Night had fallen in Ponyville and everyone had fallen asleep, well mostly everyone. Twilight Sparkle, the recent addition to the alicorn princesses, was busy reading a book on world history. She spent most nights like this, studying and staying up late so she could expand her knowledge of just about everything. She was being as quiet as she could, trying not to wake up her faithful assistant, Spike. Unknown to the new princess, something was cut from the history books, something that nopony wished to ever relive again. Twilight actually noticed that there was a severe gap in the world’s history, where it seemed like everything that happened during that time didn’t exist. This was also prominent when some things just didn’t add up. Where had Princess Luna’s change come from? Where did Sombra come from and how did he have that power? These were questions that, no matter how many books she read, were never answered.
What she didn’t know was, just like what happened with Nightmare Moon, Discord and Sombra, history seemed to have knack for repeating some of the worst events. What happened all those years ago? Why didn’t anypony want to remember it? Twilight had these questions and more running through her head. What happened all those years ago was something that Twilight never expected, something that was filled with so much darkness and unhappiness that everypony, including the princesses, agreed to never speak of it again.
~~~Flashback~~~
It was close to three thousand years ago, during the time that ponies had recently established colonies throughout the world. As the ponies went to make lives for themselves, there was an issue being addressed in a place that nopony even knew existed. This was a place called Aetherius, a land that only those of greater power could access. There were two figures arguing with each other. The first one was the shorter of the two, but stood with much more poise. He appeared to be a cream colored humanoid creature that wore a long white robe. The taller one was a different story, with his lowered shoulders and bending over as to meet the other at eye-level. This one seemed less humanoid, as he was pitch black in skin tone and seemed to be a stream of black smoke from the waist down.
“I tell you, it’s a horrid idea. The mere fact that you brought it up is almost insulting.” The shorter one said in a high society tone, but had a touch of gentleness to his voice.
“Please, brother. Won’t you just give it a thought?” The darker one retorted, his deep voice seemed to have a lighter-pitched echo to it.
“The answer is still no. I will not risk it being corrupted by your influence.” The other stated very firmly. “Besides, what happened to your ‘NightmareScape’ project you were working on?” He asked his brother with a raised eyebrow.
“It is still in the works, near completion really.” His brother said with a snide tone. He looked at his brother and scowled from the look on his face. “Very well Animus, keep your little tree to yourself.”
The dark one slipped away as he finished his statement. Animus, the shorter one, sighed as his brother went out of sight. He and his brother never saw eye-to-eye before. The argument was based around whether or not the old magic could be used by ponies or not. The old magic was something only they had access to at free. What was the old magic? It was a fundamental force of extremely powerful magic that allowed for many possibilities. One such old magic was the one that Animus was in charge of; the magic of friendship and harmony. Animus wished to use the old magic to bring the world into balance. His brother, however, was on the opposite spectrum. He wished to keep the old magic as to show their power and dominance over the weaker ponies. Due to this disagreement, the two brothers were at odds with each other. His brother was Nightmare, who was in charge of the old magic of fear and hatred. Still looking out into the world, he continued to watch the ponies as they lived their lives.
Nightmare, on the other hand, was completely disgruntled. He couldn’t believe that his own brother would allow such lower life-forms access to such great power! A power that originally theirs and theirs alone. Going into a room that could be counted as his office, Nightmare looked onto the world with a pondering look. With his long-fingered hands, he stroked his dark chin as he thought to himself. How could he possibly show to his brother that he was wrong about his choice? He thought about his position and his brother’s position as well as the positions of the pathetic ponies that his brother loved so much. His gaze shifted to the world that he and his brother watched over. Upon coming into full view, Nightmare’s mouth curled itself into a wide, wicked smile. He knew what he was going to do and knew that his brother would never stop him from doing it. As his plan came to mind, a dark laugh filled the air.
What followed was something the world never expected. Nightmare, the ruler of all things dark and fearful, descended upon the world with his deep cackle echoing. The world was soon no longer happy and cheerful, but was now dark and filled with hatred. Animus was helpless to the situation; his old pact with his brother prevented him intervening. What was this pact? Why couldn’t he help his favorite creations? The world was thrown into a state that he couldn’t stand to see. Animus soon turned away and stopped watching, unable to come to terms with what he was witnessing. Nightmare, unlike his brother, was having a field day on the planet that he once just watched over. These lowly creatures were so easily manipulated, so easily turned against one another. He had successfully covered the entire world in darkness and filled everypony’s hearts with fear and hatred.
Back in the present, Twilight continued to ponder on what had happened between the two brothers as the stories of the history involving them were short and very vague. What happened after all of that was a complete mystery. Was the problem solved? Did Nightmare stop his assault on the world? She had already asked both Celestia and Luna, both of them seemed to avoid the subject. What was it about that subject that everypony wanted to avoid talking about? Twilight, looking at the clock, noticed how late it was. With a yawn, she closed and placed the book in the shelves. One thing for sure, she’d never get it answered tonight. Retreating to her room, Twilight quietly sunk into her bed and pulled the covers over her. Letting out a final yawn, she fell asleep.
~~~End Flashback~~~
Her dream started like any other, with her hanging out with her friends. It all seemed like laughs and smiles until something seemed to change. Inside her dream, the air seemed heavier then usual. It also seemed a lot darker out then most of her dreams. She noted that in the distance, what appeared to be dark clouds started to loom over where Canterlot was. They sounded and looked like thunder clouds, but they seemed to be growing, spreading from the area around Canterlot. The face of her friends went from smiles to expressions filled with horror as a deep, booming laugh began to fill the air. As the laughter began to echo and become louder, a black figure appeared in the sky. Its face, if it had one, was completely emotionless. In fact, it didn’t even have eyes or a nose. The only facial features it seems to have been an extremely and uncomfortably wide, slit mouth that seemed to go on forever.
The laughter didn’t stop as Twilight looked around, her friends being slowly consumed in darkness. Rushing around, with tear-filled eyes, Twilight grabbed at her friends with both hoof and magic, but to no avail as the darkness crept up on her. Jolting up with an ear-piercing scream, Twilight was completely covered in sweat and was heavily panting. At the end of her bed Spike the baby dragon, having already woken up looks at his pony friend with concern and shock in his eyes, wondering what happened for her to have woken up in such a way.
“Twilight, are you okay? Why’d you wake up like that?” He asked with concern also filling his voice. Twilight simply looked at him, her eyes completely bloodshot from the experience.
“Yeah Spike. I’m okay; it was just a bad dream.” She said to him, still panting and trying to calm her heartbeat down by taking deep breathes.
Looking outside, Twilight saw that it was sunrise. Taking a few more deep breathes, she gets up and picks up her brush with her magic. Brushing her hair, she noticed in the mirror how bad she really looked. Her fur and mane was sticky and matted with sweat. After she was done brushing her hair, she walked into her bathroom and started filling tub with water. She figured she needed a good, relaxing soak to get rid of the thoughts of last night’s dream. Once it was filled, she slipped in and tried to relax the best she could, leaning deep into the tub as she let out a satisfied sigh. The librarian slowly closed her eyes, only to hear the deep laugh that she heard in her dreams. Upon hearing it, her eyes instantly shot open in shock. She sighed again, this time in annoyance, as she finished washing herself. She realized that this was going to be a long day if this was going to continue. She didn’t think much of the dream that she had other then that it was a nightmare, and a very frightening one at that.
What she didn’t know was that the dream was a message, a warning. History was going to repeat itself once again and in the worse ways that only Equestria would know.
Author's Note
Exposition. Exposition, everywhere.
Cliffhanger is best ending.
Anyway, this is my first chapter, hope ya'll enjoyed it. Let me know how I did.
I'm still working on the dialog, good thing this chapter didn't have a lot of it.
