The Threat of Dark Star

A quiet voice whispered in Twilight's ear, making her tired eyes open, revealing the young foal she had met before, Red Comet "Miss Sparkle....Miss Sparkle, are you awake?" The foal looked anxious and uncomfortable, her mane and fur in disarray from laying in her bed and probably tossing and turning.

"Red Comet?" Twilight mumbled sleepily rubbing her eye a little "What's wrong?" She said as she sat up and stretched. Twilight and the others were all sleeping in the attic of Thunder's small farm house. While normally the attic would probably be freezing, with so many ponies sleeping in there however, there was a pleasant warmth, occasional disturbed by a chilly breeze sneaking through the floorboards of the house.

"I was just wondering... uh...." Red shuffled her hooves a little whilst staring down at the floorboards instead of making contact with the lavender alicorn. "Do you really need Thunder to see that big dragon? I can take you instead!" She suddenly blurted out after a few moments of silence, her head suddenly jerking up to look at a slightly startled Twilight with tear filled eyes.

Twilight looked confused, "Even if we wanted you to take us Red, Thunder would never allow it," Twilight might not know much about the dark blue pony that invited them into her home, but she knew that she cared for Red very deeply, as most sisters would do.

"B-But Thunder can't go to see the dragon! Please!" Red responded rather desperately then bit her lip and sat down. "When I was little I was dared to go up there by some of my classmates and the dragon woke up and found me, but Thunder must've found out about the dare because she came to save me." Red started to scuffle at the floor a little harder starting to wake the others with the noise her anxiety was creating "It was the first time she had tried to fly, and she did it really well at first, but the dragon burned some of her feathers and she fell down, so she got hurt pretty bad. The other ponies in the village began to tease her calling her Featherhead and Cloudbrain, so she hasn't tried to fly since then and she's been so afraid to leave the farm. She's terrified of the dragon, and I don't want her to get hurt again..." Red finished her story almost in a mumble, not making eye contact with Twilight or the other sleepy-eyed ponies in the room.

Applejack trotted over slowly, sitting down beside Red then nudging her gently with her shoulder. "I'll be honest with you kid, if you'd been my sister I'd have done the same thing that Thunder did, but if she's willing to go back to that place for a group of strangers I'm sure she knows that she can do it, maybe you should just show her that you know she can too!" Applejack grinned at the red foal and gave her a slight wink.

A few minutes later when Thunder came up the stairs to check on her guests, she found them sharing stories of their great adventures with her little sister. "Come on," she told them, "If we leave now Charlie might still be sleeping! We could get that ball for you and make it back without disturbing him!" She looked nervous and anxious, but there was a determined glint in her eyes. Applejack nudged Red and suddenly Red came over practically tackling Thunder to the ground and embracing her.

"You can do it Thunder! You're the bravest pony in all of Hoovesdale!" Red held her tightly before stepping back. Feeling much better, she smiled at Thunder, but deep inside there was still an ever present worry for her older sister, so when she and the others left for Charlie's cave she followed quickly trying to keep out of sight as they journeyed to the cave.

Every step they took toward their destination, the quicker Thunder's heart seemed to beat, almost like it was trying to escape her chest and run for cover away from the darkened cave, but she kept taking deep breaths and tried to calm herself. "Stay calm, stay calm..." She repeated to herself over and over again as they approached the cave, but hearing the dragon's breath as it slept froze her front left hoof in midair, and made her pupils shrink to small pinpoints in terror and panic.

Red Comet saw her sister freeze and knew that she wasn't going to get any closer, her new friends seemed to realize the same thing, for after a few minutes of trying to get her attention, they left her where she was and went inside the cave. Red knew she had to do something since the newcomers didn't know anything about Charlie or his hatred of unicorns and pegasi. If Red didn't warn them they could get hurt! Red took a deep breath and ran to her sister's side, "Thunder, please Thunder, you have to hurry they don't know about Charlie's trap!" Red shook her sister to no effect, so she moved back a few steps and after only a brief hesitation charged straight into Thunder like a wild bull, knocking both of them over.

Thunder blinked in surprise as she felt a weight slam into her, noticing that it was Red. "What are you doing here?" She looked around and realized they were alone. "Stay here," she said quickly, ignoring her first question in favor of the more important issue at hoof. There was a reason that pegasi and unicorns didn't come to their town, and Charlie wouldn't have them! Thunder felt a power beyond words fill her, and without a second thought, she charged into the dark cave.

Twilight and the others were deep inside the cave when they found the dragon, commonly known as Charlie. He was large with ink black scales and light blue spines and spikes. His eyes were closed so it was impossible to tell what color they were, but that wasn't the main concern. They snuck around him slowly spotting the large stone element they had been looking for on a pile of jewels. The second they touched the jewels however, the dragon's eyes opened, revealing blue eyes that matched his spines and swung his tail toward them.

"Unicorn, Pegasus, you will not have my treasure!" The dragon's voice boomed in the small cave. His eyes had a slightly crazed look to them as he took a deep breath and trapped the ponies in flaming spheres. "IT IS MINE!" He roared, making the flame spheres start to shrink. Twilight was trying to stop him with her magic, but dragon magic and alicorn magic were very different, and she wasn't doing well.

"Hey you overgrown geeko!" Charlie looked over, as did the others, at the sound of another voice. Thunder was standing in front of them with a fire in her eyes "Come and get me!" She yelled with a smirk while running toward the dragon's jewels.

"My treasure!" Charlie roared, turning to chase Thunder. Since he didn't want to accidently melt his jewels with his fire breath, his focus was broken and the other ponies were freed from his spheres and watched for a brief moment as Thunder teased the giant beast.

"She really is brave..." Fluttershy mumbled as she heard Thunder tease the dragon about his fire breath. Narrowly avoiding getting stepped on in the process, she leapt from pile to pile of jewels looking back at the others and nodding urgently as if to say, 'get on with it, will you?'

Twilight nodded faintly at Fluttershy's words, a sparkle flashing in her eyes before hurrying to get the stone that they were searching for. That is, until Charlie's tail smashed into the jewels and sent the pile crumbling. Rainbow Dash tried to catch it, but the falling jewels made it hard to keep up with the stone. Charlie, in his great rage blaming Thunder for the mess he had caused, turned to her as she ran to try and catch the stone, and crushed it with his tail.

Thunder saw the stone fall, and Charlie crush it, making her feel the hot burn of shame as she failed to help her new friends. "We have to go!" She yelled over the noise of Charlie begining to have what appeared to be a tantrum of sorts, causing the cave to shake and made large pillars of stone fall from the ceiling.

One run later

Thunder panted, she was very tired, she had grabbed Red on their run out of the cave, tossing her on her back as they ran, ignoring her faint protests in favor of keeping her safe until they reached the town. She slumped onto her belly, allowing Red to leap of her back and looked toward the others after she caught her breath. "Sorry guys, I wish I could've helped you out... I'm sorry that your stone thing got destroyed."

Twilight stepped to her side, helping Thunder back into a standing position. "The stone might have been destroyed, but the element is still here:" suddenly Thunder felt a great warmth around her neck, it made her feel... strong... "The element we had been searching for lives inside you, the element of courage." Twilight continued smiling slightly as a necklace appeared around Thunder's neck. The jewel was in the shape of her cutie mark as it was for the others and it was a bright white color.

"What happens now then?" Thunder asked looking down at her new necklace and watching as Twilight put it in a trunk with the other ones. She gave Twilight a look that clearly meant that wherever she went, Red would be coming as well, unless of course it was dangerous.

Twilight nodded at the silent message, she understood it, she was sure if their roles were reversed she'd feel the same way. "Well you and Red should come with us to Canterlot so you can meet the princesses and then we'll have to see what happens." Twilight smiled once again and lead the group toward a train station, getting Thunder and Red a free pass on the train to Canterlot due to Princess Celestia's orders. The siblings, for their joy, had never been on a train before so they ended up exploring everything in their reach. It was going to be a long ride to Canterlot.

Canterlot Luna's POV

Luna looked out at her moon and sighed as her memories swirled just like the stars in the night sky, and with every one, her heart broke, like stars exploding, bright with anguish and regret, There are few ponies in her kingdom that knew her secret, she once had a foal. Before she was banished to the moon, she had met a creature who was one with chaos, she had met him in the dream world and Nightmare Moon, craving the creature's powers allowed herself to be seduced, in her dream world she wasn't a dream entity, and everything that happened to her was real... She found that out a few weeks later when she discovered the life growing inside her. Unfortunately she was soon cursed to the moon, the power of the blast had forced her into labor and her little child was born right there on the moon beside her. It was so small and looked so much like her it make her weep. She nudged her child, trying to get the foal to move or to make a sound, but all she got was some weak breathing against her snout. She felt her heart breaking and cried out as loud as she could for the one pony that could help her child.

Luna could still see her sister's sad eyes as she looked down at the little foal, looking at what Luna had become, dark and in chains. She took the child back with her, but Luna didn't have the courage to ask her what had happened to it when she returned. She pretended she didn't remember it, but still, it broke her heart when she wondered if her child was alright, and where they were right now... If they missed her as much as she missed them…

Canterlot Station Thunder's POV

Thunder leapt off the train, helping Red down. Both siblings looked eagerly around the city, they had never left their small town of Hoovesdale so the capital city was like a whole new world to them. They followed the others through the city looking around at all the sights before them, silently promising to come back later and look through the streets in more detail. They had even gotten the chance to sleep on the train which was rather exciting, though it wasn't the best sleep they had ever had, since they weren't used to a moving bed.

Twilight walked into the throne room and nodded politely to the other princesses before explaining what they had been through while they were gone and introducing Thunder and Red to the princesses in turn. Princess Celestia looked at Red with a happy smile, when she looked at Thunder though, her smile stayed in place. A curious look came to her eyes, she recognized that pony from somewhere, at least she thought so anyway.

Thunder and Red bowed to the princesses when they were introduced, but let Twilight do the talking and the second they could, they left with Rainbow Dash and Rarity when they offered to show them the city. Feeling a bit intimidate, in the large throne room they had been brought to.

Princess Celestia and Twilight began to talk about Thunder and her element. Celestia was still trying to remember where she had seen the young mare before when suddenly, everything went dark. The remaining ponies exchanged confused looks. It was the beginning of the day, so why would it be so dark so early? There wasn't any storm planned for today, so the concerned the ponies raced from the castle and headed toward the center of the swirling darkness in the city.

They found Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Red trying to talk down a dark entity. The being was almost pure black in color with glowing red eyes, suspended in the air by it's dark wings, which flapped lazily from time to time because with all the wind swirling around it, there wasn't much effort to stay in the air. The entity seemed to have its whole focus on Blueblood who appeared to have fainted at some point as dark power pulsed around him.

Princess Luna and Princess Celestia exchanged a glance, not having felt energy like this before... Celestia gathered her magic in her horn, before focusing it on the dark power. Thankfully, the entity wasn't as powerful as Nightmare Moon, so she wouldn't have to do anything like she had done before.

Twilight, letting Celestia deal with the entity, turned to Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Red instead to get the story of what had happened. It turns out the Blueblood had shoved Red out of his way and had spoken down to Thunder when she demanded that he apologize, and then she turned into whatever that thing was. Despite Blueblood finally apologizing, it didn't stop, in fact it seemed to get worse.

Celestia's magic melted away the dark energy coating Thunder. The young mare, not really knowing how to use her wings properly slumped to the ground with a groan shaking her head to clear it.

"What happened?" She croaked while rubbing her eyes, then noticed everyone was staring at her. "What?" She looked at them confused but Rarity and Applejack just helped the young mare to her feet and offer to take her to get something to ease that pain in her throat, explaining on the way. Twilight and the others followed with caution, the entire group ignoring the unconscious Blueblood in favor of less annoying ponies.

"What was that Tia?" Luna looked at her sister in confusion about what had just transpired. What had happened to Thunder? Why had her anger lead her to becoming... whatever she had just become?

"Lulu, after you were banished to the moon, I don't know if you remember this, but you had a foal, I tried to care for it but it had been so weak it took nearly your entire banishment to get the small mare to grow, once it started to however, I tried to find a good home for it, afraid of what Nightmare Moon would do with the child if she had found it." Princess Celestia looked over to where Thunder was walking away with the others, Pinkie Pie trying to cheer up the group, true to her nature and her element. "But it appears your child had found us again" She continued looking back at her sister shocked face.

Author's Note

another chapter up and posted, I hope you enjoy it