The sun was blazing just in front of me, so close that the heat from it should have burned me away. No, that wasn’t the sun; it was just a mass of fire. The fire was everywhere, spreading all around me and turning to ashes everything it touched yet I somehow remained unscathed in the middle of it all. Sweat dripped from my every pore, the tattered clothing that remained to me sticking tightly to my skin as the world blazed around me. Through squinted eyes I looked on, the flames encroaching on me as I could do nothing but stand and wait.
“Soon,” they seemed to whisper, “it will all burn down. The smolders will burn anew and the sleepers will set the world aflame.”
“What?” I yelled back to the flames, a whistling was whipping around me as the flames neared. A wetness began to drip from my ears and I had to cover them with my hands as I fell to a knee. Despite it all the voice of the flames penetrated and continued to speak to me.
“One dies as another is risen and still it all turns and burns. One leads into the other and the next back into the first, only the flame persists.” The fire continued to near me, so close now I could reach out a hand and almost touch it.
“What do you want?” I screamed, though I couldn’t even hear my own words over the whistling that continued to grow louder and louder. A retch raked my body as I gasped for breath, sending my sprawling onto all fours. My left hand slipped, nearly causing me to fall into the fires, but I barely caught myself. It was covered in something wet and red, it shined when I held it up in the light of the fires, the two crimsons seeming to grow together and magnify each other.
“The past paves way to the present and the future falls back to the past. The watcher falls and the rise cometh. The past has ordained what is to come all from days long forgotten by all but one. The day that it began.” Then the flames finally reached me, and I burned.
___________________________________________________________________________
I woke up with a gasp and bolted straight up in whatever bed I had apparently found myself in. This proved to be a very bad idea when a piercing bolt lanced through my side and sent me sprawling back out on the mat. I laid there for a few moments, eyes darting around frantically in order to find some bearings but failing on every count.
A set of three candles flickered on a counter near a large, partially illuminated, wooden door that I didn’t recognize in the least. Other than that the room I apparently was in was completely black so I patted my hand out in the darkness to find myself lying on a mess of blanket on a stone floor. I delicately touched my side where the pain had hit me to find a bandage wrapped several times around my chest. That wasn’t the only bandage that was on me it seemed as I searched my body some more, in fact I was practically covered in them.
I racked my head to try and remember whatever had happened to land me in this sorry state but nothing really came to mind. What had I been doing? I remembered…there was a party. Yes, I was supposed to be at a party and I could kind of remember going to it but after that it just goes blank. Had I been hurt at whatever party this had been? I couldn’t really remember what the party had even been for.
Wait, that’s right I was supposed to be going home and the party was a goodbye party. Little pieces of what had happened started coming back to me little by little. Everyone was there and everything had been going fine all up until Apollo had gotten there. That’s right, I remembered suddenly, that guy was there and he had done something. My temples started to throb as I continued trying to recall what had happened, but I pushed on despite the pain. There had been something that went wrong with the portal and there was a girl, who had that girl been? I remembered him standing there with a girl in his arms and a devilish grin plastered on his face. Then he had pointed something at us and everything just suddenly went blank.
“What the hell had that thing been?” I muttered to myself. Between the aching of my head and my concentration at trying to recall everything that had happened it took me a few minutes to actually realize that I had spoken. After finding that my ability to speak had apparently been restored I just laid there in shock for what could probably have been half and hour.
“Did I…speak?” I asked myself. There mere fact that I could even ask the question seemed to be response enough and I was once again in shocked silence. It had been a while, to me what felt like an eternity, since I had last actually spoken to someone and now here I was able to talk again and with no one around. Grunting, I pushed myself up onto my elbow but the pain wasn’t nearly as bad this time as it had been.
The stone floor was cold, but that wasn’t anywhere near enough to get my spirits down as I shakily made my way to my feet. There was a burning in my left shoulder blade and my ribs were killing me, but I was able to stand and walk well enough to make it over to the door. The oaken door was incredibly heavy, even for me, but I hadn’t really expected to get too much of a break so as the pain once again flared in my side I wrenched it open enough so that I could make my way through.
As I stepped out into the hall a blast of cold air assailed my naked chest and nearly doubled me over. Now that I could actually feel the difference, the room I had just been in must have been like a sauna, or maybe even hotter. I couldn’t really dwell on the matter though since I needed to find one of the ponies that could tell me just what the hell had happened. Leaning against the wall, using my right shoulder since using my left would have been agonizing; I hobbled as best I could through the castle.
Every few steps I would notice some ruble here, broken tiles there, a fallen ceiling panel or three over there. I found myself wondering if how long I had been out for the castle to become so ruined, but it was hard enough just keeping my thoughts straight as it was. The pounding in my head returned just as I made the first corner and by the third I had a painful headache well underway. I soon came to realize that I had no idea where I was going as I had found the layout of the castle confusing enough even when I knew the starting point. I couldn’t really recall ever being in this part of the palace but between my burgeoning migraine and the destroyed landmarks all around me recalling anything specific was near impossible.
Luckily, I wasn’t walking for more than ten minutes before I came upon some guard clad in their identical golden armor. Upon seeing me the stallion froze in place and just stared with mouth agape. I stared back for a long while, wondering if I had ever met this pony but unable to tell since they all kind of looked alike, but eventually settled on just asking what was on my mind. “Where is everyone?”
The guard just continued to stare at me for a few more seconds before composing himself “What are you doing here, you are supposed to be locked away until the princess is ready to deal with you,” he said as he took a more aggressive stance. My back hurt, my ribs hurt, and my head hurt, so I wasn’t exactly in a forgiving mood but never the less I tried to be as kind and polite as I could.
“I just woke up, and came to find out just what the hell happened around here. Can you do your job and take me to your boss already?” We both continued to stand there for a few more moments before he finally snorted and turned.
“The princesses are in the war room, follow me if you want to see them but I can’t guarantee that they will be that happy to see you.” With that he started walking back down the hallway at a pace that didn’t allow me to use the wall for much of a crutch.
In the war room, I didn’t think that ponies even had such things. Something big must really have gone down after all. The pony before me looked like he would be right at home in a war room, but for some reason he had been out and walking around the castle. We passed a pile of large stones piled to one side of the wall where it had apparently caved in on itself. As we continued to progress I started seeing more and more guards out and about, doing whatever they were assigned to do, but that was all. I found it a little odd that there didn’t seem to be any service ponies or the usual tourist that I had seen a few times while wandering the halls, but then again it looked like the castle was in crisis mode so it made sense that the castle was closed to visitors.
I finally got my bearings when we passed the throne room doors, but seeing one of them propped up against the wall cemented in my mind that things were pretty bad. I knew that I wasn’t really one of these ponies and that I shouldn’t really throw my lot in with them, but for whatever reason they had been the ones to harbor me and what I have met of the rest of the world didn’t seem too friendly. If they were under attack then I might as well try and lend my help as best as I can, though with the condition I was currently in I didn’t think that there would really be much that I could do.
The guard that was escorting me came to an abrupt halt in front of some very sturdy looking metal doors. He gave a knock and after a few moments the pain in my head was doubled by the grinding hinges as the doors swung open. Now standing in front of us was an elderly looking mare that was dressed in purple armor, and the look on her face told me she wasn’t expecting any visitors.
“What is it?” she commanded of my escort, who immediately stepped back a few paces.
“I found the human walking around in the halls of the west wing,” he replied after he managed to gather a little courage and gestured up to me. “He asked to be brought to the princesses and I thought that they would want to see him as soon as possible.”
The mare looked up at me, then back to the stallion, then back to me. Eventually I suppose that she decided the same thing that the guard had since she gestured me inside with her head. As soon as I stepped over the threshold the doors slammed shut behind me, leaving the poor stallion outside. I rubbed my temples, feeling pretty sure that my ears were bleeding, and I looked up to see Celestia standing next to her sister over a very large map of what I could only assume to be the world with a cold look on her face.
The glare didn’t leave her eyes but they were soon directed to the map in front of the two princesses. Now that I actually had a chance to look around the room I found that it was nearly full of ponies, all looking over the map and muttering to each other. In the center of the room was a large circular table that a massive map was laid out upon with different kinds of pieces set upon it here and there. Those that got a seat at the table seemed to mostly be elderly ponies though there were a few younger ones scattered throughout. There were ponies running back and forth carrying papers and relaying messages between those seated, and at the head of all the chaos Celestia and Luna sat brooding over the map. Since I hadn’t been told to do anything I walked around the edge of the room and stood behind the two to look at what they were seeing.
The map was huge, so much should have been evident by the fact that it took up most of the room on its own, but when I was able to glimpse the little black dot with the word Canterlot scrawled next to it I realized just how massive the thing was. I had never been good with geography but if I had to guess I would say that this world was at least as large as Earth was, if not even more so. After studying the placement of all the pieces, the territories outlined, and the many notes that were scrawled on papers laid out before the diarchs I came to the conclusion that I had no idea what I was looking at.
“Have we finished gathering in Fillydelphia?” It was Luna that broke the silence after a few uncomfortable seconds.
The stallion three places over answered immediately, “All have been accounted for except the 515, which were set to leave Cloudsdale and arrive a few hours later though they haven’t showed up as of yet.”
“Send out two scouts after the unit and give them orders to meet up with you during the march. We need to push east as quickly as possible before we are cut off,” Celestia ordered, moving a few pieces from the city of Fillydelphia to the eastern border of the country. Across the border was what looked to be another country called Gryhponia.
“Of course princess,” the stallion bowed and relayed his orders to a younger pony behind him who scurried out of the room at once.
“Our resource lines near the southeastern border, have they been secured?” It was Luna who asked this question once more.
“For the large part princess, we have pushed the farmers to begin their harvest though many are resisting due to the earliness of the season. There have also been raids occurring but we have kept them at bay, they continually try and burn our crops. The losses are as follow, three acres of wheat, fifteen acres of oranges, ten acres of cotton, and seventy-nine acres of miscellaneous grains and vegetables,” a much younger stallion who was seated at the table answered.
Once again it was Celestia that gave the orders out, “Continue prioritizing collection and protection of the wheat and make sure that those fields are picked clean before our main forces can arrive. Ship what you can back to Canterlot and store the rest here in Oatenridge.” The princess once more moved some of the pieces on the map, though this time they left a glowing trail behind them to show the route they took.
This back and forth continued for a long while, Luna would ask something of the assembled ponies, they would reply, then Celestia would give orders about what to do. I just continued to stand there behind the princesses as they went about their business, not really feeling like I should butt in. It took nearly two hours before everything had been discussed and decided on, and by that time my legs had gone numb though my side was hurting a lot less. When everything was finally finished the princesses dismissed all of the assembled ponies and were brought what I assumed to be tea to drink, though it may very well have been some kind of alcohol, I know I would want some to deal with the apparent stress they were under. Celestia looked at me for the second time in the two hours I had been there and motioned for me to take a seat which I was more than happy to do.
“So, it seems you have recovered,” she said after sipping her tea for a moment.
“For the most part,” I replied causing her to do an actual spit take. Luna found her sister’s sputtering hysterical it would seem as she actually fell out of her chair laughing.
“You…you can speak.” The princess managed after she a few seconds of choking.
“Hey, I was just as surprised as you are.”
Luna managed to sit up in her seat once more and we started to have our first discussion. “Thank you for that, I think we needed a laugh after so much serious business.” And just like that they were both straight faced once more. “Now tell us of why you can speak now.”
I thought on it a long time, but I honestly had no idea why I could talk all of a sudden. I mean it had been really nice to actually be able to use my voice now but there were much more important matters at hand. “Forget about that,” I said, “what happened. Why did I wake up in some sealed room all the way across the castle. Why is this place falling to ruins and why are you ordering troops to be moved all around the country?”
The two shared a look, I really did not like that look. “Do you not remember?” Luna asked.
“Remember what?” My head was beginning to hurt again, and I rubbed my temples once more to try and alleviate the pain. “Like I said I just woke up and need to know what happened.”
Celestia sighed which I knew immediately to take as a bad sign. “It seems that Apollo had set a trap for us. By tricking Twilight into opening such a powerful portal he was able to revive his long dead sister and escaped by destroying nearly half the castle. Luna was able to direct most of the blast upwards but since we were so close you were still injured majorly as well as each of the ponies at the celebration.” Celestia stood from her seat and began to pace about the room.
“Apollo managed to escape and we have no idea where to, soon after the gryphon's began to assault our country in force. He has been long revered in their culture and history so we believe that he is behind this also. You and all of those injured were taken to care and through some stroke of luck there were no fatalities though you have been asleep in a coma for over a month at this point. We have managed to push the gryphons from our territory for the most part, but they still raid us and we have information to make us believe that there is an even greater force moving through their lands toward us.” She stopped for a moment to look back at me with a glare, “And now we find that whatever spell he was using to stop you from speaking has been lifted.”
I immediately knew where she was going and held up my hands pleadingly “Woah now, we have been through this before right. I have nothing against you guys,”
Luna rose from her seat and walked towards me, “My sister does not mean to imply such nasty things. She...we are merely caught off guard by this new development in these stressful times.” I looked back to Celestia whose face has lifted to seem almost kind...weird.
“Yes, I do not think that you are behind any of these developments. If anything this is a good thing, now that you are awake again we can use you to scare our enemies into submission. Stories of the upheaval in the zebra lands have been spread the world around and if the gryphons were to learn that we had a human on our side then perhaps we can avoid any further bloodshed. With your help...I’m sorry I suppose we still don’t have something to call you do we? What is your real name, now that you can tell us?”
My head was killing me at this point, I didn’t really care so much that Celestia seemed to want to use me as a nuclear deterrent. I tried to recall what my name was, just so that I could leave and get some rest but the more I tried the more pain I got. It was like a metal spike was being driven right through my skull. “I...” I managed to choke out through the pain “I can’t remember...”