//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Muertos // Story: Crepúsculo Sombrí­o // by Pinkie Primus //------------------------------// A blog post recapping some of the key points from chapters 1 to 4 Night’s veil of darkness shrouded Ponyville. Fluttershy’s cottage bathed in the pure light Luna had seen fit to provide from her full, unrestricted moon. The journey from the library had been quick and silent, each member of the trio had focused their mind on one specific thing. Fluttershy focused on Charon, a kidnapping from right under her nose was simply unheard of in their small village. Twilight wondered to herself about the reasoning behind Crepúsculo’s desire to accompany the two mares on their midnight journey. He must have a reason, but what? At the forefront of Crepúsculo’s mind were the gates. It had not been too long since the last disturbance, when its very guardian was released, free to travel pathway to pathway. The guardian had been shortly and inexplicably returned to the gates shortly after, but Crepúsculo had never found out how. He still remembered the beast, released from his bonds, three sadistic grins on three great, jet-black heads before he was gone, away from the pathway of La Selva back through Tartarus to elsewhere in Equestria. “Charon was staying here.” Fluttershy waved a hoof at a small, wooden shack lined with straw. “But just look at the tracks here.” Twilight leaned in close to the dirt outside the shack. Sure enough, there were the small tracks of a goat, adjacent to a set of hoofprints veering from left to right, uneven and erratic. “Well that is a little strange,” Twilight mused, turning to Fluttershy to ask a question. “You said you’d followed the tracks for a while?” she asked Fluttershy. “Oh, yes, this way.” The pegasus mare began to head towards the Everfree. “They head straight into a part of the forest I’ve never been before.” Crepúsculo and Twilight followed Fluttershy through the trees as she glided gently over the undergrowth. Ten minutes passed at this pace with nought but silence to be heard - there was no sound from the wildlife, no clopping of hooves against the soft ground, and not even a whisper from the wind. Nopony and no beast seemed willing to break this pure silence. Fluttershy finally landed next to a stone column, its bottom half coated in moss and the grooves of its intricate carvings higher up filled with dirt. “This is as far as I got,” Fluttershy confessed. “I’ve never been past these stones; there are a few of them in this area but they just seem so ominous, so I just stay safely away.” Twilight stepped closer to the upright face of the hard grey rock, reaching out with her hoof to brush the filth from the carvings. Earth and moss fell from the cracks to reveal crude letters and markings. Crepúsculo peered over the unicorn’s shoulder, unable to see what exactly the small monolith heralded, but fearing the worst. “What does it say?” he asked, his voice faltering a little. “It’s some form of hieroglyphics, I can’t read it,” Twilight admitted. Crepúsculo moved to the other side of the stone, wiping a section clean with his own hoof. His face fell as he released a dejected sigh and shut his eyes. “There are few that can. It is a language dead to our world, and the dead have kept it.” “What do you mean?” Twilight pressed. “You can’t you read it at all?” “I do not know the words they tell, but the fact that they are here at all is proof enough. Now we must move quickly.” he turned and resumed following the tracks at a much quicker pace. Twilight shared a confused glance with Fluttershy before following the dark stallion further into the unknown in an effort to catch up with him. It couldn’t kill him to be a little more specific, surely? the unicorn mused, frustrated. Silence reigned once more, this time interrupted by the rustling of leaves and branches as the forest seemed to close in around the speeding group. Fluttershy was forced from the air to the ground in order to avoid the multitude of branches reaching out to swat her from the sky. Crepúsculo sliced through the occasional particularly low-hanging branch or leafy patch obscuring the tracks, aided by the artificial light from Twilight’s horn as the trio galloped deeper into the Everfree forest. Crepúsculo was afraid. The etching in the stone had been enough for him to be sure - This was surely the same goat he had feared it might be. Tales had been told to him of Charon, none of them with a positive ending. He tried to tell himself Charon could just be a popular name for goats, that he was overreacting, but he knew better than most how mysterious the goat race was. Of course, much had been lost in history, but it was said that the goats were, a long time ago, closely related to the zebra, and even though they were not fully sentient they held as much power as ponykind, just not necessarily within the realms of Equestria. The trio of ponies burst into a clearing devoid of trees. The large space was entirely carpeted with bright red flowers, and on the opposite side of the clearing stood a cliff face. Crepúsculo skidded to a halt just before trampling the crimson foliage. He was staring at the sheer rock wall. It was perhaps a hundred metres from him, with a large cave leading deep inside. It seemed that somepony had been in that cave recently. Even from this distance the flaming torches, that were held up by what must have been wall sconces, flickered and danced from within the dark interior of the cave. Clearly this would be where he would find Charon and stop whoever had taken him, perhaps before it had even begun. Without a second thought he set off to the opening. "Oh! Be careful of those flowers!" Fluttershy gasped. "Señorita, I think they are the least of our present worries," The fretting stallion arrogantly stated, ignoring her warning and trotting through the clearing, his large, heavy hooves trampling the ruby red bulbs, sending spores upward towards his muzzle. “Oh goodness, no, please...” Fluttershy trailed off. "Fluttershy," Twilight asked, "what's wrong?" "It's just... after our incident with the poison joke, I started to visit Zecora to try and learn more about the plants in the forest in case it would help in the future. Twilight, I-I'm sure I know this flower, and I think she said it was a type of deliriant." Fluttershy squeaked. "You mean a hallucinogen?" Twilight gasped, eyes wide. "Um, y-yes, I think." "Crepúsculo! Stop!" Twilight called out to the stallion, who had visibly started to slow in the wake of pollen. "Twilight! Careful!" Fluttershy put a leg out to stop Twilight, who was nervously edging closer to the plants. Twilight stopped, sweat starting to form on her brow. She looked up from the flowers to Crepúsculo. He was no longer travelling in a straight line. Staggering from side to side, his hooves faltered under him, kicking up large dust clouds. Fluttershy took flight, rising a few metres from the ground for a better look. As the dust around the stallion settled, she could see cracks start to form in the ground, dirt gently beginning to cascade into them. "Twilight! The ground is coming loose!" she cried to the fretting unicorn. But if the ground is becoming loose, I can just get these flowers out of my way! Of course! Twilight's head shot up as her horn began to glow. Crepúsculo had finally given in and was slumped heavily on the dry earth. Twilight bowed her head as the red flowers closest to her began to stand straight up, their crimson bulbs seemingly longing for the sky. One by one, the red plants were plucked, roots and all, from the dry earth and flung aside. The vermilion wave flowed outwards from Twilight as she strained her magic, focussing on each individual set of roots, some bringing chunks of dirt away with them. "Twilight, stop!" Fluttershy had realised too late what Twilight was doing as the purple mare ran onto the dirt to retrieve the dazed stallion. As soon as Twilight had taken a few steps, the ground beneath her began to give way, no longer held together by the complex root systems. Cracks surged outwards as the earth crumbled beneath the mare, collapsing downwards and bringing with it rocks, the hallucinogenic flowers, and Crepúsculo himself. Fluttershy was forced to wait until the dust had settled to survey the situation, but when she could see what was below her she was met with a deep, gaping hole bordered with rough dirt edges where rocks and soil kept trickling downward. There were more than just two ponies in the ruin. The pit entrance was now a few metres wide, but the space it led to expanded further underneath the ground, its roof held up by crude and rotting wooden support beams. Within this expanse of space lay a large stone arch, perhaps twenty metres high, covered in runes seemingly identical to those found on the upright stone pillars they had encountered earlier. Rusted iron bars entwined the stone, binding it in place behind a rotten wooden altar, covered with books, candles and some form of pipe, still smoking. At the far end of the pit a cloaked figure stood unmoving before the altar, its head bowed and breathing deep from the fumes of the pipe. Under where the ground had given way, Twilight could be seen pulling herself from the dirt, clearly wincing at her movement, while Crepúsculo seemed to be scratching his front hooves at the ground in an attempt to stand. Fluttershy descended to her friends, keeping a wary eye on the unknown figure. Pollen still encrusted the stallion's nostrils as he raised his head. Eyes tightly shut, he breathed deeply, trying to slow his heartbeat. All noise around him sounded metallic, echoing through his skull tenfold before fading into nothing. The ground under him felt a mile away, though it still brushed his chest as he scraped at it, trying to bring it closer. He stopped as he felt something on his back, two quick sensations pulsing through his flesh, gone as soon as they had come. His eyes shot open and every muscle he had tensed violently. The blacks and whites of the world swarmed to greet him. He saw only what was in front of him, and yet, he could see so much more beyond his sight as the shapes danced into his mind. There it was again, that feeling on his back. Slowly he turned to face behind him, gradually releasing his clenched jaw. The next thing he knew he was gaping open-mouthed at Twilight, lost in all of her that he could see. Twilight looked down from inspecting the cloaked figure and stared into the stallion's wide, glazed eyes as they transfixed on something that must have been far behind her. "Fluttershy, the pollen's gotten to him. I don't know what he's going through right now but it doesn't look pretty." “Excuse me? Can you help us?” Twilight looked up from the stallion to the mystery being and took a step forward. The entity paid her no heed and kept chanting in its low voice. Crepúsculo saw Twilight's black and white lips pulse with a metallic ring as the greys of her eyes swam away from her skull. Crepúsculo blinked furiously, briefly seeing red from the corners of his eyes. He snapped his neck round to try and glimpse the crimson hue, but it was gone as quickly as it had come. Replaced in his tunnel vision was the hooded figure at the altar, the strange words he heard clear as day. What he heard was enough for him to stand bolt upright. Red seeped from the cracks in his vision, filling his eyes, constantly moving. Through the vermilion haze, he could just make out the mare turning to face them all before he collapsed once again, the red draining from his view. Yes, it was a mare, he was sure of it. Twilight knelt beside the stallion as his tears flowed to the dirt, but her attention was torn to elsewhere. "T-T-" Fluttershy tried to stammer out. "Twilight, Fluttershy, you are unexpected guests, as is your friend," the hooded mare stated in a deep tone. "T-T-T-" Fluttershy took a step back. Twilight stood up slowly, staring at disbelief at the pony before them, her blue coat visible through the black cloak's opening as she breathed deep from the pipe in her hoof. "T-T-T-T-" Fluttershy's eyes were the widest Twilight had ever seen them, and that was including her stare. "Trixie." Twilight finally finished Fluttershy's sentence, glaring at the robed unicorn. "What's going on here? What are you doing?" "Questions, my dear Twilight. Questions you can't hope to live to see the answers to." Trixie's voice was deep, booming around the cavern and causing dust and dirt to fall from areas of the roof that were still intact. "We are part of something bigger than ourselves, bigger than you, bigger than the princesses with all their power. Ponykind pales in comparison to our dutiful burden." She inhaled once more from the pipe before setting it down upon the altar next to a bundle of the red flowers found on the surface and a pestle and mortar. Her eyes darted around the cavern as she exhaled the smoke in a long, thick line. "Ch-Charon..." Crepúsculo rose to his hooves. "Where is Charon?" "The goat is gone," Trixie stated. "It was not his body we had need of, after all." She produced a small, red, roughly spherical object from her robe, dripping crimson streaks upon the cold grey floor. Fluttershy gasped in shock and Twilight choked back vomit with her hoof. El corazón, the stallion realised. "No!" he screamed, staggering forward towards Trixie, falling over his own hooves, wings flailing wildly as he crashed to the floor. "You're pathetic. We were not expecting an interruption, much less one that posed no threat whatsoever to our goal," Trixie boomed as she walked to the centre of the arch, placing the heart in a small hollow on the stone floor. She drew a simple blade from her robe, lifted it high into the air as she knelt over the organ, and hesitated. The cloaked unicorn turned back to the trio of ponies she had been forced to share the area with. Tears misted her eyes but there was no turning back, not after what she'd seen, not after what she'd learnt. "Trixie is sorry for what she must do," she whimpered, her voice no longer deep, no longer bold. She turned again and brought the knife down hard to meet the heart, and Charon's blood flowed freely below the arch. A deep hum filled the cavern as Crepúsculo fell to the floor once more. Twilight and Fluttershy backed slowly away from the arch as it began to softly vibrate, the opening filling with a deep green colour. Support beams within the cavern began to bend and buckle. More chunks of earth fell from above, crashing hard to the stone floor. "Beautiful," whispered Trixie as she stared up at the arch through teary, dilated eyes as the last space of the opening filled with the dirty green aura. The portal was open. Crepúsculo raised his head just in time to see the first one step through, and with it all his fear came flooding back, paralysing him. "Crepúsculo! What is that thing?" Twilight called out. The figure of a pony slowly stumbled forth from the swirling emerald, heading straight for Trixie, the closest living flesh. It was an earth pony, or might have been once. Three legs held the pale body up, with the fourth dragging behind it, scraping the rough stone and leaving behind a small smear of blood. The creature's single ear twitched every few seconds, coupled with the swatting of the remains of its tail. A bedraggled, dirty blue mane covered one eye but left the other visible, a deep red pit of pure primeval instinct never breaking contact from the blue unicorn in its path. "Come, ghoul, do what you must to this world." Trixie took a few clumsy steps to one side to let the creature pass. However, it only changed its path to follow the mare. Trixie's swirling head began to clear as the realisation set in. It was coming for her. "W-wait! We brought you here! W-We were to be spared!" She backed away slowly under the hateful gaze of this monster, fear and adrenaline seizing her mind like a vice to counteract the effects of the crimson flower. "H-h-help me!" Trixie managed to shout, faint sparks flying from her horn. "Twilight!" Fluttershy yelped, "Help her!" "No! Forget her!" Crepúsculo struggled to stand. "You must destroy the gate first!" Twilight looked between her companions nervously. One or the other, she had to do something. Before her, the green portal swirled calmly with a low hum. Looking towards Trixie, she saw that the creature had backed her into a corner, mere steps away from being upon her. The choice seemed obvious. Twilight galloped towards the mare in distress, doing her best to avoid yet more falling dirt from the remaining ceiling. Once she was close enough, a quick blast from her horn set up a small barrier between Trixie and her menacing attacker. Trixie cowered behind the weak shield as the creature repeatedly walked into it, seemingly oblivious to the obstacle between its teeth and its prey. Crepúsculo growled in frustration at Twilight’s choice as he staggered forward to the portal. The hard stone steps proved a substantial obstacle to him in his state. He was also not helped by the loose dirt chunks falling to strike the back of his head and body. Finally arriving at one of the stone columns of the arch, he began to kick at the stone with all the strength he could manage, but the metal that bound it firmly in place would not permit it to move an inch. "Ladies, please! You must help me!" He cried out, violently slashing his sharp wings at the metal and stone, causing sparks to fly from their tips. Twilight turned to him, her attention momentarily pulled away from the pair of beings before her. "With what?" she shouted, sounding more than a little panicked as a scream erupted from behind her. She had just enough time to conjure up another weak shield between Trixie and the creature in place of the previous, now shattered one. "Fluttershy, help him with whatever he needs!" Twilight ordered. "I'll take care of whatever this is." "Keep your distance from it!" Crepúsculo warned Twilight, as Fluttershy glided over to him, putting her weight against the stone arch, accomplishing nothing. "What? Why? I... Trixie! Move!" Twilight shouted back, fear turning to anger. Trixie simply sat on her haunches, staring through the living incarnation of death before her the exact same way Crepúsculo had stared through Twilight when they had first fallen into this place. Her heavy breathing sounded loud from her slack jaw. It was then the rumbling started, and it was then that Crepúsculo knew they were too late. "Vamos. We are leaving. Now." "Ok that's fine with me let's go," Fluttershy spoke in a single breath, already flying away from the arch as its green hue swirled darker and darker and the stone began to vibrate. "Wait, leave? Now? What about her?" Twilight motioned toward Trixie, who was still motionless behind her quickly fading protection. "Leave her. Her fate is her fault," Crepúsculo replied, never stopping his movement towards the cave exit, until a huge blast came from the portal, shaking the area and causing the ceiling to collapse all around them. His exit was blocked by rocks and support beams, and more were falling. He instinctively spread his large wings and took to the sky, followed closely by Fluttershy with her eyes tight shut. "Twilight, leave her. Get out now!" he ordered below him, anxiously. Twilight focused on Trixie's motionless figure, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and charged her horn for teleportation. Seconds later she appeared on the surface under the setting moon. The two pegasi flew down to ensure her wellbeing, but were met by panic and confusion. "She's supposed to be here! Why isn't she here? What did I do wrong?" Twilight was frantically searching around her. "Twilight, what is it?" Fluttershy asked. "I tried to bring Trixie with me! I never get that spell wrong, I practice with Spike all the time!" Fluttershy edged to the rim of the great pit and looked across the hole from which they had come. The entire ceiling had fallen in save for one section near the gate. One corner where that creature had just broken through Twilight's last barrier to reach the still motionless blue unicorn. With one final blast from the gate, the ceiling of that corner collapsed in, and neither Trixie nor her attacker could be seen any more. "Oh my goodness!" Fluttershy brought her hooves to her mouth. "We have to hide, now!" Crepúsculo circled round to the back of the crater, behind the gate. "W-wait! What was...?" Twilight began. “She’s dead! Crushed! How did...?” "Señorita, por favor, questions will be answered later but now we must be quick." With that, the stallion began to run, gesturing for the two mares to follow him, who had little choice but to do so. Behind them, more of the creatures flooded forth from the dark gate. Most walked, casting long shadows from the moon upon the fallen earth. Some flew high, at great speeds. Here and there, it would have been possible to see the occasional flash of magic within the carnal crowd as it headed forward, straight as the crow flies, to Ponyville. This was lost, however, upon the group as they lay in a nearby ditch, hastily covered with leaves and branches. Out of earshot of the portal, silence reigned over the trio once more. There they stayed for what felt like an eternity before Fluttershy's faint voice whispered amongst the dirt. "What do we do now?" she whimpered. Crepúsculo sighed and turned to the mares, heart heavy in his chest. "We survive, but we must do so together. The longer we wait, the less danger we will be in, but the safer it will be to travel. We should at least wait the rest of the night here." "In this ditch?" Twilight asked, incredulously. "If needs be, sí, but I think I see a cave opening further up this hill which should do nicely. They could be upon us at any minute so we will have to move with haste, and without a sound." He tentatively stuck his head above ground level before emerging completely from the temporary hiding spot, followed by Twilight and Fluttershy up the slight incline to the cave mouth in silence. The dark, damp entrance to the lifeless cave was not an appealing sight, but the shelter was welcome. Once a few of the larger leaves to be used for bedding from the surrounding trees had been brought inside, it started to feel at least a little bit preferable to their former ditch. Twilight casted a light spell, sacrificing intensity for duration. The faint orb cast flickering shadows upon the grey walls, illuminating the faces of her companions. Tears shone from Fluttershy's muzzle as she trembled fearfully. Crepúsculo had his eyes shut, head hanging to the floor. "You said you'd have answers now." Twilight faced the stallion demanding explanation. "What was that thing? How do you know so much about it anyway? Where did it come from?" "Answers, sí..." A heavy sigh escaped him for what seemed like the hundredth time today. "In La Selva, we know them as necrófagos, or sometimes just los muertos. It was my responsibility to study them." "But... what are they?" Twilight pressed. "Quite simply, they are the dead walking among the living, and they know nothing but the instinct to feed on meat." "What?" Fluttershy's head shot up. "That's not possible! What instinct is that?" "A base desire, one that has become dormant within our species as society has moved from an omnivorous diet to a mainly herbivorous one, some of the older history books in the library are a little graphic..." Twilight interjected, scrunching her nose up at the thought. "Precisely. What is more, this... condition, for lack of a better word, is infectious. Those bitten or cut badly enough will fade to join their ranks. A scratch will do nothing, unless the skin is broken and contaminated by any fluid of los muertos." "Any what?" Twilight inquired, shocked. "Mostly saliva or blood. Disposing of them can be a messy task..." It was Crepúsculo's turn to trail off awkwardly. "D-d-disposing?" Fluttershy tentatively queried. "Sí, they must be disposed of by targeting the head. Some are weaker than others, generally following the patterns of our own species divisions. Those that were once earth ponies are tougher in the skull, whereas the lighter bones of the former pegasi are more vulnerable and the base of a former unicorn's horn weakens their skull also. However this is not to say the pegasi and unicorn variants are less dangerous. In fact, perhaps they are more so. Pegasi muertos may still be able to fly, making them quieter and faster, while the unicorns may still possess some magical potential: simple levitation or the means to search for prey the other two cannot find. In some cases they have been seen to teleport, also." The stallion looked between the two mares as they gaped back at him through wide eyes. "Pues, like I said, it was my responsibility to study the creatures." He frowned. "As for your final question, where they come from, there are gates such as the one we witnessed tonight scattered across this world, and once opened, they are connected directly to Tartarus." "Wait, wait," Twilight started. "So we now have an army of the living dead from the depths of Tartarus itself wanting nothing but to feed on meat now?" "That is an accurate summary, sí." The two mares were speechless. Fluttershy swayed a little before collapsing to her side, fainted. “Well we can’t just stay here!” Twilight panicked. “What about our friends back in Ponyville? What about everypony else in Equestria?” “And what about us?” Crepúsculo snapped harshly. “They are still out there, looking for their meals. If we stay here and lie low until they move on we have a chance to survive, but if we leave now we will be killed and we will become one of them.” A pregnant pause was broken with yet another long sigh. “Lo siento, Twilight, but we have to stay here for our own sake. Besides, your friend here is in no condition to be going anywhere.” Fluttershy began to drool unceremoniously in her unconscious sleep. "We must rest now. Tomorrow we will return to your village and do what we can to protect its citizens," Crepúsculo said solemnly, already lying down on his makeshift bed of leaves. Not too long after, Celestia's sun began to rise, cracks of light shining through tree branches upon the backs of the living dead as they surged forward, bearing down on Ponyville and its unsuspecting, sleeping inhabitants.