“Are you sure you don’t want it?” My mother seemed to always ask the same question to me when I told her about wanting to be captain of the royal guard.

“I know I’m the first born mom, but I don’t think I’m the right choice to be a ruler,” I always told her, pushing the crown that she held in front of me away. “A ruler should be chosen through experience not heritage and birth. I want to protect ponies, and Neon is a better ruler then I will ever be. Besides, this way I can protect my sister from anything right?”

My mom laughed at me, but I think she would be proud of me knowing what I had done for her kingdom. Still, I can’t help that I broke a promise to her with what I have done. I left the kingdom and sister I love behind in search of another and a thing I didn’t really understand. War, it was a word that I wish to never hear my sister utter. I know I was doing this for Luna’s sake and for the protection of my sister, but I can’t help but realize there was a bigger reason behind that.

I’m scared of war. I trained my guards to defend not kill. I couldn’t lead an army, not when the results would destroy so many lives, like it had a thousand years ago.

Topaz was the first to wake up, soon realizing that she didn’t feel any motion underneath the wagon they had slept in. She could hear the sound of peeper frogs nearby, and she could guess that she was outside Canterlot city. The wagon must have made a stop, which she guessed on by the fact that none of it’s cargo was removed. There was still barrels and a tarp over them, and she was curious as to where they currently were. She peeked out to only be greeted by the darkness of the natural world she was in. She was incredibly impress that pony kind had managed to survive even without the sun or moon. Still, she wanted to know what was in front of them, and let out a small uncontrolled burst of flames. The world around illuminated for a quick second, while darkly shadowed at the same time, and immediately she noticed something strange.

“Luminous, get up,” She shook the sleeping pegasus awake, getting a groan as a response. “We’re outside the city but… something is right.”

As Luminous rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, Topaz woke Soarin up. The pegasus waited for her comrade to get up before realizing something strange about her eyes. The masquerade was gone, something that brought Luminous fully back to the world of the living. It was only then that the masquerade again appeared, much to Luminous’ confusion. It illuminated the tarp, which seemed to catch Soarin off guard. Luminous made a mental note about this, started to realize that her masquerade probably didn’t focus energy like normal unicorn horns.

“So I only generate magic when fully awake?” She whispered to herself. “Something tells me that I won’t be able to use the way normal magic does,” She turned to Topaz. “Morning Topaz, do you know where we are?”

“Getting straight to the point huh,” The dragoness said. “Well… that was the main reason I woke you two up as early as I did. Honestly, I don’t know where we are but,” He lifted the tarp, and thanks to the masquerade they were able to see what he was pointing at. “I think we might have chosen the wrong wagon to hop on.”

With the help of the masquerade they made out the shape of large black gate in front of them and immediately Luminous knew something was wrong. She hopped out of the wagon and looked around at their surroundings, and seeing a large hedge line to both her left and right could tell that they were standing on the wrong side of the gate. They were on someone's property, and as Luminous turned around she saw a window high off the ground. She couldn’t make out the shape of the building, but she could tell it was huge. Topaz and Soarin followed her shock as they looked up above.

“What is it?” Soarin asked, looking to Luminous.

“Only one way to find out,” Luminous went around the wagon to see a walkway up to the building. They followed it up to the building, and Luminous looked up in amazement as she saw what was standing in front of her. “This… this is a mansion!”

The size of the door wasn’t what amazed her, but the shadow of the mansion way above them. She could make out much detail about the building other than the dark red door before her. She couldn’t tell how wide or big it was, as the darkness around them took most of the detail out. With a hesitant step Luminous knocked on the door, even though the lack of lights told her no one was awake. That was answered when no one came to the door, and Luminous let out a sigh.

“Guess we have to wait-” She looked to see Topaz open the door in front of them with a claw. “What are you doing?!”

“Heading inside, obviously somepony is awake considering there was a light on,” She didn’t give Luminous the time to respond as she walked inside.

With no choice Luminous entered, Soarin close behind her. They closed the door behind them as softly as possible as the entered. The masquerade lit up the old-looking marble under her feet, and they suddenly became aware of how old the building actually was. While it seemed rather nice on the outside, the mansion seemed to be needing lots of repair. Overall it was sturdy enough to hold it weight, but the entrance room looked like it had been burned. The stone under them seemed to be covered in black stains that had been left there for many years. The staircase at the other end of the room seemed to be falling apart, with large chunks of rock missing from it. The walls, despite having old paint on them, was problem the nicest part of the entire room.

“What happened to this place?” Soarin asked.

“I don’t know, but if you ask me we really shouldn’t be here,” Luminous’ word were directly exactly at Topaz, who she looked to with fury. “I’m pretty sure whoever lives here is not going to be happy that two ponies and one dragon has decided to barge into their home.”

“Relax Luminous,” Topaz held her arms out to justify her words. “You see what kind of disrepair this place is in, I doubt that however lives here would honestly care about us entering.”

“You wanna place some bits on that dragon,” The lights suddenly turned on, and the three intruders looked up to see a white unicorn with puffy pink and purple mane at the top of the stairs. “Explain your reason for intruding on me and my sisters property before- AHHH!”

The unicorn’s hooves seemed to miss the stair. Luminous and the others watched as the unicorn feel down the stairs, Topaz in slight amusement from the events. As she hit each step on the stairs the unicorn seemed to make a strange clink sound, which Soarin seemed to notice. Luminous’ reaction differed from the lack of care between her two companions, watching in horror as the unicorn continuously hit every step she hit. As soon as the unicorn came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, Luminous rushed forward to aid her.

“Are you okay there…” She stopped as she went to help the unicorn up. The fur, Luminous was shocked at just how unreal it felt. In fact, it didn’t feel like fur at all. “Miss… your fur seems to be frozen to your body.”

As soon as Luminous tried to help the unicorn up the pony batted her away with a hoof, which hit the ex-captain so hard that she actually stumbled back in pain. That was not frozen fur on that ponies body, or fur in general. That was metal! Cold, clean, and sturdy metal replaced the ponies normal fur. Now that the pony was standing closer to her, and since they were directly under a chandelier that hang from rusty old chains, Luminous could tell that her entire body was made of metal. Topaz stopped her laughing fit in time to see the metals reflection, and her expression quickly changed from smug to shocked. This was not normal, even for her.

“M-m-miss,” The metal pony looked at Soarin as he dressed her, giving a cold stare. “W-why is your body-”

“I don’t have time to listen to you,” She said, Luminous now able to recognize a slight static sound in the pony’s voice. “You better tell me why you are all here right now or else I’ll… I’ll… uh-”

Luminous let out a sigh. Despite this pony being clearly artificial she couldn’t notice just how real it acted. “I think the words you’re looking for is ‘escort us from the premise’.”

“Oh right!” The metal pony said. “Yeah, tell me why you are here right now or else I will personally escort you from the premise. Of course I will probably do that either way since you are intruding on private property.”

“Sweetie, can you please stop making such a racket and-” Everypony looked to the top of the stairs to see Rarity with an unfashioned mane talking her eyes. It took her a second to recognize Luminous, or more accurately the cloak that she made for the ex-captain. “Oh, Luminous! I assume you and your three friends had a pleasant night in my wagon last night?”

“W-w-wait,” Soarin said, sharing the same shocked look that Topaz and Luminous had. “Y-y-you knew th-that we were in your w-w-wagon and you d-didn’t kick us out.”

“Well I will admit that hearing you snoring Luminous deary was not the first thing I expect last night,” She said, turning to Luminous. “Of course it’s now clear why you had me make that cloak for you, even though I had no idea why you would hide such a beautiful mask!”

“Wait,” Topaz said, raising a brow as she also turned to Luminous. “You snore?”

“You think the castle has a royal sleeping-,” She stopped as she realized who she was saying this in front of. She sighed as she saw the curiosity on the fashionista's face. “You want answers don’t you?”

“I most certainly do!” Rarity replied with enthusiasm in her voice.

Everyone took a seat in the mansion’s living room, Rarity lighting the fireplace before sitting on a couch that stood out rather brightly. Rarity’s sister, who was named Sweetie Belle, was sent off to get some refreshments for the rest of them. After returning, Luminous explained her current predicament. The unicorn was rather curious, and so was her robotic sister, who Topaz couldn’t help but watch in wonder. Soarin had taken to just listening to the story, liking how he hadn’t been brought up much since they had left.

“-So yeah we are basically running away from home with nowhere to go or stay,” Luminous finished explaining to Rarity. “We have no supplies really other then some fruit that will probably spoil in the near future and a few beginner magic books for my to learn to control what ever this is,” She pointed at the Masquerade. “We don’t even have a map of the land, but I doubt anypony really maps things out here.”

After a few moments of awkward silence, Rarity finally spoke up. “Well, that was certainly an interesting story, princess,” Luminous internally groaned at being called a princess considering their current situation. “However, considering that none of you have ever been out of the city, I think it would be wonderful to help you. To the nearest town at least.”

Soarin’s ears perked up at this. The stammering trainee had been unsure of his decision ever since he woke up this morning. This was mostly due to the fact he had no idea where he was, and that they had no idea exactly where they were going. Hearing Rarity offer help was not just great to him, but to Luminous and Topaz as well. Luminous let out a sigh at the offer, happy that Rarity was willing to help.

“I do have one question though, dearling,” Rarity said after a quick sip of tea. “I know you told me that thing is a sigh of Luna’s magic, but what exactly does it do?”

Luminous looks to Topaz, who shrugged her shoulders. “We… Have no clue what it can do honestly,” Topaz admitted, speaking for Luminous. “Haven’t had much chance to actually see what it can do. However, I have a question for you now?”

Topaz pointed at Sweetie Belle, whose robotic ears twitched. She looked left and right, seeing every pony's eyes currently on her. She gulped, knowing that all the attention was on her. “What do you want to know?” She asked, even though she practically knew the answer already.

“Last I checked, ponies haven’t figured out how to make fully functional robots,” Topaz started “They’re still just fiction, so how in tartarus do you exist?”

Sweetie Belle hesitated to answer the question, looking to her sister for help. Rarity simply looked away, which she should have expected inside. Considering how much Luminous had been willing to share with them, they knew it was only right for them to do the same. However, Sweetie Belle knew that her answer would not be what they wanted.

“I… don’t know,” She said, hesitantly. “I wasn’t always like this, but it’s most likely the creatures in the darkness that did this. I’ve heard about the strange things that have happened to fillies and colts that have wandered into the darkness of the world, and I had dissapeared for a year. That entire year, missing, and I one day find myself in a robot body being hugged by my sister.”

Luminous tilted her head. “The creatures in the darkness? I’ve done a lot of reading on the world, but nothing ever mentioned about creatures lurking in the darkness.”

“That’s because nopony knows what they are darling,” Rarity explained. She levitated a lamp near her. “Anypony who has ever gone into the darkness doesn’t remember anything when they come out. In order to keep those things from happening, most ponies outside the city walls use these.”

Rarity turned the lights off, and the lamp suddenly came into life. It gave off a strange, blue glow to it as it enveloped the mansions room in it’s light. Soarin felt something odd about this, or rather the darkness that had been created by the light. He expected to still be able to see the outlines of the objects on the far side of the wall, and the light that came from the doors vanished with it. However, it was Luminous who experience the strangest reaction to this.

The masquerade around her eyes seemed to shift, first turning the same shade of blue as the strange lamp before wrapping around her head. At first she felt the need to freak out, the only thing keeping her from screaming being her training as a royal guard. When the magic finished shifting, it no longer took the form of a masquerade but of a helmet. While no one around her could see it, the world now illuminate to her eyes underneath it. She heard whispers of what she assumed was ponies around the room, but couldn’t fully tell.

“Luminous… are you okay?” Topaz asked, unsure of what Luna’s magic had done.

“I… I think so,” Luminous said, her voice coming slightly muffled. “I’m hearing things, voices. There coming from around the room, where that lamp isn’t shining. They sound like ponies, but I don’t see anything. Do the rest of you hear anything?”

“I hate to tell you, your highness, but we don’t hear a thing,” Rarity told her. “Is this what Luna’s magic can do?”

She examined it closer then before, touching the magic. Instead of burning her like it had Luminous when she did, it felt solid. What really caught the fashionista's attention, however, was the fact that the magic making the helmet was actually moving. Rarity squealed in excitement, continuing to closely examine Luminous’ magic helmet. Luminous, on the other hand, could now understand why Topaz had asked for personal space. She felt rather uncomfortable with how close Rarity was, at the same time curious about what the unicorn had discovered.

“I don’t know a lot about the fundamentals of magic, but this is amazing!” Rarity exclaimed. “At first I thought this strange magic was a completely solid aura, but it’s actually moving! This isn’t just some spell she cast on you, it was a complete transfer of the princess’ magic,” She stepped away from Luminous, who was glad to finally have some space again. “It’s wild guess, but the reason the magic appears in a visible form instead of being stored inside your body might be because your physical body can’t hold all the magic inside of you.”

“So what you're saying is that this is Luminous’ own aura that we are seeing?” Topaz asked.

“What do you mean by aura?” Luminous asked. Being a pegasus she knew very little about magic, even with all the unicorns that had worked in the castle. “Do you mean it’s part of my soul?”

“In a technical term, yes,” Topaz replied. “A ponies aura is the inner force that binds your soul to your body. When you die, that aura flows out of your body and becomes trees, plants, or maybe even an animal,” She put a clawed finger. “However, aura is more than just bind for your soul, it's what makes everypony race special. It’s the thing that allows a pegasus to fly with its wings, an earth pony to gain its strength, and a unicorn to use its magic. Every living thing uses the aura in some special way.”

“Wait a second!” Soarin called out, realizing something wrong. “You just said that your aura leaves your body when you die, but that magic Luminous has is Luna’s aura. If Luna’s dead, how come she still had her aura?”

“Do you want me to tell you the amount of times alicorns have broken the rules?” Topaz replied in question form. “Trust me, somethings are better not to question. I don’t know how she had it, I don’t know why the transfer worked, but we all see the end result right in front of us,” He pointed to Luminous, who rubbed the back of the magic helmet. “Also, I think it might be best to call this aura Luminous has something else. It’s clear that it has no true state, and considering what happened when the lights turned off it’s clear this isn’t normal magic. Things don’t just morph like that.”

Everyone took in what he was saying, agreeing that this was strange magic. It fell to Luminous to come up with a name for this magic, and her thoughts quickly turned to how gave it to her. Luna, this was her power, or at least she had deep inside of herself. She thought about how it had changed shape, and decided to put something to the test. She looked to a cup of tea that was resting on a coffee table in the middle of the room, and closed her eyes. She thought of a hoof grabbing the cup, and bringing it to her muzzle.

While she was too busy concentrating to notice, the magic once again started to shift its form. It turned into a long ribbon that had moved to her ear, as if it couldn’t leave her body. The rest of the ponies in the room watched with curiosity as the end of the ribbon extended outward, stretching out word to reach the cup on the table. After a little trial and error, Luminous actually felt it pick up the cup of tea, a feeling which broke her concentration. As her eyes opened to see what had happened, she watched as the ribbon of visible magic dropped the cup of tea, and retracted to form a bow in her mane. Everyone was in shock at this, but Luminous’ mind was on the name she had for the magic aura.

“The Lunar String!” Luminous shouted. “This thing, it's like an extra limb that can form into whatever it wants as long as I can keep focus. I can stretch out and move it with my mind. The string part is honestly more from what I just saw it do, but still. This… this is amazing!”

Luminous jumped on the couch and started jumping around like a child. This was the coolest thing she had ever seen or done in her entire life. No pegasus could control magic, not until now at least. Topaz watched Luminous’ joy with an amused look, but her mind was still on the lantern. She wanted to know why the lantern had changed the color of this… Lunar String, as Luminous had decided to call it. Of course, Topaz now knew that the light from the lantern was no actual fire.

“Rarity, what kind of magic is that lanterns flame made out of?” The dragoness asked.

“Oh, um…” Rarity rubbed the back of her hoof as she tried to remember the details of the spell. “I believe it is the same spell Canterlot and the Lunar Republic use to keep the monsters away. I don’t remember the name of the pony who wrote it, but the idea was to create a sort of light that drove the creatures of the darkness,” She used telekinesis to pick up the lamp, bringing it closer to Topaz so the dragoness could examine it. “It’s a marvelous spell, and is the only thing that keeps us small towns out here in the darkness from disappearing forever. Better to keep the creatures away then to see one. You’ve seen the strange magic they can do.”

“This is so exciting!” Everyone turned to the ex-captain, who had lost the calm, relaxed composure that she had kept up to this point. “I have magic! I’m a pegasus with the ability to use magic! This is so amazing! Imagine what power I could have if I could control this, I could be-” Her excitement was cut short as she tripped over the couch Sweetie Belle and Rarity were both in, landing face first in Rarity’s mane. After she got up from the incident, she looked to see Rarity absolutely furious at her. “Uh… sorry?”

Rarity, upset about the now messy condition of her mane, was not going to take that apology. Sweetie Belle shuffled away from her sister, knowing what was coming. “How could you? My mane Is ruined! You have any idea how long this takes for me to do?”

Sweetie Belle gulped. “Oh boy.”

“So all the events have been sent into place?” The voice of a pink pony with long green hair sounded through the bedroom of Canterlot Castle. She looked out of her window into the darkness that surrounded her city. “My sister has started her journey, and has left the city in search of the truth?”

“Yes Neon,” Swift Spell spoke, coming up next to the princesses. There was sympathy evident in his eyes. “I’m sorry that you had to learn the truth about your sister's birth, your majesty, but she is the only pony besides me who has the the dream. Soon, great evils will awaken from their slumber, and we need to be ready for that moment.”

Neon Oracle, crown princess of Canterlot and Equestria, the later title being more for show than a statement of her social status, looked to Swift Spell. She had felt so terrible, hiding the truth from her sister for so long, and making her own advisor lie about his intentions. Inside, however, she knew that this was the only way for her to get in contact with Luna. The entire plan was a secret, one that only she and Swift Spell knew about.

“She has probably already met the pony who would have held the element of Generosity, if it was still around,” Swift Spell explained. “She can help you sister learn the basics of the magic she will obtain, at least I hope so. That magic will be important, when the thousandth day comes.”

“You never saw it, did you?” Neon asked.

“I wasn’t born, and my mother hadn’t met the elements of harmony yet,” Swift Spell explained. “However, everypony knows of the thousandth day. We must prepare for it, Luminous must prepare even more. She has become the descendant, whether she likes it or not, and with no elements we will need everything to stop these evils.”

“How long do we have until the thousandth day?” Neon asked, walking away from her window and over to her bed. She looked at the scroll that hung from the wall, showing the silhouettes of a pony, a centaur, a pony, and another creature she had never seen before. Of course, this left out one of the threats Neon knew about. “And are we sure that these five evil beings are the only things that will be our enemy?”

“Of course not,” Swift Spell answered, joining Neon on the bed. “There will be others we don’t know of, and the hunter's will search for Luminous once the first evil is defeated. There is so much about to happen, that I don’t know what the outcome would be. If things were still the same-” He shook his head. “Never mind, that’s not important right now. I bid you goodnight, your majesty, and hope your dreams are happier than mine.”

Neon smiled at Swift Spell. “And I hope yours are more warming than they ever are.”

As Neon turned the light to her room off, Swift Spell left the door. He was touched by the princesses words, but frowned at what he knew. He looked down the hallway, which was not currently occupied, and started his way down. He felt just as bad as Neon did about what he had done these past few months to Luminous, but it has so far gone according to plan. That was the easy part, however. Things were only going to get harder and harder from this point out.

“If only your future was as bright as mine princess,” He said, even though Neon was no longer next to him. “These dreams won’t go away, not until the day I was born. Then, my suffering will stop and I can rest hoping that the world is in good hooves.”

As he reached the end of the hallway, he opened the door to his room. He looked to the walls like he did every night, and a tear rolled down his cheek. The walls were covered from top to bottom with pictures and sketches of ponies, artifacts, and other things. The floor was just as bad, and he carefully dodged the sketches that lined his floor in an attempt to get to his desk. His entire room was covered in these pictures and sketches. Anypony who enter his room would think he was crazy, but to him this had been the results of many years of suffering.

As he finally reached his desk, he looked at the top sketch. He lifted his pencil with his magic, and then the did the same with the sketch. He examined the drawing he was currently doing, a six point star, the top and bottom points longer than the others. He stood there for some time, thinking about the sketch, as he wiped away another tear to keep the papers on the floor from getting wet. He had taught himself not to cry, but every once in awhile, a few tears managed to escape his eyes. He couldn’t let anything damage these sketches, and he need them visible to him at all times. These were to crucial to Equestria’s future for him to lose.

“I have to wonder,” Swift Spell said looking at the unfinished sketch of the star. “With all I’ve done, do you still exist?”

“Is something wrong mister Swift Spell?” He turned around to see Thunder Shield standing at the door, staring at the walls with wide eyes. “What… what is all this?”

Swift Spell looked to the ground seeing that she was about to step on a sketch of a pegasus mare. “DON’T MOVE!” Swift Spelled yelled, causing Thunder Shield to freeze in place. Thunder could see the look of panic in the usually calm eyes of the advisor. Not only did he look panic, but a look of anxiety as well. “Don’t. Move. A muscle.”

Swift Spell lifted the sketch with his magic, finding a single place on the wall to place it. He grabbed a tack from a box on his desk, and pinned the picture of the mare to the wall. His mind was going crazy, unable to believe that had just happened. He looked at Thunder, who was looking at him uncomfortably. Swift Spell could tell the second in command of the royal guard had questions, ones that he couldn’t answer.

“I am doing vital research here, on a subject to difficult to explain and to wild for somepony to understand,” Swift Spell lied, his mind quickly coming up with the excuse as he said it.

“This doesn’t look like research,” Thunder replied, curiosity getting the better of it, looking at the walls of the room. “All these drawings are so detailed, and real looking,” The guards attention drew back to Swift Spell, who was shuffling through a messy pile of drawings on his desk. Thunder couldn’t help but notice a look that came across to her as insane. “Is something wrong Swift? You look like you're dealing with something bad. If you like, I could go grab Dr. Wolf for you.”

“No,” Swift Spell quickly replied, motioning for Thunder Shield to leave. “I need time. Need to get organized. Canterlot, the Lunar Republic, the Solar Empire. All in danger. I only have till my next birthday, must figure things-” He looked back to Thunder Shield, who was still standing there. “Go away!”

Thunder, afraid of the way Swift Spell was acting, didn’t need to be told again. She backed out of the the advisors room, and closed the door behind her. She knew there was something wrong, but Swift Spell wasn’t going to cooperate. Then again, he probably wouldn’t cooperate with a therapist either, giving how head strong the unicorn was when doing something. It was at this moment Thunder, who hadn’t realizes Luminous had left the castle, started to believe what her captain had said. With that, he ran down the halls of the castle to Luminous’ door. After ten minutes, he reached the door of the captains bedroom.

“Luminous, please wake-” Thunder stopped, looking around to see the pitch black room in front of herself. However, she could see the outline of the objects, and couldn’t help but realize how messy the bed looked. “Captain?” She turned on the lights, only for her fear to come to light as she realized Luminous wasn’t in the room. “CAPTAIN?!”

Author's Note

This will probably be one of the last chapter to come out for sometime not just for this, but for my other stories as well. I'm rather stressed out right now with midterm exams starting on Monday as well as many other things I will not get into. It won't be a long break, but long enough for me to vent some heat inside me. I'm a rather calm person, and it takes me longer then most to get to a relaxed state if something manages to do that. Exams can do that to people, but know that I will be back in about two weeks.

Anyways, I will ask you to like, comment, and follow to show your support for the story. Also, please follow if you like this and other stuff. I won't force you to of course, because it does feel rather cheap asking for these things when I have no control what you do. Anyways, I will see you all later.