Prologue
It was a dark night when it all evolved. The sky was clear of cloud and Princess Luna had truly outdone herself in making the moon as beautiful as possible, or so it seemed. All across Canterlot it was absolutely lifeless, not a single light was on, and not a single sound was being made, it seemed that even the owls were passed out in their nest’s. The only thing that could be felt physically was the ice-cold stroke of a midnight gust against one’s coat and mane. It was as if everypony in Canterlot had simply vanished.
Meanwhile, deep inside the royal castle, the deity of the sun was squirming in her sleep. Princess Celestia was seemingly having an intense nightmare, and it showed. She was kicking the end of the quilt up with her hind hoofs, and latching on the top of it with her front one’s. She made terrible, blood curling grunts and moans that almost sounded like she was being assaulted, until finally letting out a painful, fear inducing scream that echoed throughout the castle’s many chamber’s.
At that point, the demi-goddess awoke, Panting, and with sweat dripping down the sides of her head. At first, she just sat there trying to catch her somehow lost breath whilst the sweat ran down her face and neck, eventually reaching her torso. Then, she limply fell back down onto her bed and let out an exhausted sigh of relief. After she managed to calm herself down, she got out of bed, wiped her face of with a spare towel she had laying around, put on her golden neck brace and horseshoes, and wandered out to her balcony.
It is so quite that even her silent hoofsteps and soft breathing echoed loudly throughout the castle’s many halls and chambers, this is highly confusing for Celestia, it’s never this quite in the castle, there are always chef’s preparing next day’s breakfast or guards having unintelligent little conversations with one another, she knows that something must be up.
When the princess finally reaches one of her many balconies, she just simply pauses in place, and lifts her head up to gaze at the night sky. It’s almost unnaturally cold outside, but Celestia doesn’t even shiver in its acknowledgement, she has way too much on her mind to think about what she can physically feel. She goes to let out I sigh of fear, but is then interrupted when she hears an unexpected voice beside her.
“I didn’t do this…” the voice say’s. Upon hearing it, Celestia yelps in astonishment, and rapidly flaps her wings out. She turns her head to where she heard the voice, only to realize it was a little, harmless alicorn, it was her sister Princess Luna. Celestia gather’s her nerves back, and proceeds’ to talk to her younger sibling:
“What do you mean Luna? You’re the only one who can manipulate the moon to this extent.”
“But that’s just the problem, the only one who can possibly do this IS ME, and I didn’t do this so who could’ve?” Luna replies with a nervous tone.
At this point both princesses are uneasy, and shaking in shock. Celestia proceeds to slowly shut her eyelids, as her dry eye’s start to water on reaction with the moisture, she lets out yet another sigh, her breath misty against the blizzard cold air…
“I know who could’ve done this… and I’m sure that you do too…”
Luna slowly turns her head to face her older sister, her eyelids wide open and her sky-blue iris’s dilated in horror;
“It can’t be… we… you… you defeated him all those…”
“I’m fully aware of the impossibility of this situation!” Celestia interrupts; “But he just came to me in a dream, possibly a premonition, it’s why I’m up right now, it’s why I’m so uneasy… Dynamo, is returning…”
Luna is now both as confused and as scared as her sister, they both thought that an event such as this would be impossible. For a while they just stand there in silence, trying to take in the possibility of that suggestion, Luna takes it upon herself to break the awkwardness of the moment and asks;
“well, what did Dynamo say to you, if anything” Celestia looks back at her younger sister, trying to distinguish her dark coat from the dark blue sky and replies;
“All he said was that… ‘He’s coming home to take what should be his’, then all he did was some hysterical laughter”
“What should be his? As in the kingdom?” Luna asks.
“Most likely, after my parents unfortunate passing Equestria was handed down to him and I. He became corrupt half way through his rule, that’s when I had to cease him, drain his power’s, royal status, and banish him to Everfree”, but just when it seemed that Celestia had finished talking, a tear began to run down her virgin-white check and she added;
“It was the most painful thing I ever had to do… to somepony I cared about…”
Both sisters are beginning to weaken with fear now, they begin to shiver in the cold wind they have managed to ignore, and let out a big yawn each. Luna see’s that her sister is in serious depression, and looks like she is on the verge of bursting out into tears. In an attempted to distract her sister from the misery, she asks another obvious question;
“Cant you just stop him again, you did it once before?” Celestia dropped the misty eyes and answered, but in a slightly annoyed tone;
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple, the elements barely stopped him before, I don’t even control them anymore, that power was passed on to my students, and they are very inexperienced in this, especially somepony as strong as Dynamo. If his full power really has been restored… then I don’t think we can beat him this time”.
Luna turns her head back to face the unnaturally charming moon, shrouded in silence and nerve, and with the moon light reflecting in the whites of her eyes. As another ice cold gust of wind sweep’s the two mares, they begin to start shivering again, they don’t care of course, there is way too much on either of their minds to focus on any physical discomfort; Dynamo survived? How did he restore his power? How is he doing this? But they are still both naive, and there is false hope still shrouding them, making them ask; is this really Dynamo at all?
Celestia finally lets out a big yawn she was trying so hard to supress, her breath again even mistier against the frozen air around her.
“It’s getting late for you, don’t you think Tia?” Luna suggests. It’s not like an alicorn of the sun to stay up this late, although Luna, being alicorn of the night, has no business staying awake in the day.
“Yes, if all this really is happening then I’ll need to rest while I still can” Celestia say’s, gently and calmly
“Goodnight Luna” Celestia say’s again as she goes to kiss her younger sibling on the check
“Night Tia” Luna replies as she nuzzles Celestia’s flowing mane.
Celestia starts to slowly pace her way back to her bedroom, still with the thought of Dynamo on her mind. As she pushes the sky-high doors open with the shining pink aura of her magic, she contemplates the events that could possibly happen in the near future; what damage will be done, what offense will be needed, how many will be lost. These thoughts haunt Celestia greatly, but the thoughts that haunt her most are the thoughts about Dynamo himself; how strong is his hatred, how strong is his motive, how strong is he? And now, even as Celestia lays her head on her silk pillow’s, she herself feel’s that she is to blame, after all, she is the direct cause of this rivalry between her ‘lost’ lover, The Prince of Equestria.
Private Studies (Chapter 1)
Chapter 1
The day after that fearful night was a glorious day. The sun was shinning, the air was warm, and the sky was a joyful and bright shade of blue. There was still the odd cloud here and there, but they way they were arranged was somehow captivating to look at; Virgin white, well spaced out, and fluffy as freshly made Cotton Candy. It was a tranquil sight, but a nervous one too. Anypony who managed to witness the night before was awed, shocked and fearful from that night alone, but with this abnormal day that follows it it’s too big of a coincidence to pass off as just natural or unconscious, they know that somepony, or something, must be doing this on purpose. The majority of the ponies on the ground of course are staring up at the sky; some in awe, some in paranoia, some just trying to saver the beautiful day. But it seems the only ones not staring at the sky are the ones too busy too; pulling carts, trying to divert attention away from the sky and to there market stall’s, or simply rushing to point-A to point-B. One of the few stable ponies out is the young purple mare Twilight Sparkle. She is lying on the soft green grass, stomach down, reading an ancient looking book. She is clearly stressed out; her mane is riddled with untidy split-ends and stray hairs, Instead of casually reading the book as she normally would do, she is squinting at the small text, taking in as much detail as she can from each single word. She only ever takes her eyes away from the thing when she hears a noise which grabs her attention, but even then she only looks away for a few seconds before looking back. As she reads the words, she mumble’s them to herself:
“In the modern age there are only two very well-known members of the Equestrian royal family; Princess Celestia: Deity of the Sun, and Princess Luna: Ruler of the Night. But, it is rumoured that there were once three beings whom ruled over the land, the two previously mentioned, and a currently ‘forgotten prince’. The prince’s name is apparently unknown to every pony alive today, but it is said that he was the supposed ‘Lord of all magic’, and rightful king of all Equestria. Little is known about this mythological prince, but it was said by ponies’ of the time that he was incredibly corrupt, and exiled to a horrible place for his crimes against ponies everywhere. It was also prohibited that on the night where Princess Celestia’s rule is weakest, he shall return with a vengeance, and claim what is rightfully his”.
“The information in this book, it’s… interesting…” Twilight sparkle say’s to herself as she stares into the words of the book. As she continues to read on she slowly starts to mumble louder and louder every time she comes across an interesting enough piece of information;
“When either princess’s were questioned about their lost ‘brother’, they provided no comment on the subject, however, certain prophecies have been discovered over the centuries telling his story many of them claiming Armageddon-like foresights, one of the most famous stated that ‘when the elements of harmony possess their own will, the downfall of light shall start”.
“Elements of harmony, ay?” Twilight say’s to herself. She then turn’s her head to face her assistant;
“Hey Spike” says Twilight,
“Yes Twilight?” replies spike,
“We have to go to the royal palace in Canterlot, I have a few questions for the princess”. Spike groans;
“Can’t we just write her a letter asking her the questions…” before he can properly finish his sentence he is interrupted by an edgy-sounding Twilight;
“NO… this is too important. Go to the house and pack your thing’s, depending on her reaction we might have to stay a few days. I’ll meet you there soon. Spike groans again, but this time a little quitter;
“Ok Ok, but can you at least tell me why this is so important?” Twilight look’s to the ground and stroke’s her hoof across the back of her mane;
“Ok” twilight say’s before sighing;
“It’s about the ‘Exiled Prince’ that is mentioned in this book, I want to know who he really was and why he was exiled”. Spike chuckles a bit; “really, that’s it? You really need to get out more. If he were that important don’t you think the princess would’ve told us about him before?” Twilight replies, poorly quoting what she briefly memorized;
“I don’t know, but it says that ‘when the elements of harmony possess their own will, light shall fall’, assuming that the elements are me and the rest of our friends, we need to ask her, urgently”.
“Alright, I guess we could ask” says Spike as he wonder’s off into the distance.
“Lord of all magic? I bet I could learn a thing or two from him” says Twilight with a smile, trying to sound funny whilst no one was listening to her.
It is currently late in the evening; Spike is home alone bored, waiting for Twilight Sparkle to arrive with more news on this outing that they are preparing for. He begins moaning to himself; “This is stupid, there’s no prince of Equestria, there’s never been a prince. And why do I have to come to this stupid journey? I don’t even…” but before he could complain anymore, Twilight comes bursting in, with an excited smile upon her face;
“Yes, I’ve got the tickets, we’re going to the Grand Galloping Gala”. Spike says in a confused tone;
“We’re? As in just you and me?” Twilight replies;
“No no, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie are coming to”
“Wait, why are we even going to the Gala again? We went once and ruined it for everypony… and I thought you just wanted to speak with the Princess” Spike states boldly. Twilight replies with an un-amused expression;
“Yes we did ruin it for everyone, but if you remember that Celestia said she had a great time with us around, and besides, this is the only way I can talk to her off-guard about this”,
“Whatever” Spike say’s also un-amused,
“I’ve just finished my packing, when are you going to start yours?”, “as… soon as I finish this book” say’s twilight quickly as she rushes to her room, Spike mutter’s to himself in an impatient tone; “Typical Twilight, a ‘serious’ issue yet she still finds time for her books…”
Twilight runs and jumps onto her bed, the room is completely darkened by the black night but also brightened by the silver glow of the moon, a single shinning lamp illuminates the small corner Twilight is laying in with an artificial yellow glow. She relaxes herself thoroughly in her bed by fidgeting against the sheets and adjusting the position of her loose appendages to suit where they have the most space. When she feels that she is most comfortable she continues to read where she left off earlier, still softly mumbling each word she picks up;
“The following section of this biography is about what little is known about said prince” Reading this one sentence alone made twilight squint harder and lean in closer to the yellowed pages of the ancient book, she continued;
“According to folk legend and antique engravings, the prince’s name was Dynamo, but this is not 100% certain since he has supposedly had so many titles used to describe and name him. Before his rule he was the commander of the Equestrian Royal Army, and served as the highest ranking infantry trooper in his entire leadership. But perhaps his greatest, yet least known accomplishment…” Twilight did not read the next few words out loud, instead she read ahead silently in her mind, she was shocked by that knowledge that the book had just provided her with. The book said;
“… Is that he created the Elements of harmony”.
