Lethe

by Nicroburst

Three

We were happy, once? Or had I mistaken that impassioned flame for an easy contentment, at peace with the world we saved?

Chapter Three

THE EVERFREE FOREST HAD ALWAYS BEEN AN AWE-INSPIRING PLACE. Those living on its edge feared the dangers it held, while those who heard of it from far away marvelled at the tales it spawned. The respect was well earned; the Forest harboured many secrets, most still hidden from ponykind.

The river had been born in violence. Years ago, just before the dawn after the longest day of the thousandth year, it had burst into motion, a suddenly powerful current washing away all restraint. It had passed through the Forest in an unstoppable torrent, asserting its authority. It loosely followed a path through the Forest; a shallow gully mostly overgrown with a thousand years of vegetation. The river tore through, boring a new bed into the ground for it to lie in. It felt no guilt for its actions, for it brought with it Harmony; the endless cycle of creation and destruction.

***

Rainbow stared at the river, at the spot where Twilight had disappeared from view, vanishing around the corner. Her mind was blank, numb—still recoiling in shock. Twilight had left, just like that. Somehow, it didn’t seem real to Rainbow. She found herself waiting for the jolt, waiting for the unicorn to nudge her awake with a warm smile and a gentle tap.

Instead, she lay where she had fallen. The water in front of her lapped at her hooves, the spray reaching up over the bank to further soak her. Rainbow didn’t feel the water hitting her, didn’t feel the cold seeping into her body. In the back of her mind, she was aware that she needed to dry off and warm up, but it just didn’t seem very important right now.

The sun gave her no heat. With an hour left to live, its rays were laid throughout the glade, covering everything with ethereal light, but little warmth. Rainbow lay still, paying no heed to the coming night. It was only when an absent realisation—she could no longer see the waters in front of her; the sharply curving bank and the gently curving flank of Twilight’s disappearing form—strayed through her mind that she snapped back to reality.

Rainbow rose, scrambling back from the river. Stumbling, she fell back onto her rump, sinking a few inches into the soft ground. Clammy mud clung to her fur as she clambered to her hooves, sticking it into clumps. She creased her brows momentarily, annoyed at herself.

Twilight had gone, and she wasn’t coming back. Not, at least, until the morning. How could she have done that? To leave her so easily, as if she’d meant nothing at all—it spoke of a callousness that seemed completely at odds with her impressions of the unicorn. Everything she knew, from the last two days, and from the memories given her by her friends, showed her a caring, trustworthy pony.

But . . . without Twilight to guide her, what was she going to do? She couldn’t wait here for the night. She was too exposed, both to the elements and the wildlife. Who knew what could be lurking out there, in the Forest?

Shelter, she needed shelter. Wasn’t there a castle, somewhere around here? Where she’d, along with Twilight and the rest of their friends, faced down Nightmare Moon? It was the place the Drac had told her to find Lethe, Rainbow realised—the old castle at the end of the river. She could follow the river there, even in the darkness. It would do for the night, keep her safe until morning.

“Slow down!”

Rainbow hesitated. Twilight had warned her. She’d urged her to think of the consequence, instead of just dashing forward heedlessly. But she’d been too caught up in herself to listen; too absorbed in her own thoughts of triumph and recovery to see what was right in front of her.

She’d asked Twilight to trust her, and in doing so, forfeited any right she had to offer Twilight protection. It didn’t matter that the Drac had been stronger than her, bigger, and more capable. It didn’t matter than Twilight was more equipped to handle him than she was. At least with magic, she might have a chance.

None of that mattered. The simple truth was that Rainbow had abandoned her, however unintentionally. If she left, she’d be making that same mistake again. Didn’t she owe Twilight more than that?

A thought struck her. If she left, how was she to find this place again? Rainbow might be able to cover a great deal of ground from the air, but every part of the Forest looked the same. She could very well never be able to tell the glade from any other section of the river.

And still, the Drac’s answers tugged at her. She was so tired of acting without knowing what spurred her hoof, of feeling without understanding why; of being lost, both inside and out.

The Drac had offered her answers, but it had given her more than just knowledge. It had given her a goal—something she could pursue, instead of this useless moping; a chance, finally, to take matters into her own hooves. It was a temptation she could barely resist.

Rainbow growled. The darkness was beginning to press in around her, shadows moving, rippling, at the edges of the clearing. Surely it was folly, to remain here. She couldn’t last through the night, not without fire, or magic, or even just the knowledge of what she faced.

A low rumble answered her, just barely rising over the gurgling river. Rainbow’s hackles rose as she spun in a tight circle, scanning the environment.

Relax, Rainbow! It’s just your imagination. There isn’t anything there.

Rainbow fluttered her wings, loosening her shoulders. She couldn’t fight, not without light to see by. She’d have to hope that the safety of the air would be enough.

Was she so loyal, as to lay down her life for the sake of a broken promise? She didn’t want to leave Twilight, but she wasn’t going to achieve anything sitting here. Couldn’t she be loyal to herself? Didn’t that sword cut both ways, urging her to stay, and to go?

Rainbow had only fractured memories of the time before—images, of herself, acting, speaking, and living. Each felt foreign, stirred no recollection, as if she’d never been the pony they depicted. Could she have changed so much, so quickly? She didn’t know if she could be that pony anymore?

Wait, and be defined by need, or leave, and take responsibility for herself. She’d been nothing but a burden to Twilight, ever since awakening at the river yesterday. It was about time she did something for herself.

Rainbow nodded, lifting her wings as a chill wind ran through her feathers. She shivered, still soaked with water, and then sprung into the air, droplets spraying all around. From below, she heard a snarl, and a sudden scuffle.

Taking a deep breath, she shot forward, a rainbow contrail arising over the surface of the river as she followed it to Lethe, fleeing her failure, and her guilt.

She raced the sun. Without knowing neither how far she had to go, nor what she’d find when she got there, she kept an eye on the horizon, watching as the pale orb slowly sank beneath the horizon. If she didn’t reach her goal soon, she’d be hard-pressed to find it at all.

She raced the wind. It roared in her ears, a sullen rush of air that did its all to hold her back. It stripped the water from her wings and torso, flinging it back to join its brethren in the river. It flattened her feathers and her fur against her skin, and streaked through her mane, twisting the colours into a single, blurred hue.

She raced her own beating heart. It throbbed, in her chest, in mute protest or violent affirmation. She couldn’t tell which it had settled on. Instead, she flew, blew past warning and consideration in a flurry of wings and speed.

The river meandered around the Forest, forcing Rainbow to fly a wandering path, often circling back on herself. She didn’t dare leave the surface of the river for fear of losing it entirely in the growing dark. Still, in minutes she could see a clearing, through the trees, and a large structure rising above them. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the river’s destination.

It towered above her like an obsidian mountain, glinting black. Rainbow glanced upwards as she flew out of the tree-line, trying to discern the chasm they had crossed six years ago, in search of the Elements of Harmony. She thought she caught sight of the rope-bridge—of her rope-bridge—against the wall. The simple knot she’d tied must have weakened, over the years, eventually allowing the bridge to fall back down. Rainbow turned her back on it, following the river as it circled around the castle to plunge into the depths below.

“Lethe!” she called, staring down into that darkness. “Lethé! Léthe? No, no, how did he say it . . . Letheé?”

Behind her, the sun finally sank below the horizon, a last gasp of tranquil red flaring over the land. In its wake rose the moon, slowly, a pale orb of argence that seemed to catch at Rainbow’s torso, anchoring her against the fall.

Maybe I should have waited, Rainbow thought, suddenly uncertain. She wouldn’t be able to see, down there. What was she even going to do, if she did find Lethe? Ask him to let her go nicely?

Twilight was the one with magic. Twilight was the one with the plan, the one who took the lead, and assured her that everything would be alright. Rainbow had clung to that comfort, at first. Now, she felt the stirrings of anger within her chest, sparking her to motion.

With a small cry, she leapt forward, into the open space above the abyss. She hung there, suspended in the moonlight, for just a moment. Then she plunged downwards, wings unfurling and a fierce grin spreading over her face.

“No,” Rainbow called, to anything that might be listening. “No, I’m going. Lethe! Where are you?!”

She shot downwards, her cry echoing after her with the roar of the waterfall the only thing to answer.

***

Rainbow didn’t know how long she’d been wandering. The castle ruins seemed to go deeper and deeper into the earth, plunging downwards without end. The river—quieter, now that the descent had sloped off, and shallower—gurgled at her side. She was loathe to leave it. It would be so easy to become lost, completely, in the dark.

There was no light down here. She couldn’t see even her own hoof, held inches from her face. More than once she’d stumbled, falling to the hard stone, walked straight into outcroppings of rock, and leaving bloody furrows in her side. After that, she’d slowed down, taking each step cautiously. It made for aggravating, agonising progress.

Still, she was making progress. At first, the river had taken her through narrow openings and sharp turns—the sort of shattered entranceways and scattered debris one might expect to find in a ruined castle. It had been standing out here, without repair or restoration, for at least a thousand years.

That section, however, seemed to have passed. From the chill air, drier now, and the low echo of the river’s voice resounding back to Rainbow’s ears, she guessed she was in a series of caves. Some kind of empty space, buried under the Forest and preserved by the river’s caressing touch.

She felt like an invader, stealing into a memory, or relic, from times gone by. Rainbow chuckled, a small smile quirking her lips. It was ironic, really, that the pony with no memory would be the one to dive headfirst into perhaps the most historically significant place in Equestria. It could be well-known, she supposed, but somehow that didn’t feel right.

Rainbow struggled to put a word on it. The ruins weren’t just dead, weren’t just silent, or still, or empty. It wasn’t enough to think of them lying here, slowly degrading and fading away, as the Forest grew up around them. It was more . . . an air of anticipation, that lay in the air. As if they were waiting for something—for somepony, to come find them.

Her mind flashed back to the books in her room, and the memory of handing herself volume after volume of the Daring Do series. Her smile widened; the analogy fit.

I wonder if she ever had to deal with the loneliness.

Invariably, her thoughts would turn to Twilight, to the beautiful mare she’d left behind. The scene continued to play through her mind, taunting her with its details. She couldn’t have fought the Drac. She’d felt the wall her word became, tried to break through it. But its magic had bested even Twilight. There was nothing more she could have done.

She’d stayed true to her word, however much it pained her. There was a loyalty in that, wasn’t there, in the strength to stick to her promise, to relinquish all rights to fight for Twilight, and to press on regardless? But her failure there wasn’t what plagued her. It wasn’t what stripped the smile from her lips and robbed the hint of colour from her cheeks.

She had given up. All her bequeathed memories, given to her by dear friends, showed that one, consistent trait throughout her life. Rainbow Dash did not give up. She didn’t, ever, leave anypony hanging.

So when she turned away, when she left the clearing and abandoned Twilight, she’d turned her back on that past. She’d turned away from that exemplar that stood proudly in her mind, condemning her, reviling her.

You poor, pathetic thing, she said. You’ve traded yourself for a chance to rediscover what you had all along. You were just too scared to see it.

Too scared to pick up the pieces, too scared to make a decision; ever since she woke you, you’ve been clinging to something. First it was Twilight. You let her worry about ‘treatment’; you got angry when she failed to fix you. It was her fault, wasn’t it, Rainbow.

Then you went after it, whatever it was that stripped you bare. You dragged her with you—for what chance of her refusing to come?—only to abandon her once you had a new focus, when you didn’t need her anymore.

Rainbow shook herself, trying to shut the voice out. There wasn’t anything she could do about it here, no way to take back the decision she’d made. Better to focus on what was around her. Better to make it mean something.

Stepping forward once again, Rainbow paused as her hoof struck stone. Carefully, she stepped to the side, then reached forward, again meeting rock. She pressed herself closer, feeling the wall that had appeared in her way, and then turned back to the river—now just a sheet of water, covering the ground.

It was enough to follow, though, and it lead her just a few feet to the side. Her wing, scraping lightly along the wall as she walked, slipped into a crevice; some kind of fissure, separating this cave from the next. There was a trickle of water flowing through it.

Rainbow eased into it, slipping in with her left shoulder leading her right. Slowly, carefully, she inched forwards, pressing herself firmly against the stone. Loose dirt showered her, rubbing into her coat, and her mane caught on the rock, tugging painfully. Nonetheless, with care she was able to push through without incident.

Emerging on the other side, she paused. There was something in the air, here, something different to the caves she’d left behind. Rainbow let loose a sharp cry, calling out into the darkness. Despite herself, it came out hoarse, a weak, halting, and choked-off thing. She was suddenly aware of how vulnerable she was.

The cry vanished into the void. Rainbow waited a full minute, but the echo never came. Instead, as she cast her gaze around, she began to see motes of light arising from the darkness.

Light meant life. Rainbow rushed forwards, her wings rising and stretching outwards to stabilise herself. She tore down a hill, heading towards the nearest flicker—an eerie red, glowing subtly amid nothing. As she approached, she slowed her gait to a trot, and then a walk. She’d learned that much, at least.

The light, however, was no threat. Instead, it came from a small crystal; a gem, set into a stone wall. Rainbow halted an inch away, staring at the thing. Around it, dirty, cracked, and pitted stone was illuminated by its gentle glow, but the gem itself seemed unmarked.

Where in Equestria am I?

Rainbow turned, following the wall to another speck of light. This gem shone yellow, a dull flame sparking in its center. She tapped it with a hoof, causing a tiny chime that quickly faded. It seemed to still have power, at least, though what could power something this ancient was beyond her.

Rainbow left the two gems behind, continuing forward. She hadn’t been walking long when her front hoof caught a stone, sending her sprawling to the ground. She cursed, under her breath, as she lay there—scrapes and scratched burning, her side aching and shoulder on fire—and then stood, snorting. She should have felt it earlier, no matter how distracting those lights were.

It was cobblestone. She was walking on a long-deserted street; presumably near the edge of a town, or even a city. Rainbow wasn’t sure what to think. Still, that made the wall beside her a building of some kind. The gems were . . . streetlights? Maybe they had been affected, after all. Maybe they were supposed to be brighter—supposed to illuminate the whole area.

Could Lethe be here? Certainly, the river had lead her here. Even if it was just a long-forgotten relic, the city meant something. It hid something.

And what do you plan to do if you find it, Rainbow? Talk it down?

I . . . I can’t do nothing. I can find it. I can . . . I can . . .

Face it. You haven’t got the slightest clue what you’re doing.

Rainbow ground her teeth, resuming her journey forward. The voice seemed to be quieter when she moved. It was harder to doubt, to listen to the creeping guilt, while preoccupied with the now.

She was more careful where she placed her hooves, now, and the lights kept her on the street. Even so, it was pure luck that had kept the street clear so far, luck she couldn’t expect to hold. She stuck to the side, with her wing pressed up against the stone wall, moving steadily from gem to gem. They seemed to grow brighter as she approached them, somehow sensing and reacting to her presence. Around her, everything was still—and as quiet as the grave.

She didn’t quite know how she kept the fear at bay. It should have been her worst nightmare—every pegasus feared the underground. The deep dark, the quiet dark, arising in narrow, cramped tunnels and fragile ceilings. Claustrophobia, of a kind; despite the huge expanse of air around her, the air seemed to weigh on her, press her inward. It reduced her step to a slink, sent tremors through her limbs and electricity through her fur.

But still she pressed on. And every time the void came for her, came rushing in with all the imagined horror her addled mind could provide, an image appeared, crystal-clear and full of light. The image of Twilight, the concern carved into her face sublimating into relief as she approached. The gentle smile, reassuring and warm, as she promised to aid her. The receding tail, leaving Rainbow behind.

She couldn’t allow that sacrifice to be in vain. She had a chance, here, and now, and she owed it to Twilight—to herself—to take it. So she walked, ever-forward, into the dark. She didn’t quite dare call out again.

Abruptly, the street ceased, running to a halt against a fallen building. There was no easy way around, so she flapped her wings, rising into the air and darting over the obstacle. Staying low, she landed softly on the other side. Rainbow coughed, as the dust from her motion caught her, filling the air with tiny storms of particles. Rubbing her face with a wing, she blinked the grit from her eyes and continued, quickly losing track of how many obstacles she passed in a similar manner; some traversed, and others avoided through side-streets or ruined buildings. There was little else to do but walk, and what seemed an infinity to walk in.

Rainbow yawned, the slight sound splitting the silence that had grown around her. She couldn’t continue forever. She could feel herself growing tired, growing weaker. It must be well into the night, by now, and the adrenaline of her situation was wearing thin. Perhaps she should find somewhere to rest. Somewhere safe—or as safe as she could be, in a place like this.

Rainbow halted, ears flicking up. She couldn’t . . . no, it was still there, if only just barely. Her own heartbeat, suddenly thundering, pounding her chest and her ears, threatened to drown it out, but she could still hear the river, behind her in the distance. Reassured, she turned to the neighbouring buildings.

She settled for the first one she found. A squat building, dirt was heaped in a giant mound, rising up one wall all the way to the second story. The whole thing was tilted, and most of the floor caved in, so that the corner she curled up in was a vertex, hanging in space. But it was small, and tight, and as she pressed herself against the old, hard wood, she felt almost secure. She was asleep within seconds.

***

Rainbow came to with a start—a stab of cold fear jolting her from slumber. In seconds she was on her hooves, nostrils flared and wings raised, facing outwards. There was, of course, nothing there.

Nonetheless, she was awake, now, and alert. Little sense in trying to find sleep again. She didn’t know what time it was; the place was still shrouded, though those motes of light had disappeared. Perhaps they only came on at night? Rainbow bit her lip. She’d have to follow the sound of the river out.

Fortunately, she could still hear it, despite the great distance between them. It wouldn’t be too hard to fly out, if she was careful. From there, she could make her way up to the surface, and then back along the river to Twilight.

It would be morning, now, right? Probably well past it, all things considered. Last night was still blurred in her mind; a flurry of events that left her little time to process, until weariness had hit her like a brick wall. Now, though, she was thinking more clearly.

Rainbow felt the air before her carefully, slowly moving forward. To her left, she found a wooden shelf, built against the wall. She grabbed it for support, beating her wings to help her move up the incline. Her body protested the movements, joints cracking and all the little aches, built up over the night’s rest, speaking up at once. She gritted her teeth, stretched her back, and did her best to ignore them.

Her hoof fell on something different. A square object, standing on the shelf. She grabbed it, brought it close to her, and opened it, leafing through the pages. A book. Rainbow sneezed as dust billowed from its pages, dropping it to the ground. A bookshelf, then. Could this be a library? Or just somepony’s home.

A thought struck her. Twilight loved books. And whatever was here would be of immeasurable worth—after all, what was contained in those pages was perhaps all that was left of this civilisation.

Bringing a wing around to her mouth, Rainbow plucked a feather free with a wince. Gently, she laid it on the book, lifting it to place it back on the shelf. Hopefully, she’d be able to find it again. She spat, pawing at her tongue, trying to get rid of the grit. She hadn’t realised how filthy she’d become; even her wings were coated in grime.

That done, she flapped her wings harder, rising from the room and out the hole in the wall, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake. Outside, the air was clean, if not fresh. Rainbow hovered, for a moment. It feels . . . sterile, I guess, she thought. As if the world just left it to die.

She shook herself, and then took off, darting towards the source of the faint tinkle of water. As she approached, she found she could even smell it—the water lending a refreshing scent to the air. She focused on that smell, and that sound, and quickly found herself back at the fissure in the wall.

Hurriedly, she jammed herself forward, pressing her body into the crack. As she did, a craggy outcropping of rock snagged on her coat, drawing a long, thin gash along her side. Rainbow let out a whimper, falling back and nosing at the wound. It was bleeding, but it wasn’t too deep. She took several deep breaths, trying to still her racing heart. Pain had sent a flare of energy through her, bringing life to her limbs and heat to her face, but she needed to do this slowly.

She tried again, this time careful to avoid the snare. The rough rock scraped her back further, and showered her in dirt, but she made it through unscathed, and paused on the other side to catch her breath.

Twilight. It was morning, right? She had to get back to the glade, to where she’d left Twilight. She owed her that much. Rainbow rose into the air, hovering just above the sheet of water that covered the ground. As she began to follow it back, up through the series of caves towards the surface, she did her best not to think of Lethe, or the Drac, or everything that could have happened in her absence.

And yet, you did abandon her, didn’t you, Rainbow? All for nothing—for a dead and buried city, long forgotten by the world. There was no life there. The Drac lied to you, to get you out of the way. You have no idea what he’s done with Twilight. And if anything has happened to her, it’s on your hooves.

She couldn’t block the voice out completely, but she did try, filling her mind with what she was beginning to see around her. As she ascended, light began to spill into the catacombs, filtering from room to room in a meandering path down. And the more she saw, the more she wondered.

The ancient castle had been impressive. The lower caves she recognised as dungeons, the dim light; a shadow of the sun, filtering through cracks in the ceiling, and spilling through the hallways in front, revealed hard stone and sharp edges marking off sparse rooms. Further up, however, she found hallways, furnished with long-ruined tapestries, elaborate stone carvings and masterful paintings. Even to her, with no frame of reference, the skill was obvious.

Rainbow had some small recollection of Canterlot, but even the royal palace paled in comparison to the ruined splendour she glimpsed passing through hallways, buried under fallen walls and ceilings or tarnished with ash and scorch marks. There was no longer any doubt. This represented an entire city, sunk into the ground around the castle, now the foundation of the Everfree Forest.

What could have happened to cause such destruction?

Rainbow halted in mid-air. Before her, water rushed downwards, accompanied by beams of sunlight, coruscating through the air and refracting from the water. It was shockingly beautiful—a serenity that defied the coldness she’d felt down below.

It seemed that, in the dark last night; she’d taken the wrong turn. She glanced behind herself at the river, so much smaller next to the torrential waterfall. It was just spray, she realised. Lethe was never in the city at all.

That meant it was still waiting for her, back down in the dark. Rainbow shuddered. Above her, the open sky stretched, a vibrant light spilling into the caverns like a river of golden warmth. Rainbow slowly moved forward, crossing that intangible boundary to feel the sunlight on her wings, and the water rush across her body, cleaning off the muck and grime. She felt . . . good. Invigorated, and refreshed, in a way her night’s sleep had been unable to achieve. She drank deeply, quenching the thirst that had been building in her throat, dry, and coated with dust.

She glanced down. It seemed so easy, suddenly, to fall down there, find Lethe, and recover herself. All it would cost was her last promise; and what was one more next to the string of mistakes that had lead her here?

Twilight is also waiting for you, the voice whispered, and for once, Rainbow didn’t want to block it out. Beating her wings faster, she ascended from the castle ruins into the morning sunshine like an angel, wings outstretched and glorying in her rise. And as she shot back down the river, the sun caught her multihued trail, and danced with it in the wind.

She feared she would not recognise the glade. She feared what the Drac might have done with Twilight in her absence. She feared what Twilight might think of her, for leaving her behind. But beneath all her fears lurked a glimmer of hope—a spark that drove her onwards. It was the thought of Twilight finding her there, or of her finding Twilight there. It was the thought of seeing her smile, and the way her eyes would sparkle with merriment or sympathy, of hearing her laugh, or lecture excitedly on something utterly irrelevant.

So she flew, ignoring the wind and the spray and even the sounds of the Forest, a near cacophonous flood of noise against the deathly silence of the city. And when she arrived, when she found the bend in the river behind which Twilight had disappeared, the churned mud and broken bank that marked her stand and her fall, she saw Twilight.

Rainbow hit the unicorn at speed, driving both of them into the ground as she hugged her, nearly sobbing, stammering apologies. She felt Twilight drag herself out from under her, saw her return Rainbow’s pleading gaze with a perplexed frown.

“Ah, do I know you?” Twilight asked, half-lifting a hoof in apology, and just like that, the spark died.

Comments

[Storylover-Vodhr]

New chapter. ^-^

[Rainbow87dash]

Lethe is the name of a river in Hades which, if it's water is drunk, completely wipes the memory of the persons past life

[Monochromatic Rainbow]

Since Lethe is the river deceased souls go to to forget their past lives, does this mean Rainbow and Twilight are dead?

[kd7sov]

Hoo, my. I was hoping we'd get Twilight's perspective of the night, but that's currently seeming unlikely. Either this is some sort of decoy (which raises questions about Rainbow Dash), in which case we're unlikely to get much of the real Twilight's story until she is found, or she's been reset as well - which bodes ill for the Drac's trustworthiness, "can't lie" notwithstanding.

We were happy, once?

This seems like odd phrasing, as if someone's trying to make sure they heard someone else correctly. Given the context, I'd probably put the verb first.

every pegasi feared the underground

"Every" takes a singular subject - this should be "every pegasus" or "all pegasi".

[Daring Cammie Do]

The Drac is Lethe. He's the rivers spirit and Lethe is the spirit of one of the rivers in the underworld from Greek mythology. The river had the ability to erase ones memories completely.

[Ladrian]

Yeah, I guess I'm done trying to find links. Was fun for a bit, tho.

Awesome story so far, if my exuberance hadn't made my opinion clear already.

Onto the actual comment:

Dash... Dash... Just... Wise move not staying in the middle of the dark, dangerous Forest all night, but really? Going after Lethe in the dark, in completely unknown territory, on your own? That seems rash, even for you. Unless of course you're being rioted, then NOPE. Not gonna do it. Not gonna do it.

So... The river is the source of the voice? Maybe? It got quieter as she moved away from it, right? Is there a shard of Despair? the voice doesn't sound like Odium. Shardpool might be the source of the river. Water might be the focus of Equestria? I'unno. Trying to broaden my guesses.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT. TWILIGHT. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Wait, what's the point in the Seer making a deal with someone if they aren't going to remember it?

If Twi loses her talent/skill/knowledge with magic because of this.... Someone better pay.