Dark Hearts and Spirits

Zecora walked through the Everfree Forest nervously as twilight turned to night. While Zecora knew the forest well, she knew that being cautious,especially after nightfall, was prudent. The forest had many monsters that could kill a pony easily and most of them felt safer at night. Zecora would probably have waited until dawn were it not for the fact that the herb she wanted only bloomed at night. Zecora let out a sigh of relief as she came upon the field of moonlace. One of Luna's personal creations, it was a brilliant white that glowed softly in the dark. The herb was not only beautiful it also cured magic suppression, a disease where a unicorn, alicorn, pegasus, or earth pony had their magic suppressed and controlled so that it could not be used. Zecora was currently working on a variant for dragons to hopefully increase diplomatic relationships. Zecora had only plucked a few stalks from the ground and tossed them into her bag when she heard a voice calling. Zecora strained her ears to attempt to hear it more clearly but the voice was still unintelligible.

"Is anypony there? You are giving me a scare." Zecora said looking all around her for the voice. She saw a green glow on her right and decided that was where the voice came from. It was probably just a lost unicorn foal attempting to light up its horn Zecora thought. She walked over to the glow and suddenly the voice stopped. What was there was no unicorn foal, but a book. Zecora looked at the book with curiosity. It was a big, thick thing with leafy designs on every corner. There was also a small keyhole on the edge closest to the pages. But the most distinctive feature was the melancholy looking face on the cover. The face looked pensive as if it was posing for a picture. It glowed somewhat softer the closer Zecora got to it. Zecora felt like something was wrong but she shrugged those instincts off. After all it was just a book, what harm could it cause? Zecora did not believe in magic much like Twilight Sparkle. What unicorns, dragons, and other creatures used was a form of ki, life energy being condensed into external energy. A book having ki would be ridiculous. So while many ponies would have dismissed the book as cursed, Zecora picked it up without fear.What Zecora did not hear was the sinister chuckle after she picked it up. The chuckle was one of joy, not pure joy but mean-spirited joy

Luna's horn glowed as she lowered the Moon while her sister's horn glowed to raise the Sun.

Luna yawned before saying "I am taking my leave for the day Tia. Do you have anything planned for today?"

Celestia shook her head before answering "Luna you worry too much. You need your rest and I don't want you refusing to lower the Moon because of being tired" Celestia's last remark was accented with the smile that had earned her the nickname of "Trollestia".

"I seem to remember that when we played together you were the one who always wanted more" Luna retorted, a smile creeping up her face.

"Oh you can't bring that up Luna. That was two thousand five hundred years ago" Celestia complained

"Well you started it with referring to one thousand years ago" Luna laughed only to realize her mistake too late. She remembered those horrid years: The insane laughter of Discord, Sombra's final spell corrupting her, Chrysalis losing her mind after being cursed by Discord, Grogar's slave pens, The Smooze's murderous chant and worst of all Tirek's black magic. The demon centaur king was a master of alchemy and dark magic and had in fact sold his soul to something to give him this power. That "something" was still unknown to Luna and Celestia but they were confident in its destruction as all that belonged to Tirek was burned and demons needed hosts, at least to their knowledge. In fact the only relatively normal thing that had happened one thousand years ago was the imprisonment of a murderous earth pony who had killed eight royal guards before ending his slaughter spree. Like all the great heroes and villains, he was immortalized in stone so that he may serve as a reminder of evil.

"I'm sorry Tia, I wasn't thinking" Luna apologized. It was practically a secret pact between the sisters that referring to the blood shed one thousand years ago was in bad taste and in her fun Luna had forgotten.

"No it was my fault Luna, I made the joke first. I guess I do deserve that nickname" Celestia said looking somberly at the horizon. Luna couldn't stand it any more and dragged Celestia into her room. "Hey! Stop it Luna" Celestia laughed while Luna dragged her by the ear.

"You're going to drink some of my private stores of moonshine and celebrate a thousand years of peace and prosperity" Luna demanded. Celestia shrugged before taking her glass and clinking it with Luna's. "To a thousand years of peace and prosperity!"

As the dawn turned blood red one of the statues in the garden started to crack and shake. Limbs that had been stiff for eons cracked and popped as they twitched inside their stone prison.  Vapor as red as the sun-rise steamed out of several holes in the statue while bits of stone fell to the ground. Mr. Greenhooves was petrified as one red leg popped free with a crack. By the time the red eyes opened, Mr. Greenhooves was screaming but still rooted to the spot. They fixated on him and, in a connection between hunter and prey, Mr. Greenhooves knew his life was over. More red mist flew through the dawn as Greenhooves' life ended. A laugh rang out over the royal gardens that morning, one so terrible that several gardeners apparently commited suicide after hearing it. The statue's heart pulseated a deep black. A darkheart!