Tales of Valor - Part 2: Web of Deception

by Scribble Script

7 - Departure

Just one, little Click and hell broke loose: A jolt went through the cavern. Within a blink, the black stuff in the air was gone, sucked down beneath the surface of the pond. The water started to boil; a vortex, even more, an actual maelstrom formed as the underwater rift was forcefully opened. Dripstones, rocks, moss, everything that had been exposed to the rift long enough to take in radiation from the Void, started to tremble.

The Abyss Queen jolted like being hit by an invisible impact. It broke down and slowly was dragged into the water by the pull. The Particles on its shell formed a spiraling stream into the eye of the vortex.

“RUN”, Valor roared to drown out the maelstrom’s deafening rumbling. He was trying hard, with all strength he could afford, to withstand the undertow of the rift.
But as he turned around, he saw that his friends hadn’t moved at all; of course. The magic of friendship… He should have known they wouldn’t follow order. His friends wouldn’t leave without him, those kind souls… Even if it was only for them, Valor had to try and challenge fate one more time. He started to crawl.

“Pinkie, Rainbow”, Twilight tried to call for the two mares but she wasn’t sure if they could even understand her yelling. She waved her hoof at Valor who also was trying to head for the entrance. “We need to help him! It’s drawing him in!”
At least Pinkie seemed to have gotten Twilight right. The two mares tried to reach out for their friend as the grey stallion was dragging himself forward like against the blow of a strong wind. Still menacing close behind him was the battered figure of the Abyss Queen, its legs scratching over the shore, trying to get a grip.
From behind, Twilight heard Rainbow Dash screamed something that sounded like “It’s coming! It’s coming!” And she was right. With incredible persistence the demon fought forward step by step, while large rocks and dripstones came crashing down on its back.

Valor Edge turned his head backwards. The demon was so close he could smell its stench; it reeked of ammoniac. He saw his worst fears confirmed: The pull wasn’t strong enough. And the rift could collapse any minute now. If by that time, the monster wasn’t yet drawn into the Void, it would get away and kill them all.

The sacrifice of a hero, the stallion thought in resignation. Well, I knew it had to end like that, did I not? I guess I cannot duck out of every prophecy…
His friends were trying to get to his aid, where trying to save his life. But behind him was a behemoth from another dimension, boiling mad and murderous, with a vile appetite for foals’ life-energy. If it escaped it’d probably kill every single pony in Ponyville. That made the decision very easy.
Some call it ‘Hell', Valor bitterly remembered. Guess it is time to atone for my sins.
He had crossed the Void twice; the amount of Particles in his fur was low. Nevertheless the resulting force if he hit the demon should have been enough to send the creature back through the rift.

Twilight’s sharp mind came to a similar conclusion, just as Valor turned his head to face her. Never had she seen a deeper sadness in a ponies’ eye.

Valor’s lips formed four words: ‘I am so sorry’.
I wish your efforts were not in vain. I really wish, the stallion thought. Then he let got.

Twilight let out a high pitched scream and jumped forward to adhere her friend. Too late!
The stallion had given in to the undertow, got tore away and slammed against the body of the Abyss Queen, hooves first. For a heartbeat, the demon struggled before it finally lost its grip. Together with the much smaller pony, the monstrous squid-spider got drawn right into the maelstrom and disappeared in the boiling vortex of luminescent water. Now parts of the whole ceiling came crashing down into the pond and large cracks appeared throughout the rocks.
That was when Twilight was grabbed from behind by Dash and Pinkie and dragged out of the cavern.

<0>

The air outside was by far not as stuffy as before, almost as if the forest was trying to thank them for getting rid of the intruder. Dew was glittering in the moonlight. The mysterious and scary Everfree Forest for once seemed peaceful. In the fresh air, the three fillies finally were safe.

As a deep, thundering rumble came from inside the cave, Applejack reached out and tightly hugged her little sister. “Ah’m here Apple Bloom. It’s alright, Ah’m here…” She kept repeating.

The filly started to toss and turn like she was awakening from a bad nightmare.
“What happened…?” Aple Bloom muttered as she opened her eyes. “Ouch, ma head hurts… Applejack, what’s goin’ on, why are ya cryin’? Did Ah do somethin’ wrong?”

Her sister shook her head and tried her best to stifle her tears. But before she could answer anything, Sweetie Belle bolted up and screamed:
“The spiders! The spiders! We need to warn…” She calmed down a little bit as she was comforted by her sister. But now, the three fillies were up on their hooves.

“No worries”, Applejack finally managed to say. “No more spiders. It’s over.”

They all looked over to the cavern where Twilight was just stumbling out, propped by Rainbow and Pinkie. The final, deep grumbling of the crashing rocks told them that the whole structure of the cavern had just collapsed. A dust cloud swirled through the entrance, now blocked by large rubble. Yes, it was over.

But still something was wrong.
Rainbow Dahs didn’t show her usual more-than-cool attitude. Instead she immediately shot back to the rocks.

“No. Nonono!” Rainbow yelled. Her eyes turned wet, as this time her tough facade crumbled. “This can't be happening! It’s one of Valor's tricks, right? Just like the last time... It must be a trick… Please… Please…” She turned now downright pleadingly to her friends.

Twilight just closed her eyes and shook her head. None of them gave Rainbow the relief of telling her so. Valor was gone, irrevocably gone. Amid tears Twilight told Rarity, Fluttershy and AJ, and the fillies how he had sacrificed himself.
“Valor jumped right at the spider demon… And… And they both got dragged into the rift…” Then her voice failed.

It has to be a nightmare. Apple Bloom would have never imagined that magic of friendship could take such a grim toll; that one could ever have to sacrifice himself so his friends could live…!
Wasn’t that one of the awful things the Elements of Harmony had been made to stop?

The nine ponies stood motionless and doubtful in front of the collapsed cave. Nopony spoke and Applejack’s sister barely even dared to breath. It was always a surreal situation: To imagine somepony there one moment and gone the next. It was like if they could still feel Valor’s presence, like if he was standing right next to them. But as Rainbow Dash had pointed, he indeed had pulled off a similar trick when Applejack’s barn had collapsed. At least the fillies had been told that. Maybe, there still was hope?

Apple Bloom prayed to the stars and also to whatever gods Valor Edge had believed in. She knew her friends and all the others were praying, too: To bring the swordstallion back to them; that he had found a way to escape this time as well.

And they waited.
Time passed by, the moon started to sink.
Nothing happened at all.
Doubtfulness turned to anxiety and eventually anxiety turned to painful knowledge: Valor wouldn’t return.
That was when the tears started to flow.

Being already haunted by ambivalent and gloomy feelings, Apple Bloom hit the rock bottom. There was a terrible feeling in her stomach, like somepony had filled her intestines with some gallons of cement. That wasn’t at all how she had imagined a real adventure. In Valor’s stories, none of the heroes had ever died.
It’s all ma fault. The insight almost made Apple Blooms little heart burst. If Ah hadn’t suggested to go into the forest…” She buried her face in her big sister’s fur.

To Applejack however, grief wasn’t that new and yet it hurt terrible. She by now knew it always would. A filly could cry and a mare could, too. But if you were Applejack, you also had to be strong for her family, like she and she had always been strong.
So why, why was she unable to stop crying?

“It wasn't your fault", she tried to comfort her little sister for she knew Apple Bloom was feeling guilty for what had happened.
"It's alright", she then wanted to say, but these words stuck in her throat. It would have been a lie.

It hadn't been Apple Blooms fault, she had been under a spell. But yet:
Nothing was alright.
Valor Edge had been odd at good and enigmatic at worse times, but his heart had been in the right spot. Now he was gone forever. Fallen right through the gates of hell, buried beneath the debris of dripstones and rocks with a few hundred tons of rock more as a headstone.
Nothing was alright.
Valor Edge hadn’t only run down a creature dangerous and cruel beyond imagination, he had also risked his life for three fillies that weren’t his own. He had done much more for AJ and her friends than one could ever ask of him. And if that was the way the universe thanked for selflessness, then the universe as a whole was nothing but a cruel joke!

Of course, Valor Edge would’ve disagreed. He had been more the ‘nothing happens without a reason’ kind of pony. Maybe because this way of seeing things made it easier to bear sorrow.
Applejack could virtually see Valor’s caring face in front of her. They had talked about sorrow at his first day in Ponyville. He had said certain words to cheer her up. And it had worked… For some reason, these words now echoed in her mind.
“Ya know, sugar cube”, Applejack sniffed. “There was somethin’ he told me… Each night will eventually see its dawn. And the sun will shine even brighter at this new day.”

“What’s that s’posed to mean?” Apple Bloom sobbed. She looked up to her sister, her eyes wet and wide.

Rainbow Dash sniffled and tried to dry her tears with the fur on her foreleg. She silently answered instead of AJ.

“I think I know: It means ‘hang on’.”

Then Rainbow Dash straightened her back. She even gave her voice some strength and confidence: “We need to hang on girls. C’mon, get yourselves together!”
This wasn’t about acting brave or cool. This was about trying to be strong. For her friends. For Valor Edge.

Applejack bore her out: “Yer right. We need to hang on. Y’all know Valor would’ve wanted it that way…”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders silently made a vow in that dark hour. For herself, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo promised -though they had no idea how to do it- they’d be extra strong. They’d learn and try even harder to achieve their Cutie Marks. So wherever he now was, Valor could be proud of them. That promise gave them the strength they now needed.

They all put one hoof against the large rocks debris and looked up to the night sky. If Valor Edge was dead he would without any doubt have wanted them to be strong and overcome their sadness. And if he wasn’t (even if chances were low to zero) they a fortiori needed to be strong. What would Valor otherwise think of them?

Rainbow Dash, her eyes still wet, eventually told the others: “You all should now head back to Ponyville. Get the fillies out of the Everfree Forest, you know?”

“And what about you, Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo wanted to know. Dash managed to put on a smile; even if it was bit weary and shaky. She replied: “I’ll follow later, Squirt. I want to stay for some time longer…”

Rainbow then noticed the other’s expressions –in the moonlight they probably looked even more worried than they actually were- and added a bit reluctantly:
“Now c’mon. It’s not like I was thinking about doing something dumb! And I’ll catch up with you slowpokes anyway. A few minutes, okay? I just refuse to give up on Valor that easy, that's all...”

Eventually, and with worrying looks back at Rainbow Dash, the others left. First were Applejack and Rarity who took the fillies back home. Then followed Fluttershy who almost sustained Twilight along the way. The unicorn looked pale under her lavender coat.

Behind stood only Pinkie Pie. She put her hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder.
“I really think you should come too, Rainbow. It won’t help if you stay here and wait until the ivy overruns you.”
This hadn’t been a joke. Never before had the cyan pegasus seen her friend so serious. And yet, her look was more caring than grievous.

“Know what? I think we could all need a good cup of hot chocolate”, Pinkie offered. “You’d be surprised how many problems can be solved by hot chocolate!”

Rainbow Dash first held back. She didn’t want to leave the site just like that. But in the end, she gave in to Pinkie’s offer and took off to catch up to the others.

For a moment, Pinkie fell behind and watched Rainbow Dash fly away. She turned back to the ruined cave. A heartfelt and knowing smile appeared on her face as she rose her hoof to salute. “Don’t worry, Pointy! I’ll take care of Rainbow, I’ll take care of all of them! Pinkie-Promise!”

Back in her library, Twilight sat in silence for a long time. She hadn’t woken up Spike, who had fallen asleep while bravely trying to wait for her return. Twilight didn’t want to talk. The gloomy, dark atmosphere in the room reflected her own glumness. She was tired, close to burnout. But she couldn’t sleep, couldn’t even close her eyes. Valor was gone, likely dead, and she had seen him falling into the Void, falling straight into hell!

Twilight had read it in his look: He had somehow known it would end that way, and he had known they’d be powerless. That must have been why he had been so sad in his last moments.
Now the image of the stallion’s sad look haunted her. Twilight feared to see it over and over again if she fell asleep. And so she sat in a corner and just stared into the darkness until the break of day.

She wanted to be strong like Rainbow had asked them to be, yes, but her own powerlessness back there made her just feel sick.

The first, golden rays of the rising sun lighted up the library and shone upon her reading-rack. Something white caught her eye. It was an envelope, laid upright against an ink jar that stood on the rack.

It was strange, but somehow that ordinary thing made her heart beat faster. Despite her grief it caught her curiosity, because she was almost certain the envelope hadn’t been there when they had left for their fateful mission.

She used her magic to pull it over and looked at it one more time.
The mailer was sealed with a drop of red wax, but she didn’t recognize the imprinted symbol. A circle with geometrical lines within that seemingly resembled some kind of abstract seal. ‘For Twilight Sparkle’ stood written on the mailer’s front.

Now Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t seen it often, but if she wasn’t mistaking, this was Valor Edge’s writing. Always both kind of old-fashioned and yet snappy.

Twilight pulled over a paper knife and broke the seal. Inside the envelope was a single piece of paper with a few characters scribbled in blue ink:

Fictional L, 4th left, row 3,
p86, l. 23-24
V.

The ‘V’ at the end, could it stand for ‘Valor’? Had he known death would await him in the forest that night? Was this a final message to her from her late friend? But then why was his message so rather cryptic? If this message was from Valor Edge, why hadn’t he written clearly what he wanted to tell her?

Twilight reconsidered. It was a puzzle, wasn’t it? Valor had often said Twilight was the smartest pony he ever knew but that her curiosity could only be ever satisfied by explaining the whole universe to her. It kind of made sense to leave her a message wrapped in a riddle. And it would exactly have been his sense of humor.

“Fictional L…” That sounded very familiar and it didn’t take Twilight long to realize: It was the way she had organized her books: Sorted both by topics and in alphabetical order.
The message was an instruction: Go to the shelves with the fictional books and look for the letter L! Then take the fourth book from the third row!

The librarian paced to the said bookshelf and searched for that ominous book.

It was a small novel titled ‘The Little Alicorn’. A quite known story, written by Evenstar, author and former member of the Wonderbolts, over a century ago.

Twilight opened the book and skipped the pages foreward to page sixty-eight. With her hoof on the paper, she counted down to line twenty three.
What she read there, almost at the bottom of the page made the tears shoot into her eyes again. But this time Twilight Sparkle cried and smiled at the same time.

“It shall look as if I were dead; and that will not be true…”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------