Chapter one: Greater Darkness
Princess Celestia let out an aggravated sigh and rolled her eyes. She and ‘Prince’ Blueblood had been arguing about letting a former earth-pony soldier and his family into the ranks of nobility, for at least an hour. In front of the whole court and her sister. Needless to say they were highly amused. “As I’ve said Blueblood, he more than proved himself when he saved his entire squad from a group of cannibalistic Gryphons at the border!” Said Celestia, face hoofing.
“But Princess, there have never been earth-ponies in nobility. I see no reason to stray from tradition!” Said the white stallion.
“Well, I was hoping not to have to resort to this. But Blueblood, you hold no real authority here. Despite the presses blatant lie about you being my nephew. You heard this and went to work publicly confirming this falsehood. Now Blueblood I’m tempted to give your title to the very pony we have been discussing.” Threatened Celestia, with sudden aggression. Blueblood just stared at her, his mouth opening and closing like a fish.
“But Princess you can’t be…..” The indignant stallion was cut off by a small white pony falling from a dark vortex onto his head. Luna raised her hoof to her mouth and yawned.
“Thank goodness that’s over.” The lunar princess said matter-of-factly. Celestia wasn’t at all worried about Blueblood, heaven knows he deserved it. But she was worried about the other pony. They had fallen very hard, and if they had landed on Blueblood’s horn, well the following wound would be fatal. The solar princess flew over to the crumpled ponies and gasped in shock. She saw blood. But it wasn’t coming from the pony’s side (she now saw that it was a mare) it was coming from their horn, well that was where it was the most serious, she was wounded and bleeding almost everywhere. As Celestia was examining the pony’s injuries she saw a pair of wings. She was an alicorn.
“A princess.” Celestia muttered.
“What was that sister?” asked Luna as she landed next to the solar princess. Celestia noticed the curious ponies trying to peer over her shoulder. She motioned to a nearby guard.
“Clear all of the courtiers out of the room, and inform any waiting ponies that court and all meetings are canceled.” She ordered him. The guard saluted and with the help of a few other guards herded the nobles out of the throne room. Celestia levitated the unconscious mare in her gold magic and, with one last disdainful look at Blueblood, she and her sister left for the hospital wing.
“You said this pony appeared in the middle of court?” Princess Twilight Sparkle asked her former mentor. It had been a week since the strange alicorn landed in court.
“Yes Twilight, right on top of Blueblood.” Answered Celestia. A loud snort of laughter was heard from behind them. Twilight turned to her friends, who had been summoned also and were listening in on their conversation. Twilight saw the noise had come from Rarity. Rarity saw Everypony looking at and raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow at them.
“What? You know how I feel about that pompous airhead!” She exclaimed. Now it was Celestia’s turn to snort. This gained even more astonishment from the elements.
“That he is Miss Rarity. Well said.” said Celestia, her usual smile a bit bigger than normal. Celestia stood and stretched. They had been sitting in her chambers for about a ½ an hour and she was getting stiff. “Would you like to meet her? She just recently awoke, although she still hasn’t told anypony her name.” she asked. The six other ponies in the room nodded vigorously. The rest of them stood and made their way to the hospital wing.
As she opened the door to the hospital wing Twilight saw the white alicorn look up and smile. She was a short pure white alicorn with a bright silver flowing mane and tail, and lime green eyes that looked old and wise despite the pony looking no older than she was. She had a bandage around her horn and her wings were splinted. She sat on top of a perfectly made white bed.
“Well hello there!” she said. Her voice surprised Twilight. It sounded much like Celestia’s.
“Um hi? My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is Pinkie pie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash.” Twilight pointed to each pony as she introduced them.
“Nice to meet you!” The alicorn said. Then a weird look came over her face.
“Uh are you ok?” asked Rainbow.
“That magic….it connects you…I haven’t felt that magic since….” The new pony looked at each of them in turn. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again they were shining a brilliant white. Slowly the light faded and a huge smile broke across her face.
“You are the bearers of the elements of harmony! Aren’t you!?” it wasn’t really a question. The six of them nodded. “But,” continued the mystery pony. “I thought I gave them to you!?” this time it was directed to Celestia and Luna. They looked at each other, Luna flushing a bit. “But I guess they disappeared after Luna….” She trailed off. “Oh girls I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop him.”
“You keep talking as if you know us.” Said Celestia. “Although I don’t remember meeting anypony like you. But then again I am over three thousand years old.”
“You don’t remember me?” the new alicorn asked them, her ears flopping onto her head.
“I mean we might have known you at one point. But things do tend to slip your mind when you’re as old as we are.” Said the solar princess. Her sister nodded.
“It has been a long time. And you were only ten.” The distraught alicorn said, perking up a bit. “I guess you’re wondering who I am huh. I’m sorry I just assumed that you already knew.”
“Well you know what they say about assuming,” Said Rainbow Dash “it makes a… hey!” the Pegasus cut off with an indignant shout, and rubbed the red spot on her rapidly swelling cheek. Rarity drew back her hoof and glared at Rainbow.
“Rainbow Dash, we are in the company of three princesses! Maybe four!” Rarity shouted. The alicorn on the bed giggled. It seemed that she had put two and two together.
“Oh that is clever! I guess Starswirl came up with that one!” she said still laughing.
“Why yes. But he was always a funny stallion.” Replied Luna.
“Well continuing on from earlier, I am Radiance. Embodiment of light, warrior of good, daughter of mother earth, and creator of the elements of harmony.” Said Radiance, dipping her head. The name Radiance seemed to strike a bell in Celestia’s head.
“Wait, I remember you now! When we were still unicorns you came down from nowhere and, well taught us to use magic. I remember that you gave us a connection to the sun and moon. That was when we got our cutie marks. You made us alicorns. And gave us the elements. Then… you just disappeared.” Said Celestia. Luna’s eyes were shining, she had remembered too. Radiance smiled and nodded.
“Now little ones would you like to hear my story?” asked Radiance. All of them but Rainbow Dash nodded.
“Wait, little ones? Just how old are you?” She asked her eyebrows disappearing behind her messy bangs. Rarity glared at her again, causing rainbow to hide behind Applejack with Fluttershy.
“Oh it’s quite alright Rarity! I’m about 4 billion, 260 thousand, 178 hundred, and 32. Give or take a few months.” Radiance said grinning. There was an audible thud as eight jaws hit the floor.
“Wow.” Said Luna.
“Now if that’s all I shall begin.” Said Radiance with an edge to her voice. She cleared her throat and began her tale.
“Long ago Gaea created Eqiis. And along with it she made light and darkness. She created me and my counterpart, Malice. For a while my mother ruled the ponies of this world. So that me and Malice could grow up normally, without too much responsibility. As we grew into our late teens we began to see more of each other. We got along very well. Slowly, we began to fall in love. This was before he discovered he was the ponification of darkness. We stayed like that for two years. Then he, how should I put this, popped the question.” Radiance parted the hair around her horn to reveal a shining gold horn ring.
“As you can see I said yes. A month before the wedding was due to take place, he read a book in Gaea’s chambers. It was her diary. He found the section describing us. Explaining what we were. I found him in her room fifteen minutes later. He was laughing. He had always wanted to know why he was more special than anypony else. And In that book he had found his answer. He had discovered what he was. He was changing. His normally gray mane turned black and his orange eyes turned red. He flew off to cause chaos. Gaea found me crying. I told her what happened and she told me to prepare for battle. I got my armor and my scythe and met her in the courtyard. Malice was there. Gaea sent us to another dimension and told me I had to fight him. Not just till a small time had passed, I was to fight him for eternity.”
“A week ago I could feel my magic waning I was growing weaker. To buy myself time I used the rest of my magic to trap Malice in a thousand year sleep. Sadly I had little to no magic left. All it gave was a month a half. As he was falling asleep he dropped his two swords and they cut my horn. Before I blacked out I saw his eyes turn orange again and he teleported me here to recover. And the rest, well to you, is history.” Radiance finished.
Twilight stared at her. Then the ponies on the floor were drenched in a wide stream of water emitting from Pinkie’s eyes. Twilight used a quick spell to dry them off and set up a shield.
“Would you let me stay here and help me recover? We only have a month and a week until Malice awakes and the world is plunged into eternal chaos.” Asked Radiance. The assembled ponies nodded and smiled at their new friend.
