The Genesis of Equestria - Book I: The Children of Armageddon

by volrathxp

Chapter One

The Genesis of Equestria

Book I: The Children of Armageddon

Chapter One

She stands upon the hillside, gazing down at the city of Manehattan. It is burning. The walls that surrounded the city compound have been torn apart, victims of the demons and the once-ponies. She watches coldly with a group of survivors. Mares, foals, and those stallions who were smart enough to follow her. They are cold and hungry. They look to her as a source of strength.

Angel Rose sighs. She knows she is not strong. She is doing her best to keep these ponies alive, because she made a promise. She is a Knight of the Word, and she has failed in her mission.

Angel grimaces and turns to the survivors. She tells them that they must move, that they will die if they don't. One of the stallions argues. He wants to stay and fight. He wants to believe that they have a chance to reclaim their home.

They don't have a chance. They never did. Angel had seen this day as she was seeing it now, in her dreams. She wishes she hadn't, as she knows what happens next. She does her best to try and change it every time she sees it, but ultimately she fails.

The demon speaks her name. She turns to face it. He is one of the Void's greatest champions. A demon far stronger than the rest of them. She knows she cannot defeat him in straight combat.

Angel lifts her staff, runes etched in its black surface. The demon laughs. Angel narrows her gaze at it. She knows she has failed because the demon lives. She failed to kill it before it could grow in power.

Fire erupts from the staff. It is powerful magic, but Angel knows it's not enough to kill the demon. She can only hope that it's sufficient to drive it away long enough for the others to run. She shouts at them to run.

They don't run. They die as demonic magic rolls over them. The demon sneers, its red eyes glowing with its triumphant power. All around her, Angel can see the feeders. Their glowing eyes gleam and they swarm with a sort of glee over the dead, feeding on the emotions of decay and rot. Angel grimaces. There's no way she can win this battle.

Angel turns and runs. She runs through the field of the dead until she can run no more.

* * *

Angel Rose awoke in a feverish sweat. The dreams always left her sweating hard when she woke up, but this one was special. This one she'd been having for several weeks. She knew what the dreams meant. They were a vision of her future, of the future she would live if she did nothing.

She slowly slid out of bed, using her staff as a boost to stay up on her bad front leg. She limped towards the bathroom and set the staff against the wall next to the sink. Splashing water on her face she looked at her reflection in the mirror.

Her deep purple mane was matted and sweaty and her golden eyes were sullen and baggy. Her dirty pink coat was sweat covered. The dreams always took a lot out of her. She knew that her dreams were integral to her work, that they would not stop until she had successfully completed her mission or she failed and died.

Angel Rose was a Knight of the Word. A champion against the darkness in service to the Lady, Angel's charge was to prevent the darkness she saw in her dreams from coming to pass. In doing so, she had been gifted with magic to prevent the dark creatures of the Void from winning the war.

It was a struggle as old as time itself. The Word and Void had battled for centuries and would battle for the rest of time. Each side had its champions, the Word with its Knights, and the Void with its demons.

It was the demon in the dream that had brought Angel Rose to Manehattan. Somewhere within the city, he was hiding, waiting and biding his time to reap and sow destruction and pain. Angel Rose knew that if she failed in this mission that the future she saw in her dreams would come to pass. She would not be able to prevent the demon from gaining the power that elevated it to the Void's greatest champion. Among the thousands of ponies doomed to perish here, she would not be able to prevent her own death.

Angel turned away from the mirror and picked up the staff once more. It was often considered unusual for an earth pony to be carrying such an object, with its runic inscriptions running up and down the side. Such items had not been seen in a long time, and often were artifacts of what scientists believed were ancient Unicorn cities. Nopony had seen a Unicorn in recorded lifetime, and most ponies believed they didn't ever really exist.

Angel Rose knew better. Unicorns existed, but they had chosen to retreat into their own little world, cut off from pony civilization. Even pegasi were few and far between these days. They lived all the way in Cloudsdale. And alicorns? Well, most ponies didn't even know what they were other than myths.

Angel Rose knew all of this because at some point there was magic in her world. The Lady had told her so. Magic had pervaded everything. At some point though, the magic began to fade. It gave way to science and the ideals of the modern world. The Industrial Age, they'd called it. A brighter tomorrow. Angel Rose snorted in derision. She hated the idea of it. She already knew what would happen in the future, and it wasn't bright.

No, it wasn't very bright at all. Ponykind would eventually reach an age where the manipulation and mechanisms of the Void would tip the scales in favor of the darkness. As a Knight of the Word, it was up to Angel to defend and prevent that.

Angel crossed the small room she had been renting for the past month. A month straight of staking out the city and she still hadn't been able to locate the demon. She was getting antsy, wondering if the demon had moved on. If he had, she would have to seek her answers in the dreams to find out where to go next.

Angel's nose wrinkled in disgust. She sighed and headed back towards the bathroom, pulling open the shower curtain. She turned the shower on and let the water brush over her, cleaning away the sweat and dirt. When she finished, she made her way back to the living room to plan out her day.

The demon had been very quiet since she moved into the city, too quiet for her tastes. She had to do something to get it to slip up, to reveal itself. That wouldn't be easy.

She would have to make do.

* * *

Elsewhere, an unseen force watched the ponies of Manehattan go about their everyday business. The demon stroked his chin, looking for the one that would serve his purpose. He had come to the city for a very specific purpose. The Void, in its wisdom had gifted him with a vision, a vision of the power he could have in its service if he completed the task it had laid before him.

Somewhere in the city, there was a unicorn. A creature of magic, pure and whole. The demon's task was to goad it out of hiding and capture it. By feeding off the unicorn's essence, the demon would grow stronger. There was only one snag in this plan. The demon didn't know where the unicorn was hiding, and any attempts to enter any of the wooded areas of the city would result in those pesky sylvans revealing his presence and position to that incessant Knight of the Word.

The demon's eyes narrowed. He was going to have to be creative with this. He needed somepony that he could manipulate.

The demon walked into the crowd in search of his prey. Nopony around noticed him as he made his way through the city.

* * *

Angel Rose stepped outside the apartment building she had been staying in. It was in a poor part of the city, run down and out of the way. It was the perfect place for her to hide and keep an eye out for the demon. Nopony would ask questions or poke around into her business.

She walked with purpose this day, heading towards what she hoped would be her first solid lead in finding the creature. It had been revealed to her a day or two ago through one of her dreams that a servant of the Word awaited her presence in Manehattan's Central Park. Angel assumed that this servant was a forest creature, a sylvan or something similar. A creature of magic.

She made her way through the city, her eyes shifting back and forth as the feeders danced at the edge of her vision. Angel never understood why the feeders existed. She knew that the Word had created them, for some strange reason she could never begin to fathom. All the feeders did was... well... feed. They fed on the dark emotions that ponykind exhibited, in addition to the magic released upon death. Normal ponies couldn't see them, but as a Knight of the Word, Angel could.

Angel grimaced. There were too many of them to count. They too sensed the demon and its stink. It was still in the city. She was sure of it.

Angel stopped in front of the entrance to the Central Park. It was a bright day, a perfect time for a park outing. Ponies littered the park grounds, doing everything from having picnics to playing games. They hardly noticed Angel as she walked towards the back of the park. It was one of the perks of her office that most ponies didn't really notice her unless they had to.

She stopped at the edge of the wooded portion of the park, looking back before she went in. Nopony was following her thankfully. She walked calmly towards a small pond and sat down. Several long moments passed.

Angel Rose... a voice echoed across the pond.

Angel's eyes drifted upwards. At first there was nothing there, and then suddenly a foal appeared out of nowhere. She was vaguely transparent, and looked as if a stiff breeze would blow her away. Her eyes however... were blank. Angel narrowed her gaze. This wasn't a sylvan.

“You're a tatterdemalion,” Angel stated aloud, addressing the being. Tatterdemalions were creatures of Faerie, made of the memories of dead foals. They were often seen in service of the Word, but they lived so shortly, more often than not only surviving approximately thirty days before disappearing forever. That one should appear to her was a sign.

“You are very astute, Angel Rose,” the creature replied. “My name is Rose Petal. I have come to you to deliver a warning and a message from the Lady herself.”

The Lady? Angel thought, her eyebrows raised. “Go on.”

“The Lady wishes to commend you on your service thus far,” Rose Petal said. “She knows how hard your mission is, but wishes to let you know that your service is nearly at its end.”

Angel grimaced. “I see. What does the Lady require of me?”

“There is a demon at loose in this city. It is one of the Void's strongest servants, and destined to get stronger. It will not be easy to locate,” Rose replied. “The reason this demon is here is because there has been sightings of a Unicorn in the city.”

“A Unicorn? I thought they liked to hide away from big cities like Manehattan?” Angel asked.

“This particular Unicorn is an outcast, an exile. It is very powerful, and still retains a large portion of the race's innate magic,” Rose Petal said. “The demon wishes to claim that magic for itself, twisting it to its own purpose.

“If he succeeds...”

“The vision in your dream will come true, yes. The magic will elevate the demon's strength, tipping the scales in the Void's favor,” Rose finished for her. “Manehattan will fall.”

Angel looked down at her hooves, considering her options. With no reliable way to locate the demon, she was left without any way to force a direct confrontation. Likewise, she didn't really know where to find the Unicorn that Rose had mentioned. She looked back up at the tatterdemalion.

“Where is the Unicorn?” she asked.

“Unknown,” Rose Petal said. “It is believed it is hiding in plain sight, disguising itself. I can sense its magic, but only when I'm in close proximity of it. The Lady has asked me to aid you in this task.”

Angel nodded. The Lady would not have assigned the tatterdemalion to work with her if she didn't believe she would be of some assistance. “Alright. But... how will you... you know... come with me without raising some eyebrows?”

“I am a tatterdemalion,” Rose replied. “I can hide in plain sight as well.”

“Where do we start? I can't imagine this Unicorn is willing to let us find it,” Angel said.

Rose Petal pondered the question for a moment before replying. “There is a museum nearby. Ancient history. I do not know if it will be there, but it is a good place to start. The current exhibit is on Equestrian Mythology.” The tatterdemalion began to fade. “I will follow you.”

Angel Rose grimaced and stood. She turned and started back towards the entrance of the park. She could feel the tatterdemalion's presence with her as she walked. She trotted back onto the city street, unaware of the presence that watched as she headed towards the museum.

* * *

The demon stroked its chin, grinning widely as an idea formed in its head. It stood next to a pony that it felt would suit its needs, a plain country bumpkin named Hayseed Turnip Truck. The dumb pony had been cleaning windows at a coffee shop across the street from the park. The demon flicked a claw, drawing the other pony's gaze towards the Knight of the Word.

“You should follow her,” the demon whispered. “She looks suspicious.”

“Suspicious...” Hayseed intoned. “She looks suspicious. Like she's got something to hide.”

“She kidnapped a filly. Took her from her parents. Track her down,” the demon continued. “Don't get too close, but follow her. Find where she took the filly and then use force to restrain her if she resists. Lethal force.”

Hayseed's eyes widened. His expression was horrified. He dropped his mop and bucket and trotted off after the Knight of the Word. The demon's grin widened even further, its yellow eyes gleaming. The Knight would lead him to the Unicorn, and then the Unicorn would be his, and that power would propel him to the pinnacle of the Void's service.

Author's Note:

Just a bit to get started into Chapter 1! Welcome readers new and old to "The Genesis of Equestria".

This story is based upon the concepts laid forth in Terry Brooks' "Word and Void" series, the ultimate prequel to the world of Shannara.

If you like what you've read here, then please consider supporting me on Patreon! I'm using this as a way to head towards writing my own piece of original fiction, so the support is greatly appreciated!

Comments

[Ankaru]

Oh shit, a crossover of Shanara? I'm sold already.

[volrathxp]

7528378

I very literally was unable to actually find any, which really struck me as odd.

[Ankaru]

7528438

Well the Shannara series is one of my all time favorites, right up there with Guardians of the Flame.

So I certainly will keep an eye on this one.