//------------------------------// // The Stones // Story: Chronicles of Utopia: The Six // by CarnivalImpmon //------------------------------// The rumble of the shifting ground made Soul Flash's commute to the dragon slower, and it was made more difficult since he had to look over the book protruding from his jaws. He considered using magic to hold it, but since he'd have to use quite a bit of power to repel the dragon it was best not to waste any of it on the accursed foal's story. He made it down the cliffs to find the pale, cracked form of the ancient purple dragon digging frantically at what looked like a bunch of collapsed rocks. Soul Flash sighed heavily through his nose. Had the beast left gold in there or something? That would explain why it kept coming back. Well, he supposed he might as well help it out, or he'd never get any peace, and the wild digging might collapse his home. Soul Flash spat out the book and trotted as close to the dragon and rocks as he dared. He tensed, then forced a large amount of his energy into his horn, focusing on the tip, then shifted his thoughts to the rocks. His horn and the rocks began to glow a dark violet. The great dragon noticed, and huffed in surprise, taking a few slow steps backwards, then turning its thick neck towards Soul Flash. It tilted its head a bit, watching the stallion with dull emerald eyes. "Don't kill me now, I'm trying to help you," Soul Flash grunted, ignoring for a moment the fact that the dragon probably didn't understand him. It had never shown any sign of speaking his language. He forced more power through his horn at the rocks and the glow increased in brightness. He didn't want to move them all at once, for fear they supported something, and taking them out with a blast would be worse. Soul Flash halted the energy flow, leaving just the glow around his horn and the rocks, beginning to contemplate the spell he should use. The dragon seemed to grow impatient, and began to claw at the rocks once again. Loosened by Soul Flash's magic, they shifted much easier under its claws. Soul Flash noticed the dragon starting again, and sucked in a breath as it knocked away one of the supporting boulders. The entire pile of rocks began to shudder, and the unicorn squeezed his eyes shut, a feeling of dread filling him as he awaited the coming avalanche. There was the sound of rocks tumbling, and the ground shook a bit, then it stopped. Strange, Soul Flash had thought there'd have been something more...impressive. He opened his eyes, and furrowed his brow at what he saw. The pile of rocks had fallen, surrounding the dragon in a circle of gray and brown, but the cliff supporting the ruin had stayed. In place of the rocks was a strange cave, with a dim white glow emanating from its depths. Then Soul Flash realized how quiet it was. When he had come down into the valley, the forest had been full of the sounds of emerging nightlife and general forest noise. Now, it was silent. No wind, no bugs, looking up Soul Flash could see even the clouds had stopped moving, which was especially strange. This forest had a reputation for being less controlled than the rest of Enigia, and even though there were no pony to move the clouds or grow the trees or support the animals, everything continued to run. Still clouds were a bad sign. Not to mention, the sun had suddenly frozen on the horizon. Soul Flash returned his attention to the cave. The dragon had slithered away from the rocks and was sniffing around the cave mouth, but didn't come into the light it gave. Soul Flash trotted over to the cave, ignoring the strangely behaving dragon for the time being. It hadn't reacted badly to his magic, so maybe it wouldn't do anything if he came closer. It didn't, merely continued to sniff at the cave. It only paused for a second when it saw Soul Flash, and gave the unicorn a strange nod before returning to his snuffling work. "What's so interesting about a cave?" Soul Flash muttered to himself, walking inside. The glow could have been caused by moss, or crystals, or maybe a horde of shadow ponies had made their home here and gotten stuck. Soul Flash shuddered. He really hoped it wasn't the latter. Shadow ponies were extremely dangerous, and Soul Flash had never had to deal with more than one or two at once. The deeper Soul Flash went into the cavern, the brighter the glow became. It also gained a slight bluish tint to it, rather than be completely stark white. A strange feeling grew in Soul Flash's chest. Not particularly bad, but he wasn't sure if he could call it good. It was just...strange, and it was enough to cause him to light his horn, just in case something was in here that he would have to protect himself from. The stallion stopped suddenly, his horn's light flickering a bit as pure shock overtook him. Before him, glowing and pulsing with an ethereal light that Soul Flash couldn't hope to explain, was a clear blue and pure white crystalline tree. Its branches extended to the boundaries of the cave, twisting and twirling like a bee's flight pattern, and hanging down from those were branches more akin to a willow's. Every part of the plant was illuminated with the strange light, and was assumedly the source of the weird feeling Soul Flash felt, which was amplified as he stood before the enormous tree. On the edge of the branches were five crystal orbs, which each contained a unique gem. Red, blue, orange, pink, and violet, in the respective shapes of a lightning bolt, balloon, apple, butterfly, and rhombus. Growing out of the shining trunk was a large shape that appeared similar to a stylized star, and in the center was a smaller version of the shape in the form of a magenta gem. Below the star were etchings of a sun and a crescent moon. They weren't carved, rather, they seemed to grow as part of the tree's crystal surface and glowed along with it. A few steps closer, and Soul Flash's flickering horn started to glow brighter than it ever had before. He quickly extinguished his magic, unsure of the effects this strange tree would have on it. The gems on the tree's branches and the one on its trunk began to shimmer, at about the same time as Soul Flash heard a loud familiar snuffling. Turning his head, he saw that the old dragon had slithered inside the cave. Forgetting the tree for a moment, Soul Flash spun around to face the lizard. He was trapped now, there was no way out of the cave besides the entrance which the dragon was blocking. The dragon clawed its way forward, but strangely, it didn't seem to be looking at Soul Flash, or even acknowledging the unicorn at all. It just stared at the tree, an almost wistful look on its cracked face. Soul Flash watched it for a moment, perplexed. The tree was shiny, so maybe that was why the dragon was drawn to it, but if that was the case it should be attacking him for getting so close to the prize. Soul Flash looked around the dragon, and saw that it wasn't only a danger if he attempted to escape, it completely blocked the pathway out. Well, there was no option then. Besides blow out the cave to make another pathway, but he didn't want to test the strength of the cliff anymore than he already had. The dragon's eyes suddenly snapped to Soul Flash, emerald irises shimmering in the bright light the tree produced. The unicorn tensed, lighting his horn in preparation to defend himself. The dragon didn't attack though, only stared down at the stallion before him. The edges of the dragon's crooked mouth twitched, making it appear to be smiling. It opened its mouth, and Soul Flash's horn flared as a shimmering violet barrier surrounded him. No flame came though, only a deep, merry sounding roar. Soul Flash blinked, staring in awe at the dragon that seemed to be...laughing? "Thank you!" the dragon laughed, throwing its great head back as far as it could in the cramped space. "Thank you, you've saved Equestria!" Soul Flash didn't respond, only stood there in shock. His barrier faded, as he was too surprised to put forth the magic to keep it up. "Oh, sorry, Enigia." The dragon ceased its laughter, only smiling warmly down at Soul Flash now. "I didn't know someone as dark as you could save us like this...But I suppose I was wrong." "You...talk," Soul Flash sputtered, backing towards the tree and continuing to gape up at the dragon. It smiled and nodded. "Yes. Sorry, you aren't used to speaking dragons, are you? Or dragons in general." It sighed. "Never mind that though, there is no time for explanations. Here." The dragon reached a front talon back, towards the mouth of the cavern. Drawing it back, the dragon brought an item balanced precariously on a single claw to Soul Flash's attention. The book. "You dropped this," the dragon said, dropping the book at Soul Flash's hooves. "You should keep track of it. It's the only one that escaped her purge." "Purge?" Soul Flash repeated, looking down at the book, then back up at the dragon, who was gazing at the tree again. "Yes. Your Empress destroyed all books like this. You're lucky to have found one." "It's just a foal's story though," Soul Flash said, getting a bit of his bravery back since the dragon hadn't shown any aggression in its words or actions. "What would Empress Enigma gain from destroying them? The story's a bit controversial, but it's just fantasy-" "It's true. Every word." The dragon directed its emerald gaze back at Soul Flash, and the unicorn flinched at its cold tone. "We don't have time. Take the stones from the tree and hurry home. The Empress's guards will be here soon." "What? Her...Why?!" "Uncovering the tree sent a wave of harmonic magic over all Enigia," the dragon growled, sniffing the air. "Now hurry. Take the six stones, and go." It shuffled backwards, freeing itself of the cave and disappearing from Soul Flash's line of sight. Loud thudding noises signaled him to the dragon's departure. Soul Flash was still for a moment, needing to convince himself that what just happened wasn't some vivid daydream. No, that was a ridiculous thing to assume. The vibrations of the dragon's steps were very much real, and the tree behind him hadn't vanished with the lizard. He shook his head, confused, but still in his right mind. "The stones..." Soul Flash turned his head to the tree, where the six gems still glimmered. He hesitated, then lit his horn and began to yank on them. He grunted as he pulled, the crystal bark of the tree holding the gems tight. Eventually though, he was able to break them out of their shining prison. The tree seemed to shudder when it lost them, but nothing noticeable changed. The gems floated over to Soul Flash, and he looked each one over with skepticism. The dragon had seemed convinced they were important, and that the book's tale was true. How could that be though? Soul Flash couldn't sense any great power coming from the gems, and the book's tale was ridiculous. Power from friendship? How could something so...so foalish be real? Soul Flash sighed, picked up the book in his mouth, and began to exit the cave. He'd look further into this later. If the dragon was right, and the Empress' guard was on their way, he'd need to hurry home and set up the cloaking spell. The last thing he wanted was to tangle with those beasts.