The sun was slowly setting across Sanctuary. I had actually managed to get to bed early for once and I found Midnight by the stream. She was laying by the edge, forehooves in the water as tiny little glowing flish fluttered back and forth around them, but in and out of the water.
"Hey," I said and moved to drop down onto the grass next to her, "How's your search doing?"
I thought her search for the Kirin and Kelpies was a bit of a wild goose chase to be honest. It was a bit world and even if any remained, it was so unlik-
"I found them," she said with a smile.
I did a double take, "Come again? You've been gone for two weeks!"
Midnight got exactly the same smug look on her face as Twilight did when she managed to surprise me with something, "My tip paid off. They lived in a small valley less than a day's walk from a train station."
I rubbed my forehead next to my horn, "...Bloody hell," I grumbled, "So why don't ponies know about them? Isolationists, curse, what?"
Midnight shrugged her wings, "Dwindling numbers and they're not much for travel in general. And nopony go to where they are, it is kinda isolated. Train station was a bit of an exaggeration, it's a stop in the middle of nowhere to take on water."
"Dwindling numbers?" I asked with a small frown.
Midnight nodded sadly, "They don't know if there are other Kirin somewhere else. But there are barely a thousand of them in the valley."
Barely a thousand. Buck.
"What are they like?"
Midnight looked thoughtful, "Imagine a unicorn. Now give them a mane, like a lion not a pony, their horn is more vertical and curved, splitting into a V about halfway up. Along their backs they have scales instead of a coat. On, and they have split hooves, like deer."
"Huh."
"Their magic is different as well," she continued, "While most can pull off telekinesis, their magic is much more elemental than a unicorns. Gouts of flame, gusts of wind, that sort of thing. They're so strongly bound to the elements that certain emotions can manifest them."
I slowly nodded, "So if they get really angry..."
"They burst into flames," Midnight said, nodding, "They had been having trouble with that a while ago and went through some pretty extreme measures to stop it. I helped them fix the problem."
"I see," I said and flicked one ear.
That would be a real problem.
"Just a thousand left," I said, letting out a sigh.
Midnight nodded, "Just a thousand. Their leader and a couple of others are coming with me back to Nocturnis. They want to see it for themselves before they decide if they want to move or not."
I blinked before my head snapped in her direction, "What!?"
Midnight smiled, "I talked with Rain Shine, their leader. She agreed that where they lived now was not working. She's hesitant to try to join pony society and I understand why, they look even more different than bats."
"Midnight," I said, "We live in wooden houses. In trees."
She frowned at me, "And that's not a problem, so do they."
"Why Nocturnis, why not Canterlot or Manehattan or anywhere else?" I asked.
"Because they don't trust ponies," Midnight said softly, "They're not isolationists as such, but they stayed where they are because the ponies they have sent out in the past has been treated with suspicion and in one case, run out of the village she was trying to trade with."
"So you want to bring them to Nocturnis?"
Midnight nodded, "Because to be frank, after hearing the stories of every bat me and Twi decursed I don't trust ponies not to buck it up with the Kirin... and there are so few of them left. I'll keep looking for other clues, but those thousand may be all that remains, Page. We have to help them."
"...We do," I agreed with a small sigh, my ears folding to the side, "You're right, Midnight."
"I’m sorry for making things more difficult, Page."
I shook my head, "Not your fault, Midnight. I would like to meet this Rain Shine as well."
Midnight nodded and got back to her hooves, "Getting time to wake up, we'll leave on the train today. Good morning."
"Good morning, Midnight."
She disappeared in a whirl of blue sparks and I was alone.
I looked out over the stream, slowly moving a hoof through the water, the flish fluttering and swarming around it, sending blue light through the air as the sun finished setting in the distance.
A thousand Kirin.
A thousand Kirin left. Coming to Nocturnis. A thousand more ponies, another endangered tribe.
I squeezed my eyes closed shut for a second, my hoof trembling.
Another, even more endangered tribe of ponies on the cusp of going extinct and even worse, they were elementals. They could burn the entire thing down.
Pushing myself to my hooves, I looked across the valley before I took a step forward.
Suddenly I was in bright sunshine on the other side of Sanctuary, in a valley filled with trees, streams, meadows and woodland critters, surrounded by tall snow capped mountains.
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.
Calm.
Another tribe of ponies. More, why is it always more responsibility, more difficulties, more, more, more...
I screamed and everything around me turned to ash in an instant.
Rearing up, I slammed my forehooves back down hard as my wings flared. Bedrock cracked, trees flashing into ash as the valley exploded, the mountains glowed red and the snow on their caps just disappeared into steam as they started to deform and melt.
I slammed my hooves down again and again, sending cracks exploding through the valley and lava exploded out of them as I screamed.
When he cracks from the pressure it is going to so absolutely destructive. He will be a walking reality warper, with no hesitation.
11880620
I mean, we've already seen the dream world leaking into reality when he loses control in the past, shortly after he became an alicorn.
The sucky thing is, Page is exactly the kind of person that is needed to be in that kind of position. He doesn't want power, he doesn't want control. The downside is, it sucks for those like Page, and they need a HUGE support network to keep them afloat.
Page is definitely building a strong support network, but he's not all the way there yet. It's definitely a race between Page cracking under the pressure and all of the ponies that love him to figure out that he is on his way to cracking.
Now, let's see... Luna has Nightmare Moon, Celestia has Daybreaker, I can't remember if Twilight's "alicorn alter ego" has been named, or Cadance's for that matter, but we really should take some guesses as to what Page's will be called.
11880627
Twi's Nightmare was never shown in FIM, but we did geta bit of a peak into what a Nightmare Twi would look like in the Equestria Girls, with Midnight Sparkle
11880620
In a way, that sort of reaction makes me think he'd be a good fit to understand what it's like to have to deal with the potential to go nirik, and what the kirin go through to try and handle it.
While an extra thousand mouths to feed, house and defend will be a strain on supplies in Nocturnis. It will also allow for better defenses on the ground. I mean what creature in their right mind wants to fight/eat something that uses fire easily and can engulf themselves in it as well?
But Page should know that they'll be bringing thir own supplies as well as having Rain Shine and her advisers to help him if they do move to Nocturnis. Page must realise this, cause if he keeps adding to his stress and tries to carry it all on his withers and sooner or later Nocturnis and all those who live there will become like that valley in Santuary.
11880627
I seem to recall Cadence's one being "Heartbreaker", but that might be a Fanfic.
Personally I like Decadence the Heart-taker.
So who wants to bet on when Page is loosing it, thanks to the constantly increassing preassseure he is on?
I say 12 too 15 Chapters from now on.
11880627
Midnight sparkle, shown in equestria girls only. None confirmed for cadance
Better to do that in a dream than reality, I guess.
It's awesome that Midnight found the kirin. Now, what about the hippogriffs?
Seems Page hasn't been able to take what everyone keeps telling him to heart
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"It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well."
-Dumbledore (harry potter and the sorcerer's stone i think)
advice applies well to poor blank page i think.
Look, sometimes you just need a bit of catharsis. Like a volcanic eruption.
11880694
Can you really blame him? He's always got more and more crap piled onto his plate, even after he's been stuffed to capacity.
Dude either needs to start actually getting the growing number of problems solved (much easier said than done, I know). Or have some (arguably most) of this stuff off his plate taken and delegated as much as possible.
The stress is becoming too much for him. He needs a proper vacation, but there's so much responsibility that falls on him, and more yet that he forces on himself.
So ...
Once he knows what the properties of a Kirin dream is like, can't he just use that to filter various dream portals and then use that process to find more?
He's done it for the Changelings in Griffonia, he did it for the Storm King. Seems like something of an easy fix for that at least (though whether or not that'll put Page into a even further stressed state is ... debatable).
Hopefully one of those around him will recognize whats going on and find a fix before he Blank Page breaks.
Tree Sap; 'Oh hey, It’s prince page!'
‘angry god apocalypse noises’
-
On a more serious note. I do hope the Kirin like rain.
big - the 't' from 'bit' need replacement with a 'g' to 'big'
Rain Shine:
"Greetings Prince Blank Page, I am Rain Shine leader of the Kirin."
Blank Page:
"Welcome to Nocturnis Rain Shine of the Kirin, I am... who I am. Founder of this breeding village.
Nice to meet you!"
Thorax:
"Greetings I am number one cuddlebug stallion Thorax, please come to me or my kind for snuggeling requests in Nocturnis."
Rain Shine:
"O...k... that is new..."
Griffon leader of his group of followers of the great Blank Page:
"Greetings honored guest, soon to be fellow Nocturnis immigrat. We Griffons like to invite you to our orgy Monday."
Blank Page:
"That was directed..."
Thorax:
"Not at all, there are:
Festival feasts (Food orgys)
Snuggle piles (wholesome snuggeling... escalating
to normal orgys)
Pipe music organ orgys (dancing practice to a chorus of pipe organs the size of foals playing)
Etc etc etc. Not everything is breeding related."
Blank Page:
"But..."
Thorax:
"Only mostly breeding related, breeding village after all."
Rain Shine:
"And I thought we are passionate in things we do..."
Griffon leader:
"This is the beginning of a great friendship!
with benefits~♡"
Starlight Glimmer:
"Maybe I get a coltfriend and marefriend!"
Blank Page:
"What...?"
Starlight Glimmer:
"A sandwich needs three, not everyone can have a Blank Page, stud supreme sized herd..."
Rain Shine:
"I like it here already!"
Blank Page:
"I feel a disturbance in the force..."
Starlight Glimmer:
"I prepare the paperwork for 1.000 new citizens."
Blank Page:
"The horror - the horror!"
Starlight Glimmer:
"By tomorrow in one week."
*Blank Page fainted*
Rain Shine:
"Is he o.k.?"
Thorax:
"Drama Prince...
Yes, let's hit up the bar, I need a drink and a snuggeling partner... I feel cuddling is going down smoothly with a drink."
Rain Shine:
"How so?"
Thorax:
"Earth pony snuggeling is a hardy meal.
Pegasus and Thestral cuddling is like eating buttercream pudding.
Unicorns cuddles are like poprock icecream or poping popcorn with sugar or salted caramel.
Griffon usually are very fluff and taste like spicey chicken.
I wonder what Kirin cuddles and snuggeling will he like?"
Rain Shine:
"This village will be a great new home!"
Discord and his darling daughter Eris:
"Thestral and Kirin, all we need is a few crystal ponies and this village will produce enough chaos to rival Ponyville!"
*Meanwhile Angel Bunny is planning to rule them all...*
Just before his offspring bury him once more and fluffy scales hug piles.
With a smug Dwarf Raptor alpha female seeing her productive activ breeding flufftail once more buried under his offspring cuddles.
Someone needs to decompress.
But to be fair Nightmare Page might be fun too if he breaks.
Blank Page:
We're do we storing all the paperwork anyway? Are they not already a Canterlot tower high by now?
Starlight Glimmer:
"Only if we stack them in groups of four. So we do it in a stack of twenty."
Blank Page:
"All this useless standing around paper..."
Starlight Glimmer:
"Not at all! Twilight and Midnight are using a massive quadrapet tower like storing building. Its weight through the paper is alone enough to flatten new jungle ground to even it out for farm land."
Blank Page:
"Ever wonder if we can use it against anti magic Rex as a weapon?"
Starlight Glimmer:
"Already tested! Midnight and Twilight telekenasis levitated it above a anti magic Rex, only a bloody stain remained!"
Blank Page:
Starlight Glimmer:
"Told you, the paperwork is our greatest weapon!"
Blank Page:
"Why didn't Luna and Celestia dropped the triple paper copy tower on Tirek back than to defeat the threat in Canterlot?"
Discord:
"Damn...!"
"The burden of bureaucracy is only with its weight on paper. With the paper ale to flatten mountains... If bureaucracy wasn't as as chaotic as it is organized, I love it."
Oh dear God, I hope Tree Sap wasn't within sight or hearing of that... somehow.
Discord: INTERVENTION TIME!
Page: ACK! What in th--why is every furniture a marshmallow?
Discord: This is the emergency ice cream room. I used this to help distressed alicorns in Chapter 21 of Repercussions AND Chapter 64 of Looking Glass.
Page: What are you talking about?!
Discord:
Just scroll and you'll find it in the comment section.In the mean time, YOU dear Page is going to stay here a bit and decompress.Page: Excuse you?! I have work to d--
Discord: Amber and Thorax are covering for you. Nocturnis will be fine! Mini library is to your left. Pints of mango ice cream and sweet BBQ lizard-on-sticks are to your right. Finally straight ahead is a comfy chair and desk with everything you need to journal your feelings.
Page: DISCORD. You listen he--
Discord: Write your complaints about me and place it in the yellow bin. I'll read them later.
Page: The yellow bin is a trash can!
Discord: EXACTLY! Now take this Luna plushie and hug out your feelings. See you in a couple of hours! *leaves via wormhole*
Page: I'm not having feelings. *hugs Luna plushie* I AM NOT!
Oh dear. He's having a breakdown.
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Dawww levels critical, Discord the secret hero of the comment section ♡
Wonder if Thestral have their own Alphabet.
What would it even look like in general?
Perhaps:
camo.fimfiction.net/Rc3hkukHXTZDQSFwcADIzNC3LYBqXGhORNkcg-_pMKg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ibb.co%2Fc8HPLrv%2FUnown.png
camo.fimfiction.net/Lr-RbBZwxv4akiMvyqrUv_HbJal4o0y8RRq39po-NUM?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ebayimg.com%2Fimages%2Fg%2FWcUAAOSw9BJfKQLd%2Fs-l400.jpg
Or would that be rather Changeling ?
I know the feeling that he is having in wanting to reach out to a struggling dwindling culture, we can hope they will have a resurgence in the future if they work hard at it an create a conductive environment to help grow their numbers again.
Poor guy needs a hobby and some downtime.
I can just imagine Page's scream. Filled with raw emotion. Wonderfully written, loving this story!
Blank Page need either more cuddle and snuggeling or more laughing in general.
cdn-img.fimfiction.net/story/jxjg-1572976967-428033-medium
Well this is getting less nice
Tales From Before - ???
===
Page stirred in the Dream Realm. Ever since the young filly, Tree Sap, had would up in Sanctuary, he had started looking to shore up it's entry requirements, and in the process found that what he thought of as the "Default Dream Schema" was not as empty as he had thought. Dream portals still shone like stars... but as he increased the granularity of his senses... he was beginning to notice that were more things that he'd ever detected before.
The hairs on his neck raised in the way all prey animals do when they're being watched.
Glancing about, his eyes rested on a peculiar cloud, little more than a wisp of... something.
He had never seen it's like.
The mist gently floated in his direction. Before he could decide if he should try to dissolve it like a Nightmare, he was enveloped in a gentle emotion of... peace? Intent?
Was this... a greeting? An attempt at communication?
With some trepidation, Page gathered his magic to his horn, ready to shape it into a forceful push. He extended his own tendril of magic, focusing on projecting wariness and peace.
The cloud... shifted. It looked like it was trying to form into a dream portal, only less substantial. As if it was less than a dream.
Page gulped... and stepped through.
Luna was going to kill him.
===
Darkness.
No, deeper than that. Black, like the void of his first attempts at crafting Sanctuary.
Gradually, he felt, more than saw, a shape forming before him. Four long legs, two wings...
Again, the feeling of peace washed over him, this time more inviting, along with an inquisitive taste.
Page fed some magic into a light spell, and immediately regretted it.
Slit crimson eyes met his. A strangely gentle smile on a coal black face. Silver eyebrows, with a dash of silver in the ear tufts.
And prominent fangs, glinting with the same sharpness as his horn.
"Godentag."
Page stared.
"Heweat, freond"
It kept talking.
"Hail und well met"
At that, Page started.
"Tis a peculiar vernacular, one which happeneth upon the delight of the unicorns at mine latest converse with the Mage-captains of Stormrest. It doth not gladden mine heart that such is the tongue of thine recognizence."
"Be as may, greetings, and well met, kin."
"Hello?" Page answered hesitantly. "I have an idea of who you might be, and it seems you know who I am, but for the record, I am Blank Page."
The Thestral Alicorn's smile grew, revealing more teeth, shorter but no less pointed and sharp.
"In the language of the Unicorns, I would be called as Divine Silver Lining of Nighthome. And thy presence is one that hides poorly to ones with eyes to see."
"Yet do I not know thee truly, Blank Page. How camest thou to bear yon wings? From whence didst thou claim thine horn? Tis rare indeed to see another blessed with such divinity."
Page stared at Silver Lining - like hell was he going to call this monster divine - for a long moment.
Eventually, he stated, "How about a trade? A question for a question, a story for a story?"
Silver Lining looked thoughtful for a breath, then answered, "A fair trade. Mine question remains: how didst thou ascend?"
"I defeated a powerful Centaur in single combat. The explosion of all the magic he had stolen from across the kingdom flowed through me on its way back to its rightful owners, and when I awoke, I was an Alicorn."
"..." Silver Lining looked pensive, and clopped a hoof on the void. "Most curious. I thank thee for answering. Apotheosis is rarely so kind."
He looked up. "What wouldst thou ask of me, Blank Page?"
Page looked down. He wanted to ask why. He wanted to grab the monster by the mane and shake him and demand why he had cursed the Thestrals... but he got the feeling he wouldn't get any answer worth hearing.
Instead he asked, "What are you? How are you still alive?"
Silver Lining looked uncomfortable. "Might such words wait? I shall answer to thy satisfaction, yet I fear our dialogue would end all too soon."
Page blinked, having not expected that answer. "If I promise I will hear you out, will you tell me?"
The Black Alicorn's muzzle tightened in discomfort before loosing.
"I shall trust that thou art an honorable being, Blank Page."
"I am a shadow, the aftermark upon the memories of the world, of the Divine Silver Lining. I... he perished. It seemeth a great many rains have poured beneath the skies since last he drew breath."
"..." Page couldn't seem to stop staring at the.. ghost, he supposed, of a pony he hated the memory of.
"To mine question next. Tell me, how fare my children of the night? Do they prosper?"
"..." Page looked at the shadow. "Yes. Many live in a city in the jungle, Nocturnis. The trees glimmer with the lights of their homes on clear nights."
"That is well." Silver Lining's shade seemed to stand taller, as though a weight were lifted from its shoulders.
Blank Page considered his next query. He decided that knowing more about the first Vampony would be good, before deciding what to do about this remnant.
"You asked me about my becoming an Alicorn. Will you tell me how you received your horn and wings?"
The smile that was everpresent suddenly wasn't. Without it, the harsh frown lines and sculpted brows took a much more sinister cant, and the tips of the fangs poking through closed lips seemed almost to shine.
"Thy questions are impertinent. Yet I have but mine own self to blame, asking such of thee at the first." Silver Lining's eyes darkened, then blazed with renewed intent. "If thou art willing, I may show you."
"..." Page hesitated. He was already about three layers too deep into unknown phenomena, and while his power in the dream realm was great... it was hard to say if they were still in the borders of dreams.
"Upon my honor and all memory of mine soul, I swear that I intend thee no harm. Thou art the first I have conversed with in a terrible long count of rains. It is... lonesome."
Page took a breath, held it, and then asked, "How would you show me?"
The gentle smile was back, and the darkened shadows of his hoof raised. "Merely place thine forehoof upon mine."
Page took the offered hoofshake.
===
Water splashed down my face as I awoke with a start. The filth of the cage clung to me with renewed tenacity from the unwelcome moisture.
"Get up," the pegasus barked. "We got a buyer, and you'd better do your best to impress. Wouldn't do to lose any more meals, now would it, slave?"
I cowered a little, then straightened up. I never met his eyes. All of us had learned that lesson - our captors hated defiance, and the beatings only stopped when they got bored.
I peeked from the corner of my eye at the next cage over. Nope. Mom was still gone; an earth pony had taken her at the last stop. Maybe someday the pain would end.
At times I hated my special talent of always finding the good in a situation. Mom used to tell me I was named after a saying of Megan the Kind's: "Every cloud has it's silver lining!"
It was hard to find that thread of silver in this pegasus camp. Some of the others had gone to homes that would probably just work them, but otherwise treat them well enough.
Some I wasn't so optimistic over.
There was the sound of hooves outside my cage. My head stayed down.
"This here is a prime night-bat, all the way from the southern jungles!" The leader of the camp proclaimed. "Less than twenty winters, he's got enough back in him to keep your labor needs satisfied for long seasons to come!"
"Why is his coat so dark?" Came a refined voice that I just knew I was going to hate, the edge of cruel apathy peeking through the cultured tones.
"Eh, lots of 'em bats are like that. Only like to be up and about in the night, you see. But no bother, he'll work when he's told to!"
I dared to dart my eyes up, and found them irresistibly captured by the amber yellow orbs of a powder-blue unicorn wearing a white cape. Cruel Apathy was an apt thought at the sound of his voice, because his face showed nothing but boredom tinged with malice, and his casual stance belied the tensed muscles I could see. This was a being familiar with fighting others, and I didn't fancy my chances of getting away.
After a held breath of being stared down by those hateful eyes, the unicorn spoke. "I'll take him. Thirty marks of silver, not a coin more."
The pegasus started, and for good reason; my own mother had been sold for less. "Of course, Master Suxe Wind! Let's draw up the agreement, and he's yours!"
===
Master did not at first seem as cruel as those eyes portended. He used my ability to fly to clean the dusty ceilings of his stonework castle.
Of course, the magical brand he'd affixed to the base of my wings that would give me a nasty shock if I strayed too far from the walls was expected; even in the Jungles, we knew that angering a powerful unicorn mage was a very bad idea.
But otherwise, service to Master Suxe was not as bad as I had feared. Sleep, work, eat enough to not suffer. It was better than the pegasi camp, and the darkened hallways did not hurt my eyes.
===
I was wrong. I was so wrong. Suxe Wind is a monster. A cruel parody of a demon cloaking itself in the flesh of ponykind.
He was a dark sorcerer, of that there had never been doubt. But it was only when I saw him bring another pony home, I thought destined for the same servitude as I, that I learned my eventual fate. The poor wretch of an earth pony struggled against the brand, and tried her best to fight the unicorn.
Somehow, she even pinned his cloak to the flagstones and tore it.
Underneath was a horrific gauntness of a being that could not possibly be alive. The skin visibly decayed, Master Wind's eyes glowed with a baleful light as he captured the filly with his magic.
Without a word he floated her behind him into the depths of the keep.
I followed. I was a coward, but if there was some way I could help the poor lass, I would.
He came to a room with an upraised stone table with an odd hollow in the middle of it. I couldn't imagine what use it would have; anything placed on it would sort of clump in the hollow and not stay still.
Then... he... he consumed her. Somehow his magic tore her everything from her and flowed it into him. I watched his skin knit together in a mockery of health, while she withered.
I carefully flew on silent wings back out to where I had been assigned, and tried very, very hard not to think about when it was going to be my turn.
===
It took seasons for Suxe Wind to look at me with the same greedy avarice that he often did of others he brought back to his fortress. I used that time to read his tomes; my father had thought my learning to read from a passing unicorn tribe was a waste, but I had been such a curious child.
My curiosity was not happily rewarded from what I learned in the monster's lair. Suxe Wind, so close as I could tell, was in his three hundredth winter, and so long as he had fresh supply of victims, would never fall to the weight of age or injury. His was a brilliant, diseased mind, and it seemed that in his first century he was a prolific writer.
I had no doubt that if he knew I could read he would have slain me long ago. As it was, I think my attempts to entertain him with my aerial shows and frightened routines amused him enough to keep me as a pet.
Finally, though, came the day that, without a word, he grabbed me in his magic and started towards the dreaded altar.
My silver lining was in the preparations I had made ahead of time. It is true that Unicorns are the most in touch with the Magic of Ponies, and their horns allow them the easiest channel to affect the outside world... but all Ponies are Magic, and in my case... small letters, carefully inscribed in my blood all about the altar, and concealed beneath the rims and in a line about the place that Suxe would stand...
No sooner had my essence begun to flow into Suxe Wind, and I shouted my defiance. I think it startled him, for I had been so meek that he thought I was mute. A brief chant of denouncement and denial, and in the Words of Ritual I spoke, mostly by instinct, the curse of ages:
"Thy Honesty is a lie, thus shalt thou be cursed with Truth!
Thy Kindness is cruel, thus shalt thou be cursed with Righteousness!
Thy Laughter is filled with hate, thus shalt thou be cursed with Silence!
Thy Generosity is a brand of slavery, thus shalt thou be cursed with Nothing!
Thy Loyalty is faithless, thus shalt thou be cursed to be Alone!
Thy Magic is Unholy, Thus Shalt Thou be Cast From it's Sight!"
With each line, a new color flowed about us, and at the last, it leapt as a ray of the sun direct into the twisted soul of Suxe Wind. His cruel eyes were filled to the brim with fright, and his efforts to turn the course of the Holy beam were as blades of grass against the whirlwind.
Before my eyes, he came undone; all the magic and vitality he had stolen over the long course of ages stripped bare... and as he lay dying his magic burst...
And flowed through me on it's course to who knows where.
===
When I came to myself, the castle lay in ruins. Every stone had been undone by my invocation to the pillars of the world to bring judgement down on the sorcerer, every book destroyed and every thing the monster had touched reduced to rubble.
And I myself was changed. I stood, my wings stronger than they had ever been. I tensed, my muscles tighter than they had ever been.
I flared my magic, flowing from my horn that had never been, to remove the stones from about me, and at a command, sent them rocketing about to break further this place of horrors and death.
I looked fearlessly up to the bright noon sun. No more. No more. No more!
My wings bore me to the sky, and I went to find my mother.
===
Page gasped for air as he came out of the... the... whatever that was!
He looked up as Silver Lining cleared his throat.
The larger Alicorn's cast was somber. His burning red eyes banked to a dim flame, his face a fixed mien of sobriety.
"What... what was that!?" Page got out between heaving lungfuls of not-air.
"My memory. Nothing more, nothing less." Came the reply.
Page stared at Silver Lining with a complex brew of emotion. Fear, pity, and no small amount of awe.
"As you learned from me, so did I learn from your own experience facing down Tirek. Would that my demon to slay were as straightforward... but then, I think I would have fallen where you won, and had you faced the sorcerer, mayhap your preparations would have been less complete." Silver Lining relaxed.
"I am old, Prince Page. I was so very old, even before my death. I don't want to end up like the other imprints I've seen here. They devour each other like ravening beasts. The strongest even learn how to feed on the dreams of the living, drawing enough emotion and magic to sustain their aging existence."
"I do not wish that fate, Prince. You are a good pony. I wish I could have lived in the world I have glimpsed through your eyes."
Silver Lining closed his eyes, and bowed his head.
"Please, Prince Blank Page. End my lingering and let my memories rest."
Page couldn't blink even if he tried at the sight of the prostrate ghost.
11881864
Holy cow, brony, that was awesome. Nice to finally see a backstory for the baticorn statue. I wonder if Hiver ever intended to do that.
Edit: No offense to Black--Soul, windy_prance, or anyone else who has shared theories and side-stories in the comments, but this feels like a serious attempt to tie up loose threads that Hiver has left hanging.
Kinda reminded me of this
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/439490/twilight-gets-a-puppy-season-3
So. That happened. Is this how the MagGuffin statue eventually comes about? Page loses it under pressure and falls through a time-hole?