In my three years serving with Avian, I have come across a lot of different smells.
The stench of sulfur from an IED detonating across a room, the metallic smell of ozone from a taser to the chest, the coppery stench of the rainforest floor, as blood soaks into the dirt.
But one of the worst smells I came across was that of a corpse.
Not a dead body, but a Corpse, decomposed and hidden, the body being eaten and digested by maggots and worms inside a closed space. And when you open the container, that door to the basement, the smell comes rushing out in an assault that should be categorized as a chemical weapon, the dead flesh mixing with the body's gases, the feces and urine that have dried long ago, of internal organs that have collapsed and begun to decompose.
That horrible stench, rushing at you all at once.
I fainted the first time that smell hit me. It was a horrible experience.
I came across many smells, plenty of which caused me to gag, some even had me throw up, but none ever caused me to black out, even if only for a moment.
The smell of the hole the Deer and I fell into reminded me of that horrible stench.
Of a mounting pile of corpses, their stench rushing out at the first exit they could reach in what must have been centuries.
And I am not proud to say that as that stench reached me, I blacked out.
How do I know I blacked out?
"I do hope you enjoy your time talking with yourself, Dear Nephew," The Pony of Shadow said with a smile, the two of us floating in Limbo. "I must admit, I did miss you. When was your last visit? Three, four months ago?"
"I believe it was around mid-to-late December." I lazily told my 'Uncle'. "A week before Hearth's Warming."
"I never liked that holiday~" The Pony of Shadows said.
"It's early May now," I told him.
"It really has been over four months, huh?" Uncle of Shadows said simply before silence descended upon both of us.
"Nothing to say?" The Pony of Shadows asked, raising a shadowy eyebrow in my direction, causing his glowing eyes to seem larger.
"I have a few questions, sure, but they can wait for later." I told him, "I need to concentrate on waking up."
"You don't wake up by concentrating on it, Nephew, you need to let time do its thing~" The Pony of Shadows said before turning to poke at the rainbow pillar that housed the Pegasus Stallion.
"Sure..." I paused for a moment, my mind racing back to the dream I had before I entered the Manor, the one that woke me up in the middle of the night, "By the way, I do want to ask this one question before I wake up."
"Ask away," The Pony of Shadow told me, "But be warned, I make no promises that the answers you receive will be satisfactory."
"Sure, I just wanted to know if the name Stygian means anything to you?" I asked the Pony.
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"-Stygian means anything to you?" The Pony of Shadows froze as he heard Prince Blueblood ask him that question, feeling a smile begin to slowly creep upon his face.
"Of course, the name Stygian means something~" He chuckled, his eyes staring into his own reflection in the crystal pillars that trapped him in Limbo.
"After all, I AM Stygian!" The Pony of Shadows quickly turned around, the shadows over his face peeling back to reveal a Unicorn Stallion, only for his smile, which was so excited at the prospect of shouting out such a dramatic twist, to disappear as Blueblood was nowhere to be found.
"You woke up before you could even hear my answer..." Stygian Styx Platinum, the Pony of Shadows, grumbled disappointingly at the failure of his theatrical reveal.
"Well, hopefully you'll come back soon..." He said to himself before he returned to messing with Flash Magnus's crystal.
"Limbo does get boring after enough time..."
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King Aspen groaned in pain as his body crashed onto the ground, stones and dirt flinging against him as he landed inside the hole that opened up beneath his hooves.
He looked around him, his eyes blurry from the dirt and the possible concussion, trying to locate the two other individuals who had fallen with him.
"Bramble!" He called out, "Where are you, Bramble!?"
His eyes searched around, noticing the large open ceiling above him, the night sky twinkling with countless stars, the magical willow he had grown hours prior hanging off the edge of the hole, its roots holding tightly to the earth.
"Dad! Behind you!" Aspen heard his son calling for him, turning his head around widely as he searched for the direction the voice came from, "Up here!"
Aspen looked up at the voice, his eyes widening as he spotted Bramble several meters above him, standing on a small ledge halfway up from where he was. His breath caught in his throat as he saw the ledge slowly crumble, giving Bramble less room to stand on.
"Bramble! Hold on!" Aspen shouted, his horns beginning to glow as he started commanding the Heart of the Everfree, roots bursting out of the wall in a makeshift stairway for his son to hop down.
"Thank- Woah!" Bramble thanked his father before feeling the ground shake, the stairs he stood on struggling to hold their shape, forcing the young prince to hasten his descent. "What is happening?"
"I do not know," Aspen told his son as his hooves touched the floor before he pulled him into a hug, "But you're safe, that's all that matters."
"What about Blueblood?" Bramble asked as he pulled away from the hug, "Did you see him anywhere?"
"I did not-" Aspen was interrupted as the ground once again shook, pushing the old deer down as his legs gave out beneath him. "We need to get out of here!"
"I know!" Bramble yelled, his legs struggling to keep up with the ground shaking, "But we can't leave Blueblood!"
"If we stay and look for him, we might never make it out!" Aspen tried to convince Bramble, "The Heart can grow an escape for us. We can return to Thicket and forget about this nightmare!"
"I'm not leaving Blueblood here!" Bramble yelled, taking a step away from his father, his eyes staring at him as if he had just suggested the most ludicrous thing.
"But-"
"No!" Bramble interrupted his father, "He walked into the Manor after you, we are NOT leaving him behind!" He turned around and stared deeper into the cavernous space that opened up when the sinkhole swallowed them, the dirt and debris in the air acting as a smokescreen, hiding what was behind it in a veil of dust, "Blueblood!" he called out, "Can you hear me, Blueblood!"
"I'm in here!" Bramble heard the Unicorn call back from beyond the dust cloud, his voice muffled and distant as more words left his mouth, too muffled to be heard.
"We're coming!" Bramble turned to look at his father, motioning with his head to stand up and follow him before he ran into the dust cloud.
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Bramble closed his eyes as he felt the dust stinging at his face, the ground vibrating beneath him as if heavy objects were slamming against it like a drum.
"Blueblood!" He called as he rushed out of the Dust Cloud, finally seeing the other side of the cavernous sinkhole, only for his eyes to water as a stench so horrid assaulted his nostrils, forcing the young prince to his knees.
He thanked the Forest that he had already emptied his stomach of everything he could throw up earlier.
Bramble searched for the source of the stench, his vision blurring as his heartbeat began to pound in his skull like a drum.
"Duck!" Bramble heard Prince Blueblood shout at him, and he did not wait before he dropped onto the floor, feeling a gust of wind pass above him, where his head had been moments prior.
He looked up at what passed above him, spotting a thick black vine swinging about, striking the ground behind him like a whip, causing the ground to shake once more.
"What the-" Bramble quickly rolled to the side, his eyes wide as he followed where the vine came from, his mind freezing for a moment at the sight of the creature before him.
To call what stood before him a deer would almost be an insult.
Bramble stared at a monster made of branches and leaves in the shape of a deer. Its torso and its four legs were constructed from a singular piece of wood, dark brown that almost seemed to turn black in the shadows, an oily substance giving the wooden body an almost lacquered appearance.
Its tail was made of several leaves, glowing with a bioluminescent green light, the same as the leaves that made up the bush where its neck was supposed to be, giving the creature an appearance similar to that of a Manticore's mane made up of leaves.
Five twisted wooden branches extended from the top of the glowing bush, like some sort of crude crown of horns that pulled the Prince's eyes towards the center of the bush, where a Face stared back at him.
It was a white tree bark in the shape of a deer's face, with two large black eyes staring back at him with blank yellow irises, and small raspberry colored gems twinkled on what should have been its forehead.
It stood in a puddle of inky black filth, the horrid stench that assaulted his nostrils coming from the puddle as he followed the puddle, watching it lead towards a towering pile of... Filth.
It towered above the Wooden Deer, like a pillar of oily and decomposed flesh, the only sources of color on it being many small marble-sized crystal orbs, the same one he saw the Pony of Shadows pull out from the corpses of the Ponies in that dream, and near the top of the fleshy pillar, stood two Red crystal shards in the shapes of two broken halves of a heart.
"Don't just stand there! Move!" Bramble quickly looked away from the broken Heart of the Everfree as Blueblood's words sounded in his ears, the young prince barely managing to spot the broken heart shining with a red glow before the Wooden Deer moved, a black vine swiftly climbing out of the inky pool it stood in before whipping towards him, forcing Bramble to run away.
"What is that thing?!" Bramble questioned loudly as he ducked for cover behind a stone, his eyes widening as he spotted Prince Blueblood hiding behind a different stone not too far from him.
"I don't know, but we need to find a way to get away from it, I'm useless down here!" Blueblood shouted at him before quickly sprinting from his hiding spot and towards Bramble, the rock he hid in smashing apart as the inky black vine slammed into it, causing the ground to shake once more.
"Can't you magic us away?!" Bramble asked as Blueblood picked him up before running away, jumping over a root that sprung from the ground in an attempt to trip them.
"Look over there!" Blueblood pointed with his head at something in the distance, and Bramble turned to see what was being pointed out.
"Are those-" He began to ask as he looked at a number of Plants hanging from the ceiling like spiders from a web.
"Plunderseeds," Blueblood finished for him, "As long as we're in range, I can't use my magic." Blueblood's horn began to shine with light blue light, only to quickly dim back down as a Plunderseed in the ceiling disabled his magic.
"So how come the Heart of the Everfree works fine?" Bramble asked as the two princes stopped and hid behind another rock.
"Plunderseeds eat Harmony magic, light magic, probably love magic too. All those good things that banish darkness and evil and shit." Blueblood floated the idea, "I'm guessing the Heart of the Everfree works differently from that kind of magic. Unfortunately, Unicorn magic is powered by our connection with Harmony, meaning that while those Plunderseeds won't be eating from the Heart of the Everfree's magic, my magic is like a five-star buffet for them."
"So what you're saying-" Bramble began to say, watching from the corner of his eyes as his Father stepped out of the cloud of dust, "-Is that we're going to need to find a way to defeat that thing without your magic to help us."
Blueblood turned to stare at Aspen, and at the intact Heart of the Everfree around his neck, "Seems like it."
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"..." King Aspen stared with a look of astonishment beyond the Wooden deer, his eyes focusing on the pillar of dead flesh, and at the familiar broken relic shining with a red light near its top.
The Pillar responded to the King's appearance by shining the relic lodged in its flesh, causing the wooden deer that stood in its oily black puddle to lift its head, a loud screech echoing from it as more vines grew from the puddle and rose above it like claws ready to slam down on the Deer King.
"Gaia?"