The small kitchen of the stone cottage was packed with ponies, some sitting on chairs, others on stools, and some on the floor. The air was perfumed with the scent of poison joke tea, of fresh baked treats, and the stench of ozone. Outside, a blizzard pounded the farm, with snow drifts that reached the roof. The cottage had a fireplace, but most of the heat came from the many bodies packed into the cosy kitchen.

Twilight Sparkle had a jeweler’s loupe over her eye and she was holding up the snowflake gem. Vinyl Scratch also had a jeweler’s loupe; she sat beside Twilight Sparkle, looking pensive and out of sorts. Octavia was holding Pebble, who seemed quite enchanted by the glowing blue gemstone in the shape of a snowflake. Maud leaned against the table, her eyes on her husband, and Tarnish had his eyes on her as he sipped his tea. Rainbow Dash, wearing her flight jacket and a woollen ushanka, kept making funny faces at Pebble, who ignored her. A.K. Yearling, half asleep, leaned against the corner where she sat and fought to keep her eyes open.

Perhaps the two oddest faces to be seen at the table were that of Prince Blueblood and Princess Celestia’s personal assistant, Raven. Prince Blueblood seemed to be enjoying the poison joke tea he had been served, and before him on the table was a book bound in blue-black leather that was covered in spidery silver glyphs.

“Nothing makes sense about this gem,” Twilight Sparkle said and there was hint of a frustrated growl hiding in her voice. “This isn’t unicorn magic. I don’t know what it is, but it feels kind of primal. I think that it might be raw magic, which is so very dangerous to work with and I don’t understand how it was contained in a gemstone.”

“Raw magic?” Rainbow asked.

“Magic goes through filters,” Twilight replied. “I am a filter. You are a filter. When I use magic, I leave behind a magical signature that fundamentally changes the nature of the magic used. When you do pegasus magic, that magic which flows through you takes on a distinct pegasus signature. If that magic were somehow put into a gemstone, somepony skilled in divination would be able to determine that it was pegasus magic.”

“And Mister Teapot is a special kind of filter.” Raven looked up from her notes, her eyebrow arched as she studied Tarnish, and after a second, she resumed her writing.

“Correct.” Twilight sounded both prim and out of sorts. “Tarnish has survived multiple exposures to raw magic and so has Maud. Studying them has given me what little bit of knowledge I have on the subject.”

“Which now makes you the expert,” Prince Blueblood said in a dry, bored sounding voice. “You should be proud, you have a field of study that Auntie knows next to nothing about.”

“I can never tell when you are being sarcastic.” Twilight moved the gem aside and glared at Prince Blueblood. “You… you are just not a pleasant pony, Blueblood.”

“Oh, whatsoever shall I do, rebuked and rebuffed by Equestria’s most eligible princess. Woe is me.” Rolling his eyes, Prince Blueblood slurped some tea, his ears twitched, and then he peered down into his teacup. “Really, that is quite marvellous. Who would have thought?”

Snorting, Twilight’s lip curled back into a snarl as she resumed looking at the snowflake gem. Rainbow Dash, who was being ignored by Pebble, gave up and started making funny faces at Tarnish instead. Tarnish, provoked by Rainbow Dash’s gookie faces, turned away from Maud and made a horrendous face right back at the flippant rainbow maned pegasus sassing him in his own kitchen.

This set off Vinyl Scratch, who joined in, and Octavia let out a demoralised sigh as she held Pebble. Prince Blueblood watched all of this with keen interest, and after about a minute of nonstop hijinks, he snorted in disgust.

“These are supposed to be the heroes of the realm?” Making a gesture with his hoof, he pointed at the silly ponies all around him. “This is the best that Equestria has to offer? These are the faces we show the world?”

“Terrifying, isn’t it?” Octavia said, responding to Prince Blueblood’s aroused ire.

“Say, I wonder if I still have a cobra or two left in my saddlebags,” Tarnish muttered as he gave Prince Blueblood a meaningful stare.

Maud, turning her head, focused upon her husband. “You did, in fact, have a highly poisonous cobra left in your saddlebags. Limestone found it when she went rummaging around in there, looking for souvenirs.”

“Oops!” Tarnish now looked alarmed and his eyes went wide with panic.

“She named it Noodle and she likes giving it hissy-kisses.”

Hearing Maud’s words, Tarnish let out a sigh of relief and failed to notice Rainbow Dash’s continued provocations. There was a clunk as Twilight’s brass jeweler’s loupe hit the wooden table, bounced, and then rolled around. The corner of Twilight’s eye had a nasty twitch to it, and her cheek tugged the corner of her mouth up in time to her eye tics.

“Is it… is it the ley line junction that makes this a region of madness?” Prince Blueblood, looking disturbed, shuddered a bit and shook his head. He let out a dismissive snort, and pointed at the book in front of him, eager to change the subject. “This is the only book in the Archive Incognitus that specifically mentions Skyreach. Auntie keeps these books under lock and key. I was able to get it, but upon my return home, I am positive that Auntie is going to ream me. If we are particularly unlucky, she might show up here to collect the book herself. She is bound to discover that it is missing.”

“And what does it say?” A.K. Yearling asked in a sleepy voice.

“Very little.” Leaning forward, Prince Blueblood cleared his throat and his eyes fell to look at the book. “The old world tribes came from the Grittish Isles, as those of us who paid attention in history class might know. Those of us not making funny faces. But the Grittish Isles weren’t the only place those tribes come from, it was just the central location.”

“Just get to the part about Skyreach already,” A.K. Yearling demanded.

Rolling his eyes, Prince Blueblood shot the pegasus a dark look and continued, “Skyreach was off to the east and north of the Grittish Isles. It was supposed to be a vast, unassailable fortress. No army that ever ventured off to conquer it ever came back. No survivors ever emerged, though there were many that told fantastic tales, magical divination proved them liars. This book is almost a thousand years old and it states that every expedition sent to find Skyreach never returned, not one pony ever came back.”

“Sounds like a campfire story.” Rainbow Dash, her forelegs folded in front of her, leaned against the edge of the table. Holding out her wing, she tried to give Tarnish a tickle.

“Even the dragons avoid the area, and they are greedy.” Prince Blueblood’s eyes narrowed and he touched the book with his hoof. “The dragons say that those foolhardy enough to go into the Howling Peaks never come back. No dragon has ever returned from that place.”

“Huh.” Tarnish gave Rainbow Dash a shove and gave his full attention to Prince Blueblood. “Are we still going to do this?”

A.K. Yearling lifted her head and her expression became more Daring Do. A look of fierce determination blazed in her eyes and she nodded. Rainbow Dash stopped being a silly pony, she looked worried for a second as she looked into Tarnish’s eyes, and then, she too, gave a nod. Vinyl looked at Octavia for several long seconds, sighed, her barrel rising and falling, then she too, gave a slow nod.

“Princess Celestia refuses to sanction this and wants nothing to do with it. She told me not to get involved.” Twilight licked her lips, hesitant, and looked as though she was trying to make some decision. After a brief moment of thinking, she let out a resigned sigh. “She begged me not to get involved, and told me that if I did, I would live with my regret for the rest of my days.”

Looking solemn, Tarnish waited for Twilight to continue, as she looked as though she had more to say.

“I’ve talked to my father and my mother… my mother stormed out of the room, but my father listened. He’s agreed to split the cost of the expedition with me. Together, we’re going to fund this trip. I have the utmost confidence in your abilities and each of you are exceptional in your own way. My father says its time I spread my wings and do things my own way.”

“Good on you, Twilight.” Raven lifted up her teacup in a salute and added, “I’ll see what I can do about accidental acquisitions.”

“I can get you all of the coal that you need.” Prince Blueblood looked a little worried, and a bit guilty, like a foal discovered in the cookie jar. “Auntie is just being cautious, and rightfully so. She always errs on the side of caution and it is my opinion that she hasn’t taken into full account just how capable this group is.”

“Why, Prince Blueblood, was that a compliment?” Raven asked.

“No, just a statement that presents the facts!” he retorted as he smacked the table with his hoof. “I do not compliment hooligans with stunted attention spans!”

“How soon can we go?” A.K. Yearling’s expression was now one of eager anticipation.

“Two weeks from now, I would think.” Raven lifted up her notes and began reading them over, peering through the thick lenses of her glasses. “It’s winter, so everything is a bit slow. We’ll need food, fuel, and supplies. The Endeavour needs a full restock and some servicing done to the engines.”

Tarnish, realising that every eye was now upon him, swallowed once, twice, and then managed to say, “Well, I’ll be ready to go then. Another crazy adventure with two crazy pegasus ponies and one of my best friends. This is gonna be great…”

Author's Notes:

I do hope that you are enjoying the prologue. It's quite large. I tried fitting all of this into one chapter somehow, and failed. I'd love to hear what you think about it. I'll admit, it's a bit unusual. Some of the first major hints to big time story puzzle pieces can be found in these chapters.