I stumbled slightly as the teleport deposited me onto the second terrace of the temple. In all honesty, it was likely from the change of environment than anything else. Midnights teleport had been smooth, relatively speaking.
...Smoother than when I did it thirty meters in line of sight to be honest.
She had dropped us across kilometers of jungle. Even if she didn't want to do more than two ponies with precision like this, that's impressive.
"You okay?" I asked her as her wings drooped slightly.
Midnight nodded, "I'm fine," she answered and took a slow deep breath, raising her head again and gave me a weak smile, "Just glad we didn't try to move everypony like this. Teleporting is exhausting."
"Speaking of which," I said and flicked one ear as I looked to the pile of supplies she brought along with me, "What happened to you after you scattered us across the jungle?"
"I passed out for something like twelve hours," Midnight admitted and scraped her hoof against the ground, "Even without precision, teleporting takes a lot of power."
I nodded and looked at the wounded laid out along the level of the temple, ponies tending to them, "How far can you go? Ponyville to Canterlot?"
Midnight frowned and then shrugged her wings, "Not in one jump," she explained, "And I wouldn't do it with passengers. But I have done that before. It's just such a pain that I rather take the train or fly."
I could definitely see that.
Teleporting line of sight across a training ground wasn't that difficult and I think most unicorns that put in the practice could do it. Most just didn't bother learning it.
Because how useful is being able to teleport thirty meters if you couldn't even chain it?
It took a lot of effort to get good at it and if you didn't have the hornpower to back it up, it wasn't worth it.
"One more trip?" I asked her.
She nodded, "Two more guards," she said, "Then that's everypony and we can get moving."
"Take a couple of minutes," I told her seriously, "You're tired."
Midnight nodded, "Five minutes, then I'm good. It's only three more trips."
I had wanted to stay with the group that was trekking through the jungle, they might need me. But it would have been stupid to try with a injured leg. I couldn't cast, I could barely walk and like this I definitely couldn't fight.
I was completely useless to the group right now so the best I could do was to try to stay out of their way.
...As much as it pained me to think. I wanted to help, damn it!
"You want some water?" I asked her, "I could get some."
Midnight shook her head, "I'm good, I'll get something when I get back to camp. Just need a couple of minutes of rest."
I nodded and moved away from her as I moved towards the entrance of this level of the temple. The tents weren't here yet, they weren't critical to set up so the injured were out in the sun right now which made it important to clear the inside for potential traps so we could get them properly into the shade.
This was somewhere my eyes could at least help. I may be slow and my magic was currently not working unless I wanted to try to knock myself out, but I could still see, damn it!
Dee exited the shadows and smiled when she spotted me, "Page! There you are. You got to see this!"
"What did you find?" I asked as I limped up to her.
"Something you have to see, come on!" she said and turned, leaning the way into the dark temple. I followed her inside, somepony had put torches every couple of meters and it wasn't far inside.
The first chamber was mostly empty and kinda small, maybe four meters a side. Other than some pots, it was empty but the walls were carved into some sort of image I couldn't make out as the colours were gone, only the shapes remained.
She led me through that into what looked to be the main chamber on this level and it seemed like it took up most of the pyramid all the way to the top. It was pyramid shaped and contained a pyramid in the middle too, but only as a dias for some sort of altar.
On the altar was a pyramid of pony skulls stacked. Mostly unicorns going by the horn, but some without and could have been earth ponies or pegasi, I couldn't tell. But there were a lot of them there, the altar was wider and longer than a pony and it was almost covered with them, six layers tall. If there was nothing but skulls there...
Over it all towered a massive statue, it's wings spread.
It was a thestral, the statue towering over the chamber and the altar, the wings seemingly encompassing the room. It's body was made from an almost obsidian-like black stone and rubies shimmered as the eyes where the light from the torches hit it. It was inlaid with silver, the fangs, trails along the ears and wings. The spiral of it's horn.
I looked up at the alicorn thestral statue for a long moment before I slowly sat down. I looked at it and then down to the pyramid of skulls.
"Dee?" I finally said as I scanned the chamber. We weren't the only ones in here, some ponies were still looking for traps, "I think that maybe we should look to house everypony at the lower level instead."
She slowly nodded, "That might be a good idea," she agreed.
"And Dee?" I then said as I looked up at the statue.
"Yes, Lord Page?"
"I think the history we have learned about thestrals so far may have been... distorted... with time."
She was silent for a long moment before I felt her hoof on my shoulder, "I think so too.”
Gee, ya think?
Another great chapter.
GOD DAMMINT DISCORD!!!!
Also great chapter.
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Why would Discord have anything to do with this.
Skulls for the skull throne!
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Because CHAOS
Ok but for real: Discord is the Lord of Chaos,ergo doesn't really have to make sense, it wouldn't be too big of a leap of faith to assume that he'd have a claw (?) In making that alicorn either by purpose or
By accident
Conspiracy theory: that Alicorn is Page that has been sent to the past
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Blood for the Blood God!
Milk for the Khorne flakes!
A statue of Page in an ancient Thestral temple? Why does this scene remind me so much at Twilight's Twinlight?
Yeah that's usually not a good sign
Ya think
So Page is sent to the past?
Also, he will have a lot of children ?
What if.....
it's Page after he will decide to be stronger, use dark light, all magic, etc
But let's say there isn't much time for training and there are other things like alicorns that will interrupt him in becoming stronger.
What if he decides to use a time-travel spell to travel back in time to have time to prepare.
Let's say he succeeds in step 1, going back in time.
Step 2 is training.
But step 3, going to the future doesn't work or Page needs time to make it work, fix.
So he spends many more years in the past before he sends himself to the future.
Or it still doesn't work and he has to live a couple of years in Equestria, then some years in jungles and away from Equestria,for thousands of years
Time shenanigans are afoot!
The history of a race that was looked down upon by the rest of the world was distorted?
Huh.
Who'd'a thunk it.
Ok I think we should all take a moment to be glad that no Equestria-born thestrals came on this journey with them! Especially Fluttershy because that would NOT have been pretty.
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"Yeeeessss alll as I planned....or maybe not!" -some half mulusk cousin of discord, probably, maybe, definitely maybe.
Suddenly Page's ears jumped. There was some faint trace of a note in the air.
"Dee, you hear that?"
"What?"
Page pressed his ear to the statue, hearing the faint vibrations traveling through it.
"...leets do the time warp again!."
Page took a step back and froze.
"Dee, this was a terrible mistake." He said as the music grew louder. "Dee?"
Page turned and froze.
"ITS JUST A STEP THE THE LEFT!"
"Please no!"
"And a jump to the right!" Dee shouted uncontrollably as she moved to the building music.
Page tried to move but found his legs locked in place in front of the statue's glare.
"I JUST WANTED TO HELP!" he shouted as they and the pyramid were all hurled thousands of year into the past by the magical trap.
And that's how the kingdom of TransTemporal Thestralvania was founded. And also the Time Warp.
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I hate that I love this
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Page: “Now, hold on, everypony—(God, why do I have to sound like Applejack when saying that?) Just because it’s a statue of a Thestral alicorn stallion doesn’t mean I’m going to end up being yet another stereotypical time traveler doing the paradox. This could just as easily be some other—”
Daring Do: “He’s got your cutie mark, Page.”
Page: “—random... time traveling... Thestral alicorn stallion... whom we seem to be one short of at the moment...—FUCK!! ”
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Looking like this is a thing!
Now who would ever disguise their TARDIS to look exactly like a speeding locomotive!?
But will he end up far enough back to influence the past Luna and try to save her from Nightmare Moon?
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na it worked out just fine m8.
We know how Page was perceiving Midnight, but how does she see things?
We came out of the teleport, my head swimming and my legs shaking. I just wanted to collapse, but then he caught me.
“Midnight.” He says the name I chose for myself in this world, and it makes me feel warm inside. Though I wish he would call me Twilight. His Twilight.
He eases me down, and looks me in the eyes. In my delirium I feel the urge to lean forward and kiss him. Feel those fangs with my tongue.
Their would be time for that yet. Tempest and I would see to that. As a companion, I have warmed to the idea of being with her. She was just as lost and filled with regret as me, plus she needed a teacher. But we both agreed that Page was something that needed to be secured for ourselves.
Though not nearly as powerful, and wreck less, his kindness and bravery is what drew us both to him, that and his huge-
“GRANNY!”
“Hubba-WAH?!”
“Are you side shipping again?” Princess Cadence snipped from her place on the charts.
“...maybe...I see potential where I sees it.”
“Didn’t you get the shipping report? We are more focusing on Dee this venture. Twilight and Tempest are to become a thing.”
“And they can, lord knows they’re gonna need help to grow their family, and a stud like Page would be good fir that.”
“Maybe, but not important at the moment. Get back to focusing on your pile.”
“Fine fine fine. Lessee here...Baked Bean ehh?
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Snrrrk!~~ Mr Bean isn't into the herding idea, at least not as far as I've read yet, he's got his Celly and she's a big gurl.
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Alternate universe, different rules.
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Eh, I just read too many stories like this.
I never liked when people bullied others because they were stronger, so I liked finding ways to bypass their strength. I was also the guy who found ways to use the natural rules of a game to get back at hackers. It was vindicating.
Mmmh, torches-as far as mentioned on Earth-aren't really a good thing as fantasy games portray; especially in an enclosed place like the temple. While they do give some light, the average torch only lasts about 30 mins. and another thing is that they exude large amounts of smoke. So having a torch in a stone hallway-for example-someone would have to make sure it is well ventilated or risk smoke inhalation. That's why most castle or estates had candles to light the inside area instead.
But considering Page and his expedition are shipwrecked with limited supplies in the middle of a dangerous forest with injured personnel, you take what you can get.
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I am a little surprised that Granny is on the team. Is she a senior agent of the Secret Shipping Organization? Makes me wonder what happened in her younger years.
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There for risking ever meeting Luna, get the mane6 born etc? Unlikely... But if he get into timey-wimy things he be return wih a bang:
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leets do the time warp again!
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It’d be hard for him to stick to keeping the Temporal Prime Directive.....
Although, he just might break it to have Celestia petrify him with instructions to release him on the day he gets sent back in time...
BTW, that boop game really should have a random chance to lose a finger when doing Chrysalis, complete with Wilhelm Scream “AieYEEEEAAHHH!!!”
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Your evil... exacly my thinking (^.^)/)'(\(^-~)
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I dunno. Cursing Discord is probably a safe bet though.
Though how would Discord take the fact that he was a safe bet for anything is beyond me
If Page somehow does time travel, he might become the first threstal. The ponies of the past might have been terrified and awed by his power and wanted to replicate it, which created the curse.
Those that weren’t cursed would have remembered all of the blood sacrifices and drove them into hiding. This would be the start of why bat ponies drink blood.
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With your fore-hooves on your hips
You pull your hocks in tight
But it's the pelvic thrust
That really drives you insane
Leet's do the Time Warp AGAAAAAAAIN!
Leet's do the Time Warp AGAAAAAAAIN!
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he made page a battycorn knowing 1) thestrals do exist, and fluttershy is one of them and 2) that there probably was a cursed statue of a battycorn in the jungle somewhere
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Of course, they also probably wouldn't waste the torches they made lighting corridors. Instead, you would use them in a similar way to how we would a flashlight¹: You would take one when you had to move down that dark corridor and then put it out at the other end.
N.B.: The 10-30min figure is for something you might see in fantasy art or a fantasy/historical movie. There were torches that would burn for several hours, they were also about eight to ten feet long and included a long enough shaft that you could place it on the ground and simply hold it upright, (or even push it into the ground if the soil permits).
1: Or, if you're British, a torch.
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no, not really. lamps and candles, that is oil lamps, was the common, light your way down the corridor light. Torches are big, cumbersome, smoky spreadding ash everywhere and not to mention short lived one use only things. A torch was lit in emergencies and very occasionally and mostly to make the wielder noticeable. It was more of a "Here I am!" deal. A brazier, was a common light source, but that was more a by product as it was the heat you wanted.
Why I say this, is not to say torches where never used, but that they are a huge hassle for very little gain. It would be a strain on any logistical matters requiring many many many thousandths per night. It was used in times where you needed to find something or someone quick, or to be as I said before seen.
Ah, so Page wasn't the first Destral?
Thestral are the predating and perhaps the first ponies? Because the Griffon wanted more peaceful prey them curse them to Herbivores
Or something like that
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that would be fucking amazing
Teleport takes too much and is tiring, ok. Then use portals!
One portal where you are, one at destination. Low continuous draining while everyone pass through.
We know portals are a think because Tirek, of all people, used it and he didn't show to have any great command of magic.
Leeet's doo the tiiiimme warrrrp agaaaaiiinn!
Let's not, and say we did.
Skulls for the skull throne!
Milk for the khorne flakes, darling.
Blood for the... What? No, I can't say that!
Whiskey for my men...
And beer for m*hic* mah horses.
🦉 Who?