Chapter 02
“Look at this place!”
“Amazing isn’t it.”
“Indeed… hey look over there.”
“This artifact appears to be intact. We should bring it back for further analysis.”
“The king will be pleased.”
-The Unicorn Magic Division
Something felt out of place. Twilight stood in the midst of a black room that was dimly lit by old candles. Strange tribal music resounded throughout the room as six blurred ponies danced to it. They danced in a circle around Twilight at a dizzying pace, all the while giggling to themselves.
Suddenly the music stopped causing the six blurred ponies to halt to a stop. While still remaining in their blurred state Twilight could now see the ponies better and was shocked to discover that they all appeared much like she did. They looked like Alicorns with purple coats with velvet manes and tails.
“Quick! Hide!” The blurred ponies yelled, “He is coming!”
As the blurred twilights ran off the room came more into focus. It was a dimly lit circular room made of black stone, with a hallway connected and a small door. Then a faint red glow started to emanate from the hallway and something within Twilight’s mind warned her that she had to avoid the source of the glow. The red aura seemed to becoming brighter, it must be “him.”
Twilight scurried over to the door and attempted to open it. At first the door didn’t seem to want to budge but after pushing the door harder a couple of times it finally opened. Twilight shut the door behind her and looked around. She found herself in another room except this one had a window to another adjacent hallway.
“Quick,” a twilight apparition spoke from underneath a table, “hide.”
Despite the apparition’s warning the princess peaked through the window and beheld a strange sight. In the hallway there were three unicorns, two of them wore special magical armor to protect themselves from spells while the third wore a medical outfit. The two armed unicorns wielded energy lances at their sides. Twilight remembered seeing such weapons in history books that had been used by unicorns on the battlefield. Yet in modern times the only time you ever saw these types of lances were when the royal guard were dealing with a rogue unicorn. Across from the group was what appeared to be a young filly, however much like the apparition Twilights earlier the filly’s features were masked by some haze.
“It is okay,” The unicorn in the medical outfit spoke and he crept closer to the young filly, “We will just take you back into your room and then…”
Suddenly a strong red spark appeared from the filly’s head and a large orb of black energy appeared on the ceiling sucking everything within reach. The three unicorns tried to run from the sphere but instead they too were absorbed. However before being absorbed one of the guard pony’s was able to blast a beam from her lance hitting the young filly. The orb disappeared and the filly lay on the ground with a large burn mark on its side.
“By Celestia!” Twilight gasped, still looking through the window.
“No,” A voice spoke within Twilight’s mind. Then the filly lunged at the window causing the princess to jump back in surprise. The filly stared at her with bright red eyes, “There is no Celestia here.”
Twilight woke up, her body drenched with sweat. What a horrible dream she thought as she looked around the room. At first she believed she might still be dreaming when she thought she saw another apparition across from her. However it was merely Twilight’s reflection off of the black mirror stone.
After looking around the room and finding nothing that was a threat to her Twilight tried to go back to sleep but every time she closed her eyes she saw those red eyes looking back at her. Even the comfortable velvet sheets on her bed couldn’t relieve the tension Twilight felt. She even tried opening the window for some fresh air yet the way the breeze made the curtains move only made her more nervous. After coming to the realization that she couldn’t sleep Twilight decided to go to the library and perhaps by reading some books find a means to distract herself from that dreadful nightmare.
Using her telekinetic abilities Twilight lifted a lantern off of the night stand and walked out into the hallway. Remembering her previous venture to the library Twilight was able to retrace her steps. Like she had predicted the hallways were fearsome at night with her faint reflection following around her on both sides. Once Twilight thought she saw the reflection of the filly, however after close observation it was revealed to be a small chair.
Twilight contemplated how Claudia could work in this strange place. There were times it seemed to be like a maze to the princess. Did Claudia ever have this problem? Maybe she did once but having cleaned the building for a still unknown amount of time the tall unicorn must have figured out a system to identify, which door went to which room. Perhaps some signs should be added in the future to make it easier for ponies to find their way. It certainly wouldn’t help in an emergency situation if everyone inside the obelisk got lost trying to leave to safety. It could be very hazardous.
Reaching the library Twilight turned on the lights and started looking through the bookshelves. When Claudia had shown Twilight the library earlier the princess was grabbed by some more official ponies who wished to discuss some matters with her and thus Twilight wasn’t able to read any of the books in the library. Thanks to Claudia’s continuous cleaning the books had remained in good condition. Twilight was kind of curious as to why none of these books had been stolen, since many of them would have made a nifty trade at the rainbow falls trading event or could have been sold at a high price to a historian pony or museum. Maybe Claudia had protected these documents but for how long?
Despite the questions Twilight was pleased that these books were here as they could provide her with some information on the history of the Mirror-Stone Empire before the catastrophe that caused it to become the great wasteland outside. She spent a half-hour searching but only found two books that appeared to be of interest. One was a book called, “Our Great Empire” while the other book was slightly off-topic called, “The History of Bicorns.” While this second book wasn’t really along the lines of what she had been looking for it appeared that it might be an interesting read as well as a suitable distraction from her previous nightmare.
The History of Bicorns talked about a fourth tribe of pony known as the Bicorns that were very similar to Unicorns except they had town horns and were far more powerful with magic. This was because the second horn would act as an amplifier for the primary horn thus amplifying the magic cast by the Bicorn. While the book was indeed a fascinating read many of the concepts discussed in the book didn’t seem to apply to the rules of magic or were more farfetched that one might expect. Especially the concept of there once being another race of ponies now lost in time. Still Twilight found it interesting and thought she might analyze it more closely in the future.
“Are you okay princess?” Fire Stride spoke startling Twilight.
“I am sorry Princess. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Fire Stride apologized, “I was just patrolling and saw the light on so I came to investigate.”
“It is okay,” Twilight spoke motioning for Fire Stride to sit down across from her, “I had some difficulty sleeping so I decided to try to research the library for any history of this empire. Perhaps even finding some insight on why it fell and what caused that cataclysm that wiped it out.”
The royal guard sat down at the table across from the princess, “Have you found anything useful?”
Twilight smirked, “Sadly no. I was kind of side-tracked by this other book,” Twilight showed Fire Stride the History of Bicorns book, “It speaks of a fourth pony tribe that died out long before this empire was ever established.”
Fire Stride shrugged his shoulders, “I have heard of stranger things. I remember hearing about a tree that created six magical stones that were used to defeat the lord Discord as well as Luna when she was known as Nightmare Moon.”
“However that is actually true I know that because there is evidence of this.” Twilight spoke a little harshly, how dare Fire Stride doubt these facts that even he had witnessed.
“I am sorry,” Fire Stride replied, “I was merely trying to point out that we have evidence of certain things such as the Elements of Harmony, things that the ponies of the future may find difficult to believe themselves. Perhaps these Bicorns did in fact exist once but the evidence for their existence lost, except with this book.”
Twilight signed, she hadn’t meant to be aggressive towards Fire Stride.
“My apologies Fire Stride,” Twilight apologized, “I am tired and my dreams have forsaken me this night.”
There was a long pause where both Fire Stride and Twilight sat silently. Fire Stride smiled and spoke, “Well, you may not appreciate this, but whenever any of my children have trouble sleeping I tell them the stories that my father told me when I was a foal.”
“What kind of story?” Twilight asked curiously.
“Mostly stories about my ancestors and their past adventures,” Fire Stride said, “However compared to many of the adventures you have experienced they may seem trivial.”
“Still,” Twilight said, with a smile, “it would be interesting to hear a tale from an old friend.”
Fire Stride adjusted his seat, “Very well, allow me to tell you a story about my fifth great grandfather Storm Razor the son of the great Pegasus commander Hurricane. After the three pony tribes made their way to Equestria everyone tried to make a new home for themselves, however there were creatures that were not fond of the new-comers. Now please keep in mind this was before Discord came to power in Equestria so the main threat to the new Equestrians were the hounds.
“These bipedal dog like creatures perceived the arrival of ponies as a threat to their own existence. After all it had been the ponies that had brought the Windigos and the great snow to their land. Thus they began to attack pony traders and pillage their settlements. In response Commander Hurricane declared war against the hounds. However Storm Razor instead setup up barricades and defenses for the pony settlements while having his men patrol to protect the villages.
“One day Storm Razor was leading such a patrol when they were ambushed by a hound hunting party. Both sides suffered significant causalities but in the end the ponies were victorious. Storm Razor stood over the last surviving dog and considered piercing its heart with his lance. However he could not so despite the complaints of wounded comrades Storm Razor let the hound go.”
“Why,” Twilight asked, “Why did he let one of his ambushers escape?”
Fire Stride smiled, “Storm Razor’s own father asked him that exact same question. His response was simple, ‘it was clear the hound had lost and to kill the pathetic creature where it lay there would do no pony any good. So I let him have his life.’ And it was a good thing to. Because in a later battle it would be that exact same hound that he spared, who would save Storm Razor’s own life.”
“Well,” Twilight inquired, “Why don’t you tell me about it?”
“Perhaps another time princess,” Fire Stride replied, “but it is already late and tomorrow will be a busy day. So you should try to get some rest your highness.”
The purple Alicorn yawned, Fire Stride was right. She should try to get some more sleep before the dawn came. As she slept Twilight dreamed of a Storm Razor running through the woods and of unicorns with two horns casting various colorful spells.