‘Beyond our darkest hour…’ Tommy smiled sadly, a tear forming in his eye as he wrote. His hand shaking uncontrollably, tears running down his cheeks and splashing onto the page. ‘At least they’ll know why’ he thought, his hand still shaking as he put down the quill down and picked up the pistol. He had been here for two months and couldn’t take it anymore.
He thought briefly to the ponies that had pulled him from the burning wreckage of all that was left of Requiem. Humanity had given it their best shot but the Valkyries were too strong. He had watched as Earth had burned and humanity was lost forever.
It’s odd he thought smiling to himself. It wouldn’t be the Valkyries that finally wiped out humanity…
Tommy placed the barrel to his head, tears running down his face as he pulled the trigger.
... It was him …
… 5 minutes earlier …
Celestia and Twilight were hard at work, trying to find any information about the creature currently residing within the palace.
“Aha!” cried Twilight, levitating a dusty old scroll in the air above her. “I’ve found something” she beamed, a satisfied look on her face.
“Go on” Celestia said, doing her best not to show her excitement.
“It says here that, around ten thousand years ago, a group of creatures visited Equestria. Some ponies at first believed them to be Gods, for they had technology far surpassing our own. They called themselves human.” Twilight paused to look at Celestia. “There’s a picture here” she said showing her mentor.
The creature in the picture looked exactly like the one in the palace. “So it’ a human then” Celestia began “Does the scroll say anything more.”
“Oh yes” Twilight said excitedly and continued to read. “The humans were quite friendly and imparted some of their knowledge hoping it would help the ponies create a better Equestria. As friendly as they seemed, something about them wasn’t right, they were sad. Ponies could see it in their eyes a deep sense of regret and sadness… Oh” Twilight stopped giving a small gasp of surprise as something fell into her hoof. It was a small crystal.
Celestia knew right away what it was. “Pass it here my faithful student” she said holding a hoof out.
“Princess?” Twilight said. Her eyebrows rose and Celestia could see the unspoken question forming in her eyes. ‘What is it?’
“This, my dear Twilight is a recording crystal” She said beginning to stream magic into the crystal, when all of a sudden an image filled the room. It was of a human and a pony Twilight could not name. They were standing on a hill which overlooked a beautiful valley. Twilight could not recognize the place, it was a forest absolutely covered in trees and wonderful blue streams. A human spoke…
***
“There is a reason we have come to you now Princess Millennia” the human said, its head bowed in sorrow.
“I suspected as much” the Princess responded. “So, for what reason have you come then?” She asked.
“We ask of you one favor… help us, by protecting this” it said holding out a strange crystalline object, dropping it into her open hoof.
“What is this then?” she questioned feeling uneasy as she rolled the object around in her hoof looking at it. The object was pretty heavy despite its small size; it was very smooth and cold to the touch. It resonated with a purple glow, humming softly.
“It is our past, our present and our future. It is all that we are and all we shall be” The human said with sadness beginning to creep into its voice.
“If you wish me to protect this, you will tell me why” Millennia said strongly.
“Very well…” the human said, defeated.
“… What you hold is our last hope. It is our essence or genetic code and it has the potential to bring us back, however, we needed to find a suitable home to start anew, with inhabitants that would teach us love and compassion ensuring that we did not follow down the same path as we have now…” the human said pausing momentarily to reflect before continuing.
“…We have made a terrible mistake. We did the one thing we should never have done and now we are paying the price…” It paused and looked toward the black sky. A look of unimaginable agony crossed its face as it sank to its knees. Tears were rolling down its face, its hand outstretched toward the sky, as if reaching for something invisible.
“… And so it is done. My people are no more, destroyed by our own ambition and greed. It is our fault, we made them too much in our own image. Into them we poured our hate; our fear; our cruelty and our emptiness. And for that they hate us, but…” It said looking into Millennia’s eyes making her cringe.
She could see that any sense of life had long since left the human’s eyes and only a hollow emotionless void resided in its stead. It was the look of one who had truly given up on life.
“… Don’t judge them too harshly for it is in their nature. Just as it will be in their nature to follow the same path as we did and for that, they will share the same fate. This is how it will always be, a cycle unbroken, with each rotation one shall die by the hand of its own. Unless we break it now, which is why I beg of you please keep us…” it said motioning to the object in Millennia’s hooves. “… safe and undo what we have so foolishly set in motion. Will you do this for us?” the human finished, its eyes boring into hers.
Millennia just stared at the creature. How could she refuse, when to do so would violate the very essence of life itself.
She looked into the human’s eyes and nodded. For a moment a brief flash of hope entered the creature’s eyes but vanished almost as soon as it had appeared.
“Thank you. Don’t let them repeat our mistakes and tell them nothing of us” it whispered softly, turning away, walking toward its vessel.
“Wait! What am I supposed to do with this?” Millennia said pointing at the crystalline object in her hoof.
“You wait, until the time is right” It said plainly.
“How will I know when the time is right and what am I supposed to do then?” she said confused as to what the human meant.
“When those who destroyed us return here, you will know it is time. As for what you do, all you need to know is in your hooves already.” It finished and continued to walk away.
“Where are you going?” Shouted Millennia.
“To my home, to my people” it responded sadly.
“But, they are dead” She questioned, not knowing how the human would respond to this.
“As am I…” it said slowly and this time the human kept walking into the ship and Millennia watched as it flew off.
She turned her attention to the crystal in her hooves. The future of the human race was in her hooves.
***
The image flickered and died. Twilight and Celestia sat in silence, staring at each other.
A million questions raced through Celestia’s mind as she remembered the look of indescribable pain on the human’s face. ‘It must have somehow felt the destruction of its people’ Celestia thought, wondering what it would be like to feel the death of one’s people. She shuddered wishing she would never have to find out.
“So do you think that this is the time they spoke of?” Twilight asked, shattering Celestia’s train of thought.
“Well it does seem logical to assume that it is, since there have been no other humans to come to Equestria until now. If this is indeed the time then we must act” Celestia said as her student rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
“But we don’t even know where that crystal is” exclaimed Twilight. Frustrated she screwed her face up in concentration “but…” she continued “… If we find this Princess Millennia she might know where it is”.
“That might be a little complicated as she disappeared more than six thousand years ago” Celestia responded. “But… we could look in the secret section of the royal library” she smiled as Twilight’s ears perked up.
“I didn’t know we had a secret section” Twilight said ecstatically, flapping her wings wildly.
“That would defeat the point if you knew. Only royals can know and seeing as you’re now a Princess I guess it’s time you knew” Celestia said smiling again as Twilight jumped up and down.
“This is so cool” Twilight said “let’s go check it out now!” she said turning to sprint for the library when a loud bang stopped her in her tracks. “What in Equestria was that?” She said perplexed.
“I think it came from the east wing” Celestia said trying to think of what could’ve cause such a loud noise.
It didn’t take long for somepony to scream and alert Celestia to the fact that whatever had happened was bad. She and Twilight bolted to the east wing.
***
The two Alicorns arrived panting and out of breath. A gaurdsmare was crying outside the door to the human’s room and tried to stand and salute the Princesses but she couldn’t move. Instead she vomited and passed out.
Celestia’s worst fear was confirmed when she and Twilight entered the room and saw everything. Twilight couldn’t handle it and she ran out of the room retching. Celestia could hardly blame her, she herself felt nauseous.
There was blood everywhere and the human was slumped over in the chair, in its hand the instrument it used was still smoking. She could clearly see the fear in its tear stained eyes. It had died scared and alone.
Celestia felt angry and disgusted at herself for letting this happen. She should’ve seen it happening; she should’ve stopped it and she should’ve let the human know that she did care and that it was not alone.
She turned away looking at the table and upon noticing the crumpled note she used her magic to levitate it and carefully read the message.
‘I’m sorry. I just can’t take it anymore. The pain is too much, just knowing that everyone is gone forever is just too much. I keep seeing the same image of Earth being decimated and hearing… no feeling the billions of people dying around me. A small condolence is I know we went out fighting every step of the way, just as we have always done. I thank you all for the kindness you have shown me since arriving here. I’m so sorry but I just can’t bear it anymore. It is beyond our darkest hour and there is nothing left but dust and so unto the dust I must return’
Celestia felt her heart shatter into a million pieces. ‘I have to stop this’ she thought as a tear formed in her eyes.
‘This madness cannot continue I will not allow it, I cannot allow it’ Celestia said to herself as she used her magic to close the creature’s eyes and turned, walking out of the room and headed toward the library as there were things that needed to be done.
‘I will stop this…’ she promised herself.
…To be continued
END PROLUGUE
Author's Note
This story has been floating around for a while now, so I decided to finish it. I hope you like it. It's pretty sad.
Like, favourite and COMMENT on the story if you want me to write more. The more stories I write the more occupied I am. The more the merrier right.
It was early morning when it happened. Celestia was sleeping quietly in her chambers, dreaming of lovely things and such when a rather vivid scene invaded her dreams…
… She was standing on a grassy plain. The sky was black and a rather horrible storm raged overhead. Thunder rumbled causing Celestia to jump as it was accompanied by a bolt of lightning that tore across the bleak sky.
Celestia couldn’t make sense of it all. Why was she being shown this pointless scene? Suddenly there was a roar of voices, drowning out the thunder. Celestia searched frantically for the origin of the sound but could not locate it. Again the voices screamed but this time the origin was clear.
On either side of her, thousands of humans stood dressed in iron skin each clutching a spear or some form of metallic object. Suddenly zero appeared in the air above her and a single voice rang out…
… “Know what they are… Know what they have done” …
… No sooner had the voice fallen silent when the humans around her yelled out again and began to charge toward each other. Flaming boulders flew overhead impacting the ground showering dirt and rock fragments across the field. However some crashed into the hordes of incoming humans, sending bodies flying into the air like ragdolls.
The zero quickly changed to twenty and Celestia watched as the counter climbed higher and higher before abruptly fading away.
Her attention turned back to the scene in front of her and gasped in surprise. The iron clad humans had shed their iron skin. Both sides wore a different colored simple cloth uniform and each held a long piece of cylindrical wood with a pointed metal shaft on the end.
There was a sequence of small bangs and flashes of light as fire erupted from the pieces of wood each human held. On either side humans fell, screaming in pain for seemingly no reason what so ever. As if to clarify things time seemed to slow and Celestia could see the cause of their pain.
She watched as another wooden pipe exploded and a small black ball flew out the end. She followed the ball in midair until it impacted in a human’s chest, going right through it, causing the human to cry out and fall to the ground dead.
Celestia couldn’t comprehend the scene in front of her. ‘Why would they intentionally hurt each other?’ she asked herself over and over again. Another bang, louder than before snapped her out of her train of thought and she found herself standing on a wooden ship of some kind surrounded by ocean. All around her humans started shouting the same thing.
“Incoming!”
‘What? What’s incoming?” Celestia thought looking around worriedly. She suddenly felt the ship shudder and the deck exploded. Shards of splintered wood flew all around her as a gaping hole now resided where the solid wood had just been.
“Jesus bloody Christ, return fire… Return fire!” a voice screamed and the ship lurched to the side as deafening boom emanated from below followed by a trail of white smoke and off in the distance a ship which until recently had not been there exploded in a huge fireball.
“Incoming! Keep ya ‘eds down lads!” A voice yelled as the ship once again shuddered. A violent explosion threw Celestia off the deck and into the churning sea below.
Celestia exhaled sharply as she impacted the water. Down she went, disorientated and trying to find which way was up. Eventually she decided to swim towards a light which she logically assumed was the surface. She took a deep breath as her head breached the water.
Expecting to reemerge in the same place, Celestia was startled to find herself near a beach. She swam toward the beach panting heavily as her hooves found purchase in the soft sand and she dragged herself onto the shore, flopping down in exhaustion. ‘What is going on here? Who is showing me this?’ she thought bewilderedly.
Celestia took in her surroundings, carefully absorbing every detail. She was in a small cove, steep cliffs were all that were in front of her and endless ocean was all that was behind her. A sequence of loud bangs once again shook her from her thoughts.
Down the beach further there were humans jumping out of boats and sprinting toward the cliffs. Puffs of sand flew up around the humans and Celestia felt tears well up as each of them fell, blood staining the sand around them. ‘They’re killing each other! Why?’ she wept softly, closing her eyes.
When she reopened them the scene before her had changed. She was standing in some kind of city. All around her humans worked busily and their foals played happily. This greatly confused Celestia as recently she had only witnessed death and destruction. As if to answer her question a loud siren filled the air with intense high pitched whirring and a dark shadow flew overhead.
Celestia craned her head upward and saw a large metal bird flying overhead. The metal bird dropped a large metal egg and flew off. The egg fell rapidly toward the ground. Celestia watched as the egg hit the ground in the distance. There was a brief moment of silence before the ground shook and a white light blinded her. Then a shockwave threw Celestia off her hooves and sent her flying into the air. She managed to level out and flew silently above the city staring in horror at the huge mushroom shaped cloud that dominated the sky. Time sped up and the cloud disappeared.
What Celestia saw made her wish she could claw her eyes out. The city was now a wasteland, completely devoid of life save the screams of a few thousand who were burning alive. The scene melted away and the floating numbers appeared once more only this time the number was sixty six million and still rising.
“What do you want from me?” Celestia screamed hoping that whoever was subjecting her to this would make it stop.
“Know what became of them” the voice replied
She cried as the scene changed again, this time a human foal played in a field of flowers. It clutched at a small toy, running along make swooshing noises as it ran with the toy. Suddenly a shadow loomed over it and it turned slowly to face a huge object descending from the heavens. Celestia could see the fear in its eyes as more of the objects began to descend. The scene changed again this time to a beautiful glass city. Celestia turned her head. She knew what was going to happen, another metal egg would drop and destroy everything but instead a bright red beam tore through the sky cutting the buildings in half and burning everything it touched. The city was being ravished by the large object she had seen before.
The sence suddenly changed back and Celestia could see the field the foal had played in before. It was burning and on the ground laid the broken toy. She felt her heart break as her legs gave out and she fell to the ground weeping. “Why! Why show me this? Answer me!” she screamed with tears streaming down her face.
“Know how they perished!” The voice screamed
“No! No! No!” Celestia screamed and tried to shut her eyes, but the image appeared in her head instead, she couldn’t escape it.
This time Celestia watched as a familiar human ran through the burning streets. In it hands was the crystal she had seen in the image with Twilight.
The human ducked and weaved through the debris that lined the streets. Every so often the human looked behind itself checking for any sign that it was being followed. It ran toward a familiar ship and bolted inside. The scene change yet again and Celestia found herself inside the strange ship.
She watched as the human laid the crystal in a tank and hit a button causing the crystal to levitate within the confines of the tank. Next the human took a seat and fiddled with a bunch of dials and switches. The ship lurched and began to rise into the air.
It took off, speeding through the air toward the heavens. Celestia watched in awe as the ship rocketed into space and flew into a raging battle. All around explosions lit up the cold black space as huge ships fired red and green beams at one another.
The human started shouting at the ship. “Tenno, find a suitable planet… With sentient life” it said.
“Certainly, Jorik would you like to specify the kind of inhabitants?” A voice asked pleasantly.
“Non-human and as far as possible away from Thrae, we don’t want them to find us” Jorik said accentuating the word, them.
“Of course, searching… searching… suitable destination found! Class H planet found, sentient life detected… plotting course… Distance three million light years… will take three days to reach, recommend cryo stasis” Tenno said.
“Acknowledged, engage FTL drive…” Jorik began but a violent shudder rocked the ship, klaxons sounded and red lights flashed.
“Warning! Hostile ship detected… FTL drives at ninety percent charged…” Tenno said informing Jorik of the current situation. Celestia watched in stunned silence as the tiny ship faced an enormous metal construct bearing down from in front.
The object was gigantic, easily the size of Canterlot. A bright light emanated from a divot in the front of the object and a red beam shot toward the tiny ship. ‘This can’t be the end, because I saw the human land in Equestria and give that crystal to my predecessor’ Celestia thought confused.
Time seemed to freeze and the voice spoke again. “Know…what they may become” it said slowly as the image faded and Celestia found herself standing in a familiar room, her throne room, but something wasn’t right.
Celestia felt cold and empty as she walked over to a window and peered out over Canterlot. She was horrified by the scene in front of her. Canterlot was in ruin, the city had crumbled in decay, the sky was blood red and the ponies sat in the streets their coats dulled and grey. The aura of despair was thick and Celestia felt nauseated. Her heart faltered when she saw her beloved sister chained to a stake in the centre of town along with the elements of harmony. There standing beside them were three human sized hooded figures, each carrying a long intricate sword.
Celestia felt herself crying out to her subjects, but they did not respond. It was as if she didn’t exist. The sound of a door opening behind her caused Celestia to jump and whirl around. Another cloaked human stepped in the room and slowly shut the door behind it.
It stared at Celestia, its eyes boring into hers. Then it slowly removed its cloak. Celestia’s eyes widened as the figure revealed itself. It may have been shaped like a human but it was far from it.
The creature had a short white coat; long flowing blue hair which actually seemed to be on fire; it had eyes that matched its hair, blue and on fire; on its cheek was a small cutie mark which Celestia recognized as her own.
She backed away in horror when she saw her cutie mark on its face. “W-What are you?” She demanded suddenly outraged that this thing had defiled her kingdom.
It only laughed manically, a deranged smile on its face and just as suddenly its features snapped back to a deadly seriousness and it spoke words that would forever haunt Celestia.
“What’s wrong? I did all this for you, why aren’t you happy? This is the way you made me… Mother…”
***
Celestia awoke screaming, cold sweat clung to her fur. A voice faintly drifted through the air.
“The darkness beneath hides what you seek” Was all the voice said before trailing off in a series of faint whispers.
Celestia had to find Twilight Sparkle and gather the elements of harmony only together could they solve this mystery and make sense of her vision. Celestia jumped out of bed and rushed off to find her studious protégé.
Author's Note
I did write this so as it would appear as though Celestia were being flung to different periods of time and witnessing the wars of that time oh and the counter was the death toll it disappears after the atom bomb because it just does... In any capacity I hope you enjoy reading it sorry it took so long to update.
!!!!!LIKE, COMMENT!!!!! FAV AND FOLLOW
BTW Jorik is pronounced yo-ric (its norse I believe)
anyway just writing chapters for OPERATION CHAOS, MAJESTY"S SECRET SERVICE AND BLOODFUED MAKES WAIT TIME LONG SORRY. CYA
