//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Seeking Secrets 
// by Shumiry 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 5


Careful to make as little noise as possible, he crept along the dimly lit corridors. Unable to utilize his night vision thanks to the flickering light of the magical torches, he was forced to scrutinize each nook and cranny for hidden guards and obstacles. Twice he nearly stumbled over some stool or small bench, his attention focused on a shifting shadow in the distance. It was after the second such encounter that he remembered the plant he'd found.
While chewing it up, he felt more alive, as if all his faculties were enhanced even more than they already seemed to be. Afterward, the going was easier.
The temptation to stop at each section of the archives was palpable. Shelves and shelves of books, any one of which might teach him what he wanted to know, but there wasn't time. Plus, something nagged at the edges of his mind. Some prompting to continue, that what he sought lay still farther ahead.
So far, he had only encountered one guard, and had remained hidden by propping himself in a doorway, and shimmying up to the ceiling. Whoever it was, they seemed thoroughly bored with the assignment, giving a mighty yawn as they had continued down the hall. It was unnerving.
Why am I getting so lucky here? he wondered, slinking past yet another gate guarding what must have been two thousand books. It's like all the luck I missed out on in hell was waiting for me. A small laugh very nearly escaped him, choked off at the last moment. On and on, room after room, until he was sure he should have been standing at the edge of Canterlot. Some kind of spatial distortion, he mused.
Finally, the nagging feeling moved to his gut, and he knew he'd reached his destination. Pressing his eye to the keyhole, he activated his night vision, and used a bit of telekinesis to manipulate the locking mechanism. With a satisfying click, the door swung open. Noting the large window across the room, he carefully shut the door behind him, as the nagging feeling abruptly vanished.
The Starswirl the Bearded wing. How very convenient for me! he cheered. Moving out of sight of the door, he began browsing the titles. They seemed to be organized based on the time in Starswirl's life that they focused on. Which would have been a great help if he'd had any idea when the pony had started studying inter-dimensional travel.
There were probably over one hundred biographies, and he grabbed a few here or there, checking the table of contents for anything eye-opening. After the sixth or seventh one, he finally found a text that seemed promising.
It was a poorly written book, held in a shabby cover, the words slanting on pages, or becoming cramped up in corners when the author ran out of room, but evidently didn't wish to continue on the next page. Honestly, he was surprised it even had a table of contents, seeming more like somepony's journal rather than an actual biography.
Whoever had written it had obviously been keeping an eye on the wizard. There were many little details regarding everyday activities that were just too mundane to have been fabricated. The end of the book contained a short chapter titled “Starswirl's Final Quest”, which spoke of the unicorn's interest in crossing dimensions.
Apparently, the wizard had performed some kind of mega-spell, utilizing a series of specially crafted gems for storing energy, and had disappeared for two weeks. When he returned, the writer explained, he seemed convinced that his journey had left part of him anchored in Equestria, and that a tunnel between worlds had opened as a result, dragging him back. He also seemed to be extremely anxious about the effect the tunnel may have had on the place he had visited. He apparently seemed to keep mentioning something about souls, that he needed to find a way to anchor his soul if he was going to spend any extended time in another dimension.
The nagging feeling returned full force, so suddenly that he spun around, expecting to see somepony standing behind him. The room was empty. Carefully stuffing the book into his bag, he hefted it over his shoulder, and moved to the gate. After he had it shut and locked again, he resumed his journey, trusting in the strange, prompting sense that had guided him thus far.
This time was a much shorter journey. Apparently, the Starswirl wing was one of the most restricted sections, and, after a brief trip, he found himself at the end of the line, the feeling once again nestled in his gut. This one, he realized, he would not be able to pick.
Two massive, gilded doors, engraved with images of ponies standing guard, spears crossed to bar the way down a path which led to a massive, three-headed dog. Behind that was a gate, closed and criss-crossed with chains, which seemed to be holding back some kind of horde. Gnarled, clawed fingers reached between the bars, grasping for anything that might come too close. The gate itself was covered in spikes, and, now that he looked closer, it seemed that the chains more closely resembled barbed wire, the brambles doing nothing to dissuade the beasts within from reaching through.
As he looked, the image seemed to grow clearer, and he leaned in to see better. The gate loomed larger, the guard ponies no longer visible, and he could see now that the path was nothing more than a dirt trail through a gigantic pool of lava. Cerberus shook its heads behind him as he gazed up at the black gate, seemingly pulsing with malicious energy. A claw, its green so dark it was almost black, had poked through between the chains, and curved up, beckoning him to come closer. Some faint buzzing in the back of his mind pestered him for attention, but he ignored it, unable to tear his eyes away from the beckoning finger.
A burning sensation grew in his back, like all the muscles were stretching. He seemed to be floating closer, and the stretching got worse. Finally, the pain burning through him was enough to shake his enthrallment, and he turned his head... and looked into his own dead eyes.
Standing behind him, was him! Faint blue tendons stretched from where he stood, or floated, back to his body. Glancing down, he saw that he was an ethereal projection of himself, translucent blue, floating an inch or so off the ground. Turning back to the gate, he saw the finger beckon again, and felt the pull, like a ratcheting chain, tug him still farther from his body. His tendrils were strained to their limits. Another tug and they would snap, and all would be lost.
The claw beckoned one last time. Snap! From his chest burst a stream of voidstuff. The jet of absence shot through the air, slamming past the beckoning appendage and, he guessed from the otherworldly scream that followed, crashing into its master. The claw was yanked back through the gate, already beginning to crumble apart, as the whole place seemed the shudder with the force of the blow.
Looking down, he saw the rune of protection, etched into his soul, begin to fade away. That, he thought, would explain the pain. Like taffy resuming its original shape, he felt himself being dragged back into his body. Unlike when he had been excavated, returning was a noticeable affair, his vision tunneling to tiny pinpricks of light before the halls of the Canterlot Archives came roaring back to him.
He stood again in the hallway, facing the massive door. There was a sound like a gong, if there had been a gong sixty feet tall directly in front of him, as the doors began to swing open. Unlike the rest of Canterlot, the doors seemed to see little use or care, groaning in protest as they slowly revealed the secret they'd concealed.
With the gong still ringing in his ears, he entered the pitch black room. Once he set foot inside, a light appeared from above, shining down on a pedestal which held a large black book. With a rising sense of excitement, he walked swiftly forward, wresting the text from its resting place.
It wasn't black, strictly speaking. It looked as if it had been painted one color, and then again over top. When the light caught just right on one of the ridges in the cover, it would shine with a deep, eerie green. The title letters were written in a dark, brownish red and framed in fine gold wire. The Necroequicon.
Upon reading the words, he felt a tug at his soul, as if some bond had been formed by learning its name. Suddenly, inexplicably, he knew. This was a book of incredible power. As snippets of knowledge thrilled through him, he leaned his head back and shut his eyes.
Images flashed before them, of a group of unicorns in black robes, working underground with two beings of extraordinary evil. Of meetings in the dark, pooling their knowledge of life and death. Of one of their number being ousted as a dark magician. Of placing the corpse on a stone table, and slamming a diamond the size of an ostrich egg into his chest. Of the gates of Tartarus closing, the barbed chains winding through the rods, sealing the two beings behind it. Before the book could show him more, he was brought back to the archives by a voice.
“Somepony is seeking secrets best left buried,” it said, a warm congeniality in the sound that was totally at odds with the memories burning within him. When did I kneel? He placed the book in the sack before him, and turned as he rose to his feet, slinging the bag over his shoulder. The light above him came back on, and he saw Princess Celestia lower her gaze from the light, to him.
Her eyes widened for an instant, then looked over his shoulder at the empty pedestal. She returned her gaze to his, as her eyes became narrow slits.
“Who are you?” The voice was barely recognizable as belonging to the majestic alicorn. This was not Celestia the loving mentor, speaking to one of her students. Nor was it Celestia the benevolent ruler, addressing her beloved subjects. This was Princess Celestia of Equestria, defender of her home, protector of all those she loved. The hard edge in her voice made it clear she would brook no lies or games. That she only asked out of courtesy, and that any false move would spell his demise. It was a voice that, had he not spoken with the Ur-dragon just one day prior, would have stilled his heart with fear, and rendered him unable to think or act.
In the future, when he looked back on this moment, he would be at a loss as to what prompted the idea. Perhaps it was the influence of the Necroequicon, eager to taunt its jailor now that it was free. Perhaps it was the Ur-dragon’s rune, ensuring she would do something to activate it.
Perhaps he was just a troll.
Whatever the reason, it occurred to him the irony of using a dimensional gate to Tartarus, to protect a book that would likely hold the key to free the beings within. How many had they stopped from gaining the artifact that would have probably led to their release? Unbidden, and before he could even think to fight it, his face moved, and sealed his fate.
He smirked.
Celestia's eyes snapped open, the pupil and iris in each fading to white as she unleashed her magic. An aura of power bloomed behind her, slamming the doors closed and surrounding the alicorn in a corona of blinding light.
He had been wrong before, in his analogy for the Ur-dragon’s scrutiny. As he stood, facing Celestia's wrath, he thought, This, is what it's like to stand before the fury of the unobstructed sun.
Snap! A sound more felt than heard, as he seemed to be yanked in a trillion different directions at once. For a fraction of a second, he had the distinct impression that he didn't exist. Then, he was standing at the edge of a forest, facing an apple orchard.
Taking a moment to regain his senses, he surveyed the land and saw that, sure enough, he was standing southwest of Sweet Apple Acres' Apple Orchard. From somewhere within himself, he felt a thrum fading away, and knew that the second rune of the Ur-dragon had been responsible for his escape.
It was still night out, so he hadn't lost too much time. Checking the panel in his wrist, he saw it was 8:14am. That can't be right... Even as he thought it, he saw the sun rise in the east, and the moon hastily set. It was quite a sight, watching the sun move through almost three hours of daylight in less than a minute. She'll have to come up with a good story to explain that little slip up. He thought, chuckling darkly at the thought of her discomfort.
Turning, he began heading into the Everfree Forest. It was the only reasonable choice, and, somehow, he knew that nothing there posed a threat to him now. As he was swallowed by the shadows of the forest, he froze. I laughed? He was suddenly aware of the book in the bag on his back. This thing is dangerous, he thought, I'll need to keep my guard up. Taking a moment to gather his thoughts and focus on his plan, he resumed his trek to the moon castle.
According to Starswirl's research, he had less than three days remaining to find a way to anchor himself in Equestria, or else his dimension would come looking for him. And with the uncertainty surrounding what had happened to the world Starswirl had visited, and the crash during his Shift here, there was too much at risk for him to fail.