The Longing Witness~
Chapter 2:
The smell of food being cooked woke up Twilight Sparkle, she felt a drop of sweat fall down from her brow, she took a deep breath closing her eyes, trying to get away her usual nightmare from her head, she poked her head a bit with the Knife she used to sleep with, as she felt the weight of memories turning the taste in her mouth into a bitter taste.
-Get… Out- Twilight Sparkle whispered as she emptied her mind after poking her head with the Knife, blessed with many incantations to scare away the Mind Renders and Abyssal Horrors, both very dangerous creatures to be assaulted while sleeping, the thundering sound of their wings or slashes smashed even the happiest dream into pure despair.
Twilight breathed deep as she relaxed and laid down on her bed, looking at the roof of her bedroom as she smiled for a second, she thought of her new quest, find her friends… she felt the burden of guilt once again strike at her heart, she remembered when she and her friends did their best to preserve the town they had shared for so long, and they succeeded.
But in time, slowly but surely, change followed, her friends disappeared or left Ponyville to pursuit their own goals, how she expected letters to arrive, but none ever came, she knew the situation was bad, Ponies were stranded on their places, the risk was too big for the messengers, Security got tighter and eventually towns became fortresses, were Ponies were safe, but isolated from the rest of Equestria, nightmarish horrors lurking on every horizon.
Twilight Sparkle couldn’t help but smile no matter what, she shed no tears because for better or for worse, things were going to change a lot, she turned around and laid her head between her hind hooves, playfully moving her mane and back hooves a bit, she took a deep breath and started writing a letter, reporting what happened to the Spy and the subsequent skirmish, she stood up and brushed her morning hair, put her Ursa Mayor Scarf around her neck, and went down to get the page with the stolen thoughts of the Guiltfeeder to send it alongside the letter to Judge Cloud Chaser.
As the Purple unicorn was coming down the stairs, carrying the letter besides her with her unicorn magic, she lifted the book that was still in the same place she left it on table earlier that day in the morning, still stained with the stench of the Everfree blood that was cleansed out of it, most likely Spike did that but didn’t put it elsewhere so Twilight could easily found it if she needed it, as well as cleaned the rest of the gear.
Twilight smiled happily at the handiwork of her trusty companion, she casted a spell that purged the Everfree smell of blood out of the house, for an enjoyable sweet scent of cinnamon, recognizing that smell, Spike stepped out of the kitchen to greet his beloved Twilight Sparkle.
-Good Afternoon Twilight, it’s good to see you are awake! I…- Spike was saying as Twilight Sparkle left the letter and book on the table, pounced forward and snuggled her cheek against Spike’s own check, his thoughts vanished, he smiled and snuggled with the Purple Unicorn.
-Thanks so much for cleaning the fiend’s blood, you didn’t had to but you did either way, I can always count on you- Twilight Sparkle said stepping back and smiling for the little Dragon, Spike was too surprised to reply to her instantly, he hadn’t seen her this happy in years.
- You are welcome Twilight! I was preparing a meal, are you hungry?- Spike asked feeling like it was the good old days when she would have slept all morning because studying too much, not anything else but that.
-I want you to send a letter to Canterlot… Yes, the fiery magical way, this is the address, do you think you can do it?- Twilight Sparkle asked him, the little dragon blinked for a sec, once again surprised by Twilight’s radiant happiness, she looked much prettier when smiling.
- I can try, but do you think somepony will read it? - Spike asked realizing Twilight just started dictating the letter so the Dragon started writing it down, she talked in a bit of a cryptic way, making him bold out words at random in the sentences she was dictating it, when done she told Spike to sent it along with a page from her book, the Dragon decided to ignore Twilight’s secrecy on this matter and obeyed her orders, sending the Letter with his magical fire as he hasn’t done so in years.
-Thanks Spike! - Twilight Sparkle said happily as she gave a soft smooch on the cheek of her little assistant, which honestly shocked him a bit, with a radiant smile afterwards- I am so hungry, thanks also for starting to prepare the meal already! This afternoon I will spend it on Gardening, had to stockpile my deadly brews from today onward! - She said happily trotting to the kitchen to help with what she could.
The letter appeared in Celestia’s room, where no pony was in sight, it’s darkness being broken briefly by the magical flames that vanished in an instant after carrying the letter to its destination, but before it hit the ground in was intercepted by a Guard that was hidden in the darkest corner of the abandoned room, he was wearing a very different armor from the usual Royal Guards, it was made of a darker different alloy, it’s design seemed to emulate a dragon with its pieces, clearly a relic of ancient times, the War Hammer he was carrying was made of some black material, which clashed with the blood red of his cape, nothing else could be easily seen as the room was lightless again.
The Pony took the letter and smelled it, given his odd special talent, High Lord Cloud Chaser could almost taste that familiar incantation on the page that came with the letter and the Unicorn who casted the spell, he quickly left the room, to avoid any questionable eyes seeing him with such important piece of information, he has to get it all translated and then hopefully the Stalkers would get him a new lead to also sent in the same new letter to Twilight Sparkle, Celestia trusted her completely, so he had no choice but to do the same, and trust the new Paragon of Equestria…
After a nice meal, Twilight Sparkle took her herb collecting saddlebags, her boots, and some auxiliary tools, just in case, she told Spike she would be off for a couple of hours, she knew she might had a long journey ahead, so she needed to stockpile as much materials she could for her deadly brew, the Celestium poison she impregnated the bolts of her Arbalest with, She made a quick list of the plant she was lacking in her storage, she knew where could find large amounts of them, the old Froggy Bottom Bog, now infected by Everfree taint, the old name was kept just because it was relatively safe during daytime.
-Mandrakes… - Twilight Sparkle said to herself as she arrived the desolated swamp that was once a place one could play with frogs and other aquatic creatures that didn’t mind a little mud, now it was nothing more than a deserted swamp with Everfree taint making magical plants grow in large quantities, useful indeed, but dangerous as well.
Mandrakes have always been used in magical brews for several reasons, there were a lot of dark magic myths surrounding them, but Twilight only wanted them because they were a key component to Celestium Poison, one plant had enough juice to create quite a few vials, she started to pick them up one by one with her Unicorn magic and placing them on one of the 2 saddlebags she had, her boots started to get deeper in the mud as she keep going deeper into the swamp, careful of not sinking down into a pit meanwhile collecting as much Mandrakes as she could, she wanted to fill both saddlebags completely.
The purple Unicorn was having a good harvesting today, one bag was full, and the other was soon on its way of being full as well, it was clear the Everfree taint was spreading over Equestrian lands in a stronger way than ever, she could imagine Poison Jokes and other even more dangerous plants would start to grow here if this wasn’t stopped, she had a vague memory of the incident with the Poison Joke… She hoped Zecora survived the crisis just right, she never heard or saw her again since E-day, during this time thinking, Twilight was almost done filling her second saddlebag, she didn’t realize the wind direction changed, carrying her scent into the deepest part of the swamp… By the time she realized it, it was too late.
Twilight Sparkle barely managed to tumble out of the way of a gigantic tail that just tried to crush her, she scrambled to recognize what kind of creature was lumbering over her longing to feast on her flesh, it was a Carrion Wurm, A dragon who had fallen from grace losing its wings, limbs and power, nothing more than a huge snake like creature now, zombified by the Everfree taint, Twilight tried to buy sometime running away but the huge beast was forcing her into going deeper into the bog instead of towards the sides, towards her only chance to escape this beast in dry uncorrupted land, she teleported to gain some distance as she tried to consider her options.
Twilight knew she wasn’t prepared to face this risen foe, all she and at hoof was the knife she would use to cut down the plants that she couldn’t harvest with just her magic, she tried to remember some words of the bestiary book, but all she could think of is that Wurm scales were like Dragon scales, her magic would simply fizzle when clashing against them, there was no way she was going to slay this beast, she would be forced to ran away and abandon her harvest of the day or force the beast to retreat, every step she spent running away, was deeper she was getting into the bog, as the Carrion Wurm was catching up to her, even with her invigorate spell making her run faster, the creature only eat carrion, but it seemed quite willing to make some on its own right now.
The purple Unicorn halted her movement and teleported behind the beast trying to confuse it, only to be swept aside in a very brutal way by its long tail, she fell into the mud slightly bruised and covered in mud but fine, clearly zombification did nothing to hinder the monster’s agility, Twilight Sparkle suddenly remembered the Equestrian Manual of Arms and tried to look on its some pages some tips she could use to face the beast, she took off her saddlebags and left then in the ground, with a shield spell on them, she was not going to lose this precious cargo, not even with this inconvenience on her way, the Wurm roared at her, like it was expecting her to scream in terror and let herself be devoured.
Instead she remembered a couple of lesson from the Manual of Arms, she took of her boots and let her hooves feel the swamps mud in them, “When fighting on uncharted land, stand on your bare hooves” she read it on her mind, wielding the long Knife, when the Wurm assaulted her with its complete body, Twilight tumbled to the side a lot easier now, and teleported perfectly to avoid any tail swipes as the creature was trying trap her and crush her along its serpentine body, Twilight Sparkle kept evading her foe assaults using her small size, magic and being harder to see as she was covered in mud, while she analyzed her foe, looking for a weakness, she knew she couldn’t kill this beast, but if she could find a way to hurt her, it might be enough to discourage her from further trying to kill her for a meal.
Then she saw it, the zombified Wurm’s scales were a bit loose in the stomach side of the beast, she know just needed on chance, after evading another head assault from the beast, she stood still and let the tail swipe come her way, only to tumble over it and teleport forward, avoiding being crushed and standing over the beast exposed loose scales, she imbued with fire magic her knife and cleaved it with all her strength on it, managed to break open one scale, exposing the Wurm’s soft inner skin as it was struck with blazing flames, the beast screamed in agony as it turned around trying get the Unicorn off before more damage was done, this launched Twilight to the side, but she managed to fall into a puddle of mud, avoiding with the use of her magic softening the impact, the Wurm jumped into the mud to extinguish the flames and vanished deep inside the ground, making a tunnel to escape.
Twilight breathed deep and closed her eyes, feeling exhausted after such tough and unexpected encounter, she was lucky to only have sustained minor bruises that she could mend with her invigorate spell, and being covered in mud nothing a bath couldn't fix, she tiredly stood up and realized that nighttime was closing in, later she would have time to rest, she broke the protective ward spell of the saddlebags and put them back on, she put her muddied boots on her dirty hooves and ran all the way back to Ponyville, things were getting worse by the day, Everfree monsters were being more bold and attacking during daylight now, if she didn’t hurry up to gather the other Elements of Harmony so the cleansing of Equestrian lands could begin, soon there would be nothing left to save, for better or worse, this was going to be the beginning of the end.