Seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, millennia, I don't know how long I have been here, in this ever-encroaching darkness that surrounds me and blocks off all sight. I don't know where I am, I don't know who I am, hell I don't even know what I am. All I know is the darkness, incomprehensible darkness that was so thorough I couldn't even make out my own body. None of my questions would be answered by just thinking about them and I've already tried kicking, with what I think are my legs, at the darkness and got nothing in return except a sharp pain across my entire body. I guess the only thing I can do is wait and see if anything happens because I'm sure as fuck not doing that again.

You know what I hate about waiting for something to happen when you don't know what that 'something' is, its the fact that you're never prepared for what that 'something' will be. Take, for instance, the mare who is currently falling from the sky at rapid speeds and is screaming at the top of her lungs for any type of help. That mare, as you probably figured out, is me and I'm currently really missing that unthinkable darkness right now. The ground is getting closer with each second so I guess I might as well try and make myself more comfortable since I'm going to die soon anyway. But ya know the problem with trying to call yourself down and accept your imminent demise, it never fucking works! Oh by whatever gods exist in wherever this place I've ended up in please I beg you to save me, I literally just figured out what my bloody species and gender are, I'm not ready to die yet.

The ground is only a few seconds away and so I close my eyes and pray. A few seconds pass and instead of the horrible crunch of bone I expected, I heard what sounded like a whoopie cushion? I had many questions as I opened my eyes and confirmed my suspicion that I had just landed on a giant whoopie cushion. The first, of my questions, is how I know what a whoopie cushion is when a few seconds ago I didn't even know my own species and still don't know my own name? That question was one that I'm fairly sure I'm not going to be able to answer anytime soon so instead, I'll turn to my second question, the one I've found myself asking a lot recently, where am I?

I'm pretty sure I can answer this one with the answer in a forest and technically be correct but I don't think that was all that hard to figure out from the large number of trees surrounding me. Most of them seemed to be oaks, ashes, and hawthorns, goddammit how do I know that, and the forest smelled of old wood and animals. Well, the first option I suppose is walking around the forest that is probably filled with dangerous animals until I find something, the second option would be to just sit here and probably get eaten by said dangerous animals, yeah not happening. I guess option one is not much of an option but more of a necessity for me right now, meaning it's time for me to go. I hopped off the giant whoopie cushion and onto my hooves, and nearly lost my balance forcing me to brace myself on a tree. I decided it would probably be a good idea to check myself for injuries so I decided to lean against one of the trees as I searched my body with one of my front hooves.

When I reached my back I felt something hard 'what the hell is that' I thought and pulled whatever was on my back off causing it to pull against the fur on my back. As I pulled it in front of me I immediately recognized the beautiful instrument, a lyre made of gold with strings made of what seemed to be woven silver. On the lyre was etched a beautiful pattern of roses crossed with daggers and at the center of the base of the lyre sat a beautiful blue gemstone that shown in the midday sun nearly blinding me. I don't know what it is about this lyre but I love it and for some reason felt compelled to play it, and hell what else am I supposed to do for fun in this forest, and so I started playing a simple tune. The movements came naturally and my magic, wait I have magic and a horn apparently, plucked the strings like clockwork, perfectly timed and beautiful. I don't even know the song I'm playing, it sounds like something somber, maybe a funeral dirge or some form of march, nevertheless, it was so beautiful it sounded as if a thousand angels had lifted their voices to sing the song of creation, with their very god as their conductor.

"By Luna, it's beautiful," a voice said from somewhere behind me causing me to stop playing and turn around as quickly as I could. What I saw standing there was a tall equine covered in black carapace whose eyes shone a brilliant blue with a mane as white as snow, glittering and flowing in a nonexistent wind. She wore a dress that was split in half with her left being black as the night sky and the right being a beautiful and brilliant white like the color of the moon all held together by a half-moon clasp. Her horn, a long curved black protrusion from her head, was glowing slightly white lifting her small wicker basket of, what I assumed to be, food of some kind.

"I'm sorry dear I didn't mean to startle you, it's just that I hadn't heard playing like that in years," she said looking at me curiously. "If I may ask, why are you in these woods alone?"

'I don't know how to reply to that' was the first thought to pop into my head when she asked that question. Should I tell her the truth, and for that matter do I even know the whole truth? Would she accept that I just fell out of the sky and landed on a giant whoopie cushion, would I believe that?

"Nevermind that, you need a place to rest for the night yes?" she cut off my train of thought with this new question, one I could actually answer this time. I nodded my head dumbly without even saying the words, I must look so stupid, yet she just smiled and stepped a bit closer to me. "Well if you need a place to stay you can come and stay with me," the strange mare said and then just turned and started walking away. I quickly scrambled to follow her and nearly fell face-first into the dirt but managed to keep my balance and follow after the strange mare. "Oh I haven't told you my name, have I?" she said and, before waiting for an answer, turned her head towards me and continued "I'm Moonfire, priestess of Luna and you?"

The mare, Moonfire, waited for me to respond as we walked and after a long period of silence I finally said "I don't know who I am, I woke up form what felt like endless darkness, and I was just falling from the sky, I thought I was going to die, then I landed on a giant whoopie cushion, and I can't even remember how I know what that is, I can't remember anything and... and...". I fell to the ground, tears beginning to fall from my eyes as I buried my face in my hooves, I'm so pathetic, I bet she's just going to leave me here to cry and get eaten by whatever beasts live in this forest. Then I felt like I had just been wrapped in something warm, the smell of the forest being blocked out by the strong smell of honey and wildflowers. As I opened my eyes I saw that Moonfire had pulled me into a hug, both of us now being wrapped together on the muddy ground.

She then grabbed my face in her hooves and brought it up to hers, she wore a smile brighter than the moon itself, and for a while, she just looked at me. "It would have been better if you had met a priestess of Rhiannon, they would have been able to help you more, but ill help you as best as I can," she said as she lifted me with her magic and gently put me on her back. "I believe that for you the most important thing is to understand this, change is a natural part of life, and for you, this means building a new life for yourself, but you must also remember that darkness is always followed by light, my little pony," she said causing me to blush so fiercely I was afraid she'd feel the rise in temperature and throw me off her back, instead she just lightly giggled. "Now I believe you'll be needing some rest," she said softly and her horn started glowing a bright white, and my eyelids started feeling heavy as I drifted off to sleep.

The next time I woke up I was lying on a soft bed wrapped in a light blue cover that smelled of lavender and lilac, how does she do that without candles or incense? The room I was in was very sparsely decorated with only a small oak dresser in the corner and a small lamp that shone with what seemed like moonlight, and again I ask myself how does she do that? Sitting on the dresser was what seemed to be a set of clothes and a note both of which I had to assume were for me, so I slowly hopped off of the soft feather bed and made my way to the dresser. I quickly picked up the piece of paper in my hoof which read in beautiful hoofwriting "I left you some clothes on the dresser dear, they should fit you quite well, and I would be delighted if you would get dressed and join me in the chapel. Much love, Moonfire."

Well, I guess that means the clothes are definitely for me so I best put them on and get to the chapel, it would be best not to keep my gracious host waiting. I looked over the clothes, it seemed to be a simple red tunic, which I quickly slipped my front hooves and head into, and my lyre, which a slung across my back. As I walked over to the plain-looking wooden door that served as the only exit and, assumedly, entrance to the room and opened it into a hallway. The hallway was lit by similar lamps to the one in the bedroom and the walls were lined with symbols of the half-moon.

The room I just left seems to be the only one on this hall as well as being at the end of the hall meaning that the chapel would be down this hallway. I walked down the hallway, the eirie white light creeping me out slightly until I reached a door at the end of the hall which I quickly made my way through. When I came through the door I was standing in front of a marble altar, the ceilings were high, and hanging from them was a single chandelier. On the left wall was a large mural that I felt compelled to get closer to. The mural showed a mare, who had both a long spiraled horn and large magnificent dark wings, her coat was midnight black. Wait no it wasn't her coat was the color of the moon, what the hell it keeps changing, nevermind that, her mane looked like it was filled with stars and was flowing unnaturally.

She held a majestic lance. made of shining black metal, and was dressed in what seemed to be full plate battle armor that shone the same color of her lance and was ornately decorated with symbols of each of the phases of the moon. I then turned to see what she fought and what the hell, this thing was nearly ten times the size of the mare who faced it and it looked weird. It stood on only two legs and in the place of hooves where strange things, I don't even know what to call them, and on top of that was a, um, stallion hood that my eyes quickly dashed away from. I quickly refocused this time on the creature's other appendages that were attached on either side of the torso near the top. They, like the rest of his skin, were a dark black and extended one of them, the one on the left side of the creature, was left at its side while the other was raised high above its head.

At the end of these appendages where wait those are hands? Again I was forced to ask myself how I knew what these things are when I don't even know my own name. That, however, was a question that I would have to answer later right now my attention was focused on what the creature held in its right hand. High above the creature's head, it held a huge black forging hammer engraved with symbols of fire, lava, and meteors. I then turned my attention to the creatures face and I was instantly struck cold, its eyes, blazing a fiery red, looked at the mare it was currently locked in combat with, not with anger, or pity, or even remorse, no it looked at the mare, and all of its surroundings, with cold indifference. Its mouth wore a simple frown and its nose, dammit how do I know that, was a fairly small thing when compared to the rest of its features. What was behind the creature, however, is what really startled me, it was the sun itself shining directly behind the creature's head as it raised its hammer.

"I've always loved this mural," a voice said from behind me causing me to jump and turn around reflexively for the second time today, and lo and behold it was the same mare it was the first time. "Oh, I'm sorry dear I didn't mean to startle you" Moonfire began as she looked at me with the same kind smile she had worn since I met her.

"It's fine Moonfire I was just wondering what this mural was all about," I said as I turned back to the mural, Moonfire walking up next to me a pensive look on her face.

"You truly don't know," she asked me, and I shook my head, was this another important thing I forgot? "Well then I suppose I should start at the beginning yes?" she asked and, without waiting for a response, her horn began shining white from her magic and I was hit by a blinding white light.

When the light faded I was standing, no wait I was floating!? I started to flail as I floated there until I felt a hoof touch me on the shoulder. Next to me, Moonfire floated calmly with a small smile on her face "calm down, your safe, this is just an illusion". Ok, that made sense I thought as I stopped struggling and began to steady my breath to calm myself down.

After I had sufficiently calmed myself down I decided, in my infinite wisdom, to look at my surroundings for the first time. Everything was so wrong, the sky was crimson with black clouds of what I could only assume was ash to break the monotony, and the sun was so bright burning so bright it nearly blinded me to even look near it. The ground itself was a craked volcanic hellscape with no life whatsoever the ground was simply many types of volcanic rock, rivers of lava flowing from massive volcanoes spewing massive amounts of lava and ash out every few seconds.

As I kept looking around the landscape I saw something on the ground below holding a hammer in its hand, it was the creature from the mural, and it was smashing the hammer into the ground. "That is Axiom the creator of all things in Tartarus, the uncaring god," Moonfire said with, for the first time since I met her, a small frown gracing her features as she looked down at Axiom, an apparent god. "What we are witnessing now is the formation of Lunasau, or at least how it has been told to us for generations" as she said this I saw Axiom had stopped hammering the spot he was and grabbed at where that spot was. In his left hand, he now held a glowing white ball with not a single imperfection, a pure and beautiful thing, and in the next moment, he reached his left arm back and threw the ball into the sky creating the moon.

"Now we must skip ahead a bit as, for a long time, nothing happened as Lunasau began forming from the power Axiom had left behind when he made the moon," Moonfire said as the area around us began to blur and shift around us. "For this trip, we only have to view three more events and hopefully that will help you understand everything" Moonfire continued as the world stopped shifting and came back into focus. What I saw when it did was the same Image I saw in the mural but this time it was animated as I saw Lunasau charge towards Axiom, her lance directly in front of her, so fast It almost looked like she was teleporting.

Lunasau flew for Axiom's neck as fast as she could her lance ready to cut straight through his throat as she flew at speeds faster than a pony's eyes could see. However, the instant Lunasau got within ten feet of Axiom there was a clattering of metal hitting metal that caused me to refocus and try and see what happened. What I saw was that, at speeds even faster than Lunasau's flight, Axiom had brought up his hammer and used it to stop Lunasau's charge in its tracks. "This would be the first of many times Lunasau would fight against our creator and also the first of her many losses in, said fight, each of which would form a new crater on the moon," Moonfire said drawing my attention away from the battle I had just seen.

"Why would she be fighting against her creator though?" I asked causing Moonfire to look slightly startled and to look at me with a soul-crushing amount of pity.

"Oh you poor dear you truly don't remember anything," she said in a concerned tone "well, in this case, it's a simple answer, she fought for the right to make the planet less volatile" and I was officially confused again. I mean I understood that the planet was volatile but why couldn't Lunasau just make it better without Axiom's permission? Moonfire seemingly could tell what I was thinking without me even saying it and said "do you see the hammer Axiom is wielding?" I looked where her hoof was pointing and saw the hammer just as it slammed into the side of Lunasau sending her flying into a volcano destroying it completely. "That is the hammer of creation, it and only it can truly create anything that did not already exist or that was already possible," Moonfire said as she looked at the hammer.

But this brought up another question for me "then how can the forest we were in exist?" Moonfire looked at me with a look of worry again when I asked this question, another thing I should have already known. Suddenly my head started aching and my vision started going black as a high-pitched noise traveled through my entire body shaking me to my core. The last thing I saw before the darkness consumed me was Moonfire herself fall from the sky her own eyes closed as we fell and my eyes were finally forced to close.

Author's Note

What Lyra knows - Axiom is a scary god, Lunasau is a benevolent goddess maybe? and Moonfire is an extremely nice mare.