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.”
Chapter 2
Luna's POV
I sat on my seat next to Celestia's throne, pondering over the dream I had today. I was thinking about what the alicorn had said to me when the door bursts open.
In comes a very frazzled purple alicorn, along with her five best friends, the Elements of Harmony. I immediately sit up, taking my princess-ly position.
All of them seem annoyed, as if they had been dragged out while doing something. All of them that is, except Twilight, and the rainbow-maned one, Rainbow Dash, I knew. One of them seemed especially annoyed with both of them.
"Twilight, darling, could you care to explain why we are suddenly in Canterlot with no packing? I was curling my hair when Rainbow barges in through my window and grabs me by the neck!! Speak about rude!!!" said a very disgruntled Rarity.
Rainbow snorted. "Rarity, are you actually upset that we came to Canterlot? The place with all those fashion-y and snobbish ponies? Besides we're here for something important."
"Oh important!? What is more important than packing clothes and looking beautiful!! And they are not snobbish!!" retorted Rarity.
"A lot of things are more important. Like destroying your dresses." muttered Rainbow under her breath. Thankfully Rarity, who was busy looking around, didn't hear her.
Twilight ignored both of them and hurried up to me. "Princess Luna! We need Celestia!"
Rainbow fluttered up next to her, nodding, her expression replaced with one of pure seriousness. "We need Celestia immediately. Like, right now."
A small part of me was jealous of Celestia being the one ponies asked for guidance and not me, but I instantly pushed the thought away. I have had enough time being a world-taking-over villain.
Instead, I told them what I knew would manage to disappoint them. "Celestia is not here. She has went to Saddle Arabia to settle something."
As I had imagined, Twilight and Rainbow both looked very disappointed, while the rest of the ponies fidgeted on their place, clearly still annoyed of being dragged away from their work.
"Would ya mind hurrying up Twi?" said the impatient farm pony, Applejack. "I have a lot of work to do on the farm."
Twilight spun round to her. "No!! We are not leaving until I tell Celestia!!" she said firmly.
Rainbow agreed.
"Celestia isn't here." I repeated.
"We kno-"
"But I'm sure you can tell me what you need to tell Celestia." I continued, waiting to see what Twilight would say.
Twilight hesitated and fidgeted for a minute, before shrugging.
"It doesn't matter, I guess." Twilight said. "I trust you too, because you are also a princess."
For that one minute, I felt like my sister, dignified, equal to her. The feeling faded away as quickly as it had came.
Twilight trotted up to me, gesturing her friends to come to. They crowded and formed a circle next to me, and Twilight reached into the sack that was hung by her side.
She took out a small but thick leather bound book, and placed it in the middle of our circle.
We all sneezed. It was no wonder we did to. The book was covered in dust and cobwebs.
Twilight looked at us all sheepishly. "Sorry, I didn't really clean it up."
Applejack was looking at the book with a look of disdain and disbelief. "You brought us here because of a book?! shouted Applejack, ticked off. "I had so may chores to do, and now you tell us that you brought us here to show us a book?!"
I had to admit, I was also disappointed. A book? I was hoping that it would be something top-secret and cool!
Rainbow groaned and sighed. "AJ, could you be quiet for-" She was cut off by Pinkie Pie who was popping all over the place and blabbering random things.
"Don't be so down AJ!! Maybe the book is a map that pony pirates drew looooong time ago in the ponyific sea...." blabbered Pinkie.
Rainbow rolled her eyes before turning to Twilight. "Go ahead, Twilight."
Twilight nodded and cleared her throat. "While I was putting back books in my castle library shelves, I made a discovery."
"You mean, BOTH of us made a discovery." interjected Rainbow.
Twilight let out a puff of annoyed breath and gritted her teeth. "I mean, BOTH of us made a discovery."
She gave Rainbow a look that read, 'Don't say anything else, because if you do.'
Twilight turned to face me and the other ponies. "As I was saying, I found this on one of the shelves of my library."
I scratched my head. "Aaaand, what is important about this book?"
Twilight flipped the book to the front. In a bold, hoofwritten print the title read, The Magical Objects and Ponies of Equestria.
A wave of memories slammed into my head out of the blue. But these memories wasn't anything that I remembered.
Memory Flashback
"This will not be know here." Click.
"Why?"
"..."
(**)
"Can't we prevent it?"
"No, just delay it."
(**)
"Ow!!! Too... Bright... Eyes!"
(**)
"Princess? Luna? Are you listening?"
I shook my head to clear my thoughts and looked up and saw that Twilight and the ponies were looking at me worriedly.
"Are you okay? You... Blanked out for minute."
I quickly plastered a fake smile onto my face. "Of course I'm okay! Why shouldn't be?"
"Oookay...?" Twilight gave me a weird look but didn't ask anymore questions.
"The book wasn't-" Twilight started again, only to get cut of by me.
"It was in plain sight? Like it was out in the open?" I asked.
Twilight shook her head. "Actually, It was hidden behind this," Twilight reached into her saddle bag again and took out another book. But when I took it, I instantly knew it was a trick.
The 'book' was actually just a block of wood painted expertly, made to look like a leather book.
"Interesting. It was hidden behind this?"
"Yes, and the cover of this book," Twilight nudged the dusty book on the floor. "Was encased in a silver metal of some sort."
"Silver metal?" I picked up the book and opened the first page. At first glance, it looked like nothing was written on the page, but when I looked closer, I saw that there was five letters written: FOEQI.
"Foundation of Equestria," I automatically said aloud.
The six of them looked at me, confused, but a moment later Twilight's face lit up. "I was right! It does stand for that!"
Rainbow crossed her hooves over her chest. "I thought we figured that part out already."
"We did, but Luna confirms it. Right?" Twilight turns to me.
I hesitated a second before answering. My dream, the book... Why was these strange and mysterious things happening all of sudden?
"Yes. Yes, it does stand for that."
Twilight nodded, satisfied.
I flipped open the book, and it landed on a random page. My eyes widened as I saw what page read.
Raiser of Night
Mark Achieved: Bringing Night forth
Made Worthy: Crushing the Fuscienn
Next to the written text was a drawn picture of my cutie mark.
Once more, a surge of memories rushed into my mind.
Memory Flashback
A urgent voice next to me was talking to someone. "We need it! Now! Can't it finish faster?"
(**)
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!" A voice that had more worry in it then anger raged across the room at me and someone else.
(**)
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"
(**)
The last memory of the scream made me stagger back. It was as if that someone had screamed right now, the voice of the memory was so clear. The scream was full of pain and regret, sadness and heartbreak.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Twilight looking at me strangely and quickly acted normal. I realized the book was on the floor-I must have dropped it. I was about to pick it up, but Twilight beat me to it.
"I'm assuming that this page is about- Yes, it is."
"What is about what?" Applejack snatched the book out from Twilight's hooves and read the page for herself. "What's the big deal? It's just a page about Luna and her.... History?"
Both confusion and realization dawned on Applejack's face.
I sighed, knowing there was no choice. "Yes, my history. The history that no one knows about except for Celestia and me. But even both of us are forgetting..."
Rainbow turned to me. "Twilight and me have only looked through a few pages, but we still don't understand what a Fuscienne is. Can you...?"
She made a forward gesture with her hooves, and I knew she wanted me to explain.
I scraped my hooves together before starting. It was clear that I would have to continue.
"Well..."
Twilight's POV
I was worried. I was worried about everything.
We haven't even gone to the main reason we are here for, and I'm already worried.
Luna is hesitating a lot, and I can tell she is hiding something from me. Something that could be important. She keeps on blanking out, as if she's getting flashbacks. My mind's meeting with myself is put off, because Luna starts to talk.
"Well..." she started, "I don't remember exactly... But the Fuscienne is a monster."
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "We made it that far. But what type of monster is it?"
"It is a creature made from darkness and shadows, thus earning the name Fuscienne, which means black in Latin."
"Darkness and shadows? Sounds like Sombra." I said aloud.
Luna looked at me with sad eyes, as if she was remembering something horrible.
"Sounds like Sombra, yes, but far, far, worse. Not even the Elements of Harmony could take on the Fuscienne."
My mind takes a moment to process this. "Not even the Elements of Harmony?" I say, aghast. "But... But... The Elements are more powerful then any alicorn, and it says that you crushed it, meaning you defeated, earning your wings! How-?"
Luna avoided my eyes and looked down at the floor. "As, I said, I cannot remember anything about the monster except that I earned my wings by finishing it off." She said, and I had a feeling she was telling the truth, but at the same time hiding anther thing.
I decided not to press it, because I knew that Luna wouldn't give me any straight answers.
I took the book from a speechless Applejack, who was gawping at another page, which happened to be about:
Bearer of Honesty: Defeat of Nightmare Moon.
Element Awakes: Trust on Death.
Mark Achieved: True place of heart.
"It has.. Me.. My cutie mark!! How?" sputtered Applejack.
I ignored Applejack and started talking again. "But we came here for a even more important thing, and we haven't even reached that part yet."
Flipping through the pages, I landed on the one with my cutie mark on it. "Look at this," I pointed to the top of the page, where written in curly hoofwriting, read:
A beacon in the darkness.
Bearer of Magic: Defeat of Nightmare Moon.
Element Awakes: Sparked to Life.
Mark Achieved: Current of Magic force.
Made Worthy: Creating Magic through Friendship
"What does 'A beacon in the darkness mean'?" I asked Luna, who shook her head in confusion. "I cannot tell you, Twilight, because I do not know either."
I went to the page after it and my brain gets even more tangled up. "This book even has Flurry in it!" I exclaimed. Like my page, it has a curly written line on the top.
When the Symbol of Love falls, another rises.
The Symbol of Love in the darkness.
Mark Achieved: Creating Love with enemies.
Made Worthy: Blessed by Birth
Next to the writing was a cutie mark?! My jaw falls open, as I stare at the drawn picture of the cutie mark.
The mark is similar to Cadance's, but slightly smaller, and it was a pink heart instead of blue. The designs around the cutie mark was not gold, but black, as if the mark was withered.
All the ponies start chattering, both alarmed and confused. What was going on? When was this book from? What was happening?
I shushed them and looked around grimly. "I think it's time to go to the dreadful parts of this book, the real reason we came."
Rainbow's POV
I was getting annoyed. Twilight was taking too long to get to the point, and there was to much 'talk' going on. But I had to admit, the book was becoming more of a mystery then it already was, and we had come for the exact opposite.
I was so confused, and I was sure that all the other ponies were feeling the same.
But finally, Twilight shushed the other ponies and said, "I think it's time to go to the dreadful parts of this book."
She caught my eye, and I nodded. It's been to long we put off saying it.
Twilight took a deep breath and flipped to a few pages back. "Look at this," Twilight said, pointing to the page with a cutie mark of a sun. "Read what it say's on the top."
All the ponies lean over the book, trying to read what Twilight was pointing to.
Raiser of Day
Mark Achieved: Bringing Day forth.
Made Worthy: Curing the Infirioum Moon Sickness.
It looked like all the other pages, but on top of the page, like Twilight's and Flurry's, was written:
