Guardians

It's a terrible feeling you get when you know the world will end. If only the Zebrica Nation hadn’t started that stupid war, none of this would have happened. The princesses would still be living, the sun would set, and the weather would change. The land has become a wasteland; I still see the damage from the war that ended nearly twenty years ago today. Both sides were completely demolished, nopony, or zebra, survived, with the exception my companions and I.  I wish things went better, that the war didn’t kill all those innocent ponies. Since then, life has been depleting all over Equestria since the war, and soon it will start to deplete on Earth.

My name is Steel Stream; Blade to my friends (will explain). I live in the land of Equestria as an alicorn, the most powerful kind of pony alive. I was the most powerful alicorn in existence; I had to be, to do my job. My job was to be the guardian of space and time, to prevent the destruction of the two worlds, Equestria and Earth. But I’ve failed. I’ve been in Equestria for twenty three years now, only learning about my powers, not doing anything. I was supposed to prevent this world from turning to nothing. The land I’m staring at was once lively and beautiful, when I first came here, those many years ago, but now it’s all ruined. Now it’s a barren, deserted, never ending reminder of my failed role. No plants will grow unless I help them, and noponies but my companions and I live (though we have seen a couple of phoenixes).

My companions are two other alicorns; their names are Lunar Eclipse and Blazing Dawn. Both are more reliable than me. They know how to use their powers, unlike myself. Every alicorn that has ever lived could influence nature in some way, Lunar Eclipse, the Prince of Death, can control the balance of life and death, while Blazing Dawn, the Prince of Fire, can harness the suns energy to perform a massive fire attack. We alicorns are immortal, Lunar has been alive for hundreds of years, but we can perish by other means. Lunar and I have used our powers to survive in this world for a while, though we are growing tired fast. We’ve almost run out of options.

Believe it or not, but I wasn’t a pony to begin with. I was a human, in the human world, Earth. The life I had on Earth was good, and I was happy, along with my friends. We were outcasts, my friends and I, that’s why we were friends. We weren’t very alike, me and my group of friends, all of us were an outcast for one reason or another, each of us different. Every one of us always strived to be the best we could, it’s just I became too good, even for my friends. They eventually started to get jealous of my physical and mental abilities, something none of us thought would happen. Soon, my friends cast me out; I became the outcast of outcasts. It was saddening, losing my closest friends, so I grew farther from the people who I thought I could trust, who I was loyal to. They turned their backs to me, and I did the same. Not wanting to see them, I ran. I ran from the jealously of my former friends, and the ridicule for believing in myths and magic, I only wanted somewhere I fit in. I couldn’t stand the word friend.

When I ran, I didn’t know where to go, so I ran into the forest, the only place I thought could comfort me. I’ve always had a strange connection with nature; I just never discovered how strong it was until that day. Soon after running into the forest, I came across an unusual bird; it looked like it was on fire, but what shocked me the most was that it spoke, saying "This world does not need you now." I was completely surprised that a bird spoke to me. I was really confused, so I could only respond "What do you mean." I said, only to have it run off when a bizarre storm hit, not answering my question. I did not understand the bird, but put it behind me as I went to find shelter in a nearby cave. Little did I know that I was entering a world unlike the one I came from.

As I went deeper in the cave, getting farther away from the storm, I saw a light. It was a portal, a portal that I unintentionally made; leading to Equestria, unknown to me that was what it was at the time. I stepped into it, almost blinded by the light. Once the light faded, I opened my eyes to see that I was in a forest completely different from the one I was in moments ago. "Where am I? “ Was all I could say before I noticed a spring, “Thank god I found some water” I thought to myself while heading in the springs direction. When I got to the edge of the spring, I bent down to take a drink; it was only when I looked into the water that I saw my reflection. All I could see was a pony. I was really confused now, "WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!?" I yelled. I sat there for a while, studying the reflection. It was a pure white pony with a spiky, black and blue, mane and tail. In addition, it had wings and a horn as well. It imitated my every move perfectly, confusing me even more.

It didn’t seem real; I thought I was seeing things, hoping that I had gone crazy. I turned around slowly, to make sure it wasn’t a dream or hallucination, and saw the same pony as in the reflection. I had, in fact, become a pony. The two things that I noticed first were that the wings and horn weren't like the ones I saw on pegasi and unicorns in ancient Greek mythology books. The horn looked like it was carved from sapphire, since it was a shiny, dark blue gemstone, and the wings each had a round sapphire in the middle joints, my eyes matching their color perfectly. I stared in awe at my new form, extremely confused now.

I decided to try and head back to Earth, only to discover that the cave I came through was now a dead end. Realizing that I was stuck there for a while, I decided to look around the spring, and right on the other side from me were some castle ruins (not Nightmare Moon’s castle). I went inside to investigate, not knowing that what I felt what was missing from before, was inside. All along the walls were carvings, images of a pony exactly like me, with writing underneath. "One day a guardian will come and save this world from certain demise. He is the Guardian, Steel Stream." was what it said. "Steel Stream? Can that be me?" I said, surprised that the pony in the image had the same name as me. Puzzled, I stared at the images for a little longer. I noticed the pony in the image had a picture on its flank (a cutie mark). I turned around to look at my flank and I saw the same mark, a circle of symbols with two more in the middle. "THAT’S ME!?" I didn't know what the picture meant.

All of a sudden I had a vision. I saw me and some other ponies (Lunar and Blaze) in what looked like a desert.  I shook my head, once my normal sight returned, “Whatever that was, it didn't look good." I told myself. On a pedestal, not too far away, there was a large book underneath a large carving of me. It was an old book that looked thousands of years old. I opened it up to see that it explained the entire existence of Equestria up to hundreds of years ago. It explained Steel Stream (me) in great detail; I found the symbols on my flank in the book. Apparently, the symbols on the outside stood for the elements of light, darkness, fire, water, earth, air, lightning, and steel, and the ones on the inside were the symbols for space and time. An eight-pointed star, representing magical talents, connected the outer symbols while it surrounded the two inner symbols. I had no idea how to control my powers, but, I wanted to learn. That was when I set out to learn how the powers, I never knew I possessed, worked.

I soon started training, not only to gain control over the elements, but also to learn about magic, which was also mentioned in the book. The book taught me all about the land, “Equestria.” it was called. It taught me about the other kinds of ponies, unicorns that use magic, but have no wings, pegasi that have wings but can’t use magic, and earth ponies who have no wings or magic. I kept that fact in mind, feeling it would help in the future. The book also stated pegasi controlled the weather, unlike on Earth, I thought it was strange for weather to be controlled. There was all kind of helpful information in the book, creatures (Which helped me learn the talking bird was a phoenix), spells, and cutie marks; those seemed to be basics that I should remember (glad I did).

During my training, I decided to first learn how to cast spells and to fly (the book said that information was for foals), since I didn’t know how and wanted to get comfortable with my newly acquired abilities. Once I got the basics of both flight and magic, I started training to be faster, stronger, more agile, as to increase my chances of surviving in the forest, and to help improve my combat skills. I improved my archery and swordsmanship as well, I figured magic may be useless at some points in time, and I only knew basic spells. I was excellent at duel wielding swords and often practiced, becoming increasingly well. As well as physical training, I expanded my knowledge of Equestria each night with that book around a fire I conjured up (it covered types of spells as well as the forest I was in). The hardest challenge I faced during my training was gaining control of the elements, though it only took little magic. Every time I tried controlling a flame or puddle, it moved a little then stopped. “This is impossible.” I yelled after the twentieth time it failed.

Ten months since entering this strange world, I heard a familiar voice say “Don’t stop, you need to focus.”

“Huh?” I turned around and saw the phoenix from before. “Oh hi again, I haven’t seen you recently.”

The phoenix simply stared at me, “You want to quit, but you feel as though you must keep trying.” it said.

“What if I quit?” I asked.

“If you quit, I will send you home.” It stated.

“Home? HOME!? I feel more at home here!” I said angrily.

The phoenix laughed (if it’s possible for a bird to laugh) “Good, then I will tell you how to control your powers.”

“Really?  How?” I asked, puzzled how a bird knew while I didn’t.

The phoenix squawked, “Control your emotions. The problem is you think too much. Don’t think, feel.”

“Ok, if you say so.” I closed my eyes, remembering how good it felt flying for the first time. I spread my wings and, I quickly felt something push me upwards.

“What?” I asked. I opened my eyes, and saw two tiny tornadoes lifting me up.

“This is AWSOME!” was my only reaction.

The phoenix watched as the tornados dispersed and I touched down. “Excellent, keep control of your emotions and focus on what you want, it will get better once you have friends.”

Friends, the only word I couldn’t stand at the time. I recalled the friends I once had, and how they abandoned me.

“I ran off because my friends hurt me.” I said, turning away, sadness in my eyes.

He sat there and watched, then he said “Then make some new friends, nopony will abandon you if you want to be their friend. Each pony is different in their own special way; nopony will judge you by your abilities.”

“But I don’t know where anypony lives; I may be miles from any town or city.” I said, pointing out the only problem.

The phoenix appeared to have expected that question, because he answered “Head through the forest, on the other side will be a town, Ponyville. Find Twilight Sparkle and her friends.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because I will not always be there to guide you.” he explained, “She will help you make friends, and teach you the secrets to unlocking your true power” When he said true power, I stared at him.

My eyes were locked on him, staring in disbelief, “You mean I HAVEN’T found my true power.”

He looked at me once again and spoke a poem, “Time will heal all wounds, and time will bring new ones, while one’s true power, may be the cause from the start.”

I kept staring, “What does that mean?”  I asked with a puzzled tone.

“It means it will take time for you to find your true power.” he responded. Then he said “Now go, find Twilight, she and her friends will help you find the princess, and fulfill your destiny.” He sounded very cryptic.

“My destiny?”  I said puzzled.

He didn’t say anything, just nodded and flew off.

As he was flying away I yelled “WAIT, WHICH WAY?”

“WEST!” he yelled back, before disappearing.

I watched as he vanished over the forest. “I better train some more if I’m going through that deadly forest” I thought. I remembered what he said and did as the phoenix told me, control my emotions and focus on the task. Once ready, I was going to go through the forest. I needed a better way of protecting myself while not getting tired.

After about a week, I was finally ready to head to Ponyville, where I would start the adventure of my life, and fulfill my destiny. I discovered a good way to protect myself, was to turn invisible (I learned the gems I have could store magical energy and bend light).

  As I was leaving, with few possessions (the book and two steel swords I created) I had a another vision, this one was similar to the last, except there were nine dead ponies on the ground; me, Blaze, and Lunar all had tears in our eyes, standing in what looked like ruins of a castle. “That was more horrible than the first.” I told myself, remembering the first one many months ago. I shuddered thinking about what these visions meant. “Whatever these visions are trying to tell me, they seem like something I should keep hidden for now”. I cleared my mind, remembering that I needed to get through the forest the book said was one of the most dangerous places in all of Equestria.

Upon entering the forest, I noticed it getting incredibly dark. “How am I supposed to see without attracting monsters?” The gems in my wings started to glow a bright blue light, “Well, at least I can see what attacks me now.” I said sarcastically.

In the forest it was stupidly hard for somepony to tell night from day, though I managed to keep track of the day / night cycle. Keeping track of time wasn’t a problem, what worried me the most were the creatures. I had read about fifty foot hydras attacking ponies, ponies turned to stone by a cockatrice, dragons, chimeras, manticores, you name it. That forest was a living deathtrap, no sane pony would spend weeks at a time in there, but I had to, to get to Ponyville.

Venturing deeper into the forest, I eventually got lost, I usually followed the sun, which I couldn’t see. I ran into monsters, some harsh weather, and often stopped at night, to sleep or review what plants to avoid. I tried to stay close to mountains as much as possible, where I could find caves to camp in, but quickly abandoned the idea when I ran into a dragons den (it wanted to keep me as a pet because of the sapphires), so I just started traveling through the night. I also had trouble when I ran into a pack of timber wolves; I had to scare them off with a small fire(by small, I mean I burned a few trees). “Monsters left and right in here” was all I could say after defeating the wolves.

As I kept going, I found me  getting more tired every day that passed by, and the more tired I got the more visions I had, all of them the same, me and the two other alicorns staring at the wasteland, and the bodies in front of us. I just stared at a rainbow-maned alicorn. “Why am I having these visions?”  Was the question I kept thinking to myself.

Soon, I couldn’t stay awake any longer, I had to sleep. I found a tree branch and laid down for a nap. I dreamt about that rainbow-maned alicorn, I didn’t know what she meant to me or who she was, but I slept calmer with her in my thoughts. I didn’t sleep long because of one annoying bird.

“HEY! WAKE UP! It’s too dangerous for you to sleep here” I heard somepony scream. I opened my eyes and saw a familiar bird staring at me. “Good you’re up.”

“No thanks to you.” I said, annoyed at the phoenix. “I was tired, why did you wake me from my nap?”

“But it’s much too dangerous here.” the phoenix said. “You can sleep when you’re out of this forest.”

“How much farther is Ponyville?” I said sheepishly.

The bird stared at me, disbelief in his eyes. “It’s just over that hill.” he said.

“You’re kidding me.” I responded. I climbed to the top of the hill and, sure enough, a sign reading “Welcome to Ponyville.” was right there, next to a large city. “I’ve been in here for two months, and lost for the past week, and it was RIGHT THERE?” my jaw dropped.

“It’s right where it has always been, you just didn’t find it.” he mockingly said.

I wanted to strangle the bird, “WHY DIDN’T YOU FIND ME A WEEK AGO!?” I yelled furiously.

“Every time I saw you, you were heading the right way, I wondered why it was taking you so long.” the bird protested.

“Still, you could have told me I was close.” I snarled, sounding like a timber wolf.

“Granted, I apologize. Now I must go, do NOT let anypony see you’re an alicorn, it will raise suspicion.” He told me as he took off, leaving me alone, AGAIN!

“Great, now I get to play secret agent.” I said, as sarcastically as possible. “Better look like a regular pegasus, and come up with a fake name.” I planned. I bent the light around me so I looked like I was a plain white pegasus, my mane and tail staying the same, as well as changing my cutie mark from the symbols to two crossed swords. My fake name I came up with, Blade, matched my fake cutie mark well. It, unfortunately, stuck and became my nickname.

As I neared the town, disguised, I ran into two of the dumbest guard pegasi ever.

“HALT, who goes there?” the first one asked.

I responded, “Blade, greatest fighter from my home through the forest.” I said confidently. The stupidity started soon after that.

“Blade, OH NO HE’S HOOFED!” the second guard yelled.

“GET YOUR GUN READY!” the first one said.

“Put your hooves where we can see them.” They ordered.

It’s true I was hoofed, but the swords and the book, the only things I had, were on my back, put away where they could be seen.

Everything changed all at once, before either of them could fire; I cut their guns into tiny pieces with a stream of pinpoint accurate strikes. I put my swords away and looked back at the guards, who had horrified expressions on their faces before they knelt down begging, “PLEASE DON’T KILL US! WE’LL DO ANYTHING!”

I looked at them embarrassingly, “You need to watch where you’re pointing those things (I pointed at the parts on the ground), you could accidently kill somepony, and I’m not going kill you, just let me through.” I asked calmingly.

They both looked at me, “Sure, go on ahead.” they said in unison, apparently happy they were going to live. As I trotted away, I stared back at them, starting to wonder how they got to be guards in the first place. I mean, they didn’t even ask which town I came from.

“Now, to go find Twilight.” Was all I said entering the city, unknown to any pony.