Chapter 5: Undead Resurrection
All the world was fire until with a blossom of flame returned to smoldering bonfire. There unconscious at it’s base was a lone pony. His coat turned mangy and his flank left exposed as his dark sign pulsed angrily before settling back on his haunches. Quick Silver slowly blinked his way back into consciousness” . . .What. . .where. . .no.” His bare ears perked upwards as snide laughter filled the dead air of the shrine.
“Look who got beaten with the ugly stick. You act as if you’ve never turned hollow before.” Gilda seemed to take eager joy at his confusion.
“Hollowed?”
Gilda pulled a compact mirror from one of her saddlebags and threw it at him.” Open up and see for yourself.” She smirked and watched his face as he fumbled and caught the mirror.
Quick Silver quirked a brow at her cheerfulness and opened the compact mirror only to nearly drop it a moment later. Staring at him from the mirror’s surface was a pony akin to those he had been fighting this past night, it’s cracked leathery skin almost scaled in how it cracked, his coloration had turned a sickened and greyed blue. His once glorious mane had withered to nothingness, and his reflection’s once beautiful and piercing eyes naught but twin hollow pits of shadow met in shock and horror. “. . No. .no. . no no no no no.! There must be a way to fix this.” He trotted over to the griffon and grabbed her in his panicked state “Gilda! What has happened to me? How did I come back? And in . . .this hideous state?”
“Calm down Quick. It’s a rather easy fix.” Gilda pointed behind Quick Silver. “See that corpse over there? Yeah that one. The dweeb bent halfway down that well.”
Quick Silver turned around and saw what she was referring to. “. . .I see it but how does it help me?” He flared his wings in irritation.
Gilda rolled her eyes. “Just listen alright? See that corpse? Go check it’s saddlebags.” She smirked as he did as told.
Quick Silver grumbled as he moved to the corpse, his hooves driving furrows into the dead earth. The corpse lay over the mouth of the well, it’s legs barely keeping it from falling in. He leaned over the well and bent over the corpse, wrapping his forehooves around the corpse’s barrel and heaved it out of the well. “Now then. Gilda? What am I looking for here?”
“You’ll know it when you see them!” She yelled back at him.
Quick Silver reached into the corpse’s saddlebags and quickly removed it when something crawled onto his hoof. “What. . .is this it Gilda?” He raised his hoof into the air holding a squirming black mass of something.
“Yep. Now bring it here!” The Griffon crooked her talon at him, motioning to come back over.
Quick Silver stepped over the heaved corpse and trotted over to Gilda. “So . . . what is this thing Gilda?” he asked plaintively of the Griffon Knight.
Taking the black mass from him Gilda smirked. “This newbie is what is going to bring your pretty little face back. It’s called Equinity, don’t know why ask the loud mouth if you want to know more about it, and it is quite easy to use. Give me your hoof.”
Quick Silver smirked, “Why Gilda. Moving a bit fast are we not?”
“Ha! As if Quick. Especially while you look like that.” She grabbed his outstretched hoof and placed the squirming mass on top. “Now I tend to crush it in my talons but obviously that won’t work for you. So you need to crush it somehow . . . I don’t know? Crush it against your chest? Or stomp on it?”
With quivering mass in hoof and quivering breathe in chest Quick Silver glanced between it and Gilda before with a grimace he grasped it firmly and slammed the black mass into his chest. “Guuuh!” Instantly the dry air of the ruins became crisp with each breath he took. Quick scrambled over to where he dropped the mirror and quickly snapped it open and sighed in relief. “. . .There’s that face. Glad to have you back.” He gazed deeply into the mirror making sure that everything was back in place, his eyes checking out the finer details.
Gilda smirked at his abject relief, “If your done admiring yourself you can come back ever here. You owe me now and I know exactly how you’re going to pay me back.”
Quick Silver admired himself in the compact mirror for a few moments more before he shut it and trotted over to the smug knight. “You have taught me something quite useful. What can I do to repay this debt?”
“Two things really, quite frankly I doubt you’ll be able to do either of them but it can’t hurt to ask.” Gilda snidely drawled out. “First off, I need you to keep an eye out for a golden crown, shaped like my talon’s entwined. Rumor has it that it, and Griffonstone’s last king. . .that great dimwit, were last seen in that ruined city below us.”
“Why do you…”
“Shush. Let me finish. I also need you to help me take down dragon in the sewers of the Berg. Doubt you’ll be of much help outside of bait but I will take what I can get.”
Quick Silver huffed in indignation and he pressed a hoof against his temple, “Back up a bit. You said below? I thought the only ruins around besides . . .well here,” he flared his wings out in emphasis, “were up there in the Undead Settlement.”
Gilda sighed, “Right. I forgot that you’re new here. Underneath this shrine lies the ruins of a huge destroyed city that used to be called Tartarus. If you want the history of the place talk to the loud mouth, I really don’t care. You can reach the ruins by the elevator right past the mute.”
Quick Silver quirked a brow, “This is the third time you’ve mentioned this ‘loud mouth’. Who are they and where are they?”
The taloned knights scoffed in derision, “She’s just some loud-mouthed unicorn staying down in the ruins. Just the way she talks pisses me off. If you’re lucky she’ll be hollowed by the time you get down there and you won’t have to listen to her yap.”
Quick Silver sighed, “I’ll head down there soon then I guess. Now then…” He gave her a disbelieving glare, “you mentioned something about a dragon? A immune to all but bolts of dark magic, Pillars of fire, and great bolts of bucking lighting dragon?” He stared at her in irritated disbelief as she laughed at him.
Wiping a tear from her eye Gilda said, “Hahehe. Easy Quick Easy. It’s not what you think. This dragon is NOT like the ancient ones. It’s all weird and toothy and should be easily slayable with the two of us.” She grinned toothily at him, “Besides as you said. You owe me.”
Quick Silver gritted his teeth before he nodded in affirmation. “Fine. My dept will be payed then. You said that there was a way into this city?”
Gilda turned and indicated past the bonfire with a toss of her head feathers,” Down there and past the mute. It’s really not that hard to find. Really.”
Quick Silver turned with a flick of his mane and walked past the bonfire and down the crumbling curved stairs. He paused briefly and stared at the silent mare imprisoned beneath the shrine before walking past her with a shrug to find a stairwell leading deeper into the shrine. He trotted along the open hallway and took note of something. ‘This must have been a tower or something.’ “Woah. Look at this!” Quick Silver gazed off into the distance. “This area must have been walled off from the rest of the city. It looks like they walled off and isolated several areas for some reason.”
He leaned over the ledge, wings braced against two pillars,” . . .is that lake where I’m going?” He pulled back and continued into a closed off part of the stairwell and found an iron gate pushed open into a circular chamber. “Huh. Hope this thing still works.” Quick Silver said as he inspected the rusty chains. Sighing he said, “Here goes nothing.”
Quick Silver stepped onto the elevator in the center of the chamber with not a little trepidation and gulped as it began it’s slow descent into the depths.
“I hate these things.” Quick Silver murmured as the rusty mechanisms of the elevator lowered him slowly into the depths of the shrine. He sat and watched the moss on the wall be torn away by the downward weight of the stone elevator. “Must have been a while since Gilda came down this way.” With a sigh Quick Silver settled down and shut his eyes to rest.
“This is the Life.” He flew through the air as he returned to the camp of his current employer. Landing by the command tent he heard a holler and saw Framandar Rashid grinning at him.
“Our wayward scout has returned it seems. Tell me my friend, what have you found for us?
Quick Silver saluted his robed and heavily armored superior, “Well not too much I’m afraid. Just the enemy encampment about four leagues south of here. Looks like they’ve dug themselves into some badly damaged temple.” He grinned smugly. “But I’m sure that means nothing to you.”
The Saddle Arabian clasped him tightly across his shoulder, “You have done well my friend. Tonight, we celebrate! You have done a great service to us and Lord Wolnir will reward you greatly. Tonight, we feast, and tomorrow we shall assault these rebels once and for all. Will you be joining us?”
Quick Silver briefly considered his options before laughing off the question. “As if I would miss it my friend. Besides your Lord Wolnir pays quite handsomely, in both fortune and reputation.”
Elated at the reply Framandar Rashid pulled a horn out of his saddle bags and brought the camp to a halt with a resounding blast. “Soldiers of Carthus! Tonight we have received the information we need to put down this rebellion once and for all!.” Muttered cheers broke out among the soldiers.
“These Priests of Shadow have refused to bow their heads to the lords of Saddle Arabia and have refused to heal our sick and wounded brethren for far too long. No longer shall they hide behind their walls and hoard their healing artifacts for themselves!” The murmurs grew louder and angrier as Rashid stoked the flames of their ire.
“No longer shall they refuse to serve their destined lords. For in the morning we shall march on their temple and, should they refuse their last chance at mercy, we will bathe their precious temple in blood!”
The Soldiers cheered with bloodlust in their eyes, hooves stamping the ground in their excitement.
“For tonight however, we shall celebrate! My friends, my soldiers, tonight I want you all to be as well fed and rested as possible. Tonight, we feast!” Their Farmandar basked in their cheers.
“Before I release you, I have your shifts prepared. Now then; Ibrik, Khouril, Kurek!” He called out. “You three shall be taking first watch, I want our perimeter locked down. Shaheed, Omar, Nasir! You three will be taking second watch. Jibril, Bara, and Samad will be taking final watch before the morning shift!” Rashid barked out his orders as his Cataphracts saluted and let his face fall into an easy smirk.
“The rest of you head on over to the mess hall. We have a feast to eat and wine to drink!” He sidestepped and watched his soldiers charged in unison to the erected Mess tent.
“Quite the speech Rashid. Has our great Framandar been practicing?” Quick Silver slyly asked his friend and employer.
Rashid laughed.” Not this one my friend. That came right from the heart. This conflict will finally be over after so many years.”
Rashid draped his arm across the shorter stallion’s neck and began to drag him towards his tent. “Not then my friend, tonight I want you to drink with me in my tent. . .and allow me to win back some of my gold.”
Quick Silver smirked at him. “ . . .Heh. Why not? Just don’t expect me to go easy on you because you’re getting me drunk.”
Arriving at his tent Rashid shoved Quick Silver inside, “I would never! Not with my pride at stake, my friend.”
*KLUNK*
Quick Silver, startled from his sleep, jumped to his right and slammed his head into the stone wall. “Guuuugh. What? Where?” He shook his head to clear the mental fog. ”. . .Oh. Right. Elevator.” Taking a look around Quick Silver saw statues engraved into the recesses of the elevator’s chamber depicting four crowned ponies.
Quick Silver took in a deep breath, smelling and tasting the air, “. . .Water? Gilda did say that this place flooded right?” Getting up on his hooves Quick Silver trotted out of the elevator chamber and down the crumbling stairwell, pebbles cascading down and announcing his passage, and stopped in his tracks at the sight before him.
“Oh. . .that’s what she meant.” He was lost for words seeing the vast cavern before him, the ruined metropolis’s ruined buildings barely peeking above the flood waters, stretching farther then his eyes could see. A thick mist hung in the air dampening the already moist feeling air and atmosphere. He sat there and took in his surroundings, absently kicking a stone into the water below.
“You there!” A voice rang out from his left.
He turned his head towards a voice and rubbed his eyes to make sure he was not still dreaming at what he saw. There in the desiccated ruins of this once great city sat a purple roofed wagon encapsulated by a large magical dome barrier. In front of the wagon was a mare ,wearing a large wide-brimmed magicians’ hat, with a cerulean coat sitting at a glowing blue anvil and a tea set resting atop.
Glaring at him the, in his opinion gorgeous, mare brandished a glowing hammer and narrowed her glowing red eyes before raising her voice towards him once more. “You dare disturb the Great and Powerful Trixie?!”