Depth of Mania

Chapter 2

Both Twilight and Spike had heard of Regent and Twilight had seen him quite a few times on her visits to Canterlot. He was supposedly the husband of sorts to Princess Celestia but he was rarely seen by anyone even Celestia herself had once said she barely sees him. He seems to bury himself in his work on more archaic magics of the world. Rumors be told he has even seen and heard the Necronomicon speak. Some are stories of him tampering with time and what not. The two of them sat on the couch and waited for Regent to show up. Minutes ticked by and soon minutes became an hour. Then a knock came from the door. "Spike get the door that should be Regent." Spike walked over to the door and opened it on the other side was a lead-colored alicorn with a dark gray mane with lighter gray fraying the end of the mane. Which went down to the start of his shoulders. He nodded to Spike as he entered. "So Twilight you can't do any magic from what Celestia told me."

"Yes I can't watch." She focused on a book that was on the table and tried to lift it her horn began to glow but quickly died.

"Your horn glowed...but yet you didn't seem to perform the spell..." He suddenly became lost in his own thoughts and Twilight stood in front of him waving her hoof.

"Hello? Equestria to Regent? Hello?" He suddenly snapped his back into focus. "What? What was it you were saying?"

"Nothing you just zoned out on us."

"Oh...Well I think I have an idea what may have caused this..."

"What?" She suddenly interrupted.

Regent shot her a look and started to talk again, "If you would have let me finished I believe it was some sort of energy drain."

"A what?"

"An energy drain. Somepony must have done a great feat of magic and needed more power so that pony used his or her magic to drain surrounding Unicorns of their magical energy to use. It's not permanent as you can see you should start to be able to do magic as you regain your energy but we must find who did the drain in the first place as they could be dangerous if they needed to even perform an energy drain." Twilight was still confused at Regent's explanation.

"Of course my explanation may not make sense as energy drains are old archaic spells so a pony like you wouldn't know much about them." He snickered as he turned to leave the library.

"Come along we must go and find the pony that casted that spell." Twilight followed him out of the library leaving Spike who wasn't really listening so as soon as Twilight and Regent left he went to the kitchen and came back with a bowl of gems scarfing down small hand fulls.

The three ponies headed through town all the ponies who passed by the group quickly bowed as Regent passed. A lot of the unicorns they passed by seemed worried and asked Twilight and Regent why they couldn't do any magic. Regent didn't explain and only responded with "We are working on just stay calm." They exited Ponyville and were in the fields. Regents horn had a faint glow to it as they wandered through the fields. Seemingly in no direction just following Regent till they came

over a hill and saw the portal.

"They opened a portal...well we found what they did. Now let's find who did it." They walked closer to the portal. Suddenly two cloaked figures came running out of the woods. When they saw the group they stopped. The alicorn surprised them but they knew who he was.

"Auctor?"

"Yeah?"

"What are we gonna do?"

"Well archaic magic is outlawed. I do believe we may be arrested. Just run for the portal they shouldn't follow should they?" The group looked at the cloaked figures. "I think they casted the spell Regent."

"Do you not think I don't know that Twilight it was certainly obvious." He snapped at her. The two ponies ran towards them,

"Halt!" Regent's horn started to glow but he was cut off as one of the ponies crashed into him knocking him into the portal with them. Twilight and Rainbow Dash not expecting this looked to each other. "What do we do?" Twilight asked her friend.

"We have to go in after him!" Rainbow Dash answered.

"WHAT!? Into that thing I don't like that idea!" Twilight got shoved by Rainbow Dash and fell into the portal. Rainbow Dash just ran straight in. The sensations of being teleported through the portal was not a good feeling it felt like ants crawling all over your insides. When it was over they felt much better though and Twilight felt amazing like she could do anything. They scanned the area around them when they came out of the portal and they saw Regent laying on the ground unconscious.

"Regent!" They galloped over to him and he woke with a start as they shook him.

"Where are they!?" He shot up and scanned the area around him. He stomped his hoof. "Damn they got away." He took in the surroundings. They were in the same field but it was less colorful. More contrast to their usual colors everything looked ethereal. He saw a small village off in the distance. He turned to the two ponies that followed him in. "You two we have to find those two and bring them back." He gave a sly smile, "You two ready for an adventure?" The two ponies looked to each other for a few moments...

"I guess so." They said in unison. Quickly Regent turned and heading towards the village. Unknowing to them the horrors that they would walk into.

"Auctor they are walking into--"

"I know we have to do something but we can't till they actually go in there." The two brothers walked through the dense woods surrounding the path to the village. Watching the three ponies as they entered the village. All was quiet and all was normal till a door opened. A pony walked out, it was a stallion from the looks of it. He seemed normal enough he was shut his door and started to walk down the road. Of course Rainbow Dash ran over to greet this pony, he seemed to ignore her but we she got close and touched him; he suddenly moved without warning letting out an ear shattering screech. The pony's eyes reeled into the back of his head and he grabbed Rainbow Dash. The two brothers ran out of the woods pushing past Twilight and Regent who were too scared to move well Twilight was and Regent had no idea what was going on. Both their horns glowed, the both shot bolts out of their horns at the pony holding Rainbow Dash down. The pony flew back his grip on Rainbow Dash gone. In Regent's mind he thought about what the pony was trying to do to her it was unclear was he trying to consume her flesh? No wait what the hell when did...THOSE TWO! He shot forward and used his magic to grab the two brothers.

"Let's us go Regent if it weren't for us, your friend here would be demented like the rest of these ponies! And I do suggest deciding quickly as that screech called more of them." Regent dropped them and he looked around to the groups of ponies approaching them. Auctor and Praeses horns stayed glowing...Their cloaks still kept over their heads. The ponies closed in on the group and bolts were let go ponies fell. Twilight and Rainbow Dash sat in the middle of the circle the two brothers were holding they held each other scared out of their minds. Regent's horn was glowing the whole time ready to blast anything that got close but the brothers kept the ponies at bay. "Regent just get they out of here!" Auctor yelled to Regent not looking at him keeping his eyes focused on the ponies in front of him. Regent started to move and ushered Twilight and Rainbow Dash back the way they came to where the portal was.

The ponies closed in Praeses looked to his brother, he was keeping them at bay but one came around his side and tackled him. He dashed towards the heap and bashed the pony of his brother. "Come on! Get up Auctor can't be laying down on the job eh?" He helped his brother to his hooves quickly and they looked to the rest of the ponies. "This isn't the time for your corny jokes...There's too many of them we have to run." Praeses nodded and they ran back to where the portal was in the previous clearing. When they stopped running their cloaks hoods had fallen off their heads.

"What the...? What are you two?" The three of them were looking at the brothers.

"Us? Well I believe were just some unicorns." The ponies faces changed telling them that they knew the lie. The two brothers before them were odd was the lighter saying. They had horns like unicorns but they had stripes reminiscent of Twilight's friend Zecora.

"Ok...Our mother was a zebra were as our father was a unicorn so when they had us we were both unicorns and zebras they were told it was almost unheard of ponies having half zebra and half whatever race you would like to say. I guess we beat those odds." Praeses smiled slightly as he explained how they came to be living around Ponyville, "Our parents were kicked out of Trottingham due to the fact they got married and they decided to live in the Everfree for our mother could get ingredients for her potions and what not and our father could practice his love for ancient archaic magics." When he finished the two brother's looked to the group before them, Regent spoke up first.

"So you two are zebracorns?"

"Essentially yes we are zebracorns if that is what you'd like to call us ok but otherwise we are hybrids."

"You two seem to have an extensive vocabulary..."

"Indeed we do our parents made sure we were schooled in both magic and alchemy."

"How does that have to do with your vocabulary?"

"It really doesn't we just read a lot of old books so our vocabulary is quite extensive that's all. Now I believe your next question is if we'll come quietly?"

"Yes I have to take you back to Celestia..."

"Well we'd love to and we will but one thing you should notice the portal isn't open." Regent turned around and looked at the

portal and area between the columns is empty.

"What did you two do!?"

"We did nothing! We will have to see Vesania about getting us home."

"Who?" Praeses laughed at this remark and Auctor continued the conversation.

"Really Regent you haven't heard of Vesania even in your studies of the archaic magics? That is quite laughable you either aren't studying or you're looking at what you would find more useable most likely dealing with say the Necronomicon or Discord and the chaotic magic he commands?"

"Why in the name of Celestia are you two so intelligible about this place and everything else."

"Because that's what our father and his father before him did!" Praeses spat between his bouts of laughter.

"Yes...Our great grandfather wrote a book on this place he was here once before and was never able to finish his work. Our grandfather and father tried to finish it but never could get back here so we continued the quest." Regent walked over away from the group shaking his head and went into his own thoughts. Auctor seeing the two other ponies scared at the fact of the overwhelming aura of the situation. Twilight was talking with Rainbow Dash. "What happend?" Auctor asked geunine concern in his voice.

"When that pony attacked her it scared her."

"Well of course getting attacked does that..." Auctor rolled his eyes, my god they aren't use to violence are they? "Now what are your names I never caught them?"

"I'm Twilight Sparkle and this is Rainbow Dash." Auctor nodded and gave his name and his brother did the same. Auctor looked to Regent, "Are you done with thinking how you're gonna get out of this or what ever your thinking about?"

"Yes and I guess I have to follow you two if I and these two are to get back to Equestria."

"Well then...Welcome back!" Praeses started to laugh at his own joke. Regent raised a brow.

"He's correct we still are in Equestria just not the realm you are used to we are in the realm known as the Aether in many books. The realm we live in is the Ether and then there is the world of Discord himself called the Nether. But do not worry if everything goes well we should be able to go home fairly quickly. One problem however we have to go through that village again."

"Your kidding me!?"

"No I'm not sadly...If we want to get through we will have to fight our way through due to the fact of Rainbow Dash upsetting their  routine." Without another word Auctor and Praeses walked forward towards the village. Regent looked to Twilight and Rainbow Dash and motioned for them to follow.

When they entered the village the ponies started to swarm them again still aware of their presence. Auctor and Praeses cut a path towards the other side while Regent kept the rest off them. Soon they started to notice skeletons that littered the path. Auctor and Praeses said nothing neither did Regent but Rainbow Dash and Twilight yelped at the sight of pony skeletons spread along their path. The skeletons were surrounded by a thick black goo as well. They walked through the village blasting any of the ponies that came close, which was many by the time they exited the village Auctor and Praeses were out of breath and they're breathing in short quick breaths.

"I...Think...Were..." Auctor took a deep breath, "I think were through."

"What were those things?" Twilight spoke.

"Those are ponies affected by Discord... They are demented, insanity fills their minds. Doomed to walk the same path each and every day expecting new results. The only time they break that is when someone tries to interact with them like Rainbow Dash did."

Auctor looked into the distance seeing a large wall. "Hm...You can even see Haven from here." The ponies looked in the direction he was and saw the wall.

"What is that?"

"As I said it is Haven. The capital of this realm much like Canterlot." Praeses was already ahead of them heading through a swamp. Auctor followed suit and ran after him. Leaving Regent, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash alone.

"Should we go with them?" Twilight had strong disbelief in her voice, "I think it would be best Twilight since they know what they are doing..." Regent was face hoofing as he said this. Why was Twilight so scared and why isn't she interested in this place? For the love of Celestia it's out of place for her.