Where am I?, Redheart asked herself. The last thing she remembered is a blinding flash of light enveloping her, and now here she is. A bloody desert battlefield, where mangled ad mutilated bodies are scattered across the dune with weapons sticking out from the dune like tombstones for the fallen. The pouring rain makes everything grimmer, and judging from this situation she is assuming the worst had already done its work with her. However, the description of the scene is exactly the same as that slip from Big Macintosh.
"I am not liking this at all......" Redheart said to herself.
Indeed this is not the most pleasant sight that one wants to see.
"You are most definitely....." Suddenly realizing that she is not alone,Redheart jerked to the left as a mysterious figure made itself present to the right. A monochromatic gray pegasi looks upon Redheart with her piercing jadeite eye filled with great kindness and yet great sorrow. The nurse have apparently caught her tongue, as she is speechless against this figure.
Do not be alarmed, I mean no harm.The figure noticed that her speech further immobilized the white pony, and she could only sigh before continuing on. However, before she could speak, the pink-maned pony started speaking, albeit with a tremble in her voice.
"Are you an angel? Wait......have I seen you somewhere before? You looked very familiar." Redheart asked the mysterious pony. As the mare looks upon the monochromatic pony, she suddenly realized that she is now facing Fatimah's mother. The figure gives Redheart a smile that is both blissful and graceful.
The background turns towards a gray teennage Saddle Arabian stallion threading the dunes of Saddle Arabia alone, before the stallion collapsed. To make matters even worse, the stallion falls down into a chasm, and Redheart could not bear to watch the rest of the fall. However, an anguished groan forces the nursemare to take a look and she notices that the stallion is still alive despite the fall. As she watches the stallion crawls towards a rock, she could only wonder how the final moments of this stallion is even relevant in the first place.
As the poor stallion finally reaches the rock, he uses the rock to pull himself up and rest his back upon the rock. Tears soon flow from the stallion's face, and he attempts to lift his forelimbs towards his face, but he is too weak to do so. It is a pathetic sight of a stallion who will die in a place forgotten by civilzation.
It was then that a glow appear from the darkness and the object as the glow approaches, Redheart could see an intricate cage-like orb with a glowing white center with a intricate looking key inserted to the core. As it approaches the stallion, Redheart realizes that the wounds of the stallion is slowly healing. As the stallion wondered about the object, the objects glow becomes weaker and finally falls upon the lap of the Saddle Arabian. The scene soon fades away and immediately the mares are now covered by pitch black darkness.
You are watching how Sadhul al-Qasim ibn Abd al-Mutalib ibn Mutassim first found the legendary artifact of Saddle Arabia, known as the 'Lumenize'.
"Who?" Redheart could not help but to ask the name of the person again.
I believe you know him as Asar, the first Emir of Saddle Arabia.
Amanar is prone on the ground, groaning from the pain.
Amanar did not expect his fight to be over this quickly, and he is utterly confused as to how he was defeated in the first place. the black camel knew that whatever it is, this being must not reach the rest. The hooded figure walks slowly towards the camel, but as the camel weakly rises up and points his blade at the figure, the figure just swatted it away from the camel as if it is just a toy.
A Janissary is taught never to retreat, even at the face of death. But right now, Amanar's body is instinctively crawling backwards and suddenly the Janissary's back bumps into a hard object. The camel turns around to notice that his back is now at the stele, and once he turns toward, the figure is now in front of him. The figure kneels down to meet with the Janissary on an eye to eye level, but all the Janissary could see is a dark void. The figure pulls back his hood, and immediately the eyes of the Janissary opened up wide.
Suddenly darkness around Redheart and the pegasus fades into the scene of a burning Aqqabasta. The streets are littered with the dead, and equines are battling dog-like beast made from darkness with a stiff tail with forks at the end and squarish ears narrowest at the base and widest at the squarish tops; and a long nose with a slight downward curve. As the scene changes once more, Redheart recognized the chamber that they are currently inside as the throne room, and she also immediately recognized Emir Asar. The stallion is much older than before and had grown into a fine stallion. However it appears that the Emir is gravely wounded and is facing a chimeric being, whose features are unlike any type of monster that Redheart had ever seen.
The monster is six times the height of the Saddle Arabian with a hundred serpentine heads erupted from its neck and shoulders, with its faces covered with a Saddle Arabic deathmask with a striped headdress covered the whole crown and back of the head and nape of the neck and had two large flaps which hung down behind its triangular ears. The muscled body and arms of the being is similar to that of a minotaurs with dragon heads replacing the fingers on his hands. its bottom half consisted of gigantic viper coils with serpent heads with dark flickering tongues that could reach the top of his head when stretched out and constantly made a hissing noise. Upon its back are several pairs of large black pinions, and all the eyes upon its body is glowing with a malicious crimson red.
As Redheart watches the standoff, she noticed that behind the Emir are several unconscious bodies, one of whom she recognized as Djehuty. Surrounding the Emir and his unconscious comrades are the same dark beast that was fighting against the other equines. The Emir looks upon the beast with bloodshot eyes, and his white robes are soaked with blood. The beast on the other hand appears to not even have a scratch upon its body. Suddenly, one unfortunate Saddle Arabian Eternal gives a warcry and charges the large beast, but the dragon heads and the serpents on the tail made short work of the unfortunate soul in a shower of blood covering both the Emir and the monster.
"What.....the..... heck.... is..... that monster?" Redheart asked the pegasus.
It is an evil that time forgot......its name lost through the sands of time. The pegasus said sorrowfully. The monster soon edges closer towards the Emir, and the unnatural movements of the monster only serves to make Redheart squirm at the abomination.
"It is no use Asar, you and your brethrens have tried your best. But I am better." The hundread heads of the beast speak all at once and its serpentine but deep, muffled voice of the figure taunting the stallion is as alluring as it is sickening.
"Not if I have this." From within the robes, the stallion produced a intricate cage-like orb with a glowing white center on one hoof and an equally intricate key on the other . Immediately the beings recoiled at the presence of the relic, hissing even louder than before. The chimeric figure starts to speak once more, but the voices are now bone-chilling and cruel.
"You are too weak to use it, you will fail."
"Bite me." The Emir jams the key into the heart of the orb, and suddenly the ball started to glows. As the ball glows brighter and brighter, the monster bellowed its commands in a dark tongue, and all the monster's minions rushed forward towards the Emir. However, the being's efforts are for naught as the ball envelops everyone in a bright light......
The red stallion opened up his eyes and found himself lying down on the platform once more. He looked around and realized that the trial is over. On one end he saw the purple sorcerer lying down on one side, seemingly unconscious. He looked around and saw Fatimah and Vinyl are slowly regaining consciousness with the help of the elemental. He finally saw the nursepony lying laying prone on the floor and immediately rushed to her side.
"Red, red, can ya hear me? Red?"
"I do not think she can hear you, stallion." The baritone voice answering the farmpony immediately catches the attention of everyone and they turn to see the sorcerer rising up. As the sorcerer looks around, his eyes immediately notices something and was shaking his head. The situation is not lost on everyone and they took a defensive stance. The sorcerer could only sigh and look upon the mortals. He points towards where the crystal and Big Macintosh notices that the crystal is no more.
"Where is the crystal?" Big Macintosh asked.
"Look at the table." The sorcerer replied. Immediately Big Macintosh sees that the there are countless shards upon the table.
"Ah." The red farmpony said monosyllabically.
"The Word Watcher is the arbiter of the trial, and it will tilt to allow both the takers of the trial and myself to go back and forth once a word is uttered. However your companion's word is such that the light show from your last word shattered the Word Watcher, and since it did not tilt back to me, it assumed that I have lost the match. Well done." With a glow of his horn, the crystal reform itself.
"I was expecting you to be a sore loser but I guess I was wrong." Big Macintosh said, relaxing his stance.
"Honestly, if it were up to me I only let the mare proceed. But the final guardian's wardings and consent is such that I am not able to touch any of you. " The sorcerer's blunt and cold reply silenced the farmpony.
"Why is there no historical records of this?" The nursemare is now walking beside the pegasus in a pure white space.
History is written by the victors, and the victors are written by history. Such was the wishes of Emir Asar.
Redheart realized what the mare is saying to her, and understanding that from the tales of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna she knew that history is indeed fluid. Soon enough, the space once more warps into a temple under construction. As Redheart looks around she notices the four colossal statue decorating the facade of the temple, each holding a large feather and are seated on a throne and wearing a weird crown, The facade is topped by a row of baboons, their arms raised in the air. Many labourers are carving and erecting the structures within the temple, and all she could wonder is what is the significance of this place. As if reading her mind, the gray pegasus speaks to the mare.
Follow me.
Not wanting to incur the wrath, however unlikely, of the gray mare Redheart walks by the side of the mare. Slowly but surely as they walked down the path, Redheart realized that she recognize the path. The feeling of familiarity is a little unnerving for Redheart and at the end of the journey her familiarity is justified.
Before their eyes, the White Tree of Asar is before them. However, the sea of mercury is not poured into the pony-made lake and many artisans are still crafting the walkway towards the tree and arranging the weapons to form the tree itself. Standing right before them are four figures; an armour-clad blue Griffon, a purple-robed Unicorn, a black equine with bat wings, and a gray Saddle Arabian stallion clad in the royal clothing of his office. Redheart noticed that everyone is of an advanced age, and the Emir have have blindfolds upon his eyes, and is now using a cane.
"Well, I must say that this insane plan of yours looked splendid, Asar. You need an rump of steel to live in here." The coarse sound of the griffon is met with some laughter from the sorcerer unicorn.
"Every beauty has its purpose, Horakthy. Seeing that the Lumenize will be stored here, the defenses must be made so that it will not fall to the wrong hands. If I have to be part of the defense, so be it. In life or in death." Emir Asar said to the griffon.
"Wouldn't it be easier to hide it in a small cave somewhere with some wardings?" Djehuty suggests.
"It is not that simple.The Lumineze has a kind but warlike aura. It will attract those that require its power for the grestest of hope or the greatest of despair. Such was its power that it could be used for good or evil. We are fortunate that we are the ones that managed to get the item first. If 'that' took hold of it first, we would not be standing here today." The bat-winged stallion said to the rest.
"Well said Anput. Besides, I rather make sure that those foolish enough to enter without the purest of heart fail. Besides making it beautiful will draw them closer to their deaths, just like a flycatcher. I will make sure that this is defended even if I am dead." Emir Asar smiles as he said so. The other comrades of the Emir looked at him, as if he had just turned senile.
"How do you plan to be part of the defenses when you are dead, Milord?" Djehuty asked his liege.
"Tell the people that it is my tomb. Surely if I were to only reveal that this is my tomb, the best craftspony throughout the land will foolproof it with the deadliest and most effective of traps. Of course, we will not tell them about its true purposes. Also make sure that the history of the battle between us and 'that' be erased from living memory as it might lead fools to the artifact. I trust that you can make it happen, except for those of my true line." Emir Asar looks upon his bat-winged advisor.
"Your will be done Milord. Mind if I make it into a selection process for the future rulers of the land? I will make sure that your descendants will understand the burdens of being a ruler." Anput suggested.
"Sure, why not. I will not suffer stupid descendants, they can die for all I care." Anput bowed in acknowledgement of his master's wishes.
The image of the tomb returns to the scene of the bloodied battlefield of before, and the two mares are now looking at each other eye to eye. Despite not saying anything to each other, the pink-maned mare understoods the significance of the things she witnessed. The pegasus smiled at her, and hugs the nurse.
Redheart gasped as the regained consciousness, and standing right next to her is the sorcerer. Behind the sorcerer are Big Macintosh, Vinyl, Fatimah and Zephyr. The purple sorcerer can only smile and extend his hoof towards the mare, and as she used his forelimb to bring her self up.
"About time you got up. The dumb mare was asking me to heal you, and her voice is getting on my nerves." The green eyes of the unicorn turns to the other unicorn, and Vinyl could only raise her eyebrow.
"What the buck?" Vinyl said, but her reaction was ignored as the rest are now looking at the sorcerer and the pink-maned mare.
"May I ask all of you a question, white mare?"
"Go ahead, Mr. Djehuty." Redheart decides to not say anything about the sorcerer's misogynistic tendencies.
"Why are you here?" The sorcerer's question is indeed a good one.
Big Macintosh and Fatimah have no idea why they are here, while Zephyr is rather carefree about the whole matter. Vinyl on the other hand knows that they are guided here by Lily Petal to get something, but is she said anything here, she might screw things up. So her silence is golden now. That leaves Nurse Redheart to answer the question, and she took her time in answering.
"We are here for the Lumineze." The words that Redheart finally uttered surprised the rest, but especially Vinyl.
"I see..... Anput will see whether your lot are worthy of wielding the Luminize. Now go." The party then passes by the purple stallion, mindful of the words that he have said to everyone. One by one the party walks on the single pathway in a single file. Before long, only Redheart remains, and as she was about to move on to the pathway, the voice of the sorcerer causes her to stop in her tracks.
"I must say; You are the first to try not to kill me and still gave me such a good fight and an Earth pony at that. Here's looking at you, kid." The sorcerer's horn glowed and a silver chrome rod with an entwined golden snake appears before the mare. As the mare looks at the sorcerer suspiciously, the sorcerer beckons the mare to take it. As Redheart takes the staff, the purple stallion looks at her with a sorrowful smile before his form fades away.
Redheart bows in respect before turning around to join her companions.