//------------------------------// // II: Memory // Story: Tenebras Equum // by Glimglam //------------------------------// Her mind, like her memory and the palace itself, was dark and empty. No other thoughts ever rose to her mind, apart from the newer ones the she beckoned forth from the mental ether. She could not recall any memory that existed beyond the point where she had woke up, aside from a few core details ingrained into it. She had tried to focus, but these only succeeded in summoning an unpleasant headache, which discouraged any further attempts. And yet, once she gazed long and hard at the room, she felt something peculiar rise up from the recesses of her psyche. Something familiar, but unsettling. Like a surge of water, some thing washed into her head, overcoming her to the point where she was shocked into stillness. What was this feeling? She could barely recognize nor comprehend it, but it was happening nevertheless. And quite frankly, it was scaring her. Without warning, her vision suddenly became flooded with whiteness. “Wh-what’s going on?” she fearfully asked the air, feeling lightheaded as she lost all sense of spatial awareness. “Welcome to the Gala!” a powerful, yet gentle female voice called out in greeting. “You are all looking simply delightful this evening.” “Thank you so much, princess!” a smaller, more gently feminine voice said in reply. The mare still couldn’t see anything; it was as if she was in a white void, with those echoed voices ringing across the expanse. Why did they sound so familiar? ‘Princess’? Who were these ponies? “I presume it was Rarity who designed them for you?” “Yeah yeah yeah! Aren’t they so amazing?!” spouted another voice, carrying far more energy than the last. Sounded as if somepony had a little too much sugar recently… “Calm down, Pinkie Pie. We know that they’re totally awesome.” “Oooooooh! I know, right?! You were totally into it, Rainbow Dash! You squealed with joy soooo much!” “H-hey! I just thought they were cool, is all!” “Alright, settle down girls.” The mare perked up at the voice that just spoke. “We should probably get going, Princess Celestia. We’ve decided that we’ll stick together tonight.” The voice that spoke was innately familiar to the mare. She had already heard that voice several times before. That voice, she thought, is that…? No, it can’t… Is that… me? “Very well, then. I can see that you girls have your evening planned, so please, go ahead and enjoy yourselves! The Grand Galloping Gala awaits!” “Hey! Maybe tonight really WILL be our ‘Best Night Ever’, huh girls? It’s gonna be fan-tasty-tastical!” “Haha, it sure will, Pinkie. It sure will...” The whiteness of the void soon faded, as did the echoes of the voices. Panting, as if she had somehow run a marathon standing still, the mare fell backwards onto her haunches and spent two minutes staring ahead blankly into the room. She blinked several times, before finally realizing that the bizarre experience had ended. Her mind raced to comprehend what just occurred to her. The voices, the names she heard, and most importantly, her own voice mixed into that cacophony of audio. Every single word spoken, it seemed so familiar! So frustratingly familiar! She just couldn’t recall the full connection! Who these ponies were… Rarity… Pinkie Pie… Rainbow Dash… Princess Celestia… All of these names, however peculiar they were, must have meant something! But what? What?! And what about the others that spoke? What were their names?! The mare let out a frustrated scream as she clutched her temples and slammed her forehead against the stone-cold floor. She quickly regretted doing so. With a cry, the unicorn jerked her head backwards and vigorously rubbed her forehead to stem the pain. “Well, that was dumb,” she hissed through clenched teeth. “Now that stupid headache is back…” She noticed that she had dropped the can of those red crystals again as well, but she didn’t care. She only wanted to get out of there. That’s when she remembered exactly where she was. As she before realized, it was quite a large, open room. Skylights adorned the ceiling, and a very gaudy-looking chandelier hung there as well. In the center of the room, a grand marble staircase ascended and split two ways, each leading to an east and west wing of the upper levels. There were four doors on the bottom level; one she just came out of, two were on the direct opposite sides of the room, and one very large gate was positioned at the front of the chamber. “That gate,” mused the unicorn, eying the wooden entryway up and down. “Maybe—just maybe—it might be the way out!” She figured that it was a logical enough decision, given the size of the door. But what if it was locked? Or if it did not lead out of the palace, and instead only went deeper inside? Who was to say that there wasn't merely further to go past it? She had no way of telling either of these things. The mare took her chances. Getting off the floor, she slowly trod across the hall toward the imposing wooden gate. It had to have been at least five times her height. Maybe more, she speculated. As she approached the giant double doors, she started to reach out with her hoof towards the handles. She could already feel a gentle breeze seep through the crack in the center. All it would take it would be a simple (or maybe a rather hard) push, and she would be outside. However, her assumptions were quickly foiled when the stony tiles, and for that matter the entire chamber, began to tremble and shake. Grrrroooooooooaaaaaaahhh… “Wh-what the—?!” To her horror, the entire room around her was trembling. Dust fell from the ceiling in clouds, and several loose tiles and stones fell loose and clattered to the floor with a horrible crash. The mare had to jerk her hoof back and jump away from the door to avoid a falling chunk, mere instants before it caved in her skull. She couldn’t believe it. Was it some kind of earthquake? But earthquakes don’t just happen because of a loud noise. On that note, where was that noise even coming from? It sounded, quite vaguely, like a distant roar. But that wasn’t the end of it. Another noise demanded the unicorn’s attention. She turned to look towards the door, and gasped with shock. With the disgusting, squelching sound of flesh being stretched and squashed, a web of red, organic essence began to cover the entire door top to bottom. Within seconds, the entire mass of goop had formed a complicated, stringy mesh that blocked off the entire gate. And worst of all, it seemed… alive. The web of flesh would twitch and spasm in places, and a thick, caustic brown fluid leaked from various areas, dripping from the mass like a foul syrup. The unicorn fought back the urge to heave, and she took several steps away from the ghastly wall of unknown substance. “Where—where did that thing come from?!” she found herself asking out loud. “What is it?!” The empty room had chosen not to reply, as the “earthquake” had by this point subsided. The substance was, to put it bluntly, quite nauseating to look at. And the smell was certainly none too pleasant, either. In any other circumstance, she would have preferred to distance herself from such a catastrophic mash of organic gunk as much as possible. But as this mess was in her way of freedom, she at least had to try and see if would be a hindrance; there were few other options, after all. Slowly walking back towards the slime-like organic compound, she raised a hoof towards it. Just a small touch, she told herself. Hopefully, she could just scrape it aside or something. When her hoof finally made contact, it felt as much as could be expected—that is, it was extremely moist and slimy. However, it was still quite firm. There would be no way she could remove all of this stuff in short order. She sighed, and pulled her hoof away—only to discover that a smearing of the organic substance had gotten all over it. “Oh, yuck!” she wailed, her face contorting with revulsion as she looked at the goo that covered her hoof. “Guh, get off! Get off!” She started furiously scraping the slime off of her hoof, gagging as she did so. It felt as though it was clinging directly to her, but she managed to get the chunks of fleshy matter off. That was so disgusting! she thought, shaking her hoof and scraping it against the floor to ensure that every speck of goop had been removed. It—it felt like it was crawling all over me! As if she needed any more reason to suspect it was alive. This stuff was unnaturally sticky; once it grabbed on, it didn’t want to let go easily. Once she was able to shake off the horrid substance, the mare backed away from the door again. She groaned with both repulsion and disappointment. Scratch one escape route. If she didn’t know any better, it would almost seem as if the castle didn’t want her to leave, and cast a “net” over the door to stop her from escaping. She caught herself. “Wait…what? No, that couldn’t be possible,” she reassured herself, wondering how that thought had possibly occurred to her. “It’s too implausible to make sense.” But then again, a little voice in her head refuted, how much more likely is it that a beastly roar from afar and a horrid wall of flesh can come out of nowhere? The unicorn stopped to think about this, and quietly conceded that it couldn’t have been a coincidence. She idly shook her head, and drew a shuddering breath. “I… I don’t like this.” Whether she liked it or not, the poor purple unicorn knew that she was going to have to find another way out of this place. If only there were a better place to start. The grand staircase, which might have looked quite lovely and grand in the right light, just looked extremely ominous now. The two doorways on the right side of the chamber begged attention, but they would most likely lead to dark places as well. Where would she even start? Other than the almost painful feeling of familiarity with this place, she had no idea where each passage would lead. The door she just came out of (on the hall’s left side) was out of the question. So, she chose the closest door on the right side. As she approached it, she could make out the words on a nameplate directly adjacent to the doorway: ‘Old Archives.’ “Maybe that’s where they… store stuff?” the unicorn speculated, attempting to tie a definition to the word. “If it's really that old, who knows... I wonder if there would be a way out through there.” The other doorway, she noticed, had a similar sign. But this one read: ‘Winery.’ Hmm… Winery? she thought, reading the sign and noting the small image of a bundle of grapes beside it. Where they make—um, wine? I think that’s it. She shrugged. “Well, I suppose I am feeling a bit thirsty. And at this rate, I guess I can't be choosy...” She hadn’t even thought of it until now, but the mare was actually starting to feel rather parched— and maybe a slight bit peckish as well. While her odds of finding something to sate her biological needs anywhere were slim at best, there wasn't harm in trying. The mare trotted up to the door, and placed a hoof on it—for a moment, she was petrified with the mental image of more of those fleshy things covering this door as well, but thankfully those fears were unfounded. She gave a push, but it wouldn’t budge. Maybe it just needs a little more ‘oomph’, she thought, and braced herself against the door and heaved. Still, it barely moved. That’s when she noticed a metal padlock tightened around the door latch, sealing the door shut. “What the… Locked?” She sighed with defeat. Ugh, that’s just great. Discouraged by this setback, the mare glumly walked back to the Old Archives door and tried opening that one instead. Mercifully, it swung inward with barely a hooftap. As she looked inside, she noticed that the hallway within was, as fortune would have it, almost fully lit with torches. Putting on a face of confidence, the unicorn strode inside the doorway, and pushed the door shut behind her. For some reason, despite being fully lit, the Old Archives felt terrifying. Was it because of the aging walls and substructure around her, which looked so old-fashioned and eerie compared to the white marble cleanness of the Entrance Hall? Or maybe it was a feeling that there was always something waiting around the corner. The mare had yet to see anything unusual here, but she had a feeling that something was bound to happen. She trod lightly down the winding hallways of the archives, every now and again seeing a mouse scurry across the stony floor. Somepony obviously hadn’t been cleaning this place, the mare noted. There were many doors that she passed while walking, most of which were stuck shut while others led to empty rooms. After the fourth turn in the hallway, and the twelfth door she passed, her patience was already wearing thin. How long would this hallway go on? She certainly wasn’t getting any younger. Another thing; why hadn’t she even so much as caught a glimpse of anypony else since waking up? Was this place truly deserted? The way that things seemed, she was willing to believe so. Just as she was approaching the next door on her left (which would, incidentally, be the thirteenth one), the unicorn heard a familiar sound: The loud whooshing and swooshing of wind gusts. On first hearing it, the wind sounded distant—muffled, almost. And then, another second later, the door to her immediate left flung wide open. A pitched scream managed to work its way out of her lungs as she leapt back, echoing through the halls of the Archives. Somepony was there! Here! Just now, having swung open the door with all of his or her might! Her heart pounding through her chest, the mare darted her eyes towards the now-open entryway—and was forced to raise a confused eyebrow. The doorway, and the small room it led to, was empty. Nopony was in there, let alone a mouse. A large hole in the ceiling, exposing the room to the elements, was letting in outside air and leftover rain. It was all the wind, once again. The wind, it seems, may be the true horror of the night—a simple blast of air, a terror! The notion made her release a relieved and bemused chuckle. As if on cue, another blast of wind tore through the hallway. It escaped through the open doorway, and out into the corridor. The force of the air managed to snuff out the torches, and everything became dark. The unicorn let out a frightened squeal as the bone-chilling air rushed through her mane and over her coat, and started to shiver. Cold. Now everything was cold. And dark. Cold and dark. The two seemed to go so well together. She ground her teeth with anxiety as she processed the sudden shift in mood. Was this deliberate? A ploy to fool around with her instincts? To plant the seeds of paranoia, and stymy her progress? If so, then it was certainly working. A sudden clatter of something metallic demanded her attention. “Wh-what was that?” she asked aloud, her eyes trailing towards the source: the room that had just been opened. Her curiosity soon returned despite herself, and she tentatively stepped into the open room. For safety’s sake, the unicorn closed the door behind her again. It wouldn’t do any good if another wind gust came around, but it satisfied her rising paranoia for the moment. The room wasn’t large, but the hole in the ceiling certainly was. Runoff from the earlier storm was still pouring in and collecting in pools near the corner of the room, and a cold breeze was blowing throughout. A closet of some kind was nearby, pushed off to the darker corner of the room away from the gaping hole. At the far end of the room was—what appeared to be—a simply, wooden table. And lying dead center in the middle of the room was an old brass lantern. A lantern? she thought, staring fixedly at the lamp. What is this doing here? She could reasonably deduce that the metallic clang she heard moments ago was from when the lantern fell during the wind gust. The unicorn suddenly perked-up as this fact slowly sunk in. A lantern! Something that lights up! The mare, feeling somewhat giddy at having something to belie the darkness, walked to the lantern and went to pick it up in her mouth. That is, until an all-too-familiar whiteness filled her view, and she once again felt herself begin to weaken and disconnect from reality. “Oh, not again…!” “Hello princess! You said you wanted to see me?” “That I did, my student. Do you see this?” “Ooh, is that a—um, a lantern?” “Yes. Well, a kind of lantern, yes. It’s very special. It’s not powered by normal magic.” “Really? I thought all regular lanterns were lit that way.” “Once again, you are learning something new. This is a Dragonfire Lantern. It uses the essence of a dragon’s flame as its fuel, and it does not require any traditional method of fire-starting to make it function. It can help ward off special types of darkness.” “But isn’t darkness just an absence of light? How are there ‘special’ kinds?” “By ‘special’, I refer to the “evil” varieties of darkness. You see Twilight, there are good sides, and bad sides to magic. As I am ruler of Equestria, I must be proficient in both forms. You, however, should never explore this bad side. Am I clear on that matter?” “I understand, princess.” “Good. As I way saying, some varieties of bad magic are capable of creating darkness that can harm and corrupt the soul. This darkness is as thick as fog, and sap energy from those in it. Normal unicorn magic, or traditional earth pony fire, can’t dispel it.” “So, this lantern can?” “All forms of dragonfire is capable of dispelling all forms of darkness. And it is most useful in its crystallized form, which is what fuels this lantern. You could say that it is capable of ‘burning away’ the darkness, but Dragonfire is actually quite tepid to the touch, wouldn’t you know. Unless you were a creature of shadows, which I think is fair to assume we are not. Would you like a demonstration?” “Would I ever! …Uh, I mean, yes. Yes please, princess.” “Heh, alright. Now, pay attention, Twilight…” The white faded away again, the voices following after. It was just two voices now, but they were also present during the previous vision: a princess, which must have been this ‘Princess Celestia’ from before, and another named ‘Twilight’… …Goodness, why did that name sound so familiar? Forget simply prodding at nerves; that name was yanking on them. And why was the voice that used that name so uncannily her own? What was the meaning of this? Was that… me? She turned to look down at the lantern, and spent a moment observing it. Perhaps the ‘lantern’ that was being spoken of by those voices… was this one? ‘Dragonfire Lantern’? The mare went back to picking up the lamp by the handle, and set it upright on the floor. Feeling experimental, she gave a little ‘key’ on the side a twist. Instantly, a red light erupted from inside the tempered glass casing. The light slowly grew brighter before finally coalescing into a vibrant green flame which cast a warm, luminous glow over the room. Somehow, the light felt oddly comforting. The stress she was feeling seemed to just… melt away. Picking up the lantern again in her mouth, the mare caught something glinting on the table. The light from the lantern was reflecting off of a small grouping of tiny red crystals. Almost adjacent to them were small, frail, pink… …Petals? The unicorn approached the table at the end of the room slowly, her eyes fixated on the grouping of petals resting so delicately on the table. To her surprise, some of the petals appeared to be still attached to a still-fresh plant stem. Could it be? Could these be the source of the petals? If so, then… what does it mean? That’s when she also noticed the written note lying nearby. A quill lay beside it, the end spotted with long-dried ink. She was still unsure of the note’s origins, but decided that perhaps there may be something interesting written down. Setting the lantern onto the table, casting an ample amount of reading light, she got on her haunches and started to read. Twilight, There’s not much time. After I eat these petals, I will in all probability forget everything. I don’t know how much you will remember, or if you will remember anything at all, but I decided that a failsafe would be needed regardless. You need to trust me. You may think of this note as nothing more than a rambling of a mare gone crazy, but please hear me out. Listen to my instructions carefully. I—or rather, you—have a job to do. I made the mistake of meeting a pony by the name of Alack Zander. By Celestia’s tiara, I pray that the name fills you with fury as it does me now! Zander… He tricked me, tricked me into doing unspeakable acts… all because he had a puppeteer’s control over me. But no longer! Do not concern yourself with what I did; focus on what you need to do! I need you to… I don’t want to say it, but it’s the only way: destroy him. Kill Alack Zander. Show no mercy upon that twisted equine’s soul. Though I too deserve punishment, and losing the memories of all I hold dear won’t even be enough, do not fret about what sins I committed. Zander is dangerous. He is the ringmaster. Destroy him, and everything will become right again. I still have no clue as to his motives, so I am forced to assume he did it because it is his nature to hurt others. Find the old colt, and snuff him out. My friends—your friends—are in terrible danger. It may even be too late now, but…I will try and retain what optimism I can muster. Zander seeks all of them: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. Even if the names may seem unfamiliar to you now, they are my—your—friends. They are your fellow Elements of Harmony. It’s because of this that Zander deceived me. He secretly needed to get a hold of their power, and he offered me a… interesting proposition. It seemed legitimate at the time… but there is no time for lamenting. If you can, save them. Please. That’s all I ask. The princesses are both gone. Zander used the Elements to banish them somewhere, and I can’t say for certain where they are. Maybe beating Zander will bring them back. Maybe. I don’t know. Save us both, Twilight! Atone for our sins, and we will be free! Your former self, Twilight The unicorn stared in disbelief at the note. Of all the things she could have expected, this was not one of them. A note? To herself, apparently? There was so much information to take in, but was it all true? And the name of the intended recipient and the writer— they were the same? But how did that even make any sense? And the petals, the same kind of petals that were at her hooves when she woke up… My name is… is… Twilight? As she came upon that realization, it all made sense. The voices from her earlier ‘flashback’, the same names used by the note and visions… it was all coming together! She was Twilight! She had written this note! Finally, she could remember her name! …And yet, that was all Twilight remembered. The names of her friends suddenly felt more important than ever, but…she still had no clue who they were. And the note right off the bat said something about ‘forgetting everything’… She looked at the tender little petals attached to the stems and wondered. “Did those petals make me…?” All of a sudden, her ears picked up a sound. It wasn’t wind. Or a metallic clatter. It wasn’t even that creepy ‘roar’ from earlier. And it certainly wasn’t a door slamming shut. It was a door opening.