Death of Generations

*** Mirrors of the Past, by _Shade_, collab with Horny Horse (Blame him<). ***

He barely had time to catch his breath, trudging along the deep and thick waters that reminded him more of oil than something drinkable, the marsh is a truly unforgiving place "at least it's not the orphanage," he barely even muttered it in fear of something, or worse, someone catching his voice in the quiet death-trap ponies and griffins feared alike, it's said to be haunted by Those That Came Before, ancient gods powerful enough to destroy the universe if they so pleased.

His brown feathers stuck out in the green marsh like a broken horn, his shallow pink eyes hid his fear well, looking almost like search beacons in the dark.

He dodged under a large tree and caught his ear in a branch, ripping it he swore loudly before going dead silent.

Off all the things... Having ears suck.

Walking forward he had to side-step an evil looking tree, if you looked closely on his beak, you might see a hint of a smile.

Silly woods the thought passed his mind just as he exited The Marsh and into something that might once have resembled the ruins of a town.  Not that I would know.

Looking around his eyes scanned the whittled ruins, a dejected sigh ejected itself from his beak, his mind went back to that book he read in the orphanage, The Six Heroes, oh how I would need them now.

He traced a talon on the nearest house, frowning as it dug unto the once-wood turned charcoal, the once beautiful town was everything but gone, it seemed like giant houses had been ripped out of the ground and thrown onto other buildings, continuing his walk he noticed a rather absurb thing, the glass roads stopped and started melding with something white and gray, walking forward he picked up a loose piece of gray/white matter, the texture reminded him of a skull but the shape looked like it had been a part of the ground of several thousand years.

About to put it back he noticed it getting hotter, looking down he saw smoldering ashes of what had surely been a fire, they looked alive and only needed a breeze to set the whole world ablaze.

His mind slowly made a connection, nothing had moved this one piece of rock in at least several hundred years and even less would even notice it was there.

Dropping the piece of rock he winced as he heard the clang, it wasn't that of metal or rock, it was that of bone.

Dragon Fire... They managed to melt the bones...

He felt sick to his stomach and the smell of fresh ashes upon bones was not helping him.

He thought back to the book of the six heroes, of how they bravely fought against the corrupted Queen that plunged the world into the darkness for all eternity to follow. Her name escaped him as the book merely discribed her as The Dark Queen, Harbringer of Anarchy or Wife of Sombra, the only brief mentioning of her name in the entire book was at the end of the first chapter, wherein she was "defeated."

He allowed a smile to grace his beak as he reached into his bags and pulled out the thick book and opened the first page, sitting down on a rock.

"ეპუ ძშჩ პუკუწძქ ეპუ ვფკო ღგუუიქ ეპუ ვუფეპ წთ აუიუკფეშწიძბ"

"Hey, this thing on? Good, i'm not doing this again, Scales and if you muck this up we're going without you." Scales nodded and switched a small red switch on some strange device. "Hey Crusher, can you hear me? This stupid thing malfunctions more than a ღგუუილშაპე(ძ crossbow!" there was a buzzing sound before a voice came through.

"Well, both mine and Pearl's working just fine, so you must've screwed up at your end." A voice confirmed the notion in the background.

"So, any news on ღგუუი ძეფლლთფლლ? I hear she's busy and that's bad news for us, Blackeye." Scales nodded behind the device and gestured towards a clock on the wall. Blackeye sighed "Well Crusher, the device is out of magic and we're still working on the prototype for our Gazien, gotta dash."

"Aye'" the voice buzzed out after the confirmation.

Blackeye leaned back on the couch and looked up in the roof.

"This is going to take a while, isn't it, Scales?" He sat down next to Blackeye and folded his wing around her.

"Yeah, ძეფკთფლლ was the magician and scientist, Pearl's great for making armor and weaponry, but... We simply started too late to finish first," he sighed dejectedly and looked at the emerald green gem, shining there and taunting him with good memories.

"We atta move, Blackeye, this location isn't very safe" She nodded at him and both flew out the window, heading in a seemingly random direction.

He closed the book and looked towards The Marsh, everything was quiet save the rustling of leaves and the gentle wind blowing through his feathered neck.

Shaking his head he went towards a road he saw earlier, the almost beautiful destruction of the Village made him feel kind of bad, in a strange way, he didn't know any of the citizens that may once have lived here nor did he actually care.

He moved along the road with the faintest of a smile gracing his lips, the bright eyes stood out in the surroundings so he reached into his bag and put a pair of shades and put them on his beak.

This town... It doesn't seem haunted, the thought almost seemed to echo in his mind as he made his way to one of the more... Whole houses, namely it had brick walls but the roof was ripped off it.

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"Ahhhhhhh!" The screech came from closeby as he was rudely ripped from his dreams by the sound.

"What the fu-" he bolted outside and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight, a yellow pony with pink mane stood cowering in front of some ugly demon.

"Seven Bell's...." He said, reaching for his sword with a talon he had the jank the jagged and broken thing out of it's seath.

The demon snapped towards him and charged, the large claws ready to tear his head off, then probably skin him, and if he's really lucky it'll do it in that order.

His eyes went wide as he ducked under a swing, not trusting his cheap short saber to protect him from the raging demon thing, he had to trust the poorly made thing to stop the demons foot as it came rushing downwards, the sadly broken blade barely cut through the skin as it blocked.

The demon roared as it backed away, his arms were already sore from the strain of blocking such a heavy being.

Stupid cheap thing... Apparently mocking the sword was more important than paying attention to the fight and the demon seized it's oppretunity and sliced him across the chin down to his beak, swearing loudly he backed off, guarding with his right talon as he attempted to wipe blood out of his right eye but to no avail.

He looked at the demon just as it roared and got an idea, he charged forward even though he was constantly wincing from the pain spreading across his face.

The demon noticed him and roared harder, he had to use his wings to keep him from falling over.

Pushing a little extra at the end the demon clipped his wing midflight, not even the adrenaline pumping in his veins allowed him to fully ignore the pain yet he pushed on, ramming his nearly broken sword into the demon's throat through it's open mouth, a gurgle escaped it as the life slowly faded from it's eyes.

He kept a wing out to not fall over, slowly making his way to the pony that eventaully unfurled from the filly ball she was.

"H-hey..." He coughed and pulled his best smile on her.

She didn't look at him but rather continued to stare wide-eyed at the ground behind him, the slain demon was oozing out some weird grey liquid.

"Hey, don't worry here girl, the demon's not going to harm you any more," as if registering for the first time that there was another being in her company she gulped and turned to him, a scared look on her face.

"Thanks... I didn't expect from it to breach the ward," she looked to a circle on the ground, several inscriptions and runes on the corners, she angrily muttered something and kicked some dirt over it.

In the meantime, he backpadelled, a shocked expression on his face.

"Is that..?" He gestured towards the circle.

"Dunno, friend told me to guard it," she shrugged and kept kicking dirt over it.

"... And where is this friend of yours now?" He asked with a slight tilt of his head.

"Don't know, she just told me to wait here," she walked around in a circle before laying down on the ground like a cat.

"How long ago was that? Maybe I can catch up with her?" Maybe I can earn their trust.

"She went into the forest looking for a rare ingredient about.... Ohhh three years ago?" He stopped his pacing and fell on his face in shock.

Janking his beak out of the ground he turned to her and practically shouted "Three years?!" She just nodded.

"... Miss, what's your name?" She smiled at him.

"I'm Posey, nice to meet you, terribly sorry for holding you up bu- Wha? Where am I?" Her eyes glazed over before returning to normal.

"I mean, I'm Posey, sorry for holding you up but I must be on my way, Mr..." She looked at him with a slight frown.

He started walking away, out of town before throwing a look behind him.

"White, Miss Posey, White Beak."