Chapter 46: Time Passing Pt.2
Falling Star Pov:
For a bit I forgot where I was, I was nice and warm, my aches and pains were gone and I was dreaming a great dream. I still felt a bit sick but at the time it felt like I was back home with mama. My mind was floating in that weird place between sleep and being awake, I was so warm and comfortable that I started to fall back asleep. I was quickly roused again by the voice of somepony familiar, my eyes were still blurry so all I saw was the familiar black mane of my mama. I pushed myself awake and was about to tell my mama ‘morning only to freeze as I remembered everything.
“Wake up Falling, we’re about to head out” It was the hero, Arcane Hope. Before I could open my eyes fully I felt the layer of soft warmth I was under peel itself away. The sudden change made me wake up faster, it was the Thunder lion cub that followed Arcane Hope. I could remember stories about this creature that my Nanna would tell me about, back when she was a traveling performer and adventurer. With the fog of sleep gone I quickly remembered everything I said to him and how I asked for him to take me with him to face the captured monster. The spike of cold fear running down my back at the thought of it almost made me rethink going with Arcane. I shook myself and hurried to the bathroom to get ready, I wouldn’t be in any danger. I would be surrounded by other heroes like Arcane Hope, that was their whole reason for coming out here right?
After a quick wash I had some time to say hello to Arcane’s friends. Rose Point is very kind and asked a lot of questions about my injuries to make sure I was healing okay. Nimbus always had a big smile on his face, he reminded me of one of my great uncles. Arcane’s firebird said hello again as well with a warm feathery hug before taking to the skies again. I felt my hooves leave the ground as Arcane’s silver magic surrounded me and gently lifted me from the ground and back onto his fluffy lion. I sent him a questioning look and was about to tell him that I felt okay to walk but stopped when I saw the look on his face, it was the same concerned look my mama would send me whenever I got hurt playing.
I had resigned myself to being carried by the time everypony started to make their way out of the house. It was close to impossible to feel uncomfortable while on the back of the Thunder lion so it was difficult to find any sort of objections to being carried. We stepped out into the light and my eyes went wide, compared to all the villages and small towns I had visited while with the monster none of them compared to the size of the castle that spread out in front of me. My eyes were flicking back and forth taking in every detail of the Fallen Capital, it was just as amazing as my Nana said. There were ruins everywhere and made me wonder what this place looked like in its prime.
The sound of wings flapping pulled my attention to above as I got my first look at Arcane’s sister tribes. Griffons of many different types and sizes flew through the air, some even carrying creatures that I have never seen before. My mind immediately went back to my Nana’s stories in an effort to identify them but I could never get a clear look at the odd creatures. I was ecstatic, this was what I was expecting when I left home. Sure, there were a few pits in the road but now it starts… soon I'll begin my real training under the best hero around! He’ll teach me about the world, He’ll teach me how to fight, maybe he’ll even teach me about magic! My mind was filled with daydreams about the future, a picture of an older fit version of me wearing a similar outfit to Arcane. Swirls of fire magic coming from my hooves- or-or maybe he could teach me to be a sword stallion like Nimbus. The daydream quickly changed to the image of a knight wearing magical armor and carrying a flaming sword. Oh! What if he instead- my daydream was interrupted by the everypony suddenly stopping, I shook myself out of my head and looked around to what had stopped us.
We were in what looked like a town square and it was filled with a bunch of different creatures, griffins, odd black ponies, and those bipedal creatures that I could remember the name of. We were standing at the end of the large road leading up the massive castle and the crowd naturally parted around us and gave us a view of what was capturing their attention. Sitting in the middle of the plaza was another group of ponies except… one of the ponies was… different. I could see through him like he was a ghost. Next to the ghostly stallion was a mare, her mane was a long dark purple which almost looked black when compared to her gray coat. While I watched her she flipped her mane out of her eyes and I saw that she was a unicorn and… was also missing an eye. The two other earth ponies with her looked extremely normal compared to the other two but what still caught my eye was that they were both injured in some way.
Despite how interesting the first group looked, they weren’t what captured everyone’s attention. Up the road towards the massive castle and heading towards us, almost directly opposite our group was only what I could describe as a royal procession like out of story books. Thestrals… the name whispered into my mind from one of the few stories my father told me before he left. There were six armored thestrals escorting three other unarmed thestrals, the nine ponies entered the plaza and I watched the guards spread out and take posts around the edge of the crowd. Two of the unarmored thestral stallions stopped to speak to the one eyed unicorn mare and her ghost friend while the last Thestral mare kept walking towards us. She was wearing what I could only call a battle dress. It was a black dress with dark green accents, there were gray plates of armor on her chest and back and a few free flowing scales flowing on the bottom near her back hooves. Her wings stuck out the back of her dress and even those were decorated with silver chains.
I felt the lion tense up underneath me, I looked down in surprise as I started to hear a low rumbling growl start to emanate from the lion. My head flicked over to Arcane and I saw the last thing I would ever expect, fear. So many conflicting emotions were shown in Arcane’s eyes but chief among them were fear, his whole body was tense and I could feel his magic start to tingle in the air. I could feel it starting to weave around the four of us almost protectively, it felt just like… who is she? What did she do to make someone like Arcane Hope so afraid!?
“It’s so nice to see you again dear… “ Her voice was smooth with an almost amused lilt to it, her voice sounded like the most inviting of poisons and it made both my hair and magic stand in alert. She was bad, something about her immediately let me know that I should stay away from her, out of the corner of my eye I saw Arcane Hope go wide eyed. I felt Arcane’s magical hold on us grow to a deathgrip and out of pure reflex I blinked… and then we were somewhere else. We were inside, the crowd was gone, that scary mare was gone, and… there was a dragon staring down at us. My eyes stayed locked onto the large predator but I could hear the now frantic breath of Arcane Hope start to slowly level off as Rose and Nimbus helped him calm down. My heart was breathing so fast, faster than I’ve ever felt it go before. The dragon seemed to notice my fearful stare and… frowned? The fire breath dragon slowly lowered his head down to my level and opened his mouth. It's going to eat me, that’s it, I'm going to die.
“Hey, there’s no need to be scared, we’re all friends here” The voice of the dragon, however softly spoken, still made my whole body vibrate from how deep it was. His words took a moment to get though my fear but when they did they made me peek my eyes open. The dragon was laying on the ground, more like relaxing actually. His whole massive body was completely relaxed with his head laying down right in front of me. I watched as he slowly slid a claw over to me and almost offered it. I slowly reached out a hoof and bumped it against the claw, I flinched slightly when a soft ‘Boosh’ came from the dragon’s maw, I couldn’t help the giggle that came out of my mouth. Today has just been a day of many different emotions, I felt the lion underneath me chuff from the interaction with the dragon. I heard movement behind me and turned to see that Rose Point and Nimbus had separated from a now calm Arcane Hope who had begun to pull things out of his bag. His hoof was still shaking slightly… I slowly slipped myself off of the lion and trotted over to Arcane’s side. I waited for him to notice me first before I gave him a hug. He stiffened at first before relaxing and returning the hug, I could feel the small tremors slowly subside after a minute. I released the hug and didn’t ask any questions about what happened, I knew exactly what to do when something like this happens. I leaned forward and pointed at the dark mirror and asked what that was for. Arcane looked at me quietly for a moment before realizing what I was doing, a soft smile grew on his face before he lifted a hoof and started to gently pet my mane.
“Thanks kid…” I giggled at his words.
“I’m not a goat, I'm a pony!” His laughter made the room a little brighter.
It’s been about two hours since Arcane Hope had (as he explained it) teleported us up into the castle in an effort to get away from that bad mare. No one asked any questions as to why he did that or his connection to the mare, we all focused on what we were doing next and everything has almost gone back to normal. Arcane Hope had explained it to me once before but had done it again to make sure I understood what we were doing. That there was apparently something wrong with the monster other than him being a monster and Arcane needed to find out what it was so he could make sure it didn’t happen to anyone else. I could tell Arcane didn’t like the idea of not getting rid of the monster, whenever he thought I wasn’t watching he would scowl and his magic would start to buzz through the air like a cloud of angry bees. It reminded me of the times when my mama would want to swear but I was in the room so she would make herself stay quiet, to ‘be a good influence on me’ she had said to one of the neighbors once. I felt bad that Arcane was trying so hard to be a better pony for me, even sparing the life of a monster… maybe I should try harder as well. I won’t forgive him… but I won’t fall to his level, like Arcane said ‘We have to be better’
Arcane had laid out a bunch of stone slabs with weird symbols carved into them and sat down the dark mirror and a glass bottle in front of him. Then he turned to me and ask me if I wanted to go sit by Mr. Spike while Arcane’s friends brought out the monster. I wanted to puff out my chest and say I wasn’t scared but… I remembered what had happened earlier. It’s okay if heroes feel scared, they’re just as much ponies as everypony else. I hesitantly nodded and trotted back to where Mr.Spike was curled up. Arcane's lion has since disappeared into his lantern and I was starting to miss its fluffy fur. To be completely honest, I was terrified. I never wanted to see that monster of the rest of my life… but at the same time I wanted to see this through. Coral gave his life to get me to Arcane and I want to honor his memory by being brave.
The sound of muffled yelling and thrashing came from a nearby hallway, I felt my heart beat faster and faster until I saw him, The monster Sterling Flare. He… was not how I remembered him. In my head he was this unstoppable evil pony that spread lies and destruction wherever he went, but what Rose Point carried in was… not that. He was encased from the neck down in solid stone, I could see a few bruises peeking out from the neck line. He was muzzled by solid ice but he still tried to scream and yell at Rose Point as she levitated him down towards Arcane Hope. His head wasn’t much better, his mane had lost its metallic sheen, and he looked gaunt and sickly as if he hadn't eaten for weeks. I accidentally locked eyes with the monster and realized that my mind had gotten one thing right, his eyes were full of a hate so deep that they could paralyze you at a glance. Except… they didn’t do anything to me, the cold hate I could feel emanating from him couldn’t reach me. The buzzing magic in the air acted like a shield for me, protecting me. So I glared right back, the monster’s furious flailing froze for a moment as my return glare was the last thing they expected.
The Rose Point sent me a proud smile while she passed with the stunned monster in tow, I felt proud of myself as well. I stared my fear in the eyes and made it blink first, this was my first step to growing stronger. I watched from a distance as Rose Point sat the monster in the center of the circle then backed away. I couldn’t hear what Arcane Hope was saying to the monster but I saw what happened next. A silver dome appeared and surrounded the monster then the stone fell away leaving the monster’s bruised and burned body to bare. The black mirror rose then the symbol began to glow, The monster flinched then began to convulse as a soft purple glow began to cover his body. Something flashed then the glass bottle rose into the air, a dark purple energy started to flow away from the monster's convulsing body and into the bottle. This went on for a few minutes of draining that strange energy from the monster before the purple glow started to subside. A stopper was quickly put into the bottle and a now exhausted monster fell to the floor with the remains of his restraints. The barrier dropped and a slightly tired Arcane Hope approached the monster. I leaned forward to try and hear what he said but was stopped by Mr.Spike’s tail curling around in front of me blocking my view. I jumped up onto his tail and crawled up and caught the tail end of Arcanes words.
“... -this is not a threat, this is not a promise, this is a fact! Do you understand me… Sterling Flare” The monster was back up on his hooves though not willingly, he was being suspended in the air by glowing purple chains that secured him in place. The monster frantically nodded at Arcane Hope and I watched the chains not disappear but sink into the skin of the monster. I watched as black brands burned themselves into the hooves of the monster, brands in the shape of chains. My attention was pulled away by the feeling of my magic flaring up again, I whipped my head around and almost fell off of Mr. Spike’s tail when I spotted them. It was that Thestral mare again along with a few others standing in the doorway, she was looking at Arcane Hope and she was smiling in a way I really didn’t like. She looked… obsessed.