Shattered Past

by thunderclap

Living Legends

Twilight was hard at work tearing through every book on strange and mysterious creatures she could get her hooves on. She had Promised Fluttershy not to work until after Hearts and Hooves day which was two days away. But Twilight’s curiosity got the better of her and decided to work on this odd, new project early, despite what she had told Fluttershy. She had even finished making gifts for all of her friends already by staying up late the night before. In the corner of the room Spike was putting the finishing touches on his gift for Rarity. She giggled a little at the designs the love-struck dragon was making.

Twilight shook her head and pulled her attention back into her books. So far nothing matched the description that Fluttershy had given her. Twilight was starting to get desperate and started using her magic to pull more books off of the shelves. Twilight then opened a book titled, “Myths and Legends of Equestria”. The cover was simple, black leather that was covered in a thick sheet of dust and the pages inside were starting to yellow with age. This was odd to Twilight. She was fairly certain that she had read every single book in the library, at least twice. But, this was a book that she had never seen before. ‘How could I have missed this, I’m usually so organized.’ Twilight thought before beginning to read.

The greatest myth surrounding Equestria is the story of its creation. It is said that in the beginning there was nothing but a swirling black cloud of chaotic energy. This energy had no end and no start. It simply was. Then as if by some miracle there was a spark of life. This spark took shape into the very first alicorn. This alicorn has been given several names over the years, one being Genitrix which is the most widely accepted among those who study legends. At first Genitrix was all alone with the chaotic energy. This upset her greatly and she began to cry. That is when her magic was awakened. Through her magic she gave birth to more alicorns, each with a power over the greater forces of nature. With the help of her children, Genitrix created the world and all the creatures that inhabit it today. The first creatures they made with the ability to use logic and reason, were ponies. The alicorns decided to split their greatest attributes and made ponies accordingly. The earth ponies received their strength of body and industriousness, the pegasi were given the ability to fly and were allowed to manipulate weather, and the unicorns were given the power of magic and some of the alicorns’ creativity.

‘This all seems pretty basic.’ Twilight thought. ‘But what happened to all the other alicorns?’

For year’s everypony lived in peace with the alicorns watching over and protecting their beloved creations. Then the swirling mass of chaos grew angry. It despised the life that had been born, disturbing it’s ways. The swirling energy created its own being, a living embodiment of all that it represented, Discord. Discord went on a rampage and started to unravel the very fibers of the world that the alicorns maintained. What was worse was that Discord took pleasure in this activity and treated it like a sick game. The alicorns knew they would need powerful magic to repair the damage that Discord and its master, the chaotic mass were causing. They combined their magic to form the ultimate force of peace and order, the Elements of Harmony.

The alicorns were almost prepared to unleash their creation on their foes when something unexpected happened. The alicorns were betrayed by one of their own. Nopony knows which one for sure; every version of the story pins the blame on a different alicorn. The only thing that each of these stories agree on is that this betrayal caused the death of every single other alicorn, except Celestia and Luna who had survived although an explanation as to how they managed to do so is never given other than the use of the words “miracle” and “mystery”. Celestia and Luna took up the Elements themselves and managed to defeat Discord and the elder chaos. Nopony knows the fate of the alicorn that had betrayed the others. Most stories believe that the traitor was killed along with the other alicorns, while others say the traitor survives to this day, waiting to rise once more.

“Why have I never heard any of this?” Twilight said to herself without thinking.

“Whatcha got there Twi?” Spike asked, turning away from his card.

“It’s nothing, Spike; I just found an old book that I’ve never seen before.”

“And here I thought that you had read every book in the library already.”

“I thought that too but this book has some pretty astonishing stuff in it.” Twilight said not picking up on the sarcasm in Spike’s voice.

“You know I… forget it.” Spike said with a huff. “What’s the book about?”

“It’s about the myths of Equestria, and the first story is one I’ve never heard of.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be looking for an animal for Fluttershy? Why bother reading about old pony tales like those.”

“I am, but all the books I have on creatures haven’t yielded any results. Also, myths can technically be stories that are just unproven.” Spike rolled his eyes and returned to his card for Rarity before Twilight could lecture him further. ‘I should get back to work as well. Hopefully I’ll be able to find something on this supposed creature in here.’

Twilight spent hours searching for the right story in her mysterious book that would show her the answers she wanted. Then, she saw a title of a story that held some promise. “The Unlikely Hero.”

Around 800 years ago there was much panic in the land of Equestria. The Griffon Rebellion had just begun and the country was forced into war. After knowing peace for so long, the Royal Army was ill prepared for such a large scale war. Princess Celestia knew virtually nothing about military strategy and so used her magic to call forth a being that did. While Celestia had been expecting a pony or at the very least a Diamond Dog to appear, what stood before her when she had completed her spell was completely alien. This creature was nearly as tall as the princess herself, stood on two legs and was donned in strange garbs of metal and cloth. The creature had no muzzle so its mouth simply sat on the bottom of its face. What should have been its forelegs hung at its sides and ended in strange appendages. It had no tail and the only fur on its body came from the top of its head which was curly and brown.

‘Yes! This matches what Fluttershy described… well at least to some degree.” Twilight thought with a grin. ‘Now let’s see what this book can tell me about this creature.’

The creature was startled at the sight of the princess and the ponies on her council and had a rather tumultuous beginning in the courts of Canterlot. Eventually the Princess managed to calm the creature down. They learned that the creature’s name was Alexander and was considered a great leader where he was from. The Princess was excited to see that her spell had been such a success, although she was hesitant about the creature she had summoned.

Alexander told them that he was known as a human. He also told them that he was the leader of a massive army that sought to unite the world he hailed from. The Princess and the members of her court were shocked to hear some of the scenes that the human before them described. He told them of battles and bloodshed, among other things. The Princess’s nerves were further unsettled by this human, but she had no choice but to trust him if she wished to put an end to the Griffin Rebellion.

After a little persuasion Alexander agreed to take charge of military planning and set to work on training the Royal Army. Alexander proved good to his word; his tactics were clever, efficient, and always minimalized casualties. The Griffin Rebellion was soon won and the Princess was eternally grateful to Alexander for everything he had done. In the end the Princess returned Alexander to his world and peace returned to the land of Equestria. All thanks to an unlikely hero.

Twilight slowly closed the book and could barely contain her excitement. She had found the creature she was looking for. Not only that but it was from another world! Twilight’s mind raced with questions that she would ask the human that was hiding somewhere in the Everfree Forest.

‘Oh, I wonder what he eats! Or, maybe I should ask him just how advanced humans are in magical theory?’ Twilight was about to bounce around the room with joy when a sobering thought entered her mind. ‘Wait, Fluttershy said something about the human she found having amnesia. That means even if I do find him then he won’t be able to answer my questions.’ She thought with a grimace.

‘And if he’s from another world, then how did he get here? Did he bring himself here, or did the Princess bring him here?’ Twilight’s brow furrowed and she stroked her chin with her hoof. ‘No, if she had done something like that she would’ve notified me. For now, I should wait until after Hearts and Hooves day and then tell Fluttershy and the others about what I found. Until then I guess I should rest up, all this late night studying has to be bad for me.’ And like that, Twilight trotted up the stairs into her bedroom to get some long overdue rest.

Jake woke up from his dream with a start. He wiped his brow and found that it was drenched in a cold sweat. The puzzling thing to him was that he couldn’t seem to recall what his dream was. Jake closed his eyes and began to wrack his brain in order to discover the nature of the dream he had. After a minute his subconscious yielded nothing to him. Jake sighed for a moment and got up from his makeshift bed.

Jake realized he had been asleep for a long time, his protesting joints a testament to that fact. Jake took another look around the cellar he had found in the abandoned castle. For the most part it was empty, save for the remnants of some broken, wooden, casks that were scattered along the walls. Jake walked over to the casks and saw that they had collected some moisture. Jake took a deep breath and quickly drank from the cask. He nearly gagged as he did, but he had to keep the foul liquid down. He was dangerously close to the point of dehydration as it was and the only other nearby fresh water source he noticed was the river where he had met Steve the River Serpent.

“Next time I decide to explore an abandoned castle, I’m bringing my own water.” Jake complained to no one. “Or better yet, I just won’t explore an abandoned castle. Huh,” Jake said, struggling to remember something again. “Why do I have this weird feeling in the back of my head? What happened yesterday? I remember meeting that pony called, Fluttershy, fighting more manticores. Then, I met that river serpent, had a weird encounter with the thing I called a Siren, walked into the castle and…” Jake’s brow furrowed, thinking deeply.

“There was something about princesses. Odd. Maybe I should ask the Cutie Mark Crusaders if there are any princesses I should know about?” Jake’s eyes widened as a sudden realization swept over him. “Oh shit, the Cutie Mark Crusaders! I promised to see them yesterday afternoon. Ughhh, with everything that happened yesterday it completely slipped my mind. Those three probably hate me right now. Way to go Jake, the only people… uh, sentient beings; that are willing to help you and you do something that could ruin your already ill-defined position with them.” Jake scolded to himself.

“Maybe they’re not mad and will be glad to see that I’m alright, and give me some supplies and possibly some food.” He said, trying to reassure himself. “Seeing as I don’t exactly have many prospects I’ll just have to hope that that’s the case.” Jake stretched his tired joints out quickly and bounded out to the exterior of the castle.

Comments

[TenshuraX]

well, me gusta is the only thing running through my head right now.