//------------------------------//
// Of a Town Beneath the Watchful Mists 
// Story: The Forgotten Isle 
// by gosha305 
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The passed-out Princess didn't take long to regain her senses. And while the others regained theirs, taking account of all that was lost and of what they still managed to save, the looming question of where they found themselves never truly left their minds.

"This ain't no isle I know of, not as a sailor at least." Becket explained after carefully examining a nautical map he had managed to salvage "But then, there ain't no stars above us to make sure of anything."

"Perhaps we'll see clearer when the storm calms down and the fog goes away." Luna hopefully suggested, still shuddering under the never-ending onslaught of rain.

"Yeah… But I fear this won't happen that soon…" the other pensively replied, tucking his map away "You see, that's no regular mist."

In the meanwhile, Brushy, who was carefully examining the rocky cliffs around suddenly exclaimed "Hey, look over here! I think it's a trail of some sort." And as she disappeared into the mist, her curious voice could be heard from beyond its veil "And here, there's even some wooden rubble on shore. Looks like planks. Extremely old ones though." she cried out, still invisible to the others.

"Who in their sane mind could be living here?" Luna perplexedly wondered, turning towards Brushy's voice with a mix of fear and disgust on her face.

"Not to sound too dramatic, but I'd rather refer to whoever they were in past tense." Brushy replied, reemerging from the fog with a small piece of soaked ashes in her magic "The place does look pretty abandoned."

"We still better check out what there could be." Becket proposed with weary determination, making a resolute step towards her.

"Of course we should!" Brushy excitedly exclaimed, concurrently transferring the ash from her magic into a small container that she promptly stored into her saddlebags "See? I knew we were on the verge of a revolutionary discovery!" 

And it was while hope mixed with fear in their hearts that the group unsurely stepped on the remains of a path that disappeared somewhere in the mist, its ancient stones clearly untouched for countless years already.

The rocky peaks of the coast soon vanished behind, concealed by the omnipresent fog that continued even inland, now surrounding them completely.

"Where are we going?" Luna fearfully asked, constantly glancing around in hope of distinguishing just anything in this mist "It feels like we have been going for quite a while already and there is simply nothing around!"

"I don't like this either, but there's no point in coming back to shore." Becket unhappily sighed back "We better keep at it, this path can't just lead nowhere anyway."

"I'm starting to fear it could…" the other mumbled with a small shudder.

But all of a sudden, a decrepit structure emerged from the mist "See?" the captain supportively looked back "No need to worry."

In the meanwhile, more houses, or at least their crumbled remains, appeared along the path they followed. And soon, it became quite clear that they now stood in the midst of a small town.

Carefully stepping amidst the ruins, the group advanced through the empty streets. It was quiet, undisturbed by the sounds of a living creature or any wind. The mists loomed from every side and direction, always concealing the path ahead as much as the one behind.

Still, in this unease and dread, a feeling almost akin to tranquility settled. The town might have been dead, but it seemed to be quite keen to remain so. No beasts were heard lurking in the empty houses. No long-forgotten escapees of whatever disaster occurred in this land. No creatures of the arcane even. Just a serene and unchanging nothingness that seemed to inspire calm as much as it did fear.

All of a sudden, the serene silence was shattered by a cry "Oh my gosh! How ancient these sigils must be!" Brushy exclaimed startling everypony else.

After a second of heavy silence and dark gazes, she realized her mistake "Oh, sorry." she sheepishly added with a small shrug.

Still, she slowly approached the remains of one of the houses to inspect strange arcanic engravings that decorated what must have once served as its porch "But it's so rare to see such early Equestrian runes in so good of a state." she passionately explained before suddenly igniting her horn " I wonder if they still work." She was however immediately interrupted.

"I'd rather not test this right now." Becket sternly declared, putting a hoof on her shoulder "We better make sure this place is safe or at least explore a bit before doing any experiments."

"Oh… Well, OK, but we absolutely need to come back to this place!" the other reluctantly agreed, canceling her spell.

The next second, something inside the house in front of which she stood captured her attention once again "Wow, there's bones in there! I just need to take a sample!" she exclaimed, making everypony else shudder at her unwarranted excitement.

Before they could argue however, she already delved into the ruin, a small sample container already out of her saddlebags.

"I already don't like this place." Luna wincingly declared in the meantime.

"But isn't this all just so exciting?" Celestia much more enthusiastically argued, looking around at the crumbled walls and decaying remains of furniture "And then, I'm sure these ponies had a great culture back in the days." she sneered, noticing a small pile of rubbles that might have once bin a statue or monument.

"Yes. Maybe they had." Luna nervously sighed "But I'd rather avoid discovering why they do not have it anymore…"

In the meantime, Brushy exited the house with some blackish dust in her container and a concerned smile on her face "It's odd. They turned to dust as soon as I touched them." she pensive explained, looking at the decayed remains "I took all the usual precautions and all, but they still just crumbled. Unfortunate..."

Her concerns however, quickly faded away as she caught Becket's exasperate look. She immediately packed the sample into her saddlebags, sheepishly exclaiming "Oh, right! Let's go."

The rest of the walk was not very chatty. And it wasn't very long either as, soon enough, they reached the town's end, where the main street they were walking upon stopped, running into a structure way bigger and better preserved than any others.

"It's strange. I've never seen this kind of architecture." Brushy commented as they were sizing the enormous temple up "These columns and arcs do seem pretty characteristic of more ancient civilizations though. But I'm still not really sure of anything."

"Wow, this place might trace back to when we were young even, can you imagine?" Celestia fascinatedly mused, giving Luna an awed look.

"And we still never heard of it…" the other pensively added, gazing at the enormous columns whose tops couldn't even be visible behind the mist.

While the others still observed the monumental structure in different degrees of awe, Becket already had a different thought in mind "We could take a break here if you want." he dryly proposed "I think I've got things to say."

A wordless agreement transpired. And once they all sat down onto magically summoned cushions, still contemplating the grand structure around them, Becket pensively started "You see, there's no name to this place, only stories, and few of them. It's a place of legend if you will."

After a second, he continued, diverting his gaze "Yeah, I remember what I said. But, after all these years, I would have never imagined finding myself in one of these mythical spots that somehow transcend folklore… It all seemed like nonsense. And it still does, but since I'm here, I'm just curious now. How much of what they said was true?"

"So, do you know what happened to this place?" Luna suddenly asked with great concern "Or at least, have you heard a theory of some sort?"

"I doubt anypony still alive does." the other grimly replied after reviewing his memories "I've only heard tales from sailors who got swayed to it by the vicious wind or who simply lost course, and even they didn't seem to know much."

After a sigh and a pensive look into the mist-concealed distance he continued "They only mentioned rocky shores washed by ferocious waves that only vaguely appeared behind an opaque wall of mist that never went away. The mist seemed to be the worst part of it. Some were so freaked, saying it watched them with thousands of eyes. That's why I don't like it. And nopony ever actually stepped on here despite the tales. I doubt many would even dare to do it if presented with a chance."

All of a sudden, Brushy seemed quite bothered. Taking a small block note out of her saddlebags, she hastily browsed through its pages "Strange, I didn't get anything about this one in my research…" she mumbled, quickly marking something down.

In the meanwhile, Luna seemed to have a much bigger problem "Wait, you said the mist was watching them?" she fearfully enquired, nervously glancing around "How would that…"

She was about to add something, but suddenly froze in place, fixing a spot in the hazy distance in absolute terror "You see these lights there, right? Don't they look just like eyes?" she shakenly asked, pointing trembling a hoof into the distance.

Turning around, they all saw it. There, just behind one of these columns, there was someone or rather something. And it stared at them with its glowing eyes. Unblinking.

"Was it watching us all along?" Brushy anxiously asked, peering at the dots in an unwinnable staring contest.

"Probably." Becket gravely agreed, a frown upon his face. "I knew I didn't like this place." he mumbled under his breath, sternly getting up.

The Sun Princess too bolted upright, stretching her wings and igniting her horn in a truly imposing stance "Whatever you are, show yourself!" she regally demanded with her Canterlot voice. Yet there was no reaction. The dots just stayed there, unmoving. Watching.

"Alright, you've been warned!" she exclaimed noticing this lack of movement "Let's see what it is."

And as the small area around them illuminated in Celestia's magical glow, she concentrated her might on the tip of her horn, shooting out a grand beam of concentrated light.

To everypony's great dismay however, the beam revealed nothing more than before, only fading into the murky haze without any trace. The mists remained unhindered, only slightly illuminated by this light, more bright reflections dancing in its miniature droplets as small will-o'-the-wisps in a dark forest.

"Well, that's disappointing." she dryly remarked, returning to a normal stance.

"We cannot simply leave it there though, can we?" Luna upsetly asked, never leaving the eyes with her sight.

"We can't indeed, we better be aware of any danger this place can hide…" Becket grimly added, giving the others a supportive look "Let's find out what this thing is for good. And stay together, no one knows what we're on against."

"Of course. We aren't some horror movie characters to just split up at the worst moment." Brushy agreed with a small nervous chuckle also getting up before tucking her small cushion away into her saddlebags.

And so, the environing mist illuminated by Celestia's glowing horn, the ponies set to the discovery of whatever danger lied within the fog.





It was already quite a while that they marched through the mists. And once again, after the last house of the ghost town disappeared behind its veil, nothing was visible around. They were sunken in the foggy sea of this mysterious isle.

And after following these lights for so long, nothing else really seemed to change either. The eyes remained where they were. Watching. As relentless in their observation as the ponies were in their attempt at discovering these eyes' nature.

It was as if the mysterious creature that lurked in the mists sought to lure them into its invisible lair.

The town was quite a long way behind now. The distant sounds of crushing waves were no longer so distant and sharp rocky peaks were arising all around.

"Are you sure this isn't a trap?" Brushy suddenly asked, shattering the silence that had settled for a long time now.

"She's right." Becket agreed, quickly glancing around to see only mist "We should be careful. Not that we weren't up to this point, but still."

After a small pause in his though, he added "Whatever that thing is though. I doubt it'll stand a chance against two Princesses."

At these last words the latter shared a concerned look. Was it really wise to have such blind confidence in them?

This question didn't get the chance to get an answer though. As, as suddenly as they were seen, the eyes in the mist vanished, fading into nothingness as the group simply ran into a wall.

A confused "Oh…" from Celestia voiced the general disappointment.

But while they all confusedly looked around in a mix of fright and relief, Luna suddenly pointed to the sky "Wait, I think I see them over there!" she exclaimed.

The next second, Brushy too raised her hoof "Here, look!" she called out.

The problem was, they weren't pointing in the same direction, and the group quickly realized eyes peered at them from every direction.

"We're surrounded! I knew this wasn't a good idea!" Brushy cried out, her sight jumping from one pair of eyes to another.

Everything was calm though. None came out to attack. The eyes simply watched, menacing but apparently inoffensive.

"The mist had eyes they said… Let's hope that's the only thing it has." Becket grumbled after they all calmed down a bit.

"Perhaps it's just a natural phenomenon." Luna unsurely suggested, still anxiously glancing around.

"There ain't nothing supernatural in this world." Becket calmly said in the meantime, already thinking about the long trip back to the town "Just magic of different kinds. Though I really don't like this one."