The Forgotten Empire

by Shaddeluim

The Revelation

Tempess carefully walked along her path high above the cavern floor, the path was barely large enough for two ponies to walk side by side up to wherever the path led, that didn't bring much comfort to Tempess however. She would occasionally glance toward the city she left behind merely hours before, only to feel a sense of sorrow for all those who were trapped within the void stones (what she has started calling the purple crystals), and the sinking suspicion that she too was trapped within one. Tempess shook her head slightly pushing the thoughts to the back of her mind and continued her way up the narrow path heading to an unknown destination. The path would occasionally take a sharp turn before continuing upward, Tempess took a few breaks on these said turns before continuing, each time she stopped she could feel her muscles ache and lungs burned, it was clear her body was not used to the exercise, but she pushed forward regardless.

“I really need to learn to fly,” Tempess said as she lays down on the ground shortly after arriving at the top of the staircase, what awaited there for her was a hallway of chiseled stone and six stone pillars, three on each side and each with small glowing crystals on the side, stood a few inches from the wall running down the hallway towards a large set of engraved double wooden doors. The floor leading up to the double doors was completely smooth and polished stone that reflected its surroundings like it was an oversized mirror.

‘Wait wood? How is there wood down here?’

Tempess began to carefully pick herself up, curiosity getting the better of her, as she cautiously began to step towards the door. After a few short minutes of walking down this hallway Tempess noticed a few things; the first being that between each of the pillars seemed to some kind of grand event or battle of some description masterfully carved into the stone walls, the second was the double doors she now stood staring up at, it was far larger than she originally thought as it was run all the up to the roof of the stone hallway and it ran the length between the walls. If it wasn’t for the fact it was made from some kind of dark wood she would have thought it was a part of the wall, but really stood out to Tempess was the engraving on the door itself; it depicted a large anvil in the middle of the door surrounded by flames with an alicorn sitting behind the anvil. The alicorn seemed to be facing whoever was standing in front of the door, it’s wings were stretched out to either side, and it seemed to sitting tall, as if it was proud of whatever lay beyond it, the seam of the door ran perfectly down the middle of the horn and body of the engraving.

Tempess looked up at the incredible detail of the engraving, it was almost life-like, the eyes of the depicted alicorn were almost inviting to her as if it was asking Tempess to push it open to see what was beyond. Before Tempess even knew what she was doing, she placed a hoof on the wooden surface and almost immediately the eyes of the alicorn upon the door erupted in a beautiful golden light as it slowly began to open. Not a single sound came from the door as it did so, no creaking wood or scraping sounds echoed in the hallway Tempess was in, the only thing that could be heard was the wind as it squeezed its way through the opening door hitting her head on as it blew down the hallway. The wind carried with it a smell that made Tempess’s stomach growl, she walked through doors without a second thought. She now found herself within a chamber that could only be described as a cathedral. It was fairly large, it had the same smooth stone floors from the hallway and several more engravings running along the walls and even on the ceiling far above Tempess’s head. Between each engraving on the walls were archways that seemed to be supporting a second floor or overhang, and from what Tempess could tell the chamber could easily fit the inhabitants of the city from before with some room to spare. One thing did stand out in the chamber however; there wasn’t a single void stone within the cathedral, in fact the only crystals visible were the glowing ones that were within the hallway, each one on the sides of the archways facing the center of the chamber.

The smell that brought Tempess into this cathedral to begin with hit her nose again, drawing her attention away from the craftsmanship around her to something she was surprised she didn’t notice earlier. Across from her on the far wall was a hole, what was beyond said hole was a mystery as it was completely dark on the other side, but not too far away from the hole the inviting glow of a fire and around the fire were the silhouettes of what Tempess had to guess were ponies. She slowly started to creep towards fire as it was the source of the wonderful smell, and as she drew closer the smell grew. She stopped in her tracks a few feet away from the fire. She could see what was now clearly six ponies; three of which had horns and one had wings while the last two had neither. They seemed to be enjoying each other's company, smiling to each other as they spoke to each other in a language that Tempess couldn’t understand, she was also taller than them, it wasn’t by much but enough for them to have to look up slightly if they were to see her. Tempess however wasn’t paying much attention to the six ponies, instead her eyes were fixed on an iron pot that was hanging above the fire, entirely convinced that was the source of the heavenly smell, there was no doubt in her mind, she was starving.

Her attention was immediately dragged away from the pot as the sound of a wooden bowl hitting the ground echoed through the stone chamber, at some point Tempess moved closer to the fire then she originally attended as she was now staring into the eyes of the pegasus with the other five ponies looking at her expressions of disbelief, this caused her to start lowering herself, feeling a bit self conscious form the unwanted attention. Before anything could be said or done one of the unicorns disappeared with a blue flash as the other two rushed up to Tempess while speaking fast in the unknown but yet strangely familiar tongue, partly to each other and partly to Tempess herself.

‘Ok, this is weird.’ Tempess awkwardly looked at the two unicorns, ‘are they trying to ask me something?’

Both of the unicorns were male, one of them was blue with a red mane, the other was white with a golden mane, they continuously walked around Tempess speaking more to each other now as they visually examined her, this continued until the earth pony calmly walked up and dragged the two unicorns away by the tails as the pegasus walked by holding a bowl of soup, offering it to Tempess.

Tempess quietly sat down gently taking the wooden bowl into her hooves, taking a sip of the tomatoey flavored dish, as she did so Tempess looked between the earth pony and pegasus, both were mares, the earth pony was red with a blond mane and the pegasus a teal color with a yellow and light blue mane. The five ponies talked amongst each other quietly, apparently not realizing that Tempess couldn’t understand them, she then let out a sigh finishing off the soup she was given, placing the bowl down safely before speaking.

“I do apologize, but I’m afraid I have no idea what you're saying.” Tempess was quietly hoping that they could at the very least understand her, as all five ponies were staring at her again, the white unicorn horn lit up with a golden aura as a book began to float into view with the same golden aura around it. The white unicorn then walked up with excitement on his face as he quickly read through the book.

“Hello-my-name-is-Plushing-Potato.” The unicorn said brokenly but with excitement in his voice.

“Plushing Potato?” Tempess asked, slightly confused, the unicorn seemed to realize this as he looked down at his book again, he then proceeded to face hoof as he realized his mistake.

“Sorry-my-name-is-Professor-Parkins-what-is-yours?” The professor asked in his broken speech before mumbling something to himself. Tempess went to say something else, raising a hoof slightly, only to be interrupted by a flash of golden energy as three ponies appeared from the flash. One was a blue unicorn with a white mane, the other two were Alicorns. The taller of the two was white a multi colored flowing mane just looked at Tempess as if she was seeing a ghost, meanwhile the others, a purple colored mare with a flowing mane with shades of purple and pink, was talking rather quickly to the three unicorns.

“Tempess, is that you?” The white Alicorn asked as she walked up to Tempess, who just looked at the Alicorn confused.

“Yes,”

“My goodness, I thought you were gone. Is there more of your people somewhere, and if so what happened all those years ago?”

“I’m sorry, but do I know you?” Tempess asked shyly, weird out slightly. “Were you the one who placed me in the void, and if so why?”

“It’s me, Celestia, don’t you remember me?” Celestia said slightly hurt from what Tempess said.

“I can’t say that I do, there are few things I can’t seem to remember at all.” Tempess thought for a moment, as the purple Alicorn’s horn glowed releasing a shock wave of harmless energy.

“There now we should all be able to understand each other,” The purple Alicorn said as she walked to the side of Celestia, “Hello, my name is Princess Twilight.”

“Greetings Princess, I am Tempess.” Tempess greeted bowing slightly, she didn't know why she did that, but it felt right. “I must admit, I am a bit confused by recent events and was wondering if either of you knew who placed me within the void, or even better knew who placed all those ponies in the voidstones?”

“The Void?” Celestia asked worried

“Voidstone?” Twilight asked curiously

“Yes the Void, the deep dark nothingness between worlds, that will leave any who are trapped there mad and broken shells of themselves that can do nothing more than argue their own existence. I was there for quite awhile, and voidstones are simply these purple crystals that have ponies trapped within.” Tempess looked between the two mares and their expressions after saying this, and by the looks of horror and confusion, she knew then that neither of them knew the answers to her questions, but perhaps they could shed some light on a few others. “How long ago was the last time you saw me?” Tempess asked looking towards Celestia

“Over a Thousand years ago, shortly after Luna and myself trapped Discord in stone.” Celestia answered, a ping of sadness carried with her voice. “You were a good friend of ours, and an ally to Equestria. You opened your doors to shelter those from Discord, and even helped with the fight against King Sombra before you disappeared entirely.”

“Perhaps we should continue this discussion in the morning.” Twilight quickly said, “I would be honored to have an old ally of Equestria stay with us in Canterlot for the night, and in the morning, perhaps, some memories will return to you.”

Tempess thought for a moment, trying to process everything she just heard. She did have to admit though she was tired, and the possibility of some warm food the next day sounded nice. She just nodded in response, shortly after a purple flash enveloped her, as it dissipated she found herself not in the stone chamber but an elegant throne room.

“Curious” was all she could say at what just happened.