Through the flames of Tartarus

by aKaPinkiePie

Chapter 1: Plans and explanations

Chapter 1

“Oh, no” The dark grey unicorn known as Aryn was looking at the sky. He was a traveling entertainer and musician in Equestria. What his audience never knew (and never discovered, if he was lucky), however, was that he was a skilled thief; a talent only used when needed. He was also quite skilled with a sword. His mane was black and brown, a decent length. Somehow, despite he was a skilled entertainer, a good thief and a fine warrior, he was still fairly young, and did not as of yet have his cutie mark.

Aryn galloped as fast as he could towards the castle. It was a short run from his little stage, where he had been conducting a show in a nearby garden in Canterlot, to the main gates. Once there, he was stopped by the guards.

“The castle is off limits at the moment!” One of the guards said coldly.

Aryn contemplated him. In a calm voice, he said, “As the night falls apart, and the stars glow brighter than the moon, the world’s veins will cut themselves, and Equestria will be no more.”

Normally, this sentence would have earned any pony a direct trip to a mental hospital. However, all the night guards knew the code, and the unicorn was let in.

The guards bowed and parted. “Apologies, sir, there has been an murder in the castle. The security has been doubled, accordingly.”

“I can understand that.” With that Aryn galloped towards the castle once more. He rushed into the main hall only to see a crying Celestia, and six mares he did not recognize. His best guess was that they were friends of Celestia. They all seemed shocked, and no pony spoke. He snuck in behind them, and made his way towards the Queen of the Night’s room. His presence was quickly discovered when a gasp escaped his mouth as he came upon the corpse.

“And just who are you?” A white unicorn with a purple mane spoke. Aryn was still in shock, and it took him a couple of seconds to answer.

“I’m Aryn,” he answered. “I’m here to bring a message to Princess Celestia from Luna.” At this, the Princess of the Sun winced.

“Luna can be saved, though it’ll be difficult, and the journey will be long.”

“How?!!!!”

Everypony took a step back from Celestia’s sudden, loud outburst. She glanced at the stunned faces, and then straightened herself up and spoke with the calm voice her subjects were used to.
“I’m sorry. This has been a very difficult time for me, as I’m sure you can imagine.”

Aryn had already moved on. “I will explain more tomorrow. For now you, must get some sleep. We will have to rise fairly early tomorrow, if we want to reach the first checkpoint on our journey.”

Celestia looked suspicious. “How do I know you’re not lying?”

“Luna told me you would probably be skeptical. Here’s my proof that I was sent from her: Luna’s first crush was Merlin Stars Swirl the bearded.”

Celestia was shocked. Luna had never told anypony but her about her first crush.

She kept her voice calm and controlled.“I suppose I’ll have to take your word, then. However, I insist that the first thing we do is bury her body.” Celestia turned towards the bed and stopped, now visibly shaken. In the bed was the murder weapon, but that was all that remained. The body of the Princess of the Night was missing. The Princess of the Sun had, actually, never seen the death of an Alicorn, so she was just as surprised as the others.

No pony could sleep well that night. Aryn sat in Celestia’s work room going over the plan. A numbered map sat in front of him. A few items were needed, given by a list on the side of the map.

1. The Elements of Harmony. The only item which that was not given a location.

2. Scales of a full grown dragon. That doesn’t sound good.

3. Ashes of a phoenix. Sounds simple enough?

4. The blood of an Alicorn. Celestia is not going to be happy about that one.

5. The sphere of a thousand flames. This was marked with the number five on the map. Never heard of that one. Guess we’ll just have to see.

The map covered all of Equestria. He noticed that number five was on top of a mountain north of Clopenhagen. In addition, he saw something that looked like a portal deep inside a huge forest.

From behind him, a voice. “You couldn’t sleep either?”

Aryn was caught off guard and jumped in surprise. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!” He turned around and saw the lavender unicorn from earlier.

“Not a problem. I was just startled.” He gestured at the map. “Just looking over things for tomorrow.” He looked curiously at the other unicorn. “I never got your name, by the way.”

“Twilight Sparkle. And I believe you mentioned your name earlier? Something with ‘a’, right?”

“Aryn, yes. How do you know the Princess? Why were you here tonight?” The dark grey unicorn was curious about what kind of companions he would have on this quest. Celestia had already informed him that the six mares that had been in the throne room would be accompanying them.

The unicorn smiled with pride. “I’m her personal protege. I’m also the element of magic.”

Aryn was confused. “‘Element of magic’? What do you mean by that?”

Twilight looked at him like he had just claimed the world was round, or that it circled around the sun instead of the opposite. Everypony who had passed kindergarten knew that.

“One of the six Elements of Harmony... You do know what those are, I hope?” She asked with just a tiny bit of cockiness in her voice.

“If my answer was no, would that be such a bad thing?” Aryn asked, testing Twilights patience.

Her resulting expression caused him to realize that she was in great confusion at this, and he had to suppress his laughter.

“If you don’t even know what the Elements of Harmony are, why would Luna give YOU this responsibility? You must have been living under a rock for the last ten years!” Twilight looked like she was about to explode. Looking at her, Aryn couldn’t hold it anymore, and laughed so hard he fell on his back rolling around. The unicorn stared at him in disbelief. After a short while, he got to his hooves and glanced at her.

“Sorry. No, I have not been living under a rock for the last ten years. I’m a traveling entertainer. The reason Luna chose me is a tad hard to explain on its own. It would be easier just to tell the whole story.” Twilight seemed to have calmed down, and now looked curious. Aryn glanced at her. “I’ll take the silence as a ‘yes’.”

“I was on my way to a small town called Ponyville, when I got lost in a large forest I think the locals called it the Everfree. When I entered, I had no idea about how dangerous it was, and I was quickly lost. I think I had been walking in circles for over an hour when I heard a loud roar. It was too dark to see anything, so I used the basic spell for illumination. When I turned around, I found a manticore preparing to leap at me. I barely managed to dodge its surprise attack by jumping to the left. I pulled out my sword with my magic, and prepared myself for another strike. The manticore turned to me again, angered at its failed first attack. It stared balefully into my eyes, and I feared for my life. It made to jump at me again, and I began to dodge, but instead of leaping straight at me, it flapped his wings and flew above me. I was left stunned for a second by the maneuver, and he whipped his tail straight into my side. I screamed out in pain before blacking out from the wound.”

The next thing I remember is waking up on an improvised bed in some kind of ruins. I tried to move, but the pain was far too great.

I heard a voice. ‘Don’t move. You’re badly injured. The manticore struck you pretty hard, and you were quite lucky that I was nearby to save you.’

‘My name is Luna. What are you called?’

It took a moment to process all she had said. ‘Princess Luna? I’m injured, in the middle of a forest, being tended to by the one and only Princess of the Night? I must be dead.’

I saw a small frown on her face before she burst into laughter. ‘I must confess, I certainly did not expect that.’ Luna laughed, and explained that she had been flying nearby when she had heard the attack. We discussed various topics the rest of the night while her magic strengthened me, and the next day, I was strong enough for her to fly me to a hospital in Ponyville.

I was there for a whole month. Luna visited me regularly, and I told her about my life in exchange for her telling me some stories of her own. She confessed to me that she often tired of the formality of being a ruler, and wanted to hear the stories of somepony with a more exciting life.

When I was finally released, she told me a secret, in exchange for a promise to not share with anypony. She knew she would be killed within the next 20 years. She had no idea when, why, or how, but she had foreseen her own death in a vision. I asked her how she had done that. The fact that she was the goddess of dreams and prophecy helped explain. She also told me that she had done some research on the death of an Alicorn.

If killed through violence, an Alicorn goes to Tartarus. However, since Alicorns are immortal, they can’t truly die. Therefore, they can be recovered. The only way to bring them back is for a pony or group of ponies to gather a few particular items, and go to tartarus themselves.

After I had accepted all this, she gave me this map and some notes, and told me if there ever was a night without the stars or the moon, and I had not heard from her, I would have to get to Canterlot as quickly as possible, and share what I knew with Celestia. She gave me a secret password to gain access to the castle before departing. I received a few messages over the years, but that was the last time I saw her. Until tonight.”

Twilight had become completely lost in the story. When Aryn had finished, she snapped out of her daze and opened her mouth. Nothing came out. After a couple of seconds, she was able to speak again.

“Oh. Good night, then.” Twilight answered with her own yawn, and returned to her room.

Aryn trotted over to the guest chamber he had been allowed, and drifted off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Authors note:
~~

Chapter one’s here. Introducing Aryn 240’s OC who is gonna have a huge role in the fic! Please check out his stories; he’s awesome!

Also, feedback is appreciated! I have no idea if i’m rushing the story too much, or using too little details, or whatever. If you have a comment, let me know! :D

Comments

[aKaPinkiePie]

787304

I know right, she's like my second favorite pony and she's dead in my story

Thanks for the feedback!

[Red Tear (Subtle R)]

787313 God dammit man, your the third person today that I've seen that's written a fic who's premises is similar to my own!

......which obviously means you'll get a like and favorite from me.

YAY FOR BEING NARCISSISTIC!

[aKaPinkiePie]

787353

Long live Narcisism!

[Red Tear (Subtle R)]

787363 Damn right, /b/rother

/)

[aKaPinkiePie]

787373 Keyboard won't allow me to do a reverse /) So sry m8