//------------------------------// // Ch III: Excito // Story: The Alicorn Chronicles: The Fall // by Jack-Pony //------------------------------// The next I knew, it felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from my chest. Without prompting, my lungs drew breath and warmth filled my limbs once more. Sensation returned to my stiff body, much as it would with a sleeping limb. My whole body felt cold and heavy, as if it were made of lead. I snapped awake with a gasp, as the realization flooded over me that I was dead. Not near death, but gone. This fact left me almost totally disorientated for a few moments, a terrible aching still residing in my gut. As I panted, trying to recover my breath, I desperately tried to rise to my hooves with the aid of my wings, but they had gone numb and would not respond. Looking back, I found that they were not numb, but absent altogether. My beautiful wings were gone! Disorientation fled, leaving panic in its wake. I mewled a disbelieving cry of despair. Even when I had broken my wings in the past, I knew that they would heal in short order and I would be back in the air in no time. Now… I slammed my eyes shut, grinding my teeth wishing to be anywhere but here. Someplace where this hardship could not find me, somewhere where I could hide. In hindsight, oh now like a wounded animal I was, seeking shelter from an unseen terror that I just knew was coming for me. I tried in vain to cast a spell, any spell, to remove me from this cold stone pedestal, but it was hopeless. I could feel no spell matrix, no organized magic heeding my call. It was only then that I realized my horn too was was numb and with a brush of my foreleg through my mane, I came to the world shattering realization that it too was gone. There was little now separating me from an earthbound pony, save my size… I was cold, I was alone, and maimed as I was, I felt naked to the world. Without my horn, I could not fight to defend myself. Without my wings, I could not even flee should there be the need. At that moment the fear overtook me and I felt a compulsion to run anywhere, but the here and now. I once again tried to rise to my hooves, but the smoothness of the marble plinth where I lay caught me unawares and I toppled over the edge to the stone floor below muzzle-first. Even as a foal I had not been so hapless, nor had I ever felt more vulnerable in my whole life. As I lay upon the floor, cradling my head, I did what anyone in such a situation would do, I curled into a ball and wept like a foal. This couldn’t be happening, I told myself, not to me. How could I have failed so spectacularly? It simply wasn’t possible. No, that was the only explanation. This had to be some sort of trick, some sort of hallucination. Though my face protested the idea that its suffering was anything but genuine. I had to find out. I had to know. Where was I? What had happened? But more importantly, was this real? Ponies don’t die and return to life. It just doesn’t happen. Death is the end of this journey and the beginning of a new one. Was it possible? Was it possible that I was...dead? No. The air smelled fragrantly of cooking apples. Dead ponies do not eat, so why would death smell like apples? My thoughts stopped on that point. Why would the afterlife be unpleasant? Why could it not smell like apple pie? Or a freshly cooked strudel? Though, personally, I would’ve preferred the smell of Stratocumulus or that scent foreboding a steady rainstorm. Then again, if this were the way things were to be, I think that I might… No. I could not be dead. I had too much to do to be dead, there were too many ponies that relied upon me, for me to be dead. I finally dared to open my eyes and look up. I found myself staring at one of the stone walls in Solstice Hold… How had I arrived hereupon? I wondered. Nothing immediately seemed any different. The walls were still of the same mason-work that they always had been and yet there was a part of me, deep within that screamed something was very wrong. Though for the life of me, I could not perceive what it was. The gentle clopping of a pony's hooves, followed by a startled whinny, echoed forth from the hallway to my right. I promptly hid my face behind my forehooves, wishing that I could simply be invisible at that moment. Go away, go away, go away… I pleaded silently, only for the sound of timid hoofsteps to break over me, the pony drawing ever nearer with each tentative step. Go away, go away, go away, go away! “...Dominus? Dominus, is that…are you…?” The stallion’s voice ventured nigh on a whisper. I looked up, just past the edge of my forehoof and through my bangs that had fallen over my eyes, right into the deep blue eyes of a very familiar earthen colored stallion. “C-Curans?” I stammered quietly. At the sound of my voice, a palpable sense of relief flowed over the stallion, a smile coming to his face and tears to his eyes. His legs trembled momentarily, before he fell to his rear with an incredulous chuckle and a shake of his head. “Please fates, if this is a dream, I would not have me wake.” He prayed quietly, his muzzle to the sky above. I too began to pray, albeit silently and with my eyes slammed shut. Please be a dream. Please be a dream. Please be a dream. Please be a dream! It was only when his warm hoof broke me from those dark thoughts with a muted gasp that I dared open my eyes. This time I noticed that he looked ragged. His mane was unkempt and his coat looked like it too had seen better days, were those burn marks? “Dominus, we...we thought you were gone, to the fields of Elysium…” Curans explained, “After Discord-” Realization washed over me that if I was thus, then Discord must still be on the loose, and a panic seized me. I stretched forward, grabbing the stallion by the shoulders and pulling him forward, almost taking him off his hooves. “Discord! Where is he!? We must marshal what mages remain-” I was abruptly silenced by a gentle hoof upon the mouth. At first I thought to strike him for so rudely silencing me, before I noticed the kindly smile about his countenance. “Rest easy, Dominus, Discord has been dealt with.” A look of utter confusion came over me as I released him, “H-how?” I stammered. “Thanks to your efforts in giving the miasma substance, we managed to locate the beast and petrify it.” I sighed and took several deep breaths, letting the relief flow through me, before I smiled gently. Even in my failure I had still won the day, so it seemed. I should not have doubted my ponies as I had. I looked at the jubilant stallion, before placing a hoof upon his shoulder. “Of course you can take care of yourselves, I should not have worried.” As I spoke, his smile fell and a somber look came about him, his happiness gone, “What? What is it?” “I…” He started, only to sigh. “Speak.” I commanded him sternly, perhaps more so than I should have and he jumped slightly, not used to hearing that tone from myself, before I sighed… “I’m sorry. Please, tell me, what is it?” “In your absence, Everfree…” He took a deep breath, having great difficulty addressing what ailed him, “Discord’s reign took a heavy toll upon us.” “That bad?” I inquired, only to receive a nod, “Show me.” “Dominus, I don’t think that’s wise…” He suggested placatingly. “No, I must see for myself. Please, help me to my hooves?” With his aid, I rose to shaky hooves, not unlike the first steps of a foal, unsteady and tentative. It was almost like learning how to walk all over again, trotting with my shoulder against his. At the time, I didn’t notice just how quiet the halls were, or how empty the place seemed. Thus, it came as a great surprise to see the Miletas - the heavily armored earthbound stallion, a member of my self-declared personal guard - at the front door stop and gawk. His jaw fell and his eyes nearly leapt from their sockets. “Dominus...is-is that…? Can it be?” He stammered is disbelief. “It is, and I am. Open them for me.” I gestured to the doors he guarded. “O-of course, milord!” He exclaimed, taking to his task with even more gusto than usual. The pony put his shoulder into the door, opening it to reveal the evening sky, already turning motes of red, pink and orange. In the distance a few wispy clouds painted the sky the color of slate and lilac. It was a beautiful evening. The air was cool and the ambiance was quiet. It was an evening that I wished I could’ve shared with Courtland. A startled whinny drew my attentions back earthward. “D-Dominus…?” Another Miletas stammered in exclamation, before throwing himself to his chest upon the ground. What I saw was heartrending, stallions I had known since colthood throwing themselves to the cobblestone and weeping openly. The motes of shock, surprise, exuberance, elation, and disbelief flowed over me like a river over stone. I regarded the growing crowd with nigh overwhelmed awe. That was when it struck me, I had been dead. Not sure what else to do, I gently lifted a hoof. “Please, everyone…?” I pleaded, only to stop, unsure of what to say at all. “Everyone back to your duties, I’m sure Indomite will give everyone his blessing once he has rested.” Curans directed firmly, drawing a curious gaze from me, “What? Sometimes a doctor needs to give orders too.” I nodded solemnly. I think Curans was one of the few ponies that even I would listen to without question. Since the passing of my father, he had always been there when I had needed him most, as a good doctor should be. As everyone went back to their posts, the two of us walked slowly up the many steps of the nearby gatehouse that lead to the top of the walls of Solstice Hold. I shakily placed my hooves upon the crenelations and leaned forward to regard Everfree and as I did, a gentle breeze blew over the battlements and I shivered. Even if the breeze had been one from a heated oven, the sight below would’ve chilled me to the bone. Everfree...she was scarred. Everywhere I looked there was damage. Bridges, aqueducts, granaries, and the majority of the Eastern Quarter was little more than a heap of shattered masonry. I felt a comforting hoof on my shoulder and I asked the question that I dared not hear the answer to… “How many…?” My voice came out in a whisper. “It looks to be a quarter, with an equal number wounded. The mages are doing their best to heal everyone, but there are so many…” Curans replied solemnly, before I collapsed against the cold stone of the fortifications, “Chin up, Indomite, it’s not all bad.” I turned around with a vengeful glare, “What part of this is good?” I growled. “Discord is contained and we are triumphant, Everfree yet lives…” He said placatingly, removing his hoof from me and waving it in an equally placating gesture. I sighed deeply and turned to regard the city once more, “But at what cost, Curans? At what cost…?” I mused, “Where are we to put the bodies?” “We are burning them.” He replied gently. “What?” I exclaimed quietly in breathless surprise as I nearly wrapped my head against the stones of the battlements, “The earthbound and unicorns agreed to such a thing?” “There is little choice. There are so many corpses and too few ponies to dig graves, or cast the spells for entombment.” He shook his head. “I see. It is just difficult to fathom…” I admitted, shaking my head in exasperation. “Then Dominus is right with his people, even those of us who survived can scarcely comprehend what has transpired. Hundreds of ponies are inconsolable, broken not physically, but mentally.” He sighed, his empathic pain rolling off of him, “They scream by night and cry with the dawn, only to sleep through the day. I don’t know what to do...?” “You will find a way, Curans, you always do.” I said with a gentle, reassuring smile that brought a semblance of comfort to him, just knowing that there was someone that believed in him. “Of course I will…” He said with a weak chuckle that he barely believed himself. “Of course you will.” I declared more firmly, with a nod. There was a brief hesitation from him, “Thank you, Indomite, I needed that.” I merely nodded in response, before turning back toward the city below and leaning my head upon the cool stone. What am I supposed to do now? A thought then crossed my mind. “Where is he?” I asked hollowly. “Who?” Curans asked in confusion. “Discord, where is he?” I replied, pulling myself from the crenelations. “The gardens…” He pointed a hoof to the practical labyrinth of hedges and shrubbery that lay nearby. “I need to see him.” I stated blandly. “Are you sure?” Curans asked me, only to receive a stern gaze reminding him not to question me too much, “If you’re sure…” I nodded and we were off. * * * I no longer needed him to assist me in walking, though my pace into the gardens was only that of himself. I doubted I could go much faster at the moment, I felt drained and weakened in such a way that I never had before. Our silence continued as we entered the gardens. The stone paths through the elaborate hedges and rows of flowerbeds led to the center of the garden where he awaited us. Surrounded by cobblestone paths, stood the macabre statue of Discord, flash frozen in the moment of time that was his defeat. I stood before him, glaring into those dull eyes and he stared back into mine. He was not dead, merely entrapped, encased in a prison of stone. A fact that became very obvious as he loosed a screaming roar of rage. “You!” His damning voice accused me, “It’s because of you that I’m trapped like this! What did you do to me!?” He wailed. “What did you do to me?” I shouted back at him. “I didn’t do anything to you…” He growled promptly. “You tried to kill me and then maimed me! Look at me, my horn, my wings! What did you do to me!?” I screamed at the frozen monster, throwing my hooves up onto the plinth where he stood, so that I might be closer to his face. “Kill you I did, but not well enough, it would appear.” He chided, “Because of you, I’m frozen like this!” “No less than you deserve. Consider yourself lucky, if it were I that had finished you off, I would’ve banished you to Tartarus!” Suddenly, the voice of Curans spoke up from behind me, “Indomite… Who are you speaking to?” He asked me quietly, a concerned look upon his face. I promptly stepped back down and turned my neck around to him, “What do you mean, ‘who am I speaking to’? Discord, right in front of me!” I proclaimed, jabbing an accusatory hoof toward the statue. He looked back and forth between us skeptically… “Curans, don’t look at me like that...can you truly not hear his words within your mind?” “The ponies cannot hear my words.” Discord stated defeatedly. “No, I cannot.” The earthbound stallion shook his head gently. “Then fetch me a maul so that I may rid us of his presence once and for all!” I demanded with a stomp of my hoof. “I can’t do that-” “Why not?” I glared at him angrily. “Because your kin said that if it were to break, he would be released.” Curans explained, only I wasn’t really listening to the other half. “My kin? What do you mean, my kin?” I asked, cautiously stepping toward him. “The two alicorns that-” My eyes bulged at his revelation, as I swept forward placing my hooves on his shoulders, “Don’t taunt me, Curans…” “I do not jest, Dominus. They were within, the last I knew…” His eyes motioned back toward Solstice Hold. I had been so distracted with events, that as I stormed off eagerly towards the keep, I did not notice that the sun had finally receded and the moon had crested the horizon. Nor did I take any further notice of Discord in his frozen form. Curans was forced into a full sprint to keep up. "You'll never be rid of me..." His voice laughed quietly to himself. Though, not entirely to himself… “What were you and my sister discussing?” The mare’s voice asked sharply. “Why, I wasn’t speaking to anyone…” Discord spoke mischievously.