“Thank you for coming again Link,” Petal said as she walked toward the graveyard. Link followed her closely, the Goddess harp on his back. He also had his sword with him. Never left home without it. Link nodded.
“It’s no problem,” Link answered easily. Petal was the mare he passed by in town a week earlier. She was a pink mare with a smooth red mane that curled inward at her forehead. She had a cutie mark of a white flower with one petal left on it. The rest of the petals were fluttering down from it. He looked at his own flank, wondering when he’ll get his own mark.
“You’ll get it soon,” Petal said suddenly, startling Link. “I was just as anxious when I was your age.”
“I know,” Link spoke, looking forward again.
“I don’t know how I can repay you for this. I’m taking time from your training so you can do this for me.”
“Like I said before, it’s no problem,” Petal frowned.
“Orca didn’t seem too happy about you leaving your training and for you to go to the graveyard,” Link winced at that. Orca definitely was not happy about him going. He was going to pay for it big time once he returned.
“I’ll be fine,” Link said, not even believing his own words. “This shouldn’t take much time either.”
“It shouldn’t. All I want to do is sing for my husband while you play the harp,” She said as she started to walk a little faster. That was her request to him. Since Lyra left a week ago, she had asked Link to play since the song required the harp and he was the only one in town that could play decently. Link silently thanked Lyra for giving him lessons so that he could get away from training, even if it was for a short while. “I wanted to give him one last gift before I go.”
“It’s my pleasure to help you out,” Link replied with a smile. They walked in a comfortable silence after that. It seemed that the pegasi weren’t done with the storms, as it began to lightly rain. A breeze swept by, ruffling both of their manes as they finally saw the gates to the graveyard. The ‘a’ in graveyard was missing on the gates. “Not a pleasant place to be, huh?”
“Almost no graveyard is,” Petal answered. “It holds the one place where everypony’s loved one is resting in the afterlife.”
“What about grave robbers?” Link asked. “Don’t they disturb their rest?” Petal shook her head.
“It is a requirement for graveyards to be enchanted to keep petty thieves like them away,” She answered. They entered the gates and into the graveyard. A thick fog seemed to descend down upon them as soon as they entered. Gray headstones littered the ground with dead flowers laying on the patch of dirt in front of it. Each inscription had a insightful saying along with the accomplishments and name of a pony. The fence surrounding everything had barbed wire twirling around it. Nopony else was there but the two of them, giving Link a sense of loneliness and skittishness. He nervously tugged the hilt of his sword, but refused to unsheathe it. Alarm bells rang off in Link’s head everywhere as his danger instinct from Orca went crazy. Was this why Orca didn’t want him to come here?
“There it is,” Petal said, startling Link badly into almost making him trip himself. She was pointing to a certain gravestone with the others in its row. The gravestone had a different design to it than the others. Vines seemed to be carved out in the stone while its inscription was written in cursive. The flowers were buried in front of it instead of just lying there in a bundle, like the rest of them. The rain poured a bit more when they approached it. Link could already see that Petal was holding back tears as she lifted her head up high. Link levitated his harp and was in ready position.
Then Petal started to sing. There was no lyrics, but just a combination of high notes and low notes that mixed surprisingly well. Link plucked the strings in his harp in contrast to her voice. Link could tell that the song was supposed to be cheerful and somewhat upbeat, but the way she was singing it now produced a soft, mournful feeling. Link ignored the raindrops against his fur and continued to play. By the time she ended in a soft high note, Link was wet with his mane matted against his forehead. Petal sighed.
“I’m sorry for not being there for you. I’m sorry for always arguing with you when I now know that you were trying to protect me and our child all this time. I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” She said as she let the tears flow. She cried into her hooves as Link watched on sadly. He took note that she said that she had a child of her own and resolved to meet her. Both their fathers are dead, murdered by scum of this very world. They were the same.
Creak!
Link suddenly stood up as he didn’t realize that he backed away from Petal and had started to lean on one of the gravestones in the yard. He knew that he should’ve paid more attention and was about to move it back in place when he froze.
Drip, Drip.
Now it was raining outside and he did hear the rain splattering on the ground, but this drop was hollow. It sounded like if you were to drip some water in a spacious cavern, not when you were outside and it was raining. Link pushed the gravestone a bit more as more rain dropped into the tiny hole the grave had produced, making more of those hollow drops. He was shocked at what he found.
It was a step.
Steps were part of a staircase, so why did this one have it? Link was cut out of his thoughts when he heard Petal sniffling towards him. She drooped her head down in apology.
“I’m sorry that you saw me like this. I promised myself that I would get over it…” She said softly before she was waved off by Link.
“It’s fine. I know his death is still fresh. I myself haven’t got over my father’s death…” He started to say before he trailed off. Why did he tell her about his father so easily? It just came out of his mouth without him even realizing it. Petal’s eyes widened.
“Oh, so you’re like Flora then,” she said as she looked to the side. Link cocked his head.
“Flora?” he asked. Petal’s eyes widened.
“My daughter,” she explained. “She technically lost her father too.” Link nodded his head and looked at the sky. Looks like the rain won’t let up anytime soon. Petal sighed.
“I’m leaving Link. You coming?” Link looked at her.
“I think I’ll stay here for a bit,” Link said, looking at the might-be tomb. Petal nodded and walked away. Link put his harp on his back and looked at the rain with an annoyed expression. Orca actually prefers the rain, as it gives him an excuse to train Link more; Link prefers the sunlight to get out of training.
He shook his head of any unnecessary thoughts and advanced towards the gravestone. He looked at the inscription and frowned. It was full of characters and symbols that Link had never seen before. Could it be that it wasn’t a pony that was buried here and it could’ve been a zebra. Link heard that they had their own language. Nevertheless, he started to push against the stone, but paused again. He knew that this was wrong, but nopony ever has a staircase under their graves. He battled with his conscious for a moment before his curiosity got the better of him and he finally pushed the stone, revealing a staircase indeed. Link looked left and right, concluded that nopony was there to see him and descended down into the darkness.
Like the last time he went below the surface, the walls around him started to get cracked and chipped. Link was surprised when he found a lit torch. He could sense some enchantment on it, but he couldn’t tell what it was exactly. Orca, though being an earth pony, also taught him how to sense other magic presences nearby, may it be some residue or a unicorn themselves. Link grabbed the torch to get a better lit view of his surroundings and continued to go down below. The weird characters that were shown above were now surrounding him at all sides on the walls. Link wondered what story it might be telling. Maybe of this zebra’s accomplishments? If so, then this zebra must’ve done a lot of things with his/her life as it continued down for a long time.
Link finally arrived at a stone door. It was sealed completely shut. Spiders ran up their cobwebs as soon as Link approached near them. When he got close to the door, it opened with a small groan, shuddering as it receded up into the ceiling. Link was surprised. He didn’t see any doors that opened when somepony approached it automatically. It only fed his curiosity even more as he walked past it and into the room it guarded. Link’s eyes widened as he saw what was in the room.
Skeletons were strewn all across the floor in various positions. The skeletal structures were also different from each other, indicating that they were different species. Link saw a diamond dog skeleton against a wall, cuffs chaining him to said wall. It looked like it was trying to get out, his theory proven further when he saw there were deep scratch marks made into the stone wall next to the skeleton. Link also found a spear jutted into a ground, piercing through a ribcage. Bones were strewn around it as Link deduced it was probably part of the ribcage once. Link also saw a skull near it and found that it was a pony’s, making him shudder. The whole room gave him a sense of helplessness, like he was all alone here with nopony to back him up. If he were to die here, he felt he would just become another skeleton, another attraction to this place. He shuddered at the thought. This whole place gives him the chills. Much different than seeing a haunted house, compared to the real thing. Link was never scared of haunted houses anyway.
On the bright side, he didn’t feel bad about invading this place now. Clearly it wasn’t a grave for one pony, since there is obviously more than one creature here. It only served his thinking to grow more. Why had nopony discovered this? Was it because of their morals of believing this to be a tomb for somepony that they thought they were respecting this pony? Or was it that they were wallowing in their own self-despair every time they come to this graveyard? Link continued to ponder this until he heard a small screech.
Link looked up and saw a small bat perched on the ceiling. It screeched at him again, saliva dripping from its mouth. It then flew down at him menacingly. Link levitated his sword and swiped upward. He sliced the bat in half, making its blood splatter on the ground below. That wasn’t it though, as more bats started screeching and diving at him. Link levitated the torch behind him as he remembered Orca’s training. He let his instincts naturally flow through him as he sliced upwards, downwards, and on both of his sides. Soon, ten dead bats on the ground, making a pool of blood together. Link was about to congratulate himself when one bat sat on his torch. Link stared at it blankly as it caught fire. He then yelped as it dived towards him, it’s beating wings blazing with fire. Link had no time to dodge as the bat bit down on his shoulder. He yelped in pain as he could feel the heat of the flames against his skin as he quickly batted the bat away and slashed sideways with his sword, cutting it in half. He then quickly rolled and patted down his flaming fur. It was extinguished quickly, much to his relief.
"What were those things?" Link thought to himself as he looked at the dead bats on the floor."I’m pretty sure regular bats can’t survive being on fire."
Link went up to their corpses to examine them more closely before he froze.
“Keese…”
Link’s eyes widened in surprise as he heard the soft, feminine voice in his head again. Just as he heard it, it was gone. He then thought about what he had heard. The voice said keese. Was that this creature’s name? If it was, then how much more does this voice know? It seemed to know the way of every pathway he had taken and even gave him advice on occasion. Just what was it?
"Anypony in there?"Link thought, hoping to get a reply. Much to his disappointment, he didn’t. He tried three more times before giving up.
Link then noticed a doorway leading to the next room and frowned. This was no ordinary tomb, he already got that. It seemed to be hiding something, but what exactly is it? Why would somepony build a place like this? And why would many creatures die trying to get here? It seemed the more he thought about it, the more questions would spring up in his mind. Link approached the door and it opened automatically as he stepped through. Many stone blocks were strewn about in this room, confusing Link.
"Why would this be here?" Link thought to himself as he looked at the stone blocks. "They aren’t that big either, but just enough for me to climb over it." Link looked and saw the familiar stone door frame, but frowned when he saw the stone blocking it. He looked at the other stone blocks, studying their formation. He suddenly got a light bulb moment.
These weren’t just any stone blocks! This was a puzzle! Link could see from the way these stone blocks are laid out that if he were to move some of them, he could make a clear path to the door. He also saw that he would be barely able to push or pull them. He then set to work, pushing and pulling the blocks to create a clear path. When he was done, he patted himself on the back for figuring it out. He was also thankful for all the training he did with Orca and the apple-bucking he did with his father. Without it, he probably wouldn’t even have the chance to even budge these blocks and inch. He was grateful that these weren’t as big as the door frame, or otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to push them at all.
The stone door opened for him as the others did and he stepped through. This time, he saw a sight that almost made him step back to the other room and almost make him flee back to the village.
Small grey ponies were just standing about with their heads down. That wasn’t what startled Link though. It was the fact that they had absolutely no fur at all and their skin was rotting and tearing away. They also subtly swayed in place, making it feel even more spookier than it already was.
“Redeads…!?”
Redeads? Link thought as he looked at the zombie-like creature. Is that what they were called? Link was startled by the amount of alarm the voice said it with. It was almost like as if the voice had met it before…
Link shook his head and concentrated on the...thing before him. It didn’t look that menacing to him. The pony-thing looked so thin and fragile. What harm could it possibly do to him?
He immediately regretted ever saying those words.
Once Link stepped near it, the pony snapped its head around, eyes glowing red. It let out a shrill scream that pierced through the air. Link froze at the sound. He dropped his torch on the ground, making it fizzle out. The creature then slowly started to advance towards him. When Link saw this, he tried to move, but found that he couldn’t. He was literally frozen, helpless as the creature continued to get closer and closer to him. His muscles were rigid, shaking slightly as if he was freezing when the creature extended his hooves. It started to hold Link in the air and choke him. Link flailed around as the creature opened its maw, green saliva sticking from each of his teeth. Link's magic flared out of fear.
Wait...he can use his magic! Link levitated his sword and sliced the creature, only for it to bounce away. What happened!?
Due to the interference, the pony-creature backed its head away before trying to get bite him again. Link found himself able to move again. He levitated his sword to his hoof with great difficulty before slicing its neck halfway through. The creature relinquished its hold on him as it fell to the ground, creating a pool of green blood. Link crashed to the ground, coughing and gasping for air as he tried to stand up. What just happened?! Why couldn’t he move?! And why did his second strike work and not his first?!
“Magic resistance…”
Link’s eyes widened at that. Did that mean that when he levitates his sword and strikes, it won’t work? He looked at the sword he was levitating right now and returned it to his left hoof. Looks like magic was useless here. He sheathed the sword on his back next to his harp.
Link then frowned. The voice knew the creature’s strong points at, so it must know its weakness.
As if to answer his question, the voice replied, “Light.”
"What do you mean by light?" Link asked in his head. He was only met with silence. He asked again to no avail. He looked around at the other so-called “redeads” and saw more of them. He could not risk going against them since he was supposed to learn more about using a sword with his hoof next week with Orca. Assuming he made it out alive out of this tomb. He still wasn’t leaving. Seeing the redead sealed his purpose of staying here. Who would use such foul monsters in order to guard something. Was it really that valuable?
Link dismissed all thought from his mind and concentrated around his surroundings, searching for a way around the redeads. He then noticed the foul stench emitting from the green water. He hadn’t noticed it before. He was probably too busy concentrating on the redead to look at anything else. He tentatively put his hoof near it, only to pull back when he felt a subtle layer of warmth coming from it. Its best not to risk it. Link slowly walked around the redead, hoping to not alert them of his presence.
Unfortunately, that didn’t work. As soon as Link stepped one step too close to the redead, it snapped its head towards him. Link immediately ran, alerting all of the redead in the room.
“Crap!” Link said as he approached the stone door. The automatically started to open slowly, much to Link’s frustrations as the redeads started to get closer. “Are they walking faster!?”
They were indeed walking faster. Some even dipped into the water, steam immediately hissing and coming from their skin as they melted, but it didn’t seem that they really cared.
“C’mon, C’mon!” Link said frantically as he banged on the door. The stone door finally rose up as Link scurried through it. The stone door shut down below, causing Link to sigh in relief. Only to freeze again when he saw the room was exactly like the other one.
“Ah come one!” Link cried out in frustration before he immediately closed his mouth. He didn’t want to alert any of the redeads here. There seemed to be a lot less redeads here, much to Link’s relief. He didn’t want to deal with them. If they had froze him back there, he would’ve been dead.
That brought another question to his mind. How did they freeze him? Did he freeze because he looked into their eyes or because he heard their scream? Or did they freeze him just because he was in vicinity of them? The thought made him shudder for a bit.
Link decided to try the second option, since he didn’t want to fight with his eyes closed. He stuffed his ears deep into his hat and spoke random noises. He was barely able to hear them, much to his delight. He then started to creep around them. Steam from the strange water curled around him as he walked around them. He got around one and was about to get around the other. Just before that happened, he heard them scream.
The scream was muffled a lot and he froze, but for only a short time. He immediately unfreezed and held his sword in reverse-grip as the redead advanced towards him slowly. He slashed at its legs, causing it to fall down abruptly. Then he started to stab its head. He stabbed it over and over again, driving his fear and hate into every strike. He pulled his sword out of his final strike when he knew it was dead, or at least decapitated enough to not do any damage to him. Then he started silently congratulate himself. It seemed the redead’s scream was how it paralyzed its victims.
Link looked at the narrow pathway at the end of the room. He was sure that it was the one holding the treasure. Link crept up toward the redead and bypassed it into the unknown room.
Link adjusted his hat as he entered the narrow passageway. When he hit the end, he saw to pools of the green liquid, making the small room full of steam. He looked and saw a gravestone similar to the one above ground. Link felt enraged. This was what he had worked and survived for! He looked at it and saw the same strange looking characters above. Beneath it was four lines with symbols going on each of the different lines.
...Wait a moment. This wasn’t part of the unknown language! This was a song! He recognized the notes on it. He looked at the harp on his back. It seemed to shine more so than usual, as if it was reacting to something.
Link pulled the Goddess harp from his back and levitated it and got into ready position. He tentatively plucked a few notes from the stone to find it actually created a small melody, signifying that this was meant to play on the harp. Link then finally decided to play. He strung the notes softly and slowly. It was a beautiful melody. It almost sounded like a lullaby…
Link stopped on the final note and looked at the harp. He thought he saw it sparkle for a moment, but dismissed it as the stress from his mind from going against those redeads. He turned around, but looked back at the stone inscription. Why would somepony go through all this trouble to hide this. It really was a beautiful melody. Link also noticed something below the song notes. It looked to be a small, crescent moon, with what seemed to be like a black ink stain painted behind it. Link’s eyes widened in realization.
This was Princess Luna’s cutie mark! What was it doing here? Link shook his head from all thoughts as he looked back at the room he was in. He was gone a long time, longer than he should’ve been. Orca is probably searching him right now.
Link quickly walked and crept around the redeads. Unfortunately he was careless enough to step near one. The redead snapped toward him and screamed. Link’s eyes widened because of the fact he could hear it clearly. Then he felt it. His ears was out of his hat. Link pulled them out when he adjusted his hat before he played the song. He cursed himself for being stupid.
The redead walked towards him as it reached out with its rotting hoofs. He then started to choke Link again as its mouth descended down his shoulder. Link screamed when he felt the redead bite and immediately flared out his magic. The levitating sword bashed the redead so hard that its head flew out of its neck. It fell in the pool of liquid, melting within its contents.
Link was breathing heavily as he checked his shoulder. The bite had sunk in deep with a few teeth still sticking on. Ignoring the pain, Link immediately ran, jumping over the pools. He didn’t care that he alerted the redead. He didn’t care about anything but getting home. He quickly stuffed his ears in his hat as he approached the door. He slipped under it as soon as it was his height. The redead in this room had repositioned themselves in the same places. Link immediately ran in a straight line. Dodging the pools of liquid and occasionally freezing for a short time due to their screams before running back out. He levitated his sword back to him as he sliced a redead’s neck right next to him before it could scream and kept on running towards the door. The door opened automatically and as soon as it rose up enough Link slipped through.
One redead managed to get in before it closed, but Link had enough. He sliced the redead’s legs, causing it to fall. He then jumped up and stabbed the redead’s head deeply. Blood splattered over his clothes as he pulled his sword out. He panted heavily before dropping to the floor. There were so many close calls that he dealt with. He slowly got up and walked out of the cleared stone pathway.
Link payed no mind to the skeletons before him as he exited out of the tomb. He looked tiredly at the stairs as he climbed up, each step more daunting than the last. Link cheered silently in his head when he saw light above.
Link climbed upwards to find that it had stopped raining. It was still cloudy though. He pushed the gravestone back barely, not wanting anypony else to experience the horrors that laid within. He looked at the gravestone before him, and promptly spat on it. He didn’t care if that song was precious to anypony. This place can go to tartarus!
“Link! Link, over here!” Link heard somepony call out to him. He squinted because his vision started to get blurry. It looked like Steel Sword.
“I’ve finally found you,” Sword panted. He looked to Link. “Where were you! You were gone for three hours! You don’t look so good either.”
Link paid no mind to his last comment as he focused on his second one. He was gone for three hours! Orca was going to kill him! Not if he died now though. Link didn’t know why he felt so weak right now.
“What the heck!? You’re wounded!” Sword shouted. He touched Link's shoulder, making him hiss in pain. “Holy shit! It’s sizzling!”
Link looked over at his shoulder to confirm his blurred vision that it was indeed boiling. Link felt the whole world go black as he heard the muffled yells of Sword.
XxX
Link woke up and yawned. His blurry vision cleared out to reveal he was in a house of some sort. A mare was right next to him, mixing up something.
“Ah, you’re awake!” the mare said joyously when she looked over at him. “We were worried about you.”
“How long was I out?” Link asked wearily. He looked around to find his sword and harp was not near him. “And where’s my sword and harp?”
“You were out for eight hours, young colt. And to answer your second question, you’re items are safe, I assure you,” the mare said. Link’s eyes widened. He was out for eight hours. Orca was definitely not going to be happy.
“Drink this,” she ordered. She handed Link a strange concoction. Link gulped it down, only to frown in distaste. It tasted nasty! Immediately afterwards, he felt himself re-energized. Despite the disgusting taste, the medicine did its trick.
“I’ll go get the others. They will definitely want to know that you’re awake now,” the mare said before she left. Link looked at himself and noticed there was one small bandage on the burned shoulder, but a lot of them on the bitten shoulder.
After a moment, Orca entered along with Sword and Storm. Link flinched when he saw him. Now he was really going to get it.
“Do you know how long you were gone!?” Orca roared at him, causing Link to lower his head in shame. Sword and Storm backed away a bit. “Do you have any idea how worried I was!”
Link blinked. He had expected him to yell something about training. Orca just sighed.
“Just don’t let it happen again” he said softly. “I don’t want to lose another student again.” Link was shocked at hearing that. Some of his students had died? Link never had though that before.
“So you went on an adventure Link,” Storm grinned dryly. “What happened to make you get all those injuries?”
“I would like to know as well,” Sword put in. His face looked tired. “It is completely strange of you to get these types of injuries.”
“I played around with fire for a bit in the village.” Link lied, looking at the three of them nervously. “Then I went outside to extinguish the fire and dull the pain with rain. Then I found myself in the graveyard once more before a snake bit me, making me feel weak. I was unconscious then.”
Link grinned nervously as Orca looked into his eyes deeply. Link lied easily, despite coming from the element of honesty’s family. Orca sighed again.
“Don’t let it happen again.” Orca said sternly while Link breathed a sigh of relief in his head. Sword and Storm shared looks with each other before looking at Orca. Orca then headed out, but stopped before he exited the house. “This doesn’t mean that you’re getting out of training though. We’ll find a way.” Link groaned while Sword and Storm laughed. All three of them then exited out of the cottage. He was lucky that they believed his lie. He didn’t want anypony to go to that place and see what he had seen.
Link sat there for a moment before looking around. He spotted his sword and harp on the shelf before levitating it over to him. He then jumped down and winced at the sharp pain his bitten shoulder gave. He walked outside, where he could see the orange sun setting. The pink and orange contrasts of the sky gave way to the darkness of the night. Link could see the moon slowly rising up. For a second, he saw Princess Luna’s cutie mark flashing in the sky.
"Looks like my questions won't be resolved," Link thought, looking over at his harp. But I will find the answers, soon."
Link levitated the harp from his back as he got into ready position, with his harp levitating in magic near him while his two hooves were on the strings. He strummed a few notes as the sun settled into the horizon. He then began to play the beautiful melody he unintentionally memorized, letting the notes float through the wind.
XxX
Celestia continued to raise the sun down, allowing her sister, who was on the high balcony, to raise it up. She was in the royal gardens while doing this. It had become sort of their custom. The pony that had to lower their respective celestial bodies had to do it in the gardens, while the other did it on the balcony. She finally lowered her sun into the horizon and gazed peacefully at the moon slowly rising up.
Then she heard it. It was very faint, not being able to be heard by anypony without trained ears, but Celestia had that ability. It was a soft melody, one Celestia would appreciate if it weren’t for the fact she knew this melody already. It was a melody she hadn’t heard in a thousand years. One that she desperately wished to know, but sadly was lost in time before she could ever learn it. But here it was, just flowing gracefully in the wind.
“It couldn’t be.” Celestia whispered to herself as she continued to listen to it. “It just can’t be.”
No matter how many times she wanted to deny it, she had heard it. Celestia nervously looked up at Luna, who was still too busy concentrating to lift the moon. Luna would certainly have a fit if she had heard it. She heard the melody abruptly stop as the breeze fizzled out.
“Could it be?” Celestia said to herself as she looked up at the bright crescent moon.