I'm Still Alive, And I Can Not Apologize

by Prince_Zodiac

Chapter Three: Revival

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Chapter Three: Revival

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They had been walking through the halls for nearly half an hour now, the quiet stones being the only things listening to their conversation as to just what this castle could be repurposed for. Thus far, they had encountered nothing. Apart from the random bits of rubble, and the occasional wild critter, nothing was out of the ordinary.

So why did Twilight still feel so uneasy?

“Come on Twilight!” Nyx called out, drawing her mother's attention. The lavender mare hurried along, trying to keep up with her little filly as they explored deeper into the fallen palace.

Twilight still felt that something wasn't right. She had felt this feeling before, but from when exactly she couldn't recall. She just knew that something was wrong, but what?

The old stone walls, broken in some areas, rose high into the air, where some sections of the ceiling let them reach onwards to the roof, and beyond. Twilight walked amongst these walls, still cautious of something she could not see. It irked her how unnerved she felt in this place, far more than she thought she would be.

“Twilight? Is something wrong?” Twilight blinked. Yes, something was wrong. Something was incredibly wrong.

“No, I'm just a-”

BOOM!

A thundering blast resonated loudly throughout the castle's stone halls. The noise surprised Nyx, but only confirmed Twilight's fears.

Something had been wrong. And now, whatever it was had happened, and Twilight wasn't sure if that was good or not.

The rocky architecture cracked, the force of the shockwave coming from below having rocked the foundations of the entire castle. She could hear ceilings collapsing in some far off area, and another, more powerful blast caused the entire structure to shudder.

“RUN!” Twilight cried. Everything started coming down, the residual magic present having weakened the castle so much, the entire thing was starting to collapse. Old statues were crushed under falling blocks of stone, tapestries came off the walls, and pillars crashed down like dominoes.

Nyx moved as fast as her little legs would carry her, but she wasn't fast enough to escape the falling rubble. Seeing this, Twilight gripped the little filly’s tail with her teeth, and tossed her onto her back, now gunning it down the decrepit hall as a wave of ruin followed behind them. Nyx looked back, and saw Twilight was only a few trots ahead of the collapsing castle.

“Faster Mom!” Nyx hardly ever called Twilight “mom,” and when she did, it was only when she was terrified. Like the time Celestia was unknowingly taking her away so she could become Nightmare Moon, or the time when she and the crusaders accidentally pissed off a particularly angry pack of timberwolves. Clearly this was one of those times.

Twilight knew the rubble was gaining on her. She needed to think of something, and fast, otherwise she, and her daughter, were going to die.

Just ahead, the path split up three ways, a hallway to the left, a hallway to the right, and a door Twilight was quite familiar with. Seeing no other choice, Twilight dove for the doorway, just as the collapsing ceiling caught up to her.

---

Unlike what many believe, Hell and Tartarus are not the same. Tartarus is a harsh domain, created to imprison immortals and living creatures that had yet to pass on into damnation. Hell was the place those prisoners went once someone managed to kill them.

That, and the fact that Hell was far worse.

Demons and nightmares that called this realm home feasted and tortured those who believed that the rules didn't apply to them. In this place, the horrid monsters of the living world, were like small kittens in comparison, tiny and powerless.

It was just the place Ghast was looking for.

He stepped into… No, he didn't step into Hell. Not even he was crazy enough to do that. Rather, a projection of himself, stepped into the world of the damned. He found himself on the shore of a volcanic river. The ground hurt to stand on, the countless little pebbles feeling like sharp teeth biting into his hooves. The air burnt his lungs like acid, and the smoke made it hard to see. Experiencing all of this, Ghast couldn't help but grin.

“Such pain from just standing here. Incredible,” Ghast observed as he began his search. “This place should make our king able to stand up to anything in the living world, including those damn princesses.”

Trotting onward, Ghast looked this way and that, trying to find one very specific soul. The ritual should have placed him in its general vicinity, so where was it? He saw volcanoes, demons, and untold horrors, but not the soul he was looking for. It was almost like he was playing a really horrific version of “Where's Waldo?”

“Damnit! Where the hell is it?” Just then, something caught his eye, and Ghast smiled. “Ah, there you are.”

When one is dragged into hell, you are forced to lose many things. One of those things just happened to be your body, which often times leads to you turning into some sort of oddly colored sphere, which represents your life force. Your soul.

“Hello my king. Enjoying your time here?” The soul did not respond. Though the damned were allowed to speak, the demons did enjoy screaming victims, some souls no longer had anything to say about the hand they had been dealt. “Well, if you think you're done here, I say it's time we leave.”

As Ghast went to grab the soul, a gigantic winged monstrosity landed right next to him. It looked as though a bat, a slab of meat, and Shamu the orca had all participated some strange, cross species orgy. And yes, that is about as horrifying as it sounds.

It roared angrily, infuriated that some random intruder was trying to steal its lunch. Ghast could only give it a passing glance.

“You are in my way,” he remarked. “Die.”

There was a loud noise, almost like a blade cutting through flesh and bone, and almost immediately after that, the demon dropped dead. Ghast chuckled as he grabbed the soul and left for the living world.

---

Ghast opened his eyes, his point of view returning to his true body just as his projection deposited the soul on the other side of the room. The orb hovered aimlessly, no purpose in its mind, nor any process to even function.

“That it?” his hooded partner asked.

“Indeed, our liege’s soul. It was far easier to obtain than I thought.”

“So I guess Hell isn't as bad as it seems?”

“Oh no it's worse. I suppose I just got lucky.”

“Well, I'll see it myself once I manage to die.”

“You plan on dying?” Ghast asked as he guided the soul to the runes he had drawn up.

“No, but I have no doubt that one day something is gonna kill me.”

“Right…” Ghast checked over the runes, making sure everything was ready. The first set of runes, the ones used to open up the doorway to Hell, had burned away like they were meant to. The second set were all ready to go, and he couldn't help but chuckle. “Now, let the real magic… begin!”

With the help of his partner, the ritual began once more. This second phase didn't require incantations or chants; the runes, and a good supply of magic, were all that were needed. The soul hovered above the corpse, drifting aimlessly, like a lost pegasus.

More whispers echoed around them, but these were not the whispers of the dead. No, these were the whispers of the reaper.

Ghast could feel its presence, the power was almost palpable. Death itself had come, and now was waiting for the deal to be struck.

“Death, you have headed my call, and now, by the power of these runes, you shall remain trapped here forever!” One could almost feel the instant regret Death felt in coming here. It may been powerful, but Ghast knew from experience that it could be tricked, and trapped. “If you desire to be free, you will listen to my offer. Only you can rebind the soul to the body before it. I demand that you do so, and in return I shall let you go.”

There was a pause. Soon however, there was a quiet grumble, and Ghast could barely keep the grin off his face. Everything could be enslaved to do your bidding, even Death.

Though none of them could see it, the cloaked, ghostly figure, sometimes referred to as the Grim Reaper, began to attach soul lines between the soul, and the body. These lines, which he was normally cutting instead of attaching, would bind the soul to the pony’s body, and bring it back to life.

Death hated doing this. It wasn't the first time Ghast had trapped him, and he doubted it was the last. Those damn runes gave off the aura of a passing soul, and he couldn't help but be drawn to it. It was trick he could never escape.

But that didn't mean he could have his revenge.

While binding the soul lines, Death could mess with how the revived soul would turn out, both physically and mentally, by burying certain aspects of the soul within itself. And so, Death took the soul’s memories, its magical power, its age, its personality, nearly everything that made that soul itself was buried deep within it, drastically changing the soul’s revived state. With his revenge complete, Death allowed the soul to be drawn into the body.

Ghast eagerly watched as the soul began seemed to be pulled into the corpse. He couldn't help but laugh.

“Well done Death. I release you!” The moment he said that, the rest of the runes on the ground burned away. But as Death began to leave, he heard its signature cackle. Ghast thought it odd. Why would Death be laughing?

Then the soul touched the body, and everything exploded.

---

Twilight groaned as her eyes slowly opened. The room was dark, a few stray rays of light pouring in from the doorway, now blocked by rubble. It didn't matter too much though. Twilight already knew the layout of this room. After all, she did spend time imprisoned here.

“Wha…? What happened?” She struggled to her hooves. Every part of her body ached, especially her left hind leg. “Nyx?”

She looked around, attempting to catch sight of her daughter, but the darkness made it hard to see. Couple that with her splitting headache, and her chances of spotting her little filly were close to zero, but she searched anyways. Eventually, she spotted a small, curled up form in the corner of the room.

“Nyx!” she cried, running to her daughter. Lighting up her horn and looked her daughter over. Thankfully, she didn't look too hurt, though she did have a bruise on her head. Her fur was roughed up, probably from the tumble, and her mane was messy, but her breathing was fine, so Twilight summarised she would be okay. “Nyx. Nyx wake up.”

“Ugh,” Nyx moaned as she slowly regained consciousness. “Twilight? What happened?”

“Not sure. Some sort of explosion caused everything to collapse. Are you okay? Anything feel broken?”

“No, I think I'm okay,” Nyx said, testing a few limbs. “Though, my head really hurts.”

“Yeah, you've got a nasty bruise. We'll have to get that checked out once we get out of here.” Twilight looked around. While she could easily teleport them out, she did want to know what had caused the entire structure to crumble like it had. However, the blast had sounded far off when Twilight first heard it, so it may not have even been possible to get to the source anymore.

“So, we gonna go find it?”

“Find what?”

“Where that blast came from.”

“I don't think there's-”

“The explosion sounded like it came from underground, right?” Nyx asked as she walked over to a wall. She scanned the brick in front of her, smiling when she found the desired rectangle, and pressed it in. The wall drew back, and a hidden passageway was revealed. “Then let's go find it!”

“Wait, since when did this room have a hidden wall?” Twilight questioned as she followed Nyx into the hallway.

“Since always. There's actually quite a few hidden passageways inside the castle, I just never had a use for them. Spell Nexus had them created, so that if by some chance, something went wrong and I needed to escape, these tunnels would be my way out.”

“Didn't this castle use to be underground?”

“You'd be surprised at just how complicated the Diamond Dogs’ tunnels can be. They've got rock lifts for their mines, kind of like an elevator. These tunnels were made the same way, so that when the castle came up, they were prepared to help me escape.”

“And how come I'm only hearing about this now?”

“Because I've never needed to use them, nor has their existence needed to be brought up in any conversation since that event.”

She couldn't argue with that.

Nyx lead Twilight down through twisting halls, and splitting pathways. Their searched room by room, finding some empty, others looking too dangerous to risk going inside of, and a few having caved in completely. After about an hour, Nyx was about ready to give up, and go home.

“Are we sure it wasn't in any of the collapsed rooms?”

“I don't know, it might be. But whatever that explosion was, it was powerful, and it went off twice, meaning it could go off a third time, or a fourth, or even a fifth. I want to make sure whatever it was is either destroyed, out of power, or is at least safe to leave it be for now.”

Nyx rolled her eyes, but saw her mother’s logic. Whatever this thing was, it had caused quite a bit of damage. Who knows whether it might do it again?

Another wall was moved, revealing a mostly empty room. There was an old storage crate in the corner, a decaying desk in the back, an unconscious colt in the middle of the room, a positively ancient sc-

Wait, what was that third one again?

“Oh my Celestia!” Twilight saw the colt almost instantly and rushed over to him. Checking him over, the boy looked a little worse for wear, but no worse than Nyx. His dark grey fur was matted with sweat, his exhaustion evidenced by his heavy breathing. His black mane was wild and unkempt, a bit of it drawing across his muzzle.

Though having labored breath, Twilight couldn't spot any physical damage. While that was slightly relieving, it didn't put Twilight’s mind at ease.

‘What's a colt his age doing here?’ It wasn't anypony Twilight recognized, and considering the fact that Ponyville didn't really attract tourists, she doubted he was some colt here with his parents on vacation. Perhaps he was a relative of somepony in town?

‘Ugh, that doesn't matter right now,’ Twilight thought to herself. ‘What matters is getting him out of here.’

Twilight did take notice that, if the tunnels hadn't confused her too much, the room they were in was in the general direction of where the blast had come from. Deciding to deal with what that meant later, she levitated the colt onto her back.

“Come on Nyx, we're getting out of here.”

Without a word, the black alicorn complied. With her daughter standing next to her, Twilight cast spacial teleportation. Unlike regular teleportation, spacial teleportation allows one to teleport not only yourself, but other living beings around you. Only problem was, spacial teleportation is vastly more complicated, and far more taxing, so Twilight was only able to teleport them outside the castle.

‘Oh I hate using that spell,’ Twilight briefly thought as, in the distance, she could see her friends hightailing it in her direction.

“Twilight!” Applejack called out. “Thank Celestia! Y’all okay?”

“Yeah! We're alright.”

“Well whatever happened darling?” Rarity questioned as the five mares finally made it to their mutual friend. “We heard a large blast and then the whole castle collapsed!”

“Yeah, it was awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, before a glare from her compatriots instantly made her regret opening her mouth. “I mean… you sure you aren't hurt?”

Twilight rolled her eyes but smiled anyways. “I'm fine Rainbow. Thank you all for checking on us.”

“So um… do you… know what happened?” Fluttershy shyly inquired, clearly worried.

“No… but I have a feeling it has something to do with this colt.” It was only now that the other five mares noticed the small colt on Twilight's back. In the light of day, Twilight was able to take notice of things she hadn't before.

For one, the colt was young, very young. Though technically she was only around a year old, Nyx gave the appearance of a filly of the age of eight. If that was true, then this colt could be considered to be a five year old. Furthermore, like one would expect, he didn't have a cutie mark.

“Who's this?” Applejack asked, inspecting the boy.

“No clue,” Twilight replied. “I hope to find out more once he wakes u-”

Suddenly Twilight gasped in pain and nearly collapsed. Acting quickly, Aj rushed in and caught her.

“Twi, you sure you're okay?”

“No, I think I might've sprang my ankle.”

“Here darling lean on me,” Rarity said offering support. “Applejack dear, do you mind carrying the colt for her?”

“Not at all.” Gripping him by the scruff of his neck, Applejack lifted the small colt off of her friends back and onto her own. The elements of harmony lead Twilight back to her castle, the large crystal structure standing tall in the small town.

“Oh I can't wait until the little guy wakes up!” Pinkie exclaimed jubilantly, bouncing with every step. “Then, I can learn his name, we can become friends, and I can throw him the best welcome to Ponyville party ever!”

And so the so affectionately called, mane six, retreated into the castle of friendship, carrying with them, an ancient king.

Author's Note:

Yay! Another chapter! I think I'm getting better at this third person narrator type writing, but I know I still have a ways to go if I want to use it properly.

Anyways, now the story can truly begin. I'm sure you can all guess who this colt really is, and he's the focus of this story!

So what do you guys think so far? Leave your opinion in the comments! Critiquing and helpful advice is always welcome!