2. You Don't Want To Hark The Dark Of It
Planar Equestrian
Chapter II: You Don't Want To Hark The Dark Of It
"Secrets are hidden because they don't want to be known, either for their own sake, or for others."
To walk across the plane is to risk not just your life but also your reputations and your soul. There are clear resemblance between the spheres within the Prime Material Planes, that is true. But even then, the political differences and the cultures of said sphere might not be the same from where you came from. Some find your politics a form of heresy, other seek to learn more from you, the later could be both good and bad.
The clearest difference is racial acceptance, as it is the first and foremost information one would recognized and imprint it into their mind. Some races are considered to be planar accepted like the humans and most members of the elven family. Other, not likely. One such example is the death of Jegga the Wise, one of the most famous pacifist monk of the goblinoid across the plane, was killed hackled beyond recognition by a human ranger, using sling and short swords. This was due to a mistake made by Jegga for not knowing the local goblins are in fact, very vile, dangerous, and unreasonable to the point said human dedicated their life to slay as much goblins as possible. While we lament for his lost, it should be the prime example for all planewalkers, especially those of the exotic kinds.
Racial problems aren't the only problem you will have to face when you become a planewalker. There are several other issues which are related to your faith, your political believes and your cultures. It is crucial that you must always keep a clear mind, ready for any form of culture shocks you may have to face. Your faith will be tested, considered a heresy and anything in between due to conflicts with the local denizen's cultures. What you consider to be the 'one true way' might be a hoax and crime in the eyes of the others. Unless you can cope and adapt with the changes, it is only a matter of time before you become the prime target of the local bounty hunters.
Precaution should be made. It is advised to make yourself a disguise to blend in with the crowd should you be able to. Before contact with the local denizens, one should learn and grasp the basics of their language and social norms. It is ill advised to make first contact without being able to be passed as a clueless denizen (which is also a recommended status). Observation is the key to your success, the more you observe, the more you understand and the easier it is for you to be part of the crowd. Magical items such as the Changeling Cloak and Comprehension Ring however, are not recommended on uncharted worlds or planes, as they could possibly lead to unforeseeable situations, especially when they have backlash effects when the enchantment's broke (in the case of Changeling Cloak) or when you accidentally lose the item.
Candrian Illborne, in 'Planewalker: The First Step', Chapter 1: To Be A Planewalker
Lyra returned to her home with the bag of scented candles. Putting it onto her table, she took a candle out and sniffed it. There it was, the euphoric smell of Feywild Sunset. A strange name, rather tame compared to his other ware, such as the Throngler. No one knew why it was named that way, or what it could do. She could certainly say that the blade would be gathering dust for the foreseeable future.
Was it weird to say that the candle reminded her of a dreamy sunset she once saw in her foalhood? She wasn’t even aware of it until her mind began to wander back to the past, stirring up old memories lost in the corridors of her mind. It was narcotic and pleasant, a soothing wave of nostalgia just washed all of her tiredness and anxiety away. Sometimes she wondered where did Star even find them? They must be magical, or made from really, really expensive ingredients, yet the price was rather cheap.
Deciding that she deserved a good bath, Lyra set some candles next to her bathtub and prepared the water. As she was ready to light the first candle up, a knock on the door gained her attention. She opened the door and saw Bon Bon standing there, with a forced smile on her face.
“H-hey, Lyra, whatcha doing?”
“I am going to take a bath, do you want to join in?”
Lyra jokes, but it seemed that the joke slipped away from Bon Bon. The earth pony stared at the candle behind her then gulped.
“Say, have you been to The Odd Oddities lately?”
Confused, Lyra replied.
“Yeah? I just bought some scented candles there. OH! It’s the one I bought last time, do you want to try it?”
Bon Bon pulled Lyra out of the bathroom, eyeing the candle set on the bathtub then turned to her housemate.
“You haven’t lit any of them, have you?”
“I was about to do so before you came in and banging the door. What’s the problem, Bon? You seem… concerned.”
Concern wasn’t quite the right word. Distressed? More likely. Everything, from the slightest twitch of her ear, to how frequent she tapped her hooves on the floor, spoke more than her words. And her words itself, while it didn’t mean much in the literal sense, its tone implied that she was both trying to hide both something and from something.
“Did you meet the owner?”
“Yes? I met Star near the fountain. He showed me some new candles, which I bought and was about to enjoy them. Tell me, Bon, what’s going on?”
Bon Bon checked the windows and door, made sure that no one was around them. She pulled Lyra into her bedroom and held her face closer.
“Tell me, Lyra: what’s the name of the owner?”
Baffled, Lyra stared at Bon Bon and answered.
“Star Quill, don’t you remember him? He has been my friend since my foalhood and he even showed up on your birthday.”
“Are you positive that he is Star Quill?”
“Of course, we went to the same school. What are you on about?”
The earth pony paced around the room, before she came closer to a canvas on the war and pulled it down, revealing it to be an evidence board. On the board were numerous pictures and notes regarding The Odd Oddities.
“What is this? Are you… stalking him?”
Bon Bon replied to Lyra with a question.
“Lyra, how many owners does The Odd Oddities have?”
“One? Are you saying that there are other ponies working there? But why are you-”
“Not ponies, Lyra. Not just ponies at least.”
Bon Bon then showed her friend a collection of photos, each of them was from a pony who looked eerily similar to Star Quill. But instead of a unicorn, it was an earth pony.
“Star has a twin brother?”
“No, Lyra, look closer!”
In the other set of photos was another pony, a pegasus, to be exact. Like the earth pony, he bore some resemblance to her unicorn friend.
“A triplet then?”
“No, no , no… They are one, Lyra!”
“That doesn't make any senses, Bon. Can’t you just tell me exactly what you are trying to say?”
Bon Bon sighed. She pulled out a pointing stick and pointed at a picture. Bon Bon began.
“Everything started on the day I came to visit the store alone…”
It was a sunny day. Bon Bon was casually trotting around the town. Everyone was so cheerful that day, and so was she. A package just came from Canterlot, within it was a present from her family and her payment. Strolling across the commercial streets, her attention turned to a small crowd forming in front of a small store.
Her gaze shifted to the store’s sign. The Odd Oddities, the shop where her foalhood friend, Land Tale, opened just a few years ago! The first time Bon Bon and her friends came to the store, they met Land’s brother, Star Quill. The twin was so much alike that she almost mistook them for one and the other.
Taking a few steps toward the store, it seemed that they were selling some new items. Dried flowers, used in decorating and art. The dried flowers of the store were rather diverse, from the familiar roses to some strange ones like the Selûne's Tear.
Standing tall amid the crowd was a stallion, one of the shop’s owners. Who was he again? Bon Bon felt like she knew who he was, then it clicked. It was Sky Wonder, Land Tale and Star Quill’s triplet brother. How could she be so forgetful?
The mare decided to wait until the crowd dispersed to properly greet her long time friend. The pegasus was rather rowdy, some even tried to get into his backroom. She giggled when the stallion ran around the small store to make sure that no one accidentally broke something.
Finally, the crowd moved on. Sky Wonder lied down to catch a breath, before moving the flower stall back into the store. Happily, Bon Bon trotted to the store and prepared to greet Sky Wonder, who was standing right in front of her…
“Hey… Land Tale?”
When the stallion turned to her, it was Land Tale whom she spoke to. Some gears turned in Bon Bon’s head. She must have mistaken Land for Sky again… Again? When did she meet him before? Right, he was her foalhood friend, they had been friends since she was still a foal. Was he? Yes, his brother was also Lyra’s foalhood friend too. But they were twins, no triplets, right? So that meant that Lyra and Bon Bon had known each other since they were foals…
“Hey, Bon Bon, you looking for something?”
Then it hit her. No, she couldn’t let it slip yet.
“Yeah, no, uhm… How are you today?”
“Aside from being bombarded by a flock of pegasus? I think I am fine. How about you? Do you want to check the wares? I got some new stuff from Waterdeep, great place, let me tell you…”
Bon Bon had no idea what or where Waterdeep was, but she knew that she must go. Giving the stallion a hasty goodbye, the mare returned to her home, breathless.
“Since then, I began to investigate. And the deeper I dig, the more uncanny he is.”
“You are saying that all of them, Star Quill, Land Tale and Sky Wonder are one?”
The weird feeling suppressed within Lyra stirred up again. She began to remember, trying to grasp every memory she had of Star Quill. He was her foalhood friend, they went to the same school, he went to her last birthday party, the first day she met him at the store… And that was all of it. No matter how hard she tried, she could only see very vague memories of Star Quill. Worse than that, she ‘knew’ he was her classmate, but there weren’t any memories about her school days which had him in it. If she was a book, he was like a note, placed into her by someone else.
Lyra began to panic, her breath became ragged and unsteady. Bon Bon immediately went to her side and tried to comfort her.
“Slowly, slowly. Breath in, breath out…”
“He-he was in my head! My memories! Oh my Celestia, could he be poking around my head all that time?!”
“Shhh… Don’t panic.”
Lyra raised up and raced to the door. Bon Bon bit Lyra’s tail and tried to hold her back.
“Wah ah u doin?!”
“We have to tell Twilight, what if he is Discord? Or something else? What if he is a changeling?”
Releasing her friend’s tail, Bon Bon fell flat on the floor, seemingly confused.
“What’s a changeling?”
“I DON’T KNOW!” Lyra shouted then paced around the house. The more she thought of the store, the more dreadful it became. At the corner of her eyes, she saw the bag of candles. With a quick motion, she kicked it down to the trash bin.
“We have to do something!”
“I know that. But Lyra, what can we even do?”
“You stalked him, right? Then there must be something we can use to get… that thing away from Ponyville. Twilight and her friends would know what to do.”
Bon Bon sighed. She looked into her friend’s eyes.
“The thing is: they are also in his trance. All of us were, and are, being tricked by that thing. And it hasn’t caused any real harm yet, so I haven’t told Twilight of anything. Also, the right word is investigate, not stalk. Two different things, one a professional’s work, the other a fetish.”
“But we can’t wait until he does something wrong either.” With a determined stance, Lyra declared. “We have to stalk him harder!”
“It’s called INVESTIGATE”
Snooping around somepony’s home, especially at night, was not something her mother taught her, but the situation called for a more extreme measure. Lyra tried her best to stay in the shadow, but her bright mint coat didn’t help much, neither did Bon Bon’s pink mane streak. If anything, the only reason why they didn’t stick out more in the night was because of the lamp ‘the owner’ hung before the Odd Oddities.
“The door is locked.”
Lyra whispered to her friend’s ear, giving Bon Bon a slight tingle. She was right, the door was locked hard, no matter how hard she tried to pull it, it wouldn’t come out. The sturdiness of it mocked her that even with the hardest buck in the world, it wouldn’t open.
“Let me see…” Bon Bon pulled out a poppy pin from her mane and began to work on the lock. Surprisingly, it was rather simple, too simple, even. She felt a sudden fright, what if this was a trap?
"When did you learn t-" Bon Bon put a hoof on Lyra's lips, telling her to keep it quiet.
The door opened, slowly, and creaked all the way. Each time a sound echoed in the store, their fur raised a little. Creeping deeper into the store, the ware which was already bizarre on their own, donned an even more ominous, haunting aura.
“Where is he?” Lyra checked the front, the stallion was nowhere in sight.
“He must be in the backroom.” Bon Bon quickly pointed at the faint light escaping from the slit of the door. No doubt that somepony or something was there, but the light was akin to a big, red stop sign to them.
“Bon Bon, you are the professional here, should we go in?”
“I don’t think that is a good idea, Lyra.”
“Neither do I.”
Both of the mares were startled by the strange voice. It was raspy and echoing, dark even. The worst thing was that they couldn’t see where it came from.
“Wh-who are you! Why are you here?”
Lyra tried to remain calm, turned to a general direction and yelled. The voice chuckled, but it sounded like it was wheezing.
“Shouldn’t that be my question? Why are you in my realm… Lyra Heartstring?”
The creature stepped out from the shadow of the shelves. Its body was slender and tall, thin enough to let it hide behind the trees should he need to. Its eyes were two orbs of bluish white light. The more prominent feature on its form was the antlers and the glow pulsating from his body, shone through his ribcage. It seemed almost like an undead from a folk tale, or very malnourished deer-pony hybrid. Covering its body was a cloak, while a wide brimmed wizard hat rested on its head, both were blue with numerous yellow patterns they couldn’t make out what they were.
With each step, the uncanny creature came closer to them. It smirked, or Bon Bon guessed it did. It backed them up until they hit the backroom door. Lowering its head to their eye level, the creature snickered.
“And you are Bon Bon…” Its gaze fixed upon her. Her spine tingled, her head became cloudy, as if it was poking around inside of it.
“Oh, what is this? Pardon my mistake then,… Oh wait so you don’t want anyo-, anypony know your dark? Interesting”
“Leave her alone!” Lyra shouted at the cryptid, turning his attention to her. The creature nonchalantly strode toward her.
“And may I know why you two are here? This late at night? Trying to shed my dark? Cross-trade my jink? Or catching a new chant?”
Lyra didn’t understand half of what it was trying to, still she came with her own questions prepared.
“Where’s Star Quill?”
The creature went silent for a moment. Its eyes half opened, as if it was searching for something. Then came a loud crackle.
“You are rattling about my tags, aren’t you?” It moved in a strange, freakish pattern. “How are they called in your tongue? Let's see,... Star Quill, Land Tale, Sky Wonder and many more.”
“Your tag? You are Star Quill?”
The crytid’s head snapped toward Bon Bon, the smile still on its face.
“Yes… All of them are my doughty up.”
“What are you planning to do with Ponyville, you monster!” Lyra almost screamed at the eldritch horror being. To which, it laughed insidiously. A wicked smile crept onto its face.
“I am going to nick you two up real good, put all of this burg denizens into the dead-book and eat. All. Of. The. Foals!”
Its eyes were mere inches away from Lyra’s own. The cold, evil orbs of light seared her soul. It was her breaking point. Lyra screamed and tried to run away. Following her closely was Bon Bon.
“Oh, don’t leave so soon, cutters. There are plenty rum stype for us to rattle about.”
The creature disappeared into the shadows. Their eyes darted from side to side, trying to catch the form of the creature. The small store became an arena for a strange game of cat and mouse. The creature appeared left and right, stop them from breaching the maze made of shelves and stalls. They could see the moonlight outside, but each time they tried to get closer to it, the creature caught up with them and forced them to go back in.
Changing their course, Bon Bon rushed to the backroom door and tried to buck it open. To no avail, the door wouldn’t budge. Lyra aided her friend. Both of them knocked, kicked yet the door wouldn’t open no matter what. The earth mare saw a glimpse of light at the corner of her eyes. The entrance was wide open for them, the creature was gone. Desperatly, Bon Bon turned to Lyra.
“You have to go, NOW!.” And before Lyra could comprehend what Bon Bon meant, her friend kicked her up to the air and out of the store. Turning back to the store, Lyra saw a frightening scene. Darkness and shadow slowly flooded it, clinging themselves upon Bon Bon. She tried to kick them, push them away. They retaliated with each hit and slowly drowned her.
“Don’t worry about me! You have to warn everypony about it!”
The store entrance was closed. Lyra tried to pry it open. Calling out her friend’s name. Nothing responded. Nothing but silence.
She had to go to Twilight, she would know how to deal with this. She had to warn her before… Oh no… It wanted to eat all of the foals!
As she turned toward the Golden Oak Library, her head hit something. When she raised herself up, she realized that something was the creature. With a glee on its face, it spoke.
“Can’t let myself be the howl of the burg, right?”
A blinding light surrounded her. Lyra let out one last cry for help before disappearing from the face of the earth.
It was a rather peaceful night to the ponies of Ponyville, but not so much for the Sweet Apple Acres. It had been four hours since Apple Bloom caught a fever, and it seemed that her temperature hadn't come down yet. The little filly laid on her bed, coughing and sneezing. Her bigger sister, Applejack took the thermometer out of her mouth, checking it.
"What have Ah told you, don't play around the forest. You just never listen."
The filly shyly smiled, forcing a cough back to her throat, but failed miserably. Acting tough only made her sister even more worried. Apple Bloom felt tired, her throat was sore, all she wanted to do was sleep but she couldn't close her eyes. Applejack did her best to comfort her sister. It was her duty to do so, and a duty she vowed to hold since the day her parents... The mare didn't have time to lament, she had a sister and an orchard to take care of. Turning off the light, Applejack said goodnight to her sister, yet something urged her to stay with the filly.
Turning and twisting on her bed, Apple Bloom finally drifted to the land of dream. It was no pleasant night, as she dreamed of an old, cold and dark warren, deep underground. An army of giant rats loomed around her, drowning her in their chittering.
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I can just imagine him laughing at how sacred they are, lmao.
Dude knows how to pull a prank