As the human named Johnathan was walking through the ruins he found in the forest near his house, the ground suddenly broke underneath him and he fell. He fell far enough for the light of the moon, which he had grown accustomed to searching the ruins to months ago, had vanished from sight. When he stopped falling, he was sliding down a tunnel. When the tunnel finally ended, he was in a room deep underground.
"Where in the nine pits of Tartarus am I now...?" He asked of no one in particular. "And more importantly, how am I gonna get back up? I should be a couple hundred feet down by now..."
"Well down Twilight, it would appear that the Delayed Message spell is finally complete." Said a disembodied voice from about the center of the cavern. The room now that Johnathan actually got a good feel for the walls.
"And not a moment to soon, sister!" Said another voice as the sound of something hard hitting the ground hard and repeatedly and moving towards him entered the room. "The things have found us and defeated Discord! We must seal ourselves away now!"
"But she hasn't-" Said a third voice.
"There is no time, Twilight. Luna is right, if the things truly have bested Discord and found us, then we must take the elements of harmony and seal ourselves away. And please, for the one that is listening to this message now, we shall be behind the door directly in front of where you came in from." Said the first voice.
"And Cadence...?" Asked the third voice in a disheartened tone.
"We must trust that she sealed herself away in her kingdom, Twilight Sparkle." Replied the second voice.
And with that, a sudden light filled the room, blinding Johnathan temporarily. After his eyes adjusted to the sudden light, he saw the door mentioned. And noticed it was opened slightly.
"Oh no..." Said a purple thing whose voice matched the third voice he heard. It then shut the door.
"Was that... a unicorn?" Johnathan asked out loud. He then proceeded to the door it ducked behind and tried to open it only to find that he couldn't. And that a faint purple- aura? Yes aura seemed like the right word for it.- had covered the door. "Hey! Open up! I won't hurt you! Whatever you are..." He said, hoping the thing could hear him.
"And how can we trust thee?" Replied the second voice.
"Well... You can't. Not until you open the door." He replied. And as if like magic, the door opened slightly and the aura faded from it.
"We shall trust you. For now." Said the first voice from the room beyond the door.
"Thank you." Johnathan replied and opened the door far enough for him to see into it with the light from the room he was in and saw not one, not two, but THREE things. One white with an aurora mane and tail and a sun on its flank, one dark blue with the night sky for a mane and tail and a moon on a black splash on its flank, and one purple with a purple mane and tail with a darker purple and pink streak down the center with a starburst and six smaller white starbursts around it and each one had a horn on each of their foreheads and bird like wings on the side of their bodies. They were trying to hide a pedestal with some things on it. "What're those?"
"These are things that you would never even hope to comprehend, let alone use, you foul beast!" snapped the blue one with the second voice from the message.
"Please sister, he means well." said the white one with the first voice he heard from the message from the other room.
"But what about Cadence... I doubt those... THINGS haven't found her yet, Celestia." said the purple one addressing the white one.
"Waitwaitwait. Celestia? Cadence? Y'all can't be Luna, Celestia, and Twilight Sparkle, can you? We have legends in my town that you would return and help us push the demons of the shadows back at some point..." Johnathan asked in pure amazement.
The three alicorns, now that he knew them, just stared at him in shared amazement.
"And what of Cadence...?" asked the one he assumed the be Twilight Sparkle.
"We haven't seen hair not hide of her and the Crystal Empire... And believe me, we searched for months along the ancient railroad we found. We couldn't find the depot. Instead it just... stopped."
"Then we must assume the best Twilight." said the white one, Celestia he assumed, trying to comfort Twilight.
"But sister..." said the blue alicorn.
"No. She's right. I read that the leader of the Crystal Empire has the power to hide the kingdom from all unwanted eyes. Even to the point where time stands still in the kingdom. But only until certain circumstances are met." Twilight said.
"Then we must pray that is the case." Johnathan said, trying to help diffuse the potentially hostile situation. "But as to what circumstances is the question now, right?"
"If Twilight is correct, then yes. That is the question for now." Celestia replied.
"Now how do I get out of here? You three can probably just fly out of that hole in the roof."
Celestia laughed slightly at that and replied, "Perhaps we could carry you in our magic?"
"But their immune to our magic sister." Luna said.
"Actually..."
"What? Are you creatures-"
"We're called humans." snapped Johnathan.
"Are you... humans... capable of using magic then?" Luna asked putting enough venom in the word 'human' to kill an elephant.
"To a degree. We engrave runes onto our arms. It allows us some limited telekinesis, use of a couple of defensive and healing type spells." Johnathan replied, pulling up the sleeves of his shirt to show them a couple of the runes that he had. "Our best guards, healers, and storytellers have a lot more than this..."
Luna, upon seeing one that matched the mark on her flank, grew silent and stared at it. There were several others that caught the attention of Celestia and Twilight, particularly the ones that matched the mark on Twilight's flank and the stones on the pedestal.
Luna broke the silence first asking, "What, pray-tell, does that one do?" Indicating the one with the moon.
"Oh this one? It's my pride. It means I'm a nightrunner. A person-human, that is always active during the night. I had to shun the light of day though. Small price to pay when the nightrunners are hard enough to come by..."
Demons of Shadow: the demons that Johnathan mentions here will be explained in a later chapter. I don't wanna spoil anything this big.
Nightrunners: People cursed with the Night's Rune. Basically the equivalent of being turned into a Bat pony.
Runes: There are three main branches of runes, Dark runes, Neutral runes, and Light runes. (Which are the ponies cutie marks if you ain't guessed it. But they are done entirely in black ink. Like tattoos, but certain words and events must be done before the runes have any power.)
Dark runes: Dark runes are basically the equivalent of dark or black magic. Often times they are required to help the humans to survive certain threats. (Dragons and timber wolves for example.) However they carry taint.
Light runes: The polar opposite of the spectrum from the Dark runes. Used mainly to heal wounds and create armor.
Neutral runes: Grey magic. Main uses include, but are not limited to, telekinesis, telepathy, and music.
Taint: The aftereffect of using, or being subjected to the use of, a Dark rune. Johnathan has three dark runes himself. One is his own, the other one is on the base of his head. It is shaped, and colored, like a cotton candy cloud with chocolate rain going into it. It allows him sense of coming danger. Though he never can discern the source or magnitude of said danger. The second is weird. It protects him from the taint of the other one, but causes him to go into unexplained fits of anger or sadness.
"... And that is how the runes are made." Johnathan said. finishing his explanation on how the runes were made and inscribed onto their skin.
"It... sounds tenuous and painful..." said Luna, after a moments hesitation. The three alicorns had put the elements of harmony in six bags, each one having it's own bag, and had helped Johnathan out of the underground cavern that used to be part of Twilight Sparkle's scientific study. (Wall break! The room that she hooked Pinkie Pie up in the episode Pinkie Sense is the one I'm talking about.) They were currently in route to a small human settlement in what had been Sweet Apple Acres and a part of the Everfree Forest.
"Not especially. It's just highly uncomfortable because you gotta stay still for the entire process." Johnathan said, trying to shrug off the comment.
"If you say so." said Twilight, who had taken a particular interest in how the runes were based on ponies cutie marks.
"Really! It was seriously uncomfortable for me. Dunno why, don't really care." Johnathan said with a smile and a skip. This caught Twilight's attention and caused her to trip over a root that had been exposed, and start to fall. However, Johnathan was suddenly there and caught her before she even had the chance to fall all the way down.
"Be careful Twilight. We don't want the embodiment of friendship to get hurt, now do we?" He said, all sense of joy and fun gone from his voice and face.
"R-Right. But what was with the skipping? Do the runes also interpose a bit of the personality of the pony the cutie mark belongs to on you humans?" She asked, a little shocked by both the sudden change in personality and his burst of speed.
"No. Not unless they are dark runes. Why?" he replied in the same cold tone.
"Because you were acting a lot like Pinkie Pie... And now you're acting really weird..." Celestia said before her student could even start to get the words formed.
"Sorry..." The cold, emotionless mask he had put on quickly melted away and was replaced with sadness. "I get like that a lot around others... Especially-"
"Especially those that pose a threat to us!" shouted a voice filled with disgust from the treetops, hidden by the leaves. "Where did you find these monsters, Johnathan? You know they are the reason why we must run so much!"
"They are the alicorns, Argon Rowshield! They can help us! Please, they have the stones of harmony..." Johnathan called out to the trees, hoping his friend would listen to him.
"Who is this Argon Rowshield that thou speaketh of?" Luna asked, slowly approaching Johnathan to whisper her question.
"He's the leader of the Exile Legion... A group of humans that use dark runes carelessly and without a second thought to their own safety or sanity. He wasn't this heartless long ago... He used to be the most peaceful human you would've ever met. He was supposed to be the next heir to his family's fortune's and runes, but that all changed when the demons attacked his home and killed his family and most of our village... Now he's filled with loss... And a lust for their blood.
"After he inherited the family runes and wealth, he spent and used those gifts of the dead to create his organization. It would've been hard enough for you to gain his trust as it is, but since you're not a human, it's next to impossible. I don't get why he's this far from the village..." Johnathan replied in a hushed tone that he hoped Argon couldn't hear.
"Now tell them our story, John..." said Argon from the treetops.
"Argon... You know as well as I do that I can't do that." Johnathan replied in the cold voice he had earlier.
"And why is that? I don't think we can trust some human that's hiding something from us. What about you Celestia?" Twilight said taking a step back.
"I agree. I don't think he'd harm us, but I find it hard to trust him now. What do you think, sister?" Celestia asked.
Luna stood there and stared at him for a few moments then turned to face her sister and Twilight. "We believe he shalt tell us when he is ready. We feel that we should not push him for information that he may volunteer to us later." She said in a calm voice.
This sudden trust coming from the alicorn that had wanted to turn him into the contents of an overturned ash tray barely even four hours ago. "What's with the sudden trust fall, Luna?" Johnathan asked without looking back at her. Instead, focusing on one spot in the treetops.
"Because if thou truly had meant to harm us, thy would've struck thou blow by now. We don't know what thou had done in the past, but we feel that ye are trying thy best to escape that past." Luna said, then looked at the ground with a solemn look on her face. "We understand that struggle better than thou could ever comprehend, Johnathan."
He turned to her, the cold mask he was wearing gone, and fell into a knights bow and said, sobbing slightly, "Thank you... For your kindness, you shall have my eternal servitude, Princess Luna..."
"WHAT?! YOU WOULD SWEAR YOURSELF TO THOSE CREATURES, INSTEAD OF YOUR OWN LEADER?!" Argon shouted from the trees, utter disgust plain in his voice. "You are a traitor, John. A traitor and a hopeless child. Just like back then."
"But I would never have found you back then Argon..." Johnathan said, but he knew Argon had already left them, gone to finish whatever mission he had set out to do, or back to the village to gather more followers.
Second Encounters and First Impressions: Explanation Chapter
Argon Rowshield: The long description I gave in the chapter is as good a condensed version as I could get without leaving something out. Here is the copied version of what Castok the Shadow sent me; Argon was once a peaceful human, never wanting to hurt anyone. He was friends with Johnathan, shorting his name to John. He grew in a loving family and would of been the next heir to the family's fortune and runes. But that all changed when the demons of the shadows raided his home and killed all of his family. Filled with lost of kins and a lust for demon blood, Argon used his family's wealth and runes to create a organisation, hellbent on destroy and slaying all demons. Those who lost everything because of the demons joined Argon's new force, giving their lives away to kill demons and to stop them from reaching their homes. They used dark runes to increase their strength and combat skills, however they get corrupted from using those runes but they learn how to control it and only use them against the demons. Argon and his legion strike at strong points of Demons, sometime they're sent into suicide missions. Johnathan usually see him back at home, looking for new recruits. But the Argon he knew in his childhood was no more, only rage, loss, bloodlust is all that remains in this human. All Argon wants is demons to be destroyed. He has a cold and hush tone with new people and doesn't trust them unless they're useful or not with the demons. However he despise anything that threatens his race, be it demons or not. So if a pony meets him, they'll be either killed or frighten away, never to return to human lands again.
Johnathan stared- yeah let's just skip the bullshit and send him there, shall we?...
...Johnathan stared at the group gathered. One unicorn stallion with a halberd that matched his, three guys in weird clothing and no runes on them, an earth pony cowering in the corner, and a unicorn mare next to a girl off to the side.
"Now that we're all here and introductions have been passed around, let's fight!" Rip said, throwing a leg at Roseshield who ducked it and swung at Rip's privates. Johnathan and Blackdust charged each other with their halberds drawn and swung them against one another. Azuran was being chased by a Jackson holding a pipe he got from a crate. Alfred and Flora got off to a enchantment fight.
Rip and Rose
Rip jumped back with the close call to his privates. Roseshield tumbled backward from the speed of his own dodge and stood up facing Rip. Rip charged at him and threw another kick, Roseshield blocked it and felt a jolt of electricity course through his arms for a brief second. Rip smiled at him and swung his other leg behind Roseshield. Roseshield heard the muscles and ducked and rolled forward avoiding the attack by mere inches. Roseshield looked back just in time to receive another kick, this one slamming his head into the concrete, ending the fight quickly.
Rip looked at the body of his defeated adversary in slight disappointment, but shrugged and sat down by the Dazzlings and watched the rest fight...
The twins
As Johnathan swung his halberd down, Blackdust swung his up, the two meeting in the middle with such power and force to send out a shockwave of air, sending both opponents back. Johnathan cast a quick glance at his halberd, concerned for it's durability, then charged forward again, this time planning to spear his opponent. Blackdust rolled out of the way by hugging his halberd to his body, then swung the butt of his toward Johnathan's feet hoping to trip him. Johnathan jumped at the right moment but landed on his ass anyway. Blackdust used him rubbing his rear to behead him.
The mages
Flora threw a minor vine-based restriction spell on Alfred, who then proceeded to burn it. Alfred tossed a simple breeze enchantment on Flora, who disspelled it by changing it to a plant based spell and breaking it.
"You're pretty good at casting spells for a human," Flora said, hoping to make him mad and mess up.
"Thanks. I've had awhile to practice, what with being the human anchor for all of Equestria," Alfred replied, calmer than ever.
"Really? Why haven't I ever heard of you?" Flora asked, testing his minor defenses by poking at him with vines.
"Different timeline probably. But why haven't I heard of somepony as strong as you from Celestia or Luna yet?" Alfred countered, poking at her with tendrils of pure magic.
"So you want me to stop holding back?" Flora asked, smiling slightly.
Alfred smiled like a madman and said, "Yes. I haven't had a good challenge for quite some time. So let's go somewhere that we can't harm the others, shall we?"
"Of course," Flora then transported herself to the closest forest, knowing that Alfred would easily find her. And not even three moments later, Alfred appeared from behind a tree and smiled at her with a spell in his closed fist.
"So this is where you think you can best me? True you have an advantage being surrounded by nature, but that doesn't mean anything to me, an archmage!" Alfred said, throwing every mages favorite spell at Flora. A fireball.
Flora gasped and rolled to the side avoiding the attack. Then threw her strongest spell at him. Turning every plant, dead or living, to attack him all at once. He countered this by releasing a burst of fire that burned every single plant in a 3km radius. Flora, shocked by the sheer strength of this spell, fell unconscious...
Alfred sighed and picked her up and transported them both back to the warehouse...
Azuran and Jackson
"STAY STILL YOU USELESS MEATBAG!" Azuran said, chasing Jackson with the pipe now.
"FUCK YOU! AND FUCK YOU AUTHOR!" Hey, it's supposed to be comedy relief. "FUCK YOU ANYWAY! AND HOW THE HELL DID HE GET THE PIPE AWAY FROM ME IN THE FIRST PLACE! I HAVE FINGERS!" Simple. You swung with all your might, hit the metal beam he had tricked you into hitting, and let go because you had no protection against the jarring pain that came with the blow of hard metal on harder metal. So there.
"Ok, I'm bored now. Can I go home?" Azuran said, dropping the pipe and walking away.
"Wait, what? Just like that? You're gonna make him give up?" No, he just really wants to go home. I don't interfere all too much. Just when you guys break the wall outside of a specialty chapter. "Oh..."
At this point, Alfred returned with an unconscious Flora in his arms and said, "I didn't hurt her. She passed out from how strong my spell was."
Jackson ran over and took her from the mage and held her close. After feeling her small heart beat against him, he released a small breath he didn't realize he was holding. He turned to Rip and Jackson and asked, "So what now? Do we go home, or what?"
"Well, depending on how everyone took the ending to your chase and being chased, he might do it again later, but only me, Rip, and Roseshield will remember this round. Everyone else mentioned in the chain will forget any of this ever happened," Blackdust said.
"It's true. So with that, until next time, farewell and goodbye!" Rip said, waving at you. Yes you, reader. Ta!
Centuries ago, there was a minotaur that believed that there was a race of silent observers locked within the land itself, giving the Elements of Harmony and the Spirits their powers. She studied hard on all forms of magic, and when she realized she didn't have enough time, she did what she thought best. She brought some of these Observers to her world, her dimension, her home. What she didn't realize, was that these Observers were dangerous, and they soon found her notes after killing her, and summoned the rest of their kind, sacrificing themselves in the process.
They then saw all the ponies, and how each one had a different mark on their flanks, these newly summoned Observers were unaware of their power, let alone the importance of how each one reacted to another. They began drawing the marks on paper, so as to keep track of them and what each one did. When they ran out of that, they used the walls. Then the ceiling. Finally, the floor. And when all the space possible was taken up, they realized the one place they could still write on. Themselves.
These first marks on the flesh are what we now know of as the Runes of the modern day. But at the time, they were shocked and amazed at the transformations some of the runes gave them. Then they got to some of the shadier marks... The ones that made some of them insane, or murderous. These ones finally exposed them to the world as they had to flee for safety from the mad ones that were trying to kill them. At the time, their best fighters stayed behind to hold the insane Observers back, but they were quickly overwhelmed by the mad ones.
For years the mad ones would bring terror and destruction to the ponies, minotaurs, zebras, griffons, dragons, and changelings of the world. The few Observers left alive and unmarked took up a new name. Human. As each one was slightly different in hue somewhere on the body, man for each one was as fierce a fighter as the next, so they each saw their allies to their left and right as their fellow man. Not woman and man, or boy and girl, but Man.
The Humans went to war alongside the denizens of Equis against the mad ones and they won each battle and skirmish. But they were still losing ground as they were losing food and supplies. The mad ones were too coordinated for almost mindless monsters, there were other forces at work. The other Spirits had been summoned to Equis so as to counteract the biggest threat the mad ones had, Discord. So the last of the Humans turned to their fellows and asked to be able to summon the Spirits of Harmony to the world. And while the price wasn't too steep, it was steep enough to make the allies curse the Humans, saying they were just like their mad fellows.
The Humans did not take kindly to this, and proceeded to fight their previous allies and summoned the Spirits in that hall. They were grateful for being summoned to resume the war they had, but were horrified at what the Humans had done, so they cursed the lot of them. Mad and sane, young and old, sick and healthy, all had the curse of being hunted by the darkest of demons Equis had to offer. As soon as that curse was set down, the mad ones, barely able to hold on to their mind and physical bodies at the limit of possible extension, collapsed, dead before they even hit the ground. Some even died standing up, staring blankly to the sky.
"...And that is the legend that we have on our existence in this world," Johnathan said to the princesses, ending his sad tale just as he crested the hill to the village that he used to live in.
"That is... Accurate, Johnathan..." Celestia said, clearly trying to hide the tears in her eyes, and sorrow in her voice.
"To think, that's why nopony opened the vault back up after those monsters showed up in Ponyville..." Twilight commented, dazed at the news.
Luna was trying not to cry herself, and didn't trust her voice. Instead, she wrapped one of her wings around the human as best she could.
"Johnathan...? What exactly is this place, if you don't mind my asking?" Cadence asked.
For a long moment, Johnathan was silent as he looked around the place, sorrow flowing across his features before he said, "It's home."
Spirits: Obviously I mean Discord here. But why is it plural? Well, here's your answer. If Dissy is the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, then what's to say that the seven deadly sins don't have forms? Or that the Elements of Harmony don't have forms, outside of their standard stones/bearer symbiosis? Well for me, that possibility is a reality. The Seven each have different names, for obvious reasons of FMBH (Fullmetal Brotherhood) references/crossovers. These wild and deadly Spirits of Sin must do combat with the Spirits of Harmony and the Spirit of Chaos. As such, after the release of the Observers (Humans), these Spirits hitched a ride with them and now have physical representations of themselves.