Act 0, Episode 1 of 5: Prologue 1 of 4: Losing The Inner World, Gaining the Outer World
Sometimes you need to lose what you have in order to gain the future.
Daybreak.
The sunlight streamed in through the loft's window, slowly brightening the room up as the sun began to rise. As the light reached the small bed in the room, the mare within began to awaken to a new day. She had left the window open and the sounds of the forest around her little farm were beginning quite loudly announce the new day. Mother Nature's natural alarm brought her to consciousness, and she rolled over and put the pillows over her ears in an effort to drown out the ever-increasing noise.
“Gleam, are those birds ever going to shut up?” The little mare groaned, more to herself than her companion while slowly pulling the pillow off of herself and blinking rapidly a few times when the sunlight hit her in the face.
Unsurprisingly, a little hiss of tired annoyance came from the little dragon. Gleam was a miniature dragon the size of a Great Pyrenees with scales that were colored in swirls of forest green, emerald green, aquamarine and light leaf green. A spaded tail colored a brilliant blue and white snaked out behind his back legs. He was about as intelligent as a large dog and (usually) about as loyal as a cat, but he'd bonded with the mare while he was young and wasn't going to ever leave her side. He preferred the darkness to the light and would have rather been left to sleep.
After a few minutes, Sunkissed Amber threw the covers off the bed. “Okay, Gleam. Time to start the day. The farm chores are not going to do themselves, and you need to get your shiny scaly self out of bed and put your harness on. We're going into town today to resupply.”
The dragon let out a resigned groan. He hated trips to town. There were too many ponies that gawked at him, or sorcerers passing through that regard him as a curiosity. If he was really unlucky, he'd run into a group of colts and fillies that would pull on his wings and tail as if it were a game. Despite all this, he understood that town equaled food for when he was at home, and with a “do we have to” expression he pulled the covers off the rest of the way and burrowed into them as if to hide. He'd get up on his own time.
“Now, Gleam.” Sunkissed Amber said, a little bit more sternly as she got up and brushed out her bed-head so she could be presentable.
Her name was Sunkissed Amber, a smart young mare who looked much younger than her twenty summers of age. She'd been born with a natural talent for geology, and she'd quickly learned to identify the value of gemstones on sight. Colored a pasty apricot with dark green horizontal stripes around her forelegs, she had an almost blindingly platinum-blonde mane and tail. Her mane had been done up into two thick “ropes” of braid; these curled backward like horns to either side of her and were secured at her flanks with a rope. They were thick enough to support extra saddle bags, and could be tipped with dangerous spikes or hooks that she could wield by whipping her head about.
Unintentionally-but-naturally cold amber eyes beheld her world, and her cutie mark was of four emerald-cut gemstones in a plus sign configuration: ruby, sapphire, emerald, and diamond.
“Okay, Gleam.” Sunkissed Amber said, after taking a few minutes to tiredly secure her hair with a bright green ribbon. “Get your scaly hide out of the covers. We've got a day to meet head on whether you like it or not.” She threw on a lavender robe, enjoying the feel of the cloth against her skin settling into a protective embrace.
Gleam snorted under the covers and then squirmed out of them as smoke trailed from his nostrils and he gave her a cross-eyed goofy expression. Opening his mouth he belched a slight blast of flame to show off, and now that he was warming up and waking up he'd give off more smoke the more active he got.
“Right then... first step, breakfast... I'll have to go to the garden first, we're out of fresh food in the pantry.” Sunkissed Amber said to herself. “If my father weren't so old... he would have gone before sunrise to get first crack at whatever was in the markets in town.”
She paused for a moment. Her adoptive father, an elderly stallion known only by the name of Honor's Edge, had taken her in after the death of her parents in a bandit raid that had reduced Sunkissed Amber's village to ashes. He was getting to be close to eighty summers old and she secretly worried that his time would soon be over. She didn't know what she'd do after that, as her life had revolved around him. He had been the one constant in her life, since farm life was different every day.
In his younger days, her father had been a former chief of guards in a city called Triple Hooves which was far, far to the east of their little farmhouse home next to the deep forest. He had put down his spear after twenty five summers on the job to take up the druidic arts, and while he had no magic talent of his own he had learned much about making healing salves, identifying poisonous plants, learning the ways of the various animals in the forest, and other minor things. Much of this knowledge and wisdom had been imparted to Sunkissed Amber, and she'd even shown some simple magical potential despite being an earth pony.
Sunkissed Amber went downstairs into the large lower room of the farmhouse where there was a table, a fireplace she'd help construct with her own hooves, several cupboards that were nine-tenths empty, and several storage chests with the various pieces of clothing she'd learned to make while she had some off time. She'd found she had a knack for weaving small, serviceable clothing pieces out of leather and cloth, such as saddle bags, a hat or two, caps that she'd taken into town to have enchanted with waterproofing, and so on. While her skill wasn't terribly good yet and it took quite a while to make one object, the quality produced could compare to a professional level whether she admitted it to herself or not.
“That's strange, my father isn't here.” Sunkissed Amber said to herself as she came down the stairs, looking around. Normally her father would be here to greet her as well as to give her the day's chores and events to expect, but now there was no sign of him. A little worried, she pushed open the saloon-styled swinging front doors and looked around to see if her father hadn't gone missing somehow.
She discovered him lying in his favorite spot next to a pond, between two willow trees, with a doe resting next to him. There were birds in the trees around him making quite a racket, and to Sunkissed Amber's surprise she also spotted not one but two hawks also watching from the highest branches. She recognized one of them as Twister, one of her best friends, but the other one wasn't one she recognized. To her surprise she saw that this new hawk had a small wrist-sized pouch attached to his chest that was painted in a series of violet and gold stripes. That meant it was a messenger hawk, and the only place that employed trained messenger hawks was...
“Father?” Sunkissed Amber asked.
“Oh, good, you're awake.” Honor's Edge's voice was a little weaker than most, but he still put a hoof to his lips and whistled for the messenger hawk to fly down. The hawk obediently did so and landed on a branch close to Sunkissed Amber without even startling the doe, and he motioned for Sunkissed Amber to remove and open the pouch.
Sunkissed Amber reached out and opened the pouch. Inside the pouch were a pair of rubies, a small scroll, and a small figurine of a gryphon carved from ebony. A pair of opals made up the gryphon's eyes, and its razor-sharp claws were made of silver. The wings folded outward, revealing a keyhole, but there was no key inside the pouch.
“Sunkissed Amber,” Honor's Edge said slowly. “That gryphon is your birthright.”
Sunkissed Amber blinked, bringing herself back to reality. “What?”
Honor's Edge coughed. “I cannot explain, but I know where you'll find your answers.”
Sunkissed Amber stood still, tilting her head and not knowing what he was talking about.
“Go to the Waypoint, and say the magic word 'Temperance' to get inside.” Honor's Edge said, rolling over and sitting up. The doe nuzzled him a little bit.
Sunkissed Amber froze. The Waypoint, as it was called, was a small guard station along the road leading into the nearest town that her adoptive father had built The Waypoint with his own hooves and had enchanted by druids, and as a child she had been forbidden to enter it.
“Father?” Sunkissed Amber finally managed to squeak out.
Honor's Edge shook his head. “The day's chores can wait. Today marks a new life for you, and you need to get down to The Waypoint as soon as possible. Your answers are there and time is short. Go, now.”
Sunkissed Amber blinked again but understood the tone in her father's voice, the “do as I say or there will be trouble” voice he used on occasion when trying to make the bulls and donkeys on the farm do his bidding. She went back inside to throw on a simple leather tunic and skirt, then called up to Gleam, who had gone back upstairs to sleep.
“Gleam... GLEAM!” Sunkissed Amber called. “Get your scaly hide down here before I turn it into a sequin-studded backpack! We're off to The Waypoint!”
Gleam growled loudly then leaped out the open window, spreading his wings and taking to the skies, soaring high into the air in order to show off again. Then he turned sharply and winged his way toward The Waypoint, leading the way. It would take most of the morning to get there; it was not an easy trek as there were no roads leading there from the farmhouse.
“I'll be back before noon.” Sunkissed Amber said with a smile, kissing her adoptive father on the forehead and galloping off, chasing after Gleam. Twister, who had been watching this from another branch, waited until the dragon was out of his view before silently taking off and following her.
Honor's Edge sighed. “No. No, you won't.” He looked up and to the left, addressing some entity that Sunkissed Amber was unable to see, but he could.
“I've done my part. The rest is up to her.”
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It was a little after noon when Sunkissed Amber finally crossed the final set of hills along the trail that led to The Waypoint. Gleam had taken the lead, pausing only once to show Sunkissed Amber a pair of freshly-killed rabbits that they could roast for their lunch once they reached The Waypoint. Twister had followed at a distance; the dragon disliked him and more than a few times in his life he'd had to dodge the predator bigger than he was. The last hill was very steep, studded everywhere with rocks and pebbles that Sunkissed Amber had to be careful to not slip on as she made her way to the top.
On the other side of the hill, she could see the wide track that wagons used to travel to and from The Waypoint. It was dug into the soft ground by the wheels of hundreds of passing wagons over the years, and could be seen quite easily from a distance. Beyond the well-used trail along the flat land was a deep, fast-flowing river carving a chasm in the ground against some steeper hills, and to the left of the track facing away from the river was The Waypoint itself.
The Waypoint was a circular hut crafted of cobblestone and hardened clay that had been treated with special sap from the local trees to harden it. Nearby, a large camping circle had been set up for travelers to camp down at, and atop the glass dome of The Waypoint was her father's personal symbol crafted in black basalt: an “S” with horizontal bars of aquamarine through the curves of the “S”. There was no door to get inside; only those who knew the magic command word could cause the walls to become as transparent as glass and allow access.
Clutching the small gryphon sculpture to her chest Sunkissed Amber quickly slid down the hill as Gleam leapt off and nearly blindsided into Twister. The dragon dropped the rabbits he'd been carrying his claws to give chase to the feathered birdbrain, and Sunkissed Amber was left alone as she approached The Waypoint. For most of her entire life she had been forbidden to come here, and now that she was here, everything about the situation was screaming “go away” and “keep out” to her.
Nervously she approached the hut and slowly laid her hoof on the cool stones that made up the wall. Even in the now-increasing heat of the day the stones remained cool to the touch with an almost supernatural chill. While Twister did a series of acrobatic dives to try to shake off the dragon's pursuit overhead, Sunkissed Amber curled her hooves then laid her hoof on the stones again.
“Temperance.”
The entirety of the circular wall flickered and faded as if it were a ghost, yet the glass dome remained solid, suspended in midair while allowing her access inside. Once she had stepped inside, the wall sprang back into solid form with a low but audible crack of stone scraping against stone. Overhead the room was lit by the glass-domed ceiling, where she could barely catch Gleam almost managing to catch Twister in his jaws.
The room contained a large oak closet that almost completely filled one half of the room, a small writing table one would have to hunch over at in order to write on, and a shelf upon which were two objects. One was an ornate rod crafted of silver and tipped with a diamond-cut amethyst set in backwards so the gemstone's tip was pointing out, and the other was a cedar box stained a rich red and violet.
Sunkissed Amber looked around. “Okay, my father said my answers would be here, but where?”
Her gaze was first drawn to the cedar box. Quietly she took it off the shelf and then slowly opened it, revealing a red leather envelope, a tiny brass key, and fifteen pieces of gold. Placing these aside she picked up the rod and weighed it in her hoof, and the gemstone seemed to light up and pulse in tune with her heartbeat; this rod was magical in some way.
Opening the closet, she found a large backpack filled with three changes of clothes, two jars of preserved strawberry jam (her favorite), an (empty) waterskin, and a map of the surrounding lands. Also in the closet was a full suit of studded leather armor stained a very rich red and gold, with pieces of armor to cover her from head to toe including a leather helmet that was almost a little bit too big for her. Aside from that there were two large boxes of trade goods of various types, and rounding it out on a hook in the back of the closet was a large trading harness sized for a dragon like Gleam. This harness was made of superior leather straps and metal buckles, instead of the crude leather-and-rope one she was used to giving him.
Turning back to the red envelope, she picked up the key next to it and examined it while also examining the gryphon that was still in her hooves. The key fit perfectly, and the statuette's wings flipped open with a loud click to expose a small metal crest of some sort attached on a chain so it could be a necklace. She looked at the badge briefly before gasping and almost dropping it; the badge was that of the royal family... two crossed mithril swords over a setting sun, with a bronze lightning bolt going down the middle and striking a dragon dead between its wings. No one that wasn't of the royal family was allowed one of these. How had her father come into possession of one?
Finally Sunkissed Amber's attention turned to the envelope and she flicked it open with one hoof, breaking the wax seal that she noticed had matched the royal seal on the necklace. The envelope popped open, revealing a letter written on hard, high-quality paper with even higher-quality ink like the kind you'd find on royal decrees. Her hooves trembled as she unfolded the paper to read the letter:
My child, by the time you read this, I will have passed on.
No regrets, no looking back, no worrying about me. My time is up.
You must take Gleam to Triple Hooves and seek out
a knight by the name of Shattered Shield, who will take you
to a sorceress known as Solar Silver.
She will tell of your birthright, and how you are actually of noble blood.
No whining, little lady. You're not a farm filly any longer.
Your rank in the lands of the nobility is akin to a minor Lady
(with a capital L), and you need to claim it as soon as you can.
Along the way there are... dangers and threats.
Let us say there are those who exist
“who do not have your best interests at heart.”
The knight will be your protector as you move to your new land.
In one of the boxes of trade goods in the closet
is an object known as a Dragon's Heart.
Use this along with the rod (enchanted with the power of abstraction)
to defend yourself, as Trol'Kyanis is not close by.
The rubies and coins will buy your way into the city where the knight lives,
while the royal crest the messenger hawk brought will keep the other
knights from asking too many questions you don't have answers to.
The scroll from the messenger hawk is your travel paper that will allow
you to enter the desert land of Trol'kyanis.
The gryphon is your birthright. Guard it with your life.
Trol'kyanis? That was... wow, that was almost a whole continent away, and across the ocean... but why would she have to go there of all places? It had only three things of note: sand, sand, and more sand. Ponies didn't live there; it was inhabited by a race of bipedal desert sheep called the Muial'ki.
Sunkissed Amber quickly went back to the closet and began rummaging through the boxes of trade goods, which consisted mostly of strips of leather, several animal pelts, multiple necklaces of eagle feathers, a leather bracer with lockpicks strapped to it, multiple yards of folded colorful handwoven cloth, and two huge oak logs that had carvings etched into one side. In one of the boxes she uncovered a small leather pouch that contained a huge carved golden beryl gemstone the size of two hooves pressed together; this was carved into the shape of a dragon with two sets of wings and overly-large obsidian eyes best described as “comically googly.” If she remembered correctly from her studies of history, this was the Dragon's Heart.
Quickly Sunkissed Amber went back to read the rest of the letter.
Before you go, I have four things to tell you.
The first: The ponies of our fair land and the Muial'ki are in an
uneasy truce for the last eighty summers.
You will be the first to visit their lands in that time and if you went with friends
they might see it as an invasion and an act of war. You must do so alone.
It would be dangerous to all involved and cause a political incident, so if in your
journey you find someone you like, LEAVE THEM before embarking for Trol'kyanis.
The second: The Muial'ki are noticeably different than what you'd expect.
Words can and will be twisted to make it seem insulting, especially since
you are “only a pony” which itself almost a major crime in the Muial'ki Lands.
They also treat their animals better than ponies.
You may have to pretend your protector is your manservant instead of someone with their own thoughts and ideas.
The third: As a pony with nobility attached,
you will be watched for the slightest slip-up. If you fail to adhere
to their standards and traditions, you will be thrown out...
or worse, drawn and quartered or even killed in a worse way than that.
And the last: You have a twin sister. You were separated at
birth and she lives in Trol'kyanis, as a recluse,
but like you she has no knowledge of her bloodline.
You need to find her and protect her, because she can't do so on her own.
Once your new enemies find out I am gone... and they will find out...
she will be a target for political machinery to threaten our kingdom.
She needs to be taken into your new home and shielded; once safe,
you can bring down your political foes and perhaps strengthen the truce.
Take Gleam and Twister with you. Gleam won't eat him.
If he does, I'll haunt him from beyond the grave and the brat knows it.
Now get going! I love you. I'm sorry I couldn't ease you into this properly.
Trouble is coming, and quite honestly, only you can stop it. I wish this
weren't the case...
--- Honor's Edge
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It was near nightfall when Sunkissed Amber returned home, her heart heavy and tears still streaming down her cheeks. She'd gotten into the armor (it fit her perfectly) and had spent much of the rest of the time securing the many goods to the harness now resting comfortably over Gleam's body (although he couldn't fly while wearing it). She'd found an unadorned red oaken staff in the back of the closet to use as a defensive walking stick alongside her braids, and the backpack was nestled over her shoulders.
She'd found that the backpack had been enchanted to hold more on the inside than the outside while she was packing it, and estimated it could about 150% more than it normally could. Gleam didn't have a riding saddle attached to his harness, so she would be walking next to him for their journey.
Sure enough when she returned her adoptive father lay dead between the willows, and by the time she had buried him, the moon had begun to set. Still, from the tone in her father's letter, she did not loiter around and grieve; they left immediately, planning to sleep out under the stars while she tried to think. When she was in her zone while studying “her” subject of geology, she was known to tune everything else out and this time it would be no different. She'd properly grieve later, when she had time to process everything that had hit her in the face like this.
Multiple things flashed through her head. She knew she was... “different”, as her father liked to say, though he never explained exactly what that difference was. She had a twin sister in danger? She couldn't take a coltfriend or friends into Trol'kyanis? She was really of noble blood and she'd never been told? How was the “rod enchanted with abstraction” supposed to be used? Trouble was coming and only she could stop it? Her head began to swim.
She'd learn, soon enough. And she'd find out she wasn't a little filly any longer.