Chapter Nine: Beside Herself
They sat on a carpet of dry leaves back to back. Looking into each other's eyes felt like looking into an infinite tunnel, like two mirrors reflecting back and forth or two cameras filming one another. Hex raised her right arm and looked at the back of her hand. Her tap glove was gone, along with fifty percent of her clothing, yet she could still feel it. Without warning, her arm was pulled down by something more felt than seen.
Bless huffed out her frustration as she forced her right hand down. She could feel Hex inside her and against her back. In an odd way she was free of that cocky part of her and yet still tied to her. She could feel that disturbingly cool headed logic as the dark mare tried to make sense of their situation.
Alloy slowly walked around the odd twins and observed them closely. They looked like living puppets being controlled by one puppet master. Bless turned her head clockwise to look at the green dragon and Hex turned her head clockwise, then back to look at her as well.
The short dragon stepped closer, her brown eyes flicking between the two.
"What are you?"
Both voices spoke in unison.
"My name is Arcane. No, I'm Arcane."
They paused and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Hex spoke and introduced herself with Bless following behind. Hex elected herself to speak for both, her shy counterpart didn't argue.
"I… we are still just a single Mundane Equis. I can still hear her thoughts, feel her as if I'm sitting in her place."
Alloy gave a soft nod as she looked over to Bless and back to Hex. She crouched down and pinched Hex's arm. Bless yelped.
"You can't feel that?"
Hex gave a shrug, "Yeah, it hurt. There wasn't any point in making a noise."
The green dragon narrowed her eyes and raised her right eyebrow.
"And you do realize I'm a dragon, right?"
Hex gave a little nod, "My counterpart is terrified, but you haven't given us reason to worry. You could have left us to be Timberwolf food, yet here we are."
"Why did you.. I admit that?"
Bless grumbled out quietly.
"Because it's the truth and we need her help if we are to survive wherever the hell this place is.", Hex shot back.
Alloy stood up again and looked about. Bless could tell this was the last place this dragon wanted to be. The sun was blood red yet not brilliant enough to fully light the sky. Edges of black bordered the horizon and traces of starlight could be seen opposite it. In the ruddy orange-brown of early dusk the moon hovered in an utterly ravaged state. Slate grey dust trailed behind three large hunks of lunar dirt with hints of a once-complete sphere.
"Where are we?"
The dragon looked over at Bless to answer the quietly voice question. She hesitated. Bless often spoke so softly that people mistook a direct question for her simply thinking out loud.
"This is my 'Equestria'. We call it 'Dagon'."
Alloy spread her arms and directed the twins to look at the skeletal forest about her. Massive dead trees stood on the banks of dry river beads. Littered around were the pulverized and barely visible foundations of buildings long since leveled.
"We are currently in the 'EverFierce', a cursed land made when my Celestia destroyed our elements in a mad attempt to free her banished sister. As you can see, it didn't work out."
"What happened to her sister?"
Alloy pointed up to what was once a moon.
"Hard to say, probably floating away into the void. Trust me, the only one that would mourn her is the queen herself." Alloy then turned her eyes to Hex. "Correction, you are terrified."
Hex tilted her head.
"What?"
"That weird rock split you in two, but you're still just one being. If she's afraid, then so are you. You just can't feel it, or you're holding it back."
Hex went silent as she leaned forward and raised to her hooves. She looked deep in thought as she bent down and picked up the sphere. Bless followed behind and looked over her darker half curiously, her blue eyes weary.
"That's an interesting way of putting it, "Hex spoke while still looking over the stone. "I guess it's always been like that. I suppose the element of Contrition just wanted to make that… more literal."
"Element of Contrition? Seriously?"
Bless said unimpressed.
"I'm not the part of us that's good with names, give me a break.", Hex said with a smirk as she tossed the stone over her shoulder, Bless catching it as if the two planned the exchange.
"You two stay here for a bit. I'll be right back."
The short dragon turned away and walked in the direction Arcane tumbled from. A large tree with small green buds on its otherwise bear branches grew around the wooden frame of a standing mirror, or was once the frame of the standing mirror. Alloy spoke more of that odd growling hiss language. The silver surface shimmered and Alloy stepped in. Several minutes later she came back with two pairs of old dusty trousers and plain undershirts. She threw the clothes at Hex and Bless.
"Get dressed, your cocks are out and I'm not taking you to Queen Luna like that."
Hex's eyes went wide, "Luna?"
Bless squeaked, "My what is what!"
-
The museum foyer was a mess of driftwood and small green insects by the time it was all over. Seven black birds of prey larger than some beasts of burden walked about like modern day dinosaurs as they picked off smaller members of the pack.
One of the creatures rushed over to a glass display case laying on its side, the cracked glass opaque with centuries of grime. Its large black beak tossed the case in the air effortlessly as something squirmed away. The creature lunged with its large taloned foot and pinned the small Timberwolf in place. Pleading yelps echoed the stone walls as driftwood and the eerie insects that animated it flew in every direction.
Birds of much smaller sizes closed in on the slaughter and cleaned the ground of any insects they could catch until the floors were practically clean.
The creatures turned as one towards the front doors slowly swung open. Clip-clip-taping echoed as Ravencroft made his way in. He leaned on his cane a little less than when observed by others. His pace was just a little more sure than he ever wanted them to know.
His mirthless eyes looked up at his pets and gave a weak smile as his free hand raised up. The closest beast lowered their beak and nuzzled his quivering hand.
"Such a good little BugBeak. Are you getting along with Cyclops?"
The bird made a mournful little churl.
"Oh, dear. Better to have love and lost than to never love at all. I'm sure you'll find a mate one day.", his attention shifted to the large room itself, "Piccolo, darling?"
His shout was answered by a tiny section of marble along a high wall. The stone texture grew feathery and shifted into a vibrant purple. Little wings fluttered as fast as a hummingbird but without the slightest sound. It darted faster than the naked eye could track and came to a hovering stop before Ravencroft.
"My little hidden eyes, you did so well.", the old mundane slid a hand into his long black coat and produced a small pile of little transparent seeds which were pregnant with shugary nectar. The little bird hovered down to peck the treat, its color-shifting feathers mimicking the black of RavenCroft's fur.
He waited patiently for his pet to finish their meal before continuing down the leftmost corridor. Through the tiny spy's eyes he saw everything, perhaps more than he ever wanted to. Things he certainly agreed was none of his business. Most importantly, however, he saw the mirror.
He pulled out a monocle next. The eyepiece had a thick frame with a glass fuse the size of a grain of rice. He tapped it against the mirror's frame before hovering it in front of her left eye. Through the lense was Arcane's world, the hidden layers of magic. Ravencroft couldn't read the lines the same way, but at least he could do it without a debilitating migraine. He looked over intersecting lines and odd symbols closely. He frowned.
"Why Dagon of all places?" His eyes searched elsewhere along the mirror for the other location recently accessed. A conjunction of lines had glyphs hovering near them, ancient Equis by the look of it. He read the words out loud. Thankfully his accent was clear enough for the mirror to hear.
The mirror flashed before his reflection was replaced by a dark chamber. Stepping into the chamber felt horrible. The small domed room had no doors and thin stale air. It wasn't meant to be entered for long, or perhaps meant to be entered once and never entered again. The air pressure was high as if a great deal of earth was over the chamber, its location perhaps a kilometer below the surface.
He could make out seven peditals in the dim room, one empty. He neared the first of six spheres and picked it up. It made no sound but he swore it was growling. Despite being inanimate, he felt the deepest and most sincere amount of hate from this rock.
"Sorrow, rage, rebellion, guile, fear, and spite. Six shadows for six lights. Should they burn too bright that our souls ignite; From deathly mania, our cold respite."
He drank in the stone's anger as he spoke and remembered that benevolent Draconic face, that deep conviction and compassionate blue eyes. So holy, and yet in that light his citizens were marked and made lame. Was she, in her own mind, a protagonist? Was her intentions pure yet so blinded to the point of madness? To Mania?
His hand quivered as fingers tightened about the round grey stone. Cracks formed in the rough stone sphere as a prismatic light grew bright under his coat just about the shoulder blade. The light became smoke as he squeezed with Mundane strength. The pop of a glass fuse made the spot twitch, then burn black as a sickly green and violet ejecta bubbled and slowly evaporated from the frayed fabric. The sphere cracked and poured out in dusty fragments. All that remained was a hexagonal gem, an amethyst so plum-colored it bordered on black.