From the West They Came

by Not That Anon

XIV – Lost on the Moon

The deeper part of the cave was even more ancient. Unadorned walls of raw, black stone gave the impression of being as old as the world itself. We didn’t have the time to take a closer look because the corridor ended as unexpectedly as it started, with a simple wooden door. I carefully pushed it open.

The contrast between everything we’ve seen so far and this room was staggering. Or rather, it would have been staggering had I never visited it prior. Sawbones looked around and whispered, “Is this the place you’ve seen in your… visions?”

“It is,” I said. “Midnight?”

The sarosian finished her detection spell. “No illusions here.”

“Then let’s –“ another flash of light and numbing pain interrupted me “– go. Fast.”

Midnight and Sawbones exchanged concerned looks. Whatever was going to happen next, it’d be the end of our journey, one way or another. We stepped inside.

It was a lot smaller than what I saw in the dream – the table and the three chairs were almost pony-sized. The walls were made from plain logs just as I remembered them, and nothing appeared inside to greet us. The only peculiar sight was the starry sky above our heads.

The stars themselves were different and foreign. As we watched them, they moved to arrange themselves in specific shapes. Midnight was the first to notice the pattern.

“On the longest day on the thousandth year,” she smoothly began the translation.

“The stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about nighttime eternal,” I finished, not even trying to understand how did I know what the words meant.

Midnight raised her brow, “A prediction? But I thought–”

Suddenly, somepony – no, something – clapped.

“Congratulations, little ponies,” a weak and distorted voice called out from very far away, ignoring that the room was the size of a large broom closet.

“Princess?” Sawbones asked fearfully.

The voice spoke again, this time much closer to us. “I’d prefer Prince, or a Lord, if you’d be so kind.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a malformed shadow skirt across the wall and onto one of the chairs.

“Show yourself!” demanded Midnight, her horn crackling with energy.

“What an arrogant little bat!” He laughed, and his laughter resembled the wailing of a thousand souls. “Trust me, you’d rather not see my handsome visage in this state. I am the spirit of chaos, the Great Deceiver, the Multifarious, and whatever other names my future subjects will call me.”

Sawbones took a step back. “Discord?” he said in a trembling voice. “It can’t be! You were defeated!”

“I was, wasn’t I? I think I might have forgotten!” his voices turned to a tone of mocking dismay. “Just like a certain someone you wished to find here. Terribly sorry, my dears, but your princess is not here at the moment. Just the old me. I am not exactly the one you call Discord, either, but the details can wait until you become my servants.”

I gritted my teeth. Sawbones stealthily reached into his saddlebags.

“Servants?!” Midnight looked at the gathering shadows with determination in her eyes and held her ground. “Never. I’ve sworn fealty to Princess Luna alone!”

“Oh, I know, I know, but you might wish to reconsider that part.” He laughed again. “After all, my victory is all but assured. Celestia doesn’t even know when her banishment spells will end but, as you saw yourselves, it's all written here. First, your princess will come back and catch her by surprise. I don’t care who wins, really. Either way when ‘Discord’ comes back there will be no one strong enough to stop him. So, what will it be?”

“Answer’s still no, monster.” She gritted her teeth.

“That’s so unfortunate! Do you know I can crush your world with a snap of my claws?”

“You can’t escape this prison.” I stepped forward, gathering the last of my courage. “The rules bind you, too. You’re just smoke and mirrors.”

I felt the thing’s attention shift and focus on me. It was like a downpour of filth assaulting every inch of my body.

“Is that… my favorite persistent little bat!” he said with genuine merriment. At the same time shadowy tentacles shot from the dark corners of the room and held me and Midnight in place. “So that’s how you found the way here. Sadly, it looks like I’ll have to teach you both some manners.”

An enormous fish eye opened in the air before us. It was the color of sulfur, with a red pupil of searing magma. Its gaze burned, turning the minds and the will of those who wished to disobey it to dust. I flailed my limbs trying to break free. I failed; the Deceiver already seized our minds.

As it began to dawn on me that my life was about to end here, in a place beyond places, a dagger flew through the air, striking the monster right in the middle of his giant eye. He shrieked and – in a moment of confusion – released us from its grasp, both physical and mental.

“Run!” shouted Sawbones as he threw his scalpel using his other wing.

We dashed to the exit but the amorphous thing was faster. As we were about to cross the threshold, he ensnared Sawbones and began dragging him back to the eye.

“Go! Don’t let it escape,” he cried out. “I am ready.”

We burst out of the room and I turned around to shut the door. Before I could close it, however, I saw dozens of shadowy spear-sized spikes launch itself at the surgeon. A small cloud of sparkly blue smoke left his lungs. The cloud drifted out of the room and to the exit of the dungeon. I felt the familiar cold sting in the homecoming rune.

“Even if you run, you cannot hope to escape my prison yourselves,” boomed a horrifying choir of a thousand disharmonious voices. “My new puppets will bring you to me and then I'll use your help to sail to Equestria, whether you submit willingly or not.”

We ran again. Somewhere along the way, two more waves of cold struck me. When we turned the corner, Straight Pike was desperately fighting with his back against the wall. When he heard us, he only glanced at the corridor blocked by at least two dozen creatures, and charged forward swinging his partisan like a madpony. Though he disappeared under the hateful pile of our former crew well before we could reach him, his sacrifice cleared the way for just barely long enough for us to gallop through, leaving the monsters that used to be ponies behind us. The flash of light and the stinging cold came seconds later.

With no other distractions, Discord’s puppets quickly identified us as the new targets. They began chasing us with unnatural speed, threatening to catch us in seconds. Midnight’s telekinesis pushed the tables and the rubble from the collapsed ceiling into the exit, creating a makeshift barricade in front of us. Her horn glowed again and she gestured for me to stop. Just as some of the former sailors jumped to reach us, we disappeared from the room and reappeared on the other side of the barricade, at the maze’s exit. I could still see the glowing path that led us to this hell.

Midnight lied down, breathing heavily. She took off her hat and said, “So that’s how it ends, huh?”

“Ends?” I lied next to her, supporting her as well as I could. “We’ve escaped them!”

“For how long? Ten minutes? Thirty? Listen close, those things are already starting to clear the rubble.” She looked me in the eyes. Despite her exhaustion, her eyes were almost glowing with crimson determination. “We cannot allow the Great Deceiver to reach Equestria, no matter the cost.”

“What are you saying?” I said in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

She winced and averted her eyes. “Even if I could still run – which I can’t – they’d catch us on the stairs. However, if they’re distracted for long enough, maybe you could–“

“No!” I shouted, “Not you, too!”

“You’ve said that ‘We all knew what we were getting ourselves into’, didn’t you?” asked Midnight.

“Yes but now that–“

She put her hoof on mine and smiled sadly. “It’s no big deal, really. I doubt any of us are getting out of this. Unless…” she trailed off.

“Unless what?” I raised my brow.

She sighed and said, “Unless the Night will keep her promise, somehow.”

Though the time was running short, neither of us could say anything else for a moment. Finally hearing faint noise of digging behind us, I said, “You know, with that sigil’s help I’ve seen something leave the bodies of Sawbones and the other fallen soldiers. Maybe she–“

“Shh –“ Midnight snuggled closer “– whatever happens, happens. Let’s not waste what little time we have talking about it.”

“I wish we’d met under different circumstances.” I draped a wing over her.

“So do I,” she said, grabbing her giant hat with her magic and putting it on my head.

“What are you doing?”

“Well, I can’t allow myself to be seen in public without my hat.” A single tear glistened in the corner of her eye. “Now that you have it, you’ll have to make it a priority to find me wherever we may meet next.”

“I promise I won’t forget,” I solemnly swore in a shaky voice.

“You better don’t!” Midnight tried to smile again. “You don’t want to make the famous Bat Witch angry, do you?”

The rumbling behind us grew louder.

Midnight stood up and sighed heavily. “I always hated farewells. Get moving already. I’ll buy you more time than anypony else could.”

“What’s your plan?” I asked, struggling to keep my mind from thinking about our immediate future.

Rather than respond, Midnight’s horn glowed and soon we found ourselves standing in complete darkness. The only visible elements were Midnight’s magic aura, the stars that appeared above us and the path leading through the maze.

She said, “Can you still see how to get out of here?”

I nodded.

“Good, because I’m sure that they can’t.” She took a few steps towards one of the wrong corridors.

Although I already knew the answer, I still had to ask, “But they can see your aura, can they not?” Everything about this situation was so surreal that I needed to hear it to believe it.

“Yes, but thankfully we’re in a maze. By the time they find me, you’ll hopefully already be out of here.” She took a dagger out of my saddlebags. “Is it sharp?”

“As sharp as it could be,” I answered. “Still, I doubt that a single dagger will help you much against dozens of those things.”

“I won’t be using it against them. See you, Vigil!” She waved her hoof and galloped into the darkness.

I waved back, though of course she couldn’t have seen the gesture. “See you, Midnight.”

---

Everything since then went by in a blur. The maze, the corridor, the path to the ship – it all happened less than an hour ago and I don’t remember any of it. No, that’s not entirely true. I remember that when I finally left the forsaken underground tomb, a blue sparkly cloud nimbly zipped past me and flew into the sky. In contrast to all the previous occurrences, this time it was my heart that hurt the most.

I already had a plan ready by the time I set my hooves on the ship. The two barrels of explosive powder we took for emergencies were still in the hold. A quarter of one could blow a sea serpent into pieces; two barrels would turn a ship into tiny splinters. I opened the barrels and evenly spread their contents in the hold. As for the source of fire, in a couple minutes I will go and retrieve the vial of dragonfire from the safe in Sea Worthy’s quarters and drop it onto this journal. The book – alongside some explosive powder, I apologize for that – will travel to you, Celestia, and the heat will set off the explosion.

If you’re wondering why I’m doing this, I need to stress that I am not sorry for what I and the other twice-damned sailors have done. We tried to help our Princess in the only way we could. With that in mind, I dare to ask of You, Celestia, two favors.

One, strike all records of the farthest west from history. No pony deserves to repeat our fate. Alter the legends and bury the records that hint at the mere possibility of something existing here. It will not be a lie; there is nothing for a sane pony to find in this place. Or, to put it another way, nothing that should be found by a sane pony.

Two, help our good Princess Luna leave her nightmarish state and stop the Great Deceiver when he comes back. You now know when she will return, so I beg of you, use the coming thousand years to prepare as well as you can.

---

I can hear the hoofsteps up above. Two dozen or more, the arrogant fool must’ve sent all of his servants after me. If the explosion won’t be enough to get rid of them, a bath in the acid should suffice.

My hoof is shaking. A part of me can’t believe that it has come down to this, but I suppose that if you’re reading this journal, you already know how this story ends. There’s no point in delaying the inevitable any longer. Farewell.

The last survivor and the captain of Luna’s Grace,

Long Vigil

Comments

[new55]

That was a good story.

[IceHawk]

Good world building, great characters.

Damn good story. Well done!

[Reclusive]

cried