Birds could be heard faintly over a small cabin outside the little town as the sun slowly rose over the luscious green trees and illuminated the pale green grass that surrounded it. The sun vividly shined through the window and lit a black object on a bed as it tossed and turned to the intrusion of the sunlight in his room. After some more tossing and turning from the object a head appeared from the blob as it yawned, its bright white, fanged teeth shined from the intruding light before receding back into its mouth.
The figure rose from its apparent slumber and walked over to an opening to its room; its head slung low from its abrupt and early awakening. It slowly approached the kitchen and rummaged through the fridge grabbing a sandwich with its mouth and placed it into a microwave. After warming the sandwich up and eating it he ventured out of the cabin where his form came into view as it stretched. His mane floated in the wind as he began to stretch his transparent orange wings; the eyes glistened with the sun but seemed off and not like most ponies within the town. One eye glistened purple while the other glistened as blue as the sky.
His wings erected from his back and started to flap as he slowly left the ground behind and started to fly towards the town. The sun is now fully in the sky showing off the intricate details of the town. As he continued flying his mind never did once show interest in the town or its many sensational scents from its lone bakery but only in a glistening lake far outside the town’s limits. The sound of hooves clapping the ground rang through the empty meadows that surrounded the lone lake. The stallion trots over to a tree that hung high in the air and laid down underneath the tree where the shade was, almost as if it had his name on it.
Slowly he settled down under the tree and gained a comfortable spot. His horn glowed brightly as a book slowly made its way around the tree and into his hooves. Hours passed as the sun shortened the shadow that the tree made, but the stallion didn’t think too much about it as he was entailed into his book. It wasn’t until a gentle rumble came from under his hooves that he looked away from his book and around to the town. “What was that?!” He asked himself as a plumage of smoke billowed from the center of town. There were two trails coming from the smoke plumage that were heading straight for where the stallion is. A closer look showed two ponies within the trails flying head first towards him. “Are those ponies?” He said as he flew up to intercept paths and at least try to slow their decent a bit before they hit the ground.
As he tried to put his idea into action he soon realized that it wasn’t going to work as well as he thought. The two ponies collided with him at full force thus throwing the trio into the tree, causing them to get entangled in the branches.
As the smoke slowly dissipated from town and silence returned to the town the changeling that tried to save the other two ponies came to seeing the others still knocked out. He slowly helped them out of the tree one by one and lightly placed them on the ground below the tree’s shadow to keep them out of the sun until they awoken from their trip. A few moments passed as the other ponies slowly woke up the other holding its head in pain the other propping its ears high in the air. “Are you two ok?” He asked looking at them realizing that they are mares but nudges them to make sure they weren’t afraid of him.
The one mare opened her eyes slowly. Her fur glowed bright grey in the sun as her mane flowed in the wind causing it to cover one of her green eyes. Come to find out that she was a changeling but not like he was, she was a pure-bred changeling. The other mare looked around in a panic, her reddish mane covering her eyes almost completely but yet it didn’t seem to bother her too much. He went to her aid first seeing that she was maybe in shock or in deep distress but the answer he was going to receive would throw him for a loop.
“Uhm.. Excuse me, you should probably stop that. You are moving you hair in front of your eyes.” He says touching her mane to move the hair out of her eyes so that she could see.
With a swift movement the mare jumps backwards, “Who are?! I don’t know your voice.” He looked at her with a tilted head now seeing that her eyes have a milky color to it.
“Uh, your eyes. Are…. Milky” He said intrigued by her unusual eyes. As he approached her slowly she slowly started to retreat backwards.
“A-amanda… Help!” she pleaded hoping that the pony was with-in ear shot of where she was. Almost an instant later the other mare was between them the wind wafting a smell that called the red head mare.
“Just hold it there. She obviously doesn’t want you anywhere near you!” Amanda said with a hiss into her voice trying to protect the other mare.
He took a few steps back seeing her between them, “I am sorry. I was just so curious about her eyes. They look so cool.” He kept his distance now trying not to make the tension any worse than it already has.
Amanda turned around to comfort the other mare and made sure her fear had subsided before turning back to the changeling. “She’s blind” Amanda blurted out to the changeling, “That’s why her eyes are milky and why she didn’t know what you were.”
From hearing this news he felt kind of bad for scaring the mare so much, “Well…. My name is Light. What are your names?”
The mare changeling responded, “My name is Amanda.” The other mare shyly replied from behind Amanda, “A-and my name is Appleseed” She said softly still unsure about what the other pony was.
“Those are some nice names.” He said looking at them still a bit concerned about what all that just happened. “So what was that explosion?”
Amanda looked down then back at the changeling, “It’s none of your business, little stallion” She said clearly not needing another pony into their mess-up.
“Amanda….” Appleseed responded to her response still shaking a bit.
“We have things bad enough we don’t need a third pony to get in our way!” Amanda retaliated still with anger in her voice not meaning to throw it at Appleseed.
“Hey, you could at least give me some credit for saving your lives. If it wasn’t for me you two may have been killed from hitting that tree” He said giving them a stern look of determination.
Amanda looked down and then back up at him, “You want to know what happened so badly, fine! Just be warned it won’t look pretty” She said wiggling her tail in front of Appleseed so that she can grab on to be led back into town. Appleseed latched on to her tail and followed the other back to the main gates of the town. The stallion followed but kept a bit of distance from them for just in case reasons.
The sun slowly set over the trio as the reentered the quiet town. As the crossed the center of town a tree trunk stood, or at least what remained from one. Light stared at the charred ends of the hollowed trunk and then discovered numerous house features from a stairwell to a library that surrounded the interior of the scarred tree. The pony stood in front of the charred remains and stared at it, curious if whatever pony that lived there got out in time or perished with the tree.
“H-Hey Amanda, if I remember correctly, who used to live in this? I mean if they still are around that is.” His voice got a little shallow from shyness and fear that he might be stepping on something he didn’t want or need to know.
The mare stopped in her tracks at the question that bellowed out of the stallion’s mouth as she stared at the tree too, sighing low beneath her as she turned to the stallion. “That was once Princess Twilight’s house, or what is left of it that is.” She said looking down to the ground. As she continued she tried to not get too far into what was happening now, “Once she found all the keys to a special locket Discord decided to create this happened.” She then turned and pointed to another distant, seemingly identical shape off in the distance, “And it happened once again” Amanda continues walking towards it preparing herself to tell him the story behind what happened to the place.
Light continued behind them staring back at the destroyed tree glad that the pony that lived there got out of the place safe and sound but wondered why somepony would do that. He wouldn’t even do that to the ponies who have shunned him away from the town for something he had nothing to do with. As they neared the second place the destruction of it started to come into view as the sun was now beginning to dip below the horizon casting a shadow behind the giant structure and upon them, making the already ominous structure more terrifying.
“So what happened to this place?” Light asked walking between them, still continuing forward to the rubble of the tower. His head lowered a little as he worked up some magic to add a little light onto the tower. It revealed a similar sight to the one they just saw but this time it was more of a crystal material, pieces spread all around the base of the tower. “This place must have been magnificent” A faint crack could be heard as some of the loose fragments still fell inside.
“That explosion you heard was from this place.” Amanda interrupted as she sat down. “This used to be Princess Twilight’s place, but while she was away on important business matters this happened.” She said still holding Appleseed closely
“And we were the ones she trusted to look after the place. But we couldn’t save it from being destroyed” Appleseed said huddled against Amanda for comfort.
“Well what did all of this damage to such a wonderful building” He said looking back to the two mares huddled up to each other.
“It wasn’t a what, more like whom.” Amanda replied rubbing her hoof along Appleseed’s mane keeping her calm “It was that stupid betrayer, Discord.” She said with anger in her voice as her horn emitted a subtle red hue.
“But wait, I heard that he was cured cause of what Fluttershy did.” He said as a concerned look overtook his normal smile. Thoughts started racing through his head that the other Main 6 may have been captured or done away with before all of this happened. “So do you know what happened to the Main 6?” He asked looking at both the mares ready to go after this Discord pony they were talking about. He has never seen the pony before since every time he comes into town the citizens give him some absolutely terrifying looks. Thinking he is only here to destroy their way of living or to steal their love.
“They all got taken away. I don’t know where to though.” Amanda said feeling a bit useless at this point.
“I-I know where they have gone to, but you are not going to like the area or how to get there.” Appleseed spoke out softly.
“Wait, you mean Twilight taught you how to do that” Amanda said a bit surprised. Once that thought past though another took its place and she then worried about what they needed to do to get to where the Main 6 are.
Appleseed nodded slowly “But to get there we have to obtain the keys that the Main 6 used to open the box up.”
“Ok that sounds easy enough. All of the items should be in their houses” Light said already starting to trot off to Rarity’s place since it was the closest.
“Hold it. It can’t be that simple.” Amanda said pondering a bit. “If he planned all of this out I am almost certain that he would have a contingency plan.”
“Well let’s think about it in the morning, it’s getting kind of late.” Light said as a yawn escaped his mouth.
The two mares nodded to him as they ventured back to their place leaving the changeling alone in front of the destroyed castle. He waited until the mares were out of sight before he ventured towards the collapsed castle, trying to find anything that could help them into finding out where the keys were. As he entered the crumbling tower the full extent of the damage could be seen as shards of crystal and glass littered the floor. Trotting carefully he traversed the sea of glass and crystals trying to find the library. He figured since her last place had a giant library in it that this place should have one just as big, if not bigger than her old one. Hours passed as the echoing sounds of glass hitting hoof became agonizing for him to hear but he finally found what he sought after.
A large doorway stood in front of the changeling as he placed a hoof on it trying to open it. The door creaked loudly as it shoved debris inward eventually causing it to slow to a stop. The changeling poked through the crack to peer into the dark room. A small candle lay behind the door half buried in the rubble of what used to be the ceiling of the castle. With a spurt of magic he lifted the candle up and then lit it using it to give him a far better reach of light then what his horn could possibly give him.
“Discord… Discord.” The words echoed through the halls as he slowly went through the books that were left trying to find a little bit more information about the mysterious pony that destroyed this place. After searching well into the night he came up with nothing on the pony. Giving up hope he started back to exit the castle disappointed that he couldn’t find anything to help him understand what he was going up against. As he neared the doorway that lead into the massive library he heard a voice echoing down the hall.
“Wait what? Somepony else is here with me?” He said deep within the confines of his mind trying to keep as quiet as possible.
“Come now Discord, You can’t be so certain that those ponies would have left the keys in such an easy place do you?” was heard but it didn’t sound like anypony he has ever encountered in town. It was a deep, satanic voice, almost sounded too deep to be from a normal pony but what in Equestria could produce something so chilling.
“Don’t be so naïve my dear Sombra. She may be smart but smarts doesn’t mean she hid the keys in a secluded spot.” This voice wasn’t like the others; this was more like a mocking voice. Nowhere near as sinister as the last pony that spoke.
“Why are they here though?” Light asked softly to hisself forgetting that he needed to remain quiet
“Did you hear that?” Discord said halting right in his tracks and turned towards the hallway that Light was down. A gulp came to the changeling’s throat as he knew he made a mistake in speaking to hisself like that.
“What are you talking about? I heard nothing.” Sombra says looking at Discord trying to hurry before day came around and exposed them
“Oh hold on to your horn Sombra.” Discord said now walking down the long corridor to the library. Light still clung on to the door fear paralyzing him to that one spot as the footsteps grew louder. The moonlight casted a shadow that Light could see from the darkness of the library. As Discord neared the door he stopped, almost as if knowing that Light was right behind that door and trying to build the fear up in him.
“Hmm… I thought I heard it from here.” A hiss could be heard from his voice as he just stood there wondering if the sound was going to come back again.
“Discord! Come on we have to get going!” Sombra yelled down the hallway startling Light but he remained still.
An angry hiss came from Discord as he knew that his time in the castle was up. The footsteps started to disappear into the distance and once Light knew they were gone he loosened up, collapsing on the floor with a thud.
“That was way too close for comfort” He said now having a little idea of what he was now dealing with. Though without hesitation he trotted for the exit hastily not wanting to be there if they decided to come back to find him again. When he returned to his home he quickly went inside and locked the doors hoping that they didn’t follow him. As he started to calm down and his body loosen he started preparing to get to sleep knowing that whatever they are up against will more than likely test everything his body is capable of, or even death if he wasn’t careful enough.
Author's Note
Well here is the first chapter of the story. Not making these Chapters all extra long cause of time constraints and other factors. Hope you like it and please rate fairly cause this is my first story.