My Little Caboose II: Friendship is Fragmented!

by DarkWing


Chapter 4 - "What is Undone"

Celestia called in one of the guards and told him to thank the chef for her. The guard nodded and left the room to obey his highness. Getting off their chairs, Celestia and Luna made their way towards the door. Church followed them, and soon he found himself being led through the halls. Eventually, they reached another large set of doors, but this one had a large sun symbol made out of gold split in two on either side of the door. But something was missing. Nobody seemed to be protecting it.

"My room," Celestia said simply as she opened the door.

Before Church could take in his surrounding, Celestia and Luna were already on the other end of the room, standing next to a wall. Celestia's horn glowed faintly and part of the wall slid into the ground, revealing a passageway that led to a staircase.

"Why no guards?" Church asked, not bothering to ask about the wall..

"I asked that they not be present here," she said simply as she entered. "If they saw you coming out of this room without me, they could punish you for trespassing."

"You're not coming?"

"No, I am afraid we must part ways here," Celestia said simply, staring down the steps with a watchful eye. "We're not sure how long this could take, and having two of us being gone for even a few hours could have terrible consequences. Luna, you know what to do."

"Yes, sister," Luna replied with a small nod, then opened the door. "Come, Church. We must try to make this a brief visit. I do not wish to spend much time down here."

"Yeah, because I have a lot to look forward to," he snorted, walking down the stairs ahead of her. "I totally want to be torn apart emotionally. It's probably on my list of favorite things to do, actually. Maybe even number one. I want to be torn apart mentally so much that-"

"I could do without the sarcasm, Church," she grumbled, following him down the staircase as she closed the door, engulfing them in pure darkness.

"Yeah, well, I'm afraid that you're just going to have to put up with it," he grunted as a few torches with blue fire lit up the steps. "It's how I deal with stressful situations."

"And risking my own sanity to protect yours isn't stressful?" she asked.

"Hey, I'm perfectly fine with going back into society as is. It's you and your sister that want me to do this," he muttered.

"You know, I could just as easily banish you," she said. "In fact, it would probably be easier on myself."

"Yeah, but you're a princess. You act proper, and getting rid of me isn't the right way to handle things."

"It would be if I happened to find out that Discord was in your mind," she said with an odd mixture of sincerity and humor. "Disappointing, too. I did rather think you were a nice stallion. And to think, I was just starting to grow fond of you."

"You wouldn't," he said after a pause, realizing what she meant.

"Do you really wish to test me on that matter?" the princess asked, lifting a brow as he turned to look at her.

"Shutting up," he said, not wanting to push his luck any further.

"I knew I was right to like you, Church," she chuckled.

After three more minutes of climbing down the steps, they came to the landing where a large iron door blocked the way. The door had several inscriptions on it, each one glowing a different color, and Church felt waves of heat coming off of it. He also noticed that there was a hole with the sun and the moon on either side of it. Before he could ask, Luna walked ahead of him and her horn faintly glowed. She then lowered it and put it into the hole, and then the symbol of the moon pulsated brightly three times. The door opened, revealing a long hallway, seemingly miles long, with dozens of doors lining it.

"Security measures," she said quietly. "Only my sister and myself may enter. My sister put them in place while she commanded the Elements of Harmony, so not even they can enter."

"What's down here that needs to be protected so bad?" he asked curiously.

"Unspeakable things," she replied. "Come, the door we must enter is nearby."

"Hey, if this place is filled with things you don't want anybody touching, why didn't you put the Necronomicon here in the first place?"

"When the Necronomicon is being used by a unicorn who knows what they're doing, he is a mild inconvenience at best when compared to what lies within this hall," she said hollowly. But there was a certain air to her voice.

Church recognized it as fear.

"In here," she said as she approached a seemingly random door.

When she opened it, Church instantly saw that the room was circular. Carvings ran along the wall and ceiling, glowing the same way that the door did. The floor, however, was extremely smooth, baring a single carving of various circles in the middle of the room. And in front of the circle was a podium with a familiar looking book resting on it.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Angry McAngerson," the Necronomicon chuckled, eyes glowing their usual blazing red. "Good to see you got the bird poop washed off of you. You here for the procedure?"

"I think that's pretty clear to see," Church grunted as he followed Luna inside. "Then again, you are an idiot and a book, so I guess it would be pretty hard for you to see, what with having no working eyes and all."

"Ouch. Playing the old 'you're just a book' card. How much lower could you go?" the book asked.

"Much," he replied.

"Ah. You see, I'd challenge you to a battle of wits, but I'm afraid that I don't want to fight an unequipped opponent, so I'll just say it's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back," he nodded uncertainly, then looked to the symbol that was in the middle of the room. "So what do I do now? Just step into the circle?"

"Yes. Once you are there, make sure you are standing in the middle," Luna confirmed, stepping next to the stone scripture stand.

"Okay," he said as he walked into the circle. "How long should this take?"

"I'm not sure," she admitted.

"Wait, who read the book to bring me back?" he asked, looking to Luna. "I thought that whoever read the Necronomicon became crazy."

"Normally that would be so, but my sister found a spell that protects a readers mind from him, so we used it on myself so I could read the Necronomicon to free you," she explained quietly, using her magic to bring the Necronomicon in front of her. "Though it still is unhealthy to read him, and the spell wouldn't last long for even the strongest of magic users. It took both Celestia's powers as well as my own to make it strong enough to protect me for both last night and today."

"All this just to talk to Discord?" he asked.

"It's much more than just talking," she said before taking a deep, focused breath. "Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," the Necronomicon chuckled. "Careful with my pages, though. I'm ticklish."

"Church?" Luna asked, looking to the alicorn who stood nervously in the middle of the circle.

Church clenched his teeth together and gave a single nod. Luna returned his nod and instantly her horn began to glow even further, lighting the area around her. Her eyes lost their color and began to glow white, unnerving Church. The Necronomicon then opened and it began to chuckle as Luna manipulated his pages, turning them a dozen at a time. Some of the books surrounding Luna began to float in the air and diverged towards Church, slowly circling him like. Luna opened her mouth and began to mutter some words. As she did so, dark tendrils began coming out of her mouth, as well as the Necronomicon's pages.

"I'm not so sure if I want to do this anymore," Church grunted as the tendrils wrapped around each other and began making their way to Church, closing his eyes, still not moving. "Maybe relocation or banishment wouldn't be so bad. I've done it before. I mean, I could still send letters and-"

Church was cut short as the dark blue tendrils wrapped around Church's head and seemingly went into his ears, nose and mouth. Church's eyes burst open as he felt an immediate and painful presence in his mind. He opened his mouth to tell her to stop, but the only thing that came out was a silent wheeze. His mind felt as if a sledgehammer slammed several railroad spikes into every inch of his head, and then began pulling them in separate directions, tearing his brain apart. He wanted to run, but he no longer had control of his body, so he simply stood, wanting to topple like a tower of cards as he felt himself being ripped into pieces.