Dark Aura

by NavelColt


3. The Cold Nature of Stone

Starlight winced. Every step she took brought the loud snap of a dried twig with it. To shift her weight was to draw attention to herself. To reposition was to break concentration. To make matters worse, the black soot of decayed foliage clung to her hooves, adding a gritty feeling to her every step.

She gave an aggravated sigh. Looking in at this chaos from someplace warm and bright was a privilege she very much missed, and their detour around the forest had gone by far too quickly.

One thing was for certain—no oversized cockatrice was worth all of this.

"A shame we didn’t find anything useful outside, after all. Do we at least have an idea of where we are, or where this thing might be?"

Humming a tune, Twilight seemed to detach herself from the sprawling death all around them. A faded map hovered in magenta magic in front of her face, though it didn't seem to impair her ability to dodge roots.

"Not exactly, but I know where we can begin,” the purple alicorn began. “Only one pony has ever attempted to map the entirety of the Everfree Forest—his name was Surefire Voyage. Although he was never able to complete his work, his findings were recovered over a millennia later by daredevil explorers. Since then, we've been able to expand upon his map a lot. A map that just so happens to live in my library, these days."

"Alright, that sounds promising. How much of the forest has been mapped?"

"Roughly forty-five percent," Twilight replied with pep. "Though a good twenty-five percent of that was already explored and known about due to the Castle of the Two Sisters, which hollows out a lot of the forest's volume by having no trees around it. Then, we added around fifteen percent onto Surefire's findings over the centuries."

"...so what you're telling me is that Surefire Voyage only successfully mapped around 5% of the forest."

"Yes."

"Also, that more than half of the total forest remains uncharted."

"Also yes."

"And that, in short, we're basically just wandering around, hoping to pick up the trail of something."

Twilight paused before responding, processing her friend’s irate tone.

"Uh, technically yes? You have to remember that the Everfree Forest wasn't nearly as big, back in Surfire's Day. I’m hoping to identify landmarks from the map so we can have an idea of which forest quadrant we’re in. I can cross off quadrants as we explore them."

"Surefire was a good pony," Starswirl said out of nowhere. "A bit slow on the uptake, perhaps, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a pony braver than him, save our very own Flash Magnus. Surefire believed his work would benefit all of Equestria, and keep our towns safer.”

“I sure hope it can keep us safer,” Starlight muttered. “Feels like we’ve been out here for hours, already. Even when colorless and quiet, this forest gives me the chills.”

Moments became minutes. The slow, careful clopping of hooves and snapping of branches became the only sound to hear, and for Starlight, what began as an anxiety trigger quickly became a lulling rhythm. She found her eyelids growing steadily heavier.

It didn’t help matters any that her company was mute. Twilight’s usual, talkative self had been subdued by her attempts to identify landmarks, and Starswirl, hardly one for starting conversations anyway, trudged along quite comfortably in the silence.

For a moment, Starlight’s eyes closed, and she relished the relief that came with it.

But then someone shrieked, and just like that, Starlight was awake again.

“Oh my gosh, I'm sorry,” Twilight gasped. "It's just a cragadile—I didn't see it. Get a hold of yourself, Twilight."

Starlight turned with Starswirl. Tucked behind a sagging willow tree was the ominous form of a cragadile, frozen mid-stride. The thick scales of green and brown rock had been dulled to gray. If not for its cold, stone eyes, one might assume it'd simply been of old age, pretending to be a statue to lure in gullible, curious ponies like themselves to their doom.

"It was just...walking."

Starlight couldn't find further words. Starswirl approached it, and with a hoof, examined it from each side. One of its short, stumpy legs had yet to touch the ground.

"The speed at which this occurred is startling," the sorcerer began, stroking his beard. He swept the forest with troubled eyes. "But it is perhaps not unexpected. We may not require Surefire's map fragments after all, Twilight."

Twilight, who'd long forgotten about identifying landmarks, longingly looked towards the map.

"Why do you say that?"

Starswirl's voice fell. "When we were at the very edge of the forest, at the edge of this phenomenon, Miss Bon Bon reported that the petrification had occurred no later than three minutes after the creature's appearance. With no eye-witnesses, we couldn't be certain it wasn't instantaneous, but let's assume that by the forest's edge it wasn't."

The mares drew closer to the Pillar as he went on. For the first time in what felt like hours, a breeze strong enough to penetrate the forest's depths climbed their spines.

"What happened right here was instantaneous, taking place in a matter of seconds. I cannot prove it, but this might be a sign that we are nearing the anomaly's epicenter, that we are nearing the creature responsible. From here on out, be prepared for anything."

The Element of Magic whisked her map away, and Starlight advanced ahead of her, her eyes like daggers guiding a horn already lit with a teal blaze.

"I don't expect you to know anything about this creature, Starswirl," Starlight began, closely watching every new tree that entered her vision. "But you did say you have a hypothesis. Care to explain what it is, or if you've made more headway on it?"

Starswirl looked back to the stone cragadile.

"I will have an answer for you very soon," he said. Closing his eyes, his horn lit with snow-white magic. It spiraled around the sharp conductor a moment before shining down across the statue's back. There, it scanned to and fro several times.

When the magic ceased, Starswirl's look grew morbid.

"...just as I suspected."

"What is it?"

Starswirl wheeled around. "Twilight, how does a cockatrice turn living beings to stone? What is the process?"

Put on the spot without context, Twilight briefly stammered. "I-I uh, the cockatrice uses its eyes as a conduit for magic, like how unicorns use their horns. It casts a stone sleep spell on creatures it feels threatened by, or that invade its territory."

"And what happens to the creature trapped in stone?"

"What do you mean?"

From the sideline, Starlight watched the two converse. An unnerved look crept up her face.

"Think of Discord, Twilight," Starswirl led. "He could still hear, still think while trapped in stone. Granted, this was anomalous and unique to him because he is not tethered to our mortal plane, but the fundamentals are the same for all creatures of our world. How is it he could experience consciousness?"

Twilight racked her brain. The artificial tension was building, though she wasn't quite sure what for. At least not yet.

"Because the stone sleep spell, whether done by a unicorn or a cockatrice, doesn't actually destroy tissue by transforming it into rock. It's more of a limbo imprisonment, a time lock that can be reversed."

"Correct. One can normally expect to find the life force within any petrified victim, regardless of how long they've been imprisoned. They need only the correct spell to check for a 'pulse.'"

"‘Normally’?"

Starswirl paused, and at last Twilight found her protege's grim face. Her blood ran cold. With a weak voice, she reached out, her gaze fixed on the statue.

"Starswirl, you didn't feel a pulse in that cragadile, did you?"

"No, Twilight," Starswirl replied. "I didn't."


“How curious,” Tirek drolled. As a half-dozen timberwolves continued to lunge at him in turns, biting down on his biceps in fits of snarling, he pondered just what kind of magic he was dealing with.

“Why are you not also statues?” he asked aloud. He grew amused when green lights turned in response to his voice. Again the wolves lunged. This time, the firm back of Tirek’s fist readily knocked them away. Dog-like whimpers cried out as the mangled forms of branches and leaves skidded along the ground.

It was then that Tirek's crooked smile succumbed to shock.

As the wolves rebuilt themselves from surrounding foliage, the scarcity of the forest began to take its toll. Petrified branches were levitated in gases of green magic and affixed into missing joints and limbs, but when the wolves charged again, their albino body parts creaked and snapped instantly. The wolves tumbled over themselves, flopping in a heap at the centaur’s hooves.

Tirek smirked as they struggled to merely stand.

“You may have escaped petrification, but with no trees to fuel your regeneration, you’re still doomed, it seems.” A terrible spectacle of black and orange energy formed at the focal point of his horns. “What a pity. Even the forest’s mighty guardians have fallen in the face of this localized extinction. Allow me to offer you salvation.”

Tirek’s jaw opened wide, like that of a pelican eel. At once, the green light granting artificial life to the wolves wafted from their bodies as an evaporating smoke, leaving their forms to fall limp, collapsing into piles of twigs. Circling the air as if caught in a drain, the green energy condensed into a long, thin strand before vanishing behind a clenched pair of teeth.

“Ahh,” the centaur expressed, ritualistically wiping his mouth again. “Rather earthy for my taste, but it’s rude to waste food when it is offered to you.”

Tirek flexed his arms and pecked the greatest muscle. He was already starting to resemble his old self. Certainly, he was already a wave ready to crash down on the nearest town of ponies. But then, why not first become a tsunami?

A rare opportunity sat before him. Ponies were worrisome little creatures—most didn’t tread near the Everfree on general principle, let alone while bizarre magic held the entire woodland in its clutch of death. Why shouldn’t he gain as much power as he could, while here? No one would come to stop him, and it was doubtful any creature even knew he was here.

The centaur turned and began to advance ever deeper into the forest. His hooves were weights upon the ground, crushing the remains of timberwolves like toothpicks.

“Whatever is responsible for this must be around here somewhere,” he murmured. “Absorbing every last creature would take days, but finding just one while picking snacks up along the way should be no trouble.”

Lesser trees and brittle brambles bowed and snapped before him as he walked. Those that didn’t were aggressively uprooted and tossed over his shoulder. When he emerged through a veil of naked, snaking vines, another timberwolf leaped for him, baring its wooden fangs. Without so much as a glance or pause in his pace, Tirek snatched the wolf from the air by its neck. In one flex, he crushed it and absorbed its ghostly light.

After some time, the trees seemed to grow thinner, and so Tirek’s disengaged stare was shaken. Through the broader gaps between trunks came what appeared to be a cottage, or perhaps a treehouse. Raising a brow, the centaur’s lip curled.

“What have we here, I wonder. Goodness me, are all my beliefs about ponies about to be challenged? No one could possibly live all the way out here.”

But this was no forgotten foalhood treehouse. As the centaur broke past the outlying trees, he examined the structure more shrewdly. It was an aged willow, long ago converted into a homestead. Colored bottles hung from the lowest branches, and an oak door sat the tree’s base, wide open. Tribal masks further decorated the large roots branching out in all directions, and something about them was oddly familiar.

Curiosity extinguishing any further wit or retort, Tirek advanced on the doorway.

“Like a good neighbor, Lord Tirek is here!”

Two hands brutally pried the lower tree apart into a shower of splintered shrapnel, and Tirek stepped through his makeshift doorway. Inside, a cauldron still fresh with some deep green, bubbling liquid sat unattended. Staring silently at him from all around the walls were more tribal masks, which now picked at the centaur’s brain like an irritable itch.

Where had he seen masks like these before?

He thought to call out, to taunt any possible hideaways, but there was no need. There was no magic in the air here, and there did not appear to be any other rooms or tucked away areas to hide away in.

No one was here, not anymore.

Tirek grunted and placed the crux of his knuckle to his chin. That open doorway only raised further questions, though. Questions like who was it that lived here, and had they fled their home before or since the forest’s untimely demise? Were they still in the forest, or had they somehow managed to foresee these events and escape?

Another grunt, with a higher tone of satisfaction, this time. He had, at last, scratched that itch. Strange trinkets, a plethora of potions, and tribal masks all around the walls—this was a den of hoodoo if he’d ever seen one. No pony lived here, after all.

“What’s a zebra doing in this dismal part of Equestria?” Tirek vocalized, examining a shelf of potions. He clawed one in particular and sniffed it. He promptly tossed it over his shoulder and scowled. What a repugnant smell.

This was a waste of time.

The centaur blew a hole in the opposite side of the willow and exited through a cloud of smoke and debris. Emerging on the other side, the smoke released its grip on his shoulders, and he sniffed the air.

Something sharp assailed his nostrils. His eyes widened.

“Oh,” he growled, a wicked grin forming. “What in Equestria is that?”

It wasn’t magic, or at least, it was like no magic he’d ever encountered. It was foreboding and dark, something creeping and wretched, whispering to him through time and space. The more he focused, attempting to pinpoint its location, the colder the chill up his spine became.

Tirek cracked his neck. A thousand thoughts flooded his mind. Was it Grogar, of old? What else in all of Equestria’s history could be so twisted and ripe with power? Was it some beast as ancient and capable as Discord? Had Discord, himself somehow escaped from his eternal prison in stone?

It mattered not—he was not prepared to confront such power, yet. To seek it out would be madness.

But the centaur smiled. He had time on his side, as well as the element of surprise. He would learn of the entity from the shadows, analyze the situation, as well as his next move. To triumph was to use brains as well as brawn.

“How does the old saying go? Out of the pot and into the fire?” An audience of one, Tirek chuckled to himself. “Let’s see what fresh Tartarus awaits me, this time.”


“Keep yer eyes sharp and your wits peeled, lads and lasses.”

Rockhoof embedded his shovel into the earth with gusto. An interjecting hoof from Rarity attempted to correct his phrasing, but the attempt was shot down by Flash. The pegasus knowingly shook his head.

“The treacherous beast could be anywhere,” Rockhoof continued. Standing tall, he offered himself to the open air of Rambling Rock Ridge’s cliffs. A cascade of rocks and a weather-worn cliff face awaited him below, waiting for even the tiniest slip of the hooves. Beyond it, a respite of rolling fields and rivers held a familiar albino network of trees at bay.

“But why would Tirek come here,” Applejack asked, stepping forward to grab her counterpart’s attention. “This whole ridge is as quiet as a bucked orchard on a Sunday night. Don’t think I’ve seen a single critter here, let alone a pony or any other sorta folk.”

“Applejack’s right,” Fluttershy stepped in, both figuratively and literally as she joined her friend’s side. “Tirek's hoof prints stopped a little while back, so he may have gone around the ridge completely. If he wants to absorbs magic, he’ll want to go someplace populated, won’t he? Someplace like Ponyville?”

“Or Dodge City, perhaps,” Mistmane offered. “It is closer to the Hayseed Swamps than your home, which lies on the other side of the Everfree.”

“If his goal is magic, then I’m afraid Dodge City wont attract Tirek real well,” Applejack replied. "That place has become real desolate, these days. Suppose you could say their gold rush went out with a whisper instead of a ring. Most ponies moved away a long time ago, and those left have started migratin’ to Appleloosa, further southwest.”

Mistmane smacked her aged lips. She thanked the farmer pony with a warm look. “I suppose I won’t ever stop learning new things about this era. Unfortunately, that would mean Ponyville is likely Tirek’s first target.”

A flapping of wings signaled them all to look up, where Somnambula touched down with grace.

“There is no sign of our foe from the air,” she said. “The ridge is empty, aside from us.”

From his proud stance atop the mountain, Rockhoof snorted.

“That may be so, but this vantage point offers us important insight to our next move.”

“The only question remaining is if Tirek has gone through the forest, or around it,” Meadowbrook added. “I'll wager a guess that I know more about that forest than anypony here. The swamps of my home are not as fabled as the Everfree, but they share much of the dangerous flora and fauna, and both are mighty tricky to navigate. Even if the forest has been petrified, would Tirek risk getting lost in it while he’s still so weak?”

“An excellent point,” Flash mediated. “Getting lost within the forest while attempting to hide from eyes who would see him going around it might be even more detrimental to him.”

“Unless he ventured into the Everfree on purpose.” Again Somnambula commanded the floor. She watched the forest with trepidation. “If the forest has been petrified, then so too have its many dangerous creatures. Ponies will still be reluctant to explore the forest while this grim magic is in the air. Getting held up within the woods is likely the last of Tirek’s concerns.”

“Can Tirek absorb magic from statues?”

The thought fell on the group as a cold, hard weight from the most unlikely source. Hovering in the air, Rainbow Dash held a lazy expression until a wave of eyes sought her out.

“...what?”

Meadowbrook desperately turned to Flash. “Flash, do you think that he could? Oh, my stars. If he can absorb the magic of petrified beings as easily as living ones, then—”

“Then the entire forest will have become one large meal to him, with no threat of retaliation,” Somnambula finished.

“Starswirl, Twilight, and Starlight are in there, too,” Fluttershy added, her voice teetering on the edge of a panic attack. “And they wouldn’t know to look out for him! They’re focused on trying to find whatever creature caused all of this!”

“It looks like Princess Celestia might have been right to worry,” said Rarity, refraining from biting the edge of her hoof as it hid beneath her chin. “Whether Tirek had anything to do with this creature’s arrival or not, he may very well benefit from it.”

Resolute, Flash spread his wings.

“Prepare to enter the forest, everyone. Our friends need our help.”