The Forest
Sunny Starscout slowly made her way through the trees, brushing past leaves and twigs with nearly every step. With her single saddlebag around her shoulder, she lifted the flap and dug into it, taking out the smartphone that Pipp had given her before she had started this trip down the mountain.
"I'm not entirely sure you'll get a signal all the way in there, sweetheart, but I just want you to have a way to head back towards the mountain if you get lost in there." The pegasus had told her.
Sunny softly tapped the screen, and the lock screen came up, letting her confirm that she had a single bar. It wouldn't be much good for a call, but it was good enough for GPS, and if worse came to worst, Pipp had also loaded up a compass app. At the very least, she would be able to get herself pointed northeast and roughly head back towards the mountain.
She couldn't be absolutely sure, because the canopy was dozens of feet overhead, and obstructed absolutely everything.
She slid the phone back down into her bag, and glanced at the other items inside. Zipp had insisted on her packing three different kinds of wildlife repellent, including a taser, a spray, and a snakebite kit. Along with that, was the last two items she had packed herself; her dad's journal, and something far, far older; a laminated ancient map of the area.
She had studied it on the mountaintop just before descending, and even up there, she wasn't sure how much of a help it was going to be. Apparently, in whatever era this map was from, Zephyr Heights was called 'Canterlot', and the forest below used to be much, much smaller. The map showed it on the other side of the river, and now, you couldn't even see the river, the forest was all the way up to the base of the mountain, and stretched to the horizon.
Somewhere in here was a town called Ponyville. Or rather, whatever was left of it.
She stepped over a fallen trunk, and continued following the river to her right, her absolute best point of reference, beginning to wonder what she would even be looking for in here. The trees, if they fell, would last a century or less before they became indistinguishable from the surrounding soil, so the chance of finding any intact buildings or artifacts was nil. Most of her father's collection had come from discarded museum pieces, or from inside stone or metallic buildings.
But perhaps she would get lucky. According to Queen Haven, almost nopony ever came down here. It was easy to see why; the trees were very disorienting, and she wasn't sure how far from the river she was willing to travel, as it was her only guarantee of not getting completely lost, and she didn't bring camping gear. She got a very early start to get as much use of the daylight as possible. She guessed it wouldn't be too long after late afternoon when this place became entirely pitch black, and she only brought one flashlight.
There were no paths or roads to speak of. She wondered what this place used to look like ages ago. Growth like this would have taken centuries.
The mare stopped to look around when she saw the river widen as it curved to the left. Just after the curve, on the other side, a large pile of boulders sat, a few of them having sunk into the river, moss growing on them. It had to have been a rockslide. Behind that, were several very steep hills, almost a mesa, and was clearly where the rocks had fallen from. There was no telling what used to be here.
Her gaze slowly moved to the left, to her side of the river, and then slowly traveled skyward as she took in the biggest tree she had seen in this forest yet by far. Masses of vines were draped from every branch, and smaller plants and vegetation had made their way up the trunk in their endless quest for sunlight.
Squinting her eyelids slightly, Sunny took a couple steps towards the tree, wanting to take a closer look. She could barely make out the tree bark beneath the countless vines and stems, but what had caught her attention was the odd way roots closest to her were shaped. They didn't go right into the ground, but seemed to be going perpendicular with each other several times before finally burying into the soil.
Was that... A staircase?
Sunny gingerly took several more steps towards the roots, and saw that they were covering something that was clearly artificial in shape. Stepping over them, she came to the base of the tree, covered in a layer of vines, and slowly reached out with a hoof. She parted what vines she could and saw a... surface. She couldn't tell what color it was underneath all the dirt and moss, but she could definitely tell it didn't match the tree bark. She took another careful step forward, reached farther through the vines, and tapped on the surface.
She was hoping the sound it made would help her figure out what it was, but what she was absolutely not expecting was the reverberation that she heard.
Was... Was this tree hollow?
She tapped again, slightly harder to confirm her suspicions, then stepped forward further to brush aside the vines, enough to tell it was a large set of doors. She pushed, and got nothing for her efforts besides creaking. Trying again with the other door provided no better results. Pulling down what vines she could to clear as much of this doorway as possible, she took several steps back, then galloped forward, putting all her weight into her left shoulder as she collided with the left door.
She was hoping the door would come unstuck, and come unstuck it did, as it broke off the hinges with a loud snap, and the earth mare lost her balance, somersaulting once into the pitch black of the interior.
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Twilight's castle? !! OMG! She found Twilight's castle !!!!! (If you ask me, the Horseshoe Forest is the EverFree Forest but less chaotic. Why is it?)
I googled some things about MLP gen 5.
Twilight is dead in gen 5. :(
I just seen A New Generation and look forward to seeing where this story goes
I just loved the new movie. This seems pretty interesting. I have a bunch of unanswered questions too, which I hope they adress in the series :)
these is kindle like that scene in jurassic world with the old vistor center
(insert mlp gen 4 theme sad and echo)
Grate start. Cant whaight and see what hapend next.
High in the halls of the ponies now gone
Twilight would dance with her ghosts,
The ones she had lost and the ones she had found
And the ones who had loved her the most.
The ones who'd been gone for so very long
She couldn't remember their names,
They spun her around on the damp old stones,
Spun away all her sorrow and pain.
And she never wanted to leave,
Never wanted to leave,
Never wanted to leave,
Never wanted to leave...
10990004
We don't know that, yet. The rest of the mane 6 most certainly, but Twilight's fate is a mystery yet to be solved. Equestria collapsed for reasons unknown, a long time has passed since then, the three tribes re-developing amidst the ruins.
Earth ponies in Maretime Bay (formerly Baltimare), Unicorns in Bridlewood (formerly White-tail woods), Pegasi in Zephyr Heights (formerly Canterlot). Other big locations, like Manehatten or the Crystal Empire, have yet to be addressed.
The rest of the world is unaccounted for, changelings, griffons and the like. Nopony knows what happened, some want to find out, likely the over-arching plot of the show next year.
Finding out that her heroes were the same kind of pony she was should prove enlightening. Hmmm. Note to self: story prompt involving somepony from this era who's kind of stupid and useless being transported back to the past to be judged and found wanting. His Mommy won't be able to save him from real Earth ponies.....
Well then... somebody seems to have found a certain tree
housecastle. Wonder what's left of the interior...10989967
No magic. That means no timberwolves, poison joke, or plunder vines
10990004
What?! (Well...well, let's be honest. It was expected ...)
"Who goes there?"
Large green eyes welcomed the trespasser
"How long have I been asleep?"
She could have also found Zecora's tree.
As far as the magic being gone is that just pony magic that was affected? Or was it a unilateral no magic in the world?
Momma boy Sprout getting warped into the ancient past and meeting folks like AJ in the flesh would be interesting 😈 heh heh heh. Did he ever even apologize for his actions or did mommy dearest pay off the damage? At least it looked like she was waking up to the monster she had inadvertently created.
10991407
The artwork heavily implies this is Twi's castle. And I don't think Zecora's hut would be quite as meaningful for Sunny to discover.
10990313
If she is alive and not incapacitated in anyway, I wonder what made her disinterested in the world. Even if she retired, I'd be hard-pressed to believe she'll leave things the way they are.
VERY good work on this first chapter. Greatly appreciated Sunny's reflection on recent events as she undertook the journey. And I have a hunch that, once Sunny finds out exactly where she is, she's going to have a reaction rather similar to what a comic book fan that just found the Batcave or the Fortress of Solitude probably would. And, yeah, finding out Twilight and her friends were not that different from Sunny and HER new friends when THEY were starting out should be pretty enlightening.
10991407
We're probably going to have to wait for the series to find out if the other species were also affected. Personally, I think it might be a great ironic touch if the other species managed to not just retain their abilities, but also stay united, in sharp contrast to the ponies (which would also be a good explanation for why the Windigos didn't return; the other species kept them in check). For another welcome bit, finding out Spike (not only still alive, but about as big as a good-sized hill) also acts as one of the current leaders of the dragons, trying to help make sure Twilight's teachings at least continue to get passed down to the other species could be rather interesting and a very respectful nod.
10991560
Now that you mention it, you bring up good points. I was just thinking, in the text, it seems like she wasn't in the woods all that long and the tree described didn't make any mention of crystal so either this is the remnant of the Golden Oaks library or it was another hollowed out tree, hence my guess about Zecora.
10990313
If the in-universe stories have any truth to them, Rarity might have survived. No "as well" because Twilight will not outlive her friends and I'm far from the first to propose this particular solution to that.
Well good thing pipp did give her something just in case if she ever gets lost but there are certain areas will probably will have no signal
So it looks like Sunny is exploring Equestria see if she can find any ancient cities and it looks like she found something it looks like it's been abandoned for a long time and whatever it is inside she going to find out what it is
So this is like a exploring the Equestria to see if Sunny can find old cities or something like that very cool
10992368
Lauren Faust also claimed that Celestia and Luna were born alicorns, but that was later retconned. Twilight could very well outlive her friends. After all, during the last episode, we see that, while they have aged, she hasn’t.
10990263
Is that based on a pre-existing poem?
10990975
That... that would be EPIC. The one who wrote down so many of the words of The Princess of Friendship... but... he would need to have a care lest his rage burn down the last remnant of those who should have remembered better just when the descendants of those fools are finally ready to re-learn the lessons those words held.
Twilights castle in a Tree is very fitting
Starts reading, reaches third paragraph
GPS doesn't require cellular signal at all. Downloading maps to plot your position on, however, does. If the device was preloaded with maps, as GPS devices are, cell signal would be utterly unnecessary.
That said, GPS instead relies on GPS satellites... having not reviewed G5 myself, I don't know if they have rockets- but if they don't, they won't have GPS. From the snippets I've seen, I expect they will, at least somewhere- and with it, GPS. It'll work anywhere it can see the sky.
11123298
No sign of rockets in the movie that I saw, but nothing says you can’t put transmitters on mountaintops and use them to triangulate your position the same way we do with satellites. It would just be a lot shorter ranged, as anything beyond the horizon wouldn’t have a signal. Yanno, just like with cell towers. Which is how they located cell phones (with very large margins for error) before putting GPS chips in them. .
Maybe GPS stands for “geopositioning system” in Zephyr Heights or something.
11148146
triangulation with telephone towers.?
Mhmmm
While I do think Zipp was haooy to help her with getting her those supplies, what are the likes she might need them?
Huh, both odd and interesting.
Oh boy! 😰
Lol. insanity it is I guess.
11268212
Not the first time, not likely to be the last.
11268347
Is it insane or if it actually works?
Pretty funny starting in on this story years later, reading this knowing there's 50k+ more words ahead and then four whole sequels behind them.
11705384
Yeah, me and my big mouth sometimes.
I've just started this, knowing it has quite a few sequels already (Mists of Bridlewood is unfinished at the time of me writing this), and I get to the Author's notes and see:
Oh, how wrong you were, my dear author.