The Last Equestrian War

+CHAPTER 2+

Improbable Hope

As you venture through the deep fog of the forest, the last words that the Old Mare could speak of hit your mind again; they cause some scarring on your emotions as they flow as true. You don't recall your family anymore. You don't remember your dear mother or father, nor if you had a brother or sister. Those memories are fading your essence, but why? You grew on this land, but why it is leaving your brain? What kind of power this curse holds?! This is never told before, and you must seek answers quickly. If anyone has these questions, is this so called herald, you must seek him or her as soon as possible! A last warning of the Old Mare comes to your mind as well:

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Old Mare:

"Stay on edge, my darling, this forest ahead shall bring you towards the cities you should go towards, but it is also part of your journey, you shall go back to it, as it is a bewitched forest... The secrets and dangers in it are large and ominous... Thread carefully... The dangers are uncanny and they long for your soul, my dear... But oh, you will keep hearing an old hag like me~? Go on and live on a restless journey, after all, it is what you seek, you masochistic being~"

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The Everfree Forest greets you with its gloomy and poisonous air, the stench of dead corpses and sounds of most different creatures, you walk along the trees and avoid the branches and sap that oozed from some specific trees. Curious to the sap, you analyze it and grab some of it to see its property, trying anything to it, but unable to do anything. Frustrated and with a messy hand, you throw the glob on the ground and progress onward, unaware of the presence behind you. As you keep on going, you see two branching paths ahead with two signs ahead, they read:

"Ponyville" - ”Celxxxx's & Lxxa's Casxxe"

Curious of the other meaning of the other sign, but afraid of it as well, you decide to head to Ponyville, at it, you think of asking about the other path and the meaning of its sign. Heading towards it, you then notice the strange presence that followed you from some time ago. You turn to it and draw your sword; you notice a young pony mare, yellow coat and red mane, orange eyes that glowed as bright as the day. She looks up to you as she wears sturdy chest plate and iron leg platings:

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Applebloom:

"Are you a newcomer to Equestria? Well, I should welcome you, then." She smiles to you as she walks to you innocently; her accent indicates that she lives in a more rural zone. "I should just say it was pretty dumb of you to throw that tree sap away like that!" She giggled and showed you a little bag of packaged sap. "These are sap of firefly trees, these trees call a lot of fireflies, and their light usually gives the sap firepower, I don't know how it happens, I just know it does." She smiles and points up to some fireflies that sucked on to the sap. "Well, the trick is to pack them, that way, they don't have air, and when they don't, they get a lot stronger, and when they get thrown, they explode! Like that!" She throws one bag at a tree as the sap explodes like a cannonball, ripping the tree apart; the sound scares away all woodland creatures apart, scaring even some of the biggest creatures. "Oops, should a thrown that somewhere safe... Uhhh, we gotta go!! Come on!!"

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Applebloom pulls you by the hand as you rush by her side, trying and falling all the times on vines and tree roots, you look behind as you see an image that shocks you to think that it exists, a rotting wyvern is giving pursuit after you. Its wings falling apart and dropping scales on the ground, its lungs and other organs showing through its ribs and its blood acrid and smelling as rotten as feces. It keeps running after you two, but it breathes a poison mist towards you and Applebloom, it surprises you as, in your thoughts, you were thinking of a fiery explosion towards you. Applebloom throws a sap bomb at the wyvern, it explodes right on its lungs, stopping it down, giving you two a long time to run away. You two run for a long time, but soon you reach the city of Ponyville. To your dismay, it is not a happy city... Taken by a gloomy feel of death and disease, you see nothing but, loneliness and disgrace... It feels weird, on the city's main sign, it says that there exists a population of over 2000 ponies, but you see none. Something is happening around here, and you are most worried than ever before, turning to Applebloom and questioning her:

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Applebloom:

"Ah... You ask of the disgraceful curse? Everyone is suffering it... E-Even me..." She looks down, a sad look on her face. "It... Took over my brother... He left to try finding a cure to the curse, but he... He never came back... I think he is dead, mister..." She looks up. "Still, everyone packed up and left to other cities around Ponyville, bigger ones, only my sister, our friends, and the Herald remained..." Once you heard that word, your heart skipped a beat. Sure, of course she could tell you a little about this curse, but the herald could brief you with more details on it. You ask her without a second thought. "The Herald? Oh, it is my friend Twilight Sparkle; she was named the Herald of Magic about 10 years ago, when the curse hit us all..." You are happy by her words as you feel that you can have answers.

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You salute Applebloom like a noble being, she smiles and salutes back, happy that she makes a new friend in this world that feels really empty; you thank her and walk towards the center of the city, the place that Applebloom told you that the Herald of Magic, Twilight Sparkle, lived. You look back to see if that little mare knows where she is going, she goes right inside a small house where a fireplace is burning. You breathe, relieved as you see that there is people at home and she is not alone, because a fireplace burns and you see smoke coming out of the chimney. Focusing on your thoughts, you look towards the place where the Herald could live. To your surprise, she lived in a place where every being with knowledge, a Library, carved inside a giant oak tree. Once you knock on it, the door opens, a lavender pony receives you, a face devoid of any smile, her eyes are a beautiful dark purple, her mane is a blue with a string of purple and pink, a horn and wings grace her figure, she looks to you as she scans you slowly with her eyes:

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Twilight Sparkle:

"You knock on my door, stranger. I see and welcome you in. Hello, my dear, I am Twilight Sparkle, Herald of Magic. I see the many doubts and questions in your eyes... I am a being that can use magic, after all... I see how long you have traveled to just see me... I am happy for that... Happy to see that, in amidst the long lost light, there still shines an improbable hope..."

[TO BE CONTINUED]