Author's note: The part in italics is a prologue of sorts, setting the stage for Pyroc's story.
Etheria was an amazing world that has lasted for hundreds of years. As such, it is full of history, as well as plenty of mysteries behind them. The most notable of these mysteries is the lost kingdom of Infernia. Long ago, Infernia was a member of the Etherian kingdom alliance; though it had a sort of rivalry with the kingdom of Snows. This was mainly because while Snows was an ice kingdom, Infernia was a fire kingdom. The people there were expert craftsman and had created technology that was arguably the most advanced of all the kingdoms. It was a prosperous kingdom, to be sure, but that put it under Horde Prime's radar and on the top of his hit list. Knowing an attack was coming, Infernia, though reluctantly, sent a call for help to Snows, the closest of the kingdoms; this is where the mystery lies. Snows never responded to the message, and, while it was a brutal battle, Infernia fell to Horde Prime. The kingdom of Snows will deny to ever receiving any such message, though historians all agree that the kingdom did indeed send a message; no one knows for sure what really happened. Few refugees from the kingdom fled and managed to find a living among the other kingdoms, as well as tell of what they knew of the kingdom's fall. That was nearly a hundred years ago, and with the refugees long dead, and the history books only repeating what those refugees had told, it would seem that the mystery of Infernia may never truly be answered, until one day, a group of hikers accidentally stumbled upon a set of old ruins, and, upon closer inspection, archaeologists confirmed that the ruins were indeed what was left of the once proud kingdom. With the discovery now comes an opportunity to solve this mystery once and for all…
The ruins, once desolate and quiet, now bustled with the activity of archaeologists and other explorers that were busy excavating what they could of the ancient kingdom. As they were busy, an Etherian transport ship flew in, landing at a safe spot outside the ruined walls. The ship's exit ramp lowered as princesses Entrapta and Mermista walked out.
"This is so exciting!" Entrapta said, "An ancient civilization with the most advanced technology of its time; I can't wait to check this out!"
"Yeah, whatever," Mermista said, being her usual mood self. She just casually strolled through while Entrapta practically ran in circles, looking for any tech that might be worthwhile with her high tech scanning goggles that she had created for this particular occasion. As Mermista kept walking, she could sense a lack of water within not just the runs, but the rest of the land as well.
"How did these people even survive?" she said to herself, knowing that the kingdom was once a fiery kingdom, just as Salineas was once a watery kingdom.
Just then, Entrapta looked back over at Mermista and yelled: "WAIT!"
Mermista stopped walking: "What is it?"
Entrapta ran over to a few feet in front of Mermista. Stooping down, she brushed aside piles of dust with her hands. Revealing what seemed to be a type of circular door in the floor itself.
"It looks like some kind of hidden door." Entrapta said, "I'm going to try and open it."
Reaching into her tool belt with her hair, Entrapta pulled out what looked like a few lock picking tools and began working on the door.
"Got it!" she yelled after a few minutes as the circular door retracted to the side with a hiss. Entrapta giggled in excitement: "I wonder what's in here." She said, diving into the hole. Mermista groaned in frustration; Entrapta just couldn't restrain herself, could she? Mermista then dived in the hole after the tech princess. She landed softly on the ground as the fall was a lot shorter than she had expected. As she looked around, she appeared to be in a bigger, circular chamber. There were carvings all around the walls of the chamber, depicting a battle of some kind. Turning her attention to the center of the room, she saw Entrapta looking over and scanning what seemed to be a large box of sorts.
"Princess Mermista! Princess Entrapta!" called one of the archaeologists from above, "Are you okay?"
"We're fine!" Mermista called back up.
"You guys have to come take a look at this!" Entrapta shouted. Moments later, a rope was let down as one of the archaeologists slid in. He looked around in awe at the scene around him.
"This must be some kind of hidden tomb." He said, "And these pictures…"
"What are they?" Mermista asked.
The archaeologist studied them for a bit, then said: "If I'm reading these correctly, these depict the Fall of Infernia itself. I can clearly see Horde Prime's robots here."
He continues walking among the depictions, stopping at one that shows a what looked like a knight in a sarcophagus.
"This is interesting," he said, "One would think this would mean that the brave warriors fell, but the letters around the sarcophagus say something different."
"What do they say?" Mermista asked. Entrapta had walked up behind them as they talked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
The archaeologist studied the letters, translating hem as he went: "'He who lies here is our future. The last one sleeps. Speak his name to wake him'."
"Well, what is his name?" Mermista asked, "and where is he?"
"It's difficult to say," the archaeologist replied, "It doesn't say it here, but maybe there's a clue somewhere around here."
"Uhhh, I think that's him right there." Entrapta said, pointing to the sarcophagus in the middle of the room.
"It certainly matches the picture," The archaeologist said, and he went over to look at it. The same runes were written on the sides, but there was something carved into the top of the lid.
"I think this is his name." he said.
Entrapta looked at the carved letters, using her tech goggles to translate.
"Fire Knight Pyroc," she said, "It says Fire Knight Pyroc."
Just then a low rumbling was heard, then the sarcophagus began to crack as an orange energy began glowing from within. The three quickly backed away in shock.
"What did you do?!" Mermista said.
"I don't know! I just read what the lid said!" Entrapta yelled.
"Everyone out!" the archaeologist yelled, and the three immediately went to the rope and began to climb. They had all just gotten out when the sarcophagus exploded, sending debris and dust everywhere. The other explorers crowded around the area, having sensed the explosion themselves.
"What happened?" one of them asked.
Entrapta looked down the hole into the tomb: "I think we just woke him up."
"Woke who up?"
Entrapta didn't answer as she was looking at the figure in the middle of the room. He was covered in black armor and wearing a helmet with three spikes sticking out of the top. The faceplate of the helmet looked as if it had multiple dagger-like plates placed side by side vertically in front of his face; an orange glow emanated from within. In fact, his whole armor had a fiery orange glowing from the black, as if the metal was still ragingly hot. To top it off, a massive war axe, the metal glowing like the armor, was strapped to his back. As Entrapta watched. the figure, obviously Pyroc, slowly stood up and looked around, then looked up at the hole Entrapta was watching him from.
Entrapta yelped and backed away.
"Wait!" Pyroc said, "I need to ask you something!"
Slowly, Entrapta crept back to the hole: "Well, can you come up here first?" she said.
Pyroc nodded, then said: "You might want to stand back." Entrapta promptly did so. A few moments later, Pyroc flew out of the hole, propelled by a burst of fire he had summoned, and landed safely on the ground in front of the hole. He looked around to see the explorers beginning to crowd around him, astonished by what they saw. He also saw the rest of the ruins, and it seemed as if the fiery glow diminished a little bit.
"What…what happened?" he asked: "The battle…I don't understand." Mermista walked up: "What's the last thing you remember?"
Pyroc shrugged: "All I remember was the fighting. Horde Prime's machines were battling our warriors. I was with them, but then…I can't remember anything after that."
Mermista and Entrapta's eyes widened.
"You were asleep for a hundred years?" Entrapta asked.
"A hundred years?!" Pyroc said, dread in his voice.
Mermista put a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him: "You should come with Entrapta and I. We have a LOT to discuss."
Pyroc nodded and followed the two princesses back to the ship.
"Head back to Brightmoon," Mermista told the pilot. As the ship took off, Mermista and Entrapta sat in the seats across form Pyroc.
"A lot has happened," Mermista said, "So I'll try and fill you in the best I can."
"You can start by telling me what happened to my kingdom." Pyroc said.
"I'm sorry, but Infernia is gone. Horde Prime destroyed it about a hundred years ago."
Pyroc sat back in shock; everything was happening faster than his mind could process. Mermista continued to give a rough summary of the past events, hoping filling him in would help ease his mind a bit more until they reached Brightmoon, where Queen Glimmer and She-Ra could, hopefully, help him better than she or Entrapta ever could…