//------------------------------// // The Origins of the Rainbow Pigment Part One: The Wasteland // Story: The Rainbow Pigment // by Jetstream S //------------------------------// Part One As the clock on the wall chimed three times, Twilight looked up from the mountain of books piled on her desk. Her tired eyes fell upon the window, looking at the stars shimmering over Equestria. Her exhaustion and frustration was getting to her, having made absolutely no progress on translating the book. Looking back at the empty bookshelves labeled “Languages of the World”, she sighed as she realized that none of her material could do the job. With one last burst of magic, the books all levitated from the desk. Creaking as the weight lifted, the desk visibly gained an inch in height. Twilight couldn’t help but smile at the humorous situation as she flicked her horn to send all the books back to their proper places.         As she did, the white book remained, opened to the first of many pages. When she had started the project, she had counted the pages, totaling the book to two hundred and fifty pages. All of which were filled to the brim with the strange, unknown language.         Being the avid problem solver that she was, Twilight had compiled every scrap, scroll, and tome that covered each and every language Equestria had to offer, and beyond. But even still, despite her efforts, not one of her three hundred books on the subject pointed to an answer.         With an annoyed huff, Twilight’s magic sparked, flipping the book’s cover closed with a puff of dust. She got up, walking toward her bed, mumbling something under her breath. As she retreated to the embrace of her bed, Twilight's eyes drifted over to the book on the desk. As she slipped under her covers, she watched the book as a tiny sliver of moonlight struck its cover. It seemed to shimmer for a moment, but Twilight dismissed it thinking it was just some residual magic from her telekinetic spell. Well, she wasn't all wrong. As the moon's light continued to bathe the book, a wind began circulating through the upper stories of Golden Oaks. Papers began flying and a tuft of Twilight's mane was blown to the side, jostling the half asleep alicorn. Her eyes fluttered open for a second, before snapping wide to full alert. Teleporting from the bed, Twilight appeared next to the desk, where a spiral of transparent white magic was now enveloping the book. "SPIKE! GET IN HERE!" Before she could blink, Spike was by her side fully awake and alert. He was hiding behind her foreleg, watching as the book began to levitate. "Twilight, what IS that?!" Spike yelled from under her. "I don't know, but I'm gonna stop it!" Twilight yelled back as she aimed her horn, charging for a blast. Before her magic could manifest, the book's pages began flipping wildly, each shining with a light that filled the upper story of the library. As the moon lowered into full view of the window, its light finally enveloped the book in its glow, casting an open book shaped shadow over Twilight and Spike. Spike had seen enough. He knew Twilight could handle whatever came her way, but didn't want to be around when whatever was about to happen, happened. As the book began emanating a sound much like a magic spell charging, Spike scrambled from under Twilight, who was temporarily blinded by the book's light. He hid behind her bed's leg, poking his head out from under it. His slitted pupils protected his eyes from the intense shining light, allowing him to watch everything that was transpiring. The room was filled with whispers from an unknown source, while the book's pages began separating from the spine. They swirled around Twilight, who was still helplessly blinded. Spike, seeing Twilight in potential danger, swallowed a lump in his throat and began making his way to her. The charging noise finally reached a crescendo as the pages began sticking themselves to Twilight's body. She reeled around, trying to get the paper off, but in the next second, it all hardened around her like a shell. Her scream rang out muffled by the paper, as Spike began clawing at the mache-like shell. "Don't worry Twilight! I'll-" A sharp crack filled the room as a screaming Twilight vanished into thin air. The wind instantly died down as Spike fell forward from the lack of support onto his nose. "-Save you..." __________________________________________________________________________ 1007 Years Ago. Twilight had seen and performed hundreds of teleportation spells in her life, but this one was far more advanced and jumbled to make any sense to her. The magical signature it left behind was similar to that of a jumbled decagonal rubix cube. Screaming and flailing through the whole trip, Twilight was deposited hard on the ground with a loud pomph. She was heavily disoriented, nauseous, and fighting to regain the breath that had been knocked from her chest on impact. She pulled her head from a cold, powdery substance that she quickly identified as snow, rubbing her eyes to get the ice out. The wind howled all around as the snowstorm raged, threatening to bury Twilight if she didn't move soon. She quickly wished she hadn't. There, not three feet from where she had landed, a helmet was half buried in snow. Her eyes slowly widened as she saw not only the helmet, but what it was still protecting: The partially decomposed head of a long dead pony guard. She backpedaled, gasping as the sight burned itself into her head. Feeling the snow suddenly deepen, she stopped, looking back. The muzzle tip of a massive cannon could be seen, poking from the mound of snow that covered it. Her magic sparked to life, casting a colossal heat spell over the surrounding area. The snow began to melt in an area the size of Ponyville's town square as Twilight desperately tried to get warm, and eventually find a way out of this place. The snow covering the canon had begun to melt, revealing the Equestrian Seal soldered into the thick metal. Twilight watched as her effortless spell created a dome of visible heat waves, keeping the snowstorm at bay. It was about two minutes into the spell that Twilight began to smell something, off. At first, it reminded her of rotting eggs, or a dirty out house. But then, her eyes fell upon the now snow free ground. What she saw, could only be comparable to her most horrific horror novels. Hundreds of bodies lay disemboweled, legs severed and multiple colors of feathers strewn across the red-stained stone. Swords and spears lay in all manner of positions, creating a jagged maze of blades and bodies. Her chest felt as heavy as a bowling ball, and her eyes filled with tears as Twilight surveyed the scene. She got to her hooves, focusing her magic to aid the reclaiming of her senses. The new source of heat was thawing the corpses and the scent of decay began poring over the landscape like a thick, invisible fog. Twilight wiped her tears and covered her muzzle with a hoof as she hovered along, careful to mind the blades and spears protruding up from the rocky ground. As she neared the edge of the area her heat spell covered, the noticed that snow had piled against the barrier like a wall. Where the snow had melted, the water had frozen again to create a wall of Ice. A testament to the sub zero temperatures. As she looked, the sound of a far away clash of metal made her ear twitch against the raging storm outside the dome. She looked outward, into the storm seeing nothing but a blanket of white across her entire field of view. At first, she thought she was hearing things, until another, louder noise found its way to her ears. Now, she was fully alert and looked to find the source, peering into the storm. Straining, she caught sight of something flashing in the distance, as if a pony was using magic. Her eyes lit up, and she began running toward the light, leaving the warmth of the spell behind. "Hello?! Is anypony there?!" She called as she darted between blades and spears. The sound of metal clashing began gracing her ears again as she drew closer; the light complementing the sound each time. Her hopes of it being another unicorn were beginning to dissolve as she drew near, the cold sapping her hope fueled strength. As Twilight drew nearer, the sounds were now clear and the realization finally set in. There were two beings fighting one another. She skidded to a halt as the distance closed, stopping merely feet from an ensuing battle. A young looking earth pony guard- sword clenched in her teeth -was engaged in battle with a far larger foe. An armored griffon. The griffon wielded a long halberd, twice the pony's length with a shield that could have easily been a prison for the pony had it been spherical. His wings were spread wide, clearly trying to intimidate the smaller pony who fought desperately below him. The pony's golden armor clinked as she threw move after move against the griffon, trying to find a way around her adversary's massive defence, as well as avoid the razor edged halberd. Twilight was dumbstruck, watching as the golden armored pony fought valiantly against her ebony armored foe. It was almost surreal, actually, to see two species that to her were tolerant of one another trying to kill each other. Yet clearly, the ferocity of their attacks meant that this was no sparring match, but a duel to the death. For s split second, the pony's sword made for the Griffon's throat, barely missing by a hair. The griffon countered by swinging his halberd straight toward his opponent's side, intent on cleaving her in half. Skillfully, the pony brought her sword up to her side, allowing the halberd to slide upward with a shower of sparks. Barely missing the pony's cheek, It glanced off the sword's hilt, carving a fresh gash into the metal. Using her natural strength, the pony jumped, spinning sideways and using her momentum to lash out at her opponent with a flurry of small but amazingly quick strikes. Caught off guard, the griffon brought his halberd's staff up to defend himself, but the sword was sharp enough to cut clean through the halberd's staff, rendering it utterly useless. Jumping back as the pony regained her footing, the griffon drew his own sword, shorter than the pony's but just as sharp. Giving her opponent no room to recover, the guard was upon the griffon in an instant, slashing at his ebony armor with a vigour unlike Twilight had ever seen. Even as the snow fell and the wind made it feel like a swarm of bees, the two combatants continued to fight, the weight of their armor doing nothing to hinder their movement. Twilight took a step forward, not knowing what else to do. She spread her wings, making the wind catch them and throw her off balance for a brief moment. As blades clashed and armor clanged, Twilight took another step, feeling a little more confident as her magic began flowing normally again. The pony and griffon had clashed again, landing yards from one another. Their chests rose and fell with strained effort as their strength waned, and their breath came out in large, thick clouds of white. The wind howled as they stared each other down, both with armor severely damaged and trickles of blood flowing from each slash. Suddenly, the griffon raised his head and cleared his throat. "You have fought hard and valiantly, tiny one," he said, voice harsh and hoarse. "But I believe it is time to end this. It is awfully cold, and I must be getting back to-" The pony stuck her sword into the snow, allowing her to speak clearly. "The only place you're going back to," the pony interrupted, "is the gates of Tartarus!" Twilight couldn't believe her ears. The pony's voice mimicked Fluttershy to a T; the calm and kind nature echoing behind her harsh words. The griffon cackled madly. "Oh come now my dear, we both know we will be meeting there eventually, regardless of who will be going first." The pony snorted. "Then what are you waiting for?! Send me there!!" The griffon readied his sword, snarling. "With pleasure, my dear." He jumped, dropping his shield to grip his sword's handle with both talons. He was intent on impaling the pony, burying her in the snow along with the rest of her legion. The guard however, watched with her cool cobalt blue eyes as the griffon exposed his armored belly- and the clearly marked gaps between the plates. As the griffon descended, wings wide, the pony gripped her sword and pulled it from the snow with a sickening shlick! It was time to see who would come out the victor. Twilight's eyes threatened to burst from their sockets as she realized what was about to happen. The griffon closed in on the pony below, who was making no effort to move. Was she just going to stand by and watch as a sentient being was about to be killed? No, I can't let this happen. I don't know why I haven't tried to intervene at all yet! Why did I wait?! Twilight ran forward, jumping with wings spread for the intercept. "STOP!!!" She screamed, nearing the middle of the opposing swords. In a flash, an explosion of lavender magic encased Twilight and traveled outward in an enormous sphere of light. It extended beyond view traveling at speeds that would make Rainbow Dash seem like a snail. Everything the magic touched froze instantly, seeming to stop in time. Twilight hung suspended in mid air, eyes clenched tightly shut as she waited for something to happen. Hearing nothing, she cautiously opened one eye, seeing a snowflake millimeters from her nose. Her other eye opened and she looked all around, seeing that millions of other snowflakes were also frozen, unmoving and vividly detailed. Feeling her wings begin to twitch, she began attempting to move. First, she retracted her wings slowly, followed by returning her legs to their normal positions beneath her. She now looked as though she was standing normally upright, however, she was still floating. Taking a deep breath, she cut the flow of magic from her horn, letting herself drop. As she did, she looked down in horror to find that the pony’s sword was directly beneath her belly- pointed straight up. She flailed her wings with a loud yelp, barely managing to miss the blade and landing hard in the snow below. She got up, shaking the snow from her face. As it left, the snow promptly froze in place, hanging suspended in a dual arc of sparkling white. “What in Equestria is going on?!” She thought out loud. The echo could've been heard for miles. Each breath she took and exhaled left a white cloud in her wake, unmoving. She looked over at the two combatants, shocked to see the pony had jumped nearly four feet with sword pointed up at the ready. The griffon on the other hand had his sword pointed down in a large arc intended to strike his opponent in the back. Twilight mentally played the scenario based on their positions, and came to a grim conclusion. “...They both struck and killed each other…” She lowered her head, not wanting to think about such a gruesome scene. It was then, she heard the soft crunch of snow behind her. “Twilight Sparkle, I see you have found your way into the book’s secrets…” Twilight’s ears perked and swiveled toward the familiar voice, and she turned her head to see Princess Luna approaching her. “Princess! You’re here!” Twilight yelled, rushing up to her. “What is this place?! What’s happening?! Are we in the past?! Future?! Are we-” A sudden silver-shod hoof stuffed itself into her mouth, cutting her off abruptly. “Princess Twilight, I will answer your questions, but only if you stay calm throughout.” Twilight nodded only once, sitting in the snow. She blew some snowflakes away from her face, readying herself to hear what Luna had to say. Looking around, Luna then settled her gaze on Twilight, who looked desperate for answers. “Now, as to where we are.” Luna looked around again, eyes resting on something unseen to Twilight. “We are on the western wall of the Castle of the Two Sisters, completely buried in hundreds of feet of snow.” Twilight’s lower jaw nearly hit the snow, realizing that the cannon she had seen earlier was actually one of the main spire defence weapons. “B-But how?!” Twilight stammered. “What happened to the weather that made it cause this?!” “I believe you are familiar with a certain spirit that… feeds off of hatred?” Twilight immediately thought back to the play her and her friends had taken part in only a few years ago. She mouthed the word ‘Windigoes’. “Indeed,” Luna affirmed. “It seems that the parasitic spirits not only feed off of ponies, but other creatures as well.” “Princess,” Twilight interrupted, “Why were those two fighting in the first place? What happened to start all of this?” Luna’s face took a solemn look. “It-It is not a time that I took pride in, Twilight Sparkle. It was a time a mere seven years before Nightmare Moon's banishment. It was the time of the Great War..."