//------------------------------//
// Chapter Eighteen - The Gateway of the Gods 
// Story: Fairlight - To the Edge of Midnight 
// by Bluespectre 
//------------------------------//


CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

THE GATEWAY OF THE GODS


Lord Tararian,

Thank you for your letter regarding the matter of the appointment of the Night Guard to the position of custodians of the Tartarus facility.

In response to your concerns, I am compelled to remind you that is upon your own recommendation, and that of the special interest group ‘Equestria First’, of which you are a senior member, that the Equus Chiroptera were relocated to avoid them causing ‘Undue alarm and consternation’ to the inhabitants of the realm.

It is the conclusion of this office, and that of the royal family, that the matter has been dealt with in a pragmatic and decisive manner to the satisfaction of all involved parties. 

Your concerns are duly noted.

Respectfully,

Sir Coconut Macaroon,

Minister for the Interior. 


“You could have warned me.”

“And give you the chance to object?” I said with a smile. “And besides, why spoil the surprise?” I threw the bloodied piece of apparatus to one side and licked the blood from my lips, grinning menacingly.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you!” Star Swirl stared at his freshly repaired patch of bare hide and tentatively pressed it with a hoof, “By all the gods, Fairlight, I thought you were going to eat me alive.”

“I considered it,” I smirked, “but why deprive Meadow of her new toy?”

“Oh, for-! Are you still going on about that?” Star Swirl groaned, rising to his hooves. “I’ve already told you umpteen times that nothing happened between us. It was all an act to try and shock you into getting you your powers back so you could save your son.”

“Of course, Star Swirl,” I smiled. “I believe everything you tell me.”

“I can’t talk to you when you’re like this,” he replied with a snort. “Wendigo can be so damnably obtuse at times. Maroc was just the same when he was alive.”

“And now that he’s dead?” I asked.

“He’s just as bad! Worse!” Star Swirl picked up his hat and sighed, “Ruined. The cloaks a write off too. Much of my most sensitive field apparatus is broken beyond repair and-”

“-You’re alive,” I finished for him. “Dying once is bad enough, don’t you think?”

“Hmph!” The old wizard scrubbed his mouth and grimaced, “Was there any need to… to kiss me like that?” 

I had to chuckle at the look of discomfort on his face. “I had to get my life essence into you, and that’s the best and most direct way to do it. If I’d pulled that thing out of you first you could have died of shock.” I shrugged, “Besides, if I was into dudes you wouldn’t be my first choice.” I held up a hoof, “No offence.”

“None taken, I’m sure.” Star Swirl rolled his eyes, “Well, I’ve fixed what I can and salvaged the rest. Years it took me to gather all that, and now most of it’s worthless scrap. What a damned shame.”

Goddesses, here we go again! “Do you want to spend all day lamenting your broken toys or do you want to get out of here?” I asked a little testily.

The wizard’s reply carried all his usual tone of authority and a touch of sarcasm for good measure, “You’re the one with the pendant,” he pointed out helpfully. “Lead the way.”

“And I thought we could kiss and make up,” I smirked. 

Star Swirl, the first wizard of the royal court, held out his hoof and obligingly I took the lead. Where we had ended up was a small cave with only one way in and one way out, and that was straight ahead down an unlit passageway. Evidence of the way we had arrived here had vanished without a trace, and other than some scuff marks on the rock floor and the smell of burnt fur and clothing, for all intents and purposes it was like we’d been dumped here through some interdimensional laundry chute. Thankfully however Star Swirl was providing the light, and very good is was too. My crappy little flame had never been of much use except for lighting fires, cigars, pipes, and so forth. Handy to have, but it was hardly the best for lighting your way in the pitch black. By comparison the wizard’s ball of white light bobbing along above our heads was like a miniature light house, illuminating the way ahead and simultaneously helping us keep an eye out for any more of those god-awful traps. The wizard’s peculiar head gear had made a reappearance too. Unlike much of his more fragile belongings that had been pulverised in our mad dash to escape the fire, this at least still was intact and something we actually needed. The device’s ability to detect traps could very likely save our lives.

Stars Swirl was now well into his fourth sandwich, and any hopes of him leaving me some of the cheese and haybacon ones was long gone. I couldn’t complain really. It was something that always happened when a pony took in my life energy to help their own body regenerate damaged organs, muscle and tissue. Rather like having a few too many drinks, the injured party was taken with a desperate desire to eat and drink like there was no tomorrow. I didn’t mind particularly, but why did he have to go straight into my favourite sandwiches first?! I bet the only ones left would be those dreadful cheese savoury ones too. Egg and cress I didn’t mind, so long as you weren’t in the same room as me afterwards, but cheese savoury were like seasoned dog vomit between two slices of bread. And don’t even get me started on those godawful pease pudding things. How the hell anypony could eat something with the consistency of plasticine and tasting of wallpaper paste was one of the mysteries of life that I would likely never solve. And felt no inclination to do so either. Fortunately I’d managed to salvage some of my meat based goodies which the gannet posing as a stallion had turned his nose up.

“When I was still alive I met some mountain ponies who ate meat,” Star Swirl announced absently around a mouthful of sandwich, “Lack of what we would normally consider ‘natural’ food in the area meant they’d adapted over the centuries to eat whatever was available. In one particular tribe’s case it was predominantly goat. Some badgers, chickens, wild boar, that sort of thing too of course, but mostly goat. I wrote an article on it for ‘Fauna and Thaumaturgy Monthly’ back in the day. I wonder if you can still get a copy? Hmm… I might look into that when I get back.”

“Hang on, you said they ate goats?!” I nearly choked in surprise. “That’s virtually cannibalism, isn’t it?”

Star Swirl nodded, “I’d say so. They’re not the same species of course, however as dimwitted as they may appear, goats are most certainly sentient and had their own well established settlements further down in the valleys below where the mountain tribe lived. Probably not the best place for them really when you think about it.” The wizard smacked his lips and wiped his mouth on the back of his foreleg before continuing, “As you can imagine, the two peoples were in a perpetual state of conflict, with the ponies raiding the valley for food and the goats fighting for their very existence.”

“Dear goddess,” I breathed, “I never heard anything about this in history class.”

“History class?” Star Swirl chuckled, “Why would you? Who wants to hear about ponies eating other living creatures, especially when they weren’t equestrians in the first place. Anyway, the conflict only ended a few decades ago when the goats came under the protection of a group of people you know quite well yourself: minotaurs.”

“Minotaurs?” I whistled. “I’m guessing it didn’t end well for the mountain ponies, then.”

Star Swirl shrugged, taking another bite of his sandwich, “It didn’t. The tribe that raided the goat villages was lured into a trap set by the villagers and their new allies. The minotaurs blocked the roads preventing any escape and then swept in, killing every single one of the ponies. What came next however was the real eye opener.”

“And that was?” I asked, intrigued.

“Mmm...” Star Swirl swallowed his latest mouthful and took a swig of water, “They attacked the mountain ponies village and slaughtered every living thing before burning what was left to the ground. Young, old, the sick, the infirm - it didn’t matter. Nopony escaped.”

“And so ends the story of the mountain tribe.” I shook my head in disbelief, “Tragic.”

“Oh, it was only that one tribe.” Star Swirl plucked a rather squashed cake from his pack and tucked into it like a starving dog at a bowl of broth. “There’s plenty more of them out there. After the war they sent a delegation to make peace with the princess and our peoples have left each other to their own devices ever since.”

Amazing. “They fought for Nightmare Moon didn’t they?” I asked.

“They did.” Star Swirl yawned, “I must study the effects of this magic of yours one day, Fairlight. The healing effects are extraordinary, if a little… wearing on the body.”

“We can stop for a break if you want,” I suggested.

Star Swirl shook his head, “No. We have to keep going and pray we-” Suddenly he paused, his eyes focussing on something up the corridor. “There’s something up ahead. Keep quiet.” The magic light  blinked out in an instant, plunging us back into darkness.

I stood stock still, watching, waiting for movement, for anything that might tell me what was going on. Should I reach for the wendigo power? I’d used a lot of my energy mending Star Swirl’s wounds and the hunger within me was driving me to distraction as it was. I swallowed, focussing on reaching for that cold, hard ball of magic just in case. My eyesight wasn’t bad in the darkness, especially not since my powers had returned, but it wasn’t anywhere near to the level it had been. No more glowing blue eyes, and- Something moved. Something in the shadows. A glint of steel? My horn suddenly began to itch… 

“Get down!”

Bolts of blue magical fire flew towards us in a storm of hissing rage. The first volley missed, bursting harmlessly against the rocks walls, but the next volley was right on target. Thank the gods for Star Swirl’s magic. The lethal bolts of energy hit his shield square on, fizzing like a swarm of angry bees as one after another slammed into it. 

“I think we found out where Vela is!” the wizard shouted over the din. “Can you do something?”

“I can try!” I called back. “Just keep that damned shield up, okay?”

The grey coated wizard nodded silently as I went to work. It wasn’t an effort to be honest, in fact it was more of a pleasure than anything else. I called to it and the magic answered joyfully, coursing through my body from the core of my being to the tips of my muzzle, ears, hooves, tail, and finally… my wings. I’d already adjusted my packs, and the thestral made barding was cut to allow wings to poke through and work unhindered. Right then though, what I needed was height. Star Swirl’s shield filled the corridor, but up above the ceiling disappeared into the darkness. My eyes focussed, pulling in every sight, every sound and detail. They were there alright, three of them, standing in front of what looked like a large open doorway. I could already see the shimmer of silver light emanating from within flicker and die, silhouetting a group of unicorns frantically working away on the controls. 

“They’re already inside!” I called down to Star Swirl, “They’re activating the portal!”

“We have to stop them!” he called back. “Blast it all, I can’t get a damned thing done with all this going on!”

He was right, I had to- Damn it! A white hot bolt of magic sizzled past my ear, singing my fur. I was too slow, too out of practice, and flapping about like a sitting duck up here wasn’t going to solve anything. Meanwhile down amidst the shadows and flares of blue light, somepony shouted a warning and heads turned towards me. I knew what was coming next alright. Heads lowered, horns glowed, and a split second later a glowing shower of bolts screamed up through the frigid air. Quickly I pulled in my wings, dodging the barrage and dove, snapping them out just in time to pull up and make the damned swine shooting at me duck back in fright. It didn’t scare them for long though as another shot caught me painfully across the rump. Well buck this for a game of soldiers! It was time to take the fight to the enemy before I ended up as a wendigo pincushion. One good hard flap of my wings sent me soaring up on a plume of white cloud as it spilled from my hooves. I couldn’t use the fog in such close confines without risking Star Swirl getting caught in it as well, but I could use more targeted magic. And so I concentrated, willing the magic onward. Despite being depleted it leaped to my command with all of its usual enthusiasm, surging up in a geyser of raw magical fury. 

My first shot torn through the first of the wendigo in a shower of rock fragments, bone and flesh, raising a mist of crimson to match the howl of pain that was rapidly cut off with my second. It didn’t take the other two long to recover, but by then I was down amongst them, blade free and moving. I hadn’t felt like this since… when? I couldn’t remember, but it didn’t matter anyway. All that mattered was the here and now, the smell of blood in the air, the taste of the escaping life energy, the souls of the wendigo freed of their afterlife existence to feed the hunger of their lord. I smiled as I danced, blocking one thrust of a sword to spin upwards, slapping the stallion in the face with a wing tip even as I brought my war scythe up through his belly and throat. The resultant spray showered his fellow who balked and stepped back, hesitating. His weapon dropped from his hooves, but it was too late. Far, far too late. His head slid from his shoulders and landed amidst the entrails of his brothers, his escaping soul feeding and nourishing my own. My hunger… at last… AT LAST! I felt complete, whole, and so alive! I could feel the song of the mountain winter welling up within me once again, singing with the sheer ecstasy of existence. 

Silver light flashed in the corner of my vision.

“VELA!” Wasting no time I landed in a blast of white cloud and wind at the edge of the pool of silver light. It was a chamber of sorts, with what looked like a hot spring with steps leading down into it its otherworldly depths, down into a lake of pure shimmering silver light. Beside it a troop of grey unicorns ran down the steps and without hesitation into the liquid magic, until only one solitary figure remained. I knew him. I knew him all too well. “VELA!” I roared. “Stand and fight me, murderer!”

The pony paused, turned, and… smiled. With a casual toss of his head, Vela’s horn glowed, flicking something out of the control panel and held it up before him. “Too slow, Celestian!” he taunted. “Too slow!” With that he turned tail and ran into the light.

“Vela, you bastard!” Hatred seethed through my body and I poured all of my magic into my dive. Below me I could sense the magic faltering, flickering as it began to lose its coherence. Lost in my anger I barely noticed it, focussing instead on speed. I had to go faster! I had to-

“Fairlight! Fairlight, stop! STOP!”

Star Swirl’s voice was left behind unheeded. All conscious thought became secondary to the desire to reach the light and the stallion who was threatening my son. I had to stop him. I had to reach that damned creature and end him before he hurt those I loved. And I would do it. I had to do it! Around me the air roared, the bitter cold of the north adding to my terminal descent into the pool. Closer and closer now. I could feel it. I could taste it! It winked out, and then a split second later it was back, and I ploughed through it like a freight train through a glass window.

Sound ended. 

Light ended.

Existence. 

Mother? I could hear her calling to me from another world away, the words muted and unintelligible. I was alone, cold and afraid; a foal shivering in the dead of night. I had to wake up. I had to move and pull myself from the darkness and into the light. I had to… Oh, dear goddesses, what was… 

Blearily I began to open my eyes. Images floating in and out of strangely coloured misshapen things, faceless beings staring at me from non existent eyes. I blinked them away, trying to focus, trying to stand. My legs slid out from under me and as I hit the dusty ground. Weakly I looked up into the yellow eyes of…

“Hello, ‘brother’.”

Vela’s sword pommel smashed into my head with all the subtlety of sledgehammer, sending me back down into the eternal darkness. There was no pain, only the sonorous ringing sound of the old school yard bell where my senses used to be. So, this is how it all came to an end, eh? Gods, what a pathetic way to die. Still, could be worse I suppose. Over the course of my life, and afterlife for that matter, I’d been in more near death experiences than was good for anyponies sanity, let alone my own fragile self. Fate seemed to enjoy torturing me, and this time was no different from any other. Unfortunately, rather than the blissful non-existence of oblivion I seemed to be trapped, hanging around in this endless dark nothingness. When my mortal body had died my soul went to the herd. After that, according to everypony I’d spoken to at least, ‘dying’ a second time sent you off on the wonderful pathway to reincarnation. Why the bloody hell anypony would want to go back and go through all of that misery again was, frankly, beyond me. You were born, endured a miserable bloody life of suffering, and then your final reward – death. How could anypony say no to that? To top it all off, ponies actually prayed and gave thanks to the gods for giving them life! Wasn’t that the very definition of masochism? Thank you for inflicting pain on me, master! More please! Gods, what a joke. And a sick one at that. But maybe the whole point of prayer wasn’t to actually ‘thank’ the gods, but was in reality a way to beg for a place in the herd in case they changed their minds and wiped us all out of existence because they become bored with their toys. Ha! You need look no further than the thestrals to see what occurred when that happened! 

I was quite happy there for a while really, floating merrily in the emptiness of my own head. There was a joke about that last statement too, which for once wasn’t lost on a dullard like me. As fate would have it however, I was rather rudely awakened from my sleepy world of peace and quiet by a right little charmer with a bucket of water.

“Wakey, wakey.”

Nearly drowning on dry land is quite the experience, I can tell you. Coughing and sputtering, my nose burned horribly with the unexpectedly inhaled water. Abruptly my struggles came to a loud and sudden stop. Something was bound to my forelegs and, unsurprisingly, my hind legs too. 

“I wouldn’t bother trying to use your magic,” the unicorn standing over me said quietly. “There’s a nullification field here which cancels it all out. Poof!” 

“Hello, Vela,” I gasped past the dryness in my throat. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Well it was so nice of you to accept my invitation I couldn’t rightly leave you to wake up all alone now could I?” The wendigo treated me to a toothy smile, “Pity you couldn’t bring your friend with you though. It would have been nice to have had an extra guest to appreciate all the hard work we’ve been putting in.”

“Hard work?” I gasped.

“Ah, ah, ah!” The stallion waved a hoof in front of my face, “No exposition, my half-breed friend. You’ve been watching too many movies.”

“So what, you’re just going to kill me then?” I shook my head and let out a short laugh, “You say I’ve been watching too many movies, Vela, when you’re acting like a stereotypical villain yourself right now. All you need is the maniacal laugh and you’re there, mate.”

Vela’s eyes narrowed dangerously as his mirth faded like morning dew, “You call me the villain? You?!” He turned full circle and threw his forelegs up dramatically, “After everything I’ve done for you, you still think I’m the bad guy?” Vela shook his head, “Honestly, Fairlight, I find you incredible. Really, I do.”

“What the hell are you gabbling about, stallion?” I jibed. “The only thing you’ve done for me is drop me off a mountain and try to have me killed by your goons. Those you haven’t murdered that is. Forgive me if I seem a little sceptical here, but from where I’m sitting you’re talking a right pile of absolute bollocks.”

“Am I?” Vela pulled up a chair and sat himself down. The room we were in was dark, lit only by several oil lamps which did nothing for the ambience. “I was the one who brought your powers back, was I not?” The corner of his mouth curled up ever so slightly, “Ah! Have your attention now, do I? Good. Very good. You see, Fairlight, I have known about you for a very, very long time. It wasn’t hard to find out about you either, since everywhere you went you left a breadcrumb trail of bodies that a blind goat could follow.” He chuckled slightly and floated over a pitcher of water from which he poured out a cup for himself, “Now, I wondered to myself: could I use such a stallion in my plans? After all, you have access to your wendigo spirit which is something that’s been denied to my people since the fall of the fortress. In fact it was thanks to that that you became the de-facto lord of the four winds in the first place. So I began to think to myself – could you be the one to bring us back hope? To bring us back the light where once there had only been the darkness of doubt, emptiness and despair?”

“Oh, come on!” I cut in. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe that. Where are all the big speeches about ruling the world and ending Celestia’s domination, Vela? Come on, out with it, you know you want to have a good rant. Even just a little one. Every lunatic with a thirst for world conquest can’t wait to-” A hoof slammed into my jaw, throwing me to the ground.

“Now look what you’ve done,” Vela said with a sigh. “Gambit, what did I say about hitting our guest?”

I peered up at the bruiser standing over me. I hadn’t seen him at first, lurking in the shadows beside the lamp. He looked like some mad scientist had got two stallions and welded them together after removing their brains and using them to bulk up their muscles more than they had already. ‘Gambit’ looked as dull as a bag of hammers, but ten times as dangerous.

“Looks like I missed a few of you then,” I said, spitting out a gobbet of blood. “I guess you can run faster than the others, eh, big boy?”

Gambit growled low in his throat, the threat of unleashed violence burning in his eyes.

“I really wouldn’t goad him like that, you know.” Vela shook his head, his supercilious grin wider than ever, “I saw him tear a Celestian’s head from his shoulders once because he looked at him cross ways.”

“Or maybe it was the only way he was likely to get some head?” I couldn’t help but chuckle despite my less than amicable situation, “It’s harder for them to object when you’ve got their full attention like that.”

Vela stood up, waving a hoof. “I like you, Fairlight,” he grinned, “you’re a funny guy. And a good sense of humour is something we could use in our ranks to help boost morale.”

“Your ranks?” I asked in surprise. “What are you talking about?”

“Join us!” Vela suddenly dropped to knees in a flurry of hooves, near sliding across the ground towards me. “Think about it. You can be what you were always meant to be, Fairlight. You may be a half breed, but you’re still a wendigo. Oh, I know we didn’t exactly get off to the best start you and I, but I think we can work past that.”

“Work past it...” I repeated incredulously. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! “You murdered Clarion, Vela, or did you somehow forget that little fact?”

“Clarion was working for Maroc,” Vela replied calmly. “He was there to spy on my people and undermine everything we’d worked for. And did I try to kill you too? Yes. Yes, I did. Any why? Because I saw you as one of Maroc’s ‘goons’ as you so like to call my brothers. And yes, I knew very well you’d met with him and that puppet of the queen, Star Swirl the bearded.” Vela leaned towards me, his eyes reflecting mine like mirrors, “Did you know Star Swirl had been a brother of our tribe, Fairlight? Has it never occurred to you just how much he looks like one of us? Dear goddess, he’s even taken to wearing contact lenses to change his eye colour so those around him don’t associate him with his own people! And the best part? Do you really want to know what he did to us?” Vela slammed his hoof down, the anger in his voice barely restrained, “He betrayed us! He betrayed my family to the Celestians and gave our secrets to our enemies which they then used to butcher us all like we were nothing! NOTHING! My mother at least died on the field of battle, but my father was slain as he lay at the hooves of that evil monster when he was helpless and at her mercy.” His chest rose and fell in rhythm with his anger. “Have a guess how much ‘mercy’ the white witch showed us, Fairlight. Have a guess!”  

“None...” I whispered.

“Exactly!” Vela shuddered visibly. “My life was saved by Herath, and after we escaped the massacre in the pass we went into hiding, planning how one day we would take back our birthright, our pride, and our honour. Be it in that world or the next. Yet even here, here in the world of the gods and goddesses, we are treated like lepers amongst the ‘perfect people’ the queen loves as her own children. But us? No. No, we are the unloved ones, the tainted, the impure.” He took a step forward, “Fairlight, I wanted you to regain your power to see if we could break the seal on our own magic. I used you, I admit. I saw you as expendable, an asset to use and throw away if things didn’t work out. But am I sorry for what I did?” He shook his head, “No. No, I’m not. For my people I would sacrifice anything to give them back their heart and their spirits that the gods have denied them for so long. And I will do this, whether you, Maroc, Star Swirl, or even the gods themselves stand against me. I will prevail.” For a moment he hung his head and looked away, “But I do have one regret,” he said quietly. “I regret harming you, and insulting you the way I did. I won’t ask you to forgive me, it is not in the nature of our people to forgive nor forget so grievous an injury. But I would ask that you at least consider taking your place beside your family, and stand with us.”

“And fight against Maroc?” I asked.

Vela shook his head, “No. That is my burden, Fairlight, not yours. I wish it were not so, but father would prefer our people to simply fade away without ‘upsetting’ the status quo of the herd. He has hated conflict ever since he lost the tribe and the fortress, as well as his family and life. It has consumed him, turning him into a stallion I barely recognise as the father I loved as a child.”

“And my son, Lumin?” I stood tall, tossing my mane despite my shackles, “What of him? Do you still intend to drain him of his magic?”

“Drain him of…?” Vela blinked in surprise, “Why would I drain a child’s magic?”

“Because he…” I couldn’t look him in the eyes any more. I felt like such a fool! I tried to rally myself, “Because he has strong magic and you would use him as a magical battery to draw upon so you can overthrow the royal family.”

The stallion placed his forehoof on his head, closed his eyes, and sighed long and low, “I’m not going to ask who told you that. I can probably guess.” He looked up at me, “The choice is yours, Fairlight. You can either trust a stallion who has played you like a fiddle for years, lied to you, stolen your wife and daughter - or believe what I tell you. I know you have no reason to do so, but I trust in your instincts well enough to believe you will make the right choice.” He turned to the meat mountain beside me, motioning to the shackles around my ankles. “Take them off for the goddess’s sake. He’s our brother. If he so chooses.”

“And if I try to escape?” I asked. “What then?”

“Then… we’ll have to do what we have to do, Fairlight,” Vela replied calmly. “You would do the same as the lord of the four winds. Traitors cannot be allowed to live, for the good of the tribe.”

“One last thing,” I said lifting a hoof. “Your wendigo tried to kill me back there, Vela. If you wanted me to help you, why would you make them do that?”

“They weren’t trying to stop you,” the stallion replied. “They were trying to stop the traitorous wizard from interfering with the portal.”

“They shot at me!” I protested.  

Vela raised a knowing eyebrow, “And what would you do if a wendigo was trying to kill you? Wouldn’t you fight back?”  

I opened my mouth to reply and quickly shut it. 

The grey stallion reached the doorway at the foot of the stairs beyond. “I advise to you stay within the walls of the compound,” he called back. “The guardians here protect the city jealously, and any intruders are dealt with… efficiently. Beyond those walls only death awaits. Choose wisely, brother.”

Even as the manacles fell away, clanging onto the dusty ground, I felt nothing. All I could do was stare straight ahead in dumb silence. What Vela had said… I just didn’t know what to think. Everything he’d told me about Star Swirl rang true. I knew damned well that the old swine had been using me to further his own secret machinations right from the word go. It was because of him that Meadow had been able to use the groves where the berries grew, the places where the veil between the worlds was at its thinnest, allowing us to spend time together in defiance of the laws of life and death. But there’d been a cost hadn’t there? As much as we had loved each other, neither myself nor Meadow had been able to move forwards, and had remained locked in a virtual time trap between the planes of life and death. Star Swirl had been guiding that right from the beginning, using Meadow to pass information to me and to receive it in return. He’d even appeared with her on occasion, giving more precise ‘direction’ to me when he felt it was necessary. Of course, it had all been in the name of ‘helping’ Meadow and I. More likely it was helping himself, and as it transpired… helping himself to Meadow while he was at it. How long it had been going on for I couldn’t say. Meadow had been distant with me for some time now, particularly when I’d started going to those classes to help me ‘realign my mind body energy’ or whatever buzz words were the order of the day. But still, to have an affair? I’d trusted her implicitly, and yet… and yet she’d actually encouraged me to have a marefriend in the mortal realm hadn’t she? She’d approved of Tingles, even Shadow, and we’d even enjoyed time together. All of us. Gods, had Star Swirl been behind that too? Perhaps it was the grease on the gears of his moves on my wife. I could see it now, the way he would comfort her in her grief, all kindness and understanding. He would comfort her, offer an ear to her sadness, and whisper gently in her ear. It was alright, wasn’t it? After all, Fairlight had relationships with mares in the mortal realm, so she wouldn’t be betraying him in any way by simply enjoying the company of another stallion. The way time fluctuated between the realms meant it could be months if not years between visits in the groves, so what harm would it do? Fairlight would understand, and he couldn’t exactly object now, could he? That truly would be the pot calling the kettle black.

Oh, how delectable a situation this was for him! Star Swirl had planned the whole thing out from beginning to end, and even though he’d denied it, the truth of it all was laid out for all to see. And the truth was that I was still a puppet on the strings of my masters as much as I ever was. Even if I was more aware of it now than I had been, and even if I was determined to fight back against their control, I was as helpless as a fish in an anglers bucket. But could I be wrong though? I huffed, shaking myself off. It was true Star Swirl had helped me in the prison back there, but why? Did he actually care about me to the point he would risk his life to help a friend? Or was it because he could use me to stop Vela and his wendigo? Ah, but then Star Swirl had all but admitted that hadn’t he? He’d brought in Maroc to lean on me, he’d brought in my mother, my own mother of all ponies, to use emotion to manipulate me. He hadn’t given a flying toss about me at all, only about the furtherance of his own goals. And in that respect, how much different from Vela was he? Celestia had butchered my people like the death bringer of legend, and the wizard had been right there with her. Oh sure, he was nice and safe in the background while she was off on her genocidal excursion to the north, but he’d supplied her and her forces with weapons that made sure Nightmare Moon and her army was annihilated. Foals, colts, fillies, the sick, the old… and now I was helping the very one who had done that? So she’d given me the lands back that she’d stolen. Was I supposed to be grateful for that? Mountains with nothing but broken ruin and miles of deadly forest inhabited by beasts that could tear a pony apart in seconds. That land wasn’t hers to give back in the first place. It had been ours all along! Gods forgive me, what a fool I’d been. Sure, I didn’t trust Vela, the guy was a killer and had a megalomaniacal slant that could lead us all to disaster, but was he any better than Star Swirl? I suppose at the very least he wasn’t afraid to get his hooves dirty. By comparison, the ancient wizard must have been pristine. He never loaded the crossbow nor pulled the trigger, but he was the one who said where to point it and vanished into thin air while the deed was done. What happened to the actors on the stage when the play came to an end meant nothing to him. He was already writing the next script. And the next. And the next.

I clopped steadily up the stairs and into what passed for light here. Bloody hell, was that the sky?! Clouds in all shades of red, pink, blue and white, blended together into a slowly moving mass that leant an eerie reddy-pink glow to the scene around me. There was no sun, no moon, and only a singular glow that made my hair stand on end just standing there. I tried to channel a little magic, but Vela had been right. It was like there was simply nothing there. For a unicorn it was akin to losing a leg, but not that much different from having a hornlock on your head. A quick check revealed that no, my horn was indeed clear of any of those infernal devices. Vela, it transpired, could indeed tell the truth on occasion.

A wendigo walked past me and nodded, “Greetings brother.”

I blinked in surprise, “Greetings-” but he was already walking away. 

For the first time since my rather rude awakening I took the opportunity to take proper stock of my surroundings, but what I saw made my already confused mind reel in helpless confusion. Dear Luna… Where the hell was I? I’d never seen anything like this place; not in any brochures, books, films… anywhere! I could see buildings though: lots and lots of buildings, all made out of the same multicoloured material on a general theme of pink which mirrored the alien light. It was absolutely extraordinary, and in direct sunshine must have been nothing short of spectacular, not unlike living inside a kaleidoscopic riot of pastel colour. Most of the structures were angular too, displaying an architectural slant towards a theme of squares, rectangles, and sharp angles apparently intended to emphasise the variations in the colour of the building materials which were now sadly muted in the eerie half light. Everything here had the feeling of emptiness somehow. Of abandonment. But not decay, I noted. Curiosity taking its hold on me I trotted up to one of the buildings and examined the arched window beside what appeared to be the front door. It, like the rest of the surrounding features, was cut not unlike the surface of a diamond, seemingly to showcase the inner beauty of the physical fabric of the building itself rather than the kind of perfectly smooth arch so typical of equestrian design. Gone were the flowing lines, the brightly ornamented chocolate box houses of your typical equine town. This place, wherever it was, was more akin to that seen in a city such as Manehattan, but even that had a certain ‘feel’ to it that was completely out of character to what I was looking at now. Good goddess, I half expected to see crystal trees from the Darklands here! They certainly wouldn’t have… They…

Oh, sweet Luna…

“I don’t think I’m in Equestria and more...” I whispered the words from the old film, and boy did they seem appropriate right then. 

Crystal. There was crystal everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Fountains, statuary, buildings, public amenities, it was all here.  I’d heard of this place, as indeed many ponies had, but it had all but dropped from what you might think of as the common consciousness and had become little more than a legend that occasionally popped up in novels and history books as a footnote. It was, in may respects, like the lost city of Atlantis where the fabled sea-ponies lived. If you could believe creatures like that lived somewhere other than in a foal’s imagination. Perhaps I needed to readdress my outlook on life. I had danced with thestrals, sung the songs of winter in the northern mountains on wendigo wings, battled armies of changelings beneath a green sky, fought with ancient dragons and travelled to a world where legends lived and breathed just as much as I was right then. Perhaps I’d better start believing in fairy tales. I was in one. In fact, I was up to my bloody knackers in it.

A large sign hung motionless above the door I had just exited from, declaring something in a language I was completely unfamiliar with. The feel of the place however was unmistakable. From the tall desk that ran the width of the room to the open ledger, ink pots and quills, to the notice board plastered in various documents that were all in that illegible writing. I knew what this place was. I’d worked in a watch station most of my adult life, and this one was no different. What was truly fascinating though was the abundance of statuary. It was so lifelike! There was one of a young mare selling flowers to an older lady in a huge hat whilst nearby a foal leaped into the now silent and dry fountain. A couple of young lovers sat on a bench beside a picnic basket, the mare leaning into her stallion with a faint smile on her face. Everywhere I looked there were more of them, one after another after another. A quick examination of the watch building revealed even more inside. They were all so realistic too, as if time had simply stopped moving for them and… I closed my eyes. You didn’t put statues on a chair in the back office, did you. You most certainly didn’t put one in the middle of going to the bloody bathroom either. What was more was that they were all in uniform too. Goddess preserve us. Whatever calamity had befallen these people had happened suddenly and without warning, with no chance for the poor ponies here to escape this most terrible fate. Like flies in amber they had been trapped here for all eternity, frozen at the very instant of death. Suddenly my heart rate began to increase. I didn’t like it here, not one little bit. This wasn’t a place for the living, it was a mausoleum, a city of the dead where ghosts lay in every crack and shadow, each window a face looking out at the living who had dared to defile their eternal slumber. Fear suddenly gripped my heart. I had to get out of here as fast as I could. If only I could reach my magic! If only I could-

“ARGH! Celestia’s fiery arse!”

“Fairlight?” The familiar grey stallion stared back at me in bewilderment, “Are you all right?”

“All right?!” Gods help me, my heart felt like it was trying to hammer its way out of my chest. “I just crapped myself, you bloody fool!”

The newcomer covered his smile with a hoof, “Sorry! I didn’t expect to see somepony walking backwards around a corner. Least of all you.”

“You could have said something instead of slapping me on the arse, for Luna’s sake!” I snorted.

Lyrin shrugged, “You were the one backing right into me when I was carrying fragile items. What else was I supposed to do?”

“Oh… I don’t bloody know!” I collapsed against the side of the building, breathing hard. “Bugger me, what the hell am I doing here?”

“The same as us I suppose,” Lyrin said absently. “We followed the boss through the portal and wound up in this place. I have to say though, I didn’t think you would appear the way you did back there in the prison. For a moment I thought our number was well and truly up.”

Without warning I spun round and grabbed the wendigo by his tunic, shoving him up against the wall. Lyrin gasped in surprise but kept his cool as I spoke, “Tell me the truth, Lyrin. What the hell happened in the mountains? Why did Vela kill Clarion?”

“Clarion?” The stallion swallowed, “He was one of Maroc’s spies, so far as Vela told me.”

“‘So far as Vela told you’,” I repeated a little sarcastically. “Which basically means you don’t know for sure, right?” I gritted my teeth, trying to keep my frustration on a short leash. “In other words, not one of you knows whether Clarion was really working for Maroc or not, and yet you just blindly accept everything Vela tells you. Didn’t you ever consider he could be lying to you?”

“Why would he?” Lyrin huffed. “Vela doesn’t tell me what he’s doing every minute of every day, Fairlight. For all I know he thought I was one of Maroc’s plants too.”

“It doesn’t bother you that he killed your friend?” I was incredulous, “He killed him, Lyrin, just like squashing a bug!” I banged my hoof into the wall for emphasis, “He tried to kill me too!”

Yellow eyes peered back at me. Lyrin’s expression was utterly unreadable but his words were as cold as the frigid air, “Fairlight, forgive me for saying this, but most wendigo are not like you. You’ve lived your whole life amongst equestrians. You’ve absorbed their culture, their values, even their ideals. How could you understand what it’s like to be one of the tribe when you have never lived amongst us? To us, our tribe, our people, are far more important than the life of one individual. It doesn’t matter that Clarion was my friend, what matters is that we survive as a people in a world where nopony gives a damn whether we live or die.” He closed his eyes and nodded slightly as if talking to a child, “I can’t expect you to understand. After all, you weren’t there. You didn’t see the endless killing nor the way the blood stained the snow and ran like a river through the rocks. You didn’t hear the screams of children and mares as they were cut down by the dozen. I saw them dashing foals against the rocks in front of their own mothers, Fairlight. I saw them shooting down the wounded and laughing as they did it. Your princess, your ‘Celestia’; she may be this great and powerful leader of love and light now, but she sure as hell wasn’t then. Of that you can be sure. Have you ever wondered why our people called her the ‘white witch’?”

“I don’t need a history lesson, Lyrin,” I replied letting him go. “I just want honesty. I want to know the truth.”

“You already know it,” he replied. “Or most of it anyway. Vela wanted to see you for himself which is why he pretended to be Taurs. Yes, he used you to get the egg of the Roc, but did he try to kill you? I don’t know, I was far too busy trying to get away without becoming the Roc’s next lunch.”

“What about Briar and Shade then?” I pressed. “Did killing them factor into his plans?”  

“I can answer that.” Lyrin and I both looked round to see another blast from the past standing there like a sour faced statue that was, unfortunately in this case, very much alive and kicking. Herath, Vela’s right hoof, spoke to me in that monotone timbre I’d enjoyed so much the first time we’d met. “The thestrals acted without orders,” he intoned. “They were only instructed to capture the mare and the child in case you turned on us. As for what happened afterwards, you know more than I.”

I took a step back and faced him, “But you set me up for that blasted egg farce in the first place, didn’t you? You arranged the whole damned thing!”

“I won’t deny it,” Herath replied. “I did as I was instructed and carried out my orders to the letter. The egg was recovered, and now, we are here. You, are here.”

“And I bet that really boils your piss, doesn’t it?” I sneered.

“Why should it?” Herath asked calmly. “Vela sees something in you that only he can see. My opinion of you does not change that, nor should it. He is our leader, the son of Maroc, last lord of the tribe, and the hope for our people’s future. He is our only hope.” 

He was a megalomaniac, more like! No. No, I wasn’t convinced. I couldn’t be, not after what he’d done to Clarion. There’d been too much death, too much deceit and dirty tricks going on for me to believe him. Or, for that matter, Star Swirl. Gods, what a situation. I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t, stuck between a murderous idealist on one side and a scheming traitor to his own people on the other. Still, I couldn’t believe that Star Swirl was a wendigo. I mean, okay, he looked like one, what with the coat colour and eye colour and everything, but he had white hair and a white beard! But then... had it always been that way? And what was that about contact lenses? I’d brought something like that back from the human world that could change your eye colour, and what Vela said did have a certain ring of true to it. I just wished it didn’t. I looked up to see Herath walking away. What a little charmer.

“I’m sorry, Lyrin,” I said quietly. “Come on, I’ll give you a hoof.”

Lyrin sighed, shifting the equipment on his back and gave a half smile, “Thanks. I’m not so good without magic, so I’d be happy to accept.”

Oh, right, the no magic thing. Marvellous. “What’s with that?” I asked, lifting one of the packs onto my back. “Is there a nullification spell here, or is it the effect of the portal or something?”

“Nearly right on both counts,” Lyrin explained. “The master portal can be affected by magical interference, therefore they can be set up to produce a localised nullification field. The authorities here appear to have done just that. There’s signs warning you of it all over the place.”

“What, you can actually read that?” I pointed to the sign over the doorway to the watch office.

“Sure,” Lyrin said simply. “It says ‘customs and excise office. The language is old, but one our people still use in its written form, as well as equestrian.”

Well, it wasn’t quite the ‘watch office’ I thought it was, but I was near enough. “Is this place what I think it is?” I asked quietly.

“The Crystal Empire?” Lyrin asked. “It is, or to be more specific, its capital city and surrounding towns. Other settlements that were further afield such as the villages, ports and outposts of the empire still exist to this day, but most have changed so much they’re all but unrecognisable. It’s incredible to think that after all these years the capital city, the royal palace and most of the king’s people, are all still here. Thanks again, I might add, to your white witch.”

“She’s not ‘my white witch’,” I retorted. “I don’t give a damn about royalty, Lyrin. I only care about my family and my tribe.”

The stallion’s ears pricked up. “We are your tribe, Fairlight.” Lyrin’s eyes flashed as he faced me square on, “Or have you forgotten?” I stared at him as he continued, “We may be dead but we still have living relatives in the mortal realm who need our aid. And those self same relatives are also your relatives too, be it by blood or by creed. Mixed race you may be, but whether you like it or not you are still one of us. More so than one of those… ‘Equestrians’.”

“I suppose I should thank you for not calling me a Celestian, right?” I huffed.

Lyrin beamed, “I very nearly did. Old habits die hard, eh?”

I don’t know about nullification spells, but Lyrin’s smile had a magical effect on me. It was infectious, breaking through the fear that had gripped me only minutes earlier and calming my already tattered nerves. I’m not sure I trusted him exactly, however considering I was pretty low on options right then he was the nearest I had to a friendly face in this frightening world. And so, weighed down with boxes and packs, the two of us walked on enjoying each others company in spite of the silence of the dead city. 

We entered one of the buildings and began to climb the winding stairs up to the top floor where we began to lay out Lyrin’s equipment. As he began to sift through the packs I took the opportunity to gaze out across the cityscape before me. I had a fairly good view from up here too, and I could see all the way from our vantage point to the magnificent palace at the centre of the capital. I’ll say this for the empire, they sure knew how to build a city. The roads were wide, perfectly straight, and were laid out like the spokes of a wheel, all centred on the palace which was doubtless also the governmental hub of the empire. Everywhere I looked the buildings had that same appearance of cut gemstones, all sitting there, waiting for the world to begin turning once more. The silence made my skin crawl despite the strange beauty of the scene. It was all so… clean, so well maintained, and yet… dormant. It was hard to understand how there was simply no life here. Everywhere I looked there were plenty of benches for weary pedestrians to rest their bones, well marked crossing places, parks, bridges, shops, even carts and taxi ranks. In fact there was everything a pony could ask for here, and more besides. All it lacked was ponies to make it come to life once more. And yet, there they all were: the statues, the frozen bodies all stopped in time in mid-stride, or simply sitting and enjoying the day with their family in the park. It was a scene that was both entrancing and terrifying at the same time. I leaned on the windowsill and sighed.

“Bit for your thoughts?” Lyrin asked.

I huffed under my breath, “I was wondering what had happened to all these ponies,” I said quietly, as if at any moment my voice could carry and wake them from the stillness of death. “To kill a city. To murder so many ponies…”

“Murder?” Lyrin stopped what he was doing and looked up at me curiously, “Oh, they’re not dead, Fairlight, they’ve been frozen by a wide area effect spell. Something like a temporal locking incantation, but one of exceptional power and complexity far beyond the ability of your regular unicorn. In other words: alicorn magic.” He placed several glass tubes down on the floor and scratched his head in thought as he moved them around, “I expect you know which alicorn we’re talking about.”

I did, although I doubt Luna would have simply sat back while her sister did all the work. Still, there was no way I was going to bring that up with Lyrin. The last thing I wanted to do was piss him off by insinuating his ‘Goddess of the moon’ had been involved in some horrific act from over a thousand years ago that was tantamount to a war crime. Not that you’d hear those words in anything written about the subject nowadays of course. It was a story as old as time itself, and the subject of more cheesy novels than you could shake the proverbial stick at. I suspected it was because so few ponies knew anything about the empire, and coupled with the lack of any substantial architectural remains, that made it the ideal setting for stories of ‘ye olde times’. In other words, nopony could pull you up on getting your historical facts wrong because nopony knew anything about what it was really like in the first place. And somehow I doubted Celestia or Luna would be especially keen to chat about the subject for the benefit of budding historians. I couldn’t blame them either. Who would want to admit ripping an entire city from the face of the planet, citizens and all, and then dumping them here into an eternal prison of time. It made my skin crawl just to think about it. I stared down at one of the statues. One was a young colt chasing what appeared to be his sister with a water balloon. 

“My goddess,” I breathed, “they’re all just frozen like that? Petrified, like stone?”

“Uh-huh.”

“So for them, everything just stopped,” I reasoned. “One second you’re walking down the street getting your groceries, and then… boom.” I shook my head in saddened disbelief. “How could she do something like that?”

“I presume by ‘how’, you mean how could she morally justify what she did rather than the complexities of the thaumaturgical energies and spell matrices that were involved?” Lyrin clucked his tongue, muttering something about one of the tubes not being the right size before answering, “Basically she did it to stop King Sombra from laying waste to Equestria and anything else he couldn’t directly control. Can’t say I blame her given the circumstances. Erm... You did learn about this in school though, right?”

“You must be joking!” I laughed, “You’re lucky if they teach you anything that happened later than a week last Thursday, let alone actual historical events. The majority of historical information is buried in the depths of old libraries where hardly anypony goes any more.”

“But you knew about it,” Lyrin observed, “You realised straight away where you were, didn’t you?”

“Only because I was crap at everything else at school,” I snorted. I brushed a stray hair from my muzzle, “I hated that place, Lyrin. The children there used to make fun of me for how I looked all the damned time, and I was bullied mercilessly for years. For the sake of my own sanity I used to spend most break times in the library where it was quiet and I didn’t have to deal with the tossers outside. I suppose history was interesting to me as a form of escapism more than anything else. I never thought it might actually prove to be useful some day.”

“Our people know very little of this place too,” Lyrin agreed. “There are few ponies around from that time now, and those that are don’t like to talk about it.”

I nodded, “Yeah, I’ve met a couple.” I reached down and helped shift the empty packs out of the way so Lyrin had a larger workspace, “A doctor and a barber would you believe. One said he’d been an architect and had helped design this place back in the day.”

“That’s quite the career change,” Lyrin smiled. He screwed the last piece of tubing into place and nodded to himself, clopping his hooves together in satisfaction. “There! All done.”

“Um… What is it?” I asked staring at the curious assemblage of tubes, bottles, and gemstones. “I take it this isn’t a moonshine still we’re making here?” 

“Ha! If only, my friend!” Lyrin clopped me on the shoulder, “No, no, there’s nothing you can drink at the end with this thing I’m afraid. It does work in a similar fashion to a still I suppose, but it produces something far more precious than mere alcohol.”

“Oh?” I said.

“Mmm!” Lyrin smiled broadly as he indicated the apparatus, “It’s what you might think of as the very essence of magic itself. This,” he explained holding up his hoof above his head. “It’s in the air we breath and the aspects of the area effect spell are woven throughout it all. If we can reach past the nullification field to collect a sample, pass it through the filter, we should be able to distil out a tiny fraction of that ancient magic which will then allow us to determine the elemental make up of the spell matrix itself.”

A shiver suddenly ran down my spine, “Lyrin… Why are we here exactly? Can Vela really bring our people back to the mortal realm? Can this magical distillation bring the dead back to life?”

The grey stallion shrugged, “I don’t know, but he seems to think so, and that’s good enough for me.”

“You think so?!” I was aghast, “You mean you guys risked entering Tartarus to find something that might not have been there, wound up here in the crystal empire, and you don’t even know if what your leader’s attempting will work?”

“You never know unless you try,” Lyrin reasoned dismissively. He put down the metal rod he’d been fiddling with and sighed resignedly, “Look, Fairlight, I can’t blame you for finding our ways hard to understand. You’ve not been around as long as we have, and perhaps if you had you’d be a lot more inclined to take risks than you do now. Sometimes… Sometimes we need to believe that out there, somewhere, there is a better world for us, our children, and our children’s children. Like you I have family, or more specifically in my case ‘descendants’, who are living in the mortal world and they’re living like caged animals, frightened to step out into the daylight and living in perpetual fear of discovery even a thousand years after the war ended. I have to do something to help them, Fairlight, because if don’t, who will? You? Vela? By the goddess, if only you knew what they were going through there! If you could see them, speak to them, look through their eyes, then I know your heart would feel the same as mine. They are our brothers, our sisters, but they’re more like prisoners than a free people, and what those ponies are doing to them is… it’s… it’s monstrous! I…” A look of pain crossed his face and he gritted his teeth, turning away from me. “Look, Fairlight, please, I don’t like to think about it. When I do, I… I just get angrier and angrier.”

I leaned forward and lay a hoof on his hind leg comfortingly, “Lyrin, I’m sorry. I won’t pretend to know what the wendigo truly experienced during the war and you’re absolutely right - how could I? Yes, I’ve seen fragments of that time from the inherited memories, but I wasn’t actually there, I didn’t lose anypony I loved or saw my home destroyed as I fought for my life. And truthfully, if I’d known about the ponies up north, if I’d been able to find them, then I would have gone to the ends of the world to bring them home.” I snorted, “Not that there is much of one for them now anyway. The fortress is in ruin, and the fragments of the tribe I have met are the descendants of the workers and non-wendigo warriors who moved into a failed holiday village.”

“I guess the world bucked us all well and truly, eh?” Lyrin smiled sadly.

I nodded, mirroring his smile, “Life sucks, my friend.” I clopped my hooves together sharply to try and break the atmosphere, “So! What now then professor?”

Lyrin chuckled and rolled his eyes comically, “We need to get a sample of the magic overhead. This is the highest point in the nullification field, and if we pass this tube through the top of the barrier we should be able to draw a small amount of the outside air into the filtration system. And that is where the real magic happens.” He tapped one of the tubes, “All we need is a drop or two and then it’s over to Vela.”

“He’ll be able to use that to get us back to the mortal world?” I asked.

Lyrin grinned, “I have no idea.”

I flopped back onto my haunches and sighed, “Well I hope he does. I don’t fancy spending eternity here with a bunch of statues for company, thanks very much.”

“In which case,” Lyrin shrugged, “you’d better give me a hoof so we can get things moving along, okay?” He passed me a length of rubber tubing, “Let’s get up on the roof and see what we can see.”

Oh for a pair of wings! The roof was easy enough to access I suppose, if you didn’t mind insanely narrow stairs that lead up to an equally narrow hatch. Thankfully I’d had the forethought to leave all my equipment and barding downstairs before venturing up here. And now that I thought about it, Vela had left all my things right there in the watch lock-up for me to just pick up on my way out. Did he actually trust me now, even after everything that had happened? For all he knew I could have grabbed my scythe and gone on the rampage, taking at least a couple of them down before they got me. Even without my wendigo powers I was fairly confident in my fighting skills, but… what would that have achieved? If I’d killed Vela I’d likely be dead too. Even if somehow I’d been able to overcome them all, I had no idea how to operate the portal to get home. Speaking of which…

“How did you know the portal would be working?” I asked.

“We didn’t,” Lyrin answered. He began to feed the tube up through the hatch and clamped it to a long thin probe. “We had an idea that there would be a back door into the empire from one of the master portals, but we weren’t absolutely certain any still existed. There was one in the fortress, but since we can’t get there that’s a complete non-starter. But we did hear from an off duty guard from Tartarus about the rumour of a master portal hidden inside the prison.”

“That’s a hell of a gamble you took there,” I said.

“It was.” Lyrin stood up, holding the probe, “But what what lengths would you go to save your people, Fairlight? Isn’t it worth risking your existence to give them a taste of the freedom you enjoyed when you were alive?” 

I nodded slowly. He had a point, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a similar desire to help the tribe. But even so, how many bodies was Vela going to walk over to achieve his goal? How many deaths was it going to take? “You killed the two guards to gain access to the prison, didn’t you,” I said quietly.

He didn’t deny it. “Unfortunate, but necessary,” Lyrin said, glancing over his shoulder at me. “We tried to sneak past them at first, but their hearing must be incredible. Before we knew it they were on us with weapons drawn, descending like silent death from the sky. The guards killed one of our number and maimed another before we managed to take them down. Vela was furious about that. He kept saying we’d ‘murdered the prophet’s children’ and that we’d have to answer to the goddess for our crimes. Personally, I kept well out of it.”

“The prophet?” Now that was a new one on me! “Who’s that when he’s at home?”

“Don’t know, don’t want to know,” Lyrin huffed, putting the finishing touches to the tubing. “There are some things I don’t ask about, and that’s one of them. Pissing Vela off by asking him too many questions is not a smart career move, Fairlight, and I suggest you remember that.”

“A friendly tip?” I asked with a half smile.

Lyrin shrugged, “One that keeps your head on your shoulders, yes.” He stood up and pulled out the legs of a long tripod which he then plugged the long brass probe into. “Right, let’s get this up there and we can go grab a cup of tea while it does its job.”

“What, that’s it?” I stared at the probe, “It looks like some sort of gynaecological equipment.”

“I’ll have to take your word for that!” Lyrin laughed out loud. “Come on, lend a hoof...” 

Carefully we began to push the probe upwards, section by section. There was no wind here, but I didn’t like the look of that sky. Above the nullification field the peculiarly coloured clouds hung like waiting predators, watching over the silent land below. I couldn’t help but feel we were intruders here, poking around in somepony’s home, and that at any minute the owners might suddenly appear and catch us red hoofed. Vela had already said something about not venturing outside the walls where the nullification field apparently ended, but not why. The magic that had affected the ponies here hadn’t been stopped by the field, so what was stopping it from affecting us too? Bloody hell, the sooner I got out of here the happier I would be! Still, if getting home meant I had to tag along with Vela, then so be it. I didn’t have to like him or be his friend, but it wouldn’t hurt to ride the waves for a while and see where the current took me. Meanwhile, Lyrin and I hoisted up the next section, and the next, higher and higher until finally something happened. At first it was little more than a slight vibration passing down the probe, but then a faint buzzing, not unlike a fly hovering around your ear, began to emanate from the tube leading to the filter. There was no doubt we’d broached the barrier.

“Is this normal?” I asked, tightening the clamp on the probe.

Lyrin pulled a face, “I’ve no idea.”

“Eh?!” I felt another shiver run through the metal and down through the tubing, “I thought you knew what you were doing!”   

“How many ponies do you think visit this place, Fairlight?” Lyrin snarked. “It’s not like there’s a ‘how to’ guide for the crystal empire out there! Most of what we know we’ve picked up from talking to ponies who lived here, or ancient fragments of texts which are half fact, half fantasy, and a hell of a lot of conjecture. But look where we are! We made it. We’re here!”

“So all this equipment...” I took a deep breath, trying to get my head around what I was hearing. “You got this based on a lot of hear-say evidence and just winged the rest. Right?”

“Pretty much,” Lyrin said happily. “We got the equipment from a supplier in the herd along with an instruction book. I’ve read most of it and it seems straightforward enough.”

“An instruction book?” I took a step back in amazement, “And you’ve read ‘most’ of it?”

Lyrin rolled his eyes, “There’s no need to sound so melodramatic. Here, look. It’s quite simple and well laid out so even a novice can manage.”

The grey stallion pulled out a crumbled booklet from his satchel and hoofed it to me. Sure enough, there on the faded and worn cover was an artist’s line drawing of the assembled equipment:

Fun with Thaumaturgy! (Ages 5 and up)

Distillation and Condenser Kit with Elemental Sampling Probe. De-Luxe Model.

Learn about magical auras, energy fields, and thaumaturgical compositions with this exciting new product from Lemony Sponge’s Fun Time Club range of beginners magical apparatus. 

Join today and have 10% off your next purchase!

“We’re in the middle of the crystal empire’s capital city with equipment for five year olds...” I felt sick.

“Five and up,” Lyrin corrected.

I face hoofed, “And you’re sure this will work?”

“Mmm, yeah...” Lyrin nodded, “Fairly sure.”

“Oh gods,” I groaned, “we’re going to die...”

The grey stallion put a hoof on my shoulder, his face full of seriousness, “Well, look on the bright side, Fairlight...”

I looked up helplessly, “There’s a bright side?”

“Of course!” Lyrin leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper, “I’ve already got the club welcome pack. It came with three packets of chewing gum and a ‘two eat for the price of one’ at McPones. If we survive this I’ll get two free cinema tickets when I sign up a friend. So, what do you say?”

“What do I say?” I looked him in the eye and smiled. “You’re a loony, Lyrin,” I whispered back. “Stark. Staring. Bonkers.”

The grey stallion nodded, “It certainly helps.” Grinning from ear to ear, Lyrin clopped me on the shoulder and flopped down onto his haunches, shaking with mirth, “Welcome to the knife edge of madness, Lord Fairlight. Go directly to insanity, do not pass go, and do not collect two hundred bits.” 

“Well at least there’s one thing,” I chuckled.

“Oh?”

I raised an eyebrow cheekily, “Yeah. I won’t be going round the bend on my own.”

“Just another glorious day in tribe, my friend,” Lyrin winked. “Just another glorious day.” In a flurry of tail and mane, the grey coated wendigo got up and headed for the hatch, “Let’s go and see if we’ve got a bite, eh?”

Down the steps once more, we reached the apparatus in time to see… something. Not being scientifically minded it was more guesswork for me, but it looked like we’d pulled in something alright. A pinkish glow, little more than a hint of colour, seemed to be working its way through the maze of pipes and tube work. Other than that, bugger all else was happening. This all felt very wrong to me though, as if we were missing something. I soon found out what as the smell of sulphur caught my nostrils. 

“Nearly forgot!” Lyrin smiled, pushing a small oil burner under one of the flasks. “We have to get the gas flowing so we heat it up here first.” He pointed to one of the masses of tubes, “It gets drawn through here where we then pass it through the filter and then this part condenses what’s left. With any luck, and a little time, we’ll hopefully be able to get what we’re after.”

“Liquid magic?” I asked.

“Liquid magic,” Lyrin echoed.   

The two of us sat and stared at the glass assemblage, mentally willing it to do something at least mildly interesting. So far though the faint amount of ‘gas’, as Lyrin called it, was doing the grand total of bugger all and sweet F.A. At one point one of the other wendigo walked in and left us a bag of nuts and seeds, some hard tack, and, more welcoming, a cup of tea each. I took a sip of the hot steaming brew and sat back with a smile; they’d even put a sugar in it too. You know, what I found so peculiar about all this is that I felt… well, part of it all I suppose. Lyrin and I seemed to be getting along remarkably well considering I barely knew him, and not forgetting the fact that the last time I’d spent any time amongst other wendigo they’d tried to bump me off. Or at least Vela had. But why the sudden change of heart? It was obvious he hadn’t seen me as any more than a half-breed who was a threat to his desire for domination of the wendigo in the herd, but… was I only seeing things in one dimension? Somepony had told me once that you didn’t have to like a pony to get along with them, but I imagine that they hadn’t really considering the other fellow trying to toss you off a mountain. It was strange. Very strange. I let out an unexpected yawn.

“Tired?” Lyrin asked, rubbing his eyes.

I nodded, “A bit. Lots of excitement, travelling to another world, and then sitting here watching fog in a pipe is enough to make anypony nod off.”

“Couldn’t agree more myself.” Lyrin stretched out his legs before pulling up his blanket roll, “You grab a few winks and I’ll keep watch on the gear. If anything happens I’ll wake you up.”

To say I slept well would be stretching the limits of imagination so thin you use them as cigarette rolling paper. Thankfully I was so worn out with the excessive usage of magic, the fighting, and the sheer stress of everything that had happened in the last few hours, I’d pretty much passed out the moment I closed my eyes. My earlier nap at the hooves of Vela and his mob hadn’t exactly been restful, but at least I managed to get enough sleep to recharge the old Fairlight body to the point where I wasn’t going to collapse on anypony. I was also feeling comfortably full from the food and my earlier… feeding. Where my magic was right now was another matter altogether. I had no doubt it was there, resting like the rest of my body, but simply behind a metaphorical door I had no key to. There were so many questions I wanted to ask of Vela and his crew, but even if I had the answers I wasn’t sure I’d know what to do with the information other than file it somewhere in the back of my already battered mind. Personally I was beginning to wonder if my tortured brain cells were up to the task at all. Eventually though it was the hard floor that took its toll on my ability to sleep and I woke up feeling like I’d been caught in the middle of a stampede. 

“Sleep okay?” Lyrin asked.

I rubbed my eyes and took a swig of the cold tea I’d left in my cup, “Not too bad, really.” I was betrayed by the telltale groan that slipped out, resulting in a knowing smile from my companion. Sleeping on the floor was not something I was unused to as such, but it didn’t do much for my bones which ached in protest at my every movement. As if in sympathy with the rest of me, a rumbling down below reminded me that there were other more pressing matters at hoof, particularly when I was busily engaged in trying to cram yet more liquid into my already bursting point bladder. I stood up, “I need a piss.”

“Outside and round the back,” Lyrin advised. “There’s no running water here, so wherever you can find somewhere to go, go. I don’t think the locals will mind too much.”

Oh, goddesses… My eyes were sore with the crap from the dusty floor that must have gotten in them somehow, and I was aching from head to hoof, not to mention in desperate need of a good wash. Some of my last more ‘sentient’ meal still clung to my fur, coming away as rust coloured dust when I brushed it away. Being as my coat was grey, blood stains and the like didn’t stand out too much as a general rule, but the dark marks were still visible. Somehow I didn’t think I’d be getting a shower or bath any time soon though. And what was with this place not having any water? Surely there had to be some somewhere, right? Everything else was there, even the dead trees, dead grass, and… the dead plants. Lyrin had been right on the money. No matter where I looked there was no sign of any water here, and no water meant no life, and in a sense, no time either. I felt like I was walking through a graveyard, and one where the dead were stood there staring at you with unseeing eyes. What was going on behind them, if anything at all, didn’t bear thinking about. I could see the wall around the compound better now. It clearly wasn’t one intended for security, judging by its relative modest height and lack of any form of anti-intrusion topper. Instead it looked to be more of a demarcation for the staff, service areas, and the master portal itself. Ponies could see at a glance where the nullification field reached, and where the sovereignty of the empire began. Unfortunately for the poor souls caught in the spell when it had been unleashed, the field hadn’t saved those within its area of effect. In truth, I think they would have been glad of it too. Being stuck here in this city of statues, forever, slowly wasting away until dehydration, starvation and madness took you… Dear Luna, what a hell that would have been. 

A shiver ran through my spine as I leaned my forehooves up against the long withered flower bed and let myself relax. I suppose I should be grateful it wasn’t raining, but here it was unlikely that it ever... Eh? I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Probably nothing. The light here was awful and that carpet of dust was everywhere, kicked up with even the slightest of movements. It was a bit odd to be smelling doughnuts of course, but who was I to complain? My stomach began to rumble ominously in response to the delicious aroma and I smacked my lips on impulse. Quite creative chaps these wendigo, bringing stuff like that along. It would be a welcome change to dry boring old hardtack, that was for damned sure! One quick shake later and I was on my way to, hopefully anyway, a hot tasty treat. If I was quick I’d be able to pick up a couple for myself and Lyrin before the rest scoffed them all. Outside, food always tasted better for some reason, and I’d have to- 

“Oops! Sorry!” 

A white colt rushed past me laughing, a bag of donuts hanging out of the corner of his mouth as another chased him. I clucked my tongue irritably; bloody kids! Everywhere you went there was always one of the little buggers running under your hooves. He was lucky I dodged aside at the… last… minute… 

I froze and looked behind myself slowly. There was nopony there, only the dust settling from where my hooves had scuffed the ground and the fading smell of hot, fresh, doughnuts. Suddenly the hair stood up along my spine and my backside felt like something had sunk its teeth into the warm yielding flesh. I could hear them, the voices on the very edge of hearing, as insubstantial as mist and  yet carrying so much raw emotion it made my hackles go up in an instant.

Daddy?

Where’s mummy?

Daddy, I’m frightened! I want to go home!

DADDY!

That was it. I turned and ran like the bloody wind, my tail streaming out behind me in my desperate gallop to safety. Rounding the corner I nearly ran straight into two wendigo who jumped back in alarm as I hurtled past. It had only taken me seconds to reach the building where Lyrin and I had set up the equipment, but it may as well have been hours. I’d never been so frightened in my life! Never! My hooves scrabbled for purchase as I took the last corner far too fast and I nearly twisted a fetlock crashing into the door frame. But I didn’t care. I was inside. I was inside! The door slammed shut behind me with a deafening bang, quickly followed by the bolt being slid into place and shouts from upstairs. I took them two at a time, bursting into the room where Lyrin was sat upright, a sword held in his hooves. 

“What’s going on?” he shouted, staring past me. “Are we under attack? What’s happening?!”

“I’m getting out of here, that’s what’s happening!” I grabbed my barding and pulled it on as fast as I could. Buckles, straps, pull them on, tighten them down. Next were the packs and panniers, satchels and bags. Weapons, check. Water, food, everything I had was-

“Fairlight, for the love of the goddess, what’s going on?!”

I didn’t pause, I didn’t have time to waste. Not now. “Ghosts,” I gasped out. “Lyrin, there are ghosts here. I saw two, but there may be more, I don’t know.”

“Ghosts?” Lyrin blinked in surprise, “There can’t be. The ponies here aren’t dead, they’re locked in a temporal stasis that-”

“There are ghosts, Lyrin!” I span round and grabbed him, “Can’t you understand what I’m telling you? This place is cursed! Damn it, can’t you see that? If we stay here we’ll end up like them: trapped in a frozen hell for all eternity! We have to get out! NOW!”

“There’s no such things as ghosts, Fairlight,” Lyrin intoned with that infuriatingly sensible tone of voice usually reserved for dealing with kids scared of thunderstorms. “It’s just a figment of the imagination. And in case you’ve forgotten, we’re kinda dead too?”

“Well tell them that!” I shouted, pointing towards the window. “I saw them, Lyrin. I bloody well saw them! So get that damned portal running and lets cheese it before we’re-”

The door downstairs began to bang. Over and over again. A low, steady beating that rolled through the quiet of the tower and gripped my heart as surely as a steel vice.

I looked at Lyrin.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

“Oh… Oh, gods...”

Thump. Thump. Thump.

“They’re here,” I breathed. “They’re bloody well here!” I grabbed my dagger and made for the top of the stairs. “I’m not going to let them take me. I’ll do myself first!” I took a deep breath, steeled myself, and charged down the stairs. “Okay, this is it. I have to do this. I have to get this over with...”

“Fairlight! What the bloody hell are you doing?!” Lyrin cleared the last step and slid to a halt beside me, “Get a grip of yourself, will you?”

“Then you open the door,” I huffed. “Let them in and we’ll see who goes down first.”

“You’re crazy!” Lyrin shook his mane angrily, “We can’t-”

Thump. Thump. Thump.

“You see?!” I shouted, “They’ve come for us! They’re here from beyond the grave to pull us down into damnation! We aren’t in the mortal realm or the herd, Lyrin. This place, it isn’t the empire, it’s hell! You damned fool, you’ve opened a portal to the underworld!”

“You’re insane!” Lyrin yelled. “We’re in the crystal empire. You’re letting your imagination run riot and you’re losing your grip on reality.”

I turned to face him, “Alright then. Alright…” I took a deep breath and slipped the dagger back into its scabbard, drawing my scythe instead. There was more room to manoeuvre down here anyway. “Open the door.”

“Open-” Lyrin swallowed, “I… I don’t know.”

“You’re the one who said there was nothing to worry about and that it was all in my imagination, Lyrin,” I reminded him, “so go on, open the damned door!”

Lyrin reached for the first bolt and hesitated. He glanced at me with a look of uncertainty on his face. He was unsure. Fear had begun to infect even him now, and I saw him reach back and check his sword was free. 

“Open it,” I whispered. “We have to face whatever it is.”

“Luna preserve us...” Lyrin slipped the bolt back, looked at me, then reached for the second. I nodded to him, readying my weapon as the last piece of steel thumped back and the door latch clicked noisily in the quiet room.

I’ve seen many things over the years: dragons, wendigo, thestrals, sea monsters, manticores, to name but a few. Most of them I’ve variously beaten, survived, or otherwise run away from depending upon the situation. Ghosts on the other hoof, were in a different category altogether.  As ironic as that might sound to the casual observer, especially coming from a dead guy, but I had a serious fear of the supernatural, and that self same fear was something I had fought to overcome ever since joining the watch. Black cats crossing your path, saluting magpies, avoiding walking under ladders – I had the whole kit and caboodle to deal with, and it was a character trait I had inherited from my mother. Why all this lunacy had been hammered into me was something I’ll never know, and wished to the gods I could have rid myself of. In this case however, what tumbled through the door was the last thing I expected. Rather than a monster, ghost, ghoul, or some other creature from the pit, it was… another wendigo? Dear gods, he looked like he’d seen hell unleashed.

“Amhar!” Lyrin rushed forward and grabbed the stallion as he toppled through the doorway, “What the hell happened to you? Fairlight, help me get him inside! Quickly!”

The stallion’s eyes rolled up into his head and he pitched forward, falling into Lyrin’s outstretched forelegs. The two of us quickly hauled him inside, bolting the door again behind us as we did so. It wasn’t easy moving such a dead weight, but we managed to manoeuvrer Amhar onto one of the blankets and propped him up as best we could. The poor guy was in rough shape too. I couldn’t see any outward signs of physical injury on him, but he was utterly exhausted and blowing hard from running far beyond his limits. Sweat poured from in sheets as steam rose from his saturated coat. Lyrin, ever the medical officer, was careful how much water he gave the frightened creature.

“It’s alright, Amhar, you’re safe now.” Lyrin stroked the weak stallion’s mane. “You’re with friends. It’s going to be alright.”

Amhar didn’t seem convinced, and kept drifting in and out of consciousness. When he was lucid he just kept shaking his head, trying to breathe in between gasping out what words we could understand. “The damned…” he rasped. “They came... out of the fog. I can… I can still hear the screams! I can still hear...” Lyrin cooed softly to the terrified creature, but nothing would calm this soul down so easily. “You don’t understand!” he shouted, grabbing Lyrin roughly by the collar, “They’re coming for us! We shouldn’t be here, and they know where we are! They’re coming! THEY’RE COMING!”

There was a sudden commotion outside: shouting, thumping, and then finally an urgent banging on the door. It was all too much for Amhar, the poor sod was bordering on the hysterical, and I think I was halfway there myself. Spittal flew from his mouth, his eyes wide and staring, “They’re here!” he shrieked. “They’ve come for me! They’ve come to claim us all!”

“Lyrin!” The voice from outside called out clear with familiar clarity. “Lyrin it’s Herath, what’s going on in there? Open the door!”

“NO!” Amhar screamed suddenly. “It’s a trick! They’re after our souls! They want our-”

Everything went quiet. I could hear my heart racing, the blood singing in my ears. Slowly, Amhar sank to the floor, Lyrin standing over him with a cudgel held in his mouth. “Sorry, brother.”

The bolts drew back and Herath and two others walked in, weapons at the ready and eyes taking in every detail. “What the hell’s going on here?” Herath looked down at Amhar, then to me, and finally to Lyrin and the cudgel. His monotone voice never changed, “I think we need to have a talk.”


****************** 


Amhar slept peacefully in the corner of the room, watched over by one of the wendigo who was standing by with water, cloths, and a bottle of painkillers. Poor bugger, he’d wake up with one hell of a headache in a few hours. Beside us more of the wendigo sat around variously staring at the equipment, talking amongst themselves, or engaged in other more typically equine pursuits like scratching an itch or trying to catch a few winks. In a short few minutes our small room had quickly become packed with members of Vela’s contingent. I’d counted approximately twelve of them at the outset. Three had been killed in the fighting in Tartarus, there were nine here including Lyrin and I, but from what I could gather there were two more with Vela. Judging by the sound of clopping hooves on the stairs, the head honcho himself was coming to join the party.

“Herath?” Vela quickly took in the scene and nodded to his lieutenant.

Herath clopped his hooves together, “All of you, leave us.”

I got up to leave. “You and Lyrin can stay,” Vela added. “The rest of you keep together in the reception hall and don’t leave the compound under any circumstances.”

I sank thankfully to my haunches, relieved that I didn’t have to go outside again. At least for now anyway. My pulse rate was still a little on the high side, but with the others here I could finally concentrate of my breathing and bring myself back under some semblance of control. I’d rarely experienced anything like that in my life, and it was something I did not fancy ever encountering again. Monsters, dragons, changelings, randomly assorted dangerous creatures and assassins, I could handle. Ghosts however, did not feature anywhere on my mental ‘To Do’ list.

“Lyrin, bring him round,” Vela commanded.

Lyrin glanced at Amhar before replying to his leader, “Vela, it’s dangerous to-”

“Bring him round.” 

Vela stepped forward, watching while Lyrin reached across to hold smelling salts under Amhar’s nose. Slowly I saw the poor fellow’s eyes flicker, his muscles twitching, and then in a jolt he was sat bolt upright. The stallion took a huge intake of breath, his eyes wild and staring the same way we’d seen when he’d first appeared in the doorway. Fear radiated from him so intensely it made my neck twitch just to look at him. 

“Amhar. Amhar listen to me.” Lyrin pulled the frightened stallion round to face him, “You’re safe now. You’re with your brothers, and you’re safe in the compound. Do you understand? Everything’s all right now.”

“I… It’s not.” Amhar slowly shook his head, his eyes never leaving Lyrin, “They’re going to come in here. They’re going to take us too! One by one. One by one. One by one. One b-”

Suddenly Vela grabbed the stricken creature and shook him like a rag doll, “Amhar, get a grip of yourself! What happened out there? Did you recover the object? Where are Kyrna and Wythe?”

Assaulted with questions, it was a miracle Amhar managed to answer at all. “We… We followed the map as… as you said.” He took a drink from Lyrin and swallowed it gratefully before continuing, “We found the heart, but it’s surrounded by magical barriers unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Kyrna wanted to touch it, but… but something happened.”

“What? What happened?” Vela pressed.

Amhar shook his head, “I… I don’t know. I don’t know!”

“It’s okay, Amhar,” Lyrin soothed. “Take your time and tell us your story. There’s no hurry. You’re safe now, remember?”

Amhar nodded and gave a weak smile, “There was a sudden burst of noise, like static, and then everything seemed to shift slightly before snapping back into place.” He frowned, “It’s difficult, I don’t know how else to describe it.”

“Was there anything else?” Vela asked. “Any other sounds? Smells maybe?”

“No,” Amhar replied more confidently, “just the static sound and the feeling of the world moving around us for that split second.”

Vela nodded, “What happened next?”

Amhar closed his eyes, “We decided to leave the heart and try for the second objective. It was on the way so we thought we could come back and have another look at the heart after securing the staff.”

“Staff?” I asked.

Vela waved off my question, “Amhar, did you find the staff?”

“We found it,” he said quietly. “It was exactly where the old stallion said it would be.”

“Do you have it?” Vela asked quickly. “Is it here?”

Lyrin shook his head, “He didn’t come in with anything.”

Vela spoke through gritted teeth, his frustration clearly mounting, “Where is it, Amhar? Where is the staff?”

“We dropped it,” the stallion replied. “We had the thing within reach. Wythe tried to levitate it off the stand where it sat, but he must have triggered some sort of security spell. We heard a voice, a really loud voice in a language I didn’t understand, but before we could do anything he… he…” Amhar swallowed, “He turned to dust.”

“He turned to dust?!” I gasped. “That’s some bloody security spell!”

“Flash fire incantation,” Lyrin replied, checking Amhar’s pulse as he did so. “We came across them during the war. Nasty little things, and barely detectable too. Instant incineration. Probably a hangover from the empire left there to protect the staff. I’m impressed it lasted this long.”

Vela continued his questioning, “What happened then?”

Amhar shuddered but accepted the extra blanket from Lyrin with a smile. The cup of tea warming him up seemed to be doing the trick too. “Bells,” he began, “Loud, deafening bells, so loud they blocked out all other sound. It affected Kyrna the worst. He emptied his bowels right then and there, so I grabbed him and the staff and ran for the door.” He paused, his gaze slipping to the floor, “That was when the fog began to appear. That was when they came for us.”

“Who came for you?” Vela pressed. “Who, Amhar? Celestians?” 

“The spirits of the city,” the stallion replied quietly. “The guardians of the empire.”

“What’s he talking about?” I asked. “I heard you say something about guardians earlier. Are there guards here like in Tartarus?”

“Not living ones,” Vela explained. “We read about the guardians from the old texts, but it was hard to translate properly and large portions were missing. We’d thought they were something tangible: alarms, traps, perhaps even golems and the like, but I’m not sure about this.”

“Something left behind by the witch, perhaps?” Lyrin offered.

“Perhaps...” Vela reached over and patted Amhar’s hoof, “Amhar, please, tell us what happened next.”

“I… I ‘felt’ them before I saw them.” Amhar’s neck shivered as he spoke, “It was like a drop of ice water running down your neck on a hot day. Like a ripple on a perfectly still pond. They… they moved in the fog - outlines of ponies, shapes, and… and silent. Utterly silent. We ran for the door, but everywhere we turned they were in front us, and they were getting nearer and nearer.” He took a slug of his tea, clinging onto his cup like a life raft in a storm at sea. “Kyrna tripped on something in the fog, and… and they… they enveloped him. I could see his eyes. I could hear his screams! They carried him away, leaving only… only his cries behind.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“I ran.” Amhar swallowed and squeezed his eyes shut, “I took the staff and I ran, but in the fog I couldn’t see where I was going and I hit something: the door frame, a loose floorboard - I’m not sure. The next thing I knew I was falling down the stairs head over tail, and the staff was gone. Kyrna was gone. And those… those things were coming after me again.” He took a shuddering breath, “I knew they’d follow me. I knew they’d come after me here.” His eyes went wide again, his breathing quickening. “We shouldn’t be here, Vela. This is a world where the living rest and the souls of the dead are not welcome. They want us out and they’ll lock us away for eternity if they catch us. We have to get out of here. We have to get out of here now!”

Vela glanced at Lyrin, “Well?”

“Blood pressure and heart rate are heightened. Dilated pupils, excessive sweating and palpitations. He’s not delirious,” Lyrin replied calmly checking his patient, “but his nerves are at breaking point. I can’t see any signs of any actual physical injury, but whatever happened to him was enough to frighten him near witless.” 

Vela turned away from Amhar and addressed me next, “And I believe you saw something?”

“I saw something alright,” I replied calmly. Or at least as calmly as I could after hearing what Amhar had been through. “I saw what looked like children running through the street. And it wasn’t just that, there was the smell of doughnuts in the air. Freshly baked too. I thought it was you guys making something.”

“Attracted by the smell of food,” Vela sighed with a shake his head. “How very Equestrian.” I bit back a sarcastic reply but Vela had already turned his attention to Lyrin. “Thoughts?”

“My educated guess would be an alarm spell,” Lyrin offered. “Either one left behind by the crystal empire ponies themselves to deter thieves or by the white witch herself. Personally, due to the material degradation of the spell matrix over the last millennia or so, I believe it more likely to be the product of alicorn magic.” Lyrin reached into his bag and took out a bottle which he tipped into a cup before passing it to Amhar, “The witch used a variety of spells in the mountains after she had slighted the fortress to cover her crimes. The fog and the fear inducement magic there appears to have been replicated here. As for the ‘ghosts in the fog’, I suspect they are constructs of alicorn magic used to locate and suppress any intrusion into the city.”

“And to counter this?” Vela asked. 

“No idea,” Lyrin replied simply. “Without knowing the precise location of the spell’s initiation point or being able to assess the particular harmonics of its matrix, we would be as babes railing against a hurricane. I’m afraid this will require magic beyond anything a normal unicorn can conjure, Vela. Although...” He raised an eyebrow, “we do have one amongst our number who has the strength to brave such a storm. Should he decide to lend his aid of course.”

I closed my eyes and chuckled under my breath. I knew what was coming next.

“Do you wish me to ask you, Fairlight?” Vela lifted his head, “I would not have asked for your answer so soon. However, as you can see, events have overtaken us.”

I smiled softly, leaned back on the wall, and gazed up at the bare ceiling. The answer had been in front of me all along, but only now was it revealing itself. Little by little, piece by tiny piece, the puzzle was beginning to form a picture in my mind. The game was well underway, the pieces moving as they always did, and the players were watching it all with fascinated eyes.

“What do I need to do?”