The Severed Dimension

by StarPrism

Chapter 2 - Old Foes & On Top of the Clouds

I awoke with a sharp pain in my abdomen, remembering the battle a few hours ago with that wretched Edel and his stupid companions. I had the one called Regal pinned down, about to finally slit his throat before being blown off by the girl’s magic, and then stabbed. I’ve been stabbed before, plenty of times, so the pain isn’t as bad as it used to be.

“Xion? You’re finally awake huh?” Solem’s voice came from my right. I looked at him. Solem was up, looking at me with a smug grin. He always did have a cocky attitude, even to me – his superior. He lifted his hand and showed a scar on his palm and three bandaged fingers. “This is all I got. They couldn’t touch me too much, and I had to be the one to ignite the bomb Glacious made.” He said.

Solem had crimson eyes, with large pupils. His Pyroite blood gave him such eyes, as well as his natural gift with fire of all forms. His hair was always slick back, blonde, and like the blonde jokes his mind was not the smartest when it came to thinking. Large for his size, and built like a tank however, he was near-incompetent in hand-to-hand combat and preferred to stick with his gift of fire anyway.

“Where are we now?” I asked him.

“I believe we are about halfway to Durandel Capital City. It is our next move as it is probably where Edel and his friends are going.” said a cold voice to my left that almost caught me off guard. I turned to face Glacious, his pale face seemed to glow even in this dark caravan we stowed away on. His glasses reflected light making his blue eyes not visible. His thin long chin-beard hanging down touching the floor where he sat while his wavy blue hair was parted like it always is. Even though his eyes are not visible I could still feel his stare.

“Good. We need to finish the mission, kill them all, take the Stones they have, and return to the Guildmaster.” I reminded them.

“Yeah, I am getting pissed off we still haven’t killed those kids yet!” Solem said loudly.

“Shut up! Are we not stowaways?” I said.

“Regardless, I am a little frustrated as well. It seems to be bad luck after bad luck when we run into the targets. I hate to use the word luck but it does seem fate is on their side.” Glacious said.

“At least we can outrun them now.” Solem said. “I mean we could always outrun them, but when you broke that Regal’s leg, Glacious, that was brilliant. Even if you are of the ice element, I was impressed with the power of that blast.”

“It wasn’t the ice you idiot. He threw a fire seed on the ground and did it to himself probably trying to get rid of the ice on his leg.” I said.

“Well I’ll think of an ambush plan…”Glacious trailed off. I knew why, the caravan stopped and the drivers were talking.

“…Go, you can do your business here.” Came a voice above us.

“Fine.” A second voice came and a thud. There were thuds next to us, as the second voice was walking, followed by the sound of liquid hitting dirt.

“Hey did you hear about the Godslayer making another appearance?” the first voice asked.

Godslayer? Gladius they mean… He’s been a target of the Guild for a very long time now… I should probably pay attention.

“What? Where?” The second voice piped up, still using the dirt as a toilet.

“They say it was at that castle to the south as it fell down as well. His doing I bet.”

“Really? Why would he destroy an abandoned castle, much less one full of Marble Golems.”

“No idea. A traveler said he saw him only a couple of hours ago, leaving as it collapsed behind him. Then he started walking north, and disappeared like a mirage.”

“No way, I already don’t believe it. I bet the traveler probably just wanted attention.”

The two began to talk about something else as the second voice got back on the caravan as they began to continue moving. I looked at Glacious who was looking at a detailed map of Durandel. “So do you think Edel and his friends may have crossed paths with him?” I inquired.

“No way to be certain unless we find Gladius and ask him ourselves, though if we did that, we would certainly meet our doom.” Glacious responded.

“Regardless it might be worth looking into. If -”

A sudden lurch forward cut me off as we were all pushed forward by abrupt cease in momentum from the caravan. I peeked my head up from the very large crate we hid inside opening the lid slowly. Nothing. There was no one at the reigns, and for that matter there were no horses either.

“What the… Glacious! Solem! Hide in the shadows.” I said, signaling them to hide. It was what we did when we didn’t know what was going on. It’s usually a default action as well when something unexpected happens and we need to stay undetected, which usually only happens when we are stalking Edel and his friends.

At the signal, Glacious turned ethereal and almost completely invisible, while Solem, being half-Pyroite, seemingly evaporated into a small and condensed, but light fog. I initiated my Factus Umbra technique. It’s a technique taught to me by my mentor who is a master of stealth and deadly arts. I trained under him for three years before he taught me Factus Umbra, which translates to ‘Become Shadow’ where I meld directly with the shadows, so long as I stay in the shadows I am completely invisible to the naked eye.

Sticking to the shadows I carefully maneuvered my way to the front of the caravan. I could see it was almost night time, and the road was completely empty, however looking through some tearing of the tarp that covered the caravan I could see no sign of any of the men who were driving the caravan.

What is going on? Something doesn’t seem right. Okay Xion use your senses. If the enemy is un-seeable try to pick up any other trace-

There was a slight zephyr of wind, and a flapping of thick fabric like a cape coming from behind the caravan. I quickly turned around. A figure was standing there with a long black cape, black armor with gold trimming that had a slight shimmer, two scimitars were hanging from the belt, and masked with only a reflective surface positioned at the eyes. Even when masked I felt the figure stare at me. As soon as I saw it was holding a three-pronged spear I knew it was him.

“Speak of the devil…” I whispered. I knew he could see me. I moved out of the caravan, breaking my meld with the shadows. “So you must be Gladius. What does the Godslayer want with a lowly bandit like me?”

“I know you’re not alone and I know you are not a bandit. You are Xion Windsbane, son of Lyon Windsbane the leader of the Guild.” Gladius responded.

“Hmph well then. Solem! Glacious!”

A blast of light revealed Solem to my left, and after some mist cleared, Glacious became corporal to my right.

“Is this really Him?” Glacious asked, fear in his voice.

“Well isn’t that something, we were just hearing about you and wondering if you ran into our acquaintances.” Solem said with no emotion in his voice.

I stepped forward, keeping all doubt out of my voice “Like I asked, what do you want? And what did you do with those two merchants?”

“I need you three to do something for me.”

“Regal come on you haven’t said a word since you woke up. What’s up?”

I looked up, breaking my thoughts about the events from last night. Edel was talking to me and I wasn’t paying attention.

“What? Nothing, I am just worried about home and what’s going on over there… I guess.”

“You guess?” Edel replied.

We were trotting towards Ponyville with Fluttershy leading us to her friend ‘Twilight’. Apparently she ran a library and she might perhaps have knowledge of Durandel and how we can get back. However we didn’t explain to Fluttershy that we could be, and probably are, from another dimension.

Lorane who was talking beside Fluttershy, turned around and replied “He’s probably upset about his broken horn and that he doesn’t know how to move his wings!”

Fluttershy gasped in response “That was an awful thing to say miss Lorane! He must’ve gotten really hurt recently, and he might be having some kind of nerve damage that’s preventing him from using his wings…” she began to fly next to me stroking my mane with a hoof “You poor thing.”

No clue why, but I found myself blushing when she said that. “Now I’m fine. I wasn’t injured, I didn’t even realize – I mean I don’t remember how this happened to my horn. And my wings don’t feel numb or anything, I just don’t know how to move the muscles to make them move.” I replied.

“What? How do you not know that? Maybe a massage –”

“HEADS UP!” A cry came from above.

Reacting on impulse I grabbed Fluttershy with my fore-hooves and dove sideways evading what looked like a cyan-colored missile from above. Looking for a few seconds more I realized it was another pony, a Pegasus with a multi-colored mane and tail like a rainbow.

“Oh… My…” Fluttershy stammered “Um can you get off me please?”

I realized I was on top of her, and Edel was laughing a few paces in front of me. Getting up, and helping her up I quickly said “I’m sorry. I acted on my reflexes, hearing something come towards me unexpectedly does that to me.”

“Well thank you for getting me out of the way too…” She said “…it was rather chivalrous though” she added quietly, red filling her cheeks. Perhaps she just isn’t used to this sort of contact with a male. “Anyway Rainbow Dash there isn’t any sort of threat.”

“Um yeah, I’m sorry about that Fluttershy. Hey who are your friends?” Rainbow Dash said, as she got up and looked at everybody. Well, I guess everypony is more appropriate now.

“This is Regal! And that’s Lorane, and Edel! They’re from Durandel and are new to Ponyville”

“Durandel? Never heard of it. But since they’re new to Ponyville, maybe we should introduce them to Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash said

Edel spoke up “Well as much fun as that would be, we were heading to the library, right Fluttershy?”

“Oh um… yes that’s right. We were going to find out more about Durandel and how they found themselves in the Everfree Forest. Oh and probably if Regal here is related to the princess” Fluttershy responded.

Rainbow Dash flew closer to me, looking at my horn and then my wings, then gazing into my eyes. I merely grinned sheepishly as she said “Another Alicorn huh? Well if you are royalty then I supposed I could help you with those wings, you know, teach you how to fly.”

She must’ve heard us talking before crashing near us. Lorane seemed amused and said “That’s a good idea. While we go to the library, Regal you should learn how to fly!” I’ve always wanted to fly, well at least on my own. Back home we once had to infiltrate an enemy airship, and I got to steer the ship when we got control of it. It was indeed exhilarating and I loved every second of it.

“Well I guess. We can meet up later then?” I said.

“Yeah, sure. You have fun, but do be careful.” Edel said as they began trotting off towards the town.

“Okay first lesson: Move a wing.” Rainbow Dash started. I looked at my wing, only to find nothing happened as I tried to flex my shoulder muscles. This is going to take awhile…

It was only a few minutes later when we were both in the air. After Dash lifted one of my wings to check for damages, I felt the muscle, of course as a human it didn’t exist but now that I knew what sensation to stimulate and which muscle to move I found after a few flaps I was weightless and rose about 20 paces in the air as Dash let out a small cheer. Flying was just as great as I imagined, feeling weightless as I was drifting in the air, only flapping when I felt I was dropping too far.

“Come on, let’s go higher!” said Rainbow Dash as she climbed another 40 paces above. I followed and took only a few flaps to keep up with her. “Whoa you’re pretty fast for a first timer. Okay, race to that cloud up there” she pointed with her hoof to a cirrus cloud more than 100 paces above “ready? Go.”

I flapped as fast and as hard as I could but she took off much faster leaving a brief afterimage of a rainbow. It was quite a sight to behold. As I got to the cloud I saw she was laying on it, and her wings were at her side. Impossible! How is she laying on a CLOUD?!

“Take a rest, junior. Come on up here and tell me your story.” She said.

“Miss Rainbow Dash, how are you laying on a cloud?!” I asked, in wonder of the physics of this world.

“You’re kidding right?”

I placed a hoof on top of the cloud, it felt solid. Not hard, but like a very soft mattress. Letting myself fall a little, I found the cloud able to hold my weight completely.

“This is incredible. How is this – Can anybo – anypony walk on clouds?” I asked.

“Well no; only pegasi and Alicorns… really anything that can fly. Actually one time my friend Twilight enchanted herself and the others to be able to walk on clouds for a day, but that’s magic. Anyway come on tell me about yourself!” She said, getting in a sitting position.

I thought for a moment, wondering if it would be a bad idea to alienate myself, Edel and Lorane from these more-than-friendly ponies. Well just in case, I will leave those two out of it. Thinking of an alibi for them I finally said “Well you see I come from a land very far away from here, yet very close at the same time. This land is separated from this land – Equestria, by a celestial gateway. This Gate is believed, in my land, to be the fundamental portal through all space and time. No one has ever found this Gate, and only stories were written about it, making skepticism the norm for this object…” Rainbow Dash remained silent, she was looking right at me with her ears pointed directly at me. “I am not a pony like you, well at least I wasn’t before…”

“Before you got here? I’m guessing you found this ‘gate’ you are talking about.” Rainbow Dash spoke up.

“Well, yes I will get there. I was a warrior for my village called Xinon.” Remembering Xinon, the nation at war with Durandel, this is where I was bending the truth. I was trying to keep the idea that Durandel was another place in Equestria. “Xinon was ruled by a good king by the name of Joseph who kept peace and order the norm in all of Xinon. I was a small lad, who had huge ambitions in life.” At this point I am referring to Edel as myself from the story he told me when we had a similar conversation like Dash and I were having, only less one-way. “I trained every day at getting stronger, faster, and more adept with swordsmanship. After matching my mentor in a sparring match, I enlisted in the Royal Task Force of Xinon.

“After a few trials and tests the King gave me a special assignment to collect these magical orbs called the Elemental Stones. There are six elements and after we collected four of them we were ambushed by a group of assailants. They wanted our Stones and our heads. Their leader was a man named Xion who was the son of the leader of Xinon, guildmaster Lyon. After many attempts on my life, however, I still managed to get by despite being alone.” Noticing Dash was looking in deep thought and giving me a strange look I added “Is there something wrong miss Rainbow Dash?”

“Yeah there is… Inconsistencies. You’re lying to me aren’t you?” She said.

“What? Why would you think that?”

“Well for starters, you said you were from Xinon and it was run by a king. Suddenly this Xion guy who is the son of the same leader of Xinon is now run by a guild-whatever you said with a different name? And you keep saying we when you originally implied you were alone.” She said starting to fly above me. “Spit it out, tell the truth!”

“I… I can’t. Well at least not yet I can’t. Will you just bear with me while I finish?” After she nodded I continued. “Finally after the fifth Stone, the palace we were in began to crumble apart after an intense battle with Xion and his two henchmen. I was injured but we were still alive. Upon making it out we were caught off guard by this powerful man, not to be trifled with.” I shivered a little bit and continued “He took the stone from us – me! And after that, he banished me here to Equestria. I used to be a human, that is, a being who is bipedal and had digits on the extremities for grasping objects. I woke up outside of that forest as a pony, as an alicorn.” I looked down for a few seconds, then I quickly added “and that’s when those two travelers Edel and Lorane found me. They were nice enough to help me out and now here we are.”

Rainbow Dash looked at me and said “Well some of that is a bit sketchy but okay I believe you for the most part, even though I think there is a lot more you’re not telling me. Well it’s getting late, let’s go find Fluttershy and the others, they were heading to the library right?”

I nodded, and we began to fly off in the direction of Ponyville. The sun was just beginning to set from high noon, and I soon realized how hungry I was.