The Forgotten Race

As they come into view of Ponyville, Galad's eyes take in the town in the distance near the stream and sighs as he remembers what happened in the past in this location saying, "Whoever chose to build a town here was either pretty wise or had no choice."

Twilight looks at Galad curiously and asks, "I do not understand what you mean by that, could you please explain it to me?"

Galad smiles slightly and says, "Well this is an excellent location with access to water and good soil to raise food, that is enough to draw attention to it don't ya think?"

Pinkie then replies saying, "Well of course it would draw attention, why wouldn't it?"

He raises an eyebrow at her and says, "I am guessing that the town is always peaceful then, I wonder how long it has been like that..."

The pink pony then looks at him and answers him honestly, "It has always been peaceful in Ponyville, today is the first day there was a problem to deal with."

Galad sighs and says, "I wish that you all have danger-free lives for as long as fate allows, for it is a wheel that always turns. It brings change as it moves ever forward, never stopping for any reason. We all must adapt to the changes that happen all around us, for the young shall be following the examples we leave behind."

As Applejack listens to him, she says, "Ya seem to have a lot of wisdom with how ya talk, what is it like to live in a mountain?

He lets out a sigh, feeling a little homesick, and says, "Well to a dwarf, mountains are our homes. We will fight any foe that dares to try and take our homes from us. We almost lost our home to a swarm of insect ponies about fifteen hundred years ago, but we somehow managed to break their attack. As they started to flee, we pursued them until we lost them. Many dwarves were lost in that attack, however, we did succeed in slaying many of their queens, although one or two did escape our soldiers."

Rarity gasps at hearing that and says, "EEEWWW!! There are insect ponies out there, oh how dreadful!"

Twilight cocks her head and curiously asks, "What did these insect ponies look like Galad?"

Galad sighs and shakes his head saying, "Unfortunately that was many generations ago and the only thing that is clear in the history books is that there was a hive of them that was black and a sickly greyish sea green color, and were wiped out because they stole and consumed our fallen soldiers. They all could fly and use magic from their horns, some others cocooned their victims and dragged them off to feed off them. One queen that escaped us could feed on us from a distance, but we weren't affected too much by her feeding off us and that led us to almost wipe them from existence."

Fluttershy looks away and says, "That was a very mean thing to do to them, why would you continue to harm them as they tried to escape?"

He looks to the shy pony as she nervously glances at him for a moment, then looks away and says, "That was many years ago Fluttershy, so I honestly can't tell you why we continued to pursue them. Perhaps we were angry at them for bothering us and trying to force us out of the home we built for ourselves. When that war with the insects first started about two thousand years ago, we were already in seclusion and only traded with other Dwarven cities. When that war ended fifteen hundred years ago, we stopped all interaction with the cities from above."

Twilight clears her throat and tries to change the subject saying, "Let us change to a different topic, shall we everyone?"

Galad smiles and nods his head to her as a silent Thank You then says, "That sounds like a wonderful idea, how about I hear about you girls instead?"

Rainbow Dash goes first and says, "Hi, I am the one and only Rainbow Dash, and I am a big fan of the Wonderbolts. In fact, someday I hope to be able to join them as one of the best fliers in Equestria. I help the weather team manage the weather, as well as help a few ponies out around Ponyville."

Applejack speaks up next and says, "Mah name's Applejack, and mah friends may call me AJ. Ah live and work on mah family's farm with mah little sister Applebloom, mah big brother Big Mac, and mah grandmother Granny Smith. Ah care for and love mah family and friends. Ah am also a really good cook, though Granny is better at it than ah am."

Rarity then takes her turn and smiles saying, "Greetings darling, my name is Rarity Belle and I have my own shop called Carousel Boutique. I live there on the second floor with my sister Sweetie Belle, I also make marvelous outfits for my customers."

Galad looks at them and smiles saying, "Today is a great day indeed, I've made six friends and met two princesses. I only hope that a friendship develops between us, it would be nice to reintroduce ourselves to the outside world. As long as no one demands that we stay inside our mountain homes because of our crimes, I think that we may be able to come out of our isolation. Depending on how this first week goes, I may be able to get my parents to let me go out again for more adventures."

Twilight then looks at Galad, her curiosity getting the better of her as she notices how long ago the Dwarves' war was and asks, "Galad, how long have the Dwarves been here?"

He doesn't see the harm in them knowing the truth and shrugs his shoulders saying, "We've been here for about forty-five hundred years, give or take a few." and continues on walking towards Ponyville.

The group stops suddenly and speaks in unison, "WHAAAT?!?"

The curious purple unicorn stares at Galad in shock at what they all just heard and says, "Then that means your race was already here when Equestria was founded!"

Galad stops and turns around, looking at them like they should already know and chuckles then says, "If it shocks you that we have been here that long, I can't wait to hear what your guys' history is. Start from the furthest back you know about this land's history as you know it, I will fill in the blanks and correct some of it as needed."

Twilight then nods and giggles softly says, "Sorry my friends but I really want to hear more, do you all mind if we sit down to hear this?"

Applejack shakes her head side to side saying, "Nope, ah don't mind at all. Ah'm rather curious mahself about what Galad has to say." and then moves over by Twilight to sit down beside her.

The dwarf smiles as the rest of them nod their heads and sit down with Twilight as she begins telling the history saying, "Well...I read a book about legends and found something claiming it all started about two thousand years ago when Grogar came to call himself the supreme ruler of the land, creating numerous monsters with his magic to wreak havoc and increase his power." He hears her stop at the end and says, "Is that all there is to Equestria's history, or is there more?"

She giggles lightly and smiles saying, "Oh of course there is more, there's a lot more to tell you. I was just stopping to see if it sounded familiar to you or if you had anything to say in regards to the legend."

Galad nods his head and says, "Nay, not familiar at all so please continue on with your history lesson professor."

Rainbow Dash giggles at that and says, "You really do sound like a professor Twilight." trying to not fall over laughing, she widens her front legs a little.

Twilight rolls her eyes at the teasing and continues on through her friend's snickering saying, "Well about sixty years later, the pony tribes are at odds with each other and are forced to find new lands due to a raging blizzard that has overtaken their lands. After they discover there can be harmony with each other, they unite and found Equestria. As three hundred more years pass by, a powerful unicorn wizard named Star Swirl The Bearded takes two alicorn students as apprentices..." continuing on about his accomplishments for several seconds.

Galad doses off for a moment and wakes up with a jerk, eliciting a giggle from Rainbow Dash and Pinkie while Twilight continues talking about how Discord appeared forty years later and ruled the land by using his chaos magic. He chuckles and says, "I remember about how that nuisance plagued us with his magic, casting it on our people and food. We eventually wisened up to his antics and faced him, almost took his head when he agreed to leave us alone."

She then smiles and says, "Okay so you know about Discord at least, let me continue on with the rest of Equestria's history. Discord is then defeated by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna after they found the Elements of Harmony. The last bit of history is fifty years after Discord is defeated, Princess Luna started to become jealous of her sister's popularity. She wanted the ponies to love her beautiful night so much that she refused to lower the moon one night and turned into Nightmare Moon, forcing her own sister to banish her to the moon as punishment. A few years after Nightmare Moon was banished, the wonderbolts was formed as a protective force in Equestria but evolved into an elite unit only for the best pegasi. Oh, I forgot to tell you about the crystal empire I read about in a book, not much is known about it though since it has vanished without a trace."

He sighs and looks away saying, "I know about the Crystal Empire too, we committed a great sin while we were aiding them."

Feeling a little worried about what her friend said, Fluttershy gathers enough courage to ask, "C-Could you tell us what happened that makes you look so ashamed?"

Galad looks at her and says, "Today is a day of celebration, an occasion to be happy because your princess has been restored to you. Perhaps I shall tell you that a different day, okay?"

Twilight is eager to know more about the Dwarves' history and asks, "Well since you were around since way before Equestria was even a thought, do you know what the world was like then?"

He ponders whether or not to blow their minds and says, "The land was wild and vast when we first learned of it, it was also infested with goblins. It also had manticores, timberwolves, bugbears, giant boars, and we learned later that dragons also existed here as well as sentient dogs that had their own empire far to the southeast of here according to this now outdated map I have."

Rainbow's curiosity piques at not hearing about ponies being on the land too and asks, "Well, how come you didn't mention ponies? Don't tell me we came here from another world where we were terrorized by monsters."

Galad laughs at hearing that and says, "I was getting to that, have a little patience. I was building suspense for a mind-blowing bit of information." He then takes a breath and continues saying, "Let me tell you a story about a dwarf named Asulfur, I only know of this story because he kept a journal that explains what he experienced that day as well as the adventures he went on later. One day he was hanging inside a cavern that was being mined by other dwarves, sitting in a seat against a wall. He continued to chisel away to get at the treasure hidden behind it, when a large crack appeared and started to run along the wall before him. He then pulled the rope attached to a bell up above to signal the others to pull him up higher, after he was out of danger, he watched the large chunk break away from the wall and tumble down through the cavern. The piece landed with a heavy crash that echoed throughout the depths of the city under the mountain, once his chair stilled, he looked down to see a strange crevice in the wall that led deeper and pulled the rope again to signal them to stop. Because he was a dwarf and naturally curious, he then signaled them to lower him back down so he could investigate it further. Once he saw it was deeper than he first thought, he started building a place for him to stand on so he could explore the crevice. It took him two months to carve out a spot where he could stand and hammered an anchor into the wall to secure himself to, and ventured into the depths of the opening. It took him a little time to make it to the end of the hole, and do you know what he found there?"

Pinkie leans forward on her hooves, eager to hear the answer and guesses, "A magical portal that took him to a faraway land?"

Galad chuckles and nods his head saying, "Great guess Pinkie, how'd you know that?"

She giggles and says, "I just took a wild guess, hehe."

He then narrows his eyes at her curiously and says, "A very lucky guess, but aye, he found a large cave filled with sparkling veins of precious metals and gems scattered all along the walls. Though what caught his eye most was a pool of water that glowed with a gold and white shimmering light, so he cautiously approaches the pool and touches the water first, he then smells the water, he even tastes it and it only makes him feel better. He then decides the water is safe and only makes you feel good, so he removes all of his clothing and enters the water. As he dunked his head underwater, he felt a pinch and quickly ran out of the pool. He found himself in a different cave and started to explore when he remembered he was bare ass naked!" He then chuckles at that and continues the story saying, "So he then returns for his clothes and his hammer then returns to the pool to explore the area. After climbing up through a hole in the ground, he had to spend many hours tearing out brambles with his hands before finding a clearing. And in that clearing, he found ponies. He was then ambushed by a timberwolf but he quickly defeated it and went into the clearing further when the herd nervously approached him, he looked at them a little closer and knew right away they couldn't be ridden. So then he returns to his mountain home and tells his boss, bringing him here next and then they both told their king about what they found. He then began working on building a path down the cliff to the pool, there was an expedition that was led by the king later, but he wasn't part of it." He then takes a breath and drinks from his canteen for a moment before saying, "This next part came from the King's journal regarding the expedition. After a few years had passed, the king went on the expedition with a small group of dwarves including the overseer, who led the expedition as he was there before. They passed through the portal and encountered some goblins riding timberwolves, the same herd from before was grazing in the field when one lone mare decided to follow them back for some reason. She quickly learned how to go up and down flights of stairs, she even attempted to speak but it came out as ooo aeee. Anyway, I am saying that it was us who taught you to speak and write. That earth pony was the very first being from this world to visit the grandest city ever built by dwarves, Erebor."

Rainbow then blinks her eyes in momentary amazement and says, "Woah..." then recovers almost instantly and finishes, saying, "Who cares you found some ancient ponies when you came to our world, that story was lame...wasn't exciting at all."

Twilight looks at Rainbow with disbelief and says, "Rainbow, we were pre-sapient and learned what we needed to survive on our own, from them. If it weren't for them teaching us what they did, we would most likely just be learning to build shelters."

Galad then looks to Rainbow and says, "Or still be grazing and serve as prey for other creatures, meaning dragons most often." He then thinks back on what he knows and chuckles saying, "We later found you pegasi and taught them that they could fly for long periods of time, then we found and taught the unicorns about rune magic and crafting magic. Though one thing we learned from the unicorns, was how to use actual magic by feeling the magic that is all around us."

She looks to Galad with her eyes full of wonder and asks, "Can you show us what you can do?"

He smiles and nods his head saying, "Aye I can, the only one I can't show ya is rune magic."

Rarity cocks her head a little bit and asks, "Why not darling, is it some big secret?"

Galad chuckles lightly and shakes his head no saying, "Nay, it is because the moon is not out heheh." he then wonders what to show them first and looks for a rock the size of his fist, locates one to his right and grabs it saying, "I shall show you what crafting magic is first, since it is easier of the two." and sets his pack aside, then digs around for something to carve with and finds his set of crafting chisels.

Twilight watches Galad eagerly as he pulls out a bag containing some long tools, and notices when they move around and strike each other, they make a metallic sound and thinks, 'Okay, what is he going to do to that rock with those tools?'

He gets to work and fills his body with happy feelings as he begins crafting a miniature unicorn out of the rock, focusing on getting the general shape he wants the unicorn to take and thinks, 'I never actually thought I would find myself enjoying making something as simple as this, let's see how much detail I can put into this unicorn figurine.'

Rarity watches curiously as the rock takes on a unicorn shape and says, "Just how fancy is this carving supposed to be if its made from a big rock?"

Galad grins and ignores the mildly disappointed comment from Rarity and says, "You shall see, oh fabulous one. When I am done, we shall see what you think of this figurine."

Twilight watches with awe as he adds more and more detail to it saying, "Oh wow, there is a lot of detail there for it to be just a simple figurine."

He spends twenty more minutes putting the fine touches on it before putting his chisels away and holds the finished figurine in his palm saying, "Tada! It is finally finished, so hold it in your hooves and tell me what you think. Do be careful with the mane, it is rather fragile."

Twilight is the first to reach for it and take it into her hooves and gasps when she starts to feel happiness fill her body saying, "You enchanted this to make others happy? That's amazing, please teach me how to do that!" She then passes it to Applejack to look at.

Galad chuckles and nods his head saying, "Pretty much, aye."

Rarity examines the figurine as the others hold it before her and make their comments, seeing nothing spectacular until it gets to her. Her eyes widen with amazement as happiness fills her and looks at the level of detail in the figurine and says, "How can you make something so marvelous out of a simple rock?!"

He looks at the figurine with a grin, looking at its light grey color having a smooth finish with four legs, which the right front leg is raised up as if to take a step. Its head is angled to the left side bearing a smile with an open mouth that shows small teeth and a tongue in the bottom jaw, it has a curled strand of mane draped over the right eye with the rest hanging in curls off the right side of the neck. Its left eye is incredibly detailed, having a clearly visible eyelid and eye underneath it, with a slight indention for the colored part of the eye and a small raised circle for the pupil. Its tail is also in curls and stops short of the bottom of its hooves. There's even a cutie mark of a clef note on either side of its flanks and says, "We dwarves have been around for eight thousand and five hundred years, this is something very simple that we teach our children. We raised and took care of you for many years, you even helped us carve Hammerdeep out of the mountain by carting off the rubble. The one thing we didn't teach you though is your marks on your flanks, you found those on your own and named them yourselves."

Twilight considers what the past was like when a thought enters her head and says, "So...um...if you did so much for us, how did we come to be on our own like we are and completely forget about your existence?"

Galad looks away in shame as he remembers their greatest crime of all and says, "That is a story for a different day, one to reflect on what we have done. It is not a happy story, and would ruin the summer sun celebration for you all." He then looks to Rarity and smiles softly at them saying, "You can keep that figurine, I can make more for the rest of you if you'd like later. Let's get on our way to the Summer Sun Celebration to celebrate the return of Princess Celestia's sister, Princess Luna.