“Each Event is preceded by Prophecy. But without the hero, there is no Event.” – Starswirl the Bearded
In the waning years of the Third Era of Equestria, a pony born on a certain day to uncertain parents was sent under guard, without explanation, to Morrowhinny, ignorant of the role she was to play in that nation’s history…
0~
They have taken you from Canterlot city’s prison, first by carriage and now by boat, to the east… To Morrowhinny. Fear not, for I am watchful. You have been chosen.
0~
“Wake up.”
She shifted in her sleep.
“We’re here.”
Despite her pounding headache, she tried to slowly peel open her eyes.
“Why are you shaking?”
She felt it now, the subtle tremor in her half-asleep hooves.
“Are you okay?”
She feebly opened her mouth to say something, but nothing could escape her lips.
“Wake up.”
With a groan, she forced herself up. The mare shook her head and looked around her, trying to figure out where she was. “Spike?” She yawned, but immediately stopped once she realized this was not her castle. “What the… Spike?!” she cried out, desperate to hear his familiar voice, but she received no reply.
“What’s your name?”
She whipped around to see a startlingly familiar face, certainly not the one she was expecting to see. “I’m, uh… I’m Twilight Sparkle. And you’re… Jiub?” From The Pony Scrolls 3: Morrowhinny?, she finished in her head.
“Yeah…” The emaciated grey stallion looked as though he was going to ask more, but never followed up. “Well, not even last night’s-“
“Storm could wake me,” Twilight finished with a look of terror creeping onto her face. She began scrutinizing the room around her, taking into account every little detail. The boat, the stallion, the dream… The dream! Memories of the ethereal voice from her dream came rushing back. “Sweet Celestia,” she mumbled softly.
Jiub, still quite confused by Twilight’s seemingly psychic abilities, didn’t take the mumbling as a good sign. “Wha… What is it?”
“I’m the Nerevarine!” she screeched in horror.
“Quiet!” a guard pegasus rebuked as he approached the prisoners. He turned to face Twilight directly. “You, come with me. And don’t yell again-let’s just keep this as civil as possible.”
Twilight reluctantly followed the guard, not truly paying attention to her environment as a result of the thoughts racing through her head. How did I get here? How do I get out? Are any of my friends here with me or am I the only one? What am I going to do? They had reached the stairs, and the guard mumbled something but not before Twilight went ahead and went up on deck. The beginning of the game was like clockwork to her, and she silently adhered to the path set out for her.
“You’ve finally arrived, but our records don’t show from where,” a guard in front of Twilight interjected, stopping her abruptly.
A large, flat screen appeared in front of Twilight, but instead of giving her the option to explicitly change her appearance, it simply let her choose her race. She briefly ran through each possible location through her head. She usually picked one of the elvish races when she played, naturally favoring a mage-style play through, so she easily concluded that being an Altmare would suit her best. “Sonipeset Isles it is.” The alicorn let loose a small smile when she saw her horn and her ears become more elongated and tapered more sharply at the ends.
“Great. I’m sure you’ll fit right in.” Twilight sighed at the tediousness of the process she knew would soon follow.
0~
When Twilight was out of the Census and Excise office, she stretched out her limbs and took a moment to finally think. She trotted over to the edge of the water and sat down, pulling the piece of bread she snagged in the building out to eat. So, I’m inside of a game. Morrowhinny, to be specific. How did I get here? Her face scrunched up as she tried to remember, but it was to no avail. Well, it’s not as if I don’t know this game forwards and backwards. I do need to find a way out, though. Despite her intimate knowledge of the game, she knew that her physically being present in the game could change a lot of things.
Wait… I’m actually in the game… Does that mean if I die here, I die in real life? Twilight let out a horrified gasp as the reality of the situation hit her. Sweet Celestia, if I take a step out of town I’m gonna have my butt handed to me by a kwama forager, I’m going to have to deal with cliffracers face-to-face, I’m going to die. The panicked mare began hyperventilating. She was so intensely focused on her inevitable death that she didn’t feel the hoof on her shoulder.
“Uh… Miss? You alright?”
Twilight turned slightly to see a pale brown stallion looking at her with concern. She noticed his pointed ears, sharpened horn, and slender black eyes. Oh Tartarus-Twilight quickly mentally corrected herself-er, Oblivion, here we go. “Yeah, fine.”
The stallion, whom she quickly recognized as Fargoth, seated himself next to her. “Oh, good. I saw you step off that boat, you know. Weird time of day for that kind of thing.” He paused and levitated a small bottle of shein to his lips before continuing, “Hope the Imperials treated you okay. I swear they took my-“
“Ring.” Twilight held the small thing up to the Bosmare, who accepted it graciously.
“You found it? Amazing!” He gave her a huge grin and levitated the ring onto his horn. “Thank you, thank you! I’ll be sure to tell Arrille about what you did for me. He runs the tradehouse just over there.” He gave her a small wave and stood to leave. As he trotted away, Twilight got a glimpse at his cutiemark. Naturally, it was his family ring.
Finally, Twilight thought as the small stallion left. His mention of the Imperials reminded her of the black screen that had appeared before she walked into the Census and Excise office. That looked just like the Morrowhinny menus. Maybe I can save my game? To Twilight’s surprise, the moment she thought it the world around her became dead silent and a similar black screen materialized in front of her. It had only one option: save game. Her sigh of relief was loud and sincere, and she lifted a hoof to save her game. She could not choose a slot to save it in, which meant no going back, but she saved nonetheless. So maybe I won’t die permanently, but that still doesn’t mean I’m ready to just die at any given moment… She shuddered as she imagined the tension and fear of crawling through a House Dagoth base, collecting the enchanted items from the ash vampires, or, Celestia forbid, facing off the great Sharmat himself.
The mare let out a groan of frustration before prostrating herself. The moment her back touched the soft, moist ground Twilight noticed something terrible: she had no wings. The revelation made her surge upwards in surprise. Tears welled up in her eyes as she reached for their normal position with her hooves and felt nothing. It was then Twilight had to consider something else. In desperation, she tried to telekinetically levitate the bread instead of lifting it with her hooves. She visibly strained, and her dark pink magic accumulated into a thick cluster around the tip of her finely tapered horn, but it was useless. The bread stayed on the ground, unwilling to answer the call of her magic. I’m weak. I’m a level 1 unicorn mage. I have nothing. Twilight began silently sobbing into her hooves. What am I going to do? She stood up, hearing the soft ambient sound of a piano build up in the back ground. A song swelled into her vocal chords and she began to gently sing:
I’ve been stripped down to my core
What am I going to do?
I’ve faced changelings
and bad kings
and all sorts of cruel things
But this is something new…
I know almost all the lore
I’ve read all of Kirkbridle’s stuff
Now I am here
filled with fear
and it couldn’t be more clear
That it just won’t be enough…
Twilight was prepared to break out into a chorus when it dawned on her that breaking out into song and dance wasn’t a natural occurrence for the denizens of Morrowhinny. She glanced around to see that some townsponies had gathered around her and were gawking at her flagrantly inappropriate display. Overcome with embarrassment, Twilight silently withdrew herself from the center of the scene and quickly made her way toward the tradehouse.
The door creaked open gently, and Twilight let out a faint giggle when the action didn’t lead to a loading screen or temporary break in environment. She walked up to the counter and began rummaging through her bags to find the items she meant to barter (including that fancy little limeware platter she knew just the trick to steal right in front of the folks at the Census office), barely noticing something seemed off about Arrille. The entire haul didn’t amount to much, around 500 gold, but it was good enough for Twilight. She was about to leave the warehouse until it occurred to her to complete her entire beginning-of-the-game setup all the way through. Celestia knows I’ll need all the gold I can get if I’m going to do this for real, she thought as she walked up the stairs to find Hrisskar Flat-Hoof.
0~
Night had long fallen on Seyda Neen, yet Twilight found herself as awake and fearful as ever. Finding Fargoth’s hiding place had been a breeze, as had obtaining the shardaxe and the Scrolls of Icarian Flight, but this was something entirely different. The lavender unicorn pulled out her journal and considered simply abandoning the quest. The quill in her mouth hovered over the Death of a Taxman quest as she contemplated crossing it out. It wasn’t until she was already standing outside of Foryn Gilnith’s shack that it had dawned on her that this wasn’t going to be like the other quests; she had to kill somepony else. It was only a video game, and she kept reminding herself of such, but she couldn’t help but feel like this was going to be infinitely harder with the pony she’s going to kill within hoof’s reach.
But he’s a criminal… A murderer. He certainly deserves it, Twilight speculated in an attempt to calm herself. It did little, though, and the thought of killing somepony else felt inherently wrong, regardless of his standing in society. No. It’s just a video game, and I need that 500 gold reward. Twilight steeled herself and rushed into the shack before she could change her mind.
Foryn, who had been relaxing on his hammock with his copy of A Gallop In Fire, nearly jumped in the air at the sudden intrusion. He glared daggers at Twilight, who recoiled from the acrimonious expression before closing the shack door behind her. “What do you want?” the indignant Dunmare barked before sliding off his hammock and setting his book aside. “It’s almost midnight.”
The Altmare tentatively took a step forward and mentally prepared herself for the inevitable combat. “I want you to pay for your crimes.” When Foryn didn’t reply, Twilight elaborated, “The murder of Processus Vitellius.”
If the Dunmare had been angry earlier, then he was downright furious now. “That fetcher? You’re damn right I did him in. He overcharged our taxes and kept the extra for himself. Didn’t even have the decency to keep it to himself, flaunting his ill-begotten wealth around town like that. So I killed the bastard and left his body to rot. Fat lot of good all that stolen gold is going to do a dead stallion.” He began to slowly make his way towards the inexperienced mage, doing nothing to mask his growing displeasure. “Why? What are you going to do about it?”
Twilight wanted to back away, but she felt her legs lock up. Though she tried to hide her fear, her body betrayed her and her ears naturally fell back against her head. She took a deep breath before reluctantly answering, “I understand why you’d be angry, but that is no excuse for murder. Your punishment has been decided.”
“I knew it,” Foryn spat. “You’ve come to kill me. Well, give it your best shot, Altmare. I’ve no problem with spilling more of the blood of the Empire’s lackeys!” With that, he lunged at Twilight, viciously swinging a hoof in her direction.
She had no time to move before the hoof reached her cheek, pushing her off balance and making her dizzy. Twilight tried to recollect herself and prepare a magic spell but was met with another volley of aggravated punches and slashes that forced her onto the ground. Foryn climbed on top of her and began giving Twilight rapid, successive jabs to the muzzle. In the heat of the moment, the Altmare abandoned her efforts at casting a spell and clobbered her opponent’s groin with her fetlock. He howled in pain and ceased his constant barrage of Twilight’s face, giving her a chance to stand up and finally recompose herself.
Foryn quickly pulled himself together and began standing up, forcing Twilight to hurry up and prepare a spell. With little hesitation, she chose to cast Fire Bite. Come on, come on! She chanted the mantra in her head as her magicka built up around her horn. The impassioned Dunmare finally regained his stance and began blindly charging his opponent, who finally tried to shoot off her spell. Much to Twilight’s chagrin, her spell failed miserably, leaving her directly within the line of fire of her infuriated adversary. She lifted up her hooves and held Foryn off for a few precious seconds while she prepared a second spell. Mere moments before he worked around her hooves her second spell had failed too, leaving her almost completely vunerable. “Die, fetcher!” Foryn rancorously snarled before once more pouncing on the weakened mage.
In a last, frenzied, fearful attempt to save her own life, Twilight thrust her head upwards, driving her sharpened horn directly into Foryn’s throat. She winced as she felt the thick, warm blood run down her horn and pool into her hair. Twilight hastily pulled her horn out, nearly vomiting as she felt the slick, wet muscles slide against her horn from his weak, panicked attempts at breathing. When it was out, the Dunmare began tilting over to the side before unceremoniously slumping onto the floor.
Twilight stared at her dead opponent for what felt like hours before becoming engulfed in guilt. Unable to stand the stench of sweat and blood for any longer, she left the shack, wracked with regret. Her eyes began leaking tears, and by the time she reached the door to the Census and Excise Office they were full-on cascading down her cheeks, leaving darkened stains behind. She hurriedly wiped them away before stepping into the building to claim what she felt was now a hollow reward.
0~
It was morning, and the lavender unicorn had been unable to sleep a wink. The thought of her murder lingered on her mind, pestering her like a swarm of flesh flies in a feeding frenzy. Nopony deserves to die in such a violent way, regardless of what they did. From now on, unless anypony perspicuously attacks me or means me any harm, I will not kill another pony. Violence should always be an extreme last resort. It’s a shame that is so common, hay, even accepted around here. Twilight sighed morosely. This world is so torn apart by anger and mistrust. Not to mention, the stress of the growing threat of Dagoth Ur is probably only exacerbating the problem. I guess it never really occurred to me how inimical this world was. But then, it was always just a game.
It was then Twilight had an epiphany. She knew how to get out of the game.
I’m going to stop Lord Ur’s efforts to spread his blight across these lands. But I’m not going to do it alone. If I’m going to put together an effective plan to force him to halt operations without bringing about anypony’s demise, I’m going to need a lot of help. Certainly more help than just one Great House, Ashlander tribe, or guild could provide. It’s going to be hard bringing them together, but I know just how to do it.
I’m going to need to make a lot of friends.