I had the most curious encounter today. A unicorn stallion approached me on the middle of the street this afternoon and we ended up chatting for a while. He told me he was some kind of professor, though he wouldn’t reveal what his profession was. Still, scholars approach me from time to time to ask me questions, or for my opinion on their theories, so that wasn’t necessarily what made this occasion more or less noteworthy than others. This particular stallion acted rather peculiar and made nonsensical remarks from time to time that seemed to hold quite a humor to him. What really caught my interest, though, was what he said to me just before he disappeared in the crowd.
“Ponies always see Chaos as the same thing as Disharmony, and the opposite of Harmony. The truth is that Chaos is neither black nor white. It can never truly be Harmony, but just the same will it never truly be Disharmony. If those are the two sides of a coin, Chaos is not on one of the sides nor its edge; rather I believe that it is the one who watches the coin. It might choose one side or pretend to do so and actually work for the other. In the end though, Chaos will never be good or evil, it will lean towards one side at best.”
I’d like to believe that this was just another trick of the Serpent, but the thoughts still chip away at my mind. This pony seemed completely honest in his words. Whether he knew something I don’t or was only made to believe so, I don’t know. A good night’s sleep will help me sort my mind. There are more important things to ponder, such as the strange stellar constellation that is beginning to form. I will approach Luna about that. She is the Princess of the Night, after all. Though I can’t help but notice her demeanor has taken a hint of aggressiveness as of late…
From the long-lost diary of Starswirl The Bearded’s late years, recovered and donated anonymously to the Canterlot Archives in the 1003rd year of the Summer Sun Celebration
Discord looked around the deserted streets of Canterlot before him. A red tint in the eastern sky announced the arrival of a new day, but the sun refused to actually rise into the new day, hiding just below the horizon.
Discord sighed and snapped his claws, giving the sun the push it needed every day anew to start its way across the sky. It made a short leap to make up for the lost minutes and then settled at the barely noticable pace it would keep for the next twenty three hours, until somepony – or someone – could help her into the morning sky once more.
The Draconequus heaved another long sigh and dropped down onto the scarred stones of the plaza, unceremoniously landing on his back to stare up at a small white cloud floating overhead. The fight had taken a lot of his energy, and he had been bruised and battered faster than he could regenerate even at his full power. Even the average peasant pony, spoiled from their cushioned life in Canterlot, could give some mean bucks if Harmony was on the line.
They were still not strong enough, of course. Not nearly strong enough.
Discord slowly got back to his mismatched feet with a groan. He wasn’t even in the mood for his usual antics right now… Celestia knew that happened rarely enough.
Celestia…
The ponies who had fled from him were probably all over the place by now. With some luck they would come across each other and regroup soon. There were a lot of dangerous creatures and… things… out there.
He slowly started to walk north, fading into the foreground as he did. The Crystal Empire was a good ways off. Hopefully the news of his attack hadn’t reached them yet; Discord didn’t feel like he could put up with that kind of complications right now.
Roseluck slowly peeked around the tree into the clearing before she trotted out from her cover hesitantly, gesturing for the other ponies to follow. It had been three days since Discord had attacked Ponyville and wiped out every pony that wasn’t quick and lucky enough to escape. Since then refugees from all corners of Equestria had travelled Canterlot-wards, only to find the capital deserted. Wandering around aimlessly they had formed small groups, which met up to join larger groups until only a single group of several hundred ponies remained.
How Roseluck had become the unofficial leader of the ponies she would never know. Just a week ago she had been selling her flowers in a small store near the center of Ponyville. Now they had to ration their last couple of roses between a mass of hungry ponies.
She glanced back at the unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies, who were staring back at her expectantly. What did they expect her to do? There was no place left that they could consider safe from Discord anymore. Neither the Princesses nor the Elements of Harmony had appeared to confront the draconequus, and she could only assume that they had already fallen to his spell. She shivered as she thought back to her rival, Carrot Top, screaming in agony as she had slowly faded away under his magic. Nopony deserved such a fate.
Roseluck fought back the tears welling up in her eyes. How could they ever have trusted Discord! That wretched abomination had just waited his time until they had turned his back to him, and then…
She took a deep breath and looked back to the line of trees that marked another part of Whitetail Woods. In the distance she could see the silhouette of Smokey Mountain. She stared at it blankly for a few seconds until her brain had processed the actual meaning of that view.
Smokey Mountain was located to the north of Whitetail Woods, generally speaking. But they had been trying to go west, towards the coast.
Of course it wasn’t enough that they were hungry, tired and homeless; now they had to get lost, too. Could this get any worse?
A faint buzzing sound and a few panicked shrieks from behind her snapped her out of her thoughts. She whirled around to see a group of black, bug-like creatures rising from the trees. Before she could fully process the ambush the front row of the attackers fired a volley of green magic towards her. Changelings! Why were they back? And why now of all times? She was completely static as she stared wide-eyed at the projectiles of green fire flying at her face.
A wall of golden magic suddenly appeared between her and the attackers, shielding her from the fire. In a flash of light a unicorn stallion teleported in front of her, stepping slowly past the other ponies towards the changelings. His horn glowed in a golden light as he addressed the attackers, who had stopped their advance to give the newcomer confused looks.
“Don’t think for a moment that I will let you harm these ponies. You have exactly 9.42 seconds to get lost. After what you’ve done I would say that is quite generous of me.” He took an offensive pose and lit his horn even brighter.
The changelings stared at him in confusion for a second before they made a complete turn and made their escape, shoving and slamming into each other as they tried to get away as fast as possible.
The stallion turned back around with an angry huff and began to relax a little. Roseluck could see that he was an older unicorn with brown fur and a greyed out mane that had streaks of lighter grey running through it. He had small bags under his warm, light grey eyes and a short-trimmed beard around his mouth. He was also wearing a greyish blue jacket and a green bowtie, but Roseluck could still make out his cutie mark, a white paper scroll sealed with a red and yellow wax seal.
“T-thank you.” She hesitantly approached the stallion. “I don’t know who you are, but you really saved our hide. I don’t know if we could have defended ourselves against those changelings.”
The unicorn flinched. “Those weren’t– Nevermind, we have to get going. I know a place where you are safe.”
Roselucks eyes widened. “You do? Can you lead us there?” The stallion just nodded and started walking north towards the mountains. Roseluck galloped to catch up with him and fell into step beside the stallion. The rest of the group followed, as they always did. “Oh, I’m so happy we found you! Thank you so much–“ She blinked. “I don’t even know your name yet. My name is Roseluck.” she held a hoof out to him.
He bumped her hoof and continued walking, his eyes fixed on the mountains again. “I’ve been called many names. Some call me ‘The Lance’, others just call me ‘Q’…” He chuckled. “…It’s an inside joke. Around these parts I like to go simply by ‘The Professor’.”
Roseluck glanced at the stallion's cutie mark again. At least the last name made a bit of sense. “Okay then, ‘Professor’… If you actually know of a safe place I don’t care much about that.” She looked up ahead. It seemed like he wanted to lead them to Smokey Mountain.
Roseluck raised her head to examine the cave they had entered, slowly trotting forward. It was not very high, but wide enough that several ponies could walk next to each other. The walls were flat black stone, smoothened by centuries of water running down. Still, the cave wasn’t damp in the slightest; the air was comfortable to breath and the ground was dry and hard.
The Professor was waiting for them a little further down the cave, where it made a sharp left turn. He didn’t look the least bit exhausted, the serious but otherwise neutral expression still on his face. Roseluck couldn’t help but feel slightly impressed by his self-control. The entrance to the cave had been near the base of the mountain, not very high, but the walk from Whitetail Woods had taken them the better part of a day. Even if he wasn’t as tired as most of the other ponies in their group, he was without a doubt still feeling fatigue. He didn’t show any of that though and stood as tall and expressionless as a Royal Guard.
She joined the stallion at his spot near the wall and they watched the masses of ponies trot past them, barely awake anymore and slurring their hooves across the ground with the last of their power. Some of the earth ponies, who had a better stamina than the other two races, were already carrying sleeping colts and fillies. Roseluck herself didn’t feel any better than them, tired and barely able to keep her eyes open.
“Are you sure we’ll be safe from Discord in this cave?” She didn’t turn her head away from the refugees to ask the question. Tired as she was, it didn’t seem worth the effort.
“We will be save here, at least for some time,” the stallion answered. The last few stragglers trotted past them. “You should go after them,” he said. “I still have one more thing to do out here.”
Roseluck didn’t even think to question his motives as she followed the other ponies around the corner. After a few steps the corridor led into a larger cave; most ponies had already dropped to sleep wherever they were standing. A few others were still chatting in small groups or looking back at her. It took Roseluck a moment to realize that the cave had no other exit beside the one they had entered through.
That couldn’t be right. The cave might be safe at the moment, but a pony would easily find it with a little luck, and Discord would probably not even need any luck if he was actively searching for them. With that many ponies crowded together, he might be on his way already.
She turned around and trotted back into the small corridor, more than a little nervous. Maybe that Professor pony had an easy explanation for this. Maybe he had just led them to the wrong cave and another one was located just a few steps away from this one. Or maybe… she gulped as a sudden feeling of dread overcame her.
She couldn’t just lose her nerves because of some wild speculation. The unicorn stallion wasn’t a bad pony. He had saved her from the changelings, after all.
…Right?
She was almost at the corner now. The stallion hadn’t come after them yet. He had said that he wanted to take care of something. Roseluck hesitantly took another step.
The bright light washed over her before she could register it. For the fraction of a second everything was a void. A place where light and Darkness didn’t exist. Even Roseluck herself seemed to cease to exist in that moment, nothing more than an abstract concept thinking about itself.
Then the world returned. Roseluck was standing right where she had been, her brain trying to catch up with itself and the miniscule amount of time it had skipped.
A sound, right around the corner snapped her out of her stupor. Her legs resumed motion before her brain could order them to. Before she knew it, Roseluck was past the corner, facing towards the exit of the cave.
No three feet away from her the unicorn that had called himself Professor lay on the ground, unmoving and with closed eyes.
The Professor, as he had called himself, watched the earth pony mare disappear around the corner. Between all the ponies in this cave he was probably the only one who knew what danger they were in. Their land was no longer their own, yet they would have to survive in it for a whole 25 years. Those last remaining ponies were really the most unlucky souls in Equestria.
But he was still around, too. He could help them. He had spent much thought on the problem until he had finally come up with this plan.
The unicorn walked up to the corner of the cave, where an old and comfortable armchair was slowly shifting into existence in the middle of the corridor, just outside of the view of anypony in the second part of the cave. He climbed into the armchair and sat down in a strange pose, the same pose a human would take on such a piece of furniture. A newspaper appeared in his hooves and the unicorn opened one of the pages in the middle, trying to look as casual as possible.
When practicing Chaos Magic, a good symbolism could be worth just as much as a well-chosen mantra for any other type of spell. The unicorn could already feel the magic flowing through him, beginning to take form around him.
He directed more magic into the spell, forming it and weaving a counterspell into it to negate the effects when the time came. Almost all of his remaining energy was going into the spell now. He had spent more than he ever thought possible in those last three days.
With a blinding flash of light the spell took effect.
A small cave in the side of a large mountain ended in a smooth wall of green crystal. In front of the wall the statue of a unicorn, carved in stone, was sitting on a stone armchair and reading a stone newspaper. Every last detail, from the hairs in the statue’s beard to the single pages of the newspaper, was carved to perfection, making the unicorn look almost alive.
A small flake of stone broke off of the newspaper. Another, slightly larger chip of stone followed.
Pieces of the armchair crumbled and fell off, turning into dust and from dust into nothing before they could hit the ground. Cracks appeared on the statue’s grey skin. Only small pieces of the newspaper and the center of the armchair were left as the cracks widened all over the unicorn’s body to reveal brown fur and grey hair.
The last traces of stone blew away in a breeze that didn’t exist. The unicorn swayed for a short moment before he fell to the ground unceremoniously.
“–or? Hey. Professor?”
The unicorn let out a tired groan, trying to roll away from whatever was poking him in the side. He didn’t want to move yet. Maybe if they asked him next week…
“Professor, what happened?” There they went with that name again. Couldn’t they just leave him alone? He hadn’t felt this exhausted since… ever, actually. It must have been over a millennium since he had to seriously exert himself at all.
“What happened? There was a bright flash that… Well, I’m not sure what it did…”
With a flash of light the unicorn was back to his hooves. He flinched and grimaced, putting a hoof up to his horn. Too much magic, too fast. He would need a while before he was back to power.
That wasn’t what was important, though. He made his way to the cave’s exit as fast as he could on his shaking legs, ignoring the confused questions from the earth pony mare behind him. He barely noticed when she stepped next to him on the ledge outside of the cave.
The land outside was not the land they had left. The ground was scarred, burned and twisted. To their right sulfur steamed from small geysers all over the plains. To their left dark storm clouds dominated the sky, completely blocking the light and covering the land beneath them in deep night. The forest in front of them – bright and friendly Whitetail Woods – was only a memory of its former glory, twisted trunks of dead trees and beneath them darker shadows than were natural.
Discord the unicorn let his view wander over the ruined land. This is what they had done to Equestria in twenty-five years. Their country needed heroes more than ever. He could only pray that they were prepared.