//------------------------------// // Of Woods and Witchery // Story: Lines and Webs // by Airstream //------------------------------//  The Everfree forest was something that should not have been. It was situated squarely inside Celestia's domain, within viewing distance of Canterlot itself. Yet for some reason the Royal Sisters let it thrive untouched by magic on their behalf. This was not to say that the forest lacked magic. It was one of the most powerful and unpredictable centers of magic in the world, in fact, as evidenced by the powerful wild spells that occasionally crackled alongside the edges of the woods. Timberwolves and Zap Apples were, Twilight felt sure, only a part of what the trees jealously concealed in their shade. Theories as to the origin of the woods, its unusual properties, and the reason the Sisters left it alone were the purview of many a horror story, murmured in half-fearful, half-disbelieving voices around campfires or under blankets. Nearly all the good fairy stories and tales of knights and damsels involved the forest in some way. Most ponies lost interest in it as they grew up. And wasn't it better that way? The occasional mysterious light or missing foal was chalked up to swamp gas, or bad luck. And sometimes it was. But everypony knew, on a deep, instinctual level, that the forest was dangerous. They just didn't know why... It was into this place, half-horror and half-magic, which Twilight and Morning Star strode early one Saturday morning. As they traveled through the edge of the forest and into the interior, following the familiar paths marked by Zecora as safe, they chattered idly about weather, their planned campsite, and what they were after, the Throne of the Royal Alicorns. "Supposedly, it's carved with a detailed scene depicting the creation of Equestria itself!" Morning Star was saying, as he skirted a patch of thorny vines. They had been walking for roughly an hour, and the path they were following was slowly being swallowed by the undergrowth. "Made of obsidian and marble, double backed, so they could both pass judgment from an equal seat. And the script we're after, the High Equestrian, was said to grant the reader's heart's desire if read aloud. I don't think that last part is true, but all the same I can't wait to see it!" Twilight ducked under a low hanging branch. "Well, I didn't see it when I was there last, although we only saw a small fraction of the castle. The courtyard where the Elements were, a corridor, and the old Astronomy Tower where I faced down Nightmare Moon with my friends." "I never really asked you about that. You faced down three of the biggest threats Equestria has ever faced. I mean, you took down Nightmare Moon, Discord, and the Changeling Queen one right after the other. All I ever did was pick up after each event. What was it like? I mean, you're a hero, Twilight! Do you ever get ponies who pull you aside and say 'thank you'?" "No, not so much. I asked Celestia to keep it quiet, except for the whole Discord thing, which flew right off the handle. And Shining Armor and Princess Cadance were the ones who repelled the Changeling invasion, not me. Really, we just all want to be normal. I mean, we're all still the Elements, and we always will be. But we all just wanted normal lives. Pinkie has her parties, Rainbow gave up on the Wonderbolts a while back, and I think she's working on something big right now. Applejack has the Acres to think of, and Rarity has become remarkably successful, what with her dress line and all. And Fluttershy has never been big on the limelight. We're all very happy with what we have, and we like it that way. None of us want to be heroes, we're just...ponies, and friends." Twilight avoided Morning Star's eyes, instead choosing to observe the path ahead of them. Already there was a deviation from the map. Morning Star saw it too. "Well, the path isn't supposed to fork at all!" he said, pulling out the chart from his saddlebags. This earned him a look from Twilight, who was flicking her ears back in exasperation. "Let's see," he said, brow furrowing. "We should be half an hour away from the cliffs, and then we follow them down into the valley here, and..." "The forest changed again." Twilight stated flatly. "I'm not sure how, but I think that we are in a different part of the woods. Thankfully, we planned for this, remember?" and with that, she pulled a bit coin from her bag, a blazing sun on one side and a crescent moon on the other. "The forest takes you where it wants past a certain point, which is why we went over the survival tips. Now," she said, levitating the coin with her magic, "call it. Sun or stars?" "Um, Sun." Morning Star said. He watched as the coin spun through the air. Twilight deftly plucked it from the air, slamming it to the ground. "Sun!" she said, a smile on her face. "Which path do we take?" Morning Star indicated the gap through the trees to his right. "That one. It looks like it follows our original path more closely." "That one it is!" Twilight announced cheerfully, picking up her bit and heading for the gap. Soon both ponies were following a path that led ever deeper into the darkest Everfree. Neither looked back, so they both missed the tangle of vines that covered the path they had elected not to take. Soon, it looked like there had never been another path at all... ________________________________________ They had been walking nearly all morning, not having stopped for lunch yet. The agreed on route had them stopping right after they had descended the cliffs, and stopping for the evening after they had reached the particularly thick part of the Everfree that Twilight remembered. However, they had yet to reach anything resembling a sudden drop. In fact, Twilight was sure that their way ahead was leading slightly uphill. To make matters worse, the cost was starting to press closer in earnest. The trees now scratched at her flanks at caught in her mane no matter what she did, and Morning Star had it even worse, he being larger. "This can't be right." Twilight said irritably, after a tree branch threatened to take out an eye for the third time so far. "I agree," Morning Star replied, cracking his head on a low hanging bough despite attempting to duck under it. "Should we turn around and try the other path?" "No. This is at least taking us in the correct direction. Those cliffs run along the entire length of the Everfree, we're bound to hit them eventually." "If you say so..." Morning Star said, following her lead. He had his doubts. He didn't know why, but suddenly everything made him a bit skittish, as if there was somepony standing behind him, unseen but there all the same. Somepony... Or something. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that there was nothing menacing him from behind. Although it did provide a root with a marvelous opportunity to trip him. Stumbling after Twilight, he almost lost his footing. Turning his gaze forward, he stood in shock of what he saw. Twilight Sparkle spotted the opening in the trees about the same time Morning Star checked behind him. Trotting forward, she entered a large clearing. Without trees to break the wind, she stood exposed to the unseasonably cold breeze that blew through her mane and tail, causing them the waver and shine, occasionally catching sunlight. What stood before her left her with a sense of awe. A tower, built of dark grey stone blackened by age stood before them. The wind whistled through the slits that passed for windows, creating an eerie sound that sounded almost like moaning, rising and falling without rhyme or reason. It stood on top of a hill, with a low wall surrounding it. The gate stood open, rusted metal broken and buckled with the passage of time interminable. It commanded an excellent vantage point, and was clearly military in origin. Twilight grinned. Finally, a vantage point where they could take a break and find their bearings! "Come on!" she called, galloping forward. "Twilight, wait for me!" Morning Star cried, in hot pursuit. His hooves thundered over the ground, and soon they were both inside the gates. The interior of the walls was nothing special. Foundations indicated where wooden buildings had once stood, with cobblestone paths connecting them. A pile of rusty armor lay half hidden by one of the walls, another some distance away from it. The door to the tower was also open, and it was toward this that the two unicorns made their way. Twilight nervously checked to make sure Morning Star was there before she stepped inside, finding his presence oddly reassuring. There was enough light inside the tower to show them the way up the stairs, past several rooms sealed shut, wooden doors swollen in their frames. The flight of stairs spiraled upward, seemingly forever. "I think this is Post-Classical in design," Morning Star said. "Celestia set up a lot of these outposts to watch for foreign invaders and to provide shelter for nearby villages in case of attack or trouble. They were abandoned when the surviving ponies made their way out of the woods to be near the new capital, I think." Twilight nodded in agreement. "We can use this place to get the lay of the land and take our bearings. May as well stop here for lunch, too. We can set out and push as far as possible by the end of the day once we get our heads pointed in the right direction." And with that, she ran into the trapdoor opening onto the roof. Morning Star gently motioned for her to step aside. Throwing his weight at the door, he managed to shove it open in short order. Blinking at the sudden increase in light, he stepped onto the roof. He gasped in wonder. The Everfree forest lay before him like a giant emerald sea, waving in the wind. If you squinted hard enough, you could make out a patch of fuzz that might have been Ponyville, and the mountain that Canterlot was built into. They had come farther than he had thought possible. Turning away, he scanned the forest for the cliffs. With a sigh of relief, he saw that they were a scant half mile away, just past this tower. Beyond that, he could see the river, and beyond that he could make out what possibly could have been either a large group of rocks, or the castle itself! "Twilight, it's amazing! You've got to see this view!" he said, turning back to her. She was standing with back to him, looking directly over the courtyard below, which was perfectly circular. She was oddly quiet, and he noticed that she was shivering. "Twilight? Twi? Are you ok?" he asked, moving beside her. "Are you afraid of heights? We can head back down after I make sure we're headed in the right direction, alright?" Twilight turned to him, her eyes wide, pupils dilated in fear, her face pale. "L-look...down there. The armor..." she choked out, shivering. Morning Star frowned, looking over the parapet. His eyes flew open wide, and suddenly he wanted nothing more than to get as far away from this tower as possible. Morning Star had noticed the armor as he walked in. What he hadn't noticed was now all too clear. The piles were arranged, in a pattern of overlapping circles. How he had missed it before, he wasn't sure, but he was able to see that it wasn't just armor. The bones of ponies were still inside, having clearly fallen while fighting some horrible force. Burns and gashes and dents marred their armor. Morning Star though he might have been able to see blood mixed in with the rust, too. They were picked clean long ago, and had bleached white in the sun. Looking past the wall, he realized that there was still another circle surrounding the tower. Not a thing grew for a hundred feet in any direction of the walls. Not a blade of grass or a single bush. He realized that the birds had all gone silent as well. Suddenly the moaning in the tower seemed much more sinister. "We're leaving." he said authoritatively. "Come on, we're getting far away from here." "Did you see how they're laid out?" Twilight said, finding her voice again. "Six circles of eight, overlapping inside of the circle. Do you know what that means? This is the Darkmist configuration. This is-" "Necromancy, I know." Morning Star said, heading for the door. "Let's go," he said, Twilight Sparkle following close behind. Stopping in front of the door, he lit his hornlight. That was a mistake. With a roar that was as much spiritual as physical, runes blazed into life on the side of the tower, a cacophony of sickly green, icy blue and deadly black. Fueled by that simple spark, dormant spells flared to life, their light trickling down the sides of the tower. Soon liquid fire was pooling on the ground around the structure, and the two unicorns watched in horrified silence as it snaked its way into the armor of the literal skeleton guard of the lookout. Each set of armor rattled, aether trickling across bones, in between ribs, caressing skulls. The corpses on the ground had their sockets lit with a terrible intelligence, and as one, the fallen soldiers clattered to their feet, looking towards the two who had dared to disturb their eternal rest. Slowly the skeletons shambled towards the base of the tower, in horrible silence, with the single-mindedness that only the undead can possess. For a thousand years they had lain there, in cold and darkness. Each of them knew that soon, two more would join them in eternal sleep. ________________________________________ Twilight and Morning Star looked at each other, and jointly came to the same conclusion. "Right," Morning Star said, shutting the door. "Drop the saddlebags. Help me pry these battlements off, we'll levitate them on top of the door, give ourselves some time." "Got it. I've never tried it, but if we have some time, I can set up a long range teleportation spell that will throw them off of our magical scent." she replied, wresting a chunk of stone free with her mind and adding it on top of the swiftly growing pile. "I'm going to see if I can pick apart the spells on the tower, it seems latent. It probably has lost some power over time. If I can find the focal point, I can wreck the whole thing." As they spoke, the door shuddered and strained. Thankfully, the rocks appeared to be holding it down. Soon the two unicorns were lost in magic. Violet light sparked from Twilight's horn, and scarlet flame flared from Morning Star's. The door shuddered more and more violently. The guard had reached the top of the tower in force, and the rasp of bone and clank of armor could be heard over the constant impacts. Cracks began to appear in the door itself, a product of the strain placed on it by rocks above and the dead below. The trapdoor wouldn't hold much longer. Both unicorns realized it was no use. The spells on the tower were too complex and unfamiliar, and the distance too great to escape over. Morning Star and Twilight Sparkle met each other’s eyes, and nodded grimly. Taking positions on either side of the door, they prepared to test whether or not two young spellcasters such as themselves could defeat the necromancy of the ancients. Once, twice, three times the door shuddered, finally collapsing, a shower of wood and rock obliterating the leaders of the undead pack, and for a moment, all was still. Then, the first hooves and heads appeared, eldritch magics coursing over them in veins of malevolent light. Each unicorn picked their target, and let fly. This was it, fighting death itself for survival. Soon, the victors would stand over the corpses of their foes. The only question was obvious. Whose corpses would they be?