//------------------------------// // Part 2 // Story: What we Believed to be Gone // by IGIBAB //------------------------------// That race lasted for half an hour, at least. They felt exhausted, unable to properly breath in their suit. They had oxygen for days, but still, it could only be renewed so fast. They didn't fear the cold of the night, as they were protected, but they had other things to fear. Way long before they stopped, they could already see it. The great crystal at the center. As big as a small city and as high as the highest mountain on their home planet. An unending succession of peaks, star-like structures, flowers taller than a house, and a huge hexagonal chunk. The forest became so dense that at the end of their run, they had to frequently stop so as to not come into contact with one of the strange purple prisons. They had yet to see one of those green ones they had gotten a glimpse of on their way down. But that thing in the middle seemed so much more important. They arrived at its base. A stupendously large wall, as smooth as could be, without any trace of imperfection. "Holy heavens," Donker said, impressed. "I don't know who made this, but I don't want to deal with that kind of magician." "That thing must have been there for centuries... Do filaments have a life expectancy?" "Not that I know of. Mana creatures don't really die, unless their body is destroyed." "So, the person who created them probably died a long time ago." As she was saying that, Schim looked in the crystal. In this one too, there were those black things. But not that many, considering the size of their prison, compared to the others. "But why was all this made?" Donker wondered, looking up to the invisible top. "If it was made by one person, is it the same that made the crater? That would be absurd." She looked down, only to notice that Schim wasn't really paying attention. She was looking inside the crystal, squinting. "Hey, are you listening?" "There's someone in there..." Schim muttered, not even sure of what she was seeing herself. "What?" Donker put her hoof above her eyes, trying to look inside. But, alas, she couldn't see anything. "It's at the center... It looks like a pony...?" Schim guessed. "How are you even seeing that? It's like half a kilometer away." "Pegasus eyes..." Donker got closer. Still nothing. Schim could make out a silhouette, standing in the middle, on its two hind legs. It had wings as well? "How the hell would a pony arrive here? There's not even air to breathe." "I don't know... Careful!" As she was trying to get closer, Donker's horn came into contact with the crystal wall. The reaction was immediate. The unicorn felt like everything in her was being drained. The magical construction began to glow. Cracks appeared. Schim rushed to her mate and managed to push her out of the contact. But it was too late. Fissures were spreading on the whole surface and on the inside. "Get down!" Schim yelled, throwing herself on Donker to bring her on the ground. A moment later, in the deafening strident sound of a thousand mirrors breaking at the same time, the whole structure was smashed to pieces. The debris were so large some of them had time to touch the floor before they disintegrated completely. "Explorer, what happened!?" Control asked. Both ponies looked up, Schim protecting herself with one wing, even though no debris were falling on her. She answered the radio: "We made contact with the structure by inadvertence. It collapsed as a result." "My magic..." Donker moaned, rubbing her horn and getting up. "Thank god it didn't use the one from the suit, I would be dead..." "The pony!" Schim shouted. "What?" But her pegasus mate didn't answer. She was already galloping towards the center. Donker grumbled and went after her. Schim could see them. The black strings, from all over their ancient prison, rushing towards the center. Followed by those filaments which had, again, spawned from nowhere. And the collapsed body of that pony, in the middle. Gosh, how slow she was without her wings... That distance spent running felt like forever. And during that forever, she saw it. Something that couldn't be good. The black snakes, all of them, dived onto the pony laying on the floor. They went straight in them, passing through the skin as if it wasn't there, sneaking under. Like... "Worms..." A shiver went down her spine as she came to that unsettling realization. "Schim! Wait!" Donker yelled on the radio. The purple filaments weren't far behind. They were trying to reach the pony in the middle. The purple pony. Schim was close enough to see it was a mare, with a horn and with wings. "It's an alicorn..." she muttered. "What!? Aren't they supposed to be extinct!?" "It's an alicorn!" she panicked. "Control, the imprisoned pony is an alicorn!" But it moved. The mare moved. First, a wing twitched. Then, her head slowly raised, getting out of her lethargy. And as soon as she opened her eyes, the filaments all attacked her. Diving down, wrapping, coiling around her body, like hundreds of ropes trying to constrain her movement. The mare yelled and grunted, despite the lack of air, struggling in them. "We gotta stop those things!" Donker shouted. Schim stopped a few meters away from the mare fighting off the filaments with weak and unreliable movements. She grunted, she tried to bite them. One of her wings was bent backward and broke in an unpleasant sound. Her horn took on a dark light and she repelled a few of the filaments, but they would immediately come back to attack her. Donker ran passed Schim and jumped on the alicorn, instantly deploying a shield that pushed away all the filaments. They all immediately tried to pierce through the shield, knocking on it with their bodies. It took a little time for the mare to understand what was going on. She looked around, her eyes falling on Donker, right next to her. Schim saw her getting up on her hooves. Slowly. Unbothered by the fact she was in the middle of space, without any protective gear on. Something felt off, in the way she looked at the unicorn, for just a second. She blinked then turned to the shield, her face between neutral and curious. She didn't look like someone that had just been attacked. The purple filaments stopped all at the same time. "You magical abominations won't hurt her!" Donker warned, stomping her hoof, even though deep down she was glad they had stopped because her shield was about to give in. The alicorn closed her eyes. Her horn suddenly unleashed a dozen of black strings, spreading and sprawling like tentacles. They stayed attached to the horn, but pierced the shield from inside, extending right to the filaments. Two got caught, while the others began to run away. The tentacles swarmed the two captives and tore them apart mercilessly. Donker took a step back, scared by the weird magic that alicorn had just used, and the brutal way she was dealing with those things. Schim and her heard them. The filaments. A distorted cry, as if heard through a wall of water and a wall of earth. The yells were vibrating, shaking, desperate, as their reality was getting shattered along with them. Then, as they were ripped in one too many pieces, they simply evaporated. The tentacles went back in the alicorn's horn, one putting the broken wing back in place right before vanishing. All the other filaments had gone and she still stared at them in the distance, visibly holding a grudge as her face was starting to show some emotions. She turned to the two terrified ponies right by her side. "We need to destroy them," she said. "They are dangerous." Both Schim and Donker weren't even surprised that they could hear her. The way she talked was way more worrying. She sounded like three people at once, all with different tones. "W-Who are you?" Donker stuttered. "Why are you here!? Why are they here!?" The alicorn looked away for a moment, at the ground, searching for an answer, as if she needed to recover that memory. "I am Twilight Sparkle," she finally said. "Princess of Equestria."