//------------------------------// // Chapter Two // Story: The Genesis of Equestria - Book I: The Children of Armageddon // by volrathxp //------------------------------// The Genesis of Equestria Book I: The Children of Armageddon Chapter Two         Angel Rose glanced up at the sign leading into the museum and grimaced.         Explore Ancient Equestria!  See the wonders of Equestrian Civilization!  Experience the history of Equestrian Mythology!         Angel groaned.  She hated history exhibits.  She knew deep down the true history of the world, that the demons of the Void had been vying to shape it for ages.  Was the Unicorn really here?  Was Rose Petal correct in detecting a hint of its magic?         “We have a problem,” Rose Petal whispered into her ear.  “We are being followed.”         Angel Rose cursed under her breath, glancing at the very corner of her vision.  Another pony, a male earth pony, was following her.  Likely a pawn of the demon, she assumed.  Demons.  They were cowards who never did their own dirty work.  They always used others to get what they wanted.         “We'll lose him inside the museum,” Angel said quietly.  “Is he...?”         “Yes... he's been tainted.  I can smell the demon's magic all over him,” Rose Petal whispered.  “We should be careful in how we proceed.”         “Hold tight to me then little one.  We will not have much time to find this Unicorn if the demon knows we are here,” Angel replied.         Rose Petal nodded and clung to her back as Angel made her way up the steps and into the museum.  She was going to have to do her best to lose this pawn.         Behind her, Hayseed moved forward as well, trying to keep up with the strange mare and the filly he believed she had stolen.  The filly she traveled with looked sickly, like something had happened to it.  He couldn't believe that anypony would steal a foal like that.         Angel stepped inside the doors and glanced around.  The museum itself was labyrinthian in nature, massive halls extending out from a central lobby.  There were two floors, with two sets of stairs heading up to the next level at the far end.  How was she supposed to find anypony in this place?  Let alone somepony who was hiding out?         Angel peeked in the corner of her eye, seeing the other pony starting to come into the door.  She had to move quickly.  She didn't want to hurt the pony, but she knew that the demon had given it instructions likely to hurt or otherwise kill her, so she had to do something.         “Ma'am?” one of the museum attendants standing next to the ticket booth said.  “Would you like to buy a ticket?”         Angel smiled and pulled a few bits out of her pouch.  “Sure, here you go.”         The attendant smiled in return and handed her two tickets.  “Thank you so much, please enjoy your visit with us today.”         Angel nodded and headed forward, staying ahead as best as she could of the pony that the demon had sent, without causing a panic by running.  He was close enough now that she could smell his stink too.  It was almost overpowering.  She heard him arguing with the attendant over his lack of a ticket.  Good.  She could use the distraction to slip away further into the museum.  It was unlikely that the demon's pawn could magically sense her, he was just a pony after all.         She could feel the oppressive presence lessening as she disappeared into one of the far wings.  There was very little in the way of security.  She could slip upstairs and the pony chasing her would never find her.  It would give her time to find the Unicorn, if it was even here.         “I cannot sense the demon stink any longer,” Rose Petal whispered in her ear.  “We are safe for the time being.”         “I hope so.  Do you think the demon knows we're here to try to find the Unicorn?” Angel asked the tatterdemalion.         “It is impossible to discern what the demon's goals are.  Perhaps it merely wishes to try and remove you from the equation,” Rose said flatly.         Angel grimaced.  She was going to have to do what she could to make sure that didn't happen.  The world depended on it. *        *        *         “I'm telling you, that pony you just let in is dangerous!  She kidnapped a filly!  You have to let me in after her!” Hayseed shouted at the attendant.         The attendant lifted a hoof.  “Sir.  You are not a law enforcement officer, and the pony you're talking about didn't have anypony with her.  Now, if you would like, you may buy a ticket and go inside, but I cannot let you in without one.  If you cannot do that, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to vacate the premises.”         “Gosh darnit, you gotta listen to me!  That mare done kidnapped a filly!  A filly!  And you're not even going to go ask her about it?” Hayseed roared.  “What is wrong with this world?!”         “Sir, calm down.  I will call the manager.  We will question the guest and proceed from there,” the attendant replied.         Hayseed fumed.  He knew he hadn't been seeing things.  He had seen the filly hanging off the back of the pony he'd been chasing.  He had seen the fear in her eyes.  Hadn't he?  He grumbled at the attendant and walked out of the museum lobby.         The demon waited just outside, furious at his pawn for giving up so easily.  Why had the Knight of the Word come to this place?  What was special about some old museum?  The demon scowled.  He had come too far to quit.  He could not enter the museum without alerting the Knight, she would be able to sense him immediately.  He had to come up with another plan.  He sidled up next to Hayseed.         “The police should be able to help you.  You should call them.  After all, she has to leave sooner or later,” he whispered into Hayseed's ears.  “There is a pay phone over there.”  He pointed across the street.         “Yeah... the police.  If the museum won't help me, the police will,” Hayseed said aloud.  “She can't stay in there forever.  If she tries to leave the police will get her.”         He trotted across the street and picked up the pay phone.         “Emergency?”         “Yes, I'd like to report a foalnapping...” *        *        *         Angel Rose sighed as she walked through the dark museum hallways.  She was sure that sooner or later she was going to have to deal with the demon's pawn, but for the moment she was safe.  She could focus her efforts on finding the Unicorn.         “I think we should split up,” she said, glancing back at Rose Petal.  “Cover more ground.  This place is huge and you can make far greater time than I can.”         The tatterdemalion nodded, disengaging herself from Angel's back.  “Be careful, Angel.  The Unicorn is likely to be scared.  It may not recognize you as a force for good.”         Angel nodded in reply and started off towards the next hallway, a section on science and industry.  As she walked, her mind rolled over and over on how she had gotten to this part of her life. *        *        *         She is thirteen years old, and her parents are gone.  Dead to a fire that ravaged her countryside home just outside of a town called Ponyville.  She is left on the streets, begging for her next meal and praying for anypony to take mercy on her, but nopony does.  Ponies are more interested in their own lives, not caring to look at the poor orphan.         She is reduced to having to steal to eat.  She digs through the trash, taking what she can.  She learns how to scrounge, how to ration her food.  She learns how to survive.  She lives on her own for three years before her life changes for good.         She is sixteen, and walking through the park on a sunny day.  She carries her bags, stolen from a local store, where she keeps her provisions.  She decides to take a break and eat her lunch.  She sits across from the fountain, keeping her distance from the other ponies.  They don't bother her and she doesn't bother them.         Then she hears the shouting.  Her gaze shoots up across the park and there is several law enforcement ponies heading her way.  Standing behind them is a shop owner she recognizes.  They look angry.  Likely she had been noticed stealing something from the store the owner belongs to.         She decides to run, leaving behind her lunch.  There isn't any time to pick it up.  She would have to get more later.  Her stomach rumbles as she thunders across the park, trying to lose the police ponies.  She dips into the deep woods and keeps going until she doesn't even know where she is anymore.  She slows down, realizing the police aren't even following her anymore.         Her eyes widen, and she panics.  She is lost.  She glances around, the gloomy forest rising around her.  She realizes where she is.  The Everfree Forest.  It is a place the ponies of Ponyville warn against going into.  They say that ponies disappear inside of it.         She keeps walking forward, hopeful that if she moves in a straight line she can hit the other edge of the forest without issue.  As she walks, the ground begins to slope downward, carrying her into a small valley.  The trees become more dense, and it is hard for her to see anything beyond them.         Suddenly up ahead there is a dwelling, a shack of some sort.  She cannot believe her eyes.  Somepony living out in the middle of the dark forest?  She makes her way cautiously forward, glancing warily at the masks laying in front of the dwelling's doorway.         The door opens as she approaches, nearly terrifying her into running away, but she decides to stand her ground.  She is hopeful whoever lives here and help her get out of the forest.  An equine form steps outside and she gasps.  It looks like a pony, but instead of a colorful coat it bears white and black stripes.  The other equine's piercing green eyes look her up and down and she nods solemnly.         “You must have many questions I think,” the other equine says in her rough deep voice.  “Come inside and take a drink."         She blinks.  Did she just... rhyme?  “Who... who are you?” she asks hesitantly.         “I belong to she that protects all in the light, the one who gives her champions righteous might,” the other equine says.  “But if you had to place a label, you may call me Zecora if you are able.”         “Um... what are you doing all the way out here by yourself?” she asks.  “Isn't it dangerous out here?”         “I have been waiting for somepony special like yourself.  Come in, sit and rest, you will need your health,” Zecora replies, motioning to the inside of her shack.         She nods.  She is very tired and hungry from all the running.  She isn't sure if she can trust this Zecora, but somehow deep down she knows she isn't going to hurt her.  She follows inside, sitting where Zecora motions.         “Poor orphan of the street, the Lady knows your plight.  She seeks one as strong as you to take up the fight,” Zecora says.         “What?  What do you mean?” she says.  She averts her eyes.         “You are the one called Angel Rose,” Zecora says.  “Yes, the Lady knows.  She sees all you have been through, and she has much to offer you.”         “I... I'm not anything special,” she says.  “I'm not strong.”         “Ah but strength comes from deep inside,” Zecora replies.  “All you have to do is look where it hides.”         She looks down at her hooves.  Is she really strong?  All she seems to do is take, take, take.  But the world took her parents from her.  She is angry, having had to spent three years on her own.  She looks back up Zecora and her voice croaks.         “Why me?  Who is this Lady?  Why does she want me?”         “The answers you seek are found outside, they do not try to run and hide,” Zecora says, pointing beyond outside of the shack and into the forest.         She follows the motion, and her eyes widen.  The Lady is there. *        *        *         Angel Rose kept moving through the dark museum, wondering if she had made the right choice in following the tatterdemalion, in coming there.  The Lady never did anything without purpose, and she truly believed in the cause of the Word, so why would she be questioning it?         She pushed forward, renewed in her determination.  She had to find the Unicorn.  It was the only thing she could do.  She couldn't question her mission.  If the demon acquired the Unicorn's magic, the results would be terrifying for the entire world.  The balance would be shifted greatly.         Angel made a left turn, trekking into an exhibit on modern art.  There were very few ponies there, and none of them looked like a Unicorn, but there was something about the room that called to her.  She somehow knew in the back of her mind that was where she would find her quarry.  She wasn't sure how she knew this, possibly some part of the magic she had at her disposal as a Knight of the Word, but she wasn't about to ignore it.         She entered the hall, making several stops along the way before settling in front of a large painting of the kingdom of Equestria.  It showed the world for what it used to be, a gleaming symbol of hope and love.  The Void had done its best to break that image down, only slowed by the efforts of the Word and the inherent goodness of ponykind.         “It's beautiful, isn't it?” a voice said from next to her.  “The colors, the shapes.  Everything about it makes you wish for that time.”         Angel's eyes drifted to the mare next to her.  She was a soft lavender in color, her mane a deep purple with a pink stripe running through it.  She wore a pair of glasses that made her look... dignified.  Her eyes widened.  There was something else about her.  Something she couldn't place a hoof on.  At the bare edges of her vision, there was a... a shimmer.  A glamour of some sort was surrounding this mare.         But... that could only mean... she thought, trying to parse what she was seeing.         Magic.  It could only mean magic.  Which meant that this mare was who she had been searching for.         “I... Yes...” Angel said, realizing the other mare expected a response from her.  She had to be careful.  She didn't want the Unicorn to think she was there to capture her.  “It's quite lovely.”         “I greatly enjoy pieces like this.  They make me feel very nostalgic,” the other mare replied.  Her gaze narrowed at Angel as she took in her appearance.  Her eyes rested on Angel's staff.  “So.  It's like that then, is it?  You know what I am?”         Angel grimaced, but nodded.  All caution had been thrown out of the window.  She had been found out.  “I was sent to find you by the Lady.  You know of my staff of office.  You know what I am.”         “A Knight of the Word,” the other mare said.  “I haven't seen one of your kind in a very long time.  What do you want with me?”         “You are in danger,” Angel said.  “A powerful demon is here in the city looking for you.  The Lady sent me to protect you.”         The other mare's eyes closed briefly and her body shimmered.  The glamour dropped, revealing a mare that looked exactly the same but instead had a horn protruding from her head.         “Clever disguise.  Why don't you change what you look like?” Angel asked.         “I like how I look.  Simply disguising my horn lets me travel among the earth ponies without cause for alarm.  I've only dispelled the glamour for you.  Everypony else can only see me as an earth pony,” the other mare answered.  “This demon you speak of.  What is he and why does he want me?”         “He's one of the Void's greatest servants,” Angel said.  “He wants your magic, which I had thought your race had all but forgotten.”         “Mostly.  I am... well... special,” the other mare said, indicating the cutie mark on her flank.  It consisted of a purple star, set amidst several smaller white stars.  “My special talent is... well.. it's magic.”         “I see.  If that is the case, then it's easy to understand why this demon wants you,” Angel said.  “I hate to say this but things are going to get a lot more difficult from here on in.”         The other mare frowned, but nodded.  “I understand.  I guess I should introduce myself then.  My name is Twilight Sparkle of the Unicorn Kingdom of Celestite.”         “Angel Rose, Knight of the Word,” Angel said.  “I came here with a friend, a tatterdemalion by the name of Rose Petal.  She's somewhere else in the museum.  We should find her and get out of here.  I suspect I have been followed by an agent of the demon.  He may not know you're here, but he will soon.”         Twilight grimaced.  “In that case, we had better be moving.”