Dusk

by Commentaholic

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Discord, Princess Celestia, Crossover, Alternate Universe, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Spike
Length: 1440

Book One of the Accedence Cycle. Inspired by the Inheritance Cycle. Twilight Sparkle lives in the small hamlet of Ponyville. One day, when she goes for a walk near the edge of the Everfree, she finds something that sets a grand tale in motion.

Book One of the Accedence Cycle. Inspired by the Inheritance Cycle.

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, the peace of the land was maintained by a trio of magical beings called Alicorns. As beings of immense power - exemplifying the best traits of the three pony races: Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth Ponies - the three of them could keep at bay the beasts from beyond the Equestrian borders. There was a lasting peace.

Until one fell to darkness. He lost his beauty, his sanity and his conscience.

Nopony knew why it happened. The other two fought to subdue their warped, corrupted comrade, but in his insanity, he had broken the rules set in place by the three. By doing so, he had gained power over reality itself. So they fled, living to fight another day.

A thousand years passed, and many forgot the fall from grace. All they know is the tyrannical, insane rule of the King of Chaos, Discord.

And now, on the eve of the Thousandth Year, a young unicorn mare named Twilight Sparkle makes a discovery that will change the fate of Equestria forever.

Published 2014-03-21 19:20:04 UTC
Last updated 2014-03-21 19:20:04 UTC

Prologue

A My Little Pony Fanfiction

By Commentaholic

Disclaimers: This author, in no way, owns the concept behind the Inheritance Cycle, nor the ponies or universe of My Little Pony. These fandoms are owned by Christopher Paolini and Hasbro, respectively. This fanfiction is created purely for entertainment purposes and will not receive any monetary gain through the release of this story. The similarity to any stories living or dead is completely coincidental unless specifically mentioned above. The Author also acknowledges that this disclaimer is being overly officious and unnecessarily so, and is doing so humorously because, for some odd reason, he finds it funny to write fancy.

If, at this point, you are still reading this disclaimer... *shrugs* Hope you enjoy the story

Rain pelted the pegasus' face as she bolted through the forest, a singed wing tucked close to her side as the torrential downpour plastered her coat to her body. The howls followed her, audible even through the roar of the storm, echoing between the trees of the Everfree Forest. Dark shadows loped and pounced towards her, but she managed to elude their slashing claws again and again, if only by the barest of margins.

Her escorts slain, the wounded mare could only run, the burden in her saddlebags all the more clear in her mind, knowing what pursued her.

A spire of blackened crystal sprouted in her path, crackling with dark energies, tainting the trees around it and causing them to warp and bend towards the pegasus with grasping, wooden claws.

With a brief wince and a flap of her wings, she launched herself over the monolith, tumbling to the ground on the other side. She scrambed up onto her hooves to continue her flight. She laughed rebelliously at the ambling shadowed figures. "Ha! Diamond dogs and dumb rocks? That's what you throw at me? You'll have to do better than that to beat Rainbow--"

A hoof struck the side of her head, waylaying her sprint and sending her painfully to the ground, tumbling until she struck a tree.

The cyan mare flicked her colourful mane out of her eyes, the wet hair plastered to the side of her face. She looked up at the imposing figure that stood over her, then grinned. "Well, at least when I ask for better, you don't let me down, Sombra. More than I can say for your friends."

The cursed unicorn growled, eyes overflowing with hate. "Give me what you carry and I may let you live."

Rainbow Dash slowly rose up onto her hooves, wincing before tossing off one of her trademark cocky grins. "You do know who you're talking to, right? Like I'd ever betray my friends."

"Then you have chosen your own fate."

"You'll have to catch me, first!" she said, bolting past the demonic pony, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake. Sombra growled and took off in pursuit, horn glowing and sending a flurry of telekinetic blasts after the prismatic pegasus, who dodged the magical projectiles with adroit skill.

But despite her bravado and bluster, Rainbow knew that she couldn't keep this up forever. The Diamond Dogs filled the forest and Sombra's magic was more than a match for her, if he got off a lucky shot. She glanced concernedly back at her saddlebags.

There wasn't much choice. She knew what she had to do.

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth and fanned her injured wing, giving a testing flap of the appendage, which sparked a lance of pain up her side. She'd have to live with it. With both wings flapping furiously, she took off into the air, leaving a dull rainbow trailing through the night air.

As she picked up speed, she took the strap securing her saddlebags into her teeth, the filthy material foul on her tongue. Cradling the bags in her hooves, she pushed her wings to the limit, doing her best to shut the pain out from her senses as she focused on her goal.

A wedge of air began to form around the flying pegasus.

Rainbow felt the wind flow through her mane at breakneck paces as she held the bundle in front of her, at the apex of the wedge as tears began streaming from her eyes.

"Good luck..."

There was a flash. And pain.

Boom

A thundering roar shook the Everfree forest as a vast ripple of prismatic force split the sky asunder, a streak of rainbows shooting off into the distance.

Amid the downpour, lightning and rainbows, the falling pegasus was nearly forgotten as she plummeted towards the forest at terrifying speeds. She struck the ground and gouged out a scar in the ground before sliding to a stop, remarkably intact.

Sombra slowly stepped up and loomed over Rainbow's body.

"Is she alive?"

"Yes, barely."

"Good. Bring her, we have much we can learn from this one."

"I obey."

"And find that bag of hers!"

Far away, on the edge of a tiny farm at the edge of a small hamlet named Ponyville, amid the massive apple orchards, laden with gigantic apples of many unnatural colors, sat a lavender unicorn.

This unicorn was largely unremarkable. Average build, boring mane and the usual spiraling horn. Her flanks were bare. This came as a surprise to few who visited the farm, with her age taken into account. Her cutie mark, despite her best efforts, had never appeared. Granny Smith and Big Mac said it would come in time, and Twilight had learned to accept it. In the meantime, she did her best to help her cousin Applejack mind the orchards, and in her off-time, she helped her other cousin, Applebloom, to try to find her cutie mark. Neither of these tasks were very successful.

Nevertheless, she was always grateful that Granny Smith and the Apple Clan had taken her in after they had found an abandoned filly on their doorstep, so she continued to do her best with the impossible task of tending the chaos-stricken orchards. This usually left her exhausted and eager to catch up on some sleep.

Tonight, however, Twilight had trouble sleeping, so she took a walk in the orchards, admiring the night sky and breathing in the clean air of the country.

A deep boom disrupted her thoughts, drawing her attention from the stars above to the dark clouds of the Everfree Forest. Twilight stood, wide eyes staring at the clouds. Or, more particularly, the bright streak of light shooting quite rapidly from the depth of the murky storm.

It was coming right for her.

Twilight scrambled out of the way, hiding behind a tree, giving a quick apology to Bloomberg for using him as a shield. A shrieking noise grew to an ear-piercing pitch before the light struck home in the soil with another resounding boom, throwing dirt in all directions.

It was a good couple seconds or so before Twilight picked up the courage to peek her head around Bloomberg's broad trunk. On the ground, a few pony-lengths away, was a smoking crater.

It was a few seconds more before the unicorn summoned up the courage to peer into the crater. Sitting in the center of the freshly (and violently) dug hole was a purple, green-spotted stone, shimmering with rainbow hues. Her eyes grew even wider when her gaze landed on it.

Cautiously, she approached, a hoof gingerly reaching out to touch the strange object. At that moment, the shockwave left in the wake of the strange object hit the orchard. A massive, shimmering rainbow arc streaked across the night sky, startling Twilight. A spark of magic, its original intent being to pick up the stone, turned into a deluge of magical power. Her eyes glowed like miniature suns and the magic radiating from her form was almost tangible in the air.

Rays of raw magic blasted outwards, striking trees, grass and the strange stone, warping them strangely under their odd influence.

The stone, however, was a different story. It cracked open violently, a small, purple-scaled creature tumbling forth before vanishing in a flare of magical light. The magical storm with Twilight as the epicenter raged on until a gentle hoof came to rest on her shoulder. The young mare thrashed and screamed, calmed only by a kind voice.

"It's okay, Twilight... rest..."

The dark clouds of unconsciousness came all too readily, the torrents of magical energy cutting off in staggering coughs as Twilight slumped to the ground, caught short of the dirt by a friendly set of hooves.

Author's Note

I feel rather pleased with how things are coming together. What do you think?