An ambered girl wanders through the empty town; cement ripped on up from the ground by some unknown force. A place that at some time long ago breathed life and warmth was now nothing but debris.
Eislum; a town that symbolized Harmony and Prosperity to the world beyond their borders, under the rule of the great mage Starswirl the Bearded they could live in peace.
For beyond their border lied the cruelty that their world had to offer, monsters of fantasy and greedy humans that sought wealth with no care for whom they brought rot upon. It was with the aid of the Goddesses of Dawn and Dusk that they could live free.
Everyone would go about their days, never caring for what tomorrow may bring or the danger they may face; why would they? A paradise that even the Goddesses themselves blessed was a place to not fear. And in this place was where one girl watched as the people walked on pass as if she were an apparition. Wherever she walked, the people would part without giving a passing to the girl.
‘What more could I learn? Had I not proven myself that I am worthy to ascend with my mentor?’ these thoughts gain weight in the girl’s mind as she continues her journey around, watching the humans go about unaware.
“LOOK OUT!” A voice screamed out; drawing the attention of other civilians around towards the road where a small child had wandered out onto to retrieve a rubber ball. A truck that had no time to stop were about to collision with the child.
“[O’ spirits of wind, gather and heed my summon, bring forth a gale before me]!” and as if the wind themselves gained a will, a powerful gust of wind sent the child into the air, barely scraping by as the truck zoomed pass leaving the child unharmed. And just as quickly as he were lifted, placed back against the ground out of harm way.
A mother rushed to the child, wrapping him in a deathly grip as she wept in fear of what could’ve been.
She would continue her journey on through the town, for over a hundred years she remained trapped within these walls; neither from chain nor cuffs bounded her but rather her fear for her mentor.
Standing upon a pedestal where the sun shines brightly behind her, a skin as white as snow and hair of aurora flowing like wave, clothed in silk of white and gold with a sun symbol upon her dress. “Sunset Shimmer,” her voice soft and warm, “you have shown improvement in your studies, and it is with great honor that there is nothing more that I can teach you.”
“Does that mean I get to become a Goddess as well?” she asked with hope, though the look she received said otherwise.
“Not yet my student, for there’s still something more you need to learn-“
“But you said there wasn’t anything left for me to learn!”
Her mentor gave a chuckle at the outburst of Sunset, knowing how she would come to question this moment, “No, I said there wasn’t anything left for me to teach, for your next lesson you will learn the lives of mortal and understand what it is that we do.”
She was sent to the world of Terra, in the land of Eislum where her apostle Starswirl would mentor her and guide her along into helping the mortals grow. It was also the last she saw of her mentor before everything changed.
During the celebration of the Coming-of-Summer, when the winter weather were finally over, and the people would give praise to the warm sun; everyone gathered around for Starswirl to light the torch that signified that Summer was here. While the people waited, the sun only continued to set before … it happened …
As the people sung praises, and the children laughed while playing; everyone looked up at the monument of the Goddess of Dawn holding a torch that would soon be lit with the fire from the sun.
As the hour continued on, everyone grew worried why nothing had happened. They even gone through all the songs when it should had been lit by the 3rd chorus. And yet, nothing.
“When is the ceremony going to start?” one of the town people asked, this only brought on more questions and murmur of worries. Had something happened? Were they about to be hit by a terrible winter storm? Panic and fear started to grow in their hearts.
And Sunset herself begun to grow anxious, she had witness more Coming-of-Summer celebrations then three generations of family had in their lives. And not once had any of them taken this long to conclude their celebration. Had Starswirl overslept? He was old, older than any mortal should had been, maybe he simply forgot. You know how it is with elderly and forgetfulness.
… That was not the case …
Emerging from the monument were a creature of unknown origin, it was a beast the size of a mountain with dripping black goo like tar. Its eyes showed red, and teeth that could bite a good-sized chunk out of a house. Its voice were icky and gravely, “Forsake your goddesses, for I am your new king!” it spoke with power, as it raised an arm into the air that cast a huge shadow upon the people making it look like night had come early.
Wherever the goo landed, leaving a huge blob stain on the world; creatures begun to rise from it. They had unusual proportions and shapes. Monsters were nothing unusual like the Chimeras or Griffons, but their forms had more humanoid shapes. Gremlins, Goblins, Lizardman, and even Sirens.
More kinds kept pouring out from what came known as the abyss, and they attacked without cause or reason. Killing, capturing, and even corrupting the civilians until the town was all but a ghost town.
As Sunset failed to stop the coming invasion, she pleaded for her mentor to come and save the people of Eislum, to free them from their suffering.
There was nothing.
Had she failed her mentor? Was she furious with her failure? Those thoughts lead her to hide in shame as the world around her came and collapsed. What was left to do now then to wander the empty road and be reminded of the days when she failed?
Twilight returned home from her family gather; or lack of. Without her older brother, it couldn’t really be called anything of the sort.
Slamming the door behind her, Spike saw his owner’s distressed state as he walked on up to her to comfort her the only way he knew how. With a happy bark, he rushed on up towards the girl to give her his affections. “Hey Spike,” Twilight said with a tired smile, picking the dog up in her arms. “how’s my #1 roommate doing?” Spike’s response were doggy kisses.
“Pfft-pfft! Okay, okay Spike!” she quickly held Spike at an arm’s length away from her face after being bombarded with kisses. “I get it, thanks for cheering me up bud.” Though a sigh still escaped the scientist as she brought Spike against her chest and let her chin rest on his head.
“I just wish my parents would stop hounding me about my social life. I mean, I have you; I’m perfectly happy!” though her voice betrayed her words.
* 6 Hours Ago *
After a quick run at her lab, she made her way to her parents’ home where she would gather for their monthly get-together. Only, without the eldest again this month.
That was something she was still dragging about; with little time she was able to spend with her older brother when they went their separate ways. He wound up joining the army while Twilight gone to college. Though he made it for her graduation, and never missed any of her birthdays, the times they used to spent together grew shorter as the years progressed.
When she arrived to greet her parents, the news of their son not coming didn’t come as a shock, but neither were they happy to hear. Though they didn’t let the news get them down like Twilight had.
“So Twilight,” her father asked, though you could hear the awkwardness in his voice as she gave him her attention, “how had things been going for you? Anything new and exciting you discovered yet?” Twilight had always mentioned how she would one day discover something that would put her in the magazine cover of World Discoveries.
So it came with no enthusiastic when Twilight responded, “Nothing yet…” just munching away on her mother’s meatloaf and mash potatoes.
“Don’t worry dear, I’m sure something exciting is just waiting for you to discover.” Her mother tried to cheer her up, though it gave Twilight some comfort, it hadn’t gotten her out of her funk. “In the meantime, had you consider settling down and perhaps starting a family of your own?” Falling back to her funk.
Whenever Shining had been around, they would encourage him to think about marrying his Girlfriend Cadance, that it was time for someone of his age to start thinking about starting a family. Twilight had fun teasing him, saying how she would love to make Cadance her new sister-in-law.
But for Twilight to think about romance? It wasn’t like there was anyone on the market looking for a nerdy girl who was always moping around or too absorbed in her work to care about anything else. “Nope, don’t really have time in my life for anything like that.” Twilight said, hoping to have it end there. If only it had …
It wasn’t that she was busy 24 / 7, rather that she didn’t want to let anything get in the way of her work and if they couldn’t understand what she was trying to do, they would only get in the way.
“What about that Flash Sentry guy you used to hang out with back in High school?” her mother asked, the memory of her time with him were only during study sessions when he needed some tutoring or when she needed a ride home whenever the bus would leave without her. Otherwise, they hadn’t shown any interest in one another.
“He was just a friend. Besides, he got married a couple months ago.” He and some girl named Wallflower Blush got together during a photo session for the school year picture and the two dated till a year ago when he proposed.
***
The conversation led to her parents suggesting that she should socialize with more people, to get out there and start looking for other people.
“Like I have time for something like that!” Twilight claimed as she headed over towards her phone to check for any new missed calls. As she approached, something caught her attention.
Lying on the table where the phone was, a small rectangular device was flashing. It was something she had set up to alert her when something tripped an alarm in her lab.
“Got’ta go Spike!” Twilight quickly said as she rushed out the door. Jumping into her car, she raced towards her lab worried that someone might had broken in to try and steal some important files or research she were conducting.
An amber girl was laying on the ground tile flooring, around her laid all kinds of equipment that looked to come from some research facility and a formed rift between the girl and the rock that were hook up to the equipment.
Her breathing were shallow, tears ran down from her eyes as a single word was all that escaped, “mo…ther…”
Author's Note
Things progress faster and faster ...
Maybe next time I should prepare a glorious meeting for the two who are to fated to meet! What do you'll think? As you can probably guess, next chapter is when the two girls will meet and their fate will intertwine.
This was fun writing; see you all soon. And remember, watch out for speeding trucks!
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Chapter 0 - Uncovering Secrets
Twilight became the youngest of her generation to graduate in getting her diploma in Science and Technology at the age of fifteen. Having gotten access to her own laboratory at the age of seventeen where she would conduct her experiments.
With all her research and discoveries, none were more important or mysterious than research #00-436R. An unidentified mineral rock the size of an egg were strapped to wires that was connected to a monitoring system. It was something she had discovered two-years ago while excavating a fossilized civilization. Discovered by Archeologist Dazzle, Twilight was appointed as one of many excavators to aid in the discovery.
Though many other scientists who viewed the rock gave a turn away to its' discovery, Twilight saw something unusual about the stone. And when she'd gone and ran a few tests confirmed her suspicion. The rock was radiating an energy wavelength that was unusually high.
Questions puzzled the young scientist as she conducted her experiments. The rock's origin, properties, and even if there was a way to harness the energy it radiated to provide a cleaner source of power. And after running diagnostics she had deduced ... Nothing!
"Ugh, I don't get it!" she spoke with annoyance, groaning at another failure to discern the organic materials of the rock and cross-reference with other materials only to come up empty handed again. The sounds of the monitor's beeps were mockery to the scientist's intelligent. "What is this stuff made out of?" she questioned.
It was making her question if the thing was something of earth or if it had came from space somewhere. It was a possibility with it being something discovered by a civilization that existed before the dawn of technology and if it were the only specie of its' kind that fell unto earth, then no one else would had discovered and documented the stone previously. But that just made the whole thing much harder, having nothing to go on and with this being the only specimen she founded, she couldn't risk damaging it too much.
After deciding that it was best to call it quits and head on back home for the evening, she packed up and shut down her lab before heading on back home.
Arriving back at her home, the design was an exact copy to all the other houses around the block with minor personal touches by the residents to help add distinguished to the place. The old mayor of the town had an oddity of making everything the same, even going so far as trying to pass laws that restricted the freedom of expressions from their residents. It was later discovered of illegal under-the-table tradings with the mayor that led her to lose her authority of the town.
It was better for the town anyways.
As she'd walked up to her house front door, she was soon greeted by her companion and roommate Spike; a green furred mutt that her brother had brought her back when he'd enrolled into the army. Spike was so happy to see his owner, giving the girl dog kisses.
“A-Alright Spi-ke! I’m hom-” the dog's affections caused the girl to struggle speaking to her canine companion before making her way into her house.
Walking on over towards her phone, displaying that she had four unheard messages.
Message One: Hey Twily, it's Shining here asking how you're doing. Look, I know I promised that I would make it to the family gathering tomorrow but something had come up and I may not be able to make it this month. I was hoping you could maybe pass along the message to mom and dad for me? Sorry again and speak to you really soon...
Message End!
She looked unconventional to her brother's message, 'Looks like it'll just be the three of us ... again.' "What does that make Spike, three times he called out on us?" she asked, and as if he understood his owner's mood quickly consoled by brushing on up against her leg.
She knew her brother was doing something very important, but it felt like the gap between them only grew bigger with each cancellation on his part. Why did he have to join the army? If all it did was pull him away from his family? From her... She needed her brother to comfort her, telling her that everything would work out in the end.
Message Two: Hiya Twilight! Wanted to call and ask if you're going to be making it to the party this weekend, make sure to give me a call, text, email, or a visit after receiving this message to let me know! Preferably a visit! Me and the others are really worried about you and miss you VERY much. Oh, in case you were wondering; this is Pinkie Pie! BYE!
Message End!
"That's right," she spoke, looking up in thought for a moment, "Rainbow's birthday is this Saturday." when was the last time she had partied? Done anything besides go to her lab and come home? Ignoring the thought for now and decided to deal with Pinkie later, writing an email excuse on why she couldn't come.
The third message was just some commercial caller asking if she was interested in getting insurance for possible flooding damage caused by some storm a weatherman predicted would hit next week. She was also about to delete the last one when nothing came through for a good couple of seconds before a soft voice spoke.
Twilight? ... I hope you're doing well, actually we all are. We're worried about you. I know you probably don't want to talk after what happened two months ago but ... we're not mad at you or anything. You're our friend an-
Message Erased!
Tears stung the girl's eyes as she tried to let the silence clear her emotions. 'J-just leave me alone ... I don't deserve friends, I-I' all that fell from Twilight were the sounds of whimper as she fell to her knees and let the emptiness welcome her.
* Some far away Place *
An amber girl loomed over a once civilization settlement of towers made of metal and glass that once reached towards the heavens. There was now nothing, nothing but the grimy creatures that munch away on all the junk that litter her world.
"Filthy gremlins, why can't you stay in the abyss where you belong?" she spoke with vile as she unsheathed a steel blade with a fire emblem on its' hilt.
Author's Note
Processing an idea ...
Creating a story ...
Published !
Welcome to Rising Phoenix, a world where Twilight will unravel an alternate universe in a post-apocalyptic era finding the sole survivor Sunset Shimmer.
This chapter was merely an opening act to what will soon become the first actual chapter. Though reading from where the original idea of this will give idea to where this story will go, there are much changes as well existing.
Here's an image of a Gremlin
Here's an image of the Post-Apocalypse Town
* Credit for all Image goes to AI Art Generator ... Yeah, cheating ... I know.
