//------------------------------// // Intermission VIII: Tomb of the Unknown Combatant // Story: At the Twilight of Harmony // by Rammy //------------------------------// “I’m so sorry I…” I wiped my mouth of the bile. What happened to Medallion was just too much for me. No creature should ever had to go through what she did I just hope that she was unconscious as that thing destroyed her body. Storyteller calmly used his magic to clean the platform and the dragon statue. “It’s okay History Seeker.” “But I spewed all over the memorial!” I shouted, gesturing to the platform and the dragon statue. “Well, that is how a diamond dog shows grief…” Storyteller countered, which didn’t make me feel better for destroying the sacredness of this place. Him and his encyclopedia of knowledge of other races be damned! The dead should be afforded dignity not debauchery. “That is sick… you’re sick... this whole story is sick!” I ranted. I swallowed hard as I could feel bile trying to come up again. “Its all a matter of perspective… one person's culture is another person’s revulsion. Though to be fair, there were things that happened in the Keeper War that even the more warrior like minotaurs and dragons couldn’t stomach. For example, what happened to Medallion. Even the most seasoned minotaur warrior would find it revolting. And a dragon would fly into a rage...” “Just like Sentinel…” I whispered. I don’t blame Sentinel’s reaction… If someone I love was killed… butchered in that matter I probably would vow bloody vengeance. “Well... yes…” Storyteller conceded. “Does she have a monument? I mean she did die in battle at the claws of that dark dragon…” “Dragons generally don't do memorials…” “And yet,” I smirked as I gazed towards Terra Hourglass, “I have the impression that the Hourglass Clan is not filled with typical dragons.” “True…” Storyteller admitted, matching my gaze. “Medallion’s memorial is in Hourglass…” A silence came over us for a while before Storyteller began to walk down the steps and off of the platform. “Come…” Storyteller gestured with a jerk of his head. As we were about to go around a bend in the path and lose sight of the obelisk I took one glance back. So many lives lost… how bad will it get before the end? I mused before I slowly turned back to continue down the path with Storyteller. Ahead I could see a high, shiny, black wall. It wasn’t the exit as the wall that surrounded the park was low to the ground and made of sandstone and covered in ivy. This wall was made from the same type of stone as the obelisk from before so it had to be a memorial of sorts. as we got up to it I noticed that it appeared to be made of one piece of stone. That meant that the stone had to been cut with extreme precision. Everything thing so far had been like that. “So what is beyond here?” I asked, wondering what was beyond the polished black stone wall. It went up at least twenty hooves and without my flight magic I couldn’t fly up to peer over. I could make out a majestic oak tree just on the other side of the wall. “The Tomb of the Unknown Combatant. Three ponies, twenty griffons, and one dragon are buried here. And no, the dragon is not the ‘Nameless One’ that, that creature…” The rest of what Storyteller said faded into sputtering angry nonsense. We walked on a path next the wall for a while before he stopped at a white shimmering gate. I couldn’t be sure but it looked like it was made of opal or pearl. I went to the gate and saw a sign on it as I got closer I saw the script shifted to read in Equus. The Tomb of the Unknown Combatant We vow that those interred here will never be forgotten Magic. I mentally groaned. I looked through the gate. I knew not to open it from Storyteller's easier warning but something about the tree caught my attention. “That oak tree looks weird.” “That is because it’s not a real tree. It’s carved from a single piece of a very rare granite by a team of stone golem and diamond dog master carvers. The leaves are individually crafted from a special metal alloy that when it oxidizes that from a distance makes it look like leaves. The leaves have to be replaced regularly because of that…” Storyteller hummed for a second before adding, “The Caretaker of the Tomb must have been here earlier…” “How can you tell?” I squinted as tried to get a better look. “No leaves on the ground…” I looked about which was a bit difficult with the wall blocking most of my sight along with the opal/pearl gate. I couldn't see any ‘leaves’ on the ground. “The caretaker takes great pride in keeping this spot perfect. The grass is cut daily to a precise length. Any leaves that fall from the tree are picked up and new ones placed onto the tree. The outer wall kept washed and polished. The caretaker also guards it with a fierce zeal that would impress a dragon from any and all intrusion. You would only manage to barely crack open that gate before you would be caught and escorted off the grounds and given your only warning.” I resisted the urge to look for the caretaker as I stood there staring for a while longer. The whole thing roared honor, sacrifice, courage, and solemness. A place guarded and cared at this level for so those here even though they would never be known so that they would never be forgotten. I started to be overcome by emotion by the idyllic sight before me. So much that I started to cry. “If this alone does it for you then it has done its job… I would have us stay here longer…” Storyteller sighed. “But… We should keep moving… Without your wings we are going to have to climb the stairs to the top of Terra Hourglass.” “SSSSSttairs!?” I stuttered as I turned to face him in disbelief, sobbing a bit as I regained control of my emotions. How could stairs be built to be climbable on an upside down mountain? My brain racked but the only thing I could think of was a weird rope bridge of some kind and even then I struggled to visualize it. “Yes and a lot of them…” I sighed as I turned back to the tomb. “It’s going to get worse isn’t it? Please... I need to know…” “Yes… It will get worse…in a way... I’m only focusing on Hourglass…  The eastern continents so far have shouldered the brunt of the war… That is about to change as the pieces for the final stage of the war are placed.”