//------------------------------// // Chapter III // Story: Journey to the center of Equestria // by Rarity Belle //------------------------------// The violet rimmed eyes of Twilight looked in utter horror. She had noticed just what was going on with Burning Spring. The stallion was sweating for his life, as if he had entered some sort of sauna but the very scent of his sweat gave everything away. The smell of fear began to reek through the whole classroom. All of the other students began to fear the worst of the worst as Twilight’s eyes showed them all that her brain was working in a literal overdrive. The mulberry unicorn had not a clue of what she could be doing, so the only thing she thought up was to sedate him and hope for the best. Both her hands and horn coated themselves into the magical aura before it also began to surround the body of Burning Spring. Silent whispers were being made by her as she prayed to the goddesses themselves that he would have been brought back to their realm. Seconds looked like hours as the hearts of every single anthrony in the room was literally beating inside of their very throats. The levels of danger that were present were literally astronomical. Yet none of the other students even dared to interfere in the magical events. Not even whispers came from the other anthronies. Yet Twilight finally managed to bring the conscious of Spring back into the land that they occupied. Their realm of existence, to be exact. Yet the stallion himself was still out for the count. That was a fact that worried Twilight a lot more. The teacher then levitated the body up and prepared herself to teleport away. Her head turned over to the rest of the class before she spoke her words in a rather saddening tone. “Class has been dismissed. You’re all free to go, no homework.” In a flash of raspberry light had she then poofed out of the room. Something that left the students there with a questioning gaze upon their faces. None knew what would be happening from that point onwards. So the only thing that they could be doing was to pack their bags and leave the classroom quietly. Both Wishful Star and Sky Comet were among the last ones to leave. Yet their interest had been peeked by their zebra classmate. They never had spoken much to him because of the fact that he was the true silent type, yet the two found that it was time for a change of plans. He was a bit of a loner, perhaps by choice, but that wouldn’t stop them from at least approaching him. So when the two friends stood across the hallway, it was the zebra who finally left the room. “Oi, you, can you get over here please?” Star spoke up to him. The zebra stallion was actually surprised by the fact that somepony called him out without adding an insulting name. Which caused him to gently made the crossing. Once they were in his whispering range of each other,  the words of mixed emotions were released from under the hooded cloak. “What is it that the two fine anthronies desire from a humble zebra like myself?” He was afraid, the both of them could hear that instantly in his tone. But afraid for what, they couldn’t pinpoint though they did have some ideas. “What’s your name?” Star asked him in a calm and kind tone. One that actually showed her interest as well as respect towards him. The zebra stallion rose a bit up from his gentle bow as he never had expected that question to be released from an anthrony’s mouth. “M-My name?” he repeated as he didn’t truly believe the facts as they were. The eyes made numerous blinking motions below his hood before finally taking it off. The mohawk in his mane was small but still clearly present as the stripes across his face took an interesting pattern that always seemed to be changing. “My name is Dolicho,” he said while placing the emphasis on the ‘li’ part and spoke the ‘ch’ out as a ‘g’. “Dolicho?” Sky Comet repeated to remember it. He had the name firm inside of his mind. “Three months in our class and nopony even knows your name.” “Most don’t even bother with one from the outside lands. The anthronies of Equestria find themselves too good for the zebras of the Great Plains that lays across the sea,” answered Dolicho before he covered his head with the hood again. “Hey, you want to come with us, you know how to play Dragon Defender?” said Wishful Star in the hope to break the ice. Yet Dolicho had to think about that for a moment as a thoughtful groan was being released. “Come on, it will be fun,” the mare added. A thing which only added more to the nervousness that was going through the zebra. The two friends hoped that he would agree upon their invitation yet could understand if he declined. Yet after the moments of silence did the zebra simply gave a nod towards the two of them. “I shall join the game,” he simply said to them. The both of them smiled and took off with –what was hopefully– their new friend. ~~~~                       In the meantime had Twilight teleported herself into the hospital of the castle. There she paced up and down in front of the bed. Minutes had he been lying there with his conscious continuously slipping. It drove her almost to the verge of madness as she couldn’t understand most of the things that were going on. She was a brilliant soothsayer, but from time to time there were facts that even slipped through her mind. And Burning Spring’s little misadventure was something that caused everything to come to a screeching hold. Not even the thoughts about what was actually wrong in their lands could be found. Slowly but surely did the situation of the stallion improved as he finally opened his eyes again. “W-What happened? Why is..?” he mumbled to Twilight, who stood at the hoofend of the bed. The expression upon her face was everything but happy with him as she released a deep sigh and shook her head. Burning Spring released a small gulp before he turned away from her head. “What you have done today, is something I never want any student of mine to see. For despite the fact that you were brave enough to make the descend back, perhaps not willingly though. You are also foolish.” Twilight then closed her eyes before a deep sigh was being released from her nostrils. “Terribly foolish as you could have died back there and then. I don’t even think that you know the sheer amount of luck you had back there.” “Teacher, please tell me where I have looked into,” asked Burning Spring in a weak tone. He was still trying to regain most of his strength. Twilight couldn’t decipher whether or not it was still an act of the anthrony, or that he really was still regaining everything. She didn’t even care about it at the moment really. He had gone to a place that was thought to have lost with time itself. A place where only the utter darkness of a soul reigned supreme. She released a deep sigh through her nostrils before she leaned forward and placed both of her hands against the bed. Her eyes looked up to his. “You have gone to a place where I only had wished it existed in books and myth. A place so dark that it is nothing compared to the black holes in the universe,” explained Twilight with a stern tone to him before she continued. “You have been looking into a place that we like to all the Void of Nothing. The inner circle of Tartarus, if you like. Nothing lives there, nothing grows, absolute darkness and your worst fears reign supreme.” Yet her words were thrown back at her almost instantly. Burning Spring had a little and nasty surprise up his sleeve that he would be delivering to her. “A mare, spoke to me. Humming an old, nursery rhyme,” he coughed out to her. He then dropped back onto the pillow. His words caused the mare’s eyes to spring open as wide as they possibly were allowed. Never in her life had she expected those words to be coming from him. “What, did she say?” Twilight asked through. The dreaded memories from times forgotten surfaced again. Though right after her words she turned her attention away from the stallion. There was a single tear that rolled down the cheek of the mare just before her eyes closed. The memories that she relived were aching her heart more than anything. A deep sniff was then given off before the tear was wiped away and she turned back around. “Well, what rhyme did she say?!” The tone remained the same and Burning Spring looked at her with a shocked expression. He didn’t even ask why she cried and couldn’t understand why she went at him like that. Yet in the meantime tried his mind to remember everything. Slowly did the words came back to him. The first thing that went through his body was a stone cold shiver before he whispered them loud enough. “Twinkle, twinkle, little… star. That’s, that’s what she said,” he repeated for Twilight. The unicorn released a deep groan through her throat. She imagined just what it could have meant to the world. But the rhyme was so well known throughout the land, that pinpointing the actual purpose for it remained unknown for the time being. “Alright then, you stay here while the nurse checks you up for the last time. As for tomorrow, you will be transported over to the battlemages.” That was her final judgement on the matter. Those words came as a shock to him and immediately sat straight up in his bed. “W-What?! You can’t do this to me!” Burning Spring exclaimed, confirming the thoughts of Twilight. He had been playing with her for the most part, yet his words spoke the truth. “What is my family going to think?! What do I tell them when I can’t become a soothsayer?” It was then that some of the wires inside of Twilight’s head snapped and she looked the anthrony with a glare of death in the eyes. “You should have considered that fact before you bought out the judge. Soothsaying isn’t a job you can get with paying a lot of bits. It has to come from the mind and the heart and you, you lack both,” she said to him in a stone cold tone. Both her hands had ignited themselves with the magical aura. The heat of the powers that surged through her could be felt at Spring’s hooves. The stallion prayed in silence that she would be stopping soon enough with the torture. “You have the temper of a battlemage and lack all the powers of a soothsayer. Be glad I don’t banish you from this place. You’re nothing but a scam and a fraud who just thinks to become the wisest around here. Tough love, for it’s not going to happen.” Burning Spring gulped a couple of times loudly. He had realized the trouble he had gotten himself into and Twilight finally discharged her powers. The unicorn then simply left him alone in the room and wanted to head to the library. ~~~~                       Along the way had Twilight managed to bump into one of her least favorite figures that the whole place had. Beatrix Lulamoon and Twilight Sparkle both landed on their bums from the crash and they looked one another straight in the eyes. “Sparkle,” spoke Trixie when she got up. “Lulamoon,” returned Twilight in the same growling tone. Then she rose her body back up. “Out of everything, I have to be walking right into you. Suppose it is also a good thing, for a change.” That actually managed to confuse Trixie a lot more than she originally would have thought. One of the eyebrows rose themselves up as she dusted off her own attire a bit. “And how come? What do you have for me, hm?” Twilight released a small chuckle in response to the looks before she came down to her business that she had with the other. “Tomorrow you shall be receiving a new student. Does the name of Burning Spring ring any bells by you?” “How can’t it?” Trixie replied before she gained a smirk over her face. “Words have it he got launched into a place he wasn’t supposed to be during your classes. I do suppose that is why you are giving him the transfer?” “So they told it that quickly already, didn’t they? Ugh, can’t these youngsters keep a secret anymore? Anyhow, yes. That is indeed the reason of why I’m sending him to you. He’s a battlemage through and through. You’ve seen the look in his eyes, right?” Twilight questioned her colleague. She turned her head gently sideways to judge the coming words. “I have, it shall be interesting to see where he is actually capable of,” replied Trixie to her. After which she turned around and made her departure from Twilight without a single word. To which Twilight was actually happy about. The last thing she wanted was Trixie nagging at her ears about how she was better than her. Not to mention the fact that she actually seemed to have behaved, a fact quickly forgotten by Twilight once more. Yet it still didn’t answer all of Twilight’s questions. The unicorn released a soft exhale before the matters were brought back to her mind. More specifically, the matter of what he had actually seen in his trip. Only one place held the answers and that was the massive library. ~~~~                       Hours had gone by and the sun was already lowering itself down into the hills. The darkness of night had engulfed itself over the land like a wave of sea water. The candles of the library were ignited by the magical charges of several unicorns. Their harmonic light had an unusual calming effect to all of the anthronies present. Yet Twilight had been hiding herself behind a stack of books, papers and scrolls that seemed to have been ancient of nature. Not many knew where she was digging for and found it best for both parties just to leave her alone. Perhaps the wisest decision that they could have made in the event of things. Yet the anthrony unicorn herself didn’t seem to be getting any wiser. With the glasses that were placed upon her nose she read line after line of history in the hope to figure out who or what he had possibly seen. “Ugh, out of everything in the history of this land, he has to see something impossible,” muttered the mare muttered to herself. She laid the book down and shoved it aside in silence. A growl was released by the unicorn when she took another book from the stack and opened it without even looking at the very title. Pages were flipped as dust was being sent up, the book was old. Even older than the one she had previously and that one spoke about the first year of the anthronies. There was a certain glee that began to fill Twilight. She made the realization that the book she had went even further back in time. All the way back to where their land was still occupied with the previous owners and dominant race. The violet rimmed eyes rose up from the book and off to the side. There they saw the entrance of the library as well as the skeletons of what some believed were their ancestors. The elusive ponies themselves. A skeleton of an earth pony, pegasus and unicorn stood there in perfect harmony and fully displaying each race’s best capabilities. Nopony truly knew whether or not the anthronies were actually evolved ponies, but Twilight was among those who supported the science behind it. “What further secrets do you have for us?” she mumbled before returning to her book. The unicorn continued to read through the pages for an eternity as she took each and every single letter deeply towards her. The descriptions of events so many years ago all went past her but no exact dates were given by any of them. That was the fact that managed to get her off of her guard pretty easily. The sheer fact of no dates meant there wasn’t any kind of reference point. “Well now, what’s this?” she mumbled to herself as she had reached a part of the book that was curious yet dangerous. “The darkest hours had fallen upon us when…” “When the monster of darkness had spread its wings over the room and looked down towards her older sister. All whom were present could feel the hatred and rage coming from the dark entity. Death was imminent for many as the horn charged up to release its deadly load of arcane powers. Those who survived the first wave would most likely be devastated by the second. A nightmare of the moon, that is what it was.” “What it was… Nightmare of the moon, nightmare of the moon,” mumbled Twilight. She was brought back to the present day. Something about the way that the words were written down in the book, almost managed to tangle her inside of it and take control of her. Almost as if the book itself was coming alive and wanted to draw the mare in. “Nightmare of the moon…” All of the sudden went her eyes wide, a small gasp for air was being given. She thought to have cracked the code of the words and quickly left her seating. The unicorn rushed through the entire library with the desire to find the one book. “Where is it, where did they place it?!” she whispered to herself. All while she continued the vivid search for the desired book. It laid there somewhere, she was sure of that. Yet then did the mare come down to the realization that her book wasn’t in the light covered area of the library. The book she needed was of a darker purpose. One that shouldn’t be read by soothsayers in general. So Twilight began to look for the deepest and darkest corner of the library. Her eyes slowly fell upon a shelf that was completely shrouded in darkness. Every, single step she took did feel more uncomfortable than the last. She was on the right track, all the sounds of the library faded away from existence as whispers of darker intentions took over. Whispers to control or burn the world, enslave the population or slaughter them all. Tempting pacts with devils unknown could all be heard talking inside of Twilight’s very own mind. Yet the unicorn didn’t even blink at them all. She had only one goal in mind and would be doing everything to make that goal a reality. Whispers could only be doing so much and when the unicorn stood before the shelf, her eyes looked at all the titles of the books before she picked just one of them. It didn’t matter to her how curious the rest of them would be, for she had where she came for. Quickly she turned back around and left the dark corner of the library with her book. ~~~~   The anthrony unicorn had returned to her seating and opened the dark book before her. The tempting dark arts it contained were only countered by Twilight’s own magic as she began to read through each of the pages. Her eyes were focusing upon just two little words that would either confirm or bust her own theory. She hoped to be wrong in the case. Though Twilight was a mare who was rarely wrong on a matter. Before she even knew it, she had discovered just what she was looking for. The book was simply dropped down to the table. The mare leaned backwards in her chair. There was a shocked expression that could be seen clearly over her face before the eyes closed. “That can’t be, he couldn’t have seen her. Impossible, just impossible. It’s scientifically not possible that such a thing exists, that she exists,” muttered Twilight to the air. The book laid open on a page that had an illustration of a couple black robed anthronies worshipping a third goddess. A heathen goddess who on her own ruled the entire underworld and everything that was bad for the world. “Nightmare of the moon… Nightmare Moon,” said Twilight to herself with a sigh before she closed the book. She had her answers and wasn’t happy about it. “The Dark Witches…” ~~~~                       After she had cleaned her spot and returned all of the books to the rightful places, Twilight Sparkle was officially done for the day. Everything that had happened during the day itself was something that almost had fried her mind. She wasn’t all too happy about it yet the desire to sleep had finally made its way into her head. With the matter solved, another one was added in the form of a question. A question which perhaps not even she had the power to answer. “What would Nightmare Moon want with a soothsayer like him? Why take one now? Maybe she smelled him?” the mare explained to herself. Though then she made the probably wise decision to shake the matter off of her. She was almost near her room when the clunking sounds of a heavy armor could be heard echoing through the hallway. The curiosity of Twilight was captured and she turned herself around to see what was going on. In her eyes she caught a celestial guard who stopped right before her nose. One that was panting deep and held a rolled up scroll sealed with a house mark. “S-Soothsayer Sparkle, it happened again. They hit again,” the guard brought out while being out of breath. Twilight’s eyebrow rose up in a confused manner as she shook her head a couple of times. “Take it easy, catch up with your breath and then tell me what happened,” she replied while placing a hand upon his shoulder. The guard nodded and took a couple deep in- and exhales before trying to find the right words for the matter. “They happened again, this morning in the mountains of the west. Entire peaks just crashed down like branches from a tree. Whatever is causing it, it’s something big and invisible,” the guard spoke up before he handed over the sealed letter. “This letter, is from house Belle. Rich family that owns a lot of the land in those very regions. Their servants have made detailed reports of what actually happened and the damages done.” The unicorn calmly took the letter from him before she nodded to all of his words. She could understand the massive amounts of damage done to the mountain chain that walked there. Twilight just never anticipated that their trouble would actually reach up to there. “I shall be reading the letter as soon as I can. You did a good job bringing it to here as soon as you did. It may give a bit more inside on the matter at hand.” Twilight then said before she released his shoulder again. “Whatever beast it is, it must be stopped before more casualties come. What if it attacks Cloudsdale or worse, Canterlot?” the guard replied in utter paranoia. Though the mare looked at him with a dead serious glare in her eyes. The letter was calmly placed in one of her pockets before a deep exhale was released through her nostrils. “As much as I would give you right, I have to say that it will leave Cloudsdale alone unless it makes contact with the ground. As for this ‘beast’ of yours, it isn’t.” The guard rose both of his eyebrows before wanting to argue the words but Twilight cut him off first. “There is no beast that is invisible and devastates through our land. No Ursa Major or other celestial constellations that have come to bring doom upon us. No, our trouble lays beneath the surface of the earth we walk on. Earthquakes shock all corners of our land.” The high word was out, that was what was wrong with Equestria. Tremors that caused turmoil of the biggest degree there was. Earthquakes that were getting powerful enough to devastate entire mountains. Yet something didn’t feel right. Something was actually off about the whole event of things. Twilight couldn’t pinpoint it, yet was determined to discover it. “Resume your post or return to there where you came from. Your help is no longer required by me,” the unicorn replied. She gestured him to remove himself and turned back to resume her path. The guard made a small bow before her and was then off again. Off to return to the place where he originally had come from. The letter was taken out of her pocket and placed in one of the many window sills that the hallway was rich. The unicorn didn’t even try to hide it as she laid both of her arms crossed into the sill and opened the letter with her magic. The document was unfolded before her eyes and she began to read it aloud. “Good day soothsayer Sparkle, it has come to our attention that you are the one who has been investigating the strange tremors that have been plaguing our land for some time now. Enclosed in this document you will find an arcane list of damages and casualties caused by the tremors in the mountains that took place on the morning. We hope to have informed you enough and perhaps you can come and see it for yourself. With the kindest of regard, House Belle.” Twilight released a deep huff after she was done and conjured the arcane list up. “Me going out there to inspect the damage? Not a chance in heaven that I will be doing that, not with a stuck up family like theirs,” the mare muttered whilst the arcane list continued to unfold. And finally she began to read through the entirety of the thing. Surprise after surprise came to her. The amount of detail that was given to her was astonishing. It almost made her feel as if she actually walked through the debris field. Yet that also happened to have been the sheer problem. The amount of damage done, the amount of mountains that were leveled with the ground itself was unheard of. “Nothing in the world has that kind of power yet it happened. What causes these things?” she mumbled to herself. She folding the list back up and let go a deep exhale. It all just troubled her mind a lot more than it should have. The unicorn continued upon the journey towards her bedroom and released another, gentle sigh. She was the one they had to call, yes, but not even she had all of the answers that they needed. Which was about just the biggest shame there was. The door of her bedroom fell back in its lock and upon the desk it still remained like ever. The reminder to see whether or not she happened to have been right. Yet there was one thing that she knew. “Under the mountains walks a fault line, so the chances might be there that this one was natural.” Twilight said to herself as her eyes continued to look over the map from the distance. “It still doesn’t explain the rest of them though.” With a deep sigh did her horn charge itself up and once again was her attire changed into the simple nightie. The unicorn dimmed all of the lights present in her room to near nothing before she allowed her head to fall upon her pillow. The body positioned itself a bit better within the bed. After that, it was all covered by the blankets. Before Twilight even knew it, had she made the departure from the land of the wake to the realm of the dreams. Dreams that were pleasant and calm to her. The serenity of her mind was something that only a few things could be giving to her. She would figure everything out. In its own time and its own right. For there is a time and place for everything. ~~~~                       In the meantime had Wishful Star, Sky Comet and Dolicho played through their fifth round of Dragon Defender. The zebra had finally managed to get a hold of the rules of the massive role playing game. The board took more than three arcane squares divided over multiple altitudes. It was an intense game with a lot of strategy involved yet the three of them actually had a lot of fun. Dolicho had never played it before but had to admit that it was a lot more fun than the games he was used to. “Who’s ready for another round?” asked Star while she looked to the two stallions in the room. Even though it was just a game, it was always Star who managed to beat the two of them somehow. Sky Comet had already made the joke that she was some kind of super player a couple times before, and Dolicho was about to believe it. “As much as the offer is appreciated, Wishful Star, I’m afraid I have to decline on another round. There is business with my potions that I need to attend do I want to have them ready by tomorrow afternoon,” he answered to her in his always respectful voice. The zebra stallion then stood up and made a bow before the two of them. “If you want to excuse me, I bid thee a good night and a good game.” Then he just walked out of the room and towards his own. Despite the rather interesting manner of leaving, both Star and Sky had to admit that they made some progress in becoming the zebra’s friend. For whether he liked it or not, Dolicho actually let out a couple of chuckles during the game. Especially when he foresaw what would happen during some of their turns. “Silent type, but he’s alright,” said Sky Comet. Then he took a hold of his glass and took a sip of the content. “Makes me wonder why we never spoke to him before.” Wishful Star chuckled a little bit to herself before her head was calmly shaken from side to side. She had a rather interesting answer upon the fact as it was. “You may thank your Star for that. Burning Spring has been spreading rumors about him since forever. Kinda sad actually, but I think he got what he deserved when he was brought away.” “Heh, no argument there really. What goes around comes around, they always say.” Sky took the dices again and placed his dragon upon the designated spot. “So it’s just going to be you and me again. You better hold on to your cider, princess. For I shall give you no mercy this time.” “Oh please, Sky, we all know who happens to be the best player, right?” Star chuckled to herself before she took the last sip out of her cider mug. “Aah, let’s do this. I’m ready for you.”