*Eclipse Sanctum, inner chambers.*
The shadowed pony sat at the end of a long table in an ill lit room. Lady Listarr and Malthaneous were seated there alongside the nameless gryphon.
Listarr was the first to speak up. “Sssso what reassson have you to invite ussss here, Ssssshadowmasssster?”
“It does seem strange for you to call upon us so frequently,” Malthaneous said in agreeance.
“I have called all here of importance for good reason, but it needs to be said with care,” the shadowed pony said.
“What is it then?” The gryphon demanded a bit too forcefully.
“Calm yourself, Szarn. You can easily be… replaced...” Malthaneous said while keeping his head towards the Shadowmaster.
“The time has begun to approach. We must act not only with extreme speed, but with care,” the Shadowmaster calmly said.
The group sitting before him seemed surprised. The impatient gryphon Szarn seemed to be interested.
“You do not mean...Thisssssss would be ssssuicide for all parties to do that now. What could have changed,” Lady Listarr questioned.
Malthaneous was about to speak when the Shadowmaster interrupted with a gesture.
“You will all trust me. Time is short if we’re to do this at all. Another chance like this one will not arise for centuries. You will all relinquish control of your armies to me, is this understood?” The Shadowmaster spoke with strength and assurance enough to quell Abal and Malthaneous.
Szarn spoke up in defiance, however. “This is madness! I will not allow you to do such a thing. If you act and fail, then what little I control will be in a losing three sided war! I cannot extend my armies to your control if you cannot-” He stopped himself mid sentence as a sharp claw sat just below his neck. Lady Listarr would’ve followed through if not for the magic holding her hand back.
“That is enough Abal, sit down,” The Shadowmaster commanded. She hesitantly held her claw there as the magic dispelled before pulling it back and retreating to her seat. “As for you, Szarn, you do not trust my abilities?”
“N-no, I do not Al-Shadowmaster. I-i-it’s just I wish to be sure of-”
“And how is it I can guarantee our victory any more than I already am? I will be leading the armies once the final chapter has been laid to rest.”
If Szarn’s face could show any more surprise it would be a miracle. “You? You will be leading the armies?!” Szarn fumbled with his words.
“I’ll give you twenty four hours to decide whether you will turn your standing army over to me or not. Until then, this meeting is adjourned,” the Shadowmaster said, his horn lit up and his face flashed before he disappeared in a teleport.
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Omior yawned. He let his eyes open slowly as he felt his head throb. He moved his arms slowly and easily managed to sit himself upright without further injuring himself.
He noticed once he started waking up a bit more that his chest didn’t hurt as much. It felt like a long drawn out pressure had been recently released. His nose was stuffed and his eyes were irritated though, which left him rather confused.
He heard the door click as the nurse from before entered. She smiled as she grabbed a few things off the table. “I see somepony’s up early. How are you feeling?”
“Congested. My head is also in slight pain, but it will pass,” he answered as he rubbed his eyes and massaged his temples.
The nurse pulled something out of a drawer while muttering something. She came up with a bottle of pills of some kind Omior couldn’t pronounce and took two out. She put the bottle back in the drawer and pulled a smaller container out, taking one pill out of it before replacing the cap and putting it too back in the drawer. She shut the drawer and turned and trotted over to Omior’s bed. She handed the pills to Omior.
“What’s this for?” He questioned.
“Take these two,” she started, indicating the two pills that looked the same. “For the headache. Take the other one for the congestion. It might not be as effective because of the difference in body mass but it definitely won’t kill you from the amount in the pills. They aren’t perscription either making them most likely not as effective as well. If you are feeling strange at all in the next two or so hours then make sure to press the button on the table to call for me.”
Omior looked at the pills strangely. He nodded regardless and put the pills in his mouth. He swallowed them and saw the nurse had started to leave. Just before she opened the door she said, “visiting hours start in an hour and the princess said she’d be back then to talk to you.”
“Thank you,” he said as she left.
Twenty minutes later Omior began to feel the effects of the medicine. Although he had no knowledge as to what those strange oval shaped medicines were doing to help him, he felt he should’ve questioned it more.
Omior rubbed his right hand across his face. He let his eyes grow wide in surprise. His face had become completely numb.
He felt panic begin to rise in him, but it was quickly overshadowed by a larger sense of relaxation that washed over him.
He noticed some of the colors seemed odd. He failed to register that the walls had changed color from a solid white to a purple-ish yellow. The sheets he lay in were overcome with a sea of blue that came to life to him. Birds flew freely in his room and it mashed and mutated.
In reality, Omior was staring blankly at his surroundings. The walls as white as always, the sheets and blanket as grey as always, the room as silent as it was originally.
An hour later, Celestia opened the door to find Omior staring around blankly. He reacted to her in some dull way and she noted a small twinge of red in his eyes. “Greetings Omior, I see you’ve been waiting, I hope it wasn’t long,” she closed the door behind her with magic.
She sat down next to Omior’s bed and noted his distant attitude. It took him a moment of slowly moving his lips, as if they were forming foreign pronunciations, before he spoke up. “Greetings to you as well… no. It wasn’t very long I was waiting,” Omior wasn’t paying his full attention to the swirling goop that seemed to know him. He was too enthralled by strange things that surrounded him in his world. An imp, stark blue with a black fur coat tied around his waist was walking around in circles by the door. A horse was hitting it’s head against the window, making no sound regardless of the obvious blunt force trauma it was causing itself. Colors were flowing at a much slower rate by now to Omior’s gratefulness.
“Omior? Are you okay?” Celestia asked, she tilted her head in confusion to his odd behavior.
“...................... Fine. Just fine,” He blinked a few times rapidly before he rubbed his eyes. He glanced around the room before facing the swirling goop. Focusing as much attention as he could to it.
The room was silent for a good time. Just a room bathed in light with the princess of the sun sitting there in front of a hospital bed as the one in the bed was looking at her with slightly drooped eyes.
“Well?” Celestia finally said with her patience growing thin. “You wished to ask me some questions, dear warrior?”
Omior seemed to be playing with his mouth, moving it in odd ways yet again. He finally swallowed something in his mouth and spoke up. “I think… Yes, yes of course. I remember. The nurse took this weird needle and stabbed me with it...” Omior paused again for another ‘taste’ of his words. “She took this blood from me and it looked like a bunch of balled up mold was inside it...”
“Mold? What color was it?” Celestia let her brow crease slightly in confusion.
“.....Yeah.. This weird black fuzz stuff was in it, pretty thick and big looking too. No Idea what it means.....” Omior let his head fall to his pillow. He grinned up at the ceiling making some odd noises.
“Is that not normal for your race?” Celestia asked as a tinge of worry grew within her.
“Never seen blood like it before, not in a single of all the people I killed...................” Omior stated while looking around. “Odd. The bunny went away.” He muttered.
“What? Killed?” Celestia had assumed as a warrior his duty involved killing but, what if it wasn’t what she assumed? Celestia felt a bit of worry flare inside her.
“Yeah… lotsa idiots… picking on those… weaker than them. Killing, slaughtering, raping, you name it. I’ve fought someone who done it… something about killing so many that it gets repetitive too or something. Maria had said something...” Omior stopped talking. He sat up quickly and blinked in surprise as he stared at the wall next to the door.
Celestia looked at him but he didn’t seem to budge. Whether he wanted to or not he just sat there, staring with some indiscernible expression. “Omior?” Celestia asked as she leaned over to get a better look at his face. He screamed in response.
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Vigil sighed as he stood outside of Hogar De Los Vestidos, sitting on a crappy job to pay some medical bills left him rather tired. ‘That and the fact he had an early start so he could catch up and see Omior and Celestia talking. She almost seemed to like him,’ Vigil considered. He shrugged it off after a moment though. Best not to stay hung up on those trivial matters, at least for now.
Vigil had begun to walk down the streets when a passing pony stopped him with a hoof. It was a little filly, her pigtails looked almost like muffins and had a reddish-pink mane. Her eyes were an aquamarine but none of that was what caught his attention. The filly was practically in tears.
“Mister, can, *sniff*, can you help me?” She asked as she looked up at him with those big sad orbs called eyes.
“Yes, of course. What’s wrong?” He asked, now at full attention as he knelt down a little bit.
“M-my mama’s hurt real bad an-and.......” She rubbed her eyes of tears as she swallowed the lump in her throat. “My mama needs help please,” she was on the verge of a full breakdown as she waited for Vigil’s near immediate response.
“Show me where she is,” Vigil said. ‘Crap this might be serious, best case scenario it’s something I can pass over to the guard, worst case.............I don’t know yet, but i’ll cross that bridge when it comes.’
Vigil let himself be lead by the filly who grabbed his hoof and dragged him along through the alleyway but a few feet from them. She pointed them towards the irregular sized alleyway as they went deeper and deeper into it. Eventually they came out in front of a run down shack. Its roof looked to be on the verge of breaking down and the rest of the house and surrounding area looked to be quick to follow.
Vigil felt himself tense up slightly in anxiousness as he saw the state of the house, but he ignored it as the filly stopped just before the house. She was silently trying to dry her tears again.
“Is your mama in there?” He asked.
The filly just nodded, muttering an “Mhmm...” of assurance.
Vigil inwardly sighed as he walked past the filly, stopping and looking at her as he said, “let’s go in then,” He felt her hoof grab hold of his left hind leg as a sort of safety blanket as he began walking towards the house.
He opened the door tentatively and called out. “Hello ma’am? Is everything alright in there?” He heard nothing and entered in the house, he felt the hoof let go of him and he turned around as he heard the door shut behind him. He looked around in a panic before a shadow appeared behind him.
Vigil turned back around and raised a hoof as he yelled out in surprise and fear.
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Omior felt his head finally clear, the goop that was sitting next to him had gradually turned into Celestia in stages along with all the colors in the room returning to their original color.
“That.......Was rather odd,” Omior muttered as he rubbed his face with both his hands.
“What was odd?” Celestia asked.
“Just… don’t ever let me take some of that miracle oval things again.” He said as he moved his hands and massaged his temples. “Good idea, bad result.”
A flash of realization came to Celestia’s eye before disappearing. “At least now that you are fully coherent, we may have a proper chat then.”
“Indeed. I had hoped things would be easier than this,” he muttered as he let his body easily recline back. Odd as it seemed though that his dull pain had just about completely disappeared.
“Now I do believe I wanted to as-” Omior was interrupted by the door opening, the sounds of frantic panic through the door was clear.
Celestia’s guard shut it behind her. She flicked the lights off with her magic and half whispered, “down, both of you! Keep away from sight of the window.”
The mare moved to the wall next to the door, Celestia joined her along the wall while Omior slowly got himself off of the bed. He noted his pain was indeed gone as well when he moved around as erratically as he was now.
Omior had just laid on the ground when he heard some loud metal scraping against something. It banged once, then again a half a minute later, then again seconds after that. The sound was becoming louder and louder as Omior joined them from the opposite side of the door.
The metal sound stopped just at the door and silence reigned. The shape of something bipedal Omior was able to make out from the light shining inward. After a moment, the shadow disappeared as it moved on.
After a few minutes Omior spoke up, “I think we’re sa-”
The door exploded outward as something ripped it from it’s place. The guard jumped off the wall and darted out the open doorway. By the time her body crossed the threshold her head came flying back in with only a slight thud as it landed and rolled.
Omior watched in a newly felt fear as a nightmare of his came to life.........
Ahingor walked into the room, but it was definitely not the Ahingor he knew. The body of his friend was only barely recognizable through the mutilation, severe scars and burns covering his skin. Half of his face was metallic, leaving him bald on top of his head.
A red light came from Ahingor’s right eye as he stood in the doorway. After a moment, it stopped and he turned towards Omior, smiling a broken smile and a venomous glare. “It’s been a long time, Omior.”