Chimes In the Dark

by Faindragon

Chapter 2: Dripping of a Liquid

Chimes In the Dark - Chapter Two: Dripping of a Liquid

The mare relaxed against the throne. Two years of planning, two years of preparation; it had all come to this. Notharam was the one it could all be blamed upon, the one who had betrayed her so long ago. Had he known then what it would lead to? Had he known what she could do? Probably not. She looked out the window. The moon had just been raised. This was the last night, the nightmare.
^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

You betrayed me. The words rang in Notharam’s head. Who was the owner of the voice? Was it the owner of the blue eyes? He asked himself, knowing that he recognized the voice. It was as if a part of him had expected that voice here, but where had he heard it before?

Mistrunner tried to soothe the crying Zinky but without success, the little earth filly didn’t stop her crying.

Emerald, on the other hand, was looking through his saddlebags, mumbling into them.
“Hmm, I know I had it here somewhere, I do not think I took it out before I went to bed. Ah, there it is.”

Emerald raised his head from the bags, bringing up an odd-looking object with him. It was round, made of a strange metal, with four copper tubes sticking out from the sides and one silver tube from the middle of it. A quiet clicking sound emerged from the strange object.

“What is that?” Notharam asked while looking at the thing. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. And why did you have it in your bags?”

Emerald carefully placed the thing in one of his hoofs, gazing upon it like his whole heart was in that piece of metal.
“This, my friend, is a masterpiece, the last of its kind; the inventor is long since dead. It’s a clock that chimes once an hour, starting when you connect the four tubes. We have to survive until sunrise, which is in about 12 hours. With that said, we only have to wait for this little beauty to chime twelve times. This gives us the advantage of knowing how long we have left until we are free - knowing how long we have to survive. And of why I had it, I had only just taken it home. I was to tired to pick it up, we had sorted the part of the library with books for little foals. And after that last school that had been there was it an utter disaster. ” Emerald shrugged. “The next thing I remember was waking up here, as relaxed as I would have been after a long nights sleep, with Mistrunner standing over me, trying to wake me up while you and Zinky was still asleep.”

Emerald slowly bent the tubes with his mouth, carefully connecting each tube with the silver tube in the middle. For each copper tube connected to the silver tube, the ticking came faster. After the last connection had been made, the ticking changed to the sound of a low humming.

“There, all set. It should chime once every hour from now on.” Emerald said, his eyes drifting to the hallway where the dripping was heard from. “I do not know what you think, Notharam, but I’ve got the feeling that it is not a good idea for us to stay in one place for too long. The scream that was cut off indicates that we are not alone. I believe that there is something out there, something that is waiting for us or coming for us. If that is the case then I believe that our best chance of survival is to keep moving and not stay for long at the same spot. After all, that maniac told us that she could see anything in here so she must know where we are and what hallway we go. But, since we won’t be able to change that fact do I at least want to get my curiosity stilled. Why are we here? Who let out that scream?” he said, turning to look at the twin statues. “And most importantly, who is the other alicorn?

Notharam looked at Zinky, who was still crying even though Mistrunner tried to soothe her.
“Emerald, I believe that I’m nearly as curios as you, although I‘m more curious about the owner of the voice and why we are here. And if our every move is monitored does it not matter where we go, she will find us in the end anyway. But we cannot go anywhere before Zinky is ready to, I will not leave a foal behind. Especially not in a place like this.”

He gently nudged the small earth pony’s neck with his muzzle, doing his best to try and help Mistrunner soothe her.

“There, there, little one, don’t cry. You are safe; we will protect you and make sure you get home again, but you have to stop crying. Show us how brave you can be.”

Zinky stopped crying and looked up into Notharam’s eyes.
“Noth…. Noth… Noart… Noaram, I want to go home” she said with tears in her eyes.

Those eyes nearly broke his heart; he felt as if they had before, in a past long since gone. But he tried to be brave himself. He had always been weak for the young ones; he wanted every filly and colt to be safe from danger. That was one of the reasons that he joined the air guard after his time in the army. He had been in the air guard for three months now. To see those fillies and colts look up to him and feel safe every day was his wish; that was what was important to him. He had abandoned one filly before, and he had never forgiven himself for what happened. Zinky reminded him of the other filly, and suddenly he felt obligated to ensure her safety and happiness.

“We all do, my friend, and trust me; I will make sure you get home to your parents again even if I don’t make it out of here myself.”

The little filly’s face began to shine, a smile spreading over her muzzle.
“You promise? You are going to take me back home? Then I will be brave and not cry.”

Notharam smiled at the little filly, nudging her once more.
“I will protect you, but you are going to have to stay close to Mistrunner. She will help you if anything happens - promise me that you will.”

Zinky looked straight at Notharam.
“Zinky promises that she will stay close to Mistrunner so that Noaram can protect her.”

Mistrunner looked at Notharam; her pale amber eyes full of concern.
“I did not take you as one that was good with the younglings, Notharam. But I will help Zinky as much as I can. Now, let me take a look at your wing, I think it might be broken.”

Notharam could feel how the blood drained from his face. Broken? He had not even thought about that possibility.

“Notharam, are you okay? You don’t look very well, are you sick?” Mistrunner asked him.

“I’m okay.” Notharam said, smiling at Mistrunner. He hoped the smile looked genuine, but his voice betrayed him, he sounded afraid. “Thank you for asking.”

Mistrunner carefully examined Notharam’s right wing. Her hoof felt every muscle and bone in it, and she could quickly locate what she feared.
“Your right wing is broken near the joint.” She pressed her hoof to the area between Notharam’s back and wing; Notharam let out a cry of pain at the touch. “I wouldn’t try to fly for at least seven days, and take it to a doctor as soon as you get home.” Mistrunner removed the scarf from her neck, starting to bandage the wing so that he would neither hurt it nor drag it in the dust. It wasn’t long before Notharam’s wing was tightly bound to his body.

Notharam could see on the look on Mistrunner’s face that it was something she hadn’t told him, but he didn’t want to push her, it was hard for them all as it was. He knew that they had to move soon, he did not have time to push her even if he had wanted.
“Thank you, Mistrunner, I won’t overuse it if I don’t have to.” He gently nudged her. “I truly am happy that I have somepony who warned me, of its condition so I wouldn’t use it due to the danger. Somepony who made sure that I didn’t hurt it more.”

Mistrunner looked away.
“I-I have always enjoyed helping those in need, so there’s really nothing to thank me for.”

Notharam gave the back of her neck another smile before he turned to Emerald.
“Well then, if we’re all ready we should keep on moving. We should not stand here any longer. Emerald, which direction would you suggest?”

Emerald, who had stared into the distance, seemingly lost in deep thoughts, shook his head again and started to speak.
“I can’t shake the feeling that we are being observed, I wonder… Huh, oh yeah where to go. Well, my curiosity about that dripping sound has been awoken, and I also want to find the source of the scream we heard, I believe we will find them close to one another. We could go any way really, but that’s the way my curiosity leads me. I would say the dripping comes from that hallway, but it’s hard to hear. I also believe that the scream originated from that hallway as well.”
Emerald raised a hoof and pointed towards one side of the room.

Notharam listened carefully, but the dripping sound was hard to hear. He could hear so much else around him: the low humming from the clock, Mistrunner’s, Emerald’s , and his own heartbeats, and the sound of the little filly’s quiet sobbing when she tried to keep the tears back. In the end did he give up, hoping that Emerald knew what he talked about. But why can I not hear the dripping now when I heard it before? Then another thought hit him.
“Emerald, can you use any illumination spells? It’s really dark in that hallway, and we can’t haul any of the braziers with us. It would be way too heavy for us. And the maniac told us that there where no windows in here.” he asked the unicorn.

Emerald looked at Notharam as if he was seeing him for the first time.
“Of course I know how to use illumination spells! What do you take me for, a filly? A unicorn’s first spell is often one of levitating smaller things, quickly followed by an illumination spell. As a scrollkeeper, don’t you think I have to read in the dark sometimes?”

Notharam took a step back, surprised by the anger in Emerald’s voice.
“Easy there, Emerald, I never questioned your intelligence. The only unicorns I have been around were the unicorns in the army, and you know what kind of magic they use. Unicorns are rare in Cloudsdale.”

The anger in Emeralds eyes faded away, and he slowly shook his head again.
“I’m sorry Notharam, I shouldn’t have gotten angry over such a question. It’s just that this place gets on my nerves. It feels like the walls are observing my every move - like they are whispering in my ear. To answer your question, yes, I can use spells of the illumination nature. I am, however, not particularly adept at it. After all, you do not need a lot of light to read in the dark.”

Emerald smiled at Notharam, and suddenly his horn began to glow, a warm emerald shine erupting from it.

Emerald took the lead, holding his horn high, the warm emerald glow illuminating his path. Mistrunner seemed surprised that they started to move, but she did not say anything. Instead she keep an eye on Zinky who happily trotted in front of her. The stone floor was covered in a thick layer of dust, old tracks of hoofsteps clearly visible within. Notharam knelt, examining the dusty hoofprints with a trained eye.

“These hoofsteps are not all from the same pony - far from it, in fact. Some of the hoofsteps have to much dust in them to be newer than a month; others cannot be older than an hour. Look at this hoofprint.” Notharam pointed at one of the hoofprints. “I believe this one is from a pegasus.” He pointed at a line drawn to the right of the hoofprint. “This would be the wing, probably broken, similarly to my own. He probably didn’t have the luck I had, somepony who could look at it and bandage it.” He smiled at Mistrunner. “The luck of having somepony who could care for his wounds.” He returned his eyes to the hoofsteps. ”This pegasus passed through here less than two hours ago. I would say he or she was in the company of a unicorn who cared about how it looked more than he or she cared about the others around her. The trail from the pegasus is as old as the one from the unicorn.”

He pointed at another line in the dust. “This is what makes me guess that the pegasus was here with a unicorn who cared more about it looks than the others. I would guess this line was made by a tail, and since there aren’t any hoofprints in front of it. I believe that the tail’s owner was levitating to avoid the dust. I cannot, however, say for sure that they were here at the same time. Judging by the several hoofsteps in this room and the time between them I would say that there have been around forty ponies here, and perhaps some more that were levitating, but I would not say that there were a lot of ponies doing so.”

This time it was Emerald’s turn to look at Notharam.
“So what you are saying is that there have been around forty other ponies down here, at one point or another in time, all killed by that maniac?” Emerald said with a voice which betrayed the panic within him.

Notharam had to act swiftly. He needed to soothe the unicorn before things took a turn for the worse, they couldn’t afford to have anypony panicking.
“Emerald, were you not listening to what I said? That group either didn’t care or couldn’t help the pegasus. You saw the tracks, the unicorn of that group levitated to avoid the dust on the floor. They probably didn’t stick together half as well as we have, as we help each other when needed.”

Emerald looked at Notharam, the panic slowly evaporating from the unicorn’s eyes.
“You are right; I don’t know what made me think like that.” He shook his head. “I swear, these walls are whispering things to me, observing our every move…” He shook his head again. “Let us get going, I can’t take being in this room any longer.”

With those words he started to go towards the hallway from where he said the dripping noise came from. The others started to walk as well, tailing behind him. Mistrunner walked by Notharam, giving him a sad look.
“We will help each other for as long as we can. Come now, Zinky. Let Notharam take the rear.” she said, tears forming in her eyes.

Zinky looked up at Notharam as she passed, nudging his leg.
“Noaram will protect us won’t he? He won’t leave us?”

Notharam gently nuzzled the little filly.
“I won’t leave you and I will protect you with my life if I have to. Nothing will harm any of you down here as long as I can help it. Now go on, we can’t stand here all day.”

He looked after them when they walked, took a last look at the room they were now leaving.
“But how will I be able to protect them with only one wing? What can I do?” He whispered to himself. Then he did something he had never done before, or ever even thought about doing. He prayed. It was not a pray to the elements around him as he had heard some of the older ponies do. No, this was a prayer toward the one that could help them if her powers were as Emerald had said.

“Celestia, give me the strength to protect your people in this forsaken place.” It was a short prayer, but it felt like a mountain was lifted from his shoulders. He slowly started to trot after the others.

Slowly did they trot down the hallway, stopping at every sound that was heard over the sound of their own hoofs against the stone floor. It was during one of these pauses that Emerald stayed while the other started to move, stood and examined one of the walls.

Notharam looked at him, before he turned around and trotted up to him.
“What have you found Emerald? Can we afford to stay and look at walls now?” Notharam asked curiously.

Emerald didn’t move, only looking at the wall. Suddenly he began to speak, repeating words he had spoken earlier.
“And she ruled the sky and the earth, raised the sun and the moon, and took care of the living and the dead. She was the goddess over all, and the ponies of Equestria lived in harmony with each other and with the nature.”
He moved his hoof over the wall during his recital of the text.

“Look over here. Somepony has carved out depictions that describe the events from the scroll I told you about earlier. Carved it in the wall.”

He pointed at the wall, indicating the depiction that he had mentioned. The carving depicted two alicorns standing upon one cloud each at the top of the firmament; one had the sun above it and the other the moon. Under the clouds stood ponies of different kinds, each one kneeling toward the clouds.

“And over here” he moved his hoof to another point on the wall “we have the next part of the text: The unicorns used their magic to build Canterlot, the royal city, to show Celestia their affection for her.”

At the place he pointed, another depiction was carved out. It featured a group of unicorns building a big city. Notharam could easily spot the royal castle of Canterlot among the other building on the depiction. But above the city stood two alicorns, not just the one that had been named in the scroll.

“But who is the other alicorn? I know I should know its name, but I can’t for my life recall it.” Emerald said. “The signs are everywhere. The two statues in the main room, the two alicorns here… Who is this alicorn?”

Notharam walked up to Emerald, poking him with his hoof.
“Emerald, the answers to those questions are somewhere in here - you said so yourself. My curiosity has been awakened as well, but I believe we will find all the answers we need before this is over.” He nudged Emerald away from the wall.
“Let’s go, no need to stand still for too long.”

“You are right, Notharam. This is not the time to stand still, the answers are located somewhere within.” Emerald answered, before he started to trot again, walking down the hallway once more. The others followed him, Zinky looking wide eyed back at the depiction.

Notharam placed himself in the rear of the group. It really felt as if the walls were observing them. He felt a chill travel down his spine as he walked down the hallway behind the others.

Notharam found himself lost in thoughts. What was this place? What dangers awaited them down here? How could he protect the others? Would he and the others survive? He realized that he had passed the others, and turned around to see what kept them. They stood still, looking at a point right above Notharam. Something dripped on Notharam’s muzzle, a red drop of liquid. He looked down and saw that he stood in a pool of that same red liquid. His mind, still lost in thoughts, slowly realized what that red liquid had to be. It was a liquid he had seen enough of in the army. Blood, the life-giving liquid that was in every being. He looked up.
They had found the source of the dripping sound.

And the clock chimed.

Comments

[Faldo]

dont forget the new episode there are ah few things (the control of the sun and the moon is something that celestia can do because she is an unicorn. in pre discort time unicorns raised them both)

[Faindragon]

72776
Yea, I saw that in todays episod aswell but I decided that I will not change it. The part with the alicorns being the one who raise the sun and the moon is important for the rest of the story.

Chimes was finished weeks ago, but its just now I have started with the grammar correction, leaving me with this kind of details to think about how to do.

Thanks for the heads up thou!

[Faldo]

i have read the 2 first chapters now
story is good
lets show how its going on

[Faindragon]

72806

I could give you the entire story if you want it, with all the grammar misstakes within it.

[viperxix]

:D yay for chimes, Im glad to see it on fimfiction