//------------------------------// // (Chapter 3) Another Purpose // Story: Sunset's Revenge // by sunsetpaw //------------------------------// "These... Al-ll... Theres so many!" Stammers Kindle. "no. no no no! why?" I notice Galaxy say under her breath. I could tell they were panicking, though they were trying to keep it hidden. "Why are you acting like that? After all, shouldn't we be able to bring them back like what happened to you?" I question, looking at them with my head tilted in slight confusion. In response to my question, Galaxy starts talking with what seems like uncertainty hidden in her voice "Well, no, um... We were just really lucky, a- a special case!" she finishes with much more confidence. Well, might as well not probe too much into why. It's Celestia... "Huh?" I ask, my ears flicking up, "Did either of you hear anything?" "I didn't hear anything," responds Kindle. "Are you sure you're okay?" Galaxy asks. "Well, I'm not hearing anything anymore, maybe it was just my imagination. you know, perhaps I'm still just a little jumpy after that last fight." I tell, attempting to smile. I can't tell if they saw through it, but that still isn't important, I am sure the voice said something about Celestia. I just hope it doesn't come back. "Well, enough of that, let's explore, I think this might have a tunnel though the mountain. If so, then we could cut across rather than go around or over." I tell them while trying to do anything to distract myself from the voice I heard. Quickly I start to trot away to go look at a large tunnel that I spotted when first exploring. As soon as I enter the tunnel, seeing something glitter in the corner of my eye I turn to look at it. What I saw surprises me half to death. "Dear Celestia!" I exclaim under my breath. Wondering if Kindle and Galaxy could figure out why this is here, I shout, "Uh, hey girls? Could you come here, I think I found something..." "What did you find?" Ask Kindle flying up to where I am, turning to see what I am looking, as soon as she sees it, I notice her wings nearly stop as she nearly falls out of the air, but as soon as she does she starts back up and continues as if nothing happened. She is definitely trying to hide something. I file it into the back of my mind for later. Only a minute later Galaxy appears but, she doesn't appear to have any significant reaction to it. "So, do you guys have any idea of what this means?" I ask as I proceed to read the plaque aloud, tracing the words with my hoof, "Location: Vault 23 - Description: Under order of the Princess, all ponies thought to be sheltering the run away known as 'Star Field' are to be kept and safe within the vault." "Maybe this 'Vault' is behind the plaque." I ask myself as I take my diary out to record this information. Putting it away I start looking around to see if there is anything that looks even remotely like a door or some sort of trigger to get into the 'vault'. As I do Kindle comes up to me and tells me "I think we should just move along, and uh maybe we could come back later...?" "Too late." I tell her, smirking as I envelope a lever I had just found in my golden magic aura and pull it down causing the cave to echo with a loud THUD. The ground starts to tremble as a large stone slides to the side revealing a narrow and unlit pathway. Peering into the darkness, I can't see a thing. This is going to be fun, Very fun, I think to myself, and with a simple light spell cast, I trot off into the dark tunnel to explore something left unknown for many years. I can sense the other two staying close behind me, as close as they could possibly be. To be honest, it is kind of uncomfortable with how close they are. Regardless I carry on while attempting to ignore them. It has felt like forever and I still cannot see the end of the tunnel. I might be slightly starting to regret my decision... Finally, after who knows how long of simply walking down this tunnel, I can see the tunnel opening up into a larger caver just ahead of us. Trotting into a barely lit cave I see just over a dozen stone-ified ponies. "Geez," I jokingly exclaim, "What happen here, some, some sort of..., of, cockatrice stampede run through here?" I say finally remembering that the cockatrice, a creature of the Everfree forest who, with their eyes, can turn ponies and other creatures into stone. "But seriously, What happened?" I finish, looking around. In awe I note that the room was one of the biggest I had ever seen, even larger than those at the castle. Thinking back to the castle, I realize that I missed the comfy beds, the delicious meals... If only Celestia wouldn't be so selfish and let me have what should be mine. Far in the back of the cave, there is a small tunnel, barely wide enough for a single pony to fit through it. Taking little under a minute to think about going through the tunnel, with a quick "yolo", I start squeezing my way through the incredibly small passageway. After quite some time walking, we all find ourselves in another cave, but this one is substantially smaller than the last one. Not only that but it is oh so much colder here. On my left, there are large icicles forming around a white circle at the wall that must be the entrance. On my right there is what looks to be an old stand to place a book to read. Going up to it, I see an old and worn book siting open not quite to the middle, but not the beginning. Immediately next to the book is a small orb. There appears to be a spell written on the open page of the book. There is some information about the spell itself on the other page, it reads: "In looking for influence Thou shalt find all it entails, Give take your sense and give it to us, All you shall wan't, found in our power" Just below it, there is some sort of poem or rhyme, it states: "Take the glass, find your path, make the choice you want. You are in control, for now as told, give all of it up to hold" After reading it I think that maybe it would be worth testing, after all it basically said it would give me power. Just before notice that Kindle and Galaxy have been incredibly quiet throughout this whole ordeal. Turning around to ask them if they are okay, I see that they are no where to be seen. Looking back to the book, I shake my head and tell myself "I can't be losing focus, I am sure they are fine". Charging up the spell I feel a soft touch on the top of my head, just around my horn, I ignore it and continue. As I gather more power, the glow around my horn increases in brightness, the book starts to become enveloped in my aura and starts to rise, so does the glass orb. I release the spell in a blinding flash of light. The small voice that has been in the back of my head since the day I left canterlot finally took this chance to try and gain control of me. It hurts, did the spell fail? I manage to open my eyes and see the vague shape of a large pony with wings and a horn, as if they were an alicorn, but, something was wrong, the horn was the wrong length and the wings were different than Celestia's... Maybe it is death, come to claim my soul... I don't know... I don't want to know... Just take me away... Unbeknownst to the dying Sunset Shimmer, Galaxy and Kindle were perfectly fine, doing so well due to the increase of magic in the area from sunset's spell that they finally returned to their original selves. A creature that no pony knew about during this day and age, after all, their Celestia and her family went to great lengths to make sure all records of this creature were wiped from existence. With a quiet chuckle, this new creature bends over Sunset Shimmer's lifeless body and whispers to themselves, "If only you were a little stronger, if only you let that hate take you much earlier, then maybe, just maybe you could have stayed to help us with our plan. We couldn't tell you but, oh well, everycreature has their secrets". With that, this unknown creature trotted out of the cave and spreading it's wings, took flight and if the reader was to have been there, they would notice that the creature was headed in the direction of Canterlot. Who knows what this creature plans to do, certainly not Sunset. Also, if Sunset had done some digging around the area she found Galaxy and Kindle, maybe she would have found that no such pony's existed in the area at the time of petrification, and maybe she would have noticed that there were barely surviving records of a strange creature being fought in the Everfree forest region thousands of years ago. Then maybe, just maybe, Sunset wouldn't have let loose a creature who only wanted revenge.