//------------------------------// // A Mind Together, a World Apart // Story: Beyond Horizon's Edge // by Broseph_Stalin //------------------------------// Chapter XIV. – A Mind Together, a World Apart Ento lay bound in heavy chains and draped in a roughly hewn cloak within the confines of a darkened carriage. The only view that he could see came from the spider web cracks of light that the satin curtains allowed in between them. A guard sat across from him. The white pegasus had been giving him nasty looks since he had thrown the poor Ekina roughly into the carriage, and seemed to enjoy flexing the muscles that threaded throughout his thick body with a depreciative leer every time Ento looked at him. A sensation overcame Ento, a calling that rushed across the space of an eternity directly to him. He felt as though he replied automatically to its call. But as soon as it had appeared, it dissipated back from whence it had come. Blinking, he realized he had no idea what it meant. Regardless, though, he felt a certain comfort in it, like a baby blanket a filly would hold on to when the terrors of the darkest night intruded on their dreams. As the sensation faded away, he heard a fierce whisper in his ear that felt beyond time itself: Fated to darkness… Ento sighed miserably, and looked out the crack in the curtains at the clear sky outside, trying to piece together what in the good graces of Tuni’Ro had happened that led up to where he was right now. He felt his mind drift, his overwhelming anger and passionate hatred settling on the purple unicorn that sat inside the carriage in front of him. The recesses of his psyche took him back to events of this morning. . . . . After setting Twilight to bed, Ento went downstairs to continue his book, "Daring Do and the Golden Sabre." He spent the next few hours relaxing in his cot, reading all about the incredible mare and her arch-nemesis, a stuck up, mustachioed unicorn named Jean Franc. After a great deal of reading, he suddenly realized the sunlight that was creeping in from the window, bathing the thin pages of the book in a warm amber glow. The sun! Ento thought, elated. Setting down the book, he raced over to the window and flinched at the brightness as a brilliant pastoral picture was painted right before his eyes. The warm sun seemed to hold sway over the sky as a brilliant cobalt pierced the upper half of the horizon with a cheerful glee. Various fauna stood in the crisp landscape, dressed in the dew of the recent storm. Genial blues, charismatic yellows, and jovial pinks popped up at his sensitive nocturnal vision. Bless Tuni’Ro for such a beautiful day that lies before me! he thought ecstatically, senses incredibly lucid by the view that he saw outside. His thoughts turned to Twilight, and his gut seemed to somersault with joy as he realized he would get to spend such a stunning day with her, just her. An inexorable grin had spread across his face. . . . . Within the darkened carriage, however, a look of disgust replaced it as he remembered the thought. . . . . Back inside the library, it seemed to him that the adventurer’s blood that coursed through his blood was burning now. An inescapable itch overcame him, and he galloped outside to experience the virginal world outside the library. He pranced around the surrounding area, going deeper into town as nature’s scenery drew him away. Inside the silent library, the thin rays of sunlight fell upon an ancient grandfather clock. Its tarnished hands showed a time of ten minutes to seven o’clock on the dot. . . . . Mother of Pearl had decided today would be a particularly nice day to take a stroll around her beloved Ponyville. So, with her fancy Sunday clothes pressed and ironed, she stepped outside to reveal a landscape wiped clean by nature’s love. She smiled gently as she stepped gingerly off her porch and onto the grass, being sure to hold her silk umbrella with all the stately grace a maternal mare such as herself was privileged to after so many years of life. Even at almost seven o’clock in the morning, not a single pony was out and about on such a gorgeous day, that she could tell. Pearl harrumphed. Lazy ponies these days. More of this beautiful day for my own self, she concluded with a satisfied grin. She continued on her walk at a brisk pace, doing her very best to keep up with the age that creaked her bones at every step. As she rounded a corner, she bumped straight into somepony with a smart crack as the umbrella contacted with the other pony, knocking her large, decorative hat straight off her head in the process and tripping her to the ground as all the stately grace she had tried to hold up fell away. “Oh my, Ma’am, are you alright? I’m sorry, I still have light-blindness from the morning,” she heard a deep voice say hurriedly. Her gaze lay stuck looking at the ground as her ankle throbbed where it had been bumped, and she wondered what in the hay "light-blindness" was. “Here let me get your hat for you,” the voice said again without waiting for her response. “Here you go. I think I broke my nose,” the voice added with a sharp inhale. Mother of Pearl looked up from the tips of mottled green hooves, up, up to find a very, very tall pony, her hat in his mouth. As her eyes adjusted to the sunlight that lay behind the towering figure, her heart leapt as she realized a horned fiend stood before her, blood flowing fast from his nose as he handed her, Mother of Pearl, her very own Sunday strolling hat! The wizened old mare promptly fainted on the spot, her delicate mind having been much too overloaded to function. . . . . Ento stood dumbstruck at the unconscious old mare in front of him. Fearing the worst, he put an ear to her neck to check for a pulse. Thanking both Alik’Kr and Tuni’Ro repeatedly, he heard a faint beat that indicated life in the crumpled body. Of course, with his luck, a gang of ponies appeared around the corner just at that moment. Ento looked up at them with wide eyes, realizing that blood sat thick on his muzzle and the old mare’s neck and starched shirt as well. His mind panicked as the group screamed and shouted, obviously frightened out of their minds at what stood before the. They cried out, proclaiming demons and witchcraft. Two very large and very intimidating stallions broke from the group and galloped towards Ento, tackling him to the ground with a dense thud. With the wind knocked out of him, he stood no chance as they dragged his limp and gasping form towards town hall. After unceremoniously chaining him up, they dragged him to the stage to show off the “demon” they had caught trying to “sacrifice” the poor and recently “deceased” Mother of Pearl. Ento could do nothing in retaliation as the crowd gathered, screaming and hissing at him as he stood helpless on stage, covered in his own blood. He felt like a disgusting prize that a circus ringmaster would show off as the main freak of an attraction. Of course, he saw Pinkie Pie appear on the scene first, trying to convince the frenzied ponies what was going on, but they wouldn’t have any of it. Rarity and Applejack showed up shortly, followed by Rainbow Dash, who Ento was especially glad had arrived. The local Pegasi had been dropping rocks from above, striking him all over his already aching body. Then he saw her. Twilight’s shocked face had pushed needles into his gut, but seeing her spread a warmth throughout his body as reassuring as anything. He lost her in the tidal crowd, and jumped back with shock as she appeared with Rarity and Applejack right on stage in a blaze of purple light. Though it lasted for a split second, the look she had given him as she materialized was invigorating. At the time, he had found her determined gaze reassuring and familiar. . . . . He realized now, in hindsight, what a disgusting creature she was. All ponies were. His only comfort was that he had discovered that her only adorations lay towards the blind love of her imperialistic “teacher.” . . . . In landed Rainbow Dash, with Fluttershy soon after, the latter tending to his broken nose. He thanked her with a hoarse whisper as he flinched at the pain. He could feel the bright light of the sun straining his nocturnal eyes. He shut them, trying to focus on somewhere far away from this horrible place. His eyes shot open as he heard a commanding voice say Twilight’s name. He turned to see a tall, regal looking… What had Twilight called them? Alicorn. Her brilliant rainbow mane flowed around a pearl-white coat. Her head lay adorned by a golden crown, and a sun was emblazoned upon her flank. Behind her stood a slightly smaller alicorn of the same build, who seemed the white one’s exact opposite. Her midnight-oil mane and coat contrasted with her sister's sharply, and a bold half-moon lay upon her flank. Various guards walked over and moved Fluttershy out of the way as they grabbed Ento bodily. The assembly pushed him towards one of two open-air carriages that stood stationary next to the stage and sat him down in the seat. He looked on as the two strangely dressed alicorns addressed the crowd. They were obviously of a very high position, for he had observed as various townsponies stood silent and unmoving, their faces captured in a fearful attention. What he heard coming from the alicorns he judged immediately as complete rubbish. He felt a bitter sensation to stand up and yell to them that everything they were saying about him was nothing but a load of fabrications and politically diluted terms and phrases. Ento held his tongue, though, for fear of further retribution. . . . . He remembered watching as Twilight was put in another carriage as well. The look on her face had broken Ento’s heart to see, and he saw her sobbing to herself as the carriages took off. At that moment, he felt no other drive in the world than to be able to comfort her, and to tell her it would be alright. But now… Now all he wanted was to never look upon her face again. He felt hot tears of anger streak silently down his cheeks in the gently rocking carriage. He tried his very best to keep as still and as quiet as he could, for fear of what the guard might say or do to him. . . . . After a considerable period of monotonous travel, Ento found his mind wandering again, and he came back to the audience chamber that he had been interrogated in some hours ago. The princesses had called it “asking some questions of a traveler so far from home,” but Ento had soon realized they knew far more than they led on to. After getting nowhere with the usual questions that anyone would ask of a strange creature in their land, they appealed to him with their true knowledge to try and intimidate him. “Ento’Ba, we know everything about you: your kind, where you come from, and why we don’t see any of you Ekina in our kingdom. We have ways of knowing,” Celestia said grandly, her stately voice tinged with disdain as she addressed Ento. He squirmed uncomfortably in the hard wooden chair, looking down at the ornate carpet. “In fact, we know far more than you probably do about your own people!” added Luna. Her bitterness was far more pronounced than her sister’s. Ento couldn’t tell if he was more afraid of Luna’s direct ire, or Celestia’s veiled threats. “Now,” the white alicorn added firmly, “please tell us how it is you got here. We both know for a fact that no Ekina is allowed north of the Great Wall. So how is it that you come so readily into our land? And find your way into Princess Twilight Sparkle’s home, nonetheless? What do your people have planned?” Ento’s ears pricked up as he heard the last part of the princesses’ sentence. Twilight is a… princess? he thought incredulously. No, no she couldn’t have told them about me… Not Twilight. No. Ento felt a pull at the back of his mind. Anger threatened to cave in as his shocked mind pieced together a picture that he dared not accept. “We know the punishment placed on any Ekina who is found in breach of Imperial boundary rule,” Celestia pushed on without a response. “Pain of death.” The last word fell from her tongue, into a great sea of pain. Her voice seemed to coalesce, falling as a crescendo upon Ento’s ears with the roar and fury of a great lightning storm. She did. She told them every single thing about me. How dare you, Twilight. How dare you. His mind jumped and flashed with pain and agony, and the brilliant, the remarkable, the distinctive passion he had felt for this strange unicorn was extinguished, the candle in his heart snuffed out in a single motion. He shut his eyes so tightly they hurt. Stinging tears rose unbidden to his predator’s eyes. “I’ll tell you everything,” he gasped, wincing. He could feel the icy shards of his heart crashing into his gut, melting into pure acid hate. . . . . The pain that seared at his heart only increased in intensity as the princesses became angry at his preoccupied mind, which stalled for answer and dredged up incorrect information. Through their vicious shouts, he steeled himself against more pain. A single, comforting thought of Twilight arose in his mind. He quickly batted it away in anger, and then winced as Luna snapped at his distractedness, unleashing a storm-like blast of fury on him. After they had gotten out what they wanted, they told him what was next for him. “We are taking you to Brelset to let the Lord and Lady deal with you as they see fit,” Celestia said, slightly disheveled at the shouting match she had just endured. “What happens to you is entirely up to them. We will be leaving right after.” She finished with a nod, and looked to Luna, who nodded along. “Unfortunately it’s come to this. It’s our duty, Ento’Ba, though it does pain us some to have to take you away to your death.” The princess of the night hung her head slightly. A heavy pause filled the room as Ento sat silently, heavy manacles beginning to burn where they chafed his legs. The pause was broken as Celestia called in her guard, who threw a rough cloak over Ento and led him out to the runway. He had spotted Twilight sitting outside the door, and realized she had probably heard most of what happened. Disdain burned in his mind as he looked on ahead, not even giving her the benefit of his attention. He made his way out of the room, and came now onto an open-air balcony that was lined with two chariots, pulled by a respective pair of hooded pagasi. Pushed inside of the rear-most carriage, he waited with the muscle-bound guard for what seemed like hours, though he realized it could only have been tens of minutes that passed by. . . . . Caught back up into the present, he watched as they passed into a land he knew by heart. Though he had never seen them from the air, the Crsrath Mountains looked for all the world like the fins of gigantic marine predators surfacing on the sea of mist that blanketed the range. He spotted the Northern wall, a huge and foreboding piece that seemed to rise like the backbone of a giant from the ground. He looked far away along the horizon, beyond what seemed the edge, as Mt Bleas stood immensely tall and proud among the mountain range that ran directly through the kingdom. This was it. Everything boiled down to the here and now. Ento shivered as he felt a very corporeal sensation creep down his back.