Deep within a secluded mountain on the edge of Zebra territory was a cavern, beautiful pillars and statues of ancient deities were carved into the rock that, despite being clearly worn and battered from who knows how long in neglect, still retained some impotence. The cavern extended into the depths, passing from a colossal antechamber to several convoluted corridors and finally to an inner chamber, seen from the outside, it seemed no different from the rest of the cavern except for the fact that it seemed to be flooded by a strange substance, this swirled in the air radiating an intense blue glow and stopping just at the entrance, like a huge block of ice.
The room was overflowing with all sorts of treasures, from gold coins, to obelisks carved in gems and finally to strange artifacts mounted on ornate pedestals, the decoration was similar to the rest of the cavern but, incredibly this one did not seem to have aged a single day. The statues and pillars maintained their magnificent splendor as if those who once inhabited the place were still there, something that, in a way, was not entirely wrong.

Breaking with the eminent neatness of the chamber in the center of the room was a brutal scene. Zebras dressed in armor and armed with polished stone swords lay apparently dead on the floor, some were missing limbs which rested meters away, others simply had deep cuts on their bodies and there were some lying decapitated, the curious thing is that, like the rest of the room, their bodies seemed frozen in time, you could see how some, despite having already perished, were halfway to fall to the floor, the blood flowing from their wounds remained halfway to the ground, The blood that flowed from their wounds kept floating, shooting like a waterfall that never rested among the rocks, the more you looked towards the center of the room, the more you could see a pattern, going from lying witches with glassy eyes to witches that were barely conscious of the imminence of their death, all culminating finally in a figure that broke the bloody spectacle of black and white stripes.
There was a figure right in the center of the room, different from the others, it was a unicorn pony, dressed in what appeared to be a plate armor covered with blue and gold rags, the armor did not cover a good part of her body which revealed a dull brown fur full of scars, she had an expression of anger on her face, which was split in half by a huge scar. Her horn glowed, radiating a green glow which, in contrast, held a sword, this one looking as worn as her armor, at least the handle as the blade seemed to be formed from the same magic as her horn.
The blade was halfway to decapitating what appeared to be the last zebra standing, clearly showing the moment when the blade finished tearing the entirety of its neck.

The room was enveloped in an impossible silence, even for the unfathomable gloom of the cavern, and the battle scene remained immovable, there was no apparent reason for such an impossible phenomenon, unless one appreciated what was hidden behind the chaos. At the back of the room, right in its center, stood a pedestal, this one was much taller than the others and was in the process of being toppled, frozen in an instant when one of the bodies was hurled in its direction, causing it to fall and whatever it held. Barely detached from the base of the pedestal, suspended like everything else, was an artifact, it was much like an hourglass, in fact, you could say it was just that, made of what appeared to be gold its shape was dizzying to the naked eye, it looked like an expire which impossibly seemed to turn on itself at an unnatural angle, so that one could not even discern it was possible that it could have been held on the pedestal at one time.
In the inner section of the clock there was no apparent crystal, yet that did not prevent a glowing blue liquid from remaining contained within it as if there were, this seemed to be the only thing still moving in the room, dancing along with the substance that held everything in place, a hypnotic dance that, it seemed, could last forever.

Suddenly, an imperceptible sound, impossibly low but resounding throughout the cavern, anyone could have sworn it sounded like the tinkling of a cowbell, and in an instant, everything came crashing down.

A roar finally broke the impenetrable silence followed by the termination of a choked scream and a shriek of fury.
The zebra's head fell against the floor with a wet and unpleasant noise while the sound of gushing blood filled the room, the unicorn gasped resting her four paws on the smooth floor and breathing heavily, for an instant she stood still looking at the 'panorama around her, she was disoriented, she tried to push that feeling away from herself but, she was suddenly struck. She collapsed on the ground vomiting violently, her magic was instantly extinguished and her sword fell to her side becoming only a hilt, the vomit did not subside as the unicorn hugged herself shaking uncontrollably and coughing even harder, all her senses were instantly overwhelmed, she could smell the blood gushing from her attackers as if for the first time, her eyes burned even in the dim lighting and her ears were ringing even though she was surrounded by silence, even the cold of the floor beneath her overwhelmed her making her shiver with icy cold.

No one could know exactly how long it took her to regain her composure, but finally, and with difficulty, she managed to get up leaning against one of the pillars of the chamber, she could adjust her sight enough to appreciate her surroundings, she saw the bodies of the guards on the floor and for an instant she was alarmed thinking that at any moment more could come but she quickly realized that, if so, it would have already happened, She was shocked to also notice that the hustle and bustle that she remembered a moment ago had been completely extinguished, she looked outside the chamber and felt a chill when she saw the darkness outside, she did not understand how the torches outside the chamber had been extinguished while the ones around her were still glowing.
She walked heavily towards the entrance breathing with difficulty because of the inadmissibility of the situation, something was terribly wrong, he felt it inside him. In his first steps he flashed his horn, which caused him a headache, even so he made an effort and lifted the handle of his sword from the ground, which caused a flash of light to immediately emerge from it, which formed into a bright blade; it made its way through the fresh corpses, staining their cases with blood, which now, was spreading all over the ground.
The closer she got to the entrance her breathing became more ragged, to the point where she caught herself hyperventilating and shaking, a voice in her head screaming over and over that something, was very wrong. She finally took a step out of the chamber and was greeted by gloom, she looked from side to side of the hallway she was in and saw only darkness, the shadows cast by the dim light of her horn made the once imposing statues seem to stare at her with a coldness that chilled her blood.

Unable to contain the rising terror she frantically returned inside the chamber, stumbling a couple of times before collapsing back onto the floor. The unicorn crawled in terror to the back of the room, as far away from the darkness as possible, leaning her back against the wall and placing her hooves over her ears, squeezing her head tightly as she tried to control her breathing, her gaze was fixed on the floor as she tried to silence the ringing in her ears, she didn't understand what was going on, Her mind was spinning trying to process what that feeling was, that discomfort, for a moment it crossed her mind that she could even be dead, but the assimilation of this did not last long as she was brought back to reality by the pain of the wounds that the zebras had caused her, which, although they were bleeding profusely, had not been noticed until now. The unicorn finally managed to pull herself together, being able to think clearly, trying to sort out her memories, she remembered herself infiltrating the cavern, eluding guards and finally heading to the relic chamber, but she had made a mistake, she had been discovered and had been forced to fight for her life, cornered and at a disadvantage and after that, nothing. She thought over and over again, there was nothing else, after that she fell to the ground vomiting and found herself in the same cavern, but with something wrong; lost in her thoughts the unicorn could not find correlation between her last memory and her current situation, she simply did not understand, everything was too blurry to a point where, in an attempt to reminisce, it took her a whole minute to remember her own name.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the unicorn stood up, still wobbling a bit but doing her best not to fall, quickly, finding herself more lucid, she tore part of her robes, cleaned and covered her wounds, looking at her panorama more clearly now, she advanced a couple of steps towards the center of the chamber before her hooves hit something on the ground. Turning her gaze she came upon the small hourglass at her feet, which made her jump, a memory crossed her mind, her reason for infiltrating the cavern in the first place, cautiously she approached the artifact, she looked at it deeply resting on the ground before flashing her horn, levitating it and holding it in front of her face. The clock held its immaculate golden form with no imperfection whatsoever, the unicorn found herself mesmerized by the object trying to understand exactly what she was looking at but quickly desisted, she didn't want any more headache; despite this there was something about the artifact that unsettled her, she recognized it, it was what she had come for, but something was not the same, she could have sworn that, just a moment ago, as she struggled, the artifact radiated a bright blue glow.

She quickly put it in her saddlebag while she levitated the handle of her sword again but this time without lighting the blade, her improvised preparation was interrupted by a brief flash in the room. As she examined the torches around her, she could notice how they began to lose brightness, the thundering cold of the cavern was beginning to extinguish its flames quickly, the unicorn sighed heavily while with her magic she quickly levitated some gold pieces, putting them away. The light in the room threatened to be extinguished at any moment, the mare looked around her for the last time, she looked down and saw herself reflected in the pool of blood that had covered the entire floor. Recognizing herself in the reflection, she looked up with determination as the last glimmer of light faded and the air began to fill with the stench of the bodies on the floor.

Author's Note

A small prologue to a story that has been in the pipeline for a long time.
Although I've been writing for a long time, this is the first time I've never published anything, so I'll be very grateful if there is any advice or constructive comments regarding my work.
That said, I hope you like it and that you will enjoy the story.