//------------------------------// // Prologue - Ignorance is Bliss, but Knowledge is Power! // Story: Adventures in Fanfiction: Equestria // by Hot Blooded Hero //------------------------------// Prologue - Ignorance is Bliss, but Knowledge is Power “It’s… a hole,” my friend said bluntly after a few moments of silence. “I can see that, Aleister,” I deadpanned. “The question is how did it get there?” “Uh, someone dug it, duh.” “Oh, get snarky back, huh? Well that settles it then, your going down first.” “Nuh uh, I’m not going. You first, it’s dark and you have the flashlight, so you’re our only source of vision.” “Alright, fine ya Scootaloo.” Then I jumped into the hole. Let’s pause here for a sec. I should probably explain what’s happening a little more before I go into too much detail and can‘t stop myself. Now you might be asking, "Why the hell would this idiot jump into a deep dark hole he found in his backyard?" And the answer is simple. I lack common sense. Also, here's how my logic puts it. If something digs a hole the size of a human, and it's dug out well, then that must mean something cool is down the hole. I should introduce myself and my friend before I go any further. My name is Jasper, Jasper Landers. I’m a short, slightly chubby Filipino (I’m pretty sure that most of it‘s muscle mass). I’m an intelligent, young 15-year-old, but some say that I have a huge ego. Although, honestly, I have no idea what they’re talking about. I’m just naturally awesome, and they say I’m a narcissist. Pfft, whatever. They’re always full of it. You may know me from just now when I introduced you to who I am. My friend mentioned above is Aleister Pinkerton. He’s a tall, skinny Ginger. He’s also a quite intelligent 15-year-old, and is (only sometimes) more knowledgeable in certain subjects than I am. He may also go into long lectures, during which, he’ll gain an English accent for some reason. You may recognize him from the same place. That day was known as the most important day of my life so far. Not particularly the best day but still very important. It started off normal, friend came over, we hung out, the usual. Then a freakin’ glowing arrow appeared on the floor in front of us. It was pointing to the backdoor, and when we moved, it moved with us. So we followed it out to the backyard. Eventually, it led us to the top of the large hill way out back, where a wooden hatch was buried in the grass. We went back to the house, grabbed some supplies, pried the hatch open and here’s where we are now. Well, not me, I’m way ahead of you. I’m just waiting for you to catch up in the story. So, let’s get back to it, shall we? “WOOOO- oof!” I finally hit the floor after going down a long dirt slide. It was fun, except for the skid marks on my butt. “Hey Aleister! It only sort of hurts, but it’s fun! Come on down!” “Can you see anything dangerous down there?” He shouted back. “Hmm…” I looked around to see if there was. Then I turned on the flashlight and tried again. The entrance room was well carved out. The walls looked really, really smooth. The floor, unlike the entrance slide, was almost completely free of stray pebbles. It was almost like the room was maintained regularly. It was still dark without my flashlight shining, however. “Nothing pops out to me! It’s safe!” After a brief “WHEEEE- oof!”, I felt something kick me to the ground. It hurt, it was heavy, and it was red-headed. “Ah, dammit, Aleister! Get off!” "Well maybe you should've moved away from the entrance. Where are we?” “Do you have to keep asking the obvious? Were in a cave.” “You don't have to be rude. I meant, what is this place for? And how do we leave? Obviously not the way we came.” “Well, let’s follow the deep, dark tunnel that leads straight down to see if we can find a way out.” I pointed to said tunnel. He reluctantly agreed, then we started our long, 30-second walk that took us to a large, well-lit chamber. The chamber seemed empty at first glance, with the same maintenance quality as the entrance. It was also a dead end, but then we took a closer look around the room. I would’ve made some sort of remark, but that was when number one on my list of most painful headaches came to the both of us. Hanging from the ceiling was the source of light for the chamber, but looking directly at the object could cause you to go blind. The object in question was a massive crystal formation. If you’ve ever seen the movie Chronicle, it’s kinda like that, only smaller, brighter, and upside down. Just looking near it gave me, and I assumed Aleister, a massive migraine. That’s the moment we learned everything. Well, mostly everything, and only of the important stuff. A voice started whispering into our minds at a mile a minute. Secrets… guidelines… a history… memories that weren’t ours… some prophecy, and… the presence. The sudden feeling that we were being watched, like some connection to God or something. Every moment I spent near the crystal, the more I learned. It wasn’t like I had a choice though, I couldn’t move due to the paralyzing pain. The crystal forced every piece of secret knowledge that the Multi-verse had straight into our minds. Heh, what? You just want me to tell you the greatest secrets that the Multi-verse has to offer? I was actually getting to that before you so rudely interrupted me. Anyway, we learned that before the Multi-verse was created, there were ancient astral beings known as the Gods Above Prime (well, it’s really Gods and Goddesses Above Prime, but I like to shorten things, ya know). Some we know, some we’ve never heard of. These Gods constantly experimented with different sets of physics within their cosmic plane, and one of them had the idea that they would create all of these separate planes of existence with different sets of physical laws to see how non-immortals could adapt to them. So, the Gods assigned themselves several sets of laws and set out to govern their own planes of existence. We know these planes as Universes. As they started to build their Universes, a common phenomena began to take place. The universes started to ‘give birth’ to other Universes, or Alternates. These Alternates were the product of Choices being made within the original Universes, now dubbed Primes (hence the title Gods Above Prime). These Choices are basically any other option that anything in existence ever had. For example, the many directions that the wind could blow count as Choices of Nature, and even the smallest choices produce Alternates. In turn, these Alternates began spewing Alternates of their own, and so on and so forth . Unfortunately, the problem with the Alternates forming at such a fast rate meant that the Universes never had time to form their physical laws on their own, which they pick up from the Prime. This left the Alternates unstable and very explosive, so explosive, in fact, that they would destroy any Universe around them and cause a chain reaction and can destroy the Primes if the reaction reaches. In order to keep these all of these Universes stable while the physical laws, the Gods Above Prime created a species called Dimensional Magi (or DM for short). The DM are able to pause Universes while leaving their development to continue. This allows for the physic sets to form without the Universe exploding and also temporarily halts Choices from being made. However DMs must constantly observe Universes to keep them stable, and since there are infinite Choices, there are near infinite Universes, thus near infinite DMs. DMs have powers that allow them to travel all dimensions (the physics kind, not just the realms) with a special magic that warps Dimensional Energy (DE), an aura signature that the Multi-verse uses to identify where and when you‘re from and where and when you currently are, I‘ll explain more later. However, we currently only know of 5: Length, Height (yes, DMs can fly, sorta), Width, Time, and Reality. There are possibly more, but not even the Multi-verse can figure out all of its own secrets. I’ll go into further depth on a DM’s powers later, but for now I’ll continue with the history lesson. Anyways, after a while, one DM discovered that if he used his powers right, he could absorb the DE of other DMs, which increased his own abilities. After becoming aware of this, he became corrupt with the ideas of how his powers could be used. Eventually, he plotted to overthrow the Gods Above Prime by stealing DE from DMs and killing them off to allow the Alternates to go unstable and start the chain reaction. The Gods Above Prime, however, took notice of this and immediately stripped the corrupt DM of his power. Unfortunately, because of his DE hoarding, when he was stripped of the DM power, his body wasn’t used to the DE loss and became a DE vacuum (see: black hole) in order to satisfy itself. The Gods tried to seal this on their power alone, but found the vacuum to be too strong. So, millions upon millions of DMs stepped up to sacrifice their selves to create the ultimate weapon: The Elements. These are not the Elements of Harmony, although those 6 are part of The Elements. The Elements are a 4-part weapon system that consists of various jewelry, armor, and weaponry. Three of these four parts are made of thousands of different components (components which the Elements of Harmony are apart of). After the sealing of the corrupt DM, these components were then scattered across all of the Multi-verse for security. The fourth part, which is a weapon that takes many forms called the Song of The Elements, was placed in a specific area of every Universe where any version of a certain chosen figure could find it in case the evil DM somehow came back for revenge, I‘ll explain more later. The Gods Above Prime then decided that DM power was too precious to put in the hands of so many, corruptible beings. So, the Gods chose a select few of the DMs and increased their power to the point where they could keep many Universes stable at once without having to constantly moniter them. This allowed the DMs to live mortal lives and eventually forget about their heritage. Then, the evil DM came back somehow, and that’s where the prophecy comes in. The voice suddenly spoke much clearer, and it was feminine. And kinda cute. An ancient corruption, back from its seal. Four pieces needed to renew the deal. A weapon wielded by an age old bloodline. To travel Space, Reality, and Time. But if this evil is allowed to go free Death and destruction is all that will be. So now that you have been given your task It’s all up to you as one of the last. The headache had finally subsided, and we we’re trying to digest what the hell the voice just said. I finally spoke up after a long silence. “Huh?” Oh Gods- Aleister there is one of the last in the line of DMs that I told you about before! Now he’s the chosen one and has to travel through Time, Space, and Reality to gather some ancient artifacts while armed with this artifact here! There was a flash of light, and a REALLY fancy looking katana clattered unceremoniously to the ground. The Song of The Elements, in katana form. Now take that, and the knowledge I gave you and go save the freakin’ Multi-verse. “Wait, Aleister’s the chosen one? He’s the one who saves the Multi-verse? Not me? Then why the hell is the writer saying differently?!… Wait, what did I say?” You’re utilizing your new found knowledge. And yes, he’s the chosen one, not you. Your just an extra. Mortals can’t possibly be real heroes. “Then why the hell is this info crystal located in my buckin’ backyard!?” A simple mistake. In fact, Aleister was supposed to find this in his backyard years ago. Now Aleister, grab the Song of The Elements and it shall bind to you and take you both outside. *Sigh* “Alright, go ahead, Al. At least I’ll be along for the ride.” “Now hold on a sec, Jasper,” Aleister started. “Where does it say that we can’t split the prophecy?” What do you mean? “What I mean is that the Song of The Elements binds with the first user it touches, right?” Well, yes, but- “Then, who’s to say that Jasper can’t be the Song Bearer?” B-But… He’s just a mere mortal. He’s unfit! “I was mortal too before you showed me my heritage, and suddenly that makes me worthy? Who are you to decide that?” I am the personal messenger of the Gods Above, Below, and Within Prime, more specifically the God of this one! “So what if you work for the author? That still doesn’t mean you have any authority- Oh God, are we breaking what I think we’re breaking?” “That’s going to make our lives much more creepy.” “Whatever. Can you even do anything to stop us? Seeing as you’re a giant glowing crystal?” Well… I could… blind you? Aleister pulled out a pair of dark shades. “Try me.” “Aleister, where did you get those?” “It's some sort of summoning Hammerspace. Comes with the new powers, I think. Here’s a pair, now go grab that Song.” Aleister tossed me a pair which I proceeded to put on, then I charged for the gleaming sword beneath the crystal. The crystal yelled for me to stop and got brighter. It didn’t faze me, so I just grabbed the katana. It glowed for a second, then disappeared. I guess it merged with me or something. Then we sorta… faded out of there. It was weird. The next thing I knew, we we’re standing back at the top of the large hill, just next to the hole. “You think it’s kinda Mary Sueish that we’re not freaking out about this?” I asked. “Yeah, but we did just get a whole-lot smarter. I kinda feel like I should’ve known all of this stuff all along,” my red-headed friend replied. “Yeah… me too. *Claps* So, where do we go first?” “Well, I have an idea, but we can’t go to any Primes. That means no canon worlds.” “What was the idea anyway?” “Where do our favorite technicolored equines live?” “OH HELL YEAH! But… Hm.” “Yeah, I know.” After a few moments of silence, I came up with the best idea I’ve ever had. *Snap* “I got it! I bucking got it!” “What, what’s your idea?” “Easy, we go to fanon Universes!” “You mean… Alternates?” “Exactly!” “That’s… brilliant!” “I know! Brohoof!” He returned the gesture, and we left for my house to get my laptop.