Empire of the Sun

He took a carefree deep breath in. The smell was of ancient nostalgia; disgusting, but familiar… dry, but familiar… humid, but familiar. Rock and stone drowned in darkness and dust as far as the eye could see. Or at least a pony’s eye anyway. The Draconequus stalked his way through the long abandoned tunnels, his tail and horns brushing hard rock, almost giving him a sense of claustrophobia; almost. After weaving his way through the maze, he eventually found the inner tunnels, the ones that Clover the Clever had found completely by accident about a thousand years earlier. It was a dangerous encounter, he recalled.

They were just as vibrant as they used to be.

There was a sharp right turn up ahead, with a strange orange glow around the corner that seemed to appear and then disappear within a few seconds of each other. It was just like he remembered. He made the turn and found small vines with leaves that sprouted from the solid rock walls at astonishing speed. Hundreds of plants lined this single tunnel down to where it opened up into a large room at the end with light from the sun streaming down into it. Then, just as fast as they blossomed, they spontaneously combusted and lit up the tunnel like a thousand violent candles, forcing his gaze away because of the change in light. He grunted in displeasure and the plants withered up and fell into ash.

Clover the Clever could walk through this tunnel without being hurt, because she was small enough to fit through. He remembered watching her keenly that day. She was frightened, but curious; confused, yet fascinated. She had kept her cloak to herself even tighter than usual, and watched every step she made that didn't reverberate as much down the rocky cave.

However, Event Horizon, the Draconequus Spirit of Destruction, was a Draconequus; being a Draconequus, he had to jet through the tunnel before the vines sprouted again and caught on fire.

At the end of the tunnel was a large cave mouth. The ceiling opened up to sunlight that gave way to the brilliant cracks and features of the rocky room. If he kept going straight, the tunnel continued on the other wall, back into darkness. But this time, he once again looked up and appreciated this room. Straight up was a clear blue sky. The sun was directly in the middle, shining. Of course, it wasn’t Earth’s Sun. The yellow star was bigger in the sky; close enough to begin to see surface activity. It was harsher, more demanding. The plants came back: they grew everywhere. They lined the walls, infested the open entrance in the ceiling, even sprouting on a few stalagmites. In a few seconds, the Sun flashed a burst of energy, burning all the visible plants in fire in a temperature spike. The Sun settled down again, and after a few seconds the plants grew back. Then, it flashed once more and the plants burned up.

This was his first portal. It led to a world where the star kept bursting outward with energy violently every few seconds. With each burst, the plants burned up. But somehow, they would grow back in mere seconds when the Sun settled down. Event Horizon still wondered exactly what the rest of the world looked like. He had at one point floated up to the ceiling and poked his head out to look at the surface. All he could see was sand in every direction like a desert, and very small plants that sometimes sprouted up, only to be burned by the Sun’s exploding energy.

He now moved on, going back into the original tunnels, brushing up with darkness once again. He hissed when his eyes had to readjust, temporarily making him blind. After a few seconds, however, he was immersed in the great world of his once home.

One right turn turned him into a hallway that was no longer cave rock. Instead it was a valiant red crystal that bent light in many many different directions. However, inside the walls, was a swirling black essence that darted around it. It seemed to have a mind of its own looking as if it were searching for something. Both walls were like this, where a black cloud of… stuff swirled and paced in the red crystal walls. How deep the crystals went was anypony’s guess, even Horizon had no idea.

Similar to the first tunnel, it also led to another massive room. This was an entire crystal cave mouth; the opening was on the right wall, however, upon entering, instead of the ceiling. Red rigid crystal stalactites protruded from the ceiling and walls. Through the opening, one could see the sky. It was covered up by unnaturally dark clouds that boomed faintly in the distance. In the center of the view, lay an outstretched castle on the horizon. It was made out of this red crystal, as well. The clouds seemed to be blacker the closer they got to it.

    This was a different world. Event Horizon sometimes would just watch the view of the castle from the safety of his portal, when two dots in the distance would fly around the building and blast each other with different colored lights.

When Clover found this portal, she had broken, mentally. Seeing otherworldly structures by unknown sentient beings had her dying to know all the answers to her questions. Horizon remembered seeing the longing in her face, but she knew it was impossible to explore. In the cave itself, the crystals were sharp and dangerous off of the path. Even if she made it out of the cave, the castle was easily weeks work of walking, with nothing but barren terrain before it. She frustratedly had stormed back into the tunnels, continuing on her original journey.

Horizon giggled remembering that, whisking back in, himself.

There were other portals, to a few other worlds he had made. Besides Destruction, the vast realm of space was the only other thing that fascinated him. He passed through more tunnels, more rooms with more views of destroyed or doomed worlds. But he had had enough after a while, levitating into his dusty, lonely throne room.

His old throne, made of wood, sat in the middle, abandoned for a millennium. It was a round room, a dead end. The rocks were more jagged here, making it more dangerous to brush along the walls in the wrong direction. Old paintings from ponies more ancient than the tribes were crudely faded on the walls… paintings of him.

But enough of the delay. He sat down in his throne, after blowing on it fiercely, kicking dust up everywhere. He was sort of proud of himself, that nopony had found these tunnels in a thousand years. Getting serious, he rested his arms on the armrest and looked up at the rounded ceiling, dark with cracks, seeping deeper and deeper as years passed.

“Okay,” he said, taking a deep breath, “Why did you call me here…?” A small cyan light blinked slowly on one spot in the ceiling, and Horizon noted it. Hundreds of views opened up before his eyes, of various different places, all projected above him. The images curved with the ceiling curve, and crowded each other, making any single view impossible to differentiate. Using his magical ability, he zoomed in on the section where the cyan light was blinking. The Canterlot Castle, Changeling Hive and Sun views instantly became recognizable as he brought the images closer. He kept zooming in on his library, before the blinking image filled the entire view.

“Alright… what do we have?” he asked, gaining some excitement in the mystery. His old throne room had summoned him, somehow. Despite the fact that he had this same feature in his current domain, for some reason, his old one had called him.

The image was strange. It was another planet, for sure. The sun was a different color, though what, he couldn't tell. The sky was red, the land was red, and there were no signs of life, other than one very obvious thing. Event Horizon tightened his vulture claws as he processed what those weird rocks in the distance were.

It seemed to be a destroyed building, but what looked to be a telescope stretched out of it. It moved, actually, and stopped, as if somepony was controlling it. Horizon immediately understood.

Something involving this world and whoever was on it, was about to cause something really bad. For the first time in a while, anxiety churned in his stomach. Whatever world this was, wasn't being watched in his new domain, so his old one had to alert him.

With no more information other than this mysterious view into another world, Horizon had no choice.