The Legend of the Six

Dawn approached quickly, the sunlight beginning to wear its way down through the cracks. Dusk yawned and brought himself around, and off his bed. It had been a long day, and an even longer reading session, but completely worth it. That second book he had mysteriously found yesterday alongside the one he took with him held incredible knowledge. Everything from alicorn immortality, to present day religions, this book felt like a near infinite fountain of wisdom.

“Alicorns never truly die. Their souls are immortal, and can live on even when the body fails.” Dusk read to himself, picking up where he left off yesterday. “Is that all? It doesn’t say anything on what happens afterward. Does the soul just sit there, or what? Can it find, or generate a new body? Argh, this is so frustrating!” He ranted, a little stressed at the many vague paragraphs and unfinished articles. With a disgruntled sigh, and a deep breath, he forged on, not wanting to miss any important or interesting details.

“Hmm, now this sounds interesting. ‘The Six Paths of Friendship.’ The main religious factions of the last 200 years, these groups dedicated their lives to following the example set down by The Wielders… Generosity, Kindness, Honesty, Loyalty, Laughter, and Magic are the main pillars for each religion, respectively.” Dusk muttered, focusing intently. “Each has a temple dedicated to their patron Mare, and a High Sage said to be descended from the Mare in question. It is said that each temple held its respective Shard of Friendship, though the Shards themselves were utterly inert except in the presence of a descendant.” Dusk thought for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts. All his other texts say that the Shards were lost to this world, or simply disappeared with Wielder’s passing.

Setting that in the back of his mind, Dusk read on. “The Patron Mares are: The Mare of Knowledge and the Arcane (Magic), The Mare of Truth and Justice (Honesty), The Mare of Nature and Preservation (Kindness), The Mare of Action and Allegiance (Loyalty), The Mare of Beauty and Charity (Generosity), and The Mare of Joy and Celebrations (Laughter).” The book then went on to describe each of the Patrons in greater detail, discussing their lives, personalities, and so on.

“Funny, this last one sounds a lot like Feron…”He strayed off in thought for a few moments, before quickly grabbed another book nearby. “There’s a passage in here somewhere about old religious rights and sacraments…Ah, here it is! ‘All disciples who wish to become a priest/priestess must make a pilgrimage to the Temple of the Mare in question, and…’”

He was about to continue when he noticed the time on one of the few working clocks he owned. “Crap, I’m supposed to meet everyone at the bar. I’ll finish these later; I bet Feron will love to hear about my discovery!” With a smile and quick bit of magic, Dusk was dressed, and out the door, headed downtown.

Soren sighed as he stood outside the door to the bar. He knew that they were all meeting here, but he still couldn’t help but feel a bit panicked. What if they don’t figure out what I need them to figure out? Wait…What if they do figure out that it was me who placed that book in Dusk’s bag, and start asking questions? Oh Heavens, I’m not sure if I can handle this! He swallowed, and was about to open the door and face the inevitable, when a shouting voice brought his attention around. The look on the face of Dusk removed any doubt from Soren’s mind. Oh thank god. He did understand and figure it out. That’s good. I just hope he doesn’t figure out where the book came from.

“Soren! Hey, Soren!” Dusk shouted, a bit breathless from running all the way through town to make it on time. He slowed his speed, coming to a stop beside the pegasus. “Phew, I made it on time. Good to see I’m not the only one running a bit behind.”

“Heh, yeah…” Soren replied, a little relieved by Dusk’s warm, friendly aura. “Shouldn’t, uh, shouldn’t we be heading inside? I think Feron and the other guy are already inside.”

“Of course,” the unicorn in disguise nodded, opening the door for Soren. “And his name is Barry; don’t worry, he’s a nice guy. Makes a mean cider if I do say so myself.” He continued, headed straight for the counter. Soren followed closely behind, hoping to not catch anypony’s attention.

Looking up from his conversation with Feron, Barry cracked another smile and grabbed another 2 mugs from under the bar. “Well if it isn’t my other favorite customer. It’s good to see ya again, Dusk!” the older stallion called, setting down the cider filled cup down on the bar across from the empty barstool next to Feron.

“It’s nice to see you too, Barry.” Dusk replied, setting himself up on his seat. We’ve got another friend here in tow, today. I’d like you to meet Soren Wings.” He continued, gesturing to the pegsus residing in his shadow.

“H-hi.” Soren muttered, carefully climbing up to the other vacant stool. He avoided eye contact, as usual, but Barry didn’t mind.

“Nice to meet’cha, Soren. You can call me Barry.” He nodded, and slid the third cider mug down, stopping right in front of the pegasus. “It’s rare to see one of the flyin’ folk down here on the ground these days, but perhaps I’ve just never seen ya in this part of town,” the barkeep gave his new acquaintance a quick look over, before continuing. “Anyway, I won’t pry too much, I respect a person’s right to privacy. All I ask is that you do the same for me.” With a shy, “Ok”, Soren relaxed slightly, and slowly drank from his cup.

“It’s good to see us all getting along!” Feron started, about to go on another of her endless conversations. Dusk interrupted her before she could get started, however.

“I hate to interrupt, Feron, but I found something I thought you guys might find interesting.” Dusk turned around, and pulled the rather large book out of his pack by hand, er mouth, and set it on the bar for the rest to see. “I stumbled upon this neat book yesterday, and the information inside is rather amazing. Just look at the cover!” He pointed out the intricate details, varying lines of depth and the images they seemed to make. All the while, Soren remained silent.

Returning to the information inside, Dusk continued, “I found a particularly interesting section on the Religions based around the wielders of the Shards of Friendship. Turns out, the Shards lie dormant in the old Temples where the Descendants of The Six Wielders would pass on the teachings-“

“I don’t mean to be rude,” Barry interjected, “but who the heck are these ‘Six Wielders’ and what are these ‘Friendship Pieces’ for?”

Dusk felt a bit thoughtless and grinned sheepishly. “I’m sorry about that. I forget that most everybody else has forgotten about ‘The Legend of the Six.’ Let me start at the beginning…”

About an hour or so of drinks and recapping later, Dusk finished his third mug, and ends with, “And that’s how all that relates, and works, and such.” He looked around, hoping that the other 3 had understood him. “I get this feeling that the creatures roaming the wilds and this looming feeling of doom that surrounds the country have something to do with the Shards and the Temples they reside in.”

“So what does that have to do with us?” Feron replied, interested in where this was going. At the same time, she feared she already knew

“Well,” Dusk began, gathering all of his thoughts together, “seeing as we now know what might be causing all of this, perhaps we could do something about it? I don’t want the world to die or anything, do you?”

“Well, no,” Foren responded, “But what can we actually do? We’re just a small group of ponies.” At that, Dusk thought for a few moments.

He finally replied, “Well, I…I don’t know what we can do. But I do know that we at least have to try something. This book has given us the knowledge of our approaching doom. I don’t want that to go to waste.”

“What about those Temple you mentioned?” Barry spoke up, a hint of urgency in his voice. “If those Shards really are there, then wouldn’t they be our best bet against this?

“He does make a good point.” Soren added, finally contributing to his role. I need to get them moving, and soon. “If the Shards are as powerful as you say they are, Dusk...Then we have to make use of this opportunity."

“Yeah, but how will a bunch of inactive magical artifacts be of any use to us?” Foren reacted. “As Dusk said, you need a Descendant to get them working.”

“Well, it’s a start,” Dusk answered, “According to the legend, they did it once, and can probably do it again, Descendant or not. Given the circumstances, it’s probably our best bet. But first thing’s first, we need to figure out where the 6 temples are. I know of 2 of them, at least. Everyone knows of the Temple of Twilight in the Royal Palace. I don’t yet have a plan to get in there, so we’ll do that one later. And the other…” Returning back to the book, Dusk flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for.

“Ah, here we are. The book tells us of an old palace found in what is now the Neverfree Swamp. Apparently it was converted into a temple to Kindness at one point, due to its proximity to nature, and how overgrown it was. Unfortunately, all it also says that it was later abandoned due to unforeseen circumstances relating to the passing of the Wielder of Kindness.” He sighed, wondering how they were ever going to accomplish all of this.

A little frustrated, Dusk slammed the book shut, and drank deep from his cider. “Man, I hate how vague this book can be at times. I just wish it would tell me exactly what I need to know.” He stared at the cover, willing it to tell him what he was supposed to do. It was at that time that some spark lit in his mind, and the cover of the tome began to reveal its true nature. Dusk wasn’t the only one to notice this, however.

“It looks like a map of Equestria...” Barry pondered, beginning to recognize landmarks in the feature. “There’s Canterlot, and here’s Ponyville! Appleoosa is over here, and Manehattan is up over there.” He continued, pointing it out for the others to see.

“What are those symbols for?” Feron questioned, motioning toward the lightning bolt, in the sky, and the gemstone over the mountains.

“There’s some over here, too” Soren added, “A star over Canterlot…and a butterfly near Ponyville. Maybe it’s just me, but don’t they correspond with those temples you mentioned, the one for Twilight and Kindness?” The others began to take notice too, and came to the same conclusion: This was a map to their destinations.

The trio of would-be adventurers agreed to convene at the town exit an hour from now: Plenty of time to gather their things and prepare themselves. Barry had to stay behind to tend to his bar, but wished them the best of luck on their journey.