//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Pardoner's Vale // Story: Devour their Festering Hearts // by Bleuraz //------------------------------// Applejack was waking up feeling absolutely horrible, a deep dread with fatigue and slight nausea. What did she do yesterday that warranted this feeling, it was just a normal day of bucking apple trees and general chores around the farm. And not even any of her friends need help with anything, the most she saw of them was Rainbow Dash lazily floating overhead on a cloud. She did have a weird dream though, flying through the air, suddenly hitting the ground, someone removing a hat from…  Applejack's eyes shot open, revealing the area she was currently in, she was on her back in a tent, laying on a mat covered with a blanket. Propping herself on her elbows, wincing at the pain in her arm, she saw the trio that was with her at the start of this nightmare, their skin now pale, with what seemed like black eyes with blue tears. Looking down at herself, she too had pale skin, along with the other changes that had happened to her, two legs and two arms that ended in blunt claws with no scales.  She also noticed another creature in the tent with them, they wore clothes that were a simple gray along with a hat that had a full circle brim. They noticed Applejack awake and turned to her. “Ah, thank the gods you're stirring ,” she said, "Spellmarked, but alive, so the Magebane Rite succeeded. Balaehl herself must have been watching over you when you encountered that beast in the woods, it was pure luck that Stablehand Ben was nearby. You were on death's doorstep when he brought you back to Pardoners Vale. Fortunately, I was able to nurse you back to health." She then knelt down, "You may call me Herbalist Shenna. I am the Inquisition's healer here." She then handed Applejack a red bottle, "Here, take this Hearthen Flask, quaff it the next time you are injured." Getting up, Applejack did notice she was feeling better than when she first got here, and then after drinking from the flask, she noticed the pain in her arm had subsided. Before she could say anything, Shenna spoke. "Perhaps you have questions?" Aj did have some questions, but she held back because she wanted to ask the one in the gray armor some specific ones. She had a feeling that he knew more about what was happening than the rest of them.  "Magebane Rite?" She first asked simply "Yes the Magebane Rite," the Herbalist started, "You committed the crime of drunkness, didn't you?" Aj was confused, her, commit a crime? She had not broken any law in her life, let alone… being drunk? Sure, she was able to make the Apple family cider, but she had never gotten drunk off of it. But given, she wasn't in Ponyville anymore, she guessed that whatever magic brought her here, also labeled her as a drunk. "Perhaps your memory is foggy," the herbalist continued, "When you became a Marked Inquisitor, you would have undergone a Magebane Rite. You would have drunk an elixir known as Magebane, and spoke cursed words from a forgotten tongue," Applejack was sure she was hearing gibberish, curse? She was never capable with magic. "Many Inquisitors Initiates make missteps in the ritual, and it doesn't take hold," She was suddenly hopeful about this, but then she remembered that the Herbalist did say the ritual did work on her. "Unfortunately, the only way to know if the Magebane Rite is successful is for one who has undertaken it, is to die in the presence of magic. Many Inquisitors have fallen in Ossenliegh Valley, never to rise again. You're fortunate in that respect." Applejack took a moment to process all of this, so this has been happening for a long while in this place, how many others were dragged into this. How many failed in this ritual, had any other ponies been through this, was this ritual responsible for her transformation into the body she had now. She then asked her next question. "Who is this Bala, Bela… who did you say was watching over me?" "Balaehl, the names of the gods have fallen from our tongues, so it's no surprise to hear a trained mage hunter ask about her." Aj was getting more concerned by the second, she was relieved that she didn't appear suspicious for asking about this, but the words struck her wrong somehow, gods? Mage hunter? "Balaehl is the god of healing wind." The next question Applejack was going to ask was one that she had been dreading. "What is the Spellmark?" "Yes, Spellmarked. You would have died in those woods if not for the Magebane Rite you undertook. This region is polluted with warped magic," warped magic, was this what they called dark magic here? "But there is a benefit to it: those who have successfully undergone the Magebane Rite can stave off death, becoming Spellmarked instead: not living, not dead, but animated by the mystical warp that infects this region." Aj was feeling the dread she woke with growing even more, bit what the Herbalist said next lifted it a little, "There is a way to atone yourself of the Spellmarked and return to life, but it requires a rare item know as a Guiltless Shard," So there was a way to rid herself of this dark magic after all, "The corruption of Mages and their minions has a crystallizing effect on whatever purity remains; these solidified masses are shards of pure innocence," Aj felt the dread grow again, corruption? "Hunt and devour Mages and their minions if you wish to be atoned and become living again." The words Hunt and Devour made Aj think of what was going to happen. Do the Inquisitors she mentioned hunt these mages, they go through this ritual, does that mean she was one now? If she hunts mages, would she eventually get back home, would her friends forgive her for doing these things? "Th-, th-, thank you, I think I'll be heading out now." "Stay in good health, Inquisitor." Aj started walking out of the tent, too many things were running through her head right now, the weight of all she heard was bearing down on her, she needed somewhere quiet to think. She came to a statue, but she didn’t care about that right now, what she did care about was the stillness and the wide view of the starry sky with the full moon on the horizon. Aj took this time to just think, to clear her head, and to mentally prepare herself for what was to come. Avery’s Perspective Avery woke up groggily, he remembers what happened, but he was definitely not awake enough for this. Getting up, Herbalist Shenna turned to him. "Oh you're awake now as well," Shenna said, "Given that the first one who woke up had a few questions, I assume you have a few too." "Yes, but I should probably talk to the first one that woke up first," Avery replied, "I have a feeling that we all need to talk things out." With that, Avery started out of the tent after the Herbalist gave him his Hearthen Flask and the parting saying of good health. Taking his first step outside the tent, he took in the sight of Pardoner's Vale, a settlement that had the necessities of a scouting outpost, at the bottom of the hill that the Herbalist's tent was on there was a forge, right next to it, there was a table with vials and a star shaped sigil engraved on it. Beyond that was another tent with training dummies in front of it, there was also a table with maps on it, with someone in blue armor looking over it. Heading down the hill, he greeted the blacksmith at the forge. "Hey there Inquisitor! Glad to see Shenna was able to bring another one back to health," he greeted, reaching out to shake hands, "I'm Warpsmith Zakiel, but you can call me Zak. I'll be making equipment out of the materials that you get from Mages." Avery made a mental note to ask about that later, "Alright, nice to meet you." Avery said, shaking Zak's hand "I was wondering if you saw the person who came out of her earlier?" "Yes, she walked right past me, past Champion Hera too. You should probably talk to Hera first." Avery simply nodded, and headed forward. Coming to the person in the blue armor, she raised her hand to greet him, "Greetings Inquisitor, you're Avery right?" She said, "That's right." "I'm Champion Hera, I run things here to the best of my abilities. If you are not going to wait for the rest of the Inquisitors you came here with, I suggest you travel to Ashborne Village. When you do, go down the steps to the west, turn around at the cat, and speak to Runereader Dialidea." She instructed simply, "Actually I wanted to talk to the Inquisitor who came through here earlier, where did they go?" "Oh yes, Applejack the ranger, she went up to the Trifaul Idol." "Got it, thanks." "Hunt Mages Inquisitor, devour their festering hearts." And with that dismissal, the mental note that he took about the equipment was answered, replacing it with the question of what exactly Hera ment by "devour". Walking up the steps, he went forward instead of taking the steps that would lead to the statue, leading him to the stables where Stablehand Bren was taking care of what could be best described as a big reindeer. "Hey Inquisitor, glad to see you alive and breathing." "Hi, who are you?" "Call me Stablehand Bren, I take care of the reindeer here, I'm also the one who managed to get all of you here after your encounter with that huge monster." So they were called reindeer, "Oh, thanks for that." "Oh no problem, I also found something out there, put it in that chest right over there for safekeeping. Go ahead and take it, have a feeling that you'll get more use out of it than I will." Giving him a nod, Avery moved to open the chest. Inside were two black crystals, with a yellow glow. Heading back, he took the steps up his time, coming to a large statue, with Applejack sitting next to it, staring up in the sky. "Hey, you ok?" Avery asked, causing Applejack to jump, "Oh! Oh, hey, yeah I'm not doing exactly great. How about you?" "I'm not doing that well either.” there was an awkward silence, sitting down, Avery showed the black crystals to Aj, "So I found these things, I know it's a bit of a long shot to ask but, do you have any idea what these might be?" Taking a glance at the crystals, Aj picked up one of them and closely inspected it. With an inquisitive look, Aj suddenly felt a resonance in her chest that seemed to connect with the crystal. Taking a chance, she tried crushing it against where the resonance felt the most strong, and it gave way, lifting her nausea, fatigue, and restoring her skin back to normal. This was a small fix to his whole situation, but it still brought Aj some hope. She looked back at Avery, a look of mild surprise on his face. "I'm guessing this was a guiltless shard, and what it does is temporarily take away, well, all of this." Avery looked too the remaining guiltless shard, "Is something on your mind there?" "It's just, should I give this to another person, or should I use it for myself. On one hand, they are going to need it, but they would probably understand why I used it. "Makes sense, seeing firsthand what this does, but I would want to help my friends first." Avery debated with himself, the temptation was strong, but he knew he would feel terrible if he did. But he wanted it, so he did, crushing it in the same way that Aj did. And immediately started thinking over and slightly regretting his decision. Aj simply looked at him, she put her hand on his shoulder, with no words to comfort him, she simply tried distracting him. "So how was your life before this?" Avery replied surprisingly quick, "I was just a few months out of highschool, working as a cashier for walmart. Waiting for an acceptance letter to this trade school I wanted to go to." "What kind of trade school?" "Baking, I wanted my own little bakery where I could make desserts" "Own your own business huh? Hmm, reminds me of my work." "Really, what did you do?" "I have the family farm, not really related to your dream job, but I can't really imagine doing anything else. There's just something about it that I can find relaxing." "Family farm, I can only imagine how long ago that farm was first built. Must have a lot of history." "Eyup, my Granny Smith was there, at the start, even before Ponyville was established." "Wait Granny Smith? Isn't that a type of apple?" "Well yes, well know that I think about it, a whole lot of the Apple family is named after apple types." "Hmm, and Ponyville? I never heard of a place like that." "Haven't heard of Ponyville, well that's a first, where do you come from?" "I'm from the US, there were names of town similar to that, but none like that." "US? I never heard of that either, now where in the world could that be in relation to Equestria?" "I'm starting to think that we could be from two very different places, with all of these names you make it sound like there are a bunch of small horses all over the place." There was a silence as the two stared at each other. "Wait, how common are ponies where you came from?" "Common? Ponies made up a good chunk of the population, I was a pony before I turned into… whatever this is." "How common are humans there?" "I have never heard of a human, and from the way you said that, I'm guessing that's what we are right now." There was a stiff silence, each one mulling over this information. “So how are we going to get through this?” “I don’t know.” “Well I guess one way is forward, because just giving up doesn’t look like it will get us home any faster.” Aj didn’t respond, only a look of confliction was on her face. He knew that moving forward would lead them into more danger, and force them to “devour” whatever these mages were. Why did these mages have to be hunted, how much of a danger is just one of these mages? Would they even be able to take them down? “I just don’t know how my friends would react,” Aj said, “What would they think of me if I went through all of this? I just don’t want to disappoint them, not to have them think of me as some monster.” Avery didn’t want to say what he thought, he knew that it couldn’t be as simple as that. But he couldn’t come up with anything else to say. “Well, it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission right?”