Chapters Long ago, four great beings met together to create a new world. The beings were known as Sol, Nox, Tret, and Oblivion. Each being took charge over one fourth of the creation. Sol created the ground and water, forging the earth itself and all it's features, Nox created the sky, placing all the stars and moons with care, Tret made the living creatures, plants, and animals. Oblivion was placed in charge of keeping the balance on the world, he made the Astral Plains, Fae Forest, and Arcane Pools to help with this cause.
After the world was created, the four deities created the first four races to inhabit it, Tret's Vauguard, a magical blend of plant and animal, Nox's Kissan, furred humanoids, Sol made humans and Oblivion made the Mer. The races at first seemed to get along well, but eventually the humans grew spiteful of the other races, they had no great power like the others, and even their Deity's creation was barely visible underneath the forests Tret had created, or the dim light of Nox's stars, rebellion ensued and the humans began conquering the other races lands, hunting the Vauguard to near extinction and driving the Kissan and Mer deeper into their own territories.
Eventually the deities came to an agreement with Sol, making the sun and clearing the northlands into plains suitable for the humans. From then on the four races lived in blissful ignorance of each other, managing their corners of the world to perfection, until one creature, an accident overlooked by the deities, rose to power. Calling himself Reconditus, he upset the order of the world, creating many more races. The demons, dragons, chaotics, giants, and more were among his creations, this spawned the forgotten age.
Shortly after the forgotten age, 1450 years ago, the Chaotic Empire's 1st legion, consisting of 4667 soldiers, unpredictably attacked the western corner of the central continent of Priomh, namely the Needlewood. Using their arcane magic to warp the land's magic beyond repair, they easily killed off the crippled and unprepared soldiers before anyone could react. After this, they raised a massive land wall that would eventually be known as the western mountain range. the immortals Sarel and Tevel hastened to their brother Tenebris' aid with armies of their own, but by the time they had arrived, Chaus, leader of the chaotics, had already destroyed him. Disheartened by the death of their comrades, the solar forces were quickly beaten and pushed out of the land. Preparing defenses of their own from the west, the immortals settled in for a long stand off.
During the fourth year of the stand off, the chaotics sent out their second legion to invade the south. Uncaring for the fate of her northern neighbors, the goddess of the desert Harena put up no resistance against the intruders, opting instead to turn a blind eye to the struggle. The chaotics quickly moved through the desert, it being so similar to their homeland of Corruptillicom. They pincered the defending kingdoms between their forces and began destroying them. Tevel and Sarel, seeing the Imminent destruction of their people, fled to the east with any able to follow, leaving the chaotics to rule the heartland.
Chaus, leader of the invaders, led his army in a crusade. Gaining the allegiance of many dark races native to Priomh and calling upon allies from distant shores, including lizardmen, goblins, valkyrie, and trolls, even some of their former enemies joined by their side. As their empire rose, they marched north, where there were rumors of a lush and verdant jungle that may easily supply them with the power and recourses they needed to finish the war. For the first few months they met no resistance, settling in abandoned towns and creating cities of their own. on the fourth month, they finally met their match.
The giant Ogres and stone golems known as Tenets came in droves, fiercely pushing the Chaotics out. It had been them that originally inhabited the small towns the chaotics found as they entered. The ogres regrouped to fight the invaders when they first heard of their landing, intent to keep the jungles which they regarded as their holy land. They fought and destroyed the chaotics first legion, sending Chaus retreating with his broken army back to the needlewood. Trusting the race so closely regarded as their brothers, the tenets, to keep the jungle controlled, the ogre horde marched out in their own crusade to free the forests that for so long lived in ignorance of their existence.
In the sixteenth year of the war, Levr, king of hunters and famed warrior of the northern isles, landed with his armies in the shoulder of land between the jungles to the north and the plains to the east. Rallying the other deities to once again fight back, he and Sarel lead a conquest with the ogres to the southern deserts, where they hoped to turn Harena to their side once more.
Upon reaching the desert border, they were greeted with the second legion's defensive branch, as well as yet another new race that the chaotics had brought with them from their own country. The race consisted of giant worm like creatures known as crawlers; they burrow deep into the sand to search for water enough to sustain a force for years and had armored shells that made them invulnerable to common weapons.
Cut off from pursuing their plans, the new united army had no choice but to fight to the last man against the wall of enemies. Miraculously, they managed to push through a section and send a team of soldiers to petition to Harena, who still possessed the farthest southern corner of the continent.
Harena willingly gave her allegiance to the chaotics, and so would not budge in her position until the warriors had found a way to break her bonds by summoning the great force known as the soldiers of the sands. With them by their side, they waged war on the chaotics from two fronts and quickly destroyed the army, and with it Harena's allegiance fell.
The celebrations were to wait, however, as there was still a third legion of chaotics building in strength. Yet more previously unknown races were coming to light, most on the side of the crumbling empire. Valkyrie and Lizardmen, who were kept as a secret weapon, were discovered a matter of months after the redemption of the southern deserts, stalking through the central forests and even a few in parts of the jungles and plains. It wasn't until the united armies advance on the needle-wood that they discovered the true extent of the third chaotic legion. Pushed back time and time again over the course of eight years, the allies numbers fell until Sarel finally decided to settle in a sturdy defense.
Ten years past the time Levr arrived and the alliance of immortals began their reclamation and twelve years since the standoff began, a massive gap appeared in the defense of the chaotics. Not wasting any time, Sarel, Levr, Harena, and Tevel all led a march through this gap and the needle-woods. What they found saddened them all greatly. The formerly lush and beautiful forest had become corrupted, pit filled, and infested with monsters at every turn. Still, the company trudged on, hoping to reach Chaus and put an end to this darkness.
The land was in such disarray that a march that formerly took a matter of days to reach the capitol took entire weeks. The entire time, no chaotics or their allies were to be seen, the reason for this and the defense gap was discovered upon reaching the capitol. The chaotics, no longer in control of the great city, had laid siege against it. Chaus had been locked in his own castle with the most elite of his army and the leaderless siege was quickly broken. The invisible defenders of the city allowed passage to the enemies of the empire and the great warriors discovered a battle ground of disturbing proportions. Dead imperials were seen littering the streets, and chasms where great magic had destroyed the very stone of the buildings showed on every street. The closer to the castle that they got, the more bodies could be seen. Some where identified as the new force, a race of animalistic creatures armed with strange and exotic weapons.
Few of their bodies could be found however, the race (known as kissan) had obviously sent a very small force consisting merely of a couple hundred. The remainders of this force were discovered surrounding the castle, but quickly dispersed upon sighting the incoming army. The chaotics defenses fell when they saw their agressors retreating, and they quickly surrendered to the united army.
A mere hour later Chaus was discovered dead and Umbra, a winged black cat kissan, was seen sitting on the throne, with Chaus and Tenebris' scepters both in hand.
Hundreds of years later, few in Gaia can recall what had become known has the Chaos Saga, and fewer still knew the legends of what came before. In one small village in a country to the north, however, I sit pouring over the forgotten lore in hopes that I may reach an understanding of the world. It seems to be, from this kingdoms perspective, that the alliances of old are already mere myth, and the creatures that surround our borders are monsters and not to be trusted. I do not know for myself if this is true, who can possibly know what truly lies outside of our seclusion? How many worlds of knowledge may be opened unto us?
I recently received a missive from Queen Solara herself ordering all scholars in the land to come immediately to the capitol, perhaps this is my chance to find out.
It is as I feared, the ignorance of enclosure has reached even the monarchs of our proud country, upon reaching the castle I learned that I was called to compete with other scholars for the Princes favor. The victor will be chosen to accompany him on a quest to 'eliminate the threats of demons and witchcraft on our borders.' And, more unfortunately, the one called to accompany him was me. Nevertheless, I've sworn an oath to serve my queen and country, and the bonds of loyalty far exceed any personal feelings I may have.
I just hope the gods grant us another way.
~Resin
Chapter One; Simple Curiosity
Twilight tossed the small journal onto her table with an exasperated groan, ever since she had found it three days ago it had been nothing but confusing. At first it seemed like a treasure trove to the young librarian, an adventure story about a far off land called named "Lord Resin's Journey and Documentary of the Creatures of the Tretonian Empire." She picked it from the shelf, not knowing where it came from, with the immediate concern of putting it in it's proper place, but the title caught her eye as soon as she had made three steps.
Twilight had never read a book with so many unfamiliar names, and the majority of the creatures described within were alien to even the farthest reaches of her Equestrian knowledge. But the story ended halfway through the beginning of the book. She tried everything she could to find a mention of either Resin or 'Tretonia' in Ponyvilles archives, and even went so far to order some textbooks from Canterlot, but none of them had anything on the subjects.
"Maybe you could try the Crystal Empires library next," Joked the yellow pegasus in the corner.
Captain Spitfire had surprised Twilight with a visit when she told the princess that she had urgent need of the books. She remembered blushing as she invited the wonderbolt in, needing to explain to her that maybe the need wasn't that urgent, and explaining to Rainbowdash why Spitfire was staying in the library for a few days. The captain had been surprisingly calm about the whole ordeal, and tried her best to help the librarian when she could. Otherwise the flame maned mare stuck to one corner of the library, reading something or other.
"At this rate I doubt this 'Lord Resin' or his Tretonian Empire even ever existed," Twilight mumbled.
"Then why are you still reading that book?"
"I'm not reading that book, so much as trying to figure something out." Twi answered, a little grumpier than she probably should have.
"What?" Spitfire replied, completely un-phased.
"There's some weird scratches on the back, almost like something is written in another language."
The wonderbolt trotted over to the book and flipped it open, curious what was drawing so much attention from Twilight.
"You sure he didn't just spill ink on it?" She asked after a glance at the scratches.
Twilight looked at the captain like she'd grown a second head.
"What?" She asked.
"No, it couldn't be that , the lines are two finely marked. Plus there are several characters that repeat themselves over and over."
"It could be some sort of code," Spit offered, she was still confused why the librarian thought the funny etchings in the back of a half completed journal were so interesting, but she made it a point never to question the eggheads, they usually knew what they were doing.
"Or a clue! Spitfire your a genius!"
Twilight began rushing back and forth, summoning books from their shelves both by horn and hoof. She was beginning to regret sending Spike on that errand to Fluttershy's, but didn't have time to dwell on the mistake. Spitfire wisely began moving back to here corner as the lilac mare dived through her tomes.
"Found it! The nine scrolls of Starswirl!"
Spitfire just nodded along, barely lifting her attention from the novel she was reading, but Twilight, also lost in her books, didn't notice her companies inattention as she read aloud.
"'The nine scrolls of Starswirl were written by the ancient wizard Starswirl the bearded in a language only a select few could understand. The texts, though illegible, were copied down after the wizards disappearance and sent throughout Equestria in order to find the ones he called his heirs. Though they were never found, samples of the scrolls still exist today.' See? The markings on the book match up with the excerpts of the scrolls!"
Twilight turned to show both books to Spitfire, who finally looked up at the question.
"Huh, so they do," The fiery pegasus took a closer look, "But it looks like the letters' orders are different from the scrolls."
"I know, maybe it's from a different part of one of the scrolls, or maybe one of the heirs is trying to reach out!"
Spitfire shrugged at the unicorns eccentrics and began turning back to her book for the fourth time that day.
"Maybe you should hit it with some magic to find out," She said sarcastically, just as the doorbell rang.
Resigning to her fate of never finding out if Daring Do would make it through the temple of Neptune, Spitfire tiredly trotted over to the door, listening to the tinkling behind her Twilight began to move more books around.
"I'm sorry Rainbow, Twilights a bit busy with something," She told the startled weather mare.
"Sp-Spitfire!" Rainbowdash stuttered much to her idols amusement.
"Rainbow, Come on in! I'm sorry, I've been so caught up studying this book I forgot you were coming over."
Rainbowdash wasn't suppose to come over, per se, but given that her idol of idols was mere feet away she decided to just smile and nod.
"Yeeeah, I wanted to come over and help you out."
Twilight fixed her friend with a deadpan gaze.
"You wanted to help me out?"
"Duh ," Rainbowdash said with a roll of her eyes as she went to look at Twilights books, "Starswirls scrolls? Like magic scrolls?"
Twilight smiled at her friends sudden and unexpected, but not entirely unwanted, interest in her hobbies.
"Yep, and I was just trying to figure out what this one does so I ca-"
"Why don't you just activate it?"
"Because, unless I know what it does I have no way of knowing if it's safe or not!" Twilight groaned.
"Why don't you just take it outside of town? That way no-pony will get hurt and you'll find out!"
"If I do that the scroll might be destroyed!"
"Then copy it down first!"
"I-" Twilight froze, Rainbows statement, though uninformed, made plenty of sense once she thought about it.
There were plenty of safe places in the borders of the Everfree, and if she copied it down she could still be able to find the translation, maybe even the author! Rainbow watched the gears visibly turn in Twilights head in mildly irritated silence, more irritated that she had lost her cool in front of Spitfire than Twilights refusal to listen. But hey, Rainbow just tripped up Celestias student in front of her hero, that had to count for something.
"Egghead," Rainbow dash sighed.
One Second They Were Here...
Chapter Two; One Second They Were Here...
*Thump*
Twilight pried her eyes open, taking a look to see what happened. She faintly remembered excruciating pain and a falling sensation after activating the spell. The first thing she saw was the other girls laying next to her. They looked fine and were just coming to. The nerdy mare let a sigh of relief escape her.
"Did anypony see what the scroll did?" Spitfire's voice echoed through the field as she looked around.
The trio had found a small hill right next to the wall of trees that marked the Everfree's border. Now when Spitfire looked around she noticed that, while they were still next to a wall of trees, it was now to their right rather than left.
"Did it just turn us around?" Rainbow Dash asked, noting the same changes, "All that over something you could already do? So uncool."
"I don't get it," Twilight said, pulling out another copy of the scroll, "Was there something I missed?"
Spitfire shrugged, "Maybe the scroll was just to get our attention."
"It got my attention, alright." Rainbow Dash grimaced, stretching out her wings.
The group was silent for a bit as Twilight read and reread the scroll, almost missing the approaching hoove steps and voices.
"I'm telling you Resin, I saw a flash over this hill. The only thing that could have done that was magic."
The masculin voicce sounded young, the speaker must have been a stallion just in his twenties. The mares didn't pay much more attention to it past the word 'Resin.'
"It's him." Twilight mouthed excitedly, Rainbow Dash looked nervous. Spitfire was more curious than anything.
"I'm not doubting your eyesight, my lord, but don't you think an experamental alchemist or distillery could have just as easily caused it?" This voice sounded just as young, if not one or two years older.
"An exploded distilery giving of a purple flash?"
"Maybe it was the wine in the air," A tired female voice pointed out just as they reached the top of the hill.
Both sides stared at eachother, neither knwoing quite what to make of the others. There were six creatures on top of the hill, three of which looked like pale diamond dogs. The other three were large ponies, each easily as big- or bigger- than Big Macontosh. The pony holding the heaviest dog was completely brown, the next was black, and the third and smallest pony was brown with white patches, similar to a cow. Their manes were equally strange, maching their fur and cut short. The trio stared back at them with tiny, bored eyes above their enourmous muzzles.
"Twilight, what's with those earth-ponies?" Rainbow dash whispered, but her friend shook her head and walked up the hill.
"I'm honored to meet you," She said to whom she took to be Resin, "My name is Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Celestia."
The large black and white pony stared dully at her.
"Um... I found the scroll you wrote, with the spell we just cast."
The earthpony held it's silence. Twilight looked back at her friends, who shrugged. Turning around again, she began sweating a river. Why weren't any of the ponies talking? She had heard them only a minute ago.
"Um, Resin?" The female voice spoke again, slightly less tired this time, "That horse is talking."
Twilight looked up at the rider, surprisingly speaking fluint Equestiran for a diamond dog, she was looking back with a raised eyebrow.
"If it's not too much trouble, my friends and I would like to know what the scroll did." There was more silence.
Things were getting awkward before Twilight heard a sigh from her left and the sound of metal sliding on metal. The horse bearing the armored diamond dog trotted foreward and the creature on it's back pointed a sharp looking steel instrument at her.
"By order of her majesty Sarina, I have been sent to slay all demons threatening our borders. Do you have any final words?"
"What?" Twilight asked just as a rainbow blur threw the dog off of the as of yet unnamed pony.
"Nopony threatens my friends!" Rainbow yelled at the stunned dog.
"I am no pony, fiend!" The armored dog struggled in vain for a second, "Resin! Tell this thing to get off of me!"
The name jogged Twilight out of her stupor and she turned back to the other pony, but it wasn't him that spoke.
"And what do you want me to say, my lord?"
All three mares' heads jerked up at the sound of the second male's voice.
"I don't know, you're good at talking to monsters, make something up!"
Rainbow dash kicked the armored figure in the gut, winceing when her hoof met steel.
"Look who's talking!"
The diamond dog that used to be in the center of the group sighed and dismounted his pony, allowing Twilight to get a good look at him. He had a longish brown mane, just enough to cover his ears and reach his shoulders. Tan robes covered his torso and arms and were buckled beneath a simple belt and a satchel. He was wearing simple brown pants and boots, and Twilight also finally got the oppertunity to see their faces. Mostly hairless beside some light stubble and ape-like ears. These weren't diamond dogs, but... what were they?
"It seems capable of speaking, my lord. I don't believe it's a monster, still..." Resin shook his head, "Pegasus, it may benefit you the release my prince."
"Prince!" All three mares shouted, needless to say Rainbow practically jumped off of the armored figure.
"Well that seems to have worked," The female creature smirked and hopped off of her steed as the prince stood to his feet. Twilgiht felt slightly queesy noticing most of her cloths were furs and animal skins.
"We are so sorry!" Twilight stepped foreward first, "We had no idea you were a prince, if we had I'm sure Rainbow Dash wouldn't have-" She was cut off as the armored figure raised his weapon again.
"Resin, you have some explaining to do, what are these?"
There was a long sigh from the apparent scholar, "It seems to be a unicorn and two pegasi," He said slowly.
"And those are?"
"Pegasi are meesengers from the gods sire, and unicorns are said to be their personal servants and symbols of their power."
"Oh," The weapon dropped to the princes side with alarming speed. "Oh," He said again, "But their-"
"Small and colorful? Perhaps as a test, or perhaps an upstart sorcerer decided to satire the work of the gods."
"If it is the latter," The prince said, voice dripping in venom and causing the mares to shudder, "I will see them suffer greatly before their excecution. What god do you serve?" He asked.
"C-Celestia, raiser of the sun," Twilight stuttered, she don't know why she introduced her that way, it just seemed to fit.
"A son god? Lies, sol is the only god of the sun!" The prince bit back agressively.
"Sire, our scripts are quite old, it's entirely possible that Sol could have anointed a daughter to raise the sun in his stead. After all, this is obviously a servant of the gods telling us this."
The prince seemed to think for a minute, then his helmate dipped down in a nod.
"Let us find shelter while we discus this then," The prince said at length, climbing back onto his steed.
"Sire-" Resin gestured to the ponies.
The prince looked from him to them and back again, "They're to smal to ride."
Resin grimaced, the un-named mare snorted and turned around, pretending to scan the horizon for shelter. Twilights jaw dropped.
"Prince or not, Nopony rides me!" Rainbow exploded.
Resin turned to her with a raised brow, "Of course not, it would be an insult to the gods," The last four words were clearly enphasised, but even then it took the prince a few seconds to get their meaning, but when he did he quickly slid off of his horse.
"Right, shelter then," He said sheepishly.