A Lyra in time

by Lunasau

Rating: mature
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Mystery, Non-consensual, Adventure, Sex, Suicide / Self Harm, Profanity, Discord, Violence, Dark, Death, Lyra, Princess Luna, Original Character
Length: 7111

A tale of the world that came before. Before Celestia and Luna, before Equestria, before the three pony tribes, this the tale of Elysium and Tartarus as told by a lost, and quite confused, Lyra Heartstrings.

Everyone knows the story of the old pony tribes, how they used to constantly war with one another, and how they were all forced to work together to settle the land of Equestria. However, if you were to ask Discord, as so few ever do, he would tell you about a time long before those three tribes even existed. He would tell you of the origins of ponykind and of a time of constant war, grief, and anguish. He would also tell you of the technological marvels that these ancient ponies had made, of which Equestria is only just now starting to scratch the surface of. This is one of the few things Discord truly takes seriously so when a curious little pony asks about that time all those millennia ago he is obliged to show them the history of their kind. Now this pony has been thrown into a world of shadows and death, a world of pain and suffering, a world that just might need a little hope.

(So this is the first fic I'm going to be writing for this site so feedback is very much appreciated and now onto the bit where I explain some of the warning tags. So the death tag is pretty obvious the ancient ponies had many more threats and wouldn't hesitate to kill if given reason to do so. The sex and Non-Consensual tags are both implicit and the latter only shows up in rare situations and the backstory of one of the characters. The rest of the red tags should be fairly obvious based on the type of story this is. So now without further ado, I hope you enjoy my story.)

Published 2020-12-25 17:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2021-01-20 12:51:16 UTC

Chapter 1: Questions

So today was going pretty great for me, I had finally convinced Bon Bon to let me host my human appreciation club meetings in our house, the sun was shining brightly above me and, thanks to the Pegasi, there was not a single cloud in the sky. It was on days like these that I would have normally been sitting on a park bench playing my lyre or reading about humans but today was a tad different. Today I had someone I had to meet, a surprisingly rare occurrence for me, and so I was instead walking through the main street in Ponyville.

As I was walking I saw AppleJack standing behind her stall and decided that an apple would be really good right now so I started walking toward her. Now some problems came with being the only human enthusiast in a town and one of those was a certain look people gave me at times. That look could mean many things, all of them bad, with Bon Bon it was always a concerned and slightly embarrassed look, with Roseluck and the other flower ponies it was always one of disdain, but the most common one by far was the one on AppleJack’s face right now, a look of unease and worry.

I always hated when ponies looked at me like that, it was as if they saw something wrong with me just because I believed something they didn’t. When I had originally moved to Ponyville, ten years ago now, it had been to get away from that look, that look that made my parents kick me out of the house, that look that made me have to change my name, that look that meant I could never go back home again. I had to shake myself out of that memory and push it to the back of my mind as I tried to give Applejack the best smile I could as I walked towards her market stall. I walked up and, despite the smile on her face, Applejack said absolutely nothing and just tossed me an apple as I placed five bits on the counter of the stall. This was enough of a tradition for me by now that I simply grabbed the apple and turned away saying nothing and just munching the apple as I walked. I started to make my way out of town and toward the edge of the Everfree forest where Fluttershy lived in her little cottage.

Fluttershy had always been one of my favorite ponies in this town, she never gave me that look and was always kind to me, even when I was having one of my “freakouts” as Bon Bon calls them. In fact, she had been my closest friend after Bon Bon and I had that big fight seven years ago and even after Bon Bon and I made up she stayed one of my closest friends. That was until that night, the night when Twilight sparkle, the filly who forgot I even existed, came to town and defeated Nightmare Moon with the rest of the, now, elements of harmony. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful to them for saving us all, multiple times now, but that doesn’t make me any less bitter about the fact that since she came here me and Fluttershy have barely had any time to spend together. Now it wasn’t as if I hated Twilight for forgetting me, I mean who wouldn’t want to forget a filly like me, but it still hurt to be around her after everything that happened.

As I shook myself out of my own thoughts I noticed I had arrived at Fluttershy’s cottage and that I had just been standing there in front of the door for Celestia knows how long. So without any further hesitation, I knocked on the door of the cottage and, instead of the soft knock of a hoof on hardwood, my hoof sank into the door with a squelch. Now I’m not normally an easily startled pony, when you study humans you learn some pretty disturbing shit, but a door eating my hoof was something that made me legitimately scream in terror. My hoof felt like I had stuck it in clay, as the substance stuck to my aquamarine coat as it sucked on my leg and pulled more and more of me into it. I continued to struggle as the door sucked more and more of my leg into it till it had forced my face into the door and everything suddenly went black.

My brain felt several times larger than my skull as I came to in... Wait I had no idea where I was right now, the last thing I could remember was knocking on Fluttershy's door. I was surprisingly used to waking up in rooms that I didn't know so I was fairly calm as I looked around at my surroundings. I seemed to be in some kind of office that smelled of mahogany and chocolate milk? The walls and floor both seemed to be made of paneled wood, the room had no door and was a bit bigger than your average living room, and the walls were decorated with beautiful paintings of what seemed to be historical events.

One of these paintings caught my eye however as it showed 25 equines, each a different type, of mixed gender standing together dressed in regal attire. I recognized some of them, even though they were not quite right themselves, but most of them were types of equine that I didn't recognize. But something in the painting next to it caught my eye, they were pale-skinned and stood on two legs, wait where those hands!? I immediately stood up and, without even noticing my pounding headache, moved in front of the painting to get a closer look at it. They looked so much like how I imagined them, they were beautiful, with their sharp features, beautiful fingers, long slender frames, beautiful skin of varying shades, and their beautiful hair.

There were some differences from the texts however as their ears were longer and pointer than most evidence pointed to them being. Another difference was that instead of appearing technologically advanced they actually appeared backward compared to modern Equestria. They wore beautiful armor of gleaming metal and wielded swords that reflected brightly in the light of the day. The final difference that I noticed was that at the head of this group stood a man dressed in elegant plate armor with a royal cloak draped over his back and a crown that rested upon his brow. This however did not match up to the evidence I had gathered about how human society operated as, according to my research, they had no queen or princess and instead elected their leaders using a democratic voting system, something Equestria had only just adopted within my lifetime, and were bastions against tyranny. This became increasingly infuriating as I noticed other tiny discrepancies with the bone structure in their hands which is much more delicate than my research had suggested they would be.

"Ah I see you've found my favorite painting," said a deep booming voice from behind me which caused me to jump into the air and turn around as quickly as I could. When I turned, my face burning and turning, what I assume was, a brilliant shade of crimson, I saw a tall creature standing behind the large mahogany desk. So I sometimes spent time with Discord and before you say it, yes I know he can be a bit of a jerk sometimes but we both had something in common, being the odd ones out. This has lead to me visiting Discord occasionally to keep him company while Fluttershy is away saving Equestria and whatever else the elements of harmony did while they were away from Ponyville. So what I mean to say is that I had spent enough time around Discord to know what he normally looked like and I could even somewhat read his emotions through his body language. This made it confusing for me when I saw what appeared to be Discord standing before me, but he looked different, his hair was long enough that it hung down slightly in front of his face and went halfway down his back.

Another thing was that his usual gray hair and eyebrows were now jet black and his eyes were no longer their usual yellow and red but were instead a black iris surrounded by a bright ethereal blue. The most striking difference to me however was the one I pointed out first "wheres your goatee?". His eyes went wide and his jaw quite literally hit the ground as he looked at me then, picking his jaw up off the floor, he fell backward laughing while floating in the air.
I think he laughed for a solid minute before he was finally composed enough to ask me "that's the first thing you ask not where you are or how you got here but where is my goatee?"

I looked at him and said "I mean that would be nice to know but you look weird without the goatee" after I had finished saying this Discord finally calmed down, whipping tears from his eyes, and smiled. It was a rare smile that Discord almost never wore, a smile without any malice, a smile that I believe has only ever been seen by me and Fluttershy.

"You know Lyra this is why your my second favorite pony in Equestria," he said causing that brilliant red blush to come back with a vengeance. "To answer your question this" Discord said as he used lion paw to motion towards himself "is how I used to look about 3000 years ago" he finished and now it was my turn to gape.
I knew he was old, at least as old as the princesses, but I never thought about how old but if he was over 3000 years old then "you're older than all of ponykind?"

With that, his expression dropped slightly as he summoned himself a glass of chocolate milk and sat on the chair behind the desk "no not really but that is a long story to tell so come sit" he said as a chair appeared on the other side of the desk. Discord now wore an expression I had only seen him wear once before when I asked him about his relationship with Celestia, it was a look of sadness and longing.

This piqued my interest, as an archeologist and equipologist, so I quickly made my way over to the seat he had summoned for me and sat down. Discord then waved his griffon claw and a cup of milk tea now sat in front of me causing me to smile slightly.

I grabbed the cup and took a sip and smiled at the taste, cotton candy and cinnamon, my favorite, something I discovered very early on in my life much to the displeasure of my parents. Everypony else always thought my choice of drink was weird, at least, until I met Discord. He loved it partially because it was something so chaotic that even he hadn't thought of it and partially because he thought it tasted good.

This, in essence, described my relationship with Discord to a tea, pardon the pun, with me being the only pony who really understands why he loves chaos. Harmony, it's what the princesses, other noble ponies, and priests tell us we should believe in, they tell us that harmony is the ultimate good and chaos it's exact opposite. I had truly believed this for much of my life, my parents were churchgoing ponies and devout believers heck my older brother is the archbishop of Canterlot himself. However, when my parents, the devout believers that they were, basically disowned me I started having second thoughts about harmony. This was continually strengthened by my research into the human concept of deism and my eventual friendship with Discord.

All of that combined made it so that I was fairly open to the idea of chaos not being evil in and of itself and as such being more open to Discords philosophy. "Lyra!!!" Discord yelled snapping me out of my own thoughts as I looked up at him "jeez you know being that in your own head is a dangerous habit Lyra" Discord finished his head resting in his paw and talon.

"I know I know it's just my own little form of escapism Discord," I said and continued to sip my tea, and then I remembered why I sat down in the first place "so you were going to tell me about something".

Discords eyebrow quirked and he smiled in a way that said 'so you finally remembered' and he said "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away" and then as he said that my vision was filled by yellow text flowing by an epic musical score started playing. Then it abruptly stopped and I was snapped back into reality with discord grinning in front of me "ha just kidding" he said causing me to sigh and shake my head.

"Okay okay for real this time" Discord began "many many years ago I was created and found myself in a world called Tartarus" and with that my jaw dropped for the second time today. "Before you ask yes ponies lived in Tartarus before coming to Equis" Discord said before I could even ask the question. He then looked at me and I saw a spark of mischief in his eyes as he looked at me with a smile that sent a small shiver down my back and said "now the rest you'll have to see and ask your own questions then".
Those words piqued my interest and I asked "what do you mean ill 'have to see'?"

He looked at me with a wide ear to ear smile as he said, "well my dear Lyra I could send you back in time and across worlds into Tartarus as it used to be". Those few words made my heart stop and my head race, oh the possibilities and the things I could learn, a whole new set of cultures to study, a new look into ancient history, and I might even get to meet some humans!

Then I remembered who I was dealing with because even though he is my friend Discord is still a trickster through and through so I asked "What's the catch".

With that, his grin faltered a little and turned into a normal smile as he said "well my dear the catch is you might not be able to, or want to, come back to modern Equis". There it was, nothing was ever straightforward and easy in my life so why should I have expected anything different from this.
Now if I'm being honest I would be perfectly fine with never seeing most of the ponies in Equis ever again. Most of them hate me anyway, that includes my own family, and the rest barely tolerates me, this includes most of Ponyville, but there is one mare who cares about me too much for me to do that to her. "I'm sorry Discord" I began to say "I just can't do that to Bon Bon" I finished and looked up to see Discord's smile turn into a slight frown.

"Well if you change your mind you always know where to find me," Discord said abruptly and then snapped his talon and I was back in front of Fluttershy's cottage.

It's been two weeks since that conversation and I have been thinking about it constantly which has lead to me spacing out more than I normally would. This is how I ended up in the situation I am in now tangled up in a multitude of streamers and banners with a ruined party around me and everypony starting down at me. I hadn't meant to ruin this party I was just so lost in thought that I tripped and fell into one of the streamers and brought everything down on top of me. Then the laughing began, it started as only one pony but, like a virus, it quickly spread to those around them, and soon everypony was laughing at me. The worst bit was that they weren't laughing with joy, no they were more mean-spirited than that and were laughing at me some even jeered.

Then I saw the one mare who wasn't laughing and was instead standing stock-still in front of the door, it was Bon Bon. I looked her in the eyes and all the sounds of the room began to dull as I saw the expression on her face, it wasn't her usual embarrassment by proxy, no this was something worse it was disappointment.

Then she quickly ran out the door and I ran after her just as quickly pushing everypony out of my way and dashing after Bon Bon into the night. The air was chilly and I knew the pegasi had called for rain tonight and Luna's moon hanging full in the sky made this a beautiful night. I continued to chase after Bon Bon leaving behind a trail of streamers and banners behind me as I ran as fast I possibly could to catch Bon Bon.
We ran for what felt like hours until she finally stopped and turned to face me and said "why Lyra every time I think your doing better you go and do this".

The look in her eyes made my stomach turn as a quickly retorted "I didn't mean to I was just thinking about something Discord said" and in that instant her look went face contorted from sadness to anger.

"There it is again Lyra you can't be friends with a monster like that," she said to me and that made me mad who was she to call Discord a monster and tell me who I can't be friends with.

"He's not a monster he just thinks differently than most other creatures" I began "and if anything that makes me and him similar in that regard" Bon Bon looked disgusted by what I had just said.
"Never say that Lyra" Bon Bon said firmly stepping closer to me as light drops of rain began to pour and I stepped away and put my front left hoof over my chest offended by the insinuation.
"Never say what, that I don't think like most ponies, that I hate most of what Equestria is, that I hate living here where everyone's too closed-minded to accept me, or that I, like Discord, have no place in this world," I said as tears started leaking from my eyes and my back right hoof began to shake lightly.

The rain was slowly pouring harder as Bon Bon looked at me her own eyes tearing up and for a long moment, we just stood there the only sound being that of the light pitter-patter of the rain hitting the ground. Then she finally spoke "then why don't you just go then? just go and never come back!" she screamed and ran off away from me.

Then I was left alone standing in the rain and I broke down completely falling to the ground and sobbing into my hooves. Why did she have to say that why am I never good enough for anypony why did I just let the mare I love leave without even saying anything? I'm a failure, though I suppose I always knew that, and now I'm a failure with nopony left in this world to turn to I'm well and truly alone. Then I stopped feeling rain hit my crying form and realized there was a circular shadow being cast from above me "well I wouldn't say that my dear" said the voice of my last friend on Equis Discord holding a green umbrella over me. "I mean you've still got me though you won't much longer if you stay in this rain," He said as he snapped his talon.

Suddenly we were back in his office and I was dry, covered in a blanket, and sat on a couch while he was sat next to me on said black cloth couch. "would you like some tea dear" he said and I nodded tea sounded very good right now and soon a cup of milk tea appeared in my hooves and I slowly began to sip it, it tasted just like the cotton candy Bon Bon had made me on our second anniversary, and yes I did cover it in caramel before I ate it and I will not be judged, and then I thought of everything else Bon Bon and I had done over the course of 8 years together.

I looked at the swirling tea inside the cup and began to cry when a strong paw and claw wrapped around me and pulled me closer to them. "Shh my dear I can take away the pain if you like I can let you forget Equis and all your troubles here, all I need is your permission" Discord whispered sweetly in my ear, yes that's all I wanted to be gone from here to never see the lands of Equis I Just wanted to leave.

"Well dear all you must do is relax and I'll take all the pain away," Discord said his voice unusually somber as my eyes slowly began to close and the last sight I would ever see of Equis would be Discord smiling down at me sadly as I lay on his chest, tears clinging to the corners of his eyes as the world slowly went black.

Author's Note

What Lyra knows - nothing

And there goes the first chapter of, hopefully, many. Updates may be sparse as I am still in school and I'm working on this in my free time but I'll try to update as often as I can. So yeah I hope you enjoyed this first chapter and please tell me what you think.

Chapter 2: Lost and Found

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.