Chapter 1 (MK III)

It’s a beautiful afternoon, at 5:30, down in Australia. Everything is together in harmony. A pity it would not be like this for long…

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes: But in one house, in a small town in Queensland, where our story is to begin, there is a disagreement between a father and son. As we zoom in on that house, we see its simple appearance, then we zoom into a living room, a 3-4 metre room with a large LCD TV on top of a 3-part varnished cupboard furthest away from the front windows. There are DVD cases of all types on top of the cupboard, from The X-Files to Gurren Lagann and even The Pink Panther. There is a white couch stretching along the back and side of it, with pillows of all variations on it. An air conditioner blares above to the top left, as a dog mat lies on the ground, on top of a carpet.

But none of these are our focus; no, what we are here to observe is instead the man with the shaved head and glasses and the young boy with dark hair facing each other, and the older boy with blond hair that is in between the two of them in height standing next to them…

“No, this is your fault!”

“You weren’t doing what I told you to!”

“That’s because you all hate me!”

I sigh sadly. “Could you please calm down?” I ask, stressed.

But my little brother Elliot keeps slinging insults at Daddy, and he in turn speaks sternly towards my brother. It’s a shame that Mummy’s out at a concert and isn’t home to stop them arguing.

“That’s it!” Daddy finally snaps, after a few more minutes of the back and forth arguing. “You’re banned from all electronics, including TV, for a month!”

Elliot’s about to speak back, but then closes his mouth, realising he’s just going to be punished more if he does. Then, he glares at me venomously, walks past Daddy, and elbows me in my arm as he walks by, through the kitchen, turns left, enters his room and slams his door hard.

Oh, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Isaac, I’m a 15-year old, a brony, a gamer, a player of ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’, a connoisseur of Croissants, Cakes, Chocolate, Chicken Noodles and Chips (plus tea and rice), a reader, an all-around laze-about, and an Australian.

All in all, a rather good combination if you ask me.

Now then, where are we…? Oh, yes, my little brother going to his room because he’s angry.

Eheh, I don’t think I should go on any electronics today, because honestly, right after Elliot being banned for a month, asking to go on the computer is a bit… inappropriate.

Instead, I walk to my room, close the door, turn on the lamp-light next to my red-sheeted bed and red blinds, and pick up a book from my floor; The Redemption of Althalus is its title. Reading from where I left off, I smile at the refreshing hard fantasy book, its strict adherence to most laws of physics making me comfortable; personally, a theory of mine was that it was set in a virtual reality simulation and the spells used in it were like cheat-codes or console commands. Also, the fact that someone could control quantum-entagled doors was interesting too.

And like they all say, time really flies when you’re having fun, because when I look up after what feels like a few minutes to check the time on the outside clock, it already says 9:00. I’m feeling rather tired, though, which is strange for 9:00 at night. Yawning, I cover my mouth, and slide myself under the covers of my bed. I drift off to sleep.

/)(\

I blink my eyes open blearily. “Darn it…” I groan. It’s still late at night. But for some reason, I can hear… speaking? Quickly getting out of my bed, I open my door, and spare a glance at the small black clock on the cupboard, while also noting the glow coming from the front room. I walk out, rubbing my eyes to rid them of the sleep which plagues them. But when I reach there, I do a double take.

It’s Elliot sitting there, watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I walk up to him. Sitting down on the couch next to him, I sigh. “Shouldn’t you be in bed right now?” I ask him.

Elliot looks at me, and he glares. My face takes on a sad appearance. “I’m sorry…” I say.

“Sorry? You’re not sorry!” he snorts. “You hate me!”

“No, I don’t.” And then I go to hug him, all my love flowing through my heart.

For a few seconds, he fights against the hug, but then, he softens and embraces me back. “I love you too…” he says, his face sad and on the verge of tears. Then, the flow comes out, and his eyes close, as if to stop the tears of vulnerability from coming out. “I’m soooorrrry!”

I just hold him, coming

That’s when the first bomb falls.

The world has been teetering on the edge of disaster for a while now; there were tensions between many countries, and the most recent act of Australia was the straw that broke the camel’s back: its refusal to trade with China. And so, an incredibly right-wing political faction went to destroy Australia; they stole a nuclear bomber and dropped the bomb on a random part.

However, this is not our story. Our story is the story of the two children who were hugging each other. Unknown to them, the nuclear bomb, combined with the love of the two, awakened a power; a special power that very few before them had inside. It was the power of magic.

High up in the cosmic skies, beyond the perception of humanity, the One Above All, the Presence, God, Ra, and whatever other names the highest being had gained, looked down upon the Earth in this small dimension. And He said Let them go, free unto their destinies. For He had forseen their future; it was not a bright one at first, but it would be in the end.

And so, the last trace of these two young men on this world was the two of them hugging, then disappearing in a flash of light as the explosive wave reached them.

But

/)(\

(3000 years before the redemption of Nightmare Moon, 1000 years before Hearth’s Warming)

A hut stands in a valley. It is not large; rather, it is a small hut, barely large enough to fit a single room. It has a small window facing out the front, and a covering with a fire pit under it out that same front.

A white unicorn mare looks out the window into the raging blizzard, the whiteness of the snow almost blinding her, her red mane flowing down her head. She snorts. ‘Why must those pegasi always cause storms for us? Even so, at least they are not as belligerent as those mud ponies; a shame on them for thinking they are not inferior.’ Then, looking around her down-trodden hut, the planks of wood broken in some places, and haphazardly repaired in others, with only a single cupboard and a sheet on the ground with a pillow for a bed, she shakes her head. ‘Why do I kid? I’m not superior at all to those Earth ponies or Pegasus ponies. And besides, those thoughts are poisonous to my head. I only have them because of who I hung around when I visited the castle recently...’ She shudders, recalling how unpleasant those ponies were.

Then, without warning, when the unicorn looks back, she sees a bright flash that blinds her for a few seconds. She blinks, to clear away the glare, and then sees something.

Or more specifically, two things.

Lying on the ground are two ponies, one dark blue and the other white, with the white-coated one being an inch or so larger than the blue one.

Her curiosity quickly turning to horror, the unicorn kicks down the shoddy wooden door, and, ignoring the cold as best she can, begins to approach the two unconscious ponies.

As she walks up to them, she notices something off about them. She recognises them as mares now, one with a pink mane, and the other with a mane matching her coat colour but slightly lighter. At first, she thinks it’s the fact that they have no Cutie Marks, but she has an instinctive feel that that’s not it.

Until she realises that they have both wings and a horn.

She gasps. “W-Winged unicorns!” she exclaims. “But there have not been any Alicorns for centuries!” Slowly, her face turns from one of determination, as she thinks to herself ‘I cannot let them die in the cold! That would be like an act of treason to the pony race! And nopony deserves to die in cold storms such as these!’ Finally, her decision made, she takes the white one in her right hoof and lifts the smaller blue one with telekinesis, and drags them into her house. Lowering them gently to the ground, she takes out one of her spare beds, then moves the white mare to her bed and the blue mare to the other bed. Then, wearily, she lies on the stone floor of her hut. “I hope they shall be okay…” she mutters, her eyes closing as she falls asleep.