The Mountain of Shadows

by Agent-G

Rating: everyone
Tags: Tragedy, Adventure, Main 6, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 9065

An ancient darkness long dormant has risen and the Main 6 will meet a shadow out of the past to help.

A normal day is shattered as a quake happens unleashing an ancient darkness from before recorded history. The Main 6 gather to face this evil with the help of Luna, they will learn of a nearly forgotten part of history as a legend steps out of the shadows but will his legend help or is he already lost in his own darkness.

Published 2015-04-10 22:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-06-27 22:57:35 UTC

Chapter 1: Legends

Author's Note

Disclaimer: I don’t own MLP or make a profit from this the only thing of mine are all the things I made up for this story. This is also my first try into this fandom so please don’t be too rough with me. I know that I might miss some spelling and grammar I try to find them all but it’s not my strong point so I try to make up for that weakness.

Chapter 1: Legends

The Mountain of Shadows

Chapter 1: Legends

Five hundred years ago there was once the kingdom of Astoria, it was ruled by the princess Anora. She was a kind and gentle ruler who loved her subjects and they in turn loved her. The kingdom had been founded in a beautiful valley and had enjoyed a peaceful existence and in the heart was the White Palace said to be the most beautiful palace the world had ever seen. The realm was protected by the Order of Knights led by the Knight Commanders of the Round Stable.

They all were sworn to be the sword and shield of the kingdom to protect the weak and serve with honor and to serve their Princess above all. Their loyalty, skill and courage were without question. But the peace did not last, a terrible evil happened, creatures and monsters some heard of and others who had never been seen before attacked the kingdom. The knights went out to war to protect the kingdom and in this turmoil many legends were forged from their deeds.

But it all came to a dark end, in the final battle when the monsters had managed to surround the palace it was the day everything changed. The Princess had placed a powerful shield over her palace and surrounding town helped by the court mage, The Great Silvermane. They held at bay the dark forces as the knights fought on as they slowly pushed them back. The tide of the war was in their favor but that was when the unthinkable happened.

One of the Knight Commanders who had been tasked with protecting the palace and the Princess broke rank. Golden Shield had been his name, many said he was the most powerful warrior of the Knights of the Round Stable. He took his forces and smashed through the enemy line, breaking them and scattering them as the other legions crashed down on the monsters in the wake of Golden Shield’s attack. It should have been a day of great celebration for the victory but something horrible had happened back at the palace.

Dark clouds grew around it as a dark force seemed to be coming from the once shinning palace. They all rushed back to the palace as the Knight Commanders rushed to their Princess’s side. When they arrived they came upon the sight of their Princess on the ground in the throne room weak and dying as the court mage battled a traitor in their mist.

She was Morgan La Mane, a sorceress of great power and understudy of Silvermane, she had whispered poisoned words into Golden Shield, attacking his great pride and vanity as he chose to charge into battle for glory he felt he was being denied. Without anyone to guard her La Mane had poisoned the Princess to steal her alicorn magic the power La Mane felt she had been denied. Silvermane was only barely holding her back but with the last of her strength Anora used the last of her strength and sacrificing her life to cast a spell to entrap Morgan La Mane.

Although Morgan had taken the power she did not know how to wield it and in that moment of weakness was banished from this world never to be seen again. This last act to save her kingdom from Morgan’s cruel reign but had cost Anora the last of her life.

Soon after Golden Shield had been arrested and put on trial for disobeying orders to stand his ground at the castle, leaving the Princess unprotected, failing his duty to her and to the kingdom. He said nothing in his defense as he stood there a broken stallion the full weight of what his pride had cost not only him but the kingdom he swore to protect and to his brothers and sisters of the Knight Commanders.

He was sentenced to be banished from the kingdom never to return but Silvermane felt it was too light a punishment. He had cast a spell onto him, his glorious white coat turned a deep purple, and his golden mane turned to the blackest of nights even his mark a golden shield was turned pure black.

‘Forever shall you be marked by your sins, for your failures, forever you shall be a shadow of your former self. Let the world know who you are and what your pride has cost us.’ Where the words spoken of the great wizard after the spell had been cast.

Golden Shield was dragged away in chains to the border as he left his home for the last time never to see it again. The Kingdom tried to go on but with no successor on the throne and without leadership over time the Kingdom of Astoria slowly faded from the shining kingdom it once was. It was like the heart of the kingdom had been lost as many slowly started to move to other lands. The Knights did their duty and stayed until the last one of them finally fell to time. By then the kingdom was empty and abandoned and was eventually lost to the ravages of time.

“And that is the story of how the Kingdom of Astoria fell,” Twilight said reading the final page of the book in front of her. She was in her new library of her crystal castle in Ponyville, in front of her were the three young Cutie Mark Crusaders. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle who had come to Twilight for help and were now sitting in front of her.

They were to give a report on something from the history of Equestria but they didn’t know what to report on. So they figured that Twilight with her large new library and given she was most likely the smartest pony they knew would have an idea on something really cool for them to report on.

“So all that really happened?” Scootaloo asked looking up at the princess.

“Yes, in fact I did a report on this very subject myself once in school,” She said with some pride magically closing the book and setting it down between the three young friends. “I was always fascinated by it as it has such a sad ending.”

“Yeah it was but whatever happened to Golden Shield?” Apple Bloom the young earth pony asked next.

“Well that’s up to some debate actually,” She tried to remember the subject as it was also a question she had once and tried to look it up years ago. “There isn’t any hard evidence on what happened, there are reports of sightings of him in various lands never staying for too long but no record of what his final fate was.”

“None at all?” Apple Bloom felt a bit disappointed to hear that. She felt a bit sorry for him, he had been tricked by that Morgan La Mane pony and to never see your friends, family and home again was a punishment she couldn’t imagine having to deal with.

“No I’m sorry,” Twilight took another book and opened it. “There is a legend that he still wonders the world, well one of the legends. Some say that his ghost still wonders looking for a way to redeem himself or trying to find his way home. Some said they found his wondering spirit on the road at night or a phantom flying overhead. Others say that his will was so strong that even after death his shadow still lives.”
“His shadow?” Sweetie Belle gulped at the three looked on with wide eyes.

Twilight tried not to smile as she started to get into the legend. “Yes his shadow roams the lands, some say to take the Cutie Mark of others to replace what happened to his.”

“Take a Cutie Mark?!” The three cried out in unison although they didn’t have theirs yet that was one of the worst things they could imagine.

“Well it’s only a legend,” Twilight finally laughed lightly. “A ghost story like the Headless Horse, there’s no way he’s still around today or his shadow but it’s because of stories like that, that he’s often referred to as Shadow Knight or the Wondering Shadow.”

“So there how come there was no one else to take over the kingdom,” Scootaloo asked next.

“There were no other princesses around to take over,” Twilight explained to her. “Luna was still banished to the moon, Celestia was ruling over Canterlot so she couldn’t leave, there were no other new alicorns that could have taken over and Princess Anora didn’t have any heirs. So with no one to take over the kingdom it slowly fell to ruin.”

“That wouldn’t happen to our home if something happened to you would it Twilight?” Sweetie Belle asked with a look of worry on her for both the village and because she really didn’t want anything to happen to Twilight.

Twilight smiled kindly down to her, “Don’t worry about that, Ponyville existed long before I showed up and just because I’m a princess now doesn’t mean I run Ponyville. I have my own duties and Mayor Mare still runs the place. I only help out when she needs it or when it’s something official I have to do.”

“But a whole Kingdom is a lot different, from what I read that kingdom had been a whole valley filled with ponies. I can only imagine all the confusion that had to have been going on, no one who was in charge and ponies unsure of the future or what to do. It had to be a chaotic time, I did read that Celestia tried to help as best she could but the kingdom was slowly dying without its own leader.”

“It’s kind of sad,” Apple Bloom spoke up looking at the book. “But also kind of cool, it sounded like it was an amazing place.”

“From what I read it was,” Twilight told her remembering the accounts of the slow fall of the kingdom.

“How come there are no more knights?” Scootaloo asked as her eyes shined with the images of ponies in shinning armor like the royal guard.

“Well that’s because the E.U.P. and the royal guards already do the same job,” Twilight explained, “It had been something unique to that kingdom and it fell out of practice over time. Canterlot did used to have a few knights, they were the best of the best and were held as an example to everyone. But over time that too faded away.”

“Aww that’s too bad they sound like they would have been really awesome,” the young Pegasus said. “Were all the soldiers knights in Astoria?”

“For the most part,” Twilight explained to the little orange Pegasus. “You see there were also squires who were in training under a knight to become one, there were regular soldiers as well but the knights were the elite. The Knight Commanders were picked among the best of the best, they each commanded a full legion and they all sat at the Round Stable. The Knights of the Round Stable were said to be legendary ponies.”

“They were?” Sweetie Belle asked next getting a bit more excited on the topic.

“Oh yes in that book you’ll find so many stories about the Round Stable,” Twilight had read those stories herself when she was younger back when her brother had gone off to join the guard she had wanted to learn all there was to the Royal Guard the E.U.P which led into the Knights of Astoria as some of their traditions still existed to this day in the Royal Guard.

“Can we borrow the book?” Sweetie Belle asked her. “I promise we’ll be careful with it.”

“And try not to copy anything from it like say a love poison?” Twilight slyly asked seeing the bashful looks on the three of them.

“We promise, we learned our lesson about that,” Scootaloo told her.

“Well then feel free to take it just bring it back when you’re done,” she told the three of them.

“Okay thanks Twilight!” The three said at once as one of them took the book as the three scampered off to their clubhouse to get started on their history report project.

Twilight could only smile as they ran off, she always enjoyed their company and she really enjoyed teaching them. She sometimes wondered that if she hadn’t gone the route she had in life she might have ended up a teacher like Cheerilee. At any rate she enjoyed her life now, a lot had changed for her in the past few years. She got lots of friends, several best friends, a great sister-in-law, had done so much here and for all of Equestria, had so many adventures and now she was a princess with a title and her own little castle.

Looking back on it all it had been an amazing last few years and she wouldn’t change one moment, well maybe a few less than stellar ones. Getting out of the way of what that moving van when all those things had dropped would have been a nice example.

She looked over her new library, she still missed her old one but now she had all the books from the old castle of the two sisters and Celestia had been nice enough to help replace several books that had been lost. But now she had a lot more room for even more books and she couldn’t wait to start getting to organizing it.

While Twilight was thinking on how to start her new system of keeping her books in order elsewhere in Equestria near the small village of Newberry, it was a village much like Ponyville. A tight nit people who were friendly with each other, they also ran a large berry farming operation hence the name of the town. It also sat near a mountain range that had a small forest growing around it.

It was here that the earth started to shake as a large crack like a giant branch the size of a mountain had just snapped. Those in the village didn’t know what had happened at first it felt like a quake which it was but it had a different effect on the mountains. Rocks, boulders and dirt came loose and in the shadow of the mountains one of the great rocks split from the force.

This split was large as the quake opened up a weak point in this particular mountain side for unlike the other mountains this one held a secret. A secret so that it was old when the world was young, long before the time of the sisters came into being, before Discord and long before the pony tribes were split.

The fissure opened up into a deep dark underground cave that went far deeper than most any cave known in existence. This area had become its own little world being separated from the above ground since time forgot. This dark world wasn’t empty, shadows moved in the darkness disturbed by this sudden event. Light entered the area for the first time not that the inhabitants could see light, if they had ever had sight it was long since gone but they could feel the light. The warmth called to them as slowly the shadows started to move towards this new unknown.

They crawled into the warmth of the sun as their bodies were as black as the darkness night, it was like the light didn’t even touch them. Misshapen creatures of pure blackness, they came in various shapes like they were more like the distant memory of a shape, all misshapen and malformed. Some crawled with two long arms to pull them forward, others walked with multiple legs, a few had wings. They sniffed the air with flat noses like bats.

The faces were just a varied but they all had the same thing in common, they had no eyes to see. Living in the dark for so long if they had had eyes at one point they had been removed long ago the only thing where their eyes had been were just smoothed over areas. Their bodies were smooth and looked to glisten like they were covered in some kind of oil.

The first of them into the light sniffed the outside air for the first time it roared with a high pitch scream that seemed to reverberate in the air, its mouth was a row of sharp slender teeth.

These creatures that time forgot slowly moved out of their underground home as they started to explore this new world and to start to hunt for food.

Back in Ponyville everyone felt the quake, Twilight nearly lost her footing as most of her books came falling down. She kept in the center to avoid being buried, thankfully it didn’t last long as she paused making sure that nothing else was going to happen.

“Twilight!” Spike yelled the young purple dragon as he ran into the room. “Are you okay?”

“Yes thanks,” Twilight looked around suppressing a groan. This was going to take a lot of work but there was no time for that now. “Spike I’m going to go see Mayor Mare and start seeing if there was any damage to Ponyville. I want you to stay here in case anyone shows up, tell them to remain calm, write down any problems and I’ll check in later.”

“Okay Twilight, but I can’t remember the last time we had a quake.”

“They don’t happen often in this part of Equestria which is why I need to make sure every pony is okay.” Twilight ran to the front door. This village wasn’t built with quakes in mind thankfully it wasn’t that strong but there could be some injuries and Princess Celestia would want to be kept informed of anything that happened.

-Canterlot-

In the bedroom of Celestia she was having a fitful night’s sleep, all her life she had been plagued by visions in her dreams. Only her sister knew about them but Celestia had learned to listen to her visions. The only problem was that her visions were never clear, she only got images, sensations, sometimes they were more abstract than up front.

The whole day she had been busy with reports of the quake, there had been some light damage and some injuries but nothing major but it did take a lot to make sure everypony was okay and to go over all the damage reports.

In her dreams she saw a group of mountains she didn’t know them, she only saw a crown of peeks, then she saw a crack in them, a dark crack that felt so cold to her. There was something moving inside of the darkness but she couldn’t see them she could only tell that whatever it was they were dangerous. She saw her subjects being attacked by shadows, her ponies crying out in terror and fear. There was a figure there a tall dark figure. She saw broken armor for a moment and the figure was in a tattered clock of darkness.

She wasn’t sure who this figure was but her dream was telling her that this figure had something to do with it. Either he was (and she was sure it was a he by now) the cause of it or he could lead into helping save the trouble but she couldn’t tell which at this point.

Other images were seen, she saw Twilight and her friends facing the mountain in her dreams with the shadows moving through the forests but there was another figure with them. Her sister Luna was there standing with them. The shadows came at them, they surrounded them and that was when Celestia woke up with a start.

She felt her breathing heavy the sweat on her body as she tried to focus she had to remember as much as she could before the dream faded away again.

“Sister!” Luna ran in, because of Luna’s power to enter the dreams of others she was always aware of when Celestia had her prophetic dreams.

“Luna,” Celestia rubbed her head sometimes the visions gave her headaches and she felt a small one at the moment.

“Sister are you okay?” Luna knew that sometimes the visions could be a strain on her either physical or mental.

“Yes thank you Luna,” She took a breath to compose herself. “How much did you see?”

“I believe I saw enough,” she replied. “There is something either coming or already here.”

“Yes, I didn’t know those mountains did you?” Celestia hoped her sister did but it was a large kingdom and with their responsibilities they didn’t exactly have the ability to get out to view the sights.

Luna shook her head, “I’m sorry I didn’t, I don’t know what these dark shadows are either.”

Celestia got out of her bed not sure if she would even be able to sleep again tonight at least not for long as she went to the large French doors that led to her balcony. She opened them and looked out into the night as she looked over their kingdom. She hated not knowing what was out there or where it was, her visions could be so aggravating sometimes.

They never told her everything only what she needed to know apparently, maybe it was to prevent her from changing things or maybe her mind couldn’t handle more than what was given to her. She never knew where these visions came from or why she got them, over a thousand years she asked herself this.

Their mentor Star Swirl the Bearded had told her that they were a gift from the universe itself, she never was so sure about that some times.

“The shadows are what worry me,” Luna said voicing her thoughts to her elder sister. “You don’t think they are connected to Sombra in any way do you?”

“I hope not,” Celestia knew that he had been dispersed by the crystal heart but neither she nor Luna knew for certain if he was fully gone now. There had been no signs of him but you could never truly know for certain. They thought that they had seen the last of Discord and Tirek but both times they had returned. At least Discord was mostly reformed now but they had no idea what exactly happened to Sombra when the crystal heart had been used.

If the heart had destroyed the last of him then they could rest easy but she didn’t think the heart could be used to destroy. If it had banished his living shadow from this world he might find a way back one day or if it has simply dispersed his power leaving him without a form he may one day reform enough to cause trouble.

Celestia had no idea which one of these three scenarios had played out as she hadn’t seen what happened with her own eyes but she would be on the lookout for any sign of Sombra’s return she would not be caught off guard by him.

“It doesn’t feel like Sombra but we shouldn’t rule him out,” Celestia finally said thinking it over. “Whatever it is you and Twilight with her friends are going to face it.”

“What about that clocked figure?” Luna asked next. “Is he friend or foe?”

“I don’t know,” Celestia didn’t like the thought of her sister going out into danger alone. She had lost her for a thousand years and every night when she had to raise the moon it had been nothing but a constant reminder of what happened. She had only just got her precious sister back and if anything happened, she wasn’t sure she could take losing her a second time.

But Luna was a princess of Equestria as well and she had every right to protect their kingdom as well, her dream also showed that her sister was to play a part in what was going to happen. It was just so infuriating how she could never see entirely what was going to happen. It was because of this she saw how Discord would be needed and that Twilight and her friends would be key in his reform, how she knew to send Twilight to Ponyville, she wanted to do more but she had learned that lesson long ago.

She had tried to go against her dreams, at first she thought they were purely warnings and she had tried something else but in the end it had ended in disaster. After that she knew that her dreams weren’t just prophetic but also a blueprint on what to do. It was like a script of a play, she had to set the players but ultimately it was up to fate.

Oh how she hated having to limit herself like this, she looked at Luna with a slight worry in her eyes that her sister caught.
Luna stepped forward to be next to her big sister, “It will be fine, your dreams have always helped in the past and I am not made of glass dear sister.”

“I just can’t help worry about you Luna,” Celestia unfolded one of her wings and wrapped it over her little sister pulling her close and hugging her. “You are the most precious pony in the world to me.”

“As are you sister,” Luna hugged her back. “But I have a duty to the kingdom and I won’t shy away from it. Your dream showed me with them and I will stand with them.”

Celestia smiled down at Luna she was a lot stronger than she let on plus she knew that Luna had been working hard ever since her return to make up for becoming Nightmare Moon. Celestia had forgiven her long ago but she feared that deep inside Luna hadn’t forgiven herself yet.

“We will have to wait and see what happens, I’ll have the guards start on patrols and be on the lookout for danger.” Celestia already was starting to make plans in her mind. First they would have to find out where these shadows were coming from, from there they would know where to start but it meant they had to wait for the trouble to start. She didn’t like that but her dreams didn’t give a specific location that either of them knew.

“I can start looking over maps of possible mountains,” Luna offered thinking it through. “Those mountains have to be important for a reason. So there has to be a mountain range with a forest somewhere mapped out.”

Celestia nodded at the idea, she would also have to prepare a note to send to Twilight at some point. Looking out into the night the sisters wondered what evil was out there that threatened their kingdom and their subjects.

Next up Chapter 2: Shadows Rising

Chapter 2: Shadows Rising

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Chapter 3: Luna and the Elements

The Mountain of Shadows

Chapter 3: Luna and the Elements

Celestia was sitting on her throne reading a very worrying report that had come to her attention. Her orders for anything unusual being reported had given her a few odd things. Some ponies in a mining town swore that one of their mines were haunted, a creature was seen on the outskirts of a swamp, ponies traveling a certain road at night were reports of the road stretching out becoming longer. That last one she wasn’t sure if there was some kind of special distortion or just the imagination of some ponies.

But it was the current one she was re-reading that caused her the most concern. The report from the town of Newberry of an attack by some kind of unknown creatures, the descriptions were unsettling and the shadowy images of her vision came to mind. She was sure that this was part of her vision and this town was the starting point. The Captain of the guard had already sent a squad to the village but Celestia felt it was time to send more. She had sent a guard to get her sister as she thought about what was to come.

Celestia hated not being involved in this but her vision was clear, she wasn’t part of the event that was going to happen but that didn’t make it any easier. Her visions were always not only a warning but a plan on how to deal with it. If she tried to change things too much then events could spiral out of control and end up causing a disaster. The only time she had tried to go against her vision it had ended badly.

“Sister?” Luna’s voice caught Celestia out of her thoughts as the blue alicorn walked into the throne room.

“I believe the time has come,” she floated the message down to her sister as she took it and read it.

Luna’s eyes scanned the message reading much of it as her eyes widened slightly at the description of the creatures. “I believe you are right. Shall I go to the village right away?”

“My vision had you standing with the Elements, so I believe you should head to Ponyville to Twilight and gather them first. I shall send word to her that you are coming and that her friends are to be there. I’ll leave the rest in your care.”

Luna looked at her older sister and she could see the worry there, she tried to hide it but Luna had known her sister all her life and knew all too well everything about her. Even a thousand years of separation couldn’t change that.

“Sister, what’s worrying you?” Luna asked.

Celestia sighed, “I’m sorry it’s just that I wish my visions were more complete. I wish I knew exactly what was going on and how to deal with it. I don’t like sending you and Twilight and her friends into the unknown like this.”

“We will be fine sister.”

Celestia did smile back finally, “I have total faith in you Luna, as well as Twilight and her friends. I just wish I could go with you as well.”

Luna nodded her head in the past it was always the two of them that had to deal with all the major problems. From facing Discord, to the Crystal Empire and all the other kinds of problems that came up, in fact it was a lot like how Twilight and her friends seemed to take care a lot of the problems that their Kingdom faced today.

But for the first time Luna felt like she was finally going to take a more active role in the defense of her kingdom. She still felt like kicking herself for actually missing a changeling invasion, yes she had been asleep but still. When she had found out what she had missed she had felt so disappointed in herself for weeks until Celestia had come to her and cheered her up about it.

Well now she felt it was time to do something that would offset that little failure.

“Sister while I’m gone I’ll have to leave the moon in your care.” Luna wasn’t sure she would have the time or chance to properly raise and lower her moon while on this mission. Ever since they’re return they had changed the night and day flawlessly but so far apart she was worried she would lose track of time. Plus she might need all her focus for what was to come.

Celestia nodded her head in understanding, “I will sister and have a safe journey.”

Luna nodded as she left the throne room, her sister could take care of it as she had done so for a thousand years a few more days wouldn’t be too much on her older sister. Her mind pushed those thoughts aside as she quickly moved to the barracks section of the castle. The guards stood at attention as she approached the large doors.

“Get the duty commander of the guard,” she ordered.

One of the stallions nodded as he disappeared, she mused how the still hadn’t found a full time replacement for Shinning Armor at the moment ever since he moved with his wife to the Crystal Empire. There were a few candidates but she and Celestia hadn’t been able to make a decent choice left. Thankfully the guard were well structured and there was a Duty Commander appointed for each week among the higher ranked members.

The guard returned with Commander Skyfire, he was an older Pegasus with a fiery mane as he stood at attention in front of the Princess.

“Your highness,” he stood at attention awaiting orders.

“I will need chariots quickly deployed,” Luna commanded him. “We will be leaving for Ponyville and we will be picking up the Elements and moving towards the village of Newberry.”

“Yes your grace,” he nodded as he quickly went to work.

Luna knew he was a very capable commander if a bit old fashioned she heard. With that in hand she went to await them outside. A part of Luna was looking forward to this, she hadn’t had a real adventure for a very long time and it would let her time with Twilight and her friends. They were the only ponies that treated Luna as more of a friend than a monarch and it was a very welcomed feeling.

-Ponyville-

Spike was currently in the kitchen of the crystal castle as he was looking for a snack. He had placed some rubies around here somewhere for snack food but he wasn’t sure which cupboard that had been. He was pretty sure it was one of the ones near the ground as it would make it easiest to get to. First one held just some pots and pans, the next held the cleaning materials thankfully on his third try he found the bowl full of the sparkling treasures.

“Oh yeah snack time,” he licked his lips and was about to reach inside when he felt that familiar rumbling in his stomach. Years of feeling this particular sensation gave him plenty of warning as he turned his head quickly as the green flame erupted out of his mouth. He had learned pretty quickly to be careful where he aimed when he got a message this way. A few accidents early one had made him be a bit more careful, it had taken Twilight a week for that part of her mane to fully grow back that one time.

He caught the scroll knowing it was for Twilight as he quickly took a handful of gems as he made his way out of the kitchen and into the hallway.

“Twilight, hey Twilight.” He called out but no answer he was pretty sure she hadn’t left.

He sighed, although living in their own castle was pretty cool since they had a lot more room, hell he had his own room now which was sweet but there was one major downside to it all. Back in the library he had only a few rooms to search and if he called out she usually could hear him easily enough. Well now he had to search for her in this large castle.

He first checked her room.

Nope.

Well then he figured maybe the library she was building up.

Again no.

He checked the throne room and still nothing, he racked his brain on where she might be. There were still plenty of rooms to check, most of them were empty though. Several bedrooms were unused so she wouldn’t be in one of those, a few large rooms were still empty as Twilight had no idea what to do with them. Spike was kind of hoping they could turn one into a rec room at some point. He figured to try the one room she might be in and that was going to be her new lab room.

Since the old lab she had had been under the library some of the equipment had turned out to have survived if a little worse for wear. When Twilight found this one particular empty room she had figured that would be the place to place all the equipment there. She had spent some of her days in that room going over the equipment seeing what worked and fixing what she could now and then. Spike found himself outside the room and could hear Twilight working again.

“Ah ha, knew I would find her eventually,” he popped a jewel into his mouth walking in as there she was working on one of the larger machines.

“Hey Twilight you got a letter,” He told her walking over to hand it off to her.

She pulled her head out of the insides of the large device she was currently working on, “Oh thanks Spike.”

The room was filled with scientific equipment, some looked brand new since they were. She had ordered replacements for her equipment that was just a total right off. Thankfully now that she was a princess she actually was given access to her own royal accounts. Granted she didn’t use it much as she knew tax payer money went into it but this was for her research into magic and science. Still she did place a limit on herself as she had to be responsible for her spending.

Currently she was working on trying to salvage one of the larger machines used to measure energy readings. So far she wasn’t sure if she could get it working again so a break would be nice as she took the scroll from spike with her magic.

Dear Princess Twilight

The message started out and although it was nice to be considered an equal she missed how Celestia always used to start them off with something like ‘To my most faithful Student’ since to her, Celestia would always be a mentor figure. She read on but soon her good mood shifted slightly to worry, spike picked up on it from the look on her face.

I am sending you this advance warning that something dangerous is loose in the kingdom, Luna is on her way to meet with you. She will be able to give you the full story, at least as much as we know but we felt that you and your friends should be called upon to help her. Both you and your friends have shown time and time again that you all have rose up and defended Equestria spectacularly. So I must ask for your services again Twilight.

Twilight couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride knowing that Celestia thought so highly of them but pushed that aside, this seemed serious.

“Spike we got trouble.” She told her number one assistant.

“Uh...what kind of trouble?” Spike’s young and very active mind was already going through a lot of possible and kind of scary possibilities. After all the crazy things that had happened since coming to Ponyville you could hardly blame the small guy.

“It...doesn’t say but I got to get the girls,” she took another look at the letter but there was no hint of what to expect. “But it can’t be good if Princess Luna is coming here.”

“Whoa she’s coming here? Okay that is serious.”

“Yes, I got to get the girls.”

“Want me to hold down the fort?” Spike was kind of hoping for this, although he wouldn’t mind a few adventures with them, this sounded a little too much for him. If Luna was getting her hooves involved then this had to be something a bit too dangerous for his liking.

“If you don’t mind,” Twilight smiled at him. “Well I better get going I have to track everypony down and get them here in time.”

“Don’t worry I got it,” Spike told her confidently.

It took Twilight some time to round everyone up, Dash had just finished up clearing the weather and Twilight found her napping on a cloud, Pinkie had been in the middle of a party for some pony, Twilight hated pulling her away but Pinkie assured her that the party was nearly over and it could survive without her at the moment. Plus she already had made everyone smile, laugh and have a good time so her job was done in her books.

Rarity had working on her next line, apparently she felt a bit stumped and needed a break. Fluttershy had been easy enough to find at her home taking care of the animals as usual. Applejack had been the last as the farm pony usually was working on something on the farm. Thankfully apple season was still a month away and the rest could easily be handled by her older brother for a few days.

The girls ended up gathered in front of Twilight’s castle waiting for the Princess.

“Did y’all know when she’s showing up?” AJ asked Twilight after about twenty minutes.

Twilight shook her head, “All I know is that she’s coming, so if she’s coming by air it shouldn’t be too much longer.”

Given that you would see Canterlot from Ponyville it wasn’t that far away, it took longer if you were going by train but by air you could make it in an hour or more with a good wind in your favor.

“I wonder what she wants us for?” Pinkie asked jumping in place.

“Maybe we got a monster to deal with or another dragon is causing trouble and they want us to deal with it like the last one that was in the mountain,” Rainbow said excitedly.

“Technically that was Fluttershy that dealt with that dragon,” Rarity pointed out.

“I hope it’s not another dragon,” Fluttershy said slightly curling up into herself.

“Oh come on how can you be scared of dragons still?” Rainbow threw her legs up in the air looking at her friend. “You deal with Spike all the time and you made that dragon break down crying!”

“I really wished I hadn’t done that to him he didn’t deserve it,” The yellow Pegasus said softly not liking having to hurt anything’s feelings be it Pony, animal or other. “Plus Spike is different, he’s a small kind and gentle dragon. He’s not a huge, scary, fire breathing eat you up in one bite type of dragon.”

“True little Spikey Wikey is just too adorable to be scared of,” Rarity smiled.

“Well whatever it is I want to have a great victory party when we’re done,” Pinkie smiled already her mind was planning it out.

“Hey look,” Dash pointed up to the sky as two objects were coming towards them. As they got closer the girls could see that there were two golden chariots being pulled by royal guard Pegasi as they also saw in one of the chariots was Luna herself. She was easy enough to spot with her dark contrasting colors and flowing mane. The girls waiting for them to land as Luna stepped out to meet them.

The girls all bowed to her as Luna nodded back.

“Please rise, you all shouldn’t have to bow to me, especially you Princess.” Luna smiled a little at Twilight. Given that they were both princesses now and the other elements had done so much for her and their nation bowing to her didn’t seem quite right to Luna.

The girls rose up with Twilight blushing a bit, it was still just reflex to bow to the princesses. Even with her wings, castle and new status, Twilight just never really fully ‘felt’ like a true princess. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t do her duty but after spending her whole life as just a unicorn it was a big change and she figured it would take her time to fully fit into her role.

“So what’s the problem Princess?” Dash asked eager to hear what trouble they were going to face.

“There is trouble in the village of Newberry that my sister and I feel that we will need your help with.” Luna didn’t say how they knew as it was a secret between her and her sister about Celestia’s visions.

“I think I know that place,” Applejack thought seeing the looks of the others. “At a few events where my family was selling our apple products farmers from all over come to them to sell their own stuff as well. I met this family that grow and sell berries of all kinds from there.”

“Ever been there?” Rarity asked her.

“Nope but it sounded a lot like home from how they talked about it,” AJ explained.

“What’s the trouble?” Fluttershy asked softly.

Luna started to explain, “We received a report that strange unknown creatures attacked the village. At the moment we have no idea what they might be, the local guard already sent in a small force to the village as the report was passed up the chain to us.”

Luna knew that by the time the report had reached Celestia the guard unit had most likely been stationed there for a couple of days and a report should be on its way back but these creatures were part of Celestia’s vision and were a much larger threat than the local guard chief thought when he sent out that small unit.

“That’s terrible what did the creatures look like?” Fluttershy asked a bit more confidently as she figured if any kind of creature or animals were causing trouble maybe she could talk to them and figure out what was wrong. Sometimes animals just acted out because they were scared or hurt and you just had to be patient with them and let them calm down before approaching.

“The reports weren’t very clear,” Luna frowned at that. “They seem to come in various shapes and sizes but all were black as night with lots of teeth.”

“Oh dear,” Fluttershy didn’t like the sound of them as that didn’t sound very friendly but she wanted to keep an open mind.

Twilight’s eyes went back and forth quickly as she mentally looked through her memories of the vast amounts of knowledge she held but she couldn’t think of anything that came to mind that sounded like that. But then it was kind of vague but part of her was tempted to look through her books on strange or legendary creatures. “I take it that the Canterlot Archives didn’t have anything on them?”

Luna shook her head, “I’m sorry we checked.” They had been looking ever since that vision in turns, Celestia during the day and her at night but nothing in their records showed anything like the creatures which was very worrying. Either this was a new threat to their lands or it was something so old or found in such a remote area that no pony had ever seen them before.

“Well you can count on me Princess.” Twilight stepped forward as she didn’t want to speak for her friends even though they were all here. She was a princess too after all so she felt she had to step in to help ponies wherever they were.

“Y’all can count on me too.” AJ nodded her head.

“Oh I’m so not missing out on this!” Rainbow threw a hoof up into the air. “This sounds totally awesome.”

The others agreed as well as Luna nodded her head to them, “Then please take a step onto the chariots we shouldn’t waste too much time.”

They split up, four going into one and Twilight and Fluttershy going with Luna. They had to convince Rainbow that although she could fly there faster, Luna pointed out that she wanted Rainbow in top form in case something happened. Dash had to concede that point although she wasn’t happy about it, she never liked it when someone else was in control when she was in the air.

They took off as Luna cast a look to her two travelling companions, Twilight had come such a long way when they first met. When her sister had sent Twilight off to the Crystal Empire because Celestia had told her that Twilight was a next possible pony to ascend to become an alicorn she wasn’t so sure. Twilight was young and still very much inexperienced in her eyes at that time, it was why she had given the poor girl a bit of the cold shoulder when they had met that day.

She had been so wrong and after that she had seen what her sister must have seen in Twilight. Now here she was the young alicorn had helped to reform an old enemy and fought and defeated another, she had even been able to handle the combined powers of herself, her sister and of her adopted niece. Looking at Twilight, Luna couldn’t help that there was something special about the girl, it was like universe turned around her life.

It was like somehow Fate had wound its way around Twilight making her the center of so many events, her friends being pulled into her orbit also seemed to be slightly touched by Fate. Maybe it wasn’t luck that Twilight and her friends came together who were the embodiments of the Elements of Harmony the most powerful of all magic. Luna watched as Twilight and Fluttershy talked and she could make out some of the conversations behind them and she could feel the bond between them all.

It made her happy and a little envious that they shared such a strong bond. Yes she had her sister but any other bonds of friendship were always cut short by her long lived nature and after coming back, well her adjustment to this new era was still a work in progress.

Still the Elements were the first ones to take the steps to being her friend and it was such a nice feeling to it. Ever since that night she came for Nightmare Night she had left feeling more at home in this world and once again Twilight had been the one to help teach her about friendships and having fun. She certainly lived up to her title as the Princess of Friendship.

“Something on your mind Princess Luna?” Twilight asked snapping the taller pony out of her thoughts.

“I’m sorry?”

“You seemed lost in thought,” Twilight clarified.

Luna thought about how to answer it, “Just...it’s just nice seeing how good friends you all are. Makes me wish I had something like that.”

“But you are our friend,” this surprisingly came from Fluttershy as the two looked at her as she suddenly looked down a little embarrassed. “I mean I was a little scared at first but I’m always scared of Nightmare Night.”

“Why is that?” Twilight asked her. “You’re the only one I know that didn’t like that night.”

Fluttershy crouched down, “I...used to get bullied a lot and on Nightmare Night it was worse back in Cloudsdale, bullies used to do all kinds of scary pranks against me and after awhile I just...didn’t like to go out anymore.” Plus all the scary costumes didn’t help her much either.

Twilight knew that as a foal Fluttershy had been picked on but that was just going too far to make somepony afraid to go out on one night.”

Luna however looked a bit angry, “Who dared to do such a thing?” She demanded her tone slipping a little into her old way of talking.

“Oh no, don’t worry about it,” Fluttershy didn’t want to cause a fuss and that was years ago at any rate. “It was a long time ago and I’m sure they grew up out of that kind of behavior.”

Luna took a calming breath, she always had the tempter in her family and she had tried to keep in more in check lately. “I’m sorry but you are one of the kindness and most gentlest of ponies that I’ve met and I don’t like the thought of you suffering because of the ignorance and stupidity of others.”

“See even the Princess is sticking up for you and it’s her night after all,” Twilight spoke up. “How about next time if Luna wants to come, we all go out together?”

“Oh that does sound like fun,” Luna perked up a bit she was thinking of coming back for the next Nightmare Night coming up. She was even thinking of coming in costume this time.

“Well...I’ll think on it?” Fluttershy did feel a small pull to want to say yes, it would be fun to hang out with friends on that night but you couldn’t just push back years of build on fears. She hoped that in time she would rethink it.

“Well that’s good enough for me,” Twilight turned to Luna. “And I look forward to seeing you next time, I’m sure things will start out better than last time.”

“I don’t see how it could have been worse,” Luna felt like rolling her eyes at how it had all started.

“Hey look, is that it?” Rainbow Dash loudly asked that they could clearly hear her from their own chariot. They all looked down to see a small village as the guards were slowly descending.

Luna thought that the place looked fairly normal but as they got closer she noticed something. There were barricades in the streets and no pony was outside. Something had happened and she had a bad feeling that even though the guard where here, the creatures had returned.

Next up Chapter 4: Off to the Woods We Go

Author's Note

Sorry if anyone was waiting on this crazy time lately, well as always I really hope for some feedback for this story I have other ideas but I want to see how well received this story is before trying at anything else I may post a one-shot or two at least. So Please leave a like (hopefully) and a comment on what you think.