My Little Countries: Magic of the Stars

by BlondeSky

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

“On second thought…” America muttered staring at the wall that was now in front of him.

“Are you all alright!?” Astro called from the opposite side of the barrier.

“Yes, it looks like everyone over here is fine.” Germany replied. As they took roll of all of the ponies they found that everypony was accounted. They also discovered that all of the countries had ended up on one side and the ponies on the other.

Not a moment after they were done however the ground on the countries’ side started to shake. They all pulled back as the section of the path where they had just ben fell away into the darkness. A new path however shot out of the wall leading down deeper into The Abyss. “This is just getting weird.” America mumbled.

“What was that!? Are you all still there?” Kara asked from behind the wall.

“Yes, we’re fine. A new path has just… er… opened up.” England replied cautiously.

“Alright. There’s no way we’re going to all get over or through this wall. We can all keep heading down and regroup later. Deal?” Zone asked still out of sight behind the barrier.

“Deal.” Germany confirmed.

“See you further down.” he finished. With that the two groups started their way down the two paths eager to get moving.

The countries started slowly and cautiously down the newly formed path still wary of what might lay ahead of them. It seemed that The Abyss had disproved the whole ‘ravines can’t think’ thing and it hadn’t exactly been helpful to the group. They weren’t so sure that taking the path it had offered them was the best decision. Still, seeing as none of them could fly and the path that they had come from had fallen away they had nowhere to go except forward.

As the first few tentative steps were taken the beastly silence returned to them. It seemed that the only time it left was when an event occurred to disrupt it. So they walked on in complete silence carefully treading and hoping not to provoke the wrath of The Abyss. Although it hadn’t physically hurt them it had come incredibly close and wasn’t by any means of the word kind. After what had just happened it felt like it was an actual living being that could breathe and think and feel. No one was happy about the situation and wanted out. The craggy rock that they were walking on only increased this sense of insecurity.

It was quite a surprise, welcome or not they weren’t yet sure, when it started to give way to grass. The change in atmosphere was nice as the ground slowly started to become more colorful. Different colored flowers soon started to sprout along with the luscious green grass. Not much more time had passed before the number of wildflowers outshone the grass on the ground that had previously been entirely grey rock. It looked more like they were in a field than a dark, dank, and dangerous ravine. They were however far too suspecting of the sudden and beautiful change in scenery to particularly enjoy it.

Even if they had actually been calm enough to enjoy the lovely atmosphere it didn’t last all that long. They found that their suspicions of too good to be true to be correct as a pitch black liquid started to spew from the heads of all of the flowers. They all pulled back in shock as this occurred. It started as just a small trickle, but rather suddenly it started to become more of fountain and then sprayed so high that it was raining on top of them. The group took off at full gallop and not a moment too soon as the ground fell away behind them.

Soon they were standing on solid rock again and breathing slightly heavily from the sprint. Each one was soaked from head to hoof in the black liquid that had come from the flowers. “It smells like ink… from a pen or something.” America stated confused.

“It does… but why would flowers spew ink?” England asked equally bewildered.

“That was rather strange, and not very enjoyable.” France responded.

“This whole thing has been strange.” Germany argued, “We’re not getting anything done just standing here and talking about it. If we want to get back to where things make sense then we’ll have to keep moving.” There were some mumbles of agreement and the group started forward once again.

-/|\-

With a small sigh of defeat the six ponies turned to face the path before them. All they could really hope for at that point was that their two paths would cross again. They started forward as the silence returned around them. Before, while it was a constant presence, it wasn’t quite so suppressing. As it returned it was even more consuming than before. They could no longer even hear the sounds of their own hooves on the grey stone beneath them. It now felt like it was a living being surrounding them and watching their every move. Even though it didn’t really change the way they thought of it had making at all the more tense.

They continued onwards not a word being spoken between them just hoping for something else to break the repressive silence keeping them prisoner. They could just talk among themselves, but none wanted to be the one to shatter the horrid quiet. The loudest and most earsplitting silence that they had ever heard remained around them as they walked slowly and solemnly forward. Each pony was on the highest alert waiting, and hoping, for a sound to greet their starved ears.

They all jumped as a sudden whispering shattered the silence in all its glory. An emotion somewhere between relief and apprehension filled them as they started slowly towards the sound. More voices piled on to the first as they crept towards the noise. After the previous silence the whispers were almost deafening. Soon they were amidst where it seemed the voices were coming from although there were no ponies there. “D-do you think it’s The Abyss talking?” Zone asked nervously.

“I doubt that.” Astro answered sounding less certain than she would’ve liked. All of them were glancing around searching for the source of all of the voices, but saw none. Astro listened carefully to the words being whispered trying to understand what was being said. As she finally managed to pick one out it was the voice of a pony that she didn’t want to hear. A pony from her past that she didn’t want to remember. She quickly tried to tune out the voice, but it only seemed to push back harder trying to block out all other noise. “We should get out of here!” she shouted over the growing din of whispers and trying to overbear the one voice nagging at her ear. As she looked back she saw different members of the six eye’s get wide as they discovered a voice of their own. “We should get out of here now!” she called back to the others as she started to trot briskly.

They didn’t need to be told twice as they took off cantering trying to escape the whispers on their tails. Looking back over their shoulders at the path behind them the voices started to fade away slowly. The group put on more speed wanting to leave the voices behind and for once hoped for the silence to return to them. Their progress however was halted as they crashed into another group of ponies. As they rose to their hooves they looked to see the countries in front of them, but clearly something had happened to them as well. All of their coats and manes and tails were stained by a pitch black liquid.

The two groups stood staring at each other slightly stunned before speaking. “Um… hello!” Ink greeted them smiling sheepishly.

“Looks like we weren’t the only ones who ran into trouble.” Diplo commented looking them over.

“If by trouble you mean flowers that spew pen ink, then yes, we ran into trouble.” France replied.

“Right, well… glad you’re okay.” Kara offered.

“You too.” England responded.

“So, everybody’s back together… what now?” America asked.

“I suppose we keep moving before something else strange happens.” Astro answered. They all looked towards the paths leading back up which promptly fell away. “Keep moving downward.” she corrected sighing as their attention now turned to the path leading even further into The Abyss.

Author's Note:

I'm really enjoying writing this and I hope you're enjoying reading.

^_^ Thanks, BlondeSky