Chapter 12 - Coming full circle
Year 13 – Day 110
When a creature’s heart breaks, it can grow back twisted, gnarled, and hard.
Like a broken record, Mystic continued to recall and torture herself over what happened.
She looked at the ground as a fire crackled nearby. Mystic has been wanting to bawl her heart out for losing her true sister. But no such notion would come out. All she could do was just silently sit there and let the tears roll down her cheeks.
Mystic looked up to see a gravestone she had made and a pile of rocks over where she’d buried her friend. She squeezed her eyes shut and looked away. When she opened them her gaze met the fire.
It hurt too much to wail. It hurt too much to not reflect on what could’ve been if the Liberators did succeed. She imagined them celebrating their victory over Hong with ponies being freed and Cierra announcing a better
future for them all.
It was a picture she had longed for.
But one that would never meet reality.
She wished and prayed to whatever holy being was out there. But no matter what, she knew there was no way she could free the city.
It was all for nothing, she thought as more tears rolled down her cheeks.
All she could do now was move and hope she’ll never be found and that the past’s scars will fade over time.
Maybe, she thought, I can still make it.
The red glow of the fire seemed like hope had reemerged.
Mystic began to think about how she could create a fresh life from the ashes of her old one.
Year 13 – Day 289
Sitting at a table of an outdoor restaurant, Mystic stared at her untouched bowl of porridge. It was moderately prepared, and it barely looked appetizing. The unicorn looked down at her bandaged, dusty hooves. They hardly hurt.
She looked up to see the taiga she’d come from. Underneath the building clouds, the wind blew and swirled through the claustrophobic street hugged by buildings whose walls and roofs were built out of spruce logs.
Mystic sighed and focused back on the porridge. She’s just been wandering unfamiliar lands for ages.
Her droopy eyes, that were devoid of life, owlishly blinked. The never-ending depression hovered over her like a heavy black cloud.
Mystic winced, recalling that everywhere she had gone had suffering, poverty, greed, and strict rules that kept the world filled with darkness and malice.
Though she had seen unique creatures, they were all the same at their cores.
Foolish beings have their values but are criminally selfish and self-centered, she thought. All of their values are nothing but masks to hide such atrocities within them.
That was a fact.
Mystic huffed. Nopony will abuse or push her again. She’s become her own pony.
No more letting ponies tell me how I should view the world, she thought. Mystic clenched her hooves. And I will not be told I am wrong. The unicorn levitated her spoon and took a bite of the porridge.
Not the worst I’ve had, she thought, chewing the sludge.
Suddenly, she heard somebody settle at a table close by. She looked up and saw that it was a moderate-sized antelope with curved black horns, brown eyes, and an orange and white coat. He had a bit of a tired expression as he took a sip from his cup. He had placed a bag full of books on the table, and a sword connected to his belt.
“A Mangalian gazelle,” she murmured.
The unicorn observed as he reached into his blue robe and pulled out a scroll. Mystic noticed that there were several other scrolls in the pocket he’d grabbed it from.
Curiosity overcame the teenager. Maybe, despite what she knew what creatures are at their cores, maybe she could figure out what he knows.
She stood up and levitated her bowl of porridge. She brushed her mane and cleared her throat.
“Excuse me,” she said, trying to sound as friendly as possible.
The antelope perked up and turned to face her.
“Are you talking to me?” he asked with slightly wide eyes.
“I don’t mean to intrude,” said Mystic, placing her porridge on his table “But I couldn’t help but wonder about all of your equipment and books there.”
The antelope looked at his stuff and the scroll he’d been reading.
“Oh,” he said, looking at her, a little more relaxed, “I’ve been traveling to meet my family about a hundred miles from here. They told me to take in the sights as I passed through.”
“I see,” replied Mystic.
“Look, I don’t want to talk much,” said the antelope, placing his foreleg in front of his stuff.
“Oh, but I think you can spare a few,” Mystic forced a smirk.
The antelope narrowed his eyes. “Why?”
“Because I’m somepony...” she sighed, “that needs to get herself straightened out. I’ve tried to start over. But no matter what...”
“Nothing stood out to you?” the antelope cautiously asked.
Mystic frowned and nodded.
“I understand,” said the antelope. “Are you sure you want to know? Even if it sounds crazy?”
“Dude, I’ve been through more than enough to not ask questions,” Mystic asserted.
The antelope furrowed his brow. Mystic waited for his response.
“Well, have you heard of the Death Worms?” he suddenly asked.
Mystic shook her head.
“My family heard a rumor of them, and they’ve asked me to at least come to check out the reports,” the antelope explained.
Mystic tapped her chin. “Exploring and creatures?” For a long time, she has been walking across unique lands. A smile broke out on her face. Truly taking the time in exploring the world seemed like a splendid idea.
“Can you tell me more about this?” she asked.
Despite his hesitation, he answered, “Sure.”
The antelope motioned Mystic to sit across from him. She did so and leaned forward to listen.
“Let me start by letting you know this,” he began, reaching into his robe, “there are more legendary and unknown creatures than you’d think.” He gave her a serious look, but Mystic saw the intrigue in his eyes. “The stuff whispered in the darkest corners of the world.”
He unrolled the scrolls, revealing their contents. For the first time in a long while, Mystic’s eyes lightly sparkled.
Year 15 – Day 12
Her horn alit, Mystic straightened her long black pants as she tightened her belt around her waist.
Suddenly, she heard paper rustling. The unicorn looked in front of her to see the wind had unrolled her map. Slightly annoyed, she rolled it up.
She sat down and took in the view of the meadow of emerald grass washed with purple flowers. It stretched into woodlands with thick trees.
“Cierra was right about one thing,” Mystic told herself. “I might never get my memories back, but I must decide who I want to be and shape my future.”
A code she’d recited to herself and learned it as a fact of the world. Her eyes hardened.
Nopony will push me around anymore! she thought, filled with determination.
Mystic looked over her back at her long tail. She levitated a pair of sharp scissors, and with one quick swoop, cut off her tail to one third its regular length.
She looked in a mirror to see her long black mane. Levitating the scissors up to it, she cut it to where it reached just below her cheekbone. The unicorn leaned forward and noticed that her coat on her face had grown, causing it to look a little shaggy. She looked down at her forelegs, and the hair was poking out from her knees.
Despite all that, Mystic nodded in approval. The unicorn put the scissors into her new satchel and took out a pack of oats.
“Okay,” she said, popping a hoofful into her mouth, “the Far East and the Twisted Labyrinth were worth it.” She giggled. The thrill of running from dangerous creatures in a deep jungle and fighting some giant anacondas emerged in her mind. She remembered single hoofedly fighting off a pack of wolves and taking down a tatzlwurm with her bare hooves and potions she had created.
A shudder of excitement traveled down her spine.
Mystic looked down to see a couple of oats had stuck to her black sleeveless shirt.
“Now,” she said, brushing them off.
Mystic unrolled the map, revealing the world’s continents and different lands.
The unicorn looked away from the center of the map to the right side, looking at the various markers she’d placed and X’s in places she’d visited.
“So much to see and discover!” she said happily as she ate more oats. “The world is an amazing place!”
The unicorn gazed over to the map’s left side to see more circles she’d written. Not one of them had an X on them.
Another giggle escaped her muzzle until she landed at the center of the map.
It was Equestria, completely blacked out by a marker. The unicorn’s excitement died. She squeezed her eyes shut.
She never went to Equestria, having convinced herself that it was “largely explored” and not “unknown” like the rest known to ponykind. But every time she thought of it, she could not help but feel guilt.
A certain filly with a yellow mane crossed her mind whenever she saw the accursed land on the map.
But she was quick to form a glare, harden her heart, and move on. She considered the conflict within her resolved.
Some ponies and creatures mean well, she thought. But with the growing darkness of the world, those views are folly.
It was a sad but bearable picture for her. Mystic sighed, letting reality sink in again.
I can help those with those ideas have something to believe in, she thought with a slight frown. Before the inevitable happens...
She’d finally figured out what she was meant to do. It made her life bearable. There were next to no complications, and she liked that.
Soon, she finished plotting where she wanted to visit next. After packing up her gear, Mystic made her way across the meadow and woods to reach the farthest corner of the Earth.
Mystic suddenly cringed, almost feeling pain come to her horn.
She activated her magic and pulled out a syringe, but paused.
“It’s only in your mind,” she said.
In front of her were several boulders. The terrain ahead was treacherous.
With dexterous hooves, she began climbing them and focused on the task ahead.
With a last push over the rocks, Mystic came face to face with rolling fields with jagged mountains in the distance. With a smile, she expected new and exciting adventures to push herself.
Year 17 – Day 1
Mystic opened her eyes to see the makeshift gravestone she visited every year. The rain continued to pelt all around her as she kept her eyes on the object in front of her.
A sigh escaped her muzzle, not knowing or caring how long she’d stayed here. This was a once in a year thing, and she wanted to feel close to Sunshine again. The filly was always precious to her.
The unicorn clenched her chest. She remembered that the filly was precious and did so much for her.
But after the destruction of her previous life... she couldn’t remember why.
Her horn lit up to reveal the carved names on the stone. Underneath the large name ‘Sunshine Smiles’ she spotted the carved names of Meng, Song, Juan, and Cierra. Her eyes squeezed shut. Cierra might’ve been insane or just pushing herself beyond her limits, but she couldn’t help but have some respect for the mare.
“I don’t know what to say whenever I come here,” she spoke aloud as if talking to the four ponies. “I’m not one for emotions or reliving past pains. But I have discovered more legendary creatures and even traveled to... Oogundaa again.”
She lightly smirked in admiration and fascination. “That hostile and unstable continent is... something else. I don’t know why creatures still live there with centuries of grim history. But I plan on taking a steer from it to the unexplored southern Ice Lands.”
She wanted to make a small joke of how it’ll chill her out, but it came out as another sigh. She pushed back the tears threatening to well up.
“I don’t know if you four can hear me,” she spoke again. “But I wanted you to know I’m still well and stronger than I was then.” She placed a tender hoof on the stone. “I treasure the times we all had.”
The unicorn’s horn quit glowing as she bowed her head again.
The rain fell harder around her.
Wherever the Light Shines:
Part 1
This is just the beginning of one, huge story, this was just the first part out of five. ;)
I hope all of you enjoyed! 
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Mystic is all alone and now has a long journey ahead of her!
Well... where to begin...
So, I could tell early on that Mystic was visiting the grave of Sunshine and that Sunshine died because of the war between the general and the Liberators. I just didn't know how. You showed their friendship very well. It was... depressing when her death was revealed.
I also liked the whole moral deterioration and the questioning. "Beware ye who hunt monsters, lest you become a monster yourself." Not exact, but close enough. Cierra was just too determined to destroy the general that she couldn't see that she had become just as bad. Others were too blinded by loyalty and Mystic being torn between her friend and her "duty". It was an incredible story.
But, every story has its down sides. So, first off, there were typos and grammatical errors. Then, there were times of too much tell, not enough show.
Overall, a great story and I'm excited for the next installments.
10368603
Well, I'm really glad you enjoyed it. :) I'm proud with how it came out and I look forward to showing what'll happen in future installments. :) Yeah, I'm not the most experienced writer when it comes to showing and telling but I try.
The sequel is already written I just need to get it smoothed out.
What happened to Chapter 2?
10478312
Oh, it's there. I didn't realize I had skipped over it. Chapter 3 is chapter 2. I'll fix that.
10478312
It's fixed. I can't believe I labeled the second chapter as chapter 3 and every chapter after that a number ahead of what it actually was. Thanks for asking me that. I'm a little embarrassed but grateful.
10478808
It's alright. After all, we all make mistakes, and sometimes we need a little help to fix them.
10478869
Eeyup. Thanks again. :)
10564083
Am I right in guessing what they might be full of?
10564501
Yep. I believe you are.
10564511
Rather messed up city to just have that in the street - but I suppose that was obvious already.
10564514
Not really in the streets, more of in the outskirts of the city and in ditches.
10584512
!
I'm pretty sure I will
Hmm, save for a lot of grammatical errors throughout, this was a good story.
It did get a bit long at points, but the overall story was well thought out.
There wasn't a need for anypony from equestria being in this story, unless you're gonna reveal Glim Glam messed around with time and space again.
The end was delightfully unexpected and I hope the secrets will be resolved and the sequel will be just as entertaining.
10610508
Well, the point of the pieces with Twilight and Starlight were to set up something/foreshadow things to come sometime in the sequel. I'm glad you enjoyed regardless of the errors.
10885548
Is there really a reason to comment...
Every five paragraphs, every small section the entire chapter? A simple comment or overall couple of sentences is enough. No need to take up... Well, I'm pretty sure those comments are longer than every other comment on this story combined.Personally, I make sure that if I'm making a long comment to never let it go pasted the point where I can't see the top or bottom of the post. Beyond the 1k point word count of a comment, people stop reading, and it just sits there. Unless it's short enough, or just barely over the point where you can see the top and bottom of the comment, in my experience, you might find it hard to find people who actually read through to reply to such a comment.
I mean, it's literally a 12k word comment + the actual content of the comment that isn't a quote. If someone wanted, they could read without having to actually go into the main chapters, so it also provides major spoilers as well. It'd need some heavy moderation to prevent spoilers.
This was certainly an interesting story but the parts with Twilight were a bit strange since there is no interaction between anypony form Equestria and Mystic. I know they will appear in the next story but there was no need to put those parts in this one.
11180612
Well, they're meant to lay down the foundation for what Twilight and the others are going through as we head into the next part of the story.