A Light In The Dark

by Umbra Dator

4 : Revelations

Syra floated in the darkness, calm but curious. She felt a breeze stir up around her blowing away the darkness like mist. She then drifted down to the white plane that was revealed below her. Looking forward Syra saw a sickly purple glow straight ahead, seeing no other options she took a step forward, rocketing her into vertigo as she seemingly traveled miles in one step. As she regained her senses, the little human saw a purple crystal pedestal holding a pure black stone. Syra reached out to touch the intriguing piece when a voice stopped her.

“Why hello there young Syra! How kind of you to visit me!” it echoed condescendingly.
“Who’s there? H-how do you know my name?” Syra spoke, her voice shaking more than she liked “Show yourself!”

“As you wish,” with that smoke poured out of the crystals and condensed into something. It was a bit of everything it had an antler and a unicorn horn on it’s head, yellow eyes with red pupils, a lion’s body with one arm ending in a paw and the other in a bird’s claw. It had wings, one feathered and the other batlike; it’s feet were mismatched as well, one a reptilian leg and the other equine. The monstrosity ended in a scaled tail with fur on the end. Everything about it was inherently wrong, and nothing truly fit.
“I, young human, am Discord” it, or he judging from the voice, said bowing “but you...can call me Master” he said grinning maniacally.
Syra’s mind spun at this, what could he mean ‘Master’? This thing held no power over her! Did he? So many questions zipped through her head but she was unable to focus on any due to a strange recurrent beeping that continually interrupted her thoughts.
“Hmm, I had hoped we would have more time” he said frowning “Oh well” he shrugged, the insane grin returning “Farewell my pawn, and I wouldn't tell Celestia about this! She might not like you as much after” he turned to leave but seemed to remember something “And I do hope you find this” he said tapping the black stone and cackling. Syra was unable to respond, as the beeping got louder until the world was bathed in white.

|...|

Celestia paced around her room in worry. The creature obviously meant no harm, that much was obvious after she glanced through its thoughts. What worried her was how it got here. It lacked magic almost completely and yet the ‘stone’ it came down in was so laced in magic, it had yet to begin to melt. Celestia had put the creature in the furthest part of the medical wing and stationed guards to keep civilians out. She had tried to heal it herself but found that her magic was just absorbed, seemingly without a trace. This was unheard of. Of course so was a strange creature falling out of the sky. Without any background, Celestia was as lost as her little ponies. But she would not give up, she needed to find the spell that brought it here and send it back. It did not belong here and, while peaceful, needed to be sent home. Celestia was just finishing up her grim thoughts when there was a knock at the door. Putting on her signature grin she opened the door.

“It’s awake!”

|...|

*beep....beep....beep....beep...beep*

Syra woke with a gasp. In a panic she tried to move but found that her limbs were strapped to the surface she was on. Looking left she could see a vast array of medical apparati, including the heart monitor that was trying to drive her insane with its incessant beeping, to her right was a double door. She tried to look toward her feet but found she was unable to because of the strap holding her head down. Fighting back her fear, as the beeps got more rapid,Syra took some deep breaths, and settled down to wait until her captors showed themselves. Luckily, or perhaps not, she didn’t have to wait long. The door to her right opened to reveal what looked like horses, no they were too small for that. Ponies then. They were armored and grim. Behind them came a true horse, a mare if she remembered the anatomy correctly, pure white with a flowing rainbow mane. She had a pure white horn coming out of her head, and white wings on her back. When she saw Syria's situation she gasped and moved towards her, as she did her horn lit with a quiet chime and the straps holding Syra down began to undo themselves. Once they released her, Syra sat up rubbing her wrists subconsciously.
“I am terribly sorry, I didn’t expect them to strap you down” she said, her voice much like a mother’s, gentle and light. Syra just sat and gaped at the fact that the horse just spoke.

“I am Princess Celestia of Equestria, may I ask your name?”

“I mean horses don’t talk, surely I’m just seeing things. I’m probably still asleep in a hospital somewhere.” Syra blathered, scared but certain.
“I am sorry, but this is no vision nor is it a dream. This is reality, however much you may not like it.” The Princess said almost apologetically.

At this Syra began to panic, and tried to stand up but fell due to a sudden weakness overtaking her. She was caught temporarily in a golden field, however the field flickered and went out leaving Syra to fall the rest of the way to the floor albeit slower. When she tried to get up she found that she could do nothing but roll herself to her back.

“Are you okay?” Celestia asked worried about Syra’s sudden weakness.
“N-no, I feel s-so weak. I-I’ve never been so t-tired” Syra groaned slowly falling back into the dark.

As soon as Celestia saw Syra pass out she knew something was very wrong. She called the nurses in to set her back on the bed, making sure they didn’t strap her down again. Celestia then did a quick scan, so as to make sure the magic wasn’t dissipated, over Syra. It was then The Solar Princess realized how big of a problem there truly was. The young creature’s body was flooding with magic, and she had no way to use it. Just by being in the planet’s atmosphere she was dying. There was only one solution to this. She needed an Onyx, the only thing on the planet that could absorb magic rapidly and allow the use of it. Warning the nurses to not use magic near her, Celestia galloped to the owner of the only Onyx in Equestria.

Luna.