Within You

by fancybloom

Chapter 8

Once the black vision stopped being so intense and her head seemed to stop spinning and she regained consciousness, she was able to take a closer look at the place they were in.

Although the clouds covered the sky with a gloomy gray tone, they did not prevent the sun from shining brightly and casting a warm light on the scenario in front of her eyes, which she found annoying at the moment it began to make the snow transform into a radiant white that made her already hurt eyes burn.

Even when her body screamed for her to get up from where she was, it did not respond to the orders of her brain, and it was unknown to her whether this was thanks to the previous total draining of her energy and magic, or due to the numbness that the cold from the snow and the environment around her caused.

Or maybe both.

Making enormous efforts, she barely managed to make her limbs find enough strength and balance to make her stand up and maintain her equilibrium, however, she was unable to avoid closing her eyes and squeezing them tightly when she felt that her entire body was attacked by a burning, numbing, piercing sensation; causing her limbs to weaken anew and threaten to give way again.

She inhaled deeply and then exhaled, ignoring as best she could the burning irritation from breathing too cold air in her nasal cavity.

It wasn't the first time she had dealt with pain of such magnitude, and she had a strong feeling that it wouldn't be the last either.

Even with the piercing sensation persistent in her body—more concentrated in her extremities, it should be noted—she could not help but enjoy the satisfaction caused by the aroma and sensation of an air that her nostrils had not perceived for centuries, as well as the—although still painful—comforting vision that she obtained of the landscape colored in white and gray tones, totally opposite to the constant and torturous view of rough and jagged rocks spread out, coming from the walls of the large place that had been her prison.

She gently moved one hoof out of the snow so she could step forward, then doing the same with her other hooves. The stabbing and burning sensation intensified as the movement accelerated, her lungs ached with each inhalation and her vision occasionally doubled.

And yet, she wasn't going to stop.

Something had brought her to where she was, the same thing that had kept her alive for so long, a reason that until it was carried out, not even the end of the world was going to be able to put a stop to her.

Thus, making that the main thought in her mind, and repeating it once, twice, three and as many times as necessary, she was able to use the willpower that it provoked in her to be able to maintain her pace and continue with her journey, without not really caring how long it might be.

Having had to endure an untold amount of time within the same dark and spacious but enclosed place, the notion of time was something of which the only thing she remembered was its definition.

Still, with the help of certain really old memories, she knew that when she opened her eyes for the first time, it was some hours in the afternoon or noon. Thanks to these facts, she was more or less able to keep track of the hours she had already been walking.

Yes, hours.

The chills and tremors in his body became more and more constant, there were specific parts that she couldn't even feel anymore due to the numbness. Dark bags cradled her eyes, her hair looked worn and fell in a messy and undirected manner across her face, which also made it difficult for her to see; However, even if she wanted to, it was impossible for her to move her front hoof even a centimeter up to try to remove it, due to the automatic movement that her limbs had adopted with the constant movement forward and the neglect of the severe pain she presented.

She moved her head slightly to look back so she could calculate how much ground she had advanced, frowning when the only greeting to the sight of her was the same expanse of frozen water that she had been seeing for more than four hours.

She let out a huff of annoyance as she looked forward again and realized that her neck had also joined the list of injured body parts.

Little by little the tone of the sky began to become duller and the sunlight dimmed, giving way to another, not so intense light coming from the moon.

The desolate snowfield stopped being desolate when a few small plants also covered in snow began to appear, followed not long after by steep, rocky mountains that could be seen in the distance, the snow covering their peaks and slopes also being notable.

Although she wanted to take this as a good sign, she also knew that she could not begin to place her hopes in just a few nascent life forms, so she downplayed them and decided to continue on her way without getting any illusions.

Just a few steps ahead, she decided to take another look at the path that awaited her ahead, noticing that now not so far away lay a rock formation that also seemed to be covered in snow, at the same time noticing the mist that little by little began to be noticeable.

When she tried to return her gaze to the ground, as she had been doing throughout the journey, something caught her attention.

A peculiar noise manifested itself, one that did not belong to the environment, something like a squeak or a scream.

Her brow furrowed slightly and her eyes narrowed. She had analyzed the place again and again in view of having nothing else to do besides walk, and she had not been able to spot any trace of another living being around. It was known that these places were completely uninhabitable due to the temperature they expected, so it was obvious why there was no one else nearby.

However, she could now swear that she had heard a noise.

Her steps stopped softly and cautiously, trying not to make a noise. She sharpened both her vision and her hearing as much as she could and turned in the direction from which what had caught her attention seemed to come.

Still, despite her attempts, absolutely nothing happened and he couldn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
So she just let out a sigh that took out all the air she had intentionally been holding in and resumed her steps.

However, a small, quick flash caught in the corner of her eye and coming from the same place she had turned to before made her stop in her tracks again.

Her gaze did not hesitate to automatically and immediately turn to look in the direction of that flash.

Her heart seemed to beat harder and faster in response to the satisfaction of having been right all along and knowing that. Unexpectedly, her ticket out of the tortuous eternal snowy wasteland had arrived without her even having to bother looking for it.

The corners of her lips lifted in a mischievous smile.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and channeled all the magical energy she was capable of, not taking a second to feel a burning pain spread from the tip of her horn to each end of her body, but at the same time being, again, able to bear it.

Quickly her body began to evaporate, ending up turning into a magical form of black smoke.

She started heading towards where she had seen the flash as soon as her now intangible body was ready to start moving.

She had finally set his prey on her, and no one would be able to stop her.

---

"Damn it! I can't believe it, it was only a minute, a miserable minute!" The loud angry voice created an echo large enough to scare away a considerable number of birds.

The owner of the voice walked at a slow but heavy pace over the snow-flooded wasteland that made up the well-known Arctic North.

She cursed loudly as she continued on her way towards some place that she could use as a refuge, so that she could then look for a solution to her problem.

Even though the clothes she was wearing were appropriate for the type of climate she found herself in, the freezing temperature was beginning to penetrate the fabric, getting worse with each passing minute; The bulky luggage on her back was no help either, both her back and her hooves ached and screamed for a break, her steps felt increasingly heavy and her limbs occasionally wobbled.

She stopped for a second to be able to observe the sky and calculate what time it was, letting out a sound of worry and demotivation when she noticed that twilight was beginning to appear, announcing the arrival of nightfall.

This fact encouraged her to hurry even more, quickening her pace in the hope that she was going in the right direction and that at some point she would reach a place where she could be safe and sound.

It wasn't long before the sky began to take on a tone that made it impossible to see her; The pony let out a snort, followed by a new insult in response to the poor results of the events from earlier that day. She couldn't believe that stopping for a minute to adjust one of her boots would cause her to get lost from the group of mountaineers she was with. She couldn't believe that not even her "friend", the leader, had realized that she was no longer keeping up with them.

Remembering this once again, she couldn't help but curse one more time. A simple action was costing her too dearly.

She tried to calm herself and concentrate; Walking a little further forward, a huge figure made of rock appeared before her eyes, it was not very difficult for the pony to recognize that this was a small cave. A shaky sigh of relief escaped her lips and she hurriedly ran towards the aforementioned cave.

The warmth of the interior of the cave did not take long to embrace her the moment she entered, which although it was not a big deal, was a temperature ten times better than what the outside expected.

Finally, feeling that she was safe inside the small cave, she undid the straps that secured the luggage to her back, let the heavy package fall to the floor and then took a seat on the floor, feeling immediate relief run through her entire body.

Despite still having several things to think about and resolve, the pony decided to lie down on one of the walls of the cave and relax, without taking long for fatigue to take her consciousness away.

[...]

Resting after having had such a physically and mentally exhausting day was undoubtedly one of the most satisfying things in the world; However, the pony could not do this for long.

A strong and somewhat noisy breeze brushed against her skin and made her fur stand up slightly, also causing her consciousness to return to the real world and her eyes to slowly begin to open.

She blinked about three times before the slight burning in her eyes stopped being so bothersome and she glanced outside the cave. She had no idea how long she had slept, but it had been enough for the sky to turn completely dark, with only a few stars adorning it and a moon that looked somewhat blurry but kept the light as radiant as ever.

The same breeze that had woken her up blew through again, only a little stronger this time. She didn't have to be very smart to realize that the strength of the weather and temperature increased as it grew later.

Her body experienced an involuntary tremor and reflexively her front hooves wrapped around the upper part of her body, trying to keep some of the natural heat inside.

"If I'm going to sleep here, I'd better do something about the cold."

With that said, she didn't waste much time and she got up from where she was and then headed towards where she had left her suitcase.

She unzipped it and began searching inside for a lighter that she remembered packing the night before leaving her home.

"For Celestia's sake... Please no."

A tiny bead of sweat passed over her forehead due to the nerves she was slowly beginning to feel. The small compartment she remembered using to pack said lighter was empty.

"No, I can't have that much bad luck in a single day, it's not fair, please." She pleaded into nothingness as her front hooves hurriedly moved inside the backpack/suitcase hoping that she had just opened the wrong compartment, caring little if she messed up everything inside.

She stopped her movement and closed her eyes tightly, her lungs filled with air and she prepared her throat.

And she let it out.

A rather satisfying (for her) and soulful scream, one that almost brought out all the frustration that the things she had had to go through since the moment she had woken up had caused her.

Was it a curse?

Was someone playing some kind of extremely practical joke on her?

Although maybe the latter wouldn't be so bad; Rather, deep inside she wished that everything was a joke of a very bad taste, she would really appreciate it.

And of course she would then try to kill whoever was making it.

But she knew it was no joke.

It was all quite real, she was having a quite disgusting day and night.

She knew it was real because after not-so-subtly yelling, her mind brought back an important memory: she had packed her entire suitcase the day before leaving, she had packed everything she was going to take, including the lighter. Nonetheless, the next morning she had needed it to prepare breakfast pretty quickly, and when she finished eating, one thing led to another and she completely forgot that she should pack back the lighter in case of situations like the one she was experiencing.

A sigh of very clear annoyance left her lips and she murmured:

"I should have listened to my mom and become a doctor."

She once again rummaged through her backpack and grabbed a flashlight that, fortunately, she had not forgotten to pack, following which she headed towards the outside of the cave.

She felt obliged to light the bonfire the old-fashioned (not so old-fashioned) way.

It was not that difficult to find the rocks that she was looking for to carry out such a task, several of them were near the end where the formation of the cave began.

When she bent down a little to be able to take the rocks, she realized that she would first have to release the flashlight that she was carrying in her mouth, which she tried to do; However, the bad luck that had followed her throughout the entire day apparently had more stunts for her.

The device fell to the ground and made a somewhat loud sound, indicating that, instead of snow, it had collided with a hard surface, which at the same time had also caused the light it emanated to abruptly go out.

The pony's eye twitched and she was about to complain again, however, this time she managed to stop herself before doing so. All day she had had a bad time and throughout the day she had complained about it, and yet her problems did not stop.
Whether she complained or not, it wouldn't change anything, so there was no point in doing so.

She hurriedly took a sufficient amount of rocks and put them in a small bag, and then approached the lantern lying on the ground again.

Apparently only two hits were going to be enough to get it working again. After blinking twice, the light became stable.

Having absolutely everything ready to go back inside, she began walking back to the cave.

Her steps slowed when a breeze much stronger than the previous two attacked again, so much so that, instead of a breeze, it could better fit as a current of air.

A very strange sensation was planted inside her, something very deep inside her began to suggest that she seek refuge.

She swallowed with some difficulty, there was something different in that breeze, in the general atmosphere; quite suddenly it felt heavy.

She decided not to think about it too much and walk at a slightly faster pace towards the cave. Trying to ignore as best she could the sudden urge her legs now felt to start running as far as she could without even looking back.

"It's okay, it's just your imagination. Tomorrow you'll leave here, you'll arrive home and this will be just a horrible memory that may generate trauma for you. Everything will be fine." She directed the words at herself and did her best to keep her mind occupied with another matter, trying to ignore the increasing speed of her heartbeat.

She used the technique that she had learned with her fellow mountaineers to light a campfire with just wood or rocks and managed to light the rocks on fire, making the sensation of heat reach her quickly.

To then leave as quickly as it had arrived.

The draft attacked once more, stronger than any she had ever felt.

But this time it seemed to have brought someone with it.

She felt like air was stuck in her airway for a second and her heart raced like never before.

She didn't want to accept it, she didn't want to accept the likely danger she was now in.

The pony didn't move a muscle, she didn't even try to breathe; she could feel the heavy, shadowy presence right behind her and didn't even care to find out what its appearance was.

Her limbs began to tremble involuntarily and break out in cold sweat, her eyes following their example as she began to shed light tears.

The wind whistled around her and her eyes caught a black smoke that began to surround the entire interior of the cave, followed by this she could hear the sound of hooves taking a few steps.

When the footsteps stopped it was as if everything else had stopped too, the wind stopped its whistling and the smoke stopped rotating to become almost static.

And then a cold but at the same time warm surface came into contact with the skin of her shoulder.

Without stopping to think about it and as a reflex, she turned around quickly. But she quickly wished she had never made such a terrible decision.

Her vision was greeted with the figure of someone who looked like a much taller than average pony, with fur that resembled ash and who kept his gaze on her as if she were the last bottle of water in a desert.

Its eyes looked like two light bulbs combining extravagant colors; The sclera were covered in such a neon green that it felt like it was hurting her eyes, its pupils were ruled by a red as dark as blood and there was a kind of purple aura coming out of the corners of its eyes that just completed the sinister vibe.

When her voice was about to come out of her in the form of a terrified scream, it got stuck in her throat.

She felt as if a grape had gotten stuck, she had every intention of screaming, but she never managed to express this.

Her eyes opened wide and tears began to flow from them when the being smiled broadly, showing its fangs. She could guess the future that awaited her.

The last thing the little pony could see was the apparent horn of the being lighting up in a blue aura that quickly transitioned to black, and then she felt how her body was suffering an unbearable and impossible to describe pain and her energy seemed to escape from her as if it were of air.

And yet, she couldn't scream to at least suffer properly, she couldn't ask for help; no one would go looking for her because they didn't even notice she wasn't there in the first place.

She had been the perfect victim.

The first of many more that were yet to come.

Comments

[Yogiboy]

I believe that is where Sombras bad memories are.

[Tp]

11872745
My theory is that Sombras gonna have a relapse and almost get locked up again.
Still wondering who the other ponies locked up in the crystal dungeon were. Can't tell if this fic world is on the darker side or not.
Look forward to the story continuing, writer :).