//------------------------------// // Chapter five: Understanding // Story: The Terrarians // by Space Wizard Novablast //------------------------------// Twilight was floating in void, it was hard for her to properly focus on anything. She couldn't feel her legs, her head. Hay, she couldn't feel anything verbatim. She couldn't even talk, let alone scream. But she could see, she could think, she could hear. But not scream. In front of her sat a man in red clothes on what looked to be a floating island in the middle of nothingness, above him loomed a flying skull with detached arms floating around it, it glared with empty eyes at her, wanting to rip her to shreds. But each time it tried to move just slightly, the red clothed mans will prevented it. Twilight found herself being dragged towards the man, when she got closer she saw more features, he was old...... No, the said to her self, not old, not even ancient. Almost outside of time itself. While she was thinking she had drifted towards the island, she almost felt as if her muscles were returned to her body the minute she entered his domain. The man looked up at her, he lifted his hat slightly. He had bright green eyes, but for some reason there was a spot of red moving around his irises, the same red in the skulls eye sockets. His white beard made a bright contrast to the redness of his clothes. "Twilight sparkle?" He said, his voice was low and gruff, but still pleasant to hear, it was almost like a massage to the ear, it felt uncomfortable at first, but you felt relaxed afterwards. "Yes, thats me. How do you know me? Ive never met you before...... Right?" He smiled weakly and nodded sagely. "You have not met me twilight sparkle, that much is true." He paused for a moment, biting his lower lip slightly, as if contemplating on what to say next. "As to how i know you, you can thank my master for that." He pointed upwards at the giant skull whose movements came across as more pathetic than threatening, although twilight thanked celestia that she wasn't anywhere near those huge skeletal hands. "His name is skeletron." He said calmly, "you don't have to fear him, he is kept in place by my will, and the power bestowed upon me by his master." He looked as if he had ended his statement, but he continued shortly after. "And praying to celestia will not help you any in terraria." Twilight looked at him, guffawed. Had this stranger really just read her thoughts? His plain looks should give off no skills of magic. At least Diablo looked like a wizard. "I bet you are confused, but we have no time for this, you will wake up shortly. You have to kill the eater of worlds to save your friend applejack." He said matter of factly. She had heard that name before, the cultists had shouted it before assaulting Diablo and Moon. "How do you know of her?" Twilight asked, wishing for her curiosity to be sated. "Suffices to say that Red and Blue is the cause of your arrival." He said, dragging his hat back over his eyes. "Who is Red and Blue?" Twilight started screaming as she felt a new force pull her away, "and who is the eater of worlds?" He smiled, making his beard crack at the middle. "Ask Diablo, say Wilhelm sent you." As he said this, twilight was enveloped by light, and she heard a voice making the darkness around her crumble "Good morning." Twilights eyes sprung open and she jumped up, spreading her wings preparing to crush more of the werewolf forces. And found a small blonde woman sitting at her bedside, smiling calmly at her. She was wearing a white lab coat with a red hat that seemed an awful lot like the one nurse Redheart wore. "Its good to see you're finally up." She said, the smile never leaving her face, "I'm Miranda, I'm a nurse." So that explains the hat, twilight thought to her self. "Im twi-" "I know who you are." Miranda said, her voice now hard as steel. "And i know what you're planning." Twilight was honestly shocked, not so much by Miranda's hostility, but more so the fact that she honestly had no plan. It was something new. But inside she knew she was wrong, she had a plan. Because Wilhelm had given her one. "You cant fight the eater of worlds." She said, sounding worried and concerned, "its a god, how do you hope to fight a god?" Twilight looked down at her bedsheets, dreading what she was about to say, even though it was half of the truth. "Because in my homeland, i am a god." The nurse sighed, looking at the floor. "If you are going to fight the entire shade army, then you'll need some help." She stated matter of factly. "Find Kind Moonshadow, he can clue you in." Twilight remembered Wilhelm's words, "no, i need to speak with diablo!" The nurse scoffed slightly, looking appalled, and afterwards disgusted. "Why would anyone even consider speaking with a monster like him?" Twilight didn't even answer, she just walked out the door, making sure to slam it as hard as possible without breaking it. She started walking towards the castle, she noticed several things that she hadn't seen when she first walked into the gleaming city. First of, there were hardly any shops. True, most ponies in ponyville were of the earth variant, but they still bought food, not all of them were farmers. She deemed this as one of the questions she would have to ask Omnir at a later date. She finally stood before the castle door, it was scratched and broken through in a few places. The werewolves sure had taken a toll on the place. The doors creaked open when the guards caught sight of familiar royalty, twilight casually sauntered inside, making every attempt not to listen to the shouts of praise as she walked in. She heard titles she never thought she would hear in her life. "Savior of kings!" But diablo isnt a king? "Banisher of darkness!" Thats a bit much "Shadeslayer! Apparently the last one proved to be incredibly popular, because when she entered the throne room she was assaulted at all sides by that particular phrase. "Shadeslayer!" "Shadeslayer!" "SHADESLAYER, SHADESLAYER, SHADESLAYER!!!" Twilight thought about it, she might as well get something out of it. She raised her hoof upwards, causing the soldiers to clap their hands or shouting even higher, the level of volume was insane. She saw both Omnir and Doom standing in the crowd, swinging their weapons above their heads causing shrieks of air, mixing with the shouts causing some sort of torrent of sound. The finally reached the throne, were for once Moonshadow didn't sit, instead she found diablo with the crown on top of his white hood. Blue eyes staring out with a mix of appreciation and slight annoyance radiating from the vibrant blue orbs. He stood up and raised a hand for silence. The soldiers immediately shut their mouths, looking up at the high sorcerer. He looked back down at her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Thank you, twilight sparkle. Not only have you saved me and my brother, but subsequently the entire town as well. For this there is no way i can repay you, but anything you wish for shall be yours." The soldiers once again started chanting, yelling her newly acquired title and stomping on the floor. Both Omnir and Doom merely stood and waited for twilight's wish. She looked down at the floor sighing slightly, he was not going to like her request. "I wish to journey to the corruption." The sorcerer merely looked at her, his eyes that before shone the vibrant blue now had the purple tint slowly creep into them. He rose from his chair. "This i will not allow." He said, authority dominating his voice. "But thats where Applejack is, you said so yourself." She said, her voice so high it was almost unbearable. "I said it was a possibility, Twilight sparkle. I never stated it as pure fact!" His hands were now behind his back, making him look like a dictator more so than a mage. "I was told this by Wilhelm." Twilight quickly said, the outburst causing the entire room to be immediately silent. The sorcerers eyes had returned to their normal blue state, but he suddenly looked both sad and worried. His hands fell limply to the side and he looked at the floor. "When did he say this?" He asked, this time his voice little more than a whisper. "When i was unconscious." She said, still determined to remain on good foot with the wizard. "What did he say?" He asked in the same tone of voice. "He told me i was sent here by red and blue." "Heh." He said, in a way that seemed to be both chuckle and sigh, "of course they would have something to do with it." He looked down at his hands, seemingly searching for something specific, he put his hands together, drawing upon his power and forcing it between his palms. When he opened them again there was a book, it had an orange rim and a was a dark blue in the middle. "Read this, it should be able to help you in the upcoming fight." Twilight nodded, grabbing the book. "Omnir," diablo shouted, awakening the giant from his weird state of upstanding slumber, "lead twilight down to the forge and get her equipped, i think meteor would be the right choice." "Sound judgement Diablo." He grunted before waving for twilight to follow. The soldiers no longer chanted, they merely looked at her with pity, as if they expected never to see her again. Then it struck her, they actually thought they were never going to see her again. In their eyes she was walking towards certain doom. Twilight couldn't She turned around in mere seconds, raised her hoof to her forehead in salute. For her it was alien, for her it was weird. But it was exactly what they needed. The entire crowd returned her gesture, although in a different fashion. They raised their fists in the air before bringing them down on their chests, the force of the slam making the walls tremble slightly. "We will await your return." They said in unison. Twilight smiled, they truly believed in her. She turned around, before the door closed she heard one last shout "SHADESLAYER!!!" And then the door was shut, only her and Omnir in the hallway leading back to the city and its busy life.