(4) Shootings Stars and Falling Angels
While Fire and Sebastian were busy preparing for our departure I pulled Reggie aside to explain exactly how we would be returning to Equis, as well as a few important details about it. I had seen enough of Earth to know that it was far more advanced in terms of technology than Equis, but where it lacked in tech, it more than made up for it in magic and I just wanted Reggie to be prepared for the culture shock.
“So Zeke, eh I mean, Midnight, dis is all interesting, it really is, but ya still neva answered me first question.”
“Oh, and what would that be?”
“How did ya friends walk through de living room wall?!”
“Ah, that. Well the answer to that is simple. They used their magic to become one with the shadows and travel from wherever they were to here instantaneously.”
“Magic?! Ya mean like dem shows in Vegas?”
“No, Reg, not like that. I mean real magic. I thought I already told you that the world we come from is full of it.”
“Yeah I must not a heard ya. I tink I was more focused on ya being from anoder world!”
“Ah, right, one revelation at a time then. I'll put it simply then. You know all those mystical things people read about in fairy tales and mythology? Well it's true, most of it anyway.”
“Ya gotta be kiddin me, I mean der's no way magic's real.”
“Oh really, then how do you explain that.” I pointed behind him. What he saw was a hole in the wall that led only into pure darkness. Reggie was simply shocked silent. I placed a hand on his shoulder to snap him out of it and said, “Normally we'd just shadow-step our way there, but since your coming, we're going to have to use the Dark Corridor.”
“Ya not saying we gotta go through dat ting, are ya?” I could tell he was getting nervous, what with all this magic suddenly happening. It was definitely going to take some time for him to get used to it.
“Unfortunately for you, yes. Word of warning beforehand though, you might want to hold your breath.”
“Why would I need ta-”, was all he managed to say before Fire pushed him through to the other side.
I gave Fire a cold stare and said, “Was that really necessary?”
“What? We're in a rush, aren't we?”, he said as he followed Reggie through.
'This is going to be a long trip.', I mentally sighed as Sebastian and I walked through the Corridor after them.
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When we came through the other side I saw Reggie huddled under a tree and shivering and breathing hard like it was the middle of winter. Not surprising, after all, the darkness of a shadows embrace can be quite chilling for those who are not accustomed to it. Knowing that it might take a few minutes to snap him out of it, I told Fire and Sebastian to start setting up our launch point while I helped him out.
“You all right there Reg?”, I asked as I knelt down next to him.
“Not cool mon. Next time gimme a little warnin' when ya gonna do someting like dat.”, he said, clearly upset at being forced through like that.
“Hey, I told you to hold your breath.” He gave me a deadpan expression before we both started to laugh. If there was one one thing I could on Reggie for it was that he could never stay mad at me for long. “So, are we cool?”, I asked.
“Yeah, mon, we cool.”, he said with a fist bump added for emphasis.
“All right then, back to what I was saying. Magic, it is real Reggie; it's one of the biggest differences between our worlds and I just want you to be prepared for that.”
“Afta what I just went tru, I believe ya. Der ain't no other explanation for dat.”
“Good, I'm glad to see that you're coming around. But there's a few other things you should know. One is that our level of technology is far less than yours. Granted, we've been gone a thousand years and that might have changed since then, but I doubt it would that much.”
“How much less are talkin here?”
“Comparatively, we were about at the level of the Renaissance era of your world. But as I said, it's probably a little more than that by now.”
“Huh, well dat will definitely take some getting used to. But if dat's true, den how do ya plan on getting back widout a spaceship? Cause if your tech is dat low, den I'm guessin ya don't have much in da way of electronics.”
I nearly burst out laughing when he said this, I thought he would have figured it out by now. “You still don't get it do you Reg? Even though we're from another world, we're not some great scientifically advanced race like you see in those scifi shows you watch. Our world is one of fantasy, where nothing is impossible. Example, instead of the planet moving around the sun, the sun and moon move around the planet. And they don't even move on their own; the Princesses move them with magic.”
When I said this his jaw nearly unhinged itself in shock. “Now dat I would have ta see ta believe cause der's no way dat's possible.”
“Reggie, on Equis, everything is possible and all forms of what you would consider myths walk the world everyday. Go on, ask me about anything you consider fantasy or mythological and I'll tell you if it's real or not.”
“Your on.”, he said as he began to think. While was trying to come up with his first questions I looked up to the moon to see that it was almost in position. From what I could tell, we had about 30 minutes left. Soon we would be reunited with our Princess.
“All right I tink I got a few. First, do dragons exist?”
“Yes, in fact, they've got their own country, though quite a few roam all over.”
“Is dat safe?” I saw a look of worry cross his face.
“Don't worry to much about them. Their very intelligent and won't bother you unless you enter their territory.”
“All right den, dragons are real. What about tings like vampires and werewolves?”
I did burst out laughing at that. “Hahaha!!! Ok now that's a little too fantastical, even for Equis, so no, your not going to find anything like that there.”
“Well dat's a bit of a relief. Well what about pegasi and unicorns?”
“Yes and yes.”
“Griffons?”
“Yep, got their own kingdom too.”
“Minotaurs?”
“Same as the Griff's.”
“Cockatrice and basilisk?”
“Yep, both deadly and very annoying, though at least the cockatrice isn't poisonous like it's cousin.”
“Manticores?”
“Yes, so watch out for the tail, their poison works fast.”
“Hydras?”
“Unfortunately; make sure to avoid the swamps.”
“Seriously, okay Equis is actually starting ta sound pretty dangerous if it has all dose tings in it.” Well that was a first, he actually looked genuinely scared. Normally he's not afraid of anything, but by look in his eyes I could tell he was completely terrified; so I did what I could to reassure him.
“Only if you travel to far out into the wild lands. The rest of the world is quite safe though, I assure you. Hell, the average life expectancy is around 100, as long as you don't do anything stupid like purposely enter a dragons cave.”
“...Anyting else I should know about, like for instance, mermaids and sea serpents?”
“Yes on the sea serpents and maybe on the mermaids. They're as much legend to us as they are to you. Other than that, there's nomadic Naga that inhabit the desert regions, wolves made of magical wood in some forests, and a gem loving species of canine called Diamond Dogs that share the mountains with the griffons. Of course those are just the most populace ones. There's untold amounts of magic on Equis in many shapes and forms so there's no telling what you could come across.”
“Uh huh... What about humans, ya neva mentioned dem.”
And there's the question I'd hoped he wouldn't ask. I did not want to be the one to tell him this. “No, I didn't. That's because the only thing close to human or humanoid in form are the monkeys of the tropical jungles. So if you came with us, you'd be the only one.”
At this point one would expected a bit of sadness from him, but instead, he asked about me and my friends. “But if dat's true, den what are you, what are dey? Minus da wings ya look pretty human ta me.”
“As I said earlier, we look this way because our magic disguised us so we would blend in. Our true forms are much different.”
I looked to the moon once more saw we only had 15 minutes left before our window of opportunity closes, so I stood up and motioned for Reggie to follow me. “Any more talk of our world will have to wait till we've fell. There's not much time left and I still need to add my part to the spell.” I turned to Reggie and with a deadly serious tone that he never saw and said, “If your coming with us then we have to make sure you're stabilized within the spell with us. So, I need you to stand by my side and do exactly as I say, no questions asked, understood?”
For a moment, it appeared that he had changed his mind and would turn and leave us. But that moment was short lived as he steeled his gazed toward me and nodded in affirmation.
“Good.”, I smiled at him. “Let's go home.”
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Reggie and I walked up to join Sebastian and Fire around the spell diagram they had constructed and I began to add my own power to it. True to his word, Reggie stayed silent, even when the circle began to glow with an eerie black light. The plan was simple, but risky, especially without our main magic user to help focus the spell, but it was our only way back home so we had to at least try. I could only hope that the Lunar Eclipse would provide us with the boost we needed.
First, Sebastian formed the shadows and the surrounding darkness into the diagram. Then, all three of us poured all of the magical energy we'd been storing up for the past year into the spell. After that, all we could do was wait for the darkness of the eclipse to reach its fullest and with less then 5 minutes left, it wouldn't be a long one.
At this time, I decided to give Reggie one last chance to back out, though already knowing what his answer would be. “Last chance Reg, you can leave right now and forget ever meeting us, or stay your course and follow us to a whole new world. Your choice.”
He looked me right in the eye and stated with a confidence I didn't know he had, “I've made me peace wid me past, and I'm ready ta leave it all behind. No more getting chased and hassled by mobsters and thugs. From here on out, it's goodbye street life and hello sweet life!”
“In that case,” I smirked and held out a hand to him. “Hold on tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride.”
We all took hold of each other's hands and looked toward the moon as the eclipse peaked and the magic of the heavenly body poured down on us. The wind began to blow, softly at first, but slowly gaining in force. I saw the shadows swirling around us, swallowing up every bit of light that dared to pierce the darkness until everything around us was pitch black. I could hear the hum of energy in the air and feel the magic flowing through me. I knew the others were feeling this too, but I was worried with how Reggie would react to all this.
I chanced a quick glance toward him and saw, to my surprise, that he wasn't panicking. Instead, he looked like he was enjoying himself. I couldn't help smile at this, he was taking to all of this much better than I thought he would.
The wind started to pick up as we were slowly lifted into the air. It was time. “All right Angels,” I shouted over the howling wind. “Let's fly!" And within the blink of an eye, we shot off into the night sky.
To anyone on the planet below watching the sky that night, it would seem as if a comet had decided that that was the perfect time to fly by the moon on its way through space. To us, once we broke the atmosphere and were surrounded by the ever expansive dark of space, our shadow magic got the biggest boost it ever had and we hurtled through space faster than light. The only thought on all our minds at the time, however, was her. Soon we would be home and soon we would be reunited with her. 'Hold on Luna, I'm on my way.'
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As we got closer to Equis the spell slowed us down so we wouldn't miss our target. Flying faster than the speed of light through space on magic that's powered by darkness, it's no wonder we got there within an hour. We were approaching orbit when we heard it, Luna's cry’s. Even Reggie heard it, not surprising, considering he was connected to our magic.
“What was dat?”, he thought out loud.
“That my oddly accented friend, would be the sound of our Princess in tears.”, Sebastian replied.
“What da hell?!”
“Calm down Reggie. There's no time to explain but yes, we can hear your thoughts and you ours and yes, that is indeed the Princess crying. Fire, Sebastian, I'm sorry I'm going to have to do this but I need you two to look after Reggie.”
“What do you think you're doing Breeze?!”, Fire shouted as I removed myself from the group and pushed Reggie between them.
“Quelling our Princess's cry's.” With that, I broke away from them, gave a forceful flap of my wings, and sped toward home, toward Luna. Had I been thinking straight at the time, I would have realized that this was not a good idea as it didn't leave me any room for course correction. Something Sebastian realized all to soon.
“That idiot, he's going to get himself killed for her one of these days.”
“What just happened?”, Reggie asked.
“Our leader let his emotions get the better of him, again, and he took off without thinking to change his course first. He'll be lucky if he crashes within a hundred miles of Luna, much less the right country.”
“Wait, crashes?! Ya mean he's not gonna be able ta even land right?”, asked a very worried Reggie. “We gotta go afta him!”
“Oh we will, but first we have to land ourselves.”
“How, de same way we took off?"
“Not exactly.”, Sebastian smirked. “Tell me Reggie, do you know another name for an angel of darkness?”
Reggie thought about that as they slowed their decent and altered their course. “Hmm... A fallen angel?”, he asked. Sebastian and Fire pointed down and when Reggie looked his eyes nearly bulged right out of his head. “Ya can't be serious!”, he freaked.
“Oh, but we are.”, Sebastian simply stated.
“Hold onto yours butts,” Fire cackled. “It's gonna be rough landing!”
Reggie didn't even have time to scream before the trio followed me and plummeted straight toward Equis. However, unbeknownst to them, they would not meet me upon their landing, because when they did, I would already be long gone.
You see, I had accidentally flown faster than intended and ended up crashing sooner than expected. After I picked myself up from the crater I formed on impact, I checked myself over to make sure I didn't injure anything vital. 'Thank Luna for magical protection, that would've definitely hurt otherwise.', I thought to myself.
Seeing that the landing didn't do anything more than a few scrapes and bruises I started examining my surroundings and opened up my mind to try and find Princess Luna. I had landed in a field that ran between a large forest and a small town. Unfortunately I was a bit too close to the town as it appeared that my landing had awoken some of its residents.
“Not good. I need to get out a here before anypony sees me.” *DING* It was at that moment my senses finally kicked back in and I discovered Luna's whereabouts. “Huh, perfect timing. Now let me see, hmm...”, I thought out loud. “It looks I'll be flying there.” With that I unfurled my wings and took off toward a tall mountain in the distance with a large castle protruding from the side. “Don't worry Princess, your Angels have returned.”
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..I like this. And is it bad that i imagine Reggie as Giado from Super Robot Wars?
Reggie is my fav character in this story lol!
Nice chapter I can't wait till you bring the next one.
On wards to the next one!
entered because of the awesome pic, stayed for the fact that its well written, hooked because the plot so far has made me go 'dayum' faster than looking at Ditzy Doo's enormus and clumsy rear go through a wooden floor, update soon mate
So, is no one gonna question the science? Fine. I will. Assuming the Earth and its moon is about the same size and distance as Equus and its moon, the distance is about 238900 miles, or 384472.282 kilometers. Also assuming that the speed of light is the same, also known as c or 2.99x10^8 m/s (186000 miles per second.) The formula for the amount of time it took for them to cross the distance is T(Time)=D(distance)/S(Speed). So, T=384472.282/2.99x10^8 gives us... 0.001285 seconds. So yes. Within an hour. Within a half hour. Within a quarter hour. Within a minute. Within a second. Within a millisecond. Even if we halved the speed of light by taking magic into account, we still get... 0.002564 seconds. Y'know, FTL travel is thrown around so casually nowadays, no one stops to consider the actual effect of it. To travel faster than light, you literally have to weigh almost nothing, or even have negative mass. And yet, here we are. Throwing FTL around like its the new fad. But please, don't take this as me criticising the story. Just the science and some of the principles that you called into question.