Two Sides of One Lie

-Prologue

     Applejack huffed as she brought her gaze up from the ground to look ahead. The forms of her friend's bright coats contrasted against the dark green foliage. Most notably, Twilight, who held a map floating in the air in front of her. Applejack could only shake her head as she noticed the confused look the purple mare was giving the map. It was still obvious she didn't know where they were. However, Applejack figured she couldn't blame Twilight. The map they had been given by the Princess was crude at best, and the fact that the details to their mission were very vague. The little they did know was that some kind of "surge of enegy" as the letter had dubbed it, occurred in the forest. She and the others were supposed to find the source of it and if possible, bring it back to Ponyville with them.  She honestly began to wonder if maybe the Princess had made a mistake. Applejack was suddenly dragged from her thoughts by hearing her name.

     "Applejack?" it was Rarity. "Applejack dear, are you alright?" Rarity looked to her with worried eyes

     "Uh-huh, Ah'm fine Rarity. Just slightly annoyed 's all." Applejack didn't even bother to look over.

     She suddenly slammed to a halt because she'd nearly rammed head first into Twilight's rear end. She looked over at the specific mare and stared at her, expecting an answer. "Twilight, what in the world are ya stoppin' for? We need 'ta keep mov..." The sentence died on Applejack's tounge as she walked to Twilight's side. There before her laid a large expanse of dead trees and grass. "Dear Celestia..."

     Rainbow Dash floated down and hovered next to Twilight, staring out over the dying mass of forest. "Is this it?"

     Twilight looked down at the map questioningly, staring in at it for a moment. "It has to be. This is where the map led us." She folded the floating paper and tossed it, seeing as there was no longer any use for it. "Well, let's get going."

     Twilight proceeded first followed quickly by Rainbow, Applejack and Rarity, with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy trailing last. The air smelled of a strong pungent odor that burned their noses, and the grass under their hooves crumpled and withered. All the trees that had once grown here were now either dead or fallen.

     It didn't go unnoticed that most of the forest's creatures had silenced. It seemed like nothing wanted to be in this area, avoiding it entirely. The few brave insects that still chirped or sung here were probably looking for a way out, and the quiet air reminded Applejack of a graveyard, except there was that lack of sadness. It was simply... Dead.

     The further in they went the more the scent and devastation grew. Now the ground was a near black, and all animal sounds had stopped completely. The sky had morphed to a dull grey, abandoning it's once brilliant blue and white. The sun even seemed as though it became dimmer. What could possibly cause something like this? It definitely wasn't an explosion. There wouldn't have been any trees or grass left had that been what'd happened.

     Applejack let her next hoof lower to connect with the ground, but it instead met only air. "WHA-!" Applejack began to fall forward as the ground rushed up to her face. Suddenly her fall had been stopped as she felt a pair of hooves wrap around her waist.

     "Hold on Applejack, I got ya!" Rainbow said as she tugged on her orange friend, who jerked back and landed on her haunches.

     "What in 'tarnation happened to the ground?" Applejack swiped her hat back off of her face and glanced ahead.

     She was met with the sight of a very large crater. It was huge, and could have easily been as wide as her barn! Smoke seemed to form around it's edges and rose from the ground in different spots.

     Twilight began to take a step into the crater, but was cut off by Fluttershy tapping her shoulder. "Um, Twilight.. not to be rude or anything, but.. c-can we just leave please?"  The yellow pegasus peered into the bowl shaped formation.

     "I'm sorry Fluttershy, but we've come too far to leave now. We have to figure out what happened here." With that Twilight

began to slowly walk down the edge of the crater. She didn't blame Fluttershy though. Whatever caused a crater this big must've been very powerful, and to be honest, she was a little nervous herself.

     "Please do be careful dear. I don't want you to get hurt while we're this far away from any help." Twilight simply nodded in aknowledgement to Rarity.

     Everypony followed suit, Fluttershy lastly. Each of them carefully climbed their way down the crater.

     "Everypony be careful, this dirt breaks under your hooves." Twilight warned the others. The ground broke apart very easily. Which meant it was very easy to trip and possibly go tumbling down the side of the crater. A risk they really couldn't afford out here.

     "What is this stuff?" Applejack had noticed what looked like little fragments of rock scattered in and around the crater. Each one seemed to give off a faint golden hue, and when touched, caused a strange tingling sensation on her skin. They ranged in size from as small as a pea, to as big as a baseball, and were all a charred black in color.

     "I don't know, but I think it's a fair bet that they're somehow connected to that." Twilight pointed a hoof toward the very center of the crater, where there laid a large glowing rock that sat in the gravel.

     It was very strange to say the least. It was about the size of a watermelon, and was glowing with a brilliant yellow aura. It also seemed to have a strange metallic-like texture. Twilight was nearly five feet away from it, and she could already feel the energy coming off the thing. It radiated a strong sensation that made her feel somewhat nauseous. It appeared to be made of two different parts. The good portion of it was covered in large splotches of a dark, yellowy-orange colored, glassy-like material similar to amber. Seperating these glass-like areas was a strange ebony black material that reflected light like a metal, and formed a thick, spiderweb like pattern around the splotches of glass. Last but not least it appeared to be settled on top of something that was, or used to be white in color.

     "Oooh, what do you think it is!? Maybe it's a gem, or some weird kind of rock, or maybe it's-" Pinkie was cut off by Rainbow slapping a hoof into her mouth, and receiving a stern gaze as well.

     "I don't know but it's sitting on top of something." Twilight stated. "I'm going to try to move it."

     "Becareful now sugarcube." Applejack said with a slight hint of nervousness in her voice.

     "I will. Don't worry." Twilight started using her magic to lift the rock up off the ground. She then moved it over and gently placed it back down. Next she lifted the white object off the ground and attempted to unwravle the ball of cloth. When she managed to get it open she dropped it again out of fear.

     It was some sort of clothing, that much was obvious. But the whole bottom of it was ripped, torn and soaked in blood. The sight elicited a shreik from Fluttershy, and a loud gasp from Rarity. Pinkie lost her smile and her eyes grew wide. Applejack and Rainbow Dash cringed. Twilight almost wanted to throw up.

     After the group had calmed down, everypony was completely silent. Twilight picked the peice of clothing back up to examine it closer. It was not whole and was missing it's right half. It appeared to be a lab coat and was soaked in blood near the bottom, but thinned out as it went up. Small bits of flesh hung from the edges of the coat. However, what was strangest was it's size. It was very long, and Twilight was sure not even Clestia would fit into it entirely. There were large tears in the fabric, and each of them had a decent sized blood stain surrounding it. Just from the amount of blood alone Twilight could tell that whoever it belonged to was almost certainly dead.

     Twilight turned to look at the rest of the group. Fluttershy was in shock and Applejack was next to her, rubbing her back and cooing soothing words to her. Things like, "It's alright sugarcube," and "Ah'm sure they're fine". Pinkie was looking directly at the long coat. Her eyes seemed to gaze absently at it as if she were in thought.

     "Let's hurry up, This place is giving me the creeps. N-Not that I'm scared or anything." Rainbow said as she tried to maintain a normal tone of voice, but faltering noticeably.

     "Not just yet. I want to find out what happened here." Twilight trotted back over to the strange rock and picked it up with her Telekinesis. Eyeing it closely, she thought it might be possible to use a certain spell on the rock, but she wasn't sure if it would work.

     Her horn lit up with a bright purple aura and she squeezed her eyes shut. Within a few seconds, the rock began to lift into the air and steadily started glowing brighter.  As the rock began to grow brighter it also began vibrating. Gently at first but then it started becoming violent.

     It reached a point where the others had to shield their eyes in order to see anything around them. Cracks began to form in the rock, each one released a very bright beam of light. The rock was now vibrating dangerously and the last thing anypony saw was a bright white flash.