//------------------------------// // Death? // Story: Tales of the Abyss: Hymns of Equestria // by Genis94 //------------------------------// "Come home!" "Tear..." "You have to come home! You have to! I'll be waiting... always." "I will. I promise... I'll come home." Tear turned away and began walking to join the others as they escaped the crumbling fortress of Eldrant, a mobile fomicry facility that was attempting to recreate Hod. Just a few steps apart from Luke, she paused to say her final words to him. "Luke... I love you." Luke had heard what she said. He didn't show it, but he was relieved inside. He attempted to say those very words to her before the night before the attack. He stopped himself then, because he realized it would only hurt her when he finally disappeared. As his final act, he promised he would free Lorelei, the embodiment of the seventh fonon, thereby saving Auldrant from being destroyed by the process of replicating the planet. Luke took the Key of Lorelei, a weapon that was capable of freeing the embodiment of the seventh fonon, and stabbed it into the ground to begin the process. A large fonic glyph appeared beneath him, surrounding him in a shield and lowering into the core of Eldrant. As the city above him collapsed, Luke saw Asch, the true Luke fon Fabre that he was replicated from, fall into the shield. As Asch slipped through, Luke caught his body and held it in his arms. Luke could feel all of the coldness of Asch's seemingly lifeless body and the three wounds from where he was stabbed by three oracle knight replicas. Just then, Lorelei appeared before both of them, it's form resembling a mass of flames that shaped into a somewhat human silhouette. "So the world did not vanish. To think, the future I saw would be rewritten. You have done admirably." Lorelei then shot up into the air and escaped into the sky above. With his mission complete Luke allowed himself a moment to relax, unaware that Asch's finger just twitched. In that same instant, Luke and Asch began glowing and their bodies appeared to explode into a large ball of fonic energy. "So this is it..." Luke thought to himself. -------- "Unh... Where am I?" Luke slowly opened his eyes as he began regaining his senses. He appeared to be in some form of forest in the middle of the night. "I'm... alive?" Luke was completely astounded by the fact that he was still there. After using his hyperresonance he was certain that it would cause his fonons to separate shortly afterward. He scooped up the Key of Lorelei and took a better look at his surroundings. "Must be in the Cheagle Woods. Doesn't look like any part of the forest I've been to though. If I can find a way out, I should be able to make my way to Engeve." Luke began walking when he remembered something. "Wait! Asch was with me when Lorelei was freed! Maybe he's around here somewhere." Luke took a quick look around the clearing, but found no trace of Asch. He began hearing noises around him, which only encouraged him to search for an exit. "I'd better get out of here before any monsters show up. That battle with Master Van left me pretty tired." Luke began his search through the woods, but was hopelessly lost. He couldn't find any of the landmarks from his previous ventures into the woods. Suddenly, Luke noticed a faint light in the distance. "A lantern? Great! I'll just see who it is and ask them to take me to Engeve." Luke began running towards the source of this mysterious light, but thought if best to announce himself so they didn't think he was a monster. "Hey there! I got lost in the woods and I need your help! If you could lead me back to Engeve that would be grea-" Luke stopped mid sentence once he saw the source of the light was actually caused by some strange little creature. It was lavender and resembled a horse, except for the horn coming out of its head. The light emanating from its horn was clearly what must have been what he saw. "Never seen a monster like this before. Great... now I'm probably even more lost." "Just who are you calling a monster?" Luke felt a chill run down his spine. This strange creature had just talked to him. The only creature that had ever talked to him was Mieu, and that was only because he was wearing the sorcerer's ring. He did a quick inspection, but found no such accessory on the creature before him. "You just... talked!" "So did you. Wait! What are you!?" "What are you?!" *Howl!* "We'd better discuss this later. Right now, we need to get out of the forest. Come with me and-" "Whoa whoa whoa! I'm not following some weird creature I've never even seen before! How do I know you're not just leading me into a trap?" "Fine then. Stay in the forest and try and find your own way out." "W-wait! Okay okay, I'll follow you." "Don't worry, we're not that far from town. Also, I wasn't really going to abandon you there. I just figured it would be the fastest way to convince you." "Thanks I guess. Just take me to Engeve. I need to get a ride back to Baticul." "Engeve? Baticul? Just where are you from? I've never heard of any place in Equestria with either of those names." "Equestria? That's not on Auldrant." That's when it hit Luke. He might not even be on Auldrant anymore. "Tear... Guy... Natalia... Anise... Jade... I might not see any of them again..." "Oh dear... Come with me to my house. I'm sure once we introduce ourselves and figure out the situation, we might be able to fix whatever is wrong." "O-okay." Luke didn't exactly know what this creature was, but it seemed like he had no other choice, but to follow her advice if he wanted to get back to Auldrant. As the pair walked together, they shortly reached the edge of the forest, and came in sight of a town. "So if this isn't Engeve, then what is this town?" "This is the town of Ponyville." -------- Luke followed the strange creature through the small town known as Ponyville. Eventually, they both reached the creature's home. "A giant tree?" "This is the town Library. It also happens to be my home." The creature stepped forward and opened the door through some glowing force. Luke followed her inside and was directed to sit down with her in the kitchen. "I suppose we should properly introduce ourselves now. I'm Twilight Sparkle." "Twilight Sparkle? What kind of name is that?" "H-hey! It's a wonderful name! So what's yours?" "I'm Luke fon Fabre. Son of Duke Fabre and the Duchess Suzanne Fabre." "And you thought my name was strange..." "Oh, shut up you... thing!" "Thing?! I helped you out of the forest and you have the nerve to call me a 'thing'?!" Twilight certainly was a little intimidating while she was angry. Luke felt a little bad for what he said. He was just so stressed with the recent turn of events that it just sort of popped out. "I-I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. Thanks for helping me out of the forest earlier." "I suppose it's alright. So what were you doing in the forest?" "I just woke up there after that bright flash. I had just freed Lorelei when there was this huge explosion of light. Almost felt like a hyperresonance." Twilight tilted her head in confusion. "Lorelei? Hyperresonance? None of what you're saying is making sense to me." "I can probably help explain this stuff later. What were you doing in the forest Twilight?" "I was just getting some of my favorite tea from Zecora." Twilight magically lifted the bags of herbal tea out from her saddle bag to show her guest. "How are you doing that stuff? I've never seen fonic artes like those." "It's just magic. So you have it in your world too?" "It's a bit different from that, but yeah." Twilight's eyes lit up when she heard this. "That's fantastic! You're going to have to tell me everything about it." "Well, can that wait until tomorrow? I'm kinda tired." "Oh, of course. I should have a spare bed for you to use. Just follow me upstairs." Luke followed her and got a look at his bed. "I never thought I'd be able to say this, but the Inn in Daath is looking pretty comfortable right about now." "Why? What's wrong with it?" "It's way too small for me." "Oh, I guess you're right. Let me just fix that." Twilight's horn began glowing with magic energy, and the bed suddenly stretched itself to accommodate it's tall occupant. "Whoa! Magic can do that?" "Of course! There's plenty of things I can do with magic. I'll tell you more about it in the morning." "Alright. I guess I'll head to bed then." Luke eased himself into his bed, and began reflecting the days events. "This is just too crazy. I need to get home or who knows what will happen!"