> Of the Past and its Mysteries
>  by Sb129
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1.) 3788
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 1 (3788)





~An introduction~


        In the vast wild lands of the Everfree forest lies a plethora of places long forgotten by time. Only fractions of a percent have been explored by the local populace. The Old Sisters’ castle is only one of many forsaken strongholds. Even the wildlife itself isn’t fully known. Anyone living in close proximity to the forest can hear strange roars and loud thumps on quiet nights. To most, especially ones living close to it, the forest evokes a very primal fear; most would never dream of setting hoof into it. This amount of intrigue it holds draws adventurers in, a very select few even call it home.
This forest is covered in a shroud of mystery and curiously is the home of many species lost to time. Even an ancient race of ponies exist in the Everfree and forests like it. In the minds of the Equestrians, this race exists solely in stories and are rare even in that realm. The members belonging to this branch of ponykind are very small; they could easily fit in the center of your hoof. To each, the Creator gave wings like that of a dragonfly. Likewise they posses two antennae which affords them the use of magic. Centuries before, they played a part with everypony else, it wasn’t much but it a part none the less. They disappeared from history, the only thing remaining of them to the Equestrians were their name, Flutterponies.
Like the whole of Equestria, they lived life in a simple manner. There existed a void of new discoveries but that was the same just about everywhere. All that ever evolved anymore was fashion and the arts. 





        "'Tis not much distance left," Feather hovered several feet above the others in the group. "Indeed almost none at all." A short distance up ahead he saw a familiar ridge letting him know that they had arrived. The dark byzantium colored flutterpony flew up ahead of the others and held out a hoof. “Hold fast! Ok, I know you have heard the legends surrounding this place, but let me assure you that they are unfounded. This is not any second transportal nor is it the birthplace of our corrupted brethren. The ground is anomalous only in the fact that it is over-saturated with foreign magic.” He looked around to see some worried faces. 
        He took out of his bag a trinkets. “There is no sound basis to worry about anything today, in fact, you all should count yourself lucky that Favor has fallen on you to discover what may be buried here.” He held up the trinket, it looked like a golden bit like those used by the Equestrians. Closer inspection revealed that it was quite different. Not only was it not gold at all, it was adorned with a simple yet alien writing, symbols and a creature on both sides. “This is but a small sample compared to what else lies under this barren ground.” He put the alien coin back in his bag and flew over to the outcropping of rock he had seen earlier. “Now then, let us fly over this last bit of rock so you may see what lays ahead of you today. 
        The team all readied their dragonfly-esque wings and flew over the ridge of rock and clay. When they scaled it they all hovered over the landscape before them. An area twice the size of their home city was completely devoid of plant life; there wasn’t even any insects that dared to enter the vast circle of dirt, dust and hardened clay. And there was something else, the packed in dirt was glowing a brilliant orange. It was an orange brilliant enough to see in the noonday sun, but was still easy on the eyes of those who gazed at it. The signature of magic at work.
        “No doubt you’ve all seen the magic covering this landscape. When our ancestors settled here they thought this land was blessed by Celestia herself and so built a shrine in her honor.” His hoof pointed to a small ornate building in a state of extreme disrepair. One of the team members spoke up. “Why is it so broken down?” Feather quickly decided whether or not to start, it was still early in the day. “Well, as you know from history lessons, we used to worship the sun princess the same as the Equestrians. But then long ago she decided to do something so horrible that our scholars refused to even record it. Whatever it was it stopped us from worshiping her anymore. So our shrine was abandoned, and this sacred ground was seen as cursed.” He flew down to the ground and stood looking toward the shrine with a frown. “It has only been the last few years that we have tried to repair the shrine, for historical purposes. And this ground to be open for archaeological digs.”
        He grabbed a shovel off his bags and set the tip in the dense dirt. “And that is why we are allowed here today. So let us all meet here for lunch, I found more of my artifacts by that second tent over there.” He motioned with his his antennae to the left of them. “But since this is such a new place you all may start wherever you want. Now go forth and find something amazing!” With that they all revved their wings like engines and dispersed every which direction to begin, some alone, some in groups.





        It was only a few hours before everypony had found something, most had found trivial objects such as broken glass cups or broken ceramic. Some managed to find different coins like Feather had. But one was going to find something huge. 
        A flutterpony that was in the relative center of the packed in sands, with a coat light blue as the sky and a mane as brilliant white as the Moon. She was digging around this spot all day and only found rocks with the occasional piece of metal rusted to nothingness. |Seriously, there's got to be something more here than pieces of rust, this is the center of this whole place. Surely something of interest would be here.| She dug for another tens of minutes, she couldn't be sure since repetitive tasks like this bored her. She began to notice that the ground around her was glowing brighter than the surface, and it was glowing brightest right where she was digging. |Aha! Looks like I finally found something which isn't rust!|
        As she finished that thought she saw the tip of a large glowing crystal. It was just the top most part of it but still it glowed with the power and force of the sun. She pushed a little bit more sand away and began to call out, not noticing the crystal growing in power. “Hey everypony, I found something big! It’s incred-” Blazing hesitated as she saw the light of the crystal grow at such a speed that she tried to fly away as fast as she could. The others were flying over to see what was happening when a deafening crack was heard and a growing cloud of dust appeared where she was just standing at. Not more than half a second later an immense beam of magical energy and light pierced the cloud of dust. The light blue flutterpony escaped with milliseconds to spare. But as she looked up at the beam of light and magic she was captivated by it. The beam neither deviated one way or another, it didn’t fan out like normal magic does. Instead it was an exact beam of pure light and magic.
        “Blazing Light! Are you alright?” The rest of the team seemed to cry out in unison. Blazing tore her eyes away from the awe inspiring beam of orange light and replied as loud as she could. “Yes, I am fine, I am alright!” As quickly as the beam started, it abruptly ended. Leaving around it a crater of blown away earth with some melted glass closer to it. And, it was floating above a hole in the ground. Feather got to her first, “Are you sure you’re okay? how are your wings?” She glanced at her wings and saw that they were in one piece. “They’re fine...I’m fine” She rubbed her forehead with her hoof. “I might have a slight headache but nothing major.” Feather breathed a sigh of relief and gathered his bearings. 
        “How'd that happen Blazing? What did you... find?” She pointed to the rather large crater behind them all. “Oh right” He nervously chuckled to himself as he fluttered down to the crystal to examine it more. "My Celestia, never have I seen a crystal of this power and purity before," He looked at the solidified glass that surrounded the hole underground. "Haven’t seen this much power come from such small a crystal either." He put his hoof close to the crystal to see if it was still hot but it was cool to the touch. It still floated there and glowed brightly, but it wasn't hot. There wasn't much else there, but that hole. "Doesn't just look like a straight bored hole, it looks like a cavern down there." The others were all hovering just beyond the edge of the crater watching the purple tinted flutterpony as he looked around the crystal. 
        “Come on over, I think Blazing Light over here may have discovered something more than this powerful crystal.” He then disappeared in the hole of melted glass. “Come down everyone, this is amazing!” He had such an unusual happy tone to his voice as he told them that it seemed like he was going to burst with excitement. The others followed suit, with Blazing coming in last.
        She descended into a large underground space that was dimly lit from the giant glowing crystal. As such, everything was bathed in its soft orange glow as if it came from the flame of a single bright lamp. She awaited patiently for a minute or two for her eyes to fully adjust to the light and when they did she saw something amazing. A huge structure underground like a room, only it was huge, even bigger than rooms the Equestrians needed. Along the walls was more of the same writing that the coin had. The massive tables held many treasures, some taller than her house, others small as her hoof. 
        Feather and the team spread out looking at everything they could. The more they flew around, the more dust uncovered something new for them to be awed by. There was all manner of weird things to behold in this subterranean vault of sorts. A cache of semi rare and rare crystals, huge books, something resembling a scroll and many other oddities. Feather was drawn to something in the corner of the room. 
        He spoke to himself in a low whisper "This definitively stands out from the rest, while everything else here is placed as if it were put into storage, this object is purposefully set out in the open with only cloth to protect it from dust." He flew over to it, the cloth glowed a dark green as it was lifted by Feather’s magic and put aside. Again in a hushed tone, he contemplated "This is constructed in a very different way from everything else in here." The Device was made of brass and held lots of moving parts, nothing else had moving parts other than wheels. This had a large flywheel, levers, pistons and other simple machines. But what drew Feather’s attention the most was two flat objects. One was dark and shiny like an obsidian mirror and next to it was an etched piece of glass showing some small pictograms on how to operate the Device. 
        A couple others noted his interest and flew next to Feather, "Light the candle, self explanatory but ok sure. Turn the large wheel to the right. Arrows to the small black thing, and they point to what? A small circle on the greyish black mirror? What is the significance in that I wonder." He thought a second and decided on something. “Okay everypony, come over here quickly, I need your help.” With great reluctance the team flew over to Feather; their attitudes changed as soon as they see the strange Device. “As you see, this looks quite a bit different than anything else in here, but what else is different about it? Can anyone tell me?” He looked out to a bunch of confused faces, some trying to think, some not paying attention and others that already gave up. Blazing herself was lost in thought. |What was that thing I just saw? Looked ordinary, but still gave an heir of complexity, hmmm…| Feather sighed and hovered by the transparent pane with the illustrations.
        “Ahem, it's this,” His hoof was squarely on the edge of the glyphs. “this object has pictograms on it and doesn’t apparently look to be packed away. This is pretty significant because it means whomever lived here left this thing for someone else to discover and they knew that their language wouldn’t exist. So, they used pictures.” He glided in between the candle and the wheel. “The pictures tell us to light the candle, turn this wheel that way” Again his antennae pointed to where he was talking about. “and to watch the grey thing connected over there, the pictograms showed some small circle on it so look for that. I’ll light the candle, but you all pull on the wheel with your magic, I tried but it’s stuck tight.” 
        The light purple flutterpony landed on the table and focused on the candle wick. His antennae began glowing dark green once more, as did the candle wick. A few seconds later the flame came to life, filling the room with another shade of orange and producing doubled shadows. The others started using their collective magic to try and turn the wheel but it wouldn’t budge. They tried again and it still wasn’t moving. They all waited for several more seconds and tried once more and this time. Success! Everypony stepped back as the wheel, the levers, the pulleys and everything started moving in sync with the largest wheel. 
        After it was working for a few minutes some lights flickered on on the right side of the Device, a dial turned and pointed straight up. A large portion of the grey mirror began to softly glow. Little points of light showed a pattern of buttons that had the individual characters of the language they used and the screen bore an image of a stylized lightning bolt inside a rectangle. "What’s this? the lights and this grey mirror are glowing, but not with magic or heat of any kind." He touched the lights to make sure it wasn’t just a small contained fire. "Nothing, no heat and certainly no magic, how can this be? How can this-"
The glowing greyish mirror flashed and flickered and a random pattern of small dots appeared. Black and white points of light flew all across the square and some images seemed to flash across the surface like a magic mirror would, only this lacked magic in any way. The other flutterponies wore faces of fear that something like this could even exist. They started to get restless as the square of dim light flashed some more and made noises, Feather spoke up "Calm down, this is nothing but light in a box, there isn't anything living in that so just calm yourselves and we all shall inspect it closer once we get it back home." Just then the square stopped flashing and statically showed what looked to be a window. On the grey thing a tree was shown and it looked like how a tree looked when looking through a normal window. The only things standing out were strange text and some random small images.
Of the images, one looked very similar to the glass etching. Feather saw the connection but didn't know what to do, "The arrow pointed to this I believe," His tiny hoof pressed on the small blocky circle image and the thing came to life again, more things flashed quickly on the screen and a creature appeared and began talking!

        ~After that short introduction on how I know about you all I will introduce myself. I am Mark Antony, but my friends like to call me Sb. Yeah weird nickname I know, it’s from my college days studying chemical engineering, first day the teacher called me Antimony by accident, so it pretty much stuck after that. And its symbol is Sb so you know. Wooah, gettin off track. -sigh- I am a human male, age 25. Living on Earth. todays date is uh...March 13, 2042. Assuming any of this survives until you find it, I want to share some human knowledge and technology with you. Because… Well because our time on this rock is limited. Like I told you earlier, we will destroy ourselves in a global war. A war that will last mere minutes. It’s still months away though. But uhh, enough with the depressing stuff, let me first show you how this thing works. This screen is touch sensitive and it~

        Everypony was fixated on the words of a creature called a human coming from a magical window that actually held no magic. Feather was most shocked. "Humans! But how? They were fabricated as a means to understand the world by our ancestors. How can they be real?" He glanced over to the Device again, the human was holding a black thing similar to the grey one and telling how to use it. "One thing is for sure, the Council will have to see this personally. This will change our whole world."

> 2.) The Council of Three
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Chapter 2 (The Council of Three)




~The Explorers return~



        They all watched the first of the ‘videos’ the human said he had made. Most had no idea what he was talking about, science this and technology that. All they really knew for sure was that a mythical creature, a lesser known one at that, was actually real. Feather was deep in thought about this. "Judging by all the machines left here, and their purely non-magical workings. It actually gives the myths surrounding them some sense of credit. Here I have seen with my own eyes a magic that is not magic. I know that we and the Equestrians could achieve the same feat with magic if we so wished, but it is inconceivable that it could be done without the arcane." He flew to a nearby table and sat down for a second or two, to ponder.
        "He even spoke of the Final War, the last myth about humans. Logically it could be said that all the myths about them are true. If that is so, could they also be looking down at us from the stars themselves?" His eyes slowly wandered around the room as he spoke to himself. Eventually they came to rest on the entrance of the cavern, the hole in the roof made by the crystal that was still floating there. But there was something off, it looked like it was darkening outside already. He wondered how much time had passed since they all came down here. "Incredible discoveries or not, none of this will matter if the predators of the night get to us."
        Blazing Light had just finished talking with somepony else about the human when she started to resume looking at the thing she saw earlier. But since it had been at least two hours she forgot where it was. “Alright flutterponies, the time is almost upon us, it seems dusk is approaching quicker than we had realized so we must take our leave from this place. Do not worry yourselves though, we will come again tomorrow. But feel free to take something home with you if you want. We will leave in five minutes.” 
        |Oooh no, I really gotta find something to bring back. Something good though, I don’t want to just grab just anything.| She glanced to her left and saw a few ponies lifting a box of cables and rainbow colored disks. |That beam of light was pretty incredible, I wonder if I could make something like that? I’m still wondering how magic could behave so coherently.| Looking through a large box full of black slates, some with buttons, some without. One of them looked really neat since it was partially see through. Blazing kept looking until she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye, it was a small case on top of some paper. The top was clear and inside was a long cylinder with two smaller ones. She didn’t know why but she was compelled to bring this back.
        “Alright, I need six ponies on each side of this Device so we can take it with us. I shall be transporting the magic crystal, everypony else will take their own artifacts back with them.” Blazing turned her head over to the Device and saw the twelve ponies lifting up the hulk of metal and glass. The white maned flutterpony took her own artifact and flew outside of the huge room. The clouds above were already starting to turn yellowish instead of their usual white. 
        Blazing was one of the last out so she hovered with the others while the last few came out. Feather took a headcount. "Lets see, got him, her him….yeah she’s here….Azure’s right there….Aaand Red Heart is here to. That’s everypony." He flew above everypony else “Alrighty, we can’t afford ourselves much time so we will just fly back.” Feather took the lead, carrying the crystal in his hooves, the twelve that carried the Device were next, then everypony else was after them, Blazing herself preferred to be in the back. 
        She held her artifact in front of her, shrouded within her lime green magic. She positioned it in just the right way where she could look at it whilst flying. “What this could be, I don’t know why, but I just felt drawn to this.” She looked at it further, it was a well used tool whatever it was. Its black paint was scratched and cracking. On one side there was text in that human language and on the other side there was a button with a light just above it. The two smaller cylinders were completely yellow but they also bore the same kind of text. The small ones had a bump on one end. She looked more at the big cylinder, particularly the text on the side, next to it was a small triangle with a bright burst of red.  |almost looks like a warning symbol. But from what?| She dodged leaves and branches as she flew with her case.
        The deep blues of the sky slowly melded into hues of yellow, red and orange as the sun was being set. The clouds followed this rule as well, turning a bright golden color as the sun sank lower and lower in the sky. It wasn’t long before the twilight hour set in. With only just enough light to see yet not enough to make out distinct objects. The team of archaeologists made their way through the silhouettes of grass blades, leaves, branches and other obstacles. Many changed to holding their artifact with their hooves and using their magic to light the way in front of them.
        Night was beginning to dominate the sky. Already the moon began to rise, and stars became visible. Slowly but surely the darkness became greater and greater. But in the distance the team could see their home. Tucked away on a small hill inside of an ancient crater, their tiny city stood out like an island of light in the night. Their tiny city on a hill sat nestled between two dead trees with many small huts and buildings built against smaller live trees.
        |Ahhh, Edona, it’s good to be back home, even if we were only gone for a day.| Blazing held her object close to her as Feather lead them all down to the front door of the governing building. Feather touched down first and wrapped the crystal up in some cloth. The twelve ponies carrying the Device came close to Feather to see where he wanted it. They almost couldn’t slow down but they managed to stop before actually hitting the building. The purple pony leader directed the twelve where to put the Device down, with the screen facing the Council Chamber’s door. “Make yourselves comfortable, I shall inform the council of our grand findings so far. He took hold of the crystal and disappeared inside.
        Feather was quite certain her knew what each member's response would be. And it will be positive, especially with his former mentor. Also with the discoveries made there nopony could possible leave unsatisfied. He entered the hollowed out log and flew up to the highest floor, the floor that held their chambers. The greenish-blue maned pony knocked on the door three times until he heard a welcoming *You may enter* from the inside. 
        “Good evening gentleponies,” He looked at each one and respectfully bowed as he said their name. Clock Work, Pre History, De Novo” Feather straightened his wings and sat down as the other three already were. “So how was your day today?” De Novo simply turned to look at Feather, his face bore the signs of fatigue and frustration. Clock Work was lost in his own paperwork and probably didn’t even hear him talk. Pre History on the other hoof was attentive and replied “I am unsure that I can speak for us all but I for one had a splendid day, and what of you Feather? How was your first day at the new excavation site?” “Well it must be of great importance if this matter could not wait until daybreak.” De Novo added.
        Feather gathered his wits and began telling them of what happened in the cavern, the giant room filled with artifacts that held great power. Pre History and indeed the other two grew more engrossed as Feather went on about the objects in that room. And then he pulled out the crystal. “This was on top of the room, it emitted a beam of light and magic powerfull enough to melt the sands into glass and to shoot up a beam into the sky.” As he brought it out the entire room was was engulfed in pure orange light. If he didn’t have their attention before, he certainly had it now.
        “Could it be? Could this be the lost crystal the ancient texts described?” Pre History was captivated by this. “It was said that Celestia’s apprentice took one of her most powerful crystals and sent it back in time to warn a distant race of their impending doom…” Clock Work was equally interested. “In all my days I never one laid eyes on a magical crystal even a quarter the size of this, we could power the whole city with this when the new infrastructure is made.” De Novo quickly collected himself and said in a rather monotone voice, “This would also be the greatest tool with which to defend ourselves from the Everfree.” 
        Feather wrapped it up again and continued on, “I have even stranger news than this.” The three of them looked at each other with surprise. “My dear Feather, what could possibly trump this masterful crystal you unearthed?” “Well, today we all found out that a lesser known mythological creature exists, Humans.” Once again they three looked at each other confusion written all over their faces. De Novo was the first to speak. “How can you be so sure that they are not relegated to myth and folklore? You have proof I assume to back this up?” Feather simply pointed his hoof out the door and said. “See for yourself.”
        Outside everyone was still talking about the bright orange light that came from the top floor. |Yep, he must have shown them that crystal of his.| Blazing looked at her own case and sighed. |I really just want to go home and see what this thing can do| A hush came over everypony as the doors opened up, revealing the Feather Duster and the Council of Three. By now the small group that came to deliver the Device had swelled into a crowd, drawing almost every pony in the city. They all wanted to see this strange Device that lay buried underground for centuries.
        Feather flew up top the Device and addressed the masses, there must’ve been hundreds. “Attention Edonans, this Device was uncovered in our search for answers about our past. But today it stands here as a testament to our future!” He flew to the candle and lit it once again. And he flew up to the flywheel. “I can see that one of our prophecies will come true starting today! One that we have been pursuing for years!” His antennae glowed with dark green magic and he set the wheel spinning. “Our Industrial Revolution is at hoof! This Device gives us proof that humans, that oldest and oddest of mythological creatures, once walked Equestria! Better known to them as Earth!” 
The screen flickered to life once again.

> 3.) The star in a Triangle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 3 (The star in a Triangle)





~It appears~




It only took about 10 minutes for news of the strange and new discovery to reach the tiny ears of every flutterpony in the city. When the newcomers arrived at the Device and saw it for the very first time, they were awestruck. All anypony could do was watch the changing images flashing across the slightly mirrored surface. And to listen to such an unknown species speak their language as if it had spoken it all its life.
        ~”-and that's basically what we humans have accomplished in the last 10 years alone. Ok, let’s get down to business.” He leaned down and grabbed an old cardboard box full of the items they saw in the cavern. “I have made a little over 500 videos on this device to teach you about just about everything I can think of.” He reached into the box that was tearing at one of the sides. “This, is my Nook, it was pretty old when I first got it, but it was the way I read books as a child after our house burnt down. If anything, I would say that for you watching my image and listening to my voice, that this is the most important thing I am leaving you. It has around 50 essential apps on it, an easy to read screen and a long battery life. And thanks to past innovations to this old SDXC technology, it holds something like 1.03 million books. A library in the size of one small book.” He grabbed another thing and continued. “This is my other tablet, and it was actually my first one”~
        The masses around the Device were fixated on what the human was saying. The council themselves were in awe as much as anypony else, even if they covered up that fact from the others. Blazing was thinking both of what the human spoke, and what she had brought with her, the black cylinder. She didn’t know half of what the human talked about, matters that she did not usually concern herself with, politics especially. But she did get quite interested in the field of study called science. |Sure we have always had SOME kind of science, usually only when a problem arose, but from what I hear it wasn’t much different for them. ..He said that human society began changing when other humans studied more and more scientific ideas when nothing in particular was wrong.| She looked again at her treasure, |Well then, let’s just see how this goes.| 
        She took her box and started hovering over to the Device, that allure of such complexities still intrigued her, but she knew there would be much work tomorrow at the dig site. If she wanted to see what her thing did she would have to do something sooner rather than later. She glanced back the the Device, wheels turning, rods pushing, pulling and flameless, magicless lights illuminating the crowd still watching. Taking care not to drop her box she flew over to her place of residence. Hers was a unique structure, it was predominantly made of discarded metal materials from the Equestrians. She walked past the entrance and looked around,  darkness, with a small sigh her antennae began to glow, she focussed on several crystals throughout her house. Slowly they began to glow under their own power due to the new replenishment of magic. With her light crystals lit, she walked into her study area.
        It was still a mess of papers and scrolls, her work on the light emitting crystals. *sigh* | I knew I should’ve tidied up before going today| She looked around for a box or something to put her research in, just for short term storage but she couldn’t find anything more than some woven baskets. |I guess this'll do, for now.| She grabbed all four baskets and made her way back to her study. With some hesitations, she systematically organized her papers, scrolls and crystals in each basket, well all but one.  |One left, well off to the side it goes, till I find something for it to do| A large grin crept onto her face, now the time had come. She’d finally know what this thing was and why she wanted it.
        Brimming with excitement and some anxiety she lifted away the lid from the box, and saw more pictographs on the inside of it. 

|Ok, awesome, looks like those go like this...| With the flick of her hooves she aligned the two small cylinders like in the diagram. |Then, I unscrew that and put 'em in| The side where she needed to put these things was already mostly unscrewed, so it was no effort to open it and put the two pieces inside. |Lastly, screw that end back on and push this button| She looked at the illustration, a black and white drawing of the small process, then back to the black cylinder. The last picture had a line on the other end. |Hmmm, maybe something will come out,| She thought for a second before coming to the conclusion that she just needed to put something in front of it to catch it. |The extra basket, perfect. Wonder what'll come out, from what that human was saying they could do anything it seems|
        With the basket set she was ready to see what this thing did. “Alrighty then, lets see what this thing can do. She pressed the only button on the metal body before her sight was blinded by a green light. “WAaaaaohh!!” The sudden brightness startled her so much she somersaulted backwards while yelling out in shock. “Ugh, what in the hay happened?” as her sight returned she could smell something, smoke. “Oh no, OH NO! Fire!” With her small heart pounding she flew outside and levitated a big ball of dirt. Racing back in her study she threw the dirt with her magic in every direction. Dust and smoke filled the room, but the fire was out. With a huge sigh of relief, she wearily walked over to the smouldering ashes of what was a basket. After she was sure the embers were out she fell on her back for a few minutes or so. “Wow, that was more excitement than I usually see all year,”
        Forcing herself to get back up she looked around her study to see a layer of dirt on Everything, fortunately none of her previous research was damaged. Blazing then looked at what caused all this.The cylinder was still lying just where she left it, it too was covered in a sizable amount of dirt. “What in Equus did this thing do? I can sense no magic emanating from it now, and none came from it before either, yet this thing nearly blinded me and set fire to a basket.” She picked it up with her magic once more. “Not any lighter than it was before.” She set it down and trotted over to her chair. “Alright,it isn’t powered by magic, nothing seemed to come out of it but light and it could set something on fire...with light.” Deep in thought, an idea came to her. “I'll have to try this on something else, something that won't burn... A rock will do I guess” with that she picked up the thing with her magic and headed for the exit.
        Now a good distance away from any homes or other flutterponies, she searched for a large rock. It took ten minutes to find, but she had found her large rock. “Ok, just like last time...Except no fire, please.” She had brought several of her light emitting crystals so she could see what she was doing. |'K, got the thingy, found the rock, brought some light crystals, and a blank scroll with a quill. There’s no way I am not documenting this.| “Here goes nothing!” She pressed the button once more, but this time, with nothing immediately in front of the cylinder and being outside, she wasn’t as blinded and she saw what was happening. 
        An exceedingly bright beam was being emitted from the cylinder, it was just like the magic crystal earlier that day. Except this wasn’t magic at all, this was something completely new! Something unheard of, something nopony would believe unless they saw it themselves. Blazing felt a fire within herself, she wanted to know more. After checking the area the beam hit, she decided to try it again but at a higher angle. She would need her magic for this. The cylinder was covered in the deep cerulean blue of her magic as she raised it up to try again. Poised for another test she pressed the button, the light flashed brighter than before, this time the rock exploded. Having no time to react she was thrown back by the tiny shockwave. As the realization dawned on her of what exactly happened, a small light flashed by her small flank, an image of a large red triangle appeared, in it was a red line coming from an eight pointed star.



> 4.) Vega
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



Chapter 4 (Vega)





~Canterlot~


        “Canterlot, the veritable capital of all Equestria. The city where the princesses reside. Its regal architecture stretches back through the ages, standing for more than 1000 years. It is said that the royal sisters constructed their own castle in celebration, after they had defeated the wickedness that plagued this land prior.” The teacher walked over to a window with a levitating pointer and motioned to the upper district just several blocks away. “The upper district is also known as the Royal District. This is because not long after the Sisters created their grand palace, other members of the royal family decided to settle near it. They built their own homes as a reflection of the ancient architectural beauty of the sisters’ castle.” She began slowly trotting to the blackboard with chalk levitated and began illustrating some of the designs. 
        The foals that filled the small classroom were not nearly as excited as the teacher seemed to be. For most, it was simply knowledge they would never use. But this was a little different for a mint green unicorn in the front row. She was listening to every detail, as she usually did. Whereas most her age would say that history was boring and useless, she would disagree. The past had always filled her with wonder. She thought to herself for a few moments before raising her hoof to ask a question.
        “Yes Vega, what is your question?” She thought just a second more, to organize her thoughts in a coherent manner and asked “I was wondering, what was the wickedness that they got rid of?” The teacher let out a small sigh, a familiar sigh. “It is not mentioned, and I myself do not know.” Vega wore an expression of disappointment, “But you know Vega, you can always look in the school library for a book or scroll on the subject, right?” Vega nodded and wore a small smile, but she already knew nothing more would be there, since she knew that small library like the back of her hoof. 
        For Vega Heartstrings, the next hour of history lessons seemed to zip by, because she knew that the teachers’ books had more information than the books she was allowed to read in the library. She was almost surprised when the teacher called for recess, but was happy for it. The near unconscious class roared to life when the recess bell tolled, everypony was glad to be escaping the monotony of class. 

        Vega walked outside and looked for her friends and after a few minutes of searching she found them. A white unicorn with blue mane and a pink one with a light purple mane were conversing on the other side of the schoolyard. She was greeted with “What’s up V?” “Not much Vinyl, what about you?” Vinyl was grinning while she spoke “Our pal Amethyst here got her cutie mark yesterday!” Amethyst turned her side to face Vega so she could see her cutie mark. “Oh wow, how’d you get it?” The mark was of three exquisitely cut diamonds. She excitedly replied “I got it yesterday after school when I went to visit the jewelers shop to pick something up for my mother,” The pink unicorn sat and continued.
        “Yeah, I just went to get her necklace since it was being cleaned, but I saw Emerald Fractures there, and he was cutting some new pieces of emerald. And well, you both know how good I was with cutting wood and regular stones right? Well saw the way the gems were cut and the next thing I knew, my flank lit up with my cutie mark!” Vinyl and Vega leaned in close to admire her cutie mark after hearing the story.
        Vinyl smiled and looked over to Vega again. “And you remember how I got mine, after I heard someone’s record scratch. That sound was so unique and cool.” She looked at her cutie mark as she spoke, an abridged eighth note. “My folks were so happy I got my mark, especially in music like everypony else, but they weren’t too excited about the record I ‘destroyed’, heh heh.” All the while, Vega was staring at her minty colored yet bare flank |No telling what mine will be| 
        “I’ll bet you’ll get one in music, just like me!” Vinyl switched her gaze from Vega to Amethyst. “Right? I mean you see how good she plays that lyre, nopony is better than ol Vega here.” Amethyst, not wanting to get left out of the conversation quickly added in. “Maybe, but she’s also good with her hooves, especially for a unicorn. She could have some real talent in the precious gem business too you know.” Vega thought for a moment about her friends’ speculations of her unique mark and about what she wanted. |I am interested in a lot of stuff, music, digging for gems, even studying. But what kind of cutie mark could represent everything I like?| 
        “Really I have no clue what mine will be, I do love playing the lyre, and looking around for gems is pretty neat but wouldn’t I have gotten my cutie mark for those already?” All three thought for moment, they knew this was true but before any of them could speak, they heard the toll of the bells. Immediately Vinyl sighed “Ugh, I guess it’s time ta go back to class, see ya both after school.”, “Bye Vega, bye vinyl, see you after classes!” Vega waved her hoof and also exclaimed “ Meet ya both back here afterwards.” Vega watched as her friends went to their own classrooms as she began to steadily walk back to hers. |When my cutie mark appears, I bet even I will be surprised at what it actually turns out to be|
        A large smile began creeping its way on Vega’s face as she made her way to her desk. These next lessons were always her favorite, even if they weren’t actual history. They had a certain truth to them even if they never happened, and that was exactly their point. Old stories that used to be about history, now they were apart of history. These tales being the myths and legends from ancient Equestria.
        “Todays lesson on mythology will be on a new creature called man. The intelligent ape, this creature is extremely intelligent, has hands like other primates but walked on two legs and had almost no fur of any sort. They only have a small spot of it on the top of their head. The main reason that man was called the intelligent ape was because every myth involving them has them making something to do amazing things for them. This trait also sets them apart from other mythological creatures because man has such intelligence but lacks any magic. It’s believed that this myth arose to teach us ponies the value of knowledge and magic.”
        Vega had a surge of excitement at the prospect of this new creature, one so smart yet devoid of magic in any capacity. |How could they do anything? Without magic the seasons wouldn’t change, the sun wouldn’t rise and stuff wouldn’t grow.| “-and of course this is true when you look at this myth with them flying whole cities that are as heavy as mountains with not a shred of magic. Thinking on this would certainly make you appreciate the magic the real world has.” Vega was transfixed, these beings seemed to capable of anything but why wasn’t there as many myths about them. A mint colored hoof pointed in the air. “Yes Vega?” “Ms. Pen, you said there aren’t as many stories about man, how come?” The teacher simply replied. “Well, such a fantastical creature like this would hardly need anymore stories. The seven main myths detail quite enough of their own world and how we ponies can apply it to ours. But if you want more stories that have man in them I would guess the reason why is because of the last myth about them.” 

        “Oh oh oh, tell us about the last myth then, could you read it?” Ms Silver Pen looked at her teachers bookcase and levitated a very large and old book from the top shelf. As her magic brought it closer to her Vega could see the title. ‘Narratives Originating from the Age of Legends’ by Arcane C. Ms. Pen opened the ancient tome to a place somewhere a third through. “We don’t have time to actually read everything and this is written is an older dialect of Equestrian. So to save time I will read it in my own words.” She cleared her throat and read aloud.
        “‘In their last days, man had dominated their world. Plants and animals alike could not best their machines. And their floating cities could control their own weather. Through great grape vines they could see and hear another man from across distances so great, that it could be daytime for one and night for the other. Their past had started to creep up on them once again. Back when they erected empires so great that each was known as the west and the east. The differences between the western empire and the eastern empire began to put a strain upon their peace. And with nothing left to conquer both empires prepared for war. War with each other.
        ‘During the peace man had found a way to emulate the sun and to capture that energy for their own use. But because of the impending war between the two great empires, this energy became their ultimate weapon against each other, and unlike the sun these emulations also spread a mysterious disease to any living thing.’ lets see, skip that, that and that, ‘And the final day of reckoning came, once the once great creatures called man destroyed themselves in an act of war against themselves. Their flawed nature could not let them nurture any sort of harmony with each other. Because of this flaw, they all vanished from the living world in the bright blinding light of their own creations.’”
        As usual the class was not extremely lively, even for a small paraphrasing telling of a tale of doomsday. Vega on the other hoof, was deep in thought and she knew only one thing about all this, she had to know more. She raised her hoof as she always did. “We don’t have time to do another one Vega, besides, I’ve already spoken all I need to on the subject of man, we have to move on.” “But, you’ll read the other myths with them won’t you Ms. Pen?” The silvery maned school teacher sighed. “As I said Vega, we already talked about man, and like I said before, there is almost nothing about them.” She levitated the book to emphasize her point. “These 100 or so pages contain every story about them dating back to antiquity, should you find something not in here than it is nothing more than fiction about fiction.” 
        |Maybe there’s something in the library I can checkout, after all I never looked for it before| The teacher levitated some chalk to the board and started drawing out the figure of a pony. “Our next myth will deal with the moon, and that’s part of the name of this pony too, Nightmare Moon. Legend says that she was-” |Nevermind that, every foal knows that story, why can’t you just talk more on the cool creature, man. There really should be more than what the teacher said. I definitely should at least look into it myself sometime| Vega tried to put it out of her mind, at least until she could get a book or something.
        Before she knew it, music class was already starting. |At least I know that playing some music will make me concentrate on something else.| Vega levitated the lyre next to her and closed her eyes as she played a soft melody with her magic. Her thoughts, much to her surprise, were still lingering in her mind. |What if they were real?|



> 5.) The Lyre made of Stars
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 5 (The Lyre made of Stars)





~A quiet night one week later~



        Vega had gone to every library she could walk to, and still she only had about ten books and one scroll. “This scroll is definitely the oldest thing here...” She thought for a quick second, “Think I’ll read it first.” Walking into her room she lit one of her candles. |My parents are gone for the night; this will be the perfect time for their musical prodigy to read some ancient history, heh heh| As she walked into her room everything was cast in the soft glow of her golden magic and the warm yellows from the candle. 
        She set the candle on her small table and looked over to her bed, where she put all the books and the scroll. Focussing on the scroll she levitated it over to her. ‘Equus: The Story of Where Ponies Came From’, “This should surely have the oldest tales I could read.” She carefully untied the ribbon holding the scroll closed and opened it up to see what it held. 
[#]
She was a little confused, the top half of the scroll was adorned with many small illustrations but was written in ancient runes. The bottom half contained modern equestrian and almost no pictures. “This sure is old, half of it is in ancient.” She lit her other candle to try and see the tiny runes better. Some had blended together, others had been worn away and others looked written over. She was very interested in what the old symbols meant, they only touched on this in school. Vega had seen some of the example runes on the board but the teacher said that it took years to learn because it was a dead language.
        As she thought of the meaning behind the runes she noticed something else was amiss. There was a mended tear along the right side and a small piece missing as well. The tear was cutting through several lines of runes and the mend had almost wiped away those lines, but they were there. What's more is that the missing piece was part of a picture, now only the bottom of it was visible, along with the name. |Interesting, I wonder what picture that was? It’s just too bad I can’t read those runes for myself.| 
        Her unicorn horn glowed softly as she rolled the scroll to the portion with modern equestrian. She read the first line. “Equus is the place where every pony came from. Verily, all creatures originated from Equus and were brought to this land of Equestria by the Royal Sisters… Yeah I heard all this before.” She scanned through the lines of text until something caught her attention only several lines down. ‘The diarchy searched the stars to find a new home for all ponies and the other creatures alike to live in peace and harmony.’ She had never seen that word before, diarchy. She would have to look it up later, for now she kept reading.
        ‘After tirelessly searching for a new world, the royal sisters found a suitable world.’ |I have seen both Royal sisters, magus sisters and diarchy several time now. I guess they mean the same two sisters but why use different words all the time? | ‘Upon arriving in the new world, the eldest sister declared this land to be Equestria in honor of their old home. But this wasn't Equus and a problem plagued this new world. An evil race dominated this world, a race not of magic, harmony or peace. This race of non magic l o gin  ere kn  n o ly as h  ans. …….’ “What? what race was it?” The letters on this section were all partially erased. Some letters or words were chipped away, some had ink spots on them but the rest were gone for good, as the same tear seemed to be in this section the same as the older one. The place where a picture may have been was burned away. Vega pulled the scroll as close to her face as possible to make something out. “Why? Who? Who would do this?” As the last word left her lips she saw some letters under the burned portion, they read ‘human’.
[#]
        “Human? I thought they were just called man; well this scroll is older than those books, I suppose then, that I’ll call them humans to.” Just then she heard a noise from the front room. |They can’t be home yet, I still have all those to read.| She tried as fast as she could to hide the scroll and the books. Vega peered into the large room where the front door was and saw nopony. She sighed in relief, “Whew, knew they couldn’t be home this early. But I really should get prepared just in case they do.” 
        She walked over to her lyre, still in its case, and picked it up in her magic. She also laid some sheet music down on her bed. |I’ll just play this while reading so when they arrive, it’ll be as if I was only practicing all along..I could use some background music anyways.| With that she plucked the strings with her magic and picked up a new book to start reading.
        The little minty green unicorn sat reading and playing for two hours but she still couldn’t find much of anything. All the mythology books gave the same stories when it came to humans, almost always giving the mere mention of them with a negative connotation. Books on legends had much more info on them but still nowhere near enough to prove anything. |I have three left, ‘Historical Oddities’ ,‘Places of Intrigue’ and ‘History of Stars and Constellations’.| Before she looked at the book she looked around the corner, just to make sure she was alone. 
        Vega opened the ‘Historical Oddities’ book and only quickly scanned through the pages for something out of place. She skipped entire sections that were dedicated to theories and debates about certain pony inventions and she also skipped anything related to magic. Because if there is one thing she knew about humans after these books, it’s that they had absolutely no magic. She didn’t know for sure if their machines used magic though, because they certainly did magical things. After skipping a whole other section on supposed wrongly dated events, she got to the section she wanted. |Strange and unexplainable artifacts, just what I wanted!|
        With her lyre playing almost unconsciously she read every page looking for something to stand out. Most of the entries in the book talked about tools and fossils being found in the wrong era. But she wasn’t concerned with that, she wanted downright weird stuff. |Nails in rock, plows stuck in prehistoric rock, no no No. I need something even more out of the ordinary.| As if her plea was heard she flipped the page to see the next sections title of ‘Unconfirmed Artifacts’ and the main picture for this section was a coin that was unlike any she had seen. The info for it said that it was found in the deserts to the south. She flipped the page and saw numerous low quality pictures, some drawn ones and even newspaper clippings. 
        “Rainbow silvered disks found in a cave near the Everfree, maps that contain fictional nations found in Canterlot archives, mysterious books containing alien letters discovered in the southern desert. Wow, this is amazing, but what happened to all this stuff.” She flipped past a few pages and found the end of the book. This amazing section was only 3 pages long. Vega looked at some of the fine print on the sections first page and saw something written that didn’t make any sense. ‘These artifacts are not up for peer review and reside solely in the Royal archives.’ “The Royal archives? That doesn’t make any sense, they could at least put it in a museum or something.” She closed the book and thought for a moment. The only sound in the room came from her lyre. |There has to be more to this. The myths don’t line up with the legends, stories about them are sparse and while individual stories contradict narratives of other ones. The whole world these humans lived in, fictional or not, is way too detailed and consistent. Even writers these days don’t contain so much detail and consistency.| 
        She looked to her bed at the last two books, one very large, the other quite small. She decided on the larger one, just in case her parents took a little longer to get home. ‘Places of Intrigue’ it was much much older than she thought it was. She thought such a title would mean something along the lines of vacation spots or tourist destinations, but these were areas deemed intriguing by a well known explorer. His name was Indigo Spark, one of the first to explore the badlands, dragon territory and the vast deserts to the south. She looked closely at the dates. “Wow, this must be an original copy, it says it’s from about 400 years ago. Oo oo, maybe nothing will be missing then!” 
        She looked at the archaic tome on her desk in a new light as she searched for something about humans. Most of what was written were tellings of faraway lands coupled with some theories about them. Vega continued flipping through page after page that still turned up nothing relating to humans. But to her surprise about a third of the way into the book she finally found something of interest, a direct reference to humans.
[#]
        [I am inclined to believe that none of these structures could have been made by either ponies, gryphons, dragons or diamond dogs. The precision is inline with crafts made by either gryphons or ponies, but the height would suit neither, as would this arid dry environment these are found in. Dragons could survive here because of the abundance of quartzite but these buildings are far too shallow and fragile to hold any. And though the height would be a near perfect match for a diamond dog, they lack both the precision and resources to actually build anything out here. Based on the petroglyphs upon cliffs rocks and hereto it would seem that likely the only other creature able to make such structures are the mythological humans.]
        She looked up from the book and had the biggest grin on her face when she squealed “I knew it, I knew there had to be something more!” She quickly got back to reading. She was beyond captivated now, never before had she thirsted for more information on something than now. 
‘-there was all sorts and types of this peculiar metal around 100 miles directly to the south. I had never laid eyes on a metal so resistant to most anything. And it’s shine was unbounded, it neither rusted nor tarnished in my tests and Celestia only knows how long this metal has been here. ‘ She paused for a second or two to think of where she had heard that term before. |Miles, I know for sure i heard of that before.| but Vega also was getting quite literally thirsty from all this excitement and discovery so she slowly got out of her chair and went to the kitchen for some water. 
        After her thirst was quenched she returned to read just a little bit more. She looked out the window and saw the pitch blackness of the night sky. There was a new moon tonight so it was especially dark. But she still wanted to read some, all the while she was playing her lyre. 
        ‘Of course the most amazing thing I had ever seen was just up ahead, inside a mountain resembling a crater, but this did not resemble the many others in the area. There was a large door made of the same everlasting metal that led to a tall and somewhat narrow corridor. The legendary stories of this place were coming true yet. For even as I walked through the passage small lights of cold fire lit up as if to welcome me. Indeed it was not so long before a voice called out to welcome me to this museum. I began to, in vain, to begin conversation with the voice but it would only answer the simplest of questions and had no replies for much else. As I walked to the end of the hallway I saw a very large chamber with a spiraling staircase carved perfectly in the stone.’
        Vega’s heart was beating heavily as she read on. ‘As I walked up the stone staircase there were exhibits just like any normal museum only these spoke of something foreign to me. It was called electricity. This electricity seemed to work in very similar ways to magic but was itself not magical in nature. Also of note, the machines in this place were all said in the legends to be created by humans, I can only conclude that humans had a mastery of the force called electricity in ways we will never know. ‘ |Electricity, sounds like a type of magic to me, a name like that certainly sounds like it would be arcane.| The young unicorn raised a hoof to scratch her head as she was thinking. 
        |But humans were said to use it, non magical humans. If that is so, maybe this other worldly magic is unreachable by us magic users| She found her place and continued. ‘If I was shocked at these machines and voices from nowhere I truly was not ready for the final exhibit. As I went up one step at a time I could see something monstrously large in the top of the cavern. There were many many large wheels. All of them were bigger than me, it was only a matter of how big. Not only that, but every single one was interconnected via teeth. If one moved, its neighbor would also. When I got to the top the voice spoke once more and said that this massive contraption had been built by their ancestors and was easily more than 1000 years old when they first found it.’ Vega couldn’t believe what she was reading. 
        The passage she read detailed such wonders that weren’t possible even today. Magicless cold fire, electricity, massive machines using wheels bigger than houses, it looked like there was nothing humans could not do. |How then, could they all be gone? if a magic-less creature could make such things then surely they survived somewhere. It’s no wonder they seem too fantastical to be real.| Just then she heard a familiar noise from the front room. Her parents were home, just as planned, she kept playing her lyre as she frantically bookmarked her place and shoved all the books under her bed. She heard them approaching the door when something caught her eye. |Oh no! That star book!| She looked from side to side before quickly dumping some sheet music on it. 
        Her mother walked into her room. “Sorry we’re late dear we had to stop by the market to get some items for dinner. How was school?” Vega shifted around on her bed, carefully avoiding books while trying to look natural. “Oh nothing special, just had an arithmetic test and I’m pretty sure I passed.” She was still sweating from the adrenaline boost. “That’s good to hear, perhaps you can tell us more when dinner is ready?” Her mother looked at her like she knew something. “Yeah, sure.” Her mother momentarily fixed her two tone white and pink mane before heading for the kitchen. Vega looked through the door to make sure she wouldn’t be surprised. All she saw was her mother making dinner and her father disappearing in their room.
        The minty filly quickly checked the marked spot in the book she was reading and returned it to the underside of her bed. She also fished the star book out from her sheet music. Vega looked at the pile of music. |That will take some rearranging -sigh-| She looked back through her door again at the ornate clock in their living room. |Is it so late already? It’s always difficult to tell when you can’t see the moon.| Thinking of how much was left in that giant book she was reading, she decided it would be best to finish off the smaller book about stars before sleeping tonight. |After all, I only read a few pages and there is like, a thousand pages in that thing. Oh I almost forgot,| She dug through some of the sheet music to find what she was seeking. |I got this music from the library to, just in case they wondered why I went there. Anyway, let’s have a quick look at this book before dinner.|
[#]
‘History of Stars and Constellations’, she flipped to the table of contents, mostly interested in the oldest history. ‘Chapter 1: Constellation names dating from antiquity’ but chapter 9 was about the stars. “Guess those are the only chapters I really need to read then,” She said aloud. ‘Although Celestia defined the shapes and stories ages ago there exists names and legends about the stars that predate Celestia’s redefinition. Some of these names even live on in modern times as names for various creatures.-’ Vega’s interest was piqued, she skiped some pages to find the names that were associated with the constellations and found several she recognized right off the bat.
[#]
        |I’ve heard of URSA majors before, but were they named after the stars? Or did they name the stars after them? And Draco, it doesn’t seem to have changed at all aside from the name, it’s still a dragon constellation.| The next page held something quite perplexing to Vega, it was an image of the great sky plow, only it used to be called Lyra. She looked closer and saw her name! “I’m named after a star?! Woooah!” “What was that honey?” Her mother asked from the other room. “N-nothing, just uhhh, stepped on something sharp, but I’m ok!” That seemed to suffice because her mom only answered back with an “Ok, dinner is almost ready so why don’t you come on in?” Vega looked back at the image in the book, the brightest star in the Lyra constellation was Vega. The constellation itself was originally a lyre, not a plow.
        Vega was taken aback from this revelation and flipped the page over to see what else would await her. The next two pages held two more constellations that also had the brightest star’s name. Aquila with Altair and Cygnus with Deneb. It took less than a split second for Vega to realise that her parents names also were here, Altair and Deneb. The small filly had wondered at times why her families’ names were out of the ordinary compared to most ponies. Never in her wildest dreams did she think their names were actually ancient names for the stars and constellations. |I have to know, how did we inherit these names? How could our family have known such information?|
        Vega knew what she had to do, she was going to ask her parents about the family name. Feeling very tight chested and nervous she made her way into the living room where her father was reading the paper. She could hear her mother in the kitchen getting their dinner ready. “Soo dad, I was kind of wondering something,” He put the paper down enough to see Vega as she spoke. “Why are our names so different from other ponies?” The adult dark green pony was taken by surprise with the question. He put the paper down all the way and asked “What was that?” Vega inquired again, “Why do we have such different names compared to others?” Her father thought for a second on a way to approach answering this question and called for Vega’s mother. “Can it wait until after dinner honey?” Deneb looked to her daughter, who shook her head no and replied, “I’m afraid not Altair.”
        “Well then I shall be there in a few minutes while I finish up.” Deneb sat on the couch with Vega and started “So, you wanted to know why our names are different right?” She nodded her head yes. “Well, it begins on your mother’s side of the family, she can better explain it to you than I can. If you recall, my family has always been skilled in the art of making magical works of fire. That’s how I got my name, Star Works, but being married to your mother I took on some of her family traditions. One of those was having a family name. Her parents, your grandparents, have an old book filled with family traditions and stories.” Just then, Altair Heartstrings made her way into the living room, she was holding a family photo album in her telekinetic grasp.
        “Perfect timing Altair, I see you even got the old family album.” The pink unicorn made her way over to the couch whilest subconsciously glancing at the kitchen. “I heard the two of you talking about our family traditions and figured that getting out the album would be a good tool to show you.” As she sat down she motioned for Vega to look at the cover. “This is the cover from the original album, it was too small to hold all of our growing family,” The cover was quite a bit smaller than the actual book-of-an-album it was attached to. It was also quite old and looked to be covered in glass. Altair opened up to the first page. It showed the names of a first few of the family.
[#]
        There Vega saw them, more names that were in that star book. She saw Argo, Electra and Indus to name a few. Vega also noted how the last name of the family never changed, even if the talents were nothing of music. “Mom, why does everypony have the same last name? ‘Heartstrings’ doesn’t relate with some of our relatives’ talents?” Altair seemed to have expected this as she was not surprised in the least. “I myself asked the same of my mother once, this has to do with tradition. You will find that many ponies across Equestria have family oriented traditions of some sort, it’s just something that reminds you of your lineage.” Vega knew what her mother was talking about, many a historical record told of ponies practicing traditions since before they could remember. But all Vega could do was look at her mother and blink, to think that they had such old traditions.
        Altair continued, “You see Vega, there is a book that has been handed down in our family for some 20 generations.” She flipped a couple of pages until she came to a picture of a pegasus with a dark green coat and a blue-white mane, this pegasus was holding an old book. “This is what the book looks like, it is with my parents right now. And in this picture it is with an aunt in our family from the year 330, her name was Lyra.” Vega couldn't help but think of that name and remember the ancient origin of it. “Maybe next time we visit your grandparents we can see the family book.” Vega perked up “Oh yes, that would be great!”, “Well that will be a splendid vacation when school is out, but for now, it is time for dinner.” She and Deneb got up and started making their way over to the dining room. Vega to got up and began walking over but her mind was full of thoughts.
        Dinner went by normally enough, the two older ponies not reading too much into Vega’s curiosity of family traditions. They instead talked of work and occasionally asked Vega about school, congratulating her on her grades and telling her how she was going to be a professional musician. Vega knew the drill with such matters, smile and nod. She really didn’t want to tell her parents that she wanted to be a historian, though she herself couldn’t deny that she was good with a lyre. |I gotta read some more of that book before bedtime though| “That was a great meal mom, especially the rosebud desert, I’m going to practice some more and then go to sleep.” Her mother simply nodded and continued talking with Deneb about current events and other stuff Vega didn’t really care about.
        |Back to my book| She grinned as she picked up her lyre and began playing a soft tune while getting the star book out from under her sheet music. She quickly found her place, for at least half an hour more she flipped through all the pages just to look at what things used to be called. She wondered why they changed in the first place. There didn’t seem to be a need to do so. As the night became older she became more sleepy. She momentarily remembered the larger book she had hid to read for later, but she was so tired she decided to read it tomorrow.
        With her lyre still in her magical grip, still playing she walked over to the star book so she could see that one constellation one more time. That one constellation with its main star bearing her name, Lyra. Her eyes scanned the illustration of the stars themselves. then she wondered if she couldn’t see the Lyre in the stars for herself. 
        Her eyes took a few minutes to adjust to the darkness of a new moon night. And there it was, the 5 constituent stars arranged in a parallelogram with the brightest star above one corner of it. The constellation of Lyra. All the while her lyre playing changed to reflect her mood. Vega looked close at the bright star that was her namesake. Also in her vision was a bright reddish star that did not twinkle but she paid it no mind. What she did pay attention to was a light slowly yet suddenly appearing in her peripheral vision, it built up and flashed a bright yellow and began dying down. Vega searched almost in vain to find the source until she was met with her hind legs. There were five points of light on her leg in the shape of Lyra. Her adrenaline was rising fast as the minty green filly looked at the real constellation one more time and then back to her leg. By now the light decayed away enough to reveal an image to her, a golden lyre with one end turned upright, just like the Lyre in the Stars.
> 6.) Lyra
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 6 (Lyra)





~A few minutes later~




        She looked at her flank for a few moments, watching as the magical light was still slowly fading away. |Sades!! My cutie mark!| “I finally have it! Wooohooo!!!” Her lyre dropped to the floor as Vega jumped onto her bed and bounced up and down in pure elation. “Wooo!!” She stopped for a second upon hearing her mother say something. 
    “What?!” “Is everything alright in there?” Vega thought carefully for a few seconds before answering back 
     “Yeah, I’m fine, everything’s fine…” Vega hopped off her bed somewhat tired by the sudden expenditure of energy.The minty unicorn looked to her book again, still open to the page showing the constellation of Lyra. She turned to her flank, then back to the page several times before stopping at her actual lyre. Quickly and suddenly she ran out of her room and back to the living room. Her parents in their usual spots, her mother was in the kitchen washing dishes while her father was reading the paper again in the main room. 
        “I want to change my name!” Once again her parents were taken aback by their daughter.
     Deneb recovered from his shock first, “Don’t be silly Vega, you have a beautiful name already.” 
    She had already formulated a response while she was on her way to the room. “Oh yes, it is nice but i want to have a different one. I want my name to be Lyra!”
     Altair and Deneb exchanged looks while Vega, or Lyra, sat on the floor with a wide grin on her face. “Honey, you see, your name of Vega was specifically chosen for you. I understand if the other names in our family… Appeal to you, but you can’t easily change your name just like that.” 
     Vega’s big wide grin subsided to merely a smile as she got up and turned her hind legs to her parents.“But look, I got my cutie mark! And it’s a lyre, Lyra would be simply perfect!”
     Her mother just shook her head slightly as she came over to Vega. “I am very excited that you have found your natural talent, but don’t you think changing your name is a little bit too far?” 
     Vega contemplated this, “Well, I was reading this book about stars and constellations and stuff and I saw my name in there as a star’s name but it was in a constellation called Lyra but now it’s a plow and…” -gasp- “...and then you brought that book out with the names and it was in there-” Deneb spoke up once more, “Hold up, slow down there Vega.” 
        “Yes dear slow down, now what’s all this about stars and books and the like?” Her mother glanced at Deneb as she asked Vega the question.
     “Well to be honest, I was studying some history books when I came across some old names for stars and constellations.” Her parents breathed a small sigh of relief, “And the reason I was studying these books on history was to learn some more about man, though the scroll called them human.” At the mention of the word human, both of her parents’ ears twitched with unease.
        Altair mustered as calm as a demeanor as she could in this circumstance. “Whatever led you to seek them out? School work? A project maybe?” It was very small and subtle, but Vega sensed the discomfort in her mothers voice as she spoke. The little filly looked to her father, he was sitting still but looked like he was starting to sweat, like he was listening to something he knew he shouldn't. 
 “Y-yeah, something like that; the teacher was talking about their, mythological...myths…last week.” She frowned, “I just wondered if there was anymore stories about them anywhere. And I did-” 
Her mother quickly interrupted “And you didn’t find anything else, right?” For a fleeting moment Vega could see the pleading in her mothers eyes. 
    “Sssure, yeah I couldn’t really find anything else.” |This can’t be a coincidence, Ms. Pen was distant from the ‘human’ subject, but I thought she just was busy or something. But for mom and dad to be like that too? Something’s definitely off|
        Her mother, wanting to change the subject as quickly as she could, looked at Deneb and then back to Vega “So you wanted a name change, yes?” Vega nodded her head enthusiastically. “Well you still need to carry our families naming tradition. So, even though it goes slightly against tradition, you may have Lyra as a first name and your last name will remain Heartstrings.” Vega, now Lyra jumped up with an excited squeal. “However, you must retain the family name of Vega as a middle name.” Lyra was overtaken with joy, she didn’t even notice her parents talking to each other for a few seconds until her mother walked over to her again. She whispered into Lyra’s ear, “And lets keep this whole ‘human’ thing to ourselves hmm?” 
Lyra only answered with a weak “mmm hmm” of her own and ran back upstairs.

        With a flash of her golden magic she opened the window in her room and looked out at the stars. “I am Lyra Vega Heartstrings!!” She declared to the night time sky. Lyra was so caught up in the moment of her triumph that she didn’t realize right away that she just woke some ponies up.
 “Oops, sorry everypony” She whispered to the outside right as she closed up her window. She took a quick look at the Lyra constellation in her book before plopping herself on her bed. |Really though, this human thing just keeps getting more interesting with each passing experience.|
        
Downstairs her parents talked in hushed voices. “You don’t think she’s genuinely trying to study -them- do you Altair?” 
She paced the floor. “I can’t be sure of anything right now, I sincerely hope she wasn’t talking aloud about -them- when we weren’t here. The last thing we need is more imperial entanglements.”
 Deneb nervously looked back and forth. “Stay your tongue, because of your blood you know She listens to everything in this house.”
 Altair drooped her head but still shot back. “Don’t you talk to me that way, do you think I chose this? To forever live in Canterlot? To live in fear of the crown simply because of my bloodline? I 
don’t know what curse my families’ history has with the princess, just that -they- are involved…”
      “I’m sorry Altair I didn’t mean to place any blame on you, it isn’t your fault you were born into this. But all we need to do is steer Vega away from that whole thing long enough for her to come of age. At least then she will be allowed to live beyond Canterlot.” 



~The Next Morning at School~




        Two unicorns paced around their usual hangout. “She’s never this late you know.” Vinyl told Amethyst, “She’s like always here before we are.” 
     Amethyst just stood looking out to the road. “I, I think I see her Vinyl..”
      “Where? Lemmie see!” They both could see a familiar mint colored pony running to see them. “I wonder why she is late.”
      “Doesn’t matter she’s here now.” Vinyl got on her hind legs and waved with both her front hooves to Lyra. 
        It was only a few minutes before Lyra made it over to her friends. “What’s happenin V? Where ya been at this morning?
           ” Lyra had to take a few deep breaths before she answered. “Oh, I needed to get something from my parents for the teacher. But that’s not important right now, check this out.” She proudly showcased to her friends her brand new cutie mark. 
      “Woah V, that’s a pretty schweet cutie mark.” Vinyl paused for a moment “Yup, I knew you’d get a musical cutie mark just like me.”
    Amethyst admired the slightly more complex cutie mark. “This really fits you Vega, you play the lyre better than any other pony in class.” 

“Yeah, you’re totally awesome with that lyre of yours.” 

“How did you get it Vega?”
        
     “Well first, I want you both to be the first ones to know at school that I am changing my name.” Vinyl and Amethyst just looked at each other. 
    Amethyst was curious “How are you expecting to do that?”
     Lyra dug in her saddlebags with her magic until she produced a small scroll. “With this! See I already talked with my parents about it and they are letting me do it. They just told me to give this scroll to the teacher and everything would be fine.” Lyra grinned as she held the scroll. 
     Vinyl was just a little bit confused but accepted it. “Sooo, what’s the new name gonna be V?”    
     “It’s Lyra.” “Woah, I know you love playing the lyre an all that but naming yourself after it? kinda out there V.” Lyra rolled her eyes.
        “That’s only part of it Vinyl.” Lyra scanned the school yard for a spot in the open. She found one by the balcony, “Come over here and I’ll tell you both how I got my cutie mark and why I want my name to be Lyra.” She started walking over to the clearing. Amethyst looked at Vinyl and Vinyl just shrugged. “K we’re comin over V.”
     Now it was Amethyst’s turn to be confused, “Why did we have to come over here to talk?” Lyra sat down “That part is a long story. Anyways, you know how I love learning about history right?” Amethyst nodded while Vinyl stuck out her tongue and let out a “-bleh- Don’t know how you do it V.” The minty filly just smiled and continued. “Well I had a book that told what names the stars and constellations used to have. The one constellation that is a plow now used to be a lyre a long time ago. And it was called Lyra, when this all happened I was playing my lyre. And when I looked outside at the Lyra constellation while playing my lyre, it appeared.”
         “Sooo why the name change? And you know I’m still gonna be callin you V right?”
         “I had a feeling you still would, it’s ok. Anyways, when I looked I saw that my cutie mark was a lyre with one side turned up. It’s just like the constellation. And the constellation was pronounced differently in the book, it sounded closer to lyric than lyre, so I want my name to be pronounced that way.” The other two unicorns were still a might bit turned around by all this. “Oh and the best part, was that the brightest star in Lyra is Vega, crazy right?”
     The purple one was intrigued, “That is quite strange, how old was this book?”
      “I don’t know, some names are the same, some are like names of creatures and some I have never heard before.” 
        Before their conversation could advance any farther the school bell began to toll, signalling the start of another day of classes. Lyra started to run to the school building, “I got to give this to the teacher, see you later!”
 “See ya later V!!”
 “See you after classes Lyra!” The mint pony smiled at the mention of her new name and almost ran into a wall. |Guess I better watch where I’m going.| She slowed to walking pace went she got inside. No need to get an infraction just for running. 
        Lyra walked to her classroom and right up to Ms. Silver Pen. “Good morning Ms. Pen.” “Good morning Vega.” Lyra slowly went behind the desk next the silver maned pony. Lyra spoke in a low tone, “Can I see you alone for a few minutes?” The teacher nodded and both of them stepped out in the hall. 
“What’s this about Vega?”
 “Look! I got my cutie mark!” And once more she turned to show the teacher the new image upon her hind legs.
    Silver Pen did not seem amused. “That is wonderful news Vega but I need to begin class now.” She turned to the door. 
“Wait, that’s not all, I want to change my name to Lyra.”
 “Don’t be ridiculous, a filly cannot change her name on a whim, cutie mark or not.” Lyra floated her parents’ note over to her instructor. “Mmm yes well it seems you were able to persuade your parents into agreeing with you. but that decision is their choice, so long as they are willing, you are now Lyra. Now it is time to begin class if you don’t mind.”
        Ms. Silver Pen put Lyra’s name change note into a drawer and addressed the class. “Good morning students, I hope you studied well for today's quiz on classical magic theory. But before we begin I would like to announce that your fellow student Vega Heartstrings will now be known as Lyra Vega Heartstrings.”
 It was at that time that Lyra herself got up to show the whole class her cutie mark. “And look, I finally got my cutie mark!” Then the whole class stomped their hooves as a sort of congratulations.
   “Yes well, you may have a seat now Lyra.” 
    She started to sit down but quickly remembered something and got back up. “And just a reminder everypony, my name is Lyra like lyric, not Lyra like lyre, why would I want my name to make me sound like I lie a lot, know what I mean?” 
“That is quite enough Heartstrings.”


~End of Day~


        The rest of the school day went with little excitement. A magic test here, spelling lesson there, art class, music class; but at last the school day came to an end. Lyra was making her way to the same little clear spot she had met with her friends prior to school and at lunch. She got there before they did so she just looked out over the balcony. She saw small settlement here and there. The closest was Ponyville, right next to the vast Everfree forest. |Sure was nice today, every look I got was followed by some compliment about my new cutie mark. Hmmm, wonder what’s keeping them. Whatever, I bet Vinyl gets here before Amethyst. Hey, what’s that?| Lyra walked closer to the edge of the balcony. She looked into the huge expanse of the everfree forest and squinted her eyes. |It looks like some kind of orange beam of light shooting out of the Everfree. Heh, guess that place really is weird.| She looked back to the school and saw her friends coming over to greet her. She turned her head to look for the light to show them but it was gone. |Weird|

> 7) 3808
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 7 (3803)



~15 Years Later~


        “As your mayor for this year, I would like to thank none other than those who are departed from this world, humans. For without them, our city could not be the grand spectacle it is today. They bequeathed us with such power with their technology and knowledge; we must take the utmost care to be responsible with this gift. We shall continue to prosper and gain strength so long as She never knows about our continued existence. Furthermore-”
        Blazing stood in the middle of the crowd, trying to stifle a yawn. |I wonder how much longer his speech is gonna be. I hate having such a miniscule attention span| She yawned, unable to contain it any longer. her eyes wandered around at the all too familiar cityscape. Roads, aqueducts and power lines criss crossed the entirety of the city, which now spanned about ⅓ of the crater they lived in. T’was all business as usual to her, and the others who helped build it. All she really wanted to do was work more on her study of light and magic.
        “~again I say thank you all whom voted for me and don’t forget we have a celebration tonight marking 15 years since the first grand discovery!” The mayor waved and the crowd cheered. Then he took to the sky towards Pentium Hall, the new place for bureaucratic affairs. Blazing did like thinking of the time before, but in memory only.. 
        They had since discovered forces they hadn’t thought existed; electricity, steam power and even metallurgy were now coming under their control. Though most prefered the mesmerizing sight of mechanical engineering at work. Exploring was still an occurance but on a smaller scale, and longer timelines. |I bet Feather will be here just in time for the party tonight. And with something new to go on about.| It was a tad bit unfair to say the expeditions found nothing. Even ignoring the wonderful pictures they took whilst driving on, they always managed to find at least a remnant of what they hoped to find. Most artifacts eroding and rusting away to nothing, some far too large to move and others mere fragments
        She had a feeling though, a similar feeling to that very first day. Not just of hope, but also with a slight tinge of anxiousness and just like before it was a completely foreign type of anxiousness. But she knew it was nothing dangerous of course because this latest find was supposed to a plaque in memory to something. Surely a plaque wouldst survive the centuries in better condition than a city. But that anxiousness still lingered on.
        |I should like to meet that kind zebra in the woods again.| She thought. |She gave quite a unique insight towards humans, and to how the Equestrians view them.| It was kind of strange how a zebra all the way from Zebrica would end up in the middle of the country, but most paid it no mind. Only stories came about that place, just like that of the flutterponies themselves.
        The afternoon melded neatly into evening and quietly to night as it always did. To be sure, the city was gearing up for a welcoming party from the longest exploratory mission yet, 7 full months. The workers in the power plants worked extra hard to charge batteries for the event. Seasonal planners even got out the string of colored lights normally used on Christmas. Tech was hard at work to fix some bugs to allow some human music to be played through large speakers. Everyone else was either cleaning their place of residence or themselves.
        
        Even from a distance the team arriving from the Irate Lands from the south could see the extra lights and some new structures. “Ah yes a sight for sore eyes indeed!” One of them shouted. Almost the whole of the team was dedicated to holding up the plaque, which was quite heavy for its size. The remainder either awaited a turn or had just taken one. Feather Duster could be seen at the front of them all, concentrating on keeping a protective field around the rest. “Just a little ways more from here.” He told himself. “Could someone please contact the council when we are in bluetooth range and tell them we need to talk.” 
        When they came within the required distance they sent the message, got a reply back and had a small conversation that ended while they were still a distance away. “We will reveal this tomorrow once we all come to a valid conclusion on what our course of action from this find will be.” Feather told the rest. He had a certain seriousness in his voice that wasn’t heard often. The others acknowledged and they began moving again. Feather felt an intense and confused fear within him, of Her”
        The team got to the rear of Pentium Hall, and went to the underground sections, still holding their prize. The crowds outside were going wild as soon as they saw them. Underground the sounds were muffled. Just as they discussed, the Advisory board was there. De Novo, Clock Work and Pre History were standing in the middle of the room. The team flew out, both because they wanted to get with their families and because they didn’t want to get stranded in there with the former leaders. In seconds only the four were there. 
        As usual Pre threw formalities aside and eagerly asked how Feather was doing. “Fine.” he replied, still having the feeling from earlier. The three were taken aback. De Novo was the first to speak, “I can sense some something is amiss if you are calling us here on such short notice.” He spoke that last syllable with sternness. Feather didn’t say a word, he just calmly flew over to the wrapped plaque and pulled off the covering. 
        Revealed was not a rusting, eroded piece of metal and it wasn’t even a pristine piece of metal. It was a tablet made of pure sapphire, colorless as glass! And embedded inside it was text written in three languages along with two objects. It was written in English, Ancient Equestrian and Modern Equestrian; And the languages themselves were writ in precious metals: gold, silver and copper respectively. An assortment of dates and places and names were all given in the small font. 
        To say the other three were shocked would quite an understatement. “Gentleponies, may I direct your attention to this clause?” His antennae glowed and a portion of text was illuminated for the others to see.
        “...It is fortunate that we were afforded an opportunity to save the last of our kind through technology. To escape to places not even that witch can follow us. I’ll not let Celestia herself know where, but know this, it is amongst the stars!”
        Feather let the info begin to sink in before speaking once more, “You all are aware of what this could mean. Humanity could still be out there, surviving...Thriving even! On another world.” He hovered over to the Three. Clock Work walked over to the tablet of pure sapphire and gazed at it for a moment or two. It hadn’t gone unnoticed to him that this thing had more than text and illustrations.
        At the bottom of the tablet were two objects. One was an unassuming stone whose only feature was that it was a pyramid shape. The other was just to the right and looked to be a piece of technology but not like any they had ever seen before. Clock Work turned to the explorer, “What might these be?” He asked. Feather grew slightly uneasy, “I am not too sure, the text around the stone is written in Ancient Equestrian and I am not well versed in the meaning of it all. But I can tell you what it is called, ‘Zentuel Et’seneleka Venchtenint’. Like I said I am not to the stage of understanding Ancient just yet so I’ll need Pre’s help for some of this.” 
        At this point Pre History was already deep in thought at the mention of Ancient since he was one of the few to be a master in it. Ancient was only reserved for the oldest of their scrolls but some words and phrases survived in normal use. He took a closer look at the writing and to the stone. “Goodness, I’ve only read of these, its a time stone! Technically the direct translation is stone of knowing time…” Even after all he had seen in the past 15 years he was quite puzzled. “How could such a thing end up with the humans?! Only the strongest of unicorns could create one of low quality, but this craftsmanship. Only someone directly studying under Her could craft something like this. It is designed to tell time across vast expanses of time, the rest of the Ancient writing around it must be the activation spell”
        De Novo was just as intrigued as anypony could have been, but he was still stuck on the part about humans still being out there. After all these centuries, more than a thousand years later, what could they have learned by now? But he chose to keep his demeanor above all else.
        Feather chimed into the talk about the stone. “Well knowing that about this stone puts the other piece in perspective pretty well. Because the other is a timepiece by the humans, and it reads as ‘05-3803’ and that isn’t all. Pre History, if you thought that stone was most puzzling, you really ought to read this in its entirety, as should you all.”
        “We know that, but the presence of this stone mystifies all else about this tablet. Have you found any pertinent information about the stone in these writings?” Feather simply highlighted more text on the tablet for the others to see. 
‘Illustrated to the left is a device from the Old World, a T|5. We have had this relic of our past restored and upgraded as it was easily older than 1000 years when it was found. To keep simplicity and this tablet single, we have put much more information on this T|5. Both this tablet and the T|5 should be in the same casing. If not then its original location will lay in the Irate Wastelands within the Valley of the Sun.’
Feather broke the silence of reading, “Like I said, you all really should read this in its entirety.”

> 8.) F.L.E.I.J.A.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


	Chapter 8 (FLEIJA)



	~Tests and Knowledge~




	


        |This is some pretty heavy hitting news, things would change across Equestria if we found that T/5.| Blazing walked out of Pentium Hall and let out a rather exasperated sigh. She looked out into the darkness of the night from the door of the Hall. With her eyes used to the bright light crystals inside, all she could make out in the dark was the cities lone moonlight tower. |What power could they hold now if all we have from them is well over 1000 years old?| She sat on the steps for a few minutes, deep in thought. Her eyes adjusted to the night and wandered around until they found her research lab in the distance. 
        |I’ve some research to attend to now that I am going on the next mission.| Blazing took to the air and headed for her lab. |So much to do if I want results before my departure.| Her antennae glowed as she rejuvenated the lights by the door. But right before she was going to touchdown she remembered something. “oh how foolish of me!” She needed to gather some information both for her new trip and for the tests here.
        She headed to the library and again renewed the lights. |Ksintel! These large public crystals take much energy to rekindle…| She wearily made her way to the central room to start the server. |Somepony here should invest time in a way to make magic as humans did with electricity.| She walked over to a stack of plastic cards and sorted through them, looking for the ones she wanted. |ok, let’s see here, references, cookbooks, math. and uh...Here it is!| She pulled out a card the size of her head with a missing corner. The card fit perfectly in the slot on the table sized server. Blazing put her tiny hoof on a square button and held it down until the edges blinked with blue light.
        Then she walked over to the next room that held the main computer. It was the size of a wall, she hovered by one side and woke the device up. It flashed some words and did a small animation before the loading circle appeared. |This thing is so much slower than what it replaced| She sat down and yawned, awaiting the home screen to appear. And appear it did, “Finally,” 
        Touch this, tap that, input search word here. “T|5, aaand, enter” The machine immediately returned a list of results. |No, not a bacteriophage, not the fifth Terminator movie, wow there’s a lot of model numbers. Hmmm| After much scrolling she found what she was looking for, a PDA. 
        And there it was, the etching on the sapphire tablet was dead on. There wasn't all that much information for this T|5. It all could be summed up in little more than a page of words. The only things that were talked about were the specifications and it was used for. “...powered by Palm OS 6.2, released in 2005 by Palm Inc.” |Oh well, almost nothing is known about it, the usual| She let out a slightly exasperated sigh and went back to the card room.
        She turned off the server and placed the plastic card where it belonged. She was getting tired. Blazing blinked her eyes, warding off the sleep, and went over to some filing cabinets. *Yawn* |I suppose I cannot complain too much, we still have a wealth of information to sift through, but it could’ve been much faster if so much information wasn’t corrupted by the passing of time| The filing cabinet held much smaller and thinner cards; it didn’t take long before her research card was found. She signed some papers letting the library know that she had the card and walked next door to the research facility..
        Not surprisingly to Blazing, the place wasn’t empty even in the dead of night. |Good to know I’m not alone…| Looking around real quick, she saw only two others were still there. |Shiyuel Shield and Exel are here so at least they can revitalize the lights| Walking with purpose, Blazing got to her lab, The Studies of Lotekken. 
        Her area of expertise being light, Blazing’s lab had tons of light bearing apparatus. Her prized discoveries were inspired by human design as well as magic practices. She also owned every laser the flutterponies unearthed. She flew over to her own device, much smaller and older than the one that resided in the library and turned it on. The small card went into a bigger one and then clicked in her device. Immediately the device showed a list of Doc and Excel files from her previous work. Blazing started humming a tune while selecting the information she needed. 
        Functional Light Enhancing InJection of Aura, just what she was looking for. The burning desire to know flared up inside and gave her the energy she wanted Permission was needed in order to perform the test sooner, but she figured that wouldn’t be of much concern. Instead she started preparing to do the test later on that day.
        The hours seemed to blend together, Blazing hardly felt them pass at all. Before she knew it, morning had come. |That’s the trouble with working at night, never can get good sleep in the day,| The morning sunlight was flooding in through a window giving everything in the room a slight yellow tint. |Oh well, it’ll be worth it to see some of this data before leaving| 
        Since it was morning, the rest of her colleagues began to show up soon after. Blazing politely told each of them when they came in to wait for everyone to get there so she could tell everypony something. it was almost 11am when the last pony flew in. 
        “May I have you attention please, As you are hopefully aware of, last night the mayor showed the city what the latest expedition found. It is quite the revelation to know Humans may yet exist on some other world. And the tablet gave us hope to solving their mysterious disappearance in an as of yet undetermined period of time between 2043 and now. What you aren’t aware of is that I must go on the next expedition.” The small crowd murmured at this new information. “Hold fast, it was not my idea, I know many projects are coming to a close very soon and you’ll need my help. It’d be a lie to say I wasn’t excited to go. The Council personally asked me to go and I could not refuse. For I alone know the operating system of the device with which we seek.”
        Blazing walked over to her desk with a big smile. “Because I must leave by week’s end, I’ve moved our first live test of my arrays to today! I worked furiously in the night to accomplish this. I’ve everything set up on my end, I trust you all know what to do. Now then, Everypony to their posts!” All the flutterponies listening to her scrambled to their positions, they had after all, been preparing for this test for at least two months. Because of Blazing doing the calculations and information set up, only the pieces of equipment needed to be moved. 
        The fires of curiosity burned within Blazing as she saw everything being set up. She herself made her way to her device, connected to her most powerful laser, and executed a program. “Attention everypony, we have a 25 seconds before our first control test!” She flew up and out to see what would happen. On top of the research building was a hoofmade turret aimed at a distant tree stump. |Any second now…| A quiet beep could be heard from the device as the countdown hit 0. The laser activated and a beam of violet light shot out and, being directed via mirrors by the turret, hit the stump. There was a brilliant bright purple spot on the stump and some white smoke started to drift up. Within seconds the stump caught aflame and the bright almost white spot of purple vanished. 
        “Wooo! Good job everypony, take a break and reset everything while the laser recharges!” Blazing flew over to the turret and hovered, inspecting it one more time before disappearing below. On her device she saw the laser was at 30% charge and tapped the onscreen button to begin charging the supercapacitor again for another firing. “Hmmm, I may have time yet to record the first test whilst this recharges.” Her eyes looked to the supercapacitor’s charging bar, 20%. |Yeah, I’ll have time| She quickly opened pocket Word and made a new file. 
        ‘... closing, the Spyder VII 12 watt violet laser performed as expected. Nest test will include an experimental magical sigil array.’ After writing a page or so of notes on the experiment, Blazing saved and exited back to the laser’s program, 93%. |It should hardly take another minute| She set the countdown to a minute and thirty seconds from then. A huge grin appeared on her face as she grabbed her template and headed to the turret. 
        |Concentrate,| She closed her eyes and focussed on her diagram of circles, geometric shapes and Ancient. Blazing calmed her mind and circulated her internal energy within herself and directed it to her antennae and her outstretched hoof. Her eyes opened one last time to get the design just right. |Frenel Lernasenent Entekken, Iizegeneto Jayen Admenit entesnel!!| Her antennae glowed their signature dark aqua color and encircled the template. Slowly the magic focussed on the drawn lines, a small beeping is heard. The circle of magic lifts off the drawn template and hangs in the air where the beam will be. “Frenel Lernasenent Entekken, Iizegeneto Jayen Admenit entesnel!!” 
        The laser beam shot forth once again, hit all the mirrors like last time and with the same intensity. Except now it collected for a split second into the sigil array. The light and magic merged and became a bright sky blue with a dark blue edge and shot out of the array to the same stump at the speed of light. The sky blue laser penetrated the stump and kept going through other trees behind it, the dark blue encapsulation surrounded the stump almost instantly and it exploded!
        The explosion made Blazing lose focus, her sigil dissolved away leaving only the normal violet laser, which promptly shut off after the allotted time. She opened her eyes and looked out at the result. The stump was completely gone, a small crater took its place. The tree behind the stump were on fire with holes right through them. That was a miscalculation, she never thought the power would be this great. The power, when scaled up in terms of the lasers’ energy and magical complexity seemed not to be linear, but exponential.

> 9.)  A Starting Point
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 9 (A Starting Point)


 


~The Irate Lands~

 
 
                Lyra looked up at the sky, a soft gray in the early morning hours, and forced herself up to begin the day anew. Her sleep addled mind mechanically performed her morning ritual when she was exploring. Rekindle the fire, brew some tea, write a journal entry and so on.
                Her golden magic enveloped her pen and slowly dipped it in the ink. “Day 118, as per the usual there is not a cloud in the morning sky and the heat of the sun is already making itself known even before it rises.” She looked over the landscape in front of her, a fair amount of anxiety eating at her inside. “I fear this may be my last expedition for some time, already I have been at this for near of one third of a year. I do feel as though I approach what I so desire, but at the same time each passing day of nothing has an ill effect on me. I pray the higher beings will guide me to my destination.”
                Lyra sipped at her tea while her magic closed her book and put away the pen. She closed her eyes and felt the warmth of the red morning sun fall on her. She thought to herself for a moment about the plausibility of her whole venture, out here. |There is no doubt in my mind that humans once ruled this world. But the others, so content with the history they are taught… Should I find what I seek, would that cause any to stumble in their beliefs?| Lyra sighed and again forced herself to get moving.
                With her things tucked in her saddlebags she got out the reason she was here, a book. The soft glow of her gold magic held the book open and flipped to the page she wanted to review. Her eyes scanned the page and found the information she wanted. “‘...past the pillars of artificial stone, I traveled due south from morning until night.’ Such good fortune that I had found those pillars last expedition.” She magicked the book back into her bags and set off for the pillars.
                Twas not long before the dull gray pillars came into view, some miles in the distance. They were set in a curving motion, as if making a low bridge. As Lyra came near she recognized the carvings on a wall nearby. It was a series of triangles made to resemble the mountain in the area with some upside down triangles underneath with some lines in them. They had the faintest color of purple to them. Lyra decided that they were most likely decorative in nature by the way they flowed on the wall. She was only at the outermost edge of the network of pillars. But because she knew of the markings here that weren’t anyplace else, she felt this place was where she should journey south.
                Lyra stepped in between two pillars and cast a small direction spell, to find the absolute south. She found oddly enough that the two pillars were oriented in a north-south position already. It was almost noon; she again took out the book. “‘...I traveled from morning until night...’” She flipped to the next page, she looked past the familiar illustration of the site she was seeking and read some more. “‘...During high noon a wondrous thing happened, a light as bright as a Sun appeared in the center of the iren superstructure. Lightning crashed around the iren protrusions and a ghostly voice beckoned me.’” The midday sun was almost directly overhead, she knew if she wanted her arrival to coincide with this occurrence she needed to leave for it with great haste.
                Out of one of her bags she took out a small vial, a strength boosting potion she got from her friend in the Everfree. She carefully took a small sip and immediately found herself full of energy. She swiftly put the vial away and started to head south like the book told her. She was well on her way to the place where lightning and magic meet when she was suddenly blinded.
                Without thinking, her hoof shot to her eye and covered it, shielding it from some intense bright light. Lyra let a small cry of surprise and pain out as she searched for the instigating beam of light. She looked around herself for several seconds before seeing what looked like a dull shard of a mirror. She composed herself and walked over to it. It was about the size of her ear and shaped vaguely like a triangle. She brushed a hoof over the shard to uncover it from the dirt and now saw that it was metallic.
|Could that be silver? Here in the Lands of Ire?| She recoiled at the thought, but noticed none of the symptoms regular with being near an anti-magic metal. She reached out with her magic and wrenched free the shard of mysterious metal. It had the look of being partially melted at the bottom. Lyra was still a bit apprehensive, but it was apparent to her now that it wasn’t silver. It was too dull, it seemed very heavy for such a small piece of metal and it showed no signs of tarnish or rust. She knew she had to get moving, but she brought the shard closer to herself, she saw a symbol engraved or stamped into it.
“I’ve… I’ve seen this before! In my dreams...” She said quietly. Her vision clouded, and her senses felt very distant to her. She saw herself on a pathway of artificial dark stone. Her eyes drifted slowly up, she was on the edge of a shining city made of the same metal she had just found. Nearby, she saw a building erupt with fire underneath and take to the sky and then the city was engulfed in a bright light. It only lasted an instant, but she knew what she saw. Her shattered piece of metal hit the ground with a small thud. She shook her head a little, and quickly snatched up the fallen shard and stared at it once more. It had the image of a Phoenix on it and a small triangle with two interconnected dots in the middle.
Slowly, but persistently, Lyra got herself moving again. She slipped the pointed silvery metal in one saddlebag and trekked once again to the south. She could not think clearly, it was as if her subconscious was still trying to figure out something but wouldn’t let Lyra know about it. All she could do was continue south to the place she set out to find.
 



 
                The next day, Lyra stooped over her book, reading intently. She knew she was very close, the iren was already eating away at her magic power and Lyra knew she was running out of time.
“’On that day the Princess stole the talking box from our possession it repeated what it always said. It spoke of the final destination lying west of the sea of glass. And that five pillars of iren shrouds the truth from all and that we can catch a glimpse everyday at high noon. But now a 2nd part was added, it said that on the apex of the aestal season that the truth is revealed for any who wish to know.’” Lyra breathed out a small sigh, |It’s a good thing I studied all the old books I did, to understand the meaning of that word, summer’s kozranal, the longest day of the year.|
                Lyra felt a cold shiver in the hot sun; she knew this would be it. If she could find this relic of old, she might be able to convince somepony that humans existed. At the very least it would prove that history was different than what was taught. It had to; after all, she had her piece of mystery metal and it had that symbol. That symbol, the triangle, the phoenix… 
Lyra sat down and her golden magic covered the shard of metal and encircled the things imprinted on it. Since the shard was in her bag, she never noticed that her magic around the symbols had changed color. Ever so slightly, her magic now had a tinge of fire around its edges. Immediately she had another vision like the previous one, only this was crystal clear. It was as clear as the desert before her. Her mind was shown a different city this time, but Lyra compared its similar looking buildings and layout to that of the last vision. The buildings looked like they were one piece of seamless metal. And the way everything was curved to fit the circular confines of the outer walls made it seem very alien to what cities looked like in Equestria.
A noise distracted her, and all in the next blink of her eye, the latest vision was gone. She felt a twinge of despair at the small fleeting vision fleeing her mind so easily. The dust filled wind picked up and she heard the sound again, it sounded like a chain rapping against a heavy metal pole. Lyra stopped and listened for the sound again. Another small gust rattled the chain again.  She made her way to the sound. She was close, she could already feel the iren giving her a migraine and draining her magical power.
Lyra knew she was lucky her magical well inside her was not particular strong or abundant. If it had been her magic would drain even quicker than it already was now. |I bet that zealous purple one from home would feel this a mile away.| She thought to herself. Lyra took a few more steps and all of a sudden she felt the wind die down. She glanced around and saw it! She made it! She jumped up and down, elated that she finally arrived at something very real and solid.
Before her was a quintet of pentagonal columns. They were connected via chains, and formed a large pentagon. There was nothing in the center of the pentagon, only dust and small rocks. Straining through her headache she studied the iren pillars up close. It was like books had told her, iren was a very dull and dark grey. She tried in vain to reach out to the pillar with her magic, but nothing happened at all.  She gave a small shrug and looked at the shadows, high noon rapidly approached. She contemplated whether or not she had enough time to get out her book to check something when the air became charged with energy.
The shadows had gone and the pillars started radiating a type of energy she had not felt before. It was as if she were in a bad lightning storm. The hair of her fur and mane started to stand on end. Lyra was getting a little nervous and tried backing away. But she bumped into something behind her; it was a shield that was clear as glass. It held no magic in it. A sound of thunder cracked and before she knew it she saw something inside the previously empty pentagon.
An ornate tile floor appeared where the rocked once were, the tiles looked like glass. And they formed a five pointed star inside the iren pentagon. In the center of the tiled pentagram floated an object that looked like it was at odds with itself. Something ancient melded with something advanced. It was a small slightly bluish rectangle with some small flat buttons on the front. Around the bottom, back and side of that was something like frosted glass and angled etchings.
She reached out a hoof to touch it when a voice boomed from nowhere. It said /| Greetings weary traveler, welcome to the Valley of the Sun! What do you seek in this place, Equestrian? |\  lyra stood frozen for a split second, but answered. “I, Lyra Vega Heartstrings, only seek the knowledge of the past, the true past.” There was a pause, and the voice boomed in response /| Indeed you have, for lost and forgotten knowledge brought you here, so shall you leave with a piece of the past! |\  The bluish rectangle floated to Lyra. Through the corner of her eyes she saw the same glassy shield cover the iren and all in an instant her head ached no more. |This is truly incredible, shall I really gain my proof simply by asking?| She thought to herself.
She reached out with her recovering magic and took hold of the object. It was heavier than it looked. /| You have proved you posses the courage needed to behold the past and in order for you to unlock all the secrets of the past you will need wisdom |\ the voice boomed. Lyra wondered what the voice meant by that last part, but her question was answered as soon as her eyes fell back on the object in her magic. Black letters appeared in the frosted white glass. Lyra’s eyes narrowed a little, |A riddle…|
The air became charged again, the shield around the iren started to fade. Lyra quickly ran to the outer edge of the shield and ran right through it. As she looked back, a blindingly bright bolt of lightning shot up from the center of the pentagram. She felt a small ache in her head. The place inside the pentagon held nothing but dirt and dust once more.
Lyra sighed and released some anxiety. She looked to the sky and could've sworn she had just seen the outline of the moon in the daytime sky. A single dot of white pulsed within the outline, Lyra did not know how long this happened because she hadn't looked to the sky since dawn. After several seconds the white pinpoint of light faded into the light blue of the sky, as did the faint outline of the moon. She stared into the cloudless sky for almost a minute before slightly shrugging, rubbing her head and readying herself for the return trip home.
 
 



 

~The Moon~





  
High above the ground, over the tallest mountain peak and the highest cloud, the moon orbits the Earth. The moon is only visible at night, that is common knowledge, but it is a forced and fabricated truth. The moon, or at least the face that always points to Earth, is covered in illusory magic. It alone creates the illusion of a night sky exclusive moon. It, the spell, also serves the purpose of masking the surface and causing it to look different.  For those residing on the surface of the moon this conveniently hides their presence as well. 





Deep in a crater near the northern pole, there is a human listening post. A two person crew is all that's needed in the small contained pod. For years, decades, even a century or two nothing much has happened Earthside that the pod could report. Earth always was normal, no changes, just like the dominant civilization on the surface. 
A human sat at one of the many monitors in the red lit pod. A top down view of Canterlot was visible on the screen. No æktivitœ was entered in the machine in reformed english. The human did this several times for several cities. There was seldom any changes to be made save for a new house or government structure being built. Bored, the human did what was normally done after 'critical' targets were checked, used the many spy satellites to look at various places on the planet. 
The human was in for a surprise this shift. An alarm sounded and the human jumped and quickly switched it off. The human glanced to the other side of the pod and saw that the only other inhabitant was tossing and turning in a small cot. But a small sigh of relief came as the sleeping subject stayed asleep. The humans attention turned back to the offending notification. "ALERT! Œkwestrian Atempting Kontækt æt þe Pentegræm Monoliþ" Flashed in bright red letters on the main screen, underneath it was a live satellite feed on a small minty green unicorn approaching the monolith. 
With haste, the human opened a quick bio on this Equestrian and saw some interesting things in her genetic history. It was also noted that this unicorn had an interest in history and possessed some old ancient human objects. She was already on a candidacy list. The human typed some commands into the terminal and got a low quality audio feed from the monolith. 
“I, Lyra Vega Heartstrings, only seek the knowledge of the past, the true past.” The human  thought about the response and quickly decided she was worthy. He typed several more lines into the terminal and looked out the small window over the planet. It was surrounded by a pinkish mist like it always was. But the human held hope that humankind's return to their homeworld was now within sight. 
The human typed out a small message to humankind's interplanetary capital city on Mars Lunar servalænce post sending konfermation of relik rœsœved bi þe Œkwestrian. Then the data about the subject and related images, audio and video was also sent. The human looked to the opposite side of the pod at a sleeping unicorn and smiled. "Someday soon, this conflict will end."
> 10.) Uncovering
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 10 (Uncovering)




~The Valley of the Sun in the Irate Lands~


        It had happened nearly an hour ago, but the exhilaration was barely wearing off. |Never was I the best at solving riddles, but I do believe I know what the first thing talked about is.| The frosted glass with coal black script showed two stanzas of separate four lined poems. Above the stanzas was something else printed in a human language |The way the first speaks of lightning and no ties to magic,| She looked at her prize again, the top in human script was something she had been studying in her off time, but hadn’t gotten anywhere appreciable yet. Lyra wished she could actually read what the top section said.
        Almost the instant the thought had formed in her mind, the human script faded away and was replaced with modern Equestrian. “To fully unlock the knowledge of both sides, you must solve the two riddles below.” Lyra stopped in her tracks, |Did this object read my mind?| She focussed on the glass tablet trying to feel for magic, but felt nothing at all. She looked at it again, the previously human script was still in modern Equestrian as was the middle poem and the final poem was in ancient Equestrian like it always had been. She thought of what the middle would look like in the human script. No sooner had the thought formed, a symbol appeared next to the middle stanza, it was an X. 
        She started walking again with her face staring at a modern yet ancient piece of human technology. After a few combinations and tries, she found that the top human script could change into any three languages, the middle only two and the bottom was stuck in ancient. Lyra’s ancient was a bit rusty since she had started chasing after forbidden history; but she knew enough to read most formal ancient texts. She took a long hard look at the ancient words in between looking at the ground and in front of her. There was something slightly comforting in those ancient runes. 
        Lyra needed some peace to think of some of the words. She put the tablet in her saddlebags and continued to the distant forest. The silence of the desert gave Lyra plenty of opportunity to just think on things. |Why is this second poem using obsolete words? I really can only recognize Mezect as the obsolete form of magnusel, it predates one of the first language reformations.| Some of the words were unrecognizable at all to Lyra. She was a little proud she even knew some ancient, but this was far beyond her. |Most unicorns know magnusel is the ancient form of the word magic, fewer still would know its root,| Lyra sighed heavily, she knew what had to happen. |So not only is this in a very ancient form, it also deals with ancient magical theory.|
        She took the tablet out and looked at it again, she scanned the last poem riddle. The last line of it used unrecognizable words, but next to the last line of text a word in modern Equestrian appeared. “Hint” it said, then it faded and two pictograms appeared. One showed a speech bubble with some runes in it, the other showed a very complex star inside a circle. |No getting around it at all now,| She pushed the tablet back in her bags. |I need to speak to Twilight about this.|
        Even under the hot sun and on top of the scorched earth, Lyra felt a slight chill thinking about the encounter. It had been a few years since both Lyra and Twilight met. And even though Lyra never felt a direct form of animosity from Twilight, she was still a student to the one who destroyed a much more advanced race. Lyra pushed the thought of inevitability away and tried to concentrate on what she was doing at that moment, going back from whence she came.
        The distant forest was at least a few days away, it was at times like this that Lyra really wished she knew more general magic like Sparkle. Teleporting looked easy whenever Lyra saw Twilight performing it in town seemingly at every opportunity. Lyra’s mind began to drift, she imagined what the encounter might be like. She had thought of a few contradictions with history and a few with anomalous ancient artifacts but Lyra knew better than that. Lyra knew Twilight might not listen to a word of it if her Princess told her otherwise. 
        Lyra sighed heavily, she knows what lies ahead will be the most difficult thing she’s ever tried (and considering that she was currently in a cursed desert that was saying a lot). But there was something else that Lyra was aware of, Twilight was a very curious pony; and that fact could just take her over the edge. Lyra kept a steady pace, occasionally looking at potential stumbling blocks in her path, but mostly contemplating. Scenario after scenario played out in her head. 
        They never played out like she hoped though, usually Twilight almost comes to her side, but quickly devolves into calling Her over. It also bugged Lyra that she didn’t know what was on that tablet to begin with. One side was frosted white glass, the other was a slightly sunken in black ‘glass’ with some buttons underneath. The dark side never came on, it was just there (perhaps for decoration). While Lyra asked herself these questions of the tablet in her mind, the tablet came on in her bags.
        Even though Lyra was unaware, the tablets frosted surface faded into a picture of the darkside of itself. Next to that image was a small description in modern Equestrian talking about its age and purpose. It also again said to unlock the device to know more before promptly fading back into the original screen containing the two riddles.
        Lyra was still thinking about the coming confrontation but the sun was starting to go down, so she decided to settle down for the night. She made herself a little something to eat as the sky and her surroundings got darker and darker. Lyra knew she needed to find out what was on the tablet before going directly to Twilight about it. She knew there was a simple way to do that but for now sleep was calling to her. Lyra looked down at the descending valley, it was glowing in the moonlight. Then she layed down on her small cot and fell fast asleep.





She dreamt of being in Canterlot. Lyra took a slow look around, walking slowly forward with each step making an audible yet soft crunch. Everything was jet black. The buildings, the sky, the moon was all black. The only light there was to be found were the night sky itself, the stars and the celestial river were still giving off light. She kept a steady pace and walked forward on the crunchy ground. There was no other sounds aside from her steps and breathing.
        Unconsciously she tried to get a torch from her bags and quickly discovered that they were absent. For a few frantic seconds she looked around her person to find her belongings but her things were simply nonexistent now. She did not realize she was dreaming and wandered about the blacked middle ward of Canterlot. There was a faint smell of smoke that was inescapable. More than once she absent mindedly leaned against something that seemed sturdy like a wall or fence or a door but it crumbled into more of the crunchy dust. 
        It seemed like she had walked for hours, aimlessly wandering a dark version of where she grew up. There was a slight feeling of unease that Lyra could not shake. |Something isn’t right here| She thought to herself. She walked to an old wooden gate and tapped it with her hoof. It disintegrated to a pile of dark black dust. She unknowingly looked above the dust of the gate and read the sign that was over it. ‘Starswirl Academy’ “Oh that’s right!” She said to herself. |This is where I went to school as a filly.|
        She walked into the dark schoolyard and looked around. It looked just like her memories told her it would only it was black a derelict. She let out a sigh. |What am I doing here?| She thought. |How did I even get here? What time is it?| She got out her magic pocket watch and read the time ‘7:03’ she lowered the watch. |That can’t be right| She said as she looked at it again ‘4:55’ |What? How can this be?| She looked once more to her watch ‘12:18’ “Oh!” Shouted Lyra as a realization hit her.
        “I must be dreaming.” She whispered to herself and ran inside the schoolhouse to look in the mirror. The mirror reflected nothing but a jumbled mess of geometric shapes. “This is Awesome!” She shouted. “I sure wish i could see better though.” She said out loud again. As soon as the thought was formed the world itself brightened up. There was still no light source besides the stars but now she could see everything much clearer. 
        She lightly touched the mirror and it shattered and turned to dust. |Why is everything so fragile and dark?| She thought as she went out to the balcony overlooking Equestria. It was still pitch black. Out of nowhere an intense fear overtook Lyra and she collapsed on the dark ground in her dream. |W-WHAT?! WHO’S THERE?!| Lyra shouted in her mind as she got up again. The moon ceased being a darkened disk and became as big and bright as any full moon. “Ash” said a voice from nowhere.
 Lyra tensed up |Who’s there? Are you listening to my thoughts?| Lyra thought in her mind, waiting for a reply. “Yes I am, for it is my job to monitor this realm” Lyra got to her hooves and looked around. The scenery lightened slightly, enough for shadows to form. She looked up and saw the moon was full and bright. |This realm? Of what!? Of Equestria? Of the planet?| She was still staring at the moon as she thought of these questions, looking for the trail. “The realm of dreams, dreams created by all ponykind,” Lyra was only slightly confused and asked “So this is a dream then”, “Yes it is.” Replied the voice.
        “Who are you and why are you in my dream now? Are you always poking in my dreams?” Asked Lyra with some defiance and defensiveness. “You need not know who I am, only that I protect ponys from dreams that may harm them.” The voice said dutifully. Lyra looked around at the blackened landscape and the pile of ash beside her and then to the sky again searching the the trail. “How can a dream harm anypony? None of this is real.” Said Lyra matter of factly. The voice replied loud and rumbling “This most assuredly IS real, you know nothing of this but hear what I say, dreams take place in another plane of reality. I would have thought a unicorn as yourself would know this.” Lyra sat down by a tree which disintegrated into another pile of ash |Sheesh, I studied history not magical theory. Now where did that object fall to.|
        The voice replied to her thoughts, “That object is meaningless to you, as meaningless as your studies into history! You should better this empire by thinking of the future and not by skulking in the past!” Lyra was visibly angry in her dream and replied “Forget that, you don’t rule over me! Else you would have stopped this dream or brought me someplace else! Right? This is my dream and that fallen object is mine to discover!” Just then a golden light caught Lyra’s eye. A nearby building was pouring out golden light from a smashed hole in its roof. Knowing it was dream Lyra simply floated over to it and went inside with a smug expression on her face. Before her was an eight pointed star made of pure gold.
        It had words set in it, ‘The rocks will be made unto ash, the sand will be made unto glass and the magic shall be dissolved’ Lyra asked herself “What could this mean?” And one last time the voice came back to her and quietly said “You may want to rethink your statement that I do not rule you.” Lyra got cold after hear that and woke up with a start. She was in a cold sweat. The sky was still very dark, she quickly scribbled down the words from her dream on some paper. Then she laid back down and drifted off into a long deep dreamless sleep.