> The Keys to Destruction
>  by ObsidianPony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Keys to Destruction
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

To whoever reads this I hope that our spell is successful. I would be overjoyed if there was someone left in my own time to read this because that would mean some of you have lived but I hope for the sake of all that have been lost already that this letter finds itself in the hooves of somepony a little further back.

Further back from what? Further back in time.

I know that you must think that this letter is some prank or written by a crazy pony but I beg you to please listen to me, if this letter has indeed reached the hooves of someone in the past then I’m sorry but you just became our one hope to stop the destruction that has been brought to Equestria by the events of the last few months.

It began when the Elements were lost to the Tree of Harmony in order to save Equestria from the rampaging vines called Plunder Seeds, an ancient and dangerous breed of sapient plant life which was thought to be extinct by scientists. I heard rumors that it was caused by Discord but I don’t know how true that is and frankly I don’t much care anymore, we have bigger problems.

The Tree offered it’s closest kept secret to the Element Bearers and the Princesses and they went to gather the six keys that supposedly would unlock that strange box and possibly bring forth a golden era.

That quest for the keys it turns out was a massive mistake; so much pain and heartache from our Princesses and the Element Bearers, so much danger that they were put through and so many standing against them as the news got out and many wanted to claim the keys for themselves. It was horrible, overnight Equestria had decayed into a kingdom of hatred and greed as everypony obsessed over those damned keys.

Soon the other kingdoms caught wind of what was happening and several of them saw their own opening to become the dominant force; the Griffon Kingdom, the Changeling Hive and Saddle Arabia, all jumped in and launched their own invasion and infiltration forces to claim those stupid keys that became the sole focus of so many ponies, so many who had forgone the Elements and what they represented in favor of what resided in that accursed box.

I would say I wish you could see what they were willing to do to each other in their endless pursuit but I think it would be more effective for you to see the greatest perpetrators of brutality and cruelty in their quest, not some shape shifting monster, not some some insane sorcerer or else another monster we could’ve simply identified, understood as evil and eradicated.

How do you justify even caring about the Elements of Harmony or following their principles anymore when the very people they chose to bear the Elements became the greatest monsters of our world?
I don’t know whether it was the Princesses who ordered them to be so brutal or whether it was them who began it and the Princesses simply had no issue with it but in the end it didn’t matter, both the Princesses and the Element Bearers began a brutal campaign of their own for the keys, beating information they needed out of anyone who might even vaguely know something and taking anything from their people that they wanted, using the quest for the keys to justify it.

Finally after who knows how many deaths, they opened the box.

I suppose it’s only fitting how things turned out in the end. The search for those keys had turned us into monsters. How appropriate that the use of them unleashed a monster on us.

Twilight Sparkle survived long enough to let us all know that what they had unleashed would not stop until it had brought about true, total harmony by wiping out anything that could potentially cause disharmony ever again.

She called it the Pony of Shadows. 

We learned a bit more as time went, as we looked up the old legends in the few precious moments of peace we were able to claim as the creature ravaged the land. The Pony of Shadows has been watching Equestria for as long as Equestria itself has existed, waiting for it’s chance to eliminate our world which causes so much disharmony and disrupts the natural order.

It won’t ever stop. Nothing we do does anything but make it angry and everyday we lose more and more of our loved ones.

I beg of you, whoever you are who is reading this, please, take that box and seal it away again, destroy it, bury it, banish it but please, please, get rid of it. We can’t live like this, this can’t be how Equestria ends, it just can’t be, please, you need to.

I’ve lost everything here, ever since that box opened I’ve lost my wife, my children, all of my friends and my home. I know that soon I will lose my life too but I can’t go knowing that I didn’t at least try to save this world and the ponies who live here with my last effort after I already failed to protect them once.

I don’t care who you are even if you have never met the Princesses, you’re now Equestria’s last hope and for that I am truly sorry.

Begging for your help.

Doctor Time Turner-Hooves.





“Hey Twilight, what’s that you’ve got?” Rainbow Dash asked impatiently as the lavender alicorn examined the sealed letter that had appeared in front of her as they walked.

“Don’t know, it just appeared out of nowhere.” She frowned at the seal on the back of the envelope, a curious seal with an hourglass pressed into the wax.

“Well worry about it later, right now we have history to make.” Rarity chided her as she pushed past Twilight. “We went through a lot to make this moment happen and I for one am not about to wait a second longer.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Twilight agreed and tucked the letter into her saddlebag as she rifled through it. “There’ll be plenty of time later once we finally open this chest.” She assured herself as they pulled out their respective keys.

“Time to finally unravel the mystery of the Tree of Harmony girls.” Twilight announced as they all inserted their keys into the mysterious blue box that they now would finally unlock. “This could be a whole new age for Equestria.”

With those words they turned the keys as one.