Tomb of Magic

by Ice Star

Chapter 16: Twilight's Hero

I swooped into the third clearing I had been into and performed a spell that detects enchantments on objects. The phrase I was meant to say hummed in my head, as it repeated over and over while my heart raced.

Hidden in the glen, runes of the knight; when a-glow assist those who fight.

The spell turned my vision monochrome temporarily for everything but present enchantments, everything else fading to blurs of gray. It's also pretty draining and requires all the focus I can manage right now. Sounds of battle will have to be ignored.

Hidden in the glen, runes of the knight; when a-glow assist those who fight.

I looked around scanning the ancient evergreen forest, trying to ignore the spookiness of the twisted, feral, and unwelcoming-looking trees. There a particular tree no older or knobbier then the rest was cloaked in an unmistakable turquoise mist: Princess Luna's magic.

Yes! I thought, relieved, and released the spell, browns, dark greens, and white creeping back into the land while the hidden magic vanished.It didn't matter though. I had already seen what I needed just as a torrent of snow began to fall, assaulting anything colorful with its white flakes. Which included me. Was it always so cold up here? Brr!

I took a deep breath and exhaled a small puff of steam as a result. "Hidden in the glen, runes of the knight; when a-glow assist those who fight."

I hope I said everything clearly.

The etchings on the tree soon became visible, glowing painfully bright, throbbing like a vein before exploding into a wave of light even brighter than before. I had to close my eyes briefly until it dimmed slightly, swirling around like a light show before hovering before me and fusing together into an orb, one that began to expand into an entity I just knew to be a magical construct. The manifestations of magic that are worked into physical forms that mimic life and can be endowed with the limited thing that is artificial intelligence and even some basic magical abilities of their own, derived from a very diminutive source of the caster's power, though not in any way particularly special or meaningful like a living creature's magic.

Its transparent coat was an indistinguishable mash-up of every shade of blue, resulting in a strange shade of medium cerulean. It took the form of a tall Alicorn-type mare with a opaque and luminous look, long thin legs, and an elegant face that made me think of Celestia. Its mane and tail were thick, turquoise, and floated about her, although they did not sparkle and the hairlike detail of them seemed to be exaggerated into almost-curls. The mane was a sort of wavy overgrown bob with a forelock that framed eerie eyes: thick lashes with silver 'whites' and blank irises, devoid of all color but the white of snow.

The feathers around her hooves and wings had a plasma-like appearance as if it were part lava lamp, and unlike a pony it had no cutie mark, nor would it be able to ever get one. Familiar runes encircled its form.

I watch as it pirouettes, exclaiming in perfect monotone, "Ta-da." The tone has fragments of some sort of eagerness - the blind, expected, and meaningless eagerness to serve, since it is unable to possess almost any form of emotion.

It stares at me. "Art thou an Awakener or The Creator?"

For a moment, my mind goes blank. "I am your Awakener, Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, Princess of Friendship, and Spark of Magic."

It cocks its head to the side. "Shall Twilight Sparkle bestow a name?"

"Errm... are you saying you want a name?" Slowly, I see a stiff nod. "Okay, well let's see... runes... and... well, you see..." Luna. Luna created this construct. "...I bestow the name of 'Runa' to you."

Runa blinks - if you can call it that, since it looks more like a camera lens - and then remarks, "Twilight Sparkle is quite terrible with names but Runa will accept this title at the moment, for there is no other."

"Ugh, I've had enough sass from everypony. You and Sombra would get along so well."

Runa 'blinks' again. "This Sombra that Twilight Sparkle has mentioned... are they a friend of Twilight Sparkle?"

I gasp. "No! No! He's-"

"Must Sombra be vanquished? Is that why Runa was summoned?"

Good luck with that. "No. Sombra is a... mercenary... that I'm working with. We need you for something else. You see there is a rather nasty ghost plaguing us, and-"

"The bumbling one known as Twilight Sparkle is weak and requires assistance?"

"Hey! What makes you say that?" I whine.

"Thine mane and tail do not ascend with the rest of Twilight Sparkle's form, yet Twilight Sparkle appears to be a full grown adult, and yet Twilight Sparkle appears to be stunted in development. Is that not so?"

She thinks I'm like Celestia and Luna… I shake my head. "Well you see-"
There is what seems like a sound of thunder in the background which reminds me why I was here in the first place.

"Nevermind that Runa! We have to get going. I'm not sure how long Sombra can hold off Starswirl."

"Very well," Runa drones before taking flight with me, and it was there that we found Starswirl v.s. Sombra in full swing.

…

Runa proved its worth rather quickly. As soon as we got there, a fortress tower made of translucent panels of cobalt light rose up from the ground. I didn't even see how it was made, but I could see who was on top of the tower even from down here as I glided amongst the treetops.

Of course it was Sombra, because he clearly needs to put himself on a higher pedestal then he already does. I'm just waiting for his foolish arrogance to get him in real trouble. And of course he needs to reinforce every element of the fortress with those äerint crystals.

It didn't take long for him to spot me. "It's about time!" he called nonchalantly, blasting a mist tendril with dark fire, because only he would think being a murderous sociopath is normal.

Runa joined in right away, flying over to its own spot as some of its runes separated from the chain encircling her and flew away, arranging themselves into a cluster that transformed into oversize phantom bastille perched that looked as if they were made of blue glass. Runa continued to make things like this: walls, buttresses, and cannons at a rapid speed without seeming to actually put anything into effect.

Maybe it was defective? I mused briefly before diving into battle, a magenta energy blast building up on my horn. I had to do something to hide the fact that I was hesitating.

Try not to think about it, I told myself. Just try.

A curl of ghost-mist flung me away and cancelled my magic as I struggled to regain my aerial balance.

Beside me I heard a fizzing noise and watched as what I thought had been a cancelled spell soared over and hit the colossal form, a quarter of which was now engulfed in flames and pesky clusters of äerint.

My spell had no effect other than sounding like a soda bubble popping, and disappointment nagged at me.

Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice spoke inside my head, its harsh draconian tone a booming yet noiseless shout that mocked my efforts, as if its owner thought themselves above all.

Who is thy hero now, Twilight Sparkle?

I gulped, torn inside. It's so obvious that I haven't tried to hide it. And if I did, it wasn't very well. Why would I need to hide how amazing such a great wizard was?

He's right, I thought. Starswirl is right. He was my hero.

...and now I'm fighting him. My eyes began to smart and it became hard to see.

Suddenly, a spell hit me and I fell, hard, hitting the oversize palm of a wicked paw of äerint stretching out from the ground.

The wind was knocked out of me, and I shivered, utterly terrified as I watched the 'claws' stretch and stretch before a shadow blotted my vision for a moment before the light was gone and I was nothing more than a winded and sobbing bird trapped in a strange and jagged cage of darkness, cut off from the sun and any way to escape.

I knew by now that I couldn't teleport out of this. The tallest spire of the Crystal Palace flashed in my mind, and how I had almost gotten the Crystal Heart.

I kept sobbing and sobbing, trying to catch my breath even though I was a nervous mess.

"My hero, my hero," I wailed. "How can I fight my hero?"

Just where am I? Part of my brain wanted to know. I tried to stand up in the darkness, fumbling around my newfound prison, more confused than ever. One of my hooves slipped on something warm. Frightened, I tried to conjure a werelight, and only to managed a small stream of sparks. It was enough to let me see what I had slipped on was blood.

Blood that was connected to a leg that bore wounds. That leg had a metal boot on it, that couldn't hide everything. In turn that was connected to an unsympathetic Sombra, crimson eyes aflame with rage and so much disgust and hate. His sword was sheathed for now.

And me? I was just a purple smudge reflected in the äerint's refection who couldn't stop crying.

The world outside us trembled.

"Well?" he snarled.

I stared at him. "W-W-What?"

"That was your actual motive to find all this? Not ambition, or fame, curiosity, or even treasure hunting? Nothing even admirably selfish, but a silly whim that any vapid child would have? You came here because Starswirl is your hero?!" He spat the last word out.

"Y-Y-Y-Yes," I stammered. What will he do this time? I want to go home again. I want to see my family and friends. I want Princess Celestia to smile at me and tell me that this isn't real. Nopony this hateful can be, nopony this hateful can win. There's light and Harmony. There's friendship... except now I'm alone.

Sombra shook his head. "You disgust me. At first I thought you might be decently intelligent, after all, you found the Crystal Heart. But no, you don't even deserve to be alive, if anypony deserved anything at all!" I closed my eyes and nodded dumbly. The tip of 'Phobos' was nowhere to be found. Thank goodness. But I still kept crying.

I deserved something. I deserved to be home and safe. My new castle was better than this. Anything was. Ponies deserve things - friends, family, kindness. Monsters like Sombra deserve punishment. He's sick and twisted - a villain, evil. At the end of all this I'll be happy in a castle telling Spike how I went on a fun trip to the Arctic and learned about a gallant and brave Starswirl...

"I want to know why." I shut my eyes harder. "Let me rephrase that, Purple Eyesore: I will know why." Phobos found the edge of my throat beneath the robe I wore, now rumpled, ripped, and filthy. I pulled my hat over my head like a little filly, as if that would help and whimpered an unintelligible prayer to any and all gods.

Then I spoke with a shaking and weak voice. "I love magic and history. Starswirl is an ancient sorcerer, and as a filly I read lots of books about him. I admired him for his spells and theories and all the magic he did even though so little was known about him, so from an early age I told myself one day I would find out so much more. I-I even u-used to have a crush on him, even if I liked mares more a-and..." I didn't sound stupid, did I? Why would any of this matter to Sombra? He has nothing.

"You realise that what you're saying is that you admired him for his magic alone, and that he was powerful and mysterious. By that disgusting and pathetic excuse for logic, I could be your 'hero'. Are you starting to understand exactly how stupid you are?"

I heard the sound of a sword being sheathed and decided to open my eyes. Sombra's spell still held.

"Are you a hero, Sombra?" It was probably a stupid question, but maybe he thought he was some kind of twisted victor in all this. I would find a way. I had to. I would. He won't win. But part of me is a little curious to who he thinks is the hero in all this, if Starswirl isn't.

He stared at me as cold as the icy land we were trapped in. "Even if heroes were real, I would never be one. I wouldn't submit to anything - especially not the almost perverse notion that something as stupid as a 'hero' or a 'villain' could exist. Gods clearly do - you and I have met them, and their existence was proven ages and ages before I took my first steps. Mere mortals like yourself exist only because you never let yourself be anything else.Good and evil? Sure, maybe they're here, but not how you would expect them to be, but I'm not Celestia, here to preach to ponies and wipe away individuals. I'm not going to be stuffing your head full of definite things because you're incapable of doing so, but I will tell the truth. We have work to do, and guess what? It's all your fault."

All he does is lie, saying awful things about me, Celestia, and ponies to get me down. It shouldn't work. I don't want it to work. It isn't working. This isn't my fault. I'm just scared. Sombra is delusional and crazy - he's just shown that he doesn't have the vaguest clue to how the world works. There are heroes, and I'm one of them. I looked down, no longer in tears. "Why didn't our magic do anything to him?"

The left side of his mouth quirked up into a smirk. "It's funny how almost everypony thinks you're the smart one when in the end, the beginning, and the middle it remains true that I have all the answers."

It was quiet for a moment. I coughed slightly and he looked back down at me. "Oh... that's right. Unfortunately you still exist. For a moment I had almost forgotten." I blinked. "What a lovely moment it was. Oh well, it looks like we still have an undead almost-entirely-magic-resistant wizard to destroy. I wonder whose fault that is? Yours."

I began to play with my hat, tossing it from hoof to hoof.

Sombra snatched it away from me. "I have an idea on how to kill him - once and for all, that is - but I'm going to need some of the papers in here."

"Which ones?" I asked as he started dumping papers everywhere. "I have-"

"The ones called 'Harmony Essence Theory'. Utterly incomplete and almost as useless to him as you are alive. But thankfully, for reasons that will remain unknown to you - courtesy of me - they are a true masterpiece."

When he found what he wanted, he read at lightening speed, somehow taking it all in before shoving it in his saddlebags. Everything else he had dumped out went back into my hat.

I sat in silence as he explained the plan to me.

…

Eventually the crystals peeled away like a flower in sunlight, having held out much longer than I’d initially believed. I tipped the brim of my hat back somewhat, which was now back upon my head, and surveyed the 'playing field' as Sombra had called it.

I felt abnormally calm in such a scenario, but was unable to explain why as I made note of the vast woods now mostly demolished from the ghost. But Runa... Runa was gone, its creations shattered like bits of blue glass spread here and there, which based on their juxtaposition and other details-

I winced and rubbed my temple slightly at a small, sudden headache, a pebble which created ripples that quickly vanished. But where did the that thought come from? I don't think-

Gasping suddenly, I jumped to attention like a soldier, hungrily gluing my gaze to the fragments of the valley before me.

WAIT! Something is wrong! A voice in back of my head screamed. All this is wrong! STOP! Don't you-

"Get going already," a voice grumbled behind me. I turned to meet it, no longer bothered by the irksome voice in my head.

Sombra stood on the open 'bed' of äerint crystals, his gaze searching for something behind me as wisps of purple smoke retreated into his eyes while the left side of his mouth was pulled up in a malicious grin that just seemed so-

SUSPICIOUS! Twilight Sparkle, don't you see that he is acting-

The voice kept pleading desperately, but once more was cut off by somepony speaking.

"You have a job to do," Sombra muttered, the smile I had seen before now gone, never once directed at me.

I turned away, and spread my wings. Without even a nod, I was airborne in less than a minute, flying towards my target feeling rather-

Well, truth be told, I didn't feel too much at all.

Comments

[nebulaegalaxy]

"It's funny how almost everypony thinks you're the smart one when in the end, the beginning, and the middle it remains true that I have all the answers."
Sombra is both Sherlock Holmes...and God...?

Seems about right xD

[CoffeeBean]

Runa? That's the best name for her you could think of? Speaking of Runa, I hope she's okay...

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Well, this is a fine mess. Nice fight scene.

[Ice Star]

10275227
Thank you! I really take pride in the ability to show a good ol' magic battle!

[GeneralSarcasm]

You have a knack for making twilight quite insufferable in this story.

[Bicyclette]

The manifestations of magic that are worked into physical forms that mimic life and can be endowed with the limited thing that is artificial intelligence and even some basic magical abilities of their own, derived from a very diminutive source of the caster's power, though not in any way particularly special or meaningful like a living creature's magic.

aww the construct thing from earlier! also so true as an explanation for some of the things we’ve seen in canon

"Errm... are you saying you want a name?" Slowly, I see a stiff nod. "Okay, well let's see... runes... and... well, you see..." Luna. Luna created this construct. "...I bestow the name of 'Runa' to you."

i love how you use the literary technique of “show, not tell” to communicate to the reader how utterly dogshit Twilight is at coming up with nicknames

"The bumbling one known as Twilight Sparkle is weak and requires assistance?"

"Hey! What makes you say that?" I whine.

dang it is just not Twilight’s day today

It didn't take long for him to spot me. "It's about time!" he called nonchalantly, blasting a mist tendril with dark fire, because only he would think being a murderous sociopath is normal.

well it did seem to have been normalized to him growing up so that makes sense

He's right, I thought. Starswirl is right. He was my hero.

...and now I'm fighting him. My eyes began to smart and it became hard to see.

oof, really not Twilight’s day!

And me? I was just a purple smudge reflected in the äerint's refection who couldn't stop crying.

aww! just want to hug this sheltered and spoiled alicorn

He stared at me as cold as the icy land we were trapped in. "Even if heroes were real, I would never be one. I wouldn't submit to anything - especially not the almost perverse notion that something as stupid as a 'hero' or a 'villain' could exist. Gods clearly do - you and I have met them, and their existence was proven ages and ages before I took my first steps. Mere mortals like yourself exist only because you never let yourself be anything else.Good and evil? Sure, maybe they're here, but not how you would expect them to be, but I'm not Celestia, here to preach to ponies and wipe away individuals. I'm not going to be stuffing your head full of definite things because you're incapable of doing so, but I will tell the truth. We have work to do, and guess what? It's all your fault."

ooh love this speech! Twilight really is the ultimate product of Celestia, and there could not be a pony Sombra would see as more undeserving of power. 

I began to play with my hat, tossing it from hoof to hoof.

aww! what a thing to do while Sombra is scenery-chewing. love Twilight so much

WAIT! Something is wrong! A voice in back of my head screamed. All this is wrong! STOP! Don't you-

"Get going already," a voice grumbled behind me. I turned to meet it, no longer bothered by the irksome voice in my head.

oh, well that’s new!