Chapter 25: The Discoveries Never End (part 2)
Chapter 25: The Discoveries Never End (part 2)
Edited by: Chrome Masquerade
Proofread by:Darkwhip
I awoke with a gasp as I shot up from the ground. I cringed afterward, as my body quickly began to protest from my sudden and unexpected awakening. My head promptly fell back onto the ground with an audible thud and a rush of discomfort.
I groaned as I simply laid there with my eyes shut as memories of my fall and re-encounter with Silver resurfaced within me.
“Ugh… once again. I found myself falling into an earthly crevasse, hitting the ground hard, before waking up feeling like a fallen tree. Just like the first time.” I muttered out loud as I slowly opened my eyes again after I recovered.
I looked up past the lines of shadows, into the light of the night sky above me, tilting my head a bit to the side as I quickly noticed something.
“Huh… the gorge wasn’t as deep or endless looking as I thought it would be.” I mused to myself aloud.
The moon was obviously not visible from this angle of the gorge, which again obviously meant that no light could possibly come through all the way down here, thus creating this illusion of a bottomless pit when in reality it wasn’t really that deep to begin with.
In the day it would most likely be way more obvious.
With that realization in mind I slowly started to push myself back up to all fours, with a bit of a grunt after I decided that my body felt good enough to do so despite the pain and stiffness.
I stood up straight. A bit wobbly, but still stable enough to not fall back on my knees, beside the pain I felt on my back.
“Man… again, if I was still a human I would definitely have AT THE VERY LEAST a completely broken back at this point… and be paralyzed for life because of that.” I muttered to myself as I slowly started to look around myself.
“How durable am I really, as an Alicorn?” I thought to myself before giving a frown as I realized that everything, besides what was above me, was covered in nothing but darkness. Making my efforts to look around pretty much useless as far as I can tell as I looked back up with a sigh.
“Once again… if only I could fly…” I muttered sadly to myself as I lowered my head.
I yelped in surprise and fell back down onto my rump when a bright flash suddenly appeared in front of me. I rapidly blinked my eyes to try and get both of the fogginess and stinging pain out of my retinas before I realized that it was my horn once more as my vision eventually cleared up.
I glared up at it. “Well, fuck you too horn. Thanks for being nothing but a nuisance to me ever since I woke up in this world.” I grumble as I slowly picked myself back up on all fours before, once again having a look around.
“But… well… also thanks for giving me some light when I really need it as well.” I muttered, as indeed, the ground area of the gorge around me was now much more visible thanks to the built-in flashlight that is resting on my forehead.
With that in mind, I immediately managed to find a cave right in front of me. I peeked my head through the rocky opening simply out of curiosity and discovered a set of roughly cut stairs further into it that seemed to be leading up to something.
“Wonder where this would lead me? Most definitely up and probably in front or even directly into the castle ruins that I have seen earlier.” I thought to myself as a quick decision was made.
Again, I am very well conscious with the fact that I was deep within an otherwise dangerous forest despite the fact that I somehow managed to get THIS FAR without any interruptions. I was not going to challenge my streak of stupid luck any further by staying out here in the open. Who knows what could be in this gorge with me? I was honestly in no mood, or form to find out.
With that conclusion set deep within my mind I slowly began to take my first few tentative steps up the ancient looking stairs and up into the dark unknown above me.
Good thing that I didn’t notice the set of blue glowing eyes that were watching me from behind some rocks on the other side from where I landed, otherwise I might have actually sped up my climbing process…and probably tripped and fallen back down as a result.
Both my nerves and aching back really didn’t need that
Mostly my nerves.
………………………………………………………………………………………
“No… no… Nava… quick… look out… NAVA!!!”
I shot up from bed, breathing heavily and covered in my own sweat as I momentarily panicked.
“What… what the buck was that? I… I dreamed that… I don’t know.” I muttered to myself as my breathing was slowly started to regulate itself back to normal, same with my racing heart.
I don’t know what the details of that… that nightmare where but I could tell that it had something to do with Nava. The timid, awkward pussy of a stallion I have personally come to enjoy hanging around with. And that dream was showing me that something was wrong. Very wrong. In fact, I could somehow feel that something felt very wrong with the air itself around me.
Again, I couldn’t really place a hoof on how, why, where and when, but I just had this aching feeling in my head that Nava was going to be in serious trouble for some reason.
A thought and concept that was once again re-starting my irregular breathing and my previously racing heart.
“I… I need to go. I… I just don’t know why, how or where, but I just need to go…Something bad is going to happened to Nava I just know it.” I somehow came to that realization as I quickly hopped off from my bed and started towards my closet to grab my saddle-bags.
I paused after I strapped them on as a thought suddenly occurred to me. “Should I go wake Flitter up and tell her what I dreamed and somehow sensed?” I questioned to myself out loud as my gaze slowly went to the door.
I sighed before lowering my head sadly. “No… I probably shouldn’t. She won’t believe me. She never does. And for good reasons too.” I thought to myself as my ears drooped as well.
“Plus, she will be pissed afterward, and just accusing me of just playing one of my pranks again and telling me how immature I always am… No… I… I have to do this alone.” I continued my train of thought before I picked myself up, and quickly began stashing everything I would need for my late night journey ahead.
“At the very least, i should leave a note so she knows where i am.” I thought, starting to write one, quill clutched in one wing.
“Sorry Flitter…for having to abruptly leave like this and being irresponsible yet again, which will probably cause you even more problems for me to pile on. But I just know that something bad is going to be happening pretty soon, and I would be damned, if I didn’t go out and somehow help Nava when I had the chance to... Just let me be truly responsible for once and be like the adult that everypony wants me to be.”
With those final thoughts out of my mind and onto the paper, left in an obvious place, I immediately opened the door to my room and quietly made my way over to the front door.
With a final nod of determination, I opened it before stepping out and gently closing it behind me and quickly taking off into the skies.
My obvious direction, Ponyville.
“To be responsible just this once, for the first time.”
………………………………………………………………………………………
“For the love of… how far do theses lopsided stairs even go? Or am I just too slow in climbing them?” I murmured to myself with a nervous chuckle in the end.
Despite the bright light given by my horn, it still wasn’t enough to fully dispel both the darkness around me, and the paranoia in my mind. I could have sworn that I have seen some movement in those shadows behind me and the echoing sounds of my clopping hooves are not helping.
“Argh, focus! Nothing is here with you, you big baby. Come on. I have lethal magic on my side… unresponsive, random and trollish magic on my side but it’s the thought that counts. And Silver. So stop being a pussy and be man for once. Or stallion, in my case.” I mutter to myself to try and get some bravery into my, otherwise timid, mind.
I shook my head, before morphing my expression into a more determined one, as I continued my ascent up into the unknown. My shining horn continued to make the darkness surrounding me dance to the light. I was sure now that, that was where my paranoia came from, so I did my best to ignore them for now.
My patience was soon rewarded as I quickly found myself in a large open -and much better illuminated- space.
“Thank god for those collapsed ceilings, which makes the rest of my journey less eerie looking… somewhat.” I mumbled to myself as I stared up at the perfectly visible moon high above before altering my gaze back down to the room I found myself in.
It is none other than the central main greeting hall -that has been featured many times in art, writing, and in the second episode in season 1 once- or so I call it, because I have no idea what a room like this was really called in a castle in the first place.
Everything in here just looks as ancient and rotten as I imagined it to be. Massive cracks in the walls, fallen debris everywhere, places of Nature slowly reclaiming its territory could be seen through the long glassless windows and even on the ceiling, and there were even a few dusty and badly tattered looking banners hanging here and there.
Overall this place looks ancient and long forgotten.
“So that is where I came out of.” I wondered mentally to myself as I looked back at the door-sized opening in the wall I came out of, having come from the completely opposite side, under the set of stairs and facing the large main entrance at the front.
“Hey… who the heck are you?” A loud voice suddenly echoed all across the hall which caused me to immediate to yelp in jump up into the air in surprise and shock.
I immediately turned myself around and began to search for the source of the voice, getting more and more nervous with every passing second I was unable to see anything around me, despite both my horn and the moon above perfectly illuminating this large hall. My previous built up courage slowly slipped away from my grasp, when all of a sudden I managed to spot a pair of glowing blue orbs from a dark corner right next to the main entrance. The light coming from my horn unable to shine that far ahead, so I was unable to see to who those eyes really belonged to.
The two blue orbs suddenly began to move forward, revealing themselves to be nothing but a set of eyes belonging to a creature that quickly replaced my fear with both surprise and curiosity.
“Whatever you are looking for here, I was here first, buster.” The newcomer announced loudly as she (judging by her voice) was slowly approaching me.
I scratched my head a bit as a black, insectoid looking equine stopped right below me at the foot of the stairs, completely illuminated and exposed thanks to the combination of light coming from both the full moon above and the beam of light coming from my horn. She was looking up at me with a glare while I simply stared back.
Any brony worth their moon pies would know what this creature was.
“A Changeling? What the… what is a changeling just randomly doing here in the castle ruins?” I thought out loud an action which immediately caused the changeling in question to pause her staring contest.
“Cha-changeling? What… what are you talking about? Wha-what is a changeling?” The obvious and now suddenly nervous-looking changeling replied as she took a step back.
“You, obviously.” I casually answered while pointing my hoof at her, an action which, again, caused her to back up even more.
“Wha-what are you talking about? I am not a changeling a am just a simple…” She tried to cover up until she looked down at her own hooves before a look of shock and utter horror suddenly flashed by her features.
“What the? I… I thought that… that I was d-disguised for sure. How… how the heck did I completely overlook this?” She began to panic before her gaze immediately went back up to me, her previous determination and seriousness from earlier completely gone as sweat slowly started to form on her forehead. Visible thanks to the reflecting light coming from above.
“Huh… changelings actually can sweat, apparently.”
I was about to say something when the changeling mare in question suddenly began to floor it in the opposite direction, running away from me as if I was something that eats changelings for dinner.
“No, wait! Look out for that-” I tried to call out but found myself a bit too late on that as she managed to collide headfirst into one of the collapsed support columns, causing her to bounce back and fall down onto her back with a very painful sounding thud which caused me to cringe.
“Ohhhhhh….” She moaned while simply lying there flat onto the ground, her pupils going in circles. A pretty perfect looking imprint of her forehead was perfectly visible on the column. Again, looking rather painful.
Once AGAIN, my own curiosity took control over me as I slowly went down the couple of steps and carefully inched myself closer to the still downed Changeling mare lying on the floor.
This had the added bonus of me being much closer, stopping just a few centimeters away from her, which also meant that I had a much better view of her overall features too, as she was perfectly illuminated by the light casting down on her by my horn.
I can only best described her as your typical changeling in terms of color, the holes on her legs and her featureless blue glowing eyes, as from the show. But that was where the similarities quickly ended.
What immediately took me a bit by surprise was the fact that this changeling -despite being a changeling in the first place- was actually more pony-like than the ones I knew of. A nice rounded head (though bald) with a small mare-like muzzle with tiny sharp fangs protruding out of them, a normal unicorn sized curved horn on her forehead with pretty similar changeling ears, with earrings on them no less as well. Her tail, instead of being a dull gray, was actually a nice contrast of a dirty yellow, same with her back which actually worked well with her mostly dark gray colored body. The other very distinct feature I saw that again screamed ‘more pony like’ was her surprisingly strong and rounded-looking flank and her bits in betwee-
I immediately looked away from that, moving my hat to cover my face as I blushed profusely from the unintentional (or intentional, I don’t know) stare to her private parts.
“Yup, she is definitely a MARE. And I think I even saw some tits down there as well, despite most of her body being chitin- STOP IT MIND! STOP IT.”
I quickly shook my head to get my suddenly perverted mind under control before I realized that I was still standing right in front of an injured and dazed looking mare, and that I wasn’t helping. In fact, I could also see that her forehead was slightly cracked and bleeding as well from where she made contact.
“Hey, do you need help?” I asked with genuine concern as the changeling in question was still moaning in pain somewhat while still not moving, which only added to my concern for her.
That question alone -and act of actually caring- was what all she needed as I could watch, in real time, -and somewhat in awe- how her wound slowly closed itself before fully disappearing from sight entirely.
“Guess it’s true that Changelings feed on positive emotions.”
The changeling below me slowly opened her eyes again before carefully sitting up with the support of her forearms and with a bit of a grunt.
She began to rub her head with one of her hooves after she was fully upright on the ground. “Ugh… note to self, next time keep your gaze forward while running.” She muttered to herself, seemingly unaware that I was even standing behind her as she continued to groan and rub her forehead.
“Uh… and… probably also making sure that nothing is in the way as well.” I awkwardly added, mostly to get her attention, which seemed to do the trick as she suddenly froze up.
She slowly turned her head towards me before a high-pitched yelp escaped her fanged muzzle as she quickly began crawling backwards away from me, only stopping by hitting her back on the collapsed ceiling support behind her.
I simply raised my eyebrow at her action. “Strange. Shouldn’t I be the one being afraid of her and not the other way around?” I mentally questioned myself, somewhat miffed by this strange and unexpected turn of events.
“Please… don’t… don’t attack me just because I happened to look the way that I am now… I didn’t want any serious trouble… honest!” The changeling suddenly pleaded which surprised me even more.
I quickly shook my head from my surprised state, before quickly deciding to defuse this situation. “What? No! Emphatically no! I am not going to hurt or do anything to you.” I swiftly assured her, which seemed to subtly ease her fears a bit before she looked confused instead.
“Wait, what? Seriously? You… you are not bothered by what I am or what I look like?” She question in full disbelief as she realized my ‘non-hostile’ intentions.
I shook my head while trying to give her a reassuring smile to help her calm her tension and disbelief. “Well… no. I mean, why should I?” I replied truthfully. “In fact, I guess I even helped you to heal up your injuries as well, if the lack of a cracked forehead is anything to go by.” I quickly added to help ease the situation even further.
“Healed… me?” She question before slowly moving a hoof toward her forehead to tenderly feel the area under her horn where she hit her head just a few moment ago.
A look of both shock and -once again- disbelief was perfectly visible on her features as she realized that her head was healed before slowly retreating her hoof and looking up at me with her big shining eyes.
“But… but how? Why? I… I thought that… that ponies fear or even downright feel revolted by my kind. Why… why would you show me such kindness?” She asked, which was more of a whisper to be honest.
I simply shrugged. “Don’t know. But then, at the same time, why should I be scared of or hostile toward you when you yourself didn’t… well, except for the sacred part that is.” I casually answered her, with an awkward smile at the end.
To be honest, I really didn’t know why I was so concerned and overall, NOT afraid of her in the first place. Maybe it’s the fact that despite being a changeling, she looked much more pony-like than I had originally anticipated? Something more similar to the depiction of a certain artist named Vavacung than to the show?
I really don’t know, to be honest, and also don’t really much care either. She was no threat at all so far, so I won’t be one either… not that I can be, to be honest.
“…thank you.” She suddenly muttered out, which immediately pulled me out of my thought process as I looked at her.
“Uh… you mean me showing kindness?” I asked, focusing back on her upside down face from my angle.
She tucked her front legs in front of her, similar to a dog laying on its back, and nodded. “Well, yes… for showing me concern rather than fear or disgust. Receiving such positive emotions from ponies or even other species is rather rare for a changeling.” She explained to me as she looked off to the side, saddened.
“I see… well, it was my pleasure then, I guess.” I awkwardly answered while rubbing the back of my neck.
“Oh yeah. Wait, do you also need help to get back up?” I question, in which she shook her head.
“No… it’s… it's fine, I can get up on my own… thanks to your offer of positive emotions.” She replied as she carefully rolled herself back onto her belly before slowly pushing herself up to all fours again.
I watched her dust herself off a bit afterwards, buzzing her wings and rubbing her forehead to -presumably- check if it really was perfectly healed or not. She then quickly looked back at me while giving me a first genuine smile since we awkwardly ran into each other.
I have to say, I really like this version of a changeling better than the ones I know are canon. Her blue, shimmering, shining eyes even looking rather mysterious and somewhat beautiful instead of creepy, like how I originally thought they would be.
“Shimmer.”
“Uh.. what?”
“Shimmer is my name.” She repeated herself while looking shyly to the side and pawing the ground under her with her right hoof.
“May I ask what yours is?” She quickly added, still looking rather uncomfortable, which I can somewhat understand. She was mostly feared -or probably even hunted- simply for her looks.
I scratched my head before giving her a friendly smile. “My name is Nava, just Nava.” I introduced myself, to which both her head and ears immediately perked up.
“Nava? Doesn’t sound much like a pony name at all… sounds actually…more changeling-like, if you ask me.” She commented while tilting her head questioningly at me.
That immediately took me by surprise, as I raised one of my eyebrows at her. ”More like a changeling name? How… how come?” I queried, scratching under my hat afterwards.
Her head straightened. “Well…” She began. Did I also mention that her voice sounded rather normal and not distorted like Queen Chrysalis’? “The reason why I say that is because, unlike names coming from other races, changeling names tend to be more unique and not based on two separate words or names of things you can find in any basic Equestrian dictionary.” She continued to explain before her eyes went wide as she blushed a bit awkwardly while smiling.
“We-well just for your information, why I am named Shimmer is because my parents spent a lot of time as infiltrators and spies in pony lands, long before I was born, which eventually lead to giving me a pony-like name when I first hatched out of my egg.” She quickly added, which again caused me to raise an eyebrow.
“Well… ok, but...” I began. “Why are you telling me all of this? I mean…we just met and all, and prior to this you said that anybody else outside your own kind wasn’t really friendly to you at all. So... why tell me all of this?” I questioned casually, which in turn made Shimmer sigh.
“To be honest… I don’t know. But…but I guess I just have this feeling that I can trust you somehow. Other ponies often inspire fear or caution, and while you did too, at first... just call it a hunch, is all. Plus you are the first pony I ever met in my true from that didn’t freak out first. So that probably helps too.” She explained while giving me another smile at the end.
I simply gave her a nod. I am not really sure what she meant by that… well, more or less vague explanation of hers, but I guess I can feel happy about the fact that I somehow made even a changeling open up to me. How? Why? I don’t know, either it just has something to do with my whole being an alicorn thing again, or it might actually be true that even showing just a little kindness and understanding can go a long way indeed.
Possibly both.
Guess I have to give Fluttershy some credit on that one… or maybe not because I am certain that she ISN’T the first one ever to come up with this. Well, at the same time, to be honest, such a philosophy is actually kind of obvious when you give it more thought, though.
“Well anyway, I guess it was nice… meeting you, then. But, I kind of have to go now, before my horn once again starts to DRAG me to wherever I have been following it to the entire time. So again, it was nice, but I need to travel deeper into the ruins, if my senses are telling me the truth, here.” I finally announced, which quickly caused Shimmer to drop her smile unfortunately.
I turn myself around to face the stairs again from where I came from under them. I was halfway back from where I popped out before a call from Shimmer stopped me in my tracks. I turned myself to look over my shoulder to see her galloping after me. Or I think she did, I am not sure if Changelings considered that running or also galloping, like equines.
“Wait! Where… where are you going anyway? More importantly, why are you here? Are you here for the same reason why I am?” She questioned before she stopped right behind me, which forced me to turn around to face her again.
“Well… that depends, I guess, but…” I started while briefly looking at my still illuminated horn and quickly back to her. “Why are YOU here to begin with, anyway? Is there maybe a hive somewhere near the Everfree or are you perhaps lost? Something like that?” I asked her back, which made her look of to the side again while rubbing her right foreleg with her left.
“No… there is no Hive city nearby, I am actually quite a long way from home, and to answer your other question I am here because of a strange magical source I sensed when flying around this part of the forest. I was just curious and flew my way over here to check it out. Changelings have a very keen sense of detecting strange sources of magic… especially me, which is why I am so far away from home to begin with.” Shimmer slowly explained to me. Again, giving me some extra information that I didn’t ask for in the first place, but I guess she just really feels fond of me for being the very first pony to not stone her or something like that.
“Wonder how she will feel about me when she learns that there’s also a pair of wings hidden underneath the jacket I have been wearing since leaving the comfort of the Apple family's guest bed? But I am just getting ahead of myself now.”
I shook my head a bit, ignoring some of these thoughts and details as an idea popped into mind. Sure, I might have just met her like a few minutes ago or something, but she does seem trusting and it really wouldn’t hurt to have another soul with me while looking for whatever I have been following this entire time. Plus it also looks like the two of us seem to be searching for the same thing anyway, so we might as well travel together if that is the case.
“Hey, do you maybe like the idea of the two of us sticking together, since it seems that both of us seem to be looking for the exact same thing? And yes, that obviously means that the reason why I am here is because I was tracing down a strange magical source myself, as well.” I offered and explained, to which she immediately beamed at the concept of, which in all honesty caused me to flinch back a small bit, especially seeing her full display of razor sharp teeth within her mouth.
“Wait… you… you are really ok with me tagging along with you?” She asked, with a huge amount of hope within her tone and smile to which I simply nodded.
“YES! YES! YESYESYESYES!!! Uh, I mean… thanks. You have no idea how long I have been on my own this entire time. Its… it’s actually nice to have some company again, for once.” She announced with a sheepish tone and smile at the end. Makes you wonder what happened to the previous tough sounding changeling at the beginning, when she thought that she was actually in disguise.
I casually smiled at her before feeling the familiar pull of whatever I have been following this entire time, prompting her to walk right next to me as I made my way up the stairs.
She did so without further encouragement as the two of us soon continued to make our way deeper into these long abandoned ruins with my horn continuously illuminating the path in front of us.
The two of us entered into another long hall after having passed by several doors and pathways obviously leading into other places within the castle.
“So, uh… how… how did you managed to get this far into the Everfree in the middle of the night in the first place? Most other ponies seen trying to enter these woods tend to not make it very far to begin with, let alone reach these castle ruins unless flying.” She asked while giving me a sideways glance while buzzing her wings a little bit.
I simply shrugged as we passed by another collapsed ceiling and trot around a large fissure going through half the floor and passed a wall. “I just casually walked through it completely uninterrupted, to be honest.” I told her truthfully, to which she looked at me wide eyed.
“Wait… seriously? On your hooves, and on your own at this time of the hour, and through the Everfree?” She questioned in disbelief, to which I simply nodded.
“What? How? I had to flee and hide from both a cockatrice and a pack of timberwolves before getting here. Flying for most of my journey, for obvious reasons. And you simply trot all the way here complete unbothered?” She continued on, to which I nod again before looking at her.
“I have been having some of the dumbest lucky streaks in a row lately, so don’t ask me how I managed to get this far without any trouble, it just happened. Well… unless you count me falling from a bridge earlier” I casually explained while muttering that last sentence to myself as I turned my head away.
“Pfft… you ponies sometimes get the best luck.” She muttered to herself as the two of us simply continued the rest of our journey in relative silence, with the only sounds coming from outside, ranging from occasional bats, owls and distant howls.
“Getting a real Castlevania vibe here. Now all I need is a whip.”
We continued on before the two of us eventually reached another broken down portal at the end of a hall, this one actually leading back down as we peered through it, thanks to the light coming from my head torch.
“Seems to be coming from down there.” Shimmer commented as her eyes briefly had a sudden shine to them.
I nod as I turned my head to the right to look at her. “Should we continue further down?” I asked her.
“Well, I don’t see why not. We already got this far. Might as well see what has been leading us this entire time.” Shimmer answered before she promptly took point, leading the way down through cracked and rotten looking stone steps.
I, of course, followed her, helping us by illuminating the path in front of us as I have been doing since the moment I basically got out of bed, once again keeping quiet as the sound of our hooves clip-clopping on the stone echoed all around us.
We soon arrived at the end of our downward journey and came face to face with a cracked stone door blocking our path. Or it would if it wasn’t cracked to begin with.
“This looks like a vault door, if you ask me.” Shimmer commented out loud as she carefully observed it.
“How do you know that?” I asked as I illuminated certain places of this huge door to have a look at it myself.
“Read about them in books when I was running around as a pony. Especially in ponyville, when I visited the library there once.” Shimmer explained, which was a bit of a surprise, as she looked at the spot my horn was illuminating, scratching it a bit with a hoof and getting close to it.
“There. More evidence that this is a vault door. Old rune carvings and horn holes for a unicorn or an alicorn to place his or her horn into.” She continued to explain before retreating a bit. “Though not functional anymore. The magic on these runes has long dissipated over the centuries. Again, easy to tell because they have lost all of their glow and color.” She pointed out, finishing her analysis, leaving me again somewhat surprised.
I turned my head to look at her. “Seriously how do you know all of this?” I asked again with a raised eyebrow.
She simply chuckled nervously as she looked down, scuffing the ground with a hoof. “Well as I said…I spent a lot of time reading books when I was in pony towns and settlements.” She explained while looking down.
I shook my head. “Need to ask her more later. For now let’s see if this sizable crack on the door is enough for me and her to squeeze through. Whatever my instincts are still telling me about is behind this barrier.” I thought to myself as I aimed my horn back at the large opening that I managed to discover at the very beginning.
Moving closer to it I began to crouch down as I aimed the light of my horn through the gap to see past it and to judge if it is wide enough for a pony to crawl through it.
For starters I couldn’t see anything besides some more wall on the right and obviously more walking ground behind it. Besides that, whatever room, chamber or even hallway lay behind the stone portal was kept shrouded in darkness thanks to my horn producing more of a bubble of light around me rather than a concentrated forward beam, like on a flashlight.
I noticed movement to my left as Shimmer crouched down right beside me to peer into the large crack herself.
“I think I can easily fit in with no problem.” Shimmer commented out which made me roll my eyes.
“Well of course you can, you are somewhat smaller than me. But what I am wondering is if I can fit through this or not.” I told her back as I slowly stood back up to my full height.
Shimmer did the same as she looked down at my jacked before at me. “Sure you can, if you remove your jacket first, since it does look somewhat puffy.” She suggested with a hoof pointing at it.
I immediately started to feel nervous of her idea, as I was not sure how she would handle finding out that I was basically similar to the princesses themselves or maybe even her king or queen from whatever hive she is from.
I shook my head quickly to get all of this paranoia out of me as I gave her suggestion a little bit more thought, in combination with how many ponies I have managed to win over to my side so far in revealing my wings to them.
“Plus she somehow never commented on the length of my horn, like how so many have done prior to her, so it can’t be that wrong to show her what I really am. Plus she is a changeling too, so she won’t start going around telling ponies that I am an Alicorn. Also I don’t want to risk ruining this jacket both Cloud and Flitter gave to me by crawling through tight spaces with it. Might as well take it off, then. Really, what else could possibly happen that I haven’t experienced or seen before?” I thought to myself, giving up a final sigh before removing the jacket in front of her.
As predicted, her eyes went wide for a moment as I exposed my wings and gave them a few test flaps in front of her, though that reaction quickly died out when she started to tilt her head instead, while giving me a questioning look.
“So… wait, you said earlier that you walked through the entire half length of the Everfree unopposed despite having wings to fly with?” She questioned while giving me a strange look. “Why the Tartarus didn’t you use them to fly over here instead? They look perfectly normal for pony wings, even bigger, when I look at it better. So again, why not use those?” She continued, which meant it was my turn to paw the ground as I looked off to the side.
“Well...” I began. “For starters, I don’t know how to fly yet.” I admitted before giving her a sheepish smile. “That… and I am also suffering from acrophobia, also known as the fear of heights, in layman's terms.” I finished with a chuckle.
She again was stunned as she simply stood there giving me this really weird and funny look, which really didn’t help the awkwardness I was feeling. She eventually shook her head before focusing back to the crack next to us.
“Ponies are strange sometimes.” I heard her mutter which only made me scratch my head and my tail move back and forth a little bit.
“I am going first, ok?” She announced as she began to lay herself flat onto her belly before using her forelegs to drag herself forward and through the crack.
I watched her slowly disappear onto the other side as the tip of her yellow tail was the last thing to leave my point of vision.
“Alright I made it to the other side, now it’s your turn.” I heard her say as I quickly crouched down to peer through the opening she had crawled thought and immediately greeted with her pair of glowing blue eyes staring back at me from the other side.
I sighed, laid myself flap onto my stomach as she did before moving my Jacket in front and through the hole, same with my Hat as I removed it.
“Here, can you take both my Hat and jacket? Don’t want them to be ruined. They are very special to me.” I kindly asked her as I pushed them through.
“Sure, no prob, but hurry up ok? I don’t like to be alone in large, dark, empty spaces.” Shimmer replied as I saw both of my items pulled out to the other side.
I once again sighed before using my own forelegs to pull myself forward and into the tight opening of the hole. I grunted as I somehow found this a bit difficult, especially when I found out that I only just barely fit through the opening, with both my long horn and large wings grinding on the edges as I made my way to the other side.
“So this is how Indiana Jones always feels.”
With one final push and a little help from Shimmer by pulling me through I quickly managed to crawl myself to the other side with a huff. I slowly got back to all fours before dusting myself off and looking around the now much better illuminated chamber I found myself in.
“Great… another hallway. But this time full of steel doors that we are not going to get through anytime soon.” I commented out loud as I looked around.
A tap on my shoulder quickly got me back from my sight-seeing as I turned my head to look to my left, seeing Shimmer holding up my stuff with a hoof while smiling at me.
“Care to have your clothes back?” She casually asked, to which I nodded before taking both my Hat and jacket from her and went to placing them back on their respective spots. Except for the Jacket, which on second thought I simply draped onto my back with both of its ends dangling off my sides, covering most of my wings.
“The magical source is actually right ahead of us. Come on.” Shimmer announced before leading the way again.
I loudly exhaled before swiftly following her.
“Well let’s finally see what it is that I have been searching for this entire time. It had better be worth it though.” I thought to myself as the two of us continued to travel deeper into the long forgotten past of this place and passing by more and more of these tightly sealed, and old metallic doors.
………………………………………………………………………………………
“What the? Ugh. What is it… miss… Cloud Chaser, I presume? It’s in the middle of the gosh darn night. What are y’all doing out here at this time of the hour anyways?” Applejack asked as she sounded just as half asleep as she physically looked, rubbing her eyes occasionally.
I smiled apologetically at her. “Well I am very, terribly sorry for having to wake you up so late in the hour Applejack but… but I am here to see… if… Nava is ok or not.” I explained to her sheepishly, as AJ raised a sleepy eyebrow at me.
“What… that it? Also, why in tarnation would ya think that he’s not ok?” She countered back which made me shift a bit awkwardly in place, especially on the bare bone reason I was going to drop on her.
“Its… its really just a hunch. It’s a feeling that i get now and then, (Usually on a Saturday, oddly enough) and usually is correct. I… I just know in my gut that something is going to happen to him soon, something terrible. I don’t know how, but I just know it.” I explained to her sheepishly, avoiding my gaze from her in fear of getting her pissed off for such a shallow reason.
I looked back at her and was honestly a bit surprised to see her look at me rather thoughtfully rather than upset, as I originally thought. Was she really believing my stupid crap?
“Well… You ain’t lyin’, i can tell. I have a lot of experience when it comes ta gut feelings. Call it instinct, if y’ will, and if you really think that yer gut is telling ya that something bad is going to happen to the awkward fella, then I guess I can give you the benefit of the doubt here.” AJ explained to me, which honestly made me sigh in relief.
“Let me just quickly check on him, then. Just wait here, ok?” AJ suggested to which I nodded.
She momentarily moved back inside as I watched her slowly disappear up a set of stairs and to the second floor. I took this time to adjust my saddle-bags and the straps around me to make sure that they didn’t clip my wings again like how they almost did when I flew all the way over here.
“Come one, come one, come one” I constantly chanted on in my mind as my tail began to swish nervously from side to side.
Soon, though, I heard some shuffling happening upstairs before AJ reappeared on the top of the stairs with an expression that rapidly made me think of the worst.
“He… he ain’t in his room, and his bed seemed to be unmade too!” AJ explained with wide eyes but not as wide as mine as internally I was slowly initiating my panic mode.
“Oh no… this… this is exactly as I have feared. I was right all along! Nava is in trouble and I gotta find him before it’s too late!” I blurt out in panic as I quickly ran back outside and taking to the air.
“What… what d’ya mean? Hey, Cloud Chaser! Wait!!” I heard AJ shout after me before her voice was drowned out.
“Oh crap, crap, crap” I mentally repeated as I flew off above the Everfree forest - where my gut was telling me he most likely disappeared to.
“Got to be faster. Come on, Cloud, make use of that cutie mark of yours.”
Another chapter out of the gates. Hope you guys enjoy the direction i am taking here.
Anyway you are all going to get double the pics today.
First a concept art of Shimmer the rough changeling.
And chapter highlight.
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Huh. What do you know. Mares can have that hour glass figure.
Also, watch were those eyes rove, Nava.
Why do I have a feeling Shimmer will stay with Nava after this?
you did mention Castlevania in the last chapter and I think I said it already but I will say it again
I love Castlevania
also noticed you mentioned Vavacung
Crossing my fingers for Nightmare Moon relics.
Yessss feel the hatred flow through you...
YEAAAAH
Battle scene next chapter!
He tho0ught?
I would like to know how to thi1nk.
What do you thi1nk about it?
Food for tho0ught, perhaps?
Errors can be great sometimes.
Pretty easy find, I saw it early on while passively reading.
it looked too long, so I double checked it, and saw that thought had a 0.
as soon as I saw it, I, heh, tho0ught, of some super bad jokes, as seen above.
7766943 Can you highlight the whole sentence better?
7766964 if you really can't find it, the tho0ght mistake is in paragraph 17. hard to miss and apparently I wasn't the only person who thought of joking about it.
7766981 we have to be on identical brainwave patterns to get this kind of streak.
I make a comment, then press the refresh button, and there it is you have a comment abput the exact same thing that you submitted like three minutes before I. Twice in a row, too.
Does this count as a "CO-CO-CO-COMBO BREAKER!!!!" ?
So, his harem grows.
7766964 Found a mistake
“Simmers is my name.”
You forgot the 'h'
is the highlight SFW?
Is that meant to be bald?
Thought you wrote 'Empathetically'.
I've never really head of 'Emphatically' before, had to look it up.
Chamber?
7767133 Yeah. You can't have NSFW art on FimFiction. Even on M rated stories, and you can't link directly to the story. (That's why people sometimes have links that link to the NSFW art stories)
Shimmer a cute
I'm enjoying the story so far, but sometimes there are jarring PoV changes that are hard to follow given that the whole story is written in first person. In other words, my question when it happens is "who is I?"
7766964
Nava. Thou art a pervert.
And I apologise to everyone for not being able to proofread the latest chapter.
7767028 Never noticed it myself until you pointed it out.
7767829 Thanks for liking her. Originally she had a different design until I settled to the one you see now.
Another reason she exist is because she used to be an unfinished drawing of an OC carrying the same name, which i never used in the end, until now for this fic.
7771180 Go home, your drunk.
7772061
Why aren't you answering your Skype?
7772133 Because i was out the house for a whole day.
7772178
Oh. I am a silly pon-3.
This is great! Love the story *cough* 'cloud x nava *cough*
Bug nearly brains herself on a fallen pillar.
Has Spinda eyes right after self bonk.
Cute.
Doesn't give a damn that Nava is a corn.
Acorn + Pegasus (x3) + Bat + Bug = I smell an Adventure coming.
7772178
7772223
Is this what happens when I'm away?
I am pleased.
7773913
Try to guess, do scientists hate or love the impossible and being wrong?
Hmmm a changeling eh? i think i can see where this is going.
either its going to be good or just very very bad
7774788 Add my character in your story? First one which one of them and why?
Midnight Gear obviously not because he does not belong to me but someone else.
1. you have two characters...i guess i'm not the only one then
2. Well i was kinda hopin' for both alicorns to bump into each other...
Example;
Imagine your oc finds out he isn't the only male alicorn, that there was another (aka mine) and turns out he was a human as well.
Makes sense?
7775266 Oh cool, yeah i can see how this could be fun. Sure i guess if you want to make a crossover.
7774235
It would depend on the scientist, are they an ass or are they kind and caring?
Some do and some don't.
I don't like making choices.
7776070 I was doing a thing inspired by your story but not what Sentry is doing. Something that may never get read, enjoyed, or get to see the light of fimfic.
Love your ideas with this story and the new addition. Your art is great, your writing great, and your friend (insert Midnight here) is great.
Keep up this beautiful work.
7776528
Aww... Thanks!
And I'm asking about the majority, who in reality, love finding the impossible and being wrong. (It lets them keep their curiosity sated and their jobs viable.)
P.S - I mentioned that fact to allow you to make sense of the two different reactions later on.
7776528 How many times do i have to say thanks to peoples like you who praise my story and simple art?
7777062 Does this mean that if I ask I can get some free art of an oc?(insert hopeful face here)
7777208 What is it first.
Sweet you won't regret this i promise!!
7777248 I can say that it will NOT be Nsfw.
7779382 I have a feeling that i have seen you before.
7779779 No its not, its a short cut to the name I use online.
Will Nava survive
vietnamthe Everfree?Find out next time on My Little Millennial: Edgy Vampire Ponies are Magic.
7781622 What. You read 15 chapters in a single day?
is it bad that i want to have some "alone time" with shimmer?
7781684 Hmmm...i made her a bit to sexy i guess.
7781660
Why not? I don't have anything better to do at the moment. I devoured the Harry Potter series when I got it.
I regret doing that as the book collection was not cheap and once I've read a book, I find it hard to just reread.
Fanfics are free though.
7781746 i say not sexy enough
7777248 how are you at drawing foals?
7788995 May foals tent to be bigger then the once on the show.
7789035 ?
you have pictures?
7789629 I have allot of pictures silly