Xenocorn

by 3phantoms

Oasis

Luna stared at the plate of sugary breakfast breads. Six in all, smothered in honey, resembling crepes, sat before her with sticky golden ambrosia pooling within the crevasses of the lattice work disks.

“Amazing.” She said after dabbing her mouth with a napkin, it was a word she was becoming well acquainted with. “Such a wonderful flavor, and the honey just sinks into the pastry.”

Rayne, having already eaten earlier that morning, took a sip from her mug of what she called coffee with a smile. “I’m glad you like it.”

Such had been the routine of the past few days. Luna would wake and after a quick shower, she’d trot to the main room and sit down for breakfast, and without fail, Rayne would already be up and drinking. Luna would eat then join the majin in her morning meditation, after that at her request, Rayne brought her an empty capsule to tinker with. Luna spent her days alternating between trying to unlock the secrets of the device, practicing her magic, and taking breaks by going off on her own to gallop the perimeter of the base until dinner.

Said magic was returning, but not having much still left her a bit uneasy, especially since she had to find her way home as quickly as possible. Rayne may have failed, but for all her talents, she was no alicorn. Luna had centuries to try in the worst case scenario, and who’s to say that pony magic wouldn’t succeed where majin magic had failed? When she’d brought it up to Rayne the response had been her flatter face twisting into a smile that was equal parts sad and pained:

“I won’t stop you, but I don’t see it ending happily.”

And that wasn’t the worst of it. She’d sometimes catch the old mare watching her from her peripherals, Rayne didn’t seem to realize pony vision was wider than her own and thus the princess was privy to more than she let on.

Rayne watched her eating with a subtle look of hunger behind her black eyes, gazed at her as she puzzled over one of the house’s gizmos as though she were watching the discovery of the century, and listened with rapt attention when she recalled one fillyhood tale or another.

It all left a creeping feeling the lunar princess resonated with. The emptiness and loneliness of this world had hollowed her. She was a shell of a mare now, wanting to escape her situation but not knowing how, and so she spun in circles, her sorrow devouring itself.

Luna finished her breakfast and clopped her hooves together, a gratitude ritual she’d picked up from her host, before bringing her dishes to the kitchen.

Rayne was already in position when she got back; legs folded under her, hands resting on her thighs, back straight.

It was something that Luna had noticed early on: Rayne was an extremely avid practitioner of meditation. A sentiment the two shared as it made for a relaxing way to start the day.

Settling on her haunches Luna drew in two deep breaths and closed her eyes. In the darkness she focused her mind’s eye on the rhythm of her lungs and heart, counting seconds until her body fully released its tension. When she was fully relaxed she turned her attention to her horn. Her magic felt like a trickle of water, as opposed to the flood she was used to, but that trickle was steady now, and still more than she’d had before.

A small part of her was reminded of the time when she was a little filly first struggling to lift forest stones.

Breathe in, 1, 2, 3… out…

Letting her mana pool at the crown of her head she gently pushed into her horn.

No need to rush. In… and out.

There was barely enough to form a proper solid corona but with a little effort it flickered into existence, and remained. Ignoring the initial strain, she concentrated on maintaining an even rhythm. "Steady heart steady magic" was an old foal’s saying used to teach young ponies proper control, and one that the princess was quick to become reacquainted with.

For a few minutes she just held it there. Then she began blinking her horn: rapidly suppressing and igniting the corona repeatedly.

9, and 10. A full set this time. Her progress may have seemed miniscule compared to what she was used to but it was still progress. Next she pushed hard. Her heartbeat spiked and her horn burst to life for an instant before going dead.After letting herself calm down she repeated the attempt twice more, then relaxed completely.

It truly was pitiful, but it was all she had. Her exercise finished she cracked open one eye.

“My magic is beginning to return.”

Rayne nodded, her flat features placid as a statue.

“The good food and bed are doubtless helping.” A smile and another nod. “I can probably defend myself now, at least for a time.” The pink face smoothed out as best as it could. “I intended to do a bit of exploring, you said that the city is safe?”

A frown, but followed by a nod. “Mostly. The shadows don’t come inside the wall as long as the door remains closed.”

Luna closed her eyes, breathed deep and stood with a languid stretch. “Would you like me to get you anything?”

“No thank you.” She never did and Luna was beginning to grow concerned; Rayne would spend hours in silent meditation while Luna familiarized herself with the home, toyed with some machine, or practiced magic. She barely ate, taking only small portions at breakfast and dinner, and even when she was active she seemed to keep her movements brief.

Putting it aside for now the lunar princess took a set of saddlebags, helpfully transfigured from an old gray backpack, a notepad and pen she had placed beside the door -a pen with all the ink stored inside, how clever -said her farewell, and headed out, almost eager to see what mysteries lay in store for her. After testing her kick on a tree at the edge of the park, she observed the splintered trunk with a satisfied smirk and picked a street to start at random.

The city outside felt no warmer than it had the first time. The buildings still seemed to close together around her, still seemed to try to smother and oppress, and Luna found herself wishing that her wings were stronger so that she could leave the claustrophobic alleys far below. The uneven flagstone kept her light on her hooves, while broken and cracked roofs meant keeping a wary eye upward for falling debris.

Luna was no fool, and quickly began sketching her route. Rayne had a map but it was somehow “saved” on one of her odd computer terminals, and upon opening said device Luna had frozen in confusion, trying to figure out the mess of wires, nubs, and boxes within the dead machine, before deciding that alien magic was far beyond her, and going off in search of a quill and parchment.

A few hours of careful trotting and her map was taking full shape. The city was indeed as deserted as it appeared, but less maze-like than she had initially thought; there was an order to this place. Each set of four structures arranged in a square together, separated only by cramped alleys, each rectangular shape larger and more oppressive the farther she grew from the middle. It reminded Luna of a giant web, with the castle nestled at the center like a bulbous widow, even its towers brought to mind images of jagged spider legs.

It made her endeavor in cartography much easier, and soon the bulk of her attention was on studying the ruined city, Rayne curiously was little help in explaining much of the city’s secrets, claiming forgetfulness in her old age. So that left Luna the task of exploration.

One thing she was quick to notice was that parts of the town seemed to give off a faint turquoise glow; whole buildings would light up as she passed by. A quick inspection showed them to be empty of any furniture, though her eyes did pick out thousands of tiny runes carved into the inside of each wall. She jotted down what she could and took a stone for future research.

“Tis strange…” She said to herself as she examined one ancient, but almost perfectly intact, building. “Some of these almost resemble pony-made homes, albeit stone and slate rather than wood and thatch.” The construction had evidently not saved the old place, and not for the first time she wondered what had caused the city to fall into ruin. Rayne was mum to that as well, as usual, in fact Luna was beginning to wonder if the majin was deliberately withholding information after all.

Continuing to mull over the oddities she turned one corner and stopped as she realized she had come to the end of the web: the wall stretched out to either side of her, eclipsing all but the tallest of towers, it was a great dark barrier of chipped and overgrown onyx.

Gargoyles and demon ram waterspouts were built inside the wall, as if to keep spirits in rather than out. Her wings twitched in unease as she gazed up at the decorative statues that stared ghoulishly down at her. She hadn’t feared for her life since she was a defenseless little filly. The instincts, the roiling in her gut mixed with the urge to bolt or fly away and caused her to canter in place.

Almost died. She had almost died. Her flesh began to crawl as she thought about what that could have meant. She would have died as Nightmare Moon, not Luna. All anypony would remember of her would have been the crazed mare set on deposing their princess and doing away with their day. She would have never been loved or missed. She would have died a monster.

Feeling sick, she gave into a base instinct, turned and galloped away from the wall. Searching for something, anything, to distract her from her dark thoughts. The gnarled shadow cast by one of the castle towers caught her attention so she changed direction.

Making only small adjustments to her horn drawn map as she moved at a not-quite gallop to the center of town, Luna stood before the entrance to the castle itself. A black iron gate barred her way, nearly invisible against the wall she almost walked by it. Peering between the bars she tried to find the mechanism to open the door, but even her low-light vision failed against the pitch-black of the interior.

When even horn light failed to show more she withdrew with a snort of frustration. She knew the castle wasn’t going anywhere but she had been hoping for an easy way in. With nothing for it, she began her patrol of the massive fortress, searching for a hole or other means of entry.

Two circuits, one going each direction, revealed no such breach. Oh there were collapsed sections, sealed beneath tons of rock, and holes, high in the towers and along the roof of the main building, but nothing within her still limited flight range.

And she did not want to set hoof in a treacherously worn, and possibly booby trapped castle with her mana drained from forcing a point of ingress. Her own castle was a testament to how effective a simple tripwire could be.

So that left her with two options: wait for her magic to recover, or see if Rayne knew a way in. Neither was very appealing to her curiosity but self-preservation trumped her desire to explore.

“Later then.” As she turned away she caught sight of a tarnished placard riveted to the threshold above the gate. The carved engraving was badly faded but Luna could still read what was unmistakably the ponish of her era. “Castle Of Belo.”

The castle a loss she continued to make out her map, marking pages so she could string them together properly when she got back.

The only other area of interest was what appeared to be a crumbled cathedral. While most of the buildings had some damage or showed signs of being slowly worn away, the place of worship had been broken open. As if a dragon had torn one wall free, taking part of the roof with it, and tried its hardest to reduce the interior to ash. Whatever books it may have housed were long gone, and it’s second floor was easily accessible by wing.

The only bell tower was semi-destroyed; like a cup swept across a table by a foal’s angry hoof, most of its peak and presumably any bells lay far below in a pile of rubble. Luna climbed as high as she could. From this vantage point most of the city rolled out before her. The wall was impossible to miss, stone sentries impossible to see at this distance, it still stood tall and unbroken. To the north Castle Belo loomed over the tiled roofs its spiked towers reaching out to the moonless sky like the claws of some fell beast. And to the west was the rounded domes of Rayne’s facility.

The city seemed so lonely, like a ghost bemoaning its unfortunate fate. Even the light created by her temporary “home” did little to lift the pall cast over Belo.

Still that light beckoned with promises of warmth and safety. She was too weak to fly for long, but a glide was well within her power. Smiling softly in the darkness she spread her wings and leapt, moving lazily toward the soft light of the park.

Author's Note:

Chapter 5. Enjoy, and remember that comments are like zenkais: with each one I grow stronger