//------------------------------//
// Chapter 16: Hope 
// Story: A Life, for A Life 
// by Zinnia 
//------------------------------//

Twilight, Fizzlepop, Spike and Chrysalis sat in silence for a few moments, staring at me with a glimmer of hope in their eyes. Spike spoke up first.

"Well, where is she?" Spike asked, scurrying from his position on the floor over to me, he clenched my shorts with his claws, looking up to meet my gaze. "What did she say?"

"Well, that's the thing. I have no idea." I responded, scratching the back of my head. Looking at me phone, I tried to redial her, but the connection came up short immediately. "The connection was so unstable that I couldn't make out majority of what she said to me. All I picked up on was 'Here', 'Please' and 'Do not'."

"Well, if she was able to contact you here, it must mean we're close right?" Twilight asked. I nodded my head.

"Yeah, It's only safe to assume so. Otherwise, I don't think she could've gotten in touch.." I only hope she's somewhere safe..

My phone started ringing again. Everyone in the room tensed up as I picked it up immediately.

"Hello? Starlight?" I asked desperately. 

"No, it's me Isaiah."

"Oh, Harmony!" I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. "Why were you asleep for so long? We're you that tired?"

"It was Starlight, It took all the energy I had to be able to get her through to you, I felt the connection when we went on board the train at first," She sighed, sounding a little guilty. "But I didn't say anything about it because I didn't want to give you all false hope in the chance that I failed.. but it worked in the end. She's not in range for me to track her down yet, but I'll let you know when she is."

"Thanks, But, how was she able to call me anyway?" I asked curiously. "It's not like she has a phone of her own."

"You remember what Starlight said about us having a strong magical signature after you woke up? Well, I think she was able to narrow down my signature and use that as a phoneline somehow.. hmm.." Harmony hummed in thought.

"Magic sure is something else." I said as I leaned against the doorframe. "Well, at least we know we're in the right place, and we know she's okay."

"For now, at least." Chrysalis corrected. Twilight sighed and nodded.

Twilight sighed and nodded. "Chrysalis is right. We don't even know who or what we're dealing with so anything could happen."

"Whoever or whatever it is, it's definitely a monster." Fizzlepop stated with distaste. "We don't know what plans it has for us, but we will stop him."

They were right. Anything could change at any given time, and when they mention that I can't help but feel we're wasting time just sitting here and waiting for some guy to give us a map when we know for sure that Starlight, Luna and potentially all of the kidnapped ponies are in the Smokey mountains.

"it'll be okay Isaiah," Harmony assured. "I'm sure they'll be just fine."

A chuckle escaped from Twilight, and she smiled. "Starlight is a very powerful unicorn, she's a tough mare. Luna too. They'll be fine."

I blinked, confused. "How.. how did you-" 

"Oh please, even I didn't need to be a changeling to tell that you're worried." Chrysalis said, cutting me off. "It's written all over your face. I've gotta say though, you've handled all this pretty well." 

I felt my cheeks flush, and I turned away from the group, my other arm now on the doorframe. "W-Well I just go with the flow you know? Even guys like me still worry sometimes."

"Sure thing, tough guy." Fizzlepop teased, snickering in her hoof. 

Spike pulled out an apple pie from the saddle bags and sat down, licking his lips. "Well, I'm going to go ahead an help myself to some grub."

"Yeah, I'm still pretty tired so I'm gonna go ahead and have that nap now." I said with a yawn. "Thanks for your help Harmony, we appreciate it."

Harmony snickered on the other end of the line. "Anytime Isaiah. Have a nice rest." The line went silent.

And with that, I put my phone back in my pocket, entered the bedroom and left the door open a crack, just in case. Taking off my hoodie, I hung it on the edge of the bed and lied down. Finally can get some sleep without anymore surprises.. Looking to my right I see the books on the night table, and I curiously picked one up. 

Huh.. what the hell is this? The book was black and didn't have a title, and it looked more worn down now that I take a closer look at it. The cover was tattered and had a very loose spine. As I opened the book, the pages had yellow stains and some were even torn, but the weirdest thing about it to me was that.. it was blank.

I skimmed through more and more pages until finally, I see something on one of them. It was a symbol of what looked like pentagram with weird hieroglyphics etched inside of it, with a crescent moon in the middle. I lifted my hand and felt the page with my fingers. The page itself felt dry and rough, and when I went over the ink, a shiver went down my spine. As soon as my index finger touched the crescent moon though, the book started to glow a gloomy red and the book floated out of my hand.

"Uh, guys!?" I shouted out. "Why is this book is glowly and shit?!" Fizzlepop and the others came rushing in, stopping in there tracts as they gawked at the book in question.

Twilight gasped, eyes widening in recognition. "That's.. that's a grimoire!" She shouted. "Zale, you didn't touch anything in the pages, did you?" 

I inwardly cringed at my stupidity. "..And what happens if I did?"

Twilight hoofpalmed and groaned. "You did didn't you!? Ugh.." She shook her head. "When this, happens," She explained, pointing to the book, which was now glowing brighter and the pages started turning. "The grimoire recognizes you as it's new owner, and it's now binding with your soul."

"Uh.. Is that bad?" I asked, eyeing the book skeptically.

"Yes and no. When it binds with your soul, you essentially formed a pact with it meaning it's bound to you for life. Any damage done to the book, will be done to you. It can't kill you if it's destroyed, but it will really, really hurt. You also, depending on the grimoire in question, you can't be a certain range away from it. It'll just teleport back to it's owner but it will take a toll on you." Twilight explained.

The grimoire's pages stopped turning, and a glowing red ring appeared around me and the magical artifact. The ring made some spinning motions and got smaller and smaller until, it vanished. But when it did, I felt a severe burning sensation all throughout my body, leaving me in pure agony. I try not to scream but the pain was so great I couldn't tell if I was successful. The only thing I felt other than this hellish sensation was the tears running down my face as I curled up on the bed and someone's hand in my own, completely helpless to whatever was happening to me.

I couldn't take it. Despite not remembering much about my time on earth, I'm certain that I've never felt this kind of pain before. It was too much. Slowly, I started to black out, until finally, silence and bliss.


~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~


"Isaiah!!" Fizzlepop shouted, rushing to his side with Twilight, Chrysalis and Spike right behind her. Isaiah looked like he was in an immeasurable amount of pain, and his agonizing scream only served to frighten everyone. 

"What do we do!?" Spike asked, gripping his hand tightly.

Twilight was panicking, her horn alight with healing magic. "T-This doesn't usually happen! This shouldn't happen!" But try as she might, no matter what healing spell she casted it didn't seem to have any affect on Isaiah's current state.

"Nothing is working!" Chrysalis's own attempt at healing magic failed as well, desperately trying to cast over and over again. "Why is nothing working!?" She shouted with tears running down her cheeks.

"Come on Twilight, think, think..!" Twilight chastised herself. She looked at the grimoire which was now dormant and unmoving, and then to Isaiah. "Ooh.. I'm so sorry Zale..!" Twilight's horn lit once again and instead of healing magic, she casted a sleep spell over Isaiah to knock him out. In an instant, his movements ceased and the screaming stopped. 

Fizzlepop panicked when he stopped moving. "W-what did you do?" She checked Isaiah's body for any signs of life, and thankfully he was still breathing. Fizzlepop breathed a sigh of relief. "It looks like he's only unconscious, but.." Fizzlepop looked to Twilight. "What happened?"

Twilight shook her head apologetically. "Our healing magic wasn't working, and I didn't want Zale to sit there and endure it, the only option I had was to put him to sleep." She explained. Fizzlepop nodded in understanding, sitting at the edge of the bed.

"Poor guy can't catch a break, huh.." Spike noted, letting go of Isaiah's hand.

"Do you know when he'll wake up?" Chrysalis asked expectantly. 

Twilight sighed and shrugged. "The spell I casted wasn't that strong, so I'd guess maybe 2, 3 hours tops."

"Alright." 

Chrysalis opted to sit on Isaiah's other side and lie down next to him. Spike followed suit and climb up between his legs. Fizzlepop was already lying down beside him, cuddling up close. The bed was surprisingly large enough to fit them all, except for Twilight anyway. 

Twilight couldn't help but giggle at the sight. "I think we all could use a break right now. I'll be in the other room, let me know if anything happens." Without an answer, Twilight walked out of the bedroom and closed the door quietly. She was going to the couch to sit down again, maybe get a snack from the bags but there was a knocking that came from the door leading into the hallway.

"Princess? I've got yer map."