Fractured Soul

by JollyRogue

Ch 16

The room that Luna and I had landed seemed to be a jail cell. Shackles lined a stone brick wall. Reddish brown stains covered the floor. I turned around to see an iron barred door. On the other side of it was another brick wall, a torch set on it. It was the only source of light in the dungeon black. I turned back around to face Luna.

"So, I think we might have been imprisoned."

"Obviously." She said a slightly sarcastic tone in her voice, and a look of amusement on her face. The princess walked past me to face the door. Luna lowered her horn to the lock, a navy blue aura overtaking it. A burst of energy then shot out from it, and traveled quickly to the lock. It went right through the lock, not stopping, continuing like a bullet until it hit the other wall, and passed through that as well. "Well, that was unexpected."

"Yeah, but it gives me an idea." I brought my hoof up to the lock and tried tapping it. My hoof traveled right through. Not questioning this, I stepped forward, and was able to walk right through the iron bars. "So, looks like we're not trapped after all." I said, turning back around.

"So what is this place?" Luna asked, as she stepped out of the jail.

"I think it's just some sort of intricate illusion. We're probably in the same spot as before, just instead of seeing that white void, we're seeing this. As if the image was pasted over it."

"So why are we seeing this?"

"No clue." A noise from my right caught me off guard, startling me slightly, and I looked towards it. There was nothing, just a dead end. "What was that?"

Before Luna could answer, a black image appeared on the wall, and it seemed to resemble a door. The image shimmered slightly, wavering before disappearing. What was once a normal brick wall swung open, with a slight squeak, as if the bricks had turned into hinges.

The wall had been covering a seemingly endless dark hallway, and from the blackness a figure slowly emerged. He walked out of the portal cautiously and on two legs. The figure wore a pair of black shoes with white laces, and a pair of dark blue jeans. He wore a light brown jacket that fell all the way to his knees. The shirt that he was wearing under the jacket was a simple black one. The most shocking part about his clothes was what was around his neck. A black and white scarf wrapped itself around him a few times. The ends of the scarf hung off his broad shoulders.

Who was he? What was he doing here? Why did he have my scarf? Why did I automatically assume only one scarf like mine existed?

"What is that?" Luna asked.

I didn't answer. I walked towards the scarf stealer, who had stopped for some reason, and was staring above my head. I was directly in front of him, when I noticed something under his jacket. At the edge of his right sleeve, I saw a gray shine. I tilted my head and looked under his jacket. Instead of flesh like I would have assumed, there was instead metal. A metal arm. Who would have a metal arm? I scratched my head with my shiny appendage, as I thought over the perplexity of this stranger.

Not allowing me to ponder the situation, the stranger walked silently down the hall, towards Luna.

Luna panicked, her horn was covered in a blue aura, perhaps afraid that he was going to attack her. "Stay back from us!" Luna yelled. The figure didn't falter in the slightest and continued walking, right through Luna, as if he was some kind of ghost.

"Well it seems that he, just like everything else here, is just an illusion." I said to Luna.

Luna stood there, a look of pure surprise on her face. "We believe we just figured out who that was."

"Really, who is he?"

Luna looked at me, a look of amusement on her face. "Really? You can't figure it out?"

"No, should it really be that obvious?"

Luna gave a small chuckle. "Oh don't worry about it, We are sure you will figure it out eventually."

Okay, I guess. If she could figure it out, it probably wont take me that long.

"So should we follow him?" I asked, dropping the topic of the figures identity for the moment.

"It would probably be the best choice."

***

We followed behind the stranger, knowing that we made no noise in this illusionary world. He kept up the same speed, he never faltered, he never made a noise, he just kept going. He must have known exactly where he was going. Time just passed by. Luna and I kept up a good brisk pace behind the strange figure. We entered room, after hallway, after room. Each different, in their own way, but similar.

After we had exited the dungeon, the architecture greatly improved. Unlike the dungeon, the rooms and the halls seemed to give a sense of power and authority. As if whoever built this place wanted to show how royally magnificent they were. The hallway floors were lined with polished black and white stone tiles. Torches lined equally shiny black stone walls.

The rooms were spread seemingly randomly, with no order in their appearance. No room seemed to be the same. True, each room had the same black walls and floors, but they also looked to have a different function. Some had shelves filled with books, others seemed to be used as storage, while some just had a single pedal stool in the middle of the room. Some of these pedal stools were empty, while some had items on them. These items looked like they had no particular connections to each other. One pedal stool contained a green crystal, another had a gray rock with veins of silver in it, there was one that had a blue looking scarab on it.

We continued this pattern for awhile. Until we came to a set giant wooden doors. Not even pausing for a second, the mystery man pushed open the doors, and we proceeded inwards.

The room that we had entered was ginormous. The ceiling hung a hundred feet above our heads. The room itself was fairly bare. It shared the same floor and wall designs as the rest of the rooms and hallways we had seen. Except on the other side of the room, there was a single black stone throne.

We made our way over towards it, and once we had made it there, our mysterious guide placed his right hand on it.

The throne glowed green. It grew intenser, and once it was bright enough to burn retinas, a small ball of green fire formed in front of it. The tiny flame began to grow larger, and the thrown grew dimmer. Once the throne had gone back to it's original non glowing state, the fire had grown immensely. It was equally as large as the throne. We had stood off to the side and watched as it grew. Now that it had ceased, our guide made his way towards it.

He slowly brought his right arm up to it. Green light reflected off of his arm, causing a dull green light to be reflected around the entire room. The tips of his fingers were mere inches away from the green energy. Then an image appeared on his arm. It looked like a black arrow, and it was pointing down.

His arm fell towards the floor, bringing his entire body with him. Then someone started clap slowly from the doorway that we had used to enter the room.

"So you thought I wouldn't notice you entering my castle. No, no my friend I always know when you are here. Not just in this castle, but this entire universe. You can't make a single move here without me even knowing." An all to familiar voice said.

That voice! It was the voice of the man who had taunted me, since my first memory! The man who had sent a dragon after me! I jerked my head toward the entrance. There stood the source of any and all hatred I had felt.

His appearance did not fit the deep voice that had been used to taunt me. He was very tall and skinny. His skin was stretched tightly over his body. It gave the impression of a skeleton who had stretched a skin suit, that was several sizes too small, over their own body. He had long jet black hair, with streaks of gray in random places. On his face he had an equally long black beard, that hid his prominent cheek bones. He wore a long black cloak, that was the same shade as his hair.

He looked towards the man that had fallen towards the floor, the man gave grunts of pain, then towards Luna and I. He couldn't see us could he, he was just an illusion. The look in his light blue eye's told me that he was looking past us. Probably at the throne.

"So Jason, what should I do with you." The black cloaked man asked.

"What!" I yelled. How could he talk to me?

Then our gravity challenged guide started to chuckle. "So, you think I have no way of escaping this?"

That voice, it was mine! The dots slowly started to connect together in my mind. The scarf, the arm, his name, the fantastically beautiful messy, mahogany hair, that I had just realized he had. The man on the floor was me!

I looked with wide eye's at the non pony version of me that laid on the ground. What happened to me? Why was I human here, but horse now? How come I knew I/he was a human?

My panicking mind was interrupted by the man that stood on the other side of the room.

"Oh so you think because you have been able to thwart me thus far, that you'll thwart me again?"

"Well, when you put it like that, yes!" The human me gave a light chuckle.

"Hmm... Yes I figured you would think like that, but I assure you, you wont get out of this one." A malicious smile spread across his face.

"Right... So when ever you want to start your torture, that would be great."

"Keep telling yourself you'll come out of this."

"Anytime now."

The cloaked man glared at the me on the floor. "Joke now, but you wont be later. Now let me give a little explanation. As you know, our souls contain a vast amount of power. This power can be used for machines, magic, even bringing back the dead..."

"Yawn..."

The black cloaked man pointed a long bony finger at the me on the floor, and slowly brought his finger down. Cracks started to form around the human me, and he let out a scream in pain. "Now be quiet. Now as you know souls grow stronger with age. Growing from the memories we make. These memories connect to the main source of a soul, by thin, thin, strands. Now imagine a force going in and snipping these threads. Do you know what would happen?"

"The memories would be lost."

"Exactly! And any extra souls you may be carrying, will also lose their connection. Now these lost connections come out as souls. Not very large, but still souls."

"Sounds like a good idea on paper, but to actually find a spell that can do that. I doubt such a thing even exists!"

"You are right. I could not find a spell that could do that. I did extensive research on such a spell. I found nothing. So the next logical thing was to attempt making it on my own, and you know what, it worked. You may already know this but the word fire, and the word for soul, are the same. Such a simple thing like that and adding a few of the words for breaking, add a little bit of specifics, and we can get rid of memories. To think that no one has ever considered this spell. Now, let me demonstrate." He raised his hand up and a series of images flickered over my human self.

Image upon image appeared. Some were easily recognizable. Cracks, a snapped thread, a hammer. Some were unrecognizable. Then an image bigger than the rest appeared on his back, a fireball. As soon as it had appeared, all of the images lit up at once. A small stream of green fire flew out of my body. The stream flew into the green fireball that had been summoned.

"I know that whatever I say to you now is pointless, but you should know, I will not kill you. At least not right now. The amount of energy still left inside of you could easily cause a devastating explosion, if you were to die. No I'll send you away, to a different place. I'll let you live a little longer, but know this, I will soon be after you, and no matter what, I will kill you." As the last word rolled of his tongue, a large dark hole appeared underneath the human me. He slowly sunk into it.

Author's Note:

Well it has been a week and a half since the last update. I feel like this is a good time frame for updates. So I'll try to release each chapter every week and a half.

To those of you that picked up that Jason was a human, good job. And to those of you who couldn't figure it out, well you might be as slow as Jason.