Griphyx sits on a swing with his brother Harry. They are around seven years old each, and their magical capabilities are much stronger than the princesses thought possibly, especially for Griphyx, who has managed to pass the natural human magical levels and is also able to take a tone of damage without truly getting hurt.
Luna sits next to Harry, Nightmare next to Griphyx, while Celestia sits between the two, who are looking up at the dark and cloudy skies. Griphyx sighs.
"What's wrong, Griphyx?" Celestia asks in a motherly tone as he nuzzles the younger brother gently.
"Nothing, I'm just antsy I guess." Griphyx answers with a shrug before he shivers and looks over to his right, where he freezes. Standing there is a man with a smile on his face. His hair is white, before turning black, then brown, then blue, and then multiple other colors. His skin is pail, much like his own. He wears plain black jeans, a long sleeved grey shirt and a red vest, connected with a Greek cape connected by to silver cuffs.
His eyes look's like Griphyx's, but are black where here should be white. His eyes are purple with white slits. His strange hair and cape flows in the breeze, before he turns and vanishes down an alleyway. Griphyx stands and runs at his full speed towards the alleyway after the bright red cape. He turns the corner and watches the man turns and keep smiling at Griphyx, before large gates form and at his side of a skeletal dragon to his right, while on his left is a strange three-headed-draconic-dog that stares at Griphyx.
The skeletal being turns into energy and roars as it darts out at Griphyx, going through his chest, making his, and the others eyes widen, but only the princesses can see what is happening. Griphyx's body tremble as the energy spirals upwards and a pair of the same gates form behind him, before turning into magical wings, where bones black as night stab into his back, and then turn into magical energy and flow into the wounds, sealing them.
The man has a sad look in his smile and eyes as Griphyx drops to his knees, his throat tight in pain as he makes a silent shrill scream in pain. Tears line his eyes as something inside of him stirs and grows faster than it should ever have. He place his hands onto the ground and stares up at the man, pain racking his body.
The man looks at Harry and smiles, showing himself and the gates to the boy, making him step back in fear. The man looks at the princesses and nods his head, as some of their, his and Griphyx's energies spiral into the air, making an energy dragon lord that roars as it slams into Harry's form, while the princesses energies form into a Alicorn shape and does the same as the dragon, however the two energies form, and Griphyx's energies flow faster into Harry's chest, making him change slightly. The four of them crumble to the ground.
Griphyx grits his teeth and stares up at the man, who mouths something to the boy before he sighs, a few tears drip down his chin onto the ground and he walks through the gates, which vanish, and the strange dog vanishes as well. Griphyx's world black.
Griphyx opens his eyes and see's that he is floating in an empty black void. No light, no heat, no cold, no sound. Nothing, but Emptiness. Emptiness. That is a word that describes pour Griphyx. He silently sighs, before a large flame flickers before him, and it roars loudly. He blinks, wondering how a flame could form from emptiness. It was a matter that truly could no be explained, yet.
"Hello. It would seem I am awake FAR earlier than I should be. No matter, not like you'll ever remember our little 'chat' anyways. But listen closely! For you are about to enter something that WILL change your perception of reality, my young me. Welcome, to your castle." The voice of the flame states, as a large kingdom of three forms around Griphyx. He marvels at how one of them is blocked off by a strange fog, one of them is ruled by a king who holds onto the light and fears the dark, and the other, holds unspeakable beings of power and is guarded by Dragon-Riders.
He walks through the air and reaches out to the three kingdoms, before his right hand is covered in shadow flames going all the way up his forearm, before the fingers form into claws, and his elbow becomes spiked. He stares, before the same thing happens to his left forearm as well.
His back burns as those flaming black wings form, but they have dark green lining around them. He looks around more, and finds a whip-like-tail that swishes around. He turns back to the massive flame, which chuckles and bobs up and down slowly, before eyes form and so does a large smile.
A skeletal draconic being forms around the flame and the skull of the creature forms around the flame, so that the flames eyes peer through the empty sockets, and it's mouth keeps smiling as the skull's jaws seem to smile as well.
"We will meet with you once again, our dear Griphyx. Whenever you may need us, we will arrive to protect you." The flame tells Griphyx, before he is sucked down into the sky and is now in an ocean filled with multiple beings that fly towards him with either claws, hands or weapons pointing out at him.
His eyes widen as they get closer an closer, before he closes his eyes, but when he opens them, he is laying on a strange mat-like-cot. He groans as he sits up, and notices that he is wearing a kimono for some reason. He gets to his feet and walks towards a strange sliding paper and wood door. He slides it, and is greeted by a strange black hallway. He looks down and see's a candle in a candle-tray.
'Oh buck me...' He mentally swears. 'Now I really wish I didn't watch those horror movies....' He thinks in his mind again, before the images of those beings reaching out to him play through his head for a split second, before they vanish. He shrugs and picks up the candle by the by the handle and walks down the dark hallway.
The walls are an interesting color of wood. They look sleek and shiny and even have a few unlit torches on them as well. he grabs the candle and lights the torches oil, and the lamps light up.
'Why would there be a torch in a Japanese style building? Hm...curiouser and curiouser...' Griphyx thinks to himself in his mind, before walking down the hallways. He keeps lighting up the torches, and he passes by rooms, were the doors are ajar or broken into. He starts to question his own sanity.
As he inspects one of the rooms with a torn apart door, he notices that the wall of the room and even a few patches of the floor and ceiling, as stained with what looks like blood. He walks over to what seems to be a puddle and dips a finger into it, before sniffing the strange liquid. He freezes as the scent of iron reaches his nose. He is quick to wipe the blood off and is paler than usual.
'Oh my god! I'm gonna bucking die!!' Griphyx screams in his head as he runs out of the room and turns down hallways. He runs down hallway after hallway after hallway. When he stops by rooms, and he see's blood everywhere, some have bodies, others don't. He even see's a few eyes staring out at him from rooms far too dark to peer into.
He runs and runs as fast as his legs can carry him. He hears screams of men, women and children, he even hears pleads for help. His eyes are filled with tears as he runs down more hallways, his only source of light is the candle. He reaches a set of stairs and he runs up them as fast as he can.
He looks over his shoulder as he reaches the top and opens a door. Tears go down his cheeks as he see's multiple pairs of eyes staring back at him. He screams and runs through the door, slamming it shut and presses his back against it and slides to the floor, where he sobs into his knees and he swears he can hear scratching against the door behind him. He runs into the corner and sobs harder.
He screams for hi brother, Celestia, Luna and even Nightmare. He curls into a ball on his side, and sobs harder and harder. His throat tightens, but he keeps sobbing and screaming like someone is out to kill him. The door breaks down as Harry, Luna, Nightmare, Celestia and a few monks rush into the room, to find Griphyx is covered in blood an sweat.
He rushes over and clings to Nightmare and sobs and screams into her chest. Everyone is startled.
"What happened!? Are you okay!??!" Nightmare asks frantically. Griphyx only sobs harder and he can hear the scratches against the door more and he places his hands over his ears as he stares at the door in pure and utter terror. He hides behind Nightmare and continues to sob and scream loudly. Nightmare curls around the boy and casts a spell to make his hearing vanish.
"Something is not right here..." Harry states. "Whatever is making Griphyx like this, it CAN'T be anything good." He states before looking at the monks. "What exactly do you keep in there?" He asks.
"We never put him there. He put in in a cot near you all. We never left your sides but only for a second, before we heard the screaming and sobbing." The first monk says before looking at the door. "But this place was originally a...sacrificial temple, to the gods. It was stated that there were men and women who were taken in the fifties and were found out back in the sixties." He continues.
"So was there a mystery case?" Luna asks. The monks nod.
"Yes." The second one starts. "It took ten years before the bodies were found and another five to find that room. They said it was behind a bookshelf and then a fake paper wall." He explains.
"I see..." Celestia states. She goes to continue, but then Griphyx speaks.
"So...much...blood..." He mutters as the spell wears off. He shakes and whimpers into Nightmare's neck and mane. She nuzzles him affectionately.
"Calm down, Griphyx. Now please explain what you experienced?" She asks. Griphyx sniffs and looks up at them, and they gasp. His pupils are slit more and their colors are now black and red.
"I had a dream of these...beings reaching out at me, before waking up down there...I..." He chokes up and sniffles. "I woke up on a mat and walked out...I had a candle and lit torches. As I walked through the hallways, I saw doors broken into or are ajar. I went into one of them and found...found.." He goes silent.
"Found what?" The first monk asks.
"Blood..." Griphyx says.
"Blood?" Harry asks.
"Tons and tons of blood...e-everywhere...I...I ran and when I passed by room, I saw more blood and even bodies..." He whimpers out, tears forming. Harry shakes slightly. "Then there were these eyes and then the screams and pleas for help were resounding everywhere..." He whimpers. "I slipped and fell into a puddle. But when I got up, I saw silhouettes of people and I ran more and when I got to the stares and open the doors, I saw those eyes peering up at me. And when I sat before the door and in the corner, I could hear scratching against it..." He whimpers out, tears streak down his cheeks as he buries his face into Nightmare's neck once more, sobbing.
Harry coughs and covers his mouth, as Celestia rubs his back gently. The two monks open the door and rush down the stairs after hearing Griphyx's story. Luna and Nightmare hold the young boy and hum lullabies to him. They smile softly and sadly to see him sleeping, but clinging to their forelegs as hard as he can.
"He has had a terrible experience..." Celestia states, walking over to the three. "We MUST make sure to try and comfort him as much as possible." She states with Harry passed out on her back.
"Indeed you do..." Says a man's voice. The three goddesses turn their heads quickly towards the open door and see a man leaning against the doorway. "He is going to be VERY important to us." He states with a condescending grin.
"Who are you?" Nightmare growls out.
"Oh, little old me? Oh I'm no one, just a messenger. And I have a message for you three." He sneers.
"What is it?" Celestia asks. The man chuckles as ancient Greek attire forms onto his form and has sandals with wings on them.
"Oh, just this. Don't lose...~" He chuckles out before he howls in laughter as a black diamond with red-outlining forms and tentacles of magical energy wrap around all of them and suck them into a portal. This is when their adventure begins.