‘Beyond our darkest hour…’ Tommy smiled sadly, a tear forming in his eye as he wrote. His hand shaking uncontrollably, tears running down his cheeks and splashing onto the page. ‘At least they’ll know why’ he thought, his hand still shaking as he put down the quill down and picked up the pistol. He had been here for two months and couldn’t take it anymore.
He thought briefly to the ponies that had pulled him from the burning wreckage of all that was left of Requiem. Humanity had given it their best shot but the Valkyries were too strong. He had watched as Earth had burned and humanity was lost forever.
It’s odd he thought smiling to himself. It wouldn’t be the Valkyries that finally wiped out humanity…
Tommy placed the barrel to his head, tears running down his face as he pulled the trigger.
... It was him …
… 5 minutes earlier …
Celestia and Twilight were hard at work, trying to find any information about the creature currently residing within the palace.
“Aha!” cried Twilight, levitating a dusty old scroll in the air above her. “I’ve found something” she beamed, a satisfied look on her face.
“Go on” Celestia said, doing her best not to show her excitement.
“It says here that, around ten thousand years ago, a group of creatures visited Equestria. Some ponies at first believed them to be Gods, for they had technology far surpassing our own. They called themselves human.” Twilight paused to look at Celestia. “There’s a picture here” she said showing her mentor.
The creature in the picture looked exactly like the one in the palace. “So it’ a human then” Celestia began “Does the scroll say anything more.”
“Oh yes” Twilight said excitedly and continued to read. “The humans were quite friendly and imparted some of their knowledge hoping it would help the ponies create a better Equestria. As friendly as they seemed, something about them wasn’t right, they were sad. Ponies could see it in their eyes a deep sense of regret and sadness… Oh” Twilight stopped giving a small gasp of surprise as something fell into her hoof. It was a small crystal.
Celestia knew right away what it was. “Pass it here my faithful student” she said holding a hoof out.
“Princess?” Twilight said. Her eyebrows rose and Celestia could see the unspoken question forming in her eyes. ‘What is it?’
“This, my dear Twilight is a recording crystal” She said beginning to stream magic into the crystal, when all of a sudden an image filled the room. It was of a human and a pony Twilight could not name. They were standing on a hill which overlooked a beautiful valley. Twilight could not recognize the place, it was a forest absolutely covered in trees and wonderful blue streams. A human spoke…
***
“There is a reason we have come to you now Princess Millennia” the human said, its head bowed in sorrow.
“I suspected as much” the Princess responded. “So, for what reason have you come then?” She asked.
“We ask of you one favor… help us, by protecting this” it said holding out a strange crystalline object, dropping it into her open hoof.
“What is this then?” she questioned feeling uneasy as she rolled the object around in her hoof looking at it. The object was pretty heavy despite its small size; it was very smooth and cold to the touch. It resonated with a purple glow, humming softly.
“It is our past, our present and our future. It is all that we are and all we shall be” The human said with sadness beginning to creep into its voice.
“If you wish me to protect this, you will tell me why” Millennia said strongly.
“Very well…” the human said, defeated.
“… What you hold is our last hope. It is our essence or genetic code and it has the potential to bring us back, however, we needed to find a suitable home to start anew, with inhabitants that would teach us love and compassion ensuring that we did not follow down the same path as we have now…” the human said pausing momentarily to reflect before continuing.
“…We have made a terrible mistake. We did the one thing we should never have done and now we are paying the price…” It paused and looked toward the black sky. A look of unimaginable agony crossed its face as it sank to its knees. Tears were rolling down its face, its hand outstretched toward the sky, as if reaching for something invisible.
“… And so it is done. My people are no more, destroyed by our own ambition and greed. It is our fault, we made them too much in our own image. Into them we poured our hate; our fear; our cruelty and our emptiness. And for that they hate us, but…” It said looking into Millennia’s eyes making her cringe.
She could see that any sense of life had long since left the human’s eyes and only a hollow emotionless void resided in its stead. It was the look of one who had truly given up on life.
“… Don’t judge them too harshly for it is in their nature. Just as it will be in their nature to follow the same path as we did and for that, they will share the same fate. This is how it will always be, a cycle unbroken, with each rotation one shall die by the hand of its own. Unless we break it now, which is why I beg of you please keep us…” it said motioning to the object in Millennia’s hooves. “… safe and undo what we have so foolishly set in motion. Will you do this for us?” the human finished, its eyes boring into hers.
Millennia just stared at the creature. How could she refuse, when to do so would violate the very essence of life itself.
She looked into the human’s eyes and nodded. For a moment a brief flash of hope entered the creature’s eyes but vanished almost as soon as it had appeared.
“Thank you. Don’t let them repeat our mistakes and tell them nothing of us” it whispered softly, turning away, walking toward its vessel.
“Wait! What am I supposed to do with this?” Millennia said pointing at the crystalline object in her hoof.
“You wait, until the time is right” It said plainly.
“How will I know when the time is right and what am I supposed to do then?” she said confused as to what the human meant.
“When those who destroyed us return here, you will know it is time. As for what you do, all you need to know is in your hooves already.” It finished and continued to walk away.
“Where are you going?” Shouted Millennia.
“To my home, to my people” it responded sadly.
“But, they are dead” She questioned, not knowing how the human would respond to this.
“As am I…” it said slowly and this time the human kept walking into the ship and Millennia watched as it flew off.
She turned her attention to the crystal in her hooves. The future of the human race was in her hooves.
***
The image flickered and died. Twilight and Celestia sat in silence, staring at each other.
A million questions raced through Celestia’s mind as she remembered the look of indescribable pain on the human’s face. ‘It must have somehow felt the destruction of its people’ Celestia thought, wondering what it would be like to feel the death of one’s people. She shuddered wishing she would never have to find out.
“So do you think that this is the time they spoke of?” Twilight asked, shattering Celestia’s train of thought.
“Well it does seem logical to assume that it is, since there have been no other humans to come to Equestria until now. If this is indeed the time then we must act” Celestia said as her student rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
“But we don’t even know where that crystal is” exclaimed Twilight. Frustrated she screwed her face up in concentration “but…” she continued “… If we find this Princess Millennia she might know where it is”.
“That might be a little complicated as she disappeared more than six thousand years ago” Celestia responded. “But… we could look in the secret section of the royal library” she smiled as Twilight’s ears perked up.
“I didn’t know we had a secret section” Twilight said ecstatically, flapping her wings wildly.
“That would defeat the point if you knew. Only royals can know and seeing as you’re now a Princess I guess it’s time you knew” Celestia said smiling again as Twilight jumped up and down.
“This is so cool” Twilight said “let’s go check it out now!” she said turning to sprint for the library when a loud bang stopped her in her tracks. “What in Equestria was that?” She said perplexed.
“I think it came from the east wing” Celestia said trying to think of what could’ve cause such a loud noise.
It didn’t take long for somepony to scream and alert Celestia to the fact that whatever had happened was bad. She and Twilight bolted to the east wing.
***
The two Alicorns arrived panting and out of breath. A gaurdsmare was crying outside the door to the human’s room and tried to stand and salute the Princesses but she couldn’t move. Instead she vomited and passed out.
Celestia’s worst fear was confirmed when she and Twilight entered the room and saw everything. Twilight couldn’t handle it and she ran out of the room retching. Celestia could hardly blame her, she herself felt nauseous.
There was blood everywhere and the human was slumped over in the chair, in its hand the instrument it used was still smoking. She could clearly see the fear in its tear stained eyes. It had died scared and alone.
Celestia felt angry and disgusted at herself for letting this happen. She should’ve seen it happening; she should’ve stopped it and she should’ve let the human know that she did care and that it was not alone.
She turned away looking at the table and upon noticing the crumpled note she used her magic to levitate it and carefully read the message.
‘I’m sorry. I just can’t take it anymore. The pain is too much, just knowing that everyone is gone forever is just too much. I keep seeing the same image of Earth being decimated and hearing… no feeling the billions of people dying around me. A small condolence is I know we went out fighting every step of the way, just as we have always done. I thank you all for the kindness you have shown me since arriving here. I’m so sorry but I just can’t bear it anymore. It is beyond our darkest hour and there is nothing left but dust and so unto the dust I must return’
Celestia felt her heart shatter into a million pieces. ‘I have to stop this’ she thought as a tear formed in her eyes.
‘This madness cannot continue I will not allow it, I cannot allow it’ Celestia said to herself as she used her magic to close the creature’s eyes and turned, walking out of the room and headed toward the library as there were things that needed to be done.
‘I will stop this…’ she promised herself.
…To be continued
END PROLUGUE