Chapter 1 – A Choice Made

Mada'in Saleh, The Great East Desert, Saddle Arabia, Thursday, 3rd of March, 10:20am, 2202

They were quite the merry bunch.

The band wasted no time setting up camp, they moved all the dead Khans away to be dealt with later and erected their own tents. Several large fires were lit and a diversity of food set to cook, to boil, or to fry, the mere aroma of such rich fair made the red mare feel weak in the head.

Golden Dawn sat her down by one of such fires, and fetched her a cup of water which the red mare downed thirst fully. It almost hurt as the water smoothed the dry cracked insides of the red mare’s mouth and throat. She gasped in delight and experienced a moment of emotion from the experience. Seeing this, Golden Dawn grew visibly concerned and fetched her a pitcher of water to sate her thirst, the red mare drank it as if addicted, almost turning her stomach from the fast influx of liquid. She showed the same savagery when she was offered food, tearing through several bowls of vegetables with an almost mad desire. Energy flooded her veins, it was like life itself was flowing back into her, she actually cried a little, ceasing her tirade of consumption to sob delighted tears which only made Golden Dawn grow more concerned, comforting her and assuring she was unharmed.

The red mare for her part took the time to study this diverse band, they were fairly large, nearly forty is she counted right. Most were ponies of some sort, but not just Equestria's, there were the Prench, Stalliongradians, Germaneians, a fair few Saddle Arabians, a sizeable amount of Gryphons, and of course, the Minotaur, which decided to keep the red mare company. Much to her anxiety.

He was about seven feet tall, a rounded bull head with two long horns jutting out, beady black little eyes. His chest was weird to look at, wide and connecting to two long appendages which were his arms, his two feet ended in hooves. He was naked save for a rather ornate loincloth and the reddish brown fur which coated his entire body. When he sat down, the ground shook just a bit from the impact, and then he simply stared at the red mare for a few moments.

“You… Name?” He grunted, his voice surprisingly soft.
“I, uh, I don't have a name,” the red mare said sheepishly, avoiding the beast’s eyes.

"I called Atroseus,” he said my tilting his head. “You no name?”

The red mare felted embarrassed for some reason, she didn't know why, but suddenly she asked herself why she hadn't ever come up with a name for herself? It would've been so easy.

“Atro, she was a slave, they never gave her a name,” Golden Dawn said, smoking a pipe thoughtfully. “It's rude to pry, you know that.”

“I… Sorry,” Atroseus said, he sounded legitimately said and lumbered off, his head hanging low.

“I… Didn't mean to upset him…” The red mare said, feeling bad.

“This one would not have it worry you, the lump wants to be friends with everything he sees,” A Gryphon commented as he approached, he bowed low. “Ser Silverclaw of Clan Silver at your service, m’lady, and may this one offer his deep condolences for the brutal and savage treatment you no no doubt received from these beasts, no mare should be be subjected to such things.”

“Oh, uh, thank you?” This was overwhelming for the red mare, being shown kindness. When Silverclaw didn't rise from his bow she grew confused. “Uh, you don't need to bow..”

“Bow back,” Golden Dawn said.

“What?”

“You gotta bow back,” Golden grunted. “Gryphon custom, he’d stand there for a week waiting for you to return the bow, just feel lucky he ain't one of the ones that’ll challenge you to a dual because you didn't honour him with a bow.”

“Oh, okay then…” The red mare offered a stiff bow.

“Thank you,” Silverclaw said, finally rising. “And for the record this one thinks that challenging another to a dual over a bow is petty, there is more honour in taking the insult in stride and letting the shame of it speak for itself.”
“Yes, yes, look if I want to know about your thoughts on the finer details of a Gryphon's honour and how to maintain it I'll read your book on it,” Golden Dawn said with a roll of his eyes. “Although some literary advice? The pronouns can get confusing when you use “this one” all the time.”

“As if your speech is so much better,” Silverclaw huffed, ruffling his feathers. “You lot and your constant abbreviations and contractions, is it truly so difficult to say two words instead of one?”

“Says mr m’lady over here.”

“That is different.”

“Is it though? Is it really?”

“Why must you mock this one’s culture?”

“I wouldn't have to if it weren't so silly,” Golden Dawn offered a cheeky wink. “Now bugger off for a bit, I'd like to speak to our guest here now that she has adequately recovered.”

“Of course, M’lord,” Silverclaw said sarcastically, offering a mocking bow before departing.

“Ah, I love that stupid bird,” Golden chuckled. “Now, and for you, I believe you had questions?”

“Quite a few actually,” the red mare said. “Not even a day ago I was a slave, and then you came, with this band, who are you?”

“I believe I already answered that question,” Golden said with a smile.

“Your answer just made more questions than it answered.”

“Fair enough... Alright, how to explain this…” Golden Dawn said, leaning back and taking a few puffs from his pipe. “We are, I suppose you could say, comrades in faith, we are bound together by friendship yes but also in faith, in the gods we share, in the path we follow, and it is that path that brought us here, to Mada'in Saleh, at the edge of the world.”
“But why come here? It's nothing but a ruin,” the red mare said.

“Is it now? Are you sure about that?” Golden Dawn had that smile back, like he knew everything and you didn't. It was a little arrogant.

“What else could possibly be here?” The red mare asked, more angrily then she meant to.

“Would you like to see?” Golden Dawn snuffed his pipe and stood, he offered a hoof. “Let me show you something amazing.”

The red mare stared up the stallion before her, his frame silhouetted against the setting desert sun, a smile on his face. All her life the red mare had been dragged from place to place, stripped of all choice in her actions, and here, what if she said no? She was tempted, just to spite whatever cruel gods put her where she was. Yet something stayed her tongue, perhaps it was the look in Golden Dawn’s eyes, perhaps it was the mysterious allure of what he was offering, something new, something exciting, and most importantly, a choice.

She took his hoof.

They walked through the camp, several people calling out to Golden Dawn. He responded to each one in turn, using their names, exchanging quips and jokes as he lead the red mare to the main structure of the ruins. Carved into the very side of the mountain, the entrance was made of cut stone which spilled the fading light into the dim interior. The air inside was stale, old, and dry, Golden Dawn sparked his horn alight which illuminated the room with a soft yellow light, there wasn't much to look at, sandstone pillars supported a rough ceiling, besides that it appeared rather empty. Golden led the red mare towards the back of the room, it ended in a stone wall that appeared to have some manner of language carved into it.

“I have to say I'm not impressed so far,” the red mare said, getting a snicker from Golden Dawn.

“Doesn't it fascinate you though? Where did these ruins come from? Who built them? Don't you wonder?”

“No, not really, I'm not exactly a scholar… I can't even read,” The red mare said sadly.

“Hey,” Golden Dawn said, placing a gentle hoof of the red mare’s back, immediately she flinched away at the foreign contract which made Golden frown. “Sorry… I just think…. That you need to see more, and I really hope I'm right about this else this is going to be embarrassing.”

Golden Dawn examined the faded lettering that was etched into the wall, carefully running his hoof along the words while softly murmuring to himself. Seemingly finding what he was looking for he grinned and drew a dagger from his side. Carefully he traced one one the letters with its tip. Carefully he chipped away at the stone until without warning the blade pierced deep into the stone with a screech of metal on metal which echoed and put the red mare's teeth on edge.

“Please be a secret hallway, please be a secret hallway,” Golden Dawn said hopefully, jiggling the dagger around until a metallic click could be heard. There was a violent rumble, a humming, and with the hiss of quickly escaping air a rectangular slab of stone rose and disappeared into the ceiling to reveal a long dark hallway seemingly made of some form of a metal.

“Yes, a secret hallway!” Golden Dawn said in excitement.

“How… How did you know that was there?” The red mare asked.

“Months of research, scouring over old maps, reading up on local legend and folklore and cross-referencing that with documented sources,” Golden said casually. “Of course, it says right there on the wall that there's a door here and that the switch is the eighth letter of the second sentence, so I poked it, turns out that worked.”

“What's down there?” The red mare asked, peering into the long dark hallway.

“Let's find out. Although I do recommend caution, no one has been in here for an era,” Golden Dawn advised, stepping inside, his hooves impacting with the metal floor with an echo, the light of his horn casting long dancing shadows in the dark. Cautiously, the red mare followed, making sure to stick close to her guide. This place didn't feel… Natural.

It was clearly an old passage, ceased away from the world for time unknown. The air was flat, stale, with a hint of a metallic taste to it as if resting amongst so much steel, it tainted it. The hallway was simple enough, straight and narrow, but the angles were too perfect, the individual sheets of metal were made into perfect squares. As they continued forward it did eventually open up to a large circular room, lining the walls of this room was some manner of elongated table. Embedded into the walls above this table were several rectangular sheets of what must have been glass, judging by the reflection they gave off of Golden Dawn’s light.

“What is this place?” The red mare asked, feeling uneasy.

“I suppose the most accurate answer to that question would be to say that this is a research outpost,” Golden Dawn said, approaching the table and illuminated the fact that it was covered in what appeared to be levers and buttons, along with several small squares of glass embedded into the metal. Strange symbols labelled everything, they just like the lettering that was carved into the stone of the ruin.

“A research outpost? I don't know… What does ‘research’ mean?” The red mare asked, completely lost and overwhelmed.
Oh, uh…” Golden Dawn thought for a second, then used the Saddle Arabian word for ‘research.’

“Oh! I didn't know you spoke Arabian,” the red mare said in Arabian. “Although your accent is terrible.”

“Well, your Equestrian isn't bad, where'd you learn to speak it - with the Khans?” Golden Dawn asked, maintaining the language for the sake of the red mare. He examined the different switches and their labels.

“They had many Equestrian slaves, mostly tourists visiting one of the Free Cities, always mares for… Reasons,” the red mare felt nauseous.

“Oh…” Golden Dawn could hide his sympathetic look which only made the red mare feel embarrassed for some reason.

“W-where did you learn Arabian?” The red mare asked, swiftly looking to change the subject.

“Ah, I'm sort of a linguist you might say, I studied in the Trottingham School of Languages,” Golden said casually.

“O-oh?” The red mare said, feeling stupid for not knowing what Trottingham was, or for that matter that it apparently had a school of languages. “How many languages do you speak?”

“Nine, sort of, Equestrian obviously, Arabian, Prench, Germaneish, Minotaurian Runes, Ancient Unicorn, Pegasi Imperial Speak, I know enough Dragon to get by but I swear those beasts just make up words constantly, which, mind you, all sound like grunts with the occasional vowel thrown in, and of course I am constantly studying the dialects of Humanity.”
“Right… Humanity… You worship them?” The red mare asked uncertainly.

“Perhaps this will help you understand,” Golden Dawn said, flipping a switch with his hoof. Suddenly everything began to hum and the red mare’s hair sparked painfully as energy flooded the space. The rectangles of glass glowed with light, displaying glowing green symbols arranged in lines which flashed briefly before disappearing. Golden Dawn would fiddle around with several more of the buttons and switches before anything else would appear, which something eventually did.

One of glass rectangles suddenly displayed an image of a… Creature, standing with a wall behind it. The red mare stared at the thing, it's body configuration was not unlike a Minotaur, with two legs that it stood upon and seemingly to arms to grab things with, but that is where the similarities ceased. For it had hair only on its head and face, and no horns to speak of, it's eyes were small and green, the nose small and pointed, the lips thin and pale behind a blond beard, and it appeared to be wearing some manner of robe? It was blue and hung from its figure down to halfway down its legs which were covered in a black material ending in what appeared to be black leather… Hooves maybe? No they weren't round enough. It was just confusing to look at.

“What is that thing?” The red mare asked.

“That, my dear, is a Human,” Golden Dawn said, hushed as if in respect, but is eyes screamed his excitement. Like a child looking upon his favourite candy.

“Personal Journal of Doctor Tommen O'Brian, Phd, the date is Monday, January 22nd, and the year is 2184…”

“Is it speaking to us? But… That date, it doesn't match...?” The red mare felt so lost.

“I shall explain later, for now you must be silent,” Golden Dawn said sharply, almost angrily, he had eyes only for the Human displayed before him. The red mare held her tongue immediately, she had learned when not to speak the hard way.

“…By order of the Council, I've been assigned for a rather daring research project, I shall only be staying briefly in this outpost before moving onto my permanent location within what the Alicor-“ the projection was cut off by a sound not unlike the shifting of sand as a female voice calmly stated “File Corrupted, Emergency Security Purge Activated, Have a Pleasant Day, Thank you for buying from Wolf Tech, the leading developer in the technological frontier.”

“What? No! Why?!” Golden Dawn, clearly angry as he banged his hooves into the metal desk hard, cracking several of the glass rectangles, making the red mare flinch away in fear. “Every time! Why must you toy with me?! Can't you see that I'm-“

It was then that Golden Dawn saw the expression on the red mare's face, and he felt ashamed. He took several deep breaths to calm himself down before putting that friendly smile back on, but the red mare could still see the frustration in his eyes.

“Sorry, I shouldn't loose myself like that, I should be grateful for everything I am gifted,” Golden Dawn said.

“Are you going to explain to me what that… Human, is? Actually, could you explain all if this? Please?” The red mare said, feeling as if she was only seeing a fraction of a piece of the much larger painting.

“Alright, but let's head back outside first, the air in here stinks,” Golden Dawn said, leading them back outside, night had fallen and the full moon sat proudly in the sky among the stars.

The two of them walked back through the now slumbering camp to the edge of the ruins, where they sat to look out upon the dusk-claimed sands. The desert was truly beautiful at night: a massive backdrop for an uninterrupted view of the night sky, it's twinkling stars and planets, and it's mother moon, so close and personal in the place free of the bustle and distraction of a city.

“So, what do you want to know?” Golden Dawn asked, the moons light making his eyes glow.

“Maybe you should just start from the beginning?” The red mare suggested.

“Fine, I'll be maintaining the Arabian for your benefit, is that okay?”

“Of course, easier for me to understand.”

“Good, now, the beginning…” Golden Dawn said thoughtfully. “A very long time ago, and I do mean very long time ago, there lived a race of people called Humans or Humanity as a whole. They ruled the world as the most intelligent, most advanced species ever seen, their knowledge and power seemed boundless, we only have small scraps of information of this time, but we know it was very much the height of Humanity's power and influence over everything.”

“Now, sources are scarce of this, but by all scholarly deduction it's generally accepted that Humanity experienced a period of extreme turmoil, population loss, a societal discord which ultimately led to them abandoning the majority of the planet as unliveable space, this is popularly referred to as The First Cataclysm.”

“So humanity retreated, they shrank, leaving most of the world behind, and they built themselves a new utopia where Humans would livein peace while they regained their once glorious strength... But, even they could not have predicted the rise of the Alicorns.”

“Born of chaotic and unnatural magics, the Alicorns were extremely magically powerful, intelligent, but most of all; arrogant, they took pride in their power and command of the small reality they found themselves in, they arrogantly declared themselves Gods and expanded their imperium far across the lands formerly lived by humans, and it was from the ruins, the texts, and the artifacts left behind by the golden age of Humans that the Alicorns based their entire culture, language, and society on -- Although they would never admit it. They also took the names of mythical Human figures, such as Mars, Nemesis, Gaia, so on.”

“It was not long before Humanity would return to reclaim their birthright... Peace was short, as the arrogance of the Alicorns was too great to accept the might and superiority of the true gods of the world.”

“And so the war raged, it was a war more brutal and devastating than any before or any since, the very earth was a casualty in its destruction. The sky rained fire, the seas boiled over, the earth torn asunder, it's scars can still be traced, for nothing could truly wash away the blood of gods as during the uncountable years of total warfare.”

“Humanity was winning, as was always inevitable, so it t'was only through treachery most foul, that the Great Sin was committed, a power stolen by one of Humanitiy's own whom loved the Alicorns, power enough to wipe the once-great Godly race from this world, this was the Second Cataclysm.”

“The years passed, thousands of them, history became legends, legends became myths, the self proclaimed Alicorn Gods retreated from the world, their Sin complete and we mortals were left to inhabit the ruins they left behind,” Golden Dawn finished with a sad tone.

“So… You worship dead gods?” The red mare asked, much too bluntly than intended.

“No,” Golden Dawn said with a confident almost defiant tone. “They live on in the Eternal Men, the chosen few whom have survived all this time due to their immense power, they watch over us in their own way, whispering to us, guiding us, teaching us.”

“The human you saw in the ruins, the one in the projection, we believe that he may be one of these Eternal Men, that he gained power enough to deny the Alicorns their victory, it is my intention to lead my company in holy pilgrimage to seek him out and guide others to him so he may take his place in our hearts.”

“We wouldn't mind another companion, you know,” Golden Dawn said, looking at the red mare. “We’re leaving tomorrow and would be more than happy to escort you to the nearest Free City... But I wonder, what will you do then?”

“I… Had not expected to be free, ever, I have nowhere to go,” the red mare admitted. “No family that I know of, I don't even know what my Mark means.”

“So how about it?” Golden Dawn said. “Our paths didn't cross for no reason, we were destined to meet, and you were destined to do this, the Eternal Men are calling to you, will you answer?”

Once again the red mare considered saying no in pure spite, to prove to herself that she was truly free and able to choose. Yet, she did not, perhaps because deep down she knew this what freedom was, and that the choice she had only had one attractive answer. As she stared up into the stats the red mare experienced a moment where she felt very small, rarely had her world expanded beyond the sands, the chains, and angry Khan faces. The world was so much bigger than that, full of gods and demons, and a people long dead, ruins of old, tales of fallen and dead gods, myths of monsters, empires gone and past. What was she, an only recently freed slave, to step into this large world? Did she even have a choice? Perhaps not, and if she didn't, the red mare would much rather take that step surrounded by friends than alone.

“Okay, I don't see the harm in following you for a little while,” the red mare finally said.

“Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!” Golden said in sudden joy. “You won't regret this… Uh… Right, I think you need a name other than ‘the red mare’ don't you think?”

“Oh! R-right, yes,” the red mare said, strangely daunted by the prospect of receiving a name.

“Hmm,” Golden Dawn looked her over in contemplation making the red mare’s face heat up in embarrassment. “Red Star.”

“What?”

“ 'Red Star', your name, what do you think about 'Red Star' ?”

“…I like it, h-hello Golden Dawn, my name's Red Star,” Red Star smiled happily, a flooding of joy overtaking her, it felt like she was alive again.

“Hello Red Star,” Golden Dawn said, beaming as he embraced her warmly, making Red Star flinch at first but the loving contact brought tears to her eyes as she reached a peak of emotion.

“Welcome to the Brotherhood of Humanity, Red Star. Humani Victoria,” Golden Dawn said happily, Red Star hugged him back.

“Humani Victoria,” Red Star repeated carefully. “Did I say that right?”

Author's Note

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