Horizon Falls

Beneath the darkness of an unending sea, buried beneath the deepest darkness of the cold unforgiving depths of a rising ocean was a cool blue gem of light. The light of the gem had been glowing for a long time; a very long time.

Hidden deep inside the light was a small room. Buried for untold eons, no light had touched its walls; no presence had ever graced its halls. And yet… a small spark of life remained.

A small beeping noise echoed through the room. It continued in rather long extended intervals, once every ten minutes had anyone been down there to keep track.

Suddenly a large rectangle of light appeared and dimly lit the unoccupied room. A series of circles appeared on the screen followed by a small dot that flickered every ten minutes with the beeping.

A loud creaking shot through the room like an explosion. A crack of light cut the room in half like a knife. The creaking returned as the crack evolved into a large rectangular block of light. The screen continued to display its circles and dots as the beeping continued.

A figure stepped into the light. It stood at the threshold for a few seconds before slowly trotting into the room. Two more forms appeared behind the original silhouette. The figure held up a forelimb. The two others stopped and waited just outside the entrance.

The first intruder continued on to the screen of light before stopping directly before it. A smile flickered across the burglar's snout as a light beep filled the room.

“What is that?” a voice asked.

The figure smiled at the screen, “Amelioration.”

«««✧✦✧»»»

«««✧✦✧»»»

Ponyville.
Third Age.
Year of the Seeker.

A loud ringing of a bell signaled the end of another school day. Cheerilee smiled as she watched her charges leave the small school house. She waited attentively making sure all her little kids left the school in relatively safety. A laugh graced her snout as she witnessed a certain group of three fillies run off towards the Apple Family Farm babbling together.

Cheerilee smiled, “Well my dear, I think you’ve dabbled here long enough.”

A quiet rustling noise behind the teacher escalated into a trot as a snow white unicorn mare with luminous crystal blue mane emerged from inside the school. Her features were simple and young. She had yet to win her mark but that appeared to be of little concern to the mare.

“Are you sure?” she asked, her voice flowed softly with an almost unnoticeable scratch in it, “There’s still so much to do. There’s still the art supplies to clean up and the boards need to be put away an-”

“You’re going to be late helping Ms. Sparkle if you stay,” Cheerilee teased in a sing song tone.

The mare frowned, “But there’s still-”

“Would you go already?” she laughed.

The unicorn smiled, “Alright, alright already.”

She trotted back inside and retrieved her saddle bags.

“Bye Ms. C,” she waved, “Same time tomorrow?”

“Same time, Andromeda dear,” Cheerilee waved back, “You have a nice day now.”

“You too!”

Andromeda Nights smiled as she trotted into town. The small village she called home was bustling with activity. Ponies of all types were scurrying about or flying through the air as they went about their business. Stores and shops were all open and conducting their affairs with a cheerful and friendly dignity.

Though she didn’t exactly enjoy the bucolic manner of the village, she had to admit that she had come to love the peaceful and serene atmosphere the small town had. Though there had been a fair amount of excitement, none of it had lasted enough to really disturb the idyllic nature of the valley.

Not that any of it had been too much of a bother. Andromeda doubted any of the ruckuses would even be visible on any of the walls. The sun and moon were just added obstacles to complete visibility.

Andromeda glanced upward. The star was high in the sky. 12:00, high noon. She smiled as she approached the familiar tree house/library, she was right on time. Next to the librarian herself, Andromeda was the most punctual pony she knew.

The bell rang as she pushed open the door. Andromeda smiled. Books were strewn in the center of the room massed together in one gigantic pile. She’d almost forgotten. Today was the day Twilight planned to reorganize the library. The Alicorn herself was sitting near the edge of the room with a collection of books orbiting her skull as she carefully cataloged each one.

“Spike?” the librarian called, “Volume 24?”

A small cluster of books fell off the pile as a small dragon poked his head out before tumbling down the pile and onto the floor holding a dusty volume in his claws.

Andromeda giggled and gripped the book with her magic and levitated it up the Librarian and before poking her with it.

“Ow! Spike! What did I tell you about- Oh! Andromeda! You’re here,” Twilight smiled as she opened her eyes.

Andromeda smiled passing the book to the princess, “Volume 24 of…?”

Twilight stood up and cracked open the volume, “The Encyclopedia of Defensive Spells and Charms. Volume 24: Runes.”

Andromeda watched as the book filed itself away next to other similar looking leather bound novels.

“I take it this is what’s on the agenda for today?” Andromeda asked.

“Yes,” Twilight nodded as she resumed her sorting process.

“In that case, would you mind if I took out the next volume of that ancient language series?”

“Sure. Just tell Spike to make note of it. Spike!”

The light rumbling of books responded followed by a, “I got it already. Yeesh.”

Andromeda opened her saddle bag and levitated the previous volume over and placed among a stack of language books waiting to be filed.

“It wasn’t in that one?” Twilight asked.

“No, not in that one,” Andromeda said as she sat down and created her own orbit of books.

“You still haven’t told me what you’re looking for.”

“I don’t know exactly what I’m searching for. All I know is that I’ll know it when I see it.”

“Well, either way, good luck.”

«««✧✦✧»»»

Ponyville was alive with activity. It was around the time of day where almost everypony had finished the day’s work and was going about socializing or running errands or something of the like. The only ponies who were still working were the shop owners.

Andromeda smiled as she found her house and quickly entered. Ignoring her surroundings she scurried over to her messy coffee table and dug through a mass of papers before retrieving a small notebook and pocketing it. She glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. She had plenty of time before she had to be home.

She did one last check of her bags and their contents.

“Okay, language volume, check. Journal, check. Pencils and pens, check,” she said as she mentally went through her list.

“Oh! Almost forgot!”

She bolted to her bedroom and dug through her nightstand before she found a smooth metallic case. Levitating the box into her bags, she gave a sigh of relief.

“Can’t leave without you, can I?”

Now she was ready. She walked out the door of her home, carefully locking it again before continuing on her trek.

Several minutes later, Andromeda found herself smiling as she trotted up the hill along a trail of her own making. No pony in town knew about it as it was only accessible through a certain clearing near the edge of the woods that led south away from Canterlot. And for most ponies, the opening in the trees looked more like a large dead oak.

Anypony passing by in the previous fifteen minutes would have witnessed the peculiar sight of a white unicorn walking into a tree and actually succeeding in penetrating it.

She continued along her trail, humming to herself as she removed her latest language book from her saddle bags. It levitated before her as she removed a small notebook from her other bag and began flipping through the pages as she walked. She reached her desired page and quickly reexamined it. Glyphs and lines that she didn’t understand littered the page, all carefully copied down by her in precise detail. Nothing looked even the slightest bit familiar.

首が切り落とされた好戦的な指定されたきらめくブレード。

トリプル・テクノロジーズと呼ばれるある会社のために動かされました。

さらに階段と呼ばれるものと関連しました。

年を取ったキャプテン意地悪な人は、私に海洋でこの中でこれをしてほしい、今日話します。
幸運にも、ある材料は適切にまったく翻訳しません。
そして、私が恐らく喉を裂いたので企業がこれを使用しないと神に感謝してください。

She frowned and began flipping through her language volume, looking for anything similar to what she had in her book.

As she continued along the trail, the trees began to thin out more letting in more of the suns light. Ponyville could be seen down below and Canterlot up to her left. Immersed in her books, she barely even registered the beautiful surroundings, or the faint rustling of leaves in a nearby large oak tree.

Up above in the ancient and immensely large tree, a large shape was stalking her, watching with hawk eyed intensity. It was large and animalistic yet it moved silently and swiftly as it crept along the branches.

Andromeda barely noticed a thing until the large shape dropped from the tree and landed before her with a loud thud on four of its six limbs. Andromeda dropped her books and fell on her back as she screamed. A large angular head emerged from the shadow of the tree, staring at her with bright red eyes…