They say that time is like a river— that it branches off and flows into new directions and streams all originating from the same source…
I used to think that was just some metaphor that ancient ponies used to give their universe meaning. I used to think differently about a lot of things to be honest… things I never thought were possible, or things that I never fully understood. The events that changed my life forever opened my eyes to how much I truly didn’t know, and a part of me wonders whether I would have been better off if I had simply stayed afloat down my own stream, or whether it was a blessing in disguise that I fell down a different path altogether. So who am I you might ask? Well, the name’s Stardust. Kind of a strange name for a thestral I know, but that’s not important right now… Let’s just say that I’m not exactly from around here. I wish I could explain what happened, why it happened, and say that it all led to a happy ending… but I can’t, and perhaps that’s why I’ve taken the time to chronicle one of the strangest chapters of my life. Call it a way to keep me sane in my current occupation.
Nowadays I hold the mantle of The Librarian— the one who keeps an eye over the history of the foundry and one of the few who really knows its secrets. What is The Foundry you might ask? Well, it’s complicated. Some call it forked Equestria, some know it as The Waystation, and to most, if not all of its inhabitants, it’s simply Equestria as it always was and always will be… The true answer though? Well, I think the best way to explain it is by sharing the tale of my life here, and how I came to inherit this mantle.
As you might imagine, my life wasn’t always this way. My childhood, for instance, was rather uneventful for the most part, like many ponies’ often are. I was born and raised in a quiet old village like many others, and in almost every way I was just your boring average everyday run-of-the-mill thestral who was just trying to make his way through the universe. I went to school, I went to work, and I had my hobbies that helped keep me sane in the monotony of it all.
I was a dreamer, a pony with his head in the stars who loved to write about whatever came to mind. Sometimes they were happy stories, sometimes, sad… and sometimes? Well, sometimes they were full of monsters. Admittedly I was never the best at writing action and adventure… and truth be told, I’m still not. Perhaps that’s why I’ve found the path my life took to be so dream-like most of the time— because everything I’ve been through has been such a departure from what I was used to.
As it’s no doubt evident, I never imagined in a million lifetimes that my life would become one of those stories… though my story isn’t quite a romance, was never really a ghost story of some bloodthirsty monster roaming the ocean, the fantastical tales of invaders from another world, or even an epic about titans tearing through reality. That’s not to say that it didn’t share some similarities, however. As much as I wish my life could have turned out like the lives I wrote for my characters, the painful truth is that it didn’t, and maybe that’s for the best. My story was and is the story of a pony who tried to fight for the world he wanted to live in, and one where he had to make concessions in the end. The good news though, is that I’m not the monster in this story— at least I don’t think I am. You see, the monster in my story came from somewhere out there, in some labyrinth of nightmares… and while it sounds like something from the tales of the six heroes who saved an ancient Equestria from countless foes, I assure you that this is something that happened long after those— in a world very distant from my own.
Now this is a story about the past… not just my past mind you, no, its about this universe… its past, the long lost Thestral King, the countless lives he ruined, and the role he played in completely derailing my life. This is the tale of my trek through an alien world, facing threats and danger that I never could have even imagined existing back home, an odyssey that changeg the course of history as this world knew it, a clash between a mad king bent on revenge and the many pawns he’s thrown onto the table. I guess the best way to start is from where my old life ended and my new life began.
I’ll never forget that night, the night when everything changed. It was long ago now, but I can still remember it as if it was yesterday (a luxury mind you, one that I’m unable to afford to many of my memories prior to this event). The evening had been fairly uninteresting, and at the time I was sitting alone in my house. From what I can remember, I had been conducting research on some strange occurrences with the local astronomers who were very keen on discovering the secrets behind a strange phenomena that had been mysteriously cropping up.
Lamplight and Fractal, the two astronomers in question, had never really been ponies that I normally crossed paths with. Hollow Shades was mostly devoid of life save for their ancestral family farm, a few scattered homes and businesses, and the library. The day I first formally met them was the day that the weather changed from the usual gloomy darkness to an even more eerie haze. It was also the day they warned the town about the potential dangers looming, dangers that mostly fell on deaf ears considering the village’s own storied history.
“I know that there has to be something afoot,” Lamplight mused. “There’s no other explanation for the small quakes…”
“And the weird electrical storms that have been popping up out by the ruins?” Fractal Nebula added. “I swear I keep seeing weird shadows over there and I know that they’re not just a trick of the light.”
I believed them though, and considering my career, I was quickly brought in to help investigate the strange happenings. At first, this strange pattern was limited to just the area surrounding the ruins, but it wasn’t long until it started to spread through the rest of the town. This should have been my warning to leave… but I didn’t.
As frightening as the constant electrical storms and unnatural quaking were, they seemed to almost avoid causing actual danger, as if something was holding them back. The creepy shadows in the corners of your eyes though? Well, those were innocent enough too, at least until I was supplied with an invention created by Fractal.
The Eye of the Forgotten, as he called it.
The eye was nothing more than a simple lens set inside of a mechanical device with a mechanism that I hardly understood, even with a full explanation and briefing from them. What I did understand, was the purpose of the device: the ability to focus and inspect the shadow creatures.
That should have been my second warning to leave because the clear sight of one of those strange beings sent a shiver through my spine that almost caused me to drop the fragile machine. Its hard to explain, but this strange phenomenon drew my attention like a moth to a flame, and something about the strange creatures kept me anchored in my home. In that moment my thoughts raced more than they ever had before, and I quickly made a dash for my notebook to jot some of the findings down, but of course that’s when… it… happened. The shadows seemed to warp into strange pony creatures, as the flashes outside only grew brighter. The wind seemed to form a strange murmur of unintelligible voices as if they were trying to warn me of something… something that I so dearly wish I could have listened to... but their warnings fell on deaf ears.
I was entranced, unable to break my gaze from the shadows and helpless to move from my place even if I was cognizant enough to do so. Whether I could have broken the trance or not, I’ll never truly know. As the shadows and voices seemed to surround my perceptions, the world was lit up by a blinding flash brighter than any I had ever seen before, and in an instant my thoughts were cast into nothingness as my vision darkened and my body went cold.
I thought I was dead… but I wasn’t.