Chapters The world was ending. At least, for Equestria it was. The Elements of Harmony had failed to stop Discord, and as reality warped to cater to the whims of the embodiment of chaos himself, it was painfully clear that there would be no storybook ending. The ponies of Equestria had realized that no hero would emerge to save them. The most powerful heroes that Equestria could muster, including Princess Celestia herself, had fallen. It was over.
Twilight woke with a start. The Discord incident was over, but the memories were still fresh. The what-ifs and the maybes of that day still served as a reminder of what could happen when harmony was disturbed in Equestria. After the celebrations, after everypony had gone home, after everypony had put the near-disaster behind them, Twilight remained concerned. A simple argument between three fillies was all Discord had needed to break free of the most powerful magic in the known universe. And the only reason Discord had been trapped once again had been his weakness for taunting his defeated foes with unobtainable victory. Twilight shuddered. She had to make sure that never happened again. But she needed more information before she could even begin to tackle the issue.
Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Twilight slowly crawled out of bed and walked over to where Spike was sleeping peacefully. She sighed, knowing that Spike would wake up when Spike wanted to wake up. "Spike! Rise and shine! Busy day today!", Twilight urged, gently nudging the small bed with her forehoof. Nothing. Rolling her eyes, Twilight cantered down the stairs to the kitchen. She quickly prepared a bowl of gems and placed it on the counter, then waited. Sure enough, Spike was downstairs almost immediately. "Ugh... What time is it?", Spike groaned. Twilight smiled.
"It's 6:38, and we need to be on the train to Canterlot by 7:27 if we want to be at the library when it opens at 8 o'clock," Twilight replied.
"What's wrong, are you trying to be the first in line? I'm sure there are ponies lined up just to get in," Spike asked sarcastically. He had inched his way over to the counter and was getting ready to take the bowl when Twilight swatted his claw away with her hoof.
"If you must know, I have urgent research to do. Besides, being punctual never hurt anypony!" she said. "And leave those alone, they're for dessert!"
Most of the train ride to Canterlot was made in silence, mostly because Spike had refused to go, favoring his beauty sleep instead. Alone, Twilight finally had some time to think. Her goal was simple; she needed to prevent a repeat of Discord's escape, or at the very least, prevent him from tampering with the Elements.
Discord had been imprisoned by the Elements, so that must mean that the Elements of Harmony were even more powerful than Discord. So all she had to do was reverse-engineer them, possibly even duplicate the complex patterns of interweaving magic without harming the Elements themselves. That could work, she reasoned to herself. She simply needed to cross-reference the records of how the Elements had worked in the past, and from that, she could derive the source spell and invert it-
"That just might work."
Twilight gave a small yelp as she looked for the pony who had spoken. She had been so deep in thought, she hadn't even noticed him sit down across from her. This surprised her, considering she was in a 4-passenger compartment... Then again, when she was deep in thought, she shut out everything else-
"Hello? Back to thinking, are we?", said the stranger, an amused look in his eyes.
"I-uh-that is, um... Did.... Did I say that all out loud?", Twilight stammered.
"Enough to give me an idea of what you're planning," he replied. Now that she had recovered from her surprise, she finally got a good look at the stallion across from her. He was an older pony, with a scholarly look about him. He had a white mane and tail, and was of average build. His coat was the color of midnight, though, a color she had never seen on a pony before. But what really struck Twilight as odd was the absence of any markings on his flank.
"Now, I've been a professor at the Canterlot Royal College for many years, and-"
"THE Royal College? As in, the one and only?" Twilight interrupted.
"I haven't been there in YEARS! I- uh... Oh, sorry, go ahead..." The stallion grimaced. It was going to be a long ride.
The stallion introduced himself as Dr.Spellshot . He told her a bit about his studies, including research on the Elements of Harmony. He tried explaining his findings on the nature of cutie marks as well, but it soon became clear that Twilight wasn't listening. "So we started to think outside of the box, away from magic and closer to the theory of bioluminescence- Ahem!" Spellshot coughed loudly. "Oh, sorry!" Twilight apologized. "You were talking about cutie marks, and I was just wondering-" "-About my lack of a cutie mark," he finished for her. "Well, yes. I've never seen a grown stallion without a cutie mark before," explained Twilight, flushing a bit. Sighing, Spellshot answered her question in a tone that clearly implied that he'd said those exact words many times before. "I actually DO have a cutie mark. My special talent is anything involving space. Thus, my cutie mark is a black splotch. However, in a laboratory incident that caused my coat to turn black- and no, I will not say what happened," he added, noticing Twilight's inquisitive stare. "Well, with my coat permanently dyed black, it is all but impossible to see the cutie mark now," Spellshot finished, glancing wistfully at his flank. There was an awkward silence. Finally, Spellshot spoke. "If you're doing research on magic as ancient as the Elements, you should probably visit the college. There are much older books there than at the Royal Library. Just a suggestion though." Twilight was about to reply, but she was cut short by the train whistle that announced their arrival in Canterlot.
"Winter, 878 A.S., there is less food this year than last, but there is still enough. The food supply doesn't matter much, however, since the Storm is slowly eating up our land. By the time the next census is written, there may no longer be any food at all, much less a kingdom". Twilight stopped reading and slowly sat down on her haunches, taking a moment to collect her thoughts, which she had lost track of several moments before. Well, she had been looking for an old book, after all. Just not.... This. She began reading again. "Winter, 879 A.S.; This is in all likelihood the going to be the last entry in this book. It is a wonder there is enough sanity left in this God-forsaken for me to write this. As predicted, the Storm is upon us, twisting the land and forcing the world into demented parodies of it's former beauty. To our horror, this Storm isn't really a storm at all. That would suggest a natural phenomenon. There is nothing natural about this. It is a single creature causing this, for his own sick amusement. His like has never been seen, with a body made of many animals. We are at the mercy of his cruel whim. This is the End of Days." Twilight flipped to the next page. It was blank. As were the rest of the pages in the old book, which disturbed Twilight deeply. The description matched Discord, yet... Discord had never done anything truly evil. He had done simple things, such as pranks and mind games. He had never, to Twilight's knowledge, attempted any violence, let alone destroy a civilization. But Discord had only been freed for a matter of days. Could he truly be capable of this?
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! The knocking on the door jolted Spike out of a dead sleep. Turning over onto his side, he hoped whoever it was would go away. This was not the case. After a short pause, there came another series of loud knocks. KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! Spike groaned. A shrill voice sounded through the door."HELLOOOOO? Anypony in there? Open the door, I have a surprise!". It was Pinkie. "It's too early for this," Spike thought aloud. "It's only..." he sat up and looked at the clock. "TWELVE O'CLOCK!" he shouted, leaping out of bed and running to the bathroom. KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! "HELLO?!?" Pinkie tried again. It took Spike all of 20 seconds for him to get ready and race to the door. Not all that difficult, considering Spikes' only morning routines were straightening his spikes and swishing with some mouthwash. "I'n conning!" he yelled, mouth still full of mouthwash. He spit it out in the kitchen sink on his way to the door. He quickly opened up the door for Pinkie Pie, only to find she had left. He shrugged and shut the door. As he turned around, he had no time to react as Pinkie yelled,"SURPRISE!" and open-fired with a cupcake launcher. Before long, Spike was covered in cupcakes, and very disoriented. "I told you I had a surprise! I was baking cupcakes for an order at Sugarcube Corner and I realized that I had waaaaaaay too much cupcake batter but I could never throw away cupcake batter I mean who does that? So anyways I thought I'd make a bunch of extra cupcakes and bring 'em to my friends and I already brought some to Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash so where is Twilight so I can give her some cupcakes?" Pinkie finished. Spike was out of breath just watching her talking. And now his head hurt. Of course, that may have been due to the head trauma he'd received from the cupcake launcher. "Uh, sh-she went to the Canterlot Library this morning," he stammered, still recovering from another normal Pinkie Pie greeting. If it could be considered normal. "Okie dokie! Bye!", Pinkie replied, then she was off. How, he had no idea, since she had galloped the opposite direction from the door. Spike shook his head dazedly, and started on his morning "assistant duties", which were more like doing Twilight's chores than anything.
After finding the first book, she had noticed another one that looked interesting. And that book, right at the bottom left? Well, why not. But what about the one next to it? It probably has some useful information. Even the blue-bound one at the front.... After all was said and done, Twilight had gathered up at least thirty books that may or may not have had relevant information. It had taken a couple hours to get all of the books she wanted, and another twenty minutes checking out, with a librarian who was clearly not too pleased to be lending that many books to one pony. After thanking the librarian, Twilight headed to her old suite in the castle, the one she had lived in while studying under Princess Celestia herself. The sun was already setting, and Twilight didn't want to be out after dark. "No offense, Princess Luna," she assured the night. It was strange, Twilight reflected, that she had only been gone for a couple of years. She felt almost as if she had lived in Ponyville her entire life. With all- *crunchcrunchcrunch*-Twilight stopped suddenly. She had taken a shortcut, and there were no other ponies on the small dirt road, since the sun had now set. But she could've sworn she'd heard somepony in the bushes along the sides of the dirt path she was on. Looking back and to the houses on her sides nervously, she continued walking. She was almost home, anyways. If she just hurried she could-"Twitchy twitch-a-twitch!" came a voice from the bush next to her. Twilights eyes widened, and she leaped to the side of the road, just as a cake fell and splattered on the ground where she had been standing. "Pinky?!" Twilight exclaimed, wiping off some cake frosting that had splashed onto her side. At least she had remembered to put the books behind her, so they weren't ruined. If she hadn't, then- "SURPRISE!" yelled Pinkie Pie, popping out of one of Twilight's many borrowed books. "What are you... How did you.... Why.... Why are YOU in Canterlot?" Twilight managed to ask, still recovering from the scare Pinkie had given her. Pinky just grinned, then launched into her story."Wellllllll........ I was making cupcakes for an order at Sugarcube Corner and there was some extra cupcake batter and I thought, 'who would throw away perfectly good cupcake batter?' not me, for sure! So I made extra cupcakes and I gave some out to all my friends but when I got to your house Spike said you weren't home and that you had gone to Canterlot for books about magic and I couldn't let your cupcakes go bad so I decided to come here and give them to you and so here I am and you're here and CUPCAKES!" she explained. Twilight suddenly found a pan full of cupcakes shoved in front of her face, with Pinkie holding it up with two hooves, while using her back left hoof to hold the cake that had fallen from the sky, which she had somehow managed to fix. She balanced on one leg, hopping alongside Twilight until Twilight finally used her magic to carry the baked goods for Pinkie. Twilight didn't even bother to ask how Pinkie had found exactly where Twilight was, even in a large city such as Canterlot. It Pinkie Pie, no further answer needed.
About fifteen minutes later, the two ponies arrived at Twilight's suite. It was exactly how she had left it. Except for the dust. But that could be overlooked, for the time being. Turning on the light in the main library of the house, Twilight did a 360 degree turn to face Pinkie. Trying to put on the most serious face she had, Twilight told Pinkie that she was working on something very important, and needed to concentrate. Pinkie nodded, and bounced off to the guest bed. "Pinkie?" Twilight called after her. Pinkie was back in front of her in a flash. Twilight took a step back, startled by Pinkie's speedy appearance. "What is it Twilight?" Pinkie asked excitedly. "When I say I need to concentrate, that means you need to be quiet," she said. "Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie replied. Twilight shook her head. This was going to be a long night.
Morning sunlight poured through the huge glass window of the study, waking Twilight. Slowly opening her eyes, she realized there was somepony directly in front of her. "Too... Early.... Just five more minutes...." she complained. The pink pony standing in front of the half-asleep Twilight blinked. Who would want to miss such a great morning? Sure, there was nothing special about that morning in particular, but still, EVERY morning was amazing! Making up her mind, Pinkie put her face veeeery close to Twilights. Without warning, Pinkie shouted, "GOOD MORNING TWILIGHT!!" Twilight's eyes popped open as she jumped all the way up to the ceiling with a speed that would make most pegasi envious. Hanging on the chandelier, Twilight looked down, only to find that there was nopony there. Confused, Twilight looked back up to the ceiling, and came face-to-face with none other than Pinkie Pie. With a small cry, Twilight let go of the chandelier and fell, only to have Pinkie break her fall. "PINKIE!" Twilight began,"I told you not to-" Twilight stopped as she realized Pinkie wasn't listening anymore. She was too busy making a book-pyramid with the formerly-organized books. With a sigh, Twilight began cleaning up the books on the floor. She had fallen asleep while studying, just like old times. Equestria was a fairly new kingdom, Twilight had found. By cross-referencing some of the books, Twilight was able to approximate the age of Equestria and compare it to previous empires. It was frustrating, since most of the books only contained scraps and snippets of what she was looking for. After she had put it all together, she had found that the last great empire had been located very close-by. But for some reason, the bits and pieces she had connected pointed to a different species than ponies having inhabited the great empire. 'Maybe it was populated by zebras!' thought Twilight excitedly. Only one way to find out. "C'mon, Pinkie, we have work to do! Uh..... Pinkie?" The small book pyramid had somehow turned into a book-fortress, complete with walkways, a drawbridge, and a moat. Pinkie exited the throne room and crossed the drawbridge to come stand next to Twilight. Twilight didn't even bother asking Pinkie how she'd done it.
The only pony who would have any more information on the subject would be Princess Celestia. But nopony could simply walk into the throne room and expect to get a one-on-one audience with the Princess, even if the pony in question was the Princess's star pupil. Royal duties and obligations to the citizens of Equestria kept Celestia quite busy. Luna, on the other hand, wouldn't be doing anything until nighttime... Maybe she would have some helpful information about Discord, and possibly some clues about the book Twilight had found. Making up her mind, Twilight stepped into the main hallway of the guest wing, Pinkie Pie following in her own fashion. Namely, galloping from one side of the hall to the other, hiding behind columns, statues, and guards.
Answers, And a Not So Happy Luna
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.
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.