chest plate and throws it at ventry's statue with all the force she could muster, they watch as it hits the shield and in an sound betwen scraping metal and a cat's shriek it vaporizes, all of it, gem and all. "H-H-how did it destroy all of it, diamond included?" twilight stammered out "it can destroy everything between solid diamond, dragon scales" luna said matter of factly "okay, so no touching the statue, got it" rainbow dash said battle field fang crashes headlong into a group of gorgons and throws his head back taking with it 40 of them, but not killing them, just stunning them, so of course the shades starts trying to slow him down with bolts of dark magic, but they had no effect due to his natural resistance to magic, but he is not immune to the hexes that the more passive shades are chanting. "infirmus, debilito, infirmo", they chanted as fang started to feel its effects, he was slowing down, and if he didnt kill them soon, he would be to weak to fight, so he slowly turns and sprays venom at them, but it hits and slides off the shield they have up, so he releases a blinding flash of light from his mouth, vaporizing some of the chanters and silencing the rest. he slowly feels his strength creep back, but not fast enough and the curses were causing bits of scale to fall of and expose flesh, so he decided to draw on the plant life around him, so fang rose up and bit into the ground slowly drawing the nutrients and life that resided in the earth and plants. the shades and werewolfs had different ideas as they started double teaming, shades would throw the curses that killed his scales and the werewolfs would dig into the exposed skin, but thanks to the earth magic, the places that lost scales are turned to stone and his scales were further strengthened by the surface metals he was absorbing, but that is not the only thing he was getting, he was also drawing the life from the plants and dead that have been laying for days, but the additional wounds were slowing his healing process, but a huge explosion rocked the land under the feet of the army. the explosion surprised them as they stopped in thier tracks, except fang who took this opprotunity to continue his healing, and the beings responsible for the distraction was celestia, luna, and the mane six standing in the mouth of the cave with celestia, luna, and twilight spells at the ready, but they were not going to interfere instead they kept a circle around the cave entrance and waited. fang now fully healed and empowered by the earth, didn't charge. instead he slammed the ground with his tail, bringing up huge obsidian spikes in a 40 foot radius under his enemies feet, but the werewolves being nimble creatures just caught them and rode them till they stopped but the less nimble creatures like the 20 gorgons that charged were not just impaled, they were torn apart their organs splattering the ground as fang started sucking in a huge breath and then released it into the sky at the wyvern group and only catching one full in the face with the blades. fang watched as the pieces fell and burst as they splattered the ground in red, turning he sprayed an advancing werewolf rank with liquid flames, but the dragons were still an issue because they haven't been in the fight at all and fang hoped they would not enter now because he had more pressing matters to deal with, but the gorgons had it out for him because soon they started jumping on his head and back scratching at his scales and eyes, but the ones on his back had no effect while fang struggled to keep his eyes from being scratched out by the gorgons long jagged nails, so he then used his water power and all the gorgons that had been on him instantly died, choking on the magical water build up in their throats. all of a sudden werewolves were raining down on fang because of the spikes and fang's wind scythes couldn't cut stone, but fang had other idea's as he threw off 12 that had landed on his back, he smashed the spikes by using earthquake and the ones beneath the spikes were crushed as the ones on top were unharmed. the wyverns that fang had foolishly forgot about decided to dive bomb at his eyes by using their tails to pluck them out, but as they closed in on fang, he ducks in order to shoot more liquid flame at a big group of gorgons, so as they soared high over head readying another dive fang bites his tail and starts spinning as the other monsters stop in their tracks and looks at each other in confusion, but the wyverns were not as stupid as the ground forces and soon start diving at fangs eyes without readying, but they miss as fang builds up speed and soon all the hair on the wolves stood up and soon they got the clue as they too start attacking fang, but to no avail and are flung off as soon as they land a hit on any part of him, but its to late as the static that fang has been building shoots up into the sky and starts raining down on the wyverns, but they may be fast enough to dodge 1 or 2, but not enough to dodge 5 - 6 striking down all at once, so the wyverns are all dead. the battle raged on for what seemed like infinite days without night, but even fang doesn't have unlimited magic as the armies thinned and the remaining creatures were, 100 of gorgons and werewolves, the shades had vanished into the night sensing they had no chance against the rest of them, no wyverns and the dragons had been staying back, but they may stay there as fang starts feeling his magic fade and soon starts to forget how to use the spells that in his rage he used instinctively. the remaining monsters were tired and afraid to approach fang, but fang was also very tired and out of magic as he soon came back to rationalization and realizes that he doesn't need to protect the statue of vatry because when he looks up at the sky its late twilight and will soon be night, but with Luna being on his side soon brings up the moon early and inside the cave everyone hears a huge shattering noise with a loud tingling as the bit of stone hit the floor and vatry walked out stretching. "HELLO MORONS, ARE YOU DAFT BASTARDS READY TO DIE?" vatry called out across the battle field "hahaha, I guess its time to get some rest and relaxation?," fang weakly laughed, as he passes out and the remaining army is soon joined by the 20 dragons that stayed back and they started laughing as they slowly approached fangs sleeping figure, but the main 6 minus Fluttershy was having none of it, so they soon ran forwards and surrounded fang, as the weakened but powerful monsters advanced laughing at them, because what can 5 ponies, 1 gargoyle, and 2 alicorns do to the near invincible army? Chapter 5: soul of the nightAuthor's Note PROOFREADERS WANTED, ALSO SOME EDITORS WOULD BE NICE. daylight's end belongs to League of legends, go play. Chapter 5: soul of the night stone does not bend or break, but is unyielding and un-moving "well what are we going to do?" twilight asked celestia "that decision is up to Vatry." celestia replied "all the magic capable users make a shield around fang, and make it lethal." Vatry instructed. celestia's horn glowed as did Luna's, and the remaining unicorns of the group; soon a shimmering rainbow like shield came up around the magic users holding everyone but Vatry in the area, but Vatry just drew his obsidian great sword and charged swinging, decapitating a large gorgon squad but he wasn't done yet as he picks up one of the heads by her hair and opens the eyes turning to stone the first wave as the smarter ones stays back or turns away from the grisly trophy, but as silent as the falling of snow vatry appeared and disappeared due to his natural camouflage and years of fighting off stupid monsters. this is too easy, vatry thinks as he swings his sword in a mid horizontal arc i feel like a enemy is missing from this- *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM* vatry is thrown a cross the field as one of the dragons flying over head let lose a a condensed ball of searing white flame, heat is not a problem to vatry, but the concussion blurred his vision and the explosion rang in his ears. "oh that hurt," vatry said out loud as he nimbly dodges a swipe from a gorgon as he expertly sheaths his sword and goes for hand to hand as he catches the offending limb and tears it off then uses it to beat the closest monster around him away, but the arm could only do so much when its used as a bludgeon. "lets use our stoning spell to subdue this abomination," hissed the gorgon general as the group she commanded nodded in agreement I might be able to win this fight completely alone, vatry thought not paying attention to his surrounding as a group of gorgons came from behind and grabbed his head and forced him to look into the eyes of the gorgon general, but they forgot one thing about a gargoyle; he is already cursed to stone by the light of day so their gaze has no effect on the, as of now, very pissed gargoyle. "BITCH PREPARE TO DIE," vatry screeched as he reached forward and promptly tore the head of the gorgon general off, so with their general dead and their army broken the gorgons fled, but vatry still has two massive challenges ahead of him, the werewolf general and the dragon general. damn we lost the gorgon advantage, but at least the dragons are still here so we can still beat this lone beast, volf mused to himself since the was the only lycan in the battle with the blessing of control, but his musings were cut short as he watched vatry tear through a werewolf pack with ease using his obsidian broad sword for he had abandoned the gorgons arm a long time ago, guess its time for me to take this thing on he sighed to himself as he drew his scythe. "ENOUGH, i shall take him alone," volf instructed his minions as they retreated; soon forming a circle as even the dragons landed to watch as two titans of the night go at a battle to the death. the battle wore on for hours as neither could get a up hand on each other, but they had given minor injuries to the opposed. vatry had a medium cut along his jaw and a few small cuts along his arms, but the werewolf had a long thin cut along his ribs and a stab wound in his arm. "you're good at this," volf complimented as vatry tried a bold overhead smash "you're not bad yourself," vatry complimented as he nimbly jumped back from a horizontal slash soon the two were in a dead lock as they pushed against each other with their weapons trying to over power the other, but not succeeding. soon however a light appeared on the horizon and vatry groaned as he felt himself weakening, but to his surprise, volf drew back as well as he to was beginning to weaken. "it seems that we must cut this short, but i had a good battle." volf said as he sheathed his scythe "it was interesting" vatry replied "you have earned the respect of this old wolf" "as you have earned mine" "WE ARE DONE HERE, OUR POWER WEAKENS AND NOW WE MUST FLEE BACK TO THE FOREST" volf commanded to his troops as the dragons just gawked in amazement that the entire werewolf army just up and left them. "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!", the leader of the dragons asked "we are done here, if we fight the rest will surely finish us off." "their two greatest allies are down, so now its our chance to finish them" "Fool, you forget about the princess of the sun and moon" POV change Luna "Sister, it seems as thought the day has driven away the werewolf group, but we still have the dragons to fight." Luna commented. "Do not worry Luna, the shield around us can hold from what ever attacks the dragons throw at us." Celestia replied as a massive boulder crashed against the shield, it had no effect. "how much longer must we hold the shield?" twilight asked "I don't know, i don't know." Celestia said grimly Things did indeed look grim as the dragons began a re-group, occasionally looking at the shield and the weakened vatry, but soon Celestia's horn glowed and the sun came up with vatry bowing at the shield slowly turning to stone, but Luna soon got an idea, and a risky one. "Sister, i may have a spell to temporarily keep vatry from becoming stone, but i fear it might turn him to stone forever." Luna spoke fast "If it is the one you are thinking about, then use it but we need to ask vatry" Celestia stated "use it" vatry said soon Luna's horn started glowing as she started to sing a hollowed voice daylight's end, but as she sang the stone already there started to retract and he started to glow, brighter, and brighter until there was a flash and luna stopped singing, but fainted as well. Chapter 6: stones edgeSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.chapter 7: from stone, to fireall it takes is time and pressure the group smelled the gasses as it filled the caves, producing a rotten egg smell, like sulfur but stronger and more volatile, so the group retreated through the caves deeper and deeper as the gasses moves quickly into the caves, until the group came upon a river deep in the twisting labyrinth of caves. "we can't keep running forever, there has to be a way to get out and drive those asshats back to the mountains." twilight said as she stopped short of the bank of the river, and looked at her friends, mentor, and vatry, who whispered something to fang. POV change, fang she's right if we keep running we'll reach a dead end and suffocate from these gasses fang pondered as vatry expression expressed deep thought until something dawned on him and he walked over to fang "yo, i have an idea on how to survive, and buy us time to ambush the dragons," vatry said as fang used his tail to motion to the others for them to also hear out this plan, "so here it is, fang can use his strength to cave in the ceiling a little ways up, then i can use my sword to ignite the gasses after they fill up the caves." Pov twilight THIS IS INSANE she thought as she heard the plan, but the more she thought about her options, the more she realized there wasn't much choice, it's either wander through the caves until, they die or reach get stranded miles away from home and neither sounded appealing to her. "twilight, you and rarity will help fang pull down the ceiling, i need you two to make sure the rocks leave an opening for me to put my sword through." vatry said, and the others nodded. they got into positions as fang crept a little bit up the caves, finding a weak point in the ceiling, and with a mighty crash he bashed his armored head into the ceiling causing the walls to shake and crack as twilight and rarity maneuvered the biggest rocks to the side, setting up the platform for the smaller rocks to land on, eventually after what felt like an eternity, the rumbling stopped, and vatry step up and put his sword blade out, and waited for the gasses, but they didn't have long to wait as vatry was the first to smell the gasses. "ignis." vatry uttered in his mind as the magma ruby glowed in response to the magic word, and the blade blazed into a blinding white glow, igniting the gases as planned. meanwhile outside the cave the dragons continued their controlled breathing, not hearing the whoosh as the gas ignited, they did not see the flames rushing towards their open mouths nor did they close it fast enough as the fire entered their stomachs, igniting reserves, forcing them to breath the flames into the air, because their choices were either hold in the flame and burn from the inside out, or let it out and suffer only heart aches and stomach aches. "ENOUGH, this fighting is ridiculous , we can live in peace and ill leave the dragons alone, if you leave us and our friends alone, alright?" Vatry called out this got the dragons talking, the youngest wringing their fists and pointing at the group far from the meeting, while the older dragons shushed the younger dragons and talked, they talked for a long time, whispering occasionally flicking their gaze at the group and back to the one talking, eventually, the group far away, decided to sit down, and wait, but never taking their eyes off the group of dragons. for what seemed like hours, but was only like ten minutes the dragons dispersed, some flying off, but the three eldest walking towards them trying to look as nonthreatening as possible, in hopes of not provoking the group. "we're calling this off, it was a foolish gambit that we sorely lost, do you promise not to pursue us should we take flight back to our mountains?" the oldest elder asked celestia mused at the possibilities of the dragons attacking as soon as their backs are turned, but as her eyes scanned over the destroyed landscape, many bodies littered the landscape, and she figured they would honor the deal not out of respect for their power, but out of fear of death, but since this was vatry and fangs fight, she left judgment up too them. "you are allowed to leave, but know that if any of your younger kin attack us, we will put them down." fang warned as he turned away to face his friend vatry who knelt on one knee, his wounds aching from the constant movement, and no rest "im fine, but i think we should take rest tonight, we can move in the morning." vatry said, fang nodded in agreement as they started studying a map that vatry pulled a map outta a pack hanging off his belt, but twilight had another idea. "i know a cave nearby ponyville thats far enough away that you dont have to worry about anypony stumbling in on you, so you won't have to worry about using that deadly gaze on any innocents who may wander." twilight said as she walked over too them. "that'll be nice, not having to worry about killing anything with my gaze, alright just show us this cave and we'll meet tomorrow, to discuss why we came looking for luna and celestia." twilight took out a map, showing vatry where this cave was, she gave him specific directions taking them around the entire town of ponyville, but thats fine, because it was noon, and the path would surely take them all afternoon, so they separated, the ponies and princesses heading toward ponyville, fang and his companion heading towards the cave in the mountains. pov change "are you sure that no one will go that way?" luna asked twilight. "yes im sure, besides since we got the dragon to leave he hasnt came back to that cave." twilight answered cheerfully "it was a very good job you did, but we cannot stay in ponyville like this." celestia stated, as she motion for the group to stop. "why are we stopping tia?" luna asked "because we cannot stay for an extended time in ponyville, looking like our normal selves, we would never be able to get anything done." "why stay in ponyville?" twilight asked "because of the fact that most of the books regarding gargoyles or basilisks reside in our old castle, not canterlot." "oh, and since the canterlot elite find such knowledge meaningless, they wouldn't accept books regarding 'myths' as valuable material" they walked for a while after luna and celestia changed their coats, manes, and body sizes, making sure to also hide their voices too, and so they walked into town, separating at the center, twilight housing luna and celestia, the rest going to their respective homes, hoping to catch some rest after the events of today, they all ate and soon were fast asleep letting the weariness and exhaustion finally take them into a realm of sleep. Author's Note i apologize for the long wait and the stupid long time, but a lot of things have happened in my life, but good news is that ill be picking up writing again, so my quality should go back up. again i apologize for the bad quality of the chapter. chapter 8: From fire too ashSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Chapter 1: the serpent and the stone.It’s deep in the everfree forest that we can find ourselves looking down upon a rather interesting scene; it beheld a long, black, huge serpent facing off an attack by what seemed to be an army of aggressive forest animals. 14 timber wolf packs, 5 manticores, 6 giant scorpions, 4 hydras and finally 7 dragons, There they stood face to face, but while the serpent was coiled around an intimidating statue, he was ready to fight with all the ferocity that would require him to leave the battle alive. “What do you all want?” asked the serpent A dragon stepped forward and in a booming voice he cried “we want you and your companion’s blood, and we want to rid this forest of the nasty presence of your kind; THE BASILISK and the GARGOYLE.” “You shall never taste our flesh, nor did we invite you into this battle.” The basilisk said with as much courage as he could muster, “no one will mourn you, no one will find you, for tonight you shall feel the wrath of the basilisk’s greatest weapon.” He cried widening his eyes as far as they would go. All the elder creatures looked away from his deadly stare, but a few of the younger more brash ones dared meet his gaze, they didn't have long to see, for as they looked into his eyes; they fell dead to the forest floor. “Grrr…. CHARGE YOU MORONS, KILL HIM BEFORE HIS GAZE FALLS THE REST OF US”, bellowed one of the larger dragons, however as the front lines charged the basilisk, he spat venom into their face and on the ground beneath them. = change POV to the basilisk= I can’t keep them back forever, the dragons can snap my spine in halve before I could puncture their skin or use my deadly gaze.He thought as he shift high above a courageous manticore and struck it full in the face, puncturing its eyes and pumping deadly venom into its brain, hmm manticore taste different that the usual food that has graced me and my companions stomachs in a long while, I’ll save some for him. He thought as the let go of the manticore’s head. = change POV to dragoness= We can’t fight him forever, his companion will rise when the sun sets and then we will all be doomed, but if we don’t get rid of these two here they will surly find the rest of us and kill us off. The dragoness turns from her muted thinking to survey the damaged wrought by their battle, and what she saw was endless territory destruction that will cost the dragons a lot of gems before the battle is over, so she decided enough was enough. “ENOUGH, WE ARE DONE HERE.” Shouted the dragoness in a voice that could beat back Luna’s canterlot voice in a heartbeat. “but Vistrow, we are so close to over whelming him, we could-“ he said before being interrupted by vistrow ,”CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT THE EARTH IS SCORCHED FROM THE BASILISKS VENOM, IF THIS IS WHAT THE SURFACE HOLDS; WHAT DO YOU THINK HAS HAPPENED TO THE PRECIOUS METALS AND GEMS BELOW?” The dragon that Vistrow had dragon-voiced at look around them at the dead land and the even worst animals that lay upon the floor, some lay wounded and dying from the venom, but they won’t last long; some had unintentionally met the fierce creature’s deadly gaze, at least their pain was swift; the survivors looked terrified at the prospect of being the creatures that has angered two of the most deadly beasts alive, he then took a look at the ground using dragon sight, and it revealed that the venom of the basilisk has destroyed many of the precious metal and gems in a 4500 mile radius. = change POV to basilisk = Enough blood has been shed here today, I have no need to spill some more just because the others followed a stupid notion, he thought before he spoke in and this that cause all the living creatures to jump in fright, “I leave in piece now, I have no need to kill the rest of you in needless violence; however if you ever attack me again while I’m on my way I will not hesitate to end all of you with one swift gaze.” “FINE BUT YOU MUST PROMISE TO LEAVE OUR MOUNTAIN HOME ALONE AND THE FAMILIES OF THOSE THAT FOUGHT WITH US HERE TODAY.” Vistrow replied. “I promise, and for one thing; I never intended to go after any of you, it was all of you that went after me now go before my companion rises and changes my mind.” “FINE” And with that the creatures left in quick haste because as they left the dead and desolate battlefield, the sun had just set below the tree line and within moments my companion will wake and he will be hungry. = change POV to gargoyle statue = Cold, dark, silent; these are all the things that I look forward to during the day, however when I am free I can serve the one who has earned my respect not only as a fellow creature, but also as someone who I can trust to keep me alive and intact; wait I can feel the magic weakening its almost time. The basilisk watched the gargoyle statue as it trembled at first; then, in a rain of stone, an 8’ 9’ winged beast burst from the statue and since being a statue for 12 hours is hard he set to stretching his wings and popping his joints. “AHHH feels good to be outside my prison,” he said while look around at the carnage,” aww damn, some stupid ass beasts decided it was a good time to rumble with a basilisk that has an anger issue the size of a mountain” “bullshit all you want Vatry, but I’m the one that has to haul your fat ass statue all round this land; and I haven’t even come close to finding the mythical sun princess and moon princess, I don’t even think that civilization is around for the next few months.” Replied the basilisk in a mocking tone “Wait Fang, I hear something.” “I know I can smell them, they seem to be searching for something around here.” “Should we drive them away?” “No, because I smell,” Fang closes his eyes and then snaps them wide open and says in a long hiss, “sun and moon princess on them” “How can we introduce our selves without fighting, I can already hear one of them plotting with another to beat us to a pulp” “You forget that we are two of the least known myths to these ponies, they will have to hear us out, and if they try to look me in the face, force their head downward” “Agreed, lets find me a cure” = change point of view to Twilight Sparkle= “Alright it’s not every day that we see a pack of dragons fly away from an area as fast as they can” twilight stated “w-w-well they look very, very afraid.” Fluttershy stuttered “Ah gotta agree with Fluttershy on this one, if something can scare away dragons, then what chance do we have?” Applejack questioned “It probably left by now to search for somewhere else, there’s- OH MY, what manner of horrid creature could have done this” Twilight exclaimed loudly as she look at the wrecked and bloody battle field They soon all got a good look at the field, all the trees were downed and rotted, bare patches of deadened grass lay surrounded by scorched earth, but it wasn't that , that made them sick, it was the bodies of the Timber wolves, some were half melted, some just lay dead with open eyes; the manticores were even worst, some had their entire heads torn off, some were like the wolves, dead but with their eyes open, some had small puncture wounds that were now gaping holes of decayed flesh. “Oh-oh my, what kind of nasty creature could have done this to these poor, poor animals.” Fluttershy stammered while she tried not to cry. “This wasn't a battle, it was a slaughter.” Twilight stated while being equally disgusted by the carnage “Not my fault they tried to attack me and my friend while we were peacefully passing through.” came a hiss from all around them They all jumped and started looking around, looking for the hissing voice that seemed to come from all around them, of course Rainbow Dash the brash one yelled, “ SHOW YOUR SELF WE AREN'T AFRAID TO TAKE YOU ON.” “AHHAHAHHAHAHAH, funny coming from the bite sized meal that walked willingly into my temporary territory, and what of you little purple one, you haven’t said a thing.” “UH-WHAT, how did you know that I was here?” ask Twilight a little startled “I can smell the ancient magic on the six of you, I also can smell; the sun and the moon princess on you” Ancient magic; we don’t have ancient magic, unless…..WAIT, Twilight suddenly knew what the voice was talking about, so she called out to the voice, “what do you know of the Elements of Harmony and what do you mean you can “smell” the princess’s on me?” “I may be another animal to you, but I have long since had the ability to smell more than just organic scents, I can smell magic and I can see right through any disguise, and the princess’s need only touch you once to leave a magic scent on you, but enough hiding on my part; it’s time to show you who you have been talking to.” With a huge groan the six look around as the darkness that had long since surrounded them swirled and came closer until they saw not just darkness but glinting, black, armored scales, and above them a head that was of snake shape but had the look of a dragon; Twilight continued along its neck until she saw its nose and she was going to look into its eyes, when suddenly something knocked her over and said in a firm, yet concerned voice “don’t you dare look into the eyes of my companion, you almost just cost yourself your life.” “Why not uh-uh-uh-uh does he have bad eye sight or something, I’m going to do an eye checkup” Pinkie said and rapid fire speak, and before anypony or creature could stop her she looked right into Fang’s eyes. Author's Note i wont bother using the "im a new writer crutch", but i will need constructive critisism. no spouting crap in the comments. haters can hate and i dont care. randomness welcome, this will update slowly due to the fact that reality just kicked in my door and man handled me out of the house.
Chapter 2: serpent's glance.A basilisk's glance is bad, the full glare of its stare is fatal. = POV Fang= NO SHE CANNOT LOOK INTO MY EYES he thought in a panic, but because pinkie is being pinkie; she managed to get almost full look. "......" was all that pinkie said before she went rigid and fell off fang's head and hit the ground. = POV change rainbow dash = "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER YOU MONSTER", yelled Rainbow in anger and sadness Fang turns his head to her, but not looking directly at her and says "you obviously don't know what i am, but your purple friend probably knows what i am." Rainbow turns to Twilight and sees she visibly started to freak out. "Yo Twilight, what wrong?" Rainbow asks "Its a- its a- ITS A BASILISK." she stutters as she tries to be like Fluttershy and make her self as small as possible "So?," Rainbow says bored,"what does that have to do with what happened to pinkie?" "IT THE KING OF SNAKES, ITS GAZE IS DEADLY; Pinkie is lucky she didn't look fully into his eyes, but due to just getting a glance at his eyes, she is now paralyzed and i don't know how to counter a basilisk's paralyzation." Twilight said momentarily forgetting her fear of snakes while in her lecture mode. "How do we beat a basilisk?" "No one ever has, and because its scales are immune to all types of magic; the elements of harmony are rendered useless." "Hello, anyone gonna mention me or am i invisible?" Ventry asked out loud, in a annoyed voice. They all look around until the area, until their gaze fell on a two legged, 8' 9" creature that instead of its wings tucked at its sides, it had its wings wrapped around its self and its skin look like stone. "I thought you were just myths!!!" Twilight exclaimed as she realized what she was looking at. "Well gargoyles and basilisks do exist, we just don't like to show our self's unless absolutely necessary" replied Ventry "I always read that gargoyles were extremely protective of their territory, are there any now?" "My race lives in a stone and metal fortress across the dragon badlands, through fyre falls, and lastly you must make it across the shadowed canyon." "Okay, are there any basilisks alive?" "In the city of fre' kreia 150,000 miles below equestria" replies Fang "Wow, if its so far down," Twilight says," how did you reach the surface in your life time?" "Magical teleportation points that were hidden around equestria hundreds of years ago, by my races last wizards" "Wait, basilisks could use magic?" "Yes, but that all ended when many of them; went dark and invented a megaspell that would wipe out all of my people and those on the world above" "How did you stop it?" "Every magic user we had that was still young gave up all their life force in order to subdue the megaspell users and redirect it, since there was to much energy to disperse it." "Couldn't they have just absorbed all the energy?" "They were all novices, and our masters were either; to weak to help, or on the other side." "Why did they even invent the spell in the first place?" "Because they thought that, if they used their life force for their spell; they were immune." "So if your people redirected the spell, where did it go?" "My people teleported the spell to the surface then, they shot it at a distant planet far, far away from here" "So what do you want on the surface now?" "Well me, and my friend are searching for the princess of sun and the princess of night" "You mean Celestia and Luna" "Ahh, so that's the names they go by now, and yes we do seek them." "Why do you seek out Luna, and Celestia?" Rarity inquired "We are going to ask them if they know of a cure for the stone curse laid upon Ventry" replied Fang "Do you even know how to get there?" Twilight asked "Yes, we must go north, far, far to the north" replied Fang "How do you know that they are to the north?" "Because their magic scent points to the north, and i bet they live in the city of lights that sit upon the mountain side." "Not to get off topic, how do i cure your paralyzation?" "A simple anti-paralyze spell." Twilight blushes in embarrassment as she charges a anti-paralyze spell; pinkie jumps right up and says "whatjusthappenedhuhuhuhuhdidigetfrozenithoughtiwasgonnabethereforeveritssoboring" pinkie says in her machine gun way, so of course no one understands. "Anyways, how do you expect to got to celestia if you cant pass through a town with out inciting horror?" asks Twilight "What has that have to do with finding celestia?" replies Fang "Shes surrounded by ponies," Twilight replied in the "are you fucking kidding me?" look. (Pretty much this, but on twilight.) (Back to story) "Hot damn,how do i get close enough to ask her then?" "I'll just use dragon breath to send a letter asking for her assistance." "Cool, what do me and ventry do until then?" "Well the suns coming up, I'll just go and get stoned," ventry says," and i don't know what Fang will be doing." "I'm going to let them go, and stop wasting their fucking time," says Fang ," and they will go and stop wasting their fucking time." "Okay, i'll be going now," twilight says turning and then says to her friends," lets go contact princess celestia and see if we can help ventry out." "I don't know Twilight, ventry and Fang are sketchy; i don't like them." says rainbow dash "I'll take that to heart, and your right they are a little sketchy but we will know in time," twilight says, but she runs into part of Fang's tail and so she calls back to him "CAN YOU MOVE YOUR TAIL?" "Oh right," Fang says and moves his tail to clear their path. "You know they don't trust you, right?" says ventry "I know, but what did you expect?," says Fang, turning from the path the six took," i am the king of snakes and a nearly invincible predator." "Aww damn the sun is coming up." ventry says as the skies above turn purple *yawn* "Good that means I'll get some sleep for now, but remember in a few weeks, you will be free from your curse of stone." So as the sun came up and ventry returns to his temporary prison, and Fang coils up to sleep, they fail to notice the shadowy form that flits away from watching their camp. = change POV Twilight = "So what are your perspectives on the trustability of Fang, and Ventry?" ask twilight "Well, for a couple of creatures that are known to be beasts of legend, they were quite civilized." rarity says "They seemed nice enough" answers fluttershy "You already know my answer" rainbow dash chimes in "Ah didn't hear a single lie come from their mouths" applejack calls to twilight "I was stunned the whole time, so i don't know." pinkie says, being pinkie chapter end here have a photo that i think is cool. Author's Note can you spot the references? NOW. GO.
Chapter 3: serpent's magic circle.anaconda, king cobra, garden snake, they all bow before the basilisk. the sun was just rising when Fang took his statue friend and coiled inside a cave just a few feat away from the entrance to the once tree filled field and went to sleep. we have been waiting a long time for you. "huh what?," fang says as he raises his head to look around and sees hes is surrounded by another basilisk, a dragon, a storm giant, and wind elemental, and naiad. i am tetronoa, the earth former the basilisk telepathically said to fang the names ignusia, the eternal flame the dragon telepathically introduced herself my name is aquios, the life giving water aquios wrote in the air using water "MY NAME IS SURGIAS, THE STORMS JUDGMENT" surgias said by using claps of thunder my name is silent breath, the whisper of the wind the air element said by throwing it on a whisper on the wind "i take it your the manifestations of the five base elements." fang said to them "yes" all five said, some telepathically. "why do you need me?," fang asks ," if your the five base elements, what problems can you not handle?" death, necrosis, decay, sickness, and a force twisting our elements into dark versions and its threatening to destabilize the world silent breath breezed "cant the elements of harmony stop it?" fang asks if the base elements fall, the elements of harmony shall be rendered useless, and our circle is incomplete ignusia states matter of factually "how long is it until this happens, and how is your circle incomplete?" fang asks "WE LOST OUR LIGHT BRINGER AND SHADOW MISTRESS DURING THE REIGN OF DISCORD" surgias rumbled we have 6 years before the problem shows it self tetronoa said "then why contact me now?," fang asks," if you have that much time, why don't you wait?" "because you already have a quest and you will need time to find our last two elements, also you need time to train the powers we shall be giving you." aquios said, while her companions gave her looks of surprise "what powers?" fang asks curiously "these" they all say and shoot five different colored beams at him, and his world goes black. change POV to twilight sparkle twilight had just gotten home and was surrounded by her friends, and started writing a letter. which said; dear princess celestia, we and my friends have just come across a basilisk and a gargoyle, and we talked to them. they want to find you and Luna ,so they can free his stone friend from his imprisonment, but i do not trust them. can you and Luna come with at least a legion of armed guards, so that we have our safety assured. also, this basilisk can smell magic scents. your faithful student, twilight sparkle = POV change to celestia = celestia was busy reading a book when a letter appears and drops onto the chapter she is reading "hmmm," she said as she reads the letter," it seems a basilisk and a gargoyle have taken up temporary residents in the everfree forest, and they want to find me and Luna so we can break his friends curse," and then she goes off to find Luna. hmmm, something out there doesn't seem to fit, i must remember to ask the stars what they see out there. Luna mused as celestia landed behind and started saying "Luna, we must go meet twilight sparkle and her friends and meet this-." "basilisk", Luna finished for her. "yes, the basilisk and his gargoyle friend are asking for our assistance of breaking the stone by day and flesh by night curse laid down." "we could 3500 years ago, but after our battle with discord we were weakened, but i cant remember why." "you're right we are still weakened but i cant remember why either" "hmmm, we will scry and uncover our past before discord." "now lets arm our men and go over to twilight's for this audience with this basilisk" so celestia walks over to the night stand, and starts writing: dear twilight, we are on our way, please wait outside the library so that we can be swift, and we are bringing a full legion of armed gaurds with incase this goes sour. sincerely, celestia back in the clearing "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGG" fang shrieked as the feelings of burning and electrocution faded hello? can you hear me? a voice said in his head. who are you? fang thought back this is silent breeze telepathically speaking, the others will speak to you when they feel the need, im just making sure that the powers bestowed upon you are working, because the first 4 must be able to speak to you before me. how do i use them? you will learn your powers as you test your known powers, but for now you need to focus on whats happening at the presence. with that fang felt a presence leave his mind that he had not known was there before, and then that's when he senses two incredible powers pass over his cave, and not to far off to the north he felt the familiar magic. "WE KNOW YOU ARE HERE, SHOW YOUR SELF" a voice boomed outside fang's cave of course in alarm at the booming voice, fang coiled tighter and slid deeper into his cave, until he heard a soft voice say, "doing that will only scare him," the voice then called softly, "can you come out, if that's alright with you?" sensing no danger in the voice, he slowly uncoiled and slithered slowly out into the mid day sunlight, but he saw no one and looked around until a regale voice called out, "excuse me, we are up here". hearing the voice behind them, he closed his eyes and turned to where he smelled the eight magic scents mingled with at least 60-80 normal scents behind them, fang then said "you must be celestia and Luna, but i smell you brought the element bearers with you," fang said and continued," hmmm, i smell at least 80 soldiers in the back round." "twilight wasn't kidding when she said you can smell magic scents, but that's not the point," celestia remarked, she then continued " you said that you need us to break the stone curse on your gargoyle friend." "yes, we should commenc- WAIT!!!," fang suddenly whipped around," EVERYONE INTO THE CAVE!!!" "why, what do you smell?" celestia asked worried "it seems as though a dragon tribe around here made a deal with the gorgon stonelands in the south and now they are coming to kill me." "me and Luna can help, we can help you beat them" "no this is my war, protect ventry should i fail, im sorry", and with that fang sucks in a huge breath and blows celestia, Luna, and the element bearers into the cave, but not before celestia told her soldiers to return to canterlot, then he uses his tail to smash the entrance into the cave shut in the cave "is everyone alright?" celestia asked as a huge rumble far in the front of the cave sounded "what was that?" twilight asked "that twilight, was fang sealing us into the cave." Luna deadpanned "but why?," she asked,"why wont he allow us to help him?" "because he believes that because he brought them to us, he must be the one to face them alone" celestia answered walking toward ventry, "he asked us to protect this statue, we must honor his request" she continued as she started laying down wards around the statue the battlefield just as fang predicted at least 225 - 300 gorgons crashed into the clearing, followed by 40 shades, 10 wyvrens were circling the clearing, and the sound of 400 - 800 werewolf's were heard, then came 20 dragons, and the leading one said "you're a blight upon this land. and your kind need to stay below the earth where you belong, you will never beat our army, you should just give up and allow us to kill you quickly and destroy the statue you hold so dear." "you're mistaken if you think i'll just roll over and die to let you touch my friend, you just like those before shall fall, but i wont let any of you leave here to follow me, for THIS ENDS NOW!!" fang roared with a ferocity not used in may decades. driven by the tune on the breeze, fang lost himself to the animalistic ferocity he saves just for battles like this, but unlike the other times, he had more attacks than just bite, smash, venom, death-gaze, for he had in his fury, earth spike field devastator, wind Scythe, liquid flame, dry drowning, thunder field, and with a roar that shook the ground fang charges the ranks. Author's Note dry drowning only works if fang can touch his victims, liquid flame = magic napalm, if you played ninja gaiden 2 then wind scythe should make sense, if not then you suck, JK, i took the idea of thunder field from the diablo 2 sorceress's thunderstorm spell. his magic was super charged due to fang restraining his natural magic, he wont use this every battle, he will only use it in dire situations for a short time, he also will have to learn all the skills and abilities in this battle naturally, but due to him unleashing his restrained natural magic, he got a massive knowledge boost until he drops out of it.
Chapter 4: wrath of the serpent kingeven blind, the basilisk can still see you. inside the cavern luna, celestia, and luna watch as the circle they set up glows brightly with intertwined magical knots, but since twilight was to busy to ask questions she had kept quiet until they were finished, so she asked "what does this circle do?". "it is a very high leveled soul-shield, it should keep out all but the names we put in it base, and vatry can leave breaking the spell" celestia answered "how does it keep things out?," rainbow dash asked, "i cant even see it, are you really sure the spell worked?" she continued as she reached out touch where the shield was supposed to be. "NO, DO NOT TOUCH THE SHIELD" luna cried as she pulls RBD's hoof away from the shield perimeter "i think", celestia says " a demonstration is in order" celestia detachs her chest plate and throws it at ventry's statue with all the force she could muster, they watch as it hits the shield and in an sound betwen scraping metal and a cat's shriek it vaporizes, all of it, gem and all. "H-H-how did it destroy all of it, diamond included?" twilight stammered out "it can destroy everything between solid diamond, dragon scales" luna said matter of factly "okay, so no touching the statue, got it" rainbow dash said battle field fang crashes headlong into a group of gorgons and throws his head back taking with it 40 of them, but not killing them, just stunning them, so of course the shades starts trying to slow him down with bolts of dark magic, but they had no effect due to his natural resistance to magic, but he is not immune to the hexes that the more passive shades are chanting. "infirmus, debilito, infirmo", they chanted as fang started to feel its effects, he was slowing down, and if he didnt kill them soon, he would be to weak to fight, so he slowly turns and sprays venom at them, but it hits and slides off the shield they have up, so he releases a blinding flash of light from his mouth, vaporizing some of the chanters and silencing the rest. he slowly feels his strength creep back, but not fast enough and the curses were causing bits of scale to fall of and expose flesh, so he decided to draw on the plant life around him, so fang rose up and bit into the ground slowly drawing the nutrients and life that resided in the earth and plants. the shades and werewolfs had different ideas as they started double teaming, shades would throw the curses that killed his scales and the werewolfs would dig into the exposed skin, but thanks to the earth magic, the places that lost scales are turned to stone and his scales were further strengthened by the surface metals he was absorbing, but that is not the only thing he was getting, he was also drawing the life from the plants and dead that have been laying for days, but the additional wounds were slowing his healing process, but a huge explosion rocked the land under the feet of the army. the explosion surprised them as they stopped in thier tracks, except fang who took this opprotunity to continue his healing, and the beings responsible for the distraction was celestia, luna, and the mane six standing in the mouth of the cave with celestia, luna, and twilight spells at the ready, but they were not going to interfere instead they kept a circle around the cave entrance and waited. fang now fully healed and empowered by the earth, didn't charge. instead he slammed the ground with his tail, bringing up huge obsidian spikes in a 40 foot radius under his enemies feet, but the werewolves being nimble creatures just caught them and rode them till they stopped but the less nimble creatures like the 20 gorgons that charged were not just impaled, they were torn apart their organs splattering the ground as fang started sucking in a huge breath and then released it into the sky at the wyvern group and only catching one full in the face with the blades. fang watched as the pieces fell and burst as they splattered the ground in red, turning he sprayed an advancing werewolf rank with liquid flames, but the dragons were still an issue because they haven't been in the fight at all and fang hoped they would not enter now because he had more pressing matters to deal with, but the gorgons had it out for him because soon they started jumping on his head and back scratching at his scales and eyes, but the ones on his back had no effect while fang struggled to keep his eyes from being scratched out by the gorgons long jagged nails, so he then used his water power and all the gorgons that had been on him instantly died, choking on the magical water build up in their throats. all of a sudden werewolves were raining down on fang because of the spikes and fang's wind scythes couldn't cut stone, but fang had other idea's as he threw off 12 that had landed on his back, he smashed the spikes by using earthquake and the ones beneath the spikes were crushed as the ones on top were unharmed. the wyverns that fang had foolishly forgot about decided to dive bomb at his eyes by using their tails to pluck them out, but as they closed in on fang, he ducks in order to shoot more liquid flame at a big group of gorgons, so as they soared high over head readying another dive fang bites his tail and starts spinning as the other monsters stop in their tracks and looks at each other in confusion, but the wyverns were not as stupid as the ground forces and soon start diving at fangs eyes without readying, but they miss as fang builds up speed and soon all the hair on the wolves stood up and soon they got the clue as they too start attacking fang, but to no avail and are flung off as soon as they land a hit on any part of him, but its to late as the static that fang has been building shoots up into the sky and starts raining down on the wyverns, but they may be fast enough to dodge 1 or 2, but not enough to dodge 5 - 6 striking down all at once, so the wyverns are all dead. the battle raged on for what seemed like infinite days without night, but even fang doesn't have unlimited magic as the armies thinned and the remaining creatures were, 100 of gorgons and werewolves, the shades had vanished into the night sensing they had no chance against the rest of them, no wyverns and the dragons had been staying back, but they may stay there as fang starts feeling his magic fade and soon starts to forget how to use the spells that in his rage he used instinctively. the remaining monsters were tired and afraid to approach fang, but fang was also very tired and out of magic as he soon came back to rationalization and realizes that he doesn't need to protect the statue of vatry because when he looks up at the sky its late twilight and will soon be night, but with Luna being on his side soon brings up the moon early and inside the cave everyone hears a huge shattering noise with a loud tingling as the bit of stone hit the floor and vatry walked out stretching. "HELLO MORONS, ARE YOU DAFT BASTARDS READY TO DIE?" vatry called out across the battle field "hahaha, I guess its time to get some rest and relaxation?," fang weakly laughed, as he passes out and the remaining army is soon joined by the 20 dragons that stayed back and they started laughing as they slowly approached fangs sleeping figure, but the main 6 minus Fluttershy was having none of it, so they soon ran forwards and surrounded fang, as the weakened but powerful monsters advanced laughing at them, because what can 5 ponies, 1 gargoyle, and 2 alicorns do to the near invincible army?
Chapter 5: soul of the nightAuthor's Note PROOFREADERS WANTED, ALSO SOME EDITORS WOULD BE NICE. daylight's end belongs to League of legends, go play. Chapter 5: soul of the night stone does not bend or break, but is unyielding and un-moving "well what are we going to do?" twilight asked celestia "that decision is up to Vatry." celestia replied "all the magic capable users make a shield around fang, and make it lethal." Vatry instructed. celestia's horn glowed as did Luna's, and the remaining unicorns of the group; soon a shimmering rainbow like shield came up around the magic users holding everyone but Vatry in the area, but Vatry just drew his obsidian great sword and charged swinging, decapitating a large gorgon squad but he wasn't done yet as he picks up one of the heads by her hair and opens the eyes turning to stone the first wave as the smarter ones stays back or turns away from the grisly trophy, but as silent as the falling of snow vatry appeared and disappeared due to his natural camouflage and years of fighting off stupid monsters. this is too easy, vatry thinks as he swings his sword in a mid horizontal arc i feel like a enemy is missing from this- *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM* vatry is thrown a cross the field as one of the dragons flying over head let lose a a condensed ball of searing white flame, heat is not a problem to vatry, but the concussion blurred his vision and the explosion rang in his ears. "oh that hurt," vatry said out loud as he nimbly dodges a swipe from a gorgon as he expertly sheaths his sword and goes for hand to hand as he catches the offending limb and tears it off then uses it to beat the closest monster around him away, but the arm could only do so much when its used as a bludgeon. "lets use our stoning spell to subdue this abomination," hissed the gorgon general as the group she commanded nodded in agreement I might be able to win this fight completely alone, vatry thought not paying attention to his surrounding as a group of gorgons came from behind and grabbed his head and forced him to look into the eyes of the gorgon general, but they forgot one thing about a gargoyle; he is already cursed to stone by the light of day so their gaze has no effect on the, as of now, very pissed gargoyle. "BITCH PREPARE TO DIE," vatry screeched as he reached forward and promptly tore the head of the gorgon general off, so with their general dead and their army broken the gorgons fled, but vatry still has two massive challenges ahead of him, the werewolf general and the dragon general. damn we lost the gorgon advantage, but at least the dragons are still here so we can still beat this lone beast, volf mused to himself since the was the only lycan in the battle with the blessing of control, but his musings were cut short as he watched vatry tear through a werewolf pack with ease using his obsidian broad sword for he had abandoned the gorgons arm a long time ago, guess its time for me to take this thing on he sighed to himself as he drew his scythe. "ENOUGH, i shall take him alone," volf instructed his minions as they retreated; soon forming a circle as even the dragons landed to watch as two titans of the night go at a battle to the death. the battle wore on for hours as neither could get a up hand on each other, but they had given minor injuries to the opposed. vatry had a medium cut along his jaw and a few small cuts along his arms, but the werewolf had a long thin cut along his ribs and a stab wound in his arm. "you're good at this," volf complimented as vatry tried a bold overhead smash "you're not bad yourself," vatry complimented as he nimbly jumped back from a horizontal slash soon the two were in a dead lock as they pushed against each other with their weapons trying to over power the other, but not succeeding. soon however a light appeared on the horizon and vatry groaned as he felt himself weakening, but to his surprise, volf drew back as well as he to was beginning to weaken. "it seems that we must cut this short, but i had a good battle." volf said as he sheathed his scythe "it was interesting" vatry replied "you have earned the respect of this old wolf" "as you have earned mine" "WE ARE DONE HERE, OUR POWER WEAKENS AND NOW WE MUST FLEE BACK TO THE FOREST" volf commanded to his troops as the dragons just gawked in amazement that the entire werewolf army just up and left them. "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!", the leader of the dragons asked "we are done here, if we fight the rest will surely finish us off." "their two greatest allies are down, so now its our chance to finish them" "Fool, you forget about the princess of the sun and moon" POV change Luna "Sister, it seems as thought the day has driven away the werewolf group, but we still have the dragons to fight." Luna commented. "Do not worry Luna, the shield around us can hold from what ever attacks the dragons throw at us." Celestia replied as a massive boulder crashed against the shield, it had no effect. "how much longer must we hold the shield?" twilight asked "I don't know, i don't know." Celestia said grimly Things did indeed look grim as the dragons began a re-group, occasionally looking at the shield and the weakened vatry, but soon Celestia's horn glowed and the sun came up with vatry bowing at the shield slowly turning to stone, but Luna soon got an idea, and a risky one. "Sister, i may have a spell to temporarily keep vatry from becoming stone, but i fear it might turn him to stone forever." Luna spoke fast "If it is the one you are thinking about, then use it but we need to ask vatry" Celestia stated "use it" vatry said soon Luna's horn started glowing as she started to sing a hollowed voice daylight's end, but as she sang the stone already there started to retract and he started to glow, brighter, and brighter until there was a flash and luna stopped singing, but fainted as well.
Chapter 6: stones edgeSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
chapter 7: from stone, to fireall it takes is time and pressure the group smelled the gasses as it filled the caves, producing a rotten egg smell, like sulfur but stronger and more volatile, so the group retreated through the caves deeper and deeper as the gasses moves quickly into the caves, until the group came upon a river deep in the twisting labyrinth of caves. "we can't keep running forever, there has to be a way to get out and drive those asshats back to the mountains." twilight said as she stopped short of the bank of the river, and looked at her friends, mentor, and vatry, who whispered something to fang. POV change, fang she's right if we keep running we'll reach a dead end and suffocate from these gasses fang pondered as vatry expression expressed deep thought until something dawned on him and he walked over to fang "yo, i have an idea on how to survive, and buy us time to ambush the dragons," vatry said as fang used his tail to motion to the others for them to also hear out this plan, "so here it is, fang can use his strength to cave in the ceiling a little ways up, then i can use my sword to ignite the gasses after they fill up the caves." Pov twilight THIS IS INSANE she thought as she heard the plan, but the more she thought about her options, the more she realized there wasn't much choice, it's either wander through the caves until, they die or reach get stranded miles away from home and neither sounded appealing to her. "twilight, you and rarity will help fang pull down the ceiling, i need you two to make sure the rocks leave an opening for me to put my sword through." vatry said, and the others nodded. they got into positions as fang crept a little bit up the caves, finding a weak point in the ceiling, and with a mighty crash he bashed his armored head into the ceiling causing the walls to shake and crack as twilight and rarity maneuvered the biggest rocks to the side, setting up the platform for the smaller rocks to land on, eventually after what felt like an eternity, the rumbling stopped, and vatry step up and put his sword blade out, and waited for the gasses, but they didn't have long to wait as vatry was the first to smell the gasses. "ignis." vatry uttered in his mind as the magma ruby glowed in response to the magic word, and the blade blazed into a blinding white glow, igniting the gases as planned. meanwhile outside the cave the dragons continued their controlled breathing, not hearing the whoosh as the gas ignited, they did not see the flames rushing towards their open mouths nor did they close it fast enough as the fire entered their stomachs, igniting reserves, forcing them to breath the flames into the air, because their choices were either hold in the flame and burn from the inside out, or let it out and suffer only heart aches and stomach aches. "ENOUGH, this fighting is ridiculous , we can live in peace and ill leave the dragons alone, if you leave us and our friends alone, alright?" Vatry called out this got the dragons talking, the youngest wringing their fists and pointing at the group far from the meeting, while the older dragons shushed the younger dragons and talked, they talked for a long time, whispering occasionally flicking their gaze at the group and back to the one talking, eventually, the group far away, decided to sit down, and wait, but never taking their eyes off the group of dragons. for what seemed like hours, but was only like ten minutes the dragons dispersed, some flying off, but the three eldest walking towards them trying to look as nonthreatening as possible, in hopes of not provoking the group. "we're calling this off, it was a foolish gambit that we sorely lost, do you promise not to pursue us should we take flight back to our mountains?" the oldest elder asked celestia mused at the possibilities of the dragons attacking as soon as their backs are turned, but as her eyes scanned over the destroyed landscape, many bodies littered the landscape, and she figured they would honor the deal not out of respect for their power, but out of fear of death, but since this was vatry and fangs fight, she left judgment up too them. "you are allowed to leave, but know that if any of your younger kin attack us, we will put them down." fang warned as he turned away to face his friend vatry who knelt on one knee, his wounds aching from the constant movement, and no rest "im fine, but i think we should take rest tonight, we can move in the morning." vatry said, fang nodded in agreement as they started studying a map that vatry pulled a map outta a pack hanging off his belt, but twilight had another idea. "i know a cave nearby ponyville thats far enough away that you dont have to worry about anypony stumbling in on you, so you won't have to worry about using that deadly gaze on any innocents who may wander." twilight said as she walked over too them. "that'll be nice, not having to worry about killing anything with my gaze, alright just show us this cave and we'll meet tomorrow, to discuss why we came looking for luna and celestia." twilight took out a map, showing vatry where this cave was, she gave him specific directions taking them around the entire town of ponyville, but thats fine, because it was noon, and the path would surely take them all afternoon, so they separated, the ponies and princesses heading toward ponyville, fang and his companion heading towards the cave in the mountains. pov change "are you sure that no one will go that way?" luna asked twilight. "yes im sure, besides since we got the dragon to leave he hasnt came back to that cave." twilight answered cheerfully "it was a very good job you did, but we cannot stay in ponyville like this." celestia stated, as she motion for the group to stop. "why are we stopping tia?" luna asked "because we cannot stay for an extended time in ponyville, looking like our normal selves, we would never be able to get anything done." "why stay in ponyville?" twilight asked "because of the fact that most of the books regarding gargoyles or basilisks reside in our old castle, not canterlot." "oh, and since the canterlot elite find such knowledge meaningless, they wouldn't accept books regarding 'myths' as valuable material" they walked for a while after luna and celestia changed their coats, manes, and body sizes, making sure to also hide their voices too, and so they walked into town, separating at the center, twilight housing luna and celestia, the rest going to their respective homes, hoping to catch some rest after the events of today, they all ate and soon were fast asleep letting the weariness and exhaustion finally take them into a realm of sleep. Author's Note i apologize for the long wait and the stupid long time, but a lot of things have happened in my life, but good news is that ill be picking up writing again, so my quality should go back up. again i apologize for the bad quality of the chapter.
chapter 8: From fire too ashSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
