1448EH - Canterlot Castle Throne Room
Twilight and Cadance were facing the entrance of the room, looking at the many stained glass windows in the corridor beyond. There were several that stood out to Twilight’s eye: one of a dragon and a crystal heart, one of 6 ponies surrounded by rainbow light, and one of a purple alicorn getting crowned by the Ruler of the sun. It had been 200 years since these had been installed into their current places, and about 180 since the last of those ponies died. Twilight looked up and smiled at who was once her babysitter, now a lover and a friend.
“It shall not be too long before one of us is with them, Twilight. I have a feeling that one of us might not make it out of this alive.” Cadance murmurs, “But we must do our duty to this world of love and harmony. We must stop this incessant maniac from using the dangerous magic of Limbo.”
“Agreed. It is a shame that we must let Luna and Celestia act as bait so that he materializes in our world. It is an even bigger shame that we could not find a way to harness the powers of the Void.” Twilight says as she rubbed a hoof over the crown she wore, the physical representation of the Element of Magic. “It pains me to have to use these tools again after so long without my Friends beside me.”
“Relax, Twily. Me, Bloody Rain, Celestia, Luna and Discord are all your friends as well. We won’t let you down, especially me.” Cadance turns to show Twilight the Red Lightning-Bolt-Shaped gem set in a gold necklace. “It will all be fine. What could go wrong?”
“Oh just the general destruction of all we hold dear.” Discord mutters as he steps through a Void Door. “Get ready ladies, it’s time for the Great and Powerful to get one upped by the elements.”
“We are ready Discord” Twilight growls. “Don’t be an ass.”
“I can’t help it Princess, I am part of one and part of everything else.”
“Well shut up and get your laughter ready, Discord.” Spits Twilight.
Just as Discord shuts up, a void door opens in the front of the three; and out through it runs Celestia and Luna.
“Where’s Bloody Rain?” Pants Luna, “It’s not like him to be the last one here.”
“Mwhahaha, You really think that you can stop me now, I have killed the weakest of you and taken the Kindness out of the equation. Those elements are worthless now.” A voice sounds from several rifts that appear throughout the room.
“Stop this Madness now, Dark Matter!” Shouts Celestia “Or prepare to spend an eternity in Hell!”
“Oh ho ho, Do you really think you can beat me without your precious Element of Kindness? Do you!?”
“We will defeat you, you gave Bloody Rain a great kindness when you killed him, oh I might laugh and jest, but you will be the agent of your own demise.” Discord starts laughing maniacally and a pink coloured light starts glowing around The Element of Laughter. At the same time the four princesses charge their own elements with the residual arcanum in the air.
“No! You will not do this to me!” Dark Matter shouts as he starts to form in the throne room, a glowing rose coloured gemstone sitting in his chest. A rainbow light crashes down into the now fully materialised unicorn, shattering his horn, all that is left standing is a hole in the fabric of Space-Time.
Twilight takes a deep breath to steady herself, “We did everypony, we did it” and then flops face first into the ground not noticing that the other four seem to be missing, along with the elements of harmony. Slowly but surely as she sinks down into unconsciousness, her extremities start turning to stone as the castle starts falling apart due to the extreme influx of void energies ripping the enchantments apart.
818 After Ascension - Multiple Locations
The Prophecy:
Split Chaos in Six
Dilute it with Harmony
Eight Hundred years go by
For the Void to be reborn
Star Charmer looked up from the book she was reading, “Predictions for a new age” and glanced at the clock on her bedside table. 3:47am. Of course she hadn’t gone to sleep, she was much too excited for the day ahead but was now in a dour mood as she read one of the prophecies in the book. Her knowledge of the past was quite good but she struggled as tried to remember when this book was written. She did know however it had been 818 years after the fall of Canterlot, now a pile of ruins, it was the final site of a battle between the old princesses and a foe named Dark Matter.
“Come on sister go to sleep.” That was her twin brother Energy Spark, a self obsessed little prick who didn’t understand how important the scholarship to the Marebourne Institute of Arcane History and Science was to her. Ignoring him for the moment she goes back to reading...
Arcanum Perpetuates
The Firmitas hold
Bringing new emotion
Affectus all
An aqua colored pegasus stood in meditation over a mare whose bone seemed to be pointing at a very wrong angle. Suddenly a red glow appears in the pegasus’ eyes, with a sickening crack the wing of the injured mare puts itself back into position. Slowly the pegasus sunk to the ground, slightly winded.
“Good work Blood Eye,” said a white unicorn stallion, “your powers are certainly most appreciated here in Marebourne General. Now get some rest, you’re only 14 and it’s almost 4am”
“No problem, doctor. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” replies Blood Eye. She then walks off down the hallway looking for a small bite to eat and a free bed to crash in...
Filling our hunger
Sating our thirst
Blood runs slowly
From the Eye of Terror
A Grey mare suddenly shoots up from her bed covered in sweat. She could still remember the nightmare, even after five years she was having the same dream night after night. “Why couldn’t ah save him” she mutters to herself, “Why, why, why?”
“Dear, are ya’ll okay?” Her mother asked as she entered her daughter’s room. “Was it that ol’ nightmare again?”
The younger mare nodded feebly.
“Relax, sweetheart. Remember what your daddy used to say, ‘Your name represents who you are, willing to compromise but not at the cost of breaking yourself. Strong Bow”
“I know but I still feel like I could of done something, anything to save him, mom...”
Flexing its muscles
Time does its duty
Casting away the rotten fruit
And hitting the target
Down in the basement of a rather unique place was a pink teenage mare fiddling with a flux capacitor. As she turned around to pick up a small diamond she yawned and stepped onto a wire coming from the humming machine next to her. All of a sudden the lights turned out and she was startled; landing on her face, she loses concentration on the telekinesis holding the diamond in mid air. The diamond spins once and lands in a small device the size of a hoof. Getting up the mare plugs the generator back in lighting up the room once more. She then tries to ply the diamond from the device but charges her arcanum wrongly causing the diamond to meld into the glass and metal device. In several moments the device lights up displaying a loading screen.
“YES!” she yells “It works, all it needed was a diamond. Of course!”
“Sparkler Dear, go to bed. You have school tomorrow, and it is four in the morning.” Shouts her mother from up the stairs, silencing the young mare...
Machines spark
And Gears grind
A flux crystal sits ready
For the gift of life
A yellow and blue streaked maned pegasus colt with a bright blue coat took off down the near-empty streets, flying away from a couple of larger pegasi stallions. Arcing over the creek, the lighter pegasus speeds towards a dank alleyway, pushed along by the wind that had picked up.
“Oi! stop you rambunctious thief!” Shouts one of the older pegasi. “Give us back what is ours!”
Turning her head slightly, the younger colt shouted back, “Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers! Taste the thunder of Kaminari!”
Lightning flashed, and when the two stallions’ eyes had cleared; the younger pegasus was nowhere to be seen...
Wind turning in circles
Rain pouring down
A storm hits
With thunderous force
Up in her room in the attic, A pink mare sat still, watching the sun rise above the eastern suburbs, capturing the majesty of the pinks, blues, and oranges with her fine tipped brush. Painting in a wide swath she looked out at the world, ready to observe but not ready to meet.
Later in the morning, the mare is introduced to her new class as a transfer student.
“Please settle down class,” droned the teacher. “Today we have a transfer student from Darwinny. Her name is ‘Generic Pink’. Please be nice.”
Generic gave a noncommittal grunt and shook her blue mane as she took her seat at the back of class as the teacher starts the lesson.
“And now on to todays lesson…”
Painting the fields of despair
Pink is the colour
Of Insanity and Blood
Ready to be washed away
Chapter 1: Marebourne Institute of Arcane History and Science
818 After Ascension
As the sun rose at a very slow pace; Star Charmer’s Alarm went off signaling for her to get up. She had finally gotten to sleep some twenty minutes after reading that last prophecy in the book. She got up and went to the mirror, wiping sleep out of her eyes, and tried to brush her scarlet mane into something reasonable. Yawning, she moves slowly out of her room and descends to the breakfast table where her whiny twin brother and her mother were already sitting down.
“Where’s Father?” Asks Star of her sibling and mother.
“He left early, sweetheart. Said he wanted to get his work out of the way; so he should be home early today,” Replied her mother. “Spark said you were up reading at un-equinely hours last night. You know that today’s your first day at Uni, don’t you.”
“I know Mother. But I just couldn’t get to sleep last night.”
“Nervous are we dear?” She gets up and floats a pile of buckwheat pancakes to the table, “Sit down and have breakfast. You’ll need your strength for today.”
“Yeah, Otherwise you might fall and faint and —”
“Oh shut up, Spark. I don’t have the patience to deal with you today.” Interrupted Star, irritated by the sound of his voice. “Really, you don’t have to be all irritating today. You have your dream today as well; getting into the magitech course at the M.I.A.H.S. — even if I don’t believe you should have.”
“Be nice to each other you two,” chided their mother as she laid out a plate of pancakes for herself. “ And eat your breakfast otherwise you going to be late.”
********
Later, Star Charmer was finishing her last class of the day, Historical Artifacts. Her teacher had finished explaining the course in detail and was moving on to the first set of artefacts that they were studying.
“The Elements of Harmony. Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, Honesty, Loyalty and Magic. These were the tools upon which the Kingdom of Equestria was founded. The four princesses possessed the power of these to seal and later redeem the avatar of chaos, Discord. They were also instrumental in the banishment of King Sombra; and the redemption of the Nightmare…” Star Charmer knew all of this and was instead reading ‘The Power of Harmony: A Guide’ by a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. She had found herself too entranced with ‘Predictions for a New Age’ and did not realise until her lunch break — spent faithfully in the magic section of the library — that only that last prophecy hadn’t come true yet. The book had accurately predicted the rise and fall of the Lunalis empire, defeated by the New Equestrian military about fifty years ago; and had outlined the exact nature of how Appleloosa came to be cut off from the rest of the mainland by a massive ocean encircling the once desert town. So it was that she tried to unravel the mysteries behind that final prophecy…
“Ahem, Miss Charmer. Could you please answer the question,” Said the teacher, Interrupting Star’s Thoughts. “Where and When were the Elements last used knowingly?”
“Oh, umm… If I remember correctly that would be 818 years ago. The princesses had evacuated the Royal City of Canterlot and began to engage with a foe known as Dark Matter; a former scientist whose work threatened to destroy the universe, not just Equestria.”
“Yes. Very good, Miss Charmer. Now with the fall of Canterlot we do not know any more of the whereabouts of the Elements. However, many archeologists believe that they may still be in the old throne room, the place of the last stand. Admittedly we know longer know where that is due to the region of void energies surrounding the ruins...”
This last bit interested Star. The book had said it would take 800 years for the void to be reborn and it had been 818 since the fall. She made a mental note to check it out later.
********
After the class, Star Charmer decided to peruse the library downtown a bit to try and find other mentions on void energy, as well as to investigate a bit on the Elements of Harmony. She couldn’t quite put her hoof on it, but it seemed to all be connected. After a while in the library, her search had turned up nothing new. Deciding to take a break, she headed outside to what appeared to be a new café. Reading the sign out loud to herself, “Sugercube Corner,” She went inside and found it to be nicely decorated, even if she thought that having a store made out of what appeared to her to be gingerbread was going to fare with the puns. As she walked up to the counter she glanced back outside, just in time for a blue and yellow streak to come crashing into her. Groaning, Star got up to her feet and looked back at what was a very scruffy looking pegasus.
“Okay… Now if we were outside I might have overlooked the fact that you ran into me; but come on, we are inside a building. How do you crash at high velocity inside a building?” Lectured Star to the slightly dazed pegasus.
“Um… sorry miss. Kinda got distracted outside by a beautiful plot,” He apologised. “Any way, My name is Kaminari. What’s yours?”
“I don’t see a book around here,” said Star as she looked around the impact site. “My name is Star. Star Charmer.”
“I don’t mean a book Miss Charmer—” Kaminari looked up to a confused look on Star’s face. “You have no idea what I am on about, do you? Well in any case let me buy you some coffee as an apology.”
“Um… S-sure” Stuttered Star as she took a better look at her assailant.
He’s quite handsome, isn’t he? A voice muttered at the back of her head.
No he isn’t. And I don’t date guys who — Ugh why am I arguing with myself? Follow him you just got free coffee, Star.
“You alright there Miss Charmer?” Said Kaminari waving his hoof in front of her eyes. “What do you want?”
“Oh I’m alright, just a flat white please. And call me Star.”
“Alrighty then, Star.” Grinning he took two cups from the waitress and moved over to a table by the door. “So what’s your emblem mean?”
“Well me and my twin brother have always loved magic, and five years ago, we kinda screwed up a ritual spell, fortunately the star wraith that was called to us ended up being fried due to a magical outburst that was set off when some kind of electrical discharge interfered with my magic—”
“Woah nelly, No need for the whole story. Just what does it mean?”
“Hehe, I suppose you're right. Anyway, long story short it symbolizes magic, or specifically arcanum magic. Thats what the Pentagrams for; the star represents the Star Wraith I calmed. What about yours?”
“My Emblem? Well it represents the speed I gain when around lightning. Not much else to it really,” He Explained “Well I best be off. If you want to meet again I’m usually around this area. See ya.” Getting up, he walked out the door and flew on his way.
Okay… that was interesting. Well I got free coffee, now all I need is some information about these damn elements of harmony.
********
Back at one of the Institute’s many arcane laboratories, Energy Spark was indulging in a little research of his own. He had found a very old book with a black spine that detailed some very interesting rituals. The one that had most interested him was a way to increase ones affinity for Firmitas, thus making them more attractive to the opposite sex. Being a teenage boy, he had to try it out.
“Okay, last check,” He murmured to himself. “We have Eye of newt, black ink, rose thorns, a small amount of Bacillum from my horn, and three whole apples. Excellent, We have everything ready. Here goes…
“Erbyn Arcane allai,
Trwy hyn Eitemau Rydym wedi Casglu
Cynyddu rhedeg Ddaear-waed yn fy ngwythiennau
A gadewch i enaid yr awyr llenwi fy ysgyfaint”
A surge of power and a spark of light later, Energy Spark got up off where he had fallen down and looked out of the window at the now darkened sky.
“It’s probably time I got back. Well Let’s see how this spell turned out later.” Picking up his bags, Spark collects the black-spined book and walks out the door, on his way home.
********
At roughly the same time as Spark left the arcane labs, Star found herself looking at the library’s copy of ‘The Power of Harmony: A Guide’. The first few chapters were essentially the same as her own copy, but the text looked to her as if it had been handwritten, and after a bit of analysis via way of magical means, she found that the handwriting was exactly the same as the old Princess of the Dusk. Her thoughts wandered at where the library could have gotten an original copy of the book as she was sure Marebourne was only founded 140 years ago. After quickly going to the counter to check out the book, she returned home with an original copy to read and analyze.
