Chapters It had only been a few months after the return of magic all across Equestria and since then, the small town of Maretime Bay had changed significantly. What was once a town that lived in fear of the cities that neighbored its borders now opened its doors to anypony from anywhere, regardless of who they were. Earth Ponies, Unicorns and Pegasi could now stand side by side one another just like in the old stories from the age of harmony. All because one mare and her friends chose to persevere and find a way to bring the tribes back together again.
Yet, even after her accomplishments and the discoveries she made with her friends, Sunny Starscout felt as if there was something that was… missing. When looking back through the notes left behind by her father on the age of harmony, there were entries that spoke of places that seemed like something out of a pony tale. Some places, such as the mountain where the old city of Canterlot used to reside, was now the foundation that Zephyr Heights was built on. Though, there was one entry that stood out among everything that had been written for one key reason.
Because there was nothing like it that existed today.
According to the notes, there was once a city called Cloudsdale that floated among the clouds above Equestria. It was considered the home of many pegasi and as ponykind prospered during the age of harmony, it grew into a shining example of that prosperity. However, when the magic of Equestria disappeared, it disappeared as well. The most confusing part though was that there didn’t seem to be an answer as to why.
So, only one question remained… “What happened to Cloudsdale?”
The young mare had tried to look for answers outside of Argyle’s notes, but her search did not go so well. Most historical documents from the age of harmony were either long gone or would take months to restore back to proper condition, and neither helped with trying to uncover the answers she was looking for. Sunny had even tried to ask Queen Haven herself to see if she knew of anything. Unfortunately, even within the presence of pegasus royalty, the earth pony couldn’t find the answers she was looking for.
Things seemed bleak… but she wasn't going to give up just yet-
Knock Knock!
Her ears twitched at the sound of a hoof knocking on the front door. “I’ll be right there,” Sunny called as she trotted towards the door and opened it. She thought that one of her friends had decided to stop by for a spontaneous visit.
Instead, it was just the mail mare, “Excuse me, is this the home of Ms. Sunny Starscout?”
“That’s me.” she happily replied.
“Oh good, I was worried that I had the wrong address. Couldn’t tell if they had written lighthouse or brighthouse on here,” the mail mare replied with a relieved sigh, before they slowly pulled out a pristine looking envelope and gave it to her, “One last thing. I was asked to make sure this was given to you as soon as possible.”
When Sunny looked at the envelope, it did not take long for her to notice who might’ve sent it. Because on the top left corner was the logo of CanterLogic Industries. “Oh, uh, thank you. I’ll make sure to read it right away.”
“No worries. Have a good day, Ms. Starscout.”
“You too,” As the mail mare trotted away and Sunny trotted back inside, she was quick to bring this over to a nearby table to open it up. Of course, even though she had an idea as to who had written to her, the reason as to why wasn’t entirely clear. That is, until she began to read.
Dear Sunny,
I hope this letter finds you well. I know it has been some time since we last had the chance to talk with each other and we’ve both been rather busy, but I believe that I need to set aside pleasantries for the moment. There is a matter of urgency that we’ve come across that I think is something that fits your area of expertise. But for everything to make sense, some context may be necessary.
As you already know, since the return of magic, CanterLogic has undergone a major shift as a company. Instead of making creations in fear of magic and our neighbors in Zephyr Heights and Bridlewood, we’ve been trying to create inventions that can help us get a better understanding of magic. For the most part, everything has been going well. Yet, recently, we’ve had an unsettling series of events happen that I hope you can help us with.
It started last week when one of our researchers, Trial Run, was doing some field tests on a few prototypes at the testing grounds we have far outside of Maretime Bay. Everything was going well, but then several ponies on the team that he was assigned to reported that he had gone missing for a few hours. When they found him again, Trial claimed that he had stumbled into ‘the ruins of a giant city’ that were there, even though there was nothing but wasteland for miles.
Right now, there’s a lot of things we don’t know. However, the only thing that we do know is that shortly after Trial was found, his colleagues said that their research equipment he was testing picked up high concentrations of magic far south of the testing facility. Given the situation, I wanted to ask if you and your friends can help us investigate this matter as long as it's kept confidential. If anypony found out about this, I’m worried that we might inadvertently cause a panic and that’s something I want to try and avoid.
If you can help us get to the bottom of this mystery, I would greatly appreciate it. Just please try to get back to me as soon as you can.
Sincerely,
Phyllis Cloverleaf
At first glance, Sunny honestly did not think that there was much to this. But upon looking over the letter a second time, a particular detail had caught her attention. The way that Phyllis’ letter described the disappearance of the pony she mentioned, Trial Run, sounded too similar to what her fathers notes described about how Cloudsdale disappeared. Even more so, there were the stallion’s claims of what he found while he was gone.
Could this… be the clue she was looking for? While there wasn’t much to it, it was certainly a possible lead. Heck, if it was true, then they might discover something ancient from the age of harmony! Yet, such an undertaking would be too dangerous to do alone.
Fortunately, the earth pony knew a few friends who might be interested in such endeavors. While this might not exactly sound like the kind of thing they would normally do together, it wouldn’t hurt to ask. After all, she was going to be seeing them later and based on the letter, it sounded as if Phyllis wanted her to help with this matter as soon as possible.
By the time that somepony had knocked on the front door of the Crystal Brighthouse, Sunny was needing a way to get her mind off things. The more that she thought about what was written in the letter and what was in her dad’s notes, the more that it made her think of different possibilities and wonder what exactly was going on. So much so that it distracted her quite a number of times when trying to do chores around the house.
Of course, she originally thought that somepony like Izzy or Hitch would be waiting outside. Instead, it was somepony else as they gently landed in front of the door. Her rose and cyan mane being quite noticeably messy as Zipp was trying to pull a few twigs out of it before she even realized that her friend had opened the door, “Oh hey, Sunny. Sorry for running late. There was a bit of turbulence coming down from Zephyr Heights this morning and I tried to take a shortcut through Bridlewood… Might have bumped into a tree or two on the way though.”
“No worries, Zipp,” the earth pony replied as welcomed her inside. As Zipp trotted in and her friend closed the door, Sunny noticed the absence of another pony that would usually accompany her as she turned back around. “Where Pipp? Isn’t she usually with you?”
“Yeah, but… todays been a bit weird. She told Mom and I about how she was doing some special stream thing with the Pipsqueaks earlier in the week and I thought it would be just for a day,” the pegasus replied as she got the last of the debris out of her mane and coat, “Buuuut, when I went to check on her, it turns out that what she’s doing is kind of a thing that goes as long as possible… I honestly can’t wrap my head around how it works, so I just decided to leave her be. She’s with mom though, so she can keep an eye on her in my place and step in if need be.”
“Well, I’m glad you can make it,” Sunny smiled back, “In fact, there was actually something I wanted to talk about with everypony else once they’ve arrived. Somepony is asking for our help and I wanted to see who was available.”
That had the pegasus raise an eyebrow, “Really? Who?”
“Do you remember Phyllis?” The question was just met with a puzzled expression from Zipp as the earth pony continued to speak, “You know… light pink earth pony, lavish blond mane?” When she realized that her previous comment didn't really help, Sunny chose to say one last one that she knew for a fact was probably going to jog her friends memory, “Sprout’s mom?”
“Oh, her. Yeah, I remember-” It took Zipp a moment to register that in her head, but when she realized who they were talking about, her tone shifted rather quickly, “Woah, wait a minute… she’s wanting our help? Please don’t tell me we have to babysit Sprout or something.”
“No, no, that’s not what it’s about,” the earth pony was quick to reply, before she picked up the letter that she had received and gave it to Zipp for her to read, “I got a letter from her this morning and she says that there’s something outside of town that is… well, here. Have a look.”
The pegasus was quick to pick up the parchment and read it for herself. At first, she didn’t really seem genuinely interested. However, as Zipp got closer and closer to the end of the letter, there looked to be a slight hint of curiosity. Like she didn’t quite care who it was from, but it somehow piqued her interest.
Of course, her summary on the letter left a lot to be desired, “So, something out there can have ponies vanish and when somepony finds them again, they sound delusional? Are you sure that this isn’t the plot to some kind of movie?”
“Wha-? No,” Sunny shook her head, “Well, to be fair, we don’t know what it is… But Phyllis’ description of what happened sort of reminded me of something that was in dad’s notes.”
At the mention of that, Zipp couldn’t help but feel a little bit curious. While she only knew bits and pieces of Sunny’s story, she did know that her father Argyle was a big influence on her life when she was growing up. So, hearing him being mentioned now made the pegasus wonder what exactly she found. “Really? What did you find?”
Though, before Sunny had the chance to reply to Zipp’s question, that was when they heard another knock at the door. As she went over to the door to open it, both of them found the friendly neighborhood unicorn of Maretime Bay standing outside, “Hi there, everypony!”
“Good afternoon, Izzy, how are you?” Sunny greeted her as she kept the door open and let the unicorn into the Brighthouse.
“Very good,” she beamed, “Oh, Hitch is sorry that he can’t make it. He’s-”
“Let me guess, taking care of Eggy?”
Both Sunny and Izzy looked back to Zipp as the unicorn in particular tilted her head, “Yeah, how’d you know-?”
“Because last time I saw him, he was spending his break on Hoof-le trying to look up parenting videos and tutorials,” the pegasus pointed out as they started to trot back inside towards the center of the brighthouse, “He told me that being the Sheriff around town is something he can handle just fine, but parenthood? That has a bit of a learning curve.”
“That makes sense,” Izzy reasoned, before she looked at both of her friends now, “So, uh… how has everypony been? Anything new lately?”
At that point, that was when Sunny had a new question, “Actually, yes. I was telling Zipp about this before you arrived, but Phyllis wanted our help.”
When she heard the name, Izzy’s ears perked a little as she gave a puzzled look to her friend, “Really? Is Sprout in trouble again?”
“No no, it’s not with him this time,” Sunny shook her head, “She wants our help to look into something that somepony found outside the city. Based on what was described, it sounded a lot like something that my dad had in his notes about a city during the age of harmony. One called Cloudsdale.”
The moment that she heard the name, Zipp’s attention was immediately back on the earth pony, “Hold on a minute. Cloudsdale? Did I hear that right?”
“What’s a Cloudsdale? Is that some kind of special snack?”
“No, nothing like that,” Zipp shook her head as she looked back at the unicorn, “Cloudsdale wasn’t a thing. It was a place.”
“Not just any place,” the earth pony replied, “Dad’s notes said that it was a city that flew in the clouds above Equestria and was considered the home of the pegasi. However… when magic disappeared, it somehow disappeared too. Nopony knows where it went or even what happened to it.”
Zipp and Izzy looked at one another as Sunny was explaining this to them. However, to her, she was still a bit puzzled by a couple of things. “Okay, but how does this relate to that letter? I’m still a bit lost on that.”
“Remember that pony that disappeared? When he was found again, he claimed that he found the ruins of a city. Even though nopony else saw it, their equipment did pick up magic.”
At that moment, it felt like a lightbulb went off inside Zipp’s head as she soon realized what her friend was implying, “Wait a second. Are you thinking that the ‘ruins’ that this guy is talking about… is actually Cloudsdale?”
For a moment, Sunny nodded her head as she gave a nervous look at her friends, “I will admit that this is more theory than actual proof. But we won’t know for sure unless-”
“Let me guess, we won’t know unless we go see it for ourselves?” Zipp’s question was followed by a small nod from the earth pony. Which had the pegasus smirk, “If that’s the case, count me in.”
“Ooh, let me come along too! It’s been so long since we last had an adventure together!” Izzy beamed as she bounced up right next to the pegasus.
Sunny could only chuckle as she looked back at both of her friends. With both Izzy and Zipp accompanying her, there was nothing they couldn’t handle together. Now, all they needed to do was get ready for the journey ahead.
02- Put your best hoof forward
If there was something that Sunny and her friends wished they had known ahead of time before they had set out on their expedition, it was where exactly they were headed. While Phyllis’ letter had stated that what they were going to investigate happened at a CanterLogic testing facility outside the city, it didn't really help them. All they had was a general idea of where it was. The three of them didn’t even have a clue as to what the place looked like or if there was anypony even there.
Luckily, when Sunny checked in with Ms. Cloverleaf and told her that she and her friends were going to look into what happened, Phyllis was kind enough in order to provide an address for them and also inform anypony that happened to be there to be expecting them. So, with GPS directions on her phone and Zipp flying above them every so often to see what was ahead, Sunny felt that they were on the right track.
Of course, when they got there, it was a whole different story.
“Prrrrivattt… Properta…” Izzy said aloud as she stared at a sign on a chain linked fence, “Pri… Priva… Prorreity… The hay does that mean?”
“Izzy, that’s ‘Private Property’,” Zipp replied, “You know, like if somepony really wanted privacy and would fine you for trespassing?”
“Really? That’s a thing?” the curious unicorn asked, “We don’t really have anything like that in Bridlewood. Ponies just walk in whenever they want to come by and say hi.”
“That… explains a lot,” the pegasus muttered, before she looked over towards Sunny as the earth pony was trying to look past the front gate and towards what looked like an enclosed two story building, “So, uh Sunny? Is somepony supposed to be here to let us in? Because this place looks kind of empty.”
“Well, Phyllis told us that she would have somepony waiting for us when we got here,” Sunny replied as she turned around to look at her friends, “But I don’t really see anypony inside.”
“Well, it doesn’t really look like the kind of place that you would just abandon. Maybe this pony is on their lunch break or something-?”
“Hi, new friend!”
When Sunny and Zipp turned around to look at Izzy, they had found that the curious unicorn was no longer stuck on trying to understand a sign. Instead, they were trying to get the attention of a security camera that was around the edge of the building. “Can you please let my friends and I inside? We were asked to help with something rather important, but we didn’t want to step on your Prorreity without permission.”
Zipp couldn’t help but facehoof herself at that while Sunny was really nervous, “There’s no way that is actually going to work-”
Much to the surprise of everypony that was present, the doors to the facility actually opened and the front gate began to part as well. Leaving both the pegasus and the earth pony baffled by what transpired. For whatever Izzy did actually worked and got the attention of somepony that was inside.
Not a few moments after that did the trio see a new figure step out from behind the doors of the building. One with light blue fur, short navy mane to match his eyes and wore a standard security officer unicorn. “Sorry for not letting you in sooner. I just got off my lunch break,” he replied, before looking at each one of them, “Do you have an appointment?”
“A-Actually, we were asked to help investigate something that happened here,” Sunny replied as she pulled the letter out from her saddlebag and gave it to the stallion. “I know it’s not much, but-”
Before she could even finish speaking, the stallion gave them a warm and welcoming smile as he gave the parchment back to her, “Well, you must be the guests that Ms. Cloverleaf told us about. We’ve actually been expecting you.”
“You have-?”
“Well, of course. Though, to be fair, when Ms. Cloverleaf told us that she was going to have somepony help investigate what happened, I honestly did not expect her to call upon the ponies responsible for bringing magic back to Equestria,” he replied, before leading the three of them inside the facility, “My name’s Castle. I’m one of the ponies in charge of security here. Though, right now, we’re the only ones here since Ms. Cloverleaf wanted to make sure that the facility was safe before anypony else could come back here.”
“And what is it that ponies do here exactly?” Zipp asked.
“From what I’ve been told, most of the work that’s done here involves conducting experiments that can’t exactly be done in an enclosed environment. Most of the time though, it’s field testing new inventions,” Castle told them as he led the girls down through a corridor before opening one of the doors on the right. As he did, Sunny noticed that there was a name plaque on the door. One that had the name ‘Trial Run’ on it. “This here was where Dr. Run was stationed. Despite being back home and recovering from his ordeal, most of his research is still here.”
“Do you happen to know what he was working on?” Sunny asked, before noticing that Izzy was fixated on a collection of metal parts that were left on a workbench.
At this, Castle couldn’t help but shrug, “Bits and pieces. Dr. Run and I are friends, though he has a tendency to either explain too little or too much when I ask about his work,” As the stallion spoke, he trotted over to the desk in the back corner and opened the drawer. “The general summary though was that he was working on technology that could help us see and read magic.”
“Uh, don’t we already see magic?” Izzy interrupted, before she gave a demonstrate as magic began to shimmer around her horn and she began to levitate the pieces of metal in front of her, “I mean, my horn glows when I cast magic and-”
“Not in that kind of sense,” he politely interjected, “He meant the magic of Equestria as a whole. Dr. Run had a bunch of theories on magic, but his main one was that magic flowed throughout the realm, such as in the ground we walk on and in the air we breathe. Not only that, he also theorized that if this was the case, whenever we used magic, we’re drawing upon magic from the land itself. So, he was trying to make some kind of camera that allowed him to see and read magic to see how much was either in a particular creature or given place, and if successful, he could use that for any future research.”
“Did it work?”
“Oh, it did… a little too well,” As he said that, Castle brought out what looked like a copy of the map of Equestria that Sunny and the girls were familiar with. However, there were four different red spots with different sizes on it as he placed a hoof at the top of the page, “To give you an idea of what he found, he gave each of the three cities up here a numerical value based on the readings from original tests.”
When all three of the girls looked, they could see that the circles were in fact their hometowns. Maretime Bay had the number twenty next to it, Zephyr Heights had a twenty five and Bridlewood was listed at thirty five. Of course, that had Sunny look back down to where they were at and the fourth circle on the map. “And what number is this one?”
That had the stallion move his hoof off the table and look back towards Sunny, “That is the concerning part. The area behind us, which we call the Backyard, has a higher magical density than all three cities combined… and it’s growing. I have no idea what’s causing it, but I can tell you for sure that these developments have been rather troubling. Especially since we have no idea what it is.”
That had Zipp look around the room for a moment as a new question began to surface “Sunny’s letter mentioned that he claimed to have found something in there. What do you think of that?”
“Personally, I’m a bit unsure if I have to be honest,” Castle replied, “On one hoof, Dr. Run isn’t one to be a liar, especially to his colleagues. On the other hoof, it’s hard to take his claims seriously when you can’t exactly see anything to support it. Security footage showed him walking outside one moment, only to completely disappear and not show up again until much later.”
If Sunny were honest, that left a lot to be desired. It wasn’t much to go off on, especially if they were trying to get to the bottom of what happened. They needed more information before coming to any solid conclusions. “What were some of the things that he said? Anything aside from the ‘ruins of a giant city’ part?”
“Well, when we shortly found him, it seemed like a bunch of nonsense at the time,” the earth pony told them, “Yet, there was one thing he always kept repeating anytime we tried to ask what happened. Dr. Run kept saying something that he found that was the ‘heart’ of that place he stumbled into. He kept on calling it an ‘magical engine’. I’m not sure if this is a lot of help, but it’s all there is to go on unfortunately. The other researchers just think he’s hallucinating.”
That had the earth pony raise an eyebrow. It might not have been much, but what Castle just said seemed rather… specific. If Trial Run was specifically talking about it so much, maybe it was because it seemed like something that was rather important.
Then… something dawned on her. So much so that she had to have her train of thought interrupted by a very familiar violet hoof and friendship bracelet entered her field of vision, “Sunny? Hello? Equestria to Sunny, are you there?”
Sunny couldn’t help but blink as she looked back towards Izzy and Zipp. “Oh, sorry. I was just a bit lost in thought.”
“What were you thinking about?” Zipp spoke up, “Something having to do with our current dilemma?”
At that point, the earth pony thought it would be better to not keep what she was thinking to herself and share with everypony else, “Actually, yes. Though, I will admit, it’s more of a theory than anything else.”
“So, you think that Dr. Run was not exaggerating and that the ‘Engine’ he claims to have seen is actually real.”
“It’s only a theory, but that’s what makes sense to me,” Sunny replied back, “This researcher was studying how magic flowed through Equestria, right? Well, I think during his tests, he noticed that something was wrong when he was doing his tests in the backyard. When they went to go get a closer look, he ended up getting pulled into what’s happening back there.”
“Okay, but what about what our new friend said?” Izzy asked, “About how it’s growing?”
“Well, I think there’s a common similarity between it and the devices we have.”
“Seriously,” Zipp shrugged, “I’m not exactly an engineer or anything, but that seems-”
“I think I get it.”
Both Zipp and Izzy looked back at the security pony that was in the room with them, both of them asking the same exact question that came to mind. “You do?”
“Well, many devices in this facility as well as the devices that you happen to keep with you require a source of power to work properly,” Castle replied, “Like, you can’t exactly use your phone if the battery for it is out of juice and needs to recharge.”
“Okay, but how does that-” As Zipp was going to ask, a realization soon hit her. One that made her eyes widen, “Wait a minute… you don’t think-”
That had Sunny nod her head as she looked back at everypony in the room, “Unfortunately, I believe that’s the case of what we’re dealing with here. If this is some kind of magical engine and if we go by Trial Run’s theories, this device is actively pulling magic from the land and absorbing it. If it continues… then it may try to drain all the magic we worked so hard to return back to Equestria.”
“That’s horrible!!” Izzy cried. “Why would it do such a thing?!”
“I don’t know, Izzy,” Sunny said, before she looked out through an open window and into the Backyard itself. She watched as a piece of paper was flying out farther into the backyard. Then, it vanished as if it never existed, “But I think there’s only one way that we’re going to find out for sure-”
“Sunny, slow down a moment,” Zipp interjected, “You’re not suggesting what I think you’re suggesting now… are you?”
While it wasn’t exactly the most ideal of situations to be in, with everything that Sunny and their friends had learned so far, one thing became abundantly clear. There was no way for them to know for certain about anything from the safety of the CanterLogic Testing Facility. If they wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery and find a way to prevent this situation from getting worse, the three of them would have to venture out into the unknown.
However, one pony in the room wasn’t entirely on board with it. “Ms. Starscout, I hate to be ‘that pony’, but is this really the only option?” Castle asked, “While I do agree that there is a lot that we don’t know, there is a lot of risk with the plan you’re proposing-”
“I know this sounds a bit excessive, Mr. Castle,” Sunny told the guard that had been helping them so far, “But we can’t know for sure what we’re dealing with or what’s going on unless we go in and see for ourselves. Right now, all we have is theories and we wait too long, it’s only going to get worse.”
“Yes, but when Dr. Run returned, he wasn’t the same as he was before. Many thought that he had gone mad,” the earth pony replied, “I know Ms. Cloverleaf brought you in to investigate, but the safety of everypony here is my responsibility. I don’t want to see what happened to my colleague happen to anypony else.”
It was about then that Zipp thought of something, “What if we tried to send something else first?”
At that, both of the Earth Ponies looked over at the pegasus as Sunny raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, Zipp?”
“I don’t know. This is supposed to be a CanterLogic facility, right? Surely, there should be something we could use before we try throwing ourselves at the problem,” Zipp asked, before she looked over at Castle, “Do you have something we could try?”
Castle placed his hoof on his chin and began to ponder for a moment or two, before he looked back at the pegasus, “If I remember correctly, R&D was testing some an RC unit not long ago, but couldn’t take them with them when everypony had to leave the facility.”
“Ar… Dee? Ar… Cee?” Izzy asked, tilting her puzzled head in the process, “Who’s that? Are they twins?”
“No, it’s not a who,” he clarified, “RC is short for Remote Controlled. If my understanding of it is correct, whatever the contraption is can be controlled remotely as long as there isn’t any interference,” when he saw that the unicorn was still a bit confused by what he was talking about, the stallion sighed, “Follow me and I’ll show you.”
The four of them soon made their way over from the small office that they were in over to the other side of the building and into an indoor workshop. While it looked almost the same as the room they were in, this one was twice in size and had a wooden hardboard with a numerous collection of tools run along the walls. In the far corner, there looked to be a four wheeled contraption that was about the same size as one of the pomeranians that Hitch somehow happened to be friends with. There was also some kind of dock next to it that had what looked like battery packs plugged into the wall.
“This is what I mean,” Castle replied, “The eggheads at Research and Development were creating what they called a ‘Remote Observation Vehicle for Emergency Response’ or R.O.V.E.R. for short. Ideally, it’s meant to get into places that we can’t in order to rescue anypony in danger during an emergency. However, given the circumstances, we might find a way to use this.”
“Um… how does it work?”
“Well, how it works is that the pony operating it would control it from a safe distance and send it in,” Castle explained, trotting over and motioning a hoof to what looked like an oversized joystick from the arcade in Bridlewood, “As long as there isn’t any interference between the control unit here and the R.O.V.E.R, it can go anywhere and the camera on the R.O.V.E.R. can be used to see what the pony operating it can’t.”
That was when a realization hit the group as Zipp spoke up, “Oh, I get it now. You want to see if we can be able to use that first to see if there’s anything there?”
“Ideally, yes,” the stallion nodded, before he asked for some assistance in placing the batteries inside the R.O.V.E.R, “I used to be in search and rescue and in that line of work, rushing in without taking note of everything around you is just asking for trouble. I will admit that Ms. Starscout is right in the fact that the only way to grasp the full situation we’re facing is to actually go inside. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be careful.”
Once the contraption was prepared and the battery was in place, all four of them left the workshop and trotted towards the back of the facility and stepped outside. While the land that stretched farther away from them looked normal in appearance, they could tell that something was off. Anything that flew into the direction where they were facing would just immediately disappear when they went too far. As if they were there one moment and then blinked out of existence the next.
Of course, what sent a shiver down the spines of Sunny and her friends was that this phenomenon wasn’t just limited to objects. For as Castle was setting everything up, they watched in horror as a small bird was flying one moment… and then immediately disappeared the next. A sight that, if Pipp were there with them, she would’ve fainted on the spot.
“Well, that’s… creepy,” Zipp remarked. While hearing about the disappearances that happened here was one thing, witnessing one happen right in front of you was something else.
When Sunny noticed that the pegasus looked a bit uncomfortable, that was when she tried to comfort her, “Zipp, if this seems a bit too much to handle, you don’t have to-”
“No, no,” her friend quickly denied, “I agree to come along and help you. I would be going back on my word if I tried to back out now. It’s just… well-”
“Nervous?”
“Well, considering that we don’t know what’s going to happen and what awaits us inside that… thing,” the pegasus motioned a wing in the direction of the phenomenon in the backyard, “Then yeah, I’m quite nervous.”
“To be honest, I think we all are,” Sunny reassured her friend as she tried her best to sound hopeful. “But-”
“There we go. That should do it,” both of them were interrupted by the sound of Castle as they turned to see that the stallion had the R.O.V.E.R. prepared and was looking towards them. “I’m just about ready. Come over here and we’ll see what our little friend here can find for us.”
Izzy was the first one to hurry over to Castle’s side, with Sunny and Zipp following close behind afterwards. Once all three of them were nearby, the stallion pushed his forehoof on the controls and began to operate the R.O.V.E.R. As it left the safety of the facility and slowly moved farther away, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong at first glance. Nothing was affecting it in any strange way and the camera feed that they were watching was working perfectly fine.
Well, perfectly fine at first.
“How in-?”
The moment that she heard that, Sunny turned back around with a look of concern, “Is something wrong?”
“Not exactly ,” Castle retorted as he motioned his chin towards the screen, “However, just now, the camera feed’s acting fuzzy.”
“Are we at the point where everything started going… well, poof?” Izzy followed up, moving her hooves with the last part to emphasize what she meant.
“Not yet, actually. But it should be getting close-”
As soon as he said that, the screen began to flicker rapidly as the quality of the footage was becoming rather choppy. From the point of view of the R.O.V.E.R, everything around it was covered in a thick fog like smoke that made it difficult to tell what exactly they were seeing. Not only that, but any attempts from Castle to try and fix the quality of the camera feed somehow ended up not improving it at all.
Then, without warning, the camera cut to black and there sounded like a small fizzle at the controls. “What? Are you kidding me?”
“Has… something like this happened before?” Sunny asked, which led to Castle quickly shaking his head.
“When we tested this before, the only time that we would have distortion like this would be if we sent it in an area where there was a lot of electrical interference, like downed power lines and that sort of thing. However, we don’t have anything of the sort all the way out here. Especially in the Backyard-”
Immediately, a sudden and loud ‘CRACK! ’ was heard from farther away. All four of them immediately lifted their heads to see what it was. Yet, before they could contemplate what they heard, they realized that something was coming back towards them.
“Look out!!”
Zipp was quick to tackle both Sunny and Castle on the ground as something flew overhead, while Izzy’s horn sparked to life as a thin sheet of magic took the form of a shield and stopped whatever was coming at them in their tracks. “I-is everypony alright?”
“I-I think so,” Sunny said as she slowly rose back onto her hooves, “Just what even was that just now?”
That had the pegasus look back towards the wall where the debris had struck as well as where Izzy was standing. On the ground were some rather familiar looking parts to a contraption they had only seen a few seconds ago. Pieces of the R.O.V.E.R. that now looked to be twisted and beyond repair as Zipp looked back at her friend.
“I… think that thing in the backyard did not like us trying to poke around inside,” the pegasus tried her best to explain, yet everything had happened so fast that she did not have time to contemplate everything.
“C-Can we try to fix it?” Izzy asked as she tried to get a closer look. Only to be held back by Sunny as Castle was inspecting the burned out remains of the contraption that had been working until just now.
“I don’t think there’s anything that we can actually do here,” he shook his head, “This looks beyond repair. And even if it could be fixed, I wouldn’t know how. I’m just a security pony, not an engineer.”
Then, Castle looked back at Sunny as he let out a deep breath, “It would seem like there’s only one other thing we can do now. But if you three are still considering going inside… whatever that is, at least take this with you.”
As he moved a hoof to his vest, the stallion fiddled with a couple of the straps on it and pulled out what looked to be a hoof-held radio as he clipped it to the strap of Sunny’s bag. “I’m not entirely sure if this will work considering what just happened, but if it does, that could at least let me keep in contact with you,” As Castle looked back, he then said one last thing, “And please , make sure you come back safe.”
“We will,” Sunny assured him, before she turned to look back at both of her friends, “So, girls… are you ready?”
A pair of nods from both Izzy and Zipp were all she needed to see as the three of them trotted forth.
When the three ponies reached the edge of the Backyard and ventured forth, everything around them was immediately shrouded in a gray mist that was thick enough to block out the sun. A loud crackling noise akin to that of lightning echoed endlessly around them served as the only guide for the three friends as they tried to navigate through the unknown using sound instead of sight. With each moment, the crackling grew louder and louder with each step forward as they tried to push forward.
Then, when they thought that the way forward could not be found, the buzzing stopped. All grew quiet around them as Sunny opened her eyes… and was startled by the sight. “Oh, my stars.”
To the shock of all three of them, they were no longer in the outskirts of a dry wasteland, but in the crumbled heap of a fallen city. The sky above their heads looked to be a colorless void and the buildings looked vastly different from any of the three cities.
“Sunny, where are we?” Izzy asked. Yet, the earth pony herself was too shocked to reply. What they stood in must’ve been a city from the Age of Harmony, but could this place really be what she thought it was? Everything here looked and felt… wrong, in a sense. Like a disaster of unknown proportions had swept through a proud civilization and left nothing behind for them.
Once more, her thoughts had to be put on hold when she and Izzy heard Zipp speak, “Uh girls? I… think you might want to see this.”
Not far from where Zipp was standing, there was a broken wooden sign that laid on the cobblestone. Pieces of it were missing… but the message written on it was clear as day and when Sunny looked at it, her heart nearly skipped a beat.
‘Welcome to Cloudsdale, the city of dreams. Here to lead Equestria towards a brighter tomorrow! ’
It had been only a couple of minutes after Sunny and her friends had stepped through into this strange place and right now, the earth pony was finding it rather difficult to process what exactly they stumbled into. Earlier, they were on the outskirts of a testing facility that belonged to CanterLogic Industries. Now, if what she and her friends found was to be believed… They were in Cloudsdale. The very same city that once floated among the clouds during the age of harmony.
However, there was something really wrong about this place. Cloudsdale was supposed to be a shining beacon of prosperity and happiness. A symbol of progress and harmony where all walks of life could come together and strive to achieve a similar goal. Yet, nothing like that was here. Instead, many of the buildings were either in heavy disarray or just simply reduced to rubble… and it left the earth pony with more questions than answers.
“Sunny? Are you alright?” She heard Izzy speak up, before a sudden hoof blocked her vision.
“Y-Yeah, sorry,” the earth pony apologized, “I’m just… trying to wrap my head around all of this.”
“Why’s that?” Zipp asked.
“Well, if this really is the Cloudsdale my dad’s notes described, I wouldn’t think they would leave such a place to… well, be like this,” Sunny motioned her forehoof to everything that they were seeing, “Something awful must’ve happened here.”
“Yeah, that seems a bit obvious,” Zipp replied, before she remembered something, “Hey, you still have that radio Castle gave you right? Maybe you can try telling him we’re okay?”
For a moment, Sunny almost forgot that they had that with them. But now that they had the chance, it probably was a good time to use it as she pulled it off her bag and attempted to use it. “Castle? Castle, can you hear me? This is Sunny. We made it inside and… well, I think your friend was right. We did find a city here. In fact-.”
Instead of words though, all three of them heard the sound of distorted static on the other end, “Hello? Mr. Castle?” Her second attempt wasn’t much better, for she got the same results as before. “Shoot.”
“Wait, it didn’t work?” Izzy looked at her friends with a puzzled glance as Sunny clipped the radio back onto her bag, “I thought that sparky noise thing was him.”
“No, that was definitely not him,” Zipp shook her head, “Something must be interfering with it. You know, like how our phones lose signal the farther away we are from the city?”
That kind of made sense, but in Sunny’s mind, there were still a lot of things that they didn’t really know about. However, stuff like that can wait for the moment. They still had to figure out what to do next. The three of them were now in the abandoned city that was once Cloudsdale, with no idea as to where to go next or if there was even a way to get back. While Trial Run had found one, they couldn’t seem to find anything close to it.
Then, she noticed Zipp look down at her foreleg as something brushed up against it. As the pegasus picked it up with one of her wings, she began to read what was on it, “You are cordially invited to join us… blah blah blah… to celebrate the 10 anniversary of the founding of Stella Akademia?”
“Ooh! I heard that word before! ”
Both Sunny and Zipp turned around at that, both of them raising an eyebrow at the exact same time, “You… have?”
“Yeah, it was on the front of the building where I would use to go to school in Bridlewood,” Izzy nodded. “Ooh! Maybe that can help us find something that can help!”
“Wait a minute. How-?”
“Actually, I think Izzy might be onto something,” Sunny interjected as she took a quick look at what Zipp was holding onto, “Maybe this ‘Akademia’ has something that could help us find out what happened here?”
“Oh… well then,” the pegasus shrugged. Though, there was one particular comment that Zipp said that her friends were quick to pick up on, “First time for everything I suppose.”
Izzy blinked as her ears twisted for a moment, before she looked towards her friend and tilted her head in confusion, “Have you not gone to a school before, Zipp?”
“Not… exactly,” the pegasus shook her head, “I remember going to a couple of schools during events where Mom would give speeches, but that’s about it. Pipp and I had tutors that would come to the castle to teach us various things every week when we were young, but outside of that, you can say I never really went to a school for learning. It was more to ‘smile and wave’ at cameras.”
“Huh,” The curious unicorn said, before looking towards Sunny now, “What about you, Sunny? Did you go to school?”
“For a time, yes,” the earth pony admitted, “Mostly, my dad was my teacher when I was younger. But after… what happened, I went to school at the same place Hitch and Sprout went to. While I did learn some things… I wouldn’t exactly recommend it.”
“Really? Why?”
“Let’s just say that Sprout’s mom was one of the ponies on the school board back then and… well, she had a hoof in the curriculum, so to speak. Like, before we brought back magic and she tried to make a change for the better.”
At first, Izzy couldn’t quite understand what her friend meant. However, the more that she thought about it, the quicker that she realized what exactly her friend was implying. “Oh… Ohhhhh… OH! That’s a bit scary to think about.”
The three of them continued to converse among themselves as they tried to navigate the ruined city and toppled spires to find the Akademia. Given the rough state of where they were, the three of them thought that the school they were looking for was relatively small in comparison to the other buildings around them. Like finding a needle in a haystack that was the size of a city.
After around ten to fifteen minutes, all three of them had looked around most of the ruined city with no success so far. Yet, that left only one last place to look and that was a giant structure that was directly in the center of the space they were in. At a glance, the architecture looked a lot like something from Zephyr heights. However, instead of the overabundance of gold, it was a marble white with what looked like faded shades of color in the form of a rainbow around the doors that led inside.
Upon first glance, it looked as if the interior of this building was just as bad as everything that was outside. Chunks of Marble from the ceiling blocked off hallways and debris was scattered everywhere. However, when Sunny stepped forward into the main hall, she felt one of the tiles on the floor give way along with an audible click. At first, she just thought that the ground underneath her was unstable.
Seconds later, two lights from the ceiling came on and converged in the center as a unicorn appeared to have taken form a few feet in front of them. One with a short mane, wore regal like clothes and had a cutie mark that looked like a shooting star. However, her sudden appearance was something that Izzy did not quite take well. “Ahh!! Ghost pony! Quick, hide!!”
“Izzy, I don’t think that’s a ghost,” Zipp told her.
“It’s not?” the puzzled unicorn asked, “Then what is it?”
“If I had to take a guess, I think it’s some kind of projection thingy,” the pegasus said as she moved a wing through the holographic mare that appeared in front of them as dots of light began to disperse from its figure. When Zipp moved her wing away, the pony reformed back to its normal appearance. “See? Not a ghost?”
Before Sunny or Izzy had the chance to say anything, the earth pony moved her hoof to press a second tile underneath her hoof. This time, the pony that was being projected began to speak. “Hello, and let me be the first to welcome you into the halls of the Stella Akademia. I am Comet Chaser, the headmaster of the Akademia and one of the founding members of the Convocation. ”
As the projection spoke, nothing that this ‘Comet’ was saying sounded like anything that Sunny knew about already. Was this possibly something that her father might’ve missed?
“When the Convocation was first formed, our goal was simple. To unite the greatest of minds together, no matter who they were or what they were capable of, to help Equestria grow and prosper. Our first creation, the Prism Engine, was constructed using the remnants of the elements of harmony and is the driving force that was able to transform Cloudsdale into what it is today and our hope is that this school can bring forth a new generation of minds such as yourself to lead Equestria to a brighter tomorrow. With enough hard work and determination, you might be able to make the next big discovery. Thank you for coming today and I hope you enjoy your time in the halls of our institution .”
Once the projection was finished, the lights began to dim as the pony that they were saying disappeared from sight. Which left the three of them in the ruined front lobby of the Akademia… as well as a realization.
“Wait a second,” Zipp said, “Didn’t Castle say something about that?”
“About what? We just found this place.”
“No, not that Izzy. What he was talking about with what that doctor guy was saying,” the pegasus clarified, “You know, about the ‘magical engine’? Do you think that ‘Prism Engine’ thing that mare said just now was what he was talking about?”
“Given what we know, it may be possible,” Sunny reasoned, “Yet, if that is the case, then we need to find it.”
“Okay, but where should we start looking? I mean… we don’t really have a lot of options,” Zipp said, motioning to the fallen debris and areas of the school that looked to be closed off by various means. The only other place that they could investigate at the moment was the desk in the front lobby. Something that, much to the surprise of both of them, Izzy was already looking into.
And shortly after she started, the unicorn found something tucked away in the drawers of the desk that stood among the empty lobby. At first glance, it just looked like a piece of paper. But after fiddling with the folded edges, the paper began to unravel and reveal something that sparked a bit of hope. “Girls, come here! I think I found something.”
As her friends trotted over, Izzy pushed a few things off of the table to set down her recent discovery. The folded paper she found was, in fact, a map of the entire campus. Not just what they were on, but the floors that were both above and below them. Some places were labeled as different facilities, such as classrooms, research labs and other facilities; while others were listed as places that belonged to specific faculty members.
There was one small problem though. Despite the map shining some light on their current whereabouts as well as where they can find a hoof-full of other stuff, one of the things that the map didn’t highlight was where the ‘Engine’ that the projection of Comet Chaser just mentioned would happen to be. If that was somehow connected to what was going on outside, they needed to find it… but there was no telling where exactly it could be.
“So, where do you think we should start looking?”
“If you ask me, I think we should just stick to this floor for the moment,” Zipp suggested, “We haven’t had the chance to thoroughly look around yet and I don’t think it would be a good idea to start wandering around without having any clue as to where we’re going.”
As Sunny looked back at the map again, there seemed to be three specific areas around the main courtyard that stood out. The student lounge that was near the back of the building on the current floor, the faculty office that was to the far left and the security office that was to the right. Given the situation, each one of those areas could potentially hold clues as well as the uncertainty as to what else could possibly happen. The only way to know for sure is if they went to go look.
“Well, as it stands, there’s only three places here that we can check out,” the earth pony told her friends as she pointed to each one of the areas on the map, “What do you girls think is the best place to start?”
By the time that Sunny and her friends considered their options, it was unanimously agreed upon that they would check out the security office first. Zipp had the impression that the ponies who would be part of security would be allowed to go into places that students weren’t allowed to access. If that was indeed the case, then it was entirely likely that they could find something that could allow them to reach the other floors of the Akademia. Of course, it was entirely possible that the security here was not like the guards of Zephyr Heights or the security officers at CanterLogic, so there was no telling how things were structured until they saw it for themselves.
When they found it, the office itself was a complete mess. The door that was supposed to have prohibited entry for ponies that were allowed inside was melted and bent out of shape to the point that the girls could simply trot through the gaping hole. Papers and blocks of marble were scattered all over the place as the three ponies trotted inside. Yet, many of the desks appeared to be bolted into the floor and did not show any signs of being damaged. Assortments of other items, like decorations, were also among the items that were on the floor.
As for Sunny, her focus was on a desk in a room that was sectioned off compared to the others. A sign that read ‘Head Security Officer’ was on the glass as the door was left ajar. Yet, when she poked her head inside, she was caught off guard by the sight of various different frames and props along the wall. Posters and news articles about the Wonderbolts, a team of aerial performers during the Age of Harmony were everywhere and on the desk itself was a picture of two ponies.
The first was a rather recognizable face. Rainbow Dash, the pegasus that was famously known as the Element of Loyalty and one of Princess Twilight’s closest friends. The second was of a stallion that had light blue fur and a navy mane while wearing a Wonderbolt Flight Suit. However, she couldn’t tell who exactly it was… at least, until her eyes drifted over to the name plaque that was at the opposite end of the desk.
Soarin Skies .
Sunny couldn’t help but wonder as to who this stallion was as she circled around the opposite side of the desk. Her father’s stories about Princess Twilight and her friends did mention the Wonderbolts from time to time, but did not always mention different ponies by name unless they were either close friends or family. But she didn’t have time to get distracted by this. Instead, the earth pony had to focus and see if there was anything in the office that could help them piece together what was happening.
Some time after she began looking around, the earth pony found something that was buried in a pile of dust and papers. It was an old leather bound journal that had an insignia of a lightning bolt with an outstretched pair of wings in the center. As she opened it, her pace began to quicken. The pages inside had not suffered any damage at all! In fact, the writing was clear to the point that she could actually read what was on there.
Day 1:
Well, out of all of the creatures who I thought would approach me with a job offer, Rainbow Dash was certainly not one of them. I know that things have been busy for her since Captain Spitfire handed off the reins of the Wonderbolts to her and I decided to retire from stunt flying, but I was still surprised nonetheless. At first, I thought she wanted me to come by to give a speech to new recruits or something. Though, it turns out that the job actually has me working at the Akademia of all places.
Personally, I’m not sure why I would be qualified for such a position. Though, I wouldn’t mind a side job to get some extra bits and such. I mean, the description alone seems easy enough. Just make sure that nopony’s causing any trouble for the students and staff, file reports and so on. Sounded like some of my duties back with the Wonderbolts.
The interview for it should be coming soon, so hopefully I can find out more while I’m there.
As Sunny skimmed over a few more pages, it became clear to her that this must’ve been some kind of diary. Each one of the entries that were on here were not always the same and as the earth pony continued to read, she tried her best to skim over some of the parts that did not seem too important.
Yet, after a few pages, there was one entry that caught her attention.
Day 30:
There’s something about this place that feels… off.
Earlier today, I had the chance to meet with one of the creatures who was on the Convocation, Moondancer. Our meeting was mostly to discuss my performance over the first month of the job while also telling me about the Akademia’s goals for the future and how my job would be a part of that. Reason why is because she was considering promoting me to where I was in charge of security for the ‘special projects’ that the Akamedia had been working tirelessly on. Such things included being able to travel through space and different realms, stasis chambers that act as a form of cryosleep and other things that sounded like something straight out of a science fiction novel.
Then, she went to show me the Akademia’s pride and joy. The Prism Engine.
And that’s where things got weird.
For a majority of the time that I was down in the chamber where the engine was kept, everything seemed fine as Moondancer explained to me things like how it was constructed and what it can do. But before she had the chance to demonstrate, the engine started to glow and set off a pulse of some kind. It caused problems with their equipment sure… but when that same pulse hit me, it… felt as if everything ounce of magic I had was drained.
Almost exactly like when Spitfire, myself and the rest of the Wonderbolts confronted Tirek all those years ago.
Moondancer told me that nothing like this had ever happened before and I believe her, but something about that engine doesn’t feel right at all. It was made as a means to help others and have Cloudsdale grow, sure… but what if this doesn’t become just a single occurrence? If something like this happened again and on a greater scale, who knows who else might be affected or get hurt because of it?
Maybe I’m just overthinking things… but I know for sure that I don’t want what we had to go through happen to anypony else.
“Hey, Sunny, did you find something?”
Immediately, Sunny looked up from where she was to find that both Zipp and Izzy were standing across from her on the other side of the room. “Oh, y-yeah. I t-think so.”
“Well, at least that’s something,” Zipp let out a small sigh, “Izzy and I tried to look in the other desks, but aside from just office supplies, figurines and romance novels, we couldn’t find anything. What was it that you found, though?”
“A journal,” Sunny said as she turned the journal around so her friends could read it, “I think it belonged to this ‘Soarin’ pony. Still looking through it, but… something about the engine we’re trying to find didn’t feel right with him.”
“What, like on a superstitious level or-?” Zipp asked, just as her eyes reached the point where the entry described ‘the incident’ on the page. “Oh. That’s… something.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think it’s enough,” the earth pony insisted, before turning the journal back around as she began to flip through the pages, “I mean, this ‘Soarin’ realized that something seemed wrong, so-.”
“Hey girls, look what I found!”
As Sunny and Zipp looked to the back right corner of the room, they found that Izzy was fiddling around with a rectangle shaped object that was on a rope. But when the unicorn brought it over to show them, both of them realized that the object in question belonged to the Head Security Officer that worked here. It was about the size of a hoof and had the words ‘Access Card’ labeled on the side along with a portrait of the same stallion that Sunny saw in the picture frame.
“What’s that? Some kind of fancy ID?” Zipp asked.
“I don’t know. But if it has somepony’s face on it, then it must be important, right?” Izzy asked, before she looked over to Sunny, “Ooh, maybe there’s something in the journal! Sunny, can you look and see?”
Sunny nodded as she cracked open the journal again and tried to find another entry. Even though it took some time, the earth pony was lucky and found something about it. Though, it didn’t seem to be the major point.
Day 188:
I don’t know why, but something is clearly wrong here and I think the Akademia are trying to hide it from everypony.
When I went to get my access card renewed this afternoon, I heard two other ponies talking about some recent tests they were running on the Prism Engine. At first, it sounded like some standard procedures. However, one of them mentioned that the Engine had been having some magical ‘flare ups’ and when those happen, any magic that somepony might be casting or channeling gets disrupted. The two of them thought that the problem was something that could be easily fixed, but when one of them asked if they should report it to Comet Chaser, the other said to forget the notion altogether since the Akademia ‘doesn’t want risks, only results’.
Do they really think they could try to keep this thing hidden from every creature? If we lose our magic because of it, there would be dire consequences! And what if this isn’t limited to just Cloudsdale? I heard from Rainbow a short while ago that some of the new recruits for the Wonderbolts are finding it much harder to stay in the air during practice, as if their strength and will to fly had been sucked dry.
Somepony has to know about this. Because if we don’t, the consequences would be much worse. But who can I really trust? The Convocation has their hooves in everything that happens inside the Akademia. If they even catch a small wind of anything I found out, I would lose everything that I had gained over the last few months.
I might have to take some time off to make a few inquiries. Perhaps the School of Friendship would be a good place to start. Twilight’s former student, Starlight Glimmer, is in charge and she’s more adept with magical matters than I am. If somepony can help me get to the bottom of this, it might be her.
A cold chill creeped down Sunny’s spine as she read the words to her friends. When they arrived, she was under the impression that this ‘Convocation’ wanted to help other ponies. Yet, this was the exact opposite of that. If something was wrong, why would they ignore something that could be potentially dangerous?
There must’ve been a reason. Given everything that was described, there had to be.
Without even talking to Izzy and Zipp, Sunny continued to look through the journal and found another entry at a later point in time.
Day 199:
I finally had the chance to meet Starlight Glimmer today to share with her everything that had been on my mind. From my experiences with the Prism Engine and the flare ups to the Convocation choosing not to do anything about it. I even made sure to include what Rainbow told me for good measure.
When she had the chance to process everything and form a theory, it turned out that this was much worse than either of us were imagining.
For this to fully make sense, Starlight explained to me that over the last few months, areas in Equestria that were once rich and dense with magic were now starting to grow weak. The phenomenon was first spotted when a fire broke out in the Everfree Forest almost five months ago. While the weather ponies were able to put it out and prevent it from spreading, something was making it to where the Everfree didn’t have enough magic in order to heal itself. At first, I thought that the problem was the amount of magic it had… but, as Starlight put it herself, there had not been any changes in the forest or the activity of its residents.
Then, an idea struck me. What if something took the forest's magic beforehand?
And immediately, we were horrified at what this could mean.
The Prism Engine, the same contraption that the Convocation were so proud of, was stealing magic. Not like with Tirek… but worse. It was taking magic from Equestria itself. Starlight told me that this went against everything that magic was supposed to be for one simple reason. You cannot get something without giving something back in return. Pegasi give magic to the clouds and the weather and in return, we are able to fly and control the weather. Unicorns draw forth on mana for spells and then give it back when the spell’s done (which is, as Starlight put it herself, why some unicorns would be completely exhausted after channeling stronger spells). Earth ponies magic comes from the land and in exchange for using it with their crops and plants, they care for the land itself.
It’s supposed to be a balancing act… but what the Prism Engine is doing is tipping the balance to where we are taking too much and not giving anything back. And if this goes on… we might end up losing the source of everything that we rely on.
Sunny froze at that. Was this… how Equestria lost its magic? No, no. There had to be more than this. They must’ve done something , otherwise everything that she and her friends had accomplished wouldn’t have happened.
Day 205:
Things had just gone from bad to worse.
At the advise of Ms. Glimmer, I brought both Rainbow Dash and Moondancer to tell them our concerns about the Engine. While getting them to hear us was one thing, both of them had doubts on whether or not to believe us. However, that wasn’t what was concerning the most.
What was concerning was that Moondancer told us that the Convocation had plans to use the Engine to ‘showcase’ their work to the public on the evening of the Akademia’s tenth anniversary… and that plan would be to try and have the city be raised into the stars above us.
If they pulled off such an attempt, they would put all the lives on Cloudsdale… no, all the lives in Equestria at risk. Something has to be done. We can’t waste anymore time just sitting around and waiting for something horrible to happen when we could prevent it right now-
Much to Sunny’s own shock, the rest of the page had been torn off and any following pages afterwards were empty. Her friends watched as she tried to hastily find something… anything that could help narrow down what happened. Yet, nothing could be found.
That is, until a page at the very end of the journal was pushed out and gently floated to the ground by Zipp’s hooves. As the pegasi picked it up, one single glance told her everything that she needed to know. “Sunny, I think you should see this.”
If you are reading this… I have failed.
We did everything that we could in order to stop the engine. Yet, even then, the efforts of everypony who helped me and got me to this point were in vain. S-Starlight said… that she had a contingency in place, b-but… I don’t know if it will work in time.
On the night of the anniversary, the Convocation attempted to send Cloudsdale to the stars and beyond with the Engine. However, their attempts only caused the Engine to be overloaded with volatile magic. Sapping the magic of everyone in the city… and if Starlight’s contingency failed… everything else in Equestria.
With no magic to keep the city afloat, the only thing that it could do was fall. Every creature panicked and rushed to try and flee the city. Buildings that were held together with magic immediately began to crumble and fall. We were watching a nightmare we could’ve prevented unfold before our very eyes and all we could do was help those who were forced to leave behind their homes and livelihood so they could live another day. Yet, out of everyone who fled, there was one who chose to stay behind despite everything. For Rainbow thought that if she could steer the city away, then the others may live.
However, I… couldn’t agree with that. She has a family and friends to go back to. Yet, everytime I tried to reason with her, she adamantly refused.
So, to ensure that she lives… I had to put her in one of the stasis chambers. If it works, when all of this is over, she will wake and be able to return to the life she had.
I’m so sorry, Rainbow… but I had to. You’re too important to throw your life away from somepony like me. Somepony who broke your trust before and even now. But… we need you. We need Loyalty. Equestria needs Harmony because that is the basis of who we are. And if we lose that… then what would we become?
If you’re reading this, I beg you one last foolish request. Prevent the mistakes of the past from repeating themselves again.
Destroy the Engine… Bury our Mistakes… Set us Free.
-Soarin Skies, former field commander of the Wonderbolts, Head of Security of the Stella Akademia, and a friend of Loyalty.
At first, the three of them didn’t say anything. Feelings of both shock and confusion lingered in the room with them, with the words on the page leaving behind more questions.
Then, a realization hit them. The contingency that was mentioned… it must’ve been the crystals they collected on their first journey. When they were brought together, magic returned to Equestria… almost as if they were undoing a lock on a door that had been sealed for a long time. Was it possible that Ms. Glimmer’s contingency involved it to such a degree. There was no way to know for certain.
Yet, there was one question that could be answered. “Sunny, what do we do now?”
The earth pony had only one response as she took the page and began to leave the room, “If the Engine is responsible for everything,” she said, regret lingering in her throat with the words she had to say next, “Then it’s up to us to make things right.”
Author's Note
"Why do we tell stories? To try to make sense of a world that can be terrifying and enormous. In Exandria, I don't know that your story will long be known. I don't know who will remain to tell it, but it did happen — and it did matter. And though the Calamity is here, because of you, it will not be here forever."
As Sunny and her friends reached the door at the end of the hall and began to descend, she couldn’t help but feel her heart race. Not from excitement, but because of the sheer amount of pressure that was on her mind. She always wanted to find the answers to some of Equestria’s biggest mysteries, but wasn’t prepared for what those answers would be. The earth pony and her friends weren’t prepared to learn that a place that was supposed to be an institution of progress and learning led to the downfall of everything Equestria strived to be.
And the responsibility of making sure those same mistakes weren’t repeated now fell on her shoulders.
Floor by floor, they continued to descend. The farther they went, the more that the three of them saw what looked to be an aurora of different colors that shimmered with the atmosphere. At different points, the aurora appeared to briefly take the shape of different creatures that once worked on each floor as they appeared to be frozen in time. As if to show glimpses of the past that they had never seen.
Once they had reached the bottom and the three of them had stepped off, Sunny and her friends were greeted by a different sight from what they were expecting. Around the room, there looked to be several giant boxes that looked to be bigger than that of a pony. Angled off of the ground to where it was neither laying flat or standing upright. In a way, they almost looked like coffins from the vampony movies Sunny had heard about.
However, out of all of them that were there… there was only one that was not occupied. Inside it was a cyan pegasus mare that looked to be roughly the same age as Phyllis, but had a rainbow colored mane and tail. A cutie mark of a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt was on her flank as realization soon kicked in.
“W-wait a minute,” Zipp was the first to speak, “Is this… who that guy in the journal was talking about? The one he called Rainbow?”
“It must be,” Sunny said, “Rainbow Dash, one of Princess Twilight’s closest friends from the Age of Harmony. I… thought that she was gone, just like with many other things in the past. But here she is.”
“Well, can we try and wake her up?” Izzy asked.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Izzy. If we interrupt this, we might end up causing problems,” Zipp tried to reason with the energetic unicorn, “Besides, we still have a bigger issue to deal with. We know that the engine’s down here, but where exactly is it?”
Sunny was going to say something. Yet, something flickered at the farthest corner of her vision as she turned to try and see what it was. It was faint, but it looked exactly like the trails of aurora that the earth pony saw on the way down. Maybe it was leading her somewhere?
“Hey girls, can you wait here for a moment?”
As soon as Sunny asked the question, she didn’t stick around to hear an answer and began to follow the faint trail that was left behind. There were times where she thought that she had lost sight of it, only for her to turn around a nearby corner and find it again. The entire bottom floor was a maze she had to navigate through and every turn could lead to her either getting closer… or farther away from her goal.
Yet, there was something else that was happening that Sunny didn’t realize at first. The more that the earth pony felt that she was on the right track, the more that her own magic began to manifest and take form. The spectral yellow wings and horn that she had seen only a few times before were present with each step she took. The warm glow around her served as a guide as Sunny navigated her way through.
At the end of the path, the earth pony found what she was looking for. A contraption made from unknown materials that had the same aurora colored glow and pulsed like a heart. The room was empty… and yet, it felt as if something else was in here with Sunny as she slowly approached the contraption.
Then, from everywhere, all at once… a melody of voices spoke as one. “C-can you… hear me? ”
Immediately, the semi-darkened room began to flash with light as Sunny found herself in a new place. One that stretched out endlessly and looked as if she was in a meadow of twinkling stars. In the place of the engine though, there was… something else. It looked almost like her, but was transparent as tears were coming down her face. As they looked to her, a look of fear began to emerge on her face.
“W-what are you doing? S-Stay away- ”
“Wait, please,” Sunny insisted, “I… want to help-”
“H-help? ” they asked, looking down at their hooves, “How? I… ruined everything. I was to help everypony achieve their dreams. Give everypony hope… yet, all I could do was take… take… and take. And when I couldn't take their magic... I took their lives instead. Now, there’s nothing left. I stole the dreams of everypony that counted on me, including the ones that c-created me. ”
At that, something began to click in Sunny’s mind. This pony she was speaking too… was it the engine itself? But that didn’t matter right now. “You didn’t steal everything.”
The manifestation looked to her in confusion, before its eyes glanced at the spectral horn and wings on Sunny’s form. “W-what? B-but… magic’s gone because of me. H-how-? ”
“Not all of it is… and even though it took a long time, things are beginning to change for the better. My friends and I are making sure of that. So, please, leave it to us. You don’t have to worry anymore.”
It was moments after she said those words that she felt the spectral pony race towards her and embrace her in a hug. As Sunny watched this happen, more figures began to take form behind this one. Creatures that Equestria had not seen in ages, ponies that looked to be students, A collective of creatures in scholarly robes with one being a unicorn with a short mane and glasses and another being the same pony she and her friends saw when they first stepped into the Akademia. And among them, a stallion who looked exactly like the one she had seen in the picture from the security office.
All of them stood behind this single mare that grasped onto Sunny with tears in her eyes and had their attention fixed on her.
All at once, every creature said two words and everything around the earth pony went to white. “Thank you. ”
When the light died around her, Sunny found herself back in the same room as before. However, a lot of things had changed. The engine that once stood in the center of the room had turned into dust and scattered and much of the magic that was around the room had vanished, evaporating before her eyes. In the engine’s place, there was one thing that wasn’t there before. A small crystalline object that looked like a seed. Not a seed that would be used to grow crops, but one that somepony would plant if they wanted to grow a tree.
Maybe Alphabittle had an idea as to what this was-?
“S-Sunny? Sunny, can y-you hear me-!? ”
The sudden voice startled the earth pony as she looked down to the walkie talkie that was attached to her bag. Somehow, whatever was preventing her from contacting Mr. Castle before was no longer there. Yet, the voice on the other end was… different from the pony they first met. If anything, it was… a lot more familiar.
“Hitch? Hitch, is that you?”
“Oh, thank goodness! ” the sound of the sheriff’s voice came in through the radio, “Do you have any idea how long you had us worried for? Matter of fact, where have you been? ”
“How long-?” Sunny blinked, “What do you mean? Zipp, Izzy and I had only been exploring here for a few hours.”
There was a long period of silence after that, but the sounds of murmurs from a few ponies could be heard on the other side. “Sunny, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but it wasn’t a ‘few hours’ over here. After Phyllis told us about what you three were doing, I had set up camp here with Sprout and Pipp while we waited for you to come back. It’s been nearly a week since you three entered. ”
That threw Sunny off guard. A week? H-how was it possible? They only spent a few hours here trying to find answers. Was it… an effect of the engine somehow?
But before she had the chance to say anything, the other stallion that was outside had the chance to say a simple remark, “Personally, I wasn’t even sure if half of what mommy was talking about was… well, believable. Didn’t expect to see an entire city show up out of nowhere either. If anything, I thought Hitch wanted me to come because he was worried about his marefriend. ”
“Sprout!! ”
The earth pony could only giggle at that, before she looked back at the walkie-talkie, “Well, don’t worry. We’ll be sure to fill you in on everything… but there’s one thing that we need to take care of first.”
“And what’s that? ” Hitch asked as Sunny looked back towards the way that she came in with a small smile on her face.
“You’ll see soon enough.”
For as long as she could remember, her dreams were always the same. What was to be a glorious and perfect evening rapidly became a nightmare of their own design. The creatures in charge who thought that they could have their home and Equestria become a paradise ended up becoming the architects of their own downfall. She wanted to save them… she wanted to find a way to stop it from happening. But no matter what attempts she made or what she tried to do to change the outcome, it was always the same. And to make matters worse, a trusted friend prevented her from doing what was necessary to save them.
Yet, now… the dream stopped. She felt her senses slowly return to her as the case that confined her there began to open. Whatever had kept her in the dream was now gone… and now, she was free. Her body was weak as she fell to the ground, but she was free to move.
Something was different though. When she fell asleep, she heard the screams of every creature in the city and could smell the fire that was burning. But instead, there was silence and fresh air. As her hearing started to come back to her as well as her sight, she noticed two figures. One was a unicorn, that much she could tell. The other, a pegasus that… looked close to her when she was younger. Just that her fur and mane were different than hers.
“Hey, miss, are you okay?”
The pegasus was trying to say something to her, but she couldn’t make out what. She could only go by her expression that the question was out of concern. Maybe she should try to say something back? “W-who… are you?”
Immediately, the unicorn bounced off in a fashion that was similar to one of her friends while the pegasus tried to help her to her hooves. “H-hey, easy. Let me help you.”
Again, she tried to repeat the question. But before she could, she heard the unicorn shout loudly to where her voice echoed throughout the chamber, “Sunny, over here! She’s awake!!”
As she turned, she watched as an earth pony came from out behind the rest of the pods in the room. Yet, they did not look ordinary at all. For the magic that was around her made her look like that of a princess as she hurried over to where she was. Which was enough for her to say one word.
“T-Twilight?”
The earth pony looked puzzled, before shaking her head, “S-Sorry, but that’s not me. My name is Sunny Starscout… and you must be Rainbow Dash, right?”
She blinked at the sound of her own name being said, especially by this pony that she had only just met. “Y-yes. H-how-?”
“That is a bit of a long story,” Sunny herself replied, before looking towards the way that she and her friends came in, “But… it’s one that I’m more than happy to share with you. Come with me, there’s something I think you’d want to see.”
Author's Note
Can you hear me? Do not be alarmed—I mean you no harm. I wish only to hear your words, share your feelings, and know your thoughts. May we please be friends?
After having this idea linger around in my head for such a long time and working on it for over two months, I finally finished it.
Thank you to all those who have supported me over the years, as well as those who helped me look over every particular piece. I do hope you guys enjoyed this little creative story and my first ever attempt to write something with G5. Enjoy!