The Age of Fire and Shadows

by NewWillinium

Magicians and Exposition

Magicians and Exposition

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A blast of crimson sorcery blasted the rubble at Quick Silver’s hooves. “Easy! Easy! The name’s Quick Silver! I was hoping that you could help me in a job of mine.” Quick Silver said as he took cover behind a nearby ruined pillar.

The Magical assault ended as quickly as it began and the mare’s voice called out to him, “Perhaps Trixie was a bit too hasty. Come over here.”

Quick Silver carefully peeked around the corner and, seeing no more attacks in coming, stepped over to the purple roofed wagon to see the cerulean coated mare sitting back down at the blue glowing anvil with a noticeable smirk on her face.

“So. . .what kind of help do you need from the Great and Powerful Trixie?” she asked after a sip of her tea.

Quick Silver sat down facing her across the surface of her glowing anvil, ready to leap away at any threat from the mare, and answered with an easy smile. “Information mostly. I was told by a mutual friend of ours that you know a great deal about the Undead Curse and the history of this land.”

Trixie’s eyes narrowed as she let her cup clatter against it’s plate. “A ‘mutual’ friend hm? Does this ‘friend’ of ours have a name?” A red have leaked from her eyes.

Quick Silver hesitated at the sight of the angry haze leaking off of the unicorn but with a cough and a shaky grin he replied, “Gilda, A Knight of Griffonstone it seems. She suggested introducing myself to you.”

The Red haze dissipated as quickly as it appeared as the boastful mare leaned back in a burst of laughter. “So that featherbrain actually still lives? Trixie thought she would have gotten herself killed by now.”

Quick Silver swiped a sip of her tea and replied to her glare with a roguish grin. ““So you know her then? I’m afraid that our friend up there neglected to tell me much about what was down here.” He briefly looked at the vast cavern around them. “Just that a beautiful magician of great knowledge and power awaited in the ruins below, though it seems that she downplayed your beauty.” He said with a cocky wink

Trixie raised an eyebrow in amusement before she smirked in reply and cuffed the roguish thestral upside the head with a quick but painless blast from her horn. “Trixie appreciates the praise, but she knows when she is being buttered up. A bit thick don’t you think you flirt.”

Quick Silver chuckled with an almost overwhelming amount of smugness, “Perhaps I did, but did I speak falsely at all?” He raised an eyebrow back at Trixie.

Their amused eyes held a gaze for a moment. “Trixie supposes not.” Said Trixie, silently basking in the unexpected praise. “All right you have Trixie’s attention for now. What can I help you with?”

Quick Silver sighed, laid his head on a hoof, and replied “Knowledge of the land. I was in that damnedable asylum for who knows how many years and so I appear to have missed the downfall of civilization. What in the lonely moon happened out here?”

Trixie whistled, “Trixie may love the sound of her own voice but even I don’t want to talk that much. I will just cover the basics. . . For now at least.” The mare got up from her seat and strutted away before turning towards him with a flourish “Now behold as the Intelligent and knowledgeable Trixie wows you with her tales!” From beneath her cape came a cloud that hung in the air between them and slowly began to take shape. Trixie’s voice, amplified as it was, seemed to hang in the air. “Long ago in the distant past there was an age of stagnation where nothing changed, no wonders were created, and everything was grey. This was the age of the Eternal Dragons.”

Quick Silver raised a hoof and spoke interrupting her “ Trixie I know this. Everypony does.”

Trixie shushed him with another smack upside the head with her magic aura, “SHUSH. The context matters!”

Quick Silver quirked a brow at her theatrics but leaned back and watched as the cloud separated into four distinct shapes. That of a Unicorn King flanked in shadows. An Alicorn wreathed in flames, a Smaller Alicorn surrounded by ponies, and a fourth shrouded and featureless.

“But one day something happened to break that stagnation and world of grey. A great flame erupted from the depths of the land and with it’s birth came the stirrings of life. And death. Heat and Cold.The Great and the Powerful.. .and the Light and the Dark. “ The Magician echoed and reverberated throughout the caverned ruined city. “

Quick Silver watched as three of the figures seemed to grow larger.

“From the dark arose four great beings of power who each claimed the fire for themselves. The first was the Umbrum King Sombra who reigned over them all and shrouded us all in his darkness. Then came the first of the Alicorns, Princess Celestia, who created the sun above. The third was the Princess of Friendship who shared her strength with her friends, and finally there was the Princess Luna, whose deeds are forgotten.”

Trixie saw Quick Silver’s brow furrow in anger at the mention of Princess Luna but when the stallion didn’t speak up continued with the tale. “Together the Royals planned to claim the world from the Eternal Dragons when late one evening *he* came, Discord the Mad Draconequus.”

Trixie waved a hoof at her spell and it coalesced and formed a creature sharing the features of many others. “Discord the Draconequus. The Eternal dragon that was changed irreversibly by the birth of fire. He betrayed his kin for boredom’s sake and was promised a barony of his own to rule by the Great King.”

Quick Silver watched as she summoned up another cloud that formed into several dragons that hung above the now five figures and began that began to collide in battle.

“Soon the Royals raised their armies and warred upon the Eternal Dragons to claim the age for their own. The Umbrum King’s dark magic smote the immortal dragons his great crystals piercing their hides and turning dragon against dragon, The First of the Alicorns weaved great storms of fire that sheltered the defenseless just as they turned their enemies to ash. The Princess of Friendship and her disciples spread harmony throughout their ranks leaving the Dragons defenseless to the other’s onslaught and pacifying others into service, and the Mad Draconequus created Chaos in their ranks. Soon the Age of Stagnation came to an end and so began the Age of Fire and Shadows.”

At the detailing of each action the respective Royal cloud destroyed another dragon before dissolving into nothingness.

“And that is enough of the *really* ancient stuff*.” Trixie grinned at the amused mercenary, “Years after the Undead Curse began to spread the Princess of Friendship established a Asylum to protect the accursed and study it’s effects. However, when the primordial flame began to die her majesty left the Asylum in the care of the King while she sought to prolong it. She and her friends came together to try and fuel the fire. . .only to disappear. From her realm came the demons. King Sombra and his knights slew the Demon King and searched for the lost Princess. The enraged King blamed Princess Celestia for the disappearance of the Princess of Friendship and drove her deep underground.”

Quick Silver wryly chuckled, “That would explain why the sun is so dim.”

“Quite.” Trixie smirked.” This conflict was the beginning of the end for Canterlot. Bereaved and trusting nopony the King gathered what remained of the flame and hid it below his city. He took half of his knights with him when he sealed himself and the flame away and they were never seen again. Soon after the Undead Curse consumed the land and Canterlot fell to ruin. Only the Barony and the now named Crystal Empire exist today.”

With great delight, Quick Silver applauded the show. “Quite a performance.”

Trixie smirked and proudly bowed her head at the praise, “Oh you have no seen Trixie perform. Still it is nice to be appreciated.”

“But I still have questions. What *happened* to Princess Celestia? What is the Undead Curse? And what is Equinity?”

“No creature knows” Trixie said shaking the wisps of smoke from her cape ” A curse of immortality that affected everycreature but the Royals, and Trixie believes that Equinity is the dregs of a creature’s essence. For some reason they allow hollowed creatures to return to their true forms and minds. . .those who are not too far gone at the least.” Trixie quickly rattled off the answers to the now annoyed stallion. “Now then I believe that Trixie is owed some payment for her knowledge?”

Quick Silver sighed and dug through his saddlebag for his few remaining gold bits only to be stopped by the Cerulean mare.

“Trixie doesn’t want your bits. What Trixie wants is your hooves. In exchange for Trixie’s information I need you to find a couple of books for me.”

Quick Silver blinked, “. . .Allow me to continue to ply you for information when I need, and I have no problems with that. You have a deal Trixie.” He gave a toothy smirk, “So where am I going and what books am I looking for?”

Under the shadow of her hat Trixie’s grin seemed to glow, “The Great and Curious Trixie needs you to visit the Baron Discord’s library.” Trixie let out a cute laugh at the Thestral’s twitching eye and smirked, “And you are to retrieve and bring to me *Sombra’s Treatise on Curses* and *The Applications of Alteration Magic*. With the latter Trixie might even be willing to unclip your wings.”

Quick Silver’s blade whistled out of his sheath as he brought it’s tip to the magician’s throat with a snarl, the blade’s tip and his wing’s claws grinding against her summoned barrier. “ . . .Do not promise what you cannot pay!”

Trixie’s eyes glowed red and she levitated the angered Thestral into the air above her, “Trixie is doing no such thing. So long as you do Trixie’s bidding and retrieve her books, she will keep her word.”

Quick Silver struggled in her hold for a moment longer, flapping his wings in frustration, he sighed and sheathed his blade, a easy smile falling onto his muzzle, “Well alright then. How do I get there?”

Trixie dropped him from her hold and shrugged, “Ask the featherbrain. She knows how to get there.”

Quick Silver caught himself from the fall and gave a cheeky smirk, “Couldn’t let me down easy huh beautiful?”

The beautiful magician smirked at his flirtatious quip, “Maybe next time,Trixie will consider catching herself a rogue. Now off with you.”

“Not going to head up yourself? I’m sure that our mutual friend will be glad to see you again.”

“Trixie will consider it. Just remember to send the elevator back down for Trixie. She has something to take care of first before she decides.”

With that the unicorn turned her back on the thestral and entered her wagon leaving him alone in the vast underground cavern. With a sigh and a wry chuckle he turned and headed back to the elevator platform. His hooves trotted up the crumbling steps of the circular stairwell when one of his wing’s talons snagged on something on the way up the.

Quick Silver stopped and looked at what he got snagged on and smiled. “Well know. . .what is a beautiful thing like you doing jammed in a random wall?” He examined the hilt protruding from the wall and noted that beneath it’s rust the metal still held firm. He grasped the weapon in his hooves but was unable to make it budge. With a grimace he bit down on the hilt, the rusted iron bitter on his tongue, and began to pull the hilt side to side finally wedging it lose. With a grin he dropped the hilt from his mouth and began to pull the blade out from the wall at an angle, it’s rusted blade sliding out inch by inch.

“. . .Huh. It’s one of those Ponish Estocs. It’s master should be ashamed at it’s condition.” His gaze ran up and down the blade pondering what to do with it.” . . .It’s not my style but I’ll take care of you for a bit. . At least until I can fix you up and get you a new master.”

With the matter settled the thestral clutched the ponish blade to his side and climbed his way up the rest of the stairwell and stepped onto the elevator platform. With a great sigh he laid down, head resting on his hooves, and as the elevator began it’s slow ascent he shut his eyes as he entered the darkness above.

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Comments

[JesterOfDestiny]

Ack, finally got to read this thing. A great improvement from the draft you sent me; I could follow the action clearly and the dialogue flowed smoothly. A couple grammatical errors, but I think it came out nicely.

[NewWillinium]

9644233
My thanks my friend. Turns out that having an editor, again my thanks, and overlooking it again and again really does help with the flow. I hope you don't mind some of the changes I made to your suggestions. Needed some adjustments to make it fit the characters and mood a bit better.