“So where did you leave off?” Curt asked Twilight as the now larger group met in the garden again for the continuation of the story.
“When we just touched down on Bob,” Twilight answered.
“Sweet, then we don't have to wait long,” Debby added.
“Wait for what?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“You'll see. It'll be easier with everyone else here to help,” Twilight lit up and started, “So the Puma was tearing toward the ruins...”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“Can you try not to hit every bump?” Curt complained.
“You wanna walk?” Seth countered.
“I know a spell to put a zipper on his mouth,” Twilight offered.
Debby laughed, fantasies of a silent Curt dancing in her mind. “As nice as that would be, he'll just unzip it.”
“Lock it up,” Seth ordered, “We're getting close.”
“Really?” Twilight asked, “No passing through a treacherous jungle? No avoiding a rival team and their evil plans? No ancient temple guardian?”
“The ancient temple guardian is inside the temple,” Curt explained, “He'll be in the room with the Heavenly Bow.”
“Curt... you're an idiot,” Twilight gave him a deadpanned look, “The Heavenly Bow is in the Sky Temple in the clouds. This would be the Earth Temple where the Obsidian Armor is kept.”
“Ah, my mistake.”
It came into view. The structure reminded Twilight of the ruins of the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters except without the towers. It was obviously a fortified structure at one time similar to fortresses from before the unification of the tribes. Most of the ancient buildings were reduced to piles of rubble by time. In fact, all the buildings were so far gone that there was no way one could get anything from them... all but one.
In the center of the ruin was a single intact structure. It was a simple, gray stone box. No windows, no defining features except one. It looked like it was just built yesterday. The five gave each other puzzled looks before cautiously making their way toward it.
“Amazing,” Twilight's eyes wandered over the entire thing, “Wards, hundreds of wards all meant to protect it from the ravages of time and nature. All the tomes in the Canterlot archives have the exact same enchantment.”
“Does that mean ponies build this?” Raak asked.
“There's only one way to find out,” Debby grinned and ran to the wooded double doors, swing them open before Seth could stop her.
“What the hell, Debby!” Seth scolded in a harsh whisper, “You didn't know what was behind this door. It could have been trapped.”
“But it's not, so who cares,” said the half-aviva, “Come on.”
“Don’t do anything unless I give you permission,” Seth commanded.
The warriors move cautiously through the doors, weapons and spells at the ready. Inside was simply one large room nearly as mundane as the outside, but with a throne at the far side. Though the most interesting feature wasn't the fancy seat, but the chaos lord that sat upon it.
“Welcome Griffons,” James greeted, “I thought you stopped for coffee or something. I'm really glad you're here, because boy do I have some truly wonderful things to tell you. First, tell me Twilight, what you can about the chaos lord Mayhem?”
“He almost destroyed Avol by taking us from our sun. He's probably the most evil creature my world has ever known,” Twilight lectured.
“And what if I told you that everything you just said is a lie made by Mayhem himself so ponies wouldn't seek out the truth?”
Twilight's eyes narrowed her eyes at him, “I take it you know him pretty well, being coworkers.”
James laughed, “Oh silly Twilight. Mayhem and I aren't coworkers.” He threw an arm around her withers, suddenly beside her, “I am Mayhem, and I created Avol.”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Every pony and dragon present was speechless. Twilight took a drag on her cigarette while their brains restart. Celestia was the first to regain her composure.
“Twilight, you didn't actually believe that monster did you?” Celestia asked.
“Not at the time, but I do now, and you will too. Just let me savor this moment for a bit.”
“What moment?” inquired the solar Princess.
“The moment that I get to teach The great and wise Princess Celestia something she didn't know about ponies...”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“I don't believe you.” Twilight glared at the chaos lord.
“Of course you don't, nor should you, but I'm going to convince you.” James sat down on the throne again and pulled out a story book, opening it to a seemingly random page. “ Once upon a time, on the magical world of Earth, there lived a race of masters of the magical arts; humans. Now humans have always been a fascinating race. Their drive is unmatched. The things they can accomplish are hindered only by the resources available to them. Unfortunately they have one weakness...ambition. Now that's usually a good thing, but too much of a good thing is still bad. With humans’ ambition, and unrivaled magical potential, they were growing too powerful, too fast. With this power, they became greedy for more. All that magic was like giving a five year old a shotgun; they misused it. Wars were fought for control of the world’s magic wells. That's where I stepped in.
“I needed to find a way to slow human advancement before they destroyed themselves. In order to slow human progress to a safe level I needed to remove one of the two causes. I couldn't remove their ambition because that would halt progress and that's bad. So I took all the magical potential from humanity. But magic is energy and can't be destroyed. So, I gathered up some asteroids from the asteroid belt and formed a new world. This world was going to hold the magic of humanity, but it couldn't just float around. It needed vessels. My solution came in the form of a small nation. This nation was ruled by a benevolent king and his kind queen. Their names were Arthur and Guinevere.”
The humans jaws dropped. Even Twilight had been drawn to the old fables of King Arthur and his knights of the round table. Books that all said he was a myth.
“That's right kiddies, the guy was real,” James continued, “And his kingdom was the answer to my trouble. I approached the king and told him of the world’s problems and what was needed to be done to fix it. After a few weeks of thinking, he agreed, but another problem arose. Giving all of humanity’s power to a select few would be devastating. The human body couldn't hold that much power, so my solution was to make them not human.”
He looked at Twilight with a grin. “You already know what I turned them into, don't you? That's right little pony... two thousand years ago your ancestors were human.”
Twilight already figured where this was going when he mentioned creating a new world, but still couldn't believe it. Unable to think of any kind of response, she let him continue.
“I relocated all the new ponies to their new world which they named Avol after their old kingdom Avalon. Yes, I know what you're thinking, but Avol sounds better than Aval and is still close. Anyway, I moved the planet far from any other world so it wouldn't be discovered by accident and created an artificial sun and moon to sustain the world and its balance.
“I swore everypony to secrecy and made up the story of my evil deed, and recommended they take on new names. King Arthur took the name King Solaris, Guinevere took the name Queen Terra, and Merlin, the court wizard, took the name Star Swirl. As you know, Twilight, Solaris and Terra eventually had two daughters, Celestia and Luna, who still rule to this day.”
“Wait,” Curt interrupted, “Are you saying that Twilight is the personal student of King Arthur's daughter?”
“That's not all,” James continued, “She's also happens to be a direct descendent of Star Swirl the Bearded.”
Twilight's eyes and jaw couldn't open any more than at that moment. It was hard to believe that she was descended from the greatest unicorn in history.
“Here's a fun fact; Merlin had two sons, but only one of them followed him to Avol. The other stayed on Earth where his descendent became a smart ass Special Forces sniper.” He grinned directly at curt.
“What?” asked the smart ass special forces sniper, “You mean..? I'm descended from Merlin? But, that means that Twilight and I are...”
“... Related...” Twilight finished.
“Only by eighty-seven generations,” James laughed.
“Damn, that some crazy shit,” Debby stated, “But, you didn't bring us all the way here just for story time did you? Cause that would be so lame.”
James smiled, “Of course not. If you'll follow me we can get this tour underway. Please no flash photography, only dispose of your waste in the designated receptacles and no urinating on the walls.” he gave three hard stomps and the throne slid back revealing a staircase. James gave an exaggerated bow and motioned toward the passage. “Right this way ladies and gentlemen.”
“What's down there?” Seth asked.
“Why, the key to your victory against the Dratali, of course.” answered the humanized draconequus.
That got everyone's undivided attention. They looked between the stairs and the immortal, trying to decide if he was serious or not. Seeing that he wasn't going to give any clues to that, they started down the stairs.
The stairs were not too long, or at least Twilight didn't notice. Her mind was a tempest of thought and emotion. So many questions swirled around in her mind that she could barely understand any of them. A few thoughts stood out from the rest, though. Shared language, similar culture, tool designs that made no sense for ponies to have, but fit humans perfectly. It led to one conclusion; ponies originated on Earth as humans. This realization did nothing to quell the storm; in fact it was the cause. What would this mean for Equestria? An artificial planet, an artificial sun, and...artificial ponies. That meant she wasn't naturally a unicorn. She was supposed to be human...a magic-less human. But is that something to be proud of? Wasn't she also a kind of guardian for that magic? Protecting it so humanity would survive? Twilight was so lost in thought that she didn't notice everyone had stopped until she face-planted into Curt's backside.
“Whoa! Damn, Twi, not in public.” He shot her a warm smile.
Twilight returned the gesture. He always did know how to brighten her mood, even if he was a royal pain in the flank.
“Uh...” Aden looked around in confusion, “How did I get here?”
Seth jumped at the sudden appearance, but soon just chuckled and said, “James is up stairs.”
Aden just nodded in understanding as Twilight moved around her friends to take a look at the room. It was a simple gray stone room with torches lighting the area. It was bare with the exception of a pedestal in its center with a strange orb on top. The sphere was covered in faintly glowing runes and hovered a few inches above.
“I'm guessing that thing is magical.” Seth looked at Twilight for confirmation and received a nod as an answer. “Well, Twilight, you're the expert with this kind of thing. Take a look at it and see if it's dangerous.”
Twilight nodded and approached the artifact. She felt along its surface with her magic sense. The spells woven into it were strange and she had difficulty making them out. It was like trying to look at something through stained glass. She reached out and took it in her forehooves. As soon as she sat on her haunches to examine it, she felt a surge of energy pass through her. She let out a pained scream.
“Twilight!” Everyone shouted in unison, moving toward her.
Twilight's eyes opened, glowing white with power as a lavender aura surrounded her. The energy was pulled into a small orb at the tip of her horn before exploding outward, throwing everyone else into the walls of the room and knocking them unconscious. The energy soon faded and Twilight fell to the floor, meeting her friends in the darkness.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“..iligh... wa... up. Come on, Twi.” A voice cut through the darkness, leading Twilight back to the land of the living.
“Ugh, my head,” she rubbed her head at the base of her horn, “What happened?”
“Are you alright?” Curt asked.
“Yeah. I’m alright.” Twilight looked around at everyone else. They were all looking at her with worry evident on their faces. “Where's the orb?”
Curt pointed to a pile of sand beside her. “I think it did something to you. Are you sure you're fine?”
Twilight closed her eyes and tried to feel if anything was different. “I don't feel any different. Are you sure it did something to me?”
“That's what it looked like,” Debby chimed in.
“Are you good to travel?” Seth asked.
Twilight gave herself a once over and stretched out a bit. “I think so.”
“Good, We're moving out.”
As the group started up the stairs Twilight noticed the distinct lack of Aden. When she asked about it Seth told her that James sent him back to the ship to get it ready.
They left the building and started for their Puma when an explosion reduced it to scrap, and left the soldiers disoriented. Flashes of light surrounded them as a legion of Dratali teleported onto the scene, weapons ready. Twilight was about to throw up a shield when a haunting voice stopped her.
“Well well. Fancy seeing you here.” The Dratali soldiers parted to let the speaker through. Twilight stared in shock at the impossible sight before her. “Hello, Twilight.” A malicious grin spread across Xander's face.