Defiance

"The Kazari." The ginger hair girl said quietly.

"The Kazari." He replied.

"Explain."

"Release my daughter and I'll tell you what I know."

With unexpected kindness, the biped put her bladed weapon away and allowed Freya to, at first embrace, then hide behind him. He gestured over at the bookcase in his study and pointed a single talon at a book labeled: 'The myths of the badlands.' As the girl extracted the book, the entire case began to fade out and reveal a long scroll of picograms.

"Two years ago, I bought an old coppermine out here. Defiance was nothing more than acouple of tents and shacks then. But I'd been lied to because the mines had no copper, no material wealth at all, so we dug deeper. Drilling further and further until one day, I came across the Kazari. By then it was just me working the machines, hoping beyond hope of striking it rich even after I fell far behind on paying my miners. I alone stayed behind." He sighed.

"At first, I marveled at it. That strange intricate formation of metal. But I knew I couldn't keep this sort of find to myself, not without the Mayor knowing, so I called her down. At first, she just stared at it like I did and then she reached out and put her hoof on it. Then it spoke." The girl's eyes went wide. "Only not in words, only in broken pictures that the Mayor started drawing on the walls of the cave. I only got the barest glimpse of the magnificent power of that thing before the Mayor... She pushed me out of the cave as the thing started glowing brighter and brighter. Then there was this blast of light and, I somehow knew you were there, before the light faded. The Mayor came out shortly afterword, hauling Nolan behind her with her mouth, before collapsing. That was the day a mare named Twilight Sparkle became an alicorn and it was also the day the Mayor had her first vision. Of a little girl, with ginger hair, putting her claw over her lips and, on some unheard level, telling her to be silent."

"The next day, the Mayor came to see me and put her hoof on my head before I could react. I saw everything you see in that picogram. The father and the daughter, the opening of the barriers between worlds, even the shield that the unicorns generate. The rifts are because of the Kazari, because it simply isn't meant to be here. But then, you already know that."

"Nolan...." She raised her knife before Vémundr responded sadly.

"The Mayor warned me of this." Another knife appeared in her hand as Freya ducked under her father's wing. "When the two find each other and the elements combine, the Kazari will faulter and fall. The barrier between worlds will extend and break beyond and consume the world. No place will not feel it's ire and it will be you, Vémundr and Irisa, who unleash this darkness on us all. These are not my words, but visions of a future that will come to pass."

"But," he added after reciting the dark fortelling, "We can do something to help you." She glared at him.

"With the Mayor's help, we can send you back."

"How?" He couldn't help but smirk.

"Do you believe in magic?"