Once upon a time, in the magical world of Equestria, there were six ponies who possessed great power and protected all. Two Earth Ponies, two Pegasi, a single Unicorn, and the Princess of Friendship herself made up this group. They each represented a facet of Harmony, and wielded its power as a weapon against the dark forces that threatened their world.
Honesty, the power of truth.
Laughter, the power of joy.
Loyalty, the power that kept them together.
Kindness, the power that drove them to help
Generosity, the force that drove them to give.
Finally, Magic, the force they brought down upon their foes.
These six were the best of friends, which strengthened their power even further. The creatures of Tartarus feared their wrath, though their was no wrath to fear. Each was very kind, and the thought of performing cruel acts was far from their minds.
However, good things cannot last forever. A seed of betrayal was planted within their group, and slowly they grew apart. As their friendship lessened, so did the power of Harmony. All at once, a great darkness seized the group, and they all vanished, leaving Equestria unprotected. The gods of the Sun and Moon vanished soon after, and the ponies of Equestria were left to fend for themselves. They were no match, however, for the great evil that came though, and were too shocked by their attacker that they did not even try. They dared not strike the new dark force, for it was...
It ended there, the story. The pages were torn and burnt.
Soul Flash sighed, closing the book with a turn of his head and a brief violet glow from the tip of his dark grey horn. He had read that story countless times now. He didn't know why he continued to return to it, it was a mediocre foal's story at best, and very ancient judging by the strange group it talked about. The different breeds hadn't communicated outside of royal gatherings for a very long time. For some reason, the story was always the first one Soul Flash looked at when he returned to this withered old library. There were many other books, most much better, more informative, and more suited to a stallion of his age than this short one, but he found he couldn't not read it first. The unicorn huffed, levitating the leather-bound book over to a pile of others just like it. None of those drew his attention quite as much, but he refused to place that short story with the other books he actually enjoyed.
Speaking of better books, Soul Flash looked around at the old rotting shelves of the library that was practically already a pile of rubble. Somehow, the books of this place had survived the weather and time. He suspected a powerful charm of some sort, maybe similar to the kind he'd placed on his own notes and findings. Soul Flash was the kind of pony who practically lived for his studies. Actually, that was truer for him than it was for most others. It was the only thing he really could do after all, since he lived alone in this forest. He had all his life. He really couldn't remember a time when he wasn't alone. Of course, there were the occasional visits to the nearby village, for supplies and all that, but he tried his best to be as unknown as possible. It was just better that way.
If you were trying to destroy the country's ruthless dictator whose magic is unimaginably strong, you'd stick to the shadows too.
It wasn't like it was easy avoiding attention, not with his odd looks. Most other unicorns were colorful and bright, with cutie marks relatively easy to decipher. Soul Flash, not so much. He was dark grey, almost black, and had been mistaken for a trespassing shadow pony once or twice because of it, though his violet mane and eyes quickly extinguished those thoughts. His cutie mark was a black circle, with a white one inside of it. It represented magic, both light and dark, but the others didn't know that and it led to some stares. The unicorns in the village nearby weren't exactly friendly to odd ponies either, and would ask him to show his magic, as if they were skeptical of his true breed.
When would they learn that the other breeds weren't stupid enough to wander into unicorn territory, and weren't skilled enough to create a realistic looking horn?
Soul Flash eventually settled on taking a few of the more interesting books home with him. The sun was starting to set. It was earlier than usual, but if Empress Enigma felt like lowering it now, there was nothing he could do to change it. The creatures of the forest would still come out, regardless of how early it was in reality. He levitated a few off the shelves, not really paying attention besides giving them a brief glance, then slid them into his saddlebags. He quickly trotted out of the ruins and began his journey through the forest. The vines of the trees around him were already starting to twitch as the sun set further behind the horizon and the moon slowly rose to take its place. After a minute, he'd have to illuminate his horn just to see. Luckily, he made it home before that.
His claimed house wasn't visible at first, just a bare plot of empty land across a canyon with a bridge that threatened to come apart if even the slightest bit of pressure was applied. Soul Flash didn't bother to test his luck, instead just levitating himself across. He looked around, appearing almost paranoid, then his horn began to glow in shades of black and green. Violet flames lit from his eyes for a moment as he focused on the empty ground before him, then with a stomp of a hoof, the dark magic stopped and a thin black cloth floated to the ground before him. A ruined castle now stood on the previously empty ground. It was free of the vines that covered the rest of the forest, but ominous just the same.
Soul Flash smiled, and wrapped the black cloth around his neck. He had enchanted it to hide his home. He simply left it on the grounds whenever he left, and the ruin remained hidden along with the makeshift scarf. It only responded to his magic signature, which meant there was no chance of any other unicorn (or alicorn) finding his projects and invented spells. The grey unicorn hurried inside the ruin, leaving a protection spell in place of the door, which had decayed long before he had come to live here, which had been seemingly forever. Soul Flash really couldn't remember, and he really didn't care.
He settled down in his makeshift library (which was really just a cluttered storage room that had more books than anything else) and set to work levitating the books out of his saddlebags and arranging them in whatever sorting system he was partial to that day. Author name, genre, or color...? He was halted when he levitated a particular brown book with burns and torn out pages.
That book again.
He scowled at it, and carelessly tossed it away, angry at himself for taking it and angry at the book for existing in the first place. It was getting annoying, reading the same story over and over again, but he couldn't stop! It was like the book had hypnotized him or something. Maybe it was charmed, that was probably a good enough reason to burn it some more...No, he wasn't that angry at it. And anyway, who could burn a book? Somepony who didn't deserve to live, that's who.
It took a while to sort through the books, and it was only now that Soul Flash realized how many he had taken. Arcane Arts, Beast Taming, there was even one for pegasi on wind and how it affected flying. Why had that even been in a unicorn library? Oh well, Soul Flash was sure he'd find some use for it. Maybe a wing-giving spell...
There was a loud roar, halting Soul Flash's sorting and thinking. The dragon was back.
It was an old thing, large and wrinkled. It's purple and green scales were fading, and it's claws and fangs were growing dull. It seemed to have trouble blowing fire now, as it had never done so while Soul Flash was there, and he would have felt bad for the thing if it didn't try to dig under the ruin, his ruin, every week.
Soul Flash hurried out of his library, going to meet the dragon before it could destroy his home's foundation any further. He was almost to the exit when his hooves suddenly slipped out from under him. He yelped, tumbling forward and smashing his snout against one of the castle's pillars. He groaned, sitting up and rubbing his nose. He looked over to where he had tripped, expecting a rock or stray root he'd have to tear out, but what he saw made his ears flatten back and his horn spark a bit.
That damn book.
He picked it up with his magic, squeezing it a bit too hard as he brought it closer to him. It was leather-bound, with faded gold text on the cover that he couldn't read. There was an imprint on the front, implying something had been stuck there. It was gone now, but Soul Flash could tell from the imprint that it had been a stylized unicorn head.
"You want to come be dragon food?" he asked the book, tilting his head a bit as if expecting an answer from the inanimate object. He was being silly, but he was raging mad at the thing which he decided was a good enough excuse for his behavior. "Fine then. Come on." He took the book in his mouth, then hurried out of the ruin.
The rumble of the shifting ground made Soul Flash's commute to the dragon slower, and it was made more difficult since he had to look over the book protruding from his jaws. The unicorn considered using magic to hold it, but since he'd have to use quite a bit of power to repel the dragon it was best not to waste any of it on the accursed foal's story.
He made it down the cliffs to find the pale, cracked form of the ancient purple dragon digging frantically at what looked like a bunch of collapsed rocks. Soul Flash sighed heavily through his nose. Had the beast left gold in there or something? That would explain why it kept coming back. Well, he supposed he might as well help it out, or he'd never get any peace, and the wild digging might collapse his home. Soul Flash spat out the book and trotted as close to the dragon and rocks as he dared. He tensed, then forced a large amount of his energy into his horn, focusing on the tip, then shifted his thoughts to the rocks. His horn and the rocks began to glow a dark violet. The great dragon noticed, and huffed in surprise, taking a few slow steps backwards, then turning its thick neck towards Soul Flash. It tilted its head a bit, watching the stallion with dull emerald eyes.
"Don't kill me now, I'm trying to help you," Soul Flash grunted, ignoring for a moment the fact that the dragon probably didn't understand him. He shoved more power through his horn at the rocks and the glow increased in brightness. He didn't want to move them all at once, for fear they supported something, and taking them out with a blast would be worse. Soul Flash halted the energy flow, leaving just the glow around his horn and the rocks, beginning to contemplate the spell he should use.
The dragon seemed to grow impatient, and began to claw at the rocks once again. Loosened by Soul Flash's magic, they shifted much easier under its claws. Soul Flash noticed the dragon starting again, and sucked in a breath as it knocked away one of the supporting boulders. The entire pile of rocks began to shudder, and the unicorn squeezed his eyes shut, a feeling of dread filling him as he awaited the coming avalanche.
There was the sound of rocks tumbling, and the ground shook a bit, then it stopped. Strange, Soul Flash was sure there'd have been something more...impressive. He opened his eyes, and furrowed his brow at what he saw. The pile of rocks had fallen, surrounding the dragon in a circle of gray and brown, but the cliff supporting the ruin had stayed. In place of the rocks was a strange cave, with a dim white glow emanating from it.
It was only now that Soul Flash realized how quiet it was.
When he had come down into the valley, the forest had been full of the sounds of nightlife and general forest noise. Now, it was silent. No wind, no bugs, looking up Soul Flash could see even the clouds had stopped moving, which was especially strange. This forest had a reputation for being less controlled than the rest of Enigia, and even though there were no pegasi or unicorns to move the clouds, and no earth ponies to grow the trees or support the animals, everything continued to run. Still clouds were a bad sign.
Soul Flash returned his attention to the cave. The dragon had slithered away from the rocks and was sniffing around the cave mouth, but didn't come into the light it gave. Soul Flash trotted over to the cave, ignoring the strangely behaving dragon for the time being. It hadn't reacted badly to his magic, so maybe it wouldn't do anything if he came closer. It didn't only considered to sniff at the cave. It only paused for a second when it saw Soul Flash, and gave the unicorn a strange nod before returning to his sniffing work.
"What's so interesting about a cave?" Soul Flash muttered to himself, walking inside. The glow could have been caused by moss, or crystals, or maybe a horde of shadow ponies had made their home here and gotten stuck. Soul Flash shuddered. He really hoped it wasn't the latter. Shadow ponies were extremely dangerous, and fed off hatred and fear.
The deeper Soul Flash went into the cavern, the brighter the glow became. It also gained a slight bluish tint to it, rather than be completely stark white. A strange feeling grew in Soul Flash's chest. Not particularly bad, but he wasn't sure if he could call it good. It was just...strange, and it was enough to cause him to light his horn, just in case something was in here that he would have to protect himself from.
The stallion stopped suddenly, his horn's light flickering a bit as pure shock filled him. Before him, seeming to glow and pulse with an ethereal light that Soul Flash couldn't hope to explain, was a white and blue crystalline tree. Its branches extended to the boundaries of the cave, twisting and twirling like a bee's flight pattern, and hanging down from those were branches akin to a willow's. Every part of the plant was illuminated with the strange light, and was assumedly the source of the weird feeling Soul Flash felt, which was amplified as he stood before the enormous tree. On the edge of the branches were five crystal orbs, which contained gems of various color. Red, blue, orange, pink, and violet, in the respective shapes of a lightning bolt, a balloon, a butterfly, and a rhombus. Etched into the shining trunk was a blue shape that appeared similar to a stylized star, and in the center was a smaller copy of the shape in the form of a magenta gem. Below the star was a sun and a crescent moon. These etchings weren't carved, rather, they seemed to grow out as part of the tree's crystal surface, and glowed along with it.
A few steps closer, and Soul Flash's flickering horn started to glow brighter than it ever had before. He quickly extinguished his magic, unsure of the effects this strange tree would have on it. The gems on the tree's branches and the one on its trunk began to shimmer, at about the same time as Soul Flash heard a loud snuffling noise. Turning his head, he saw that the old dragon had slithered inside the cave.
Forgetting the tree for a moment, Soul Flash spun around to face the lizard. He was trapped now, there was no way out of the cave besides the entrance which the dragon was blocking. The dragon clawed its way forward, but strangely, it didn't seem to be looking at Soul Flash, or even acknowledging the unicorn at all. It just stared at the tree, an almost wistful look on its cracked face. Soul Flash watched it for a moment, perplexed. The tree was shiny, so maybe that was why the dragon was drawn to it, but if that was the case it should be attacking him for getting to close to the prize. Soul Flash looked around the dragon, and saw that it wasn't only a danger if he attempted to escape, it completely blocked the pathway out. Well, there was no option then. Besides blow out the cave to make another pathway, but he didn't want to test the strength of the cliff anymore than he already had.
The dragon's eyes suddenly snapped to Soul Flash, emerald irises shimmering the blue-white light the tree produced. The unicorn tensed, lighting his horn in preparation to defend himself. The dragon didn't attack though, only stared down at the stallion before him. The edges of the dragon's crooked mouth twitched, making it appear to be smiling. It opened its mouth, and Soul Flash's horn flared as a violet barrier surrounded him. No flame came though, only a deep, merry sounding roar. Soul Flash blinked, staring in awe at the dragon that seemed to be...laughing?
"Thank you!" the dragon laughed, throwing its great head back as far as it could in the cramped space. "Thank you, you've saved Equestria!" Soul Flash didn't respond, only stood there in shock. His barrier faded, as he was too surprised to put forth the magic to keep it up. "Oh, sorry, Enigia." The dragon ceased its laughter, only smiling warmly down at Soul Flash now. "I didn't know if I could trust you before, you have an air of darkness around you, but you've freed the Tree, and exposed the Elements. You must be on the side of good."
"You...talk," Soul Flash sputtered, backing towards the tree and continuing to gape up at the dragon. It smiled, and nodded.
"Yes, sorry. I forgot. You aren't used to dragons speaking, are you? Or dragons in general." It sighed. "Never mind that though, there are no time for explanations. Here." The dragon reached a front talon back, towards the mouth of the cavern. Drawing it back, the dragon brought an item to Soul Flash's attention. The book.
"You dropped this," the dragon said, placing the book before Soul Flash's hooves. "You should keep track of it. It's the only one that escaped her purge."
"Purge?" Soul Flash repeated, looking down at the book, then back up at the dragon, who was gazing towards the tree again.
"Yes. Your Empress destroyed all books like this. You're lucky to have found one."
"It's just a foal's story though," Soul Flash said, getting a bit of his bravery back since the dragon hadn't shown any aggression in its words or actions. "What would Empress Enigma gain from destroying them? The story's a bit controversial, but it's just fantasy-"
"It's true. Every word." The dragon directed its emerald gaze back at Soul Flash, and the unicorn flinched at its cold tone. "We don't have time to discuss this. Take the stones from the tree and hurry home. The Empress' guards will be here soon."
"What? Her...Why?!"
"Uncovering the tree sent a wave of harmonic magic over all Enigia," the dragon growled, sniffing the air. "Now hurry. Take the six stones, and go." It shuffled backwards, freeing itself of the cave and disappearing from Soul Flash's line of sight. Loud thudding noises signaled him to the dragon's departure.
Soul Flash was still for a moment, needing to convince himself that what just happened wasn't some vivid daydream. No, that was a ridiculous thing to assume. The vibrations of the dragon's steps were very much real, and the tree behind him hadn't vanished with the lizard. He shook his head, confused, but still in his right mind.
"The stones...did it mean...?" Soul Flash turned his head to the tree, where the six different colored gems still glimmered. He hesitated, then lit his horn and began to yank on the stones with a levitation spell. He grunted as he pulled, the crystal of the tree holding the gems in tight. Eventually though, he was able to break them out of their shining prison. The tree seemed to shudder when it lost them, but nothing noticeable changed. The gems floated over to Soul Flash, and he looked each one over with skepticism. The dragon had seemed convinced they were important, and that the book's tale was true. How could that be though? Soul Flash couldn't sense any great power coming from the gems, and the book's tale was ridiculous. Power from friendship? How could something so...so foalish be real?
Soul Flash sighed, picked up the book in his mouth, and began to exit the cave. He'd look further into this later. If the dragon was right, and the Empress' guard was on their way, he'd need to hurry home and set up the cloaking spell. The last thing he wanted was to tangle with those beasts.
