//------------------------------// // Chapter 0: Journey to the Heart of the World // Story: My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic: Heart of Friendship // by ShadowDurza //------------------------------// The ponies trotted into the throne room and bowed before Celestia and Luna. Twilight raised her head first. “Hello, Princess. It’s nice to see you again, and it’s nice to see the rebuilt throne room. Your message said to come immediately, but there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong. What did you want?” Celestia smiled. “There’s nothing wrong, at least not in our world. But I didn’t call because of what I wanted, my little ponies. I called you for what he wanted.” Starswirl the Bearded cantered in from the side. “Good day, Princess Twilight. I’m sorry for bothering all of you and taking your time away from your daily lives.” “It’s no bother, we’re always ready to hear out one of the wisest ponies in the land, and an expert of friendship if I do say so myself.” “You have no idea how much it means to hear that coming from you, but friendship is exactly the reason why I came here, or rather the unfortunate by-product of friendship.” Twilight raised her eyebrow in curiosity. “What does that mean?” “I suppose the best way to make things clear would be to show you.” Starswirl closed his eyes as the tip of his horn began to glow. He pointed it toward the wall and a beam of magic shot out. At the point where it collided, an arched entryway appeared, leading into a path lit by torches. “Follow me.” Starswirl entered his newly-created hallway. The others looked at each other for reassurance and followed. *** A short trek later, they came upon a large chamber full of ancient treasures of all shapes, sizes, and forms. Pottery, tablets, tapestries, glasswork, frescos, wall paintings, scrolls, textiles, statues, wood etchings, all depicting the history of the long past. Twilight looked around in awe. “Woah… These artifacts predate equestria by centuries! They go back to the earliest recorded days of the three tribes!” Starswirl nodded in approval. “Indeed they do, Princess. But tell me, do you see something here that isn’t familiar? Something strange and out of place, yet constantly depicted alongside the ancient ponies?” Twilight squinted in concentration. “I see earth ponies tending the land, alongside something doing the same with tools they’re carrying in, something… not quite paws or claws. I’m also seeing pegasi making weather in the sky, with some things flying with them and standing on clouds with their… back legs? And I see unicorns practicing magic, alongside something else performing a different kind of magic. Magic like I’ve never seen!” “And they’re all wearing… clothes! All the time!” “And singing!” “And traveling in wagons pulled by ponies! All over the place!” “And playing music!” “And fighting monsters with crazy weapons! Awesome!” “And dancing!” “And eating… meat? Oh my…” Twilight approached Starswirl with a concerned look on her face. “Starswirl. This is a huge part of our history that isn’t even mentioned in any books! What are these creatures, what happened to them, and what is their relationship with our ancestors?” Starswirl sighs and gazes at his collection forlornly. “Ever since I first laid eyes on these images within the ancient ruins I explored, I’ve been obsessed. I’ve been gathering every trace of this hidden lore I could find since back when they called me Starswirl the Stubbled.” “After years of translating numerous dead languages and decoding ancient glyphs, this is what I’ve found: In our species' earliest days, we were not alone in this world. “No doubt the first friendship the world ever knew was shared between ponies and a race of creatures called… humans.”“From what I could gather, the humans were the mightiest warriors the world ever saw. They could take down any manner of foe by combining their innate magic powers with fighting styles taught to them since childhood. Some even said that monsters tell their children stories of humans to scare them.” Rainbow Dash rises in amazement. “No way!” “Like the ponies, they were divided into tribes based upon their innate magical abilities embodying the elemental forces that compose our world. Earth: Substantial and rigid. Water: Perseverant and adaptive. Air: Free and fluid. Fire: Passionate and aggressive. Ether: Specialized and undefinable. And on occasion when they mixed: Everything in between. “Beyond that, they were also incredibly diverse and had a lust for adventure. As they traveled throughout the lands, each group would form a distinctive culture with their own likes and dislikes. But what they all had in common was a love of telling stories, eating, and music. In fact, I have reason to believe that their music was what attracted the primitive nomadic ponies to their encampments. As they traded their goods and tales, they began to bond. Eventually, they began traveling together, teaching and learning from one another, with the humans defending their new friends from the dangers of the wild. “However, where there was once the world's first friendship, there soon emerged the world’s first friendship problem.” Twilight trotted closer to Starswirl. “What happened? What was the problem?” “That’s the painful truth my dear, I can’t say. Every account of the event says something different and contradictory to the others, or focuses more on the emotional impact of the aftermath. All that I know for sure is that a great injustice was performed, and whatever the case, the humans could no longer bear to live in the same land as their former friends. “They all combined their power and created an entryway leading to the very heart of the world, and went through to build a new civilization for themselves. As you can imagine, this devastated the ancient ponies. Blinded by grief, each tribe held the others accountable. They began slandering and quarreling with each other so intensely that over time, they forgot the reason for all of the hostility in the first place. And thus began the age of inter-tribal prejudice that ended upon the founding of Equestria.” Twilight looked at her friends. One by one, they all nodded. “Starswirl, no friendship problem can be allowed to last for that long. We want to go to the heart of the world.” Starswirl smiled and nodded. “Excellent. I have the means right here.” Starswirl went deeper among his artifacts. He emerged dragging a drum several times as large as himself with his magic. “This is the Drum of Mending. Before the humans left, they imbued this artifact with the same magic that they used to create the entrance. “It took a lot of research, especially since human magic is very different from unicorn magic, but this is what I understand about triggering its power: Firstly, an earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn must get on top of and beat the drum with their hooves. This will release an energy that another unicorn must channel through themselves and another pegasus and earth pony while holding feelings that desire reconciliation in their hearts.” Twilight turned to her friends. “I suggest we do this tomorrow morning. I have a feeling we all need to appoint delegates to cover our responsibilities while we’re away.” Starswirl nodded. “Excellent. I’ll set up the preparations for the ritual in the castle courtyard.” *** The ponies trotted up to the giant drum in the middle of Canterlot’s castle courtyard. Starswirl trotted out from behind it. “Welcome. I believe you know what to do next.” Twilight nodded. “We do. Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, you get on the drum. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, you’re with me. One by one, the three ponies were levitated on top of the drum by Starswril. “I hope this doesn’t ruin my hooficure.” “This’ll be fun!” “Oh my… Is that real hide?” The three ponies then began to bounce on the drum, cantering in place. At first they were haphazard, but soon they found a unified rhythm. Rainbow Dash flew to Twilight’s right side with Applejack trotting to the other side. “This is gonna be awesome!” “You know it! I wonder how many books humans wrote these past few thousand years! I hope they like our books! We have so much to catch up on!” “Somehow, I knew you’d go right there Twi’.” They all closed their eyes and pictured sentimental moments in their life where they reconnected with ponies they cared for. Twilight’s horn began to glow. Two tethers of magic connected to Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s chests. From Twilight’s horn, an orange, blue, and purple beam of magic shot out and hit the barrel, which glowed with a pink, yellow, and indigo light. Each of the lights grew more and more intense as they mixed in an aurora that danced throughout the courtyard. And then, the lights faded. Everypony looked at one another in concern. Rainbow Dash frowned. “Well that was anticlimactic!” Suddenly, the ground beneath the drum began to shake, the shaking began to spread outward until a small earthquake filled the whole courtyard, shaking the leaves from the trees and knocking over statues. Rarity turned to her friends on the drum. “I-think-ink-ink-this-is-is-is-our-cue-to-oo-oo-get off!” The three ponies leapt off the drum and galloped next to their friends. As the drum shook, it’s lower half sunk into the ground. Then, a series of cracks began spreading outward in a triangular shape from a point around the rim. Once the cracks had reached ten feet in width, the shaking stopped and the cracked ground fell away, revealing a sloping passage into darkness as if it were always there. Pinkie shivered, or rather wiggled. “Spooookey!” “You think there’s enough room to fly down there?” Twilight arched her eyebrow. “I assume they wouldn’t migrate to a location without making sure it’d be able to sustain them.” Starswirl cantered over to the other edge of the entrance. “I know this is a mission of peace, but be careful. We have no idea how their civilization evolved, how much they remember, or how much they’ve forgotten. There’s no guarantee they’ll react calmly to what amounts to contact with aliens.” Twilight smiles daringly. “We’ve saved Equestria many times, from many different types of threats, by this point, I think we can handle pretty much anything.” Twilight turns towards her friends. “Come on everypony, we’ve got a long overdue friendship problem to solve!” Side by side, they trotted into the darkness below.