Cobalt Rising.

by Cpt_Cutter

Chapter 6: Betrayal

Chapter 6
Betrayal

“W-What?!?” I asked. The room felt ten degrees colder in an instant. She seemed surprised at my reluctance to acknowledge her claim. “You do not remember? The conquests at Ashphodel? Your betrayal of my legions, and your double cross of Fendrix the great?”

“I’m sorry, but you must be confused. I don’t know you, not someone as evil as you”. She stared at me and tried to walk toward me, but she could not step off of the glass pane. She sighed, looking sad. “I can feel it on you, the power of Tempus. He has swayed you, taken you to the side of light. I am truly sorry my son, for you do not know who you are. But you are still the third most powerful being in existence, and for that, you must die”.

I looked around, panicked, and noticed to my horror that black smoke was appearing around me as well. I could still move however, and stepped out of a perfect (If wispy) mold of myself. The mold of me turned toward the others, who suddenly continued moving as if nothing had happened. She looked right past me, to my ghost self. It seemed that they could not see me, or Nightmare Moon, only the copy. “Cobalt? What’s wrong?”.

I said “Twilight? That's not me!” but I was ignored by everypony. I noticed Pinkie Pie seemed to be looking at me, but she turned to The Alter-Cobalt and said “You should sit down and eat a cupcake”.

The Ghostly versions horn glowed, and it shot forth a beam of light, which was so searing hot it scorched the tiles. The beam was heading straight toward my friends. Twilight, either by some insane level of skill, or by some blessing from above, managed to conjure a wall of energy, stopping the destructive beam. She looked like she was straining to keep it up, and I could see cracks appearing in the sides.

What happened next is still a blur; all I remember is seeing a new silhouette appear in the window, a brighter light, and flying back into the wall. I remember Twilight saying before I blacked out “Oh Cobalt, how could you...”

I woke many hours later, with the sky black, and the only light being from the moon. All that was left in the room to commemorate my ill-fated visit was a massive cracked glass dick with a piece missing, a massive black scorch mark in the tile, and a broken piece of marble where my head hit it.

I looked out one of the broken windows, the same one that had the silhouette in it. There was a new shadow across the ground, but no one else was here. It spoke, saying “You will rise over this Obstacle Cobalt, You must for us all”. I recognised the voice as the voice of Tempus, who spoke to me in the balloon. “You must hurry, for time is short. I will guide you, but you must re-convince your friends on your own. I will do what I can to ease your problems, and clear the path, but the powers of darkness are far too strong for me in my current state. Now go. Hurry, I can only hope you will not be too late”. My vision blurred, and then cleared, with a bright yellow trail of mist floating in the air. I knew it dictated my path, and I jumped off the massive height of the window and flew toward my goal.

It was a short path, at least to its first stop, which was Twilight’s house. The library. I wanted to fly down to the front door and beg for forgiveness for something I didn't do, but The path led to a high up window. I flew over, and found it unlocked, I smiled up at the sky, then slowly and quietly lowered myself down, being careful not to knock a bookshelf. I floated further downward, noticing that I seemed to be in her and Spike’s bedroom.

The cloud got thinner and more precise till it landed on a single book, Castle Polaris, and I quietly levitated it upwards into a satchel, which I carefully put on. Once I had the satchel on, the cloud changed direction to the window again, and went back towards the mountains. Just as I was about to fly back out the window the door flew open and Spike walked in. There was a moment of silence when we stared at each other. I could hear Twilight crying down the hall, which made me both sad and angry, and her friends consoling her.

Spike simply looked at me for a few more seconds, nodded at me, then went to a bookshelf and began filing books. He said quietly out of the corner of his mouth, not to be heard by the others, “It’s ok Cobalt, I know you didn’t do it. Dragons have great intuition. You aren’t the kind of person that would do something like what they were saying. Good luck.” With that, he turned to the door and left without another glance. I was grateful to have someone other than a shadow and myself who believed me. I turned and flew out the window and down the street as fast as I could, not wanting to tempt my fate or overstay my welcome.

The mountains were cold and the snow crunched under my hooves as I stood outside the dark cave. It was on a ledge high above the castle of canterlot, near the peak, and the cloud pointed inside. I hesitantly followed. However, just inside the entrance the old stone and snow turned into a corridor with windows, nearly intact stone tiles and paintings still hanging on the walls. I knew this was the castle of my mother, due to the amount of statues and busts of her. There was also a massive statue of a Unicorn stallion, standing over a defeated demon, sword in hoof. He looked familiar, like I should know him but I didn't.

I continued through the main hall till I reached another massive stone ring on the floor. I carefully observed it, noticing that a pattern of circles and squares was partly out of shape. Putting a hesitant hoof over the line with no bad results, I stepped to the pattern and saw that it could rotate. I turned it and looked up to very different surroundings.

The walls had regained their creme color, the windows had repaired themselves and there were brilliantly red curtains covering their sides. The paintings looked freshly painted and vivid, and the now colored marble busts were adorned with jewellery. Most threateningly, there were two Black pegasi standing over me, spears held at the ready, fully clad in armour that seemed to be made of darkness itself.

The one on the right, who seemed to be a higher rank, if the crest on his helm was anything to go by, said “Put your hooves where I can see th- wait, Cobalt?” He seemed shocked, and lowered his spear, but the other guard was either not familiar with me like this one was or was just too professional to show it. My question was answered when the one with the crest smacked the other ones spear downward. “Put your spear down idiot, do you know who this is? How important he is? I thought not. Now wait here and make sure no one else comes through the portal”.

The one with the crest offered me a hoof up, and I took it. As he pulled me up, he said “Where have you been? It’s been so long, even longer for the other side”. I gave him a blank look and said “Where are we?” He said with a puzzled expression “It’s your home, don’t you remember it?”
I sighed and replied “For what feels like the hundredth time in a few days, no”.

He seemed to think for a few seconds, before saying “I know who can help. Let’s go see your mother”.

Comments

[Cpt_Cutter]

Hey guys, Id like to say two things.

The first being That I am so grateful and humbled that you all would read my story and that you liked it, and I am truly thankful that you chose my story to read over another.

The second being that Due to personal matters that have recently arisen and other obligations I no longer have the time to write this story, and therefore it may never be finished or even updated. I would like to finish it at some point, but for the foreseeable future It is on hiatus, and for all intents and purposes, canceled.

I would like to thank you all for reading and joining Cobalt and Twilight on their adventure, and I would like to thank you one final time for reading.

Thanks, Matt.