Chapter 5: A Strange Land & Manifestation
Xion & Regal
I opened my eyes. Something was not right, something didn’t feel right.
“Solem? Glacious?” I called.
After a second Solem’s voice answered “Yeah I’m here. I think I’m blind or something. Dammit.”
“I am experiencing a loss of vision too. It might be a side effect of traversing the Gate.” Glacious said.
I knew I was lying down, I moved my head up, it felt extremely numb. My whole body was numb. Gladius had wanted us to hunt down Edel and his friends, that much was certain. After saying that much, the legendary Gate appeared behind him, and we were sucked into the Gate. I blinked several times, feeling my eyes open but seeing nothing but darkness.
“Okay so we are all blind or we are in a dark room.” I said. I focused my senses trying to initiate my Factus Umbra technique, but I was having an extremely difficult time focusing. “I can’t even sense the shadows here.” I spat. I moved my numb arm, hitting the solid ground with a thump.
“It appears we have been shape shifted.” Glacious said.
“What? What do you mean?” Solem asked.
“It means we are no longer humans.” Said Glacious after moving a little bit to my ears it sounded like he was bulkier than he usually was; which could only mean…
I moved my legs, they were heavier and furrier. “I’m an animal. Great.” I said, as I got to my feet, I lost my balance and fell over. “Son of a – Solem make some light already!”
“I already tried, boss, my magic isn’t manifesting here. Plus my hands are asleep so I can’t cast any mana-type spells anyway.” Solem said flatly.
“Did you fall Xion? Try to get in a crawling position.” Glacious said responding to the sound of my rear hitting the ground.
As I did, it felt very natural. “Are we quad-pedal now?”
“It seems so. This numbness, and the fact that we can’t use magic anymore I’d say we were horses or some other creature with hooves.” Glacious said, accompanied with the sound of hooves hitting the ground.
“Are you serious? How are we supposed to fight those kids without magic or hands?!” Solem shouted, causing the ground to shake a little and rumbling and an echo followed his shout.
“We’re in a cave, with no exit.” Glacious said in a bored tone.
“I assumed as much, captain obvious.” I said with a bubble in my throat.
“Okay then let’s just kick our way out. You said we were horses right? Let’s just, you know, buck the walls.” Solem said quieter.
“Buck? What the hell is that? How do you ‘buck’ something?” I snorted.
“I don’t know it sounded right. And I had in mind kicking the wall with our back legs.” Solem replied.
Apparently Glacious was already on it, as there was a dull thud followed by rumbling.
“There you go! Xion come on! Glacious where are you?”
“Over here Solem.” Glacious responded. I walked – err trotted in the direction where Glacious’ voice came from. After hitting the dirt wall with my nose, apparently I had a muzzle, I turned and… bucked the wall. All three of us kept at it until finally there was light, or at least moonlight, that filled the small cave we were in. I looked around, to my left was a small horse, more accurate; a pony. He was dark blue with blue eyes, with a sky-blue and white trimmed mane and tail. He wore Glacious’ cape, bracelets, glasses and long chin-beard. He also had a horn.
“Glacious… You’re a freaking unicorn!” I said and quickly looked to my right. “HOLY CRAP!” I shouted as I looked at Solem the giant.
He was still not as big as a horse, but towering over me and Glacious. He was light-red had his freckles and his red eyes, as well as a horn, and also had a scarlet and dark-red mane and tail.
“Haha! Xion we should call you Spike from now on! I know you like your hair spikey but that is ridiculous!” Solem laughed.
I took a hand – I mean hoof, and ran it through my hai – mane! It was indeed spikey, almost to a cartoonish extreme.
I was a little let down as I didn’t feel a horn. “How come you guys get to be unicorns and I’m just a regular pony?”
“Does it matter? Come on let’s start looking for Edel.” Glacious said coldly.
“One question, without magic and without any way of tracking, how are we going to find them? Plus we don’t even know if they are ponies too, and if they are it only gets worse because now they look different too!” Solem asked, raising my anger
“Shut up let’s just start looking. We won’t find them here in this cave obviously.” I glanced behind me to make sure the hollow was empty “So our only choice is to go out in this strange land.”
As we trotted out of the cave, I noticed the moon directly overhead. It was midnight and we had no destination, no plan.
“Glacious shouldn’t we find civilization first?” I asked
“For all we know people here aren’t ponies. If they aren’t I’m not sure they would welcome two talking unicorns and a pony. I recommend stealth, as usual.”
“Great. I feel a lot less nimble in this body, this is going to be a hard mission… So the plan is to find civilization, stay stealthy, and find out if they are friendly or ponies.” I concluded.
“Seems that way.” said Solem “You know, I’m hungry. Why don’t we find some food?”
I sighed. Can we eat what we usually eat or do ponies have a different digestive system? Figuring all of this out was going to give me a lot of headaches. There were lights in the distance, a rather small town with what looked like a train taking off from the town.
“There is our destination.” Glacious said.
A few minutes passed as we rapidly approached the town, we found galloping was much faster than the speed we were used to as humans running. We were on the outskirts of town when we saw another pony at a well filling a bucket with water. That one observation completely nullified Glacious’ thoughts of there being non-ponies in this world, as it seemed ponies were the ruling race, and were the basis of civilization. We approached the pony casually.
“Hello.” I said.
The pony took one look at us and screamed “Robbers! No don’t hurt me! Aieeeee!” and she took off towards the center of town.
“Smooth with the ladies as always.” Solem remarked.
“Well wait a second. It’s our clothes. Look at how we’re dressed, and it’s past midnight, of course we would look like gang bangers to her.” Glacious stated.
“I’m not taking off my clothes, I don’t have a change.” I said. I looked over at Solem who was completely naked. “Wait… Solem what happened to your clothes?”
“No idea. It actually feels nice, the extra breeze, and it feels natural. I don’t think ponies wear clothes normally, I mean didn’t you see that mare?” Solem said.
“‘Mare’? Are you serious Solem?” I said.
“Well it’s true. Let’s look for them tomorrow, and get some food and sleep for now.” Solem suggested.
“I am getting tired too, Xion. I think we should forage for some food and camp out on the outskirts.” Glacious said. “There were some cherry trees nearby; I think it would be safe to assume ponies can eat cherries.”
“Fine, let’s go fill up on cherries, and get some sleep since you two are such big babies.” I said.
As we were heading back to the outskirts of this town I noticed a sign near the dirt road that read ‘Welcome to Dodge City’. Well at least we know something about this world.
I was galloping through the wilderness at full speed. Trees and thickets rushing through my peripherals. I needed to keep going… ‘Don’t look back!’ It has to be closing in… ‘NO!’ I turned my head, ignoring my brain. There it was. The monster that’s been haunting me since before I can remember, a huge golem the size of a castle guard tower, it was closing in on me and fast, even as a pony. ‘Wait I have wings!’ I remembered the muscles Rainbow Dash had made me feel, I jumped and opened my wings, flapping very hard as I took off, covering more ground, the path in front of me a straight line, I felt the wind in my mane. ‘I should be losing him now’ I looked back. It was closer than before I took off. ‘Impossible!’
“Nameless one. Come and accept your fate. Your master commands it.” The monster taunted me.
‘Should I turn and face it? I’ve been running from this creature for as long as I remember but I’m not strong enough. I’ve never been strong enough. I’m weak just like when Edel and Lorane found me. I’ll always be weak. Always.’ I stopped flying, giving up.
“Yes. Now meet your fate”
‘NO!’ Everything turned white.
“Regal! Wake up! Oh jeeze he’s in a freaking coma isn’t he?” Edel’s voice echoed.
I woke up eyes wide.
“Oh good you’re up. Listen you take over watch, so far it’s been quiet. I’m going to sleep, wake me up when the sun rises.” Edel said, turning towards the campfire.
“Sure.” I said. I have had that same dream once a week since before I can remember, but it never got that far. Tonight was strangely cool, and noticing I could hear a lot more than usual.
I felt strange. All of my senses were all sensitive. I could hear the clopping sound of Edel’s hooves hitting the soft dirt as he walked, smell the burning wood as well as hear the firewood cracking from the campfire 40 paces away, see the few squirrels in the trees in their nests. I could feel a slight warmth from the campfire as well as a tiny zephyr from the beyond the trees. I opened my wings, jumping first then flapping a couple of times to get airborne. I spotted a cloud, and landed on it to get a good view of the camp.
The fire was clearly visible, the clearing below that held the camp was a little hidden from the main road that led towards Fluttershy’s cottage and Ponyville. I looked up at the moon. It was setting like the sun, which meant it would be dawn in a couple of hours. Edel must’ve stayed up longer to let me get more sleep... That was thoughtful of him. Out of nowhere I heard rustling and soft thumps on dirt from below, very close to the camp. I looked down, not seeing anything, and the noise ceased very quickly. My ears perked up in the direction of the camp, looking for any sudden movements. The campfire’s crackling may be drowning out the noise. Finally deciding, I glided down from the cloud to just a few paces in front of the campfire, feeling intense warmth.
I continued to scan the surrounding trees, seeing nothing until my eyes caught the campfire light reflected off two eyes before disappearing suddenly. Predators. We are being stalked. Continuing to wait for the creature to make a move, I folded up my wings and silently trotted next to Lorane and Edel. I sat down and closed my eyes, focusing my mind on my other senses.
“You aren’t going to make a move are you?”
A deep voice made my eyes shoot open, my heart racing very fast, pumping blood at a high rate causing me to jump on my hooves and my wings spread upward. Looking around, I heard the deep voice as if it were right in front of me. It sounded familiar, perhaps like a long lost friend… or enemy, but I was certain I’ve never heard it before.
“Who’s there?!” I said, a lot louder than I meant to.
Silence returned my call. I was getting beginning to let fear grip me, losing my strange heightened senses. Some kind of animal or predator was close, waiting for my guard to drop like this, at the same time that voice completely enfeebled me. I blinked a few times as I continued to look all around for the source of the voice.
“Whoever you are, leave us alone!” I cried. Lorane began to stir from her sleep.
“Regal?” She started before yawning.
Her voice made me jump and I looked at her, she was stretching and arching her back. “Lorane! I’m sorry I didn’t mean to wake you.” I said quickly.
“Who are you talking to? I don’t see anypony…” Lorane said.
“I’m here.”
My senses died for a second, hearing nothing, feeling nothing, my vision flashed an opaque white before everything returned again. My heart was now racing faster than ever, my instincts telling me to run. It felt like the dream.
“Lorane take over.” I said before flying away, not waiting for a response.
I flew for a few minutes. Not knowing which way I was going, my instincts were telling me to go this way. The night sky would’ve been nice to look at if I wasn’t terrified out of my mind; I looked down seeing a small castle that was in ruins. I immediately began to glide closer; I felt like it was calling for me, something was making me want to go there, as my heart began to slow to a normal rate.
I landed on the rooftop of a large dome-like structure of the ruins. The dome itself looked like it was recently constructed to cover the building, but it was incomplete. There was an opening in the dome, and I found myself going inside. The inside was not as dark as I expected, thanks to the brilliant moonlight; the ground was made of marble and granite, columns lined the walls some overgrown with vines and some broken and eroded, and broken windows were all around the walls, save the few that still had glass and stain glass. In the middle of the room was another structure, a shrine perhaps, that had empty pedestals held all around it surrounded a stone orb. However behind this strange structure was a statue of a strange looking creature and a large piece of rectangular furniture covered with a long, thick white quilt, stitched on it were ponies, but then upon closer inspection I realized they were not ponies. Images of quad-pedal creatures similar to ponies, only instead of where the neck was, it extended into a torso, and a human-like head. Arms stretched out each image had a bow-and-arrow.
Centaurs? I turned to the statue. It was very tall and thin, it sat on its tail and, upon looking closer I noticed it looked like a strange patchwork creature composed of different animals. It had a right bear claw, a left eagle talon, right leg of a lizard, a left leg of a goat, and it’s tail looked like a dragon’s tail. The head was a horse, and it bore a shocked expression, looking to its left, and it’s tongue sticking out. I looked at it for a while until I heard it again, only a lot more clear.
“I’m still here you know.”
Again my senses failed only for two seconds now, my vision went white again for two seconds before returning suddenly. “Who are you? Did you bring me here?” I said.
“Over here. Move the quilt.”
My senses failed again. When my vision returned I moved toward the quilt. It seems like it keeps happening when I hear it.
It took a little bit of effort, but I discovered it was much easier to pull off when I flew in the air clenching the quilt between my teeth. As it came off the large rectangular object shifted, threatening to fall. I realized it was a mirror, seeing the reflection of the room, I moved to look at it, see my reflection as a pony for the first time. After dropping the quilt next to the statue of the patchwork creature, I landed in front of the mirror and jumped back in surprise when I saw a human staring back at me. The human was young, had short blue hair, unnatural lavender colored eyes, and he wore white mage robes. He had a birthmark visible on his forehead in the middle of his temple. When I saw him spoke I realized where I had heard the voice from; the unstoppable Golem in my dream.
“Hello nameless one.”
My senses didn’t fail this time. “Who are you? Why are you calling me that?”
“What? I’m you of course.”
This wasn’t making any sense. “What are you talking about?”
“I mean exactly what I said. You are me, and I am you. For the past 300 years I’ve waited for you to get strong enough to manifest.”
“What?” I didn’t believe a word of this. This has got to be a trick. It’s a demon trying to get in my head. Just stay calm and -
“I am not a demon. You are much closer to a demon than I. You are nameless, but my name is Kabel, or more infamously Kael. I became very powerful, like your current day Gladius. However he obtained one thing I wanted: immortality. I looked for a way to preserve my own life, as I did live longer than all the other humans, I still became victim to time. Growing old was my only downfall. I thought of a plan for my own resurrection; create an artificial body and use it as my vessel. The plan failed, but I wound up creating you, however imperfect, but you had no way to age. I poured my soul into your being, giving you life. However you were too weak to hold my soul, so you wandered the world as a non-aging being, but with the mind of an infant.
As your mind matured somehow, after many years, I was able to slowly sneak some of my power in you. Upon meeting Edel, your mind began to make memories. Building a name for yourself as this ‘Regal’ character as pathetic as it seemed, but I was still there. I was always there. When you were backed into a corner, and it was life or death for you and your friends, you had an opening of which I could take control for an instant. In order to preserve my soul I saved your life time after time. But now you are just about strong enough, thanks to Edel and Lorane by the way, for my soul to finally move in and take this age-less body for myself.”
“That’s not going to happen!”
“You don’t have a choice.”
Before I could turn and flee my mind went blank.
End of Chapter 5