The Unique Ones. The Beginning Saga.

The crowd of ponies screamed as the shards of crystal rained down towards them. All of the unicron royal guards in the room used their magic to catch the shards before they could touch anypony and threw them to the side. The crowd looked towards the stage. The princesses were on laying on the ground. They showed no savior damage, but were takin back by the force of the blast. Smoke rose from the origin of the blast. After a few seconds; the smoke cleared, revealing two ponies. One standing and one laying on the ground. The one standing had a long black cloak with purple lines on it's edges. The other pony was a black mare. She had a long black mane with purple frosted tips with a long tail that matched. Her cutie mark looked like the night sky, with stars scattered along the purple haze. Her horn wasn't like any other unicorn's. It was curved with a sharp tip that was as purple as the ends of her mane.

The one in the cloak walked to the middle of the stage. "Nothing like a nice long nap forced upon you by your daughter to build your strength up." His voice was deep and menacing. He looked around, then down at the ponies. Some of them were holding up their touchscreen phones with the back ends facing the cloaked pony. "So much has changed in the last 1500 years. New faces, new structure..." He looked towards the two princesses struggling to stand. "Ah. Where are my manners? I would bow, but I won't." He pulled back the hood of his cloak. His head was the shape of a stallion, but he had two red horns sticking our of the back corners of his skull, his eyes were green with reptilian irises, and his teeth were sharp. The crowd gasped when they saw his face. "Don't be alarmed. This is just evolution."

"Who are you?" Asked Celestia.

"You mean you don't remember Starswirl's old student? I guess you kept that little peace of history under raps from your subjects. Vary well. I am Void. As I said; I studied magic with the grey-bearded wizard you all know. He wanted to use magic to bring ponies together in love and friendship. Stupid old fool. I wanted to bring out the inner greatness that ponies possess. Sadly; ponies themselves are too weak to do so. So I used my studies to combine my power with that of gods! My face changed as a result. But now I can control space itself. I was going to show you two my power as soon as it was complete, but my daughter had other planes." He walked towards the other pony. "She decided to lock me away, but she didn't think that she would be imprisoned as well. Young ones often jump instead of walking on the bridge." He stopped in front of the pony. She slowly lifted her head and opened her purple eyes. "I'll set an example by using my power to silence you!" He lowered his head as the two horns on the back of his head glowed in a red aura. Before Void could deliver his fatal blow, the pony in the brown cloak leaped onto the stage, lifted the unicorn mare into his front hooves, and jumped back. His hat fell to the floor. "You wish to die with her!?"

The pony lifted his head. He had a yellow coat, a red-tinted black mane, and brown eyes. "Father daughter time is up." He said.

"Humor will not save you!" He blasted him with a red beam of energy. The yellow pony jumped over the beam, making it misfire and hit the floor. He then jumped towards Void, his front right hoof pulled back. His hoof suddenly ignited in a ball of flame. He punched Void in his left cheek with the flaming hoof. Voit stumbled back, holding his cheek with a claw instead of a hoof. "What magic is this?" The yellow pony tossed his cloak away, showing the rest of his yellow coat, lack of wings, a shortly cut tail with the same color as his mane, and a cutie mark that looked like a red diamond surrounded by four red curvy lines. "You're just an earth pony! You shouldn't have any magic."

"Tell me about it."

"I'll just kill you instead!" A bottle suddenly shattered in front of Void, creating a cloud of smoke. "What is this!?"

Z and Bronze Gear walked onto the stage. "You are full of surprises!" Said Bronze.

The yellow pony picked up the unknown unicorn. "We have to get out of here." He said to her. "Can you walk?"

"Yes." The unicorn answered him.

"You won't get far!" yelled Void. A purple ball of energy formed inside the smoke.

"Stay still!" Her curved horn glowed and formed a purple bubble around the four ponies. It then vanished as the orb grew and consumed the room. The bubble reappeared in front of the train station. The yellow pony saw the orb grow until the entire castle was consumed. The orb stopped as it reached the gate of the city. He ran towards the orb but was stopped by the unicorn pulling his tail with her magic. "Wait!"

"Let me go!" The pony yelled.

"So you can be trapped like everypony else!? That orb is a dimensional distortion spell. Think of it as a black hole. If you go in there, you'll be unable to move." She dropped him next to her.

"Fuck! Is everypony dead in there?"

"No. I've seen in there before. It disables gravity, wind, and unicorn magic. But there's still air."

"We can't just leave them in there!" said Z.

"We don't have a choice. We'll need to come back latter. But we'll need something first. Is there another town near here?"

"Ponyvile." said Bronze. "I don't like it though. They keep everything low tech there. And there won't be anypony there. Everypony was at the summit."

"We just need to use the library."

"We gonna hit your father with a book?" asked the yellow pony.

"No. We are going to look for a special item that will aid us in freeing everyone."

"We can't walk there, it'll take too long. Can you poof us there?"

"No. It took a lot of magic just to get this far."

"We could use the train." said Bronze.

"What's a train?"

"A big metal vehicle that's used for transportation."

"We can't use the train." said Z. "No conductor."

"It's an automated train. I just need to punch in the destination and it'll take us there."

"Then we'll use it." said the unicorn. The three of them walked towards the train while the yellow pony stared at the orb. "Fire Pony! Will you be assisting us!?"

He kept staring for a few more seconds. He took a deep breath and walked towards the train. The four entered the train and closed the door behind them.

"Alright." said Bronze. "You three sit in the seats. I'll put the train in motion." She entered the the control room and closed the door.

The three ponies sat down on the seats. Z and the mare sat on the right side and the yellow pony sat on the left. He rested his head on the window and stared at the orb. "Thanks for saving me." The mare said to him. He didn't respond. The train started moving. It exited the station and moved down the mountain. "I've never seen anything like this before." The yellow pony still didn't respond to her. "I'm Abyss. What's your name?"

"...Burn..."

"At least he spoke." said Z. "I'm Z. The one driving is Bronze Gear."

"Do you know him?"

"We just met today. He was nice but always mysterious. Never even said his name."

"He has his reasons."

"I'm right here." said Burn.

"Sorry." said Abyss."

"It's fine."

"So," said Z. "your dad. Is he always like that?"

"No. He had the same ideals as Starswirl. But he kept using forbidden magic. And he changed. I'll explain it more when we get there."

"Did he do that to your horn."

She touched her horn. "No. I guess it's a side effect of being trapped in crystal with him."

"I'm sorry."

"It doesn't matter."

The train arrived at the Ponyvile Train Station a few hours later. The trian roughly halted. Its wheels screeching and hissing. The force of the train suddenly stopping threw the three ponies out of their seats. Thankfully the seats in front of them kept them from slamming into the front of the caboose. The ponies groaned as they slowly recovered from their impact. "Sorry." A voice came from the speakers in the sealing. "I should have been more easy on the breaks."

The ponies exit the train and looked towards the town in the distance. Unlike Canterlot, Ponyvile was more like a city built during the founding of Equestria. Wooden houses were spread across the town, a dirt path separated the hoses instead of a hard black road, and wooden outhouses sat ten houses across from each other. "This is Ponyvile?" asked Abyss. "I though it would be shiny like Canterlot."

"Ponyvile is an oldy town." said Z. "The citizens like the calm farmer look. They still have phones and computers. All of these houses are over 1000 years old. They do mandatory changes to the houses to insure safety and reduce the risk of them falling on top of themselves."

"They even refused to use a Cyber Library. They have the old fashioned one with books. They don't want book to be forgotten."

"Where's the library?" asked Abyss.

Suddenly, a pegasus and a griffon swooped down from the sky and landed in front of them. The pegasus was a mare with a light-green coat, a blue mane tied in a ponytail, a tail in the same color as her mane, blue eyes, and a storm cloud cutie mark. The griffon was a foot taller then everyone else. He was male. His torso, back legs, and tail were like a lions and his head was like a brown hawks. He had sharp yellow claws at the end of his front legs and two large feathered wings on his back. "Hi there!" said the pegasus. "You four on a tour?"

"No." said Abyss. "We are here because of an emergency."

"What kind?" asked the griffon. His voice was vary deep.

"Canterlot's been... captured."

"Is that what that big ball thing is all about?" asked the pegasus. "I thought it was like a BIG rave. I wanted to go."

"Sorry." said the griffon. "My friend here likes raves. She's Quick Drop. And I'm Talon."

"Where's everyone else?" asked Bronze Gear.

"Everyone left for the big event in Canterlot." said Quick Drop. "They left us here to keep an eye on the town."

"And because SHE placed a cherry bomb in the mayor's toilet." said Talon

"YOU were the one who thought of it."

"Anyway." said Z. "We need to get to the library."

"Sure. It's this way." Quick Drop and Talon brought them to the middle of the town where a large oak tree stood. The tree had a door, two windows, and a balcony. "Oak Library."

"Your library is in an oak tree?" asked Abyss.

"Yeah. Its magic based so it'll never rot and its fire proof."

"Thanks. Come on everyone." Burn, Bronze, Z, and Abyss entered the tree. Quick Drop and Talon followed them. "Why are you two following us?"

"We want to help." said Quick Drop.

"We can't stand idly by while our country is in danger." said Talon. "I was in the Griffon Air Force until I lost my eye."

"But you still have both eyes."

"The left one is a glass eye. Griffons have perfect eyesight. But when I lost mine, the griffons retired me and I cam to Ponyvile."

Quick Drop hugged Talon. "That's when we met, dated, and became a couple."

"A pony is dating a griffon?" asked Abyss.

"Where did you live? The dark ages?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Yes. Frozen in crystal."

"Damn. I was just kiddin'."

"It's fine. You didn't know."

"Are we gonna talk or search?" asked Burn.

"Right. Remember everyone, we're looking for anything that could tell us about ancient magical artifacts." They all searched throughout the library. Books sat on shelves that stood next to the walls. A round table stood in the middle of the room with a wooden sculpture of a horse's head. A globe sat in the north-west corner. Abyss and Bronze used their magic to look through the largest books. Talon and Drop searched the top of the shelves. Z checked the bottom shelves. Burn lifted random objects and searched under them. "Found anything!?" yelled Abyss.

"No." Talon, Burn, Bronze, and Drop said in unison.

"I found a book about Princess Celestia." Z said while holding a book with a white cover. "Hmph. '5 ways to arouse Princess Celestia.'"

"GIMME GIMME GIMME!!!" Yelled Burn. Z placed the book back into the shelf. "NOO!!! WHY!?"

"You have a problem."

"I found one!" yelled Abyss. She pulled out a large black book covered in dust. She placed the book on the table, blew off the dust, and opened it. She used her magic to quickly flip through the pages.

"What are you looking for?" asked Talon.

"Something that'll help everyone, including my father." She stopped at a page near the middle of the book. "Here." everyone looked at the page. The page showed a picture of a golden dagger with a green gem in the middle of the hilt. "The Dagger Of Separation."

"Dagger Of Separation?" asked Bronze.

"It's a magic artifact that was created before Celestia. Before Starswirl. It used to be used by a tribe of Zebras as a means to exercise those who have been corrupted by dark magic or spirits. It can extract the evil force from the victim. This will free him from whatever is controlling him."

"Are you sure there's something controlling him?" asked Z.

"He's got two horns sticking out of the back of his head and claws. If that's not possession, I don't know what is."

"Okay." said Burn. "We know what we're looking for, but we don't know where to look."

"It's back at my father's castle. It's west from the Everfree."

"But that's where they found the crystal that contained you." siad Bronze. "If it was there; it would have been back in Canterlot Castle."

"There's a secret basement to the castle. The only one's that would know about it are me and my father, and we're the only ones who could open the entrance to it."

"Alright." said Talon. "Now we've gotta go through the Everfree, west from the Everfree, into an old castle, into th e basement of said castle, and find the magic magoffin. Everyone got that?"

"We're gonna need a grocery list." Drop joked.

"Now that we're done with planing," said Burn. "let's go and get this thing so we can save everyone back in Canterlot."

They arrived at the entrance to the Everfree Forest a few minutes later. The forest was so dark that they could barely see past 20 feet into it. "I'm having second thoughts." said Z.

"Don't be a pussy." said Bronze.

"I'm not a pussy!"

"Both of you!" said Talon. "Just stay together and we'll be fine."

The six of them entered the forest. A single dirt path stretched deeper into the darkness. Large, old, rotting trees surrounded them in every direction. Some of the trees had faces carved into them.

"I hope these things don't spring to life." said Z.

"If they do;" said Burn. "I'll fry 'em."

"Yeah." said Bronze. "I mean to ask: how'd you do all of that stuff back in Canterlot?"

"I guess I can't keep it a secret anymore. I've always had this... uniqeness. Ever since I could remember. Whenever I got mad, threatened, or had a feeling of needing to protect someone. It's like some sorta hidden ability I never understood. Many ponies were afraid of me. That's why I tried my best to hide it. Ponies fear what they don't understand. And they have a fight or flight instinct when they feer something. They thought I was a monster. A demon sent from the pits of the underworld."

"What did you do?" asked Abyss.

"I left. My mom didn't want me to go. She was the slightly overprotective mother. But she knew that I had to be on my own at some point. 14 was too young in her eyes though. But she knew I could handle myself."
"How old are you?"

"21. I went up north into the mountains. Best thing about the ability to control flame was that I could survive in the harsh cold. I found a temple that was owned by a bunch of baboon monks. They let me stay for six years. They didn't know anything about why I have my powers, but they helped me control them. It was the basic stuff like 'take this pebble from my hand' and 'focus your will to a single point'. I mastered it in time. Although I have a feeling that its only the tip of the iceberg."

They arrived at a bridge that connected one cliff to another one 50 feet away. They looked under the bridge and saw a river 200 feet below. Burn jumped backwards and hugged a tree in fear. "What?" asked Drop.

"H... Heights..."

"You're afraid of heights?" asked Talon.

"Maa~..."

Talon walked over and grabbed Burn's tail. "Come on, dude. It's just a bridge." He pulled Burn's tail.

Burn held tightly to the tree with a grip stronger then an boa. "NOOO!!! NO! PLEASE! NOO!!!"

"Ah!... Come on!... You can't be serious!"

"I DON'T WANNA! I'M GONNA FALL!!"

"Somepony help me dammit!"

A few minutes later: Abyss walked all of the way across the bridge, then Z, then Bronze, then Drop, then Talon... holding Burn on his back... and Burn still hugging a large chunk of the tree. "...no...no..." Burn said softly.

"Just don't look down."

"NO FUCKING SHIT, ASSHOLE!!!" They suddenly heard a loud snap. The top right rope snapped, tipping the bridge to the right. Abyss, Bronze, and Z all held on to the broken, dangling bridge with their hooves. Drop used her wings to hover next to them. Burn dropped straight down, only to be caught by his tail by Talon's claw. The peace of tree that Burn was previously carrying fell down to the river below. "Oh-sweet-Celestia!" Burn yelled without pausing between his words. "Please-don't-let-go! I'm-sorry-for-snapping-at-you!"

"Don't worry bro! I've got you! Drop! Help the others across!"

"Got it babe!" yelled Drop. She hovered next to the others and helped them across.

"Burn! I'm gonna let go!"

"Don't you dare!" yelled Burn

"No! I'm gonna let go of the bridge!"

"Then we'll both fall!"

"Calm down and listen to me!"

"Don't let go!"

"I'm gonna let go and then I'll-"

"DON'T! LET! G-AHH!" Talon let go of the bridge and used the wings on his back to slowly fly to the other side of the bridge. "Oh yeah. You can fly."

Talon sighed and brought him to the solid ground on the other side. "You need to get over that phobia."

Burn stood up. "Yeah it's on my to-do list."

"You two done?" asked Abyss. Burn and Talon knotted in agreement. "Okay. Theres a mile left of forest, then we'll be at the castle."

Drop flew quickly towards Talon and hugged him. "Who's my big hero!?" she kissed his beak.

"Yeah, yeah." said Talon, hugging her.

The six walked down the dirt road to the west for the next hour. They arrived at an opening though the trees towards a big black castle. "There it is!" said Abyss.

"Finally!" said Z.

"If we hurry; we can get there and get the dagger in no time!" She ran towards the castle, but a pack of five Timberwolves quickly blocked her path. "EEP!"

Talon grabbed her tail and pulled her back. "They must have been stalking us all the way here." he said.

"Their wooden bodies blend perfectly in the forst." said Z.

"What do we do now?" asked Drop.

"I know what I'm gonna do!" said Burn. He jumped above the wolves, ignited his right front hoof, and slammed it into one of the head of on of the Timberwolves. It yelped as its head crashed into the ground and its body shattered into twigs. The remaining four wolves growled at Burn. One of them leaped towards him, but he used his back legs to buck it into the air. He jumped up, grabbed it by the tail with both of his front hooves, and threw it towards another wolf. But the other wolf dodged the wolf that was thrown. The thrown wolf yelped as it hit the ground. The one that dodged it then leaped and tackled Burn, pinning him to the ground. It used its sharp, wooden teeth to chomp onto Burn's right leg. Burn yelled as blood sprayed from his leg.

"Get off of him!" Drop flew into the wolf, sending it flying into a tree and shattering it. "You okay Burn?"

"Didn't know it could be that smart." He grunted. "Thanks, Drop."

"Can you stand up?"

Burn stood up, but wobbled trying to stand. "I can still take them."

"Uh-uh." She laid him down against a tree. "You rest here."

"But-"

"A-ba-ba." She placed her hoof on his lips. "No back talk." A wolf ran towards them, but Talon quickly flew in front of it and slammed his shoulder into it, sending it back. "Two times a hero." Abyss lifted the remaining three wolves and crushed them with her magic. "You're not alone anymore."

Z picked some green plants and blue mushrooms and placed them in a wooden bowl. He then picked up a rock and used it the crush and churn them into mush, he then poured the mush into a beaker and shaked it. The contents of the beaker turned into a nasty blueish-green color. "This should heal the wound." He told Burn.

"Eww." said Burn, disgusted. "Do I have to drink that shit?"

"Balls no." Z held it over Burn's wound. "It's more unpleasant then that." He poured it over Burn's wound. Burn felt a strong stinging sensation as he wound instantly heald. "Sucks, don't it?"

"GAH!! WHAT THE FUCK!?"

"Healing potion. Heals any wound. Hurts like an angry hornet though."

"More like someone biting it!" He took a few deep breaths. "I'm good now." He stood up. "Now let's get to that dagger before I screw something else up." He walked to towards the tower.

"Hay. You didn't mess-" Abyss tired to tell him, but he just kept walking. She looked to Z, who just shrugged. The other five followed him towards the tower, while three unknown figures watched them from the bushes.