//------------------------------// // Chapter VI - Confrontation // Story: Lost // by Mr101 //------------------------------// Lost Chapter VI – Confrontation Twilight paced about the library, she had waited and waited for the Princess to send her reply to her late night letter. Spike had been up as well for the most part trying his best not to pass out from tiredness, he didn’t really have a choice, given he would have been woken up by the coming of Celestia’s reply. She paced in the library her expression never changing from one of worry, Spike yawned and scratched his back before belching suddenly as a scroll shot out of his mouth in a ball of green fire. Almost instantaneously, Twilight caught the scroll with her magic and immediately began to read it. Spike mumbled to himself as he headed back to bed as Twilight’s eyes furiously scanned the scrolls contents as she read it aloud. “My faithful student, it seems you’re still upset about Fluttershy, the nightmare you describe does…worry me somewhat and you hearing this explosion where others did not also raises my concerns for you. As such, I wish to speak with you as soon as possible.” Twilight grumbled at the scroll before throwing it to one side. “I DID hear an explosion…” She sighed and slowly crept back upstairs to her bed and closed her eyes trying to fall asleep, tomorrow would be a busy day for her. ----------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- “Well this is new…” Grendel said aloud. He was standing in what appeared to be an empty void; he looked around trying to see anyone else there with him but to no avail. He took a few steps forwards to see if the realm he was in had an exit, each footstep echoing like he was in a hallway. He stopped as a figure in pure white robes stood before him its face hidden from view; Grendel raised his hands up cautiously ready to use a spell at a moment’s notice. The creature however raised its arm up and he felt a sense of serenity wash over him. “Relax child…I bear you no ill.” Its voice was heavenly; Grendel couldn’t tell if it belonged to a woman or a man. “Where am I?” “You are in the Void.” ‘Ok that didn’t help’ He thought to himself with a sigh. He was about to ask another question but was silenced by another motion of the creatures hand, again feeling an overwhelming sense of serenity. “Do not ask why my child…simply embrace us and all will be answered.” The creature raised both its arms up to him waiting for Grendel to come and embrace it, cautiously he began to approach him before he stopped, a flash back appearing in his mind. ‘HOLD ON!’ He felt the air scream past him as he fell over the waterfall, clutching the terrified Pegasus in his grasp. He saw at the bottom several rocks and began to franticly whisper a protection spell over the two, he realised however he didn’t have enough time to cover them both properly so at the last minute he… “I’m dead….aren’t I?” The creature lowered its arms and let out a soft sigh before nodding under his hood. “Yes and no my child, you are having what you would call, a near death experience. You are only dead if you choose to be…” “What do you mean if I choose to be? I want to be bloody alive!” “Yes most mortals do child but…you have lived a long life and seen many dark things, surely you would wish to be free of this?” Grendel pondered the creatures question, it was true he had lived a very long life and had enjoyed it for the most part. He had also seen many things that would have turned a normal man insane and he had grown so tired of conflict and war that had happened in his life time, but there was one thing that was holding him back, one thing he was determined to see through no matter what the cost. He smiled to himself as he took a step back. “I thank you for your offer spirit of the Void…one day I will return here and accept it but…there is something that I must do, something I have sworn to do.” The sprit made no movement but Grendel could sense it was smiling at him from under its hood. “Very well my child, I shall return you to the mortal realm. We shall see each other again very soon.” “Wait what do you mean very soon?” His question went unanswered as he blacked out and slumped to his side, he slowly opened his eyes again his vision blurred, and he tried to focus and groaned softly feeling a sharp pain in his back and limbs. He could hear sobbing next to him, he sucked in a hiss of air as he painfully lifted his body to prop on his elbows and saw Fluttershy curled up by his body crying her eyes out. “Miss Fluttershy? What’s wrong?” He said in a gentle voice. Fluttershy stopped crying and her head shot up, she had a couple of cuts on her cheeks from Raven’s blade and tears stained her face, the two stared at each other for a moment neither saying a word before Fluttershy lunged into his chest clinging to him tightly and began to cry again. “I-I thought you w-were dead Mister G-Grendel!” she said between sobs. Grendel embraced her tightly fighting back the pain of moving as he stroked her mane softly, he let her cry into him as he gritted his teeth. He couldn’t help feel disgusted with himself, it was his fault any of this had happened, it was his fault she had been hurt and it was his fault she had nearly witnessed a sentient beings death. For the first time in many years, Grendel let trickles of tears fall from his face and he clung tighter to her crying softly. “I’m so sorry Miss Fluttershy…I’m so sorry…” Fluttershy heard him crying softly and looked at him. “F-for what?” “For everything…everything you’ve had to suffer is my fault.” he said choking back his tears. Fluttershy tilted her head at him sniffling; he expected her to smack him and agree with him and closed his eyes turning his face away from her. Instead he felt her nuzzle his neck and wrap her hooves around it. “I forgive you…” Grendel was taken aback, how in the hell could she say that so easily to him? He stumbled in his mind trying to find words to say in response to her. “Why?” was all he muster. “Because…you are trying to right the mistakes you made, you have gone out of your way to help somepony you don’t even know and risked your life for but most importantly…” She looked into his old eyes with her blue eyes and smiled softly as tears formed at the corner of her eyes once more. “You’re my friend, friends forgive each other…” Grendel smiled as he tightly pulled her into a loving embrace, he cried softly into her mane as she smiled rubbing his back tears silently falling down her cheek. ----------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- Twilight briskly walked through the hallways of the palace, she had decided to come alone and left Spike in charge of the library, she knew that the girls would have wanted to come along but she had to do this alone. She wasn’t entirely sure what the Princess was going to say to her, regarding her concerns but she very certain about what she wanted to tell the Princess, she was almost one hundred percent sure she had heard the explosion. Passing by two guards who stood to attention as she walked by, she pushed open the doors to the throne room and gazed up to see both the Princesses sitting there waiting. “Greetings my faithful student.” Celestia spoke as Twilight gave a bow to them. “Hello Princess, how are you?” “We are fine my dear Twilight, however, we are both worried about you.” Luna nodded her head to the two guards that were in the room with them; they bowed and left the room leaving the three alone. “I’m fine Princess, really I am.” Twilight insisted. “We know you are.” Luna added. “But why in your letter did you make it seem I was imagining things? I did hear the explosion I swear!” Twilight was silenced as Celestia rose her hoof up at her silencing her. “We know you did…we heard it as well.” Twilight blinked as she tried to formulate a sentence, she was again silenced by Celestia who raise her hoof and continued. “You are wondering why nopony else heard it.” “W-well yes Princess and I-“ “Are having conflicting thoughts on what I told you because of your nightmares?” Celestia interrupted. “How did you…” Celestia looked to her sister and frowned with a sigh; Luna turned to Twilight and walked over and placed a hoof on her. “Twilight…please understand that my sister did not want to worry you or your friends.” Twilight’s eyes slowly widened as she slowly looked back to Celestia, Celestia turned slowly to meet her gaze with a saddened expression. “You…lied to me?” Twilight started. Celestia sighed and came over to the other two pulling Twilight into a tight embrace, Twilight however pushed her away angrily looking up at her. “Why would you do that? Is Fluttershy dead? How could you!” Twilight pushed her away her eyes filling with tears. “Shh Twilight…hear me out.” Celestia said calmly pulling Twilight back into a hug. “What I said about Fluttershy being alright is true; however there is something I didn’t tell you for fear that you would become even more distressed.” Twilight didn’t say a word but allowed her teacher to continue. “Something is following them; I’m not sure what but its evil.” Celestia began to tell Twilight what she had seen the day she and her friends had come to visit the Princess, Twilight remained silent nodding her head slowly, Celestia went on to explain how if she had told them what she had seen, they would of become more distressed and could of gone after Fluttershy endangering their lives. “Do you see why I didn’t tell you Twilight?” “I do Princess, I’m sorry for snapping at you…” Twilight received a gently nuzzle from Celestia who smiled at her. “I understand Twilight.” “That doesn’t explain how only I heard the explosion…” “Well Twilight, your magic is different compared to other Unicorns this you know.” “Which means your ability to sense other types of magic is greater.” Luna added “The explosion you heard was caused by magic.” “And because it was a magical explosion, only those with a heightened sense of ability such as my sister, me and you could hear it. To anypony else it wouldn’t of made a sound.” Twilight nodded and turned her head to look out the window. “Something still troubles you Twilight?” “If this…thing… is evil, why haven’t you done anything about it Princess?” Celestia walked up beside Twilight and sighed. “As much as I would like to Twilight, the creature knows I am aware of it and has been blocking out its energy, as well as Fluttershy and her companions. I can’t sense them, and I can’t risk sending the Royal Guards into the forest blindly.” “Then how do you know she’s ok?” Celestia nuzzled her. “Because my heart says so, what does yours say Twilight?” Twilight looked to the forest out of the window and scanned it; she let her mind drift to her inner conflicting thoughts before a small smile formed on her face. She turned to Celestia and nuzzled her back. “She’s going to be ok…” ----------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- Grendel rested against a rock with Fluttershy tucked under one of his arms, a roaring fire beside them as they overlooked the river on the indent of land they had washed up on. “So…what happened? My memories a bit hazy...” Grendel said as he threw another stick onto the fire. “W-well when we…”Fluttershy began but whimpered at the memory. “Fell…over the waterfall, y-you put something a-around us…” “A barrier of protection…” Grendel finished nodding as he remembered. “T-then I heard a crack a-as you…you…” she whimpered again “crashed into a rock with your back…” Grendel nodded as he looked into the fire thoughtfully. “You t-then gripped tighter t-to me and we washed up here…you didn’t let go till we stopped m-moving, you weren’t moving so I p-pulled you out and saw you weren’t breathing and…and…” Fluttershy continued before her eyes began to water up again. Grendel hugged her as she sniffled stroking her mane. “That was my fault…I couldn’t cast the spell over both of us in time so it was only half working on me. Explains why my back feels like it’s gone twenty rounds with a war hammer.” He winced as he moved his leg so he could scratch it; he had inspected his injuries earlier and noted he had badly hurt his back which he now knew was from colliding into a rock. He also had bruising to his upper and lower body and a couple of fractures to his ribs and left arm, the damage was minimal to what he originally thought and was relived Fluttershy had remained unhurt from the fall. “So what do we do now Mister Grendel…?” Fluttershy asked him as she scooted closer. “Well…it’s still dark” Grendel looked up at the still “But I estimate it will be morning soon, and we need to find out how far away we are now from Ponyville. So in the meantime, you get some rest and we’ll head out in a couple of hours.” “What about you Mister Grendel?” “Me?” “You haven’t slept since we met…aren’t you tired?” Grendel chuckled and gave her mane a gentle stroke. “I’m used to it, now get some rest.” She nodded and laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes, Grendel whispered once more casting a protection spell over her dreams before pulling out his pipe from the air again. He checked his pouch for his tobacco with his free hand and sighed. “Run out of Thistlesung leaf….bugger.” He chuckled as he pocketed his pipe in the pouch and stroked Fluttershy’s mane softly as he watched the fire crackle.