A Promise Not Forgotten

Dan:

I sat there alone in the room I carried Luna off to. Aidan and Colin and some ponies had left earlier to gather supplies in town; that was about an hour ago. Since then I have just sat in this room, making sure Luna is ok. She was still breathing, thankfully. How one’s own sister could do something like this escapes me. Having a brother of my own, and knowing the difficulties of living with him, I still would never think of doing something like this. I stayed in the room with my eyes closed, just thinking. That was interrupted with a knock at the rotting wooden door of the castle.

I walked out of the room, leaving Luna to sleep in the side room. Aidan and his expedition had returned from the town with a cart of gear and food. “Got anything good?” I asked.

“Yeah, basic medical supplies, food, water, cloth for clothes, and some things I left in the library,” Aidan replied, pushing the cart past me.

“Nice,” I said.

“So how’s the princess doing?” Aidan asked with a smirk.

“Still sleeping it off,” I replied. “Seems to be doing fine though.”

“That’s good,” Aidan said as he walked away.

Colin approached me and said, “Hey, watch out for him will you?” pointing to Aidan.

“What for?” I asked, confused.

Colin walked a little closer and spoke in a whisper, “Prophet can’t slow the degradation of his mind anymore. He seems to have two separate personalities, one good like the Aidan we used to know, and the other emotionless and… well, kind of careless.”

“What do you mean careless?” I asked.

“Like he doesn’t care about his own life anymore. He said he wants to do one last good thing before he is gone,” Colin said looking at Aidan as he talked to Discord and Iron Hoof.

“Well, shit…” I said, also looking at Aidan.

“He changes back and forth though, I don’t know what will set him off, and I don’t know if I want to be there when he does,” Colin said. “He might do something he regrets.”

Aidan:

I walked to Discord and Iron Hoof, who were talking near the cracked throne. “Hey, you two,” I said, pointing a finger. “We need to talk.”

“Um… ok?” Discord said.

“What do you need?” Iron Hoof asked.

“Tell me everything you know about the Southern Wastes,” I said replied.

“Heh, the Southern Wastes eh?” Discord said. “I remember that place. Basically, it used to be a thriving kingdom back in the day, and since then died off.”

“Were they ponies?” I asked.

“No one knows anymore,” Iron Hoof said.

“Not even I do!” Discord said.

“Aren’t you a time traveler?” I asked.

“Meh, not really,” Discord replied. “Trans-dimensional travel isn’t time travel. Actually I don’t think time travel is even possible, there is only one I have heard of but he is long gone.”

“Oh really?” I asked, quite intrigued. “What makes you think that?”

“I just have a feeling,” Discord said.

“Fair enough…” I said. “So that’s it on the Southern Wastes?”

“It’s at the south pole, now covered in ice. I don’t even know how they would have lived down there,” Iron Hoof replied.

“That certainly complicates things… Have any idea how they might have?” I asked.

“Other than some heat magic, no, but that would take way too much energy to sustain a population for that long,” Discord said.

“Think that’s how they died off?” Iron Hoof said.

“Could be…” I said, now thinking quite a lot. Why would Prophet want me to go there?

It wasn’t because of the cold that they died.

Then how? I asked.

They didn’t die off, they were killed.

By what?

The Alicorns, can ya guess which one?

I have an idea.

Anyway, they were all killed off but their home was left alone. After they were gone the place slowly withered and their life source slowly diminished, causing the outer ring of the South Pole to freeze. That’s why nobody would think about going there; it’s too cold for anybody to want to go further. They didn’t know what was at the center though.

Lost city?

Bingo.

They still alive down there?

Not at all. Long gone. Completely dead. But it’s the only place we can go in the meantime.

Well, it’s a start at least. I thought.

“Aidan, you ok?” Discord said with a raised eyebrow.

“Umm,” I started. Can I tell these two?

Better get Dan and Colin first.

“Yeah, just hold on…” I said walking to Dan and Colin. “Hey, you two, come here for a minute.”

My two friends followed me and I motioned for Discord and Iron Hoof to follow as well as I walked into a closed off room. “What’s going on here, Aidan?” Discord asked as he followed me.

As I closed the large door behind us I turned to face my four followers, “It’s confession time.”

Iron Hoof narrowed his eyes, “What kind of confession?”

“The kind that means you might hate me,” I said without hesitation.

“This should be good,” Dan said, crossing his arms and standing at my side.

“Prophet isn’t dead, not at all,” I started.

“What do you mean, isn’t dead? I saw Colin shoot the light!” Discord said.

“That disabled his ability to control people, didn’t kill him though,” I said shaking my head.

“Aidan… are you telling me-” Iron Hoof began.

“Exactly…” I said, cutting him off. “My friends, I’d like you to meet Prophet,” I said as he stepped out of me like he did in the prison.

“Damn it! I should have known!” Iron Hoof yelled with Discord getting ready to fight.

“Before you insist he is evil, listen to me,” I said.

“And why would we do that?” Discord said.

“Because I trust him,” Dan said, with a nod from Colin.

“Listen to me, Prophet may have killed thousands, but there is a reason for it all,” I said as Discord and Iron Hoof glared at me. “There was a plague. It was spreading far too fast for anyone to try and stop it. This was his last resort, just like before.”

“Bullshit…” Discord said.

“Discord, you fool, didn’t you notice how all the surviving gryphons were sick? Didn’t you notice that they were all dying? That some of them mysteriously disappeared? Believe me, there was a plague and it killed far more than Prophet ever did.” I said.

Discord replied in a glare but Iron Hoof still didn’t accept it, “Aidan come on! This is Prophet we are talking about here! The one who tried to steal the throne before!”

“I didn’t try to steal the throne… I showed Celestia what she would become…” Prophet said.

Iron Hoof glared at the red fog, “I don’t believe you…”

“Iron Hoof, listen to me. Look around us; we are pushed out of our own home, because Celestia thinks I killed everyone. She knows full well that I didn’t do it… She knows what I’m capable of, that I can see through her, that I will fix this,” I said, protecting my latest asset. “Iron Hoof, when I first arrived here, I made a promise; a promise that no matter what, I would fix this. Prophet hasn’t done anything wrong; he has saved lives by killing the gryphons.”

Discord stood with arms crossed and a glare on his face, “Iron Hoof, he does have a point. I have seen the plague he’s talking about, it isn’t pretty.”

“You too?” Iron Hoof said looking toward Discord. “You people are useless! You can’t even realize that Prophet is behind it all!”

Prophet grunted at this and lifted a foggy arm up. “If you won’t listen to me, then I will show you…” A tendril of red fog extended from Prophet and trailed on over to Iron Hoof. The terrified pony backed away into the corner, trying to escape the touch of Prophet. Prophet got inside the pony’s head and showed him all of what would happen if we failed.

“S- St- STOP! STOP IT!” Iron Hoof shouted. Prophet stopped the slideshow of horror and let him fall to the floor.

“Oh my god…” Iron Hoof said, trembling on the floor. “How… Why? Why does that have to happen? And why him?”

“Iron Hoof,” Prophet said while moving closer. “I can’t tell you why, or how, but I can tell you that we CAN stop it. Just help us, and we will find a way.”

“P- Pl- Please don’t let that happen…” Iron Hoof said, burying his face in his hooves. “We can never let that happen…”

Prophet walked over and stepped back into me. God I hate doing that…

What did you show him?

What he needed to see, nothing more.

So you won’t tell me?

I can’t, trust me, it’s for your own good that I don’t.

Can you tell me who he was talking about at the end?

You don’t want to know…

Now my head flew into a sea of ideas. Who was that? What really happened? What did he show Iron Hoof? Why is Celestia trying to stop him? Why isn’t she helping him get rid of the plague?

“Discord, take care of him,” I said, pointing to Iron Hoof. “You two, with me.”

Us three humans walked back and out into the main hall. “Wonder what that was all about…” Colin said.

“I have a feeling this is going to blow up in our faces,” I said.

“What now, Ai-” A scream of horror filled the castle’s throne room. “Crap, gotta go!” Dan said before running ahead of us.

“Well, looks like she finally woke up,” Colin said.

“Now we get to teach her how to walk. What fun that will be…” I said.

“Calm down, dude,” Colin said, hoping not to bring back my less than happy self.

“That’s the fastest way to piss me right the hell off,” I shot back.

Hey I thought you were supposed to be able to fight my brain damage.

So did I, but I have no idea why I can’t fight it. It’s accelerating faster than I thought. It’s way too fast for me to stop it alone, and pony magic just won’t do.

Will human magic work?

Yes, but it’s far too dangerous; the three of you have little to no practice in human magic. I don’t want to end up turning you into a vegetable.

Good point.

Colin and I kept walking to where Luna was being kept. Upon opening the door we saw Dan lying on the floor holding his groin. “WHY!” He screamed. Luna was sitting with a guilty look on her face.

Colin and I couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. “Come on Colin, I think Dan has this under control.” The two of us walked out leaving Dan and Luna alone.

Dan:

Aidan and Colin left me alone on the floor, well not alone; Luna was sitting a few feet away.

“Oh, God you have to watch where you swing those legs!” I said as I slowly sat up and leaned against the wall.

“I’m so sorry, Dan!” Luna said as she crawled over to me. “Are you ok?”

I winced in pain, “Yeah, I’ll be fine in a few minutes…”

Luna looked around the room, “How did we get here?”

“How much do you remember?” I said.

Luna looked off in thought, “Well, I remember Celestia and the crowd, and then nothing.”

I sighed, “You stood up for Aidan and Celestia got pissed and turned you into a human.”

“How could she do that?” Luna asked in horror.

“Heh, she tried to kill Aidan when you were out,” I said.

Luna looked down, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, it wasn’t your fault. Besides, Aidan just brushed off the magic like nothing,” I replied.

Luna’s face contorted in confusion, “How in Equestria did he do that?”

“No idea, but he did,” I said. The pain was fading now, “Hey, can you walk?”

“I think we established I can’t…” Luna said, remembering the swift kick to the balls.

“Ok. Come on, up!” I said grabbing her hand. Luna sat in reluctance, “This is happening, come on up!”

“Oh, fine!” Luna said, letting me lift her up.

I couldn’t help but notice the nakedness of the princess, she was still wearing my jacket, but that only helped so much. Luna and I began the tedious chore of learning to walk… again.

“I’m so happy you’re back…” I said.

“Oh…” Luna said as she blushed. I could only smile back.