We sense much darkness in them. Very nice......
Yesss......they will do....
....We were not finished fool.....They are too good, they favor the light, the darkness cant grow.....
The light will have its uses in time...remember who is in control here
HAHAHAHA.....We laugh at your insolence..... Have you forgotten whose power brought them here?
Yesss, but who's spell was it? Without me, you would be a forgotten memory.
You pathetic foal! We have been alive longer then you could imagine! We can never be forgotton!
Enough! We waste time bickering amongst ourselves....Is everything ready?.........
......Yes, her alignment with the heart falters even now......
Excellent..... now is the time.
(Vincent's POV)
The hell.... who were those voices?...
I could slowly feel myself waking up. My basic senses were kicking in, and the first thing I noticed was multiple sounds around me. Whatever the hell was going on was making a lot of noise. I honestly didn't really want to move, just laying here felt great. My body felt like it just went 12 rounds with Mike Tyson, I had no energy to do anything, save for curling my fingers slightly. I tried to speak, but I just felt my mouth make random, uncoordinated movements, like it was numb or something. Whatever was making those noises was getting closer, and in my grogginess I started to panic. My head felt like it weighed a million pounds but the extra adrenaline being pumped into my system gave me the strength to lift my head up slightly, and then the pain came.
GOD IT HURT. Where the rest of my body had been sore or just rather heavy, my head felt like I had rammed it into a wall.
A concrete wall. Reinforced with titanium plating. Did I mention I was also going at 100 mph?
I subconsciously let out a groan, resting my head back on whatever I was laying on. My head making contact with, I'm assuming the ground, caused a wave of pain to roll through my head. Dam. What the fuck happened? The noises I was hearing were really close now, but instead of the unintelligible sounds that I had originally heard, they were actually starting to sound like speech.
"es.....eee......k?" I heard one voice ask.
"ro! o! ....an...yo.....er......e? " Another seemed to speak, or did it reply to the first one? And why did those voices sound so familiar?
Uh..... to much thinking.... My head was still hurting, but it was slowly turning into a throbbing pain, rather then the freaking sledgehammer to my head. I just wanted to block everything out and just lay here peacefully. Unfortunately, a light the goddamn intensity of the sun was blasted into my vision as I felt my left eye being forcefully opened.
"AHHHHHHHH!" I yelled, pain shooting into my head again from the brightness. I naturally reacted, swatting whatever had opened my eye with my left arm. I felt my arm make contact with something soft, but at the moment all I was concerned with was my vision.Even with my eyes closed again, I could still see white. The voices spoke again, this time one sounded pissed.
"So........itch!" One voiced hissed. I was able to make out this time that it sounded feminine. Dam, it was really familiar, where the hell did I know that voice?
The other voice seemed to chuckle at the other. Huh. That one actually sounded like my bro, Jon. He would be the kind of guy to laugh at that kinda shit. Wait. My bro? That's right! I had a brother, Jonathan Rodriguez! My name is Vincent Rodriguez.....
As my brain started up again as my synapses where firing on all cylinders now, the fog that I had been in started to clear. My originally dull senses where coming back to normal. I actually managed to open my eyes slightly, I was still seeing spots, but I managed to actually get my first look at where I wast at. It was dark. No, correction, dim. I could see brighter lights in the corners of my vision. I forced my still aching body up, it fighting me all the way.
"Uhhhhhhhhhh" I groaned out, moving my hand to my forehead.
"Hey, welcome back to the world of the living bro!", my brothers voice blasted in my ear. Fucccccckkkkkk. That was loud. Why does everything I do bring me pain? My bro didn't exactly have an inside voice either. Literally. He was loud. Always. Worst fucking person you'd want to be with when your hungover.
"Dammit, lower your goddamn voice" I hissed out. I spotted him out of the corner of my vision crouching next to me, a small light illuminating the area around him from something in his hand. I found myself looking into a mirror image of me. No shit, were twins. Where I prefer to leave my black hair short, he had grown his out, now sporting a small ponytail. Ah, Who was I kidding? He was just too damn lazy to get a haircut. He also had his ears pierced, the tiny studs slightly reflecting some of the light. His body tone was considerably off from mine, but that's because I preferred working out over video games. Don't get me wrong, I love me some battlefield, you just gotta know when to put the controller down. My brother was still figuring that out.
"My bad", he said, his voice much bit lower. He then looked to the side of me as a small smile crept on his face. Before I could question it, I felt a rather hard punch against my shoulder. Seriously, pain. We need to stop meeting like this.
"Ow", was all I could reply as I looked to my left, spotting my assailant kneeling next to me, a brunette with teal eyes that were locked on me. If looks could kill, well I would be six feet under. She was clutching part of her maroon tank top, rubbing the right side of her well endowed chest. It only took me a moment to realize who it was, my friend( and somewhat personal trainer) Maria Delfurro. Now, your probably wondering why she was my personal trainer, well, cant really answer that without giving up some of her background. First off, her dad was a mixed martial arts teacher and owned his own business. Second, she's a daddy's girl. See where I'm going with this? Well, needless to say, daddy's girl picked up a few things, like how to kick ass.
A lot of ass.
At one point, she asked me to come along and join her for some friendly sparring. When I asked her why, she shrugged and replied with "I need a new punching bag". If we hadn't been friends since we were kids I would have been scared. Hell, I wont lie, she kicked my ass. What d you expect though? She was trained by her dad for years. I wasn't a pushover in a fight, but you know when your outclassed. She had so much 'fun' that she wanted to spar more. Eventually, I was going everyday, and I gotta say, the results were pretty sweet. I had gained quite a bit a muscle from our 'workouts' and I sure as hell was more then capable of kicking anyone's ass in a fair fight, that is if Maria didn't get to them first. Seriously, that girl was the female version of Rocky.
Actually, that isn't that great of a reference. Screw it, they're both Italian. Bite me.
Wait, was Stallone even Italian? Moving on.......
The girl was a Venus fly trap. Beautiful, but deadly. I cant tell you how many guys she shot down trying to ask her out. The more persistent ones, well.... they faced a bit harder rejection. We we're friends though, so I didn't think about her like that.
Said no man EVER.
Maria knows what she wants too. Although we didn't got to far in the romantic department, we did hit each other up for some casual sex here and there. But right now? I was lucky if she didn't destroy me.
"You hit me in my boob you ass." So that's what I hit. Makes sense. Alright, here was my brother and my friend crouching next to me in a dark...cave? I actually didn't really know where I was or what the hell was going on.
"What the fuck happened?" I asked, finally getting a good look around. For starters, we were all wearing hiking gear, backpacks, boots, shorts, the works. I still couldn't really tell where we were at, but it definitely looked like a cave, but there was actually some stalagmites jutting from a few points. The place looked like nothing had even lived here before, or was living.And that bright ass light that nearly blinded me? They're I-phones, seriously, its actually a pretty effective flashlight.
"You..don't remember what happened?" My brother asked nervously. Seriously it didn't sound ominous at all.
"No, though my head hurts like hell" placing a hand on my forehead for good measure.
"Shit, you probably have a concussion." Maria said, motioning my brother closer.
"And how did that happen? I hit my head on a rock or something?"
My bro seemed to find something pretty funny about that, as he started to snicker. "Hehehe, you could say that."
A glare from Maria shut him up rather quick.
"I don't find any of this funny Jon.We're lucky were not dead right now, or at the very least horribly injured" My brothers smile quickly faded, replaced by a downcast look as he said in a low voice "Just trying to make light of the situation".
Ok. Back that up. Dead? Horribly injured?
"Alright, I want answers. Where are we, what the fuck is going on, and why are we supposedly not dead? " I was serious right now. Something was going on, and I was being left out of the loop. I hate that. A lot.
My smart ass of a brother decided to ignore me and antagonize Maria even more. "Well, maybe we are dead and this is hell?"
She actually smirked at that, " Well, if I was him, I wouldn't want you up there either."
" I can tell you both right now were not in hell, considering it doesn't exist in the first place", a new voice spoke.
Right. Fucking behind me. I almost flipped my shit. I instinctively scrambled to my feet, only to trip and land face first into the hard, unforgiving cavern floor. Again, I was introduced to my old friend, pain. Despite this, I forced myself to stand, only to be greeted by a familiar face. Standing in the spot I assumed I had originally been in, was my best friend, Cole Henderson. The tall, lanky asshole was probably as surprised as I was, as he looked just as shocked.
"Sorry man, didn't mean to scare you like that. I figured you heard me coming and were just busy talking to Maria and Jon. Glad your finally awake though, you seemed like you took the fall the worst" .
" Uh, fall?" I needed some clarification here.
"Ya, you know, when the freaking ground collapsed under us and we fell who knows how far?" . My look of confusion caused one of his own in turn. He looked toward Maria and my bro.
"Maria thinks he probably has a concussion. He probably doesn't remember what happened" my brother explained.
Cole sighed as he ran a hand through his dirty blond hair, rough fulling it slightly. "Shit. We'll, that complicates things. The rest of our injures aren't that bad, but if you got a concussion, that could turn serious. We're lucky you actually woke up, that could have been bad".
To prevent even more confusion, my bro spoke up again.
"Landed on my arm, it hurts. Didn't break anything tho" he shrugged.
"I might have sprained my ankle, but it's nothing I can't deal with, might need some help walking though." Maria stated.
" My back to most of the fall, but I don't think there is any real damage, might leave a nasty bruise though. And you, well you hit your head" Cole finished. Alright. So I'm starting to put the pieces together. They keep mentioning a fall, and I'm assuming we landed here or they moved me here, considering it sounded like they had been active for awhile. Still, I was just going on bits and pieces.
"Ok, I guess I have a concussion, because I have no idea where we are or why were here and since everyone else knows what going on, mind filling me in Cole?"
"I think the past can wait for a moment, considering our present needs the most attention" he said somewhat ominously. I raised an eyebrow at this, and noticed that the others seemed to more concerned then before.
"Alright, so I'm guessing we got a good news, bad news situation here. I want the good news first" I deadpanned.
He just shrugged. " I wouldn't exactly consider it that way, but there is some good news, some bad news, and some worse news. I suppose Ill start with the good", he took a deep breath before continuing, " Ok, while you were out Vince, I managed to do a little exploring. You might be surprised by this, but it looks like were in a mine, not a cave. I found a few tracks down that way" he gestured over his shoulder. "Now, I think they're our best bet, considering that the tracks are on a slight grade, so all we have to do is follow them up, and that should lead us to the entrance, or at the very least closer to the surface. Now for the bad news. Im not entirely sure on this, but its best to go with it anyway. I don't think this mine has a sustained air supply. I'm no expert, but I don't feel any air currents... and have any of you noticed the air? " , at this he motioned around us. I sniffed, and something did smell, though I was unsure if that was me or the air. I took in a few deep breaths as well, and I tasted something strange as well. Bitter? Air isn't exactly supposed to have a taste in cave. Lovely. I looked over to my bro and Maria, who seemed to be drawing the same conclusions.
" If your having the same experience, then it looks like its confirmed"
"Uh, quick question here, but.... there's no chance for poison gas right?" my brother asked. Fuck, he would go there.
".....I actually didn't consider that."
Well.
FUCK.
I think all our faces got considerably paler at that. "Well, at least ..hehe, we used our phones instead of a match, right?"
"Yes, because suffocating to death is such a better fate then being incinerated." Maria added, not looking amused in the slightest.
" Cole, just continue, we don't exactly have time to spare here". I rested my head in my hands, its allot to take in a few minutes.
He must've been feeling the same thing, as he took a deep sigh. "Well, that pretty much rapped up the bad news. Now, for the worst news. Our supplies are dangerously low. We didn't exactly plan on being away from the camp for too long, and there's no telling how long we'll be down here-
"If we don't suffocate or die from poison first" , Jon just had to mention.
".........Right. That. Anyways, we managed to go over our supplies while you were out Vince. We've got about 2 to 3 days of food if we ration it, and about 5 days of water if we ration it too. We've also got 4 flashlights not including our phones,2 lighters, a few first aid kits, some hunting knives, cant say those might come in handy, a tarp, fire making material, and a...flare gun" . At this, Cole looked over to my bro, who shrugged. "Never know when your going to need it".
"Besides the flashlights, food, and water, none of that stuff is going to help right now" I deadpanned.
"Which is why I think we should get going, the longer we stand idle, the greater chance of something bad happening. Everyone in agreeance?"
Each of us nodded to Cole in turn, and personally, I was tired of sitting on the dam cave floor. I tried to get up, and nearly kissed the cavern floor again. Luckily, Cole helped stabilize me in time.
"I'm ok, I'm ok. Just a blood rush is all" , I tried to wave him off.
"Easy man, don't strain yourself. Just take it easy." While my friend supported my left side, my bro helped Maria to her feet, a bit unsteadily at first.
"Dam, your heavier then you look" . Bro, you just know what to say to a lady. Yep, and there's the punch to the gut.
"No, your just weak. I felt that flab"
"So...ooo..ooo...fun-ny" he coughed out.
"If you guys are done over there, we're ready to move. Cole, I'm good. You can let go now" .He released me, but held his hands out somewhat, ready to help if needed. Luckily, it was unnecessary. After cracking and popping a few limbs, I was ready. Reaching into my shorts pocket, I pulled out my own Iphone. Quick check revealed no signal, not surprised by that, and I returned it to its place. Cole already had two flashlights in hand and tossed one over to me.
"Alright, follow me. Jon, Maria, turn off your phones, we need to conserve the energy. Two lights will do fine" Cole finished, and started walking. He was in the front, my bro helping Maria in the middle, and me bringing up the rear. As we walked, the unending dark receded away from the light, only to quickly gather again as we passed. Strangely, the hairs on my neck were standing on end. My arms were prickling with goosebumps. I just... felt.. screw it. I was afraid. I wanted to do nothing more then to move to the front, rather then being stuck in the back, the darkness right behind me. My instincts were telling me to move, to run, but I repressed them. I looked over my shoulder as we continued. Darkness. Just darkness.
Somehow, I felt we weren't alone.
"So there I was. I had to make the biggest decision of my life "
"Mhm"
"There was no turning back. It was one way or the other"
"Mhm"
"I decided. There was no choice. I went with the bubblegum ice cream! It.was.delicous!" The all too chipper crystal guard explained.
The Canterlot royal guard next to him groaned, resisting the urge to facehoof. Repeatedly. Originally, his unit had been tasked with simply patrol duty in and around the Crystal Empire. However, shortly after the arrival of the Elements of Harmony days ago, he along with most of unit had merged with a detachment of crystal guard ponies to protect the bearers. The task had been simple enough. The bearers, including the newly crowned Princess Sparkle, had begun an extensive search through the Crystal Library, and like any good guards, they were assigned to stand around and well, guard. Unfortunately, his assigned companion, a crystal unicorn by the name of Bright Light was more then willing to discuss his recent adventures in what he called 'The world of the future'.
"What is your favorite flavor Stinger?" Bright asked, leaning over as much as possible while holding his spear.
"Strawberry" , the white earth pony answered roboticly, not breaking his stony visage. He instead decided to look towards the bottom floor of the library, where a colorful array of books were stacked and in some cases, piled about. When the new princess meant extensive, she meant extensive. Stinger thanked quietly that he was assigned to the second floor, and despite Bright's unnecessary enthusiasm, it was well worth avoiding the catastrophe down below. Speaking of which....
"Timber!!!!" A hyperactive pink pony called out, motioning to a leaning tower of books that had suddenly begun to topple. Several guards immediately scrabbled to avoid being buried by the mountain of literature, two barely diving out of the way in time. Skittering across the opaline floor, the two lucky stallions voiced their surprise.
"That was too close!"
"Dude, my life flashed before my eyes!!! And I was bored!"
Suddenly, like a reverse in time, the books began to move back to form several smaller piles, each tome encased in a lavender glow. Each book soon formed a perfect stack, the largest at the bottom to the smallest at the top, also coincidentally, alphabetically ordered.
"Rainbow! What have I told you about stacking the books too high!" Twilight Sparkle yelled out loud from a nearby reading table. A second later, a rainbow maned pegasus quickly appeared above her, a book clutched to her barrel. Dropping the book on the hard oak table, the cyan pony landed opposite her unicorn counterpart.
"Well sooooorry Twilight, but were do you expect me to put them?" She motioned all around her, where many stacks lay strewn about, the bottom floor quickly becoming a maze of books. It was reported a guard got lost on the first day, but those reports were still being looked into.
"Ah gotta agree with Rainbow on this one Twi" A southern accent spoke out near a crystal bookshelf, an orange pony with a Stetson hat peeking around the corner. "Its becoming mighty hard to move around in here"
"And stuffy! This isnt doing wonders for my mane darling!" a white unicorn called down from the third floor, who was trying to fix the nonexistent mistakes in her hairstyle. The golden clad guards behind her simply rolled their eyes, an action going unnoticed by said unicorn.
" But, we need to make sure we go through every book! Cadence is counting on us, so every book needs to be removed, checked, and then stacked to make sure its been checked!", the lavender alicorn attempted to defend herself, causing a few hairs to split from her mane. They all knew what this meant.
"Now Twi, we all want to help the princess find out about these watchamcallits, but you getting all worked up, wont solve a darn thing" Applejack stated, moving to put a reassuring hoof on Twilight's shoulder. The latter stiffened and then relaxed from the contact from her friend. She was right, she needed to stay calm and focus.
"Ya, it cant be that hard right? I mean, we been through like what? Half the library? We got to be close then!" Rainbow Dash explained happily.
"A-actually, its more like a fourth" a yellow colored pegasus hovered over to the group. This caused the cyan pegausus to mouth 'a fourth?' while the Twilight's wings drooped to their sides. This was taking far longer then any of them imagined, coupled with the seriousness of the situation, did little to alleviate their stress.
"Twitchy Tail! Itchy hoof!" a pink pony with a poofy mane suddenly popped out from below the table, startling the group and causing Fluttershy to hide her face in her mane. Twilight groaned. As if she didnt have enough problems, now Pinkie Pie's logic breaking ability was now in effect.
"Yes Pinkie? What is it?"
"Well Twilight I was reading this book and it was really good but also really scary but that was because it was a monster book about monsters that live in the empire or maybe used to I don't know if it was fiction and then a read this one page about these things called humans, but it had lots of other creatures like yetis, chupacabras, tauntauns, and then I started reading and my tail started twitchingandthenIgotitchyhooftooand" the enthusiastic party pony took in an impossibly large breath before continuing, " And then I read the page again it happened again and its kind of weird that it did that so I came over here as fast as I could!" Satisfied, Pinkie finished with a large smile on her face.
"Um, what?" Twilight asked incredulously.
"Could you repeat that sugarcube?"
Pinkie nodded her head, before taking a deep inhale, only to have a cyan hoof shoved into her mouth.
"And just the basics ok Pinkie?" Rainbow Dash deadpanned.
"Mhmhmhmhmhm mhmhmh!" Pinkie attempted to say.
"I'll take that as a yes" , Rainbow removed her hoof.
"Ok, so I read this book", she pulled out a dark brown book from her bubbly mane, "and then I read about these things called humans and then I got twitchy tail!"
Twilight encased the book in her own aura, levitating it before her. She looked over the book, it didn't look very special, just a plain dark brown cover with the words..
"The Monsters That Go Bump In the Night? Pinkie, this is a foals book! Why would this make you go twitch tail?" Twilight asked, slightly irritated.
"Not the book silly, but the page!" Flipping thorough the book in an instant, she located the proper page. It was simple, a small picture with an equally small passage. Leaning closer, the group eyed the book curiously as Twilight began to read out loud.
"Humans, very smart and tricky creatures. Although appearing to be very unhostile, they will lull anypony into a sense of security
before taking them away into the night. Never underestimate a human, for these creatures pray on the innocence and unawareness of others. Should you ever see a human, never approach it, if you are lucky,it will not see you and will go away. However, should it, you may get very close to meeting its fangs. Very close" She gulped at the last part. Looking to the picture, she was stunned. Depicted was a tall bipedal creature with unhealthy looking pale skin, as if the suns rays had never touched them. It had almost no hair, save for a very short mane, and had something similar to claws, yet uncharacteristically different. Scary different. This was what Cadence had described. It was them. Slamming the book closed, Twilight all but jumped out of her chair.
"Girls, we need to go!" she spoke, already making her way toward the exit. All her firends quickly followed, including Rarity, who had been listening intently from above.
All meeting at the entrance, Twilight found the sergeant in charge of this particular guard force.
"We need to head to the Crystal Palace at once!"
"Right away Princess! Fall in!" The sergeant called out. Immediately, the entire library guard force arrived. Forming up around the elements, the captain nodded before truning to two familiar guards.
"You two! Stay here and help clean this place up! The rest of you, lets get moving!" Salutes later, the large group exited the library, leaving the two stunned guards behind. Looking over the massive mess, Bright Light winced.
"We have to clean, all this?"
"Eeyup" Stinger nodded solemnly. Suddenly, a book pile collapsed, a brown stallion in partial royal armor tumbling out. The pony was dazed and looked around with blood shot eyes and somehow had five a clock shadow.
"What year is it?" The mystery pony asked.
Stinger groaned. Worst. Deployment. Ever.