Loneliness.

It’s a strange, fleeting feeling, loneliness. It comes and goes, like an old friend from far away. It choses its own path, and has the power to make any living, thinking creature bow down before it. It can shatter minds and break spirits, without ever doing anything than lingering.

Simply being.

Ever since the dawn of time, it has been waiting, biding its time until its proper moment. So it shall do until the end of times, when nothing and nopony remains and the land is a barren husk of shadows and ashes.

The kingdom of Loneliness.

But until then, it has no choice but to remain. Always watching, always waiting. It sees all, hears all, and spares none. In complete silence, it awaits the day when its final reign will come, and all will be swallowed by the everlasting emptiness.

But long before such an end, eons before the coming of the crimson tide, loneliness established a small, temporary kingdom for itself. Deep beyond walls of stone and earth, within reclusive halls, it nestled itself. Deep inside, deep down, it relished in its newfound chamber where it could thrive.

This chamber, hid behind a pair of shimmering eyes of pure silver, eyes covered in trembling lids and building tears.

Loneliness.

If it had been a living, breathing creature, it would’ve devoured him whole. His body trembled and convulsed, his breath erratic and uneven.

He felt his coat soaking up the thin layer of water that ran across the cold floor beneath him. He felt his own blood mix with it. The wound it seeped from ached and burned, and he didn’t dare to move anymore, from fear of tearing it open further.

In the tainted water next to him, he could see the reflection of his own face when he moved his eyes a bit. Saw the distorted image of his white face and black hair, streaks of red running across his hollow face.

Goldgaze. The rugged pony looking back at him from the water, that was its name, yet it didn’t even look like himself anymore.

It hadn’t always been this way. Once, everything had been perfect. But now, those days felt more like a hazy dream rather than actual memories. The pain and loneliness clouding his body and soul made it near impossible to think properly.

Everything had been simple, all those years ago. He’d never forget his first day, when he stood nervous at the wedding of the soon-to-be rulers, next to his twin brother Silversoul. Still, he held up a façade of confidence, as was expected from the members of the royal court. Unlike the groom himself, who was pretty obviously having trouble holding back his own nervous thoughts. He’d been shifting his weight back and forth between his feet, his face visibly pale as he awaited his future wife.

He remembered every morning, walking through the royal gardens in silence to watch the sunrise. Despite him being the personal servant and assistant of the queen of the night, he’d always through that the sun was more beautiful. He often regretted that he’d never had the chance to see the queen’s sister when she was still alive.

Many times had he looked upon her grave in silent awe, sometimes with his queen next to him. Towards the end, they had begun taken frequent walks together, and he often found himself almost wishing that she wasn’t already married.

Years had passed, and his life had been good. But as always, everything good comes to an end. Even though neither he nor anypony else realized it, the end began on the day that the king left for the island. Moonshimmer Island. The beginning of his own demise.

His own brother left him. Left him all alone when he set off to the island after the king.

Whatever happened out on that rock remained a mystery to him for several years, and both the king and the queen refused to ever talk about it, though the loos had been great. Silversoul didn’t come back, and the king didn’t want to talk about him.

From that moment on, things went downhill. Slowly at first, like a weak poison slowly eating away at its host, but then faster and faster as the end came closer.

War came, and with it, death. So much death. Even the son of the rulers, Stardust, perished. He could still remember the little foal, how they used to play tag together, or hide-and-seek. He always let the foal win, of course.

His death had been the final blow to the royal family, and with it a shadow descended upon the castle.

The king withdrew into his own mind, became violent and aggressive. He spent most of his remaining days locked in his study. The queen was beyond all hope, and hardly ever stopped crying. The royal family slowly crumbled, together with the castle.

And then one day, everything came to the inevitable conclusion. Goldgaze had entered the king’s study and found it empty. The desk in the middle of the room was almost buried in parchments and books, and the curtains had been pulled over the windows to lock out all sunlight.

Goldgaze had instead made his way to the royal chamber, in hopes of finding the king there. He did find him, but not in the way he was expecting.

When he knocked on the door, there was no response. After a few moments, he decided to push it open.

He found the king just beyond the door. The human that had ruled the land for thirty years, king Dust Eclipse, hung from one of the thick wooden beams in the ceiling. A chair had toppled over on the floor next to him.

Goldgaze felt something within him crack, and his legs trembled at the sight.

Terrified of what he would find, he rushed past the hanging man and stormed into the couple’s bedroom. When he did and saw the blue figure on the bed, lifeless and unmoving, he fell to his knees and hardly even registered his own scream.

Quickly, the kingdom fell apart. Everyone blamed each other for what had happened, instead of trying to see the full picture. Eventually, the blame fell upon the Unicorns. Through their reckless and disrespectful way of abusing magic, they had brought ruin and death upon the land, they said. That Queen Luna and King Dust had been a warning, a sign.

Despite their innocence, the Unicorn race became hunted, butchered like dogs. Everypony that took their side was slaughtered too, and no mercy was ever shown.

The Great Fade, as some came to call it. Equestria’s darkest hour. It tore through the land like a plague, leaving the bodies of countless Unicorns in its wake. The massacre tore Canterlot apart from the inside out, and before long the town fell. Only the castle remained, where the last surviving Unicorns had taken shelter.

It didn’t last long, however. Not even the royal guard could hold back the tide for too long, and eventually, the castle was taken. What followed was a bloodbath, and Goldgaze watched it all from the windows of the former royal bedchambers.

When things got too close for comfort, he felt no remorse or shame in fleeing. He hurried through the bloodstained corridors and down winding stairs until he found himself in the dungeon.

A few years prior, King Dust had ordered the royal library to be fully renovated and expanded in order to house the ever growing amount of books that came to the castle. During the renovation, a stallion had gone straight through the floor by accident. The floor boards where old and rotten on the inside, and couldn’t possibly support his weight.

He had fallen into a deep, dark room which they first though was an old well, before they explored it further and found it to be an older part of the prison dungeon that for some reason had been completely sealed beyond the new one.

The king took it upon himself to dive into the unknown darkness, saying it was the least he could do for the stallion that had discovered it. When he came back out, his face had been a pale white hue, and he ordered the area to be sealed off quickly.

Known only to the king and his personal assistant Silversoul, a door had been carved into the mountainside that separated the two areas, and Silversoul had in turn told Goldgaze about it.

He reached to the side and pressed his hoof against a certain rock on the wall. At first nothing happened, until he pushed harder, and the rock slid back. A loud rumbling filled the dungeon as the heavy door slid open, pebbles of stone and particles of dust falling to the floor as stone ground against stone.

Goldgaze quickly hurried through the door, and after a few seconds of silence, the rumble came back as it once again returned to its original position. The silence on the other side was almost deafening. Back in the new dungeon, he’d been able to hear the sounds of battle and screams of pain and fear.

In here, there was nothing. Every little noise had been cut off instantly the moment the door slid shut, and the darkness had swallowed him. It was like a veil had been pulled over the world, and he was on the other side of it, completely lost to the rest.

Somewhere deep within these tunnels rested a rusted gate, where water ran across the floor and out into the open on the other side of the bars. It ran out into the river, then away from Canterlot. That’s what Silversoul had told him, that it could be used as a secret way to escape, should the king ever need it.

He’d also told him to never ever enter the tunnels. To keep away from them under any and all circumstances. Yet now, here he was, bleeding out on the cold floor.

First, he’d heard them.

A faint sound that tore through the silence. Nothing more than a distant whisper, yet cutting through the stillness like a battering ram. Slowly, it grew in strength.

Then there was the smell.

Like spoiled meat, left in the sun for too long. Yet at the same time, something different, much stronger, almost burning his nostrils. It smelled like coals, embers, searing flesh.

In just a matter of seconds, something had thrown itself over him.

He was knocked to the floor, his right shoulder smashing into the ground with an audible crack. He couldn’t hold back a scream of agony as waves of pain burst through his fore leg. His mind told him to act and move as quickly as possible, and he tried to roll around to get back on his hooves.

It proved to be a difficult task, as his aching leg bent under his weight and he once again fell over. If everything hadn’t been completely dark in the tunnel, he guessed his vision would’ve been blurry and hazy, mimicking that of the state of his mind.

No more than a second later, something pounced him. He yelled out as a pair of thin legs wrapped themselves around him, and the force of the speeding impact sent them both rolling across the floor.

Goldgaze struggled as best he could, and felt his limbs connect to a scrawny body that didn’t feel like a pony in the slightest. He thought he felt bare skin, wrinkled and aged like old leather. His legs flailed haphazardly into the darkness, like a beetle stuck on its back, unable to get back up. A beetle with a predator holding it down with brute force and determination.

His hoof connected to something flat and cold, followed instantly by a loud screech. The creature seemed to let go, and a strange sound suddenly filled his ears. Powerful gusts of wind blew across his face, pushing him hard into the ground, and he felt something soft brush against his face for just a moment.

Then he felt the creature bear down on him again, and his whole body froze as he felt a sharp, pointed object slide across his neck and then down his chest.

The only thought that entered his mind was that the creature was a gryphon, but whatever it did beneath the castle was far beyond him.

Pain suddenly tore through him as a talon pierced through his skin, and Goldgaze started to thrash and turn again. Adrenaline rushed through him with the beat of his heart, and somehow he managed to gather his final strengths and push himself up. The creature fell off him with another shriek, and he forced himself up on three hooves.

With the sounds of the creature just behind him, he ran as quickly as he could, hobbling close to the wall. He could almost feel his pursuer breathing down his neck, but it didn’t attack him. He started to wonder if maybe it was just toying with him, like a cat playing with its kill before the final strike.

The thought made him push himself harder, and suddenly he felt his side brush against something that wasn’t solid rock. Something much smoother and not as cold.

A wooden door.

Panting, Goldgaze pushed himself against the door, and the hinges creaked as age-old rust broke and shattered.

He fell through to the other side with a yelp, and then quickly pushed the door shut. Through it, he could hear the creature screeching yet again, a terrifying, bloodcurdling shriek that reminded him of a dying animal and made his skin crawl.

But for some reason, the being seemed to either have lost him or just ignored him, as the sound steadily grew more and more distant, eventually to disappear completely.

Realizing that the threat was finally gone, his body let itself go, and he fell to the floor in exhaustion. He tried to wrap his wings around himself for protection and warmth, but felt too weak to do it. Instead they fell limp to the floor, splayed out like the rest of his limbs in the cold stream of water.

There he remained for a long while. Or maybe it was no more than a few seconds. He couldn’t tell, the everlasting darkness and silence surrounding him made time lose its flow. He could’ve been there for hours for all he knew.

After an eternity, or perhaps a minute, Goldgaze slowly retracted his legs close to his body, and with gritted teeth he managed to push himself back to standing. He shuddered, his coat soaked in cold water and blood.

Carefully, he laid his ear against the door and listened intently. Nothing came to him, not a single sound or even the hint of a whisper.

He pushed the door open as much as he dared, then snuck out through it.

In silence, he hurried down the tunnel, hoping to reach the grate that led out into the river, and freedom. He had no choice but to keep going at this point; if he remained here he would either die of starvation or loneliness, unless that creature got to him first.

And going back to the castle would probably mean a slow and painful death. The only way to at least have a chance of survival was to find the way out.

The longer he pushed on, the more he started to worry about what else might hide in the darkness. He still remembered the look on the king’s face when he came out of the tunnels. Pale as a ghost.

Goldgaze knew that the king was a skilled man, and he was sure that the strange creature that attacked him earlier would have been no match for the man. He knew he’d seen many horrors throughout his life and ended many foes with his curved sword, the Lullablade. Whatever lay in these tunnels still had the power to shake the king to his core.

The vision of his pale face clouded Goldgaze’s mind, like an ill omen.

Nothing else happened for a long while, and Goldgaze started to get a bit more used to the darkness. Not enough to see anything properly, but he could at least see his own hoof in front of his face.

Because of this, he felt almost blinded when he finally spotted light in the end of the tunnel, right as he came around a corner. It wasn’t too far away, two dots of light on either side of the hallway.

When he came closer, the source of the light became clearer, but he still had to squint a little to see it properly. It was two simple lanterns, suspended from metal hooks from the walls. A bright light shone through their glass sides, shimmering in a pale magenta hue.

It wasn’t too hard to figure out that it was some sort of magic, a force that never waned or died out.

Just in front of him, the first steps of a staircase led down into the darkness below. The dull magenta glow only managed to illuminate the top of the stairs, making the shadows beyond all the more uninviting and threatening.

Goldgaze allowed himself just a moments breather, and sat down underneath one of the lanterns, leaned his sore back against the flat stone wall.

He looked down on himself, and saw that the wound had stopped oozing blood. Thankfully, it seemed it wasn’t as deep as he’d first thought, and even though it still strained and hurt when he moved, it wouldn’t be life-threatening. Still, long streaks of red had painted his entire left side; some already dried and caked into the fur.

Before long, he pushed himself back up, and peered into the darkness in the staircase. As much as he wanted to stay in this tiny oasis of light for as long as possible, he had no choice but to keep on going, and with a sharp inhale of pain, he took the first few steps downwards, into the compact shadows.

Making his way down the stairs proved easy, and after a little while he could see more light down at the bottom, but unlike the magical lanterns, this was a pure, white light. He hurried his steps as the sound of running water reached his ears.

If it was the gate, freedom was almost within his grasp.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he found that it wasn’t the gate he’d been hoping for, but rather a wide doorway opening into a massive chamber beyond.

The light that emanated from the center of the chamber was blinding, and he had to put a hoof across his eyes to shield them.

As he finally managed to see what was beyond the light, Goldgaze felt his entire body freeze.

He now understood why Dust had been so pale.

The snow fell heavy upon the cobblestone street. A few lanterns still burned faintly, a dim bulwark against the bitter shadows of the night.

Her steps made not a sound as she hurried through the white fog of the snow. She was already running late, but it was of utmost importance that she remained hidden. If anypony saw her, everything could fall into ruin.

It had never been difficult for her to move undetected. As a matter of fact, some would call her an expert thief, perhaps even a master. She preferred to call it surviving. Nevertheless, she didn’t deny that she had a gift, a very rare one at that.

Had she not been but a little filly at the time, she was sure she could’ve snuck into the castle and stolen the princesses’ crowns right from their heads without anypony noticing.

The wind howled and moaned, and she stopped just for a moment. With a tiny slither of her magic, she pulled her hood further down her face and tightened the shawl around her neck and face. Just in case.

To the untrained eye, she would’ve looked like any other pony trying to escape the bad weather.

She pressed on and hurried down the street towards her destination. She followed the instructions she’d been given; past the town square, left after three houses, then left. The second house on the right would have some sort of sign above the door, to signal her.

When she approached her supposed target, her eyes caught glimpse of something hanging from a string above the door. A bundle of sleek, black feathers. It was a good a sign as any, and with careful steps, she entered the building.

Inside, everything was in disarray. Broken furniture dotted the floor, and most windows had been broken. Snow had blown through the broken glass and gathered in drifts below the empty frames. A piece of a tattered curtain still hung from its rod, swaying slightly in the wind. The hinges of a cupboard creaked slowly.

“Hello?”

No one answered her, but right after she’d spoken, she heard the floor boards above her head creak slightly, as if someone moved on the upper floor. She couldn’t help but shiver, and not just from the cold.

She moved through the house to the stairs that led to the second floor, and stood there and looked up into the darkness for a while. After a few moments, she made her way upstairs.

“Hello?” She called out when she came to the top of the stairs. “Anypony there?”

Again, the floor creaked, coming from the room on her left side. A feeling of uneasy had been creeping up her spine, and she started to wonder if it was best to get out of there while she could.

But once more, she pushed her thoughts away, muttered to herself to get a grip. Then, she turned to the door on her left, brought up her hoof and knocked.

After a few moments of silence, she decided to open the door anyway. The room on the other side was dark, quiet and seemingly empty.

It took her a few seconds to realize that she shadow over by the window in the corner was in fact another pony, and she did her best to hold back a little gasp of surprise.

“You came.” The figure said, its voice deep, commanding, yet unmistakably female. “I have been expecting you for quite some time.”

“Forgive me.” She answered. “I lost track of time.”

“You are forgiven. Now, you have need of my service?”

“Oh, yes.” She said, carefully closing the door behind her, just in case she’d been followed. “I was told that you’re quite good at finding… lost things?”

“That is correct.” The shadow responded. “I can find anything you desire. For a price, of course.”

“I’m looking for a book.” She said bluntly. “I’ll pay whatever it takes to have it.”

“My, my, eager little filly, are we not?” The figure said with an almost alluring voice. “Very well, what is this book that you seek?”

With a little help of her magic, she lifted her cloak and pulled out a small leather pouch that had been hanging from her saddle bag, safely hidden underneath her cloak. She opened it and pulled out a small object, a seal made from purest silver.

A crescent moon adorned it, encased by a serpent swallowing its own tail.

“A journal, actually.” She said, before holding the seal up for the shadow to see. “Only the most important journal in all of creation. Just name your price.”

The figure was quiet for a while, until she lowered the seal and put it back into the leather pouch.

“Do not worry about the price.” The shadow said. “This, I will gladly do for free. I assure you, it will be my pleasure.”

“Really? You sure? I mean, I wouldn’t feel too comfortable about sending you out there for not a single bit.”

Another moment of silence followed.

“I will return.” The shadow said. “When I do, look for the feathers.”

Just a moment later, before she had time to answer, the shadow had disappeared out the window, leaving her alone and confused.