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Prologue - From the Desk of Cpt. Shining Armor174 words
1. Introductions and How I Got Here2,052 words

1. Introductions and How I Got Here

If you're reading this, it means one of a couple different things. The first (and admittedly, most likely) is that the adventure I'm setting out on was a bit too much for me to handle, and I'm dead right now. If that's the case, I hope I didn't bleed too much on the pages. Possibility number two is that I survived, in which case I've either retired and published this journal or I've found my way back to my homeworld and left this book in the care of one of my friends. Third option is I let you get close enough to me that I'm willing to let you peek. If that's the case, I can only hope you've got a nice plot.

Maybe I should introduce myself. My name is Knight Errant, Private, First Class of Princess Celestia's Royal Guard, and one of the last paladins of Li'Ashe. Now, if you're reading this, you more than likely know who Li'Ashe is (unless, again, I'm dead and my quest ended in failure), but I'll probably have to explain Princess Celestia, which means I'll have to explain where I'm from.

I'm not from Drona. Big shocker, right? I swear, I keep running into people who aren't. I come from a land known as Equestria, on a planet known as Equus. Among other races, the dominant species is small, brightly-colored ponies. There are four different kinds, all with their own special kinds of magic. Earth ponies look the most like Dronian horses, but tend to be built very sturdy and strong. Very strong, in fact; an earth pony is easily a match for any other animal three times their size in terms of raw power due to the magic that runs through their muscles and hooves. I've seen earth ponies shrug off hits that would knock even the sturdiest dwarf for a loop. That same magical connection to the solid ground gives them an innate connection with nature that allows them to grow food and other plants like nopony else, even in the harshest conditions. There was one town on the frontier, Appleoosa, I think, where the settlers were in the process of cultivating an apple orchard in the desert. Last I heard, it was working.

Unicorns have a more visible connection to their magic than the others (alicorns excepted, I'll get to them.) Sporting a spiral horn out of their foreheads, unicorns are able to manipulate ambient mana in order to cast spells. What spells a unicorn can cast vary widely, but tend to be related to that unicorn's special talent. (Again, I'll get to that.) However, just about every unicorn can use their magic to lift and manipulate objects, though the size and number of objects they can do this with at once varies greatly, along with the precision they can do this with. I happen to be a unicorn myself, and I'm quite happy with that.

Pegasus ponies, commonly pluralized as pegasi, sport large, feathered wings on either flank, and these wings are the primary focus of their magic. Pegasus ponies can fly, and tend to be built slim and slender for that very reason. Pegasi are in charge of controlling the weather in Equestria, since they have the ability to manipulate clouds as if they were solid objects. They also have the strongest military history out of all ponies; their home city is basically a floating fortress made of cloud that can be defended with thunder and lightning at a moment's notice.

Finally, we come to alicorns. Alicorns are special and rare; to my knowledge there are only two on the face of Equus at the time of this writing. Alicorns carry the magical strengths of all three other races, along with a mana pool easily dwarfing anypony. An alicorn can hit harder than an earth pony, fly faster than a pegasus, and cast larger, more complex spells than a unicorn. They're immortal, bigger than any of us, and I'm pretty sure they're automatically royalty. Alicorns are the best ponies, full stop. They're the closest thing Equus has to gods. Princess Celestia rules over Equestria with a gentle hoof, raising the sun at dawn and the moon at dusk. She's wise, beautiful, caring, and Equestria would be lost without her. Her niece, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, is the princess of love, and while she might be less important politically, she's still an alicorn, and besides that, her coltfriend is the captain of the Royal Guard, so she has her own metaphorical weight to throw around.

All ponies share one thing that defines us as a species: destiny magic. Ponies are named at birth, but that name often relates to the calling that that pony finds later in life. Nopony's ever really been able to explain it, but nopony really cares too much. It just works. In addition, when a pony discovers their special talent, usually around late foalhood/early adolescence, that pony receives their cutie mark. A cutie mark is a pictorial representation of that pony's talent that magically appears on the fur of their hindquarters, and is almost always unique to that pony. Receiving a cutie mark is a major milestone in a foal's life, and their parents will usually arrange a celebration to commemorate the event. My cutie mark, for instance, is a sword and spear crossed behind a shield. As you can probably guess, I was always destined for the Guard.

So, now to how I got here. I was stationed in one of Equestria's mid-sized cities, a place called Fillydelphia, when the call went out to scramble. Something was attacking the town, and we had to go out and keep it outside the walls. Now, that doesn't seem too strange. Equestria is a world with a fairly dense monster population, not even counting the more aggressive sentients like diamond dogs and dragons.

We all grabbed our gear and rushed out. Standard equipment for an EUP grunt like me is shoes, barding, and a crested helmet, carrying two shortspears and an arming sword. Out we went, hooves thundering as we rushed to defend the city. We hadn't been told exactly what we would be fighting, but we didn't really care much. We were called to do our duty, so out we went.

I didn't see much of the thing. Didn't get a very good look at it. All I could see was that is was about the size of a minotaur, orange, and flying. That's all I got before I saw the thing shoot some kind of magical blast at me, and everything went black. It was sudden, so sudden that I thought for sure I'd only just been knocked stupid by whatever it was. But the darkness and silence never went away. I couldn't feel my body anymore, and when I called out, I couldn't hear my own voice. There was nothing. I thought I might be dead, but the last I'd heard of it, Elysium isn't an empty void. And I was still thinking, so I tried my best to hold on, even while I lost track of the time.

I couldn't tell you how long it took for something to happen, but eventually, something did. I felt...something. Like that feeling you get when somebody's hovering over your shoulder, but you can't see them. I asked if it was Princess Celestia, or maybe even the mythical Faust that I've heard a few of the more spiritually-inclined members of my unit swear oaths to.

The presence seemed...amused. As if I had just asked if cotton candy was actually made of cotton. The presence (I got the distinct feeling it was female) spoke up. She asked me if I was lost, and I said yeah, I was pretty bucking lost. She said she had a deal for me. Apparently, her light was fading, and she needed my help to bring it back and chase away the darkness. To do some good in the world. How could I refuse? After all, that's why I joined the EUP in the first place, so of course, I said yes.

Things got really bright for a bit, and the next thing I knew, I felt my hooves gently set themselves on solid ground. I blinked a few times, taking in my surroundings. I could see again! Or, rather, there was stuff to see again! Before I got ahead of myself, I quickly checked myself over. No injuries, legs worked fine, magic worked, and I still had all of my gear on. That was good.

Next was checking where I'd ended up. Looked like some kind of temple out of a Daring Do book. Pretty run-down, but still seemed at least somewhat tidy. A gallery of stained glass windows were behind me above a large, flat slab of white stone, showing some kind of strange-looking creature on two legs carrying a sword and a banner and wearing really ornate armor, and in front of me were rows and rows of long, wooden benches. Thought it was a trick of some kind at first, or just my eyes adjusting, but the whole place was bathed in light, like there wasn't a shady spot in there.

I'm sure you've figured this out at this point, but what I'd found myself in was a monastery of Li'Ashe, goddess of Drona's suns.

As I stood there, getting my bearings, I didn't notice a tall, thin creature with a shaved head approaching me. I'd come to find that this was a human, one of the many species that live in this world that you no doubt call home, dear reader. This man introduced himself as Father Tull, the abbot of the monastery. His goddess had told him that he "would find a champion before the altar of light", and apparently, that meant me. Introductions were made, and I was led into the monastery proper.

This was apparently some kind of cross between a university and a barracks, situated atop the cliffs of the pirate city of Port Nola. Here, a combination of scholars and soldiers worked to carry out the will of Li'Ashe. Apparently, the presence that had unceremoniously yanked me out of limbo was her, and I was to become a paladin like rest of them, charged with the sacred duty of taking back the world from an evil dark lord.

Here's hoping that the Dark Lord is nothing but a memory while you're reading this, friend. The monastery I was in was apparently the last standing after he took over most of the planet, only being saved by the pirate citizens of Port Nola having the winning combination of a highly defensible position and the desire to fight for their freedom that only lifestyle criminals have.

The next three months were a blur of study, training, and meditation. I was taught about your world's various gods and goddesses, about the world I now inhabited, and about what my new CO expected, no, demanded of me. Unlike Drona, Equestria doesn't really have what we'd call gods. The princess, sure, but not even Alicorns are omnipotent. Princess Celestia has to sleep like any other pony, makes mistakes of her own, and has a terrible weakness for cake. But gods being so active in the world that they're spotted just about one a week, doing whatever it is that they felt was a good idea? It was something I'd have to get used to. At this point, I'm still getting used to it.

Regardless, after those three months, Father Tull came to me and told me that he'd been given orders for me. Tonight, I was to go into town, and follow my instincts.

Being an enlisted stallion, of course my first stop was to get something to drink. But it was at that tavern, the Flying Gnome, that my story really begins.

Author's Note:

Hope you all like it! I'll be updating as I'm able/motivated. From this point on, chapters will follow a format of one entry per gaming session. Sessions are every week on Tuesday from 8pm-12am Central, and if I'm motivated enough, I'll write that session's journal entry the following day.

Drona is a fleshed-out world that was co-created by myself and our DM, and has its own geography, gods, and background. I may reveal some of this i the Author's Comments if there's no way Knight would comment on it or know about it.

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