//------------------------------// // Prologue 1: Arrival // Story: A Legend in his own time // by Midnight Everlasting //------------------------------// Prologue 1 Arrival ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SCREE-CRACK! With a devestating noise, a building fell cleanly in half. A dragon scowled at the remains of the skyscraper, trying to find his foe among the dust and debris. A moment later, a spot of black shot up and landed on the dragon's snout. A boy who looked around 19, with brown hair, pale olive skin and crimson eyes, wearing a black trench coat with a purple shirt and blue jeans underneath, chuckled and wagged a finger at the dragon. "Naughty boy," he said. "Didn't your mother ever teach you to respect others' property?" The dragon roared in response and flung the boy of his nose. The young man flipped once and landed gracefully in mid air, apparently standing on nothing. "Well, I guess it's right down to business as usual. Ugh, boring." The young man's face grew serious and he pulled his right hand back behind him. It flashed orange, then blue, then purple and he threw his arm forward. A massive shadow hand appeared around the dragon, crushing it's wings and lifting it into the air. The boy raised his hand and the shadow mimiced his movements perfectly. He nodded, then threw the dragon high into the atmosphere. It took a good three seconds to right itself, but by then it was far too late. The boy drew a circle in the air with his finger, leaving a trail of black behind it. When the circle was completed, it shined a menacing red. "Chaos Star, Light!" The young man shouted. With a roar like a powerful hurricane, a single beam of black light shot into the sky, cleaving the dragon in two. The giant lizard gave a weak roar and exploded into a shower of yellow energy. Sighing, the boy turned and flew back to the ground, where he was immediately rushed by a large group of people. "Yeah, Trace!" "WOOO! I LOVE YOU MAN!" "That was so awesome! Daddy, get closer!" A sea of joyful citizens swarmed around Trace as he tried to wade his way off the street. He waved happily, but began to scowl as he realized he had stopped moving. With a shrug, he went to snap his fingers. With a small ping, he began to teleport... and tripped on a bike that had been laying in the road. Distracted, Trace lost his focus and the spell went haywire. 'Oh boy,' thought Trace. 'Here we go.' The squishy, colorless ooze that filled the space between dimensions flowed past the boy as it had a thousand times before. After a moment, the colors parted and Trace was spit out of the portal at a ridiculous speed. With no time to prepare, he braced himself for the coming impact... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Delicious!" Declared a marshmallow white unicorn, who had just taken a sip of tea. "This is by far the most invigorating tea I've had, Princess!" "I'm glad you think so, Miss Rarity," said a much taller alabaster Alicorn. "Sweet Leaf will be overjoyed to hear you like it." An equally tall and elegant dark blue Alicorn landed next to her sister. A lavender unicorn jumped off her back and sat down on the other side of the Princess of the Sun, looking a little windswept but otherwise happy. "Thanks for inviting us here today, Princesses," she said breathlessly. "It was our pleasure, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said. "I take you enjoyed the ride?" The unicorn nodded vigorously. "I had never imagined that flying was that... exhilerating!" Twilight giggled. "I'm so glad you are enjoying yourselves, girls. I'm still not sure how Pinkamenia found a way to squeeze so much free time out of our busy schedules to have this evening..." Celestia said thoughtfully. Said pink ball of energy appeared behind the Sun Princesses flowing mane. "There's always time for a party, silly! I just had to ask my friends to give you the day off!" Pinkie said happily. "Just how many ponies do y'all know 'round 'ere, sugarcube?" Applejack chimed in, joining the group on the hill. "How many friends does one pony need?" Pinkie trotted over and poked the orange farm pony on the nose. "Haha, that's a good one Applejack!" She replied. "You can never have too many friends!" "Speaking of friends, where are Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy?" Twilight asked. She was greeted with a series of shrugs and shaking heads. She sighed and was about to set about looking for the pegasi when a rainbow blur dashed into the garden and screeched to a halt in front of the group. "Ha! Ten seconds flat, just like I said!" The cyan pegasus celebrated, her normally wild rainbow mane even more unstyled than usual. A few moments later, a meek cream-yellow pegasus walked in through the gate. "That was amazing Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy 'shouted', which came out as an elevated whisper. "I could just... yay!" the pegasus raised a hoof, then made her way over to the others, who had all begun to nibble on a platter of pastries. When the winged ponies joined them in relaxing, Twilight let out a contented sigh. "This has been the best day ever," she said confidently. She looked up Celestia with a smile, which slowly became a confused scowl. "What's the matter, my little pony?" the Princess asked, looking up into the sky behind her head. Nothing seemed out of place... "I can't identify that star," she said simply, pointing to a small purple light that pulsed slowly. "Did you just add that, Princess Luna?" The dark Alicorn shook her head and began to reply when a high pitched whine met their ears. The star pulsed faster and grew in size. After a moment, there was a shockwave that knocked all the ponies off their feet, followed by a heavy wind. "Stay behind me, girls!" Celestia cried, quickly erecting a barrier in front of the six fillies, her sister and herself. The wind and noise intensified and a void appeared in the center of the pulsing star. Faster than Rainbow dash could say "20% cooler", something shot out of the mouth of the void. It streaked across the sky and smashed into the hill. Large cracks appeared in Princess Celestia's shield, but it held. As quickly as it had come, the void and the purple star were suddenly gone. The wind died down and the noise stopped. As the debris cleared away, the ponies beheld a strange sight: some sort of mutant diamond dog, wearing a long coat. As one, the group made their way forward. When the dust had completely cleared, the thing stood up, and the group jumped back, all except for Celestia. Trace stood and rubbed his head, which like many of his body parts was bleeding. He was woozy, losing blood fast and void-sick. He turned to see eight multicolored horses staring at him in surprise. "Multicolored horses... who can manage to look surprised... and they have wings and horns... it's Indianna all over again." That said, the boy lost conciousness and fell over. The last thing he saw was a blurry lavender shape running towards him.