Author's Note

As I stated before, this is a sequel to Scipio Smith's Vengeance of Dawn (aproved by him). This is alternative to Comes The Sunset. I hope you enjoy it!

As It Began

The Return Of Raven Queen- Chapter one: As it began

Twilight Sparkle sat at the library in her castle, clutching a black book, nearly finishing it . The room was lit by the moonlight, all the reading material neatly ordered and not a soul around but the princess, who was silent as a corpse .She was fighting off sleep, forcing her eyes open in an attempt to finish the chapter she was reading, well aware of how late it was when a swift swirling sound emanated from the mirror near her. As she focused on it, she saw an amber unicorn walking from the glass . Blinking rapidly, she recognized her as her friend from the human world, Sunset Shimmer. Sunset opened her eyes and glanced towards Twilight, a smile across her face.

"Sunset?" The princess asked startled." What are you doing here? why didn't you write saying you were coming?" Tiredness and surprise were present in her voice.

"Twilight, thank goodness you are alright. Today something completely offbeat happened: I found a letter telling me to come here without warning you, from somepony named ´The Raven Queen´. I was afraid you might be in trouble"

"What? No, i'm… i'm fine . And how could you use the portal, it wasn't activated..." she questioned while she approached the unicorn.

"I don't know… I just went through it without any problem. This is really crazy." The unicorn looked at the princess " Can I spend the night here? Maybe tomorrow we can talk to princess Celestia." she inquired, exhaustion clear in her tone and her cyan eyes.

" Yes. Yes, you can stay here for the night." Abruptly,Twilight grabbed the book, which she had dropped when she saw her friend arrive." Wait a second...You said the Raven Queen wrote you that letter? "

"Yes, I found it this morning inside my locker. It said I should come immediately, and tell no one about it . "

"I found something this morning too...this book here, Modern History Of Equestria, has a whole chapter about The Raven Queen. It is some sort of nickname several art criminals used through a period of five hundred years to steal paintings. Whoever was behind that name, they did an exceptional job. Every hundred years ´The Raven Queen´ would steal a piece of art leaving no clue behind but a signature. " The princess explained, concern in her eyes.

"How could a bunch of art thieves know- " Sunset´s question was cut off by a cracking sound and a flash of midnight blue light as a third pony appeared into the room. A golden unicorn, with a mane of red and white, stumbled around and dropped to the floor. The two present mares recognized her as Breaking Dawn, a former student of Celestia who had some months ago plotted against Twilight.

Twilight looked at her awestruck. What in equestria is going on? She was nearly dead! And that wasn't even her magic!!

"The...Raven Queen... " She took a long, painful breath before looking at twilight in the eye and adding " wants you… princess " she spat the last word and fainted.

Earlier, at Canterlot...

The Cactus juice bar was the place of trend at upper Canterlot . Anypony who was anypony went there, it´s enormous room filled with eccentric decorations and bizarre combinations of colours gave it an air of craziness and unusualness. In the center of a great room, lit by rainbow-coloured reflectors lied the dance floor, surrounded by a circle of curiously shaped tables and chairs. The place was filled with tens of wealthy young ponies, most of them either dancing the night away or enjoying odd drinks.

Nighttime Glow sat, sipping from her glass of ice tea as she stared at a young, white unicorn mare, making no effort to conceal it . The mare in question was mindlessly dancing at the rectangular dance floor, shaking her yellow mane with orange stripes and waving her hooves like she was on fire. She looked completely opposite to Nighttime, who was dark purple with a mane of dim violet adorned with black, while the dancing mare was all light coloured and shiny, like the sun at midday.

A waitress approached Nighttime, eager to take her order, but before she could ask, the older mare spoke " I will have nothing, but take that mare over there a glass of your most expensive drink " Her deep magenta eyes never left the dancing unicorn.

The waitress nodded, and headed towards the kitchen . A few moments later she emerged , holding a glass filled with a lime green coloured liquid, which bubbled wildly . The barmaid gave the white unicorn the drink and pointed towards Nighttime, who had never lifted her gaze from the mare . Red eyes met Nighttime´s stare as she nodded and approached the dark unicorn, her expression between awkward and uncomfortable.

"Don't blow it. " a voice not her own whispered inside her head
" I won't, now keep silent, I need to focus " she interjected
" As you wish, mistress." The voice answered mockingly.
" Thanks, but I'm not interested in a date or anything like that right now, sorry " she uttered, looking at her hooves .

" No, no, you misinterpreted me . I just want to talk with you, nothing more " Nighttime said with a reassuring smile.

" Well, it´s the least I could do", The shining white mare stated. " What would you like to talk about ? " she asked uncomfortably, trying her best to ignore how peculiar this situation was .

" We should start by introducing ourselves, shouldn't we? " The mysterious unicorn suggested " I am Nighttime Glow , and you must be Shining Noon"

Shining Noon gaped in surprise and blinked rapidly, but quickly hid it " How do you know my name ?"

" I know lots of things..." She hissed slyly, cocking her head " Well , back to the main topic . I called you attention in order to tell you a story . Would you like me to continue?"

Filled with curiosity, shining noon nodded . She knows my name ... who is this mare? Why talk to me? This place is weird…But I guess I will just go with it… after all , what's the worst that could happen?...

" Okay, this story begins a little bit more than a thousand years ago , in the Castle of the Two Sisters . There lived Celestia", she pronounced the name with contempt, " and Luna, the land was at peace and prosperity . The youngest of the princesses had taken upon herself a student, a young, very promising unicorn, named Raven Queen . This mare, not older than fourteen years old, could be considered a prodigy, and was very fond of her teacher . The feeling was mutual, her presence made Luna spark with happiness .The princess taught her student how to travel into the realm of dreams and how to raise the moon (though she would never allow her to do it ). Everything seemed perfect, they were like mother and daughter, until during one faithless day, the young unicorn did something that she was forbidden to do. You see, Raven was a very curious pony, very curious indeed, and her curiosity drove her to poke her nose in a place where she shouldn't : Celestia´s room. Here, the prodigy found ancient books, pieces of parchment about to turn to dust and scrolls of knowledge long forgotten. But what interested her most was a journal, with a strange shape and a number one on the cover. She opened it, and found out it was titled "The Monarchy Of Equestria". At first she thought it was some sort of guidebook for the princesses. But inside she read things that nopony had heard before , things like ´ The two original alicorns, Luna and Celestia , are to find the five chosen mares, turn them into alicorns and yield the power to the five princesses´ and two spells of incredible complexity : One to locate the five princesses-to-be and one to turn them into alicorns . Further she read, forgetting where she was, driven by curiosity and a pinch of desire . She then dropped the book, cleared her mind and pasted the first spell upon herself, filled with nervousness . As you can imagine, the result was that Raven was indeed destined to be one of the five princesses . Succumbing to her excitement, she cast the second spell. This was difficult, and nearly drained her from all her energy, but when she finished, she was engulfed by light and a pair of majestic wings adorned her sides: she was an alicorn. Just then she realized she wasn't alone . Celestia looked at her with both rage and fear, and started to attack her "

Nighttime paused her narration, sipped from her glassed and gave her one-pony audience time to take in everything she had said. She shifted her eyes towards the dancing young ponies, living without a single preoccupation, unaware of her story .After a few minutes, Noon gave her an inquiring look and the dark unicorn continued her tale .

"Of course, the new alicorn had a considerable power, so she was an opponent to the the aged princess . Nonetheless, our protagonist was unable to stop Celestia from conjuring a strong glamour on her wings, making them invisible, thus making her look like a unicorn again. Then the sun princess tried to modify her memories . Raven was able to deflect it, but knowing the her only hope for salvation was to escape, she tried her best to fake a memory loss, and surprisingly managed to fool Celestia.The shimmering princess, believing she had succeeded, teleported the mare to the nearby woodland and abandoned her, leaving a tracing spell. Celestia then claimed that the mare had gone missing, sending a search party to a different forest. The young alicorn knew that faking her death was the best way to put Celestia at ease. And so she did . The corpse was found a few weeks later, sending princess Luna into a deep depression , which later made it easier for celestia to turn into her Nightmare Moon. Yes, Celestia betrayed even her own sister to achieve supreme power, turning her into a monster so she could be a hero. Raven was soon forgotten, and disappeared into time itself . But of course, we know she didn't die . She was immortal, after all . Having faked her death, her only option was to wait . Wait until she found the other four princesses. Once she had achieved that goal, she would overthrow Celestia and give the power to the rightful owners."

The storytelling unicorn took a deep breath and asked Noon if she had liked the story
.
"Liked it ?" Noon asked shocked " You just told me how Celestia is a corrupt liar, that there is a secret alicorn out there and that there are four more to come! That story was ... incredible. I'm glad you offered me that drink" She replied with a smile.I know it now...her story is true...she is Raven Queen…

The purple unicorn cocked an eyebrow " That´s quite an unusual answer"

" Well, I´m quite an unusual pony. I do have one question, though . Have you found any of the four princesses yet?I hope my gut is telling me the truth.

Nighttime smirked . I´m glad I bought her that drink . " So, you believe I am Raven Queen?" She asked, faking surprise and making an exaggerated gesture with her hoof.

The younger unicorn smiled " Of course I believe you are her. I don't know why, but everything seems so... true. Like I already knew it, deep inside . So tell me, Raven, why would you tell me this secret? Is it, perhaps, because you, i don't know, believe I might have anything to do with your search ?" she asked, her eyes glimmering with hope.

She is quite smart . "You guess...right. You are destined to be a princess and rule equestria with me. And I will turn you into the alicorn you are destined to be, but first we have to find the other three and tell them the truth, no matter what they want to do with it. I know for a fact that some of them won't like it."

"You do know who they are?" Noon inquired, excitement clear in her voice.

"Yes: Sunset Shimmer, Breaking Dawn and Twilight Sparkle . The first one is at another world, the second is mortally wounded and currently turned into a statue and the third one is loyal to Celestia"

"I'm gonna guess and hope you have a plan" The young one´s expression was always steady, always calm, like she was discussing the weather with an old friend instead of how to overthrow the government with somepony she had just met.

" I do, indeed.But we will discuss it at my place, this isn't the right place ." Suddenly , the hidden alicorn realized how crowded and uncomfortably late it was.

"Ok , where is this place of yours?"

"The castle of the two sisters, in the everfree forest. But first I've gotta take care of a couple errands. I will meet you at the train station in half an hour. Gather your things, we are leaving to ponyville"

Nighttime Glow stalked around Canterlot. She loved the night, how darkness took over all the sky, how the moon shone and how the stars dotted the void above them. Canterlot was certainly a place for a tale of princess, its royal air, magnificent colours and the detailed architecture that adorned the whole city. As our protagonist approached the outskirts of the city, she noticed how a delicate mist began to emerge. I couldn't be luckier, nopony will see me with this fog she thought with a grin .After a few minutes of walking and admiring the city, the alicorn reached Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, and when she was sure nopony was around, she flew over the fence and into the garden, walking towards the recently added statue. The statue of a valiant unicorn mare, standing like a hero, was indeed none other than Breaking Dawn, though only a hoofful of ponies knew it .She looked beautiful , like a bold goddess embracing her destiny . The moonlight was strong enough for her to find it with no difficulty, and once she reached, she began to whisper to it.
"Hello there , miss. I'm sorry to interrupt your slumber , but you are awfully necessary for my plans , princess of the rising sun. I will break you out and heal you, and then i'm gonna send you to your favourite pony in the world." She announced sarcastically, dancing around the statue with a smile on her face.
Her horn was engulfed by a midnight blue hue and the stone around Dawn melted and the unicorn stumbled around, half conscious. Bleeding furiously, Dawn started gasping for air. Nighttime looked at the spear wound on Dawn´s chest muttering unusual words under her breath, making the blood that had been spreading around the dazed unicorn magically return into the mare´s body. Once she was healed, still not completely aware of everything around her, Dawn tried to focus her eyes on the other mare.
"Hello Dawn. I am The Raven Queen. I saved you.Tell princess Twilight I crave her. Goodbye"
And with two flashes of the deep blue magic, now with a faint trace of lime green, they disappeared into the night .