Unwanted Legacies
Upheaval: Reckoning
Chapter 17: Unwanted Legacies
The Everfree occupied a unique place in the minds of Twilight, and her friends. It was a dangerous place, full of creatures like cockatrices, parasprites, and timber wolves, as well as unnatural things like self-moving clouds, and independent wildlife. Yet, it was also in this place that they went from random acquaintances to the closest of friends, where they freed Princess Luna from Nightmare Moon, and the place Zecora lived in.
Some of the trepidation that came from visiting Everfree had disappeared now that they were back here. Perhaps, it was because they had gotten used to uncontrolled weather in the Barrier Lands, as well as being around constant danger.
The trip to Everfree Castle proved uneventful, the lone highlight being a brief encounter with timber wolves. A pack investigated their presence at a distance, only to give them a wide berth; an understandable decision. Predators preferred easy pickings: lost young, or injured prey, not a group of armed ponies. Twilight subtly steered the Special Operations ponies away from Zecora’s hut. She didn't know the Barrier Lands attitude towards zebras, and now wasn't the time to find out.
It was a late afternoon sun’s rays that filtered through the canopy of leaves by the time they were looking up at the ruins of Everfree Castle. While the forest lost some of its mystique, the castle made up for it by gaining a dark aura. This was a place of betrayals: Princess Luna betraying her sister all those centuries ago, and Clover the Clever betraying the legends of her greatness that they had grown up with. Despite hundreds of years of abandonment, the forest had barely reclaimed the area around the castle. A few vines and stunted trees were the only attempts on the foliage’s part to blot out a site where Clover the Clever did who knew what.
“No lollygagging now,” Nightcanter said as she walked past Twilight. The ponies from Special Operations didn't seem affected by the dark atmosphere.
Twilight couldn't say the same for herself. She swallowed nervously, taking note that the sky seemed darker around this place even though it should still be afternoon. She looked to her friends; they looked just as nervous. Afterwards, she trotted after Captain Nightcanter.
“So where are we going?” she asked. “We didn't see any other passage the last time we went here.”
“We’re not looking for hidden passageways,” Nightcanter replied. “You don’t really think that Lexarius, and Princess Celestia would rely on hidden passageways to hide a place like Clover the Clever’s last refuge, do you?”
“I suppose not,” Twilight said. They were back in the Chamber of Elements, the same place where Nightmare Moon was driven from Princess Luna. Nothing had changed since their last visit here. The gray stone walls looked a little more worn, and there might be a few more cracks on the floor. Nightcanter pulled out a scroll from a saddlebag, and held it with magic. “What’s that?” she asked.
“Our way in,” Nightcanter replied. “We’ll use it to both enter, and leave. Everypony get close to me, we’ll be teleporting there once I read this.”
Everypony gathered around Nightcanter as she began reading. Twilight couldn't make heads or tails of the words, but the language sounded familiar. She turned towards Applejack. “Do you think it’s the same language that the Queen used?”
“Dunno,” Applejack replied. “I can’t even tell where one slippery word ends and another starts, to be honest.”
A circle of golden light surrounded them, followed by a faint humming sound, and a blinding flash. They shut their eyes tight to keep from being blinded. The familiar feeling of a teleportation spell tugged at them. This was no ordinary teleportation, however. Twilight felt like she passed through something: some kind of intangible wall. The next thing she knew, she was neck-deep in some kind of cold liquid.
Rarity suddenly shrieked, followed by some frantic splashing. For a bleak moment, Twilight thought that they were under attack. She shook her head, as if that could clear her vision faster. “Nopony told me we were going to start wading in water!” Rarity wailed. “This moisture is going to wreak havoc on my hooves!”
“What’s going on?” Fluttershy yelped. “Help! Something just slithered past my legs!”
“That was just my tail,” Rainbow said. “I think…”
“Shut up, and stop splashing about!” Nightcanter snapped. “We’re blinded, and the first thing you do is drown out any sound?”
The splashes and cries stopped at once. Without any distractions, Twilight could now focus on her other senses. She couldn't see well enough to tell what the liquid was. The ground beneath was slick, as if they were standing on a layer of mold. The air was musty, and damp, with a foul lingering odor she couldn't quite place. As the glare faded enough to reveal a new problem: it was pitch dark.
“We need a light,” Nightcanter said. Both Twilight, and Captain Foxfire cast the same spell. Two balls of soft-glowing light floated next to their casters, bathing the nearby surroundings in pale blue illumination. Twilight looked at what she was standing in.
The dead eyes of a pony’s corpse stared back at her.
Despite Nightcanter’s previous warning, Twilight screamed. She reared up in a panic that quickly infected the rest of her friends.
“Where in tarnation are we?” Applejack shouted.
Fluttershy looked down, shrieked, and flew out of the water. Rainbow also began hovering. Rarity, and Pinkie were floundering as if they were about to drown. Even the Special Operations ponies looked disturbed.
Thanks to the light, the group got a good look at what they were standing in. They were wading in a wide pool of what appeared to be water. Scattered around the bottom of the pool were the bodies of several ponies, their eyes still open. Despite what may well be thousands of years, they were remarkably well preserved. All the trashing also caused the water to displace them, panicking Twilight and her friends even more.
“Settle down!” Nightcanter snarled. “It’s just corpses!” She looked around, then pointed towards the elevated edges of the pool. They were inside a large chamber with this pool as its central feature. Their lights didn't extend far enough to see the edges of the room. “Let’s get out of this pool." Everypony else was all too happy to comply. A minute later, they were collecting themselves by the edges.
“W-w-where are we?” Fluttershy asked. She shivered violently. The others were concentrating on drying up. Twilight conjured a small ball of flames to help them. After that, she looked around. The floor was dark blue marble as were the walls. They appeared in good condition, perhaps as a side-effect of the sealing.
‘Got to give it to Clover the Clever,’ Nightcanter said. "This may be her last refuge, but she still built it with some style. Sparkle, can you get your light to the ceiling?”
Twilight nodded and pale blue light soon illuminated the rather high ceiling. There were no windows. It was likely that they were deep underground. She tried not to think of the tons of rock that were bearing down on them. Instead, she focused on making her light hover across the room to get a better look at the surroundings.
“Check that out…” Nightcanter said breathlessly when the light reached to the center of the chamber’s ceiling. Twilight could understand the sudden sense of awe when she saw it as well. She increased the intensity of her light to give them all a better view.
An enormous engraving dominated the central part of the ceiling. At the center was a pony’s head looking down on the pool of water beneath it. Twilight wasn't sure if the head was supposed to be a stallion’s or a mare’s. Its features closely resembled an alicorn’s, instead of a normal pony's. A great mass of tentacles emerged from the head, like a twisted version of the sun’s rays. They extended throughout the ceiling, reaching where the edges of the pool were beneath. Caught in the morass of tentacles were several ponies: unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, even alicorns.
“Oceanus,” Nightcanter whispered.
“What was going on here?” Twilight asked in an equally soft tone. It was as if they were standing in the presence of Oceanus himself, and were trying futilely to avoid drawing attention to themselves.
“This must be the sacrificial chamber,” Nightcanter replied. “Sacrifices were done often in the Old Kingdom.” She looked at the pool of water, and wrinkled her nose. “The preferred method was drowning. They broke the legs of their sacrifices, and dumped them in the center of pools like this one.”
Twilight refused to look at the pool again. The bloated bodies were one thing. The idea behind them was far worse; ponies sacrificing each other for power. She stared at the central figure above them. What kind of prince demanded that his ponies drown others for his favor? The outrage in Prince Terrato’s answer when she had called Oceanus his sibling echoed in her mind. She understood that outrage now. Oceanus was supposed to be their progenitor, the father she shared with every pony in Equestria. To be related to this monster in any way, was disgusting. Even the very blood running through her suddenly felt tainted.
Nightcanter stood up. “That’s enough warming up," she said. "We’re not here to get cozy with each other, so let’s go.”
The others complied. Nightcanter's squad was doing fine. So was Fourth Squad. Twilight's friends, on the other hoof, had taken a hit from just arriving in this place. Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity were looking a little sick. The darkness, and dampness were smothering their spirits. Applejack, and Rainbow were holding up better, but were still clearly affected by this place.
Nightcanter cast her own light spell to help brighten the conditions. It didn't take long for them to spot a hall, large enough to accomodate their group with ease, leading out of the chamber. The only sounds came from their steady hoof falls as they walked through the corridor. Nightcanter passed a hoof over the marble walls as she walked past. They were adorned with an undecipherable, spidery script that seemed to dance about if stared at for too long.
“Captain Nightcanter,” Twilight said.
“What is it?”
“Once I get to Canterlot, you think I can spend some time in the hidden archives? I’d like to learn more about this ‘Old Kingdom’.”
“Not really my call there, Sparkle,” Nightcanter replied. “Try talking to one of the royalty.”
“I will,” Twilight said. She tried once again to make some sense of the writings. The characters writhed before her eyes as she focused on them, mocking any attempt at trying to get them to make sense.
“Woah, what was that?” Rainbow hollered. Loaded crossbows were quickly pointed towards where she was looking at, only to end up being pointed at a wall. The Special Operations ponies looked at her askance. “The wall moved!” Rainbow tapped the wall with a hoof. “I swear, I saw it move!”
“Don’t look at those squiggly letters, sugarcube,” Applejack said. “They do some funny stuff to your eyes if you look too hard.”
They stopped at an intersection. From where they were facing, the hallways going left and right ended in double stone doors, while the hallway straight ahead continued to go on.
“We’d better split up,” Foxfire said. She surveyed the group, then looked at their choices. “Two groups of five and a group of four?”
Nightcanter nodded. “Make sure each group gets a light,” she said. She looked over to her vice captain. “Shale, take Riproar, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and that white unicorn with you. Quillfeather and I will go with the pink earth pony, the yellow pegasus, and the rainbow pegasus.”
“You could at least learn our names,” Rainbow muttered as she took her place by Nightcanter’s side.
“Fourth Squad will take the central hallway,” Foxfire said.
Nightcanter led her group towards the left hallway, and gestured for Shale Hide’s group to take the right one. “Call out at the first sign of our objective or trouble,” she told them.
It took three ponies to eventually pry open the double doors that blocked off Twilight’s group. Though Shale Hide was clearly the leader for this occasion, it was Twilight who walked ahead of them. She shone the light into another room. This one was smaller than the sacrificial chamber, but still quite sizable. The ball of light hovered over a fallen bookcase and a large pile of scattered books. With a gasp, Twilight moved the light about quickly, and saw even more books.
“Library,” Shale Hide muttered. He picked his way past the scattered books, then looked back to the rest of the group. “See if you can find anything useful among those things.”
Twilight eagerly grabbed the nearest book she could find. To her disappointment, she was faced with the same spidery script that marked the walls. She doubted that the others would make sense.
“I don’t think you should just go around diving into any book that Clover the Clever wrote, Twilight,” Applejack said with a disapproving frown. “This whole place doesn't feel right, and I don’t trust any book written by a pony who’d live here.”
“Clover the Clever is dead, Applejack,” Twilight replied. She continued to search through the books. Perhaps, Clover the Clever switched languages at some point. “Knowledge about her, and what she associated with, can’t be inherently evil.”
“I’m not so sure about that." Applejack's frown softened. "Anyway, are you really going to head for Canterlot after this?”
Twilight shrugged. “Probably. I want to find out more about the Old Kingdom as soon as I get there.”
“I think you should see your family first.”
“That goes without saying, Applejack,” Twilight said through gritted teeth. She was getting completely fed up with this annoying hick. Even Applejack's presence was setting her teeth on edge. It must be that sweaty farm pony stink that clung to her constantly. Combine that with her better-than-you “integrity”, her shameless flirting, her obsession with apples, those ugly freckles, and that annoying accent, it was no wonder that Rainbow tried to beat her face in back in Bastion City. Why couldn't she just fade into the background? Nopony liked her. She was just some backwards, inbred, caricature of a countryside bumpkin.
An idea came to mind. The right spell should put Applejack in her place. Something flashy to make her an example to others…a fire spell sounded just about right. She could just imagine it: flames charring that orange hide, the flesh underneath melting, her cutie mark turning into roasted apples...
‘What…what am I thinking?” Twilight pressed a hoof against her head. She dropped the book, and looked guiltily behind her.
Applejack continued to stare while Twilight flipped through that evil book. It was becoming more and more obvious that this witch had to be put down for everypony’s good.
Twilight was out of control. She stuck her nose into things she shouldn't, and tainted everything she touched with her filthy magic. How many times had Twilight's magic caused trouble in Ponyville? She wielded spells that controlled others without any hesitation. She bossed everypony around at every opportunity, and paraded her status as Princess Celestia's student as if that made her crap gold, and her fart perfume.
Applejack's eyes shifted to the chain she had around her neck. Twilight’s magic was dangerous, but a lasso around her neck would snap it with a single tug before the first spell could fly. It wouldn't be too hard either. The miserable bookworm probably had glass bones from being a layabout, hoity-toity, Canterlot snob. But a surprise attack would be too quick, and unsatisfying. No, it would be better to knock Twilight with a jaw-shattering kick, then choke her. Unicorn magic was useless if they couldn't concentrate, and Twilight was going to have a hard time concentrating with a broken jaw, and her lungs about to burst. Applejack was going to enjoy seeing the smug little nag struggle desperately. Twilight’s eyes would bulge in terror, realizing too late that all the knowledge she had learned, all the magic she had accumulated, and all the plans she had carefully prepared would amount to nothing. Then her tongue would loll, and her heart would stop…
Applejack shook her head. ‘What in tarnation? Why was I--” She saw Twilight eyes on her, and looked away, suddenly afraid that Twilight had caught a glimpse of what she had just been thinking.
Twilight opened her mouth to say something. “Applejack I--”
A stallion screamed from a distance. Their group turned around, and galloped towards the intersection.
Nightcanter, and her group had ended up in a bedroom. This must be the place Clover the Clever slept when she wasn't trying to break the seals on the rift. The trappings of luxury were still in place despite all the centuries. The bedside table had silverware on it, finely engraved, and looking as if it had just been polished hours ago. Sheets of fine dark blue silk, embroidered with gold thread covered the bed, and the many soft pillows. She placed a hoof on the bedding, and sniffed at the mild fragrance of spices. It was as if the room had removed itself from the passage of time.
The bed look so inviting that Nightcanter instinctively glanced towards the three chosen mares in the room. That would be an interesting situation...she shook her head. That was crazy, she was in the middle of work and she wasn't going that far no matter what. She looked to see how they were doing.
“Pinkie, are you alright?” Fluttershy asked. Pinkie was visibly shaking, despite the room being tolerably warm. Nightcanter looked around the room with her light, and found nothing to merit that sort of fear.
“What’s going on here?” Nightcanter asked after walking over to the two. She looked at Pinkie. “Is she coming down with a fever or something?”
Fluttershy felt Pinkie’s forehead with a hoof, and shook her head.
“W-w-we should get out of here,” Pinkie said. “M-m-my Pinkie sense is going crazy!”
“Not until we get what we’re looking for,” Nightcanter replied. “Spread out, and look for anything we can use.”
Fluttershy continued to stay with Pinkie, while Rainbow, and Quillfeather did as ordered. “Can’t you turn your Pinkie Sense off?” Fluttershy asked. “All that shaking can’t be good for you!”
“I w-w-wish I could!” Pinkie answered. “I t-t-think my teeth are going to fall off!” Her eyes widened, and she went for her saddlebags. She pulled out a small piece of slate covered in strange writing and gems.
As soon as Pinkie touched the piece of slate, she noticed what seemed to be a stream of faint colors running through the walls, ceiling, and floor. She squinted at the sight. It was as if the walls had become partly translucent and she could barely make out something at the other side. As she looked on, she noticed even more of the stream around her. There was something going on with the walls as well. They looked…squirmy.
“Are you alright, Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked again.
“Ooooh…”
Pinkie stared as several black tentacles sprouted from the walls. The bright colors around them darkened, and blurred around the spot where the tentacles were. One of them wrapped lightly around Rainbow's neck. 'Why hasn't anypony noticed this?' she thought. She looked towards the others, but a loud cry from Rainbow jerked her attention back to her friends. There was a loud thud of something heavy striking the ground. Something struck the wall behind Fluttershy with a metallic clink. Pinkie walked over to see what it was.
Fluttershy didn't look to see what just flew past her. There was a mild stinging sensation around the edges of her left ear, followed by the feeling of something thick trickling down from that spot. She ignored it, however, and ran over to Rainbow. “Rainbow, are you alright?” she asked. “What happened?”
Rainbow was lying on her side. She looked dazed after apparently hitting her head against the wall. Her unloaded crossbow lay right next to her. She shook her head to clear it, then looked worriedly at Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, are you hurt?” she asked. “Are you bleeding?”
“I’m fine,” Fluttershy replied.
Pinkie searched the floor briefly, and spotted the thing that flew past Fluttershy. It was a bolt. She looked back to Fluttershy, and saw the thin trail of red that ran down Fluttershy's ear only to soak into her long, pink mane.
Rainbow stared at the crossbow before putting it away. What had just happened? Why was she trying to shoot Fluttershy, thinking that useless, whining mares were better off being put out of their misery? The next thing she knew, she was already pulling the firing lever on her crossbow. She had managed to jump to the side to make sure she missed. A quick look at Fluttershy showed just how close she was to failing.
“What do you think you’re doing, Rainbow Dash?” Nightcanter asked as she came over.
“I…I don’t know," Rainbow pressed her hooves against her temples. "I’m with Pinkie, I think we should get out of here.”
The scream of a stallion came from outside the room. Fearing the worst, all of them swiftly ran out. They encountered Shale Hide’s group, then headed straight for the central corridor. It was Nightcanter who first crossed the doorway. “Foxfire!” she shouted. “What’s with all the screaming? Celestia drill my backside, what happened?”
The central hallway had also led to a pair of doors. Inside was a circular chamber as large as the one with the sacrificial pool. Instead of a pool, however, a large podium stood at the center. On top of it was a plain, leather-bound tome. In front of the podium appeared to be a coffin made of black glass
Three ponies lay on the ground while a panting Captain Foxfire stood just a few feet away. “Fogbound suddenly pulled a knife on us,” Foxfire said between pants. “He got Palemane, and Cloven before I took him out.”
Nightcanter scowled at the sight. “There goes Fourth Squad,” she muttered. She inspected the tome while Fluttershy trotted over to Foxfire to check for injuries.
“Wait!” Pinkie cried out before Fluttershy could even come close to Foxfire. The others stared at her in puzzlement. As she continued to hold on to the piece of slate, the colors slowly became more vivid. Now, it was as if the entire refuge was submerged in a giant river of colors. The walls were still black and translucent, but she saw something else as well. More slender black tendrils slithered out of the letters. They were all over the place, like some monstrous infection. Some were trying to touch her friends, but a bunch of them were already wrapped tightly around Foxfire. “She’s the bad guy,” she said.
“What?” Nightcanter asked. She took a step towards Foxfire, who was now staring intensely at Pinkie.
“She’s the bad guy!” Pinkie said again, louder this time. Foxfire snarled, then began to intone. Before she could finish, a pair of bolts, and a lone blade, struck her side. Rainbow, and Shale already reloading. The blade removed itself from Foxfire, and floated back to Rarity, who immediately set about wiping it clean with a piece of cloth.
“Why did she do that?” Rarity asked. “Was she…was she working for Black Rose?”
Pinkie barely heard Rarity, however. The colors were fading. It was as if all the energy in her body had just leaked out. The next thing she knew, the ground was coming up to meet her, and everything was going dark.
“What just happened?” Nightcanter asked. She looked Pinkie over to check for injuries. Other than being completely out, Pinkie was fine.
“It’s this place,” Twilight answered. She lifted her by magic, and settled her on Applejack's back. “It’s doing something to us. We need to leave.”
Nightcanter nodded, then went over to get the tome. It looked like it was the most important thing here. She looked over to the coffin, and considered bringing it along as well. “So Clover the Clever spent her last days sleeping in a room next to a tomb,” she said. “Whatever worked, I guess.”
The lid suddenly slid to the side at a touch from Nightcanter. All of them gathered behind her in alarm. The inside was still covered by a clear glass pane. Past that, suspended as if by magic, were the skeletal remains of a pony.
“Twilight…” Applejack said. “Why is that skeleton wearing your country music singer outfit?”
Twilight swallowed, then put a trembling hoof against the glass pane. It looked as if she was having trouble breathing. “It can’t be,” she whispered. "The bells...the hat...the cloak..."
“Brace yourselves,” Nightcanter said. “We’re taking it with us.”
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Oceanus is pretty much Cthulhu.
He was already set up as such, what with the ages-long repose in the depths of the sea and hinted-at aquatic minions, but the tentacles seal it as being a direct reference.
"No lollygagging now," another Skyrim reference?
pony sacrifices? for Oceanus? hmm, getting their life essence to bring him back maybe? or powering up Clover the Clever, just like Black Rose did.
evil book of all things evil... and a coffin with Starswirl the Bearded...
Applejack and Twilight thinking of murdering each other and RD actually almost shooting Fluttershy...
Pinkie discovering/being taken over by the lay lines... also a side note, if she fainted now there is a chance foe any of the remaining unicorns to accidently pick up the rune tablet thingy with magic. maybe Nightcanter knows what it is...
This is a great chapter, but there is one thing I wish I could not just draw but animate - the scene where RD, Shale (is it another reference to a certain other RPG?) and Rarity take out Foxfire... I mean, really, this just got up to the most badass scene in the series, sorry Twilight taking out Fangbreaker's gates with one spell, Rarity cleaning her dagger right after she killed a pony is better :p also, this kinda proves my point. RD and Rarity have a pretty practical approach, kill the enemy or be killed. I hope we'll get some more of what’s going in their heads with that, probably, automatic reaction.
Also, and I'm just guessing here, Foxfire could have been taken over by ghost or something of Clover the Clever. So there is a chance that it will try to stop them again.
Also, we are another spec ops squad less.
Next chapter prediction: Shining Armor and Vanguard dealing with the undead… or Spike learnig that he’s an omnivore part two.
i only have this to say... THEY FOUND BUCKING STARSWORL THE BEARDED!!!!! and the elements somehow have more controll than expected. welp one squad down 3 more to go. torotto's losing spec ops fast. and i think the runes on the wall are rage, jelousy, and fear all deterents to keep out introuders not to mention if they arnt scared off initialy they kill themselves off by attcking each other. good job cheers.
I hope we get an explanation for the bells.
Starswirl
I suspect that either Clover was attempting to corrupt Starswirl by keeping him trapped next to such negative energy, or it is Starswirl himself producing the energy.
Oh well Nightcanter, if you will send a group of redshirts off on their own like that, you can't really be surprised when something bad happens to them.
starswirl is taging along now huh... hope twi get some weird ideas of use the remains of her biggest hero...hehehe damn its good >.<
im so glad its now on fimfiction
I'm just really confused over how strange Nightcanter is.
Really, one of her first thoughts when entering the bedroom with RD, Fluttershy and Pinkie.... Gah!
Cool chapter though, really liking the whole Earth-pony power thing that Pinkie has.
607397 I think that was whatever force that was causing Twilight and AJ to think about killing each other acting on her, except it played on her lust instead of jealousy
img.ponibooru.org/_images/8fc70632ff9e4c6590914e24442324ab/73884%2520-%2520beard%2520caption%2520costume%2520episode_30%2520macro%2520nightmare_night%2520season_2%2520sTaR_sWiRl_ThE_bEaRdEd%2520twilight_sparkle.jpg
! Truly I am excited now! Ever since Fancy Pants died, I have been feeling lonely, but a bit of Starswirl stories is just what I needed! I really, really hope that Starswirl is a good guy, he's my childhood hero. Sweetie Belle may be best background pony, but Starswirl is best pony mentioned only by name.
608647
That... actually makes a lot of sense. Huh.
"While her group spread out, she guessed that this must be the place Clover the Clever took slept when she wasn’t trying to break the seals on the rift."
Delete this word?
Anyway, I love this story dude, keep it up!
Best chapter in awhile; keep it up!
yes!!! a glimps at PINKIE POWAH
damn it, where's a cynical fat elementary schooler who has a penchant for genocide, and controlling aquatic horrors beyond time when you need him?
Obviously I'm enjoying the story if I've read this far into it, but I have to complain about this chapter. In the later parts, it's shit. You don't describe something unless it's noticed by the characters, and then only when noticed. Please revise to fit? It would be better to later describe that there's a coffin there, when it actually matters.
929061 um, the coffin was mentioned in the description of the room, which was described when the 'camera' entered the room for the first time:
"The central hallway had also led to a pair of doors. Inside was a circular chamber as large as the one with the sacrificial pool. This one had no pool however. Instead, a large podium stood at the center of the chamber. On top of it was a plain, leather-bound tome. In front of the podium stood what appeared to be a coffin made of black glass."
so I'm not sure what you're complaining about, care to expand?
Hee hee, shit is messing this their brains. Also, Luna is best Royalty (I just can't pick best pony). I would leave more, but that would stop me from going to the next chapter, sorry.
I'm following this story along with Forest Rain's audiobook, and thus far I'm enjoying this every bit as much as the first book of this series.
Well then, Oceanus is starting to sound like some Old One horror, as I suspected he might be. Th plot thickens by the chapter...
The whole deal with the 6 founders is giving me Bloodborne vibes all over. Which is now making me picture the remains of Clover the Clever wearing Micolash's cage helmet which will lead them to a nightmare world where they have to fight her. That would awesome now that I think about it.
Fear the old blood little Ponies
4223974
Well as the first Rebel, I'd say Yes he is an Old One.
909906
Was that an Earthbound reference?
610023
I believe Oceanus is the Alicorn of Sin. Both AJ and Twilight were thinking thoughts of Wrath/Envy while Nightcanter was having thoughts of Lust. Kinda wonder what Rarity and Fluttershy had.
10653288
Nightcanter is always having thoughts of lust. And according to Pinkie, she didn't have a tentacle around her neck. At least, she didn't tell us whether she did or didn't. Besides, what kind of thoughts did Rainbow have towards Fluttershy? Contempt? That's not one of the seven deadly sins.