CANTERLOT CASTLE, EQUESTRIA / TIMELINE UNKNOWN

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stood outside on one of their castles highest balconies, surveying the land. The sun had just been set by it's great white monarch, and the moon now cast a dull grey light over the hills and valleys. The town of Ponyville could just barely be seen in the distance between the mountain ridge and hills. It was a calm quiet evening just like any other one, but the royal sisters sensed something was going wrong very quickly in the surrounding provinces, and that it would soon reach this land as well. It felt purely evil, like the world itself was becoming darker and sick with something. The magical field was out of balance, and no beings could feel that more than them.

Something was coming, there was no denying it. There had already been small reports of vicious attacks on remote towns and villages. At first it was thought to be random wild animal attacks, but those who actually survived these attacks reported seeing creatures never seen anywhere before in Equestria. Witnesses said they were the most violent of creatures, and would appear out of thin air in a burst of smoke and shadow, ponynap a few unicorns and destroy everything else with cold calculated attacks, then disappear just as easily as they came. Those witnesses usually then broke down into feelings of pure fear and depression, unable to speak further, as if something unseen had a cold grip on their minds. These reports were gaining in numbers, and each one was more disturbing than the last.

Celestia finally broke the evening silence with a sigh and spoke, " I just don't understand it all Sister. We have watched over and protected Equestria for thousands of years, and now something terrible has somehow slipped our watchful gaze.", she said, frustration clear in her voice.

"I fear it is something far more powerful than anything we have ever faced in the past Tia. It doesn't feel like it's any one bad thing or problem. It feels as if everything negative is coming to our doorstep, and this is only the beginning!", Luna shuddered.

Celestia looked at her sister and nodded as if something just occurred to her, " I know, I feel the same about it all. Also, this all seems so strangely familiar to the beginning of something. Something I had forgotten about for centuries."

"What is it Tia?", Luna asked raising an eyebrow.

Celestia put a hoof to her chin, thinking for a moment, then began, "You of course remember Star Swirl the Bearded don't you Sis?"

"Yes perfectly, why?", asked Luna, now extremely curious at the mention of Equestria's greatest wizard.

"Well as you may know he spent most of his last years very close by my side, only revealing his greatest achievements to me, and me alone. This was for the sake of magical safety and balance, as I'm sure you understand dear Sister.", Celestia started.

Luna gave her sister a perplexed stare, "Right, I understand. But what are you getting at Tia?"

Celestia took a deep breath and started again, "When Star Swirl was on his death bed he called me to be alone with him in his final hours. He said he had something very important to tell me, something to warn me about. He told me he had one final, unfinished spell he was trying to perfect before he fell ill. It was a spell that only the most adept of magic users could wield. One that would allow the user to glimpse into the future and foresee important events. He called it the 'Spell of Prophecy'."

"Spell of prophecy? I've never heard of any such spell.", Luna said trying to think.

"Like I said little Sis, he only shared his greatest works with me. However it was not this new and powerful spell he wanted to warn me about. It was what had happened to him when he tried to use it. He went on to explain that he fell into a trance like state. He then started to see flashes of different scenes, like a jumbled dream at first. Some of them were of the pleasant, normal life in Equestria, while others portrayed evil and horrible happenings. It all condensed around two feelings in his mind, pure fear and then, hope. Then, something amazing happened but he could not see it clearly enough to make anything of it. Finally, he heard a specific set of words in this trance and they were branded in his mind, never to be forgotten.", Celestia explained.

"What did he say? Did he repeat them to you?", Luna asked excitedly.

"He did. He said it was his 'prophecy'. His final purpose in life. He then told me the words he heard in his trance. And I quote, 'Behold, I have seen the days of Future's past. The days of light and good coming to their last. Be wary, a great evil will arise. But when hope seems lost, a powerful hero will fall from the skies. A great war will be fought. But by his will, a stop will be put to this evil onslaught.', those were his last words. He passed away early the next morning.", Ceslestia answered, now staring off into infinity in deep thought.

Luna pondered everything she just heard for a moment, then put a hoof on her sister's shoulder, "Wow. I knew he was a very powerful wizard, but I had no idea of anything like this. Why didn't you mention this long ago Tia?"

Celestia hung her head low, her expression now one of sorrow, and softly spoke, "I'm sorry to say that, back then, so long ago, I just thought the many long years had been catching up to him. Put simply, I thought he may have just been crazy or senile, and blew what was left of his mind away with some wild spell. And now, after hearing of what's been happening around us and how it's all adding up, I feel terrible for thinking that way about him. He was a good, wise old friend after all. I should have been more open-minded, maybe took him more seriously and made preparations, maybe even defens-"

Luna interrupted her big sister with a tight hug, "Tia. You can't put that on yourself now, that was then. We just have to make the best out of whatever happens now. And do our very best to protect our subjects. That is our main concern now. I can't help but wonder though, about that prophecy. I mean, the evil is obviously here, but what about that powerful her-"

She was suddenly cut off by a thunderous boom echoing throughout the night sky. Then, they both saw it. A bright white flash of light expanded in the upper reaches of Equestria's atmosphere. From the expanding disc of light exploded a searing white streak of light that looked like a shooting star, moving at immense speeds towards the ground. But instead of burning out like most shooting stars, this mysterious light started flaring up more and more, gaining intensity.

Celestia looked sharply at her sister shocked, "A meteor?!"

"No! That can't be it, I keep these types of things in check with my magic, how would that be possible?", Luna retorted, even more shocked than her big sister.

"Whatever it may be, it could cause major collateral damage, we must deflect it!", Celestia shouted.

"Agreed Sister!", Luna yelled back, now determined to at least fix this before it became a catastrophe.

The two great alicorn sisters' horns glowed with an immensely bright light as they both focused their magic together. Seconds later a powerful beam of pure magical energy fired at the speed of light towards the falling object. The beam connected with incredible force, and then, nothing happened! Celestia and Luna both slumped down in exhaustion from their combined energy use, dumbfounded by it's ineffective outcome.

"That, can't be possible!", Luna gasped.

Celestia shook her head in disbelief, "What manner of thing is this? Did you feel what I did when we connected with it Luna?"

Luna picked her head up and looked helplessly at the plummeting phenomena, "I did, that is no meteor. I felt a powerful life force within it's center. I don't recognize it, but whatever that energy is surrounding it, made one of our strongest spells look like pathetic foals' play!"

At that moment, when the falling light was reaching it's last couple miles in the drop, it suddenly started to pull up on it's own, but was still sharply angled towards the ground. It then veered into a sharp curve, then spiraled into another in the opposite direction of the last. It seemed to be completely out of control. Finally the object seemed to level out, but with only a few thousand feet left in it's descent, there was no time to maneuver. The intense light slammed into the peak of a high hill, surprisingly crushing straight through it, sending earth and trees into the air all around. From there it took a violent dive straight into the valley below, impacting with a bright flash and deafening boom that shook everything and everypony in Canterlot. Whatever it was, it was now an enormous, smoldering crater in the valley right between Canterlot and Ponyville.

The sisters looked down at the crater and then at each other, mouths agape, not sure where to begin.

Then, Luna let out an unexpected sigh of relief, "I'm officially without a clue right now, but at least it didn't destroy anything important, or anypony better yet."

"Yes, we can certainly be thankful for that, but we must go investigate this immediately! Divines only know what this could be or mean.", Celestia said, concern evident in her voice.

"Maybe it could be our 'Powerful Hero' from the prophecy.", Luna teased, trying to lighten the tension, but with underlying seriousness.

Celestia raised a surprised eyebrow at her little sister, "Maybe Luna, it does fairly match up, but I just don't know. Anything seems possible at this point. For all we know, this could just be more unknown evil. But for now, gather some of our finest guards and ready a search party. We must approach this with extreme caution and assume the worst possible scenario."

"Yes Sister, we will be ready to depart in ten minutes. And, I understand your caution Tia, but I still like the thought of having a hero around. I still have hope in this situation.", Luna said with a reassuring smile, then turned and trotted back into the castle to gather the search party.

"Then I hope your thoughts are reality dear little Sister.", Celestia said under her breath as she watched her sister exit. She then looked back at the smoking crater in the valley, "After all, hope may be all we have now."

COLD HARD GROUND, EQUESTRIA / TIMELINE UNKNOWN

There I was again, in that familiar black void. Only this time there were no voices, no sounds at all. However, this time I had plenty of reasons to wake up. At that thought the void started to slowly disperse. I could barely begin to hear the sound of a slight breeze and fire crackling on wood. I then thought about moving. Big mistake! Every nerve in my body screamed to my brain in agonizing pain. Aside from the intense pain though, I could feel the ground beneath me. It was cold and hard, and strangely felt like a glass window. So I just laid there for a little while, until I worked up the courage to maybe just open my eyes and that's all.

When I finally got my eyes to open I realized I was facing sideways, with my right shoulder embedded in the ground. That, and the 'ground', was actually what looked like crackled glass all around me. I also saw a few scattered trees on fire around the area, as well as it obviously being nighttime. "What the hell happened?', I thought. Then I quickly remembered the fall. A chill ran down my spine as I recalled the image of the ground speeding towards me.

After a few more minutes of being in that awkward position and looking at my surroundings, I finally decided to try moving again. I felt so weak and drained, my new energy nowhere to be found. I imagined it must have taken everything to keep me intact through that much trauma. The pain was insane, but I managed to move my legs. They were free, but I needed to get my shoulder dislodged. Being in the position I was, I couldn't use my legs for leverage. It was all up to my left arm and jerking my body. I ignored the pain and placed my left hand on the glassy surface ready to push. Once. It didn't even budge. Twice. I heard the glass crack. The third time was the painful charm as my shoulder and right side finally came free.

Time to stand. Thankfully, of all my body parts, my legs were the least affected by the impact. I managed to get up on the first try amazingly. I finally decided to look myself over for injuries. I was visibly unscathed, but that's when I realized I was bare-assed naked. "Guess my great new name and title didn't come with any great new clothes. Oh well.", I muttered to myself. I looked around once more. I was in a valley and at least a football field sized portion of land was glassed in a three-sixty around me. Smoke was starting to rise all over the place, making it hard to see anything.

"Holy shit! I hope nobody was around here.", I said to myself, concerned about my possible collateral damage.

I was just about to pick a direction to start waking when I heard a noise a little ways away. It sounded like a thud and light clatter of metal, like something else fell or landed. I stared in the general direction of the noise, not sure what to expect. It was quiet for a few minutes, then I heard voices, multiple ones. One sounded like it was shouting orders, and I thought I heard another say 'princess'. They started getting closer. I thought about hiding at first, because I still couldn't remember anything about the inhabitants of this dream world of mine, but there weren't really any places to hide considering the fact that I blew them all to shit. Also, I felt extremely banged up and there was no way I was going stay on my feet all night. So, I decided to just take my chances and walk towards the voices.

The rising smoke was getting thicker and I couldn't see more than a few feet ahead of myself now. I must have been going the right way though because the voices were much louder now. I slowly pushed my aching self a little further and I started seeing silhouettes through the smoke. I felt like I was slipping consciousness, getting weaker and more lethargic with each step. But I could swear that I was seeing little horses, some with lights on their heads, and they looked like where the voices were coming from. I weakly chuckled at the thought, "Haha, talking horses, now I really must be losing it."

"Did you hear that?", one of the shadows whispered.

"Yea, it sounded like it was only a few feet in front of us. Who goes there?! Your Highness, we may have something over here!", said another.

"On my way!"' shouted a powerful female voice.

Those two voices were indeed only feet from me now. I had to get to them and hope they would help me. I pushed myself ahead once more with my last ounce of strength. A cross breeze blew away the remaining smoke in front of me, and I just stopped and stared. Only ten feet in front of me were three horses. From what little I could tell, in my extremely dazed state, was that they didn't look like how I remembered horses on Earth. Especially their faces. They had so much expression in them. Two of them were wearing some kind of shiny armor or something. The third one was larger, and was a bright white horse with a mane I have never seen on any horses in my lifetime. It also had a horn and large wings, and what looked to be a painting or tattoo of the sun on it's ass.

I was really feeling out of it badly at this point, the affects of my weakness now taking over. I was hardly standing when I leaned in a little closer and laughed weakly. "Silly looking horses, where's your owners? I really, nee- need some help right now.", I said, barely slurring the words out of my mouth and looking around for more people-like beings.

The big white horse walked up a little closer to me and stared me straight in the eyes, making me feel uncomfortable. Then it opened it's mouth and... SPOKE?!

"Who are you, and how did you get here? Why-", was all I remember hearing, then the impact of the ground once more.

CANTERLOT LOWER VALLEY, EQUESTRIA

Princess Celestia looked down at the naked creature she just approached and spoke to seconds ago, in utter shock. A human! Yes, she knew what they were. One of the most dangerous creatures in existence. They were smart, cunning, and able to adapt to just about any situation. She was able to observe their world and many others, when the celestial bodies would align just right, through a magical artifact that resembled a telescope. Another small wonder developed by Starswirl.

She was appalled by the human race compared her own. Always fighting each other and using violence to make things happen. She tried to see the good in them time and time again, but every chance she got to observe them, there were always just too many horrible things going on among them to notice the good. She knew deep down that it may just be during bad times and that there were indeed some good and pure humans. But as far as she was concerned for now, the majority were as evil as whatever was currently plaguing her precious land. And now, one was right in front of her, passed out on it's face, on her land! There was no telling at the moment if it was an evil or pure human either. How did it get here? Why is it here? Why is it naked?! Could it really have been the falling star? Or further more, the second piece of that far-fetched proph-

Her thoughts were immediately put on hold as her little sister came running up. "Tia! The guards said you found something! What is it, what have you found? Is it- Oh good heavens! What in Tartarus is that?!", Luna shouted in surprise at the new creature on the ground before her.

Celestia hid her apprehension about humans for a moment and answered, "It's called a 'human'."

"And, what is that?", asked Luna pressing for more.

"Something that is not, and should not be of this world. A dangerous creature.", Celestia replied, now letting a little of her distaste show.

Luna looked all over the human on the ground and chuckled, "This thing doesn't look that dangerous. It does seem pretty muscular and a bit larger than us, but it doesn't have any claws, spikes, or anything wild like that on it."

"That's just it Luna, it doesn't have those things, because it doesn't need them. Humans are adaptive and smart. They can craft any kind of tools they need to succeed in any given situation.", Celestia warned.

Luna only seemed more interested in the human now. "That's impressive.", she said, earning an irritated look from her sister.

Celestia sighed, "LuLu, please just trust me, it is dangerous."

Suddenly, Luna gave her sister a quizzical stare. "How would you happen to know that Tia? Did it attack you? Is that why it's on the ground?", Luna began interrogating.

"Well, no. It fainted or something. It's still breathing. I promise.", Celestia retorted.

"So, you're telling me this is a wildly dangerous creature, and it fainted in front of you?", Luna started laughing.

"Well I-", Celestia stuttered, slightly miffed by her sister's taunts.

Luna had to speak through her own laughter, "Oh dear Sister, I am sorry, but you don't exactly carry the demeanor to make somepony faint. You are too kind and beautiful. Maybe it found you to be too stunning.", she snickered, but then became serious. "By the way though, I meant to ask, how do you know so much about these 'Humans' anyway?"

Celestia rolled her eyes at her sister's playful antics and decided it wouldn't hurt to tell her. "Another one of Starswirls' great inventions no less. Let's just say the large telescope in the castle observatory can, on universal occasion and with the right spell, see far more than just what you control in the night sky Luna."

"Oh, I see. So you like to spy on other worlds and beings now.", Luna joked.

"Spy? No, of coarse not. It's called observing.", Celestia quickly defended, but to no avail.

"Yes. Yes. I'm sure Tia, now what are we going to do with this one anyway? Ugh! I tire of calling it, well, 'IT'!", Luna said frustrated. Her horn then glowed brightly for a moment, and the human was lifted up, flipped over, then set quickly back on the ground.

It was Celestia's turn to laugh now, at her little sisters reaction to the new sight before them.

"Oh my! It is most certainly a 'he'! Good heavens, do these creatures possess no sheath? It's just all out for the world to see!", Luna blurted out, a little embarrassed.

Celestia finally stifled her laughter and answered. "Their bodies work a lot like ours do, minus being bipedal and having a few extra digits on ends of their limbs. They call themselves 'male' and 'female' instead of 'stallion' and 'mare'. This one indeed is a male, and they do not have sheaths. They wear clothing all of the time, nowadays anyway."

"Well that's strange, but I suppose it's to be expected from a new and mysterious creature. I do like new things though. But back to my previous question, what are we going to do with him?" Luna asked, concern for this supposedly dangerous human evident in her voice.

Celestia just stood and stared at him, going over tons of scenarios in her mind all at once. At first, she just wanted to throw him into the deepest dungeon the castle had. Then she thought about how, if he was that source of power she and Luna felt, then no dungeon would even hold him anyway. There was one feeling nagging her mind the whole time though. Every time she tried to look at him in a way that made him out to be evil, she felt completely wrong. She looked at his face and couldn't help but feel a warm and pure presence about him.

She was almost feeling compassionate for him, but she wasn't about to let her guard down. She had a better idea. If this human really did possess any good in his heart then perhaps he could be completely won over with kindness and friendship. She was going to keep a suspicious eye on him, but this was worth a shot. After all, he really could be the prophesied one, and if that was so, she didn't want to give him a criminal's welcome.

"I think your feelings of hope may be rubbing off on me Luna. I do have hope for him. Besides, if he is the one in the prophecy and can withstand a fall like that, I believe it would be in our better interests to treat him as a friend rather than an enemy. We have enough problems as is. And who knows, he may even be able to help us against this new mysterious evil. He's going to stay with us for now. I don't completely like the idea but it's going to have to work.", Celestia finally answered, smiling at her little sister.

Luna seemed to perk up at her sister's decision. "Oh this should be fun! I hope he likes staying up late at night. But not to worry Tia, I will of course keep a watchful eye over him at all times.

"I'm sure you will dear.", Celestia chuckled.

One of the royal guards came trotting up beside them and reported, "Your Majesties, the search party has finished scouting out the immediate area and has found no one and nothing else in the vicinity. What are our orders now for this...thing, Princesses?"

"Prepare our guest chambers, and have the doctor their waiting, he, is coming with us.", Celestia commanded.

"Bu-but, your Highness, isn't it-he, dangerous?", the guard asked, shocked by his ruler's orders.

"He will be under careful watch and guard in those chambers, but until I say otherwise, Lieutenant, he is our guest and shall be treated as such. Am I understood?", Celestia said sternly.

The guard then quickly saluted, "As you wish Princess!", and bolted off to make the ordered preparations.

Celestia then looked over to Luna and smiled. "I don't know about you LuLu, but I think I could use a good nights rest like our new hopeful friend here."

"I may be the princess of the night, but that sounds wonderful right about now.", Luna agreed with a yawn.

"Let's be off then.", Celestia said catching that yawn from Luna.

The two royal sisters both used their magic to carefully pick the human up and carry him to their personal chariot. Once settled inside with him on one side and them on the other, the chariot swiftly lifted high into the night sky back to Canterlot Castle.

Back on the ground in the crater a quiet blast of black smoke erupted from nothingness. When the smoke cleared, there stood a dark black creature, blacker than the darkest of nights. It's form was tall and muscular with all manner of small spikes and sharp edges adorning the armor that it wore. It had three curved horns atop it's head and it's dark purple eyes gave a sickening glow in the night as it watched the royal chariot fly away. It's razer sharp teeth glimmered in the moonlight as it gave an evil smile.

"So it is true then.", the dark one said in an unnaturally deep demonic tone, and then let out a horrific laugh into to the silent night, "Oh, this is going to be, so much fun!"

Author's Note

Alright so there's chapter 2. Please R&R. Like I said before it's been forever since I last wrote and this was a bit hurried, so let me know how I did, constructive criticism and all that. Personally I feel like it may have went on a little long. But that's for the critics! Let me know if I should keep writing. Stay Brony!