The Forgotten Empire

by Shaddeluim

First published 22nd of November, 2019

A lone pony must navigate a labyrinth of tunnels and secrets of a long forgotten empire, while trying to discover who she is in the process.

Long ago, before the founding Equestria itself was an empire beneath the very earth. It was vast and extended down several miles underground, and were kept alight by life giving crystals. After several thousand years of prosperity and growth, the empire went silent, not a signal citizen of this empire has been seen or heard from since. Now after many years of silence have past, a lone pony finds herself lost in the vast labyrinth of tunnels and ruins of the old empire. Not only must she navigate the tunnels and their secrets, but she must also figure out who she is and how she came to be lost in the very tunnels she awoke in.

Awakening

The Void, a dark and depressing place, a place that no light ever or has hope in touching, a place that slowly makes you numb to all existence and slowly drives you insane. The void was many things; the afterlife for those without hope, a prison meant for the truly evil, or even a separate dimension in which all things dark and evil originate, in truth it was none of those things but yet all of them at the same time. Tempess couldn’t explain it, she never could, one would think she would be able to after how long she spent within the void itself. As of yet she has been unable to discover its mysteries, or how she came to be trapped within it, or even who she was, the only thing she can remember was her name. No matter how much she’s forgotten about herself and the life she presumably had, there was however a comfort in remembering her name. It brought a sense of being to her, a sense that she in fact did exist and wasn’t a strange delusion of the void. It was strange though, no matter how hard she tried Tempess was unable to truly understand what she was, one thing she knew was she was quadruped of some description and that she also felt an energy flowing through her, but without a mirror (or light) she has been unsuccessful in truly understanding herself. If it wasn’t for the fact she went insane long ago, she would have done so from this simple matter. She was sane now of course, to a point, every once and awhile she would hear voices in the distance, too far to understand what they were saying as well as getting the sense whatever the voices were there was something keeping her from reaching them, whether it was the void or something else.

A crack of brilliant light suddenly arced through the deep darkness like lightning in the night sky, it was deafeningly quiet as it moved. Tempess was hit with the sudden realization that the void was breaking! Cracks began to form along walls and ceilings that were far beyond Tempess’s reach, and with each crack beams of light broke through the darkness around her. For the first time in Tempess’s memory she was able to see, albeit it was a blinding white light, but it didn’t matter to her, because with the light came an answer to a dilemma she was debating with herself for a while now.

“So I wasn’t blind this whole time.” Tempess said rather smugly, knowing that she had won an age long argument, while also feeling a bit upset by the fact she lost said argument at the same time.

‘Uh, perhaps I’m not as sane as I once thought.’

Like a broken mirror falling out of its frame, the darkness of the void fell away, and Tempess found herself surrounded by the blinding light, but only for a moment. For as quickly the light came it diminished leaving Tempess behind, not in the void but a large chamber made of stone. The chamber seemed to be made up of stone blocks while the rest was carved out by hoof or claw, and the floor itself was a smooth stone surface that seemed to have been polished at some point. Along the walls, spread equally apart, were iron sconces, each one holding a strange yellow crystal emitting a warm light.

Tempess just laid on the floor quietly analyzing everything in front of her, from what she could tell the chamber she found herself in was some kind of gathering hall or perhaps an arena judging by the amount of old broken weapons and scorch marks along the walls and floor. After some time had passed Tempess began to slowly stand, only to start losing her balance upon reaching the top, thankfully she was able to regain her balance and in the process made an interesting discovery, she could feel again. Again? It was weird for her thinking about that word, one word she gave up on using in this context long ago.

‘Now is not the time to be thinking about words, I need to find my way out of here... but first.’

She gently began to move her body around so she could feel every part of her, she never thought the ability to feel again would bring her so much joy, and nothing was going to take that feeling away again. Not even the void. She suddenly stopped what she was doing upon noticing a reflective surface on a far wall behind her, in fact that wasn’t the only thing behind her. Three crystalline shards lay before her, each one was larger than her, and each crystal had the same dark purple color to it which seemed to get lighter at the bottom. Tempess carefully trotted around the crystals towards the reflective surface, she couldn’t explain it, but something about them made her feel uneasy, even more so when she looked back where she was laying only to see that she was laying on top of one. Though it looked as if it was cut at its base, for all that remained was a pedestal of crystal.

‘So I'm a pony, didn’t expect that.’

Tempess looked through the mirror, it seemed to be made out of some kind of polished crystal. She wasn’t sure how one could make a crystal reflect, which in turn brought up the question; how did she even know what a mirror was? Tempess quickly put the subject to rest for the moment, as she began to examine herself in the mirror. The face she saw was familiar but yet it wasn’t, it was hers but it felt like she was looking into the face of a stranger. The rest of her body however felt familiar to her, her coat was a darker shade of orange, as for her mane it was a dark brown. All in all, she looked boring and if it wasn’t for the fact she had both a horn and a pair of wings she was sure no one would give her the time of day. That is assuming there are others around and she wasn’t by herself, wherever she is.

One Hour Later:

From what Tempess could tell she was somewhere underground, which didn’t help much, she did however discover an underground city! That she was lost in, surrounded by more of the purple crystals she saw earlier in what she now believes to be a place of meditation or worship. The city she found herself in was massive, and considering the lack of citizens it was still in relatively good shape. The various shops and homes looked as if they were still being used, but the fading paint and the occasional damaged building suggested otherwise. Now that she thinks about it, the further she went the more damaged and abandoned the buildings around her looked.

“What happened here?” Tempess asked herself as she found herself in a large courtyard, and judging by the giant light emitting crystal above her and the destroyed buildings around the courtyard, this was the center of town and whatever happened here would explain why the city was abandoned. Before her were the remains of a battle, long abandoned weapons and armor, some still being worn by their long dead owners, littered the courtyard. There were scorch makers all around, even a few craters dotted around, walls of a blue crystal standing at an angle could be seen as well, and from what Tempess could tell they were being used as either a shield or a weapon. Even on this old battlefield there were the strange purple crystals, dotted around the courtyard randomly, or at least Tempess hoped it was at random.

“I need to leave, something isn’t right here.” Tempess said as she walked along the edge of the courtyard, not wanting to get any closer to those crystals. Something about them unnerved her greatly, and it was way too much to handle right now. Especially after just leaving the void. Though none of that mattered at the moment, because judging by the large street that just went straight, and was flanked on each side by various high end stores she just found her way out of the city. One problem though, the street was full of the purple crystals.

Tempess just sat there trying to think of a way around the street without getting lost, she couldn’t fly out due to the simple matter she didn’t know how, or at least she didn’t remember how, and magic was out of the question for the same reason. She looked across towards the other side of the courtyard and saw another large street, this however led to a large castle. It was both elegant and imposing, a large structure stood at the center of six towers with arching bridges connecting to the center building. A sense of dread grew in Tempess the longer she looked at the castle.

‘Yeah not going that way.’

Taking any side street wasn’t an option either, she’ll just get lost again, besides she was beginning to feel like she was being watched by something, which wasn’t helping her nerves. In the end she decided to simply push forward, being careful to not get too close to any of the crystals, that is until curiosity overtook her nerves. She was half way down the street before stopping in front of one of the crystals, it was smaller than the others, although now that she thinks about it, all of the crystals she passed in this city varied in size, but not in shape. Which seemed odd to her, she didn’t know much about crystals admittedly, that little fact wasn’t going to stop her though as she started to get closer to the one in front of her. Upon closer inspection Tempess could see the outline of something within the crystal, no not something someone, and from what she could tell it was a young foal! She stumbled back from the crystal as all her nerves and fears returned to her at once, unfortunately she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going and backed straight into one the crystals behind her.

Suddenly the street around her went dark as the crystals evaporated into dust, the sound of hundreds of hooves on stone echoed around her as the faint sounds of screams grew lounder. Tempess could see the faint glow of fires rage in the distance, the smoke that rose from the streets blocked out the light of the crystal above.

Fire began to fall from the air above as the thunderous sounds of battle erupted from the city center, and from there hundreds of ponies ran towards Tempess at full speed with no indication of stopping. She immediately tensed up, unsure of what to do, the stampede was upon her, fear and panic could be seen in their collective eyes. Tempess closed her eyes as she braced herself for the impending pain of a hundred hooves trampling her down to dust, but nothing happened. Slowly she opened her eyes to not only find that the ponies were going around her but also through her, almost as if she was made from the very smoke that filled the air above.

The scene around her was heartbreaking, hundreds if not thousands of ponies were fleeing their homes from an unknown danger, there were a few armored ponies (unicorns and earth ponies alike) directing the mob of fleeing citizens away from the danger. There were even a few who stood still in the crowd, frantically looking around shouting something inaudible, but before anything could be done a bright purple light broke through the darkness, and like a tidal wave it swept through the streets leaving unknown destruction in its wake. Tempess stood completely still as it swept over her, blinding her temporarily as she found herself on the familiar street full of purple crystals. No these weren’t crystals, they were magical prisons brought on to these innocent ponies, and presumably herself, by an unknown force.

“It’s been a strange few hours.” Tempess said before continuing on her way down the street towards a now visible gatehouse within a large wall around the city. A sense of dread following close behind, as the still fresh vision lingers in her mind leaving Tempess to wonder what exactly she plans on doing next.

The Revelation

Tempess carefully walked along her path high above the cavern floor, the path was barely large enough for two ponies to walk side by side up to wherever the path led, that didn't bring much comfort to Tempess however. She would occasionally glance toward the city she left behind merely hours before, only to feel a sense of sorrow for all those who were trapped within the void stones (what she has started calling the purple crystals), and the sinking suspicion that she too was trapped within one. Tempess shook her head slightly pushing the thoughts to the back of her mind and continued her way up the narrow path heading to an unknown destination. The path would occasionally take a sharp turn before continuing upward, Tempess took a few breaks on these said turns before continuing, each time she stopped she could feel her muscles ache and lungs burned, it was clear her body was not used to the exercise, but she pushed forward regardless.

“I really need to learn to fly,” Tempess said as she lays down on the ground shortly after arriving at the top of the staircase, what awaited there for her was a hallway of chiseled stone and six stone pillars, three on each side and each with small glowing crystals on the side, stood a few inches from the wall running down the hallway towards a large set of engraved double wooden doors. The floor leading up to the double doors was completely smooth and polished stone that reflected its surroundings like it was an oversized mirror.

‘Wait wood? How is there wood down here?’

Tempess began to carefully pick herself up, curiosity getting the better of her, as she cautiously began to step towards the door. After a few short minutes of walking down this hallway Tempess noticed a few things; the first being that between each of the pillars seemed to some kind of grand event or battle of some description masterfully carved into the stone walls, the second was the double doors she now stood staring up at, it was far larger than she originally thought as it was run all the up to the roof of the stone hallway and it ran the length between the walls. If it wasn’t for the fact it was made from some kind of dark wood she would have thought it was a part of the wall, but really stood out to Tempess was the engraving on the door itself; it depicted a large anvil in the middle of the door surrounded by flames with an alicorn sitting behind the anvil. The alicorn seemed to be facing whoever was standing in front of the door, it’s wings were stretched out to either side, and it seemed to sitting tall, as if it was proud of whatever lay beyond it, the seam of the door ran perfectly down the middle of the horn and body of the engraving.

Tempess looked up at the incredible detail of the engraving, it was almost life-like, the eyes of the depicted alicorn were almost inviting to her as if it was asking Tempess to push it open to see what was beyond. Before Tempess even knew what she was doing, she placed a hoof on the wooden surface and almost immediately the eyes of the alicorn upon the door erupted in a beautiful golden light as it slowly began to open. Not a single sound came from the door as it did so, no creaking wood or scraping sounds echoed in the hallway Tempess was in, the only thing that could be heard was the wind as it squeezed its way through the opening door hitting her head on as it blew down the hallway. The wind carried with it a smell that made Tempess’s stomach growl, she walked through doors without a second thought. She now found herself within a chamber that could only be described as a cathedral. It was fairly large, it had the same smooth stone floors from the hallway and several more engravings running along the walls and even on the ceiling far above Tempess’s head. Between each engraving on the walls were archways that seemed to be supporting a second floor or overhang, and from what Tempess could tell the chamber could easily fit the inhabitants of the city from before with some room to spare. One thing did stand out in the chamber however; there wasn’t a single void stone within the cathedral, in fact the only crystals visible were the glowing ones that were within the hallway, each one on the sides of the archways facing the center of the chamber.

The smell that brought Tempess into this cathedral to begin with hit her nose again, drawing her attention away from the craftsmanship around her to something she was surprised she didn’t notice earlier. Across from her on the far wall was a hole, what was beyond said hole was a mystery as it was completely dark on the other side, but not too far away from the hole the inviting glow of a fire and around the fire were the silhouettes of what Tempess had to guess were ponies. She slowly started to creep towards fire as it was the source of the wonderful smell, and as she drew closer the smell grew. She stopped in her tracks a few feet away from the fire. She could see what was now clearly six ponies; three of which had horns and one had wings while the last two had neither. They seemed to be enjoying each other's company, smiling to each other as they spoke to each other in a language that Tempess couldn’t understand, she was also taller than them, it wasn’t by much but enough for them to have to look up slightly if they were to see her. Tempess however wasn’t paying much attention to the six ponies, instead her eyes were fixed on an iron pot that was hanging above the fire, entirely convinced that was the source of the heavenly smell, there was no doubt in her mind, she was starving.

Her attention was immediately dragged away from the pot as the sound of a wooden bowl hitting the ground echoed through the stone chamber, at some point Tempess moved closer to the fire then she originally attended as she was now staring into the eyes of the pegasus with the other five ponies looking at her expressions of disbelief, this caused her to start lowering herself, feeling a bit self conscious form the unwanted attention. Before anything could be said or done one of the unicorns disappeared with a blue flash as the other two rushed up to Tempess while speaking fast in the unknown but yet strangely familiar tongue, partly to each other and partly to Tempess herself.

‘Ok, this is weird.’ Tempess awkwardly looked at the two unicorns, ‘are they trying to ask me something?’

Both of the unicorns were male, one of them was blue with a red mane, the other was white with a golden mane, they continuously walked around Tempess speaking more to each other now as they visually examined her, this continued until the earth pony calmly walked up and dragged the two unicorns away by the tails as the pegasus walked by holding a bowl of soup, offering it to Tempess.

Tempess quietly sat down gently taking the wooden bowl into her hooves, taking a sip of the tomatoey flavored dish, as she did so Tempess looked between the earth pony and pegasus, both were mares, the earth pony was red with a blond mane and the pegasus a teal color with a yellow and light blue mane. The five ponies talked amongst each other quietly, apparently not realizing that Tempess couldn’t understand them, she then let out a sigh finishing off the soup she was given, placing the bowl down safely before speaking.

“I do apologize, but I’m afraid I have no idea what you're saying.” Tempess was quietly hoping that they could at the very least understand her, as all five ponies were staring at her again, the white unicorn horn lit up with a golden aura as a book began to float into view with the same golden aura around it. The white unicorn then walked up with excitement on his face as he quickly read through the book.

“Hello-my-name-is-Plushing-Potato.” The unicorn said brokenly but with excitement in his voice.

“Plushing Potato?” Tempess asked, slightly confused, the unicorn seemed to realize this as he looked down at his book again, he then proceeded to face hoof as he realized his mistake.

“Sorry-my-name-is-Professor-Parkins-what-is-yours?” The professor asked in his broken speech before mumbling something to himself. Tempess went to say something else, raising a hoof slightly, only to be interrupted by a flash of golden energy as three ponies appeared from the flash. One was a blue unicorn with a white mane, the other two were Alicorns. The taller of the two was white a multi colored flowing mane just looked at Tempess as if she was seeing a ghost, meanwhile the others, a purple colored mare with a flowing mane with shades of purple and pink, was talking rather quickly to the three unicorns.

“Tempess, is that you?” The white Alicorn asked as she walked up to Tempess, who just looked at the Alicorn confused.

“Yes,”

“My goodness, I thought you were gone. Is there more of your people somewhere, and if so what happened all those years ago?”

“I’m sorry, but do I know you?” Tempess asked shyly, weird out slightly. “Were you the one who placed me in the void, and if so why?”

“It’s me, Celestia, don’t you remember me?” Celestia said slightly hurt from what Tempess said.

“I can’t say that I do, there are few things I can’t seem to remember at all.” Tempess thought for a moment, as the purple Alicorn’s horn glowed releasing a shock wave of harmless energy.

“There now we should all be able to understand each other,” The purple Alicorn said as she walked to the side of Celestia, “Hello, my name is Princess Twilight.”

“Greetings Princess, I am Tempess.” Tempess greeted bowing slightly, she didn't know why she did that, but it felt right. “I must admit, I am a bit confused by recent events and was wondering if either of you knew who placed me within the void, or even better knew who placed all those ponies in the voidstones?”

“The Void?” Celestia asked worried

“Voidstone?” Twilight asked curiously

“Yes the Void, the deep dark nothingness between worlds, that will leave any who are trapped there mad and broken shells of themselves that can do nothing more than argue their own existence. I was there for quite awhile, and voidstones are simply these purple crystals that have ponies trapped within.” Tempess looked between the two mares and their expressions after saying this, and by the looks of horror and confusion, she knew then that neither of them knew the answers to her questions, but perhaps they could shed some light on a few others. “How long ago was the last time you saw me?” Tempess asked looking towards Celestia

“Over a Thousand years ago, shortly after Luna and myself trapped Discord in stone.” Celestia answered, a ping of sadness carried with her voice. “You were a good friend of ours, and an ally to Equestria. You opened your doors to shelter those from Discord, and even helped with the fight against King Sombra before you disappeared entirely.”

“Perhaps we should continue this discussion in the morning.” Twilight quickly said, “I would be honored to have an old ally of Equestria stay with us in Canterlot for the night, and in the morning, perhaps, some memories will return to you.”

Tempess thought for a moment, trying to process everything she just heard. She did have to admit though she was tired, and the possibility of some warm food the next day sounded nice. She just nodded in response, shortly after a purple flash enveloped her, as it dissipated she found herself not in the stone chamber but an elegant throne room.

“Curious” was all she could say at what just happened.