Destiny: The Wrath of Tirek

----------------Twilight----------------

It was strange at first, like waking up from a dream that was… not quite pleasant, but you didn't want to leave either. I remember before sleep a flash of light then, nothing. Then another flash as I woke up, as well as a voice.

"It worked. You're alive! I thought I'd never see you again."

I shook the groggy feeling from my head. As soon as I was lucid, I brought the… floating, light, orb thing into focus. It had a purple shell that ticked and spun every now and then. It all hovered around a single green eye.

"W-where am I?" I asked the orb. I tried to pick myself up, but immediately collapsed into the rubble.

Now that I'd given it attention, I became aware of a deep ache throughout my body. It wasn't particularly painful, but it wasn't easy to ignore either. Regardless, I did my best to put it in the back of my mind and clambered back into something resembling a standing position. In the meantime, the orb responded.

"Deep in the Everfree Forest. You must've been hit pretty hard way back when, there almost wasn't enough to put you back together."

"'Put back together'?" I asked, "What do you mean? Did something happen?"

"I'd say so. Judging by the damage done before I healed you, you'd been killed by a pretty powerful spell. Almost to the point that'd be overkill for the Goddesses. It's a miracle I was able to put you back together."

"Wait. I died? But, then, how am I alive?" I asked, confused. I didn't remember much, but I knew that the dead weren't able to be brought back to life. Once they passed, their souls went on to their place in the afterlife, their purpose fulfilled. Even now just sitting here felt… wrong, strange. I still wasn't firing on cylinders at this point though, so that might've been the culprit.

The orb chimed in, breaking my train of thought.

"The Mistress of the Moon. Luna. She was one of the two sisters of old. She created us in Equestria's greatest struggle, the conflict that finally ended us. Once she realized she couldn't win by normal means, she sealed herself and her loved ones in the Moon and created us to carry out a single task."

Luna.

The name seemed familiar, though I couldn't quite place it.

I didn't have much time to mull it over though, as a spine-chilling howl sounded from outside the ruins of the castle.

"Oh you're joking. Why in Luna's name can't anything ever go smoothly! Come on, we're in danger here!" exclaimed the machine.

That snapped me out of whatever grogginess still clung to me, replaced by a primal fear for my safety and, to an extent, the orb's.

"Come on!' he barked, "We have to get to the city! NOW!"

======OIO======

I had long lost track of how far we'd been running. Or at least how far I was running. My Ghost got to almost lazily float beside me the entire time. But even with that, I was glad for his being there. If not, I'd have been dead long ago, in both respects of being brought back in the first place, and also the bolts of magic flying past my head. Yeah. That was an issue.

"DUCK!" he screamed, prompting me to receive a mouthful of dirt as a bolt sizzled past. Seeing a tree nearby, I scrambled as fast as I could behind it.

"That was fired a long ways away," said the Ghost, "Either we're losing him, or we have a sniper on our hands. Great."

I peeked my head out slightly in the direction the bolt had come from. I was rewarded by a flash of light from the ruins of the castle and nearly getting beaned in the face. It buried itself into the tree, leaving a sizzling crater from the impact. I whipped my head back behind, not wanting to test his skill, and my luck, any further

"Yup, sniper." I reported.

Please don’t let me get hit by one of those things.

It was then I realized my mistake. I'd been paying attention to the sniper for too long. With barely a rustle in the bushes, one of the creatures leaped out and tackled me to the ground. Luckily, I was pinned in such a way that my back was on the ground and my belly to the… mutant… flickering… pony, if you could call it that, allowing me to curl my legs beneath me, and buck him off with all the strength I could muster. He flew and hit the tree before slumping over, dazed it seemed. Not for long though. Almost instantly he recovered and leaped at me again. Before he could reach me though, his head exploded into a brilliant light, and like a marionette with its string cut, it collapsed into the dirt. A knife dropped beside it, clearly what had killed it. Where had that come from?

Then, even as the light was still fading from the former creatures neck, a crack sounded through the air, different from the one who'd been trying to kill me. A body fell from the castle wall.

Then all was silent. Deafeningly so. Only the sounds of the forest and the ticks of the Ghost broke the quiet. A voice called out, seemingly to no one in particular, yet everyone as well.

"Yeah! How ya like that?" it echoed.

I wasn't sure what to make of it, so I stayed quiet. My Ghost however, had different intentions.

"Dash? Damn, am I glad to see you!"

"Huh? Who was-? Wait, Spike, is that you? Yeah! It is!"

Whoever it was, they sounded friendly. I figured it wouldn't hurt to meet them out there. I stepped out from behind the tree. What happened next, I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

She (her voice sounded as such) had been running at a pretty decent pace towards us, and events happened to line up properly. First off, she got a good look at me, a look of surprise lancing across her face. Then, she caught a weird angle on a rock. Both of these things probably would've been fine by themselves. After seeing me, she could've taken a bit of time to recover, but would be no worse for wear. Tripping on the rock, she could've caught it, compensated, and kept going.

But both happened at the same time. This resulted in her losing her balance, flailing her legs, and faceplanting not 3 feet in front of me.

My hero.

"Uh, hi." I offered as she peeled herself off the forest floor. "Thanks for saving me back there."

"Heh, yeah," she replied, clambering to her hooves and brushing herself off.

Now that she was in front of me, I was able to get a good look at her. She had a dirtied cyan coat and rainbow mane. I looked as though she'd been out here a while. Encasing her was an elegant set of armor, all covered by a flowing (color) cloak. Was she a type of warrior?

"Don’t mention it!" she wheezed, having the knocked from her. "Though I guess to really be honest, I didn't even know you were there. Wait. Oh crap! The knife! Hope I didn't get you!"

"Wait, you mean this one?" I said as I picked up the offending tool.

"Yeah! That one." She reached out to take it, but hesitated.

"You know what, go ahead and have it. I take you're a newbie right?"

"'Newbie'? Oh, you mean just brought back? Yeah, I guess I am then."

"You're welcome." chimed Spike

"Oh right, thanks by the way. Didn't exactly have time to say that before. You know. Creepy murderous ponies and all."

"Meh. No big. I get it." my Ghost said, accepting my apology.

"Anyway, yeah, newbie. That means you're on your way to Canterlot right?" Dash directed the last question at my Ghost, Spike was it?, who replied.

"Yeah. She's still pretty shaken up. I wanted to get her there before anything happened, but I guess it was too much to hope for."

"For sure. Yeah, the only constant thing out here is chaos. Anyway, come on. We don’t want to be just standing around here at night. There's more where your welcome committee came from."

======OIO======

It was dawn by the time we even got close enough to see it. Canterlot.

"It's beautiful." I commented.

And beautiful it was. High towers growing from the side of the mountain, a wall tall enough to rival them. Lush green forests. But the centerpiece put it all to shame.

It just, hung there. Serene. Unyielding. Piercing the heavens.

Dash caught my staring. She smiled and came up beside me.

"Quite a sight isn't she? Come on. We'll be in the city soon enough. You can get a better look at her then."

* NEW GRIMIORE UNLOCKED *