Grey. That was all that could be seen. Thick grey clouds covered the sky, choking out all the light from Celestia's sun. The land was nothing but grey stone covered with black ash like the mouth of a hellish volcano. No plants. No animals. No life. No magic. Only a deathly silence, a herald that chilled the bones of the seven Equestrians as they stepped through the portal into the forgotten land.
"W-What happened here?" Fluttershy asked, wrapping her green jacket tighter around herself as a cold breeze washed over her.
"Nopony knows," Twilight sighed, taking in the dead landscape with sad eyes. "According to legend, this used to be a bountiful paradise, rivaling only modern Equestria in magical and technological advancements. Then, one day, all the magic in the land started to die. The creatures living here slowly started to fade away until nothing was left. The end result is what we're looking at right now."
As she said that she turned to face her nervous friends, each seemingly ready for a ghost to appear.
"After what happened with Cozy Glow, I'm afraid that the same thing could happen to Equestria. So, to prevent that, we are going to figure out what happened here. Fluttershy and Starlight are going to come with me to the north. AJ, you go with Pinkie to the east and Rainbow and Rarity will go west. After an hour has passed, return to the portal and we'll relay what we've learned. Understood?"
Grimly everyone nodded.
"Good," she nodded, then turned towards the north.
"You sure it's a good idea to split up?" Starlight asked, unnerved by her friend's cold attitude as she walked.
She nodded, then, with a sad smile said, "It should be fine. The dead can't hurt ponies."
***
Rarity took in her surroundings with a somber frown, not sure what it was she was supposed to be looking for as she walked through the barren wasteland. She couldn't help it. Everything just seemed so dead to her. It was unnerving, but also peaceful in a morbid sort of way. Cold empty wind scattered pitch-black ash like grains of umbral sand across the landscape, filling all who saw them with a sense of futility. It was like staring through the gates to the land of the dead, an apt description all things considered.
"It's so quiet," she said, tone hollow as she stared into the abyss. "Do you really think Equestria could've become like this?"
Rainbow was silent, unusually somber as she scanned their surroundings from a slightly higher vantage point above Rarity. Though she didn't want to admit it, she as scared. No. She was terrified as she felt the dead air grace her wings. It felt strangled, like the dying gasps of the land's long dead inhabitants moved across it instead of ordinary air. It told her to run, to never take flight in it again.
"I hope not," she gulped, lowering herself back to the ground. "I-I don't think I could take it."
A lead weight settled into the white Unicorn's gut at the slight tremble she heard in her friend's voice. If her normally brash and fearless friend was scared, then things were far bleaker then she thought. With a barely audible gulp, she scanned the horizon for anything worth investigating. She was rewarded for her trouble as she spotted a black mass about fifty feet away from them.
"What's that?" she asked, turning towards the mass in the distance.
"Don't know," Rainbow frowned. "But we should probably check it out."
Nodding, Rarity walked towards the mass, Rainbow guarding her flank as they slowly closed in on it. After half an hour of total silence, they reached the mass. What they saw filled them with morbid fascination. It was a forest, or what was left of one at least. Tall black trees reached for the sky like giant burnt matchsticks, limbs barren of leaves or any other forms of foliage. Rarity took a step towards the dead forest, eyes locked onto the once great monuments of life as she took in every detail. As she started to enter, a sharp tug on her tail made her stop and turn. Rainbow had her tail in her mouth, eyes wide with terror as she practically dragged her friend away from the forest.
"Rainbow what-"
"No Rarity!" Rainbow yelled around her friend's tail, still pulling her with everything she had. "Their's something seriously not right about this place!"
"W-What do you mean?" she asked, taking several voluntary steps away from the forest's borders.
"I don't know," she shivered, staring at the dead tree line like it was a coiled snake. "But something tells me if we go in their we won't come out."
Slowly, she looked back and forth between the forest and her friend, then nodded.
"V-Very well, if you think it's too dangerous, then we shall leave it be."
"Thanks Rarity," she sighed.
With a smile, she once again lead the charge as they walked away from the deadwood forest. Once they stepped out of sight, a breeze passed through the trees. Slowly, they began to crumble away into dust, filling the air with black ash as the forest vanished in a cloud of ebony.
***
Pinkie and Applejack walked in total silence, neither sure what to make of what they discovered. Was it cruel irony that the two farmers found themselves on a dead farm? It wasn't just a farm that they found of course, as the shadows of an abandoned town could be seen in the distance as they walked. The oppressive emptiness around them felt like a suffocating tomb that drained the life out of them. Neither of them were willing to break the silence out of respect for those no longer among them, but were desperate for some sign of life to help them retain their sanity. Even Pinkie's seemingly unbreakable cheer had died when they stepped onto the farmland, her mane and tail limp and lifeless as her eyes drank in her surroundings.
"This is almost like back home."
Applejack flinched at the sudden break in the silence as she turned her head towards her friend.
"Only," she continued, tone as bleak as her surroundings. "The ground isn't this empty. It was gray and lonely, but the earth always had a pulse. A heartbeat. Something to help us make the rocks grow. But here....."
"Ah know what ya mean," Applejack sighed somberly. "It's like Ah'm walking on sheet metal and still tryin' ta' grow a tree. It just don't feel right."
Pinkie nodded, and stopped.
At some point the two had managed to wander towards the farm's main house. The wooden structure was battered and cracked, but still stable. Whether that was a product of brilliant craftsmanship or dumb luck was a mystery that neither pony was willing to devote their time to for very long as they entered. The interior didn't fair any better then the exterior as gray and battered walls and furniture greeted them. Everything looked as if nature and time meticulously took its time on the building like a sadistic predator picking apart their prey, starting with the least vital pieces before going for the kill.
As they explored, they took some comfort in the familiar sound of hooves on hard wood as they walked. It was a welcome change from the gentle whistle of the wind and harsh grind of hoof on stone. It was a better alternative to the cold silence that threatened to crush them. When Pinkie stopped in front of an open door, dread ran down Applejack's back. The heartbreak she saw on her face as she approached her felt like a knife to the gut and when she looked inside the room herself, that knife was twisted in slow intervals.
It was a children's room filled with toys and childish drawings of things that were a normal part of youth. All of it had been damaged by the ravages of time and what could be called nature in this dead world. Stuffed animals laid scattered across the floor, stuffing falling out of gaping holes like the entrails of a resent kill. The pictures clung to the walls by the flimsiest of tape, their paper bodies yellowed with age and neglect as their art was all but faded away. But what brought tears to the mare's eyes was what stood at the heart of the room; a crib. Like a monument to everything lost in this world, it stood with tattered sheets and rotted wood against the passages of time by a will all its own. It reminded them that the dead land they treaded through used to have life, and that not all of it was long.
"Let's git," Applejack said, tone somber as she turned and walked away from the sight.
Pinkie nodded, but before she left she entered the room, reached into her mane, took out a cupcake, and gently placed it into the crib.
"For however many birthdays you had," she said, a sad smile making it past her tears.
With that, she left the room. Again the room fell into its familiar silence, then a wet smack filled the air as a portion of the offered treat vanished.
***
Starlight took in her dead surroundings with guilty eyes as they moved, the silent city seeming to judge her. Twilight and Fluttershy noticed this, but while Fluttershy didn't know what to do Twilight had an idea of what was going through the mare's head.
"It reminds me of that timeline too," she sighed, putting a wing over the shame-ridden Unicorn as they walked. "But you didn't do this."
"How do you know?" she said, tone trembling as she looked around. "I screwed with the laws of time Twilight. I could've been what tore the magic out this land."
"The legend of the Dead Kingdom is twenty-thousand years old Starlight. You didn't go even close to far enough back to do this."
"I could've done this to Equestria," she sniffled, tears starting to trail down her face.
Twilight held her close, doing what she could to ease the mare's pain as they moved. Suddenly, a set of yellow feathers joined lavender as Fluttershy took the side opposite Twilight and added her own wing to the embrace. Starlight smiled and eased into the warmth the two wings offered as they navigated the empty city streets.
Twilight could tell from the grandiose structure of the ruins they passed that this was not just a simple city. After all her years living in Canterlot, it was easy for her to identify a capital city. As she walked she kept her eyes peeled for any building that looked like it would house a form of central government, all the while distancing herself from the devastation that surrounded her. It was only thanks to Fluttershy that both her and her former student were able to stay stable. When it looked like they were going to fall to the gloom that surrounded them, the yellow Pegasus would give them a comforting wing and a gentle smile. A simple act, but one that distracted them from the perpetual despair that seemed to rise from the ground like smoke from a flame. Suddenly, a wave of grim nostalgia came over her as a sight in the distance caught her attention. The tall remains of a castle on a hill just outside the city's border.
With a gentle nudge, she gestured towards the ruin with a nod and with trepidation in their eyes they nodded. Even though they couldn't stand to be on this dead land any longer then they needed to, they still wanted to know what happened to the creatures. And what better place to get some answers then the land's royal library? Still held close together, they moved towards the abandoned castle ruin, hope for answers slowly dwindling as they approached. When they were a foot away from the ruin, it finally died as they took in what stood before them. What they thought was a vast castle was in actually a castle's protective outer-wall, it's mote and drawbridge rendered useless by the passage of time and whatever fate befell the kingdom. The mote was filled with black ash while the bridge was broken and rotted to oblivion. What they thought was the castle's main towers were nothing more then guard towers built into the crumbling castle defenses.
But that held little interest for the three mares. What did was an inscription carved into the stone over the threshold.
Beware the Basilisk's breath, for it turns the hardest stone to ash.
Beware the Basilisk's gaze, for it stops the hearts of those meets it's yellow light.
Beware the Basilisk's blood, for it takes life crueler than the most wicked of poisons.
All hale the Basilisk King! The king of Destruction! The king of the End!
The three mares stared at the ominous message with wide eyes, dread filling their hearts as they stared into the open threshold. Trembling, Twilight took a step towards the ruined castle gates, her friends in much the same state as they followed. When they stepped through, they were greeted by a new dreary sight. Remnants of walls and hallways dotted the the gray landscape along with fragments of a long lost vaulted ceiling, its absence giving them a perfect view of the dark gray sky above them. At its heart, they saw a huge black and grey circular mass, like an alter. Curious, they approached it, each holding themselves close with a wing for comfort. What they saw chilled them to the bone.
Bodies. Countless reptilian bodies trapped in cold gray stone laid curled like sleeping cats before a polished throne of pitch-black onyx. Each of them resembled a teenage Dragon, at least in terms of size and general shape. Their bodies were more sleek and serpentine with folded spikes starting on the crowns of their heads that went down their spines and terminated at the end of their tails. They all held peaceful expressions, like they could wakeup at any moment from the sweetest of dreams. But the ponies knew that that would never happen and the knowledge tore them apart inside. What sat on the throne, however, turned that sorrow into pure dread.
It was a creature, much like the ones sleeping at its throne, only much larger and more muscular. If it sat upright, it would've been the same hight as Princess Celestia. Instead, the creature sat with a defeated wilt, its dragonic face pointed at the ground as if in prayer or shame. It's scales were a brilliant marble gray and looked as dense as plate mail as the the ever present cold breezes around them washed black ash across them. Deep cracks spiderwebbed out from under its eyes like jagged tears down to its upper jaw. It was the sight of a creature of great power, but immense grief in equal measure as well.
The ponies stepped back from the sight, blood turned to ice in the face of such darkness. Fluttershy was the first to break, as she ran away from the creature with terrified eyes drenched with tears. Twilight saw her and ran to catch up with her, her own fear looking for an excuse to escape the scene. Only Starlight stayed, her eyes locked with the creature's as a wave of sadness mixed with her fear. She could see the power presented in the monster's presence, but also the grief that seemed to devour it from the inside out. She approached the creature, careful to not step on the "sleeping" beings coiled around the throne and placed a hoof on the base of the spines on its head.
"I'm sorry," she said, tears falling down her muzzle.
With that, she turned and walked away, slowly following her friends out of the fallen kingdom. With her absence, the doomed throne fell back into silence. Then, a dull snap broke the din, the sound of stiffened joints finally being put to use for the first time in years. All the while, the gray creature raised its head and opened its golden eyes. With a dull hiss, it opened its mouth to release a black haze as it rose to its full stature. With a dull roar of a yawn, it filled the air with a series of snaps as its long slept body awakened. With saddened eyes, the creature beheld its fallen people, the cracks under its eyes seeming to deepen as it stared. With a pained grunt, it tore its eyes away from the sight and scanned its surroundings. It took a deep breath of the empty air, and a faint smile graced its lips.
"It has come," it said, voice a deep, rumbling growl. "Finally. Magic has come to the Kingdom of Styx."