Rebirth of the Damned

by Borsuq


118. Daring to look

Matthias’ eyes darted from Tucker to Guard and to Wind Reaver, before finally resting on Cherry Bomb.
He said only two words: “Hit me.”
Cherry smirked in reply as his horn flashed… and a card from the top of the deck levitated itself to Matthias’ hooves.
Ten…” he mused, keeping his face neutral. Inside, thought, he was smirking. With the nine he got earlier, he was safe to call next turn and expect to win.
“Hit me,” Tucker said as well. “You know, sir, I didn’t expect you to fancy blackjack… or whichever version of it we are playing,” he told him, while Cherry dealt him another card. “Or be cool with us playing it here, for that matter.”
“I have no problem with it, as long as you don’t gamble or try to teach it to Scootaloo,” Matthias replied, pretending to not notice the badly hidden chips. He was happy that at least they weren’t playing for real money when he entered. “I do hope that you haven’t been deciding the cleaning and cooking duties this way, though.”
“Nah, Serenity told us she would report it if we tried to do that,” Tucker replied while Guard surrendered. “She felt it would create between us an atmosphere of unease and distrust… or something.”
Atta girl!” Matthias thought in amusement. Her letter, describing - among other things - how she managed to spread Light’s teachings among the crystal ponies, got him to thinking that maybe he should send the others away as well. If all of them would spend some time in some of Equestria’s biggest cities, they would not only earn them more recruits, but also promulgate the belief of the Holy Light. Storm could travel to Cloudsdale or his hometown of Manehatten, Guard could stay in Canterlot, Hoofington or Trottingham oversea, and Tucker…
… Tucker, being too unreliable to be send by himself, would stay here.
“I wonder where Storm is,” he said out loud as Wind Reaver also hit. “It’s rather late; I had thought that by this hour all shops would be closed…” Matthias started to wonder if he should go check on the station if Storm had left for Canterlot. Hearing Cherry’s grunt, he said absentmindedly: “Hit me.”
The moment he said it he remembered that he was supposed to call. Cursing, he looked at the card…
It was two.
Matthias could barely contain a smirk when he saw that. Now, in the next turn…
The door to the eatery opened unexpectedly. Everypony’s head turned around and saw a cloaked, black-and-white equine standing in the doorway.
Zecora run up to the table where they were sitting by, “Matthias, I fear I need you-
“Bow-chicka-bow-wow!”
“Tucker, be quiet, or you’ll never play again,” Matthias told him, knowing that in a moment he will be annoyed enough by the zebra’s rhyming.
He nodded to Zecora to continue, “-and just you, to come with me. And I’m afraid it won’t be just for tea.”
Matthias was about to ask for more details, but the urgency in Zecora’s voice made him reconsider. Sighing - and taking one last look at the cards he had - he said: “Let’s go; you can fill me in on our way out.”
“Bow-”
Matthias glared at Tucker, and the unicorn either had a sudden attack of coughing or he badly tried to cover up the rest of what he wanted to say.
 


 
It wasn’t until he couldn’t see the borders of the forest in the twilight did it hit Storm Clash that he just did probably the stupidest thing in his entire life. Here he was, without a weapon, above the deepest part of the Everfree Forest.
Oh, come on!” he snapped (in his head, he wasn’t stupid enough to shout that at the moment). “Rarity and her friends had walked into this forest how many times without any means of defense?! I mean… granted, none of them had probably ever gone so deeply...
Storm gulped nervously. It was already getting late, so he didn’t have enough time to fly back to the Abbey to take Spring Binder, anyway. And besides that, he might have stumbled upon Sir Lightbringer, who could forbid him from coming here.
I cannot risk it,” the paladin mused as he soared above the treetops. He was currently searching for a place where he could land. This was, more or less, the heart of the forest. If those flowers were supposed to be in a den, then looking for them from the air would be pointless. “The Eon Petals will be a perfect gift for Rarity; a symbol of love, given freely by the earth to the nature,” he sighed and blushed as he remembered those two tales Zecora made him read, recalling the sudden stiffness in his wings. “I could have gone without those mental images of a pegasus taking a bunch of timber from be-
A sudden roar from behind him made him abandon that train of thoughts entirely. Storm quickly did a barrel roll to avoid something big that tried to crush into him-
No. No crush,” he thought, catching a glimpse of outstretched claws slashing through the space where a heartbeat ago was his shoulder.
He cursed inwardly. Out of all the creatures that lived in this forest (and was known to ponies), only one could be this big, clawed and winged: a manticore. And if not, then if Storm Clash knew his luck, it was probably something worse.
His guess that it was a manticore was confirmed when with a roar the beast whirled, hurling at him. Storm once again managed to dodge it, and dove in between trees. He winced as the branches scratched his wings, but he didn’t have much of a choice. Not only he wasn’t the best of fliers, but the manticore also had the advantage of being higher than him. Eventually, it would force him down anyway… provided that it wouldn’t just get him.
Pain erupted in his left wing as he hit a branch. Storm yelped, the feeling in the limb too intense for him to stay airborne. As he plummeted down, he quickly uttered a prayer and a barrier of Light formed around him, saving him for breaking his bones on the ground. Storm winced in pain, getting up carefully, when a roar sounded above him.
He looked up, preparing to run, but he realized he didn’t have too. The tree’s branches were too thick for the manticore to get through. The beast managed to land on them somehow and sticks one paw, but no more than that.
“Ha! Take that, you winged cat… scorpion thingy!” Storm exclaimed, gleeing over the fact that he escaped from it with just a minor injury, one that he could heal at that in a minute. “What’s the matter, too big to get through? You old… fat…”
His grin gradually vanished as the manticore began to tear and pull the branches from the trees.
“Okay, running time!” Storm yelped as he turned into the opposite direction, ignoring the pain in his wing for now.
 


 
“And I thought that Tucker was the dumbest of them,” Matthias groaned as he entered armory, Zecora close behind him. “You’re sure he flew straight into the heart of the forest?”
“Of that, I am quite sure,” the zebra said. “The need to find that flower in his eyes was pure.”
The paladin sighed. He would have preferred to hear that story without rhyming. Thankfully, Matthias recalled those two stories she had mentioned, as he also read once the “Folktales of Eastin”, so Zecora didn’t have to go into details. He could have known that zebra knew about a spirit similar to those they worship, so he hadn’t paid those tales much of a thought, but now…
“I guess he really didn’t come here,” Matthias said once he gave the armory a once-over. “Nothing is missing here, and his armor and Spring Binder are still in his quarters,” He facehoofed. “As much as I’m happy for Rarity that the stallion that is interested in her would go so far to give her something nice, I fear I will have to put him in a solitary confinement for going off on his own,” seeing Zecora raised eyebrow, he added: “Well, I can’t put ponies there for idiocy!”
The zebra chuckled as he wondered what he should do next. The sensible thing for a head of the order to do would be assemble everypony and set out to find him and bring him safe and sound…
… thereby ruining his chance for getting Rarity a gift he felt he deemed worthy of her, and embarrassing him in front of the whole order.
Either I act as a leader, or act as a friend…
“Having Light on his side so deep in the forest will be of little help for him if he won’t be able to defend himself,” Matthias finally said with a sigh as he trotted over to the sets of armors. His own plate armor wasn’t the best suited for forcing his way through a forest. However, having predicted that someday they might need to venture into it, he requested a few sets of leather armor - made out of synthetic leather - and mail that were more appropriate for the task. “I will go after him, make sure he’s alright, give him his blade and armor, and that’s all.”
The moment he said it, he felt a heavy weight leave his heart. Matthias knew what it meant; the Light approved his choice to trust Storm.
“Are you certain it will be wise?” Zecora asked him. “It might be better to help him more before he cries.”
“He’s the one that’s trying to impress a mare,” Matthias replied with a smirk. “That’s something a guy has to do without help.”
“Stallions!” the zebra snorted. Matthias chuckled as he put on the armor. “I imagine this discludes my help entirely, as I am a mare and you see us lowly?”
The comment made him look at her with shock, “What?! I don’t-” the paladin quickly started, but she stopped him.
“Sorry, I couldn’t find a better rhyming,” she said with a chuckle. “But to relieve some tension, it was a good timing.”
“Um.. yes, right…” Matthias muttered, checking once more if he had everything: armor for Storm in saddlebags… Spring Binder was still in his quarters. As much as Matthias knew a sword was a worse weapon in a forest than polearm or a spear, it was Storm’s blade. He would need it. “I am thankful, of course, that you came to tell me that, but it will be embarrassing enough for Storm to have me come to his rescue. It has nothing to do with the fact that you are a mare,” Glancing at her, he looked into her eyes and said honestly: “I wouldn’t wish to face you in battle, and that’s saying much.”
He really meant it. Matthias could tell that the zebra in front of him was extremely dangerous; the fact that nopony besides him seemed to realize it - now - spoke well of her reluctance to show that part of her.
Zecora raised an eyebrow, but accepted the compliment with a smile. “No, you would not, but that works both ways. And there wouldn’t be a reason for us to fight, anyways.”
“For which I am glad; fighting against a friend is something I wouldn’t wish to anypony…” Matthias mused, looking around and trying not to think about his past.
It seemed that his fate had different plans for him, for his gaze rested upon the chest with his “trophies”. Recalling what weapons were stored inside, Matthias felt a sudden need to take some with him - just in case. He quickly trotted over to the chest, opened, and looked inside. He didn’t want a crossbow - he would need some time to practice using it with hooves first - and he hoped to scare beast away rather than wound them; polearm was also out, as he was already going to carry too much stuff. But the daggers would do fine.
Placing Heaven’s Fall, Stormfury and Tel’thas in the sides of his armor, Matthias closed the chest and made his way out of the armory. Zecora followed him as he headed towards the barracks, needing to get the Spring Binder as well before he could set out.
“May I point out a certain flaw in you plan?” Zecora’s question stopped him in his tracks. Confused, he glanced back and nodded. “Storm Clash flies; do you plan to run?”
Disappointed that his wise friend had assumed he hadn’t thought of that earlier, Matthias rolled his eyes and pointed up. Zecora’s gaze followed in that direction, and as her eyes grew wide, apprehension dawning on her.
 


 
The Light spread from his hoof to his outstretched wing, causing Storm to sigh with relief as the pain disappeared. He stopped to heal himself once he was certain that the manticore had given up on chasing him, which meant that he’s been running for a while now.
Now as he looked around, Storm could see that he was in a different part of the forest. The trees were more… twisted, their bark was much darker that before, and when he touched it, it cracked. Gazing at them now in the gentle moonlight made Storm feel uneasy.
Will the Eon Petals be like that?” he wondered, fearing that whatever had made the Everfree Forest to become so dark might have transformed the flowers into some… blackish thingy. But as soon as the thought appeared in his head, he shook it off; the moment he read this in the book Zecora gave him, he felt with his entire being that he had to get them for Rarity. Storm was going to find them… and if it would turn out that they were darkened, a prayer to the Holy Light should help him. “Enough loitering; I should get moving!
He needed to get a better view of the woods around him, so he flew up through a hole in the branches above the treetops. Making sure that the manticore was nowhere in sight, the pegasus began taking in the all the landmarks. After a few seconds he spotted a small hill nearby, and decided it was as good a place as any to start.
Once he reached it, his eyes widened in excitement. It would seem that his choice was right; at the side of the hill was an entrance to a cave that run underground.
If this doesn’t scream ‘This is the den of a forest’s spirit!’ I don’t know what does!
Storm jumped in joy and began descending down into the cave… when he remembered what exactly the legend said about what the Spirit and the Hero did in there. Yucking with disgustment, he used his wings to stay about half a meter above the ground… and after a brief consideration, he rose another half a meter. Satisfied, he flew into the cave.
 


 
“So…” Matthias said slowly, looking at the trashed and broken tree branches, “... do you also get a feeling that somepony had crash landed through them?”
Underneath him, Al’ar cawed without enthusiasm. Matthias just rolled his eyes and directed him to go lower. The Phoenix God wasn’t too happy about serving as his mount, and it took some convincing (and threatening to tell Fluttershy on him) to have him agree to this. Apparently, their flight over the Everfree Forest didn’t do much to improve his mood.
Once Al’ar was close enough, Matthias jumped off his back and landed on one of the sturdier branches. “Fly over me and stay close; if I find Storm, I’ll want to get out of this forest as soon as possible,” “And there is also the fact that those three manticores we passed on our way here flew the other way at the mere sight of him,” “If you see Storm flying somewhere, let me know.”
Al’ar cawled reluctantly and took to the sky, while Matthias made his way carefully through that hole in the barricade of branches as leaves left by Storm. He wondered what caused the pegasus to land so poorly. “He isn’t as good flier as Rainbow Dash, but he wouldn’t crash through those trees if something hadn’t disturbed his flight,” Matthias mused as he jumped down from the lowest branches and landed on the ground. “Maybe he encountered some rogue winds? Or maybe-
A sudden howl erupted from behind him.
-or maybe a manticore attacked him,” Matthias rolled his eyes as he turned around.
By the time it took him to channel the power of the Light to compel the manticore to flee, its outstretched jaws were just inches away from his neck. Much too close for comfort, but it was a better option that dodging away and counterattacking, which would get him in trouble with Fluttershy if she ever found out.
At least now I know that Storm managed to get away from it,” the paladin thought as he looked at the fleeing beast. “It wouldn’t be so eager to attack me if it had a full belly. Anyway, I’d better get tracking,” he added, searching for clues as the where Storm runoff to after landing.
His fondness of animals, which he had since he was a child, rebounded on him. Due to it he never had any particular joy for hunting, unlike other royalties he knew, like Varian. The only time he could now think off that he gladly had killed an animal - prior to… everything, that is - was when an old lady from a village outside of Lordaeron that he and Uther had visited told him that she lost a leg in a wolf attack. Arthas had gone into the wild, and came back with pelts of three to serve as her blankets. As such, he was still skilled enough to manage to now find the trail left behind by Storm.
As he set off after his paladin, Matthias once again cursed that he couldn’t just reach out with his senses to locate him. The Everfree Forest was too overflowing with magic, and probably was to begin with, but with whatever it was that tainted it, it became even worse, and it left his sensing abilities suppressed.
 


 
The cave had gone much deeper that Storm had expected. If he gauged everything correctly, was now trotting - as he gave up on flying once his head hit a stalactite one time too many - through the fourth sixth feet below the ground level. He was thankful that the cave didn’t have any separate corridors other than the one he was travelling; the thought of getting lost here was terrifying.
Although, I suppose this makes it a bad place for a den,” the pegasus mused; throughout the entire way down, he was illuminating his surroundings with the Light that emanated from his right wing - although, there were cracks in the ceiling above here and there, letting in some of the moon’s light - and saw nothing other than rocks, stalagmites, rocks, stalactites, and more rocks. “Might as well go ba-aaa? What is that?
His gaze was captivated by something greenish that lay under one of the bigger cracks. Excitement rushed through Storm as he rushed to it, but is soon waned once he got a better look at it. It was nothing but some moss with a strange small ugly petals on it. And while Storm had no idea how exactly the Eon Petals look - it somehow skipped his mind to ask Zecora for a better description - but one sentence from the book spoke clearly in his mind:
By their own accord, the flowers sprouted in front of her muzzle, shining with its own light in the den of the Spirit.
So, I might as well just walk around here blindly, looking for anything shiny, huh?” he pondered as he leaned closer to the plant he found. “Then again, seeing how my luck went so far, it would probably be an Ursa Major,” he chuckled, but then something happened to immediately stop him.
The plant hissed, and sprayed some spore right into Storm’s face.
The pegasus began coughing and backed away, feeling suddenly light-headed. He rasped for air and tried to concentrate on a healing prayer, but he just.. couldn’t.
D-damn it…” Storm thought, sitting down. Everything was spinning around him. “I… I need to… get out… fresh air…
He raised his hindquarters from the ground and… “Where was the exit again?” the pegasus asked out loud, looking in daze at the cave. He noticed a small improvement with his surroundings; they stopped spinning, and instead were shaking.
Something flashed in the corner of his vision. Storm stopped turning around - which he didn’t even realized he was doing - and tried to focus. “It was.. there, right?” As if to answer his question, whatever it was, it flashed again. Having nothing better to do, Storm began trotting towards it.
It didn’t take him long to reach a dead end. Puzzled, he looked around for the source of those flashes, but it was nowhere in sight… that is, until he noticed it right above him. The ceiling was much higher than he remembered, but at this moment he wasn’t focused enough to think about it. He used his wings to propel himself up, trying to reach the light, but then another strange thing happened.
Something shifted, and Storm was no longer flying upwards, but in a straight line.
Confused, he landed on what was just a heartbeat ago a wall and now was the floor of the cave. Storm looked at it in consternation. Something didn’t seem right with what had happened…
Oh, another flash! But this time in the corridor on the left. His thoughts evaporating from the subject of… that thing that worried him, Storm began to follow it again. This time, he managed to go a bit further before something had again stopped him.
Except this distraction was far more welcome that the others.
“Storm?” Rarity’s voice sounded from behind him. Storm looked back at her, surprised. What was she doing here? “Storm, darling, please don’t go that way.”
Huh but hah?” he thought incoherently.
“But…” he managed to say somehow. “The flowers… the Eon Petals… they’re right there…”
“No, darling, they aren’t,” Rarity shooked her head; was it Storm’s imagination, or was she looking gravely worried? “Please, come back here.”
Storm’s confusion was reaching new levels of what the hay, but as the mare he adored asked him to go that way, he turned to her without much thought…
“Yeah, listen to that harlot like a pathetic squirt you are.”
The snide comment from behind (which a split second ago was at his front) made Storm bristle in fury, which, when he looked at the one that uttered and recognized him. Brute Hoof, and at his side the ever-inseparable goons of his, Snide Smile and Mocking Tone, the three colts that once, in kindergarten, used to be his friends, but once he had his accident, they turned his life into a living Tartarus for years.
“You think she actually cares about you?” Brute Hoof continued mockingly, probably not realising that Storm could now easily turn all three into a paste. “Where did you ever come up with that idea? That slut just wants a good laugh at you!”
“Shut up…” Storm growled, advancing on him
He was pissed, and for the moment, all of Sir Lightbringer’s teachings were thrown out of a mental window. Storm was going to vent a lot of his rage on the three colts that made him miserable in school and now insulted Rarity.
“Storm, please, don’t go over there!” she called after him.
He wasn’t listening. Such was his fury that his vision began to shake.
Brute Hoof, unfazed, smirked and said: “Crooked Jaw!”
With a roar, Storm lunged at him…and passed right through him, jumping over a vast, dark chasm, and hitting a rock column on the other side with his head.
The last couple of things his mind managed to record before the darkness overtaken him were the colt’s laughter, the shaking of everything around him, the sensation of falling... and Rarity’s crying.
 


 
“Damnit!” Matthias shouted as he bucked the rubble of boulders, rocks and stones, but it did not bulge.
He managed to find the cave into which Storm had ventured very easily, despite the track cutting off at some point - Matthias assumed the pegasus had just taken into the air - but even with all that, he was too late to get to his paladin before the cave-in happened.
Seeing that there was no way to remove the boulders that blocked his way, Matthias took a step back and concentrated. If Storm was close, and Matthias knew more or less the direction where he was, then even with this forest dampening his senses he should be still able to reach him.
He did not add that for this to work Storm had to be alive. There was no such possibility in his mind that said anything otherwise.
It took him a while, even though below the ground the corruption of the Forest wasn’t as effective, but Matthias found him. The paladin was far, far below the surface, and passed out, but alive. Sighing with relief, Matthias concentrated harder to try and check if Storm was alright. He couldn’t detect anything life-threatening, so he returned to his mind and pondered what to do next.
Storm was alive, but underground. Very deep underground. Matthias mind went back to reading about diamond dogs’ empire, which was located underground Equestria, and how Azjol-Nerub, the nerubian empire, was spanned practically everywhere across Northrend below the ground.
He must have fallen into some of their tunnels…” Matthias mused, trying to not think about anything bad that could happen to him down there. “I need to get to him.
Matthias looked at the rubble in consternation. He knew of one other place that could probably lead him underground, as it didn’t look that he would get to use this one, but he really, really, really didn’t want to try and go there again.
But, of course, he didn’t have much of a choice.
“Alright…” he murmured unenthusiastically as he began exiting the cave. “Let’s go wake up the bear.”
 


 
Saying that everything was spinning when Storm woke up would be an understatement. He was certain there wasn’t a word in a dictionary for the things to… go around, then backward forward, turn left, through and throughout, all the while beating him everywhere.
He groaned in pain as he rose from the rubble of rocks, trying to concentrate hard enough to heal himself. The walls had slowly cased their movements as he focused, and the Light appeared around his hooves, spreading slowly through his body and mending his wounds.
Once he was good to go, he finally tried to figure out what happened. The last thing he remembered was… jumping at those old bullies while Rarity was crying for him not to? Groaning from his own stupidity, the pegasus realized why he saw that: the plant he found must have drugged him and caused all those hallucinations. And by the looks of the rubble around him, he must have caused a cave-in, and fallen down from the huge space above him.
He contemplated just flying up, but considering the cave-in, he deemed it too risky, and instead tried to find a way out from this tunnel he was in. Storm looked around, and something immediately caught his attention; it was certainly not natural. The walls were too regular, and as the Light illuminated them, he saw marking on them, meaning that they must have been carved.
It’s probably some diamond dog’s tunnel,” he thought.
Storm recalled how he heard that Rarity was once captured by three of them and kept in their dungeons. “Was it somewhere here?” he wondered as he began trotting forward into the left side of the corridor. “No, this must be too far from Ponyville… probably. At this point, I’m not even sure…
Storm had to pause once he reached the end of the corridor to take a few, steady breaths. He did not want to think about how lost he was. That he might never find his way out of here. That he might never see the sunlight again… or moonlight.
That he might never see Rarity again…
Taking the last deep breath, he took a step forward, and entered… a chamber. Storm’s eyes widened when he saw the corridor grow wider, to the point where he would be able to fly in circles without the fear of hitting anything… besides the statue that stood by the side of the wall.
Glancing at the rubble on the other side of the chamber, Storm guessed that there must have been another one there as well, but he pushed the thought away as he looked closer at the stoned figure. It seemed that he was right; it was a statue of a diamond dog, although it looked a bit differently that the ones he saw in pictures in his schoolbooks. It stood straight, held a spear in his upper paw, it had an armor over its lower legs and naked torso, and his face… there was no idiocy there, but an expression that spoke of calm, rational mind within.
Storm took as step forward to it, fascinated… and in that moment, the statue came to life.
At first, it was just its head. It moved from where the other statue was supposed to stand to look at Storm, while he cringed in shock. Then it took a step towards him, and the next thing he knew, Storm had to dodge the strike of its spear.
Must be some sort of spell,” he thought as he tried to figure out what to do; he was without any weapon, and he doubted that his Light-given abilities were good enough to help him-
His train of thoughts was interrupted when his hoof tripped over some rocks causing him to fall to the ground. Cursing, he looked up, to see the spear raised and about to descend. Storm quickly began murmuring a prayer of protection - and trying to not think about what scolding he would receive from Sir Lightbringer for not paying attention to his surrounding during the fight - but then, to his confusion, he heard a thundering smack sound across the chamber.
Storm looked bewildered as something long wrapped around the statue’s raised arm, stopping it from delivering a blow, and jerked back so strongly that it pulled the whole diamond dog shaped thing. It fell on its back with a thud, breaking into pieces.
“You’re alright there, pal?” asked a feminine voice from behind it.
“Um…” Storm stuttered, not exactly expecting to stumble upon anypony down here. “Yes, thanks miss,” he said as the figure came closer, becoming slowly visible…
Storm gasped. That light gold coat. That dark olivine vest. That tan pith helmet. That grayscale rainbow mane. That whip under her wing. It… it couldn’t be…
“No problem, handsome,” his rescuer, Daring Do, replied with a smirk.