• Published 31st Jan 2013
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Legacy: The End of Harmony - Ficta_Scriptor



Rosa Bloom is stuck in a rut. Torn between feelings for a close friend and a life that’s going nowhere, she feels that her purpose in the world is lost. However, an unexpected series of events will change everything.

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Volume 1: Eruditio - Chapter 1 - Learning The Hard Way

Legacy volume 1: Eruditio

Chapter 1 – Learning The Hard Way

Many years later

The hardest lesson of all to learn is that there’s no such thing as learning the easy way.

These words echoed in Rosa’s mind as she happily galloped towards her friend Nico’s house. She was never sure where exactly she’d heard this pseudo-philosophical saying and yet it had been embedded in her memory for as long as she could remember. More to the point, she had never truly understood the meaning of the saying which in turn had made her suspicious of her own memories. She sometimes considered whether it had come to her in a dream and become lost amongst the rest of her thoughts. Still, as the saying goes there would never be an easy way to find out, much to her annoyance.

It seemed to make more sense now than ever as she arrived within a haystack’s throw of Nico’s house on the outskirts of Ponyville. She stood for a moment, breathing deeply and readying herself.

“Come on now Rosa, you can do this,” she muttered to herself under her breath.

The feelings of respect and admiration she’d towards Nico over the years they’d been friends eventually sprouted into an overwhelming crush somewhere along the line. Was it a year ago? Five years ago? Even Rosa wasn’t sure at what point she started having real feelings for him. She spent a lot of time stuck in two minds over the affair. One side of her told her that she was just being silly and that this childish crush would subside. The other side of her kept asking “When?” impatiently.

Rosa was trotting right up towards Nico’s house at that very moment, the sound of her heartbeat clear in her ears. Nico had casually asked her to visit to see something special that evening. This wasn’t entirely strange or suggestive by any normal means, but the sparkling stars and glorious full moon hanging in the night sky painted a romantic picture that Rosa found difficult to look past.

It hadn’t been that long since he’d moved out of his parents’ house and bought himself a nice, cosy cottage at the Eastern edge of the village. Amongst the uniform flat, featureless rows of stone houses his cottage was rather unique. The roof consisted of sheets of tree branches and hay that ran perpendicular to each other with a tightly knitted mesh of various plants underneath, which was still visible. Rather than a cone shape the roof seemed to be more like a pyramid, with a small wooden sculpture of a sun and moon jutting from the top. Probably one that he’d crafted himself, she assumed.

The cottage itself was circular and built with chiselled rocks of varying sizes and colours with two perfectly square windows and large white wooden door at odds with the surrounding chaos of randomly shaped boulders. Rosa had occasionally wondered how and why it had been built in such a peculiar way, but since the cottage had been around since before she was born and wasn’t even known about by her parents it didn’t seem likely that she’d ever find out. Still, there were far more pressing issues at hoof.

As she got closer to the front door she slowed her walk until her hoof-steps were as quiet as she could manage without creeping along like some kind of thief. She stood still for a moment, trying to run her mind through whatever scenario her visit could throw at her. Now that she’d have some time with Nico to herself she thought about ways to instigate some heart-felt confession of love from him, or at least a conversation starter that would get him to show his affectionate side.

While she stood there thinking to herself, she realised that she’d been standing outside for almost a full minute. It would be strange if Nico suddenly opened the door to see her staring blankly at him, and she’d probably die of embarrassment. Tentatively, she tapped her fore-hoof on the door and stood back, as if to strike some sort of pose. The door creaked open and the head of a green-coated pegasus popped out from behind it.

“Rosa! You’re finally here!” she said, beaming.

“Um... yeah! Of course... I’m here as ever!” Rosa chirped awkwardly, realising how stupid she’d been to assume an evening alone with the stallion of her dreams. Of course Clover would be there. The three of them were friends, so why wouldn’t she be there?

“Yes, you finally are,” Clover said with a knowing smile on her face, her blue eyes squinting slightly as she chuckled to herself. “Come on in then, unless you want to stay out in the cold for a while!”

“Well that is tempting but I guess I’ll come inside,” Rosa replied, shivering comically and stepping inside.

Nico was sat on his sofa in the main room of the cottage chatting to a stocky red pegasus. Despite its size, the cottage’s open plan provided enough room for a living room, kitchen, study, and indoor bathroom. A ladder poked through a hole between the two floors that had been fastened to the wall with large nails. This led up to Nico’s bedroom, which was (regrettably) off-limits.

“Hey there!” Nico briefly called out before turning back to the pegasus sat beside him.

“Why hello there Rhoda!” the red pegasus echoed.

“Ferry, her name is Rosa, not Rhoda,” Clover interjected, rolling her eyes.

“Really?” asked Ferry, looking confused. “I could’ve sworn her name was Rhoda.”

Rosa chuckled, feeling glad that her name wasn’t Rhoda or her school life would have been utterly intolerable. “You know Rhoda. I Rhoda, you Rhoda, we all Rhoda,” she imagined in the voices of rowdy school-colts.

She looked around the room for a moment, finally noticing just how clean and in order it all was in comparison to its usual chaotic mess. The wooden table they were sat around was completely bare save for two coasters, and the floor looked as though it had been mopped within the last few hours.

“Are you still cold or something?” asked Clover, snapping Rosa from her reverie.

“What? No,” Rosa quickly replied, wondering for just a moment if she’d been shivering involuntarily.

“I’ve got a few blankets upstairs. Well, up-ladder so to speak,” offered Nico.

“No, I’m fine, really.” Rosa briefly imagined Nico taking her in his fore-legs and warming her with a loving embrace. His hooves brushing through her flowing red mane, his chest rising and falling against hers… That would keep me plenty warm, she said inwardly, taking to the seat next to his.

“So, what’s the occasion?” Clover asked, looking to Nico.

“Ferry’s come to stay, what other occasion could there be!?” Ferry piped up, mocking a suave pose. Nico gave his friend an amused look before explaining himself.

“Well I’ve got something quite special to show you all. It’s something I was given by my uncle a few days ago and I can’t really get the most out of it by myself, so I thought I’d invite a few friends round. Just wait here a second.”

Nico said, hopped from the sofa and made his way into the study. He quickly returned with a large cardboard box on his back and deftly slid it onto the table.

“Ferry, if you could just grab the other side of this for me?”

Ferry obediently stepped up and dipped his hooves in to the other side of the box and they both carefully lifted what appeared to be a fairly large wooden chest.

“Now if someone could just get the box out...” Nico began before Clover swiftly grabbed the box and put it to one side. Nico and Ferry placed the chest on to the tabletop and Nico flipped it open, laying the dubious contraption flat, revealing ornate decorations jutting out from the wood including sapphires, rubies, diamonds and a mosaic of pebbles within the expertly crafted woodwork arranged in a spiralling pattern. There also appeared to be a much smaller chest slotted into an indent. Whatever it was, it looked expensive.

“It looks beautiful,” remarked Rosa, her eyes flitting between the various gems. Is that silver? she thought to herself, staring down at the shiny metal lining the edges of some of the stones.

“Wow... It’s so pretty!” Clover commented.

Ferry mockingly hugged Nico. “Oh Nico! You’ve made me the happiest filly in the world!” he happily exclaimed before pretending to kiss his check.

“You don’t even know what it is yet!” Nico said, trying to get things back on track.

“Then tell us, honey-bun, what amazing, magical thing did you buy for me?” quipped Ferry, fluttering his eyelashes.

“Funnily enough, magical isn’t far wrong,” Nico explained. “You may not know but my uncle is one of the most revered practitioners of magic in the region. This is something that he and his friends made long ago in the hope of mass producing and selling all over Equestria. Unfortunately for them, life got in the way blah, blah, etcetera, and so this is one of a batch of very few.”

“That still doesn’t explain what it actually is though,” Rosa noted.

“It’s a board game,” Nico replied with a broad smile across his face.

The rest of them gave each other confused glances before resting their eyes back on Nico.

“Is that it?” quipped Clover, looking understandably disappointed. “I thought it was some sentimental mural or a family heirloom or something.”

“Okay, it’s a board game, but it’s so much more than that!” Nico exclaimed. “This one is enchanted! You see, this something that my uncle and his friends designed when they were a little bit younger than us. From what my uncle has told me, this is anything but some stupid board game. That... and I’ve already played a game or two by myself just for fun. It’s really cool!”

Nico smiled on with his head held high to his still unconvinced guests before frowning at their expressions and reaching for the small chest nestled into the indent. He opened it and spilled the contents across the board. There were 4 small metal figurines, a six-sided die, a set of cards and a wooden block with runes on each side. He grabbed the block with his fore-hooves and placed it in the centre of the board and leaned back expectantly. After a few moments, the block began to shuffle of its own accord into the exact centre, then rose up several inches and began to swivel gently in the air by itself. A greenish gas emanated from it and began to form a fiery ring reaching the exact diameter of the circle of gems on the board.

An astonished Rosa tried shifting her head left and right only to find that no matter which way she looked at it, she could not see the outer side of the ring at all, as if it was rotating at the perfect speed to match up with her viewpoint. She could see Clover shifting her head too, enforcing the idea that it was either a very clever illusion or some strange phenomenon that she couldn’t explain. Ferry sat stock still with a confused look on his face, his jaw hanging.

Suddenly, the visage of a ghostly pony appeared before them in the centre of the ring. Rosa had seen unicorns conjure up strange face-like shapes before but the one before her was uncanny. It appeared to be breathing, and with each breath plumes of green smoke cascaded through the air before reaching the outer edge of the ring and disappearing altogether. Its eyes had the depth of any live pony with minute movements and pupil dilations. Its mane was much less opaque than the rest of it, fluttering about behind its head with an ever changing shape that materialised and disintegrated with each passing moment. It was difficult for her to put into words, but she thought of it as looking more real than reality, if such a thing was even possible.

They all continued gawping at the strange image for some time before the apparition cried out at them.

“Now that you have released me from my tomb I shall haunt you all until the end of your days!”

All four ponies gasped in shock.

“Just kidding!” the ghost chuckled, smiling cheekily.

“Wait... what?” Clover spluttered.

“Oh you should have seen your faces!”

The four ponies gave each other some anxious looks before Nico broke the silence with laughter.

“I got you guys! You all looked petrified!” He sank back into the sofa, gripping his sides.

“I thought this was a board game!” exclaimed Clover.

“I am a board game,” smirked the ghost. “Now I think it’s high time you all played. Pick a piece you lot or I guess I’ll have to haunt you after all.”

“OK, this thing is really starting to freak me out,” Ferry interjected. “How is it even working? Nopony here is a unicorn, how does it? Eh...” he trailed off.

“Like I said before, it’s enchanted,” explained Nico. “This was what my uncle wanted to create, something magical that even non-unicorns could have fun with. The idea was that if he and his friends made things like this it would broaden the magic market towards earth ponies and pegasi. It’s a shame they never managed to do it, but then again it makes this set just that much more special.”

“In that case, is it connected to somepony or... what?” asked Rosa. “Is there somepony sat somewhere watching us, speaking to us over a long distance or is this something else? I can’t really get my head around it.”

“Apparently not. I can remember my uncle saying it’s something the top wizards came up with called ‘artificial intelligence’. There have been other, less complicated enchantments that simply give basic answers and information. They’re not very common thanks to their insane prices but they’re around in places like Canterlot and Manehattan. This is something far more ambitious though. It’s supposedly one of the most complex and emotive doo-hickeys of its kind and definitely has a waft of my uncle’s humour in there too.”

Rosa was still puzzled. “It’s so real that it’s creepy. Are you sure it’s not the trapped soul of some poor unicorn?”

“I’m pretty sure soul trapping is just nonsense,” Nico answered. “Don’t fret over it.”

Rosa remained unconvinced. The ghostly face had been constantly shifting throughout the conversation and reacting as if it was listening to their every word.

“Only downside,” Nico began, rubbing his nose. “It has a finite lifespan. The enchantment only has enough power for around a hundred hours of use. After that, it’s nothing more than the most priceless paperweight in Equestria. I guess that could be why this never got past the prototype stage or you’d have a bunch of angry customers.”

“It currently stands at around eighty hours,” The ghost stated.

“In that case I guess we’d better get cracking. Oh, just one more thing, hang on.”

Nico trotted off to his kitchen area and grabbed a tray with his mouth. On it was a selection of drinks and cups.

“I thought we’d make it a bit more interesting. Jim, please make this a drinking game.”

“Jim?” scoffed Ferry. “Who are you talking to?”

“Jim! You know the ghostly green unicorn slash trapped soul? At least that’s what he told me his name was when I checked this out a few days ago.”

“What do you mean by ‘make it a drinking game’?” blurted Rosa. “Surely you can’t just say—”

“Of course I can make it a drinking game,” interrupted Jim, a smile across his face.

“Why would it just—”

“That’s my uncle for you,” Nico interrupted with a chortle. “This was made by him and his friends when they were about our age you know, not that he’d be any different nowadays. Why make some boring old board game when you can make it a drinking board game? You all like cider, don’t you?”

They each nodded, Ferry more excitedly so. Rosa was secretly wary of how Ferry would be once he’d knocked back several cups of cider, especially given his antics the last time they’d met. On the flipside, she considered if there was a chance for Nico to drunkenly confess to liking her, or at least give her a hint of affection, it might be worth it. It had never happened before, but then she couldn’t help herself wondering if it was just something waiting to happen.

“I’m not too sure about this,” admitted Clover. Rosa could have sworn she was glancing at Ferry, probably having the same thoughts she was having.

“It’ll be fine!” assured Nico. “Now, everyone choose a piece to play with and put it on the starting square. I think I’ll be the griffon.”

He picked up the griffon-shaped figurine and placed it on the board, which now had a soft green glow outlining the different squares on the board more prominently and faint symbols on the majority of the squares.

“I call dibs on the dragon!” squealed Ferry before snapping it up in his hoof and standing it behind Nico’s piece, deliberately making it look as if his dragon was trying to eat the griffon. Rosa grabbed the alicorn piece and Clover took the basilisk. Nico had picked up the cards and arranged them into two stacks with either a sword or a shield on the front. He then began to pour some cider into four cups and placed them around the table for each pony.

“So Jim, can you spell out the rules for us please?” Nico asked with a grin.

“OK, first we need to lay down some ground rules that come into effect as soon as the game begins at the roll of the first die. There are some things that will result in you needing to take a swig of your drink. Firstly, if you say the word ‘drink’, you drink. Secondly, if you say anypony’s name, you drink. Thirdly, if you point at somepony with your hoof, you drink. Finally, if you use any magic during the course of the game, you drink.”

“Oh these are the classic drinking game rules!” piped Ferry. “Wait a minute... I always thought it was our generation that came up with them.”

“You would think something like that wouldn’t you?” mocked Nico, rolling his eyes.

“Down to the rules of the game itself,” continued Jim. “Each player rolls the die and the one with the highest number is the first to play, with the player to their left taking the next turn and so on. If there is a tie for highest number the players roll again until somepony comes out on top.”

“Why couldn’t they have just included a rule book?” quizzed Rosa. “I mean, it’s great and all, but it seems a lot of effort to enchant something like this just to tell us how to play.”

“Yeah, it does seem like wasted resources,” Clover said in agreement.

“Quiet you! Don’t question the almighty Jim!” ordered Ferry with a chuckle.

Rosa found the ghostly ‘Jim’ — as they called it — to seem even freakier as time went on. The way it paused when other ponies cut into its speeches and regarded each of them with its steely eyes did nothing to quash her idea of a trapped soul being forced to relay board game rules until it was vanquished forever. She didn’t doubt that there were wizards powerful and knowledgeable enough to create something so uncanny but the idea of it being refined to such an untold level and put to use in the creation of a board game of all things was something she found rather difficult to fathom. Clearly, Nico’s uncle was either a mad genius or an evil genius, or both.

“Once play has begun the player rolls the die and moves the set number of squares around the board.” Some of the squares glowed in succession, needlessly demonstrating his point. “If you land on a square with a sun symbol you have to answer a question within ten seconds or take a drink. If you land on a square with a moon symbol you have to perform a certain action within ten seconds or take a drink. Landing on squares with either a sword or shield symbol requires you to pick up a relevant card from the two decks, with sword cards giving instructions to carry out before you put it back at the bottom of the deck. Shield cards can be held on to and used at any point in the game by shouting ‘shield’. Beware that some squares will trigger certain events at random, but the locations of those squares are not made apparent on the board. The first player to reach the middle will win the game and force every other player to drink. Are there any questions?”

They each looked at each other before Ferry spoke up.

“Yeah, can you actually understand us?”

“Of course I can you silly pony!” Jim shot back. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have asked!”

Rosa still felt uneasy in the presence of a seemingly sentient board game and was about to express her concerns once more when Nico grabbed the die and rolled it with excitement.

“OK, let’s get this show on the road!”

Nico rolled a six straight out of the gate and gave a mini hoof pump. The rest of them took the die in succession, rolling a four, a three and a one. Nico excitedly grabbed the die away and rolled a four. He took his griffon and pushed it to the fourth square with a moon symbol. Jim perked up.

“You have ten seconds to perform a headstand. GO!”

“What?” asked Nico confusedly, before leaping from the sofa and standing on his head. Ferry tried all manner of noises to put him off and Nico wobbled violently with laughter before crashing to the floor clutching his sides. The rest of them joined in, laughing hysterically.

“Aha! You need to drink!” exclaimed Ferry before realising his error and laughing heartily again. Nico clambered back to his seat and he and Ferry each took a big gulp of cider.

“See! I said this would be fun!” he said to Rosa, revealing a visible bump on his forehead from his headstand attempt, which sent Rosa into another fit of laughter.

With the atmosphere as cheery as could be they each took their turns and played through the game. Ferry’s first turn landed him on a blank square so he deliberately pointed at everypony else in the room and finished the rest of his cup before pouring another one. Clover bagged herself a shield card while Rosa landed on a sword square.

“What does the card mean by ‘choose somepony to punish?’” she asked.

“Oh, it means choose somepony to drink...” Nico spluttered before realising his mistake and reeling back in mock pain and taking another sip of cider.

“In that case I choose Clover!” beamed Rosa.

Clover smiled before holding up her shield card.

“It says here I can turn my punishment on anypony of my choosing, so I’ll go with red head over there.” She nodded towards Rosa’s direction. “And that’ll make it two since you said my name.”

Rosa clapped her hoof over her face and proceeded to drink two gulps.

The rest of the night kept each pony in high spirits as they laughed their way through the rest of the game, each of them slipping up despite their best efforts not to. Clover had been exceptionally careful throughout so Ferry had trapped her by asking for which cup was hers, prompting her to point. He had also started intentionally touching her so she’d shout out “Ferry! Stop it!” and have to drink again.

The game itself was a lot sillier than Rosa had initially thought and within a few minutes she had forgotten all about the freakiness of the so-called ‘Jim’ barking orders at them.

Some of the questions were incredibly easy, while some were utterly ridiculous.

“What is one plus one?”

“How many hooves am I holding up?”

“What is the sixth letter of the name of the third draconian prince to visit Canterlot in the past two hundred years?”

“What is the average weight of an Equestrian swallow?”

“What time is it? In five hours and twenty minutes.”

Some of the actions were just as insane.

“Tell everypony a secret that you’ve never told anypony.”

“Say nothing for the next five minutes.”

“Spend the next three turns upside down.”

“Spin around for ten seconds.”

The latter of these sent Ferry spinning out of control and into the front door. Rosa thought that perhaps the game was simply too dangerous to ever be considered for the general public, but wasn’t complaining at the gleeful chaos that it brought forth.

She was trying to be as careful as she could but slipped up all of the time, making the latter half of the night difficult to remember. She knew that Clover ended up winning the game and that Ferry tried to ‘congratulate’ her with a hug. She knew that Nico had laughed so hard that tears were streaming down his face. She spent a lot of time hunched over the left arm of her seat to get closer to where Nico was sat, but he didn’t seem to notice. She also recalled swinging her hoof through Jim, only for his face and the greenish cloud to remain unaffected.

After the game was finished and all involved were thoroughly intoxicated, Clover said her goodbyes and left, singing quietly to herself as she galloped home.

“I think she likes me!” exclaimed Ferry.

Nico and Rosa shared an amused glance and shook their heads.

“Well that was brilliant!” Nico grinned. “We should do this again some other time.”

He looked straight into Rosa’s eyes and she simply sat for a few moments, lost in his gaze before realising that she was due to reply.

“O-of course! S-sure!” she stammered. She paused for a few seconds, as if staying still would prolong the inevitable end of the night and her time with Nico. “I guess... I’d better get home then! I wouldn’t want to be too late.”

“Yeah, see you soon!”

Rosa was half-hoping for Nico to lean over and give her a goodbye hug. He wasn’t an overly affectionate type, but he had embraced her a few times in the past, though not nearly as often as he had when they were just little ponies. It seemed ironic that the more her feelings for him had become apparent the less he’d be willing to spare a welcome cuddle.

Rosa said another batch of goodbyes to both Nico and Ferry before leaving the cottage and slowly walking back home. There were no other ponies about, and the only noises she could hear were the faint hoots from owls and chirps from insects. If there was anything interesting that happened during her journey back she certainly couldn’t remember it.

Upon reaching her house she let herself in as quietly as she could in case her parents were asleep, which they apparently were. She wandered upstairs to her room and lay face down on her bed, nestling her head on the pillow. It took a few minutes of tossing and turning before she became comfortable enough, and quickly fell asleep, safe in the knowledge that there was no need to worry about waking up early the next day.


“Rosa! Rosa, darling! I hope you’re awake!”

Rosa strained her eyes open. Her head felt as if it had a vice clamped around it.

“What?” she called out, barely even aware of what was happening aside from the throbbing pain.

“We’ve got a delivery today, remember? Be downstairs in ten minutes please dear.”

Rosa rolled over and let out a groan. “Just great...”