Prologue - Part 1 - The Mask
Author's Note
The video...er audio starts at 0:38 seconds.
Thanks for being so patient with me. I was really getting lazy. Now that my motivation is mostly back, I hope to finish this prologue and finally start Green and Friends proper. Please comment and tell me what you thought.
Prologue - Part 1 - The Mask
The Mask
It was a crisp autumn day in Sweet Apple Acres. The sun was just behind a hill, ready to signal the end of the day. Applejack wiped the sweat from her brow. "And done. That's the last of 'em." She looked back to the basket full of apples and smiled. Another big harvest just in time for the autumn market tomorrow, too. She was about to bring to back to the barn but a strange object caught her eye.
"What in tarnation?" She slowly stepped closer to it. It, as it turned out, was an odd green mask. The strangest thing was that it wasn't a pony-shaped mask; more like a diamond dog shape. She picked it up, examined it, and thought that maybe Applebloom or Granny Smith had left it there. With Bloom's various toys and costumes and Granny's relics of the past, it seemed to make sense. Plus if she was wrong, she could just ask Twilight.
-
"Hmm. Just from off memory, I'm not sure I've seen anything like this before," Twilight said. After not having any luck with asking her family, AJ brought the mask to Twilight. "I'd like to study it and identify it if that's ok," Twi said with a spark of curiosity in her eye.
"I don't see why not. It's a load off my back anyhow," AJ replied. She said goodbye to her friend and went home. The lavender alicorn looked around the crystal castle and then back at the relic.
"I don't think it's a byproduct of the box from the Tree of Harmony. Though..." she looked at the bookshelves. 'There's definitely a lot of books that detail relics like this. I just hope this mask will show up somewhere in one of them.' She took a deep breath and before she could say anything, her dragon assistant, Spike, appeared in the door, looking inquisitively at the mask on the cutie-map. The now taller and stronger drake had been growing even more recently, thankfully not due to greed or a potion. Twi can still remember the day he got his wings. He was so happy, he buzzed around the room like Scootaloo in the early years.
"What the heck is that thing," he asked, pointing at the mask.
"I'm not sure. Applejack found it at the far end of her orchard when apple bucking and her family hasn't seen it before," she explained.
"That is strange."
"So, wanna help me find stuff out about it, my #1 assistant?" She put out her hoof towards him.
"That's what I do," he replied, bumping her hoof with his fist.
"I'll get started. Spike, please make some tea and lots of sandwiches. Feel free to bring some topaz, energy drinks, and cookies. I have a feeling it's going to be a long night." Spike saluted as he made his way to the door. "Oh, one more thing," he stopped at the door and looked back.
"Yeah?"
"Make coffee. Lots and lots of coffee!"
-
"NOTHING!" Twilight screeched out. "Four hours and still... nothing!" She plopped into the couch in the library, burying her face in the cushions and pillows, sighing heavily. Spike came forward with the last of the tea he made in preparation; Fortunately, it was still warm.
"Don't worry, Twilight. I'm sure we'll find out what this thing is eventually." He put the tea on the side table and put a claw to her shoulder. Twilight sluggishly moved to sit upright. Once she was, she took a deep breath, put her hoof out, and motioned the calming technique she learned so long ago. She levitated her cup of tea over, took a sip and put it back. She smiled and brought Spike in for a hug.
"Thanks, Spike. I don't know what I'd do without you." He blushed at the praise. She released her grip on him. "That's enough of that for today. Do me a favor and get Starlight for me please and tell her to meet me in the training room. We were going to work on interdimensional portals." He raised an eyebrow at that last part. "What? It's for researching other worlds." He sighed at that, knowing full well he couldn't do much to dissuade her and Starlight, but be his sarcastic, funny, and handsome self.
"You got it." He headed out of the library to get her. They only figured out one thing about the mask: that holding it in telepathic magic had no consequences. She had heard of holding magical or spiritual objects in unicorn/alicorn magic giving special powers before. She read up on it briefly during the search for mask information; One passage, in particular, recalled holding a magatama granted the ability to see physical manifestations of lies taking form as red or black locks only breaking when shown evidence. She had no idea what it meant but felt a sense of knowing about it before she even read the passage before. She just brushed it off thinking it was just deja vu or something like it.
"Now then." She picked the mask up in her magic, put it in a glass case and walked with it to the underground basement underneath the training room. This is where the three of them kept mementos, magical objects, and spell/potion supplies; all of which were labeled precisely by Twilight herself. As she made her way to the room and down the stairs of the basement, she couldn't help but wonder what the mask really was capable of. She set it on a low shelf in case Spike was asked to get it and left the basement, not having noticed how loose she accidentally left the lock on the glass case.
-
"So, we doing the interdimensional portals today?" Starlight asked, confident in knowing the answer already. Twilight smiled with glee, finally being able to try something they were both interested in. Spike just sat in a chair, reading a comic.
"I already set everything up. All that's left is to cast the spell. Fortunately, by the end of this, we should at least have enough magic for something like... let's say heavy duty levitation." She smiled confidently. "Let's get to work." They both started to cast the spell, but Twilight realized she'd need a glass container to hold whatever they get from the portal. "Spike, go down to the basement. I'll tell you what to get when down there." He put down his comic and entered the basement. Unfortunately for Spike, the spell made it difficult to hear what Twilight was saying from above when in the basement. "...bring...up...Mask..." is all he could make out. He shrugged and started the search. Luckily, it was next to him. He picked it up and headed back up. When Twilight saw what he brought up, she frowned. "No, I-" was all she could manage before a male scream was heard coming from the portal. Suddenly, a strange bipedal creature with pink skin reminiscent of a shaved monkey laid before all three of them. Not long afterwards, several objects came through the portal, the like of which varied in size immensely; From a large screened television and a desktop computer to several gaming consoles and some plushies. Twilight and Starlight had managed to catch them all and gently place them on the ground. Unfortunately, this meant the spell was now starting to break apart and was close to releasing all of its raw magic.
Spike started to walk towards them, but he tripped, letting the case go. Its lock released, the mask flying out of it right towards the creature. As soon as it touched what they thought was its face, the mask violently attached itself to its face and, without warning, the raw magic was released. Assuming the worst, they closed their eyes. But when no explosion was heard, Twilight opened her eyes to a shocking sight: The raw magic was being absorbed into the creature through the mask. Starlight and Spike also opened their eyes to the unbelievable sight. Once all the magic was absorbed, the creature let out a wail and he suddenly got upright and spun, thunder and lightning roaring from both inside and out of the castle which was odd as tonight was supposed to be clear enough to see the moon. As the creature slowed their spinning, everyone was shocked at what was once a bipedal hairless ape was now a green alicorn with a lime green mane and eyes. His cutiemark looked like a green lightning bolt crossing over a pencil.
"Smokin'!" he bellowed out. He suddenly zipped over to Twilight. "I know you! You're Twilight Sparkle. Wait...AM I IN EQUESTRIA!?" He suddenly shouted. He then stretched his forehooves to impossible lengths and grabbed Starlight, Twilight, and Spike in a big hug. "I love you guys!" he said. He looked over to all of the objects that fell through the portal. "Thanks for catching my stuff." He released his grip on them. Twilight was trying to understand what was going on and tried to communicate her frustration, but it came out like "ba...wa...huh...ma...na...ga..." "I'll be back for my stuff later. But first..." He then took off out the castle and into town. When all three could finally speak coherently, they had the exact same reaction.
"What have we done?"
