//------------------------------// // The Cave: Part One // Story: A Pony from Nowhere // by NikolasTheWriter //------------------------------// The next day. 9:00 Morn was sitting on his bed, already awoken. He looked through the window, which indeed grew back from shattered pieces. He has never seen self-growing crystals. The stallion stood up and walked to the bathroom, where he cleaned his teeth and washed himself in the shower. He thought that his legs would be rusty if he keeps showering, but his legs were as new as if they never touched the water. It seemed that his legs were not just mechanical, but a little bit of magical. Finishing his showering, Morn heard someone knocking his room's door. Morn dried himself and went to the door, opened it and saw Twilight Sparkle. "Good morning, Morn!" she said, smiling. "Would you mind if I look at your legs? I want to know how they work or where they were made." "I don't mind at all. Maybe you'll find something out," the stallion replied. "Well, then you should lie on your bed and don't move until I allow you to," Twilight said and Morn went to his bed and got on it. Twilight came closer and carefully took one of his hind legs, raising it up a little. She noticed a small white button on the back of the leg and pushed it. Part of the leg dropped, revealing wires. There were four wires: two green, one red and one gray. Nothing was written on them. Twilight picked up the cover of the leg and looked at it's inside. A small inscription was written in the center: 'Made in Crystal Empire'. "Morn, are you a crystal pony?" "No, why?" Morn answered, surprised. Why would he be a crystal pony? "It is written that your legs were made in Crystal Empire. Yet I have no idea where exactly they were produced. Nopony is making artificial limbs there. Unless your legs were made earlier," Twilight cleared her throat. "Recently I visited Crystal Empire and found Sombra's personal room in the basement of the castle. Some documents there said that there was an order to produce about fifteen different prostheses for Sombra. I don't think they were made for him to use, as he had all his limbs with him. The document also mentioned a cave near the Empire, but I haven't found it yet. Do you think we should go to Crystal Empire to investigate?" "Well, if it will somehow help me to know myself better, then I think we should go there," Morn replied, frowning. "And... When exactly my legs were produced?" "According to the documents, about a thousand years ago. I am surprised that your legs aren't rusty or damaged. I think they are made of enchanted metal, yet I can't sense anything magical in your legs. It's just a big blur, so I'm uncertain if they are magical or not. We better go and find out," Twilight said and looked at Morn's long horn. "Well, but before we go there, I want to know how well you know battle magic. I have a big training ground for it in my castle, we should go there." Morn nodded and they walked through the halls and downstairs to the training ground. It was hidden underground the castle and that area was pretty huge. The stallion looked around and saw many columns, supporting the ceiling, which was pretty high, many training dummies, lots of different bladed weapons: swords, katanas, battle axes, halberds, and sabers. It was also a little dark. "This place looks... Amazing," the stallion said in awe. "So, you train here, Twilight?" "Well, not so often, but yes, I do," she answered, walking along Morn. "So, shall we start the training?" "I'm ready." "Then let's get to the center of the area," Twilight said and headed to the center of the area, Morn followed her. They stopped. "So, Morn, what spells do you know?" Twilight asked, eager to hear his answer. The stallion he brought to the castle was mysterious and she wanted to know everything about him. Morn closed his eyes and tried to remember. Suddenly his brain was filled with all kind of battle spells. The stallion thought that his head's going to blow up because of the amount of information rushing in his mind. "Twilight, I think I know too much about it," he said and coughed. "It seems someone trained me." "Well, then show that training dummy," - Twilight pointed to the right - "Who is the boss!" Morn turned to the right and felt the magic flowing through him. He concentrated it in his horn, ready to release. On the floor, right under the stallion, a big red circle formed, then a circle a little smaller. Then strange symbols of unknown language formed between the two circles. Another small circle appeared inside of the second circle and four beams appeared, pointing at the center of circles. Morn concentrated all his magical energy inside his horn, pointed it to the dummy and released the magic. A large explosion was heard and Morn was thrown against one of the pillars by the blast wave. However, he wasn't hurt and hee stood up. "Morn! Are you okay?" Twilight ran to him with a worried look on her face. "That was..." "Do not worry, I'm fine." "It's not the case," Twilight said. "You are using extremely powerful, forbidden dark magic. You could have killed yourself!" "I don't feel myself any different," Morn replied, confused by alicorn's words. Dark magic? "Whatever it was, I felt it... Natural." "Natural? Dark magic can't be natural!" Twilight almost yelled. "I know only one pony who could say those words without hesitation or fear. And that's..." "Sombra," Morn finished and silence fell. No one of them spoke for two minutes. Morn broke the silence. "I think it is now essential to find that cave Sombra's documents were about, don't you think?" "You're right Morn, let's get to the Crystal Empire." Two hours later they were near the Crystal Empire. The day was fine, no cloud in the sky. It was pretty warm, despite it was north, so neither Morn nor Twilight had to wear any special clothes. Their furs warmed them enough to stay out of the Crystal Empire. They were already searching for the cave for twenty minutes, but without any success. Documents gave no clue to the location of the cave. "Hey Twilight, I think I found something!" Morn said loud, getting Twilight's attention. She quickly trotted to the stallion and looked down to see the entrance to the cave. It was sure pretty dark in there, and Twilight could feel the evil in there. She shivered but made her way down there with the stallion. He took off his hood and looked around. "Nothing suspicious here. But I can sense something's not right," he said in a complete darkness. Twilight lit her horn to see, as she had no night vision. The crystals in cave reflected her light, making the place much less sinister. "Well, I hope we won't get into any trouble there..." Twilight whispered to herself. Oh, she was not right.