History

by Derpity

Rating: teen
Tags: Human, Sad, Main 6, Other, Princess Luna, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 5785

What happened to the...?

"The humans? They were here. This history book says so."

Shortly after the return of the Crystal Empire, Twilight Sparkle borrows a book from the Crystal Empire's library, and it speaks of Equestria before Celestia and Luna lived among the other creatures of Equestria, when they lived just as the sun and the moon.
But the book also speaks of a species that was banished from Equestria,

the humans.

Twilight, intrigued by her new found source of knowledge of a species she has never heard of before, decides to look deeper into the study of humans.

Published 2012-11-18 10:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-12 15:11:57 UTC

The Book

A History of Equestria, Before the Rule of the Royal Sisters

A History Book,

Written by the Educational Foundation in the Crystal Empire (EFCE)

If found, please return to the Crystal Empire Library

Chapter I: The First

The first official document regarding Equestrian history, dated back possibly 3000 or more years before the rising of Nightmare Moon. It is believed to be written by a pony by the name of Amus, the ambassador of the Crystal Empire at that time, but that is uncertain. It is a brief description of the human uprising. The original title was possibly “Duo crus bellum” or “Two Leg War” but it is possible that title was added to it by a translator and not the original author. Another possible title was “Poena dearum” which is “Punishment of the Goddesses”. It is also believed that the author did not write the passage as something to be read to others, it seems as if it is in a format for repetition, as in, one reader would read a passage and masses would repeat it, this was a common way to spread knowledge in earlier times, given that not all species could read or write.

A time ago there was a land. A beautiful land that had great plains and monstrous mountains. There were majestic lakes and beautiful islands, and empires made of crystal.

Within this land lived many species, such as manticores and griffons and bison and sheep. These creatures of this land communicated and lived in harmony with each other.

This land’s celestial bodies were controlled by two goddesses. The goddess of the day, and the goddess of the night.

All of the beings of this land worshiped the goddesses and lived in peace.

Despite the love and kindness throughout the land, there was one area that had hatred growing in its heart.

On one of the larger islands lived the race of the humans. They were greedy, and wanted nothing more than to be the rulers of all the land.

They stopped worshiping the goddesses and formed an army.

They welcomed all to join their army, and many did.

All races had at least 34% of their population fighting on the side of the humans.

The major contributors were the dragons and the gryphons, with more than 80% of their population supporting the humans.

But there was one race that had no contributors to the humans.

Ponies.

The ponies of the land opposed the humans’ views completely.

Once they had caught wind of the upcoming conquest, the three pony races joined together to fight against the humans.

Unicorns practiced battle spells, pegasi rehearsed airborne attacks, and the earth ponies began building fortresses.

When the human army met with the land that was inhabited by the ponies, they were greatly surprised.

Most other regions either forfeited or didn’t have any formal form of attack planned.

The ponies, on the other hoof, were prepared to defend their land.

The battle caused great losses on each side.

After three days of battle, there was a miracle.

The goddesses of night and day descended onto the land.

They took on a form of equine decent, bearing both wings, and unicorn horns, respectively.

The goddess of the day’s coat was a beautiful pure white, and her mane a flowing pink, like a sunset.

The goddess of the night had a coat of regal black, and her mane was in the likeness of the nighttime sky. With twinkling specks like stars and the soothing blue aurora that surrounded the strands of her mane.

They were the example of utter beauty.

All beings alike stared upon them, basking in the glow of their eternity.

Then the ponies began to bow, one by one, kneeling to the ground, showing their respect to their goddesses.

In a matter of moments, the entire army of ponies had kneeled to the goddesses, and the human army stood with their mouths agape.

The sun goddess looked around at the two crowds gathered.

One loyal.

One hateful.

She walked over to the crowd of the human army.

She stared at them with a cold, emotionless stare.

Some of the soldiers began to shift in their place, uncomfortable with the fact that a goddess was staring at them.

And then, the goddess spoke.

“Thou, the race of the humans, have brought great despair upon our beautiful land.”

Her voice was as loud as a thousand trumpets, and it had the strength of a thousand bison.

“For bringing such pain and disharmony upon our land, you will be punished.”

The human army became uneasy at this statement, not in any way comfortable with the idea of “punishment from a goddess”

Then, the goddess of the night spoke.

“You are to be banished from this land, for the eternity of your race. Your children, and their children, and their children and so on, shall not be returned by the works of us. You shall be sent across the stars, to a world far away from here, so our land shall not be tainted by you and your lust.”

The goddesses touched their horns together and charged their magic.

A great light emitted from the goddesses, that became brighter and brighter. It became so bright that it was unbearable to look upon.

Then there was a sound,

a sound of angels singing,

the most heavenly noise that could’ve ever been made.

And then there was a great wind that swirled among the crowds.

A pulse of energy pushed from where the goddesses stood, and then…

Silence…

When those gathered built up the will to open their eyes they discovered something that brought joy to some and fear to others.

All the humans were gone.

The goddess of the day spoke to the crowds.

“It would be wise to take what thee have seen as forewarning. Do not bring war and disharmony upon our land.”

She walked close to the crowd of ponies.

“Due to the bravery and dedication to the land of our little ponies, I entitle the land they reside in as Equestria.”

The ponies cheered and celebrated in the praise they received from their sun goddess. She, in return, smiled and basked in their happiness.

She then turned to what was left of the human army.

“Thou should count thy blessings”

Her voice was cold, and harsh.

“We are going to let thee live on our land, despite the actions thee have done.”

The remainder of the army dispersed quickly, as if staying any longer would result in punishment.

The goddesses turned back to the ponies and said in unison.

“We must now return to the cosmos, for it is not yet our time to live in your presence.”

After they made their statement a beam of light shot down from the heavens and the goddesses were gone.

This concludes the first documented event of Equestria, for further information, please refer to “The Breakdown of Equestrian History”

Twilight Sparkle gently shut the book and picked up her quill and ink with her magic. She slowly brought the quill to the paper, making sure that she was extremely precise with her placement, this was going to be a very important letter.

She cleared her throat, gazed at the paper and tried to clear her mind, trying to stay as calm as possible, she couldn’t tell why, but something about what she had just read gave her chills.

She took a deep breath and began her letter

“Dear Princess Celestia …”

Author's Note

3/5/13 3:50 PM
Fixed Nightmare Moon
Fixed pony
Fixed beautiful pure white,
Fixed It
Changed to but something about what she had just read gave her chills
Thank you macoman1

The Species

Chapter 2: The Species

Princess Celestia sat on her throne at the end of the day, reading through decree proposals, adjustments and new ideas as well. The papers slid across one another producing a calm, soothing whisper, despite the boring contents that reside on them. She slowly set the papers down and looked out a window facing the sun.

"It is time to set, my friend," she said quietly as she focused her magic on the sun. She gave it a little nudge, just to push it over the horizon, it could find it's way on it's own once it had been touched by Celestia's magic. Before the sun vanished for it's brief rest, Celestia watched, enjoying the sunset with it's vibrant reds and cheerful oranges and yellows.

Celestia watched as the sky slowly went from the hot, fiery colors of day, to the cool, calming, essence of night. The stars aligning with the reflections of distant planets to form great and wondrous images across the night sky. She walked over to the window and stood looking at her sister's night, admiring it's beauty.

She must have been standing there for quite some time, because Luna had made her way to the throne room from her chambers, where she preferred to make her movements of the sky.

"You should rest now sister, you have made enough progress on decrees, you deserve a good night's sleep." Luna walked over to Celestia and stood with her at the window.

"Your night is very beautiful, Luna" Celestia said in admiration.

"Thank you, sister. Your day is quite stunning as well."

The royal sisters stood together, looking at the sky. They shared a glance at one another, a smile, and a hug. Luna then began her walk to the throne as Celestia began her trip toward her chambers.

"Sleep well sister." Luna wished toward her sister as the throne room's door closed behind her. For a few moments Luna sat on the throne in the "proper and sophisticated way a princess should sit" before laying across the armrests and pulling up a Gamecolt Advance with her magic.

The doors to Celestia's chambers opened in the aura of her magic, letting her in and shutting gently behind her. She looked around, observing the details of her room. The soft pillows on the floor, along with the desk nearby basking in the low, calming glow of the fireplace. The large glass doors leading to her balcony that harbored the majestic view of Canterlot in it's nighttime essence, the various paintings hanging on the walls, hoof painted by her accomplished art students, and some very magnificent paintings of stars that Luna did in fillyhood. Then her eyes fell upon her bed. The white sheets with a fluffy white trim, reminding her of clouds, Celestia hadn't been on a cloud in a long time, the last time she had been...

Celestia sighed, she really had to stop doing this, every time it was time to sleep she would start thinking of ridiculous things, as if she needed to keep her mind busy.

She refocused on the task at hand, bed. She closed her eyes and began to slowly walk toward her bed. She could feel the stress of the day, gently peeling itself off of her coat with each step she took. She gave a deep breath after walking a very precise number of steps, the exact number of steps that it always took to get to her bed from her door. She chuckled slightly by the fact that she had memorized it, when it truly didn't matter whatsoever.

A mere moment before she climbed into her bed, Celestia felt a sudden warmth in front of her face. She opened her eyes to find a letter placed on her bed. A subtle smile came across her lips as she picked it up and walked over to the fireplace to read it.

"A nice letter from Twilight will help me rest easy." She said aloud to herself while opening the letter.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I have borrowed a book from the Crystal Empire Library about the history of Equestria, there are some topics within it that I would wish to ask you about at your nearest convenience, not that it is an emergency, by any means, it just simply intrigues me. There is a species that the book refers to that I have never heard of, and I would greatly appreciate it if you could possibly help me with research or possibly elaborate on the subject if you can.

Thank you

Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle

The princess smiled as she re-rolled the scroll and stood from her seat among the fireplace. She walked over to the desk and opened the drawer that she kept all of Twilight's letters in. It was now bigger on the inside, due to the amount of letters she had started receiving from Twilight since she had moved to Ponyville.

"Heh, 'Bigger on the inside.'" She chuckled slightly, thinking of a certain stallion that would get a kick out of that phrase. She placed the letter inside the "bigger" drawer and walked back to her bed, of course she would write a letter back to Twilight, but at that moment, she felt that if she tried to write anything It would look like something written by a pony from Saddle Arabia.

Celestia awoke, slowly lifting her eyelids to the view of her balcony. The sky was a deep, majestic, blue, with white stars adding to it's beauty. She observed the night sky briefly before calling upon her magic, fighting both her and the sun's desire to rest longer. She rose from her bed and stretched her limbs, front legs, back legs, wings, ending with slight tilts of her head left and right, quietly popping her neck. Her sleepy gaze fell upon the fireplace, the sight of which brought forth her memory of Twilight's letter from last night. The princess yawned as she walked slowly to her desk, where she withdrew a scroll and wrote her reply to Twilight.

My Dearest Twilight,

I would be delighted to help you in your research on this species, if you could just inform me on which date would work well with your schedule, I will be sure to make myself available to you, and please do not think that you are going to intrude on my scheduling, you have done plenty enough for me, the least I could do is be your 'study buddy'.

Sincerely,
Princess Celestia

The princess sent her letter on it's way and began her walk towards the dining hall.

"I could use some pancakes for breakfast, mmmmm, banana pancakes, even better."

Twilight rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she walked into the kitchen to find Spike cooking.

"Oh, hey there Twilight!" Spick said as he flipped a pancake. "I remembered that it's my week to cook, so I made us breakfast!" Spike held out a plate full of pancakes to Twilight. "I made your favorite, chocolate chip and banana!"

Twilight smiled while she took hold of the plate with her magic, she gently rubbed a hoof on Spike's head and gave the dragon a hug,

"You're so helpful Spike." She said as she sat down and took a bite of her pancakes. "Mmm! And a great cook too!" Twilight exclaimed with a smile. "That's why you're my number one assistant."

"Who." Owlowiscious said.

"Me." Spike replied.

Twilight gave a little giggle and continued eating her breakfast.

Spike brought over his own plate of pancakes, which happened to be a mix between sapphire and ruby, along with both his and Twilight's orange juice. "So what were you up so late for last night Twi? Were you doing some kind of report or somethin'?" He asked as he chewed on his pancakes.

"Actually, I was just reading this book about the history of Equestria. I got it from the Crystal Empire's library, so it's much older than any of the other books I've read." She replied before taking a drink of her juice.

"What about all those books you have that're from the Canterlot Archives? Those were wicked dusty when we picked them up to take 'em here."

Twilight Giggled, "Yes Spike, the documents in the Canterlot Archives are very old, but the heart of information used to be the Crystal Empire, all the books and scrolls and information of Equestria used to be kept there. When the empire disappeared, so did all that information." Twilight took a bite of her breakfast and thought about the subject more, "and Canterlot was built in between the time the Crystal Empire was gone and when it reappeared, and in that time Canterlot became the heart of Equestria." Twilight took another drink before continuing "The timeline of events is really quite fascinating, a lot of major events happened in relatively clo-"

"Twi, I didn't really want a history lesson with my breakfast." Spike said half joking.

"Heh heh, sorry Spike, I'll refrain from trying to educate you for a little while." Twilight said with a laugh.

"Good thinking." Spike replied with a chuckle. "Oh, Twilight! I forgot to tell you!" Spike ran off out of the kitchen and came back with a letter. "This came early this morning."

Princess Celestia finished reading Twilight's most recent letter and swallowed her bite of pancake. "Fine Stroke?" She called to the royal scheduler.

"Yes m'lady?" A unicorn mare with a white coat and her wavy blue mane put up in a very professional and neatly construed bun approached Celestia. Her cutie mark was a scroll and a quill setting in a ink bottle.

"If you could reschedule any events in my planner originally for this Saturday to some later date I would greatly appreciate it."

"Of course m'lady." Fine Stroke levitated a scroll in front of her and made some markings with a quill that originally rested behind her ear. "Do you have any preferences of what is rescheduled to where?"

"As long as it fits, it meets my standards." She replied with a smile.

Fine Stroke walked off, still writing on the same scroll as before.

Celestia continued eating her breakfast, enjoying the bits of banana embedded in the pancakes.

"That is quite a drastic scheduling change sister." Luna said before taking a drink of her milk. "Taking a day off?" She asked jokingly.

"Twilight is doing some research and requested my assistance."

"Excuse me for my bluntness, but as we both know, Twilight is a very skilled mare when it comes to research, why does she request your assistance?" Luna asked with a quizzical look.

Celestia smiled and took a bite of her pancakes. "She's been reading books from the Crystal Empire Library."

"Ahh, I see, do you know what species exactly she wants to research?"

"She was wondering abo-" Celestia thought for a moment, something wasn't right. Twilight didn't mention the species, did she? That's strange. Twilight isn't one to withhold information, and why hadn't Celestia asked what species it was? Shouldn't that have been her first question? "I... I'm not entirely sure.. She didn't say."

Luna nodded and continued eating. "Well she'll be here soon enough, and then we will know."

Celestia put the lack of knowledge of the species aside, as if the questions and suspicions had never been there before. But somewhere, somewhere deep in her mind, in her deepest thought that was being blocked by something she could not control...

she knew.

Author's Note

12/28/12 1:11 AM
Well I did it. I said to myself that I was going to stay up until I finished typing this chapter and I did. I hope you get at least one laugh out of this chapter, because I tried to put come comedy in at some points. If you're only in it for the humans, I suggest you wait until chapter 3 or 4 is posted before you read (wait, is he giving us a possible spoiler)
So feel free to say how you think the fic is going so far, because compared to my other attempts, this has been the biggest success. I mean, 46 thumbs on one chapter may not seam like a lot to everyone, but to me it means that I possibly got something right this time.
I appreciate all of you taking the time to read, and give me feedback on this story, it means the world to me, thank you so much.

-Derpity
12/18/12 11:44 PM
Fixed "convenience", thank you i_am_the_jam.
12/18/12 1:13 PM
Fixed the extra "Pony", thank you FastShadow78.
1/6/13 3:21 PM
Fixed "Were", Thank you DF.
3/1/13 8:29 AM
Fixed I made us breakfast.
Fixed made some markings
Fixed Excuse me, Thank you macoman1

A Blip

Chapter 3: A Blip

Twilight carefully hung her torso out of one of the windows of the train to ensure all her friends at the train station platform could see her wave goodbye to them as the locomotive began its journey to Canterlot. She had decided that she might as well take the trip by herself, considering that all she would be doing is studying with the princess, plus everypony already had something on their plate.

Applejack was still cleaning up from her family reunion, Rarity had a dress order to fill, with the assistance of Spike, given that he was staying at Carousel Boutique in Twilight's absence, Fluttershy always had her critters to take care of, and Rainbow Dash... Well, Rainbow wasn't big on nonfiction reading.

Twilight sat in her seat and checked her luggage for the third time in the past few minutes. After assuring that she had the book that issued this train ride she let herself relax. She picked up the complimentary magazines hoofing through them, fully reading some, others were only worth skimming. Rail Mall was pretty interesting, they had some pretty neat product ideas and interesting replicas from movies and books, but does somepony really need a time turner necklace from Harry Trotter?

Twilight's stomach growled, as if to remind her that she would usually be eating breakfast at this time. She rose from her seat and began to walk towards the restaurant train-cart.

Shortly after the purple mare began her walk, another member of the cart which Twilight's seat resided began to follow her; A mare in a black cloak that covered all revealing features. The densely clothed mare went unnoticed by Miss Sparkle, but if Twilight were to look at her stalker at a very precise moment, she could've seen where some mint green bangs fall out from underneath the mare's hood, before being swiftly placed in a more concealed spot with an aura of magic.

Somewhere else there was a library, or more so, a study. The walls were lined with multiple books and the room smelt of old paper and tobacco. There was a club chair facing a fireplace with small puffs of smoke occasionally rising into view. The sound of a door opening.

"Sir?"

"Please tell me this is important." replied a voice from the other side of the chair.

"We got a blip."

There was a brief time of silence, as if the voice on the other side of the chair was taking time to think.

"How does it stand compared to the others?"

"Well, it's not as big as the one from a thousand years ago according to the records, but it is bigger than the one a few months ago."

A sigh expelled from beyond the chair "This doesn't sound very significant, why am I being interrupted?" the voice's owner was becoming annoyed.

"Because, this one is mobile sir."

There came a series of coughs and a large plume of smoke arose from past the chair. The voice cleared its throat, "Now, when you say mobile, do you mean -"

"It is moving through space, sir. It has been projected out of the planet's atmosphere and is moving quite fast."

Another wave of silence fell upon the room.

"Focus the observer on it and alert the others." A figure arose from the chair casting a shadow that displayed the silhouette of a bipedal mammal staring into the flames of the fireplace. "Tell them it's time."

The door shut, leaving the man at the fireplace alone. He walked over to a mirror close to the fireplace. His reflection stared at him. Exactly the same reflection that he had seen for, how long was it now? 4000 years? 5000? It's hard to keep track.

The mirror displayed a man that appeared to be no more than 30 with brown hair and hazel eyes.

"Maybe this is it. This is finally the time we go back."

"Twilight Sparkle." a voice behind the purple mare spoke, The train cart that she had recently entered in the route to the food cart was completely empty when she walked in. Twilight turned around to find a unicorn mare covered from horn to hoof in black cloth, concealing any identifying features.

"Um... Can I help you ma'am?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, you can help me, you can help a lot of souls, by listening to me. I know you don't know me, but you need to listen to me right now and remember what I say."

Twilight was slightly scared and quite confused, but she figured if she let the mare speak then she would leave. Twilight gave a small nod and mentally prepared herself to run away as fast as she could if things got dangerous.

"You need to look and observe, you need to listen, not to her, but to them, listen, observe, think."

Twilight blinked multiple times, this mare was supposedly telling her something important, but she was being EXTREMELY vague.

"Um... Who exactly are you talking about? I mean... could you please... use more proper nouns and less pronouns?" Twilight gave a awkward grin.

"When it ends your thoughts will be clear."

"Ends? When what ends?"

"Do not be biased"

The cloaked mare charged her magic, filling the train cart with a thick smoke, making sight a useless skill.

"Wait! What are you talking about?" Twilight called out, but the mysterious mare was gone. Twilight stared around the empty cart, half expecting somepony to come out and tell her she'd been the victim of a television prank. After some short minutes with no TV producer coming to greet her, Twilight turned around to continue her journey towards the food cart. Before she opened the door to continue towards her destination, she turned her head to look behind her.

"That's strange, I could've sworn there was somepony behind me."

The man stood staring into the fireplace, watching the red warm-colored flames dance across the logs.

"Sir" He said mockingly. he disliked the formality that Sam had developed towards him, yes, Sam was his assistant and apprentice, and it was customary to refer to your elders as 'Sir' and 'Ma'am', it was just the fact that Michael viewed Sam as a friend, or a younger brother.

Michael began his walk to the observation room. An area that was encased by monitors and the hum of the cooling fans. The vast computing power of this room was dedicated to analyzing space, distant planets, solar systems, galaxies, multiple computers searching, working for a common goal.

To find home.

Instead of searching for life, which was found to be present in many places. Michael chose to search for magic.

Michael was a mage, and still considered himself to be one, even with his magic gone. He had studied magic passionately before the banishment. On one of his studies, he discovered that magic spells give off radiation. Not a dangerous form of radiation, but traceable. This radiation goes outward in all directions, is much faster than the speed of light, and cannot be blocked by any object. This means that almost any spell could be detected and sometimes traced, depending on the intensity of the spell, from an immense distance away.

A blip is a reading of magical radiation. Using multiple receivers, Michael had found a way to triangulate the location of their home planet. Granted, the accuracy was ±1000 KLY² (Kilo Light-years), but finding the location of a planet that is hidden among space in the time frame of 5000+ years, that's quite an accomplishment. But the memory of the very first blip, and his reaction, was still very prominent in his brain.

The very first blip showed that a very powerful spell had been cast. A banishment spell. The thought made him shudder. But something was off, this particular spell should’ve taken six alicorns at full magical power to cast, and that didn't make sense, for multiple reasons. Alicorns were hard to come by, Michael had only seen two in his lifetime, the thought of which sent a pang of anger through his head. He refocused his thoughts to the matter at hand. Six alicorns focusing all of their magic on an imprisonment spell? All of them would have to wholeheartedly believe that the receiver deserved the punishment, and alicorns are very hard to persuade. To get even two alicorns to agree with one another would be difficult.

So 6 alicorns was out of the question. Could it be possible that one alicorn had cast such a spell? Indeed there were magical charms throughout home, but on that would make a caster’s magic 600% more powerful? That is...

“Wait... Six...” Michael stared at the blip readings with his face white as a ghost, a pure white, and within seconds it went from one extreme to another. From a heavenly white to a red more vibrant than the sun..

“NO! HOW COULD SHE USE THEM?! SHE-S-SHE CAN’T... she... she...”

Michael slumped against a wall and slowly slid to the floor. With his head between his knees he began hyperventilating.

“How... How did she use the elements?”

“Sir, are you ok?”

Michael let out a deep breath that he had been holding throughout his flashback. He had been standing in the middle of the observation room with his eyes shut. He opened his eyes and turned his head to see Sam.

“Why do you persist to call me ’sir’? I have told you that you can call me Michael.”

“Mother says that,” he says in a somewhat mocking tone “sir and and ma'am are the proper terms for a young man to use when speaking to his elders, It has become a force of habit.”

“Well while you are in my apprenticeship, you should refer to me as Michael, respect from the student to the teacher should be equal from the teacher to the student, and I do not wish to call you sir.”

“Yes si- Michael”

Michael chuckled slightly at his apprentice's error. He shifted his gaze towards the monitor displaying the overall analyzation of the blip. In the more recent years Sam had taken over the analyzation of the blips, editing and tweaking the system to make it easier for him to use, but also making it as legible as Zebrafrican

“Tell me Sam,” he says in a quizzical manner, “what can we determine from this blip?”

Sam walked over to the monitor and began eyeing over the array of pixels, analyzing the information being displayed. He pulled out a keyboard from it’s drawer in the desk and began typing commands into the console. Images popped up on the screen, moving walls of text and multiple progress bars, some racing and some crawling in relation to speed.

The boy was very knowledgeable in regards to technology. In the 10 years of his apprenticeship, he had made many leaps forward in the search for home. Sam stood staring at the screen as new waves of information swam across it. After all the diagnostics had ran, Sam finally spoke.

“Well, it’s quite an interesting spell,” Sam said before returning his fingers to the keys and typing, “It shows much resemblance to a preservation spell or a stasis spell.” Sam halted his keystrokes and stared at one of the screens, which soon displayed an image of space, spots of many colors, red, blue, and white, set upon a black background. In one area of the screen a yellow rectangle blinked, encasing an area of space that appeared to be complete darkness.

“The spell seems to be strong enough and consistent enough to be tracked; it will take some time though.”

The way Sam said that was odd, as if he didn’t view finding home as an accomplishment.

“Very good Sam, you are a marvelous assistant.” Michael said, putting his hand on Sam’s shoulder, he could feel that his muscles were tense. Michael took a seat in one of the many swivel chairs placed throughout the room. “Now, ask me.”

Sam looked back at Michael with an attempted look of confusion before saying, “What do you mean?”

Michael smiled at Sam, “Attempting to hide emotions from someone of my age will not be met with success, so speak.”

Sam took a seat on one of the other vacant swivel chairs and looked and rubbed his left hand on his chin for a few minutes before finally asking his question.

“Why?”

Michael stared at Sam, not understanding the specifics of his broad question.

“Why try go back?”

Sam had obviously spent quite some time thinking about this, Michael could see the thought and caution on Sam’s face with each word.

“I mean, with all due respect... we’ve made a home here... people are happy, they... they have families and... moving is hard... my family moved from the Central when I was younger... and that was hard, for all of us... that was only a few hundred miles... this is a different planet, that many generations haven’t seen, and some people haven’t even heard of it, like the border colonies, they don’t teach the kids about home there. What if... people... don’t want to go?” Sam paused multiple times throughout his little monologue, expecting some type of retort from Michael, when in reality all he got was a smile.

“There is a very simple response to your first question, but it is not so for the second.” Michael took a deep breath. “It is our home, and we were unjustly ejected from it, so we must return, to make things proper again.” Michael chuckled slightly, but not from humor. “And as to your second question ‘if people don’t want to leave’, that question’s answer is more complex. You see, when we, the human race as a whole, were sent to this rock-”

Michael was cut off by a beeping coming from the computer. He shifted his gaze from Sam to the monitor, and what he saw make his jaw drop wide open.

“Michael?” Sam questioned worriedly, “What’s wrong? Michael?!Sam turned head and looked at the monitor. “Is... is that a-”

“Yes Sam, it is.”