Chapter 1: The Map and The Gate

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Twilight couldn't help but let out a gleeful squeal as she stared down at the holographic friendship map in front of her. More specifically the location that her, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack's cutie marks were hovering over. It was far, far, far to the west, past Vanhoover and Las Pegasus, in what had been dubbed on Equestrian maps as; 'The Undiscovered West.'

A large, circular, almost ring-shaped mountain range surrounded a massive open space of forests, farmlands, and the occasional village, town, or hamlet. In the center of the stretch of flat open land stood a large circular city, towers rising forth from an outer wall, branching antlers jutting from the tops like crowns. Each building in the city stood tall and beautiful, the stone bricks that made up their walls carved in elegant designs evoking antlers. They almost looked like cathedrals. In the very center of the city stood a palace, which, from above looked like a large, rather wide letter H. A tower stood at each corner of the building, and in the center, stood a massive spire, two antlers started from the roof of the actual palace, spiraling around it like the coils of a spring, coming to an end at the very peak of the steeple.

"So uh..." Applejack started in her stereotypical accent, an eyebrow raised in curiosity as she observed her friend's seemingly boundless excitement. "Wanna explain what's got you so animated?"

"The Map!" Twilight cried as she clapped her hooves together. "It's sending us to somewhere outside of Equestria! And I get to come this time!"

"Well, that's pretty cool I guess," Rainbow Dash said, floating lazily above the map, her wings flapping as she laid back in the air. She grimaced and looked up in the air, thinking back to the last time she had been called outside of Equestria by the map. "But... considering what Gryphonstone was like..."

She turned back to where Twilight had been standing, but she saw nothing. The alicorn had already rushed out of the room. Before Rainbow and Applejack had time to rush after her, however, she quickly returned, carrying half a dozen books on her back, and more were floating behind her wrapped in a purple aura.

She quickly set the books out on the map, flipping one in particular open, entitled; 'The Equine's Guide to Cervids.'

"The map is sending us to the Principality of Cervus! Do you girls have any idea how big this is?" Twilight cried, putting a hoof on either side of her face as her wings flapped excitedly.

"S...should we?" Rainbow asked, looking over to Applejack, who shrugged up at the pegasus.

"The Principality is the home of the deer, who haven't actually been seen by ponies in over five hundred years! It's said that a thousand years ago when Celestia and Luna had only recently been coronated as the leaders of Equestria, Equestrian settlers stumbled upon Cervine settlers who were also spreading their nation's borders," Twilight started, practically bouncing in place as she talked.

"Oh boy," Applejack started with a chuckle, a knowing smirk on her face as she stared at her friend. "Another history lesson."

Rainbow Dash merely groaned. "What even is a cervine?" She asked with a roll of her eyes

"The cervids, or as they are more commonly known, the deer, are a noble, deeply religious and proud race who were always said to stand tall in the face of adversity, which is rather ironic considering they are actually about a foot shorter than us ponies on average..." Twilight trailed off. "Where was I again? Ah yes."

"It's said that after the settlers encountered each other, they traded stories of their homelands which caused the great prince of the deer, Prince Weald, to travel to the Castle of the Two Sisters to speak to Celestia and Luna, to share the Cervine culture and learn the Equestrian culture. It is actually rumored that there were stories circulating at the time that Cervus would have ended up becoming Equestria's first-ever allied nation if things had turned out well," Twilight said reading from her book, though she didn't really need it. She had already memorized this information, alongside the information stored in every other book in her library. "Things didn't go so well though. Celestia, Luna, and Weald had a private conversation in the throne room. No one knows exactly what was said and Celestia and Luna claim they merely told Weald about Equine culture and reportedly showed him their control over the sun and moon. All anypony knows is that Weald suddenly stormed out in disgust and returned to the Principality and constructed a massive gate to seal off the only known passage through the circular mountain range which separates Cervus from the rest of the world, and barred any pony or non-deer in general from passing through it."

"282 words without a breath." Applejack claimed with another laugh. "Ah think that just might be a new record."

Twilight took a deep inhale, not even seeming to notice what Applejack had said, before continuing. "Naturally, because of the fact that the principality sealed itself off so completely only inspired rumors and tales to spread all throughout the world. Many said that the Deer were hoarding Arcane and Druidic knowledge that they planned to keep secret from the rest of the world for all eternity. This inspired a great many unicorn, earth pony, and even pegasus scholars to attempt to make the dangerous journey to the 'Gate of Weald' as it was being called. Every single one of them was turned away, and those that tried to force themselves inside were never heard from again."

"Wait wait wait..." Rainbow Dash stopped her, sitting up in the air. "Were never heard from again? So you mean to tell me that these guys have... ya know...?" She slowly dragged her hoof over her throat and made a loud croak.

"Did that to ponies?" She continued. "And Celestia and Luna just allowed them to?"

"In all fairness, they did try and break into their kingdom, and they really made it clear they didn't want um inside." Applejack answered with a grim look on her face.

"And Celestia and Luna were also pretty busy at the time. Only a couple of months after Prince Weald built the gate and sealed everypony out, Discord showed up, alongside Tirek, Sombra, and all those other threats. That was a very very compact year..." Twilight said scratching her chin with a hoof.

"I am concerned about one little thing sugar cube..." Applejack said, furrowing her brow as she looked at the gate which stood at the only opening in the circular mountain range. It resembled more of a wall than anything else complete with crenelations and massive deer-shaped statues standing along the top like gargoyles. A large stone slab was in the wall towards the bottom, a seam in the middle of it showing that it was the actual gate part of the massive structure.

"What's that?" Twilight asked raising her eyebrow.

"If these deer hate visitors of any kind, and don't want anypony going past that gate..." She said lowering her head towards the map to get a better angle of the structure. She knew that the Crystal Map wasn't exactly to scale, in the slightest, but she really wanted to get a better of idea how exactly tall it was. It came to an end about halfway up the two mountains it stood between. Surely that wasn't true! Those mountains were almost as tall as the one Canterlot stood on!

"How are we even gonna get inside?"

"Oh, that's easy!" Twilight said with a nod. She pointed to where their cutie marks were hovering over. It was the palace in the center of the city in the center of the nation. "Lookie here! The map is sending us right to the Palace. That means that the Prince is in trouble and we are the only ones who can help him! They have to let us in!"

"Define trouble..." Rainbow Dash said an even deeper frown coming to her face. "You know how random friendship problems can be. It could be like... him having an argument with a close friend. Or maybe he has a filly or fawn or whatever that isn't getting along with her sister or something."

"That... could be what is happening... but I am sure the map wouldn't send us all the way to the other side of the continent just because of something so minor," Twilight said, already walking out of the room to go get her bags. "This is probably something big!"

Rainbow and Applejack looked at each other, a frown mirrored on either of their faces. "You'd be surprised..." They said in perfect unison.

Unfortunately for the three adventurous mares, there was most certainly not a train that took them directly to the Gate of Weald. The farthest they could get by train was Vanhoover, then they would have to walk the rest of the way on a journey that would most likely take several days by the air, however, because one of them didn't have wings, they would likely have to walk, meaning several weeks of travel at least.

This, of course, meant that they would have to travel light, with only the barest essentials for travel. Enough food for about a month of walking, clothes, tents, and a couple of maps, plus a compass.

"Thank Celestia Rarity isn't coming." Rainbow started with a chuckle as she slung her saddlebags over her back, Applejack, and Twilight following suit. "I think she is incapable of going hiking light."

"You know it sugar cube, remember that time she brought a two-story tent on a two-day hiking trip? That sure was something." Applejack said with a chuckle before looking back at Twilight. "You ready to go?"

"Yep! I left Starlight and Spike in charge of the castle while I am away. Spike is probably getting ready for a guys night with Big Mac as we speak." Twilight snickered as they started walking towards the train station.

"Good, and I left Tank with Fluttershy," Rainbow said rocketing ahead of the two, hoving in the air in front of them.

Twilight threw one last glance to her tree castle before smiling and forging ahead. This was definitely going to be a long friendship mission.

Twilight shook in excitement as the group walked through the wilderness of Equestria's west. They were so close now, she could feel it. They were in a temperate oak and pine forest, large, steep hills surrounded them on all sides, the foothills of the mountains that surrounded the Principality. Equestrians called them the Great Barriers, but the Deer apparently referred to them as the Temple Mountains or the Temples for short.

She had seen the peaks of those mountains just on the horizon for days. They were always just out of reach. Part of her had always wanted to take to their air and soar ahead of her friends, leaving them behind so she could just take a little peek at the Gate of Weald, and maybe the nation behind it.

She knew that she shouldn't have thought about doing that. Abandoning her friends like that. She shook her head several times. Just because this was possibly going to be the cultural discovery of the century didn't mean she had any right to leave her friends behind like that.

"You alright there Twi'?" She heard from her right, she quickly spun her head to look at Applejack, who smiled over at her.

"Oh yeah, I'm ok," Twilight said, straightening up, a chipper tone in her voice. "I just have a lot on my mind right now! We are going to be the first ponies in 500 years to see the gate, and possibly the first ponies ever to see what's behind them! Do you think the Prince would be alright if I asked him some questions? I brought some light writing material and some scrolls with me."

A rolled-up scroll emerged from her backpack, wrapped in purple magic. Twilight held it aloft, unfolding it in front of Applejack. The unfurled paper hit the ground, rolling down the hill until it almost hit the foot of the hill they were halfway up.

"Urm... Maybe not too many questions Twi'." Applejack laughed as Twilight went about abashedly refurling the scroll.

Rainbow Dash walked behind the two, letting out a very loud sigh. "Are we there yet? We've been walking for days." She whinged as they came close to the top of the hill.

Twilight placed the scroll back into her back. "Actually, I think we are!" Twilight said with a smile as she crossed the crest at the top of the hill, closing her eyes and throwing a hoof in front of her pointing to what she undoubtedly was a grandiose sight.

"May I present, the Gates of Weald!" She cried with a smile. As soon as the other two joined her, however, she heard two simultaneous gasps, and they didn't sound like gasps of wonder.

Slowly opening her eyes and blinking a couple of times, she too couldn't help but let out a worried gasp alongside them.

The Gates of Weald stood before them, but they looked nothing like how they looked on the map back in Twilight's castle. Massive cracks ran through the walls, entire sections looked like they had collapsed or fallen over. Pearly white and cyan paint-covered sections of the all, but it looked chipped and scraped off in several extremely noticeable places. At least half of the deer shaped statues that stood near the top, like massive sentries or gargoyles, had seemingly fallen off, piled up on the ground hundreds of meters down from their initial perch, and those that still stood on the wall looked worn down, large chunks of them missing. An entire wing of the wall near the top looked caved in on itself, leaving a hole large enough for an adult dragon to fly through with plenty of room to spare.

The small, distant shapes of quadrupedal creatures were walking around at the base of the wall, near the gate itself. It was hard to make out exactly what they looked like from up on the hill, but they seemed to be taking up lazy, disorganized guard positions or patrols as if they weren't even trying to protect the gate.

"W-what happened here?" Twilight asked, blinking several times, her mouth completely agape.

"Ah guess there is only one way to find out." Applejack said grimly as she started walking down the hill, Rainbow Dash quickly following after her. Twilight mouthed several words to herself as she looked at the wall. She couldn't believe it. Grunting, she shook her head and quickly followed after Applejack and Rainbow, explanations rushing through her skull.

Maybe there had been an attack, and Twilight and co had been called there to sort out the problems? Maybe they were tearing down the wall to open their borders to Equestria and the map sent them there to help them?

She would only know by asking some deer.

The party soon reached the foot of the tall hill and approached the guards, the land around them was engulfed in shadows, the massive wall and the mountains on either side of it bathing the land around them, hiding Celestia's sun behind them. An ill-kempt cobblestone path greeted them when they reached level ground. It was so broken and dilapidated that it was easier to walk on the dirt and grass around it than attempt to stay in the middle of it.

Soon they approached one of the figures they had seen from the mountain top, who was facing away from them. It was a deer, that much was obvious. He had brown fur, with a white chin and throat, two antlers came out of the top of his head. The antlers were seemingly coated in metal, which was sharpened to make them sharp and durable as if the deer had two four-pronged trident tips sticking out of his head. He wore silver half-plate armor, intricate designs invoking antlers were carved into the metal plates that sat on top of chain mail, which was a slightly darker shade of silver. Despite the intricateness and shine of the armor, it obviously looked worn and old. Scratches covered almost the entirety of the armor, and several parts looked so broken that they were only hanging onto the deer by a thread and were liable to slide off him any second.

"Um... excuse me?" Twilight said, clearing her throat to get his attention.

The deer let out a long, drawn-out sigh as he slowly rolled his head to look over at her, not even bothering to turn his body. His green eyes were glazed over, large bags sat underneath them. His mouth was a straight line which quivered ever so often. Applejack and Rainbow glanced at each other as the deer looked them up and down. He didn't say anything for what felt like several minutes as Twilight awkwardly shuffled on her hooves as he stared directly at her.

"H-Hello. I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria." She said with a smile holding out her hoof for him to shake it. He didn't make any motion, merely shifting his gaze to her hoof, then back up to her eyes.

The deer let out another long, drawn-out sigh. "Hello. Nice to meet you." He said in a monotone voice, his body sagging and his head lowering. The three ponies couldn't tell if he didn't care, was being sarcastic, was just really sad - perhaps all three.

The silence returned as Twilight stared down at the buck. She turned her head over to Applejack and Rainbow Dash for a second, before turning her head back to the deer. She opened and closed her mouth several times until she let out a sigh.

"Come on girls, let's go ask the Gate Guards to let us in or... something." She said walking past the deer, who stared at her as she went, not raising a hoof to stop her, through his head followed after her.

Rainbow quickly followed after the Princess, with Applejack behind her, before the cowpony stopped in front of the guard.

"So uh... what caused that damage up there." Applejack said, pointing to one of the holes in the wall with a hoof.

The deer lazily followed her hoof, turning his head skyward. There was a short pause before the deer let out a single word.

"Wind," he said, in the same monotone voice.

Applejack blinked a couple of times, her jaw falling open. "W-wind? You mean to tell me that wind did all this?"

"And rain," The deer explained.

Applejack shook her head and quickly rushed after her friends.

Twilight and co quickly came up to the massive gate itself, two solid slabs of stone. It seemed it too wasn't spared to damage the rest of the structure had. Cracks and chips permeated the stone from top to bottom. Several fist-sized holes were pierced clean through it, broken to such a degree that it looked like someone shot several cannonballs at it. Two antlered and armored deer stood on either side of it. One looked fairly young, while the other looked significantly older. The younger one was staring down at his hooves miserably, muttering quietly to himself. The older one looked slightly more stern as he stared directly at the ponies as they approached, though like the deer they had met before he had bags under his eyes and a glazed-over expression.

"Halt." The older guard said as they came closer, though his voice was devoid of passion. At least it wasn't completely monotone, however. "State your business here."

"Ah, finally. This is more like it!" Twilight said, straightening up. "Greetings. I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. I have come on a diplomatic mission to meet with your prince. I know your gates may not open for me, but I seek to heal the relationship between our two nations." Her voice was rich with authority and a warm, diplomatic tone.

The Deer stared at her for a couple of seconds before turning to the other deer, who hadn't even noticed her, still staring at the ground and muttering to himself.

"K," The Deer said, stepping aside and revealing a lever which he put his hoof on. "You're free to go in."

For what felt like the fiftieth time that day, Twilight felt her jaw drop to the floor. "W-wait really? That's it? I thought this gate was supposed to be an impenetrable fortress that no pony has ever or will ever cross? Didn't your Great Prince Weald order that it would never open to a pony ever? I seriously thought it would be harder than this to get inside..."

"Nodeer cares about that stuff anymore..." The guard said with a sigh.

Twilight's eyes widened as she turned to her friends. That wasn't a good sign.

"Not like I could stop you if you wanted to enter anyway." He said as he flipped the lever.

There was a loud grinding sound as, slowly, the two slabs of stone started to slowly slide apart, giving the ponies a view of the land behind. Farmland stretched out before them, but it looked wild, unkempt, and overgrown. That or completely dead and barren, as if no one was even trying to plant or harvest new food. In the far distance stood the capital city of the deer, but it looked to be just as damaged and uncared for as the gate they stood in front of. The spire of the palace barely peaked out over the city wall, one of the antlers that emerged from the roof and spiraled around it seemed to have snapped in half, collapsing onto the spire, several large holes pierced through the building. An earsplitting shrieking sound pierced the grinding noise, as one of the slabs stopped moving, coming to a standstill while the other kept going until it retreated into the wall.

"Welcome to Cervus princess." The Guard said, his voice suddenly becoming monotone and dead. "Enjoy your stay."

Twilight and Applejack locked eyes while Rainbow gawked at what she saw.

"Yeah, something is definitely wrong here..."

Chapter 2: The Capital and The Elder

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The walk through the Cervus countryside was an uneventful one, though it was difficult. Somehow the main road from the gate to the Capital City was even more run-down than the one outside the gate. What had once been a no-doubt incredibly sophisticated cobblestone road, was now so ruined and destroyed that it might as well have been a dirt path. Shrubs and roots jutted out everywhere, and every so often one of the three ponies would trip over a half-buried rock or cluster of flagstones.

On the way, they had passed through several run-down hamlets and farms, all of which looked as if no one had lived in them in almost 50 years, which they knew wasn't the case, as each building was clearly lived in, the occupants having watched them with glazed over eyes as they passed through.

The houses had large holes in the rooves, big enough for a pegasus to easily fly through. Rotten wooden furniture stood broken on their porches, as the doors looked like they were hanging onto their frames by bolts so rusted they were the same color as the brown wood they were hammered into. They saw more than a couple of deer fawns as they walked through one particularly large hamlet, but, somehow, they looked even more dead inside and depressed than their parents, staring at the ponies without even the slightest hint of childish joy or youthful innocence that so infected the pony fillies they were so used to.

At one point, after looking at the dead and overgrown farms that filled the Cervus countrysides, Applejack, a proud agronamist herself, couldn't help but approach a deer who was wearing a worn-out off white peasant's coif, which signified him as a farmer, at least in her mind.

When she had asked them why their farms were so untended too, and where they got their food from, the deer has just pointed over to some does and fawns who were eating grass without a word and then walked off. Applejack's brow furrowed at that. While grass was perfectly edible for ponies, and deer too she assumed, why anyone would ever settle for eating grass when more... appetizing forms of food was simply just a couple of months of honest labor away was an enigma to her. The rest of the walk wasn't much more eventful. It seemed that the deer were more content to stare at the ponies with their distant vacant eyes than approach or talk to them throughout the entire trip.

They soon arrived at the gate to the Capital, which was wide open and flanked by two Cervine guards, who like the ones at the Gate of Weald, were not doing their job, or at least not doing it well. They let the two ponies in without molestation, though Twilight did hear one of them mumble something as they passed.

"Well ur...." Twilight said as she stepped onto the city's cobbled streets, which were absolutely covered in filth, grime and rotten food, it was obvious that they hadn't been cleaned in years, though they were somewhat better kept than the roads outside. "Here we are... The Deer capital. Ancient sources claim this place was referred to as Bratistag..."

The buildings that flanked the road, which from the crystal map back in her castle had looked so elegant, were as run down and damaged as one could expect. The glass windows were boarded up, broken, or so covered in dirt that they may as well have been tinted black. The stone walls, which had been carved so beautifully and masterfully, were chipped and broken, more than a couple of bricks missing. The antler-like engraving, which had been carved into the bricks and then masterfully fit together like clockwork to make massive stretching expanses of art, were faded and dust logged. Previously marble white paint chipped off or was completely gone, giving the city the appearance of grey stone and brown rotten wood. The cyan tiled rooves were broken and dented. Holes, somehow even bigger than the ones in the villages that dotted the landscape they had passed through, pierced through them seemingly at random, giving the slanted rooves the appearance of a greenish-blue swiss cheese.

What really grabbed their attention though was just how quiet it was. Cities were supposed to be loud and rowdy, the noise of business, conversation, laughter, and hurried walking, that is what a city was supposed to sound like. Instead, there was nothing. Just the sound of distant sobs, the slow shuffling of a deer walking passed with their heads to the ground, or the sound of quiet, mopey mumbling.

"Even Gryphonstone didn't look this run down..." Rainbow Dash said with a grimace.

That's when the three heard a sound they never thought they would have heard in Cervus. The sound of laughter, though it was extremely dry and empty. The three quickly turned their heads to see a deer sitting on an extremely rickety-looking rocking chair on the porch of the house closest to the gate. His fur was a deep grey, with small strands of brown and white every so often. His antlers were huge, so large that it looked like it made them nearly impossible for him to keep his head upright, so he kept his head at a slight tilt. His eyes were green, though his pupils were a deep grey in color. He rocked back and forth every so often, though the movement was very slow and shakey.

"Never thought I would see the day." He chuckled in a deep, but raspy voice. "Ponies in Cervus... you are ponies right? It's hard to tell ever since my cataracts came in... All I know is that there are really colorful things in front of me."

"Urm.. yes! We are ponies! I am Princess Twilight Sparkle! It's a privilege to finally meet a Deer who actually wants to talk!" Twilight said with a smile approaching the elderly stag and holding out a hoof for him to shake.

The stag looked down at it for a second, before his brow furrowed and he looked back up to her.

"Feh." He muttered. "You can put that down, I ain't gonna shake a pony's hoof, especially one of the princess's. And what's this I heard about Gryphonstone being rundown? You ponies finally got them to give up too eh?"

"Wh-what?" Twilight said, taking a couple of steps back. "No uh... Gryphonstone collapsed because their idol got stolen... What do you mean by making them give up too?"

The Stag rolled his eyes and cleared his throat. "Of course not. Gryphons never know what's good for 'em." He said with a sigh as he sat up slightly. "The name's Buckley. I would wish you a good day and make you tea or something, but you are probably off on some world-altering adventure, as is common for you equines, and can't dilly dally."

Buckley had said the word equine with such venom that it made all three of the ponies visibly flinch. Twilight cleared her throat. "Urm... actually we were sent here by a magic map to help-"

"Oh a magic map is it? Oh, then it must be super important, more than world-altering, galaxy altering!" Buckley cried sarcastically, shoving his hooves into the air. Then he started coughing, covering his hoof with his mouth and bending over. It soon stopped after a good thirty seconds of hacking, causing him to let out yet another sigh. "If you're here to help or whatever, you want Prince Forester. He's up in his palace. I doubt his guards will give you much trouble."

"T-thank you..." Twilight said quietly, slowly backing away from the elderly stag and rejoining her friends.

"I think I might have a theory of what's going on," Rainbow said, clearing her throat. "I think we might have like... a Sombra situation or something. I bet this Forester guy is like... a terrible dude who is making all the deer sad so he can stay in power... or something."

They were next alerted to the sound of someone slamming their hoof. Quickly turning, she saw as Buckley rose to his hooves and marched towards her. "Don't you dare say anything bad about Prince Forester! He is the only one who ever tried to help fix things around here, and I will not stand to see a pony talk bad about someone she doesn't know the slightest thing about!" The deer cried, pressing a hoof into her chest and growling, though he did have some slight trouble appearing intimidating, what with him being a head shorter than her at least.

"Now hold on there partner!" Applejack said, stepping inbetween Buckley and Rainbow. "You gotta excuse her, she's new to the whole... deer thing. Maybe you could tell us about the Prince, that way we won't make a mistake like that again?"

Buckley frowned and shook his head. "Fine." Buckley grunted, turning around and walking back to his chair. After sitting down and clearing his throat he openned his mouth to speak.

"So, way back when, when Prince Weald was in charge, and before you ask, no I didn't experience these things first hand, I am not that old, he got called out to go meet with the leaders of Equestria." Buckley started with a sigh, as already the three ponies could tell that what little emotions he had barring apathy before were seemingly evaporating before their very eyes. "When he came back, he was an inconsolible mess, and locked himself in his palace for six days. When he came back out, he was malnourished, ragged and devestated. He then claimed that the meeting he had with the Princesses of Equestria had prooven all Cervine sciences and religion at the time wrong. He claimed that the ponies were superior to us in every way, and controlled every aspect of the planet, be it the rotation of the sun and moon, the weather or even the changing of the seasons. Cervus scouts that were sent out to Equestria only proved his sources, and came back with knew ones, like how even equine children were capable of magic which was something even the smartest and most intelligent of cervine were completely incapable of."

Twilight started to grow visibly uncomfortable, as if she already knew where this was going, though that didn't stop her from pulling out a piece of paper and a quill to write on it.

"Weald abdicated soon after, and was sent to an Asylum up in the Temple Mountains. His son Prince Thicket ended up taking over and ordered a massive wall be built at the entrance of Cervus, which he named after his ailing father. Cervus then sorta just went into stasis for the next thousand years or so. We kept our culture and kingdom atleast for the first five hundred years. Then things rapidly started breaking down, most deer went back through Weald's revelations and we just sorta... gave up I guess. Then Prince Forester took over from his dad, Thicket the 8th, and initially he wanted to end Cervus's problems. And at first he did a good enough job I guess. He fixed the streets here in Bratistag, and started fixing everything else, like the Gates of Weald. Everydeer was starting to think things were starting to look up. He even started sending scouts out to learn about the outside world. Catch up on the things we missed in isolation. Things didn't stay good for long though."

Buckley slumped forwards with a long sigh, and cupped his face in his hooves. "One day a Scout came back, and claimed that some Ponies had just picked up this artifacts that basically gave Equestria another claim to superiority and used them to stop a rogue princess from literally destroying the planet, and then stopped another monster from destroying the planet not even a year later. Things really went downhill after that. The Prince took the news particularly poorly, I think he was hoping that the Ponies really weren't the uh... race destined to divine hegemony anymore. You know, better than everyone else."

Rainbow stepped forwards with a deep frown. "Now hold on! Equestria isn't destined for divine heg- hegem- divine anything! We aren't better than anypony!"

Buckley slammed his hoof down on one of the arm rests of chair. "Then explain the fact that you are the only race with magic? Or the fact that your leaders literally control the sun and moon! Or... or... or everything else about you!"

"Hey... hey..." Twilight said, holding her hooves in the air, putting down the notepad she was scribbling down notes in. "Let's all just relax. Please finish your story, we'll be quiet."

Buckley sighed and shook her head. "There really isn't much to finish. After the Prince gave up, so did everydeer else. It seems like every generation is worse off then the last these days. And I should know."

There was a moment of silence as Buckley sank into his chair with a sigh. Silence soon gripped the group as Buckley started mumbling to himself.

"You know... ancient Cervine sciences said that the planet went around the sun, and that the moon went around the planet." Buckley said unprovoked with a sudden dry laugh. "They also said that our god lived on the moon, and would look down upon of every night to make sure his prefered Antlered race were safe. The whole thing just sounds stupid now."

Twilight was the first to speak up after finalizing her notes. "Thank you Buckley," She said, a sudden grim tone in her voice. "D-do you know where I can go to learn more about your... urm... pre-collapse culture? As well as your sciences and religion?"

"Afraid I can't help you there, even if I wanted to that is. After it was all proven to be a lie, Weald ordered the Cervine Army to enter every library in Cervus and burn all of the books relating to science and religion in the entire kingdom. It was the last thing he did before giving up the throne. As for culture, why the heck do you care? Your's is better anyway." Buckley finished. Twilight visibly recoiled. The word's he had spoken just now were so horrifyingly disgusting, that grasping them seemed completely impossible to her. Who in their right mind would burn books?!?

"Sweet Celestia," Rainbow said with an annoyed roll of her eyes. "Would you stop with all the defeatism?"

"Defeatism?" Buckley started with yet another dry and apathetic chuckle. "Here in Cervus, we call that Cervinism."

Buckley then rose to his hooves again, and with a grunt he turned around. "Anywho, I am done for the day. Have fun talking to the Prince or whatever. I certainly bet you can get through to him." He called back to them as he opened his front door and entered. "That was sarcasm if you couldn't tell."

Twilight sighed and put away her notes. "Of course. Have a nice day Buckley."

With a face, full of resolve she cleared her throat and turned in the direction of the Palace.

"Come on," She said to Rainbow and Applejack. "We have a Prince to meet with!"

Chapter 3: The Prince and The Palace

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To say the palace was in a bad state would be an understatement. The outside of the palace walls was absolutely caked with debris, and erosion almost comparable to Weald's Wall that blocked Cervus off from the rest of the world. Overgrown gardens surrounded the sides of the path leading up to it, though a collapsed tower quickly stopped any further progress towards the front door.

Elegantly carved stonework walls were simply ruined by the passing of time, left as nothing but rapidly disintegrating bricks. Ancient bulwarks and bastions were torn down not by enemies to the once, in ancient times, proud deer, but by wind and rain. Guards in silver plate armor, emblematic of knights, were left standing in random positions staring off into the sky or down at the ground in downcasted states with nothing to their name but ruined armor and shattered antlers.

Applejack let out a whistle as she looked around. "I ain't ever seen a more ruined castle in my life."

"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash replied, looking up at the tower blocking their forward movement. "Even the castle in the Everfree was better put together than this place."

Twilight shook her head, ignoring what her friends were saying. Hey, at least now there was some conflict for her to overcome. She straightened her back.

"Look alive girls," she said, smiling slightly. "We need to get past this and inside."

She was stopped by Applejack tapping her on the shoulder. She turned to her friend only to see her pointing off to the right. Following her hoof, she visibly sagged as he eyes came face to face with a pony-sized hole that lead into the palace proper, right next to a guard who was repeatedly headbutting the wall.

Twilight let out a sigh, before turning to her friends. "Are you sure we can't try to get in through the front door?" She asked, causing them to shake their heads.

"I mean... this is far easier," Rainbow said, already walking towards it.

Twilight was quiet, looking over to Applejack, who merely shrugged and followed after the pegasus. The alicorn bent over slightly, sighing as she did. "I'm never going to have a fun adventure am I?"

She was quick to catch up to them, stepping through the doorway. Twilight herself took a second to pause, staring at the guard who hadn't even noticed them, and just kept repeatedly and rather harshly smashing his head into the wall. She grimaced as she passed him, taking a second to cast a spell on the wall to make it far softer, like that of a pillow.

The deer didn't seem to notice as he just kept giving himself a worse and worse headache. Her grimace widened, but she didn't want to risk confrontation and so merely walked right past him into the palace.

She almost immediately wished she hadn't. The smell of rotten wood forced itself into her nose, smelling like old mushrooms. She almost immediately covered her nose to allow her to look around. The floors were very obviously where the smell was coming from. What once had been a beautifully polished white pine-wood floor had been ruined by water damage becoming a breeding ground for moss and mold. Dust bunnies the size of ponies filled the corners of the room, while the ceiling was crisscrossed by hundreds of cobwebs that formed a rather horrifying image that made the princess shiver.

There was barely any light to be seen, baring that which came through holes in the roof and walls like the one they were currently standing in. It gave the room a creepy atmosphere, almost like they were in a haunted house. It sent a shiver down Twilight's spine. It took her a full minute of scanning the devastation before she finally focused on figuring out just where they were. It appeared to be some kind of antechamber filled with destroyed paintings and collapsed furniture, chairs, and couches mostly.

Twilight hesitantly took a step forwards, the wood creaking under her step. She quickly pulled her leg back when she heard a loud squeaking as mice quickly clawed their way out from cracks surrounding where she had stepped. The three ponies let out a slight scream as the mice scattered in all directions, finding new holes to hide in.

After a couple of moments, Twilight dared to take another step forwards. No mice this time. She let out a sigh. That was good at least.

"How the hay can anycreature live like this?" Applejack asked mouth ajar.

"We don't live. We just wait until we die." A voice in the dark suddenly made them all jump in unison. Twilight quickly turned, shining a light at a deer standing in a darkly lit corner, staring blankly ahead. The deer was wearing a tuxedo-like suit with dozens of holes in it, as if moths had eaten the cloth while he was still wearing it. A bow tie sat untied around his neck, while stains and dust clung to the white undershirt he was wearing, making it look more grey than anything. Applejack couldn't help but think that Rarity would have had a heart attack staring at him.

"Could you stop pointing that light directly in my eyes please?" The deer responded, not even flinching as Twilight's horn flashlight passed right over one of his pupils. She quickly dropped her spell.

"Right, sorry," Twilight said, dropping her spell instantly.

The three mares walked slowly into the room, careful to not disturb any more nests of mice. Twilight straightened her back slightly. "So... I think I know what you're going to say, but... can you lead us to the throne room? We would like to talk to your prince." She said, pursing her lips slightly.

"Yeah sure. But only because it's my job." The deer said, stepping out from the corner and stomping forwards, uncaring of the squeaking boards and scattering rodents. Twilight and the others awkwardly locked eyes before slowly following after him through a rotten doorway and into a hallway.

The deer merely kept walking along, not trying to spark up a conversation or anything as they moved down a wooden floored hallway, rotten paintings along the walls flanked by empty scones, unfathomably old burned-out candles sitting on several of them.

"So... I couldn't help but overhear what you said earlier... about just waiting to die. That's kind of dark." Rainbow said trying to spark up a conversation.

"Well, it's the truth. Not like anything we do matters." The Deer sighed, speeding up slightly in a vain attempt to get away from the pegasus.

"Hey, everything you do matters. Maybe not in the grand scheme of things but I'm sure it matters to someone out there." Twilight started before the deer spun around with a slight hiss.

"Look, I am not taking that from the magical horse who has a special butt tattoo that makes them better than everyone else. What's your's for huh? Being the best magician in existence or something?" The deer roared, poking her in the chest.

Twilight couldn't help but stare in stunned amazement, alongside her friends.

"The throne room is the door to the left. Bye." He yelled, stomping away, mumbling to himself under his breath. "Stupid alicorns. Stupid ponies. Stupid magic. Probably think you're better than us huh?"

The deer stomped up to a nearby door. "Well you're right!" he shouted before slamming the door behind him, making the entire hallway rattle.

The three ponies stood there for a second, half worried the entire building was about to collapse, half still in a state of shock.

"That was... something," Rainbow said. Twilight shook her head and sighed.

The throne room was in a similar, perhaps even worse, state of disrepair than the hallways. Rubble and ruins along the floor. A ruined red carpet sat over a checkerboard tile floor, coated in dust and with many of the tiles shattered or in some cases completely missing. Eroded and ruined statues sat along the wall, many missing antlers, heads or legs and even more just completely collapsed over. Twilight could only assume they were of past Princes who must have ruled in ages past. Twilight wondered if any of the deer even remembered their names.

Overall, the room looked downright pitiful, and it certainly didn't help that they came in through a side door rather than the intended main entrance. Turning their heads to said main entrance revealed two grand double doors loosely hanging off their hinges, one of them completely collapsed to the ground. Staring out past the ruined doors, revealed the other side of the collapsed tower that had blocked their passage earlier, and another overgrown garden.

The two turned their heads the other way to see the throne, with a certain deer sitting in it. He was horribly thin, as if he hadn't eaten in days, with a silver circlet sitting around his head, a light blue diamond sitting just on his forehead. Aside from that, he wore a tattered and ruined white suit and a white overcoat. The deer was doing nothing aside from staring up at the ceiling, blinking every so often as he lounged in a mostly stone throne with a couple of dusty ruined cushions sitting on it, and an entire armrest collapsed to the ground next to him.

Twilight looked at her fellow ponies before turning her gaze back to the deer prince. She cleared her throat, before approaching him quietly.

"Greetings. Are you Prince Forester?" She asked straightening her back slightly and spreading her wings.

The Deer in question merely rolled his head instead of moving his neck so he could look at her from a slightly crooked position.

"Who else could I be?" He sighed, staring down at her. "Let me guess, Equestria is here to try to replace me? Good luck ruling this place. I tried."

The deer struggled to get out of his throne, giving up about halfway through with a sigh.

"No no, not at all. We are here to help you is all." Twilight said, sitting back and waving her hooves through the air.

"Help us? Help us with what?" Forester asked, raising an eyebrow. He turned to one of the many guards in the room, who were milling about uselessly. "Are we under invasion or something?"

"I doubt it, sir. If we were they probably would have conquered us already with like, zero difficulties." The guard sighed, looking down. "Cause, ya know, we're useless."

Forester sighed, sinking even further into his throne. "Yep."

"No, we've been sent by a magical map-" She was interrupted by a scoff.

"Oh yeah, Magic. Everything with you horses has to be magic doesn't it." The prince snarled slightly.

Twilight chose to ignore the sarcasm. "...-to help you reverse the collapse of your nation."

The prince's eye twitched as he instantly sat up in his chair, staring down at the three ponies with intensity. Twilight's eyes widened for a second before the prince let out a sigh and instantly sagged back down. Instantly she pursed her lips.

"As I said. Good luck with that. We're a lost cause. We have literally nothing. No culture, no history, no religion. And even if we did yours would just blow ours out of the water every time. Why don't you just return to your 'magical map' and find some other adventure to do? One that's actually important." He sighed, propping a head up on a hoof as he stared up at the room's roof, complete with a shattered skylight, miserably.

"The map doesn't send us on adventures we can't solve," Twilight said, frowning slightly. "So we are here to help you fix your kingdom. One of the Deer we ran into on the way here explained how you wanted to fix the issues gripping your kingdom. I know you don't want to just spend the rest of your life sitting there on your throne waiting to die."

Rainbow and Applejack both cringed slightly when they saw Forester's eye twitch again.

"Twilight, maybe you should-" Applejack started before Forester let out a guffaw, instantly causing his guards to turn their heads to him wide-eyed.

"Did the prince just..." One of them said, turning to another.

"I haven't heard a sound like that in years..." The other responded, blinking slightly.

The prince sat up in his chair, bags under his eyes. "Look, I get it. You are a super special magical alicorn. You've had your whole life planned out and always get to go on all these life-changing adventures where you beat up the alicorn who's keeping the moon in the sky or stopping a god of chaos from ending the world. Can't stand the idea of a bunch of little deer stumping you because they gave up on life and it's partially your fault." Forester hissed, standing up out of his chair. "Well, you can't help us. Cervus is dead. Our kingdom's been a stain on the planet since we first started. All we exist to be is to be a fun little map filler people see when they study geography. That's it. We aren't magical. We aren't ponies. We aren't a part of the story. So the best we can do is sit back and die so the important people can have our land instead. Capiche?"

Twilight stomped forwards. "That just isn't right! No one exists for no reason! Harmony and the magic of friendship can exist in any creature!"

"And there it is! The preaching! Friendship isn't magic! It's just a relationship! If it was, don't you think we would have had something before we collapsed? Huh? No! Instead, we've had nothing! Period! And you Equines get to exist in the most perfect land on the planet! You get all the magic! You get all the gold and gems! You get all the powerful artifacts! You get a good culture! You get the moon and sun!" Forester roared, slamming down a hoof. "I tried so hard to try to get my people to move on from that. I tried so hard to make them develop a new culture! A new way of life! I did everything I could and instead, you horses had to destroy it all at the last moment! You just had to save the world again!"

"Then let us help you try again!" Twilight roared back, igniting her horn. "We can help you make a new culture. We can help you move on and find your place in the world!"

Forester stopped, his breathing heavy. He turned to his soldiers in the room, who only stared at him, wide-eyed, a couple of them smiling slightly.

"Guards!" he held up a hoof. "Get them out of my sight!" He shouted as said hoof dropped to point down at them. Instantly the deer guards lowered into combat poses, though their antlers were scratched and armor ruined.

Twilight took a step back her eyes widened as she found herself back to back with Rainbow and Applejack, each facing a different set of guards who were slowly marching towards them, heads lowered.

"Finally! Some action!" Rainbow grinned, smirking as she took to the air, hovering above the ground with hooves raised.

Applejack by contrast lowered herself, preparing her back legs for her signature mighty buck. "You've really done it now, sugar cube." She sighed, gritting her teeth.

Twilight frowned, readying some powerful, but entirely non-lethal, combat spells as she looked at the deer who were rapidly surrounding her.

"This might be tough." She grunted. "But try not to hurt them. We are here to help them remember?"

Then she sprung forwards towards the guards, Rainbow and Applejack doing the same. Forester's eyes widened as he watched as Rainbow was the first to bridge the gap, effortlessly slamming into the deer guards and knocking them aside like bowling pins. Those that were still up desperately tried to bridge the gap, only for them to be knocked down by punches and kicks going at supersonic speed, which they had a less than zero chance of stopping.

Applejack was just as powerful. Almost a dozen deer guards tried to tackle her to the ground, but she merely shrugged it off, as if she barely felt it. With a single movement, she kicked them all off her, sending the cervids spiraling through the air where they landed in rather neat piles. Then she drew a lasso, using it with extreme ease to tie up and bind the guards in place that remained.

Worst of all was Twilight. With no difficulty at all she barrelled through the guards who tried to rush to defend the prince, her magic beams shredding their armor and leaving them on the ground sleeping. Levitation spells yoinked soldiers off the ground and in the air before tossing them aside. One got close to her, only for her to spread her wings, flying through the air to dodge his ineffectual attempt at a grapple. Twilight's horn shimmered as a beam of light shot from it, striking the guard on the forehead and instantly knocking him unconscious which caused him to crumple to the ground.

In less than a second, the three ponies had destroyed his forces, who were all left strewn around the throneroom, twitching, and groaning. Twilight finally let out a slight sigh, wiping a couple of beads of sweat from her brow. She turned her gaze to Forester, who ware merely staring at her slack-jawed.

"Now then," She sighed, rolling her shoulders. "Will you accept our help now? Please. I can't stand to see anyone like this."

Her eyes widened when she saw Forester's eyes water as if he was about to start crying. She took a step towards him, mouth open.

"Hey- wait. Are you ok?" She asked. Forester didn't answer her. Instead, he grabbed his crown off his head and threw it to the ground. The flimsy and weathered metal circlet struck the stone floor of the throne room instantly shattering into two.

The guards around the room, merely stared on in horror as the two broken pieces of silver crumpled to the ground, then their eyes turned to their Prince. In a single movement, he turned and started marching away. No one said anything as he opened a side door in the room, no doubt leading deeper into the palace, and walked inside, slamming it behind him.

Twilight only stared at the door, quietly listening as the deer guards slowly picked them up, before returning to skulking about the room. Twilight could have sworn that the ones she saw looked even more miserable then they had when she had first entered the room.

Applejack slowly walked up behind her, putting a hoof on her shoulder.

"Come on Twilight... I think we've done enough."

Chapter 4: The Streets and The Runaway

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Twilight looked positively glum as she stepped out into the streets of Bratistag from the palace. She took a second to scan her surroundings. They were in a plaza just in front of the palace. A dusty, grey, and empty fountain sitting in the middle. Many deer were out and about on the streets now, but none of them were doing anything beyond milling about uselessly. She couldn't even tell if any of them had even noticed the ponies who had just left their palace!

With a sad sigh, she lowered her head turning back towards the hole in the wall they had just come out of. "I think I really messed things up, girls." She said in a pitiful voice.

"Psht, oh come on," Rainbow said waving a hoof. "So what if you just kicked the collective rears of the deer royal guard and just accidentally reinforced the idea that they are completely useless as a race into their heads? It could have gone worse."

Twilight felt herself shrink even further under the crushing weight of her previous actions, a soul-shattering level of cringe suddenly shot out of her chest, making her visibly flinch. Rainbow Dash sucked in air through clenched teeth for a second before she sighed.

"You know, when I say it out loud, it does actually sound like it couldn't have gone any worse." The pegasus sighed, taking to the air slightly and crossing her hooves over her chest. "But, you know, no offense but I don't think we can help these creatures. I don't think anypony can."

"Rainbow!" Applejack stammered, but Rainbow just ignored her.

"Well, it's the truth! I'm sorry but I genuinely don't think there is anywhere we can go from here. We bungled it and I think it's time to just cut our losses and go back home." Rainbow sighed, grimacing as she spoke.

Twilight whimpered, dropping onto her stomach. "Sweet Celestia, if only Pinkie Pie were here. She'd know what to do." She said with a deep whine.

"Well, we could just go get her and come back with her Sugarcube," Applejack said turning away from Rainbow with a slight scoff.

"No... if she actually could solve this the map would have sent her here instead of me." Twilight said sighing as she looked down at her dirt-caked hooves. She looked up for a second with a gasp. "But you might have the right idea."

"I do?" Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, we can't bring Pinkie the pony here, but we can bring Pinkie the idea!" Twilight said, shooting up onto her hooves. "And what's the first thing Pinkie would do?"

"Blast a sad deer in the face with a cannon?" Rainbow asked, locking eyes with Applejack.

Twilight straightened her back, as the air around her suddenly brightened up. The sound of a catchy piano solo started around her, instantly causing every deer in the plaza to turn their head towards her.

"I know, you feel everything is hopeless and bleak." She said in a quiet voice, which somehow everyone in the plaza heard. She suddenly jumped up onto the fountain, spreading her hooves as the music swelled. "But that doesn't mean you have to feel so incomplete!"

Water started spraying from a now suddenly clean and perfectly repaired fountain, all as the invisible music hit a crescendo, causing every deer around them to timidly look around, trying to spot some kind of orchestra in the distance.

Rainbow Dash put a head in her hoof while Applejack let out a sigh, a smile coming to her face. "I swear if this works..." The pegasus groaned.

"Everyone is special! I know that you all feel bad and inconsequential! But I know everyone is-" Twilight sang on as even more of the Plaza fixed and cleaned itself around her. She was interrupted mid-sentence, however, when an empty can suddenly flew through the air and harmlessly bounced off the side of her head. She stumbled slightly, falling off her perch and into the fountain. Instantly everything returned to its same dusty and dirty grey color.

Rainbow and Applejack quickly rushed over to her side helping her out of the stonework.

"Shut up! Your lyrics suck!" A deer they couldn't see yelled. The crowd instantly started to disband with a series of grunts and huffs. Twilight seethed slightly, rubbing the side of her head.

"Hey! Who did that!" Rainbow cried, turning to the departing deer with rage in her eyes but Twilight merely sighed, holding up a hoof and placing it on her leg.

"Don't worry about it. They were obviously talking to the author, not me." Twilight sighed as she stood up.

"How do you-" Rainbow started, but Twilight just ignored her.

"One thing for certain though. I don't think the Pinkie method is going to work here." Twilight sighed. The alicorn shook her head. "Well, if we can't talk about things with the prince, and we can't get a crowd together to talk to them all at once, I think we should try to understand the issue better. Let's split up and reconvene here in a couple of hours. Time for the Fluttershy method."

"The Fluttershy method being..." Applejack started, trailing off slightly.

"We try to talk to them and figure out if there is anything we can do," Twilight said as she straightened her back and turned away from them, walking in a random direction. The two mares merely sighed before they locked eyes, nodded, and went their separate ways for now.

"So..." Rainbow said as she stood next to a Deer guard, standing uselessly next to a door to the palace, staring blankly past her with an open mouth and a slight tilt in his head.

"I know when I was trying to get into the wonderbolts I felt super inferior and angry whenever someone else was picked to join them instead of me." She said, sitting next to him and frowning slightly. "Is that how you guys feel?"

The deer kept his gaze blankly ahead for a moment before slowly turning his eyes to stare at her.

"I dunno," the deer sighed. "Probably not."

"Why? I mean, everytime that happened I definitely felt inferior," Rainbow replied, determination covering her face. "But you know what I did? I used it as motivation to keep going. To get back on that horse-" The deer blinked several times at the analogy "- And keep going. Maybe it was spite, maybe it was anger, but that always made me want to work harder. So maybe you guys should do that too, you know?"

"Again, I don't think they are comparable," He sighed loudly. "I mean, you still had a chance at becoming a... wonderbolt I think you called it. We don't have a chance to do anything."

The deer sighed and sat down, looking down at his hooves.

"Sure you do! You have a chance at doing anything you want. So what if you don't have magic? Why don't you use like... technology or something." Rainbow chuckled.

"Technology can't compare to magic," the guard replied his lips turning up slightly.

"Why not? I mean, I heard of griffins matching unicorn's magical beams with those weird tubes they have," Rainbow said with a chuckle, a smile coming to her face. "I think they call them muskets."

"Technology is invariably tied to the laws of the physical world, while magic surpasses and ascends from it. No matter how much technology advances, magic will always be able to do it easier, faster, and better," the deer replied turning his head to stare her down, the bags under his eyes growing slightly. "We deer will always be limited by our own physical limits, while thanks to magic you ponies can constantly do the impossible."

Rainbow couldn't help but stare in stunned silence for a moment, opening and closing her mouth several times before frowning. "Y-yeah but-"

The deer continued. "You probably weigh the same or even twice as much as a full-grown emu, and yet you can fly while they are locked on the ground. Nothing we do will ever be able to match that."

Rainbow's frown deepened. She turned and started to walk away.

"Besides, you can probably fly something like 10 times the speed of the fastest air animal on the planet, while we are-"

She didn't listen as he continued on his rant. No, she'd be better off finding someone else to talk to... somehow. She still couldn't help but feel that all of these deer were way too far gone, and neither of her friends was having much luck either...

Twilight had her face in her hooves as she stared miserably at the ground, sitting down near the same fountain she had left from earlier that very same day. She sighed, staring up at the sky. The alicorn shook her head. Nothing she had done had proven successful, it was just failure after failure.

"Sweet Celestia... what am I doing wrong..." She mumbled, returning her gaze to the ground.

"No luck?" Applejack said as she walked up to the alicorn, taking a seat next to her with a slight grimace.

"No..." Twilight said, shaking her head. "Rainbow was right, we sabotaged ourselves earlier, I don't think we have even the slightest chance of fixing this..."

"Speak of the devil," Applejack mumbled as Rainbow Dash landed next to the two of them.

She was quiet for a moment. "We should just cut our losses and go home."

"Rainbow!" Applejack cried, frowning deeply, but the other two ponies ignored her... all three knew she was right, she was just the only one with the courage to say it.

"Yeah..." Twilight exhaled, feeling her eyes well up slightly. "Still, I guess my first big friendship problem was a bust, huh?"

"Don't beat yourself up, Twilight," The pegasus sighed. "We were probably the worst choices for this out of anypony. We just plain can't relate with these deer. I don't think anypony we know could. They're kinda right! We are all too special."

Applejack's face turned glum as well. "Yeah... as much as I don't want to hang up my hat, I think the issue is on the map this time Twilight, not you."

The alicorn nodded up at her as she stood up, Rainbow and Applejack quickly coming to her sides as they prepared for the long trek home. Twilight threw one last glance at the palace in the center of the city, just as the central tower gave in to the centuries of neglect, buckling over to the side. There was an earth-shaking crash as it tumbled backward, smashing into the rear courtyard. Twilight felt her soul shatter at the sight... so far as she was concerned, with the tower came the last scraps of deer civilization, and it was her fault.

Wresting her sight away, Twilight lowered her head and started to walk, keeping her eyes on the ground the entire time.

Just then, however, the three mares heard something they never thought they'd hear in Cervus. Running. Frantic running. They all turned their heads up to see a certain deer sprinting directly at them.

"Buckley?" Twilight asked, furrowing her brows as the stag reached them. He came to a screeching halt in front of them.

"The... the prince... he..." The deer said between pants, before he interrupted himself by bending over and hacking.

Applejack quickly rushed forwards, catching Buckley as he buckled over almost falling to the ground.

"Woah woah, calm down," Rainbow said, bending down and offering him a bottle of water. The deer was quick to take it from her, chugging it all down in a single sitting before returning to his panting.

"Thanks... I'm not quite used to runnin'" He said between pants.

"Well, why were you running then?" Rainbow asked, frowning slightly. "And what was that about the prince?"

Buckley instantly sprung up, remembering what had him so desperate. "The prince is gone!"

"What?!" The three mares all replied in unison.

"I was just sitting out on my porch again a couple of minutes after you left - and yes I only came out again because you left, what of it - and then I saw the prince walk by and leave through the city gate. He wasn't wearing his crown and he looked manic!" Buckley shouted, sitting up. "He was talking to himself and laughing, except not the good kind of laughing you ponies do all the time, the madstag kind. Then he turned on his hooves and started heading towards the temple mountains."

Twilight gasped, her eyes widening. "When did this happen? Do you know where he was heading?"

"Hours ago, he's probably already in the foothills by now. I tried to go to the palace guards to get them to do something, but they were more useless than usual." Buckley said, dread filling his voice. "And there is only one place he could be going in that direction. Weald's Asylum."

"And I'm gonna assume that place is just as rundown as everywhere else in Cervus?" Rainbow cringed.

"Worse. The Asylum's cursed I tell you! After Weald died everyone who tried to enter the place was never heard from again." Buckley responded.

Twilight frowned. "Do you know what kind of curse? Was it magical?" She asked, sudden determination filling her voice.

"I don't know. No one knows..." Buckley covered the sides of his head with his hooves. "Please, I'm begging you. You have to save the Prince. If he dies... I can't even imagine what everydeer is going to do. He's the only thing keeping so many alive."

Applejack's eyes widened slightly. "You don't mean..."

Buckley didn't respond, his gaze told her everything she needed to know.

Twilight straightened her back, horn shimmering as she did. "Don't worry Buckley, we won't let that happen. We're going to get him, and bring him back."

"Yeah, believe us," Rainbow responded with a smile. "No cursed building is gonna stop us."

The alicorn turned to her friends, head held high. "Come on girls, this is our last chance. Let's not mess up this time."

Then the three took off sprinting towards the city gate. Now they had a real goal they could accomplish, and nothing was gonna stop them.

Chapter 5: The Asylum and The God

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The walk up into the foothills of the temple mountains was a long and quiet endeavor, none of the three mares talking. Wiser individuals would have used that walk to devise a plan, but these three were too focused on the task to think ahead. They had a nihilistic, self-hating, and possibly suicidal prince to save after all!

The further they got into the mountains, and the closer they got to the Asylum, the more... disturbing the ground around them got, and not in the way one would think. The grass closer to the mountains slowly and progressively got greener, and the woods gradually got less overgrown and calmer. Dead yellow shrubbery was replaced by well-trimmed hedges and gardens, and ill kept gravel paths turned to cobblestone roads.

The feeling of unnaturalness compounded when they finally laid eyes on the Asylum itself. It was a large building, surrounded in the middle of a large compound with flagstone paths leading through a clearing surrounded by stone brick walls. The building looked somewhat like a hacienda, with barred windows and castle-like towers at its four corners. An arched roof sat on the top of the building, with a statue of a deer with a hoof slightly raised and head held high at the top of the arch. The only sign of life inside the compound they saw were a pair of pure white birds perched on top of the antlers of the statue, and a couple of neatly trimmed trees along the central walkway into the building.

Twilight grimaced when she saw the only entrance to the compound was a metal gate that loosely hung open, swinging this way and that in the wind.

"W... why isn't any of it run down?" Applejack asked after a moment, a notable tone of discomfort in her voice. The two ponies turned to her in quiet agreement.

"Look at that..." Rainbow mumbled, pointing at the front entrance of the asylum. Twilight and Applejack both followed the tip of her hoof toward the set of double doors, both of which loosely hung open like the gate before it. That however wasn't what Rainbow was pointing at. It was the cyrillic-like letters that formed into scripts carved into the walls, floors, and roof of the inside of the building.

From this distance, it was completely impossible to make out what they read, or even what the letters looked like. The only reason they could see them at all was because of the pure density of it all. The words formed into spiral-like patterns that snaked across the walls, floors and ceilings of the inside of the entry hallway of the building, some of it even spilling out to cover the exterior of the building and the flagstones of the fenced-off clearing outside.

Twilight grimaced slightly, reaching into her backpack to pull out her binoculars. Sure enough, when she looked through the barred windows, the walls, floors, and ceilings of those rooms were similarly covered in the writing. She shivered slightly. In some way, she was glad she couldn't understand the cervine language because she had no doubt in her mind that what was written on those walls would be disturbing, to say the least.

Her scan with her binoculars also revealed something else beyond the writing. There wasn't a single deer inside that compound. And even then, everything was perfectly unnaturally clean.

Twilight gulped, handing her binoculars over to Rainbow before turning over to Applejack.

"I'm going to be honest girls," she started, gritting her teeth. "I'm usually a realist about these kinds of things, but I think Buckley wasn't lying. This place might really be cursed."

"How do you figure?" Rainbow said, a very distinct frown coming to her face as she looked the building over this way and that. "There's definitely going to be a lot of ghosts in there."

Twilight merely shook her head, dropping her backpack as she marched toward the front gate. "Come on girls, we have a prince to save."

Rainbow and Applejack both nodded doing the same as they followed after their friend.

A part of Twilight wished that, when they reached the front desk of the Asylum's entrance, they would've found a deer sitting on the other side, who happily explained that really the Asylum was just where a small commune of deer who hadn't embraced the philosophy of the rest were living. A small group of productive and happy cervines among a sea of misery. Instead, all they found was an empty room, covered top to bottom in that same writing. Not even the furniture and paintings lining the walls were spared.

Rainbow shivered as she looked around the room, she almost felt like she was being watched. "Yep, definitely ghosts."

"Shush," Applejack said, frowning deeply. "We're trying to be productive here."

The cowpony turned toward Twilight as Rainbow let out a huff. The alicorn was in the middle of the room, looking over the writing. "Any idea what all this means sugarcube?"

"Not much," Twilight sighed. "Cervus uses a completely different alphabet to Equestria, making translation much more difficult than it should be, especially because there was never really an ancient Equestrian-Cervine Rosetta Stone translation thanks to their isolation, I'm kind of in the dark. If we didn't have a time limit here, I'd go back to grab Buckley to translate for us."

That's when Rainbow suddenly pipped in. "Well, I have read about some of this kind of thing in Daring Doo books. You know, the whole ancient translation thing. She always figures it out in the end by looking for patterns and stuff like that."

Applejack and Twilight both stared blankly at the pegasus for a second.

"What?" Rainbow grumbled, a frown coming to her face. "Daring Doo's an archeologist remember?"

Twilight shook her head, turning towards the walls. "Well, I suppose that narrows it down slightly. But... Hmmm... That's odd." Twilight closed the distance to the surface, running a hoof along the stonework. "See here. It looks like a period, but it's at the start of this sentence. And again over here."

"Same over here," Applejack said as she looked over another wall. She pursed her lips slightly. "This doesn't seem too helpful."

Twilight nodded slightly, as she mumbled to herself. "We are definitely missing something."

Rainbow Dash let out a groan, looking up at the ceiling. "So, on top of being annoying debby downers, Deer also read everything backward. Great."

Twilight's eyes instantly widened.

"That's it!" Twilight cried, straightening up.

Rainbow and Applejack instantly both turned to look at her as she started tracing one of the spiraling lines of text on the wall. "The Deer must write and read from right to left, rather than left to write as we Equestrians do. That means that, if Forester actually wanted to read what these walls said, he'd probably follow them all the way to where they started. That's where we should start our search."

The three ponies nodded before they took off deeper into the asylum, following the writing on the wall.

"Sweet Celestia..." Twilight whimpered. They had found the origin of the writing, a small padded cell at the very back of the asylum. All of the writing originated from a single circular spiral of words in the center of the cell, and laying just outside of the circle, with a withered away unicorn horn in clasped in one of his hooves, was the truly ancient skeleton of Prince Weald, a silver circle wrapped around his head.

But he wasn't the only skeleton in the room. There were others along the walls, dozens of them. Maybe even hundreds. Deer of all shapes and sizes were all huddled together against the walls of the room, all of them staring at the circle. The three ponies' mouths were all hanging open in shock. Twilight's shock only grew when she noticed something horrifying. Not all of the skeletons were the same age.

All of them were younger than Weald's skeleton, but the youngest one only looked to be a couple of decades old! The wrongness of the asylum all suddenly started coming down on their heads. This place was definitely haunted! Haunted by ghosts who had killed all the deer in this room and were probably going to come for them next!

Just then they heard a sound that made all of them sequel in horror. Breathing. Very light breathing. Twilight quickly turned her head this way and that. Her eyes locked then on Forester, huddled against the wall amongst the skeletons, staring blankly into the middle of the circle.

Rainbow and Applejack noticed him too, quickly rushing towards him. "Prince Forester! We need to get you out now! Before whatever did this comes for you too!" Rainbow Dash cried in a panic as she tried to pick the deer up. He was light, easy to throw around, but there was something off.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack locked as the cowpony came to her aid in carrying the small prince. He was completely limp. Just mumbling over and over to himself. Sure he didn't move to stop either of them, but that was because he wasn't moving. Period.

Rainbow and Applejack came to a stop, looking between Forester and Twilight several times. Twilight frowned as she turned to the circle, then the unicorn horn, then back to Forester.

"Forester. What is this place." She asked, gesturing for Rainbow and Applejack to put the Prince down. Just being in this room made her horn hurt, and it didn't take a genius to know it was because of magic of some kind. Magic that deer shouldn't have. She had to know why, and something told her Forester had some kind of idea.

The two ponies acquiesced, setting him in a sitting position, though they both had to intervene to prevent him from just plopping over onto the ground.

"Forester!" Twilight asked again. She spread her wings and straightened her back, her eyes narrowing as she did. Forester slowly raised his head, locking eyes with her. Instantly her bravado died as the two stared at one another. Forester's eyes weren't sad. They weren't angry. They weren't ringed with tired bags. They were just... broken.

"After the palace, I came to the asylum. Stupid, yeah. Just wanted to see Weald," His voice was quiet. "Thought I knew how he felt being upstaged by ponies. Wanted to think about what to do."

"Yeah, you abandoned your subjects, and we messed everything up in the palace," Rainbow said, her frown deepening. "We all made mistakes. Let's just get you back to the palace and talk things over and figure out a way to fix this together, alright?"

Twilight nodded in agreement with Rainbow, even as her eyes were drawn to Weald's skeleton again. She grimaced when her eyes locked on the horn again. Then a dry chuckle emanated from Forester's throat. All three of the ponies' visions shot to Forester. A hollow, slightly mad smile on his face even as tears started building up in his eyes.

"Why? It's too late for that. It's been too late for a thousand years," Forester said, his voice shaky and empty.

"Forester," Twilight said in a gentle but firm voice. "What is this room?"

"I told you, it's Weald's room," Forester said, tears started pouring down his cheeks now. "After he m-met your princesses, Weald went insane and was locked in this room."

"Yes we know that Sugarcube but-" Applejack said, a frown deepening on her face. She was interrupted.

"He burned all the books and destroyed our r-religion and culture. B-but he wanted to know the truth. He wanted to know why we deer existed. Why we, a pathetic and inferior race with nothing to our names, were even created in the first place. So he used the magic in a unicorn's horn to create a ritual circle to tell him the truth. It took him years until he d-d-did..."

Forester trailed off before he suddenly let out a sudden whimper, bringing his hooves to cover his eyes with a sob. "It's true! It was all true! But in the worst way possible!"

Rainbow and Applejack's eyes widened as Forester suddenly fell onto his side, letting out a primal scream as he did. Twilight merely growled walking towards the deer.

Both of the other ponies opened their mouths to tell her to stop, but before they could, she merely walked past the deer to the edge of the circle. Without a second of reservation, she slammed a hoof down in the center of the spiral.

There was a pause before a sudden flash of light blue and white energy shot out of the center of the room, the unmistakable glow of magic filled the air around them. There was a massive hiss as the all-black silhouette of a deer started to form in the circle, pulling himself out of the ground as if he was trapped in the very stone bricks that made the floor. There was a growl that made all three of the ponies flinch as the silhouette slowly turned towards them, staring them down with a pair of all-white eyes.

"I already told you what you wanted to know! Now leave me to my WORK!" The silhouette roared in an unmistakenly masculine voice, causing the room to shake and the skeletons to rattle. Then the silhouette and Twilight locked eyes. The two all-white pools of energy widened for a moment before there was a boom and a flash, which made all three of the ponies look away for a moment. When they looked back, the silhouette was gone, and standing in it's place was the unmistakable form of a simple deer.

"Oh! My mistake! I didn't realize an alicorn of all ponies summoned me instead of one of my normal petitioners!" the deer cried, giving a slight bow. "Curanos, antlered god at your service! A pleasure to make your acquaintance!"

The three ponies were completely speechless.

"Y... you're the deer's god," Rainbow said, her mouth agape. "And you're real!"

"Yep, real as can be!" Curanos said with a nod. "What, do you think those losers outside just suddenly popped into existence one day?"

Twilight grit her teeth. "Losers?"

"And you never once told your creatures that? They've gone the past thousand years thinking they were inferior to us ponies, when they've had a god this entire time!" Applejack suddenly cried a sneer forming on her lips. Curanos stared at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh yeah, that seems about right," he said with a shrug. "Though to be honest, I think it's been more like a thousand and five years or something like that. Honestly, I've lost track of time, I've had some really important business I've been dealing with in the meantime."

"Important business? What could be more important than tending to your own creations?" Twilight hissed, her frown deepening.

"Oh, really important stuff actually!" Curanos said with a smile. "Believe it or not, but I've been working my way into getting into Equestria's pantheon."

Instantly all three of the ponies' jaws dropped. Their eyes widened and their breaths caught in their throats.

"W... what?" Twilight asked, her breathing uneven.

Rainbow Dash blinked twice, turning her gaze towards Forester. The deer was silent, staring away from his god at the wall. No doubt this was his second time hearing this.

"Oh yeah," Curanos sighed, nodding slightly. "It's actually been pretty hard actually, all things considered. You ponies seem really resistant to change, but I think I've done a good job so far. I got a couple of isolated tribes in Equestria's south worshipping me. I think in a couple centuries I might end up going mainstream in the south, then it's smooth sailing from there."

Rainbow Dash bit down, gritting her teeth.

"Why in the hay would you want to be in Equestria's pantheon when you have the deer?!" Applejack cried, narrowing her eyes at the god.

Curanos went silent for a second, then he let out a sigh. "Fine, I'll be honest with you. I did sort of... completely abandon Cervus. But I had good reason."

Rainbow Dash's breathing suddenly became uneven.

"What could possibly be a good reason?" Twilight cried, stomping towards him slightly.

"Did you even see the deer?! They suck! I swear, I messed up every step of the way making them," Curanos cried, throwing his hooves up in the air and turning away from them.

Slight tremors were running up and down Rainbow's legs now.

"I swear, I do all this stuff for them to make them cool. I give them a massive ring of mountains that keeps them safe from all bad guys, I give them, like, the perfect geography to make a cool kingdom, and they ruin everything. I mean, sure, the Temple Mountains I made did end up blocking all magic on the planet from reaching them rendering them magically sterile but is that all my fault? No!"

Rainbow stared down at her hooves, her entire body was shaking.

"I think I just coddled them too much early on. Made them into total wiiiiimps! So one day when I saw those two alicorn sisters pop up, I realized, yeah they were a lost cause at this point so I just moved on from the broken toys to get new ones, ya know? I mean, it's been hard but I'm definitely getting there. It really does suck that Weald made this summoning circle though, cause I can't really do anything to get rid of it. Now every couple of decades some rando deer shows up asking 'why I disappeared' or 'why won't I tell them that I exist' or stuff like that. I always tell them the truth, but man they are so weak-willed that when I do they get all bummed out and just sit against the wall until they-"

"SHUT UP!" Rainbow Dash suddenly screamed, spinning around to stare Curanos dead in the eyes. The god's eyes widened for a minute, and so did Twilight and Applejack's.

Curanos took a step back as Rainbow Dash stomped towards him. "What, you think that just because we have a little magic, we ponies are just the best race in the universe? Did you ever see what happened to us when our magic got taken away? Cause it happened to us twice!"

Twilight's shock at Rainbow Dash's outburst quickly turned to indignation. She joined her pegasus friend's side. "Rainbow's right! Magic is a crutch! All my life I've used magic for everything, to the point that when I had it taken away from me by Starlight, I couldn't do anything! Anything at all! And here these deer managed to create some of the most wonderful architecture I've ever seen in my life, architecture that managed to last untold millennia without any kind of maintenance, all without the slightest hint of magic."

Forester's eyes widened slightly at that. Slowly the Deer sat up, turning to look at the three ponies over his shoulder.

"Architecture? You saw ruins! Plus, have you seen Canterlot? You have gold on the walls!" Curanos snarled, frowning. He was pushed further back by Applejack suddenly prodding him in the chest.

"So what? Just because we accomplished something, through magic mind you-" The cowpony started before Rainbow joined in;

"Which is basically cheating!"

"-doesn't mean that the Deer's own accomplishments are meaningless, no matter what they say!"

Curanos merely frowned in response, his eye twitching slightly. "W-well maybe I want to be worshipped by a race with magic instead of the normal losers who can't do anything when a Draconeques shows up! Or an evil king made of shadows comes to enslave them! I deserve that much!"

"Deserve?" Twilight said, eyes narrowing at the god. "If you can't even see the accomplishments of your own deer, then you don't deserve them, let alone anypony else."

Curanos was quiet for a moment before he smirked. He gave a shrug as his body started to turn back to energy. "Yeah sure, keep telling yourself that. I'm sure they'll be so happy about a pony 'fixing' them huh? They're your problem now." And with a roll of his eyes, Curanos disappeared, leaving the ponies back in an empty room, with only skeletons and Forester to keep them company.

Twilight's eye twitched for a second before she huffed. "That jerk had better look for a different 'magical race' to trick into worshipping him. So long as I'm an alicorn I'll make sure no pony even knows his name."

Applejack let out a curt sigh. The pony shook her head. "Even still, it feels like we didn't accomplish anything here."

"D... Did you really mean that?" They heard from behind them suddenly. The three mares quickly spun around. Forester had sat up, and was now staring at them wide-eyed, his jaw open as he quietly breathed from his mouth in slight shock. "About magic being a crutch? And..." He trailed off.

"Yeah, magic is a crutch. Trust us, we've lost it a bunch of times, and every time it just leaves us completely useless. Some of us more than others but, eh what are you gonna do," Rainbow chuckled to herself shrugging in the air."I mean, Applejack here could barely stand up when Tirek took her magic."

"And... and if we can make a society half as good as Equestria without using magic at all..." The deer looked down at his hooves, slowly processing the information.

"I guess..." Twilight started with a smile as she bent down next to the deer. "I guess that'd mean you deer are way better than we could ever be."

Slowly Forester turned his gaze upwards, and the prince and princess locked eyes for a moment. Then, slowly, a smile split across the deer's face.

The walk back down the temple mountains was rather pleasant for the three mares all things considered. Especially because of the noticeable improvement in Forester's mood. The stag was practically prancing down the hills, his head held high and a smile on his face. The three ponies, even with all of their magical strength, teleportation and flight, found it rather difficult to keep track of the deer as long-lost enthusiasm filled him to the brink of bursting.

When they finally crested the last of Temple Mountain's foothills, they locked eyes on an extremely curious sight. Outside of the gates of Bratistag was a large group of deer, who all seemed to be rushing in the direction of the asylum. On closer inspection, Twilight realized that it was the Palace Guards, with Buckley of all stags at their head!

Their pace only quickened when they saw Forester, and it wasn't long until the four of them were swarmed by dozens of cervines. The frantic voices of stags and does alike filled the ears of the three mares as they jostled against one another to get closer to their prince.

"My prince! Are you alright?!" One of them cried.

"Did the ponies hurt you at all sir?" Another said.

Forester stopped all the voices at once when he raised his hoof, and they all went silent as he took a deep inhale.

"I went to the Asylum of Weald," he started his speech as his countenance became grim for a moment. "Curanos, the god Weald claimed was a lie, is real. And he hates us. He thinks we are worse than ponies in every way. In fact, he told me to my face that he was trying to get them to worship him instead."

The eyes of every single deer grew wide at once. They all stared at their prince as if he had two heads. The ponies watched with a growing sense of unease as the faces of the deer around them turned from fear and worry back to their normal nihilistic depression. The sense that they hadn't accomplished anything at all filled them for a moment, but those thoughts were put to rest when Forester straightened his back and raised his head above his people.

"But so what?!" He cried, and instantly the guards straightened up as well, surprise filling their faces. "So he likes ponies better, have you guys seen the ponies behind us? I mean, they are incompetent idiots who thought that they could make us feel better about ourselves by beating us up!"

Rainbow grimaced and Applejack looked down at her hooves sheepishly. Twilight for her part could only manage a very very weak chuckle.

"And so what if they have magic? Just think for a second what happens to them when that magic is taken away? When you base your entire country exclusively on being as magical as possible, what do you think would happen if you can't do it anymore?" Forester asked, staring his guards down. He grew silent, waiting for one of his subjects to answer as dawning looks of realization covered their normally doom-driven faces.

"Everything falls apart!" Buckley cried, pushing through the crowd.

Forester pointed at Buckley with a grin, nodding as he did. "Right!"

Forester took in a deep breath a smile slowly spreading across his lips. "Our ancient ancestors managed to create a society almost as great as the ponies' and they did it without any magic at all. And that means so can we! And we will have done it without cheating like the Equestrians did."

A cheer suddenly broke out from the deer guards as Buckley pushed further through the crowd towards the prince, as Forester looked this way and that, his spirit rising alongside his subject's.

"And I think our first step, sire, is you putting this back on," Buckley said, as he held up the silver circlet. There was still a noticeable crack running through it where Forester had broken it, but the two halves had been reglued together, either by the elder stag or one of his stags.

Forester's eyes widened, and he hesitated for a moment. Then he took a deep breath in, and then grabbed the circlet with two hooves. He stared up at it as he raised it above his head, then slowly started to set it down on his head.

The wonderful instant was ruined when the circlet got caught in his antlers. The happy deers went silent for a moment as all eyes were on the Prince as he struggled to guide the silver circle through his branching horns. Then, after about a minute of struggling, he finally got it on properly.

A sense of pride filled Forester from head to hooves, as for the first time in his life, he felt proud wearing the crown of his ancestors.

"Now then," he said, raising his head with a smile. "I think it's time we spread the news and get this kingdom fixed up."

The deer guards shot up in unison and gave their prince a long salute. Then they turned and began marching in the direction of Bratistag. Buckley turned to the three mares, and gave them a curt smirk and a nod, before he too followed after them.

Rainbow and Applejack both looked down at their cutie marks as they both started to glow, signifying the end of their current mission. Their alicorn friend, however, had a different response.

Twilight raised her head and stepped forwards, approaching the stag. "I would like to offer you help in the reconstruction of your kingdom, Prince Forester. As a potential future ally of Equestria, it seems only right." She said with a regal nod.

"No thanks Princess," Forester said, returning the nod. "I think it'd be best if we did this ourselves."

And with a quick hoof shake, the two monarchs turned and went their separate ways. Forester walked towards Bratistag as Twilight, Rainbow and Applejack turned in the direction of the Gate of Weald.

"You know, all in all, that wasn't so bad of an adventure," Rainbow said with a smile as the sun started to set behind them.

"Well, it didn't start out that way." Applejack chuckled.

"Whoof... that's for sure." Twilight sighed, shaking her head with a grimace. "Still, I think I can safely say, my first ever real friendship mission was a success."

Applejack tipped her hat at Twilight, before she threw a look over her shoulder at Bratistag, the light of the setting sun bathing the white, but dusty, stone buildings in a beautiful light. "Still, do you think that's the last we're ever gonna see of Cervus?"

Twilight shook her head. "Maybe. Depends on Forester I guess. Who knows. One day we open a school or something and invite a deer as a student."

"Hah!" Rainbow Dash laughed. "Yeah, right, like we're ever gonna open a school."

And with that, the three ponies settled into small talk as they started their long journey home to Ponyville.

Cervinism: How to Deal with Depressed Deer

by Deergenerate

Chapter 1: The Map and The Gate

Chapter 2: The Capital and The Elder

Chapter 3: The Prince and The Palace

Chapter 4: The Streets and The Runaway

Chapter 5: The Asylum and The God