9. The Sunderance of the Seven
Tharos’ mighty wings threw up clouds of dust as he began his descent into the massive crater at the top of the first pillar. On his back, the seven ponies held tight onto whatever they could as they were buffeted about by the high winds.
As she peeked one last time over the rim of the crater, Twilight noted something strange about this breeze. First of all, it was remarkably warm and humid for such a height, not cold and biting like the high mountain winds back in Equestria. But what was even more remarkable was how, by some bizarre mechanism of nature in this strange world, the wind came not from the sides but constantly from the sky above them.
“Tharos,” Twilight called. “Where exactly are we?”
The dragon shrugged. “As I said, we are at the Pillars of Prasinus. You may want to hold on, this may be a bumpy landing.”
“Yes, but where is that? I mean, it’s pretty obvious we’re not in-WOOAAH!” But before she could continue, she staggered backwards as Tharos suddenly touched down inside the crater.
He glanced up at her. “You mean this world? Honestly, little pony, I can’t say… I’ve never been here before. I’m just doing what the Princesses told me to do.”
“And what’s that?” Twilight asked.
“They said that as soon as someone broke the spell they put upon me, I would take them for a flight south. And when the sun sets, I’d speak those words I used earlier, which would take me to a different place… I guess that must be where we are now, this ‘different place’.”
Twilight gazed upwards into the sky. From the deep, vivid blue to the strange, purple sphere floating high in space above them, there was no mistaking it. Perhaps it was some strange new world, or some kind of alternate dimension, but wherever they were, they were certainly not in Equestria anymore.
The ponies disembarked from Tharos’ back, some more steadily than others. Applejack in particular was especially eager to get her hooves back on solid ground.
“Mah stars, I have never been so happy to see plain ol’ ground in all my life!” Applejack wobbled and stumbled her way down the dragon’s arm, finally collapsing as she planted her first hoof on the crater floor.
Rainbow Dash nonchalantly glanced around. “Ah c’mon, it wasn’t that bad!”
The cowpony frowned at her. “Hey, I got no qualms with heights in general. The hot-air balloon, yer house, Cloudsdale, those are fine. But you know I’m no good with flyin’ that fast! Remember the Marmalade Incident?!”
“Ooh, yeah…” Rainbow muttered, her ears suddenly drooping as the memory came back to her. “Though I kinda wish I didn’t to be honest.”
Rarity daintily jumped from the back of Tharos’ hand and onto the ground, adding, “Yes, I think that’s an experience we’d all like to forget.”
Starswirl listened to the conversation as he clambered down to join them, his curiosity piqued. “What are they talking about? What happened?”
“Let’s just say,” Twilight replied, “that it involved a flight spell, a pumpkin, and the fiercest flamingo you’ve ever seen.”
“And marmalade,” added Pinkie Pie with a shudder. “So... much... marmalade.”
The old unicorn paused a moment as he let that explanation sink in. After almost a full ten seconds of silence, he looked to Tharos for some kind of enlightenment. The dragon only shrugged in response. Finally, the only response Starswirl considered appropriate was a raised eyebrow and an uncertain “…Indeed.”
“L-like Rarity said, kinda something we don’t like to talk about,” Rainbow Dash hastily continued. “Anyways, it was a weird experience, flying that fast but not actually doing the flying myself. How’d you find it Fluttershy?”
No answer.
“Fluttershy?”
“Hey, where is Fluttershy?”
Tharos rolled his massive eyes and raised his tail off the ground, just high enough for everypony to see the practically petrified pegasus who was hanging off of it, eyes wide as dinnerplates and a vicelike grip on the dragon’s tail.
A bit of prising and some soothing words later, Fluttershy had finally calmed down enough to muster the strength to speak. And what did she have to say?
“…Never. Again.”
Twilight suppressed a chuckle as she gave Fluttershy an encouraging hug. “It’s alright Fluttershy. It’s almost over now. Tharos, where do we go from here?”
Tharos pointed to a small archway in the side of the crater. Through it was the stone causeway that led to the Second Pillar.
“Through that hole and across the bridge. The resting place of the Tears is inside the Second Pillar. I’ll wait here for your return, little ponies.”
“C’mon then girls, let’s go!” Pinkie Pie led the way eagerly though the arch, only to skid to a stop as she came to the narrow stone bridge. Peering over the edge, she immediately regretted it when she saw just how high up she was. She glanced back with a nervous grin.
“You can do it, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash called, “just don’t look down!”
Deftly, Pinkie made her way out onto the causeway, her eyes rooted firmly on the mountaintop that stood over on the other side. Behind her, she could hear the gentle clacking sound of her friends’ hooves on the stone. For a brief moment, the usual spring in her step was gone, all of her focus on keeping her hoofsteps steady, keeping herself moving, and above all else, not looking down… don’t look down… don’t look d-
She caught her hoof on a protruding piece of rock. She stumbled and almost tripped, only catching herself as she teetered on the very edge of the bridge.
But worst of all, she was looking down.
It was as if time stood still for a few seconds. Neither Pinkie, nor anypony else dared to move a muscle.
Then, with a shriek that would awaken the dead, Pinkie leapt nearly a metre into the air, before sprinting over the stone bridge as fast as her little hooves could carry her, until she slammed into the mountain on the other side. Desperately clinging to the stone wall for dear life, her chest rose and fell as if she had just run a marathon. In the silence that followed, Fluttershy was the first to speak:
“Well, at least we know the bridge is stable now.”
A few minutes later, the seven ponies stood, with great relief, on the ledge at the top of the Second Pillar. Before them, dug into the mountainside, was the entrance to the Pillar.
Twilight gulped as she looked up at the doorway. The adrenaline rush from crossing that stone causeway had not quite worn off yet, and was rising still in anticipation and excitement. A cold sweat broke out on her brow, and her breath seemed to speed up.
“Twilight? Is all well?” Starswirl asked from beside her.
“Huh?” She failed to answer a moment. “Oh, sorry… yeah, I’m fine, it’s just… I can’t believe we’re here. All this travel, everything we’ve been through, and we finally made it!” Anxiously she tapped her forehooves on the ground as if in some strange dance, grinning like a madpony. “Ooh, I’m just so excited!”
Starswirl smiled, giving Twilight a gentle nudge towards the entrance. “Well, no time like the present, my dear Twilight. In you go.”
She needed no second bidding. Twilight reared up triumphantly before trotting through the entrance to the cave, Starswirl and the others right behind her.
Now, when they went inside the mountain, once can assume the seven ponies assumed that they were well prepared for whatever waited for them inside. They could have been prepared for a tunnel lined with all manner of booby-traps, just waiting for somepony to step on the right stone. They may have been prepared for some monstrous guardian, be it a dragon or something older and fouler, dredged up from the deep places of the world.
However, not even Pinkie Pie’s most random and bizarre tangent could have prepared them for that which they came to a skidding halt into.
It was a large, square room with a high ceiling and a floor of black and white tiles, arranged in a checkerboard pattern. It seemed almost like the kind of room one would find as the great hall in a rather small castle. Long, green curtains covered the walls, and were illuminated by four tall brass lanterns which stood in each corner of the room. At the very far end of the room was a small wooden table, with a tall box, carved from solid ebony, resting atop it with its lid open. And music seemed to be playing from some unseen gramophone, a gentle and quiet classical piece, more at home at a high-class dinner party than the inside of a cave.
But while Pinkie, Rainbow, Applejack, and Fluttershy were given a moment to be awestruck by this bizarre sight, the three unicorns of the group were not so lucky.
It was as if the pull of the world’s gravity suddenly doubled for Rarity, Starswirl and Twilight. Every step felt cumbersome and heavy, only growing worse and worse as they neared the table.
“Wha…what’s happening?!” Rarity wheezed, collapsing to the floor. “It feels like I’m trying to walk through molasses!”
Applejack looked down at the unicorn in confusion. “What’re ya talkin’ about?”
Twilight forced herself forwards another laborious step. “Can’t you feel it? It’s like there’s a hundred-pound weight on my back!”
“Uh, no, not really… Y'all girls feel anything?”
The pair of pegasi and Pinkie all shook their heads.
“Oof… It must be the Tears,” grunted Starswirl, only just managing to stay upright. “So much magical power contained in one place… It’s aura must be incredible!”
“Only… Only one way to find out!” Twilight replied. Channelling her horn, she fired up a spell she had once learned on a whim, never expecting it to be useful. Being able to read the magical auras of creatures and artefacts was a peculiar, if not entirely practical, spell. But she summoned the formula of the spell to her mind and cast it forth, honestly unsure what to expect
In an instant, the entire room was bathed in an endless spectrum of colours, every single creature and object glowing with a different coloured aura. Everypony around her seemed to shimmer and glow around the edges, sometimes a bright turquoise, then dipping down to a deep green, and brightening up again into a shining sunburst yellow before returning to turquoise. Twilight recognised these as the colours of apprehension, fear and excitement respectively. Understandable, considering what was going on at the time. But from the chest itself, there seemed to emanate thousands and thousands of strings of light, in all shades of green, orange, to the brightest yellow, the strongest crimson red to the deepest of deep blues. The rainbow of light seemed to get brighter and brighter as it neared the box itself, which was itself bathed in a brilliant, almost blinding white light.
“Dear sweet Celestia… if you ponies could see what I can see,” Twilight whispered.
Pinkie reached down to hoist the unicorn mare up. “C’mon Twilight! The Tears are right there in that box, and you get to be the lucky unicorn to open it up!”
Twilight shook her head. “I…I don’t think I can… I can barely stand!”
“Indeed,” Starswirl added, his legs failing him. “Perhaps it is its contained magical power, or the sheer majesty of what it entails, or even some sort of final trap, but I doubt any among us who are unicorns will be able to even touch it…”
The other four looked at their unicorn friends, and then to eachother. None among them seemed particularly willing to go near something of such power.
“Okie Dokie Lokie, I’ll go get it then!”
Except for Pinkie, of course. The pink mare bounced to the table, before casting a slightly nervous glance back at the others. They urged her to continue with encouraging smiles and waving hooves. Taking a deep breath, Pinkie reared up and peered into the box. Inside was lined with black velvet, and in a small depression in the centre, was a single solitary jewel.
It was a tiny little emerald, about the same size as a walnut. Cut perfectly symmetrically, dozens of facets glimmering in the low light, it was slightly pointed at one end, giving it the vague appearance of a teardrop.
Compared to other jewels she had seen before, especially the ones of the size and quality that Rarity would work with, it appeared to be nothing particularly special. Relatively small, simply carved and cut. And yet, Pinkie found that she could gaze upon the jewel with nothing short of absolute wonderment. It seemed to emanate an overpowering feeling of power, beauty and majesty. It also gave her a slight feeling of sadness. Why? Why did such a beautiful jewel make her feel so sad?
She turned around, her bouncy joy replaced by solemnity, to face her friends. Twilight had managed to stand back up and was leaning on Starswirl, who was only barely keeping on his hooves himself. Fluttershy was holding Rarity up by her withers. Everypony’s apprehensive and anxious faces gazed back at her, turning to worry as they saw a single tear roll down the pink pony’s cheek.
“It’s… it’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.” She said in a meek, delicate voice.
Relieved and triumphant smiles lit up their faces. Twilight pulled Starswirl into a delighted hug, before another powerful pulse of pressure seemed to emanate from the box, nearly forcing her to the ground again. “Pinkie, can you shut the box or something?”
She nodded, and flipped the lid back onto the carved wooden box. In an instant, the pressure vanished, and Rarity, Starswirl and Twilight found that they could stand up straight again.
“…Well, I guess that confirms my suspicions.” The old stallion huffed as he stretched for a moment.
“Yeah, looks like we’ll have to keep it in the box for now, at least until we figure out some way to counter its aura,” Twilight suggested.
Applejack frowned. “Wait a minute! So after all this time, after everythin’ we’ve been through, we’re not allowed to see the Tears for ourselves?”
“Not without making us magic users feel like a freight-train is running over us!” Rarity replied.
Fluttershy raised a hoof. “Um, well it only seemed to affect you three when you came in the same room as it… So maybe if you, y’know, go outside, we can look at it ourselves?”
Starswirl clapped her on the back, nearly sending her faceplanting into the ground. “Brilliant idea. To be honest, I’ve had quite enough of mountain caves, no matter how well decorated they may be.”
“Yeah, I was about to say something,” said Rainbow Dash. “It is kinda weird that there would just be these gaslights and curtains and stuff in a cave way up in the mountains!”
“Not to mention the music. Lovely as it may be,” added Rarity, “where could it be coming from? It’s baffling!”
Starswirl started for the cave entrance. “Well, there’s something for us unicorns to discuss while you four have a look at our prize.”
Twilight followed closely behind, and Rarity followed up the rear. “Don’t take too long,” the white unicorn called.
Applejack waved to Rarity as the three unicorns exited the cave, before turning to the box on the table. “Alrighty then, let’s have a gander at this thing!”
The four ponies nodded, and huddled around the box. Reaching with a timid forehoof, Fluttershy undid the brass clasp on the box, and flipped open the lid.
Applejack’s eyes grew wide with awe as she saw what lay inside. “Woah…” was all she could muster herself to say.
“It’s… awesome.” Rainbow gazed at the jewel with a glazed look of adoration that she usually would save for a Wonderbolts airshow. “Man, if Spike was here, he’d go nuts!”
“So… pretty…” Fluttershy whispered. “And yet… so sad.”
Rainbow Dash silently agreed. She would never admit it out loud, but she was suddenly struck with a vague sense of despair and despondence as she looked at it.
“We did it girls… we found the Tears… of Gaia…” Pinkie trailed off, stretching out her hoof towards the tiny emerald.
“Close it.”
“Huh?”
“Close the box,” Applejack repeated. “C’mon, let’s go meet up with the others.”
Pinkie nodded, not really listening. She just reached further into the box, almost touching it…
“Shut it!”
Applejack’s shout brought her back to reality, and she drew her foreleg back in an instant and slammed the lid shut. As soon as the jewel was out of sight, everypony present felt the strange feeling of sadness dissipate and vanish.
“Huh… that was weird,” muttered Rainbow. “Any of you guys feel kinda… sad when you looked at it?”
“Oh good, I was kinda worried it was just me,” Pinkie replied.
Fluttershy nodded. “I felt it too… I guess Twilight wasn’t joking when she talked about the Tears having great power.”
Pinkie Pie breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s magic for ya. C’mon, let’s not keep the others waiting.”
With that, she picked up the box in her teeth and led the way out to where the unicorns were seated outside. Twilight got to her hooves when she saw Pinkie with the box.
“Here, hold on a second,” Twilight said, levitating the box out of Pinkie’s jaws and began unclasping her saddlebag. “This should be a bit easier. You okay with carrying it?”
“Sure, as long as you’re okay too.”
The unicorn nodded. “Yeah, it’s probably a good idea. It’s not giving off that strange pressure anymore, but I’m still not sure how safe it would be if a unicorn carried it.”
She gently eased the box into Pinkie’s bag, careful to keep it as tight a fit as possible. “Heh, it’s kinda strange… I still can’t quite get it in my head that we’ve found it.”
Rarity impatiently tapped her hoof on the ground. “Well the sooner we get the Tears safely back to Canterlot, the sooner we can relax and let it sink in.”
“Yeah. C’mon everypony, let’s go home,” Twilight said with a smile, leading the way across the stone causeway.
But no sooner had she taken the first step onto the bridge, when everypony collapsed to the ground as the sky above erupted with a sudden blast of that same muggy, warm wind, and a sound that nearly shattered the eardrums of all present.
It started as some sort of low rumbling sound, like thunderclouds in the far distance. Then, it built in a crescendo to a roaring, throbbing sound straight out of the pits of Tartarus. It was like someone had combined the worst elements of the blare of a trumpet, the creaking of a gigantic wooden door, the roar of some cyclopean monster, and the throb of a subwoofer on full blast, all in a single sound. It rattled the bones of everypony as it roared and blared, deep, impossibly loud, and reverberating across the entire alien landscape.
“What in Equestria was that?!!” shrieked Rarity from behind, having to scream at the top of her lungs to be heard above the cacophonous roar from above.
Applejack pulled her hat tight around her ears. “Woah Nelly, and here I thought timberwolves could roar loud!”
“Whatever that is, it sounds big. Really, reeaallly big…” Pinkie murmured. “Like, bigger than an ursa major big!”
Suddenly, Fluttershy’s shriek drew all eyes upon her. She had collapsed to the ground, eyes wide with horror, pupils no larger than a pinprick. With one quivering hoof, she pointed to the sky. What she was pointing at made everypony’s collective blood run cold as ice.
High above them, the massive purple moon was changing. Across its equator, a thin dark line was forming. It stretched from one side of the massive planet to the other, and then began to expand. The crack seemed to slowly grow wider and wider, finally revealing a strange pale white beneath. The mountains still seemed to rumble and shake, only getting stronger and stronger as time passed. This sea of pale white seemed to grow larger and larger, glistening and shining in the sky, until it formed a vague ovoid shape across the surface of the planet.
Twilight watched in frozen horror as a new shape began to take form in the whiteness. From the top of the ovoid patch, an enormous black blot seemed to be descending into the sea of white. It ponderously made its way into the centre of the white ovoid, where it came to a rest. For a moment, the rumbling stopped, and all was still.
And then the planet blinked.
Twilight felt her heart leap up into her throat. The massive black pupil contracted, and turned down towards the Pillars below.
“EVERYPONY RUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNN!”
Paying little heed to the ground shaking below them, and trying their best to not look up at the gargantuan, planet-sized eyeball that gazed down at them from the sky, the seven ponies sprinted across the stone bridge, faster than they had ever sprinted before.
There was that sound again, the monstrous, cyclopean rumble, swelling into an earsplitting roar that made their stomachs churn and their heads throb. The causeway shook and almost seemed to ripple, threatening to crumble at any second. Finally, they made it across the causeway to the First Pillar, where Tharos was pacing anxiously back and forth. Twilight screamed his name and he turned, his scaly face lighting up with relief as he recognised them.
“There you are, little ponies! I was worried you would not make it back! Come, we must hurry!” he roared, lowering his tail so that they could clamber onto his back.
Twilight made a mad scramble up his tail and onto his neck, where she clung to his neck muscles for dear life. “THAROS, WHAT THE BUCK IS THAT THING?!!!”
The dragon looked up at the sky in terror. “I have no idea! But let us leave before we have to find out!”
Once the other six ponies had clambered up onto Tharos’ back, he instantly took to the air, wings beating with such ferocity that anyone below him would have been blown right out of the crater and to the ground far below.
“Hold on, little ponies!” he shouted, taking to the sky with breakneck speed, desperate to get as far away from the Pillars of Prasinus as possible, and out of sight of the gargantuan eye that glared down at them, and whatever it may belong to.
“Get us back to Equestria, Tharos! NOW!” screamed Applejack as she looked up at the sky in terror. The Eye was no longer the only thing in the sky, as strange ripples seemed to be forming in the air above.
Tharos put on an extra burst of speed. “We aren’t going fast enough yet. Just a few more seconds!”
The ripples seemed to give way and open, revealing enormous openings to nothing but empty blackness. But through the black voids, great spined tendrils, each the width of a mountain, began inching their way through, reaching towards the earth as the giant eyeball watched on, and the thing rumbled and roared again.
“Now Tharos! NOW!” Twilight screamed, tears streaming from her eyes from pure terror and desperation. She slammed her eyes shut and held tight to Tharos, wishing for some kind of miracle to save them.
The dragon clenched his eyes shut, praying silently that he would be able to do it. He then opened his mouth wide and began speaking the hallowed words again:
“Naal faal krein ahrk vulonkrein, bex faal miraad!”
The sky lit up in a brilliant white flash again, and the roaring stopped. Twilight opened her eyes.
Gone were the curved brown mountains and the yellow and green landscape. Gone were the deep blue sky, and the monstrous planet-sized eyeball, and the tendrils reaching out from the darkness. Instead, her eyes beheld the Macintosh Hills far below them, and the arid plains and swamplands of Southern Equestria. Up above them was the normal sky, darkened by the night, with Luna’s majestic white moon shining down upon them.
Twilight screamed again. But this time, it was a triumphant scream of victory.
“We did it! WE DID IT!! Oh Tharos, you magnificent dragon, we did it!!” she leaned down and actually kissed the dragon’s scaly hide.
Tharos looked back and smiled. “No thanks are necessary, little pony.”
Soon Twilight was joined in her joy by everypony else. Starswirl threw his pointed hat high into the sky with a whoop (before swiftly catching it again in a magical grasp and putting it back on his head). Rainbow Dash took to the skies herself, performing loops as she laughed. Applejack, and Rarity cheered and laughed as well, half with joy, half with relief. Pinkie Pie, however, was silent, as she held Fluttershy in a gentle, caring embrace. Neither the earth pony or the pegasus said a word, both of them just too overcome with relief to speak.
“Where to, little ponies?” asked Tharos, as he began his descent.
Twilight broke out in a huge smile as it hit her. They had done it! They were really going home!! “To Canterlot, Tharos! Let’s
go home!”
The dragon laughed and did a quick about-turn, roaring with victory as he sent forth a huge plume of crimson fire to light up the sky.
After about an hour's flight, the swamps and empty plains below soon became dotted with the dim yellow glow of tiny villages and settlements. Another hour, and the ponies could just about see the dim shape of Canterlot Mountain in the distance.
“Hey Tharos,” Twilight asked, “What do you think that was? That big… thing back in the sky?”
“I do not know, little pony. Honestly, I do not want to know.” Tharos shuddered.
Twilight rested her chin on a scale. “I’ve heard stories about things ponies have seen in far off lands… The Ursa Major, Great Dragons, Wyverns, even other, larger things… Monstrous creatures that live under mountains with mouths that could swallow entire cities in one gulp… But that…that thing! Nopony will ever believe it-“
She was cut off as Tharos suddenly veered to the left, nearly throwing his passengers and their precious cargo into the air. A bolt of bright yellow energy shot up past the dragon, just short of his left shoulder, veering into the air where it exploded high above them.
“Ooh, fireworks!” Pinkie exclaimed, finding her voice again at last.
Tharos reared back a moment, coming to a halt in the sky as another, much larger blast of magical energy whizzed across him, nearly slamming into his cheek.
Rainbow peered out into the darkness, and could just make out tiny specks, flying about in the distance. “I don’t think those are fireworks! Everypony take cover!”
The ponies all ducked down low as a storm of magical missiles and eldritch blasts suddenly shrieked overhead, clipping spines every now and then, but mostly skimming above their heads.
“Twilight! I can see them from here!” Starswirl bellowed. “Some strange flying creatures. It looks to be pegasi, or maybe griffons, I’m not sure!”
She peeked her head up to get a look at their assailants. As they drew closer, she could make out the faint shapes of pegasi and griffons. But something seemed of about them. Many of them had much longer and bulkier tails that suggested more reptilian bodies, and some had leathery or skeletal wings, and several of the creatures even had spines. Their bright yellow eyes confirmed her fears.
“It’s those Blight guys again! How did they find us?!”
Starswirl replied, “They must have been following us somehow! We cannot let them get close to the Tears, or all is lost!”
The old unicorn stood up and sent a shimmering, crackling beam of energy blasting through the air at the creatures that attacked them on all sides. He fired at them again and again, missing several, but sometimes striking the attackers in the side or the head, sending them plummeting downwards.
Twilight stood up as well, firing her own magenta bolts into the night sky. “Everypony, get to the middle and hide among Tharos’ spines. Rarity, you stand at the back and try to drive off any of them that try to get close. Starswirl, you take the left side, I’ll take the right.”
“But what about the front?” Rarity replied as she hurried into position. As if in reply, a trio of the monsters zoomed head on at Tharos’ face, their own horns and antlers glowing with magical energy. The dragon simply opened his massive mouth wide and sent forth a crimson fireball, which slammed into the three attackers at full force, sending them, or rather, their immolated bodies, down into the darkness below.
Rarity watched them fall with horrified fascination. “Fair enough!”
So the three unicorns stood high, firing blasts and magical beams into the night, shooting at anything that flew too close. They put up a strong fight, but the yellow-eyed creatures just kept coming in waves.
“It’s no good! I cannot stop!” Tharos shouted, flinching as a shimmering green bolt slammed into his neck. “Nnggh! We must go past the mountain, try to outfly them!”
“Can you manage that?” Twilight cried, knocking another monster out of the sky as it veered too close.
Tharos shot another fireball at his attackers, clearing his path ahead. “I should do! Just hold on and keep them away from me!”
He put on an extra burst of speed and everypony lurched backwards a few steps before steadying themselves. Rarity quickly conjured up a glimmering blue shield, wide enough to protect Tharos’ body, throwing it out to bash any of the creatures who got any ideas of getting too close. Magical missiles shattered against the shield or bounced harmlessly off, but still more blasts of yellow energy flew over the shield and clear over Tharos’ head. Anypony who was looking up at the sky from down below would be both awestruck and confused as to why there seemed to be some sort of cross between a fireworks display and a dogfight going on in the air above them.
Soon, the fight lulled down to a halt, as the shadowy, yellow-eyed things fell back to simply tailing behind them, occasionally firing a warning shot at the dragon and its passengers. Rarity maintained her blue forcefield, aided by Twilight, who poured her own magic into the shield as well, tinting it a bright violent colour. Every time Tharos tried to speed up or fly higher in an escape, a hail of blasts would drive him back down, until he was forced to begin his descent.
This was all that Maugoth and his cronies down below needed.
“FIRE!”
AS Maugoth shrieked the command, about a dozen of his horned cohorts released the welling energy that they had coalesced in their horns, combining their magical energy into an enormous, black fireball. This flaming plume was sent roaring into the air, straight at Tharos. The poor dragon never saw it coming.
Time seemed to slow down as seven ponies were sent careening into the dark sky as Tharos was thrown back by the blast, which he took full in the chest. Twilight forced her eyes to open as she was flung into the air, and she saw the terror-stricken faces of her friends as they were flung into the air around her.
Slowly, slowly, she stopped rising up in the sky, until for a single frozen moment in time, she was motionless. Then, she began to fall.
Her ears were filled with a ringing sound, mingling with the muffled sounds of screaming from her friends. She was never going to see them again. This was it. This was-
Teleport.
The single word shone out in her mind, like a strong word of command, blotting out all other thought. Turning full circle in the air, Twilight hastily glanced around at her seven friends as they fell around her. She made a mental note of where exactly each of them were in relation to her, concentrating on their positions. She then looked to the ground below her, fast approaching, and focused on a single spot far down below. A small rocky outcrop in the middle of a forest.
She channelled all her energy into her horn, faster than she had ever done before, letting it fill her, sending it out to surround her friends, embracing each one in a magical grip. Finally, the energy in her horn reached its full, and she cast.
Then, she felt three wrenching feelings. Cracking her eye open for a split second, she saw the shadowy creatures flying among them, ripping Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack, screaming, from her magical grip, which wrapped around and grabbed onto something else…
Before she could do anything or say anything, her spell manifested, and there was a flash of magenta light. Then, everything turned to blackness.
When Twilight opened her eyes, everything was a blurry, greenish-black haze, rippling and phasing before her. She blinked a few times, and the scene before her came into focus.
She lay on her front, atop a small rocky copse, not in the middle of the pine forest she had focused upon, but somewhere in the middle of a barren plain, at the foot of a great mountain range. Though her eyes were still bleary, and stars exploded in her vision from the battle earlier, she could make out the shapes of other ponies, all splayed out on the rocks as well. To her relief, she saw them slowly getting back up, with much groaning and moaning.
“Every…Everypony okay…?” she said hoarsely. She received a general murmur in response.
“That… was too close,” she heard Rarity mutter.
Soon, everypony had recovered from the interrupted teleportation spell, and were all standing up on wobbling legs.
“Hey, where’s Rainbow, Fluttershy and Applejack?” asked Rarity, as she brushed her unkempt mane from her face.
Twilight felt as if an icy claw had grabbed her gut. She looked around desperately and her heart sank. Only four.
“What happened to them? Where’d they go?!” Pinkie staggered about on the copse, looking around for any sign of the missing ponies. She saw dusty dry badlands for miles all around her, but there was no sign of the three.
Behind her, she heard a low whimpering, and the gentle thud of somepony collapsing to the ground. She turned around and saw Twilight, curled up and crying on the rocks.
“It’s my fault…” she wept. “It’s all my fault!”
“Oh darling, c’mere,” Rarity hurried to her side. “It’s alright, it’s not your fault…”
“Yes it is! I had them, Rarity! I was about to teleport us away, and… and I l-lost them!” Twilight’s words dissolved into more weeping. “Those th-things, they… they grabbed them and pulled them out of my grip…”
“Sshh, it’s okay…” Rarity wrapped her arms around the weeping unicorn in a gentle, soothing embrace, if not just to calm Twilights tears, then to calm her own. For as the word of her friends’ capture sunk its way into her mind, she felt a stream of tears dripping down her cheeks.
Both ponies looked up through reddened eyes as they heard Starswirl approach, his face a picture of uncertainty. “…I’m uh, sorry about the…the others,” Was all he could think to say. Twilight forced a smile as she looked up at his face, before yanking him down by the hem of his cloak, now tattered and stained, and pulled him into her embrace. The old stallion looked down at the two weeping mares clinging to him, before hesitantly putting a foreleg around either and joining them in their comforting group-hug
The three sat silently together, forelegs around eachother, weeping silently as everything that had happened began to sink in.
“Hey…where did Pinkie Pie g-go to?” asked Rarity, sniffling. Starswirl released his grip and pointed.
“She’s over there, with Tharos.”
“Tharos?” Twilight muttered. “He made it t-too?”
Of course, her mind said. That must have been what her magic grabbed onto when the others were pulled out… the others… she felt another fat tear roll down her cheek.
Finally, Twilight and Rarity each took a deep breath and steadied themselves, releasing their grips on eachother and Starswirl, and got up. “I suppose we’d better go see if she’s alright.”
But when the three approached her, they found that she seemed to be anything but alright. She was slumped down on the ground, sitting beside Tharos, who lay on his front before her. Her hair hung lank and straight around her shoulders, and tears dripped from her eyes.
“…Pinkie Pie?” Twilight nervously asked. The loss of her hair’s usual puff was an ominous sign. “Hey, Pinkie?”
The pink pony sniffed. “He’s been asking for you.”
“Who?”
“Tharos.” She pointed to the dragon’s head. Tharos lay with his eyes half-closed, mouth hanging open.
Twilight nervously patted Pinkie on the back reassuringly, before going over to Tharos. She could feel his warm, dry breath, coming out in thin, ragged puffs from his open mouth. “Erm…Th-Tharos? Are you okay?”
The dragon opened his massive yellow eyes and peered at her. His lips curled up into a weak smile. “There you are, little pony… No, no I am not okay… That blast of magic got me good.”
He rolled over slightly to display his chest, and the four ponies grimaced at the sight. His entire front was scorched and blackened, with whole patches of scales missing. Right over his chest, there was a massive gaping wound with edges seared black, giving way to dark red muscles and tendons within. The wound was so deep that even his ribs were visible, cracked and broken, with a burnt and black mess where his heart and left lung should have been.
Rarity gaped at the horrific wound, then back to Tharos’ face. “It’s alright Tharos, it’s alright… We’ll get you fixed up, in no time… You… your going to b-be…”
“Don’t lie to me little pony,” Tharos replied with a weak chuckle. “You are not very good at it.” He turned back to Twilight. “Dear little pony… how is the other one? The one who freed me?”
Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head. “We don’t know… I think those things that attacked us… have her. And two others…”
Tharos’ smile faded. “That’s too bad… I was hoping I could thank her one last time. I liked her”
He half-closed his eyes again, his breathing ragged and weak. Twilight and Rarity got up and placed their hooves on his massive head, silently resting their heads against his. Starswirl and Pinkie watched the whole scene with dry eyes.
“To think I would live to see this day,” the old unicorn said, taking his hat off. “Where ponies and dragons would be able to make peace with one-another.”
Pinkie gave a half-hearted smile. “Equestria’s a funny place these days, Mr. Starswirl. You can get up one day with something easy and nice planned, and by the end of the day you’ve been on an epic adventure and seen all kinds of cool stuff. And sometimes, yes, a pony can make friends with a dragon.”
Without another word, Pinkie joined her two friends and embraced the dying dragon.
“At…at least we still got the Tears with us.” Pinkie muttered, nudging her saddlebag with her hind leg.
Tharos nodded. “Well earned, I must say… I never had much chance to be with other creatures when I was guarding the Tears, you know… No chance to make friends. It is nice to know what friendship is.”
The ponies said nothing, only hugging the dragon tighter. He smiled again. “Tell the little pony Fluttershy, that I am eternally grateful for what she did… For what you all did.”
Pinkie nodded, mumbling, “We’ll tell her.”
“Thank you, little pony.”
“It’s Pinkie,” she replied. “Pinkie Pie. And my friends are Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Starswirl-” she choked a moment before continuing. “… and the others who aren’t here are Rainbow Dash, Applejack and F-fluttershy...” She buried her face in his scales again as a fresh wave of tears poured forth.
“I…I wonder if we’ll ever see them again.” Twilight mused aloud.
If Tharos had had the strength, he would have held the ponies close to him as well. “You may yet, Twilight Sparkle. You may.”
Finally, he could keep his eyes closed no longer as he felt the Vita leaving his body. A single solitary tear ran down his cheek, warm and silvery. “Thank you, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity and Starswirl…And thank your other friends when you find them…Hmm, those are such nice names.”
Just as the first rays of the early-morning sun peeked over the horizon, Tharos’ body went still, and he breathed his last.
End of Book Two
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I loved this chapter, but the feels
Shuma Gorath on cosmic steroids dang!
Not Tharos!
What about the others!?
So sad...
But Tharos' death won't be in vain. The 4 ponies shall retrieve and free their 3 friends, buck the Blight followers' rump for what they did, and bring the Tear safely to Canterlot, I'm sure.
1970995 If only things were that simple...
Also, this story is underrated and deserves far more thumbs up.
SEAN CONNERY- I mean THAAARROOOSSS NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
wonderful chapter I teared up reading it... Dang those blight ponies killing Sean Con-Tharos like that
Man... Poor Tharos. He was a good dragon.
Great chapter, Redback Spino, and great story too.
It's a shame we'll have to wait more to see what happens next. Not even a hint as to what happened to the others...
Still, enjoy your break. :) Here's hoping for an even more awesome Book Two. :)
Will Book Two be in this same story, as more chapters, or will it be another thing altogether?
2009624 Yes, book two will be in this same story as later chapters. I'm really just separating it into books to separate the sections of the story a bit more easily. Also, it gives a sense of length and scale to it.
2015083 Yeah, I've been picking up on the Black Speech! Among all the other Middle Earth references you've been throwing in.
"Book One"? Yeah, this even ENDS at pretty much the same place as Fellowship of the Ring.
Now I know you probably never go further with the giant eye in an alternate relm which is rather dissapointing but let me just say this.
Demon Lords like Hermaeus Mora don't like it when you take their stuff.
I would have enjoyed if Starswirl would have comforted him by telling Tharos about what happens after death since he had died once already and would know
They're very own Noodle Incident. I enjoy those.
Starswirl sure says "Indeed" quite a bit.
He's starting to sound like Teal'c from Stargate: SG-1.
I noticed it a bit earlier at some points but here you really see what I think is the influence of H.P. Lovecraft. I noticed a few Lovecraftisms in a previous chapter. Here we have a giant, mysterious creature with an eye the size of a moon and spiked tentacles the size of mountains in an utterly alien world. Totally Lovecraft.
It was really sad to see Tharos go. That was a really well done scene.
One thing I'm left wondering. There was one gemstone in that box. Aren't there three Tears of Gaia?
Additional thought.
I think you mean Pinkie Pie right because Pinkie Pie is the one who's carrying the Tears right.
MURDERER!
Okay so congratulations for having the will power to write an ending like that but seriously HOW COULD YOU
I am too sad now
The marmalade incident? With me and my friends it's the noodle incident... Dear, sweet Celestia I hope I never have to go through that again.
You are such a good writer. This is inspirational, amazing, epic...
...I think you're activating those parts of motivation I need for writing my own story. Thanks! :D
I can't be the only one who saw the dragon's death coming from a mile away. He was far too powerful to keep living as the protagonist's ally; he had to be gotten rid of somehow, and if he didn't die on-screen, or if he was incapacitated and left behind, or captured, that would imply he was going to come back at some point in the story. The reader would expect it. Killing him also makes the bad guys more hate-able with a shoot-the-dog moment.
Now, what really would have been interesting is if he'd been captured by the badguys while injured, then come back Blight-corrupted as a villain.
YOU MISERABLE MONSTER! I liked him, I liked Tharos! And more importantly, you seperated my girls and made me cry! Any other crimes against me you want to commit you marvelously talented writer you? I have to admit, if I did not notice the chapter count or the page legnth or title, I would be thinking, "wow, this was a short tale, but it was pretty awesome." I love watching Pinkie in this, her empathy was in full gea here and the moment of depression Twilight has over the lost of her friends so well placed. I loved that Star Swirl was there to comort the girls and not be "Stop crying and buck up ya whimps!"
Was the giant planet eye thing 'Truth'?
I'm a bit late but... Wouldn't leaving the Tears in that alternate dimension like place be safer than in Canterlot?
Shouldn't that say Book One?
Shit has hit the fan. Fast.
Oh good. I thought some of the orks had slipped in.
Okay, his whole situation gets worse every time I think about it. Did the Princesses really curse some random dragon to a life of boredom and loneliness only interrupted by fights to the death? For centuries? Did he do something wrong, or did they just not care? That seems really messed up.
No, if you didn't feel it it probably wouldn't have resonated as well with the audience.
3703004
Wait. Really? Well then...
5693223
I could be wrong, but does the blight need him alive? It's possible that blast from the orcs will work like a zombie bite. Not sure, but it's a possibility.
Yeah, I know I'm a little late for this, please don't tell me whether I'm right.
Extra line break.
And a missing one.
Missing period.
The author's note implies this is the end of book one, but the big words say book two. I think it's a typo.