The mountain was a grey emerald among the clouds, a dark shadow of the past. A certain feeling emanated from it, a magic of sorts. Power more ancient than time itself. Arising from that mountain, from the ancient remains of gods, came a being. A being more ancient and powerful than Existence herself.
This power was a hero, the only hero. All others heroes were dead, gone from this world. Exiled, dusted. There was no hope. No light. Not even darkness resided. There was no good or evil. There was only despair, sadness. This hero, the last hero, was sent to change that. To restore the ancient land of Equestria to what it once was, thousands of years ago. When the princesses were looked up to, when Canterlot was a sparkling haven, when the Elements of Harmony still existed.
Those days were gone, but they could return. There was no hope, yes, but there were dreams. Dreams, many hoped to become reality. Dreams that existed in the eyes of many, many who tried to follow those dreams. And as long as dreams existed, so did Equestria.
Hope may have died, the gods may have died, peace may have died, anarchy may have died, but there was something remaining.
A determination, stronger than any before. The determination to restore what once was.
Equestria wasn't dead, not yet. There was no hope, but there were dreams.
Those dreams just needed to be made reality.
She saw the castle in the distance. At some point, long ago, it may have been a grand building, surpassing anything in the land. Now, it may as well be a ruin, grey with age, crumbling to rust. To think, the princesses still lived there, alone and dying.
Today was the day that was going to change.
The only problem was, how was she going to get in? The castle was heavily guarded, with nopony allowed inside. Sneaking in seemed the only option, though that would be difficult. Possible, but difficult.
She stopped to think, but slowly turned her head when she realised what was next to her: a bone farm.
Bone farms were despicable creations, similar in nature to graveyards; however, they were not a place for the dead to rest. Instead, the spirits were used as a fuel, a powerful fuel that was one of the few ways to keep the kingdom going. The souls were tortured during these process, eventually withering away to nothing. It was believed that they didn't even go to an afterlife; they were gone forever.
She turned, not wanting to look at the machine that harvested the damned. She instead opted to move forward, through the crumbling city.
As it was, Canterlot was a grey city, many buildings closed down, beggars littered the streets, and somewhere, several ponies were probably dying of some horrible illness. Even the rich, as few as there were, couldn't escape the misery.
Almost every pony around here looked depressed, desolate. The life gone from their eyes. However, there was a faint sound in the distance; a sound that stood out from the melancholic streets of dust.
It was a song of fire, of beauty, of pain. A song that seemed to perfectly capture the essence of the land around them, yet it seemed to give everypony who heard it... something. A feeling none of them recognised. It wasn't long before others joined in, as best they could.
Maybe there was something, after all.
As she stood and listened, she heard a whisper; glancing around, she saw a shadow gesturing to her in an alley. Now, she knew better than to follow some random pony into an allow, but she was quick to change her mind when she heard the shadow say her name.
"Faintheart."
Faintheart stared at the shadow, who receded into the darkness. With a hesitant step, Faintheart followed.
The alleyway itself was small, with rubbish littering the floor. At the end of the alley was the shadow Faintheart had seen.
The shadow stepped forward, revealing themselves to be a pony, hidden beneath a large hood. Due to the darkness of the alley, Faintheart could not make out any structure of them.
"Greetings, Faintheart. I wish we could meet under better circumstances. For now, this will have to do."
Faintheart raised an eyebrow. "And you are..?"
"That will be revealed in good time. For now, I must warn you." The cloaked pony, who was a good head taller than Faintheart, sighed. "You see, I know of your mission. To help this land. Unfortunately, that is not possible."
Faintheart opened her mouth to protest, but was cut off. "At least, not as you are now. You will require help. Which is why you are aimed for the castle. Normally, getting in would be an impossible task."
The pony moved towards Faintheart, and there was a light glow from under their hood. The pony smiled. "However, I can help you with that."
There was a flash of light, which took Faintheart by surprise. She rubbed her eyes, as the world around her folded into view.
She was in a large room, a room that was a dull white. The room was mostly empty, save for a few pillars, windows...
and two thrones.
Faintheart turned towards the cloaked pony, but gasped when she realised that the pony had removed her cloak, revealing a set of wings, and a horn.
In front of Faintheart, smiling grimly, was none other than Princess Luna, her sister stood beside her.
Princess Celestia, however, wasn't smiling. She looked concerned.