//------------------------------// // And the Escape from Imprisonment. // Story: The Warlock // by JediWyrm //------------------------------// Hearts Shadow studied the wall closely. Not because it was a particularly interesting wall, or because it had something on it. It was just rock. Slightly curved as it around the room, which was actually more of a cavern than a room but that's what you get when you utilize a cave system for a lair. What the dark blue stallion was really looking at was the magical lattice-work that was imbued into the wall. He was studying the magic because it was keeping him in the room and has been for a very long time. Long enough he wasn't quite sure how long he had been in there. Luckily he was immortal, and ageless, or he would only exist as a pile of bones. His emerald-coloured eyes perked up as the magic was affected by something. He was barely able to detect what caused it. A wave of entropic energy. It was very brief, but he was quite sure that it was temporal based. Which is extremely odd as that meant someone was trying to alter time, and in a big way. Course if someone was changing it one way, it was likely someone else was trying to stop them. Thinking quickly he got up and walked over to the wall. Placing his ebony black horn against the wall and began weaving another spell into the thaumaturgical lattice. He was able to complete the spell and walked back to the part of his bed that had gotted blasted into the cave along with him. It wasn't much of a bed, only about a third of what it was, and only had one bedpost, the rest of it was encased in the wall. Hanging on the sole bedpost was a skull. The oddly shaped as the back of it was similar to a ponies, but from the eye forward it was more akin to a griffon. The skull was also miniature, and would easily fit on the end of a hoof. It was tightly wrapped in leather strips to prevent it from moving, but the small red dots in the eye sockets track Hearts Shadow as he moved. The stallion climbed onto the bed and went to sleep and hoping to get some rest before the spell he cast did it's job. Hearts Shadow woke with a start as he felt arcane energies flood into him. His plan worked, the magic the two princesses cast to imprison him have been broken. He slid out of the bed and trotted over to the wall. Channeling the magic through his horn he blasted a hole in the wall back to his lair. Going over to the half of a dresser that was stuck in with him he emptied it out and began moving things out. Looping the end of the leather straps that are holding the skull off the bedpost he went out into his main room. Taking a look around he was glad he was lazy enough to just cast some basic housecleaning spells on a permanent basis keeping everything clean and dust-free. Though there were a couple things missing, he wasn't sure if that was due to looting or just him forgetting if something was supposed to be there or not. Course the first thing he needed to do was get some food as there wasn't any in the cave. Heading down the path to the exit he noticed that it had been caved in and spells cast over it to keep people out. He stopped well before the rocks and opened a hidden door in the side of the hallway. Going down his secret entrance he emerged in a forest. Shaking his dark red hair (with yellow-ish streaks) he proceeded to the nearest bush and started eating. As he ate the magic that was sustaining him began converting the mass of the plants directly into physical mass for him. Slowly he stopped being literally nothing but skin and bones as the mass was converted into organs, than into muscle and nerves. After several hours of grazing and a stop at a stream to guzzle a few gallons of water Hearts Shadow looked like a very underfed pony and was no longer relying on magic to actually live. Heading back inside he first undid the leather on the skull. "Double Freedom!" It screeched out the moment it could. "Never thought we'd be out of there and be released upon the world once more."(*) "Now Beaky, the plan right now is just to see how long it's been and how much has changed." Said the stallion in a nice baritone. Hearts Shadow than began sorting and arranging things so that he could leave his lair. He was also able to take inventory and noticed that a couple of his books, one of his skulls, a lovely piece of taxidermy, and a really nice brooch (which had the shape of a bat with little diamonds on it to imitate the stars in the night sky) had been taken, likely as trophies. He walked over to a cabinet and moved a small object from the nearby bookcase and placed in on the top of the cabinet. Shifting it about lightly allowed a small section of the wall to open up and reveal a hidden nook. Taking the tomes from inside he gently placed them on top of the pile before removing everything else from the room and sorting it. Going back outside he looked at several of the trees before blasting several of them down. A couple days later from Hearts Shadow with Beaky on his head, just behind his horn, as he levitated the last of his things into a small covered wagon. He was working himself into the harness while Beaky was talking up a storm as he admired to scenery. Taking a look about they headed off towards where he hoped a town would be. Shortly he came to a trail which quickly opened up to a well traveled path. He was able to move much quicker and was out of the forest before the end of the day. There he saw a sign which told him that there was a town close enough that if he kept moving he'd be there before noon the next day. Coming up on the town, the dark blue stallion marched slowly into town to stop at an antique store. Getting out of the harness and walking around to the back of the wagon he removed a couple of his trinkets to sell at the store. "Greetings and Welcome to Alder's Antiques." Said a cheery mare behind a counter. "Greetings, I was wondering if you are interested in buying a couple things." Said Hearts Shadow as he trotted over to the counter. "Well, if they're antiques I can give them a looksee and check to see if we can work out a deal." She replied as she gave him a once over and noted how underfed he seemed. He gently placed the two items on the counter for the mare to examine. As she started to look them over her eyes widened quite a bit. "These are pre-Discordian. Just where did you get them, I've never seen anything from that era in such great shape." "I was kinda living in a cave and a wall collapsed and these were in a room on the other side. There seems to be a preservation spell on them so that would probably explain the condition." "Living in a cave huh?" She placed a sizable bag of coins on the counter. "These are worth quite a bit, should probably be in a museum even, as such I'm willing to give you a very nice deal on them." "Thanks." Hearts Shadow said as he took the offer and started to leave. "Have a lovely day." "Have a nice day yourself sir." Hearts Shadow sat down at a restaurant on the other side of town and looked over the menu quickly. He added up the cost of the items and was pondering if all that food would be worth it. "Hi, welcome to Earl's Eatery. Would you like something to drink or an appetizer to get you started?" Asked a young pegasus mare with a serving tray cutie mark. "Yes, I was wondering what the current sales tax is?" "It's about 9%." "Excellent. I'll take one of everything." Hearts Shadow stated as he heaped a pile of bits onto the table. Followed shortly after by another, albeit smaller pile. "Can't forget the tip." The mare's wings slumped by her sides as she stared at the pile of coins. She shook her head and collected herself before scooping both piles into a bag and walked off to the register to hand them off to the cashier before going back to the kitchens. It wasn't long before plate after plate of food was stacked before the hungry stallion, who devolved it all with a quiet dignity only slightly slower than it was being given to him. A couple hours later found a well fleshed out stallion leaving the building with a bulging belly. He then hooked himself back up to his wagon before heading off to the local library. He had some history to brush up on. Taking a good look at it's sign he noticed that it was open all night. Which was very beneficial as he wouldn't need to hide himself at closing time. Going over to the history section he began taking book after book and utilized a speed reading spell to catch up on everything since the last major event that had happened before his imprisonment, which in of itself wasn't significant enough to have earned an entry in the annals of history. A couple days later he left the library, leaving both an excellent impression on the librarian due to his manners, as well as rumours of ghosts and other small incidents due to aftereffects of some of the spells he had used once he noticed just how many books and newspapers needed to be read to be fully caught up on present day information. He stopped at a small store and bought a card welcoming a pony back from having been taken over by the dark forces, which was an odd thing to have a card for even if the slogan of the company who made it was "A card for every occasion." The card itself showed a sad pony on the cover surrounded by darkness with the text "Dark power may have drawn you in", while the inside had another pony embracing the first with both being happy. A small line of text stated "but your loved ones will always be there for when you return to the light." Hearts Shadow added a bit of text saying "Glad you were reunited with your sister." before signing the card, melting some wax onto it and pressing a small piece of metal to the wax leaving a signet indented in it. Casting a quick drying spell on the wax to set it, he put the card into it's envelope, and filling out the address on the card. Putting a stamp on it, he gave it a look to check and see if it was clear enough who it was destined for. Princess Luna, Canterlot Castle, Canterlot. Feeling that that would suffice he put it in the mailbox and left as a smile formed on his face.