Rockhoof awoke in a flurry, his eyes looking around and darting across the landscape in confusion as his brain finally began to process what was going on. The world around him seemed somehow... different that he had previously seen. As he glanced about, memories of what had occurred last flooded back into his mind.
Before he could finish his sentence, what had been thought to be impossible happened. For the first time in 340 million years, Arthur's Seat erupted, a massive cloud of ash spewing from the top of the mountain. Lava began to flow down the sides of the mountain and run towards the city of Edinburgh.
Warning sirens began to blare all across the city, telling people to flee as fast as they could. People ran for their lives, trying to outrun the lava (which was flowing extremely slowly). Given there was no warning, the city didn't have a chance as a pyroclastic surge slammed into it, carrying buildings along like toys and sweeping them into the river.
Rockhoof looked on in horror as the remains of his village and the neighbouring city were swallowed up by lava and molten rock. He was powerless to stop the ensuing chaos, and tried to run as fast as he could when the flow caught up to him.
One moment he could breathe, the next he was being overcome by incredibly hot fumes. He could feel the heat burning him, and eventually he could go no further. He was to die here, stranded in a pony body, with no way of being saved or rescued.
"You don't get to die just yet, laddie!"said a ghostly Scottish voice. "You have important work to do!"
The devastation of Edinburgh had left a horrible scar on him. An entire city of people burned to ash, and there had been nothing he could do. "I have to find a way to prevent another disaster like that," he said to himself. "But first, I need to figure out where I am."
He trotted forward, seeing that there was a sign up ahead, and on it words were written. Based on its placement before a sweeping valley below, it was some form of advertisement or description of what was down below him. He glanced to give it a read. But none of the symbols made any sense to him! It was all a series of random scribbles and symbols forming a meaningless, mashed together lexicon that made sense to nobody of his sort.
"I can't understan' a word this board says! Why does nobody write in Old Horse these days? Or Gaelic, for that matter?"
As he looked down to the basin of the valley, feeling the humidity picking up and the sun blaze in the sky, he suddenly spotted something and realised that he had been here before. Down below, he saw a plume of smoke from something climbing up the valley, and lots of small, white buildings.
"That spirit took me a long way, as I appear to be in West Virginia." He trotted over to a map, and noted where he was relative to something he recalled. "Based on my research, Mage Meadowbrook should be somewhere down there," he said, indicating a point in Louisiana with his hoof. "It's probably best I head that way."
Collecting together his tools and supplies, the scrawny earth pony set off on his way, climbing down mountainsides, and trotting down roads that seemed well maintained, but in reality had all sorts of technical problems as they fluctuated up and down. He also got the odd confused look from passers by, and he could also sense that something wasn't quite right here either. As he trotted along, he could get the sense that he was being watched by somebody or somepony, or something altogether more ethereal that he couldn't suss out.
The sun went through the full rotation and then eventually faded from the sky, settling in the west and staying below a star filled sky. Rockhoof felt more at home now that he could navigate by the stars. "Perfect! North star, guide me home!"
As he trotted along, he suddenly heard the sounds of merriment coming from a nearby log cabin, with a few things made of metal sitting outside it. "Hello?" he said. "This looks like a good place to stop for the night." He trotted in through the door, and with a smile saw what was ahead of him. Possibly the gentlest sight he had seen in years.
A nicely kept tavern was what greeted his eyes. Built in the style of the Long Halls he knew so well from his home, the vast tables were packed with ponies of all sizes drinking and sharing stories. The warmth came from a great log fire, and Rockhoof trotted in, as musicians played over the stage and the fire crackled gently.
"Good evening, sir!" called a pony, presumably the bartender. "How can I help you?"
"May I have a room and a meal, please?" Rockhoof asked. "I have been travelling for a long time, and could do with some nourishment."
"By all means, sir," the bartender, who presumably also doubled as the landlord, replied. "I'll get a room set up for you in a moment. In the meantime, here's the menu and a tankard. Beer and ale is self service, over by the barrels."
Rockhoof gave the menu a quick read, and selected what he was looking for. "Shrimp and grits, please." It was a relatively little known fact that ponies could consume meat in small quantities, and this meal would be perfect for getting his energy levels back up.
"We'll bring that to you in a moment, sir," the bartender replied. "Now then, take a seat at the tables, and relax. You look like you need it."
Rockhoof shuffled over to the barrel, and opened up one of the taps. It was marked 'hellfire', which was presumably a make of beer. He watched as the liquid tumbled into the tankard, and once it was done he shuffled over to a group of norse ponies sat near the fire.
"So, where'd you come down from?" the first of them asked, a massive wall of muscle and power sitting nursing a drink.
"I came down from the mountains, West Virginia Way," Rockhoof replied. "I've been on the road for a long time, and coming across this place was quite the relief."
"I can imagine," said another, with a wild brown beard. "Seeing as you've made it to the top end of Tennessee. You'll have gone through Virginia as well, which must have been tiring on your little legs."
Rockhoof sighed. Far from being the muscle bound legend so many fans of the show were familiar with, he was a small, scrawny horse that could barely hurt a fly. "Aye, it was," he said. "Which is why I could do with a rest. But this drink is nice. Good for getting your spirits up after a hard day."
"That's the spirit, lad!" said the third, another giant with wild eyes. "Why, on the wee isle of Barra..."
"Hold on a moment," said one of the ponies. "The band is about to make an announcement."
"Some of you may have heard," said the bandleader, in an odd accent that Rockhoof couldn't quite place, "of a musician based in Louisiana who has been taking the music scene here by storm with his fantastic tunes and sublime lyrics. Tonight, we'll be playing one of his big hits; 'Tale of the Traveller's Rest'!"
Rockhood was genuinely interested.
"This is one of my favourites," said the biggest pony. "It's very funny."
"There's an inn of old renown where they brew a beer so brown
Hurricane came rolling down the hill one Wodnsday night to drink his fill!
"On a three-stringed cello there played the Owner's pat so fair
The hornèd cow that night was seen to dance a jig upon the green;
"Called by the fiddle to the middle of the muddle, where the cow with a caper sent the small dog squealing;
Hurricane in a fuddle went to huddle by the griddle, but he slipped in a puddle and the world went reeling!
"Downsides went up- hey! Outsides went wide!
As the fiddle played a twiddle and Hurricane slept till Sonnertag!
Upsides went west- hey! Broadsides went boom!
With a twiddle on the fiddle in the middle by the griddle and Hurricane slept till Sonnertag!"
The floor erupted in dance, and Rockhoof found himself opposite a mare of his own tribe. As he danced the night away, he got a nagging feeling that something felt familiar about those words. The writing style was somehow very familiar to him, but such questions could wait. He needed to find out where to go in Louisiana, and who to look for. For if he was lucky, his destiny would be there too, as would his friends. Even so, something nagged at the back of his mind. What had caused that big eruption?