From the moment her feet fell against the earth she felt a sensation of many eyes upon her every move. Though the bright light of the gateway had yet to fade from her vision, though the sound of a symphony of whispers still lingered in her ears, the unnerving awareness of being under watch fell upon her and made her skin crawl.
“By heaven, this place unsettles me,” Ford remarked, rubbing his hands along his arms in a bout of nerves. “I feel as exposed as a deer in an open field.”
Celestia took in her surroundings, finding them a stark difference from the open moorlands they had only just departed. All around them were trees of a mighty forest, their branches so long and covered with needles and leaves that the night sky was shielded from view and turned the serene nighttime landscape into a thick blanket of darkness, with only the smallest trace of moonlight able to filter through the thick sheet of green above their heads. Her eyes went wide, taking in what light she could; there was not much to find, but it was enough to illuminate her surroundings. All she could see, no matter where her head turned, were trees of all shapes and sizes, some wider than she was tall, others barely the breadth of a matchstick, while others crept up into the heavens or sank back down into the cool ground.
“We should continue,” she said slowly. “We may not have a path ahead of us, but it has never hurt us to move forward. Come.”
“But we have no light,” Ford protested.
“You cannot see?” She had forgotten to consider that his vision was not capable of her feats.
“And you can?” he asked. “Heavens, I envy you right now. I may as well be blindfolded right now with all the aid my eyes are giving me.”
“I can help with that,” Celestia said, taking hold of her husband’s face and placing her thumbs just below his eyes. “It will be uncomfortable, and what I do will be permanent. Be ready for a strange sort of change to you.”
“I suppose I have no choice,” he said. “Do what you must.”
Celestia took a deep breath, closing her own eyes as she focused, feeling out into the emptiness to find it. Droplets of crystalline water fell before her, each drop as bright as the summer sun. She took them in her hand and found them cold as ice, letting them run down her fingers and out from the emptiness, rushing ever forward.
Ford gave a start as he saw a flash of ice-blue travel through his beloved’s hands, up through her fingers and rush into his skin, a sensation like ice water flowing into his eyes- he leapt back, his vision suddenly watery as the bitterly cold feeling was slow to dissipate.
“Are you alright?” she asked, her hands falling away as she looked upon him in concern.
“Cold!” Ford continued to paw at his eyes, trying to force away the tears that seemed to flow incessantly down his face. “Agh, it’s like ice in my eyes!”
“Calm down,” Celestia said, taking him to his knees lest he continue to panic. “The spell is working within your eyes. It is a complex thing. Breathe…”
Ford took a gasping breath, trying to contain himself and hold down his fear. After a moment or two, he finally slowed himself down and was able to at last push away his tears, the spell having run its course at last. “That was- that was weird,” he stammered. “Warn me next time, please!”
“I am sorry, it can react differently to some… how are your eyes?”
“They are fine, still cold, but-” Ford looked around wide-eyed, his vision coming into focus. “I can see!”
“Can you see well?” she pressed.
“I can see every band of light from above. The whole forest is illuminated!” he walked out ahead slowly, holding his against the moonlight beam as though it were something he could grasp. “I can see in the dark…”
“The Mask of Owls. An old spell, little used,” Celestia explained. “Come, take my hand. We should begin.”
She was glad of the comfort he brought, his steady warmth and weathered skin a firmness she relied upon. Her memories of the dying beast, its cries- all still echoed within her mind. But every moment she had him alongside her, the more their horror faded, allowing reality to set in and help settle her thoughts. All her hopes of not harming the poor creature had been foolhardy dreaming; Sombra had lain that trap knowing she would have to kill an innocent creature to continue in her hunt, hoping that the moral qualm would be enough to slow her. Though she regretted the ordeal, there had been little choice. The face of that mighty titan would now simply be added to the ever-growing list of Sombra’s victims, another who would cry out for vengeance.
“You said that spell is rarely used,” Ford remarked. “Is there any particular reason why? I would see this as useful for hunters and soldiers.”
“It is a complicated thing, not all magic users and decipher it correctly,” she replied. “Fail to grasp it, or if the recipient is too weak to wield it, then…”
“Then they can go blind, I am guessing,” Ford surmised. “You seemed to have no concern about granting it to me.”
“There is no magic beyond my skill to possess. And though you are no Alicorn, your resiliency is beyond that of your kin. I half-wonder if anything can truly even stop you.”
Ford pondered that for a time, simply walking alongside his bride as they traversed the tranquil forest. “Am I even human, then?” he asked.
Not even Celestia was certain of the answer to that. “You were certainly born human,” she replied. “But for Sombra to be forced to exert so much of his will to dominate you- or your transfiguration when we aided the Colony… whatever is hidden within your blood is a secret thing unknown even to me.”
“Could I challenge him, then?” Ford asked. “If the moment came and it was needed, could I stand against him- and win?”
Celestia knew what he wished for. Not to be a hero, but to truly fight alongside her against evil as an equal. That his duty would be more than to merely step aside and seek shelter. However… “Your family holds no magical history, Ford. As glad as I would be for another sword drawn, whatever is in you is dormant. It is old, and special- but it does not grant you the strength to face Sombra. I may not even have that strength.”
“And if you don’t?” he said quietly.
Celestia let his words be carried off into the night, she unwilling to entertain such a scenario. Doubt would do no good now, so close to the end.
Ford paused, bringing their trek through the dimly lit forest to a halt as he scrutinized the world before him. “I see something up ahead. A light source, ground-based.”
Celestia peered ahead, searching for what his eyes had seen; there, just a bit to her right and some several yards ahead- a glowing blue light that made her think of a land built of mist and fog that she had once traveled through many, many years ago. “It does not appear to be man-made,” she said.
“Nor do I think it dangerous,” Ford added. “Perhaps I am a fool to think so, but… I sense nothing that would make me consider it a threat.”
“So what do you see, then?” she asked of her beloved.
Ford closed his eyes and took it in, giving a slow, gentle sigh that felt heavy in the air. “A sadness. Grief.”
The two, knowing full well that the strange light would not be avoided, decided together that they would go towards it at once. Neither believing it to be a potential threat, they strode through the forest as one until the trees parted before them and opened into a clearing, a clearly lit pool of water calmly settled in the earth with a man stirring the edge of the waters with a long branch in his hands. The man gave no notice that he had seen the arrival of these two newcomers, instead content to continue with his stirring through the pool as though the waters held him in a trance, the light of each ripple echoing across his face and only adding to his unnerving intensity.
Celestia said nothing to reveal their presence, a great wariness growing within her at the sight of the man. This was no accidental meeting, nor was the one she now looked upon some weak creature of mortal flesh. He was something far greater, for better or worse she was not yet certain. But, just to be careful, she allowed him to be the first to speak. If she needed to react, it would be at a moment’s notice.
The man rose to his feet slowly as though he had dwelt at its side for many an age, his eyes still focused on the waters- a sudden jerk of his head and he stared at the newcomers intently with a gaze that pierced her heart. “You come to the Pool,” he said flatly, his voice almost mechanical. Celestia wondered if there was even a human being within him or if he was merely a manifestation of some greater power.
“So we have.”
The man set his stick down at the side of the pool, walking over slowly to examine them both. He did not place a finger upon either of them, yet both could feel his touch across them as clearly as though he had dragged his hands across their faces. To them both he appeared as little more than a wizened old man, but the focus with which he gazed spoke to something much deeper. “You seek a way forward,” he declared.
“We do,” Celestia breathed.
“A gateway. Onwards, towards the Heart of Infinity,” the man said.
“We do.”
“And so it is revealed,” the man said, a swish of his cloak and the gateway appeared at the pool’s edge, its wrought-iron doors shut tight and silent as the grave. “But know that it will not open for thee lest I command it.”
Ford appeared surprised at the statement. “So you are keeper of the gates through this realm, then?”
“I am master of one, and only one, Little Light,” the man replied. “I am the Keeper of the Pool, and all its contents are my burden. For an eternity I have watched over this place, safeguarding its secrets for all who are granted worthiness of travel through it.”
“And who grants them worthiness?”
“I am not one to answer. I am merely the one who reveals the truth to those who seek it.”
Celestia was uncertain; the man seemed to answer in riddle, not directly answering the question at all. “The gateway is our goal,” she said.
“So it is,” he replied.
“So what must we do to open its doors and continue on with our journey?”
“That is not a decision which I am worthy of making,” the Keeper answered, kneeling down to grasp his stick, dipping it down into the pool and beginning to stir. “The waters are to be the judge of your worthiness, the master of these waters will know thine thoughts and judge your worth. The water will reveal to ye the will of what must be.”
“Are we to even understand what you just said, Keeper?” Ford asked brusquely. “What are we to do here to be granted passage?”
“You are to drink of its waters, Little Light. Drink and see if ye survive its wrath. For some it will be as cool as the north winds, for others the heat of fire will burn in their lungs. What comes I cannot say, for soothsayer I am not. Merely Keeper of the Pool, and all that it safeguards.”
“And if we do not?” Before her words had even fully left her lips she felt that horrid sensation of a thousand eyes resting on her shoulders, and everywhere her eyes could fly she saw tens of thousands of trees huddled about her as though waiting to ensnare her forever.
“I am Keeper of the Pool, and all who wander this realm pass only by the will of the Water,” said the man. “You shall drink, or little else shall avail you of what would come after. So be done with it, and take your task in thine hands.”
Celestia gave a start as the sensation of glass against her hand suddenly came to her, and she looked down to see she held a flask in her hands, Ford also finding himself the same. “So… I guess we must drink,” she said uncertainly.
“Wait,” he said suddenly, reaching for her arm as she bent down to fill her flask. “Perhaps… one at a time. At leats until we are certain.”
“Is that allowed of us?” Celestia asked the Keeper. The Keeper said nothing, merely staring at them with that strange intensity once more.
Ford remained apprehensive, his olden duties of protection having arisen once more with little desire to be settled. “Let me go first,” he said, kneeling down and filling his flask to the brim. “If something is to go wrong…”
“I will do what I can to protect you,” she said, trying to comfort him.
“Please do not,” he replied. “Save yourself.” He gazed at his rusted flask with distaste, swishing its contents about before at last bringing it to his lips and taking a swig.
“Drink all of it, Little Light,” the Keeper commanded. “Let the waters reveal to you what must come. Or what may come. Or what has already come to pass.”
“Do you know for certain what will happen?” Celestia asked of the old man.
“None do, except the true master of this pool,” the Keeper replied. “I am merely its guardian, master of none. The waters shall reveal it all to him.”
Ford had no sooner finished the flask before he fell to his knees, gasping as though suddenly short of breath. His hand clutched at his chest, over and over again in a staccato rhythm, his breath slowly, surely becoming more rapid and uneven. He stared down at the contents of the pool with eyes wide, absolutely beset by fear.
“Ford, are you al-”
A shriek powerful enough to tear the heavens asunder erupted from his lips, Ford clutching at his heart as though his body burned, writhing and twisting on the ground with such fervor that he seemed eager to die upon it. His screams echoed through the maze of trees, the torments that now ensnared him unwilling to relinquish him from their agonies.
“Ford! Ford!” Celestia screamed, trying to find some way to reach through his torments and free him. She turned to the Keeper. “What is happening to him?”
“He sees, just as you must see, Child of Immortals,” the Keeper answered. “He will not be there to free you from what awaits you, nor can you rise against his grief unless it allows him to be freed. Drink, Child of Immortals, and know what awaits thee.”
The screams of her beloved still rang through the air as, with shaky hands, Celestia dipped her flask down into the pool, a moment’s hesitation before she brought it to her lips, drinking it in fullness-
And then all the world was darkened.
“Her arms were laden with the burden of continuous warfare, each breath she took capable of wracking her body and making her ribs feel they were on the edge of shattering. Her chest heaved and what blood had been spilt had turned her armor from silver to stained crimson, the incessant onslaught a relentless, unforgiving, merciless gauntlet of foes.
“Hold the gate!” she roared, slowly stepping back as she cut down her foe, a slithering thing with eyes like that of a spider’s. “Hold that gate, we cannot let them pass!”
“Princess Luna! There are too many of them! We cannot hope to hold this position!” Lord Gremory called. He held the position at the doors to the palace, an arrow still imbedded in his shoulder. Though all around them fought with all their might and ferocity, valiant to the last, the endless host of Umbral beasts would not relent in their tsunamic assault upon the last of the resisting army.
“We have to hold on a little longer!” Luna cried. “Allow Twilight and the others time to find a solution! We cannot relent now, lest all of Equestria falls!”
“The barricade is ready! Princess, you must fall back!”
Luna felt a sword slash against her side and she released a burst of magic through the assembly, the waves of crescent energy cutting through flesh and bone and shadow like an executioner’s blade. With not a moment to spare she fled, leaping backwards and collapsing against the hard stone of the outer wall, many pairs of hands grasping the back of her armor and dragging her back to safety through the threshold that remained shattered, the doors of the gate hanging limply at the sides-
“Reinforcements are incoming, from the mountain path!” called a voice above, swiftly turning into a cry of agony as the arrows of enemy archers found their mark-
“Archers, grenadiers! Fire at will!” Luna called, holding fast with her men as she helped bring the barricade between the open walls. Her magic, what little remained of it, seeped out from her fingertips and into the thick iron, infusing it with greater strength in the hopes that it would hold fast for a few moment’s longer-
Behind her, a host of arrows and fiery cannonballs erupted out into the sky, spiraling over stone and into the darkened host that threatened the walls. Screams and cries of inhuman things met their ears as the deluge of firepower rained down upon them and took away the foul horde from tread upon this earth and into the abyss, a horrific cacophony-
A horn’s call pierced through the sound of chaos and death, thunderous and mighty against the rage and strife. Luna, holding fast to the barricade, gave pause as her fellow warriors did likewise. All around them, both within and without the walls, came a hard, screeching silence that spoke to a world listening on bated breath. Again the horn cried out, a signal to all who might hear it.
“Hail, the darkened Princess of this land!” called a raspy voice, shrill and harsh against the darkened night sky. “Hail, the Betrayer of Kin, who comes in the form of dying flesh! Hail, the last noble warrior of a dead and beleaguered race! Hail, the Princess of a darkened sun, who will suffer the Light no longer!”
Luna’s heart stopped. She could hear the breath exiting the punctured lungs, pressing hard against fractured ribs. Each step was a horrid squelching sound of rotted flesh, heavy and hard against stone as though weighed down. It was a tormented sound, shadowed and violent in twisted mockery of life that once was- life that was all too familiar… “No… No!” Luna leapt from her place before the barricade and landed along the top of the walls, peering out into the scorched night. From there, her perch on the edge of infinity, she saw it and the sight made her heart grow weak with despair.
The figure of a giant strode forward, great and terrible in malformed beauty. Hair that had once been glorious as the sunshine now lay thin and lank against pale, rotted flesh, each limb bony yet somehow filled with immeasurable strength. Eyes that once sparkled like the dawn were now colder than the most frigid ice, pale blue and lifeless yet filled with a necronomic power from beyond the void. It was a sight of immense power yet even greater horror, for the gangrene face that Luna now beheld was that of her sister.
“Tia! Tia!” Luna screamed, leaping out from her place atop the gates and racing towards her now-malformed sister. So great was the grief that now lay upon her heart that the weight sank her feet against the stone, crushing rock and earth as she knelt down. “Tia! Sister!”
“Your sister is gone, Dark Light,” said the beast that had once been Celestia, the voice that emanated from the decaying lips too harsh and grating to truly belong to her sister. “She has fallen into shadow, and now only I remain. Through her, I have come to reclaim what is rightfully mine, and you shall grant it to me.”
“But- but- but Cadance! Twilight!” Luna screamed. “Me! Your sister, Tia! We need you! Come back to us, drive this poison from your bones! Please, come back!”
“Your sister is GONE!” The creature thundered, a great furnace of fire erupting from her mouth and scalding all who bore witness to it, Luna’s flesh set afire as she knelt before the blast. “The greatest of Alicorns has fallen, her body now little more than a rotted vessel for greater powers. It is over, Dark Light. Your queen has come to seek me out, and she has failed.”
Above the sound of her own flesh burning away, Luna heard the tinkling of metal against rock and she dared to see through the unending agony. A crown fell at her knees, a soft pale gold with a tourmaline jewel set within it now covered in blood and bent on the sides. Luna screamed, recognizing it immediately.
“It is over, Dark Light. Now raise your head, so I may see you die. Rise and meet your fate, for the time has come for the Deep.”
Luna, through bleary eyes that burned in fire, dared to raise her head, only for a great agony to rend through her armor and pierce her heart as a spear the size of a pillar found its mark, stealing away her life before she had even a chance to grieve.”
When the nightmare ended she did not know, only finding that she was face first in cool grass and earth along the edges of a crystalline pool of water. She did not know how long she had lain here in this place, for time seemed of little consequence to her. All around her was darkened light, held safe in the grasp of serene shadow that belonged to Earth and Sky-
A spear of umbral steel. A broken crown stained red. A dead and dying world. Celestia erupted from her spot alongside the waters and screamed as though it would split the rocks and tear her mind from within her flesh. Over and over again until her lungs could sustain no more and she would die from her agonies she raged, pounding and tearing at the earth and her clothing, even grasping at her own flesh in the hopes that such physical pain would relieve her of the torment that now inflicted her mind. Finally, when all her voice had been spent, she crashed at the edge of the pool and wept, each tear burning like the fire she had seen scorch her beloved sister’s flesh and turn it to ash.
“You have seen, Child of Immortals,” said a voice, and what strength she could summon from her grief had her eyes lay upon the Keeper of the Pool, his expression passive as he judged her. “You have seen and been granted the worth of passage.”
“What did I just see?” Celestia demanded through her tears. “Tell me there is a way to avert such a future!”
“I offer no foresight, no gift or strength of my own,” the Keeper replied. “Only that you have been judged as worthy of passage, and it would be wise to do so. You future, whether it be what you have seen or otherwise, yet awaits you.”
“You do not get to ignore my grief. Answer me- what I saw, is that a portent of what comes if we fail, or is that instead an inevitability?”
“I bring thee no answers, for there is nothing that has been revealed to me. Your world, and the path that you have tread to come here, remain fully your own. I am only given what this pool reveals, for I am its Keeper, and all it grants still dwell in my mind.”
“So you know nothing.”
“I know only what has been revealed to me. What comes next for you both lies in your hands, beyond my sight. And now, it is time for you to discover it- depart from this place.”
Celestia’s senses lied to her. Though the world around her was a peaceful forest in the depths of midnight light, she felt as exposed and vulnerable as a deer in the open plains, each tree and blade of grass alive and gazing upon her. Nothing in this world felt safe, and she held little desire to stay here any longer.
The doors of the gateway lay open for her, the figure of her husband standing before it, his shoulders hunched with his face obscured by the glare of the light. As she reached him, her hand fell by instinct on his shoulder and he woke as though from a dream.
“Are you alright?” he asked, his voice heavy as though bent by exhaustion.
“No,” she answered, wishing for nothing else but to fall into his arms and weep until the horrid images and sensations of that darkest nightmare had finally fled from her flesh. “And I may never be well again.”
“So you saw, too,” he said. “And it makes you wish for death.”
“What did you see, Beloved?” she asked of him.
Ford shivered, his hands twitching madly as though they searched for a blade upon which he could grasp. “I do not remember,” he said fearfully, “I remember nothing except awakening here, and wishing that my life could be taken from me.”
“We leave now. Immediately,” Celestia said, taking his hand and rushing onwards into the light, more than eager to leave the most horrid of nightmares behind her deep in the depths of a crystalline pool of water.
Survivors. Had he ever given thought to the potential of survivors? The war had been so long, his strength so greatly sapped. It had been an ache, torturous to uphold, merely to live. Yet, what if in those last days of chaos and war, there had been the few of the greater ones to survive?
He pondered the thought, closing his eyes and allowing the seeping strength of the Deep to sustain him. Those who had fought alongside the Alicorns, in the Last Days… they had been as one among them as blood assures ties, loyal and true-hearted to flesh of Immortal kind. Some, it had been rumored, had sworn undying fealty to the Royal Family, serving even to the days of Bainnathe’s fall into madness. They had been close to the last of the Alicorns, holding them fast and safeguarded even as their kind dwindled. Some, it had been said, had grown particularly close… as though one flesh…
He pondered the thought. How would such a bloodline survive and yet escape notice of both Night and Day? How had the Deep not sensed it? Was the line so thin that none could detect it, not even themselves? What strength did it truly grant him, if any at all? And, if held strong by the faith and heart of the greatest of Alicorns, could it, in due time, come to blossom yet again?
A disturbance went through him, a sensation he had not known in the endless years he had known in this place. It would have to be tested, seen if it could escape- just how deep that strength ran. And just what, when pushed, it was capable of.
So he pondered.