Proaloge and Chapter 1-When A Life Flashes Before Your Eyes

Long ago, before the coming of the Royal Pony Sisters, before the founding of Equestria, even before the start of the Great and Terrible Pi-Unis Wars, there stood the kingdom of Fontjizēnâ, where six brothers of great power lived, created by the three gods that have long since been forgotten. To these brothers the gods bestowed the authority to command the forces of nature, allowing them to bring peace throughout the land. But because the power given to them was so great, there stood the chance that in a fit of anger they could be consumed with the darker part of the world, bringing about earthquakes, typhoons, great thunder storms and hurricanes, floods, and great eruptions from the highest mountains. So to guard against this threat, the gods sent them out to find for themselves the ones that they could call their wives, so that they could keep in check the vice of their husbands. Thus came into existence that day the first of the Alicorns, known as the Minsörē, twelve in all, six male and six female, the greatest and most powerful that have and will ever live.

Peace and harmony prospered in all the lands, not only those dominated by ponies, but also to the dragons, griffins, and zebras. Never before or after that time had there been such happiness in the hearts of all the races, and great was the work that was done because of these alliances. But it would not last, for evil can rise in the minds of those who you may trust most.

The griffins were the first to fall. For five-thousand years they had made friendship with the ponies, but after a time, jealousy took root in their hearts. Thinking that the ponies were favored above them by the gods, and that they had forgotten them, notwithstanding that they themselves had been blessed with many gifts as well, that it came to pass after they had prepared themselves for the strike, they turned on the ponies in their cities, killing many, save the women and children, who they took into their prisons to beat them, cursing them, and making them into their slaves. This brought war to their kingdom, the first battle of the Southern Wars, which was fought on the slopes of the Goldstraw Hills, after which were named the Mountains of Bondage, and have grown in their size and are now known as the Macintosh Mountains.

The griffins were defeated, but not before they had done a crippling blow to the armies of Fontjizēnâ, only by the power of the great six were they able to win the victory. But the griffins did not surrender, and locking themselves in their own land, the border was a place of constant bloodshed.

Then in the north, in the land of Dragor greed began to take over the minds of the dragons. But by the wisdom and strength of their king, Angerod the father of the dragons kept them from slipping into darkness. However, Morca-bad the brother of the king was a cruel and cunning creature, who desired the throne and all of the gold and jewels of his fellow kinsmen. So in secret councils and hidden chambers he twisted the minds of the dragons against Angerod and all his children, lying in his words that the king was withholding from them the best of the jewels of the world. So it happened that at a time of celebration that Morca-bad and his followers stormed the halls of the king, beating him and torturing him by forcing him to witness the destruction of his bloodline as they slaughtered his sons and daughters before his eyes before he too was slain.

And when Fir-N-Triste the strongest and the leader of the Minsörē had heard of this treason that he fell upon the city immediately with thunders and lightning and with a group of phoenixs at his command that Morca-bad slipped away into the shadows, for it had been his plan that when the Alicorn would come he would pretend that he had been beaten and left for dead by the treasoners, so that he would be spared and his purposes completed, and he would take his followers treasures and obtain the throne with one stroke. But his deception was revealed when Fir-N-Triste found Taringal the wife of Angerod in the chamber room of the king, who with her dying breath told him the identity of the true villain, forcing Marca-bad to flee to the south where he was harbored by the griffins who took his betrayal as a sign to an allegiance against Fontjizēnâ.

Even after all this evil hope shined in the darkness, for Taringal also told Fir-N-Triste of a hidden chamber under the city. Finding this chamber Fir-N-Triste discovered one egg warming in a furnace. This was the last child to remain of the house of Angerod, hidden by Taringal before she was taken by the traitors. So Fir-I-Triste took the egg and brought it into his household, and when it hatched it bore a son, and because of his long friendship with Angerod he raised the boy as his own, teaching him the ways of his father before him, and taught him also in the skills of magic until he became the first dragon to ever perform spells, and he was named Langerod.

But when the boy had grown in strength and favor in the eyes of the people that it came to pass that when he had come of age of three-hundred and forty-seven years that he desired to join with the army of Fontjizēnâ, and so he became a great worrier and a leader of ponies. One day, while scouting the borderlands of the griffins it came by chance that he came across a group of dragons and ponies, and he went down among them. And when he had come down among them he discovered that they were the last of the loyal dragons of Angerod, and that they along with some of the ponies of that city had escaped from there the day of it’s fall, and that the ponies of the group were the descendants of those who had gone with them. But something happened that day that would change the destiny of the dragons forever. Langerod found favor in the fare Flin-halon, a pegasus pony from the east. So Langerod took them to the capital of the land and asked Fir-N-Triste for Flin-halon as his wife. Fir-N-Triste was alarmed, but when he had taken counsel with the rest of the Minsörē, he decided that he would allow this covenant.

This began the noble race of the pogans, started by Langerod and Flin-halon, for Langerod laid with his wife, who bore him a son, and the boy was a strange creature indeed, being twice the size of a normal pony, and living twice as long, having unnatural strength, with the eyes and claws and wisdom of the great serpents, but with the mind and body of the ponies, so that the boy, who was named Lan-halon, grew to become great indeed, and his kind was filled with the blessings of both the dragons and ponies, and greed did not corrupt their hearts. And Langerod and Flin-halon were glad, and they had many children afterward.

However when this happened Morca-bad was aware of them, and was full of wrath, for he perceived that Langerod was the hair to Angerod's throne, and so he set out to build an army of griffins, dragons, and the evil creatures of the stars, who had long plagued the land, the lupus, the ursas, hydras, scorpions, and fale beast of lesser quality.

And these wars continued for thousands of years, until it came to pass that after one of the Malor was lost at sea during a great battle, that her husband was so filled with grief and anger towards his enemies that, because the harmony that had been set was broken, and he was consumed in his wrath, driven mad by the rage of fire, that he murdered both friend and foe, burning alive all those who stood in his way.

Fontijzena was lost. The griffins were weakened, the dragons left desolate, and the ponies massacred, scattered abroad like leaves in the autumn wind, that out of millions, only a handful survived. This was the great disaster that our ancestors struggled with, and had things been different, and if fate had been kinder, Fontijzena would have stood proud in Celestia’s noon day sun in the place of Equestria, and slept in peace under Luna’s gentle moonlight.

The land was filled with a noxious gas as we pursued our fallen brother. We had been on his trail for five days, but had finally caught up with the demon that was now in control. His eyes were a blood red that pierced through our souls, frightening and evil, full of hatred as they burned with only that rage which fire can bring. His once beautiful coat was now a horrid black, and a shadow hung in the air before him. We fought long and hard against this monster who, being driven into madness, murdered so many for so few, with physical and mental torture, and with fire he doomed them all to an eternal damnation, and we were forced to fight with our full strength, though ours threatened to drive us to that insanity as well.

But in the final hour we subdued him, and with the help of those heavenly gems, the El-I-Jims, we freed our friend, our allie, our brother, from that living hell. But alas, what greater hell he had to face when he saw all that he had done, and so he made us to lock ourselves away in that tomb, and we shall ever be there, till a brighter day shall dawn when SHE will return, and I pray to Lif-ǝ’sȇ that all those things will come before the power of those jewels shall return to us, and the seal that holds the darkness back is broken.

             Passage from “Book of Arches: Ancient Histories of Equestria” pg. 147.

∼∼∼

All was quiet on the road to Sweet Apple Orchards, with only a few ponies traveling on it while the birds in the now orange and yellow trees sang their autumn songs. The silence was replaced with laughter as the Cutie-Mark Crusaders ran down the road, causing the adult ponies to steer clear of their way. They had been wondering around town all morning trying to find new ways to get their cutie marks, from trying to get a newspaper started with some crayons and a few sheets of old typing paper to their more recent attempt at helping Applejack with the apple picking, something that had bored Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle out of their minds.

Scootaloo had suddenly dared them to a race, encouraging them that maybe one of their special talents was track running. Truth be told, she had grown bored with the crusading and wanted to do something else, and right now, she was having the time of her life.

The group was now drawing close to the borders of Everfree forest, trying to keep up with the miniature orange pegasus with little success. When any one of them would start to gain on her, Scootaloo would flap her wings to give her some more distance between them, causing a lot of protest from the crusaders, all except for Nyx, whose own wings evened the score.

“I’m gonna get you, Scoot!” Nyx shouted out happily, running just a few feet behind her.

“Hey! No fair! Why do you guys get to use your wings!?!” Twist called out at Nyx and Scootaloo.

“Yeah! Would you’ll slow down? Let us catch up!!!” Applebloom wined, breathing heavy as she tried to catch her breath.

Scootaloo turned her head as they ran passed a group of mares walking down the path, “Ha! You guys are a bunch of slowpokes! You're never gonna catch me!” she yelled as she made herself run faster.

The group turned around a corner in the road where a grove of trees stood. Scootaloo looked back on her pursuers, smirking as Twist, Sweetie Belle, and Applebloom fell behind, leaving her only with Nyx to deal with, who was running right along side her.

But as the two ran side by side, Scootaloo, not paying attention to the road, tripped on a tree root, and with a yelp, she fell off the side of the  road, taking Nyx with her.

They both tried to grab hold of anything that would slow their fall, but it was futile, since the steep hill was forcing them down faster than their frantic arms and legs could move to grab onto a root or any other means of slowing their descent. It all ended with a loud crash as they hit the base of the hill hard.

Nyx and Scootaloo both groaned as they came to their senses. Scootaloo had fallen on top of Nyx and had suffered some minor cuts on her legs and flank, but nothing serious, while Nyx layed there with her glasses missing as she tried to catch the air that had been forced out of her lung by being crushed under Scootaloo’s weight. Scootaloo looked down at her, “Are you alright?”

“Huh huh… Y-Yeah...Huh… Yeah I think so.” she looked around, taking in her surroundings. Her eyes suddenly went wide as her body went cold with fear, “OH, NO! We’re in Everfree Forest!”

Scootaloo’s head shot up when she saw her friend’s fear. She was right, they were in Everfree, and it was much scarier from the inside than from the outside, with it’s twisted old trees playing tricks on their eyes as they stared up at their gnarled bark that looked back at them like hungry monsters. Everfree was a dangerous place to be, even for a grown up, with its dark magic and the many number of creatures that would not hesitate to eat a pony for lunch.

Scootaloo and Nyx both looked back up the hill where their friends were looking down at them.

“Hey! What are you guys doin' down there?” Applebloom shouted down at them from the top, “I didn' know that hide n' seek was part of the race!”

“We didn't do it on purpose!” Scootaloo wined at her friend's teasing. She looked around for any way to get out of this, “Can you guys get a rope?”

Sweetie Belle looked down at them curiously, “Why? You two have wings, can't you just fly out?”

Nyx looked up at her in annoyance, “You guys know that we can't fly out of here! I've just started my training with Twilight, and Scootaloo hasn't gotten anywhere with the flying lessons she gets from Rainbow Dash.” she looked at Scootaloo with a smirk.

Scootaloo's face turned red as snickers escaped from her friends lips. She jumped Nyx suddenly, causing her friend to squeak. But as they rolled around in the dirt, a sound in the bushes to their far left made them both stop as they lifted their heads to see what was moving.

“Nyx! Scootaloo! Get out of there, NOW!!!” Twist's voice came down to them with a heavy amount of fear.

Nyx and Scootaloo looked around at the foliage in search of whatever was coming. All was quiet, not even a bird could be heard.

“Maybe it was just a squir-”

Scootaloo had no time to finish her sentence before from out of the thickets a Lupus Major came crashing out and ran right towards them, it's teeth snarling at them as it came.

Scootaloo grabbed Nyx who had frozen up and dragged her with her.

“NYX!!! RAN!!!”

∼∼∼

Scootaloo and Nyx ran as fast as they could through the forest underbrush, keeping just ahead of the star wolf that was chasing them. The Lupus was moving rather slow for it's kind, but it was still faster than the two fillies, and the only thing that was giving them an advantage was the fact that the surrounding forest that they were in was overgrown with foliage, and whereas they were small enough to get through the cramped areas that they entered, the growingly furious Lupus Major was too large to enter in with them, and each time they did enter into a space that it could not follow into, it would growl and bear it's sharp teeth at them manically.

The two ran out of the forest into a small clearing as they stopped dead in their tracks. where a