Chapter 33: The Mysterious Door
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It had been a long time since Azure Courage had been allowed to go this deep into meditation uninterrupted. In Canterlot, he very rarely got this deep due to the boisterous nature of the city. In Ponyville, most of the time, Pinkie or one of the others would interrupt him. However, it had been one of the rare days where he had managed to go so far into it that he was seeing the interior of his psyche.
For the most part, it was a quaint place. It was a gray hallway of sorts, full of doors, each representing a skill he had. His physical skill, his practical knowledge, his magic control...all of it behind each door. The floor had white mist in it up to his shoulders. However, as his age had increased and he became more capable of delving deep into his psyche, he had been able to go further and further down the hall.
However, it wasn't until the weeks before Nightmare Moon he had seen something at the end of the hall. It was a door just like any of the others barring two important exceptions: one, it was unlabeled. Or, rather, the label was obstructed by the second exception: It was heavily sealed up, every single type of lock upon it.
However, now that he looked upon it again, some of the restraints were gone, and Azure could now see a faint cerulean glow emanating around the edges of the tightly shut door. He didn't quite understand what he was looking at, even now.
"This door again..." he said to himself in the vast expanse, it echoing through the empty space. "What is it? It's been here since I came of age, but up until now, it was so sealed that I couldn't even move a single chain. Now...most of the chains have gone..."
He reached a hoof up towards the door, and tugged physically on the handle. It was no good. He tried to tug at the chains, but they didn't even budge.
"You are not ready yet..." a gentle, almost calming voice echoed throughout the space. Azure looked around, convinced he'd heard the voice somewhere before.
"Who's there?" Azure looked about, trying to find the source of the voice.
"One day you will be..." The voice abruptly changed in tone. It sounded commanding now, yet still highly familiar. "Now, rouse thyself posthaste, little pony!!"
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Azure Courage jolted awake, brought out of his deep meditation by the intensely loud yell. He panted loudly, unable to determine what had just happened inside his psyche. The unicorn looked around. He was definitely conscious now, back in his room on the bed. He looked around, sighing. It was one of his days off, and he had decided to meditate a bit before doing anything. He didn't know what time it was now, but he knew he had something else he needed to do before attempting to exercise.
"Well..." Azure got up off the bed. "Guessing I can try taking Twilight out to attempt some freegalloping. If she applies what she did with the Running in the Leaves well enough, she might just be able to get the hang of it before long..."
The cyan colt smiled to himself. "Besides...I do read sometimes, just not as much as her. She's probably up to her shoulders in books on the subject by now when I suggested it to her last week..."
He closed his eyes, remembering that dance at the Gala. It was certainly a night to remember. He hadn't even caused any mayhem, which even Princess Celestia thought he'd be up to, and the night was still spiced up in the end...even if the others didn't want it to. And after all that, he at least got to make Twilight's night. Probably Rarity's too, both with her helping him plan the moment out and of course, how she found out he got his revenge on Blueblood for her--though that was well after the Gala.
It had been a month since then. In about five weeks, Azure was about to celebrate his one-year anniversary in Ponyville--six weeks for Twilight.
"Oh, what am I doing thinking about all this..." Azure stated, "Celestia knows I'd better not keep a mare waiting..."
And without standing around anymore, Azure left his house.
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To say Twilight was nervous was an understatement. Today was going to be her first day attempting one of Azure's hobbies. Reading was simple, especially for her; Azure could probably read all day if he wasn't so busy doing physical activity. The mare, however, was not especially known for her physical talent--the only reason she didn't get outdone by Applejack and Rainbow Dash (and most of the other ponies) in the Running of the Leaves was because of three factors: one, they were more interested in attacking each other; two, she paced herself; three, she only knew to do it because she read a book.
However, when it came to Azure's pastime, Twilight Sparkle didn't know what to do. For one, she knew firsthoof it was a lot different from simply galloping. Second of all, and perhaps more important, she had tried to abstain from looking up anything about it. It wasn't that Azure had asked her to for the sake of finding out; he wouldn't have been surprised in the least to see she had looked things up, she knew that much. But...there was something she felt like she could learn from him other than a useful magic spell. Even before she realized how she felt for him, she couldn't help but secretly admire his use of the gravity spell to prevent himself from getting hurt if he needed to. Actually, that seemed like a useful application even without the freegalloping.
Twilight currently had a small saddlebag ready to go. It contained a book she had been reading for some time, and she'd figured she'd need it at some point. Even so, she wanted to have something to do if she couldn't get the hang of it straight away.
"Twilight, calm down," Spike advised, walking into the room, "You're even more nervous about this than your first date...c'mon, it's just bouncing off walls. Something you got on him about a lot before last winter? Why did you agree to this again?"
"Couples share in common interests all the time, Spike..." Twilight responded, "At least, that was what I read..." The unicorn's gaze quickly shifted towards the front, hoping to see Azure coming down the street. He always seemed to be able to calm her down whenever she was nervous. So far, he'd been doing a pretty good job of it.
"I was surprised he read that book..." Spike dryly commented.
"Don't you have somewhere to be, Spike?" Twilight asked. "Something about Rarity...and helping her out today?"
Twilight looked to her assistant, who had been asked to help Rarity. He was in the middle of preparing to leave when he cut into Twilight's introspection. The instant Twilight reminded him of what he said he'd do, however...the memory returned to him like a ton of bricks.
"Well, Twilight, I'll be going, good luck on your date!" Spike said about as fast as his mouth and lungs would allow him as he made a beeline for the door. The door shut behind him, leaving Twilight alone in the library. However, Azure had never been one to keep her waiting too long. No less than half a minute later, she saw Azure walking up the street, still just as happy as he was when he heard she was willing to try it for him.
Twilight practically teleported to the door--no, actually, she pretty much did without even thinking. She was a bit too nervous to believe that doing so was just a little unnecessary. As soon as she heard him just outside her door, she didn't even bother waiting, and opened the door for him. Azure looked up, his hoof raised as he was about to knock. However, the confusion on his face soon replaced itself with a smile.
"Hey, Twilight," Azure greeted, "Are you ready?"
"Well..." Twilight didn't know what to say to that. Usually she'd have studied so hard that--though she wasn't truly aware of it--the word of the book was gospel. However, given that she had done all in her power to abstain from doing that this time, she really didn't feel ready.
Azure's head tilted, but the smile didn't diminish too much, "What is it?"
"I don't know if I'm ready or not, but I want to try it..." Twilight said, looking away, feeling herself grow more and more nervous. She heard hooves clicking on the ground, and when she turned back, Azure was right there, "I mean, I'm ready...but I don't know where to start..."
"Didn't you look at a single book on this?" Azure questioned, his gaze suggesting surprise, same with his posture.
"I...didn't..." Twilight sheepishly admitted. "I thought...for once, I'd learn the same way you do..."
There was a silence. The studious mare felt herself swell with gratitude that they were the only ones in the library right then, especially so when Azure leaned in, a goofy smile on his face.
"Who are you and what have you done with Twilight Sparkle?" he asked, playfully nudging her with his shoulder. Twilight giggled slightly from the impact.
"I guess we should get going," she said. "I'm not sure how it's going to play out..." She levitated her saddlebag, and Azure tilted his head again.
"What's with the bag?" Azure asked. "You said you didn't read up on anything..."
"This is the book that kept me from reading up on freegalloping..." Twilight replied, securing the bag. "I'm going to be reading during our breaks."
"Oh, I get it..." Azure said, "You don't expect to get it straight away, do you? Well if you do what you did during the Running of the Leaves last fall, you'll do just fine..."
Twilight smiled, reassured somewhat by her coltfriend's somewhat comforting statement. She nuzzled just underneath his chin, making sure her horn didn't poke him. "At least you aren't afraid to show your sweet side, sweetie."
From the way Azure shifted uncomfortably against her, she didn't need to look to see he was blushing furiously...
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Azure knew exactly where he wanted to go, and Twilight followed him all the way, not really questioning it. It was a clearing not too far removed from Ponyville, plenty of solid surfaces for a beginner like Twilight to practice on, and nopony around to see her fail. It was a place he'd went to sometimes to meditate as well if he really wanted to escape Pinkie's nosiness. But even then, Pinkie somehow seemed to materialize right there if she really wanted to find him for whatever reason she needed him for.
"Well, this should be the spot..." Azure said. "Go ahead and set your saddlebag somewhere nearby, Twilight."
"Okay," Twilight responded, levitating the saddlebag up against a tree. She then looked up, wondering if there was a different way.
"Um..." Azure began.
"I really don't want to lose the book..." Twilight continued, levitating the saddlebag up onto a branch that looked sturdy enough. She then hung the bag off the branch. "Now if something tries to take it, we're going to hear it in time..."
"I...see," Azure blinked. "So is the book that good?"
"I couldn't put it down!"
Azure nodded, hearing Twilight's confirmation, "That good, then. Alright, now then, we're here because you want to give freegalloping a try..." Twilight sat down, waiting for him to start explaining it. Azure rubbed at his mane with a forehoof, unsure of how to proceed. It was something he'd taken for granted, and had practically learned by doing it. He was a pony that operated almost solely on instinct; Twilight was as far as from that as possible.
"Well...how to begin..." Azure started. He looked over to one of the trees, and began shifting the same forehoof against the ground. "Basically..."
Twilight gasped when Azure made his initial sprint, but he was sure she was relieved of that fear the instant he began to defy gravity for an instant. As he got into the groove of freegalloping, Azure began to feel at home, and the explanation began to flow from his mouth as he continued to do every trick that he could do in the clearing.
"It isn't that different from running at a basic level. However, you essentially see everything around you not as a barrier, but as an obstacle. You use your body and momentum to throw yourself around the environment. Sometimes I use magic to make it easier on me, but I usually don't need to unless I'm in pinch."
Twilight blinked. Azure remembered doing pretty much just that way back when they first met, helping Twilight out before going over the edge. He had managed to gain traction using his horn on the way down, and then managed to do a forward flip off the cliff edge, into the trees. From there, he merely pushed himself through the trees, managing to make it back to where the others were. Only Rainbow and Applejack had even understood what he'd done at the time.
"So that's how you managed to survive..." Twilight had just recalled Azure's survival herself. "You pretty much used the momentum to your advantage..."
"That's the gist," Azure smiled, glad he was able to take something as physical as what he did and put it in a way that Twilight would understand. "So do you think you can give it a go?"
Twilight stood up on all four legs, and very nervously lowered herself down. Azure felt like he knew the reason for her reluctance to take off, and sighed.
"Hey, don't worry, I'm not going to laugh if you fall," Azure said, "I'm not Rainbow..."
Once he said this, Twilight seemed to relax, but now she was looking up, probably afraid the pegasus was eavesdropping and waiting for the right moment to fly down and start laughing away. Now that Azure said it, he felt slightly nervous about it, too.
"Well, if she shows up, she does..." Twilight finally said, "Okay...I guess jumping off a tree was a good start."
The fact Twilight had not done much in the world of athletics was showing more than ever when she nervously gulped before sprinting toward the tree. Left forehoof, right forehoof, left back leg--
Twilight couldn't make it more than three steps on the tree before she slipped and fell over backwards, letting out a short gasp as she landed on her back. After taking a small moment to recover from this, the mare shakily got back to her feet. True to his word, Azure tried very hard to not laugh at her utter failure. He had somewhat seen it coming.
"Ohh..." Twilight groaned. "Okay...Guess that was a little too much..." She then began to think back to Azure's demonstration. She then turned around, and immediately took off towards another tree, this time making it to the point where she could get all four hooves on the tree. Her body, however, seemed to freeze up as she realized what she was doing, and she slid down the trunk while holding onto it.
"Making progress..." the mare observed, looking towards the sky. To her credit, Twilight didn't appear overly winded after two attempts at freegalloping. She seemed determined enough to at least keep trying, and Azure had to admire how she devoted herself to a task. Even one that had absolutely nothing to do with the study of friendsh--
Azure had to stop himself there. Had she learned a lesson like this before they started dating? He sort of lost track after the whole incident with the Pinkie Sense...
He returned his attention to Twilight just as the purple pony began to gallop up the side. Azure began to rear up, his forehooves hovering a scant few centimeters from the dirt, as Twilight managed to get on the tree even better than the first two times, and she managed to kick off the tree with her hooves. However...she misjudged the height. Twilight would have nailed the landing perfectly had she had maybe a few extra inches. However, the unicorn instead faceplanted, landing flat on her belly a split-second later. As the lavender mare tried to rise to her four hooves once more, however, she gave a sharp grunt.
"Twilight?" Azure asked tentatively as the mare struggled against the ground, grumbling and grunting all the while. Finally, she stopped moving.
"Azure, I..." Twilight almost fell back down, probably incredibly embarrassed at what had happened. "I'm stuck..."
Azure bit his lip, only slightly amused at the event. He was now having a harder time keeping control of himself, but he managed to erase the intent to laugh openly at Twilight's misfortune by the time he reached her.
To be fair, we had the cityscape to work with... Azure thought to himself. We usually just had the faceplant thing growing up...
He reassuringly nuzzled the middle of Twilight's back, which right now was at a diagonal slant as Twilight tried again to pull herself out.
"Alright, let me help you get unstuck..." Azure gently said, taking hold of Twilight's rear legs with his magic as she pushed up with her forehooves again. Though the unicorn was now doing a foreleg stand, with Azure floating her other end up, her horn slid out of the bit-sized hole in the ground where Twilight's horn had drilled in. With his marefriend safely back on the ground, the colt quickly walked up to her. Twilight was blushing heavily now, but seemed unharmed from her experience.
"Twilight, are you alright?" Azure asked.
"I'm fine," Twilight replied, looking away. "Just...really happy nopony was around to see that..."
Azure nodded, though both of the unicorns soon found themselves nervously checking the sky above for a rainbow trail or a moving cloud. When none were seen, the two sighed a little.
"So..." Azure said, "Do you think you want to take a break, or do you want to try again?"
Twilight looked toward the spot where her horn was stuck, and her face pinched into a sour scowl Azure found somewhat adorable right then.
"I think..." Twilight began, "I think I'll give it another go..."
"There we go..." Azure encouraged. "Just as determined as ever..."
He wasn't sure if he imagined the blush that coated Twilight's cheeks before she began to start up again.
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Rarity hadn't let the Diamond Dogs incident scare her away from her life's calling. She had learned to find gems when she was a filly and that was how she got her cutie mark; now, she used the gems for dressmaking. Spike was always willing to help her out when she needed it as well. Deep down, the mare was vaguely aware the young dragon had feelings for her; strong ones at that. However, she was indecisive on letting him know. She had no idea how dragons aged, and Spike was probably around her sister's age too. However, for the moment, the white unicorn felt she had no choice but to cast it aside. The longer she spent fretting about it, the less would get done.
For the past couple of hours, the two had continued their gem searches unabated. Spike had just unearthed another set of gems when suddenly, he stopped, putting a fist over his mouth, "Hold on a sec...Rari--"
He couldn't finish his sentence properly, for the dragon suddenly belched up green fire, which began to form into a rolled-up piece of parchment. Rarity knew almost immediately that it was a letter from Princess Celestia, but what could it be? Certainly not an official apology from Blueblood...
"Sorry," Spike blushed, causing Rarity to smile. However, as soon as Spike's attention returned to the scroll, he gasped, "Uh-oh..."
Rarity frowned, "What is it, Spike?"
"This is an urgent one..." Spike responded, unrolling the parchment. "Oh, oh...that's not good...that's really not good..." One clawed hand went to the drake's head as he began to panic.
"Spike, what is it?"
Spike took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. It appeared to work: some of his former composure returned, and he began to read the letter aloud.
Gems were soon the least of Rarity's worries...
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"Alright, Twilight!" Azure began to give his applause. Though Twilight still wasn't even close to being as good as him, the mare had made an impressive leap in her skill at freegalloping. At the very least, she wasn't bound to get her horn stuck in the ground anytime soon. The two had spent the majority of time polishing Twilight's skill at freegalloping. While it was extremely limited, even now, Twilight had to only take one rest break. During that break, the two had laid next to each other, right there, in the clearing. Twilight had nuzzled against Azure while she continued to read her book.
After she got to a certain part, on the book, she suddenly shut the book. Azure could tell from the look on her face that the book had given her some kind of drive to finish what she had started. After a few more accidents in her attempts to simply bound off the tree, she began to get progress in. Azure ran after her as she began to jump off the tree trunks, impressively only stumbling a few times as she continued through the trees.
At a certain point, Twilight's hoof slipped on the bark of a tree, and it seemed like she'd fall flat on her belly. However, Azure managed to get himself underneath her, and break her fall with his body.
"Ungh..." Azure groaned as the mare landed on his back.
"Azure!" Twilight said, getting off him almost immediately, "You okay?"
"Yeah, don't worry," Azure replied, getting to his hooves. "Gosh, Twilight, even if it's not magic, you still manage to learn fast!"
"Oh, come on...it can't be as fast as you learned it..." Twilight looked away, blushing a little.
"I'm being serious..." Azure said, "What about the book inspired you to keep trying?"
"What?" Twilight questioned.
"Honestly, you could have spent the rest of the time reading and I wouldn't have minded," Azure elaborated, "But you stood up...with a very determined look on your face, no less, and began trying again."
"Oh, well..." The mare said, "The main character, Fire Hoof, had fallen into a rut since..."
"Hey, hey, don't spoil it," Azure waved, "I might just pick it up later..."
Twilight blinked, as though she'd forgotten the fact he did read.
"You mean in the winter?" Twilight asked, "I'll hold you to it...anyway, the point is, he was down on his luck, but he managed to gain inspiration from thinking of what she felt was the most important. She got her spark back, and..."
Both unicorns halted, their ears flicking up. Azure immediately tensed up, and Twilight did as well.
"Did you hear that, Twilight?" Azure asked, gritting his teeth. The last time something was heard out of nowhere...
"Yeah..." Twilight responded. "I think we'd better head back into town..."
Azure nodded. The two made their way back to the clearing where they started. While Twilight's saddlebag and book were undisturbed, Azure found himself feeling uneasy. An unsettling feeling began to pervade into his mind, and he grit his teeth, trying to focus on the surrounding sounds.
"Well, my things weren't messed with..." Twilight said uneasily, taking note of Azure's face, "What is it?"
"We'd better head back..." Azure responded. "I...don't like the feel of this..."
The two started for Ponyville, no longer feeling safe in the forest. The two looked around, trying to see if anything was out of the ordinary. However, neither one could see anything. As the two drew close to Ponyville, however, Azure's ears flicked straight up, and he whirled around. An unidentifiable object bum-rushed him. The cyan colt was caught off guard, and was tackled to the ground by it.
"Azure!" Twilight called out in worry, gritting her teeth.
"Twilight..." Azure strained, pinned under the pony's--he could tell from the sensation of hooves pressing into his chest that it was a pony, and judging from the dark cloak the pony wore, it was probably one that was up to no good. The pony seemed to be folding its wings back, and Azure couldn't get a good look; the cloak was furled tightly over them. "Get back to the library..."
"I can't leave you like this, Azure!" Twilight called out, already preparing a spell.
"Don't bother," the pony under the cloak hissed, "Ponyville won't be a safe place to be very soon..."
"What?!" Azure's eyes opened widely, and began to glow. He felt the sensation of having more power than he had normally-a sensation he'd had when Tagane wasn't negating his magic-once more, but did not link it to anything other than a surge of magic that happened whenever his friends were threatened. The power seemed to surge through his body, and with all his strength he managed to toss the pony off him. "What do you mean?!"
The cloaked pony got back to his hooves, an unreadable curl to his mouth as he did so.
Twilight's ears flicked, and the cloaked pony sneered underneath his hood. "Looks like Shade's still able to assist a little..."
"Assist with what?!" Azure demanded. Twilight gave a sharp gasp, and Azure looked back over to her. Along the ground, scurrying towards them, was a plethora of Shadow Ghouls. Some of them were the usual color. However, a majority of them looked slightly tougher than before, and were black and white in color as opposed to the dark bluish scheme the original ghouls had.
"More of them?!" Twilight gasped as the shock wore off. "What's going on?!"
"Boss said there wasn't a real need to keep quiet anymore," the pony sneered, and he put a hoof to his cloak. A few moments later, the pony's cloak was taken off, revealing that the pony was wearing a set of shades...and something very apparent about the pony's species. Both of the unicorns could quite plainly see a pair of bat wings at the dark gray pony's sides that stood out more than his short navy blue tail and mohawk.
"You're...a batpony?" asked Twilight in surprise.
"That's not all," Azure responded. He had seen this kind of horrific modification to a pony once before; the shock was not nearly as great as it was then, "The same as the pony with the Null Magic...A jewel in his chest..."
"Correct..." said the batpony, sneering. "I don't like it when the boss sends me out into the fray in broad daylight, but at the moment we're shorthooved..."
"You have a boss?" Azure questioned, feeling a surge of anger come on, "What kind of pony is he?"
The batpony sneered, his fanged teeth showing, "A visionary..."
Azure was grateful he hadn't eaten much so far that day. He might have thrown up. A pony that wanted to kidnap others, a visionary? It was a laughable prospect to say the least.
"Twilight, get into town and warn the others, quick!" Azure barked, preparing to fight. "I'll take this pony on!"
"But--" Twilight tried again, looking back to the ghouls.
"The other ponies in town will be in danger, not just our friends, Twilight! Just go! Get the others ready!" Azure called out.
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Twilight's heart was beating, as it often did whenever Azure put himself in harm's way. Before he even wormed his way into her heart, she had always found herself worried about him. Now, however, he was about to fight a batpony with an unknown magical modification, apparently commanded by somepony else. However, she relented.
"A-alright, but I'm not going to leave you here for long!"
Azure charged the batpony, but Twilight didn't see who struck the first blow, having teleported herself into town to warn the other ponies and her friends...