Birthright

Chapters

Chapter 1: That Stolen Thing
Chapter 2: An Atypical Canterlot Welcome
Prologue: The Battle that Never Was.

Chapter 1: That Stolen Thing

Chapter 1: That Stolen Thing

Cold autumn wind swirled around, snaking its way through the dense canopy of an ancient forest. One particularly freezing gust hit a lone earth stallion the moment an unwelcome thought entered his mind. Lanky thought that maybe, maybe he really was the most gullible pony this side of Great Everfree Barrier Forest.

When Sweet Whisper told him, over the phone, that her father invited him for some sort of a military-off-time trip through the Everfree towards the badlands to the south, he instantly began anticipating his well-deserved vacation from his job as a computer programmer, daydreaming about having an adventure, thinking what to do and how to prepare himself. Now, he bitterly regretted not asking the most important question: “Why?” But it was too late now, every time he tried to tackle the problem he met a wall of silence and secrets, ponies in the group either as confused as he was, or unwilling to mutter anything more explanatory than ‘later.’

He shook the thought off and took another look at his surroundings. Golden rays of afternoon sunlight shone through the dense foliage, each pillar of light contrasting the darkness of the location. Slow, cold wind mixed with the unpleasantly warm air, stirring humid, tree-and-dirt scented atmosphere, and making it somewhat less suffocating. The delicate sound of chirping birds was that what surprised and interested him the most. He never heard any birds in Manehattan.

“Okay, Lanky, focus. You've been given a position of scout in that camping trip, so colt up and do your job,” he reiterated what he already said to himself many times throughout the last week, wanting to break the silence that rung in his ears.

He didn’t understand why it was even necessary for the group to have a scout, so all he did was walk around and wait for the next reminder.

The internal clock on his headset let out a small beep, snapping him out of drowsiness. Another three hours have passed, and as per protocol, he pressed the button on the headset, establishing a connection with the rest of the group.

"Lanky here, all clear, go," he spoke. He heard a quiet, familiar “hmmm” belonging to Red Snow on the other side.

He looked upwards. Sun, shining through the layers upon layers of leaves and branches, was setting down. With each passing minute, the shadows cast by the trees got longer. A sudden, sharp drop in the temperature made him shiver.

"Better hurry," he said as he again pressed the call button. “I think we should set the camp somewhere near where I'm now, two kilometers ahead, check the EquestriaLoc if you want exact latitude and longitude.”

"Okay, we will. Go scout the area, try to find some potable water or edible food," a bored voice said on the other side of the comm, followed by a 'disconnecting' beep.

Lanky smirked. Barely anything could be considered edible in Everfree, except disgusting moss and some wild grasses, tasty but sparse. Likewise water, although there were rivers that crossed the forest, he did not remember seeing any on the map of his vicinity.

“And even if, any water in Everfree is likely muddy and filled to the brim with parasites. Eugh...” he muttered as he thought about that.

Having nothing to do at the moment, he decided to take a stroll, not really hoping to find anything more than trees, dark shadows, trees, poisonous fungi and even more trees.

He pressed the button on his headset, and a beam of light shot into the air, forming a holographic display before his eyes. A map application started up, displaying a big green blotch named “Everfree” covering the majority of the map, a pin mark in the middle of the screen, and a gray-colored territory east of his current location, with a “Luna's Domain – no maps available” message placed over the unknown grounds.

Being so close to the country belonging to unicorns and pegasi worried him a little, but he dismissed these thoughts, knowing well that Everfree was unclaimed territory. Neither Terra nor Luna's Domain claimed the power nor ownership over the natural barrier dividing Equestria in half.

He swiped his hoof across the floating display, zooming out to see how far had he walked, and how much was remaining. The camping convoy was already a long way into Everfree, four days of steady walk from the Terran side of the forest, and five days remaining to Appleloosa, the abandoned town located on what once might’ve been an inhabited southern part of Equestria, but was now an unwelcoming desert belonging to roaming buffalo tribes.

He saved his current location on the map, dismissed the display, and started walking. Absent-mindedly, he moved around, listening to the soft sounds of moss being stomped under his hooves, interrupted occasionally by cracks of rotten twigs.

A strange sound of hooves clacking on stone stirred him out of his absent-mindedness. Surprised, he looked down. Large patches of moss covered a slew of flat, polished cobblestones, forming a regular pattern in the ground. Even though roots of nearby trees damaged the artificial structure, anypony could see where the road was going.

“Look at that!” Lanky said to himself in quite an overexcited tone, “Must be from before the Birthright War! From before the Shift!”

Feeling adventurous, he trotted around, trying to find where the ancient cobblestone would guide him. But after just a few meters, the road disappeared, covered by a thick layer of soil litter. He walked further into the forest, occasionally digging into the ground to see whether he was still on track.

After a moment, he noticed a ruined habitat, something he subconsciously expected to find near such a sign of civilization. An old vine-covered cottage stood, fighting stalwart against the time and the elements. From distance it was almost impossible to recognize it from the green and bark-brown background, only the sunlight reflected from a broken window making it possible for him to even notice the structure.

He galloped towards the lone house in the middle of the forest. The knowledge that somebody managed to eke out a living so deep in the forest was exciting. He remembered the stories told by the zebras back in Manehattan that one of their ancestors lived there, in that forest, but even they didn't remember his or her name, as even that bit of knowledge was lost to time.

Near the house, he found a broken, rotted sign nailed to a tree, the embossed letters almost indecipherable.

“Fl... tte... hy,” he said, “Doesn’t sound zebra-like...”

The sign answered nothing, only raising more questions he was eager to solve. He examined the exterior of the cottage. Judging by the trees, visibly thinner and not as tall as elsewhere in Everfree, he hazarded a guess that this place could have been a clearing once, long ago. The antediluvian construction, made of wooden logs crisscrossing at the corners, mocked nature's attempts at eroding it from the face of the planet. The lush vegetation had overgrown the place, covering the cottage in thick bundles of vines, and to add insult to injury, a tree grew through the dwelling’s door-hole. Some windows were still in one piece, and some looked uninviting thanks to sharp pieces of glass still stuck to the window frames. The holes were too small for him to squeeze through, anyway. With the only easily available entrance blocked, Lanky walked around, trying to find out if he could make another one.

A visibly rotten section of the wall on the opposite side of tree-blocked entrance promised access inside. Lanky took a deep breath and bucked the wall.

Wooden logs gave no resistance. Splinters scattered around. The cottage wobbled a little but didn't collapse, still looking safe and stable enough. A jagged hole in the wall welcomed him to come hither and sate his curiosity. Nothing moved in the darkness, and he felt secure enough to enter. As he stepped inside, he turned on a torchlight, a built-in feature of his headset.

A beam of light raised the shadows and made the dusty air glitter. At first glance, he noticed a bed almost rotten away into nothingness, with something that could've resembled a mattress a long time ago, rusty springs poking out of tattered, mouldy material. A porcelain shell cracked loudly under his hoof as he walked to a broken cupboard with broken ceramic scattered inside and nearby. Next to the bed and the cupboard, a slanted desk stood, only days away from completely falling apart, covered with thick, uneven film of moist dust that made him cough just by beaing near it.

On the opposite side, between two dirty and broken windows, a brick fireplace and chimney covered in soot caught his attention. The beam of light shone at a small ash-heap and some half-burned logs. Upon closer inspection, the logs were rotted and the ash had long since solidified from the moisture.

The lettering on the lone book he found on the floor faded away, only a single 'Do' word and an outline of a pegasus still visible through the mould on the cover. He tried to open the book, but the moisture glued the paper together and erased the letters.

It was clear that this place was thoroughly forgotten by time. Although fascinated, he saw no point in sitting there for longer than he had to. Standing outside and facing the hole, he pressed the button on the headset, bringing the holographic display again. He touched the camera-shaped icon. Light on the torchlight changed, from soft and warm, sunlight-like beam to a sharp, xenon-white flash. The light swept the room.

A strong reflection coming from under the layer of dust on the desk blinded him. His eyes hurt. Tears fell on the ground. He staggered, almost tripping on a root he could not see.

When the pain faded away and the world stopped looking blurry, Lanky noticed that there really was something else on the desk. He started coughing again as he came near, but persevered, took a deep breath, and slid his foreleg across. Small clumps of damp dust and black-mold spores rose into the air. Tears started to flow again. He ran outside, gasping, and until it settled down, his throat, lungs, and nose felt as if set on fire.

That did it. The dust still covered the items, but he could at least see what was previously covered under. An old book, its pages visibly damp with a little hint of mold, and a pendant.

A golden chain with a crystal encased in a thin golden frame caught Lanky's attention immediately. A jagged gemstone opalized when the torchlight shone upon it, falsifying the original color of the stone further. He had no idea what kind of stone the jewel was. The jewelry grasped his heart with a strange, alien beauty, and enchanting opalization made it difficult to not gaze at it.

“I don’t think anypony would miss that,” He muttered, waging whether to take it or not, as such a beautiful piece of jewelry was sure to be worth some bits.

Pros outweighed the cons, and he reached to take it into his possession. When the foreleg was a few millimeters from the crystal, a single static spark discharged, jumping from the crystal to his hoof.

And the world changed.

The cottage disappeared. The forest disappeared. The ground disappeared. Lanky swam in black void that surrounded him. The uniform darkness swirled visibly, and he felt the airless gusts of wind creeping on his skin, rustling his brown coat.

A thing appeared before him. At first nothing but a gray blur, standing in a sharp contrast against the ever-enveloping darkness. Gradually, the image sharpened, forming a blurred butter-yellow blob. Each moment, the shape slowly approached him, becoming clearer in the process, at first forming a rough outline of a pony, and ultimately, a clearly visible pegasus mare.

A butter-yellow pegasus mare lied on the ground, shivering. Her long, pink mane covered half of her face. Her shining, shimmering wings looked as if made of quicksilver. On her flank he noticed three pink butterflies, the placement of the symbol appearing oddly familiar on an instinctual level. Subconsciously, he looked back at his own blank flank.

He took an unsure step forwards, and her sobbing reached his ears. A thick stream of tears flowed from her face, each droplet disappearing when it fell from her face into the nothingness. With each sob, her chest rose up and down.

Another step brought him face to face with the mare. Her mouth moved, attempting to say something, but all he heard was a delicate indecipherable whisper.

“Are you okay?” Lanky asked, worry in his voice.

The mare stopped sobbing, and after a moment, her eyes shot open, her irises quickly shrinking.

“Please, help me! Save me!” She screamed, taking deep, teary gasps afterwards.

Lanky stepped back. Goosebumps appeared on his skin.

Suddenly, the mare blinked out of existence, and reappeared again, this time standing up, silent and unmoving. Her eyes were fixed on him

For a moment, she stood silently. Lanky sidestepped, trying to avoid her soul-piercing stare, but her eyes followed him.

A shiver creeped through his body when she started speaking. “Warning. Device is now in shard mode. Partial alignment will be attempted.”

Lanky tilted his head. His mouth uttered a short, flat “What.”

“Subject name: Lanky I didn't want this,” the butter-yellow, pink-maned pegasus continued in soft, but machine-resembling tone, “ Species: Pony. Subspecies: Earth pain. Gender: Male stop it. Age: twenty help me please anypony. Date of birth: Twenty-fifth of april I'm not a slave...”

Lanky stood terrified, his hooves firmly glued to the nonexistent ground while the mare continued telling facts of his life, intertwined with pleas for help, all spoken in the same, monotonous voice. As soon as his fear reached its peak, the mare stopped speaking. Seconds appeared to him like hours. He took deep breaths, the alien tranquility of the scene sending him even further off the mental edge.

After what he felt like had been an eternity, she spoke one last word.

“Accepted.”

The darkness vanished instantaneously. With a bright, white flash, an already familiar interior of the cottage reappeared again.

An overwhelming pang of pain both mental and physical threw him on the ground. It reverberated from his head, sending flares and spasming muscles. His limbs and his head began to twitch, move, and hit the floor. One smash of head against the frame of the bed made a small gash on his temple, a thin streak of blood covering the floor with red droplets.

The pain disappeared as instantaneously as it appeared. Lanky took the chance, and started crawling away. Splinter-covered surface scraped his back as he hugged to the wall, trying to get as far away from the crystal as it was possible.

“It's not magic it's not magic it doesn't exist it never existed it's not magic,” He started mumbling, the words merging into incomprehensible stream of letters. The details of his experience already began to fade away, replaced by a strong sense of irrational fear. Despite this, his eyes were still locked on the faint light emanating from the crystal. Fading specks of light danced on the walls and the ceiling.

After a moment, he calmed down enough to start processing his surroundings again. An asphyxiating odor of ozone flooded the place, making inside of his mouth taste like electricity. The pain of scraped skin on his back reached his brain, the signals mixing with the strong ache coming in from the gash on his head. His hoof slipped on the blood on the floor. He touched the gash, but the wound already began to close, blood flowing no more. He never looked away from the crystal.

He took a few breaths, and stood up, unsurely and shaking. He wanted to run away from something that caused him nothing but pain, but an impulse replaced his instinct. The pendant opalized lightly, gluing his gaze to it, beckoning him, begging him to take it away with him to safety.

He touched the crystal again, hesitating. This time, nothing. When the pendant landed on the bottom of his saddlebag, the entire experience almost dulled away, replaced by vague feelings and emotions.

The book, lying next to where the pendant was, promised explanation. A semi-pleasant smell of old books wafted from the wet, moldy pages, greeting him with arcane pictures and illegible lettering. Lanky tried his best to read the nonsense, but only single symbols were still readable. The diagrams fared better, but the context and meaning of various magical sigils only made him smirk.

Magic never existed. That's what he had been told. There were stories that the world was filled with magic before the total solar eclipse called the Shift, long before the Birthright War that split Equestria into two independent political entities. There was this ridiculous notion that unicorns, these poor mutants he had never seen in Manehattan were once capable of using magic. Repeated many times in his life, the truth was obvious.

He tried to think, his mind incapable of comprehending what just happened. He rummaged throughout the cottage, trying to find any holo-projectors or other evidence that what he experienced was nothing but an elaborate, if pointless prank.

A sudden loud beep, a sound of somepony attempting to contact him, made him jump.

“Hey, Lanky! Come here, now! Right this instant, you wouldn't believe what we've found,” an excited voice on the other side said.

“Hey, you better come right now here,” he replied in haste to the series of beeps that appeared when the other side hung up.

“I’m going to kick your impatient flank up, Sweet Whisper,” he said to the mouthpiece.

He went outside. The cold, refreshing air of Everfree never tasted so sweet to him as now, outside the hut. Lack of dust in the air gave his lungs rest at last.

The sun almost hid, and darkness covered the land, leaving the moon as the brightest point on the sky. Lanky brought the map display again. He calculated the road back, from his current location to the pinmark that he set up previously, some distance from the cobblestone road. By that time, all the pain had faded, allowing him to run as fast as he could.

The pendant on the bottom of his saddlebag rattled with each his step.

Lanky always thought of the entire idea as 'fishy'. The atmosphere of the camp smelt to him like some untold conspiracies and questions unasked. A trip to Appleloosa, for a vacation, just for the fun of it?

“But why would they need these machines? These are not transporting us... We have to walk by side, anyway,” he said as he looked at old Armored Pony Carriers that were brought with them as a mode of transportation. Heavy machines stood in a circle surrounding the camp and the lit fireplace in the middle.

Patches of green camo paint had long since flaked away from their rusty hulls. Broken twigs stuck out from between the soil-covered metal plates of the threads that the APC’s moved on. These vehicles looked so old that only adjectives that came to Lanky's mind were 'affordable; cheap; junk'

He focused on the strange smells that hung in the air. He took a few sniffs, differentiating the smells and their sources. One smell he experienced once long ago, when he as a foal accidentally broke the TV. The odor of burnt electronics came clearly from one of the APC’s, where a few older-looking ponies were yelling the most harsh, griffin swearwords that made even the least cultured ponies retch at the vulgar language. He recognized one green earth pony: unruly blue mane, a short beard, mouth eternally twisted in a displeased grin and eyes of a serial killer; Sweet Whisper's father, Brass Pin.

The other smell he recognized instantly. A faint smell of ozone wafted in the air. Although barely noticeable, the odor flooded back his mind with faint memories of what happened in the cottage.

A large group of earth ponies surrounded something on the opposite side of the camp. He shrugged, stopped looking at the metal surface of the APC, and started walking towards the commotion. A sudden, calm “Hi” coming in from behind him interrupted him as he neared the group.

“Sweet Whisper, one more time you surprise me like this and I'm gonna...” He said in a mocking voice, only to turn around and see a light-red body of a short, young mare with a buzz-cut dark-red mane that made her look like an aggressive tomboy.

Another, very cheerful “Hi” came from behind him. Lanky turned around only to see a tall light-gray mare with a curly, greenish mane.

“Hey, you just wouldn't believe what just happened here! The trip just got weird when you weren't there!” The grey mare, Sweet Whisper said to Lanky in her ever-cheerful voice.

“Yeah, had a strange call myself... So, what happened?” he asked.

“When you weren't there,” Red Snow said, in a rather gruff voice, “we came here, we began setting up the camp and then suddenly! Sparks began flying from the cargo of one of these machines... You know, the machines that were supposed to move with us inside...”

“So,” Sweet Whisper cheerfully continued, “my father and his friends from the military opened it, and began swearing like there's no tomorrow!”

Red Snow took the lead. ”When I noticed them, I took a sneak peek at what's inside, and I noticed some strange equipment... Lots of electronics, some strange computers... Dunno. And then it got weird.”

“We heard a terrible scream! Like somepony was just being murdered! ” Sweet Whisper spoke, “It froze our blood! We thought it was you! But when we got there, we found... That's strange...”

“So, what did you find?” Lanky asked.

Red Snow replied. “A teal pony. Dehydrated, starving, dirty. Smell was so bad that we instantly dumped a bucketload of water on him. Helped a little, but his mane, ugh. All glued up from the dirt.”

“That's why everypony, except my father and some older stallions, gathered near him,” Sweet Whisper added, a hint of worry in her voice, “to see who was that. But he's okay now, Healer's taking care of him now.”

When Sweet Whisper mentioned Healer, Lanky turned his head around towards the crowd. He saw him, a dark-yellow stallion with a blue mane passing through the crowd and going outside the camp. The mark on his flank, a red cross with four hearts in the corners struck a mental chord with Lanky. When he saw him for the first time, he ignored the tattoo thinking of it as nothing more but an eccentricity, but now he felt uneasy looking at it. He turned his head back and looked at his bare flank, and for a moment he felt as if he was missing something he couldn’t name.

In the corner of his eye, he noticed a green mare with straight, blond mane creeping around the camp, walking towards where Healer had just gone. He shuddered at her sight.

As Siren walked, she muttered and giggled quietly to herself. He hazel eyes always seemed empty, looking towards a pony but not focusing on it, instead passing through, towards the far horizon. Her ever-present smile, the unnerving, teeth-barring kind made it impossible to know nor guess what was on her mind. Lanky looked at the mark on her flank, a sort of a musical note Lanky couldn’t recognize. Again he felt an indescribable emptiness that passed as quickly as it appeared.

He turned his head away, avoiding looking at her, hoping she didn’t took an interest in him. He saw other ponies doing the same.

A dark-yellow stallion with a medium-length blue mane stood over the sleeping teal pony, eyeing him curiously. Majority of the thirty ponies in the camp surrounded these two, curious and confused. Finding a live pony in Everfree? Miracle. Finding a weakened, dehydrated pony in that forest, a condition which many nocturnal predators would definitely exploit? Nopony here knew any words to describe that kind of event. Many ponies asked themselves the questions: ”What happened? How?”

But Healer had another set of questions he decided not to voice.

“I think that's all. Let him rest, I've gave him some isotonics, he should get better soon,” he said to one of the travelers, who took upon herself the task of watching over the stranger. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go for a moment...” Healer added quietly, more to himself than to anypony else. Ignoring everypony near him, he looked around the camp, looking for one particular pony. And he found her. She was coming to him.

Siren moved clumsily, staggering a little each time her hooves struck a root or slipped on wet moss, but managing to keep her balance in the end. Healer noticed that other ponies semiconsciously moved away when she passed near them, but Siren either ignored that too, or simply didn't care. He wasn't sure anymore.

“Hey! Siren!” He said when she finally got near him, a hint of faked cheerfulness in his voice.

“...Hi... Hihihi...” She giggled, drooping her head to the ground.

“Can I talk to you in private? Without all the other ponies nearby?” he said, pointing at the forest..

“Yes... Yes we can!” She smiled at him, presenting all her teeth. Healer shuddered. He knew well what these were capable of.

The duo moved out of the camp and a little into the forest, in a place near enough to the other campers that the nocturnal predators of Everfree wouldn't attack them there, but far away enough to make themselves practically invisible. The searingly cold wind swayed the leaves on the trees, rustle of leaves making it impossible to eavesdrop on them. It was dark there, the light of the fireplace not reaching them, save for single flickers that made their shadows dance against the grounds and the trees. Whatever words he would speak would mingle with the hoots the owls made.

For Healer, a perfect, if somewhat eerie spot for some heart-to-heart conversation.

“Uhhhh... I've got a question, Siren. I've got this strange feeling, as if I've seen that teal pony somewhere. Do you recognize him?”

“...Hihihi.... He smells... He smells good...” Siren replied, giggling.

“So, you recognize him? He looks very familiar. I'm sure I would've known him! But I can't place my hoof on it...”

“...That brown pony smells good too...” She whispered, pointing at the tall, thin brown pony who was now near the fireplace, talking to two mares, one red and one gray.

“What do you mean? You know him too?” Healer replied, thinking that it might be high time to reset Siren.

“...He smells good smells good smells good!” She replied, her voice rising with each spoken word, dangerously reaching the point when she'd start screaming.

Healer took a small box out of his saddlebag, opened it and picked up a small jet syringe.

“It's time for your injection, Siren. You know how you get without it,” he said in a caring voice. He put the syringe in his mouth and slowly, step by step, came closer to her. Siren took an unsure step backwards, lied on the ground and curled in a foetal position. Tears began to form in the corners of her eyes.

Healer took another thing from his saddlebag. A small sugarcube shone on his hoof. He tempted Siren with it, inviting her to stop being afraid and come closer. She looked at the cube, then at the syringe in his mouth. Her vision wandered from one object to another, until she finally stood up, and took a slow, unsure step towards him. He threw the sugarcube at her, the sweet candy falling straight into her mouth. She closed her mouth eyes. A smile crept on her face.

The distraction worked. Feeling too good about the taste in her mouth, she didn't notice him jumping at her and pressing the syringe against her side. A loud hiss came from the device as the jet of liquid penetrated her skin and entered her bloodstream. She recoiled and fell on the ground, where she lied for a moment. Healer stood above her.

“...You better now?” He asked her. She was getting resistant to the drug, and sometimes she required another shot.

She looked at him. The corners of her eyes began to shine with tears. “Yes... I'm better now... for a moment anyway... Hihihi...” she replied, a smile forming on her face again as she dried her eyes on her fetlock.

Healer didn't say anything more. He threw his forelegs at her and started hugging her. Each time he had to repeat the whole ceremonial, it felt worse and worse. He felt wrong to treat the one he loved like that.

“But that brown pony had changed his smell... He didn't smell like that before. And now he smells good. Hihihi...” She whispered into his ear. He kept repeating a quiet ‘sorry’ while hugging her. And she was hugging him back.

Out of necessity, all was forgiven. Or so he thought. He wasn't sure whether Siren even thought in such terms anymore.

Fireplace cast a soft, orange glow across the camp. The moon, high in the night sky, shone upon the world, illuminating it in wondrous, ambient glimmer. Even the stars, thousands of them visible up above seemed to light up the place noticeably. If anything could look down from high above, the place would look like a small point of light in the the sea of absolute darkness.

Anypony could hear something in the distance – predators of night, hunting for food, using the darkness for their advantage. But the ponies inside the metal ring made of APCs convoying them felt safe. Some slept peacefully, others walked around, talking and laughing, although a certain degree of nervousness and confusion could be heard in every word spoken.

"So, that teal pony woke up already?" Lanky said to two mares standing next to him.

"Yup, he did!" Sweet Whisper’s ever-cheerful voice rung in his ears.

Lanky, Red Snow, and Sweet Whisper stood over the teal pony, looking at him. Lying on the blanket, a first-aid cover keeping him warm, the earth pony stallion looked around.

Healer was already sleeping, as well as the majority of the group, except for a few older stallions standing guard around the camp. Just them and the new pony.

Lanky took a whiff. The pony smelled of dirt, sweat, and wilderness.

"Hi there, what's your name? From where are you?" Sweet Whisper asked.

The teal pony looked at her shyly, unsure what to say for a moment, before finally answering the question in a meek voice. "I... I don't know. I don’t."

“You remember anything? I don’t know, for example, your phone number? EquNet ID? Banking account?” Red Snow asked.

Teal pony shook his head. Seeing the consternation on the confused pony's face, Lanky asked, "What were you doing there anyway? It's the Everfree Forest! It's not really safe there."

The teal pony again thought for a moment, before answering in the same manner as before, "I don't know... really."

Red Snow tried to ask him something, but Lanky interrupted her, "Say, did you live in that cottage nearby? That old, rotten down one a few minutes gallop from here? Ring any bells?"

"No...?" the teal pony responded.

"So you didn't. Totally expected, really." Lanky muttered to himself.

"What cottage?" Red and Sweet asked the question simultaneously.

"I tried to tell you, but you disconnected!" Lanky said.

"Oh, right. Sorry," Red looked down at the ground, a little bit ashamed.

"Anyway," Lanky sighed, then turned around, standing side to the teal pony, "I found a cottage! Broken down, uninhabitable, but somepony lived there a long time ago. Probably even before the Shift. And that's not the end, girls, look what I've found!" Lanky reached for his backpack, and took the pendant out, the chain around his hoof and gem swinging in a pendulum-like manner.

"That's beautiful!” Red said, "Is that for me?"

"Gimme, gimme, gimme!" Sweet Whisper said, and reached for the crystal.

Lanky moved his foreleg to avoid her touching the crystal, but she did it, her hoof touching it right in the center. To his surprise, absolutely nothing happened. The crystal just bounced off her hoof.

Luckily for him, they didn’t seem to notice his nervousness. He laughed, then reached to the backpack to hide it back inside, "Wait, I've only just found it! I don't know if I'll give it to you!"

In the corner of his eye he noticed the teal pony looking back at him, and he looked back. Teal pony was breathing heavily, his eyes wide open and looking straight at him. Lanky could swore the eyes were looking down into the depths of his soul. Unnerved, he turned his head around to avoid his gaze. It appeared that the girls didn't notice the stare.

"Anyway, girls, I might've taken a nap, but I'm tired. Good night," he said, then turned his head to the teal pony, "And good night to you too!"

The teal pony was still staring at him, his eyes locked on Lanky's every step.

A few steps away, Lanky heard something. A quiet, barely hearable voice.

“Help me, please.”

He turned around, and faced the teal pony. “You said something?

The stranger looked at him and asked, “w-what?”

Fireplace had almost burned out, no longer necessary, as the night was at it’s end, the sun only moments before rising, but still not there, the night still covering the world in darkness. Lanky slept lightly on his blanket, clutching his backpack as if it was his security mascot.

Sudden movement got his attention, waking him up. A pony stood above him, holding the pendant by the chain in its mouth and backing away. Darkness obscured the identity of the thief. Only thing he felt was a smell, a faint odor of ozone.

"...YOU!" Lanky screamed as he sprang up on his legs, ready to jump into action.

The thief turned around, and ran straight into the wilderness. Lanky ran after him straight into the darkness, feeling the twigs slash at his face. He heard the commotion after him, the camp waking up, scrambling to find out what had just happened. As he followed the barely visible outline of the thief, he barely avoided tumbling down on the wet moss and roots of trees arcing through the ground. Each step, he cut the distance down.

A long way from the camp he lost sight of the thief entirely. He stopped to catch a breath and plan the course of action. He took the headset from the saddlebag, and put it in his ear. He chose a map icon on the holographic display. The device couldn’t fix on any positioning satellites, and his location was unknown to him. Disappointed, he sat down on his haunches.

Something in his mind just clicked. Nothing more than a very weak feeling, an intuition, but at that moment, Lanky could feel where the thief was. Something he couldn't describe just called to him, a faint feeling shining like a match in the darkness. He sprung into gallop again, following his intuition. The headset beeped, somepony attempting to call him. He ignored it.

When he saw the thief again, the moon hid behind the horizon and the amber dawn began pushing the darkness away. They both arrived at the edge of the forest, in a place Lanky didn't recognize.

He again turned the map application on. This time, it found it’s location. The pin-mark was positioned on a line between the green and the gray blotch. No more information was available, save for the longitude and latitude. The numbers said nothing to him.

He surveyed the surroundings. The Everfree Forest formed a wall behind him, the land turning before him into green fields pockmarked with small hills, with bigger mountains on the horizon. A small, unknown town was near. From a distance, he noticed the thief entering the place, passing the timber-framed houses of the town's outskirts.

Risky move.

Lanky followed him into the town. When he entered he noticed a sign that made him realize where exactly he was. Lanky could just feel in exactly how much manure he had just stepped into.

It was Ponyville. A place where no earth pony, not even Terran ambassadors have ever stepped hoof into. For superstitious unicorns and pegasi of Luna’s Domain, a sacred place.

“Uh-oh,” he said. He knew had to be quick. It was still morning, and streets were empty, but with each passing minute, the probability of running into somepony else was rising each second he was there.

He cut his distance, finally catching the thief near a house made inside a hollowed-out tree. From close, he saw who the thief was. He suspected it was the teal stranger, and now he knew.

"P-please, I can explain, I can explain," the teal pony wheezed, barely standing on his shaking legs.

Lanky was not in the mood for explanations. He turned around and bucked the teal-coloured stranger. The run exhausted him, making the effort of bucking feel more like a light tap, but it was still strong enough to knock over the stranger, who fell on the ground, completely defenseless.

Lanky's anger was subsiding, but the the sight of the pendant on the stranger's neck irritated him. Lanky took the pendant from him, and it was then when he noticed that the stranger wasn't looking at him anymore, instead looking at somewhere behind him. Lanky looked up.

His eyes met an intense stare of a armor-clad, snow-white unicorn guard.

“Oh... manure.”

He backed up from the guard, only to bump into another behind him. He heard the clink of a primitive plate armor. Everywhere he looked, he saw guards surrounding him. He felt the droplets of sweat dropping from him, more from fear than exhaustion. His mind went blank as he tried to think.

"In the name of Queen Luna and Princess Celestia, you are hereby arrested for trespassing!" a guard behind him announced, proudly proclaiming his power.

Lanky's mind didn't have any time to ponder upon his situation further when he felt a strong blow to the back of his head. Unconscious, he fell on the ground.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Chapter 2: An Atypical Canterlot Welcome

Chapter 2: An Atypical Canterlot Welcome

A drop of cold water danced on the stone-brick ceiling before falling down.

It landed on Lanky's head, in the very center of the aching patch where he was struck by the guard an indeterminate amount of time ago. The cold drop alleviated a little bit of his pain, but with it, another kind of torment entered his mind.

He squirmed. He wished to open his eyes, but the pain he felt discouraged any attempts of fully waking up. Trying to receive as much information as possible without opening his eyes, he focused all his attention on his ears, listening carefully at the sounds that reached him.

Whenever he was, it was eerily quiet. As his ears got used to the silence, he was able to make out more of the soundscape. There were sounds, distant and dulled out, as if behind heavy, unforgiving walls.

Jail, probably? The cold, damp stone he felt on the side of his body told him it was a possibility.

The events from before – Yesterday, maybe? Or still today? – came back as he tried to re-enumerate and piece together all the things about the camping trip. His mind confused itself when it tried to remember the details of the vision he experienced. As he lied, he relived once again the fear he experienced when the butter-yellow mare begged him for help.

The last word she spoke echoed through his mind. “Accepted.”

Accepted. Accepted. Accepted. The word brought him to the brink of insanity, repeating itself over and over again. Accepted. Accepted. “Accepted for what?!?”, he asked himself in his thoughts, not expecting any answer.

To dismiss the overpowering word, he began thinking about the vision itself, its mechanics. No matter how hard he tried to think how it was created, be it a drug-induced hallucination, or an expensive holo-display put there for nopony-knows what purpose, the train of his thoughts always circled back to one forbidden word – magic.

Something that was told of in tales, the power that existed before the Shift, before the Birthright War that started as a result of a supposedly cataclysmic event. The power universally dismissed as mere tales for foals or conspiracy theorists. As far as he knew, there never was any magic, and the Shift was merely a solar eclipse, a simple thing that superstitious, uneducated, and stupid ponies of antiquity didn’t understand, driving them into madness, and ultimately, war.

He shifted a little on the stone-brick ground, trying to make himself more comfortable. Bit by bit, the pain was leaving his head. He focused on the memory of the teal-colored pony who was found by the group the same time he experienced the vision.

The pendant. He stole it. He must have known what it was. Lanky wished the stranger would be nearby to provide him with answers.

A drop of cold water danced on the stone-brick ceiling before falling down. The quietness made it possible for him to hear the drop all the way through the air, until it landed somewhere else.

The somewhere else made an annoyed grunt. Lanky instantaneously opened his eyes. For a few moments, the world appeared to him as a blur.

The jail cell was damp and dark, a small hole high above him only letting a little light inside. Ominous stonework and strong-looking metal bars gave no hope of escaping. Nothing except him and the teal pony was inside, not even a bunk to sleep on.

In the other corner, the stranger tried to stand up, but the chains that bound him didn't give up, clinking loudly instead. At the same time, Lanky finally felt the metal rings tightly clamped around his hooves. He moved his foreleg a little, only to hear a clink of chains.

Both woke up completely, minds and bodies still tired and aching. Both attempted to say something to each other, but as the words tried to escape their mouths, some unseen force tangled their tongues, leaving both in awkward, heavy silence.

Lanky struggled to break the silence, and after a few tries he managed to break the ice.

“Hi”.

The teal pony, until now actively trying to avoid looking at him, took a quick look , and again turned his head away, ashamed. He mumbled a quiet, barely hearable 'hi', which sounded more like a mouse's squeak than a word.

“Could you please repeat that? I didn't hear anything.” Lanky said.

The teal pony looked back at him, shyly, and spoke softly. “Hi... You're that pony from yesterday... Aren't you?”

“Yes”

“Oh,” the teal pony squeaked back.

“Is that all you'd like to say? Oh? For stealing something that... uhm... probably wasn't yours anyway?” Lanky thought.

As if reading his mind, the stranger quickly gave a response, "Sorry... What's your name?"

"Lanky. And yours?"

Lanky observed as the other pony's eyes wandered around the room, as if the answer was written somewhere there. “So... what's your name?” he repeated the question. He remembered himself asking the question before, but the idea of anypony not knowing his name seemed alien to him.

The teal one visibly struggled with the answer, mumbling something quietly under his nose, before letting out a barely audible squeak. “I... I don’t know.”

“I find it hard to believe,” Lanky said in a harsh tone, “you tried to steal the pendant. You said you’d explain. You knew what it was.”

As the teal stallion struggled to say anything comprehensible. Lanky took a closer look at him. As he breathed, skin moved over the visible ribcage. His medium-lenght curly mane, as teal as the rest of his body, was covered in dirt, caked mud, and tree-sap.

“You managed to live out in Everfree, long time away from the civilization,” Lanky continued, each word in more aggressive tone, “so you know how to survive, and you tell me you don’t remember your name?”

Teal pony cowered, shivering slightly, almost crying. Lanky began apologizing, but in his mind, his thoughts were different. Does he have a low stress threshold or what?

This calmed the other one.

“So,” Lanky continued, “So why did you try to steal from me? Do you know what that crystal was? Was it important? Priceless?”.

The teal pony turned his head away. For a moment he appeared deep in thought, as if waging his words carefully. "I... I don't know. I just had to get my hooves on that pendant... Something was telling me that I should do it. So I was going to take it... Without your acknowledgement, if it was ok with you," he spoke in a meek voice.

That response surprised Lanky. The description was exactly word-for-word how he felt about the whole situation. Touching the crystal again, picking it up for safekeeping, and chasing the thief, ignoring connection attempts, just to get it back. It was not his conscious will. It was an impulse.

For a moment, neither spoke, the silence thick and unbearable. Finally, it was Lanky who broke the silence.

“I've got an idea... You say you don't remember your name, right? So, what about, until you remember, I’ll call you... Teal?”

Teal let out a short, quiet chuckle. “Naming me after my color... Fine by me. Thanks,” he replied, a delicate hint of gratitude in his voice, "So, could you answer my question, pretty please?"

"And that was...?"

"What were you all doing in Everfree?"

Lanky began telling his story, while the teal pony listened quietly, occasionally nodding to what he was saying. He told him everything that happened until he met him. He spoke of his doubts surrounding the trip, about the mysteries and question unasked. He felt a tinge of fear when he mentioned his friends. I really should have had answered the call.

Teal brooded over his words for a moment. "I'm sorry," he said, "but there's a problem with your story."

"And that is?" Lanky asked. He tilted his head.

"Sorry to say, but what you've said makes absolutely no sense. For such a small, casual group, you seemed way too well organized," The teal pony, despite still sounding timid, allowed himself a single smirk, "How did they afford HoofBeat mk.4 Armored Pony Carriers? Yes, they're a little bit outdated, it's possible to buy them decommissioned on the aftermarket, but they would cost a small fortune. About hundred thousand bits, each"

Lanky had nothing to say. He always considered these machines to be cheap enough to be rescued from the scrapyard for a price low enough that even a filly could buy these with some pocket money, so clanky and rundown they were. Yet, Teal sounded more than absolutely certain in his knowledge. Hundred thousand bits was more than enough to buy a brand new carriage in most expensive automobile shops in Manehattan.

They spent the remaining time in silence. An hour later, two guards came to their cell, gave them some surprisingly tasty hay and water, and after both had finished eating, unchained them and told them that their fate was to be decided now.

As they were herded to the courtroom Lanky noticed through a window that they were in Canterlot. Such a majestic view could only be seen from high upon the mountainside, and Canterlot was the only city known to be built in such manner. He had the hunch before, but now, his worst fears were confirmed.

The evening sunlight, filtered through the courtroom's stained glass windows flooded it with a magnitude of colors and hues, casting gentle rainbow tints across the marble floor, uneven after so many years and so many hooves left the floor in a visible state of disrepair.

Teal looked at the windows, more out of boredom than interest in what was happening in the room.

Lanky could not stop staring at other ponies gathered there. He saw pegasus ponies a few times in Manehattan, and only once in his life he saw a unicorn. In Terra, they were so rare that majority of population could live their lives never seeing one. And here, it appeared that the same could be said about earth ponies. On the benches surrounding them, a group of young unicorns and pegasi sat, learning by example the trade of a lawyer.

Before the two, five elderly ponies sat on wooden, comfortable-looking chairs. One of them, an old, creamy-red unicorn mare with gray mane and tail, held a metal staff.

Teal did not wait for any questions, and began whispering to Lanky, barely containing excitement. “I remember something, I remember!” The murmur in the courtroom allowed them speaking to pass unnoticed.

“You were there?” Lanky asked.

“I remember I was, I think,” he said, and sensing the question Lanky was going to ask, he continued, “But I don’t remember what for... It’s called the Lesser Gathering. Lowest tier of Luna’s Domain judicial system, for unimportant, civil cases. They’re going to decide what to do with us,” – seeing that the last sentence made Lanky uneasy, he quickly added – “depart us to Terra’s border. It’s a standard procedure, as we broke no other laws.”

“Then,” Lanky said, “why bring us from Ponyville to Canterlot? Why not just kick us out right away? Why all that junk?”

“Bureaucracy. They’re all insufferable bureaucrats,” Teal said. He tried to add something, but the mare struck the floor with the staff. The room fell silent immediately.

And the ceremony began. An old pony, a yellowish unicorn mare, unfolded a scroll on the stone pulpit, and began reading it, loud and slow enough for all the ponies to understand. If it weren’t for that, Lanky could not understand what she was saying, thanks to her thick, alien accent.

"We are gathered here to decide the fate of two earth ponies, by the names of Lanky and Teal, who were found trespassing on the Domain's grounds. These two broke the treaty forbidding unauthorized access through the borders, and could not produce any documents on request, authorizing their visit, and for that, our law is simple: extradition to where they came from, to Terra."

Lanky was too intimidated to point out that those guards that captured them didn't request any documents. Trying to gather some courage, he looked to his right, to see how Teal was coping with the whole situation. He looked completely indifferent to what was happening, and all he was doing was gazing at the floor, lost deep in his thoughts. In the corner of his eye, he noticed that the students were transcribing everything that was happening on their scrolls, eagerly learning the arts.

"Is there anything that the defendants would like to add?" Another one of the judges, a middle-aged cyan pegasus stallion spoke directly to them.

Lanky didn't know how to react. It was so different than what he already knew. He didn't have any problems with the law way back in Manehattan, but he knew well that back there, the judicial system worked on a different set of principles and customs, and there were attorneys who would defend their case. But here, everything was different. He maintained his calm facial expression, but he was feeling lost nonetheless. The culture clash left him in total darkness. All he did was to shake his head to express that there was nothing more to add. He knew that it was the best possible outcome, anyway, and therefore he had no objections.

The five turned around to face each other. They whispered silently amongst each other, and after a consensus had been formed, they turned around, facing Lanky and the teal pony again.

"So the sentence stands," all judges spoke as one, "Lanky and Teal will be deported to Terra as soon as possible.”

Lanky sighed. The weight on his heart was lifted, and he felt safe.

The judge with the rod began striking it on the ground. At the third strike, the decision would be legally binding.

The rod struck once, and the metallic sound reverberated across the room.

The rod struck the marble for the second time, and the ringing noise bounced off the walls and around the room again.

A moment before the rod struck the floor for the third time, the heavy wooden doors to the courtroom swung open violently. The marble near the hinges cracked a little.

A violet unicorn mare entered the room, holding a scroll in her mouth. She wore an old, dirty burlap robe, pockmarked with many small holes. Through one of the holes, Lanky saw a strange discoloration somewhere on her flanks. He instantly began wondering, whether she also had the tattoo.

She walked to the gathering, placed the scroll on the pulpit and turned around, towards the exit. As she walked away, she took a quick look at Lanky. Her green eyes seemed half-curious, half-disappointed.

The mare leading the trial broke the wax seal of the scroll, and unscrolled it on the pulpit of other judges to read. With each word they read, their expressions changed from confusion about the commotion, to astonishment from reading the contents of the scroll. The yellowish unicorn mare couldn't believe what was written there, her eyes moving rapidly through the text, again and again,. Finally, her voice breaking, she gave a verdict.

"By the decree of Queen Luna, voiced by the Synod of Canterlot, Lanky and Teal have been sentenced to death. Their execution is to be carried out tomorrow at dawn."

Tree Root was in hurry, for she had to get to her residence as soon as possible. But even despite that, there were some things in the world worth stopping for.

She took a deep breath. She let the air stay in her nostrils for a moment, enjoying the fragrances of Canterlot as she trotted nervously through the streets of Canterlot.

She considered herself educated enough to be one of the chosen few who could understand all the subtle details of the city. And for her, the best way to determine the character of the place was to smell it, and the capitol of Luna's Domain proved to be quite a challenge.

What she felt was a paradox, a clash of differences and sharp gradients. Here, at Celestia’s Heights, the richest part of Canterlot, the top tier of society lived, and smells reflected that. The aromas of freshly baked cakes and fragrances of so many varieties of tea and coffee tingled her senses, making her feel a painful craving for a good cappuccino. But it was but an island in the sea of poverty and squalor that Canterlot was, and she couldn’t shake off the memory of odors she smelt when she had to visit other areas of the city. But no matter where she was, her burlap robe always looked in-place. Even the richest wore poor clothing in Canterlot.

There were so many more smells, but a peculiar one amazed her, an ominous, ethereal one. For it wasn't recorded by her nose, but by her brain, being noticeable to her thanks only to her knowledge.

The smell of decay. It wasn't the city that smelt like that, no, the city thrived without any problems, completely ignorant as to what was really going on. But she could tell the source of that odor was somewhere in the castle; she could pinpoint the exact location to be the royal chambers where Princess Celestia and Queen Luna resided. The problem with that odor was that it really was there, inside the Canterlot Palace. In the city, however, the smell still clung to her, and she couldn't shake it off.

“Poor ponies, lied to every day,” she muttered to herself as she saw a group of unicorns and pegasi laughing over something in a cafe. But she was aware that no secret can be hold ad infinitum; she could feel the cold breeze of the winds of change blowing at her. And soon, unless the Synod was to take some preemptive emergency measurements, the same wind would start blowing everywhere.

She desperately wanted her cappuccino. But there was no time for that. Not today, and not in the foreseeable future. There were more important tasks at hoof. Because today was a special day. Something unexpected happened. Something which was in nopony's plans.

And Tree Root needed orders.

As she came closer to her home, she began watching, listening, sensing whether anypony followed her or tried to eavesdrop on her. But she could spot nopony. Or so it seemed, but she was aware of her abilities and therefore was sure that nopony could have followed her without her knowledge.

When she came upon the doors to her apartment, she looked around one more time. She opened the doors, hastily entered her house and locked herself inside.

For a moment she stood silently, listening to sense if somepony was hiding in her home, an eavesdropper or an assassin. But she heard absolutely nothing.

She closed all the curtains, veiling her room in deep shadows. As she took her burlap robe, she noticed a new hole, and she felt herself sweating from terror. Somepony might’ve noticed her cutie mark. “Too late now,” she whispered to herself, an action which didn't calm her down, “what’s done, done.”

After a moment, she opened a hidden cache in her desk, and from it took a small item, a special thing that couldn't be found anywhere else in Canterlot.

A headset.

She donned it, the earpiece snugly fitting in, and pressed the call button. To somepony uninitiated, the silence on the other end would only make them think that the thing was broken, but she knew what to do.

“Two, seven, eight, three, switch to encrypted channel,” she whispered, and waited for a response. Soon enough she heard somepony on the other side of the world talking to her, asking her what the problem was, to which she replied.

“Mission failed. The Synod is aware. The pendant hasn't been intercepted. Both of them have been sentenced to death, I've even personally delivered the writ of execution from Queen Luna. There are no backup plans we can commence. Requesting orders now.”

The voice on the other side began talking to her, relaying the orders. She nodded to each one, understanding the burdens that have been put at her.

The transmission stopped. She brought up her headset’s holographic display, and opened a file with the layouts of Canterlot Palace, all it’s rooms, corridors and secret passages floating before her eyes. She sat, and began planning her movements.

The black-eye he got when he tried to resist the guard after the sentencing pulsed with pain, in rhythm with the patch on the back on his head where he was struck before. But the mental pain was what hurt most.

Lanky screamed. And again. And again.

"Calm down, calm down... NO! BUCK YOU! How can I calm down,” he shouted at Teal, whose calm, disinterested demeanor only made it worse.

He thought about his two closest friends, Red Snow and Sweet Whisper. He'd kill somepony just to be with them right now, preferably somewhere far, far away.

The guards were listening to the screams from their station, near the heavy wooden doors that divided the dungeon from the rest of the royal palace. The doors were across the long corridor, which carried the screams well.

Back at the cell, Teal decided it was high time to calm Lanky down. And he knew exactly how.

"I can help you," he said, in a calm tone that made Lanky relent just a little.

"How!?!," he screamed in response.

"...Calm down, please, and I will tell," Teal said.

"Calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down," Lanky repeated that mantra for some time, until he calmed down enough to concentrate. By that time, the night had fallen, still young.

"...I'm calm... I think," he said, his shaking voice betraying his words.

"Ok, good... Now listen..." the teal pony said, then turned his head to see if there was anypony eavesdropping on them. He asked Lanky, "Do you trust me?"

Lanky lied and nodded in return, fearing that if he was to open his mouth again, his emotions would explode again.

"I was not completely honest with you,” Teal said in a meek, quiet voice which made Lanky prompt him to speak louder, “Although I might’ve traded some of my memories, there are things I remember. I've been here once before, in this very dungeon. And I've escaped. I know how to escape, I know the way around. Want to escape with me? Because I don't really want to die either, you know..." he said, still sounding timid, but with a small tinge of sureness in his voice.

Lanky looked at Teal with eyes wide open. A myriad of questions floated in his mind, each one begging to be asked, but all he wanted the most was not-being-there. He nodded in acknowledgement.

Teal asked, "want to escape right now?"

Lanky nodded again, at the same time distrusting, trusting, doubting and fearing him.

"Ok... Now listen, and listen very carefully. First, don't say what you don't really have to say. Second, act natural, and third, most important, don't look at me when that happens, the spell can misfire... if it’s okay with you, I mean," Teal said, accentuating the whole part of a sentence, "Do you understand?"

Lanky shook his head in disagreement. He understood the words, alone but the context wasn't there.

And did he say 'spell'?

"That's good. You don't have to understand. Just do it. Just yell for help." It didn't sound like an order, more like a request he said in his ever-meek voice. But the words carried a peculiar aura of obedience.

And then Teal fell on the ground. His body jerked, as if twisted by an unbearably painful seizure. His eyes went wide open, wild and unfocused. White foam formed in the corners of his mouth.

For the second time in his life, and in the day, Lanky had been genuinely petrified. Thoughts in his mind raced, unsure what to do. “Act natural,” he thought. It sprang him right into action.

"HELP! HELP! WE NEED HELP!" He yelled, striking his hooves on the metal bars of his cell. It was enough. He heard the gallop of the two guards coming closer to them.

Teal’s words flashed in his mind again, “don’t look at me when that happens.” Lanky instinctively closed his eyes.

A second after he closed his eyes, he heard the guards arrive. Then, all sounds stopped. Teal stopped thrashing. The guards didn't do anything. Lanky heard a sizzling sound, and an unbearably strong odor of ozone hit his nose. When he heard the guards open their cell, he was too terrified to open his eyes. He didn't twitch when he felt his chains move, one of the guards unchaining him.

"It's ok, you can open your eyes now," Teal cooed. Lanky opened his eyes, then blinked a few times. The guards stood above them, unmoving, their bodies stiff, faces expressionless, and their eyes glassy and looking at nothing in particular.

Lanky rose up. His joints cracked, finally having freedom of movement after he was brought back to the cell after the trial. He heard Teal's joints cracking too.

“Are you okay? I hope it didn’t scare you, I’m sorry,” Teal said, a shy smile on his face.

“What. The. Buck. Was. That?!?” Lanky stuttered out, “What did you do them?” The smell of ozone still hung in the air. “Was it... magic?”

“I don’t think we have time now to discuss. I’ll explain it to you later.”

Lanky began to walk towards the exit. He almost said, “At last, free--”

"Stop." Teal said, and Lanky obeyed.

He observed with great curiosity what Teal was doing. Teal moved his head closer to the metal bars of the door frame, careful not to put his head through it. A small light appeared on his forehead, and again, there was a sizzling sound, and a strong smell of ozone hit Lanky’s nostrils.

When the spell began to form, the mane on Teal’s forehead began to flow, as if shaken by a strong gust of wind. It was that exact moment when Lanky realized that Teal was a unicorn. His messy, dirty mane was formed in such a way that the stump where his horn was was obscured from view, but now, when the magical energies flowed, Lanky could see everything clear. The pony's horn had been removed, leaving only a small stump, nothing but a mere mark on his head.

In the air, where the doors were, arcane glyphs floated around in circles, forming a transparent barrier. As they moved, they left behind traces of mist that faded away.

The light on Teal’s forehead grew in intensity, and the symbols began to fade. When these disappeared, so did the light. The cell became dark again.

Lanky's mouth was agape. He could not believe what he just saw. He felt dizzy.

"Magic, it’s magic," he stuttered out.

Teal nodded, and then shook violently, as if he was cold.

"...Yes. Yes it was. Don't ask me now, I'll explain it later," he said.

“Buck that, I’ve got to ask!” Lanky thought. Through all his life, he didn't believe in magic, and there it was, witnessed before his very own eyes. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, and so little time. But, there was time for a one, small question. "What was that just now? All these letters, just what was that? Was that magic, too?"

Teal sighed. "Yes. It's magic. It's an enchantment called tripwire. It detects when anypony unauthorized tries to cross it, and if triggered, it fires a quiet alarm that would call to every guard in the vicinity."

"What... How?" Lanky almost yelled that question out, restraining himself in the last possible moment.

Teal stuck his head through the doorway, the metal bars that formed one wall of their cell no longer obstructing his sight. He looked left, he looked right, he looked left again, and then took a first step towards freedom.

Lanky followed, walking out of the jail into the dungeon's corridor. In a low-ceiling tunnel, dim flames of torches cast dancing lights onto the walls made of blocks of stone. Dry and cold air made him shiver.

He and Teal both turned around at the same time. The guards still stood in their cell, blissfully ignoring the rest of the world. Teal closed the cell and turned the key, locking the guards, one green pegasus and one orange unicorn, inside.

"Please forgive me. It's for the best," the stranger cooed to the guards. They didn't even react.

He turned his head to Lanky and said, "Simple mind control spell. Don't worry about them, Lanky, they're safe. They will be like that 'til morning."

It didn't convince Lanky anyway. “Was that supposed to calm me? Just ignore the fact that you're capable of raping somepony's mind just like that?”

Teal didn’t answer.

He looked around. The four of them were alone. All the remaining cells were empty. They were empty when they first arrived there, too.

“Do they execute everypony found guilty of anything in Luna's Domain? I know in Terra almost nothing is known about our brethren except the most basic facts, but that just beats all. What a hayhole this place is. Ugh,” he said.

“No,” answered Teal, “as I said, they usually deport them. I don’t know why they sentenced us.”

Lanky turned to the doors that would lead them outside, into the lowest parts of Canterlot palace. Teal, however, turned back and began walking down the corridor, deeper into the dungeon.

"W... Where are you going? Aren’t we supposed to run away right now?" Lanky asked.

"I've... got one more thing to do. You can come if you like," Teal said, walking down the corridor.

“Okay, I'll come. But quickly, please, I want to get out!” Lanky spoke, but Teal ignored him.

At the end of the corridor, they came upon a stairwell. It winded down, deep into the mountain. Down, there was another corridor like the one where their cell was located. Like in the upper corridor, all cells were empty.

Except one. One particular cell was different, much bigger, the inside veiled in impenetrable darkness. And there was something inside. A gargantuan entity, lying down quietly in the shadow. Something that wasn't a pony. Something that couldn't be seen, something that made Lanky shiver just by being there. His heartbeat intensified, and he could hear it beating. He felt his throat and mouth getting dry just by looking into the abyss.

When the Teal began to speak, Lanky jumped in place, already scared out of his mind.

"I'm sorry... Please, forgive me... I still can't help you. Wait a little bit longer for me, I'll find a way to get you out of there... I'll find a way to end your pain. I still can't find it. Wait for me a little bit longer, please?" Teal said in a motherly tone, trying to calm whatever was inside.

The thing grunted, the sound only an unearthly creature in a world of pain could make.

Lanky barely held on the last thread of his sanity. The suffocating atmosphere of the place, dim lights of the torches and the impenetrable darkness of the big holding cell kicked his flee instinct into overdrive. But he stood unable to move, hooves glued firmly to the ground.

Near the cell, there was a small cabinet with a red cross and four hearts in the corner, a universally recognized symbol of first aid, a mark which eerily reminded him of Healer. Teal opened it, and took a metal vial from there, which he promptly threw into the darkness, through the metal-bar wall.

"Here, have some more painkillers. I know you need these. I'll see you later... Sorry," he said to the darkness, and walked back to the stairwell. Lanky followed eagerly. When they went back upstairs, his instincts finally kicked in, and galloped for a moment, as fast from the stairwell as his tired hooves could carry him. Teal instead gaited slowly, not afraid of what was imprisoned down there. When they were halfway through the upper corridor, Lanky stopped running.

"What... What the buck was that," Lanky asked, speaking every word in between gasps.

"He's... a friend of mine. Yes, you could say he's my friend. Name's Discord."

The contrast between what he felt staring at the abyss and such a silly name made him smirk, the laughter breaking down the tension. "Discord," he muttered, almost laughing, "What an appropriate name!"

Teal's expression went somber. "It's far more appropriate than you would ever know."

Lanky didn't ignore that comment, but decided not to ask any more than he had to. He wished to know what did Teal mean by ‘friend’, but there was still a string of pure, primeval fear when he thought about what was inside that cell, about what he couldn't see through the darkness.

Near the doors leading outside, there was a metal chest. He opened it, and to his surprise, he found his backpack. Teal explained that, as everypony expected them to be deported to Terra, they left their belongings there for convenience. He opened a canteen and drank half of it, the liquid barely quenching his thirst. He shared the remaining half with Teal, who gladly accepted. Even his headset was there, but all Lanky heard was a static, the phone and radio too far away from any public network.

One thing wasn’t there. The pendant he found disappeared, taken away. He felt a pang of guilt. His instinct told him to protect it, and he failed.

He looked at Teal disengaging another tripwire enchantment, that would've activated if they were to open the doors and rush headlong outside. The magical show amazed him even more than before.

Teal began to shiver. He barely held his mouth shut, hissing from pain. Lanky held him as he almost fell down on the floor.

“What the hay was that? What’s wrong? Does using magic hurts you?” Lanky asked.

Teal stood silent for a moment, regaining the balance.

“No,” he said, his words barely hearable, “it hurts to use magic, it always hurt us unicorns since the Shift, but that was something else. We’re not alone.”

Lanky stuttered. “D-did they notice we’re trying to escape?” He began to look left and right, but there was no other way out. He felt trapped.

“It wasn’t the guard, nor the princesses,” he said meekly, “somepony else, from outside, entered the castle and began casting spells like crazy. Unicorns can sense other unicorns using magic, and in large quantities, it hurts. What that pony did... I don’t know, but it targeted everypony except us.”

“Maybe,” Lanky said, “it created enough distraction to let us escape! We have to run, now!”

Teal nodded in agreement.

Hinges creaked as Lanky opened the doors, and a cold, refreshing draft wafted in. He peeked through. Outside, he saw Canterlot castle from the inside. Moonlight lit up the place, casting colors from the stained glass windows onto walls. It took a moment for his eyes to adapt to the darkness.

After confirming that there were no guards outside, Lanky took a deep breath, and stepped outside, right into the unknown.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Prologue: The Battle that Never Was.

Birthright

Prologue: The Battle That Never Was

A cold gust of wind hit commander Sky High as he looked at the tactical map of Equestria. His yellowish wings shivered, making his shining pegasi-tailored armor clink. The cold air made his breaths visible, but his mind didn't register the uncomfortable weather, instead focused on more pressing matters.

Carefully calculating his movements across the map, Sky High moved blue, levitating figurines of pegasi and griffon air forces from one miniature cloud to another, clashing them in imagined battle with other pegasi figurines, painted yellow. On the surface of cloud-made table, representations of unicorn and earth ponies stood in one place, marked with miniature flag that had “Civilian Populace” written on it in small letters.

Although fully focused on inventing the best possible backup plans, he did hear a soft sound of paws stepping on clouds behind him, accompanied with clinks of armor, a sound that would otherwise be lost in swarm of voices, orders and screams of Southern Cloudsdale.

“Commander Sky High, Sir?” a female voice said, “I've been ordered to deliver status reports to you.”

“...Say it,” Sky High responded, his mind and eyes still focused on the map, his hooves swiftly maneuvering figurines around.

“Sir, engineers report that ARENAS weapon will be online and ready to fire in approximately ten minutes,” the female griffon soldier reported.

Sky High stopped, leaving levitating warriors where they were placed, mid-skirmish, and turned right, walking towards the edge of flat platform overlooking a part of Southern Cloudsdale.

From his raised position, he observed a swarm of pegasi work-force and griffon engineers circling a white dome-like structure, four-pony wide at its base, and large, iron truss-columns anchoring the structure firmly to the clouds. A slew of cables lay on the cloud, covering it like a spider's web. In the far distance, on custom-crafted set of clouds, he saw shining, metallic cylinders, something that engineers called “Ambient Magic Collectors”, connected to the main dome-like part of ARENAS by the thickest bunch of cables he has ever seen in his life. Directly below him, he noticed high-ranking generals and engine-architects reading diagrams and lines of text displayed on bulky, monochromatic monitors squeezed between innumerable switches and dials.

The entire place worked like a clockwork. With extreme precision, engineers and workers placed and connected the cabling to the computer terminals and AMC's, turned the dials and pressed the buttons in sequence. No unnecessary delays, no mistakes, nobody ever tripping despite the cloud being fully covered with unsecured cables – Sky High, being a warrior, would never admit it, but the calm, inner order in the sea of apparent chaos terrified him a little.

He scowled and turned his head around, facing the griffon soldier. The midday sun, reflected from her composite armor and her PrecisionEqu KS-2 machine-gun blinded him for a moment.

“Anything else, soldier?” He snapped.

“Yes, sir. First, Celestia has moved her forces. Her pegasi forces from Northern Cloudsdale are en route. I've already notified High Command, as well as everybody else in the chain. You are the last pony to whom I'm reporting this.”

Sky High sighed. “So they've finally decided to declare war... Anything else,?” He said, turning his head away from the weapon, towards the city. The deserted cloud-made buildings towered ominously over the ground far below. The usual inner warmth of the pegasi city was no more. What unnerved him the most was that the sounds of city were gone. No laughter, no cries, nothing – the lack of sound seeped through, reaching his ears despite the deafeningly loud swarm of workers below him.

The tone of the griffon soldier changed suddenly. With a clear hesitation in her voice, saying each word like a grave offense, she continued, “Also, I've came here to relay that... Rainbow Dash reported that Southern Cloudsdale had been fully evacuated. Civilians have been moved to Las Pegasos.”

Sky High pondered over the tone of her voice for a moment. “You... Have doubts, soldier?” He asked calmly and casually, throwing any mannerisms off the record and down the drain.

“...It's her. Nobody trusts her. She was Celestia's slave, sir, a Bearer of Harmo-”

“I understand,” he interrupted her, “But she agreed to help us in the case of a very unlikely war against Northern Cloudsdale. And even if, if she decides to play any tricks with us,” -- He pointed at a small wooden box with a button and an antenna, placed near the levitating figurines -- “, any high-ranking personnel can push the button, and her collar will detonate. Simple, isn't it?”

The response didn't calm the griffon, the language of her body sending delicate, but clearly recognizable signs of hesitation.

“I do understand, soldier, that Rainbow Dash is not really trusted here,” Sky High continued, “but do think of her as of free pony. She was a slave to Celestia once, and still is, but the Architects are in the process of giving her freedom. But, until it's all over, we do have to resort to such... drastic measure-”

Sirens began wailing. The modulated, electronic cry sent chills down Sky High's spine. A surprisingly calm voice began speaking through the loudspeakers, “Warning, Celestia's forces approaching at two-seven-three northwest, eta five minutes, stand by.”

The swarm stopped working and calmed down. Every single cable was connected in the nick of time, every sub-system of the white-dome weapon already online. A quiet hum of the machinery replaced the organic buzz of griffon and pegasi mass. Metallic cylinders in the distance hummed audibly louder than the rest of the machinery.

A strong voice of somepony higher in the command than Sky High boomed through the loudspeakers, “Stand by for ARENAS weapon charge. Enemy on visual contact, firing solution plotted. Charge currently at ten percent, fire in three minutes.”

Both Sky High and the griffon turned their heads. From far away, the primitive armor of their flying adversaries shone like stars on cloudless nights. The dots soon grew larger in quantity, at first no more than singular points of light, now started to cover a larger portion of the horizon.

“Twenty percent,” a cold, mechanical voice said over the loudspeaker. The hum from the machinery got louder, but still not annoyingly so.

“Sir... May I ask you something, off record?” the griffon said, eyeing the panels with dials and switches below her. With cold precision, pegasi danced around, pressing the buttons and dialing the knobs.

Sky High nodded. The griffon started speaking, slowly and unsurely, waging every word. “I... I know, sir, that you will lead soldiers to battle in unlikely case this plan wouldn't succeed, but... It's wrong, sir. That machine will shred them from distance. They won't even stand any chance, they won't know what ever hit them. It's... simply wrong. That's not battle, that would be execution, sir.”

The hum of the machinery shifted into a high-pitched whine. “Fifty percent,” the voice said.

“And strangely enough, I do feel some pity for them,” Sky High answered, “But they willingly chose to stay enslaved. The Architects told them that they would be freed from their birthright, but they chose to remain loyal to Celestia. But you're right, it is quite... disgusting.” And with a half-choked laugh, he added, “But if that machine fails, you'll see a proper battle, soldier.”

The griffon soldier felt relaxed when he unfixed his gaze from her, turning his blue eyes to the machinery. The high sun, reflecting in the white-painted dome, made him squint his eyes.

Although the sound, the painful high-pitched whine, hurt his ears, the sight was truly unimaginable. Barely visible opalescent threads of raw magic swirled on the ARENAS's surface, forming straight, geometrical lines and circles. Single sparks of electricity discharged between the white plates the four-pony wide dome was made of. A strong, nauseating smell of ozone coming from the dome reached Sky High, making him cringe.

“Sixty percent.”

A strange sound, a mix of ruffling feathers and clinks of armor coming from next to him reached his ears, almost lost to the commotion. He turned his head back to the griffon soldier, who was fervently scratching her wings. Before he could ask, he felt a strange itch coming in from his wings, and what surprised him most, his hooves.

“Seventy percent.” And the itch got even stronger.

Suddenly the sound died. The whine slowed down quickly, turning back into hum, and ultimately, eerily tranquil silence. The luminescent lines and the circles on the dome vanished. The sirens wailed, sending out modulated impulses, two long beeps followed by two short ones. Sky High shivered the moment he realized the meaning of the sound.

The voice, previously flat, now terrified boomed from the loudspeakers. “Warning, critical malfunction, uhm... Safety interrupts engaged. ARENAS has powered down, I repeat, ARENAS has powered down. Ambient Magic Collectors, banks one to seven, report power down due to... no ambient magic detected? What the buck...? Impossible! Check everything, now!”

The swarm of workers again came to life. Pegasi and griffon ran around the superweapon and the power sources, looking in haste at every cable and connection. Eyes of the main engineers near the panels followed rapidly appearing lines of text displayed on amber-colored displays.

Despite the chaos, Sky High's ears picked up a soft sound of something falling behind him. He turned his head to the table where he was planning the movements of 5th heavy aerial squadron in an 'unlikely' scenario of weapon's failure.

Tactical figurines of pegasi and griffon no longer levitated above the map. They fell down, scattering themselves, unicorns, and earth ponies around.

And the cloud rumbled.

With a deafening crack of thunder, coming from every direction, the sky rippled. A jet-black shockwave shot across the heavens, veiling the sun and the sky behind impenetrable darkness. Sky High and the griffon soldier shook their heads, trying to make sense of the entire scene. Despite no sun, it was still as bright and clear as it was. The light came from nowhere and shone everywhere, basking Southern Cloudstale in alien, impossible sunlight. Sky High looked down, at the ground far below him. Alike Cloudsdale, Equestria's south-western coastline appeared in it's midday glory. Golden patches of farmland and the shimmering surface of a sea shone as always.

As suddenly as it appeared, the smoke-like darkness dissipated, bringing back the sun and clear blue sky above them.

Sky High looked around, unsure what to do and what orders to follow. The swarm below him was thrown into chaos. Some ponies and some griffon began screaming, some stood quiet, their faces frozen in expression of utter confusion.

Before he could even utter a single word, he felt a strange sensation. He instinctively looked down at the cloud he stood on. Something was not right. He shuffled his hooves around and noticed he was sinking in the cloud. The usual cotton-like texture was giving up under his weight.

And then it gave up. His mind did not realize what happened until after he passed through the cloud. His wings started beating aggressively, but they couldn't 'catch the wind', seemingly unable to fly.

He heard screams, but his cold-blooded mind did not have time for such distractions. He focused, and fully straightened his wings at the right moment, attempting to enter an earthbound glide. Success. Having a straight, calculable, but violent downwards trajectory helped him focus on what was going on, on the terrible cries surrounding him, begging for help, and screams of minds petrified from sheer terror.

He noticed his brethren falling down around him. Pegasi fluttered around in vain, attempting to do something he already managed to pull off, or trying to fly, still ignorant to the fact their wings appeared too weak and too small for such a task. Griffons fared better, their larger wingspan allowing some of them to maintain a stabilized glide. He noticed the griffon soldier with whom he was talking just moments ago pass him above, her body in a rapid downfall. The moment she noticed him, she attempted to reach Sky, but instead she spiraled out of control, falling somewhere far away.

More screams. He noticed a truss-column of the weapon pass near him, smashing the head of a white pegasi engineer, sending blood everywhere around, the liquid forming blood-red raindrops. Everybody fought, engaged in a futile battle against gravity. Wingbeat after wingbeat, his attempts to regain control failed. Falling heads-down, he saw shimmering surface of a sea coming closer and closer.

He tried to think, but only a swarm of unorganized thoughts crossed his mind. Thoughts about his life sped before his eyes like in a slideshow, but two memories stood out. The photo he saw in a newspaper a few years ago, the ponies that called themselves Architects standing next to smiling Celestia in Canterlot, together promising better future for everypony. He tried to dismiss the promise that led him down the path with a fresher memory from a few months back, one of the Architects speaking to him in private, exposing Celestia's lies and hidden truths about the world, the meeting prompting him to stand by the Architects and fight in a rebellion against Celestia's iron-grip on Equestria.

Last moment in the air, just before his body slammed into the water, he spoke one last question that nopony would ever hear.“Were... the architects... wrong?”