The War of Ferus Island

Prologue

Few ponies knew the meaning of war. They knew the definition of the word, and they knew the theory behind the concept, but not one living Equestrian truly knew the complete, disturbing meaning of the thing. To be sure, some ponies had seen combat, but never in the gritty sense that the sickness of war brings about.

This tale begins not with war, but with sickness of another breed. Ponies throughout the land began falling ill. Their eyes became blood-shot, their fur began molting off, and their lungs began failing, all with no visible cause. Their energy dissipated, and they took to their beds. Some of the ponies with whom they were close came down with the sickness as well. Thus the plague spread.

* * * * * * *

It was Nightmare Night, and all the ponies in Ponyville were out on the town enjoying themselves with the festivities. Pinkie Pie was dressed as a cat this year with short ears, whiskers, and a fluffy tail-extension. This was one of her favorite holidays. When she thought about it, she couldn't pick a favorite. They were all so much fun! The dancing, the music, and most importantly, the parties! She forced herself to stop letting her mind wander, as she couldn't afford to waste another minute of candy-collecting time.

Prowling up to the door of the Library, Pinkie knocked and waited in anticipation. Spike opened the door and Pinkie pounced. Spike yelled in alarm as they both rolled end-over-end into the main room of the library, colliding with a stack of books.

“Did I surprise you?” Pinkie asked as she got up.

“Yeah, a little,” Spike responded. He rose and dusted himself off and fixed his pony costume.

“Love your costume Spike!”

“Thanks! Rarity made it!” He smiled.

Pinkie noticed Twilight lying on the floor in front of a book, concentrating. “Twilight, where’s your costume?” Pinkie asked, noticing the mare was naked.

Twilight glanced up. “Oh. Hi, Pinkie. When did you arrive?” she asked as she went back to her studying.

“You didn't answer my question, Twilight!” Pinkie walked over to her. “This is the most fun night of the year and you’re sitting inside studying! What gives?”

“What? Oh, there are more important things afoot, Pinkie. An illness is popping up all over Equestria. That’s why I’m going over Perplexing Pony Plagues.”

“Oh. That’s too bad. I hope nopony gets too sick. It would be a shame to have to stay in bed on Nightmare Night!” She looked over Twilight's shoulder at the book. It showed miserable symptoms of several different illnesses. Pinkie grimaced. “Does anypony in town have it? Maybe I could go cheer them up!”

“There are no reports of it in Ponyville yet, Pinkie,” Twilight told her. Pinkie frowned. “They need their rest, anyway. And it may be contagious.”

Pinkie nodded slowly. She looked down at her bag of candy and remembered her mission. “Well, I hope you come up with something to help them, Twilight. If there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know.”

“Nothing yet, Pinkie.”

“Okie dokie,” she said slowly. She left and trotted down the street, heading for the Town Square, where the main festivities would be held.

* * * * * * *

Returning to the Palace after a long night of frightening children, Princess Luna trotted through the back-streets of Canterlot and sighed. She would have flown, if not for all the restless colts and fillies carefully watching the skies for her. She did not like Nightmare Night. It was a glorification of the evil she had once let control her.

Perhaps “glorification” was not the proper word. She decided “reminder” was a better fit. At any rate, it made her regret ever having let greed get the better of her. Luna had enough of a reminder any time she looked in her sister’s eyes. Celestia was truly a wonderful sister, and Luna loved her very much. The mere fact that she had ever denied her the right to raise the sun brought about feelings of remorse and loss. The loss of a thousand years of a sister’s love was something nopony should have to live through. Yet Luna had brought it upon herself. She accepted that, as much as it pained her.

The small gate in the back of the palace led to the garden. The gardens were truly beautiful, and made Luna appreciate her sister’s ability with plants, but they looked better to her at night. Her moon’s light shining off the leaves gave a lovely blue-green glow to the whole place. Luna frowned, reminding herself that her moon’s light was merely a reflection of her sister’s own glory. The moon was a beautiful thing, but it would be a dark, useless mass without the life-giving light of the sun. Luna smiled briefly, knowing that Celestia well deserved the place of honor she held.

Some children screamed in the distance. Luna was out of sight, but there were always ponies trying to rile the youngsters up for a laugh. This sobered Luna further. The screams were only caused by the nervousness that everypony felt due to her actions in the past. She wished she could wipe the tales from the face of history, but there they were, always in the back of her mind—in the back of everypony’s mind.

Luna had elected to remain in Canterlot tonight rather than returning to the moon, as she truly was tired, both physically and emotionally. There was also the matter of the Feast in the morning. That would likely cheer her up a bit. It certainly had last year.

Luna opened the door that led from the garden into the palace proper and began climbing the back stairs. Upon entering her room, she found Celestia sitting on the floor. Celestia opened her eyes and looked up, smiling. Luna smiled back.

“How were the festivities?” Celestia asked with a smile.

“Lovely,” Luna replied with as much false sincerity as she could muster.

Celestia frowned. “What is the matter, Sister?”

“Nothing, Sister. Nothing at all.”

Celestia watched carefully as Luna trotted slowly to her bed. “You seem… depressed.”

“No, Sister. I am merely tired.” That was half true.

Celestia furrowed her brow. “As you say, Sister. You had best get some sleep before the feast. You have little time to rest.”

Luna nodded. “Wake me up when you need the moon lowered,” she said, yawning.

Celestia nodded, still looking distressed. “I shall, Sister. Goodnight.” She turned and trotted out of the room, closing the door magically behind her. Luna yawned again and climbed into bed, putting out the light with magic. She closed her eyes and fell quickly asleep.

* * * * * * *

Celestia walked down the hall, wondering what was troubling Luna. She had seemed quite content at the end of last year’s Nightmare Night. What was different about this year? Perhaps she would feel better in the morning.

A guard pony trotted up to her and saluted. “Yes?” Celestia asked.

“Shall we begin preparing the Grand Hall for the feast, Your Highness?”

“Go right ahead,” she said, smiling. Now was no time to be thinking of the past. She had larger matters to focus on, with the reports of illness. “I’ll be in my chambers until an hour before dawn,” she said.

* * * * * * *

East of Equestria, a small island in the sea had been ignored for a thousand years. Blue Stars had wanted to know why. There were many tales of the island, of course. Stories of terrifying creatures, spouts of fire coming from mountains, and violent, unnatural storms gave the place the name Ferus Island. So far, none of the promised adventures had come to fruition. Blue Stars had been on the island for several days, and he was alarmed at the pure blandness of it all. There were large creatures, but they were dormant and boring. There was a large mountain, but it was disappointingly absent of spouts of fire. All his time spent preparing weather-protection spells had been wasted on mild rain showers.

Blue Stars trotted through a meadow indistinguishable from the others he had seen. Why couldn't he find some place interesting at least once? He had spent four years traveling around the globe, and hadn't found anything anypony would want to hear about.. He kicked his hoof at a small piece of a rock poking through the ground. The rock came loose and lay in front of him, glowing faintly.

Blue furrowed his brow. He had never seen a rock that glowed before. He picked the thing up with his hoof. His horn twitched, but he ignored it. The glow the stone put off was… enticing. It seemed to throb with power in a way he had never seen…

He decided to make a log of it. Using magic, he opened his bag to take out his notebook, but stopped with it halfway out. Something was… wrong. His horn felt stronger than it usually did. He knew that was impossible. All unicorns are born with a certain amount of potential. While magical strength could be increased with exercise, to an extent, it never just suddenly jumped up. He almost decided to ignore it before resolving to test it. He used his horn to pick up a nearby fallen branch and threw it forward as hard as he could manage. It vanished in the distance. But the extra strength seemed to vanish with it.

The boredom must be getting to me, he thought, rubbing his eyes. He went back to his notebook. After getting the pen out, he looked back to the stone. The glow had vanished. How long had it been gone? Grabbing the stone with his horn to bring it closer to his face, he gasped as he felt the magic gripping it being… destroyed as it tried to touch the thing. He was too astonished to stop the flow of magic, and as he stood there with his mouth open, he saw the glow slowly returning to the stone.

Alarmed, he cut off the flow and dropped the stone. He picked it up with his hoof and set it in his bag, turned, and started galloping to the summit of the mountain. From there, he would be able to see the coast of Equestria on the Horizon. Being able to see the destination always aided in teleportation. It was still hard, and it took time, but it was the only way he had to get to this island without a boat, and he had to report this to somepony. Even with a boat, there was always the danger of sea monsters. Teleporting from the shore to the summit earlier in the week had taken nearly three hours, but it had been safe.

The trip to the top of the mountain took several hours, even at full speed, and upon reaching it Blue was exhausted. After a brief rest, he carefully took the stone out of his bag. It was glowing only about half as brightly as it had been when he had found it. Taking a deep breath, he tried to grab it with a flow of magic. He felt the flow being sucked into the thing again, and the glow began brightening. It went past the original brightness after only a minute more, and kept brightening. Blue knew he should be careful with the thing, but was so enticed by the entire concept of magic storage, or whatever was occurring, that he kept up the flow.

After about four minutes it stopped taking in the flow of magic. In fact, it was almost pushing back. Abruptly Blue stopped, not wanting to damage the thing. Can it be damaged? Holding the stone firmly in his hoof, he focused on the shoreline just barely visible across leagues of ocean. Flowing magic slowly around himself in the certain pattern required for teleportation, Blue sent a feeler flow to the spot on the shore. Taking another deep breath, he forced himself through the linking flows, in the standard method for teleportation, putting more magic behind it than he had ever thought possible. The landscape blinked and his eyes went wide again.

He was standing on the shore, facing the forest. It had felt like teleporting only a few feet, yet he was here. Looking behind him, he could scarcely make out the tip of the mountain poking out beyond the waves. He looked at the crystal. It was still faintly glowing. He stuffed the thing in his bag and started galloping east, toward Baltimare, where he would be able to take a train to Canterlot. The Princess must be told.