The Healer, The Thief, and the Painter. Act 1 The Healer

As I opened my eyes, I wondered if I really had. There was darkness all around me, nearly suffocating, and I wondered if I was in the real world or dream world. I was secured to a chair with ropes tied by my chest and legs. I could also feel a lump on my forehead. “Where the hell am I?” I asked to myself as I struggled against the ropes.

“If you shut up for a moment and listen to me you might know.” said a cool and collective voice in my head. Great now I was hearing imaginary voices.

“I am not of your imagination mortal,” said the voice angrily, “I am as real as you or anypony else.” “You mean anybody right?” I said. “No,” the voice replied, “I know what I said, and I said what I know.”

“And an elephant is faithful one hundred percent” I said followed by a small chuckle. “What did I say that amused you?” the voice said sharply.

“Nothing,” I quickly replied, “so where am I Mr. Voice?” “For your information, the name is Allumere and you will address me as such, and secondly you are in Equestria.“Equesri-who-ha?” I said“E-que-stri-a,” said the voice slowly, “God you’re daft.” “Hey,” I shouted,“say that to my face you lousy no good…” “Now is not the time for such language,” said Allumere “and keep your voice down or they will…” he was cut off by thumping coming from right above me.

“Oh goody,” said Allumere sarcastically, “I’ll just leave you to these ones and come back later.” “Wait what?” He did not respond. “Oh you MOTHER….” I practically screamed, but stopped as a door was opened and quickly shut. There was a beam of light when the door was opened and was extinguished when it closed, but in that instant, I saw a flash of brown and blonde dart into the room. I could hear a slight flapping of wings as I tried to make out the thing in the darkness. “Who’s there?” I asked expecting no answer. I did not get a voice answer, instead I got something grabbing me in by my hair and slamming my head into a table in front of me that I had not noticed in the dark. I thought I heard something crack. As I brought my head back up, I felt something warm run down from my nose and onto my lips. I stuck out my tongue and tasted the metallic taste of blood. “Greaaat,” I said quietly“another injury to add to my repertoire.”

“Who are you?” said a gruff voice out of the darkness, definitely male.

“Well”, I responded,” I usually don’t tell anyone who has just broken my nose my name until they tell me theirs.”

“The name’s Blade.”

“Well Blade, why am I here?” “I am not allowed to disclose that information.” He said, “But I’m here to find my friend.”

“Well you might want to go look for him then.” I shot off.

“I would”, Blade said, “But I just wanted to see if you knew where she was.”

“Oh I see, is she your giiiirlfriend?” I said in a mocking tone cocking my head slightly to the right. His silence for a moment gave me the answer I needed.

“N-no,” he stuttered, and I could hear his tough guy persona crumbling. I’m the one asking the questions here,” he boomed, “so have you seen her or not?”

“Nope,” I said plainly.“

"That’s funny,” “he said,“because we were sent to the same forest to find you and she still has not come back.” “I’m losing my patience with you!”he shouted.

“And I won’t answer any more questions of yours until I see your face.” I shot right back. He paused for a little while until he spat out his response,

“Fine.”, and I could hear the flapping going away from me. A single light bulb sparked and then flashed with a painful light in the enclosed area that I was trapped in. As I shut my eyes against the blinding light, the flapping came towards me and stopped followed by a little clunk like ivory on stones, I opened my eyes tentatively and then reared my chair back in shock at what I saw.

There was a horse, no wait scratch that, it was smaller so it had to be a pony, standing in front of the table with my blood on it, staring at me with frighteningly deep brown eyes. I blinked several times and shook my head again before I looked again. He was still there and was looking at me with one eyebrow cocked. As I looked at him closed I realized what had been making that flapping sound. He had a pair of wings. Like actual BIRD wings resting on the sides of his barrel. His mane and tail were blonde and shortly cut and he had what looked like a tattoo on his left flank that looked like two crossed swords. I could see his muscles under his short brown fur. “Now will you answer my questions?” he spoke, oh God he actually spoke!

“Ss-sure,” I said tentatively easing my chair back on four legs. Why did he remind me of something I had seen before? “Wait,” I said remembering the thing I had seen in the forest, “your friend, is she like you?”

“Yes,” he said (how could he do that?!), “just without wings and with a green coat and mane, why?”

“I have seen her.” I said tentatively, “She is still in that forest, I saw her wounded. There was too much blood.” I didn't want to tell him what really happened in case he lost his temper and broke something other than my nose.

“Dear Celestia,” he said with fear shrinking his pupils frighteningly fast. “I need to find her, what did you do after you found her?”

“I took her to a small clearing I woke up in.” I said (I still can’t believe that I’m having a conversation with a pony for crying out loud.) “And I put her in my transportation; look for a cuboid shape that is blue with stripes and wheels.”(Sue me, I didn’t know if they had cars or not).

“I will be back, just to make sure that you’re telling the truth,” He huffed, “if you are lying to me and I do not find her...” His silence said everything. Returning to his tough guy phase, this “friend” of his must be very important, I noted in my mind. He ran up a set of stairs towards an oaken door and pulled it open. As he did, he pushed the light switch on the wall off, and I was again plunged into complete darkness. As the door shut with a thud, Allumere spoke again.

“Quite a brutish fellow isn't he?” he said.

“Yeah a real Chuck Norris,” I replied back.

“Who is that?”

“Just someone from my world who is very good at beating the crap out of others.” I replied. “By the way is this a dream Allumere?”

“No,” he replied.“Now what do we do?” I asked him. “Do you want to escape from this confined stuffy dungeon?” he asked.

“No,” I replied sarcastically, “I just wanted to stay here until I grow old and die. Of course I want to escape!”

“No needs to be rude,” he huffed, “just follow my lead.”

“Yeah of course,” I replied because you just didn’t abandon me about five minutes ago.”

“That was a purely defensive need”, he replied defensively, “Now shut up and do as I say.”

“Fine,”I sighed, what do you want me to do?”

"Fall over to your right,” he said plainly

I did as he commanded without complaint even though my body was yelling me not to. I rocked until I finally fell over onto the cold stone floor with the chair still attached to me. “Now what oh smart one?” I said sharply.

“Rub your restraints on the rock on the wall directly behind you.” He said

“Ok.” I replied and pushed my feet against the rock floor, which propelled me into the wall also in turn cracking my skull hard on the cold stone.

“Oops,” he said smugly, “a bit too hard on your part there.”

“Why you little…” I started but gave up and started rubbing the rope on the stone. After a couple of minutes the ropes frayed and snapped enabling mobility to my upper half. I tried to untie the bonds around my feet but could not find where the knot started. “What I would give for a little light…” I sighed.

“One second...” I heard Allumere say, and in a couple of seconds sparks, the same amber sparks from the forest appeared at my fingertips. “What the hell?!” I cried exasperated.

“Will magic,”Allumere said as if that explained everything. “What’s that?” I whispered as I finally found the knot and started undoing the complicated rope. “Will magic, as the name states it is magic conjured from the very power of the will inside of you.

“So you’re saying if I…” I said focusing on the sparks. Then they abruptly turned bright neon pink. “Cool.” I said and flicked through different colors from daisy yellow to emerald green. I ultimately returned to the amber color and began to work on the knot again. After about thirty seconds my legs were finally free, and I stretched until I felt my muscles tingle with delight.

“What now Alluemere?” I asked.

“Well, did you see that door?”

“Yeah…” I replied knowing where this conversation was going “Well based on research, if you open that said door, you should be able to make your escape.”

“Are you always such a smart-ass?” I asked him.

“No, just when I need to.”

I walked towards where I had seen the door open. I only stopped when I banged my shins against a set of stairs. I hopped silently, keeping my yell of pain deep in my gut.

After the stinging stopped, I tentatively took a step forward. My sole made contact with the rough wood of a step. I took another step with the same result. I kept going up the stairs as silently as I could, until I saw the smooth wood of a door reflecting in the amber light of the sparks. I moved my only light source up and down the carved wood until I saw the handle reflect with a firelight glow. It was a rounded knob at about hip height and I turned it slowly. The locking mechanism slowly unlocked as the knob was turned. A corona of golden light surrounded the doorframe, rendering my sparks absolute.

“How do I turn these things off?” I asked Allumere.

“Focus and you will receive oh, stupid one.” He replied back. I shrugged off his sarcasm and willed the sparks to go out. In a heartbeat the little lights had extinguished themselves like someone had thrown a blanket over them.

“Still pretty awesome.” I said to myself as I opened the door carefully. I ducked my head to clear the doorway and entered into a library with tall shelves filled to the brim with books, thin and thick with covers with any color imaginable, with a small pedestal sitting in the middle of the room with a large tome splayed perfectly on top of it. A second floor was present above me, into which I could only glimpse a small bed and table.

There were a set of stairs leading up to this floor, and windows were displayed proudly on every wall. As I admired this scene though something came down the stairs. I stood rigid as I processed what I saw. There was yet another pony coming slowly down the stairs, eyes drooping from sleep deprivation. She, I could tell by the tone of the body, was female with a bright lavender coat, with a violet and pink striped mane falling from her scalp, and with a tail of the same color on her flank. She also had a small horn protruding out of her forehead.

“How many species of these things are there?” I asked to myself quietly. She must have heard me because her eyes snapped to attention and stared at me. I stared right back. She opened her mouth and spoke calmly.

“Aurora?” “Yes dear?” A male voice softer than Blade’s but stronger then hers emanated from the second story. “Our“guest” has escaped.

A thud of hooves followed and a pure white stallion dressed in what looked like golden armor came trotting down the stairs. He was also a unicorn with a slightly larger horn and had a spear secured onto his back. As his hooves hit the ground, a green aura surrounded the shaft of the spear and removed it from its sling. He brandished the point at my chest and trotted closer. “Get back in the basement sir.” He stated clearly.

“What if I don’t want to?” I said back nearly whining. Man I could get annoying when in danger. My heart was beating at about a thousand beats per second and various scenarios raced through my mind none of which would end with me not getting a spear in my guts.

“Then I will have to put you there…forcefully.”

“Grab the spear.” said Allumere in my mind. “What?!” I thought back, “Are you crazy!? I do that, and I will end up with a new hole in my chest!"

“Who led you through this entire predicament so far?” he said questiongley.

“Only the severely annoying smart-ass stuck in my brain.” I thought back as Aurora spoke again.

“Well?”

“Fine, I’m going…” I said and as I turned towards the door again I whipped around in a full circle and shot my hand out towards the wooden shaft of the spear. I ripped it out of the aura and lashed out with my injured right foot. My leg screamed at me for being an idiot as Aurora flew backwards and collided with a bookshelf dislodging a tidal wave of books which crashed down around his limp form. Holy shit was violence fun.