Author's Note

So i'm kinda noob to this, so please bear with me. This will be my first fanfic so please, if there are any criticism, any improvements to be made, share it with me.

Prelude...Arise

The voices above the storage room penetrated the aged stone separating it from the throne room. The muffled speech reached the dark corner of the room where a vessel resided.

...

"...The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us."

"You still don't have the sixth Element! The spark didn't work!"

"But it did! A different kind of spark. I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you,
to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all... are my friends! You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the... the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element: the element of... magic!"

"Nooo! Nooo!"

BZZZZZZZZZZZRK?!

"Ughhuhh..." A groan emanated from one corner of a very dark room. If it weren't for the cracks formed on the ceiling of the room would the darkness engulf the whole space. A very dim light still encapsulated the small LED's lining a base of a pod-like structure, slowly fading.

"UGHHHHH..." Another groan, this time louder, accompanied by loud banging noises coming from the pod.

"DAD... MOM..." Shouts of anguish and desperate banging echoed throughout the small space inside the pod. Finally, a hissing stopped the shouts as the door to the pod slowly lifted open.

Silence met the room as a human stepped out of the pod. Unable to find his voice, shock evident in his face. the echoes subsided and once again the place is without sound. For a few minutes he remained slack-jawed, bewildered at the sudden change of the surroundings he knows.

When he was able to regain his bearings, he scanned the room. Despite of the darkness, he was able to see...

Nothing, neither wood nor steel can be seen, only the stone walls stand. All of the tools and weapons stored had been reduced to rust and only a mound of rock to the side opposite the doorway is to be seen.

The once packed storage area was now completely desolate, as if thousands of years has passed.

...

Thousands of years,

....

He shuddered, out of the thoughts that came to the forefront of his mind.

Then he realized.

He was alone.

It must have been at least a dozen centuries since he had been locked inside that pod.

He remembered his last conversation with his father like it was not an hour ago. Now, it will be the last time he was able to talk to his father, to family, worse, to another human being.

He began to weep quietly, the realization hit him like a wall. He lost almost all the things he held most dearly, his family, friends, country. He lost his love, his dreams, his goals.

He lost hope...He lost part of his sanity.

He laid on the ground, sobbing, sniffling. He lost his purpose for existing, what is there to live for if he cannot have children? What is there to live for if he can never hear the voice of another? What is there to live for?

The evidence was clear as day. The room was practically screaming 'not used for two thousand years', plus the pod was deactivated by no one. His family can never survive that long.

He remained there, crying hours, weeping at his loss. He was alone.

He was broken.

Finally after an hour or two of crying and mourning, he ran out of tears. He finally cared enough to feel the dryness of his throat, the light that entered the room through cracks, and the thawed feces that move within his colon.

Now he needed to survive, a thought to which he smiled at if not ever so slightly. He welcomed the idea of a new objective, he needed the distraction. So, for his slipping sanity, he clung to it. He set his mind right, tried to banish the haunting thoughts. He remembered his father, the last words between them.

'Dad?!...DAD?!'

'No don't...You'll live, for me that's the most important,'

'I want to stay with you?!'

'You don't need to...'

He needs to live, if not for himself, for his father. It's what he would've wanted. If his dad didn't, he wouldn't have bothered driving them here to put him on a prototype millennial hibernation pod, it will just make no sense.

But for all good things on Earth, he should've been long dead already. It doesn't feel right, he feels...misplaced.

I should've been dead

He shook the thought away. Now was not the time to think about it. Now, his priorities are finding food, water, and more importantly, a place to be rid of his foul thousand year excrement.

He took some steps towards the doorway, his legs was stiff but he can still walk. Hell his whole body was stiff, still recovering from the effects of cryohibernation. Perhaps being frozen for millennium did no good to his bones.

He shrugged the stiffness off, It will pass he thought.

He came out of the room and slowly ascended the stairs leading to a passage blocked by creeping vines. Strangely, when outside, he can't differentiate the passage from the walls covered in flora. He knows where's where here, his father often took him here. The department building contained the most advanced technology of the Alliance. He had no problem finding the exit.

What he saw outside took the breath out of him.

The hell?!

The department building was now inside a thick forest of low, sickly looking trees. The plant life there took the general theme of 'menacing' to a weird level. Hell, the color was right, the height however, it looked like they were bonsai trees with that figure!

But that was not what bothered him.

This was a desert?!

It took a few moments to return to the task at hand. He set out to explore the forest since nothing other than the pod could have survived. He wandered the forest that once had been a desert. Most of the trees bear no fruit, some offered strange fruits, sickly in color and seemed non-edible to him.

Finally he gave up finding food, so he sought for the exit. He walked in one direction, hoping to pass by a river or anything that can point him out of the forest. He decided to walk towards the east... or north?

Well he was never good at navigation, so please, forgive him dear readers.

After a few minutes, he was already jumping at shadows. He felt the surge of dread that filled him, feeling that he was being stalked,he was prey. At times the trees seem to bend, to move. His ears was also ringing with faint laughter that made his paranoia worse. The shadows were watching him, he could sense it.

He saw another shadow move.

One step. Another... And a jump.

He felt his foot connect with something, he involuntarily hopped aside. He slowly reached down to it with trepidation. He felt a metallic object touch his skin.

Curious, he grabbed it and stepped into the light again in order to examine the object. It was tubular, a mouthpiece was attached to one end with several holes of varied sizes on one side. He knew what it was, he was well familiar with it for it was one of the few instruments he can play, "Oh, a flute."

He played a song with it. He felt merry with the sudden acquisition of a flute, it was perfect to lighten up his spirit.

Then his logical intuition finally caught up. It was a flute.

A METAL flute

He suddenly dropped the piece of metal on the ground. Certainly nature can't create a flute, much less a metal flute.

"I'm not alone," he said quietly to himself. He smiled, then laughed. It felt good to be assured again, to be with company soon. He felt hopeful again. He felt his sanity start to pull back together ever so slowly. He knew, he'll find his true purpose soon.

He stooped over to grab the fallen flute. He saw small characters on the end opposite the mouthpiece. It was a name.

Lyra Heartstrings. He smiled.

Lyra was roving through the forest in search of her missing flute when she saw the monster.

It was tall, almost two ponies high. It was bipedal and had long arms. Its body was covered only in fur so thin. The only place it was properly covered in fur was the area above his head. It also wore clothing, a lot of clothing. overall, it was a weird creature, even it perfectly balancing on two legs left her baffled.

She saw it jump into the shadow of a twisted oak tree. Weird, there was nopony there, it was a sight that confused her. The monster bent over to pick up something. It walked out of the shadow to take a good look at the object he held.

The object in question was metallic, she saw it glint but the monster was standing in the way of her sight. She drew closer to the monster while remaining hidden behind the vegetation.

She got a good look at the monsters 'face', it was of peach color, only slightly paler. It had a very short 'muzzle', only a small triangular piece of flesh and skin attached to the face of it. The eyes were bloodshot red, streams of dried tears flowed downwards from its eyes.

Then she noticed the flute it held in its hands. The small characters on the end of it gave enough evidence that...

That's my flute?!

The creature drew the flute closer to its mouth wile smiling gratefully at nopony in particular. She silently prayed that the creature won't break the instrument. Even though she played her lyre most of the time, that flute was her favorite, No, please don't eat my flute?!

She closed her eyes, preparing for the worst. Then she heard the melody of her flute being crus—played??

She stared at the creature playing her flute, stunned. It didn't use magic yet it was able to play the instrument. It used its fingers to disrupt the flow of air. She was suddenly enthralled by the music.

Then it dropped the piece of metal, the sudden change of demeanor shook her out of her stupor. She backed away quickly and quietly, fearing that she may have been detected by the creature. She began to slip away towards ponyville, leaving her flute to the creature.

Maybe one day, we will meet,

One day.