Chapter 28
They all gathered around him, his vision turning purple and black while pulsating. Aiden could barely make out any faces, all he could make out was pulsating light figures. As he laid on his bed, his whole left arm consumed with a thicker purple skin, like a dense form of leather. He groaned, but he struggled to even make words, he felt as if rocks were rumbling in his throat. It made him grip the bed, while his family in reality was looking to him in horror for what was becoming of him.
His left arm and hand had swollen from the dense skin that formed. While pitch black claws like raptor talons sprouted and pierced through his fingernails, clicking and shining in the light. As confusing as it was at first, it was already obvious how this could have happened.
"What is this? It's spreading all over our child…! And our magic has no effect on it!"Celestia was slowly starting to panic.
"Whatever it is. It's slowly taking over Aiden's body with each passing hour,"Cadence admitted while trying her own love magic mixed with Shining Armor's,"And it looks like…! Aaahhh!"
The moment her and Shining began casting their magic upon the wound that the affliction came from. A pitch black magic crawled out of the wound and whipped around for the offending magic. Once it had violently swatted at Cadence and Shining Armor, they were forced to stop and back away. Only then did the dark magic seep back into his wound like a magical parasite.
"Our love magic isn't enough either…! It just attacks anything that threatens it."Shining helped his wife up while assessing the dark magic's behavior.
"Then we need to call upon Twilight and her friends. Their harmony could be our best bet…!"Luna suggested that the elements of harmony got involved in the situation.
"Sister, we just saw love magic fail, what good will friendship magic be?"Celestia questioned in a panic as she put a hoof to Aiden's forehead.
"You have a better idea? And when do you suddenly doubt Twilight's ability to purify darkness?"Luna retorted, nearly letting another argument to start between them.
Suddenly, they all went silent the moment the door knob slowly turned. The door itself had then opened, allowing Saphira to enter the room and look towards the troubling scene. She could barely see much of Aiden, but she could feel the very same darkness she felt when they fought her father. The looks on every pony's faces was another hint that something was very wrong. She had heard that Aiden came down with something, but now this was looking more serious than a simple ailment.
"I…heard the boy came under some sort of sickness. I wanted to check him for myself,"Saphira admitted before realizing how scared and worried they were for Aiden,"But I can see it's more complex than that."
"A darkness is infecting and spreading across Aide's body from the wound he received from your father,"Luna decided to be the one to explain Aiden's current condition,"Perhaps you might know what's happening to him?"
They suddenly invited Saphira to take a look for herself to verify what this affliction was. The woman accepted the offer and came forth to see, but she was nearly taken back from what she witnessed. Aiden partially changed, his arm appeared to look like a limb from one of many demons. With that and the same cold a dark feeling this new magic gave off, there was no mistaking it. This was the same dark magic that corrupted and possessed her father, and possibly other Equines.
Once the woman herself looked to Aiden and saw the spreading darkness. Her heart was dropping into a cold pit of fear, this darkness was a lot like the magic that changed her father. It was in a different form, but it was definitely the same thing, and that meant it was happening to Aiden.
"No…! No! This is the exact same magic that consumed and changed my father,"Saphira feared and gripped at Aiden's arm to check the source,"It must have been injected into him the moment he took a bite from my father, rather than simple venom."
"We've realized that, and it's in an early stage, but…"Cadence started out, before the black magic attacked again.
This time, it attacked Saphira by wrapping around her wrist and arm. Screeching as it even dared to spread to the women, thankfully, Saphira was strong and manage to grip at the parasite. Growling and ripping it off her arm before it growled and bubbled before returning into the wound.
"It…keeps fighting us off. Even our love magic doesn't work on it."Cadence admitted, lowering her head with dying hope for saving Aiden.
"Your Twilight's harmony magic may be able to slow the magical infection, but even that won't stop it,"Saphira assessed further without daring to touch the boy a second time,"This darkness… I never knew any one to survive it's corruption. All of them were clearly changed and turned into Myridium's demonic slaves…"
"What…?! No! That can't be! We can't just lose our son to this darkness!"Celestia exclaimed in a growing outrage mixed with anger and fear.
"There has to be a way! We can't just accept that we're going to lose him…!"Luna added to the demand that they needed to find a way to cure the boy.
"I'm sorry, believe me. I want there to be a way…! If there was I wouldn't have had to kill my father,"Saphira morbidly pushed to make the adults accept the reality that was before them,"He did what he could and tried to be the best Equine he could ever be for this world… He deserves to pass on with that memory intact…"
This sudden suggestion shook all the ponies in the room to the core, it really sounded like the end. That little boy they raised from a toddler was now descending into a great darkness. One that would turn him into the very monsters that tried to kill him, it was hitting them tremendously hard. Perhaps even too hard, for Celestia was trembling as she rubbed her child's warm forehead. She prayed that this was a dream, but it was no dream, just a very real nightmare.
They could not buy it, their hearts could not fathom such a grim ending to Aiden. Their eyes burned, as tears began to form in the eyes of his mother's, the news was becoming too much. Finally, Celestia lost it, and she took her growing anger out on the one that dared to shatter all hope. She rushed towards Saphira, taking the woman by surprise in a sharp tackle. Every pony was spooked, Cadence screamed as Celestia slammed Saphira up against the wall with her hooves around Saphira's neck.
"No! This is not how this ends! And we are not giving up on our boy,"Celestia made something clear as she held onto the woman tight,"You are an Equine just like him. If it were you in the same situation, he wouldn't let any pony kill you. So we…are not…killing him!"
"Then he will kill you…! Judging by how fast that infection is spreading, he'll be gone within two days,"Saphira decided to shock them with some more heavy truth about the dark magic,"Then he'll be one of them…! He'll kill everything and every pony that stands in the way of the dark one's vision for this world…!"
"You humans must have a way! You must! You worked with magic as well, you even had your own gods!"Celestia decided to pry for information about the cultures of the Equine.
"The gods forsaken us the moment my uncle began to purge us into darkness,"Saphira ranted and slowly gripped Celestia's hooves to start forcing her off,"Myridium violated the divine rite of purity the gods gave him, and they never spoke to us since his fall…"
Slowly, the woman began to push Celestia's hooves off her neck and over power her. She bent the hooves back, and moved the both of them away from the wall, Celestia fought for control. Once she had taken control, she simply threw the Alicorn down to her left, trying to knock some sense into the Alicorn.
"I don't want this for the boy either! I saw far too many innocent humans die as a little girl,"Saphira decided to make it clear that she never wanted this to happen to a kid that proved to have a good heart,"But no magic of a mortal or even immortals like you will work, and the only thing that could left all of us to our fate once we had spit all over what they gave us!"
Celestia panted, no longer possessing the strength to fight with the woman any more. Saphira was tired as well, but her heavy heart kept her going as she looked to the boy. Remembering the help and spirit he tried to share with her, hoping to show new hope for their Equine race. Now it seemed that it was all in vain, and now the race was inevitably going to die with Aiden.
"I'm… I'm so sorry…"She apologized, and decided that it was a good time to leave.
All was quiet, as Saphira left the adults to their grief and exited the room. The door closed gently behind her, before she found herself between the two brothers that were worried sick for Aiden. She sighed, knowing that the news she had was not going go well with the guards. Thankfully at the very least, she didn't need to tell them too much, Celestia inadvertently did it for her. As they suddenly heard the outburst of crying and screams of grief from the royal sisters, it didn't sound good.
Such grief was unheard of, not since the banishment of princess Luna could such sorrow be heard from the princess of day. They looked at each other, and then to Saphira for some answers. She didn't want to say what she had explained to the royal family, but they were Aiden's friends.
"There's not much I can do for him… He's infected with the darkness that consumed my father and the other Equines,"She kept her eyes forward, but explained the situations to the twins,"In perhaps two days, he'll be a creature like the rest of them, and Myridium will take him back to the Empire…"
"We can't let that happen…! You know we can't."Haze pushed the idea f not giving up once again to Saphira.
"There's gotta be something we can do. A cleansing, a holy exorcist, harmonic purification?"Faze listed the ideas of what they could do to save Aiden.
"Ugh…! I already told them! The only ones that could help us, left the world the moment we violated their blessings,"Saphira suddenly snapped at them in a rage, feeling a bit of responsibility for what was happening,"There's nothing we can do! The boy is doomed to be one of those creatures unless they're willing to put him down!"
"We're not going with that option…! Try again, lady."Haze warned that killing Aiden was already off the table.
"Who are the ones that can help us?"Faze questioned, picking up on what she spoke of in her rant.
"It doesn't matter…!"She tried to blow off the conversation and go back to her room.
The twins shot looks to each other and nodded, if she wasn't going to talk, they were gonna make her. So Faze was trusted with the spell to her necklace, and decided to finally use it. With a glow of his horn, the necklace's gem stones glowed in the same color as his magic. Before it instantly began to constrict around her neck, stopping the woman in her place and making her struggle with breathing. She fell to her knees, and tried gripping at the necklace as it squeezed at her neck.
For a whole five seconds, they let her take in that necklace's punishment for ignoring them. They were quick to release her from the grasp of magic, and gave her five seconds to recollect herself. As angry as she was, after the conduct and the punishment for her irrational quitting, it was best not to get hostile with the ones that controlled her necklace.
"It does matter, now who can possibly reverse this?!"Faze demanded answers while Saphira looked to them with a glare and silence.
"Rrrrrgh…! The old gods! The gods that made us and the ponies many millenniums ago,"She said in a low tone to hide her anger for the sudden force for an answer,"But the dark one spat upon their blessings at the shrine itself and they in return, left us to our demise…!"
"That doesn't mean they won't hear our pleas if we get Aiden to this shrine."Haze suggested, as if they already had their plan for trying to reverse the infection.
"And Aiden has yet to ever do anything wrong to your old gods. For all you know, they were the ones behind his birth!"Faze explained Aiden's importance, and the chances they had.
"They forsaken all of us. Not just the ones that sinned, you stupid, hopeless, truth ignorant ponies,"Saphira snapped once more in a moment of rage, just wanting to shut these troubles out,"The boy has next to no chance! Just accept it! We were not meant to be your human saviors you all worshiped us to be! We're here to suffer for all of our mistakes while all of you learn never to do what we did, get it?!"
The twins were wide eye, but it was not from the woman's second fit of rage. She didn't realize it till she heard the shudders and sharp breaths, but they were not alone in the hallway. Once Saphira picked up on the breathing and shudders, she was slow to calm down before she heard it more clearly. The woman slowly turned around, and there she saw the last pony she wanted listening in on the issue. Flurry Heart herself, she was shuddering and struggling to grasp what she had heard.
Aiden was getting wrote off, they actually believed there was no hope for him. This was too much to accept, Aiden's fate could not just be sealed like that, not after what he did for Twilight. She needed to see Aiden,she needed to be by his side and try to support him, block out all the doubt with his comfort. So she ran forth and knocked aside Saphira on her way to the bedroom. She burst through the door, and entered a time of grieving for the adults over the struggle with Aiden.
They all lifted their heads in shock, struggling to hide their tears from the daughter of love. But she already heard it all from Saphira, there was no hiding the troubling news any more. Cadence manage to dry her eyes and attempt to block Aiden off from her, hoping to ensure all was well.
"Sweetie…! I know you want to check on Aiden… But everything is going to be ok,"Cadence insisted all was fine, while the other adults tried to hide their sorrows,"He just needs to rest for a bit, and aunt Twilight will come over an-"
Flurry Heart shook her head and bolted towards the bed, nudging Cadence aside. She scrambled up and onto the bed where she got a look at the boy's condition, and it was hard to look at. The grotesque growth of the demon skin forming all over his arm, the claws, the darkness filling his right eye. All he could do was breath and pant like a wounded animal struggling to stay alive. At least until both eyes slowly spotted Flurry approaching, looking sad and even a bit terrified.
He barely understood what was happening to him, it was like he was very sick, but he was almost asleep. He could just barely see the real world before him, but Flurry was that little bit of reality he could see. And it made him worried sick, he wanted to comfort her, but he had little to no control of his body.
"Aiden…? Can you hear me…? Please…tell me you're still there…!"She tried to speak to him, her voice merely came off as an echo in the darkness that slowly began to close in around his mind.
"Flurry…! He needs rest. Aiden's not feeling very good, and he needs Twilight's help to get better…"Shining Armor was next to attempt some reasoning with the filly.
"Aiden…! Don't let the monsters take you…"Aiden gasped at her plea, and it triggered a response from Aiden.
He gave out a sickly deep breath, and struggled to lift his left hand that remained incorrupted. It trembled and weakly reached for the filly, and barely managed to grasp at her shoulder. Her words reminded him of the nightmare he was in, one that was different from the ones he endured before. And only her face, and the peering tearful eyes of his mothers were the only things keeping him fighting. But the darkness was proving to be just as full of fight as he was, so he could not beat this thing alone.
"Flurry…"His lips manage to utter the name of the filly he grew to love, even as voices of death and blood whispered around him.
She heard his name, and tears began to well up in her eyes to see him in such a state. She dropped to her belly, and crawled up to his side while his eyes kept a sharp watch on her. His breathing began to shudder, as he struggled to resist the urges that whispered in his head to slaughter Flurry on the spot. His hand merely trembled even more so as he managed to move it up to her cheek. Where he could caress it and wipe away a tear with his thumb, her love being his only treatment for this affliction.
Quite the heavy episode, wouldn't you all agree? Aiden's in quite the nightmarish state, a state that many Equines have suffered through before, tragically enough. Now it's up to the ponies to save the boy once again, not just from the darkness, but from his own darkness no less. Will they succeed? You'll just have to stick around and find out. Stay pony every one.
