Alicorn Downby Scriblits TaloChaptersIn the SnowIn the FireIn the DarkIn the DesertIn the ShadowIn The WindThe OrchardIn the SnowShe wouldn’t speak. The mangled sky-blue Alicorn I had found, lay on the sled staring up at me in a muted daze. We both shivered as the Icy wind blew again between us, tumbled drafts of snow drenching our vision in white or blinding us with its shimmer. I shook myself, emptying my mind of the countless questions I had, none of which would mean a thing if we couldn’t… Survival was paramount. I bit down on the rope and thrust my hooves into the snow, pulling against the weight of the sled, and began to trudge against the unwavering wind. Who was she? She looked familiar but… who… and a fifth princess? How had she gotten out here in the snow all alone, and who, who was she? I continued to pull, rebelling against the unwavering storm. She hadn’t said a thing, just looked at me, with those violet sunken eyes. even in her weakened state, her body was defined, not the bulk of a bodybuilder, but athletic, like… an acrobat, or a sprinter, she made me think of a soldier or a Wonderbolt… It felt like that should mean something, was somehow important. The snow was blinding, it was all I could do to move forward, not stop. To stop was death, to trudge was life, and I had to keep moving. Who was she? There were only three, no four princesses I knew of, there was Celestia, oh Celestia save us…there was her sister Luna the Princes of the Night…, there was Cadence, and Twilight the newest princess. I looked back at my companion, blinking back icicles despite the shielding of the snow mask… Who was she? Hooves trembling, I struck flint against steel, sparks flew a brief bright contrast against the darkness of the cave only for them to flicker into not. Again and again, I struck all too aware of the howling wind outside, our impending sniffles, and worse, until finally, a whisper of flame came to light. With a sigh of relief, I leaned down and coxed it to life with my breath. Warmth and light now touching all three walls of the cave, I sat back in relief and gazed at my companion. She was looking better if still dazed, less gaunt… the fire was doing her some good. She still hadn’t said a word. As the room, if the semi-shelter of stone could be called that, warmed I began removing my wet layers of clothing, folding them neatly by the makeshift hearth. I then drug my sled-bound companion closer to the flame, for better light, and more importantly warmth, and begin removing her soaked layers and dressing her wounds… As powerful as she might have once been, at the moment she looked like she had been sent through a woodchipper. What could do this to a pony… to an alicorn? This consideration made me shiver. “What could do something like this?” I whispered half to myself. Some gashes three inches wide and many a near yard across, blood long dried in frost. She looked up at me, a silent expression, she shivered and not just from the cold, but still the flames flickered in her eyes. Determination. For a while, despite the ruckus gatha of wind outside, the eerie verses of the storm, for us, in that cave, in that moment there was peace. I tucked her in, snugly wrapping her in a nesting of my best wool blanket, then for myself, I lay by the fire too tired to bother unpacking any more than the bandages and blanket I already had. She was watching me silently. I chuckled half-heartedly, bemused at our newfound comfort. “I never did get your name,” I told her. She puffed a bit of mane away from her eye in mock frustration and smiled weakly. She did look familiar. “I feel like I should know you… I mean I know I had seen you somewhere, I mean, you think I would remember a princess such as yourself, an alicorn at that.” She cocked her head to the side in what seemed to be confusion and then surprised me by leaping off of the sled sending Blanket everywhere. no no, no, no No, she seemed to say. She limped over to the fire and gazed down at her reflection in a puddle developing from the nearby thawing clothes. She touched her hooves to her horn, and at the gash in her throat, and the horn again mortified, perhaps more so at the delicate horn, which glistened gossamer in the firelight. It was as if she was surprised to see herself in that state, not only her injury, but being an alicorn at all, and being unable to speak she just gasped in shock, a rasping cry issuing from her throat. She fell to her knees in tears and began yanking at her horn with her hooves as if trying to pull it off. I shot to my hooves and ran to her side… “Woah woah woah, that’s not going to help anything… It's ok, it's ok, it's going to be ok.” I put my hoof on her shoulder, and she flung herself into my arms, crying into my mane. “It's going to be ok. It's going to be ok” I whispered. It struck me… She hadn’t always been an alicorn… and… The embrace was broken, she pulled back from me, perhaps she felt the change in my posture that came with my recollection. I looked her in her roseate eyes. “Dash?” I asked, “Rainbow Dash?” She nodded, wiping a tear from her eye with her hoof. I drew the blanket back over her shoulders somewhat easing her trembling form and then I surprised myself and hugged her. Tears touched my eyes. “I'm sorry, I'm so sorry,” I said… and I didn’t completely know why… but maybe I did. I did not know Rainbow Dash that well. Not personally… but I felt like I knew her… all the stories I had heard about her, and her friends. It should have been no surprise to me that she was an alicorn now, but the tragedy that would have had to occur for her to end up as such, and in such, such a state… What Rainbow Dash would do for her friends. What I knew she would do for those she loved. And what she must have gone through. I could almost see it in her eyes, the fire there was more than just a reflection, that was a fire that had seen things. It was too much. And I cried. I cried for her sake, for my own. I cried for the sake of her friends, who I hoped were all right, her friends whom she would so readily give herself up for. It was a miracle she was still alive. Her eyes said it all. But in my heart, I knew. I had seen the explosion the day before. The absolute mushroom clouds that erupted from Canterlot were even visible here in the frozen north. The countless rainbooms that shook the earth. The elements had been fighting something, and here Rainbow Dash was alone, wounded, and an alicorn. All alone. “I’m so sorry” I sputtered again, and she held me in her embrace. In the FireAs Rainbow Dash lay sleeping I stoked the fire and gazed into its flames, not the yellow-tinged edge, but the center. I had avoided watching for far too long, had avoided knowing. There had been a time where I had been obsessed with my flame. When I had watched for weeks on end. I had nearly starved myself for the visions it would bring. In that time I had particularly liked watching the elements, Rainbow Dash and her friends… the future had always seemed so bright in their hooves. Six friends who would cast out the dark, who had been called together by this… this glisten, this spark. I had to stop watching. There was a happy ending to be had, that was part of what drew me to the flames in the first place, but as I watched the future only grew darker, and no better off for my watching. Only watching did nothing, I had to act. But I did not know what to do. The fate of Equestria, indeed the whole world depended on knowledge I had, and all I could do was run away. But I could run no longer. Rainbow Dash was here alone and an Alicorn, and Canterlot has burned, all because I ran away. I did not know what to do, what action to take, how to make things right, but it was my responsibility to find out. So I tendered the flame, and gazed into its heart, to learn what I might of what, was and what was to come. Life sprung into existence at the light patter of the yellow Alicorns trudging hoof-steps. Here she stopped, to look back upon the grandeur of her creation, the rolling hills of green, the endless meadows and forests which eked across the once barren land. She sighed. She stopped not because she had to. She could continue that cantered dance for eternity, spreading the picturesque girding of nature, but all the same. She flittered her wings, a light zephyrian breeze serenaded from beneath them, butterflies playing amongst the wake. For the briefest moment, she seemed to look right at me, her gaze stretching across all of time and space to me and my meager flame. It startled me, but as soon as the moment was, it wasn't, and she was again looking across her verdant field of green. The fire crackled, some timber falling in on itself, and the image shifted. A different fire touched the night and licked at stars, and Canterlot was burning. Ash chard the black sky and drifting embers lit the night. Over the roaring of the inferno, a clatter of hooves could be heard, the populace in flight. A miasma lay in the air, the taste of death. Six friends galloped against the surging crowd, towards what danger I could not yet see. The foremost of the charging ponies, a little purple alicorn skidded to a stop, as her friends rallied to her side. Twilight Sparkle and the Elements, it had to be. They huddled close. Eyes wide with fear they alone stood against the darkness, even with the roaring fires all around to light the night, a shadow loomed before them... Again the visage shifted. I saw the Yellow Alicron staring across her rolling fields of green. A tear touched her cheek, I do not think that she knew why. She sat down and brushed her hoof along her face with a sniffle. As if nervously she began running her hooves through her flowing pink main. I leaned in closer to the fire, hoping perhaps to get a better view of the features of her face, trying to understand the sorrow in those youthful ancient eyes. Something was missing. Something had been missing for a long time, and she just couldn't put her hoof on it, I could see that much in her gentle gaze. Although her eyes spoke of a boundless ancient wisdom; she seemed… lost. Suddenly or seamlessly I found myself there. I could feel the west breeze in my mane and felt the warmth of that new summer sun on my back. I felt as if I was sitting beside her, close enough to touch her shoulder with my hoof, a gentle prod of kindness. But, then, she looked at me and I was again a thousand miles, and unknown ages away. Again the flame was just a flame, once roaring it now dwindled. A slight chill had crept over the cave. I shivered. I glanced at my shaking hooves and took a deep breath. … I looked toward Rainbow Dash, who still lay mumbling incoherently in her slumber. It wasn't just about me anymore. I could no longer selfishly look away. I had to know, to help, to do something. I rekindled the flame, building it up log by log, coxing life back into it with my breath until it again roared. Only hesitating for a moment, I then watched. I could not look away. In the cave, Rainbow Dash fought for our lives, hoof and horn and wing a blur of blue against the onslaught of tooth and claw of the invading wolves. I knew the danger, knew she was doing everything she could to keep us alive, even despite her injuries. Her loyalty knew no bounds. but I could not look away, the flames engulfed my mind. Six friends stood against the darkness and Canterlot was burning. Again and again, the Rainbow in the flames clashed against the advancing nightmares With each charge, a rain boom expanded behind her, a resounding shockwave echoing in the night, and entire legions of shadow fell before her. In the cave, she struggled against the raging wolves and I could do nothing to help her. I could not look away from the flame. My flame. In the flame, I saw the yellow alicorn, the matriarch of nature gazing out on the bastion of her creation. Her gaze stopped on a brier of darkness. In all the rolling hills of green lay a black plane of decay. She spoke to me, something that would have been startling were I not so transfixed. Something that shouldn't be, but all the same she spoke to me. And I was speechless. “Tell me. Do you see them in your flames? I forget sometimes… It has been so long, but I think they were once a part of me… I think they still are.” Her voice was soft, almost no more than the wisp of whisper from a breezie’s wing, a murmur…I leaned closer to the fire, to her, I wanted to absorb her every word. The cave reverberated with a resounding thumpas Rainbow Dash slammed a poor wolf into a wall, only for her to be assaulted on all sides by another three. “I see them sometimes,” The Alicorn continued “In the little things. Can you say that you've seen the dew caught in a spider's web or the cotton candy in the clouds? I hear their whisper in the wind… is it all in my head? But that is the least of my concerns now. You and your friend… you and Dash…That was her name, oh I miss her so… I'm so sorry, you two are in danger and here I hold you in idle chatter.” More wolves were filling the cave now, a surge of shaggy gray forms swarming on the blue Pegasus who only barely held them at bay from me and my flame. And all I could do was stare at the yellow alicorn in awe. She pointed her hoof toward the gathering darkness in the distance… that, that is what we were, are up against. The Tantabus threatens all.” In the Dark My name is Rainbow Dash, I feel like I should get that taken care of before I write anything else, before we, before me and this stranger die forever nameless in this foreboding cave. I'm sure we will never be found, and I'm sure I'm writing this for nothing, but I have to do something. The entrance has fallen in. I… I think I threw that wolf against the wall just a bit too hard… We can not get out. It would be us alone in the dark if it wasn't for the fire the stranger had prepared. The fire… the stranger has done nothing but stare at it since before my waking, to the footpads of several hungry wolves…seven or twenty I could not tell, so wrapped up was I in the battle. But I took care of it, me the amazing Rainbow Dash! It doesn't feel so good, winning all alone…with nopony there to fight by my side, and there is no way out. I'll die here in this cave …with this stranger who stares into the flame. Wake up! Blink?! Say something.? Anything. But the stranger only stares …. and shivers as if in a cold sweat, sweat pours down, and still they stare deeply into the flame, saying and doing nothing. At least we have the flame to fend against the cold. I'm tempted to skin the wolves for extra warmth…as the kindling won't last forever… With some digging I have found some food in the strangers pack, but that will not last even the week. It feels wrong to take other creatures' parts for our use, but then again they were trying to kill us. Perhaps they succeeded. No… no this was my fault Reader, if you find this, know it was my fault. I should have died in Canterlot…at least then I wouldn’t take this stranger with me to doom. I should have died in Canterlot. The professor set the ancient manuscript aside and rubbed her eyes… She had read the letter again and again and again, and it still made no sense. It had been dug up in the deep desert, miles and miles away from any mountains, and so far away from any death defying cold… and it was written in blood on a hide that had been tanned and long dried in the sun. At this she shivered. What could drive a creature to do such a thing? She glanced at it again, peering over the top of her glasses, what else could she infer about the writing. The font tilted in a certain way, almost a reverse italic… written by mouth then… That probably meant some creature that was not a unicorn. Although there were notable exceptions to this theory, the old Cycles told as much. That was it! That was what the manuscript reminded her of. She swiveled around in her chair and began browsing the titles which perched each meticulously, one against the other upon the ancient book case, and finally she found it. She removed a paper-back blowing dust from its crumbling cover, the title etched in red. The Canterlot Cycles Newly abridged for young Readers Once Upon a time in the magical land of Equestria, there lived six matriarchs each of which presided over reality in their own way. There was the Lady Cúthail who presided over all of nature, all of the green things of the world, and all of the running, hopping, flying things that lived and breathed in the land, and the seasons which forever turned with her nature, which were her domain, her creation. There was Lady Ulla who resided over the red crisp fertile earth, as well as the mighty mountains, the very strength of the land itself. It was said that it was she who molded the Giants out of stone, and who called lightning from the very sky. There was Lady Píosa who was said to touch the heart of everypony with the gift of song, and poetry, it was her that laid the tales to bear, and from her the nature of every good hearted soul. There was the Lady Muileata, who gifted Stallions with the urge to craft, and to make, but also to fight, and raze. It was said that she was the most beautiful of all, many would die in her honor. Many beautiful things were made in her name, and much cold steel and much blood was spilt. And there was the Lady Tráthnóna of death and of life, who died in the service of her friends, but whose power continues to radiate through the land, the very essence of magic itself. There was the Lady Brostaigh the courageous. It was said she never spoke, but even today many of true valor speak her oath saying; I am a soldier of Brostaigh Brostaigh's values are my values And her sword is my sword. I swear to remain Loyal and true Courteous and Kind Honest and Brave. I swear To give aid to those in need, And to uphold the weak Spreading hope wherever I may be, cave or desert or sea, Against wolves or darkness or eldredge unknown, It is this magic that will guide my sword and my will. I am the eyes of the night and the wings of the dawn and by this creed will I fly by this Creed I swear. It was said that it was she who gathered the matriarchs in the first place, uniting them against the great darkness that beseeched the land in that day. Author's Note More to come 😁 In the Desert “Cad atá in ainm. Cailleadh a n-ainm i bhfad ó shin, goideadh é. Cailleadh, éitear don sruth ama gan teorainn, nó scáth éigin nó fay, dearmad fada freisin Tá cuimhne fós orthu, fós canta faoi inniu. Iad agus a n-lasair. Cad atá in ainm. Go deimhin b'iadsan a fuair Tiarna Brostaigh sa sneachta, a d'ardaigh an matriarch as a créachtaí. Cara fíor ba ea iad. Cad atá in ainm. Ní raibh aon ainm nó céim ná teideal acu, níl aon eolas againn orthu seachas gur fhág siad a rian in am. Cibé mallacht éigin nó casadh cinniúint éigin, ní féidir aon rud a scríobh i gcur síos orthu, fós canaimid a n-amhrán. Cad atá in ainm.” “Why do the cycles matter? Any-creature, any-creature?” The professor's gaze crossed the lecturium assessing the many bord faces of the colts and fillies that made up her class. They had good reason to be bored perhaps. Folk-Lore and Mythology as a subject were not the most interesting or practical… most just took it to fill out the extra credit, what idiot would devote their life to its study. The professor momentarily distracted glanced at her diploma and sighed. What was the point, it was a living, but what was the point, of perpetuating the myth that Myth was worth anyponys’ time? She returned her gaze to her students, one of which, a particularly bright bulb in the bunch, was raising his hoof. The professor pointed his way. “The Cycles are crucial to understanding our cultural, historical, and literary heritage, preserving ancient mythological narratives that continue to influence modern culture and national identity.” A textbook answer nothing more, no passion, no fire. “All right- “she proceeded addressing the student by name, a more difficult question perhaps, “What purpose does the stranger serve in the Canterlot Cycles?” The class stared at her in silence. This was a difficult question. It wasn't that the stranger didn’t serve any purpose at all… no it was almost the opposite… but she… or he… The Stranger was so plain, so boring, we know almost nothing about them, and yet… A character who despite being completely undescribed (other than being vaguely ponish) in the mythos felt almost central to the story… Like glue, the character seemed to hold the stories together, there was also the Stranger's profound sense of empathy… the way the character always seemed to know the matriarchs before they knew themselves… Many experts are tempted to say the cycles are about the stranger… but how could that be? The cycles which had so much to say on so many different things almost said nothing about the stranger. The character was a vague shadow of a being, a fade, a watermark on the crumbling pages of the mythos. Some think that the stranger is an everypony, meant to represent us all, and yet the character is (despite us not knowing them at all) very much their own pony, and wouldn't a character meant to represent us all be put to some purpose, be designed to push some message, push us to be better… but instead they seem to be only a pony doing the best they could with what they had… Sometimes the Cycles still clearly fiction seemed all too real. “Professor?” The professor shook herself from her thoughts, and the student was raising his hoof again. Another textbook answer, that we truly did not know… or something else, an original thought? Hours could have passed, or days I could not tell, I could only notice the timeless whisper of the flames, my flames. Endless visions besieged me, and I did not care, endless whispers past and present and future of what was and what was to be and I did not care. I saw many blessings and horrors, kindness and treachery, and all I could do, no. All I wanted to do was watch. Suddenly there was a flash of bright light, my flame was no longer there, nor the cave, nor my visions, just gone… in its place, for a moment, as my eyes adjusted, was darkness, and then the steady red gold hum of dawn on the distant horizon over miles and miles of sand. ‘What, where, how?” The desert was drenched in the red-gold ichor of dawn... No, not dawn. I glanced at Rainbow Dash as the light faded from her delicate horn, a wisp of smoke trailing from its end. She grimaced, breathing hard from the effort of the spell. Besides the eerie tenor of the endless wind, there was for a moment silence, as the sky blue Alicron and I stared in stunned aww at the ragged state of the heavens. For the moment neither of us said anything. Above stars stretched all too thin across the sky, and on the southern horizon lay the Sun and Moon. With no royal horn to guide them, they had fallen where they sat now eclipsed upon the earth. Images, flaming memories of the crumbled ruins of Canterlot flashed through my mind's eye. She tackled me. We were staring at the sky, and then she set her gaze on me, I could only imagine the rage in those eyes, or didn't have to as now they were set down on me, eyes like a pink flame as she pinned me to the dusty earth. “....” All though she said nothing I could see the meaning in her eyes, the blood on her hooves in her coat, the blood in her mane, the blood that painted her horn, the blood that painted her muzzle, said more. Even despite the scar that painted her throat, I could see her meaning. “Where were you in the cave, in the fight, why did you leave me to fight the wolves alone. "Her gaze softened and she stepped away, freeing me from her pen. “ I appreciate what you did for me in that blizzard,” She shook something from her back, a wolf's pelt still dripping in blood fell to the sand at her hooves. She looked back at me again “But what was so important in that flame why did you leave me to find them off myself … What is wrong with you? “ For a moment there was silence, and the wind blew again between us. In the Shadow “Sing me a song about the Twilight Sing me a song about the Night Sing me a song about the Golden Dawn Sing me a song about her plight Sing about her Light Sing about your best Friend O’ Sing about your best Friend Hoof n’ Hoof n’ Hoof O’ Hoof n’ Hoof n’ Hoof- Old Ponish Folk Song” I grasped for words but could not find them, I could not find them under Rainbow’s cool gaze. I had to look away. Sand flowed like rivulets as I shifted my weight from hoof to hoof. “I… I am sorry.” Finally, I managed to meet her eyes, an act that brought a shiver to my spine, but her expression was that of compassion…not of abject anger. She was frustrated, yes, even mad (rightfully so) but she was also worried about me, a total stranger who left her fending off wolves while I just…just watched. Once again, I had been completely aware and could do… no did nothing. Her gaze steadied waiting for my explanation. “-” but just then my speech was cut short as a small voice rang out behind us, and something felt off. “He- hello” The voice sounded almost familiar, perhaps something I had heard in my flame, I glanced at Rainbow Dash, her expression was one of surprise, then of doubt, or fear. Her ears lay flat as she stepped back and away from the speaker, a little orange pagesise who stumbled toward us from the dunes. The filly's name ran across the edge of my mind but I couldn't quite place it… and what had Rainbow so agitated… I mean there was something off putting, but I could not place it.. Her voice was too sharp, or her skin was too tight along her face, or the way she held her wings limp against her side, or her stuttered step, something about the minutiae of this young pony screamed wrong, wrong Wrong! But I also felt wrong for thinking this way, she was just a young filly lost in the desert in this endless twilight, not some monster waiting to lunge at me in the dark… but then why did I feel so scared, my heart beating in my throat., and why was Rainbow so agitated? Something smelled wrong. Like the smell of rotting meat, the smell of broken eggs lingering away in the sun. The filly looked up at us in the oddest way tilting her head ever so slightly with this odd jittering twitch and bob as if she couldn't quite fix her gaze on us… there was something even odder, about her eyes, something I couldn't quite bring myself to quit notice, but it was there nonetheless. What was that name, where had I seen this filly before? In my flame I had seen her in my flame… she had been in… Canterlot. “Im so cold” She said Scotaloo N-No that couldn't be her… She stepped toward us. Something about the eyes, something about the way the skin lay all too tight and all too loose, as if sompony were wearing a dress that didn't quite fit. Something about the smell, something about Canterlot… we were so far from Canterlot. We stepped back. The “Filly” took another step toward us. It couldn't be Scootaloo. Scootaloo was dead. I had seen it in my flame… Rainbow Dash knew all too well, this was not Scotaloo., the skin wasn't skin, the eyes were not eyes, the creature stepped closer. Rainbow dash lowered her horn. I lowered my head ready to draw my knife from its sheath. Suddenly the creature erupted from its small form, not a pony but a shadow, seeping from the seams of what could not be called skin,, a wall of darkness, an emptiness against the halflight. My knife flashed from its sheath but trembled in my mouth, what good was such a miger weapon against that great wall of darkness. I had seen it all before, in my flames, what this thing could do. I remembered those timeless meadows of Fluttershy, and that brior of darkness where nothing lived. I remembered Canterlot, I could see in the back of my mind's eye, as it was the sort of thing one wishes to forget, ponies torn to bone, rent to ash as the shadows consumed them, and I, I was shaking. Rainbow Dash clenched her jaw, breathing hard, and suddenly there was a light, a small but steady orb of light perching balanced at the tip of her horn. The creature, the shadow which had been approaching us, rapidly withdrew back from that light, hissing in frustration. It spoak and for a moment flickered, for a time here and there it was the filly again. “You left me Rainbow Dash… H,how could you leave me.” The light flickered, and oh how quickly the darkness advanced before again withdrawing when Rainbow managed to bring her horn aglow again biting her tongue with the effort. The shadow changed, it was not one filly but three. You left us Rainbow Dash, how could you leave us. And then it was not three fillys but also five mares, and quite suddenly a whole town, a whole city, the same chilling anthem, her light once so bright seemed all too dim. There was great pain in her eyes, shock, fear but mostly pain, her eyes glistened with tears and she was shaking. “You left us, how could you leave us! How could you leave us!” My knife hit the sand with a thump “ She didn’t leave you I did!” There was an audible click as the entire crowd, the mass of ponies who were not ponies tilted their heads in unison of thought. Rainbow’s light went out and we were surrounded again by darkness. Me and Rainbow Dash were embracing each other when again we saw the twilight. That strange half light of moon and sun was a comfort compared to the great darkness that had previously bierated us . The shadow had simply disappeared, leaving us both in a dreadful shiver. “Tantabus,” I whispered to myself. Rainbow dash glanced at me. I knew more than I let on and she knew it. Voice trembling I spoak. “E-Equestrea is a land soaked in centuries of pain, and… guilt. I… I was charged to speak up, to say something and I didn’t and now…” I faltered and we sat for a long while in silance. In The WindAs we walked- I considered smoke, that elusive, often invisible gray that would tendril off into the night born to the wind; that clingy, ilk stuff that stuck to mane and coat, that clung to the throat to make one cough and sneeze and snort. There were no visions in the smoke… not the same sort as in the fire. I didn't want to think about fire, or visions, or prophecy, or any variation of what was to come. And I did not want to think about now, the endless prodding of hooves through endless dunes and ruts of ever-tumbling sand. So I contented myself to think of smoke. But then I wasn't thinking about smoke, was I? The future was like a smoke growing and hanging, feeding off of what had been, ever phantoms against endless dusk. Rainbow tripped over the next dune, I winced, it was a hard fall, and I offered her my hoof, steading her to her own. “What say we rest here? The desert is long and there is no telling when we’ll find kinder ground.” She grimaced, then nodded consoled, and we settled down for what passed for night. My sled still lay abandoned in that crumbled cave in the north, but I owed my life to what arcane ability she had been able to muster, so even losing it I was grateful. We bundled together in the large woolen blanket which she had managed to grab on our way out. Blanket had made it, blanket was safe… The desert was not cold. But the wind was unforgiving. Was all of Equestria now an unforgiving place? I had seen something about it in my flame but I couldn't bring it to mind, didn't want to bring it to my mind. The future made me sick to the stomach… sick in my very core. And yet. Then the professor saw him, the kaki stallion in the back of the lectorium, hooves folded over the desk in a manner of ease. Their eyes met, that was the only indication of her notice of him, but it was enough. He nodded and she continued her lecture with which she weaved her way through raised hooves and motes of chalk dust. “And the matriarch cycles took place at the end of the? That's right the pre-fall erra and before that?- yes the sister cycles which were composed of what three main cantos?- yes the canto of the sun, the canto of the moon, and?- yes the friendship Canto which write this in your notes it will be in your final exam, was never finished.” Soon the lecture was over, cut quite suddenly to a close by the bell, and the class stampeded out of the room, only the professor and the stranger remained. I began digging through my saddle bag, hooves trembling, some hey, a bundle of small sticks, some bits of sheded coat, some flint, I started compiling them into a pile such that oxygen could be coxed into the core, but not the wind, but just then. In a single brisk moment, Rainbow swatted my pile away from me, she looked me in the eye ears flat. The message was clear, no fire, not now, not until necessary…. I had fed my addiction enough and she was fed up with it…and she knew very well we could be stuck here for days if I were left to my own devices on that front. I nodded and moved to gather the scattered bits back into my bag. She was right after all. She lifted a section of the blanket, offering to go back in sharing in its shelter, but I shook my head, instead electing to sit in the wind, to feel the sand slap up against my side, a sobering realness that I was glad to soak in… I felt that it helped me focus, on what was important. We sat in silence for a time in the endless dusk, and then I noticed an expression cross her eyes… a memory… a regret… I thought I knew the look well, though I could have been tricking myself. “Fluttershy is ok… or she will be… I saw her… in my flame, back in the cave… That's part of what had me so enthralled back there. Again, I am sorry… I.. I have a problem… but I did see her. My visions are weird things and often half-truths, so many only glimpses… but she, I saw her…. That had to have been the realest and truest thing I had ever seen, her in that green place, that alive place… and she was, will be alive…. A long time from now… but... It was her, I am sure of it.” We sat in silence for another moment, and the wind blew on, between us against us, howling echoes of the past. Something had to be said, if just to fill the silence, but no it was more important than that. “ I saw what happened to Twilight… I.. I am sorry… No pony should lose a friend like that… no pony should have to witness that…” More silence, Rainbow drew blanket closer and shivered. “I.. I.. do not know what happened to the others… but I am sure they are ok... I saw other bits, other snippets that wouldn't be possible if they weren't… Pinky Pie makes it to the moon, I think… or something of the like. ” I tried for a reassuring smile, though probably not very effective in the half-light of the fallen celestial bodies. I glanced at the smaller of the two. It was going to be ok. It had to. I looked the other way, toward the north. “ I think we should head north… that’s how the earth ponies have been migrating in’t it, from North to South… I mean to say, we are more likely to find inhabited land if we go toward places that ponies are more likely to inhabit… nopony would be this far into the deadlands.” There was silence for another moment, then Rainbow Nodded slightly in agreement. Log Entry 1.73 Twilight Sparkle 8/29 They appeared in the courtyard of Canterlot High, an entire villages worth of people, quickly shoved into vans and to never be heard from again. Any information about the event was quickly covered up, even to the point that a web search of the school will, at the moment at least only: There are no results for (Canterlot High) check your spelling and try different key words. I asked the Librarian about it, and she claimed it was just a bug, and was sure it would sort itself out eventually. Even a cursory reading on the topic shows this to be false, see notes on the inner workings and not-workings of computers for more information on this. They have the courtyard roped off, and there are guards marching about that equine statue of theirs. I think they are time travelers, after all, the courtyard is covered in snow. I intend to find out more. The OrchardThe bell rang, and the class rushed from the room. Only the stranger and the professor remained. The professor collapsed her telescopic pointing stick placing it back within its gilded box, and she continued bussing herself, dusting off the chalkboard. She did not however look back at the kaki stallion as she spoke to him. “So, what brings a government stallion such as yourself to my humble classroom?” A startled expression crossed the stallion's face to quickly be replaced by one of abashment as the professor explained her reasoning. “The poppy on your lapel, I saw you remove it when you came in, but it marked your station all the same, no other pony would dare.” She turned to face the interloper. “Quite the perceptive one aren’t you professor.” “I try,” she said, positioning herself wryly to place herself such that her desk was between herself and the stranger. But it wouldn’t be enough.” “Then you know why it's in your best interests to come with me silently.” The professor glanced around the seemingly empty room. “ I suppose your friends are close.” The stallion nodded. “Very well then. Could you be a dear and grab my bag? If you're here for the reason I think you are the contents may very well be relevant.” The professor gestured toward a heavily book-laden satchel that sat beside her desk. Collems and collems of apple trees dead and bare loomed before us as we approached. Half buried in unbridled sand they loomed a stark grey against the sickened twilight, against the shimmeringly unreliable horizon of the desert. Rainbow stopped beneath one of the trees sitting down. She looked up toward, perhaps through those desperate boughss. It looked the very picture of despair. It felt like something an artist would paint upon remembering all his loved ones had passed on, the Alicorn resting beneath the ghost of an apple tree, as beyond light heaved her final glimmering violet breath. She didn’t speak. Through some Alicorn magic (that was even a mystery to me and all I had seen) most of her scars had faded completely, as if they had never been. But that one gash, that one red line that ran jagged across her throat. A Scarlet stark against a sky-like blue remained unchanged. I saw it in my flames, she will never speak again. Not until the end. Alicorns are eternal, but all things must come to an end. It became easier to remember, easier to understand the longer I remained away from the flames, but the trees looked very flammable, a fire, just a small one would be nice after all. I shook myself, attempting to rid myself of the thought. I focused my attention back on Rainbow Dash. She looked at me. There was a look of longing in her eyes. It was my special talent to know that look, and it became easier and easier as the poison of fire faded from my mind(always there, ever calling.). She looked up toward the tree and then again back at me. “ Tell me she is ok…tell me you saw her in all that time you lost yourself in that flame.” I had told her before, words of hope to help us in our endless trudge but at this look, I felt I must say it again. “Apple Jack is alright, I'm sure of it, and the towns not far, I promise, we just need to go a little bit further." I knew it was true, it had to be, the vision could mean nothing else, and now I could remember it clearer than ever. Apple Jack embracing a relieved Rainbow Dash. Tears of joy laced that vision not the sorrow of so many others. The wind began to pick up again. Log Entry 23.9 Twilight Sparkle 9/5 The field test confirmed it, with the device I can track and contain the bizarre energy emitting from Canterlot High! Some odd frequency of electromagnetic waves… or perhaps something else interfering with them. People don’t just appear out of nowhere and EM alone does not explain it, there has got to be something else. The car ride to New Canter was by no means a comfortable affair, a silence fell between the passengers, the government Stallion who was quite cramped, his large frame dwarfed the interior of the vehicle, and the professor who was well aware of the danger of her position. Government interest was never a good sign. Despite the bumps and jolts of the road, and the roar of traffic outside the passenger cabin was dead silent. Between a lifetime in her line of work, and a minutia of other experiences the professor had grown accustomed to reading long silences, the dead never spoke aloud after all, and yet said much, how much more for living ponies. It was with this studiousness that she watched the government stallion that sat across from her. He wasn’t accustomed to long silences, or perhaps rather he didn't associate them with anything good. His ears radared left and right as if he expected the ethereal voice of the lady Tráthnóna calling him home at any moment. He constantly checked the windows, left right, and center, wincing at every stray cardboard box and cringing at every underpass they passed beneath. His hooves never stopped moving, a continued incessant tap, tap, tap. He might have been sweating had the cab not been so well cooled. For a moment the prefer considered breaking the silence; but no let him sweat she thought Log Entry 26.7 Twilight Sparkle 9/5 It's Gone! I can’t believe it! It’s not gone, it’s still there but I can’t see it. That’s not quite right. I think that is more like I can’t notice it. I was playing around with some of the captured energies, seeing what happened when I passed different electric charges through the field, and somehow I managed to make Spike disappear. The worst of it was, I hate to admit it I didn’t even notice he was gone. It was almost as if I had forgotten he even existed. No, it was exactly like that! For the forty-five minutes that the experiment was running, had anyone asked me I would have told them I had never had a dog. I hate to think what might have happened had the canister not run out. Pottintal catasterphy aside I think I can harness this!
In the SnowShe wouldn’t speak. The mangled sky-blue Alicorn I had found, lay on the sled staring up at me in a muted daze. We both shivered as the Icy wind blew again between us, tumbled drafts of snow drenching our vision in white or blinding us with its shimmer. I shook myself, emptying my mind of the countless questions I had, none of which would mean a thing if we couldn’t… Survival was paramount. I bit down on the rope and thrust my hooves into the snow, pulling against the weight of the sled, and began to trudge against the unwavering wind. Who was she? She looked familiar but… who… and a fifth princess? How had she gotten out here in the snow all alone, and who, who was she? I continued to pull, rebelling against the unwavering storm. She hadn’t said a thing, just looked at me, with those violet sunken eyes. even in her weakened state, her body was defined, not the bulk of a bodybuilder, but athletic, like… an acrobat, or a sprinter, she made me think of a soldier or a Wonderbolt… It felt like that should mean something, was somehow important. The snow was blinding, it was all I could do to move forward, not stop. To stop was death, to trudge was life, and I had to keep moving. Who was she? There were only three, no four princesses I knew of, there was Celestia, oh Celestia save us…there was her sister Luna the Princes of the Night…, there was Cadence, and Twilight the newest princess. I looked back at my companion, blinking back icicles despite the shielding of the snow mask… Who was she? Hooves trembling, I struck flint against steel, sparks flew a brief bright contrast against the darkness of the cave only for them to flicker into not. Again and again, I struck all too aware of the howling wind outside, our impending sniffles, and worse, until finally, a whisper of flame came to light. With a sigh of relief, I leaned down and coxed it to life with my breath. Warmth and light now touching all three walls of the cave, I sat back in relief and gazed at my companion. She was looking better if still dazed, less gaunt… the fire was doing her some good. She still hadn’t said a word. As the room, if the semi-shelter of stone could be called that, warmed I began removing my wet layers of clothing, folding them neatly by the makeshift hearth. I then drug my sled-bound companion closer to the flame, for better light, and more importantly warmth, and begin removing her soaked layers and dressing her wounds… As powerful as she might have once been, at the moment she looked like she had been sent through a woodchipper. What could do this to a pony… to an alicorn? This consideration made me shiver. “What could do something like this?” I whispered half to myself. Some gashes three inches wide and many a near yard across, blood long dried in frost. She looked up at me, a silent expression, she shivered and not just from the cold, but still the flames flickered in her eyes. Determination. For a while, despite the ruckus gatha of wind outside, the eerie verses of the storm, for us, in that cave, in that moment there was peace. I tucked her in, snugly wrapping her in a nesting of my best wool blanket, then for myself, I lay by the fire too tired to bother unpacking any more than the bandages and blanket I already had. She was watching me silently. I chuckled half-heartedly, bemused at our newfound comfort. “I never did get your name,” I told her. She puffed a bit of mane away from her eye in mock frustration and smiled weakly. She did look familiar. “I feel like I should know you… I mean I know I had seen you somewhere, I mean, you think I would remember a princess such as yourself, an alicorn at that.” She cocked her head to the side in what seemed to be confusion and then surprised me by leaping off of the sled sending Blanket everywhere. no no, no, no No, she seemed to say. She limped over to the fire and gazed down at her reflection in a puddle developing from the nearby thawing clothes. She touched her hooves to her horn, and at the gash in her throat, and the horn again mortified, perhaps more so at the delicate horn, which glistened gossamer in the firelight. It was as if she was surprised to see herself in that state, not only her injury, but being an alicorn at all, and being unable to speak she just gasped in shock, a rasping cry issuing from her throat. She fell to her knees in tears and began yanking at her horn with her hooves as if trying to pull it off. I shot to my hooves and ran to her side… “Woah woah woah, that’s not going to help anything… It's ok, it's ok, it's going to be ok.” I put my hoof on her shoulder, and she flung herself into my arms, crying into my mane. “It's going to be ok. It's going to be ok” I whispered. It struck me… She hadn’t always been an alicorn… and… The embrace was broken, she pulled back from me, perhaps she felt the change in my posture that came with my recollection. I looked her in her roseate eyes. “Dash?” I asked, “Rainbow Dash?” She nodded, wiping a tear from her eye with her hoof. I drew the blanket back over her shoulders somewhat easing her trembling form and then I surprised myself and hugged her. Tears touched my eyes. “I'm sorry, I'm so sorry,” I said… and I didn’t completely know why… but maybe I did. I did not know Rainbow Dash that well. Not personally… but I felt like I knew her… all the stories I had heard about her, and her friends. It should have been no surprise to me that she was an alicorn now, but the tragedy that would have had to occur for her to end up as such, and in such, such a state… What Rainbow Dash would do for her friends. What I knew she would do for those she loved. And what she must have gone through. I could almost see it in her eyes, the fire there was more than just a reflection, that was a fire that had seen things. It was too much. And I cried. I cried for her sake, for my own. I cried for the sake of her friends, who I hoped were all right, her friends whom she would so readily give herself up for. It was a miracle she was still alive. Her eyes said it all. But in my heart, I knew. I had seen the explosion the day before. The absolute mushroom clouds that erupted from Canterlot were even visible here in the frozen north. The countless rainbooms that shook the earth. The elements had been fighting something, and here Rainbow Dash was alone, wounded, and an alicorn. All alone. “I’m so sorry” I sputtered again, and she held me in her embrace.
In the FireAs Rainbow Dash lay sleeping I stoked the fire and gazed into its flames, not the yellow-tinged edge, but the center. I had avoided watching for far too long, had avoided knowing. There had been a time where I had been obsessed with my flame. When I had watched for weeks on end. I had nearly starved myself for the visions it would bring. In that time I had particularly liked watching the elements, Rainbow Dash and her friends… the future had always seemed so bright in their hooves. Six friends who would cast out the dark, who had been called together by this… this glisten, this spark. I had to stop watching. There was a happy ending to be had, that was part of what drew me to the flames in the first place, but as I watched the future only grew darker, and no better off for my watching. Only watching did nothing, I had to act. But I did not know what to do. The fate of Equestria, indeed the whole world depended on knowledge I had, and all I could do was run away. But I could run no longer. Rainbow Dash was here alone and an Alicorn, and Canterlot has burned, all because I ran away. I did not know what to do, what action to take, how to make things right, but it was my responsibility to find out. So I tendered the flame, and gazed into its heart, to learn what I might of what, was and what was to come. Life sprung into existence at the light patter of the yellow Alicorns trudging hoof-steps. Here she stopped, to look back upon the grandeur of her creation, the rolling hills of green, the endless meadows and forests which eked across the once barren land. She sighed. She stopped not because she had to. She could continue that cantered dance for eternity, spreading the picturesque girding of nature, but all the same. She flittered her wings, a light zephyrian breeze serenaded from beneath them, butterflies playing amongst the wake. For the briefest moment, she seemed to look right at me, her gaze stretching across all of time and space to me and my meager flame. It startled me, but as soon as the moment was, it wasn't, and she was again looking across her verdant field of green. The fire crackled, some timber falling in on itself, and the image shifted. A different fire touched the night and licked at stars, and Canterlot was burning. Ash chard the black sky and drifting embers lit the night. Over the roaring of the inferno, a clatter of hooves could be heard, the populace in flight. A miasma lay in the air, the taste of death. Six friends galloped against the surging crowd, towards what danger I could not yet see. The foremost of the charging ponies, a little purple alicorn skidded to a stop, as her friends rallied to her side. Twilight Sparkle and the Elements, it had to be. They huddled close. Eyes wide with fear they alone stood against the darkness, even with the roaring fires all around to light the night, a shadow loomed before them... Again the visage shifted. I saw the Yellow Alicron staring across her rolling fields of green. A tear touched her cheek, I do not think that she knew why. She sat down and brushed her hoof along her face with a sniffle. As if nervously she began running her hooves through her flowing pink main. I leaned in closer to the fire, hoping perhaps to get a better view of the features of her face, trying to understand the sorrow in those youthful ancient eyes. Something was missing. Something had been missing for a long time, and she just couldn't put her hoof on it, I could see that much in her gentle gaze. Although her eyes spoke of a boundless ancient wisdom; she seemed… lost. Suddenly or seamlessly I found myself there. I could feel the west breeze in my mane and felt the warmth of that new summer sun on my back. I felt as if I was sitting beside her, close enough to touch her shoulder with my hoof, a gentle prod of kindness. But, then, she looked at me and I was again a thousand miles, and unknown ages away. Again the flame was just a flame, once roaring it now dwindled. A slight chill had crept over the cave. I shivered. I glanced at my shaking hooves and took a deep breath. … I looked toward Rainbow Dash, who still lay mumbling incoherently in her slumber. It wasn't just about me anymore. I could no longer selfishly look away. I had to know, to help, to do something. I rekindled the flame, building it up log by log, coxing life back into it with my breath until it again roared. Only hesitating for a moment, I then watched. I could not look away. In the cave, Rainbow Dash fought for our lives, hoof and horn and wing a blur of blue against the onslaught of tooth and claw of the invading wolves. I knew the danger, knew she was doing everything she could to keep us alive, even despite her injuries. Her loyalty knew no bounds. but I could not look away, the flames engulfed my mind. Six friends stood against the darkness and Canterlot was burning. Again and again, the Rainbow in the flames clashed against the advancing nightmares With each charge, a rain boom expanded behind her, a resounding shockwave echoing in the night, and entire legions of shadow fell before her. In the cave, she struggled against the raging wolves and I could do nothing to help her. I could not look away from the flame. My flame. In the flame, I saw the yellow alicorn, the matriarch of nature gazing out on the bastion of her creation. Her gaze stopped on a brier of darkness. In all the rolling hills of green lay a black plane of decay. She spoke to me, something that would have been startling were I not so transfixed. Something that shouldn't be, but all the same she spoke to me. And I was speechless. “Tell me. Do you see them in your flames? I forget sometimes… It has been so long, but I think they were once a part of me… I think they still are.” Her voice was soft, almost no more than the wisp of whisper from a breezie’s wing, a murmur…I leaned closer to the fire, to her, I wanted to absorb her every word. The cave reverberated with a resounding thumpas Rainbow Dash slammed a poor wolf into a wall, only for her to be assaulted on all sides by another three. “I see them sometimes,” The Alicorn continued “In the little things. Can you say that you've seen the dew caught in a spider's web or the cotton candy in the clouds? I hear their whisper in the wind… is it all in my head? But that is the least of my concerns now. You and your friend… you and Dash…That was her name, oh I miss her so… I'm so sorry, you two are in danger and here I hold you in idle chatter.” More wolves were filling the cave now, a surge of shaggy gray forms swarming on the blue Pegasus who only barely held them at bay from me and my flame. And all I could do was stare at the yellow alicorn in awe. She pointed her hoof toward the gathering darkness in the distance… that, that is what we were, are up against. The Tantabus threatens all.”
In the Dark My name is Rainbow Dash, I feel like I should get that taken care of before I write anything else, before we, before me and this stranger die forever nameless in this foreboding cave. I'm sure we will never be found, and I'm sure I'm writing this for nothing, but I have to do something. The entrance has fallen in. I… I think I threw that wolf against the wall just a bit too hard… We can not get out. It would be us alone in the dark if it wasn't for the fire the stranger had prepared. The fire… the stranger has done nothing but stare at it since before my waking, to the footpads of several hungry wolves…seven or twenty I could not tell, so wrapped up was I in the battle. But I took care of it, me the amazing Rainbow Dash! It doesn't feel so good, winning all alone…with nopony there to fight by my side, and there is no way out. I'll die here in this cave …with this stranger who stares into the flame. Wake up! Blink?! Say something.? Anything. But the stranger only stares …. and shivers as if in a cold sweat, sweat pours down, and still they stare deeply into the flame, saying and doing nothing. At least we have the flame to fend against the cold. I'm tempted to skin the wolves for extra warmth…as the kindling won't last forever… With some digging I have found some food in the strangers pack, but that will not last even the week. It feels wrong to take other creatures' parts for our use, but then again they were trying to kill us. Perhaps they succeeded. No… no this was my fault Reader, if you find this, know it was my fault. I should have died in Canterlot…at least then I wouldn’t take this stranger with me to doom. I should have died in Canterlot. The professor set the ancient manuscript aside and rubbed her eyes… She had read the letter again and again and again, and it still made no sense. It had been dug up in the deep desert, miles and miles away from any mountains, and so far away from any death defying cold… and it was written in blood on a hide that had been tanned and long dried in the sun. At this she shivered. What could drive a creature to do such a thing? She glanced at it again, peering over the top of her glasses, what else could she infer about the writing. The font tilted in a certain way, almost a reverse italic… written by mouth then… That probably meant some creature that was not a unicorn. Although there were notable exceptions to this theory, the old Cycles told as much. That was it! That was what the manuscript reminded her of. She swiveled around in her chair and began browsing the titles which perched each meticulously, one against the other upon the ancient book case, and finally she found it. She removed a paper-back blowing dust from its crumbling cover, the title etched in red. The Canterlot Cycles Newly abridged for young Readers Once Upon a time in the magical land of Equestria, there lived six matriarchs each of which presided over reality in their own way. There was the Lady Cúthail who presided over all of nature, all of the green things of the world, and all of the running, hopping, flying things that lived and breathed in the land, and the seasons which forever turned with her nature, which were her domain, her creation. There was Lady Ulla who resided over the red crisp fertile earth, as well as the mighty mountains, the very strength of the land itself. It was said that it was she who molded the Giants out of stone, and who called lightning from the very sky. There was Lady Píosa who was said to touch the heart of everypony with the gift of song, and poetry, it was her that laid the tales to bear, and from her the nature of every good hearted soul. There was the Lady Muileata, who gifted Stallions with the urge to craft, and to make, but also to fight, and raze. It was said that she was the most beautiful of all, many would die in her honor. Many beautiful things were made in her name, and much cold steel and much blood was spilt. And there was the Lady Tráthnóna of death and of life, who died in the service of her friends, but whose power continues to radiate through the land, the very essence of magic itself. There was the Lady Brostaigh the courageous. It was said she never spoke, but even today many of true valor speak her oath saying; I am a soldier of Brostaigh Brostaigh's values are my values And her sword is my sword. I swear to remain Loyal and true Courteous and Kind Honest and Brave. I swear To give aid to those in need, And to uphold the weak Spreading hope wherever I may be, cave or desert or sea, Against wolves or darkness or eldredge unknown, It is this magic that will guide my sword and my will. I am the eyes of the night and the wings of the dawn and by this creed will I fly by this Creed I swear. It was said that it was she who gathered the matriarchs in the first place, uniting them against the great darkness that beseeched the land in that day. Author's Note More to come 😁
In the Desert “Cad atá in ainm. Cailleadh a n-ainm i bhfad ó shin, goideadh é. Cailleadh, éitear don sruth ama gan teorainn, nó scáth éigin nó fay, dearmad fada freisin Tá cuimhne fós orthu, fós canta faoi inniu. Iad agus a n-lasair. Cad atá in ainm. Go deimhin b'iadsan a fuair Tiarna Brostaigh sa sneachta, a d'ardaigh an matriarch as a créachtaí. Cara fíor ba ea iad. Cad atá in ainm. Ní raibh aon ainm nó céim ná teideal acu, níl aon eolas againn orthu seachas gur fhág siad a rian in am. Cibé mallacht éigin nó casadh cinniúint éigin, ní féidir aon rud a scríobh i gcur síos orthu, fós canaimid a n-amhrán. Cad atá in ainm.” “Why do the cycles matter? Any-creature, any-creature?” The professor's gaze crossed the lecturium assessing the many bord faces of the colts and fillies that made up her class. They had good reason to be bored perhaps. Folk-Lore and Mythology as a subject were not the most interesting or practical… most just took it to fill out the extra credit, what idiot would devote their life to its study. The professor momentarily distracted glanced at her diploma and sighed. What was the point, it was a living, but what was the point, of perpetuating the myth that Myth was worth anyponys’ time? She returned her gaze to her students, one of which, a particularly bright bulb in the bunch, was raising his hoof. The professor pointed his way. “The Cycles are crucial to understanding our cultural, historical, and literary heritage, preserving ancient mythological narratives that continue to influence modern culture and national identity.” A textbook answer nothing more, no passion, no fire. “All right- “she proceeded addressing the student by name, a more difficult question perhaps, “What purpose does the stranger serve in the Canterlot Cycles?” The class stared at her in silence. This was a difficult question. It wasn't that the stranger didn’t serve any purpose at all… no it was almost the opposite… but she… or he… The Stranger was so plain, so boring, we know almost nothing about them, and yet… A character who despite being completely undescribed (other than being vaguely ponish) in the mythos felt almost central to the story… Like glue, the character seemed to hold the stories together, there was also the Stranger's profound sense of empathy… the way the character always seemed to know the matriarchs before they knew themselves… Many experts are tempted to say the cycles are about the stranger… but how could that be? The cycles which had so much to say on so many different things almost said nothing about the stranger. The character was a vague shadow of a being, a fade, a watermark on the crumbling pages of the mythos. Some think that the stranger is an everypony, meant to represent us all, and yet the character is (despite us not knowing them at all) very much their own pony, and wouldn't a character meant to represent us all be put to some purpose, be designed to push some message, push us to be better… but instead they seem to be only a pony doing the best they could with what they had… Sometimes the Cycles still clearly fiction seemed all too real. “Professor?” The professor shook herself from her thoughts, and the student was raising his hoof again. Another textbook answer, that we truly did not know… or something else, an original thought? Hours could have passed, or days I could not tell, I could only notice the timeless whisper of the flames, my flames. Endless visions besieged me, and I did not care, endless whispers past and present and future of what was and what was to be and I did not care. I saw many blessings and horrors, kindness and treachery, and all I could do, no. All I wanted to do was watch. Suddenly there was a flash of bright light, my flame was no longer there, nor the cave, nor my visions, just gone… in its place, for a moment, as my eyes adjusted, was darkness, and then the steady red gold hum of dawn on the distant horizon over miles and miles of sand. ‘What, where, how?” The desert was drenched in the red-gold ichor of dawn... No, not dawn. I glanced at Rainbow Dash as the light faded from her delicate horn, a wisp of smoke trailing from its end. She grimaced, breathing hard from the effort of the spell. Besides the eerie tenor of the endless wind, there was for a moment silence, as the sky blue Alicron and I stared in stunned aww at the ragged state of the heavens. For the moment neither of us said anything. Above stars stretched all too thin across the sky, and on the southern horizon lay the Sun and Moon. With no royal horn to guide them, they had fallen where they sat now eclipsed upon the earth. Images, flaming memories of the crumbled ruins of Canterlot flashed through my mind's eye. She tackled me. We were staring at the sky, and then she set her gaze on me, I could only imagine the rage in those eyes, or didn't have to as now they were set down on me, eyes like a pink flame as she pinned me to the dusty earth. “....” All though she said nothing I could see the meaning in her eyes, the blood on her hooves in her coat, the blood in her mane, the blood that painted her horn, the blood that painted her muzzle, said more. Even despite the scar that painted her throat, I could see her meaning. “Where were you in the cave, in the fight, why did you leave me to fight the wolves alone. "Her gaze softened and she stepped away, freeing me from her pen. “ I appreciate what you did for me in that blizzard,” She shook something from her back, a wolf's pelt still dripping in blood fell to the sand at her hooves. She looked back at me again “But what was so important in that flame why did you leave me to find them off myself … What is wrong with you? “ For a moment there was silence, and the wind blew again between us.
In the Shadow “Sing me a song about the Twilight Sing me a song about the Night Sing me a song about the Golden Dawn Sing me a song about her plight Sing about her Light Sing about your best Friend O’ Sing about your best Friend Hoof n’ Hoof n’ Hoof O’ Hoof n’ Hoof n’ Hoof- Old Ponish Folk Song” I grasped for words but could not find them, I could not find them under Rainbow’s cool gaze. I had to look away. Sand flowed like rivulets as I shifted my weight from hoof to hoof. “I… I am sorry.” Finally, I managed to meet her eyes, an act that brought a shiver to my spine, but her expression was that of compassion…not of abject anger. She was frustrated, yes, even mad (rightfully so) but she was also worried about me, a total stranger who left her fending off wolves while I just…just watched. Once again, I had been completely aware and could do… no did nothing. Her gaze steadied waiting for my explanation. “-” but just then my speech was cut short as a small voice rang out behind us, and something felt off. “He- hello” The voice sounded almost familiar, perhaps something I had heard in my flame, I glanced at Rainbow Dash, her expression was one of surprise, then of doubt, or fear. Her ears lay flat as she stepped back and away from the speaker, a little orange pagesise who stumbled toward us from the dunes. The filly's name ran across the edge of my mind but I couldn't quite place it… and what had Rainbow so agitated… I mean there was something off putting, but I could not place it.. Her voice was too sharp, or her skin was too tight along her face, or the way she held her wings limp against her side, or her stuttered step, something about the minutiae of this young pony screamed wrong, wrong Wrong! But I also felt wrong for thinking this way, she was just a young filly lost in the desert in this endless twilight, not some monster waiting to lunge at me in the dark… but then why did I feel so scared, my heart beating in my throat., and why was Rainbow so agitated? Something smelled wrong. Like the smell of rotting meat, the smell of broken eggs lingering away in the sun. The filly looked up at us in the oddest way tilting her head ever so slightly with this odd jittering twitch and bob as if she couldn't quite fix her gaze on us… there was something even odder, about her eyes, something I couldn't quite bring myself to quit notice, but it was there nonetheless. What was that name, where had I seen this filly before? In my flame I had seen her in my flame… she had been in… Canterlot. “Im so cold” She said Scotaloo N-No that couldn't be her… She stepped toward us. Something about the eyes, something about the way the skin lay all too tight and all too loose, as if sompony were wearing a dress that didn't quite fit. Something about the smell, something about Canterlot… we were so far from Canterlot. We stepped back. The “Filly” took another step toward us. It couldn't be Scootaloo. Scootaloo was dead. I had seen it in my flame… Rainbow Dash knew all too well, this was not Scotaloo., the skin wasn't skin, the eyes were not eyes, the creature stepped closer. Rainbow dash lowered her horn. I lowered my head ready to draw my knife from its sheath. Suddenly the creature erupted from its small form, not a pony but a shadow, seeping from the seams of what could not be called skin,, a wall of darkness, an emptiness against the halflight. My knife flashed from its sheath but trembled in my mouth, what good was such a miger weapon against that great wall of darkness. I had seen it all before, in my flames, what this thing could do. I remembered those timeless meadows of Fluttershy, and that brior of darkness where nothing lived. I remembered Canterlot, I could see in the back of my mind's eye, as it was the sort of thing one wishes to forget, ponies torn to bone, rent to ash as the shadows consumed them, and I, I was shaking. Rainbow Dash clenched her jaw, breathing hard, and suddenly there was a light, a small but steady orb of light perching balanced at the tip of her horn. The creature, the shadow which had been approaching us, rapidly withdrew back from that light, hissing in frustration. It spoak and for a moment flickered, for a time here and there it was the filly again. “You left me Rainbow Dash… H,how could you leave me.” The light flickered, and oh how quickly the darkness advanced before again withdrawing when Rainbow managed to bring her horn aglow again biting her tongue with the effort. The shadow changed, it was not one filly but three. You left us Rainbow Dash, how could you leave us. And then it was not three fillys but also five mares, and quite suddenly a whole town, a whole city, the same chilling anthem, her light once so bright seemed all too dim. There was great pain in her eyes, shock, fear but mostly pain, her eyes glistened with tears and she was shaking. “You left us, how could you leave us! How could you leave us!” My knife hit the sand with a thump “ She didn’t leave you I did!” There was an audible click as the entire crowd, the mass of ponies who were not ponies tilted their heads in unison of thought. Rainbow’s light went out and we were surrounded again by darkness. Me and Rainbow Dash were embracing each other when again we saw the twilight. That strange half light of moon and sun was a comfort compared to the great darkness that had previously bierated us . The shadow had simply disappeared, leaving us both in a dreadful shiver. “Tantabus,” I whispered to myself. Rainbow dash glanced at me. I knew more than I let on and she knew it. Voice trembling I spoak. “E-Equestrea is a land soaked in centuries of pain, and… guilt. I… I was charged to speak up, to say something and I didn’t and now…” I faltered and we sat for a long while in silance.
In The WindAs we walked- I considered smoke, that elusive, often invisible gray that would tendril off into the night born to the wind; that clingy, ilk stuff that stuck to mane and coat, that clung to the throat to make one cough and sneeze and snort. There were no visions in the smoke… not the same sort as in the fire. I didn't want to think about fire, or visions, or prophecy, or any variation of what was to come. And I did not want to think about now, the endless prodding of hooves through endless dunes and ruts of ever-tumbling sand. So I contented myself to think of smoke. But then I wasn't thinking about smoke, was I? The future was like a smoke growing and hanging, feeding off of what had been, ever phantoms against endless dusk. Rainbow tripped over the next dune, I winced, it was a hard fall, and I offered her my hoof, steading her to her own. “What say we rest here? The desert is long and there is no telling when we’ll find kinder ground.” She grimaced, then nodded consoled, and we settled down for what passed for night. My sled still lay abandoned in that crumbled cave in the north, but I owed my life to what arcane ability she had been able to muster, so even losing it I was grateful. We bundled together in the large woolen blanket which she had managed to grab on our way out. Blanket had made it, blanket was safe… The desert was not cold. But the wind was unforgiving. Was all of Equestria now an unforgiving place? I had seen something about it in my flame but I couldn't bring it to mind, didn't want to bring it to my mind. The future made me sick to the stomach… sick in my very core. And yet. Then the professor saw him, the kaki stallion in the back of the lectorium, hooves folded over the desk in a manner of ease. Their eyes met, that was the only indication of her notice of him, but it was enough. He nodded and she continued her lecture with which she weaved her way through raised hooves and motes of chalk dust. “And the matriarch cycles took place at the end of the? That's right the pre-fall erra and before that?- yes the sister cycles which were composed of what three main cantos?- yes the canto of the sun, the canto of the moon, and?- yes the friendship Canto which write this in your notes it will be in your final exam, was never finished.” Soon the lecture was over, cut quite suddenly to a close by the bell, and the class stampeded out of the room, only the professor and the stranger remained. I began digging through my saddle bag, hooves trembling, some hey, a bundle of small sticks, some bits of sheded coat, some flint, I started compiling them into a pile such that oxygen could be coxed into the core, but not the wind, but just then. In a single brisk moment, Rainbow swatted my pile away from me, she looked me in the eye ears flat. The message was clear, no fire, not now, not until necessary…. I had fed my addiction enough and she was fed up with it…and she knew very well we could be stuck here for days if I were left to my own devices on that front. I nodded and moved to gather the scattered bits back into my bag. She was right after all. She lifted a section of the blanket, offering to go back in sharing in its shelter, but I shook my head, instead electing to sit in the wind, to feel the sand slap up against my side, a sobering realness that I was glad to soak in… I felt that it helped me focus, on what was important. We sat in silence for a time in the endless dusk, and then I noticed an expression cross her eyes… a memory… a regret… I thought I knew the look well, though I could have been tricking myself. “Fluttershy is ok… or she will be… I saw her… in my flame, back in the cave… That's part of what had me so enthralled back there. Again, I am sorry… I.. I have a problem… but I did see her. My visions are weird things and often half-truths, so many only glimpses… but she, I saw her…. That had to have been the realest and truest thing I had ever seen, her in that green place, that alive place… and she was, will be alive…. A long time from now… but... It was her, I am sure of it.” We sat in silence for another moment, and the wind blew on, between us against us, howling echoes of the past. Something had to be said, if just to fill the silence, but no it was more important than that. “ I saw what happened to Twilight… I.. I am sorry… No pony should lose a friend like that… no pony should have to witness that…” More silence, Rainbow drew blanket closer and shivered. “I.. I.. do not know what happened to the others… but I am sure they are ok... I saw other bits, other snippets that wouldn't be possible if they weren't… Pinky Pie makes it to the moon, I think… or something of the like. ” I tried for a reassuring smile, though probably not very effective in the half-light of the fallen celestial bodies. I glanced at the smaller of the two. It was going to be ok. It had to. I looked the other way, toward the north. “ I think we should head north… that’s how the earth ponies have been migrating in’t it, from North to South… I mean to say, we are more likely to find inhabited land if we go toward places that ponies are more likely to inhabit… nopony would be this far into the deadlands.” There was silence for another moment, then Rainbow Nodded slightly in agreement. Log Entry 1.73 Twilight Sparkle 8/29 They appeared in the courtyard of Canterlot High, an entire villages worth of people, quickly shoved into vans and to never be heard from again. Any information about the event was quickly covered up, even to the point that a web search of the school will, at the moment at least only: There are no results for (Canterlot High) check your spelling and try different key words. I asked the Librarian about it, and she claimed it was just a bug, and was sure it would sort itself out eventually. Even a cursory reading on the topic shows this to be false, see notes on the inner workings and not-workings of computers for more information on this. They have the courtyard roped off, and there are guards marching about that equine statue of theirs. I think they are time travelers, after all, the courtyard is covered in snow. I intend to find out more.
The OrchardThe bell rang, and the class rushed from the room. Only the stranger and the professor remained. The professor collapsed her telescopic pointing stick placing it back within its gilded box, and she continued bussing herself, dusting off the chalkboard. She did not however look back at the kaki stallion as she spoke to him. “So, what brings a government stallion such as yourself to my humble classroom?” A startled expression crossed the stallion's face to quickly be replaced by one of abashment as the professor explained her reasoning. “The poppy on your lapel, I saw you remove it when you came in, but it marked your station all the same, no other pony would dare.” She turned to face the interloper. “Quite the perceptive one aren’t you professor.” “I try,” she said, positioning herself wryly to place herself such that her desk was between herself and the stranger. But it wouldn’t be enough.” “Then you know why it's in your best interests to come with me silently.” The professor glanced around the seemingly empty room. “ I suppose your friends are close.” The stallion nodded. “Very well then. Could you be a dear and grab my bag? If you're here for the reason I think you are the contents may very well be relevant.” The professor gestured toward a heavily book-laden satchel that sat beside her desk. Collems and collems of apple trees dead and bare loomed before us as we approached. Half buried in unbridled sand they loomed a stark grey against the sickened twilight, against the shimmeringly unreliable horizon of the desert. Rainbow stopped beneath one of the trees sitting down. She looked up toward, perhaps through those desperate boughss. It looked the very picture of despair. It felt like something an artist would paint upon remembering all his loved ones had passed on, the Alicorn resting beneath the ghost of an apple tree, as beyond light heaved her final glimmering violet breath. She didn’t speak. Through some Alicorn magic (that was even a mystery to me and all I had seen) most of her scars had faded completely, as if they had never been. But that one gash, that one red line that ran jagged across her throat. A Scarlet stark against a sky-like blue remained unchanged. I saw it in my flames, she will never speak again. Not until the end. Alicorns are eternal, but all things must come to an end. It became easier to remember, easier to understand the longer I remained away from the flames, but the trees looked very flammable, a fire, just a small one would be nice after all. I shook myself, attempting to rid myself of the thought. I focused my attention back on Rainbow Dash. She looked at me. There was a look of longing in her eyes. It was my special talent to know that look, and it became easier and easier as the poison of fire faded from my mind(always there, ever calling.). She looked up toward the tree and then again back at me. “ Tell me she is ok…tell me you saw her in all that time you lost yourself in that flame.” I had told her before, words of hope to help us in our endless trudge but at this look, I felt I must say it again. “Apple Jack is alright, I'm sure of it, and the towns not far, I promise, we just need to go a little bit further." I knew it was true, it had to be, the vision could mean nothing else, and now I could remember it clearer than ever. Apple Jack embracing a relieved Rainbow Dash. Tears of joy laced that vision not the sorrow of so many others. The wind began to pick up again. Log Entry 23.9 Twilight Sparkle 9/5 The field test confirmed it, with the device I can track and contain the bizarre energy emitting from Canterlot High! Some odd frequency of electromagnetic waves… or perhaps something else interfering with them. People don’t just appear out of nowhere and EM alone does not explain it, there has got to be something else. The car ride to New Canter was by no means a comfortable affair, a silence fell between the passengers, the government Stallion who was quite cramped, his large frame dwarfed the interior of the vehicle, and the professor who was well aware of the danger of her position. Government interest was never a good sign. Despite the bumps and jolts of the road, and the roar of traffic outside the passenger cabin was dead silent. Between a lifetime in her line of work, and a minutia of other experiences the professor had grown accustomed to reading long silences, the dead never spoke aloud after all, and yet said much, how much more for living ponies. It was with this studiousness that she watched the government stallion that sat across from her. He wasn’t accustomed to long silences, or perhaps rather he didn't associate them with anything good. His ears radared left and right as if he expected the ethereal voice of the lady Tráthnóna calling him home at any moment. He constantly checked the windows, left right, and center, wincing at every stray cardboard box and cringing at every underpass they passed beneath. His hooves never stopped moving, a continued incessant tap, tap, tap. He might have been sweating had the cab not been so well cooled. For a moment the prefer considered breaking the silence; but no let him sweat she thought Log Entry 26.7 Twilight Sparkle 9/5 It's Gone! I can’t believe it! It’s not gone, it’s still there but I can’t see it. That’s not quite right. I think that is more like I can’t notice it. I was playing around with some of the captured energies, seeing what happened when I passed different electric charges through the field, and somehow I managed to make Spike disappear. The worst of it was, I hate to admit it I didn’t even notice he was gone. It was almost as if I had forgotten he even existed. No, it was exactly like that! For the forty-five minutes that the experiment was running, had anyone asked me I would have told them I had never had a dog. I hate to think what might have happened had the canister not run out. Pottintal catasterphy aside I think I can harness this!
