ACT 9: Chapter 0 - Echoes of the Past

The Dreams Begin

Steel did not dream.

Not like ponies.

Not like beings of flesh.

His mind was a machine, built for calculation, strategy, and logic.

Yet now—

For the first time in thousands of years—

He dreamed.

He saw her.

His wife.

Her kind eyes, her gentle hands, the way she had once laughed at his stubbornness.

He saw his daughter.

Young, then older.

A child, then a woman.

He saw her smile at him—proud, strong.

And then—

He saw them turn to stone.

Frozen. Unmoving. Petrified forever.

And in his dream, he could not save them.

Just like before.

Steel Vanishes

When Twilight and the others awoke the next morning—

Steel was gone.

He left no explanation.

No words.

Only a single set of tracks in the dirt, leading away from Ponyville.

A trail that was meant to be found.

Twilight felt a knot in her chest.

She had seen how much Steel had changed.

He had begun to understand life beyond war.

But now—

He was running toward something else.

Toward his past.

And she feared what he would find.

The Search Begins

With Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy scouting the skies, and Applejack following Steel’s deep footprints in the mud, the group tracked him for two days.

His path led them far beyond the borders of Equestria.

To an ancient ruin, buried deep in the earth.

A place that had once been a city.

A place that had once been his home.

And as they arrived—

They found him.

Kneeling in the mud.

Digging.

Pulling something from the wet earth.

And in his hands—

Were two lifeless, petrified figures.

His wife.

His daughter.

Preserved in stone.

Frozen in time.

And Steel, for the first time in his existence—

Did not know what to do.

To Be Continued…