Sands of Time

by SandShift

Chapter V

Fellenth stared at me, body unmoving as he watched his magic work on my crippled body. A warm feeling enveloped me, reaching to each of my injured areas and focused on them, bringing occasional shooting pains followed by a snap or crack as proof of its success. I looked over to the mysterious elk and waited for him to start talking. After a few moments, he began to relate his story to me, but only through a calm voice in my mind.

I, like you, are in search of my mate. However, you are already much more fortunate.

The regal creature never once stopped staring at me, but when he said “fortunate,” a wave of sadness radiated softly from him. A dull pain started to beat along with my heart, aching for somepony that I wasn’t familiar with. But soon after he continued his story, eyes still locked on me.

My mate Serandil was trying to search for a pony. A mare that descends from the Princesses’ bloodline. After her long search, she tracked her here. I believe you know her as Sky.

My mind reeled at that idea, the thought being that the beautiful servant mare I had known was actually descended from the Princesses. The royal line. And she was here.

Was.

I know it is a lot to embrace, as it was for me. Little had I known Serandil was given this mission from the Princesses themselves as a diplomatic mission between the Elken Nation and the Royal Kingdom. But now I know it was a futile effort. These lands are not made to be inviting; and so as your love disappeared, so did mine. It was not until recently I found out she was here, as no one had heard from her for a long time.

His magic slowly lowered me until I was set onto the ground where I quickly stretched out my legs as he talked, feeling relieved to have my body fully functioning again. Not only was I not the broken pony that came into the prison, my body felt like I never suffered injuries from the Arena. I felt great having a much newer body, but as Fellenth's magic in my body slowly ebbed away, it was replaced by strong feelings of sadness and pain.

I tracked her to this very city, where I found out further news… She was murdered, her head placed on a wall as a trophy for Romulus.

The pain I had begun to feel ached in my body and felt unbearable, along with the conflict of emotions that forced me to take a deep, shuddering breath. Fellenth was devastated at this loss, and I realized at this point why he said I was fortunate. Sky might still be alive.

In a blind rage I charged his palace, killing all who stood in my way. But, I was overwhelmed quickly. Captured, beaten, and taken here, I have been sitting here waiting for them to do what they did to my Serandil.

“We could get the revenge you want, and we could---“

Find your Sky?

“Yes.” He knew what I was going to say before I said it. But still I had to talk this through. “You could finish the job Serandil started, and seek justice for her murder.”

Fellenth looked at me, his stare deepening as I felt the sadness and rage wash away, only replaced by a feeling of resolve.

I will not finish her job. I will leave that to you, but I will help you break out of the Forum and give you the knowledge that she left before you, alive.

Alive. She was alive. It was a small assurance, but enough to make me feel relief. She was out there, somewhere. Now to only find her.

That is all I know of your Sky. You will find her, once you leave the Forum.

“Let’s get out of this prison.” I turned around and started to walk to the cell door, but stopped. Turning my head to the side, I apologized to him. “I hope that we can find peace in all this, for you and Serandil.”

Only when Romulus is murdered as she was, will she be at peace. Let us go and start the beginning of his end.

I nodded, and trotted through the cell door. Looking down the hall, I saw nopony else, only the other cells. An idea came to me as I stood there, and brought it up to Fellenth.

“We could free these other prisoners. They could help us escape and maybe with getting at Romulus.”

Fellenth silently walked over to the other cells, using his magic to break the locks off the first two. I let him free all the prisoners as I trotted quickly to the door and put my ear against the door. I heard nothing on the other side, which meant nopony had heard the metal restraints breaking as each prisoner was freed. Either that, or the metal made it hard to hear them. I then slowly grabbed the door latch and pulled it slowly, looking past the door to see the tunnel I remembered. Other than various crates and supplies on one side of the tunnel, there seemed to be no activity.

Turning around, I was greeted with an assembly of the other prisoners who were stretching out various body parts and looking around. The griffon seemed to fill up the room with his massive size, spreading his wings as he stretched out of the rest of his body. His feathers seemed askew in places and some of his fur was matted with blood, but other than that his talons and beak looked relatively fine. He’ll come in handy, I’m sure.

The unicorn was lighting his horn with a light at the end of it, pulsing it with what I think was various amounts of magic to it. Other than that, I slowly observed the cyan stallion, noticing his cutie mark was that of a shining star with a thunderbolt through it. Overall, he seemed like he could walk, but his legs seemed covered in cuts, his cyan coat very unkempt. He might be good at long range. We’ll see.

Lastly, the boar seemed like he was the most appreciative to being free. Cracking his forehooves and then his neck, he was quite a sight to behold. Boars are naturally large, but this one seemed more muscular, his scarred and bruised arms showing off defined muscles. The amount of blood, bruises, and scars along his hide that wasn’t covered by his beaten armor only served to make him more fearsome. He can go first.

“Let’s get out of here.” I decided something had to be said to show we’re on the same side. However, as soon as I said that, a few things happened.

The first was that the boar slammed his forehooves together once more before grunting and stomping past me. “Lemme at ‘em,” was all he snorted before he swung open the door and started charging up the tunnel. I looked at him passing the crates of weapons and prayed he didn’t just give us our death sentence.

The second thing that happened was when I turned back to face the rest of the group, the unicorn looked at me and smirked. “Thanks for the save, cap. If you’re ever in the North, look me up at the Guild. I owe ya a pint or two.” With that, he charged up a quick spell and teleported out of the room. For the love of Celestia.

I surveyed the final two of my group quickly, noticing Fellenth and the griffon were just as surprised as I was. “Anypony else?”

Fellenth slid past the griffon and looked towards me. It looks like it is just us. What say you, Griffon?

With a look of shock, the griffon reared back on his large lion legs away from Fellenth. “What the hell wuzzat? Did you just talk in my mind?”

I quickly intervened, going between the two and looking at the griffon. “Yeah, he does that. That’s what Elken do. He won’t hurt you.” I tried to look encouraging, which must’ve helped the griffon since he slowly put his front claws back on the ground.

He stared at Fellenth uncertainly and leaned somewhat away from the elk, but he seemed like he wasn’t going to press it. “That’s not normal...” The Griffon replied. He then puffed out his chest and pointed at himself. “Name’s Brawl, by the way. Ya help me get outta here, I’ll owe ya one. Deal?”

I nodded in response, and looked to Fellenth. “I’ll go first. Then you. The cave’s too tight for a griffon to have an advantage.” I then looked at Brawl. “You can bring up the back, I can fight easier in the tunnels. Let’s go.” I turned to the door and started trotting briskly up the tunnel. I could distantly hear a fight going on, but I couldn’t see where it was coming from since the tunnel curved just enough to not allow a long view. However, as we made our slow, uneven ascent, I could quickly hear the struggling of two creatures becoming louder. It must be the boar, he’s up here fighting something. Probably that boar guard, if we’re lucky.

As we made our way, we managed to reach the first of the crates that I had seen earlier. I approached them, noticing they were somewhat beat up and mostly all closed, but there was enough of their contents for me to choose from. I looked over the damaged weapons that were already out of the crates. Amongst the assorted weapons, there was a few spears, swords, two laser pistols, and a couple hoof weapons. Thankfully upon closer inspection of the two pistols, they both had extra clips and one even had pony modifications. With the pistol grip replaced with securing metal hoofbands and a detachable cartridge on the top, it was something I had only seen rarely.

During the boom of technological marvels, the ones that were at a disadvantage when it came to lasers was the equine races, or those that could not hold a gripped laser weapon. It was hard enough to hold regular weapons like swords, so those races quickly scrambled around for the solution. Unfortunately for the Royal Army, many pirate groups came up with the idea of hoofband weaponry before the military scientists. That’s one of the good reasons why the Royal Kingdom was now a shell of its formal strength.

The only times I had seen these modified weapons up close had been when floating pirates or merchants that stopped by the Forum to get rid of various stolen cargo. Most pirates had them concealed, but every so often there would be a pirate that didn't mind flashing a piece of high-tech around and get some attention. Or action, violent or otherwise. Growing up around holobars, I had seen in rare Arena matches the use of laser weaponry, and usually that meant the end of a promising gladiator. Thankfully for me, there seemed to have been a lack of tech weapons during my Arena career. Or maybe I was supposed to make it out of there alive.

I stood on my hind legs and quickly slid the pistol onto my left foreleg, feeling it powering up and tightening. From what I had heard, the metal hoofbands calibrated to the tensing of my muscles. Let’s hope I don’t kill myself trying it out, I thought as I quickly grabbed one of the worn hoofblades for my right forehoof and dropped back to the ground. I continued forward, looking at the crates that we passed by. Some of the crates had the marks of the Royal Kingdom, a crown flanked by white wings. However, an unsurprising amount of them bore larger marks of a blood red blade of the Roamin’ Empire or the grey gear of the pirates of the skies. If it’s worth anything, they’ve got their hooves in it. But why’s it here? I could only guess, but I suspected that Rex might be getting more than just tourism and kind patronage from outside influences. What that meant for the larger picture, I couldn’t say. But for some reason, I felt like Sky was involved somewhere in all that. Rex has a lot of talking to do.

We kept going further through the tunnel, the noises of the boar’s battle seemed to echo loudly all around us, which only meant we were getting close. As we rounded a slightly sharper bend in the tunnel, I could immediately see the next metal door. Immediately before the metal door was what I could see as we neared it was a room in the tunnel wall. Most likely a guard room. I slowed and looked over my shoulder at my companions. “Here’s the fight. Get ready,” I warned quietly, readying my hoof weapons.

“Ya’d think that boar would be done killing everything by now seein’ all this,” Brawl gestured with a claw toward several blood trails and bits of bodies that seemed strewn around. “Least he cleared out everythin’. We should split ‘fore more come, ya feel me?”

I slid my body next to the wall and peered into the next room subtly. Amongst the parts of several corpses, overturned and destroyed wooden furniture, and many pieces of armor strewn around the place was the boar locked in a fight with the boar I remembered from earlier. Both were bleeding significantly from cuts across their body, and both were panting heavily. However, the two boars were still locked in a grapple with each other, neither giving an inch. Their tusks locked as well, it was a little intimidating. Still, I began to lean into the room to help out until I was held by a bit of magic.

We will not interfere. Boars hold combat as a personal honor, so help would not be welcome here.

I stopped myself from going in and nodded. “Understood. Let’s get out of here, then.” I turned towards the worn wooden door that marked our exit. The latch was drawn already so it was easy to pull the door open. The feeling of nervous anticipation was growing inside me, making each heartbeat loud in my ears. Freedom and revenge started on the other side of this door, and as I opened the pathway, I felt a renewed determination. I would cause hell for everyone.

First, it was Storm’s turn.

Author's Note:

Long time, no see! Comment how you felt about the new chapter, and I hope to keep writing more. If anyone's interested in what else I'm working on, let me know! I'm also thinking about developing a continuation of my other story, The Package Deal. Check it out and comment if you have the time!

Anyways, later!

~SandShift