Chapter 1: The Blue Sky

It was another wonderful morning. At least it probably would've been if somepony had allowed Twilight Sparkle to sleep in. Twilight grumbled to herself in her bed. She tried her best to go back to bed, but it was too late. Pinkie's earlier exclamation had woken her up. Twilight probably wouldn't have minded being woken up so early if the pink pony had shouted nearly anything but "Twilight! Come quick! The sky is blue!" Typical Pinkie Pie? Yes. Necessary? No.

The purple unicorn rolled out of bed and groggily looked at the clock. 4:45? That was too early even for Pinkie Pie's antics. She heard a menacing groan coming from the foot of her bed. "Why are we up so early?" asked Spike

"Pinkie Pie," Twilight answered, followed by a loud groan from the baby dragon. Spike knew that Pinkie always means well, but usually got tired of her randomness quickly. Especially before dawn.

Twilight was glad that at 4:45 in the morning Celestia hadn't raised the sun. It meant that most stores probably wouldn't be open either. She wished she could just go back to bed, but she was already up. The purple unicorn put a hoof to her chin to try to think what she could do.

Twilight Sparkle finally came to a conclusion. She decided to study some astronomy while Luna's moon was still up. She didn't have her Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac to All Things Astronomy, but fortunately she could remember most of it. Who knows? Maybe she would make a super discovery. The thought made the unicorn smile, but she dismissed it since she didn't want her head in the clouds.

The unicorn used her magic to lift up her telescope as quietly as possible to not wake Spike, who was fortunate enough to have drifted off to sleep. Baby dragons do need their rest. She placed the telescope next to the window as the aura-covered curtains flew apart.

As Twilight looked out the window, she let out a gasp that was so loud it almost woke Spike. Like the nighttime, it wasn't a blinding light that late risers cursed, but it wasn't completely dark either. Instead there was just a blue light that shone down on all of Equestria. Pinkie was right. The sky was blue.

It wasn't the kind of blue that anypony would expect in a normal day. It was a different shade of blue. It looked more like the blue found in a kit of markers than a sky blue found on Rainbow Dash's coat.

Twilight looked at the new sky in a sense of bewilderment. She didn't know if she was supposed to be afraid or envious or joyful or anything. The moon that was supposed to be out at 4:45 was covered by the new artificial sky

The unicorn could see a small white dot that seemed to replace the sun, except it didn't shine. It was more like a small insignificant cloud. It could have just as easily been a cloud if it wasn't the only white thing in the sky.

"Hmmm..." Twilight said to herself after shaking the amazed look off of her face. She was intrigued by this little white dot. Her eye went into the eyepiece of the telescope as Twilight moved the device. The hardest part about moving the telescope while looking at the new sky was that it was impossible to gauge how fast you were going. Everything was blue.

After a couple seconds of searching, Twilight found the white dot. The telescope's iris shrunk as Twilight focused her view onto the little white dot. As she continued to zoom in, the purple unicorn realized that the white dot was actually a group of words.

After a little more zooming in, Twilight Sparkle could read the general message: "MOLTEN CORE WARNING. AN OPERATOR ERROR HAS OCCURRED AT" followed by a large string of numbers and letters that made no logical sense. Molten core? That didn't sound good. And who's the operator who made this error?

The message continued: "*PRESS ANY KEY TO VENT RADIOLOGICAL EMISSIONS INTO THE ATMOSPHERE" Even more cryptic than the first message. What was the key? And how would a message floating in the sky be able to vent radiological emissions? Where were the emissions even coming from?

Twilight continued to read. "*CONSULT REACTOR CORE MANUAL FOR INSTRUCTIONS OF PROPER REACTOR CORE MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR

PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE"

Twilight read and reread the message. What was a reactor core and where could a pony find the manual for it? Does pressing any key vent the radiological emissions or allow you to continue? How do you press a key anyway? It was all so confusing making her want to go back to bed even more than she had felt before.

Celestia needed to know about this. "Spike! Take a note!" the pony commanded. She turned to the dragon's bed to see that her friend was off in dreamland. Twilight Sparkle sighed as she magically summoned a quill and scroll. She habitually spoke as she wrote:

"Dear Princess Celestia,

As you can most likely see, the sky has been painted a more obnoxious blue than the traditional sky blue. This paint has covered Luna's moon and will most likely hide your wonderful sunshine.

I also happened to notice a small group of white words in this sky. It is a message that uses strange letters and numbers that I don't understand. It also mentions releasing radiological emissions into the atmosphere, which would be a danger to all of Equestria, and a reactor core. If you know about any of these things, please let me know.

Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle"

She rolled up the scroll and tied it up with a red piece of ribbon. She was ready to send it off, but Spike was still asleep. If it was anypony else, Twilight would've woken the sleeper up without a second though, but Spike was too cute in his sleep to wake up. So the unicorn shook her quill up to the baby dragon's nose. When Spike sneezed, she put the scroll in front of his mouth, and the scroll was off to Celestia.

Twilight chuckled to herself at what she had just done before becoming serious again as she looked into the sky. What was going on? Hopefully the princess would know.

After a few minutes of asking herself answerless questions, Twilight Sparkle heard a burp behind her, followed by a "BOOM!" The boom made Twilight jump as she turned around. The scroll was sent with a gargantuan red book titled, "Equestria Mythology."

The unicorn stared perplexed at the book. "Mythology? What does that have to do with a core or a key or anything?" It definitely didn't help that she didn't believe in any myth nonsense. She opened the purple-ribboned scroll that laid next to the book and read it out loud. "Explanation: Page 13. This will tell you what the source of the change in color of the sky is. How to Get There: Page 67. This will tell you how to get to the place you need to go. I believe that you can answer the call. It is now officially your mission."

Twilight could barely contain her excitement. She had a mission from the princess, and it was interesting. She didn't even know what it was, but she was excited.

Since it was a direct order from the princess, the purple unicorn opened the book and began to read skeptically. Even though she was excited, she still didn't believe in most mythology.

"Chapter 2: Creation of Equestria

Summary

1500 years ago, Equestria was constructed by a group of mythical creatures known throughout pop culture as humans. The group was ruled by a female human who had never been seen by any of the humans making Equestria. In fact, the humans making Equestria lived in fear of her voice and usually were killed by their leader.

Since the land of Equestria was built miles below the ground, the female voice created Luna and Celestia as the first ponies to inhabit the cities already built by the workers. Ever since then, the voice promised to give a sign in the sky. When this sign is given, she would require ponies to make their way up to the god's land."

Twilight Sparkle looked up from the book. She had heard this at least a million times as a bedtime story. The voice was nothing more than a silly little childhood memory. But was Celestia trying to tell her that these myths actually are true? Was this blue marking the sign?

Well according to Celestia, it must be. Looking back, Twilight found it odd that being her apprentice, she never asked the princess about this myth. She seemed to have just taken it as an old pony tale. Then again, that was the case with Nightmare Moon, too.

She flipped the pages to the sixty-seventh page of the huge book. She was only skimming the surface of the goliath of a book. No wonder she didn't have this book in her library. It was too gigantic. She got to page 67 and continued her reading.

"Chapter 5: Creation of the Everfree Forest

Summary

It had been one hundred years since the creation of Equestria. Celestia and Luna had mastered their art of raising the moon and the sun. Suddenly, a glowing blue sphere began to slowly fall from the god's land. It landed in an empty plain and created a blue hole

Terrible creatures and plants spurted from the blue hole. The blue hole was said to be a portal to the god's land, and the creatures from the god's land such as manticores and cockatrices came from the hole. After only a week, there was a large patch of darkness that we now call the Everfree Forest. The blue hole then disappeared, ending the growth of the forest."

To Twilight, this was another bedtime story. Not as common as the creation of Equestria story, but still well known as a sort of a sequel. Her mom would tell her both stories to her one after another. Twilight would always ask where the happy ending was, and her mom would respond with a cheerful "There isn't one yet. Maybe when you grow up, you can make one." That always gave her a happy good night's sleep.

Celestia said that the story of how the Everfree Forest would tell her "How to Get There." Considering that the blue orb that created the forest came from the god's land, "there" must be where the blue orb came from. And the blue orb came from the god's land. The place where all of the nasty things in the Everfree Forest came from. Celestia wanted Twilight to go there. Twilight was suddenly less excited.

At first, the unicorn wondered to herself if she could find a way out of doing this. It seemed really dangerous. She was going to be going somewhere nopony had ever gone before. Not to mention she was going to the place that was probably more sinister than the Everfree Forest.

But she knew that the princess wanted her to do this. It was her duty. The unicorn would rather die than let the princess down. Besides, maybe it was just like her mom had told her when she was a filly. Maybe she could make a happy ending.

It was settled. She was going to go up to the god's land and solve the problem. Besides, if this was the sign that the voice was going to give, then she might as well answer the call.

Suddenly, a groan was heard from the bed. The baby dragon couldn't get back to sleep, and he didn't even know about the sky yet. "So how about that sky?" he said in a messy mumble. The purple dragon was still half asleep and would probably think that the new sky coloring was just part of some bizarre dream. But he still needed to see it.

"See for yourself," Twilight said in a worried tone, a tone she had the right to speak with considering her new mission. Spike reluctantly lifted his head from the covers to look out the window. The baby reptile jumped out of his covers when he saw the sky. "The sky! I-It's BLUE!"

Twilight giggled a little to ease her tension. "Sounds familiar," she said mostly to herself.

"Twilight! Do you know what's going on?" Spike yelled in a sort of half-panic mode.

"Well, apparently this is some sort of calling from a voice miles above us. Do you know the story of how Equestria was made?"

"What does the sky have to do with Pinkie Pie's-?"

"Wrong story, Spike."

"Oh." Spike gave himself another moment to think. "Aha! You mean the one with the voice?"

Twilight Sparkle smiled at his mistake. "Yes. Apparently this is her call for somepony to go back to the god's land. Celestia just gave me direct orders to answer the call and go to the voice's world."

Spike looked at the unicorn like she was a shiny trophy. "Whoa! That's gotta be the coolest thing ever! So many ponies in all of Equestria, and Celestia chooses you to go check out the new world. It's like Christopher Coltumbus, but even cooler."

Twilight used her magic to pack a bag for a long trip into a new world. She packed any necessary provisions, a bit of hay and grass for food, and some books on mythology. The unicorn decided against taking the gargantuan book that Celestia had sent her. "So Spike, make sure that the library stays functioning just fine while I'm gone."

With that, Spike nearly jumped in front of his friend. "Oh no no no! If you're gonna be some big explorer, then you are not doing it without me."

Twilight groaned. Not this again. "Spike you-

"I know I'm just a baby dragon, but I'm your number one assistant. And stuff like this is what number one assistants are for. So whether you like it or not, I'm coming with you, Twilight."

Twilight opened her mouth to talk, but Spike did have a point. Besides, she would appreciate a companion to be with in the incredibly long balloon ride. "Alright Spike, you can come, too."

The dragon jumped in the air brimming with joy. "Yes!" The enthusiasm from her assistant made Twilight Sparkle give a chuckle as she packed additional provisions for her number one assistant.

"Well number one assistant, you can carry the bag," the pony said as she dropped the forty pound backpack onto the baby dragon's back, who buckled over and collapsed as soon as it landed. But after a couple seconds, Spike rolled out from under the crushing hold of the pack. "I'll go get the balloon ready. Don't mess anything up, Spike."

As Twilight walked away, the purple dragon began to fish through the bag to find a book with the title "The Mysterious Mystery of the Voice". If he was going to be like Christopher Coltumbus, then he was going to need a map. Twilight told me that because he didn't have a map, Coltumbus' expedition was somewhat of a failure. So it was best that he knew what he was up against.

"Voice Fun Facts"

That sounded like a section he could investigate. Especially since it was a long segment of bullet points, unlike the walls of text everywhere else.

"The voice is known by some as GLaDOS."

Interesting. Perhaps a codename for the voice. Because just calling it "the voice" is plain boring. Sure, GLaDOS doesn't sound as cool as "Mega Ultra Voice Ruling All of the Universe", but it was still catchy. Next fact.

The voice loves cake.

Aha! A weak point! Maybe cake can be a way to weaken GLaDOS. Sort of catch her detach her attention to what's important at the time, such as a flying kick to the face. Man, if he read enough of these, he could take put that voice thing with a blindfold. Next fact.

The voice hates potatoes...