Hero - Prologue

by Strychnos

3 Ruins Rain

Seabreeze’s POV

“So what happened out there?” A cup of coffee is pushed my way by Crystal. We both had gotten up before anyone else to make some breakfast and I guess now discuss the events of early yesterday. We were sitting in front of the fire we made, drinking coffee, the sun had yet to set so it would be at least an hour before Charcoal and Nightshade would get up, and that would still be early. I kept my eyes on the coffee in front of me as I thought to respond to that question. Before I said anything I took a nice large sip from the bitter drink meant to wake one up and give them energy. There is not enough coffee in the land to give me enough strength for this.

“I...I don’t know.” Those are the only words my mind could construct and those still struggled to leave my mouth. I was so scared as everything we knew fell apart, our home, our friends…..our family, all gone in an instant. I lower my head sadly, looking back at my coffee in hopes that it might some how tell me something, that it might give me some sort of comfort, but it never came. I take a deep breath and retell the story of the night that changed our lives, “After the figure had finished with the city, it came after us shooting fireballs. I didn’t think there was a chance for us to even survive, but after 10 minutes of it giving chase, it stopped. A while after is when you found us in the woods and brought us back to your village.” Seabreeze went silent to let Crystal process the story.

“Crystal, may I ask a question?” Seabreeze looked towards the red thestral for a response, she simply nodded without a word. “Why doesn't Charcoal know about this? Know about Nightshade and I?”

“Because he doesn't need to know and if what you're telling me is true, then we need the least amount of ponies knowing about you both. If this thing destroyed your home and killed everyone there, we can only assume that it will be actively looking for you and your brother.” The red thestral stopped to take sip from her coffee.

“I guess that makes sense. However word will get out that the twin cities fell and they’re going to look for a new heir. The only fitting pony would be King Inferno, and I know not everyone will be excited about him being the new leader.”

“Very true, I don’t doubt he would be a great leader, but he has never led anything more than Tole, and not everyone is overly fond of thestrals. I hope your making the right choice about this, like you said you can’t hide forever and Inferno
can’t lead these lands for long.” I thought over Crystal’s words, she was right, by leaving the Sun and Moon lands to Inferno would be a band-aid on a gash, temporary fix.

“You’re right, eventually there will be civil war over who will lead and who controls what lands. It will be chaos. Do you think the peac
e can hold for 10 years?”

“Maybe, if were lucky. Why ten years?”

“By then my brother and I will be old enough to lead, right now neither of us are fit to lead.”

“But ten years? You will become of age in 1-2 years. Don’t you think ten is a bit long?”

“Yes I do, but I want my brother to come of age, the people will follow him with more heart than me.”

“What do you mean?” Crystal looks at me with eyes demanding an explanation.

“Every king, queen, prince, princess, were all alicorns. I am not, my brother is. The people don’t look to me as a leader like they do my brother. My spark, my calling, isn’t even to lead.”

“I am going to be honest, that is a load of shit. Just because your brother is a alicorn doesn't make him a better leader than you. So what if the people believe in him more than you, you just got to show them you just as good as any alicorn.”

“Well either way, I still think it would be wise to wait till he comes of age.”

“If you say so, just don’t forget about us when you're in Equestria.” Lightning streaked the sky south of us and thunder filled the air with its boom. “I’ll start moving things into the ruins, you get the tents.”

“Okay.” I get up and look at Crystal. “And Crystal?”

“Hmm?” She hummed questioningly.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For believing in me.” I smile at her and walk towards the tents.

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The world around me came into view, I yawned and stretched when I remember the dream. I immediately went to feel my chest to find no knife, no blood and no stab wound. I sighed in relief and sat up, Seabreeze wasn't there so he must have already woken up. I stood up and walked out of the tent, the air had cooled substantially from yesterday and the clouds darkened. The moon was on the horizon so it was still early, the tent was put away and the cart was no where to be seen.

“Good evening.” I was startled by the voice behind me. Seabreeze was sitting on a stone drinking a cup of coffee. He looked like he has been up for a few hours now. “How did you sleep?”

“Good.” I look around some more. “Where did Crystal and Charcoal go?” I asked him.

“They’re moving everything to inside the ruins. A storm is on its way so we’ll wait it out inside the ruins.” Seabreeze grabbed the last few stry (see what i did there?) supplies and the tent I was sleeping in.

We made our way deeper into the ruins, as we walked they got more elaborate. Instead of a few columns here and there, there is now full arches or what’s left of them anyways. I could even make out what may have been housing or full structures.

15 or so minutes later the ground opened up into a staircase leading into some underground structure.

“Down there is where we will be waiting out the storm.” Seabreeze pointed a hoof down the staircase. As we walked in, Crystal and Charcoal were inside setting up camp.

“Good night Nightshade, how did you sleep?” Crystal asked as she grabbed a few torches and handed them to Charcoal, whom then proceed to light them.

“Good” I said in between a yawn.

Seabreeze closed the doors that lead into the room to block out the rain water, or at least some of it. A loud clap of thunder and pitter patter of heavy rain filled the air.

“Looks like we had great timing.” Chuckled Seabreeze.

Charcoal handed Seabreeze one of the 3 torches, one to Crystal and he kept the last one. While we Night ponies have night vision, we still require some light, otherwise we’re as good as blind.

“This room goes deeper into the ruins, We found another staircase leading deeper underground. You guys want to do some exploring while we wait for the storm let up?” Charcoal asked us but he already looked like he was ready to go there whether or not we went with him. His saddlebag packed with ruin exploring supplies (that would consist of stuff for making light, snacks, canteen, rope, and few other random things).

“I have no problem with it.” Seabreeze then looked to me for my say on the subject.

“I don’t see why not.” Charcoal looked satisfied as he made his way to the far end of the room we were in.

“It’s back here.” We followed him to another staircase. The stones that made the staircase were in terrible condition and it was a miracle that they were still in place. Moss filled the space in between the bricks and water trickled down the sides, the occasional stone missing or laying on the ground.  

“Its a miracle that this place still stands.” Crystal observed out loud. We made our way down the staircase into the darkness, our only source of light being our torches.

“Why do you think the builders of this place built it here, in the middle of a jungle?” My curiosity was getting the best of me.

“Now that, my friend, is a great question. Maybe they built in honor of their gods.” Charcoal was in front of us looking at carvings on a wall, suddenly he turned around and looked at us. “Or maybe they predicted we would come to their ancient ruins and history is about to be made as we become their gods!”

“Calm down there, Daring Do.” Crystal retorted

“OK suit yourself, but when I become a god you will be bowing down to me!” Charcoal was now standing proud in front of us, trying to look powerful.

We continued in silence, the walls lit by the dim green flame of our torch. The torch was lit by Charcoal’s flame, which happened to green. Thestrals can conjure up fire from their dragon side, and control it to an extent. However it is more of a talent than a learned skill. Charcoal can light things on fire and hold a flame for a short time while Crystal can barely make sparks appear.

“This reminds me when I was exploring an old mine shaft in search of ore and gemstones.”

“You’re a miner?” I asked him a bit surprised he would be a miner.

“Yep, I am a prospector, meaning I spend more time looking for more ore and gemstones. I rarely do any of the mining myself.”

“So tell us about this old mine shaft you were exploring.” Seabreeze walked up next to me and looked to Charcoal, mild interest in his eyes.

“It wasn’t just me it was my buddy, Chemlight, and I, we were assigned to find more of a certain ore.  An ore that was left behind in older mineshafts so we had to explore one that hadn’t been used in nearly a hundred years.”

Thestral villages were always built above ore deposits and became underground cities, their foundries and mine shafts going on for miles. Charcoal and Crystal’s village, Bluefire, is one of the oldest and has been there for almost 600 years. Most thestral villages might be in one place for 200 to 300 years before they move to a new ore deposit.

“So where are we going?” asked a neon green thestral, he was smaller than Charcoal because of his age, being 5 or so years younger. He had light purple eyes, a red mane and neon yellow spark. Floating near him was a neon yellow flame that was lighting up the tunnel made from his thestral magic.

“We are going to one of older tunnels in search of Lunar iron and I can’t risk dissolving any of it.” Charcoal explained to Chemlight as they walk down a very old mineshaft.

“That would make sense, Lunar iron is not very common and if exposed to an un regulated light source would dissolve the ore. However not only would you risk losing the metal, you would risk collapsing the entire tunnel.”

“We risk collapsing the tunnels just by stepping in them. So more risk should go unnoticed by the already existing risk of the old tunnel.” Chemlight gave Charcoal a look that screamed are you crazy?! “Oh don’t look at me like that, we have a job to do, we’re already here anyways.”

The tunnel that lay in front of us was deep in the north of the tunnels, the north end hadn’t been mined for at least 80 years. This tunnel was one of the main ones that branched off to other tunnels so this one had stone supports, which was probably the only reason it still hadn’t collapsed yet.

“Are you sure this is safe?” asked Chemlight in a worried tone.

“Positive, just look at the stone supports, they haven't aged a day.”

Yep he’s crazy thought Chemlight

Charcoal then proceeded to walk down the tunnel in search of Lunar iron. “Hurry it up! I need you to see anything down here!”

Chemlight hurried up to Charcoal hoping to get this over with as soon as possible.

“Wait, I understand how this might remind you of that, but still this is a ruin and that was a mineshaft.” I stated

“Well you see, the Lunar ore was nothing compared to what else we had found.”

“Then what did you find down there besides stone?” Seabreeze inquired

“We found behind one of the walls a tomb, but not just any tomb…” Charcoal paused. “A dragon’s tomb.”

“Wait you found a dragon’s tomb!?” When a dragon knows he or she is going to pass they take their riches and bury themselves deep into the ground sometimes a mile or two down. Rumors are that the gold and silver vanes used to be part of the dragon’s hoard and after they passed after sometime the cavern they dug would cave in and compaction would compact the metals.

“Yes we did, the tomb was hundreds of thousands of years old, I was surprised that it hadn’t caved in yet.” Charcoal started to tell his story once again…

“Hey Chemlight come over here, I think I found some.” Charcoal called out for the young adult.

Chemlight used his fire to light up the area Charcoal was pointing to but not much so it didn’t destroy the sensitive ore. The ore in question had a very soft glow to it, like the glow of the crescent moon. It had a black and silver smoke-like cloud swirling inside of it.

“So this is Lunar ore?” Chemlight asked Charcoal.

“Never seen the ore?” Chemlight nodded “Not many get to see lunar steel let alone the ore itself.” Charcoal grabbed a pick from one of his bags.

“Isn’t there any special way to mine this stuff?”

“Nope, we mine just like any other ore. Well except for the fact that too much light destroys it, it's very rare, and is naturally infused with magic. See it’s not that special.”  Charcoal then struck the ore with his pick making a loud CLANG. A moderate sized piece of ore fell to the ground with a dull thud.

Instead of striking the ore again he set the pick on the ground. “Is something wrong?”

“I’m not sure, I swear i heard an echo.”

“It might have been the sound echoing off the tunnel walls.”

“No it didn’t sound like that at all, it almost sounds like there's open space behind this wall.” Charcoal went up to the wall and slowly knocked on it a few times.

While the sound made from the knocking would have sounded the same to any other pony, Charcoal, spending most of his adult life in the mines, could tell that sound was ever so slightly off.

“Maybe another tunnel is close?”

“No there isn't another tunnel for at least 500 feet (152 meters) and that tunnel leads away from us. There shouldn’t be anything on the other side of this wall.” Charcoal went to one of the bags he brought, the one that didn't have the pickaxes and other prospecting supplies.

“What is in this bag?” Chemlight asked  

Charcoal responded “This will be for if the ore is “difficult”” and that was all he said.

Charcoal pulled out a red stick with string attached to one end. “You brought dynamite!?”

“Of course, sometimes I have to blow a hole in a wall to find more ore but in this case, we’re going to blow away a wall. Now help me set up the dynamite.”

10 quarter sticks were set up in total, they were put into holes drilled into the wall. The fuse led down the tunnel where stones had been pushed together as a makeshift barricade. Charcoal and Chemlight were behind this “barricade”.

“So are you sure this is safe, I mean what's stopped the entire tunnel from collapsing on us?”

“Uh...just don’t think about that and light the fuse!”

Chemlight was shivering from fear, “Um...uh ok…” Chemlight struggled to keep his flame going as he tried to light the fuse.
After about 5 minutes or so the fuse burst to life and burned quickly, Chemlight dived into cover and covered his ears.

BOOM!!

After a few minutes the ground shook and the air filled with the explosion from the dynamite. Chemlight waited for the tunnel to cave in but it didn’t happen in fact the tunnel looked like it would take much, much more for it cave in.

“See I told you there was nothing to worry about.” Charcoal’s voice was unchanged and he looked like the nothing had happened.

They walked past the bend to find the tunnel filled with dust. Both Charcoal and Chemlight put on masks and goggles to protect themselves from the harmful dust. Both thestrals had to mind their wings as to not disturb the dust as it settled, but after 10 minutes they could see 10 feet in front of them now (3 meters). A hole was blasted in the wall but instead of stone there was stone brick.

“Woah, what is that?” Chemlight looked in disbelief at what he was looking at.

“I have no idea, but there is only one way to find out.” Both of the thestrals headed into the mysterious new tunnel. The walls were huge and extended hundreds of feet (for all metric people just go with its very tall). However what they thought were stone bricks were charred stone.

“What could have done this?” Chemlight was looking closely at one of charred stones.

“I have an idea, but we need to further explore this cavern.”

They continued down the cavern, however they didn’t need to travel very long before they spotted a few gold coins ahead. But when they got to the coins something bigger, and once living, caught there attention. Before them were the bones of a long dead dragon, a red horned dragon based on the size and the horn on its skull. Beneath the skeleton was its loot, millions of gold and silver coins, gemstones, rare ores, more gold, and even more gold.

Chemlight’s eyes widened with excitement at the spectacle of the finding. “We’re going to be rich!” Chemlight then dove right into the treasure and, well, the best way to describe him is, he went “crazy”.

“We're not taking anything.” Charcoal stated in a very flat tone.

“What do you mean we’re not taking anything?” Chemlight had jumped out of the pile and was now staring at Charcoal in disbelief.

“I mean we’re not taking a single thing, this is a tomb of a dragon, and while we may be only half dragon, we must respect our distant brothers and sisters.”

Chemlight looked disappointed but after contemplating Charcoals words, he agreed with him. “I guess you’re right, but what is going to stop others from stealing the treasure?”

“There are more quarter sticks in the bag, if we placed them in the right place, the entire cavern should cave in.

“So we caused the tomb to cave in, grabbed the rest of Lunar ore and boarded up the tunnel so one would rediscover the cavern just in case part of it survived.”

“So you found possible treasure that would set you and Chemlight for life, and you left out of respect for a fallen dragon that, in a heartbeat, would have killed you both if it were alive.” I inquired in disbelief.

“Yep” Charcoal agreed with pride in his voice.

As we walked the stone that the tunnel was made out of changed to a white marble. It also is a much better condition than the rest of the ruin. Markings littered the walls, sometimes they looked like pictures, but mostly they were random symbols that were unreadable. The weirdest thing was that the ruins now didn’t look a day old.

That cannot be.

“That’s interesting, this part doesn't look more than 50 years old. But that can't be, these ruins are at least over 10,000 years old.” Seabreeze noticed it too.

“You're right, these stones almost look brand new.” Charcoal said as he brought his face right up to one of the bricks as if to somehow know more about it. “Seabreeze do you still have your Nightgale thing with you, maybe it can tell us more?”

Seabreeze nodded and Nightgale appeared next to his head.

“These rocks are magically enchanted to not age, however the spell is not perfect and the bricks slowly have shown some wear.” It said in its deep, magical toned  voice.

“How did it know to check the rocks for enchantments? Did we ask it to?” Charcoal looked at Nightgale with a very confused face.

“It can read my mind, so it already knew what we needed.”

“That’s really cool. Well anyways we should keep going, who knows what’s hidden in these ruins.” Charcoal looked back to Nightgale. “Is there anyway of you being able to tell us what's down here?”

“No, the magic in the rocks is blocking my sensors.”

“Hmm interesting, who ever built this clearly didn’t want anyone to learn about the secrets that may or may not be here.” Charcoal picks up his pace, his curiosity getting the better of him.

About 20 minutes go by, and we see nothing but walls and random carvings. The walls still have the anti-age spell and look almost brand new.

Suddenly it stops, a dead end. There is just a wall with many carvings on it, with a few large ones taking up most of the space on it.

“I wonder what they mean?” Charcoal said as he brought the torch up the wall.

“These look familiar.” Seabreeze ponders out loud walking up to the wall. “liah ardyh.” He spoke very slowly and precisely.

Dust begins to fall from the walls and ceiling, the wall in front of us shakes. Then it goes silent, a clicking of two gears is faintly heard. Seabreeze and Charcoal back away from the wall as it moves again, but instead of falling, it splits into 4 segments, each moving away from each other into their corners.

A mist flows out from the secret door. As the doors open, we see that the hallway opens up into a bigger room. However it is much too dark to see anything that may lay within.

Charcoal is first up, he grabs his torch and walks towards the new room. “What are you waiting for?”

Seabreeze follows him into the room. Crystal and I looked at each other, questioning if this really is a good idea. She shrugged and followed them. That answers that I thought and I was soon behind Crystal.

“Please tell this isn't more endless hallways.” Charcoal complained as we moved in to the large dark room. As if the ruins heard him, they began to move again. Dust fell from the ceiling and off walls. Skylights in the high ceiling opened up, filling the room with the white glow of the full moon. The room extended about 100 yards back, where an altar was on a platform slightly above everything around it. Along the walls were small waterfalls that shimmered in the moonlight, giving a mythic feel to all of this. Above every waterfall was some sort of artwork depicting a scene of some sort.

“Whoa look at this! Look at this stuff!” Charcoal pointed at nearly everything. “I told you this would be fun!”

I took to the air and flew over to the art on the walls. The first one had a grand city, the picture was lacking detail, but it you could tell that is was some sort of city. The picture to the left was the same city but something was different, there is orange and red and the buildings are smaller. The city is under attack.

A tear ran down my face as it reminded me of our city, our home. I missed them...I mean I really missed them. A few more tears rolled down my face. I stared at the picture for a few more moments before I went to look at another picture but instead of looking to my left I turned around.

Maybe the pictures on the other side would be happier.

Yes and no, The first had the same city so maybe it's the same on this side? The next picture was not the same, in fact it was much different. In the center of the picture was a pony, very young, maybe still a colt. The colt was a alicorn with a black coat and white mane. He was lying down in the center of an altar, he looked peaceful, he had a crown made of gold and gems that sunk to ears much to large for his size.

Before I could make any more sense of the picture, the room shook and a large crack formed in the picture.

“What's going on!?” Charcoal yelled to us from the alter. He dropped the torch, and it rolled into the water, putting it out. He wobbled as the ground shook, but as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. “What the hell was that?!”

 A few more of the pictures had cracks in them, some of the waterfalls had collapsed in on themselves, and now blocked water from coming through. She glided to Charcoal and helped him up on his hooves. “Are you two alright?” She called out to Seabreeze and I.

“Yeah, we're alright.” Seabreeze came up behind me and put his hoof on my shoulder.

After a few minutes of cleaning ourselves from the dust and rubble that fell. We met in front of the altar at the end of the large room. The altar itself was made of a black stone, obsidian possibly. The surface was smooth and there was a small knife on the edge. Above the altar was a large painting of what looked like a golden book with golden beams of light depicted coming from the book.

“So what is this?” I looked quizzically towards Charcoal.

“I honestly have no idea.” Charcoal looked up from studying the markings strewn across the alter. “ These markings make no sense and it is a language I have never seen before.”

“What language do you know besides your own?” Crystal jeered.

“Um… well none, but I think I would be able to recognize ancient griffon, or wyvern.”

“And who wouldn't be able identify those?”

“You know, I don’t need your sass right now. But back to Nightshade’s question, I have no idea what this is or what this was used for.”

The ground began to shake once again, dust and debri fall from the ceiling. “Not this again!” Charcoal fell to the floor and covered his head with his hoofs. Pieces of the roof began to fall to the ground.

“Lookout!” Seabreeze pointed to a large section of the ceiling as it fell towards us. We jumped out of the way but Charcoal didn’t see it coming. Charcoal tried to jump out of the way but it was too late and his hoof was caught under the heavy stone.

“Bucking hell!” Charcoal yelled, his hoof that was trapped under the stone was crushed, sharp parts of the stone cut deeply into his flesh. Crystal didn't even take time to look at the surroundings before going to the rock that held Charcoals hoof captive and trying to pry it off of him.

“I can’t move it myself!” She looks to us with pleading eyes, we don’t hesitate before rushing to her side and all three of us prying the stone off his hoof. “Ok! On the count of 3, lift the stone, ready 1, 2, 3, LIFT!” The rock began to move and lifted just enough for charcoal move his hoof out from under the stone (it was more of a boulder if you ask me)

“Alright come on we need to get out of here!” Seabreeze looked around for a escape, but was unable to see one.

“Where can we go? The way we came in is closed off!” Crystal had panic in her eyes. More parts of the ceiling fell away revealing the soft moon light from up above.

“Look! We can fly out through there!” None of us had a second thought as  Seabreeze pointed out an escape route. We took to the air and bolted for the world above us. “Just a little further!” We were all concerned with escaping that none of us noticed the lack of one earth brown thestral stallion.

“We...made...it.” Crystal stated in between gasps of the crisp night air. “Hey Charcoal let me see your…” She turned around to see that Charcoal wasn’t behind me. “Where's Charcoal?!” She pushed past me to look into what was left of the ruins. The sight that lay before her broke her, Crystal broke down to tears at what she saw. Seabreeze and I went to see what she is looking at and immediately felt her pain. Threw the dust and the stones, a single dragon looking wing sticking out from a rock, blood trailing like rivers from under the stone.