City Of Secrets
Prologue - Lost
*tap* *tap* *tap* *tap*
A small purple unicorn stirred, awoken by an all-too-familiar noise that has been slowly eroding her sanity down for the past several days. Attempting to ignore it, she flipped over on the hard, wicker floor that has served as her home for the time being. Once comfortable, she slowly drifted to sleep, the line of Reality and Unconsciousness melding together to form a perfect utopia.
*tap* *tap* *tap* *tap*
But it was not to be. The noise once again snapped her back to reality and she whimpered pitifully, longing for the comforting embrace of sleep. As she slowly regained her memories of the recent events, her eyes shot open looking around at her surroundings. Wicker walls and floor covered by a few wooden crates and a half asleep purple and green dragon. She sighed mentally, hoping that it was all just a dream.
*tap* *tap* *tap* *tap*
She cringed. She may be awake now, but the horrible tapping still annoyed her. Slowly moving her head to face the perpetrator, she sighed “Spike, How many times do I have to tell you to stop tapping your claws, its Nerve-Wracking!”
The dragon jumped, unaware that she was now awake “Oh, sorry Twilight. I'm just so bored is all, How long will we have to stay here?”
Twilight chuckled softly while getting up, her joints creaking in protest at being in such a small area. “It's okay Spike I'm bored too,” she said and looked down below. She was in her hot air balloon, floating several hundred feet above the endless canopy of the Everfree forest. She hated to admit it, but Spike and her were completely lost. “But I don't know how long we will have to stay here. I'm sure we'll be okay though.” she finished.
Spike sighed, and curled up into a ball before quickly falling asleep. Snoring quite loudly. “... I hope” she said under her breath.
o.O.o
Twilight sat there, staring down at the seemingly endless forest below for an hour before a loud noise snapped her from her trance.
*Grumble*
She looked around for the source of the noise, before realizing it was her stomach growling. Blushing slightly, she walked over to one of the crates and levitated the lid off and grabbed an apple from inside. It was slightly old looking but she was glad that she had brought any food at all, else she and Spike would have starved for sure.
After grabbing a Ruby for Spike, and noting their dwindling food supply, twilight made her way back to the edge of the basket and ate the apple in peace.
Yawning, Twilight looked out at the endless forest beneath, with a mountain range in the background. It would've been beautiful if it weren't for the fact that Spike and her were lost in a seemingly endless forest and running out of food fast.
Sighing, she cast a spell on the magical heater that kept the balloon afloat, setting it so that it would release a flame every so often to keep the balloon high enough to avoid crashing.
And with that, Twilight curled up at the edge of the basket and promptly fell into a restless slumber.
o.O.o
Twilight looked up at the darkening thunderstorm wearily, today was supposed to be clear skies all day, and this cloud was definitely not supposed to be there. Perhaps she would have a little 'talk' with Rainbow dash's work ethic once she got back from Canterlot...
“Twi...” Spike looked at the ominous cloud fearfully.
“I see it too, Spike. But it's too close to move out of the way, so we'll have to go through it.” Twilight did not like that idea, but there was nothing else they could do about it. A bolt of lightning made the two jump a little, cementing their fears.
Within minutes of entering the intimidating thunderstorm, powerful winds threw the balloon about, it being at the complete mercy of the storm. Lightning ripping through the sky all around. And two scared beings huddled in the balloons basket, quaking heavily from fear.
Twilight and spike were cowering in the basket, flattening themselves on the floor as to not make any bigger of a target for a particularly bad aimed lightning strike. But through all the chaos, twilight somehow managed to drift off.
Awaking to the sunrise that symbolized a new day revealed that the storm had dissipated late into the night, leaving nothing to hinder the stunning sunrise that awaited twilight upon waking up. She looked at spike who was also stirring from his slumber. Getting up from her position on the ground she gasped when she looked outside of the balloon, endless forest as far as the eye could see.
Looking behind them confirmed her fears; endless forest once again meeting her gaze. Twilight gulped hard as her pupils shrunk, They were lost over the Everfree.
Spike soon joined her side, looking out upon the forest. The realization soon hit the baby dragon and he began to tremble like a leaf, and with a shaky voiced asked “T-Twi, Where... Where are we?” Twilight looked down at her Assistant and smiled sadly “I don't know Spike, But we'll find our way home.”
She resumed looking out at the green expanse below, but was soon aware of a poking sensation at her side. She looked down to spike, who was poking her with a claw and looking up with sad eyes. “twilight,”
“It's okay spike, nothing to be worried about.” She reassured.
“Twilight? You need to wake up!” She cocked an eyebrow at the strange comment. “I don't understand, Spike. What are you talking about?”
“Twilight...”
Again, she was confused about the pleading tone of his voice. She was about to ask but soon realized that spike was still looking up at her, yet his mouth hadn't moved at all. “I- I don't Underst-...”
“WAKE UP!”
o.O.o
“WAKE UP!”
Twilight flew off the ground and in doing so collided with Spike, who was standing over her. Rubbing her head, she glared at the baby dragon, who was grinning sheepishly and scratching the back of his head.
“Uh... sorry, Twi! I just thought you'd want to see this...” Spike said pointing behind her. Turning around she saw that the mountain range that was in the distance earlier had gotten a lot closer and was now towering over the balloon.
“Um... The mountains? Yeah, that's a good sign in all but you didn't have to wake me up for tha-...” She trailed off as she saw what he was really referring to. Off on the right side of the closest mountain was a glimmering white object that looked out of place, reflecting the sunlight in an unnatural way that left her surprised she didn't see it sooner.
But the object was a familiar sight to her. It was... “A BUILDING!” Twilight exclaimed.
She turned around to address spike, “C'mon, Spike! We gotta get to it!” she exclaimed excitedly, releasing heat into the balloon to raise it. Turning around, she noticed something off. “Wait a minute... the building is Behind the mountain!”
It took half an hour but the balloon finally surmounted the peak revealing a breathtaking sight that made the two gape in amazement.
It was more than a building, it was an entire city, bigger than any they'd ever seen. The buildings were made with metal and stone, with the smaller structures occasionally made of wood and brick. It was several miles away but it was still massive from this distance with the largest tower rising above the mountain it was nestled against. The city itself spread out among a large valley and was surrounded by a large wall, the wall in turn being surrounded by vast farmland.
It was unlike anything they had ever seen.
o.O.o
Landing outside of the massive walled city, Spike and Twilight began to walk up to one of the large doors that were spaced evenly throughout the structures.
Closer inspection of the city revealed many mysteries. Strange flying objects moved in between the large towering buildings, Unknown noises emanating from the other side of the wall, and many other things. But the novelty of the sheer size of the city never wore off.
A mechanical grinding shocked Twilight out of her trance. Curiously she looked over and noticed that the door open slightly, revealing a Group of 3 beings.
The first, in the lead of the small group was a strange, bipedal and (mostly) hairless creature presumably male, To it's left was a female gryphon, looking to be in her late thirties, And to it's right was a blue, male unicorn with a graying mane and tail, looking to be in his late fifties or early sixties. All of them wearing a dark green robe.
The group than began to move towards Spike and Twilight, the latter backed away a step in fear, shivering slightly.
When they finally reached their destination Twilight studied the unknown creature a little, still slightly afraid. It was tall; it had 2 feet on the unicorn and a foot on the gryphon, and the best way to describe it would be a tall, hairless monkey. She remembered reading something like that but their name escaped her.
What happened next shocked her, it talked! Although with it wearing a robe and leading a pony and a gryphon, it shouldn't have been all that exiting.
“Hello, My name is Representative Aaron,” It, He, said “And I would like to be the first to welcome you...”
he paused and drew in a breath, the act reminding her of Rainbow Dash when she was choosing a pet, Pause for dramatic effect...
“To Atlantis!”