Author's Note

This is the first chapter, out of many. It is by far the shortest, to give you a quick introduction to the setting and mystery of my story. On average, subsequent chapters are about three times as long.

I hope you'll enjoy! Happy Halloween!

The First Chapter

THE FIRST CHAPTER

The soft grass effortlessly gave way for Twilight’s hooves, shaping the first hoof-prints this field had seen in many years. It was not conventional for Twilight to be this far away from Ponyville but there was a herb that only grew this far into the Everfree forest. Well, according to Zecora at least. Zecora knew far more about the plants and potions than all of Twilight’s books combined. As a result, Twilight would usually visit her for advice during her expeditions to the Everfree forest.

Today, she was looking for a quite rare flower and had received nothing but directions and a slender warning from Zecora to be careful. But Twilight had discarded that search for the moment as she was stepping out on a grass field that she had just come across. It was very strange to see such a flat and light-green glade so deep into the Everfree forest. There were no weeds or plants on the field, just the flat grass that got even more deflated as Twilight stepped her way towards the middle. A meadow like this must have been taken care of by someone, but the farthest anyone lived into the Everfree forest was Zecora. However, she does not go this deep, even less every other day to go trimming the grass of some particular meadow in the middle of seemingly nowhere.

It was a strange sight, but the truly bizarre aspect of this greenery was the small beige item in the middle which Twilight was approaching. The square shaped item grew larger in her field of view and before she knew it, it was just under her hooves: It was a note.

She took a last look around the mysterious meadow before eventually setting her sight on the note. It was tan yellow, flaked and wrinkly, indicating that it was very old as the note was in the midst of its decomposing process. Now, it was removed from the delicate grass and floating in midair, clutched by Twilight Sparkle’s magic. The page was blank. She turned it around and right as she did so, a short shriek followed and the note was dropped onto the all so familiar grass. There were words, and they were written in blood.

Twilight was unsettled and nervous as she hesitantly forced her hoof forward to push over the note so that it would reside with the content upwards, pointing towards the sky. With uncertainty, she began reading.

“My name is Aeon.” Twilight took a deep breath and read the second half of the brief message. ”I died in Tantibus.” The word Tantibus itself was underlined, indicating its importance. The authenticity of the blood disgusted Twilight. “Dear Celestia! How horrible! Is this some sort of death or suicide note? Who was Aeon? And what is Tantibus? I better bring this back to Zecora. She might have a clue about what this means.”

Twilight’s horn started to glow as the note started to levitate once again. Unfortunately for her though, this note was not going to leave its home without at least one more surprise up its sleeve. With a loud crackle, lightning struck down in the middle of the field, lighting up Twilight’s entire view in the shape of a giant white beacon. Twilight jumped back hastily and tumbled over onto the grass as the light faded away.

It took some time for Twilight to recover and adjust herself back from the intense brightness that had temporarily scarred her eyes. She had a hard time just seeing her own blurry hooves in front of her. Eventually, she got up on unsteady hooves and took a look around for what was different. Another loud shriek escaped Twilight’s lips as she realized that she was forthwith standing in a graveyard, which had spontaneously appeared onto the field around her.

She closed her eyes and started to count to ten, breathing slower and relaxing herself as the seconds passed. This usually helped her calm down under stressful circumstances. But this was just unbelievable, that a graveyard would just appear like that. The note itself was also quite perplexing.

“…eight, nine, ten.” Twilight opened her eyes again only to once more gaze upon the same shocking sight. There were only five tombstones, but they were scattered about a small area in the middle of the field, around where Twilight was standing. She picked up the note for the third time with her magic and begun wandering around, investigating the tombstones up close. She looked at one neighboring her and read what it had to say.

Glory

LOST the Tantibus Challenge

Died in Tantibus

“What is the Tantibus Challenge?” Twilight headed for the next tombstone. They all appeared identical. A large, upright rectangle reaching a size around four feet high, two feet wide. Twilight looked at the front of the light-grey grave. The only difference between them was the name. This tombstone’s rightful owner was ‘Decker’, also a loser of ‘the Tantibus Challenge’. The words rippled in her mind like pebbles cast into an otherwise gentle pond. Died in Tantibus.

Twilight looked up to the sky. Dusk was upon her. She knew that she had to get back before it went dark and since she was so far away from home, she would have to leave urgently. But Twilight had always been scientific at heart and could therefore not control her curiosity during intriguing circumstances. And what could possibly be more mysterious and intriguing than this?

Twilight moved on to the next tombstone and then the next and then the next. They were all the same. The only thing changing was the name; “Glory, Decker, Dawna, Maverick, Skydance… LOST The Tantibus Challenge, LOST The Tantibus Challenge, LOST The Tantibus Challenge, Died In Tantibus, Died In Tantibus, Died In Tantibus.” Twilight was thinking out loud to herself, “They all lost this challenge, and died?” Twilight then held the note in front of her eyes again. Aeon did not have a tombstone and his sinister signature was in her focus and on her mind. “Aeon, did you win?”