“Go on, Tarnish… take your first steps towards something greater,” Octavia said in a warm, gentle voice to her friend. “All of us are with you and there is nothing that we can’t do together.”

“Tarnished Teapot, I’ve spent what precious time I’ve had with you watching you as you bloomed. You’ve grown a great deal. Now it is time to blossom just a little more, a time to flower. Go on, you can do it.” Maud gave her husband a nudge.

Vinyl, silent, was filming the occasion.

“Okay.” Tarnish’s cheeks puffed out and his ears waggled inside of his pith helmet. “But before I go, I want to know something… Maledico, how are you out and about on your own?”

The centaur’s projection pointed down to the crystal conduits in the street. “Those are artificial ley lines. They take ambient magic and amplify it a great deal. Synthetic sorcery. It turned against us time and time again. We could not perfect it. Much of our synthetic magic technology was either failure or disaster.” Maledico shook his head. “The entire city is powered by them. Earth ponies become stronger. Pegasi fly faster. Unicorns become like alicorns—”

“And alicorns become like centaurs?” Tarnish finished.

“Correct.” Maledico nodded.

“The alicorns were just ponies, like us.” Tarnish looked at the centaur that he called his mentor. “They were a little more magical than unicorns, but not by much. They had wings. Something tells me that they were nothing like the Royal Pony Sisters.”

The centaur sighed. “You have learned much while meditating within the orb. There were alicorns, and then there were alicorns. Just like there were centaurs, and then there were centaurs. As with so many things, there were greater and lesser varieties.”

“So… the greater alicorns…” Tarnish looked at the archway.

“Part of a breeding program that we centaurs thought up. We saw an end coming. A convergence. A place where two lines met beyond the horizon. We saw a day where the sun did not rise. Inside of each body is a teeny, tiny little scroll of information that determines who and what you will be—”

“Genetics,” Maud interjected. “DNA and CNA.”

“Is that what they call it now?” Maledico asked. He blinked and then made a dismissive wave with his hand. “No matter. We built a creature made to preserve and create life. We unraveled those tiny scrolls and we learned how to rewrite them. We made a better alicorn. Hardier. Tougher. More magical. Aging was greatly slowed. We took words from other scrolls, like phoenixes and dragons, and using our most powerful magic, we rewrote life.”

The four ponies gathered stood there in silence, staring.

“We made the alicorns factories of life. They had all of the characteristics of all three tribes already. In the event of major catastrophe, they would be able to churn out foals at a fantastic rate… workers… necessary workers to repopulate the world and restore harmony. We made them vessels designed to create, repopulate, and defend. Life had to continue.”

Maud’s ears pinned back against her skull and she looked a bit shaken. “Life as we know it was almost wiped out by Discord. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna repopulated much of early Equestria with the first tribes, and then the tribes from elsewhere came over and provided a much needed influx of new blood. So, it looks like your plan worked.”

“A druid’s primary goal is ensuring the continuation of life.” Maledico turned to look at Tarnish. “Step through the archway, Tarnish. Begin your journey that will lead you to your act of great destruction—”

“And beautiful creation?” Tarnish asked.

“Yes, Tarnish. This convergence has led you here, to this place. I don’t know what will happen next, but I know how this ends. I can almost see where the lines will meet.”

“And how does this end?” Tarnish’s eyes were wide and fearful.

“With the preservation of life as we know it, at the cost of just one.”

Nodding, Tarnish’s legs went stiff. “I understand. No pressure at all. Preserve all life. Got it. No pressure at all… none. I can do this.” He took a deep breath, flicked his tail, and tried not to faint from the sensation of his brain imploding.

“Something terrible has taken up residence in a nearby cave. It has grown strong. It feeds on fear. It is a creature made of fog and shadow, insubstantial, the stuff of nightmares. You have seen the fog when it comes out and feasts. It corrupts life within the cave, twisting it, and building an army of abominations. What we do here might weaken it. I don’t know. But our answers lie beyond the arch.”

Closing his eyes, Tarnish swallowed the painful lump in his throat.

“Go on,” Maud said, trying to be encouraging. “Just one step, Tarnish, and you can become the Arch Druid.”

Unable to stop himself, Tarnish started snickering. He felt better, braver, he felt his spirits soaring. He took a step, then another, and then, smiling, head high, Tarnish passed through the arch, ready to face whatever came next.

Beyond the arch were more buildings, but not residential ones. Holding the orb in his magic, his mind began to flood with memories from long ago as the orb poured out its contents to him, holding nothing back. He strolled through empty streets, his hooves clattering on the crystal conduits, bringing sound to a long dead city that no longer had a name.

He didn’t know how this would end, but in the back of his mind, he saw the image of a seed being planted within the earth. Perhaps it was his imagination, or it might be prophetic. He had no way of knowing.

“There!” Maledico pointed with his finger, and his projected image flickered.

Tarnish turned a bit and headed for a massive rectangular building with double doors made out of centaur steel. There were no windows and the building was very plain looking. It was a building designed to survive and endure for generations, and he knew why. It had to tell a story. As he drew near, the doors opened for him. Of course they would open for him. He knew. He was a druid, here on druid business, and the city responded to his needs.

It was now time to read.

The Hall of Memories opened before him like a living thing, like a flower blooming to receive the sun. Doors opened. Lights turned on. The centaurs and the druids of old had left behind information with the hopes that one might come along and fix it. One like Maledico, who had hoped to leap forwards into the future and land in the body of an alicorn so that he would have the means to fix whatever had gone wrong.

But something had happened. Something had gone wrong. Maledico was not an alicorn, but a blue orb. Nature’s chosen agent in this instance was Tarnished Teapot, a unicorn blessed, or perhaps cursed, with the very essence of poison joke, a plant that wanted nothing more than to preserve life and balance.

A cool breeze blew fresh air into Tarnish’s face as he stood within the central entryway.

A little automaton, made of centaur steel and puffing out jets of steam, scurried across the tiles, pushing a tiny tornado in front of it that sucked up the dirt and dust from the floor. The city was waking up and making itself presentable.

Somehow, Tarnish knew what he was looking for now. He could hear voices in his head, a thousand voices, all of them begging to be heard, all of them crying, in pain, each of them wanting comfort from the living. The orb hovering beside his head was a living thing now, and visible shapes moved within its swirling depths as Tarnish made his way through another set of doors.

The companions remained in silence. Vinyl, her camera rolling, filmed everything. Tarnish stood before a picture on a wall, staring at what might have been the most terrible creature to have ever lived, then died, and then continued in undeath. Grogar the Necromancer.

Necromancy, the bane of druids. Not a continuation of life, but a perversion of it.

Staring at the sorcerous goat, Tarnish did not move for a while as he drank in every detail. A jagged crown sat upon the goat lich’s head and he sat upon a throne made of bones. Grogar was rotten, putrid, and his cadaverous eyes blazed like two red coals. Much to Tarnish’s surprise, he didn’t feel the least bit afraid of him, but angered. A smoking resentment smouldered in Tarnish’s heart.

Moving on, he looked at another panel. This had a tiny Grogar and the night sky. A beam of magic shot from Grogar up into the stars and in the next panel over, a flaming star plummeted to earth. The next panel showed a dead land, with stripped, broken trees and barren earth. The black star sat in the middle of the devastation. And that was it for panels along this wall.

Turning, he went to the next set of panels. He saw happy ponies working in a field, bringing life back to a barren land. He recognised it from a previous panel, but the black star was gone. Centaurs and large, strange mechanical automatons watched over the ponies as they worked. Drinking in the image, Tarnish committed it to memory, then looked at the next panel.

The ponies seemed to be changing. Something had happened. In the upper right corner, there was a pegasus with a lion’s leg and dragon’s claws. In the lower left hand corner, there was an earth pony with a tortoise’s shell. There were other ponies as well, but their mutations weren’t so bad. The next panel showed even more mutated ponies, ponies with disturbingly long bodies and mismatched legs. Stepping over, Tarnish looked at one last panel, but it wasn’t finished. It was about halfway completed and left undone.

The pictures were never finished, leaving much of the story unknown, but Tarnish knew enough. The voices in his head screamed at him. The black star became Grogar’s Crown of Corruption. The poisoned land had mutated and twisted all those who had lived there later, trying to heal the ground. Some of the twisted ponies looked a bit like Discord, the similarities were eerie.

“Vinyl,” Octavia whispered, “are you getting this?”

The mute unicorn nodded and left her camera focused upon a panel.

“I know what this city holds,” Tarnish blurted out, almost spooking his companions. “I know what was buried here. We need to leave this place and I need to contact Princess Celestia. She needs to know about this place and what it is. Part of Grogar has escaped and he’s hiding in The Scariest Cave in Equestria. The crown, his crown, the Crown of Corruption is here, in this place. It holds a piece of his soul. He is reviving and has been for a while. When he has the strength, he will recreate himself a body and he will return to this place to reclaim his crown. We need to leave now and I must contact her.”

“Okay, Tarnish,” Maud replied. “We can leave the way we came, climb out, and return to camp. I think we need the rest. We can wait for instructions on what to do and then come back here with help.”

“Wait, my student.” Maledico waved his hands. “Hold on. You have only seen these panels with your eyes. They were made to be seen with eyes free of flesh.”

“What do you mean, Maledico?” Tarnish asked.

“Open your eyes, Tarnish. Listen to the spirits. A hidden message was left here for those capable of seeing it. These images were created with astral inks.”

Nodding, Tarnish replied, “I understand.”

Closing his eyes, Tarnish began breathing. It was easy now, as easy as breathing. He didn’t need to leap at reality and miss, no, he just needed to see both realms as they overlapped. With the influence of the orb, Tarnish was able to clear his vision and opened the astral eyelids that would allow him to see.

The world around him was a very different place. Everything was wispy and wreathed in light. Colours were brighter and oversaturated. His companions all looked as though they were on fire. Pulling both magic and knowledge from the glass orb he held, Tarnish peered at the picture panels.

What he saw disturbed him. Staring at Grogar, Tarnish understood things. It was like staring at a picture and then having the contents of an entire book crammed inside of one’s head. He had trouble even comprehending what was happening. The pictures held knowledge, the knowledge of an entire library. They told not a story, but history. Princess Celestia needed to see this, she too, was an astral traveller. This wasn’t an art museum, but a library. Looking at each panel caused his brain to flood. He saw, he knew, he understood.

The black star wasn’t just from space, but it was conjured from beyond the stars, from some terrible place beyond understanding. Grogar had called for aid, for assistance, and he had been answered by something beyond imagination or comprehension. The sorcerous goat had tapped into the very void where eldritch abominations dwelled, and had asked to become as one of them.

The black star perverted all it touched. It corrupted the land, it ruined the water, twisted the trees, and turned peaceful animals into horrible monsters. It brought violence, lust, and death. And finding magic on this world, it latched into that as well and began to corrupt it, laying its toxic roots into the very ley lines. The creatures who used magic, the creatures whose very lives depended on magic, they too were touched by this corruption. Evil came into the world, real evil, living evil that latched onto every good thing like a cancer and then began to devour it.

Blinking, Tarnish broke the connection. Princess Celestia had to know, and she had to know right now.

Author's Notes:

We approach the end.