Certamen

by DarkBunny91

The Times We Live In

Darkness. All consuming darkness. No sense of up or down, no sense of time. Just a void in every direction, trapped alone with just my thoughts and silence. Imprisoned in my own mind, a stranger inside my own head.

I wasn’t really asleep per the word, as I could feel my breaths entering and exiting my lungs, my muscles twitching beneath my fur, and I could feel my heart beating. Ba-bump, ba-bump. But I couldn’t feel anything external, no grass against my skin, no air movement. Just myself inside the void, my flesh a prison in the truest sense of the word. It was Tartarus.

I thought back to my friends. Vinyl with her passion, marching forward to a beat only she could hear, but still very clearly full of doubt and uncertainty. Trixie with her bravado and arrogance, masking a whole plethora of insecurities about where she belonged in the world. My sweet Bonnie, home and safe in Ponyville with all the others.

Wait, no, not all the others, I saw Octavia, she was here. She attacked me. She beat me down, and put this amulet on me. What does it do?

I tried to reach out again with my magic, welling up the energy inside me, focusing it to my horn, directing the flow to probe the aether and touch the damn thing, but again, I could accomplish nothing…

But wait. This time was different. There was a pulse back.

Who touches the Sun? It was an oddly familiar presence, projecting the thoughts into my head. Was I not as alone as I had presumed?

“Hello,” I tried thinking back, “my name is Lyra Heartstrings, I don’t know what’s happening right now.”

My little pony, how is it that you have touched your consciousness to the sun? None, not even the mightiest unicorns alive are able to touch it, let alone project their will into it, yet today as I try to raise it, I find somepony has asserted their will onto the heavenly body.

“Princess Celestia?” It seemed unreal, yet as real as anything else in this forsaken place.

Indeed, I gather you are not here of your own free will, so I must ask, how did you find yourself in this place?

I thought about it for a moment, gathering my wits, heart beating a little faster as the prospect that I might be getting out of here, before answering, “I believe it was this little gold pendant that was -is?- latched around my neck.”

There was a pregnant pause, while she considered what I said. I could feel her observing me, laying me bare before her discerning gaze. Uncertainty made its way into my being again, anxiety rising as the thought of what was happening actually forced itself into my forethought.

Finally the somber alicorn broke the silence. Lyra, this is going to be rather uncomfortable for you, what I’m about to do. Possibly the most painful thing you will ever have to go through. I believe I know the culprit of your current dire straits, an ancient relic from before the three tribes united. It was one of the things that allowed the unicorn tribe to move the sun and moon before my sister and I ascended. It is called Sat Imperium, it allows a trained wielder to connect to the sun and move it across the sky. I thought it destroyed, but I know of no other such device that could imprison you so. I apologize for what is about to happen, but you will be cleansed of all dark magics working against your soul, freeing you from it’s effect.

In the blink of an eye, before I could even respond, everything inverted, the darkness bloomed into into fire and light, and every inch of my being became fuel for the enormous pyre. All of my sins and faults burst into flame, while my dreams and desires, burned to ash and blossoming into life simultaneously. I felt like clay inside of a kiln, heated while undergoing a physical transformation from soft and pliable to a solid constant. It was awesome, it was terrifying.

After what felt like an eternity of pain, I noticed a new sensation, dampness on my skin. It was a strange relief to feel something outside of me. I was awake; I mean, I hurt like the dickens, but I was in fact awake. I tried to say something, but my throat was dry and severely swollen and all I could do was make a rasping sound as the air forced it’s way past my vocal cords. Frustrated I just grumbled mutely for a second while trying to adjust to being in my body again.

I tried to open my eyes, but only one was able to open more than a sliver, the other just throbbed and sent a new spike of pain through my shattered body. I gazed around without moving my head, as much as I could; it appeared I was in the campsite again. I could see the sleeping form of Trixie snuggled up under her usually pristine cape; what I could see of it appeared wartorn now.

There was a water canteen casting a long shadow in the early morning glow sitting within reach of where I was lying. I tried to reach my left hoof out towards it, but I could tell right away that my pastern was fractured, so I rolled slightly onto my back to reach out with the right.

“Sweet Celestia, you’re awake,” a familiar voice cried out, startling me, “here, let me help you with that.”

Vinyl lept into view, horn alight, casting off a red glow that matched the aura that manifested around the canteen. It rose off the ground and I opened my mouth expectantly, unsure of what else I would be expected to do.

Sweet relief poured down my throat, soothing the dryness, though, much to my chagrin, I could taste my blood with each swallow. My eye widened as the thought of blood and drinking made the connection in my mind and I felt my teeth with my tongue. To my surprise, I was greeted with normal, non-fanged pony teeth. I looked at Vinyl and smiled; she looked concerned, but her scowl quickly changed to a smile of relief as she noticed.

“You totally didn’t change,” she sighed contentedly.

“Nope,” I whispered, cringing a bit at the raspy tone of my voice.

“You do sound like horse apples though,” she jived.

Gently, I nodded my head, careful in case there was damage I was unaware of. There was a bit of stiffness, probably a mixture of swelling and being immobile for so long. Then I remembered my main concern.

“My leg is broken.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“I need a splint on it; find two small sturdy sticks and a piece of cloth, like one of the longer tatters of Trixie’s cape,” I laboured, each word hurting slightly less than the last

“Aight, just one sec.”

“Thanks.”

I tried to gather my magic to seal the fissure in my bone, but I could barely make a few sparks appear, let alone focus anything. My head hurt so bad it was amazing I could even do that, so I wasn’t really all that surprised. With an exasperated croak, I rolled over onto my left side; even that little bit was almost too much for me right now, as evidenced when my leg impacted the ground, shooting a fresh spike through my body.

Concern etched deep into Vinyl’s brow as she leaned over me and into my line of sight again. She had a couple of sticks in her telekinetic grip and a piece of blue and white cloth in her mouth.

“Place the sticks on either side of my leg, so that they extend above and below my foreleg,” I said, “then tear the cloth into two strips.” After a breath, I continued, “And tie one around the cannon and the other around the small pastern.”

With fervor she complied and within a matter of moments my leg was splinted. Careful to avoid putting pressure on it, I rolled over onto my stomach and rose shakily to my hooves.

“Quite a role reversal, no?” I joked.

Vinyl gave me a sideways stare, “I’m not even going to dignify that. I do have a question to ask though... “ There was quite a long pause, and I noticed red moisture forming around the corners of her eyes. “Was it Octavia?”

“Yes.”

She grieved loudly and shambled over to the wall; she reared up on her hind legs and lashed out. *CRACK* Stone exploded out from the point of impact as she fell onto her haunches.

“Why, Octi, for the love of Celestia, why?”

I limped over to her and nuzzled into the nape of her neck. “It’s not easy for me either, but I can’t imagine what you must be going through right now.”

“How could she do this? She is… was one of the kindest and coolest ponies I knew. How could she betray me like this?”

“Betray us, you aren't the only one she stabbed in the back.”

“You two make it hard to sleep,” Trixie muttered.

“Good morning to you too, sunshine,” I retorted.

“How are you feeling, Lyra?” Trixie asked, a touch of concern tinting her voice.

I sighed. “I hurt pretty bad, feeling kinda like I got hit by a train to be honest. Leg’s broken and I can't open an eye.”

“Trixie meant in more of a, eat other ponies and bad sunburns kind of way.”

I shot her a look with my one good eye. “Thanks for your concern. I'm not changed, I think it might have to do with something Celestia did while I was trapped in the sun.”

“Trixie knows you got hit on the head, maybe it did a little more damage than initially thought,” The mare commented, sounding a tad bit more alarmed.

“I'm serious, something about this amulet linked me to the sun,” I gestured at it with my broken leg. “It caused my consciousness to be transferred out of my body and into it.”

“And you mentioned Celestia, how does she fit in?” Vinyl cut in.

“Well, she cast some sort of spell on me, she said I was ‘cleansed of all dark magics’ so I'm guessing she kept me from turning.”

“Are you kidding me?” Vinyl yelled, “The princesses have the ability to remove vamprism and no one thought to contact them when I got bit?”

“I don't have a direct line to Celestia, Vinyl. Also, I had no idea.”

“Don't even pretend now like you haven't spoken to Luna in your dreams. If there was a cure, why the buck did they let me turn into a parasite!”

“Vinyl, I think you're over reacting,” I began, trying to calm her.

“Over reacting? Over-bucking-reacting? I got transformed into a creature from stories parents tell their foals to make them behave, don't tell me I’m over reacting.”

Vinyl looked at me with disgust and threw on her sunglasses. Her eyes may have been hidden, but I could see the red lines streaking down the side of her face and onto her neck.

“Sorry, you’re right, I spoke out of line. I should have realized what a slap to the face it has to be,” I exhaled.

“I’m thirsty, with a thirst that can’t be quenched without, ya know, risking the life of another.”

“Actually Vinyl, I’d like to apologize, I’ve been a complete ass to you, and I’d like to make it up to you.”

I limped over to the still prone Trixie and whisked her hat off with my teeth.

“Hey, what are you doing with Trixie’s hat?” Trixie asked, annoyance dripped from every word.

“Taking your knife.”

“Why would you want my…”

“Lyra no!”

I took the blade by the hilt and cut a deep gash into my broken leg, then grabbed a cup from my bag. I could barely feel the cut as blood flowed into the vessel. I gestured to Vinyl, she looked horrified.

“Drink the blood, you need it,” I muttered while I wrapped an impromptu tourniquet around my leg to stave the blood flow.

“I don’t know what to say,” Vinyl breathed, hunger clouding her voice.

“Don’t say anything, just drink,” I grunted.

“Trixie is going to be sick,” the narcissist gagged, looking even worse than usual.

“You don't have to look,” I retorted.

Vinyl looked uneasy about the idea, but swallowed her nervousness and grabbed the cup and brought it to her lips. With every fervent sip the luster in her coat seemed to improve and the glow around her horn started to compound.

With a satisfied sigh she gingerly set the cup down and wiped the blood from her lips.

“You know Lyra, you taste pretty good,” she paused for a second before continuing, “no homo.”

“I mean, lesbi-honest here Vinyl, the only thing more homosexual than you was that Pegasus you were sucking face with. What was her name again? Raincloud?”

“It was Raindrops, actually, and now that I think about it we should find her. Honestly, we should see if we can find anypony, it's weird how little sign there has been of anypony else in a while.” Vinyl replied.

“I vote we go out and look,” I announced.

Trixie and Vinyl both turned to me with matching disapproving glares. I could tell they weren't going to let me do much until I could walk right.

“Trixie will stay here, she will let Lyra nurse her bourbon until the bard can cast spells again.”

“I'll go see if I can find Raindrops or one of the other contestants here,” Vinyl said, and with a flick of her tail she was gone.

I sprinted through the shadows, every detail as clear to me as if I were looking through a microscope. High and low my eyes roamed, piece of yellow fur, drop of blood, scent of Raindrops.

I was angry, I could feel my rational self falling away. Trixie's lecture about holding myself to standards be damned. I had been an angst machine, self loathing and afraid for the future. I'd hurt Lyra and risked giving her my curse because I was weak.

I'd been played by my one time friend in a time of weakness, an identity crisis. I knew now, I was neither of those ponies anymore, I needed to be something more. I'd died on this island, slain by the beast who'd drained me. Abandoned by the Princesses to its curse. “Surprise,” that was the name Trixie told me it had given her.

That's one of the Wonderbolts isn't it?

I racked my brain for a second, yeah, she's the mare with the yellow mane. Maybe it's the same one?

What are the odds though, really?

At this point I was prone to give anything a bit of consideration, after all, this was a pretty impossible situation. I mean, what was really going on?

Coming out of my inner thoughts, I sensed trouble ahead; I could hear ponies screaming and a clashing of metal in a clearing up ahead. I crouched low for a brief moment before launching myself through the air into a tree; I grabbed a branch and shifted my inertia to rotate into a squatting position on a thick branch.

I was impressed at my own strength and agility, a slight shiver ran down my spine as I for the first time truly understood what I now was. Physically superior, blood thirsty, and predatory. I'm designed to kill.

I don't have to like it, nopony likes all the things in life, but I sure as buck was going to use my strengths.

Brushing off the wave of narcissistic, I looked down to see two ponies fighting, one was the blue unicorn from earlier, I think she's a dentist or something, the other was a yellow pegasi with blue hair. My intended damsel in distress.

I dropped down like a bag of sand on a rope, cut by a dastardly villain in a cheesy play right onto the Blue unicorn. I heard an audible snap as her from leg gave out, collapsing her beneath me and knocking her out cold, at least, I hoped she was just out cold.

“Vinyl? Vinyl is it really you? You were hurt,” Raindrops asked me, unease and suspicion dripping from every word.

“In the flesh, I'd been hoping to find you, I smelled blood and heard fighting, wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I'm alright, something is wrong though. Many of the ponies who were here have gone crazy.”

“What do you mean?”

“There was some sort of magical shock wave over the island, everypony hit by it went feral or something.”

“Woah,” I muttered, “what the buck is going on on this island.” And why didn’t I notice?

“I have no idea, where's the rest of your group? We should stick together for safety.”

“Yes, we should definitely stick together. The others are at our campsite, I'm going to grab this unicorn, maybe Lyra can check her out, see what's going on.”

I reached down and grabbed Minuette with my magic, something was off about her, I could feel it just touching her. It was almost an alien sensation, not really dark magic like how mine now felt, dripping with the foul energies of unlife. It was just… Off. As if someone had underlay her unicorn magic with another something.

You really should have payed more attention in magical theory, genius. Thanks brain.

I was so distracted trying to figure out how to describe the sensation I felt touching the blue mare, I completely spaced on the fact that Raindrops had been talking to me. I shook my head and looked at her apologetically. I noticed she had an absolutely horrified look on her face, mouth hanging open slack and she shot her hoof up towards Minuette.

I turned just in time to react and jump away from a giant black tendril that had snaked out of the fallen mare's mouth. Her eyes were open, clouded over with a pearly fog, blood dripped from the corners of her eyes and her nose, her movements as she rose were shaky and rigid, a broken bone pierced the skin of her leg releasing an oozing black ichor down the appendage.

I could feel my stomach churn at the sight of the wretched abomination, my every sense turned up to eleven. I bared my teeth and lunged for the beast's throat, I quickly learned the mistake I had made though as I was batted aside, crashing through a tree with an explosion of splinters.

As I rose to stand for round two, I caught sight of an eerie green flame burst into existence around Raindrops hooves. With a mighty cry she leapt through the air, accelerated with a flap of her well toned wings. The impact snapped the unicorn's head back, causing a rather loud cracking sound. That however didn't stop the creature from slowly lurching towards us, giant tendrils exploding out of the pony's back.

“Holy buck,” Raindrops muttered.

“What is that thing?” I screamed.

The creature pushed itself off the ground with its tendrils. A horrifying, sickening, squelching sound sound accompanied its every movement. One of the oozing masses of flesh lunged towards Raindrops, quick as a bolt but I was quicker. I hurled myself towards her and yanked her aside. Just in time too, as rubble exploded out of the area she had been standing where the tendril impacted.

I grabbed as many shards of rock as I could with my magic and flung them at the creature, a loud whistling sound accompanied them as they fled. The impact was massive, shredding flesh and smashing through bone, bits of flesh accompanied a torrent of blood as they ripped through. Much to my dismay however, the creature still stood high on its tentacles; noticeably damaged, dripping blood and ichor all over the ground, but still coming.

Raindrops looked at me, my own fear reflecting in her eyes. We needed to run, that was all there was to it.

I yelled, “Let’s go, we can regroup and figure out how to protect ourselves from this thing. Celestia help us that the rest of the others aren’t like this.”

With a nod she took flight, following me, but barely keeping up as my unhallowed speed made me a blur of white, dipping and dodging through the trees. I kept looking back and up to make sure she was able to keep pace, and she did at first, but I noticed the further we went, the more she lagged behind.

Thankfully it wasn’t long before we were able to out pace the monster. My heart pounded as I took a moment to catch my breath. I had just moved faster than I had ever seen a unicorn move in my life, but barely a thin sheen of sweat dampened my coat, my muscles felt no fatigue and after just a moment I was good to run again. Raindrops on the otherhoof was panting and absolutely drenched, I gave her a reassuring hug, ignoring the moistness for the moment of sanctuary.

“We’re almost back to the camp,” I softly encouraged her.

“We need to be prepared for whatever is happening here, I have never seen anything like that,” she replied.

“I don’t even know how to prepare for that, it was like something out of a Lovecolt novel.”

“The same way ponykind has overcome all threats,” she began, “we work together and we protect ourselves as best we can.”

Lyra had been drinking off of my decanter for awhile; every so often she would light up her horn and begin casting healing magic on herself, but like a dying flashlight, her magic would inevitably flicker out. One particularly impressive fail constituted of her starting to cast before just falling onto her side giggling.

“Are you really that drunk?” I asked her with a sigh.

“You’re a silly pony Trixie,” she snorted with laughter.

With a raised eyebrow, I tartly asked, “How many hooves am I holding up?”

“Uh… Three?”

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.” All four of my hooves were solidly planted in the floor.

“I’m not drunk Trixie, see, watch.”

Lyra tried to stand up but ended up falling onto her back again. She started giggling and wiggling on the ground trying to roll over.

I realized I had made a mistake, not knowing her alcohol tolerance. “Okay, so Trixie is taking her flask back now.”

“Nooooooooo,” she whined, hugging it to her barrel, “I love it.”

“We are literally fighting for our lives right now, you can’t be all drunk like this filly.” I took a threatening step forward.

“Don’t tell me how to live my life.”

I eventually snatched the flask from her. It was a painstaking process because I wanted to make sure I didn’t hurt her worse than she already was. She tried pouting at me, but the effect was broken by her head swaying around.

“Trixie, stop moving, I’m trying to talk to you.”

“Trixie is not moving, you are drunk.”

“If I were drunk, would I do this?”

She sat up and stared at me super intently, she was silent as the grave except for the steady rhythm of her breathing.

At that point there was a small ruckus and I turned to watch as Vinyl and Raindrops trotted into the camp, both quite visually shaken. It was a bit unnerving to say the least, Vinyl not seeming to be one to be shaken easily.

“Are you two okay?” I heard Lyra gasp.

I admitted I too would like to comprehend. “Indeed, Trixie wants to know what happened.”

“Well, I’ not really sure how to put it into words, it was Minuette, she-” Vinyl started.

“It was awful, just, I don’t, the blue unicorn, she-” Raindrops stammered at the same time,

“-turned into a monster,” they finished their respective sentences in unison.

“...What?” Lyra asked, pained concern etched into her expression. I was surprised she had the cognitive abilities at this point to be concerned.

“Yeah, it was awful dude, she grew giant tentacles and she almost killed Raindrops. I tried to fight her, but I don’t even know if I hurt whatever she became.”

Lyra limped over to Raindrops, her horn alight. I guess my draught had worked its wonders because she hadn’t even been able to lift the flask a half hour ago.

“I’m going to do a quick medical exam, make sure you are okay, okay?” Lyra asked them.

“Sure Dude,” Vinyl replied.

“No!”

“What?” Lyra looked shocked at Raindrops as she violently shook her head.

“I just… I don’t like being touched with another's magic, it’s too invasive.”

“Okay,” Lyra responded uncertainly, magic horn glow wavering.

“Is this about your weird pegasus magic?” Vinyl asked her.

“Weird pegasus magic? What do you mean, I thought it was just weather stuff, I don’t see how that’s weird.” Lyra stated, amazingly able to make coherent sentences in her inebriated state.

“It’s some..” Vinyl started.

“No!” Raindrops yelled.

“Okay, you’re acting awfully strange right now,” I said.

“Okay, spit it out, what the hell is Vinyl talking about, Raindrops?”

Annoyed with the recursive conversation I cast my magic sight spell. The world faded to gray and colorful lines of mana began to saturate the world. I saw Vinyl’s aura in it’s sanguine color and Lyra’s gold, I turned to Raindrops and almost choked.

“She’s a bucking changeling!” I yelled, pointing my hoof at the pegasus.

“What, you’re crazy,” she tried to deny.

“Like Tartarus you aren’t. You’ve got three seconds to transform or Trixie is making you change, bug.”

A look of fear set in as she realized I was serious and as she began backing up towards the cave entrance, Vinyl stepped between the imposter and I, her horn glowing with magic.

“You aren’t touching her.” Vinyl growled, her anger radiated like a torch.

“I do not have time for this. She is a changeling, they kidnap ponies and eat the love of their victims. She’s probably manipulating you Vinyl,” I screamed at my friend, I realized I broke character, but I didn’t care. “For all we know, this whole thing is changelings.” My mind was working overtime and I was going to do whatever I had to to protect myself first and foremost.

“Stop you two,” Lyra tried to cut in, wobbling and clearly not understanding the gravity of the situation.

“Wait,” Raindrops pleaded, “I can explain.”

“What is there to explain,” I hissed, barely above a whisper. “One. Two.”

“Three.”

“Vinyl, I’m so sorry.” There was a flash of green fire and Raindrops disappeared, replaced by an insectoid black pony with a small horn and translucent wings. Something shocked me though. She was crying.

Comments

[The Spy of the Tiger]

It has been so long since last update that I need to re-read the whole thing now. Let me do just that.

[DarkBunny91]

I'v gotten better, writing for campaigns in D&D and such.

[DarkBunny91]

7907314 Maybe

[The Spy of the Tiger]

Damn you. You owe me three hours of sleep. Maybe I can take that out of the three years it took to get this chapter out.

In all seriousness, holy fucking shit. This has to be one of the most interesting stories on this site. Only once before have I been so invested in a story that I was itching this bad to find out what happens next, but thankfully, that story was just finished about a month before I started reading it. Now with all these new plot developments and God damn terrifying implications, you clearly have me hooked. You have thrown a fourth dimensional meat hook at my face and dragged me in and you can't just leave me hanging here.

So when do you think the next update will come?

[The Spy of the Tiger]

Please don't let this sit static for another year. Push out an update before April, if you can. This story is great and I don't want to see it die.