Footsteps echoed through the long stairway as three ponies went down to the sub-basement. The stairway was dark, yet the way wasn't entirely pitch black. The walls were covered in the faint glow of stones that gave off just enough light to see where they were stepping but not enough to see the end.
They came upon wall blocking their path. Just like the first wall, this one had a gem on it, though it was a different design. Topaz Silk placed her hand over the picture and the gem in the picture glowed brightly, the centipede symbol on her hand followed. The wall opened to reveal a room full of machinery that seemed far too advance for this time.
The three walked over to a table and only Topaz Silk took a seat. "Well, was Golden Williams intel correct?"
Rex looked left and right for a moment. When he was certain no snowflakes had followed them he reached into his pocket. "Indeed. But I still don't know why he wants them so badly." He placed the purple agate on the table.
Topaz Silk's reaction was instant as her chair veered back by a few feet and her eyes shrank. "I had hoped he was wrong...Where exactly did you find it?"
"Behind a dark magic wall hidden inside Cassandra's Castle." Clover walked closer to the table and placed her hand on it and pushed it toward the alicorn. "It seems to grow in power from fear." She indicated as the gem let off a small glow the closer it came to the alicorn.
Topaz Silk grabbed her gut and exhaled deeply. The more she calmed her fear away the more the gem's glow faded. "The Wave of Nightmares is one of the legendary Alathar. It has the ability to tap into one's greatest fears."
Rex's eyes narrowed at this. "I know more than anypony of artifacts like this. Now, what does he want with it? You told us he was gathering the Alathar, but not why, nor where they were being held. And because of that, we spent five months on a wild goose chase."
"It is far too early to know what Indigo's true plan is. The Alathar are all very powerful relics that can amplify any form of magic, but most of all they each have their own magic within them that can't be matched… especially when brought together."
"Okay, then can we at least guess what he has planned?" Clover pulled the gem away from Topaz Silk and moved it toward Rex. "We need some sort of path to move. We can't just stand still."
"No, no, no more wild theories. Where are the other Alathar?" Rex slammed his hand down.
"Unfortunately, I don't know." Topaz Silk got up and walked around the table to some of the machines. "However I have a vague idea." She stopped moving and reached into a machine in front of her. She twisted her hand and a wall nearby opened up. Beyond the opening was another wall filled with holes, in each were long scrolls with color handles. "Grab the maroon one."
Clover walked over and pulled out the scroll with the maroon handles while Rex grabbed the gem and put it back up. She brought over it and unrolled it over the table. It was a turquoise colored map with eight maroon marks on it. One of the marks was darker than the rest. "Is this a map for each of the Alathar?"
"Yes and no," Topaz Silk walked back to the table. "You see long ago, an alliance of eight mortal families was made that would hide the Alathar. And that only the families' strongest lines would know where they were. These families were called the Limbs of the Broken One." She reached out her hand and pointed to the darkest mark. "It is powered by dark magic, the brighter the maroon, the greater the chance the family that guards it still resides."
"Hmm, so if we find these family or monuments connected to the family in these areas we could get closer to finding the alathar before Indigo." Rex grabbed the maroon handles of the scroll and rolled it up back up. "Thank you. We have all we need now." He held up the maroon scroll to an opening in one of the scarfs on his arm and it disappeared into the opening's shadow. "Now we must leave."
Topaz Silk stepped to the side and walked over in front of the exit to block them. "Actually you are not going alone this time. Though I don't have any immortals on hand I do have some mortal allies you can take with you."
Rex's eyes narrowed and his arms moved around into a stance. "What allies? We've seen enough death."
Topaz Silk smiled at him. "Strange, you seemed like you wanted allies earlier." She stepped forward and reached out to Rex, placing her hand on the Dark Alicorn Amulet. "Or maybe what you said earlier was advice from something else and you've changed your mind."
Rex stopped at those words and pulled away from her grip. His face covered with sweat and he placed his own hand on the Dark Alicorn Amulet. "No, I changed my mind of my own accord. He had nothing to do with it."
Topaz Silk let a small giggle at his words. "You change your own mind, fine. Then tell me why you wish for no more allies?"
Rex backtracked only to find Clover now standing behind him with just as much if not more curiosity. He gritted his teeth, "I have my reasons. It would be best that no more join us."
Clover raced around until she was in front of him. "Stop lying. You wanted allies before because the choices before were immortal ones weren't they?"
Rex refused to answer her so Clover walked closer to him. She stopped once she saw his look had not changed. Her eyes narrowed and she slapped him across the face.
"I'll give you two a moment." Topaz Silk walked out of the room and onto the stairway.
The room quickly went quiet. The only noise that could be heard was the echoes of the alicorn's footsteps. The narrow look in Clover's eyes faded and a bit of her mane fell in front of them. She stepped a little closer and he took a step back. "Rex? Are you afraid?"
Rex's face fell and he took another much slower step back, "No, why would I ever be afraid?" He grabbed tightly onto the Dark Alicorn Amulet under the scarf. "There is no point to talk about this."
"Yes, there is a point!" Her voice raised as she stepped closer. "You... You haven't shed a single tear for him. "Just like... Just like... when..." She stopped her words as tears formed in her eyes.
He turned away from her. "I can not change any one creature's fate, no matter how many I face."
She grabbed him by one of his scarfs to stop his retreating. "I know you can see their futures, but that doesn't mean you can't change them. It doesn't mean you can't save-"
"I can only protect them." He attempted swatting her hand away. "With this power around my chest."
She gripped tighter and reached around his body with her other hand, placing it on the Dark Alicorn Amulet. "Yes, he gives you what power he can, but you can't rely on immortal power alone."
He exhaled slowly before answering her with a lower tone. "As an immortal... I must rely on immortals," He pulled away completely.
"I… I see." Clover's arms dropped as a single tear fell to the ground.
Tumbles of pony movement waved through the village. Joyousness filling their minds on this Sunday afternoon. Many of them wanted to enjoy this day as much as they could before it could end. Over at a small outside diner, some ponies were even on dates. Some looked really happy, unfortunately, one was not.
"Curse that student of mine!" a loud yell filled the area as Twilight slammed her book.
"I assume... you are done reading? I'm sure… she will be back." Crimson twisted in his chair unable to stand still.
"It's been two full hours. Plus I've read this book 126 times now." Twilight leaned over the table and gestured her hand into a number. "She is up to something, I know it." She threw her arms up in distress. However, she retracted them as the faces of ponies around filled with glares. She took a deep breath and spoke silent sorry to the glares and straighten herself in the chair. She looked to Crimson who was now playing with his food.
Crimson had not even noticed the glares, instead, he listened to each of her words carefully as always.
She put on a brave smile and straighten herself. "Okay, sorry I got sidetracked. You were asking about Ponyville this time right?"
"Yes," his ears went up. "I mean... unless you are more curious about Starlight."
Twilight smiled and reached over with her hand. "Look, I don't mind talking about my homeland while reading. We just needed somewhere to sit while waiting."
He smiled at that answer and his shyness did weaken as well as he turned to face her. "Okay, you were talking about how your castle formed?" He faced her properly and she pulled her hand away.
"Oh, yeah. it happened through a ridiculous fight with a centaur and the crazy use of a box that popped out of the Tree of Harmony." Twilight seemed to be skimming through details rather fast today. "Really... what proved to be the biggest moment of this was that I came to understand the ideals of friendship better than I ever thought."
"Really?" His eyes wandered to his bowtie for a rather long moment. He exhaled deeply and looked back up to Twilight and slowly reached over with his hand. "Yeah, such an ideal does have it's power-"
Twilight jumped back inadvertently and interrupted him. "Yet not strong enough to stop Starlight from…" She stopped and huffed before crossing her arms and sat back. "Hmp, I may just push her training harder tomorrow."
"Hmm... why do you train her anyway?" His voice dropped the moment Twilight's hand went out of reach, "It's… not like you two… are soldiers. Besides, this village is far too much into peace… to get involved in the battles Princess Platinum is currently having."
"True, and the only ones that even know we do our training are you, Granny Apple, Silver Pear and a few of the regulars."
"You mean like… Lighttone." A smile grew on Crimson's face.
"Yeah, like him."
"You know I would like to meet him one day. I mean if that isn't a problem." His voice seemed slightly off at that, almost joyful and with very little shyness at all.
"Hmm, how about you come over tonight? He usually shows up to look at the weekly orders to see what he might like." Twilight finally scooped up some of the food in front of her and put it into her mouth.
"Really?" Joyfulness intensified in his voice. "Wait… tonight at the… the bar… the tavern you work at." Instantly his shyness had return tenfold.
Twilight raised a slightly annoyed eyebrow at this and swallowed her meal, clearing her throat. She reached out and grabbed his hand again. "Okay, something wrong?" She questioned with a weakened smile at the blush that was now very clear in his face.
Crimson took his hand back and pushed away his blush. "No, nothing is wrong..." He stopped and turned to the side of his chair and looked up to the sky, "The truth is… I used to know him. We… were friends."
Twilight's eyes went wide at that word 'friend'.
"Friendship." A random word she had used all the time but hearing it from somepony else threw something inside her completely off. She froze in place.
Crimson raised an eyebrow and slowly reached over. He shook her shoulder and then jolted away, hoping for some sort of reaction. Nothing happened for several moments.
Truthfully Twilight didn't even notice as rambles of voices swirled through her head. Six voices, in fact, six distinct voices. They sounded so familiar yet she couldn't for some reason place where she had heard them before or who these voices belong to. One thing was clear they were certainly the same voices from this morning. Which brought up more questions as in the morning she could place those voices perfectly, but now it was as if there was a fog over their faces and names deep in her mind. A fog brought about by hearing a single word.
Slowly the voices stopped and she swung her head back and forth really fast once, seeming like she was knocking something away from her head. She stopped afterward and didn't give a single other reaction for several moments.
It brought a lot of concern to Crimson. "Twilight…"
Hearing her name finally made her answer, "Yeah… just friendsh-"
"Hey, look at the sky." A random voice behind Twilight broke her words.
"What is that?" Another voice spoke even louder.
Twilight raised both her eyebrows at then but tried to ignore it. However, Crimson looked up as well and a great shadow quickly covered the ground, tables and soon even the building as everything began to shake. Twilight dropped her food and stood right up. "Crimson, what is it?"
"It's… a giant gem."
Twilight turned around at those words and looked to what all were seeing. The second she laid her eye upon it, they went wide. It was indeed a giant ruby gem, larger than the very building they were right next to. The gem seemed to be floating in a form of magic. Though it was not a form of magic she had ever seen before. One thing was for sure, this gem wasn't sent here by any normal magic user.
Suddenly the gem sent off a strange loud buzzing sound. It was so loud that every pony within even a small distance away had to cover their ears in strain, yet any pony nearest fell to the ground in absolute pain.
Twilight did whatever she could to stand her ground, yet it was quickly becoming hard as blood was now pouring from her ears. Her leg dropped once and her eye winced. Things got worse as the wound over under her eyepatch began to burn and... glow. At that exact moment though, the sound stopped. "Why is my wound reacting to it?"
A bright light shot out of the gem and an image formed within it. The image was of a lone pony chained up in what appeared to be the center of a giant stadium. "Ponies of the Unicorn Providence." A voice filled with royalty and vast age spoke from somewhere outside of the sight of the image. "Your princess has seen fit to resist my armies for long enough. This is King Emerald Teal of the Crystal Empire and I declare a full-scale war with you all." On that, a crystal blade shot outside of the image's scope and cleaved the prisoner's head clean off.
Many of the ponies watching gasped at these actions. Some even turned away as the pony's blood poured across the ground. Meanwhile species like griffin and hippogriff backed away in disdain. All while, Twilight couldn't help but ignore the sight of it, as the pain in her eye was getting worse.
Finally, the image vanished and the gem's light dissipated. Strangely enough so did the pain in Twilight's wound. She stood up and rubbed her eye a little and turned toward Crimson, only to find him gone. She looked at the table and saw a note saying that he would show up tonight… maybe.
Of course, there were no other things to be concerned about. Twilight turned back around to face the gem as it slowly moved away from the village. "This wasn't part of the history books?"
In a far-off land, miles deep underground there stood a pale white fortress covered in endless light. There was not a single shadow that could touch it. Within this fortress were many empty rooms with lights of varying levels of brightness. However, in the brightest room at the center sat six creatures around a rectangular table. One black batpony at the far end, one gray griffin and one gold siren on the left side, one white changeling and one white ifrit on the right side and one pale crystal pony at the front end. Each had their own group of guards standing around them.
They were all staring at the white ifrit with great annoyance. "So you want to tell us how he found one of the Alathar?"
"I don't know what you mean." the white ifrit tried to push away the idea.
"Why do you think we called this meeting?" the gray griffin spoke up.
"I thought it was because of the attacks that Indigo Frost orchestrated," the white ifrit waved his arms over them.
"Not just that. It seems he almost claimed one of the Alathar!" rage filled the pale crystal pony's mouth.
"Who is this Indigo, anyway?" the white changeling mare twisted her fingers through her mane.
"Some crazy wendigo claiming to be the original king." the gold siren leaned back unfazed by their words. "He is nothing to us but a faker, what matters now though is that the Wave of Nightmares is in the hands of Rex Moba."
An air of uneasiness filled the steel cold room as some of them twisted around in their chairs at that name.
"Damn it, we can't keep being afraid of some umbrum who for all we know doesn't know we exist." the black batpony stood up. "We should be more worried about these attacks."
"Yes, but if he finds more-"
"He won't." On that, the black batpony pulled out a green lapis lazuri rod. "As you can see I have already taken precautions."
"You dare bring an Alathar here." The pale crystal pony stood up. "Remove it at once. We are their sacred guardians. You know how dangerous it is to remove one of the Alathar from their holding."
"Yeah, this is madness," The white changeling scooted back. However, she stopped upon crashing into somepony behind her.
"And here I thought Frost was supposed to be more mad then you all." They stopped at that voice. The room went so quiet that the only noise could be heard were their breaths. All of them move their eyes around until they finally stopped upon the intruder in the room.
Standing behind the changeling was a strange looking wrinkly stallion with dark mold green flesh in a blacken grey cloak.
"No, you…?" the white ifrit trembled in confusion as his flames dimmed.
"You… who are you?" the gray griffin questioned. He looked to the white ifrit, "Sage, do you know him?"
The white ifrit refused to answer as he scooted back; a blanket of fear covering his form from head to toe.
The intruder walked slowly around the room. Each creature kept their guard around him, not showing any sign of weakness. Yet they couldn't hide the reaction to the stink that filled the room with each step he took. His breath stank of... corpses. Soon though he arrived back near the spot he appeared and smiled as he looked over all.
"I don't care who he is." The black batpony gestured to his guards to surround him.
"Really?" The intruder pulled at his collar. "You are the Limbs of the Broken One. Hiders of his greatest power and servants of his might." His hands raised to them all before letting them fall to his tattered cloak.
The black batpony huffed at his words. "Give me a reason why my friends shouldn't kill you right now."
"Because I'm here on a promise." He held his hands together in a grasp and leaned his head over them in a pleading motion. The intruder's words and actions fell on deaf ears as the guard walked over.
However, the intruder couldn't help but smile at this. "Look all he wants is the Alathar for-" He was interrupted as the guard tried to punch him.
Much to everypony shock though, the fist tore through the flesh like paper. The guard himself wasn't filled with shock, but disgust as he could feel bones of the jawline and even the crack covered teeth rub against his knuckles. "What is thi-" The guard tried to question the feel before pain racked through his hand as something grabbed hold.
As the guard riled in pain from the spot his fist was tearing through spewed out tentacles. These less dark mold green color flesh ligaments were crawling over the guard's hand, leaving a circular bite mark with each movement. Once they found a good spot the tentacles press down at a force and twirled the guard's arms until the bones tore out. The guard's eyes filled with tears and he almost pleaded with him to stop twisting. The intruder raised his hands up to the guard's head. "Oh fine," His smile turned to a frown as he released his grip.
All of them gasped at this. However, he quickly followed this by digging his fingers into the guard's throat and with very little effort, he ripped the guard's head clean off his shoulders. "Hmm, fool."
"Enough of this!" the pale crystal pony sent all of his guards over to the intruder. "You will not have any of the Alathar at all. Now leave."
More guards charged at the intruder. He ducked and grabbed the first one by the leg, yanking him to the ground. Meanwhile, he flipped his body into the air and threw his foot toward another; the flesh of his bare foot ripped open and more tentacles tore through the second one's chest. Blood spewed into the eyes of the others, blinding them. The intruder pulled the first one over and tentacles from his mouth forced it opened so wide that flesh ripped from cheek to ear. Soon a giant beak shot out of his mouth and bit down into the first one's stomach, slurping up his wormy intrels the stallion could barely struggle. The third and fourth one charged in only to find themselves being fought off as more tentacles ripped out of his lower extremities while he continued to feast.
The second one fell to the ground as his chest kept gushing out blood. At the same time, the intruder finished feasting on the first one and jumped upward with one hand and landed on the table, licking his beak of all the blood before pulling it back into his mouth. The two remaining guards moved back in shock. Weak movement filled their eyes, yet they couldn't give up. They charged right at him and he smiled at this as tentacles from his own mouth wiped over his lips and sealed the wound around his mouth.
"Enough Star Stone," the white changeling spoke up, stopping the guards advance. "I want to hear what he is offering." She gestured for her guard to push over a chair for the intruder.
The intruder smiled at her action, got off the table and sat down. He watched the guards walk back to their leader as he grabbed out a napkin while his tentacles reseeded and the flesh resealed, leaving a strange burnt smell in their wake. He wiped his face and hand clean of the blood before placing it back up.
"Let's look back around five thousand years, back when Indigo's family tree was a member of this group." His claims angered Star Stone, but the intruder gave little care to the crystal pony's reactions. "Your leader Dracos was on the run for deeds he claimed he didn't commit and the nine founding families of this group were still here. Soon though two families left to join him in hiding and Indigo's family was already pushing themselves more and more away from this group to watch over his kingdom… And try to make new allies." His voice slowed at that last part before resuming its natural flow. "Things seemed fine, heck even after Indigo's kingdom fell apart the group stayed strong." On that final word, he held out his hand as the flesh opened up. Tentacles spewed out holding a red horn.
All of them gave the same reaction of disgust and shock upon seeing the red horn. "That is until just twenty-four hundred years back when Carmilla Darkest was killed and this group slowly devolved into a hiding spot for cowards." The intruder couldn't help but let a small snicker loose at the sweat growing on their faces. "I mean, I know at least three reasons to worry. She was the last founder to die, was the Broken One's most trusted ally and the queen of the umbrums." He removed the piece and an air of relief filled the room. "But what I find most SICKENING is you all would rather turn tail and run rather than take revenge on the very stallion behind the deed!"
"Hmp," the black batpony twisted the Alathar in his hand. "So he is offering us the head of Rex Moba."
"Yes, the lapdog of the alicorns on a silver platter."
"Well, no thanks." The black batpony put the Alathar in his coat and stood up. "We are not afraid of anypony at all. And certainly not some psycho fake king-"
Instantly he was stopped as a thin bony like wing rose up from under the table without any warning and tore through his skull. The Alathar dropped out of his coat and rolled over to the intruder's hand.
He smiled and retracted out the wing from under the table and back to his shoulder blade, there it went back into the flesh as if it was never there. "Thank you, but in truth, I said from the beginning that he will have the Alathar." Looking over them all as his hand opened up and the tentacle took the Alathar into his flesh. "And since you won't accept his deal, you all will be forced to tell him where the others are."
"We will not give in to your demand-" Star Stone was stopped as figures appeared behind them all. All the figures looked like wendigoes, yet for some reason, they seemed different; almost fake in form. "How? This room is full of light magic." He was stopped again as the figures grabbed them all. "None of Indigo's dark magic can get in here."
"Exactly, but he didn't form these... lovely sculptures," the intruder rose up from his chair and walked over to Star Stone. "I did." He reached out to Star Stone and slid his fingers through the side of his mane. "With this much light here you are out of the reach of Rex, Indigo and even your long-dead god; but not from me."
"Your master will not succeed. We won't give in to his demands, even if you torture us." Star Stone knocked the hand away, stood true and strong despite the grip of the figures getting stronger.
"Oh, poor little colt. You know nothing of what you are saying, not understanding what he is planning." He grabbed him by the face, pressing his thumb tightly on the cheek. "He is doing this as a kindness." He leaned his face in close enough that his terrible breath almost smelled like poison. "Maybe once we are done, you will see things his way and believe in the ways of the monster." On that, he dropped his hands and punched him in the gut.
Star Stone felt bile rising from his stomach. However, it stopped as his eyes become too heavy to hold. As his eyes wane he looked to the intruder once more as his mouth fell and drool gave way. "What are you?"
"I am the one who gives knowledge to the ignorant. The light in his darkness. I am Thule."
The Sun lowered and from the afternoon to close evening causing the light to dim in the village as Twilight was walking down the road toward the tavern. Steams of anger covered her face as the cold winds and clear skies very cleanly showed off her breath like fumes of fire.
Eventually, she found the tavern. She knew she couldn't walk in angry. Starlight maybe had her reasons, or maybe Starlight had been distracted by the message. Twilight wasn't for sure which possibility it was. She had to take a breath and calm herself before she stepped inside.
"Come on, Twilight. You can't stay angry." She exhaled deeply and pushed out the air in an almost flame-like breath upon the cold air. She walked forward and reached for the door. But she stopped… as something crawled over the doorknob.
It was a spider. The same brown spider that had been watching them yesterday. "Wait a minute," Twilight held out her hand. "You're Starlight's pet spider… Gáidaros."
The spider slowly crawled into her hand. Seeing the spider, made Twilight's mind go at ease, though a little quicker than one might think. "What are you doing out here? This weather is far too cold for you." Twilight reached for the door with her other hand and opened it.
Inside the place was filled with the smell of cleaning tools. Starlight was cleaning some tables with them, moving them around in her magic. She turned to the sound of the doorbell, smiled upon seeing Twilight and put down the stuff. "Twilight you're back. I thought you would spend more time with Crimson." She walked over and greeted her, only to be stopped upon Twilight holding out her hand.
"I did until he vanished on me!" Twilight's voice raised slightly and slowly dimmed down upon holding out the spider. "By the way, your spider was outside."
"What? Gáidaros?" Starlight picked up the spider in her magic. "Hmm, strange that you were even able to pick him up. He usually distrust most ponies that are slightly in anger."
However, upon the Gáidaros being removed, Twilight's anger shined in full force. "Well, maybe I wouldn't be angry if you hadn't disappeared on me, especially after what happened today."
"Happened? What do you mean?" Starlight placed Gáidaros on the table. "The day hasn't even arrived." Starlight's words slipped before she could stop them.
"The day?! What are you even talking about? Today, the alicorns just declared a full-scale war on this country!" Twilight threw up her hands in annoyance, just as Silver Pear walked in from behind her.
"What?" Starlight's eyes widened. "Why?"
"I don't know. But it looks like we will have to be ready for anything now. Training will be doubled tomorrow." Twilight walked around the tables for a moment or two, slightly huffing until she got over to the bar and grabbed a cup, using her magic to fill it with some cider.
"No, we can't rush into this." Starlight waved her hands in dismissal. "Besides this village lies on the outskirts of the country. Maybe it will miss us-"
"It won't." Silver Pear interrupted her. "I just came back from the mayor's office. He wants all able bodies to be ready for when our princess calls on us."
Starlight was completely at a gasped at this. She tried to speak but her words kept escaping her. Her voice filled with stutters.
"What going on?" Granny Apple asked as she walked in from the back.
"War… is happening." Twilight gulped down the entire cup of cider in one go. "And what worse…" Twilight stopped for a moment and placed the cup down before finally finishing. "I received a warning that a great evil will soon appear as well."
"Where from?" Silver Pear questioned.
"A dream, or should I say a nightmare. It happened this morning. I wanted to ignore it but after what happened today..."
Starlight was in complete shock at hearing their words. She didn't know how to even react to Twilight's words let alone Silver Pear's words. He knew what day Starlight had been talking about, but had Twilight completely forgotten. Finally, Starlight's mouth stopped stuttering and she spoke clearly. "We can get through this. Nothing will stop the big day's events from happening."
Twilight glared at Starlight. "Events, what by Celestia's good graces could you possibly be planning that's not as important as what I and Silver pear just told you!"
"Look, Twilight, that's taking it a little too far." Silver Pear intruded on her words. "I'm sure we will find some way."
"Of course you take your 'Lovely's side'." Twilight swung her cup around in anger. Not looking where she was swinging it, it sent shattering sounds into the air. Twilight winced in pain and grabbed her hand as blood spilled.
"Oh, poor dear." Granny Apple walked over and pulled out a cloth.
Twilight opened her eyes and took the cloth in her magic. She wrapped it over her hand and walked back over to the door. Lightly pushing Silver Pear out of the way, she opened the door and looked outside.
"Twilight stop…" Starlight tried to speak.
Twilight took a shallow breath to hide the tear that was now falling. "Look, I already knew what day my student has been going on about."
"You… You did."
"I would never forget that day." Twilight gripped the door tightly and slowly stepped outside. "No matter how much I want to." That was the final word she spoke before slamming the door shut.
The sounds of the door's vibrations did little to break the shock Starlight had for Twilight's final words. It wasn't until a small tear fell from her own eye did she finally break from the shock and fell into a nearby chair.
"Should I go after her?" Silver Pear turned toward the door.
"No, leave her be. She just needs more time." Granny Apple looked toward Starlight with a sad look. "It seems they both need more time."
Granny Apple kneeled down and picked up the pieces of the broken cup. She stopped her movement before reaching the trash. "Hmm, cider shouldn't be this color." In the end, she gave little care to the light maroon color and threw the pieces into the trash with a crash.
The sounds of the doors from the cathedral opening echoed down through the plaza as evening services ended for the day. Ponies shuffled down the road leaving for their homes. Movement kept up until there were none left. A swift emptiness tore through the door. Soon though Rex and Clover walked out as the magic surrounded the doors and closed them. The two were rather quiet upon leaving, they had little to say to each other.
Clover let her eyes wander away from Rex as much as she could. Suddenly her eyes caught the glimpse of the tan colt she saw before. She smiled upon the sight of the child running around its parents.
Rex noticed her halt in movement. He turned to her and stopped as well. He looked to what she saw, a heavy breath expelling from his lungs. "Look, Clover, I'm sorry."
"It's okay, I… I understand." She turned forward and walked ahead of him.
"No, unfortunately," his breath hid his final words from her. His eyes winced as he turned and followed after her.
"Well, isn't this a sight?" an old voice caught their attention, making Clover and Rex stop. They turned to the voice and Clover's eyes lit up upon the sight of two stallions.
The older one that spoke up was a gray unicorn wizard with yellow eyes and a long white mane with an overly curly long white beard in golden star covered dark blue pointy hat and a golden star covered dark blue cloak over a light blue and light gray tunic and light gray slacks with a pair of light blue pointy overshoes.
"Master Starswirl!" she ran over and hugged the old wizard.
"It's good to see you too, Clover." He patted her on the head and returned the gesture.
Rex walked over as the two separated and looked toward the other stallion. This one was middle-aged and was a yellow earth pony with brown short ponytail mane under a black pirate's hat. He wore a green frock coat over a gray vest with a white shirt and a pair of gray pants with one black boot that always seemed to be covered in sand.
"Fredricson," Rex lowered his head.
"I heard my son died protecting Little Miss Clever here." Fredricson tilted his head toward Clover with the little nickname he had for her.
"Yes, unfortunately. We tried to contact you after we sent his body to his mother, but..."
"But the scourge of a storm we were in prevented all messages." Fredricson interrupted him as his hand lifted up to his hat. "It be a fine thing you did though. Still, his mother isn't exactly going to let me go see him right now. She is still a little bit hissy over a little fling I had with her sister just last month." He let a smile slip upon mocking his ex, yet Rex could see rage hidden deep within those old gray eyes.
Clover looked to Fredricson, "Well, Rex is sorry, if we had been more prepared this wouldn't have happened."
Fredricson looked to her "Don't be concerned. Like Rex here, we know the selfishness of the alicorns all too well." He tapped on his wooden leg and turned away.
"Still, it is my fault Clover, no matter what." Rex walked a few stepped ahead of them before stopping. "I'm assuming Topaz Silk called for you two."
"Not quite, but it does seem we are after the same target now." Starswirl turned to Rex.
"Fine, where is your ship?"
Fredricson huffed after a moment. "Can't we at least get some rum before we go?"
"No, we will lose too much time."
"Wait," Clover walked over. "Topaz Silk already told us where the Alathar are, shouldn't we take a moment before rushing off." She stopped right in front of Rex. "We need to figure out why he is even after them."
Rex's eyes lifted up and walked ahead of her. "I know what Indigo Frost is after. At least I think I do." Starswirl and Fredricson both looked to Rex at those words. "He wants to resurrect the Broken One." Rex's hand raised to the Dark Alicorn Amulet and under his breath, he whispered, "Though I hope I'm wrong."
Fredricson held his hand to his face and grabbed it in annoyance. "Damn it, fine, but don't rush me." He chased after Rex before he got too far. "You need to know something before getting to the ship."
Clover stood still and didn't move. She tried to calm herself, but her mentor could see the fear growing on her face. "What is it, Clover?"
"Master, am I not strong enough?" Her eyes never left Rex.
Starswirl raised his hand and pushed some of her mane away from her face. "I know your feelings for him are strong, you felt the same way since you met him as a child. But it will take some time before you can truly replace her spot in his heart."
As the evening light fully faded away it gave one final shine over the plains, over the mountains and finally over the oceans. Across the ocean through no light could reach for a darkening was growing followed by echoes of pain.
Reaching source the great pain was sweeping outward from the prison that the griffins ran. The build shook and cracked as griffins flew out of it as quickly as their wings could take them. Their screams filled the air as two hippogriffs slowly walked out behind them.
"Wow, Night Fiend. You didn't have to torture so many." Sting practically was jumping in joy upon his freedom as he dropped some dubstep noises.
"Your explosives did most of the work. But, of course, I had to brother. They dare hold us captive." Night Fiend was not only taller than his brother, but he was also much thinner and clearly less healthy. His face was incredibly pale and his voice was very hoarse under the gas mask he was wearing over his mouth. "And will you please stop with the 'sick' beats. We are royalty, not gangsters."
"Yo, you know very well we aren't anymore. Not since Momma Dear got pissed at us." Sting nearly laughed aloud from the thoughts.
"Truth be told, what we did to our sister was quite cruel." Fiend grasped his hands together and popped the bones. "Oh, that reminds me, did you find my gloves."
"Yo, of course, I did." Sting pulled out the gloves and gave them to his brother before getting completely out of the way. Searching his pockets he pulled out the white orb that Indigo Frost had given them to escape.
Fiend pulled the gloves tightly over his hands and stretched them into a perfect fit as the symbols on them began to glow. "If the king of snow and ice wants my help, I better make sure my powers haven't faltered in all these years." He gestured with his left hand and Sting tossed the white orb over. At the same time, Fiend raised his right hand over the prison's remains and the fallen griffins inside. "Oh, griffins would you mind helping me out."
Many of the griffins on the ground twisted and squirmed away at the sight of those gloves. Fear covered their faces like a swarm of disease. Most of them pushed away from him with enough force to make their limbs bleed.
Fiend frowned at their reaction. "That's not good enough."
On that final word, he closed his right hand and the glowing increased in brightness. The white orb in his left hand shook and bounce as it began to melt. Once it was gone, all the griffins screamed in agony as their bodies glowed and strange orbs ripped from them. All the light surged toward his glove making it glow brighter. The screams became louder and more twisted as the lights slowly faded away. Once the light vanished the screaming stopped. A deathly quiet filled the air as the bodies laid frozen in place. Each of them with the same face of fear only with all eyes turned black.
Fiend brought the glove to his ear and listen. His cheek perked up at the sounds of the screams hidden deep within the glove. "Aw, these souls shall prove most useful. And to think that ice piece had that much magic within it."
"Indeed. This cuz is trusting us quite a bit."
"Enough of that language brother. He is our ally. He is certainly not some gangster you met... in the hood." Fiend brought the glowing glove to his gas mask. In the center of the glove was a small gem that perfectly fit into the hole on his gas mask. The glowing slowly vanished as his body's muscles twisted and pulsed. His face grew less pale and his breathing eased. He moved the glove away once the light had completely faded. "Ah, sheer power. He better offer me plenty of souls for this deal."
"Well, duh. Why wouldn't he want the greatest necromancer in the land on his side." Sting turned toward the sky and pulled out his large wings widely.
"Oh, I'm just a meager small fry compared to the evil he wants to release." Fiend turned to the sky as well and pulled out his very thin wings. "That is unless he has a different plan."
Both of them took to the sky and flew west as the Moon rose in front of them in the far distance.
The Moon's light shined over the crystal towers as Rex and Fredricson arrived at a large platform. "Okay, whose bright idea was it to park the Titan so far from the cathedral?" Rex questioned as he caught his breath.
"Eye, don't blame me that the falter of followers was so widespread today." Fredricson wiped the sweat off his face. "It be luck that we found a spot to land at all. We don't have access to instant travel through those dastardly shadows of your."
"Still, you could have told me where you parked and I would have just teleported over." Rex stopped his breathing and walked over to the ship on the platform.
The Titan was a small navy blue airship with yellow sails and a single tall gray smoke tower. Though it was one of the smallest designed, it was no slouch in such ideas. The inside was massive. It had been a long time since Rex had step foot in this old airship yet even now he could still remember his first time in there and his amazement to the designs of Fredricson's creation.
"Hmm, I'm almost surprised it still stands." Rex was joking of course.
"Hey, this beauty of mine can't quit as long as I'm aliv-"
"BUT IT WOULD HELP IF YOU TOOK BETTER CARE OF IT?" A loud shrewd voice interrupted the earth pony. The distinct voice sent a pale color through his face.
The door to the ship opened and a rather not so young batpony mare and an extremely young light orange siren filly walked out of this ship.
The batpony was white with blue eyes and a long curly black mane. Shorter then Fredricson in height, but wide around the chest and hips thinned around the waist by her black dress corset combo that barely covered her chest and went down to her red high heels.
"Wait a minute." Rex raised an eyebrow to the sight of them, particularly the batpony. "Aren't you-" He was stopped rather quickly as she threw her cane at him. He jumped over it and the cane fell into his shadows and back out right in front of the old mare.
"Yes, I am, Lady Cat."
Rex facepalmed at that name as he looked toward Fredricson. "You brought Mon's aunt with you." He rubbed his eyebrows as the other part of the problem flew through his head. "Wait a minute, this is the one you had an affair with?"
"Eye," Fredricson tried to hide his toothy grin under his fear though it wasn't working very well. "She be quite the mare."
"I think I've heard enough." Rex hid his revulsions and walked past all of them and onto the ship. All without even asking who the siren filly was.
"Wait..." Fredricson stopped himself and just let Rex walk off.
Soon Clover and Starswirl walked up. "Hmm, I see Rex has found out about our current guess." Starswirl stroked his beard as he walked over to the siren filly. "Did the big umbrum scare you any?"
The filly slowly nodded and cling tightly to Lady Cat's leg. The filly was barely tall enough to reach Lady Cat's kneecap. She had curly orange mane bigger than her head. Wearing a lavender jacket over a purple dress and purple tall wall boots made her look even cuter.
Clover smiled at the cute little thing and walked right over. "Aww, and what it your name?"
"It..." the filly's words were practically mumbles at the end.
"Aww, she is such a cutie." Clover couldn't help herself and she picked up the filly and held her in her arms. "Come on, you can trust aunty Clover, I'll keep you safe from that rough around the edges uncle Rex."
"My name... is Adagio... Adagio Dazzle."
Starswirl smiled. "This is our current mission. Apparently Indigo took her sisters for some unknown reason."
Yeah, Journey To Hearth's Warming is back up. Sorry for the break, from family problems to work problems and a rather long going painful ear aches just wouldn't let me work and to top things off right when I'm finally free enough and well enough to work my laptop shatters.
It took a full week to fix everything completely. Things are working now just extremely slow.
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