//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 - The Younger Sister // Story: The Severed Dimension // by StarPrism //------------------------------// Chapter 8: The Younger Sister Edel I opened my eyes wide. I had fallen asleep on a small bed in the library next to a larger unoccupied bed. I lifted myself up cursing the fact that I was small enough to nearly fit in the small bed. I’ve always been small, glad that Lorane was actually shorter than me as humans at least, but with the transformation into ponies, I was suddenly shorter than even her. Lorane… had I imagined it? She kissed me, even our tongues… I rose out of the bed, to immediately lose my balance and fall, my head fuzzy as the room spinned slightly, followed by a sharp pain in my head. “Well good morning!” Twilight’s voice came from my right. I looked to see her smiling at me. “It seems you drank a little bit too much last night.” “Morning… Where is Lorane and Regal?” I asked, trying to focus as I got back up on my hooves. “Lorane passed out after Daring Do herself showed up. I was surprised at her sudden visit, I mean Daring Do in Ponyville? Wow.” Twilight chirped. She is definitely a morning pony. I remembered Daring Do did show up; Lorane tried to give her a hug, but instead staggered backwards on her hind legs, and collapsed on Rainbow Dash and Rarity. I was worried about her until I felt the euphoria finally hit me, so I merely accompanied them… where did we go? My head was killing me. “So where is she now?” I asked. “I don’t know. She took my bed; you, Rarity and Rainbow dragged her up here. And this morning she left, took a walk as she said to ‘clear her mind’ whatever that meant.” She said, pensive, then adding with a concerned face “Are you hungry? I can try to get Spike to make us something if you want.” “A little bit. What time is it?” “It’s only a few hours until noon, but a late lunch with friends is always nice.” Twilight chirped again grinning. “Okay sure, breakfast sounds good. Thank you, Twilight.” “You’re welcome!” She replied and trotted downstairs. I tried to remember what happened last night. Where is Regal? I need a word with him. I thought, remembering how rude he was to Dash. Something is up, he seems very disturbed… It just isn’t like him. I proceeded to slowly trot downstairs. My head pulsing with pain as the room became still, and my head became less fuzzy. When I reached the bottom I saw Daring Do come out of the kitchen near the second wing of the library. “Well, the great Edel is awake.” She said with a smile. “You, my friend, are certainly a fun drunk to be around!” “Yeah so I’ve been told a lot in the past.” I replied, rubbing my head with my hoof. “Oh so they have cider and alcohol from your world?” She asked. “Yes we do have it. Right now my head is really killing me, so please let me just have some quiet.” I said. “Well if you feel that bad, I could lend you…” She opened the saddlebag on her left side with a wing, and rummaged through it with her hoof, and pulled out what looked like a small capsule. “This.” “And what is that?” “If anypony takes this, any headaches, be from stress to hangovers, will be relieved in ten seconds flat, or your money back.” Daring said simply. “It’s called The Doctor’s Anti-headache Remedy. No idea who this Doctor is, but she’s a genius!” “I’m sorry Daring, I have no money. I don’t even know what the currency is even called here.” I said, continuing to massage my temple. “They’re called bits. And don’t worry about it, I’ll give you this for free, if you agree to take me with you on this adventure you’re about to go on.” “What adventure? Oww… Okay fine, it’s a deal. Give me the pill!” She smiled, and tossed it in the air. I caught it and almost dropped it. I placed it on my tongue and swallowed. I felt the same for about 9 seconds until I felt a rush of cold go up my spine. My headache was completely gone, and I even felt jumpy. “Amazing! Ten seconds huh? That worked fantastically!” I cried. “I know. Now I think breakfast is served.” Daring replied and, as if on cue, Twilight and Spike emerged with four plates of hay, muffins, and to my surprise, eggs. After eating, Daring and I left to find Lorane and Regal. Twilight said she’d wait for us as she continued to study more about chaotic Leylines. We headed to Fluttershy’s cottage first, figuring since it’s pretty much on the edge of town she would have probably seen them come by. After asking she answered “Not Lorane, but I thought I saw Regal this morning heading into the forest. I thought about asking if he needed help, but I remembered him being mean to poor Rainbow…” “Well it’s alright. Say how is Rainbow Dash doing?” I asked her. “I haven’t seen her today; she is probably out practicing her flying tricks again.” Fluttershy answered. “If you do see her, make sure she’s okay, that is if you want to…” And with that, we said goodbye and left, on our way into the Everfree forest. The forest was especially dark and damp today. What was so special about this forest? It always seemed to have a different atmosphere than the nearby surroundings. I thought as we trudged through the forest. “Why is this forest so different compared to everywhere else? It seems so ominous.” I asked Daring. “Well it’s different in more ways than one. Plants, animals and even the weather here are self-sufficient. Everywhere else in Equestria, for the most part, it’s the ponies who maintain the flora and fauna, as well as the weather. Plants grow from seeds, and seeds need to be harvested from plants, planted and taken care of to grow, and the earth ponies are in charge of that.” Daring said. “Earth ponies?” “Yes, like yourself. Then the animals, usually taken care of by everypony, need to be fed, watered, and cared for as well. And the weather is managed by Cloudsdale and the pegasus weather team.” “So wait what do you mean earth ponies? Are there different types of ponies?” I asked. “Well of course. There are earth ponies like yourself, pegasus ponies like me, unicorn ponies like Twilight, alicorn ponies like the princesses, and some of the fabled ones like the centaurs and sea ponies, but nopony have seen them in hundreds of years.” Daring said. So centaurs exist here. From Durandel they were very dangerous and easily aggravated. I’ve heard ponies call Regal an alicorn, meanwhile I’m an earth pony, no wings or a horn. I wonder what is special about being an earth pony? My thoughts trailed off as I noticed it was getting very dark. I looked up to see no sky, just thickets of branches all above us. “The sunlight doesn’t reach here…” I observed out loud. There was a rustling sound followed by a scratching noise and a flash of light where Daring was trotting. She was holding a torch in her left wing, which was curled around the handle like a gripping hand. “Stay close, there are plenty of predators in this part of the Everfree forest, or so I hear.” She warned. “Do you have a weapon? Or that blade your pupil had?” I asked, a bit of hope behind my question as I really wanted to hold a sword again. “No.” she answered to my despair. We continued to trot; I was listening to any sign of stalking predators, listening to the slightest inconsistency in our trotting and the natural ambience. Every so often a gust of wind would cause me to flinch and jump in anticipation of an attack. “You’ve got to let loose, Edel. You’re so jumpy.” Daring said. “Of course, we are in what is probably hostile territory. What if we are ambushed by more of those timberwolves or some other predator I don’t know about?” I said. “With me around, you don’t have to worry about that. I’ve had my fair share of adventures I can assure you. I also meant that let loose comment as a generalization. Around everypony new, that is, you always seem mistrusting and have a cynical way of thinking.” Daring answered. “Well when you live in a place that’s constantly at war, you kind of have to think like that.” I said, wondering if she had been observing me since we first met. We eventually came into a clearing with sunlight filling the area, causing Daring to extinguish her torch. There was a roped bridge reaching across a large ravine to a separate part of the forest with the same ruins we saw the day before. “This is where we found Regal before heading back to Ponyville. In fact he was the one who convinced us that we shouldn’t be afraid of Gladius…” I trailed off; suddenly remembering one fateful encounter with a certain Dark Archdruid who took control of our minds, and made us let our guard down almost killing us with a legion of undead soldiers. Could that kind of magic exist here in Equestria too? Could Regal be under some kind of mind control causing him to act strangely? “Well if this is where you found him, Regal might be inside. Maybe he remembered seeing something he wanted to investigate further. I’ve had that happen before on a few tomb raids.” Daring commented. “Did you just say Regal?” A voice came from behind us. We turned around, nopony was there. Someone is there. How were they so quiet? Were they following us? “Who’s there?” I said. As if that were the cue, there was a burst of fire causing Daring and I to recoil and jump backwards placing us only about 4 paces from the edge of the ravine and bridge. I looked towards where the fire was to see a very large unicorn. He had an orange-red coat, with a short mane that was blonde with crimson streaks. His eyes were scarlet, with large pupils, and he bared a toothy, overconfident smile that seemed eerily familiar. “Boo.” He said, voice sounded familiar too. “Hello, ponies. Before you die, tell me; where is this Regal you were talking about just now?” “Who are you? Why do you care, and who do you think you are giving death threats to ponies who have no quarrel with you?!” Daring cried, before a flash of blue light blinded us for a second as an unnaturally cold wind radiated from the area next to the orange unicorn. My eyes widened as a second unicorn appeared. He had a navy blue coat, with a lighter shade of blue mane with white streaks. He wore small round glasses and had a long chin beard almost reaching the ground. His blue eyes were piercing, and what shocked me was the familiar cape he wore. This was looking very familiar, like an act I’ve seen tens of times before, almost instinctively I looked up, and as I expected a third figure was falling from the sky seemingly out of nowhere, and landed silently, bending his legs and standing up with a cold look in his bronze colored eyes. This one was a green pony, no horn which caused me to assume he was an earth pony like myself; he had an extreme spikey dark green mane, and wore a black cape. “You did it again, Solem. You scared them into thinking we’re enemies.” The blue unicorn spoke. Solem?! This can’t be… Xion and his henchmen? How?! “Sorry about our friend scaring you, we are here looking for the same, err, character you were talking about.” The blue unicorn continued. “You see, he’s a friend of ours, and he might be a little confused about who he is, we come from a company in the city, you see, and it’s a long story, we just need to get him back there.” Daring looked at me with a puzzled expression and I whispered to her in the lowest possible volume, knowing Xion’s keen gearing “they mustn’t know who I am, and they most definitely mustn’t get to Regal.” I then turned my attention to them and said in a different accent in attempt to hide my voice “Ya folks are lookin’ for old man Regal? He’s senile alright, and all but ah don’t think ya got the right pony. He wandered off this mornin’ into his favorite place and we were just pickin’ him up, right darlin’?” I said, in a terribly mimicked Applejack accent. She looked at me with an eyebrow raised and looked at the blue unicorn who I believed to be Glacious. “Yes, I’m his granddaughter and this is my coltfriend Ed –” “Edonis! Mah name is Edonis, pleasure meetin’ new ponies! We just don’t take kindly to new ponies who randomly threaten us, ya see?” I interrupted her quickly, as she gave me a sheepish smile. The green pony looked at me, as if trying to tell if this was a ruse. Xion is hard to fool, I might have a losing battle on my hooves, I can’t take on all three of these goons alone. And Daring would have to flee and get Regal, warn Lorane and start running from Ponyville. I merely grinned at Xion before he finally spoke in his familiar, raspy voice. “Well, if that’s the case then we obviously have the wrong Regal. Sorry for wasting your time, ponies. Good luck.” He said, and at once all three turned and headed back into the forest. When they were far enough away we began to trot towards the ruins, across the bridge. Daring was the first to speak “Who were they?” She asked quietly. “Xion and his cronies; we’ve been running into them since we’ve started the mission to collect the elemental stones. Take my word for it; they are not to be taken lightly.” “I can tell. That was some of the most impressive magic I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot of magic.” She said, looking at the ruins. “I remember these ruins; it was one of my first raids. I discovered an underground labyrinth that led me to several treasures, mostly scrolls and books, and a huge shrine of some sort. I’m not sure what the Royal Pony Sisters were thinking when they constructed the castle, but for some reason that place exists. I’ve been meaning to look at it more now that I’m more experienced…” She looked at me with a pleading face. I found her expression too adorable to say no to so I found myself saying “Well… okay I guess. But we should really find Regal first.” And she smiled at my response as we headed inside. The first thing that caught my attention was the very large statue that had outstretched pedestals that were empty, looked as if it were supposed to hold large orbs. The ground was pretty much littered with gravel and broken pieces of the surrounding columns. I looked up to see a large dome that looked like it was recently constructed over the ruins. There was another tower visible through the broken window on my left. Daring began to inspect the large statue as I began to walk around the room. I saw a statue of a strange creature, it had a long snake-like body, and its limbs, tail and head were made up of different creatures, as if it were a patchwork monster like a chimera. I looked down and saw a figure staring at it, it was Regal. He was staring at the statue as if expecting it to talk to him or spring to life. “Regal! There you are! We’ve been looking for you!” I cried, noticing the echo I kept in mind to speak lower. He looked at me for a few seconds before turning back to the statue and talking “You see this creature? It’s called a draconequus; very rare, especially in Equestria. This particular statue is of an infamous one named Discord. He was apparently this world’s equivalent to our Gladius, only instead of seeking power like him; Discord was merely interested in having fun, and promoting chaos. As such behavior he dubbed himself the Spirit of Disharmony, or Avatar of Chaos. Sounds pretty arrogant huh?” “Regal? Okay what’s with you? You’ve been acting unlike your usual self, and besides what does this creature have to do with anything?” I asked. “It has to do with a lot in terms of our goal. The kind of magic he used was chaotic magic, and an obvious source of the chaotic energy we need to begin the process of creating a Gate on this side of the dimension.” He said, and I swear I saw drool glisten from his mouth. “Edel? Oh there you are!” Daring’s voice echoed and she hovered next to me and looked at Regal. “So you’re Regal huh? And you’re an alicorn! Am I correct in assuming you are royalty?” “In a sense yes.” He started then looked in a corner of the room. He stared in the same spot for a second, and before I was about to inquire, said “I know you’re back there.” A split second later a voice echoed “How did you know?” and a small explosion echoed and shook the floor a little bit as Solem appeared about 30 paces away. “Well it looks like we were fooled just as Xion guessed. It’s a good thing he told me to follow you two in here. Edel! Wow you’re smaller than ever! And Regal! Your leg is healed already? I’m surprised. Now how to go about killing you three…” “Solem! How did you get here? And why are you here?” I asked, my voice echoing through the dome loudly. “Oh you see we ran into a problem. You disappeared, so mister Gateway himself told us to – woah! Almost revealed our plans again! Xion would be super pissed right about now!” He chuckled, and his horn began to glow a dark green color. “You know how long it took us to figure out we still had reserves of mana? Oh, about a half a day since we got here. By then we found your burned note to Regal on the edge of that forest after getting by that little town. I must say you should cover your tracks better, but now I think you’d like a taste of something that doesn’t exist here in this place. Magic!” A large ball of fire exploded from his horn, hitting the large statue in the room, utterly destroying half of it as burned pieces of stone debris from the statue rained down, from the resulting explosion of colliding with the statue, caused me and Daring to fly towards him. I tried to get up and kick him with my back legs, but he merely jump backwards avoiding me. His horn began to glow again as he yelled “That first one was just a taste! Now this time I won’t miss!” and a large fireball came directly at me. I closed my eyes, and… nothing. I opened my eyes to see Regal standing in front of where I lie. Solem yelled again “Oh so you can use magic too huh? Well Regal I’m surprised you were able to block my fireblast, considering how incompetent a mage you are! How about a stream of Hell Fire?!” “Incompetent? I’ll show you incompetent, you foolish mortal!” Regal roared. As Solem’s signature spell bled out from his horn, the stone floor began to melt, and I felt the intense heat from the fire, but Regal stayed, his horn began to glow a pale white color and I saw what looked like a white curtain, and the heat vanished, as well as the fire. The curtain turned black suddenly, and surrounded itself around Solem. Solem’s mouth was agape, and looked like he was screaming, yet no sound was coming out as the black curtain of light suddenly enveloped around Solem, lifting into the air becoming a ball of darkness. The ball suddenly started to get smaller and smaller, and after about ten seconds, the ball of darkness silently vanished. “What was… that?” I asked after half a minute of silence. Regal looked at me, his mane slightly ragged and his coat a darker color of blue, and said simply “Wall of the Void, into an advanced Banishment spell. I didn’t kill him; he’s just in a terrible place right now. We don’t have to worry about him anymore.” He said, then looking around, looking for something. I looked towards Daring who was nursing a broken wing; it was twisted in an awkward angle. “It’s always the right wing. I always somehow injured this wing, it either gets smashed by a boulder, gets trampled on, or I land on it. How about that…” She started to wrap it in bandages. “Besides that, are you okay?” I asked her as I trotted to her location. “Yeah, looks like we owe our lives to your friend.” She said then looking down and adding “And thanks for asking, that was sweet.” “You’re welcome.” I replied, and turned to Regal. He was looking at a broken mirror in the opposite corner of the room, muttering to himself. “Regal,” I started as I got close to him “let’s get out of here. Maybe we can get Twilight to help with this statue.” “She’s brilliant but she has no idea about energy essences like I do. Extracting an essence out of a powerful being that’s sealed up is hard enough. I shouldn’t have shattered this damned mirror!” he said. “What’s with the mirror?” I asked looking at it, noticing a strange quilt also lie on the ground. “Never mind the mirror. I need to figure this out.” Regal snapped. Then looking at us he added “Do you want a portal back to Ponyville? I can create one no problem.” “Well,” I started, before looking at Daring who was trotting over here. “Daring are you okay to keep going? Do you still want to go to the labyrinth?” She nodded in response. “Labyrinth? Where are you two going?” Regal asked, seeming a lot more interested now. “There’s a hidden, underground labyrinth. Daring explored the ruins here before, and she discovered the labyrinth that led to a shrine.” I replied. “Yes and the shrine was empty, but now that I have more experience I want to give it another look; maybe I can find something I missed.” Daring said rather excitedly. “I will join you. Where is the entrance to this labyrinth?” Regal asked, looking around. “It’s in the northern tower, underneath the throne room… that way.” she said, pointing with her hoof to her left out a window. The tower I saw earlier when entering looked a lot more stable compared to the rest of the ruins, with only the top portion of the tower missing. “Let’s go.” I said. I thought I heard a faint laugh as we left the room. We trotted carefully off a narrow ledged that looked like it was once a walkway long ago connecting the tower and the other room. We started to climb up jagged stairs that lead up the tower, about halfway to an opening. Almost losing balance at one point, Daring told us to take more caution even though Regal flew across to the opening and proceeded to look around while we climbed upwards. When I entered the opening after Daring I saw it was merely a single room lined with more ruined columns; it looked like it had several doors and hallways at one point, all ruined and collapsed except for a twisted hallway spiraling up the tower further. We proceeded into the hallway in front of us and it seemed untouched for the most part. Most of the torch molds along the inside walls still had torches, although unlit, and none of the windows viewing the outside were broken. In fact some of them were repaired and I noticed the ground: it was brand new carpet! I heard Regal’s voice as we got near the top. I began to trot faster, Daring keeping pace and we stopped to see Regal was talking to another pony unlike any I’ve ever seen. The pony he was talking to wore what looked like thick obsidian armor, he had golden colored eyes, and a dark gray coat. The armor itself was reminiscent of some of the guards back in the city of Fenrir back on Durandel; dark colored all around, the design of the center piece had a large gemstone on it that shimmered slightly, the helmet he wore had a webbed crest over it, and the feature that stood out was his golden eyes; the pupils were slits like that of a cat. His voice was deep and raspy as he spoke. “I told you, nopony is allowed passed this point. Not while the princess sleeps, now begone!” he said, his expression growing into frustration. “You will let me and my party through or you will perish.” Regal said without emotion. “Regal!” I cried, as I galloped up next to him. I looked at the pony, realizing he was a pegasus with what looked like bat wings instead of the normal feathery wings that all pegasi had. “I’m sorry, sir, it’s just – we were looking for something my friend here lost long ago.” He looked at me for a second before saying “As I said nopony may pass this point while the princess sleeps.” “Bleak, who goes there?” A loud voice boomed from some distance behind the armored pegasus. “They are but intruders your highness. I am dealing with them peacefully as per your orders!” he responded to the voice without taking his eyes off me. “Intruders thou says? If thy intruders art ponies we would see them.” The voice boomed. He blinked in response before saying “Princess Luna wishes to meet you. Please follow me, and be respectful, courteous, and only speak when spoken to. You will be watched.” And he began to trot further up the hall. I noticed even his tail was dark too, as well as his horseshoes, all matching. As we trotted I looked at Daring and asked “What is he? Is he a pegasus?” “Yes, but I don’t know the story with the wings or the eyes, all of the Royal Guards of the Night have the same features. It must be some enhancement” She replied, and flinched when the guard replied to her. “Yes, it is an enhancement. We also have enhanced senses like hearing. princess Luna herself handpicks the elite of the Royal Guard of the Night, and gives them a Lunar Blessing. We gain all of these enhancements so long as princess Luna wishes we have it. It is tradition for the elite Royal Guard, even princess Celestia’s elite have their own blessing.” He said. Not a word was spoken for the rest of the trot up. When we reached the top, there were two other Night Guards standing outside a very large door. Both guards had the same Lunar Blessing that Bleak had talked about. Without hesitation, the two guards opened the door that led into a large bedroom. The room was decorated handsomely, with the dark blue carpet, the torches lit with blue flames as the windows were covered by dark blue curtains. The room was pretty dark but I could make out an ancient throne near the back of the room, as well as a very large bed a few paces next to it. I noticed the ceiling was decorated, or enchanted I couldn’t tell which, with the heavens like the room itself was in space. Countless stars littered the ceiling, though each giving off a faint glow it was hard to tell if they were reflecting light from the torches or giving off their own light. A silhouette stirred from the bed, and an alicorn emerged from the darkness into the light. She had a blue coat, with a sort of neck decoration depicting a waning moon. Her horseshoes were made of diamond judging from the shimmer in the lights and the color. Her mane was a lighter color of blue that looked a little unkempt, probably bedhead from sleeping in such a luxurious bed. She had a mark on her flank that was mostly black, but also depicted a waning moon. Her wings were outstretched, and were big enough to encircle all three of us in a large hug if she wanted to. I noticed her horn was incredibly long, longer than any unicorn I’ve seen so far. She gazed at us with peaceful blue eyes, as the door closed behind us and Bleak stood by it, also watching us. “ART THOU CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE? THOU HAST BRAVED THE FOREST OF EVERFREE TO MEET THY PRINCESS?” she said in an incredibly loud voice that made all three of us move back by sheer volume. My ears were ringing. “WELL? WHAT SAYEST THOU?” Before I could say anything, Daring spoke first “Your highness, we were not aware you slept here during the day. We apologize for intruding on your royal sleeping grounds” “IT IS OF – We are sorry. We are so used to using the royal Canterlot voice with our guards.” She said, lowering her voice dramatically. She had a beautiful voice that sounded like she would be an amazing singer. I must’ve had a shocked expression on my face as she looked at me, she giggled and continued “As we were saying; it is of no consequence dear Daring Do.” Daring flinched when she heard her name. “And thou, one who has bounded thou soul to that which should’ve been a soulless vessel” she pointed at Regal, who also flinched “as well as thou. Thou two should not be in Equestria. We have talked to our dear sister about this, but she wants to see how events will unfold from here on out.” “Your majesty, how did you know who we all are?” Regal asked, a bit of respect in his voice. “There is no secret that we aren’t aware of. However we know of thou power. If thou wish, thou could strikest us down, as well as thou friends before being subdued by our guards. However we see thou are not all bad, as thou only wish to be one with gods, is this correct?” Luna said, looking directly at Regal. Regal gaped at her. “Your highness is omnipotent it would seem,” Regal started “you must know what we are looking for.” “We know what you will be looking for. Thou wishes to enter the underground labyrinth to the forsaken shrine. We will point you in the right direction and nothing more. The entrance thou seek is behind our throne. We have been meaning to seal it off, however, that will wait until after thou is done with it.” She smiled as she pointed towards the back of the room with her hoof, then adding “We would be honest with thy friends if we were thou.” Looking at Regal. As she trotted back to her bed, I looked at Regal awaiting a response. When he said nothing, Daring began to trot to the throne. I joined her a second later, as did Regal. Behind the throne, Daring began to tap the ground with her hooves, lifting the carpet as she went until one of the taps sounded hollow. She proceeded to bite the stone brick and as she pulled, a large portion of the floor opened up on a hidden hinge like a trap door, revealing a dark staircase leading down. I looked at her and she at me. “Ready?” she asked. I nodded. We began to descend the steps. End of Chapter 8