Chapter 50: Humble Origins
By late afternoon, the storm had slowly dispersed and the sun once again shone upon Ponyville and Canterlot. However, one place remained covered in the perpetual darkness – the dark cloud hovering over the Everfree Forest, where the Turmoil’s remains rested, reaching almost as far as the Castle of the Two Sisters. And it’s upon these castle grounds that the Pillar of Sorcery teleported to, pausing for a few moments as he stared into the encroaching shadow that he once tried to suppress, before finally moving into the ruin’s interior. Yet the silence outside was brief, as another figure teleported to the wizard’s location, and slowly followed. It climbed the stairs into the tower where the old unicorn once had his quarters, and that’s where she saw him unlock the hidden passage into his repository, and as he descended, the figure followed. When he finally reached the ground floor, the figure slinked away before he could notice it, passing past the shelves that were stacked with all sorts of documents and items… and she was determined to find answers.
The Princess of Friendship and her friends were on the airfield on the edge of Canterlot, preparing the royal zeppelin in the middle of a storm; they were aiming to save up on energy by requesting aid from other most powerful beings in Equestria, Starlight included. They had just finished making the final preparations and were now only waiting for them to turn up. However, the aforementioned mare was bothered by something, and she had to let her former teacher know.
“Twilight,” Starlight said, “can I talk to you for a moment?”
“Sure, what is it?” the alicorn answered.
“Over there”, the headmare nodded to the side of the ship. “Alone.”
Concern turned up on her face. What was it that required them not to be heard?
“Excuse us for a second,” the princess said to the rest of the Elements as they walked off, and stopped in the cover. “What is it?”
“I have this suspicion something is amiss,” the unicorn explained. “With Star Swirl.”
“What?” she gave her a confused look. “Why would you say that?”
“A flinch.”
“A… flinch?” the alicorn repeated.
“You know that thing that happens when you’re talking about some critical things to which you don’t know the answer, and all of a sudden somepony makes an “oopsie” and gives himself away?” she elaborated. “That kind of flinch.”
“Wait… are you suggesting that the accident he made earlier during the experimentation didn’t happen because he was tired?” she questioned
“Twilight, have you seen him? He may be older than Equestria, but he still carries himself like a young stallion,” the unicorn told her.
“Oh… right,” she said in an awkward tone, remembering all too well how he saved them both during his expedition. “But are you sure, that you’re not just imagining things?”
“Trust me, I'm not.”
KRAKOOM!
They flinched as a thunderbolt struck a nearby airfield lamp post, followed by a cry of Rarity as the storm ruined her attempt to fix her mane.
FLASH!
Once again they flinched from a sudden flash, as a graying old unicorn and the two alicorn princesses appeared in front of the group, the dark blue one slightly slouching against the bright one.
“Sorry for the wait, ladies,” Star Swirl announced. “I hope your wait hasn’t caused you any grief-“ He was distracted by the sound of the white unicorn crying her eyes out.
“Everypony, get on the airship,” he resumed after a prolonged silence. “Celestia, Luna, get to your positions.” He trotted past the moored ship and spotted Twilight and Starlight by it. “Is everything ready?”
Twilight looked at Spike, who gave her a thumbs up. She nodded in response.
“Excellent. Starlight, get on your position. The ritual will require a lot of magic and concentration, and I’ll have to compensate a bit considering one of the participants is… well, under the weather so to speak.” He moved to the back of the ship.
“See what I mean?” the headmare said when he was finally away from ear’s reach. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“Even so, we can’t really go and ask him, we’ve no proof to the matter,” the princess spoke.
“I could always go snoop around,” she suggested.
“NO!” she yelled, quickly realizing she had drawn the attention of everybody. “I mean… NO problem on this side of the ship.” She smiled awkwardly. “You’re not going to snoop on one of the Pillars of Old Equestria, promise me.”
The pink unicorn rolled her eyes. “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah…”
“Thanks,” she hugged her. “Take care.” As she made her way over to the ramp, her pace slowed down, as she saw the former Princess of the Night standing nearby, looking like she was barely holding up. “Princess Luna… are you okay?”
“Sorry, Twilight,” Starlight Glimmer thought to herself, “but you should know I don’t leave things lying down when I know something’s off.”
Star Swirl told her to wait back at the castle, but she chose to blatantly ignore his request. She tip-toed past the row of shelves and snuck into one of the lanes, hoping to sneak close enough to see if the old wizard was up to something, or if she could maybe find something, whatever it was that would point her suspicions being correct. She soon realized how monumental her task would be if she had to comb the whole repository for the information, and was hoping that wouldn’t have to be the case. Then she looked about and found out that her target had disappeared. Where did he go?
“I told you to wait behind.”
The voice came from her side. He was right next to her and in shock she spazzed out, accidentally crashing into one of the shelves, causing them to break since they were ancient, making them collapse on top of her. After the dust had settled she peaked out of the rubble and the elder unicorn was looming over her.
“I hope you’re happy,” Starswirl said with an unamused expression. “Let’s just hope for everypony’s sake that nothing important was damaged in the process.”
“How… how did you-?”
“Know you were here? I set up magical wards to trigger, so I know whenever some undesirables entered without my permission.” His horn lit up and the wooden rubble that covered the headmare flew up and slowly began to reconstruct itself. “Now, care to explain what is it that couldn’t wait until I got back?”
A cold sweat came over her. She got caught red-handed snooping around. The only silver lining at the moment was that he hasn’t caught on it yet, she could still cover it up, but she had to think of something quick, something that wouldn’t seem off and only the old sage would know.
There was one thing she could try. “Well, I wanted to wait until you got back, but there was this anticipation getting to me and I couldn’t wait, since you’re the only one who could enlighten me.”
“Really?” His eyebrow rose. “And what special thing is there that only I can enlighten you on?”
It seemed to be working, she just had to push it in the direction she was aiming. “When Twilight and others told me where they were, what they found underneath the wastes of the Frozen North, and it made me curious since, well, you were there.”
“Under the Frozen North?”
“Before it was that, Starswirl. Monoceria, our ancient homeland… what was it like?”
It took a while before she realized some time passed, and the wizard had yet to answer; he seemed to have gone silent. Did her tactic work?
“I don’t know if there are words for me to describe it, Starlight,” he finally spoke.
“Can’t you just tell me anyway?”
“No.” That was blunt an answer as she had expected, but not what followed. “I’ll show you.”
Starswirl’s horn lit up again, and a blinding light took them.
After her eyes finally readjusted, Starlight discovered they were standing under an open sky, in the middle of rolling blooming hills.
“Emmm, Starswirl, where are we?” she asked.
“The Frozen North,” he bluntly answered, “or rather, before it became such. The Greenlands is what it was called.”
“I still can’t believe that this place used to look like that. But anyway, let’s go see that castle of yours,” she said and was about to move from the spot.
“Stop,” the elder unicorn ordered. “Do not waste your movement. The only thing you’ll do is crash into an object. We’re still in the repository, remember?”
“Oh… right.” She halted. “So how do we move onward?”
“You just stand there... and enjoy the scenery.”
And it happened. The ground underneath Starlight’s hooves began to move, even though she was still. They traveled across the endless pastures with great speed, and eventually, they started to climb uphill, and at that point, they were beginning to slow down. He must’ve been doing this on purpose, as there was no reason why projecting the imagery of a hill climb would make it difficult for him, so why was he doing it? It was a question that would be self-explanatory, as they got over the top, she skipped a breath at the sight in front of her.
A vast green valley opened before her, and with it, three noticeable points of interest immediately came into view. On the left side, there was a small unimpressive-looking town, and next to it, a great many bountiful farming fields were strewn all over the place. Next to its right, flying high atop the clouds, stood a gargantuan acropolis, whose shadow covered nearly half of the valley. And lastly, to the right of it, a hill rose up to create a cliffside, under which a small town stood, yet atop the said cliff, a majestic castle towered over it. And in the middle of the valley, separating all three locations, there was a giant green lake.
The elder unicorn turned his gaze and saw the look on the younger mare that he anticipated. “Surprised?”
“That… would be an understatement…” she finally spoke. “Starswirl, this place is marvelous.”
The scenery once again started to move, this time in the direction of the small town underneath the castle. As they passed the fields they noticed several little colts and fillies playing on the outskirts of the settlement, apart from a single grey colt with a blonde mane that was just digging his hooves into the dirt, finally passing through the giant gate and into the city’s proper. It was sprawling with unicorns, dressed in colorful medieval clothing.
“Monoceria was the cradle of the unicorn kind. We were born with innate magical abilities that other types of ponies could only dream of. We were the ones who had the power to raise and lower the sun. We were masters of our world, adhering to nopony,” he explained. “That being said, that didn’t mean we didn’t have to deal with those that were trying to encroach upon our domain.”
“You mean the other two pony tribes?” Starlight inquired.
“No,” he simply said, and then the events around them played out.
The bell began to ring in the town square, and all of a sudden, the residents of the town scrambled, running back into their houses. The headmare wondered what that was, but before she could act, the scene shifted; they were standing now atop the giant city wall that overlooked the lake, and that’s where she saw what was afoot. On the banks of the great green lake, there was a disturbance: Earth was rising, beginning to shift, bits and pieces of it slowly bonding together into greater ones, until distinguished shapes became noticeable. These creatures born of rock and dirt began to march on the city, and their intent became obvious when they began chasing after the children that were playing in the fields, letting out deep bellows of anger. One of the fillies was not so lucky and was grabbed by one of them and lifted off the ground; she screamed in panic, and then quickly went quiet as a bolt of magic hit the elemental’s hand and it fell off. The little grey blond-maned colt stood in the creature’s presence, battle-ready, his horn glowing. The filly ran off, and when the elemental gave chase, the colt quickly shot a bolt again and blew up the being’s chest. Even if the damage seemed significant, the being of rock quickly regenerated the missing pieces with its surroundings, before attacking the boy. But he wised up by now, and instead of shooting another attack at it, he enveloped the earth elemental in his magic and lifted it off the ground, promptly tossing it into another one. He kept repeating it over and over, but with the number of elementals present, he was slowly overwhelmed, getting tired. He pondered for a moment and thought of another way: As the creatures approached clustered together, he stood his ground, trying to pour as much magic as possible into what he was doing. All of a sudden, the earth in front of the elementals cracked and a fissure opened, causing the manifestations of rock and dirt to walk into the opening and ended up being swallowed by it. When the last one disappeared into the depths and things went quiet, the colt finally collapsed from exhaustion. Soon enough, several city guards came running to the location, only to be left surprised. The child managed to singlehandedly take care of an attack that would take the whole group working together. He not only fought smart but was also strong in the ways of magic, more so than any average adult. And then they watched, as the boy’s body began to glow, was lifted up in the air, and after a flash, landed back on the solid ground. He finally woke up; he was unharmed, but there was something different about him, as on his previously blank flank was now a mark – a moon with a star attached to its tip.
“Earth elementals?” Starlight reacted as the two stood by.
“Yes. For as far as anyone could remember, the manifestations of elements would always try to attack our kingdom,” Star Swirl nodded. “They would never succeed of course, but we still had to maintain a constant vigil. I should know – this was the first time that I came face to face with them.”
“You did?” She tilted her head. “Where were you? Because the only one I’ve seen fighting them was the little greeeeee…” Her voice trailed off before she could finish the sentence, as her head turned to the little colt that lay on the ground beside her, then panned back to the elder unicorn, who rolled his eyes and then promptly lifted his cloak, revealing a cutie mark of a moon with a star attached to its tip. “…ooooh. That explains it.” A thought suddenly came to her mind; he didn’t catch up on the intention of her being here, so perhaps she could coax him into revealing something. “This was your first time dealing with them then? But surely a lone colt couldn’t have taken on the army of elementals all by himself?”
He chuckled. “True. I was born with great power, but it wasn’t fully refined yet. Then again, myself, you, and Twilight aren’t that much different in that regard.”
“Oh no need to flatter me.” She waved her hoof. “But anyway, continue the story.”
The scene shifted to a classroom, with the gray colt standing in front of a teacher. He cast a spell, and pretty much all the tables in the room began to levitate, spinning around the room before gently placing them back on the ground.
“After my magic finally manifested itself, I was taken into the Monoceria’s school for gifted unicorns. But to say I was gifted would be an understatement - I went from a "new colt" to "an elder" in a matter of days. I’ve already reached the point where I’ve outgrown basic education, so I had to go to a special place for further advancement.”
The scene shifted once more and now they stood in front of a majestic castle that towered over the town below. The colt trotted through the gates and was accompanied by the guards down across the blooming courtyard and to the giant gates. The throne room opened before them, revealing King Diamond Broke, a stocky bright-furred blue-maned stallion, sitting on his throne, with a much younger mare of equally bright fur and a pink curly mane sitting by his side, Princess Platinum. The colt bowed to them.
“The royals saw great potential in me, so they assigned me to tutors, who also happened to be Celestials.”
“Celestials?” Starlight looked at him, confused. “What’s that? I don’t think they have anything to do with Princess Celestia… do they?”
He chuckled. “No, of course not. Celestials were a group of powerful unicorn wizards whose sole task was to raise and lower the sun - it was a monumental task that no lone unicorn could do. They knew the highest teachings and potential that magic could bring, so they became my tutors.”
The scene changed, and soon the imagery of the elder unicorns testing the little colt came into view, as they had him do tasks impossible for an average child; teleportation, transmutations, levitation, etc. - the magic that both Starlight and Twilight were all too familiar with. Yet despite the colt’s continuous success, the tutors seemed to show less and less joyous expressions with each task that he succeeded; something that the headmare picked up.
“They… don’t seem to be particularly happy with the way things are going.”
“Can you blame them? They were some of the most powerful wizards in the entire kingdom, and a little child was outperforming at everything that took them years to learn.”
“Are you saying… they were jealous of you?” she inquired.
“Maybe a little,” he answered, but it wasn’t what she expected. “What really hung over them was worry. Before them was somepony who embodied power that they alone managed to reach, but unlike the colt, they had experience, they knew the dangers, but he did not. And it was only a matter of time before he did something stupid that he’d regret…”
Once again, the scene changed, this time to the colt staring at the mirror and struggling really hard to cast magic but nothing was happening. “What are you doing?” the pink unicorn wondered.
“Trying to earn respect from my new masters, what else? I knew they were giving me a look of dissatisfaction, and I got to the wrong conclusion. I believed that they only did that because I was just a child, so I figured that if I looked more grown up, like let’s say, having a beard as they did, they would give me the respect that I deserved. And so, I spent some time trying to get it, force it to grow.”
“But our manes can’t be grown by magic!” Starlight pointed out. “What made you think you could grow your beard by force?”
“I didn’t, dear. But I was determined to get it done… an act for which there would be consequences…”
The colt harnessed as much magic as possible and enveloped himself in it. But nothing happened in the end, and in frustration, he went to bed. Yet as he got up and looked in the mirror the next morning, he noticed something: There was a tuft of hair growing out of his chin. It worked! Perhaps all he needed to do was to wait for the effect to take hold. And when he went to check it out the next morning, he was in for a surprise, as he noticed that, not only did he grow a beard to a great extent, he’s also grown taller! And so, he trotted about, pridefully swinging his mane and facial hair back and forth as other residents of the castle simply stared at him.
“You know…” the headmare had to comment, “you kinda remind me of-“
“Sunburst?” he responded. “Yes, I figured as much. But unlike in his case, whose appearance is the least of his concerns, I took great pride in mine. I was so certain that they’d have to respect me now, but it wouldn’t take long for me to realize what a grave mistake I’ve made.”
A new day came and he dragged himself out of bed. Something was wrong though – there was this strange ache he was feeling that he didn’t feel the day before. And when he looked in the mirror, he was in for a shock: His beard did not only grow bigger, but he also noticed that his appearance was starting to show age lines. A sense of dread was beginning to creep up on him, and the following day he became well aware it was realized, as his blonde mane and beard were beginning to turn white and the age lines became even more pronounced.
“Wait…” Starlight finally caught what happened. “You didn’t use a spell to grow your beard… you used an age spell to make yourself older!”
“An age progression spell, to be specific,” he corrected. “I was so frustrated by my inability to get my beard, that I tossed up a whole bunch of spells together, creating the result you see.”
“Surely it shouldn’t be difficult to reverse it, right?” She waited for the reply and after she noticed that he didn’t answer, she looked at him and he was giving her a look, bereft of amusement. “Oh… right…”
“Yes, I believe that the answer’s pretty obvious. I’ve created a spell that I had no idea how to untangle and adding up to the fact that I was literally aging myself into oblivion put an added stress on me that robbed me of straight thinking. The best I could try to figure out… would be to stop the process before it got worse.”
And so, the now-stallion proceeded to cast spell after spell. All that could be heard from his quarters was the sound of explosions and flashing lights, which continued all the way to the next morning. But little did the residents of the city know that they would be in for a huge surprise. The scenery shifted outside, to the banks of a giant green lake, where there was rumbling afoot. The surrounding rock and earth began to move, coming together to shape a body. Unlike previously, where several bodies were formed, this time, all the material began piling up into a single humongous form. When the conjugation concluded, its eyes opened, it let out a bellow, and it began to lumber towards Monoceria, each step quaking the ground. The alarm bell began to ring throughout the city, as the residents took shelter and the guards charged to the front entrance in defense of the city, however, much to their surprise, the wall and the front gate would help little this time, as the earth elemental as so big this time around that its midsection already towered above them. With a simple move forward, it broke through and wandered into the settlement, beginning to destroy the building with its giant hands. The guards tried to fight it off; had it been the size they usually were, they would’ve been able to handle them, but with a body this size, the damage they inflicted on it would quickly restore. When they finally caught its attention, it didn’t take more than a single swing to send them flying. It roared, and grabbed one of the houses, ripping it off its foundations, with a family still inside, panicking, screaming in terror, and a moment later, tossed it at the castle on the hill. It stopped, inches away before it hit the target, enveloped in a bright glow before it was put down. The creature tilted its head, confused why nothing happened, and then its attention was grabbed by a flashing light on the ground level near it. A tiny figure stood before it, the urge to destroy it pushed the elemental to act and it lunged at it… and it stopped; it could no longer move – it was enveloped in the same bright glow that it had seen earlier. It was beginning to levitate off ground, flying high into the sky, well above the castle’s highest tower. It finally stopped, only for an invisible force to begin tearing it asunder, and after a final roar, the earth elemental’s body shattered into pebbles and was scattered across the distant reaches of Greenlands. As the dust of battle settled, the town’s residents finally emerged from their homes. Some of them saw the one who defiantly stood against the enormous attacker, in fact, he was still there, standing in the place where the creature stood a moment ago. The figure turned to face them, and the pink unicorn felt for a moment as if she was staring in the mirror as the elder wizard stood face to face with it - apart from the lack of cloak and hat, they both looked exactly the same.
With that, the bright flash of light surrounded them, and they found themselves once again standing in the hidden confines of the old castle, the old unicorn’s horn finally ceasing to glow. “I was a vain fool in my youth. And for that foolish vanity… I had to pay with it.”
“I’m so sorry, Star Swirl…” Starlight expressed her condolences.
“Nah, don’t be. I have had many regrets in my life, but this wasn’t one of them. It was a hard lesson that I had to learn, and I wouldn’t have been able to learn it otherwise.”
“But surely we could reverse the process and-“
“You’re forgetting something, young mare,” he stopped her before she finished her suggestion, “I may have been stuck in Limbo for a thousand years, but between the founding of Equestria and my departure has passed quite a long time. And I believe that my age has finally caught up to my appearance at this point.”
“You sure you don’t want to have a chance to experience what “youth” is like?”
He laughed. “I don’t think I’d want to lose my “the Bearded” title. I’ve GROWN quite fond of it.”
She was about to respond and then halted, thinking for a moment, and let out an awkward laugh soon after. “Oh, I get it. Beard, grown.”
Then her sight wandered over to the mess that was left on the floor from when the shelves collapsed. She levitated them back into the proper position, but she halted on the last item that caught her eye: It was a bright radiant crystal, with a darker purple color; she was so mesmerized that she couldn’t take her sight away from it.
“Don’t break that,” Star Swirl ordered. “Some of these things aren’t just documents containing information, they’re mementos of events from the past.”
She was roused from the trance. “And what’s this crystal supposed to remind you of?”
“Of a request, I made to protect Equestria… and the price that I had to pay for it.”
Headmare noticed a somber tone in his voice when he said it. “Was that one of your… regrets you mentioned earlier?”
He was quiet for a while before just moving down the lane of shelves. “Look, if you’re here now, you might as well help me with things.”
He didn’t answer her question – she caught “the tell”. Whatever the event he was talking about, it was likely too ashamed to speak of it. Perhaps she may have found something. She pretended to put the crystal back on the shelve, putting it down loudly enough for him to hear it, and then quickly cast a teleportation spell on the object. She then went to catch up to the old sage, hoping he didn’t notice it.
A blue crystal was levitated in the air by the alicorn princess, prepared. The Dragon Lord stood at the ready and then slowly extended the bloodstone scepter at it, gently touching it. It began to glow, and after the blinding light passed, they saw the event in progress.
An image of another dragon appeared. He held the memory crystal in his hands and was moving, but he wasn’t walking - a huge sharp claw held him in its grasp. The movement suddenly stopped, and he was put back on solid ground.
“Here is it, child,” a familiar deep voice said. “This is my most valuable possession in all of Dragon Lands.”
The dragon moved closer to the object, but the recorded imagery only showed him getting to the edge of a bank, where he stood still.
“It’s… a pool…?” he answered in a confusing tone.
“The Pool of Conjugation, child,” it responded. “That’s what I named it. It’s one of the oldest things in my domain, and it predates the dragon kind.”
“Predates? Mother, how do you know about it then?”
The deep voice chuckled. “Because I was there when it was first formed… before I became what I am.”
“Then… what were you, mother?”
“I do not know, child.” They couldn’t see it, but it felt like the oversized form was shaking its head. “I only recall what happened that day. Fire rained from the sky, damaging the land upon impact, leaving craters in its wake, and one of them was so gargantuan that it caused the land to bleed, its green essence filling the basin. I inspected it, and discovered it to be rather soothing to the touch, I bathed in the pool to feel its warmth. And then… they appeared.”
“Who, mother?” the smaller dragon inquired.
“The elementals, child – the physical manifestation of the world’s natural elements, the children of the world itself. The very earth that surrounded me came to life, they tried to reclaim what was uncovered, to bury the magical pool. But I would not give it up; it was MINE, and I wouldn’t just let them have it! I thrashed each and every one of them that tried to take my prize away until I was completely covered by the rubble in the end. Then, the flames that fell from the sky and set the nearby trees alit, came to life, trying to destroy me, and it perished in turn instead after a fiery battle. Finally, the winds were blowing so hard that they nearly picked me up, yet I firmly held my ground until their strength had subsided and I prevailed in the end. Silence came and there was nobody left to challenge me, yet from all the trials and hardship I was left exhausted. I laid down into the green soothing pool that I fought to keep, and then… the darkness took me.”
The image of the dragon stared at the figure that was too big to fit on the screen. “What happened then, mother?”
“I do not know. But when I awoke, I felt… different, I WAS different. My hide was as hard as a rock, my breath was so hot it set the land aflame, I had gained wings so strong that their beats caused winds to roar, and…” The rising boisterous voice suddenly stopped, only to be replaced by a depressing tone. “I shed tears of sorrow…”
“Why, mother? What made you sad?”
“I felt what the world itself felt, child – pain. The pain of being wounded, pain so horrible that it called its children to make it stop… and in my greed, in my desire to possess that wound for its beauty and comfort, I destroyed them all… and their remains… became one with me; I had become connected to the world, destined to forever bare its burden as my own. And that is why I care for all my children so much. None of you deserve to share in my burden, and why you all deserve as much kindness as I can provide… so that none of you fall down the same path as I did once. And that is why you are so important to me, Widejaw, my Dragon Lord – in my absence you must pass on that kindness to all the other offspring that were born of the descendants of my brood. No child must ever be left without guidance, for if that happened, the thought that it would give birth to another being what was as greedy as I once was, the harm it could bring to the world because of my inaction…”
“NO, MOTHER!” the smaller dragon yelled and flew upwards, reaching the tip of what looked like a crystal formation, reaching out and placing his hand on the cluster. “I promise, I’ll never fail you or what you had taught us, mother.”
Suddenly, giant claws reached forward, scooping up the Dragon Lord. Then the cluster began to move, or rather, the dragon himself was moved past it until he came face to face with a gargantuan eye, whose iris was shaped like a diamond. “I know you won’t, child… I know you won’t,” the Mother of Dragons said.
The Dragon Lord hugged the being's face and the imagery disappeared.
Silence lingered in the crystal cave, as all the participants watched the events unfold, except for Torch who seemed to have dozed off. “This was the third one now,” the princess said. “It varies in explanation, but the same thing is told.”
“Mother of Dragons wasn’t an actual dragon at the start,” Spike resumed, “she became one after coming into contact with this “Pool of Conjugation”. Talk about wild, right Ember?” He awaited a response but received none. “Ember?”
She just stood there, almost seeming as if she wasn’t present, staring at the reflection of herself in the red crystal of the bloodstone scepter.
“Ember, what’s wrong? You seem like you’ve been lost since the last few recordings.”
“Spike, how come you’re not more rattled by this revelation?” she asked. “We’ve all heard it multiple times now.”
“Why should I be?”
“WHAT ARE WE EVEN, SPIKE?!” she raised her voice, startling him, her scepter dropping out of her grip, and rousing her father from his slumber. “According to the memory, dragons aren’t even a real thing! We aren’t natural to the world, we were born of a creature that wasn’t a dragon and has been mutated by forces outside of its control to become one.”
“Ember, what’s wrong with you? You’ve never been this shaken by anything before,” Twilight spoke.
“I… I’m sorry, Twilight,” the blue dragon struggled to control herself, “but I just don’t know how to process these… emotions, that I’m feeling right now… I mean, I’m shocked… and yet also angry. Us dragons are supposed to be just that – dragons, we’re born strong and durable, unlike any other creature in the world. Now, however, we learned that our predecessor wasn’t one of us at all. What are we supposed to be, if our kind is nothing but a lie?”
“A lie?!” Torch’s loud bellow echoed throughout the cavern. “How did my daughter come to that conclusion? Prior to Mother, no dragons even existed. She may have been "a dragon-made", but as a result, the rest of us have been "dragon-born."" His giant head leaned in until it was by his offspring’s side. “What she was prior to that means nothing now. We are simply what we are – the reflection of the one who made us, and there is no lie in that, Ember.”
The past didn’t matter, the knowledge of the origins changed nothing. His words were true, despite all the problems he caused in his ignorance way back, there was wisdom in them. All of a sudden, Torch felt a touch on his face, as his welp leaned in and hugged him.
“What are you doing?” he bluntly asked.
She snapped out and backed off. “Sorry, sorry! I know you’re not into that touchy-feely stuff.” She felt somebody poking her rear end, only to be the small purple dragon.
“I am,” he said with a smile and hugged her, and for a change, she hugged him back.
After the moment passed, they parted. “Okay, I’m good,” she sighed in relief and picked up the bloodstone scepter again. “Alright. Which one’s next, Twilight?”
With that, the alicorn grabbed the next crystal in the set of blue, eagerly anticipation what new revelations would follow. Little did any of those present realize that a shadow was lurking among them, watching, and learning.
A small flickering light traveled through the dark cave. The zebra was holding a lantern in her mouth, as the workhorse and a newly acquired companion walked beside her, the latter leading them.
“Ah’m confused, Miss Windsdale,” Applejack spoke. “What would a member of Equestrian Astronomy Institute be doin’ here? Shouldn’t you be back over at the site of the meteor crash?”
“The institute got here several days ago,” the purple unicorn elaborated. “We’ve been examining the site for a while now. Unfortunately, due to the intense heat that it radiates, even wearing protective gear can make you intensely hot, so we’re forced to work in shifts. While the Dragon Lord was generous enough to make sure we’ll be having peace during our work, doing anything else during the downtime periods was another matter. So, while I was bored, I noticed this place rising in the far distance and decided to check it out since it sticks out like a sore thumb. I came here for a few days in a row and I made a discovery - this isn’t a volcano.”
“It’s not?”
“No.” She shook her head. “The outside may give that impression, but the interior is another matter. There are no magma rivers or springs anywhere around. On top of that, the inner walls have a distinct shape of an impact site, much like the one we were inspecting, but it seems to be sunk beneath the ground.” She stopped, and so did the other two, and managed to see around a giant room. “We’re at the heart of the geological formation now. As I said, there are no underground connections, but the walls are showing that it was an impact site at some point, but what became of it, I’ve no idea.”
The orange pony had to agree with the expert since her own knowledge was limited on this matter. Maybe Zecora was wrong on this matter after all, since they’d reached the dead end of their destination. As she twirled her hoof on the ground, however, she felt something was off. The soil under them… wasn’t matching with what the rest of the land was – grains were easily scrapped with hooves, like digging in the sand. She knocked on it, and the sound it left almost seemed… hollow. What if… She started to scratch at it, trying to dig.
“Err… miss, what are you doing?” Whimsy looked confusingly.
“The ground just ain’t right, it almost feels like there’s nothin’ on the other end. And if what you’re saying about impact site is true, Ah think Ah may know where the rest of it is.”
The workhorse continued, and soon enough cracks were beginning to form on the floor. However, only the zebra noticed how far they were beginning to trail. She dropped the lantern from her mouth to speak, but before she could quickly give away a warning, the floor under them gave up, and they all fell through the ground.
SPLASH!
The body of glowing liquid they just fell in softened their fall, but things turned south quickly.
“EEEEEK!” the unicorn screamed. “I just fell into something wet! And it’s making me tingle all over – and not in a good way!”
“Calm down! We just need to get-!” Applejack said and she stopped, immediately making hacking cough sounds as if she was choking.
The shaman was the only one left, and no misfortune has occurred to her yet. She turned her attention over to her companions and noticed that the unicorn was splashing about in a body of liquid that was about half a leg deep. Eventually, she also realized that herself and quickly scurried away to the side where the shore was noticeable. The threat didn’t pass for Applejack, however, as it seemed that she was legitimately choking, trying to gasp for air. Zecora rushed to her side, stepped behind her, wrapped her hooves around her abdomen, and pressed. With a spat, a cluster of strange light objects came flying out of the pony’s mouth.
“Thanks, Zecora,” she gasped. “Ya really got me out of that one.”
“A regular occurrence now, for sure,” she quipped. “But what was it that made you choke up before?”
She looked at the surface before her, there was something floating on it. “Ah… Ah can’t see it clearly.”
“Hold it right, give me a moment to fix a proper light!”
She reached for the lantern that was floating in the glowing body of water, but unfortunately, its light source was extinguished. She took off her saddlebags and quickly started to rummage through them until she pulled out her small scaly friend. She put it closer to the lantern and made a clicking sound with her tongue. The fire lizard burped a puff of flame and their source of light was once again active.
Their surroundings were now properly lit up; enough to allow the orange pony to see what she was holding, and it left her confused. “A feather?” Her eyebrow rose. “Where the hay did that come from?”
Zecora raised the lantern and tried to look up, spotting the hole where they came through, noticing the same grey plumage sticking out of the side of the broken false bottom. “It must’ve been trapped in the floor. To whomever they once belonged, I can’t tell for sure.”
“Zecora, Ah think we may have a bigger issue. Look what we’re in,” Applejack pointed out.
Now that the urgency had ceased she looked around herself and grasped what the orange pony was referring to. The body of liquid they were in certainly wasn’t water, that much was for sure; the glowing green substance was at this point all too familiar.
"Wait, you people know what this stuff is?" the unicorn asked.
"Ah believe Twilight said that it's called "the lifeblood of the world"," the workhorse answered.
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If dragons weren't originally them since the Dragon Mother was something else, what was the Dragon Mother was prior to taking in the Water?
funny, but the history of the formation of Starsvirl is very similar to the history of the formation of the villains of scientists who made an unsuccessful experiment without calculating everything. Only here Starswirl still managed not to follow the typical path.
Considering how dragons appeared in this universe and how changelings appeared in comics. can we say that it has a common root?
11349462
Probably a drake.
11350028
The LotW? You could say that.
11350058
What is LotW?
11350080
Lifeblood of the World.
11350083
yes, I meant it.
11350085
Oh, you're asking what it is?
11350100
I originally asked if dragons and changelings have a common root of origin?
11350058
A Drake?
11350113
Ye, you know. Creatures that sort of look like dragons but aren't really since they lack a few key characteristics.
11350104
Well, changelings were born from a tree that grew from a magical green pool in which a rotten nut fell. Mother became a dragon after the elemental remains bonded with her in a magical green pool.
So the answer seems to be yes.
11350135
So what will the revelation do in the longrun?
11350154
Who Mother once was, not much. Other things though...
11350186
The Drakes in general?
11350188
Yes.
11350212
Wonder how Spike be affected down the line by what will be revealed?
11350234
Oh, you're in for a treat.
11350238
Cool.
So I'm going to bet that "mother" is the (probably Alicorn) princess that set this in motion, and that Turmoil is related to her death or birth in some way.
Also the pool they just found was the place of her birth, left in a corrupted state after she bathed in it.
11355406
But Mother was a dragon. And we're not pulling the Finnish story over here.
11355986
She literally just said she wasn't orginally though.
This is a universe where Changelings are real. Frankly I'd buy just about anything happening at this point. And the pool has transformed things before.
11356092
Didn't Doubt also say that Lifeblood of the World doesn't affect living creatures... unless there are holes in its knowledge.
11356139
I mean it's given life to the various aspects and nurtured Turmoil's offspring, so it's definitely affecting something.
Plus given how tramatic being poisoned would be, it makes sense that Turmoil blocked it from it's memory.