Riven Specter walked, avoiding the reveling throng in the city square. On the outskirts of the city. Looking down at the cliffs and moutainside on which Canterlot was built, gazing at the view over all of equestria. He silently walked to his small apartment, locking the door behind him. All day of working in the sewers tired him, and leaving the painful sign that his cutie mark had not come, nor did he believe it would ever come, after 19 years of ridicule and failed attempts at finding his niche in life, he was done, and just was about ready to give up.
" I'm done," he said to himself,"i give up." He lied down on his bed, and, realizing where he had been all day, stood up quickly, hoping no sewer gunk had gotten on the covers. "crap." the bed had questionable liquids and mush all over where he touched. He gathered the nasty blankets, and carried them to his washer machine that had broken a long time before, and stuffed them in. Pouring the soap and water in the machine, he left to take a shower, giving the sheets an opportunity to soak. In the middle of his shower, he heard a loud knock on his door, probably a salestallion. Riven ignored the knock, and finished his shower. Stepping out, he shook himself, efficiently drying himself to some extent, and stepped out, and started cranking a makeshift handle on his washing machine that steadily washed the sewage out of his work clothes and blankets. After thirty minutes, the clothes were all clean, and the tired stallion flopped on his bed, promptly falling asleep.
Riven was awoken from an acute, dreamless sleep by a loud banging on his door."Open Up! Castle guards!" Groggily getting out of his bed, he opened his apartment door, do see a dozen armed stallions, all of which were bearing the Princess' crest.
"There he is!" a large, green and yellow pegasus in the silver armor of a captain." That stallion was the only citizen not in the gathering! He assassinated princess Celestia!!"
"What?! Celestia? Dead?? Why would I kill princ-" Riven was cut off when a large stallion knocked him to the ground.
"Stay down,"The pony growled,"and quiet." A large pegasus, apparently the captain, began to bark orders as he cuffed Riven.
"The remaining three princesses wish to see the culprit and issue the punishment. So move this piece of crap off to the castle for the trial."
"Move!" A large unicorn said, lifting Riven onto his hooves rather violently with his magic. Riven trotted with them, hundreds of thoughts racing through his mind. Who killed the princess? Why did they think it was him? what was going to happen? As he thought about the circumstances, a pit in Riven's stomach began to grow. Murder was usually punishable by banishment, or death. What was going to happen to him? The group arrived at the castle, and Riven was forced into the castle. The captain kicked Riven over, stating,"Kneel, you scumbag. The princesses are a little upset about Celestia's freaking MURDER!" The pegasus spat out the last word, and backed up, looking expectantly at the front of the great hall. Riven looked too, and saw three ponies walking towards him. He knew who they were. He knew why they were coming. And he was scared. "Princess Luna, I didn't do anythin-"
"Shut up, fool, I do not wish to listen to lies." The princess of the night growled. "You killed my sister. I am going to kill you."
" I had something better in mind, dear Luna," The lavender princess known as Twilight Sparkle stated calmly, words dripping with malice,"We should banish him. The savages will give him death, but slowly."
"Don't you think all of this is a overreacting?" The pink princess, Cadence, questioned,"Couldn't we just give him a sentence to life in prison, or something?"
"No, Twilight is correct. This murderer is now banished from Equestria, from now on until forever more,"Luna commanded, "Take him away." That was the last thing Riven Specter heard before feeling a hard object smash down hard on his temple, knocking him out.
Riven faded back and forth, hovering between consciousness and oblivion, vaguely aware of a sense of travel, and the earthy smell of the forest, then a dry, arid aroma drifted up from around him, and he felt the brutal sun shining down on him. Later, Riven found himself getting dumped off of something, and onto hard ground. He sat there, all night, and what felt like all morning as well. As the sun started past the middle of the sky, Riven regained full consciousness, and sat up.
Riven awoke to utter, violent silence, something he never truly heard before. He was in a barren wasteland of Red rocks, dead plants, and sand. Lots of sand. The silence pressed down on his ears, and he started to hear a strange ringing. "Well, I should probably-" Riven stopped talking, it felt unnatural to disturb the silence.
He quietly began the search for a good spot for a shelter.Designating a large, curved boulder, Riven started to gather rocks and branches and made a lean to against the boulder, overlooking a vast, green landscape. Riven trotted over to the boulder, and looked out over the landscape. If I could get down there, he thought, than I would probably have much better chances of getting home safely. He trotted to the edge of the red hill, and looked down. About a mile up. Sheer red stone. Riven wasn't on a hill, he was on a mountain, Probably a plateau, judging on how flat the ground was. So, how was he going to do this? Riven would need fire, water, and food, and so far, that looked like it was going to be hard.
"Alright, that fire is roaring, and you have a nice shelter, lets see if we can find some running water." After one or two hours of banishment, Riven had begun to talk to himself, to keep himself from flipping out in the pressing silence. " OK, that's still, still, and stagnant." He said, as he found a rather nasty-looking puddle," There's no water here!" Riven started to lose hope on finding any running water, and started to go back, when he decided to walk just a little further, onto a pile of red sand and stones, to see if a little vantage would give Riven any advantage to find running water. As he was climbing up, Riven's front hooves sank into some really thick mud. He unceremoniously pulled his hooves out, and looked at the mud." Well, this means water is near. I wonder where." Riven continued continued up the small hill, sinking into mud with every step. once he got to the top, riven saw that a spring had been at the top of the mound, but had eroded the other side of the mound into a fairly substantial stream, and everything looked clean. "Well, Riven, you found the hydration source. now how are you going to carry it?"
Later, riven was watching in fascination, as his little experiment started to work.He had dug a large ditch, from the natural spring to a deep well, nearby his lean-to. It was a little reservoir, and riven could block off the water source, so his camp would not overflow. He followed the water as the little stream cascaded into his pothole and began to pool at the bottom." Well then," Riven resumed his personal conversation again. "We have everything you need to survive,and those twigs could act as my food. I guess we're all set for the night." Riven trotted to his lean-to." Well done, Riven," He complimented himself as he crawled into his shelter. "Tomorrow you make a little garden."
Oh. What time is it? Riven sat up, looking around the dark camp, and noticed a small grey on the horizon, meaning it was probably about 3:30 in the morning. Why did he wake up? Something was wrong, Riven felt like he was-a blood-curdling scream right behind him made Riven freak out, and his reaction, was side-step and buck. Riven's back hooves made contact with something, and as Riven turned around, shaking, he saw a strange-looking pony, with matted fur and filed teeth, and red mud smeared in strange designs on it's body. Blood seeped from its mouth, and gurgling emitted from the back of the wild ponies throat. Looking through the dark of pre-dawn, scanning for more wild ponies. Suddenly, Rivens front hooves were swiped out from under him, and the pony immediately tackled Riven, biting the scruff of his neck. Rolling on the ground, locked in combat, the two ponies rolled into the little reservoir of water riven had made, thus giving Riven the advantage, due to his agility in water. Untangling himself from the savage, Riven forced the other pony's head under the water, and held it there, not stopping, until about ten minutes, when he pulled the limp body of the pony that he had just drowned out of the water pool, and hauled it off to the edge of the plateau, and hauled it of the edge, flinching as he heard it bounce off the edge of the mountain. He did not enjoy killing the other pony, but what was done was done, and Riven had more to do.
"So, does this mean that there are other ponies out there?" Riven wondered aloud as he added to his little lean-to, making it larger, and a little more comfortable. He pondered on this as he bit a bite of branch off a dead bush. The snack reminded him of what he was planning to do today, and Riven got to work. First Riven dug up and churned the damp soil near his little run of water. Then he searched the area for dead branches, in hopes that they would have seeds inside them. Riven was not disappointed, for seeds would plentifully spill out of the holes in the dry, dead twigs, and onto the overturned, soft mud that had already been prepared. Once finished, Riven covered the seeds with more mud, and stood back, Taking in the churned mud, the irrigation, and sighed.
"Well, it's not much, or pretty, at that, but it'll do." Riven then picked up the now seedless sticks and carried them to his shelter. Then he headed out to go explore, and maybe find a tribe of wild ponies.
Riven looked up, and saw the setting sun, and started heading back. Riven realized he did not have a clock, but the sun seemed to be setting prematurely. "Huh. Maybe it's because Princess Celestia passed away, and Princess Luna is not as strong as she was. But wouldn't Princesses Cadence and Twilight sparkle be able to help? Or maybe it's only Cadence and Princess Twilight lifting the sun?" As Riven entered camp, he quieted, and looked at the sun, just touching the horizon, casting a pink glow across the mountain, like fire in the sky. Riven climbed on top of his lean-to, and watched the sun sink past the horizon, and the sky gradually fade into black. Stars slowly began to appear, and a soft glow in the east slowly grew, and the moon began to rise.
Hours later, when Riven felt like all the world was asleep but him,a song, wafting through the cool dusk air caught is attention. It was a melodious, beautiful, but violently mournful song that softly drifted into Riven Specter's ears. It was intoxicating, and Riven listened to the melody, fixated in his position, soaking in the notes, and listened to the mournful tale of the beginning of Equestria as ponies know it, and the birth of the two princesses, and their trials and their success. Their sorrows and their rejoices. As Riven listened, the song began erratically changing into a powerful and horrifying tale of war and chaos, then solemn, sorrowful banishment for ten thousand years. Then, joy, and gladness of freedom, and purity, and beauty. Riven was wholly taken up in the joyous song, and then, the song abruptly turned into the saddest, most heart-broken note, in which spoke of loss, and death. Riven heard the single note quaver, and cease. Enchanted by the tale, Riven jumped from off of his home, and started walking, pondering what he had heard.
Riven had been walking for hours, thinking of what the song meant, and where it came from. As he was pondering, Riven had come upon the other end of the plateau, and saw a thin, crumbly path zigzagging its way down the sheer cliff. Looking at the path, Riven was tempted to follow it, but, looking back, he felt that he should just stay at his camp tonight, and explore the path the next morning. Turning, Riven made his way back to his camp, enjoying the cool night air. The smell of the sweet, crisp night reminded Riven of all the nights he would walk a moonlit field, or walk the streets of sleeping Canterlot, when Riven was pondering what was wrong with him, for not having a cutie mark. Riven was torn from his memories as his campsite came to view. Several silhouettes dancing around Riven's campfire, singing and wailing. Riven crouched behind a small rise, watching the wild ponies dance, a chaotic, yet hypnotizing action that entranced and confused Riven.
