Prolouge; "Bedtime Stories"
The Shard of Erida
A collab written by: Arco Iris, Silver Sea, and Wolfy Hidge
Prologue-”Bedtime Stories”, Twilight and Spike’s Library, Late at night
Owlicious was perched on her favorite branch of Twilights hat stand reading one of her favorite books. The title read “Daring Do and the Sea Alicorn”. Owlicious hooted with delight as she finished the climactic final chapter of the story. Owlicious then let out a bit of a squeak. She was a good hour or so into the night and she had already run out of reading material! Then again, Owlicious never checked any book in the “Fairy Tales” section of the library. “Hmm…” Owlicious thought. She had plenty of time to kill; she may as well search for a tome that interested her. Owlicious picked a book at random; “Legends of the Past: Volume I A Research Document by Professor Tes Toob”. Owlicious giggled. How could Twilight Sparkle, the master of organization, have a book in the wrong section?
Owlicious flipped open to the index. “Let’s see, she thought to herself, “um…unconfirmed mysteries”. Owlicious turned to the near end of the book and read a legend that caught her eye. “The Shard of Erida (Erida is the Greek goddess of hate), she read, “The Shard of Erida, also known as The Sin Stone, The Crystal of Hate and Essence of Pain; is a magical crystal that is believed to gain energy from hate. All the pain felt by hate is copied and stored into the crystal. When the hate builds up, tremors occur”. That last part disturbed Owlicious. Unexplained tremors had been happening all over Equestria lately. Usually earthquakes occur when either dragons got REALLY bored or somepony pranked the weather control team’s orders. Owlicious pondered ant the vile thought. “Could…could this thing be real? Could all of the piled up hate in Equestria have started a doomsday clock?” She continued with the research document. “Even more to the ancient legend, it is said that a beast with the purest of intentions can reverse the effects, saving their land from their own hatred. Although unlike the other documents of beasts, plants, cultures, and magical elements, this article is near to fiction. The Shard of Erida has no evidence of being true and is just an old pony’s tale… to ponies from several centuries ago that is!” Owlicious did not give off a sigh of relief as any normal creature would. There was something about this shard that remained in her mind. What is dragging her to know that this was 100% true? Was it destiny? Fate? Owlicious yawned. “Perhaps it is best to leave it ‘til tomorrow morning” thought Owlicious.
The next day…
Owlicious awoke in a panic. Her dreams had attempted to confirm that the shard was real, and that Equestria was in danger! “I need a second opinion. This is too illogical” thought Owlicious. “HOOT!” screeched Owlicious. “Whoa!” yelled Spike as he fell out of his little bed. “Owlicious what is going on here?” asked a groggy Twilight. Owlicious motioned over to “Legends of the Past: Volume I”. Twilight opened up the book but Owlicious snatched it out of her hooves and turned to the article about the Shard of Erida. “What is this?” asked Twilight. Owlicious presented her concern through her eyes doing a kind of “sad puppy face” expression. “Bwahahahaha! Owlicious this is obviously science magic fiction! This isn’t real! Where’d you even find this old thing?” replied Twilight. Owlicious was feeling worse by Twilights behavior but crooked her 180ᵒ towards the “Fairy Tales” section of the library. “Well no wonder. Trust me Owlicious, there’s no use losing sleep over an ol-ancient pony tale.” finished Twilight.
“huhgabahernuhshoonyjgsjaajcineefen” grumbled Spike under his covers.
“Poor Spike, said Twilight “he’s still trying to catch some sleep.” Twilight returned to her bed and curled up with a book. Owlicious however, was heartbroken. Twilight had no faith her Owlicious’s assumption. If her “superior” master did not see any threat, then Owlicious will have to get 5 friends to heed her call.
Prologue; 3 Teams, Ponyville, Early in the morning
Owlicious gathered the 5 animals that meant the most to her. Gummy the alligator, pet to Pinkie Pie was there. He was strong and silent. Probably silent because he had no teeth but what he couldn’t say verbally, he could still display with his vacant stares. He was also pretty good at cooking too. Opalescence was there. She was an elegant and charming beast of great intelligence and survival skills. She could use her razor sharp claws to cut though many materials. There was Winnona. She was as fast and strong as she was loyal to her comrades. She could also hunt game twice her size. There was Angel. That slick sarcastic bunny with a rebellious attitude. He had super keen ears and a powerful kick to match. Tank arrived too. Slowly but surely he made his way to the circle of animals surrounding a book. He was quiet and loyal, and strong as an ox but as slow as well… a turtle. Then there was the leader that we all know so well: Owlicious. She was super smart, super calm, super devoted and a pretty speedy flier as well.
“Alright, began Owlicious, ”this is our threat against Ponyvi- Equestria, rather. This Crystal has absorbed all the hatred in Equestria for hoot knows how long. Although Equestria is relatively peaceful, hatred builds up. This thing will level Equestria to dust if we don’t stop it!”
“Pfft how are ya even shure*?” replied Angel sarcastically. *(yes, I know how to spell “sure”, just imagine angel with a Brooklyn or Boston accent. If you have no idea how that sounds watch “Meet the Scout” on YouTube).
“He has a good point you know.” said Tank. Opal purred. Gummy nodded to show his understanding of the situation. Winnona stayed quiet but attentive. “Well, I had some kind of… epiphany that I knew that we are the chosen ones in this prophecy.” said Owlicious.
“Hmph well do you know what you’re lookin’ for? Or where it is? Seriously this is just annoying. You don’t know whatcha doin’. Unless you can make me feel this magical hocus pocus prophecy then buzz off. I was takin’ a nap when you came crawlin’ along. I need my sleep so I’m not cranky but I think you already know that, unlike the whereabouts of this magic rock.” Angel spat*. *(By which I mean intensively speaking, not Angel actually spitting onto the ground). A sudden tremor shook the ground violently.
“Do you think a bunch of dragons are slamming against the ground to do that? That’s how some earthquakes happen but most dragons are too far away to be causing the slightest shake over here. And the weather team always writes an apology or warning after they make an earthquake in the clouds. Take a look. The sky is as clear as day. Now read this sentence : “When the hate builds up, tremors occur”. Were you just really annoyed just a second ago? That tremor was all on you. Now do you believe me?” Angel was quite shocked. Owlicious’s rebuttal really made it clear; this was pretty dangerous and the worst part was that nopony believed them.
“Now that you’re done thinking that I’m lollygagging we’ve got to look for this thing. It could be anywhere in Equestria.” said Owlicious.
“We should split up” said Opal. “Rarity had these 3 way mirrors*. You can talk into them and see the animal on the other side. If we go in teams of 2 then we should be able to communicate when we find this…thing. Gummy was busy drawing a diagram on the ground with a stick.
Tank explained “Gummy and Opalescence, Owlicious and Angel and Winnona and I will travel in these groups.” Winnona barked “But we’ll need team names! We call Team Apple , Owlicious and Angel can be Team Noctuam, and Gummy and Opalescence can be Team Engima!”
“Well in that case I think all we need are some supplies and we’ll be on our ways. To adventure!” cried Owlowsicious!
*Noctuam is simply Latin for "owl" but thats how the world works. when something dosent sound cool enough, just translate it into another language ;)
