Twilight stood on the docks gazing up in awe at the ship at anchor before her. The ship was quite large, easily able to hold 40 ponies comfortably in addition to the crew and captain. Above the main deck, tethered by thick wires, was a massive balloon to hold the ship aloft. Along the side was emblazoned The Prometheus and it was the first fully-operational airship in Equestria. Rarity herself had christened the airship in Canterlot, after which it had flown to Manehatten as its maiden voyage. It now took on passengers on aerial tours of Manehatten and longer flights to smaller islands outside of Equestrian borders.
As Twilight stood there, taking in the sight of the impressive ship, a loud bell rang and a small crowd of passengers began to board the ship.
“Finally,” Twilight said excitedly. She had been waiting for this moment for some time. Following her sudden realization in Canterlot, she had made it her mission to seek out the remnants of human society that had fled across the seas. It had been a lot more difficult than she had first thought getting a ticket seeing as the number of ponies who wanted a ride on the new airship was massive. Admittedly if she had said she was Celestia’s personal student on royal business things might have gone more smoothly, but there were two problems with that plan. One, she wasn’t on royal business and being caught lying would have been disastrously bad. The second reason being that she wanted Celestia to know as little about this trip as possible. Ever since that night in Canterlot, Twilight had grown more and more skeptical of Celestia’s version of events. Something just didn’t add up, and what was worse was that it seemed obvious that Celestia didn’t want her to continue down this path.
There was something about the past that she didn’t want Twilight to know, but Twilight knew she wouldn’t be able to rest without seeing these humans firsthand.
“All aboard! We’re leaving in 5 minutes,” exclaimed one of the ship’s crewponies, breaking in on Twilight’s solemn reflection.
“Aah!” exclaimed Twilight as she ran towards the airship. She had been so consumed in her own thoughts that she had stopped moving. Finally boarding the airship while chiding herself for her daydreaming, Twilight settled in. The deck had a number of seats set up for those who wanted to get the full experience, but since the ship would take some time to reach the furthest islands there were rooms for the passengers down below. Sitting down in her seat, Twilight felt the shudder of the ship lifting off the ground. Looking back she saw it rising higher and higher until she could the whole of Manehatten.
“Beautiful,” she breathed, awestruck by the view now spread out before her. Looking down she thought of her friends, who she knew would worry about her. She had said goodbye to them all the day before, leaving under the pretense of a research trip.
“Goodbye girls,” she said a smile on her face. “I’ll be back soon with stories like you wouldn’t believe.”
“Well here we are Miss Sparkle,” the captain said. “This here is the last stop of the tour. Are you sure you want to stay? There isn’t much here in the way of civilization.”
Twilight smiled up at him. “Oh don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine. Besides I have plenty of supplies. But just to be safe, how often do you come out here again?”
The captain brought his hoof up to his chin thoughtfully. “Well, usually we don’t come here very often. It’s a bit farther than most of our usual passengers really want to go. I’d say we probably come here about once or twice a week, not including when passengers actually request to come here which is rare. However, for you, I’ll make sure to check back every Friday as well. Did you have a pickup time in mind?”
“Umm, not really,” admitted Twilight sheepishly. “I’m not sure how long I’ll need, but I should be ready to leave a month from now.”
“Right then,” the Captain nodded smartly. “I’ll make sure to make a stop here one month from today. Now we’d best get going if we want to stay on schedule. Big group coming through soon. Tourists,” he said with a shudder.
“Thanks again for everything captain,” said Twilight, waving goodbye as the airship took off and began heading back to Equestria. “Now, where to go from here?”
With a quick burst of magic, Twilight brought a small tube out from here saddlebags and from that pulled out a scroll. The scroll was yellowed with age and seemed to be as old as the report she had found back in Canterlot that had started her on this adventure. Unfurling it revealed to be a map of the seas north of Equestria. Admittedly it held no information on humanity, but it did show the basic geography of a great swathe of the sea. Currently she was on one of the larger landmasses. All around her was nothing but ocean for quite a ways, but she did notice something on the map she could actually make use of.
Extending northward in a haphazard fashion was a chain of small islands. One of the larger ones was a mile across at most. She could teleport from island to island, traveling ever northward. Eventually, she reasoned, she would have to run into some clue of where the humans went. So, with a sense of adventure, hope, excitement, and the merest bit of trepidation of losing control and teleporting into the icy waters of the northern sea, Twilight began her island hopping scheme. How long could it possibly take right?
----
Oh Celestia why?! 4 hours. 4 bucking hours had gone by and what did Twilight have to show for it. Nothing. The island hopping was going pretty well, but all she could ever see on the horizon was another miniscule spit of land to teleport too. Twilight was bone tired. She had stopped for breaks along the way to keep her strength up, but she knew she would have to sleep soon. The night was making it hard to see the next island in her path and one slip up could be fatal in her state.
“Alright,” she muttered to herself. “One more island, just one! Then I’m getting some sleep.” And with that she summoned the last of her reserves and with a flash she was gone, only to reappear on the other side of the island she was already on.
“Wahh?” she said confusedly. “But, but the spell, and the island and. . . and. . . . AHHHHHHHHH!” And with that Twilight slumped to the ground and threw a blanket from her bag over herself, too tired and irritated to do anything else.
The next morning Twilight rose, refreshed and slightly less irritated than she was last night. With a deep breath she began what, for the next few days, would be her daily routine: wake up, eat, teleport, break, teleport, break, teleport, eat, sleep, repeat. But on the morning of her seventh day of travel, Twilight awoke with a renewed determination, ready to continue her journey.
“Alright,” she said to herself. “Today is the day. I am going to make history!” After another moment of psyching herself up, Twilight began the arduous process of teleporting from island to island. However the islands were being spaced further and further apart so she was able to cover less distance than the day before. An hour passed, but as she reappeared on the latest island in a burst of purple light she saw something she had not expected. Not very far away was a large coastline that obviously didn’t belong to the islands she had been using as stepping stones. If she strained her eyes she could even see what looked like
“Docks!” she exclaimed happily. “And where there are docks, there are dock workers, and where there are dock workers there is civilization. And this far north, where there is civilization there is HUMANITY! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes . . .” she punctuated this last bit by jumping happily in a circle.
After she had finished expressing her joy, Twilight calmed down and began to run through her bags. As she did, she took out the tools she had specifically created for this journey. There was a small pendant inset with a small blue gem that she could hook around her neck, quills, ink, and parchment, and spare gems for the pendant. The pendant was enchanted with an invisibility spell. She had spent days creating and charging the pendant so it would have its own power source. As such, she would not have to drain her own magic to keep the invisibility up. The spare gems were just for when this gem ran out of power. The quill, ink, and parchment were self-explanatory.
“Alright,” she said. “Just throw on the pendent, teleport to shore, and start studying. This is going to be so much fun.!”
As she threw the pendent on, there was a small flash of light as her body faded from sight until nothing remained visible. Another flash of light accompanied Twilight’s teleport to the shore of the human lands. When she had reappeared on the opposite shore, Twilight looked up in awe at her first sight of human architecture. What struck her first was the size of the buildings. This was just a small port town, from what she could see anyway, yet there were so many buildings that were at least four stories or more tall. They were made of stone, wood, and brick with some of the more ornate buildings bearing gilded edges and gold-plated designs. Twilight was amazed and began recording everything she could as she carefully made her way up the road to the town proper.
As she did, she was struck by the sheer number of humans in this town. Being a port city, Twilight had expected a small town similar to Ponyville in size and population. What she got however was far different. Dozens upon dozens of humans walked the streets, going about their daily business. Some went to the ships in the dock, others went into and out of the shops that dotted the curving, paved streets and some merely stopped to talk with acquaintances and friends in whatever shade they could find. And behind it all was a steady hum of continuous talking, shouting, whispering, and conversation from every corner of the town. It was almost too much for Twilight, so she ducked into an alley off the street where she could get away from the crowds.
“This is amazing,” she gushed happily to herself. “There are so many humans here! And they’re architecture is amazing. Everything is just so . . . so . . . new. So, different. Well I better keep going.” With a smile still present on her face, Twilight turned back towards the streets and walked back towards the throngs of humanity.
----
Twilight pulled a sleeping bag from out of her saddlebags and began to settle down for a good night’s sleep in a wooded glen outside the city. She had spent hours wandering through the streets of the human city which, if she read that last sign correctly, was known as “Vona.” Every turn had yielded something new to gaze at in wonder and compare to Equestrian styles of art and architecture. She had also done some cursory observations of human interaction. One of the biggest traits that all humans seemed to share in their interactions with others was the expressive use of their hands. They would be used to emphasize and embellish whatever they happened to be saying and humans even seemed to have their own gestures which could take the place of words and even whole sentences!
“But I guess it makes sense,” she spoke to herself as she recorded what she had seen on leaves of parchment. “I mean, in Equestria wings and tails can be used in similar ways so it would make sense that humanity had similar habits with their own appendages.”
With one last flourish, Twilight finished her writing and carefully stowed away the writing tools. Settling down on the sleeping bag, Twilight could only smile as she imagined what insights and new findings the next day would bring.
----
Another week had passed and Twilight had traveled away from Vona only occasionally. Despite the success of her invisibility pendants, this land was foreign and she had no idea how long it would take to reach some of the larger cities she had seen on an old map she had located. So, she had stuck to the coastline. There were smaller towns to the west and east of Vona that she had briefly visited. While the architecture and culture were different, Twilight couldn’t help but see the similarities between humanity and Equestrians. Both had similar emotional ranges, though humans seemed to more quickly succumb to anger, there were similar mannerisms, and the divides between city and rural areas were clear. With all of these similarities, Twilight could not believe that the two races had been unable to reconcile what had been essentially just a misunderstanding.
Suddenly she was shaken from her reverie by the tolling of massive bells. She hurried into the street and saw huge crowds flocking towards a massive structure situated in the center of town. Twilight had seen it before, but had never worked up the nerve to make her way inside since it would require her to use magic to open the doors. So now she was presented with a problem. Since there were so many humans heading towards the building it was obvious this was an important event. Should she risk discovery to investigate it, or should she simply play it safe and walk away now?
“Well,” she said carefully to herself. “I’ve been doing great so far, and nothing ventured nothing gained right?” With that she took a deep breath and made her way towards the large building behind the teeming crowd. As she drew closer to the building she could make out some of the finer details of its construction. The building itself looked to be three or four stories tall, easily dominating the landscape of Vona. It was constructed of smooth, white stone and the building was topped with a belfry from which the tolling of four large, bronze bells could be heard. The doors of the building were bronze as well and various images of human history were set into them.
Following the crowds inside, Twilight stopped and gasped at the sight laid out before her. Stretching far out before her was row after row of hand carved wooden pews which were currently being filled by the large crowd. Straight up the center of what Twilight could now tell was some sort of church, was an open aisle leading to a marble alter. The alter was otherwise unadorned but behind it was a great mural. It depicted a human that stood at least six feet tall and was wearing golden armor. In his right hand he held a mighty sword and he was standing with one foot on top of the severed head of a crimson dragon. Twilight cringed at the sight of the mural. She felt uncomfortable about the aggressive imagery on display, but at the same time her natural curiosity overrode her finer sensibilities. This was obviously a human religious ritual, something Twilight had yet to observe and which would give her a much better look into the mindset of humanity.
As she looked around the filled church, the noise of the crowd quickly died down. Stepping up to the marble alter was a wizened old man dressed in white and red robes, hefting with him a large leather-bound tome. He placed the book reverently upon the alter and opened it to a specific page. With this done, the man gazed out at the assembled congregation with a smile on his face.
“Greetings my brothers and sisters. It is good to see so many come to pay their respects to Magnus on this, the anniversary of a historic event.”
Twilight absorbed this information with glee. Was Magnus their ruler? Or maybe Magnus was their deity? So many questions raised from such a simple sentence. She was shaken from her reverie as the priest continued his sermon.
“Over two thousand years ago to the day was the arrival of our ancestors to these lands from distant southern shores. Fleeing the terrible cataclysms of their homeland, their exodus led them to these blessed shores. Though all was not well in those early years. The cataclysm had decimated more than half of their population, and the journey to these lands and the lack of supplies and shelter led to even more deaths. As the desperate are wont to do, our ancestors fragmented into the remnants of their old tribes and engaged in brutal warfare over the ever dwindling supplies. That is they did, until the arrival of the blessed Magnus.”
At this the entire congregation touched their middle and index fingers to their bowed foreheads saying as one “Praise be to Magnus.” Now Twilight was intrigued. The priest had mentioned “cataclysms” that had forced a severely decimated humanity to flee their old lands. If this was true, than what exactly had Celestia and Luna done to them? Whatever it was, it had obviously not been the quick and clean version that Celestia had given her.
“Magnus emerged from amongst the tribes with a message of unity for all. Through his glorious leadership and divine power he defeated all who opposed him and forged humanity into a single, unified whole. But Magnus’ vision for humanity did not end there. Under him, humanity entered into a golden age as never before seen. We spread across the continent and pushed aside the creatures that would see our progress halted. In his travels Magnus encountered for the first time the evil and unnatural forces of magic that had so plagued our ancestors. “
Twilight perked up at this. Celestia had said that humanity had possessed an extreme aversion to magic. And the passing of time certainly hadn’t changed their views on the subject. If anything, humanity’s hatred of magic seemed only to have deepened and become ingrained in even their religion.
“So powerful was Magnus that even the daemon queens would fear his mighty tread,” roared the priest, gesturing forcefully toward a spot above Twilight’s head as the crowds gasped and glanced behind them. Intrigued, Twilight too raised her head and looked behind her.
Glancing up towards where the preacher had been pointing Twilight saw a second mural above the doorway. It depicted two beings who were unmistakably Celestia and Luna. But there was something different about them. They were slightly larger than she knew them to be. Their horns were sharpened to fine points and their wings were ragged and torn. Their mouths were twisted into cruel smiles, showing sharp fangs. Their eyes burned with power and from their horns blazed forth huge gouts of magical flames. Celestia and Luna’s hooves were stained red with blood and Twilight’s gaze was dragged downward towards where the fire was being directed. What she saw there horrified Twilight to no end. The fire was shown to be splashing against the forms of screaming humans. Many of them were shown to be not men, but women and children.
Twilight could not properly express her horror. What she was seeing was the image of her mentor and Luna magically laying waste to crowds of human women and children. It was like something out of a nightmare, but Twilight could not wake up.
“Yes,” the preacher continued. “Even those who did drive our ancestors away, who brought despair and pain upon the innocent, who. . . who. . .” the preacher trailed off as he glanced in Twilight’s direction, a look of pure shock and confusion adorning his wizened face.
Twilight tore her gaze away from the horrific image portrayed by the mural as the sound of both the preacher and the crowd fell away. She looked over the crowd who were now gazing in her direction in the same shock and horror that the preacher was. What was wrong with them? Were they that scared by the mural? No that couldn’t be it, the mural looked old and the people would have seen it before. So what was it? Why were they so shocked and what the hay was that sudden cold she was feeling? Shaking the strange cold aside for a moment she shifted her weight to the right and froze as she noticed the crowd tracking her movement with their eyes.
“They can see me?!” She thought hurriedly to herself. “But how, the pendent should still be working. What could have, NO Twilight,” she thought firmly to herself. “Figure that out later, deal with this first.”
Looking out over the stunned crowd Twilight stood fixed to her spot, her parchment and quill still hovering before her face. Not knowing what else to do besides running, Twilight took a deep breath and spoke.
“Hello,” she said uncertainly. “Um, my name is Twilight Sparkle and I’m the personal student of Princess Celestia, and I . . .” She got no further than that before the shocked silence of the crowd turned into something far worse.
“A demon!”
“A monster!”
“She’s come for the children!”
“KILL HER.”