Star Swirl: A Recollection - Intro

“Twilight! Wait up! Where are you going?” Spike yelled.

“Just follow me. There’s something I need to check.” Twilight replied hurriedly.

They ran hurriedly down into the depths of the Castle of the Two Sisters, and as they reached the bottom of the dusty stairs, Twilight quickly lit a torch and began her travel down a dark and narrow hall. Cobwebs and bits of crumbled rock from the walls lined the ceilings and covered the floor. After a good ten minutes, they finally reached a singular, massive door.

“What do you think’s in there?” Spike asked as he hid behind Twilight.

“There’s only one way to find out.”

Twilight used her magic to open the enormous door before them, and inside was a huge room filled with ancient books and magic artifacts lost throughout the ages.

“This is amazing!” she exclaimed, “I had my suspicions, but I had no idea anything like this existed here!”

She lit the torches along the walls and it was revealed that in the center of the room, among the clutter, was a singular pedestal with a strange glass orb resting upon it. Intrigued, Twilight carefully approached it.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Spike frowned.

“Don’t worry Spike, I’ll be fine,” she assured him.

No sooner had than she spoke, the orb started glowing with a brilliant blue light, and shattered into countless shards of glass leaving a massive glowing smokescreen.

“Waaaah!!!” Twilight screamed, and she quickly formed a forcefield to protect Spike and herself.

A raspy voice echoed from the smoke saying, “Who are you? I sense the powers of Celestia and Luna, however you clearly are neither.”

“Twilight and Spike looked quizzically at each other for a moment, until Twilight looked up and asked, “Who are you? How do you know Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?”

The voice spoke again sounding annoyed, “Ponies these days have no respect for their elders. However, I am not without manners. My name… is Starswirl the Bearded!”

At hearing this name, Twilight just stood there in awe.

“Starswirl? But- but that’s impossible! You couldn’t be Starswirl the Bearded… He’s been dead for several millennia!” Twilight shouted confusedly.

“Indeed, my physical being has been deceased for many years now, however my spirit lives on,” Starswirl said as he stepped forth from the smoke.

Twilight gasped, “I-it really is you. I don’t know what to say! But how?”

“Allow me to recount a story of old” he smiled knowingly, “A story of my travels and my adventures. It all began many centuries ago...”

Why?

It’s all so clear to me.  So irresistibly indescribable. Putting it into words seems above me. Somewhere out of my reach. How could it be within reach? It… it feels so good. To experience nothing, let it wash over you. It all almost makes sense, and perhaps it does. The meaning. It’s so close. Calmly. It’s nice after all. So cold and crisp and clear. A beautiful noise followed by an insufferable silence. Deafening silence. Horridly creative silence. Such beautiful songs. The parts more bitter than the pleasant whole. It never ceases to amaze. A cacophony of motion, all things in perfect alignment. Such a nonsensically rigid order. Surges of light in the tide of emotion. It hurts. It hurts in a good way, the way that makes you question why it felt good. It wasn’t pain. Was it? Hours since then. How could it have been? Mere minutes an eternity of bliss. An orchestra of thoughts. A symphony of questions! A fork in the road leads to two more. Clearer now. When will it end? I’ll not know anytime soon. A dream not yet had, but lingering in the past. Dwelling into mere consequence. Still more. But why?

Insanity

It was horrible. A sound that I’d never heard before, ringing in my head. A voice so twisted that should it speak aloud humanity would scream for mercy. It was a writhing mass of noise and agony, nearly incomprehensible, combining into what sounded like human speech. Only it wasn’t human. Not in the least. It spoke to my mind with such hatred, such anguish, that I felt my sanity slip away as I screamed for it to all just be sent into oblivion. It whispered of nightmares, of horrid things from mankind’s deepest fears. A landscape of pain and anguish clearly projected into my mind. A vision of hell right before my eyes, and I was the only one to see it. As of then, I was the only one to view this broken world; and then the voice spoke to me again. “Fear not. Soon, it shall be seen by all.”

God of Purgatory

   It was enormous, with four shining wings of stone and silver spreading out from either side of it’s massive frame. Elegant, almost bone-like structures made up the main body if you could even say it had such a thing, and from the underside, massive, whip-like tentacles surged and flailed about, plowing through anything in their path. The tendrils were lined with blades, but seemed to melt into an acidic substance towards the tips, burning and cutting through anything unfortunate enough to meet it. At it’s core was a human figure of pure white, visible from the waist up, crowning the alien-like being. Instead of a face, it had a crystalline helm, almost as if it were concealing itself with a mask, and the figure remained with it’s arms outstretched, as though to display it’s incredible power. And incredible power it had. The monster floated above the populace, it’s size rivaling that of a skyscraper. It glowed with a heavenly light, yet the whole seemed to reflect naught but a dull mockery of the brilliance bestowed upon it. It destroyed without discrimination, caring little for the righteous or the criminal, as though it had no knowledge as to what those concepts even were. This was certainly the end of humanity, for Purgatory was absolute.