Time in truth it marches on without rhyme or reason, it just remains ongoing, never stopping, always moving and in truth the silent island had remained the same despite the long years since it had disappeared from view oh so many years ago. As a pony moved through the undergrowth, he heard a sound like rushing wind above and looked up to behold three Pegasie flying in formation towards a far off continent. It couldn’t be possible, the island had reappeared and now the danger had begun anew.
“Hey, Rainbow!” Scootaloo yelled as she ran over to the rainbow maned Pegasus who was walking through the sunny town of Ponyville, among many ponies who were all going about their daily lives without a care in the world, the air was filled with rich smells, sounds and the buzz of life “Did you hear about…?” she paused to catch her breath “The Wonderbolts found this new island off the west coast of Manehattan. I heard ponies say it doesn’t appear on any map of Equestria!”
Rainbow Dash smiled before ruffling Scootaloo’s mane “Yeah, Princess Celestia has called for Twilight and the rest of us to check it out, except I’m not supposed to tell any pony about it…opps….forget I told you!” she winked at Scootaloo “I don’t get all this security stuff but Twilight seems to think we need to keep it secret” she shrugged as she flapped her wings once.
Scootaloo looked at her with a puzzled expression before she squealed “That’s so awesome! Well of course with you it’s awesome but still!” she jumped up and down before asking “PPPPPlease can I come too?!”
“Nah, sorry kid, no can do, Twilight maybe a total egghead but when she’s right, she’s right and besides it could be dangerous” Rainbow said with some level of maturity in her voice but she then whispered “But when I get back you’ll totally get to hear all about it! Cool?”
Scootaloo’s ears drooped and she mumbled “Yeah…cool” she felt for all the world like somepony who’d just been left out of Equestria’s greatest party and she kicked the ground with a hoof “No problem, Rainbow. I’ll just….wait….here….in Ponyville”
“Hey, come on, Scootaloo, it’s probably going to be a real boring trip and you’ve got better stuff to be doing here. I’ll see ya when I get back” Rainbow called to the filly as she flew off to Twilight’s castle and the adventure ahead of the main six.
Scootaloo snapped “This totally sucks!” she looked down at her hooves as if to will permission to go but then she spotted Applebloom and Sweetie belle out the corner of her eye and they looked just as depressed “Wait! Don’t tell me!” she put her hooves onto the side of her head and shut her eyes “Applejack and Rarity told you…you couldn’t go?” Scootaloo said in as mystic a voice as she could manage and both her friends nodded sadly “Rainbow just told me the same thing! It’s so not fair!”
Applebloom nodded frowning as she said “Yeah! Applejack and Big Mac both said I was just a filly! I have my cutie mark and they still treat me like a baby! It’s like that time with the Chimera all over again except now even Big Mac is siding with her!” she sat on a small rock with a frown painted all over her face “What’s sa dangerous about some old island anyway?!”
Sweetie Belle sighed as she suggested “Well maybe they’re right, who knows what’s on that island and it could be dangerous” she was calmer than her friends but looked just as disappointed as they did “Then again, we could missing some amazing….stuff!” her friends gave her a small look and then both giggled “Like it could be all made of marshmallows or full of really cute little animals!”
“Or it could be none of your business” a tall stallion said from behind them. As the three turned, they found themselves staring up at a tall pitch black coated Unicorn with a snow white mane but his eyes were a piercing green and he appeared to be strongly build. However what all three fillies noticed looking at his flank, there no visible cutie mark and he hardly seemed to care. His voice, tone and appearance all gave the impression of a cold winter’s night but at the same time being very calming “You shouldn’t interfere with things that are none of your concern. Fillies like you should be using your talents for the greater good…” his eyes fell on their cutie marks as he took a slow breath “hmm you should still keep your minds off…”
Scootaloo suddenly jumped forward snapping “Well! What business is it of yours! We were talking between members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders! So mind your own business!” she then turned back to her friends, none of them took any notice, as the tall stallion disappeared in a wisp of smoke and left no trace. Scootaloo continued from where she had left off and replied to Sweetie Belle’s comments “Don’t be silly Sweetie Belle. I mean a lost island made of marshmallows…who ever heard of such a thing”
Discord coughed from behind them and said “Miss Sweetie Belle! I had no idea such chaotic thoughts went through that pony head of yours! Please may I take notes?!” he was dressed in an outfit that made him look like an eager student about to learn something from a teacher “Marshmallow islands….maybe I should try that! Tell me Sweetie what would the trees be made of?”
Sweetie Belle however noticed the stallion was nowhere to be seen and whimpered “Um, Girls, Mr Discord, where did that weird stallion go? I can’t see him anywhere, he was there a second ago…right?” her expression was a picture of sneer terror, she then looked up at Discord and whispered “A stallion doesn’t just disappear?!”
Discord scratched his chin “Hmmm I never thought of that. I mean I have made ponies disappear but usually to somewhere within sight. To be honest when I got here…there wasn’t a stallion in sight” he then looked at the three with a sneer “Now tell me more about all your chaotic thoughts”
Scootaloo gave him a firm glare and said “No, now can you go away….this is official Cutie Mark Crusader business” she then turned to her friends and continued on about the island “Now how are we going to get onto that island”
However Applebloom and Sweetie Belle both sadly shook their heads and Applebloom mumbled “I’m sorry, Scoots but I can’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right about that Unicorn fella” she looked up at Discord who was making chocolate milk dance round in figures of eight before she whispered “It’s like he wanted to keep us away from the island” she still couldn’t shake from her mind what the stallion had said before disappearing.
Sweetie belle nodded as Applebloom’s expression seemed to grow distant “Did you feel the way the air seemed to grow more…I don’t know…weird?” she mumbled as she rubbed the back of her head nervously “It happened when he…told us not to go to the island…it was like his will was pressing down on me”
Scootaloo nodded before, her face changed and then she burst out into uncontrollable laughter “How….How cou….could you two….be….so…so silly?” she laughed out, as she tried to regain control of herself and as she did she breathed deeply “He was just a nutter with a bad mane cut”
“So that’s the situation” Twilight concluded, her statement had been pretty standard for Twilight, she had started by introducing the issue, highlighting everything they knew about the island and ended with the solution, which Celestia had chosen but the plan wasn’t ideal. The reply from the other main 6 was as Twilight had expected, it made it clear, they weren’t happy and Twilight continued “I think the solution will work…” suddenly failed her as Rainbow slammed her hoof down on the table.
“You can’t be serious?!” Rainbow snapped as she glared at Twilight “There’s no way that plan could work! It’s only going to end one way!”
“It does seem overly risky” Fluttershy chipped in with her raising her hoof slowly and then pointed at the map of Equestria “There’s got to be another way….maybe we could get the wonderbolts to fly over that area again and get a more complete picture?” Twilight shook her head “Well what about….I don’t know”
“No, Fluttershy, you are quite right. Twilight, there must be another way to deal with the island that isn’t so….hmmm dangerous” Rarity added as she looked at the map that Spitfire had hoof drawn and added “This island disappeared for a reason right…what if when we get there…it disappears again?”
Twilight nodded and said “We need to go to the island anyway” but then all the light in the room went out, the room began to shake and when the light came back it only came from a single point on the table. It was where the island was, it even showed the shadow of a pony on the map and Twilight mumbled “What’s going on?!”
“The island’s peace must not be broken” a voice from the doorway said in a soft but a stern tone “You know not the dangerous you will awaken if you disturb the island” the main 6 looked to the door and the saw the black unicorn who walked in slowly “You should leave the island be”
“Who the hay do ya think ya are?!” Applejack exclaimed as she looked at the stallion with a frown but then she whispered in an equally serious tone “Ya have no business here”
“Yeah! You big nosy posey dosey!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she jumped from her chair, she had never seen such a party pooper like him and started bouncing round him “Just who are you anyway?” she paused awaiting the stallion’s reply.
“What answer do you want? I am who I am and I am who I’ll always be” the stallion mumbled darkly but his tone also seems to highlight that he was annoyed “I suppose, I’m the solitude, the peace, the quiet and the isolation, that places like Culminis should always have!”
Twilight suddenly felt her blood run cold, Culminis, it couldn’t be, along with the fact, there was only one pony in all the histories of Equestria and before it, that would give an introduction like that but it was impossible “You’re not real! You are a myth…..a bedtime story that parents tell their foals before bed. You cannot be here” her voice in nothing more than a deathly whispers.
All Twilight’s friends in the room looked at her with wide eyes but it was Applejack who broke the silence “Ya mean…..Ya’ve heard of this lunatic, Twilight!?” she asked as Twilight’s form began to shake and the darkness didn’t hide it “Ya have!”
The stallion walked closer before saying in a voice that made the room shake anew “Disturb the island’s peace, disturb the island’s isolation with hooves of four and bear witness to a terrible curse!” the darkness shook as the stallion’s horn ignited showing an image, the image showed Equestria, the land broke apart and the ocean overwhelmed it but the stallion continued “You desire to unleash this most destructive curse, know that even upon the island you will not be spared, confidence turns to fear, the greatest strength, you value, turns to nothing but a memory! A forgotten memory!” he then approached Twilight and whispered in a voice only she could hear “Repeat and be damned to Tartarus! If the curse awakens, there is one way to undo it and…” the paused as he added “You must surrender to the one who embodies the qualities opposite to your own!”
“Is that you?” Twilight asked but the stallion shook his head. She felt her blood that ran cold moments earlier, freeze in place and she then whispered back “Then who?”
The stallion however showed no emotion as the lights came back on and he walked past Rarity “Until the curse is fulfilled….concern yourself not” his form slowly disappeared at the door but then his voice boomed out shaking the entire castle to its core “Heed my warning! For it is the only warning you shall receive!” then he was gone and nothing remained of him but the mere memory of his presence.
All within the room remained silent, until a small claw and a smaller voice broke the silence “Um, so that was interesting, right Twilight?” Spike asked turning to her but she remained quiet “Um…I just go and get Starlight?” Spike asked, unsure of what he should do, since no pony else broke the silence and he began to walk towards the door.
“No, Spike. We need to…decision…and take Starlight isn’t good” Twilight mumbled, her tone, body language and even wording seemed badly shaken. She then took deep cleansing breaths, before saying in a more strong tone but also one that showed she was still shaken “If what that stallion said is true…less is more…so Starlight must not know and maybe leaving a strong unicorn in Ponyville…is best. We…we…we…will put it to a vote on our next course of action” she sighed “We’ll vote in order of…” but before she could finish, Rainbow flew onto the table and slammed her hooves down.
“I say we go for it! Go to the island, there’s six of us and Spike!” she said confident in their abilities “That stallion is hiding something! I bet he’s an escaped con! We can totally bust him and find out what he’s hiding!”
Rarity however coughed and said “Oh Rainbow, darling, didn’t you notice what he was wearing?” the room fell deadly silent as Rarity looked around. Not one of the other ponies had noticed that he’d been wearing anything “He was wearing a black turtle neck…it matched his coat perfectly and it could mean…he’s not whom he claims to be. I’m with Rainbow….we should go!”
Applejack sighed as she looked at the island on the map but then whispered “Both of ya have some great points but I say we keep off the island! The island was already a mystery and now a strange stallion! I say we shouldn’t!” she then added “Also did ya not feel his power?!” Rarity looked away and Rainbow huffed “It was unlike anything we’ve ever seen”
Spike nodded “Applejack is right” he gulped as Rainbow glared at him with eyes of steel “We can’t go rushing into things and he…he is dangerous”
Pinkie Pie declared in her usual hyper active manner “Yeah! It’s my vote now!! I vote for motion 569!” the room looked at her confused and she giggled “I mean that we go! That Stallion was such a grumpy mumpy pants, we should go and make him feel happier!” she bounced around the table as she spoke “And if he refuses to be cheered up…we should make him…come to a super party!”
Rainbow mumbled under her breath “Yeah that’ll work” sarcastically as she looked at Pinkie with sad glance “Pinkie! That pony was about as friendly as Sombra!” she then added “It won’t be that simple!”
Before Pinkie could respond, Fluttershy said in her normal tone and pitch “We…well I think we should go!” there was a confused look from each pony sat round the table “There could be many animals unseen by pony eyes for so long!”
Twilight spoke with a sad tone “Well that’s the decision made. I was going to vote against it but we have no choice…next stop Culminis!” she felt sad but strangely seeing her friends so eager to go, made her fears settle down but Applejack seemed to share the same concerns “We’d better take a closer look at that old legend of Culminis and the stallion who guards it”
“So what’s Culminis?” Applejack asked
“And who’s the guard anyway?!” Pinkie added suddenly seemly as serious as every other pony.
“Culminis in the agent language of our ancestors meant, pinnacle…as in something’s top…the top of a mountain” Twilight explained, she pulled out a bright picture book and turned it to a page with a picture of a stallion. He was overlooking an island full of rich vegetation and large animals “The island of Culminis is said to be the home of the first pony city in the history of our planet…the lost city of Lyonesse” she then pointed to the stallion in the picture “The stallion matches of the description of a pony considered by many…not to exist at all…the Prince of peace and calm…Prince Serene!”
Author's Note
Alright, so I know this story is dated with some of it's plot points but I just want to see if this story can work. I would really appreciate reviews and suggestions for the future of the story. What dangers do you think Serene could be on about? Or do you think he's just a jerk? I'm really scared to even publish this story.
