The Unknown History and The Magical Future

Imprisonment

Metus survived to present day because at the end of the war the Alicorn Sisters used their magic, Discord's magic, the elements of harmony, and an army of actual unicorns to bind him in an inescapable prison deep in the caverns under what would later become Canterlot Castle. Metus was locked in a large, hollow crystal. The magically enhanced stone glowed with a flame red light that came from the "soul" trapped inside. He could do nothing; he was wrapped in chains of celestial light that gave off ruby sparkles. He could only think for thousands of years, he encased himself in his mind and slept. He was in a state not of unconsciousness but of meditation.

As time passed all the unicorns of the army that imprisoned him died. From in his crystal prison Metus could sense it; he could feel the magic flicker with every loss of one of its creators. Yet still hundreds of years passed before Metus felt anything physical again. The second tremor shook his entire body as the spell faltered and shook violently as the physical elements of harmony were shattered by Nightmare Moon. The next effect the spell sustained was from Celestia. For the first time in several thousand years she didn't use any magic at all, (she had always had a small bit of her consciousnesses concentrated to support his imprisonment spell) for she was literally knocked unconscious by the force of Queen Chrysalis's magical assault on her horn. Metus's spell was now only sustained by one magic: Discord's. While the spell was cast long ago, as long as Discord was alive it would be sustained, for he unconsciously used Amora's power to support the enchantment.

Survival

During one of the battles with the Lord of Chaos, Discord, the draconequus became aggravated and blasted the fifth and seventh regiments deep into the uncharted area of the Barren Lands, where for thousands of years they would look for a way out...

The fifth and seventh regiments had in all one first generation Malhornesi, twenty second generation Malhornesi, and 400 third generation Malhornesi. Most of the ponies died within a few months of being teleported due to previous battle wounds, sickness, and few by starvation. Yet very, very few others were affected psychologically by the endless abyss of land and seemingly impossible odds of survival. These were Penthea, and Somnus. Penthea cracked under the harsh mental stress of the situation and murdered Somnus, requiring an immediate execution.

PENTHEA

Penthea was a third generation soldier during the Struggle for Control with Discord. Penthea's cutie mark is skull with two crossed bones behind it, and she represents sickness, plague, and starvation. Penthea was from the same regiment as Leech and was under the temporary leadership of the third generation Malhornesi, Princeton. She would often cause members of her own regiment to become sick, and come up with excuses for the illness's sudden appearance. Also, she would claim that since it was "naturally contracted" that it was the pony's duty to become healthy again without her absorbing the aliment. Only several weeks after being teleported into the Barren Lands by Discord, Penthea realized she was nearing her age limit. Though she tried to fight the thoughts, she could never stop herself from wondering what would happen when her last breath came, what would she do in her last few moments...

One night she couldn't seem to think of anything else, she lay awake for hours thinking, unraveling. Early the next day Penthea acted on her madness, she had begun to rot and absorb one of the other sleeping Malhornesi. The sleeping pony, Somnus, jolted awake in pain feeling his skin rot, burning slowly away piece by piece, and standing over him pinning him to the ground was a soldier he had served with for years, now attempting to kill him. As he cries pierced the early morning some ponies woke others, and those ponies woke others, until the all the Malhornesi were awake and following the screams far into the distance. Sometime later they found a blackened skeleton and Penthea. Penthea attacked.

And it was over in an instant as she tossed, kicked, and fought the others she turned to see the leader of the lost Malhornesi and with her newly obtained strength she charged. The purple and gold unicorn was surrounded by an aura of crimson, and as she lowered her head a beam of red erupted from her horn engulfing the crazed Malhornesi. Her eyes burned to dust, her horns cracked, and her very own skin disintegrated. The aura faded and all that was left was a small puff of dust that was blown away in a slight breeze...

After the first several thousand years, great losses and heartaches were sustained. Only the ponies whose marks had something to do with immortality, or prolonged life survived. Priscilla because of her unusually high amount of magical skills and wisdom, and Pandora because of her ability to hunt and seek out scarce amounts of plants and small animals. Ambrose lived, though in constant pain of lack of food and water, survived due to the fact he was the son of the second generation Malhornesi, Anticuus, who was without age. And the third generation Malhornesi, Leech, prolonged his life by leeching off the magical aura that remained on the land from the ancient spells cast by Metus and Discord.

About three hundred years before the Malhornesi found the path that led back to the Known Land, there were only six ponies left: Priscilla, Pandora, Padme, Princeton, Ambrose, and Leech. The team had advanced on the cracked, dirt land all day until they met the face of a massive plateau. Ambrose was sent up first, and as he peeked his head above the edge of the top of the structure to a wondrous site: a long, flat, dirt plane covered in rainbow flowers, with a black stone cave at the far end. After coming back down the from the high ledge, he informed the team of the momentous discovery in his thick Soviet Stallion accent. Pandora, Padme, Leech, and Ambrose flew up to the beautiful field atop the plateau, while Princeton, with Priscilla upon his back followed. Upon seeing the brightly colored floral patches, Priscilla recalled a memory of studying these strange weeds.

The weed had twelve petals and each had an obsidian seed at its center, but when the plant would die the seeds would fall and magically sink into the ground. The weed could only grow in an area of concentrated magic for they used it to grow and feed itself. The seed would sprout a stem and in minutes it would become a flower of wondrous hues. It would stay in this same state for several years at which time it would wither and its seeds would fall, sinking back into the ground.

After each tired, weary pony had their fill of the delicious flowers they began to set up their tents in the nearby cave. Priscilla then ordered Pandora to come with her for her daily attempt to reconnect with their princesses. She would concentrate for hours on end reaching out with her magic to try to communicate with her long, lost leaders. Sometime after the two left Ambrose, Princeton, and Kismet lay asleep. But Leech laid wake thinking. His thoughts were interrupted by a soft cough next to him. As he turned he noticed staring at him was a small, green, baby dragon. Leech's mind raced with ideas but he finally settled upon one: This dragon was all his.

Leech leaped on the helpless young one, pinning him to the ground. Leech began to feel the familiar energy filling his veins; he started sucking out the dragon's life force. When finished the Malhornesi stood several inches taller, but he then harvested his newly found energy and shrunk back to his normal height. For instead he used the energy to restore years of his life. The magic he was able to harvest from the broken land would sustain his life but it would be like a human living off tofu, leaving him ever hungry and weak, but this dragon's life was a feast. But then everypony was jolted awake by a loud roar echoing through the cave. The sleeping Malhornesi were now wide awake and they instantly knew what happened as they looked over to the younger Leech and the dead dragon body. The large father dragon was the first to appear, he was much larger than average, about the size of two dragons. The mother was the second emerging behind him, standing at the same height. Ambrose, being the fastest, took the initiative to go get Priscilla and Pandora; the horrified Leech followed out of fear, leaving Princeton and Kismet to protect their supplies and fight off the dragons. Ambrose headed to the hot pink spear piercing the sky far off in the distance, with Leech at his heels.

Meanwhile, back at the cave...the huge male dragon swung his tail at Princeton who leaped onto the dragon's back to dodge the blow. To Princeton's right was Kismet brawling the enraged female. The second generation Malhornesi would block the psychical assaults with her hooves, and retaliate with magical blasts. Princeton was thrown from the dragon's back as he thrashed about. Kismet turned to see Princeton slam into the wall of the cave, but this was a mistake, for the mother dragon stooped down and grabbed hold of the distracted pony. The second generation Malhornesi looked up only to have her head ripped from her body by the female dragon's jaw. Her blood drenched body when then thrown into the air and it fell directly into the open mouth of the angry, mother dragon. Princeton turned on his forelegs and used his hind ones to land a massive blow on the male dragon's snout. It roared back in pain, and its partner moved up next to it. Both dragons then opened their enormous mouths and vengeful streams of flame cycled around the third generation Malhornesi, incinerating him. Only seconds later Leech, Ambrose, Pandora, and Priscilla appeared in the cave entrance. Ambrose was a blur as he flew straight through the dragon's scales and flesh, leaving gaping holes in their bodies, while Leech formed a twister, with his newly refreshed wings, that trapped the two dragons. Pandora the ancient then stepped forward and her horn glowed with a blinding light. She was then joined by Priscilla, who stood behind her. Priscilla's horn sapped some of Pandora's magic and began to float into the air. Then, duel forces emerged from her horn: two streams of stars and magic elongated from her horn. Simultaneously, each long string of stars went to their own dragon, and melted into their chests. The wild creatures were soon surrounded by an aura of light and stars that began at the tops of their heads and ended at their tails. The next instant they imploded, being sucked into themselves, and then blasted outward in a surge of harsh, white light. The team was now reduced to the only ponies that would escape the endless abyss of broken land; for three hundred years later they would find themselves back, back at the Crystal Empire.