The Ties that Bind

by the7Saviors

A World Apart

"So you wanna know that badly, huh?"

Fell Wind eyed the fillies from across the bedroom they now all shared within the Vardo. Ancient Scroll and the other adults had initially been wary of the living arrangements but surprisingly it was Twilight, still disguised as the black-coated Trottish filly Fia, who convinced Ancient Scroll that it would be okay.

It didn't take all that much convincing for the old stallion or the other two foals to agree. After all, Fell Wind had played a large part in getting Twilight and the others safely through the incident in Farhoof Forest the evening before. After what Trixie had done to her and despite the others being almost complete strangers to Fell Wind, the mare had done so much for them all at the risk of her own safety.

When the group considered the circumstances, they'd all agreed that Fell Wind deserved at least enough trust to stay where she wanted within their enchanted caravan. Fell Wind, for her part, chose to stay with the fillies in their room, as the sitting room had already felt cramped enough as far as she was concerned.

With that decided, Ancient Scroll had magically duplicated another cot for Fell Wind and that was that. Now the forest green pegasus was sprawled lazily across that cot watching the three fillies with a thoughtful raise of her brow. The three fillies in question, who were all eating breakfast at the small table opposite of Fell Wind's cot, looked back at the mare expectantly.

Another, more minor, decision that had been made by all was to address two of the fillies by their actual names. Both Sunset—currently disguised as the maroon filly Corona—and Trixie had grown tired of trying to memorize their aliases and Trixie had even outright forgone her disguise entirely, certain that she had nothing to fear or hide compared to the other two fillies.

"Yes, Trixie technically killed Luciano Lulamoon, but the three of us lived in the slums. In Hoofington, if you're from the slums, nopony would even bat an eye if you were murdered, at least that's what Trixie's... what Abilia told Trixie."

That had been the azure filly's confident yet slightly melancholic argument. Ancient Scroll was hesitant to accept it—especially where Twilight was concerned—but eventually, a compromise was reached. Twilight, who was nervous about having her actual name revealed, had asked the others to keep calling her Fia whether they were all alone or not.

Sunset Shimmer, while not as high priority a target as Twilight, was still a somewhat well-known figure due to her previous status as the Princess's protege. With that in mind, she was fine having everyone refer to her as Corona in public. Trixie on the other hoof wholly refused to hide her identity any longer in any situation.

"Ancient Scroll said he'd tell us more about it later," Sunset replied to Fell Wind's question, "but I think it would be better to hear about that place from somepony who actually lived out there."

Fell Wind hummed in thought as the other two fillies nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, why not? Don't have anything better to do right now anyway," she finally said with a shrug. With her next words, her lazy smile dropped into a sudden frown that put the fillies on edge, "I'm warning you now though, what I'm about to tell you about that place is one hundred percent true..."

her voice grew darker she spoke and the sudden shift in tone along with the withering glare the mare gave them all made each filly shiver involuntarily. Fell Wind was so easygoing most of the time that the fillies had completely forgotten this was the same psychotic mare who'd fought so viciously and recklessly against Ancient Scroll before.

Even if she was easy to get along with, at the end of the day Fell Wind was a hardened warrior who'd gone through a kind of Tartarus only Trixie knew of. And even then, she'd only gotten a mere glimpse of the mare's harsh life—a life that supposedly made even Trixie's horrible past seem like a beautiful dream in comparison.

"...so take my word for it and don't ever try to find out for yourselves if I'm lying or not," the mare continued, "because I'm not and if you doubt me and try to go past the Celestial Barrier, your curiosity will kill you. Got it?"

A quick and uneasy nod from the three was all it took for Fell Wind's carefree smile to return.

"Good! Now then," the pegasus continued in a more pleasant tone, "where to begin... the Land Beyond the Celestial Barrier—or the 'Equestrian Outlands' as you guys apparently call it—is basically just one big wasteland somewhere northeast of the Equestrian mainland.

"With a few small exceptions here and there, there's nothing but rocks and dirt as far as the eye can see," Fell Wind sighed and rolled over onto her back to stare wistfully at the roof the Vardo, "don't know how far out the wastes actually go, but it ain't a small piece of land I can tell you that much.

"Farming is practically out of the question and food, in general, is pretty scarce in most places," her eyes clouded over slightly as she thought back to her days in the Outlands, "the weather itself can be a nightmare all on its own and most of the ponies and other creatures that live out there are either crazy or... yeah, no they're just crazy."

"How would somepony even live in a place like that?" Trixie asked incredulously, her fork and the piece of waffle attached to it left forgotten on her plate, "frankly, Trixie finds it hard to believe there are ponies living out there at all."

"Honestly, I agree," Sunset chimed in, "it'd be like living in the Everfree Forest or the Badlands. I just can't imagine it."

"Pfft, you can learn to live just about anywhere with enough time, wit, and determination," Fell Wind scoffed, "out the wastes, we have our ways. There are some settlements spread across the desert here and there, some smaller than others.

"Some of the smaller settlements are full of nomads who move from place to place and others have built up enough defenses or have enough Hunters and/or Defenders to hold out against the things lurking outside their walls," she continued, "but there's really only one place in the wasteland large enough to truly be called a 'city'."

"There's a city out there?" Sunset asked, "what's it called? And how did somepony manage to build something like a city in a place like that?"

"The Grey Asylum," came Fell Wind's simple answer, "I don't know all the details or how it was built—I was born and raised in one of the smaller settlements—but I do know that the place is a bucking fortress and that the mare that runs the place has enough power to match even Celestia."

"Really?" Trixie asked somewhat skeptically.

"Well, that's what they say at any rate," Fell Wind replied with a small shrug, "word is that she can perform all kinds of miracles, like producing food where there is none and taking out hordes of archdemons all by herself, but personally, I don't really buy into all of that."

"Oh, that's right," Twilight exclaimed, "you said there were demons in the Outlands."

"Oh yeah, the wastes are crawling with 'em," Fell Wind replied easily, "if you wander around the wasteland long enough you're bound to run into a few of them at least. They're why we have Hunters and Defenders; one job to go out into the wastes and take 'em down before they can reach us and the other to protect the settlements against their attacks."

"That makes sense," Twilight nodded, "but... are there really that many demons out there?"

"Well... I don't know how long it's been since my brother and I left the Land Beyond," Fell Wind said as she lifted a hoof to her chin thoughtfully, "but back when we lived out there, the attacks on our settlement were pretty frequent.

"Thankfully our little settlement had a lot of really strong Defenders," she gave another shrug, "well all I can say for sure is that there's enough of them to keep you on edge. Even if you're lucky enough not to run into any demons though, you'll probably run into the local flora and fauna, neither of which is a whole lot better."

"Why?" Twilight asked, just as curious as she was unnerved, "what's the wildlife like?"

"Just as monstrous as the demons for the most part," Fell Wind explained, "there are some tame beasts and plants out there that can be hunted or gathered for food or other materials if you know where to look, but for the rest, it's best to just avoid it all if you can."

"I was wondering why more ponies or any of the other creatures just moved to Equestria if they can pass through the barrier," Twilight commented softly, "but I guess that would explain it. They'd have to get through all of that to make it."

"Yup, the Celestial Barrier only keeps the demons out of Equestria," Fell Wind said, "creatures like you and me are free to come and go as we please, but getting to the damned thing isn't exactly a walk in the park."

"I don't get it though," Sunset muttered, "why does a place like the Outlands even exist here in Equestria? It's like a completely different country within our own borders. The wildlife, the demons, the terrain... Why is all so... messed up?"

Fell Wind hummed in thought at that.

"Well, the land was already a rocky desert to begin with, but the way my brother told it," she finally said after a moment, "the reason a lot of the wildlife in the wastes are so vicious and deadly is because of all the corrupted mana that's been spilling out of the Pit for ages now," she tapped a hoof to the side of her head, "wound up mutating the local plants and animals. Drove them all crazy."

"The Pit?" Sunset asked with a bemused furrow of her brow, "what are you talking about? What 'pit'?"

"Right, so get this," Fell Wind answered, flopping back onto her stomach and giving Sunset a conspiratorial smile, "I've never seen it myself, but somewhere in the wasteland, there's this massive hole in the ground.

"Everyone in the wasteland who knows about it calls it the 'Pit' and it's practically the size of a small hamlet. Here's the real kicker though," she leaned forward on the cot and nearly whispered her next words, "supposedly it's actually one big gateway to Tartarus that was created by some wackjob cultists hundreds of years ago."

"A gateway to... wait," Sunset muttered her frown deepening as something tugged at the back of her mind. A moment later her eyes went wide and her face grew pale, "wait a minute... y-you mentioned a cult... and this pit... t-that's not... that's not where the demons are all coming from... is it?"

"Well, the story goes that the cultists couldn't unseal the gateway in Mount Infernus so they made their own," Fell Wind replied, "Celestia tried to seal the new gateway but the corrupt mana coming out of it was so potent that she couldn't directly tamper with it."

"So she created the Celestial Barrier to keep the demons at bay instead," Twilight surmised quietly, "wow... that must've taken an unbelievable amount of mana to pull off."

"It was a magical feat so immense that it took Celestia decades to fully recover from the feedback, or so I've been told," the pegasus said before turning a worried frown in Sunset's direction, "and to answer your question, the Pit is still unsealed to this day. We have a few measures in place to mitigate the situation somewhat, but yeah, the Pit is basically the source of all our demon related problems... but hey, are you okay? You don't look so good."

It was true.

From what Fell Wind and the other two fillies could tell, Sunset looked like she'd seen a demon right then and there. The disguised filly was shaking like a leaf and her eyes seemed to look past Fell Wind rather than at her.

"It's... it's real," she croaked quietly, "I-I thought... I thought it was an illusion... just some horrible illusion she forced on me... b-but it's real... it r-really happened... I can't..."

Sunset trailed off, looking as though she was about to be sick. It was at that moment that both Twilight and Trixie realized what had happened. Before either of them could say anything, however, the maroon filly suddenly shot up out of her chair and turned away from everypony.

"I... I need to go," she said before quickly heading for the bedroom door, "...sorry."

With that, she pulled open the door and hastily shuffled out before slamming it shut. The sound rang loud in the ensuing silence and those that remained were left to stare at the door with varying degrees of worry and, in Fell Wind's case, confusion.

"I haven't even mentioned the Celestial Crusade yet," she muttered before turning to look at the remaining two fillies questioningly, "...I guess it was something I said?"

"Sunset," Trixie began after an uncomfortable moment of silence, "she's—"

The sound of the door to the sitting room opening and the soft clop of hooves heading toward the back of the Vardo interrupted the azure filly. She fell quiet and they all listened for a moment to the distant sound of Ancient Scroll's voice as he no doubt went to see what was wrong.

From the sound of it, he'd found Sunset out on the platform of the Vardo. Even muffled and incomprehensible as his words were, the concern could still be heard, and it wasn't long before stifled sobbing could be heard as well.

"We're never gonna get over our issues are we?" Trixie sighed under her breath before addressing Fell Wind once again, "Trixie doesn't know how much she should tell you without Sunset here, but if that Pit is what Trixie thinks it is, then Sunset is more familiar with it than you think."

"Rather, she's more familiar with how it was created," Twilight corrected, "and it's... not something anypony should ever have to see."

"See?" Fell Wind replied, her expression only growing more confused, "what the blazes are you two talking about? Are you saying she saw what happened? How is that even possible?"

The two fillies glanced at each other briefly before turning back to Fell Wind and speaking almost simultaneously.

"...Magic."

"Ah... right," the pegasus droned irritably, "bucking magic, of course. Well, my bad I guess. Whatever her problem is, I didn't mean to open up old wounds."

"It's ah... it's okay, Fell Wind," Twilight replied, trying to sound reassuring but only conveying more uncertainty, "you couldn't have known it was a sore spot."

"Twilight Spar—er, Fia is right," Trixie added, correcting herself at Twilight's glare, "we all have some things we still need to work out."

"Riiiight," Fell Wind replied slowly at the small exchange. She hadn't been present for the discussion they'd had about Twilight's alias, but she more or less got the gist of the situation and decided not to read too much into it, "well maybe it's best that we wrap things up then."

"N-No, wait a minute!" Twilight cried suddenly, "I wanna hear about this 'Celestial Crusade' you mentioned a moment ago. What is that? I'm assuming the Princess was involved?"

"Ah, that," Fell Wind chuckled, "well, you see, apparently Celestia—"

The bedroom door was suddenly thrown open and Ancient Scroll stepped inside, his face all manner of grim and his whole demeanor speaking of nothing but ill tidings. Sunset followed close behind, her eyes still wet from tears, but no longer full of traumatic sorrow. Rather to the other two fillies, she looked bewildered and uneasy.

"Oh, hey, pops," Fell Wind called out with an awkward chuckle, "look, if this is about what happened with Sunset that was my bad. They wanted to hear more about the Land Beyond so I was just—"

"No need to worry about that, Miss Fell Wind. I don't fault you in the slightest and neither does Sunset," Ancient Scroll assured, his face softening slightly, but not by much, "if you're all still interested, we can all discuss the matter later, but right now it seems a new problem is about to make itself known."

"Again?!" Trixie cried in exasperation, "now what? Trixie is sick of this! We just made it out of that forest! Just once Trixie would like to make it somewhere without something going wrong! Just once!" she slammed a hoof on the table in front of her in frustration, "what could it possibly be this time?!"

"I know how you feel, little filly, believe me," Ancient Scroll replied in a much calmer, but no less heavy tone, "but it looks like we'll have to endure our run of bad luck for just a little bit longer."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, rising from her chair, "what happened?"

"Though we've left it behind, I've been keeping a 'magical eye' so to speak on that barrier surrounding the Farhoof Forest just in case something happened," the old stallion explained, "and wouldn't you know it, the thing went and vanished all of a sudden just now."

"So... what?" Sunset asked, moving to stand next to the other fillies, "you're saying the guards decided to take the barrier down? Did they find out about Twi—ah, did they find out who Fia really is?"

"The situation may be much worse than that I'm afraid," Ancient Scroll answered with a slow shake of his head, "you see, it takes time to dispel a barrier of that magnitude, especially if it's being maintained by several spellcasters."

"Ah, so that's it," Fell Wind replied, her expression now matching Ancient Scroll's, "we're being pursued."

"W-What?!" Twilight yelped, "how do you know?"

"If a barrier like that went down all at once," Fell Wind explained, "it would either mean the mage or mages maintaining that barrier either lost consciousness from overexertion or were taken out by an enemy. In my experience, it's always best to assume the latter."

"There's a high possibility that the latter is the case given our current circumstances," Ancient Scroll agreed with a nod, "I don't know who or what is after us, but I'd like to avoid any more confrontations if I can."

"Yes, exactly!" Trixie cried before rushing over and grabbing at the old stallion's legs. Ancient Scroll raised an eyebrow at the filly staring up at him with wide and desperate eyes, "pleasepleasepleaseplease tell Trixie you have a plan, Uncle Scroll!"

"As a matter of fact, I do, little filly," Ancient Scroll replied with a bitter smile—a smile that fell away into a serious frown as he addressed the other fillies in the room, "I have a plan, but my magic hasn't recovered enough for me to carry it out on my own."

"So..." Twilight began.

Ancient Scroll eyed them all for another moment before taking a deep breath and letting it out. To the others, it looked as if he was preparing to make a tough decision, and that made them all the more nervous about what was to come. Then he spoke once more, determination making its way into his cracked and wizened voice.

"It'll be asking a lot of you three, but if we're going to make it out of this without any more incidents, I'll need the help of each and every one of you."

Comments

[redsopine]

Woop woop your back lol and oooooo damn I really wish this was a open au

[badninja]

I wonder what is going to go wrong? I get the feeling that the fillies are soon going to be on the run together without any adult supervision.

[The Cynical One]

Troubling pasts claw at our mares and a pursuer prowls on many magic mechanics. The question is always be... what's next? Who can guess! Confrontation? or may haps a magical solution! As always, the dialogue is great though I feel the tone of the environment can aide in storytelling. Set the vibe with the world my dude! Ever looking forward, I can't wait to move onwards.

[Asimov_Law]

10393921
It was meant to, big brother and all that

[midnight arrow]

can't wait for the next chapter

[midnight arrow]

I have read this 5 times and it is in my top 10 but is there going to be another chapter cause this is really good

[the7Saviors]

10465743
Yes, it's still updating albeit at a horribly slow rate due to my work on my other stories. I've got a good number of them that are still unfinished including this one. In the meantime have you read its sister story?

[midnight arrow]

10465823
I was just wondering so I am glad it is still continuing

[Vylune]

I normally keep unfinished stories in my "watch" list and read them when finished. But I've been wanting to read this story for so long, I couldn't wait any longer haha. I'm just about half way though, and I have to say.....

Wow! This story is absolutely amazing! I can't put it down and yet I dread reading faster as I just don't want it to end!

the7Saviors, you need to know... I think this story is phenomenal. Honestly, I'm more enraptured by this story, the world building, and the character development then I have been from many major authors and their best selling works. Once this story is finished, it will be a master piece!

Now that I said that... If you'll excuse me... I need to go read some more of this story.

[the7Saviors]

10545502
I appreciate the praise! And if you're looking for some additional world building and a different perspective, this has a sister story that takes place in an alternate timeline. I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't yet.

[Tali_The_Lamia]

10619266
The point we were trying to make was that authors seem to believe romance is absolutely needed for a story.

[RegMoDII]

10778816
Wasn't she standing in front of His statue as he's talking to her. And last I checked Sambra was both mortal and didn't have reality warping powers.