Darkest Depths

It wasn't a very long walk from the guest wing to Luna's room, even though it was on the other side of the castle. Most ponies would get lost in the maze-like interior of the castle. In fact, some ponies joked that the hedge maze behind the castle was modeled after the castle. Twilight had walked these halls many times, however, and knew precisely where to go. Before Luna's return, the hall that led to her room had been blocked off with a magical barrier, and guarded by no less than four sentries at all times. Celestia hadn't wanted anypony to find out that Nightmare Moon was, in fact, her sister, lest it cause a panic. Now, however, the hallway was clear of the barrier, and the castle guards assigned to Luna were at their posts outside her room. The other rooms in the hallway were probably Luna's study, her observatory, and her entertainment room, Twilight assumed, since the Princesses' living areas most likely mirrored each other. The guards were silent, as always, but did not stop the two ponies as they walked to Luna's room. Pinkie had calmed down a bit, still somewhat afraid of Luna. Twilight started to knock on the door, but it was already slightly opened. The first knock pushed the door open a bit more, enough for Twilight to see inside. It was dark in the room, and it took her eyes a moment to adjust. When they finally did, she could see Luna sleeping, sprawled out on her bed in a not-quite-princess-like manner. Well, nopony's perfect, Twilight thought with a chuckle. Turning to Pinkie, she began to tell her that they would just come back later but.... Pinkie wasn't there. Twilight looked around wildly for the party pony before noticing movement out of the corner of her eye. In Luna's room. "Oh, no...." Twilight whispered.

Twilight entered the room on tip-hooves. This was not good. Judging by how Pinky was sneaking up on Luna, it was clear that Pinky was planning one of her 'surprise wake-ups'. If they wanted to get Luna's help, Twilight would have to make sure Luna didn't get Celestia to send them to the moon for interrupting her nap. Unless Luna could do it herself! It took all of three steps for Twilight to realize that it is nearly impossible to gallop while sneaking, so she gave up on stealth and ran to where Pinkie was, hoping Luna was a heavy sleeper. At the same time as Pinkie saw Twilight galloping towards her, Twilight found that stopping in a relatively small room after running so fast was simply out of the question. In hindsight, teleportation probably would've been the best option. But Twilight had no time to think before she collided with Pinkie, sending them both into Luna's nightstand with a loud *CRASH*, as the front two legs of the nightstand buckled and gave way from the collision.
Twilight was the first to recover, and slowly she righted herself and readied her teleportation spell. Her horn glowing, she willed herself and her friend to be back in the suite. With a brief feeling of being stretched and pulled, then squashed back together, the two ponies appeared.... Right where they had teleported from. Which could only mean one thing. Slowly, Twilight looked up, the darkness making it hard to see. But there was one thing that nopony could miss. Luna's eyes stood out in the unlit room, and she did NOT look happy. Twilight cringed. "What could thou possibly want from us that was so urgent thou decidest to wake us from our slumber?" Luna yelled in the Royal Canterlot Voice. Not good. At all. Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but only a squeak came out. Luna had used the Royal Canterlot Voice with Twilight before, but never in anger. Now she saw why Luna was so fond of it. It was TERRIFYING. Luna's horn glowed, shining brightly enough to show her face, which only served to emphasize her anger. She was still blocking Twilight's teleportation spell, so Twilight was at Luna's mercy. "Well?" Luna demanded again. "Art thou here for a reason? Or dost thou simply relish the thought of making us angry?" Twilight finally worked up enough courage to form coherent words, more or less."We.... I-I mean I... Was l-looking in the...the library at the c-c-college, to find s-some way t-to permanently seal D-D-Discord away..." Twilight answered timidly. "And how dost this relate to thy intrusion into our chambers?" Luna had calmed down a bit, but was still angry at the two ponies, and Twilight began to feel a little more sure of herself. "W-well... I was looking through s-some old books, trying to f-find a way to reverse-engineer the Elements, and I... I found a book..." Twilight explained. Luna's expression had gone from anger to one of simple annoyance, and she seemed more than a little curious. "What didst thou find in this book?" questioned Luna. Her voice had gone down in volume, equal now to just a normal conversational level. Twilight was on her game now. Books were her forte. "Well, it was a historical record of some sort, but it was very short, but it mentioned something about a storm. There were only a few entries, and there were many blank pages, as if somepony intended to fill it in but.... Never got the chance to...." Twilight stopped, because the Princess was no longer listening. Instead, she was looking thoughtfully at a patch of wall behind Twilight. "Show us this book thou hast found," Luna said finally. "We think we may know some things about this book. However, we had thought that book would surely be dust after a millennia. The preservation skills of the librarians is truly remarkable," she mused. "Um... The book is in my suite at the guest wing..." twilight began, but was cut off by Luna. "Take us to thine abode, Twilight Sparkle. We will speak further once we arrive. And do not forget your friend." The pony to which Luna was referring had actually been listening the entire time. Hearing herself mentioned, she promptly stood up and sidled up next to Twilight. "When she said she would talk to us later, she really meant she's going to eat us," Pinky whispered matter-of-factly to Twilight. Rolling her eyes, Twilight led the way to her suite.

After walking the length of the castle for the second time in less than 20 minutes, Twilight, Luna, and Pinkie stood outside the door to Twilight's suite. The doorknob was surrounded by a purple glow as Twilight opened the door and led Luna inside. Pinkie had somehow managed to clean up the entire mess she had made, despite being with Twilight the whole time. "Which book is the book thou speakest of, Twilight Sparkle?" Luna asked loudly. A book lying on top of Twilight's desk began to rise and move towards them, with the unicorns magic moving it. Her concentration was suddenly broken by a greater magic than hers, as Luna took control of the book and brought it in front of her. Twilight huffed quietly in annoyance, but made no further sound. Pinkie, for once, was silent. Luna read each page carefully, then, with a nearly inaudible gasp, she dropped the book. "Princess, are you alright?" Twilight asked worriedly. The princess had quickly regained her composure, though, and replied in a level voice,"I know not what thou speakest of, Ms.Sparkle." Twilight wasn't ready to give up quite yet, though. She teleported in front of the door and planted herself there, quite determined to stop a nearly omnipotent immortal mare of darkness from leaving the room. All things considered, not a great plan. "Thou wishest to bar my way of exit, Twilight Sparkle?" Luna asked, her voice rising a notch or two. "You know something about Discord that you're not telling! That information could be vital to Equestria's safety! As a princess, it's your duty-" "You DARE tell me what my duties are?" Luna interrupted. In her anger, she had stopped using the traditional "we", opting to direct all of her focus on Twilight, who realised, a bit too late, that she had gone too far. "I WAS RULING THE KINGDOM OF THE NIGHT THOUSANDS OF YEARS BEFORE YOU EVEN EXISTED!" Luna shouted. The room had gotten very dark, despite it being the middle of the day. Luna had obviously been keeping much anger bottled up, and was now directing its full fury on the terrified unicorn."YOU THINK YOU CAN SIMPLY DEMAND INFORMATION OF ME? I KEEP WHAT SECRETS I WISH, THAT IS NOT FOR YOU TO QUESTION!" The room was shaking with Luna's wrath, and Twilight saw the reason why it was so dark; Luna had raised the moon, and forced the sun back down over the horizon. The effect was almost instant. Celestia came out of a teleport at full gallop, horn glowing like the sun itself. Before Luna could react, Celestia had finished casting her spell, and Luna dropped like a rock. Celestia stopped Luna's collapse with her magic, and lowered her gently to the ground. Twilight stared at Luna in silent terror for many long minutes before she was convinced it was finally over. "I-is she....?" Twilight asked quietly, not taking her eyes off of Luna. "She is sleeping," Celestia answered. "Now, what I want to know is, what did you do to invoke such anger from Luna?" Twilight lowered her eyes guiltily, opening and closing her mouth a few times before actually speaking. "I-I.... I accused her of hiding information about Discord... Then... Then I told her she was neglecting her duties to the safety of Equestria." Celestia shook her head, as if clearing out unwanted thoughts. "What information would that be?" she asked. It took several moments before Twilight finally answered. "She was shocked when she read this book I found," she said, gesturing towards the book on the floor, "But when I asked her why, she denied it." Celestia nodded and retrieved the book from where it lie. After skimming the contents of it, she frowned. "This should've been burned with the others, long ago," she stated quietly, shaking her head. Twilight was standing with her mouth open in horror. "Y-you.... Burned BOOKS?" she asked in disbelief. Celestia's reply left no room for argument. "Come with me to my study. We have much to discuss."

The study hadn't changed much since Twilight had last seen it. The only difference was that instead of the paperwork sitting on Celestia's desk, it was sitting all over. The large stack of paper must've toppled over, spilling documents all over the foor. The princess payed them no mind, however, so Twilight resisted the urge to clean it up. The study was fancy, of course, but it was a bit minimalistic. There were few personal touches, aside from her personalized quill and her framed portrait of Twilight and her friends. Celestia went straight to business, though, leaving Twilight no time to survey the room in detail. "Twilight, before I say what I'm about to say, you must swear to never speak of it to anyone, ever, besides me or my sister." "I swear," Twilight said solemnly. The princess nodded, then began. "We encourage study and learning in Equestria. We do our utmost to ensure that all of our subjects have access to schooling. Having said that, I must also tell you that some things are best left unknown." she stopped, eying Twilight. "However, I also know that even if I drop the matter, burn the book, and tell you never to study that particular time in the past, you will anyways. It's just your natural curiosity. So I'll just skip that whole step and just tell you. Equestria was not the first civilization on this continent. In fact, most of the inhabitants of this world are not the first to settle their region. There are several races whose fossils I have discovered, and at least three of them were more technologically advanced than Equestria. This book is the work of a record keeper who lived over 4500 years ago. His is the only surviving text that details the final hours of his race. Now, this book is not 4500 years old. It is, at most, 100 years old. The original is dust by now, but it was translated long ago, and copied every so often to prevent the information within from being lost as the books deteriorated. The reason we hid this information was simply to prevent panic. Everypony saw that his specialty is causing chaos. What they don't know is that as he gains power he gets increasingly more violent. I will send you to the Old City so you might find the answers you're looking for. Luna will accompany you. She will probably be in a better mood after she sleeps a while." When Celestia finished, Twilight wore a look of confusion. "Old... City?" Twilight said inquiringly. "Well, this city is actually not the first city to be here," Celestia stated. "Canterlot is, in fact, built on top of an ancient city. The city is about halfway under Canterlot, though, since it was constructed much deeper into the side of the mountain. It is remarkably well preserved though, as I have used my magic to ensure that." Twilight gaped incredulously. "And.... I'm going down there?" Twilight ventured. "So it would seem." Celestia replied, and that was the end of it. Twilight bowed, then left the room. Celestia could hear her mutter "ahh buck..." under her breath as she left. Celestia repressed a chuckle and turned her attention to the paper avalanche on her desk.