Bridging the Rift

by sincarnation

Chapter 2: Long Nights

Equestria 3:00am, 2nd of Maruk, 6 Months after the return of Artemis – Cereus Valley, Lupinia

No matter how far or fast he ran the voices refused to stop. Their questions and accusations plagued him like a swarm of wasps, but they cut him more deeply than any other physical wound he suffered.

“TRAITOR!”

“Artemis?”

“OATHBREAKER!”

“LIAR!”

“Artemis!?”

“COWARD”

“MUTT”

“ARTEMIS!”

Artemis was so focused on voices that he didn’t notice the rapidly approaching edge of the valley, and he ran straight over the edge of the cliff. Too distraught to reach for his magic he tumbled down cliff hitting every tree branch and pointed rock along the way. When he finally came to a stop, he wasted no time venting his frustration.

“IT WASN’T MY FAULT, LEAVE ME ALONE!” roared Artemis verbally and mentally. His voice echoed off the walls of the valley into the darkness of the night.

“ARTEMIS!” shouted back different voices from before. “What’s going on? Are you ok?”

It took Artemis several seconds for his senses to return enough for him to recognize the voices as the Elements, Vinyl, and Luna. He let out a small sigh of relief as the voices of his tribe had stopped drilling him, and he took an extra moment to calm down before he answered.

“I will be fine,” responded Artemis shakily as he linked all eight of them together.

“BULLCRAP, if you are fine then I must be a dragon princess,” shot back Vinyl immediately.

“Good enough for me,” responded Rainbow Dash groggily as she distanced herself from the mental conversation.

“Same for me as well, goodnight girls,” agreed Rarity following Rainbow Dash’s example.

“Come now, don’t be that way. I know you ain’t cl-,” started Applejack before she was cut off by Artemis.

“I said I will be fine. I’m sorry for waking you all, but I will be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“Artemis, our emotions have been linked for a very long time, and never have I felt panic and fear like that from you. Remember you are linked to nature in the same way we are linked, you have the predators in the Everfree Forest cowering right now. What happened?” pleaded Luna.

Artemis considered explaining what had happened, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to face exactly what he had encountered. He wasn’t sure he knew what had happened, but his burden wasn’t going to became theirs. He would figure out exactly what happened on his own, at some other time, when he was ready.

While he was trying to figure out how to get out of talking about it, he felt a sudden disturbance. It felt like something had broken through the membrane separating them from the other dimensions, but only thing he knew was powerful and foolish enough to do that was Discord. While he didn’t sense any more chaos than normal, he knew something had just entered their world.

“Luna did you feel that?”

“Don’t try to change the subject.”

“Luna, I’m serious. Did you feel that? Something just forced its way into this world.”

“He is right, something is coming,” whispered Twilight. “It’s not one thing though, it is a lot of smaller things.”

“Yeah I can feel 10 living creatures coming, but I don’t know what they are or if they are friendly. There are few things capable of reaching into other universes; whatever it is consider it dangerous.”

“I will alert Celestia, though she probably is aware of the situation already. They don’t seem to be moving together or in any form of obvious organization, but I will also put the guards on high alert. Don’t think you have gotten out of this Artemis, we will talk about what happened later.”

“Oh great another potentially world-threatening crisis, and this time it’s aliens,” chimed Vinyl sarcastically as she began to distance herself. “Artemis we are your friends, which means we will always there when need us. If you need to talk about what happened I’m all ears, but I’m gonna leave the saving the world or whatever to you guys.”

“Thanks Vinyl. One of them seems to have landed in Cereus Valley, I’m going to investigate.”

“Wait, what?. Artemis this is serious, we can’t just approach this recklessly.”

“Relax Luna. Honestly what do you think I’m going to do?” said Artemis mischievously.

“I don’t know, but it can’t be good. If we allowed you to run unchecked who knows what kind of damage you would cause."

“Allowed?” whispered Artemis to himself as recalled the words of Lucian.

“I guess I’m just a wild dog needing to be tamed then huh? I’m going to scout, I will let you know what I find. Don’t make further contact, with me or them, until I contact you.”

“Wait wh-,”

Artemis severed the conversation abruptly, those last words left hanging in the air, irritating him. He knew he couldn’t risk any sudden distractions while he was searching, and the silence was welcome. He had tolerated more than enough voices in his head for the day, and the search was a welcome distraction from his other problems. He instead focused on the new life that had arrived in the valley, as far as he could tell it wasn't really moving around .

“First rule of the hunt: always make sure what you hunt is prey,” thought Artemis to himself as he reveled in the tingling of his spine. “Unfortunately no time for that, the hunt is on.”

Valoran 1:00pm, 2nd of December, Valoran– Institute of War, High Summoner Kolminye’s Office

Jevitz sat in the rather large office of High Summoner Kolminye nursing what he would generously describe as “The Hangover from Hell”. Every footstep from the pacing woman drove searing rods of iron through his skull, and it was only made worse whenever she split from her various mental conversations to address him directly. Though during those few moments when she stopped pacing and wasn’t addressing him, he had time to marvel at everything in her office. The walls were lined with book cases stuffed with old texts and mystical artifacts from all over the world. The room was largely color neutral in the sense that she didn’t show any obvious allegiance or affiliation to any of the major city-states. It always seemed strange that no one ever knew anything about the high summoners outside of what they did publicly, but before he could continue his train of thought he caught a glimpse of Henry floating outside of the window smiling.

“Great just what I needed, when I get finished here I have to worry about that psycho. Fan-fucking-tastic.”

“You cannot fathom the gravity of what your wanton carelessness has caused,” grumbled Kolminye. “Your monumental incompetence has lost the league 10 champions and possibly a summoner, and that’s without mentioning that those people will more than likely lose their life where ever they end up, if of course they survive the journey.”

“Don’t you think I know that, you pompous bitch? Do you really feel the need to rub it in? Contrary to popular belief I realize that I am responsible for likely killing 10 people and putting the other in what could be a permanent coma. As soon as my head stops feeling like Gnar’s chew toy I plan on figuring out how to get them back,” thought Jevitz irritably though he said nothing.

“I heard that,” said Kolminye with one of the most evil smirks he had ever seen.

“12! TOLD YOU HE WAS THAT STUPID, PAY UP!” shouted Henry to someone below.

“Impudent, nosey, lip reader,” groaned Kolminye as she magically slammed the drapes closed before returning her attention to Jevitz.

“Well I’m glad you think you understand the problems you have caused, hopefully you will understand the severe nature of your punishment in the same capacity.”

Her cruel smile made his heart plummet. Severe punishment wasn’t something he had seriously thought about, a brutal chewing out was assured, but he expected to get long term probation or demotion. Accidents were fairly common and not taken too seriously amongst newer summoners. However he was not a newer summoner, and most accidents don’t end up nearly as bad as this one.

“I hope you were serious about figuring out how to get them back because tomorrow morning, we are sending you out to search for them. You will go from world to world searching for the champions you lost, and you will keep searching until you find them or die trying.”

Jevitz paled at her words, his punishment was clear.

“So you are sending me to die? You know as well as I do that there are infinite numbers of alternate worlds out there and that they could’ve landed in any of them, hell they might not have even been fortunate enough to hit another world. They could just be drifting through the aether endlessly for all we know; this is just your politically correct version of an execution.”

“See I knew you would understand. You really aren’t as foolish and stupid as everyone believes, close mind you but not quite there.”

“Anyone ever let you know that you are a bitch?”

“Five times by four people, two of them are still alive, but one of them won’t be for much longer. Unfortunately you can't goad me into letting you out of your punishment by killing you early. You will be spending the evening in the dungeons next to the other hazards to everything around them, and in the morning you will be sent out to begin your search.”

As she finished two guards appeared seemingly out of nowhere and immediately put silencing cuffs on him. While he did his best to struggle, the young mage was no match for the muscular trained soldiers that had gotten a hold of him. Even knowing that no one would be able to hear him, he decided to vent his frustration.

“MARK MY WORDS KOLMINYE! I WILL FIND THEM, AND I WILL MAKE IT BACK. EVEN IF IT IS ONLY TO WIPE THAT SMUG GRIN OFF YOUR FACE."

Kolminye could only grin as she read his lips.

“Do it then, find the champions and come back here. Defy everyone’s expectations and prove us all wrong. Until then I will mark your words, I will mark them down as the empty and hollow words of a dead man.”

Those were the last words Jevitz heard from High Summoner Kolminye as he was dragged to his cell beneath the institute. The dark prison was normally reserved for the worst creatures that couldn’t be released without terrorizing most of Valoran. Jevitz feared it would be the last place he recognized for a very long time. With the guards and Kolminye gone his bravado had deserted him, his frustration and fear finally caught up to him. He wept, not only for himself but for the eleven other lives he had most likely ended. In the darkness of prison he couldn’t see a glimmer of hope, they were lost and soon he would be too.

Author's Note:

The story begins anew, sorry for the delays. This is gonna be a long one so I hope you are in for the ride. Comments are always appreciated, let me know what you think.