A tale of Starlight

by redspark


06. The northern abyss

Chapter 6

The northern abyss

The next three days proved to be uneventful. The yaks remained on high alert, as it appeared that the giant claws hadn’t given up the chase, but simply waiting for a time to strike again. Vad reported a couple of times that giant claw tracks seemed to always appear around their campsites in the morning, and the occasional growl didn’t not help to lift the uneasiness that the group seemed to be feeling. While Starlight and Trixie were unused to this sort of situation, the yaks themselves appeared to be uncomfortable. After a short conversation with Darko, the yak told Starlight that usually the giant claws would leave once their assault had failed. The fact that they hadn’t left meant that they were probably very hungry, or their hunting grounds was extremely reduced do to more packs of giant claws in the vicinity.

This left Starlight increasingly concerned about their trip as they approached the northern border of Yakyakistan. The yaks were only supposed to accompany them up to that and then it’d be back to Starlight and Trixie on their own. This, adding with their new knowledge of dangerous beasts and the map nearing its sge did not help in Starlight’s overall positiveness.

Trixie, on the other hoof, appeared surprisingly calm. Travelling atop a yak had definitely given her a lot of rest and, although the cold seemed to bother her as much as Starlight, she seemed to be able to keep herself distracted from their predicament and the future of their journey.

Well, that or she just didn’t think much about it nor cared. Trixie did usually have a much more careless train of thought. Starlight envied that at the moment, as her anxiety kept increasing once they reached the last day in Yakyakistan.

“Starlight,” Trixie’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

“Huh?” she replied.

Trixie pointed ahead. Starlight looked and jumped off the yak she was riding on. Starlight did so as well as the two looked. In front of them stood a massive crack on the ground. It was so big, it could easily swallow the friendship school, maybe even more. The crack spread to the sides as far as the eye could see, and she was guessing it probably continue way beyond what even she could imagine.

“What is that?!” she asked, not managing to hide her shock. Darko stopped and chuckled.

“Abyss of the world. It is rumored that an ancient glorious battle created crack, too much power. The world could not sustain. Legend says ponies with wings and horn cause the Abyss of the world.”

Starlight looked at the crack. “You mean princess Celestia and Luna?”

With a shake of his head, Darko replied “No. Ancient. More ancient than two pony sister princesses.”

Trixie looked confusedly. “But that would mean that this crack was created thousands and thousands of years ago…”

Starlight nodded. “This abyss has got to be from the age of magic!” The group had now approached the crack and Starlight’s voice echoed lightly on the massive hole in front of them.

“Err… Age of magic?” Trixie asked, having never heard of it before.

Starlight smiled. She had studied that since before she became Twilight’s student, so she had gotten extensive knowledge of it. “It’s also known as the lost era. Rumored to have been a time in which alicorns ruled the world.”

“Soooo… Kind of like now? Twilight does rule Equestria.” Trixie’s inquiry received a shake of the head from her purple friend.

“No, as in an entire civilization of alicorns ruling the entire world. Not just Equestria or just the rulers. Hence why it’s known in ancient texts as the age of magic. In modern history, since most texts referring to it as such are in the forbidden section of the Canterlot library and the knowledge of it has been lost, it is known as the lost era.” Starlight looked down. “I do not know much about it, since even the texts from the library referring to it are scarce…”

Darko approached Starlight. “Abyss of the world is dangerous. It is also end of yakyakistan.” Starlight suddenly realized that the yaks would now go their own way. “We were instructed to go to the furthest barrier of yakyakistan. Ponies now continue alone.” As he said that, Zora approached carrying two bundles of cloth. She laid them down in front of Starlight and Trixie. “This gift from yaks. North is dangerous, more than yakyakistan. Worse legends than just giant claws.” Trixie opened up on of the bundles and lifted a heavy object with her magic. As soon as she got a good idea of what it was she chuckled nervously.

“Ahhh ha-ha-ha…” Starlight gulped as she peeked into the other bundle and pulled out what looked like a rather archaic sword. It was really rough, but seemed sturdy enough and definitely dangerous and sharp. The yaks smiled in pride as the two mares looked at their respective swords.

“Yak gift! Sent by prince Rutherford, to let ponies protect themselves in dangerous north.” With a proud stomp at the mention of their prince, the Yaks smiled. “Darko wishes ponies best of travels. May we meet again. Prince ordered yaks to wait here for twenty days. We will wait more if necessary!”

Starlight looked surprised. “You will wait for us?” Darko nodded. “That won’t be necessary. We shall be bringing princess Twilight with us and won’t need protection.” She chuckled nervously, knowing she was wishing for the best outcome. However, she felt wrong by having the yaks wait for them in the cold and dangerous area that this place seemed to be.

“Yaks wait! Ponies deny yak honor!?” Darko exclaimed alongside disapproving glances from the rest.

“N-no! We just-“

“We shall gladly appreciate the gesture,” Trixie interrupted the now nervously blabbering Starlight. “We know how important we are and the more care we are given the better.” Starlight wanted to thank Trixie for her intervention, but her ego was… a bit too high at the moment.

“Good! Then we wait! Now go before dark, ponies. Crossing the Abyss of the world is impossible. Even less during night.” The yaks turned around and began to set up a camp. Trixie and Starlight looked at each other, with the purple mare sighing and looking at the gigantic hole in front of them. She began to approach it, Trixie soon joining her side as soon as she had attached her cart to herself.

Something weird was happening, however. The more Starlight approached, the more pressure she seemed to sense from it. Or not pressure… It was a feeling that made the large abyss seem to be sucking them in. It wasn’t wind, that was for sure as both their manes were completely still, barely swaying back and forth as the two mares walked. No, this was an attraction of the magical kind.

Her confusion was complimented by Trixie. “Starlight, I feel weird. My horn is…” Starlight could feel it too. It was as if the abyss was sucking the magic off of their bodies through the horn. Like when a spell was performed, but this was much more uncomfortable, almost painful but not quite. Soon, they were at the edge, and both couldn’t help but look down.

They both immediately regretted it.

The feeling of their magic being sucked out of the bodies increased tenfold, with the mild uncomfortable feeling escalating to immediate pain as their limbs were sucked off of the magic that naturally ran through their bodies. The two immediately retreated, collapsing on their behinds clumsily. Both rubbed their horns, a headache seeming to extend from their.

Once Trixie managed to calm down, she looked at Starlight, confused and still startled at what had just occurred. “WHAT WAS THAT!?”

Starlight felt as her body regenerated the lost magic, her body slowly recovering. It was as if she had suddenly performed a highly taxing spell that she wasn’t quite as prepared to cast. As she thought about it, the feeling was not too uncommon for magic learning unicorns. One of the first warning when learning magic was to never to something too taxing for one’s magical potential, or else tragic consequences could ensue. It was similar to physical exertion; when one prepares themselves for it, the individual will be able to perform more heavy lifting, or a longer run. With magic, it was the same. A unicorn had to practice and get ready for a spell, or else the spell would cause the unicorn to drain all of their magic and collapse from exhaustion. While not usually permanent, this could cause heavy problems when somepony had this happen constantly.

It was a similar feeling now, as if she had exerted her magic too much.

“I… I don’t know Trixie.” Starlight stood up. While the experience had been uncomfortable and she would never attempt that again without more caution, she had learned now what the issue with the abyss of the world was. “It’s sucking our magic forcefully.”

“Yeah, it felt just like when learning a new spell, but much more painful and uncomfortable,” Trixie said, annoyingly. “I guess teleporting to the other side is the only way to cross without… well, whatever happens to unicorns when they deplete entirely off of their magic.”

Starlight didn’t want to think what would happen should a unicorn lose all of their magic. Usually, whenever something like that had happened, the unicorns remained with at least a bit of magical traces. It had been like that with Tirek as well. While most of the magic was gone, traces remained. If this abyss was a black hole for magic, then no magic would remain. Or so she hypothesized.

And she had no plans of proving that any time soon.

“Most likely.” She approached and touched Trixie with her hoof. “Hang on.” Before Trixie could protest, a flash and smoke enveloped the two.

Starlight opened her eyes. Something was wrong.

“Staaaarliiiiiiiiiiiight!” Trixie’s scream was rather accurate for their situation as the two fell freely into the abyss…