Prologue: Start of the New Age
Twilight starts to awaken from her sleep with a yawn as she gets out of bed. When she goes down to the kitchen to get some coffee she hears Nyx and Spike arguing about something yet again. She rubs her head with a hoof for a moment while she stands at the top of the steps that lead down to the ground floor level of the Golden Oaks library. She shook her head for a moment and then slowly walked down the steps till she had reached ground level. Walking towards the kitchen while letting out another small yawn, she tried to listen more closely to what Nyx and Spike were arguing about.
“Spike it clearly states in the book that the hero defeated only six of the beasts not 100 like you keep saying. Why do you always feel the need to over exaggerate a hero’s accomplishments and distort the actual facts?” Nyx asked Spike in a vexed tone.
Spike huffed, “Because there’s no fun in the actual facts of the book. Come on a hero’s got to have pazazz and cool moves, and be able to take down a bunch of enemies in one battle, not just six. It’s just so lame the way you put it. Where’s the epicness? The awesomeness?”
Nyx could be heard facehoofing as she replied through her hoof, “It’s in the book Spike. Just because he doesn’t take down a ton of enemies in one battle doesn’t mean that he’s not awesome or epic. Those beasts were fearsome and not to be taken lightly. It’s actually quite amazing that he was able to take out six of them without getting himself killed.”
Spike grumbled, “Come on Nyx. There is no way those Endermen could have been that tough. They sound like a bunch of pushovers to me.”
Twilight’s ears twitched as she finally reached the kitchen and turned the conversation out for the present. She returned her main focus to finally getting that heavenly concoction known as coffee. But what Twilight had forgotten was the fact that she should never be allowed to cook even with something as simple as coffee. She used her magic to open several cupboards in the kitchen and pull out a kettle and the coffee mix. She levitated the kettle over to the sink and filled it with water before setting it onto the stove to start boiling. She waited about 5 minutes till it was boiling and then added the coffee mix completely forgetting the fact that afterwards she’d have to stir it occasionally.
She turned her attention back to the conversation between Spike and her adopted daughter Nyx. So she completely forgot about her coffee while she listened to them talking unaware that the coffee has somehow caught on fire.
Nyx was speaking to Spike with an exasperated voice now, “Spike those Endermen are not something to joke about according to the book. They were deadly creatures that would kill you just for looking them in the eyes. The best a normal pony could do against them was just let them take what they wanted. Those Endermen would pop up out of nowhere and just take something and turn it into a block before running off with it. It was annoying yes and deadly at times but for the most part, ponies didn’t have an effective way of fighting back against them in those times.”
Spike made a comeback in disagreement, “The ponies of that time had to have some way of getting rid of them effectively otherwise there would still be Endermen running around today. I haven’t ever seen an Enderman and neither have you. I doubt the ponies would have just let the Endermen run off with their stuff.”
Twilight heard a thump that signaled Nyx was knocking her head against the table. Nyx groaned in pain for a moment before replying, “Spike the ponies of that time needed magical armor and magical swords to effectively take down an Enderman without dying. Even then it took more than five armed ponies just to take one down. Including the fact that they could just teleport out of any danger or directly behind you. Plus it took a long time to produce just one set of armor and a sword. The arts of enchanting and smithing were still just getting started back then too. So only a few ponies really knew how to do it. So no, they did not have a very effective way to do it.”
Spike grumbled again, “Fine, so the ponies didn’t have a very good way to take care of those things, but the beasts still ended up getting wiped out, so the ponies must have had some way to eventually get rid of all of them.”
Nyx sighed, “The way they got rid of all the Endermen was by having the hero around to take care of them. The hero eventually got rid of all the Endermen in our world and then found a way to seal them in their own dimension so they couldn’t come and bother us anymore. Thank goodness he did because I’m not sure how we would deal with those things today.”
Spike then argued, “Then how did the hero seal them in their own dimension. I mean there must have been an entire army in there.”
Nyx is complexed by this, “I’m… not sure. The book didn’t go into detail other than that the hero says that he freed them from their usurper.”
Twilight finally stopped listening to the conversation when she smelled smoke, which was odd as she didn’t remember building a fire. She turned back to the stove and yelped in horror because she saw that her kettle and the coffee in it was completely on fire. She used her magic to grab hold of a bucket nearby and fill it with water before quickly dumping it on the kettle which thankfully put out the fire. But by then the kettle and coffee inside of it were completely black and burnt.
Nyx and Spike were both startled by Twilight’s sudden yelp of fear and jolted to their hooves and feet respectively. They looked towards the kitchen and finally noticed the smoke that was pouring out of the door. They glanced at each other quickly as they spoke in unison, “Twilight tried cooking again!” They bolted to the kitchen doorway to look inside to see what had happened. The two of them had been so engrossed in their conversation that they hadn’t even smelled anything burning or the smoke.
Spike looked through the doorway of the kitchen and quickly slapped his muzzle with a claw as he face clawed. He groaned as he moved his claw down his snout, “Seriously Twilight? I’ve told you not to try making coffee yourself. This is the 4th time this month that you’ve tried doing it and burnt the kettle to nothing but a charred lump.”
Twilight turned to face spike with a sheepish smile on her face, “Sorry Spike. I was still in my morning daze at the time. My mind just kinda wandered. It sounded like a very interesting discussion you two were having over the new book that I found.”
Spike sighed as he walked into the kitchen to start cleaning up the mess that Twilight had made of the kettle. Thankfully, since he was a dragon he was able to pick up the charred lump without getting burned. He moved over to the trash and dumped the kettle inside before turning back to the stove to start cleaning it off.
Nyx spoke up inquisitively, “Yeah. It’s a great read so far even if several parts of it are really scary. How did you even find it in the first place?”
Twilight spoke in an embarrassed voice as her cheeks turned red with embarrassment, “I actually found the book yesterday as I was trying to practice one of my combat stun spells. I was in the basement in the practice area trying to hit several targets. But I forgot to renew one of the charms around the area in order to make sure my spell didn’t go outside the boundary. I was using the spell at a high power output and it broke through a broken area and smashed into the basement wall. What I didn’t expect was for it to smash a hole through a secret door.”
Nyx giggled, “Mom you know you need to renew the charms down their regularly for practice. It’s unlike you to forget like that. You do have that pretty extensive checklist after all that you triple check.”
Twilight’s cheeks reddened further as she spluttered, “There’s nothing wrong with a good checklist.” She took a moment to compose herself and finally talked in a calmer if a somewhat still embarrassed tone, “Anyway I looked inside and saw this book on an ornate pedestal. It looked like it hadn’t been disturbed in a very long time. So I went in and took the book and looked at it. While inside the room I found a statue behind the pedestal of a curious being.”
With this Twilight’s horn glowed as she used her magic to make the blue tented magical screen she had made appear one time during the incident with Fluttershy becoming the crazy batpony. On it, she displayed an image of the statue that she had seen that was behind the pedestal. The statue showed a bipedal figure of a slim build that was covered in a strange assortment of equipment. The robe looks like it consisted of an undershirt with sleeves that went to the elbows. Overtop of the well-carved undershirt a represented padded cloth of some sort was laid on top of the shoulders. The shoulders seemed to have a carving that represents some sort of fur. Over the top of this padded cloth was another similar look of cloth that was triangular in nature. It started at the shoulders and ran down to the tip of the triangle which was between the legs at knee level. A furred fringe was on the outside of the triangle looking like it was made to help keep the wearer warm while being stylish. A seemingly stylized embroidery was on the inside of the triangle with carvings that is symbolized with different arcane signs. Connected to this triangle up by the shoulders was a hood that came up over the head of the wearer. Furthermore, the figure was wearing some kind of mask underneath of the hood in place of the face. The said mask has some sort of strange face with an arrow design on the forehead pointing downwards and some kind of squarish chin at the bottom. Two slit eyes and a slit mouth were on the front of it and what seemed like armored bands were running around them. The robes did continue to the bottom with a set of what seems to be a pair of flaps of fabric that came down around them. There were some pouches and a thin book connected to the belt that held the robe somewhat tight to the figure. The said figure is wearing armored boots that seem to have a design that isn’t common to see for they have a feather pattern that seems to flare and points backward of the outside part of the boots. The figure is also wearing a pair of feathered gauntlets as they consisted of several layers of the carved feathers overlapping each other. The gauntlets do seem to cover the forearms and wrists while ending in deadly tapered claws at the end of the fingers. The material used to highlight the boots and gauntlets seemed to shine like ebony as it gleamed. The statue is holding a menacing looking spiked mace in his right hand while the left hand looks like it is ready to cast a spell.
Nyx blinked for a few moments before squealing excitedly as she did a little jump, “Wow Twilight is that really the hero from the book?”
Twilight chuckled with a nod and a soft smile, “Indeed it is Nyx. The plaque at the base of the statue said that the hero’s name was Victus Voidheart, and there is a series of words on the plaque that I couldn’t translate. Though there was another series of words underneath those that I was able to translate and it said something about him returning. If I read the translation correctly it said that he would appear if one of three different conditions are met. The first is if either one or both things called the Oblivion Gates or the Nether Portals were to return, and I looked for any references to what these “Oblivion Gates” or "Nether Portals" are in our library but I couldn’t find anything. The second thing was if the light of an eclipse hits the gem in the center of the chest on the statue of his resting place. Though I don’t know where that would be. Now the final condition has left me in a loop for the final condition is if these Avatars of peace willingly awakens him. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information on who these “Avatars of peace” are.”
Nyx nodded as she listened to her mother talk, “That sounds really complicated Twilight. But I’m sure if anyone can figure it out it will be you.”
Twilight blushed a bit from the praise, “Thank you for your confidence Nyx. But I think that this is beyond even me at the moment.”
Nyx smiled as she looked up at her mother with admiration, “You don’t need to be so modest Twilight. I know you can do it.”
Twilight just softly smiled at her daughter’s enthusiasm, “Thank You again Nyx. Could you bring the book here, please? I want to examine it for a moment. I think there may be something that I missed or misinterpreted.”
Nyx nodded and scampered off to go get the book from the reading table while Twilight turned back to Spike for a moment. She let go of the magic in her horn and the screen faded into nothingness again as she smiled at Spike, “Thanks for cleaning up my mess Spike. I don’t know what I would do without my number one assistant.”
Spike beamed at the praise as he continued to clean up all the ash and soot on the stove, “Aw it’s no problem Twilight. I’m happy to help.”
Twilight rubbed his head with her forehoof for a moment as she replied, “Still, your always willing to help out whether you want to or not. Don’t think for a moment that I don’t notice all that you do for me and Nyx.”
Spike nodded happily, “Thanks Twilight that really means a lot.”
Nyx came running back into the room carrying the thick book in her magic. Thankfully it wasn’t very taxing to her thanks to her practicing her magic. She held the book out towards her adoptive mother with her magic as she said happily, “Here you go Twilight.”
Twilight smiled and ruffled Nyx’s mane for a moment, “Thank you, sweetie.” She took the book in her own magic and brought it up to her face before quickly flipping through all of the pages to check if she had missed or didn’t understand anything. As she was rapidly flipping through the pages a piece of folded up paper slid out and floated down onto the floor. She finished speed reading the book and gently closed it with a frown. Not even noticing the folded piece of paper on the floor.
Nyx chuckled as she pointed at the piece of paper on the ground, “I think you missed something mom. That piece of paper slipped out while you were reading the book again.”
Twilight blinked before looking down at the ground and seeing the piece of paper. She picked it up in her magic as she blushed in embarrassment again, “How did I miss that? Hmm, I wonder what it is.” She gently opened the piece of paper with her magic and let out a gasp of surprise as she realized that it was a map. One that was marked with a trail starting at the edge of the Everfree forest and moving along through it to some spot in the Everfree past the castle of the two sisters. Though the map itself seemed to be ancient for many places and features on the map were different from the modern-day maps.
Nyx piped up curiously while looking at the map, “What is it, mom?”
Twilight examined it for another moment before finally replying, “Its a map to the hero’s resting place sweety. One that will lead us right to him.” She looked down at the map with awe and wonderment as she is already planning the trip that she would be taking with her friends in the adventure to go and find the slumbering hero of old.
Author's Note
To make things clear Nyx belongs to Pen Stroke, Minecraft belongs to Mojang, and the Elder Scrolls series belongs to Bethesda.
As for what the Oblivion Gates and the Nether Portals are they will be explained as the story goes for thous how wishes to know.
