//------------------------------//
// LVIII - Rebirth 
// Story: Mortal Coil 
// by Reeve 
//------------------------------//

	I suppose I should clarify, that the story does not in fact end with my own death, and believe me I did truly die at that moment. No, it turned out fate had another thing in store for me… well, perhaps fate isn’t who I should give thanks to, but we’ll get to who was responsible for my second chance in a little while. When I woke up, my initial thoughts had nothing to do with living or dying, but rather, discomfort at finding myself on a very flat, very hard surface with something very cold pressed against my chest. 

I lay there for some time, as my brain kicked back into gear and my memories slowly filtered back in. It was a bizarre experience, lying there and having my whole life flash behind my eyelids without feeling the slightest distress or confusion as to why. It was only when the memories of my days at Cragsburg, ending with my own death returned to me, that my eyes snapped open and the panic began to set in. I sat bolt upright on the stone table, looking myself up and down frantically, not noticing at first as the cold object rolled off my chest.

I stared in awe and mild horror at my pristine body, at my unmarred flesh and restored limbs. My cutie marks were both present and clear as day once more; even my mane and tail had grown back to their full length. Finally I reached up and felt about my forehead, breathing a huge sigh of relief as I felt the familiar feel of my horn. It appeared that my body had been completely restored to the way it was before I had attempted to rescue Fluttershy… no, even further back than that.

While there was no damage from my time at Cragsburg, right down to where the first crossbow bolt had punctured through my leg, I also felt none of the pain I had endured from my fight at Anchorage. I could move my limbs without feeling any remnants of pain whatsoever; it really was as if my body had been restored to peak physical condition. Of course I immediately jumped to the conclusion that I was now in the afterlife, not that I had ever believed in such a thing before, but it seemed like the most logical reason as to why I’d suddenly be in my current state after everything I had been through, culminating in my death.

I bit down on my leg hard, testing to see if I could still feel pain. Since I could, I ruled out dream or delusion brought on by whatever trauma my body had been put through. For a while I was genuinely convinced I was in the afterlife, so I turned my attention to my surroundings to discover what awaited us after death. What I found was that I lay on some kind of ancient, stone altar, sitting at the top a small pyramid structure, situated within a large chamber. All the stone was a faded sand colour, with tinges of green from what appeared to be moss growing between the bricks and slabs.

While there were no light sources to speak of, I could still see everything clearly. It was as if the air all around me was made of living lights and shadows, flowing and flitting about one another to create the eerie feeling that I was submerged in water. The chamber certainly felt unnatural enough to be otherworldly; I could even swear there was a faint murmuring all around me, which would fade away instantly whenever I tried to focus on it. While I stared around myself in confusion, I vaguely remembered the cold feeling on my chest when I first woke up.

I looked down and saw there was nothing there, including the draw string pouch that contained my compass. That didn’t bother me as much as I expected it would, probably because I was still convinced I was in the afterlife, and that obviously physical objects wouldn’t follow me through. I set about looking for what had been the source of the intense cold; I quickly found it at the base of the altar, having dropped down when it rolled off me. I picked it up and held it up to the light, a difficult act when the light was always moving.

The object was a tiny stone, roughly the size and the shape of a raisin; I knew immediately what it was. My eyes grew wide as I remembered the package that Sweetie Belle had delivered to me, remembered the mysterious stone that I had kept hidden away inside my compass and thought so little of. While I didn’t have the note that came with it, I remembered it still, ‘I have seen something in you; I feel you may have need of this one day. Keep it close, it only works once, and yet I pray you will not require it’.

I was beginning to doubt my afterlife theory in favour of one relating to this stone. Could it be that it somehow held the power to bring me back to life? The sender seemed to hope I wouldn’t have need of it, so it would stand to reason that the stone in some way related to death. It also said that it only worked once, which made sense as before it pulsated with a bright light and held some warmth to it, now it was cold as death and completely devoid of any light. The final part of the note I thought on, was the part that warned me to keep it close. I felt my stomach lurch at the idea of what would have happened if Pinkie hadn’t brought me back the compass. 

That still left the question of who sent me the stone, somepony who saw something in me, who knew Fancy Pants and was able to pass it along to him before I left for Panchea. I decided to ignore that bit for the time being, I needed to leave the room, because if I wasn’t in the afterlife, then the stone had also transported me somewhere and I needed to figure out where that was if I was to get back and find my friends. I fiddled with the stone for a moment, unsure how to keep it safe while I travelled.

I had no pockets or bags, and I didn’t want to drain my magic by carrying it around everywhere I walked. While I pondered the situation, I remembered back to a moment when I was with Stranglethorn in Dolor, how he kept a small key hidden behind his ear. I wondered how he had managed it then, but since the stone was probably the same size as his key had been, I decided to float it up behind my ear and poke about to see what would happen. To my utter astonishment, the stone fitted snugly in the nook right behind my ear, and as long as I didn’t swivel my ear too far forward, it would stay in place. 

With that minor issue taken care of, I began to make my way down the pyramid steps, slowly as they were quite steep and I didn’t want to bring a swift end to my second life by tripping and falling. This place I found myself in was certainly peculiar, as I exited the chamber through a stone archway, into a corridor that seemed to stretch on forever on both sides; I noticed the room behind me beginning to grow dark as I stepped out of it. It was as if the flowing light followed me, while the shadows clustered tightly together in their absence to form an impenetrable wall of darkness behind me.

I hesitated a moment just beyond the archway, wondering whether I should turn left or right, my decision was made for me when a gust of warm air came flooding down the tunnel from my right, pushing me slightly towards the left. I frowned before carrying on, that air had felt so humid and sticky, and the noise that accompanied it gave me the disturbing sensation that I was standing in some stone throat and had just been breathed upon. While I contemplated that idea, the murmuring began to grow louder around me, until I became consciously aware of it, at which point it was instantly muted and I was left in silence once more.

I decided to trust the strange wind and follow the corridor to the left. As I began to walk, the flickering lights danced all around me, lighting the way ahead while the shadows consumed the way back. I wasn’t sure, but the way the lights constantly shifted about, it gave the strange impression that the stone walls were shifting ever so slightly, like the whole tunnel was stretching and twisting around to such a small degree that it was barely noticeable. I chose to ignore it, perhaps I was just dehydrated, I was certainly feeling the pangs of hunger coming on.

As I walked, I passed by several junctions in the corridor and archways that led into other chambers. As I passed them by, I caught quick glimpses of their interiors before the shadows obscured them from view, I saw chambers as large as the one I had woken up in, while others looked so small that I would have to crouch to avoid scraping my head off the ceiling. In these rooms, I caught sight of strange shapes and structures that served mysterious purposes; I saw pillars and altars, statues and alcoves. Before I could begin to wonder what those rooms might contain or what might lie down those other corridors, the gust of warm air returned to hurry me on my way, always sending me of down a specific direction.

There was a moment when I came to a sudden halt, when I heard the sound of hurrying hoofsteps other than my own. I glanced about, suddenly panicking for some reason before darting through the nearest archway and pressing myself up against the wall. The hoofsteps were getting closer, and they were approaching fast. I risked a glance out, only to snap my head in as four figure sprinted into the light. I had to contain my gasp of shock when I saw who they were; there was two stallions and two mares, one of which led the others with a lantern held in her magic.

They all looked deeply shaken and exhausted; coming to a stop just outside where I was hidden, but it was what they wore that really drew my attention. Each of the four ponies wore flowing robes of black silk, embroidered with a rainbow coloured thread.

“We have to go back!” the mare who was not carrying the lantern exclaimed in a terrified voice. “We can’t just leave him!”

“We have our orders,” the other mare replied in an unconvincingly calm voice. “He knew the risks we faced.”

“Forget our orders!” one of the stallions exclaimed. “And forget him, he’s lost already. What we need to do now is get out of here before they get us too!”

“Don’t say that!” the mare hissed at him. “The Father gave us this task directly, it could be the most important thing we have done for the Covenant. To defy those orders and run away with your tail between your legs would be the height of heresy!”

“But it’s hopeless!” the stallion insisted desperately. “We’re going around in circles, I’m sure of it! Oh lord… I can’t get the voices to stop! It feels like my mind is ripping in half!”

The mare with the lantern stormed over to the weeping stallion ad smacked him hard across the face.

“Get a hold of yourself brother!” she commanded. “We will find the tomb, or we will all die trying! This mission is of the utmost importance; it could make or break everything we have been working for all these years. There’s all this light around here, we must be getting close, I can feel it.” 

The mare started walking around, holding her lantern out to the walls for some reason, even though the area was fairly well lit from the lights that had been following me around. I held my breath as she began walking over to the archway I hid behind, for a moment I was sure she was going to glance around it and see me crouched there.

“It’s not here,” the second stallion announced, looking over sheets of parchment. “We’re still some ways off.”

“Fine, then let’s get moving,” the mare replied bitterly before turning her gaze to the stallion she had been telling off. “I should kill you for your cowardice, but it would be just as easy to leave you here to be taken by whatever demons haunt this place. So what will it be? You can come with us and fulfil your duty to the Father and the Covenant, or you can stay here and meet the same fate our brother did… keeping in mind that I carry the Father’s lantern.”

“I… I’ll come,” the stallion stammered, wiping his eyes.

With that, the mare marched off into the shadows, her lantern lighting the way while her companions followed closely behind. Once the ball of light from her lantern vanished from sight, I stepped out from my hiding place and stared after it, my breathing was very rapid now. The robed ponies were there, with me, and the things they said. 

“Covenant… tomb…” I repeated in a low voice.

What could it all mean? What exactly were these ponies up to? I decided to ignore it for the time being and carry on my way; another gust of air appeared to be trying to rush me along anyway. While I wasn’t sure what horrors they seemed to have encountered in this place, when my own time had been relatively peaceful, I wasn’t eager to stay and find out. I continued to follow the direction of the air for some time, until at last I reached a spacious chamber with a tall winding staircase that led high up to a speck of light that I hoped indicated daylight.

I galloped up the stairs, faintly aware of the incessant whispering following me the whole time, but paying it no heed as my eyes were glued on the door that I was now sure led outside. As I burst out through the open doorway and the lights that had been following me since I woke up, flew out into the open air and dissipated, I was forced to shut my eyes from the sudden intensity of natural light, while I breathed in the unusually stale air. Glancing back while I waited for my eyes to adjust to the light, I saw the shadows move in, hiding the staircase and the entrance chamber completely from view, just as they had done with every other room and stretch of tunnel I passed. 

Once my eyes were a little better adjusted, I turned my attention back to the outside world, my eyes switching from partially shut to wide open as I surveyed my new surroundings. I was standing on a stone walkway, overlooking a colossal pit that appeared to travel straight down for miles before fading into darkness. The best way I can describe it is like a tube carved into the earth, roughly the length of a couple barns placed end to end in diameter. I myself was inside this tube, some ways down from the top, standing outside one of the thousands of stone archways that were scattered across the entire tube, from the very top, down to the very lowest point I could see. 

Connecting all these darkened doorways, were a series of walkways and steps that all looked to be carved right of the earth with no real pattern or consistency in their dimensions, it all worked to give the tube a very haphazard and untidy look. I stared in awe around me, to think that that one door I had just stepped out of, led to such a massive sprawling complex of tunnels and chambers. There were countless doors just like it all around me that could lead to similar areas, that could all come together to create the most vast place I could possibly comprehend.

It made my head swim just thinking about how long it would take one pony to explore a place like this, it would easily drive them mad. Particularly considering how easy it would be to get lost if I hadn’t been led along the right path by that odd air… and then it hit me. As I began to recall ancient stories and whispered tales, I began to realise where I was. But I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions just yet, if I was right, then I needed to climb to the top of this shaft and return to the surface, only then would I know for sure.

Before I left however, I remembered the robed ponies I had encountered. The odds of seeing them in that exact area of that exact tunnel complex amidst the thousands that were out there, at the exact time I was passing through seemed phenomenal. Not for the first time I wondered if perhaps fate had arranged it as such, so before I left, I turned back once more to the archway. Grabbing a small rock with my magic, I began carving the letter R into the stone frame. I wasn’t sure if I would ever come back here to find out what they were up to, especially since I now knew where here was and wanted nothing more than to get as far away from it as possible, but if I did return… the mark would be there to help.

With that taken care of, I started my assent up the shaft to the surface. A tricky task considering some of the ledges were so worn down and narrow, and the steps steep and teetering, I had to take my time and climb slowly to avoid falling off and plummeting into the endless abyss below. When I first emerged blinking form the doorway, the sun had been almost directly over the circular opening at the top of the shaft, its light just about piercing through the morbid grey cloud cover. By the time I was nearing the top however, I could see that it was sinking rather low in the sky, judging by where the rays of light penetrated from. 

When I reached the top, I had to pull myself up the last few sections, a task made considerably easier with my renewed body. As I pulled myself over the final ledge and stood up, brushing my coat down of the dust that clung to it, I looked around me and confirmed my suspicions… and fears. I stood on the edge of the great hole in the ground, travelling down for what seemed like forever before fading into blackness. The hole itself had a neat, circular frame carved from the same sandy coloured rock as the shaft itself, it created a slight mound, appearing inconsequential enough from the outset.

It was the landscape that surrounded me that gave it away, a cold, harsh looking wasteland of grey rock and dirt that stretched out for miles in all directions. It was bare and featureless, littered with rocky crags and hilly mounds, but no living creatures or plants to speak of. It was a land that was completely stripped of life, much like the Ash Lands, but somehow managing to be even more inhospitable and morbid looking, the perpetually grey skies not helping matters. Looking around me, I could see mountain ranges surrounding it on three sides, and to the south, a hint of green that signified the end of this desolate wilderness and the beginning of the Tranquil Forest.

Together the mountains and the forest created a natural border for the section of land in Panchea where nopony dared tread… the Nether Vale. I mentioned it couple times before, the mysterious valley that lay to the north of the Tranquil Forest and west of the Ash Lands, the place where few had ever gone, and even fewer had made it out alive. Those that did, either forgot their experiences there… or were driven completely insane by the things that they saw. 

Few ponies had ever gotten far enough into the Nether Vale and made it out to report anything regarding it. But those that had, spoke of a place at the very heart, a terrible pit that travelled forever into the earth, they called it the Demon Shaft. There were many legends and theories pertaining to the origins and purpose of the Demon Shaft, and by extension the Nether Vale as a whole. Some believed that it was linked to the ancient race that lived in Panchea before ponies first inhabited it, the same race that built Arclight, other believed that it existed even longer than that, and that the shaft led to another plane of existence.

Whatever the tales said and however they differed or agreed, one thing was made clear to everypony who lived in Panchea, you never travelled to the Nether Vale if you valued your life and your sanity. The fact that I had woken up there after dying, not only in the Nether Vale, but inside the Demon Shaft itself, raised hundreds more questions in my mind. I pushed them all to the side however, as I began walking swiftly south in the direction of the Tranquil Forest, wanting nothing more than to leave this horrific place behind before I learned why it carried so much stigma.

Now that I was free of the claustrophobic environment of the Demon Shaft and out in the open, I began to feel a prickling sensation, like I was being watched. As I travelled through the wasteland, I could still hear that faint murmuring, and like before, if I tried to pay it any heed, it would fade away and leave me in an eerie silence. Now however, it felt like I could see movements just out the corner of my eye, like there were creatures lurking just beyond my vision. Perhaps it had been the same inside the Demon Shaft, but because of the constantly shifting light, I hadn’t picked up on it. 

Whatever the case may be, I had a sickening feeling that if I delayed, I would find out why it earned the name ‘Demon’ Shaft. I journeyed through the night, as tired as I was, I had no desire to stop in this place and get a closer look at the shadows that seemed to be creeping after me. I lit the way with the light of my horn, not particularly effective in revealing my surroundings, but it provided me with a little comfort. By the time I arrived at the edge of the forest, the sun had begun to rise and I was able to look back over the grey landscape and see it clearly.

If I stood at the top of a hill and squinted, I could just about make out the faint discolouration of the mound that indicated where the Demon Shaft was. It certainly was a long way away, and I was amazed at how far I travelled in what felt like such a short time. Really, the more I tried to think back to my time travelling through the corridors of the Demon Shaft and across the plains of the Nether Vale, the harder it became to remember it clearly. It was like my time there had passed by in a blur, with only the occasional moment sticking in my mind.

As I looked back over it from the relative safety of the forest, I wondered if maybe the dark forces that worked there had allowed me to leave, encouraged it to be more specific. I had after all arrived there under no will of my own, perhaps it was only the fact that it had not been my choice to be there, that allowed me to leave unscathed. It would explain that strange air that led me in the right direction of the exit and pushed me whenever I hesitated or became too curious about another path or room. The same might also be said for those things that watched me after I left the Shaft, never removing their unnerving gaze from me until I was far away from their territory.

I really had no desire to test their good will and return under my own fruition, but then I remembered those robed ponies. Whatever they had been talking about sounded extremely important, going back and finding out what they were up to might be exactly what we needed to finally get to the bottom of this mystery. I shook my head though, going with my better judgement and leaving it be… for the time being. I needed to find my friends and make sure they had all escaped Cragsburg okay; no doubt they would be shocked to see me back in one piece.

I pressed forward, delving into the forest, stopping after a short while to fill up on some berries I remembered Stranglethorn identifying as being edible the last time we were in the forest together. I travelled for some time, using the sun to head in a south-eastern direction, in the hopes of exiting the Tranquil Forest somewhere around the Lesser Pastures. After a while I began to wonder if I was going in the right direction, the canopy was mostly blocking out the sun, making it hard to tell. So after picking a tree that looked tall enough, I began to climb in the hopes of getting a clear view of my destination.

Once at the top, I felt my heart swell at the view I was given. To the southwest I could see the city of Arclight towering over the forest, to the southeast I could see the Neptune stretching out beyond the woodlands. If I looked back I could even see the grey lands of the Nether Vale, sending a little shudder up my spine to think how fortunate I was to have been able to walk out of there in one piece. While I was contemplating my luck, there was a flash of light in the corner of my eye, my head quickly snapped around to see what the source was.

As I looked to the southeast, there was a point just beyond the edge of the forest, where a narrow shaft of purple light had burst forth from the ground and was rising into the heavens. I stared at it for a moment, totally bewildered by what it could be for a moment, but then as I stared at it, I began to feel a warmth rising in my chest. Could it be that it was some kind of magical beacon… signalling me? Then it dawned on me that the pillar of light was the exact same colour as Twilight Sparkle’s aura. 

In the space of a minute, I had scurried back down the tree and was charging through the forest. My lungs ached as I struggled to take in enough air to keep up my pace, but I didn’t slow down. My friend was out there, and she was calling out to me, I just knew it. Maybe that was a naïve outlook to have; maybe after everything I was still too optimistic, but then… I was only reborn yesterday.