Ch 14 - The Trials - Face to Face With Fears and Despair
Sunset’s mind slowly began to return to itself, drawing her out of the black oblivion of sleep.
The last thing she’d recalled before waking up was trying to flee from some sort of monster after the world started going mad. She could still recall the horrid stench of gore, the blood-soaked buildings, the carnivorous worms and trees. Then, there was a sudden fatigue that choked her mind as everything went black.
She was still alive at least, so the monsters didn’t get her.
That was good.
But, maybe they didn’t want to eat or kill her.
Maybe they were going to do something else.
Something worse.
As the fog in her head began to clear, she knew something was still horribly wrong. The strange, persistent whispering that had assaulted her before was still there, filling her ears with a horrid white noise made of the twisted voices of her friends and loved ones.
Along with the noise came the terrible, sickly sweet effluvia of rotting meat, leaves and wood, making her stomach revolt. Sitting up, she began dry heaving as the stench overpowered her senses. Which had the unfortunate consequence of forcing her to open her eyes.
The sight that greeted her was worse than the one she’d last seen before losing consciousness.
She was in a room of some sort.
Each of the walls was made of thousands of fragments of gore covered bone, which were seething and roiling like thousands of white, jagged insects. Every so often, the wall would bulge inward as though something was trying to push in from the outside. More frequently, a piece would detach and float out into the room, giving her a glimpse into the black emptiness outside, only for the fragments to swiftly swarm back in to seal the hole. Even in those brief moments, the yawning nothingness outside her cell filled her with a primordial dread even deeper than looking into the night sky.
The floor was not made of bone shards like the walls. Instead, a layer of black, bubbling ooze formed the “ground,” looking all the world like it would swallow her into its slimy embrace if she set foot on it. Poking from its surface were at least four or five skeletal and half-skeletal bodies in different stages of decay, surrounded by clouds of buzzing flies.
Looking down, she saw that she was resting on a large, amorphous sack of jaundiced flesh, a square of rotting, flayed skin acting as a blanket. The moment she moved, the blob let out a pained, gurgling moan.
Sunset’s screams filled the air, causing the whispers tormenting her to grow louder.
MENA! Sunset desperately sent, throwing the vile square of skin across the room in disgust. The horrid thing landed on the ooze with a squelch, then began to sink into the black mire as though being drawn in. MENA, WHERE ARE YOU!?
Sunset? Sunset! Philomena’s sending came, giving Sunset something to latch onto.
Where are you?! Where am I?! Sunset sent as she pulled her knees up to her chest and slammed her eyes closed, burying her face as she began to sob.
It’s okay. You’re safe! You’re in one of Roseluck’s guest rooms. We’re right outside, Philomena sent, throwing their link wide open to share her senses with Sunset.
Normal, sane sights and sounds fought with the horrors around her as she saw the world from Philomena’s perspective. She was with Roseluck, sitting on her shoulder instead of Amara. They were standing near the wall of a hallway, opposite a door guarded by four prominence knights. From her perch on Roselucks’ shoulder, Philomena could see the subtle, distressed expression on the archduchess’s face.
No I’m not! I’m in some sort of… I don’t know where I am! But I’m not safe! Sunset sent as the whispering got louder, only to be joined by a horrifying wail from outside the room.
Sunset, listen to me. Don’t see with your eyes. Feel with our mind. Feel my mind. Am I lying to you? Philomena sent as she opened their link as full as she could.
Sunset let her consciousness seep into Philomena’s. She searched for any trace of deception in Philomena’s sending, but try as she might, she couldn’t find any. Only a sincere belief that what she was saying was true.
No… Sunset admitted reluctantly. The whispering was getting louder again, as if trying to drown out Philomena.
Focus on me, Sunset. Just… keep your eyes closed. No matter what you hear, it’s not real. Philomena sent, then gesturing towards the door with her beak and letting out a soft trill.
From Philomena’s perspective, Sunset could see Roseluck open the door and step into a small, windowless room. It was completely bare, save for a single, large mattress in the center of the floor. Sunset could see herself, curled up on its surface, her body shaking as she sobbed pitifully into her knees.
From Sunset’s own perspective, the sound of crunching bone filled the air as her body was pelted by sharp splinters as something burst through the wall in front of where she was curled. She could then hear the sound of squelching as whatever had just forced its way in from the nothingness outside her cell began to stalk towards her, the sound of too many legs stomping through the sludge that covered the floor. Sunset reflexively shied away from the sound, her terrified crying growing louder as she tried to hold herself together.
“Sunset, do you understand me?” Roseluck asked from Philomena’s perspective, while the thing she could hear looming over her unleashed a series of horrifying gurgles and wails.
“No. But Mena does,” Sunset said, keeping her face buried in her knees, the whispering getting louder again.
“Okay,” Philomena heard Roseluck say sadly. “Has she told you what happened?” / the creature gurgled angrily, stomping around the fleshy cushion.
“No,” Sunset whimpered.
To her dismay, she could feel her connection with Philomena getting harder and harder to maintain, like something was fighting to separate them. On the other side of the link, Philomena was fighting just as hard as she was to keep their link open.
“We think that you’ve been drugged with a psychoactive poison, one that’s making you hallucinate. Raven, Steel and Dawn Wings are working to figure out what you’ve been given. Once we know, I should be able to neutralize it,” Roseluck said, her voice beginning to fade as Sunset’s link to Philomena became fainter and fainter. / The creature wailed angrily, its hot, rancid breath making Sunset gag and curl in even tighter.
“And if you can’t?” Sunset focused as hard as she could on keeping her link to Philomena open. A task that was becoming harder and harder every moment.
“As long as it hasn’t been magically augmented, your body will eventually fight it off, but…”
Sunset didn’t hear the rest of whatever it was that Roseluck had said as her voice faded away completely.
Mena? Sunset tried to send, only to get no reply. She could still feel Philomena through their bond, their twinned flames still intertwined with the other. But, for the first time since their joining, she couldn’t touch Philomena’s thoughts, share their senses or hear her voice. As if a wall now separated the two of them.
Mena? Mena, please answer me! Sunset desperately sent again, only for her sending to be met with nothing. Even the persistent whispering that had tormented her up until now was gone, leaving her in crushing silence.
As the realization that she was completely alone sank in, she found herself trembling.
She’d never liked being by herself, even before her ascension. Thanks to the bustle of the orphanage, her job, or her oath-sisters, that rarely if ever happened. And with her bonding with Philomena, she was sure that she’d never have to face that particular fear ever again.
But now, with the comfort of Philomena’s voice completely gone, the crushing weight of her absence began to press down on her from all directions, she began to find it hard to breathe. It felt like a piece of who she was, a chunk of her very essence had been ripped away and lost, leaving a gaping hole in the center of her existence.
Reluctantly, she lifted her head and opened her eyes.
Gone was the nightmarish room of sludge, flesh and bone. Instead, she found herself sitting on the summit of a tall hill amid a copse of sickly oak trees, gray and black stone and brown bunchgrasses. The vegetation was ominously swaying in a persistent breeze that brought with it a strange, subtle fetor, one that reminded her of decomposing leaves and rancid milk. The sky was gray and overcast, the barest hint of light from the high noon sun forcing its way through the roiling mass of clouds. The weak light left everything in a dismal pall that accentuated the shadows of the trees in ways that left her feeling like they could be hiding something dangerous.
Slowly getting to her feet, Sunset looked around. After the strange, impossible things she’d been experiencing, it was almost a relief to find herself someplace mundane and… almost normal. Yet, there was still a profound feeling of wrongness about all of it. There was something familiar about this place. Yet it also felt foreign. Alien. The gray sky. The putrid breeze. The sickliness of the vegetation.
Yet one that was accompanied by a strange sense of familiarity. Like she knew this place. Even through all of the wrongness.
As she searched her memories, her attention came to rest on the trunks of one of the trees: a particularly ancient and stately oak tree that had been partially hollowed out due to age. There was something hauntingly familiar about the tree.
“I… know this tree,” Sunset whispered to herself as she walked up to it and got a closer look.
Then, it hit her as though Queen Celestia herself had kicked her.
The reason why all of this looked so familiar.
“I’ve been here before,” Sunset whispered to herself as she looked around again, studying the horizon, vegetation, and everything.
It had been one of the most terrifying experiences she’d had before the phoeinx-rite out shone it.
The incident happened a month after she’d taken her oath with Rainbow, Applejack and Pinkie, at their first sleepover at the Pie rock farm. That night, Rainbow had told them about her dad’s latest expedition with the rangers, and how they’d had to go to the west of town to remove a child-tailed viper that had been ambushing travelers along the road. In their youthful innocence, they’d decided that they wanted to go on an adventure too. Maybe find a monster to beat so they could be heroes like the rangers.
So the four of them gathered up some supplies, mostly snacks and a few “essentials” like “weapons to beat the monsters,” which were in reality just sticks and rock farming tools, a couple of “monster guides” in the form of story books, and headed out just as the sun was coming up.
In their naivete, they had just set off into the wild without telling any of the adults, nor paying attention to where they were going. The thrill of being brave heroes driving them on, they ended up further and further away from the safety of Golden Tree. It wasn’t until around noon, when the Queen’s sun was at its hottest, did they stop their exploring, eating their snacks under the oak at the summit of the very hill she was now standing on.
It was AJ that said she was thirsty, and asked if they’d brought something to drink. There was a tense silence, before they each admitted they didn’t. The closest they had was the fruits they’d brought, which they’d already eaten. Pinkie had suggested that they just head home to get a drink. They’d debated giving up their adventure so easily, but conceded that they probably weren’t going to find any monsters. So, they decided to turn around and head back.
Only to realize that they didn’t know which way back was.
Sunset remembered how scared they’d been at the sudden realization that they were lost. At first, they’d thought they could find their way back by just retracing their steps. A plan that was dashed when Pinkie said that she didn’t remember where they’d come from. Something the others reluctantly confirmed. AJ suggested that they stay put and wait for the adults to find them, since that’s what her pa and ma had told her to do. AJ’s confidence deflated when Sunset reminded her that they hadn’t told any of the adults where they’d gone. Rainbow had suggested she could fly back to Golden Tree and bring help, which Pinkie had dismissed, because even if she found the adults, would she be able to find them again?
It was then that an idea hit Sunset, and she asked Rainbow if she could fly up high enough to see Golden Tree? Rainbow had admitted she probably could, but was worried she would lose Sunset, AJ and Pinkie if she did. Sunset said she had a plan, and used a spell dance to summon as big of a will-o-wisp as she could, then commanded it to float above the top of the trees so Rainbow could use it as a beacon to find them. Then, she could direct them towards town.
Reluctantly, the others agreed to Sunset’s plan.
And so began the long, terrifying trip home. Sunset summoning her will-o-wisp, Rainbow flying up to see which direction led to Golden Tree, then flying back down to guide them. Eventually, they got close enough to town that the ranger search party that was out looking for them spotted Rainbow and the will-o-wisp, and came to collect them.
Sunset had never been so happy to be disciplined by Tender Heart before. A sore bottom, and a month of being grounded with extra chores was a price she was willing to accept for being back home safe and sound.
“If it's the same hill,” Sunset thought aloud, her heart pounding in her ears, “that means I’m in the Western Territory. But… how? How can I be… home…?”
It didn’t make sense. How could she have gotten all the way from the Eastern Territory to the Western? Had the bone-room been the result of some sort of spell? One that carried her away from Rose’s Blossom? No, that didn’t make sense either. Philomena had shown her that she was still in the Eastern Territory in Roseluck’s manor.
Sunset was forced to protect her face as a sudden and violent gust of wind came roaring through the trees. It did little to hamper the horrid stench the wind carried with it, leaving her stomach turning in disgust yet again as the putrescence assaulted her. And on the wind came something else. A strange sound that reminded Sunset of the hiss of flowing sand mixed with cracking and splintering wood and the tumbling of rocks down a slope.
Just as suddenly as it began, the wind was gone. Without its roar, Sunset could hear the new sound more clearly. And, she realized, it was getting closer. Looking in the direction of the sound, she took a step back, her pulse beginning to race at what she saw. Something was moving through the trees, its passage marked by the violent rustling of the branches and flocks of terrified birds scattering into the air.
She couldn’t see whatever was coming, but she could tell that whatever it was, it was massive.
And it was heading straight for her.
Sunset’s instincts kicked in, and she tried to take to the air and fly to safety. Only to find that she couldn’t. She could feel the flame within her attempting to lift her into the sky. Yet for some reason, it didn’t.
A loud crash from behind told her that she didn’t have time to think about why. Her only choice was to run.
*****
Sunset’s pulse was hammering in her chest as she sprinted around the edge of a large boulder outcrop. She didn’t dare look back, but she could hear the thing still coming. Chasing her. Her sides ached and her head was light from how hard she’d been pushing herself, but she knew she couldn’t stop. Now without whatever it was catching her.
She’d hoped she’d been running in the direction of Golden Tree, and help from the guards. But with her frenzied flight, she couldn’t tell. But it hardly mattered if whatever was chasing her actually caught up.
Unfortunately for Sunset, the ground around the boulders was loose with gravel and sand. With a startled yelp, the ground slid out from under her dress shoes, sending her tumbling. Hitting the ground, she let out a pained cry as the wind was nearly knocked completely out of her.
Clearing her head with a shake, she realized that the sound of the thing chasing her had sped up. And there was no way she was going to be able to outrun it. Not on such soft ground.
Yet, just as she was sure she was done for, there was a flicker of light in the darkness. At the base of the boulder pile, she saw a small opening. One that looked just big enough for her to crawl into.
Acting on instinct, she scrambled forward, ignoring the pain of the scrapes and jabs of the gravel and rocks as she squirmed into the hole. Inside, she found that the gap expanded into a small, asymmetrical alcove formed from the boulders coming to rest unevenly. It was cramped and uncomfortable, but large enough for her to sit in if she curled up. Moving as far away from the entrance as possible, she pulled off her blouse and threw it over her head, hoping to hide the glow of her living flame.
She could hear the thing crawling over the boulders above her, the swishing and grating sound it made echoing in the small cave. Then, the light from outside was completely eclipsed as it surged down from on top of the rocks where she fell, leaving her with only the faint glow of her living flame to see by. Slapping her hands over her mouth, she closed her eyes, focusing on keeping as quiet as possible.
Outside, she could hear it slithering and surging around. Searching.
‘Go away. Go away. Go away! Go away!! GO AWAY!!!’ Sunset screamed in her mind as she curled up even tighter, biting her lip to keep herself from sobbing in terror.
Time ceased to have meaning for Sunset. All that mattered was staying as still and silent as possible.
After what felt like an eternity of surging and cracking outside her hiding place, the sounds of the creature began to slowly grow fainter, until they faded away entirely. Sunset didn’t move. As tempting as it was to peek out and see if it was safe, she couldn’t risk whatever it was coming back because she showed herself too soon.
So she stayed in the rocky alcove, her attention focused on listening for any signs of her pursuer. Once she was sure the thing was really gone, she slowly began to edge her way out of her hiding place.
Once near the entrance, she stopped and listened again. Hearing nothing, she peaked out of the opening, careful not to stick her head out. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, she slowly crawled out of her hiding place and stood.
The first thing that greeted her was how severely the ground all around the boulders had been trampled by whatever the thing was. Instead of normal footprints, the creature had left odd, alien spirals and swirls that looked like some sort of twisted filigree carved into the soil. Nervously looking out into the savannah, she saw a trail of uprooted grasses and shrubs leading off to the west.
As she stared at the trail the thing left, she saw a new detail that sent a chill up her spine. Whenever the thing’s trail would reach a tree, it didn’t veer around it. Instead, it would pass straight through the tree, leaving it standing while carving more of that strange filigree into the trunk and stripping off the smaller branches.
Whatever the thing was, she was more sure than ever that she didn’t want to ever let it find her.
Staying as quiet as she could, Sunset began to make her way in the opposite direction. The first thing she needed to do was get as far away from whatever the night that thing was as she could. Once that was done, she could get her bearings, and figure out how far she’d run. Then, if she was lucky, she’d be able to find a landmark she could use to figure out the way back to town.
And hope that whatever that thing was didn’t come back.
*****
Huffing with effort, Sunset pulled herself up the next branch of the oak tree she was scaling, only for her dress to get snagged. Growling with frustration, she grabbed the fabric and yanked as hard as she could, tearing it free. Glaring at the ripped and frayed garment, she silently cursed the stupid thing, before resuming her climb.
She’d been hiking for what felt like hours, and she was slowly running out of tinder. A situation not helped by her clothes and shoes. Her dress seemed to have an almost supernatural ability to snag on branches and brambles, or accumulate dozens of sharp, painful grass seeds. And then there were her shoes. Her stupid, fancy shoes that were completely unsuited for such a long hike over uneven, loose terrain, leaving her feet tired and sore.
But still, she pressed on.
As she’d traveled, the landscape has gradually become more familiar, yet more unsettling at the same time.
The breeze had changed. Now it not only carried that horrid smell with it, but also the barest hint of the whispering that had plagued her before. The noise wasn’t as loud or persistent, but it was always there. Fluttering about just on the edge of her perception, like an itch in her ears that she couldn’t scratch.
Worse, every so often the wind would carry the sound of the entity off in the distance, scraping and seething around. The periodic reminders of its presence kept her constantly on edge. She only hoped that it couldn’t hear her too. She wasn’t sure if she could outrun it again in her current state.
Then there were the trees.
Most of the time, there was nothing out of the ordinary about them. But, sometimes, the shadows would play tricks on her peripheral vision, creating phantom faces twisted in agony that looked like someone she knew growing from the bark, or in the arrangement of the leaves. But the moment she looked at the phantom, it would vanish.
Adding to the sheer, otherworldly wrongness of everything was that the sun hadn’t moved at all. In the entire time she’d been walking, it had stayed fixed at high noon.
Sunset didn’t know what to make of it. The very idea of the sun remaining unmoving in the sky meant that something must have happened to the Queen. Either that, or somehow Discord had managed to slip past Empress Harmony and was interfering with the Queen’s control of the sun like he did during the Chaos War.
Sunset wasn’t sure which idea she liked less.
No matter how well the latter would explain everything going on around her.
So she did her best to ignore all of these new distractions as she fell into a routine. Move from one landmark to another. When she reached the next, she’d clamber up one of the hills and scale the tallest oak she could find to look for the next. Or signs of the entity.
With one final heave, Sunset pulled herself up to the highest branche she was sure could support her. Sitting on it, she took a few seconds to catch her breath. Once she’d recomposed herself, she began to scan the horizon for the next landmark: a copse of old, dead oak trees growing along the edge of a sheer cliff that was partially obscured by more than a dozen enormous cottonwoods. At first, she couldn’t see the stand she was looking for. Then, in the distance, she spotted them. The sight of the gnarly old things almost made her want to cry with joy, since that particular copse of trees marked the site of Clear Spring.
After her and her oath-sister’s little misadventure, Sunset had made a point to spend time with Bow Hothoof to learn the local landmarks. Just in case she ever found herself lost outside Golden Tree again. Clear Spring was one of those landmarks, and a very important one at that. It was the site of a perennial, freshwater spring situated about a mile east of the north road out of Golden Tree, and was an important site for the rangers, as its lush, wetland vegetation in a sea of oak savannah made for an excellent navigation point from the sky.
If she could reach it, she’d be able to follow the trail leading from the spring to the main road. And from there, it was just a few miles to Golden Tree. Even better, she knew that there were plenty of wild spiceberry and water peach bushes growing under the cottonwoods.
Carefully climbing down from the tree, she set off again. She was getting closer now.
She just needed to reach the spring.
*****
Sunset clambered down the nearly invisible game trail on the hillside, shuffling sideways to keep her balance. The hill’s vegetation was growing denser with the increased moisture coming from the ground, making it harder to navigate the slope. She proceeded with extra caution, both because of the treacherous footing, and the ever increasing assault on her senses.
The wind had also been periodically picking up, blowing her around with short, violent gusts that died back as soon as they came. And with it came the voices. No longer content to whisper, now they wailed with the roar of the wind, forcing her to cover her ears every time the winds came.
The only gift from the Queen in this situation was that the thing still hadn’t caught her trail.
She just hoped her luck held out until she reached Golden Tree.
The trail finally reached the outer edge of the cottonwood grove. As she stepped into the gloom under their boughs, she desperately focused on her meditation techniques in an effort to keep herself from running in the opposite direction. Because the bark of the cottonwoods were covered in twisted, agonized faces. Faces that she was certain were looking at her as she passed.
There was also a new, fouler odor that had joined the one carried by the wind. Unlike the sour, spoiled scent she’d almost grown accustomed to, this one reeked of putrefaction and death. The closest thing she’d ever smelled before was the dead calf she’d found when playing hide and seek at AJ’s farm.
And it was getting stronger the closer she got to the spring.
Fighting down the urge to vomit from the stench, Sunset pressed forward. There had to be something dead and rotting up ahead. She just hoped that it wasn’t actually in the spring, lest the water become fouled and useless.
Normally, the rangers and renewers wouldn’t let something like that happen. The water from Clear Spring was too vital a resource to be left contaminated. Which meant that the corpse either hadn’t been found yet. Or the renewers couldn’t spare the time to come and clean out the spring.
Sunset had a horrible suspicion that she knew the answer to that particular question.
Covering her nose and mouth with a sleeve, she pressed forward.
*****
Pushing one last branch aside with a tendril, Sunset broke through the foliage and stepped into the glen around Clear Spring.
Reaching it had been far more arduous than it should have been. Discounting the difficulty of the hike in her entirely inappropriate for wilderness trekking clothes, the vegetation along the trail to Clear Spring had become overgrown and wild, with thorny water peach bushes and vicious stinging baliranta vines blocking her way.
In the end, she resorted to using her living flame tendrils to clear her path, bending, snapping and tearing through the tough foliage. It was slow going, both because of the nature of the task, and the constant worry of inadvertently setting everything on fire.
Even if she could still control her living flame, she wasn’t going to gamble on her fire immunity persisting with her connection to Philomena blocked.
The moment she stepped into the glen, the putrescent stench rose to overpowering levels. Turning away and doubling over, Sunset began to dry heave as her senses were completely overwhelmed by the monstrous fetor hitting her nostrils. In desperation, she held her breath and grabbed the hem of her dress, tearing loose a long, wide piece of the fabric which she wrapped around nose and mouth.
The makeshift mask didn’t completely eliminate the nauseating odor, but it made it somewhat bearable.
‘Guess this stupid thing does have some use,’ she thought as she unsteadily stood up and turned around, making sure to breathe through her mouth.
The sight that greeted her caused her to take a step back as a pained, choked gasp escaped her throat.
The vegetation around Clear Spring was sickly and dying, while the spring itself, normally crystal clear and pristine, was now brown and muddy. What had Sunset’s attention wasn’t the state of the spring, but what was around it. Scattered through the glen were over twenty little bodies, whisps and shreds of their skin and hair still clinging to their corpses. All of them looked as though they’d been chewed on by some sort of scavenger, with a few reduced to little more than piles of broken bones. The air was thick with carrion flies, their constant buzzing filling her ears with its irritating white noise.
Stepping into the glen, Sunset tentatively approached the nearest corspe, turning it over with a tendril. The moment she touched the body, hundreds of flies erupted into the air. Swiping her hands and tendrils around frantically, Sunset dispersed the revolting cloud of insects. Once the air was cleared, she knelt down to examine the body.
It was a young fire-caller boy, probably about half her age, with silvery hair and light, sea-green skin and aqua blue soul gem. As she looked at the body, she couldn’t help but feel that there was something oddly familiar about him. She couldn’t place who he was with how much damage had been done to his face by the elements and scavengers. But he felt oddly familiar. One thing that was clear was that his death hadn’t been natural: the large brown stain and three holes in his shirt were proof of that.
Standing, she slowly began to make her way through the bodies. Most of them were about the same age as the first body she examined. A few were older though, probably closer to seven. From the look of it, all of them had been killed by gunfire. Fire-caller. Earth-weaver. Sky-runner. None had been spared.
‘Why? Why would anyone… how could…why? Why?’ Sunset’s mind was racing as she tried to comprehend the horror all around her. ‘Who could do this? Why would they do this?’
As Sunset continued to stare at the charnel field, she spotted something out of place among all of the smaller bodies. There, near the edge, were three larger corpses. Two were about her age. The first was an earth-weaver girl, her purple hair and light-violet skin caked with dirt and blood. The second was a sky-runner, her pale persian blue skin and feathers and pale opal hair similarly covered in grime.
‘No…’
Then Sunset’s eyes focused on the final body, and the only adult. Sunset felt light-headed. Salmon pink skin. Long, two-toned robin-shell and sky blue hair. Unlike the others, she was turned in the opposite direction of the bodies, as though facing whoever had shot the others. And, unlike the others, she was relatively pristine, showing no signs of having been chewed on by scavengers.
“No… no, please, no…” Sunset whimpered as she slowly and unsteadily approached the corpses.
Everything fell into place in her head.
Why she felt like she knew these bodies.
Because she’d seen them… or rather the sun-gazers that had once inhabited them… nearly every day of her life up until a quarter of a year ago.
“Tender Heart. Lilac Dust. Flitter,” Sunset sobbed as she fell to her knees.
These were the bodies of everyone from Golden Tree orphanage.
For the third time since setting foot in the glen, Sunset felt the urge to vomit.
“How? Why? Why would… who could… Tender Heart… who did this?” Sunset sobbed as she slowly crawled towards the matron’s body.
“Don’t touch her!”
Sunset froze.
The voice that had just shrieked at her was strange and distorted, like it was being spoken through a throat filled with mud and twigs. But even through the distortion, she knew the speaker’s voice.
Rising to her feet, Sunset turned towards the source.
Sunset found herself barely able to comprehend what she was seeing as she took a step back in horror. There, standing near the edge of the spring’s pond, was a lone figure, glaring at her with murder in her eyes.
She was about Sunset’s age, but looked dangerously malnourished, her pale, aquamarine skin stretched tight over her body, like she was a walking skeleton wrapped in a thin, flimsy layer of flesh. Her hair was filthy with dirt and mud, but Sunset could still see traces of light opal and white amid the grime. Her eyes were a dull and empty gamboge, while the spot on her forehead where her soul-gem would have been was nothing more than a raw, empty crater filled with small shards of shattered golden crystal. Most shocking of all, her mouth was not filled with normal teeth, but dozens of jagged black fangs, while her hands ended in long, wicked black talons.
Sunset could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she broke out into a cold sweat. Of all the things that could have found her, this was one of the worst.
In all her life, she’d hoped she’d never come upon a moorgaunt.
A sun-gazer twisted into a vicious predator and driven to cannibalism by the corrupting power of Chaos. But, the true dream wasn’t what the creature was. But who it was.
“Lyra…?” Sunset muttered, her body beginning to tense as she prepared to run for her life. Even if this thing was once Lyra, that didn’t matter. A moorgaunt was a creature of Chaos. And was more than capable of killing a lone sun-gazer.
Especially if it got close enough to look her directly in the eyes.
The moorgaunt that was once Lyra Heartstrings flinched at the sound of her name. There was a moment where the emptiness in her eyes briefly faded, and Sunset could see a trace of her bunkmate and friend.
“Sunset?” the creature asked. There was shock in her twisted, guttural voice. Shock, and recognition. As though Lyra was seeing her for the first time, rather than just another piece of meat wandering into her territory to be devoured.
And then, in a flash, it was gone, only to be replaced by something darker. Something far more sinister.
Hate.
Pure, raw, unfiltered hate.
The creature began to stagger forward, the brown, muddy water sloshing around her legs as her claws flexed threateningly. Sunset reflexively retreated, her will extending into her living flame as she prepared to defend herself. She didn’t want to hurt Lyra, but the look on Lyra’s face told her that the sentiment was not mutual.
“How dare you come here? After everything that’s happened. After everything you’ve done, how dare you?!” Lyra hissed as she lurched out of the water.
“Lyra, what are you talking about?” Sunset asked, her living flame forming into a pair of tendrils. “What did I do?”
Lyra scoffed as she hunched down and brought her claws up as she prepared to lunge at Sunset, yet remained at a distance, her eyes flicking to the fiery tendrils.
“Don’t play dumb, Sunset,” Lyra hissed as she began to circle around Sunset, trying to get behind her. “You screwed up. And we paid the price.”
“Lyra, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sunset said, her mind working in overdrive as she turned to keep Lyra infront of her. Even the little bit of combat training she’d gotten on Mt. Liakeed was screaming to her that she couldn’t let Lyra flank her, or get her into a spot where she could put her at a disadvantage. “What happened to everyone? To Tender Heart? To you?”
“Look around you, you dumb goat-licker. They’re dead. All because of you.”
“What do you mean, they’re ‘dead because of me?’ You keep saying that, but I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sunset retorted. “I just found myself in the middle of the savannah with no idea how I got there. Last thing I know, I was in Rose’s Blossom on the other side of Solaria. How can any of this be my fault?!”
Lyra growled, narrowing her eyes as she advanced on Sunset, only to shy away when Sunset presented the points of her tendrils and made them grow searing hot.
“The Helopolans happened, you night lover,” Lyra snarled. “I don’t know what you did back east, but it was bad enough that Lady Inkwell didn’t notice, or care, when Blueblood and his allies razed Golden Tree.”
“What?!” Sunset asked dumbly. Blueblood had done what? How?
Sunset heard the crunch of grass only a fraction of a second too late as Lyra lunged at her, capitalizing on her distraction. Sunset reflexively dodged back as Lyra’s claws raked across her upper arm, tearing through the fabric of her dress and leaving four shallow slashes.
Sunset didn’t give Lyra the chance to press the attack. Swift as a striking snake, one of her tendrils wrapped around Lyra’s arm and snapped outward, yanking the moorgaunt off her feet and sending her tumbling across the ground. Breathing heavily, Sunset watched as Lyra rolled with the throw, righting herself by digging her claws into the ground and using them as an anchor.
Lyra didn’t stand immediately, instead remaining low to the ground on all fours, her limbs rotated in an unnatural way that made her look almost lizard or insect-like.
Sunset clutched her injured arm, putting pressure on the cuts to stop the bleeding. Her breath was shallow and ragged as she glared at Lyra.
“Not bad, Sunset,” Lyra hissed as she scuttled to her left, once again trying to get into position to pounce. “Looks like you picked up something in Heliopolis after all. Too bad it wasn’t sense enough not to pick a fight with one of the most powerful families in Solaria.”
“I didn’t pick a fight with them,” Sunset retorted, backing away as she kept Lyra in front of her. “They picked a fight with me.”
“I don’t care what excuses you make for yourself, Sunset.” Lyra stopped her scuttling. “You screwed up, and Golden Tree paid the price. When the soldiers came, they just started killing everyone in town. Didn’t matter who it was. Men. Women. Young. Old. They all were fair game.”
Lyra’s face screwed up with pain as black tears began to flow from the corners of her eyes.
“Tender Heart managed to get us out, but that didn't save us when the soldiers found us.” Black tears began to drip down her face as her features twisted in pain. “She sacrificed herself to save us, but it didn’t matter. There were too many of them. Now, everyone’s dead.”
“Except you.”
“Not for lack of trying on their part,” Lyra snarled as she tensed her limbs. “The shadow-lovers shot me in the back. Next thing I know, I wake up face down in the water. And when I dragged myself to shore, all I could think about was how hungry I was. And that there was the most delectable scent in the air I’d ever smelled.”
Sunset focused her mind on her meditations, desperate to keep her focus on Lyra. But the thought of what Lyra was implying made her stomach turn in revolt.
“So, you…”
“Yes, Sunset.”
“They were our friends! Our family! And you… you…”
“I what? ATE them?” Lyra shrieked, launching herself into the air, her claws extended and jaws open, ready to tear into Sunset’s flesh.
Sunset reacted on instinct, her tendrils blocking Lyra’s lunge. But it did little to blunt the force of the impact. Sunset felt a jolt of pain in her heel, causing her knee to buckle. Lyra capitalized on her weakened stance, pushing forward and sending them both to the ground, landing on top of Sunset. Sunset desperately wrapped the living flame around Lyra’s wrists and tried to push her off. But, from her position on the ground, she couldn’t get the leverage she needed to dislodge Lyra as she gripped Sunset’s torso with her legs.
“At first, the hunger was overwhelming. I held out for as long as I could,” Lyra hissed as she leaned forward, her hot, rancid breath stinging Sunset’s eyes. “But in the end, I couldn’t fight it. And after that first, delicious bite, I just couldn’t get enough.”
“Lyra, stop…” Sunset tried to reach up and grab Lyra’s arms, only for Lyra to snap her teeth at her, forcing Sunset to retreat. Everything Sunset had read about moorgaunts told her that she was in worse danger than ever.
“Nope!” Lyra said, her voice a twisted version of her old cheeriness as she struggled against Sunset’s living flame. As she pressed her face forward, a strange light began to shine in her eyes. “I haven’t had fresh meat in weeks, Sunset. And you smell so good. I wonder what you’ll taste like.”
Sunset felt a strange fog begin pressing in on her mind, trying to force its way in. Instinctively, she pushed back as hard as she could, but it kept coming. Smothering her mind. She could feel it telling her to just let go. That she couldn’t win.
There was no need to fight it.
Just give in.
Give in to Lyra.
Don’t think.
Just obey.
“Lyra… don’t…” Sunset strained as she fought against what Lyra was doing to her. The pressure on her mind was growing by the moment. She could feel the grip of her tendrils holding Lyra’s wrists slackening.
“Come on, Sunset. Just give it up,” Lyra smirked, the glow in her eyes growing stronger and the fog trying to crush Sunset’s will growing. “You know you want to. You’ve failed. You’re a failure of a phoenix-born. You’ve destroyed Golden Tree. You killed Tender Heart. So why not be useful for a change and just let me eat you? I promise I’ll take my time so that it’s as painful as possible.”
Sunset knew she couldn’t keep this up. It was only a matter of time before her will faltered and Lyra’s moorgaunt hypnosis won. But she knew the fate that awaited her if she did. The books all told her that moorgaunts loved to keep their hypnotized victims alive as long as possible, savoring their impotent despair as they were slowly devoured before their own eyes.
She had to find a way to break free.
But it was hopeless.
She had no magic. No weapons. And the pressure from Lyra’s eyes was growing stronger and stronger. From her peripheral vision, she could see her living flame wrapped around Lyra’s wrists.
‘I’m sorry, Lyra,’ Sunset thought as she screamed, mustering every milligram of will she could to force back Lyra’s gaze.
Then commanded her living flame to become searing hot and constrict down on Lyra’s hands as hard as they could.
Lyra’s pained screams filled the air, along with the scent of burnt flesh. Recoiling, she lept backwards, staring in horror at the stumps of her smoking wrists as she left the ashen remains of her hands in Sunset’s tendrils.
Sunset pushed down her own sorrow at seeing Lyra in pain, forcing herself to remember that moments ago, this thing… this twisted mockery of her friend had been trying to enslave her mind so she could eat her. Rolling up to her hands and knees, Sunset formed one final tendril, making it as hot as she could.
Her eyes snapped to the broken soul gem on Lyra’s forehead.
With another agonized scream, Sunset sent the tendril lancing forward.
And straight into the gap in Lyra’s forehead.
There was a hideous squelching like that of a club smashing a ripe melon followed by a wet hiss that reminded Sunset of metal being quenched as the tendril punched through the bone and flesh, and directly into Lyra’s skull.
Time felt like it had frozen as Lyra went silent, smoke trickling from her ears, nose and mouth, the stink of scorched flesh joining the miasma of rot.
Then, Lyra fell to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut.
Relaxing her grip on her living flame, her tendril returned to its normal state, withdrawing from Lyra’s head.
Sunset sat there on the ground, panting for breath as she came down from the adrenaline rush. As her wits began to return to her, she could only stare in mute horror, her eyes focused entirely on Lyra’s face. The slack jaw twisted into a grimace. Her cold, dead eyes staring off into the distance. And the trickle of blood that was leaking out of every orifice on her head.
Sunset scrambled forward, tripping over herself as she rushed to Lyra’s side. She ignored the painful sting of her tears as she reached down and gently touched Lyra’s shoulder.
Nothing happened.
“Lyra,” Sunset whispered, the bottom falling out of her stomach as she stared down at Lyra’s corpse.
And realized exactly what she’d just done.
“Oh, Lyra,” Sunset sobbed, burying her face in her hands. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Please. I’m sorry. I… I didn’t want to… but I… you were going to… I’m so, so sorry.”
Lowering her hands, Sunset looked Lyra’s body in the eyes, her heart breaking at the phantom of pain left there. Had she suffered? Or had her death been too quick for her to even feel the impact. As much as she wanted to believe it otherwise, the look on Lyra’s face told her that it had been far from painless.
Reaching out, Sunset slowly ran her hand down Lyra’s face, closing her eyes for the final time.
“I’m sorry, Lyra,” Sunset said as she rolled Lyra onto her back, leaving her face exposed to Queen Celestia’s sun.
As she began to rise, a sudden jolt from her feet forced Sunset back to the ground with a grunt. Shifting her position, she hissed as she slipped off her shoes to examine her feet. She could see the beginnings of a large blister on her heel, as well as the ball of her foot. Pulling off the other shoe, she saw the same, as well as a few places that had been rubbed raw.
Sighing, Sunset considered her options. As she sat there, she happened to glance at Lilac Dust. And, more importantly, her shoes and socks. Lyra had obviously removed them in order to get at the flesh on Lilac’s legs. Sunset felt a fresh wave of self loathing as she examined Lilac’s footwear. Of the girls their age, she and Lilac had the same size shoe. And they looked like they were still in reasonably good condition.
Getting to her feet, Sunset slowly limped over to Lilac, wincing as the dried grass poked at her blisters. Dropping to her knees, she collected the discarded socks and shoes, adjusting her position to put them on. Her skin screamed in protest, but Sunset powered through the pain as she got to her feet. Even with the discomfort of her sores, she knew that they wouldn’t get much worse now that she had on proper shoes and socks for walking.
“Sorry, Lilac,” Sunset said as she stared mournfully at her deceased friend, “but I need these more than you do right now.”
Sunset swept her eyes across the charnel field, only peripherally aware that the sky had grown slightly darker, and the wind grown a little stronger. She knew she should move on. But, she couldn’t leave everyone like this.
Yet, she didn’t know what she could do. She didn’t have the tools she needed to return everyone to Nitor’s embrace. And even with all of the wood around her, she couldn’t build a pyre for so many bodies. Let alone the arduous, nigh impossible task of gathering everyone’s corpse.
As she stood there pondering, the distant sound of panicked birds reached her ears. Head snapping in the direction of the sound, she saw flocks of avians rising into the sky, squawking and chirping with fright.
“No. Not now. Not again,” Sunset whimpered as the faint sound of sliding sand and tumbling rocks began to reach her ears, growing steadily louder by the moment.
It had found her, and was heading in her direction.
Sparing one last, tearful look at the others, Sunset turned towards the trail leading out of the glen.
And started to run as fast as her injured feet would carry her.
And so, Sunset's head trip gets worse.
Little bit of dangerous creature lore:
Child-tailed viper: Inspired by the spider-tailed vipers of Iran, child-tailed vipers are giant, slightly-magical, non-sentient snakes that have caudal lures on their tails that they can use limited shadow-magic to make resemble a sun-gazer child or baby animal. They use these lures and an ability to mimic sounds to draw in either other animals or sun-gazers who see the lure and think it's a child / young animal in distress. Once in striking range, the viper will attack and consume the would be predator/rescuer. An adult child-tailed viper is capable of devouring a full grown sun-gazer.
If you're curious about the model, here's a video of the spider-tailed viper hunting birds.
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This was... very, very vivid... and I can't help but feel afraid for what comes next. After all, we saw what Sunset saw.
What _really_ happened beneath the hallucination? Did she just kill someone for real?
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Hopefully when she lost connection with Philomena she lost consciousness. She did a lot of moving around after that which wouldn’t match her current environment, and I doubt her security detail would allow her to attack anyone else.
great chapter
I know Roseluck said that Sunset was having a horrible hallucination in the last chapter, but seeing what she is seeing is so creepy and disturbing. I hope they find a way to break her free soon.
Ouch, poor Sunset. I hope the others are able to help her soon. I'd also be interested to see more of Philomena's perspective on the situation.
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Shoot, now I'm thinking about a meritocratic fantasy world's version of No Child Left Behind. It's awful. Though it does tie in to my earlier question about how the Selenians regard people who can't perform as highly due to disabilities. Your answer regarded physical disabilities, but often academic performance is more heavily impacted by learning and developmental disabilities. Does the society have any allowance to care for citizens who are not mentally competent to hold down jobs? If members of the education guild work with children with developmental delays does it negatively impact their performance because the children aren't able to meet the standard?
Also, because I was hyper bored and also very hyped to your story, I wrote an imagination (that will probably not fit into the story in many ways, but I tried my best 😄) on one of the races of MLP that has so far been absent from the story: The griffins - or Greyfians. I hope that whoever reads it will find it at least marginally interesting, because I really enjoyed thinking it up.
Some things before you read.
Yes, this is very obviously based upon Germany. The buildup of the Empire is based upon that of the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire, and its language is a warped version of German, along with some words that I added so it won't be a carbon copy. But I always considered the griffons to be a strong, rigid, militaristic race, and they really fit into this role, with them very strongly resembling Prussia and its ridgid, militaristic spirit.
Enjoy!
The Greyf species are a strange and interesting one, with their history and traditions dating back to far earlier then the average person would think.
In the beginning, when from the maelstrom of Chaos, the Empress first emerged, all the knowledge, all the past, present and future, all of Existence was concentrated into her being. Yet as Existence sought to spread, and fill the void, it did so like water, searching for every posiible way to reach its goal. And as such, when the Empress draw her very first breath, and exhaled it unto, Existence had found its way into the wind of that breath, giving it concience, sapience, knowledge and will.
And thus was born Boreas, the eldest "child" of the Empress, God of the Winds. He roamed the world in the beginning, not finding any purpose, any goal to justify his existence, other then a stroke of luck. Yet, as he saw the world as we know it being birthed, the three siblings, and all the other creatures being created, he found his calling. He would create his own people, his own children, who he can look after and care for, to give purpose to his life. He got to work, creating the first Greyfians, making every little detail with his heart and soul. He gave them bodies, not so dissimilar from their Solarian/Selenian counterparts, he gave them wings so they may journey through his winds, he gave them talons so they may protect themselves from harm and cast down the forces of Chaos. Yet, they would not come to life, no matter how hard he tried. Their bodies, completed, layed lifeless and cold, their insides empty and hollow. In his sorrow, he wished that his life be taken, for if his children cannot live, then neither shall he. He wished to be with them, no matter where they may be. And Harmony heard his wish. His being cracked, his body shattering into billions of parts, becoming the winds of the world, his soul breaking to pieces, and his pieces entering the Greyfians, giving them life, giving them soul. His children now lived, and he could be there with them. Every one of them. All of those who will ever be.
The original Greyfians spread apart, all settling in different lands, many creating different nations, but their faith always connected them. Their faith, that with every birth, a little piece of the soul of Boreas would be instilled in the soul of the newborn, and with the death of one, his soul-piece would return to the heavens, being theirs, just as much as Boreases, and on the Day of the Last Passing, every soul-piece would be in one again. Boreas would be reunited, and live again, and his children will be there within him, always.
However, this loose union would soon prove to be inadequate. As the two Godess-Sisters declared war on each other, and the nations of Nitor took up their arms, many saw the splintered and resource-rich lands of Greyf as an easy target, and as such both Solaria and Selenia sought to gain this advantage for themselves, and the tiny armed forces of the individual kingdoms, duchies, princedoms and free cities were often unable to protect our land. It seemed imminent that the land on which the Children of Boreas lived would be occupied by one enemy or another.
And then came a grand change, that would permanently leave its mark on the fate of Greyfia.
General to one of the strongest Greyfian nations, the Kingdom of Heldenland, Guto Ebonwing was already a well-known figure of the Landeskryeg [National War - for it was regarded as the first war of the unified Greyfian nation] as it later became known to the history books, having led many successful defenses and raids against both the Solarians and the Selenians. However as the armies of the other nations were beaten back, he ultimately realised that without unity, victory over the invaders cannot be achieved. When the Heldenlandian King, the young Alfred IX tragically died in an ill-fated assault against the Solarians, he was unanimously appointed Regent to the Kingdom, and using his newfound power combined with the respect that even the other nations held for him due to his victories and skills, he called for the convening of the very first Landrat [Nations Council] - a grand council comprised from the leaders of (including him) 13 Kingdoms, 7 Princedoms, 9 Duchies and the two Free Cities of Sovira and Ignem. And through convincing, arguement, bribery and promises, each Greyfian nation was convinced - they needed to unify their war effort if they were to drive out the invaders. And thus, with an overwhelming majority, the Landrat has elected Guto to fill the newly created role of Keyzir [The best way to translate this is roughly "mastman", for the origin of the word comes from Greyfian word "keyz" literally meaning the mast of ships]. He was given total authority over foreign and military affairs of every Greyfian nation, and he was standing at the head of the people of Greyfia until the war ended, when the Empress separated her daughters' realms. With the future of his people and land secured, Guto passed away only a few weeks later, at the impressive age of 128 years. He is videly regarded by Greyfians to this day as the "Second Father of Greyfia" and although he was never crowned officially, he has received the informal name of "Guto the Zeroeth", seen as an example by all future Keyzirs.
He was replaced by Paulus Steelbeak, Duke of Rechtberg, elected by the Landrat as a caretaker, until the situation of the lands of Greyfia could properly be estabilished, for hadtily scrambled together edicts and decisions created in the wartime could hardly be the bedrock of a nation. However, the puppet quickly cut his strings. Ascending to his position under the name of Guto I or Guto the Reformer or Guto the Third Father of Greyfia. For while his predecessor have unified these lands, it was but a military and political alliance, not a true nation, something he sought to change.
He officially estabilished the new status quo, with his coronation after his appointment, achieved by the intimidation of thr armed forces, and the convincing of the representatives for the need to make this union a permanent one in order to better benefit the people of the land, turning the position of the Keyzir from being a mere military dictator, to that of a monarch. The Greyfian Empire was officially a federal constitutional monarchy comprised of 31 entities, but in truth, much of the power was centralised to the Keyzir. The Landrat, made up from representatives from each federal entity were to create and propose laws, that the Keyzir could accept or decline. He could also create and pass decrees without the need to consuel with the Rat, but these decrees are inferior to laws. In the case of the death of the Keyzir, the Rat is tasked with electing the new one, from among the 31 leaders [In a somewhat similar fashion to how the Papal Conclave works in real life]. He created the foundation of modern bureaucracy not only within the empire but perhaps the very first of its kind in the entire world, with the so-called "ZAIRE" Sytem: the five federal offices of the empire, the Zivel [Civil], responsible for the managing of civilian, juristical, infrastructural and economical efforts, the Ayzland [Outside/Foreign Land] or the diplomatic office, tasked with managing the foreign relations of the empire, the Ilsat [Faith], the office of religious affairs, ran by the clergymen of the Borealian Church [the official monotheisitc state church of the Empire], and responsible for all spiritual matters within the Empire, the Reykarme [Imperial Army], responsible for managing the army of the same name - the Armed Forces of the Empire, and finally the Eyneland [Inland], tasked with handling any sort of internal trouble or dissent by any means [similar in their task to the Eyes, only they are not at all selective in their means of information retrival]. Their leadership was made self-electing and loyal, answering solely to the Keyzer (who could not interven in their election however), to ensure not favors but pure skill would land someone in a leadership position, making the system tremendously technocratic - and frighteningly effective.
Guto I was also responsible for adding the finishing touches to the army his predecessor created, founding the military High Command, consisted of 12 members of the Reykarme, responsible for managing and commanding the police forces, the Landarme [Ground Forces] and the Kryegmaarme [Kryeg-maar-arme - Naval War Forces], 6 of the Eyneland, standing at the head of the Ayznyngrope [Ayz=out(side), nyn=no, grope=group, so it would roughly translate to "No Outside Group" meaning that they have no visible outside, aka they are invisible.], the intelligence agency and secret police of the Empire, dreaded by some and awed by others for their brutal efficiency at supressing dissent and maintaining order from the shadows, and 2 of the Ilsat, who are the leaders (for they are the only ones who they would ever accept to lead them) of the elite special forces, the Todekryegeren [Death's Warriors], who are a force that could, on the field of battle, even install a droplet of worry into the hearts of fearless warriors such as the Prominence Knights. They are the Warriors of Boreas, every last one of the are blind zealots and fanatics. They are then trained rigorously by the best officers of the Empire, and the priests of the Church, freeing their bodies, minds and souls from every last bit of imperfection it could posess. They consider living and dying in the name of Boreas, for his Children, to be the sole purpose of their very existence, and as such, their ferocity in the fight, and total lack of fear is almost unprecedented in any other land. Should they be ordered, they would charge into the overwhelming fire of the enemy, not caring about any casualities, no matter how high, and knowing no retreat, with not merely a sense of duty - but with joy and pride in their hearts. As a common joke about them says, there is not a single Todekryeger who would not consider sacrificing 99% of their batallion for 2 meters of land gain to be a most optimal outcome.
Finally, he was responibe for the construction of the Imperial Capital of Ebonhaym ["-haym" is a suffix in the Greyfian language that is used in the name of cities, similarly to "-ville" in English], named after the first Keyzir. In order for it to be a symbol of unity, it was decided that instead of building it on the land of one Kingdom or Duchy, it is to be built on the land of all of them. Using powerful magic, many of the highest-ranking priests, mages and spellcasters of Greyfia have gathered pieces of the land of every entity of the Empire, before fusing them together, and placing it right into the geographical center of the Empire. It is upon this land that the great Capital was built. Most famously known for the majestic landmarks such as the Imperial Palace, the official residence of the Keyzir, and the High Basilica of Boreas and the Last Passing, the religious center of Greyfia and the Borealian Church, it is the magnum opus of countless architects and artists.
As seen, the ostensibly federal Empire was a very autocratic and militarized and modernized state. Perhaps not on par with nations like Solaria or Selenia. But not a force to be underestimated.
However, every mortal must one day return to the embrace of Boreas, and so, in the age of 84, 32 years into his reign, Paulus Steelbeak also abandoned his earthly corpus after his passing from a violent heart attack, and departed with the Golden Wind, to fly beyond the boundaries of the mortal realm, where to this day, the soulpieces await the Last Passing in eternal serenity.
And his successor was elected - the circle could start again.
As of the day of the ascension of the Phoenix-born and the Star-touched, Keyzir Guto LVII, formerly Guntar Dawntalon, Prince of Tobremberg is wearing the Krona de Keyzirz [Crown of Emperors], the second youngest Keyzer at the age of his election, having been only 34 years old, a year older than the late Julyus Cloudroamer, or Guto XLIII. While over two millenias have passed, the system enacted in the past changed very little in its buildup, aside from the obvious modernization - proving itself to be truly one of the greatest achivements of Greyfkind. Guntar is expected to continue this trend, as another a unassuming emperor to rule under the Golden Age, an age of peace and prosperity that had been lasting for a little over 1200 years now.
But as the winds of turmoil continue to upset the status quo more and more, people start to believe in growing numbers that Guto LVII will be the emperor with whom the Golden Age ends. What will come after, a Dark Age or a long avaited Apotheosis of the Greyf - perhaps only Boreas, in his infinite wisdom, knows.
So she's trapped in her own mind where her worst fears are made real, plus there's a manifestation of the poison trying to find her.
Huh... I wonder if the poison was planted to teach her a lesson about what her actions could cause. Also to test her mental fortitude
Well, here's hoping Sunset is in a coma and not running around the palace like a madwoman.
Very nervous about that Lyra kill turning out to be one of her friends trying to stop her.
Probably gonna be biting my fingernails till the next update.
Yikes. Poor kid—horrible hallucinations, poisoning, torment,…on top of being cut off from her emotional support network for months and held to expectations that frankly, most 10 year olds are mentally, emotionally, and developmentally incapable of meeting, Sunset is being run through the ringer.
I have to admit, theres a big part of me that wants to start slapping the adults, starting with a goddess and going down through all the phoenix born, through the nobility, and then the kirintal. Because i get the political ramifications, but it feels like Sunset is being set up to fail by everyone, even Raven, who seems to suffer from the detached immortal issue and is incapable of realizing at this juncture how to actually care for a ten year old child. (Seriously? I cant stand kids, but Sunset confessing that her two friends hugging her was the first kind of positive, emotionally supportive contact in months? That actually hurt me.)
Is Raven trying to create She-Demon Shimmer? Because emotionally starving a child like that on top of everything else? Thats how you irreparably break someone. Thats how you get a raging she demon.
Still a marvelous tale and i cant wait to see more.
Wow. Nightmares are bad, bit one so vivid that all your senses still work is just horrifying. You can't tell what's real or not and as one person pointed out, is her body acting out in the world as well.
Also, in the beginning when Sunset is taking in the wrongness of the world you repeat the sentiments in the following paragraph as well.
Until next time!
Because you're still hallucinating, silly girl.
I suppose this is what happens when you've never dreamed before. Sunset has no prior context for her perception of reality differing from the genuine article.
Oh. Wonderful. She's dreaming of Eldrazi. That definitely bodes well...
(And I suppose it's too much to hope that Luna notices one of her sister's pets in her realm. Full sensory hallucinations probably don't count.)
Oh, the poor thing. This will likely get worse before it gets better. I just hope Sunset's physical body isn't echoing her actions, especially the magical ones. Definitely looking forward to more, even if I'm dreading the more immediate moments.
11673794
Would it surprise you that the horror genre was where I started in when I began to write, and still remains one of my favorites?
As for whether or not Sunset did heat spear someone outside her hallucinations, the answer is in the previous chapter.
11673831
Her state once the poison really kicked in was pointed out last chapter.
11673939
Thank you. I try.
11673945
Horror is probably my favorite genre to write, so I enjoyed the opportunity to "cut loose" a bit. And Raven et al. are doing everything they can to help her. It's just going to take time. Time Sunset may not have much of if she's going to get out of her head unscathed.
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Mena is very, very upset and scared right now. Even if Sunset's link to her is blocked, the same is not true for Philomena. She's getting a front row seat to everything Sunset's going through, and the fact she can't be there to support / help / protect / comfort her bondmate is torment to her.
As for Selenia, I'm going to start with a caveat: I want to make it abundantly clear that while I am including this in my work as an extension of my "if-then" thinking on how a draconian meritocratic society would function, I don't endorse it. Honestly, I think what I'm about to describe is horrifying. But if I'm going to stay true to my goal of exploring a world that fits the idea of "imbalanced societies based on ideas without counterpoints," this is what I get.
With that out of the way, the question of mental competence is unfortunately where the real negative aspects of draconian meritocracy come in. Fundamentally, while an individual may have some protections once they join a guild, there is nothing to say that the guilds have to take them or keep them if they prove incapable. If someone's mentally incapable to the point that they cannot perform the basics of a job, then no guild will take them. In that case, they are simply cast out into the wilderness and left to fend for themselves. Most of them don't survive long in that case. And if they turn to crime to survive, because they're second class citizens the consequences if / when they get caught are harsh.
As for the whole "no student left behind" thing, there's reasonable expectations for performance, and there's trying to get medical grade type O- from a chunk of talc. Some students are beyond helping, and for those cases, the teacher isn't held accountable for the student's failure. After all, Selenia doesn't expect the impossible. The very difficult maybe. But not the impossible.
It is to avoid this sort of circumstance that the medical guild has its "controlled childbirth" system. They have centuries of data on pedigree and what sort of combinations of pedigrees can lead to those sorts of mental deficiencies (extreme autism, Down's syndrome, etc.). Much of what they do is done to ensure that the individuals born don't have those sorts of genetic conditions, while ensuring as much out-crossing as possible to ensure a healthy gene-pool. Again, to be clear, they are forbidden from trying to breed an ubermensch. The onus is to ensure that negative genetic conditions are kept from the population, so that every individual born has a chance to excel. Aside from avoiding combinations that have known negative consequences, they do not look at anything else about the individuals, because that would go against their beliefs. After all, if you deliberately bred a genius, would that genius really have advanced as far as they could on their own merit?
11674037
I'm glad I provided inspiration for something.
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As harsh as the phoenix-born can be, they wouldn't put Sunset's life on the line like that. This has a very good chance of breaking her mind in irrecoverable ways.
11674320
The prior chapter alludes to what her state is while having her little "head trip."
11674515
I won't repeat what I've said about the circumstances both Sunset and Raven find themselves in, so I will just say that after this whole thing, Raven might be re-evaluating how to approach Sunset's education. And how much she's willing to show Sunset her own feelings.
11674754
Yea, what Sunset got was something very special. And clearly not in a good way.
11674825
Pretty much.
Believe me, that was something that crossed my mind way too many times when working on the outline for this section. I'm not going to spoil what I decided, but know it did cross my mind more than a few dozen times. Or, if not, Queen Luna, maybe a certain someone else who is also Selenian and tied to the Dream.
True. She hasn't reached Golden Tree yet.
11674954
I'd missed the connection to the timeline created by the previous chapter and this one. Thank you for the pointer. I had somehow thought that what was happening here was -after- Sunset went catatonic in the previous chapter, not before. But you're right, it's simultaneous. Appreciate it - it's less frightening now, but still bloody vivid.
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Poor Philomena. I'm glad Amara went to comfort her. She needs her big sister.
Regarding your spoilered comments, that is more or less what I was expecting from the fiercely meritocratic society you've described. And, sadly, such treatment is not unheard of in the real world. I do completely understand that you're not condoning or encouraging such attitudes, so don't worry there. As the saying goes, a depiction is not an endorsement. It's not like Margaret Atwood wrote "The Handmaid's Tale" because she wanted to show Gilead as a great place.
Selina in ruled by Queen Luna . Not Queen Nightmare Moon , so as harsh as it would seem . Its not a nigh mare realm as much as sun gazer would believe. If any thing should the queen find one of her sisters followers in her realm she would know she is not a spy because its her realm and no one can match her. also we know that Sombra is aware of the significance of the two ascensions on the same day. my guess is that both Luna and her sister are also aware of Sunset and Twilights roles in thing to come but may not be privy to the exact way they will effect the world. that may be Faust's doing .
Good chapter but like, nothing happened. And the hallucinations wasn't even resolved this chapter, which means it'll continue into next.
Story is good but way too padded.
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I just feel I have to say it, y'know, since internet lynch mobs and whatnot are a thing.
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The question then becomes is Sunset dreaming, or is this something else? As for the sisters being aware of their respective ascendants, I haven't decided on that. I kinda like the idea that Sombra only cottoned onto it because he's got spies on both sides of Impraecordia feeding him and his ascendants info.
11675717
I understand. Most of what I was going for in the chapter wasn't a quick resolution, but to really dig into the loneliness and fear Sunset's experiencing.
Omg I love this story so much. I love how much detail you put into every scene. It almost makes me feel like I am experiencing it myself. I admire your work so much and have gotten many great ideas from your work. It is so inspiring to see how much work and detail you put into your stories. Thank you so much for staying so devoted to this story as I have experienced how hard it is to keep up with your own life and writing a story which has led to me quitting on so many stories in the past. I’m so excited to see where the next chapter takes us and to experience an entirely new part of your extraordinary imagination. Good luck on writing the next chapter. I am positive it will be amazing no matter where it ends up taking us. ❤️
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Omg I didn’t realize that mena is still experiencing all this with sunset. I feel so sorry for both her and sunset (even if they are fictional characters) for having to go through all this torture.
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Thank you. I appreciate the compliment and the readership.
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If I'm garnering sympathy for them, then I'm doing my job right.
What are the formal relations between Solaria and Selenia after the Splintering? Do they acknowledge each other but refuse to engage in communication and consider each-other arch-enemies,or do they see the other as treacherous usurpers who occupy land they consider rightfully theirs?
Also what is the name of the Selenian capital?
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I did not realize it was from a Sun-gazers perspective. That changes it a lot. Thank you for pointing that out.
11679275
Your welcome. This is definitely the best story I have ever read. Once again good luck on the next chapter. Hope it’s out soon!
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Y'know, right after posting I thought of the possibility that they weren't, but I was like nah the author wouldn't separate them that much.
11689830
*Sigh* it never is. One day I just want someone to waltz in and be like yeah so I'm basically God and your politics mean nothing to me. Then they kill all the annoyances.
Damn.
It is a testament to your skill that you managed to create an image that leaves me shaken and scared.
Good job!
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Thank you. Horror was my first genre, so it's good to know I still got it.
Hi again! I just wanted to say good luck on the next chapter. I’m really looking forward to it. I actually just started writing a story of my own but it probably won’t actually be out for another week or so. Anyways I can’t wait for the next chapter or your story. This is Phoenix Flame and I hope you have an amazing day. ❤️
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Good luck to you too.
11695930
I really love the choice to have the creation story in the first chapter. Stories that delve into their world's myths and legends always feel so much more real and fleshed-out. In-universe stories are one of my favorite elements in books like The Lord of the Rings and Watership Down.
Also, having the story available to the readers means there's a lot of nuance that Sunset hasn't picked up on that we wouldn't see from her perspective. For example, she only thinks of Luna as "the Traitor" and an ancient enemy. But the story has lines like "If they could not work together to keep the world in balance, she would separate them until they could. By her decree, the sky was to be shared equally, but the land was to be split. To the south, Celestia would rule. To the north, Luna. And until the two were able to set aside their differences, they would not be permitted to enter the other’s domain." which make it obvious to an outside perspective that Harmony is treating them both exactly the same, not regarding either one as being right, and that they are meant to reunite someday. It's an important clue that the Solarian's perspective is biased.
Is Chaos and Harmony ruled by the Creation-and-Destruction theory? I mean that "Harmony will inevitably fall to Chaos, but Chaos will inevitably birth Harmony anew?"
11704615
I haven't really decided that detail yet, tbh.
11704541
See I completely understand that. I'm certain there is someone in Luna's territory talking mad trash about Celestia and using filthy sun lovers as an insult. Thing is, I'm completely fine with that.
While I love both sisters equally, I'm so Luna biased it's not even funny. In any conflict or disagreement between the two, I will always side with her, no questions asked. So really, I'd probably be laughing if we were seeing things from Luna's land right now.
I'd be like "lol yeah! Those pathetic sun lovers!"
This chapter is absolutely terrifying because of the possible ramifications Sunset's actions could have in reality.
Honestly chilling.
11792342
Depends on her state outside the hallucinations.