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// Chapter 1 
// Story: Past Lives and Forgotten Sins 
// by Alabenson 
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	Summer days in the Everfree Forest, the untamed and dangerous wilderness of Equestria, were normally eerily peaceful. The strange creatures that inhabited it preferred to sleep through the summer heat, and the ponies of nearby Ponyville avoided entering the forest unless they absolutely had to. Today, however, the peace of the forest was interrupted by the sounds of three young fillies wandering through the underbrush and arguing loudly.
“Apple Bloom,” one of the fillies, a white unicorn, whined plaintively, “are you sure you know where we’re going? We’ve been walking for hours.”
Her companion, a red-haired earth pony, let out an exasperated sigh. “For th’ hundredth time, Sweetie Belle, Ah know exactly where we’re goin’. Ah overheard Zecora and Twilight talkin’ about this old ruin, and it’s th’ perfect place for us to earn our cutie marks in archeology, right Scootaloo?”
“This is going to be so cool!” exclaimed Scootaloo, a young pegasus filly. “This’ll be just like those Daring Do books Rainbow Dash has been reading!”
As the three friends continued to make their way through the forest, the trees began to thin out, eventually opening into a large, flower-filled clearing. In the center of the clearing, a looming structure rose out of the ground like a giant, stony wart. At one point in the past, the structure might have rivaled the Ponyville town hall in size, but time and the elements had demolished most of the upper levels, apparently leaving only the ground floor intact. The outer walls of the structure were almost entirely covered in vines and moss, with grotesque carvings visible where the walls were clear of vegetation. As soon as the three friends crossed into the clearing, Scootaloo dashed forward, only to for her to be tackled by Apple Bloom.
“Ow! Apple Bloom, what was that for?”
Apple Bloom let out an exasperated sigh as she gestured towards the flowers which filled most of the clearing. “Y’see those flowers, Scootaloo? They’re called poison joke, and y’really need to be careful ‘round them. Th’ last time Applejack ran in to some of them, she shrunk down to the size of a mouse!” 
Scootaloo visibly cringed as she rapidly backed away from the clearing. She knew that Apple Bloom was well acquainted with the hazards of the Everfree Forest thanks to her friendship with the zebra Zecora, and she could still recall the outcome of her idol Rainbow Dash’s last encounter with the insidious flowers. Proceeding with far more caution, the three fillies began to circle the clearing until they were able to find a clear path through the poison joke. Slowly, the trio made their way across the clearing towards the ancient ruin, until finally they reached its shadowy entrance. The trio paused momentarily to unpack the lanterns they had brought with them, and then pressed forward into the ruins.

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“Ugh, this is so boring!” Scootaloo scowled and kicked a loose pile of debris.
“Ah don’t understand, Ah was sure we’d have gotten are cutie marks in archeology by now.” Thus far, the cutie mark crusader’s exploration of the ruin was hardly going as Apple Bloom has planned. The ruin, or at least the parts of it that were still standing, was depressingly empty. All that remained were the elaborate wall carvings, most of which had somehow avoided obliteration by time and the elements, but even those hadn’t been anything like Apple Bloom had imagined. Most of the carvings depicted strange, horrifying creatures composed of different animal parts, while others simply depicted meaningless symbols.
Sweetie Belle walked around the remains of a broken pillar “Well, what do you think we should try next?” The young filly sighed as she leaned against a nearby wall “maybe we should try-AGH!” Suddenly, the part of the wall Sweetie Belle was leaning against gave way, causing her to fall through to the floor. 
“Sweetie Belle, are y’alright?” Apple Bloom said as she rushed to her friend’s side. Sweetie Belle rubbed her forehead as she stood up unsteadily amidst the rubble of the crumbled remains of the wall. 
“I’m fine, what happened?” She gazed at the hole in the wall where she had broken through. Hidden behind the shattered remains of decaying, ancient masonry was a dark, foreboding tunnel leading deep under the ground. “Girls, come take a look at this!” As Sweetie Belle excitedly gestured for Scootaloo and Apple Bloom to see the tunnel, she craned her neck to see if her discovery had resulted in a cutie mark. Much to her disappointment, however, Sweetie Belle’s flank remained as blank as ever. 
“Wow, Sweetie Belle, you found a secret passage!” Scootaloo pushed past her friends to stare down the long, dark passageway. “Well,” she said, turning to look at her friends, “come on, let’s see what’s down here. It’s gotta be something cool!” Without bothering to wait for either filly to respond, Scootaloo rushed blindly down the tunnel, leaving Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to chase after her. 
As the trio made their way down the dark, winding, corridor, Apple Bloom began to question the wisdom of coming to the ruin in the first place. The flickering light of their lanterns cast eerie shadows across the omnipresent wall carvings, which depicted increasingly disturbing images as they travelled further down the tunnel. Many now portrayed pony villages being tormented and even destroyed by strange monsters of all shapes and sizes. One creature, frequently shown hovering over the worst of the chaos, was particularly familiar to the Ponyville natives.
“Is it just me, or does that thing over there look kinda like a dracona-thingy? Y’know, that statue of Discord we saw on our field trip.” 
“You mean a draconequus?” Sweetie Belle replied, thankful for the conversation, anything to take her mind off of the terrible wall carvings. “I think you’re right, that thing definitely looks like the statue of Discord.” Sweetie Belle frowned as she considered what this could mean about the ruin itself. “Apple Bloom, when you heard Twilight and Zecora talk about this place, what exactly did they say about it?”
“Ah couldn’t make out most of what they were sayin’, but Ah remember that they said it was from somethin’ called th’ pre-classical period.” A lingering memory of the overheard conversation nagged at Apple Bloom, how Twilight had for some reason seemed confused when Zecora initially told her about the ruins. She only had a moment to contemplate this, however, before Scootaloo’s voice called out from further down the passage.
“Hurry up, you two! You’re not going to believe what’s down here!” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, trepidation written on their faces, traded uneasy glances as they hurried down the corridor to see what Scootaloo had discovered. The two rounded a sharp curve in the passageway, before suddenly freezing in their tracks. They found themselves standing in the doorway of a large, circular chamber, unlike anything they had previously seen. In the center of the chamber stood a life-sized statue of what was unmistakably Discord, though it differed greatly from the statue that they had seen in the sculpture gardens, as well as the statue that had been taken back to Canterlot after Discord had been defeated. The statue depicted Discord with an uncharacteristically serious expression, while he held out his eagle-like talon, as though he were holding something back. Even more mysterious than the statue, however, was the portion of the wall that it faced. While the rest of the walls of the chamber were covered with carvings similar to those elsewhere in the ruin, the section that the statue faced was partitioned off, as though it were an arched doorway. Furthermore, any details of that segment of the wall were obscured by a strange blue light, which suffused the room with an unearthly luminescence.
“Wh-what is this place?” Apple Bloom stammered as she entered the otherworldly chamber. “Ah’ve never seen anything like this.”
“I know, isn’t this awesome!” Scootaloo excitedly exclaimed, already deeply engrossed in investigating the glowing section of wall. “What do you think’s up with this thing? It doesn’t feel like the rest of the walls.” The young pegasus gave the glowing wall a demonstrative kick, causing a dull, hollow thud to echo throughout the chamber. 
“Scootaloo, I think we should get out of here. This whole place is really creepy.” Unlike her two companions, Sweetie Belle was hesitant to even enter the underground room, instead lingering near the entrance while looking about nervously. The wall carvings in this room were no less frightening than those she had seen elsewhere in the ruin, and the statue of Discord did nothing to settle Sweetie Belle’s nerves. 
Scootaloo let out a resigned sigh. As much as she was finally enjoying herself, Scootaloo hated to see her friends upset. “All right, we can go, just help me with one thing first.” Scootaloo trotted over to the statue, craning her neck to get a better look at it. “I wanna get a closer look at this statue before we go. Could you two give me a boost?”
“Sure thing,” Apple Bloom said, motioning for Sweetie Belle to help her. While Sweetie Belle was apprehensive about approaching the bizarre statue, she knew that the sooner she helped Scootaloo satisfy her curiosity, the sooner she would at last be able leave the ruins and put the entire, disturbing trip behind her. With that in mind, she hoisted Apple Bloom up onto her back, while Apple Bloom did the same in turn for Scootaloo. The unsteady tower of fillies wobbled alongside the statue, putting Scootaloo nearly at eye level with it. As Scootaloo leaned forward to take an even closer look at the statue’s expression, Sweetie Belle felt her hooves lose their grip on the smooth stone floor. Before she could shout out a warning to her two friends, Sweetie Belle slipped and fell, sending Apple Bloom plummeting to the ground. Scootaloo, however, reflexively grabbed onto the statue’s outstretched arm. She swung back and forth for a few moments, until her additional weight sent the entire statue toppling down, shattering it into hundreds of pieces and scattering broken fragments of stone across the chamber floor. As soon as the statue struck the ground, the air in the chamber pulsed and rippled, while curling ribbons of light streamed forth from the broken statue. Terrified, the three young fillies ran out of the chamber, their high pitched shrieks echoing throughout the ruins. Without a single look back, the trio continued to run blindly out of the ruins themselves, charging madly through the meadow of poison joke into the Everfree Forest and back to Ponyville, all the while screaming in terror.

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Deep within the bowels of the ruins, far below the mysterious chamber the three friends had discovered, a lone, pitiful figure lay motionless on the floor of a cavern. Suddenly, as the ripples of magical energy caused by the statue’s destruction reached its resting place, the figure stirred for the first time in countless years.