//------------------------------// // Level 11 - Eclipse // Story: Dead Heart // by Leila Drake //------------------------------// The meeting with Mara and Spirit in the afternoon turned out to be pretty boring. Twilight had prepared a checklist (no surprise there) and everyone had to sit down and work it through from the top. This included going through Twilight's notes from the previous day to get Mara and Spirit up to date - and searching approximately sixty books for ghost references and collecting the information on a whiteboard Spike had set up in the library. Needless to say that Pinkie Pie and Rarity had quickly made their way out before Twilight could shove a notepad into their hooves. Priest envied them for it. A lot. He would probably have done the same thing if he had not promised to help Mara with this. He was almost as fast at reading as Twilight and had managed to check off eighteen books already when the alicorn finally suggested to take a short break. Mara threw her hooves up. "Thank Celestia!" Spirit Rez grinned and put the book he had been skimming through onto one of the piles. "We actually found out that the ghost is real and that there have been previous sightings of spirits. Come on, it's not that bad." "Says the pony who doesn't have to turn the pages by hoof. I hate being this slow compared to everypony else." She huffed and crossed her front hooves. "I mean, we can't really do anything except wait for the ghost to reappear and I'm not looking forward to that." Her coltfriend simply shrugged apologetically and joined Twilight and Priest in the kitchen. "Come on. You, too, Spike, I'm sure Twilight won't mind if you leave that whiteboard alone for fifteen minutes." "Fourteen!", corrected Twilight, calling from the kitchen. Spike rolled his eyes. - - - Princess Celestia stifled a yawn and lowered her cup of tea to its saucer. This would drag on for another two hours, wouldn't it? She was slowly starting to look forward to the second half of Day Court. There was no getting around this meeting until then. A representative of the Royal Guard was currently explaining to twenty-eight new recruits - pegasi, earth ponies and unicorns alike - the importance of diligence, practice and perseverance, a task that Celestia was certainly not needed for. She had made it custom to visit the Guards' premises on a regular basis for her presence had proven an efficient means of encouragement and inspiration (ranging from, "Pay attention, you featherbrains, the Princess might be watching!" to, "Y-y-you're the reason why I swore to defend Equestria!"). It was one of those days again and as usually she would smile serenely at her beloved little ponies that did their best to maintain order in Equestria and at the same time think about matters such as letters from her subjects. Twilight Sparkle was not the only one who wrote letters to her but the message that had arrived this morning still occupied Celestia's mind. She had ordered one of the librarians, Turning Leaf, to find a book called, "The Most Rare Ande Unheard-Of Syghtings" and bring it to her chambers. She was almost completely certain that the book might aid her former student in shedding some light on the mystery of the apparition at Sugarcube Corner. However, she still had not written an answer. It would have to wait until the hour when her beloved sister raised the moon which, at this moment, felt more than a decade away. - - - When Mara and Spirit left, it was late in the afternoon and Twilight allowed Spike to spend some time with his friends. She smiled at the thought that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had finally started to accept other ponies – and dragons – into their group. Spike prepared a backpack and hurried outside with a huge grin. When Twilight had asked him about what he was planning, he simply had said, "It's a surprise." However, the day was far from over. It bugged the alicorn that something was wrong with Priest's magic. She had dedicated her entire life to studying magic and the discovery of several new branches by itself was amazing. During her time at Azeroth, Twilight had used the chance to ask Priest and Tak about theirs – light and spirit magic – and they had told her that there was even more. Pyromancy, shadow magic, ice spells, the nature magic of the hunters... the list went on and on. When Priest had told her that he couldn't perform any of his own spells anymore, Twilight was deeply shocked. It was the first time that she was witnessing one of these new branches failing someone who had practiced them for such a long time that it had become second nature to him. On top of that, she had a feeling that Priest was hiding something from her. She decided to put all her strength into helping him to get his magic back. The first course of action was to determine what was blocking the spells. Priest insisted that he could still feel the presence of the Light so the source wasn't the problem. What else could it be? She started asking him more questions and made sure to cross-reference his statements with the research she had been doing on the arcane flows of magic in Equestria. It wasn't a counterspell. It wasn't a magic barrier. Tartarus, it wasn't even a common curse! She wondered whether ponies might be attuned to different kinds of residual magic. Both times Priest had tried to heal somepony, it had been a pegasus. Tests with Rainbow Dash (who heartily expressed her annoyance at getting hooked up to a machine that measured her residual magical output instead of being able to practice her moves) resulted in confirmation of the thesis that ponies did have an affinity to light magic, regardless of their race. At dinnertime, Priest convinced her to stop her research for the day, claiming the ability to devour a kraken. She decided to reward his patience and save the kraken with her freshly conjured mana cupcakes. It turned out that she had chosen the right moment to use the new spell. A happy smile on his face, Priest assured her that she had not overdone it with her tests. - - - Spike returned an hour after that, a tired yet content smile on his face. "Hey Spike, how was it?", asked Priest who sat on the couch, drawing sketches of new gemcuts into a notebook. "Pretty good", replied the dragon, "We almost finished up the, er, what we were doing." "'Kay. Nice." "How was your afternoon? Did Twilight insist on more research?" "You bet", confirmed Priest with a wry smile. "Does she always get like that? When she tried to create a portal to get home, I thought that was understandable, but this..." Spike grinned and shrugged. "Yep, she gets like that when there's a mystery to solve. You've got two options, mate: Play along – or duck and cover." "Light, save me from the Alicorn of Research Papers", joked Priest, getting a snicker from Spike. "Well, I hope it will because I can't", he said. "Night, Priest." "Night." The dragon made his way upstairs. A hearty burp suddenly reverberated through the library, accompanied by an eerie green light. It was coming from upstairs. "The fuck?", muttered Priest. The baby dragon scrambled down the stairway, holding a scroll and a bulky book in his grasp. "Where's Twilight?", he asked. The undead simply pointed at the kitchen with his thumb. "Thanks!" Spike ran over to Twilight, almost dropping the enormous tome on the way. A few moments later he returned, the corners of his mouth twitching. "Brace yourself, Priest, Twilight just got a book from Princess Celestia. It's really old, really rare and really relevant to ghosts..." The human just let out a long sigh and resumed his drawing. - - - Priest sat in the dark, hoping that Twilight would take her time to drool over the new book. He didn't mind her trying to help per se, she was a nice pony and good company after all, it was just that he needed his privacy once in a while. That's why he had insisted on postponing the rest of the research. After his death, he had drawn great strength from the fact that the magic of the Light had not left him. It had been the only constant in the years that had followed. He hadn't had any real friends, just... allies. It wasn't that bad, really, just... lonely. If I had to choose between a solitary, simple life or a social, complicated one... I'm not sure anymore. Being with Twilight and Rarity has been more than pleasant. The others are okay, too. Mostly. Never thought I'd ever say that ponies are my friends. Now he didn't feel as if he had a choice anymore. He could always leave town, though, if it turned out to be too much. The thing was, if his abilities wouldn't come back, he would have a problem. He wasn't the strongest fighter, not even a very fast one. If you needed a caster who stood in the background, protecting the group with prayers and chanting the occasional offensive spell, he was the right guy – but anything else? He would probably be useless if he got into a fight in Equestria. Priest walks along the path of the Everfree Forest. A rustling from a nearby bush makes him stop. As he turns around, a manticore leaps towards him, pinning him to the ground with its heavy paws. Lying motionless, he can do nothing as it raises its poisonous scorpion tail- Urgh, great, now I have to get that image out of my head. He shifted around on the couch and put his feet up to get more comfortable. No, leaving wasn't really an option. It was very unlikely he'd find work outside of Ponyville either. "Excuse me, I saw the note at the door. You're looking for a jeweler, right? I've got plenty of experience..." "Oh, I-I-I'm terribly sorry, M-mister, but we only employ P-ponies here..." Priest leaned his head back, staring at the ceiling. Nice sun ornament. Never noticed that one before. He could hear Twilight upstairs, trying her best not to wake up Spike as she went to sleep. Some hoofsteps, then silence. That picture looks a lot like that Cutie Mark of Celestia's, he mused. The alicorn that can raise the sun. That's so damn overpowered I can't even compare it to anything. Maybe her sister takes care of the moons, then. Moon, he remembered. There's just one and it's a similar size as the sun. My sun is so much further away from my world. This place is so strange! Wonder what it would be like... to be able to magically touch the Celestial Lights. The feeling of power must be inconceivable. And they are really good at their job, too. I could go outside and have a look at the night sky... Maybe tomorrow. I wonder what would happen if Celestia forgot to lower the sun... Priest walks through Ponyville, carrying a bag with apples from the market. He notices a strange gleaming in the corner of his eye. Some townsponies let out gasps of surprise as the moon rises. The sun is still in the sky so it is not a full moon as it has been the previous days. The crescent moon moves closer to the sun, following her on the ecliptic and getting slimmer with each mile. It accelerates with a sudden burst of energy, shortening the distance between itself and its counterpart with every second. The earth starts shaking as gravity suddenly refuses to work properly. Ponies, market stands, carriages, flower pots... everything starts floating around. The bag of apples escapes Priest's hands and vanishes between the rushing clouds. Priest desperately tries to hold on to a bit of fence as howling winds further upset the town. The roofs get ripped off the small Ponyville houses, screaming ponies try to hold on to something, anything, as they get sucked upward by an irresistible current of chilling air. Several pegasi try to calm the weather but have to give up when the gale throws them around like straw. Priest bets he can hear a distant laughter of a single amused creature. No problem guessing who that might be. The fence he is holding on to starts shaking violently, unable to withstand the force of nature. A gust of wind rips it apart and Priest falls upwards as nothing can prevent his movement anymore. His speed increases as he gets drawn towards the colliding sun and moon. The two celestial bodies touch, then merge. A deep red light expands from them, bathing the entire atmosphere in an eerie glow. Priest panicks as he tries to escape his fate. A scream of fear escapes him, unheard in the deafening noise of the winds rushing towards the dark hole. Who'd have thought he would, of all things possible, fall into a crimson pit created by an unlikely sun and its sister? He's going to get crushed by it any moment - - - - Priest sat up with a gasp. It was dark and it took him a moment to realize he had been sleeping again. He shook his head to escape the images in his head. His limbs were shaking and if he had a heartbeat it would probably be racing at an unhealthily high rate. Priest slapped himself to get it together. The dream had felt so real! He rose and shuffled to the bathroom – never needed to go there before – and managed to figure out how the faucet worked. Priest held his hands under the flowing water and drank some, then he washed his face. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, opening them again as he exhaled. The anxiety slowly dissipated, and after some moments the shaking subsided as well. Now that's way better. What in the name of the Light was that? A nightmare? Probably. Well great, sleep I don't mind but I could really do without dreams. He took a fresh towel from the counter that stood next to the bathroom sink and dried his face off. The undead stared at his reflection in the oval, ornamented looking glass. He realized it had been a while since the last time he had looked into a mirror. Maybe avoiding his image after death had not been such a good idea. Naturally, the mirror hung at a pony's eye level. Priest had to bend down a little to see more than his chest. He still looked mostly the same though. The white hair was shorter, of course, thanks to Rarity's treatment. It didn't get into his eyes anymore which was a big plus. A bit messy... He'd fix that in the morning. He had somehow remembered the injuries on his cheeks to be bigger, though. The smaller one on his right cheek was not bigger than an olive in diameter. His eyes still emitted the faint yellow light that indicated his curse of undeath. In short, same old. Priest noticed a faint, unknown scent in the air. Was that soap? Probably not, soap was supposed to smell like pretty flowers or something. This smelled more like someone else had been in the room. Did Twilight have a visitor that Priest didn't know about? He knew that Spike and Owliscious lived here but they had a different scent. He shrugged and went back to the couch. The inspection had calmed him enough to give that sleeping routine another try.