Both of us tumbled down to the floor once we teleported to our unknown destination. Landing hard on what seemed to be stone, the pony and I separated as we rolled on the cold, stone floor. Slowing down, I quickly made an effort to get back to my feet.
On the other side of the aisle, the pony had also quickly regained his bearings, and once more tested his luck at tackling me. For once, however, fortune seemed to be on my side, as this time I found myself able to sidestep out of the way with no trouble, causing my opponent to tackle nothing but air.
This didn't mean, however, that he was done with his assault, because as I was preparing an attack of my own, the pony jumped into the air, disappearing from my sight. Caught by surprise at the action, I looked to where I'd thought he had flown, only to find that area empty.
Suddenly I felt something collide with my back, sending me falling into the concrete and dropping my staff. My body hit the rock solid floor, causing me to let out a howl of pain accordingly from the force of the impact.
But I couldn't dwell on it for long, as the bastard pony who had inflicted that pain upon me grabbed both of my arms and tied them together with what I could only determine was a rope. After he had finished that, he flipped me onto my back. Now that we could see each other's faces again, it was impossible not to notice the angry look on his face. Hopefully, the look I was giving him gave him the idea that the feeling was mutual.
And not one to accept defeat so easily, I used my still-freed legs to knock the pony off his hooves. My unsuspecting opponent staggered back a few steps, allowing me the opportunity to quickly roll to my staff, and attempting to use it to cut the rope holding my hands together.
This only happened for a few seconds however, before it was interrupted when I was pulled away from my staff by my opponent, who had dragged me by my feet with his mouth. Despite my attempts to fight him off again, he brought out another rope and proceeded to tie it around my legs. After he had finished with his work, the pony finally relented, sitting back and letting out a breath he probably didn't know he was holding.
Not me, however. Even as the fight was effectively over, I was still struggling, futilely trying to break my bindings and free my limbs. This continued for an embarrassing amount of minutes, with the pony watching my struggle with what I imagined was amusement, like the sack of shit he is.
I soon began to lose stamina from my constant struggling, and before long I had ceased moving altogether, now looking blankly at the ceiling above me as I caught my breath. Inwardly, I continued to curse at the bastard who put me into this predicament, tying me up as if I were no better than a petty criminal.
"Are you done flopping around?"
Speaking of which.
I quickly snapped my attention to the offending pony and growled, "Fuck you."
He looked surprised by the insult, before saying, "You can speak Ponish?"
"Of course I can, dumbass, what language did you expect me to speak, German?" I breathed in before an exaggerated smile came to me before exclaiming, "Hallo! Ich bin Zerstörung! Was ist dein Name? Dummkopf, vielleicht?"
My face quickly soured as the pony, now looking incredulous, responded, "Was that your original language? I've never heard it before."
"I'd be surprised if anyone did." I grumbled. "Nobody knows it."
This seemed to pique the pony's curiosity as he perked up with excitement. "A language that nopony knows? Are you telling me you're some ancient being, now?"
Okay, this idiot is really starting to get annoying with his constant questions. And the fact that it was somewhat on-point made me even more annoyed. Irritated, I jabbed, "Are you interrogating me? Because you're doing a horrible job at it."
"I'm just being curious, you don't have to be so rude about it," the pony retorted, crossing his hooves. "And by the way, you willingly told me that you aren't from here, so am I really doing that bad a job?"
Instead of answering his rhetorical question, I pretended to look shocked while mocking, "Oh no! The dastardly pony hath discovered my origins! Surely this wasn't because I look so different from him and his people, that's ridiculous!"
Seeing that I wasn't evidently cooperating, the pony sighed in frustration and stood on his hooves. In a short moment, he walked over me, and towards my staff. Once he was all but looming over it, he wrapped a hoof around it, before lifting it up.
Never before had my heart sank so fast.
He was touching it.
He was touching my staff.
Even worse, he was holding it.
No…
No.
NO.
Not even a few seconds after he had grabbed a hold of my most valuable possession did my staff begin to emit an ominous orange glow. Predictably, this surprised the miscreant attempting to hold it, a look of pure bewilderment washing over his face as he watched the glow intensify, with nothing but a simple “Huh?” leaving his mouth.
And no soon after he did so, did my staff release a powerful blast which sent him flying to the nearest wall. His body violently collided with it before it fell to the floor, and judging by the impact, he wasn’t getting back up any time soon. Meanwhile, my staff remained floating in the air from where the pony had held it up prior.
I stared in complete awe at my staff. Of all the things it could still do in its age, this was certainly not one I thought it could still do. Autonomy was a complicated spell, after all, that a worn object such as my staff shouldn’t have been able to accomplish. Especially considering the fact that there were certain spells it couldn’t do as a result of its age. So either I severely underestimated its capabilities, or, more likely, that it had significantly pushed up its expiration date to an even earlier date.
But yet in spite of all that, it continued to levitate in place for a few moments, as if it was analyzing its surroundings. Then, it began to slowly float over to my still bounded form, taking around a minute before coming to a stop above me. Understanding its intention, I repositioned myself to sit on my knees so that it would be easier to position the ropes which bound me directly underneath my staff. When it found my position satisfactory, my staff plunged itself through the ropes, cutting through them with no difficulty. And not even a moment after completing its task did it proceed to fall to the stone floor with a loud thud which echoed across the room. Now able to move freely once more, I quickly picked up my staff, got to my feet, and began to analyze my surroundings, as the physical and verbal match previously had prevented me from doing so beforehand.
It would seem I had been transported to a throne room of some sort. The room itself was rather long in length, with a red carpet covering most of the way, sporting the entrance at one end and, intriguingly, two thrones on the other. We’re these thrones used by a co-monarchy? A personal union? Whatever the reason for there was for there to be two thrones, they both had their own steps which led up to their platform which elevated them relative to the floor. There were also banners above both of them, one emblazoned with the symbols and colors of the moon, while the other with the symbols and colors of the sun. The room certainly looked like it had seen better days, with many cracks and openings in the floor, walls, and especially the ceiling, or more accurately lack thereof.
Now done with analyzing the room, I turned my attention back to the still unconscious pony, who luckily has yet to recover from his abrupt appointment with the wall. With haste, I walked over until I all but loomed above him. The thought of killing him and leaving it at that briefly crossed my mind, but I ultimately decided against it. I wanted more answers on how much the world had changed since my imprisonment, and what better way to get those answers than from taking a rather talkative pony captive?
Having decided on that course of action, I set my staff to the side as I searched the pony’s saddlebags for the same ropes which he had tied me with. Luckily for, he had a few to spare, probably in case the first knots weren’t enough. Using these ropes, I tied up the pony’s legs and wings as tight as I could. When I was finished tying the knots, I gave them experimental tugs to test them. Satisfied with their strength, I then proceeded to lift the pony onto my left shoulder to take him to a more enclosed room so as to make it harder for him to maneuver should he free himself.
However, before I could repossess my staff, I noticed a piece of paper fall out of one of the pony’s saddlebags. Now curious, I picked it up. Upon a quick inspection, it was obvious it wasn’t paper, but a photograph. Within the photo were four ponies—all of whom bore the same bat-like characteristics as my captive, with what looked like a train behind them. Speaking of my captive, it was obvious he was one of the ponies pictured in this photo. He was on the left side of an older pony, most likely the father. On his left were two female ponies, clearly a mother and sister. On the bottom right of the photo, written in what seemed to be ink, were well wishes and initials, most likely of those pictured with my captive.
And to think I was pondering about killing him not even a moment ago. When you used to serve a ruthless Emperor who commanded hordes of equally ruthless monsters, it became natural to kill those who gave you even the slightest grievance. It was not uncommon in Tambelon to hear of a servant being summarily executed because they attracted the ire of someone with power. Regrettably, I also participated in these acts, although only on those which I believed were spying on me. Or, at least, that’s what I tell myself.
Shaking away all of those unpleasant memories, I put the photo back into the saddlebag it had fallen out of, finally recollected my staff, before finally setting off to whatever room I thought it best to interrogate my newly acquired captive. What that room was, I would find it eventually, and in the meantime use the search as an excuse to explore the run-down castle that I was teleported to, with my staff lighting the way.
”Ugh, what a pain…”
After an uneventful journey through the castle, I had finally come upon what my staff’s light revealed to be a rather luxurious sun-themed bedroom, with a Queen-sized bed off to the right and a variety of furniture such as tables, bookshelves with a fireplace in between to the left, and as the theme would suggest, all of these items were emblazoned with symbols of the sun in excess. Add to the fact that all of these items looked to be in perfect condition despite the state of the rest of the castle, and it was the obvious place to stop, rest, and prepare for the interrogation of the pony I was carrying.
Setting him down on the bed, I rolled around my left shoulder several times to shake away the soreness that came from carrying the full weight of a pony for who knows how long. Once done with that, I sat down next to the still-unconscious pony on the bed, although after some impromptu stretching, I laid back and layed down on the bed instead.
It was here, while resting on a bed, staring at the ceiling that I began to brainstorm about potential next steps to take. My original plan of living a nomadic lifestyle has undoubtedly encountered a setback in the form of the pony I currently held hostage. Truth be told, I didn’t know what to do with him after I finished ratting all the information I could out of him. Once more, the thought of killing him came to mind, and once again I rejected it. But at the same time, keeping him around while I was here also wasn’t an option, as monitoring a prisoner after they were no longer useful to you would be more of a nuisance if anything.
Sighing at my predicament, I looked over at the pony again, inwardly seething as I acknowledged the current reason for all of the problems I’ve had until now. On one part, I wanted to kill him and get information another way. This was influenced by the fact that I had found a library during my trek to this room, filled to the brim with books that still look as if they’re brand new. The problem with this, of course, was that as this was an old and abandoned castle, every book there was most definitely outdated, and wouldn’t tell me the whole story of what happened during my imprisonment. Then there was the part of me that wanted to get these from the pony. The problem was that a single person didn’t know everything, and there would likely be holes in his recounts of history. It was also likely he isn’t very knowledgeable in history at all, and thus wouldn’t have anything important to tell me.
And the more I thought about it, the more I felt certain that the pony was more of a nuisance to keep rather than a potential important source of information. Groaning at the realization that I had brought him here all for nothing, I stood up from the bed, and once again stared down at the reason for all of my current dilemmas.
Deciding on a compromise solution between killing and sparing him, I elected to teleport him back to the depot where we started our scuffle. Lowering the cross of my staff to the pony, I began to concentrate on the teleportation spell. There was a worry on my part on whether my staff could handle any more magical pressure, especially considering how it had recently exerted itself by becoming autonomous. However, I remained confident in its strength, and continued onward with casting the spell, which only took a few more seconds. After those seconds passed, a bright orange flash engulfed the room, and once it had dissipated, the pony’s unconscious form had disappeared from the bed.
With all of that now done, I sighed in relief, with my shoulders sagging in exhaustion. With one of my primary concerns finally done and dealt with, I began to find the massive bed to be all more appealing. After all I had been through in the last day or so, resting in a bed for the first time for who-knows-how-long was something I just couldn’t find myself rejecting. Taking а long stretch with my staff in hand—
*POP*
I froze.
I felt shards of the emission crystal falling onto my head and arms.
I saw the conduit crystals fall unceremoniously, clacking as they made contact with the floor.
Slowly, I looked down to my feet.
There, I confirmed that the emission crystal, the same crystal which emitted the magical powers that I so heavily relied upon, had indeed shattered.
“You gotta be kidding me…” I said, slowly realizing the full implications of what has just happened.
I didn’t take it well.
“You’ve got to be FUCKING kidding me!” I exclaimed, “You broke because of a teleportation spell? After enduring so many others? Yet you withstood autonomy? Fucking autonomy! You also withstood weapon summoning. Sure, you were steaming afterwards, but you didn’t shatter then, did you! Unbelievable… Unbelievable! That doesn’t make any sense!”
Taking a moment to catch my breath, I dropped my now useless staff on the floor as I once again sat on the bed covering my head with my hands in frustration. Everytime I thought I was in the clear, every single fucking time I thought it would be smooth sailing, a sudden obstacle would reveal itself at the most convenient moment. Whether it be guards stopping the train, that damn pony bastard interrupting my attempted escape, and now the emission crystal inexplicably breaking out of nowhere, it would seem that there was some invisible force in play to make things as difficult as possible for me.
Now instead of scouring the library for information on what had happened during my imprisonment, I now had to look for how to repair the emission crystal, or if that didn’t work, find a different crystal to emit the magic cycled through by the conduits. The latter would undoubtedly take much longer than the former, but I would have to do it if it was my only option to restore it to working condition.
In spite of the urgency I would normally hold for such an event, however, I buried my worries away and decided to commit to finding a solution as well as information gathering whenever I woke from my rest. It was unlikely anyone will be looking for me here, at least for tonight. That is unless the invisible force above decides to throw another hiccup my way by having more ponies show up to capture me in my sleep.
Laying down on the bed, I released а content sigh as I sunk into the soft sheets. How long has it been since I’ve slept in a bed? Far too long, certainly. As I continued to get comfortable, my thoughts began to become a haze as I drifted to sleep, hoping that this incident would be the last curveball I would encounter on this disaster of a journey.