Sparkle's Quest, Samuel's Journey (Book 1 of The Alicorn Chronicles)

Chapter 7: New Companion

She stared at me, and I stared back, what felt like forever, I shook my mind from the trance, and managed to find my voice.

"Hello, what brings you to this dark forest?" I heard a bark, and looked down at small pup. I smiled at it, and picked it up. "This your dog?" She shook her head yes, and I gave him to her.

"Seriously though, why would you come to the vale?" I asked the strange Alicorn, she shook herself away, and stuttered an answer. "I-I'm here to vanquish the evil from this forest, so I can become a princess." My eyes widened at that last part, and I took a few steps back. "P-princess?" She shook her head up and down, in a proud manner, not noticing my stutter. "That's right, I'm a Sparkle Shimmer, student to Cele-" I rammed her into a tree, and snarled at her violently. "Don't. Say. Those. Names..." I let go of her, and let her catch her breath.

"What's wrong with you?" I smiled down at her, and crouched low so I was eye level with her. "My name is Samuel, and I've been hunted by your mentors for a thousand years. I don't care if we have our differences at the moment, but if you want to live, come with me." The little pup snarled, at me, and as did I back to it, making it whimper in fear. "Don't do that to my dog!" I turned my attention to her and chuckled. I got up, and started walking into the tower, soon, I heard hoof steps keeping up with me.

We were half way in, when I felt a chill run up my spine. I put my hoof in front of her, to stop her from moving. She growled in annoyance, and was about to ask what was wrong, before I pointed to the bottomless pit in front of us. "Now how will we get across?" I looked around a bit, till I noticed a broken pillar crossing the chasm, and started walking over to it. I got across no problem, but when I looked back, she wasn't even moving across the pillar.

I sighed. "What's wrong Shimmer? Afraid of falling?" She glared at me, and I trotted across the pillar. "Look, it's easy, just don't think about the pit, and keep your eyes focused on mine." I started walking backwards across the pillar, and she walked across too. The pillar started cracking and she stiffened. "Keep your eyes on mine." She looked up, and fear was written across her features. I walked backwards a bit more, until I hit the other side. The pillar started breaking more, and she let out a yelp as she was about to fall, but I grabbed her, and threw her onto the side with me.

I looked down as the pillar collided with the walls below, and looked back to Shimmer. "See, nothing too it." She glared at me again, and I chuckled. We restarted our journey, and passed a few doors. Nothing special inside them, just old books, and papers. Hey don't get me wrong, I love libraries more than you'd think, it's just I haven't had the patience or time to go in, grab a book, and read one.

We kept end walking, and eventually came to two giant doors. And I mean GIANT. They quickly estimated about 80 feet tall, and 15 feet wide, is what I thought."wow..." I glanced back at Shimmer, who was admiring the door. I smiled, and turned my attention to it. I powered up a strong spell, but didn't shoot it out my horn, I raised myself of my back legs, and hit the ground, with enough force to crack the concrete. The cracks made their way to the door, and they split the doors in half. Oh... Did I forget to mention that the vale only nullifies magic if shot out your horn? No? Now you know.

I smiled at my work and let out a triumphant sigh. I looked back at Shimmer, and she was staring agape at what I had done. "But I thought, how the, wha-" "the Vale only nullifies magic, if it comes out the horn, nothing about the body." She stared at me in shock and growled. She went inside the room, and I followed, chuckling all the way.

We passed many bookshelves, ancient drawings of the war of Equestria, but one thing in the room caught my eye. If not for the drawings, the room would be completely empty, yet one thing was in the room, and that was a pedestal. A dark magic radiated from that pedestal, every step we took. It was like all the evil things in the world, we're stored in that pedestal. We were almost to the pedestal, when the room darkened completely. Shimmer yelped beside me, and I rolled my eyes. "I can't see, I can't see, Samuel where are you?" I sighed and grabbed her shoulders, making her let out a small scream, and try to squirm away. "Shim- Shimmer, it's me ok?!" She relaxed a bit, and tried placing her hoof on me. "I'll guide you, don't worry." She nodded her head, but realized that I probably couldn't see, "ok-" "I can see in the dark you know." She let out a growl again. Seriously, what's wrong with being interrupted?

I grabbed her right hoof, and she blushed a bit, but I led her to the pedestal in the middle of the room. "We're he-" "I can feel its evil you know." She smirked and made me chuckle. So that's the problem with being interrupted. I placed her hoof on the side of the pedestal, and she shivered. "That evil eh?" She simply nodded, and quickly took her hoof off. "Let's see what we're dealing with...' I opened my pack Zecora gave me, and pulled out a torch, and a lighter. And I set it on fire. Shimmer let out a small hiss, and covered her eyes from the light. "Could you warn me next time you do that?" I chuckled again and shook my head. Once she adjusted to the light, we both looked at the source of evil, and I gasped.

"The amulet of Amüs de..."

-Samuel