The Signs of Destiny

Chapter 1

Luna's POV

Smoke had filled the air and was making it hard to breathe. I coughed and covered my mouth with the bib-thingy that for some reason I always wear. (Don't ask me why I wear it. I have no idea.) It seemed like I was in Manehattan, but it doesn't look like Manehattan anymore. Buildings have been broken, toppled over, and smashed down. Despite the mess, I somehow felt like I knew why this was happening, but I forgot. Before I could put my hoof on it, I suddenly felt the ground starting to shake.

That's strange, I thought. Manehattan doesn't usually have Equestquakes.

I soon realized that it wasn't coming from the ground. It was a group of ponies, or worse, and army of ponies. Of course, I have such bad luck, so I just had to be in the worse situation.

I found myself face to face with an army of ponies, all who looked like they hadn't took a shower for a week. (Gross!) But the most frightening thing about these ponies were their leader. She was too far away so I could barely make her out, but I knew one thing for sure: she was an alicorn. Her eyes scanned the broken-down area, and I ducked under a broken table a bit too late.

"Luna! I command you to come out here. If you try to pretend that you are not here, my creatures are very hungry right now, and will be sure to sniff you out."

I knew that I was caught. Slowly, I trotted out from my obvious, very concealed hiding place as my eyes met the strange/evil alicorn's.

She must've used a spell that made her voice louder, because I could hear her from a mile away. Either that or she had amazing skills in talking in a very loud voice (I clearly sound better in my Royal Canterlot Voice). She grinned, revealing a set of white, fanged teeth.

"Well well, Luna." I knew it was about time that I would catch you."

I didn't say anything, probably because I knew this pony was not somepony I would mess around with.

"So, what's your choice? Come and join me in my quest to rule over Equestria, or be dog food?"

Although I was terrified, I managed to open my mouth and croak out, "I will never betray Equestria and my sister."

The alicorn looked amused. "Your sister is nothing now." she hissed. "Look at her now: she’s insane, she kills ponies rather than protecting them. Do you want to end up like her? If you don't, come with me. I shall show you what being an alicorn means!"

"No! I will never ever join you! Do whatever you like!” I said stubbornly.

The alicorn sighed. "Well you asked for it. Soldiers! Attack!"

............

I sat bolt up on my glimmering moon bed. Millions of thoughts were running through my head, yet none of them were good.

Who was that alicorn? What did she say about Tia? How was I having that dream? I wondered.

I am the princess of the night after all. I know what dreams people have. I plan my own dreams before I sleep every night. But it didn't seem like dream. In fact, it seemed like, almost like, a vision. I shook my head.

"That's impossible!" I thought. "I'm not one who has visions. It's Celestia, not me!"

Before I could think any further, the door opened to my room, revealing Tia.

"Lulu, are you coming to breakfast? It's almost time to eat."

I pushed the dream back into my head. "Yes, I'll be there in a moment."

________________________________________

Twilight's POV

"Hey, Rainbow, look! I'm actually flying without even hitting a single cloud!"

Rainbow turned to look at me before yelling out a little bit too late, " Twilight look out! There's a storm cloud in front of-"

"Oww!!"

"You...."

I shot her a nasty look because I could tell she was trying her hardest not to burst out laughing. I ran a hoof over through my mane, hoping it didn't look as bad as I thought it looks. Rainbow noticed me trying to fix my mane and grins.

"Don't worry Twilight. You don't look so bad. You could probably jump on to the stage with those rock star/punk ponies and they won't even notice an extra pony!"

I glare at her again, and she dropped the joke. My spirits lifted however, when I see heard Rainbow ask,

"Um Twilight, what are all those boxes doing in front of your castle?"

I looked at my castle doorway to see that Rainbow was right- there were at least five or six boxes in front of my castle.

"Yes they came!" I said happily.

I glided to a stop, managing not to crash into the wall like I did last time. (That was so embarrassing!) Rainbows landed next to me, before going over to the boxes and lightly smacking them with her hoof.

"What exactly came, Twilight?" Rainbows asked.

"Why books of course!" I answered, grinning.

Rainbow rolled her eyes before brightening up. I could guess what she was going to ask me. "Did you get any Daring Do books?"

I smiled. Guessed it. "Yes I did. I even got a special edition one!"

Rainbow’s smile was so big it almost looked like Pinkie's. "Sweet! I am totally reading that!"

I saw my chance and tackled it. “I’m only going to let you read it if you help me take these into the castle.”

"No!!!"

"Yes."

I could tell she didn’t want to help, but wanted to read the book. Like really, really wanted to read the book. “Fine.” Rainbow admitted her defeat and started to push the boxes through the door. I grinned. I knew that would work.

By the time we got all the books into my library, me and Rainbow were panting. Of course, Rainbow pretended that she wasn’t tired at all. “I don’t know about you, but I feel like I could fly around Equestria twice and still have strength!”

“Yeah, I grumbled to myself. “Keep saying that.” Luckily, Rainbow didn’t hear me and went on about how cool she is.

“Oh, and Twilight?”

“Yes?”

“Do you mind if I open the boxes and look for the Daring Do books?”

“Since you helped me and I said I would let you read if you helped me, no, I don’t mind.”

“Great!”

In a split second, Rainbow had opened all the boxes and was throwing out the books.

“Rainbow! I said crossly. "You can’t find the books like that! Cause if you do, I’m going to make you clean the entire library!”

Rainbow paused. “You wouldn’t do that!”

“Yes I would!”

“Okay, Okay I get it. I won’t throw the books out and make a mess.”

“Good.”

I picked up some of the books. “Astronomy: Stars and Planets goes in the science section. Starswirl’s Principles of Magic goes in Magic. I’m gonnna go put these up in the shelves they belong in, okay?"

Rainbow, who was up to knee-level books answers,

“Yeah, you go do that.”

I sighed and left her to find her book.

My library is so huge it took me some time to find the proper section. And Spike wasn’t even here to help me. He went over to Rarity’s to help her with something. I smirked as I placed the books carefully on the shelves with my magic. “There.” I stepped back to admire my work...which was kind of nothing…

That’s when I noticed the strange book high up in the shelf with no title. Mystified, I flew up and pulled at it. It didn’t budge.

“Urgh!! Come out here...!”

Suddenly, the book came free and I fell over, losing my balance. I looked at the book clutched by my hooves and realized that it wasn’t a book. Just a piece of wood painted to look like a book! “But why?” I wondered aloud.

I flew up to get a better look at where the fake-book was to find a surprise- there was another book behind the fake one! This one didn't have a title either, just a hoof print in the front. I gingerly pulled it towards me-and sneezed. The book had a whole lot of dust on it, and it looked really old. Not three-years-of-not-reading old. Like, old-as-Celestia old.

I dropped the book onto the table with a loud thump! “Wow. This book doesn’t look like any book I have ever seen.” I said to myself softly.

I blew on the thick layer of dust and sneezed again. The entire book was encased in a thick silver metal. I investigated it and got a discovery-there was no way to open it! I studied the hoof-shaped mark imprinted on the front. It looked like the size of my hoof, maybe slightly larger, but that was it. Nothing else. Raising my own hoof, I placed it on the carved-on-the book one. The room went dark and a bright flash of light obscured my vision, before I saw the hoof mark on the book was glowing magenta. “What the-“ I didn’t even have time to finish my sentence when another flash came and left as quickly as it came.

I blinked a few times to get my eyes used to the dark. Instead of the silver cover, now it had been replaced by a simple, leather bound one.

The title read, The Magic Objects and Ponies of Equestria in a bold font that looks like it was handwritten. I took a deep breath.

“Well, here goes nothing.”

I let go of my breath and opened the book.

________________________________________

Rainbow's POV

“Ugh, what is taking her so long?” I groaned while tapping my hoof impatiently.

I could probably just take the books and leave, but I knew that would be rude so I decided to wait. I’m not exactly known for my patience, but hey! Ponies don’t take half an hour to go put five books onto shelves.

Finally, I decided that I couldn’t just sit down and wait. I opened my wings and took off through the library.

It didn’t take me long to find Twilight, who was staring inside a book, transfixed.

I landed next to her, and waved my hoof in front of her face.

“Twilight? Twilight? TWILIGHT!!” I shouted, and finally she looked up and shook her head, like she was trying to clear her thoughts.

“Sorry, Rainbow. It’s just this book.” She gestured to the book she was reading. Upon a closer look, I saw that the book has a leather-bound cover and was really dusty.

“What about the book? It’s just one of those egghead books you read, right?”

Twilight didn’t answer me right away, which made me a little uncertain.

“Right?”

Twilight shook her head. “No actually… It’s far, far worse."

“Worse? I don’t get it.” I said, confused.

"This book…" Twilight pointed to it with a shaky hoof. “Has all of us in it.”

When she said all of us, I knew she meant our friends-the Elements of Harmony.

“Well that’s not too strange. I mean, someone was bound to write a book about us and how we six represent the Elements.”

She shook her head again. “No Rainbow, not like that. This book-" she flipped to the first page. She pointed at the very top of the page. “Look closely.” I leaned in and saw there was very small lettering written there. I squinted my eyes to see that there was five letters written: FOEQI.

“Foeqi? What does that mean?”

Twilight gave an exasperated sigh. “Not foe-qi! FOEQI stands for foundation of Equestria.”

“Foundation of Equestria? What are you trying to prove Twilight?” I asked, even though I had a hunch on what she was going to say.

“I think it means that it was written after the founding of Equestria or”-

“That’s impossible! I mean-show me!”

Twilight ruffled through the book and stopped at a page. “Here, look.”

I took the book in my hooves. On the page, a very familiar cutie mark had been drawn onto the paper. Of course it was familiar! The cutie mark was mine!

“Wha-what!?" I exclaimed. "How will book this old know my cutie mark!?”

Twilight solemnly shook her head. “I don’t know. There is no logical explanation for this.”

I started reading the page with my cutie mark on it aloud.

"Bearer of Loyalty: Defeat of Nightmare Moon.

Element Awakes: Refuse Abandonment.

Mark Achieved: Rainboom."

I looked up at Twilight. “I don’t get it. It’s a bunch of random facts all over the place. Element awakes: Refuse Abandonment? What does that mean?”

She was quiet for a moment before answering. “I think it means when you showed your loyalty to us. You know, outside the Castle of Two Sisters? With the Shadowbolts?”

I thought it over and then slowly nodded. “That means there is only one logical explanation to this."

Twilight looked at me, surprised. “I didn’t even think there was a logical explanation to this.”

“Well there is one. Someone wrote this book after we got our elements and made it look old because it looks cool.” I said confidently.

But that was when Twilight gave me the bad news. “Actually, Dash I'm pretty sure your wrong because of two reasons. The letters FOEQI prove that it is old, unless it was a trick, which I don't think it is. And I think you should see this, Dash.”

I looked over to where she was pointing and my eyes widen.

“Oh no.”