PyraohXBlaze - Oh, I'm sure Derpy will be just fine; Twilight though... we'll just have to wait and see what's up with her ;)
xXMidnightShadow99Xx - Thanks for your understanding; it can be stressful when people continually ask why I don't update more often.
DragonLovingBrony (Ch75) - Lol. Oh, we haven't seen the last of this place just yet...
DragonLovingBrony (Ch74) - That's always a good way to look at it ;)
Chaos Stripe - Oh come now, when is it ever that simple? Besides, Blake can't just eat the flower, now he has to take it back to Zecora so she can make it into medicine for him, remember?
PBJFanFiction - Oh, I could've found a better way, but I've had Falathiel planned out since before I even started writing chapter 1, over a year and a half ago
landmoverman - Wow! I wish I had time to respond to all of your reviews! Sadly though, time is limited for me, so I'll have to settle for the top three. And to set the record straight; I am, in fact, a dude
landmoverman (Ch75) - Lol I actually forgot about that Uruk-hai to be honest... I actually have read a number of other fics on here, though I can't say I'm familiar with that one. I'll have to find time to give it a look, though I'm with you on not being a huge fan of swearing in stories.
landmoverman (Ch55) - I would apologize... but your tears mean that I'm doing my job right ;)
landmoverman (Ch16) - Lol yeah, I do have a lot of fun writing the CMC... And I agree, I wish she got more screentime, though I liked how the episode 'Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep' focused almost entirely on her. I was also glad to see her and Celestia acting like actual sisters in 'Slice of Life'
FusionBlitz - Hmm... might be interseting... guess we'll just have to wait and see what's really up with Twi as well as his leg, won't we?
MortBlackthorn - Lol. What can I say? Blake's had enough of this place and all of its shit.
Kyguy - Yeah, we humans can be dicks, can't we?
Ponified Bacon Boss - It looks like you're only one of two people that actually left a vote, and thanks for taking the time to give me feedback on it too. And wouldn't we all like an awesome sword like that?
xel101 - Hmm... Falathiel and the Sword of Omens... now that could make for an awesome crossover!
darksoul78 - Why thank you! I think having a bit of a background in both swordplay and unarmed combat help there though
YvngMask - Yay! :D
Mikalzilla - Eeyup...
TurnupGrain43 - They may have the flower, but they still need to get out of the place...
DragonLord RyuKizoku - What about two badass 'talking' swords?
DarkwolfLord - Hmm... that would certainly be a nice touch, wouldn't it?
Zero the Warrior of Chaos - Lol ok Cooler :P The concept is way older than Soul Edge, but you're right; it's not common enough to be cliche by any means. Yeah... but, you know what they say about hindsight; it's always 20/20
KillerWoW - Y'know... I really should be yelling at Pinkie for leaving again, but seeing as how she and most of the rest of the cast haven't been in the story lately, I think I can forgive her... as long as she bakes me cupcakes (and doesn't bake me into cupcakes...)
centaurus2 (Ch74) - Lol right?
centaurus2 (Ch73) - It does seem more efficient, doesn't it? At least as long as they're asleep, and Luna is involved to make it happen
centaurus2 (Ch72) - but is there something more behind that harshness...?
A/N - Howdy everypony! It's been an emotional ride through this adventure, hasn't it? Well fortunately, it seems our hero is almost done with this place, so hopefully he can go home and be with his family... right? I wanted to thank everyone who voted on my poll, and gave feedback in reviews and PMs. With all that in mind, I'm going to go with the group and start writing the first part of the mini series. The stories therein won't be canon with A Second Chance, so If you don't like that kind of 'hardcore' stuff, you won't have any obligations to read it. For those who do want to read it, I expect to have the first part up either next Tuesday or the one after. As always, don't forget to follow/favorite, review, and most importantly; enjoy!
It took a bit of planning, and a lot more time with the new language barrier we now faced, but Quickhoof and I managed to map a route through the outpost, as Spring Leaf had called it, that lead to the two rooms we needed to go to without hitting a single trapped room along the way.
Part of me still felt bad for Spring Leaf and her friends, and the millennia of torture they were forced to endure guarding this place, and even though I knew I had given her what she had asked me for, I still hated myself for killing her like that. Now that she was gone, my mind kept reeling with 'what ifs', like 'what if the Princesses could somehow revive her, like they did me', or 'what if killing her only traded this Hell for another one'.
I shook my head as I walked, trying to clear my mind of the depressing thoughts, but they still lingered. "It's best that you don't dwell on it too much, Bearer… you gave her what she wanted, and that's the best you could have done. I could have stopped you if I didn't think it was right, but I didn't, did I?"
I sighed as we turned into yet another boring room. "You're right… but that doesn't stop me from questioning if there was more I could have done, or if I could have done it differently altogether."
"And that sentimentality is the very reason I chose you to bear me; yours is a heart that wishes for peace and happiness for all living beings, and you will strive to attain that goal and question any decision you make that you can't fully prove to yourself was the best you could have made… That being said, thinking like that all the time will only serve to drive you insane. Remember; you have a preternaturally long life ahead of you now, so you must learn to take that into consideration when dealing with death."
I didn't respond after that, preferring instead to just think. We wound our way through the corridors and rooms of the outpost, and eventually made our way to what had obviously been the library; there were half-crumbled books and book-sized piles of dusk strewn across the many shelves of the place, but amongst the ruin, the occasional book survived, either by luck or magic. I couldn't help but feel a little sorry that so much of this ancient knowledge had been lost, but at the same time, knowing what the former residents had done, I knew it was likely for the best.
Falathiel had told me what I needed to say to Quickhoof in order to describe the book we were looking for to him, and I did my best to repeat the phrases and describe the books we needed to find to him. It seemed that he had understood what Spring Leaf and her companions had been saying, even without the necklace, so things went fairly smoothly. We searched the place up and down for the book of lore, which fortunately didn't take incredibly long thanks to the lack of intact books to search through.
Quickhoof and I had split up, taking different areas of the library in order to get this thing over with so we could get out of here. I had tried opening a few of the books, but quickly found most of them to be too brittle to do so safely, crumbling into dust as soon as they left their ancient resting place.
I was in the middle of trying to gently brush some dust off of one book's spine in order to see if Falathiel could tell me what the words on the spine said when I heard Quickhoof call out form relatively close by. I made my way over to him and saw that he was holding a relatively large book in his front hooves. He held the book out for me to take, and when I wrapped my hands around it to do so, I could instantly feel that this was the right book; the soft, smooth texture of leather was unmistakable.
I opened the book, but as I expected, the pages appeared blank to me. "It would appear that this is indeed the book that Spring Leaf spoke of. Now that we've confirmed that she was telling the truth, I suggest we find the other book and leave; who knows what killing its guardians may have done to the magic that sustains this place." I gave a slight nod to her, and gestured to Quickhoof to follow me to the Commander's quarters so we could look for the spellbook that Spring Leaf had talked about.
After another round of wandering through the twisting, turning halls and empty rooms, we finally came to what appeared to be our destination; a large, iron-wrought wooden door; the first real door we had seen in this place.
I reached out and placed my hand gingerly on the metal ring that served as the door's handle. The metal still seemed in mint condition; no pitting or signs of rust were evident across the entire surface of the metal. "I wonder why certain places and things in this place are protected by magic, and others aren't…" Falathiel didn't say anything, but something tingled in my head, something that I could oddly enough tell was the sentient sword giving me a mental shrug.
I was nervous that the place might somehow be trapped in a way that didn't show up on the map, but I knew we had to go in there if we were going to get that book. I took a breath to steady myself and gestured for Quickhoof to move to the side, out from in front of the door as I readied to do the same. I heaved the door open, which swung inwards with little effort, and flung myself off to the side in a dive, making my best effort to avoid anything that might have come flying at me from the other side.
I stood up and rubbed my sore shoulder, watching for something to happen. After what I guessed to be around a minute of waiting, I finally hazarded a peek into the room. I looked around from the relative safety of the doorway, but didn't see any hint of traps inside the room. I took a tentative step inside, and actually started looking at the details of my surroundings. The first word that came to my mind to describe the place was 'decadence'; I honestly didn't think that even Celestia and Luna had fineries like what surrounded me in their bedrooms. There was a tapestry with metal filigree woven in, though I couldn't make out what, if anything it was supposed to depict, the bed was a canopy bed with what felt like silk being used for the canopy material, and there were dozens of other trinkets besides the tapestry, all likely souvenirs of this place's conquests.
I felt revulsion starting to well up inside me as I looked around at these spoils of war, and thought about what the poor ponies that had owned them had gone through when their homes were invaded. I did my best not to think about how many innocent lives were taken in the name of 'conquest', but the thoughts seeped in anyway, and I was glad that my kind has disappeared when they did; who knows what kind of harm they would have done if they hadn't vanished into thin air.
I was drawn back to reality by a hoof poking my side, and I became aware that Quickhoof was speaking to me. "He's asking if you're alright; you've been standing in one spot for nearly five minutes."
"Oh… um, right… Let's get to finding that other book then."
"It would appear that your companion has already found it."
I looked over to Quickhoof, who was standing next to a desk, holding what was obviously a book in his hoof. When I focused my aurasight on the thing, I could just make out the slightly uneven texture of a pony's fur cover covering the book.
"Well I'll be damned… We went looking for those books for me to have, and I didn't find either of them…"
I patted Quickhoof on the shoulder and accepted the other book when he offered it, stowing it in the pocket of my knapsack that had the other book, which was separate from the pocket I had stored the flower in to keep them away from the plant's potent toxin. I turned towards the door and gestured for him to lead the way back out of this place, so we could both get back to our lives.
We made good speed back through the next set of hallways, and I dismissed the markers and orbs lighting the rooms I had made as we passed them by, glad that we finally didn't need them anymore. We decided to take a short break in the shrine room and I asked the magical structure to make us a relatively quick-to-eat meal of grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, and ice-cold root beer floats as a small celebratory gesture for finding the flower and conquering all of the temple's trials save the one we had yet to face.
Quickhoof stopped suddenly at a doorway, and I nearly toppled over him. "Hey, what gives?!" I remembered too late that he couldn't understand me anymore.
The stallion turned and said something to me. "He says 'this is where the stone ponies rest'. I believe he is referring to statues of ponies."
I felt a chill run down my spine. "Yeah, we passed through this room on the way in… the exit isn't far, but the map I got from that shrine marks this as a trapped room. Weird that we didn't run into anything on the way through the first time though…"
Quickhoof cocked an eyebrow at me, and I realized I was talking to Falathiel out loud again. "It's possible that this room was meant to be a final countermeasure to prevent people from leaving this place."
I groaned under my breath. "Great… that means that whatever is in here is probably more dangerous than anything else we've faced so far… and we almost died more than once in this hellhole."
"This is true, but that was before you had me to aid you."
Despite the situation, I actually chuckled at the remark. "You've got a lot of sass in you for an ancient and sacred weapon…"
I got the distinct impression that she was mentally glaring at me, though I didn't have long to guess why. "Don't you know it's impolite to remind a woman of her age?"
"Heh heh… whoops, sorry. Anyway, we probably shouldn't delay this any longer; I've had enough of this place for about a dozen lifetimes… and I do mean my lifetimes…" Falathiel didn't say anything, but I got the impression she agreed with me.
I patted Quickhoof on the shoulder and beckoned the stallion to lead the way since he could still see further than I could. He set a hoof into the room, head on a swivel for anything trying to leap out at him in the massive gallery. When nothing leapt out at him, he took another step in and started walking along towards the doorway at the other side.
I froze partway through the room as something caught my attention. "What is it Bearer?"
I nodded in the direction of a set of statues off to our left. "Those statues were on our left when we came in… which means they should be on our right now…"
I noticed that Quickhoof had stopped too, and was inspecting the statues as well. He turned back to me and beckoned me forward, but I was frozen in place; the statues had changed somehow, like they were suddenly less substantial, and they were moving!
I shouted to the warrior and pointed to the statues as they closed on us, looking like they meant to converge on Quickhoof, and right as he looked back to them, they froze in place, becoming instantly solid again. He stared at them for several seconds while I listened to the sound of my heart beating, the sound was nearly deafening as blood pulsed through my veins. I couldn't believe my eyes; the very creatures I had been describing in a ghost story to Twilight and Applejack were poised to strike the instant Quickhoof took his eyes off them.
I wanted to warn him to not so much as blink, but since the amulets were gone, I had no way of telling him, nor did Falathiel have time to tell me what I needed to say to get the message across.
My legs were already in motion by the time I came to the decision of what I needed to do, carrying me towards the stallion even as he looked back to me a second time. I watched through my aurasight as the statues went into motion once again, faster this time than they were before, the lead one lunging towards Quickhoof in an attempt to grab him.
I could tell that the angel would get to Quickhoof before I did, so I did the first thing that came to my mind; I wound my arm back and hurled Falathiel at the lead angel. My haste had thrown my aim off, and it looked like I was going to miss the creature, but Falathiel corrected her trajectory as she flew, aiming right for the monster's head.
I was only mildly surprised when I saw her sail straight through the thing's head, but my desperate plan worked; she had distracted the angel statue and given me the time I needed to tackle Quickhoof and get him clear of them, at least for the moment. I rolled with the landing and got to my feet, dragging Quickhoof with me as I went.
I felt a twinge in my mind and held out my hand reflexively, catching Falathiel by the hilt before I had even realized that the twinge was her signaling me to do so. I pointed to Quickhoof and then to the exit, signaling to him that we should make a break for it rather than stay and fight. In the time that it took him to recover and look ahead again, the creatures had appeared in front of us, moving so fast now that it was hard to properly follow them.
The two of us made a break for it, moving around either side of the group of statues and heading towards the exit at top speed. I pushed my legs as fast as the armor would allow, which drove me to speeds beyond what a human should have been capable of thanks to the enhanced strength and speed the armor provided me. It was only when I started my flight from the temple that I even remembered that I had never dismissed my armor from the fight with the shadow-bones earlier in the day.
I kept my aurasight focused solely on the open doorway, the only exit to this nightmarish place, and kept running. I could hear my own ragged breathing, my footfalls on the floor, and Quickhoof's own heavy hoof-falls as he ran behind me.
I ran through the remainder of the art room, out and into the first real room, where we had first faced Spring Leaf and her friends, before they had absorbed the magic of the other creatures we had defeated and grown stronger. I cleared that room in record time and entered the entrance hallway; I could actually feel the daylight ahead of me with my aurasight, and I pushed my tired body on harder, determined not to let those nightmares catch me and take me away from my girls.
With a last-ditch burst of speed, I charged through the entrance to the temple and out into the warm, welcoming daylight once more. I was glad for once that I couldn't see; the light would probably have blinded me after so long in a dark environment like that. I turned around and searched for Quickhoof, but a tight ball of horror formed in my chest when I instead saw only the angels, all posed in recoiling stances just inside the entrance to the temple.
I suddenly realized that they were in their solid, statue-like form, which meant that someone was looking at them. I turned around and saw the most beautiful thing I had ever seen; my two girls, both standing there, only meters behind me with tears streaming down their faces as the entire Kokello village watched from the treeline.
I took a few staggering steps towards them, dismissing my armor and dropping Falathiel before crashing to my knees in an exhausted heap and throwing my arms around the girls as my chest heaved between them. "They… they got him… those monsters got Quickhoof…"
The two of them hugged me tighter, and Applejack started whispering into my ear. "Shh… It's alright Sugarcube; he got ta go out like a warrior, just like he wanted, so's there's nothin' ta feel sorry about now…"
Something about what she'd said caused something to click inside my mind. "No… I don't think he did…" I watched as Chief Wanate approached us in his calm, slightly hobbled gait. "Did he Wanate… or should I call you 'Quickhoof'?" I could feel the girls swivel their heads around to look at the Kokello Chieftain.
The elder stallion smirked at me. "You are wise indeed, Negara; I was merely steps behind you when one of those stone Negara touched me…" He popped his hip, causing the robe he was wearing to shift to the side and reveal a scar on his flank identical to the wounds Quickhoof had received from the monsters with the acidic blood.
Twilight and Applejack both gasped. "But… how's that even possible!? Unless… unless those shadow-bones monsters somehow listened to Blake's story and made those weeping statues real!"
Wanate, or Quickhoof, whichever was his real name, shook his head. "I do not know; in all my years of asking the spirits, I never received an answer as to what made those monsters in the temple."
"So, why didn't y'all just tell us from tha beginin' then?"
Wanate turned and beckoned us to follow. "Because the spirits did not tell me what made the monsters of the temple… they did tell me that I must not reveal my true self to you until you had left the temple."
I smirked at the elderly stallion. "I guess that's why you're speaking our language better now, isn't it?"
"Yes. The spirits told me that if I spoke as I do now, that you might become suspicious, so I disguised the way I speak to keep that from happening. They would not tell me why you could not know that my true name is Quickhoof however." Quickhoof led the way into his tent once again, and the four of us sat down in a ring around the small fire pit. "When the stone Negara touched me, something strange happened; you disappeared and the lights you had made disappeared. The monster let me go, and-"
"Let me guess; long story short, you ended up sometime in the past and managed to convince the tribe to let you join before you eventually became its Chief."
Quickhoof nodded. "Yes… but how did you know that…"
I let out a sigh. "Because I told a ghost story to these two just a few days ago that involved those very monsters. I don't know how they got into the temple though; the only thing I can come up with is that Spring Leaf and her friends overheard the story and somehow brought the story to life."
Applejack turned to me. "Now just hang on a sec… who the hay is this 'Spring Leaf' pony, and how do y'all know 'er?"
I felt my heart sink as I recalled the event. "She was one of the shadow-bones. She and her friends were part of a squadron of ponies that attacked this place a long, long time ago, and when they failed, the ancient humans that lived there turned her and her friends into the monsters they were when we saw them, forcing them to guard the temple…"
Twilight gasped. "That's terrible! What did you do?"
"Well, her friends attacked me, and after I took care of them, their magic flowed into her, giving her the strength to resist the spells forcing her to attack me… or at least I would guess that's what happened. She told me her story and asked me to end her misery… so I did, using Falathiel."
"Who?" The girls' voices were almost perfectly in unison,
"There's a lot to tell girls, but right now I just want to relax and try to forget about that whole ordeal…"
Applejack nodded. "That sounds fair ta me Sugarcube… tain't like we're gonna be hurtin fer time ta talk on tha way back ta Ponyville after all."
There was a sound outside the tent, and Quickhoof called out, seemingly beckoning someone inside. A colt stepped through the tent's flap, probably only halfway through his teens, with something slung across his back. I knew immediately what he was carrying, even before I focused my aurasight enough to see it clearly. Quickhoof nodded to me and the colt laid my sword in front of me before backing out of the tent, bowing low the entire way.
I picked up the sheathed blade and set her in my lap before grasping bot the hilt and scabbard. With a quick tug, the blade popped free from its protective covering. "That was perfect timing… girls, I'd like you to meet Falathiel."
They stared at the blade as it likely gleamed even what I imagined to be the dim lighting of the tent. "Wh… when did y'all decide ta name yer sword Sugarcube?"
I shook my head at her. "I didn't name her AJ, she already had a name…"
Twilight opened her mouth and started to say something, but Falathiel levitated herself out of my lap, freeing herself the rest of the way from her sheath as she went. Her blade began to hum, and the vibrations soon reshaped themselves into a distinctly feminine voice. "It is true; my Bearer did not name me. My name was given to me when I was created, many thousand years ago. How I originally came to be in his possession is a tale more complicated than what you know, and how I came to be in his possession now is a result of the bond I have been subtly forging with him that warned me of his imminent peril." She slid her sheath back onto her blade and floated back into my lap while I stared at her, too dumbstruck to ask how she had done that when she had told me that I was the only one she could directly communicate with.
Both Twilight and Applejack were dumbstruck by the newest revelation, and could only stare silently. Quickhoof, who had been silent during the display, clapped his hooves together. Mere moments later, a young filly entered the tent and he gave her instructions in their language. "Now that the danger has passed, I believe it is time to properly address your wounds; I have sent for the shaman to tend to you so that you may heal properly."
I bowed gratefully to the elder stallion. "Thank you Quic- err… Wanate… I'm sure I could use a change of bandages at the very least."
Twilight broke herself from her stupor with a shake of her head. "What 'wounds'?! Why didn't you tell us you were hurt… in there…" Twilight suddenly seemed very unsteady, and Applejack grabbed her by the shoulders to steady her.
"Easy there Sugarcube, y'all're still a might under the weather, so ya just take it easy fer now…"
"What happened AJ, is Twilight sick?"
Applejack nodded. "'Fraid so Sweetheart'… we had a bit of a spat while y'all were still in that Celestia-forsaken temple, and she ended up sleepin out in tha cold on accident."
"'M fine… really… I jus' need s' more cookies mommy…" I placed my hand on her forehead, and pulled back almost immediately; her fur was soaked, and the skin beneath was as cold as ice.
