“You see, Nightmare Moon. When those elements are ignited by the spark that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element; the Element of Magic!”
Twilight Sparkle, Friendship is Magic, part 1.

The Everfree Forest, Equestria. 2nd May, Year 3 Era Harmonia.

Myr Fee’s law always hits the hardest when it's a nice day.

It was an old saying, but a mint-green Unicorn named Lyra Heartstrings had found it to be oddly prophetic for today.

She had decided, perhaps rashly, that she would go to the Everfree Forest to seek out the Castle of Two Sisters. She’d arrived at this decision after a brief conversation on the topic with her old friend Twilight Sparkle. The other Unicorn – who, among other (perhaps more notable) things, was the local librarian of the town of Ponyville – had mentioned that the castle probably had an extensive, hitherto untouched library all its own. A library that, in all likelihood, contained untapped reservoirs of knowledge.

Besides: those untapped reservoirs of knowledge held within them the hope that she might find more information on her chosen field of study. Even as she trotted through the old forest paths, she felt a grin grace her face.

Today, she decided, I am definitely going to find proof of humans.

She idly wondered why Twilight hadn’t chosen to avail herself of the Castle’s library herself, but she dismissed the thought as she kept trotting through the forest.

Though the Everfree Forest had something of a terrible reputation – unlike the vast majority of Equestria, the Forest had its own ecosystem that acted independently of pony influence, and that was ignoring the huge numbers of terrifying creatures that lived within it – Lyra had felt confident in her ability to handle it when she set out.

Unfortunately for her, confidence was nowhere near the same as certainty.

Which path was it? she wondered, as she looked at an upcoming fork in the road. She tried to remember which direction she had been told to go in, but her mind drew a blank. Should I toss a coin?

Shaking her head, she decided to head on the left, but deep in her heart she felt the first twinge of uncertainty shake the confidence that she’d had this morning.

Think I’m starting to see why Twilight didn’t come back out here, after all.

Ponyville Library.

In point of fact, Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville’s resident librarian, did have more than a passing curiosity about the site. In fact, the purple Unicorn mare had kept ‘Check Castle Of Two Sisters Library’ on her long-term to-do list almost constantly since she had first seen the castle.

But… well, it was in the Everfree Forest, after all, and unlike Lyra, Twilight tried to let her common sense rule over her more… esoteric impulses. Not to mention the fact other things always seemed to pop up every time she thought about going.

Right now, said ‘other thing’ was an artefact from an expedition to an ancient, unidentified ruin that had been explored by the Equestrian Archeological Commission over three years ago. They had been sorting through various pieces when they found something that they couldn’t quite wrap their heads around.

Princess Celestia herself had personally sent it to Twilight in order to ‘get her insight into it’, as she had put it, and Twilight appreciated the task both as a sign of her mentor’s trust in her capabilities and, more importantly, as a test of them.

It wasn’t the first such test in recent months. Indeed, only a few short months ago, Twilight and her friends had been tasked with going to the Crystal Empire and protecting it from a powerful, almost demonic creature that had once been a Unicorn named Sombra. Twilight was convinced that this artefact was another test in the same vein, and she was determined to crack it.

Upon first glance it was beautiful but not exactly complex. It was a kind of box: large, golden, heavy and covered in symbols. It was only when further examined that it was clear that the symbols were, in fact, ones that she didn’t recognise from any book she had ever read. There was one inscription on it in a relatively easily-translated ancient Equestrian dialect, but it made almost no sense (unless her translation was waaay off). The rest of the symbols were older still, the sort of thing that she couldn’t understand at all.

“So,” Spike, her small purple dragon assistant, said, frowning at the box. “You think you’ve got to open it?”

“That seems the most likely option,” Twilight said, scrutinising the casket carefully. “I just don’t understand the design of this box.”

“Why not?” Spike asked, frowning at the box. “It’s… well, a box, isn’t it?”

“So it seemed upon initial inspection, but it’s a very odd one,” Twilight said quietly. “There’s no hinges, no keyhole, and the seam’s barely visible, like it’s not meant to be seen. Heck, I’ve even tried doing a bunch of unlocking spells, but they don’t do anything.” She pointed to the inscription in ancient Equestria. “This part’s the only thing I can get the translation for.”

“Well, does it help you figure out how to unlock the box?” Spike asked.

“Not really,” Twilight said, still frowning at it. “It reads, ‘Here the fallen sleeps, his hatred hath laid him low, he will never wake’. Or it could be ‘he must never wake’.”

Spike frowned. “Could it be a burial urn? Somepony’s ancient ashes?”

“It could be, but that doesn’t explain why Princess Celestia would send it to me,” Twilight said quietly. “No, there must be more to it than that.”

“More to what than what?” a voice piped up behind Twilight.

With a yelp of surprise, Twilight leapt into the air, before crashing to the ground in a heap. Dazed, she looked up, to see the concerned-looking face of Rainbow Dash, one of her friends.

“Oh, hey,” she said, grinning, before passing out.

Everfree Forest.

Alright, Lyra had to admit to herself, scowling at the unfamiliar trees around her. We’re definitely lost.

She should have known this would happen. The Everfree was the sort of place that, according to the old wives’ tales, always seemed to be different every time you went into it, but it was never easy to get through. There had been a reason that, as little fillies, Lyra and her friends had been warned off of going into the Forest. Its reputation went far enough that there were probably Vanhooverites who knew what it was.

Well, she thought, finding that castle is a bust: I’ll be lucky to find a way out, much less anything interesting.

It was in that moment, perhaps predictably, that something interesting found her.

One moment, Lyra was walking along the path that she had come along (at least, she really hoped that it was that path), and the next, a flash of light shocked her into leaping into a bush. Cursing softly, she stepped out of the bush, brushing brambles off of herself, before frowning at the source of the light.

It looked, and there was no other word for it, like a tear in the very fabric of the air in front of her. Beyond it, she couldn’t see anything but white, crackling void, and she held her breath, trying her best not to let the wave of something between awe and terror that she was feeling overwhelm her.

What is it? she thought, taking a hesitant step toward the tear.

Suddenly there was a flash of what almost looked like lightning, and Lyra jumped backward. Another flash lashed out, seemingly from within the gaping gash in reality, and then another. Lyra backed away, feeling the urge to run, but something compelled her to stay – whether it was fear of moving or morbid curiosity, she couldn't say.

The flashes continued, one after the other, then more, until in a sudden burst there was a final flare of blinding light that filled the air…

And then the light receded, the hole in reality seemingly gone… and a figure was standing in the clearing.

It was tall, maybe six foot. Bipedal, and wearing clothes – grey, black and white camouflage patterns all over the trousers and torso, the upper body attire consisting of some sort of light armour, and all of it was dirty, covered in grime and what looked like blood. Parts of the attire were torn, displaying bloody gashes and at least one nasty burn. Its eyes were blue, its hair cropped short and blonde, and a wispy goatee on its face. Notably, much of its visible skin had some sort of strange markings, which almost seemed to be glowing.

Lyra blinked at it. Bipedal. Clothes. Mostly hairless, except -

“Ly-Lyra?” the figure whispered. “Lyra Heartstrings?”

“Y-yes…” Lyra said, eyes wide with shock.

“You… you did it,” the figure said, something like a smile gracing its strange features. “You actually… actually did it…”

That was all it spoke, as it lapsed into unconsciousness on the spott, collapsing heavily to the ground.

At once, Lyra dashed over to it.

Him, she thought reflexively as she checked the thing was still breathing. ‘It’s a him. Masculine voice. Testosterone. Gender dimorphism in the species. Her brain had gone into analytical mode. Male, unknown species, but bipedal structure and opposable thumb hands indicates…

She paused, before almost smiling. She knew what this thing was, or at least she thought she knew. She took a deep breath.

“Hold on, big guy,” she said, trying to sound reassuring. “I’ll go get you help. You’ll be okay.”

Ponyville Library

“I’m so sorry!”

Rainbow Dash, to her credit, did look genuinely upset that she had hurt Twilight, even by accident. That didn’t change the fact that Twilight was currently pressing an ice pack against a growing lump on her head. Spike had stepped out of the room for a moment to fetch more ice packs – Rainbow’s arrival had definitely given Twilight a headache in more ways than one.

“You should – ow! – really learn not to sneak up on ponies,” the Unicorn hissed. “I’m surprised you don’t cause more accidents!”

“Well, you left your door unlocked,” Rainbow said with a shrug.

“Did I?” Twilight asked, giving Rainbow a sceptical look.

“Well, your door, your window, same difference to a Pegasus,” Rainbow shrugged. She looked at the artefact and frowned at it. “Whatcha doin’, anyway?”

Twilight frowned. “Studying an ancient, probably very fragile artefact for Princess Celestia. Nothing you’d be interested in, I’m sure.”

Rainbow scrutinised the box, her eyes narrowing slightly as she looked it up and down.

“Is it like a treasure chest?” she asked.

“It’s probably an urn,” Spike said with fake confidence as he walked back into the room with another ice pack. “It’s got a weird eppy-tap on it.”

“Epitaph,” Twilight corrected, rolling her eyes. “And it might not be an urn.”

“What’s the epitaph say?” Rainbow said, exaggerating the word deliberately and giving Spike a knowing grin.

Sighing, Twilight repeated the words. “The last line could be ‘will’ or ‘must’.”

“‘He must never wake’,” Rainbow repeated, frowning. “Huh. That’s sounds like a pretty ominous thing to stick on somepony’s urn.”

“It does a bit, doesn’t it?” Twilight agreed, grinning. “Which is why I’m convinced it’s not an urn. Or at least, not just an urn.” She returned her attention to the box. “I’m determined to figure out a way to open it and figure out what’s so special about it.”

Rainbow tilted her head, scrutinising the box closer still. “Are you sure it’s something we oughta find out?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Twilight asked, frowning in confusion. “Anything we can learn from this can tell us something about the past, when it was made, and who by!”

“And, maybe, why they aren’t around anymore?” Rainbow added, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, I’m guessing this wasn’t found in somepony’s yard sale.”

“No,” Twilight said, her tone deadpan. “It was found in an ancient ruin.”

“Yeah, see, the phrase ‘ancient ruin’ clinches it for me,” Rainbow said, smirking. “I get I’m not the brightest spark ‘round here, but what if whatever’s in here is… I dunno, ‘something ponies were not meant to know’?”

Twilight snorted. “I don’t believe there are Things ‘ponies were not meant to know’.”

“You’ll say that, and then you'll read some ancient book or find some ancient tomb and inadvertently unleash some mystical doodad,” Rainbow said, raising an eyebrow. “Like in that Daring Do rip-off, what was it… The Mareohs of Neighypt, when they cursed ponies and they turned into horrible monsters that could destroy the world!”

Twilight snorted. “Contrary to popular fiction’s usual tropes, ancient artefacts don’t tend to cause curses and suchlike. That’s usually confined to the realm of fiction.” She paused. “Wait a minute.”

“What?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight narrowed her eyes at her. “You read a book other than Daring Do?” She paused. “You know the word ‘inadvertently’?!”

Rainbow shrugged. “Got bored. Got desperate. Looked similar. Last time I try broadening my horizons.” She smirked. “And yeah. What do you think I am, stupid?”

“No, I…” Twilight began, and then she sighed. “Anyway. Broadening your horizons can be good.”

Rainbow sighed. “Look, I like what I like, it works for me. ‘Kay?”

Twilight just shrugged. “Whatever you say, Dash. I have a lot to be -”

Before she could finish, the door to the library burst open. Fortunately for her, Twilight did not jump quite as high, but it was still shocking.

“Twilight!” a familiar voice yelled, and Twilight blinked in surprise at the sight of a very breathless Lyra Heartstrings. “You need to… one mo’…”

The mint-green unicorn was panting, as though she’d been galloping at top speed.

“Lyra?” Twilight managed after a long pause. “What… what’s wrong?”

“Injured… creature… new…” Lyra replied haltingly. “You… need to come. Like, now.”

And without another word, she dashed out the door again. Twilight glanced at Rainbow.

“Well, that sounds… weird,” Rainbow supplied after a moment. “You reckon we should follow her, Twi?”

The purple unicorn mare sighed and shook her head. “Lyra’s always been a bit of an oddball…” She paused. “But she did sound serious.”

“She said something about an injured creature, too,” Rainbow added, frowning. “Wonder what that’s about. Should we get Flutters?”

Twilight nodded slowly. “It’s probably for the best to get the others and follow her. Celestia knows what this is about, but if there’s a hurt creature we’d be better off helping as best we can.”

“Gotcha,” Rainbow said, before charging out of the library at full pelt.

“You want me to come too, Twilight?” Spike asked.

“No, you wait here, Spike,” she replied quietly. She turned to follow Rainbow Dash. “What’s the betting all this fuss is over nothing.”

Getting the others hadn’t been so hard. Following Lyra, who had run off at a pretty quick speed, had been harder, but Twilight knew more than a few basic ‘find this pony’ spells so it wasn’t impossible. A thing, translucent trail of mint green sparkling energy led off in the direction the Unicorn had gone, easy enough for the group to follow.

The group had reached the Everfree by now, where Lyra’s trail led deeper into the woods. Rainbow Dash, predictably, had gone on ahead to make sure that the spell really led to Lyra (as opposed to something else entirely), despite Twilight telling her the spell was foolproof.

“So what sort of injured critter is it?” Applejack, an orange Earth Pony with a cowboy hat atop her blonde mane, asked.

“Lyra wasn’t exactly specific,” Twilight said grimly.

“Whatever it is, I hope I’ve brought enough first-aid supplies,” Fluttershy, a butter-yellow Pegasus mare with a long pink mane, said. Her soft voice was trembling even more than usual, the thought of some poor injured creature worrying her immensely. She had packed a first-aid kit with enough bandages and pain-soothing creams to treat two full-grown ponies, but there was no way to know just what Lyra had seen.

“I’m sure you have,” Rarity said, the alabaster Unicorn smiling kindly. “It’s just a case of finding the poor dear.”

“Well,” Pinkie Pie, a cheerful pink Earth Pony, said, “whatever this new creature is, I can’t wait to find out what it likes in a party.”

“Really?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Hey, when you’re injured and upset, a party in your honour’s the perfect way to cheer up,” Pinkie said, frowning at Applejack. She smiled again. “Trust me, it’ll be the perfect way to make it feel loads better.”

“Well, that’s something for this poor creature to look forward to at least,” Fluttershy said with a smile.

“I’m honestly surprised Lyra left it alone,” Rarity said, frowning slightly. “It seems… a little irresponsible, to be honest.”

“Lyra… can get overly excitable,” Twilight said diplomatically. It was the politest way she could think of saying that Lyra had been the oddball scatterbrained member of her old friendship group (if you could have called it that) in Canterlot. That she had moved to Ponyville was, safe to say, not the most pleasing thing Twilight could have imagined. That being said, Lyra had, at least, curbed some of her more eccentric habits.

Some.

Before anypony could say anything else, however, Rainbow Dash appeared ahead of them, flying back at high speed.

“Rainbow!” Twilight greeted her. “Did you find Lyra?”

“No, but the trail leads further in,” Rainbow replied breathlessly. “But there’s something you need to see, now.”

“Why, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked, frowning.

“Look,” Rainbow said, “just trust me, you’ve totally got to come see this!”

“See what?” Twilight asked.

“Just come!” Rainbow insisted.

Before Twilight could say anything else, she had turned and dashed off (Twilight, that was a terrible pun).

“Come on, girls,” she said. “We need to find where she’s gone, and what’s so important.”

He crawled.

He crawled because walking hurt, and because staying still was as good as dying.

He crawled because he could, and because that was a miracle in itself.

He crawled because he was damned if he was dying in some hole, somewhere far away from home. He was damned if he was dying without doing everything he could. People were counting on him. Lives depended on him.

He crawled, pulling himself up the dirty face of the ‘stairs’, leaving the chasm behind him, grimacing in pain as he did so.

He crawled, and ran a checklist of things through his mind to take his attention from his pain – what had happened to him? How had he gotten here?

Had that really been Lyra?

He crawled.

Twilight blinked as Rainbow pointed at the thing that had been causing all the fuss. Twilight was standing ahead of the rest of the Element Bearers, scrutinising the object her friend had dragged her out of their way to see.

“You see it. Right?” Rainbow asked, eyes wide.

Twilight looked at her, then at the thing, and then back at Rainbow. She took a breath.

“It’s a tree, Rainbow,” she said.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Well, duh! Of course it's a tree! But look at it!”

Twilight sighed and looked back at the tree. It was an especially gnarled example of a tree, to be sure, but there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it, particularly.

“You see it, don't you?” Rainbow asked. She looked at the others. “Any of you?”

“I do!” Pinkie Pie put in. The pink party pony had her head tilted at an almost entirely upside-down angle, a look of concentration on her face. “It's a skull!”

Twilight frowned, before turning to look at the tree again, tilting her head as she did so. Now that Pinkie had said it, the tree’s arrangement did look like a skull.

“So… it's a tree that vaguely resembles a skull,” she said. “Really… really vaguely.” She sighed. “How is this important?”

“It's a death tree, Twilight!” Rainbow said, somewhat insistently.

“A what?” Twilight asked.

To her surprise, there came a small cough from behind her. Twilight turned to see Fluttershy smiling slightly.

“Back in the days before Equestrian unified,” she said quietly, “there was a unit of Pegasus soldiers from the old junta that marched through a forest on hoof. They wanted to make sure their enemies weren’t hiding in the leafy terrain. They came upon trees that seemed to have grinning skulls upon them, but even though they took it as a bad omen, their commander pushed them on.”

“And they all got horribly slaughtered in an ambush,” Rainbow finished. “Ever since then, Death Trees have been considered omens of bad luck, death, and slaughter!”

Twilight sighed. “Really, though? It's an old tree. It looks a little bit like a skull. That doesn't mean that some horrible thing is gonna happen -”

“I dunno,” Applejack said, tilting her head. “Skull head, check. Creepy lookin’, check. Weird stuff happenin’, check. Reckon that fits all the criteria for this ‘death tree’ thingamajig.”

She gave Twilight a smirk and Twilight rolled her eyes.

“Mock all you want,” Rainbow said sagely, “there’s something screwy about all this. Like… I dunno, I got a bad feeling about -”

“Don't say it,” Twilight said heavily. “Next you'll be telling me you have a ‘Dashie Sense’.”

Rainbow blinked. “Of course not, Twilight. That’d be stupid.”

“Guys!” a familiar voice called. Twilight and the others looked to see Lyra waving at them from nearby.

“Lyra!” Twilight said. “Did you find the creature?”

“Just up here!” Lyra said. “It’s… uh, up!”

Lyra grinned as she led the others to the creature. It was definitely the creature she’d spotted earlier: he had apparently been crawling earlier, judging from the dirt along his legs and chest, but he had pulled itself up on a tree and was stumbling, limping towards the group. He was blinking at them, apparently confused.

“Wh…” he grunted, eyes widening slightly.

“What is it?” Rarity asked from behind her, speaking in a kind of hushed whisper.

“That…” Lyra said, a grin forming on her face. “That, my friends, is a…”

“No!” the figure said, its voice definitely masculine. It – he – held out one of its upper arms (was that a claw, or a paw?) in a warding gesture. “No, you won't!”

He stumbled backward.

“Careful, there,” Fluttershy said, her eyes wide with sympathy. “We’re not going to hurt you…”

“You won't change me!” the creature yelled, stumbling more, before finally collapsing to the ground in a heap.

At once, Lyra dashed forward, Twilight and the others behind her.

“What… what is it?” Rarity asked, frowning in confusion.

“It’s… or at least I think it’s…” Lyra began, examining the figure closely. “I think it's a human.”

Twilight frowned. “A... a human? But – aren't they mythical?”

“Yeah,” Lyra said, turning and grinning at her despite the injured human. “I've studied them all my life.” She turned to look down at the unconscious human, uncertain how to react. “You know, I always wondered if they were real. I always believed, but…” She let out an almost imperceptible squeal of excitement. “And now, here he is! A human!”

Twilight was still frowning, apparently unconvinced.

“But…” she said slowly. “But that's impossible. They're not real.”

“Impossible or not, sugarcubes,” Applejack interjected brusquely, “this fella needs a doctor somethin' fierce. Look at these injuries... he's beat up worse than Braeburn in a bar fight with a buffalo.”

“Applejack's right,” Fluttershy spoke up, already bringing her first-aid gear out. “Something terrible must have happened to him.”

Lyra frowned slightly, looking over the injuries the human had suffered. Some of them were lacerations, but there were a few that looked more like magic burns.

“I wonder what happened to him…” she pondered aloud.

Another pair of eyes watched the group as they began trying to move the unconscious human. These eyes studied the mares carefully, lingering on Lyra Heartstrings especially.

Curious, the owner of those eyes thought. Is this the past, or some strange alternate? Those were definitely Her Majesty’s Elements, but they were with… with Lyra Heartstrings of all ponies… and she is dead.

It made no sense, but that didn’t matter. Wherever this was, whatever had happened, wherever the owner of those carefully watching eyes had ended up, they knew their duty.

They would follow, they would watch, and they would serve their Mistress’ interests.

And so, the adventure seems to begin once again. However similar, it is bound to be different and run on its own tilt. Whatever that axis might be, it is bound to become a great story onto itself.

Hello, everyone. TheIdiot here, stopping by to see off Jed R’s Draft of SPECTRUM. I hope he will accomplish wonderfully in his own vision. Where it goes… well, I can’t say for certain. I’m just a visitor here like you, fair reader.

And like you, I cannot wait to see what Jed R has in store for us.

Sincerly,
TheIdiot.