The Trials

by Zee

Ch 4: Shadow and Light

"Let's go my way, first," Night Watch said, standing up.

"Alright,” Echo agreed, standing up and following Night Watch out of the room.

"It isn't too long of a walk. Maybe five minutes, tops.”

"Maybe I should take the lead? I have the light crystal," Echo pointed out, walking in front of Night Watch.

"Oh, yeah. Sure."

With that, the two of them trotted through the dark tunnels in relative silence. The decorated walls, floor and ceiling soon gave way to the natural cave. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, some of them dripping drops of water onto the ground around them.

Several minutes into their walk, a faint sound of whistling wind picked up in Echo's ears.

"Hear that? That's the sound I was talking about," Night Watch said, shivering. "We should be near the fork." Echo nodded and continued leading the way, until they came to a small clearing posed with two passageways. "It's to the right."

The rolling wind noise began to pick up significantly as they passed through into the tunnel. After a few minutes of walking, however, the sound started to change in pitch, as well.

Echo passed a glance to Night Watch behind her. "I'm not sure that's wind..."

Night Watch returned an uneasy look. "It sounds like it's coming from where we're headed."

"Mm. Soon, we'll find out what it might be." Soon enough, the rocky walls gave way to a fairly spacious room. The whistling noise kept getting louder.

Echo's light crystal brightened the vicinity, some of the minerals in the walls sparkling in response. Standing ominously in the centre of the room were three stone statues of ponies, all of them in the shape of bat ponies. The light cast long, dark shadows behind each of the statues.

Each statue was carved uniquely, each of them representing bat ponies wearing different gear.

"Interesting..." Night Watch whispered, walking closer to the statue in the centre. Heavy armour covered the pony entirely, and two large shields hung from each of its sides. Echo hesitated, her head quickly scanning the room.

"The sound... It's starting to hurt my ears," she said, her face grimacing. The whistling sounded as though it were all around them.

Night Watch's eye twitched.

Suddenly, from behind the statue Night Watch was facing, a dark, shadow-like limb lashed out. She nimbly ducked, avoiding what looked like a blade formed out of the darkness. Night Watch jumped back, quickly drawing the spear from her back and pointed it towards the coalescing, indistinguishable black form.

"Night!" Echo screamed, drawing her sword and leaping into place beside her. The shadow settled itself and took the vague form of a pony, with two protruding limbs from its back sporting long, curved blades.

It screamed an awful noise, causing the two bat ponies to wince and cover their ears, dropping to the floor. A horrible stench filled the room, like that of rotting corpses.

The shadow pony lunged forward, its two, long weapons slicing the air in front of it.

Echo hopelessly tried to dodge out of its way, only for Night Watch to come in and parry its blades with her spear. She quickly retaliated with a slash and a few jabs, forcing the shadow pony back.

Echo picked herself up and jumped past Night Watch, swinging her blade blindly at the creature. However, each swing was blocked by the shadow pony's blades. With a powerful kick, the shadow pony sent Echo flying into the armoured statue.

"Get over here, you ugly pool of ink!" Night Watch screamed, catching the shadow pony's attention.

Echo groaned and picked herself up again... only to notice the crystal shard on her shoulder shine brighter. The sounds of parrying weapons filled the room as Night Watch duelled with the creature, only for it to turn its attention to the source of light.

Echo looked down at her crystal, and then to the statue behind her.

"Echo, watch out! It's coming for you!" Night Watch yelled as she tried to capture its attention. The shadow pony leaped towards Echo, only for Night's spear to whack it out of the air and onto the ground.

"I-I don't know what's happening..." Echo said quietly as she examined her crystal.

It seemed attracted to the stone statue.

Night Watch grunted as more weapon clashes sounded in the air around them. The wailing never ceased.

"Echo! What are you doing!?" Night Watch yelled from across the room.

"I don't know! I think..." Echo trailed off, her hardened gaze fixed on the statue. She pulled the crystal out of its pouch and set it at the foot of the statue, hoping for something to happen.

With a loud shriek, the creature made a final leap towards Echo with its blades flared out. Echo gasped, swinging her sword to parry the two longer blades. She managed to swat one of them away, but the other stabbed into her right side.

"Haaugh!" Echo screamed in pain, the blade sticking out from an unprotected gap in her armour. She heard a yell, and saw Night Watch's spear thrust into the side of the shadow pony.

It wailed and relented, throwing its two blades out at Night Watch while backing away. She blocked the hits with her spear, but the force sent her flying across the room.

Echo froze from the shock of her wound, slumping to the ground. The shadow pony turned to her, bringing its blades back for a devastating slice. She closed her eyes, waiting for the worst.

Only for it not to come.

A piercing whine filled the air and drowned out the shadow pony's wailing. Echo opened her eyes, only to see nothing but light; the crystal she had placed on the statue had become blindingly bright. For a brief moment, the world around them was nothing but a heavenly presence.

The shadow pony seemed to wail in pain, the light hurting it.

Just as quickly as the light had appeared, however, it died down. Echo gasped, forgetting her wound for the moment.

Standing in place of her crystal was an armoured pony, similar to the statue behind it. Like an otherworldly contrast to the shadow pony, it seemed to be made out of light. It stoically stared forward, slowly pivoting its head towards the shadow pony. In response, the shadow pony let out another loud screech that forced Echo to wince in pain. However, the light pony stood vigil, the shadow pony advancing quickly towards it.

Just as one of the shadow blades was about to connect with the light pony, it unsheathed a large, ornate sword and thrust it deep into the shadow pony's chest. The shadow pony whined in pain, but brought its blades back for another attempt to strike.

Without hesitating, the light pony forced its blade upwards, severing the shadow pony in two from the chest, up. Finally, the wailing stopped, and the deformed body of the shadow pony slowly melted into the air. Strands of the shadow aimlessly wandered the room for several moments until they withered away into the tunnels.

Echo stared in disbelief, and held her breath when the light pony slowly turned its gaze to her. It then looked to the opposite corner of the room. She followed its gaze, only to discover that a large, wooden chest lay where the light pony had indicated.

With what sounded like a releasing sigh, the light pony looked to the ceiling before disintegrating into nothingness. Left behind was the shattered remains of Echo's light crystal at the foot of the statue. Darkness consumed the room, but it didn't feel as though there were a malicious presence anymore.

Silence finally reigned, and Echo simply lay there, hearing nothing but the sound of her breaths. That was, until a clicking noise echoed through the air and she could sense Night Watch finding her way through the darkness.

"Echo! Where are you? I saw you get stabbed!" Night called out before zeroing in on Echo's location. She continued to make clicks with her mouth as she made her way over.

"I'm here!" Echo called back. She winced, the pain from her wound catching up to her. "Gah... it hurts..."

"Dammit..." Night Watch muttered, kneeling in front of her.

"The light pony... there is a wooden chest at the other side of the room." Echo wearily pointed towards the direction.

"I'll go have a look really quick," Night Watch reassured. "Maybe there is something in it that can help you."

Echo 'watched' as Night made her way to the chest, clicking all the way. She heard the sound of her opening the chest and rummaging through its contents.

"There seems to be some glass bottles or flasks! Also, a lot of tiny boxes," Night called from across the room.

"Nngh... tiny boxes?" Echo asked loudly through her teeth while clenching her painful wound.

"Yeah. Leather-bound!"

Echo's ears perked up.

"Open one! It might have more of those light crystals." After a small struggle, Night Watch finally got one of the boxes open and a familiar light poured into the room once more.

"Got it!" Night Watch said, peering into the wooden chest with her new-found light source. "The bottles... they're filled with an opaque, reddish liquid."

Echo let out a sigh of relief. "Ah... healing potions!"

Night Watch swiped one of the glass flasks in her mouth and quickly galloped to Echo. She unscrewed the cap and held it towards her, who accepted it with her mouth and greedily drank the contents. The thick liquid went down her throat warmly, tasting a little bit like a fizzy apple cider.

Almost immediately, Echo felt the pain in her side decrease significantly. She guzzled down another gulp before parting her mouth from the flask.

"That was a bit... sensual," Night said, winking. Echo rolled her eyes.

"Ugh." The potion rewarded her with a boost of energy, prompting her to stand up. Quickly, she turned to see the wound in her side.

Through the new hole in the tunic between her armour plates, the wound had closed up to nothing but an irritating scratch on the skin.

"Interesting," she remarked.

"Wish we had this stuff in real life," Night Watch said. Ignoring her comment, Echo trotted towards the still-open chest on the other side of the room. The light crystal that Night Watch had taken out was lying on the floor, tossed aside.

"These..." Echo said, staring at the crystal. "They're more than just light sources."

"Quite," Night Watch said. "The spirit-pony that came out of it was kinda hot, too." Echo rolled her eyes again, approaching the chest and rummaged through it.

---

"So, that's seven light crystals and three-and-a-half flasks of healing potion," Echo said, taking inventory.

"And a little gardening shovel that could come in handy," Night Watch cheerily added, her saddlebags rattling with the object.

"I guess we can still use the crystals as a light source," Echo said. She glanced to the statues at the centre of the room.

The statue to the right of the armoured one was in ceremonial robes and held a staff in between its hooves. A crescent moon sat at the head of the staff. The other statue was clad in what looked like hooded, leather armour. A crossbow was draped across its back, and a quiver full of bolts was strapped to its left shoulder.

"I wonder if we can use them to summon more of those light-pony guardians if we ever need them,” Echo said. Night Watch fiddled with her saddlebags and the light crystal sticking out of her right shoulder pocket.

"If we can, we should use them sparingly. Only for last resorts," Night Watch said. Echo nodded. "It looks like the only way out is from where we came."

"Let's go to the path I didn't take, then."

Night Watch shuddered, falling into line behind Echo as they began their walk. "Imagine if I had taken this path, first."

Echo winced.

Comments

[FOXTrot2]

good story reminds me of dungeon games.

[Fanliterature101]

did i just hear night watch say that she wishes they had that stuff in real life?...If it's not real life...and they're in some sort of dungeon, and echo cant feel the pain of a sword...OH MY CELESTIA THEY'RE PLAYING SAO!!