The Darkest of Stars

Three Days Later...

Celestia had spent the fifth day in a row desperately looking for her sister with the Teleyedoscope. She looked completely exhausted. There were bags the size of coin purses under her eyes. Her usually brilliant mane was riddling with split ends. She looked like she hadn't slept in days.

A unicorn royal guard came up behind her, looking a bit worried. “My princess...you need to rest now.”

Celestia didn't take her eyes off of the scope. “Did you find anything?” She did not even seem to hear the guard's suggestion/

The guard sighed. “The search party has yet to report anything,” he confessed.

Celestia suddenly reeled on the guard, staring him down. “Why are you slacking off!? Luna is still missing because no one is doing their jobs! Why don't you get off your lazy flank and do something useful!?”

The guard was a bit taken aback, but did not argue. He merely nodded and turned to leave.

The princess turned back to the Teleyedoscope, but closed her eyes and sighed. “Wait...” she turned back to the guard, an apologetic and worried look on her face. “I am so sorry. That was completely unfair. I'm just on edge and--”

The guard shook his head, a smile creeping along his lips. “There's no need to apologize. I understand.”

Celestia sighed again, rubbing her eyes. “Thank you. Luna has never been gone for this long, not since she came back to us. Something must be wrong...”

“We will double our search efforts,” the guard promised. “I already have ponies working around the clock, but we will find a way. Princess Luna must be found.”

Celestia wiped away a tear. “Thank you.” She returned to the Teleyedoscope as the guard walked away. She looked at the device and then to the sky. Even the stars and the moon itself looked dimmer now that their princess was nowhere to be found. She sat down on her haunches, looking as if she were talking to her sister. “Luna...where have you gone?”

~

Allis Yahn landed somewhere outside of the Everfree forest. It took him longer than he had expected to get to Ponyville. It was nearly nighttime there, with the sun dipping below the horizon. He wondered how Luna was able to get to the Blackest Heart at all.

He also wondered if she were able to make it back to Canterlot...

He fiddled with the Alicorn Amulet around his neck sitting on top of the necklace he already wore. He knew that he had to do what he did, but somehow it felt...wrong. He silently cursed himself for breaking the first and most important rule of the Order.

“Never by action or inaction bring the princesses to harm.”

Allis turned to face Radley. He knew he had been standing there for a while, but was trying his best to ignore him until now. “I know...but she left me with no choice,” Allis said, turning his head down.

“There is always a choice, Allis,” Radley corrected, coming closer. “There is always another way.”

Allis shook his head. “She would have thrown the amulet into the Blackest Heart if I hadn't stopped her like I did. You saw what happened in that cave.”

Radley sighed. He knew his partner did everything he could. “Yes...yes you're right. At the very least we now have the Amulet.”

Allis held the cursed jewel in hooves. “The wish can finally be made...”

Radley nodded, but then gave him  a hard stare. “But we absolutely cannot operate as we have before.”

Allis raised an eyebrow behind his blindfold. “And makes you think that?”

“Whether you like it or not, we need the help of the new bearers of the Elements of Harmony,” Radley explained. “They're our best hope of destroying the Darkest Star once and for all.”

Allis chuckled humorlessly. “And what's your reasoning on this? That has never worked before.”

“I know, I know,” Radley confessed. “But something about these Elements are...different from their previous incarnations.”

Allis didn't respond, but merely turned his head towards the sky as if seeing what his old friend was talking about. The stars had a faint shimmer to them, offsetting the new moon in the sky.

Radley continued. “Once the wish is made, we will need to be able to stop the Darkest Star. And no one of us has the ability to stand against it.”

Allis felt the scar around his eye, recalling some bitter memory. “Trust me, I know....” Suddenly, he turned his head to and fro. “Wait, where is Kassandra?”

“Oh...right,” Radley said with a hint of grief. “It seems your bid to get Luna back to Canterlot without raising suspicion didn't work out quite well.”

Allis turned pale with worry. “You mean...”

The earth pony shook his head. “Kassandra went to Canterlot to help with the search efforts. Luna never returned to Canterlot after her run-in with you.”

The deformed pegasus sunk to the ground, covering his face in embarrassment. “I never...I never meant...”

Radley touched him on the shoulder. “We know...but if Twilight Sparkle or her friends discover any connection to us, we can kiss any hope of having them on our side goodbye.”

~

It was almost pitch dark in the back alleys of Los Pegasus where the lights never reached. Even the stars seemed to shun the dark alley. There didn't even appear to be a moon in the sky. The cobblestone road was filled with small puddles of water that had been collected over the past few days, reflecting the dim starlight in the dark sky. Many of the buildings along the road were either condemned or just completely abandoned.

Trixie Lulamoon was at a complete lost. Twilight Freaking Sparkle had defeated her once again just a few months ago and even worse, this time she had been forced to apologize to her. It was humiliating, even though her apology had been accepted. The Alicorn Amulet had not been the best way to go, she had to admit but even still she had never felt so powerful before.

There was no point in arguing with herself.

She was planning on visiting the shopkeeper from before. Hopefully, he would have some other object of arcane and mystical power to sell.

Trixie pushed down the door to the shop of Oddsin Ends.

“You know, you're going to have to pay for that,” the shopkeeper complained, coming from a room in the back of the shop. “That's the second time someone's knocked down my door--” He stopped and smiled when he saw who it was. “Oh! Welcome back to my humble shop! Come for more objects of mysterious power?”

Trixie merely stared at him.

Oddsin groaned but kept his cheerful demeanor. “Still of few words I see. Unfortunately, I don't possess any that could possibly rival the Alicorn Amulet...”

The master of show-magic looked crestfallen. Oddsin scratched his head, looking deep in thought. “However...I might have something that could interest you.” He retreated to the back of the store. There was a crashing noise and a loud thud, sounding like a body hitting the floor. Many expletives came flying out of the room before the old shopkeeper came limping out of the room with a book between his teeth. He set it down on a table.

“This book contains many myths and legends,” Oddsin explained, turning a few pages. “One of these is bound to interest you.”

Trixie glanced over a few of the pages. There was one speaking of a pool where one could duplicate oneself. Another spoke of a ring that needed to be thrown into a volcano. Yet another prophesied of a farmer child that would liberate the galaxy and put an end to a millenia old war. That last one confused her.

Then there was one that caught her eye.

Oddsin noticed her interest. “Ah, I thought that might be the one to catch your attention,” he chimed in. There was a picture of what appeared to be a large, black comet hurtling towards a planet. Below the comet was a depiction of an old, purple unicorn with a beard.

“What is this about?” Trixie finally spoke.

“This is the legend of the Blackstar,” Oddsin explained. “Or what others may call the Darkest Star.”

“The Darkest Star...” Trixie repeated.

“Many many years ago,” Oddsin continued. “Before even the country of Equestria as we know it existed, a large comet trailing dark fire behind it flew to Earth. It's said that one particular pony made a wish upon it. He had his wish granted, only to have paid a terrible price for it.”

“Who was this pony?” Trixie asked. “And what was his wish?”

Oddsin shrugged. “I can only tell you what I know, traveler. What I can tell you however is that his wish nearly led to the destruction of the entire planet. If not for a small group of ponies, this world would not exist today.”

Trixie studied the page again. “A wish that had the power to destroy a planet...”

Oddsin nodded. “It was a thousand years later when another pony decided to make a wish upon the Blackstar.”

Trixie's eyes widened. “It came back again?”

“Yes,” the shopkeeper answered. “This time her wish nearly led to the entire world being blanketed in darkness for all eternity.”

Trixie fell silent for a moment. “Wait...how is it that only one pony can make a wish upon this...Blackstar at a time?”

“Because in order to even see the Blackstar, one must be in possession of the Alicorn Amulet,” he answered.

Trixie cursed under her breath. Twilight Freaking Sparkle defeated her once again without even knowing it.

Oddsin chuckled. “I take it you are no longer in possession of the amulet?”

Trixie ignored the question. The details of this Darkest Star were sketchy at best, but if what the shopkeeper said was true, this could be her best chance of defeating Twilight Freaking Sparkle once and for all. “When will it come back again? It appears to come around on a schedule.”

“It's hard to say...” Oddsin said with a knowing look. “However if I had a little...compensation, it could be a little easier to recall. My memory's a little foggy these days.”

Trixie sighed and tossed the last of her savings from working on that damned rock farm on the table. Oddsin smiled. “Let's just say...you have about six months to find the amulet and make your wish.”

Trixie smiled and exited the shop. This was going to be the end of her rivalry with Twilight Freaking Sparkle...one way or another.