Trinity

by Freescript the Bard


Crossing Thresholds


As the sunlight filtered through the circular windows of Golden Oaks library, it found it’s way across the room to the book Twilight had open on the reading stand. For the two-hundred- seventy-fourth time, her eyes studied the text of the spell with extreme discretion. Then, for the three-hundred fortieth time, she imposed the same studious gaze upon the image of the three swords, the pommels each exactly one-hundred-twenty degrees (two-pi-over-three radians) apart from each other.

Well I couldn’t have just dumped all that energy into nowhere! she grimaced to herself. A spell that powerful has to do something of consequence. And what does this insignia have to do with anything?

Her eyes flicked back to the information about the tomb where the spell was discovered, near the old Everfree Castle ruins. Princess Celestia had warned her against any further study of the castle, as it was more than likely riddled with traces of dark magic or things that should be left forgotten. The latter of the two reasons was vague, and prompted curiosity, but Twilight knew better than to contradict her mentor’s wishes. After all, the castle had been a great battleground in the War of Sun and Moon, and there was no doubt that the ruins held reminders of the deadly conflict.

As she read over the specifics once more, Twilight bit her lip. If Starswirl’s instructions are correct, then the tomb isn’t technically in the castle, Twilight reasoned. The Princess didn’t say anything about being near the castle. Besides, it’s for the sake of research! Closing the book, she made sure Spike was still asleep before quietly packing for her hike through the Everfree Forest.


“I don’t know what I was expecting, but I can tell you one thing...” Cloudlight thought to his companions as they stepped into the open. “It definitely wasn’t this.”

In the soft light of the sunrise, the three stallions stared in disbelief at the spectacle in front of them. A large citadel of a castle rose ominously out of the treeline. Crumbling towers and the skeletons of high stone walls broke the twisted and gnarled trees of the forest two-hundred paces in front of them. Even in it’s shambled state, the structures commanded a grandiose and elegance that seemed impossible. It left the beholders awestruck and speechless.

“Where in the name of Sun and Stars are we?” Cloudlight said, his metaphysical voice breaking the silence between them.

Rowan took a few steps forward. “Whoever built this place was an architectural genius,” the giant pony remarked, marveling at the construction. “A perfect combination of elegance and impregnability.”

“Whoever built this place is also long dead,” reminded Blaze in a cold honesty. The ashen unicorn scraped at the ground impatiently, looking at his two companions. “As marvelous as that glorified fortress is, we still need to decide on a course of action. For as far as we know, we have no food, no idea where we are, and no sense of geographic topography or direction.”

“The castle is directly south of us.” Blaze and Cloudlight looked at Rowan questioningly. The green pony was crouched low to the ground with closed eyes. Across the link, the other two could feel him channeling focus into the earth below. “Magnetic north is the structure we came from, behind us. That, and the sun is rising to our left, which is east.”

“Blaze, it appears we have a living compass in our company,” commented the pegasus.

Rowan stood, a little unsure of himself. When Blaze mentioned direction, he had only wondered which direction north was. Almost immediately, he felt a sort of... connection with the ground below, not unlike the connection he shared with the other two stallions. He had focused on the link, and made an unusual discovery. The ground was giving him information. Beneath his hooves, Rowan sensed the the particles of metal in the soil, and which direction they were polarized.

“While that is impressive, we still have unresolved issues,” Blaze cut in on Rowan’s thoughts. “Issues that need to be resolved sooner than later, if you please.”

“You are such a killjoy.” Cloudlight emphasized by rolling his eyes.

Blaze answered him with a cold stare. While no words were spoken, mentally or otherwise, it was enough for the pegasus to pantomime zipping his mouth shut. “Better. Now, our first priority is shelter, and the castle is the most obvious place. Any other ideas before we move on?”

“I could fly around; scout out the general area,” suggested Cloudlight, fluttering his oversized wings. “That way I can look for any food or water sources. I can even show you what I see through the link, so we can all get a better idea of our surroundings.” As he spoke, the pegasus moved to the center of the clearing and spread his immense white wings to their full span, which was easily longer than two Rowans stacked upon each other.

The two flightless stallions shared a look. “Cloudlight, you woke up in a dark room without even knowing you had wings,” Rowan noted pointedly. “Do you even know how to--”

A blast of air answered Rowan, effectively cutting him off. A single, powerful downstroke of Cloudlight’s massive wings propelled the white pegasus several dozen meters into the air, accelerating to an altitude well above the highest tower of the castle. Cloudlight held his wings horizontal, and began to glide around, hardly even fluttering them to stay aloft. Morning air brushed through his primaries, cooling the hollow shafts of the feathers. Air currents flowed around his aerodynamic form. A light breeze played on his face.

It was bliss. Pure excitement filled his weightless body. This was where he belonged. In the endless sky, the wind embracing him in welcome and the unfiltered sunlight kissing the small of his back between the wings. Freedom; that’s what the sky was to him. No constraints, no cares, no responsibility. Just him and the glorious infinity...

“CLOUDLIGHT!!!”

“AAH!” Cloudlight flinched as Rowan’s voice screamed at him, pounding against his forehead. The earth pony’s mind was powerful; almost impossibly so. His head reeled at the mental concussion that a simple thought had delivered to his head. “Are you TRYING to make me crash?!”

Blaze gave him a glare across the link. “How about this: instead of flying around in circles like an inebriated fool, you pay attention to the task at hoof. We don’t need your fantasies of acrophilia; we need information.”

Cloudlight grumbled to himself, whispering disdain toward his unicorn friend. From his vantage point, the pegasus looked around the open sky. The castle was no less wondrous from above, it’s spires reaching for the clouds that he sailed over. The surrounding area, however, was a less-spectacular forest of twisted trees that spanned for dozens of miles in every direction. Far in the distance, mountains dotted the horizon, along with a large cluster of peaks to the northwest. Anything past the southernmost end of the peaks was shrouded in fog. I hope there isn’t anything we needed over there, he thought to himself.

With a thought, Cloudlight relayed everything he saw to Rowan and Blaze, who had begun moving to the castle. “You want me to stay up here and keep an eye out? We don’t really know what’s out here. There could be perilous things in the woods.”

“You just want to keep flying, don’t you?” retorted Blaze.

“Wow. You know me too well.”


Emerging from the dense fog that shrouded Ponyville, Twilight came face-to face with the Everfree Forest. Looking behind her, she found her hindquarters comically veiled by the wall of condensation. Normally, the fog wouldn’t abruptly end at a boundary like that; the pegasus weather team would have made it thinner at the fringe. But as any citizen of Ponyville would know, the Everfree Forest was not normal. Weather from within the wild climate didn’t behave as it should.

Twilight shuddered at the thought of a lightning storm created from nothing but warmed air colliding with cooler air, and moving on it’s own accord. It was terrifying to think about.

Steeling herself, she faced the dark and twisted treeline. “I can do this,” she assured herself, taking a few slow strides toward the small break in the trees, which held the foliage-strangled path to the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. “I can do this.” Her form became enveloped by the shadows of the trees, and she silently wished that she had Pinkie Pie’s boundless happiness to help her through the horrific twisted branches.


“Wait a second... Blaze, did you see this?” Rowan asked, stopping in his tracks where the trees ended, a few meters from the wall, and peered suspiciously at the ground in front of him. The green earth pony kept the linked speech between Blaze and himself, so as not to distract the pegasus above.

The ashen unicorn stopped with him, following the green pony’s gaze downward. “Well, that certainly is disconcerting.”

Four meters from the wall, where the forest had been seemingly removed, there was an odd boundary in the flora. While the forest and undergrowth behind them was mostly greens and browns, the mossy grass between the forest and the castle was colored teal or deep purple, and grew in clumps from a sickly-gray topsoil. Experimentally, Blaze put his hoof across the divide into the discolored ground. It felt cold, like stone, but the sensation of his ashen coat on the plants was strange, and made the hairs on the back of his neck prickle.

There’s something... off about this place, Blaze thought to himself. He brushed his hoof through the plants, trying to make heads or tails of the feeling. Something deep... and very old.

Rowan watched as the unicorn’s hoof moved through the blades. His concerns didn’t match the unicorn’s, but was still wary of the phenomena. Cautiously, he took a few steps into the unusual terrascape. The ground beneath him felt dry and lifeless, but there seemed to be no lasting consequences of touching the plants or soil.

“I think it’s safe,” he said to Blaze. “Unnatural-looking and eerie, but harmless nonetheless.

The ashen unicorn looked at him with his usual expression of impassiveness that Rowan almost interpreted as worry, but couldn’t be sure. Blaze was veiling his emotions. “Look at us,” Blaze scoffed suddenly at himself and Rowan, looking down at the ground condescendingly. “Fearful of obviously diseased plants. Some stallions we are” Narrowing his eyes, he stormed past Rowan toward the wall.