//------------------------------// // The White Tree // Story: Macintosh of Arabia // by Crisis_Vyper //------------------------------// As they were crossing through a particularly difficult terrain to navigate, the monotony of their journey was broken when Zephyr gave a very loud whistle and soon enough everyone are now looking at Vinyl. To be exact, they were looking at the arrow-spell that is floating above her head as if it was Princess Celestia herself. "So.......what is going on guys?" Vinyl asked everyone else. "Well Vinyl, I guess it is trying to say that 'X' marks the spot." Nurse Redheart points out, but with great reluctance. Indeed, except for Vinyl everyone could see that the arrow is now pointing downwards towards the ground. This would ordinarily be good news, but the problem is that they are now at the edge of a cliff and below them is a whole lot of jagged rocks down a particularly deep ravine. "Anyone got any rope?" Big Macintosh ask a question that he knows the answer to. Sure enough, the others shake their head, and Big Macintosh wonders why did he ask that question in the first place. This will be a rather perilous journey down to their unknown destination, or so the red farmpony thought. the answer to their dilemma comes from the unlikeliest member of their group. "Zephyr can just levitate everyone down, right Zephyr?" Fatimah said, and then she starts to speak in Saddle Arabian to the ethereal being. Before long, Zephyr replies in its trademark speech pattern and the farmpony still wished that the elemental could just speak Equestrian to make life easier for everyone.. "Well, I guess Zephyr says yes." Vinyl translates. The figure in the tattered robes watches as the individuals in the group are being levitated one by one inn a gust of wind and slowly descends down the cliff. The being is not even fazed by apparently magical method of their travel, but instead descends down to follow its quarry. As they descended down towards the darkness, their lives are now under the sole control of the elemental, and any wrong step by the elemental will lead to their untimely deaths. At the same time they are also relieved that Zephyr's skills is such that they are still alive, and the weird apparition's glow is so bright that it lights up a certain amount of darkness surrounding them. None feels the particular maelstrom of emotions and thoughts than Vinyl herself. All of this arose from her particularly odd dreams, and their significance to this turn of events is too great to be called coincidences. Is this stupid arrow leading her towards the Lumenize? Or is it leading her towards some other weird nonsense? Why is Lily Petal appearing before here, and what the heck is she babbling about? Before she could let her thoughts go astray, a voice snaps Vinyl back to the fabrics of reality. "Hey, I know this may sound very odd, but is it me or the arrow is now pointing at the canyon's walls?" Nurse Redheart is pointing towards the weird arrow. Big Macintosh, Amanar and Fatimah eyes are now upon the weird apparition, the arrow now glowing brightly than ever before at the facing of the canyon. "Now what?" Amanar said, but then realized that when Equestrians are present things get a little messy. "Ah'mm gonna do what Ah'm good at. Tell Zephyr to bring me closer." Realizing what is about to happen, Vinyl immediately whistled like there is no tomorrow, and soon enough, Zephyr is bringing the rest of the group away as it brought the red stallion closer to the cliff. With a little help, Big Macintosh's hidlegs are now facing the rock exposure. Big Macintosh had done this a million times with apples, and once with a Rhinoceros, but this time even he is pushing the limits of what an Apple could do. The farmpony breathed in deeply and exhaled all the air from his lungs, and this he did a few times. As he reached into his happy place of sorts, he could feel a mental image entering into his mind; a little green apple descending down the void of his mind. As the apple floats down his mind, Big Macintosh opens his eyes and soon enough the apple shatters in a bright light. Without a moment's hesitation, the stallion bucked as hard as he could. A few moments later....... "Dayum Big Mac, I never seen you bucked that hard before! I never knew that I would see the day where a move from a fighting game would just pop before my eyes!!!!!" Vinyl's excitement is not lost on the others for they have just witnessed a single pony breaking a hole into a cliff with a single buck. Although the unicorn mare was disappointed that the mysterious magical directional arrow is still floating above her head, but for now Big Macintosh's bucking distracted her from said apparition. Nurse Redheart could only wonder what on earth the Apple Family eat to have such ridiculous strength running down their family. The pink-maned pony however is more preoccupied with the current structure that they are currently in. The mysterious pathway appears to be equine-made, as she could see several support pillars made out of stone supporting the tunnel. The walls of the pathway is polished to an unnatural smoothness, with several weird inscriptions carved into the walls.The language upon it appears to be a rather archaic version of Saddle Arabic, and the meaning of some of the words are entirely lost on the educated scholar. "I know some words, but some are entirely lost upon me. Amanar do you know what this is all about?" The camel warrior looks upon the writing and reads intently for a while before he turns his attention on the pink-maned mare. "This story of founding of Saddle Arabia. Very old story of Saddle Arabia. Emir Asar unite Saddle Arabia, and his line rules for time till one down the line, name Ibrahah struck with madness. Kill Emir Khalid, fourth in throne, and kill most of family. Family runs. Ibrahah ruled for time, but he crazy want to kill all other Asar line. He use dark magic, kill land and many lives dead. Mad Emir use dark magic to make himself live long life and powerful. Four Sheikhs from four great clans, one from north, south, east and west come together and defeat mad Emir. Sheikh from north, being leader of rebellion became Emir. Emir line, Al-Shikal clan rule to this day." Amanar said with a little more expression than usual in his monotonous voice. "So if the clan of the north is the Al-Shikal clan.....what are the other clans that helped the Al-Shikal clan?" Big Macintosh asked. "Clan of south is Remal al-Sahra Al-Khayl clan, and clan of west is Tukiye Al-Alliye. Clan of east is Al-Dhannam." Amanar said curtly. "So what happened to the Asar line? You did say that there are survivors....." Nurse Redheart asked the grizzled camel. "No one knows." The Janissary answered with a shrug. "That tale sounds epic, but too bad your Equestrian kinda sucks or else you could give some more awesome juicy stuff!" Vinyl said without even holding back. Amanar is not offended by the somewhat rude remark of the unicorn, but he did realized that the unicorn is a little less cheerful than her usual self. Perhaps it is the burden of the weird magical directional arrow floating above her, the Janissary reasoned and thought no further about the matter . Vinyl however could not help but to relate the entire story into the weird poem from her dreams. The line of Asar gone? That relates to the first stanza of the poem, and she starts to feel a really cold chill down her spine. Her time in Equestria only serves to mess around with her sense of coincidences and kick them out of the window, shattering her common sense. She believes that everyone else needs to know about this, something else interrupted her before she could even muster the courage to say out the truth. The directional arrow floating above Vinyl suddenly changes its shape into an orb and slowly moves away from Vinyl. The orb floats in front of the group, as if to beckon the group to follow it. Without anything to go by, they have only one choice to take. As the orb leads them onward into the darkness, Big Macintosh is deep in though once more. More pieces of the puzzle falls into place of the grand picture, but still there are many missing pieces. It does not help that the dream of the broken battlefield may relate to the myth of Saddle Arabia's founding but it still does not explain the pegasus in his dream. Who on earth is she? Why is she in his dreams? What is the meaning of the message given by the pegasus mare? He needs more pieces to solve the puzzle, but those do not come so often. “Guys check it out!” Vinyl said, and soon enough Big Macintosh’s attention is at the same direction as the rest of the group. Big Macintosh immediately recognized the weird bell-like plant, Suddenly, the farmpony could see a light at the end of the tunnel, and this raises many red flags in the stallion. His sentiment is shared by the other members of the party and Amanar is the first to prepare his jezzail, aiming it at the end of the tunnel. However, the orb of light floats gently towards the light and disappears in the embrace of the light. Slowly but surely, the group finally closes in upon the end of the tunnel and they are truly amazed by what they are seeing before their eyes. A large chamber that defies belief greets their eyes, the ceiling mimicking the night sky set with glowing turquoise crystals as stars and the moon, while a large lake lies beneath the starry ceiling, littered with clusters of metal discs. In the middle of the lake lies an improbable object; A whitish metallic tree, larger and taller than any equine-made structure. Its silver branches branches out from the tree like artieries and pristine, and on those branches clear diamond leaves spreads like a sea of clouds above the lake of silver. The light from the glowing crystals reflects itself in the diamond leaves causing it to cast a glow upon the lake and lighting up the structure. Sitting within the cradle where the branches meets the trunk, lies a structure shaped like a blossoming flower. The structure however was obstructed by the other branches, making it hard for the group to discern the nature of the structure within the large tree. They son realized that they are all standing at the mouth of the tunnel, facing a quay jutting out towards the lake. "The White Tree.....Tomb of Asar the Magnificient." Fatimah finally found the words in her mouth to say to the rest of the group. "Wait a minute......a tomb? Aren't there supposed to be like.....traps or something?" Vinyl asked the Janissary. " 'The silver lake surrounding the White Tree purges those not worthy of meeting Asar the Magnificient' as Abdul Sinnar said in The Records of the Historian......" Fatimah answered the unicorn mare, apparently quoting a book.. "How does a lake purges..." Before Vinyl could even complete her sentence, Nurse Redheart cuts in. "You are looking at it. The lake...it is liquid mercury. When you leave mercury in a trapped space for very long time, mercury form a very poisonous gas that will cause chronic poisoning. We should be dead by now, but thanks to our 'friend' we are still breathing. Guess that is why it was leading the way before the fumes proved to be too much for us." Vinyl notices that Nurse Redheart is pointing around the passage and as Vinyl turns around, she soon realized why. At the peripherals of the entrance, a dim glow of light has formed a barrier between them and the quay. "Look to your left Vinyl to see what I mean." Vinyl turns to her left , and down below the sheer drop Vinyl could see a pale, yelllowish, alabaster body of a stallion floating right next to them. It's eyes were an odd greyish blue, and the stallion's tongue is jutting out while the mercury stays stagnant in its mouth. Vinyl wanted to scream but her voice did not escape her throat and all she could do is just open her jaws, and turn a whiter shade of white. "Cause of death would be mercury poisoning, based upon his facial expression. Horrible way to die, though it is interesting to see a mummy in here, but I am not surprised. Dropping into the lake of mercury after the poisoning and being immersed in pure mercury would have inhibit any bacteria due to the lack of water, thus preventing the normal decomposition process to begin. Would also explain the weird discoloration." Nurse Redheart said monotonously while Vinyl could looked at the nurse with a sense of disgust, disbelief, and awe. "How the hay are we supposed to get to where we need to go if we are going to die the second we pass the barrier!?!?" Vinyl said with much reason, and also with much screaming. " 'The light will let those pure of purpose to go through the silver lake unharmed,'' or so they say in the legends." Fatimah said uncertainly. "Okay, that's it, I want to know the rest of this damn tomb before I even start pissing myself." “Well, it is going to be a long tale…..” Fatimah said with a smile. Forged from the molten weapons of all the conquered tribes and clans of Saddle Arabia and its leaves the finest, most pristine diamonds in the land, the tomb of Emir Asar the Magnificient, the White Tree stands tall amidst a ceiling studded with glowing magical crystals to mimic the starry skies of Saddle Arabia and a great lake of silver. Such was its unparalleled beauty, but it is only rivalled by its unparalleled peril. The tomb was only accessible by those worthy of being in the Emir’s presence. The silver lake surrounding the White Tree purges those not worthy of meeting Asar the Magnificient, and only the light will let those pure of purpose to go through the silver lake with their lives. Once they had passed through the lake and enter into the White Tree, they will be met with three challenges; the Test of the Body, the Test of the Mind, and the Test of the Heart and failing any one of those will be paid for with the challenger’s soul. Only when all three tests were passed, were they be allowed into the grand tomb and be in the presence of Emir Asar the Magnificient. “So let me get this straight…..not only will we have to get through the poisoned gas and the mercury, but we also have to go through three challenges or lose our lives?” Suddenly,Vinyl raises her forelegs as if she is flipping a table, unable to contain her disbelief and frustration. Fatimah could only laugh as she watches Vinyl fuming, but the perils that lie ahead were not lost on the other two Equestrians. Whatever it is that they are looking for, it will be within the heart of the White Tree. “There’s no way to test out if the myth is true, and the barrier is the only safeguard we have.” Nurse Redheart pointed out and soon enough everyone is silent, wondering how they could get to the White Tree alive. Big Macintosh is now taking a deep breath and wonder how he will be able to overcome this challenge. As he thought deeply about the promises he made to his family and the Sheikh, he wondered if he has the resolve to do so. He also wondered about everyone with him right now, and if he is able to protect them. The more he thought, the more his conclusion comes to a simple answer; Someone needs to do it no matter what, and he is not a pony that would step down from a fight. Instinctively his hooves started to move by itself and slowly brrough him towards the barrier as everyone else is deep in their own train of thoughts. Just as Big Macintosh steps in front of the barrier, Nurse Redheart notices the stallion’s attempt and before she could stop him he walks through the barrier. Nurse Redheart extends a hoof out to grab him in vain, while Vinyl closes her eyes while covering Fatimah’s eyes. Amanar could only watch in horror as he sees the stallion slowly passes through the barrier. However to their surprise, Big Macintosh passes through the barrier without any incident and stopped after he crossed the barrier. The red stallion is still standing, and very much alive. Soon enough, the red stallion started to talk to them, with a smile on his face. “Looks like Ah got some weird glowy barrier thing ‘round mah body right now. Guess it is keeping me alive. As mah Pa once said, if ya ain’t gonna take the first step, ya ain’t gonna go nowhere.” Everyone else just looked at the stallion with disbelief, but it was Nurse Redheart who first shouted out. “YOU DUMBASS! YOU SHOULD HAVE TAKEN CARE OF THAT FINE, SEXY, TONED ASS OF YOURS!!!” By the time the nurse realized the words that were coming out from her mouth, it was already too late. Vinyl is already rolling on the ground laughing, while Big Macintosh turns a darker shade of red. “What's so special about his ass?” Fatimah’s response only caused Vinyl to laugh out even louder than before, while Amanar decided to not even participate in this situation. Soon enough, Big Macintosh could catch a very familiar object from his peripheral vision and as he turns around to greet it, he could not help it but to smile. "I guess ya the light in the myth huh, little weird arrow thing?" Big Macintosh said to the orb of light, expecting a sort of reply from the orb. Alas the orb hovers in front of him, waiting for Big Macintosh to move. As big Macintosh takes a few steps, he notices that the orb is still hovering at the spot. Realizing what is going on, Big Macintosh turns around and give a reassuring smile. "The little thing is waiting for all of ya to come along. Don't be scared, believe in me who believe in ya." Big Macintosh extends his forelegs to the group, beckoning the group to follow him. Nurse Redheart could not help but to feel empowered by Big Macintosh's words, and she also felt something else in her. What that feeling is she is not sure, but nonetheless she does believe him with all her heart. Without any hesitation, she takes the first step towards the barrier.