Optional OST: Revelation

"Goodness. That's... that's horrible," Ampelios says to Dawn, taking in the ravaged castle. "That looks like some monster from below went berserk in the castle. The ones in the dragon caves are particularly nasty, but... they didn't seem to want to leave the caves when we were down there. I can't fathom what could have caused such horrible damage. Though, if you do find the vault sealed, you'll probably find some nice magical weapons in there. Ro found her weapon there, at least - the Slice of Light."

"We found other magic weapons there, too, like a spear and a shield, but we couldn't do anything with them. Ro's dagger lit up brilliantly when she touched it, but the others were... well, dull. I know Ereunike took the spear even though it wasn't glowing. I told her it was a bad idea, but... she didn't listen to me. Not that that's unusual, she never listens to me," Ampy says with a nervous chuckle, looking around as if expecting Ereunike to be right behind him.

"It's an old tradition, and it's only upheld by the Queens, really. No one wants to invoke their wrath, nor break any of the laws, so we all have eight-letter names. It started with Queen Listhera, who named all of her daughters and sons 8-letter names. Further Queens would do the same to honor her, as she was the first to unite the landmass of Listhera at the Megahive. The old stories say she was named after the landmass, but some say she named the land after conquering it." Ampelios continues on a for a bit about more Changeling Universe Lore™, before he seamlessly segues into the topic of Staresh and Tetrath. "Tetrath is an interesting case, because Starcutter didn't seem to know how or why this strange creature kept showing up in different timelines. His notes keep a rough tally and say that Tetrath has been in at least 22 timelines. His notes on Staresh, however, are... a fair bit less precise."

"Honestly, Xanthena could explain it better. She's the scholar, I-I just like stories... but, um, from what Starcutter had written down, between magical signatures and tendencies in background magical radiation and perpetuation, he theorized that Staresh was several billion years old." He shakes his head quickly and waves a hoofy thing. "I know, it sounds ludicrous. I don't know if he was losing his mind or something else, but... well, there you have it. The rest of his writings were really sound... but they became difficult to decipher after that. I think he was growing paranoid or something, as some of the journal entries are indecipherable."

"W-who are you p... ponies?" Tetrath mumbles, his body remaining still under threat of squish. You can sense panic in his voice, however. "Where are we? I don't... how did I get here...?" He would crane his neck to look at Silver, if it weren't currently pinned to the ground. "What? A shadow monster? I don't... I don't remember anything..."