Anima Mea Tenebre

by Nixus

Origins Pt. 4

Twilight Velvet always considered herself a practical and levelheaded mare. One had to be when dealing with the kind of rambunctious children that grew into the roles of Princess Celestia's student and the Captain of the Royal Guard. She had raised them, going through the trials and tribulations that entailed the duties of parenthood. In that time, she had thought that perhaps she had seen the extremes that children and young ponies would go through. After all, what other mother could say their own daughter had turned her into a potted plant? Certainly not one she had ever met.

Yet it seemed life was ready to challenge her resolve once again. It had devised a test so utterly incomprehensible that she had to pause upon coming face to face with it, and normally, upon being confronted with a giant hole, in both the physical and metaphorical sense, one should take their time to account for of every feature. It was a simple concept of self-preservation; no one would be stupid enough to simply jump in without at least taking note of the depth. But Dante had done none of that.

Instead, Dante had thrown himself into the pit...

Oh my sweet Celestia, he just killed himself! She thought frantically. She hadn't taken him for one to charge in headlong without second thought, he was too smart for that. Yet he had done so anyways. It was unthinkable --defying every notion of rationality in her mind. But what hit the hardest was that she had watched it happen and that there was so much she could have done about it. There hadn't been any signs when she thought on it though; there was hardly an indication he would have done something like this.

"Velvet!"

Fantastic... now she could hear him in her head as that accusing ghost. She was going to have to live with the fact a pony had thrown themselves to their death in front of her. More importantly, she was going to have to explain this with the princess. Even worse, her poor filly would be crushed by the fact her charge had killed himself while she was comatose.

"Velvet!"

Why did the voice have to sound so real? The situation was already as terrible as it could be without him howling her name from the other side. It was almost as though he were at the bottom of the pit trying to contact her.

...

"Dante?" she shouted, her voice echoing in the darkness of the hole. "Are you alive down there?" She paused for a second as something registered in her mind. "How in the name of Tartarus did you survive that fall?"

"The hole isn't that deep; I only had to ride the wall for a few seconds before I touched the ground." His response brought out a sigh of relief from Velvet. Still, her heart was just beginning to go from the heavy beat to a steady thrum. "Can you manage to get down somehow?"

"Hold on for a moment," she called back. Concentrating, she heard the telltale sound of her magic activating before she felt herself lift off the ground. She panted slightly as the strain of lifting her entire body made itself known incredibly quickly. Self-levitation spells weren't exactly common among unicorns and there was little reason for any to learn such a spell unless they were married to a pegasus. Still, she knew that she shouldn't have been this tired so quickly. "I'm getting too old for things like this..."

Gently, she floated down past years of piled dirt and sediment. As she did so, her eyes scanned the walls of the hole, taking note of every deposit and every layer of soil. She had dabbled in geology during her time as a student, fantasizing about finding caches of gemstones that would make any mare weak in the legs. Unfortunately, motherhood had put an end to that lofty goal, but left her with skills that could quickly identify a few odd things about stratification of the earth in this hole.

"That isn't natural," she said as her hooves met solid ground. She looked around, taking account of the scratches in the walls and floor. A large tunnel extended to their right, remaining firm despite not being supported by any beams or natural formations. It was a wonder that it hadn't collapsed in on itself. Then again, that meant there was a chance it would do so while they were there.

She scooped up a portion of the ground and inspected it with her eyes and magic. There wasn't much odd about the clod of earth in her hooves. In fact, it was just a regular lump of dirt. There was only one thing that stood out to her.

"There was an earthquake here," she said, dropping dirt on the ground. "It happened a very long time ago, but there are still trace differences in the soil." There was only one thing that didn't make sense. "But there are no foreign samples in it, which doesn't make sense. An earthquake would have mixed up the sediment layers and covered this place entirely. That could only mean..."

"This tunnel isn't natural," Dante concluded for her. She looked towards him, curiosity forming at the origin of his deduction. Dante only motioned towards the tunnel. Surely enough when she looked, a cobblestone pathway caught her interest. She opened her mouth to say something, but Dante was quicker to express his opinion. "Some sort of magic was at work here when this place sank into the ground. The road was slightly affected, but if this was an actual earthquake, the stones would be scattered."

"So what should we do?"

He turned to her with that same look on his face when he had first picked up the stone in the library. It was more determined than anything, but Velvet could see a glimmer of confidence and excitement in them. Dante was just raring to go. "We follow it and see where it leads. Then when we're done, we head back to town."

"Simple as that?"

"Simple as that."

*****

Watching Dante's life unfold in front of her reminded Twilight of the sort of plays that touted the concept of drama as though it were a currency, though nothing could compare to what she was viewing. Fighting and argument all seemed to be commonplace within the relationship between Ersa and Dante. There was no in-between either. Conflict between the two was either due to some little thing or a major event that usually set them off. But it wasn't always constant bickering and arguing, there was plenty of good to go with the bad. In fact, some of the best and closest moments between the two were almost immediately after a major fight.

The entire situation was merely a learning experience for the two - a constant test to see how firm their bond would remain despite their differences. Sure, the instances of fights made it difficult for them, but that wasn't the point. As far as Twilight could see, the two loved each other dearly. There was none of the typical high school silly names or the grafting of hips between the two. Their relationship was more adult than anything. They gave as much time to the other as themselves. But even so, they were always there for each other in the best and worst of times.

Yet while she was viewing what had to be the most extreme relationship between the two, she was beginning to feel something else build within her as well. She had seen how well the hotheaded Ersa and the collected Dante got along and their trust in each other. It reminded her that while she always had her friends, she had nothing close to what she was seeing in front of her. She knew that she could always trust the others, but she had never seen or experienced the same degree as the two in the vision shared. It only managed to reveal what she felt.

She was lonely. But it wasn't just a subtle feeling either; it was a full-blown desire for a companion to share everything with.

The hand of the guide touched her gently on the shoulder. It was a light touch, and while his hand was deathly cold, there was a warm and comforting feeling that arose from the action. He smiled sadly, and she could tell from his odd and pained eyes that he was dreading what was to come.

"It is almost over..." he said, his multitude of voices all reverberating lowly in a synchronized choir. Twilight nodded and followed him, leaving the image of the two together to fade into nothing.

To her surprise, there was no new image that appeared in front of them. Instead, upon her guide stopping and tapping the ground with his staff, a small doorway appeared. Stepping inside, her hooves disturbed what seemed like a deep dust, and stumbled among things lying in the doorway whose shapes she could not make out at first. The chamber was lit by a wide shaft high in back wall; it slanted upwards and, far above, a small square patch of blue sky could be seen coming from some artificial source. The light fell directly on a table in the middle of the room: a single square block, about two feet high that held a series of four small metal claws, only one of which held a black oval stone. Behind it, were an additional four thrones obscured by the darkness.

While waiting for him to explain the significance of the room, she watched her companion pass by her, appearing as though he were floating towards the altar like table, before he picked up the orb closest to them. “This is the key and final part to the day that Dante’s fate was irrevocably changed,” he said, holding the orb towards her. “It is, and will forever be, his most guarded and darkest secret.” He paused, looking down at the object in his hand in an almost hesitant manner. “But before you take it, I also offer you a different choice. One in which you abandon the path you are currently treading so that you may save your home from what is to befall those who have come into your land. You have already seen enough to come to a conclusion of what is to come.”

“What will happen to them if I take your offer?” Twilight asked, afraid of the answer, but kept her determination. “And what if I choose to go and help Dante anyways? I could just go against what you think will happen.”

“What I am giving you is a choice to avoid collateral damage, Twilight Sparkle,” he replied, narrowing his gaze. “The cost of your choice will still be the sacrifice of four souls, there is no changing that. But the nature of your decision will ultimately determine how many will perish in the process.”

“And there is no other way?”

“No, Twilight Sparkle, this is how destiny plays its hand. There are just some paths that cannot be changed, not by gods, not by despots, and not by those who perceive themselves as heralds of light. And even if you had the ability to not choose, the flow of reality will decide for you and leave you with the ashes of the fallen and the consequences of what your choice might have been. It is impossible for you to decide otherwise; Dante will either perish by your hoof, or through other means.”

“No.”

The response was simple, but so forceful that it even surprised Twilight. It seemed the very same for the shadowy guide, who looked oddly perplexed by her answer. Then, almost as if her body was forming a conscious of its own, she stood tall and looked towards him. “I have done things and seen things which in any case would be considered impossible. My friends and I have stopped every single threat to Equestria. We banished Nightmare Moon, we reasoned with a dragon, beat a changeling invasion, and we even reformed a god of chaos. But you have the sheer audacity to tell me that I have to decide between my new friends and my home, that I have to betray their trust and live with the fact that I was the one who ultimately decided to put them on the chopping block.” Her hoof rose up, almost as if to strike him, but rested in a manner where it appeared she was simply pointing at him accusingly. “I won’t accept either of them then, I am going to watch whatever is on this thing, and I am going to do my best to help Dante, Sam, Moe, and Coppa overcome whatever it is you or whoever else have planned for them. You say that Gods, Despots, and Heralds can’t change destiny. well good! I’m none of those. I am Twilight Sparkle, the bearer of the Element of Magic, and the best friend of five incredible ponies, a dragon, and four friends from another world. And I know that if they were here, they would agree with me and would help me to find a way to save everypony, no matter the cost!”

He stared at her, silent, but amused from what she could tell by his face. His eyes still hadn’t warmed to her, but she could see his entire body relax slightly. “So that is your decision then? To fight against a cycle which even a god could not stop and to deny those who desire their release?”

“It is, so you can either take it or leave it! Impossible is nothing but a word that one uses to feel better when they’ve given up.”

“Very well then, I will let you do as you wish,” he said, handing her the orb. She couldn't tell if he was impressed by her resolve, or disappointed. It mattered little, she made her choice and he was going to have to live with it. "You remind me of someone I knew long ago, Twilight Sparkle." He had a small smile on his face, but it looked bleaker than the one he had shown earlier. "He was a friend who would never stop until his dreams were realised, no matter who he had to face. He saw me not as the facade I had made, but for who I was. Perhaps, like him, you can fulfill your boasts and do what others failed to accomplish. I can only hope that those you surround yourselves with have the same constitution and ideals that you yourself posses. If not, I pray for your soul."

He then tapped the orb with a whitened finger and after a moment, the entire gem began to glow. At first, it only brightened slightly before it began to produce a faint humming noise. Then, as she held on to it, the humming turned into a loud roar like that of fast moving train. As it did that, the images of everything she had seen until that moment replayed in her head. But there were other images, ones in which she hadn't viewed and didn't even seem to be about Dante. Instead, flashes of burning homes, people of Dante's race running from armoured warriors, and a child crying and bleeding while stones were being thrown at him by a large crowd all appeared in her mind.

Death, destruction, and unfiltered fear all emanated from within the stone, slowly leaking out like a foul and invisible gas. It was terrifying to behold and she felt her heart hammer in her chest as she held onto it. It was then that quiet, almost inaudible, whispers seemed to resonate from the stone as smoke began leak from it. There were too many to hear clearly, each speaking at the same time in a jumbled mess. Then, without any indication, the stone erupted in a purple light that blinded Twilight to the world.

*****

Time seemed convoluted within the tunnel as Dante and Velvet roamed the underground passage. How long had they been searching? An hour? A few minutes? He couldn't tell anymore, they had been underground for too long. The only thing he did know was that the sun had risen and a new day had begun, the small spears of sunlight poking through the dirt ceiling overhead revealed that.

Yet their progress through the tunnel did not reflect well upon however much time they spent down there. If he was to guess, they had hardly scratched a dent in the lengths of tunnels. It was truly labyrinthine in all regards. Foolishly, he had thought that perhaps there would only be one tunnel that the cobblestone path revealed to him. Instead, the path had run out and left them to fend for themselves. Since then, their progress largely consisted of running into splitting tunnels and dead ends.

"Does this never end?" he muttered to himself. He knew his complaint was a useless gesture, but it still helped slightly. Of course, he knew that other tunnels or dead ends would form over the course of time, but it was beginning to seem like these were forming to throw them off.

Then again, he might just be paranoid. The labyrinths back home tended to do that to an explorer.

Still, determination drove him on with Velvet following in step. The mare herself had been rather quiet since they entered the tunnel and he had only a few inclinations as to why. Maybe it was her motherly instincts or her experience as a psychologist -he couldn't tell which- drove her to try and open him up. Either way, she was going to have to fight for every inch she got into his psyche. But at the same time, he had the unshakable feeling that someone else was gaining territory were Velvet was stalling. That thought alone unnerved him greatly.

"Dante?" Velvet's voice brought him from his musings and he looked over to the mare who had situated herself at the other side of the tunnel. She had a wry smile upon her face as she coolly cleared her throat. "I believe we are lost again."

"It would seem so," he uttered with a nod of his head. "I don't suppose your spell would work here would it?"

She shook her head. "Not unless you've seen whatever it is we are looking for. Even if you did, I doubt we'd get very far. After all, there is still the chance that it’s underneath a pile of dirt at this moment."

Dante smacked a hoof to his forehead. He should have realised that by now. They'd already come across so many caved in tunnels, but he hadn't once thought that perhaps their final destination was also cut off. What was this? Amateur hour? Why couldn't he have realised that centuries underground tended to alter natural and unnatural tunnel formations in the absence of professional care?

"What do you think Velvet?" he asked as he began to massage his forehead. "Do you have any suggestions?"

"Besides turn around and go home? Not really," she replied scratching the ground with a hoof. "We've been down here for a while, and there isn't much here besides dirt and rocks. So unless you have something that has a memory of this place, I suggest we pack up."

"A memory of this place..." Dante muttered to himself. He sat still, in a contemplative manner before his ears snapped to attention. Quickly, he unclasped his borrowed saddlebags and rummaged through them. He did that for a moment before simply dumping the bag onto the ground. "There it is!"

Velvet tilted her head as Dante brought out the stone with the sun mark on it. She gave him a quizzical look as he inspected it, much like a child would inspect a toy. He rotated it, examined it, scratched at it, and even smelled it in an attempt to find whatever it was he was looking for. She wasn’t quite sure what part of her statement had set him off, but it seemed to get the gears in his head moving. It was only after he found a bit of black goop and scraped it off the stone did he turn back to her.

“Can you possibly find something from this?” He presented the tiny smudge to her and she took it carefully into her own hoof. What was he expecting to find with this? She was practically sure that he was smart enough to know that she needed something with the capacity to think for itself. Yet he had given her a black smudge and was expecting a miracle to happen. Sighing to herself, she reluctantly decided to ignite her magic and play on his hopes even though she knew that--

What in Tartarus...

The same soft light grew from the black sludge and connected to her horn. It circled the sludge, which had begun to bubble, and steam, evaporating into the air as her magic drained it. Eventually the light snaked from it and travelled along the wall, twisting and turning alongside the semi-natural formation. It was then that the liquid completely disappeared from the depression in her hoof with a sound much like that of a steaming kettle.

When the spell finished, the string of light popped from her horn and sunk into the ground as it had done so hours ago. At the same time, Velvet looked at Dante who was standing up and smirking like he had just guessed the winning lottery numbers. "Dante?" she began calmly. "What was that liquid you just gave me?"

"Remember what I said about the ooze? Well that’s what I gave you. It’s also the thing that put my friend into the hospital. I figured that because it had awareness, forward planning, and the desire for self preservation, then having the capacity to remember a location or the path to the specific area wouldn't be much of a stretch," he said casually. He then saw the worry etched on her face and did his best to assuage her concern. "Don't worry, it's harmless at the moment. If it hadn't died from the shock of thawing out and being separated from the main body, it wouldn't have had the ability or strength to attack you. I wouldn't endanger you like that."

Despite his persuasion, Velvet still bit her lip nervously and wiped her hoof on the ground out of habit. "Right..." she began hesitantly. "I was just surprised is all."

Dante just silently nodded at the statement before he began walking. He looked to be invigorated by the change of fortune; almost like gaining a second wind by the news alone. At the same time, Velvet could not fathom the sudden changes in his behaviours at this point. Her expertise and practice of psychology had seen her deal with many instances of mental conditions, but Dante was odd. It was like a lottery filled with random symptoms and it confused her. She could tell he had post traumatic scarring, yet it wasn't specifically just that. It was something indescribable that would have required a thorough examination of nearly every condition she knew. All in all, there was really only one designation she could give him; one she used rarely for obvious and professional reasons.

Dante was seriously messed up.

Not exactly her best diagnosis, but nobody could judge her for it at the moment. It should have really been obvious with all the repeating indicators, both from Twilight’s letters and her experience, but he was exceptionally good at hiding anything that hinted something absolute. It also begged the question of how he became so estranged -- another thing he was adept at hiding away. She sighed in exasperation at the reminder and turned to a new bittersweet thought: even while comatose, her daughter probably could learn more about him than she could presently.

Still... the thoughts, while certainly depressing and agonizingly jabbing every motherly instinct she had, managed to pass the time well. She used the idea of 'motherly instincts' loosely; a sort of crutch phrase in this situation to define her jumbled emotions to somepony who was young enough to be her own child. She knew Dante probably had his own parental figures, but she had every right to be concerned as well.

"Do you mind if I ask you something?" she asked. When no answer came from Dante, she wasn't sure whether it was a 'yes' or 'no', but decided to continue on.

For investigative purposes of course!

"What was growing up like for you?" she asked tentatively and while looking at everything except him. "Were there any issues you had in your childhood?"

"If you're asking if I had a rough time growing up, yea, I did," he said without even turning to her. The flat tone even did its job in expressing that he was merely gracing here with partial answers. "Between having to hide my race through my formative years, and the uproar it caused when who I was became known. I would say there are definitely kids who had it easier than I did."

"But surely something was done about it? Was there no authority figure to help you?"

"Growing up as an orphan in a place where the adults in charge of my care tended to avoid me doesn't leave many options for those I could confide in," he said. "And before you ask, yes, I had friends. Well, one friend out of an orphanage of fifty, and I'm not sure where he is, but I doubt I will be seeing him again anytime soon..."

The tone in his voice suggested more, but that was normal; there was always more when it came to him. "So you had no role models or any adult influence? No mother or father figure?"

"I wasn't picked up by anybody until the age of eight. Then the man who sort of adopted me, Principle, and ex-knight, Eric Feinman, took me in and taught me all I know right now. I spent my pre-teens traveling and learning from him until I was enrolled in his school. He's my only role model and is the closest thing I have to a father figure."

"So you really respect him then?" Good, he was opening up. Her plan seemed to be taking root and working its way past Dante's defences. It was nefarious, getting him to divulge the less fondly remembered aspects of his youth, but it worked wonders.

Dante in the meantime snorted. "Respect him? Of course I do, I owe him my life. He saved me and what sort of gratitude would I be giving him if I didn't hold him in high regard? He's one of the few humans who aren't the typical racists I've encountered."

"And who would the others be?"

"Two people: my orphan friend, and Er-" he stopped suddenly, turning and glaring at her. While he might have been slower to catch on this time, he was much sharper than any other patient. He was also a lot more intimidating, it seemed, as he circled her, staring death and backing her down the tunnel. "I told you before Velvet, I don't need your help or pity!" He roared loud enough for her knees to shake. "Stop trying to dig into things because you think it will help me somehow. It won't Velvet, and it never will."

There was an unshakable fear running through Velvet at that point. Dante was quite literally projecting himself and his feelings onto her. Not only that, it seemed to have other effects on him as well. She would have classified these physical reactions like bristled fur and defensive orientations as normal, except for the fact that she had never seen anything remotely like what was going on in front of her.

His entire body was bristling and she watched as it turned darker and darker with each passing moment. His horns seemed to elongate slightly, and the whites of his eyes appeared to darken by the second. His magic even circled around him in a sort of dark purple mist that felt oddly cold. But what caught her eye wasn't the fact he was physically changing alongside his emotions, it was something else entirely.

His shadow was changing, morphing into hunched figure with long wing like appendages.

"Now why don't we talk about this Dante," she said, swallowing nervously as his shadow grew larger. More detailed features were forming, and she could just make out the presence of its knife like teeth.

"There are reasons why I keep to myself, Velvet," he snapped. Velvet didn't need to dig deeper to know what he meant since she had an inkling of what it might have been now. Dante in the other hand, was only just beginning. "I’ve done things, terrible things, and I've hurt people in ways you can't imagine. I'm dangerous, a monster even, and no amount of psychological healing is going to change that. I've lived with that fact for a while now, and I refuse to put anymore lives at risk because of it."

"Holding onto ideas like that isn't good for you, Dante. How many times will you have to be told that? How long is it going to take for you to realise that there is always a way to overcome your fears, and that accepting others help isn't putting them at risk?"

"In this case it is, Velvet," he replied solemnly, his fur beginning to return to its regular color. "Why do you keep pressing me, even though you know I have no desire to tell you? Why are you so damn insistent?"

At that point, Velvet moved forward and wrapped her hooves around him. She felt him freeze and attempt to shy away, but she only held him tighter. Then she felt him shake before leaning into her. She nuzzled him, paying no mind to the wet spot forming on her neck as she held him. "Please just tell me, Dante. I can't stand to see anyone destroy themselves over something they had no control over. Please, just let it out."

"You sound just like Feinman," Dante chuckled sadly, shaking his head. "I'm going to regret this, I know it."

"Just start when you're ready," she replied softly. "I'm here for you. I can help you"

"I know you want too, Velvet..." his voice was gravelly and choked with emotion, the most apparent was relief and grief. He took a breath, but never moved away from her. Never moving from the security of her presence. “...but I don't think there's much help for what I did, Velvet. Plus, we all keep secrets, mine are just more scarring than yours, Twilight's, or even Celestia..." He trailed off as his eyes widened at something behind her. When she followed his gaze, she felt her own mouth open in shock at what she saw.

“How is this even possible?” Velvet said aloud. Dante remained silent, still muted by shock as he walked into the large cavern entrance and picked up the end of a large piece of cloth. Upon closing in with him, she saw that it wasn’t just a cloth, but a flag emblazoned with the old symbol of the Equestrian kingdom: Two Alicorns circling a sun and a crescent moon. When she looked back up from the fallen flag, her breath stopped once again from the sheer awe the ancient sight instilled in her, even making her forget about the answers she wanted from Dante.

It was a village. An entire village. Preserved for an eternity within an earthen prison by some magical means and littered with broken, armoured husks of two legged creatures surrounding a central platform which lacked its stone giant. The scattered remains seemed to intrigue Dante who cantered just out of arm’s reach from a fallen skeleton with a sword sticking in the ground through the rusted armour surrounding its ribcage.

"It all makes sense now..." Dante growled as he stepped forward and picked up a helmeted skull. "I think that Celestia has a few questions to answer.”

*****

Twilight sat on her haunches, quivering as Dante stood alone in the midst of absolute pandemonium. Behind him, St. Mara burned bright alongside any unlucky soul still trapped there. The screaming still rang in her ears and she could barely look anywhere without seeing the torn up remains of the fanatics which had assaulted the students while Dante had been tortured repeatedly to Eric and his gangs delight.

That was when it all went wrong for them, or that is what the priests closest to Dante would have thought had an invisible force not ground them into paste within a blink of an eye. The others weren't so lucky, and Twilight had watched as Dante stood up while priests began dropping like flies, either with massive holes in them or scattered in the wind after being reduced to nothing but red mist.

In the end, all that remained was Dante, screaming into the air with blackened tears falling from his face as the burning buildings around him turned the night sky orange. In his arms was the body of Ersa, limp and unresponsive in his arms, staring out blankly at the illuminated sky. He kept attempting to wake her, yelling at her to get up and shaking her violently. But she would not rise now, or ever again; the hole in her chest where her heart had been made sure of that.

Of a group of fifteen, only Dante was still whole and standing. The rest were scattered around like disposed dolls among the ruins. What used to be happy faces had been reduced to expressions of pain and terror. Their last moments had not been kind and Twilight had witnessed every action as it happened slowly.

The following moments were filled with more screams of pain, loss, and grief coming from him than Twilight would have ever wanted to hear. She sat down, motionless as the scene ended with the silhouette of Dante staring blankly at the flames that consumed the town for a second time. This time though, there was no one to put out the flames as they consumed buildings and bodies.

"So Twilight Sparkle," the guide said as he walked through the image. "You have seen a fraction of what he is. Shall you still stand by him now? Or will you restore the balance and end him before he truly awakens? You do not have much time left; the cycle will begin anew in the coming seasons."

Twilight said nothing; she had no words to say after seeing that. Now she could understand Dante entirely and she regretted it immediately. At the same time, somehow she had expected something dark in his past. She just had no idea how bad he had it.

“What can I do?” she said solemnly. “I can’t hurt him, that would go against everything I stand for. Yet, like you said, if I don’t do anything, then everyone else will be hurt or worse. So what can I do?”

“I am old, Twilight Sparkle," he responded quietly. “You cannot guess how old by simply looking at me. I have seen much, and I have done much more in my lifetime. Some of these memories bring pride while others bring me disgust.” He turned to the stone inside the cradle of his hand, looking down on it. “Do you know what experience is? It is when you have handled something to the extent that the shine wears off. Experience is when you begin to see how relentlessly predictable people are, how each generation follows the same pattern they claim to be breaking away from. I know this because I have lived many years and seen every instance of this.” He placed the stone away on the pedestal and he lowered himself onto one knee. “I cannot say for certain how you should approach this, but this is a new world in which I have no experience to offer you. It is a paradise compared to where I once lived. You must do everything in your power to help save it. It will not be easy, but the answer, and the course of action you must take, will reveal themselves soon. That is all I can say for you.”

As he finished, a ringing reverberated throughout the void, loud and high-pitched. It stung her ears and she could see him look around frantically, as if he were searching for something.

"A disturbance?" he uttered in shock. He grabbed her and pressed his cold palms to either side if her head. "Listen to me closely. You must decide Twilight. Sacrifice Dante, or risk unleashing him. The very fate of both our worlds now hang in the balance. You have seen what he has caused and how he suffers. Condemn him or free him, you must decide. Your choice in these hours will determine much and you will be one of the key pieces in how this new era will appear."

He frowned as he let her go, standing still as everything warped around the two of them. Twilight then began to lift off the ground and felt the familiar sensation of weightlessness and being pulled away by an unseen force as everything shifted around her. As her surroundings twisted and faded, she heard him call to her one last time.

"Good luck Twilight Sparkle, may fortune ever be in your favour. I pray that the gods have mercy and allow you to succeed where I failed."

After that, he disappeared along with the rest of the void.

*****

She gasped as her head shot off of her pillow. Her breath came back to her in ragged gasps as her heart beat in her chest wildly. She raised a hoof to the centre of her body and took a deep breath and held it. Counting to five, she exhaled before repeating the breathing exercise a few more times.

After she regained her composure, she slowly got out of bed. Her movements were sluggish and she felt rather weak after the whole ordeal. She proceed to try though, and she sighed in satisfaction as she stood on shaky legs.

The smell of burning wood then caught her attention. It was obviously wood that was burning at the moment -- she could tell by the smell. She only hoped it wasn't Spike trying to impress somebody with his magic breath. The last time he tried, Celestia had questioned Twilight why a table had landed in her throne room.

A new thought occurred to her after telling herself Spike was smarter than that: how long had she been out? Surely it hadn't been long... the entire experience had only felt like a few minutes at most. Even still, she trotted over to the window, but paused as she felt heat when her hoof neared the drawn curtains.

"That's strange..." she murmured to herself as she drew the curtain away. Her voice died in her throat immediately upon seeing the sight before her. She backed away, turning and bolting through her door. Unfortunately, her weakened legs gave out on her and she tumbled down the stairs, landing just in front of the library door. Not wasting a moment, she struggled to her hooves with a groan before opening the door and immediately stood in shock as a nearby building stood burning in the night.

That was when she heard a shrill shriek before the library wall burst in and sent her world into chaos.

Comments

[Sir_Elton_lunar]

Thanks Nix. You have no idea what it means to me to see other people effected by Shadow's pasing