Legends Never Die

by bookhorse125

No Great Loss Without Some Small Gain

Zephyr Heights looked so different now. The once-bright neon signs and advertisements now showed only fearsome images of earth ponies and unicorns that reminded Sunny of the ones that had plagued her hometown. The few pegasi walking on the streets looked grim and determined, but nopony was flying. They must have figured that they should conserve their magic for the fighting.

Thankfully, the alleyway in which Sunny popped out was empty, which surprised her. She remembered there being a guard here last time… Then she looked down the alleyway and froze.

A group of pegasi had set up a small table on a cardboard box and were playing a card game, laughing and cursing like sailors whenever things didn’t go their way. Sunny cautiously crept up behind them, concealed by a stack of crates. She had a feeling that their laid-back behavior wouldn’t sit too well with whoever was in charge… And sure enough, a few minutes later, a fifth pegasus appeared and slammed her hoof on the table, disrupting the game, yelling at the ‘guards’. They scrambled, and the new one chased after them, going on and on about how she would make them pay and how their boss would hear about this, et cetera.

Sunny stifled a giggle and slipped past them. She stopped to grab a large hat, which she hurriedly stuffed her mane under, and a strange cape-looking thing that she added some feathers to, so that it would look like she was just wearing it over her wings, though she had none.

Izzy could have done better with a box of macaroni, Sunny thought ruefully, then cursed herself for thinking that. Izzy wasn’t there, and it wouldn’t do any good to think about her.

Though Sunny meant to sneak into the castle and search the archives for anything about a memory-erasing stone, she found her hooves taking her to the abandoned airstation. It was empty now, but her father’s old artifacts were still there, albeit a bit dusty, just like everything else. After everything her friends had done to restore it, it made Sunny’s heart hurt to see it fall into despair again. So she found a piece of cloth and set about fixing everything up.

It was hard work. Her father had collected only about several dozen items, not including the many others that Zipp, Pipp, Izzy, and Hitch had found for her, and the shelves full of books, but it was something that Sunny found herself surprisingly enjoying. It distracted her from her current misery.

She accidentally knocked a scroll of her father’s to the ground. “Oops,” Sunny said, scurrying after it. The rolled-up piece of paper came to a stop in the middle of the room, right in the middle of the room, where sunlight shining through the stained glass window reflected its image onto the floor. Sunny reached to pick up the scroll, then froze, realizing that it had come to a halt under the reflection of a pink six-pointed star.

Taking a deep breath, Sunny said, “Hey, um… Princess? I assume you must have been a princess, and that sounds much less weird than, like, I guess you’re my great-great-grandmother something, but that sounds so wrong, so… Princess. Hi. My name’s Sunny Starscout, and, um… I could really use some help. I… I’ve never felt this defeated. Not even when the crystals didn’t work, not even when my dad disappeared… I feel like there’s nothing I can do, and it’s… it’s killing me. I don’t know what to do, I’m afraid that my friends will never be the same again, and it feels like everything I’ve worked so hard to accomplish is just… coming undone.” Tears sprang into her eyes, but her attempts to wipe them away were unsuccessful. “I just… please. If you’re really out there somewhere, if you really existed, I’m begging you, please help me. I’m completely lost on what to do, and I just… I need… I can’t do this alone. So… yeah. That’s… that’s that.” Sunny sighed. “I’m going insane. Talking to a window like it’s a pony…”

Shaking her head, she reached down to pick up the scroll and froze. She knew the scroll - every time she’d looked at it, it had been blank. She’d tried every single method of revealing hidden ink that she could think of, but it made no difference. Sunny had just assumed her dad kept it as an example of what they used to write with back in the old times, but now… in the pink light of the star, something that faintly looked like words were appearing on the ancient paper.

Intrigued, Sunny unrolled the scroll and spread it out in the magenta light, letting the paper soak it up. There were indeed words, written in a neat, organized script.

To whomever finds this letter,

I don’t know what to say. Things are spiraling out of control. Ponies and creatures alike are trying to convince themselves that they don’t need each other, the Windigos have returned, and I don’t have my friends to help me fix it all. My attempts to bring back harmony have failed. But as ruler of Equestria, it is my duty to protect the realm at all costs, even when the inhabitants of the realm don’t take the necessary measures to protect themselves.

Now, I must make the ultimate sacrifice. But I have hope for the future.

I aim to create physical objects to showcase the unity of ponykind, leaving the instrument to put them together in a place where ponies can follow the light of friendship to find. These objects will hold my magic, and ultimately, the magic of everypony, if it should unfortunately come to that.

But I hope that future generations shall hear of what me and my friends have done and choose friendship over fear.

May the magic of friendship be strong with you.

Sunny eagerly pushed the scroll so that more text appeared in the light. This hoofwriting looked a bit different, though still neat, but a bit less organized.

My friends,

The mistrust that plagues this land is an insult to everything that came before it. We used to be unified, we used to be harmonious, but no longer. Now we are divided, and any hope is slim and will soon be lost.

I myself do not remember anything of what happened before I woke up in Maretime Bay (which I had never heard of until that day), but I was left a journal by my mother, and it tells of a golden age during which all ponies and creatures lived together as friends, and the power of harmony and unity was strong. All I have now is a single crystal, and I have no idea how my mother thought this would help. Am I supposed to dazzle everypony into harmony?

Tales have begun to spread about unicorns having the ability to read minds and fry brains with a single horn zap, or that pegasi will swoop down and kidnap your foal and eat them. These are lies, and I am sure of them. I myself am an earth pony, as was my mother, though I never knew my father. But I believe my mother was once more than just an earth pony, and that we can all be more than just that as well. We can be unified, we can be together, we can be friends again.

Let the spirit of harmony guide you to friendship.

The next passage was big and pretty sloppy, but Sunny was now an expert in sloppy hoofwriting after reading the friendship journal the Guardians had written.

To whom it may concern (which is everypony).

Times are changing, too quickly for my liking. The stories that have been passed down through my family do not seem to quite match up with what we are taught in school now. I am worried for what the future brings.

More discord? More distrust? The potential loss of harmony altogether? There are too many unknowns, too much uncertainty, that it scares me.

I have recently begun to pursue research of my own, to see if the tales that I have been told are true. I hope with every fiber of my being that they are. So far I have been unable to recover much, but deep within me is a voice, telling me that so much is out there. I will not stop searching until I find it.

But with uncertain times comes more fear, which boils into anger, which detonates with violence, and I fear for the safety of both this letter and of the journal that contains so much of what is important to me. So I am hiding them both in the last place that still honors my ancestor. May the pony that discovers it be a pony willing to do whatever it takes to bring harmony back into the world.

May the light of unity guide you along your path.

Almost tearing the paper in excitement, Sunny scrolled down to the next passage… and froze. The hoofwriting was so familiar… Her throat closed up as she ran her hoof along her father’s hoofwriting, refusing to cry again.

Dear my little pony,

Things are more dangerous than they have ever been, and we need hope now more than ever. I have barely managed to escape with my life, this letter, and a single page from the journal of my ancestor, which I assumed would hold all the answers to my questions. Alas, I was unable to test this theory, since the city of Zephyr Heights is strictly a pegasi-only city, as Bridlewood is for unicorns, and Maretime Bay for earth ponies.

I only wish that the world could be better. No matter how hard I try, I cannot seem to get through to anypony. I believe that we used to be united, and can be again, but nopony else shares this belief. I hope that the many discoveries I have made in my lifetime will aid the next generation of this family to take another step towards success.

Not much remains of the stories I was told, only that a unicorn, who was as bright as the sun, made friends with all three pony tribes, and they showed everypony how to live in harmony. If they can do it, I believe that we can, too.

To whoever finds this letter, please, try your hardest to bring back peace. Try your hardest to bring back harmony. It may just be enough to convince the world.

I believe in you.

Wiping her eyes, Sunny focused on the bottom of the page, where her father had written in normal pen, the only thing she could read without the light of the window: Seek out the star, my little Starscout.

Now she knew what it meant.

Sunny took a shuddering breath and looked over at the bookshelves. The reflection of the earth pony crystal had landed on top of one of the books. Sunny walked over to investigate, the scroll snapping back into its rolled-up position as soon as the weight of her hooves left it. She pulled a book off the shelf and read the title aloud: “Magical Artifacts from Equestrian History.”

Carefully opening the ancient text, Sunny gently flipped through the brittle pages, passing mentions of alicorn amulets and magic bells until she reached a page about a memory stone. “Huh,” Sunny muttered, scanning the page. The Memory Stone is an ancient artifact that has the power to erase any memories that the user wishes. The only known way to regain the stolen memories is to destroy the stone, a nearly-impossible feat requiring the strongest of magic.

“Strongest of magic,” Sunny whispered to herself. What was more powerful than the magic of friendship and harmony? Of course, to do that, she would need her friends…

Sunny glanced at the window, at the pictures of all three pony tribes. “I have an idea.”

Turning to leave, Sunny thought of something suddenly, and turned back to the window, picking up the scroll and turning her face to the star at the top of the window.

“Hey, um, Princess?” Sunny cleared her throat. “I just wanted to say… thank you.”

Maybe she was going insane, but when she left, she felt like somepony was leaving with her… somepony she knew very well.

Author's Note:

This appeared in Featured last week for two hours. I just... I can't. Thank you so much. It means more to me than words can say.

Working on a title image for this, should be done by the time I'm finished with this.

Adding an Alternate Universe tag to this, because I want to keep going, even when the series is out. I will probably use some events from the series, though not any that will disrupt the canon that I have invented for this story.

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

Maybe she was going insane, but when she left, she felt like somepony was leaving with her… somepony she knew very well.

I wonder who Could That Be is that her father or a friend that she never thought

[Yoshifan30]

So it looks like Sunny made it to Zephyr Heights but everything is in chaos so she went to the library try to find any information but she couldn't so she just looked at the stained-glass where Twilight Sparkle cutie mark is but then she saw a couple of notes and it looks like the ponies who actually believe in Friendship wrote to the ponies whoever finds it even her father is there as well so the only way she has to do she has to get her friend's memory or not she needs them she just has to convince them somehow I really hope it does work I guess we'll find out next time