The Connection

"Considering the direction the force came from, I'd say the griffons are having the same problem we are." said Terras.

"You're probably right." Celestia said. "Hopefully their government has crafted a plan to fight them off."

"I am beginning to have doubts on whether their king will side with us." Luna said.

"Please, he can't be that bad. Can he?" Terras asked.

Both princesses were dead silent, giving Terras his answer.

"Really?" He asked.

"We were at war with their country, for something so elementary." Luna said.

"What, a board game?"

"Chess to be precise." Luna replied. "He doesn't think out strategies, hardly thinks at all. And he paid the price for it."

Terras merely shook his head and continued to fly on. He would have to get the story from the griffon's side.

Twilight sat in her chamber along with the other Elements of Harmony. She had a special one saved just for her, in case anything like this ever happened. Ponies had been approaching her, asking "Princess what's happening, is Equestria under attack?" or "Princess what are we going to do?". The barrage of questions left her tired of saying the exact thing "Don't worry, we're investigating." over and over again. The repetition left her with an exhausted voice, and a small headache. Twilight and her friends decided to head to her private bunker, so they could wrap their heads around the last few hours.

The six ponies were laying in the chamber, dead silent, lost in their thoughts. Applejack was the first to speak. "Twilight, I know you've heard this for the millionth time now, but what are we gonna do?"

Twilight stared at her purple carpet floor. She was all by herself this time. She couldn't rely on Princess Celestia for guidance, she was in charge now. She prayed that the three would get back soon.

"I don't know, Applejack." Twilight replied. "All I can do is reassure the ponies that we're looking into the situation. I doubt anyone has started anything yet."

"Ugh, I hate being unable to do anything! Equestria's in danger, and none of us can do anything about it!" Rainbow Dash blurted out.

"I assure you Rainbow Dash, we'll be able to do something about it." Rarity said. "We just have to wait a little while."

Rainbow Dash pouted, "Waiting isn't one of my specialties."

The mountains had come into sight. The mountains that the griffons inhabited. Terras had seen griffons in Earth's ancient writings, but to see an entire country of griffons was another thing. He had asked Luna to be turned back into a Crystorian, simply because he was more used to Ruby and Rose being held in his hand. She agreed, but only when they reached the castle, so Terras wouldn't look so conspicuous.

There was not the gleaming golden buildings of a hidden utopia, but that didn't mean there was broken down homes. In fact, the majority of the buildings were made entirely of rock, most likely taken from the mountains. Only once in a while would Terras see a house made of something like brick or wood. The griffons themselves, weren't there. Towns and cities, abandoned. It was like Terras' Crystorian village, accept this was an entire country. It was so quiet and all he could hear was to wind blowing against his face. The one thing that troubled Terras was, where are the formations? It had been extremely calm, no formations falling from the sky. That only made him uneasy about the castle they were headed to.

"Luna, considering this place is basically a ghost town, do you think you could change me back now?" Terras asked.

"Just wait a little longer, look, we're almost there." Luna replied.

Terras looked towards the horizon. He saw a building that stood high and wide, literally carved into the mountain. The section that could be seen was shaped like a half dome, the other half somewhere in the mountain. Golden rods held the dome up, and it had diamond encrusted doors. The top of the castle also had patterns of glass in triangles which took up most of the roof space. Detail was paid attention to almost obsessively. Even the hinges on the door were made of some special metal, and would not creak whatsoever. While the outside looked utterly pristine, it had an eerie feel to it. Mixed with the dead silence and the wind blowing silently, the castle seemed to hold a formation surprise waiting for the three.

"Terras, after I change you back I want you to climb onto the roof, and stay as far from the king's sight as possible. If I call you, that's when you drop down" Luna said.

He nodded, and after being turned into a Crystorian again, flew up to the glass roof, and tried to make himself as unnoticeable as possible. He lied prone on the glass while gazing in on the multiple hallways in the castle. Nobody. Not a single griffon. No movement, no noise from inside, nothing. Terras could see Celestia and Luna moving throughout the castle, making their way to the throne room. As they got closer, Terras sort of, moved with them, so if one of them called him he'd be there. Celestia and Luna had reached the throne room and were about to open the door, when Terras saw what he believed was the dead body of the griffon king, sitting in his throne.

The hallways were more difficult to get through because of the debris' but the princesses got through it. Celestia looked up to see Terras in a state of surprise. There had to be something behind those doors. Very slowly she began to open the door. Luna Charged up a spell in case what was waiting for them was an ambush. There had been about a minute of dead silence before Celestia burst the door open. The griffon king sat there, his eyes closed, and scars riddling his body. Was he dead or just asleep? The two sisters looked at each other and silently agreed to approach carefully. They both stepped with as much silence as possible. All the while Terras watched from above, ready to drop down and strike at any given time. It was when Celestia and Luna were about five feet away did the king raise his left hand. Instinctively the sisters jumped away and readied their magic. The griffon king then opened his grey eyes, and stared down the two alicorns.

"What, come to finish me off?" the king said.

Luna and Celestia glanced at each other, not sure what to say. What had happened so that he was the very last griffon in the mountains? Luna was the first to ask.

"Aerus, how have you been dealing with......this?"

"Heh, "this". Well, you know."

"Know what?"

"That I'm the only griffon with a body strong enough to withstand the use of magic. That made surviving all this so much easier. It was still a struggle, mind you. Those things came in like an invading army. I just barely managed to hold them off. Then I put a shield over the entire mountain. That's why you don't see any of those accursed things."

"King Aerus, Luna and I would like you to join us in our efforts to find the source of this-"

"No" the king said.

"What? Why not?" Luna asked.

"Because I'm already a dead griffon. When they find me, and they will, I'll just delay the inevitable. My life has been long enough, it's time to take a blissful end. Oh, but before I depart, I'd like to meet your friend."

Celestia and Luna stared at Aerus, who somehow managed to snuff out Terras' presence.

"Come on, I can smell him" Aerus said.

At that moment a dragon winged human dropped from the sky, hitting the ground and creating a small shock wave in the quiet room.

"Sorry for hanging back, I wanted to make a nice entrance for you."

"You....." the griffon king said. "You remind me of.....of something my mother told me about. Tell me, where do you come from?"

"Crystoria." Terras said.

"Well, I've officially seen everything. I bid you all a long and torturous farewell."

And at that he clapped his claws together, which teleported the three outside. They were disappointed to see Aerus go, but were more disappointed to know that they had left empty handed. Terras stomped his foot on the ground.

"Ugh! We didn't even find anything!"

Celestia said to herself "I'm almost completely sure the clue would be somewhere here."

"Clue? I think we've found the answer here." Luna said. She motioned for them all to turn. On the mountain was the same emblem drawn in Starswirl the Bearded's journal.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's check it out!" said Terras, and he zipped up to the giant symbol. It glowed bright purple, and the brightness fluctuated, making it look almost radioactive. In the center of the symbol was a purple gem, glowing as bright as the symbol itself, so much it mesmerized Terras when he got up close. It looked so fragile. Terras slowly reached his hand towards the glowing gem, in which Celestia said "Terras, I don't think you should touch that!"

But it was drowned out by his complete and utter fixation on this delicate jewel. His hand touched the gem, which caused it to glow even brighter purple. His vision became blurred, and he was suddenly in a white room. The room was completely empty. It seemed like he was in some kind of space, outside of the space - time continuum. There was no sound, no movement.

Greetings, Terras.

"What the -" he looked all around him and saw nothing. "Where are you? What.... are you?"

I am everything in this room, and more.

"What's going on? Why am I here?"

You are here, because you are the last surviving Crystorian. And that is something I cannot let happen.

"The hell.... who are you?" He drew his swords, and turned slowly around on his feet, expecting an attack on any side of him. He got a prick on the back of his neck, and turned around to see a bright purple shape, like the black formations, but this one was different. It grabbed Terras and pointed its finger at his chest. Terras saw his mother dying all over again, he saw his father scolding him for running in the house. He relived watching his mother being killed by the formations. And it made Terras furious.

His eyes turned to red with slit irises again. His nails grew into claws. And he tried to run. To run towards his mother, to help her live, he wanted to save his brother, and to save his planet. Just to have a normal life, to not have to be alone. To have his family.

Terras continued to struggle, to try and escape while his childhood was played back to him. He couldn't escape, he could only stay in place. And scream, swing, try to blow himself out of the grasp of whatever was holding him back. The slideshow stoped and showed a reflection of Terras in his current state. He looked in disbelief at what he had become. He'd never looked at himself in a mirror when he was this angry. His reflection wasn't appalling, more just surprising. And as his eyes went back to their normal black, the voice spoke again.

Look at yourself. Crystorians are animals when sparked by a charge. That charge is emotion. Emotions are useless pieces of living things. They limit the true potential of beings, and I will eliminate all emotions from life in as many universes as possible.

"That's...... crazy. Who are you?"

The voice chuckled to itself.

Please, call me Neutral

"Seriously?" Terras asked.

Before he got an answer, his vision blurred again. Soon everything was black.

His eyes slightly opened, then snapped open. He looked to his left, and saw the mountain where he had first touched the gem. The symbol was still engraved into the mountain, but without the mesmerizing glow. Terras turned to his right and saw Celestia and Luna closely examining the purple gem. Terras instantly recalled the past twenty minutes.

"Don't touch that!" Terras called toward the princesses.

"My goodness Terras, what happened?" Celestia was nearly smothering him. "Your eyes started glowing, and you wouldn't speak, and I -" She caught herself, about to cry about losing him.

"I... was extremely concerned. "

Terras, staring at Celestia and Luna, shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind quickly. "Ok, thanks" he said. "Just do not touch that thing. Can't stress that enough."

"What happened?" Luna asked. Her voice contained more concern than actual inquiry.

"There was a white room. And this deep voice, it showed me my childhood. My planet..... Believe me I have more questions than answers too."

Terras stood up, and turned toward the mountain. "Whatever happened, this is just the beginning."