prologue : where they are
Once long ago this place was a symbol of unity, a place that connected many pony's. A jewel in the crown of a kingdom in its prime. Now the ground is charred the buildings have fallen the pony's have fled, and the unity is dead. A large castle was located in the centre of the city, once it was adorned with golden suns and decorated with silver moon. Now it is another pile of rubble, a broken monument to the great unity it once stood for.
A small foal hugs a teddy bear in the street holding to it for dear life while her tears stain its fur. It is a memory of happier times, the foal once had a life, a family, a home. Now the foal has nothing but a small stuffed bear to remember it by. On the other side of the rubble another foal plays a harmonica, a long forgotten tune that no pony else can remember but him, he is oblivious to the hell around him, detached from a world that he no longer loves.
In another time these two would be friends. In another world these two would have a loving future together, but now they have no reason to keep going, no reason to move on, and no reason to live again. There are many like them, lost souls, emotionless husks, completely dead to the world. Yet those who are emotionally dead are far out numbered by those who are already gone.
There is however another group of ponies, those who still have a reason to live and are willing to fight every day to achieve it. while they may not outnumber the dead, they outnumber the lost by many. Each individual that keeps going is fuelled by there own agenda. revenge, hope, greed, love, or even flat out refusal to die. For what ever reason they keep on fighting.
Ponies are not the only ones with the will to keep going, griffons, zebras, and horses still roam the land. There even rumors of other surviving races. As long as there is a light burning inside anyone of them, they will keep going. Very few know the details of what actually happened, but what they do know is that this was not an accident, and whatever did this was still alive. somewhere out there, waiting patiently, ever so patiently.
=================================================================
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
=================================================================
"Huff huff huff" a shadowy figure panted "need to get away", the figure ran down the dark corridor, ancient tapestries adorned the walls and arcane lamps flickered with dying purple flame. "Have to warn the others" the figure took a sharp turn as an almost otherworldly green light pursued. "This isn't my fault!" the figure cried. The walls began to crack a deep ominous *creek* could be heard from the supports just before they gave way.
"No!" the shadow figure screamed as the rubble blocked the tunnel sealing the figures fate. The figure turned to see the green light approaching, sweat dripped from the figures head as dark chains shot forward from the light immobilising the figure, the green light began to glow bright emitting great magical power upon the figures mind. The magical force broke the figures mind leaving it open to the will of the ethereal green light. As the figures vision began to fade a single word escaped its lips.
"Friendship is magic..."
"I'm awake!" those are the first words that the light green unicorn said as she awoke from her sleeping spell, she wasn't even sure why she said that. "huh what's going on?" the unicorn asked hoping for something anything to tell her what was happening, because she didn't know. In fact there allot that the unicorn didn't know, her name for example. She looked to her cutie mark, a sun dipping beneath the horizon surrounded by faint stars which was very odd.
There was no way to tell weather the sun was rising or falling, the stars didn't seem to form in to any constellations, "wait constellations?" she thought "why do I know that? maybe I was an astronomer". The unicorn still didn't know what to do so she thought for awhile until... "Wait what do I call myself?" she thought "it would be nice to call myself by some sort of name". She kept thinking "sun... setting? no rising! yea like the dawn! a shimmering dawn".
"My name is Shimmering Dawn!" she yelled, pride filled her voice, it felt she had power a purpose a reason. Shimmering Dawn (or Dawn for short) looked around the room she was in, it looked like some sort of study, very organized with plenty of books and quills. Dawn walked over to one and read the cover "The art of levitation" was printed in big gold letters. Intrigued Dawn opened up the book and began reading.
Over an hour latter and she was still reading, the book was amazing! so many details so much to learn. Using what she had read so far Dawn used her magic to attempted move the page, she thought it would be had but it was surprisingly easy like she had done it so many times before. A few more hours of studying later Dawn's thoughts where interrupted by her stomach complaining in the only way it knew how *ggrrroooowwwlll*.
"Oh dear looks like I got carried away " Dawn thought to herself, she looked around trying to find food or water. she found neither "oohhh nononono" Dawn thought as the gravity of the situation dawned on her. "Um oh is this a door?" Dawn's eyes fell on a large vault like door roughly two ponies tall, "hhhmmm this locking system looks intercut maybe if move this here rotate this ten degrees..." Dawn began unlocking the door like she was figuring out a puzzle.
"Move this down here flip this switch and done!" as Dawn finished unlocking the door it swung outwards. A large cloud of dust filled the room causing Dawn to cough, but as the dust began to clear her eyes widened in surprise revealing... nothing. an ongoing waste land of nothing as far as the eye could see. Dawn let out a single *gulp* she had to go out there, she needed food.
Dawn put one foot out in front of the other as she nervously approached the unknown. As she took a look around her noticed her little study was built into a hill which was covered in "berries!" Dawn yelled as he hunger over powered her fear. Dawn galloped up the hill to find an oasis with food and water, at first was worried the berries would be dangerous to eat but her memory (which appeared to be returning slowly when she saw certain things) told her they were safe.
Dawn spent the next few minutes in a sort of foal like paradise galloping with joy eating and drinking and collecting food and water. Soon it was getting dark and while at first Dawn didn't seem to mind a sudden noise filled the air *ROOAR* this snapped Dawn out of her little happy trance. She turned out towards the noise to see the a large bear that shone like that stars. it was ginormous with long claws and teeth saliva dripped from its mouth and its fur was ragged. it would be enough to give your nightmare's, nightmare's.
Luckily it hadn't seen dawn yet, giving her just enough time to eat retreat to the safety of her study, and the comfort of her book's. From inside Dawn could hear the beast rampaging outside shaking the land as it walked and smashing anything in its wake. "I don't think ill be going outside for now" thought Dawn as she considered making some sort of book fort, this was of course a stupid idea which she released after building the book towers. So instead Dawn just went back to reading trying to block out the noise of the outside world and amerce herself in to a happier place.
Dawn spent the next few days curled up in the study reading book after book, she was still reading long after the bear which was apparently an ursur major (page 48 of magical monsters and you) was gone. Dawn had discovered that she had a strong thirst for knowledge, she could of spent forever reading, learning, and exploring the books cover to cover, only occasionally having to out to collect food, to her this sounded perfect, Just Dawn and her books.
"Nothing good can last forever" Dawn read, while she gravitated mostly towards educational books she had recently discovered a very simple story book about two sisters who ruled the world together bringing peace and happiness. Until the younger sister who felt shunned by her subjects rebelled agents her older sister causing chaos. Strangely Dawn felt like she was reading the story twice, and that wasn't the only strange thing she had discovered while reading.
Dawn had discover she had a natural gift for the arcane, spells that according to the books would take the average unicorn days to learn she could cast after just a few hours, and while not all her casting was perfect she was doing allot better than she should have been doing. Indeed Dawn had learnt a lot from this studying and was enjoying it very much. But nothing good can last forever *rumble*.
"What was that?" Dawn asked out loud *rumble rumble* the ground shuck violently, "earthquake!" Dawn screamed, she had read about these, great natural disasters that could crack the very earth . With lightning speed Dawn began unlocking the vault door, the supports began to creak and the rafters sagged, Dawn was half way done already but large stones began falling from the ceiling. Dawn need time that she didn't have *smash* a central support came down and the roof gave way trapping Dawn in a stony crypt.
That would of been the end of Dawn, if she hadn't been studying short range teleportation. With a flash Dawn appeared just above the rubble, dazed but alive. Now Dawn was outside with no where to go for shelter and no food or water. Dawn took a look around, some of the ground had been cracked by the earth quake but over than that it was just as left it, a wasteland. Reluctantly Dawn decide to pick a random direction, she went north in relation to the sun.
An hour later Dawn was still walking, one of the many things she had read about was the idea of a void where there is nothing but nothing. "Well this place certainly feels like a void" Dawn thought, still she kept walking. On the horizon Dawn thought she could see something, "buildings?" she thought "shelter!" Dawn galloped of in the direction of the buildings, only to stop when she heard a spine tingling growl.
Suddenly monsters leapt from all side's three wolf like creature's made of stone with glowing green eye's. Most ponies would panic but Dawns first thought was "I wonder if there distant relatives of the timber wolves". One of the stone wolves leapt for her, Dawn barely dodged leaving the wolf open to attack, Dawn focused her magic in to her horn and fired an arcane bolt. unfortunately the bolt was conjured too quickly, while it did strike home it had little affect against stone.
The three wolves, sensing weakness in there pray began surrounding her ready to pounce and have supper. They lunged as there outstretched claws slammed in to a large purple barrier flinging the wolves backward. Dawn had manage to summon a shield spell giving her precious few seconds, she couldn't out run her opponents and had little actual experience with combat spells thinking them to dangerous to cast indoors, but she could outthink them.
The wolves crashed against the barrier it would not hold long, quickly Dawn tried to remember what she read about timber wolves "if these are distant relative maybe they share the same weakness's" Dawn thought. Unfortunately the only weakness that came to mind was fire which would not work against stone and the shield began to break as the wolves growling became louder. *smash* *crash* The barrier gave way leaving Dawn open to her doom.
Only then did the wolves notice the purple glow surrounding her horn, just then Dawn unleashed a very focused blast of arcane energy, but this was no bolt. The wolves fell to the floor, they stopped glowing and collapsed in to piles of rubble like they had never even existed. While this may sound like some sort of extraordinary feat of magical prowess, but in reality it was just about knowing your enemies weakness's.
Dawn was right these stone wolves are distant relatives of timber wolves, at least they used a similar magic matrix. Timber wolves aren't actually alive they are complicated magical matrixes created long ago by a powerful wizard in the depths of insanity. These magic matrixes float around gathering timber until it can be formed in to the body of a wolf, then it acts like a wolf with only difference being that they make more wolves by cloning themselves from magical energy.
These magic matrix's are however a little to complicated, they can be disrupted by a strong magical force target specifically at the matrix's (yes the wizard who made this was very insane). These stone wolves matrix's where replica's of the timber wolves magic matrix's, using stone instead of timber meaning that the same weakness's still applied. It would take a powerful mage to edit the magic like this, but it could be done.
Dawn was very proud of herself and with a skip in her head and a song in her heart she galloped of to the distant buildings. Little did she know that her lack of experience and foresight would lead to her own downfall. But until then she was ignorantly happy, unaware of the green glowing magic forming behind her.
"Hello?" Dawn called out, it turned out most of the buildings were in ruins and there was no one to be seen. "Hello?" Dawn called out again, she could hear a harmonica being played in the distance, hoping to find any pony Dawn galloped forward. As she ran towards the music she passed a message written in coal on a wall "hive alive" it read, Dawn didn't pay much notice to this.
Soon Dawn found the source of the music, a small foal sitting out in the middle of nowhere playing a harmonica like there was no tomorrow. "Hi little filly my names Dawn, Shimmering Dawn what's your name?" The foal didn't seem to notice Dawn and if he did, he didn't care. "Erm hello?" Dawn kept trying to get the little foals attention, she couldn't for the life of her figure out why she was being ignored like this, but the foal seemed to keep playing the same happy tune.
*Groooowwwllll* That sound bounced around in Dawn's head, she turned around and came face to face with very large very angry (well as angry as a magic construct can be) stone wolf. Dawn was too confident with victory that she had let it gone to her head, if she had thought about it more in the aftermath of her battle she would have realised if someone did make a stone based replica of a timber wolfs magic matrix they would also be able to modify some of its other properties.
When you think about it, being able to be destroyed by just focused arcane energy is a big weakness, somepony else must of thought so as well because they modified the arcane matrix allowing it to slowly fizzle out excesses arcane energy and reactive after a small time span instead of just over loading. This meant that wolves came back and they had combined there matrix's to make one large stone wolf too powerful to fight or overload. This all may sound extremely unlikely to happen, but at end of the day it was still something that could have happened and a tactical blunder.
"Run!" Dawn yelled grabbing the small harmonica playing foal or trying to at least, the foal wouldn't budge like he had locked himself away from the world and denied its very existence. The wolf began bounding down the street splitting the pavement as it landed "go go please!" Dawn practically crying to the little foal who was still dead on the inside. Dawn had no choice she galloped away tears threatening to flood from her eyes as the stone wolf landed upon the small foal.
Dawn herself was still far from safety, moving as quickly as she could the wolf bounding after her. She turned left at an intersection only to find herself in ally way the wolf coming ever closer leaving destruction in its wake. Dawn took another left finding a dead end with the words "h*vE AliVe" written in coal. Dawn was trapped walls on three sides large magical stone wolf construct on one. The wolf pounce spreading itself wide filling Dawns entire vision, suddenly, something grabbed dawns leg pulling her down in to darkness.
The last thing she remembered was a hurried fluttering of large insect wings.
