Death is Truth

by Ricktin

Chapter 3

Magics' Form. A Swift Exit

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Reign of the Sun Goddess
Day 27th Month 3rd Year 997 8:13 PM

Ricktin and Rock Duster had returned to the outcropping to set up camp and look around for the rest of the temple that the cavern was allegedly attached. Hopefully, they could find something else that could tell the tale of the mysterious room.

Rock Duster was not keen on either his son, or himself spending too much time near the ritual circle, as he had heard rumors from other archeologists of an excavation party going into a section of what used to be the crystal empire and uncovering markings on a stone slab, frozen in an ice cave. It pertained to some ancient black magic, which they incidentally, in their fervor to discover its meaning, activated with the incantation and returned to Canterlot with odd ailments. He did not hear much more about the fiasco other than the horns of the unicorns that had returned were covered in some sort of black gemstone that prevented them from focusing their magic. While unicorn horns do not have many nerves, the gems supposedly penetrated deep enough to cause pain, the earth pony’s and pegasi were much worse off. He shivered at that thought. While he had never seen the ponies involved in that expedition, he had heard enough of the rumors to know to be wary of any magic that had to do with something unknown.

Rock Duster had just finished searching the area immediately below the entrance to the cavern with no luck and had finally returned to the camp. Celestia’s sun had already begun to sink down over the horizon and her moon was already making its rise into the sky above as he entered the camp to see Ricktin waiting for him near the cliffside. He hoped his son had been luckier in his search around the summit above them.

Ricktin took a deep breath of cold air and immediately exhaled; shaking his head slightly as he turned around to see his father standing near the campfire that he had lit. He shook his head some more and trotted over to the fire to sit down. “So, did you find anything interesting?” Ricktin said, looking through a nearby bag for something.

Rock Duster shook his head as he pulled a can of vegetable soup out of another bag. “Nothing but some samples of dolomite, limestone and a few gems.”

Ricktin pulled out a pot from the bag along with a canteen and filled the pot with water from the canteen before handing it to Rock Duster as he said with a hint of sarcasm, “I thought your Cutie Mark was for archeology, not geology.”

Rock Duster opened up the can with his magic and poured the contents into the pot as he laughed and then put the lid on the pot and placed it on some of the fires coals saying, “You don’t need a talent to know a little bit about rocks, and hey, maybe mine stands for both!”

Ricktin’s eye twitched as his tail flicked in annoyance. “Heh, yeah, except for the fact that the basics on pony talents states that ‘a Cutie Mark only stands for the specific talent that the pony excels at’.”

Rock Duster held up a hoof. “Ah, but even though that is true, a pony can still follow other avenues and, while they won’t learn as fast as they would with their own talent, they will still make progress in that direction.” He placed his hoof back on the ground and used his magic to check on the pot of soup while Ricktin angled his head to face the ground, his hair hiding most of his face as Rock Duster continued, “the point of a pony’s Cutie Mark is to represent what he or she enjoys, as well as what they excel at, but that does not tie them to that path, some ponies do not like the path shown to them and decide to make their own path.” He pulled the pot of the fire and placed it on a nearby rock to cool. “I know I’m being a bit repetitive here, but I just want you to know that you don’t need to get a cutie mark to do something you enjoy and do well in it, if you just focus you ca-“

“I GET IT OKAY!” Ricktin cut him off still facing the ground as he yelled in anger, “I Know I haven’t done anything to better my situation, but you don’t have to lecture me on something I already know!” his chest was heaving slightly as he tried to calm down.

“But I wasn’t try-“ Rock Duster started but was cut off again.

“Forget it, I’m not really hungry, I’ll see you in the morning.” And with that, Ricktin trotted quickly to his tent and disappeared through the entrance.

Rock Duster sighed sadly, opened up the pot and poured himself a bowl soup. As he ate he pulled out his notes and began to read the old tome he had been carrying around the entire day again, taking a sip of water from a nearby canteen now then. After getting through half of his bowl of soup he inspected something closely in the book and then looked back at his notes, then back at the book. Soon after he shut the book and put it and his notes into his saddle bag, slinging it onto his back and hesitantly headed for the entrance of the cave.

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Reign of the Sun Goddess
Day 27th Month 3rd Year 997 11:48 PM

As midnight approached on the mountain side Rock Duster had returned to the ritual room to try and find more in the writing that dotted the walls after having made a break through with some of the text.

“Hmm… ‘Gift of Chaos, in Harmony? Those chosen are blessed by the gods… to shape the world…?’.” Rock Duster furrowed his brow and rubbed his eyes, which had bags under them from being up most of the day. “Damn, still incomplete, what is it. Blessed by the gods, Draconiquus obviously. To shape the world, but for what purpose…?” He continued reading, occasionally looking behind him every now and then. The room seemed to have taken on a dark presence, giving him the eerie feeling of being watched. Soon he found a word in the draconian text he could not read and had to use the tome. Glancing at the page he had flipped to and the word he needed to translate and began to enunciate it. “Ta-le-ush… Tlush.” As he said it out loud, a large flash occurred on the ritual circle as a small dark glowing ball silently darted down the entry way. Rock Duster quickly turned around right as the flash disappeared, he stared at the ritual circle for a good five minutes, waiting, watching.

Nothing happened. He rubbed his eyes, shaking his head and mumbled, “Must be getting too tired,” and went back to reading the text.

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Reign of the Sun Goddess
Day 28th Month 3rd Year 997 12:03 AM

Ricktin tossed and turned in his tent, a grimace of confusion on his face, “why in the world did I blow up like that? I’ve never done that to dad before.” Ricktin got up, stepped out of his tent, sat down and looked up at the mare in the moon. The moon shone bright with the effigy of the night princess from children stories who had been banished to the moon for trying to create eternal night in an attempt for attention. As he stared up at the night sky he put his hoof up to his head, closing his eyes and grunting in slight pain. “Buck, what’s with all these damn head-aches…?” to busy with the pain in his head, Ricktin did not hear the light whistling noise until it got very close. His ears perked up. Opening his eyes he turned in the direction of the sound just in time to have something smash into his forehead knocking him onto his back making the back of his head hit the ground and lose consciousness. After a few moments Ricktin started to hyperventilate and struggle slightly. He quickly stopped though and his body was calm. The next time he opened his eyes, they were glazed over and vacant. Getting back up, he began moving, like a puppet on strings in the direction of the cave.

While he moved down through the cave the writings on the walls began to light up as he passed them and when he reached the entrance to the ritual room the light show went ahead of him and lit up all the writing on the walls. Rock Duster had, by now, turned around to face the approaching glow from the entrance and watched, shocked as the entire room became ablaze with blue, glowing words. Even what was left of the pillars on the ritual circle had come alive.

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Reign of the Sun Goddess
Day 28th Month 3rd Year 997 12:24 AM

“What in the name of the equestrian noble house...” Rock Duster said, stunned from the abrupt change in lighting. His cognitive skills returned as he saw Ricktin walking down the stone pathway up to the ritual circle. “Ricktin!” Rock Duster Shouted and started running around the outer circle to get to Ricktin, as he did though, the ground under his hooves began to melt and rise, reforming around them to hold him in place. He struggled against his stone binds as he fired energy blasts from his horn in attempt to break them, but he was only able to make minor chips in the stone.

Ricktin stepped to its center, a prismatic burst of color engulfed everything inside the ring of pillars as they began to shine white and those that were rubble reformed themselves into their pristine condition. “SON!” Rock Duster shouted again, his voice cracking as he did, the erupting energy beginning to darken, slowly losing its color as it crumpled in on itself until it was a compact dome just inside the pillars, vibrating slightly as if it was spinning, or having difficulty holding itself together. Rock Duster saw this and doubled his attempts at freedom as the dome rose a few feet off the ground and shrunk slightly to become a black vibrating orb.

Rock Duster's attempts were practically fruitless. Any progress he made seemed useless as his prison kept reshaping itself back to its original form. The pillars around the orb seemed to be getting brighter until they lit up entire room like it was outside in mid-day. Soon after, the pillars shot beams of white into the orb forcing it inwards as it seemed to fight and push back, bulging and spitting out in randomly in different directions. The pillars continued to shoot their beams until none of the orb was left, revealing Ricktin at the apex of where the beams met. The pillars stopped, losing their glow and returning to its normal lighting. Black and red flashed across Ricktin’s eyes, but faded as they closed and he fell to the ground, blood seeping from his mouth.

Rock Duster’s stone prison was suddenly still, its magic once again dormant. A few energy blasts later, he had himself and run over to Ricktin immediately checking for his breathing and pulse. He sighed in relief as he found both and wiped the blood off Ricktin’s mouth. Taking a moment to look around in concern at the renewed ritual circle, Rock Duster shook his head, lifted Ricktin as quickly as he could onto his back with his magic and took swift leave of the cave.

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Reign of the Sun Goddess
Day 28th Month 3rd Year 997 1:07 AM

After Rock Duster exited the cave he carefully placed Ricktin into the cart, then quickly loaded it, making sure nothing would fall over and land on Ricktin. After everything was loaded and Ricktin was safe and secure, Rock Duster moved the cart up above the cave and moved several nearby boulders to just above the entrance. He then kicked them off the edge where they landed, blocking it up and returned to the cart. He then hooked himself up and started the long trek down the mountain and back home, using his magic for extra strength in pulling the cart.

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Reign of the Sun Goddess
Day 29th Month 3rd Year 997 8:57 AM

On the way back, he was hurrying so fast he had to have made two days’ worth in one, occasionally looking behind him every now and then to check on his son.

He finally pulled into an open field near the road and set up camp. Exhausted as he was, Rock Duster got his tent set up and moved Ricktin into it, making him comfortable before lying down next to the entrance since there was no more room inside. Making sure he could hear Ricktin’s steady breathing, he finally let his eyes close and fell asleep.
Waking up the next morning Rock Duster heard some quiet groaning from inside the tent, hurriedly got up and looked inside to see that he was finally awake. “Oh thank Celestia,” he said as he placed his hoof on his face closing his eyes and letting relief wash over him.

Ricktin attempted to get up, but ended up just falling back into his sleeping bag holding a hoof over his forehead. “Ugh, it feels like I got mauled by a manticore.” He said while trying to focus on his father. “What happened…?” Ricktin felt the earth beneath the tent. “We’re not on the mountain… dad, what happened?” he asked, giving his father a concerned, but inquisitive look.

Rock Duster kept his hoof on his face in thought. Finally, after a few moments, he lowered his hoof back onto the ground and asked, First off do you remember what happened after you went to bed?”

Ricktin thought for a moment then shook his head still giving his father a concerned look. “Not in the slightest. Why? What happened?”

Rock Duster sighed, Replying, “Well, after you had gone to bed Ireturned to the ritual room to finish deciphering some of the draconian text. The writing seemed to pertain to the draconequus’ offering up their power to the other races so that they could change the world in some way, for them or for someone else I don’t know.” He seemed lost in thought, but then shook his head and continued, “Anyway, at the end of the draconian text there was a word that took me a while longer to figure out. Unfortunately it seems it was some kind of activating word. When I said it clearly, something happened on the ritual circle while my back was to it and before I could turn around and see what had happened it was already over. I didn’t really expect one word to do so much, so I assumed it was just my mind playing tricks on me. After I had returned to my work though, a blue glow steadily grew from the entrance until it rushed in and lit up everything on the walls. You were following close behind.” Rock Duster took a deep breath for a break. He then continued with the rest.

Ricktin tried moving again, but winced. “Mnf. I don’t remember any of this. How could I have gotten all the way from my tent, to the cave without remembering any of it?” he said confused.

Rock Duster put his hoof back to his. ”What ever happened before must have done something to you and, by its will, gotten you to move into the cave. I’m still trying to figure what the hay happened in there myself.” He sighed and sat down, hoof still to his head. “Right now though, I can’t really think too heavily on it. Let’s just focus on getting home for now.”

Ricktin ceased his attempts at movement and simply laid back in his tent. “Well, were you at least able to get the research you needed done?”

Rock Duster gave him a sad smile. “I think I got enough research from this to last me a life time,” he said as he got back up and moved farther into the tent. “But now that you’re awake, we need to check to make sure you don’t have any broken bones,” he gave an affirmative nod while taking hold of one of Ricktins back legs.

Ricktin winced as his leg was gripped and started grinning nervously. “Come on dad, you don’t have to do this. I mean, couldn’t you have checked while I was unconscious? And can’t you use your magic, so that, you know, you won’t cause me pain?”

Rock Duster shook his head and replied, “Nope, there was too much going on and it would have been too difficult to check for any fractures while you were unconscious.” He then raised an eye brow continuing, “And what. You think I’m Celestia’s personal student?” Rock Duster chuckled, “I don’t know everything. Now hold still, I’m going use some yoga techniques your mother showed me so that any fractures won’t be disturbed.” Rock Duster started to raise Ricktin’s leg.

“Well wait now hold onthere I’m notready wait holdon wait waitwaitwaitwait AHGK!” Ricktin all but shouted as a popping sound resounded in the tent, his body shaking slightly.

“Well looks like that one was only out of place. If that’s the case then I’m sure the rest will go just as smoothly,” Rock Duster said as he laid the first leg down, rolled his shoulders and got ready to ease the next one up.

Ricktin’s body twitched slightly as he heard this and a grin slid across his face as his eyes fell half shut appearing to generate bags under them and he said hoarsely, “Great.”