//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Quest for the Past // by Ekhidna //------------------------------// Quest for the Past Prologue “Humans are real; I’m telling you they are, history itself says so!” A mint colored unicorn shouted in front of a board full of wise-looking unicorns, all them showing their disdain and anger towards her, mumbling among themselves. “My father-“ “Miss Heartstrings,” the eldest looking unicorn mare said, interrupting her. “Please tell me, how many times have you come to meet us, in hopes to be granted the funds to proceed with your expedition?” “Seven times,” she said looking at the head mare. “And how many times have we rejected your petition?” “Seven times.” “Then please tell me, what makes you think we will agree this time?” “Humans are real,” she said flatly. “They may be extinct now, but I’m sure they existed in the past, maybe they are the ones responsible for our very existence!” At this most of the board began to murmur unsavory things about her, until the head mare raised a hoof, silencing them. “Are you saying they created us?” “No, I thought about it and it would be impossible for them to do it because then we should be able to know they created us. What I mean to say is that humans “allowed” us to become what we are today, we mimicked them to a point that their own ways stuck inside of us, for example, why the knobs of the doors? Why the handles on the cups? Why make so many of our daily instruments and equipment so…..unfit for pony anatomy, if most of the time we use our mouths, wings or magic to manipulate them?” “Valid points, miss Heartstrings,” the head mare said. “But sadly not enough, and to answer those questions, it is quite simple, many species outside Equestria have claws, hands or tentacles, and we both export and import instruments and equipment fit for a universal control, any intelligent being on Equis can use them in some or other way they see fit.” The head mare took off her glasses and looked at the puzzled Lyra, her expression was hard to read, the mare sighed. “Lyra, your father was my best student and one of my best friends; he was smart, creative, always two steps ahead of anypony and ready to complete any task,” her expression turned sad. “But his obsession with these humans drove him insane and in the end, to his death, you are so much like him Lyra, I would hate to see you throw away your life like he did.” Lyra stared to the ground, avoiding the mare’s gaze. “Humans are fictional, a myth, nothing more than an illusion and a fairytale for little foals, please, Lyra, stop this nonsense and accept the facts, humans are not real, they are something a crazy pony thousands of years ago invented.” “HUMANS ARE REAL!” Lyra shouted at them “YOU ARE THE CRAZY ONES, IGNORING THE OBVIOUS.” she turned around, ready to leave them. “I will prove they exist or existed! Then I will prove my father was right and that I’m not a crazy mare like all you think! I don’t need your stinking guild to do it.” she said, before storming out of the building. As Lyra left the guild she hoped to hear a discussion or some kind of heated argument, instead, she only heard laughs. ---------------------------------------------------------************************************ Ponyville, house of Lyra and Bonbon Walls filled with papers full of theories, studies and experiments adorned them, all of them with only one subject in them, humans. Lyra was finishing packing all she would need for her dangerous trip towards the truth of humans. Putting her saddlebags over her back she turned to leave her room but stopped seeing a strange mark in the only free spot on her room walls, the hoof or more precisely the palm of a human hand, at least what she figured out of how one should look like, Lyra raised her hoof and touched it, small tears falling from her eyes. “I swear I will find out, I promise I will show everypony, no, everyone that humans do exist and are real, just wait until I do” Using her magic she wrote a quick letter to her best friend and roommate Bonbon, simply pointing out she was sorry for not saying goodbye. With the sound of a closing door, the house was silent on the darkness of the night, just an hour away for the sun to rise again in the skies. -------------------------------------------------************************************************* “Day 1, August 27 year 6 A.P.L.R (After Princess Luna Return). I have begun my journey towards the unknown depths of the Everfree Forest, today was uneventful, after hours of walking I decided to rest on the ruins of the Royal Pony Sisters old castle, I’m so excited! I don’t know how long it will take me or where should I head on tomorrow but I will find a way!” --------------********* “Day 5, August 31 year 6 A.P.L.R I have passed the known point of the Everfree Forest, earlier this morning I heard the voices of other ponies in the distance, probably a search party, I’m sorry Bonbon, but this is something I must do on my own, I promise that when I come back I will make it up to you” ---------****** “Day 17, September 16 year 6 A.P.L.R I was attacked by a pack of Manticores today, thankfully they were more interested on my saddlebag than in me, sadly though I don't have many supplies left and my water is running low, must find a source of water soon. Haven’t found any kind of clue about humans. PS.- Avoid eating the red flowers with yellow ends, they taste awful.” ----------******* “Day 22, September 21 year 6 A.P.L.R As Princess Luna would say, HUZZAH! Today I found a strange column, it had some strange markings and I couldn’t really figure out what they meant, if only I had more paper and ink I would be able to record them!. I’m also running low on ink and paper, only have a third of what I originally had, I will only write when something of utter importance happens.” -------------******** “Day 39, October 8 year 6 A.P.L.R Today I found something amazing, remember the column from before? Well, today I found the remains of a wall, and guess what? A HUMAN FIGURE WAS SCULPTED IN IT! YES! Finally, I have enough evidence to prove humans are real, I should probably head back, but now I am so close to finding more about humans I simply can’t turn around, I will carry on with my journey maybe I will even find a living human. PS- Water is hard to find now, got to move fast.” ----------****** “Day ? My supplies were running scarce and I was desperate to find fresh water; I was careless. I don’t know how long I was unconscious and I don’t know how I survived, the only thing I have to say is, DO NOT EAT BLUE LEAVES!” -------****** “Day 19, After Recovery. This is my last recording, I have noticed something particular just now, my magic is acting strange, I can’t use it very well and it is difficult to concentrate properly before nightfall I saw a river from my little camp. Good thing too, I ran out of water this morning. There is also another strange oddity, in all this time I have only been attacked three times, it seems wild animals are scarce in the deeper parts of the Everfree Forest... if I’m still in it anyways. That aside I’ll head down there tomorrow, also I’m not sure, but I think I saw ruins there too, I should be excited but I’m so tired now. Lyra Heartstrings, Prime Archeologist Researcher, Lyre Master and Human Finder.” -------******* Lyra sighed happily, finally arriving at the river, she was thirsty after several hours of walking down from her camp, while she was drinking she couldn’t help but be thankful at how lucky she had been during her travel, not only she had been attacked only three times but those times she got off pretty easily, of course, it wasn’t really difficult to run away from Cockatrices, Timberwolves and some Manticores, but the weather had been calm and it had only rained four or five times, and on those times she had found a good refuge on time, not to mention this had been the longest she had gone without water. Finally quenching her thirst she noticed that the river wasn’t very deep, in fact the deepest part would likely reach all the way up to her belly, also following the course of the river she could she some kind of bridge. Lyra walked towards it following the river from the side, she couldn’t say why or how but there was something about that……jungle surrounding the river she didn’t like, at all. Arriving at the bridge she noticed some sort of rock piles, what was strange about it though was that there was some sort of blue crystal on top of it, approaching it she also noticed that while the ground had grass of it and some vegetation it avoided the jungle from both left and right, creating a road. Curiosity overtook her and decided to walk down the road, even if her brain was telling her not to, a minute later she found yet another pile of rocks, this one was missing the blue gem on top, continuing her way she found another one of those rock pile things and also a little hill, she climbed it--- *Tkct* Lyra stopped and looked down, that was the sound of hooves meeting rock, she scratched the surface a bit and indeed there was rock below the mush and low grass, she noticed something peculiar about it, it had patterns. “Somebody built this place!” She said out loud, exited. “It must have been the humans doing!” She chanted happily climbing the little hill. “HA! Take that Archeologist Guild, guess who was right! ME! Now I only need…..to……..” Her voice died in her throat, what she saw wasn’t what she had expected. There were pieces of armor, weapons and other things she didn’t recognize all over the vast floor, there were circular things destroyed with shards of crystals all over the place, also she noticed there was something behind the biggest of the circular thing, she knew these were the remains of a fierce battle, but something was wrong. “The armor... it’s too, small for a human but everything else is way too big for these small things,” she said, levitating with difficulty a head armor piece with a pointy end. “What could have wear these kinds of things… maybe... maybe something besides humans? But if so, what?” Letting the piece of armor fall to the ground she continued her way to the altar, or that’s how she could best describe it, there were some stairs before reaching the top and then she saw something strange, there were five spots positioned inside the circular altar, also she could see the very same markings and runes she had first found in the column. The sound of movement alerted her, pulling her out of her trance and looking around nervously, by the sounds of it, the thing was BIG, she waited for several seconds before hearing the noise again, this time closer to her, coming from in front of her. There was a wall of trees and jungle so she could see very well but then from the sides, two things came out. Partially stunned the creatures and Lyra looked at each other, trying to figure out what to do. Lyra studied the creatures fast and noticed they were small, just barely a hoof taller than her, they seemed alike to a dragon but were too, well, lizard-y to be dragons, their eyes were yellow and they were carrying a stick. Lyra thought she could talk to them before one of the lizard things hit her in the face with the stick, making her spit blood to the floor. Looking up she saw the other lizard advance to attack her too but this time she turned around and kicked the beast with all her might, sending it crashing against the other one. Feeling pain on her muzzle she turned around to face her attackers, the lizards got back up as a growl emerged behind them, followed by a rock looking thing with a blue sphere for an eye, a blue-ish glow emerging from it, arms and legs big, rounded and powerful and giant red gem stuck on his chest, she knew what it was, a golem. A golem almost three times the size of Celestia herself. “Oh… pony feathers” -----------------------------------------------------********************************** Lyra ran down the same road she had come through but the lizards and golem were fast and coming behind her, what was worse, the hit she got from the lizard thing combined with the difficulty to cast magic pretty much made it impossible to concentrate on any kind of spell. “If I can get to the river,” she said to herself, trying to get a distraction from the growls of the golem “I can maybe *pant* outrun them!” Lyra saw the bridge was close and decided to run faster, but before she could do anything the golem managed to catch up with her. Lyra felt an intense pain on her right side before being sent flying for some meters through the air. Landing harshly against the dirt Lyra tried to get up but only managed to grunt painfully, opening an eye she saw the golem and the lizards almost in front of her again, ready to finish her off. “Well,” she thought. “this is how it all ends huh? I was hoping to find more about humans, guess this is as far as I go” a small chuckle escaped her lips “I’m sorry Bonbon, I won’t be coming back after all,” she said while using whatever strength she had left to grip her journal and hug it strongly against her, closing her eyes waiting for the final blow to come. The earthshaking steps of the golem were interrupted by a loud noise followed by a strong gust of wind and dust. Lyra opened her eyes seeing nothing but dust around her and also hear the sounds of battle, the lizards hissing, the golem growling and something else yelling. She could also hear the sounds of heavy hits being blocked by a metal something and also the pained sounds of the creatures being pierced by something sharp. For a moment everything stopped, suddenly one of the lizards came out running from the dust, passing right next to Lyra, before something else flew behind it, piercing the lizard’s skull. The lifeless body of the lizard landed next to Lyra, but she didn’t even notice it, she was seeing right in front of the dust wall, red eyes were watching her, piercing her with their gaze, slowly the figure became bigger and bigger until it easily reached the size of Princess Celestia, maybe even a little taller. Before Lyra could say something or properly see the approaching creature in the dust, her vision began to fade and then, unceremoniously, she fainted. End.