The Forgotten Empire

by Shaddeluim

Awakening

The Void, a dark and depressing place, a place that no light ever or has hope in touching, a place that slowly makes you numb to all existence and slowly drives you insane. The void was many things; the afterlife for those without hope, a prison meant for the truly evil, or even a separate dimension in which all things dark and evil originate, in truth it was none of those things but yet all of them at the same time. Tempess couldn’t explain it, she never could, one would think she would be able to after how long she spent within the void itself. As of yet she has been unable to discover its mysteries, or how she came to be trapped within it, or even who she was, the only thing she can remember was her name. No matter how much she’s forgotten about herself and the life she presumably had, there was however a comfort in remembering her name. It brought a sense of being to her, a sense that she in fact did exist and wasn’t a strange delusion of the void. It was strange though, no matter how hard she tried Tempess was unable to truly understand what she was, one thing she knew was she was quadruped of some description and that she also felt an energy flowing through her, but without a mirror (or light) she has been unsuccessful in truly understanding herself. If it wasn’t for the fact she went insane long ago, she would have done so from this simple matter. She was sane now of course, to a point, every once and awhile she would hear voices in the distance, too far to understand what they were saying as well as getting the sense whatever the voices were there was something keeping her from reaching them, whether it was the void or something else.

A crack of brilliant light suddenly arced through the deep darkness like lightning in the night sky, it was deafeningly quiet as it moved. Tempess was hit with the sudden realization that the void was breaking! Cracks began to form along walls and ceilings that were far beyond Tempess’s reach, and with each crack beams of light broke through the darkness around her. For the first time in Tempess’s memory she was able to see, albeit it was a blinding white light, but it didn’t matter to her, because with the light came an answer to a dilemma she was debating with herself for a while now.

“So I wasn’t blind this whole time.” Tempess said rather smugly, knowing that she had won an age long argument, while also feeling a bit upset by the fact she lost said argument at the same time.

‘Uh, perhaps I’m not as sane as I once thought.’

Like a broken mirror falling out of its frame, the darkness of the void fell away, and Tempess found herself surrounded by the blinding light, but only for a moment. For as quickly the light came it diminished leaving Tempess behind, not in the void but a large chamber made of stone. The chamber seemed to be made up of stone blocks while the rest was carved out by hoof or claw, and the floor itself was a smooth stone surface that seemed to have been polished at some point. Along the walls, spread equally apart, were iron sconces, each one holding a strange yellow crystal emitting a warm light.

Tempess just laid on the floor quietly analyzing everything in front of her, from what she could tell the chamber she found herself in was some kind of gathering hall or perhaps an arena judging by the amount of old broken weapons and scorch marks along the walls and floor. After some time had passed Tempess began to slowly stand, only to start losing her balance upon reaching the top, thankfully she was able to regain her balance and in the process made an interesting discovery, she could feel again. Again? It was weird for her thinking about that word, one word she gave up on using in this context long ago.

‘Now is not the time to be thinking about words, I need to find my way out of here... but first.’

She gently began to move her body around so she could feel every part of her, she never thought the ability to feel again would bring her so much joy, and nothing was going to take that feeling away again. Not even the void. She suddenly stopped what she was doing upon noticing a reflective surface on a far wall behind her, in fact that wasn’t the only thing behind her. Three crystalline shards lay before her, each one was larger than her, and each crystal had the same dark purple color to it which seemed to get lighter at the bottom. Tempess carefully trotted around the crystals towards the reflective surface, she couldn’t explain it, but something about them made her feel uneasy, even more so when she looked back where she was laying only to see that she was laying on top of one. Though it looked as if it was cut at its base, for all that remained was a pedestal of crystal.

‘So I'm a pony, didn’t expect that.’

Tempess looked through the mirror, it seemed to be made out of some kind of polished crystal. She wasn’t sure how one could make a crystal reflect, which in turn brought up the question; how did she even know what a mirror was? Tempess quickly put the subject to rest for the moment, as she began to examine herself in the mirror. The face she saw was familiar but yet it wasn’t, it was hers but it felt like she was looking into the face of a stranger. The rest of her body however felt familiar to her, her coat was a darker shade of orange, as for her mane it was a dark brown. All in all, she looked boring and if it wasn’t for the fact she had both a horn and a pair of wings she was sure no one would give her the time of day. That is assuming there are others around and she wasn’t by herself, wherever she is.

One Hour Later:

From what Tempess could tell she was somewhere underground, which didn’t help much, she did however discover an underground city! That she was lost in, surrounded by more of the purple crystals she saw earlier in what she now believes to be a place of meditation or worship. The city she found herself in was massive, and considering the lack of citizens it was still in relatively good shape. The various shops and homes looked as if they were still being used, but the fading paint and the occasional damaged building suggested otherwise. Now that she thinks about it, the further she went the more damaged and abandoned the buildings around her looked.

“What happened here?” Tempess asked herself as she found herself in a large courtyard, and judging by the giant light emitting crystal above her and the destroyed buildings around the courtyard, this was the center of town and whatever happened here would explain why the city was abandoned. Before her were the remains of a battle, long abandoned weapons and armor, some still being worn by their long dead owners, littered the courtyard. There were scorch makers all around, even a few craters dotted around, walls of a blue crystal standing at an angle could be seen as well, and from what Tempess could tell they were being used as either a shield or a weapon. Even on this old battlefield there were the strange purple crystals, dotted around the courtyard randomly, or at least Tempess hoped it was at random.

“I need to leave, something isn’t right here.” Tempess said as she walked along the edge of the courtyard, not wanting to get any closer to those crystals. Something about them unnerved her greatly, and it was way too much to handle right now. Especially after just leaving the void. Though none of that mattered at the moment, because judging by the large street that just went straight, and was flanked on each side by various high end stores she just found her way out of the city. One problem though, the street was full of the purple crystals.

Tempess just sat there trying to think of a way around the street without getting lost, she couldn’t fly out due to the simple matter she didn’t know how, or at least she didn’t remember how, and magic was out of the question for the same reason. She looked across towards the other side of the courtyard and saw another large street, this however led to a large castle. It was both elegant and imposing, a large structure stood at the center of six towers with arching bridges connecting to the center building. A sense of dread grew in Tempess the longer she looked at the castle.

‘Yeah not going that way.’

Taking any side street wasn’t an option either, she’ll just get lost again, besides she was beginning to feel like she was being watched by something, which wasn’t helping her nerves. In the end she decided to simply push forward, being careful to not get too close to any of the crystals, that is until curiosity overtook her nerves. She was half way down the street before stopping in front of one of the crystals, it was smaller than the others, although now that she thinks about it, all of the crystals she passed in this city varied in size, but not in shape. Which seemed odd to her, she didn’t know much about crystals admittedly, that little fact wasn’t going to stop her though as she started to get closer to the one in front of her. Upon closer inspection Tempess could see the outline of something within the crystal, no not something someone, and from what she could tell it was a young foal! She stumbled back from the crystal as all her nerves and fears returned to her at once, unfortunately she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going and backed straight into one the crystals behind her.

Suddenly the street around her went dark as the crystals evaporated into dust, the sound of hundreds of hooves on stone echoed around her as the faint sounds of screams grew lounder. Tempess could see the faint glow of fires rage in the distance, the smoke that rose from the streets blocked out the light of the crystal above.

Fire began to fall from the air above as the thunderous sounds of battle erupted from the city center, and from there hundreds of ponies ran towards Tempess at full speed with no indication of stopping. She immediately tensed up, unsure of what to do, the stampede was upon her, fear and panic could be seen in their collective eyes. Tempess closed her eyes as she braced herself for the impending pain of a hundred hooves trampling her down to dust, but nothing happened. Slowly she opened her eyes to not only find that the ponies were going around her but also through her, almost as if she was made from the very smoke that filled the air above.

The scene around her was heartbreaking, hundreds if not thousands of ponies were fleeing their homes from an unknown danger, there were a few armored ponies (unicorns and earth ponies alike) directing the mob of fleeing citizens away from the danger. There were even a few who stood still in the crowd, frantically looking around shouting something inaudible, but before anything could be done a bright purple light broke through the darkness, and like a tidal wave it swept through the streets leaving unknown destruction in its wake. Tempess stood completely still as it swept over her, blinding her temporarily as she found herself on the familiar street full of purple crystals. No these weren’t crystals, they were magical prisons brought on to these innocent ponies, and presumably herself, by an unknown force.

“It’s been a strange few hours.” Tempess said before continuing on her way down the street towards a now visible gatehouse within a large wall around the city. A sense of dread following close behind, as the still fresh vision lingers in her mind leaving Tempess to wonder what exactly she plans on doing next.