//------------------------------// // Chapter 39 // Story: Princess Twilight Sparkle's School for Fantastic Foals // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// Darkness. Everything was shrouded in darkness. The light seemed thin and weak somehow. Sumac was still trying to recover, his insides felt scrambled like eggs and he was almost certain that his brain was down in his left front hoof. In this moment, he hated Starlight just a little tiny bit, as she seemed unaffected by their travel, and was bouncing about as she had a look around. He hovered in the air, surrounded by a magenta coloured shield bubble that rippled and fizzled with strong magic. Twilight had a direct magical tether to him and it seemed to have a two way affect—Sumac could feel her magic coursing through him, and from it, he somehow gained a better understanding of how shield spells worked. In the distance, something let out a blood curdling shriek and Sumac almost lost his nerve right then and there. All of the spooky stories he had read in books hadn’t prepared him for this as well as he had hoped. He was now living through a spooky story, and awful things happened in those books that Trixie was sometimes concerned about him reading, like the one about the angry revenant that went around slurping eyeballs out of sockets because his own eyes had been stolen (by his apprentice no less!) and then the ponies who had their eyeballs slurped out came back as zombies with a hunger for brains. Which didn’t make sense to Sumac, who thought it would be more fitting if they had an insatiable hunger for eyeballs, like the revenant. “This place is scary,” Sumac said in a low whisper, fearful of having his eyeballs slurped. “This place is cursed,” Starlight replied with no trace of fear in her voice. “Many battles were fought here, and now, all those who fell here continue to battle, cursed to keep fighting. Twilight says that those that die here looking for the treasures are also cursed and will be forced to fight forever—” “Starlight, shut up!” Twilight snapped at her assistant. “Shutting up now.” Starlight fell silent. Too late, Sumac was already shivering with fear. He heard screams, the ring of steel on steel, and the explosive crackle of magic. He realised that he was hearing the sounds of battles long past, echoes of violence from long ago. He didn’t want to fight forever. To fall here was to meet a terrible fate. He trusted that Twilight knew what she was doing. “When we push ahead, we’ll be attacked by undead spectres. They hate us because we’re still living and warm. Starlight and I have spells to counter the fear generated by the undead, and Trixie knows a hex reversal that will protect us from the unearthly cold they generate. Sumac, no matter how scary it might seem, I promise, you are safe.” Twilight lifted Sumac up and looked him in the eye. “I mean it, you’ll be safe. Just trust in us, okay?” “Can they be killed or destroyed?” Sumac asked. He wondered how Trixie knew how to reverse a hex and thought about asking, but now was not the time. “No.” Twilight shook her head. “They can be obliterated for a short time, but they will rise again. That is the nature of this place.” “Time to be great and powerful,” Trixie breathed, more to herself than anypony else. “I’m doing this to give Sumac and others a better, brighter future, and not for myself… not for my own glory, but for the benefit of others...” Starlight too, was collecting herself. Her lips moved, but Sumac heard no words. Pale white flames flickered along Starlight’s body and she blazed with a silver glow. The flames lept from her to Twilight, then burned along the magical tether, and surrounded his shield bubble. The flames then lept to Trixie, surrounding her. A glowing sphere manifested near Trixie’s head, it looked like a tiny miniature sun, and it began to orbit around her. It cast a soothing yellow-orange light into the darkness, and Sumac felt warmth blossoming in his bones, it was like being outside on a sunny day. “I wish Moondancer was here with Trixie and I,” Starlight whispered to Twilight, “we three are the most powerful unicorns of our age… and having you and Sumac with us, we could wreck this place—” “Starlight, keep your aggression in check, it will be our undoing.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she stared down her student. “I left Moondancer behind to protect Ponyville just in case one of our many enemies decides to make an attempt in my absence. We aren’t here for the sake of battle, we are here to retrieve some artifacts so that we might protect others.” “Yes, of course, my Master.” Starlight bowed her head. “My apologies, Master, I had a momentary lapse of judgment, I will not allow it to happen again.” Almost entranced by the exchange, Sumac hung on every word, enraptured by the relationship between Master and Apprentice. He wanted that for himself and right now, at this moment, he felt a keen sense of longing for it. He also took notice that Moondancer was powerful, she was powerful enough that Twilight trusted her to protect Ponyville, and he stored that little tidbit away for later. His now enhanced intelligence allowed his keen mind to begin plotting and scheming. “Let us begin,” Twilight said as she pushed open a rotten looking door. “Stay together!” The central courtyard was a dreadful place. It seemed to change size even as Sumac looked at it, growing bigger, then shrinking, and it was filled with all manner of ghastly undead. Spectral undead, cadaverous undead, and skeletal undead, he saw them all. They had been fighting one another, doing whatever it was that they did when there were no living around, but now, they all banded together, finding common ground in their seething hatred of living flesh. It was Trixie who lobbed the first spell. At first, Sumac thought it was going to be a fireball, but he was both shocked and surprised by the wall of flame that lept up in front of Trixie. The wall of flame became a wave of flame, falling over, roiling like liquid, and then it rushed forwards, spilling ahead, a tsunami of fire. It was quite wide and it crashed into the undead like an incoming tide, burning them, setting them ablaze, and causing their rotted corpses to fly apart like dolls lost to the fury of a foal having a tantrum. And what strange corpses they were. Sumac saw all kinds. Centaurs, ponies, griffons, minotaurs, diamond dogs, so many had been drawn here to this place, and so many had died, giving this place what it needed, immortal defenders to protect the secrets buried within. The wave of fire crashed against the stone wall at the far side of the courtyard and the way was almost cleared. Twilight started forwards, before the undead could recover, heading for a door ahead. She moved with purpose, as if she knew the way to go. As they moved together, Starlight picked off a few stragglers that got too close, shooting them with a silver beam that shimmered like moonlight. As Sumac looked on in horror, many of the shambling corpses began to pull themselves together, some of them still on fire, and several began to rise. He didn’t like it, not at all, and even with the spell that protected him from magical fear, he was still afraid. He understood that the spell only protected him from magical fear and that the fear he was feeling was his own fear—the only way to be rid of it was to stop being such a scared little foal. Twilight pulled the door open and the group hurried through, the undead clawing at their heels… An impossibly long hallway loomed before them. Starlight had the lead, Twilight followed after her with Sumac in tow, and Trixie brought up the rear. There was no door behind them, it had vanished as soon as it was closed. Overhead, a high stone ceiling loomed above them, covered in slime and lichens. “I think Princess Luna might have used this place in a few bad dreams,” Twilight said as she had a look around. There wasn’t much to see and Twilight shook her head. “I thought we’d be in the labyrinth when we went through the door, but instead, we got sent to this place.” “Twilight, trust in your skills. If your scrying says that past that door is the labyrinth, then we are in the labyrinth. We just need to figure out how to get past this endless hallway.” Starlight kicked at the wall and then began to study the stone construction all around her. “We seem to be safe at the moment.” Sumac too, had himself a look around. “We’re all alone here.” “For now,” Trixie replied. “Hey, what’s this?” Starlight stood up on her hind legs and began to examine a rusted iron sconce on the wall. She rested her two front hooves against the stone. “This has an odd dweomer of magic about it.” She touched it with her telekinesis and said, “Hey, it turns!” Something went wrong, because when Starlight tried to turn the iron wall sconce, it didn’t move, but the hallway did. The whole hallway began to angle, and instead of stretching out in front of them, it became a hill threatening to dump them downwards, and it grew steeper, and steeper, until… It became a bottomless pit beneath them and an endless shaft above them. The group fell for only a moment, Starlight levitated herself with her magic and Twilight hovered with her wings, while holding Trixie in a bubble of levitation. The rusty iron sconce appeared unmoved and was still pointing in the same direction. “Well, that was neat,” Starlight said in a cheerful, chipper voice that caused Twilight’s eyebrows to do some impressive gymnastics. “The sconce doesn’t move, but the hallway does.” “What a stunning observation!” Twilight snapped. “Oh, Twilight, don’t be such a grumplepuss—” “I’ll show you grumplepuss!” Twilight’s lip curled back in a snarl. “We almost got dumped down into an endless shaft! Be mindful of what you do and how it might affect others!” “I’m positive that it’s an illusion,” Starlight replied, still smiling. “We would have hit something sooner or later. Besides, we’re fine.” Without warning, Starlight plunged down, off to have a look at what the hallway, now a bottomless pit, had to offer. Sumac observed that falling was a whole lot easier than walking. Starlight was conserving energy by allowing herself to fall, and was saving her strength. She came to a stop far below them, and he had trouble making out what she was doing. “There is a big patch of illusion here, I think there is a door, but I don’t know how to open it,” Starlight said from down below. “I wish Tarnish was here, he’s good at seeing through illusions with that second sight astral viewing thing he does.” “If Tarnish was here, you two would be doing nothing but fighting!” Twilight swooped down with sudden alacrity to join Starlight. “I swear, I can’t leave the two of you alone for even a minute—” “He doesn’t like me,” Starlight said, interrupting Twilight, her voice becoming a whine. Twilight came to a sudden stop and Sumac felt his stomach lurch. He watched as she began to examine the wall, touching it, and studying the stones. He wondered why Tarnish didn’t like Starlight, and thought about asking, but then he decided that now was a good time to keep quiet. The adults seemed tense and silly questions might get him a scolding. “This is perplexing.” Twilight’s brows furrowed and she shook her head. “There is illusion here, but there isn’t a door. I don’t understand—” “The Great and Powerful Trixie shall show you!” Turning about in Twilight’s levitation magic, Trixie poked at the wall on the other side of the bottomless shaft opposite to where Starlight and Twilight were looking and her hoof went right through the stone. “It’s a projection spell, you nattering boobs! This is basic illusion! Didn’t you pay attention in school?” “I never did well in illusions,” Twilight admitted. “It was never real enough. I like dealing with tangibles, not untruths and projected lies.” As Twilight spoke, Trixie rolled her eyes and shook her head, looking disgusted. Sumac was getting an eyeful and an earful on how adults acted, and he wasn’t sure what to think. Twilight, Starlight, and Trixie were all very different ponies in this situation, away from the school. If they were students, they would get stood in a corner and maybe have to write essays on better behaviour. “Illusion is the most powerful of all of the schools of magic.” Trixie’s eyebrow arched and she gave both Twilight and Starlight a haughty look. “Nope.” Starlight shook her head. “Destruction is the way to go.” “Both of you are wrong!” Twilight floated between Starlight and Trixie. “Divination is the true path to power… because knowledge is power. We must know the unknowable if we wish to have strength.” “Only an egghead would say that.” Starlight rolled her eyes and let out a whinny. “We agree, Starlight.” Trixie shook her head and looked at Twilight. “By the way, you are going to have to show me how you cast that flame wave,” Starlight said to Trixie. “That was impressive, most impressive.” “Enough!” Twilight snapped. “I swear, this is like herding cats! We have a job to do! Sumac, I’m going to give you another drop of tincture and then we’re going to go through that door to see what lies beyond.” Sumac was eager to see what was beyond the door…