Vanishing Voices

Sun has risen over the valley. Snow was being replaced by green of grass and flowers. And after the snowy night, bloomed new life. In the grass, a small group of rabbits just began to wake up, and in the sky, a flock of birds was passing by in the blue sky. Covered with the light of the sun and the veil of the clouds in the distance, sky stood over the land tall as the highest mountain. But suddenly, a large shadow appeared like from nowhere, covering the land with it's massive wings. It was not a bird nor dragon, but something entirely different. Instead of feathers, there were plates of metal, bonded with the dark-orange cables which resembled mussles. It's claws were sharp, like the peak of the Mount Everhoof, ready to tear anyone in half. And near it's beak, where the eyes should have been, the blue, calm light radiated from the tips of the cables, like showing to everyone where this machine looks at.

The Stormbird, that's how hunters called it near the campfires in the stormy nights, passed through the valley, covering with it's shadow everything in it. But the birds weren'r scared of it. Quite the opposite – they flew together as one large flock across the lands beyond. But the Stormbird wasn't the only machine the earth had seen. In the fields below, a herd of machines ran by, closely resembling a pony, but larger, and the blue eye on it's nose. Near them, smaller beast was catching up. With long tail, small body, thin legs and one blue eye on the neck, it catched up with the other machine, passing through the field, and going deeper into the forest, through the trees and bushes. A moments has passed, and a clearing was quiet once again. But not for long, as someone moved out of the bushes, showing herself to the wilds. She had a majestic yellow mane, brown fur, a horn which were the form of a tree branch and a long tail, with some yellow fluff on the tip. The kirin looked around, to check if no machine was close, and then spoke.

"Alright, kids, the clearing is free! Come out now." And after that, a group of small creatures appeared from the bushes: one small changeling, two foals, one filly and one colt, another small filly kirin which looked alot like the elder, and a yound griffon with light-brown fur. All of them wore the clothing made from hide and strings, to protect them of the colds of this land.

"Now," spoke elder kirin "we collect the blueberries and bring them back into this basket" she said softly, and pointed to the basket which she carried on her back. With her orange magic she put the basket on the ground, as others gone to collect the berries they need.

"Take as much as you need, no more no less," clarified yellow-maned kirin "the All-Mother gives us as much food as we need." Everyone nodded their head in understanding, and continiued to collect the berries.

But yet in the distance, covered with grass and bushes, anothed pair of eyes observed the group of creatures. With his cornflower blue eyes, he watched as the foals and the griffon collected blueberries and brought them back to the basket, which was already halfway full. He had a snow white fur, wings of the same color, feathers on tips were colored with flaming orange, like it was caught on fire. The mane was colored with light and dark orange stripes, which mixed together created a beautiful short mane, although a bit messy after climbing arround. His tail was the same colors as the mane, but a little darker and with blue stripe going all the way to the end of his tail. After observing creatures for a little, he decided to do the same thing they were doing: collect the berries and bring them back to the basket. It took a time, but soon he had as much berries as he could carry on his back, and then he trotted his way to the basked. Small changeling was the only one who noticed him before, and looked with confusion at what he was doing. The basket was almost full, and colt's part could fill it to the end. He put his berries in the basket, and then the elder kirin finally saw him. But it wasn't the satisfaction of the finished job that was on her face, no, it was quite the opposite. She once again picked up the basket and with serious tone spoke:

"Kids, come on." She commanded and started to go away from him, which left flame-maned colt stunned as other creatures surprised, but they still followed her. As they were going, a young griffon stopped a little to looked at the colt, who was left alone, looking at him with interest or mockery. But a familiar voice called him from the group.

"Sky Breaker, come on, don't stand arround him!" It broke young griffon from trance, and he quickly came to his group. Even though they were far from him, young colt could still hear what kirin said: "He's an outcast," she explained to the group, "we do not speak, nor stand near them!" she alerted, as they started to go away even further, sometimes looking at the colt's dirrection.
Pegasi foal, meanwhile, looked at the leaving group which he only tried to help, but in turn was rejected and even thrown away. Sadnedd consumed him, and then, it was quickly replaced by anger. Why couldn't he be with the others? Just because he was an outcast? This thought fueled his anger, and after a moment, he started to run. It didn't matter where he was going, he wanted to go as far away from that clearing as possible. He kept running away, even though the tears started to blur his vision, which prevented him from seeing the hole he was going right into. He missed his step, and moment later, he tumbled down and fell into the darkness of the cave.

Darkness.

He felt darkness covering his entire body, along with freezing water he fell into. He quickly swam up to catch some air, and tumbled on the rock, on which he stood up. He looked arround, and saw a dark cave, lightened only by a small hole he fell through. He looked up and called for help, or rather, the only one who could save him right now.

"D-Duskshine? DUSKSHINE!" Foal cried for help, for the only pony who was here for him his entire life. Luckily, he soon heard a familiar grown stallion's voice, and soon, he saw his unicorn head. He had a dark grey fur, with even darker mane and beard. He beared a scar on his right cheeck, and had light green eyes.

"Inlight! Oh, thank godness you're alive!" Duskshine sighed with relief after seeing young colt not harmed. "Don't worry, I'll find another way in the cave." He then lifted his head again, and then looked down at Inlight. "Just stay calm and don't go anywhere, understood?"

Flame-manned pegasi nodded, and then stallion left him to find another way in. A couple of minutes passed, and Inlight, despite his guardian's wish, decided to go further in the cave. He shook with the fear, scared of what he could find inside the cave, but one thing kept his hooves working – simple foal's curiosity. The cave was just large enough to let a small colt through, and he kept going further in.

He kept going through the narrow cave, it's dark walls covering colt by sides. All of a sudden, bats flew by, making high pitched squeaking sound, which deeply scared Inlight. He screamed as well, covering his head with his forelegs and closing his eyes, but bats flew by him, going to where he was going from. He opened one eye a little, and then another, and then fully opened his eyes to look at where he ended up coming.

This was not a natural cave, it's walls were straight, tall, and made out of metal, now covered with lianas and dust. Inside, there were small stairs that led to probably a dining room, with tables and fallen chairs, all dusted and wet from the water leaks. Further in, there were large doors, thick as colt and large as a grown stallion, which were half opened, just enough to let Inlight through. Near the door stood large stalagmite together with a couple smaller ones. And it was at this moment, that Inlight realised, that he was in the..

"Old World ruin!" He said exitedly, and trotted inside even further. He was never in a ruin like that before, mostly because Duskshine forbid him to go in them because of so called 'taboo'. Pegasi colt curiously looked at the interior of the ruin, and then squeezed himself through the half opened door into even larger place.

It was bigger than the room before, it was the form of a rombus, with tables and couches near each other, some intact and others even broken. What interested Inlight the most was the thing that was in the centre of the room, and which was under the sunlight of the hole above. He walked slowly to it, and then realised that the thing he was looking at was a dead pony... atleast the remains of his, because all what's left was his left foreleg and skull, together with the parts of the upper body. Other part was perhaps under a moss because it was in the room too.

"A dead pony..." Inlight said when he came closer to the corpse. He was scared, but he knew the corpse would not come back to life... he thought. A shiny object shined on the side skull, and flame-maned colt spotted it, he came closer, and saw that it was a triangular shape of white, with a line of blue light in the middle. It was blinking periodicaly. A wave of curiosity struck Inlight again, as he leaned his hoof to this mysterious device, taking it from the corpse. The blinking suddenly stopped, and Inlight could examine the thing he was holding in the hoof.

"What is this?", he wondered to himself. It was pure white on the one side, with curved sides, and was mixed with gold and black on the other, now with the sharp sides. Perhaps it was an accesory, or even something beyond his comprehention. The only way to check it was test it. He slowly drawed his right hoof with focus to his head and under the ear, where the dead pony had it too. He leaned device closer... closer.. closer, untill it suddenly attached to his head and made a blue orb of light around Inlight. Surprised, young colt quickly removed it from the head and droped it near him, crawling away from it. He never expected that to happend, he couldn't. After a minute of recovering from the sudden light, he decided to try it again. Pegasi colt stood up once again, slowly walked to the artifact, and picked it up once again, before doing exacly what he did before. Like out of nowhere, he was surrounded with blue orb made out of thin air, like from the light. He was amazed from what he was seeing, and then he spotted as other lights, made of shapes and different shades of blue, appearing all across the room like out of nowhere. When he first fell into a ruin, he never expected to find a device which could give him the ability to see the unseen. Inlight looked arround the room, amazed with all of it. He then decided to look at the corpse which was right in front of him, and when he did, new vision appeared out of thin air. Backing away, flame-maned pegasi looked at the pony made out of thin blue light, as the figure suddenly spoke.

"Do you see what I'm trying to do? Let me adjust this," the figure then lifted his hoof and... waved it. "Hi! Happy birthday, Taveny! Daddy sure does love his now grown stallion! You see, I can't be with you and Grandma Grump but we still can make a birthday party, right?" pony then laughed happily, and a moment later, the recording vanished. To say that Inlight wasn't expecting this would be an understatement. He stood for a brief moment, processing the recording he saw right now. He somehow felt... warmth inside him when he saw this. Like this unknown pony from centuries or even eons ago talked to him like his own son. Inlight chuckled a little, and then broke the silence.

"Again, I want again!" And as he waved his hoof to the right, recording started once again.

"...adjust this... Hi!" Stranger once again waved his hoof, to which Inlight answered too.

"Hi!"

"...Happy birthday, Taveny! Daddy sure does love his now grown stallion! You see, I can't be with you and Grandma Grump right now but we still can make a birthday party, right?" The stallion then laughed, and then, the recording stopped once again.

"Happy birthday Taveny..." Inlight repeated, after the recording vanished into the thin air again, and glyphs of blue light appeared arround him. There were alot of them, most of which he couldn't make sence of. But he found how this magical accesory was called: the Focus. Wandering arround the ruin, he somehow made sence of when to turn on his new 'Focus' whenever he wanted to. But later, he remembered one thing: He had to get oit, he was still in the ruins. Wandering arround, he once again heard the voice of Duskshine, who called Inlight. Young colt followed the voice and later found a hole big enough to get out of the cave. And then, when he once again was on the surface, Duskshine, who was wearing thick fur over his shoulders and hide outfit, together with the machine armor for protection, sat down to his eye level and spoke to him.

"You're alright?" He asked gently, to which Inlight nodded. "You should have watched your step there, Inlight," He looked on his young colt and then saw something under his ear. He pointed his hoof at it and said "What is this?"

Inlight was quick to react and covered his Focus with his hoof.

"Nothing."

"Did you find this down there?" Duskshine asked.

"...no?" Inlight answered, which clearly was a lie.

Dusk Shine was not amused, and lend a hoof to Inlight "Inlight," he said "give me that."

Inlight as an answer shook his head, and Duskshine tried to take the Focus by hoof, but Inlight stepped back "Theese things are cursed! Give me that!" Young colt was stubborn, and still didn't give it to the elder stallion. Duskshine, understanding that this fight would be pointless, gave up and stood up. "Well then..." he spoke once again, "if you will be sneaking out from the home again, atleast I'll teach you how to survive in the wilds."

"Y-you will teach me to hunt!?" Inlight gasped with exitement. He was wishing to be trained for a long time already, but his guardian always said that he was too young for that and he'll teach him once he gets older. But now, he will know how to hunt AND together with his Focus? To think how many things he could do with it! To see the unseen! He would be the best hunter of the Embr-

"I will teach you how to survive, not hunt. That's two different thing-" Duskshine corrected, but it didn't matter, because flame-maned pegasi was already too exited and talked to himself.

Duskshine was annoyed, but made a little smile on his face. So much energy for one colt... that was some miracle. With horn, he picked with his green aura a small bow just size for a colt.

"Here's your bow, Inlight, you know how to shoot, so we'll get straight to the hunting." He gave the bow to Inlight and started to walk away, and Inlight followed him, putting his bow on the back. After some troting they left the forest and entered into the new clearing, from which there was seen a field with machines on it, whatever they were doing with the ground below them. Inlight stood confidently next to the dark-grey unicorn. They stood fo a moment, and when it passed, Duskshine broke the silence by saying

"Well then, what are we waiting for? To the hunt!"

Author's Note

So yeah, if somebody who didn't notice, it's an MLP x Horizon series crossover, which I wanted to write for 4 months already. I first just thought about "What if machines from Zero Dawn/Forbidden West were in MLP universe?" So I started to think how it would work, so I basicaly combined plots of the games and the show with my OCs. Yes, it may be stupid to do that, and yes, I may ne unoriginal because my creativity sometimes suck and other times work. Anyway I wrote this chapter anyway and I'll publish it after 2 others are done
I really hope you enjoyed this fic! I will continiude writing this fanfic and improve my gramar over time.